Changes to SEO Leave You at Risk of Losing Thousands

Google's most recent updates have the world of SEO in a state of uncertainty.

The decision to remove all keyword search data has had a sizable impact on page ranks and left many companies at risk of losing their hard-won rankings.

With an average ROI of $22 for every $1 spent there is huge opportunity for those that can adapt to its new direction and harness the right technologies to do so.

In September 2013 Google made the most significant change to affect rankings since the beginning of the internet era. Any business owner or manager that does not understand these changes will likely see their rankings, sales and leads plummet in 2014.

The introduction of Secure Search means 100% of search keyword data is now (not provided). Marketers previously had the luxury of conversion, traffic and revenue data by keywords, but with Google's new changes, they no longer have this access.

This change brings huge opportunity, and with a planned focus on the creation of quality content you can build real-world interest in your company, services and products.

For those companies that adhere to the new directives and use professional services for their on-page and off-page SEO strategies will see an increasing benefit from their investment.

We have never been more excited for our New Zealand and Australian clients. Authentic Digital have invested heavily into new technologies to maximise these new opportunities. We believe this will herald the demise of companies employing black-hat practices and cheap tricks. By applying white-hat practices and aligning with the latest technology our team believe the time to grow your online presence has never been more exciting.

What does this mean for you?

SEO is about growth of your online footprint. The result of a professionally carried out service is increased traffic, stronger brand exposure and more sales or leads. The biggest risk for your business is your website being directed down the wrong path by an SEO provider who is not up to date with the Google algorithm and rule changes.

There is a dangerous perception that although the rules have changed, the methods and practices don't have to. Anyone using outdated SEO practises will very likely be heavily penalised by Google, some websites will never recover without a complete overhaul costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue across the globe.

Authentic Digital work with the latest SEO enterprise system

During 2013 Authentic Digital (AD) partnered with American enterprise software company, BrightEdge, to ensure that we could react to changes quickly and be at the cutting-edge of SEO development.

Many of the fortune 500 companies use BrightEdge technology to keep ahead of their competitors. Authentic digital is bringing this same world-class technology to their clients in Australia and New Zealand. Aside from their fortune 500 clients, BrightEdge also works with large technology partners like Adobe, Facebook and Twitter.

‍Partnering with BrightEdge, integrating our systems, and certifying our entire team is a huge undertaking in both time and investment, we are excited to begin leveraging this technology for our clients and projects says David Cranwell, Strategy & Execution Specialist at authentic digital.

‍The ability of this technology to integrate data from such a rich set of sources enables authentic digital to give clients 20/20 vision on their SEO and content performance. This gives them vastly more time to spend on implementing best practice SEO rather than analysing data and number crunching. Client acquisition manager, Mal Jack believes the new technologies and business tools set Authentic Digital apart of most agencies in Asia Pacific.

‍Our growth was recognised in 2014 by a Deloitte fast 50 award in New Zealand, and we were also inside the top 100 Deloitte fastest 500 growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region. Mal goes on to say Effective SEO ranks you highly and gives you consistent sales and leads to forecast from ‐ Does SEO work? ‐ With an average return of $22 for every $1 you invest, it is one of the more powerful revenue driving tools in your marketing arsenal.

Key steps in your SEO plan

First things first, you need to identify the keywords and phrases that have commercial intent. For most companies we start with thousands and refine the list as we establish the commercial intent of each keyword. This needs to be refreshed and optimised daily as new search keys enter the market.

Every day Google answers more than one billion questions from people around the globe in 181 countries and 146 languages. 15% of the searches we see every day we've never seen before. Technology makes this possible because we can create computing programs, called algorithms that can handle the immense volume and breadth of search requests.

We're just at the beginning of what's possible, and we are constantly looking to find better solutions. We have more engineers working on search today than at any time in the past ‐ (Source: Google support)

Next, it's important to measure your current online strength and weaknesses including share of voice (market share) for each keyword, as well as your competitor's to compare them to your journey so far. Once you have a plan in place and a revenue increase forecast, you can begin testing with a Pay-per-click campaign to validate the findings and to give you confidence to go forward with a stronger investment.

A professional SEO programme which is driven and accountable to a return on investment plan will start from $3,000 in NZ and $5,000 plus in other markets. Large markets like the USA and UK entry can be as much as $20,000 depending on the type of business.

In NZ we have several different plans and stepping stones if cash-flow or budgets are tight. Ultimately as we grow your online business we can apply a percentage of the revenue growth to increasing your marketing initiatives

The perfect client for us is a company that wishes to professionally transition their business online and wants a long term strategy that will continually grow this part of their business for them.