SEO
How to Rank Higher on Google: A Small Business Guide
How to rank higher on Google, step by step: choose the right searches, improve your pages, fix technical problems, earn trust and measure what works.
SEO
SEO advice for regional businesses: local search, keywords, Google updates, Google Analytics and content that ranks, from our team in Mildura.
SEO articles
SEO
SEO Checklist: 30 Checks for Your Website
A free SEO checklist for new and existing websites, with technical, on-page, content and local checks, plus how to check your SEO with free tools.
SEO
What Is Schema Markup? A Plain English Guide for SEO
What is schema markup, what is it used for, does it help SEO, and how do you add it? A plain English guide to structured data for small business websites.
SEO
Is AI Content Bad for SEO? What Google Actually Says
Is AI content bad for SEO? Does Google penalise AI content? What Google's own guidance says, where AI content goes wrong, and how to use AI without risk.
SEO
How to Add Your Business to Google (and Google Maps)
How to add your business to Google and Google Maps step by step: create a free Business Profile, verify it, and avoid the mistakes that delay your listing.
SEO
How to Rank on ChatGPT: A Practical Guide for Businesses
How to rank on ChatGPT: let OpenAI's search crawler in, answer questions clearly, build a reputation across the web and keep your business details consistent.
SEO
How to Get on the First Page of Google, Honestly
What it really takes to reach the first page of Google: what the page shows, how to get your website and business there, and why guarantees are a red flag.
SEO
How to Get Google Reviews for Your Business (the Right Way)
How to get Google reviews for your business: find your review link, ask at the right moment, reply well, and avoid the shortcuts that break the rules.
SEO
What Is Technical SEO? A Plain English Guide
What is technical SEO, what it includes, how it differs from on-page SEO, and the technical SEO tips that fix the most common website problems.
SEO
How Much Does SEO Cost in Australia? A Small Business Guide
What drives the SEO cost Australian small businesses pay, the common pricing models, and what our SEO plans from $1,000 + GST a month include.
SEO
What Is EEAT? What Google Wants From Your Content
EEAT explained: what experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust mean in SEO, whether E-E-A-T affects rankings, and how to show it on your site.
SEO
What Is Local SEO and How Does It Work?
What is local SEO, how does it work, and why does it matter for businesses that serve a town or region? A plain English guide for Australian businesses.
SEO
Core Web Vitals: What They Are and How to Pass
Core web vitals explained in plain English: what LCP, INP and CLS measure, how to check your scores and how to fix a failed assessment.
SEO
Local SEO Strategies That Actually Drive Foot Traffic
The local SEO strategies that bring people through your door: a complete Google Business Profile, steady reviews, consistent NAP details and local links.
SEO
Use This SEO Checklist for Every Blog Post
If you’re putting the effort into writing blog posts, you want people to actually find them. That’s where on-page SEO comes in. Unlike technical SEO (which can feel intimidating and code-heavy), on-page SEO is about the things you control directly in your content, like titles, headings, keywords, and how you structure your posts. Think of
AI Marketing
How AI-Powered Marketing is Changing the Game in 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept reserved for tech giants—it’s here, and it’s revolutionising marketing for businesses of all sizes. Whether streamlining content creation, improving customer engagement, or optimizing ad targeting, AI makes digital marketing more efficient, data-driven, and personalised than ever before. In 2025, businesses that embrace AI-powered mark
SEO
8 Top SEO Trends in 2025
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an ever-evolving field, and 2025 will undoubtedly bring significant changes that will impact how businesses optimise their online presence. With search engines becoming more advanced and user expectations shifting, staying ahead of these changes is crucial. Here are the top SEO trends to expect in 2025: 1. AI-Driven SEO and
SEO
How Long Does SEO Take? Why Patience Pays Off
How long does SEO take? Allow at least three months for early traction, longer in competitive markets. Here’s what sets the pace and what you can do meanwhile.
SEO
Losing Google Search Traffic? Here’s What To Do About It
If you’ve checked your Google Analytics stats lately and noticed a significant drop in organic search traffic, you’re not alone. Here’s what to do when a Google update hits your site traffic.
SEO
SEO Content Writing: Best Practices
The equation for successful SEO content writing is a simple one: give your visitors concise, informative and useful content, and present it in a way that is easy to use.
Digital Marketing News
GA4 Guide: Google Analytics 4 for Small Businesses
GA4 is Google’s free tool for measuring your website. This guide shows small businesses how to set it up and find the reports that matter.
SEO
Is SEO Dead? What Still Works in 2026
Is SEO dead? No. AI answers and social search have changed how people find businesses, but search still connects buyers with sellers. Here’s what still works.
