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Kelowna SEO: Search Engine Optimization Revealed

by James Shaw, CEO/Creative Director

We're pulling back the curtains today to show how our Kelowna SEO company gets results.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is part of a larger topic called Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which the art and science of promoting a website on the internet through organic (unpaid) efforts, which is SEO, and paid efforts, like Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.  But we're getting ahead of ourselves.  Let's rewind. The world wide web is a big place. In fact there are around 110 Million websites in the big ol' WWW.

It's pretty easy for your website to get lost in the mix.  A website is more or less pointless if no one is finding it. Web traffic is the lifeblood of many businesses (yes, even bricks and mortar!)  About 80% of people search for what they want on the web using Google, Yahoo or Bing.  As a business owner or marketing director, your job is to make sure that people searching for your products and services find your website.  Sounds simple, right? Do a quick Google search for "Kelowna marketing firm" and you'll see us near the top. We're actually No.1 right now, but things swap around a bit at the top of the pile. Also understand that we are in the organic (free) listings - these get clicked on about 77% of the time vs. the paid ads like the ones on the lilac background. Business people are getting more familiar with internet marketing now, so you've probably heard of the term SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO encompasses a variety of different techniques, unique to the individual client, that will help them rank higher on Google and other Search Engines.  Then when people are searching for things like "Kelowna bike store" or "best coffee shop" or "RV dealership software" your website will appear in the search engine results pages, called SERPs.  Page one is where you'll want to be - only 1 in 5 people ever look past page one.

At Twin Creek Media we work hard to make sure that our clients' websites are ranking high for the words that potential customers are searching for.

The tricky thing about SEO is that Google and other search engines like to keep their ranking algorithms secret, so while we generally know how to kick butt out there, the rules are constantly changing.  Plus, you can't fix something unless you know what's broken.  This is why we measure a website's current performance first before jumping into making changes.  Twin Creek Media's SEO Score Card and Website Usability Score Cards will cost a business about $900 each.  About 90% of our clients choose to do our Score Cards first. It's surprising how many so-called "experts" don't care to do this!  If you're talking with an Kelowna SEO firm, make sure you ask about baseline measurement and SEO analysis. 

Think about it like this: if your car is making "squeaking" sounds and you bring it into the shop, would you rather the mechanic inspect it first and fix the source of the problem, or just randomly put on new tires, brakes, muffler, and fan belts "cuz it's gotta be one of those things..."?

Check out the image below and you'll see the numbers from Google Analytics for a month over month comparison.  We pulled the data today for a few of the websites that we manage... you'll see most are receiving more visitors this month compared to last month.  Not all of the news is good.  Those of you that understand web analytics will see that some the Bounce Rates are high and Time On Site is less than ideal.  Hey, we're not perfect, but we're not trying to hide anything either.  Note: The site names are blurred out for privacy reasons.  You'll also notice two of the sites are receiving very low monthly traffic... those are actually single pages, not full websites, that we're tracking but not currently promoting right now.

We make continuous improvements based on the data.  SEO is an ongoing challenge.  It doesn't ever end. Translation: when you're budgeting, internet marketing & SEO should be planned as a monthly investment.

Bottom line?  Twin Creek Media will measure, improve, and grow your website's traffic.

Tip: Traffic is great but the work isn't over.  Are the visitors high quality?  Do they match your customer profile?  Once all those people land on your site do they find what they're looking for?  Do they buy?  Do they sign up?  Do they fill out your form?  Do they phone?  What we're talking about now is page conversion - a topic for another time!

Contact us to find out more about our Kelowna SEO services: 250-762-4001