If you own a local business, you may be wondering whether to start a business blog. Perhaps you aren’t sure how it could help you, or you lack the time to create quality content consistently.
On the other hand, you’ve heard that content marketing can take your business to the next level.
So, is starting a blog worth it? How could it help your business? Let’s review a few of the best reasons to start a business blog.
1. Drive Website Traffic
The most obvious part of running a business online is that low traffic to your website means low sales. That’s why many business owners spend lots of money each month on PPC ads to boost site traffic.
Here’s the good news: starting a local business blog is a very cost-effective way to increase traffic to your site.… Read the rest
Why do marketers focus on digital content so much? They all seem to agree that content marketing works — but how? What is “content marketing” anyway? How does it fit into online marketing strategies — and how can you get it working for your business?
Well, the short answer to most of those questions boils down to one long-established fact: content is king. Quality content attracts, convinces and converts visitors into customers. Weak content does not.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that. So, let’s start with what’s so special about digital content?
Why Digital Marketing?
Well, did you know that the UK is the world’s fourth biggest advertising market? In 2016, UK firms spent 21.9 billion GBP on advertising, and that figure is expected to keep rising.
Almost 60% of internet searches are now performed on mobile devices. So, if you haven’t got a mobile friendly website, you are losing out on a lot of potential business.
That should be a pretty compelling reason to make sure your website is mobile friendly.
Even if your site isn’t mobile friendly, though, mobile devices will still try to display it. If you’re really lucky, it may even be almost-usable — with a lot of scrolling and zooming. Obviously, that’s not going to help you win many customers, but it’s not the only reason you’ll lose out on business if your site isn’t mobile friendly.
So, here are the other ways in which “responsive”, mobile friendly sites beat old-style desktop-focused sites for modern digital marketing.… Read the rest
Why? Because contrary to popular impressions, personal websites often cost money. Successful business websites do not.
Yes, you read that right. In the same way, a “cheap” business site can easily end up costing you more than financing a more professional one.
That isn’t very intuitive, so allow me to explain…
Tip: Click the dots on the right to skip between sections.
How To Budget For A Personal Website
Personal websites aren’t built to make money, either online or offline. Traffic isn’t their priority, and even if monetised with ads or affiliate income, that isn’t their key goal.
Most business owners know that SEO is important. An estimated 80 – 90% of consumers check online before buying a product. So if you aren’t doing SEO right, you’re leaving money on the table and it would pay to get some reliable, expert advice. If you have local customers though, what you really need is a local SEO expert.
That doesn’t just mean an SEO expert in your area. It means someone who knows how to optimise a site for search terms that include location information. Like “yoga Newport” for instance (a key term for this client), or the even more competitive, “web design Newport”.
Why Local SEO?
For many businesses, local SEO can be more effective than general, or “national” SEO. That’s especially true for SMEs, because lots of us serve specific areas.… Read the rest
1.96 billion. That’s how many people are on social media. It’s expected to grow to 2.5 billion this year. Social media has made the world smaller and more accessible. As such, social marketing can promote your business to a massive audience, making it a key advertising channel.
Still, many small businesses in and around Cardiff and Bristol target local markets, either across the UK or specifically in South Wales and the Southwest. Having an international reach isn’t always a priority.
So, how do you reach a local or niche audience with social marketing? Here are a few tips:
Know Your Audience
Do you know who your target audience is? Who are you talking to when you create a marketing campaign social media?
The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on May 25th 2018. It will affect every business and change many established business practices and business models. It will also require a fair bit of work to ensure compliance, so if you aren’t already working on that, you need to learn about this and start now.
I was going to do a lot of research and attempt to write something about how all businesses need to be ready for it. However, I’m not a lawyer, and giving bad advice could be risky. Also, there is no way that I could come up with something as clear or comprehensive as Heather Burns’ white paper on GDPR for Business Owners & Senior Executives.
If you have a business of any size, whether it’s online or not, or if you’re even just at the stage of considering setting up a business, you need to read that.… Read the rest
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is vital for the success of small firms on the web. That has been an established fact of business life for years. There’s no point having a wonderful website if no-one can actually find it. SEO draws visitors to your site, generates leads, and can ultimately be the difference between your company’s success and failure. Yet, despite the importance of getting this right, many small businesses still make these 5 common SEO mistakes.
Are any of them holding your business website back?
#1 — Not Taking SEO Seriously
Okay, so SEO can be obscure. If you try the DIY approach, it can be complex, time-consuming and technical, too. If you own a business, you’re probably bombarded by “Guaranteed Google Top Spot” spam from self-proclaimed SEO “gurus” every day.… Read the rest
So, 2018 has started with disclosure of two huge cybersecurity vulnerabilities, called “Meltdown” and “Spectre”. These are not like most of the “exploits” that hackers use. They affect almost all modern computers.
Most vulnerabilities affect software. Meltdown and Spectre affect CPUs — the core computer chips — mostly those built by Intel since 1995. So they don’t just affect PCs, or Windows, or Macs, or Linux. They affect computers, regardless of what software or operating systems you use. In short — yes, this affects your computer(s) and phone(s).… Read the rest
Just a quick video to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
I have to admit that website building projects usually go a little quiet over Christmas — but not this year! That could have something to do with all the new services I’ve launched over the past 12 months, of course — including making the sort of short video marketing content you see above. Between launching that, SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, site maintenance, mobile appsand providing my usual ecommerce and pro website building services, 2017 has been a pretty busy year. Not to mention rebuilding this site from scratch, too.
So, have a great Festive Season and watch this space for even more improvements over 2018 — onwards and upwards!… Read the rest
