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Understanding SEO and Its Influence on Marketing

02/01/202402/01/2024 by scmarketing

Ensuring your website and content is as discoverable as possible — especially on Google — can provide both long-term and short-term traffic returns. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a critical component of modern day marketing strategies, and its importance continues to grow. Here, we take a closer look at how SEO strategies have evolved and why SEO is so important for companies today.

Evolution of SEO Strategies

In the past decade, search engine algorithms, such as Google, have changed dramatically. This has allowed for search optimisation opportunities that go beyond simply churning out basic posts with answers to frequently asked questions or keywords in them.

Here are some ways that SEO strategies have evolved:

Content Marketing: Content marketing is the process of creating content that is engaging, informative, and valuable to customers. Content should be high quality and should be tailored specifically to your target audience’s needs and interests. This can include blog posts, eBooks, videos, podcasts, webinars, case studies, infographics, etc. Quality content builds trust with customers which leads to better conversions and long-term relationship building.

Analytics Tracking: When it comes to tracking analytics for your website’s performance over time (e.g., page views over time), it’s important to understand what data you’re looking at and how it can help you make decisions about your website’s future direction.

There are many tools available to track website performance such as Google Analytics. These analytics tools allow you to track user engagement on your website (e.g., page views per visit) as well as the number of people visiting different pages within your site over time (e.g., top pages). This data can then be used to optimise your website for better performance in search engine rankings and conversions down the line.

Technical Optimisation: Technical optimisation refers to improving the speed/efficiency of your website so that it loads faster – this also helps improve user experience on your website which contributes positively towards SEO rankings. This is why it is so important to ensure that a website is optimised properly across different devices, browsers and platforms – if a website takes too long to load, users will leave.

Technical optimisation involves optimising code so that pages render quickly without any errors; compressing images; cleaning up HTML; using caching plugins; etc., all of which contribute towards improved user experience. This can lead to better engagement from web visitors which in turn can help improve organic search rankings.

The Importance of SEO for your Business

SEO has become an increasingly important part of modern day marketing strategies due its ability to drive potential customers from search engines like Google or Bing onto websites through organic ranking increases, all while providing valuable insights into customer behaviour once they arrive on one’s website through analytics tracking tools like Google Analytics!

Investing resources into understanding how these strategies work together can create more value for businesses who want their products or services discovered by more people online!

With an effective SEO strategy in place businesses can ensure their online presence is seen by more people than ever before! By understanding how SEO works alongside other digital marketing techniques businesses have greater control over their online visibility thus allowing them greater success in reaching their desired audiences!

The secret to content marketing

08/19/202212/02/2021 by scmarketing

For small business owners we know that you’re tight on time. There’s so much on your plate to running a successful business and so many roles you have, from sales, marketing, HR, recruitment and finance to name but a few. With this many hats you’re wearing, thinking about regular content marketing may be blue sky thinking, however the benefits of fresh and regular content are vital for helping your business be found in search engine results pages (SERPs).

So, with the little spare time that you have, how can you ensure you’re sharing regular content across multiple channels?

The secret is to utilise and repurpose the content that you have.

When you write a blog and upload it to your website, you’ll have spent time writing at least 500 words or so. Therefore, use it. Whilst a blog in itself can help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), as search engines look for fresh content with relevant keywords on websites, there’s so much more you can do for SEO.

Follow this simple process to maximise one blog to its full potential:

Write social media posts. Review the content of your blog and break that down into bite size chunks. You’ll find that you can schedule a number of different social posts simply by lifting a few sentences from the same blog and sharing them on social. You may have to tailor them slightly for the different social channels you use, but it will take you a lot less time than having to think up fresh new content.
Remember to add a link back to the full blog post and add an image (your own image or purchase a stock image – do not use google images as these carry copyright).
Get your employees and colleagues to also re-share what you post on social media to spread the news through your social network.
Conduct a poll question relating to your blog. This is particularly good on LinkedIn as it engages well with your network and allows them to comment.
If you have an Instagram or Facebook account, share the social post to your Stories to highlight that you have a new blog post. The gifs on Instagram are great for stand out.
Add a summary of the blog as an update to your Google My Business page with a ‘learn more’ button with a link back to your blog. And, if you are on any other listing directories such as associations or event websites, check if they have the option of adding regular updates from you as this all helps with link building.
Send an email to your marketing database. If you have an email database then start to utilise that. Create a template for an email. Platforms like Hubspot allow you to create great looking email templates. Then use a small snippet of the content from your blog in your email and add a ‘read more’ button.
If you want to build on your creative skills, why not create a short video with information taken from your blog? You can record a message simply on a mobile phone. Check out our blog with ideas for creating video for your business.

You can chat further with us about video creation if you want to know more about the scope of what you could do.

Digital marketing strategy

All this activity will help with search engine optimisation (SEO). With the blog itself, ensure you have keywords included (the words and phrases that you want to be found for in search engines).

For social posts, email marketing and business directory uploads always ensure that you have included a link back to your website. Link building with quality links also helps show search engines that you are a thought leader as well as improves brand awareness and lead generation.

