Tag: social signals

  • How to counteract negative online reviews of your business

    Online reviews, according to a variety of sources, are a must-have for any business. With Google predicting that these online social signals becoming even more important in 2015 for creating a sense of trust and authority in the eyes of potential consumers, it could open the flood gates for companies to court as many reviews as possible.

    But, it is a double-edged sword. Just like asking the kids what they think of your baking is a dangerous and loaded question, if you don’t really want to hear the answer, why ask the question?

    And so, with online reviews there is a great side – the bit that propels your website from the dinginess of the lesser pages on Google to the upper echelons of pages of the top 10 – but there is also another darker, sinister side.

    It is something we need to talk about. And so, as we invite comments and responses, you need to be ready for the negative online reviews.

    Negativity. Trolls. Ridiculous. Damaging.

    Right, before we start we need to grasp this nettle. We have all seen it. We look on comments for various news reports etc., and we see senseless comments from people, who want to deliberately inflame the situation. They make negative, crass and unnecessary comments that are hurtful and damaging.

    Not everyone is nice out there, in ‘real-life’ on the streets and in ‘real time’ on the Internet. If you are going to actively ask for comments and feedback, you must be ready for the negativity.

    But heading in to all-out war to win a small battle will not do you, your business or your brand any favours. It can be the opposite and you can spend the rest of your life drinking a chalk-based stomach settler before you eat due to the ulcer that these negative online reviews have left you with.

    Something to be embraced

    However, it can all seem a little bit off putting and, rather than taking a leap in to the unknown and damaging your business for ever, take a step back. It all seems a little dramatic and, in all honesty backing off from online reviews could damage your business in the long run. Google is telling us that these online reviews will be important but it leaves one burning question:

    How do you deal with negative online reviews?

    This is a two part answer: knowing when to respond and how to respond

    When to respond

    Right, let’s be honest. We have already alluded to this; not all negative reviews are equal. The trolls and the not-very-nice-people will leave nasty reviews for the hell of it. And the thing is, you have to remember and trust in the intelligence of your customers.

    They know when someone is being deliberately obtuse, they may even laugh at such stupidity and you online reputation remains intact and unscathed.

    But there are occasions when you do need to respond to negative comments, such as:

    • When you have genuinely made a mistake – life happens. And sometimes, it goes wrong. From a dodgy haircut to a broken product, systems and the like breakdown and a customer can genuinely be in receipt of a rubbish service or product. Even though a customer may leave a negative review, they will understand… but only if you really do acknowledge that you have dropped a clanger. Genuinely apologise and put it right, to the satisfaction of the customer.
    • They are not sticking to the facts – we saw this recently in which somebody left a negative review about not being able to access the money off online voucher but, it seems that the company they were having a rant at was not the right one. And so, if this happens to you then you need to respectfully point out they have made a mistake/got you confused with another company. If the facts are wrong, you need to correct them.
    • When the bad review starts to pick up speed – and by this we mean when other people jump on the bandwagon and start to say such things as ‘yes that happened to me too’. Absolutely, and without doubt, you need to deal with this at the source; find the original negative reviewer and deal with their complaint… or close it down if it is not right.
    • When someone is just plain angry – not everyone wakes up with a spring in their step, ready for the day ahead and there are people out there who moan and complain most, if not all of the time. Engaging in this circumstance will mean only one thing… it’ll go on and on. Therefore, you will need to measure carefully if you want to engage with this person or not. You may find the review irritating but, providing it doesn’t gather support or pace (see above), then this may be one instance where you leave it alone…
    • When people join in, defending you! – on one hand, this is great but you cannot have people leaping in before you, determining whether someone’s negative review deserves a response or not. Hence, if a review starts to develop support, you also need to make sure you leap in, shut it down as you do not want a customer coming under fire, if their complaint is genuine.

    How to respond

    This is the diplomatic part and not one all of us are blessed with the skills of diplomacy, therefore if you are not too sure this is your thing, then find someone who is! Or, if push comes to shove and that person is you, read on and develop a strategy for responding to negative online reviews.

