9 Great Reasons Why Your Business Website Doesn’t Need SEO Outlined by Bamsh Digital Marketing What? An SEO agency suggesting there may be some businesses or websites that would not benefit from being optimised? Have turkeys started to vote on Christmas? Any good SEO company will be happy to state if their services would not...
Information on how to get more customers to your website
Websites and digital marketing can be incredibly frustrating for a business. You can have the best-looking website, that you know will convert visitors to paying customers, yet you cannot get the “traffic” to it. This helpful article is full of information on how to get more customers to your website.
Get An Accurate Number On Current Visitors
Measuring the number of current visitors to your website is imperative. Any changes, improvements or alterations you make to your website you will want to see how it impacted on visitor numbers and their behaviour. The first step is to install analytics to your website. Although alternative solutions are available, the standard analytical system used is the free system provided by Google. Simply search “Google Analytics” and follow the easy to understand instructions on adding it to your website.
The next step, or for websites that already have analytics is to ensure that data you are seeing is factual and accurate. There are many reasons why the data can be skewed. Adding “spam filters” to analytics blocks many of the websites that attempt to put false data in your results. Adding spam filters to Google Analytics blocks the robots and websites that would otherwise add their false data to yours. In blocking spam visits in Adwords you will have a base of accurate visitors in which to analyse and measure the impact of changes and improvements to your website.
Make Sure Google Can Read All of the Website
What good is that website page that you have perfected to drive traffic and convert visitors if Google cannot see it? Contrary to popular belief, Google does not see (or index) all pages of all websites. There are a number of tasks you can do to ensure that you give your website the best chance of being indexed.
The first one is a little technical, the others are not.
Now that you have created a Google Analytics account, create a Google Search Console account. In Analytics, link the search console (formerly Google Webmaster) to your analytics account. In “search console” ensure that your robot txt file can be read.
The next step is to add a sitemap to search console. This informs Google of the pages and images that are available on the website to be indexed.
If important pages, that you know will convert visitors, are not indexed you can “fetch as Google” – in search console add the page URL (website address) you wish to be indexed. Google will fetch this page and index it.
Secure Your Website
If you think that getting a website traffic is frustrating, even more frustrating is if you finally get visitors to your website and then your website goes down. Protect your website from security failures and breaches:
Keep plugins and software up-to-date – hackers use out of date plugins to access your website and take control of it. Logging in regularly and updating plugins (it only takes a minute) will protect you from such breaches.
Use a password that is difficult to crack – I know, that you already know, that your login details should be unique and difficult to break. The trouble is that most of us know this, then don’t actually apply it. We assume hacking will happen to someone else and stick with our old favourite password. If you want to protect yourself from hacking – DON’T!. Use 3 random words to create your password.
Keep a backup – If the worst happens you can easily restore your website if you have taken a copy, called a backup. The hosting account where you keep your website can automatically create backups of your website on a regular basis. Daily, weekly or monthly. Backups can soon fill your hosting account and so set the frequency on how often you genuinely update your website. Remember, and set dates in your diary, to review the number of backups in your hosting
Use the Correct Search Terms or Keywords
To get more customers to your business website you need to understand the search terms (called keywords) that potential customers will enter into Google. Researching the correct keywords is as simple as using the correct tool. The best SEO keyword research tool is free and easy to use. Enter the search terms that you think people will use and they will show you the actual keywords customers will use.
For each keyword, it offers an easy to understand matrix of the search volume, the CPC if using AdWords, the competition on Adwords etc. However, its best feature is the ability to see, by keyword and location who currently ranks for the search term and a breakdown of the SEO on their website, making it easy to find a way of jumping ahead of the competition.
Whichever keyword research tool you use, you need to consider the search terms that people would use to find the product or service. You need to think like a customer, not someone who works in the industry.
People will often search for a problem. Rather than searching for a “cheap plumber” they will likely search for “fix leaking tap”. In making the content of your website aimed at problems and solutions you will be providing the user (and Google) with the website content they are looking for.
Great content has three functions. Firstly, good content that addresses a problem for a potential customer and provides a solution, is likely to engage the website visitor and encourage them to continue reading. Secondly, once you have captured the attention of the reader you can provide a solution to their problem and start to convert then to a paying customer. Lastly, great content gives Google multiple opportunities to understand the message your website, or webpage, or blog post is trying to convey. Once Google understands the message, and if it deems it quality information, it will rank the content for searches based on the message.
The format of your content should be:
Introduction to the issue/problem.
Why this is usually an issue and the effects this issue can have for the reader.
Name and explain a number of solutions for the customer and how they will resolve the issue.
Why you are the company to provide these solutions.
A call to action
Place the Search Terms in the Correct Place
The structure and layout of your website should be such that search engines, like Google, can easily understand what products or services you are offering and in which geographical locations. This involves adding “behind the scenes” data that Google can read to fully understand the messages your website is trying to convey and which geographical locations you would like the custom from. This information should be unique and relevant on EVERY page and image on your website.
Adding your relevant search terms to the page/meta title, the main headline on the page, in the 1st paragraph of copy and in the call to action at the bottom are some of the areas of the website that Google will look for important phrases.
Use Trusted Websites to Promote Your Website
Using the power of other local websites you can borrow their authority and add it to your website. A good example of this are local business directories.
You can also add data to your own website to make it easier for Google to understand the location(s) to prioritise your business in the search results.
Because of the huge volume of content all wanting to be ranked on the multitude of search engines, it makes it impossible for something of that scale to be manually checked and ranked by search engines. This is why software and algorithms are put in place, as it’s a sheer impossible task to manually rank these amounts of sites with a fair approach. Whilst software is advancing at a relatively fast rate, there isn’t something on the market that can actually read the validity of content outright, there are things that can check the keywords count etc. and this is an element we try to focus on when creating our content. Aspects that we know are going to be picked up on by the software search engines use are always going to be a priority to use as these are the largest steps we can take into advancing the ranking of a website. If the software were to remain the same, it wouldn’t take a few months before people would manage to completely overhaul and understand every facet that the algorithms look at to rank, making the rankings void as the system would have been exploited by everyone wanting to rank their sites.
