If there's one thing that is on everyone’s mind, it’s how we are going to be more sustainable and fight climate change. That's why more and more companies are investing in green marketing to show their customers how they are doing their bit to help the planet. Whilst this is an extremely positive thing to do, it's important to make sure this message doesn't unnoticed. In this article, we will look at why social media as a form of content marketing is the answer to getting your green marketing noticed.
Although green marketing is becoming more widely recognised, there are still many people asking, what is the meaning of green marketing? In its simplest form, ‘green marketing’ refers to sharing your company’s sustainable or eco-friendly strategies with its target audiences.
If you’re taking steps to reduce emissions, save energy or lessen waste, for example, sharing this information with stakeholders, employees, existing clients and potential customers is green marketing.
Being sustainable is more important than ever for today’s businesses and promoting your company’s green credentials is key to enhancing your brand’s image. An increasing number of consumers prioritise sustainability when making a purchase, so being seen as environmentally friendly could be critical to optimising your commercial performance.
Of course, it isn’t just B2C businesses that should be concerned with sustainability and green marketing. As regulations increase, B2B firms are under increasing pressure to improve their green credentials too and you’ll find that potential clients are eager to review your sustainable practices before engaging in a long-term partnership.
While setting sustainable goals and implementing eco-friendly practices is important, sharing this information is equally critical. After all, no-one will know about the sustainable changes you’re making if you don’t tell them! For this reason, green marketing should be a priority for businesses across all sectors.
Social media facilitates the sharing of ideas and information via text and visual formats across platforms and networks. Major global social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are used by billions of people, multiple times a day.
This, in itself, highlights why social media can be such a powerful tool for businesses. With the potential to cultivate your own network and reach a global audience, social media can be used to maximise your reach and promote key marketing messages in a variety of ways.
Social media marketing (SMM) offers a variety of benefits, including:
Extending your online presence to social platforms allows you to share your brand identity on a wider scale. What’s more – many companies take a more informal approach on social media, which allows new facets of their brand personality to shine through.
Depending on your goals and priorities, you may choose to use organic and/or paid SMM to share your company’s green strategy and success. Fortunately, all major social media sites have paid advertising options that allow you to get your content out to a wide audience. Whether you’re focused on building a loyal following or sharing your content far and wide, there are viable SMM options to help you achieve your objectives.
SMM is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business and its green credentials, even on a global scale. After all, the only cost involved with organic SMM is content creation, strategy development, real-time engagement and analytics and optimisation.
While paid SMM does require an investment, this is relatively small compared to many other forms of digital marketing. Furthermore, the option to use pay-per-click (PPC) models of SMM advertising ensures you can cap your budget and remain in control of your spending.
When you post content on social media, there is no delay in getting your message out to your audience. This ensures you can post topical and timely content, 24x7x365. If you want to be the first to release breaking news or you’re eager to ‘newsjack’ a trending topic, being able to publish content in real-time always gives you an advantage.
If you’re active on social media platforms and you have an effective green SMM strategy in place, you’ll find that a considerable amount of your website traffic can originate from this source. With the right targeting, you can make sure that the users who follow you, engage with your content and click your links are those who are most likely to convert into paying customers, thus optimising your ROI and maximising the success of your SMM strategy.
As more users follow your brand on social media, you’ll have the opportunity to build long-term relationships with customers, clients, partners and interested parties. This means you can keep them updated as your company evolves, and your sustainable strategies come to fruition.
Few companies can achieve net-zero in an instant but the on-going engagement that’s facilitated via social media makes it the perfect platform to keep your target audience updated on you progress.
Social media platforms give brands the opportunity to work together, both via planned collaborations and informal support. When it comes to green marketing, companies can align with one another to accelerate their sustainable practices. In turn, this leads to increased environmental benefits and enhances brand images across target markets.
Whether you’re partnering with influencers to increase your reach, sharing the sustainable success of other brands or highlighting your eco-friendliness in comparison to competitors, social media gives you the scope to engage with a variety of organisations in a whole new way.
With extensive experience and expertise, we routinely assist brands in creating and executing green marketing strategies. To find out how we can help your company to elevate its brand and promote its green credentials, get in touch with our team now on 01793292171 or email us at hello@smarter-media.co.uk to learn more.
Ecommerce or electronic commerce is a great way for businesses to reach their customers on a global scale. But knowing if your business is targeting the right people in the right way is essential for any ecommerce company. Setting out the right KPIs can help you determine exactly this so that your business can grow a successful ecommerce strategy.
In this article we will list the best KPIs for your ecommerce strategy, whilst looking at how to measure KPIs and how to optimise online performance.