    1. Honesty – you know that hands up pose that says, ‘yup, we made a mistake’? You need to do that now and admit that your failed to meet their expectations, provide what they were looking for etc. and that you realise this. But, don’t go for the blame game and don’t act the victim. Something when wrong and you are sorry…
    2. Listen – the negative comments are remarks are not about you, but how your customer feels; this can be anything from feeling let-down to disappointment. Listen to what they are really saying; is the product or service really the problem, or is there something else niggling at them? If they take the time to post a negative, then their gripe must feel quite real to them. Hence, show them you have heard what they are saying…
    3. Calmness – remaining calm is essential. If you cannot remain in a calm state, then get off the Internet! Losing control, shouting and looking generally hysterical and over dramatic makes you and your brand, look like numpties. Calm. Calm. Calm. Professional. Calm.
    4. Human – any response needs to sound and feel like it comes from a real person. If it looks too automated, robotic a response you could simply be soaking a smouldering ember with petrol… stand back!
    5. Thank them – and tell them how this debacle/cock-up/disappointing episode will change the company or brand for the better in the future but do this without sounding patronising or gushing. Genuinely, it may be that the negative review has highlighted a real issue in a process and, without this complaint, you would not have seen it as clearly as you have done…

    In a nutshell

    Online reviews – all of them, negative and positive – should be helpful to your company and so you need to be active in maintaining and responding to them. Customers won’t just leave reviews on your website or email them to you personally, some will use third party websites (we all know the horror stories around Trip Advisor).

    You will need to seek out some of these views and don’t just save this for a rainy afternoon every now and then. Make searching review sites – simply check out your company online can be enough – and decide which ones you are going to respond to, and which ones you won’t bother with.

  • Adding to your website strategy: QR Codes

    A New Year Technological Challenge!

    Online, local businesses are the back bone of the country but, stand still in the online world and you risk being left behind.

    As a forward thinking business, you need to be constantly looking and assessing which of the latest technological innovations are right for you and your business.

    We talked recently about creating to a live strategy for your website; design and launch are just two of the factors in creating a successful, online presence. Your website, as you recall, is a living breathing thing that must be nurtured in order to carry on expanding and thriving so that your business can too.

    And one way of doing this is to link your offline and online presence. But, sometimes we need a handy tool to be able to do this.

    QR codes are not necessarily that new anymore, BUT if you haven’t taken a serious look at them and what they could offer your business, then now is the time.

    WHY?

    We have talked in numerous previous posts about immediacy and the need consumers have about gaining instant access or gratification for whatever they are searching for. QR codes are a way of satisfying this immediacy.

    Like a barcode… but different

    Barcodes are everywhere, from the packet of biscuits we have bought to accompany our morning coffee here at the Locally office to the pods we use in a well-known coffee machine. Essentially, both barcodes and QR codes are the same thing, but the difference between the two is the amount of information that they can hold; barcodes are linear, can hold up to 20 numerical digits but QR codes are two dimensional and can hold thousands of pieces of information.

    And QR codes can also be linked to your website, as well as a whole host of other digital connections. All your consumer needs is a QR code reading program on their mobile – android and iPhones – all of which are available free through various app stores.

    And they came from where…?

    Developed in Japan over 10 years ago, the original creators, a subsidiary of Toyota, have not exercised their right to being the only company to use the patented technology, encouraging its use across the world.

    As a result, there is a huge range of example of QR codes being used by businesses, community groups, schools, colleges and anyone else you can think of!

    QR code is a quick response code and, once read by a smart phone, will install take your customer where they want to be; you can ‘load’ the code with whatever you want from accessing 25% off their order or free delivery or… the examples are almost infinite so let us group the type of applications you can use them for…

    • Sharing – there is no limit to how much you can share with these QR codes. For example, if you have an instruction manual for how your product works, convert it into a PDF and give it a QR code; this way, customers can always access or download their own copy. It saves paper and makes navigating to the section or pages they want, much easier too.
    • Community – customers are social beings and we all like to feel connected to a product or business. Again, we have talked about responding to enquiries through social media platforms etc. QR codes can enhance this liking and sharing feature that businesses and customers love; link a QR code to your Facebook page or to a noticeboard/comment area on your website.
    • Calls to action – essential in any marketing strategy, but also something that can be used throughout your community. Once you have connected with people, why not offer them special offers to reward their interaction, feedback and loyalty. Again, QR codes can carry this type of information.

