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SEO Sydney

Challenge the status quo by competing globally. Get a comprehensive SEO Service in Sydney and beyond.

A clever SEO Sydney Agency

Let’s face it, there are a lot of Sydney SEO providers out there and if you are anything like us at Metric Labs, you are quite discerning about the number of providers in the market in terms of providing a comprehensive SEO Service for Sydney and beyond. This page is designed to orientate the companies operating within the Sydney region and beyond and to illustrate to how choosing a data hungry data agency that executes with digital nuance can become an invaluable asset.

Conducting business in Australia’s most populous city is competitive and competing online is even a little more challenging as local businesses also have to contend with international enterprise level organisations. No matter what organisational structure is there are many approaches to consider when conducting SEO in Sydney.

Local SEO Sydney

Local SEO is a terminology which has been thrown around for some time and in a ‘traditional-sense’ this was purely focused on increasing the visibility for businesses that serve their communities face-to-face. The typical ‘mum and pop’ store can be your simple definition or a ‘brick-and-mortar’ business with physical locations.

Typical cases of this would be a local grocery store, dentist’s office, or service-area businesses that operate throughout a certain geographic area, like an therapists or home services companies. There’s an inherent geographical limitation to the services on offer at this level of ‘local SEO’, and to properly establish and manage this local performance can be a challenge between resource allocation, especially for the ‘mum & pop’ store. At a very simplistic level local SEO optimisation in Sydney contains these tasks:

Google My Business Listing : It should be all quite well to business owners but verification of your business address via Google My Business will allow for your business more likely to be featured within Google Maps, and location based searches.

Bing Places for Business : Bing Places is similar to Google My Business, however Microsoft’s version, while only accounting for 3.34% of the Australian market, its still valuable to establish.

Business Listings on Popular Social & Review Sites : Key local business listings outside of the Google ecosystem can also be built on popular social and review-oriented sites. The most obvious and popular of these might Facebook, Yelp or True local. These could be both avenues for local business to be discovered or help in establishing a presence for the location.

Some Top Listing Site : Sydney & Australia :

https://www.choice.com.au/
https://thebom.com.au/
https://www.truelocal.com.au/
https://foursquare.com/
https://www.yelp.com.au/
https://au.showmelocal.com/

Managing Online Reputation and Ratings

So having a presence online is great, but beyond that customers who might potentially engage with the local business in Sydney or elsewhere at time might need some social proof in order to get them to visit, purchase or hire.This is why making sure to engage your audience’s reviews, comments or queries via social media, Google My Business or elsewhere. While you might have a string of positive reviews only a few of negative or unattended to online engagement can really impact online and offline behaviour of your potential customers.

SEO Best Practice : Onsite Optimisation

Aside from what is mention above there is a long list of all SEO best practices which related to on-site optimisation for a local Sydney business website. This is not detailed within this article, however can be found here

Google Shopping This may not be applicable to all local business in Sydney, but as more and more local business have some kind of online presence accompanied by eCommerce additional integration such as Google Shopping is a service which also allow for products to be featured within the search engine upon particular product searches. This can be especially valuable if you are a local business offering for unique goods within the region.

In Summary While the above strategies are key to developing a strong starting point to generate local SEO performance, integrating these strategies with an array of advanced and tailored tactics which are used throughout the whole SEO market can really accelerate local providers to have the competitive edge, beyond the higher resourced competitors.

Real World Examples

Sydney Early Learning Centers

Our agency strategically advanced a chain of early learning centers across Sydney by employing the above tactics which help increase parent signups and organic traffic

Physiotherapists

Our SEO experts also help a small sports therapy business with 3 locations across Sydney firmly establish top 10 keyword positions for physiotherapy keywords, ensuring a continued stream of new customers.

Australia Wide Operation : Competing in SEO in Sydney

As proximity varies so to does the results, considerably. Now when it come to larger businesses operating in Australia there are some issues you may confront. You may be based in alternative Melbourne, your head office might reside in a smaller town, or your business presence is simply more virtual than physical. In any case, performing for SEO in Sydney required expert attention to push your performance and deliver traffic from this dense region.

Now, it should be said that all of the previous strategies mention above are still valid tactics for Australia-wide operating businesses and should be employed. But you might be asking yourself, won’t I be optimising for the wrong location, be it Melbourne, Cooladdi or nowhere?

While you won’t be attracting any specifically Sydney-based citations, you will be continuing to enhance your overall reputation and trust online.

