Fibre Marketing

Category: SEO

A Guide to Featured Snippets

Posted on by Chloe

 

A Google snippet or featured snippet is a small summary of your website on the Google results page. It offers small segments of detailed information with the aim of helping a Google user choose if he or she should visit your website. It is programmatically chosen from your web pages. If you are wanting to land a featured snippet, you’ll have to optimise your content, conduct some keyword research and answer the questions that your target audience are looking for.

Where Are Google Snippets Coming From?

Information is extracted from what a reader sees on your web page. If the Google algorithm indicates that your website offers an answer for a Google user’s question, then the answer  will be presented on the featured snippet.

The snippet shows directly under the paid ads, but before the rest of the search results on the SERP (search engine results page).

The snippets come in a range of formats:

  • Paragraph
  • List
  • Table
  • Video

Is There Anything I Can Do To Affect Snippets?

There is nothing you can do besides offer a suitable level of information or content on your web pages. For example, if your web page has a single image and a single line of text, then there is not very much for the website to go on.

To optimise your content for featured snippets, there are many things you can do. But it all comes down to content.

  • Keep your content concise. And make sure it’s quite specific as well. Add bullet points or short paragraphs (the average length of a paragraph snippet is 45 words), as these will help user retention.
  • Answer the questions that people are asking. Your content needs to provide the information that they are looking for, so do your research (the ‘People also ask’ tab on SERPs are useful for this) and lay out the answers searchers want on your page.
  • Do your keyword research. Try and fit a range of keywords with a decent search volume into your content – just make sure you don’t spam, else you’ll likely be penalised by Google. It would also help if your keyword research included a mix, such as long-tail keywords and questions.

Are there any search terms that usually give featured snippets?

There are so many search terms that generate featured snippets. While many are questions, a few short searches do frequently show them as well, such as ‘definition,’ ‘vs,’ and ‘recipe.’

Build an Online Brand

If you want your website message and your Google snippets messages to match up, then simply brand your website correctly. If your website is not sending mixed messages, then your Google snippets will not transmit mixed messages. There is nothing wrong with website wackiness, but do not break or bend your brand principles. If you make a claim, then live up to that claim consistently and your online brand will hold.

How to Create a Good Meta Description

Posted on by Chloe

Creating good meta descriptions for your web pages is essential. Doing so gives you an advantage in search engine results. While it’s true that Google does not use meta descriptions on their own when determining search engine rankings, click through rates are used. Good meta descriptions help to improve these click through rates.

This is why meta descriptions are an important aspect of SEO. So what do you need to do, to create good meta descriptions for your web pages?

What is a meta description?

Let’s start by looking at what a meta description actually is. In basic terms the description is a summary of what is included on the page. If keywords that are being search for are included in the meta description it will be shown on the search results page. When a meta description is displayed it can help to influence the decision of the person searching as to whether they click through to a website or not.

You can see why creating good meta descriptions is so important. They can greatly increase the amount of traffic to your website. This is why it’s essential to create well thought out and well-crafted meta descriptions for your web pages. There are several factors that you need to take into account when you are doing this.

1. Pay attention to the number of characters

In the last couple of years Google has increased the number of characters that it displays in the snippet on the search results page. However the number of characters displayed can change at any time. You need to ensure that the important information is displayed. Therefore it’s a good idea to stick to 155 characters when creating a meta description. It’s also worth noting that searchers should be able to get a good idea of what the page includes within the first 130 characters.

2. Provide an accurate overview of your website with the homepage meta description

The meta description for your homepage should provide an overview of what your website is about. Remember that you need to be precise while also being concise. Including the right information is important because it will help attract the right people to your site. You do not just want people to click through to your site you want them to find what they looking for when they get there. Making sure that this happens reduces your bounce rate and improves engagement with your website.

3. Make sure that the description is compelling

It’s important to remember that the meta description is your opportunity to attract people to your website. This is why you need to make sure that the words you include are enticing and compelling. Your aim is to get people to click through to your website so you need to provide them with a reason to do so.

