In their haste to climb aboard the social media bandwagon, too many businesses rush into social marketing work with no goals – let alone a plan to help them reach it.

Similarly to every other area of your marketing strategy, your social media efforts need to be carefully planned and executed. After all, without the necessary groundwork you’re going to have difficulties allocating your team the direction and resources they need to get results.

When implemented correctly, social media can prove incredibly advantageous to your business; it can encourage a more natural link profile, help build your brand and provide a unique way of communicating with your target audience.

If you’re attempting to put together a social media strategy for the first time, or are re-evaluating your current strategy, consider these top 10 tips for improved social media efforts.

1. Increase search visibility. Search engines, such as Google, are known to factor in social sharing when awarding a website its ranking. If you want to increase your company’s search visibility, then you’ll need a good social media strategy that gets people talking about and sharing your content. If your business depends on the search engines for the majority of its leads and sales, this will prove most effective.
2. Grow brand awareness. Social media campaigns can be perfect for raising consumer awareness and building your business brand. If this too is your objective, then ensure your social media efforts really reinforce your business brand and help you stand out from the rest.
3. Be informative. Your social media efforts should always teach customers something for free. So, be sure to include some ‘how-tos’ and compelling resources to educate your customers.
4. Use up-to-date content. Producing relevant news and information that appeals to your target audience, will keep search users talking about your business brand. By keeping your pages up-to-date with fresh, exciting content you could become the go-to for high quality news and resources within your niche. This will give you the ultimate advantage over your competitors.
5.  Become a leading expert in your niche. Does your business have expertise in a unique subject matter? By making these expertise available, you’ll attract a much larger audience of people seeking your answers and advice.
6.  Showcase products. Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube – social platforms such as these will allow your business to showcase your products and services, at little cost.
7. Include customer services. A company known for its speedy responses to customer queries and issues is often admired amongst customers. So, why not integrate customer services into your social media strategy, for a more positive brand reputation?
8. Recruit new candidates.  For companies with a HR team, social media could be ideal for searching out high-quality, interested job candidates. This may not be for every company, but for companies focused on recruitment, it could be ideal.
9. Built-in commerce.  Many companies are slowly but surely working towards using social networks as a platform for quick and easy transactions. E-commerce for Facebook (or F-commerce), is a full e-commerce store built into Facebook. The benefit of this is direct, speedy sales – however, only a few major brands have begun testing this strategy.
10. Conduct market research.  Arguably one of the biggest benefits of social media is that it gives you a direct channel of communication with your target audience. Use social media to learn more about your customers. Conduct your own market research and watch out for trends in the market. The more you learn, the more you can work on and improve your current marketing strategies.

Got your social media objectives figured out? Then it’s time to begin putting what you’ve learnt into action. 

If you think it might be time for a site redesign, but need a little reassurance, here are the 5 key warnings to recognise that it’s time to rebuild.

You know if you have a good website, as you’ll have acquired a significant number of compliments. However, this doesn’t mean to say that it wouldn’t benefit from a makeover. Below you will find the 5 vital signs that mean building a new site is vital.

          1) Acquiring A Newer Domain

Ok, so you’ve acquired a new domain which instantly means that a re-design is required. Could there be a greater way of publicising a new site, than redesigning it? If you have taken on a new domain or your business is selling a new product, a site re-design is essential.

         2) Only A Set Number of Pages Can Be Hosted On Your Existing Site

Many people consider CMS and websites to be the same, but they vary greatly. CMS sites were built to play host to an unlimited capacity of content; text, video, podcasts etc, whilst static websites make adding content less easy. There are numerous reasons as to why SEO favours websites with many pages, rather than few pages. Could your site do with having more content?

         3) Your Current Website Is Obsolete

If the theme of your website is beginning to look dated, this is a key sign that your website requires updating. The web has changed significantly over the years, which means what was classed as ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ years ago, is far from it now. If your site is challenged in the image department, it could be time to consider a redesign.

         4) If Your Site Is Not Mobile-Friendly

According to a recent survey, as much as 12% if the current global traffic online is through mobile traffic. Many people choose to look sites up via their phone, than their desktop – it’s quick, it’s easy and it’s fast. You can get WordPress plug-ins that effectively mimic a mobile site, so why not clasp mobile entirely by making a responsive theme part of your site design or upgrading your current theme to a mobile friendly one, to ensure you’re one step ahead of the game.

         5) If Your Site Performance Is Suffering

If you have noticed the performance of your website has been suffering in recent times, a re-design is more than likely needed. If you have too many images and plug-ins, the performance can be effected dramatically. By opting for a new development framework, such as Twitter Bootstrap makes life so much easier in terms of web development with the use of lots of cool and clever features.

With times, websites age… this is something we all need to face up to. So, have a think about your site in comparison of your competition? Can you match their efforts or do you need to up your game?

Over-optimisation is SEO Essex’s current hot topic of conversation, here’s why…  Many people are beginning to discover that their trusted SEO tactics are no longer working as effectively. These include over-optimised anchor text, anchor text for info graphic links, guest posting and the use of press releases. Yet, whilst some techniques are becoming less popular, others are quickly increasing in popularity.

We’re not saying that SEO’s time has come and gone, but that un-optimised is the new optimised. This does not mean to say that no optimisation is required. What we’re basically trying to say is that your website should not be over-optimised, nor should it be under-optimised.  It needs to be as Goldilocks would say, “just right”.

Before you begin undoing all the valuable SEO work completed over the years, we have compiled a list of tips to ensure that your website remains just right in terms of SEO – not too much SEO and not too little.

Your Site Needs To Remain User-Friendly

There is a reason why Google keeps a close eye on sites that overdo their SEO techniques. If a site has a lot of SEO – to the point of spam – it begins to focus on search engines at the exclusion of it’s users.

With such a FOG (Fear of Google) arising, there’s a chance that you’ll amend all of your strategies only to find you’re making the same mistake. In simple terms, be sure to take actions that are about the user and not about Google.

For instance, let’s take a look at the variety of ways you could code a hyperlink (these aren’t real links)

As a reader, each choice of anchor text, leads me to make assumptions about where the link leads. Link 1 looks like it should lead to Dr Hodgson’s website. Link 2 looks like it should lead to a page about fruit and vegetables. Whilst Link 3 and 4 features are more difficult to ascertain, the ‘Click here’ anchor says nothing about the nature of the destination page, whilst the naked link is less than helpful too.

With this in mind, it can look and appear natural to want to feature generic anchor text and naked links in your link profile. Avoid forcing them in, if they don’t fit. Anchor text can be an effective way to subtly tell viewers where the link will take them, so try to use it as intended. For this reason, avoid using the precise same anchor text each time you link to a page.
Prior to doing anything due to the FOG, ask yourself if your site will become less useable for your readers as a result.

Avoid Link Removal Services

In 2012, Google sent out a large horde of warning emails via Webmaster Tools informing site owners that potentially harmful unnatural links had been detected in their link profiles and required immediate action. The warnings were not only a little scary, but also rather confusing. It seemed nearly everyone in the SEO industry received the email.

The Penguin update, one of the countless algorithms put in place to target web spam, targets websites whose link profiles are questionable. As panic began to take over, a wide selection of businesses began offering ‘link removal services’ where they offered to remove nasty links in order for you to get back in Google’s good books.

The truth is… you shouldn’t need to pay a company offering shady services to fix the problem. If you happen to have unnatural links pointing to your site, you should know about it, due to the reasons below:

• You purchased the links yourself
• The SEO company you hired did it
• An error of some kind has arisen
• You’ve been a victim of a negative SEO attack

It’s up to you to figure out which links are causing the problem and to remove these links only. Be sure to target the problematic links only, otherwise you could begin killing off the high-quality natural links that are still relevant.

Don’t Defensively De-Optimise

If you have noticed a few pages of your website receiving a dip in traffic, or if you have noticed your site has sustained damage, you may be fooled into thinking that every page of that site needs to be fixed, to prevent future dips in traffic and rankings. However, at this point, we would advise against this. Unless you know for sure that a particular tactic is damaging your site, do not start making drastic changes to pages that could be performing perfectly well.

