This is a Google Local Search SEO test related to the Digital Marketing Agency Google SERPs.
What I plan to test is how easy/hard it is to rank for Google local SERPs related to Digital Marketing Agency, in particular I’m looking to rank locally in the My Google Business/Google Map section of SERPs when locals, that’s people living in Skegness and other towns in Lincolnshire UK, search Google for “Digital Marketing Agency”.
Mobile Time to Interactive Test Results
- SEO Gold Homepage: 2.0 seconds
- Passion Digital Homepage: 14.6 seconds
- Impression Homepage: 11.1 seconds
- Koozai Homepage: 10.6 seconds
- Coast Digital Homepage: 7.4 seconds
- iCrossing Homepage: 14.2 seconds
- DPOM Homepage: 28.4 seconds
Why Test With the Digital Marketing Agency SERPs?
I’m starting this SEO test mid January 2020, at this time the SEO Gold website barely mentioned “Digital Marketing Agency”, searching Google for site:https://seo-gold.com “Digital Marketing Agency” (an exact match site: search for “Digital Marketing Agency”) shows just 4 indexed webpages and they were added less than a week ago.
The only mention is related to the article Discover How Flawed SEO Tests Damage Google Rankings! which references “Reboot The Elite Digital Marketing Agency in London”: the article isn’t about digital marketing agencies.
Searching this site for “Marketing Agency” showed just 6 results and for “Agency” 20 results with not a single indexed webpage using Agency as the title tag.
This website in January 2020 is NOT targeting any agency SERPs, that’s mainly because I’m not a marketing agency, I’m a self-employed freelance SEO consultant researching a new business service related to local SEO webdesign which COULD evolve into a Marketing Agency, so a good marketing niche to test with.
Due to the lack of content about digital marketing agencies, this site has no SERPs in this niche, new SERPs will be due to new content.
48 Hour SEO Test Update: I published this webpage at 9pm on the 13th of January 2020, takes a lot of time to review marketing agencies (5 short reviews in 2 days) and I made a mistake in my Google Lighthouse tests, I’d selected the easy Desktop Lighthouse test when I should have used the harder Mobile test: I had to redo all 5 marketing agency reviews on the 15th! It took longer than expected.
2 days after publication the SEO test webpage (this one) and one of the marketing agency reviews (the Passion Digital review) is indexed by Google. Surprisingly, just 28 hours into the SEO test the SEO Gold My Google Business listing is already ranked on the Google map for the Digital Marketing Agency Google search when accessing Google from a Skegness IP address: currently listed number 4.
That’s only 1 short of the front page results: Google Maps only shows 3 My Google Business local business websites. That was quick, thought it would take a lot longer and more effort than one WordPress Post (this post) targeting the Digital Marketing Agency SERP with a handful of WordPress Image Attachment Pages (all the WordPress image pages are linked below).
Just 2 days in and searching Google for site:https://seo-gold.com “Digital Marketing Agency” (an exact match site: search for “Digital Marketing Agency”) now shows 45 indexed webpages, most will be due to sidebar links anchor text to this webpage.
Digital Marketing Agency Performance Reviews
I’m afraid I have a secondary SEO test planned for this website, I want to see how hard it is to rank for local business websites as well via Lighthouse SEO performance reviews.
I’m going to be trashing locally ranked marketing agencies. To the agencies I’m reviewing, it’s nothing personal, if you have good mobile Lighthouse performance results I’ll say so. If you haven’t bothered with mobile Performance SEO that’s your failing not mine.
Webpage Loading Time is VERY Important
Performance (how fast a webpage loads) is important to Google, it’s important to businesses, this has been extensively tested by Google, Amazon and many others and slow websites lose customers BEFORE they’ve even seen what you have to offer!
If your website takes 6 seconds to load it is over 100% more likely a search engine visitor will leave your website when compared to a fast loading website (loads in 1 second). Pagespeed is not only a Google SEO ranking factor it’s important to the user experience which impacts sales!
Lots of websites could significantly increase sales simply by knocking a few seconds off loading times. It’s that important.
Test your website on a mobile device, is it fast or slow? Test it with Google Lighthouse like I have below for my SEO Gold site and for a selection of digital marketing websites.
The SEO test procedure is as follows.
