SEO Services: What are They, and What’s Included?

We are going to go ahead and assume that you all know that SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. These days, though, if you have a website that is serving an integral role in your business’ eCommerce success you had better have an equally solid understanding of the functioning of SEO. And especially with how in many ways it’s a make-or-break factor as it relates to having the stream of new customers that any business will both want and need. We’ll explain why that is with our entry here, but suffice to say SEO services for small businesses in Canada are absolutely huge.

Most Canadian web hosting providers are going to offer an eCommerce SEO service to their customers, and unless that site’s webmaster is super SEO-savvy it is a resource that you should be taking advantage of. And definitely if you are new to whatever business you’re in and are hoping to make inroads into a client base as quickly as possible. Often it is best if this aim can be undertaken with a local focus, and here at 4GoodHosting we are among a number of web hosting providers with affordable local SEO services in Canada.

We’ll get into the meat of this subject matter shortly here, but before we do we should offer the one warning that absolutely needs to be heeded if you’re a DIY-er who thinks they can improve the SEO of their website themselves. If you are considering trying this then you may well have sufficient knowledge of how to accomplish search engine optimization, but if you think it’s as simple as incorporating lots of the ‘right’ keywords you’re going to quickly find you have probably done more harm than good.

On / Off / Technical

SEO services are search engine optimization services offered by an agency, freelancer, or consultant, and working to optimize your site for search engine optimization so it becomes increasingly possible to gain more traffic - and thus revenue - from search. Most affordable SEO services for small businesses will include on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. From there depending on the extent of the service you’ve paid for you may also have them focusing on specific areas, like off-page SEO.

And it’s a smart move to invest in SEO services for nearly every eCommerce site, because 99% of the time the individual is NOT as knowledgeable about SEO as they might fancy themselves being. The benefits of an eCommerce SEO services are immense nearly all the time, and if your site is not coming back in SERPS (search engine results pages) on pages one or two, then you can be totally assured that you need the service just as much as many of your competitors do.

Investing in SEO services does provide a number of tangible benefits, although as you’d guess they are not ones that you should expect to see instantly. There may also be instances where a webmaster doesn’t have the time or inclination to put the time into optimizing a website’s SEO, and in any such case it’s a wise move to spend some money hiring an SEO professional in Canada. We won’t claim to the best of them, but we’re also just as capable of any when it comes to improving SEO for client websites.

Develop Strategies, Extensive Ones

The basics of SEO, including keyword research, content creation, and link building, aren’t especially complicated although the goalposts do tend to be moved from time to time as the search engine algorithms constantly reinvent themselves out of necessity. Let’s take keywords, for example, as they’ve always been seen as the most prominent contributing factor in SEO.

And they were just that for a long time, but every SEO expert will tell you that nowadays it’s not all about keywords to the same extent anymore. Look no further than how a 1-2% keyword density was an inflexible aspect of having good SEO. That’s not the case anymore, as the algorithm has evolved and is instead looking for a more natural and organic mix of keywords and then words / terms that are frequently seen in similar searches or content related to the subject matter.

Overall, services from an SEO agency help you put into place (and maintain) an SEO strategy that is conducive to the growth and profitability of your business, and based around the understanding that to an ever-greater extent your website is the means by which you garner new business and grow a client base. You can also count on them monitoring and submitting feedback on your organic search performance plus providing you with more time to focus on the projects that need your expertise.

Cost for SEO Services

We can’t recommend affordable SEO services for small businesses highly enough, but at the same time we realize that people’s definitions of affordable are going to vary. What fits suitably well into the budget one may not fit well at all for another. So how much do SEO services cost? That will depend on factors like the individual’s goals, timeliness they have for meeting them, scopes of projects, the size of the business and more.

The average for monthly SEO plans is upwards of $3000 CDN a month, and may be higher depending on all that you are asking the SEO professional to do.

Types of SEO Services

If you are operating a type of business where the nature of what you do means most of your clientele will be living nearby to you then Affordable local SEO services in Canada are going to be at the top of your priority list because the approach taken for this SEO is markedly different. We won’t get into the specifics of just one type of SEO here, but with local SEO it is all about optimizing your website and local listings for local searches.

Next up will be eCommerce SEO services, and the approach to SEO here it totally different as the focus in optimizing the website for online shopping. And be aware that the path you take with your SEO doesn’t mean it’s the one you continue you on for the long foreseeable future. For example, if your eCommerce site has a lot of people conducting voice searches then you may alter your course to be more focused on Voie SEO services so that your website is optimized for voice searches.

Dissatisfied with your SEO? That’s certainly possible, and as is the case with anything it takes time to build whatever it is into whatever you want it to be. If your dissatisfaction continues it may be a good idea to have SEO audit services to identify what site shortcomings are hurting your SEO. However, for the vast majority of small to mid-sized ecommerce sites a traditional SEO plan is quite likely to provide the results they are looking for – namely higher rankings in SERPs.