4. Make meta descriptions specific

It’s often easier to create meta descriptions for product and services pages than it is to create a meta description for the homepage of your website. This is because you can be specific about the product or service that the page is about and you do not have to discuss the business as a whole. Being specific is important because you want the person who is searching for a product or service to know that your business is the right choice for them.

5. Talk about the benefits of a product or service

When you are creating meta descriptions for your product and services pages think about the benefits that the product or service can provide. This could be solving a problem for the searcher or making their life easier. Include this information in your meta description for the page.

6. Use language that promotes actions

Remember that the aim of your meta descriptions is to encourage the searcher to click through to that page of your website. In order to make this happen it’s useful to include words or phrases that act as a call to action. Doing so helps to increase the amount of traffic to your website. This is an important aim of your SEO.

7. Talk about your USP

The Internet is a vast marketplace so you are going to be facing competition when it comes to attracting people who are searching online. Think carefully about what makes your business different from the others. This is your unique selling point or ‘USP’. Make sure that you include details of this USP in your meta descriptions.

8. Use a unique meta description for each page

When it comes to creating meta descriptions for your website it’s important to remember that each meta description needs to be unique. If you do not make sure that this is the case you could find yourself being penalised in search engine rankings.

9. Do not stuff meta descriptions with keywords

Although you do need to include keywords in your meta descriptions, you should make sure that you do not stuff each description with a bunch of keywords. The meta description has to make sense on its own and not just be a lot of keywords thrown together. If you do stuff your descriptions with keywords your website could appear to be spammy and you could be penalised for this in search engine rankings.

Creating good meta descriptions can seem like a daunting process, especially when you are trying to run a business at the same time. Getting expert help with the process could be the solution. The team at Fibre Marketing is happy to help with creating meta descriptions for your website.  Speak to us about your requirements and we will tell you about the help that we can provide.

What Makes a Good Blog?

Posted on by Chloe

What makes a good blog can be broken down into four segments. Firstly, there are the different forms success takes, secondly there is the marketing boost that all successful blogs need, thirdly there is surprise, and fourthly there is targeting. This post covers all four elements of a successful blog, and also offers a little bit of advice about trying to replicate the success of others.

Success Has Many Forms

Take YouTube as an example: Pewdiepie holds the record for the most total viewers on YouTube, and it is just one guy who used to upload every day; then, take Lemmino. He uploads once per month at the most, and he has the most loyal followers. Both are working alone, both are incredibly successful, and yet both use a very different method for achieving their success.

The key to blogging success seems to be “Experimenting.”  i.e. trying out a bunch of different ideas until you find the thing that works. Many times, you are surprised by what works and what does not.

For example, there was a blog aimed at teenage boys, and the web master tried everything from fight videos to hilarious comic strips. He tried every cliché in the book to attract teenage males. Yet, the web master had his biggest run of success when he posted opinion pieces on local issues, but he put a joke or funny comment in every third line of his blog. That simple format attracted more of his target demographic than all the gun-violence posts he ever uploaded.

Your Face on A Billboard

You may have the highest quality blog of all time, but if nobody sees it, then nobody interacts with it, which means Google ranks it as number 120,000 on its results. You will need to give your search ranking a boost from time-to-time with search engine optimization. Just like putting your face on a billboard, you need to draw a little attention from time-to-time if you want to generate sustained success for your blog. Get people interested by optimising your website and its content for Google, and then, if your blog is good, it will be carried by its own success.

Think of the keywords that you want to rank for. The headlines you’re creating. Do you need visual content? Remember, do not keyword spam and do not make your post too long. People have shorter attention spans – keep content between 500-1,000 words, and use subheadings (H2s) and bullet points if necessary.

What Makes A Good Blog?

Targeting and surprise. Sadly, these are two elements that are often confused by bloggers and people in the publishing industry.

