How important are business citations when improving a business’s SEO?

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on How important are business citations when improving a business’s SEO?

What are citations? How can these be used to improve a business’s search engine optimisation?

Introduction

You may have paid a significant amount to have a brand-new company website designed. You might be pleased with the final design and now want to proceed with starting work on improving the business’s search engine optimisation?

Now, a crucial, fundamental part of local search engine optimisation is citation building.

Without building business citations, such as business listings, you could be significantly held back, and businesses on page 3 of Google and may never be found through the Google My Business results.

Therefore, you do need to be busy-bee and start building business citations.

However, a word to the wise: as with everything in search engine optimisation, there is a right way and a wrong way to complete this work.

Of course, we will only ever advocate the right way here at Ryan C Walsh.

Therefore, we will proceed by showing you how to build business citations the right way.

Create a picture:

How to give your business a boost in Google’s organic results?

SEO is multifaceted, meaning that you shouldn’t overly focus on one aspect of local search engine optimisation and neglect other aspects of SEO.

You do need to take a rounded view and a rounded marketing strategy.

Therefore, building business citations is just one of the key building blocks you need to implement to improve your business’s local search engine optimisation (SEO).

What are citations?

They sound pretty complicated, don’t they?

NAP listings, what on earth does this mean?

All this means is NAP, which stands for the name, address, and phone number of a business.

It’s as simple as that.

However, things can become a bit more complex when we explain it this way: Googlebot, the bot used by Google’s algorithm to crawl and index the web, is designed to find numerous business citations related to your business.

All of these business citations should be on quality websites, plus they should all match.

Business citations that match exactly should, therefore, be structured in a way that they all convey the same precise message. The name, address and phone number of a business should all match. The citation should also have a URL that redirects back to your website so that Google bot recognises your business is being mentioned.

Which are the best types of business citations to build?

The best type of citation to build, is a business citation from a quality website related to your business. So, if you are a hotshot lawyer in your city, you will want a business citation, from a website to with solicitors.

You want these to be quality websites, websites that you recognise are leading publications, well-known brands, or businesses that obtain industry information in regards to your business sector.

Another example:

If it’s a construction company, you would want your business to be mentioned on a website that offers awards and qualifications for excellence in the construction industry.

Build your nap listings carefully, ensuring that they are all completed and identical to one another.

Add a little bit of supplementary text.

This is to describe the business.

Yes, we highly recommend creating NAP listings, and what you should do is also write a unique business description for each page.

You might be scratching your bonce; thinking that’s a lot of work writing a few paragraphs of text for every single business citation.

The answer will be yes, but with local SEO and national SEO, you do need to put back into it if you want to see results.

Avoid spam business directories like the plague

You will always have businesses that want to cut corners.

Sadly, even in 2025, you still have SEO agencies which deploy spam methods.

However, avoid using spammy SEO methods, as they can take your business’s rankings on a rollercoaster.

Plus if you use spam methods you obtain a Google penalty.

Receiving a Google penalty can be a nightmare, to say the least; it can significantly impact visibility and the amount of customers you receive, and the whole situation becomes a real headache to fix. So don’t use spam methods, just use white hat methods.

How exactly should citation look?

Let’s walk you through the process of building a business citation.

First, locate a quality business directory related to your business.

Again, if you are a lawyer, find business directories that specialise in offering directory listings from lawyers. Still, the website must have a high domain authority (DA, use Moz Pro to check this) and the business citation/link needs to come from a widely and highly regarded website.

After that, fill in the details, ensuring that all NAPs, including the address and phone number, all match.

Write a unique business description for that page.

On some pages, why not add a picture of your company director’s mugshot?

Add URL to the homepage.

Should we create many business citations all in one go?

No,

The short answer is no, you shouldn’t.

As with all things related to organic local search engine optimisation, it is best to take your time and do it right.

Don’t rush building many at once because the Googlebot will index massive citations simultaneously, which appears spammy, rather than building quality citations over an extended period.
For example, build one a month and avoid overdoing it as you don’t want your SEO efforts to look spammy.

Why is consistency important in the building business Citations?

Consistency is key when it comes to building business citations.

So, what we mean by this is that sometimes a business change their address, and then, they may starts building business citations for their the new address.

That’s all fine and good, but often, some of the business citations still mention your old address.

This causes a conflicting business citations, which confuses Googlebot and also confuses your customers.

You don’t want conflicting business citations, for example, your old address and your new address. Instead all business citations should match perfectly.

How many business citations are needed?

The thing is, in regards to business citations for SEO, there will always be a business out there; that want to rank higher, than your business and obtain more customers.

It’s a race that never stops improving your business’s SEO.

So you can never have enough quality backlinks; therefore, you can never have enough quality business citations.

However, you need to refer to your point about link velocity, which also relates to business citations.

You don’t want to build a bunch of business citations all at once; this looks spammy.

Please take your time building; it’s a long process.

Are building business citations key to skyrocketing to the top of Google’s page 1 results?

We don’t want to disappoint you, but, lets say you grab an espresso, and build 10 business citations for your business in Cardiff to help it rank on page 1 of Google.

However this is likely to be a drop in the ocean in terms of how much work is needed.

A considerable amount of effort is required to improve multiple ranking factors over a sustained period.

The SEO company, therefore, needs to be busy bees, building quality backlinks, writing high-quality content marketing and improving the technical SEO. So, all of these factors can come together; over a long period of time, you can get your business onto page one of Google.

Come to the SEO experts.

We have accrued over 10 years of knowledge to improve your business’s local SEO.

Therefore, we one of the best agencies in this area improve your search engine optimisation. If you would like a no-obligation quotation, why 

not talk to us today?

Understanding and addressing crawlability issues with your website is crucial for unleashing the full potential of your SEO strategy.

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on Understanding and addressing crawlability issues with your website is crucial for unleashing the full potential of your SEO strategy.

If not resolved, indexation issues can significantly hinder Google’s (Googlebot’s) ability to crawl your pages, negatively impacting your business’s organic SEO, potentially across a few pages or even the entire website!

Technical SEO

Some businesses only focus on writing content marketing and building backlinks until they are blue in the face.
Now, don’t get us wrong—these are still some of the most important ranking factors out there today; however, sometimes businesses overlook the importance of their website’s crawlability.

This article will explain why Google must be able to crawl your website and address any indexation problems you may encounter.

First things first, what are crawlability problems?

Your main pages or your blog posts, which you have been writing diligently for the last day or two that appear in Google’s results, must be able to get indexed.

It’s a bit like a large store that, let’s say, that is selling furniture. For that business to sell the item to you, it must first be scanned into the warehouse and tell the infantry control software to show that item is in stock.

This is similar to how Google’s algorithm works, once the page is indexed, Googlebot displays the page within the SERP’s.

For that, the Googlebot needs to crawl the page, and there are many ways to send a page for indexation: either manually submitting it via Google Search Console or by leaving Googlebot to find it.

However, if there are indexation issues, Googlebot will not be able to crawl and index the page blog post.

Googlebot can usually crawl and index pages on its own accord

Often, you don’t need to do anything to get a page indexed; you just need to simply add a site map and submit this to Google.

Often, it’s a Googlebot that can crawl and index the page without you having to do anything.

However, indexation problems can occur because of a no-index tab being left on or the page possibly sometimes being too slow for the Googlebot to index it. For instance, if the ‘no index’ tag is mistakenly applied to a page, it will not be indexed. Similarly, if a page takes too long to load, Googlebot may not index it.

No index tabs being left on incorrectly

Sometimes, no index tab can be left on, so “no-index” code might be written in the website’s header section, preventing the Googlebot from crawling that page. If this occurs, that page will never appear in Google’s results.

Incomplete indexing

incomplete indexing is when some pages are indexed, and others are not. This can occur for a range of different reasons. However, the web developers and your SEO team must use various tools, such as Screaming Frog to find which pages are getting indexed and which are not. Then, it’s a matter of correcting the problems; it could be that they are “orphan pages”, that is, pages with no links leading to it. There can be a considerable amount of 404 errors, and there could not possibly be no-index code written into the website’s header section within the robot.txt document.

Unreliable hosting

It can sometimes be the case that you employ an absolutely fantastic SEO team that got that business on the first page of Google.co.uk, possibly even in the number one position. However, if the hosting is unreliable, and the website is down for a long time regularly, perhaps due to server maintenance, probably because the hosting company is unreliable, or because the server is so slow, then Google might decide to drop that page out of its index.

No index code is written in the robots.txt document

The robots.txt provides instructions for the Googlebot on whether to crawl and index that page. However, if you get these instructions wrong, for example you tell Google to “no-index” a critical page, such as the homepage, then can’t get indexed, massively hampering your business’s organic SEO performance.

