This is a follow-up from our previous article:
"Why You Should Spend More Time Thinking About Search Engine Optimisation"

Times have changed and the online landscape is very different to even a couple of years ago.  The rise of social media marketing, the millions of websites competing for a spot on page 1 of Google's organic search results and the increasing number of "paid" results taking up space on page one have lead some business owners wondering if it's  necessary or even possible to have a website properly optimised for search.

Hold on though - 40,000 search queries every second?

Over 90% of visitors to a website have been referred by a search engine. Given the sheer volume of search queries it is only logical that some of these are going to be relevant to your business.

Now consider that even a small percentage of these searches find your business online for a commercially focused search and that all these clicks are free...

Also consider that, as mentioned in the previous article, that a properly optimised website will reduce your cost per click if your running Google Ads and make your pay per click budget go further. Yes that's correct - the quality score of your Ad campaigns is negatively impacted by a poorly optimised website.

So yes - SEO remains an essential part of any marketing strategy today will continue so for some time to come providing it combines a strategy that covers a multifaceted approach.

You sill need an SEO strategy that not only outlines your basic plan of attack, but lays out the goals you’re trying to achieve and profiles the audience you’re trying to reach.
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Creating a solid SEO strategy means employing a thoughtful, multifaceted approach that covers numerous aspects of web promotion.

You need an SEO strategy that not only outlines your basic plan of attack, but lays out the goals you’re trying to achieve, profiles the audience you’re trying to reach, and digs into the competitive landscape in which you’re trying to win.

​Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential part of any marketing strategy. It's a proven way of improving how and where your website links get shown in search engines like Google. If your website is not optimised for organic search it's unlikely to receive many visitors.

You can think of SEO as buying your house as opposed to PPC which is more akin to renting. SEO and Paid Search (AdWords etc) work well together but when you stop your paid Ads, traffic to your website ceases. An optimised site will continue to attract relevant visitors and these clicks are free.  For those reasons, it makes sense to start seriously thinking about SEO. Still not convinced? The following will get you to change your mind:

SEO helps you get quality traffic to your site and reduces your cost per click if using paid search

Did you know that your website should still be optimised even when using pay per click? A properly optimised website will reduce your cost per click and improve the quality score of your campaigns.

SEO helps you to save money on your marketing budget

Some organisations spend a tonne of cash on advertising their brands online — part of those ad strategies usually involve pay-per-click marketing. SEO helps you improve your organic ranking in search engine results pages and organic search results found on the first page receive more attention from visitors than paid results. The click through rates are higher.

If your website is not visible anywhere in the results pages of Google than you can be sure your competitors are getting the traffic. 

Even the most niche of markets face hefty competition online. A properly optimised website will ensure that you receive a proportion of the traffic searching for your goods or services.

Your target audience will trust what you have to say

Even if you're not selling anything as such, reaching out to an audience is hard. A proven way to achieve your goals is by instilling trust with those people. People trust Google to give them the right answers to their questions therefore a website returned at the top of Google's search results will confer credibility on your brand.

Results are measurable with SEO

It's easy to measure conversions and their sources using the right SEO tools. You can find out which keywords are the most valuable to your business and the searches that are driving visitors to your site, where those visitors are located and more. These insights are invaluable to your offline marketing activities.

So if your website is not properly optimised for search you're missing out and should definitely consider SEO as part of your marketing strategy.

Are you looking for the best ways to boost your return on investment while lowering your cost per acquisition on AdWords? Then make sure you avoid the common pitfalls marketers constantly fall into using this route to market.

Selecting The Wrong Keyword Match Types

Keeping non-performing keywords and using the wrong match type. If you have a large number of non-performing keywords as part of your campaign, they will bring down the overall quality score of your entire promotion. Don't keep keywords the generate clicks but not conversions and use modified broad match rather than broad match. Using broad matched keywords may be profitable for Google but will kill your return on Ad spend.

Failing To Use the Best Bid Strategy and Making Use of All Campaign Options

It’s easy to set up a basic campaign on Google AdWords, but that’s not where you should stop. This won’t guarantee that you get the maximum return on investment which is always going to be your ultimate goal. 

Setting an automated bidding strategy like maximise conversions or setting a cost per acquisition for your campaigns will allow Google to use AI to learn which keywords and Ads are more likely to generate conversions and maximise your Ad spend.

