Why Professional Services Need SEO & What Is 'Original Content'
Oliver Eardley
Win More Clients With Your Website ??? The Professional Services Marketer ?? Host of The Eardley Bird Podcast ??
Welcome back! Happy Monday to all my readers. I hope you've had a refreshing weekend and are ready to tackle the week ahead. As always, below I've delved into two topics I believe you'll find interesting or insightful. Hopefully, it can give at least one of you a competitive edge. If you have any questions or would like me to explore a specific topic, feel free to drop me a message or comment.
Have a great week!
What is 'Original' SEO Content?
Something I’ve seen cropping up frequently on LinkedIn is that people are fed up of hearing the term ‘original content’. The term is often thrown around without further explanation, almost expecting novices or those interested in starting SEO to fully understand. You could argue that the term is quite self-explanatory; however, when put into practice, it becomes far more complex than just ‘writing your own content’. So let’s break it down.
Original SEO Content Explained
Creating content that Google considers "original" goes beyond simply avoiding plagiarism. It's about providing informative, unique content that offers a fresh perspective on a topic.
When people emphasise the need for original content, they mean it shouldn't be plagiarised, AI-generated, or devoid of value. Your content should address search queries while incorporating on-page technical SEO to improve Google's understanding and ranking.
Focus your efforts on providing valuable information that appeals to your ideal customer. For instance, if you offer a locksmith service, potential clients might search for "average locksmith cost," "trusted local locksmiths," or "how long does lock picking take." Before calling, they're likely seeking more information. By providing clear answers, you position yourself as a helpful resource and increase the chances of them choosing your business. provided that your content and website ranks you well for these search terms.
To ensure your content is original, you can follow this checklist:
SEO Content Checklist
Useful Tip: After publishing your content, it’s beneficial to continually analyse search trends to see if your content needs updating as new searches or updated information emerges. This saves time and effort on creating entirely new content. You can modify existing content to better align with search intent and revitalise its ranking potential.
Check out our previous newsletter covering 'Content Decay' to learn more about this.
Why Professional Services Need SEO.
Where would you look?
What’s the first thing you would do if you needed legal or financial advice? Would you consult the Yellow Pages or your local community centre noticeboard? We all know the true answer is neither.
In today’s digital age, more and more established, newer and older businesses must adapt to stay relevant and continue attracting new business beyond word-of-mouth.
Within my role at Add People, I work heavily with the professional services industry. From legal advice to financial, private doctors to estate agents. The running trend amongst all of these I have seen so far is that their business runs predominantly on referrals and has done for a very long time. The issue with this is that little attention has been given to generating business through search engines.
Ultimately this is brilliant, and for a lot of these businesses, I believe it to be a great sign of the work that they do as it has spread from person to person. However, word of mouth can only take a business so far, and for the more tenacious business owners amongst them, I would always advise investing strongly in their digital marketing to capture more attention and enquiries.
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Why You Need Digital Marketing
Digital marketing, I believe, in its simplest form can have two main approaches. Your efforts generate leads through people being able to find your service right at the time of looking. Or, on the other hand, your efforts influence people to remember your brand so that when it comes to looking for a product or service, they search for you directly.
It’s crucial that when someone searches for a professional service, you not only appear in the results but also ensure your brand is memorable so they search for you directly or choose you amongst a competitive crowd.
Yes, this is desired by any business, whether selling clothes or designing shoes; you want people’s attention focused on you. However, for professional services, improving your online presence through digital marketing can be a make-or-break channel.
Here’s why (using the legal market as an example):
There are just shy of 10,000 legal practices currently trading in the UK today. On average, 72% of all enquiries will continue using the business they first contacted when seeking legal services. The average Google user will click on one of the first five results on the SERPs after searching. You do the maths.
That’s a lot of competition fighting for a small space to be seen and chosen. The lines between success and failure can be very thin.
Not only this, but having a website built to convert interest into action will generate more potential enquiries that turn into paying customers.
If you’re not striving for these top positions and relying solely on word-of-mouth business, you’re missing out on new business opportunities left, right, and centre.
So Where Should You Start?
The best place to start is always with an SEO audit. You first of all need to establish where you currently stand and where your online enquiries are coming from (if any).
An SEO audit takes a look into what your competitors are doing and where their success is coming from.
Once we have established where you currently stand, we can then start to map out what your goals are from your SEO campaign and what work needs to be done to achieve this.
Are you looking to generate more leads? Is it that you want to outrank your competition to boast the reputation of your own business?
All of this can be achieved when a strategic approach is taken and you have the right team of professionals behind you. We would know; we do this every day!
If you have any questions or want to learn more feel free to leave a comment or message me directly.
Until next week.
Oliver Eardley - Principal Consultant
Head of Commercial Growth & Partnerships @ Add People Ltd | We help you get more customers through your website!
8 个月Great read this morning Oliver Eardley. I am hearing, all too often, that businesses are running on word of mouth and are seeking out places to engage with their potential audience but have no strategic plan or stats to back up their efforts and likely success. SEO is changing but is constant whilst we still search online for services and answers. If you are a business, service or ecommerce, with a website that you want to transact in some way or another; You need SEO! ??