Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing technique that involves optimizing websites and web pages to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for targeted keywords. SEO has become a crucial part of digital marketing, as it helps businesses to increase their online visibility, drive more traffic to their websites, and generate leads and sales.
Sri Lanka has been experiencing significant growth in the digital marketing industry over the past few years. Many businesses in Sri Lanka have recognized the importance of SEO in improving their online presence, and as a result, there has been a high demand for SEO services in Sri Lanka. In this article, we will discuss the importance of SEO in Sri Lanka, the benefits of SEO services, and the role of SEO experts and specialists in Sri Lanka.
Consult an experienced and expert Sri Lankan SEO Specialist to audit your website & analyze for common SEO issues for FREE (Yes, at no cost).
Importance of SEO in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has a rapidly growing economy, and many businesses are looking to expand their customer base and reach new markets. With the increasing use of the internet and the widespread availability of smartphones, consumers are now searching for products and services online. Therefore, having a strong online presence has become critical for businesses to succeed in Sri Lanka.
SEO plays a crucial role in helping businesses to increase their online visibility and attract more customers. By optimizing their websites for search engines, businesses can rank higher in SERPs and be more easily found by potential customers. This can lead to increased website traffic, more leads and sales, and improved brand awareness and credibility.
Moreover, SEO can help businesses to target specific audiences by optimizing their websites for relevant keywords. For example, a business selling luxury watches in Colombo can optimize its website for keywords such as “luxury watches in Colombo” or “high-end watches in Sri Lanka.” By doing so, the business can attract more targeted traffic to its website and increase its chances of converting visitors into customers.
Benefits of SEO services in Sri Lanka
SEO services can provide many benefits to businesses in Sri Lanka. Some of the key benefits of SEO services are:
- Increased online visibility: SEO can help businesses to rank higher in SERPs, making them more visible to potential customers who are searching for products or services related to their business.
- More website traffic: By increasing their online visibility, businesses can attract more website traffic, which can lead to more leads, sales, and revenue.
- Improved user experience: SEO involves optimizing websites for both search engines and users, which can lead to a better user experience for visitors to the website.
- Competitive advantage: Businesses that invest in SEO can gain a competitive advantage over their competitors who are not investing in SEO.
- Cost-effective: SEO can be a cost-effective marketing strategy, as it can provide long-term benefits without requiring a significant investment in advertising or other forms of marketing.
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SEO Expert in Sri Lanka
An SEO expert is a professional who specializes in optimizing websites for search engines. SEO experts have a deep understanding of how search engines work and can help businesses to improve their online visibility, attract more traffic to their websites, and generate leads and sales.
In Sri Lanka, there are many SEO experts who can provide high-quality SEO services to businesses. These experts have a strong understanding of the local market and can help businesses to target specific audiences and achieve their marketing goals.
However there are only a few experts with more than a decade of SEO experience and exposure.
SEO experts in Sri Lanka can provide a wide range of services, including:
- Keyword research: SEO experts can help businesses to identify relevant keywords that can be targeted to improve their online visibility.
- On-page optimization: SEO experts can optimize the content and structure of a website to make it more search engine-friendly and improve its rankings in SERPs.
- Off-page optimization: SEO experts can help businesses to build high-quality backlinks to their website, which can improve their rankings and increase their online visibility.
If you need SEO services in Sri Lanka Call or WhatsApp me or fill up the simple contact me form and submit.
Latest updates on SEO
September 25, 2014Search Engine Optimisation / search engine optimization / SEOIf effective SEO is a concern of yours (and it should be!) there are many things to avoid when building a website, many of which will have a very serious impact on whether someone can ever find your site using a search engine. Some of these are simple fixes, and some not so simple.
Boy… where do I start! There are so many… hmmmm… Here goes, and be advised that these are not in definitive order.
1. Not having sufficient on page content. This is amazingly common. The causes could be a variety of things. Pages built in Flash, text buried in graphics or design that doesn’t allow for the use of many words. But, the effect is the same. Google needs to find the words on the page in order to assign relevance to your website when compiling the search results. While lack of content can potentially be offset through other means, for the most part, you have to show Google and your customers what you are all about. And that means words.
