Top Tips For A Strong SEO Strategy

We’ve all read the articles telling us that SEO is dead and we should be looking at other ways to promote our businesses online. The truth lies somewhere in the middle: yes, it’s becoming increasingly important to create high-quality content rather than playing the keywords numbers game.
But SEO is still an important part of your online marketing strategy – you just have to think about it in new ways.

Here, to give you some idea of what this might involve, are some of keys to successful SEO in today’s marketplace:

Headlines: You may have a well-written post, but it’s useless if the headline doesn’t make people click through to it. It has to strike the right balance between being interesting and truthful at the same time: people are getting more savvy about click-bait headlines these days so if they go through to a link and the article isn’t actually about what the headline suggests it is they will quickly navigate away from the page. So pick the most salient points, make the headline snappy, clever if possible and ensure the phrase appeals to your target audience.

Original Content: SEO is no longer just about getting any content at all up there as long as it contains your keywords: the aim is to create original, engaging and entertaining content. Remember that to build your brand you want people to share your posts and they won’t do this is if they’re read it all a thousand times before. Thinks of new ways to present your information, use images and present answers to common problems your target audience may have. That’s the way to get a post to go viral.

Inbound Links: Creating your own content is important, but you should also have plenty of other tools in your online marketing arsenal. Bear in mind that there are plenty of other ways to get inbound links to your site and you should be exploring these. Guest blogging has been a popular thing to do in recent years, although you need to be picky and find someone who adds value to your brand. You can also try using content delivery networks such as Taboola, which can also be instrumental in bringing in more traffic. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, this is a kind of automated service that places your content on sites that reach your target audience. Some companies like to share content with links to their site on community platforms such as Reddit.

5 Essential Tools Your Business Needs To Boost Your Online Presence

Let’s face it, if you are still not marketing your business online than you are not reaching at least 80% of your total potential customers. With the internet evolving every day and most people having internet access, you cannot afford not to market your business online. By building a good online presence and building your brand, you can reach millions of customers from all parts of the world! It’s time to get educated! Read on…


You absolutely need a website!
It all starts with your own company website. You can easily register a domain name for your website and preferably use your company name as the domain name. Showcase your company brands and services offered on your site. Give more details and information about your company and make sure your contact details are on your site for potential customers to be able to reach you.
Your website will enable you to even sell your products online. Just add a shopping cart and online payment processer on your site and you are good to go. Your website can make sales for you 24 hours a day, while you sleep!

Once your website is up and running, it is important to update it regularly. You want to encourage your website visitors to be repeat visitors and to do this you need to always have new content on your website. Whether you update your site with your latest products, latest company news, products specials, related articles, anything! Just make sure you always have fresh new content on your site to make people come back for more. You want to use your site to build a loyal reader base that will later convert into customers.

Add a Blog to your site!
A blog is a great way to add fresh content your site. You can add just about any content in a blog, preferably articles relating to your company and products. The great thing about having a blog is that it allows reader engagement and allows your readers to comment on your blog posts. This interaction will help build a relationship with your customers and increase repeat visitors.
Not only will this be good for returning customers but this will help you get new customers. The more your online presence improves, the more likely your website will start appearing in search engine results such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Just make sure your blog is easily located on your website so that your readers know where to access it. Similar to your website, make sure you add fresh new blog posts on a regular basis to your blog so there is always new content for your repeat customers.

Add Social Media to your site
Make sure that you add links to social media accounts of your company on your website. Yes, you have to create social media accounts. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even Instagram. They all work in building your brand online. Create these accounts using your brand or company name so they can easily be found on these sites.

For Facebook, you will have to create a Facebook page with the same name as your company. The content on here will be similar to a blog and very simple to run. Social media is powerful as it allows people to share posts and content. This creates the possibility of information about your company going viral. Your company will be reached by more users on these platforms.

More importantly you will be reaching potential customers who are using mobile devices. As technology is evolving, people are becoming more comfortable in using their mobile devices in buying products online. By aligning your business with social media you are tapping into those customers that do not use computers to access the internet. This places you 10 steps ahead from your competitors.