Because of this never-ending chase, we are always going to be searching for the new element search engines are going to use once the old ones have been removed or updated. It’s this process that is important to our process as the fundamentals of search engines ranking systems are always wanting to find the most supported and linked page to place on page 1. The algorithms are always going to change, which is inevitable for search engines to remain a valid platform for sites, which makes it tricky for local businesses to rank their website. We thankfully are one step ahead as we have managed to find a new facet, which Google’s algorithms use to rank websites.
Local SEO – Schema Data
This new element is called Schema data, which is the new component that Google especially likes to pick up on, through the coding in all web pages. What it is basically doing is thoroughly checking through a new source of code, which we are able to input a complete list of directory listings that gives sites we rank a huge advantage as search engines greatly favour sites with this Schema data. A simple breakdown of Schema is that it is a semantic vocabulary that search engines like Google can use to read your website. What we are effectively doing is manually inputting data that we know is effective, in a source of code,
In simple terms – schema data adds to your website a number of important pieces of information.
Your Status – It marks your website as a local business
Your Name – Business name
Description – What services and products your business sells
Address – The address of your local business
Profiles – linking together all of your social profiles such as Facebook and Twitter
Longitude & Latitude – of your business address
This means that on every page of your website there is hidden code that informs search engines exactly who you are, what you do and where you are – very powerful information for search engines and one that has accelerated the rankings of local businesses to the first page of Google and into the Google Maps.
Ranking Local Businesses – Directory Listings
Listings on directory websites is an important SEO factor for local businesses. Google has a number of directories they trust to provide to them with data on local businesses. As part of our standard SEO services, we list our local business in over 500 directory websites. Most of these are free, and as a local business owner, you could do this yourself. However, each directory takes about 10 minutes to create (10 minutes x 500 directories = 83 hours of work). They also should be checked and updated on a monthly basis.
When combined with Schema the power of directories for local listings is multiplied 100’s of times.
Use a Local SEO Expert
Regardless if you are a one-town business or a national (or international) company with numerous branches – Local SEO can be a huge factor in gaining leads and customers to your business.
Seeing That I Have Very Good Rankings, Can I Cease Doing SEO?
Let’s say your company has invested in Search Engine Optimisation marketing by hiring a professional SEO (search engine optimisation) agency and delegating selected strategies to be done in-house. The aim when you start these types of services is to make it to the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).
After a couple of months working with the SEO agency and consistently carrying out your in-house strategies, your website eventually ends up listed near the top of the SERPs for your important search phrases. After accomplishing this increase in the rankings, it really is natural to wonder, “Can I stop my SEO services and keep my position in the search engine rankings? ”
On the surface, it might seem like when you have reached the top of the search engine results, the work is completed and your site will continue to be near to the top for your major keywords. However, the internet is much too competitive of a marketplace for this to be true. Effective SEO marketing requires numerous practices all working at the same time to attain not simply superior search engine rankings but eventually boosting conversion rate by generating increased traffic from your potential audience. After the processes at work are halted, your website will slowly begin to fall in the rankings as your rivals with active Search Engine Optimisation campaigns take your place. It requires ongoing Search Engine Optimisation maintenance to remain at the top of your competition, Search Engine Optimisation is not a one-time wonder.
Here are important reasons why you ought to continue with your Search Engine Optimisation marketing and advertising or SEO services despite obtaining great rankings.
Remain Above The Competitors
The web allows anyone with a connection to advertise their business meaning competition for search engine rankings is tough. It’s been continually demonstrated that websites that show up near the top of the first SERP get a greater click-through rate and determined by what you are promoting, you’re likely to be competing with hundreds or even thousands of other websites looking to rank well for similar keywords and phrases. When you reach the top of the search rankings and stop using the systems that got you there, the competitors will begin to take the top rankings and drive your site further and further down.
Satisfy Changing Algorithms
Google is considered the most used search engine on earth and gradually, some might discover different ways to manipulate its algorithm with black hat SEO tactics to acquire high rankings. Due to this, Google frequently updates its algorithm to change the way it crawls and rates web pages. It is very important to keep up with Google algorithm criteria adjustments because a specific Search Engine Optimisation technique that once was effective can become unbeneficial following an update or even more serious, be eligible for penalisation by Google. You need to modify your SEO advertising and marketing strategies with each Google algorithm update or your search positions may very well be hurt by the new algorithm. The experts in an Seo company are always informed on the most recently released Google enhancements and will help you change your Search Engine Optimisation marketing for better results.
Produce Innovative Content
There is a saying within the Search Engine Optimisation marketplace that “Content Is King” as it normally takes brand new, valuable, and fascinating articles to maintain your audience or client base returning to your website. People consume information on the web at an unbelievable rate, especially on mobile phones, of course, if you stop delivering brand new written content, you might lose appeal among your audience as the previous content gets stagnant or irrelevant. Google is also far more generous to websites that continuously offer new material. Content creation needs to be at the centre of your respective SEO marketing strategy and an SEO agency can provide article writing expertise if your business does not have the time or the resources to get it done in-house.
SEO Marketing And Advertising Usually Requires Upkeep
As outlined by a search engine optimisation ranking study accomplished by Search Engine Roundtable, quitting all Search Engine Optimisation marketing activity after attaining the top of the search rankings can result in a drop in the rankings as high as 30 %. Various Search Engine Optimisation methods make an effort to build inbound links to your website so when you cease building links, Google might determine that your website is no longer lively or relevant. The same study from Search Engine Roundtable also demonstrated that companies who continued their Search Engine Optimisation online marketing after getting good search rankings enjoyed up to an 18 % increase in their search rankings.
