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Yellow Google Pages

A Beginners Guide to SEO in 2019

Once there was a large book of thin, yellow pages. Often kept near the home phone, it was the be-all and end-all of directories. Old issues were kept for decades, often being used to prop up tables, or elevate monitors. Sadly, for those of a certain age, those days are gone and now the mega search engine Google does everything the Yellow Pages did (except prop up monitors). We do not ‘look for information online’ these days, we Google it. Welcome to our quick shot beginners guide to SEO in 2019.

Despite this we still talk to new clients that are paying for advertising through the Yellow Pages. Not just the print version but for an elevated ad on the Yellow Pages website. With an estimated cost of anywhere between $400 and $700 AUD per month on a one year contract, thats a significant annual investment for any business. At the end of 2018 we had to explain to a client that website users arrive at the Yellow Pages website via Google.

Over the last 20 years Google has replaced the Yellow Pages as the go-to resource for local business searches, followed closely in recent years by Facebook recommendations. In 2019 Google is Thanos. Yellow Pages is Mr Beans teddy. Where once people reached for the trusty yellow pages, flipping through the pages until they arbitrarily found a bit of text or logo which appealed to them, they now almost entirely turn to Google for answers (except for the strange minority who use Bing). The benefit for customer and business are clear. Businesses are now ordered on merit rather than alphabetically – although Aardvarks Web Design does have a ring to it. Customers can research, read reviews and discover if a company is suitable all before making contact.

It is impossible to have a business website without being bombarded by the importance of SEO. Most web-savvy business owners have an awareness of how important having their business rank highly on Google is. Despite this, some people have managed to cruise into 2019 without being totally aware just how important ranking high on Google’s search engine algorithm is, and just how easy it can be achieved.

Whatever happened to the Yellow Pages anyway?

While some of us lament the disappearance of the structurally useful book,  the Yellow Pages was in a slow decline for over a decade. With backlash over the waste of paper, combined with the gradual move to online search engines all sounded the final death knell. In Australia, the Yellow Pages is still delivered to the door upon request, but it is a shadow of its former self, while the UK version plans to cease production of physical copies as of this year and move to a fully digital system.

Although Yellow Pages exists in an online format, does anyone actually use it? According to the Australian Yellow Pages website, the answer is an emphatic yes, though if you read reviews, it seems to be operating like a 24-hour gym, convincing clients to sign up for an expensive and unbreakable one year contract which goes unused after the first week.

Buzzwords and Magic

How Google ranks websites can seem to be a mixture of buzzwords and magic, a complicated and secretive algorithm which somehow turns search terms into a list of relevant results. With so many people, sites and blogs proclaiming how you can increase your ranking, it isn’t a surprise that many people close their eyes and hope for the best.

beginners guide to seo in 2019

The truth about search engine optimisation is more complicated than we like to admit. Google likes to play its cards close to its chest. Google, quite rightly, doesn’t want to share the full details of is algorithmic magic. There is nothing sinister behind this as it is simply Google’s attempt at maintaining the level of trust the general public has in the search engine as being an unbiased, trustworthy source. If the perfect and complete list of how the search engine worked was released, it is guaranteed someone, somewhere would find a loophole and begin to manipulate the system. If positions in Google’s organic search engine ranking were purchased by the richest, the general public’s faith in Google would decrease.

All this being said, Google has published a manual on how to improve on search ratings and regularly keeps the document updated, where it currently stands at 160 pages. It’s a comprehensive list of what to do and, like with most comprehensive things, it’s dry and not really the sort of thing you sit down with and enjoy a glass of wine alongside. Fortunately, there are many clever and dedicated folk out there who have read the original document and allow the information to filter out through many blogs and articles. With this information and a little experimentation, every single website can achieve a degree of success in increasing their site’s position in Google’s ranking.

Quick Tips to Increase Your Google Ranking

Although the Internet, in general, can’t seem to agree how many factors go into Google’s search algorithm, they can all agree on some of the top ways you can improve it (Well, sort of. The Internet really never agrees on anything.) Put simply, Google assesses every page for quality, speed, security and relevance. By simply tailoring those four items a website can increase in ranking and be found by more potential customers.

