We don’t often write much about ourselves on this blog, mainly I am a complete geek who spends my life talking about Google or running (my other great passion in life), so as an Essex based business why should you come to us to help you with your SEO? If you have found this article then you may already know what SEO is and you may also have had some experience in the past, many of our customers and indeed ourselves get tonnes of phone calls and emails from so called experts claiming they can get you on page one of Google with as little as £100 per month.

What these people don’t tell you is that they usually use paid advertising to do this and often will target keywords that no one is actually looking for, so it may get you on page one, but will it really do your business any good to be found for things that no one is actually looking for? Of course not and that is why you need a company like ours.

We are a full service agency which means we cover the whole spectrum of online marketing services, we understand how the internet works and we have some very clever technical people that know how to make things work. We also understand how marketing online works and can employ a wide variety of techniques to achieve SEO success. You see SEO is no longer about how many keywords you can fit on one page, it’s a complex process that is ever changing and we are constantly amending the way that we approach things to make sure that we adhere to best practise.

When we first meet with a company we will run a free Webscan report which will basically tell us whether the current website is up to scratch and can be used for Search Engine Optimisation campaigns, in about 75% of cases people need a new one, there is no point driving lots of traffic to a website that isn’t up to the job. Think about your website like a shop, there is a huge amount of psychology that goes into the way a retail outlet is layed out and the same is true of your site.

We will also be completely honest with you, if you are looking to compete against the big brands then you need a big budget but if you have a local target market then the budget doesn’t need to be as big, the same is true if you operate in a less competitive market and have a niche product or service or even a young market online. You can usually spot a young market as you will see lots of directories appearing high up in the search results, this is a clear indication that there is an opportunity to be had and that actually now is a great time to get started before the competition do.

We will also tell you if SEO is a fruitless task as very occasionally we come across a company where we don’t think we can get them a good return on investment and that’s not good for anyone. Not the Essex based customer, not us and not our reputation. Talking of reputation the vast majority of our clients stay with us year on year and a large proportion of our new customers come via referrals from existing ones and I don’t think theres a better vote of confidence than that.

So if you are an Essex based company and are looking for someone to work with you on your SEO then please give us a shout, we are more than happy to have a chat, no pressure selling just good honest advice.

In this post I will focus on how to optimise your content for a search engine without turning it into something that no human reader can understand.

SEO Keywords

Each page should be optimised for one keyphrase and this phrase should form part or all or be related to the keyphrase and should appear in the:

• web address i.e. www.wsimarketingexperts.co.uk/seo-essex
• Page Name
• H1 Tag (normally the title you see at the top of the page)
• H2 Tag (any sub titles you see)
• Behind any images you have
• Included in the words on the page
• Included in link text on the page – linking to other relevant pages on the site

You can use a keyword density checker to make sure that you aren’t keyword stuffing, there are plenty of free tools (just Google it and a whole list will come up – funny that !) and don’t over optimise either.

If you are unsure what keywords to use, Google have a free keyword checker tool that you can use this will not only tell you how many searches are made for specific searches but will also give you suggestions for other keywords that you might have missed.

In today’s incredibly competitive online space it is also key to go after specific search terms, yes the phrase’shoes’ have squillions of searches but there are also squillions of other companies trying to be found for that phrase and the amount of investment required to beat them is going to be huge. It is much better to go after specific searches i.e. summer sandals, these have less searches but are also less competitive and therefore you have a much better chance on success. Another thing to mention is that the more specific searches are more likely to convert as they already know what they want and as long as you provide what you say you do then you have a good chance of converting someone into a new customer.

Find out more about our SEO Services in Essex

In this post we focus on the content and how you can ensure that what you have on your website is representing your business in the right way and helping your search engine optimisation activity at the same time. If you aren’t interested in content and are in the Essex area then give us a call on 01279 647003 and we can handle any copywriting on your behalf.

So content, when you write for the web you are writing for two different people (not technically people but lets call them that for now). The first is your audience, your potential customers. When they visit a website they want to know instantly if you are able to provide what they were searching for and once they get there they want to know what to do next (these are called call to actions – to be discussed in another blog post). Once they have easily and quickly found the pages that interest them on your website they will scan through the text and so it is important that you put all of your important information in an easy to read format.