For this kind of business operation, SEO depends far greater upon on-page creation, keyword mapping and a strong strategy to leverage your non-local location into one that performs well in the city. Below are but a few strategies to perform in a desired location:

Server Location

Server location usually comes as an after-thought. Many business hand over the technical deployment of a website to a technical team whose vision is really focused on delivering the client a well organised and functional web site. What ultimately ends up happening here is that the hosting choice is usually not the target city.

In Australia it is well known to have higher server costs however at times the outcome of choosing a local Sydney server over another say, in Singapore, will provide an added speed and performance advantage. Another key SEO metric and UX area in which a comprehensive SEO Agency will take into consideration.

If you are already well setup with a server in a location that differs to your target audience, migration is possible and valuable, especially at the time of site-migration, in which case you will need SEO migration strategy.

On-Page Strategy

Aside from the regular SEO on-page optimsations which are done as best practice there is a whole range of strategic actions to take to enhance the performance within a location. While this can really vary from industry to product, the way a user searches for your products or server can provide a complete range of opportunities to accelerate location based performance. Valued actions within this area are:

Addressing the query : People often search in a particular style which means you can tailor new pages to address each and every permutation, this requires a balance between content, query matching and resources.

Choosing the level of location granularity : When selecting how to optimise for a location the level of granularity provides a host of issues. Being ROI focused this is particularly important before canvassing a content writer.

Using Dynamic Creation : Do queries vary from Bondi in Sydney to Burwood in Sydney? Generally the answer is no, but location will change and this might be your key to turn a very specific search applicable to all locations.

Persona Conversion Optimisation

A persona, is used as in user-centered design and marketing. The idea behind this is to envisage the fictional characters that represent your user types. Helpful in market segmentation using A = B testing around the terminology based upon location can boost performance across a range of personas/market segments and the stage of the customer journey.

This kind of tactic is really about generating the greatest performance out of the interested parties that you have drawn to your website by using the previous techniques.

Real World Example:

Australian Identity Checking Services

With no office in Sydney or New South Wales and primarily an online business we performed the above tactics and more to mass-effect. Continually refining this over the years and creating new pages, we’re happy to see such a thorough execution in all of their desired locations.

International & Enterprise : Competing in SEO in Sydney

At the enterprise level competing in Sydney usually comes with the added goal of trying to target other commercially dense areas across Australia, Asia and the rest of the world. Now it isn’t always possible to have ‘brick and mortar’ assets in the targeted city. But one advantage of International businesses is usually that they have the capital to execute advanced strategies to further enhance their organic search position in Sydney.

The tactics presented in the above two sections are quite relevant and mostly can be used here as well, however when it comes to Google My Business there are some additional tricks to employ.

Business Addresses With the world being more and more digitally connected, the need for real face-to-face commerce is not always required, and if so travel for that purpose is possible. However when it comes to trust, consumers still have a preference for businesses that have decided to ‘set-up shop’ in Sydney. For very disparate businesses the best solution here is to choose your target city, rent a business addresses with call forwarding. The benefits of this is that you now have a local Sydney Business address (even if its a shared/virtual office) and a local telephone number. This allows you to start to generate local citations and address that very real concern of trust.

CDN Locations

Even if ideas such as business mailing addresses are not an option, choosing your CDN server locations are helping address a key technical metric when it comes to your targeted cities. Many enterprise and international businesses use CDN networks already however more often than not these server locations are not optimised to the targeted cities such as Sydney. The performance difference can be achieved here not by canvassing new organic positions, but rather retaining a greater percentage of existing visitors by reducing the bounce rate.

Link Building (Tactical implementation)

With a series of tactics used from the above two sections, the next step is to follow this up with measured and precise link building to targeted pages / keywords and location variables. The reason here is that links from the other side of the world will have substantially less impact than targeted regional links. The Context of the links are also highly important. An authoritative link from a Sneakers store is not going to be anything similar to a SAP Infrastructure site. So merging both location, keywords and context within a link is a valuable but time-consuming task which yields strong long terms organic results. This kind of tactic should only be done where the digital agency knows the bounds of this activity, one misstep and the overall authority and perception of the website could be lost.

Real World Example:

Employment Background Screening

With our client here, a leader in the Asia Pacific region, wanting to target Sydney we performed a mix of strategies presented in section 2 and 3, to see strong results within the desired target segments.

