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10 small steps to better search engine rankings for LOCAL businesses – Part 1

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Steps 1 to 5 of how to rank better in terms of being a local business (steps 6 to 10 to follow on….)

Let’s starts this two-part article with a rhetorical question –

would you like MORE customers?

(sits back, makes more tea and dunks another biscuit)

Of course you do. Anyone running their own business would like more customers because, after all, that is what makes a business. And makes it successful.

Lessons in hard work:

  • Running your own business is hard work
  • Running your website is hard work
  • Attracting new customers is hard work
  • Maintaining this attraction so customers come back, is hard work

Add in to this mix the need for your website and online presence to be constant, consistent and up to date and you can be forgiven for thinking it is simply all too much.

But you are not the only local business to be in this position. Every day seems a struggle to get everything done but, we carry on regardless because at the end of the day, we are our own boss, we make the decision and the risks are acceptable.

Keeping on top of search engine optimisation (SEO)

A bit like keep the plug hole in the sink unblocked, staying on top of SEO updates and the like, will prevent a backlog that, all of a sudden, needs a professional or a lot of YouTube-video-watching in order to rectify it. Keeping that plug hole running clear and free from blockages stops that expensive call out to a plumber.

Keeping on top of your SEO as a local business also sees you outshine your competitors online thus, we have created 10 small-ish steps to improving your search engine rankings so that local customers find your local business…

Step 1: research you keywords

HOW will people find your local business? If you are a florist in Watford then you need to say so; if you are a speciality butcher and delicatessen in Newport, South Wales, then you need to say so.

However, we need to be careful that the obvious isn’t hidden in plain sight so take a moment or two to think about how, and what language your customers will use to find you. Google search terms are becoming a little more detailed in how they interact too, hence if a place is often known by its initials such as ‘New York City’ as NYC, it is beginning to tie these two search terms together.

You would be amazed at the number of local businesses that do not list their locality or location.

Step 2: optimise your website and content

What can happen with this step is people go from the sublime to the ridiculous; in other words, from not much content, to overstuffing every page with every keyword that they think hits their business. This looks awkward to both your customer and search engines, so stop it (if you are doing it) and don’t do it (if you are thinking of doing it).

High quality content all over you website is a the way forward, along with other soft technical such as keywords in meta titles etc. along with the other background stuff.

Some experts suggest that a ‘frequently asked question’ page is also a good for both customers and search engines too thus, if it is time to upgrade or revamp your content, then why not consider and FAQ page?

Step 3: Google Local

You will no doubt have come across these rather handy location maps when you have been searching for a business, supplier, etc. and getting your business on Google Local is an external activity to your website, but will obviously link to it, but is a great way of people being able to find your local business.

Think how you use Google… only the other week we were in a place we didn’t know, fancied a nice pub lunch, typed it in to Google and hey presto!, we found a delightful pub by the canal. Ignoring the sub-zero temperatures and the gathering rain clouds, we had at least 10 minutes of sunshine by the water’s edge and quite a nice lunch… all helped by the fact the local pub was on Google Local, and so in the corner of the tablet screen, the map bobbed up and away we went. It wasn’t far off the beaten track but you would not have known it was there otherwise.

Step 4: Local business listing websites

There are many different types, and trying to make sure you are on them all can be a bit like herding cats BUT, that said, if you do manage to list your business or update some of the information that already exists, it sends ‘good signals’ to both your prospective customers and the various search engines.

We typed in some key search terms and came up with these…

Really Moving – type in your local area, and local removal firms pop up… if you are a removal firm, are you on here?

Trip Advisor – in many ways, Trip Advisor is infamous for negative reviews that some businesses say are uncalled for, unnecessary and downright lies but, many customers are still using this website. Take a moment to surf around and you will see that the vast majority of customers are leaving helpful reviews (not always positive!).

There are many more review, business listing and location type websites, some better than others but take some time to have a look what is local to you and, more importantly, what people are using… but don’t forget to keep an eye on them, and respond appropriately to both negative and positive reviews.

