Search Engine Optimization
SEO Services & SEO Packages in Singapore: The Truth
Caleb, CEO, GENIA
25 April 2020
Are you one of those business owners that refuse to spend a cent on growth? Do you think that word of mouth marketing or referrals is all you need for your business to grow? If that is you, please delete your website and skip this article.
However, if you understand that time and money have to be invested for your business to grow, then imagine this:
Every time an ideal client of yours searches on any search engine, they find your website. Every prospect who gets in touch with you already sees you as the expert and trusts your every word, and every lead you get is desperate to work with you. How awesome would that be?
But right now, that is nothing more than a fantasy, isn’t it?
- You’re on the 6th page of Google for key terms relating to your business
- Your bounce rates are almost three digits
- You don’t know where the next lead is coming from
- You’re getting a lot of low quality leads from social media
- You’ve paid an SEO agency for six full months and are still wondering what you’re paying for
It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s look at how you can grow your business with the most powerful digital marketing strategy. SEO.
This is what the organic traffic, when SEO is done right, looks like.
https://www.vitalitychiropracticcentres.com
Traffic growth
Contents
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), put simply, is the process of getting search engines to see your brand and your website as the best source of information for a particular search query.
We use Google for almost every single question we have in life, for both personal and work reasons because the search engine never fails to give us what we want within seconds.
Every time a search is made, Google crawls through billions of web pages within their database and returns the most relevant results from the most credible sources possible. SEO helps Google to see that your website is the best possible result for any search related to your industry.
If you’re operating a business where physical presence matters like retail and F&B outlets, and open up your shop somewhere where there’s minimal foot traffic, people will tell you that you aren’t the brightest crayon in the box. However, for some reasons, no one tells you that when your website is on the second page of Google.
You could even hide a dead body on the second page of Google and an entire city on the third.
Being on the first page positions your brand in front of people who need your service. When users search, there is a need or at least an intent to find out more about your solutions, and that is what makes SEO extremely important.
To rank on the first page, we need to know what Google wants.
What are Google’s Ranking Factors?
Google tries to display the most relevant and credible content as search results. You know that you will be rich if you come up on top, so how do you do that?
Awesome content
Writing life-changing content should be your number one priority if you want to succeed in SEO.
You have to know exactly what your target market is searching for and come up with content that addresses their needs—quality content is about engaging, informing, supporting and delighting your viewers.
“Just think about what the users want and think if you were in the shoes of the search engine, would you feel comfortable sending users to your own website? Would you feel proud to vouch for that website and put that at number one for a given query?” says Frédéric Dubut, Bing’s senior program manager lead.
With excellent quality content, users will naturally spend more time on your website, and this tells search engines of the importance, quality and credibility of your website. Good content also attracts backlinks from other websites, which is another major ranking factor.
Links
Backlinks, an incoming link from another website, are one of the most influential ranking factors in Google’s search algorithm.
With more backlinks, you rank higher, and you make more sales. With that being said, not all links are created equal. Links from high authority domains will pass on more value than links from low authority ones.
Links from a guest post will pass on more value than a random comment on a random blog that you paid some random low-quality agency (based in Singapore or not) for.
Think of backlinks as recommendations to search engines. The more recommendations there are, the more search engines trust the domain.
However, if the recommendation comes from a source that Google does not trust, then you can be sure that this recommendation is worthless, regardless of how many there are.
Unless you’re a big brand with a product that everyone is talking about or have a PR team to get you featured in the media, chances are that nobody is going talk about or link to you.
With no one linking to you, you will not be able to climb the search rankings, no matter how deserving you think you are.
As an SME, you will have to go out and build these links. You can do it on our own if you have the knowledge, time and connections, or you can engage experts. Whatever it is, you have to do it if you’re serious about business growth.
If you are going to engage an agency for SEO services, you will need to understand the work that needs to be done, and how to identify the right company.
Choosing the wrong one will result in a loss of money but more importantly, time. Many of our clients come to us after wasting time and money on other agencies.
The Types of Optimisations in an SEO Package
For an SEO campaign to be successful, three things have to be done well. Keyword Research, On-page optimisation and Off-page optimisation
Keyword Research
Conducting keyword research well would help you avoid ranking for search terms that nobody uses for, or attempting to rank for keywords you’ll never get on the first page for.
Keyword research is identifying what search terms your ideal customers are using to find you.
A reliable SEO Company will be able to come up with a comprehensive list of keywords that consist of keywords with both buying and research intentions that have good search volume and lesser competition.
Once you know what your prospects are searching for online, you will be able to come up with quality content that gives them what they want.
On-page Optimisation
On-page optimisation is simply the process of optimising the website itself. It consists of some technical optimisation, with speed optimisation being one of them, and the other being content creation and optimisation.
When done well, On-page SEO tells search engines what your website is about and the keywords you should appear on the first page for.
Off-page Optimisation
Off-page optimisation is about securing high-quality backlinks to your website.
As spoken earlier, backlinks are what search engines use to evaluate the quality of a website. For a website to rank well, links have to be built regularly. Proper links, by the way, not random ones like this, although they work, to be honest.
Low quality link built by an Singapore SEO Agency
Is SEO services for B2C Businesses Only?
The biggest myth of all time is that B2B companies do not need SEO.
If you were to look for an accounting system, where would you look for it? Yellow Pages? Green Book? Orchard Road? Of course, it’s Google!
As a business owner myself, I’m regularly searching the internet for ways to improve my business, be it my processes or my sales, or hiring talent or finding solutions to problems I have.
Every organisation, regardless of the product or service, has prospects searching the net for them and if you’re not on the first page, you can be sure that your competitors are, and that’s where your prospects will go.