Targeting means you need to produce content that your readers are actually interested in. Your blog needs to fit your niche, and thus needs to appeal to those who are interested in it, while pushing away everybody else. It is the “pushing away” part that most bloggers mess up – many try and create content that would appeal to anyone in the hopes that they gain more traffic. The fact is that if you wish to target certain people, then you have to alienate others. need to alienate some people if you want to target others.

This also means that you need to have a thorough understanding of what your target audience wants and write directly for them. If you’re stuck for ideas, type in some keywords that you’d like to rank for, and look at the questions from the ‘People Always Ask’ section on the search engine results page (SERP). That’s what your target audience are searching, so make sure your blog has the answers.

Secondly, surprise means “unexpected.” It doesn’t mean click-bait titles, it doesn’t mean shock news, and it doesn’t mean being unorthodox.

Examining the Success Of Strangers

You should do learn from your success because they offer the most powerful lessons.

Should you learn from the success of others? You probably shouldn’t. Most people have no idea why they succeeded because they spend too much time examining why they failed and not why they succeeded. Secondly, repeating somebody else’s success is often harder than building a successful blog using your own trial and error.

A wise person examines the success of strangers and takes its lessons on board, but maybe doesn’t try to replicate the success directly.

 

Brighton SEO 2019: Takeaways from John Mueller’s Q&A

Posted on by Chloe

Last week, Google’s own John Mueller was put in the firing line in front of a vast audience in Auditorium 1 at Brighton SEO last week (12th April 2019).

The session started as quite relaxed, with questions such as ‘What are your responsibilities as a webmaster trends analyst?’ and ‘What does success look like for the team?’ But after a few minutes, Hannah Smith began asking John about vital matters such as user data, the recent de-indexing bug, featured snippets and plenty more. Here are some of the key takeaways:

User Signals as a Ranking Factor

Hannah asked John if Google uses user data, such as clicks and bounce rates, as a ranking factor.

John answered that he doesn’t think they do, but instead they use them to analyse the algorithms in general. They’re just not part of the algorithm itself.

Google uses user signals to evaluate the quality of algorithms, seeing which trends are correct by observing where people click. John said that, for one specific search query, it could go in many different directions. So essentially, user data would be too noisy a signal, too easily spammed.

Clarity on the recent indexing bug

Carrying on from algorithm updates, Hannah also asked what exactly happened with the Google indexing bug, which recently caused the de-indexing of many websites. There has since been speculation that this was the result of an algorithm update gone wrong.

John responded that it was merely a technical issue that was not caused by an update. He also stated that when something goes wrong at Google, they try to make sure that it isn’t visible, but that isn’t always possible.

He confirmed that the issue is now resolved and that if any URLs are still not indexed, then you can submit them in Google Search Console.

Google’s Link Graph

Many major websites are now nofollowing all external links, a recent trend that does impact Google’s link graph, as John confirmed. He said that it’s a shame as it affects their ability to pick up new content.

However, he also stated that he understands that certain sites, such as news sites, see SEOs as a hassle, messaging them to add links. But, this kind of thinking isn’t so great for them, as links still play a role in finding useful content online.

The Role of Featured Snippets

SERP features, such as featured snippets, are valuable for websites, as if they are featured in a snippet, their site is highlighted and the traffic is sent to them. This is because the information in a snippet isn’t always complete, and so users click on that website to read the rest.

There have been some complaints that these snippets take clicks away from websites, as there are instances when the snippet presents the information that the user wants, and so they don’t need to carry on their search.

John stated that Google are not taking clicks away in these types of situations; all they are doing is helping the user find their desired information a lot faster.

The Role of Voice Search

The popularity of voice search is growing, and webmasters are now trying to optimise their sites for this. However, it can be tricky as there is so much that we don’t know.

John recommended purchasing a device with voice assistant, so that people can start to understand how it works. He also believes that if the content on your site is high-quality and easily accessible, there is no need to make any certain changes.