    From rhetoric to practical applications

    However, QR codes sound all well and dandy but, what are the practical applications for your business?

    We have talked about linking your offline and online marketing strategies in a recent post and this is a perfect idea of bridging the gap between the two:

    Where
    • Back/front/both side of your business card
    • Brochures, flyers, leaflets or whichever printed media works well for your business
    • Posters, outdoor banners, roller banners
    • Tags and packaging on your products
    • Letterheads, compliments slips and other stationery
    • Menus
    • Invoices and receipts
    • Any other printed media you can think of!
    What
    • Manuals or instructions
    • Ordering additional or replacements parts etc.
    • Booking services online (takes you to calendar or contact form)
    • Directions to your business
    • Coupons, vouchers or money off code
    • Free downloads!
    • Feedback forms, comment sheets etc.
    • Anything on your website or social media presence
    Maximise impact of QR codes
    • Tell people what they are and encourage them to use
    • Link with your marketing strategy, both on and offline
    • Allay fears that they are complicated – their simplicity is their power!
    • Experiment with size, location as well as colour of QR codes
    • You can create a QR code ‘treasure hunt’ all across your range!
    • EXPERIMENT!

    Are they here to stay?

    They have been around some time and are a tried and tested technology. However, many smaller businesses associate them with larger, multinational companies and think that the technology is out of their league – never have you been so wrong!

    And so, your technological challenge for New Year 2015 is to tell us how you would use QR codes for your business!

  • Facebook is changing: an UPDATE

    Only the other day, we were checking over our Facebook news feed and we came across something we thought would be useful to us. We clicked on the link but we were not taken to the website or the story we thought it was. In all honesty, the page we landed on was a little ‘risqué’, not to our taste at all. Neither was it about content marketing, as we thought it was.

    After we had navigated away from it, we were left feeling rather annoyed and foolish; we had been lured by a false promise. We had been hoodwinked, fooled into clicking on a link that took us to a false website full of spammy rubbish and adverts.

    Within a few days, a pop up window from Facebook asked us if we would be willing to take a short survey about what was useful and relevant to us – and we filled it, getting our back on all the rubbish links and statuses that seem to be littering our news feed.

    But it seems that Facebook has been really listening, announcing in late August 2014, some sweeping changes to how its ranking system will work from now on. This effectively means that spammy links and rubbish statuses that clutter up the news feed should start to disappear. But, as an online local business, if you use Facebook as one of your social media platforms, you need to take note too as these changes will start to take effect very soon (if not already!).

    From the horse’s mouth

    So what is Facebook saying? In a nutshell, the team at FB want to ensure that the ‘right content is delivered to the right people’. Feedback from users has been that spam statuses etc. tend to swamp their news feed, meaning that the stuff they want to see from friends and family, as well as a few brands, are lost within their timeline. The improvements coming in these next few weeks are three-fold…

    • like-baiting

    This is where a post explicitly asks you to either like it, share it or comment on it. By doing this, Facebook users effectively give the post credence and this mean that is ‘looks’ and ‘feel’ popular hence it gets bumped up the news feed.

    But, when Facebook asked users what they thought they found that these like-baiting stories were ‘15% less relevant’ that other stories which were far more useful to the user, but further down the news feed. Users, it seems, told Facebook that they found these like-baiting stories made using the platform less pleasurable.

    Social media is supposed to be fun, enjoyable and informative hence when a platform is told that stuff on it prevents this enjoyment, then they must do something about it! And so the improvements are that these stories will be detected and should no longer take precedence over statuses from family and friends.

