Is Site Functionality Affecting Your SEO?
When it comes to SEO, there is a long, possibly endless list of things to consider. From keyword research to social shares; content strategies and backlinks; images and H tags – there’s always more you can do to boost your SEO rankings. But what about site functionality?
In a race to get to the top of page 1 on Google, most business owners embark on intensive SEO campaigns. However, they tend to focus on things like content, outreach, local citations and social media activity. While these elements are all critical to successful SEO, there is one important area that gets overlooked: site functionality.
What is Site Functionality?
Site functionality simply refers to what your website is capable of and how well it works. If your site’s secure, easy to navigate and free of errors, chances are it’s got good functionality. A website that’s full of broken links and delivers a poor UX, on the other hand, definitely has poor functionality.
Your website is the centrepiece of your online presence, so it’s vital that it impresses visitors and transitions them through your sales funnel. Whatever goal you’re working on – whether it’s increasing brand awareness, optimising conversion rates or cultivating customer loyalty – good site functionality is critical to your success.
However, site functionality doesn’t just have a direct impact on sales and user satisfaction; it affects your SEO too. In fact, site functionality is one of the key areas that Google assesses when ranking your webpages.
By overlooking site functionality when planning your SEO strategy, you’re ignoring one of the most basic elements. Good rankings rely on optimum website functionality. Make this the basis for your SEO activity and you’ll be off to a great start.
Improving Your Website’s Functionality
Optimising site functionality doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds. You might find that you’ve already got some of these points covered and, if not, you’ll have the insight you need to turn things around. To find out what changes you need to make, take a look at some of the aspects of site functionality that impact your SEO rankings:
1. Mobile usability
An increasing number of people are accessing the internet via mobile devices. Advances in technology, Wi-Fi and 4G/5G mean it’s easier than ever to get online using a tablet or smartphone. Of course, the reduced cost of data and widespread availability of public hotspots has helped the mobile trend to flourish too.
In fact, mobile internet use has increased so much that Google has switched to mobile-first indexing. Essentially, if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you’re not going to get the top rankings you’re after. While businesses used to rely on two separate sites – desktop and mobile – this approach limits your SEO success and requires twice the work.
By using responsive web design, you can satisfy Google’s mobile-first indexing algorithm and ensure users have a positive UX, regardless of what device they’re using.
2. Site speed
10 seconds might not sound like a long time but sit behind a screen and set your stopwatch. It sure feels like a long time now, right?!
If your webpages take anywhere near to 10 seconds to load, then you have serious functionality problems. In fact, Google has confirmed that a very slow loading speed is a negative ranking factor. This means you could actually harm your rankings by failing to address this issue.
On mobile devices, your site really needs to load in under 3 seconds. However, even loading speeds of 2.9 seconds will only put you ahead of 50% of sites on the internet. Upgrading to a better server or hosting provider is essential if you aren’t getting the speeds you need to rank highly.
If you’re still not convinced, monitor your bounce rate at existing site speeds and check them again when your loading speeds are reduced. Users are impatient when it comes to waiting for a webpage to load and you could be losing a substantial part of your audience simply because your site’s too slow.
3. Website Security
People like to engage with businesses they trust. No matter what industry you operate in, chances are you’ll be asking users to part with information when they visit your website. Whether you’re collecting email addresses for a newsletter subscription or processing sensitive financial information via online sales; users won’t give up their details if they don’t trust your brand.
Most users are aware of the difference between http:// and https:// in a URL, so make sure your security certificates are in order. However, users won’t generally spend time investigating a site to determine its authenticity or assess its security measures. Instead, they’ll rely on the overall aesthetic, functionality and security indicators.
Whatever security measures you take to safeguard your business and your customers, make sure you advertise them! Badges, graphics and imagery are widely available when you implement site security, so ensure they’re displayed clearly. This is particularly important on sites that offer online transactions but, even if you don’t process purchases online, be sure to let your users know just how seriously you take their online safety.
Boost Your Rankings with the Right SEO Strategy
These are just three site functionality issues that have an impact on your SEO rankings. There are plenty more functionality elements that affect your rankings too, so it’s important to take a comprehensive approach when you’re evaluating your site’s current performance.
Once you’ve covered the basics of site functionality, it’s time to begin working on other areas. Both on-page and off-page SEO is critical to overall success, so you’ll need to consider your site layout, content strategy, outreach, PPC campaigns, social media performance, influencer links and much, much more.
If you don’t have an in-house SEO team, chances are you won’t have the time or the resources to implement a sure-fire SEO strategy. Fortunately, you don’t need to worry. At ClickSlice, we specialise in creating, implementing and delivering successful SEO campaigns. To find out how we can transform your business, contact us today on 020 3287 3638 or email us at hello@clickslice.co.uk.
4 Must-Use Marketing Tools for SMEs
Whether you’re a sole trader working alone or heading up a growing enterprise, you’ll want to make the most of the tools at your disposal. When it comes to marketing, leveraging your digital assets with the right tools offers high rewards.
Using the right selection of online marketing methods enables you to maximise results while minimising costs. The potential to substantially increase your sales while reducing your outgoings is irresistible for any business. For SMEs, however, the ability to make enormous gains from even modest resources could be your route to commercial success.
If you want to increase your sales and get the most from your budget, check out the 5 marketing tools you need to be using now:
1 - Backlinks
Backlinks are critical if you want to work on your SEO and increase your Google rankings. Every business owner knows they need a website to succeed. But are you doing everything you can to increase its visibility?
Your webpages need to rank highly for relevant keywords so that users can see your content. One of the most effective ways to achieve high rankings is via backlinks. When other credible sites feature your links, it boosts your rankings in two ways.
Firstly, securing a backlink on a popular site promotes your brand and allows users to clickthrough directly to your content. Secondly, having backlinks on high authority domains elevates your content in the eyes of Google. As a result, your credibility and authenticity increase, thus leading to higher rankings and more traffic.
2 - Video Marketing
Video is the most popular type of online content, so it’s essential you’re using it. According to HubSpot, more than half of consumers want to see more video content from brands they’re interested in. What’s more, Wyzowl maintains that 8 out of 10 people have purchased digital content after viewing a video featuring it.
