Getting people to visit your website is hard. They don’t just stroll past it on the street and decide to pop in for a look around. You have to make your website accessible and SEO friendly. But what is this strange and mysterious SEO everyone is going on about?

In this series of blog posts we’ll be looking at the basics of SEO, what it is and how to get to grips with it.

Let’s begin…

‘What is SEO?’

‘Why isn’t my website No1 on Google for ALL search terms?’

‘Our website is totally amazing, WHY aren’t we getting any traffic?’

If you have spent many an hour pondering any of the above (perhaps slightly less dramatically), it sounds like you might need a little information kick-start to help you on your way to search engine success.

SEO – What is it and what does it stand for?

We agree, a sandwich-eating octopus would be really cool, but today we are discussing a different SEO that is both tentacle free and less damp.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which in the smallest nutshell possible is the process of changing the visibility of your website or certain pages on your website within a search engine’s organic or paid search results. 

Generally speaking, the more frequently your website appears in the search results and the higher up it appears – the more visitors will come your way. In summary:

Good SEO practice = more visitors.

Does my website need SEO?

Trying to get visitors to your website without optimising it for search engines is like trying to make an omelette without breaking any eggs.

From the words on your homepage through to the other websites you link to – it all matters.

Nowadays, major commercial search engines drive the vast majority of web traffic. To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, see below for recent market share percentages:

·       Google – 80%

·       Yahoo – 9.5%

·       Bing – 8.5%

·       Other – 2%

Whilst social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can direct traffic to your website, as you can see from the above it is the search engines who are the ‘big players’ – ‘the Don’ of Internet navigation shall we say.

When you enter a search query into one of the above engines, they display pages that they believe are both relevant and authoritative. They do this using complicated and constantly changing and shifting algorithms, which much like the recipe for Iron Bru will remain a closely guarded but hotly debated secret.

Why can’t search engines work it out on their own?

If search engines are so clever I hear you say, why can’t they work out what search queries should bring up your website on their own? Why do you need to do anything?

Search engines are smart, and they are constantly working on updating their technology so that they can crawl the web more efficiently to return the most relevant results – but there is a limit to what they can do.

Making content accessible to search engines will help them to find it so that they can put it into a place where others will subsequently find it.

Traffic that comes to your website (or doesn’t) can have a direct impact on the success of your company. After all, if no one knows about your service then how an earth are you going to make any money?

Investing in SEO whether through your own time, the time of your staff or financially by outsourcing it, could be one of the most valuable investments you make as a company (offering an exceptional ROI in comparison to other forms of marketing).

For a summary of the above, please see our infographic below:

deal with Facebook and Twitter, how is social media changing the business-customer

relationship, and what does this mean for you?

Although it started out as a way to keep in touch with friends, share holiday snaps and nosy on other people’s lives, social networking has since become a powerful money-maker in business.

So what makes these sites so special?

People reveal a great deal about themselves online. Never before have businesses been allowed so close to their customers’ personal lives. Suddenly, it’s not about who can produce the brightest flyers, cold-call the most customers, or think up the catchiest slogans – people don’t tend to fall for that anymore. Social media marketing is all about getting to know the market, gaining a good reputation in online circles, building a unique voice and being a ‘friend’ to customers.

Experts believe the age of intrusive advertising (such as flyers, pop-ups and banners) is on its way out. Now that we live in the digital age people are more tuned in and media-savvy than ever. Customers want interaction and they want choice. They don’t want their web browsing interrupted by irritating adverts for services they have no intention of buying.

Businesses are starting to realise the way forward is to stop forcing their messages at customers, and start giving them a reason to come to them. Sites like Facebook and Twitter offer a space for business to share blogs, images, links and other interesting content to entice potential customers in. Information spreads like wildfire on the web and gaining attention can be as simple as posting a blog people want to read.

For the first time, customers can talk to the brands they buy into. They can publicly post questions, complaints and compliments, and in turn businesses can show the world how good they are at dealing with customers. We think it’s this new open dialogue that makes social media marketing so revolutionary – and so effective.

Of course, not all business owners are avid bloggers or social media moguls and the idea of entering into this strange world of ‘tweeting’, ‘liking’ and ‘pinning’ can seem a little daunting to a rookie.

Here we’ve compiled some very simple social media marketing tips for anyone hoping to improve their digital presence or boost their brand image through social networking:

1. Focus on one or two social media channels at first (at least until you’re in a position to employ a social media manager).

Check out this very useful infographic for some recent social media user statistics. By looking at demographics for each site you can work out which ones you need to target to reach your customers.