IT Infrastructure & Business Solutions

This client was targeting a range of countries and specific business regions/cities across Asia. Our strategy has led to increased conversions across all primary markets and now operates ahead of competitors substantially.

Targeted SEO In Summary

While all of the issues presented above are defined through the lens of SEO in Sydney, the same hold true for all cities throughout Australia with significant parallels in other countries. Obviously, within the Asia-Pacific Region such as Singapore, Philippines, Japan & more there are going to be many other factors in consideration compared to that of countries such as that of New Zealand, United Kingdom and the U.S.A.

For more information about how Metric Labs can help you address your needs when it comes to competing in SEO in Sydney or any other city around the world, reach out and say hello!

Related services

Client testimonials

“The Metric Labs team have been professional and responsive.

We’ve seen increased lead generation, and we can see where our leads are coming from.”

Rob Lynch

Couriers & Freight

“I have worked with Vincent from Metric Labs for over 5 years now.

Over the years we have seen our organic visibility and revenue grow by over 170% with our paid search growing over 600% making us the leading police check vendor in Australia.

The team at Metric Labs is also diligent, responsive and really pleasant to work with"

Martin Lazarevic

National Crime Check

“It comes down to integrity and the ability to deliver that would define the Metric Labs team.

In this forever evolving digital landscape, Metric Labs is always coming up with clever ways to stay ahead of the curve and get cut-through in this saturated space.

If you are in need of an amazing digital agency, you really don’t need to look any further than Metric Labs.”

Lauren Earl

Manning Cartell

“We have worked with Metric Labs on building our digital marketing presence. We’ve found the team extremely knowledgeable and easy to work with.

They have helped us to grow our leads by a significant amount and were always in contact about campaign activities.

The team also provided us with invaluable reporting and insight into our campaigns, which allowed us to regularly iterate and improve to consistently meet our objectives.”

Stephanie Lay

Good Capital Group

Frequently asked questions

What is SEO like in 2020?

SEO in 2020 comes with a whole new set of challenges, which, if done correctly, can help brands succeed. Search Engine Rankings are still tricky, if not done smartly. The SEO routine check generally boils down to

Keyword targeting,
Keyword search volume
Organic Search Traffic volume
Conversions through targeted keywords

Apart from the checks above, a comprehensive SEO would also involve

Link building
On Page Optimisation
SEO content building & creation
Technical SEO

One might think that Keyword research is just another basic SEO check. On the contrary , a thorough keyword research and placing them where it really matters can make or break your organic rankings. Not only is it important to do your research correctly, but also know the match types to use and weave them into your content meaningfully. After all Google is huge on user friendly content that provides a great page experience.

Of late there has been a radical shift in focus from keywords to and topics and entities. Google apparently likes fresh content around trending topics and entities (places, persons or things) Tools like Answer the public and Google Trends, SEMRush can prove handy here.

Then there is content. Not just content, but high quality content, that is of utmost importance in bringing in the cream of the organic crowd to your website. Blogs are a great value addition, we already know that. However, do we really optimise our blogs well? That is the question to ask here. We do understand the importance of recency and regularity of blog posts. But do we attach enough importance to our blog posts’ topics, or for that matter, how we optimise it? SEO friendly content editing tools like that of Surfer SEO can be your super power here. Surfer SEO collates the best and trending websites, keywords, topics and questions , based on the search query, to create an SEO editor to build your content on. Not only that, it flags the overuse or under use of a particular keyword, just so that you can use it right.

Rich content like FAQs, structured snippets, knowledge panels, local packs are a great addition to your existing kitty of blogs and other relevant content. Anything information or knowledge based content that adds value to the searchers are given ample footage by Google. So, we really do need to buckle up on the types of content we want to create, to be really search engine content optimised in the truest sense of the term. For a comprehensive list on the latest SEO checks and SEO strategies, give Metric Labs a shout out.

Why are SEO results not instant?

There is no direct answer to that question. It is all relative, really. The speed of SEO results will depend on the type of business you are, the product/service you sell and how competitive your industry is.

For instance a business that sells fish flavoured candies will face less competition than a bakery franchise which in turn will be upstaged by an enterprise work compliance services organisation.

Search Engine Optimisation results need a lot of patience to yield results. After the regular SEO checks on your website, you kind of have to assess your industry competitors for the same, and then improvise a link strategy, keyword/content strategy and so on so forth. Incorporating the finds and then building up your SEO efforts takes time.

