We're back!

Firstly, apologies that it has been so long since I last posted on this blog. It's been a very exciting time with several new clients coming on board. They all are in completely different fields meaning a number of exciting and different challenges with each project.

It's certainly true that more and more business's are understanding the importance of search, we see this every day with the increased competition across all manner of keyword searches. Always remember though that when engaging with an SEO company you firstly ask for some examples of results they have achieved with companies, and then remember to to think "how competitve is this search likely to be?" 


Remember, we are a specialist SEO company and can demonstrate great results for clients across a number of market sectors - just call and ask!

Why a search specialist is becoming so important for local business

Most businesses are now getting to the point where they understand the need to address their visibility online. They've probably heard the term SEO (short for Search Engine Optimisation) and Pay Per Click advertising. They may have noticed that some businesses appear with a map in certain search results. But how does it all tie together and where do you start, to get advice or help?

The reality is that the search landscape is not only complex, its very fast moving. With the massive expotential growth of mobile devices search is changing daily. Search engines are changing (Bing and Yahoo are merging for instance) and users are using different entry points to find information they need. Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In all have a part to play in the search mix.

As a specialist SEO Cheltenham company and it's our job to keep up to date with all these changes. We can analyse your current position and marketplace and then recomend a search strategy that works for you at a budget that works for you.

Search Engine Optimsation Success

Following on from a recent post http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/2009/10/measuring-search-engine-optimisation.html where we highlighted our success at moving up the rankings from no.160 to no.5 on Google UK, we had another quick check this morning and am delighted to find we're at no.3 !
I'm not a believer in checking rankings more than once a month, but have to say this was a great way to start the week.

Bing Search Engine Market Share

We recently focused a couple of articles on not forgetting about the emerging force of Bing -

http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/2009/09/search-engine-marketing-yahoo-bing-paid.html
http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/2009/09/bing-search-engine-local-search-results.html

Judging by today's article in IT Pro they're making faster progress than predicted with an 11% market share. An extract from the article can be found below -

"Microsoft's new search tool Bing has been out for more than three months, and it's gained a healthy 11 per cent market share in that time.

That alone makes it a search engine worth optimising for, but add in the recent deal with Yahoo – which will see Bing used as the search tool across both firms’ web estates – and any webmaster can't ignore Microsoft's latest search attempt."

http://www.itpro.co.uk/

Measuring Search Engine Optimisation Success

There is an old saying that Cobblers children have no shoes. I often find myself thinking about this with regards to business. Anyone who knows a plumber can testify that they'll have hot water problems at home, or an electrician whos lights don't work properly. The point being that they are too busy fixing other peoples systems to find time for their own. After all they don't get paid to fix their own homes!

It's a similar scenario for Search. We spend all our time increasing other company rankings leaving little to work on our own. This month though we felt our site needed an injection. We targeted the term SEO Company Cheltenham as our ranking was around a lowly 160 in Google UK.

Pleasingly within a month we're now showing (at the time of writing this blog) to be number 5 in Google UK. Obviously competition is high on keywords involving terms surrounding search so we're aware that this could change at any time. But through ongoing maintenance we'll hope to hold it, or improve it, time permitting!

Cheltenham Builder Keyword

It's not that difficult for local building companies to achieve a high ranking in search for the keyword "Cheltenham Builder".

Competition is relatively low for the search Cheltenham Builder. There are plenty of small business's who have websites, but don't appear in the rankings for these terms. With more and more customers using the web as their tool of choice to find local tradesmen and other services you'd think it would make sense for them to spend a little money on a good Cheltenham SEO Company to build their listing place on keywords relevant to their business such as in this case, Cheltenham Builder.

Cheltenham Local Business Websites

It constantly amazes me how few local business's optimise their sites for search. Looking today at searches including -

Cheltenham Electrician
Cheltenham Plumber
Cheltenham Builder

Competition is relatively low for all of these spots. There are plenty of small business's who have websites, but don't appear in the rankings for these terms. With more and more customers using the web as their tool of choice to find local tradesmen and other services you'd think it would make sense for them to spend a little money on a good local SEO Company to drive them up these rankings in a short space of time at relatively low cost in relation to some of the other advertising they may be spending money on.

