If your office is anything like ours then you’ll be used to receiving calls from advertising salespeople on a weekly basis. Whether it is magazine advertising, SEO, directory listings or social media, there’s plenty of hard-sell providers in each of these areas ready to eat up some (or all) of your marketing spend.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of calls we get from people claiming to be SEO experts (we’ve even had calls in the past from providers falsely claiming to be from Google). When we tell them we specialise in online marketing and SEO they’re usually very quick to tone down the ridiculous claims and promises of ‘guaranteed’ results!

Now, I’m not saying all advertising salespeople are ‘at it’. At the end of the day they’re just doing their job and in some cases that person may have a relevant and effective marketing opportunity for your business (in our experience you can expect around 85% of these calls to be of no use but that still leaves another 15% that would at least be worth listening to).

The problem is how do you know which of these opportunities are worth listening to and how do you get them off your back if you’re not interested? I’ll answer these questions in a second but first of all I want to tell you why we’re writing this blog today.

The reason we are writing this piece is because we’ve seen first hand how damaging it can be to your business if you get sucked into buying marketing services and advertising opportunities from these providers.

Over the years we’ve helped many businesses with their marketing and found that, surprisingly often, businesses are spending a big chunk of their allocated marketing budget on marketing services and advertising sold to them over the phone. Whether it be a one-off ‘unbelievable deal’ in a magazine, a monthly recurring charge for SEO services or an annual cost for a website directory listing.

Each thing on its own might not seem like a big budgetary commitment and I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard something along the lines of ‘it was only £400 so I thought it was worth a punt’. I would argue that it is fact not worth a punt! In fact, I can almost guarantee you’re better not spending the money at all rather than reacting to these marketing sales calls when they come your way.

First of all, as I’ve already stated, the vast majority of these providers aren’t providing a great marketing opportunity anyway so you’re going to get minimal if any value whatsoever from investing your money in it. Secondly, buying marketing services or advertising a few times a year when the phone rings and it’s a good salesman on the other end of the line is hardly a solid marketing strategy that’s going to get results. What you’ll end up with is a very disparate strategy with little bits of spend here and there and absolutely no return on investment.

At the same time as all this, we completely understand the challenges faced by many small-to-medium sized business owners. You don’t have the time or marketing resource to devise your own marketing strategy and deliver it on an ongoing basis. This in itself is the major reason you invest in little bits when that phone rings with an opportunity that’s ‘too good to pass up’.

The obvious solution you’ll be expecting me to suggest is outsourcing your marketing to Brinn Marketing and letting us take care of your whole strategy for you… whilst I would, of course, highly suggest that solution I feel I would be contradicting my own ‘ignore the hard sell’ advice!

So assuming you’re not ready to outsource your marketing, what else can you do in this situation? From now on when you get an advertising sales call follow these 3 simple steps:

1. If it sounds interesting hear them out

2. Then always say no

3. Review it yourself

So you know what to do next time the phone rings and it’s an advertising salesman or marketing provider… unless of course it’s Brinn Marketing!

We’ve seen huge demand from our customers over the past 3-4months for the development of mobile applications and mobile-specific versions of their websites. In fact, “do we need to build a mobile website or app?” has been the most popular question we’ve been asked in the early part of this year.

Clearly how to best capitalise on the mobile market is something on the minds of many business owners. Certainly the coverage of mobile marketing and development has been the hot topic of conversation recently in trade publications, blogs and across social media.

I’m always conscious that when something new comes along in the world of technology and marketing it tends to become the ‘buzz’ topic. With that comes added confusion as all of us ‘marketing and tech experts’ flood you with articles and information on the subject. It’s funny that with the access we get today to so much information and insight from so many different sources, it can actually make it more difficult to find a simple answer to the question you’re asking!

So I don’t want to go off on too many tangents today and answer this really simple question:

If you’re a small-to-medium sized business owner is now the time to build a mobile-specific version of your site, create an app or begin to invest in mobile marketing?