You can never be sure of Google, it is completely unpredictable. You may notice changes occur and this could be due to testing or sheer randomness. By racing around making changes to pages that do not require amendments, you could be undoing the actions that help them rank in the first place. For this reason, we’d advise that you wait until you know which pages are causing the problem before trying to address the issue.

The exception to this is blatant black-hat tricks and techniques which are a clear violation of Google’s web master guidelines.

Effective SEO Summary

Sharing his recent predictions, Eric Enge recently explained which signals are dying and which are to become more commonly used this year. Like our team at SEO Essex, he knows that “steering anchor texts in links is bad.” Additionally, he thinks keyword research, on-page optimisation, social promotion and landing page quality will continue to become more and more important. It therefore seems the direction is clear.

Google are – whether they are succeeding or not – in attempting to favour higher-quality pages in the search results. You may find it somewhat tempting to try tricking Google into thinking that you’re not trying to trick them… or the better choice could be to instead reduce your dependence on trickery.

When looking to hire a technical assistant, most businesses will focus, justifiably, on technical talent, this includes the likes of developers and engineers. This is understandable, as the talent of developers and engineers are needed to build websites, apps and software.

Despite the essential skill of a developer, you should never under estimate the power of a good writer. You’ll be surprised just how much value a writer can bring to your company. Many businesses that are just starting out will allocate a writing task to the staff member that is most competent at writing. Yet, the companies with a little more funding are beginning to hire professional writers, as they have come to realise that an excellent writer can bring a hugely positive impact to their business.  Dependant on the level of written work that requires completion will depend on whether you require a writer on a full time or part time basis. Regardless of the hours required, it is worth seeking out a writer who understands the industry in which you work and cares about the future of the company.

Enhancing Your Website

It’s important to acknowledge the sheer importance of your website. Your website is the face of your company, which is why it simply must be up to scratch. In order to design, build and create a successful website the following four occupations are required; a designer, a developer, a SEO technician and a writer.

Finding someone with all four of these skills would be amazing, but unlikely. If you can afford to, having a professional in each field would be more beneficial than having someone who can do all four, but who’s limited. Whatever you do, try not to hold back on the writing talent. One of the main reasons for this being that you will require a vast amount of copy to rank in the search engines and the copy included should be clear and concise, whilst being professional and full of personality and of course, adding value.

Boosting Your Blog

Once your website is up and running, you should begin thinking about your blog. A blog is a superb way in which to bring traffic, leads and links to boost your domain’s SEO value. When writing blogs, be sure to have a regular publishing schedule and make sure your blog has a positive influence on your brand. In order to have a blog written to its highest possible potential, you should employ a professional writer who understands your industry and is familiar with existing blogs in your niche. The blog content must be both valuable and original. Without regular updates, your blogs will be pretty useless.

High Value Content for Lead Generation

If you’re looking for a positive and effective form of lead generation, content marketing is hugely effective. By having a professional writer to write and submit regular posts for your blogs as well as other articles, they can create an effective awareness of your brand. A writer can create a range of effective materials, such as e-books, e-guides and further marketing material in order to help generate leads. This will allow you to gain top end cliental of who are in the information-seeking stage and who can be nurtured further via email campaigns.

Raising Your Profile

A further effective way in which to raise your profile is to enter your business into a selection of different awards. No matter how small or large the awards may be, if it results in winning an award that can help you to boost your company, this is great publicity for your business. Awards are a superb vote of confidence to bring to investors, whilst allowing you the perfect opportunity to show off your site as a symbol of trust.

Effective Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are still an effective form of marketing, yet their effectiveness still depends on the quality of the writing. Featuring strong subject lines will grab your readers’ attention, whilst having a call to action will help to drive clicks and conversions. Just find a writer who believes in good marketing through using testing and analytics, as good writing works with your audience.

With February 14^th just days away, billions of us will be visiting the shops in hope of finding a loving gift or card for our special someone.

Despite in being such a momentous day, the origins of Valentine’s Day are unknown by many. Yet, with over 1 billion cards sent every year, Valentine’s Day is the second most popular card selling holiday, with Christmas being the first.

With so many wonderful ideas of how to make Valentine’s Day fun and exciting for you and your partner, why stop there? Why not consider ways to keep the online presence of your business fresh and exciting too?

Help Your Customers To Find What They’re Looking For

The old tradition of sending a Valentine card is that you keep it anonymous. So, rather than signing the card with your name, instead sign it with the words ‘From Your Valentine’. This romantic gesture is the perfect way to express your interest, whilst the object of your affection will be left guessing who their secret admirer could be.

On the other hand, if your business remains anonymous online and your customers can not find you, your customers will never be able to love you for the business or server that you are.

If you want to be at the top of the search engine results, it’s essential that your keyword selection is chosen carefully. When deciding upon your keywords, be sure to consider the terms your customers are most likely to enter into the search engine. Additionally, use facilities such as Google Adwords or Analytics to discover the best search terms – both local and global.

Learn To Trust In Quality

Throughout the Valentine’s Day hype, masses of boyfriends, fiancés and husbands will stampede to the shops in search of the perfect gift for their other half. As a word of warning, flowers from the local petrol station is not advised. In actual fact, Valentine’s gifts for your lady should be given some serious thought, as a shocking statistic recently revealed that 53 per cent of females would end their relationship if their partner didn’t buy them a present.

Trust and respect are vital signs of any relationship, without them, you could be in trouble. The same applies to the customers of your business. Bearing this in mind, why not think of an effective way for you to reach out to your customers with the use of some strategic SEO techniques. Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are now valued tools in any business campaign. This is for two reasons;

1. Social platforms will enable you to get your business name known both locally and further afield
2. Provides the opportunity to make your business more personal to customers, enabling their trust for your business to rise significantly.

Send Me A Message

If we said you could learn something from the Valentine’s sugary sweets ‘Love Hearts’ made by the Swizzel company, you’d be surprised. But it’s true! As you probably know already, each sweet features its own unique message. The company strive to ensure the messages are changed or amended to make sure they remain up-to-date in the world we’re living in. The few simple words featured are short and sweet, yet form a powerful and personal message.

Making sure that you too keep an eye of changing times and trends, as this is a further factor that should be incorporated into your SEO campaign.

Google regularly have algorithm updates, which means sites that are ranking on page one could be moved to page three or vice versa, sites ranking on page six could be changed to page two. The reason for these changes will depend on a variety of factors, but it’s up to Google who they place where and why. Your SEO expert will be able to provide more reasoning for this, so it is certainly worth asking for their advice.

With Valentine’s Day approaching fast, it’s definitely time to inject some love into your business website with quality SEO and link building services. Even if you are reading this at 2am, don’t be shy, get in touch and we can talk.

Love From SEOEssex.co.uk x

P.S. Here are some fun SEO Valentines Day e-cards we made

With the camera specialist Jessops recently going into administration, the response from the general public has been a mixed one. The question on everyone’s lips is ‘Did poor service destroy Jessops or the internet?’ Whether poor management is to blame, lack of quality customer service, or the competition from giant Internet retailers, such as Amazon, Jessops is no longer. So, what do you think led to Jessops’ decline?

As the image indicates (as shown above) - Jessops are blaming Amazon and the general public for their demise. Yet, with so many online stores providing high quality goods at cheaper rates than high street retailers, can the general public be blamed for choosing the internet over high street stores?

So far, 2013 has seen the closure of Jessops, shortly followed by music store HMV going into administration. This has led many to believe that further high street retailers will continue to close until no shops remain, but what do you think?

Andrew Ellis says: “The high street isn’t dying, it’s just a case of natural selection, adapt or die, those that adapt to serve their community will survive, those that are too arrogant or foolhardy to change won’t.”

Does this mean that there is hope for high street stores after all? That with the right adaptions, even the more traditional stores can stay afloat as long as they are willing to move with the times?

Paul Dolan says: “It’s the Government’s fault for not closing the loopholes. Why pay more when you can get it cheaper online, the average wage doesn’t give you that luxury to go with your heart.”