    However, do not lament the passing of such like-baiting for long as the changes will not affect companies who genuinely use Facebook as a platform to connect and converse with fans and customers, just don’t partake in those nuisance posts that ask you to like and share the photos of the puppy with sad eyes…

    • like- baiting screen shots or graphics

    This brings us nicely on to other nuisance like-baiting statuses, which use graphics to try and get us to converse. You know the ones – like if you ‘vote’ for the pony, share if you ‘vote’ for the parrot and ignore to vote for the crisp packet. They are rarely relevant to the company or the business to which it is linked and is another way of tricking likes, shares and comments (even if they are not favourable!) from users.

    Users can ‘hide’ this content, something that Facebook has noticed people are doing more and more. They want to filter out these like-baiting screenshots so that relevant stories are on your news feed, not this annoying rubbish that seems to have gathered pace in recent months.

    • Spammy links

    And this is how we started this blog post, with our story of the recent click we made on a link we thought would be of use and relevance to us. It seems that many users are feeding back their annoyance to Facebook, with the platform pledging that by monitoring genuine shares and links between ‘friends’, that they can detect these rubbish links and effectively filter them from your news feed; great news for those of us who find such things incredibly annoying, especially if they masquerade as something else.

    Will it affect you?

    According to Facebook, if you are a genuine user, inviting discussion and opinion on matters and issues that are relevant to your page and business, then no, there will be no negative impact. In fact, they suggest that your news feed and reach should increase as these statuses that are created with intentional spam to ‘catch’ users will effectively start to disappear creating more ‘room’ on the news feed.

    Will it impact content marketing?

    Yes, and in a good way – or so it is predicted.

    Many search engine optimising experts suggest that this means companies and brands will have to take another look at their content marketing plan, especially in relation to Facebook; the days of brands being able to gather ‘vanity metrics’ – likes and shares that mean nothing to their business, except tap push them up the rankings – are gone . It is also a positive change in that it will reward those brands that do post original content that is useful, informative and well-written.

    For example, on a global scale, American Express produce a whole series of articles for small business, posting these on a regular, daily basis.

    And there are brands, like Locally, who keep in touch with their customers and potential new clients with informative posts, as well as statuses, stories, tweets etc. that are useful, rather than just any old rubbish to draw people in.

    In other words, your statuses – the likes, shares and comments you invite – must lead potential customers to an owned website (yours!), not some random, ad-filled site that just wants to sell, sell, sell nonsensical items to people.

    Take another look at your content; is it genuine, fresh and informative?

  • Harnessing the power behind each and every blog post

    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 (the second half) – A Locally Mini-Series

    Part 2 of 2

    Welcome back! In this second part of getting ranked higher by Google we are going to examine the other 3 factors that can influence where your website stands in the ranking.

    They all inform the authoritative nature of your website, along with how trustworthy it is as well making sure that it is relevant.

    Let’s re-cap…

    So far we have look at page title descriptions, the actual text on a page, as well as the relevant SEO keywords being in the page URL. The remaining three factors look at links.

    Links according to Google

    Rather than being a little slapdash and shoving in links where you feel like it, think about how Google views a link.

    Links, in the all-seeing eyes of Google, are votes for your website – in other words, it is popular and relevant.

    F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s you may say, and go back to shoving links in but STOP… just for a moment and consider how you are using these links, as well as other considerations, such as…

    • Certain links are considered more authoritative than others and will look better in the eyes of Google if the originating link is from a website that Google already ranks quite highly.

    *Here at Locally, in our blog posts we use links; however, we rarely use more than 3 in a longer blog post and always check that a. the website we are linking to is relevant and b. it is an authoritative one. We like websites that complement our business, as well as the topic we are blogging about. We always use the links within the main body of the blog article too*

    • Google PageRank is the name of the algorithm that sorts the wheat from the chafe in terms of whether links are any good or not. Don’t confuse this with a websites’ Page Rank, Google used to publish Page Ranks but these haven’t been updated for a long while, so now you’ll have to find other ways of working out how authoritative Google thinks a site is. Most SEO’s go on either MOZ’s SEO Explorer Domain Authority or Majestic’s Trust Flow versus Citation, but as neither are Google, these are informed guesses rather than definitive.