• Bullet points are great for drawing peoples attention to your most important information

Images are a great way too of instantly creating an identity, so for example if I am searching for yellow shoes and come across a page with an image of some yellow shoes then I can be confident that I am in the right place.

Don’t write too much on each page, it will never get read and people will most likely not people to pick out the bits they need, we are an impatient lot online and won’t put lots of time aside for this kind of activity.

Include links to other relvant content, this doesn’t necessarily need to be on your website but remember if you direct them somewhere else they may not come back again.

In the next post we will focus more on the SEO side of writing content but I felt it important to give you some guidelines about how to write for your prospective customers. But as I mentioned earlier if you are in Essex then we can help you with Copywriting.

When I am out and about meeting people they often use the terms SEO or Search Engine Optimisation, but many don’t really understand what it is or why they need it or actually the investment required. There is a perception that just because something is online it should be cheap and easy right? Whilst a few years ago as a local business it was enough to have a website, but now as more and more businesses have seen the online opportunities the marketplace has become much more competitive and so to have success online you need to work hard at it.

SEO is all about your potential customers being able to find your business when they search for your products and services, it is not about being found for terms that you think are important. There is no point at all being on page one of Google (lets face it, thats where we all want to be) for a search phrase that no one is looking for. You need to have a good understanding of the things your market are interested in and deliver that to them, but you need to be found for it in the first place.

Search Engine Optimisation is a massive subject and one that I could spend weeks talking about endlessly and yes I know that’s sad. It’s an ever changing beast and a tough one at that, you can no longer stuff a load of keywords at the bottom of your page, or try and mention the words ‘Internet Marketing Essex’ as many times as you can in your content and expect that to be enough. In fact the key to good SEO is convincing the search engines that your website is important in it’s field and will offer the searcher exactly what they are looking for. That starts with content, i’ll talk about that more in my next post.

Oh, and links are important too, like this one SEO Essex (sorry couldn’t resist)

Having a great website is so much more than what it looks like, in order for it to be successful it needs to rank well in the search engines for the right keyphrases and create a steady stream of traffic. In order to do this you need to implement a good Search Engine Optimisation plan. For most eCommerce sites between 1 – 3% or visits will actually result in a sale, this gives you some idea of the quantity of visitors you need to your website to generate the income that you are looking for. Here are the top 5 areas to look out to make sure an eCommerce website is well optimised.

1. Do your research

There is no point gaining thousands of visitors as a result of non relevant keyphrases. So the first step is to understand what people are actually typing into the search engines to look for your products and services. The key is to find a balance between the number of searches and how competitive each keyphrase is and to target those that you will be able to rank for and therefore glean traffic from. It is not always the best strategy to go after the most popular keyphrase as you often find that the more descriptive keyphrases have a higher conversion rate, so finding lots of these can create a really successful campaign.

2. Get Organised

Work out the best way to structure your website based on your keyword research, but be careful not to hinder usability. Assign a different keyword to each page to ensure that you cover all of the keywords you are looking to target. Make sure your site is structured in a logical way and that it is easy for someone to move from page to page easily. Link your pages together so that related pages are linked to eachother.

3. Optimise your pages

Make sure that if you have assigned a keyword to a page that you make sure that page is all about your chosen keyword. The content, images, anchor text, title, H1 and H2 tags all need to include your keyword to ensure each page is fully optimised. Try and make sure your url’s contain the keyword too.

4. Go off-page

Create links back to your website from sources across the Internet, this helps convince a search engine that you know what you are talking about and that you have a worthwhile website. You can gain links from a number of different areas such as directory listings, bookmarking sites, blogs, social networking sites, article sites, Press Release sites. Also incredibly useful for eCommerce are reviews, encourage your customers to leave you reviews, this will help your conversion rates as well as your rankings.

5. Measure and Adjust

Like any good marketing campaign, you need to understand what is going on. Measure the traffic to your website with something like Google Analytics which is free to use. You can set up goals that allow you to track specific elements on the site. You can also track the sales funnel and identify if there are certain areas where people are leaving the checkout process.

