If you log into Facebook you will no doubt be aware of the fact that many businesses have what’s called a business page. The aim of these pages is to enable these companies to engage with people, let them know whats going on in that company and hopefully drive people to their website.

Once you set up a page for your business the most difficult thing is to get people to ‘like’ it in the first place. If someone see’s that there are only a handful of people following you then they are much less likely to ‘like’ it themselves. But if you have hundreds already then that gives someone confidence that you are worth liking. We instinctively want to join in with the crowd and get that sense of belonging but how do you get to that point with your Facebook page?

• The first place to start is with your Facebook friends, you can suggest to them that they like your page or even message them with a link attached so that they can follow the link, like the page and support their friend.
• Then utilise your wider network, send an email out, ask your contacts on other social networking sites.
• Make sure you include a link to your Facebook business page on your website
• Include a link to your Facebook page in your email signature and any marketing literature

Once you have people liking your page you need to keep them there. You need to be adding some value otherwise people will either unlike you or simply hide your posts in their newsfeed. Think about the things that are important to your audience. If you are a retailer, then by all means tell people about your products but don’t constantly bombard them. Include links to your website content to encourage people to click through. Use images, people are far more likely to engage with images than words.

Consistency is key here too, posting 50 times a day is too much on Facebook, once or twice is fine and for some businesses just a couple of times a week is adequate it really depends on your business as to how often to post. But once, you’ve decided you need to make sure that you are consistent. Don’t post 10 times one week then do nothing for months. You are much better starting out committing to once a week and slowly build it up from there.

And remember, have fun with it too!!

Matt Cutts from Google has announced that there will be a big update to the search algorithm called Penguin 2.0, one of the biggest changes is a more sophisticated way of identifying spammy links. He said himself that by the end of the summer we should certainly see a decline in the number of websites ranking well due to spammy linking strategies.

Spammy linking applies to low quality inbound links that come from poor quality websites, in recent past this has been all you needed to do to get results for your website, the advent of Google Zoo has changed this but there are still some clever people out there ‘bucking’ the system by relying on these kinds of spammy link building strategies Well Google hope to change all this by making it more difficult for black/grey SEO strategies to be used effectively.

Should you worry about your website?

Well, hopefully not. If you have been focusing on giving visitors to your website high quality content then you shouldn’t need to worry. If you have been involved in these questionable link building schemes then you may be feeling slightly nervous now. BUT there is a way out if you do get stung (getting stung by a penguin – hmmmmmm?).

We should expect to start seeing the impact of Penguin 2.0 in the coming weeks so no doubt there will be more information and more discussion about it’s full impact. In the meantime, if you would like to see Matt Cutts announcement in full, then take a look…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xQmQeKU25zg

Most businesses don’t have the time or expertise to manage their websites in-house, nor are they able to gain the search results and traffic levels that will help them achieve success online. So most companies will outsource SEO and the management of their websites to an external agency. One of the problems is that many SEO companies don’t really understand how to do this either.

One of the biggest mistakes we see is over optimisation of a website. You might have spotted them yourself, where pages of content are stuffed full of keywords and don’t actually make any sense when you read them, there are loads of links and if you scroll down to the bottom of a page you will often see loads of text and links that aren’t relevant to the rest of the page.

This kind of practise used to work and work very well, but the way that the Google algorithm works has changed considerably and this just doesn’t have the desired results any more. You see, you type a search term into Google and all it is trying to them do is display a list of websites that it believes are most relevant to your search term. Google wants these sites to be there because they have lots of quality content that will add value and give the searcher what they want. It doesn’t want to display a load of rubbish sites that are stuffed full of keywords but offer little else to the user.

So how do you get the balance right? There is a certain amount of optimisation that needs to take place on a page purely because you need it to be clear both to the search engines and visitors to your website alike, what each individual page is about. This helps the search engines determine which results to serve up but also helps the user quickly decide if the website gives them the information that they were looking for in the first place.

Knowing how to achieve this balance is what sets us apart from our competitors and allows us to maintain long term relationships with our customers. If you want to know more about how our website management and SEO services work then please get in touch.

In order to take your business in Braintree to new heights, you need to harness the power of the internet. For this, you can get an SEO compliant website designed or revamp your existing site.

Many local business owners fail to recognise websites as the powerful medium of advertising that they are. If you get a website designed for your business in Braintree, you can draw some extra customers to your business regardless of whether you sell online or not.

