Whilst an attractive and fully functional website certainly offers a number of benefits to any business, without the implementation of effective SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), is it working for you as hard as it could be? Without effective SEO, the chances of your website appearing in Google’s search results are greatly diminished and without appearing in the search results, the chances of potential customers finding you at a time that they need you are much lower than they could be.

You may be aware of SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – and have a feeling it could be a positive tool to support the growth of your business, but you don’t know really know what it means, where to start or what represents good value.

Maybe you already have a business website up and running, and you need some support to really make it work for you?

How Can SEO Help?

An increased level of online presence can result in:

• Increased conversion rates (customers spending more money!!)
• Creating increased trust with your clients
• Advertising that keeps on giving (unlike some forms of advertising such as leaflet and newspaper advertising, SEO is designed to keep on giving)
• Increased feedback (the ability to leave reviews can be key in opening lines of communication with your customers)

Every business owner should have the goal of reaching page one on Google search results for terms relating to their products and services. The importance of being discoverable on the Internet cannot be overstated and whilst it will take a little time and some hard work to get there, the benefits for all small businesses greatly outweigh any negatives that you may come across.

Offering a Helping Hand

Whilst search engines are incredibly intuitive, they still need some assistance. All of the major engines constantly work towards improving their technology to ensure that they generate the best and most accurate results for each search. However, there is a limit to how search engines can operate and this is where SEO steps in to help guide the search engines to your website.

It is important to note though that the correct practices must be implemented because whilst the right SEO can net you countless visitors, the wrong moves work against your website ensuring that your site becomes buried deep in the search results where visibility is minimal.

Should I Try To Do SEO For Myself?

The SEO industry is hugely competitive, and it takes a good deal of leg work to get to the top of the rankings (and stay there!). If your business is in a position that it can have someone who dedicates a large chunk of time to rankings and pushing key terms, etc. that’s great.

It is worth remembering, however, the SEO for the business market is flooded with professionals; people whose primary expertise is knowing its intricacies. With that in mind, in order to be successful, it is usually more beneficial to rely on experts.

We have been providing SEO for business services for a number of years, and really understand what it takes to get your website to the top of the search rankings. We have SEO packages to suit all business sizes and can tailor a programme for your specific needs.

Click here to see what we can do for you.

If It’s Going To Be Done, Do It Right!!

One of the most common misconceptions regarding the implementation of SEO for a small business relates to the expense. The most important thing to remember is that when SEO is done correctly, it is an investment, not an expense.

Unlike some traditional methods of advertising such as newspaper adverts or flyers, whilst an organic and well-planned SEO strategy can take a period of time to put into place, once the results start to come in, there is no upper limit to how great your ROI may become.

Depending on the type of business you run, the implementation of SEO does not have to cost a small fortune. Even small businesses which have a limited marketing budget will get effective help from SEO when it comes to increasing their visibility, rankings and more importantly, leads.

Although some competitive industries may require a larger SEO budget to achieve their desired results, through wise investment, many small businesses will be able to obtain the benefits of effective SEO which can make a significant difference to their business.

Location, Location, Location

Around 1 in 3 searches on Google are focused on a place or location and this number is even greater when considering searches from mobile devices – nearly a third of all searches carried out.  In order for small businesses to reach their target audiences, they must ensure that they are ranking high in these local searches.  There are several strategies for targeting local search, including:

• Listing your business in the relevant industry and geographical directories/listings
• Creating keywords that combine the services that your business has to offer with your physical location (e.g. “web design” and “Oxted”)
• Optimising your company’s website for mobile search usage

Overlooking Social Media

A lack of time and resources are often the things that small businesses suffer from the most. Because of this, managing Social Media accounts is sometimes considered a bit of a waste of time.   Even worse, small companies will set up their accounts, then ignore them, leaving a trail of empty, outdated profiles.

In fact, posting on a variety of social media accounts will afford your business a wealth of opportunities for ranking.  Not only are social media channels great opportunities for businesses to put out quality content, but links from social media channels are growing increasingly more important to search engine websites.

