Right people, strap in for the SEO ride of your life. This guide provides your small and medium sized business in Kent and the South East with practical SEO tips to help drive more traffic to your website and ultimately help deliver conversions.
We will make it as easy as possible to understand but the facts are, maximising the power of SEO for your business will take time. The good news is it’s free! But you will need to make time and action a number of elements in this guide for it to really make a difference. OK ready? Let’s begin.
SO, What is SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. SEO refers to the improvement of unpaid results and excludes direct traffic and the purchase of paid placement.
12 years ago it was easy to rank on the first page of Google. All you had to do was flood your website with keyword terms, wait what’s a keyword term? OK, say you sell Dog food, a key word for selling dog food could be ‘pet food’, ‘dog biscuits’, ‘wet dog food’, you get the idea. Well back then to rank on the first page of Google all you had to do was flood your copy with these keywords and low and behold your website would appear! 12 years is a long time and unfortunately those days are long gone.
With the power of Google’s algorithms, stick with us, today’s budding businesses need to work much hard to rank on the first page of Google. Today Google is looking for great content. Content which is rich with expression and goes into detail about the subjects being discussed.
There are millions of blogs out there with people and businesses all saying the same thing in a round about way. The businesses who work harder and create content which is genuinely interesting will rise to the top of the rankings. We said it wouldn’t be easy and there’s more.
Like most businesses today you want results yesterday. I’m paying you to put me at the top of google! Well you can pay google for the privilege but to do it organically will take time, anywhere between 30 to 60 days if you fully optimise all the tips within this guide.
Why is SEO so important?
Google does 3.5 billion searches per day globally. Holy sh*t you say and we would agree with you. We’re not sure if we need to justify why SEO is so important with that stat staring at you, but we will.
SEO is free and one of the only online marketing channels that will continue to pay dividends over time, when set up properly. As we have said and will continue too, creating brilliant content featuring key words will help your business reap the long term benefits of SEO through consistently high page rankings.
Organic search results receive many more clicks than paid advertisements. In the UK for example, only 11.38% of people click on paid advertisements. Now we’re not knocking paid advertising, it is still a very effective way of making gains quickly without the time and effect going into organic reach.
But the fact remains that while paid advertising and social media generate traffic to websites, the majority of online traffic is driven by search engines.
But enough of all that, you want the key practical tips for maximising your SME businesses SEO. Well, let’s get down to it.
The first tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
Write great content
Before you run off and write an article to add to your website, first ask yourself this question. Is what I’m writing about going to help my business find and retain new customers? It’s really important to focus on the subject you want to talk about. Make sure your target audience will want to read your content, further more, make sure it’s so good, they’ll want your help. Make sure the content you are creating is dangling an irresistible carrot in front of that prospect, making them feel like they need to speak to your business now, they need your help!
Here are some tips to help your South East business focus on writing great content.
What content should I be writing about?
If you want to beat your competitors in the Google rankings you need to be creating content which is more interesting and readable than theirs. Make sure when you’re writing it, it has personality, it feels like you. Make it engaging and back it up with cold, hard facts which further strengthen your viewpoint.
Creating Strong Headlines
Make sure your headlines are eye catching and draw people into read further.
80% of people will read you’re headlines, but only 20% of those people will read the rest of your content. It needs to pop and encourage the user to find out more. The headline makes them click in. They simply need to know that information. Strong headlines and brief descriptions of the content also help when Google comes to ranking the page. The (title tag and meta description) what you see in a search result, should reflect the essence of the article, so make sure they clearly amplify the content.
Creating actionable content which provides answers
People don’t like being told what to do. Most people get especially pissed off when they are told what to do but not given the answers to do it, ARRGGGHH. Well, make sure you have that in mind when creating content. Make sure there are practical steps the user can take to make positive changes. Give them information they can go away and implement there and then. They will smile and they will remember you.
Take out exercise
Apply the points above and get writing. The best way is to just start.