On a Desktop PC connected to the Internet via a broadband connection (phone line) search Google for “Digital Marketing Agency” in a Private Firefox Browser (this way I’m not logged into Google) and review whatever businesses related to digital marketing are ranked. To be a valid local SEO test, Google had to read my IP as being local to Skegness (which it did: see screenshot).
This is the before screenshot, before attempting to gain a local Google Map Listing for the “Digital Marketing Agency” Google SERP.
You can see in the screenshot the SEO Gold site isn’t listed in the Google Local Maps Results, also not ranked top 50 in the Google organic search results. This is expected, a website can’t ranking in Google for search phrases they haven’t targeted.
Let’s see what happens after I review a few competitors ranked high for Skegness local results.
SEO Gold Homepage Mobile Lighthouse Results
First though see the Google mobile Lighthouse results for the SEO Gold homepage as a comparison.
These are very good Lighthouse results, see the live Lighthouse results at:
SEO Gold Homepage Time to Interactive: 2.0 seconds
Passion Digital Marketing Agency Review
The first digital marketing agency listed within the Google local organic search results for Skegness is Passion Digital: https://passion.digital/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for Passion Digital’s homepage, see the live MOBILE Lighthouse results at:
Passion Digital is a London based digital marketing agency offering PPC/Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Services, Content Marketing, Conversion Tracking, Web Design and Development, and Digital Strategy…
Since Passion Digital aren’t a local Skegness business they don’t show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings.
Passion Digital Homepage Time to Interactive: 14.6 seconds
What that means is when a potential business client on a mobile device like a mobile phone, connects to a Passion Digital webpage they have to wait almost 15 seconds before they can interact with the content.
Count to 15, are you happy in 2020 to wait 15 seconds for a webpage to be interactive?
The SEO performance results are terrible, (I’ve seen worse) there’s some evidence of basic caching (WP Rocket is installed), but beyond that there doesn’t appear to be any more performance improving techniques used.
What’s a little disconcerting for a digital agency offering webdesign and SEO services is the people creating content for the Passion Digital Blog are not bothering with alt text!
Impression Digital Marketing Agency Review
The next digital marketing agency listed within the Google local organic search results for Skegness (ranked number 5) is Impression: https://www.impression.co.uk/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for Impression’s homepage, see the live Lighthouse results at:
Impression is a Nottingham based digital marketing agency offering Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing, Paid Advertising, Digital PR, Remarketing and retargeting, Conversion rate optimisation (CRO), Social media marketing, Email marketing, New website SEO briefs, Digital Strategy, and Analytics…
Since Impression Digital aren’t a local Skegness business they don’t show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings.
Impression Homepage Time to Interactive: 11.1 seconds
Impressions mobile SEO performance score is poor, it’s rare to see Mobile Lighthouse Performance scores above 90, so whichever staff member(s) is dealing with WordPress theme and plugin selection need to spend more time on mobile performance. So many WordPress sites add really flashy features which tank a websites performance rankings!
I see signs of caching and minification which help with performance/speed. No signs of image lazy loading or image size optimization and some alt text is missing, so there’s room for improvement.
Koozai Digital Marketing Agency Review
The next digital marketing agency listed within the Google local organic search results for Skegness (ranked number 6) is Koozai: https://www.koozai.com/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for Koozai’s homepage, see the live Lighthouse results at:
Koozai Ltd is a Southampton based digital marketing agency with London and Preston virtual offices, Koozai offer SEO, Content Marketing, Digital PR, Paid Search, and Paid Social…
Since Koozai aren’t a local Skegness business they don’t show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings.
Koozai Homepage Time to Interactive: 10.6 seconds
Koozai mobile SEO performance score is poor, around 60/100 isn’t a good mobile performance result, any technical SEO expert should be aiming for 90/100 for mobile pagespeed. Also checked a Blog Post and it had a similar slow speed, for example Time to Interactive 9.2 seconds.
I see mixed signs of image filename optimization, so there’s room for onpage SEO improvement. Looks like another digital marketing agency which hasn’t trained their content writers to rename image filenames for SEO and add relevant alt text!
It’s no wonder my images tend to do really well SEO wise if this is how “SEO executives” are trained in 2020!
