Making Digital Marketing Work for your Business | WSInetMarketing

Last year Google brought us the Panda update which was aimed at weeding out the poor quality sites. Typically sites that contained poorly written articles around a niche subject that were designed soley to make money from the Google Ads plastered all over them. They were paid by the advertisers whenever some unfortunate person visited the site. I say ‘unfortunate’ because the sites added very little insight or new information and the first reaction was to hit the back button. The irony is that eHow and other such sites were the biggest displayers of Google adverts.

Two days ago, Google pre-announced what looks like a similarly-sized update targeting sites that have built links from low quality sites. This makes sense as it puts a brake on the ‘arms race’ in the number of links required to rank highly in Google. Even in moderately competitive sectors websites have been requiring tens of thousands of links. Google’s definition of a non-spammy link is one that will bring traffic to your website (this is easy enough to check in the Referrals report in the website analytics). Okay, this is a little puritanical and Google expands by advising that a link is a good link only if you would seek it from other sites even if, hypothetically, search engines didn’t exist.

I think it will take Google a few months’ worth of updates to fine tune this new algorithm, however it does provide strong support for WSI’s belief that the future continues to be all about great quality content. So how might we define great content? Well, if it is such good value to your customers or prospect, then surely you will want to promote it on your facebook page or tweet about it. You aren’t going to want to do this if the article or blog post is dull or a re-hash of old information.

Good content will generate links, or of equal importance in this social media world, ‘shares’. The starting point is a good content plan. Typically this will be a 6 month plan of subjects (with bullet points) to be written about – by all means be flexible with it but have a plan.

Content ideas that could be useful to your readers include:

• Case studies relating to individual customers or industry verticals
• Expert how-to guides. These don’t have to be just text, maybe the inclusion of a short video or set of diagram would make it more interesting
• Points of view and informed commentary from your experts
• Human interest stories. Just make sure they are not too internally-focussed
• Background details for general interest
• Industry tips, news and survey results

Don’t forget that your staff may not have the time or be the best to write the content. Often it is better for a professional copywriter (we can help you here) to interview your expert and write up their ideas in a style and voice appropriate to your customers.

Here are some examples of good content that should get your thoughts going for your own business:

• Interesting ideas and advice
• A case study
• Useful information of interest to a visitor

We have yet to find a business that cannot find something genuinely useful to write about twice a month (okay for some clients it does some prodding and persistence!). Invariably, the content when professionally written up receives favourable feedback inside and outside the business and becomes a valuable asset to the business. Indeed, sales teams have been known to print it out and show it to their prospects.

Not only that, but it should now be increasingly rewarded with good Google rankings. A double whammy.

Google today made a change to the way it displays brands.   If a user searches for a phrase which Google believes is a brand (or company name) then it will now display half a page of sub-links with descriptions.   This is a significant extension of the existing “site links” which were single line text links below the main listing.

Here is what it now looks like:

This shows that when Google recognises that a searcher is looking for a brand name.  In this case, it is a reasonable assumption that the searcher wants to see more information about this brand, rather than, as previously, a list of different directories or other sites mentioning the brand.   This is excellent for sites which Google recognises as belonging to a brand – but how can we ensure that a site is recognised as belonging to a brand.

Well, we can surmise that it will include the following elements:

• A well structured site, systematically linked internally to clearly identify different departments or product sets
• External links pointing to the website with the links frequently referencing the brand name term
• Social media, local and industry directories and other citation sources that reference the brand name when pointing at the website.

The first point should be the result of a well designed website, the latter two points may occur naturally for household brands but more likely will need to be managed via search engine optimisation processes.

We don’t know if this is just a Google test or a definitive new style, however overall, it is a very good news for users as well as an appropriate reward for those businesses that have spent time and effort over many years building up their brand and online presence.

Local search marketing opportunities are becoming more important as the web evolves, making sites such as Foursquare and Google Places very useful for local businesses.

However, beware of search marketers who claim to achieve top search result placings: the best approach is to follow techniques that have been proven to work for local businesses.

Using our 5 step plan can help you to win more new local customers.

 Determine Your Locality
Identify your target audience, your geographic reach. Don’t be afraid to check out your local competition to see who their ideal customers are and how they are appealing to local internet users. This will form a basis for your successful local search campaign.