2. Not developing a website with SEO in mind. Jeez, I wish I had a buck for every website owner that came to me for SEO services for their brand new, swanky website after it had already been built with a host of problems. Potential problems are many and varied, from having insufficient text (as in the above), excessive and clunky coding which hampers indexing, excessive java script, or poorly designed pages with high bounce rates, etc. I even saw a site once that was built in such a way that you couldn’t implement H Tags! The truth is, many programmers/developers just don’t know the requirements of the search engines.
3. Inappropriate use of keywords. Keyword selection is really where you separate the wheat from the chaff. It is crucial more now than ever before that you select the keywords that accurately describe you and have the potential to lead to a high conversion rate.
Essentially this is because of two overall factors:
I. the SEO landscape is starting to get pretty crowded out there. Unless you have a super powerful website, it is very difficult to compete for a wide range of keywords. You are better off focusing your energy on those that will give you the best shot at highly targeted traffic.
II. Google is now looking at how effective your site is at retaining search traffic. If you start attracting unfocused visitors who immediately bounce away, Google will start to drop you down the SERPs. Google likes happy searchers… 😉
4. Not devoting enough (or any) attention to linking. As has been the case for a long time now, Google looks at how interconnected you are with a community of similar websites. It uses this to guage how “legitimate” and valuable your site is… figuring that if many similar websites are linking with you, you must be good. Though this has been the case for a long time, it is shocking how many websites devote little attention to this. And, given Google’s recent changes, this is even more important than ever.
5. Lastly, only doing part of the job. Google looks at a huge array of factors when positioning a website in its SERPs. optimisation means looking at as many of these factors as possible, and making the changes required. I’ve seen countless “SEOed” sites that only went part of the way. Good content, but no links… good Page Titles, but no supporting content… matching Titles and content, but crappy keyword selection… and the list goes on. These days, if you only do half a job you may as well kiss your investment goodbye.
So… like I said, these SEO mistakes aren’t in any particular order, but addressing them is crucial to success. Oh yeah… and one more thing: do yourself a favour and consult an expert 😉 [...]
April 2, 2018AdSense / GoogleDid you get a red alert on your Google Adsense account which says “Earnings at risk – One or more of your ads.txt files doesn’t contain your AdSense publisher ID. Fix this now to avoid severe impact to your revenue.”
As most of us in Sri Lanka also use AdSense on various interesting blogs and website’s it’s import to make sure the revenue is not impacted.
You’re having a “Publisher ID missing from ads.txt files” issue which is an easy fix.
All you need is to declare who is authorized to sell your inventory with ads.txt
Here’s how to fix it
Create your own ads.txt file for AdSense
Here’s how to create an ads.txt file to publicly declare that Google is authorized to sell your ad inventory:
Create a text (.txt) file.
Include the following line:
google.com, pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
Important: Make sure you replace pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your own publisher ID.
Host your ads.txt on your root domain (for example, https://farhanonline.com/ads.txt).
Here, “root domain” is defined as one level down from the public suffix list. For example, “srilanka.com” would be considered a root domain as “.com” is on the public suffix list but “seo.srilanka.com” would not be considered a root domain. [...]
March 14, 2014Social MediaSocial media marketing is a new way of reaching out to old customers, building business relationships and winning new business. The approach has come in handy for home-based small businesses and start-ups whose owners have no office equipment other than a notebook.
Inadequate experience and weak financial muscle to hire marketers among business start-ups has added to the rising popularity of social media marketing. Business websites and social media including facebook, twitter and blogs are some of the channels that young entrepreneurs are embracing in marketing their products.
Social media marketing is the process of marketing through social media sites like twitter, facebook and youtube.
Social media marketing is dissipating as many ceo’s and senior management have started to embrace the power of the social networks. Google+ launched and reaches a user base of over 50 million by the end of 2011.
Social media marketing is a great way to drive repeat business and attract new customers.
Social media marketing is the practice of using social media networks and user-generated content platforms to promote a business, product or service. Social media marketing typically involves participating in conversations with a key audience instead of blatantly throwing out a sales pitch to a large number of people. Social media marketing also includes creating and promoting content that is meant to be shared by users.
