by Marelise da Silva | Feb 7, 2020 | SEO
Local search engine optimization (SEO) helps your small business to be visible to consumers searching online for products and services in their local area. Working with a digital marketing company will make your business appear in local search results. And, as a small business owner, bang for your buck is essential. Here are 6 tips to boost your local online marketing with sound SEO practices:
Provide Top-quality, Pertinent Information
The definitive way to keep Google, as well as other search engines for that matter, happy is to deliver authoritative, evergreen content. It will improve your search engine optimization because Google looks for pages that contain top-quality, pertinent information about the searcher’s query. The bonus is that quality content is what your current and future customers are going to share
Consider the Best Way to Use Google’s RankBrain
Google’s RankBrain is part of the algorithm which infers how users find pages that do not have the exact words that they searched for. Using compound, multi-word keywords (long- and medium-tail keywords) helps RankBrain link you to thousands of similar keywords.
Target a Core Term for Keyword Optimization
Using your keyword list in your site’s content needs to be done properly. Ideally, each webpage should target a core term and a collection of related terms. However, for the sake of a better user experience (which in turn leads to longer time spent on your pages and increased social sharing and links to you), the content needs to flow naturally.
One-Minute Videos Are Easy to Watch
Digital marketing involves charming existing clients and new leads so that you can develop faithful relationships with them. Video ticks both these boxes for the following reasons:
- Video content makes for good user engagement.
- It shows you value their time – a one-minute video is far easier to absorb than a 300-word article.
- Bonus: Video is a great SEO tool when you integrate them into the rest of your content, use titles and descriptions to make them searchable and enhance their audio and visual quality.
Consider a Google My Business Listing
How people perceive your business can make or break you. A well-optimized Google My Business listing gives you a measure of control in managing your online reputation, while at the same time increases your chances of appearing in Google features like the Local Pack and Maps
Key Information Must Be Clear
Make sure that key information is clearly marked and easy to find:
- Tell page visitors how they should go about doing business with you. For instance, do you want them to call, pop in or email for additional info?
- Display your location and operating hours.
- Offer a phone number, email, social media messaging options, and/or live chat.
We Can Help Your Small Business Appear in Local Search Results
Are you interested in digital marketing methods and strategies to boost your status and help you generate new leads? We offer a range of internet marketing techniques, including local SEO and local leads solutions that can be customized for your business. For more information, contact us today.
by Marelise da Silva | Jan 22, 2020 | SEO, Website Design
Despite their considerable promotional power, printed marketing materials like posters, leaflets and magazines are some of the world’s top pollutants. If you are a business that values the health of the environment, you should be thrilled that digital marketing presents a far greener way to promote your business.
It will take more green-conscious businesses like yours as well as education for the rest to move the needle towards a truly green future. To paint a picture of why a full migration away from printed marketing materials to digital marketing platforms needs to be expedited, we share facts and statistics on the advertising industry’s impact on the environment below.
- According to the Green Press Initiative, the paper and pulp industry is the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gases in the United States. The World Counts environmental statistics and advocacy project says that, as things currently stand, the demand for paper (which businesses contribute towards massively with their advertising campaigns) is expected to double by 2030. It also estimates that Americans waste enough paper in a single year to build a 12-foot wall extending from New York to California.
- Paper is not the only costly resource in traditional advertising. Billboards, for example, incur a host of other environmental costs, such as the materials used to build them and the power required to light them up. This is not to mention the other major cost in print advertising, namely ink and cartridges. According to The Energy Collective, a factory that produces ink cartridges emits as much CO2 as 500 average North American homes.
These are pretty good reasons not to take out that full-page ad you’ve been contemplating and to stop the presses on those flyers you’ve been handing out for years. If you need any more convincing, it helps that digital is not only greener, but also cheaper. Furthermore, it has reliable metrics for measuring ROI, which print could simply never have.
What we have discussed above are compelling reasons why marketers must reconsider their dependence on paper for their advertising materials. Thanks to digital media, there are now far greener ways to promote your products and business.
WSI OMS is the perfect partner to manage your migration to a paperless marketing strategy and help you make a positive contribution to the health of the environment. Contact us today to discuss ways to craft a winning digital marketing strategy for your business.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 15, 2020 | SEO
The primary goal for people providing SEO services has for a long time been to target and rank for head or short tail keywords, presumably for the large traffic volumes they attract. But, because they are so coveted, everyone else, including the big brands target them. And with such fierce competition, these keywords are almost impossible to rank for if you’re a small business with a limited budget. For this and other reasons we will discuss, long tail keywords represent a goldmine of an opportunity.