Keep Up With New Trends And Technologies
The world wide web is constantly transforming with new technologies, trends, and equipment and it is important for your website to continue to be in line with the hottest changes in technology. One example is, a lot more people do online searches from a tablet or smartphone than a traditional laptop or computer, which was not the case a short while ago, and if your website is not mobile friendly, most mobile users will immediately abandon your site. As the technology shifts, you must reexamine your SEO marketing strategies to work with the changes and you could even want to make modifications to your website. This is yet another area in which it helps to work with an SEO agency because SEO authorities stay up to date on the newest trends and technological innovation and will assist you to adjust your Search Engine Optimisation plan and your website as necessary.
Keep Up With Adjustments Inside Your Business
Corporations often go through regular changes whether they are adjustments to their industry or internal changes such as new solutions to conduct business, new products or services, or rebranding. Whenever you complete a significant alteration to your enterprise, you should reflect the change in your SEO plan. Rebranding and new products or services are wonderful reasons for new content that will keep your current target audience engaged whilst bringing in new potential prospects.
Match Modifications In User Search Practices
The general trends in consumer practices tend to change over time and unless you alter your SEO approaches to support these adjustments, you’ll reduce search rankings, as well as your web traffic, will go down. The rise in using mobile devices stated previously is one major alteration of visitor behaviour that directly influences the search rankings and customers to your site. Another alternation in visitor behaviour you need to watch out for is keyword phrase use. The key phrases used to find a specific product or service may well alter as time passes and if you are concentrating on keywords that aren’t used, you will not rank well for the new search phrases. Continual keyword research is an important facet of SEO maintenance.
Match Changes In End User Practices On Your Website
People will get to your website through numerous paths and they each make use of your website in a different way after they arrive. Web analytics data enables you to view the activity of one’s visitors on your website along with how they got to your website along with what set of keywords and phrases they employed to get there. This information can assist you to enhance your general SEO marketing. Knowing what most website visitors do on your website can help you strengthen precisely what is working on your website as well as understanding what is not working to create a much better user experience. If you notice that most end users get to your website via a social media platform like Facebook, then strengthening what’s presently working on your Facebook page may help attract substantially more traffic.
Website analytics can be challenging and time-consuming to review for many corporations however the information it provides is vital for good SEO marketing. Agencies that provide Search engine optimisation services can offer web analytics consulting and advise or make alterations within your SEO program based on the data.
Develop Authority In Your Market Over Time
One of the ultimate targets of Search Engine Optimisation marketing is to establish your business as a sector authority in your selected particular niche. This involves constant article marketing that’s relevant and timely for your target market because it takes time to build your authority. If you discontinue your SEO marketing techniques and strategies and do not develop fresh new content for your specific audience, you won’t be in a position to grow your company as an authority in your particular niche.
Preserve Your Online Reputation
There are some things on the web your company’s online presence and rankings in combination with user feedback and remarks regarding your business make up your online reputation. It is important to sustain an impressive online reputation since most users look to the internet first if they need services or products and your online reputation will have an enormous influence on the opinion that users get of your company. Maintaining a superb online reputation calls for constant activity to reply to feedback and reviews, both negative and positive, or you will get overloaded with poor reviews which will injure your online reputation and search engine rankings.
Just because you have attained your desired place in Google’s SERPs, this does not mean the work is over. Your Search Engine Optimisation marketing strategy ought to be constantly implemented and adjusted to stay high in the SERPs which will help boost your conversion rate and Return On Investment. Ceasing all Search Engine Optimisation activity when you finally ascend the search rankings will result in your search rankings and website visitors to tumble because you will have nothing new to give your target audience and no idea of how your focused audience behaves on your website to improve their experience. A Search Engine Optimisation agency has the skills to not only increase your rankings in Google’s SERPs, but additionally put into action a constant SEO marketing plan to keep good rankings.
If there was ever a way to get people to your website the “Ian Culverhouse” game on Talksport is a perfect example! We explain why.
What is the Ian Culverhouse game?
If you listen to Talksport on a Sunday morning you will hear the two presenters, Barry Glendenning and Max Rushden play the infamous “Ian Culverhouse” game. You may have heard the two presenters taking it in turns to state names of people, until finally, after much stealth and tactical manoeuvring, someone says the name “Ian Culverhouse”.
Who is Ian Culverhouse?
According to Wikipedia:
Ian Brett Culverhouse (born 22 September 1964 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire), is an English former professional footballer and current first-team manager at Kings Lynn Town. He was a defender who played in the position of right-back. In May 2014 he was sacked following suspension from his duties as Assistant Manager of Aston Villa.
His early career – Culverhouse began his career with Tottenham Hotspur. He found first-team opportunities limited there and made just two league appearances for the club, though he did get a winner’s medal in the UEFA Cup as he was an unused substitute for Spurs in the 1984 final against Anderlecht.
Norwich City career – In October 1985, Norwich City manager Ken Brown paid £50,000 for Culverhouse, who would go on to spend ten years at Carrow Road. At the time Culverhouse joined Norwich, they were in the Second Division and were favourites to win promotion to Division One. They duly did so, and Culverhouse ended his first season at Carrow Road with a division two Championship medal.
For a while during the 1986-87 season, Culverhouse found himself dropped from the first team in favour of the manager’s son Kenny Brown. But Culverhouse regained his first team place and attained a level of performance and consistency that made him a fixture in the starting eleven for the best part of a decade. He was part of some of the greatest moments in the club’s history – the 1988-89 season that saw Norwich come close to winning the League and FA Cup double, the 1992-93 campaign when the Canaries finished third in the inaugural season of the FA Premier League and the subsequent European campaign of 1993-94. Culverhouse acquitted himself well on the European stage, though he missed the away leg at Inter Milan’s Giuseppe Miazza stadium – the match that saw City eliminated from the UEFA Cup – due to suspension, having picked up two yellow cards in the competition.
