SEO Agency Auckland

Before we look at the intricacies of SEO and what makes a website rank, let’s start with the basics – what is exactly is SEO?

SEO isn’t a new thing, the concept of SEO has been around for more than 20-years, however, the strategy and what makes a website actually rank is continually changing.

SEO or search engine optimisation is a repeatable process that optimises the on-page, off-page, technical, and content of a website to improve search engine rankings and grow traffic for a website. According to the latest data, almost 2/3 of businesses in New Zealand from Auckland to Queenstown and everywhere in between are investing in SEO services for their business.

The idea behind SEO is simple – appear in front of relevant, prospective customers for search terms that are relevant to the products or services that are offered by your business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a physical retailer, or you sell products online, the goal of SEO remains the same. Search engine optimisation is about generating relevant, qualified website traffic that can drive conversions and help to establish your business as an industry leader online.

Familiarity builds trust, which is why appearing at the top of search engines like Google is so important for businesses in every industry. While the conversion goal will change depending on the business, the desired outcome is the same – to expose your business to qualified prospective leads that help to drive your business goals.

There are countless reasons why SEO can help your business. But perhaps the best reason why you should be considering SEO services in New Zealand is because the cost of Google Ads and other paid marketing channels has increased by more than 90% over the last 12-months. With the cost of advertising continuing to skyrocket, SEO in NZ offers a cost-effective, and scalable way for businesses to reach their target audience online in 2025 and beyond.

Yes, SEO continues to be one of the most effective and scalable online marketing solutions for companies looking to drive long-term growth.

The fact is each year we see hundreds of different articles from self-proclaimed digital marketing gurus claiming that SEO is dead. And while the SEO that they are doing – blackhat, spammy tactics, may no longer be effective, that doesn’t mean that SEO doesn’t work anymore.

SEO has changed dramatically over the last five-years. Many of the spammy, shortsighted SEO tactics that may have worked a few years ago are all but dead. As Auckland SEO experts, it’s our job to continue to evolve and improve our strategy in-line with the latest guidance and best-practices from Google.

So long as your target market continues to use search engines to find the types of products or services that you offer, then SEO will always have a place in your digital marketing strategy.

If you’re reading this, then you’re seeing the effects of a successful SEO strategy for yourself. As a digital marketing agency, we don’t do any other marketing to showcase our services. We drive our business and win new customers entirely through our own SEO strategy.

By ranking for relevant keywords – in our case that means “SEO Agency Auckland” or “SEO Services Auckland”, we’re able to appear at the top of Google for relevant keywords and in front of businesses owners and marketing managers like you.

SEO is about understanding what your target market is searching for, the kinds of keywords that they are using to find the products or services that you offer, and then reverse engineering an on-page, off-page, content, and technical SEO strategy that put you in front of them. SEO is a process-driven marketing strategy that requires a careful and consistent approach.

Aside from the obvious benefit of attracting new customers and creating a long-term funnel for your business, there are two key reasons why SEO is beneficial for businesses:

1. Because paid marketing is expensive
2. Because users have a higher level of trust with SEO than almost any other marketing channel.

On the second point, one of the most important things to remember is that SEO is about winning trust. Think about it, it takes months or years to rank at the top of search engines which means that the businesses that end up there are always established, trustworthy entities.

The latest data shows that more than 80% of users will skip the paid search engine ads entirely and go straight to the organic results. Users are savvy, they understand that organic means more trust and more legitimacy which is why so many choose to ignore paid Google ads and opt for the organic listings. Without an SEO strategy in place, your business could be missing out on as much as 80% of potential clients.

SEO can help almost any type of business to increase exposure and attract relevant, qualified leads online. If your target audience uses search engines to find the products or services that you sell, then there’s a good chance that SEO can help your business to grow. If, on the other hand, you have a new product that lacks awareness, you may be better off with other marketing channels.

Based on your initial consultation, our team of SEO Auckland consultants will be able to provide you with transparent advice around whether or not SEO is the best digital marketing strategy for your business.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a long-term marketing strategy. As opposed to digital marketing channels such as Google Advertising that can be set up and generating leads in a matter of hours, SEO takes time to achieve results.

SEO is a slow burn. The benefit of SEO is that, when done correctly, it will deliver considerably cheaper leads than any other digital marketing strategy. You won’t be forced to pay for each click or impression, instead, your business will be at the top of the organic search results and continue to generate customers around the clock – even when you’re not paying.

For businesses that are looking for a short-term digital marketing strategy, SEO should not be on your list. However, if you are serious about building an industry-leading company that generates long-term, scalable website traffic, then SEO is the channel for you.

In addition to scalability and cost, here are some other important reasons why SEO is important for almost every business in New Zealand:

• SEO builds trust – did you know more than 2/3 of users completely ignore ads
• SEO builds brands – SEO takes time, users know that the organic results are reserved for companies that are established and trustworthy.
• Control your brand narrative – with SEO, you can control how customers and other companies perceive your brand in the market.
• Become a thought leader – SEO empowers businesses of all shapes and sizes to cut-through the noise and speak directly to their target market online.