Link building itself takes time. You wouldn’t want to get a lot of links at a time, since the surge can be viewed suspiciously by Google, which might result in a penalty. Also, it takes time to acquire high quality links, which is the advised practice in link building. Google takes its own time to acknowledge the efforts which in turn might affect your SERP rankings. All of these factors slowly build up to show results unlike other dynamic digital marketing services like online marketing, where you can expect a faster outcome.

Expectations from an SEO campaign is so much like investing in the stock market. Your returns are always determined in the long run.

How long should I be doing SEO for?

SEO results are always for the long term. It would be misleading to say otherwise. Once you have done the checks and implemented what’s required, your job doesn’t end there. SEO is an ongoing process that needs consistency and expertise. Google updates its algorithms frequently, with the core search updates going out 2-4 times a year. To be able to keep up and flex is what search engine optimisation is all about.

In terms of seeing results through SEO efforts, the minimum time frame is 6 months to 1 year. The results will be dependant on a few parameters, like content building, inbound links and competition.

Content building is something most brands take up, to remain visible and increase inflow of quality website traffic. Its a great way of weaving in your plum keywords in your website, that you want Google to rank you for. Spammy content is a surefire way to compromise your rankings. Creating your blog posts, keeping the latest topics and entities in mind, and weaving in keywords and links are surefire ways to get that cream of valuable traffic that brands desire. Google and other search engines likes that too. Refreshing content that adds value is the content building mantra. This, again, is an ongoing process. Publishing blogs frequently and regularly is recommended. So we see, Content SEO is for the long haul.

Competition volume is a key determinant for the speed of your SEO results. The more competitive the niche you are competing in, the longer it takes to get results. For instance, local SEO efforts might see results sooner than a brand implementing enterprise level SEO. We’ll see that there is a positive correlation between the keyword ranking difficulty and the competition in an industry, if we were to map it in a graph.

Link building is one of the key seo strategies. But there’s a catch. Links accrued within a very short time frame, or abruptly, might be viewed by Google as a black hat tactic and hence will penalise any brands indulging in such practices. Plus there’s the quality of links to consider. The best way to acquire links or create a links reserve is to build it over time, through quality domains. A desirable domain authority would be between 60-100, as per Moz. Link building is a long term process, after all.

So we see that SEO bears fruit slowly. Once we sow the seed, the factors discussed above work over time, to create a holistic SEO result.

How much does SEO cost in Australia?

SEO costs in Australia is highly dependant on the scale of the search engine optimisation you seek, the marketing budget, business goals and whether you are a business seeking local SEO or you are an enterprise based in Australia competing globally. Costs vary between local SEO and Enterprise SEO, as there is a clear demarcation between the two types of Search Engine Optimisation. It is important to understand the difference between the two, in order to measure the correct potential costs.

Local SEO is sought by a business seeking to augment their organic online presence, leads and sales and engagement with the local audience slash consumers. This will be mostly a local business with a physical or brick and mortar store, and just the local competition to contend with. Think small and medium sized businesses, when you think local SEO.

Enterprise SEO, on the other hand, will be applicable to organisations with both a local and global presence, with no constraints in geographical boundaries in industry competition. We are talking about businesses that have websites with 3000 plus pages. SEO can get tricky , as there will be many levels to the SEO check required here. There will be a huge number of keywords a business would seek ranking for, and the keywords will be segmented as per each product/service offered. The number of locations, you seek to compete with will also influence the costs. So you get the picture here.

Enterprise SEO has to be done at scale and involves much more work as compared to local SEO. Also, a great SEO service would offer a custom fit for the business, as no two businesses can be measured by the same parameters.

Generally, SEO packages fall between the range of $750 – $3000 per month. We are looking at hourly rates of $75-$200. Enterprise SEO will cost more, as there will be few factors like number of locations, size of enterprise, range of products & services etc. to be considered here.

What is Citation Enhancement in Local SEO?

Local Citations are employed to establish a data trail of reputation and credibility online for local business. A local citation is any online mention of the details such as the address or phone number for a local business.

Such citations can be found in many areas across the web and a diligent SEO Agency will also enhance these local citations local business directories, on websites and apps, and on social platforms.