Many small businesses steer clear of video marketing because they assume it will blow their budget. While it’s true that producing great video content can require more resources than other online marketing tools, this shouldn’t prevent you from leveraging your engagement with video content. Although you may need to input more resources, the increased brand awareness, engagement and sales will offer an impressive ROI.
Remember – don’t just share your video content on your website. Users watch a billion hours of video a day on YouTube alone and millions of users consume video content across social media platforms. Sharing your videos on external sites will ensure your content is visible to your target audience and provide them with a direct route to your website.
3 - Influencer Marketing
Often categorised as affiliate marketing, influencer partnerships can take many forms. If you offer an influencer a commission for every sale they facilitate or a kickback for every user they direct to your site, you can implement a traditional affiliate marketing model. This works particularly well for SMEs because you’re only paying for the value you actually gain.
Alternatively, you may want to fund your influencer marketing by paying a flat fee for placements, promotions or endorsements. This means you’ll get to keep the entirety of the profits you make as a result of the campaign, although it does involve a higher level of risk.
Influencer marketing is a relatively new form of online engagement but it’s one that’s grown substantially over the last 18 months. As brands realise just how much sway influencers have over their target demographics, the benefits of partnering with them are all too clear.
If you’re looking for a way to fast-track engagement or you want to build your customer base in record time, an endorsement from a well-known influencer can help you to achieve your goals. Simply remember to select your influencer partners based on their credibility, audience and impact. By doing so, you’ll ensure that your products and services are being endorsed by someone your target demographic trusts and, crucially, by someone who has a direct impact on how they behave online.
4 - Local SEO
Any enterprise can benefit from local SEO, but SMEs are perfectly placed to add value to their business with local search engine optimisation. If you operate from a customer or client-facing location, you’ll obviously want to promote your premises within a specific geographical area. To do this, you’ll need a strategic local SEO campaign. As your brand becomes the go-to business for relevant products or services in the area, you’ll begin to outperform your competitors and secure a larger share of the market.
However, it isn’t just bricks and mortar businesses that need local SEO to succeed. Even if you operate solely via the internet, a local SEO campaign can boost your brand in more ways than you might think.
When you’re implementing a digital marketing initiative, it’s tempting to try and target everyone. After all, the more people who engage with you, the higher your profits can be. In reality, however, successful marketing requires a more nuanced approach. Attempting to target everyone with the same content and delivery methods won’t just be ineffective; it could inadvertently harm your brand.
Instead, it’s important to segment your target audience. By recognising the different needs and wants of these segments, you can cater to them directly. This enables you to provide tailormade content that piques their interest, responds to their needs and persuades them to purchase.
As you segment your target audience, their geographical location is just one factor that could have an impact on their online behaviour and consumer footprint. Due to this, you’ll want to use local SEO to cater to your target demographic and provide them with the content, products and services they’re actively looking for.
Marketing for Success
Successful marketing means leveraging a wide variety of tools and methodologies. To achieve your goals and grow your business, you’ll a need affordable, results-driven digital marketing strategy. And that’s where we come in.
To find out how we can help you grow your business, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
Increased Internet Use Offers Digital Marketing Gains
As millions of people acclimatise to life in lockdown, the internet is proving to be more vital than we ever could have imagined.With so many people spending time online, digital marketing offers higher returns than ever before.
Facilitating remote working arrangements and keeping people connected, the internet has been central to the global response to COVID-19. Of course, the internet isn’t just providing a crucial tool for work and relationships. It’s also critical to delivering a wide range of at-home entertainment to billions of people around the world. From streaming services to online gaming, there are a variety of ways to keep boredom at bay via the internet.
Although digital entertainment was growing significantly prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the introduction of lockdown restrictions has fuelled the trend. While some people are using internet entertainment platforms more often, others are signing up to online streaming sites, multiplayer games and forums for the first time ever.
How is Your Business Coping with COVID-19?
The impact of COVID-19 on the business community is not yet fully known. Some industries are experiencing phenomenal demand while others are unable to operate and remain at a standstill. For many businesses, the pandemic has thrown up logistical and practical challenges which require creative solutions.
You may be offering new services in a bid to overcome social distancing measures, for example, or slowing down production in order to accommodate a reduced workforce. Some firms are increasing in-house automation, while others are relying on emergency loans to provide a much-needed injection of funds during a difficult time.
Although different industries, sectors and businesses will require varying responses to survive the economic impact of COVID-19, there’s one thing that’s universal: the need to engage with your target audience.
No matter what demographic you serve or what industry you operate within, maintaining engagement is critical to business survival. When your company is present and active online, you can keep your existing customer base up to date on how you’re operating. Furthermore, your efforts and contributions to the national and global response should be widely shared amongst your loyal fanbase.
However, it isn’t just engagement with your existing customers that you need to focus on. At a time when consumers and businesses are struggling to access the products and services they need, there is a significant opportunity to attract and acquire new customers.
Digital Marketing During Times of Crisis
As we explained last month, many businesses reduce their marketing activity at the first sign of economic difficulties. Perhaps understandably, many people assume that a temporary suspension of marketing activities will reduce their outgoings and enable them to redirect funds to critical bills. However, abandoning your digital marketing strategy now could be disastrous for your business.
Marketing your brand isn’t a one-off activity. It begins from the moment your brand is conceived and should continue even after you stop trading. Ceasing marketing activity during a time of unprecedented global difficulty means you’re effectively abandoning your customers and your target audience. In short, it doesn’t show the kind of loyalty you would hope to see from your regular customer base.
A lack of marketing means you’ll miss out on the unique opportunity to serve your audience when they need it most. In fiscal terms, this equates to turning down business and giving profitability the cold shoulder.
Regardless of how COVID-19 has affected your operations, successful marketing activity can keep you engaged with your audience. When they think of related products and services, you want to ensure you remain in the forefront of their minds. Even if you’re unable to offer your usual USPs, you can still generate goodwill amongst your target demographic. Not only is this good practice, it’s vital if you want to return to a prominent position in the market.