Change the Channel
Once your target audience is identified, find the best websites to attract them from. Obviously use search engines, but also make use of banner advertising, social networking and other mediums such as video content. This will help in two ways – increase your search engine visibility and driving more website traffic.

Make it Personal
Your marketing messages should reflect your locality. Attract your shopper with the personal touch and make it relevant to their businesses. This will add the geographical relevance to your services.

Tortoise or the Hare
Don’t be impatient. Ensure that your marketing plan is covered by your budget. Avoid short bursts of irrelevant web marketing activity in favour of a consistent approach.

Test and Monitor
Only by monitoring your results can you build on what you have already accomplished. Constantly Set aside a time when you can assess and evaluate your search marketing activities and re-tweak your plans accordingly.

Investing time and money in local search marketing can return your investment many times over. If you would like help, please call 0845 658 1812.

Place Search is Google’s new way to how local search results are displayed. As part of the ever-changing world of search engine optimisation (SEO), Google has introduced this method which shouldn’t be confused with Foursquare or Facebook Places. Google said it is “…a new kind of local search result that organises the world’s information around places. We’ve clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go.” (source: Google).
Place Search combines local and organic results for a more refined search experience. This involves collecting websites with physical locations in the real world (over 50 million) and connecting them. Thus it becomes easier to provide not only a comprehensive picture of a location, but also more links to it. Google’s claim is that it will save an average two seconds on a local search.

This is all very well but what does it mean for businesses? Effectively, you will have to actively manage the process yourself instead of letting Google place you. The good news is that it’s not as hard as it seems. Here are a few tips:

• If you refine your listing, you can make sure you are placed in the right categories. Add images and video to support your listing, and use custom fields.
• Use second-tier directories. Although this is not a free service, universal listings across the board will strengthen your brand significantly
• Ask for reviews from clients both past and present. Reviews on your Google Places page will enhance your local ranking. Additionally, it will add credibility to your business.
• Update your entry via the Places Posting feature – this is a proven a SEO method.
• Check out Google Tags as a supplementary tool to back up your efforts because for a limited time, it is free to use.

Facebook Places and Foursquare are altering the way that we interact and both are instrumental in bringing local searches to the front in social media. Google has responded with Google Places. If you want help to get seen and improve your search marketing efforts, call us on 0845 658 1812.

Sometimes companies just do not realise where the value in their website actually is. Here is an example from a past client for whom we provided Search Engine Optimisation work a couple of years ago.

After we had completed the SEO work he was extremely impressed by the additional traffic we had been able to send him.

Having seen the hoops we had to jump through to work with his PR Agency who proved the website he said he was keen to move his website to our technology platform so that our work would be easier in future.

This comment was not acted on immediately but after a period of time we were asked to provide a quote for moving his website to our technology. We provided this and given that the site was then well over 300 pages in size the quote was not small, but as viewers of our YouTube video will appreciate, the value of a website is in its content which is the only thing able to attract traffic from the search engines.

He stalled at that point, seeing it as possibly an avoidable cost at a time of financial austerity. He did say however that he would like the graphics refreshed to reflect changes in the business and that they were looking for a new PR company. I was informed that the plan was that when the PR company had created their new image we could then use these graphics to create the new site with.

A couple of weeks ago my customer informed me that the PR company had just created them a “temporary website” until we were asked to do the real one and not to worry; it had not cost them a penny – they did it free as part of the rebranding exercise. Naturally curious, I went to have a look…..

The new site was but one third of the size of the old one. All the pages containing news items that brought those esoteric searches that you can never properly SEO for had been discarded. By my calculations the move of website had discarded in round numbers £60,000′s worth of SEO.

That is when I realised that my customer had never really understood what I had been saying about the importance of content and that we had to move the 300 pages of content across from his old website.

Perhaps I had not really understood his motives for having a website and confused it with my motives for providing them, and that is to get my customers more traffic and more business, leading to more money.

So in conclusion, we all know that nothing is free; the new website cost will have been in the bill somewhere – hidden, just like the loss to this client of £60,000 worth of SEO.

