Know you need to be doing SEO but aren’t sure where to start? Start with a complimentary Audit with our SEO team. Otherwise, read on to discover everything you need to know about SEO for your winery.
By the end of this blog you should have a clear understanding on:
SEO is earned, SEM is bought. They solve different problems and cost differently.
Wineries selling online benefit most from SEM. Wineries wanting foot traffic benefit most from SEO.
Keywords are the foundation. Without them, your content simply will not surface in search.
Technical, content and off-page SEO are three separate disciplines, not one task.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s a digital marketing strategy using search engines to increase your ranking in Google. Unlike SEM (Search Engine Marketing) SEO is something you earn. While you may need to pay people for SEO services, SEO is not something you can pay Google for. You need to EARN your spot on the first page of Google.
So how do you earn your spot? You need to ‘play ball’ with Google, doing all the things they want you to do to earn your place. And what are the things they want you to do, you ask? Google wants technical, content and off-page SEO. And if you don’t know what these are yet, don’t panic. We’ll come back to these.
With a proper SEO strategy, your website will appear on the first page of Google when people search for your products or services – helping you get more traffic to your website and more people to your winery.
DMT’s Take
The distinction between earning and buying visibility is the one thing most business owners never get explained to them, and it changes how you should think about ROI on each channel.
Your Action Plan
- Understand you cannot pay Google directly for organic rankings. Any service promising that is not offering real SEO.
- Expect SEO to be a longer-term investment than paid ads. It compounds, but not overnight.
What is SEM?
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing (or Google Ads). Unlike SEO, SEM is something you pay for. But how much does SEM cost? Well, it depends on your industry and the keywords you choose to bid on. SEM works on a CPC* basis and constantly fluctuates.
The average CPC for wineries is between $4 to $8 in summer and $3 to $4 in winter. Bearing in mind there are hundreds of various keywords that all have their own price tag.
DMT’s Take
SEM cost is not fixed, it moves with demand, season and competition, which means a summer budget will not necessarily stretch the same in winter.
Your Action Plan
- Budget for seasonal CPC swings. A $4 to $8 summer CPC dropping to $3 to $4 in winter changes what the same budget can achieve.
- Bid on keywords specific to your winery, not just generic wine terms. Broad terms cost more and convert less.
Do I need SEO or SEM?
For wineries looking to sell their wines online, we recommend SEM. If you’re just looking for more foot traffic, a solid SEO strategy is not only effective in getting you on the first page of Google but cost-effective too. Organic content is a great way to increase your online presence and showcase news, events and unique selling points about your winery and wines. Read Google Ads metrics and what they mean
DMT’s Take
The right channel depends on the actual business goal, online sales versus cellar door visits, not on which one sounds more modern.
Your Action Plan
- Choose SEM if the goal is direct online wine sales. It is faster to see results from than organic SEO.
- Choose SEO if the goal is foot traffic and brand visibility. It is more cost-effective over time for that purpose.
What are keywords and why are they important?
A keyword is an idea or topic that defines what your page content is about. The idea is to identify what keywords people are searching for in Google, and then create content surrounding that keyword. That way, your website comes up when someone searches for that keyword. Without keywords on your page, your website will simply not appear in the search results – which is a wasted opportunity for you to win business.
DMT’s Take
A page with no keyword strategy behind it is invisible to search, no matter how good the writing is, because Google has no signal for what it is actually about.
Your Action Plan
- Identify what your customers are actually typing into Google before writing content. Guessing wastes the content you create.
- Build each page around one primary keyword or topic. Trying to target everything on one page dilutes all of it.
The difference between technical, content and off-page SEO
Technical SEOTechnical SEO refers to anything that needs to be done to the back-end of your website. Things like a site map, robot text file, schema data, SEO titles and meta descriptions. Technical SEO is something that should be done by a professional. Drop us a line if you’d like a hand.
Content SEO is the words and images on your page. Your website copy should be strategically laced with keywords or key phrases that a potential visitor might be putting into Google. Words like:
You can also include product-specific keywords like, ‘buy Riesling’.
Off-page SEO is anything that links back to your website. One of the factors that Google uses to decide whether you’ll appear on page one is how many other high-quality websites drive their visitors to your site using backlinks. This is why investing in wine review guides or directories is a good idea. Having a presence on a reputable website with high traffic that could drive people to your website is a highly effective strategy.
This is only a simple example of keywords you could incorporate into your website. However, we recommend a thorough SEO audit and strategy to make sure your keywords will give you the return you’re looking for.
The first step is to get an audit on your website. An audit will help you determine your overall SEO health. It will reveal lurking issues, missed opportunities and keywords that are driving traffic to your website.Get in touch with us for an audit of your website – we’d love to help!
An SEO audit will give you a clear picture of what you need to focus on. Your SEO team can then guide you through what changes need to be made to your website and your content. They’ll also help you set goals, KPIs and metrics to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
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Want help with this? Get a free, no-obligation strategy session and we will show you where the biggest opportunities are.
DMT’s Take
Most wineries only ever think about content SEO, the words on the page, and never touch the technical or off-page side, which is why results plateau even with good copy.
Your Action Plan
- Get a technical SEO check done by a professional. Sitemaps, schema and meta descriptions are easy to get wrong without expertise.
- Start building off-page authority through backlinks. High-quality sites linking to you signal trust that content alone cannot.
Bilal Alwan
Bilal Alwan is the founder and director of Digital Marketing Tribe, an Adelaide and Sydney based digital marketing agency. He leads DMT’s SEO and AI search work, helping Australian businesses stay visible as search shifts from ten blue links to AI-generated answers.
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