Re-start Your Digital Marketing Activity Today
If you’ve already stopped or reduced your marketing activity, there’s no need to panic just yet. It’s not too late to reengage with your audience and get your brand back on message. If you want to use all the tools at your disposal to keep your business thriving amid COVID-19, take a look at these top marketing tips:
Social Media Marketing
People are spending an increasing amount of time on social media platforms, so it’s time to ramp up your own social media activity. Creating new content and repurposing existing material is a great way to inform, entertain and engage with your target audience across all social media sites.
SEO
The ultimate way to increase organic traffic to your website, updating your SEO strategy will enable you to acquire a new raft of customers. As online behaviour changes in response to COVID-19, your SEO strategy needs to evolve accordingly. With an emphasis on keyword research, you can understand how your target audience are searching for content. Once you’ve got this information, you can update your SEO strategy accordingly. By doing so, you’ll climb the rankings and secure a top spot for your webpages.
PPC
Paid advertising is always an effective way to increase your reach and it offers remarkably swift results. If you’re eager to get your brand back up and running, an innovative PPC campaign can help. Offering highly targeted advertising, you can increase your conversion rate at a time when sales really count for everything.
Kickstart Your Business with ClickSlice
When you’re dealing with financial uncertainty, it’s essential that your marketing activity offers a high return on your investment. To achieve this, you’ll need to ensure that your digital marketing delivers measurable and actionable results.
At ClickSlice, we work with businesses across a range of industries to increase brand awareness, boost conversions and enhance profitability. By increasing your rankings, optimising conversions and turning your brand into a social media powerhouse; we’ll help you overcome the challenges you’re facing.
To learn more, contact ClickSlice today on 020 3287 3638 or email us at hello@clickslice.co.uk
Why Marketing Matters – Now More Than Ever
In times of economic hardship, many businesses impose cost saving measures in a bid to reduce expenditure. As companies adopt different strategies in an attempt to cope, well-honed contingency plans are being rolled out.. However, the recent outbreak of coronavirus is having a greater impact than almost anything before it. As a result, even the most well-prepared companies are struggling to stay afloat.
For small businesses, in particular, the economic outfall will be hard to overcome. Already, firms are significantly reducing their marketing budgets or scrapping them altogether. Although this may seem like a savvy way to save money, failing to market your business now could make it harder to recover in the long term.
All organisations will be affected by the pandemic that’s sweeping the globe but there are ways to mitigate the impact it will have on your business. With the right leadership, making the decision to maintain your marketing now could help your business overcome the widespread threats it’s facing. Here’s why:
Retaining Your Customer Base
As any business owner knows, acquiring customers is costlier than retaining them. That’s why companies place a significant emphasis on securing repeat business and increasing customer lifetime value. Failing to implement marketing activity now means there’s a good chance your existing customer base will be lost. So too will the investment you’ve made into cultivating this loyal band of customers.
If your brand is able to suspend trading, there’s no guarantee your customer base will be waiting for you once you’re able to return to the market. Having to start from scratch and build a new customer base may be a burden too far in upcoming months. To avoid this risk, maintain your marketing activity now and let the comparatively minimal investment pay dividends in the future.
Low Cost Marketing
Traditionally, companies reduced their marketing and advertising efforts when they needed to cut costs. However, offline advertising was far more costly than new forms of digital advertising. Today’s marketing methods offer better results at a fraction of the cost. By reducing your digital marketing activity now, you could make a relatively small saving but lose far more in terms of income.
As many companies use a combination of online and offline marketing, modifying your budgets may be prudent. By reducing offline advertising, for example, you could save significant resources and minimize your costs. Conversely, investing these funds into digital marketing will help you to connect with your target audience and maintain your place in the market.
Launch New Products and Services
The majority of businesses are looking for new ways to trade amidst the confusion and disruption caused by coronavirus. Depending on your sector, this may mean delivering your services in new ways or launching different product lines. To do this, you’ll need to make your target demographic aware of your company’s intentions and upcoming events.
Digital marketing is the most effective way to do this in times of economic success and the same is true during times of financial hardship. With low cost campaign options, widespread reach and profitable results, digital marketing will enable you to convey critical information, such as service changes, to your target audience.
Increasing Internet Usage
One of the reasons digital marketing is so effective is because so many people use the internet regularly. In fact, over 3 billion people worldwide are online. With people spend more time in self-isolation, they’re turning to the internet more than ever before.
An increasing number of people are logging on to work, to communicate, to socialise and to ease their boredom and anxiety. Companies who choose to continue marketing their businesses online will have the opportunity to reach a growing audience. No matter what demographic your target market consists of, they’re present on the internet in growing numbers and digital marketing gives you the tools you need to connect with them.
Maintain Brand Loyalty
Retaining customers and gaining their trust is always a top priority for businesses and it should be one of your main focuses now. As society faces an unprecedented threat, people are turning to brands they trust for information, guidance, support and even entertainment and distraction.
Digital communication is the fastest way to issue a message or reach your audience. As businesses are forced to respond swiftly to changing government guidelines, digital marketing is the only realistic way to communicate with your customers and target audience in these times.
Whether you need to issue real-time updates about changing business practices, you want to reassure customers that you’re still providing services; or you simply want to offer people a light-hearted diversion in a difficult time, digital marketing is the way to do it.
From tweets and Instagram stories to video messages, emails and blog posts; digital content can be delivered directly to your customers and shared worldwide in a matter of seconds.
Maintain Your Business with Digital Marketing
At ClickSlice, we understand the benefits digital marketing can bring, now more than ever. We’re working hard to ensure businesses can overcome the troubling times ahead. With a compassionate, nuanced and strategic approach, our dedicated team is working diligently (and remotely!) to help our clients retain and improve their place in the market.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a growing business, an owner of an established SME or running an international company, we’re on hand to provide the advice, assistance and expertise you need to navigate this unchartered territory.
