Tag: Digital Marketing Tips

SEO

Keyword Research for Small Businesses

Keyword Research for Small Businesses explained

What are Keywords? According to Moz.com’s definition, Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called “search queries.”  In other words, you need to carry out research on the words and phrases searchers use online when looking for the products or services that you sell. If you are new to this concept, then our handy guide to keyword research for small businesses will be illuminating.

How do you find out about what users are searching for?

Using Google Autosuggest.

Here is an example of using the Google autosuggest feature to help you see what terminology your customers use when looking for your type of business.

In this first series I am assuming the role of a café owner in Kirkwall Orkney. This is a remote island off the North Coast of Scotland only reachable by ferry. Therefore it will not be an overly popular search term, but will be known by locals and regular visitors. What words should I use in my social media descriptions, web pages, blogs?

First I tried ‘Cafes Kirkwall’

The first result is the Google Map Pack, so I must make sure my business is on Google My Business.

Google Map Pack for SERPS
Search Engine Results aren’t just keyword based

 

But if I am a café owner in Kirkwall what other phrases are people using to search, are they any specific things they are looking for? In this next example when we look at the Google autosuggest drop down we can see that specific names are being entered, which suggests that locals or regular visitors are searching as they know the business names. So I can make sure my content is aimed at them.

Using Google Autosuggest
Google Autosuggest gives insights into types of customers searching

 

Looking for very specific phrases is what you should aim for because this gives you something that is not super popular and will be more likely to get you found as you are not competing with as many other sites who will be going for the obvious.

If you are a location based business then you will naturally want to rank for business type and location as above. So how do you go beyond the obvious? Try typing in alternatives and see what Google suggest comes up with. So still with the same theme of being a café owner in Kirkwall, I put myself in the shoes of a tourist and Googled ‘Places to eat Kirkwall’ – Now the autosuggest is getting more creative.

 

Researching Key Phrases
Trial different phrases to find more niche terms

 

‘Eat out to help out’ is topical, ‘best restaurants in Orkney’ are two more phrases that could be used in content. Putting in Cafes Orkney yielded a segment of dog friendly cafes and cafes in Kirkwall, how about being more specific again?

Keyword Research for Small Businesses
Try specific terms not just business type and location

 

Being a rural location, there are not many keywords or phrases to deviate from, so following a basic SEO strategy will yield good results.

But what of busier places like cities? You would have to be more creative. Look what happens in autosuggest if looking for a vegetarian café in Glasgow

Looking for niche terms
Where there is more competition it’s critical to research phrases

 

Glasgow being a large area – users are specifying different parts of the city and even putting in road names. Therefore, carrying out research beforehand helps you to align what you offer and how you describe your services online with what your users are searching for.

Keyword Research for Service Businesses

What if you aren’t a physical premises and you are a service? There are more tools again that you can work with.

In this next series of examples, I am now an outside catering business. First I googled ‘Outside Catering’ with no specific location. This was in the hope of eeking out some potential blog topics or subject matter for social posts that don’t have to be geographically specific.

Google suggest came up with the obvious geographical ‘near me’ but further down are some interesting angles of ‘outside catering meaning’, ‘for weddings’, ‘ideas’ and ‘company’. Therefore, if you provide outside catering services this is useful information. If you do cater for weddings, then some blogs or pages dedicated to this service on your website or social channels will help optimise your presence.

Use search for blog topic ideas
Try a search without your location for content ideas

 

Other Great Online Tools

If you are doing keyword research for a service-based business and regularly blog, then there is another feature that you can make use of for blog topics and it’s the ‘Questions People Ask’ segment of the search engine results page. These don’t always appear, it depends on the subject matter, but it’s something to look out for when carrying out your investigations.

Using People Also Ask Feature
The People Also Ask feature is invaluable for content ideas

 

As you can see there are some potential ideas above ‘What does outside catering mean?’ or ‘What is the average cost of catering per person?’ would be interesting articles to write.

Further down this page there are also other suggestions in the ‘Searches related to outside catering’ segment.

Keyword research for service businesses
Google also offers suggestions at the bottom of each page

 

 

As well as Google, Bing will also have similar information and may have different results than Google and may be worth exploring.