Culverhouse only ever scored two goals for Norwich in his 369 appearances – one in a 1988 Full Members Cup match against Swindon Town, the other in a 1994 league match against Everton. But his reliable performances in defence led him to be a very popular figure with the club’s supporters. In 1991, he was voted Norwich City player of the year and in 2002 – in a poll amongst supporters to mark the club’s centenary – he was voted the best right-back ever to play for the club and made the ‘all-time City XI’.
Culverhouse is a member of the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame.
Post Norwich career – A contract dispute led to Culverhouse falling out of favour and being dropped from the first team during the 1994-95 season. He was sold to Swindon Town for £150,000, to the displeasure of many Norwich supporters. He was released by the Robins in 1998 and played briefly for Kingstonian and Brighton & Hove Albion. He began his coaching career while at Brighton where he coached the youth team. He has subsequently been youth team coach at Barnet, Leyton Orient and Wycombe Wanderers.
Culverhouse was named Colchester United assistant manager under Paul Lambert. Culverhouse, Lambert and ‘football operations manager’, Gary Karsa all resigned from Colchester to take up positions at Norwich City on 17 August 2009.
Aston Villa
On 5 July 2012, it was confirmed that Culverhouse and Gary Karsa would be joining Paul Lambert at Aston Villa, following him from Norwich City.
Now famously named in the historic ‘Culverhouse’ game on The Warm Up.
On 15 April 2014, Culverhouse and head of football operations, Gary Karsa were suspended after being accused of bullying and aggressiveness by players and other members of staff at the club. Gordon Cowans and Shay Given were promoted temporarily to take their respective places. Culverhouse was sacked following an internal investigation, on 25 May 2014.Roy Keane later replaced Given, with the latter remaining at the club in his usual player position.
The Rules of the Game
You may have been listening to the game trying to work out the rules for yourself. There is always a tweet to the show asking “what are the rules of the Ian Culverhouse game” and each time Max Rushden will “inform” them the rules are on the Talksport website. This a genius way to get people to the radio stations website – as the rules are not listed on the website – as there are NO RULES. That’s right – no rules at all. That is what makes it genius!
You have probably heard the presenters discussing their tactics for the game, or how they “warmed up” or practised before the game – all part of the “in the know joke” being played on a weekly basis.
What Lessons Can Be Learnt From The Game?
If you are a business owner or Tradesman and have a website, you know that getting potential customers to your website is the key to getting new customers and increasing revenues. Although the primary purpose of the game is entertainment, the way the Culverhouse game is used to drive people to the website is nothing less than brilliant.
If you are looking for similarly brilliant ways of getting people to your website then please contact us on 0117 325 1099 and ask to speak with “Ian Culverhouse”
If you have visited your website and found a post has been changed to a message stating “hacked by the White Hat Hacker” or a “Dr SILnt Hill” we can fix the problem.
Who are the white hack hacker and Dr SILent Hill?
We will never know who the White hat hacker is – however, he or she is trying they are trying to do you a favour.
Dr SILnt Hill is known. In fact he has a Facebook page and advertises that he has hacked your website to the whole hacking community.
What is a white hat hacker?
According to Techopedia “A white hat hacker is a computer security specialist who breaks into protected systems and networks to test and asses their security. White hat hackers use their skills to improve security by exposing vulnerabilities before malicious hackers (known as black hat hackers) can detect and exploit them. Although the methods used are similar, if not identical, to those employed by malicious hackers, white hat hackers have permission to employ them against the organization that has hired them.”
The hacker is bringing to your attention the fact that your website is vulnerable to malicious hacking. Hacking that could take down your website permanently.
The solution to the White Hat Hacker:
At SEO Company Bristol we have the expertise and software to block hacking attempts. We can also recover your website from existing hacks from “the white hat hacker” and “Dr SILnt Hill” and all known Hackers.
We add the highest state of the art anti-hacking software to your WordPress website. We also add monitoring software to alert us to any attempts to gain entry to your website. Our team work 24 hours around the clock to ensure someone is on duty to fight off any malicious attempts to gain access, hack or take down your website.
How much does this service cost?
Compared to losing your complete business website or the cost of the ransom a hacker may change to give you back access to your website our services are low cost. There is a small charge for removing the hack, and a small ongoing monthly fee for our 24-hour monitoring and protection service. Typically, for a normal website, this is £99 set-up and £99 a month.
Don’t lose your business website – get protected today. Call 0117 325 1099
White Hat Hacker & Dr SILnt Hill Frequently Asked Questions
Why was my website targetted? It may be little comfort, but the attack was not aimed at you. Hackers have software that is constantly scouring the internet for websites that have left a hole in their security. Yoru website was found by the software, and typically, a post is added to your website.
Why do hackers do this? White Hat Hackers would argue that they are highlighting the security flaws in your website and they are a positive force. However, finding a post on your website, that you may have taken hours to write or that was driving great traffic to your website, has been hacked NEVER feels like a positive.
Can I get my website back under my control following a hack? Yes, the hacker has identified a hole in the website security. Our service identifies that hole and close it.
Could I be hacked again? Once we have closed the gap in your website security the website is unlikely to be hacked again – that is until a new gap is discovered.
How often could my website be hacked? We receive emails from the WordPress security authorities approximately every 12 hours – everyone is a potential gap in your website security that can be exploited by hackers.
How does your service overcome the hackers? We utilise the latest high-tech monitoring software to monitor for potential holes in your website’s security. We also deploy a number of plugins to your website to block the varies ways that hackers will get into your website.
Are there any other benefits of your services? Keeping your business website up and running not enough? The software we use also stops spam comments getting posted to your website.
Why is your service so low-cost? We have 100’s of websites that we are responsible for their marketing and rankings. Having one of our SEO customers websites hacked is hugely negative to their rankings, business leads and digital marketing. We have a team in place to monitor and protect against hacking for our clients. The associated costs of the security service against hackers is split amongst a huge number of clients and is therefore relatively low cost.
How fast can you implement your services on my website? We offer a 24-hour service and can have your website protected within the hour.
To find out more about our anti-hacking services, available across the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, South Africa and Europe please telephone +44 117 325 1099.
