Features of the Honley Law Website:

In building the new Honley Law Practice website, we ensured that the site included:

• SEO Friendly Web Design
• User Friendly CMS
• Customised Blog for Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Results

In their SEO Campaign so far we have achieved:

• Top 3 positions for “family law Honley”
• Top 4 for “family lawyer Honley”
• 3rd for “family law Huddersfield”
• 3rd for “family lawyer Huddersfield”
• Top 3 for positions for “employment lawyer Honley”
• Top 3 positions for “divorce lawyer Honley”

Case study or poor SEO

If we take an example of a site I recently worked on, the company offered local accountancy.  They had a total of 9 different services that they offered from tax returns to compliance.  The company wanted to be on page one of Google locally for all 9 services.  On analysis the website, I found that the website had a total number of 7 pages.  One page was dedicated to the services the business provided with only a short paragraph per service on the page.  To get the most out of your SEO and Keywords I recommend one page per keyword/phrase group.

Case Study of Good SEO

So lets take our site as an example.  We currently rank at position 1 for the keyword Digital Marketing Agency West Yorkshire

The keyword Digital Marketing Agency can be found in the Title, Meta Descriptions and keywords, on page the phrase Digital Marketing repeats itself 9 times.  You need to be careful not to over emphasis your keyword as Google will see this as ‘Keyword Stuffing’ so the balance needs to be correct.  Finally I make sure that the content on the page is always up to date.

So when you are thinking about Keywords for SEO and you have a service or product you wish to promote check to see if you have a dedicated page relating to this service or product, or are you diluting your keyword by trying to cram too much into a page?

Have a SEO Expert look at your site and advise on what needs to be done to improve the Keyword Rankings

and don’t send your Digital Marketing company mad by wanting the impossible!!!

Most companies have at least one website these days, some dabble with search engine marketing and social media. However, only a few companies are being forensic with their results and even fewer are really getting to grips with their websites to turn them into sales or lead generation machines.

At a time when discretionary expenses like marketing are under pressure, business owners should be scrutinising their costs. Many businesses do not analyse their marketing spend against any criteria or results. Some businesses think they should be marketing in the good times, some businesses think that they should be especially marketing in the bad times, so which case is right? Of course as a discretionary spend, marketing is an easy target. Far easier to cut a discretionary spend with the swipe of a red pen than to actually make real efficiency improvements, or to set real investment tests and comparisons. However, cutting marketing indiscriminately risks killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

So what should Managing Directors, Financial Directors and Marketing Directors be doing to make the right calls in hard times? It has always been true that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, so the first thing is to start measuring marketing activities. With the Internet this is so much easier than any offline marketing.

Google Analytics is a free bit of code that can be inserted into websites. Google Analytics shows a raft of information including data on where your traffic has come from e.g. referring websites, search engines and keywords used; pages visited, time spent on pages, and paths taken to a site. It is also possible to set desirable  events or actions as goals e.g. clicking on an e-mail address, submitting a contact form, downloading a document, buying a service or product etc, In addition the pages that lead up to the “transaction” or goal can be defined as a funnel.

What does all this data let us do?

• By tracking which sites refer business and which keywords buyers use, suggests which keywords to best invest in, for search engine marketing. Conversely, keywords that have a high bounce rate ie when visitors leave the website almost as soon as they have landed, we can learn which keywords not to invest in, or indeed, that our website needs to meet and greet these visitors far better, by using a specially designed landing page. This is one of the easiest ways to increase sales and decrease marketing costs, essentially doubling the effectiveness of the marketing spend, by doing more of what works and cutting out what isn’t working.
• By defining a checkout funnel, we can identify the pages that potential customers are dropping out on, and take action to identify reasons for drop out, e.g. a needless login process, bad sign posting or unclear pricing. By careful attention to the checkout process a website can change conversion rates from 1% to 4% or more, potentially quadrupling sales.
• With accurate onsite data it is possible to run tests, for example varying the headline, the offer, the image, the call to action etc, often minute changes on page can dramatically increase the amount of potential customers that engage and click on to the next stage. Google themselves have run tests on their analytics sign up page, and by running a series of tests, have increased sign up by 56%

So why don’t more people use the tools that are available?