The viral and personal nature of social media makes it an effective channel for product advertising, reputation management or corporate branding.
Social media marketing is becoming more and more challenging, based on the complexities involved with the tools, platforms, content, resources, and management involved.
Social media marketing is the biggest thing to happen to the world of business communications since televisions arrived in every home. The increasing popularity of social networking sites has provided an effective way for businesses to communicate directly with existing and potential customers all around the world, and companies both big and small are taking
Facebook is now officially the most often visited website in the world. With this in mind there is no way that this phenomenon, and other sites like it, can be ignored by businesses. By not having a business presence in these areas it means that you could be missing out on lots of highly-targeted, potential customers. [...]
February 6, 2015Search Engine Optimisation / SEOSo, last week I was approached by a prospect (now new client) that had been working with another SEO company to improve their website’s rankings. The strategy they were employing was to purchase multiple keyword loaded domain names and deploy them as landing pages in the hopes of attracting traffic to those pages based on the keywords contained in the URLs. Thus far, the client has never seen any benefit from this whatsoever.
Now… this was a strategy employed some years ago with fairly high success (at least in terms of attracting eyeballs). However, as I explained to my new client, this strategy is very, very old school. Here’s why…
Begin first of all by thinking about what Google is trying to accomplish through its search rankings. The answer is simple: it wants to provide the best, most satisfying results to the searcher so that the searcher will continue to use Google as their search engine of choice, thereby ensuring its continued dominance of the Internet. Obvious…
Now, ask yourself how Google makes the determination of what searchers are going to like in terms of search results. The answer to this should also be somewhat obvious: really good websites! So, when Google is looking at and figuring out where to rank websites it is essentially analyzing them on the basis of usefulness to the searcher based on the keyword(s) they just searched for.
So, what do you think makes a website valuable to you? Well, obviously a site that reflects the keywords you just searched for in terms of the words on the page, the topic the content is about. But, beyond that, what else? How about videos also tagged with those keywords. Or a blog also full of that sort of content. What about podcasts? Or if it’s a retail site, a well designed and secure shopping cart system, with a secure payment system. What about good, simple navigation? And fast loading pages.
Getting the idea? Right. Google is becoming very sophisticated in its ability to analyze websites. And it is using these sophisticated algorithms to not just look at the text on a page, but also how valuable the site is to a user based on a wide variety of criteria. So, with this in mind, why does anyone think that Google would place high value on a single landing page that’s keyword loaded simply to try to attract search engines? Is there any value there? I think we all know the answer to that.
So… want to be in Google’s good books? Think like Google and start making great websites that people will love. [...]
December 10, 2017Mobile / Online Marketing / search engine optimization / SEO / Web DevelopmentLong gone are the days when people used to sit in front of their computers to find whatever they needed on the internet. Now, searches for shops, restaurants and hotels happen while users are on the move. A mobile website is the best way to make sure that you don’t miss out on this particularly lucrative audience. Here are 4 of the top reasons to consider when creating a mobile version of your website.
1. Mobile searches are continuing to increase
People are using mobile phones more and more for their searches. Most of the time, these searches are for the nearest restaurants or stores. Unless your website offers a mobile version, you will miss a large number of local searches with a greater chance of making sales. Even if you are not targeting a local audience, mobile searches are still valuable sources of traffic. According to recent studies, mobile audiences are expected to increase in the future.
2. Mobile websites are more appealing than apps
Apps are great, most people love them. However, when someone is in a rush to make a purchase or to find information about a product, the last thing they want to do is physically download an app. Needless to say, apps are more expensive as they have to be built for different platforms. In comparison, mobile websites are affordable and easily accessible to your audience.
3. Not all websites look their best on mobile phone screens
Unless you have a mobile version of your site, the font may be too small; users will have to scroll a lot to find what they need and also the pages would load slower. With a mobile website, the information is presented in a concise manner, thus eliminating the need to zoom or scroll. Since mobile websites are becoming more popular, there is a very high possibility of losing users due to your website not being optimized for mobile phones.