Here’s the truth, SEO can help just about every business – but not all businesses are going to have the patience to see it through. Partnering with a trusted SEO New Zealand provider can seem like hard work, but when you find a trusted team of experts like Safari Digital SEO Agency NZ, SEO can be one of the best investments that you make in your business.

SEO has a compounding effect. The longer that you are doing it and the more consistent that you are, the easier it is to achieve results. The slowest (and often most frustrating) part of SEO is the beginning.

Unlike pay per click (PPC) marketing channels like Google Ads, SEO does not work overnight. Search engine optimisation is about winning trust with users and search engines by implementing SEO best practices that consider the user – not just search engines.

The truth is, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer to the question of how long SEO will take. In most cases, SEO will start to work in 3-6 months. In some cases, this timeline can be shorter, and in others, it can be longer.

Based on an initial audit of your website, our NZ SEO specialists will be able to provide you with a rough SEO timeline that considers your current position in the market and what we believe will be required to get you to where you want to be.

Search engine optimisation is an ongoing digital marketing strategy. There is no “finish line” or end point. The businesses that you see at the top of the search results aren’t there because they did SEO for six months and then stopped. The companies at the top of the search results are there because they continue to invest into their SEO strategy.

Google is constantly changing, and search algorithm are constantly evolving. As such, businesses must continue to refine their strategy and ensure that their website meets search engine best practices and the demands of the user.

If you do decide to “stop” doing SEO, then it’s not the same as stopping Google Ads. Instead, what happens is that you will see a gradual decline in your search performance as your competitors “catch-up” and eventually surpass you. Just like going to the gym, if you stop doing SEO you don’t lose your gains overnight, it will be a gradual process whereby you lose fitness (rankings, in this case) on the improvements that you made.

Do you really need to hire an SEO company, or can you just do your own search engine optimisation? The truth is, just like anything, you can absolutely try to do your own SEO. The problem is you’re quickly going to run into an endless amount of conflicting SEO theories and information online. Even as a seasoned SEO professional, it can be difficult to decipher fact from fiction – so imagine doing that without any background knowledge.

The reason that you should hire an SEO company is because you are employing experts in the field. Just like any profession, we have the tools and experience to fast track results, side-step common SEO mistakes (of which there are many) and guide our clients to lasting SEO results.

When you hire an SEO team to work on your website, you’re deferring to experts. We spend the time researching, implementing, and tracking your SEO results so that you can spend more time on your business.

Guaranteed SEO results are amongst the biggest misnomers when it comes to search engine optimisation. In fact, if you Google “guaranteed SEO services”, you’ll come across an article that we wrote on the topic. We wrote this article with the sole purpose of ensuring that customers gained better information around the concept of guaranteed SEO results.

We understand, guaranteed SEO results look appealing on paper. However, it’s important to note that no one can guarantee results or a timeline. In fact, if you look at Google’s Search Central Notes, they provide the following warning on the subject:

“Your prospective SEO should be able to give you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved. If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else.”

The biggest flaws that you will encounter from an SEO agency in New Zealand offering guaranteed SEO results are as follows:

1. They will choose easy keywords to rank so that they can achieve their ‘guaranteed results’ target and ensure that they get paid. In almost all cases, these keywords are low competition, low-value, and simply an outcome intended to meet a deadline – not provide value to your business.
2. They use short term or Blackhat SEO tactics to deliver short term results. Let’s face it, if they are operating on a deadline that they need to meet in order to get paid, then they are going to do whatever it takes. While short term SEO results may seem ideal, they are often at the detriment of long-term success.

Before signing up for an New Zealand SEO company offering ‘guaranteed SEO services’, we strongly recommend doing your due diligence to properly understand what they are guaranteeing and how they are circumnavigating Google’s own warning against such promises.

If you’re looking for immediate, short-term results – then Google Ads are a great way to help you sell products and potentially close new clients in a matter of days.

SEO, on the other hand, is a long-term solution that is scalable and provides lasting SEO results. When you stop doing Google ads, your business becomes invisible. Conversely, SEO continues to work around the clock to attract leads for your business, build trust, and drive your KPIs – even when you’re not paying for it.

In a lot of cases, our clients will implement a Google Ads strategy in the early parts of their SEO campaign. As our SEO strategy begins to gain traction and they start to win more organic traffic, they will typically reduce their paid marketing spend with the intention to completely eliminate it in the long run.

Both SEO and PPC marketing channels like Google Ads have a place in most marketing strategies. While we don’t offer Google Ads services for our clients, we routinely partner with Google Ads consultants to work in tandem and amplify results for our clients and while our SEO strategy is beginning to take effect.

There is no “right” answer to this question. Choosing between Google Ads and SEO comes down to your short- and long-term business goals. SEO is a long-term digital marketing strategy that is intended to boost your organic search rankings, build trust with users, and create a sustainable funnel to your website.

