Surrey Driving Force Case Study
Surrey Driving Force operates in an extremely competitive industry and approached us to help increase their online visibility through its website and Social Media channels.
It was their goal to rank well for specific industry related keywords in a market which already includes a number of well-established competitors operating with significant online marketing budgets.
In addition to achieving an increase in traffic, they also wanted to improve their online conversions to attract more enquiries.
About Surrey Driving Force
Surrey Driving Force offers first class driving lessons across most of the Surrey area and further afield. Established in 2007, they offer great value for money and the service we provide is second to none.
Their aim is to teach their students to drive safely and confidently in the fewest possible number of lessons whilst creating an enjoyable and stress-free environment.
The Goals
The goals of our client were to increase their overall levels of visibility and enquiries via their website for terms related to ‘driving lessons’, ‘driving schools’, ‘driving instructors’ along with a number of other related key terms for their target locations.
SDF stated that their goal was to be able to achieve high rankings for keywords that would bring a significant amount of traffic to their website and in turn allow them to maximise the conversion rate of web visitors.
The Strategy
Because Surrey Driving Force’s original website was designed in standard HTML, we strongly believed that a re-design incorporating the WordPress CMS would offer the desired results.
Through our extensive research into the market and keywords associated with it, we were able to pinpoint the specific areas and keywords that we would be able to exploit in the search engine rankings. By establishing SDF in the search engine rankings for their chosen products we would be able to bring people to the site with a great chance of converting them from visitors to customers.
It was also important that we enabled SDF to engage with the community. Social media is an important tool in the engineering industry and through a combination of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a dedicated YouTube channel, we have been able to tap into an online community for the site that would help engage their customers, whilst spreading information related to SDF and their products across social media channels.
Our overall strategy was to increase conversions and traffic through targeting specific keywords where other driving schools’ websites are not as visible, as well as communicating with the community with social media, blogging and product content.
Project Specifications
- Create a new user-friendly website designed to highlight the complete range of SDF’s services using WordPress as the CMS.
- Transfer all existing relevant information from the old site to the new.
- Create a comprehensive Social Media platform, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
- Implement effective SEO techniques to ensure the website is ‘Google-friendly’.
- Highlight customer testimonials
- Highlight all available services.
- Incorporate a blog which would allow a constant stream of relevant industry information and insight.
Information and Inspiration
We knew that it was important that we designed a website which would grab the reader’s attention from the moment they arrived whilst retaining an air of ‘user-friendliness’.
We, therefore, designed the website to maximise its space and display its information in a clear and readable way whilst retaining the overall feel and aesthetic appeal of their previous website.
We have utilised large, visual tabs and drop down menus on the homepage in order to emphasise the important information available through the website.
Intelligent Styling
As well as having the ability to inform, it is also absolutely essential that we ensure any business website is designed to look and feel relevant to the subject area, so for Surrey Driving Force we kept a high level of continuity by using the existing business colour scheme along with utilising the trade-related imagery to help engage the users with their respective interest and immediately lets them know that they are in the right place.
Search Engine Optimisation
By clearly establishing the areas which SDF wanted to target, we utilised a combination of on-page and off-page techniques to significantly increase the search engine visibility of the website.
SEO Services and Strategies utilised:
- Targeted keyword phrase research using proven SEO keyword tools to identify the best SEO keyword phrases
- Analysis of competitor website SEO strategies to allow for effective targeting of specific keyword phrases
- Applying fully optimised meta-tag standards to all relevant pages
- SEO copywriting current on-page content to ensure effective targeting by Search Engine spiders
- Submission of XML Sitemap to Webmaster Tools format to website core directory
- Introduction of Schema coding to the site
- Creation of Google Maps listing to focus on the target locations
The Results
Since the start of the campaign, we have:
- Increased total visits to the site by over 1600%*
- Increased unique visits to the site by 1000%*
When factoring in the considerable numbers of visitors to the website initially, the increased figures are tremendous.
We have also:
- Obtained increased rankings for all targeted keywords
- Increased Social Media reach significantly with an excellent following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Key Points
- The finished website is excellent and has achieved our goals of creating a site that looks great and performs equally well.
- We re-thought their keyword strategy.
- Implementation of steps to maximise the conversion rate of their web traffic.
- We attained top 10 rankings across the portfolio of keywords over a 6 month period.
- They are still a very happy client of ours to this day.
Below are just a small sample of the high ranking key terms that we have obtained for Surrey Driving Force.
By optimising and integrating the existing information used on the original Surrey Driving Force website into the detailed plan of action, we were able to create a quality online solution tailored specifically to the needs of SDF.
The details provided on the website are accurate, easy to read and form a comprehensive overview of the services available. Initial results have been hugely positive with the number of visitors coming to the website increasing on a monthly basis along with some excellent feedback from customers.
We Can Help With Your Online Marketing
- Would you like to maximise the potential of your website?