 

Casting the net wider

Below is a list of online platforms that allow you to carry out more in-depth research.

If you are a producer of regular content, written or visual, the starting point is always keyword research. If you are going to be doing this on a regular basis I advise that you embed the  ‘Keywords Everywhere’ app into your Google Chrome platform. Every time you carry out a query it will display the keywords down the right hand side automatically with some graphical data.

 

9 Top free Keyword Research Tools 2021

 

  1. Uber Suggest
  2. Google Trends
  3. Keywords Everywhere
  4. Google and Youtube suggest
  5. Bing forums
  6. Exploding topics.com
  7. Wikipedia
  8. Reddit
  9. Answer the public – this allows limited daily searches and there is a monthly fee if you need to go beyond it, but for content creation is well worth the outlay as it is a goldmine for not only keyword research but market research as well.

 

Where should you use keywords?

Don’t get carried away.

There is an online etiquette around this science. At the end of the day, we need to write for the reader not the search engines. Therefore, the algorithms look for naturally written content, so as long as you start the web page, article or advertisement with the keyword, the rest of the content can use synonyms.

Google looks for around 1% penetration, so for a 300-word article the keyword or phrase only needs to appear three times. One of those will be in the first paragraph and one will be a subheading. Leaving one to show at any other point in the narrative. Anything above this will viewed as keyword stuffing and you will be penalised.

To follow best practice, use your chosen words or phrases in the title of any page or article (which should be labelled with H1 or Header tag you can find this label in your text box editor), a subheading and the first paragraph. The longer the content then there will need to be more appearances.

 

Blind Bots

If there are images or video within the content, the keywords will need to be embedded into those as the bots that index content can only read text. The keyword labelling tells the bots what the image is about and that it is related to the wider content. There is a box called Alt Text this must be filled in along with other boxes that appear within the image such as description and caption.

 

Organic and Paid Content

Researching keywords for organic content is straightforward if you look for what people are searching for and you consistently post and create, the tip for organic is get as niche as you can. When analysing words and phrases for paid advertising it can be a bit tricky because you are bidding on them and the prices fluctuate like the stock market and it can be expensive.

Using Uber Suggest or Google Keyword Planner will give you in depth metrics on search volume, words your competitors use, their highest performing articles or pages and what receives the best engagement.

Organic content is always a long-term strategy as it takes time to perform and build brand awareness, so people know that you exist and where to find you.

If you are a new business, paid ads are a great way to get instant visibility based on keywords. If you want to know which keywords are performing well, use these tools to carry out in depth study. It may also be worth viewing the ads in the search engine results page to see what phrase they rank number one on.

The search engine results pages usually return paid ads above the Google Map Pack and above organically performing sites, they always have ‘Ad’ written next to them to indicate they have ranked based on paid positioning.

In this example I googled Plumbers Near Me and the first results were Ads, this is probably due to the time of year, the high demand for plumbers and the amount of competition, meaning it is worth their while to pay for the visibility.

 

Keyword Research for paid ads
Paid Ads always display with ‘Ad’ next to the listing

 

 

Paying other businesses to operate your search engine ranking

It can be tempting when running a business to pay agencies hundreds of pounds per month to run your ads for you. For the average small business this is not necessary. If you are a local business then make use of Google My Business, Facebook ads and other local SEO tactics. If you are an E commerce business then Google Ads will pay dividends, to begin with, try running them yourself. Google has plenty of resources, guides, tutorials and staff to assist you in getting to grips with the science of paid ads. You are best investing time in taking the Google tutorials and learning through trial and error, thus leaving more budget for ads rather than paying third parties.

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

You can also find us on Twitter @Psalesmarketing or Instagram possalesmarketing  – please follow us to read our blogs or receive daily inspiration.

 

 

 

SEO

Guide to Google My Business

Guide to Google My Business

Google My Business is the number one on your to do list if you are a business serving a local community and you want to enhance your local SEO strategy to make sure you get found. There are two aspects to operating it which we cover in this guide to Google My Business.