Go Viral with YouTube
Like social media, YouTube has also become very social. YouTube videos get shared everywhere! From blogs, tweets and Facebook even on instant messengers. Did you know that YouTube has over 1 billion users? How many customers do you think you can reach on YouTube…Thousands!
Make sure you create a YouTube channel with your company name and upload videos on a regular basis. Upload cool videos that people will like and share. Even YouTube videos end up in search engine results. This will boost your online presence.

Email Marketing
Email marketing on its own has been a successful way of converting leads into customers. There is no reason why you cannot take advantage of this. By adding an email submit form on your website, you can easily build a database of potential customers who are interested in your service or products. You can send them regular newsletter about your latest products, special and useful information. Just make sure that you do not spam them.
Building an online presence may seem like a difficult task for any small business but by implementing these 5 tools, you will be known to the world sooner than you ever imagined!

What Are The Most Common SEO Mistakes?

SEO is easy to get wrong. It’s a fact. But when you get it right, it can make an immeasurable difference to your company’s online standing. But a bad SEO strategy can be more damaging than no strategy at all. With this in mind, it’s just as important to learn what not to do as it is to keep up-to-date with the latest techniques. There are plenty of common SEO mistakes that companies continue to make time and time again. To help you avoid making them yourself, here are some of the main ones:

Choosing The Wrong Keywords: Your keyword selection, if you’ll pardon the expression, is key. Many people choose the wrong ones simply because they sound impressive, or perhaps because they don’t fully understand their customers’ priorities. It pays to do proper keyword research and analysis to find out exactly what kinds of terms your customers would type in when they are searching for products or services like yours.

Keyword Stuffing: This is an absolute no-no, as anyone who has fallen foul of this rule will tell you. Stuffing is when a person over-uses their keywords or phrases. This was OK when search engines were relatively unsophisticated, but now they can pick up on keyword-heavy blocks of text and you may well be penalised. This is because search engines are geared towards helping users find the highest quality content. A piece of text that simply repeats the same thing without telling them anything new does not qualify as useful. You have been warned.

Duplicated Content: More and more, search engines are penalising websites that don’t publish original or high quality content. It used to be far too easy for companies to simply copy large chunks of text from one site to use on their own. Doing this on a regular basis will now reduce your rankings to get producing some useful and original content.

Too Broad-Based: If your website doesn’t have a strong focus then search engines will find it much more difficult to direct users to your site. And once they’re there, if your content is too broad-based you will be lacking a certain authority. What you need to do, at least to begin with, is specialise. That way you can have a small number of really targeted keywords and work on building up a reputation as an expert in your field.

Poor Backlinks: Backlinks are just as important for your SEO rankings as keywords. But you have to be selective about them: links from sites with little relevance to your subject or to poor quality sites will not do you any favours. And another thing – never be tempted to buy backlinks to boost your search online standing. Search engines are now wise to this and regard it as a form of cheating. If you practice this regularly you may well find your site blacklisted and this is very hard to recover from.

What To Ask An SEO Consultant Before Hiring Them

If you’ve decided to outsource your SEO to improve your company’s online presence then it’s vital you hire the right person. If you don’t take your time choosing them then you could well end up with someone who doesn’t have enough expertise or just isn’t right for your business. If this happens you are essentially throwing away the money you spend on them. 

On the other hand, if you get it right then a good SEO consultant can greatly enhance your visibility and increase your customer base. 

With that in mind, here are just some of the questions you could ask a potential consultant to find out whether or not they’re what you’re looking for:

How Long Have You Been In Business?: SEO started in a rudimentary form in the 1990s when it was more of a niche specialisation. Nowadays you are likely to be able to choose from hundreds of firms. To whittle them down, therefore, it’s a good idea to find one with a good few years of experience behind them.

How Would You Improve My Company’s Online Presence?: This is a vital question to ask and the way that the SEO consultant answers it should go some way to telling you whether they are worth hiring or not. When you ask this question, rather than going into an incomprehensible spiel about their own methods and how they work, they should pay attention to what makes your company unique. They should be asking you what you want to achieve and then discussing ways they might help you achieve this which are appropriate to your own business sector and customer base. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ with SEO, and a good consultant should know this.

