In this blog we will be covering some important things you should know regarding SEO services in South Africa. The do’s the don’ts and the importance of having a good website structure to start getting ranked on Google.
What is SEO in South Africa?
First things first. What is SEO in South Africa? SEO refers to the term Search Engine Optimization. Meaning how well your website is optimized for google to recognize it out of the millions out there. Read more about what SEO is here.
There are many factors attributed to a good, well SEO Optimized website. Some of these are as listed below:
- Page speed insights
- Keyword Optimization
- Short-tail vs long-tail keywords
- URL Structuring
- Internal Linking
- Outgoing Links
- Backlinks
Many more!
We will also be covering some of the SEO factors listed above.
The works of SEO services in South Africa.
A question many people have is, how does SEO work exactly?
The thing is, there is no full proof plan for immediate results but some things we can say that will help in the long run are as follow:
Consistency: You need to post on a regular basis. Either by the method of blogging or by getting new backlinks to your website.
Relevancy: You need to post or update content depending on your industry and the changing keyword results, either by optimizing existing pages or writing new blogs on entirely new topics.
High-quality Content: Content that is written by a person. Meaning any generic or basic information will be checked by Google and thrown out for being too common. Ai has this problem by “regurgitating” information making it common.
On-page SEO: This means optimizing your page’s title tags, meta descriptions, keyword density, headings, alt images and various other things that attribute to good SEO practices.
These are just some of the workings that go into a good SEO services strategy in South Africa.
Do I need any SEO Services for my business in South Africa?
Well, that depends. If you have an e-commerce website, we would always recommend having a good SEO plan. Especially making use of businesses that offer SEO services in South Africa.
If you have a website that is just there for show and you don’t mind not generating any leads in the long term from your website, then we don’t think it is a necessity to have continuous SEO services done.
BUT, we and many other SEO services experts would recommend you have a full SEO report done and optimize your pages. Even if this is just a basic SEO optimization we would recommend it as your website might not be found on google.
You can make use of Seoptimer.com to audit your website in a couple clicks.
Should my SEO expert be in South Africa?
Yes, we would certainly recommend if your SEO expert is in South Africa due to the fact that they are more familiar with the market. Take Webfast Technologies as an example, they offer website design services as well as SEO services in South Africa. Their main target is South Africa as they know what keywords to look for.
Take this as an example: You find an SEO expert in another country that doesn’t speak fluent English. Do you think they will accurately get the keywords you are trying to rank for?
How long do I need to make use of SEO Services before I start seeing results?
This is a very tough question to answer. But a rough timeframe is between 4 – 6 months of organic growth. Making use of long-tail keywords for the start then moving over to short-tail keywords once you start ranking for the long-tail keywords.
What are long-tail keywords?
Your organic growth will come from starting to target long-tail keywords. An example of this is “SEO Services in South Africa”. This is 4 or more words which then makes it a long-tail keyword. This easier to rank for as it’s a more specific phrase people search for. But keep in mind these long-tail keywords should still have a good monthly search volume making it stay relevant.
What are short-tail keywords?
Short-tail keywords are as the name implies in contrast to long-tail keywords. It is a short-hand to the longer phrase. An example could be “SEO Services”.
Remember, this is a much harder key phrase to rank for.
How to get started.
The first thing Webfast, a SEO service provider in South Africa always recommend is blogging. This is the easiest thing you can start doing to get ranking on Google.
Writing about relevant topics on your business and what surrounds it has always been an amazing way to rank on google. Remember this isn’t overnight. Google has its own algorithm. Meaning, they play around with the rankings and so sometimes they push your ranking and sometimes other people’s website’s ranking.
How does a blog improve my ranking?
The blog is just so that Google sees your giving valuable content surrounding your business. With this keyword as example of SEO services in South Africa can start ranking for you.
How should I structure my links?
Link structuring is an extremely important part of your websites SEO ranking.
You should structure your links in a way how the google search term would be phrased when searching the blog or your services. It also needs to reflect the topic of your blog.
Internal linking and Outgoing links.
Making use of any SEO Services in South Africa they would always recommend adding internal and outgoing links to your blogs, pages and sections.
Let’s start with internal linking.
Internal linking refers to using a button or text to link to a certain piece of content meaning a different page or blog within your own website. This is very good for Google to crawl your website optimally using relevant content.
Outgoing links refer to using, once again, a button or certain piece of text or content linking away from your website. Still in the same industry but could be something informational such as a wiki page or a tool used in your industry.
Final Thoughts.
To become an SEO expert delivering quality services in South Africa is certainly challenging. But there are tools to assist anyone in South Africa to optimize their website as far as they can until any business that provides SEO services in South Africa can take it further.
You can add simple building blocks where SEO experts can take over and get you ranking permanently.
SEO is a long term solution so keep working on that SEO score and you will see good results!