With the tips above, think about your business and the customers you want to target. Right, what do they want to know? What are the things keeping them up at night? If you can work that out and provide the answers you will be onto a winner.
The second tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
Improve your local reach
Local reach is really important for Kent based small and medium sized businesses, and with Google’s ever changing list of ranking factors its critical you are optimised for it. Did you know 46% of all Google searches are local. There are a host of ways to improve your local reach.
Your aim as a Kent business is to list in the Google Snack Pack. What’s that? It’s the boxed area that appears on the first results page when a local online search is made through Googles search engine. The Snack Pack box displays the top 3 local business listings most relevant to the search enquiry. There is only 3 places available, so make sure you are their over your competitors.
Here are some tips to help with improving your local reach:
List your business on UK Business directories
Maximise your businesses reach by listing on all the major UK business directories. Here are 3 to start with: yell.com, yelp.com and thompsonlocal.com.
Link with local like minded businesses
Having a link to your website on other businesses, individual’s websites or social channels plays very well with Google. It demonstrates your website is trusted and that in turn will boost your ranking.
Make sure you NAP Consistency is up to scratch
What the hell does NAP consistency mean? Basically it’s all your company details laid out on your website. Make sure they are consistent across the website. This means making sure the address is laid out the say way, as is the telephone, and any other location based information.
Take out exercise
Write a list of businesses you believe would be happy to link to your website
Think of all your suppliers, customers and collaborators. Once you have written and published your article, approach them and ask them to share it on their social channels or website. Creating back links is an important part of SEO.
The third tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
Sign up to Google my business
Google My Business is a free tool for businesses to help businesses manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Verifying and editing your business information, will help customers find your business and allow you to tell them your story. This is a great and free way of building up you SEO listing presence on Google.
Here are some tips to help optimise your Google my business listing:
Make sure your business description sings
ou have 750 characters to describe your business so make them count. This is your chance to shine alight on your business, it will be seen by many businesses who come across your listing so make sure you get it right. Download our guide to unlocking the secrets of successful branding to help you understand your purpose and USP.
Assign your business to the right category and sub category
When people search for key terms it’s important that you have assigned your business to the correct ones. For example, if you are a nail salon, then the category should be nail salon, not just salon. Be specific. If you provide secondary services, add them as a sub category.
Make sure the photos uploaded are great
They say a picture tells a thousand words and in this case it will certainly help with your ranking. As a rule, upload three exterior photos of your business, 3 interior photos of your business, 3 photos of staff members and 3 photos of any products you sell. Make sure the images look professional and make your business sing. If you need help with photography, speak to us. We work with great regional photographers all the time.
Take out exercise
Set up your businesses Google my Business today.
Like we said at the beginning of this article, it’s easy to read and discuss but unless you take action nothing will change. Head over to https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/ and get started.
The fourth tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
Generate positive Google reviews
Working hard to generate positive google reviews will help with your page ranking. Frequent and genuine online reviews from your customers new and existing will contribute to increased visibility and even increased conversions from search traffic.
As in our guide to unlocking the secrets of successful branding, being real is massively important to helping in the buying process for your customers. Managing to receive regular 5 star reviews from google will boost your ranking and help convince a potential customer that you’re right for them.
Here are some tips to help generate positive google reviews:
Just ask for a review
If you don’t ask, you don’t get, the saying goes. Build asking for a Google review into the thinking of all areas of your business. If you know a customer has had a great experience, ask them to write a review. Make it convenient for them. If you have a shop, have signs around the place asking for a Google review. Don’t be afraid to ask, most customer will be happy to oblige if their experience has been a good one.
Email signature
Create an email signature asking customers to leave a Google review. How many emails do you send out a week? Even if 1% of the emails you send act upon it, it all goes to help boosting your credibility with Google and ultimately your ranking. The email signature graphic can link directly to the review page, making easier and more convenient for the user.