Step 5: Consistency

One issue (among others…) that seems to crop up for local businesses online seems to be a lack of consistency when it comes to business listings etc. When people talk about brand, this is the kind of thing they mean.

You have a business name, a logo and a tag line – e.g. Locally – strategic thinking, creative web design – boom! Job done… keep using it.

Don’t decide to change it when you list it on Yell.com (Locally – really good web design and stuff), or on a local business directory (Locally – really good at all things website and stuff).

All these ‘descriptions’ need to be the same, over and over again… this might be ‘boring’. On that Friday afternoon when you were “doing the admin”, it might have seemed fun to add or embellish your business description… but it does impact on how all the search engines look at you.

These changes and differences in descriptions and tag lines could be damaging on your online search results.

Before you head on over to part 2, why not take some time to go through these 5 steps with you local, online business?

Harnessing the power behind each and every blog post

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How knowing when your audience accesses blogs and social media is paramount in ensuring that your blog posts have the maximum reach and impact. Do you know the best time to post?

An effective company blog

For many years now, companies from small and medium sized enterprises, local companies to massive global concerns have been blogging. Posting a variety of interesting, fun and informative articles on their website on a frequent and consistent basis can see a website crawl from the bottom slot to the top spot. With the right content, it can maintain this position.

However, to maintain an effective company blog is THE most time-intensive activity you can do. Which is why there is a thriving ‘sub’ sector ghost writers, bloggers and creators of content that post articles on websites of companies across the world.

The first part of the equation

If you ARE blogging, this is great news! Studies by the Content Marketing Institute show that 72% of business to customers (B2C) business are blogging, as are 76% of business who sell to other businesses (B2B). These studies also show that established and start-up business are using increasingly sophisticated websites and social media  to reach people, from webinars to podcasts, video to guest posting on other websites.

Research has shown, time and time again that customers love an informative blog post…

IF they can FIND it.

The Challenge

But, there seems to be other challenges that lurk in the shadows… which of these can you relate to?

  • Lack of time for creating and posting blogs or articles
  • Producing the right kind of content that engages customers and your audience
  • Producing and posting enough content
  • Finding the right person to create the content

And so, it is easy to see that from the starting point of any blog – the idea – to putting pen to paper, proof reading it and posting it, is a huge investment of time, effort, energy and in some cases, money.

But, there is one part of this equation that is missing – maximising the reach of your blog post.

Generating ideas, writing the posts, posting them etc. all takes valuable time and, as a result, many companies are honest enough to say that the quality quite often drops in the face of so many adverse conditions.

And when you have expended huge amounts of time and energy (and maybe a decent slice of your marketing budget too), you need these blog posts to work as hard as they possibly can for you. Simply creating a link and tweeting it, updating your status, pinning it etc. is not enough.

Get the statistics

www.trackmaven.com collect, analyse and number crunch all kinds of data that is useful for ‘digital marketers’. Before you think this is a separate section of society, they are basically referring to YOU! Any company, established or start up, large, small, micro or medium sized who posts content online for others to access, to inform them and to amuse them is a ‘digital marketer’.

So you have invested up-front.

The blogs are written.

They are posted on your website.

WHEN do you use social media to advertise them? WHEN is the optimum time to post them so that they work their socks off for your business? WHEN is the time that your customers or audience will engage with them?

Track Mavern generated some fabulous analysis that holds valuable lessons for us all.

Many business owners work odd, unsocial hours and our customers may not necessarily buy online from a company during the hours of 9 to 5. The internet may be slowly changing this but, overall, we still run our physical lives – the school run, the shopping, everything else in fact – on a 9 to 5 basis.

It is a routine, a habit that is ingrained in the majority of us from a very early age, from days that were pre-Internet and when there were 4 channels on mainstream TV, all of which stopped broadcasting on a daily basis at 10pm, that the majority of tasks needing to be accomplished in any given day happens between 9 and 5.

What their research found was that during the week, Monday to Friday, give or take a few exceptions in blogging and posting frequency, the majority of posts were made between the hours of 9 and 5… and yet, customers – that is, social media users – were accessing websites, social media platforms etc. in the evening.