2. Post valuable content

While it’s fine to post the occasional promotional deal or offer, self-promotional spamming is an instant turn-off for visitors because it blocks up their feeds with unwanted material. You’re more likely to gain their trust and approval if you link them to an interesting article, or even better – post original content like a blog or image you’ve created yourself.

3. Start a conversation

While posting content is great, don’t just sit back and let the comments and replies roll in. Engage with your visitors, reply to their questions, offer your own opinion (if appropriate) and ask theirs. Asking questions is a great way to get people to take notice of you – you’ll soon realise just how much people love offering their own thoughts about things.

4. Go viral

Have you taken an interesting or amusing picture recently? Have you heard a funny joke, or found an inspirational quote? It’s these things people want to share with their friends on social media. Engaging with people’s emotions – whether humour, shock, empathy, or amazement is bound to get people talking and spreading news. If you can get people to repost your links then you’re opening up your doors to a whole store of potential new customers.

This is just a fragment of the advice out there but hopefully it’s given you somewhere to start. We urge you to give social media a go – it’s one of the best ways of getting to know your potential customers/clients and it’s your chance to show them what your brand or business is all about. Good luck!

You may think, “I’ve received all my clients through word of mouth so far, why should I bother going online?” and yes, word of mouth is one of the best forms of publicity – but if you want to attract new customers and build your clientele, getting yourself online is essential.

Why online?

Roughly one third of the world’s population has access to the Internet and most of these users like to ‘try before they buy’. This means before parting with their hard earned cash, people generally want to find out as much as they can about a service or product – and researching on the Internet is fast becoming their first port of call.

The fact that you are a small business can actually work to your advantage online. It is likely that you are wanting to attract customers from your local area to increase chances of repeat custom, and thankfully big search engines like Google have you covered. These search engines usually track peoples’ IP addresses to find out where they live so that when they search for a service, such as a counsellor or nutritionist, the search engine will come up with local counsellors or nutritionists near them – clever huh?

How do I do it?

The key to making yourself visible online is having a diverse presence. This means having yourself listed on an online directory (a study by Burke revealed that 8 out of 10 people will use a directory when researching a product or service before anything else), having your own website and utilising social media.

No matter how big or small your business is – you should never underestimate the power of social media. When you are starting up, this is basically free PR for your company. It offers you a way to reach out to potential customers, keep in touch with existing customers and generally takes the whole word of mouth idea to another level.

What next?

Creating your online presence gives you a chance to really hone your brand and develop a voice. It also allows you to verbalise your company’s morals, mission statement and values, helping potential customers gain an insight into what you’re all about. Building up a presence can take time, but if you are willing to put the effort in you will start to see positive results and discover a whole new world of opportunity.

Once you have successfully entered the online world you can start to use some technical wizard-style tools such as SEO to make yourself even more visible, but we’ll save that for another time .

P.S. Those funky diagrams are part of a really interesting Infographic.

To coincide with the launch of our re-branded website, we have set up this new blog so you can keep up to date with the latest goings on here at Memiah HQ as well as lots of other industry news and marketing tips.

First things first however, allow us to introduce ourselves:

Who are we?

Starting back in 2005 in the attic of an old barn, Memiah was then a team of just four – working hard to allow small businesses to promote themselves in a cost-effective and efficient way. Since then we have grown and enhanced both our business model and our team into the well-oiled 19-strong machine we are today. Our primary aim: To promote a healthier and happier society by nurturing ideas, helping you to grow your business and ultimately, sending the right clients your way so that they too receive the service and support they need.

How we do it

Memiah started out as a family business, so it goes without saying that family values and a supportive and caring environment are central to how we carry out the work we do and how we interact as a team and with our customers.

We don’t believe in just connecting with our own customers, we believe in connecting with our customer’s customers and providing them too with the best possible service through the development of websites, staff and systems.

How can we be of assistance?

If you are a small business, or indeed if you would like one – we can provide you with the marketing tools you need to make it a success. For you, you have the security and comfort of knowing that you are using a tried and tested model – because after all – we used it ourselves!

With that said we are by no means stuck in our ways. We welcome innovation and new ideas from staff, the public and customers and are flexible when it comes to spotting consumer needs and adapting our service to suit them.

After eight years in business we find ourselves in a very exciting and fortunate position, where the growth of our own business helps yours to grow too.

So, whether you have a small business, you work in marketing or if you just find all of this ‘stuff’ interesting – why not track our journey, learn some inside knowledge and pick-up some useful tips along the way by following this blog?

We hope to see you again soon!

The Memiah Team

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