We had a fantastic time at Brighton SEO last week, and we cannot wait to return.

How to Optimise Your Google My Business Listing

Posted on by Chloe

Optimising your presence online is essential if you want your business to be as competitive as possible. Making sure that your Google My Business listing works as effectively as it should is a major part of this. It makes sense to use this vital tool to its full effect as it does not involve any financial expense to your business and it can help you to feature highly on Google Maps and in Google’s overall organic rankings.

You can choose to do all of the work to optimise your Google My Business listing yourself, or you can work with professionals. This can have benefits for you, as professionals have experience and expertise in working with tools such as Google My Business.

Whatever decision you make about dealing with the optimisation of your Google My Business listing, you need to know what is involved.

Make sure your Google My Business profile is complete

You need to remember that this is a device which is being used to help people find your business. This means that you need to include all important information in your profile. The information that should always be featured includes:

  • The address of your business.
  • Your phone number.
  • The hours that your business operates. Do not forget to include details of any special opening hours which may apply on bank holidays.
  • The operating category of your business, so that people know what you do.
  • A description of the role of your business.
  • How to find your premises.
  • How people can buy your products or pay for your services.

This is your opportunity to tell people about your business, so use it wisely.

Include photographs of your business

Google My Business listings that include photographs usually receive more click-throughs, and more other forms of contact. People like to see what your business look like. Make sure to include photographs that show the inside and outside of your premises.

When you are choosing photographs to use, it’s important to opt for quality and relevance. Do not just decide to use photographs that you already have, if they are not clear or do not accurately represent your business. Have some up to date photographs taken, that show people what your business is all about, and what they can expect when they visit.

Pay attention to your reviews

People can leave reviews on your Google My Business listing, and if these reviews are good, they can have a positive impact on your rankings. The best way to get good reviews is to make sure that you provide a high standard of service. Make sure that products are delivered on time and that services are carried out as promised. You also need to ensure that good customer service is at the centre of everything that you do.

Whether the reviews you receive are positive or not, you need to make sure that you respond to them. People like to feel that they are being listened to. Acknowledge people who are pleased with your service, and say thank you. If people have suggestions, say that you will take them on-board, or explain why it’s not possible to do so. If someone is unhappy with your service, say that you will contact them about the issue. The exact response you give will depend on the situation.

Keep your listing up to date

Once you have created your Google My Business listing, you need to make sure that it’s kept up to date, in order to ensure that it works as effectively as it should. If your address or telephone number changes, do not forget to make the change to your listing. Likewise, if you add to your services, tell people about it. Doing this work helps to make sure that your listing is optimised as all times.

Google My Business is an important tool to use, when it comes to advertising your business. It helps people who are looking for your products or services, in your area, to find you. Make sure that you include all of the relevant information about your business, including photographs. Once you have created your listing, do not forget to update it every time there is a change that people need to know about, in order to help them find your business.

Update for August 2019: 

Google are rolling out new features for Google My Business accounts. Click here to read what these entail and how they can benefit your business.

7 SEO Mistakes that You Should Avoid

Posted on by Chloe

Anyone who is involved in digital marketing and a business’s online presence will know how important SEO is to the success of its website. SEO is the key to your website being found online, and it is therefore essential that you get it right.

The world of SEO, however, is ever-changing. With new trends, new tools and new algorithms coming out all of the time, it is easy to overlook things and make mistakes.

By dealing with these mistakes, you can give your website a new lease of life, enhance your SEO and see your website shoot up those search engine rankings.

Seven of the most common SEO mistakes which are made include:

1.   Not using Google Search Console

Google’s Search Console (or Webmaster Tools as it used to be called) has been gifted to webmasters to give you everything you need for good SEO. Search Console allows you to monitor your site with regards to SEO, submit content for crawling, see the search queries that people are using to find your website and check backlinks.