Aside from a company’s name, address, and phone number (NAP), this can also include a hyperlink (valuable to enhance domain authority) as well as many other elements including:

Business categories
Hours of operation
Driving directions
Business description
Images
Videos
Payment forms accepted
Geo-coordinates
Reviews
Owner responses
Tagline
Links to social and other forms of media
Email addresses
Fax numbers
Alternate phone numbers
Attributes

Local citations matter primarily because the volume of citations influences overall rankings. As a search engine collects and tabulates the data about each business the accuracy and validity help further establish trustworthiness of the actual business. Inversely, if the data is inconsistent there will be a loss of trust. In this way customers also behave like search engines, it’s certainly less convincing when a business has numerous addresses, phone numbers and emails many of which may send a potential customer on a wild goose chase.

A detail orientated SEO Agency will work to:

Bolster a small/weak set of local citations
Correct inaccurate citations
Remove duplicate local business listings
Discover user or competitor edits to local business listings
Research to discover inaccurate dat·
Developer procedure to manage citations in the event of mergers/acquisitions, rebranding, business moves, changes of phone numbers, hours of operation, or other data.

How do I decide the best agency to hire for SEO?

There are a few factors to consider here. First off, have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve through your SEO efforts. Is it just performance ranking, or do you really want those sales rocketing through organic traffic? Second, be discerning about your marketing budget. Hire an agency that is aligned to both these requirements. If you are a small or medium sized business, you’d be seeking to compete at a smaller level with lesser budget than an enterprise level organisation. Be wary of anyone that would recommend spending more than your requirement. Ensure that the potential agency you desire to partner with is on the same page as you. Digital marketing agencies, offering SEO as a service , would also be offering a range of other marketing services that might complement the SEO efforts. Explore those as well and use that to your advantage. Look at their data based case studies, as numbers generally don’t tend to lie.

Entrepreneur has rightfully said, that the most diligent agencies would be too busy improving their client’s rankings, rather than their own. So don’t rely too much on Google results when hiring an agency. Sometimes, the word- of- mouth approach works great as well.

How is Metric Labs different from other SEO agencies ?

Metric Labs is a data motivated agency that relies on true insights to drive home analysis and results. We firmly believe numbers don’t lie and a transparent, no nonsense outlook is at the core of our agency. We simply don’t deliver fluff, as we refuse to believe in fluff. We are a diverse team of digital marketing minds keen on data and realistic results. Our in house SEO experts will educate you on the right SEO fit for your brand, whether local or enterprise and strategise campaigns accordingly. Getting it right on Google SERPs is tough. We understand that.

Performance SEO is not the only aim for us. Ranks do matter. At the end of the day, we understand that a business would love to be seen but also sell through Google. Revenue is the word.

That is where we come in. We analyse your business and understand your goals. It’s then when we craft the SEO package best suited to your needs. We custom fit the SEO campaigns to suit your brand and its related parameters. We take industry research seriously and work hard to give you the edge over others. If you like a great success story, we are happy to tell you one (or many), without bragging. No matter what the organisational structure is, there are many approaches to SEO in Australia.

Our enterprise SEO services are tailor made to your marketing goals. We also offer a range of other services that compliment our Sydney SEO agency services. Have a coffee with us or give us a yell, if you want to discuss SEO We are here to listen.

Why should I outsource SEO rather than doing it myself?

Simply because SEO needs consistent efforts and involves a lot of facets that requires expertise. A good Search Engine Optimisation Effort would include a meticulous website audit, that would assess your website architecture, keyword density, content, duplication and technical audits that involve a page load speed, crawler friendliness, semantics, code quality, links and so forth – all to make Google like you and push up your rankings. Not to forget, the the purpose of it all, the end aim, i.e. increasing brand visibility, leads or sales organically. Looking at extent of effort and the magnitude of the goals, A DIY SEO approach might definitely not be the best way to go.

Each foundational building block in SEO needs the skills, technical acumen and expertise that can’t be a job for a single individual, unless you are an SEO king. Then again, Enterprise SEO has complex layers that can only be handled at scale. Industry research is mandatory, the magnitude of which again rests on the level of competitiveness that exists internally within each industry. Organisational structure is also key to a custom SEO fit. There might not be one size fits all approach, generally applicable to online marketing, which forms a part of SEO.

A digital marketing agency, offering SEO as a service, has the resources required for a holistic SEO audit and implementation at enterprise scale. There are data analysts, developers PPC specialists, who can cater to the different brackets or pieces that SEO amounts to. For instance, cleaning up your code or technical flaws detected in an SEO audit is definitely a job of a developer.