In addition, there a many additional features that are not part of the basic campaign set up and which tell Google which conditions of a search query are right to serve your particular ad. Target Ads by geography, content, mobile users, days of the week and times of day. Check which devices, days and times generate the best ROI for your campaigns. Spending money on click to call Ads at a weekend for example is pointless unless you have the resources to handle these calls.

Make full use of Ad Extensions which increase CTR and conversions. Ad extensions  increase the size and visibility of your Ads  and are a great way to direct users to a particular page on your site which matches their search query.

Over-Paying For Positioning 

If you’re using AdWords, you probably know that it's an auction of keywords that are running all the time. 

The CPC you pay is not just determined by what other advertisers want to pay. The good news is that there’s no need to capture the first ad position if you have correctly and successfully optimised your campaign and the quality score of your campaign will influence your CPC as much as the competition for a keyword.

To do this, you need to understand the different metrics that impact ad optimisation. This does include Google’s own Quality Score. 

Overlooking A/B Testing and Experiments.

A/B testing or split testing will ensure that you look at two variations of the same ad. You run them both and find out which details lead to greater conversions to build the ultimate ad. 

Alternatively, it can be used to test two unique landing pages. This helps you improve the performance of your campaign and increase your level of return. 

Don't forget checking the baseline performance metrics so there’s something to compare the ads to. 

Setting up campaign experiments and splitting your traffic between the live campaign and experiment is a great way to test different landing pages and bid strategies over time before committing all your campaign budget  to the changes.

Checking Search Queries and Updating Negative Keyword Lists.

Search keywords and search queries are not the same thing. Checking the search query report at least weekly will almost always reveal a whole bunch of clicks generated by queries which are not relevant to your keywords. Adding these to your negative keyword list will ensure your not overspending on wasted clicks.

Use negative keywords to utilise phrase match keywords so as not to kill your budget. This ensures that your ad doesn’t show up for keywords that aren’t connected to your target audience and burn your budget.

The trick here is to avoid queries that have a low buyer’s intent. Exact keywords usually aren’t enough to avoid this issue, so use negative keywords to maximise conversion rate and quality score. One research study showed you can decrease CPC by nearly 25% with this step. 

You are a small business owner with a local target audience. Of course, your local audience needs to find your shop or office, and you want to use social media for that. But, in the plethora of platforms, you just have no clue where to start?

You are a small business owner with a local target audience. Of course, your local audience needs to find your shop or office, and you want to use social media for that. But, in the plethora of platforms, you just have no clue where to start. So you post something on Facebook, try a tweet now and then, but nothing happens.

An even better way to detect a preferrable platform is to simply start using a certain social platform and see what happens. I prefer this option over the alternatives. Try everything, keep track of the results, and stop doing the things that don’t work for your business after a couple of months. Don’t give up the next day, but set a goal for yourself and see if you can achieve that.

You need to find the social platforms your target audience uses. Otherwise, you won’t be able to reach the right people. There are (at least) two ways to find out what these platforms are. The first is to ask your customers what social media they use. That might be Twitter or Snapchat, but can also be Yelp or Meetup.com, depending on your type of business. Simply ask your customers and see what response you get. If you have hundreds of customers a week, this is probably not the best course of action.

There are many things to keep in mind when you’re thinking about social media plans as a small business owner. Your results will depend on the platform you’ve chosen, but the three factors (time, relevant content, determination) also definitely play a part.

An even better way to break the boring conversation mirror is to skip over the expected response and go somewhere next-level. Even if your answer won’t concern the topic of the initial question, it will push the conversation forward. Don’t be afraid to go ahead and be bold. Upend the dinner table conversation! Turn small talk into big ideas at the next summer wedding reception you’re forced to attend! You never know which ideas will be worth spreading next and maybe breaking the ice of a small talk will end in amazing conversation.

That’s it for now! I’m sure I’ve convinced you that even as a small business, investing some time and effort into your social media strategy will pay off. So go for it!​

Technology is constantly changing, and it is obvious it takes our life to a whole new level. As the Internet has already become a powerful instrument of marketing, the technological advancement also plays a great role in promotion as well as in SEO and SMM services. In this article we will unveil how the correct usage of technology can help your business to attract new customers.

Technology is constantly changing, and it is obvious it takes our life to a whole new level. As the Internet has already become a powerful instrument of marketing, the technological… Pay per Click vs. SEO: what is best for your website?