Web Design Braintree: Advantages

As more and more customers expect to find you on the web, in addition to being available on the Yellow Pages, you need to be on the internet. These days consumers search for products and services online before making purchases. An effective website ensures that information about your business that your customers are looking for is available online 24/7/365.

An effectively designed website can bring your business the following advantages:

• An informative web design offers increased awareness of products and services
• It also ensures improved exposure to your Braintree business
• A well optimised website can work as an effective advertising tool

In addition to these benefits, an effective website allows you to improve customer relations by helping your customers make an informed choice. Providing information or support through a website that makes visitors more contented about buying from you will strengthen your business and your relationship with your customers.

What to Expect from a Braintree Web Design Firm

When you are looking for a firm to design a website for your Braintree business, you need to take several factors into consideration.

First of all make sure that the service provider has experience in offering successful web design for local business. Ensure you look for a company who specialises in web design for local businesses in Braintree.

It is better to go for a web design firm that also provides SEO and internet marketing services along with web design, as no matter how good looking a website is, it is no use if it can’t be found. A good Braintree web design firm will incorporate website design, content, functionality, analytics and reporting into a manageable and flexible package.

With a local market just waiting to find out about you, now is the time to take your local Braintree business online with a compelling and search engine friendly web design.

If you are looking for a web design firm in Braintree, feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

Restaurants traditionally shied away from SEO citing that they get their customers from referrals and local advertising. I accept that this is true in part, but I also think that they are seriously missing a trick. I for one (no big suprise here then) search online for restaurants all the time, I love eating out and experiencing new flavours. Please don’t be big headed and think that everyone knows about you because chances are they don’t.

Restaurants Local Listings

Adding your business to Google will help your business appear in the search results when people are looking for what you do. You can help ‘bump’ up your listing by ensuring you update it with images and new information on a regular basis, encourage your customers to post reviews and link the listing to your website.

SEO for Restuarants – Geographical Searches

There are two main ways that people search for restaurants, one is geographically. Often people will want to eat out in a certain area, whether it’s close to their home or work, or maybe a trip away somewhere. Whatever the reason you need to make sure that if you want this additional trade that you can be found when people search for you.

SEO for Restaurants – Cuisine Type Searches

The other way that people search is if they are looking for a particular type of food, so I might search “chinese in Harlow Essex” for example, or “Michellin star restaurant in Essex”. So again you need to make sure that you can be found for these phrases when people are searching.

Keyword Research

But how do you know what people are looking for? Well, this is called keyword research and it involved looking at the things people are physically typing into Google, then seeing how many people are typing those phrases and then also taking into consideration how competitive that phrase is. It then becomes a bit of a balancing act to decide which phrases you would like your restaurant to be found for. This is how SEO starts because it is only of value to you if you can be found for things the enough people are searching for.

I could ramble on for hours, but I don’t want to bore you to death, but please do leave a comment below if you have any specific questions about this subject.

With the Internet now being considered a mainstream medium and one that has become integrated into the marketing of the vast majoriy of companies we have seen a steady increase in spend in this area. What is noteworthy is the increased share that digital media has over that of it’s more traditional forms of marketing, these areas such as TV and newspaper advertising and continuing to decrease in popularity and spend.

More companies are also investing in mobile marketing, with more and more of us using mobile devices to access the internet it’s not suprising that this is an area of marketing growth. Research has shown that people dont’ mind digital advertising as long at it is relevant and helpful. So if you are on a blog site all about running for example, seeing digital ad’s for running shoes would be seen as acceptable by the readers of that blog.

What many businesses need to remember though is that simply tranferring their marketing from offline to online isn’t quite as straightforward as they might hope. Most traditional methods of advertising are what we call ‘push’ methods, where we push our products and services into peoples paths in the hope that they might be interested in what we have to sell. Online we need to consider how buyer behaviour differs, how decisions are made and also how to get found using SEO methods.

What we have been seeing is a much more integrated approach to campaigns by combining offline marketing with an online campaign to try and leverage a wider audience. Many TV ad’s will have the company’s Facebook page address displayed or will say “search *******” to encourage you to look for and find their website.

Remarketing is also an area that has grown over the last few years, we now have the ability to ‘follow’ potential customers from website to website, sometimes without them even really noticing it. This is a way of trying to keep that person engaged with your company in the hope that they will come back and make a purchase, or pick up the phone or whatever else it is you want them to do.