Digital Marketing News
May 2022 Google Update: What You Need To Know
It’s that time again: another Google Update is upon us! (or, by the time this article goes live, it will have been fully rolled out) Our Mildura web design team, like most anyone else who works on websites or runs a business with an online presence, always dreads these updates (which happen a few times
Digital Marketing News
What Is Google Discover & Can You Optimise For It?
Google Discover is a personalised feed in the Google app. Here’s what it is, how to optimise for it and where to see your Discover traffic.
SEO
SEO Success Story: Heat Systems’ Google Featured Snippet
Another of our clients has achieved a featured snippet on Google: Heat Systems reached Position Zero for the search term “carbon regeneration kilns”.
Branding
Why Can’t Marketers Just Explain What They Do in a Way That Makes Sense?
Marketing has split into specialist fields, from SEO to PR to design, yet one marketer is often expected to do it all. Here’s why that’s confusing.
SEO
Marketing Through COVID Pays Off – It’s Time To Convert Into Sales!
With tourism restrictions in Australia finally easing as well as our growing confidence in venturing more than 10km from home, our clients at Out of the Ordinary Outback are relishing in the fruits of their hard-earned labour. Consistency with SEO and strategic keyword-loaded blog posts over the past 4 months is now paying off in
Digital Marketing News
Resources For Learning More About SEO
If there’s anything we’ve learned from talking to various small business owners in Australia, it’s that they all know they need this mythical thing called SEO… but don’t know exactly what it is, how to go about it, or even why exactly it’s so important. Our team at Rock Solid Marketing is of the opinion that
SEO
What Is Mobile-First Indexing? What It Means for Your Site
Mobile-first indexing means Google uses the mobile version of your website to index and rank it. Here’s what that means, how to check it and what to fix.
Digital Marketing News
Google BERT Update: What You Need To Know
Last week, Google announced its biggest algorithm update in 5 years. The BERT update is said to impact 10% of search queries – namely, longer keyword phrases that rely on context for meaning. As with any update to Google’s search algorithm, this one aims to understand the user’s intent behind the query and serve them
SEO
YouTube + SEO: How To Optimise Your Videos For Google
YouTube is a search engine for videos, and Google shows videos for many searches too. Here’s which videos do well in Google and how to optimise YouTube videos.
Digital Marketing News
How To Increase Your Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is clicks divided by impressions. Here’s where to find yours and how to raise it in Google search and Google Ads.
SEO
How To Lower Your Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the share of visits that leave without engaging. Here’s what it means in Google Analytics 4, what a normal rate looks like and how to lower it.
Digital Marketing News
SEO vs PPC (Google Ads): Which Is Better for Your Business?
SEO vs PPC explained: how organic rankings and Google Ads differ on cost, speed and results, and when to use one, the other or both.
SEO
SEO Success Story: Hydro Innovations
How our SEO work helped Hydro Innovations, a Sydney pump supplier selling Australia-wide, grow its keyword visibility and win a Google featured snippet.
SEO
What You Need To Know About The August 2018 Google Algorithm Update
Google algorithm updates are the bane of any SEO specialist’s (or really, any website owner’s) existence. The idea behind them is very valid: updates to the algorithm always aim to improve the quality of Google search results… still, they always send us into a tizzy. Why? Well, all of the optimisation work we do as
Digital Marketing News
Digital Marketing Reads – Volume 4
Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world. Google confirms it shortened search results snippets after expanding them last December In December 2017, Google expanded the length permitted for meta descriptions to 300 characters. Then in May 2018, they
SEO
What To Do About Broken Links (Hint: More Than You Think)
Broken links are almost inevitable as websites change. Here’s how to find and fix broken links on your own site, and broken links pointing to it.
SEO
A Reminder To Clean Up Older Content On Your Blog
A blog post is never finished. Here’s how to clean up older content on your blog: fix broken internal and external links, outdated information and keywords.
Digital Marketing News
Digital Marketing Reads – Volume 3
Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world. How to Optimize for the Mobile-First Index Advanced Web Ranking is claiming that 2018 is going to be “the year of the mobile”. It’s not news that Google looks at how
SEO
SEO Success Story: In2 Fire
How our SEO work carried In2 Fire through a rebrand and a domain change, from redirects and broken link fixes to ongoing optimisation and a monthly blog.
SEO
3 SEO New Years Resolutions For 2018
The new year is upon us, which means it’s around the time we all start talking about our new year’s resolutions. Sure, we could all stand to lose a few kilos – but let’s talk about our businesses. What can you resolve to do in 2018 to take your business to the next level? What
SEO
Why Is My Website Not Showing on Google? 9 Common Causes
Why is my website not showing on Google? Usually Google hasn’t found it yet, a setting blocks it, or it ranks too low. Here’s how to check and fix each one.