  1. Set Up
  2. Maintenance

This may seem like stating the obvious but 95% of small businesses we have worked with to help set up their GMB then neglect it. It is important that you develop the mindset early on that this a platform similar to your social profiles, it requires maintenance.

The best way to contextualise GMB in your mind is to see it as your virtual shop window. Searchers are people walking down the high street, they land in your area virtually and then you appear on the street amongst other similar businesses at the same time. Searchers can peer through your shop window by looking at your images, opening hours, reviews and services, all whilst still in Google. If they like what they see they can go into your virtual shop by clicking on your website.

If you don’t have a listing then you are not visible and if your competitors are then you will be losing valuable leads.

Here is an example – We Googled ‘Pubs Orkney’ this is what we got back as a search result – a map with pins on and the list of entries matching this description, straight away we can see key information. Name, photograph, reviews, opening hours.

 

Guide to Google My Business
When carrying out a search you will see the Google Map Pack

 

Then when we click on a particular listing we get more information, again without leaving the search engine

As you can see this is promotion gold and it costs nothing to set up and maintain. Naturally, Google are a business, and they want you to pay to boost your listing, this will become more prevalent in years to come. However, many small businesses see the benefit of having the free GMB listing in getting enquiries from people they don’t know.

 

Users can see important information such as directions, save, call, breakdown of reviews and a description of the cuisine.

Guide to Google My Business
When searchers click on your listing they can see more information in the search engine

 

As we scroll further down the listing we can see feedback from customers, address, phone number and health and safety information.

 

Guide to Google My Business
All the information about your business can be seen quickly

 

So if this is something you have used yourself as a consumer but haven’t yet claimed for your business, here is our guide to setting up and maintaining your Google My Business account.

 

Setting Up Your Google My Business Account

  1. Head over to Google My Business
  2. Click Manage Now Button and fill out information as it takes you through the set-up wizard. Once completed it will take you to your profile. This needs to be verified either via phone or card through the mail. Sometimes Google only offers the mail option.
  3. Make sure you complete all the fields

 

Guide to Google My Business
Claiming your listing means filling out your profile fully

 

The main focus at first is Info – make sure you use keywords in this section.

Then insert photos to showcase your business, use the correct placeholders for each image. Your logo has a logo placeholder and this is the only place it should appear. There is a cover photo which will need to be an image that showcases what your business does. Then other photos include exterior and interior photos if you have a physical premises that customers visit. Then other images should be added regularly to keep your listing up to date. Like you would a shop window, you wouldn’t leave it the same all year round, you would refresh it according to the seasons.

Next list your products or services, depending on your type of business.

The website tab gives you a free website based on the information you provide. At time of writing this is pretty basic and only includes information from your posts and updates, not products and would not be a great alternative to a full website.

Then go through your dashboard to make sure that you have completed everything that you can. Here is a checklist of how to make sure that you have fully utilised your profile.

 

Guide to Google My Business
Use this checklist to make sure your GMB profile is functional

 

 

Google Compliance

If you follow this guide to Google My Business you will keep Google happy. Bear in mind you don’t own this listing, Google can remove or freeze your listing without warning. They also remove images they don’t think are appropriate to your business. They will also not show reviews they think are fake

If you set your account up on a desktop computer, you can download the app for a tablet or phone and this has quite a few more features that you may not get on desktop as it is predominantly a mobile first platform.

If you are a physical business, hotel, guest house, self catering accommodation, salon, pub, restaurant, shop – it is highly recommended you invest in the 360 degree tour service. This will increase engagement, visibility and enhance the likelihood of receiving bookings.

Plus it is unlikely your competitors will have gone down this route, giving you a visual advantage.

 

Guide to Google My Business Profile Maintenance

 

Maintaining Your Profile

It is important to include your GMB as part of your scheduled tasks of maintenance alongside your other social media profiles. It won’t require as much attention. Changing images once per month or updating them and posting once per week is enough.

