I decided a few weeks ago that I would start taking my fitness seriously.
Sitting at the desk all day is making me very unfit.
I got myself a mountain bike, got myself a helmet, told my wife I would be back in an hour and left to go on my first bike ride in a couple of years.
Two hours later … my wife got a bit worried …
Three hours later she was really stressed …
You see the problem was that I had gone about seven miles from home. As I turned around to cycle back I managed to get a puncture.
Walking back along the canal with my bike in hand I noticed I was getting overtaken by a barge. Those things go pretty slow, so I must have been going REALLY slow. The guy offered me a lift. So I stuck my bike on the front and enjoyed the lazy pace of trundling up the canal.
Why am I telling you this ??
Not sure really…
But i’ll have a go at shoehorning this into a marketing related post.
You see, on the barge, I had time to think and reflect. If i’m honest I don’t do that very often, but it gave me more clarity with why we do what we do with the marketing.
When you have time to reflect on your marketing… SEO is the best place to start.
When you embark on a well thought through and implemented SEO campaign, you’ll start to get more attention and more people coming to your website. That’s when you get the chance to have more communication with prospective clients.
You could have the most amazing customer service in the world. But if no-one can find you, you will never get to practice that service. (I told you I could shoehorn this in).
The SEO Snowball
When we have run SEO campaigns for clients, we’ve noticed that success builds upon success. Almost like a snowball, the momentum keeps building over time. Once clients are in the #1 positions for their main keywords, that runs through onto other pages and keywords.
Sooo… how do you start this snowball moving?
Here’s three quick ideas to get your SEO efforts moving in the right direction:
1. On-site Navigation
You need to make as easy as possible for the search engines to work their way around your site. Make sure that your navigation is not a bunch of pictures, but readable text. Sometimes, just fixing that will have a big effect on your site.
2. Links, Links, Links
It would be great if we just got the content right on the site and then shot up to the first position on Google. It doesn’t work like that though. Google favours the most popular sites that have the most votes (links). How do you get these links? You have to contribute in blogs, forums, and message boards relating to your website. Write articles. Contribute To The Internet.
You need to work out if you have the time to do that, or get someone to do it for you. Doing nothing isn’t an option.
3. Competition
It’s really important to know who your competitors online are. If you don’t know right now, then work out what people would type in to Google to find what you do and see the results. Work out what they are doing well on their site. Check how many links they have to their site. Are they using video on Google? Are they on Facebook?
Only then will you know how much effort you need to put in to beat them.
So, there you go, take a look at those three areas and see how you match up.
If you do decide to manage your own SEO, be sure to make a plan and follow it. If you don’t have the time, give us a call on 0845 0573420