Focus-Specific Options

There will be times that search engine optimization services will focus on specific areas of SEO, and this usually happens when a site owners has been hiring the services of an SEO website professional for some time already. If any particular part of the infrastructure is deemed to be the failing point causing decreased SEO rankings then it may be best to switch lanes and focus on that one point with more exclusivity.

There are 3 main types of focus-specific approaches to SEO that you will see in relation to affordable SEO services for small businesses:

1. On-page SEO – focusing on optimizations for the website, and most commonly with title tags, content, and more
2. Off-page SEO – focusing on optimizations based on the nature and orientation of your online presence, and specifically with choices of website’s backlinks
3. Technical SEO – focusing on optimizations that are determined by the website’s backend, with standard focuses on page speed, site architecture, and more

It’s important that you understand that all 3 of these must be in place and working in unison in order to achieve maximum search engine optimization, and that’s why it is uncommon for companies to invest in these individual services. Most will choose full-service SEO plans, which include on-page, off-page, and technical SEO, and they do so because these plans deliver all-in-one solutions to search engine optimization.

Ranking Factors

Your SEO plan will determine the ranking factors targeted by the SEO services provider you choose to go with. A full-service plan will optimize for on-page, off-page, and technical SEO, while an off-page SEO plan will optimize for off-page SEO. Be aware that search engines like Google use more than 200 ranking factors, and among the ones that are the most prominent in how sites are evaluated and then ranked for SERPS are your backlink profile, your content, and what’s seen to be user experience for your site.

Your backlink profile will be focusing on the quality and quantity of external sites that have outbound links going to your site. Content will be evaluated with regards to keyword targeting, keyword integration, content usefulness, and more. As for users experience factors, the biggest ones are what they’ve enjoyed with page speed, usability, and the site’s overall mobile friendliness (the way it displays for a mobile device as compared to a desktop one

Let’s no turn to move in the direction of discussing what types of expectations you can have when you start to work with a provider who is able to offer affordable local SEO services in Canada. It’s better for you to know which deliverables should be forthcoming as you start to work with your SEO pro in Canada.

A Custom Strategy

This strategy needs to become the core component of the definition of SEO services. When you have an approach personalized to your business, you can maximize your return on investment (ROI) from SEO. This should results in calls, orders, and visits to your company originating from a visit to your website. It is okay to be demanding and say this is something you want to see because many SEO companies - especially those promoting ‘discount’ SEO plans – will then proceed to offer cookie-cutter or copy-and-paste strategies.

What will happen here in most cases is that you will fail to appear on the first page of search results with these kinds of strategies, and that stands to handicap your business as research has indicated that only 25% of users go beyond the first page of search results.

Audiences are always different, and you will not benefit if you have the same SEO strategy as someone who’s business is entirely different from yours. Different websites are always going to required customized SEO strategies, and when we work with our customers we have this understanding front and center at all times.

Think about it this way: If you owned a medical practice, would you want to use the same SEO strategy as a retail store? Of course not! Your audience is different, and how you reach them through search (and bring them to your practice) is different too.

SEO audit

Every SEO company’s services should have an SEO audit to have an in-depth look at current strategies plus getting an idea of current SEO performance and issues that may be preventing your site from ranking the way you’d assume it would. Affordable SEO services for small businesses will always be appealing to cost-sensitive webmasters, but many times you’ll be back at or near square one if you don’t have the ability to have an SEO audit conducted as part of your services.

Yes, there are free SEO audit tools you can use but often they don’t provide the same degree of insight that you would receive from experienced SEO specialists. A missing SEO audit may suggest you don’t see the need for a custom strategy for your business either.

Off-page optimization

When you invest in SEO services, your eCommerce SEO services package should include off-page optimization. In SEO, off-page optimization involves optimizing factors outside your website that may be factoring into the strength or weakness of your site’s ranking in SERP pages. Consider as well how a backlink profile can shape your ranking in search results, especially with how good service and / or products can an immediate and powerful means of benefitting from backlinks when others see you and your business favorably.

Most SEO companies will provide the following for off-page SEO:

1. Promotion of your website content to bloggers and webmasters
2. Development of shareable content for your site’s blog
3. Monitoring your company’s mentions across social media by users and influencers
4. Optimization of your Google My Business profile

If you’re inclined you can ask any affordable SEO services for small businesses provider about what their SEO marketing services include, along with anything you want to know about specific deliverables. This makes you more capable of making an informed decisions.

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is also an integral component of SEO services. On-Page optimization involves focusing on optimizing the features of your website for search engines like Google.