Long Tail Keywords Are More Specific and Bring Qualified Traffic
Long tail keywords enable you to tailor search items specific to your business, as opposed to those that would be common across your industry. For example, say you have a business that sells gourmet doughnuts. If you use a keyword like “doughnuts,” you are unlikely to get anywhere near the top of a search result list.
However, if you focus on a speciality, say “air-fried doughnuts” or “Banting doughnuts” or “custard-filled doughnuts in Cape Town,” you have now not only created a long tail keyword, but you have also placed yourself into a far narrower search bracket. The word “doughnut” may have a search volume numbering in the millions, while any of the others may be searched less than 100 times in the same period. By using these keywords, you push yourself above your competitors in the rankings.
Long Tail Keywords Are a Powerful Differentiation Tool that Improves Your Marketing
Long tail keywords essentially come down to the principle of focusing on your unique selling point (USP), an old idea in marketing. The concept of the long tail keyword takes the USP into the digital realm, enabling not only powerful differentiation, but also competitive marketing. It requires you to think deeper about your business and refine your offerings, an effort that is sure to be rewarded with higher search engine rankings.
WSI OMS specialises in creating SEO campaigns that pull in the right, qualified traffic for your business. We will help you optimise your SEO campaign around your business’ marketing goals. Contact us today for a free consultation.
The primary goal for people providing SEO services has for a long time been to target and rank for head or short tail keywords, presumably for the large traffic volumes they attract. But, because they are so coveted, everyone else, including the big brands target them. And with such fierce competition, these keywords are almost impossible to rank for if you’re a small business with a limited budget. For this and other reasons we will discuss, long tail keywords represent a goldmine of an opportunity.
Long Tail Keywords Are More Specific and Bring Qualified Traffic
Long tail keywords enable you to tailor search items specific to your business, as opposed to those that would be common across your industry. For example, say you have a business that sells gourmet doughnuts. If you use a keyword like “doughnuts,” you are unlikely to get anywhere near the top of a search result list.
However, if you focus on a speciality, say “air-fried doughnuts” or “Banting doughnuts” or “custard-filled doughnuts in Cape Town,” you have now not only created a long tail keyword, but you have also placed yourself into a far narrower search bracket. The word “doughnut” may have a search volume numbering in the millions, while any of the others may be searched less than 100 times in the same period. By using these keywords, you push yourself above your competitors in the rankings.
Long Tail Keywords Are a Powerful Differentiation Tool that Improves Your Marketing
Long tail keywords essentially come down to the principle of focusing on your unique selling point (USP), an old idea in marketing. The concept of the long tail keyword takes the USP into the digital realm, enabling not only powerful differentiation, but also competitive marketing. It requires you to think deeper about your business and refine your offerings, an effort that is sure to be rewarded with higher search engine rankings.
WSI OMS specialises in creating SEO campaigns that pull in the right, qualified traffic for your business. We will help you optimise your SEO campaign around your business’ marketing goals. Contact us today for a free consultation.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 13, 2020 | Inbound Marketing, SEO
Because inbound marketing is all about creating connections that provide your audience with valuable content that solves their problems, it makes sense that local SEO plays a large role in inbound marketing. When businesses can reach local audiences, they create valuable interactions that benefit both the client and business equally.
Why Local SEO Should Be Your Inbound Marketing Focus for 2020:
It is more important than ever to be within reach of local audiences, and the key to visibility is local SEO. Different studies estimate the percentage of searches for local businesses to be around 46%, and since 2018, searches containing the words “near me” have more than doubled. Here are four reasons why local SEO should be a major focus for your business in 2020:
Local Is the New Global
There has been a significant shift towards sustainable consumerism in the last decade, bringing local businesses to the forefront. As audiences are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, businesses are seeing an upswing in support from local communities. Instead of desiring globally produced items, consumers are seeking local alternatives to alleviate their impact on the environment while satisfying their buying needs.
Google’s Algorithm
Instead of driving traffic to websites based purely on their ad spend, Google will rank businesses based on a blended algorithm. This algorithm looks at your web results (including content, website design and link building), reviews from customers and proximity to the search query. Businesses with good quality content, higher engagement rates and better reviews get higher rankings in localised searches. This means that building authentic connections with local audiences should be taking precedence over massive budgets spent on pushing PPC ads towards audiences.
Local Is Valuable
Your business needs to feature on local directory sites because directory listings are ranked second only to Map Pack results in search engine rankings. This means that Google will firstly show results on the local map, and then feature directories like TripAdvisor, Snupit and Yellow Pages that include businesses related to a specific keyword.