Before we look at KPIs and eCommerce strategies, it’s important to define exactly what eCommerce is. Although many people are familiar with the term, there are a significant number of people who ask, ‘what does eCommerce mean?’ – even those who work in the industry!
In its simplest form, eCommerce is simply selling goods or services online. So, if you accept orders and ship goods or accept payments to deliver online products and services, then you’re engaging in eCommerce.
Global revenue from eCommerce is expected to reach $3.64 trillion USD in 2023, which means there are plenty of people who are eager to break into the industry and capitalise on the opportunity to generate a profit.
While anyone can start an eCommerce business, knowing how to do eCommerce successfully is key to making a good return on your investment. There are many factors to consider if you’re thinking about launching an eCommerce business, such as what you’ll sell, who your audience is and what your overheads will be.
Fortunately, knowing how to set eCommerce KPIs and engage in effective eCommerce marketing can help you to maximise the success of your enterprise.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a measure of performance, and they can provide you with extremely useful information, particularly when you’re running an eCommerce marketing campaign. Although KPIs can be used for a variety of activities, including long-term company performance, they are routinely used to measure the success of marketing campaigns.
When you’re running an email marketing campaign, your open rate and click-through-rate (CTR) are key metrics that should be integrated into your KPIs. By setting an open rate KPI of 30% within two days of the email being sent, for example, you can gauge how well your campaign is performing against your goals.
eCommerce KPIs are simply key performance indicators that are well-suited to eCommerce marketing campaigns or online selling in general. These can include:
While these are a small sample of eCommerce KPIs, there are many more than can be utilised to enhance your company’s performance. Although it may be tempting to use numerous KPIs, be sure to select a manageable number that you’ll be able to track accurately and, crucially, that you’ll be able to use to optimise performance.
When you’re setting KPIs, first consider the purpose or goal of your overall activity. When you’re selling goods online, for example, you may use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive targeted traffic to your website. If so, relevant KPIs may include:
However, simply monitoring these metrics isn’t the same as setting KPIs. To actually set KPIs, you’ll need to look at your baseline performance alongside average KPIs for your industry to set custom goals that are both measurable and realistic. Then, you can determine what your short and long-term KPIs really are.
Once you’ve decided on your KPIs, you’ll need to know how to measure them if you want to make use of the data you’re gathering. Fortunately, many platforms have built-in tools to collate analytics, which can be extremely helpful when you’re measuring metrics and KPIs.
When you use Google Ads for PPC campaigns, for example, key metrics are automatically generated. You can view this data in the platform or export it so that it can be compared to your KPIs. In addition to this, there are a variety of software tools that can be used to collate data from a variety of sources to provide granular insights across a campaign.
KPIs can and should be utilised every time you run a marketing campaign, but this isn’t the only time that eCommerce companies can benefit from setting and measuring KPIs. In fact, you can use KPIs across every aspect of your business to generate measurable insights into performance. What’s more – using KPIs in this way will give you the data you need to make actionable changes that enable you to reach your long-term commercial objectives.
Setting and measuring KPIs can be extremely valuable for eCommerce businesses, providing you use the information in the right way. Although KPIs can be informative, it’s vital to use the insights they offer to optimise campaign performance.
As key metrics can be measured in real-time, you can use short-term KPIs to optimise campaign while they are on-going. This gives you an opportunity to increase the campaign ROI, rather than waiting for the campaign to end to analyse its metrics.
Similarly, the KPIs and metrics used for a single campaign can be used to enhance future campaign, thus enabling you to consistently optimise performance and increase revenue.
From choosing the right KPIs and setting up reliable tracking systems to launching, managing and optimising campaigns – creating a successful eCommerce marketing strategy can be more difficult than it seems.
At Smarter Media, our range of expertise and experience empowers us to deliver optimal eCommerce marketing services. If you’re eager to increase sales, reach a new audience, boost conversion rates or enhance the ROI on your advertising spend, we can help you to achieve your goals.
To find out more, contact Smarter Media now on 01793292171 or email us at hello@smarter-media.co.uk.
In 2023, AI began to make its mark in the digital marketing landscape. One of the key elements that AI has changed is Social Media Ads Management. Since its birth in 1997, social media has taken the world by storm, with platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter proving to be popular with users.
When it comes to social media marketing, ad management is one of the key aspects of a successful strategy. But the way in which digital marketers implement their social media ads management has now been given a makeover thanks to the help of AI.
With 4.8 billion people around the world now using social media, it’s a valuable channel for businesses that want to increase brand awareness, reach new audiences, increase sales and garner customer loyalty.
However, building a successful social media strategy requires in-depth platform knowledge and digital marketing expertise – which is where social media management comes into play. By hiring an in-house social media team or working with a social media agency, companies can optimise their social performance to generate enhanced results and a higher ROI.