Who knows what we will see change over the next year, things are moving increasingly quickly and with social media almost dictating the future of digital marketing we will just have to wait and see what the masses have in store for us.

Anyone that knows me also knows that one of my big passions is running and as a geek I have tried every app going to track my runs along the way. Most are OK but overall I have to say that you can’t beat a Garmin, the only downside is that it doesn’t play music.

So please Apple and Garmin, get together and make a running watch that has all the fantastic features of a Garmin running watch and combine it with the style and music playing abilities of an Apple product. This way I would only need to take one device out with me on my runs and trust me at the moment with a watch, iPhone, running belt, keys and water bottle I look like i’m going on holiday for a fortnight every time I leave the house.

Maybe Garmin could teach Apple about battery life and Apple could teach Garmin that their watches look like something out of the eighties, I really think that they would make a great partnership. I’m sure that in deep dark geek land there are already companies beavering away trying to come up with one, but for me personally I think this is a match made in heaven and would combine the best elements of both companies perfectly.

Many Essex based businesses have tried SEO in some form or other, there are many ‘cheap’ schemes out there that promise the world for very little. If it was really as easy as paying someone £100 a month and sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring, surely we would all be doing it? I certainly would. The truth of the matter is that we live in a competitive world and this is true online.

Yes, there are stories about people who set up an online business for the cost of a Mars Bar and made millions, but these people are few and far between and trust me unless you have an incredibly unique idea it’s unlikely to be you. Harsh but very very true.

Most people look online to search for products and services instead of the yellow pages or local Essex newspapers like they used to. Times have definitely moved on and the world has moved online. This means that if you want new customers then you need to make sure that they find you when they are searching and not the competition.

One of the first questions we always get asked is “how much will it cost” and the honest answer is that initially we just don’t know. You see every business is different, every market place is different and even if we could wave our magic SEO wand we would simply be guessing. Our pricing is based on the amount of effort involved in getting YOUR business found online, no one else’s and it therefore follows that this price will be unique to you. We are happy to have an initial chat to work out between us if the budget you have available is in the same ball park, we won’t put on the hard sell so please give us a call and ask for Neil for a quick chat about your requirements 01279 647003.

A lot of people think they can start posting a few times on Twitter or Facebook or maybe upload a video to YouTube and then sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Well that’s unlikely to happen, unless you are an established brand and already have a large database from which to draw from.

For many smaller businesses social media can take a while to get going, it can be disheartening to post to a small audience and it can be difficult to grow your audience organically. I think this may be why some get frustrated and end up plying the networks with sales messages because they don’t feel like this whole social thing is working for them.

But there are ways that you can help to grow your audience, here are some of the best:

• Share great content (I know, I know, but it’s so important)
• Ask questions
• Don’t overload people with too many posts
• Ask people to share
• Promote offers/competitions
• Post funny/amusing/interesting images as these are easy for people to share and get a good response
• Use your existing contacts and ask them to follow/like/connect etc.
• Make sure people can connect socially from your website and offline marketing material. Include links in your email signatures too.

It can take time to build up an audience but by sticking to what you know is right and ensuring that everything you post will add value in some way then it will come eventually. What you will also find is that the larger the audience the quicker it then continues to attract more people, it’s self perpetuating. Stick with it, it does get easier and if you need some advice, then just give us a call 01279 647003.

Content is the key to online marketing success. We have been working with our Essex based clients for years, educating them on the right way to write their content and here are my top tips:

1. Write for the reader and not yourself

2. Quality is THE most important thing

3. Make sure your content isn’t ‘thin’ meaning you have enough on each page (more that 200 words usually)

4. Make one page about one subject, don’t try to cover too much in one go

5. Use images and video to bring your words to life

6. Don’t keyword stuff, write naturally

7. Link from within your content to related subjects that your reader will be interested in

8. Update and add content to your website on a regular basis

9. Check your spelling and grammar

10. Don’t pay pennies for shoddy content, quality will always win over quantity

So if you forget about search engines and concentrate on writing content for your users ie. prospects and customers then you will automatically help Google to understand what your website is about and rank you for the relevant keyphrases.

The biggest mistake a lot of people make is they write loads of great stuff when their website is being constructed, then as soon as it’s done they take a deep breath and walk away from it. You need to view your website as organic, changing and updating as your business does. If your business stayed still then you probably wouldn’t be around for long, think of your website in the same way.

If you need any help with your content please do get in touch