Often the volume of data can be perplexing, but with a little hand holding from a professional adviser, the data can be made clear and the resulting actions directed.

Many web designers do not install Analytics or inform their customers about the analytics.

Some web companies will not only explain about Analytics, but will make a point of going through the analytics on a regular basis and can advise on or indeed set up goals and goal paths.

So if you’re not sure if you have web analytics installed on your website, ask the company that built it, they may want to charge, and although analytics is free, it does take some time to install the analytics and set up the goals and goal paths.

Once you have access to the information, keep a simple spreadsheet of your most important statistics so that you have a record of the key data, you will then be in a position to ask searching questions about the power and effectiveness of any online marketing or search engine optimisation, and you will have the answers at your finger tips.

So don’t get the red pen to your marketing budget just yet, work out what is working best and what is working least, then invest the under performing budget in the over performing budget to secure your companies growth.

On a daily basis I upload clients’ blogs and content to their sites.  I know how hard it can be to try and write content for a blog or a site.  Many a time I’ve sat there myself not knowing where to start, and like most other people I think… “I know I’ll have a look and see what other people have written”

And there lies the trap, you copy the text from another site or subject, think I’ll just tweak it a bit and I’m done – EASY

But STOP – The whole concept of Google Search is to bring you the most relevant web pages from the search you’ve entered, and recently Google has had a major change in its Algorithm.

Why is Copying Content Bad?

I tend to explain to our clients that Content on your site is like food to Google.  Google sees fresh original relevant content on your site and likes to come and have a snack.  If Google comes back a month later and the same food is on the site, it wrinkles it’s nose at it.  If Google comes back again later and finds the same food, well that’s just starting to go a bit mouldy and Google’s interest in the site just isn’t like it was.  Same goes for food that Google has already eaten on another site.

We always have Fresh Treats in the Office

Also, you need to keep in mind that taking content from another website is actually illegal.  This includes images from other sites.  Basically if you come along and help yourself to our office treats without asking first we will get very upset, and so can other site owners!

So the next time you have writers block and need inspiration, remember that you know everything there is to know about your business, so put that into your own personal words and don’t Copy Content from someone else’s site !

Web Directories

Improving Product Descriptions

Although it is tempting to copy the manufacturer’s descriptions word for word to save time, duplicated content doesn’t do your website much good. Search engines prefer unique content, and if you write your own descriptions based on manufacturer details, your product pages will stand out from pages that have just copied everyone else’s text.

Writing your own product and category descriptions also ensures that the text targets the specific keywords  you want to be found on.  If you offer social media marketing courses in West Yorkshire, your Social Media Marketing Training page should target the relevant key phrases.

Use your Head(ings)

The heading tags – <h1>, <h2> and <h3> – are seen by search engines as “weighted” text that is more important than standard paragraph text. Descriptive headings that use the words you’d particularly like to target – and the more specific the better – will stand out to your readers – and the search engine robots.  It helps a great deal if your headings break up chunks of text with easy-to-scan headlines that will allow your customers to find the parts of the text that are important to them – product features, or specifications lists, for example.

Headings can also be styled so that they have a visual appearance that matches the overall look and feel of your website – even to the extent of creating side bars or panels with important product details.

SEO features for E-Commerce Builds

Does your Content Management System have:

• Unique Meta Titles for each product, category and content page?
• Places to create a unique Meta Description for each of the above?
• The ability to assign product or category-specific Keywords?
• Can you set up “friendly” and descriptive URLs for your products, instead of showing a string of numbers and punctuation marks?
• Automatic insertion of your product or category name as a heading – ideally H1?

We are constantly making improvements to our own in-house CMS design to ensure it stays on top of the best SEO practices for E-Commerce websites – keep an eye out for our latest launches!

Everyone is looking for exceptional value in 2011 as recession bites. But there are plenty of businesses bucking the trend. Here are just 4 tips to help your e-commerce business or online brochures website get a competitive edge in 2011.

1- Start Blogging, done well it really works

Why do the Experts Bother Blogging for E-commerce?

