Viral videos have become a powerful tool for businesses to increase their reach and engagement with their target audience on social media. A viral video is a piece of content that quickly spreads and gains popularity through online sharing. While there’s no magic formula for creating a viral video, there are certain characteristics that often appear in successful ones.
Social Media Marketing
Dispelling SEO Myths – SEO in Lincolnshire
Today’s blog and accompanying video is aimed at dispelling a few myths! We have been providing SEO in Lincolnshire for years and feel it’s time to forget these myths once and for all.
I often explain to clients that as far as we are aware, there is over 250 ranking factors in the google search engine. The purpose of explaining this is to demonstrate that SEO needs to be taken very seriously. Over the years people have often asked me to take care of ranking factors that do not exist. Often based on a misguided understanding of out of date SEO techniques, or perhaps assuming that Google Analytics metrics are all ranking factors.
Bounce Rate
A good example of these mythical ranking factors would be the bounce rate of a website. This An important metric for analysing visitor activity, however not a ranking factor. This is the percentage of visitors that leave a web page without taking an action such as clicking a link or ordering a product. If this were true that google had made this a ranking factor, we would have to believe that Google can analyse this data across all of the websites ranked in the search engine but we know this not to be the case. As an experiment I could build a website and attract many organic visitors and track their visitor on visitor data on the server but Google has no access to this data until provided it and even if we were then to provide access for google analytics, the search engine still wouldn’t be able to compare that data as a ranking factor against many other websites, because they simply won’t all use google analytics.
Website Visits & Visit Duration
Another example would be directly visiting the website to boost SEO or even spending longer periods of time on the website to boost SEO. This idea suggests that more people doing these things would increase the ranking of the website when of course again that information would only be available to google if we provided it. Even this, would still exclude most of the internet not using google analytics, and people accessing their websites directly.
SEO in Lincolnshire – It’s all local!
Now for a quick reminder of the REAL SEO ranking factors. For example mobile friendliness, good social media coverage and consistent optimised content updates. Many businesses will find it beneficial to write their content around a keyphrase that includes your service/product and location. This has often proved to be a helpful search term recipe for Lincolnshire based businesses. For a visual recap of some of the content above, watch the video below. If you aren’t sure where to start, contact us. I’ve got lots of tips and tools to help but also often the most important thing is just knowing who to speak to and where to get the right advice.
Search Term Trends – SEO You Need To Know
We recently featured a video on our social media profiles to show our customers a great trick for simply finding the best search terms for their SEO and content.
In this blog, we are going to go even further to explain what to do and why this matters for your business.
Analysing a search term for SEO is easy!
Let's get started by considering what search terms you believe you would expect people to type into Google to look for businesses like yours. In the video, I used the example of a bookshop. Four terms stood out as being the most expected search terms:
- Bookshop
- Book shop
- Bookstore
- Book store
We also analyse the popularity of terms in our own industry. It has been important for us to compare terms like 'Logo design' to 'Graphic Design' or 'Website Design' to 'Web Design'.
Now compare the terms using the Google Trends website (trends.google.com).
With this data, you can easily determine the most popular search term. This may not actually represent the highest value search term for your business however. If the search term is highly popular but there are significantly more search results for that term than others, it may be possible to find an easier route to the top. This can be done by comparing search results with the next most popular search term.
In the bookshop example it was quickly discovered that 'bookshop' is the most popular search term, and conveniently this happens to be the least competed for search term. The results below show the term followed by the number of results in the search engine:
This is the best result possible for SEO and content marketing, as it will now confirm that 'bookshop' is the highest value search term. The next step for many people will be to analyse every possible combination of terms that could be interchangeable in the search engine. Perhaps you need to compare your service terminologies or even a common misspelling/American spelling?
Social Videography – Quality Social Marketing
There is ever increasing demand for video content on social media. High quality social videography can help provide your followers with the content they want in a form that separates you from your competitors. Video content encourages social media engagement far more effectively than a static image. Further, your message can be far more easily and effectively communicated in detail.
For a time, one of the downsides of video content is that people would not be able to view it from anywhere like other social content. Requiring audio would make the video less effective than an image for example. This made it very important for social videography to include captions and headings that make the content less convinient to produce.
Today, social videos recieve the benefit of automatic captioning that makes watching content without audio an option. These captions have long been improved by advances in automated speech recognition (ASR) and AI technology. Find out more about Meta ASR.
Not only does it make your social content more accessible for average users, but hundreds of millions of people in the world who are deaf or hard of hearing are now able to follow every word. The convinience of social videography continues to be another benefit to businesses since live video also includes automatic closed captions for Facebook Live and Workplace Live. The live content can be translated into six languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and French.
Does Your Social Marketing Include Videography?
So if your business hasn’t found a space to start filming and producing your social videography content, get started today. For more advanced projects or less technology savy businesses, we can help produce high quality videos for your website visitors and social media following. We work across Spalding, Holbeach, Boston and wider South Lincolnshire for various sectors. We also take on projects for businesses across the rest of the UK and are available for remote and in person appointments to discuss your project.