In other words, what is happening is that businesses are posting articles and blogs at times that suit them, but they are ‘missing’ their audience as they are not searching online or ‘surfin’ the web’ until later in the evening.

5 minutes in Internet Land is a long time, just like they say a week is a long time in politics. Your delicious posts may be simply missing your key or intended audience as once it is published, by the time they log on 2 hours later, the online landscape is awash with posts and articles.

Social shares

The whole point of this articles is about showing you how – or at least, making you aware of how – social shares of your blog posts can be maximised.

We have talked in previous posts about social signals; there are conflicting views about how effective, if at all, these social signals are to a website but, if they are not that important, why does every company, from the smallest local, microbrewery to the largest global conglomerate covet these social shares, likes etc.?

If nothing else they are psychologically important; someone is liking your work. Like an artist who needs praise and critiquing of their work, your blog posts are your shop window on the web. And when people like your work, you radiate a soft, but radiant glow of success.

And so, in a nutshell, what are the findings…?

Avoid the highly competitive online sharing and posting times of mid-week and during the week day, 9 to 5 posting slot. Instead, look to post…

  • At the weekend – Saturday was the optimum day for shares across social media of all kinds of blog posts
  • Leisure time – in Greenwich Mean Time, it was found that social shares of posts increased steadily between 6pm and midnight
  • European time – it was also found that shares increased between 4 and 6am GMT, as is the time European businesses tend to be awake and functioning, clearly an important statistic if your company is looking for a global or European reach.

What the research did show was the Internet landscape is rarely quiet; even the early hours shows significant likes and shares across a range of platforms. Using an online scheduling app can also help hit these high spots for maximum reach and www.bufferapp.com have also published a range of statistics and data on when is the best time to post on Facebook and across Twitter.

(*SPOILER ALERT: according to their research, the optimum day to post on Facebook is Thursday – early afternoon, just after lunch if you really want to pin point the best time – followed by Sunday and then Friday…)

When is the best time for you to post your articles?

Getting ranked higher by Google – A Locally Mini-Series

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Part 1 of 2

Is it your ‘dream’ that when potential customers search for a product or service that you offer,  that on page 1 of the search engine listings, your business ranks up there with other great companies?

It is not a pipe dream; it can be a reality BUT, you need to be focused and committed – and you also need to be doing the right things, from setting your pages up correctly, to telling the search engines you exist to then staying committed, constantly pushing your website so that it looks and ‘feels’ authoritative and trustworthy.

In this first part of a two part mini-series, here at Locally we take a look at how online, local businesses can figure in those top spots on page 1, starting with understanding the ranking equation used by one of the major search engines, Google.

Why Google?

It is huge. Gargantuan. It has the lion’s share of the search engine market (up to 90% according to some estimates). With 2 billion Internet users worldwide, it is probably not unrealistic to estimate that half of these will use Google as either their preferred or default search engine. It would be silly, almost the kiss of death to ignore Google, there are other search engines out there. However, for the purpose of this Locally Mini-Series, we will focus on Google.

In a nutshell

To understand how to win the coveted crown for a ‘Page 1 Top Spot’, you need to understand two things:

  1. How Google’s algorithm works – what it uses to rank pages
  2. Understand why your competitors are ranking higher than you, at that particular time.

Google’s algorithm

Ah yes, just like algebra at school, we can see your eyelids getting heavy as you prepare for a mid-afternoon nap but now is not the time.

First thing’s first; apart from the very top executives at Google, no one really knows all the secrets, twists and turns that this search engine uses to create its magic page 1 list but, there are some highly intelligent technically minded people who have a fairly decent idea of how the algorithm crunches number and data.

But, don’t forget that this algorithm also changes over time, so what was working this time last year, might not be delivering the results now. This way, the web is kept vibrant and fresh.

Walking in Google’s shoes – try and see what it sees

Basically what we are saying is this: when a customer searches for something on the Internet using its browser, they want to see results that are accurate. We all know the frustration of surfing for information on something specific, only to find that what we get is some tripe from a far off place that makes no sense.

And so, you need to see what Google will see when it takes a look at your website – think relevance, popularity and quality. If people are buying from or using a website, it must be offering something worth having. It must offer a worthwhile buying experience, and customers must be happy with it. Hence, to Google, that website looks a fairly good one, so they move it up the rankings…

Simple?

In that case, your website needs to show good it is relevant, popular and offers high quality experience, such as an authoritative blog or news section, along with FAQs and the like. In this way, customers may also be reviewing your products or services, liking your page, enjoying your tweets and just generally in conversation with you.

Google says that it has 200 variable factors that it uses to rank websites but, there are some things that can be done that will help you website climb the slippery pole on to page 1 – and stay there.

So sharpen your elbows, because here are 6 factors that can influence your ranking with Google (yes, only 6… but they are important).

The Locally Whistle Stop Tour of 6 Things You Can Do To Get a Higher Ranking with Google (might work with other search engines too!)

Tickets please! Now fasten your seat belts and let’s look at the first 3 of these factors (the remaining 3 will be addressed in Part 2 of this blog post… due for publication on the Locally blog on Wednesday 5th November)

Number 1: Page Titles

 

This matters because it is a description of what the page is about. It must be accurate and at least 3 words long. So, in your page if you are targeting a particular keyword or phrase, then this should be included in your page title and in the right order.

E.g. if your home page keywords were ‘local (and) online personalised gifts (for) sailors’ then you would use this in the page title html description.

The (and) and (for) are in brackets to highlight that they are STOP words. These are words that Google does not count in its searches, simply because you would have all sorts of weird and wonderful results. There are literally hundreds more stop words…

Number 2: Page text

 

Search engines read words quickly and easily, but like the stop words from above, they don’t bother with the connective words, instead they look for the important ones, if you like; the more times the word or phrase pops up in the page, Google assumes that is what the page is about.

Hence, if you want people to find you product or service because your business offers flexible website design for local online businesses, then this phrase would be used maybe two or three times, and other keywords or phrases that relate to this.

In other words, the page is relevant.

Over-stuffing – we think over-stuffing should be a word entered in the dictionary, a bit like oversharing. In any given 500 words, do not over-use your keyword or phrase – use it, at most, 5 times, but 3 or 4 will do just fine, or actually once may be enough. Over-using a phrase will make your text look artificial; it won’t look like to a eyes of a real person, and neither will it look right to Google (or any search engine).

Number 3: keywords in the URL

 

You also have control over whether these keywords appear in the page URL or not (not sure about URLs – check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxu7eZrPUyQ)

It can really help if your keywords are in the order that a person searching for something like your product or service would type them in; this is a little SEO tip which is why this blog post is called ‘getting ranked higher by Google’ because you never know, someone out there may be frustrated that their competitors are on page one and want to how they can be too…

In summary

We have covered three factors that we can directly influence how Google sees a website in terms of being relevant, authoritative and trustworthy and they are:

  1. Page titles
  2. Page text
  3. Keywords in the URL of a page

Want to know what the other three factors are? Great!

Join us on Wednesday November 5th when your second part of this Locally Mini-Series will be published – in the meantime, how does your website rank?

Hands up – do you have a social media strategy?

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(look away, embarrassed, fiddles with phone to see if anyone has text…)

It seems that our online, local businesses is swamped in paperwork and strategies, when all you really want to do is earn a living BUT, as part of that essential daily activity, you also need to keep one eye on future work – a portion of your day, week or month does really need to be given over to finding new customers, new products, new services and improving the ones you have.

Do local, online businesses need one?

The clue to the answer is in the question… ‘online’. If you are online and you canvass the majority of your new customers (and keep welcoming the ‘old’ ones back) by online means then, yes it really does make sense to have a social media strategy.

Don’t forget those social signals too; exactly how Google does work out how it ranks pages on the web is still a slight mystery with only really the top few people at Google really understanding, but it seems that the more ‘authority’ your site appears to have, the more people will trust it (* see bottom of page) – or so Google thinks.

So getting plenty of likes, pins, shares, G+s, tweets and the like, the better placed your website could be placed in the increasingly crowded world of the web.

A social media strategy: how does it look? What’s in it?