Unsure which social media channel is right for you?  See where your competitors are online, and more importantly, where your customers are.  Start with just one profile on the channel that is most applicable to your company, such as LinkedIn or Facebook.  Refresh the content often, build quality links, and as you get more comfortable, add on channels as needed.

Which Areas Does A Local SEO Campaign Target?

Covering a wide variety of areas that must be targeted, a typical local SEO campaign will include amongst others:

• The creation of an optimised GMB listing
• Mobile friendly/first website
• Geo-focused content
• Online reputation management
• Citations and NAP consistency
• Social media campaigns
• Local link building
• Google LSAs (Local Services Ads) (if suitable)

By placing an emphasis on the most beneficial areas of SEO, our local SEO marketing techniques can often take less time to produce effective results, therefore quickly helping to increase the levels of traffic to your website.

Footprint Digital expertise in all aspects of SEO offers the chance to receive a swift and effective ROI.

• Top Google’s Listings with Footprint Digital Local SEO –Footprint Digital and our team of SEO experts possess all of the skills needed to get your business to the top of Google’s natural listings and to appear on Google Maps & Places. These are vital if you want people locally to easily find your small business.
• Achieving Fast Results –Google’s PPC (Pay Per Click) platform, Adwords, offers the most effective method of quickly attracting business on the internet. We will get your PPC Marketing up and running for you and have customers finding your business and services in the shortest possible period of time.
• Social Media Interactions With Customers –Social Media for business is the fastest growing method of opening lines of communication between a small business and its customers. By allowing you to offer updates, receive feedback and get in on what your customers want – all at a very low cost – social media platforms are quickly becoming one of the primary advertising methods for businesses throughout the UK.

Further Information

If you’d like to speak to us regarding any of our services, including our online marketing services, please give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.

Currently Browsing: How Can SEO Help Your Business?

SEO is a constantly evolving landscape and it is easy to see why this may be the case but we would like to shine a light on some of the basics to help provide you with a little insight.

It is all too easy to get wrapped up in trying to figure out exactly what search engines are looking for and tailoring all of your efforts towards them.  However, whilst that cannot be completely ignored, the most important part of any SEO campaign is considering who you are targeting (i.e. your potential customers).

Creating The Right Content

With any website and any SEO campaign, it is essential that you make your audience your number one priority. By thinking like your audience and acting like your audience, you will be able to create content for your audience.

More than anything else, are you producing quality content? Are you getting your message across? Are you waffling on for pages when a few well-chosen words would do? Are you providing a reason for people to spend more than a few seconds reading your pages?

These are just some of the questions to ask yourself in assessing whether you’re providing quality content. This is not the place to skimp since it is the cornerstone upon which nearly all other factors depend.

Tips For Creating Content

To help you along the way, we have drawn up a list of some of the most important tips to help provide the best possible start to creating engaging content for your website.

1. Spend some time making a decision on which writing style will be the most appropriate for your line of business and your audience? Informal and chatty, or Formal and serious?
2. Keep the flow of content to your website regularly. Either in the form of landing pages or blogs.
3. For any blogs, enable your readers to comment on your blog. Creating the ability to interact with customers is absolutely essential.
4. Spend some time researching your competitor’s websites. Without actually lifting content straight from them, there is every chance that you will find some great ideas that you may be able to tailor for your own needs.
5. Always keep your eyes open. It can be amazing where you can find some great ideas for interesting and engaging content for your website.
6. Use links and images. No one wants to look at a page full of dry text; appropriate and entertaining images break up the flow of the blog. They also provide invaluable keyword search opportunities, if properly labelled and tagged. Links in your blog to relevant pages on your site will keep people on your website! Links to other sites, or supporting articles add a credence to your blog that is also crucial to your SEO.
7. Link your blog to all your social media channels. This will let all your followers know when new content has gone up – keeping them in the loop and encouraging them to visit your site.

Further Information

If you’d like to speak to us regarding any of our services, including our online marketing services, please give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.

Currently Browsing: The Importance Of Quality Content For SEO