The comments on Sevenstreets’ timeline photo indicate there is a strong consensus that the core of Jessop’s failure is due to:

a) the general public no longer needing digital cameras
b) the Government needing to make price cuts in high street stores
c) savvy consumers looking to cut costs where possible

Further changes in order to save the Great British high streets were advised also, as Martyn Thompson explained ‘There must be nothing to prevent people visiting towns’ and factors such as cheaper or free parking may help to entice shoppers back to high street consumerism.

For now, many high street shoppers have to contend with traffic, congestion and extortionate car parking prices (some towns charge up to £9.00 a day to park). This is perhaps one of the many reasons consumers are choosing to shop online.

Whether you operate your business online or offline, you need to be savvy by staying ahead of your competitors.

With 2012 out the way, it’s time to focus on 2013 and see what’s in store for us, but before we can do that, it’s worth having a think about what we have learnt from 2012. Firstly, we have learnt that Google isn’t giving up on targeting low-value tactics. What with the thirteen Panda updates not to mention the Penguin update, Google has cracked down on many internet strategies employed by a vast amount of internet users. This has resulted in many sites experiencing a drop in rankings.

Without knowing what Google’s next move is, it’s difficult to ascertain what you can do to avoid being targeted, but one things for sure, there is certainly more to come. So, what can you do to protect your hard-earned efforts of 2012 in 2013?

Here, at SEO Essex, we have thought of 5 helpful tips to put in place for 2013. Firstly, if you’re thinking about single-tactic approaches, you’re already making a big mistake. Single-tactic approaches are only effective in the short term, which is why it’s essential you utilise a variety of tactics in order for your site to be a success in 2013. See our five pointers crucial to the SEO success of your website, below;

SEO Strategy One) Anchor Text

Since the Penguin update, we have recognised that aggressive inbound link anchor text is asking for trouble. For example, if your website sells perfume and the links on your site reads ‘buy designer Perfume cheap Perfume today’, this looks like spam. The sentence is not grammatically correct, nor is it natural. In order to make your anchor text look natural, stop over-thinking your strategy. Instead, a solid link profile is going to naturally utilise text that is relevant and will appear in context.

SEO Strategy Two) Links

Taking advantage of link-building tactics can cause detrimental effects to your website. Reading tips about how guest posts can create respectable links has resulted in many people publishing the same slapped-together rubbish, yet on a higher volume of websites. Yet, doing such a thing will only lead to your rankings dropping significantly.

If you want to do well in 2013, we recommend that you employ more than one tactic and that the tactics you employ take up at least a little brain power. Investigate where your links came from throughout 2012 and think about trying something a little different. By diversifying your profile, your direct risk will be reduced.

SEO Strategy Three) Traffic Sources

By relying on Google, you could be risking your livelihood. Many of us are dependent on Google for traffic, so what would you do if something changed overnight? Declaring that all your tactics are white-hat and that you follow the rules exactly is great, but do you understand the rules that Google set 100% and what would you do if the rules changed at a moment’s notice?

Even by following the rules precisely, your website traffic could drop at the click of a finger, then what would you do? So, for 2013, it’s vital that you think beyond Google. This may be a difficult concept and it’s likely to require both time and money, but in the long-term, it will be worth it.

SEO Strategy Four) Marketing

Considering your marketing in broader terms has begun to be a positive trend in recent months. Rather than considering ways in which to fool people into liking you, you can instead build-up a better way to entice your customers. Everything you do is marketing if you create something good and believe in it. Yet, if you create rubbish and you know that its rubbish, you are going to have difficulty in gaining customers for life.

Rather than taking shortcuts, think hard about what you do and why you do it, to ensure the things that you do are adding value, rather than detracting value. If you need assistance, speak to an SEO and marketing expert (here at SEO Essex, we’re always happy to help). Discover what your company does that’s exciting, unique and that rings true with your customers, then maximise your profits by incorporating these factors into your marketing.

SEO Strategy Five) Point of View

For those of you who say your industry is boring… think how your customers must feel? If you find that you’re only thinking negatively about your work and your website, it’s important that you take time out, in order to assess things differently.

Why not get an employee to give you a tour of your office, as though you’ve never seen it before or walk around your local town as though it’s the first time you’ve ever visited? By doing so, you’ll observe finer details, things that you would miss on a normal, day-to-day basis. Additionally, get some of your friends to take a look at your website, in order to gain constructive feedback for a newer, crisper perspective.

It’s important to generate original and unique ideas for your website, in order to keep it fresh and innovative. With a new year just beginning, this couldn’t be a better time to gain a new perspective on things and to start a fresh. By having a passion for the subject that you’re selling, your customers will too.

With the holidays approaching and Christmas spirit filling the air, our team at SEO Essex would like to take the opportunity to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We would also like to say a big thank you to everyone we have worked with this year. It has been a pleasure working with you and we hope to continue working with you in the future.

To ensure that your business continues to thrive in the New Year, take a look at our video below.

For more information on the expert SEO techniques that we can apply to your business, contact our friendly team at SEO Essex today.

We would like to wish you a New Year filled with good health, prosperity and happiness…

Happy Holidays,
The SEO Essex Team

When experienced webmaster Matt Cutts was asked the question ‘What is Google’s view on guest blogging for links’, he revealed that Google views guest blogging in one of two ways. Firstly, there’s the high quality writer who writes a blog with intent and expertise and who has “something enriching to say”. Secondly, there’s the guest blogger who looks to write the minimum word count and who doesn’t consider the quality of what they are writing.

Cutts warns guest bloggers to ‘be mindful that it can absolutely be taken to extremes’. As with all marketing and internet techniques, there is a boundary and once crossed, Google is likely to count your guest blog as spam.

If you want to create the best blog, Cutts advised that the ‘time-honoured tradition’ of building links and promoting a site should be completed in both a validated and high quality manner. Doing so will lead to a good outlook for both the guest blog and the site hosting.

By abusing the guest blogging facility and writing low quality content, Google will be less inclined to want to use links featured in your blog. Completing black hat techniques such as; providing the same blog multiple times, or spinning the blog can also detract the quality of your blog.

Matt Cutts Applauds High Quality Content

Proven by both the Panda and Penguin updates, low quality content sits right at the top of Google’s hit list. Both updates were designed to penalise irrelevant, inaccurate and duplicated content. The after effects have shaken a large number of search engine results as well as cheapening many Black Hat SEO practices.

On the other hand, Google has begun rightfully rewarding those who avoid Black Hat techniques and who instead employ high quality, expert writers with the ‘authorship tag’. For those of you who haven’t heard of the tag, this enables the author of the article to be featured within the page code.

The authorship tag results in rich snippets, their Google+ profile picture and links to their other articles to emerge in the search results. From this, Cutts recommends that writers and web masters make use of the tag, as it helps Google to recognise high quality and reliable content.

When considering that content is paramount to Google, it is important that guest blogging provides both value and quality. Yet, the trickier bit is proving the quality of the guest blog in ways that Google understands.

The recent renovation has meant that search options such as the usual Web, Images and Maps have moved from their usual position (on the left of the page) to directly under the search box.

Within the list, the search tools are now displayed within a drop down menu, allowing users to select search filters including; location, date range, sites with images, pages from the UK and many more.

The new design has been referred to as a “simpler, cleaner design” by Jon Wiley, Google Search’s head designer.

He went on to explain that the new design has enabled more breathing space – providing a better, more focused response to the answer Google users are looking for.

Google’s new SERPs interface is now consistent amongst tablets and mobile phones too.

Google SERPs To Face Further Changes?

The relocation of the search options – now placed above the results – has helped to encourage further interaction with the Knowledge Graph, according to Jon Wiley.

This small, yet powerful new interface reverberates a previous change that Google ultimately decided against. Initially, there was talk of Google altering the black toolbar at the top of the SERPs into a large drop-down menu. Yet based on customer feedback, this change never went ahead.

In case you are not familiar – the black tool bar consists of all Google’s services – including; Gmail, Maps, Play, Images, YouTube, Google+ and more.

Here at SEO Essex, we feel Google’s SERPs have changed for the better and are almost alien when compared to their appearance 15 years ago. With a clear focus on streamlining and improving the user experience, Google have certainly got the right idea, which is proven with their focus on the Knowledge Graph – something that is yet to become a fruitful facility.

