SEO has officially been around since 1997, though it’s not until well into the 2000’s that large businesses caught onto the power of search engines and started utilising them as part of their marketing strategy.
Over the past few years, many Australian small businesses have been utilising search engines to gain exposure. Some choose to go the paid route and run Google Ads campaigns, while others prefer the long-term game and decide that SEO is right for them.
Both of these methods revolve around keywords. Every day, millions of searches are performed by users looking for information, goods and services. In fact, there are probably hundreds of searches performed on a monthly basis that are related to a product you sell.
Naturally, the higher up you are on Google the more likely users are likely to click through on your link and visit your website. So, how do you find out where you’re at? There’s a whole world of paid tools out there, but why pay when you can get exactly the same thing for free?
Keywords
Let’s begin with, what kind of queries can people enter in search engines that are related to you. This falls into three broad categories. They are as follows:
- Information i.e. questions such as “why is SEO important?”
- Goods and Services i.e. “pool services”
- Local businesses i.e. “dentists near me” or “dentists in Sydney”
If you’re wondering how people might search for products that you offer then try to think about how you would search for a good or service.
Let’s say you’re looking for a plumber in your local area i.e. Parramatta. You could easily find a local plumber by typing “plumbers Parramatta” into Google.
How about if you’re looking for a product? Just type in the product name i.e. “mountain bike” or “GoPro Hero 7”.
What if you require information? For example, if you’re looking to purchase an investment property and want to know what the best suburbs to invest in are. Simply type in “best suburbs for property investment in Sydney”.
Overall, search queries are completely logical, as they’re performed by humans. For our business, people will type “responsive web design Sydney” or perhaps “SEO services Parramatta” into Google.
How to check your Google ranking for free
The guys over at SERP Checker have (thank god) created a free way for all of to do this with an easy-to-use interface.
We’ve left a link at the end of this article that will take you directly to their tool. Once you’re there, follow these steps:
- Select your region
- Enter the URL of your homepage
- Un-check the “use URL” box
- Enter your keywords
SERP Robot will then spit out where your website is currently at. Here’s quick guide to how you should interpret your results:
- Position 1 to 10: This is great! You’re on the first page of Google.
- Position 11 to 99: You’re being tracked by Google, but most people can’t see your website. Your website needs optimisation improvements.
- Not found in top 100: Your website needs major optimisation work and you’re not on Google’s radar.
If you don’t like the results that you see via SERP Robot then feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how you can improve your search ranking. To check where you’re currently at though, click the button below.