Talk to us today on 020 3287 3638 or email us at hello@clickslice.co.uk
3 Reasons Your Rankings Have Dropped – And What To Do About It
Achieving high search engine rankings is a top priority for most businesses and site owners. By ensuring your webpages rank highly for relevant keywords, you can increase brand awareness, secure a high conversion rate and boost your sales. It’s essential, therefore, that you outrank your competitors and reach your target market.
However, effective SEO isn’t just about achieving high rankings. To ensure on-going success, you need to maintain these rankings too. Many businesses assume the hard work is over once they’ve secured a top spot on search engine results pages (SERPs). In reality, rankings aren’t static, and your webpages could drop down the list at any time.
If you’ve noticed your rankings are gradually reducing, it’s important to understand why. Once you know what’s causing you to lose your position on SERPs, you can take action. The most common reasons for losing rankings include:
1. Dead Backlinks
Backlinks are a critical element of SEO. Known as a key factor of off-page SEO, they connect your webpages to external sites. High authority domains are particularly important when it comes to securing backlinks as they help to endorse your own webpages.
However, websites change over time. Securing a high authority backlink one month doesn’t necessarily mean it will be there next month or month year. In the same way that your internal links may need to be updated or removed to eradicate dead links, it’s important to check the validity of your backlinks.
If you’ve cultivated a good backlink network, don’t simply assume that it will continue to help you get great rankings. If these pages are removed or modified, your backlink could disappear. As you won’t necessarily be notified, the first sign of disappearing backlinks could be a drop in your rankings.
2. Out of Date Content
Google rates websites that regularly update their content. As well as giving users access to fresh information, posting new content gives people a reason to revisit your site. In a best case scenario, failing to update your content means an increased bounce rate, reduced time being spent on your site and a boring user experience. At worst, out of date content could mean you’re delivering inaccurate information or advice to your users.
It’s easy to see why Google won’t rank webpages highly if they’re not updated. The search engine is focused on redirecting to content that’s accurate, valid and useful. Out of date content simply doesn’t tick these boxes, so you can’t expect to rank highly with it.
3. Evolving User Behaviour
To secure consistent high rankings on SERPs, you need to cater to user behaviour. Knowing how users search for information is critical to making sure they find your content, for example. But user behaviour can change at an alarming pace. When users begin to search different or consume information in a changing way, your site needs to be ahead of the game.
A good example of this is the move towards non-text based searches. Increasing numbers of people are using voice searches to access online content. If your SEO strategy is still focused solely on text-based searches, you aren’t catering for the change in user behaviour. As a result, you can expect your rankings to drop over time.
No matter how effective your SEO activities have been thus far, you need to pre-empt and respond to changes in user behaviour if you want to maintain high rankings.
How to Deal with Plummeting SEO Rankings
If you’ve noticed your rankings dropping, it’s essential to take steps to rectify the situation. The fact that you’re already moving down SERPs means things are already going wrong with your SEO campaigns. By responding swiftly, you can prevent your rankings from dropping even further and, potentially, climb back to the top of the rankings once again.
To stop your hard work and SEO campaigns going to waste, take a look at these top tips for preventing a decline in your SERPs rankings…
1. Check for algorithm changes
Google and other search engines introduce new algorithm changes all the time. In addition, existing algorithms may be modified slightly. If you’re managing your SEO in-house, it’s vital to keep on top of these changes.
When algorithms change, the way sites are indexed and ranked can change accordingly. This means you’ll need to tweak your webpages and SEO activities to ensure you’re satisfying the latest algorithms. Maintaing high rankings is an on-going process, so keeping on top of algorithm changes should be a top priority.
2. Understand user behaviour
If you’re losing your position on page 1 on Google, it may be because users are searching for content slightly differently. They may be using a different form of tech to access content or they may simply be inputting different words and search terms. Whatever the change is, it’s important to understand it. Once you know how user behaviour is changing, you can update your SEO campaigns in response. This will ensure your content is still being presented to users when they search for terms and keywords that relate to your business, brand or site.
3. Confirm backlinks are active
As well as checking your own site for dead internal links, you’ll want to ensure your backlinks are still alive and kicking. If they’ve been removed or if the authority of a site you’re linked to has dropped, this could be affecting your rankings. Fortunately, this can be very easy to rectify. By securing new, high authority backlinks, you can effectively re-endorse your webpages in the eyes of Google. In doing so, you’ll prevent your rankings from dropping any further and begin to climb back up to the top.
4. Update your content
If you haven’t implemented a content marketing strategy, it’s time to do so. Your site needs to be updated on a regular basis, so plan ahead and schedule information, insightful and original content. In addition to this, revisit your existing content and update it where necessary. If you feature cornerstone or evergreen content on your site, for example, make sure it is still accurate and relevant to your users.
Remember – content is solely about what’s present on your site. Your content extends to your social media posts, video marketing and email newsletters. Regular audits will help to ensure your content is up to date, accurate and properly optimised.
5. Get a FREE personalised video audit
If you’ve updated your content, checked your backlinks, studied user behaviour and responded to algorithm changes but your rankings still aren’t where you want them to be – it’s time to seek expert help. With a free, personalised video audit, our expert SEO strategists will analyse your website and identify issues which could be harming your search engine rankings.
With a tailormade video for you to access, you can benefit from bespoke advice and information relating to your site. Why make do with generic tips when you can access custom advice for free?
Restore Your SEO Rankings Now
To find out more about maintaining top SEO rankings, get in touch with ClickSlice today. You can arrange your FREE personalised video audit by contacting us on 020 3287 3638 or emailing us at hello@clickslice.co.uk.
Simply tell us your URL, keywords and areas you’re targeting, and our in-house SEO consultants will begin preparing your bespoke website audit. With limited free audits available, there’s no time to waste if you want to secure top rankings. Contact ClickSlice now and secure the top spots on SERPs today!
How to Get on Page 1 of Google
Over 75% of users never look beyond the first page of search results.
Getting your website to page 1 on Google has never been more important.
With the first five search results accounting for over 67% of clicks, getting to the top of page 1 should be every businesses top priority.
Of course, understanding Google’s indexing algorithms isn’t necessarily straightforward. Furthermore, you are competing with millions of other websites who also want to secure the top spots. Fortunately, help is at hand.