Coast Digital Marketing Agency Review
The next digital marketing agency listed within the Google local organic search results for Skegness (ranked number 7) is Coast Digital: https://www.coastdigital.co.uk/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for Coast Digital’s homepage, see the live Lighthouse results at:
Coast Digital is a London based digital marketing agency with a Colchester office, Coast Digital Ltd offer Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, Campaign Planning, Content Marketing, SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising, Google Grants for Nonprofits, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Training, Display Advertising, Email Marketing, CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation, Affiliate Marketing, Google Data Studio, UX Design, Research & Analysis, UX Biometrics Research Lab, Eye Tracking, GSR & Facial Expression Analysis, Website Review, Copywriting, Website Design, Web Development, Content Management Systems, WordPress Web Development, Drupal Web Development, and Hosting…
Since Coast Digital aren’t a local Skegness business they don’t show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings.
Coast Digital Homepage Time to Interactive: 7.4 seconds
Coast Digital mobile SEO performance score isn’t great, though their time to interactive isn’t terrible 7.4 seconds. Their site is slow, but not super slow on mobile devices. Also checked a Blog Post and it was lower with 50 for Performance and 10.7 seconds for time to interactive.
I see signs of basic WordPress caching, minification, but no sign of lazy loading of images which would help with performance/speed.
I see mixed signs of image filename optimization, so there’s room for onpage SEO improvement. Looks like another digital marketing agency which hasn’t consistently trained their content writers to rename image filenames for SEO and add relevant alt text!
iCrossing Digital Marketing Agency Review
When searching Google for the phrase Digital Marketing Agency whilst connecting to the Internet from Skegness, the 8th Google local organic search results for Skegness is iCrossing : https://www.icrossing.com/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for iCrossing’s homepage, see the live Lighthouse results at:
iCrossing is a US based digital marketing company that’s part of the Hearst group. iCrossing have around 20 offices/locations around the world, 2 in the UK: London and Brighton and offer Total Search, Digital strategy & Planning, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Technical Search Engine Optimisation, Content, Creative, Media Planning & Buying, Social Media, and Web Analytics & Data Strategy…
Since iCrossing aren’t a local Skegness business they don’t show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings, those are reserved for actual local marketing agencies.
iCrossing Homepage Time to Interactive: 14.2 seconds, note the Speed Index was slower at 17.6 seconds.
iCrossing mobile SEO performance score is poor, a website can’t score much worse than 17/100 for Performance! Their time to interactive is 14.2 seconds and the speed index (when content is visible) 17.6 seconds. The iCrossing site is PAINFULLY slow, I’m testing via a Desktop PC on a landline (Broadband connection) and browsing through the site feels like swimming through cold custard, I love custard, but not when it’s cold and up to my chin!
I see NO signs of basic caching or minification, no sign of lazy loading of images which would help with performance/speed. To be brutal I see no signs of any onsite/onpage SEO, it’s like the content was created by people who haven’t heard of search engine optimization!
DPOM Digital Marketing Agency Review
The first digital marketing agency listed within the Google Maps local results for Skegness is DPOM Digital Marketing Agency: https://www.dpom.co.uk/.
The Google Lighthouse screenshot is for DP Online Marketing Ltds homepage, see the live Lighthouse results at:
DP Online Marketing Ltd is a Skegness based digital marketing agency with a Nottingham office, DPOM offer Pay Per Click Advertising, Paid Social, Social Media, Search Engine Optimisation, Digital Marketing Audit, Conversion Rate Optimisation, E-Mail Marketing, and Data Analysis…
DPOM Homepage Time to Interactive: 28.4 seconds
Since DP Online Marketing Ltd have a Skegness office they are a local Skegness business so do show up in the Skegness Local Google Map listings. DPOM are also ranked number 9 for the Google local organic Digital Marketing Agency search.
The mobile SEO performance results are terrible for a marketing agency offering SEO services. SEO performance is about loading speed, how fast a website loads for it’s users and page speed has been a Google ranking factor for years. There’s no excuse in 2020 for a digital marketing agency or SEO agency to have a slow loading website!
The DPOM homepage took almost 30 seconds to be interactive, will your customers wait 30 seconds for your homepage to fully load before they go back to Google and find a faster competitor website?
There’s some evidence of basic caching and minification, probably a WordPress plugin which combines CSS files etc…, but it’s poorly implemented. There doesn’t appear to be any more performance improving techniques used.
David Law
Website - SEO Gold Services
