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2023/11/28 2023/11/28

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

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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.

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2023/11/27 2023/11/27

The “Google Over Optimisation Penalty”-was your company website adversely affected?

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Google Updates

Web Spam

For those of us who regularly read blog posts regarding SEO, you will likely have read countless articles explaining how Google is working very hard to remove spam from its index.

For example, pages which use a lot of “keyword stuffing”, “spun content marketing”, or simply “content thin” pages. Google’s algorithm is actively looking to remove these pages from its index.

What exactly are the Google updates targeting?

 

High-quality SEO

So, there are no two ways SEO is hard work. It can take many months to see any results, which can mean sometimes dedicating hundreds of hours to try and improve a business’s organic search engine optimization.

So, it can take up a considerable amount of time. You need to have a lot of expertise to do SEO correctly, and you need to ensure that you’re following the best “white hat methods”, which are fully explained in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Needless to say, when anything is hard work, we mean millions of companies looking to take shortcuts and not put in the hard work that’s needed.

This can result in the business incurring an “algorithmic penalty” from Google, sometimes resulting in a massive loss of organic visitors to the company’s website.

That’s exactly what this update did to many websites; it analyzed pages, as well as blog posts, to look for low-quality content marketing and penalized those pages by either removing the page from Google’s index or simply lowering it to a position on Google where it’s likely to have little or no organic traffic because it might be repositioned onto page 10.

 

 

Do you have keyword-stuffed pages?

Suppose you’ve hired the wrong SEO company, a business that doesn’t know what it’s doing in that it’s not following white hat methods or Google’s Webmaster guidelines. In that case, the marketing company may have created low-quality pages.

For example, suppose your business sells a particular brand of handbags, and they hire a rubbish marketing company. In that case, the content writer might mention that handbag brand repeatedly throughout the article.

If the work reads unnaturally, in that it’s not offering helpful advice to the shopper, it keeps repeating the exact keywords, so the blog post reads like a broken record.

What we mean by that is the article has the keywords mentioned way too much, in an excessive way. The Google Over-Optimisation Penalty (Penguin Update) would likely have impacted that page or the entire website.

 

 

Spun content marketing

Many businesses, because they need to produce over 100 blog posts, sometimes make the wrong decision and use spun content marketing. We would not recommend using this technique; it’s a surefire way to damage your business’s search engine optimization and incur a Google penalty.

 

 

Excessive and over optimized anchor text

We would say that something your business should avoid is using unnecessary, over-optimized and excessive internal backlinks.

So, what do we mean by this?

Well, let’s say that you sell a product, and that item is, let’s say, cordless drills, yet instead of adding internal links, that would help the shopper to find the power tools that they would like to buy. Instead, the marketing company uses excessive over-optimized anchor text on a page, mentioning “cordless drills” in the anchor text excessively; this is likely to lead to over-optimization.

Instead of helping the shopper find the product they need, you will try to write the keywords that you want the SEO to improve for within the anchor text; however, this could lead to over-optimization issues and a Google penalty.

So, instead, make sure you write the anchor text in a “white hat” way and help shoppers find the right items they may like to purchase.

 

 

Would you like us to increase your business’s sales?

We have worked with many companies; some of these businesses are very well-known brands here in the U.K.

We have helped some of these businesses drastically increase the number of organic sales that they make each month. Whether you are completing SEO in 2023 or perhaps in 2030, what’s important is the focus on quality.

Always follow white hat methods of SEO.

 

 

 

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2023/11/24 2023/11/24

A comprehensive guide to identifying and repairing broken links

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Introduction

November 24, 2023

Hello there! Let’s discuss something crucial for your website – spotting and mending those broken links. It’s more important than you might think, so let’s dive into why and how you can keep your site in tip-top shape.

Fixing backlinks is essential for improving your company’s search engine optimization.
The reason for this is that on those pages, you may have a lot of excellent quality, do-follow backlinks, which are the bees’ knees in helping your company rank higher on Google.

But its a bit like having a fuel tank in your car, but the gearbox is broken; you’re not going anywhere.

And this is the same with broken links 404 broken links; what can happen is that you might have, say, a mass of 100 quality backlinks leading to that page on your website, but if the links are broken, well, you’re missing out on getting link equity sent to that page. Instead, the links are broken; all shown is a 404 page.

So instead of leading to a main page, which sold, for example, kitchen blenders, and that page possibly being ranked on page one of Google, in position 1, d you get a 404-page error, meaning you’re missing out on sales!

 

The Trouble with Broken Links

Picture this: you’re on a website, clicking a link, and – oh no! – it leads nowhere. These broken links, especially those dreaded 404 errors, can damage the UX. They’re like uninvited guests at a party, spoiling the fun for everyone else.