What Previous Results Have You Had?: Any consultant you talk to should be more than happy to provide you with details of previous satisfied clients so you can contact them if you wish to ask about the service they received. Conversely, it can also be a good sign if they are willing to talk about projects that did not go so well, and what they learned from this.

What Guarantees Can You Give?: This is something of a trick question, but it’s worth asking if you’re unsure. Remember that there can be no guarantees with SEO, so anyone who claims that they can get your website No.1 Google rankings or something equally unrealistic is lying to you to get your money. What they should be doing is suggesting and implementing ways to help you get the best from the Internet and showing you how to proceed in the future. 

How Do You Charge?: You need to be sure about this before you sign up to anything. Some SEOs will charge a flat fee for their services and others will charge per hour or per individual project. As long as you have agreed in writing exactly what you are paying and compared this with what other SEOs are offering you should be ok. Never go into this kind of business relationship without signing a fixed contract or you may find yourself being charged extra for ‘additional’ services.

How To Use Keywords In SEO

SEO is the process of increasing the online visibility of a website by improving its search engine rankings. This incorporates a number of elements, but as any internet marketing company will tell you, using the right keywords effectively is the cornerstone of any SEO strategy. Once you have identified the right keywords to suit your company you are on your way to boosting your online presence.

So how do you go about choosing these all-important keywords? The first step is to do some keyword research within your target market. Find out the kinds of terms potential clients are most likely to type into search engines, and then whittle these down to which are most suited to your own company.
Also, consider whether you are going to use broad or targeted keywords, or a combination of the two. Broad keywords will tend to describe what your company does as a whole so they are likely to net you in more visitor overall. However, targeted keywords may get you higher percentages of conversion rates (when a visitor is ‘converted’ into a paying customer) because they are relating to more specific products and services. A customer has to actually be searching for a certain product to find your website so they are more likely to buy it.

Once you’re worked out which keywords are likely to work best for you, think about where you will need to place them. The most obvious place is in the keyword Meta Tag which can be found in your website’s html head section. Your keywords should be placed here in the order of importance, from largest to smallest.

Keywords should also be distributed throughout your web copy. Bear in mind that search engines tend to pay the most attention to the first 200 words on a page, so make sure the words are used here.  They can also be used within headings and anchor text (link text) to help boost search engine rankings.

There are certain ‘don’ts’ when it comes to keywords as well. For one thing, you should always use a keyword density checker to make sure you are within the appropriate boundaries. ‘Keyword stuffing’, as the over-use of keywords within a website is known, is frowned upon by search engines and you can be penalised for it. Also, if you decide to place your words in anchor text, such as an image link, do make sure it is relevant and appropriate to the context.

Learning to use keywords effectively can be difficult at first. If you need help getting started, it could be worth using the temporary services of an internet marketing consultant. You will be able to find plenty of these in online business directories, but just make sure you check their credentials thoroughly and get recommendations before you hire them.

How Does SEO Help Businesses?

We’ve all heard how SEO can help businesses boost their online profiles by improving their search engine rankings. There’s no doubt it works, if done right, but there are many different strategies and technologies involved these days so getting it right as a novice can be complicated. Hiring a specialist SEO company to do the job for you can considerably increase your sales and your standing amongst clients or key stakeholders.

The first point to remember is that SEO does not work over-night, so persevere with it. Whether you are hiring an expert is this area or attempting to do it yourself, there are a lot of different facets involved. Firstly, keywords: Ideally, when somebody types your keywords into a search engine you want your website to appear on the first page of results. To do this, you have to carry out some keyword research. Identify your target audience and find out what kinds of terms they are most likely to use. It is easier to improve your search engine rankings with keywords if you work in a niche market where there is slightly less competition.

Once you’ve found your keywords, you need to get the density right. Keyword density is the percentage of times your keyword appears on the web page compared to the total number of words on the page. If you get this right you will achieve higher search engine positions, but if your density is too high you may be flagged for what is called ‘keyword spamming’.

