Your Business on the Web - SEO

SEO for Beginners

You need new customers who don’t know you exist

It doesn’t matter how good your business’ website is, without visitors, it’s never going to achieve its’ full potential for your business.  Chances are, if your website has been online for a while, when you type in the name of your company it’ll pop up in the search results somewhere near the top.  The problem is, the only visitors you’ll get are those who already know you exist – what you really need are new customers who don’t know you exist.  This is where SEO becomes at least as important as the website itself.

What you need are visitors looking for the product or service you offer.  People use search engines, like Google to find things that they want - if they’re looking for an accountant in Darlington, they’ll type ‘accountant in Darlington’ into a search engine.  If you’re an accountant in Darlington, that’s what you need your website to be listed under.  The good news is, it’s not as difficult as you might think.

On Page Optimisation

The main thing you need to do to begin with is ‘on-page’ optimisation - telling the search engines what your website is about.  Sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many websites don’t do this. If the heading of your home page is something like ‘Welcome to our website’, you’re not really telling them much. So how do the search engines know what your site is about?  It’s all about keywords or phrases that describe what your business does - you need to get them (like ‘Accountant in Darlington’) in the page title and description. The Header tags should include relevant keyphrases too and have them scattered, sparingly, throughout your main text. The search engine spiders - as they are called 'crawl' or ‘read’ your web page and then have a better idea what your website is all about.  On a basic level, that’s all you need to do for ‘on-page’ optimisation, if the competition from other websites is low for your chosen keywords. Things get much more complicated when you start getting into ‘competitive’ keywords and companies can spend thousands of pounds to get to the top of the results.

If you’re just starting out, and have enough spare time, read as much as you can on SEO, choose your keywords, make some changes to your site and above all, be patient! It take time for the search engines to update the information they hold on your website.

If you don't have the time, or the skill to get your website to the top of the searches for your chosen keywords, this is when you need to hire a professional company.

PWP Web Design

PWP web design are a UK based web design and SEO company, who can help you attract new customers by optimising your on site and off site information. They have two websites you can take a look at:

PWP Web Design and SEO

First Page of Google SEO

Email is: info@pwpwd.co.uk

Some business help is available in the form of grants. For businesses in the North East, please try NBSL

Marketing - Not for Idiots

Not for Idiots

When you spend so much time talking to fellow business owners, do you despair? I am shocked on an almost daily basis as to the lack of business knowledge most of these people have. Certainly in the good old days (remember them), you could get by with just being good at what you do. But people, the world has changed.

It is no longer good enough for you to be good at what you do.

You really should understand cash flow, you really should know where your customers are coming from and how they found you. You should know what your average profit per customer is and how much you have to spent to get them in the door.

I have been in business many years and I have tried most things. Loving innovation and change I lap up books on how to..... How to start a business, how to manage your accounts, how to sell, how to market your services. And this is continually changing so you need to keep up to date. All this is of course in addition to keeping abreast with the latest goings on within your business sector.

If you can’t sell – you’re doomed!

Let me clarify, if you are a one man band or can not afford to hire someone in with sales experience you are doomed. How many people in business just expect people to come to their door? It just doesn’t happen as much today. My God, even the prostitutes are advertising!

Here is some Free advice if you’re interested on marketing your business.

Ask yourself, how many ways are there to market and promote my business? Write them down. Things like TV may be far too expensive so you can cross them off your list for now. But what about the others? What about radio – quite expensive with diminishing audiences that would have to listen at specific times of day to hear your 4 times a day ad. What about paper advertising. Now I would say this depends on your business. Emergency service like 24 hour plumbers and electricians may do well from these. But again for the majority of us you have to appear in front of the reader when they are in buying mode.

You have to be in front of a prospective client when they are in buying mode.

That should trim down a few advertising mediums. Think now about the internet, or rather Google. Nowadays people “Google it” don’t they?  I know I was looking for a 6 panel internal door and Google was where I went to check prices and local stockists. And I bought one after ringing a local supplier.

If you are not on Google your business is Doomed!

Bill Gates said if you don’t have a website, you very soon won’t have a business. The world has become more focused since then. Since 93% of all searches in the UK are done on Google, you have to be there or you are Doomed!  Actually its much worse than that. You see Google's first page gets about 94% of all the clicks. So all the other thousands of pages are fighting over 6%. So the hard reality of it all is, if you are not on the first page of Google your business is doomed.

Duncan Malloch is an entrepreneur and an investor. Since 1978 he has had a keen interest in electronics, computers and the web. Since 2000 he has been quite heavily involved in business and has built up a great understanding of how it and how money works. When the financial collapse came he set up Red Kite Solutions to help local businesses get their fair share of that Google market. You too can tap into this huge resource at www.red-kite-solutions.co.uk Email by clicking HERE

How to get on the first page of Google

To get your company listed on the first page of Google’s search results, must be every serious business owners goal. This article contains information on why you need to be there and how to get listed.

There are just three ways to get on the first page of Google

1. A Natural Listing

2. Adwords Pay Per Click Advert

3. Google Places for Business Listing

The Natural Listing.

This is the reason why Google exists. To provide searchers with the most relevant results appertaining to the search phrase they typed in. It therefore makes sense that in order to appear on page one your website must contain information that those searchers are looking for. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. Fine tuning both on site and off site factors to suit whatever keyword phrases you want to be found for.

Adwords Pay Per Click.

This is how Google makes its money. Those top three positions in the Beige coloured box are paid for adverts. Business choose which keywords they want to appear for. You can fine tune the area in which your ad will show, the times and the approximate position. All these parameters govern the amount paid, but remember you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your advert.

Google Places for Business.

Used to be called Google maps. Research shows that 97% of Google searchers are looking for a local service. 97%! Wow! This is why positional preference is also given to local businesses. These local listings appear usually below the Pay Per Click adverts – but not always. Sometimes they can be at the very top of the page.

Conclusion.

Being on page one of Google is essential. In the UK 93% of all searches are done on Google. Of those searches 94% click on the first page. The very smart business owners have realised that they can gain a bigger share of those clicks by dominating page one of Google, not with just one listing, but by appearing multiple times.

PWP Web Design consultants can assist your business get to page one of Google. Their SEO experts have a 100% success rate and offer a written guarantee that they can get your company listed on page one of Google naturally – or you don’t pay. Email at: first@pwpwd.co.uk or call 07980 412 752 www.first-page-google-seo.co.uk