Standard on-page deliverables:

1. Updated title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags for Search
2. Audit of your website’s information architecture, redirects, and internal linking structure
3. Creation of a sitemap
4. Optimization of your site images according to best practices
5. Researching and optimizing your website with valuable and relevant keywords
6. Production of new, SEO-friendly content for your site
7. Analysis of the usability, speed, and design of your site

In most cases, on-page optimization makes up a significant portion of your SEO package. That’s why if an SEO company doesn’t offer on-page SEO, they aren’t providing search engine optimization services, which means your team needs to find another agency.

Ongoing Optimization

SEO strategy is ongoing and evolving at all times, explaining why the definition of SEO services will involve emphasizing the partnership that your business forms with your SEO agency. Alternately, SEO consulting services focus on short-term assistance, like with a website redesign project for example. The best SEO pros in Canada will have you collaborating with them constantly, and especially as you start to see gains from your improved search engine visibility and increased revenue from search.

Their services include progressive (continuous) optimization as well, as it fosters ongoing and constant improvements to your site’s SEO. Even after your site meets SEO standards, they persist in finding ways to improve and enhance your SEO strategy, resulting in more earned traffic, leads, and sales from SEO.

This discovery will often the lead into new content, which may then create links between bloggers and webmasters in your industry. No matter how advanced or successful your SEO strategy becomes, an eCommerce SEO service can likely make it that much better.

Monthly Reports

You won’t need to be reminded that it’s important to track progress and measure your results, and seeing both those positively goes a long way in seeing affordable local SEO services in Canada as something you can trust in and be assured that it is increasing the visibility of your business online.

This is why SEO reports are important, as with them your business can receive immediate insight into the results of your SEO strategy.

Common focuses here are on:

1. Organic traffic
2. Leads generated
3. Sales generated
4. Rankings

And more

A small amount of time with your dedicated account manager each month may be a good idea too. Routine meetings help you and your team stay on the same page as your SEO agency.

ROI Tracking

Return-on-investment tracking is something you probably already do with other expenditure points when it comes to running your business. It can be a part of how you evaluate your SEO services too. Google Analytics can support ecommerce businesses, but lead-based businesses will require a better ROI tracking solution.

An SEO service provider that includes return on investment tracking is always going to be best. And here’s what you should be looking at:

1. Number of leads generated from SEO
2. Number of sales closed from SEO
3. Total sale value from SEO-generated leads
4. Average sale value from SEO-generated leads

1st-party Data Activation

Search engine optimization is a fantastic way to generate first-party data, which is a powerful tool for ad campaigns, email marketing initiatives, and other digital marketing strategies. SEO packages from the top providers almost always include 1st-party data activation, and you can look to verify they include

1. A customer data platform (CDP)
2. Personalization platform
3. Landing page builder
4. Email marketing software

Tools like these ones make re-purposing SEO-generated data for other marketing initiatives possible, and there’s a lot to like about doing that. For your company, that means reaching users at the right time with the right message, whether in their inbox, browsing their favorite site, or re-visiting your website to learn more.

Choosing an SEO service provider can take months, but if you invest the time you can find one you’ll partner with for years and to that end we’re going to conclude this blog entry here by providing a top-10 list of what you should be aiming to have with a website SEO improvement provider.

10 Tips for Choosing SEO Plans

1. Determine your budget, requirements, and goals
2. Request references from your network
3. Search online to find potential SEO companies
4. Review the agencies’ reviews and case studies
5. Check each agency’s SEO deliverables
6. Meet with prospectives to learn about their process, specializations, and capabilities
7. Ask for custom pricing plus if they can provide a list of deliverables
8. Check for any fine print, like for additional charges or fees
9. Inquire about timeframes and what resources the agency will require from your team
10. Gain an understanding of how the SEO service provider measures success

Paying for SEO Services – Is It Worth It?

Everyone’s budget will be different, and in instances where some have less to spend o website SEO improvement those people will have more long and hard thinking to do about whether paying for and SEO audit and then site revamping is going to be worth what they’ll have to pay for it.

This is really going to depend on the individual or group, but we can start by providing a ballpark figure to work with; if you can’t spend more than $500 on your SEO per month then you may be pricing yourself out of the better SEO providers and questioning whether or not it’s worth it then becomes a very real question.

Department resources will factor into this too, and If your organization doesn’t have the resources — time, tools, or skills — to work on SEO, then it makes paying high prices for SEO optimization to be a much more palatable option. Especially if your site serves to facilitate sales more than anything else.

AOV is average order value, and this can be a part of it too. Those who have a lower average order value will often struggle to see a return on investment from SEO packages. That’s because your SEO agency will need to drive hundreds of monthly sales to deliver ROI. Affordable local SEO services in Canada are always going to be available to people based on how pivotal websites are to online sales and serving as the virtual storefront where those sales occur and contribute to the profitability – and viability – of an online business.