 

Broken internal links

Sometimes, these broken links are within your website, such as a link from a post to a main page.

 

Understanding crawl budgets

Think of Google’s bots as shoppers looking to buy a product. If you’re sending them on a wild goose chase to non-existent items you sell because the product pages have broken links, they’re using up their precious time – the “crawl budget”. Fix these, and they can instead discover the shiny new content marketing you’ve posted.
What exactly is link juice?

“Link juice” and “link equity” sound fancy, right? They’re all about the strength one website passes to another through links. Say, for example, The Independent, a newspaper, links to a company that produces a new appliance you should buy for your kitchen– that’s some quality link juice right there, boosting the manufacturer’s SEO and helping that business rank higher in Google.

 

Google Search Console: your link detective

Here’s a handy tool – Google Search Console- it’s free and brilliant at providing useful SEO information, such as which backlinks lead to your website. It’s like a magnifying glass for finding those broken links. Check the ‘Not Found’ tab, and you’ll see a list of links leading to a dead end generating 404 errors.

We would highly recommend getting a Screaming Frog account (there’s a free version)

Screaming Frog, a favourite among SEO consultants, is brilliant for sniffing out broken links, whether internal or external. And guess what? It’s got a free version too. It’s like having a detective on your team without spending a penny.

 

Google Analytics: Another great tool you can use to improve your SEO

Google Analytics isn’t just about how many organic visitors have visited your company website; it’s also great for tracking broken links and 404 errors. You can set up a custom report; it takes a matter of minutes, and you’ll catch those broken links in no time.

 

So, how do you go about fixing those broken links?

Now, how do you fix these broken links? There are a few ways to do this; it depends on how many broken links you have in terms of how long it will take to fix them. You can redirect them, fix typos, or recreate missing pages. It’s like setting a patch in a quilt – it’ll be good as new in no time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What causes broken links on websites?

Broken links often occur due to removed pages, changed URLs, or typos. It’s like misplacing your keys – sometimes, things go missing.

Why are broken links bad for SEO?

Think of broken links as roadblocks for search engines. They hinder the exploration of your website, leading to a poorer understanding of your site’s structure. This can negatively impact your rankings.

How can I identify broken links on my website?

Use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and Google Analytics. They are like detectives, uncovering broken links in your website’s nooks and crannies.

What’s the best way to fix a broken link?

Options include setting up a 301 redirect, fixing typos, or recreating the missing page. It’s like redirecting traffic smoothly in a busy city.

How often should I check my website for broken links?

Regular check-ups, like a car service, are crucial. Monthly checks are an excellent practice to keep your website running smoothly.

Can broken links affect my website’s traffic?

Absolutely! Like a lousy signpost, they can lead visitors astray, causing frustration and potentially reducing traffic.

What is link equity, and how does it relate to broken links?

Link equity is the value passed through links. Broken links are like leaks in a pipeline, losing the valuable link equity that could have been passed on.

How does fixing broken links improve user experience?

Mending broken links is like fixing potholes on a road; it leads to a smoother, more enjoyable journey for your visitors.

Can redirecting a broken link preserve link equity?

Yes, it’s like redirecting a river’s flow – the water (link equity) still reaches its destination via a different route.

Is it necessary to fix all broken links on my website?

While it’s ideal to fix as many as possible, prioritize those significantly impacting user experience or SEO.

What’s the impact of broken links on crawl budgets?

They waste the limited time search engines spend on your site, like a shopper wandering in a store.

Can broken links lead to penalties from search engines?

While not direct penalties, they can indirectly affect your SEO performance and rankings.

What are some standard tools to find broken links besides Google Analytics and Screaming Frog?

Several other tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz offer unique features to hunt down those elusive broken links.

Is it better to delete a broken link or redirect it?

It depends on the context. If a relevant replacement exists, redirect. If not, deletion might be the way to go.

How does fixing broken links impact sales and conversions?

A smooth-running website, free of broken links, is like a well-oiled machine – it encourages visitors to stay longer and potentially convert into customers.

Do broken links affect site loading speed?

They can contribute to a less efficient site structure, which might indirectly impact loading times.

How can I prevent broken links on my website?

Regular maintenance, careful URL updates, and thorough checks when removing pages can help prevent broken links.

What’s the role of 404 pages in managing broken links?

A well-designed 404 page can be a temporary band-aid, helping lost visitors find their way back.

Can external broken links affect my website’s SEO?

Yes, they can. It’s like having a faulty signpost outside your shop – it doesn’t reflect well on your business.

How do I communicate fixed broken links to search engines?