SEO Company Cheltenham Gloucestershire

Don't forget that we're currently offering a FREE SEO site audit for local businesses.

As a Cheltenham SEO Company we're perfectly placed to understand your needs in local, as well as national and international search.

The survey includes -
A simple site technical audit.
An SEO review of keyword terms relating to your company.
A general SEO review of the site.

These audits can cost hundreds of pounds, feel free to contact us today to arrange yours.
http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/

Website Conversion v SEO Spend

This is a short post, but one to consider more than anything.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) as stated in a previous blog http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/2009/09/pay-per-click-v-natural-search.html seems to still have all the headlines when it comes to Search Engine Marketing. However, I repeatedly find myself talking to clients about website conversion and the significant effect it can have on overall site performance.

Just bear this in mind: a 1% increase in conversion is worth a 100% increase in site traffic.

Which is going to be easier to achieve?


For more information and to contact us about website conversion please use the following link-
http://www.clickinsight.co.uk

Bing Search Engine - Local Search Results

I was looking at the introduction to Bing earlier - http://www.discoverbing.co.uk/map/multimap.aspx and found myself looking at Multimap for the first time in ages. It's fairly safe to say that Bing's market share is more likely to rise than decrease in the coming months and correspondingly this will lead to a rise in Multimap users.

From a local search perspective what immediately caught my eye after entering Cheltenham as a location into Bing was the the useful information box on the left hand side (see image above). You'll note that it suggests 24 cashpoints, 26 parking spots and only ONE shopping location in Cheltenham (ok I'll spoil it for you, The Regent Arcade).

I'm sure there's a few shops and locations in Cheltenham who wouldn't mind being included in that "useful information" box. Call us to find out how important local search is to your business.

http://www.clickinsight.co.uk

Search Engine Marketing - Yahoo & Bing Paid Search

We're all prone to concentrating our energies on Google as a Search Engine. Naturally so, you might think with it's share of the UK Search Market in excess of 80% right now.

But we shouldn't disregard Yahoo and Bing (formerly known as MSN). Following the recent announcement that Bing would power Yahoo search it's meant overnight that they now hold a decent share of the search market, one that is now far more attractive to Search Marketers and their clients.

More importantly perhaps though, Yahoo and MSN search have always traditionally delivered higher ROI (Return on Investment) on any campaigns as compared to Google. The volumes naturally are lower though.

So if you are looking for Quality, not Quantity don't disregard Yahoo/Bing.

Pay-Per-Click v Natural Search

It’s interesting how much focus natural search, organic search or whatever you want to refer to it as receives these days. Most clients want to focus all their energies on developing “free” traffic to their websites. The problem is though that the traffic isn’t really free, as the client either needs to pay an SEO Company or has to devote time and energy themselves to developing the skills, then applying those skills on an ongoing basis to improving their performance in the natural listings within Google, Yahoo or Bing search engines.

Of course the potential prize and return on investment within natural search is larger, 80% of searchers click on these results as opposed to the Paid results so traffic is potentially higher. We’d always recommend that clients focus on natural search strategies, however they should not dismiss Paid Search.

Paid search is instant. A targeted Paid Search campaign can be up and running in hours driving traffic to the clients site. SEO campaigns can and usually do take months to take effect. Any promotional campaigns can be difficult to effectively implement via SEO, whereas Paid Search can be timed precisely to coincide with seasonal promotions.

Paid Search data assists Natural Search. Running Paid Search campaigns provides accurate data from searches made across hundreds of keywords, this data can be used effectively as a basis for the ongoing SEO campaign.

Paid Search is highly trackable. The return on investment (ROI) can be closely tracked and reported providing the client budget holders with the information they require to justify marketing spend.