It may appear that social media has overtaken other online marketing techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but don’t fall into the trap of thinking SEO doesn’t matter anymore. It does, maybe even more so now than before.

Adapting to new methods in the world of online marketing is the only way to survive. However, don’t lose sight of the basics – great content is still hugely effective in attracting traffic. SEOs are not dead: it has merely evolved and below are some ideas on how to maximise its status.

Proof And Pudding
Content is still king but it has now evolved to work hand in hand with other tactics, such as Social Media Optimisation.  SEO is vital in attracting the right kind of traffic to your site, whether searched for via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media platforms.

SEO v. Social Media
SEO and SMO are basically one and the same thing. However, without meaningful, targeted content, neither will produce returns on your investment. Searching for sites still exists: remember, not everyone is a social networker. So cater for those who don’t Twitter or use Facebook, know your customer and adapt your marketing activities to embrace everyone.

SEO Expert Or Not
We all know an SEO expert, usually because they tell us. But how can you tell if they really are expert in what they say?

Now, if someone promises you top ranking and guaranteed results without any work needing to be done on your site, think long and hard. Any SEO consultant worth his or her salt will insist upon a comprehensive view, which may include:

• Understanding your customer with the aim of attracting their attention
• Undertaking research or the identification of keywords and phrases that will attract traffic
• Offering recommendations to update the structure and content of your website
• Developing a plan to get quality inbound links from other sites that are both related and trusted
• Monitoring results.

SEO is not a quick fix solution but undertaken properly, it will pay significant dividends. It is still a method that works to bring traffic to your website.  If you want to discuss how SEO can help your business, call 0845 658 1812.

Blogging is beautiful. It has few rules and even fewer boundaries. However, to be good, it needs to be compelling and above all, it must be readable. The secret is not what to write about, but how to write it. The content must be fresh and engaging – after all, the whole purpose is to attract traffic and keeping them coming back for more.

List Your Ideas
Create a list. It will help keep you focused on the topics you want to post about. Make long lists, 50 or even up to 100 ideas. Keep the list up to date and add to it. For easy reference, a good idea is to create a draft post of ideas on your blog dash post.

Double Your Earning Potential In 5 Easy Steps!
Headlines are what attract the reader instantly. To create an attention-grabbing title like the one above, you need to understand your demographic and get their attention. Practice this from the beginning and you will soon find out what works.  

Quality, Not Quantity
We have a short attention span when reading and therefore, blog content has to be memorable. Careful formatting is an excellent technique of ensuring your reader’s attention doesn’t waver.

• Split long text: use quotes, headings and bullet points to punctuate the copy
• Vary the visuals by using bold/underline/italics where appropriate
• Make good use of pictures and/or multimedia content
• Make the font size easily readable.

Exchange Wordiness For Conciseness
You may have a lot to say but it doesn’t follow that people want to read it. It’s a blog, not a novel. Keep it short and sweet.

Link It
Do your research. Linking to appropriate external material will strengthen your reputation on the subject you are talking about. Don’t be afraid to link to other people’s blogs – they will probably return the favour.

Stay On Track
Make it relevant. Don’t go off on a tangent too often: you are writing for a specific market, remember, and one in which you are establishing your reputation as an expert. Consistency and quality are key to successful business blogging.

We can advise on a content marketing strategy for your blog so call us on 0845 658 1812.

Link building, or ‘link baiting’ requires quality content. We have already looked at some tips to help you out and now here are some more. The following are simple techniques for Twitter, Facebook and other social media to help you build essential inbound links.

White It Down
White papers are worth their weight in gold if they are informative and well written. It has become the ‘go-to’ method for marketers who want credible reference and source material. The value of a white paper is that it serves two functions – gaining publicity and gaining you credibility. 

Help Your Community
Make use of useful blog posts that give out information. This is a great way of building up links in your specific community online. Allow others to benefit from your own experiences; again, this will build up credibility for you. Remember, marketing on the internet is based on the concept of an ‘e-consultancy’ and you have to give out to gain returns.

Be The Life Of The Party
Make your content witty and clever, and intersperse serious stuff with a bit of humour. This will maintain interest in what you have to say and what you have to offer. A combination of serious and light-hearted content is ideal: check out www.private-eye.co.uk for ideas on how it works.