Posts

There are 4 staple post types on GMB

  1. Events
  2. Update
  3. Product
  4. Offer
  5. Then an additional Covid-19 update

 

Events

Naturally if you are holding events you would advertise these on Facebook, possibly Eventbrite but remember to also update your GMB listing. People looking for events will see your events first probably as part of GMB as Google collates and summarises local events in the search results from a number of platforms. This has an inbuilt calender so the listing will expire once the event has taken place.

 

Updates

These are for general updates and news of your business. If you blog you can put an image, introductory paragraph and link to blog behind a Call To Action button. These disappear after 7 days so it is important to keep this fed at least once per week.

 

Offer

If you are in the habit of posting special offers and incentives, this is a great feature. This is has a scheduler built in which means you can run the offer between certain dates and it will disappear when the listing expires

 

Product

If you have a new product to add and you want it to be highlighted or you want to feature particular products due to seasonality use this post feature.

 

Reviews

Find ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews. Ask for a truthful review, don’t encourage them to only leave positive reviews and don’t incentivise this goes against Google’s guidelines. It is healthy for businesses to have slightly negative or constructive feedback and it reassures potential customers that you are authentic, after all which business never has a disgruntled customer? None!

It is important that for every review that is left that you respond openly to it, both positive and negative.

Don’t ask friends and family to leave reviews and don’t post negative reviews on competitor sites.

 

Messaging

Most customers these days prefer instant messaging features as a way to engage. For GMB you have to activate the messaging feature once your profile has been verified, so don’t overlook this and forget or you will be missing valuable enquiries.

 

Insights

Regularly review your insights to see what traffic you are getting and what type of customers are viewing your profile. See how many have rung or got directions straight from your listing.

 

Use Questions and Answers function

This function is not within your dashboard as it is a feature that is open to the public to post questions to you and anyone can answer them (Yes, we know! Anyone). Therefore keep an eye on what questions get asked and naturally you respond to them first if you can. But a good tip is you can also post questions on there, so if you have FAQs post them as a question and then post the answer. This is great for your optimisation as it provides quality content in the eyes of Google.

 

Sync with Bing

You can set up a similar account with Bing, the other major UK search engine for those using Microsoft Edge. All you need to do is claim your listing by clicking the new user button and it will ask if you have GMB account.

 

 

 

You click Import button and it will pull all that information through without you having to retype everything in. However, any changes you make to GMB, remember to manually sync with your Bing account, you do this by going into your Bing and pressing the Sync button.

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

You can also find us on Twitter @Psalesmarketing or Instagram possalesmarketing please follow us to read our blogs or receive daily inspiration.

 

 

 

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021

Instagram is undergoing radical change. In 2020 more and more features were added including Reels. Its aim is to become more of an e-commerce social platform that can be tied into third party sites such as Shopify. It is quite hard to keep abreast of all the features and how to keep hold of followers organically. Here are 29 Top Instagram Tips for 2021.

 

How to Boost Organic Reach

  1. Using Hashtags – you can use up to 30 but the average is 15-20 using a variety of hashtags topics. Don’t necessarily choose the most popular include some that are specific to your sector, some that may be local or geo tag, some that are specific to your products.
  2. Hashtags can be used in the caption or comment box, algorithms don’t prioritise
  3. Get ready for the move over to keywords coming this year, hashtags will start to become less relevant

Instagram stories

  1. The opposite to hashtags – use popular topics this gives more chance of being seen
  2. Use stickers in your stories or the text box to manually type your captions
  3. Underline text to make it clickable

Increase chances of engagement with your posts

  1. Algorithms don’t prioritise video over image as you may expect, although the carousels of 10 images or more appear more regularly in feeds
  2. When posting images think colour spectrums, what colours engage the best?
  3. Put people in your images this makes posts more relatable
  4. With images use different angles don’t always take from same spot or of same subjects
  5. As with any other platform AIDA is important – particularly the first line of your captions, incorporate capitals, emojis and hashtags
  6. Be more involved with your own feed, remember to chat to others and like and comment on other posts
  7. Don’t put logos all over images and stories

Where to post links

  1. IGTV allows links in the Call to Action
  2. Direct messages will take links
  3. If you link your story to an IGTV video this will enable you to put links in if you have below 10k followers
  4. DM me stickers encourage direct messaging for links
  5. Link in Bio – the most popular method
  6. Make use of landing pages

