International SEO Case Study –

We have a client in  Canada named Locksley. He owns a security company that installs security cameras, alarm systems, and other digital recording devices. He had someone build a website for him a few years ago, but the website was very “90’s” looking and it didn’t have any call to actions on the home page. Locksley contacted me to help him build a new website with a landing page that had a call to action on the home page. I understood what he wanted, and I also know that’s important to have the call to action above the fold so people don’t even have to scroll the website. This is called is “above the fold.”

Content that’s above the fold is not only important for laptops, but it’s also important for mobile phones and tablets. The way I usually approach a project like this is to build the new website on a sub domain so the clients current website is still live and fully functional.

SEO & Web Hosting

We ran into a problem because the client had someone else host his website. If you’re not in charge of your own hosting account, then you’re not in control of your website. It’s always a bad idea to let someone else host your website on their own hosting because if something happens to that person, or if they get mad with you, you could lose your website and your domain name. If you don’t own the hosting account that hosts your website, your website and your domain name technically belongs to the other person. So make sure that if you decide to start a website that you always buy your own hosting. If you need help with your hosting account or you want somebody else to manage it, then just add the said person as a manager on your account.

Adding a manager to your hosting account will enable the manager to call the hosting company on your behalf, or make changes to your website. Remember, just give your web-designer administrative access instead of giving them complete control over your entire online business. Anyway, I had my client, Locksley, create his own hosting account because it was easier to build a new website on a new domain name than network with the guy who was in charge of his hosting and domain. Since it was a new hosting account, we were able to get the managed WordPress hosting, which is faster, and he also was approved for a free domain name.

New Domain Name & Face-lift

We used the free domain credit to get a domain name that also included his keyword because this will help him rank better for his keywords over time. His previous domain name was locksleyltd.ca and now its LocksleySecuritySystems.ca. I set up a 301 redirect so his old domain and permalinks redirect to his new domain.

We added features to his new website that made it more modern than his previous website. I added a slider that includes security cameras, and I also added a basic “call to action” on the homepage and a button for people can click on to immediately get a quote. For people that’ll view his website on mobile devices, I made sure that the most important content was readily available so people wouldn’t have to scroll too far down the website. Actually, if they barely scroll down just a tiny bit, they will see the button where they can request a quote. I also added a click-to-call link that can be seen immediately. If people click on the phone number, they’ll be prompted to call Locksley for a security systems quote.

On my clients previous website, the only way to contact him was to find his contact page. The problem was that his previous website was not mobile friendly, so it was impossible to navigate his menu to even get to the contact page. As you know, most people use mobile phones to browse the internet so you have to make sure that your website is mobile friendly and people can find your most important information and without even scrolling if possible.

A lot of people are very lazy which is why some people use their mobile phone to search the internet. Everyone always has their mobile phones in their hand, but their laptop computer might be in another room. Some people think it’s easier or faster just to look up information on their phone vs getting their computer (which isn’t true, but it doesn’t matter because people do it.) So you have to make sure your website is optimized for mobile users too or you could be losing a lot of business.

The easy way around the “mobile website” issue is to find a WordPress theme that is already mobile responsive.  This will save you a lot of money in terms of changing your current website into a mobile responsive theme. It’s better to edit a responsive WordPress theme compared to building a completely new mobile theme from scratch. Most people that go to websites are only looking for information or the contact info so they can purchase whatever product you’re selling. SEO is not only about getting to the first page of Google. SEO it’s also about making sure your website is optimized for your users. You want to make it very easy for people to navigate your website to find what they are looking for.

Call-To-Actions

Whatever task you want your potential clients to perform, you want to put that right in front of their face. So if you want new customers to call you, then you need to have your phone number in big numbers above the fold and clickable if possible so the person can call you right away. If you want a potential client to contact you through your contact form, then you need to have a button that’s telling them to contact you right away and link that button to your contact form. If you want potential customers to find your address, you should have your contact information including your address right on the homepage so they can find it easily.

For anyone that wants to browse your website and read through all the pages, they’ll be able to do that too. But for everyone else that’s super lazy, you want to give them all the information right away so you don’t lose those clients. I’m going to write another article soon about some of my other clients as well. This will give you an idea of some of the work that we’ve done. Locksley Ltd is already on page #1 of Google for his target keywords in his city.

SEO & Domain Name Extensions

It’s also important to note that Canadians use Google.ca; that’s why it’s important to optimize for cities and use the correct extensions for your domain names. If you’re a local business in Canada, then use the .ca extension. If you’re a local business is in the United Kingdom, then use the co.uk or .uk extension. If you use the .com extension when you’re a local business in another country; you’re creating unnecessary competition. You can still buy the .com extension for branding purposes, but build your main website using the correct extension. When your website is complete, you can forward forward the .com extension to your main website.