Fibre Marketing

Tag: SEO

How to Know if You Should Outsource Your SEO

Posted on by Chloe

Any business that understands the importance (and potential) of digital marketing knows that getting your SEO right is one of the most crucial elements. After all, if potential customers cannot find you via the search engines – or worse – if they find one of your closest competitors first, the rest of your hard work seems pretty pointless. Being found online by the right people at the right time is vital and this is where SEO can help.

It might be possible for you to manage your SEO yourself, and many people do – if they have the time and passion to do it. But some businesses benefit from out-sourcing it. So, how do you know when the time is right to be outsourcing your SEO?

1. If it’s not your ‘thing’

At the end of the day, some people enjoy doing SEO and some don’t. But if you want your business to have any sort of web presence, SEO is essential. Although a lot of the concepts around SEO are straightforward, it can be time consuming and involve a lot of analysis, keyword research and trying things out (and changing things), meaning that it can be tricky to fit in around everything else that you have to do. Good SEO requires dedication, and this isn’t something that is possible for everyone.

So, if SEO just isn’t your ‘thing’ or you simply don’t have time, don’t neglect it, it’s time to outsource it. Let somebody else spend the time and give you the results that your business needs.

2. The ever-changing world of SEO

Whilst the concepts around SEO generally stay the same, the world of SEO is always changing. Search engines like Google are always changing their algorithms (the set of rules which decide which results come top of their search rankings) with the intention of giving their `searchers` the most accurate results for what they are looking for. This, however, means that businesses need to stay on top of their SEO and local SEO, to ensure that they are ranked up there in those all-important search results.

3. The have the skills 

Basic SEO, is, well, pretty basic to get your head around. But just like anything else in life, unless you’re prepared to spend time and energy learning about SEO as well as dedicating yourself to practice, it will be difficult to get the best results. A specialist SEO expert, however, will be able to jump straight in with the skills that they already have fine-tuned and get your SEO up to scratch.

4. You can’t afford to pay a full time SEO-er

As businesses grow, it’s not always possible to pay someone who has both the expertise and time to dedicate to SEO, so by outsourcing your SEO, you will get someone with the skills and talent, who you only have to pay for when they are working for you. You don’t have to worry about paying holiday, pensions or how productive they are, but can expect them to work closely with you to get great results that properly reflect your business.

5. You’re struggling with your existing SEO

You might feel like you’re doing everything right with your SEO, but still not ranking near the top of those searches. It might be something that you hadn’t even realised that you should be doing, or something that you aren’t quite doing right, and this is where outsourcing your SEO can help. By letting the experts have a look over it and make the changes that are needed, you can ensure that the SEO efforts that you are making are productive and effective. They can also help you to plan long and short-term marketing strategies to ensure that you get the best results now and in the future.

You’ve run out of ideas

Whether it’s what to do with your website, content or blog post ideas, it can be difficult to be continuously creative, even when it’s something that you feel passionate about. Outsourcing your SEO can bring a fresh perspective on things. By letting the SEO experts analyse what you already have and build on that, they can come up with new ideas in terms of general marketing strategies as well as content which will rocket you up the search results.

For any growing business it can be difficult to let go of certain aspects. There comes a stage though where it is better to let the experts take over and bring the best results for you. Whilst SEO is something that is manageable to certain size businesses, it can be difficult to keep on top of, and effective, especially as your time becomes taken up with other things. By knowing when it is time to outsource your SEO, you can ensure that you get the most effective outcome for your business.

The rise of voice search optimisation: what you need to know

Posted on by Chloe

Voice search is becoming increasingly significant in terms of SEO, as right now, 20% of search queries on Android devices and Google’s app are conducted by voice search. It’s changing the way businesses need to think about their SEO, indicating that they will need to apply voice search SEO if they want to succeed.

 

Voice search allows users to find out what they are looking for without actually loading up a search engine and typing in keywords to generate results. People who use voice search prefer it because it allows them to multitask and they can get information immediately, which is handy for when you’re cooking or driving.