4. Websites that are mobile optimized have a better chance at higher ranks
Search engines are striving to provide websites that are relevant to what their users are seeking. In addition, they try hard to push the sites that offer easy navigation. As for mobile websites, the increased traffic from mobile users is a great way to give your website a ranking boost. [...]
November 6, 2012disavow links / seo toolsRecently SEO’s & website owners were devastated by the major updates by Google, targeting low quality links, poor content and excessive ads which threw some of the site rankings out of the window.
Then Google comes up with Disavow links tool to help remove bad links, used to notify Google about links to your site that you have tried removing by writing to webmasters but failed.
Now, your site has been hit by Penguin and you’ve lost your top traffic generating keywords ranking on Google. we’ve seen lots of SEO’s triying different things to recover, changing the site structure, redesign, onsite tweaks.
Then, Google comes up with Disavow Link tool, most people started to submit their bad backlinks and are waiting with the hope that they will gain all their golden keywords back.
Lets assume a site that have about 1000 spammy links.
Use ahrfs or open site explore to get all the links to your site
Contact the webmaster’s or site owners of the linking site
After giving a considerable amount of time re check if the links have been removed
Go to Disavow Links Tool and submit your request ( As per Google it will take several weeks for the proccess)
Submit reconsideration request (There is no guarentee that the site will be reconsidered)
Is the time & resources taken to go through all these process worth or would you just get a new domain and start building using safe SEO methods. [...]
April 5, 2017SEO / Sri Lanka / Web Design / Web DevelopmentA great website is much more than something that looks pretty. In reality, a website has to be pleasing to the eyes while being functional and also capable of generating valuable leads. This is why website owners have to pay special attention into how their website budget is utilized. Ideally, a tight budget should not be a problem to create a website with all the right features.
1. Choose a simple design
Complicated designs are expensive for many reasons. If you intend to create a graphic rich site with videos and animations, it’s most likely that your budget will be considerably stretched. In addition, busy designs with too much graphics are not always friendly towards slower internet connections. Therefore, it’s best to settle on simple designs that aren’t overcrowded with too many graphics. They are cheaper to design while being friendly to generating traffic.
2. Choose the right platform
With a massive choice for website platforms, you can make your pick without much hassle. However, the difficult part is to pick a platform that you are comfortable with using. Not every one of us is a web developer and it’s important to settle on a platform that allows you to make changes without having to write code. Platforms such as WordPress is well known to allow website owners to update blogs, images and content on other pages without having to rely on a developer.
3. Optimise your site before completion
What most website owners neglect at the website design stage is search engine optimisation. Unless a website is properly optimised from the start, it could be rather costly to make changes later on. Most SEO services providers will request you to add more content to a website, add Alt tags to images as well as to add keyword rich titles and descriptions. This is why you need to do bit of research and to add SEO friendly elements at the designing stage.
You don’t necessarily have to skimp on any important elements on your website to stick to the budget. Instead, you can simply omit the unnecessary elements to create a fully functional website with all the right features and facilities. Choosing an affordable website design company who will also offer a great website with on page SEO setup will help you get established faster and cheaper. [...]
September 25, 2016Online Marketing / Search Engine Marketing / search engine optimization / SEO / Web Design / Web DevelopmentMore people will see your website than will ever see your office. Since the first page most of your visitors will see is your home page, it’s also the most important page. Your home page has only 3 to 5 seconds to capture people attention before they will bounce to another site. Your page must have the right amount of text with the right graphics to grab the visitor’s attention. They are searching for products or service websites because they have a need or a want. Help them find the information quickly and easily to determine if you can provide them a solution.
Here are some tips for ensuring your home page is effective:
1. Keep it concise.
People don’t read websites. They quickly scan to determine if the information they want might be available. Provide the most important information first without a lot of facts and details. Make your content concise and focused. Provide links to inner pages for in-depth coverage.
2. Use keywords.
Use the right keywords that people use to search for related products or service. Content is still king for search engines determining what sites to rank on the first page of Google. Using the right keywords and providing fresh content is vital.
3. Write copy from the reader’s viewpoint.
Visitors don’t care about you. They care about themselves. You are important because you can help them solve their problem. Count how many times you start a paragraph with “I” or “we.” If it is more than one it’s too many.