Links are also used  as part of an SEO strategy. These can be internal links between pages of your own website to increase the visibility of important sections. Another method is to create reciprocal links with another website to ensure mutual traffic, but this is less widely used today. Website owners also often submit their sites to website directories which will then include a back-link. Basically, the more genuine back-links to your site, the better your rankings will be.

Social media links are gaining popularity as more and more businesses turn to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to build business contacts and improve their visibility. Use Twitter as an example: of course you shouldn’t include a link to your website every time you tweet, but if you are posting a particularly useful bit of information or promoting an event, it is perfectly ok to give a link back to the info on your website.

Keywords and link building are just two examples of the wealth of SEO tactics at your disposal. Other areas, such as metadata, can be more complicated. We would recommend hiring an SEO Agency, at least initially, to help you understand how strategies can be successfully implemented. In time, if you are patient, you should begin to see the results as your search engine rankings climb and your website traffic increases.

How Quickly Can You Get My Website Onto Page One Of Google?

It’s possibly the most frequently asked question of every internet marketing company.
Hardly surprising really when you consider how valuable a spot on Google Page One can be for the vast majority of businesses.

For those who achieve success in reaching this seeming illusive territory the rewards can be enormous.

It’s important to realise that optimising your website for the search engines is not a quick fix, but rather a medium to long-term objective. That said, dependent on the competitiveness of the keywords and phrases you want to rank highly for, you could begin to see notable results as early as 6-8 weeks’ time.

Do not be tempted by any internet marketing company which promises you overnight success or instant results. Unless these people possess some kind of magic powers the rest of us mortals don’t have, then their processes will be at best dubious and like many before you, you will almost certainly find your website plummets in the rankings suddenly, or even disappears altogether, along with the so-called internet marketing company hopefully!

Another trick of the unscrupulous agencies is that they will promise you will achieve Google Page One status for a keyword or key phrase, which turns out to be irrelevant. Let’s say your widget manufacturing company is called ABC Widgets London.

Now do you think you’d be impressed by an agency that claimed they could get “ABC Widgets London” onto that exclusive first page?

Well I sincerely hope not:

1. Because there is no competition for that particular phrase
                and
2. 99% of people searching for your type of business won’t be aware you exist, that’s why they are searching, so the likelihood of someone actually typing your company name into the search box is pretty slim.

What you need is to rank highly for those terms your customers will actually use to find you. In the case of our example you would be aiming to attract rankings for search terms like: “widget manufacturing”, “widget manufacturers”, “widget production”, and the like.

This is where the knowledge and skills of your internet marketing advisor will come to the fore. The aim of every competent internet marketing company will be to get its clients’ websites to the top of the rankings . . . and to keep them firmly fixed there.

Clearly, in the world of internet marketing, you cannot do much better than to rank top of the pile every time someone searches for what your business offers.

How To Market Your Online Business

The world of e-commerce is moving so fast these days that if you don’t have a strong e-commerce marketing strategy your company not be able to keep up with the many competitors out there. In the days before the internet, it used to be much simpler to market your company, but now there are so many option open to you online it can be confusing. Here are just some of the online marketing strategies you can use to get your e-commerce business noticed and increase your sales:


Email Marketing: Make sure your website includes an email registration form where visitors can sign up for product information or special promotions, for example. Ensure the form asks for relevant information so you can categorise your clients according to their priorities and preferences. Then, when it comes to sending them marketing emails you can employ a targeted approach rather than sending the same emails to everyone on your list.

Blogging: Blogging on your website is a very cheap and easy way to promote your business online, as long as you are providing the reader with relevant and useful information. If you do this, you can become established as an authority on your market sector and, hence, a reliable supplier.

Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of e-commerce marketing. You pay each time somebody clicks on your advert and is directed to your website, so it can be a very quick way to drum up some new business. There are other equally effective marketing methods which are more slow-burning, but if you are in a hurry – say, for example you have a limited product promotion – this could be for you.

Use Social Media: The majority of online companies also now recognise the benefits of using social media such as Facebook or Twitter to draw attention to their activities. The trick when doing this is not to advertise your products too belligerently – social media is about taking part in discussions and forums, and building up an online presence in a more gradual way. You can also use your posts on these forums to build back links.

Use SEO: Search engine optimisation is important for improving your search engine rankings. You need to use the correct keywords in your headers, categories, meta descriptions etc. to boost your online presence and increase traffic to your website. It may even be worth hiring in a specialised SEO consultant to do this job for you because it’s quite a skill but it’s a key part of your online marketing strategy.

Marketing a Small Business on a Budget

Setting up a small business can be expensive and you may not have a huge budget available for your marketing. This article offers help and advice on managing your advertising in a cost effective manner.

Marketing is vital to get a business noticed by its target audience and this is possibly just as important if not more so if your business is on a small scale. With so much competition around you cannot simply sit and hope that people will find you or before you know it your business will be making a loss. Many people assume that marketing is going to be incredibly expensive and never make it past handing out a few leaflets. However this need not be the case and even those on a tight budget can find marketing methods to suit their needs.

Lead Generation and Email Marketing

Setting up a website is incredibly important as this gives you somewhere to refer potential customers to but you need to make sure that you are thinking about every visitor being a possible sale or lead. For this reason you should try and make sure that you entice them into leaving their contact details so that you can contact them with future promotions and offers and generally remind them that you exist. This can be as simple as you make it and many people often just have a short contact form for their name and email address. This is a great way to market your business without being expensive or too time consuming.

Search Engine Optimisation

This type of marketing is something you may have heard of since SEO, or search engine optimisation, is incredibly popular and does not cost much to put in place. It will however take a little time and effort initially to establish important keywords and phrases that people use to search for what you offer and make sure these are placed in all of your web content. In this way you should find that people are able to locate your website quickly as you will rank well in the search engines. If you are in a competitive industry search marketing companies could help you to increase your rankings.

Pay per click advertising

This is another marketing strategy that does not cost much but will take a little time and effort on your part; however the results will be worth it. It is important that you understand how this works before you begin otherwise it could end up costly. For this reason you should take your time to do your research or perhaps consider hiring a marketing consultant of some kind to make sure that you are doing it right.

SEO Copy is the Spice of Internet Life

In these digital times, it's all about the internet – plain and simple. Get your online offering really in gear and you'll reap the benefits when it comes to increasing traffic taking notice of your product or service.

With readable and exciting copy on your website, that also contains the relevant SEO, trending keywords – your 'authority' rating within the Google/search engine stratosphere will quickly begin to grow.

But, before you go any further it's a good idea to compare your business model to the following key points to see if you can really benefit from organic SEO:

1. Think about what your product, service or industry is and research as to whether users/customers actually use a search engine to look for it.
2. Consider the appeal of your website. Customers will be drawn to a well designed site that has good functionality and champions the virtues of the brand.
3. It is a competitive market out there. Double-check that the pricing of your product or service compares favourably with competitors.
4. In terms of a customers’ search engine input, is your site brought to their attention via the relevant phrases and keywords?

Right, so now you've decided SEO is definitely for you we can highlight a few sure-fire tips that will have your online presence really begin to pay dividends. It may take a fair amount of hard work and time but ultimately, organic SEO will prove more self-fulfilling long term than the immediacy of paying for your Google/search engine ranking.

Appeasing the almighty god that is the ranking algorithm, as hinted upon earlier, starts with the quality and regular updating of your content – add sound link building into the equation for good measure too. So ensure you have professionally written and, just as importantly, unique copy with your carefully selected primary keywords and key phrases from Google Adwords. Search engines find it impossible to resist tantalising, natural and fresh content.

Another good trick to consider is to make sure whenever you refer to yourself on your site, you always include your location as often as you can. For example, when you mention your head quarters use "London based office" or "our London store/office". This means you will begin to snare local searches of your product or service.

Of course, this is just the tip of the SEO iceberg and just the beginning of internet marketing – search online for a good SEO consultancy and see what else they can do for you and your business to climb those search engine rankings.