It’s in the Title
Headlines grab attention. Remember, the search engine bots will be looking for headlines that make visual impact, and so are the readers. So if you want to travel up the ranking ladder, spend time working on your headline.

And Now For Something a Little Different…
Internet marketing is constantly in a state of change so why not try something different? Write a blog that will capture the imagination, or Twitter something different from the rest. If you don’t try, then you won’t know if it will work. What’s the worst that can happen?

Discover how online marketing can benefit your business by calling 0845 658 1812.

Let’s face it, anyone can get online nowadays. However, the key to success is being seen. If your business is dependent on local trade, then you need to stay ahead of the rest. How can you do this? By following a few clever yet simple tips to develop a local online marketing strategy which will get you noticed.

Size Up the Competition
It may seem obvious but search the search engines and find out who comes up on top. Check for:

• What tools they use?
• What meta-descriptions they employ?
• What keywords they use?

Don’t be afraid to use top search terms in your copy too, if the competition appears in the top ranking.

Never Forget Your Roots
Location, location, location! Make sure you tell the search engines in particular, and people in general where you are. Display your address. This gives search engines the ability to place your business. A good tip is to use directional landmarks such as local stations, to show where you are.

Get Yourself On the Map
Google Maps and Yahoo Local are free and represent one of most effective ways of raising your search engine profile quickly. As a short term measure, it’s easy and will involve very little investment to get Google and other major players to display a map with corresponding businesses as an element of their local results.

Be Sociable
Take advantage of the growth in popularity of social media.

• Set up a Facebook page if you haven’t already done so
• Use Twitter as an informal and interactive way to promote offers
• Start blogging – there is no better way to engage your demographic and invite business. Regularly updating your blog will portray you as an expert in your niche market.

Organic is Best
Submit your details to local trade listings. Alternatively, make use of some of the sites that charge a nominal amount to multiple list you on major directories. Remember, one approach is good, multiple approaches are better!

Link building, or organic growth, does not need a great deal of knowledge. Follow the tips above and make use of local search. If you would like further details on how to improve your local search rankings, please call 0845 658 1812.

Blogging is now a universal language. Any subject you can think of, and possibly many you haven’t even dreamt of, has a dedicated blog. For business, blogging can be an essential tool in online marketing. It provides you with a perfect platform for your views, opinions and updates. Essentially, it also gives your clients an interactive medium. However, get your blog wrong, and it could do your business more harm than good.

Fine Tuning Your Business Blog
What are the dos and don’ts of business blogging? Let’s start with the dos.

• Do Deliver Concise, Focused Copy
  Make your copy compelling to read. Ensure that you have a good understanding of your demographic and the subjects that appeal to them. Deliver information in an objective and authoritative manner. Whether your words are funny or serious, make them interesting and well written.
• Do Make It Catch the Eye
  Well presented and well balanced – that is the secret to a good-looking blog. Make sure that the text is broken into readable chunks. Use appealing sub headings, eye-catching images and even videos to illustrate the words.  Above all make it flow so that the reader can digest the content as a whole.
• Do Promote your blog consistently
  Make your blog reach as many people as possible by using whatever social media you have access to.  RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, Hootsuite – these are just some of the resources that you can and must use to promote your blog.

And here are the don’ts.

• Don’t Use your blog For Email Marketing
  A blog is not a hard sales campaign. You can certainly discuss whatever aspect of your business that you feel is relevant and interesting. However, don’t use it as a substitute for direct marketing. Have a clear set of objectives: if you create a popular blog, people will reward you with their loyalty and this equates to consistency.
• Don’t Use your Bog for Corporate Press Releases
  A press release is a much more formal announcement of something that is happening within your company or environment. It is different from the more casual informal dialogue that is associated with a blog. So don’t fall into the trap of issuing a statement instead of a blog.
• Don’t Try and be All Things to All People
  To be effective, you must be focused, in both content and message. Attract, engage and develop your readers and stick to the demography that you know. If you broaden your scope, you may well dilute the message.

To be a successful blogger, find a strategy that works and stick to it.  Blogging is a marketing tool with very high success rates when used correctly.

For help in developing your business blog, call 0845 658 1812.