1) If you don’t invest in SEO there is no point having a website. Nobody will be able to find the site unless it is indexed and ranking well for the keywords and phrases that relate to the products and services you are offering. 85% of people use the internet to search for the products and services they need and so it presents a huge potential market that any business cannot afford to ignore.
2) SEO can help you to reach your sales targets. By improving your online presence you can attract more visitors to your website and if the website is good enough and your product or service is competitive then there is no reason why you can’t convert a healthy percentage of these visitors.
3) SEO helps you to interact more effectively with your customers. By using social media to keep customers up to date on the latest news from within the business together with product launches and anything else they might find useful, businesses can interact with their client base and potential customers to gain a better understanding of what they are looking for.
4) SEO can help to build up brand awareness. Optimising your website and being active on social channels can help to increase awareness about your brand. As well as ranking for your company or brand name you can make people realise your business exists by appearing for lots of different search keywords and sending out regular posts and status updates on blogs and social networks.
5) SEO can give you valuable insight. By using statistics generated through analytics tools it is possible to see where traffic is coming from, what keywords are being used to find your site and what pages visitors are looking at. This data can then be manipulated to improve marketing campaigns and if necessary shift the marketing focus from one product or area to another.
6) SEO is a small price to pay. Compared to more traditional marketing methods such as advertising in a magazine, promoting a new product on a billboard or running a television advertisement, SEO represents a minimal cost and yet can return fantastic results to get websites ranking for not just local searches but UK wide and internationally if the product or service is to be sold overseas.
7) SEO presents a much more viable option when compared to paid search listings. Many businesses simply do not have the budget to spend several pounds per click to get people to visit their website and in any case it has been proven that around 90% of people click on natural listings compared to only 10% on paid listings.
8) SEO can help you stay ahead of the competition. Unless you work in a very specific market niche you will find that you have close competitors who also offer the same products or service as your business. If they are optimising their site for search and you aren’t you could quite simply get left behind.
9) SEO can add value to your business and in particular your online business. If you sell products or services online then the value of the traffic your site receives will in effect be an asset to your business.
10) With SEO the sky’s the limit – there is no limit the amount of traffic you can receive when implementing organic SEO. Unlike pay per click where the amount of visitors you can receive will be limited by your budget, with organic SEO there is no upper limit and over time you will see a positive return on investment.
Posted by Frances Berry
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Top Tips to Build Your Brand Socially
Social media is rapidly becoming one of the most important elements in online marketing. In a whitepaper published recently by Search Metrics it was confirmed that social signals from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are now correlating strongly with good rankings in Google's index. So how can businesses use this to their advantage and build their brand up using social channels?
Firstly, it is important not to shove your marketing message down the throat of your followers. People do not use social media to be blatantly advertised to, so it is important to make them aware of your brand through posting interesting information and reacting quickly and positively to anyone who follows you rather than posting over and over again about how wonderful your brand is.
Secondly, you need to figure out how people can relate to you. If you are using something like Pinterest then you can post images of the things you like and the things you think your customer demographic likes rather than just images of your own products (which again is too hardcore sell for social media). If you are using Facebook or Google + try to talk around the topic and not just about what's going on in your business.
Thirdly you need to get creative! Think outside the box and use images where you can to attract attention. When using channels such as Twitter you don't get many characters so you need to choose your words wisely and think about your how you want your message to be received - remember that you are not trying to sell but build up brand awareness.
Fourthly - think about who you are trying to connect with - other businesses or potential customers? The message will be different to each demographic and which one will ultimately listen? Recent surveys have shown that women use social media more than men and that women are responsible for around 85% of purchases online - so tapping into this female audience could be an important part of your social media strategy.
Finally - there is no other way around social media other than to spend time on it. You need to be active across as many networks as possible if you want to reap the rewards. Blogging, tweeting, liking and +1ing may be time consuming but if you do it right you will get a positive return on your investment.
To find out more about social marketing campaigns you can visit the SEO it Right site.
Posted by Frances Berry
Firstly, it is important not to shove your marketing message down the throat of your followers. People do not use social media to be blatantly advertised to, so it is important to make them aware of your brand through posting interesting information and reacting quickly and positively to anyone who follows you rather than posting over and over again about how wonderful your brand is.
Secondly, you need to figure out how people can relate to you. If you are using something like Pinterest then you can post images of the things you like and the things you think your customer demographic likes rather than just images of your own products (which again is too hardcore sell for social media). If you are using Facebook or Google + try to talk around the topic and not just about what's going on in your business.
Thirdly you need to get creative! Think outside the box and use images where you can to attract attention. When using channels such as Twitter you don't get many characters so you need to choose your words wisely and think about your how you want your message to be received - remember that you are not trying to sell but build up brand awareness.
Fourthly - think about who you are trying to connect with - other businesses or potential customers? The message will be different to each demographic and which one will ultimately listen? Recent surveys have shown that women use social media more than men and that women are responsible for around 85% of purchases online - so tapping into this female audience could be an important part of your social media strategy.
Finally - there is no other way around social media other than to spend time on it. You need to be active across as many networks as possible if you want to reap the rewards. Blogging, tweeting, liking and +1ing may be time consuming but if you do it right you will get a positive return on your investment.
To find out more about social marketing campaigns you can visit the SEO it Right site.
Posted by Frances Berry
Friday 1 June 2012
5 Things To Ask Your SEO Company
Any business owner, no matter what the size of their organisation, will want to know that they're getting value for money from the products and services they invest in. With SEO it seems there is such a variety in the prices SEO companies are charging and yet this doesn't necessarily correlate to the work they are doing. So what questions can businesses put to their SEO providers to make sure they are getting the best possible service or to help them make the decision of whether or not to sign up for their services?
By keeping your wits about you and asking the right questions you can make a informed decision about which SEO company to choose and also gain a better understanding of what you are getting in return for your investment.
Posted by Frances Berry
- Is the SEO done in house? Many providers will outsource work overseas where the quality of SEO content and backlinks may suffer
- Do they offer flexibility in keywords and packages - a static service simply won't fit the majority of companies, who themselves need to be flexible and adaptable to survive in the current economic climate
- Do they promise you will be on page 1? It might sound like a good guarantee but basically there is none and as any professional SEO company will tell you there is no set in stone rule or guarantee that keywords will reach page one in a set period of time. Their placings all depend upon keyword relevance and competition, the quality of the website and its content, social interaction, the age of the domain and the nature of the optimisation being carried out.
- Can they provide reports? There isn't much use in paying for a service when you cannot see any evidence of the work that has been done. Most online marketing companies should at the bare minimum provide monthly ranking reports and many will also offer bespoke reports to demonstrate the nature of the optimisation carried out.
- Are they approachable? If your company depends upon the internet to generate new business then it is important you can approach your SEO company to ask them questions if you are unsure about their services or are worried about Google algorithm updates or the impact of new competitors within your industry.
By keeping your wits about you and asking the right questions you can make a informed decision about which SEO company to choose and also gain a better understanding of what you are getting in return for your investment.
Posted by Frances Berry
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)