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Why we recommend setting up your Google My Business page

11/03/202009/30/2020 by scmarketing

In our Smart Cow ‘Marketing Minute’ series of videos we provide a snapshot of marketing top tips for online lead generation for your business.

In this video, Simon Cripps tells us why setting up or optimising your Google My Business page is one of the first things to look at when marketing your business online.

Get Google My Business

Search Engine Optimisation

If you look at our blog, we’re always shouting about the benefits of Google My Business as part of your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy. This is about your business rising organically in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Therefore, having a Google My Business page means your business is detailed on one of the biggest search engines. So, getting this page in place is something you should do before having a domain name, website or social media account.

Remember, this is Google’s directory of business and you need to be on it.

What Google My Business offers

Essentially, Google My Business is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on google search and maps.

Google My Business shows your business location, contact details and opening hours.

It offers the opportunity to upload and share photos and updates showcasing your products and services.

The directory also offers a place for customers to write reviews about your business. This provides a great place for you to source testimonials for your website and sharing on social. When people search online, they often look for reviews so a recommendation from a happy customer goes a long way to encourage prospects to your website.

Importantly you can access insights into your search results to help you understand your target audience so you can tailor your ongoing inbound marketing strategy.

SEO agency Croydon

To get started, go to Google My Business and follow the simple steps to manage your account. If you need help the give us a call at Smart Cow on 020 3137 1826 or book a free consultation to discuss our SEO services and how to improve your organic rankings.

We can also work with you on your digital marketing strategy including a mix of tactics such as social media management, Pay Per Click (PPC), email marketing and CRM – read more about our marketing services.

Why investment in organic search can help in a crisis period

06/21/202108/16/2020 by scmarketing

Increasing your online presence in organic search should be the top of any business inbound marketing strategy. If it wasn’t prior to 2020, then now more than ever it should be. As more people are relying on online search to shop, search for services and communicate, a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy is vital, especially to small businesses and start-ups, to help your website be seen in the noise.

With marketing budgets for print advertising taking a hit due to COVID, many marketers shifted to organic search.

The reason businesses opted for SEO is that it helps a business be seen online and helped maintain presence during the crisis. As many companies had to change business model, such as restaurants turning to takeaway services, if the online world wasn’t already important it became essential compared to a poster in an establishments window. The footfall had moved online therefore SEO provided the capability of helping businesses stand out.

Local search rankings

With three in five (59%) consumers saying they have used more local services during lockdown, the importance of visibility online is crucial. The Deloitte report goes on to say one in three (32%) used new brands, products or services that they hadn’t heard of during the lockdown.

Therefore, it’s clear that having presence online opens up new opportunities with prospects and increased brand awareness. By ensuring content on your website includes relevant local information ensures that you are targeted and can help you improve in local search engine rankings.

Organic search and your website

When people search Google, SEO or local search is a way for businesses being seen by local potential customers. This is where companies that invested in organic search at early lockdown reaped the benefits as an SEO strategy is long-term as you need to keep up refreshing your site with mew, original content and keywords to maintain and increase your rankings in search engine results.

This is because search engines look for triggers such as content on a website that is tailored for the area you’re targeting.

Backlinks from referring domains including your Google My Business listing and your social media networks, help to identify your business as quality and trustworthy for the search engines to return in results pages.

Search Engine Optimisation for increased online presence

The crisis period may have subsided for the moment as businesses are opening and services resuming for most sectors, but now is not the time to draw back from your online presence.

Continued investment in organic search is a cost-effective digital marketing tactic ideal for SME’s to continue to grow their online market share even in these unprecedented times.

Digital marketing and SEO company in Croydon

As an inbound marketing agency, we provide digital and inbound marketing for accountants and local businesses.

Marketing is all about building awareness of your products and services. With approximately 7 touch points needed for a sale or sign up to a service, it’s important to constantly get your message out there to increase brand awareness. That’s where digital marketing can help. From local SEO to blog page and social media engagement, there’s a mix of tactics to get your business out there – you just need to be targeted.

We work closely with local businesses in Croydon providing SEO services. Get in touch for a free consultation to see what digital marketing services are best for your business and how an SEO campaign could prove beneficial for your business.