To answer that question I want to share with you a small bit of research we completed last week.

How many users are accessing your site on a mobile device?

Firstly, you can find this bit of information out really simply (and for free) if you have an analytics tracker such as Google Analytics on your site. It will tell you (as a percentage of overall users) how many people are accessing your website via a mobile browser. It will even tell you whether they’re an Android, Windows, RIM or iPhone user.

As an experiment, we looked at all of our client websites to see what the average percentage of mobile users on the site was historically, what it is today and how fast the change in percentage, if any, was.

Well, the results are really interesting and it’s fair to say that visits to our client websites via mobile device are growing at an ever-increasing rate. Take a look:

If you’ve read our blog before then you’ll know that, at Brinn, we believe that your website should at be the centre of any good marketing strategy. Visiting your website is the first action you want someone to take having responded to one of your marketing messages via social media, email, advertising, PR, search, an event or any other marketing channel you’re using. It should also act as the central place for great content that you can then push out across all of these different marketing channels.

So does the uptake of mobile technology change this approach? Definitely not, but it does mean that to stay relevant, we need to make the experience of visiting your website and taking the desired action just as engaging on a mobile website or app as it is on a traditional desktop device.

If your website is well coded and put together in the first place (and doesn’t contain too much Flash), then it should render the same on a mobile screen as it does on a desktop one. That’s great, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean your site will engage users in the same way. Mobile-specific websites need to be clearer, contain less information and allow the user to undertake a specific task quickly.

To illustrate this point, here are a couple of interesting facts about the difference between mobile users and desktop users:

- According to Microsoft 70% of desktop search tasks are completed in one week, while 70% of mobile search tasks are done in one hour. In other words, mobile searchers are ready to take action right now!

- 40% of mobile search is location based, which presents great opportunities if you run a local business. Many businesses are already making great use of apps and mobile sites that target a local user at the time they’re ready to make a purchase.

Basically, mobile users have a different set of needs and expectations than desktop users and building a mobile-specific site or app is a great way of targeting these users and getting their business. Unfortunately, your current desktop optimised website won’t do that. As more people move away from the desktop format as a means to access information via the web, the more your business will need to engage customers properly on a plethora of different formats including mobile and tablet devices. There may be 12% of users accessing websites via a mobile today but the numbers are going up fast!

What we’ve hopefully shown you is that now is the time to begin thinking about how your business can best utilise the mobile platform. We’re not saying you need to assign your whole marketing budget to ‘going mobile’ but be aware of this trend and get involved sooner rather than later.

So I’ve answered the question I set out to and have hopefully excited you about the new opportunities that mobile marketing can bring. Now it’s up to you to begin reading up on the subject further and deciding what your next step should be… or you can just give us a call and we’ll take care if it for you! We’ll leave that decision up to you!

As always, any feedback, comments or further insight are welcomed. Speak to you all soon.

1. Huge Growth in Mobile Commerce and Marketing

Predicted by: Ally

The consumption of goods and services via mobile and tablet devices has increased in 2011, but 2012 will see them rocket. At the end of 2010 the average percentage of traffic visiting our customers’ websites via a mobile or tablet device was 3%. At the end of 2011 that figure is around 10%. We fully expect well over 20% of visitors accessing our customers’ sites via mobile and tablet devices by the end of 2012 and that has huge implications in terms of how we reach and engage these visitors.

We’re already seeing huge demand from our customers for mobile-specific websites and web applications, and everything points towards 2012 as being the year that the business masses will begin investing in mobile as a powerful marketing channel. Your current website may be accessible via mobile browsers but, unfortunately, the same things that make your website engaging on standard browsers will not make them an engaging mobile experience. Mobile websites and applications need to be simple, stripped back, have great usability, load fast (even on 3G connections) and offer real functionality (in other words ‘something to do’).

This growth in mobile usage will also be combined with a large increase in the percentage of goods and services purchased via mobile devices. mCommerce has already begun to take off in 2011 and you can expect to see this trend pick up even more pace in the next 12 months. The prediction is that by 2015 50% of all products and services purchased on the internet will be purchased on a mobile device.

