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What is SEO and Can It Help My Google Ads Campaign?

Article — “What the heck is SEO?” This is one of the most common questions that we’re asked here at Spicy Web. You could be forgiven for thinking that SEO actually is a dirty word. Our Head of SEO Jase Porter explains.

Posted by
08.05.2022
Spicy web melbourne digital agency seo

The problem is that our industry has built itself a meaty reputation when it comes to underdelivering, and even struggling to effectively define what exactly Search Engine Optimisation is. Bamboozle with bullshit seems to be the norm, so it’s no wonder everyone is just a little bruised when they hear the term SEO. I’m going to try to break down the stigma and simplify the definition of SEO for everyone.

What the heck is SEO?

"SEO stands for 'search engine optimisation.' In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other search engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business." - searchengineland.com

There is no point in having a website that (visually) will blow your customer’s socks off if Google can’t find it, crawl it or read it. Your website has to be crawlable (think a spider crawling the web)... and it has to render real quick to rank on Google’s first page. Page speed is vital, technically known as Core Web Vitals.

This means your site needs to be technically sound, and contain content that is relevant to your target market’s search terms.

Think of your website as the biggest advertisement that your business will ever have, in the biggest newspaper to ever exist, with all your biggest competitors ready to chew you up.

If your business relies on lead generation or sales from your website, you’ve got to be able to muscle up and hustle your way to the first page.

If you get the formula right and approach your digital presence with a holistic viewpoint, you’ll have the best chance of success.

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Can SEO help my Google Ads Campaign?

SEO & Google Ads go hand in hand. If you are driving paid traffic to a page that is indexed by Google you may be able to further optimise how many times Google displays your Google Ad and optimise your Google Ad top-of-page rate by carefully optimising your page with technical SEO. Google's mission statement in 2022 is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

You need to make sure your information is universally accessible to Google bots. Ensuring your website is technically optimised for the keywords that are triggering your Google Ad, will effectively result in higher ad rotation, clicks and conversions. We have tried and tested this technique for over 150 Google Ads accounts with positive results.

Our top five must-do’s to improve your SEO

We believe that every business can benefit from a well-defined, well-implemented, and frequently optimised SEO strategy. Here are our top five must-dos when considering whether your website is nailing the brief when it comes to effective Search Engine Optimisation.

  1. Site Speed
    Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check the performance of your website. The higher the rating, the better the ranking!

  2. Relevant Content
    Review your website’s content to ensure that it is relevant, compelling, and non-repetitive. Repeated or reused content is what we call Duplicate Content. Google hates it and may penalise your website if it picks it up.

  3. SEO Title Tags
    Make sure your title tags are unique and no more than 580 characters long. They should be relevant to your page content and include the keywords that you are targeting.

  4. High Quality Backlinks
    Backlinks are links from other websites to your own. Google considers backlinks to be “votes” for your website and its content.

  5. User Experience
    Make sure the User Experience is easy and logical, and that it encourages your users to take actions (whether that be purchasing a product or making content through an enquiry form) with intent.

The bonus of all this hard work? If your website is well setup for SEO, Google Ads will love it even more, too! Investment in SEO will also see your paid Search Engine Marketing flourish.

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Do you know where your site is currently ranked?

Analyse your site here to check the following;

  • Domain Authority (score out of 100 — the higher the better)

  • How many domains link to your website, and the quality of these Backlinks

  • What Search Terms your site ranks for, and the pages they are ranking on

  • Your Spam Score to review whether Google thinks that your site is spam. A good score is 1%. Anything higher than this is bad. Speak to an SEO expert about fixing this.


In a nutshell, no, SEO is not a dirty word. It’s just a little bit misunderstood.

There are literally hundreds of techniques that you can employ to optimise your site for effective search rankings. Our approach is to demystify the process with transparency and collaboration.

Spicy Web conducts a 40-Point Technical SEO Audit for all clients to ensure that the fundamentals are considered and optimised for success.

Keen to learn more? Let’s chat about how our Melbourne search engine optimisation team can help you to rise up in search and outrank your competition.