In order for your website to be successful, there are five things that you should aim to deliver:

1) Progressing Techniques

Not only Google, but other search engines are persistently altering their algorithms. So, things being implemented today via SEO may work today, but not tomorrow. This is why it’s vital that you stay one step ahead of the game. This can be achieved either via staying on top of the latest changes or by implementing an SEO software tool.

2) Gaming Google Is Best Avoided

If you want to game Google, be warned as this could take longer than sticking to normal practises as it requires far more work. We would certainly recommend that you do it right the first time, as Google is likely to detect any tricks you may have up your sleeve.

If you are up to dirty tricks, your website will more than likely be penalised by Google, meaning your time, efforts and money were wasted, what’s more – legitimate efforts are far likely to prove more effective and last longer.

Whilst there are many SEO companies that promise instant results through SEO (many at low prices), they are more than likely lying to you! This is because effective SEO necessitates an efficient strategy as well as investing time and energy.

3) Controlling Your Website

There are factors that you can control and factors that you can’t – for instance, your website is within your control, yet factors such as; what your competitors do and what Google does, is out of your control. If a new site comes along with a brand new tool that will change the market, this is also out of your control.

4) Website Content Is King

There is no point gaining lots of traffic if your website will only dissatisfy visitors. Elements of your site that are likely to disappoint your viewers include poor content and navigation difficulty. When users read your content, they do not want to see spelling or grammatical errors nor do they want to see content that makes no sense or that de-values your site overall.

The content your visitors want to see is that of well-written, punctual and grammatically correct content, which explains to the visitor why they should use your product or service and what’s in it for them. If you feel writing valuable and enticing content is not your forte, it may be worth paying a professional to do so instead.

5) Focusing On Your Website, Not The Latest Marketing Trends

Be it Instragram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook or any other marketing trend, these will not improve your website if the fundamentals of your website are not correct. In addition to this, any feeble attempts at a social media campaign will also have a negative effect. If it’s your conversion rate that you are looking to increase, it is advisable that you focus on one thing at a time.

If you stick to doing the right things, your website should and will get to the top of the rankings for Google as well as other search engines. Just ensure that you remain focused and keep your eye on the ball and avoid unnecessary distractions.

In May 2011, the EU Cookie Law was introduced throughout the entirety of the EU. It works through requiring any website that utilises cookies to ask the visitor’s permission prior to using the cookies. Many people have deemed the EU Cookie Law as a poor regulation due to addressing a problem that many people are unaware of. Due to this, the law has not been enforced as heavily as originally intended, and did not come into effect in the UK until May 2012.

What Is A Cookie?

A Cookie was primarily designed to protect the privacy of online users and work to promote an uninterrupted browsing experience for a wide variety of websites. The majority of websites accessible on the World Wide Web use cookies. Designed to remember data in order to save you time while surfing the net, Cookies also track visitors by remembering logins and site preferences as well as assisting in analytics.

In the UK, if you are not already compliant with the EU Cookie Law or working towards it, you could risk being fined up to £500,000. Yet recent research suggests that 79% of UK consumers believe that changes are required in order to educate the public further regarding cookies.

So, if you haven’t yet made a start to ensure your site complies with the EU Cookie Law, try implementing our simple tips below:

• Aim to establish each of the cookies featured on your website via the help of tools such as the Firecookie extension (on Firefox browsers) allowing your audience to see your cookies listed page by page.
• For those who already have a privacy policy in place, ensure that your audience can view your policy with ease by displaying your policy link prominently for all to see. In addition, you could choose to amend the title of your policy link to something like ‘Privacy & Cookies’.
• State the cookies on your website within your Privacy Policy; include what they are and what they do. It’s recommended that you differentiate between 1st and 3rd party cookies too.
• If you feature social sharing buttons on your website, such as the ‘Like’ button for Facebook, try to specify these in your policy too.

We are not trying to scare your web audience off, but instead to promote the awareness of your acceptance to the EU Cookie Law. There are still so many people that do not understand this law and therefore it would be beneficial to educate the UK on Cookies and the EU Cookie Law, in order for more website owners to comply with it.

www.SEOEssex.co.uk complies with this law and you will have noticed when you first arrived here, a message at the top of the site giving you a choice to accept or not.

If your website is breaking the EU Cookie Law, get in touch with us today and we can get this corrected for you very quickly.

In response to this, the two Facebook platforms are in fact entirely different, which is why it is certainly beneficial to set up both a personal and commercial page. Whether you have a business Facebook page set up already, or whether you plan to set one up one in the near future, we have a list of Do’s and Don’ts to get you up and running.

Facebook Timelines

There is like nothing better than a crisp image to spruce up a site. It is important to consider that your Facebook business page is helping to sell your business, just as your main web site is and for that reason. It is essential that you sell your site effectively and efficiently – it is vital for your branding that you do so. When considering your imagery, checking the dimensions is a must, as distorted imagery and incorrect pixel sizes look unprofessional and cheapen the look of your business!

The Rules of Cover Imagery

If you didn’t know already, Facebook has specific cover image requirements set out which can be referred to in their full Facebook Pages Terms and Guidelines. The cover image that you choose is supposed to enforce your brand whilst providing an opportunity for you to connect with your target audience. We would advise that you include your company tagline below your cover image. On the other hand, it is not meant as an opportunity to ‘hard-sell’ or for the use of self-promotion.

We suggest that you use a branded image of the correct pixel size, whilst steering clear of direct selling references. These include; ‘sale now on’, discount call to actions or featuring prices in general. Also, think about the different sections you have to cover, for example some of the information you include, may be better suited to the ‘About Us’ section. Finally, it is vital that you ensure you have legal copyright for all of the images that you choose to include.

Application Customisation

We suggest that you customise your applications, whilst also being fairly selective about the four applications on display underneath your Facebook cover image. We would also suggest that you try to customise each of the applications that are available on your timeline – there are 14 in total! If you can do this, it is also worth creating a unique thumbnail for each app as well as a unique URL in order to drive traffic to that specific application.

Target Audience

It is imperative that you think about your target audience and create relevant posts that vary in topic so that you are not boring your fans to tears. Even more importantly, please ensure that your posts could not be deemed in any way offensive – you do not want to be upsetting your fans.

Consistency Is a Virtue (In the SEO World Anyway)

It is essential that you remain consistent with your posts. In other words, don’t just post as and when you feel like it, instead be sure to set a certain day or the week or month to publish your posts. If you choose to post on a daily basis, try to aim to do so around the same time of each day. It is important that you remain consistent in regards to your posts as this is required in order to develop an effective relationship with your user base. What’s more, the posts that you add need to be of a high quality. Remember that variety is the spice of life, so whilst remaining consistent with the times in which you post, it is important to vary your content. Your business fans do not want to be inundated with the same old information, so it is worth brainstorming some fresh and exciting ideas in advance of the posting date.

If you are to take just one piece of information away from this blog post, make sure it is this; social media is constantly developing and always on the move, which is why it is vital that you consider this in every media move that you make! Do not sit still – keep ahead of the game and ensure that your strategy is vivacious to lure in a forever increasing level of custom.

Do You Want Professional Facebook Business Page Design?

Contact us today and let us know what your requirements are. We have a range of different Facebook pages for businesses that we have worked on – and the next stage after designing it, it running successful Facebook advertising campaigns of which we have a wealth of experience with generating great results. When you speak to us, ask us to show you some examples so you can see for yourself.

To start with, you may ask yourself – what’s the difference between the Penguin and the Panda update? The Panda update (also known as the ‘Farmer Update’ was launched back on February 24th 2011). Since then, many further updates have taken place. One of which was the Panda 3.9.1 which launched on August 20th 2012. After which, Google released an official blog post, which stated the update was ‘designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites’. By ‘low-quality’ they meant sites with duplicate content and sites generally of low-value to web users.

What The Panda Update Was For

In basic terms, the Panda update was created to target websites which featured thin content, in other words sites with web pages that qualified as poor value. Duplicated content from other sites is also a definite NO due to the fact that it already exists in the online world and will therefore be flagged as poor content. In short – do ensure that the content on your site is original and well written (i.e. no bad grammar or incorrect punctuation).