The growth of mobile and tablet usage is really exciting and we’re looking forward to seizing all of the new marketing opportunities it will bring in 2012.

2. Facebook will Successfully Refine Advertising Offer

Predicted by: Stuart

2011 was the year that Facebook really began to monetize their hugely popular platform. Version 1 of the Facebook advertising offer is good - if not great - but it really it’s only the start. In 2012 it will be refined and improved to offer advertisers a much more social way of advertising (in keeping with the core Facebook offer).

It’s not yet clear exactly how this will work, but we can expect it to be based on the ideas of ‘social personalization’ and ‘social design’ – both subjects Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about a lot in 2011. Basically users will be presented with adverts based on what their network of friends have ‘liked’ and these adverts will show users which of their friends have already interacted. Research and practice shows that we react and engage so much more when we know others in our peer group have already clicked on or ‘liked’ an ad.

This improved advertising offer will give Facebook a clear point of differentiation over rival platforms such as Google’s Adwords. It will make Facebook unique in the sense of offering businesses a completely new way to engage potential customers and we expect this to be extremely powerful and effective. Make no mistake, if Facebook can build a truly effective advertising platform then businesses will flock to it – we predict 2012 to be the year that this happens.

3. Deal-based platforms will lose ground

Predicted by: Robert

In many ways 2011 was the year of Groupon and countless other daily deal sites. The growth of these advertising platforms has been phenomenal and I think it’s fair to say we all fell in love with the idea of getting a deal with 70, 80, 90% off straight into our inboxes everyday.

However it now appears the ship has hit troubled waters! Groupon has been a magnet for huge criticism in recent months; with investigations by advertising authorities over accusations of over-egging discount claims in their ads, and who could forget (especially their shareholders!) the disaster since their initial public offering earlier in the year.

Forget all the controversy though, we think it’s all much simpler than false advertising and questions about the company’s real market value. Quite simply we all got fed up! Great as getting offered a fantastic discount is, when everything is offered at such huge discounts all the time we begin to switch off. It’s no longer as impressive or eye-catching, and the emails we receive in our inbox everyday just become another part of the marketing ‘noise’ we’re subjected to everyday.

Our prediction – in 2012 we’ll say lots of these sites fail and fade into obscurity. I’m sure Groupon will survive but, unless they make some fundamental changes to the business model, I can’t see it becoming the huge marketing powerhouse we all predicted earlier in 2011. 

4. Increased Importance of Local and Social Search

Predicted by: Debbie

Search Engine Optimisation is an incredibly powerful and important marketing tool and in 2012 that’s not going to change. What will change and develop – as always – is the way in which Google (and other search engines) index search results and present them to users. In 2012 the 2 biggest developments in search engine marketing will be Local Search and Social Search.

Local Search will become increasingly important for local businesses as the huge increase in mobile internet usage continues to grow. We all increasingly use search engines and search based applications on our mobiles to find a suitable restaurant, bar, shop or any local business for that matter. In 2012 we’ll begin to see businesses focus on getting their local search right, and investing more in this side of their of their search engine marketing. At the same time we’re also pretty sure that Google will focus more attention on indexing local searches and placing importance on these in the rankings.

Social Search is something that has been on the cards for a while but we think 2012 will be the year that Google begin to place more importance on what’s happening on social networks in their search results. So live results from Facebook, Twitter and other platforms will become a larger part of the search experience and this will have implications on how important it is for businesses to make good use of social media. Essentially it will mean the better use you make of social media then the better your search engine results will be. 

5. It’s all About Re-marketing

Predicted by: Ryan

Have you ever been on a website looking at a product and noticed for the next few days, weeks and months you’re being presented with adverts from that same website on other sites such as YouTube, blogs, news sites etc? This type of advertising is an example of Re-marketing and it is an incredibly effective way of continuing to market to people once you know they are interested in your product. We know it’s effective because the percentage of click-throughs and purchases we see on client sites in comparison to other online marketing methods is huge. This is only one example of Re-marketing and there’s lots of great ways you can take advantage of this type of marketing.