What is today’s equivalent of Yellow Pages? SEO Company Bristol Explains
From almost the day it was launched in 1966, until the end of the “Noughties” the Yellow Pages was the tool that most business’s used to get leads for their business. With the decline in size, advertisers, and users many businesses may be looking for the modern day equivalent of the Yellow Pages for generating leads for their business. What is today’s equivalent of Yellow Pages?
Yellow Pages Alternatives
As the author of this article, I offer my opinion on the Yellow Pages from a base of having worked for the company for almost a decade between 2006 and 2015. When I joined the company many Sales Staff would tell me of the “glory days” where business owners would welcome you with open arms and listen to virtually any proposal put in front of them. The business owner was pleased to see the Yellow Pages representative as the product was delivering such fantastic results in terms of ‘return on investment’ for their business. In my experience, the businesses I was spending time with still, even in 2006, were getting great returns from the “yellow book”.
Is It Still Worth Advertising In The Yellow Pages?
Having left the company over a year and a half ago it is difficult for me to say. However, very rarely did I meet a stupid business owner and the decreasing number of advertisers probably indicates that they are not seeing the same business or leads generated from the Yellow Pages.
Yellow Pages 2005/2006 Vs 2016 /2017
What is the modern day equivalent of the Yellow Pages?
What was it that made the Yellow Pages so successful? Ease of use was a significant factor. Every home and office had a Yellow Pages somewhere convenient. It was easy to find a business to supply a product or service by simply looking in the relevant section or “classification” and choosing from the 100’s of companies adverts to find a company that sold or offered exactly what you were after. Convenience, choice and ease of use.
Today, convenience is “at your fingertips”, not in a book somewhere nearby. Choice of 100’s of relevant companies in each classification is also a thing of the past. In terms of ease of use the Yellow pages remains the same, find the book, find the classification and choose a company. The difference is the general public’s view of ‘ease of use’. Today, having to put down your phone to find and pick up a book could be considered less than convenient.
Today, the young and the old alike use Google find the services or products of local companies. Whether it be a mobile phone, tablet or laptop people will use Google as the easy and convenient tool to find products or services. Whatever is hand, and usually one of these items is nearby and convenient.
Like a “full page” in Yellow Pages, smart businesses owners need to dominate their market on Google. This means having a website that is easy to find for those “word of mouth” referrals, but also a website that dominates the search results when a potential customer, who has not heard of your company, searches for a product or service.
But Google is Complicated, isn’t it?
Another advantage that Yellow Pages had were its sales force. Yes, many businesses owners would say, “they always want me to spend more money”. Well, to dominate a classification normally meant having a larger advert than your competitor and that meant spending more money. But Yellow Pages staff were experts in how the book worked and how to get the most from it. They could explain this in simple terms that business owners could understand. The business owner chose how much to spend, what messages to add to the advert and the rest was completed by Yellow Pages.
The difficulty with Google, and how to get the most from it, means is that the average business owner has to either spend time on it or trust an expert and those experts can often lose the average business owner with jargon.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Dominating the search results in Google can be simple and jargon free.
Making Google Easy For Business Owners
SEO Company Bristol offer a number of solutions for businesses to make sure they dominate the local market. This is done in two ways:
Getting your website “Google friendly” so when searches are done on a phone or computer your website is found. This is called ‘search engine optimisation” or SEO.
Like Yellow Pages, you can buy dominance of the local market. The old way was to buy a full page advert in Yellow Pages so that everyone looking in that section would see your advert. Google has adverts too, and you can buy the top positions on the Google search results and be ahead of the competition. This is called Google Adwords.
The smart business owner does both to make sure they get the best of all advertising.
If you would like to know more about the services offered by SEO Company Bristol then please telephone 0117 325 1099.
Is your business website an active tool to bring custom and revenue in to your business? Is it the best sales tool your company has? Or was it something that was built because you thought you needed a website and infrequently thought about?
Never has there been a better time for online or “bricks and mortar” businesses to get more customers from the internet. Mobile phone and mobile device searches are higher than ever and search engines, like Google, are keen to promote local businesses in their search results. However, running a business in your field of expertise does not necessarily lend itself to being an expert in online marketing.
Re-targeting Website Visitors To Increase Conversions
As a business owner you spend a lot of time promoting your business and your website. You may spend money on advertising with Google, search engine optimisation and social media marketing – to get potential customers to your website. If you have made that investment in time and money – make the most of it and re-target your website visitors to massively increase the conversions of website visitors to paying customers.
Types of Website Visitors
If you spend any time analysing the Google Analytics for your website you will know that it holds a lot of information regarding the interaction of website visitors with your website. It has the number of visitors, how many sessions (or how many times the number of visitors visited your website), how many pages they viewed, how long they stayed on your website and much more. However, you can categorise your visitors in to two groups:
Types of Website Visitors – Bouncers
“Bouncers” are people that visit your website and either leave straight away or stay on that one page and do not visit any other pages on your website. In essence they visited your website and “bounced” off. Google measures this and provides a percentage in your analytics as a “bounce rate”. This highlights to Google how relevant your website was to the search entered in to the search bar. The lower the bounce rate the better and if your bounce rate is above 40%, then your website is not attracting visitors for the correct search terms.
Depending on your business and how your website is structured can impact your bounce rate. If you are a taxi company and people land on your websites home page, there isn’t really much research to consider before making a decision to call you. Most website visitors will see the telephone number on the home page and make the call. This would count as a ‘bounce’. So a “no research required” business is likely to have a higher bounce rate.
If you are a business where customers are likely to make a considered purchase i.e. car dealer, cosmetic surgeon then you would expect website visitors to view more than one page on your website and hence not “bounce”.
Although almost always a good sign, a very low bounce rate can also be an indication that your website needs attention. If your bounce rate indicates that nearly every visitor visits more than one page – can they easilt find teh information they were looking for or did they have to hunt around your website for the information?