The initial update hit many sites significantly, specifically sites known as ‘content farms’ – sites that pub-lish a number of articles stuffed full of keywords and that are inadequately written. The Panda algorithm update uses the ‘site wide’ penalty. This meant for sites that were deemed as having poor content on nu-merous pages, the entire site could be penalised. A result of this would be your site disappearing from the search engines altogether and in the case of ‘content farms’ this was certainly a reality.

What The Penguin Update Was For

The Penguin update – also known as the ‘Over Optimisation Penalty’ launched on April 24th 2012. In regards to Google, this update was referred to as an ‘algorithm change targeted at webspam’. The result of this update was a decrease in rankings for sites that were believed to be violating the rulings of Google’s quality guidelines. Despite Penguin being designed to penalise sites for implementing Black Hat tech-niques, including; keyword stuffing and comment spamming, here at SEO Essex we would proudly state that these were not practises we ever undertook and yet our positioning in the search engines were still affected.

Things began to make a little more sense when we came to realise that not many companies were actually sure of the precise signals that Penguin were and still are targeting, which is why we decided to do a little research. From doing so, we found that the Penguin update penalised sites who were completing either some or all of the following actions; blog spam, overuse of exact match domains, aggressive exact match anchor text, low quality article marketing and keyword stuffing in internal and outbound links. If you noticed a decrease in the position of your rankings, you now know to avoid doing any of the above.

Google stated that changes will continue to occur as they make advancements to the search algorithm, in order to deliver the greatest possible results. The updates will continue to be enhanced for the better, so if you discovered changes in your rankings due to being hit either by the Panda or Penguin update, then it is time to make changes to your site. Unfortunately, the updates are not going to disappear and for this rea-son, either changes need to be made to your site, or your site will remain at the bottom or the search en-gines or worse still – they may disappear altogether.

Were You Affected By The Penguin Update?

To start with, you need to determine the following fact… what day did your rankings drop? If they happened to drop on or around the 24th April 2012, then you can be fairly certain the reason for your decreased positioning in the search engines is due to the Penguin update. You may also find a blog post from April useful with 12 tips to beat the Penguin Update.

If you want help in establishing the reason(s) behind a slump in search engine positions, please get in touch with us today and speak with one of our friendly and very knowledgeable SEO consultants.

Boost Your SEO Knowledge Today With Our Top 55 SEO Tips

1. If you must use Java Script drop down menus, image links or image maps – do ensure that you put text links on the page so the spiders can follow.
2. Content is incredibly important, which is why it needs to be well written and unique with a strong focus on your primary keywords.
3. Links are at the next level of importance. You will need to build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. If the link is not logical – then it’s of no use.
4. Don’t be obsessive with PageRank – it is only one part of the ranking algorithm.
5. Ensure that you have an exclusive keyword focused Title Tag on each page of your site.
6. Fresh content can assist in improving your rankings – so try to add new and factual content to your pages on a frequent basis.
7. Make sure that links on your site and within your site you your keyword phrase.
8. Focus on search phrases not keywords and where possible, try to add your location into the phrase to improve your local search rankings.
9. Ensure that your site is designed with SEO in mind.
10. Utilise keywords and keyword phrases correctly in your text links, image ALT attributes and domain name if possible.
11. Check for canonicalization issues for both www and non-www domains. For instance, if http://www.domain .com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect it.
12. Be sure to check the links throughout your site that lead to your homepage. Outside links go to http://www.domain .com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html. Scrap the index.html or default.php etc and instead link back to your domain.
13. Word of warning, avoid using Frames, and keep use of Flash and AJAX to a minimum for the ultimate in SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension is not a matter of concern in regards to SEO, whether it is .html, .php, .htm or any other.
15. The fastest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If you cannot change the content of your site often, then it requires a blog instead as spiders like fresh content. Aim to blog three times a week.
17. Think quality not quantity when link building. One firm link can do far more than a dozen poor quality links – which may do more damage than good.
18. Do not stuff your site with text full of keywords as search engines want natural language content.
19. Your text should include anchor links but the text around your links should be related to your keywords. Basically, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are use a shared server, make sure you complete a blacklist check to ensure you are not on a proxy with a spammer as this could affect your rankings.
21. Google may see you as a potential spammer if you use services that block domain ownership information.
22. When optimising your blogs, be certain to optimize your post title tag individually from your blog title.
23. Texts, Popularity, Links and Reputation are the main elements of SEO.
24. Work to make your site user-friendly, as this will enhance your link building ability and therefore your popularity.
25. Don’t be tight with linking out to others, instead be generous and this will in-turn encourage others to link to you.
26. Unique content and quality content and liked by search engines, so make sure that your content is both.
27. If you insist on a splash page for your main page – be it Flash or a singular, large image – place navigational labels and text below the fold.
28. You can apply valuable links to your e-mails and newsletters too, they do not all have to be within your site.
29. You gain little from paid links, other than a few clicks, unless the links are embedded in body text.
30. .edu domains are given a nice greeting from search engines, so why not run a search for non-profit .edu sites that are in search of sponsors?
31. Linkbaiting is good content, so get writing!
32. Specify each page with its own single keyword phrase and avoid using several on each page.
33. Make sure your call to action is crystal clear for all to see.
34. SEO is an on-going task, so expect to work on your SEO daily.
35. Cater to authority sites and bloggers who may like to link to you.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging on your site, as the voice of your company, your credibility could go through the roof. Its personal touches like this that can really make a site an utter success.
37. Optimise the text in your RSS Feed by utilising descriptive, keyword rick text in your title and description.
38. With all images, be sure to use captions.
39. Image can rank dependant on the text surrounding them, so pay attention to the content surrounding your images.
40.  Good global navigation and linking will provide you a better standing ground as opposed to being reliant on an XML sitemap.
41. Sign out of Google and add &pws=0 to the end of your URL in order to NOT see Google’s personalised search results.
42. Links, certainly deep links from a high PageRank site are beneficial as they indicate high trust.
43. Utilise absolute links in order to lessen the on-site link navigation to problems.
44. Research whether your hosting company provide the service of ‘Sticky’ forwarding? This is incredibly beneficial for those of you moving to a new domain as it allows temporary forwarding to your new domain from your old.
45. Social Media Marketing is part of SEO. The more you know about it, the better. This includes the likes of Facebook, Twitter, even Instagram.
46. If you want your videos to be located by crawlers, be certain to create a video sitemap and list it within your Google Webmaster Central Account.
47. Videos that appear in Google blended search do not come from You Tube, so do not rely on You Tube – instead use other video sites such as MSN and Yahoo.
48. As you would with images, surround your videos with keyword rich text.
49. Use the following words within your photo ALT descriptions and captions: image and picture.
50. Check that you have ‘Enhanced Image Search’ in your Google Webmaster Central Account.
51. Where possible, aim to add reviews, sharing functions, visitor comments and ratings to your site.
52. Try to broaden your choice of services for a wider variety, include the following: video, podcasts, news and social content.
53. When thinking of purchasing or exchanging a link, be sure to check the cache date – the more recent the better. Do this by searching for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page.
54. If you have pages on your site that are similar and you are concerned about having duplicate content, ensure that the correct one is include in the search engines by placing the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Be certain to check your server headers – this is a matter that can be easily overlooked. Search for “check server headers” in order to obtain free online tools for this to help you.

URL Canonicalisation

Just looking at this term, can leave you feeling confused – basically what it means is that the content you have requires one URL, and only one URL in order to be most efficient. Here’s a good example – a website may have identical content on each of the following URLs, yet search engines would consider them as different pages:

seoessex.co.uk/page
www.seoessex.co.uk/page
seoessex.co.uk/page/
www.seoessex.co.uk/page/
seoessex.co.uk/page/index.html
www.example.com/page/index.html

Now, dependant on how you link internally to pages or how other people externally link to them, the search engines will ultimately discover these various URLs. If 1 page can wind up with 6+ page variations, it is fairly simple to see just how a site can quickly get out of control.

