What is SEO and why do I need it?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Source moz.com 2020
In a perfect world having a great website would be the end of the discussion regarding getting people to visit it - the website is good, contains all the information that could ever be needed and is easy to navigate. What else could be needed?
Unfortunately its not a perfect world with regards to how your site is viewed by Google. Google uses upwards of 50 factors to determine whether its going to present your website as the answer to a specific query for your products or services. What's more Google tweaks these factors almost every day!
SEO addresses many of those factors to ensure that your website is performing its best when compared to others in the same field. A Local SEO plan from Delta Strategic Marketing addresses the following factors that are shown to have a direct effect on "moving the needle" in your favor:
Citations
Citations are the listings of your business on the multitude of directories out there on the internet. Some are big (Google itself, Yellow Pages, etc.) and some are small (associations and local groups) but all have an effect on how Google sees your company across the internet. Making sure these directories are correct and accurately reflect your actual company info is an on-going job.
On page editing
What you think you sell and what your client is actually looking for can be two different things. By analyzing keyword and search data from multiple sources we can suggest and/or make tweaks to the text and meta-tags on pages to better match the client's searches.
Link building
Google puts a tremendous emphasis on quality, in-bound links - that is links from well-respected sites TO your website, not links FROM your website. We work with respected source websites, some from within your industry, to provide quality links back to the products and services on your website.
Google My Business
More and more, Google is working to keep people within its own environment so it's strongly promoting the power of Google My Business - the Google-built "mini website" that is often the first thing that pops up in the search results, even above your own website. We make sure that your GMB listing is correct and that it's updated regularly with new and relevant content.
Costs and expectations of Delta Strategic Marketing's Local SEO plan
SEO cannot be switched on & off like a light switch - it is a process that requires effort and time to have a positive effect. Effects will start to be seen after about 6 months and will peak at around 12-18 months of consistent attention.
Above we've described the multiple areas that we concentrate on - these are all in their way time-consuming and labor-intensive. This adds up to a simple statement - good, worthwhile SEO is NOT inexpensive. Our plans start at ~$700/month and can reach as high as a couple of thousand dollars per month. The higher the monthly investment the more citations we can handle, the more on-page editing we can do, the more link building we can manage and the more attention we can pay to Google My Business, which means that we can see positive results faster.