Bespoke SEO Company vs Off The Shelf Software

Modern technology – with its massive emphasis on connectivity and integration – provides “automated turnkey” solutions to just about anything these days, including SEO. But is automating SEO beneficial, or would a bespoke SEO company deliver better results? Let’s find out.

You can automate a vast amount of what you do as a business, from VAT returns to using robots to pick, pack and sort in your warehouse.

This is equally true in terms of your digital marketing; software exists that can be pulled “off the shelf” to make some traditional activities effortless. However, there can be a large or deeply significant gap between the twin aims of “effortless” and “effective”.

Just because something becomes easier as a company doesn’t necessarily mean it achieves all your business goals.

A great example of this is if you want more potential customers to find you online. Are automated Search Engine Optimisation tools a good idea? What works best, engaging an SEO agency or using off the shelf SEO software?

Where do you want to be in search results?

Solutions to the above question hinge on your company’s specific SEO goals, and where you currently reside in page rankings.

Let’s start with a quick reminder of what SEO is, and what it is capable of achieving.

At the end of 2018, there were 4.1 billion internet users in the world, most of whom use search engines. The biggest and most advanced search engine on the planet is, of course, Google, which logs over 40,000 search queries every second. Yes, every second! Which is the equivalent of 3.5 billion searches a day.

Another important fact is that more than 50% of website traffic comes from these “organic” searches. Which means half of your site visitors come from people using Google to suggest a product or service. (Paid for search activity such as Pay Per Click accounts of around 10% of website traffic by the way.)

(source: https://www.social4retail.com/how-people-search-the-internet-2018-infographic.html)

It’s statistics like this that show how commercially vital it is to get your website high up in search results. Think about your own search habits, and how often you scan results on a second page, let alone the third page and onwards!

How page rankings are calculated, and automated response

Google’s highly sophisticated algorithms (spider bots) are constantly crawling over 1.94 billion websites, measuring how high they “deserve” to be on search pages.

(source: https://www.websitehostingrating.com/internet-statistics-facts/)

SEO software can be adroit at adding things into your website that spider bots like to see. It can automate such things as keyword placement, making sure your company has sufficient long-tailed and short-tailed phrases for Google bots to see.

However, Google’s systems for ranking websites don’t just rely on positive aspects of your website.

There are many common practices that can have a negative impact on your SEO. This includes, for example, websites that are slow to load and unwieldy to navigate. Then there are the ultimate “search engine sins” – keyword stuffing and content repeated on more than one page, or on more than one website.

Both can be highly detrimental, and of course, are something off the shelf SEO software may or may not be able to identify.

2 important factors of SEO that off the shelf software can’t do

1. SEO and good quality content
2. Constantly moving goal posts

1. SEO and good quality content

Now comes the bit of SEO that many companies overlook or fail to fully appreciate; the value of good quality Content. Not only does the text on your website need to be “novel” to win favour with spider bots, but it also has to be genuinely interesting!

You can no longer simply place blocks of keywords on your website or use dull waffle to “spin” keywords around either.

This is certainly where a specialist SEO agency represents a good return on investment. They will create a content management strategy that has a significant impact on your page rankings.

2. Constantly moving goal posts

At this point, it could be that turnkey SEO solutions are starting to look a little inadequate, for where you want to appear in Searches. Yes, they will put the nuts and bolts in place, and make sure your SEO is functioning along the right lines.

You will need the services of a specialist SEO agency if you want to be at the top of searches, and for longer.

That last target is highly significant. Even being the first website mentioned, on the first page of search results, is not much value in sales terms if that only lasts 48 hours, before you plummet downwards.

A well-performing website that attracts a constant flow of relevant traffic, relies on consistently high page rankings within search engines, over months and years.

Readymade SEO solutions don’t have the versatility and sophistication to adapt quickly to changing priorities, in the way a team of SEO experts can.

Bespoke services will monitor the entire performance of your website in relation to SEO, making the adjustments, additions and amendments needed to bring your “A” game to SEO.

Something else to keep in mind is that Google is constantly changing and amending how it measures websites. Would off the shelf SEO software manage to respond to Google updates, or would it become obsolete the next time the goalposts move?

If you want real results, it’s time to bring in the humans!

In conclusion, the best SEO software can tick a lot of boxes and is substantially better than ignoring your page ranking.

However, if you want your customers to find you – unfailingly and consistently – no turnkey solution can ever match the insight and dexterity of Factory Pattern’s SEO experts!

Get a free SEO audit

If you want a free SEO audit done on your site, contact us today and we’ll give you the low-down on how you can bring in the right traffic to your site.