It is also where they would be able to communicate with you and advise you of any problems – such as manual penalties, crawling errors, any malware that has been detected, and increases in 404 pages.

Everyone can sign up to Google Search Console, meaning that you don’t have to guess anymore. You should also sign up to Bing’s Webmaster Tools who can also give you similar information about your website’s performance on Bing.

2.   Not getting the H1 tags right

It can sometimes be difficult to understand when to use H1 and H2 tags. More than just a font size or making a page look nice, H1 and H2 tags tell the search engines what your pages are about. If you don’t use them or aren’t accurate in the way that you use them, you will be giving the wrong information to the search engine, and, ultimately get penalised because you are not giving their searchers what they want.

Use the H1 tag as the title of your page, and only once. Make it clear and related to the information that is being given – like the title of a book. Any sub-headings should then be made under the H2 tag, and then H3 for sub-sub-headings under H2 and so on.

3.   Not using the Google Keyword Tool

Another useful tool from Google is the Keyword Tool. This gives webmaster details about what queries people are making before they are directed to your website. Keyword research allows you to see what is and isn’t working, and then change your content accordingly.

It is important to remember that businesses with a big online presence are likely to be focusing on the most popular keywords, so try to focus on long-tail and low completion keywords to get your presence higher.

4.   Not having great content

Good content is all about creating trust and authority. As Google continue to develop their algorithms, content is no longer about stuffing it full of keywords, but more about being useful and interesting.

Make sure that you have a good content marketing strategy and that the content is well written, packed with information and something that people will want to read.

5.   Not having a plan

It is important to be consistent when you are posting content for SEO purposes. Search engines hate inconsistency and the best way to be consistent is by having a plan.

Creating a publishing schedule which details how many times you will be publishing content and having a few back up articles which are ready to go will help you stay consistent and help push your website to the top of the search engine rankings.

6.   Not having internal links

Internal links are crucial to good SEO. Not only can they direct your visitors to other pages on your site – which can help you to engage with them better, but internal links will also show the search engines about other pages that you have.

It is easy to create an internal link from any content that you have, and both your readers and SEO rankings will thank you for it.

7.   Having a slow website

We all know how infuriating a slow website can be. It is enough to put people off reading it, making your bounce rate higher, which in turn will lead to lower SEO rankings.

Check that your loading speed isn’t being affected by the formatting on your website and seek help if you can’t make any difference to your website’s speed.

Getting your SEO right is no mean feat, especially as the criteria keep on changing. But there is a lot of help out there – even through the tools that search engines are supplying, and by making a few changes, you could see your website charging up to the top of those search results.

5 Reasons Why You Need to Focus on Long-Tail Keywords

Posted on by Chloe

Long-tailed keywords are powerful weapons for  websites – they account for 70% of all web searches. Here are 5 reasons why you need to focus on long-tail keywords.

1 – They are great for drawing traffic

A website that reviews credit cards will have little use for long-tailed keywords. The name of the credit card being reviewed is the most powerful keyword. The second most powerful keyword is the name of the credit card followed by the word “Review.” SEO revolving around these keywords would help a financial website business thrive.

However, a website giving tutorials on the Blender 3D animation program will benefit from long-tailed keywords that span into questions, and it will benefit from the content, questions, and answers contributed by followers in the Blender community. Such a website will even draw traffic from long-tailed keywords embedded in questions that people have asked on its forums.

2 – Google Images Appreciates Long-Tailed Keywords

Stop underestimating Google images. If people cannot find what they are looking for, they will check Google images and Google videos. In fact, many times, people cannot remember the name of what they are looking for, so they will enter a search phrase and check Google images to see what looks familiar. Title your images and include descriptive Alt text, and this will act as your long-tailed keywords.

Also, as a side note, try creating your own images, either through graphic design, photography, or both, and then add them to your website because they will rank higher on the Google images search engine results, as Google recognises when you have copied an image from another online source. Also, images are handy for people who are aiming to improve their mobile SEO.