Some people may find this type of marketing irritating or obtrusive (and we can see why that is the case) but by virtue of the results that it provides we think Re-marketing will become a more prominent and popular online marketing tool in 2012.

Well that’s it – now let’s wait and see if our predictions are correct! As always please contribute your own predictions in the comments section.

We’re constantly told how important link building is but very few of us understand how to actually build quality links to our websites. Here are five simple link building strategies you can implement today:

Link Building Explained

How do I know if Websites are Highly Ranked?

Strategy 1: Commenting on Relevant Industry Blogs

Strategy 2: Identifying Reputable Directory Back-links

Strategy 3: Social Bookmarking Links

Strategy 4: Become an Article Marketer

Strategy 5: A Shameless Plug…

So why the sudden shift in focus?

What seems like quite a sudden shift in opinion is actually related to a number of ‘slow-burning’ factors, the most important of which is how technology, and more importantly the way in which we use technology, is changing. Mobile phones are a great example of this – the technological development and consumer uptake of new technology in this sector over the past 18 months has been astonishing.

We now live in a society where the Internet is widely accessible to the vast majority of the population at their fingertips and at any time. At the same time, the success of tablet devices such as the iPad has made the consumption of the Internet even more portable.

But how does this benefit traditional media and marketing methods? Surely this new technology will make it even more obsolete? Interestingly, the reality is actually quite the opposite.

The emergence of this portable online technology is blurring the lines between what we like to call ‘digital’ and what we call ‘traditional’ media and marketing channels. Let me give you a couple of examples:

The recent launch of The Daily, the first ever iPad only online newspaper is a joint venture between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Apple. If you read The Daily on your iPad you’ll know that it’s laid out like a traditional newspaper (not a news website) - the only difference is it’s being displayed on your tablet device. This is an example of a traditional publishing company updating the way in which it’s content is consumed. So if you, as a company, decide to advertise in this publication are you advertising ‘traditionally’ or ‘digitally’?  Hard to say really.

Imagine your standing at a bus stop and a billboard advertisement catches your eye. Let’s say it has an offer on it that you’d like to find out more about.  You don’t have to wait until you get home to do it anymore (and let’s face it you would have forgotten by then anyway!), you can access it right now on your mobile phone. The chances are there may even be a barcode on the advert that you can scan using your mobile phone to take you straight the additional content. Either way the advertiser has caught your eye using the advert and, with the use of new technology, has managed to make you take action there and then. So if you, as a company, invest in an outdoor marketing campaign and lead customers to an online offer after they take immediate action are you advertising ‘traditionally’ or ‘digitally’?  Again, it’s pretty hard to say.

These are just two examples. Think about how we now consume so many things differently – radio, newspapers, television, the Internet, shopping, promotions, etc. So the lines between traditional and digital marketing are becoming increasingly blurred. Digital technology, such as that I’ve just highlighted, is becoming completely ingrained into our society. It’s no longer the case that the Internet is an entity that we consume when at home on our computers or at work – it’s there at our fingertips all the time and it’s changing the way in which we do everything – even advertise our businesses.

Traditional marketing was never dead (hate to say I told you so!)

Actually I’m lying, I love to say I told you so! The point I’m making though is that traditional marketing has never been dead – when you think about it the idea that when something new comes along it automatically means the old is completely obsolete it’s pretty ridiculous really.

The best marketing results always arise for the companies that understand that a good marketing strategy is about pulling together online and offline marketing activities. Traditional media such as outdoor or television can be a great way of building a brand and engaging interest but how do you make the consumer take action and engage with you on an ongoing basis? That’s often where online marketing comes in and it’s through creating the perfect blend of online and offline channels that the best results come from. Multi-channel marketing strategies aren’t just reserved for the multi-billion pound companies either – this can still be done with more modest marketing budgets.