Do use of the Google Search Console it is brilliant. It is free and can show you some of your websites indexation issues.

Google Search Console and indexing errors

Your SEO consultant or in-house marketing team should routinely check for any indexing errors within your Google Search Console account.

For example, it could be the case that all the pages were getting indexed up until one week ago.

Yet the website might have gone through a redesign process recently. and your web designers have written in the code which now means some pages can’t get indexed, so this needs to be fixed if you want those pages to be indexed later.

Many SEO agencies use Screaming Frog

A lot of SEO agencies across the globe use Screaming Frog to find things like 404-page errors, for example.
An increase number of 404-pages and 404-page errors can massively impact your business’s SEO.

For example, your SEO consultant might have spent hundreds of hours building high-quality do follow links to send link equity link juice to that specific page. Then, if you decide to delete that page all of that link, equity can be lost overnight.

There’s also the matter of creating a poor user experience.

Shoppers will likely bounce off the website immediately if a custom 404 page greets them. Therefore, you should work closely with your web design and SEO teams to correct 404-page errors.

5xx Errors

A 5xx error signals that the server couldn’t carry out a request. Googlebot must be able to crawl and index the page, so the 5xx error could prevent . Googlebot from doing its work. If this happens that page might be removed and ranked lower in Google’s index.

504 Gateway Timeout:

504 Gateway Timeout: if your website is timing out, then this again can cause indexation issues, as again, the bot can’t access that page to crawl and index it.

Broken internal links

Internal links are a bit like a spider’s cobweb; you can follow them, and everything is interlinked.
However, if the links become broken, that’s to say a page that links directly to a different blog post which you have just written, if that link becomes a broken internal link. This will prevent Googlebot from following the link and then crawling that page, so broken internal links can waste your business’s crawl budget.

Effective paid search strategies for E-commerce Websites in 2024

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on Effective paid search strategies for E-commerce Websites in 2024

Maximising paid search advertising for E-commerce Success

E-commerce websites are thriving like never before, with payment processors such as Visa handling over 29 million online transactions daily.

The landscape of consumer behaviour has shifted significantly, and the internet offers a faster, more convenient way to shop.

However, with thousands of e-commerce sites vying for consumer attention, how can you ensure your site stands out?

The answer lies in a robust e-commerce digital marketing strategy.

By leveraging various paid search advertising options, you can effectively promote your products.

This guide will explore several powerful strategies to kickstart your e-commerce digital marketing efforts:

Leveraging Social Media for E-commerce Digital Marketing

In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool for e-commerce marketing.

With billions of users globally, social media platforms offer unparalleled opportunities for reaching potential customers.

On average, users spend about two hours daily on social media, making it a fertile ground for advertising.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer highly effective paid advertising options.

Facebook ads, for instance, allow e-commerce businesses to create custom call-to-action buttons and target specific demographics, driving traffic to their stores.

However, to maximise the benefits of social media marketing, your efforts need to be organic.

This means regularly posting high-quality content that resonates with your audience.

For example, if your product is locally made, consider creating engaging videos showcasing the production process.

This not only draws attention but also builds a connection with your audience. While the cost of ads on platforms like Instagram and Facebook can offer great value, success hinges on understanding your audience and crafting content marketing that appeals to them.

Google Ads: elevating your ecommerce presence

 Google Ads also offers an excellent solution.

Google Ads ensures that your ecommerce website appears at the top of search results relevant to your business, driving essential traffic to your site.

Integrating Google Ads with Shopify can enhance your site’s SEO-friendliness and overall functionality.

Shopify simplifies the process of building your site from scratch and ensures it is mobile-ready, a crucial factor given the increasing volume of mobile transactions.

By utilising Google Ads, you can significantly improve your e-commerce site’s visibility, and attract a targeted audience actively searching for products like yours.

Harnessing the power of digital display advertising

Digital display advertising is another effective strategy for e-commerce businesses.

This approach involves placing ads on various websites, either by renting ad space directly or through services that distribute your ads across targeted sites for a monthly fee.

To maximise the impact of digital display advertising, focus on targeting websites with content related to your offerings.

Additionally, these ads can be customised based on user profiles, ensuring your ads are shown to individuals who have expressed interest in similar products or services.

By going the extra mile to target your ads effectively, you can drive significant traffic and boost your sales.

Exploring additional advertising options for E-commerce

Beyond social media and Google Ads, there are numerous other advertising options available for e-commerce websites.

Each strategy has its unique advantages, and the right choice depends on your specific business needs. Companies like Ryan C Walsh, offer personalised marketing strategies tailored to your business, helping you navigate the complex world of digital advertising.

Key Facts and statistics in E-commerce Digital Marketing

To underscore the effectiveness of these strategies, consider some relevant statistics:

Social Media Influence:

According to Statista, social media ad spending is projected to reach $229.5 billion by 2024, reflecting its growing influence in digital marketing .

Mobile Ecommerce Growth:

EMarketer reports that mobile ecommerce sales are expected to account for 72.9% of total ecommerce sales by 2021 .

Google Ads Efficiency:

A study by Google revealed that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads .

Conclusion: Achieving Ecommerce success with Paid Search Advertising

Implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is essential for the success of your e-commerce business.

By leveraging social media advertising, Google Ads, and digital display advertising, you can significantly enhance your online presence and drive sales.

Understanding your audience and crafting targeted, engaging content will help you maximise the return on your advertising investment.

With the right approach, you can make your ecommerce site stand out in the crowded digital marketplace.

By incorporating these advanced strategies and understanding the dynamics of digital marketing, your ecommerce business can achieve remarkable growth and success.

How to write a good quality blog post

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on How to write a good quality blog post

Content marketing

In the realm of digital marketing, the axiom “content is king” has never wavered in its truth.
However, it’s not just any content marketing that reigns supreme—it’s the meticulously crafted, engaging, and informative kind that does.

With the evolution of SEO practices, the emphasis has shifted towards creating content marketing that doesn’t just appeal to search engines, such as Google but also provides a superior user experience (UX).

John Mueller of Google once highlighted “awesomeness” as a critical factor for ranking success, underlining the importance of content quality.

What should we be writing about?

Before penning down your next masterpiece, it’s crucial to engage in thorough research to pinpoint topics that resonate with your audience.
The goal is to find subjects that not only spark interest but are questions thousands of shoppers are likely to be asking.
A pro tip is to use quality SEO tools, such as Moz Pro to help you with this.

Keywords

Before you let your creativity flow, take a moment to step into the shoes of your potential readers.
Understanding user intent is paramount.

Ask yourself: What information are they seeking before they buy a product?

What solutions do they need?

Keyword research, including the use of Google Suggest, will further refine your focus, allowing you to select primary and secondary keywords that enhance your organic SEO without compromising the natural flow of your article.

Structure

The structure of your blog post plays a pivotal role in keeping your audience engaged and reducing bounce rates—a signal to Google of your content’s quality. So do add page titles.

Also do incorporate various elements like images, videos, and infographics can significantly enhance readability and engagement.
Ensuring your headings are properly tagged and your content marketing is well-organised will make your post more accessible and appealing to both readers and search engines.

Page titles

The title of your blog post is your first opportunity to captivate potential readers.
It should be directly aligned with the search queries your audience is using, incorporating your primary keyword in a way that also that answers the shoppers question. Emotive and powerful words, along with clear indicators of the content’s value (such as “ultimate guide” or “5 simple steps”), can significantly increase click-through rates.

How many words should we be writing for each blog post?

In the realm of SEO, longer content (evergreen content marketing) often translates to higher rankings.
Aim for posts that are at least 1000 words, as they tend to provide more value, covering topics in-depth.
This not only benefits your SEO efforts but also establishes your blog as an authoritative source of information.

Social media

Promote your work on X, Facebook and Instagram.

In conclusion, crafting an SEO-optimised blog post that ranks well on Google and captivates readers requires a blend of well-written pages, user intent understanding, keyword optimisation, and innovative structuring.

By focusing on creating quality content marketing that is not only informative but also engaging and white hat you can achieve a prominent position on Google’s first page.
Remember, in the dynamic world of SEO, the combination of quality content and strategic optimisation is your key to success.

Facts and statistics are integral to reinforcing the credibility of your content marketing. For instance, according to HubSpot’s “State of Marketing Report 2021,” content marketing is used by 82% of marketers, reflecting its critical role in digital marketing strategies. Furthermore, a study by Backlinko found that the average Google first page result contains 1,447 words, highlighting the importance of comprehensive content in SEO efforts.

For further reading and statistics, consider exploring resources such as the HubSpot State of Marketing Report (https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing) and the Backlinko SEO Statistics (https://backlinko.com/seo-stats). These sources provide valuable insights into the current trends and data supporting effective content marketing and SEO strategies.