Types of Website Visitors – Voyuers
Voyeurs are people that tend to read a lot of information on a business or product before making a decision to contact or not contact you. They will often view numerous pages before making their decision. Although they will be positively impacting your bounce rate, they can still be detrimental to how Google views your website. If Google sees that they visited 5 pages of your website and then did not make contact, or even worse, left your website and went to a competitors website – this indicates to Google your website is not as relevant to the search term.
Re-targeting Website Visitors
Regardless if the visitors to your website found what they were looking for on the first page they landed or they viewed multiple pages – on average only 2% of website visitors will interact with your business in making contact or visiting a store. 98% will leave your website and you have likely lost them as a potential customer.
Re-targeting is the process of advertising to the 98% that visited your website and didn’t buy.
Why Re-target Website Visitors?
Consider the journey the customer took to get to your website.
They had a need for a product or service
They spent time searching Google for a supplier
They found your website by using search terms relevant to your products or services
They read your information on your website
Then they left your website
Why did they leave? On a positive note they may have made a deciosion to visit you and buy the product. They may have mad the decision to telephone you about your services.
However, they could have decided that your prices were to high, they may not have been ready to buy that product or service at that time or perhaps they didn’t have the confidence to buy from you as they haven’t heard of your company before or haven’t seen your brand around the internet.
You spent good time and money to get them in front of your information and re-targeting them allows you to offer discount (if appropriate), put your product or services in front of them time and time again, catching them when they are ready to buy and also builds confidence in your brand as they start to see your company, services and products advertised wherever they look on the internet.
How to Re-target Website Visitors
Re-target to their Computer
When you are at your laptop you will often get messages appear at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. These are normally notifications from your computer or installed software needs updating or can be latest offers.
These are notifications that get your attention.
Once a person has visited your website we can re-target them with messages that appear as notifications at the bottom right-hand corner.
This is called “push notifications” and is the latest development in website re-targeting as is hugely powerful in re-marketing to potential customers. The power to re-target them whilst at their computer.
Ranking Local Businesses with the Power of Schema Data
SEO Company Bristol, “not just SEO, not just Bristol” offer the full digital marketing services you would expect from one of the best Internet marketing companies in the UK. We offer search engine optimisation (SEO), Google Advertising, Pay per click (PPC), video creation and marketing, social media management. We offer a local SEO service for businesses in Bristol, work with companies throughout the UK and internationally. Find out what we can do for your business by calling 0117 325 1099
Back in the day of MySpace, Bebo and Ask Jeeves, search engine optimisation was as easy as re-posting the same content over and over again hoping that the primitive software search engines like Yahoo and even Google would use to rank websites. Someone wanting to rank “Used Cars In Newport” would simply have to post a page on their site titled used cars in Newport, with complete garbage content either ripped straight from somewhere else or featuring something that had no relevance at all to the subject at hand. SEO and search engines in general have evolved and progressed much further than people can even fathom, as the complex algorithms and the hundred of hoops you have to jump through to successfully rank a website has become almost unfeasible without constant management and catered attention. This advancements made by search engines means SEO isn’t something that is cheap and easy to do. It’s a skill that requires training and careful attention to shifting changes, which are always going to happen. It’s like a figurative game of catch up as search engines like Google are always going to change their format of data collection when ranking websites.
Because of the huge volume of content all wanting to be ranked on the multitude of search engines, it makes it impossible for something of that scale to be manually checked and ranked. This is why software and algorithms are put in place, as it’s a sheer impossible task to manually rank these amounts of sites with a fair approach. Whilst software is advancing at a relatively fast rate, there isn’t something on the market that can actually read the validity of content outright, there are things that can check the keywords count etc. and this is an element we try to focus on when creating our content. Aspects that we know are going to be picked up on by the software search engines use are always going to be a priority to use as these are the largest steps we can take into advancing a websites ranking. If the software were to remain the same, it wouldn’t take a few months before people would manage to completely overhaul and understand every facet that the algorithms look at to rank, making the rankings void as the system would have been exploited by everyone wanting to rank their sites.
Because of this never-ending chase we are always going to be searching for the new element search engines are going to use once the old ones have been removed or updated. It’s this process that is important to our process as the fundamentals of search engines ranking systems are always wanting to find the most supported and linked page to place on page 1. The algorithms are always going to change, which is inevitable for search engines to remain a valid platform for sites, which makes it tricky for agencies like us to rank. We thankfully are one step ahead as we have managed to find a new facet, which Google’s algorithms use to rank websites.
This new element is called Schema data, which is the new component that Google especially likes to pick up on, through the coding in all webpages. What it is basically doing is thoroughly checking through a new source of code, which we are able to input a complete list of directory listings that gives sites we rank a huge advantage as search engines greatly favour sites with this Schema data. You may ask what happens if you don’t have this source of directory listings, well it isn’t a problem through our process as we create over 500 high power listings that we can combine with the Schema data to rank sites faster than ever before.
A simple breakdown of Schema is that it is a semantic vocabulary that search engines like Google can use to read your website. What we are effectively doing is manually inputting data that we know is effective, in a source of code that would otherwise be automatically created and formatted.
Schema has different associations for a huge amount of different listings, things from what we’ve found to be most effective like directory listings and content linked through sub-sites and social media, to other sources like individual listings are going to heavily refer to your site. These by themselves are going to give your site great links that is going to help the ranking process. So we are already one step ahead even if we aren’t focusing on the Schema data
Another great reason why Schema is such an effective tool for SEO is that more is better, which is rare with ranking as many search engines will deem overloaded content as spam, as it reads it as “too much”, which is why a gradual approach is favoured with most elements of SEO. Schema differs in the context of volume, as you can submit a mass amount in a short amount of time and the benefits wont suffer a diminishing factor through a larger volume of links. Google in specific will favour more links than fewer, so this is an element we can rush different links through.