The easiest ways to improve the performance of your website are to:

  • Improve the content of your website by keeping it updated and making sure it’s unique. Don’t copy/paste information from other places, instead hire a content writer to create something special for your company.  If you have a blog or regularly post updates about your business, keep it updated.
  • Make good use of descriptive headers to indicate important information, then tag them in order of importance – H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 (if in doubt ask us how)
  • If you’re using a CMS like WordPress download the free Yoast SEO plugin. It’s a must and their setup guidelines are simple and easy to follow.
  • LInk and connect with other websites, especially those which are large, important and high ranking. Share your blogs, interact with your local community online, guest blog, become a guest contributor. These links help establish trust – if a large, well trusted website is linking to you then Google increases your own trust rating.
  • Resize and compress your images. Use free services such as Bulk Photo Resizer and Tiny JPG to bring the image file size down and improve your sites loading time. Google is really cracking down on slow loading sites!
  • Pick the right website hosting. Cheap hosting is cheap for a reason. It’s important that your host servers are fast, super reliable and supported locally (no offshore phone calls!)
  • Ensure your website is safe for users, by ensuring you’re not a spammer. If you’re an entrepreneurial spammer hoping for some tips, this might be the wrong blog for you. A great way to announce your legitimacy is to publicise and update your WHOIS data, hiding it can suggest to Google you’re up to no good.
  • Have a related URL. If you are selling hats for cats, you might want to sign up for hatsforcats.com rather than myniceswebsiteaboutthingsIsew.com
  • Use the words your potential clients are going to use. If your customers call it a hat, don’t call it a chapeau ( which happens to be ‘hat’ in French). Think about how your customer will look for the information you can provide.

Search Engine Overlords

While getting a high ranking in Google might seem half black magic and the other half guesswork, working on the basics isn’t as hard as it seems, and it is worth doing. There are plenty of good resources online to help you on the way. For those who wish to stick to the Yellow Pages, good luck to you, and when you’ve finished with your book can I have it? I need something to prop open a door.

startdig

We are a collective of designers, coders, producers and technologists from around the world who collaborate on a shared passion for innovative websites. Based in Perth, Western Australia, we bring style and innovation to the projects we undertake. Taking time to understand our clients requirements we strive to produce quality web design work for an affordable price. We then leverage our years of experience to make sure that our websites are responsive, SEO friendly and meet the clients requirements.