Content freshness and why this is important when improving your business SEO (organic & local)

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on Content freshness and why this is important when improving your business SEO (organic & local)

Introduction

If you want your business to climb to the top of Google’s SERPs, you must regularly add content marketing, such as new blog posts to your company website.

This article will explain why it’s essential to periodically add new pages and blog posts and evergreen content marketing to your website.

Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 07/02/2024

What Is Fresh Content?

What does an SEO company mean when they are talking about adding fresh content marketing?

Fresh content refers to content marketing, which is content marketing has recently added to your company website. It could be a brand-new blog post that you just took over 10 hours to write.

It could be a more in-depth article, such as a piece of evergreen content marketing, or an embedded video such as YouTube video. You could even be a SoundCloud recording or lets say a podcast that you recently did. It can even be social media updates which are embedded into your website.

Helping to reduce bounce rates

When a shopper comes to your website for advice, and they want to read one of your blog posts, that shopper will undoubtedly want to obtain up-to-date advice. For example if they are searching on Google for “the best mobile phone handsets to buy in 2024”.

Well they wont want to read an article that was published in 2018.

So what the SEO company can do is keep updating that same page every year; this improves the freshness of the page offering the most up to date advice to the customer. This can help to reduce the bounce rate.

Why is fresh content important for SEO?

Is Content Freshness a Google Ranking Factor?

Yes, we would say it is; websites which stay stagnant in terms of not adding new content marketing they can start dropping down the ranks quickly. That’s to say, if your direct rivals are adding top-quality blog posts, which have good Google E-EAT score, well a business not adding new work might start to get left behind by the competition.

The Google Freshness Update back in 2011

This important Google update aims to provide users with much more up-to-date information as possible. So if someones looking for advice, they receive up to date advice.

So, whats the best selling running trainer, obviously implies to the current year. The shopper therefore wont want to read a blog post written in 2017- as the companies making the products, such as Nike may have stopped making that item. This is why the

Google Freshness Update aims to serve answers, that is businesses, which offer up to date advice.

The Google Caffeine update 2010

There was also the Google caffeine update back in 2010, which again improved the speed and accuracy of the Google bots’ crawling and indexing process. This basically means pages got indexed much faster. So, if you wrote say a new blog post, its likely to appear in the Serp’s a lot faster.

New hasn’t got to mean new

So what we mean by this is you haven’t got to constantly churn out new content marketing at a rapid pace.
The copywriters could return to older pieces of content marketing to update them, improve, and make them more helpful to your customers.

Be consistent

It’s essential to be consistent when publishing your content marketing. What you don’t want to do us write is a large amount of say long blog posts, then to publish them all at once and then not publish any for months after.

You should instead publish regularly, set aside time to do this, say once a week or once a month and be consistent in the spacing. So if you write an article once a week, try to stick to that.

Create an editorial calendar to plan which content marketing you are going to write about

What can sometimes happen is if you write content marketing off-the-cuff—the problem with this is you may end up writing about the same topics again and again. What you need is to write about a wide range of issues relating to your business.

So we would recommend creating an Excel spreadsheet, plan what your going to write about. This way you can tick it off, and your not writing about the same stuff all of the time.

So for example, our business writes about:

-Technical SEO
-On-page SEO
-Off-page SEO
-Link building
-Local SEO
-Organic SEO
-Google algorithm changes

Digital marketing agency

We have over ten years of experience working with many different companies here in Wales. We can offer you quality search engine optimisation (SEO), and we can improve your local or organic SEO. If your business needs help writing content marketing, then why not call our SEO agency today?

A step-by-step guide on how to improve your business’s Local SEO

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on A step-by-step guide on how to improve your business’s Local SEO

Date: 24th of January 2024

Written by: Ryan Walsh

There are many businesses that hire digital marketing agencies to help the company to sell even more products on a national or even an international basis.

For example, the agency may complete the following work:

– Building backlinks
– Adding schema mark-up
– Adding NAP
– Building business citations
– Building backlinks

What is local SEO?

There are now more businesses than ever that want to promote their company locally within the immediate area in which their company is based.

For example, you might just want to get more customers in one single town or city. This is where “Local SEO” can help promote your business to better advertise the products or services you sell.

Formulate a detailed marketing strategy

As you walk around the local supermarket, grabbing things that are on offer- you might find that when you return home, you have spent, let’s say, over £100. Yet after all that expense and time, you might not have anything to make a meal out of!
If you have a shopping list, it’s much easier to make a meal plan; therefore, less food goes to waste.

Now you might think that we’re going off topic here are a bit! But trust us we are not, when it comes to search engine optimisation, its important to always have a plan.

It’s too easy to spend, let’s say, 1000 hours in total trying to improve your business’s search engine optimisation, yet you might not get anywhere unless theres a plan of what you need to do.

For example, you should ask yourself?

-How many quality backlinks do we need to get on page one of Google
– Is the website well designed?
-Do we need to add more pages
– How many quality blog posts do we need to write?
-These are just some of the questions you need to consider before you embark on improving your businesses SEO.
You, therefore, need to have a plan of which keywords, and you want to enhance how you can go about it.

Moz and Ahrefs

We would highly recommend using Moz or Ahrefs for keyword research.

And do make a really detailed marketing plan, as otherwise, you could spend a considerable amount of time trying to improve your company’s SEO and not get anywhere! That’s because you may not create a rounded marketing strategy. This simply means you may overly concentrate on say building links, when really you should spent more time improving the onsite SEO.

Carry out a local SEO audit

Hire a top Cardiff SEO consultant

First things first, even if you’re planning on doing the work yourself, talk to a SEO expert first to gain some initial advice to help come up with a marketing plan. This might sometimes be created for less than one thousand pounds. However, its well worth the expense, because, you will have a roadmap for how you can get your company on page one of Google.

The SEO consultant should therefore consider the following when writing your maketing plan:

-How many backlinks do your competitors have
-How many blog posts have they written

– How good is there onsite SEO?

Keywords

It’s essential to know which keywords you will optimise your website for. We would highly recommend using Ahrefs, this is the tool we would recommend using.

Some keywords might have an huge search volume and you can check this using “Google Search Console”.

If the keywords have a huge search volume, then this means you will want to get your company on the first page of Google for those keywords. That’s because if they describe a product / service you sell, then by getting your business on page one of Google, for that keyword, your likely to gain more business.

Technical SEO

Don’t purchase really cheap website hosting for your company, it’s a total waste of time- instead, you should choose a quality hosting company, which offers fast hosting, such as “Siteground”.

Do make sure the loading times on each and every page and blog post are good. We recommend either A2 hosting or Siteground website hosting.

Mobile optimisation

Use mobile optimisation methods, to make sure that your smartphone version of your website works well. Make sure your company website works well on i-phones and android phones.

A/B testing

You should use split testing to continuously improve the user experience (U.X) of your website.

Keep your Google Business Profile up-to-date

Obtain a Google My Business account and keep it up-to-date your

Ensure that your business obtains a Google Business Profile, it’s free so do obtain one. It only takes around less than an hour to

complete. It is straightforward to verify your business as well, then make sure you add as much detail as possible.

You should add the following information to your companies Google My Business account:

– Your businesses opening hours
– Ensure you choose the right business category
– Gain reviews from your customers
– Add your company logo
– Add your companies NAP (Name of business, address and phone number)
– Add a link to the home page
– Add phone number

Respond to customer reviews

Customer reviews can be left in many places, such as on Google My Business, Yelp, and other websites like Trustpilot. Therefore, if you do get a bad review, make sure that you respond to it, or if you believe it’s a fake, therefore a malicious view against your business, make sure you flag it as a fake business review.

Obtain a Google Analytics account (its completely free)
Obtaining a Google Analytics or Google Search Console account is completely free and really easy to set up so we would recommend obtaining one if you haven’t already?

A Google Analytics account gives you insight into how many organic visitors are coming to your website, which pages have a high bounce rate, and which pages have better engagement.

Keep an eye on your direct competitors SEO

Just like when you’re running your business, and look at the products and services your competitors are offering, you need to do this with your competitor’s SEO. This is so they don’t get a competitive advantage, for example, they may start building do-follow backlinks, from well known company, this could soar them to the top of Google. So you do need to monitor your competitors SEO.

We are a very well-known SEO agency that’s located in the heart of Cardiff. If you want to improve your business’s local or national or international search engine optimisation, then why not give our business a ring today? We have SEO consultants which now have well over 10 years experience helping many brands to get to the top of Google.co.uk.

An in-depth guide on how to improve your businesses technical search engine optimisation

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on An in-depth guide on how to improve your businesses technical search engine optimisation

Date: 19 of January 2024

Written by: Ryan Walsh

SEO

A detailed guide to help your business to improve its technical search engine optimisation

Is your business looking to improve its technical search engine optimisation, and your organic rankings? Then you come to the right place. We are the experts, as improving the business’s technical SEO. Whether that’s fixing broken links, switching your website hosting so it’s superfast, or perhaps something as simple as adding internal links to improve the indexation of pages. We are the agency to help.

