SEO is a piece of string

Wayne Atkinson, Ontario SEO
Wayne Atkinson
October 3, 2014
Competitive online market evaluation for conference hotels in Toronto

I’m often asked “how much SEO does my business need?”, which I usually answer with another question – how long is a piece of string? That’s not me being evasive, it’s simply that an online marketing campaign strategy is dependent on so many things. A few quick and easy factors to consider are:

  1. How lofty are your goals?Do you need to increase your online visibility to generate leads in your local geographic area for one or two services that you offer? Or is your goal to generate new business across Canada for an entire portfolio of service offerings? These require two very different strategies. If your business is becoming increasingly dependent on generating your new business online, then an online marketing strategy needs to be a core part of your business development, not a simple add-on to your website.
  2. How competitive is your(online) market? Implementing on-page SEO on your five page brochure website is not likely to bring in a flood of new clients if the search engine results pages are dominated by national brands or incredibly strong local competitors. It’s essential to analyze the online market vertical that you need to compete in before creating your strategy. Using a browser tool such as the Mozbar or SeoQuake can give you an overview of how strong the currently ranking websites are.

The screenshot above shows the domain authority (an important metric) of the top sites for the search term “Toronto conference hotel“:

  1. Who are your actual online competitors and what are they doing?Your online competitors are NOT always who you think they are. Ultimately the websites that are ranking on the first page of a search engine for your critically important keyword topics are your online competitors. It doesn’t matter that they may not be the same competitors that your sales force regularly compete with – these websites are stealing your online leads. If these online competitors are creating regular content, are active on social media, and have an ongoing link development program, then that is your new yardstick and should give you a good indication as to what is likely required to effectively compete for those online leads.

There are many other factors that will influence your online marketing strategy but these tips will give you an idea of the size of campaign that will be needed when you’re getting started. Do you need help with your strategy, or have an existing campaign that needs auditing? Give us a call.

This post was written by Wayne Atkinson, Founder of Ontario SEO.