Chicago’s Top
SEO Agency Partner

Short for “Search Engine Optimization”, SEO is the practice of optimizing a website so that it appears at the top of search engines like Google and Bing for relevant keywords.

Because search engines try to answer user queries with the most relevant and authoritative websites possible, the goal of SEO is twofold: Make your site more authoritative in the “eyes” of a search engine’s algorithm and rank at the top of search engines for the relevant keywords or phrases that your customers use when searching for information about your business, product, or service.

DAP employs leading SEO strategies that not only enhance the technical foundation of your site for search, but provide your readers with meaningful, relevant content that establishes your company as an authority in its field. Learn more about SEO, and our SEO services, below.

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SEO: Digital Marketers vs. The Search Engines

Search engine optimization is almost as old as search engines themselves. Google’s revolutionary approach to search was to rank websites based on “backlinks” — links to the website in question from other websites.

The core logic was sound — if many websites linked to another site, these could be interpreted as “votes” for the relevance and authority of that site. Why link to a site if you thought it was garbage?

This worked–to a point. But when early SEO pioneers discovered this fact, the inevitable happened. People built dozens of junk websites with links pointing at sites they wanted to rank. They blanketed blogs, forums, and other sources of user-generated content with links to their sites. They flat out bought links from other sites.

Backlinks were how the early Google algorithm (and later copycats) determined a site’s authority. But what about relevance? That was determined by keywords.

Again, the pioneers of SEO rushed to exploit this crude system by filling websites with huge blocks of content that were nothing but the keyword. Content was keyword-littered gibberish — maybe good enough to fool a search engine, but useless to the user.

Since the entire business model of a search engine hinges on returning search results that are useful to the user, Google and its brethren were quick to “slap” this behavior down. Updates to the Google ranking algorithm, with names like “Penguin” and “Panda,” closed loophole after loophole, learning how to identify attempts to game the system.

SEO Chicago
Frequently Asked Questions

Yes.

SEO is one of the most powerful forms of digital marketing, because it builds brand authority. People trust the top organic search engine results. Search engines are constantly refining their algorithms to accurately pick the most relevant and authoritative websites to return on SERPs. Successful SEO effectively and accurately conveys relevance and authority to your brand.

ROI will vary, but SEO is the best bang for your digital marketing buck over the long term. The benefits of SEO also compound. The more your SEO strategy picks up steam, the easier it is to maintain and even expand your ranking, making it almost impossible for your competitors to outrank you.

Local-only SEO campaigns range between $4,000 – $13,000 per month, depending on the market and the niche.

National or international SEO campaigns start at about $6,000 and up — and the ROI is more than worth it.

Unlike search engine marketing (SEM), the ROI of SEO typically does not manifest instantly.

Building authority and relevance takes time. It could be between six and twelve months before an SEO strategy begins to have a positive impact on your bottom line.

However, we aren’t flying blind. Many KPIs will tell you very early on if your SEO strategy is working and on track for a tipping point where it starts to boost your revenue. DAP uses industry-leading analytics and helps you set parameters for KPIs so you can be sure from right out of the gate that your SEO strategy is producing results.

An obvious indicator of effective SEO is an increase in organic traffic.

This is the number of people that visit your site by clicking on organic search results. You can actually track this number separately from paid-search traffic and other sources of traffic.

If your website is optimized to convert, an increase in conversions, sales, and revenue could also be a prime indicator that the SEO strategy is working. You may not see an increase in traffic until your rankings for your top keywords have been significantly boosted–but we track your keywords as they rise through the ranks, even before the improved ranking substantially impacts your traffic and revenue.

  • Account Manager
  • SEO Manager
  • Content Strategist
  • Chief Editor
  • Writer
  • Content & SEO Project Manager
  • Marketing Analyst
  • Developer (for technical SEO fixes)

We can usually kick off your SEO campaign between 1-2 weeks after the signing of the SOW.