3 – Marketing Companies Are Leveraging Long-Tailed Keywords

Do not misunderstand, there are marketing companies that are concentrating on smaller key-phrases, but they are only doing so with businesses that thrive on smaller/popular keywords. For example, if a marketing company is promoting the new Suzuki Katana, then the keyword “Suzuki Katana” will be the most powerful keyword. However, many marketing companies are refocusing their efforts towards long-tailed keywords and they are doing very well.

4 – Long Tailed Keyword Movement Is More Stable

The shorter and most popular keywords are heavily contested. One week, on Google’s first page, the keyword “orthotics,” the SERPs are full of different results that may not always be what you’re looking for, as shorter keywords provide broad results and thus more competition.

However, if you enter the long-tailed keyword, “Best orthotics for climbing,” then you are more likely to see a smaller range of results on the first page of the SERP (search engine results page). This means there is less competition, and that it’s quicker and easier to rank at number one.

5 – Google Suggestions Are Long-Tailed Keywords

Type in a few words, and Google generates suggestions based on what it thinks you want. The Google suggestions function is the reason why long-tailed keywords are so powerful. Google suggestions are written as sentences, and these sentences may act as long-tailed keywords in and of themselves, and/or they contain usable long-tailed keywords.

It is often a good idea to search Google for your web pages and steal a few long-tailed keywords from the Google suggestions that are generated.

Conclusion – Experience Teaches the Best Lessons

Your own experience will verify what you have read here. As you upload content and you search for suitable images, you will see your own images appear for the oddest long-tailed keywords, and you will notice how the keywords you stole from Google suggestions seem to generate consistent traffic.

Experience will teach you what is working and what is not, as SEO is fluid, dynamic and shifts whenever user interest shifts.

DA Update – Here’s What You Need To Know

Posted on by Chloe

Moz announced that they will be releasing an upgraded and improved version of their popular SEO tool Domain Authority, or DA, next month. For those of you that don’t already use it, DA estimates how valuable a certain domain is in terms of how well it ranks in Google or other search engines. According to Moz, the upgrade will create a more accurate and trustworthy measurement through its improved ability to catch link sellers and other spammy links designed to cheat the metric.

Why is DA so important?

A website’s DA score allows marketers to gauge the strength of their websites compared to their competitors. They can then use that information to make smarter, data-driven SEO decisions. As we’ve explained before, creating a website, or developing a social media presence, is only the start. In order for your digital content to produce results, you need to be visible and for people need to engage with your brand. SEO is the art of understanding how your business can optimise its online presence, to engage with its customers, and to attract high rankings in organic search results.

Since so many SEO professionals rely on DA to evaluate the effectiveness of their website, the announcement of a change to the core algorithm of Moz’s popular tool has certainly caused some concern. But don’t worry! Here’s everything you need to how about the new update and how it will affect you:

So what’s changing and why?  

Russ Jones, Principal Search Scientist at Moz described how the company has made several technical changes to how they calculate DA – “We can remove spam, improve correlations, and, most importantly, update Domain Authority relative to all the changes that Google makes.” Moz has done this by switching from a complex linear model, to a neural network. This offers several benefits including a much more nuanced model which can detect link manipulation. What’s more, they are reestablishing the components of what gives a website a high DA. Usually, DA is determined by link counts, but now, they are focusing more on links based on quality and traffic, along with a range of other factors.

What does this mean?

Focusing on quality, rather than just using the amount of links to determine a website’s DA, means that the system will deliver an improved, more trustworthy metric, as well as refining the users’ experience. This should reduce spam, and improve connections between sites and users.

What should I do?

Remember to use DA as a relative metric, not an absolute one.

Don’t forget that DA is meaningless on its own, and is only effective when you compare it to sites that matter. It doesn’t matter if your site’s DA increases or decreases – what matters is if it increases or decreases relative to your competitors. You shouldn’t think of DA as a grade. Instead of aiming for a DA of 100 (the highest possible score), you should be aiming for a score that is higher than similar sites that appear in search results for your target keywords. You should therefore make sure to check competitors’ DA scores as well as your own.