• Google looks out for Blogs
• Blogs increase the number of pages on your site, larger sites with fresh content can improve your online reputation with your prospects and with Google
• Blogs updated say once a week, means that there are weekly changes to your website, Google likes sites that are constantly updated, it shows that you care about your site
• Link your Blog into other Social Media Portals that you are involved with like Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In
• Make sure that others can also get access to your Blog by distributing your blog on social book marking sites like Digg and Delicious
• E-commerce businesses should demonstrate expertise for technical or complicated sales, a Blog is a great way to demonstrate this

E-commerce Blogging Advice

• Have a givers mentality to Blogging and any other Social Media Activity
• Don’t oversell your services
• Review your products and demystify them
• Link your Blog to your product
• Link in your Blog to your other Social Media Portals

2- Claim Your Google Places Page to boost E-commerce

Why is Google Places So Important?

20% of searches are for local products and services, Google has very recently changed  the way it displays local results See Our Previous Blog Post and Google Places Information. Google has pieced together profiles of businesses from local directories, Google Street Views and various Review Sites, however, this information needs verifying.

The Google Places Results now dominate local search, however, most businesses have not claimed their Google places Page and have not added or verified the content. Thus many businesses are not correctly represented which could cost them sales and referrals.

Google Places Advice for E-commerce

• Claim your Google Places Page
• Make sure that you have an effective description of your business
• Upload images and video to reinforce your image
• Make Use of the Offer and Coupon Facility
• Make sure that you define your sales territory
• Be sure to define your industry and services
• Make sure that the Google Streets image is your shop front
• get customers to write reviews

3- Get Up To Speed With Your Social Media Presence

Why is Social Media So Important?

Our experience working with our clients is that Social Media :

• Increases the number of times your brand is found
• Increases the number of times your brand is searched for
• Increases the number of keywords that you can be found on
• Generates more sales ( it can more than double conversion rates)
• Get’s visitors to stay on the site much longer and visit more pages

Social Media Advice for E-commerce

• Get A professional business page on Facebook and Linked In and a personalised page on Twitter
• Integrate your Social Media Sites with your Website
• Give good engaging advice
• Keep at it, don’t give up after 2 posts
• Use Twitter and Facebook to give short dated offers and deals
• Try to build a community based on great advice or the heads up on new trends

4- Use Web Analytics

What’s with Analytics?

Web Analytics programs are vital, your website should be treated like your top sales person, it should be looked after, it should be managed and above all it needs measuring. Once you know what’s working do more of it. You can find out some really important information e.g.:

• How many vistors come to your site
• Key times and days for visitors
• Most used pages or most searched products
• Whether the content on your site is interesting
• Whether visitors do what you expect
• The keywords that generate the leads or brand building behaviour
• The characteristics of visitors from different sites like Social Media
• Above all it helps you decide where to place your marketing investment

Web Analytics Advice for E-commerce

• Install Google Analytics, it’s free from Google, but it may cost to install
• Define what actions you want to measure e.g. e-mails, downloads, contact forms, sales funnels and have these set up as goals so that you can see what activities result in favourable actions
• Pay particular attention to your checkout funnel, analyse, where people are dropping out, small changes in conversion rates can dramatically increase sales
• Create a spreadsheet and measure your key statistics on a regular basis, make sure that all recorded stats are actionable ie, if they change it should result in an action e.g. to target a keyword, to change your processes etc
• Review the data and look for actionable patterns

e.g.

• If you get a lot of good traffic off certain paid for keywords (using adwords) then take action to get SEO on these keywords to take advantage of the higher levels of organic traffic
• If you have a high bounce rate on keywords that should work well for you, consider installing a Landing Page to help improve conversions

Reference Links

Google Places

Web Analytics

Social Media

Facebook Business Pages

Linked In Profiles

Twitter

SEO & Search engine Optimisation

Landing Pages

E-commerce Web Design

About WSI Yorkshire

WSI Yorkshire is based in Huddersfield, we are a full service Digital Marketing Agency and Internet Consultancy.

We provide Expert Advice to Medium Sized Companies, PLCs and smaller companies that want to punch above their weight.

To Speak to an Expert Please Call us for a Free Consultation