To discuss how a Google AdWords, Yahoo or Bing Paid Search campaign can start driving highly targeted customers to your website please feel free to contact us for a informal chat.

http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/

Search Engine Optimisation Cheltenham

We are currently offering Gloucestershire Businesses a FREE site survey which will highlight what can be done to significantly improve natural search traffic in a short space of time.

The survey includes -

A simple site technical audit.
An SEO review of keyword terms relating to your company.
A general SEO review of their site.

Contact us here for more info and to arrange your free survey -

http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/

Google Pay Per Click Cheltenham

Well this post is a piece of blatant self publicity. Anyone who may be interested in finding out more about starting a Google AdWords marketing campaign please feel free to contact us using the details here - http://www.simplyonlineconsulting.co.uk/online_marketing_contact.html

Read below if you want to understand more about Google AdWords.

Google AdWords is also known as Pay Per Click marketing. On the Google search page you’ll notice ads on the right hand side and sometimes the top of the page. These advertisers pay every time one of their ads is clicked. The cost per click is dependent on how competitive the keyword is, so for example “cheap car insurance” could cost £4 a click, whereas “sunbed reconditioning Scotland” may only be a few pence. An average cost per click is likely to be around the 0.25p to 0.45p. So a budget of £100 / 0.25p = 400 clicks or visitors to your site per month. If you convert your visitors at around 1.5% that would mean 6 customers per month.

You can allocate an exact budget to this advertising on a daily or monthly basis, once you’ve used it up the ads stop displaying. You can stop the ads at any moment, run them seasonally, or decide to show them only at certain times of day. You can also target certain areas of the country if applicable and obviously only display your ads when the relevant search keyword is typed in such as “holiday cottage Gloucester”.

It is a highly targeted means of getting traffic to your site immediately, however you must bear in mind that you’d be paying for that traffic on an ongoing basis. It also requires some management to ensure you’re not over-bidding on keywords, are not advertising on keywords which have not converted visitors, ads are updated etc etc. Ideally you’d want an event on your site we could use it as a “goal” to identify which keywords caused visitors to convert to customers.

Do small businesses need a website online?

Do small businesses need a website online?

It may seem ironic to suggest that small businesses start building an online presence without a website. But there’s a very good reason why businesses, and in particular small business start building their online presence even if they don’t have a website and that’s the development of local search.

For many business types a website is never going to be a transactional tool; a plumber, electrician or gardener for instance are never going to be able to complete their services online. For them it will only ever be an information portal to advertise their services and attract customers.

Arguably the website is a tool that can convert customers, answering all their questions, reassuring them of the trustworthiness and integrity of the business and above all getting them to pick up the phone and call the business! But for many types of businesses which operate on a local level it’s most important to raise their profile and awareness of their services on a local level. The most important thing is being found.


If a small business can be found within “search”, the website conversion process can to some extent be removed from the entire customer journey. This reflects the process customers would follow pre-Internet, the customer has a requirement e.g. needs a plumber, the customer searches for a plumber who’s can fulfil that requirement and once they locate one nearby they call. End of process, no website required to convert the customer.

So how can small businesses be found within search on a local level without a website? Well here’s the two most powerful ways this can be achieved –

Google local search results – Probably the most powerful tool of them all and no you don’t need a website. Any business can sign up for a local Google business account, simply fill in some details regarding the types of service you offer, telephone and address, validate the details by phone or post and away you go. These local search results are always displayed at the top of relevant pages meaning you can “out SEO” an SEO expert without a website!

Online Directories – There are thousands of directories and whatever your business, they’ll be several which you can add your details to for free. Some directories will be based on geography, some on service types. Just search for “Free (area) directory” or “Free (tradesman) directory” and you’ll find loads in no time. Plenty of them will allow you to submit without a web address.

Naturally, working for as an SEO Marketing Consultant the suggestion that a business doesn’t need a website is only a short-term one! Due to the low cost of designing and hosting a simple website and the likelihood that it’ll increase conversion, visibility and awareness of the business it will always make sense to get one built. However, if the funds aren’t available for it right now that doesn’t stop you starting to build your online presence for free.