SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO is a practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your target website through using numerous strategies such as on-site optimisation, off-site optimisation, backlink, keyword-rich content creation, competitive analysis and many more ! 

White Hat SEO simply means following the rules set by Google or any other search engines using only ethical strategies and tactics.

Hedley practices 100% White Hat SEO strategies. 

Black Hat SEO means using risky practices that may get penalised by Google. Using the tactics with the goal to manipulate Google’s healthy SEO guidelines to reach the goals. This can sometimes work until the website gets penalised by Google which can be detrimental to your SEO in the long-run. 

Local SEO all about location. Local SEO is one of many ways to get your business in front of your target audience in a targeted geographic area. It includes all the necessary components of contemporary SEO – content, on-page optimisation, keyword research, link building – just with a geographically targeted focus.

Thanks to evolving nature of search engines like Google, Local SEO can be a lot to work on. It’s always changing, and can take a lot of time and effort to get right. This is why so many SEO agencies and consultants invest in learning how to do local SEO rather than broader SEO.

So why is it so important? Well, online directories such as Yelp, Google My Business, Yellowpages etc. display a business’ name, address, phone number and often times a lot of information such as menu, business description, price and services/products the business offers.

If you look at how search engines work, local directories generally dominate the first page of many local search results. This is because of the increasing majority of the people using search engines are using their mobile phones when performing the search. Statistically over 70% of these people who search for a business visit the business within 5 miles from where they are right now. Google know this and prioritises businesses, that is within the boundary of the search intent, on top of search results.

Local directory marketing is proven to have higher conversion rate when compared to other typical advertising channels – up to 50% conversion on some directories.

Many bricks-and-mortar businesses utilise local SEO to succeed in the local market, but of course, not exclusively.

We’re not only talking about small shops, cafes and restaurants but also service based businesses like lawyers, real estate agents and plumbers.

If your business has a physical location or wants to appeal to people in a certain geographic area, you want to make sure it pops up on Google Search Engine Results Page(SERPs) when people look for for “lawyer in Sydney”, “Plumber in Chicago” and so on. 

Just like there is no panacea that cures all diseases, the amount of time we need to spend on a particular business and website to provide the same output cannot be the same for all websites. Some websites are well optimized with high DA(Domain Authority) while some other websites could have been penalized by Google which will take a lot more time to recover from the penalty.

Even though there are countless factors that need to be taken into account, we know each hardworking business owners deserve their businesses to be successful regardless of their budget. 

As the amount of work and the type of strategy that is required to rank on Google for a local locksmith and global franchise brand will be completely different, we will need to conduct an initial assessment of your business to find out more about what’s required. 

We have encountered many businesses with a marketing budget less than $1,000 / month and saw the owners struggling to maintain the business itself. If this is you, we strongly suggest that you step back and take a look at your business from a holistic point of view and check your current sales funnel, how you close the deals, profitability of your business, unnecessary expenses and so on. SEO is a long-term investment that is proven to be highly cost-effective in the long-run, but we want you to understand that it is not a magic pill that will drive your traffic within a few days. At minimum, it will take 3+ months to bring notable output. Remember, there is no such thing as get rich quick scheme. Every legitimate and successful businesses take time and tremendous amount of effort to be successful. 

Just like a typical SEO, local SEO takes time and time means money. If you’d like faster and more results faster, you can pay for more time. It’s a simple equation. If you have multiple locations, pricing will need to be adjusted as SEO needs to be done for each and every locations you service which can be a complex work where more advanced strategies need to be applied. Speak to us to find out if you need a local SEO.