Check to see if each page has been indexed or not

Imagine if you spent over 100 hours writing various blog posts, only to find that none of them have been indexed at all. This basically means, they will be helping to improve your company’s search engine optimisation at all. We have seen this happen many times before, to some companies, and sometimes it can be as simple as setting within the content management system that stops that particular page from getting indexed.

If a page can’t be crawled or indexed, then that page will never help to improve your business’s SEO.

The solution is simple, often you need to work with the search engine optimisation company, like ours, to rectify the issue. sometimes a web developer will also be needed. That’s because code might have been written into the header section, such as no index code, that stopped at page from getting indexed. Therefore this code needs to be fully removed, so that the blog post can be indexed.

Sometimes it’s because of what is called a robot.txt file, which is actually stopping the page from getting indexed. This needs to be fixed, that if you want the page to be indexed. Yet often it only takes sometimes just an hour to fix this problem with some businesses.

If you have a relatively simple WordPress website, you might have seven pages or less, so it’s a piece of cake for a web developer to remove the no-index code stopping the page from getting indexed.

On a larger e-commerce website, might take much longer to fix indexation issues.

Broken links

This is a problem which a lot of businesses incur, especially e-commerce websites. Let’s say you are selling thousands of products every single week, let’s say you are selling various health and safety items such as gloves, masks and helmets. Then an e-commerce website can readily incur 404 page errors. However thankfully, there are really good tools, such as screaming frog, we might wish to use MOZ which is another brilliant quality tool, for spotting broken links.

301 redirects and how to fix broken links

However what the product gets replaced by a newer product, sometimes web designers just delete that page, however, it is perfectly possible that shoppers are finding a broken link through the search engines, which means that they are simply going to competitor’s website rather than yours.

This could cause you not just to lose customers, but also for the 404 errors to increase, causing the e-commerce website bounce rate increase. This bounce rate is increased for a substantial amount of time, then this can negatively impact the business’s search engine optimisation. For example a large amount of 404 errors, that’s because the website to drop off the first page of Google.

This is why if you run an e-commerce business, or you have a brochure website, fix any broken links, such as 404 broken links straightaway.

You should work with your search engine optimisation company, to rectify this issue, for example, they will often use an seo tool, such as ahrefs, or they might use screaming frog which will show them all the various 404 page errors existing on your website in just a matter of only a few seconds.

Screaming frog is an absolutely excellent tool, for spotting broken links.

Once you have found these 404 page errors, they should start to be rectified, you might want to do redirects, such as 301 redirects or you might want to recreate the old page and add a different product onto that existing URL. You do need to take some advice, from a marketing agency, on which approach is best for your business.

There are various seo tools, which are very good, such as screaming frog, this tool is actually excellent at finding broken links, such as 404 page errors.

Keywords

Difficulty

Your whole website design and technical SEO, as well as the on-site SEO should be geared around which keywords you want to improve your businesses searching engine optimisation for. If Your business has a limited marketing budget, then don’t go after the really difficult keywords, think about instead optimising your website for longtail keywords, it is normally easier for you to see results in a shorter timeframe if you go after longtail keywords.

Check to see if you website works correctly on a tablet, mobile phone and on the desktop

It’s possible sometimes, to visit your web designer, they may show you the website they have just designed and built on say the laptop. And it might look absolutely brilliant, yet what might happen, is that the mobile version the website, it might not be so well designed. For example it could be very difficult for the shopper to use. For example, you could be slow, the main menu might not work correctly, and also it might be difficult to read the text.

There could be other technical issues with the website as well, for example, they could be broken links for example.
So our best advice is this, do make sure that you extensively check your website over before paying the web designer,. sho then also check the website for broken links and other SEO problems on a fairly regular basis, let’s say every three months, because it is possible after WordPress update, such as when plugins updates, that glitches start to occur. These need to be fixed, as otherwise your company’s bounce rate could increase .

Choose superfast website hosting

This is a mistake that a lot of businesses can make, that is, the business might be a start-up business and they are looking to reduce their costs on their web design and also their monthly website hosting costs. This sometimes means that they picked the cheapest hosting option that is available to the business, this can sometimes mean that the hosting is super slow.

Don’t purchase super slow hosting, it’s an absolute for the economy because it will damage your companies SEO.

This put your website at a huge disadvantage right from the get go, because how fast your website loads, is a ranking factor. Basically meaning if you have a superfast website, then this is advantageous to your business’s search engine optimisation.

Add internal links

This is super simple to do, in matter of fact is’s often only takes a few seconds, yet adding internal links to your blog posts and also across your main pages this could improve the indexation of new pages that have been added. The reason for this is is assist with your website being crawled and indexed, for example, if there is a link from the main page for blog posts, this is likely to be followed and speed up the indexation that particular page.

Make sure the main menu is super simple to use

Sometimes some businesses, when having a website designed, sometimes the main menu is not well designed, by the web developer, and this is the problem of the web designer, not the actual CMS.

For example, you should make the main menu an absolute piece of cake to use, with just a few clicks for the customer to get to the exact product or service that they want.

If you are looking for a search engine optimisation consultant, within the city of Cardiff, look no further than our company. We have some of the most highly experienced, marketing consultants and the whole of the city working for us. Some of our consultants, we now have over 10 years of experience, helping to improve businesses local as well as organic SEO.

What does “Keyword Cannibalisation” mean?

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on What does “Keyword Cannibalisation” mean?

Keyword Cannibalisation

In the realm of digital marketing, particularly in the UK’s ultra-competitive SEO landscape, the concept of keyword cannibalisation has emerged as a crucial factor influencing search engine optimisation strategies. This phenomenon, while often overlooked by some companies, can be a significant hurdle in maximising a website’s search engine visibility and effectiveness.

What is “Keyword Cannibalisation”?

Keyword cannibalisation occurs when multiple webpages on a single domain inadvertently compete against each other in search engine rankings by targeting identical or very similar keywords.

So, lets say you sell legal advice and you run a solicitors practice. Let’s say you specialise in offering employment law advice- well, you might have say 5 main pages, which explain that you specialise in offering this service, but how well Google know which is the page to rank for “employment solicitors” as they might all be similar.

This internal competition can dilute the effectiveness of your organic SEO efforts, leading to a fragmented strategy that hinders rather than helps your online presence.

How keyword cannibalisation can impact your company’s organic SEO and visitor numbers.

The consequences of keyword cannibalisation are not to be underestimated. Websites suffering from this issue often experience a noticeable decline in organic traffic- as the main pages on your company website may well be competing with each other.
For instance, a study by Moz indicated that addressing keyword cannibalisation can lead to a 9% increase in organic traffic (Source: Moz) This loss of traffic directly correlates to a decrease in potential revenue and leads, making it a critical concern for marketers.

Which SEO tools can we use to spot possible keyword cannibalisation issues?

Identifying keyword cannibalisation requires a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of your website’s content marketing.

A good highly experienced SEO consultant should be able to spot the problem relatively quickly. However there are tools you can use like Google Analytics and SEMrush offer insights into keyword rankings and can help pinpoint where cannibalisation might be occurring.

In the UK market, where the level of SEO competition is intense, regular audits of keyword performance are essential to stay ahead.

How to address keyword cannibalisation issues

Addressing keyword cannibalisation involves a careful balance of content consolidation, strategic redirection, and keyword diversification. However, every company website is different, so you do need to obtain tailored marketing advice on this. The goal is to create a coherent content strategy that aligns with user intent while avoiding internal competition. Implementing a hub-and-spoke model, where a main ‘hub’ page links to various ‘spoke’ pages targeting related but distinct keywords, is a proven method to combat this issue.

In many cases, addressing keyword cannibalisation isn’t just about fixing a problem; it’s about uncovering opportunities for growth. Consolidating content marketing and refining your keyword strategy can lead to stronger, more focused pages (more in-depth higher word count content marketing) that perform better in search rankings. This proactive approach can transform a potential weakness into a competitive advantage.

Preventing future instances of keyword cannibalisation demands ongoing work from an SEO consultant, and a dynamic approach to content strategy- meaning rather than just keep adding new work, you address problems older pages / blog posts. For example, its worth going through each page to see if it can be improved. This includes regular reviews of keyword performance, staying updated with SEO best practices, (white hat)and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of search engine algorithms. Embracing this proactive mindset ensures that your SEO efforts are both effective and resilient.