The first point to note is that is isn’t just about updating your status on a daily basis; this is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing although this can mean you spend more time tweeting etc. than doing any actual work.

A social media strategy is about sharing content on your website; this could your blog, new product and additions to your online ‘shop’ as well as any news items regarding your business. It is a way of connecting your website to the outside world and the outside world to your website.

Below are 8 steps that could form the outline of what your social media strategy could look like. In a table format, we think it makes a handy ‘cut out and keep guide’, a start as to how you can make the very best use of your social media strategy…

What is it?

Your notes…

Step 1:

the time, the place…

 Just like a first date, you need to give this some thought but bear with us before you flick to another website. This is a serious point; all too often we try and cram things into the shortest time possible, working on the back of a scrap piece of paper whilst driving the car and filing a tax return.Step 1 is to recognise the importance of this strategy. It might not break your business not using social media to its fullest, but it will as heck make a massive difference. Where can you work uninterrupted?

Step 2:

Target – WHO are you trying to reach through which social media?

 If you have a marketing plan, the information should be in there but it doesn’t cause any harm to take a specific look at this with your social media.There are now various studies that show which age groups use certain social media platforms, hence it pays to know where your potential customers are at…If you have a product that is visual, then the platform that share photos are a great starting point; those with non-visual products or services may be better looking at sharing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.It pays to do your homework.

 

 Jot down demographics, such as gender and age… where are these people hanging out on social media?

Step 3:

Content – WHAT do you have to offer them?

 Social media is not just about selling – in fact, go down this road and you may find that you actually drive customers away.Social media is about conversation, but what it is that your customers want to know?What information will they value?Once you have an idea, post this information vis your social media and then invite potential customers or partners to your website.

 

  You can share blogs and news, both current and already published work, especially if it coincides with something current.

Step 4:

Be proactive

 Customers will not come to you; this is the bit where you need to be pro-active and you need to start building your following audience.Great content is fabulous (we go on about all the time at Locally!) but, it is not a case of someone will stumble upon it and away you go.Do apart from tweeting what you had for breakfast, or pining a photo on another platform of your new delivery van, you also need to be creating great content (like this blog!) and then share it; tell people about it.And then tell them again in a few weeks’ time…

 

 Create a blog calendar schedule and stick to it.

Step 5:

Contact – be easy to get in touch with

 

 This is part a. of two small micro steps. The whole ethos behind social media is that people share things, share data, share information…So, on your website have the icons for the social media platforms you use See your web design company for help…

Step 6:

TALK!

 The second mini step from above is once people have contacted you, liked or shared any of your tweets, statuses, pleas for help, you need to converse back. A bit like being at a party and making small talk.Thank people for liking something; ask questions; engage! Make it part of your day to check social media platforms, just like you do your email…

Step 7:

Keep it going…

 And this is the hardest step.Keeping your social media stuff happening can be a full time job in itself and so unless you have the financial resources to buy in a social media manager (they do exist!), you either see your social media presence fail OR, you load it on to someone else in the office… either way, the results can be disastrous OR you can realise that your strategy can include times and dates when items are sent out etc.Have you seen www.bufferapp.com? You can schedule tweets, status updates and the like so that the app automatically do it for you. Takes the pressure off but still needs managing; message need responding to etc.

 

 Build in a monthly review; get your staff team on on board. If not, maybe outsourcing is a cost-effective idea?

Step 8:

Looking for new opportunities – constantly review and adapt it

 Social media, like the rest of the web, never stands still. So keeping an eye on any new social media platforms that seem to be gathering pace and favour is a great way of staying where your customers are at.Current platforms also look set to change in the future; Twitter for example, with its acquisition of CardSpring not so long ago, is hotly tipped to start offering ‘buy through Twitter’ in 2015. Keep an eye on current trends, as well as making sure you are using your current social media platforms to their fullest…

Need any more persuading?

Social media has had proven results but it took courage and commitment, as well as conversation but there are success stories out there!

*upcoming blog in November talks about trust and how a blog may be the all-important signal that your website IS trustworthy… but is it that simple?

Social media wars: which is better?