Let’s stop talking about ‘online marketing’ and ‘digital marketing’

Hopefully what I’ve highlighted is that digital and traditional forms of marketing are becoming blurred to the point that it actually no longer makes sense to refer to them as separate entities. A marketing strategy that gets results will inevitably be one that utilises a perfect blend of marketing channels all pulled together by a strong, consistent message. So isn’t it time we stopped worrying about whether something is offline or online, traditional or digital, and just focus on building more successful marketing strategies? I think so, what do you think?

The Best of all the Free Marketing Plan Templates!

Creating a marketing plan is not as complex as you might think and that’s because you can actually write whatever you want!

A marketing plan is an internal document - it is used as a guide for your business to follow, so what’s in it is totally up to you. You don’t have to follow the rigid templates set out in many textbooks.

There are no rules when creating your marketing plan. It is for your benefit so write as much or as little as you like – the fact your spending time thinking about your marketing will in itself lead to better results.

Put simply, a marketing plan centers around documenting who your customers are, where you want to be and then setting out how you’re going to get there (using marketing).

Use this simple template (the best of all the free marketing plan templates!) to guide you through the process of writing a marketing plan… or don’t… it’s up to you!

In the interest of brevity and keeping things simple though let’s stick to the top 5:

1. Price and value will be key communication messages

With higher rates of inflation, the increase of VAT, even steeper fuel prices and much, much more, in 2011 consumers will see their money not stretch as far as it used to. This will have a knock on effect on what marketing messages consumers respond positively to and price and value will be a key area. This doesn’t necessarily mean the cheaper the better but brands and retailers will be keen to communicate good value in 2011. We’ve already seen a number of advertising messages over the past couple of weeks offering to ‘beat the VAT rise’ and keep prices at the previous rate. Expect a lot more where this came from as well as more upmarket retailers such as John Lewis continuing to promote their ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ value propositions.

2. Social and mCommerce Will Become More Prominent

As the uptake of smart phones and social networking continues to grow exponentially, expect to see both of these provide new ways for us to consume products.

mCommerce (basically ecommerce on mobile devices) has been a bit of a slow starter but as the technology continues to develop expect to see the purchasing of products on your smart phone increasingly commonplace.

Social networking has proven a great way for brands to engage with their customers and in 2011 you can expect this to go even further with the possibility of purchasing products directly from Facebook. If someone in your network purchases a product then they can choose to share this on their wall – providing an extremely powerful referral effect. This provides an exciting prospect for businesses to turn their social media presence into tangible product sales.

In 2011 brands both large and small will have a great opportunity to use these two new technologies to their advantage. As a result the importance of having a multi-platform ecommerce business will increase tenfold.

3. Smaller Groups and Smaller Networks are the Way Forward

Since it is, without doubt, the most important marketing trend at the moment, let’s stay on social networking.

Although social networking platforms such as Facebook continue to grow and grow their user base, consumers will begin to split their networks into smaller groups or use a selection of new, niche social networking platforms to engage with different groups they’re involved with.

Something that has been identified as more people use social networking is that individuals don’t want to share the same information with everyone in their network. Whether they are a work connection, someone from their football team, a school friend or a family member, individuals want to communicate with each of these groups differently – not in a holistic manner.

Facebook has already brought out the new Groups feature in 2010 (see more here) and in 2011 we will see this adopted more widely as well as other new methods of segmenting a users audience.

The brands that follow this closely, understand the implications and act on them accordingly will perform best in social media in 2011.

4. Online Search Will Change (Nothing New There Then!)

Online search is continually changing and when it comes to optimising websites for search engines this means the goal posts are always moving. This can’t be avoided though – Google need to continue to innovate and provide us with the most relevant search results.

In 2011 it is not clear exactly what is coming but here are some definites:

Local Searching

Google will begin to show users search results from their local area more prominently – even if the user is not specifically searching locally. To me this is a bad move in many ways. Ok, you may be searching for a dry cleaner and one in the local area would definitely be of benefit but what if you run an ecommerce business selling products across the UK – is locality really a major factor in that case?