At ClickSlice we know what it takes to get your business to page 1 of Google. If you want your rankings to soar, take a look at these top tips for SEO success…
1 - Choose A Keyword
The first thing you need to determine is what keyword (search phrase) you want to be on page 1 for. Your site doesn’t need to rank highly for every search a user makes.
Instead, you want to rank highly for keywords with high buyer intent, AKA the keywords that are most likely to generate your business money.
Let’s imagine you run a plumbing business based in London… targeting a keyword like “How do I unblock a sink” is probably not the best strategy as people who search for this are typically interested in learning how to unblock a sink themselves, meaning they will not require your services.
You’re much better off targeting a keyword with a high buyer intent behind it such as “Sink unblocking London”.
People who search for “Sink unblocking London” are interested in finding someone who can unblock their sink. Which as a plumber would be a service you offer, making it a perfect keyword to target.
Pro tip: If you run a SAB (Service Area business) you can rinse and repeat this method for all the locations you target.
2 - Check The Competition
Now you’ve got your keywords finalised, it’s time to look at who you’re competing against.
Just as it’d be tough to start a successful supermarket store across the road from Tesco, it’s difficult to rank on the first page of Google when the competition is fierce.
So the next step is to understand the competitive landscape—starting with who you’re up against.
To do that, search for your keyword and look at the first page of results.
If all you see is massive well-known brands and you’re a small start-up that nobody has ever heard of, then getting to the first page is going to be quite tough.. At least in the short to medium time frame.
For example, look at the search results for “car insurance.”
Every result is from a huge brand—Admiral, MoneySavingExpert, GoCompare etc.
This is a clear sign that those who are looking for car insurance typically want it from a well known, established brand. Ranking on page 1 against these guys would be tall order even for the smartest SEO.
Make sure you take note of the websites you see on page 1 for the keywords you want to target, if over 50% of them are big well-known brands, then have a rethink and niche down some more.
Once you find the keywords you are happy with you to need to optimise your actual page to include these keywords on them, however, just don’t just stuff them anywhere, you want to include them in the key placeholders.
Find out where we place keywords by downloading our EXACT 5 step process we use at ClickSlice when optimising websites to get them on page 1.
3 - High-Quality Content
Once users are on your site, it’s your job to keep them there. Whilst getting your keywords included in the key place holders are critical, users won’t stick around for subpar content. That’s why you need strategic content optimisation and management to ensure you get on page 1 on Google.
When you fill your webpages with innovative and original content, you’re giving users a reason to stay on your site and increasing the amount of time they spend on each page. This is a massive ranking factor and something Google measures.
If people are coming onto your website and only spending 2 seconds on your page then its a signal to Google that your content isn’t great, as a result, Google will give your website lower rankings, resulting in no organic traffic.
You want to make sure your content read wells, is engaging and gives people a reason to read on.
Also, pay close attention so what you are writing on your website and ensure it answers exactly what the person searches for.
For example, you would have found this article by searching for “How to get on page 1 on google” or something along those lines, as a result, this whole article is focused on giving you information about how you can get onto page 1. If we were to start talking about Youtube ads or something irrelevant then you would lose interest.
Your customers are no different, focus on providing high quality and relevant content
Pro Tip – Everything you publish on and off your site is ‘content’. From your homepage and blog to your social media posts and meta descriptions; everything you publish online should be part of your content optimisation strategy.
4 - Backlinks
What happens behind the scenes of your website is just as important as what users can see. Backlinks are simply a mention of your website on an external website, backlinks are seen as a vote of confidence in the eyes of Google.
However, you don’t want just any old backlink for your site, you want high-quality backlinks that are relevant.
Securing backlinks from high-authority domains is one of the most effective ways to boost your rankings. Of course, obtaining these backlinks isn’t easy. Domain authority is based on a score from 1-100; the higher your score, the better your domain authority.
When high authority domains are linking to your webpages, it boosts the reputation and authority of your site.
One way to obtain backlinks to your website is to reach out to authoritative websites in your niche and ask if you can submit a guest post on their website.
A guest post is simply where you write an article as a “Guest” and it gets posted on an external website.
The article you write for the site would contain a link in it which links back to your website.
It’s a little time intensive and explains why over 55% of webpages don’t have any backlinks at all.
However, it’s 100% worth the effort. In fact, It’s exactly the method we used to rank ClickSlice on page 1 on google for “local SEO services London”.
5 - Site Functionality
Lastly, to rank highly, your site needs to be SEO-friendly and deliver a great user experience (UX). This means fixing broken links, optimising the structure and increasing loading speeds. In addition, you’ll need to ensure your site meets Google’s mobile-first indexing requirements. (Hint – responsive web design is an easy and effective way to achieve this).
By making your site intuitive and logical, you’re on the right track. A slick design can certainly enhance a website, but its functionality needs to come first. Think of your site’s structure as its foundations – without a solid grounding, everything else falls apart.
Make it easy for users to navigate your site, even if they’re first-time visitors.
By maintaining an intuitive, user-friendly and fully functional website, you have the building blocks you need to get on page 1 on Google.
Get on Page 1 on Google – And Stay There!
Getting to page 1 on Google can transform your business. With increased brand awareness, higher conversion rates and increased sales, higher rankings quickly equate to better commercial performance.
But getting to page 1 on Google isn’t your only aim. Staying on page 1 on Google is just as important for long-term business success.
With over 200 Google algorithms to contend with, maintaining placement on page 1 isn’t easy. In fact, it requires consistent optimisation across an ever-increasing list of parameters.
In addition, you’ll need to predict how Google’s ranking and indexing algorithms will change over time. As new tech comes to the forefront, for example, you need to know how it will change user behaviour and algorithms in order to optimise your content and maintain your rankings.
While these 5 tips give you the basics of things you need to consider to improve your website rankings, we’ve also put together the EXACT 5 step process we use at ClickSlice to optimise websites to get them on page 1.
Grab a FREE copy of it today and start getting your website moving in the right direction.