 

And so, due to the increasing amount of usage, search engines are beginning to emphasise voice search optimization.

 

One of the many advantages of voice search optimisation is that it’s a great way to gain brand awareness. When someone asks a question in voice search, the answer usually begins with ‘According to…’, thus informing the listener of your brand.

 

Voice search SEO is different from traditional SEO. For example, voice search uses long tail keywords and a conversational tone, as they are often questions instead of exact keyword searches, like ‘What is the weather like today?’ instead of ‘Cheltenham weather.’

 

It is therefore vital that you should know how users speak about your business and its products. Your content should be written for people, not search engines. Answer questions directly and try and make it obvious that a paragraph is an answer to a question. An example of this type of content is blog posts – many article headings’ feature a question that the post itself then answers.

 

And, of course, you must know your audience and what they are likely to be asking.

 

Making sure that your site is optimised for mobiles is just as important – this is where voice search comes from after all. Mobile SEO needs to be good and page content needs to be high-quality, as your content should be as relevant to the desired search query as possible. Using sections with lists, bullet points, and heading tags can be read easily by Google and thus perform better, and are more likely to be used for voice search.

 

Local SEO is essential as the most popular types of search queries for voice search are location-based – users want to know things like opening times, locations, and what products are available where. So if a site and its content are optimised for local searches, then it’s more likely to succeed in the voice search industry. One way to work out what sort of local content you ned is to think of the popular search phrase ‘…near me.’ Most voice search queries are essentially that but in question form, and that’s the type of information your website will need to provide.

 

In conclusion, voice search optimisation is making changes to mobile SEO, making it something that business owners need to consider when designing their websites. It is speculated that voice search will be a huge trend this year, proven to improve brand awareness and purchases. It’s usage is still on the rise, so by optimising your site for voice search now, you are sure to see results that will help grow your brand in the long-term.

 

See more thoughts about this voice search optimisation here.

Google bug shows up to 14 ads on mobile search pages

Posted on by Chloe

If you follow us on Twitter, you would have seen that we recently posted a video showing a Google mobile SERP that features up to fourteen ads:

As you can see, there are four ads on the top of the page, followed by two organic listings.  Seven more ads appear followed by six organic listings, and then the page ends with three final ads. That’s twice as many ads than usual, and our video kick-started a backlash across Twitter.

We believed that this was another test by Google concerning its search engine results pages, only this one focused solely on mobile searches.

From what we have seen, the SERPs are not still like this, but the discussion on Twitter is still ongoing:

It has been predicted for a while that Google would push its Ads, and the founder of Moz, Rand Fishkin, recently reported that, in 2018, there had been a decline in click-through rates yet an increase in no-click searches. This statistic reflects how Google SERP features, such as Google Ads and Featured Snippets, are competing for clicks.

However, Google Ads responded to our tweet, confirming that it was, in fact, a bug and not a test:

While their reply has received some mixed responses, it is a relief to know that this is not likely to be the layout of mobile searches anytime soon.

See the rest of the Twitter discussion here.

Google displays ‘empty’ search pages to European users

Posted on by Chloe

Recently, Google shared screenshots of proposed search engine results pages that would display if the EU passes Articles 11 and 13 of the EU Copyright Directive. The search results appear empty, as if they have failed to load correctly, and only links are displayed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Image from Search Engine Land 

These types of results were then shown to European users, as discussed on Twitter:

 

The experiment was, according to Google, ‘to understand what the impact of the proposed EU Copyright Directive would be to our users and publisher partners.”

Two provisions that are part of this proposal are Articles 11 & 13. Article 11 would mean that Google and other search engines are required to pay licensing fees when displaying snippets of content. Article 13 requires certain platforms, such as Google and social media sites including Facebook and Twitter, to monitor content uploads for potential copyright infringement.

The full Twitter forum is below: