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.

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.

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.

Another recent Google update called Panda 25 has we believe resulted in the integration of Panda into Google’s algorithm. This basically means that any changes you make should result in changes much more quickly than before when Panda was updated on a monthly basis (give or take).

So what does this mean for SEO? Well we’ve known for a while now that Google is far more interested in good quality, unique content that is shared socially. But we also believe that user interaction is also vitally important. There are lots of metrics in Google Analytics that can help you understand what people do when they visit your website. It’s not just about the number of people you get there, it’s what they do while they are on your site. Here are some numbers to look at:

• page views

• time on site

• bounce rate

• number of returning visitors

These are just a few to get you started, but in essence the longer you keep someone on your website the more likely it is that they have found something of value related to the search term they entered. If Google can see that these users are getting what they want, then it makes sense that they will direct more of them to your website.

So i’m afraid there are no quick fixes, no short cuts. SEO in today’s world is simply about creating a great site, easy to navigate that is built using modern technology. Populating that site with great content and making it easy for people to find their way around. Lastly, it’s about encouraging people to share that content socially and engaging with your audience on social platforms.

SEO Essex is probably something that you may type into a search engine if you want help getting your website found in the search engines. there are lots of things to take into consideration when thinking about SEO as a search engine will use something called an algorythm to decide which website display in which order for each individual keyphrase typed into the search bar. There are lots of different things that it measures and no one but the search engines themselves really know exactly what is included. Having said that there are certain things we know are measured and when we work with a customer we make sure that they follow all the known rules to help make sure that they are displayed as early in the search results as possible.

SEO Essex Tips for Technology

Your website needs to be built using the correct technology so that it is easy for a search engine to determine what your site is all about and can easily index your pages. So sites built in flash don’t tend to do very well as a search engine cannot read images.

SEO Essex Tips for Content

Make sure you have lots of quality content on your site, this needs to be keyword rich and relevant to your business. The scale of your site and frequency of updated content is also vitally important. So set yourself personal targets around how many additional pages you are going to add and how often you are going to add them. When you add a page make sure that you link that page to other relevant content on your website.

SEO Tips for Linking

Incoming links are like getting a pat on the back from someone, it gives the search engine confidence if you have lots of other websites linking to you. There are lots of ways you can create links:

• Directory Submissions
• Social Blogging
• Social Bookmarking
• Guest Blogging
• Social Networking Sites

SEO Tips for Social Media

Use social media to it’s full advantage, encourage your customers to write reviews about your business, engage with your customers and potential customers to gain credibility and help become known as an expert in your industry. Set up profiles on lots of different social media portals. But make sure you are monitoring what is being said and responding to comments otherwise all your hard work will be wasted.

SEO Essex tips are there to hopefully give you a little insight to how Search Engine Optimisation works, but this is by no means a complete list. this is why it’s always best to work with an expert as there are so many tasks that need to be undertaken to have a successful website and each element requires different skills.

Local SEO is really aimed at those businesses in Essex and Hertfordshire that are targetting a small geographical area.  If you are a small to medium sized business and have a local customer base then you can focus your online marketing accordingly.

Whilst search engines are getting better at identifying where searchers are they don’t always get it right. That and the fact that more and more people are using geographically targetted search phrases means that there are things that you can do to find local business. This is especially important for smaller enterprises where they are really only looking for new customers in their own local area. Some examples include hair and beauty salons, car garages, health and fitness professionals and many many more.

To take the hairdresser as an example, if I have a small chain of hairdressing salons across the county then I might want people to find me when they type the phrase Hairdresser Essex into Google. By the same token, if I have one salon based in Braintree then being found for Essex based phrases isn’t necessarily going to help me. In this case I would be looking to be found for Hairdresser Braintree.

Hopefully this explains a little bit more about local SEO. But how do you do it, well below are our top tips…..

1. Get your Local pages – search engines have their own business listings so make sure that you set up an account with them and list your business. Not all of them offer this in the UK whilst I write this, but no doubt they will in the future. You may know of Google Places, or Google Business listings.

2. Include geographical phrases on your website. Someone needs to know instantly when they visit your website if they have come to the right place and so make it obvious throughout the website where you are based. Don’t hide it away on the contact page, this is good not only from a users point of view, but will also help the search engines identify when to display your website in the search results.

3. Have a social prescence. Make sure people can find out about you on social networking sites. Ensure you have your profiles set up and that you are actively engaging with local people and businesses.

4. List your business in local directories. Whilst search engines don’t tend to display directories so much any more, this can be a great way of getting links to your website. Links are important again in helping a search engine decide whether or not to list your website in the search results.

We do predominantly work with businesses in Essex, Hertfordshire and North London because we feel it is important for us to build strong relationships with our customers. Although we are a web company we also believe there is no substitute for meeting face to face and this is why we tend to work with most of our SEO clients in this geographical area.