by Pete Wright | Sep 1, 2020 | Digital Marketing, SEO, Small Business Advice
Let’s smash some SEO myths!
Even after over 20 years of search engine optimisation, several SEO myths seem particularly persistent. With so much misinformation flying around, it’s no wonder small business owners treat SEO with caution.
It’s one thing to see these myths surfacing in small business networking groups. It’s quite another when flaky “SEO specialists” promote them in sales emails.
Yes, I get those emails too. So this is prompted by yet another dodgy “SEO specialist” site review listing fake SEO problems they’d “found”. Whilst real SEO reviews can help, spammers just send out cookie-cutter lists and hope you’ll bite. These can be hard to spot unless you keep up with current SEO best practices.
Asking non-expert friends and colleagues may feel reassuring, but uninformed advice just increases risk.… Read the rest
by Pete Wright | Mar 16, 2020 | SEO
Small business SEO is now more vital than ever. Why? Because with more people working from home, offline advertising will struggle to compete with online searches.
Your competitors know this. That’s why Google Trends shows that searches for SEO in the UK recently (March 2020) peaked higher than at any time in the past five years.
Still, small businesses face special problems when it comes to investing in SEO. This leads to three common mistakes.
Mistake #1: DIY SEO
Small budgets make DIY seem tempting. Yet whilst the basics of SEO can seem simple to learn, they take years to master — and they keep changing.… Read the rest
by Pete Wright | Mar 10, 2020 | Digital Marketing, SEO, Small Business Advice, Web Design
So you’ve launched your new website? Congratulations! Or maybe you’ve had one for a while — and are now wondering if it’s really working? Well, building your site was just the beginning. Now you need to focus on website growth.
Not sure where to start with that? Don’t worry, that’s quite common. So here are three vital things that many small businesses overlook.
Website Stats
Any usable business website generates a lot of stats on its visitors. If yours doesn’t, you’re flying blind. It usually takes weeks to collect enough data to start seeing meaningful trends though. So you need to fix this immediately.
Thankfully, most sites are easy to link to Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.… Read the rest
by Pete Wright | Jun 19, 2019 | Digital Marketing, SEO
Local SEO helps your site to rank for local keywords, like “dentist Cardiff” or “vet Bristol”. Good local SEO can get you featured in both the organic (unpaid) search results and the “map pack” that appears above them. That’s obviously good for sales. So how can you master local SEO?
Well, it differs from non-local (aka “national”) SEO, because for local searches, search engines need to be confident of your firm’s location. Your online reputation matters a lot more, too. So whilst good on-site SEO and backlinks are still as vital as for normal SEO, citations and reviews are the keys to good local search positioning.
Unfortunately, both citations and reviews have common pitfalls that can easily undermine your rankings.
Citation Consistency for Local SEO
Citations are places that mention your company, even if they don’t provide a link.… Read the rest
by Pete Wright | Jan 10, 2019 | Digital Marketing, SEO, Small Business Advice, Web Design
Planning to launch a new website for your business? There’s a lot to consider when designing a small business website. Have you thought about how its design may affect visibility on Google or how people perceive your business?
Gone are the days where a free Geocities or WordPress template could do the job for you.
The competition is tighter now, with 71% of small businesses already operating a website of their own. Your site has to stand out amidst the sea of competitors. Get started the right way with these 5 top tips to create a good small business website:
1 .On-Site SEO is a Must
First and foremost, make Search Engine Optimization a priority for everything you do on your site. Whether it’s designing how the site looks to the content you post on the pages and blog, SEO should be a part of the design philosophy.… Read the rest