Contact us on 01775 761 512
Advert Landing Pages – Website Design Tips
Did you know you should be creating a specific landing page for every ad campaign?
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at why landing pages are so important for your adverts.
Many advertisers only focus on the ads themselves when creating campaigns. Many businesses focus on ensuring that their ads comply with advertising policies. However if you create and engaging enough ad, you will generate visitors to a page on your website. Never miss the opportunity to take advantage of being able to create a perfect website landing pages, registration pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, or whatever you might call it.
You can create highly targeted ads that quickly build your mailing list, offer free consultations, coupon codes, events, giveaways/competitions, and many other incentives but the process has to be clear. You have guided customers to a page, now you must guide them through their next steps.
To avoid a low conversion rate, don’t force customers to search for the product or content they are looking for. Don’t use generic website pages or irrelevant landing pages that are specifically targeting your ad visitors.
A good website today is not necessarily one that is well planned or has a trendy design. The focus has shifted to clarity and content. You can draw inspiration from the latest trends, but make sure your design choices are based not only on your preferences. The focus should be on decisions that positively influence your customers’ behaviour.
So, What Is A Good Landing Page?
– A video that explaining the product/service
– A simple and prominent call to action button (buy, get a quote, contact us etc)
– A live chat function with an on hand sales representative
– A selection of reviews, partners and awards
Website Ads Support – Find us in Spalding
Give us a call if you’re still struggling. Drive By Websites Ltd can help you build website landing pages, create Pay Per Click campaigns, design bespoke graphics, and send mailshots. Whatever you need, we’re here to help. Give us a call on 01775 761512, contact us online or visit us at 14 Bear Lane, Pinchbeck, Spalding, Lincolnshire PE11 3XA.
Adding Value To Your Website – From One Page To Ecommerce
It can undoubtedly be difficult to generate new content on the same topics regularly, but we are here to remind you of a few different ways to keep your site ranking highly in Google without always covering the same ground. Some suggestions might be new to you and as always we’re here to help. Here are a few suggestions for how to rethink your website content:
- In 2021, YouTube is quickly becoming one of the most valuable marketing platforms to share useful or engaging content with returning/potential customers. Social video content in general is easily accessible on mobile devices without the extra effort of reading or scrolling. The same is true of your website. By connecting relevant search terms to your video and connecting the content to your website, customers can discover and follow your other content and website offerings.
- You can use your website to help limit unpredictable customer service costs such as time spent answering social media enquiries or answering calls. With this your website can help provide a service to your customers and the business itself. As an example, Frequently asked questions (FAQ) areas can be a lot of work to write but will inevitably save time and money for your business.
- Social media content is a perfect microcosm for your target customers to help determine the effectiveness and engagement of certain topics and content. With those valuable social media insights, you can expand on topics across your website and wider social network. From there, including prominent social sharing facilities on your website content is necessary to maximise the potential for visitors to share and attract new visitors.
- You might think of writing relevant and engaging content as the only factor in achieving maximum value for money for your advertising and marketing, however your website can turn viewers into followers by offering newsletter subscriptions, coupon/discount sign ups and membership areas. A few simple tools on your website can even make this remarkably simple.
- Social Giveaways can be vastly more engaging on social media than traditional content and fortunately it can be just as simple to write in valuable search terms and keywords for optimising your website. Services such as kingsumo actually make it even simpler to create landing pages for your giveaways that can attract entries for likes, follows, shares and email sign ups. With a bit of integration to your website, you’ll soon be able to regularly generate hundreds of extra followers and mailing list subscribers for little extra effort or expense than traditional content marketing.
Don’t leave your visitors hanging around or bouncing off your site, spend some time extracting as much value as possible from your website visitors.
Is Content Still King in 2021?
Over half of UK marketing companies prioritise blogging as their primary content marketing strategy. Clearly generating leads online is considerably easier when producing engaging and relevant content. When this is combined with other relevant value adding strategies such as the above examples, the process of acquiring and converting visitors into customers on your website has never been as effortless. It all starts with relevant original content. If you’re struggling to generate new ideas or exposure to the right demographics, we can help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or implementing techniques such as those above. For businesses that are actively exploring content marketing opportunities, give us a call on 01775 761512 or contact us online.
Is It Too Late To Upgrade? Websites in 2020
Our blog earlier this year, ‘Redevelop and Remain Productive‘, was intended to remind people that it’s never been more important to have an up to date website. The opening line reads:
“If you find yourself debating how you will remain productive during this difficult period, we suggest you start with your website.”
As we head into 2021, I am confident your business will continue to face new challenges with the same resilience that so many of our clients have. However, if you did not get round to your website, perhaps your competitors did?
It might be time to take a look over your competition online and check you’re still on the cutting edge. If you aren’t providing sufficient opportunity for your customers to help you through this difficult period, your business and Google ranking will suffer. We have been helping our clients analyse their competition from around the country in order to help keep them focus their priorities. While different sectors vary greatly, there has been a huge uptake in instant engagement systems.