Expect some disruptions, and communicate changes to people that matter.

With change, there is always some level of disruption. It is therefore essential that you communicate these changes and improvements to DA with clients, colleagues, and stakeholders before any concerns can arise. Perhaps create a flyer with information about the update, and answers to any potential questions you may be asked. Have these left around your office for staff to read.

Have a refresher on Domain Authority.

This is the perfect time to have a refresher on the basics of DA, to look at what makes a great website, and reaffirm your strategy on increasing DA, so that you can make the most of the update. Here are some simple ways to increase DA on your website:

  • Interlink to your old posts when writing new content.
  • Ensure that your website is responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • Have an active social media presence.
  • Remove any bad backlinks to your website.
  • Post good-quality, engaging, and relevant content regularly.
  • Only include high-quality links that will generate traffic.

Expect Domain Authority to make future changes.

Google makes hundreds of changes to their algorithm every year; Moz intend to keep pace with Google and make DA responsive to any changes. This means that DA will remain relevant and up to date. You should therefore expect DA to make continual changes and be prepared for these future improvements.

We hope that our guide has assured you that this update should not be a cause for concern or panic in your business. You will most likely see fluctuations in your DA, but remember that this update will result in a better, more trustworthy metric than before, which will allow you to make smarter decisions about SEO strategies going forward.

 

How Will SEO Help My Business?

Posted on by Chloe

SEO might sound like something other people think about. Why would you want to know about this when you run a business in a different sector? How will it help your business?

The truth is, if you can get your SEO practises right, your business will grow. In today’s world in which more people search for goods online than ever before, you need a website, and if you have a website, you need it to be noticed – particularly in you are working in an area that has a lot of competition. Getting noticed is all about SEO. Here’s how it can help your business grow, be noticed, and thrive.

Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

When you search for something online, the likelihood is that, unless you know exactly which website to head to from the start, you are going to use a search engine. The most used search engine in the UK is Google, so much so that ‘to google’ has become a verb that we all use with hardly a second thought.

Using SEO correctly means that you will be seen higher up in the search engine (and particularly Google) rankings. You may wonder why this matters, but it is actually hugely important for the success of your business. People don’t have a lot of time – when they are searching for something it’s because they want to find the answer. The first page of search engine results are where they will concentrate their ideas, clicking on the top few links. They might, if nothing useful has come up, venture to the second page, but it is unlikely they will go much further – they will change their search terms instead.

Being on that first page of results is crucial, and being as near to the top as possible is something to aim for. SEO can get you there.

Conversion Rates

The number of people who visit your website compared to the number of people who buy when they are there is your conversion rate. Clearly, the more people who buy, the better your conversion rate will be, and the better it is, the more profit you will make.

Properly targeted, well thought out SEO campaigns will help to increase that ratio and give you a better conversion rate. This is because targeted SEO will bring people who are genuinely interested in what you are selling; they have already half decided that they want something from you, and you simply need to finish the process. This saves time, money, and effort, and all stems from the correct usage of SEO.

Brand Awareness

Every business needs to be more visible if they want to be more successful. This means working on ‘brand awareness’ so that, even if people don’t need what you are selling right now, when they do need it they will immediately think of your brand and your business.

Again, SEO will help with this. It links back to getting better rankings on the search engines, as this is certainly a good start. But it is also about using SEO to place your website and your ads in other places so that they begin to be noticed all around. A great example of this is social media and your blog.

Engagement

In order to become more successful, you need to ensure you have good customer engagement. SEO can ensure that this is possible. The more people who see your website, your social media posts, your blog, and your adverts, the more people will get in touch with you. This gives you the perfect opportunity to find new customers and to engage with them.

