Thanks to the plethora of free website-building tools out there, many businesses have taken their transition to the digital sphere into their own hands. After all, dedicating a bit of your own time and following a handy how-to guide is surely worth the extra coin you would otherwise spend on a professional service, right?

While creating your own website from a supplied template might seem simple enough, there’s not much point in even bothering if it’s not going to serve to bring in any revenue. This is where an SEO consultant comes in handy. Just as you would hire a professional camera crew to get an advertisement actually broadcast on television, an SEO consultant has the expertise to make sure your website is being seen by your target audiences. From a site’s face-value aspects to all those nitty-gritty technical crevices, an SEO consultant backed by a team of professionals has the knowledge to ensure you carve your mark in the online realm.

Still not convinced? Ask yourself any of the following questions:

Can your clients find you online? If your website isn’t coming up when you punch your business name into Google, then you know for sure you’re going to have some problems connecting with customers. Don’t fret – this doesn’t mean you need to overhaul your entire branding, you might just need a little nudge in the right direction. A professional SEO consultant can assess all aspects of your digital strategy, including on-site and off-site optimisation, to work out how to get your business appearing.

Are you popping up within the first three pages of Google when you search for main keywords? Think about how Google works – a user enters a few words or a question, then finds the most applicable response to click on. However, rarely do they delve any further than a couple of pages’ deep. If your website is tucked away on page 14 of Google, there’s a good chance your target market won’t stumble upon it and discover your abundant wealth of services on offer. An SEO consultant can strategise a campaign centred on competitive keywords relating to your goods and services, thereby getting you in front of your search market.

Has your website been penalised by Google? After the latest Penguin algorithm update, Google has further crunched down on black-hat SEO techniques (i.e. website practices that do not meet the search engine’s guidelines). This can range from anywhere between posting duplicate copy to throwing in dodgy links, and will ultimately result in certain pages been banned. SEO consultants know how to play by Google’s rules, and can rectify your situation to get you resurfacing on the search engine giant.

Is your website generating leads? These days, a website is often a business’s main sales funnel, designed to connect with potential consumers. Even if you are managing to attract high volumes of traffic, you want that traffic to eventually convert into sales leads. SEO can help detect and remove any obstacles that may be blocking your pathway to that highly-coveted conversion.

Can you make sense of the data displayed by Google Analytics? Perhaps you’ve gotten so far as to create your website, get it popping up on Google, and are even starting to build a healthy bank of online customers, but if you don’t understand all the behind-the-scenes data, then you may struggle to maintain your currently enviable position. Google Analytics is a core function of analysing what’s working and what’s not when it comes to all the little details of your website. While this nifty tool is conveniently free and publicly-accessible, it can be difficult to decipher if you’re not across the lingo. Furthermore, because Google is a constantly-evolving machine that sees waves of new competitors every day, no data remains stagnant. An SEO consultant can help explain all those numbers and graphs to you, giving you the utensils to monitor and tweak your campaign where needed.

If you happened to answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, or are simply starting your website from scratch and would like some professional guidance, get in contact with an SEO consultant at Webcentral today.