Reels – short form video up to 15 seconds long

  1. Can use multiple shots or one take and is a mobile only feature
  2. Swipe right from the home screen to activate Reels camera
  3. The icons on the left allow you to shoot, add features before a shoot, activate speed, add effects and use timer for hands free shooting
  4. Cannot use music over reels if you have a business profile, but can add in stickers and text
  5. Can share reels to stories as well, but do this first as once it’s posted to reels, it can’t later be added to a story
  6. Pick a cover image that will attract viewers to click on the reel (like a book cover)
  7. You have 2200 characters to write a caption and 30 hashtags = there is no warning if you exceed these limits and you won’t know – your post will not be published
  8. You can share or save as draft once finished film and edit
  9. Insights on reels are only basic likes and shares, not very detailed
  10. Reels lend themselves to short tutorials, behind the scenes, meet staff, customer testimonials, daily updates, news, new products coming soon, highlighting special offers

 

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

 

We can help you set up your Instagram business account or help you devise a strategy around target marketing with effective Calls To Action.

 

 

Guide to Digital Marketing in Lockdown 3

Guide to Digital Marketing Lockdown 3

16 lockdown 3 digital marketing tips

Digital marketing is still a mystery for a lot of small businesses.  It is one of those parts of being a business owner that can be confusing and perplexing.  After all you have a trade and customers to serve, taking time out to learn the intricacies of Facebook or Instagram can be a drag, especially for those of us of a certain age. Hopefully our guide to digital marketing in Lockdown 3 will help you overcome your social procrastination

 

  1. Make sure you are listed on Google My Business and Bing Places – set up Google My Business first then pull the information through to Bing at the push of a button
  2. Twitter is the new Costa – if you are business to business get on Twitter to find local businesses to network with and have a chat, people have a bit more time on their hands. Social media is for being social, so look beyond posting and have real conversations.
  3. Business to consumer – if you are selling to the general public make sure you have a Facebook business page, keep it fed with interesting news articles, what you are up to, photos – show your customers how great you are don’t just tell them.
  4. If you have a social element to what you provide set up a Facebook group from your business page, great way to build your audience
  5. If you are Business to Consumer invest in Facebook and Instagram advertising – minimum £100 per month per campaign. Very cost effective because of the laser focused targeting and analytics you get on your ads
  6. Invest in a website and start to blog to show your authority, particularly if you can’t trade at present, utilise this time to build your brand awareness
  7. Sponsor local causes – communities come together and there are a lot of initiatives to help communities, are any looking for sponsorship or donations – be a philanthropist
  8. Public Relations (PR) contact local online newspapers, magazines, community blogs and send them an article about your business, it has to be newsworthy, not just a plain sales ad, what have you done that’s interesting?
  9. Collaborate with other businesses online that are complimentary to your own, you may be able to join forces and do joint ad campaigns or offer reciprocal referrals. Make an objective to make one new associate a week. Twitter is a great place to network.
  10. If you already have Google My Business make a schedule to put on one new post every week and update images every week, audit your profile to make sure it’s complete. GMB is very important in your SEO, is your shop window and first impressions count.
  11. Build up your citations
  12. Take time to cleanse your Linked In profile, have you set up a Linked In company page? Are you making use of showcase pages? This is best for you if you are business to business.
  13. Instagram is becoming more of a visual platform – be bold and try posting short videos to bring your brand to life – engage with your audience – carry out product/service research.
  14. Look at boosting client engagement on your social profiles – run competitions, encourage user generated content (your clients interacting with your product)
  15. Take learning opportunities, if you have gaps in your skills and knowledge on digital marketing look at online courses
  16. Offline – it seems a world away before we can go to events and mingle but those days will return, plan your post covid offline strategy – events, expos, fairs, pop up shops.

Many business are booming right now because they keep engaged with their clients and people are sat at home with the same needs but different ways of accessing them. You can even make this Guide to Digital Marketing Lockdown 3 your New Year’s resolution list!

We would love to hear from you for an informal chat to help you with your content, website or professional development, please get in touch.