Improve local SEO by creating local content

05/26/202005/21/2020 by scmarketing

Improving your search rankings by creating local content may sound obvious but you’d be surprised how many businesses relying on local search haven’t optimised their website for such eventuality.

As an SEO company in Croydon, here’s a brief overview of what to consider for improving local SEO by creating relevant and targeted content to help improve local search rankings.

Local search

Firstly, a little background on local search. Four out of five consumers use search to find local information. That’s a lot of potential business and prospects you could be letting miss your sales funnel. When people search Google, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or local search is a way for businesses to promote their services to local potential customers and clients.

Search engines look for triggers such as content on a website that is tailored for the area you’re targeting that will showcase local business. Social media pages, external links and a Google My Business page, all help to add to your authenticity of serving a local area and it will help your business appear higher up in the search engines which strive to provide the most relevant results.

Content marketing strategy

When you create a content marketing plan, make sure you include a continuous focus on content for a local audience.

If you’re an accounting firm, you may want to target new businesses that have just arrived in the area. By creating content that would be relevant to them about the area such as useful resources for businesses to tap into from networking groups to social activities can help with search engines locating your website over others in the prize for better ranking in search results.

Don’t forget to revisit your contact details on your website and any other external site where you may have details such as industry bodies or your social channels. In addition, your Google My Business page is a great source for local information. Make sure you constantly add updates to it.

Discover the benefits of SEO for your business

SEO is a long term digital marketing strategy. If you’re looking to improve your local ranking factor, we can help. We’re a digital marketing agency in Croydon serving businesses across London. If you would like to explore SEO for your website, why not get in touch and we can chat about the ways that we can help improve your results in search to generate high quality leads.

Or please take us up on a free website review as this can also highlight areas that need attention that you can implement yourself.

Local SEO resources

The benefits of local search

05/05/202004/20/2020 by scmarketing

Having an optimised website is essential to maintaining online presence and rising in search engine rankings.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) goes hand in hand with the term ‘local search’. We’ve added resources at the end of the blog for more broader detail on website optimisation but for the main purpose of this blog we’re focussing on what small businesses can do to improve local search. We’ll cover how local search can help you target local clients and prospects, particularly now when we’re reliant on the online world.

Target areas for local search with relevant content

As part of your marketing campaign you should be focussing on areas you want to target to find new clients.

Review the content on your  website and check if it is specific for the location you’re targeting.

Make sure you start to weave in information about the area you’re targeting in blogs and on your contact page.

Read ‘Why Blog’ which will give you more tips on why you should have a blog or news page. Ultimately, it’s about keeping content fresh and provides a great way to add local information which search engines will trawl helping your website to Google rank.

You want to be the authority in your field, especially locally. For your content marketing plan, think about tips you can provide your target audience, key dates you can use as a news hook and add links to useful resources.

Google My Business

Make sure you have completed your Google My Business page. It helps Google verify your business. But not only that your business could also appear in the sidebar when a prospect searches a relevant business.

You can continue to add fresh content to your Google My Business page by repurposing your blogs and adding images. Also ask clients to add reviews.

Ensure all your contact details on external sources are consistent with your website.

Online directories

It’s not just about Google My Business. Inclusion on other online directories will help in search results. For example, Yelp and Bing through to industry associations you may be linked with such as Chamber of Commerce.

When you first embark on SEO, you should include this within your wider marketing strategy rather than look at it in silo.

Internal links

When you conduct a review of your website to check you have good quality relevant local content for your target audience. But also remember to review the navigation too. Is it simple to follow? Is there anything you can do to help website visitors? This all helps the user experience and helps keep visitors on a web page for longer.

A quick win is adding internal links throughout your website so that if a visitor is on one web page it not only provides additional information but helps guide the visitor easily to another page.

Social media engagement

Maintain your presence on social media as this will help you with local search too. If content is shared by your followers, this can help with search ranking too as it is helping position you as an authority.

Resources

If you’d like to work with a digital marketing agency to help you navigate Search Engine Optimisation as part of your wider marketing plan and give your business a boost in search, get in touch today. Take advantage of our FREE WEBSITE REVIEW to help discover the areas that you may need to improve initially.

We also have links to blogs below with further information on local search to help you and your business.