Pay per click and SEO can be seen as the two sides of a coin. Each of them help in boosting website traffic in their own way. The only major difference between PPC and SEO is the expense. PPC by Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing can be a bit heavy on your pockets.

SEO is something you own website marketing team can perfect over time, without accounting for any added expenses. SEO is basically free for the smart webmasters who know how to achieve high ranks by using trending keywords. Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process that helps search engine spiders spot your website in the maddening crowd. On the other hand, in case of PPC, you need to pay a fee whenever a user clicks on your ad displayed above or beside SRLs.

Now that we have the basics of each approach cleared out, the old question remains. “Which approach is better?” there is no unanimous answer to this question. The better method depends on the nature of your needs and your immediate budget. However, if you want to know which one is best for your business, you should be asking these 3 questions:

1. What is your website ad budget? The key factor that will primarily determine your method of website marketing is your ad budget. It is always a good idea to start with $5 to $10 per day. This is the basic budget most websites adhere to for PPC.

2. How high is your Cost-per-Click? Cost-Per-Click or CPC is the fee you need to pay for a single keyword click. It is not homogeneous and the cost usually varies from industry to industry and keywords.

3. How populated are the SERPs in your industry?

You need to check how competitive your SERPs are before you go with PPC. Simply enter your selected keywords into your Google External Keyword Research Tool and check the estimated competition level. Using this tool, you can also check the average number of advertisers currently bidding on your targeted keywords. The popularity of your SERPs will greatly determine the prices of the PPC services.

From its earliest days, Google's core search algorithm offered the most relevant and most organic search results quickly and accurately on a simple site with an iconic logo that has now become synonymous with the search giant's business. Searching amidst the world's vast data, Google cleverly cataloged and categorized pages using its PageRank formula, which assessed the quantity and power of links to any given webpage. For a few years, Google's search worked seamlessly, repeatedly predicting the most relevant search results every single time, again and again. In fact, it was so good that it sent shockwaves through the internet, digitally obliterating its rivals over time. However, as Google's clever search engine grew into a colossus corporation, and both individuals and businesses realized the inherent power of appearing organically at the top of any search, things began to change.

​The changes occurred at the behest of some unscrupulous characters who were hell-bent on gaming the system. With so much money at stake, do you really blame them? Once they learned the majority of the rules, they began poking and prodding Google's innards by building massive link farms and content farms, spinning low-quality articles, and auto-generating links in an effort to outgun other listings and secure the top spots on Google's lucrative Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

As a result, Google introduced several now-infamous adjustments to its algorithm that went by the names of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, just to name a few. As the less-than-savory characters began dominating Google's search by supposedly gaming the system, Google had to act or risk losing its relevancy. These algorithm adjustments were intended to both weed out the spoofs and scammers, while also fine-tuning its semantic search.

As of July 13 (2016) Google "will no longer allow ads for loans where repayment is due within 60 days of the date of issue" nor will they show ads for "loans with an APR of 36% or higher." They cite user protection as the reason for this update, specifically that "research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users." This is a noble cause, but is this really the reason?


​There are 3 possible reasons why Google would be invested in the same industry they have been actively imposing tighter and tighter restrictions on:

1) Because they own competitive companies
2) To actually make a difference in the world, and clean up what they see as a problem industry
3)Both of the above

Local SEO has grown significantly over the last few years, particularly given the rise of smartphone usage and better connectivity while out and about. Although it has a lot of similarities with organic SEO, it’s ultimately very different. Local SEO is focused on providing results that are relevant to a searcher based on their current location.

​Local SEO uses a variety of strategies — getting your site ranked on search engines like Google, business directories such as Yelp, Superpages, Foursquare, Yellowbook, Google My Business listing, Bing Places for Business page, localized content on your website, online reviews and other strategies.

Millions of customers use local search every day to find the best local businesses in their area. You can help increase your chances of getting found by these potential customers through Local SEO.

​A content management system or CMS allows a user to quickly and easily create and update a website online. New or changed pages can be reviewed before making them “live” and visible to visitors. In the past, if you wanted to make even a simple change to your website you would often have to brief your web designer, wait for the work to be carried out, approve the changes and then wait for the updates to be published to your website. This process could take anything from days to weeks and of course added to your costs for maintaining your website.

You don't have to be technically minded to update your web site using a powerful drag and drop website builder. Our 'keep it simple' approach holds true for the browser based admin tools we provide that mean you can manage your site anywhere you have an internet connection at any time.