Social media is particularly good for this; people can see the questions that are asked, and your responses (assuming they are made public). This will show that you care about your customers and that you want to work with them and help them wherever possible. In some cases this caring side of your business can be the reason that people turn to you rather than a competitor, and therefore it is imperative to get it right.

It isn’t just the public forum of social media that counts when it comes to engagement, of course. Even if no one else sees the question or the answer you provide, it is just as important to answer any question that comes your way. You should also acknowledge any feedback, pay attention to reviews – positive or negative – and always remain professional at all times.

5 Reasons Why You Need Mobile SEO

Posted on by Chloe

Recently, we have been seeing changes in how search engines are treating desktop and mobile websites. Specifically, there is now a clear divide between what kinds of people use desktop computers for, and what people use mobile devices for, (aka. location-based and voice-searched content is very popular on mobile devices). Thinking of your responsive website in terms of it being a single website is fine, but if you want to improve your chances of drawing in more viewers, you need to optimise your website to appeal to mobile users as well.

  1. The Sheer Popularity of Mobile Internet

Since the use of mobile Internet is now so popular, it demands that you allocate more of your marketing budget towards improving your mobile SEO, and part of improving your website is improving its SEO so that it is more usable, more user-friendly, more useful, more easily available, and more prominent on search engines.

There are currently 3.7 billion unique mobile data users in the world, and that doesn’t count the people who have two phones or have family plans where numerous people use mobile Internet data under the same plan. Worldwide, mobile devices accounted for 49.7% of worldwide web page views, and that doesn’t count the people who are connecting to the Internet use their social media apps. Plus in Asia, mostly China, using a mobile to connect to the Internet is the highest in the world at 61.09%.

  1. Local SEO Draws A Bigger Footfall

People use desktop and mobile devices in equal measure when buying larger items or items of high value, but people tend to buy smaller things with their phone (such as dog toys, replacement fuses, bicycle pumps, etc.) Add to this that when people are searching for business/products near them, they will often use their phone to find what they’re looking for. If your website has correctly optimised its local SEO, then people who are nearby will be easily able to find your store, and, if it has high-quality content, there is then a higher chance of search engines favouring your site over others, resulting in a higher page ranking. When people are out and about and looking for you services or your products, it is imperative that they find you over your local competitors.

  1. You Need To Deal With Your Mobile Website’s Usability

Part of a website’s SEO involves fixing the mobile website so that it is more usable for users. It means eliminating things such as loading errors, broken links, and screen-compatibility issues. The design of the website itself also needs to be considered here. By improving your mobile SEO, you are also helping to make your website more usable and less frustrating. A broken link can ruin a customer’s progress down a sales funnel, and it is a SEO expert’s job to find and fix broken links.

  1. Voice Searching Is Becoming More Popular

Optimising mobile websites to leverage voice searching is a relativity new field that is being dominated by Google and Apple. They decide which rules apply and which do not. As a mobile website owner, it is up to you to stay on-par with the curve. If Google change the rules tomorrow, then you may lose or gain a significant number of voice-searching customers. Keep in mind that Google are aligning their Mobile First technology with their voice searching technology because both are elements of mobile web searching, which is another reason why you cannot treat your mobile website and your desktop website as one-in-the-same.

  1. Leverage Cookies To Help Improve Your Sales Funnel

Cleverly designed websites will balance the processing power used to read and leverage cookies, with the help they offer when creating dynamic websites. Websites that wish to use the power of a dynamic website will need correct SEO, otherwise the web master will make incorrect assumptions and damage the effectiveness of the sales funnel.

For example, a website may sell Grannie’s home-make biscuits, but the mobile website’s SEO has been set up in a way that it attracts people who are looking for dog biscuits. Some people may buy because they also fancy Grannie’s biscuits for themselves, but most people will click away and find another website. The web master then sees that people are leaving the primary landing pages in massive numbers, so starts to change the landing pages without realising that website’s mobile SEO is causing the problem.