SEO
How Blogs Can Help Your Business: 7 Benefits and Examples
How blogs can help your business: more search traffic, answers that build trust, content to share and a reason for customers to come back, with real examples.
SEO
Things Your SEO Consultant Should Never Say
Some of the more outlandish things we’ve heard SEO providers tell clients, and why they’re wrong, so you can choose an SEO consultant you can trust.
Digital Marketing News
Digital Marketing Reads – Volume 2
Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world. Businesses Can Now Sign Up To Add Booking Buttons To Their Google Local Results As of July of this year, businesses now have the ability to add a booking button
Digital Marketing News
How To Use Google Data Studio, And Why It Rocks
Last year, Google rolled out Data Studio without much buzz or fanfare. This year, it’s finally available to all users and offers unlimited reporting, so we thought now would be a good time to talk about it! What is Google Data Studio? If the thought of logging into Google Analytics and trying to make sense of
SEO
How To Not Lose SEO When Moving Your Site To A New Domain
Moving your website to a new domain? Here’s how to keep your SEO: set up 301 redirects, keep Google Analytics tracking and tell Search Console about the move.
Digital Marketing News
Digital Marketing Reads – Volume 1
We thought we’d start a new blog series on the Rock Solid Marketing blog and include links to some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world. Here’s the very first instalment of Digital Marketing Reads! The new Search Console: a sneak peek at two experimental features This month, Google will add
SEO
What To Know About The Google Fred Update
Google makes between two and three updates to their algorithm every single day, but the major ones that generally shake the search engine world do come every couple of months. The aim of the updates is to target web site owners who are not keeping up with providing value to their site visitors but instead
SEO
How Our Client Landed A Featured Snippet On Google
How our client Modscape landed a Google featured snippet for “eco friendly homes”, and what lists, headings and internal links had to do with it.
SEO
SEO Success Story: Romeo Homes
How site audit fixes, a focused keyword list and image optimisation lifted keyword visibility for Romeo Homes, a Melbourne builder of custom period homes.
SEO
How We Saved A Client’s SEO After A Website Redesign
When ACR Roofing’s new website caused a drop in keyword visibility, we re-ran the site audit, re-optimised theme files and fixed image alt tags.
SEO
All in One SEO vs Yoast vs Rank Math: Which to Choose?
All in One SEO vs Yoast vs Rank Math: all three handle the SEO basics well. Here’s how they compare on features, ease of use and price, and how to choose.
SEO
How to Improve Website Speed: A Practical Guide
A plain-English guide to faster pages: how to test your website speed, what a good result looks like, and the fixes that make the biggest difference.
SEO
What Is Google Search Console? A Beginner’s Tutorial
What is Google Search Console? Google’s free tool showing how your website appears in search. Here’s how to set it up and use it for SEO, step by step.
SEO
Do Your Web Pages Have These 3 Types Of Links?
Need a boost in SEO? Focus on three types of links: internal links between your own pages, external links to good sources, and backlinks from other sites.
SEO
Are You Making These 9 SEO Mistakes?
Nine common SEO mistakes we see on small business websites, from thin content and broken links to keyword stuffing and missing meta descriptions, and how to fix each.
SEO
How to Optimise Google Business Profile for More Calls
How to optimise Google Business Profile in 12 steps: the right category, every field filled, real photos, regular posts and reviews, so more locals find you.
SEO
How SEO Is Impacted By A Website Redesign
Redesigning your website without changing its URLs? Here’s how a redesign affects SEO, and the three things to check: theme files, tracking code and links.
Digital Marketing News
Need SEO Help? Check Out This List of 7 Useful SEO Articles
If you’re like us, you’re neck-deep in setting SEO goals for 2017 and kicking off their implementation. To that end, we thought we’d share some SEO articles that we’ve found useful so far in improving our Melbourne SEO agency. 7 White Hat SEO Techniques to Double Traffic in 2017 “The Google algorithm incorporates hundreds, if
SEO
SEO Success Story: ACR Roofing
How a site audit, page optimisation and a broader keyword list took ACR Roofing from 7% to more than 30% keyword visibility within three months.
SEO
3 Realistic SEO-Related New Years Resolutions To Make
With 2016 rapidly approaching its end, now is a great time to solidify those New Years Resolutions – both on a personal level and on a professional level. If 2017 is the year you endeavor to bolster your business’s online exposure (perhaps by engaging some Melbourne SEO services?), we’ve got you covered with a few of our
Digital Marketing News
Google Has De-Indexed 1.8 Billion Websites
Ever wondered what happens when someone is caught copying content from another website? Well, wonder no longer: Google de-indexes 98% of websites submitted for a copyright takedown. That’s a huge deal because it means the website in question literally drops off of Google for every keyword search if found guilty. Not showing up on Google
SEO
Google AdWords Now Reporting on Null Quality Scores
Just a couple weeks ago (on September 12, to be exact), Google AdWords began reporting on null Quality Scores for both new keywords as well as keywords that lack recent click and impression data. What does this mean?, you might be wondering. First let’s backtrack and talk about what Quality Scores even mean. What is
SEO
Common Issues Found During A Site Audit
The most common issues we find in a website audit: broken contact forms, broken links, missing meta tags and poor organisation, and how to fix each.