Google Instant

Google Instant came out in late 2010 and the jury is still out in terms of how it affects searching behaviour. Look out for the first signs of this kind of research coming out within the next couple of months because it will have an effect on how your business should successfully optimise your site.

Social Search

Yep sorry I’m harping on about social networking again! Google have already began to index tweets in their search results and, at the same time, Facebook will definitely become more geared towards searching for products and services within the ‘social sphere’.

Whether it is Google, Facebook or others who pioneer this, search results will eventually take into account sites that those in your social network have also searched for. As always, companies keeping abreast of these trends and what they mean for their marketing strategy will perform best in 2011.

5. Will TV Advertising Make a Comeback?

Lets face it; TV advertising is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be. With technology such as Sky+, the fragmentation of television audiences and, of course, the advent of the Internet and consumption of online media, television advertising just doesn’t have the same mass audience any more.

As a format though, the 30-second TV ad will actually grow in popularity. With online streaming, digital TV streaming and the new advertising model for sites such as YouTube, there is now once again space for the traditional TV advertising format. In addition to this, the technology available today means that the production of a 30 second advert is now much more cost-effective for small and large businesses alike. Could this be the ‘bringing back to life’ of the TV ad?

Anyway that’s it – now lets wait and see if I’m right!

We're about to embark on one of the biggest web projects we've ever undertaken...

and we want you to come along for the ride!

Over the next few weeks we will talk you through all the major elements involved in developing an online business from the initial brief, planning stages, brand creation, online marketing development, concept design, web design and the more technical web development challenges.

Every member of the team will blog about their part in the process as it happens – giving you a true insight into what’s involved in developing a successful online business.

We want you to learn:

- What’s actually involved in developing a large-scale successful website

- Techniques that you can put into practice on your current site to improve results

- How you can use web marketing from the outset to make sure the right people find your site

Welcome to The Guide to Internet Marketing!

The Client

Our client is one of the largest vehicle leasing businesses in the UK and they have approached us to develop their new concept in the van leasing sector – VanLeasingQuotes.com

This website will provide an easy, intuitive way for users to browse their catalogue of over 1,000 different models of commercial vehicle. Not only this but it will allow users to generate an online customised quote for their chosen van, print or save it and then apply for a lease agreement online.

The objectives

- Create a brand that becomes the online market leader for vehicle leasing

- Create a website that generates significant natural search, paid search and direct traffic

- Convert a high percentage of visitors to sales leads by creating a website that engages visitor attention and compels them to take action

- Provide a solution that can be easily managed and updated by the client's staff (who have minimal IT/Web experience)

The Brief/Our Scope

Put simply we’ll be delivering every aspect of this new online business! As it is a new concept we’ll start with creating a brand around the VanLeasingQuotes.com name. After that we’ll start developing the website, which will include everything from planning, design, technical development, copywriting, web marketing and much more.  This kind of project, where we’re responsible for every aspect of the brief, gives us a great opportunity to show you the full process of building a successful online business.

The First Thing?

The first part of this blog series will be the creation of the VanLeasingQuotes brand, which will follow next week. In the meantime let’s meet the Brinn team that will be sharing their experiences of this project over the next few weeks:

Meet The Team

Ryan (Me!)

Marketing

I’m the marketing man and also the person that manages the whole project from start-to-finish. I’m heavily involved in the planning and initial stages of any web project; coming up with the initial concept for the site, thinking about how we will attract visitors and engage them on the site as well as working closely with Robert to create the brand for any new online business.  

Stuart

Sales and Marketing

As well as working closely with myself on the marketing side of things, Stuart has vast experience in the field of sales. We work together on the planning and initial stages of any new online business but he thinks past just the job of the website and provides us all with insight on engaging visitors attention, making them take action, and then putting a process in place to turn new online sales leads into paying customers. 