On the other hand, Google Ads is an effective way to attract visitors to your website in the short. The reason that most businesses choose to invest in SEO is because Google Ads can become cost prohibitive as you scale. What’s more, because you are relying on a third party (Google), the costs for advertising are out of your control. When you invest in SEO, you are making an investment in the long-term success of your business.

The answer to SEO vs. PPC comes down to your unique situation. Many of our clients invest in SEO and PPC concurrently. The goal of SEO is to eventually reduce reliance on Google Ads and generate compounding growth without having to spend on paid search advertising.

There is no ‘limit’ to the number of keywords that you can target in your SEO campaign. Unlike some other SEO agencies in New Zealand, we don’t limit our SEO campaigns by offering a certain number of keywords. Instead, we work with our clients to understand their goals and how we can help to achieve those goals by ranking at the top of the organic search results for the right keywords.

We look at keyword in clusters. In most cases, we will cluster together 3-5 main keywords per page and target those keywords on a page level. A high tide raises all ships which means that as we improve that page with quality content and high-quality links, we will improve all of the keywords in that cluster. For that reason, we look at keywords in groups so that we know exactly where we are targeting those keywords and to ensure we don’t run into common SEO mistakes like keyword cannibalisation.

If your prospective NZ SEO company is pitching SEO packages which restrict you to a certain number of keywords – we’d encourage you to second think things. In most cases, these ‘SEO packages’ are offered by SEO firms that are lazily productising their SEO offerings into 3-4 packages so that they can force you into a funnel.

We work with businesses from a diverse range of industries. Our philosophy is simply – if we can see that your target audience is using search engines to connect with the products or services that you offer, then we can work with you.

Some of the industries that we work with, include:

• Professional services
• Medical & healthcare
• Lawyers and legal services
• Financial service providers
• Industrial and engineering
• Service area businesses
• Trades and service providers
• Software (SAAS)
• e-commerce retailers
• bricks & mortar retailers

Our goal is to provide the best SEO NZ has to offer. If we believe that we can help your business with search engine optimisation – then we’ll provide you with an SEO strategy and roadmap for how we can make that happen. If we believe that your business and your goals is more suited to other marketing channels, then we’ll be the first to let you know.

Content has always been and will (in our opinion at least) always continue to be king when it comes to SEO. Today, as search engines are increasingly overrun by low quality, machine generated content, unique and valuable content holds more weight than ever. Google has a name for it – it’s called E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and refers to the way that content should be written and the way that Google’s human reviewers assess content.

Writing valuable content is about understanding intent and understanding your target audience. As SEO copywriters, we work to understand your target market, what they are searching for, and how we can write content that provides genuine value. We work with internal stakeholders to ensure our content is factual and valuable and aligns with the brand tone and voice.

Backlinks continue to be a critical component of each successful SEO campaign that we conduct. If you don’t already know, backlinks are a link from one website to your website. Google uses those links as a key signal in their search ranking algorithm to determine trust and legitimacy. The more high-quality, relevant websites that your website has from other authoritative sources, the more likely you are to rank at the top of the search results.

Link building is a critical component of our off-site SEO services. We work to grow your trust with search engines and with users by acquiring high-quality backlinks that prove value and enhance your organic search visibility.

We provide monthly SEO reports and meetings to check in on progress and provide you with a comprehensive run down of how things are tracking. Outside of your monthly report, you’ll also get access to a 24/7 SEO reporting dash which incorporates Google Search Console, Google Analytics (GA4), and live keyword tracking.

We’ll keep you updated on how we are tracking and provide you with regular reports throughout the month. In most cases, you’ll hear from us at least once a week, but we’re always available by phone or email for you to call should you need any assistance or for any questions that you might have.

We don’t have SEO account managers or salespeople – we are staffed exclusively by SEO professionals. For our clients, that means that they talk directly to SEO experts – not middlemen. You’ll work with a few different SEO professionals for your campaign, but you’ll have one main point of contact to make things easy. Our staff turnover is low and our staff are obsessed with SEO, so you’re not going to be lumped with a new, clueless account manager every other month.

The cost of SEO services in New Zealand starts at $1,500 per month for small businesses to $10,000+ per month (plus GST) for large businesses.

The cost of New Zealand SEO services can vary dramatically depending on the nature of the industry, the ambitions of the client, and the scope of work required to help them achieve their desired goals. The truth is, there are dozens of different factors that will determine how much you should spend on SEO. Some of the factors that we consider with SEO pricing in NZ, include:

• Your current position in the market
• The competition in your market for your chosen keywords
• Your current rankings relative for relevant keywords
• Previous SEO work that has been completed
• The amount of new pages and new content required
• The location of your business and your target market

We provide transparent, upfront SEO pricing that considers your current position in the market and your goals. We don’t offer ‘SEO packages” that are productised to tick a box. Instead, we will provide you with a customised SEO quote and proposal that considers your unique requirements to ensure you’re not paying for anything that you do not need.