Search Marketing & SEO Blog

Setting up Google plus communities – what you need to know


By On December 11, 2012 In google+, seo, social media With 10 Comments

Google plus communities

If you’ve been on Google + recently, you might have noticed Google’s latest feature called Google+ communities. It’s probably too early to judge its success just yet, but based on my personal Google plus news feed (so not scientific at all) I am certainly seeing quite a lot of engagement on the platform.

The concept and the objective behind launching Google+ communities is to create a platform within Google+ where individuals, organisations, and business can meet and engage, based on shared interests and passions.

This is meant to enhance a user’s ability to find others with similar affinities or interests, and be able to connect and learn from experts. Organisations, businesses, and brands can leverage topics, interests, and causes that they’re passionate about and share them with their audience.  Thus, communities provide a place for all of these groups to converge.

25 Online Marketing Trends for 2013


By On November 27, 2012 In Online Marketing Trends, seo With 37 Comments

Every year for the past 4 years the SEOptimise blog has predicted trends within the online marketing industry.  In keeping with this tradition, I’ve listed 25 trends that I think we’ll see becoming more and more mainstream in 2013. Considering the rate of change within the online marketing space, most of these listed may not even be new. So, without further ado, here’s my list of online marketing trends for 2013:

Tips for SEOs on initial agency-client engagement


By On November 22, 2012 In online marketing, seo, seo sales With 3 Comments

As this is my first post on the SEOptimise blog, I wanted to write on a subject that reflects a situation that I find myself in an awful lot. No doubt this is a situation that anyone reading this post will have found themselves in at one time or another.

Whenever we receive an enquiry, whether it’s a phone call or an enquiry form from our website, this person has taken the first steps in contacting us, meaning that they are interested in SEO services. Yes, I am a genius for figuring this part out! The people who enquire will tend to fit into one of two categories; people who know what they want and people who don’t.

How to estimate Facebook advertising budget


By On November 20, 2012 In seo With 12 Comments

Facebook advertising
I usually get asked this question quite a lot: “I want to advertise on Facebook, how much of a budget would you recommend?” and thought I’d share with you my methodology of how I estimate and recommend budgets to potential clients who have never advertised on Facebook before.

1. Figure out target audience volume

The best thing about Facebook is that it provides you with audience volumes. Therefore, before you calculate estimated budgets, you’ll need to obtain information on the different target audiences such as locations, age, gender, and other interests. Ideally the target audience profiles should be something like this:

Married women who live in the UK and are 40 years or older, who like, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘Homes Under the Hammer’, ‘Location, Location, Location’, ‘Grand Designs’, ‘John Lewis’, and ‘Ocado’.

Content strategy for Christmas and the New Year


By On November 14, 2012 In seo With 10 Comments

Christmas content

Whether you’re decking the halls, or trying to pretend it won’t happen this year, Christmas is fast approaching. For marketers of all kinds, it’s a topic that’s impossible to avoid if you want your content to appear timely and relevant to your readers.

But if you want to cash in on the Christmas rush, you can’t wait until the turkey’s in the oven to start publishing festive content on your website. Not only that, but you need to be equally ready to move quickly once it’s all over, in order to get your website ready for the new year.

A website that’s still Christmassy by January is sadder than an empty tin of Quality Street.

Blogger Outreach Process – Organisation is key


By On November 6, 2012 In Blogger outreach, link building, seo, tools With 6 Comments

There are lots of articles available on blogger outreach, including our own! However, the challenge is in converting these steps into a scalable process. This is why I’d like to share with you our process and to talk you through some of its benefits and flaws.

As you might have read in a previous post by Rachel we use Buzzstream – among other tools – to perform blogger outreach. Placing content is time consuming and the process sometimes can be complex, especially when you’re tempted to use every tool you hear about or read about on blog posts. But tools alone aren’t enough; from what I have experienced, the key really is to have a well-organised process.

What you will need

Before you start you need to get the right tools. We use the following:

The SEOMoz toolbar – we use this tool to determine a webpage’s/websites’ quality based on page authority, domain authority and trust rank (post penguin, trust rank to me is a very important metric).

Good ol’ Google search – To find relevant websites manually using search operators (use SoloSEO to pull all possible operators with links to the search results. Here’s an example list for the keyword “nappies”)

How Out of Date is the Learning Center and AdWords Exam?


By On October 18, 2012 In google adwords, ppc With 11 Comments

 

AdWords has changed a bit over the years. The interface changes, functions come and go, new settings appear…

The problem is that not everything changes at the same time, meaning AdWords Help might not immediately reflect shiny new features. The AdWords exams – and the Exam Study Learning Center – are always behind on something.

It’s possible that some things are left out for simplicity. For example, it’s possible they left out some of the many and varied targeting methods for the Display network in the Fundamentals sections to avoid over-complicating things. But some things are just plain wrong.

If you use AdWords quite a lot but are just studying for the AdWords exams, it’s useful to know what the exam thinks is the case and what actually is the case. Or if you’re using the Learning Center to teach yourself about AdWords, you may be wondering why what you’re reading doesn’t match the real thing. Here’s a rough guide to where the Learning Center and exams are behind.

10 Tips, Tools and Resources for Online Copywriters


By On October 11, 2012 In blogging, content creation, Copywriting With 11 Comments

Web marketing is a constantly developing challenge and it can be useful to have staff who specialise in particular areas. That’s certainly true with online copywriting – there’s such a lot to consider that having a dedicated copywriter can make a real difference to your overall online performance.

But whether you’re a writer trying to perfect your online capabilities, or an SEO exec needing to brush up, there’s a wide range of issues to consider. Online copywriting poses its own challenges, from knowing the basics of HTML to understanding the ever-changing world of SEO.

So what help is available?

How to Write the Perfect Headline


By On October 4, 2012 In seo With 10 Comments

Sometimes it can seem like the demands of SEO and clickability are fundamentally opposed, but this isn’t true. Your SEO team may want you to use keywords in the header and subheaders, but that doesn’t mean they have to be lengthy lists of keywords. With the right care and attention, your headlines can still be interesting, clickable, and amusing.

So, whether it’s for a blog, press release, or article, here’s what you need to consider:

The Benefit of Brevity

First, remember that a headline should be brief – this is not the place to target that eight-word long-tail keyword phrase. Stick to the basics and pull out the most important point of your entire article, as this is most likely to engage with the reader.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t include a short keyword phrase if appropriate, but remember the article needs to be read by people, and not just search bots – so if it looks too forced it’s going to be a huge turn-off for your audience.

How to find blogging inspiration & 20 blogging ideas


By On September 20, 2012 In blogging, content creation, Copywriting, seo With 17 Comments

Even if you have the best intentions in the world, coming up with a constant stream of new ideas for blog posts can be pretty intimidating. All too soon, the corporate blog lies empty because the company has run out of ideas. Don’t let that happen to you! From company brainstorms to new ways of planning copy, we are going to provide you with some great tips on how to generate ideas for blog content.

WARNING: This is a long post, but we think it’s worth the read (and hopefully you’ll agree). If you really don’t have time then there’s a list of our top tips at the end!

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