5 Ways To Create Content Google Loves
Great content is at the heart of any successful business. Whether you’re aiming to increase your rankings, grow your enterprise or generate sales; you rely on content to make it happen. Created to inform, persuade, engage and sell; the right content turns your target market into loyal customers.
It’s no surprise, then, that great content is central to effective SEO too. If you want your website to rank highly, it’s essential to create content that Google loves. Whether you’re launching a new business or running an existing enterprise, a tailored content marketing strategy is critical to your success. By using Google’s algorithms as a guide, you can create content that engages your target market and helps you to rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs).
With the potential to optimise your conversion rate and increase brand awareness, engaging content can transform your business. Want to learn more? Take a look at these top 5 tips and create content that will lift your rankings today…
1. Keyword Focused
The days of ‘keyword stuffing’ are long gone but your content should still be content rich. Of course, your keywords should appear naturally in any content you publish. Furthermore, the presence of keywords or key terms shouldn’t devalue the content.
Instead of trying to stuff keywords into a blog post, for example, evaluate why the keywords are relevant to users and create content accordingly. To ensure your content creation is keyword focused, it’s essential to undertake detailed keyword research first. Once you know what key terms you want to rank for, you will be able to take a more strategic approach to content creation.
2. Varied Content
Everything your business publishes is content; from social media posts and website images to online articles and offline adverts. Blog posts are a fantastic way to add fresh, new content to your site and engage with your target audience. However, they aren’t the only type of content you should be publishing on a regular basis.
A comprehensive content marketing strategy involves using different mediums. When you’re devising your content strategy, aim to create content in as many forms as possible, including:
- Website copy
- Blog posts
- Online articles
- Social media posts
- Guest posts
- Videos
- Images
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- eBooks
- Apps
- White papers
- Reviews
- Infographics
- Memes
- How-To guides
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- Newsletters
- Interviews
- Slideshares and presentation
Remember – Content can be shared across different platforms. Maximise its impact via multi-channel promotion. In addition to this, you can use the basis of one piece of content to create another. A video script can easily form the basis of a blog post, for example, while How-To guides can be collated into a company eBook.
3. Timeless and Time-Sensitive
Google likes websites that are regularly updated, so you’ll want to create content that’s fresh and original. However, it’s also important to publish evergreen and cornerstone content. This is content that stands the test of time and remains relevant over months or even years.
Evergreen content should be as timeless as possible. When used correctly, evergreen content will continue to attract traffic to your site, so choose topics that are always going to be relevant to your business and your target market.
In contrast, your time-sensitive content should feature promotions, events and news. These can cause significant spikes in website traffic, but they won’t necessarily generate on-going interest. Christmas-themed posts will increase traffic from October to December, for example, but will garner little interest throughout the rest of the year.
When you create content strategies that combine evergreen and time-sensitive content, you’re satisfying Google and giving users a reason to keep coming back to your site. Establishing both your expertise and your innovation, evergreen and time-sensitive content gives you a two-pronged approach to maximise success.
4. Content Optimisation
If you want to reap the benefits of an inspired digital marketing campaign, you’ll need to ensure your content is properly optimised. Google will rank your webpages highly if they feature great content, but it needs to know it’s there.
By optimising your content, you tell Google exactly what your webpages are about, as well as what and who they are relevant too. To do this, you’ll need to use tags, such as <title>, <h2> and <h3>. Meta descriptions, title pages and favicons are also small but essential optimisation techniques.
To really boost your rankings, take a look at your page and content layouts too. As well as increasing your webpage rankings, the layout of your content could help you to ensure it’s promoted by Google in the form of featured snippets. Lists, bullet points and how-to guides are popular types of content for featured snippets, so be sure to include these on your website.
If you want to improve your SEO rankings, you need a winning link building campaign.
Link building is a form of off-page SEO that helps to improve the credibility of your website. Getting links to your site placed on other reputable sites establishes your authenticity and boosts your rankings.
While the premise behind link building sounds simple enough, a successful campaign can be tricky to execute. If you want to get on the first page of Google, take a look at this step by step guide and start building your link building strategy today…
5. Audience-focused content
When you create content, focusing on your target audience is, perhaps, the most important element. Whilst there are numerous algorithms you need to bear in mind, Google’s overriding objective is to satisfy its users. To do this, it wants to offer search results that are relevant, accurate and informative.
As Google places increasing importance on search intent, you can get to page 1 of the results by publishing original, engaging and insightful content. Although you’ll need to upload or modify your content regularly to meet Google’s requirements, don’t simply post content because you feel you have to.
Instead, focus on producing high quality content that will be valued by your target market. No matter what type of content you’re publishing, it needs to engage the user, persuade, inform, entertain and, ultimately, convert them.
Create Content That Gets You To Page 1 on Google
Creating a content strategy and producing top quality content takes time. From the initial research to writing, filming or collating, you need to spend a significant amount of time creating content that works for your brand. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone.
At ClickSlice, we specialise in getting your website to page 1 on Google. To achieve this, we undertake comprehensive keyword research, create bespoke content for your business and publish it in all the right places. To find out how we’ll transform your business, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
Sure-Fire Online Success for Small Businesses
For today’s businesses, having a website is non-negotiable. Whether you’re an online-only retailer or a bricks and mortar service provider, it’s essential to have a web presence. However, merely being visible online isn’t enough to ensure online success.
To turn your web presence into tangible results, you need to be ranking on the first page of Google’s search results.
Want proof?
Over 75% of searchers never go beyond the first page and over 67% of clicks are reserved for the first 5 organic search results.
Although reaching the second or third page of Google can be a great achievement for a new website, it isn’t going to have any noticeable impact on your business. In fact, being stuck on the second page of search results means you’re missing out on…
1. Brand Awareness
When your webpages are consistently featured on the first search engine results page (SERP), users become familiar with your brand. Even if they don’t click on your webpage initially, you’re putting your brand on their radar.
Most people search for similar keywords repeatedly. If your website offers tips on puppy training, for example, new dog owners will be searching for related terms for weeks, months or even years. If your webpages are on the first page for every search they undertake, your brand awareness increases exponentially.