Businesses that had previously focused their attention on social media adapted incredibly well, with many find opportunities for higher engagement. Examples of this were offerings of support into their communities. These contributions to support causes and charities were exposed to a captive audience over the lockdown and for many this was perfect advertising. That heightened engagement carried over to websites, with many more businesses using integrated social media messaging and live chat systems.
Businesses that had not previously used social media or had neglected it are finding their customer engagement is still not returning to normal. Expanding your online offering could be one of the simplest ways to adapt to the changing times. We can take care of all of your requirements and make it as simple as possible for your team to adjust to.
“We might not be running if our website wasn’t ready before the lockdown and we just wanted to say how thankful we are. You took us out of the dark ages!”
A live chat facility offers a simple faceless contact window for website visitors to acquire quick answers to their questions. If you are not available to answer these live chat queries, you could opt for an Automated Chat Bot. These are growing very popular on websites and Facebook pages. The information you can capture from these passing customers may be very valuable to your business. It will also help you improve your website as customers will inform you where your content could be improved.
If you rather speaking to your customers, there’s an option for that too. Smartphone users are very unlikely to scroll down and read a whole load of content wording and then send you an email, especially if there’s a lengthy form to complete. Because your mobile visitors are already holding their phone, allow them to call you with one simple touch of the button. No more copy-and-pasting or memorising the phone number for your customers.
Here To Help
If you’re short of ideas, we’re here to help. The generic advice we post on our blog relates to as many businesses and organisations as possible. We can provide highly specific advice based on your customers needs and competitor analysis. Contact us for more information on how you can enhance and improve your website.
Website Designer Spalding
Boston Website Development
Maximise Website Marketing with Google Analytics in Lincolnshire
Businesses in Lincolnshire generally opt for marketing stratagies including:
- Local Press
- Print Materials
- Facebook/Instagram/Social Medai Campaigns
- Google AdWords
- Mailshots
Analysing your Marketing Stratagies
One of these five will generate the best results for your business. Once correlated to the cost of the marketing, knowing which is most effective is invaluable. Most companies spend years wasting money on bad advertising. Sometimes this is in the interest of saving money but other times it is simply that they don’t know what forms of advertising work best for them.
The ultimate solution to this recurring problem is ‘Google Analytics’. Once integrated into your website, Google provide high level analytics detailing audience acquisition, audience behaviour and audience conversions. The detail is unparalleled in the industry and provides invaluable marketing and progress data. Google Analytics can be found in 57% of the 10,000 most popular websites, and that percentage is even higher for smaller websites! We find that businesses in Lincolnshire have been slower to adopt systems like Google Analytics but that does offer our customers a competitive edge against other companies in the same industry. Let them waste their money on ineffective marketing while you maximise you continually improve your marketing potentail.
We’d love to list all of the features of the analytics reporting available in this system but it’s genuinely too big! Put it this way, it’s everything you’ll need and more.
Cookie Compliance with Google Analytics in Lincolnshire
You will need to notify your visitors to comply with GDPR/EU Cookie Law. An analytics code is not as intrusive as other software available that track users over multiple sites, but you still need consent. Website owners do have to seek consent for the use of cookies that acquire Google Analytics data.
For more information or to get Google Analytics added to your website, give us a call on 01775 761512.
We’ve just launched our Instagram
As many of our clients have recently discovered, we have just launched our Instagram business page.
Instagram can make a business look fantastic online and it does have a good share of quality users. Unfortunately, the best practice for achieving the most involves maximising engagements and it’s easy to forget that this is where most of your likes are coming from. Engagements are the highest priority for a social media manager (personal or commercial). The more you engage the better you’ll do. Hence, if you don’t have the time or patience, it’s tough to grow your audience on Instagram. Businesses using Instagram will often feel their time is well spent while collecting a large number of likes that add no value to their business in reality. But this is obviously no reason to avoid it entirely. The overall benefit is still quite high with expectations properly managed. There is a growing audience on instagram, both globally and locally. Around the Facebook privacy controversy, Instagram has benefited from a 30% boost in users.
So now we’re live and it’s rejuvinated some excitement for social media again. We are regularly engaging with our growing audience now and hope to set a good example to our customers. We’ve reached 136 followers in around a week, which we are quite pleased with. We’ll be promoting graphic design just as much as website work on our Instagram page.
Visit us on Instagram
Drive By Websites Ltd (@drivebywebsites) * Instagram photos and videos
136 Followers, 111 Following, 12 Posts – See Instagram photos and videos from Drive By Websites Ltd (@drivebywebsites)
Social Media Marketing in Spalding
Clients based in Spalding and the surrounding areas often ask us for advice or services relating to social media marketing. Unfortunately this is not the area where we focus most of our time. We specialise in Web Development and Graphic Design and want to provide the best possible service in those fields without needing to spend time managing clients social media accounts. This is why we’re so pleased to have a longstanding business relationship with the local company, TAG Marketing. They offering Spalding businesses a flexible outsourced social media management & marketing service. They regularly help our clients establish a sound social media strategy, and delivery that strategy day-to-day.
They can also run paid online advertising campaigns on your behalf. If you’re based in Spalding and would like to know more about social media marketing services, speak to Tag Marketing for more information.