We provide digital marketing including SEO, Email Marketing, PPC campaigns and social media marketing.

Content – the foundation of search

08/19/202209/14/2021 by scmarketing

Just like a bricks and mortar shop you need to build a website on good foundations. There are numerous frameworks that allow website owners to maintain and add content. These are called Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress. The beauty of a CMS website is that it allows the user to easily update content especially blogs.

Hubspot says that: “Text will always be the foundation of search so making sure the text around your website’s assets is descriptive will help them rank well in search.”

In a nutshell, this means that the content you add to your website is a key element in generating leads via search engines. This is because if you have relevant content in relation to what someone types into search to find you’re making the search engines job in finding your business and returning you in the results page a lot easier. With this in mind, here’s some tips to consider to help improve the content on your website for search engine optimisation (SEO).

Great content

To get your message across to your target audience, and Google, keep content relevant and to the point. This is essential to help you be found in search engine results pages and it helps to position you as a thought leader in your field of expertise.

Potential clients and search engines need to see you as an expert. This is where a blog helps as you can add fresh content regularly. Your blog should have tips and advice that answer your target audience’s pain points and issues.

If you are writing the blog posts yourself and struggle to think of new content every week it’s worth noting that 51% of companies say that updating their old content has proven a great tactic for creating blogs (Source: SEMrush, 2019 via Hubspot).

There are more tips about writing engaging content in our recent blog which covers creating offers, developing case studies and topics of interest.

Keywords

When you embark on writing a blog or creating a new website it’s worth thinking about what you want to be found for in search. This will help define what is on your list of keywords or phrases to include in your content moving forward.

Working with a digital marketing agency or using a tool such as Semrush can help you identify the volume of searches associated with a particular keyword as well as its difficulty to get ranked for. This can help you hone the list of keywords further so that you have a good balance of words and phrases.

Understanding that 49% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product, being found in search engine results pages should be a key part of your SEO strategy. (Source: Think with Google, 2019 via Hubspot )

A picture tells a great story

Don’t just think of content as the written word. Sometimes less on a webpage is more and breaking a page up with relevant images will help make the page easier to read, builds your brand and helps visitors get a feel for who you are.

Make sure your images are optimised for use on websites. You may need to resize them before you upload as large images can impact site speed. The first five seconds of page-load time is crucial as it can impact on conversion rates. Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time (Source: Portent, 2019). Also remember to complete your image alt tag on the backend. This is good for SEO.

Can website visitors easily move from webpage to webpage?

Make sure your website menu is easy to read and navigate. Ideally a webpage should be no more than 2 clicks – preferably 1 click – from the homepage.

Create bold and clear call to actions with directional text so visitors know what to do. Make it easy for them. Add a call to action near the top of a blog as well as the end to help with engagement. Phrases to encourage action include:

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Internal links throughout content especially in blogs also helps guide visitors back to services and products where you mention them on the site.

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We are a Croydon based digital marketing agency offering SEO services including blog writing, keyword research, local SEO, Google Ad campaigns to help improve your online presence and visibility online as your SEO experts.

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How to write a blog

08/19/202202/08/2021 by scmarketing

There are so many distractions these days from email through to social media or website pop-ups therefore if you have written a blog on your website how do you get people to stay on your website to read it? Here’s some of our tips for writing engaging blog content for your website to help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What should you write in a blog?

When you write a blog the first thing you, or your SEO agency, should always think about is who is your target audience. Therefore, thinking of that typical customer or client will help you tailor your content specifically to them. It also helps to make your content engaging and personable.

You then need to write about topics that will help your target audience. Solve their challenges for them. A great way to get ideas for this is to think about the questions that clients ask you. Then that simply becomes the title of your blog. This is a great SEO tactic as it tells search engines exactly what to expect on that page.

Keywords and phrases

We need to mention keywords and phrases – don’t be put off by thinking it’s some kind of jargon. It’s as simple as thinking about what your customers will search for to try and find your products or services. This will help you create a list that you can refer back to when you write about a topic. Check to see if you can add in relevant keywords to help with SEO campaigns.

While we can get technical and look into keyword volume of searches and keyword difficulty score (which Smart Cow can help with), an initial list created manually will also help in the long run.

Get your point across quickly

Once you have your topic and title established then it’s time to get to work with the content. You may find it easier to break your blogs up with subheadings. If you think of these first then you already have the structure of your blog.

With your opening paragraph, you need to get to the point fairly early on. By giving an indication of what is on your blog, this will give more reason for the website visitor to read on to get more of the details.

Blog content

Keeping your reader engaged is the most important thing as this is what keeps people on your website for longer. It also means visitors return and share articles on social media to help attract more people to your website.

Here’s a few tips to consider to help you write engaging content:

Pose a question to move the content along and in another direction
Use subheadings to break up content – it’s easier on the eye and makes for a more engaging web page
Make content topical by tapping into relevant national days
Reference relevant research and statistics – but don’t forget to reference your source

Call to action

Once you’ve drafted the blog, remember the point of it. Ultimately you want people to do something as a result. So, add a call to action in your final paragraph, for example:

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Contact us for more information, email us on…
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Free resources to help you write your next blog

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