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With the fallout from the Google Authorship and ‘is it a ploy to get us all using Google+?’ question still being bandied around, businesses can be easily confused as to which social media platform is the right one for them.

It can be tempting to be on everything but the problem with this blanket approach is that you may be using platforms that are not suitable and, keeping up to date with them all can be a timing nightmare.

In this article we look at Google+ or G+ and what it can offer you, as well as looking at arguably the most powerful and well-known of social media platforms, Facebook.

Things are changing

Facebook is the ‘daddy of ‘em all’, with a reach that is phenomenal it has, for many years, held the top notch position; it was and still is, the social media platform you must be on. If you wanted to reach out to the largest audience ever, then FB was the place to be.

But things change and on the world of online sharing. Once the poor relation, is seems that the ugly duckling is blossoming into the beautiful swan; 2014 has marked the best year for G+ yet, with its monthly active users reaching 540 million across the globe.

The difference between the two? G+ allows people to search for your business and is obviously geared towards this end of the market, whereas Facebook is more ‘personal’ in its approach but there are reasons why both could be useful, if not essential.

Circles

Some people think that circles on G+ are complicated but they are far from that. It’s a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff if you like and rather than being bombarded with every single post or share, you can group people together, choosing what you see and when.

Facebook has a similar set up now with Edgerank, the algorithm it introduced in December 2013. Rather than users being bombarded with items or posts they may find irrelevant, this algorithm sorts what it thinks the user will like. The only problem with this is that you don’t control it – unlike the G+ circles which you set up – the algorithm checks what you have been looking at and makes the decision for you.

Reach

On Facebook, any posts or statuses you make will need to reach a certain level of ‘likes’ over a set number of times before it is available to the masses, hence the almost begging Tweets and messages from businesses imploring you to like them on Facebook.

BUT, if this doesn’t work, you can always pay for the privilege with various adverts to boost your appearance and views on the platform. But, some say that this is losing sight of its original intention as small businesses may not have the budgeting resources to play alongside the big players.

The algorithm

Facebook’s algorithm is a double-edged sword; on one hand it has a positive impact but recent bad press from experiments such as the ‘emotion experiment’ has made some people question the platform and its integrity.

However, you cannot throw away 1.32 billion users around the world lightly and so, by improving your Facebook posts, from asking questions to running competitions, you do have an excellent way, at your fingertips of attracting new people and customers to your business.

Is it just about numbers?

Reaching the masses is great but, if only a small percentage buy your product or service, is it worth it for a local, online business?

No sale is a bad sale, and so if it reaps the smallest reward then that is not to be sniffed at but if it comes at a cost in terms of both time and money, it may be worth a re-think.

A G+ ‘hangout’ is as some people say, an awesome resource that allows businesses and customers to connect. Think of it as a modern-day equivalent of consumer research and with G+ and Google being the same, you are sending out some strong signals to the most popular search engine.

So, who to choose?

Internet trends change from week to week; it would be sheer folly to predict today what will be right next week or the week after and so on. However, the rub is that, as a business you need to connect to a wide an audience as possible, but balance it against time spent ‘doing’ social media and the return it gives you.

The answer is this – place the same post across the social media platforms you currently use and see where you get the most responses; do this a few times at different times of the year and it gives you an indication of where your audience is at.

Once you feel you know which platforms are right for your business, put time and energy into creating a plan so that you have something to offer customers and something to talk about over both G+ and Facebook – and any others too!

Which platforms do you use? How did you decide which social media sites were best for your local business?

Avoid Google’s Wrath…

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Thankfully, not all relationships in life are as fickle but as we near the end of the first full week since Google Authorship disappeared (see previous post ‘Storm in a tea cup?’) what the announcement will have done is create speculation and double-guessing of what Google could have in store for the future of search engine optimisation.

Which got us thinking here at Locally about SEO, websites and when things go sour between your website and Google.