Things to Watch for When Hiring a Search Engine Marketing Agency

Why spend your valuable time trying to optimise your website when you can hire a search engine marketing agency? Instead of dividing your time on various website tasks, it makes sense to hire a consulting professional so you can do what you do best - run your business. Selecting the right company however can be rather tricky because so many of them sound like a good deal when they are anything but. However, if you know what to watch for during your search, you will find the right company to optimise your website and increase your sales.

Look for Directory Submission Service Options

A good marketing professional will know how to submit your business listing to the leading web directories in addition to those portals that are industry or niche-specific. This facet of a search engine marketing agency can be quite valuable because a superior description of your business in the appropriate category of the leading web directories will increase the probability of being added swiftly and correctly. Directory listings can promote your website popularity and boost traffic. While there are some free listings to be had, a professional will know the fees and correct options to choose from to make directory submissions count effectively.

SEO Services

A marketing company that can offer Google optimisation can be worth their weight in gold if the result is increased sales. They will work with you in regards to researching the correct keywords as well as make changes in your website content, page tags, included web links and other page coding. In other words, not only will they ensure that your website is still user-friendly but also relevant to the top search engines.

Guaranteed Improvement in Web Traffic

An effective consultancy company can guarantee improved performance of your website or your money back. The goal is to improve your SERP rankings and most good companies can do that. The point is to increase your conversions of page visitors to new customers. Because the goal is a higher conversion rate, the number of overall web visitors to your site may drop. However, this can be good when the visitors are more likely to be serious potential customers instead of lookie-lous who are just cruising the internet. Quality over quantity of visitors is the overall goal.

Red Flags to Watch For

Companies that promise not to change your website at all are likely not effective SE marketers. There must be some changes, whether in links, keywords or tags, in order for the major search engines to recognize your website. And you definitely do not want them embedding hidden links, text or even dummy pages as search engines will eventually penalise your company for it.

The final red flag to consider are those absolute guarantees given to you about your website reaching number one in the major search engine rankings. Because these search engines use complicated algorithms, there is no way to guarantee a number one ranking, only guaranteed improvement. Keep these things in mind when hiring a search engine marketing agency.

Organic Internet Marketing - Get More Results for Less

Organic internet marketing results in your prospective customers finding your company when they look for the thing they want. This marketing method can encompass a lot of work but once you reach the goal of being listed as highly relevant to strategic keyword phrases in your industry, it can be much simpler to reach your goals.

A lot of consumers today look to search engines to connect them with their desires. The check search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. They also check websites, such as social networking sites, that could point them to links and to advertisements. Getting listed for the phrases your prospects are surfing for could help you get more customers. And if you work at it organically, it could cost you less money to attract customers.

Organic SEO Benefits

There are many facets to internet marketing but organic SEO (search engine optimisation) could be the most beneficial for an online business. Whilst paid advertising does have its merits, perceived relevancy in a number 1 position in Google's search engine results pages could be very powerful. Most consumers will be more trusting of an "I feel lucky' click rather than a "sponsored" one. It's not a bad idea to do both but it's definitely a good idea to take a serious attempt at ranking well organically.

Save Money On Marketing

And, in terms of your marketing spend, organic internet marketing costs a substantial amount less than a typical paid advertising campaign. Not only will you be seen as highly relevant to your subject matter but each visitor to your site won't cost a fee. Pay per click campaigning can quickly add up and it could take a lot of testing and tweaking to find the right keyword / ad blend to achieve results.

SEM vs SEO - Guarantees?

Search engine marketing is a viable internet marketing technique. Sponsored advertising can be highly effective but it can also be highly expensive. Campaigns often operate on a pay per click and there's no guarantee that the click will result in a sales.

With organic search engine rankings there are also no guarantees that a click will result in a sale but with this sort of traffic, there is no cost to you to receive a website visitor. The rankings attract visitors and then you can work on converting them into customers. Yes, it could take time, effort, and money to get your site listed at the top of the search engines but the rewards of these efforts could be substantial with a lower TCO than sponsored ads.