• Mar 24, 2021

SEO for Gold Coast Tradies

The trade-off for a Gold Coast tradesman considering SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is whether to do it yourself or hire an SEO.

There are other considerations. It may be useful to get your website analysed properly to ensure it is actually fit for purpose and does not have mistakes. It takes much more effort to promote a poor site than to have a purpose built site targeting keywords.

If engaging a Gold Coast SEO make sure they have the necessary experience to give you value-:

• do they have successful tradesmen already?
• do they only take on one of your trade?
• do they have reasonable fees?
• is the SEO they do genuine, authentic or risky?
• are they transparent?
• do they have the skillset required?

Success with Gold Coast trades already

This is easy to check, ask for examples of sites they work with and look at the results. SEOs have access to search results across various locations on a daily basis. So providing proof of success is as simple as sending an image, like the results above for this site. If you look at the "tradesman Gold Coast" it says it is in position 6 in the organic listings for a search made on the Gold Coast. It is also in position 2 on the Google My Business map section.

Competitors

Will the SEO take on your direct competitors as clients or will they put 100% of their efforts into your site for that category?

SEO competitor analysis is looking at the SEO profiles of your immediate competitors. This will indicate the difficulty in getting your site to the first page. Link analysis is also important-:

• Inbound links
• Outbound links
• Internal links

Are your competitors engaging an SEO? Are they engaging in risky seo?

Keyword Research

Keyword research for tradies

1 Obvious location based keywords eg Painter Gold Coast

2 Longtail keywords (longer keywords) will attract less volume but more specific niche's eg how to dispose of paint in Southport

3 Solve a problem eg How to use a roller to paint a wall

4 Diversify into related services

Keyword Volumes

Keyword volumes refer to the monthly number of searches on a specific keyword. Most tradie SEO campaigns begin with keyword research.

As a general rule you would target location based keywords initially. eg Painter Southport or Pest Control Biggera Waters. As you site improves start to aim at the higher volume keywords.

 

Risky SEO

It is no secret that some SEOs take shortcuts and use techniques that can put your site at risk. Specifically paying for links is not within the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Many sites do this at the risk of being reported for doing so. A simple analysis of the links pointing to your website can reveal whether "Black-Hat" SEO techniques have been employed.

Transparent SEO

The SEO is going to ensure Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google My Business are running properly. Both the SEO and the business owner can view the statistics on these free platforms. There is more information there than a small business operator needs. Not all business operators are the same. Some will want to know every detail of how SEO works. The real indicator of success is whether you get relevant calls or contacts. You the business owner are the best judge of that.

An SEO may target search terms slightly removed from your core business. So getting an extra 30 clicks per month means nothing unless it translates into meaningful contacts. A good transparent relationship with your SEO means you can pick up the phone and say "I am not getting the right people contacting me". The SEO will adjust accordingly.

SEO skillset

Look for an SEO who is an accomplished web developer, has skills in social media, programming skills, image management skills, knowledge of servers, plenty of SEO writing experience and ongoing SEO research. An SEO missing those core skills has less to work with. There is no need to have multiple people working on your website. It costs more to have multiple people involved because you are paying for the communication between those people and those costs rise exponentially as the numbers of people increase.
As an example you build a custom eCommerce experience and want to use Google Analytics version 4 to track specific items or transactions or downloads. If the eCommerce creator is your SEO there is reduced need to converse between say a web developer, a marketing group and your SEO. Just imagine if there are different people at different levels within those 3 groups. A simple upgrade to your Google Analytics tracking information may involve numerous emails. You pay for that time. Keep things as simple as possible.

How long should it take to get results from SEO

How long is a piece of string? A comprehensive study of 75 SEO's reveals the long story 6-12 months.

A good SEO will target the "low hanging fruit" immediately. Results could be virtually instant, mostly they are not instant especially when there is established competition.

It does depend on whether you have an existing website. The best time to start a website is 12 months before you need it. That is not a joke. Google places a new site in what could be termed a "sandbox". Probably to keep search results stable and prevent scams.

If your SEO already has some quality resources in related fields, the results can appear much quicker. This is especially true for location based sites.

If the SEO is saying you may not get results until 12-24 months, you would have to see proof they can actually get results at all.

SEO Fees

Whilst you expect to pay for quality, it is also a sign of the quality of the SEO if they can gain success on reasonable fees.

Why?

A reasonable fee keeps the tradie at a competitive advantage. It is in the interest of the SEO company to add value to a tradesman. Keeping fees reasonable adds to the efficiency of the tradesman and is a win win.

Be wary of those who insist you spend $1000s when you may do just fine on a few hundred per month.

It is possible to add plenty of value on a $200 per month budget, especially for a small business.

If you are competing against people spending large amounts on SEO, trying to dominate the major keywords, you can opt for a strategy that is less expensive but works on what are called long-tail keywords.

Although there are estimates of keyword volumes (the number of searches in Google for a specific keyword per month) a good SEO can create pages that attract searchers who may be searching using different combinations of words.

What does SEO do to your bottom line - your profit

In our article on Calculating your Charge-out rate we analysed different scenarios and came up with the following table of your income depending on your hourly rate once overheads were taken into account. We calculated 1,282.50 billable hours per annum.

What happens when we add a monthly SEO cost of $1500 per month to that hourly rate?

Factor In Overheads $15,000 - SEO fees $18,000

It is not uncommon for SEO's to suggest a $1500 per month SEO fee, even for a small tradie or business. However as the figures above suggest that $1500 SEO fee has a large effect on your profit.

For a small to medium business an SEO fee in the range of $200 - $500 is affordable, an SEO fee over $1000 requires a very profitable business to sustain. It represents a risk. I hope this article has gone some way in to answering the question - what is the real cost of a digital agency?