For the time being, Schema data is currently still an “un-tapped” vein for SEO agencies to use. It’s surprising how little this effective tool is used for businesses as we have seen great benefits from it. We feel Schema will become the basis for many different ranking elements, so we feel validated in pursing it further, and exploring new techniques that incorporate Schema data going forward in refining our SEO process.
For more information about advertising your business, contact Martyn at SEO Company Bristol _____________________________
SEO Company Bristol are experts in getting local businesses ranking on search engines, such as Google. If you would like more information on getting your business, company, products or services found on search engines by potential customers please telephone 0117 325 1099.
We offer local SEO services to business owners in Bristol. We have numerous satisfied customers throughout the UK and internationally.
History of Ranking Local Businesses
Back in the day of MySpace, Bebo and Ask Jeeves, search engine optimisation was as easy as re-posting the same content over and over again hoping that the primitive software search engines like Yahoo and even (early) Google would use to rank websites. Someone wanting to rank “Used Cars In Newport” would simply have to post a page on their site titled used cars in Newport, with complete garbage content either ripped straight from somewhere else or featuring something that had no relevance at all to the subject at hand. SEO and search engines in general have evolved and progressed much further than people can even fathom, as the complex algorithms and the hundred of hoops you have to jump through to successfully rank a website has become almost unfeasible without constant management and attention. This advancements made by search engines means SEO isn’t something that is cheap and easy to do. It’s a skill that requires training and careful attention to shifting changes, which are constantly happening. It’s like a figurative game of catch-up as search engines like Google are always going to change their format of data collection when ranking websites.
Of course, they do this to provide the user, your potential customer, with a satisfactory experience. Working with search engines to provide relevant information for the search terms or keywords you want your local business to be found for is the secret to beating your competition and getting more business leads. Help the search engines and they will help you.
Working With Search Engines
Because of the huge volume of content, all wanting to be ranked on the multitude of search engines, it makes it impossible for something of that scale to be manually checked and ranked. This is why software and algorithms are put in place, as it’s a sheer impossible task to manually rank these amounts of sites with a fair approach. Whilst software is advancing at a relatively fast rate, there isn’t something on the market that can actually read the validity of content outright, there are things that can check the keywords count etc. and this is an element we try to focus on when creating our content. Aspects that we know are going to be picked up on by the software search engines use are always going to be a priority to use as these are the largest steps we can take into advancing a websites ranking. If the software were to remain the same, it wouldn’t take a few months before people would manage to completely overhaul and understand every facet that the algorithms look at to rank, making the rankings void as the system would have been exploited by everyone wanting to rank their sites.
We understand the principles that search engines apply to research a websites content to best place it in the results. We apply this to our customers websites to get them found on page 1.
Keeping Ahead of the Competition
Because of this never-ending chase we are always going to be searching for the new element search engines are going to use, once the old ones have been removed or updated. It’s this process that is important to our success as an SEO Company, as the fundamentals of search engines ranking systems are always wanting to find the most supported and linked page to place on page 1. The algorithms are always going to change, which is inevitable for search engines to remain a valid platform for sites, which can make it tricky for SEO agencies to rank their clients websites. We thankfully are one step ahead as we have managed to find a new approach, which Google’s algorithms is using to rank websites in 2016.
Schema Mark-Up
This new element is called Schema data, which is the new component that Google especially likes to utilise, through the coding in all webpages. What Google is basically doing is thoroughly checking eash website and webpage for a new source of code.
This source code is formatted in such a way that Google can easily understand:
Category (i.e. “Local Business”)
Company Name
Company Address
Company Telephone Number
Description (200 words that describe your business)
Associated Social Media Accounts
Associated Links To Your Website (Directory Listings, Trade Associations etc.)
Customer Reviews
Longitude & Latitude (for use with Google Maps)
A simple breakdown of Schema is that it is a semantic vocabulary that search engines like Google can use to read your website to understand what the message of your website is trying to convey, and where you are located. It then uses this information to position your website in the search results and the Google map listings.
What we are effectively doing is manually inputting data that we know is effective, in a source of code that would otherwise be automatically created and formatted or, in most cases, missing from your website. We have seen very positive results – we have seen a new client website rank on page 1 within a few weeks and for them to dominate the Google maps listings – another position on page 1 of Google you will want your business listed.
Schema has different associations for a huge amount of different listings, things from what we’ve found to be most effective like directory listings and content linked through sub-sites and social media, to other sources like individual listings are going to heavily refer to your site. These by themselves are going to give your site great links that is going to help the ranking process. So we are already one step ahead even if we aren’t focusing on the Schema data. If you do not have a considerable number of local directory listings for your business – we can help. Call SEO company Bristol on 0117 325 1099 to find out more about our directory listing services.
Another great reason why Schema is such an effective tool for SEO is that more is better, which is rare with ranking as many search engines will deem overloaded content as spam, as it reads it as “too much”, which is why a gradual approach is favoured with most elements of SEO. Schema differs in the context of volume, as you can submit a mass amount in a short amount of time and the benefits wont suffer a diminishing factor through a larger volume of links. Google in specific will favour more links than fewer, so this is an element which enables us to get first page rankings quickly for a client.
For the time being, Schema data is currently still an “un-tapped” vein for SEO agencies to use. It’s surprising how little this effective tool is used for businesses, by SEO Agencies for their clients, especially as we have seen great benefits for our customer from it. Schema will become the basis for many different ranking elements, so we feel validated in pursing it further, and exploring new techniques that incorporate Schema data going forward in refining our SEO process.
SEO Company Bristol offers Schema data services as part of our standard SEO packages and as a one-off activity for websites. For more information on adding Schema to your website please telephone 0117 325 1099.
The best and fastest growing SEO company in the United Kingdom has now expanded in to the USA. If you are a company or business that has a website you would like to see at the top of search engines, such as Google, then call us now on (toll free) 855-304-1400
We will write a full post tomorrow when we have caught out breath, from the Reach Local staff and customers calling us.
From tomorrow we are offering experienced PPC sales people the opportunity to join our (very rapidly) expanding sales force.