Robert

Design

Robert is a designer with extensive knowledge and experience in both brand and web design. He is responsible for two key stages in this project – the creation of the brand (where he works very closely with myself) and then the concept design of the website. Concept design means that Robert creates the look and feel for the website and then provides visuals and templates for Ally to bring to life on the web.

Ally

Front-end Web Development and SEO

As front-end developer it Ally’s job to build the actual pages of the website from Robert’s design work. He takes the design visuals and uses his knowledge of coding to turn it into something real on the screen. A big part of good web development is building websites in a way that are accessible, compatible and SEO friendly. Ally also works closely with Stuart and I right at the start of any project to complete the initial Keyword analysis and SEO planning

Ibrahim

Back-end Web Development

Put simply, Ibrahim is the technical whizz-kid behind our operation. He will develop all of the technical elements of the website including building the database for the 1000 vehicle types, making all the websites search functionality work and creating an admin system for the website to be updated in future. Anything technical he can help with!

We look forward to getting this new Internet Marketing Guide going next week. See you then!

Truth be told, Search Engine Optimisation is a bit of a black art. It’s easy to see the results but its often not clear what work actually goes in to making your website rank highly in the search engines.

There’s actually a very good reason for that though – it’s a vast mix of different tasks and ongoing work that go in to improving your ranking over time. If you buy a book on SEO (there are many) you will quickly see just how many factors effect your search engine results and the thousands of different things you can do to make a difference.

I want to demystify SEO in this post and, although I don’t have the time or energy to list absolutely everything you can be doing to improve your ranking, I can provide you with the top 10 factors that affect SEO. This will hopefully give you a better idea of what’s involved and also give you a few things you can do to improve your own search engine ranking.

Here goes:

1. Have a Keyword Strategy

Like anything you do in business, having a clear strategy will make for better results. It never ceases to amaze me how many people optimise their website for search terms just because they presume people are searching for them. There are a number of methods to be able to analyse what people are searching for and how many other businesses are optimising their sites for these terms. Plan carefully and you can optimise your website for great search terms that your competitors have missed.

2. It’s All About Clean Code

It’s difficult to explain to clients why a well coded website is so important. This is no surprise because often to the untrained eye the actual design of a well coded website will look exactly the same as a badly coded version. The reason it’s so important is that Google wants to promote high web standards and therefore will rank a site higher if it’s well coded and much lower if it’s badly coded.  This means you want to make sure you take on a reputable company or freelancer to design your website, which is easy if you ask the right questions. 

3. Content is King

Content is King – simple as that. Search Engines want to return search results for users that match exactly what they’ve searched for. So the more relevant text content you have on your website about your product and services then the better chance you have of ranking highly.

4. Keep it Fresh

Update your site on a regular basis. Another thing search engines want to provide users with is up to date content and the more you update your site then the more you are seen as a current, relevant business. The more you update, the higher you go!

5. Keep it Simple

The best websites are simple, clean and easy-to-understand so keep it simple. Also, using Flash elements on your website has a negative effect on SEO so avoid using it. This should be easy because today you can create many of the same effects using Java Script and CSS.

Google now also rank search results according to ‘page weight’. This means a focus on keeping down file sizes and page loading times will help you in the Search Engines.

8. Sell With Your URL

Naming the URL extension for each of your pages according to its search term will increase SEO results. So for instance, we’re building a new web page on Web Copywriting at the moment. The identified search term we are using is ‘Search Engine Copywriting’ so our URL will be: brinnmarketing.com/search-engine copywriting*

* Always separate each word after the / with a – because it allows the search engine robots to recognise each individual word’

9. Give Google a Map

Generating a sitemap for your website will provide Google and other search engines with an easier way to find their way around your site and this will help SEO. If you haven’t heard of a sitemap there are a number of software applications out there that allow you to automatically generate one for your site.

10. Meta Description (whatever the hell that means!)

This is the text you see under the page title for every search result on Google. Many don’t understand how important this is in getting people to click on your website.  Keep it short and use it as an opportunity to sell your business and make people click!