Cost of SEO in Singapore
Now that you know how much you need SEO, it’s time to find the most efficient way of doing it – spending lesser money while getting to the first page as fast as possible.
If you have an in-house team of marketers that you think can take on this role, go for it. Use our DIY-SEO article to help you get there.
If you don’t have the budget for that, or rather work with an external agency, here’s what SEO packages look like:
Agencies often charge monthly retainers for SEO services and they usually expect a 6-month commitment. SEO cannot come cheap because of the resources needed to deliver a successful campaign, especially when it comes to building links. More importantly, the ROI on a successful campaign far exceeds most other marketing campaigns.
Monthly retainers typically range from $1000/month to $3000/month, depending on the number of keywords you choose to target. While some agencies charge just a couple of hundreds every month, it may be because they are not putting in the required resources required to grow your organic traffic, like not building backlinks, or building low-quality links.
Do not jump into a contract just because of price as it is better to spend $6000 over six months and grow your business than to spend $3000 and have your business remain the same.
If you do that, you will eventually have to come to us.
Factors affecting SEO Services Pricing in Singapore
When getting a quote for SEO, one company may quote you $500/month for 20 keywords while the next company might quote you $3000 for 10 keywords.
The reason for the disparity is very often just you getting what you pay for. While it does not mean that a $3000/month package is definitely the one to go with, you can’t expect a company charging just $500/month to be allocating a lot of resources into getting you ranked.
We’ve had many clients come to us after working with other agencies and experiencing little to no improvements in their search engine rankings. Ironically, some of those agencies they were paying charged over a thousand dollars monthly. (With that being said, we don’t cost anywhere close to $3000 for 10 keywords. Read on, and we’ll get to that.)
The pricing for SEO services usually depends on the resources the company allocates to your website. It could be the workforce cost of the optimisation or the cost of buying links or maybe even outsourcing the entire link building. If the agency has an office, then they’ll probably pass that cost on to you too.
No matter what the SEO agency does, no one can promise you page 1 rankings.
Benefits of SEO
Now that we’ve spoken about the costs let’s look at why it is a necessary investment.
In an era where Google is now a verb, and virtually everyone is googling for information before making any business or personal decision, all companies need to prioritise SEO.
SEO is an Asset
Being on the first page of Google is an asset that pays generously for as long as you own it. You will be getting traffic, leads and sales consistently when you’re up there. I’m speaking from experience.
SEO is cost-effective
Unlike advertising, you don’t have to spend thousands to tens of thousands to see results. Yes, there are costs involved in building quality backlinks and producing content, but it’s nothing like an advertising budget.
In advertising, you pay for impressions and clicks and once you stop paying, you’re immediately taken off the platform. When SEO is done right, even after you stop, you will continue to reap the rewards for a long time.
Google remains strong
Platforms like Facebook and Snapchat have seen a drop in users over the years. Google has remained strong and in fact, grown.
The first page comes with credibility
People trust Google. People trust you when you’re ranked up there. Being on the first page will give your brand credibility in the eyes of your prospects.
How GENIA Approaches SEO
SEO is hugely competitive in Singapore and pretty much anywhere in the world. Regardless of your industry, you have competitors competing with you for the top spot in Google. It is going to be difficult to rank #1, unless you have a huge marketing war chest, or are already trusted by Google.
At GENIA, we help our clients increase their traffic in a short period by sidestepping the competition. When we go up against the competition, we do it with powerful backlinks that move the needle.
With that strategy, we have successfully helped numerous small businesses, healthcare providers, educators, e-commerce companies, to name a few, massively increase their web traffic and ultimately, sales.
Our vision for every business we work with is to turn them into content hubs. A destination for all searches related to the specific industry the business is in and not just when the searcher is looking for a solution.
The SEO difficulty of keywords with buying intentions is significantly greater than those with research intentions.
Why?
Many companies are competing for it. Yes, although users searching ‘backpain treatment’ are more likely to convert into paying clients, ranking on the first page for this keyword would be more challenging.
Ranking for the term ‘what causes back pain‘ on the other hand, could be achieved within half the time or maybe even less. With good content, users could still be converted into paying customers as our clients have reported. Very often, we target both keywords.
If we take you on as a client, we’ll thoroughly research your business, your product or service, your unique propositions and your customers. Based on that, we will identify what your target group is searching online, the questions they’re asking, the solutions they’re finding and the kind of content they are currently consuming.
We will then produce content that answers what your viewers are looking for compellingly and build authoritative links to push you up the ranks.
This is what working with us looks like:
https://www.elitespinecentres.com Traffic growth
(Traffic cost = Advertising dollars saved)
If you’d like to know how we achieve results like this, and how we can do it for you, click the WhatsApp button on the bottom right or fill up the contact form below and we’ll be in touch.
To your success,
Caleb
For many small business owners, getting started on social media can be a little daunting, especially when you are boot-strapped or face lack of manpower and time. However, it does not have to cost very much to grow your business on social media such as LinkedIn.
Here are 15 ways on how small businesses can grow their connections organically on LinkedIn.
- Define your purpose.
Identify at which stage of your marketing funnel you want your business to focus on and set goals to reach them. Is it to build awareness of your business, garner more engagement or convert people to transact with you? Knowing your business goal will help you work on a strategic social media strategy that will produce successful outcomes at every stage of the funnel.
- Build a LinkedIn business page.
According to Forbes, only 57% of companies have business pages. The remaining 43% are missing out on a free opportunity to generate leads, talent, and, ultimately, revenue. A business page allows you to post content, advertise your solutions and how it can alleviate your target audience’s pain points. While building your own LinkedIn personal page is important, a business page allows you to focus on providing value-added information that your customers can relate to.
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Upcoming FREE SEO Masterclass
26 May, Tues: 2pm-5pm
Caleb Sim
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