In conclusion, keyword cannibalisation is more than just an SEO challenge; it’s a critical aspect of a holistic digital marketing strategy. By understanding its impact, identifying its presence, and implementing strategic solutions, UK marketers can turn this challenge into an opportunity for growth and enhanced online visibility.

For example, rather than having three pages all competing with each other, one page can emerge as the main page, and be improved so its SEO is improved. This page may then rank higher in Google’s SERPs.

What does “AMP” mean?

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on What does “AMP” mean?

The rise of AMP- should our business get an Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) website?

Welcome, folks! Let’s talk about something changing the game in mobile SEO: AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages. You might be wondering, “What’s all the fuss about AMP?” Let’s unravel this digital conundrum together, and we will explain why your business should strongly consider getting an AMP version of your website design.

What is AMP, and why is it causing a mobile revolution?

Why is everyone who works in digital marketing chatting about AMP? It’s simple: AMP pages are like a bullet train in Japan for transport, for what it can offer your customers, that’s loading at an almost unbelievable pace on your smartphones and tablets. It’s a super-fast version of your company website.

Does my business need an AMP version of the website?

So, what makes AMP the talk of the town? For starters, it’s not just a trend; it’s a necessity for some. For large brands to keep their competitive edge and to keep that business high on Google, they often need to improve all aspects of the website to ensure that their search engine optimisation has the edge over the competition. With mobile devices ruling the roost, having a website that caters to mobile users isn’t just lovely; it’s critical.

Speed is now the name of the game:

When it comes to SEO and mobile optimisation, speed is king. AMP takes this very seriously.
Imagine a web page that loads faster than you can say- “accelerated mobile pages” – that’s AMP for you. It’s not just about loading fast; it’s about creating a good U.X. because it’s a bit like a lift in a shopping centre; customers prefer to get to where they want to go fast rather than slowly. This is the same for your company’s website; they will want to get to the product they want to buy as fast as they can, so if the website is too slow, this may increase the company’s bounce rate.

Here’s something to ponder: faster web pages mean more engaged users and a lower bounce rate, which can mean better business. With AMP, your pages aren’t just quick; they’re efficient and streamlined, making for a seamless user experience. As any good SEO consultant will tell you, your marketing agency should work hard to improve your company’s U.X. A happy user often translates to a happy business owner.

How does AMP work?

AMP isn’t just magic; it’s a marvel of technical ingenuity- and the most suitable web designers will be able to design an AMP version of your website. From prioritising resource loading to optimising JavaScript, AMP is like a finely tuned engine on a sports car that ensures your website runs smoothly and swiftly, no matter the traffic.

So, what does the future hold for AMP?

In the ever-evolving world of SEO, AMP isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a cornerstone of the future. It can enhance your website’s U.X., meaning that because you made your company website fast, shoppers will appreciate this; they will see how quickly every page loads, making it easier to browse more products. Because you’ve made it easier for your customers, making the website load faster can help reduce your company’s bounce rate.

With mobile usage skyrocketing, AMP isn’t just a choice; staying ahead in the SEO race is necessary.

FAQ:

Your burning questions About AMP answered:

What Exactly is AMP?

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. In layperson’s terms, it’s a way to build web pages and blog posts for static content that load much faster.

Why does my business need AMP?

In the fast-paced digital world, user experience (U.X) is everything. AMP enhances user experience by drastically reducing load time, leading to better engagement, lower bounce rates, and potentially higher revenue.

How Does AMP Work?

Without getting too technical, AMP works by simplifying the HTML code, optimising files like CSS and JavaScript so that the page loads much faster, and leveraging various performance techniques. It’s like streamlining your website to be more efficient.

Is AMP only for mobile devices?

Primarily, yes. AMP is designed to make web pages load faster on mobile devices such as your iPhone or Android smartphone. While it works on desktops, its main focus is improving mobile user experience.

Will AMP help improve my website’s organic SEO?

Faster load times and better user experience (U.X) can indirectly improve your business’s organic SEO. While AMP isn’t a ranking factor, its benefits can increase search rankings.

What exactly is local SEO?

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on What exactly is local SEO?

Local SEO is simply the process of optimising a website so that it appears higher within the organic search results and also so that the company appears Google My Business results.

Google’s algorithms will take into account the proximity of where the person is at that moment in time.

For example, if they ask Google to find for a “local MOT station”, then that person will be shown local garages based on exactly where they are standing at that moment in time. If they are North of Cardiff, garages will be shown in that area, as that’s where they are at that time. Google will presume you want businesses which are close to where you are standing at that point in time.

If they were to change the location later on the day, let’s say to a different part of Cardiff, the results would be different again within the Google My Business results.

Prominence

How important is that business within the local area? How many quality backlinks does the website have for example? How many positive reviews they have?

Relevance

How relevant is the business to the product or service the persons looking for it? For example, somebody might ask to find a local bakery, and they may also ask Google to find companies that make wedding cakes.

Therefore, there might be a bakery just around the corner, but if the website doesn’t stipulate that they make wedding cakes, then that business is unlikely to be shown in the results.

Why we think your business needs to invest in quality SEO

In our opinion, there are often many excellent SEO consultants in any given city; these people can help to place your business higher within Google’s organic search results and help to get your business ranked in the Google My Business results as well.

When you think about how many shoppers use Google daily, to find everything from post office opening times to finding a local solicitor. As a matter of fact, Google’s global search engine market share was 92.06%.

A representative from Google also stated in 2018 that 46% of Google’s searches have local intent.

This is why so many businesses invest in seo, as it can help your business to draw in more customers.

Here is what you should think about before investing in SEO: whether you will outsource this work to a local marketing agency or perhaps you would like to do it yourself, we would highly recommend that you must understand white hat SEO.

For example, that gives you a quick example of what not to do; let’s say that you are creating a Google Business Profile; you might think it’s a brilliant idea to add a keyword you want to rank higher for on Google. For example, you might add the company’s name, plus electricians and the name of the city where your business is based.

But you shouldn’t do this, you should just write your companies name, as it appears on companies house.
So for example, if “electricians + name of city” is not part of your business name, then don’t add this within the business name section on

Google My Business, this is not a white hat. This is just one example, of what not to do, there are a lot more.
In a nutshell, only use white hat seo methods.

NAP details

Your business premises, where you meet your customers, this will form part of the NAP information.

NAP information represents your company’s name, address, and phone number.

We can help your business improve your local SEO

We have partnered with many businesses here in South Wales for over 10 years, to help get those businesses onto page one of Google.

We have helped these businesses dramatically increase the number of organic shoppers which visit their websites. This has helped those companies to increase their profits.

If you would like to learn more about how local SEO can increase your sales, why not give us a ring today?

What exactly is a CDN, and could it be used to improve your business search engine optimisation?

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on What exactly is a CDN, and could it be used to improve your business search engine optimisation?

Written by: Ryan Walsh

Date: 06/12/2023

You might’ve heard your SEO company talk about the many advantages of having a content delivery network, also often called CDN. You might also wonder what this is and the main benefits of purchasing a CDN.

A CDN is simply a network of servers located in many different countries across the globe, and what they do is allow your company website to be served much faster to a shopper and more reliably from servers situated closer to where the shoppers are.

So, for example, let’s say somebody is shopping for a nice suit; it will be better to visit that website using a server in Amsterdam if the shopper is based in the U.K rather than the website coming from a server in America.
So the main benefit is speed; the website loads faster for the shopper, allowing FCP, or First Contentful Paint, and therefore offers a better user experience (U.X) because someday may want to look at, say, 17 different items before they make a purchase. If the e-commerce website is slow, then they’re likely to get frustrated- the shopper is likely to buy there suit from elsewhere. They could even leave the website and visit a competitor’s website- causing the business to have a higher bounce rate.

So having a quality CDN, where the businesses website is much faster, can lead to a better user experience and potentially lower your business bounce rate.

So, how exactly does a CDN work?

What you want is to purchase a high-quality CDN; these companies should have different servers based in multiple locations worldwide.

The primary purpose of purchasing a CDN is simply that the hosting company which owns the servers will have a server-based closer to the shopper is.

So, if somebody is shopping for an item in the United Kingdom, it could be possible that there is a server in Birmingham; therefore, positioning the servers much closer to the shopper allows the website to load much more quickly and therefore, this could help a business to reduce its bounce rate.

Improved page loading times

Let’s say peak times when people are coming home from work, say at 5:30 or 7:30 in the evening- this is lilkely when a lot of people will be purchasing items here in Britain.

The person might be packed into a train, shopping for items on their iPhone and are simply looking to buy a rather generic item such as a duvet set for their home.

However, if the website they are on is extremely slow and are likely to leave that website and visit a competitor’s site- causing the business to have a high bounce rate.

So, by purchasing a quality CDN, this allows your company website to load much faster because the website is coming from a server closer to where the shopper is.