    In terms of links, don’t overstuff and don’t use ones from less-than-salubrious sources. You have been warned.

    And so 2 of the remaining factors that can influence where your page comes in the rankings of Google are all to do with links, with the final one looking at filters.

    Number 4: Domain Links

    This is about links on other websites that link to your websites; so in other words, someone writing about SEO and Google rankings in the future might find this post and think ‘wow!’, and copy and paste the web page URL in to their website. We would be chuffed as it means that Locally’s website is gaining in authority in the eyes of Google.

    Links help your online reputation and so if you can get a link from another relevant, authoritative website then all the better. BUT, do not fall in the trap of buying links as Google takes a very, very dim view of this and rubbish links could actually be harming your page ranking.

    In the past the SEO industry was nearly 100% focussed on generating links and much of those were dubious if not downright spammy. Google has pretty much killed of that ‘quick win’ approach. Today any SEO offering you 50,000 backlinks and instant success, a technique that worked a few years ago, is likely to seriously damage your rankling today.

    Google had realised that websites that were stuffing themselves full of shoddy links were outstripping websites that were more genuine in their approach to commerce. And so a filter was ‘switched on’, if you like, that started to look for websites that were simply using any old link… so beware the backlinks, the link farms and all those other ‘get rich quick’ types of schemes. It can be very difficult to bounce back from being penalised by Google.

    In fact the best way to handle links is actually not to try and earn them, but instead write authoritative content and get is out there by social or any other means. If your content is good, people will link to it.

    Number 5: Page specific links

    You can form links within your own website too and this can also help in terms of website being seen as relevant, authoritative and trustworthy in the eyes of Google. Your home page may be the landing page that people find, but if you want them to bob along to your blog, put a link on your home page. Keep these links running down the side of your page too and, if you have an active page specifically for a certain time of year, then link this page to other pages in your website.

    This is seen as helping the customer to navigate your site; customers like this as it is an easy way to get around and make a purchase. They will buy more… and you can see where this is going!

    Number 6: Quality filters

    The Google Panda update at the start of 2014 was all about improving the user experience on the search engine, in other words, improving the quality of the search results that user would see. One area that it choose to look at was the user experience of a website; how easy is your website to use?

    Two factors of usability were previously not heavily on the SEO radar, but now are becoming increasing important

    • Performance. Sites that respond quickly are easier to use, so that is a significant usability signal. Bad code, unoptimised images and slow servers are things that need to be addressed.
    • Multi-device friendly. Today websites are visited from phones & tablets as well as desktops. Infact many sites have 50% of their traffic from mobile devices. Google is now looking and analysing how multi device friendly your site is. If your site is not currently responsive, now is a good time to make a small investment to make it so.

    What about social media signals?

    Social signals as they are known, is when a customer or user likes, shares, tweets, G+’s, pins etc. content or pages from your website.

    If you surf the web, you will find a range of conflicting advice and opinion about how much social signals do or do not play in ranking your website, in both Google and other search engines. However, if you look at your competitors, as well as other popular websites, you will see that they have high counts in terms of shares, tweets and G+’s and the like.

    You can see them as links in some ways, but those that say social signals should be used with caution point to the fact that some of these likes and shares etc. can be fabricated or bought. And just like spammy links, buying hundreds if not thousands of likes or shares can be to your detriment.

    See social signals in the same way as links; invite people to genuinely like and share things on your website.

    Put it in to practice!

    Armed with the knowledge of the 6 factors that could make a very big difference to your website ranking you know need to do two things:

    1. Take a look at your competitor sites that are ranking higher than yours – what are they doing, that you are not? What can you emulate and improve on?
    2. Look at the 6 factors again and then look at your website – is your website up to scratch?

    If you have enjoyed our two part mini-series, why not joy sign up for our newsletter?

    You can also join us on Google +, Twitter and Facebook!

  • Getting ranked higher by Google – A Locally Mini-Series

    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?