By looking at what is happening you can make changes and work at consistently improving efforts, the search engines are constantly changing and so SEO is something that needs to be tackled on an ongoing basis.

If your company is launching a new product, participating in an event or conference or getting involved with a local charity, one of the best ways to share the news is through the use of PR. This is basically gaining editorial space, although a form of advertising this is a great way of gaining endorsement from someone else, this helps to give you credibility and is more powerful than you talking about yourself.

The way that PR is handled now is very different, Social Media has meant that you no longer just need to focus on the more traditional forms of media such as newspapers and magazines. Being aware of how your brand is perceived involves listening to what people are saying about you in a whole host of different areas.  PR today is about targeting those that are vocal online as well as offline, so this includes bloggers online websites, consultants in fact anyone who is good at voicing opinions on the Internet.

How to use social media for PR

• Share news on your company website through your blog or news pages and send notification to your RSS subscribers.
• Syndicate this via the social networks (you should already have profiles in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc..)
• Bookmark these updates on sites such as Diggit.
• Promote your social media profiles through your official Press Releases

Make sure that you have a consistent message between your online and offline PR activity to ensure that you are giving the same message to both areas, there is more and more crossover these days, with many newspapers having an online equivalent so you need to make sure they are hearing the same information from you. Also use your offline efforts to publicise what you are doing online and vice versa.

Working with a local business can help you in a number of ways. by engaging an SEO Company Essex you are helping to form strong relationships that will encourage the whole process to work well. You see, one of the things that is vitally important to us is that we really gain an understanding of the businesses that we work with, only by doing this are we in a position to offer advice and come up with a solution that best fits their needs.

There are several ways in which to do this, but let’s face it nothing beats sitting down face to face to really get to grips with what makes an individual business tick. We need to gain this understanding to do the best job for you. SEO is quite a dry subject and unless you are interested in technology then the practicalities of how it works aren’t exactly exciting to those outside of the industry. We take all of that away from you so that you can concentrate on your business whilst we concentrate on what we are good at.

I do come across many businesses that try and do it themselves some are even good at it, but you have to ask yourself “what am I not doing that I could be doing right now to move my business forwards?” That’s where we come in, the cost to you is much less and the outcome much better. We aim to gain a good ROI for all of our customers, from my point of view, if I don’t think I can help you achieve your goals with a budget that is affordable and that will allow us to put in the required effort then it is much better for me to walk away.

We like to see ourselves as your internet marketing department, integrating into your business and enabling you to focus on the things that you are best at, in the same way you would work with a local accountant why wouldn’t you work with an SEO company Essex ? The principle is the same really.

A long tailed keyword is basically a more descriptive version of a keyword, so instead of searching for ‘jacket’ you might search for ‘black leather jacket UK’.  On an individual basis they do not account for a particularly large number of searches but they are far more likely to result in sales.  In terms of converting traffic into customers, this is the second most valuable kind of search term as people are very late on in the buying stage, they know exactly what they want and are far more likely to buy.

In terms of a marketing campaign they can form a really effective part of your strategy, there tends to be less competition in the search engines for these kinds of phrases and so it requires less work to achieve higher rankings.  So it may be worth generating 50 targetted people to come to your website rather than 150 people who don’t really know what they want.

It can also help you to achieve high search engine rankings for the shorter keywords too, in fact one of the best ways to get these meaty keywords is to target long tailed keyphrases that include the words that you are really after.  It kind of has a knock on effect to your current efforts.

Research has shown that using long-tailed keywords can increase your conversion rate by around 200% compared to short keywords and so this gives a great opportunity for a business.  In fact as a smaller business in a highly competitive market, it gives you a way to be able to compete and gain results as often trying to compete with a national chain can be cost prohibitive.

So when you are working out a strategy for SEO or PPC, think about striking the right balance between the volume of searches, how competitive those searches are and the likely conversion rates.  By looking at these different elements you can create a campagin specifically targetted to your budget, overall objectives and specific product range.