It’s an odd relationship

One sided, in many aspects – you spend money, time and nervous energy creating a website that customers will love and buy your services and products – it feels like you do all the hard work. You constantly covet the favour of Google as, after all, if they like you, your website could be catapulted to the stars…

But, some people, in their desperate attempts to climb their way up this ladder, take a wrong turn; Google punishes them and down they fall. Even worse, once you have fallen out of favour with Google, it is incredibly hard to get back in (…although, for those of us with a slightly skewed vision of the online world, it seemed that some huge corporations have managed to buy favour back…)

And so, here is Locally’s guide to avoiding being told off/punished/scolded/call it what you will by one of the most powerful search engines in the world today…

  • Plagiarism

Just like you were flung outside of the head’s office at school for copying someone else’s work, the same is true for the content on your website. Using duplicate information from somewhere else on the web completely goes against the underlying principles of the Internet, as far as Google is concerned – users don’t like it, it’s useless and it is a hindrance to originality.

Locally’s Top Tip: Don’t do it!

  • A web address that doesn’t fit

This means that a company, business or person needs to select a Uniform Resource Locator (URL or web address) that best suits their business. Google will give you credit for this when it searches for results zillions-of-times-per-second across the globe. The more apt your URL, the healthier Google will rank it.

Locally’s Top Tip: do you research not just about your name, but all the component parts of a URL

Things that don’t work

Included under this title are links that do not work; we’ve all clicked on what looks like a great resource only to be met with the ‘error 404’ code. These dead links, and other broken bits, do create a disadvantage for your website but on a scale of 1 to 10 – 10 being the worst thing ever – it is fairly low down the scale.

Locally’s Top Tip: keep your website fresh and maintained.

Absence of Key Technical ‘bits’

Sitemaps and Robot.txt files are just two of the ‘technical bits’ that many people do not understand but they are essential for when Google crawls your website looking for it needs in order to know what you are and who would be interested in your site. Having a greater knowledge of SEO can help…

Locally’s Top Tip: ask us how we do all the background techy bits…

Keyword phrases – using them TOO much!

We all know the importance of key words, phrases and the like but it is possible to over use them! This sends a rather wonky signal to Google who sees it as you stuffing your text with keywords, which means it probably makes very little sense. Your content (and your writing) needs to be genuine and disciplined.

Locally’s Top Tip: in a 500 word blog, post or article, your keyword should appear no more than 5 times (and even that is pushing it in such a small space! 4 times works better…)

Bizarre H1 header tags!

This is usually the title of a post but what can happen is that they are used across the website/post/article and it all becomes a little bizarre, with whopping titles leaping off the page. Try to keep your desperation under wraps and use them sparingly, with the biggest profit.

Locally’s Top Tip – identify when a H1 tag really needs to be used…

S-L-O-W response times

Just like we moan about waiting for the shop assistant to get off the phone etc. the same is true when it comes to surfing the web. Naturally impatient, any website that takes longer than a nano-second to load is an instant turn-off. Google feels the same; it shares the pain of the user and so dumps you down the rankings. Sorry.

Locally’s Top Tip – get expert help on why your website is taking so long to load…

Trying to hide things

When text is hyperlinked, it appears a different colour from the surrounding text. The user can choose to click on it or not (we do it in our blog posts – it means we’ve come across something that offers more info on what we are blogging about, and think you may be interested in it too). Quality and appropriate links are great BUT, what some have done is change these links to match the colour of the surrounding text (the user doesn’t know they are there) but Google does and it sees this as over-stuffing and not playing fair.

Locally’s Top Tip – don’t do it! Keep you link visible, useful and relevant.

Cloaking

This is a really poor exercise that upsets users and that is when they are deceived by keywords that when clicked, takes them to a website that has nothing to do with the content of the original website, business etc. It is frustrating, can be embarrassing depending on what the link is to and Google hates it.

Locally’s Top Tip – nope, don’t do it.

Spamming links!

This again is a source of huge frustration to users hence, Google comes down on it like a ton of bricks and this is using links on your web pages that have absolutely nothing to do with your website. Google take this very seriously and, in all honesty, is very hard to come back from.

Locally’s Top Tip – this is a definite no-no.

And so, we see that if our websites follow certain rules, feel and look ‘genuine’ then its climb up the rankings may be slow, but it will be a quality step each time, rather than precariously teetering on every rung.