4. Easy to Use.
Your visitors should be able to instantly determine where to click on your site to locate the information they want. Hyperlinks should be easy to find. Use good descriptive phrases for labeling buttons.
5. Personalize.
Online videos and logos that show awards, memberships etc. allow people to know how you can help.
6. Use headlines and bulletins.
Long paragraphs of text turn readers off. Provide informative headlines to guide visitors and the search engines to the most important keywords. Bullets break up long-winded paragraphs and guide the reader. Bullets allow people to quickly scan information to find the information they need. Hypertext links can be added to allow visitors to find more in depth information.
7. Proofread your copy.
Errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation detract from your professionalism. Proofread your work, and ask others to do it too. An extra set of eyes may catch mistakes you miss. [...]
May 1, 2016Google Analytics / Search Engine Optimisation / SEO / SEO Sri LankaI thought that for my first post for the month of May, I would write about why SEO – Search Engine Optimization is so important for all websites. My goal is to make things as simple as possible for new site owners to understand.
When people do a search, they’re usually looking for specific information.
Less than 10% will look beyond page 1 of the search results returned so your goal should always be page 1 and then continue to build towards a top 5 ranking which is above the fold (seen without scrolling down).
Whatever niche or market you are in there is going to be competition so don’t limit your efforts to just a keyword, also target 3-4 word key phrases. A common request by many Sri Lankan website owners, who has asked me to rank for a single keywords like jewellery, mobile phone or apartments. Key phrases are much easier to rank high for than one or two word keywords.
So, if you wish to run any form of online business, your primary role is to get recognized by the major search engines. SEO is really the only way to do that.
Something else to consider is that Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask account for over 95 percent of all global internet searches. Google is by far the largest and accounts for roughly 70-80% of all searches.
Good SEO is not only about ranking high and getting traffic, it’s about ranking high, getting traffic and having exactly what the user is looking for.
SEO is an ongoing process and it starts the second you decide to register a domain. Domains that are keyword rich will be much easier to rank for.
Don’t try and take shortcuts. Take your time and do things the right way and you will be rewarded in due time. 99% of SEO services out there aren’t worth using. Read and research and do it yourself. It will take time, but you’ll know it was done right.
SEO is NOT about cramming your website with every possible keyword. If anything it will get your website penalized with Google.
Make sure your website is clear, easy to read and easy to navigate. I see many new webmasters using white text on dark backgrounds and while that may work for some sites, they do not for most. Think about this, when was the last time you saw a newspaper or magazine with white text on a dark background? Never!
Use a free tracking tool like Google Analytics to see how your site is performing for your main keywords and phrases. You’ll also be able to see any errors that Google may be having while crawling your site.
Don’t ever stop working on building your site’s popularity. Take at least one day of the week and devote it to adding fresh content. If your homepage doesn’t change much, you can still add content with a news feed or by submitting articles to article submission sites. As your site grows, so will your Page Authority and your rankings will go up in the SERP’s.
Looking at various website’s of reputed companies, hotels and businesses in Sri Lanka, a BIG question I have is “Why don’t you do Good SEO?“ [...]
January 13, 2011Colombo / Google / Sri LankaThe start of this year has been very different to the ones before in many ways. One of the differences is that the warm days of Colombo have been suddenly stolen by the cold weather. How many of you are enjoying the Nuwara-eliya like climate in Colombo? I really love the present weather, so enjoy while it lasts.
I’m tired of the wrong predictions from the Met Department, so I get my temperature update from Google. Don’t need to wait for the hourly news update on the Television or Radio. Want know how to get the current temperature and forecast of world cities including Colombo instantly, just go to Google and type in “weather (name of city)” and enter. Eg. weather colombo, the present temperature and forecast of Colombo is displayed in a flash.
The temperature in Colombo dropped to 18.8 Degrees C (65 Fahrenheit) on the 13th of January 2011. It is the lowest in 61 years, the last time it happened way back in 1950.
Meanwhile, on the same day the temperature in Nuwara Eliya (typical little England) dropped to 7.9 Celsius and the eastern part of the island, Batticaloa, recorded 16.9 Celsius.
By Farhan Fawzer SEO Sri Lanka online services [...]