2. Reputation and Influence
No matter what sector you operate in, you’ll want to be known as an industry leader. Establishing your authority isn’t always easy but strategic SEO can make it happen. Users rely on Google to cherry-pick the highest quality search results for them. When your webpages are appearing on the first SERP, users automatically regard your brand as being well-respected, reliable and influential.
This perceived endorsement has a major influence on user attitudes and behaviours, which means users are more likely to interact with your brand if Google is ranking you highly.
3. No Inbound Leads
Businesses rely on incoming leads to facilitate sales. Without incoming enquiries, you won’t increase your market share or grow your business. While some companies generate a portion of profits via outbound lead generation, it’s incoming leads and repeat business that account for the majority of your turnover.
Want to create brand awareness for your business and generate incoming leads? Find out how with our FREE 5 Step Checklist! Here, we tell you everything you need to know to get your website on page 1 of Google and achieve online success. Why wait?
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Prior to making any type of online or in store purchase, 88% of consumers conduct research online. With the vast majority of your target market researching related services and products online, your content needs to be front and centre. We already know that over 75% of users don’t go further than the first page of search results, so it’s clear that this is where you need to be to generate leads.
4. Low Conversion Rates
If you’re generating some website traffic but it isn’t converting into sales, you need to find out why. Many businesses assume their SEO is working if they’re getting traffic to their site, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Effective SEO should always benefit your business. Traffic that doesn’t lead to conversions isn’t growing your business. With the right SEO, you’ll achieve an enviable ROI and online success.
It’s no secret that good SEO practices help build great websites. In fact, Google’s ranking algorithms are directly related to the structure and quality of your site content. When your webpages are ranking highly on Google and hitting the top spots, they are going to be optimising your conversion rate too. This, combined with the increased brand awareness and enhanced reputation which comes with ranking on the top SERP, means you’ll be soaring beyond your sales targets and achieving online success.
5. No Website Traffic
Building a user-friendly website and filling it with original, informative content is fantastic for your business but you’re missing one thing: traffic. Without consistent traffic, you aren’t going to generate sales or grow your customer base.
To generate traffic, you’re going to need to rank highly on Google for search terms that are related to your business. Google is the number one search engine and accounts for over 75% of all online search traffic. While other search engines are relevant, Google is the main player when it comes to boosting your website traffic.
Despite this, 91% of websites never get any traffic from Google. With over 1.7 billion websites registered globally, that’s over 1.5 billion that aren’t getting traffic from the world’s largest search engine. It also means there are almost 200 billion sites generating traffic that you need to compete with.
If you want to be amongst the 9% of sites that generate website traffic from Google, there’s only one way to do it: increase your rankings.
Achieving Online Success with SEO Rankings
In today’s digital world, low rankings can be catastrophic for businesses. Of course, it’s hard to overcome the lack of brand awareness, reduced conversion rate and lack of inbound leads that moderate rankings offer. Fortunately, our FREE 5 Step Checklist gives you a sure-fire strategy for online success.
Despite the importance of ranking on page one of Google, very few businesses have the in-house resources to increase their SEO rankings. Currently, Google uses over 200 algorithms to rank webpages, so it takes a significant amount of expertise to secure and maintain the top spots on SERPs.
Fortunately, you don’t need your own SEO department to get the results you need to grow your business. At ClickSlice, we know what it takes to get your website to the top. From in-depth keyword research and content optimisation to online outreach and reputation management; we’ve got the experience and expertise to get your webpages on page 1 of Google.
If you want to increase brand awareness, generate traffic, optimise your conversion rate, enhance your reputation and improve inbound leads, contact us today.
Call ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638 or email us at hello@clickslice.co.uk to find out more.
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Featured Snippets: What, Why and How?
If you haven’t optimised your content to ensure you’re appearing in featured snippets, it’s time to get started. When your content is presented to users in the form of a featured snippet, it boosts the authority and reputation of your site by a significant amount.
In addition to this, it ensures your webpages are facilitating new types of searching, such as voice-activated searches. As more people embrace smart technology, you’ll find that snippets become even more important to your search engine optimisation.
Before you can begin to optimise your site, however, it’s essential to know what featured snippets are and why they matter so much…
What are Featured Snippets?
Featured snippets are portions of a webpage which are shown directly on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). When users input a search term, Google aims to give them an answer right away by providing the content they are looking for straight away.
To achieve accurate results and useful answers, Google uses snippets in response to queries which can be answered in a fairly straightforward way. If you search for ‘temperature in London’, for example, Google returns with a snippet telling you the current temperature and the predicted temperature over the next few hours.
Crucially, featured snippets appear above organic search results on SERPs. Sitting directly below AdWords ads and above organic search results, they get prime placement on SERPs.
What do Featured Snippets Look Like?
Featured snippets come in various forms but the most common are:
- Text snippets
- Image snippets
- Video snippets
- List and table snippets
These are fairly self-explanatory, but they give you an idea of how information is presented as a snippet. Below the snippet, is a link to the webpage the content comes from. With a good SEO strategy and flawless execution, it’s yours link that will be appearing as featured snippets in the near future!
Why do Featured Snippets Matter?
When users search for information, they click a link and visit a webpage with the information they want. By optimising your webpages for relevant search terms, or keywords, you could increase the number of users clicking your links and visiting your site.
Now that snippets give users this info on SERPs, however, there is less incentive for users to click on any links at all. While in-depth searches still require users to visit external webpages, simple searches don’t. Instead, Google is satisfying user’s queries by giving the information straight to them on their first results page.
When the information sought by the user is given to them on Google’s search results pages, they have no reason to visit any other webpages. This is why queries which can be satisfied via snippets are often called, ‘no click searches’.
For businesses and site owners who are eager to get users on to their webpages, this change in search behaviour is clearly going to have an impact. The number of users who will be clicking through to websites from SERPs will drop as the accuracy and number of snippets increases.
The users who do click on a search result will be most likely to click on the featured snippet itself. This is why you want your content to appear as the featured snippet.