This problem can be fixed, so don’t panic! The way in which to resolve this problem is with server side programming. Use ISAPI or htaccess to configure your web server to serve pages always either with or without the “www”. If you have been using both, be sure to complete a link audit to observe which out of the two has the most inbound links and select that one.

URL File Extensions

When it comes to SEO we know that there is no value to .php, .html, .asp or any other file extension – as long as you select a normal one as opposed to a random one like .dx. Better still, go without utilising any extension whatsoever. For long-running websites, there is a good chance that you will transfer from one language to another and change file extensions. This will also require you setting up redirects so that you do not lose your inbound link equity. For those of you using extensions now, do not change them for the sake of it, instead wait until your code requires upgrading. Also, consider the trailing slash at the end of the URL. Whether you opt to use it or not, do ensure that your use of the trailing slash is consistent.

Word Delimiters in URLs

The use of word delimiters in URLs, such as underscores and hyphens are now more accepted than they once were. Here at SEO Essex, we find hyphens are really effective for increased readability. Any other character of choice – other than underscores and hyphens – may decrease the value of the word in the search engines. Additionally, avoiding squashing your words together – as this can also be problematic.

URL Length

The shorter the URL the better – in other words shorter URLs are better than longer URLs. If you seek the perfect length of URL, we would suggest a URL of no longer than five words. Avoid the use of abbreviations, short words and stopwords. This is not to say that search engines cannot handle longer URLs, but from experience a URL under 60 characters (including the domain) is more effective.

Numbers & Keywords in URLs

Including keywords in your URL is always the more advisable option, yet stuffing your URL with keywords can work against you from an algorithmic manner. For instance, which of the URLs below look more trustworthy?

seoessex.co.uk/seo-web-design
seoessex.co.uk/seo-web-design-seo-ppc-cro

The second URL is not breaking any rules – it is within 60 characters – but it has an untrustworthy, keyword stuffing look about it.

For those of you intending to use numbers in your URLs, do this with caution. Ensure that the numbers do not appear within the same format as a date. Here at SEO Essex, we have discovered that if the numbers in your URL are formatted similar to that of a date, the post could look younger or older than it actually is. Our advice… Try to avoid using numbers in order to bypass this issue altogether.

URL Parameters

Way back when, programmers and developers used parameters in URLs to keep an eye on such things as shopping sessions or products. Nowadays, everyone uses this functionality – from the marketing department to the customer service desk. Search engines originally had a lot of trouble with parameters, which meant they ignored any URLs with parameters in them. However, search engines are now far more advanced and so in most instances, they can handle them just fine. Our advice… Using parameters is like shark diving. Unless you are extremely skilled, you will wind up getting wounded. Of course, this problem can be avoided altogether by not using parameters at all. This may seem overly cautious – but in our years of experience we have witnessed too many instances where websites have been derailed due to this precise problem. Our SEO Essex handy tips is… If you need to use URL tracking, use hash tag tracking instead!

URL Directories

Should you or shouldn’t you use directories in your URLs? If you plan to have a large site of over 500 pages, then you will 100% require directories in your URLs. Yet, for smaller sites, the choice is entirely yours. Additional control can be achieved with the use of directories, but it will cost you time in regards to the complexity of your site as well as your overall URL length – so please bear these factors in mind before making up your mind.

Repositioning, Altering and Redirecting URLs

For those of you who have had a website around for some time, you will know that in due course, you will need to amend your URLs. When doing so, here at SEO Essex, we have found that the best way in which to do so is to use a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL. See Broken Links for more information on URL redirection.

We hope you have found our important pointers within this post of use. Just remember, the more elements that you choose to ignore the more difficulties you will put in the way of your overall SEO. This leads to more difficulties! So, let’s summarise the imperative factors of this post that need addressing:

• Do not enable multiple versions of your web pages to exist under more than one URL.
• File type extensions do not matter, but ideally you should avoid them where necessary in order to save yourself redirect issues in the future.
• Keep your URLs as short as you can.
• Use keywords within your URLs, without the use of stuffing.
• Avoid the use of numbers in your URL – especially those that look like date formats.
• Avoid parameters – if you desperately need them, use hash tags instead.
• Directories are only necessary for large sites or sites that require segmented content – otherwise they are optional.
• Utilise 301 for redirects – it’s the least problematic solution.

For further guidance, you can also download our very own free report; 3 of the Biggest & most Common SEO Mistake You Should Avoid.

When completed successfully, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can effectively assist is generating heightened levels of traffic and conversions, providing the perfect opportunity to boost sales and increase your profits. More often than not, we speak to businesses who have spent many thousands of pounds or dollars on their ecommerce websites that have never actually cut the mustard and performed well enough for their business. When we get to look inside at the guts of the site and how it has been developed we identify a number of common problems. Let’s take a look at the top 5 problems and address them with a solution.

Problem 1: Content – It is essential that the content you feature on your website – specifically descriptions and disclaimers about your products – are completely genuine. It can be difficult to add keywords into these descriptions and maintain a natural writing flow. When your content isn’t correct or finished, it can stop customers continuing to browse your site. If you look at the homepage of e-commerce sites, you will see that the content itself remains limited due to the products being displayed against big and bold prices.

Solution: Aim to generate plenty of space on your ‘home page’ or even your ‘about us’ to make enough room for other appropriate content. By doing so, you can communicate the benefits of your product or services to your website visitors,which will create an opportunity to put keywords in place more easily. You can also use this opportunity to expand on the product category pages by discussing the history of your product in more detail. A blog page or news page is a further opportunity to add more content and draw in more organic traffic.

Problem 2: URL Paths– This problem can have a big effect on your organic traffic with ecommerce platforms/software/developers using long and non-descriptive URL’s.

Solution: URL’s of each page on your site must be SEO friendly and descriptive to the content of its respective page. More information on this is explained in our free report called 3 of the Biggest & most Common SEO Mistake You Should Avoid.

Problem 3: Broken Links – This can happen. A good likeness of this is if you have a ladder in your tights (for the ladies…and for some guys ) which you don’t notice for a number of hours – then a friend kindly tells you right at the END of the day. A similar occurrence can happen to your website; there are numerous pages where somehow or another your products have been hidden or removed. Despite this, Google would have already indexed these pages prior to this happening and not taken them off its index, meaning visitors are still able to click on them. When a visitor clicks on a page that has been hidden or removed, they are most likely to see a message similar to this ‘404 Error – Sorry this page has been removed’, which could put people off visiting your site and in-turn lose you custom.

Solution: Set up a diversion route or 301 Redirect. The best way is to create a redirection of the URL that no longer exists and automatically redirect to it’s newer URL. This can be done by creating a redirect in the htaccess file or an appropriate plugin or extension for CMS platforms like WordPress and Magento.

Problem 4: Images – Hosting an e-commerce site with no images is asking for trouble. It’s like owning a coffee shop but having no coffee for sale, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Solution: Be sure to include high quality images on your website. In an ideal world, 3 to 4 images of each product at different angles would be a superb effort. These can assist hugely in conversions, whilst also providing a great opportunity to optimise Alt Tags too. Do not forget to add these tags to each and every image with the name of the product to assist when Google crawls your site.

Problem 5: Meta Information– When working on Meta tags, a client may ask whether it’s possible to rank for both singular and plural terms – the answer to this is YES! Initially however, it is advisable to look at the search volumes for each of those keywords. For example, if laptops and laptop have varying search volumes, it is important to target one more than the other, but what happens if they have similar search volumes?

Solution: Think on your feet and opt to add both keywords into your title tag in a unique manner, rather than stuffing. Here is an example: Cheap Laptops: Buy Cheap Laptop From £250 from yourdomainname.co.uk. This example shows how both the singular and plural version can be included in the title tag. Meta description tags do not count towards the ranking of your site, but should still be made enticing to encourage visitors to click through your site. Finally, a further tip to take on board is to add unique Meta tags to each and every one of your product pages – this can be time consuming, but worth it.

There are many more tips that could help you when applying SEO to your e-commerce website, but above are the most essential ones, I hope you find them of use. And don’t forget, you can download our free report, 3 of the Biggest & most Common SEO Mistake You Should Avoid that can also be applied to your ecommerce website.