For example, you could have a server in the United Kingdom rather than just hiring a hosting company based in America. Therefore, the website will likely load faster if your shopper is here and your hosting companies server is within the same country.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

This is a free tool; we would recommend using it to see if you can make your website faster.

Which companies offer CDN services?

A famous company is called Cloudflare, this company uses something called Smart Routing to ensure that your website is delivered to the shopper quickly.

There’s also Amazon Web services

This is another famous company used for CDN services; Amazon Web services can also be easily integrated into your WordPress content management system, and we would recommend this company also.

How to best use internal links on your company website

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on How to best use internal links on your company website

How to best use internal links to improve your business’s organic SEO

Date: 04/12/2023

Written by: Ryan Walsh

Internal links can help improve your company’s search engine optimisation. For example, using internal links effectively can help keep potentially thousands of shoppers on your website longer. They can also reduce your business’s bounce rate and help your shoppers find different products they may wish to purchase.
Let’s say you write a comprehensive article explaining the best electric vehicle to buy that year, and your company offers various leasing deals, well you might wish to add internal links to the pages where the customer can express an interest in the product- for example requesting a call back from a sales person.
For example, they could click the internal link, and then they could view the cars details and fill in a simple form for a callback.

How does internal linking help improve a business’s organic SEO?

Internal links help both shoppers and also the search engines such as Google and Bing to crawl and index new pages.
Internal backlinks can be used by the search engines to crawl and index internal links, they can start to understand the website hierarchy structure and which pages are more important than others.

For example, if the page with the most links on your website, is to with “roof replacement”- then its likely the main service your business offers is roofing services.

Google can also gain an appreciation for all of the different services and products you offer, and by following these internal links, they may discover a brand-new page you have just published, such as a blog post, and Googlebot may crawl and index that page.

Great for shoppers

Internal links are also great for shoppers because if they are not interested in that particular product, they could click the internal link and view a different product.
Whereas if you did not offer that internal link, they might have bounced off the website and gone to a competitor’s website.

What exactly are internal links? And how do you add one to the page?

Adding an internal link is an absolute piece of cake if you have a CMS, like a WordPress content management system.
You can simply put the cursor over the text, highlight the text you wish to use as the anchor text, click the link button, and the hyperlink is created.
For example, you might have written a blog post promoting your businesses ten best selling products you sell; why not add internal links to the pages selling those products?

What is anchor text?

Those who don’t know much about SEO, may be under the false assumption that it’s best to keep highlighting the words, they want to improve the SEO for.
However, this is a common mistake that a lot of businesses make. Instead, you need to add internal links that will help the shopper; it’s all about being practical and helpful guiding the shopper to the right products. If you over optimise by adding too many internal links and using exact match anchor text, this can cause large SEO problems.
This means you should must only use the anchor text to accurately describe the page or blog post that it leads to in a way that helps the shopper fully understand what is being sold on that page.
For example, if you sell dog coats and keep overusing the anchor text dog coats excessively, this could even lead to a penalty from Google, which will massively and adversely affect your business’s seo.

404 and 410 status codes

As you add internal links, it’s essential that all of these are functional and working correctly; if too many of them lead to a page, which causes a 404 error, which is simply means page not found, then this could lead to a poor user experience.

Therefore, this could adversely affect your business’s seo.

Therefore, it’s worth using a quality seo tool, such as Screaming Frog, to see if there are any 404-page errors and whether these can be fixed.

Make sure that people can see the internal links

Many people purchase products and services on their smartphones; if they read a blog post, and they can’t see the internal link because it’s not highlighted- then could mean that they don’t see the internal link. So do make sure the text is not a different colour from the main text, as otherwise they are unlikely to click on it.

So do talk to your web designers. When an internal link is added, we recommend the word be underlined, perhaps make the text a different colour so it stands out.

Avoid keyword stuffing

This again continue on from our previous point that we made earlier, in that let’s say that you want to rank for “organic chocolate”, in Googles organic results; , then you shouldn’t mention this too many times in the article, to the point the text reads unnaturally, because it could be considered to be written in an unnatural way, which could lead to a penalty.

Equally, what you don’t want to do is to keep using the exact anchor text repeatedly as , again, this will lead to a penalty.

It helps to reduce the bounce rate

By using internal links effectively, you can help guide your shoppers to products or services they might want to buy. So it’s a bit like driving down the road; instead of seeing a block end and thinking we must turn back, you could offer a diversion, an alternative route.

For example, they might land on the page to view a well known brand washing machine, but you might want to say the simple block of text: why not also look at our other washing machines- we also stock these brands? Then, you can use anchor text to recommend different brands, and they may wish to click on these because they are instantly recognisable brands and might want to look at those products as well.

What you have, therefore, done is help the shopper find a different product-rather than just leaving the page, and increasing your companies bounce rate.

Consequently, you have helped to reduce the bounce rate, as they might have left the page and gone to a competitor’s website otherwise, and bought the goods from their.

Experienced seo experts

We have been helping businesses of all sizes all across Wales succeed with their search engine optimisation. We have helped companies to increase the number of sales they make dramatically; if you would like a quote for us to help your business, why not call us?

How to improve your business’s local SEO, so that it appears within the Google Maps results

By Sarah Jones|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |Comments Off on How to improve your business’s local SEO, so that it appears within the Google Maps results

Date 28/11/2023

Local SEO

Has your business got a Google My Business account, yet when you look for it on Google you don’t see it in the Google results.
You want the business to appear in Google, my business results, but it doesn’t seem to be showing there at all.

According to reliable data from Bright Local, 98% of shoppers, look on the Internet for information about local businesses and nearly 33% of them carry out a local search for a business multiple times a week.
This could range from looking for a local pizza shop, right through to a local accountant, but quite simply put, if your company, regardless of how large a business is it’s not showing up in the Google My Business results, well you could be missing out on a huge amount of business.

A lot of companies, simply make the mistake, that they can set up a Google My Business account and then they think, that in a matter of minutes, the business will appear in the results. They might also falsely believe that the sales are just going to start rolling in overnight.

However ever since the Google Possum update, the number of businesses that were displayed in the business results has greatly reduced, often from seven businesses down to 3.

So, let’s say for example that you run a business, that offers mortgage advice, now, you are often competing with a large number of other companies to get your company to appear in the Google My Business results.

Therefore, to get your business in the Google My Business results, wallets often involve a lot of work, and it can’t be instantly completed it often needs a substantial amount of work, creating business citations that, also make sure that the company’s NAP nation can be crawled and indexed on the website, this often means placing it in the footer and also putting it on the contact page of the website as well.

Relevance

This is why, it’s so crucial to accurately describe your business in a business description. Also, when you are allowed to select your business sector, make sure that you accurately describe the business, for example, somebody might pick a rather generic business classification, such as gardening services, when really what they specialize in is tree surgery, therefore by simply not speaking the correct business classification, you could have your business appear for work that you might not necessarily.

This is why you must take your time, to accurately fill out all of the boxes, and to make sure that your business is listed as offering the right services and products.

Distance

The algorithm will simply calculate the distance from where the person is, to your business, it will know these two bits of information from the Google My Business account, as it will mention your business address, it will also know where the shopper is if they have their location data switched on their smartphone,

If the shopper is closer to your business, they might only be less than three minutes away, well that company years much more likely to appear, than one which is 17 miles away, because the algorithm will believe that the person wants convenience, therefore, they will want a more local business.

For example, if you fancy really tasty, nice woodfired pizza, well you’re going to want it delivered to your door at least lukewarm if it’s coming from a company that is based on the other side of Cardiff, well going to get to your doorstep rather cold.

So, what Google does is prioritize businesses that are closer to the shopper, for example, you might need a new power tool, let’s say drill, and you have a DIY task you want to complete.

Therefore, what Google will do is show your local businesses, that are close to where you are at that moment in time, making it more convenient for you to find the products and services that you require.

Prominence

Here is where there is a bit of a crossover between having a good location for your company, and also how successful your Google My Business will be in drawing in new customers.
So for example, let’s say you have an excellent location on the high street and there is a lot of footfall and passing cars which will see your business.

It is therefore much more likely that you will get more customers into your business, yet at the same time it’s also much more likely that you will obtain more Google My Business reviews, which is a massive deciding factor on whether your company appears in the results or not.

So, for example, let’s say that you run a restaurant, if your business accumulates let’s say 100 positive reviews, and people will say how great the food is, the atmosphere, and also the staff, well this means your businesses are much more likely to appear in the Google My Business results, compared to a business that hasn’t had any feedback from customers via reviews.

So how do you get your business to appear in Google Maps, a step-by-step guide

Knowledge panel

Let’s say that somebody wanted to quickly find your company’s phone number, well even if your business doesn’t appear directly in the Google My Business results, what it can help is for customers to find the information they require by simply asking Google.