- Do you want to see your site create more sales and revenue for you and your company?
- Do you want to be ranking for competitive keywords that can help your business grow online?
Our extensive knowledge of SEO and Online Marketing, in general, can help you improve your own search engine position to bring you better sales and traffic.
Further Information
Footprint Digital has been at the forefront of web design and development for over 20 years. If you are looking for a website that truly represents your business, or advice on how to make your site stand out, then contact us today on 01883 372 488, or via email at info@footprint.co.uk.
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3 Tips To Help Get More Reviews
It is no longer possible to overstate the importance of online reviews for a business. More than ever, customers are taking the time to post their views (both good and bad!) and these rants and reviews have the potential to make or break your business.
With a recent survey claiming that 90% Of Customers Say Buying Decisions Are Influenced By Online Reviews taking the time to find new ways to connect with potential customers can make a significant difference to your business’ bottom line.
However, this does not mean that you have to constantly glue yourself to your computer! By putting in plan some proven tips and tricks to boost your online reputation you can take big steps towards generating some of the positive reviews that you need.
Below we have identified some of the best ways to create goodwill with your customers:
Tip No. 1 – Take a Close Look at Your Review Capabilities
There is simply no excuse for not taking advantage of the FREE listings which are available to you. Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google + offer the ideal way to open up lines of communication with customers, whilst online directories such as 118.com, Yell.com, FreeIndex and Scoot offer a great way to obtain a free listing which will allow customers to leave reviews.
Once a profile is created, you can update settings to ensure that when new reviews are posted. Monitoring existing reviews and customer feedback is also a good way to see how the staff is doing across many or a few business locations.
Tip No. 2 – Pay Attention!!
Whilst there may be a very strong temptation to ignore any positive reviews, it is crucial that you respond to all reviews, regardless of whether they are complementary or not as this can make an excellent impression on all future prospects reading reviews.
Furthermore, the addition of negative reviews to a listing is likely to stay visible for years, therefore it is important to deal with any issues quickly and provide resolution for the customer. As long as the majority of reviews aren’t negative, people will value the business’ professional approach and responsiveness.
Tip No. 3 – Make the Most of Your Reviews
Take advantage of any positive reviews by them on your website and/or Facebook page.
A great example of this would be Surrey Driving Force. Driving schools operate in a highly competitive market and therefore finding ways to stand out from the crowd greatly increase your chances of new customers opting for you over your competitors.
Further Information
If you’d like to speak to us regarding how we can help you generate online reviews, give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.
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How To Respond To A Bad Review
We understand just how important the reputation of your business is to you. Both in regards to helping to grow your business and also for your own personal pride, the reputation of your business can prove to be one of your most powerful assets or one of your biggest liabilities depending on how positive it is.
With potential customers placing more importance on reviews than ever before, especially if they are new to your products and services, this is an area of your business that must not be overlooked.
Building Your Online Profile
Your ‘Google My Business’ profile (which helps to generate your listing on Google Maps) is arguably the most important online profile you can establish for your business. This is in no small part to the fact that when someone takes the time to leave a review, it will be displayed in Google’s search results. This can be extremely positive but what should you do if someone decides to leave you a poor review?
Don’t Overreact!
The first and most important bit of advice we give is to not overreact! Whilst the receipt of a bad review can seem to be quite personal, the facts are that so long as you don’t receive too many, a bad review is not the end of the world. In fact, it is widely acknowledged that many customers are believed to be mistrustful of businesses that have flawless 5* ratings – as it can be difficult to believe that anyone is really that good! As such, a small number of poor reviews can actually add an air of realism to your profile.
Please do not resort to drastic steps such as deleting your account, changing all of your details or setting up brand new profiles. Establishing an effective online presence can be tricky enough once, never mind twice!
Always Respond To The Review
Always take the time to respond to a negative review but just importantly, always remember to ‘take the high road’ wherever possible. However tempting it may be to give people a piece of your mind, this is very unlikely to be constructive and is very likely to damage your reputation far more than the review will. Just as the review can be viewed by everyone, so can your response.
It’s really important to answer in a professional way. If you feel that an apology is necessary, then, by all means, include one in your response. Try and provide some type of context to the original review as a benefit for future readers and wherever possible, encourage whoever left the review to continue the conversation privately (via phone, e-mail, DM etc) in an effort to resolve the situation rather than continuing the conversation in public.
Use The Review To Help You Improve
Whilst it is not certain that all negative reviews will be warranted, it is possible that they have some merit. Can you use the negative comments as a way to improve your service? If similar comments keep appearing from different people, perhaps a particular area of your business could do with refining. It’s important to keep a level of perspective and whilst we fully understand that no-one will ever enjoy receiving a poor review, don’t worry too much if one appears on your profile.
Need Some More Help
Would like to find out more about dealing with bad reviews? Give the Footprint Digital team a call on Tel. No. 01883 372488 today.
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