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Jack McLoughlin
Jack McLoughlin
17:04 29 Jun 20
Thoroughly professional and well communicated. Thanks Neil
aimxi online
aimxi online
04:37 15 May 20
I am from Brisbane, my name is Craig, I have a dog training company, it was my first time attempting on page SEO, after calling nearly all SEO companies in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, this was the only place that gave me some time to help me out. 5 star from me, well done in being a human and not worrying about what you could have got from me. hats off to you !. from dogtrainingbegins.com.au
Sheri Macmahon
Sheri Macmahon
09:04 17 Jan 20
Knowledgable, inspiring and helpful. Getting my online presence created and managed by the Start Digital is the BEST decision I ever made.
Hello :-)
Hello :-)
12:39 12 Jun 19
Neil & The Team at Start Digital are fantastic to work with. Our new website is exceptional. The guys here have fresh, modern ideas and the process from start to finish was flawless. Highly recommended.
Blank Walls
Blank Walls
03:57 11 Jun 19
Neil and the team at Start Digital provide such an excellent service and have been a massive help for us since we launched late 2018. Their attention to detail is unmatched compared to other digital agencies we've dealt with, and the team go out of their way to ensure the best result is achieved in the most time & cost efficient way. Thanks again Start Digital
Move Homes
Move Homes
00:18 11 Jun 19
A huge thank you to Neil and the Start Digital team! We engaged them to redesign our Move Homes website to take our brand to the next level. Not only does the website look fantastic, but throughout the website build we received frequent and transparent communication- we knew exactly what was happening and why. Start Digital listened to what we needed and would offer their advice on how to achieve our goals. Aside from their expertise, they’re also great people and really easy to deal with. We look forward to working on more projects over the coming years!
Sheila Woods
Sheila Woods
04:36 12 Mar 18
Neil Mason and the Start Digital team have done a tremendous job with the design and implementation of Interstaff’s new website. Our brief to Neil was for a clean, modern website which visually communicated our brand values, ‘sharp, dependable, expert and human’ to both business and individual clients, and importantly to offer an engaging and easy-to-navigate online experience optimised for SEO. We are delighted with the design as well as the level of consideration and attention to detail Neil and his team put into shaping the online experience of our brand. Start Digital have been very flexible and easy to collaborate with and nothing was ever too difficult. They went above and beyond – even working over the weekend to help us have our website ready to launch ahead of one of our key business seminars. We look forward to continuing to work with Neil and his team in the future and would definitely recommend their services.
iQuest Consulting
iQuest Consulting
05:48 21 Feb 18
The Start Digital team built us a new website and have been managing our SEO for over a year now. During that time our site has moved into the top five on page 1 of Google for keywords such as IT Company Perth and IT Support Perth which has increased our traffic considerably. We're very proud of our website and highly recommend Start Digital.
Heather Bush
Heather Bush
01:02 16 Feb 18
Neil and his team at Start Digital go above and beyond expectations. Having worked with many web agencies I can honestly say that Start have been one of the most open and cost effective agency I have worked with . They come highly recommeded
Anthony Godin
Anthony Godin
05:11 04 Jan 18
Excellent Perth website design, development and SEO agency
Uniting ChurchWA
Uniting ChurchWA
06:58 06 Dec 17
After years of tolerating our old website, we are now proud owners of a sleek, responsive and easy to use new site, thanks to Start Digital. Professional, practical, affordable and easy to work with-Neil and his stellar team delivered our site along with 22 additional sites for some of our congregations. Our organisation is complex and this project was massive. Throughout the project, Start Digital were flexible and patient with us. They responded quickly to emails and phone calls, kept us in the loop and always made time to touch base in their cool office. We can’t thank the team enough for their tremendous effort. It’s only been a month, but we have received plenty of positive feedback since launching the new site. We look forward to working with Start Digital for future digital projects and highly recommend anyone who needs a new website to give them a call.
Amantha Imber
Amantha Imber
08:25 02 Dec 17
Neil and the team created an AMAZING website for Inventium. We have received so much positive feedback since launch. I highly recommend Start Digital - they are awesome!
Lee Bramley
Lee Bramley
03:54 16 Nov 17
Fantastic Service, Really Knowledgeable in all areas of Website and Marketing strategies, they built us a fantastic looking site and nothing was too much for them throughout the process, We also found them to be very reasonably priced compared to other quotes we had, highly recommended.
Dean Capelli
Dean Capelli
06:22 11 Jul 17
Start Digital have built 3 websites for The Highways Group. We've been impressed with their attention to detail and quality of design every time. They're a friendly, professional agency and our go to web team.
John Argiropoulos
John Argiropoulos
07:45 19 May 17
We highly recommend Start Digital service, their efficient , personnel approach and professional skills gave us great results thanks .
Mitch Capelli
Mitch Capelli
22:13 25 Nov 16
Knowledgeable and excellent service at a great price I highly recommend Start Digital. We engaged them to redesign our website and manage our online presence. Previously we were a few pages back on a google search, however after only a few months we are in and around the top 5 on the first page. The guys at Start were great to deal with providing straight forward easy to understand information without the typical sales pitch that we have experienced many times before from other providers in the industry. We continue to receive updates on the progress of our website and their SEO service all for a very reasonable rate (ie. much cheaper than we were previously paying for a lesser service)
Eva Wood
Eva Wood
01:24 23 Nov 16
Neil and his team was responsible for the design and re-branding of our website, business cards and marketing material. They quickly understood our business, they identified the market we needed to target and delivered an excellent solution to match. We would highly recommend Start Digital.
Compac Marketing
Compac Marketing
04:05 14 Oct 16
Neil and the guys at Start Digital took care of some problems we had with our website performance. They were really efficient, responsive, easy to get along with and gave us some great pointers to help us with SEO. Unlike many digital marketing companies out there, Start Digital were very genuine and well-priced. Would definitely recommend their services to others.
Paul Avery
Paul Avery
05:23 13 Oct 16
Great design ideas and technical capability means a complete solution for small and medium sized businesses like us. Neil & Co actually take an interest in what you are trying to achieve rather than just turn and burn volume website factories out there! I recommend them.
Claire Leech
Claire Leech
02:11 04 Oct 16
We have had the pleasure of working with the team at Start Digital recently as we wished to update our website for our restaurant business. WOW! An amazing new, innovative, trendy and professional approach taken by these guys has resulted in a brilliant new site, clearly directing so much more traffic through our business resulting in increased brand awareness and google presence. As a relatively new business, Start Digital will definitely be going places ! We really look forward to continuing to work with them in the future and watch both our and their business grow! Thanks Neil and the team at Start Digital.
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