Make the experience personal
If you received an email or note from the owner of the business asking for you to be so kind to leave a Google review, you will probably be more inclined to do so. It feels more important and if you have a good relationship with the company, leaving a good review will only straighten that.
Take out exercise
Create a social post asking for a positive Google review
Spend a bit of time crafting a new post for all of your social channels. Make sure you have an eye catching image to accompany the post, not corporate, but fun and shareable. Tell your customers how much you value them and that their continued support goes along way. Asked them to write a Google review, give them instructions so it’s really easy for them to do it.
The fifth and final tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
Have a range of web analytics tools in place at the start.
Make sure you have the right web analytics set for your website at the start. Setup Google Analytics to track website traffic. Google Analytics let you track how many people are using your website, and what they do when they are there. It will give data on how long they spend on specific pages, track sales and what content on your website is getting the most traction.
Think of Google analytics as your personal data centre for understanding how to maximise the potential of your content and ranking on google. Think data, understand the numbers and tailor content and pages accordingly.
Here are some other tools that will help maximise your websites potential:
Google Search Console
Google Search Console provides tools and reports which help you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results. It will also show you how google search see your pages.
Uber Suggest
Get to know what’s working for your competitors and do it better. Uber Suggest allows you to get insight into the strategies that are working for others in your market so you can adopt them, improve them, and gain an edge.
Yoast
If your website runs on WordPress then you can access a powerful SEO tool call Yoast. Yoast,(it gets a bit techy) will optimize meta tags and other link elements that search engines read before showing results to users. It will also remind you to enable permalinks if your site isn’t optimized well. And the best bit, they offer a free version!
Take out exercise
Set up Google analytics
It may sound daunting but there are loads of step by step tutorials on google analytics. We can’t stress enough how important Google analytics is, to help you better understand your website’s SEO health and ultimately rank higher.
The secret sixth bonus tip for maximising SEO for Kent businesses
It sounds obvious, but makes sure your website doesn’t look like a bag of nails!
It doesn’t make an ounce of differences if you are ranking above all your competitors in the Google Snack Pack listings as well as organically, if your website looks like road kill, people will leave as soon as they’ve arrived. Think about it, people want a great user experience. They want to feel like this is the company for them and that the way they navigate around your site is convenient and smooth, yes, smmoooothhh.
Here are some tips to makes sure your website doesn’t look like a bag of nails:
Ask a professional or a customer who you know will give you a truthful answer
We would be more than happy to do an audit on your website, visually and from an SEO perspective. If you have a customer in mind who you know will give you an honest answer, ask them. Get them to be specific. Ask questions like What’s wrong with our website? How could we improve the user experience?
Make sure your site is optimised for mobile users
You’d amazed how many websites look great on desktop but as soon as you look at them on mobile, ‘Holly Sh*t” look what the cat dragged in. This really important, UK mobile browsing accounts for 49% compared to 44% desktop and 6% tablet. Find out if your website is mobile friendly by visiting googles mobile friendly test site https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Focus on what you customers will want to see and read about
Make sure your site feels fresh and modern. It needs to perfectly encapsulates you brand purpose and personality. Make it an experience they will remember for the right reasons.
So that’s it, we hope this guide has opened up your mind and given you confidence to maximise the potential of your website SEO capabilities. Hopefully the advice given, will now allow you to crack on and implement the tips to help your business head to the top of google rankings.
Improving your ranking will take time and focus. The key thing to remember is create great content which your target audience will want to engage with. It’s a long term strategy, but it’s free. So get organised and invest time in maximising your SEO potential!
If you would like to discuss any of the points made here further or would like help in implementing these SEO trade secrets for your business then please get in touch with us today. Either by phone on 01622 634524 or by email at hello@anecdoteagency.com
Thanks for reading right to the end. We know you’re busy and we really respect your time so hopefully the fact that you’ve got to here means that you’ve found it worthwhile.