Our systems are VERY similar to the systems you and your customers are used to. Auto bid management, daily, weekly and monthly reports etc. Ensuring that every £ invested by a customer delivers exceptional ROI.
Happy customers and a happy sales team.
For more information call from Friday morning in 0117 325 1099
It is heavily rumoured in the search engine optimisation world that UK and USA SEO and digital marketing agency “Reach Local” will today announce that they are going in to administration.
Reach Local UK USA Administration?
What does this mean for Reach Local SEO Customers?
If you are a Reach Local SEO customer, you will appreciate that having a professional SEO agency working on your website improves the websites visibility, increases website traffic from potential customers and grows company revenues. If the rumours are true and Reach Local goes in to administration – what are your option.
One option is to stop all SEO work on your website – although you will quickly lose the benefits that previous work has delivered.
Another option is to find a professional SEO agency to continue the work.
At SEO Company Bristol our motto is “not just SEO, not just in Bristol” which encapsulates that we work with businesses, of every size, all over the UK and USA. As well as the search engine optimisation services you have enjoyed from Reach Local – we go a little further for our SEO clients by including website content, video creation, video distribution, social media content, social media distribution, press release creation, press release distribution as well as link building services – all in the price of our standard SEO services. Every customer gets a hand-written (not system generated) report on the work we have carried out on their behalf, and the improvements in rankings and website traffic. This report is designed to be easy read and understand.
If you are a Reach Local customer, not only will you (in our opinion) receive a better SEO service, but at a much lower cost. Our local SEO services start at £399 ($637) a month through to national SEO Services from £899 ($1,439) a month.
We deliver exceptional results that deliver a great ROI.
Trip Advisor is an essential marketing tool if you are a restaurant, hotel or attraction. It is the first ‘port of call’ for any potential customer. Making the most of Trip Advisor can make or break a business.
For more information on how we use Trip Advisor as part of our SEO services and digital marketing service for restaurants, hotels and attractions call us our Trip Advisor expert on 0117 325 1099.
One review we did for a restaurant in Bristol gets over 4,000 views a month. These are people searching for your business and looking for information. If only half of the people searching go on and book a table that could be 2000 searches x 2 people on a table = 4,000 covers a month or 0ver 100 covers a day. That is the power of Trip Advisor for a business.
Fоr mаnу in the travel аnd tourism іnduѕtrу, Trір Advіѕоr іѕ crucial. Aѕ always whеn I travel trip аdvіѕоr іѕ mу guidance. Thаt іѕ what trip аdvіѕоr іѕ fоr. Folk аrе jumріng оn thе bаndwаgоn аѕ far аѕ Trip Advіѕоr is concerned. Trір аdvіѕоr іѕ mу mаіn ѕоurсе of rеѕеаrсh information when planning a trір. Trip Advіѕоr tірѕ are holiday tіmе and lіfе ѕаvеrѕ. A review we did for a hotel in Spain has had over 1,700 people read the review in the first 3 months. Again, these are people searching for information about that particular hotel. If half read the review and booked a room that would be 850 rooms x 3 nights x £80 a night = £204,000. Still think that Trip Advisor can’t be a tool for your business?
Trip Advisor is dеѕіgnеd fоr guests tо rероrt their еxреrіеnсеѕ оnсе thеу have ѕtауеd аt a рrореrtу. Aѕ I’m sure you саn іmаgіnе, hearing about guests іѕѕuеѕ durіng a ѕtау via Trір Advisor іѕ nеvеr preferable аѕ we cannot dо аnуthіng tо mаkе аnуthіng bеttеr. But responsing to a trip advisor review shows, even with a simple apology, shows that you care about your customers. Good or bad – trір аdvіѕоr rеvіеwѕ wіll bе uѕеful fоr you and your business.
Trip Advisor Hotel Best Practice:
We asked one of our SEO customers, who have excellent feedback on Trip Advisor, their best practice and tips.
“First place on trip аdvіѕоr іѕ well deserved. One of thе reasons wе are a tор tier hоtеl оn trір аdvіѕоr іѕ bесаuѕе we rеѕроnd рrоmрtlу аnd аррrорrіаtеlу tо guеѕt іѕѕuеѕ. When dealing with the general public you cannot please everyone, all the time and less than perfect feedback is not possible. How you react to negative feedback is the measure of yoru customer service. Even a simple comment acknowledging a review shows you are on the ball. Something like “We аrе so glаd thаt уоu hаvе tаkеn the tіmе tо share уоur thoughts, аѕ Trір Advіѕоr іѕ thе mоѕt truѕtеd rеvіеw ѕіtе, and can ѕtrоnglу іnfluеnсе our future guеѕtѕ. Each and еvеrу rеvіеw оn Trір Advіѕоr іѕ reviewed by оur mаnаgеmеnt аt our hotel ѕо thаt everyone іѕ in tunе wіth the еxресtаtіоnѕ of оur guеѕtѕ.”
Trip Advisor Tips
The first tip is to create or claim your listing. Unless you are a brand new business, someone will have created a listing for you. Claim it! Trip Advisor Business Listing
The second tip is to make the Trip Advisor listing as attractive as you would your website. Add a header to the listing that is consistent to your branding. Ensure the Trip Advisor listing cannot be mistaken for anyone else.
Tip three is to add images and photographs to your listing. Let visitors experience the establishment visually. If you are a restaurant add photographs of the food, of you are a hotel add images of the bedrooms, pool, gym and bar. Let the website visitor familiarise themselves with the surroundings
Tip four is top advertise your listing within the premises. Trip Advisor supply door decals and stickers to go behind reception. They can issue certificates stating your review status. Order them and display them – customers who review in Trip Advisor will be prompted to do so.
The last tip is one of the most important – never be tempted to buy Trip Advisor reviews. This is a clear breach of their terms and conditions and will get your business de-listed.
For more information on how we use Trip Advisor as part of our SEO services and digital marketing service for restaurants, hotels and attractions call us today on 0117 325 1099.