Furthermore, it is snippet content which is commonly given to users who are searching by voice, rather than text. The number of voice-activated searches is already increasing, and it is expected to rise even more. By optimising your content for snippets and voice searches now, you can get ahead of the trend and establish your site’s authenticity, accuracy and dominance now.
How to Secure Featured Snippets
For any search query, Google only shows one featured snippet. Of course, Google wants to ensure the user’s question is fully satisfied via the featured snippet, so it selects the content which it rates very highly. Essentially, you need to ensure that your content is valued most highly by Google.
This is no easy feat. With only one featured snippet being shown per search, there is a lot of competition to contend with. However, there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood of Google selecting your webpages for its featured snippets…
Improve your rankings
The vast majority of snippets come from webpages that are already in the top 10 of organic search results. By improving your organic rankings, you can greatly improve your chances of being selected to be a snippet. To do this, you’ll need strategic SEO campaigns and consistent SEO activity.
Modify your content
Featured snippets don’t appear on every search. To date, the most common terms to prompt a snippet to appear are; recipe, best, vs, make, definition, windows, can, get, number, cost, meaning, price and chicken. Not all of these will be relevant to your business, but you can certainly modify your content to include some of them.
Alter content formats
We already know what formats featured snippets take, so ensure your content layout fits the relevant structures. By answering common search queries via an easy-to-read paragraph or list, you increase the likelihood of it being displayed as a featured snippet.
Secure Featured Snippets with Expert SEO Help
The fastest and most effective way of improving your rankings and securing featured snippets is to seek expert help. You will need a strategic SEO campaign if you want to beat the competition. Fortunately, our experienced team have the skills it takes to get your site to the top.
If you want to find out more about securing featured snippets, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
SEO Trends You Need To Be Using In 2020
SEO is an ever-changing field. As search engines modify their algorithms, your SEO strategy needs to change too. To achieve the best rankings, it’s important to keep up to date with the latest SEO innovations.
Remember – rankings aren’t static. Achieving the top spot on a results page is just half the battle. To ensure you stay on top, you’ll need to up your SEO game and implement bespoke SEO campaigns.
To give you a head start, we’ve put together our top five SEO trends to watch out for in 2020. If you want to dominate the results pages for your chosen keywords, take a look at the trends you need to be using…
1. Voice Searching
The way users search for content is changing. As more people embrace Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant, voice searches are becoming increasingly popular. However, voice searching doesn’t just alter the method of looking for content.
When people search for content audibly, the terms they use differ too. This means your existing SEO strategy is unlikely to be as effective. To ensure your content ranks highly for both voice and text search, you’ll need to adapt your campaign.
As well as optimising your new content for voice searches, be sure to analyse your existing site structure and content. Tweaking your website to ensure it’s fully optimised for all types of searching will help you to obtain the best rankings.
2. Evergreen Content
A major element of successful SEO is updating your site with fresh, new content. However, topical content may not be the subject of searches for very long. To maximise your ROI, make sure evergreen content is included in your SEO campaign.
Evergreen content is designed to last the test of time – just like evergreen trees which keep their leaves all year round. With consistent search volumes, evergreen content will remain relevant in the weeks and months to come.
This means that users will continue to search for related keywords and your webpage will continue to be at the top of the rankings. With reliable traffic volumes, search engines will continue to rank your site highly. Furthermore, the use of evergreen content and the subsequent traffic you’ll receive will help to establish your authority and credibility.
3. Search Intentions
Keywords and terms have been a critical way to deliver relevant content to searchers. By optimising your content for keywords that are relevant to your brand, you can get your links in front of people who are actively looked for related content. However, search engines are becoming smarter.
In a bid to enhance user experience, Google is beginning to analyse searcher intention. Rather than taking what a user types or says at face value, search engines look behind the terminology used and analyse their search intention instead.
If you can optimise your content to reflect this, you’ll be on to something special. Fortunately, we can do just that. As intent matching becomes more prevalent throughout 2020, you’ll want to be using this cutting-edge SEO tactic to boost your rankings and generate website traffic.
4. Video Marketing
Video content is extremely popular. In fact, it’s the most popular form of content on social media. What’s more, all demographics use video to influence purchases. If you’re a retail business, don’t overlook the importance of video marketing in 2020.
Dedicated video platforms, like YouTube, receive an exceptional number of hits. Currently, over 1 billion of hours of video are watched on YouTube each day. With an additional 8 billion video views on Facebook each week, it’s easy to see just how popular video content is.
For businesses, the potential to use video marketing to increase sales is too valuable to overlook. Smart Insights report that video content offers a higher ROI on social media platforms than any other type of content. Furthermore, 72% of people maintain they would prefer to learn about a product via video, rather than text or images.
Creating video content gives you the opportunity to be an innovative as you like. When using video content for SEO purposes, however, it’s vital that it’s fully optimised. Whether you’re creating video content in-house or using a specialist production team, do make sure it will drive your rankings.
5. Topical Content
Think your topical content can’t be planned in advance? Think again. When structuring your SEO content, it’s important to incorporate topical issues and high-profile newsworthy features. While many businesses attempt to do this, the perceived unexpectedness of big news stories can make it difficult.
In many cases, however, it is possible to predict which stories will be high profile. Using a mix of planned editorial, planned reactive editorial and reactive editorial, you can ensure you’re covering topical events throughout the year.
Both planned editorial and planned reactive editorial content can be scheduled in advance, because we know these topics are going to be covered. Entertainment sites can plan coverage for the finale of major shows, for example, even though they don’t know who will be crowned the winner.
While reactive editorial can’t be planned in advance, both planned relative editorial and planned editorial content can a key part of your strategic and topical SEO.
SEO Success in 2020 with ClickSlice
As well as embracing new SEO trends in 2020, it’s important to keep up with existing ones. From keyword research and image optimisation to link building and PPC ads; there are numerous areas to cover if you want to achieve high rankings.
If you want to achieve SEO success in 2020, get in touch with ClickSlice now. Our SEO specialists are on hand to devise bespoke campaigns for your brand. Using a combination of innovative tactics and in-depth research, we’ll ensure you achieve maximum results.
To find out more now, contact ClickSlice today on 020 3287 3638.