SEO
How to Respond to Negative Reviews (With Examples)
How to respond to negative reviews: reply quickly and calmly, own what went wrong, take it offline and fix it. Example replies, and when Google removes reviews.
SEO
SEO Success Story: Melbourne Myotherapy
How new content, simpler URLs and a focused keyword list took Melbourne Myotherapy from 5% to over 18% keyword visibility in three and a half months.
Copywriting
Blogging Tips for New Bloggers
Practical blogging tips for new bloggers and small businesses: set up your blog properly, post consistently, link well, use categories and write for readers.
SEO
Don’t Start SEO Before Doing This One Important Thing
The better your website, the more SEO can do for it. Why it pays to fix a poor website, or finish a planned redesign, before you start SEO.
Branding
What Services To Offer With A Digital Marketing Agency
Whether you’re starting your own digital marketing agency or are in the market for some digital marketing services for your business, you’ve come to the right place! Here’s a quick look at some of the services you might consider offering (or booking) with a Melbourne digital marketing company. (Bear in mind that it’s perfectly normal
SEO
Do Stop Words Matter in SEO?
Stop words are the small words like a, the, for and to. Here’s how Google treats them today, and why you should write naturally rather than strip them out.
SEO
How To Use Yoast SEO Plugin For WordPress
A quick guide to the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress: the SEO box on every page and post, the sitewide title settings, and three handy settings to check.
SEO
What Are Backlinks? How They Work and Why They Matter
What are backlinks? Links from other websites to yours. Here’s how backlinks work in SEO, what makes a good one, and how to check, earn and clean them up.
SEO
SEO Success Story: eCreators
How focused keyword choices and monthly optimisation more than quadrupled eCreators’ keyword visibility in under three months, overtaking their top competitor.
SEO
What Is SEO? A Plain-English Guide for Business Owners
What is SEO? Search engine optimisation: making your website easier to find in Google for the searches your customers use. How it works, in plain English.
SEO
Our Top 5 Web Design Best Practices
Our top 5 web design best practices: make it obvious what your site is about, keep key content above the fold, use calls to action, make content easy to find and use headings.
SEO
SEO Metrics That Matter
The SEO metrics that matter: organic traffic, landing pages, mobile traffic, keyword rankings, backlinks, engagement, indexing errors and click-through rate.
SEO
7 SEO Strategies That Work
Seven SEO strategies that work: learn from competitors, publish excellent content, optimise each page, go mobile-friendly, use social media, earn backlinks and keep monitoring.
SEO
SEO Competitor Analysis: How to Do It in 6 Steps
SEO competitor analysis shows who outranks you on Google and why. A 6-step guide: find your real competitors, compare pages, keywords and backlinks, then act.
SEO
What Is Keyword Research? How to Find Keywords That Work
What is keyword research? Finding the words customers type into Google, checking how often they’re searched and how hard they are to rank for, then choosing well.
SEO
SEO Services Success Story: BlueBox Solutions
How on-page optimisation of a content-rich website tripled BlueBox Solutions’ keyword visibility, with 6 SharePoint keywords on page one within two months.
SEO
7 Ways To Use Social Media To Improve SEO
Social media doesn’t directly change your Google rankings, but it helps SEO indirectly. Seven ways to use social media to get your content seen, shared and linked.
SEO
White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO: What Is the Difference?
White hat SEO follows Google's rules to earn lasting rankings. Learn how it differs from black hat SEO, with techniques, examples and the risks.
SEO
SEO Services Success Story: Schoolfurn
How our SEO work for Schoolfurn, an education furniture supplier serving schools across Australia, moved 9 keyword phrases onto Google's first page.
SEO
Things You Should Be Doing To Optimise Your WordPress Site
Websites need maintenance. Easy ways to optimise your WordPress site after launch: keep it updated, clean up plugins, and size and name your images.
SEO
SEO Tips To Set Up Your Website For Optimisation On Day 1
Two simple SEO tips to set up before your website goes live: install Google Analytics from day 1 and choose an SEO friendly permalink structure.
SEO
Tips For Driving Traffic To Your Website
Tips for driving traffic to your website: guest blogging, Facebook ads, a mailing list, SEO, improving pages Google already likes and blogging often.
Let’s Talk Marketing – Book Here
Let’s start by scheduling a free discovery call so we can get to know each other and see if we’re a good fit for your marketing needs.