Use tools like Google Search Console to resubmit your sitemap or inform search engines of the updates.

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2023/11/23 2023/11/23

What should the word count be for our blog posts? When trying to improve our SEO?

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23/11/2023

 

So, even though you might be an expert on the subject, writing 3,000  words on anything will take a lot of time.
Many businesses are, therefore, wondering how long the word count can be for a main page, blog post, or product page.

You don’t want to go overboard, to the point you are shattered from writing so much, and at the same time, you don’t want to put next to no effort into the work, and Google deems the text as “content thin”, and this then damages your businesses search engine optimisation.

So, there most definitely is a balance.

 

Quality is more important.

Have you ever heard of Google’s EEAT? Well, let us explain what this means. Google is now looking at “Experience”, “Expertise”, “Authoritativeness”, and “Trustworthiness” of the content marketing you write.

So, in a nutshell, quality is more important than trying to write 1,000 articles that are rubbish.
So, before we go any further, concentrate on writing quality.

 

Just answer the question.

So, some copywriters get caught up with being tasked with 1,000 words on something they may not have a jar of glue to write about.

Let’s say they need to write work for a scaffolding company; for instance, they may think they’re just metal tubes; how hard can it be?

Well, many health and safety guidelines go into constructing scaffolding, so it’s safe to use, but an expert on scaffolding will only know all of this.
So, here’s the key: don’t outsource your SEO to a company and have no input into the work; work with the marketing company to create excellent content marketing from an SEO perspective and incorporate the knowledge from an expert on the subject.

 

Product pages

So, here may confuse the reader briefly, but bear with us while we elaborate more.
Always write the pages, regardless of word count, for the customer, not the search engine- and why do we say this?

Well, it’s simple: you’re buying a product. Do you want to see 3,000 words of text added to the page- no, you most likely haven’t got the time to read so much text.

You will need the product’s price, description, and a paragraph of text describing the product.

This should be well-written, unique text written in a white hat way.

Putting a very high word count on a product page, well, that’s high enough to send the page bounce rate sky-high, resulting in

Google’s algorithms place that page lower in the SERPs.

 

Blog articles

Well, the world is your oyster here.

If you want to write 700 words, do that if it answers the question in enough detail.

However, if it’s something more complex you’re writing about, you could quickly be writing 3,000 words if that’s what’s needed to answer the question.

So, yes, it does come down to how many words are needed to answer the question in detail.

 

Evergreen content marketing / white papers

So, now and then, businesses often publish a white paper, your chance as a business to answer a question in-depth.

It also allows the business to show off their expertise, that they have staff working for the company that knows their stuff well.

So, for example, a digital marketing agency may write a 4,000-word article on “How A. I am changing SEO”-and because many people will be interested in reading this article, it may have a low bounce rate and high time on site, which will help improve the company’s SEO.

 

Valuable

So, one of our best tips would be to structure your entire article with many titles so a reader can skip to the part they want to read.

Also, if you can write the work in a question-and-answer style, this serves two primary purposes: the reader can skip to the question they want to find an answer to, but it will also help that page or blog post to appear for more queries.

So, for example, if you use the title “What paint can I use on my fence, it lasts a long period?”- as this is a title on the page. It is something a shopper wants to find the answer to, then it is likely to precisely answer the shopper’s question and, therefore, be clicked on by shoppers in Google’s results.

This is instead due to content marketing being more vague, such as just having a title “paint for garden fences” and listing different brands and colour shades.

The shopper may not know which colour they want their fence to be; they want long-lasting paint so they don’t have to paint the wall every year. Once that question has been answered through the blog post, they may start browsing the paint you have for sale because you’ve responded to their question and then presented products that offer exactly what they are looking for.

 

Don’t waffle

So, have you ever read through a blog post, say the article was 1,000 words in length, then come to the end and thought, well, that hasn’t answered the question?

We have read plenty of articles like this, and it’s clear the writer hasn’t much knowledge regarding what they are talking about, so the work is likely to be deemed as “content thin”,- which means it’s more likely to damage the company’s SEO than improve it.

 

Why not hire us?

When you hire our digital marketing agency, we write content marketing that’s well-written and also follows Google’s EEAT advice. This is how we have helped many businesses in Wales get onto page one of Google.

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2023/11/22 2023/11/22

Are backlinks still as important as they were since the days of Google’s PageRank?

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22/11/2023

Gary Lllyes famously recently stated, “I think they’re important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links”,- which has many SEOs thinking, well, how important are backlinks?

To summarise, they are still important; there are no two ways to do it.
We would say they still have to be in the top 3 rankings factors; A.I.’s RankBrain has to be there, then content, so are backlinks still number 1?