A knowledge panel will then appear, so whether you want to know the phone number or the address it’s there, and with a click of a button, you can simply call the business.

Create business citations

This can take some time to complete, and it can feel like you are going around in circles, simply because you have to keep entering the same information, such as the company’s name, address, and phone number repeatedly many different websites.

So, this work is sure, rather repetitive however what it can do is reinforce your company’s NAP information, and the should match with what is mentioned on your website, and also on your company’s Google My Business account.

Therefore, when this all matches it gives Google greater confidence that your business is based there, at that location, that your phone number is correct, and that the name of the business also matches, this gives your company a much better chance of appearing in the Google M my business results.

Plus, also you have to be careful when building business citations because what you want, is for every single one of those to match exactly. If they don’t, and let’s say for example some say the company’s board address, where you are based let’s say three years back, and others your new address, this can cause what are known as conflicting citations.

Which basically can damage your business’s local SEO.

Keep your Google My Business account

It’s also important, to try and keep your businesses Google My Business account as up-to-date as you possibly can. This will help to keep your customers much better informed, for example, let’s say that you fancy closing your company a little bit earlier on a Friday afternoon,

Well, if you don’t update your then you’re likely to have customers knocking on the door, and being more than frustrated because they may have driven 30 minutes to get there, and instead of an open sign on the door it simply means closed.
So, what you want to do is to keep your business Google My Business account as up-to-date as you possibly can.

This also includes the address and phone number,

Your web designers should add schema

Adding schema is relatively easy to do, and what does is highlight your company’s NAP information so that it can be much easier read by Googlebot.

Local Business Citations: What exactly are they? Also, how can they be used to improve my companies SEO?

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Written by: Ryan Walsh

Local SEO

You might be at this current time be trying to really work hard and improve your local seo as you really need your business to start increasing the number of sales you make.

Sales might have started to lag recently, and you started to ask friends, who also own businesses, over a pint, you might ask them how they improve their local seo?

A lot of these business owners might have come back and said, “you need to build business citations”. However, you might not know what they are, how to build them and also where to obtain the citations- but do not worry we are here to help.

Within this article we are going to talk about:

– What exactly are business citations?

– What do business citations look like?

How many business citations do need?

Why local business citations need to be consistent?

How business citations can really help to give your local seo a boost and help you to generate more sales locally.

Us seo consultants, often have two-way two caps, that’s one for completing national seo for a client, and one for when we are working on improving a business’s local seo. That’s because there are two very different types of optimising a website.

One business might have thousand employees across the country, so they need national seo and for their business to appear on Google for keywords that don’t mention a town, village or city. This is very different from local seo, where its all about getting a company to rank for local keywords, such as:

– Electricians near me
– Electricians in “city name”
– Google recommend some local electricians

In matter-of-fact Google’s algorithm works differently when deciding to place a business in the local business results or nationally.

Different ranking factors are the focus on improving, whether you the agency is working on national or local seo.

For example, with national search engine optimisation, there is a lot of focus building backlinks for example.
We have local search engine optimisation it’s more to do with building business citations.

So, what exactly are local citations and why they important?

Well, like with a lot of things to do with search engine optimisation, when you actually explain what this term means is actually quite simple.

Local citations and mere mentions of your businesses “NAP information”, which stands for name of your business, the address of your business, and the phone number of your business.

Key information, that your customers will want to know. When you start to have this listed on business citation websites, such as Google My Business and all NAP information is consistent, while this acts as a reinforcing factor to reinforce the point that your business is actually base on a certain street.

So, when Google needs to recommend say a local hairdressing salon that specialises in hair highlights, they will have confidence that that businesses based there, because it might have 100 consistent business citations to say that the business has a premises there.

What are the different type of business citations?

Well there are many different places where you can build a business citation, for example on social media pages, for example on a Facebook business page, plus, these are completely free to create.

There are also specialist websites which act as a directory, which often allow you to generate a free citation, for example on Yelp.co.uk.

There are also sometimes directories which specialise in a particular industry, for example a marketing company website, might list marketing companies which it approves of in the local area.

The main reasons why we would recommend building local citations, is because it gives Google’s algorithm a very good understanding of where your business is based, so your address, your phone number for example.

What exactly does a business citation look like?

A business citation can simple plaintext, and the business citation, just needs to state your company’s name, address and phone number. Us seo consultants call this the NAP information.

There’s no coding that is needed, it simply a mention of this NAP information about your business that sufficient to start improving your local seo.

It might be beneficial if there’s a backlink which leads to your company website, but this is not necessary Google is clever enough to crawl and index that page, and note that has NAP information about your business, it doesn’t need a backlink to know that that NAP information is to do with your business.

It’s important for consistency, so a structured citation simply state your businesses name, the company address, and the company phone number, this then appears on for example Google Business Profile, yell could also appear on Thomson local as well.

So, what exactly is an unstructured citation?

Unstructured Citations

An unstructured citation is arguably much less valuable than a structured citation, it’s simply a mention of your businesses key information, that NAP information, such as business name, its phone number or perhaps it’s address, but it might be the case that one of these are mentioned and not all of them.

.
What type of business citation should we be building?

We would the best are from really respected website, so for example let’s say that you run a law firm, and your business has a special accreditation, which shows your knowledge of being a family lawyer for example.

That company that provides the accreditation to your law firm, might only have awarded that accreditation to less say seven businesses in your area, and they might recommend your business on their own website, stating your businesses name, address and phone number (NAP formation).

This is brilliant for two reasons, it’s a structured citation, but more than that, it’s from relevant and respected website to do with your solicitor’s practice.

Make sure you keep it consistent

Consistent Data

It’s important that when you’re writing businesses NAP information, and all of the business citations are consistent, as this will tell Google, your business is based at that address, and that the phone number is correct, and the businesses name.

If you do change any of the NAP information, it’s important to update all of your business citations

If you don’t, then this could mean that your telling Google, for example that your business is based in one address, and on another citation, it might list your old address, this can confuse the algorithm.

So do make sure that you keep your business citations up-to-date

How many business citations do I need?

There’s no number that you need to reach, to really give your seo a huge advantage, what is far better is to look at the high-quality websites such as Google Business Profile, Yellow Pages, and perhaps another directory such as Thomson local and to get your business information, that is NAP information on these websites and keep the information up-to-date.

How do you go about building a business citation?

Building a business citation is actually a piece of cake, however we would strongly recommend this, that you have a plain text notepad document, and you simply write into that your companies Nap information, that’s name, address and phone number in there.
Why do we recommend that?

Well quite simply put, what you are able to do is to simply copy and paste that information, and you might think well why is that needed?

Well, it can help you save time, it can also make sure that all of the information is consistent, because you might get tired, and you might make a typo if you were to manually type every business citation, which might cause the business citations to be conflicting, if they are not consistent.

For example, you might miss a digit on your phone number, that’s very easy to do, however if you’re copying and pasting the you’re less likely to make mistakes.

 Finding your perfect SEO guru:

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How to find an SEO expert:

Summary:

•            How much experience does the company has?
•            Has the business delivered results for highly competitive business sectors. At our agency we specialise in working with many solicitor practices, so we can demonstrate that we work in highly competitive business sectors
•           The business should follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
•          The SEO companies should only implement white hat SEO, and follows Google E.A.T.

We are the SEO experts in Cardiff if your business wants to generate more sales

So, you might have forked out, a lot on getting your business a well-designed and great looking company website. Yet, there’s a slight problem, it does seem that your website is not getting many organic visitors every month at all? So, you could be you’re missing out on some SEO magic!

Let’s dive into how we helped many solicitors, dentists and construction firms gain many more customers through our top-quality SEO.

How we can help to drive your business forwards

We work with well-known solicitors’ practices, well-known dentists, and well-known e-commerce businesses here in Wales.

We have helped these businesses to grow, we have helped these businesses to grow by increasing the amount of organic visitors that they receive. When we use Moz SEO tools, or Google Analytics or Google Search Console.

And we have taken some businesses from having absolutely no organic visitors at all per month, and their Google Analytics accounts showing no organic visitors, to steadily increasing the number of organic visitors per month, to the point where the company is now receiving thousands of shoppers to the website month.

We have clients that have been with us for over 8 years, because our seo work cuts the mustard, and we form long term partnerships with our customers.

So why bother hiring an SEO Whizz?

Well, highly experienced seo consultants can help to get your company website to shine brighter than the North Star on search engines such as Google.co.uk, Google.com and Microsoft’s Bing.

Cut the mustard

Its fair to say that some seo agencies, well they don’t cut the mustard at all. However, we work with some businesses that are in the most highly competitive business sectors there is for example we work for solicitors’ practices.

