This month the GRM team is taking a closer look at SEO and social media. We have learned why it is valuable to understand SEO for your social media strategy, shared a couple of tips to make SEO easy, and today we get to hear from an expert who is outstanding in her field, easy to understand, and eager to share what she knows.
We have said it before, and we will say it again, we are not SEO experts - BUT we are proud to say we know one! We value Bec Nicholson of RC Digital Consulting and her kind, down to earth, easy to understand SEO explanations. Our clients have benefited from her advice and we are firm believers in celebrating others and their skill set.
Bec, what is your number one piece of SEO advice?
“Test & Learn - Whether it be a marketing campaign, a title for a webpage, or even an image on a Facebook post. The best way to get results is to do more of the things that work well and less of the things that don't!
The great thing about digital marketing is that things are always measurable and easily changed. So, if something is not working, we can always test something different to see if we can get better ROI (return on investment). Another benefit to digital campaigns is that you can test things side by side – called A/B testing or multivariate testing.
If you find something is working, then keep doing more of it, until doing more of it makes no difference or starts to cost you too much money.”
Who does SEO well?
"As stated above you can always do better by testing and trialling, so I don't believe there is anyone out there who is exactly perfect at SEO! The other factor is that Google is constantly updating and changing, so that means everyone needs to be constantly working on their SEO efforts.
I advise most people to identify someone external to put together a thorough SEO audit of your website. This person can then determine what is holding back your organic performance. What you think is ‘good SEO’ may not be ‘good SEO’ in Google's eyes, so get an external consultant to do this for you.
You may have to pay a little bit for someone to do this, but remember once it is done, then the organic traffic to your website is free. Yes, you don't have to pay for traffic that has come from an organic search listing so a little spent here will do wonders for your business revenue!”
What are 3 tools people should know about and learn?
Google Adwords Search Query Reports = Free tool for Adwords clients.
This tool lists all the search terms used that resulted in your ad being shown and clicked in a Google Search. It is a brilliant way to see new keywords that should be included in your campaigns, while also showing keywords that could be added as ‘negatives’ in your campaigns to help lower your CPC's (cost-per-click) and get you more conversions.
Pingdom Speed Test = Free external website tool
This tool is great for testing website speeds and seeing where some problems exist, in order to improve your SEO efforts. It lets you identify if a web page is fast, slow, too big, and how to go about fixing these errors.
Google Analytics Solutions Gallery = Free tool for anyone with Google Analytics
The Solutions Gallery lets you share and import custom reporting tools and assets, like dashboards and segments, into your Analytics accounts. It's a great tool for people just starting out in Analytics who aren’t sure how to pull the reports they may need.
What should people be thinking about this time of year?
- Are your goals and KPI's set for 2019?
- Do you need to set different KPI's to the ones you currently have?
- What metrics are your measuring; bounce rates / conversion rates / CTR / CPC....are there any new metrics you should be measuring to help improve your ROI?
- Rethink your location targeting strategies for the summer months, where are the people located that you want to target?
- Are you better off pulling back marketing spend until after the summer holidays, or are you going to push your biggest spend into this time?
It all depends on your business and target audiences.
301 redirects = redirect any pages with errors in your website, you don't want to loose that ‘link juice'!’
How do you practically help your clients?
My work consists of the following aspects:
Google Analytics - Setup / Reporting / Filters / Goals
Google Adwords - Setup / Optimise / Reporting
Google Search Console - Setup / Review / Recommendations
SEO Audits and Recommendations
Website Analytics
Website Management & Updating
Social Media Marketing
Are you taking more clients and how can they contact you?
If you think you need a hand with any aspect above, please sing out! I'm always open to taking on more clients. You can contact me at rcdigitalconsulting@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Bec has worked alongside our GRM team, working on our clients websites SEO over the past three years. She provides excellent service and great results. Not only is Bec efficient, she is willing to teach. She’s helped Boss Lady learn the basics, so when she is building websites and developing content for websites, she’s always thinking SEO first. We are thankful for her being part of our extended team and the results speak for themselves!
Bec is a freelance digital consultant, with a passion for digital marketing, family and also farming. She describes herself as an analytical thinker, hence why she loves working with Analytics and Adwords. With many years experience working in-house and agency based digital marketing roles, she has worked in many different industries.
“All in all most clients have the same goals: to generate more leads and revenue through digital channels!”
When Bec is not saving her clients, one SEO tip, trick, and change at a time, she is busy at home bringing up her son Albie, and helping her husband on their sheep and beef station located 35km out of Martinborough.