We seriously doubt that backlinks are still number 1. We think it is more like the third most important ranking factor, but still, it is super important. That’s, of course, if you have quality backlinks because if you don’t, low-quality backlinks could act like a giant anchor, dragging your whole website’s rankings down.

 

Not as crucial as since the days of Google’s PageRank

Google’s PageRank mostly uses backlinks to determine where a website should be ranked.
However, since Google’s Penguin update, many businesses with spam links have received a link penalty.

We think, and this is only our humble opinion, but we believe Google is using more A.I., through Google’s RankBrain, to monitor how engaged shoppers are with a website, for example:

-How long is the average shopper spending on the website?
-How many pages does the shopper visit?
– How many shoppers return to Google’s search results after visiting your company’s website, or do you instead have a large percentage of your shoppers stay and purchase from you?

What are backlinks?

So, what exactly is a backlink?

Well, a backlink is an inbound backlink from an external website. It could be a do-follow backlink, so this will send “link juice”.

The link could also be a no-follow, meaning it won’t send link equity. It can still have some SEO benefit because Google and the other search engines want to see backlinks leading to a website which is a mixture of do-follow and no-follow, as this looks like those businesses have linked to you, but because they want to, not because you have bought the links.

 

Just don’t buy backlinks- it’s not worth it.

So many businesses see how many backlinks their direct competitors have, say over 1,000, and they are a start-up company, so they think it will take years to build that many links, which it often does.

Yet, don’t cut corners; buy buying backlinks; it is not worth it, as it will lead to a Google link penalty.

A Google link penalty can be algorithmic or a manual action penalty- in either case, the website will incur a sudden, dramatic drop in organic visitor numbers, and trust us, it can take a very long time, sometimes, to recover from.

 

Moving more towards- E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trust; Google is looking for this when weighing how good content marketing is.

If your content marketing is very high quality, it may be on the first page of Google with no backlinks.

This is why we say U.X. factors and A.I. are now becoming more critical than backlinks, in our opinion.

However, as we mentioned earlier, in Google’s E-E-A-T, to prove authority, you need backlinks.

That’s because consider this: say there are 100 law firms in an area; businesses with a lot of quality backlinks from relevant websites to do with the law will often rank number 1 on Google.

Be crawled more frequently, ensuring their content is swiftly and regularly indexed.

 

Are all backlinks worth the same?

In a nutshell, there are backlinks, then there are backlinks- and what do we mean by that statement?

Well, quite simply put, any highly influential website, let’s say, Harvard University, let’s say they link to your business, then could give your organic SEO a massive boost.

Yet, a link from a blog that no one reads may only get, say, less than ten visitors per year; that’s not going to help improve the business’s search engine optimization.

Plus, low-quality links, so backlinks built to try and game the algorithms, to try and improve the company SEO, are even worse. These are called spam links; they will lead to the business incurring a penalty.

 

Link juice

So, all SEO agencies aim to send “link juice” from quality websites through to the business’s main pages, which will help them rank higher in Google.

So, let’s give you an example; take our business; we would want our homepage to rank high on Google, then the leading service pages, such as “backlink building”, “content marketing”, and “SEO consultants, so to do this, we need to earn backlinks to those main pages.

 

 

How many backlinks do you need?

The simple answer is that you can never have too many quality backlinks.

You can use too many low-quality backlinks, as your website will vanish from Google because a manual or algorithmic link penalty has been imposed on it.

But you can’t have too many good quality backlinks because there will always be a company that will build more; you have 100, they make 101- and it goes on if any business even has the slightest edge over your company search engine optimization, then, the following day, they may rank higher than your business.

This is why, with SEO, things never come to a stop unless the business wants to give in and let its competitors overtake them.

It’s a bit like Formula One racing, that is, it’s a constant race; if the competition builds an even slightly better engine, they will win the race, and this is the same as SEO, as a business could be overtaken in a heartbeat if the competition has more robust search engine optimisation.

 

Content marketing / evergreen and pillar pages

So, when we first started helping businesses improve their SEO, we wrote many blog posts, and the competition was roughly 500 words.

If this still were the case, our job would be much easier, that’s for sure.
As Google has been looking for more comprehensive, quality answers written by experts on the subject, the articles have gotten much longer.

It’s not uncommon to read a blog post on a digital marketing agency’s website that’s 3,000 words or more!

This is hard to write, but it takes considerable editing and refining.

Yet, Google’s EEAT wants to put businesses on the first page, which shows expertise, authoritativeness, experience, and trustworthiness. This often means writing longer, more comprehensive blog posts, often combining multiple perspectives from experts.

So, in summary, are backlinks still important?

That is the resounding answer, but the links must be quality.

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