Ranking your website in Google search engine results pages (SERPs) is one of the primary goals of any Penrith business, especially with today’s highly mobile customer base. A first page – or even second page – result is ideal. It guarantees that you have a captured audience; in particular, those who don’t want to go deep into search results to see their options.

Back in the day, landing on the top SERPs is like ABC. The rules were simple. Business owners and website managers scrambled for domain names that started with numbers, believing these ranked first. Web pages prioritised keywords – even doing so scrupulously through keyword stuffing or invisible text.

Perhaps, that’s why search engine optimisation got so complicated. When link and content farms sprouted by the millions, and devious tactics were used by scheming website managers just to get the coveted top SERPs, Google upped its game. Ranking algorithms began to change constantly, from Panda to Hummingbird and whatever’s lined up next. Ranking for keywords turned into – more or less – a craft.

One of the best ways to reach your local market is through web design Penrith. A website gets you out there and tells people about your products and services. According to Google, 4 out of 5 people use their search engine to find local businesses. That’s a huge market potential right there.

The only problem is ranking in web searches such that you’re actually on the first page. Having a website is only the first step. Your page has to be optimised for web searches. Your target market has to find you.

Here are a few tried-and-tested local search engine optimisation strategies you can do for your website.

Voice search has come far. The wave started with the introduction of Siri. Increasing use pushed the technology to develop. Kinks were ironed out and voice search got better. There are still improvements necessary but, as of 2017, voice search is big.

The statistics are looking up. By 2014, daily usage increased in more than 40% of adults and more than 50% of teenagers. Technology development followed. By 2016, Google’s Conversational Search Director Behshad Behzadi claims to have reduced speech recognition error rate to just 8% as of 2016.

So, this 2017, when you want to optimise your website, make sure you don’t forget those who go online using voice searches. Here are some tips.

It’s not a big surprise that your mobile presence is important in 2017. Search using mobile devices has increased dramatically. By as early as 2015, it has surpassed desktop searches. Data consumed via mobile has increased by 74%. You can expect it to be bigger this year.

With this, it is increasingly crucial for businesses to look at their mobile presence. Is your website optimised for mobile devices? Have you thought about the mobile user experience? Here are a few tips in mobile optimisation.

One of the most noteworthy trends in 2017 is the sudden immense importance of cross-channel marketing, as opposed to the more dated multi-channel marketing.

These two have used interchangeably but are actually quite dissimilar to each other. Multi-channel marketing refers to having marketing presence in different channels. Cross-channel is like so but the approach is integrated, which requires extensive planning.

An example of multi-channel marketing is having ads in social media, mobile apps, Google searches and email. The cross-channel marketing version of this feeds ads through social media etc. after you’ve browsed / considered buying a product on an app, say Google Play. The integrated approach acts as a filter. You don’t waste your marketing efforts on people who are not likely to buy.

There are emerging search engine optimisation trends this early in 2017. We are going to focus on these SEO trends in depth, starting with optimising for user intent.

What is Optimising for User Intent? For the longest time, we’ve optimised with keywords in mind. These keywords are used logically within your meta content, titles, text content and external content. The goal then was to rank for these keywords, while providing relevant and engaging information to your readers.

This has changed drastically through the years. We’ve seen search engine updates, one after the other, with the intent of refining search results and weeding away spam content. This is well and good for users because they get results that fit their searches.

A Sydney business blog may seem like a common thing – something taken for granted because everyone has a blog these days. This is actually not the case; particularly if we focus on blogs that actually add to the value of the brand and company it is promoting.

A relevant Sydney business blog is a lot of things for a business that’s serious in reaching out to its market online. Here’s why:

The online landscape these days sees a divide between what to focus on: your search engine optimisation (SEO) or social media marketing (SMM). But, do you really have to choose? To answer this question, it is important to remember that SEO and SMM work together. They help your website reach out to your target market. Of course, this is done through different means.

So you've been in business for a while, have a basic website and want to know the next steps? You've heard about facebook and social media but is it for you and can it help you get new customers?

The short answer; maybe. But ultimately, it depends on what you're looking to achieve. In this article we'll compare Social Media Vs SEM and hopefully save you a bunch of cash.

For a couple of weeks now, we’ve gone off to discuss Penguin 2.0 and building up your link profile. Most of the link profile work that you do is outside your website, or off page. This does not mean you should forget what’s on your website, or on-page.