Sounds a bit melodramatic but Keyword Research is where it all starts out.  If you are looking at lead generation and increasing traffic to your website then keyword research is a must.  Before you do anything else you need to understand what people are physically typing into the search engines, you need to understand any trends and look for gaps in the market.  You need to look at each individual keyword as a market in it’s own right remember as people often use different words to search for the same thing.

Google Keyword Tool

The Google Keyword tool is free to all and is a good place to start.  It allows you to enter keywords related to your industry and will return results of search volume on a global and national level.  It will also give you suggestions for other related keywords that you may wish to consider.  Alongside search volume it also helps you to gain an understanding of the level of competition for each keyword. You see, it’s not necesarily the best thing to target just the high volume keywords particularly if you are starting from scratch, these are usually the most competitive and therefore the ones that will take the most work and time to get results with.  I’m not saying don’t go after them, but just that you may want to consider what we call long-tailed keyphraes first.

Long-Tailed Keyphrases

This basically means where someone has used more words in the search bar, it is usually more descriptive of exactly what it is that they are searching for.  There are a few reasons to try and target these first for SEO:

• Less competition to get high rankings
• Less time required to achieve higher rankings
• This will also help in your bid to go after more generalised keywords
• Higher conversion rate for those searching
• Qualified traffic and so lower bounce rate and better overall results

Achieving Rankings

By rankings I mean that your website appears in the first few results on the first page that a search engine returns.  With a keyphrase that has less competition it is much easier for you to convince the search engines that your website is the most relevant and thus bringing you good results much more quickly.

Getting results for ‘other’ keywords

If the keyword I really want is yellow shoes, but I know that this is incredibly competitive I can start by targetting long-tailed keywords that have a respectable level of searches such as ‘flat yellow shoes’ (these are pure examples, I haven’t done the research.  This will help me in my bid to go after the more general keyword because I will already be ranking well for a related phrase.

Increased Conversion and Quality Traffic

By going after long-tailed keyphrases you are increasing your chances of converting those visitors into customers.  The more specific people are about what they want the more likely they are to buy as long as you offer exactly what they are searching for.  This also gives you quality traffic as the vast majority of people visiting your website are truly interested in your offering.  There’s no point having 10,000 visitors if they are all looking for black shoes and you only sell yellow shoes!

So going back to my starting point. Spend the time and effort on understanding your market before you get caught up in having a pretty website designed or going for keywords that you ‘think’ people are looking for.  It’ much easier to change things at the beginning than finding out after the first year when you haven’t achieved any sales.

Linking is a technique that has been around for some years.  Originally it was focussed around submitting your business to a large number of directories, some of these directories were thought of more highly than others.  This depended on the popularity and scale of each individual directory.  But things have come a long way, most people don’t like directories very much, when they search for something they are looking for the individual websites of relevant businesses to appear in the search results, so the search engines took notice and now it’s very rare you will see a directory in the search results at all.  In fact if you do see one, it’s normally because there aren’t many other websites that are relevant enough to be displayed.  Whilst directory submission haven’t disappeared all together they aren’t really where the focus is any more.

Social media came along and kind of changed linking completely.  The thing to remember is that on the whole Search Engine Optimisation is driven by great content, the key is then to create those links by using your content in lots of different places across the internet.  The reason social media has become so important is that a search engine is going to see a review or recommendation as much more important and trustworthy than a business talking about how fantastic they are.  So whilst it can take time, builidng up organic links through writing about your business and industry in an engaging way is the best way to go.

Unfortunately, this can take time and so many businesses are speeding up this process using social media to ‘explode’ their message across the internet in the hope that people will share, converse and comment on the content that they have provided.  Oh and remember that this content doesn’t have to be words, it can be images, video, podcasts pretty much anything really.

One of the other ways to build links is through article marketing, this is the process of posting your great content on several article sites, within these articles you will place links back to your website, thus helping to create your own links and giving readers a way of finding out more about the subject matter.  Article took a bit of a hit earlier this year when Google changed it’s algorithm, but like directoriy submissions there is still value in this form of marketing.  More recently we have seen the use of blogs to build these links.

So in summary, if you have a campaign where you are partaking in all of these things then you are very likely to be building those links that you need.