This exciting statistic reveals how important it is for a business to rank well with the search engines, because as you’re rankings drop, so does your traffic and sales figures – which is something no ambitious business owner wants.

Whether you already have an SEO strategy in place for your business or whether you are about to kick start your business with an SEO campaign, if your business is currently ranking past page two of the search results then it is time to shake up your SEO plan of action and address why you may be missing out on those all essential clicks.

If you are new to SEO and are considering it for your business for the first time, then know this –

SEO is one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools out there for businesses

With the vast majority of consumers now relying on the search engines to find their services and products, it is more important than ever to have an easy-to-find, search engine and customer friendly website that will function as a 24/7 money-making machine for you and your business.

At SEO Essex we are incredibly passionate about SEO and confident in its ability to transform the success of businesses. So, if you are keen to find out more about SEO and the profit-generating potential within your business, then read on for our top ten essential reasons for utilising a well-thought out SEO strategy.

1)     Without SEO, your website will attract nothing but ‘virtual dust’.

It is all very well and good paying an expert web designer for an ‘all singing and all dancing’ website that look nice, but how will it be of any use to your business if no one can find it? Unless your website is properly indexed and ranking well for its relevant search terms and keywords, customers will be completely unable to find your website, leaving your website to sit there unused collecting nothing but ‘virtual dust’.

With over 85% of modern consumers now relying on the internet to search for their products and services, you cannot afford to have a website that nobody can find. This is where SEO steps in – as a search engine optimised website will benefit from greater online exposure and easy visibility for online search users.

2)     SEO is your 24/7 business salesman.

Does your business have a sales target that you would ideally like to reach? Thanks to SEO and an improved online presence, larger quantities of online traffic will make its way to your website, sending targeted and ready-to-buy customers your way. Even better still, with effective on-site optimisation and conversion rate optimisation services there is more control behind your strategy of trying to exceed your sales target.

Here at SEO Essex we ensure that our clients benefit from both professional on-site/off-site SEO and CRO, which means that your website can function as a 24/7 salesman, converting as many leads into sales as possible for your business.

3)     SEO brings your business face to face with customers.

Many of our SEO packages will incorporate social media such as Facebook, allowing you to interact more readily with customers and appeal to a larger customer base. Using social media, your business can keep customers up-to-date on all of your latest business news, as well as launch products, offer promotions and gain an increased understanding of your target market. All in all, social media can prove extremely effective in attracting and retaining repeat custom for your business.

4)     SEO can help you to build a recognisable brand.

Brand awareness for your business can be important for retaining current customers, but more importantly, attracting new ones. With a viable SEO strategy, your website can begin to rank amongst some of your biggest competitors at the top of the search engines – this will not only bring your business to the attention of larger numbers of online search users, but will also help to portray you as a popular, trustworthy and recognisable brand.

5)     SEO will give you a better insight into the minds of search users and your target market.

Before we embark on any SEO campaign for our clients, it is essential that we use analytical tools to research statistics and keyword analytics to determine which keywords are being most commonly searched for amongst online search users. This then enables us to provide our clients with a fully optimised website that specifically targets what customers are searching for.

These analytics are then also used to regularly review the progress of a website and to ensure that it is still fully optimised to meet the needs of customers. This means carrying out a full analysis on search engine performance, conversion and traffic rates – allowing you to gain an improved understanding into what works best for your target market.

6)     SEO will show you a return on your money.

In comparison to alternative marketing strategies, such as taking out an advert in a magazine or on the television, an SEO campaign is relatively low in cost and provides your business with 24/7 advertisement – in the form of a highly optimised website, that will continually work to convert potential leads into successful sales. Because of this, when you are paying for an SEO campaign you can expect to see a full return on your money, plus profit.

7)     SEO will bring out your competitive side.

Over recent years, the internet has become an increasingly competitive place to be, with larger and larger numbers of businesses all competing within the same niche to stand out. It doesn’t matter how big or small the niche or market your business may be in, if there are other businesses trying to sell the same products or services as you (which you can be sure there will be!) you need to be using SEO to rank well and stand out from the crowd.

Simply put, if you are not making the most of SEO but your competing businesses are, then you will be left far, far behind. After all, why would any customers opt for your business over those that they immediately spot at the top of Google? Use SEO to stay ahead of the competition and become the go-to site amongst customers.

8)     SEO will add much-needed value to your business.

One key advantage of SEO that is often overlooked by business owners is the value that SEO could potentially add to a business. A website that generates a great deal of targeted traffic is instantly worth a lot more, proving a valuable asset to your business.

9)     SEO will enhance your organic listings.

Does your business not have the budget to accommodate paid search listings? Although PPC marketing can be beneficial for some marketing campaigns, SEO can be the more cost-effective and beneficial option as it has been proven that 90% of search users will click on organic listings rather than the paid listings. Therefore, focusing your attentions on your SEO campaign will prove more beneficial to your business and your wallet in the long-run.

10)  With good SEO – anything is possible for your business!

In comparison to a PPC marketing campaign where the amount of visitors you can receive is capped according to your budget, with organic SEO the sky really is the limit with how much traffic your website can generate! Therefore, when you rely on our SEO services you will be thrilled to learn that you can achieve a website that can potentially attract limitless numbers of customers – showing you an extremely positive return on your initial investment.

If you are interested in learning more about what a powerful SEO strategy could do for your business and are eager to see your business competing alongside some of your biggest competitors at the top of the search engines, then do not hesitate to contact SEO Essex.

Our passionate and highly expert SEO team of professionals can help to formulate a successful SEO plan for your business that will enable you to stand out to online users and surpass your competitors – all at a budget to suit you.

Thanks to the internet and social networking sites, it has now become easier than ever to understand your target audience and bring their attention to the latest services and goods that your business may have to offer. For example, countless businesses are now able to take advantage of blogging to communicate with their customers more closely and keep them up-to-date with any news, promotions or products launches that your business may have to offer.

Having said this, how can you really know if your blog or business is really speaking to your audience? If you are not taking care to truly understand your target market and speak to them in a language that they appreciate then you may be damaging yourself in the following ways:

• Your Business Becomes Lost Amongst Its Competition In The Search Engines – When you try to compete with keywords that you consider to be popular ‘jargon’ you will find that the competition is too high, as numerous other businesses will be doing the same – preventing you from working your way up the search engines. These ‘jargon’ keywords will also prove unpopular with search users, who tend not to use these cliché search terms.
• People Are Tuning Out – The problem with using cliché language and ‘jargon’ terms is that the majority of customers will have already heard it a thousand times from numerous other businesses. As a result, you will find less and less potential readers taking notice of what you have to say.
• You Don’t Stand Out From The Crowd – When you use outdated and overused buzzwords you are not helping yourself to stand out from the crowd, something which is vital for attracting a larger customer base. You have to develop and hone a language and way with words that will enable you to stand out.

Thankfully, you will be relieved to learn that as a result of social media, finding and applying a language that will appeal to your audience can be easy. Because of this you will soon have refined your writing craft to use words and language that will keep your audiences hanging from your every word.

Until then, here are six of our top tips on how to use social media to the advantage of your blog writing skills.

Tip #1: Know Your Audience

The only way that you are ever going to get through to your audience, inspire, inform or even entertain them is if you truly understand and know just exactly who you are addressing.

Possibly the simplest and cheapest way to conduct research on your target audience and observe the popular language and terms that they use is to observe what is being said on the social media websites. From Twitter and Facebook to Google+, these social media sites are a goldfield of keywords and popular terms, all of which are right there for the taking in the form of tweets and comments.

When you are hoping to gain a deeper understanding of your audience, why not follow some of their blogs? Popular blogs within your target audience’s community will help you to familiarise yourself with the current hot topics being discussed and will further enable you to explore the language of choice for the majority of bloggers within your chosen niche.

Forums and reviews can also be greatly beneficial for finding out more about your target audience. By searching for relevant forums within your industry, you can take a peek at the most commonly asked questions and trending topics amongst search users – study their language and take note of what interests them most, some of the most commonly asked questions could be used as inspiration for a successful blog post of your own.