Best SEO practices are still very relevant for local SEO with some SEO experts estimating that 92% of customers will pick a business to support from the first page of local results. In order to benefit from local directories, you will need to appear fairly high in the organic results to attract their attention.
Different Types of Searches
Search engines are allowing people to search in different ways. Google now allows longer search terms for voice searches and completes geo modifiers for their customers. This means that customers can merely type in what they are looking for instead of adding a location. Benign terms are also being used more frequently, and Google will connect these terms (like coffee or dog walker) to highly-rated local businesses without users asking for these products and services in a specific location.
Don’t get left behind in the local SEO rankings, contact WSIOMS today for help with your SEO and inbound marketing strategy.
by admin | Jan 9, 2020 | SEO
Do you want to rank in Google for keywords that matter to your business? As a top provider of SEO services in South Africa, we have helped many brands rank organically for their target keywords, boosting their visibility and market reach. Here are four steps that have anchored all the campaigns we have run for clients:
Find Keywords that Are Relevant for Your Business and that You Can Realistically Rank For
Using the right keywords in your website content is of the utmost importance. While there are various keyword research tools that you can utilise, you can do keyword research for free by simply thinking about what your potential customers may be typing into Google or by utilising Google suggest.
Start typing out what your company does in the Google search bar and see what automatically pops up. This is a good indication of what people are searching for. Include these phrases in any content that you publish, as well as in your website’s base content. If you would like to target a specific area, mention the location in your content alongside the keywords that you have chosen.
Ensure Your Content Is Relevant and Offers Value to Readers
Along with keywords, you will also need to ensure that the content you post is relevant, interesting and helpful. Be sure to include a few links, heading tags and alt tags for images. Also, do everything possible to maximise its readability, for instance, make use of short, concise sentences and paragraphs, bullet points and so on.
Boost Your Domain Authority with Off-Page SEO
Your search engine optimisation is based on more than just your website. Off-page SEO is just as important as on-page SEO. It includes things like link building, guest blogging, social media and the like.
SEO Is Ever-Evolving. Test, Tweak and Refine Constantly
SEO is forever changing. So, what was important two or three years ago may no longer play as large a role in determining your rankings as of now. As such, it is essential that you are constantly monitoring your progress and keeping up to date with any relevant SEO news and SEO marketing tips.
SEO has grown too important and technical to manage on your own. To get the most out of your SEO, engage a company that specialises in SEO services. WSI OMS is that company. You will benefit from our experience, superior tools and expertise, and will be ranking for your target keywords much faster than you will be doing it on your own. Contact us to discuss how we can help with your SEO.
by Marelise da Silva | Dec 16, 2019 | SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) remains an integral part of the digital marketing strategy and with Google dominating the search engine market, it makes sense to play by the rules created by Google to ensure that the Google ranking for your website is as high as possible. Here are some of the many ways to optimise your website for Google in 2020.
SEO Guide to Optimising Your Website for Google in 2020
Go Mobile-Friendly
Your website needs to look beautiful on all screens, including mobile devices. Optimising your website to load effortlessly and function perfectly on different devices is one of the most important aspects of optimisation. Different sources state that mobile searches account for over 50% of Google searches performed each day, so having a mobile-friendly site should be at the top of your list.
Keywords
While there are many SEO keyword tools available, the most favoured tool is Google’s own Keyword Planner. This tool is available when you sign up for a Google Ad Account and can help you to effectively find keywords to incorporate in your content and spend your ad budget wisely on keyword bidding. Using Google’s own tools will provide you with insights on how the search engine giant looks at keywords in ranking websites.
Location, location, location
Optimising your website includes taking into account how local users may interact with your site. If you provide local products and services, you will profit from adding your business to Google’s My Business listing, using location specific keywords (including: “near me” and “in my area”) and by displaying the business’ address clearly on the website. You can also incorporate backlinks from local sites to improve the authority of your site.
Google lens
This powerful tool introduced by Google (available through the Google App that can be downloaded for Android and Apple devices) aims to be the next big development in search engine technology. It works on a point and search principle. So, once you’ve pointed to something you want to search, Google shows results relating to the object.
To show up on Google lens searches, you’ll need to place a prominent logo on your products, advertising materials and any other marketing collateral. It is imperative that you provide as much information as possible on images on your website, including descriptive alt tags, image captions and file names. You can also improve the chances of matching to Google images searches by placing more images on your site.
There are a plethora of ways in which you can optimise your website for the search engines and this guide covers just a few ways to optimise your website. If you are new to the concept of SEO, visit this link to find more resources to not only learn about search engine optimisation, but also how you can improve your website’s Google ranking.