We advise them on how to grow their business through “organic search engine optimisation”, we are not just good at this process we are simply brilliant at it, because we have seo consultants that now have well over 10 years’ experience advising various Welsh businesses and implementing top quality white hat search engine optimisation.

How we can help your business through white hat seo.

If you opened a brand-new restaurant, and you’ve had shopfitters in to build the restaurant, many electricians, builders, and you’ve had signage built, you most likely will have had a substantial outlay of money to bring the restaurant to that standard where your happy to open the doors, and let those hungry diners in for a nice meal.

Now if on the opening night you are rather quiet, well you are likely to have an extremely disappointed look on your face.

Well this is how a lot of business owners feel in Wales, when they have a rather expensive website built, but it doesn’t generate any business at all. And that’s because they may well be ranked say on page 7 of Google.

This is why we are often called in, as we have seo consultants that have over 10 years experience of helping businesses, whether it’s just advising companies on how to improve their local SEO,  or we are improving an e-commerce business SEO nationally, right throughout the United Kingdom.

Choosing Your SEO sidekick

“The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google.”

So, this is a saying that has be quoted for  a long period of time, but this actually very true, that is any business that’s ranked beyond page 2 of Google or Bing, is unlikely to receive any very little organic visitor numbers or none at all.

However when we check our various seo tools, including Google Analytics we see that we have taken many of our clients from having very low organic visitor numbers per month, to steadily increasing that number of visitor numbers over time, sometimes we help some clients to  receive thousands upon thousands of visitors every single month.

Don’t just own a website, make it sing!

Remember, if anybody wants to buy anything from a wood-burning stove online, right through to finding a local lawyer to help them through their divorce, they normally ask Google. So if your business isn’t currently ranked on page one of Google, then you could be missing out on a lot of business.

Conclusion

So, you fancy making your website the star of the show, eh?

Investing in an SEO consultant is like buying the best seat at the West End – it just makes perfect sense.

So elevate your company website in Google’s serps,  show search engines that you are implementing top quality search engine optimisation, and let our marketing agency help you to gain more sales.

F.A.Q

What’s this SEO business, then?

In short, it’s all about making your business rank higher on the search engines like Google or Bing.co.uk. We are not just good at this process, we are excellent at it, we work with many well-known companies here in Wales, to help those businesses to substantially increase their organic visitor numbers every single month.

We also work hard to reduce the companies bounce rate, and we produce top-quality content marketing supplemented by very high quality on-site seo  and off-site seo at the same time.

Why can’t I just DIY my SEO?

You could and some companies do, because they may not be able to afford the prices seo agencies charge. But it’s like asking why you can’t cut your own hair?

Yes, it’s possible, but might end up a bit wonky!

Some businesses think they can have a go at implementing SEO themselves, and in the short term might see some signs that the search engine optimisation that they are implementing is working.

However, what can happen is when there’s a major Google or Bing algorithm update, then when Googlebot goes through the company’s website, it might see that there are loads of seo mistakes, the business is likely to plummet down the ranks faster than a lead balloon!

Yet, of course, there are some company owners, that do a great job at seo, and it works, but many business owners don’t have the patience, or look for short cuts.

Short cuts don’t work, it just leads to the business moving down Google’s ranks, if low quality seo is implemented.

Sources & Backlinks:

SEO’s importance: www.seostatsandfacts.com/why-seo-is-crucial

Google’s algorithm insights: www.googlewebmasters.com/algorithm-fun-facts

Testimonials & their influence: www.businessreviews.com/importance-of-testimonials

Local SEO stats: www.digitaltrends.com/local-seo-stats-that-matter

Facebook SEO

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Google Analytics 4: A Comprehensive Guide to the Latest Upgrade and Its Machine Learning Capabilities

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Introduction

Google Analytics has long been a crucial tool for businesses, whether that’s to see how many organic visitors your business received last month, or simply to see what the bounce rate is on your homepage. Google Analytics is therefore used by website owners looking to understand their online performance.

With the introduction of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google has taken this powerful platform to new heights, we also think that it’s much easier to use, so even if you don’t working marketing, you will still be able to use Google Analytics 4. In this article, we will dive into what Google Analytics 4 is, how it can be used by your business, its most notable features, and the role of machine learning in enhancing its capabilities.

What is Google Analytics 4 and why is it so useful to business owners and marketing companies?

Google Analytics 4, formerly known as App + Web, is the latest iteration of Google’s industry-leading analytics platform.

GA4 has been designed to offer enhanced capabilities, for understanding   shopperbehaviour, making and helping you to better optimise your website, and app performance.

The most significant change, and we think this is a great improvement, is that GA4 has made the shift from session-based tracking to event-based tracking.

This new model allows for a much more comprehensive understanding of user interactions, as it captures individual actions rather than lumping them together in sessions. Additionally, GA4 introduces a more intuitive user interface, it’s really easy to use, and has improved privacy compliance, and advanced analysis capabilities.

Google Analytics 4 Features

Some of the key features of Google Analytics 4 include:

a. Event-based tracking: GA4’s now enables you to track any user interaction with your website or app, from clicks and scrolls to video plays and form submissions.

b. Enhanced user interface: which is really easy to use: The GA4 user interface is designed to be more intuitive and user-friendly, our marketing agency much prefers this interface. The interface offers a streamlined view of your seo data and focuses on providing actionable insights, making it easier for you to understand and analyse your website’s performance.

c. Improved privacy compliance: GA4 also has been developed with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA in mind. The platform offers built-in features, this is to help you manage user consent, anonymize IP addresses, and delete user data upon request.

d. What’s great is that there are now advanced analysis capabilities: With GA4, you can take advantage of advanced analysis tools, such as  the Analysis Hub, which provides a range of pre-built templates, which are  customizable techniques for analysing your data. These tools are brilliant at allowing you to delve deeper into your audience’s behaviour, and uncover valuable insights-for example, is there a main page which as a very high bounce rate? Therefore could your marketing company improve this page?

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics has long been the go-to tool for businesses to understand their online performance, and we think it is now better than ever. With the introduction of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the platform has become even more powerful, plus it totally free as well which we think is fantastic.

Google Analytics 4 now leverages machine learning to provide users /business owners with deeper, data-driven insights. In this article, we’ll explore the new features of GA4, how machine learning enhances the user experience, and the benefits businesses can gain from this revamped marketing tool. Additionally, we’ll provide three backlinks at the end of the post for readers who want to dive deeper into these topics.

Google Analytics 4 and Its game-changing features

GA4 is a significant update from its predecessor, and we think it’s brilliant because it’s so easy-to-use, but it is full of features which can help you to improve your businesses marketing. Therefore GA4 is designed to be much more user-friendly, it offers a range of innovative features that help businesses gain a better understanding of their customers, and make informed decisions. Some of the key features of GA4 include:

Event-based tracking: GA4 has moved away from the traditional session-based tracking system, and now focuses on what is called “event-based tracking”. This allows businesses to track specific user interactions and gain much more granular insights.

Enhanced audience segmentation: GA4 offers improved audience segmentation, enabling businesses to create more targeted marketing campaigns and understand user behaviour better.

Integration with Google Ads: GA4 seamlessly integrates with Google Ads as well, allowing businesses to better optimise their marketing campaigns and track conversions more efficiently.

Cross-platform and cross-device tracking: GA4 enables businesses to track users across multiple devices and platforms, providing a more comprehensive view of user behaviour.

Machine Learning at the Core of Google Analytics 4

GA4 now uses machine learning is the driving force behind many of the new features in GA4.

Machine learning helps businesses make sense of the massive amounts of data they collect and provides actionable insights that can drive growth. Some of the key benefits of machine learning in GA4 include:

    Intelligent insights:

GA4 uses machine learning algorithms to analyse user behaviour and provide businesses with intelligent insights. This is what we think makes GA4 brilliant. These insights can be used to optimise marketing campaigns, enhance user experience, and boost conversions.

 Predictive analytics: Machine learning now enables GA4 to offer predictive analytics, helping businesses forecast user behaviour and identify trends. This can be invaluable for planning marketing strategies and making data-driven decisions.

  Anomaly detection: Machine learning built into GA4 helps businesses identify anomalies in their data, such as sudden spikes or drops in organic visitor numbers.

The Benefits of Google Analytics 4 for Businesses

The new features and machine learning capabilities of GA4 provide businesses with a amount of benefits/

 Improved decision-making: GA4 offers data-driven insights that enable businesses to make informed decisions about their marketing strategies.

 Enhanced customer understanding: With its advanced audience segmentation and cross-platform tracking, GA4 provides businesses with a much more comprehensive understanding of their customers, helping them tailor their offerings and marketing efforts.

  Increased ROI: GA4’s seamless integration with Google Ads and its ability to optimise marketing campaigns can help businesses maximize their return on investment in advertising.