Tip #2: Do Interviews

The age-old marketing technique used by countless businesses when they want to learn more about their audience, is to conduct interviews. By choosing to carry out interviews with those that you would consider to be your ‘target audience’ you can gather information on what interests them the most, what they already think of your current service or brand and more importantly – the language that they use to convey these needs.

Social media sites will help you to write more targeted blog posts, however, they should be used alongside alternative and more conventional audience research methods such as interviews, as these tried and tested methods should always function as the backbone of your research.

Whether you opt to conduct your interviews in person, on the phone or even by email, you should always take care to do the following:

• Choose interviewees that truly represent your target audience.
• Be specific with your questions.
• Be sure to record all of your findings on a spreadsheet.

Tip #3: Follow Trends

Thanks to social media sites such as Twitter, it is easier than ever to pinpoint the latest trends and topics to be circulating amongst your audience. Finding out what is currently trending can be incredibly quick and simple – search trending hash tags on twitter and you will discover all of the latest topics within your industry that are taking your target market by storm.

The inside information that social sites such as Twitter can provide you with is truly invaluable, as in the click of a mouse you will find all of the words, topics and phrases being used by your audience, right there for you to browse and study at your own leisure.

Tip #4: Skip Stock Images And Videos

Overused buzzwords and clichés should have no place in your blog post if you are hoping to communicate effectively with your target market – so why let them slip into your videos and images? It doesn’t matter how you decide to interact with your audience and customers; be it through a blog post, a ‘how to’ instructional video or through posted images, you should take care to avoid falling into the trap of using the same old buzzwords and ineffective language that you have decided to banish from your blog posts.

The negative impact of cliché or untargeted photos and videos can often go unnoticed by bloggers; however, they can be just as detrimental to your relationship with your clients as a badly written blog post. Therefore, before you next go to upload a photo or video to your blog, try to think of any stock photography or videos as buzzwords or cliché language – i.e. bad for business.

Stock images and videos are ineffective for several reasons;

• Everybody’s already seen it – The main problem with stock videos and images is that everybody may have already seen them. You should want to use original images and videos that people can get excited about and will want to share – helping them to go viral.
• You are not presenting the ‘real’ face of your business. – The chances are that readers may find your stock images to be lazy or even insulting, as you are only putting out the work of somebody else, rather than helping your audience to get a real glimpse of you and your business.

Tip #5: Take Lessons From Your Own Team

Sometimes it can be all too easy to overlook the very people on your own team who may be able to offer you the most valuable information of all. Consider all of the people within your business who are on the front line when it comes to dealing with clients and customers, and on a daily basis – they will know better than most what it is that gets your customers ticking and will be well rehearsed in the language of your target audience.

From your sales reps to customer services reps, social media reps to retail reps; sit down with them all one-by-one and gather from them as much information as you possibly can on the language that they have personally developed to effectively communicate with the people that they come into contact with. Do they know what resonates with your audience? What popular phrases are currently being used? Can they offer any suggestions on what your customers are talking about the most?

Once you have spoken in depth to your team you will most likely be shocked at the tremendous wealth of information that you already had, right at your very fingertips! Using the feedback that you have collected, you might then like to create a marketing guide, summarising what you have learnt about communicating with customers. It would then be useful to provide all members of staff with a copy, to ensure that everyone is kept abreast of the new language that is being implemented when addressing customers.

Tip #6: Remember – Jargon Is Junk

After you have devised a new plan of action, you and your team can focus on moving forward and writing only in the newly recognised language of your audience.

To ensure that all buzzwords, clichés and outdated language is eliminated from any forms of writing used for your business, you should take care to edit and clear all of the jargon from the following pages:

• Social Media Pages – Review the posts and tweets that you are sending out. Will the language appeal to your audience or have you been using meaningless jargon and buzzwords?
• Marketing Material – Newsletters, emails and other marketing materials such as leaflets should all be closely examined to ensure that only targeted, jargon-free language is being used.
• Landing Pages – Likewise for all of your landing pages. It could be an ad you left for your business on another website or a landing page for a guest post of yours, double-check that these too are correctly using the language of your audience.
• Top-Tier Pages – Most importantly of all, the pages on your website need to reflect the language that you will be using throughout all of your work. Therefore, set out to perfect your home page, about pages and all of the pages on your site that receive high amounts of traffic – after all, first impressions can mean everything.

As you can see, uncovering what your audience talks about the most and pinpointing how they say it, can be incredibly easy – thanks to social media. Thankfully, when you take the time to come to understand your audience that little bit better and learn to speak their language, writing compelling and interesting blogs that your audience will enjoy will become easier and easier.

However, no matter how well you may come to know your audience, it is important to remember that the only thing you can expect with certainty from your audience is that they will change. Therefore, be sure to not become complacent and take continual action to remain up-to-date with the latest happenings and language to preoccupy your target market.

Keep your eyes and ears open to your customers at all times and your business will go from strength to strength.

It doesn’t matter if you are a small family-run business or a multi-national company enjoying worldwide success, the Internet is becoming an increasingly competitive place, saturated with countless businesses competing for the attention of online users and the top 10 positions on Google. However, considering the vital importance that the Internet has in the success of businesses in this modern age means that for all businesses the struggle to stay on the top is never over. Keeping your business alive and profitable through the Internet is a marathon, not a sprint, and ensuring that you are taking all of the correct steps has never been so important.

So, what is the secret to online success? No longer considered a secret (although far too many businesses still ignore its importance), Internet marketing is the key to unlocking a business’s full potential and gaining the exposure and sales that are so badly needed for a business to become successful. Bluntly put, without good Internet marketing your business is doomed. Without effective marketing where will you find customers? And without customers where will your profit come from? And without profit…do you get the picture?

When you are looking to grow and develop your business into a profitable success, your Internet marketing is as important as your offline marketing – if not more. Whereas before, businesses would create a website as their online marketing and simply wait for customers to find them, in today’s highly competitive market this is nowhere near enough to become the dominating force within your market that you long to be.

Is Your Web Designer Costing You A Fortune?

Many businesses that are looking to market their business online usually fall into the trap of mistakenly relying on a web designer company to create a website for them. However, the problem with choosing a web designer (without disrespect to them) to create your website for you is that you will only end up with a website that is an expense to your business, rather than the sales tool it needs to be. This is for several reasons; firstly, the web designers that businesses usually turn to are more like graphic designers rather than marketing experts. Therefore, although they may be able to offer you an ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ website which is nice to look at, it will not be able to get you the results that you are looking to achieve. Many web designers lack any understanding or knowledge of what it takes to get a website to the top of Google or how to successfully transform traffic into profitable sales. As a result, the majority of businesses that turn to a web designer often find that they are left with a nice-looking but expensive website that is left to sit there and do nothing but collect ‘virtual dust’.

Find Out How Your Website Can Be Transformed From An Expense Into A Lean Mean Money Making Machine…

As experienced SEO experts, marketing consultants and web designers, we understand that sales and profits do not happen by themselves – people are not out there specifically searching for your website. To make money and gain customers you need to have VISIBILITY. Your business needs to be staring your customers in the face!

It is a common misconception that businesses have to choose between an ‘attractive’ website or a ‘functional’ site that makes money. This is not true. We understand how to deliver solutions that provide a return on investment.  With our experience in providing businesses with professional websites that not only look good for their brand image, but also function as 24/7 money-making machines for their business. By ensuring that your website is fully search engine optimised, your site will find itself ranking amongst your biggest competitors at the top of Google – giving you increased online visibility and helping to increase the amount of traffic that is being directed to your site.  When we are responsible for creating a website our expert team also work hard to ensure that the website’s on-site content is also completely optimised, resulting in a greater conversion rate, which can mean only one thing for your business – more profit.

So, what would you prefer – a pretty website that nobody can find, or a professional site that acts as a 24/7 salesman for your business? If you are interested in achieving profitable and measurable results with a high-ranking, professional website, why not speak to us today to learn more about what our SEO web design team could offer you? If you would like to see some examples of the websites we have designed, take a look at our web design porfolio and all the different packages we offer to suit your business and requirements.