While the term ‘social media management’ can refer to both a company’s organic and paid social media strategies, it is paid social advertising that most often requires expert management. From audience targeting and content generation to performance analysis and campaign optimisation, professional social ads management enables businesses to achieve higher results from their PPC advertising.
Social media advertising, sometimes referred to as ‘paid social’, involves promoting your brand via paid ads on social media platforms, such as:
Although each social media site has its own in-platform ad management features, social advertising typically works on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. This provides a cost-effective way for businesses to promote their brand, products and/or services across the most popular sites in the world.
Crucially, social media advertising facilitates audience targeting, which enables companies to target specific demographics. While a user base of 4.8 billion global people gives your ads humungous reach, few businesses are actively targeting all of these users. By using accurate audience segmentation and targeting, you can use social media advertising to reach your company’s target audience and generate meaningful commercial results for your business.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad term that refers to a computer’s ability to perform functions that are commonly associated with humans, like reasoning and decision-making. There are many branches of AI, such as machine learning (ML), computer vision, neural networks and robotics.
One of the most prevalent ways AI is being used in a commercial context today is via the processing and analysis of Big Data. As artificial intelligence is capable of analysing large volumes of data at a rate that is simply impossible for humans, it allows us to gain insights that would otherwise be unreachable.
The ability of AI to take the next step, ‘make decisions’ and perform actions based on the data it’s processing and the patterns it recognises means that we can deploy it to undertake automated actions and streamline workflows.
Although we are still at the precipice of AI development, it is already being used across a variety of industries to enhance performance, increase efficiency and facilitate increased automation – and it’s becoming a significant part of social media advertising and digital marketing as a whole.
AI is already having a transformative impact on social media management and providing marketers with access to data-driven insights and automated platforms that increase the efficacy of social advertising campaigns. Some common examples of AI in social media management include:
While there’s no doubt that artificial intelligence is making social media advertising more effective and more lucrative than ever before, it has yet to replace the industry expertise and intrinsic knowledge that experienced digital marketers bring to the table.
By combining the capabilities of AI with the knowledge of social media marketers, however, brands can maximise campaign performance, increase their reach and enhance the ROI that’s generated via social media advertising.
Creating, building and executing a successful social media advertising strategy involves a variety of activities, including deploying AI-powered tools to optimise performance. Although every business should rely on bespoke social ad campaigns to deliver the best results, common elements of campaign creation, management and optimisation include:
There are multiple social media platforms to advertise on but selecting the right one(s), based on where your target audience(s) are active, will give your campaigns the best chance of success. Similarly, using AI-driven tools and in-platform targeting options will ensure that you reach users who are most likely to be influenced by your ad content and, therefore, most likely to convert.
From attention-grabbing headlines and eye-catching visuals to inspiring copy and motivating CTAs, there are many elements of a social ad that need to be carefully crafted. Here, you can use AI to determine which words and phrases have the biggest impact on your target audience.
When your ads are competing against content published by other brands, you’ll need to use savvy bidding strategies to minimise your costs while ensuring your ads are displayed in prominent positions. Again, AI can be deployed to undertake competitor analysis and data analysis to determine which bidding strategies will deliver the most cost-effective performance.
With real-time AI performance analysis, campaigns can be optimised to deliver enhanced results while they are ongoing. This maximises performances and ensures that every social ads campaign delivers an optimal ROI.
To find out how we’re leveraging AI to enhance our social ad campaigns and deliver even better results for our clients, get in touch with our team today!
In an era where environmental consciousness has become a driving force for businesses and consumers alike, understanding the concept of green credentials is crucial. Green credentials refer to a company's demonstrated commitment to sustainable practices and responsible environmental stewardship. It encompasses a wide range of factors, including the reduction of carbon footprint, the implementation of eco-friendly initiatives, the use of renewable energy sources, ethical sourcing, and transparent reporting on environmental impacts.
Green credentials serve as a badge of honour, showcasing a company's dedication to protecting the planet and resonating with an increasingly eco-conscious customer base. In this article, we will delve deeper into the meaning and significance of green credentials, exploring how businesses can leverage them to thrive in today's sustainability-driven landscape.
The frequently cited green credentials definition of ‘the qualities that show you believe it is important to protect the natural environment’ can be exemplified in many ways and, as a result, your organisation may have more green credentials than you realise.
If you already have a sustainability or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy in place, you may have already identified your company’s green credentials but, if not, it’s important to analyse your brand and your operations to identify existing green credentials.
Organisations across all sectors can improve their sustainability by operating in a more environmentally conscious manner and, as a result, increase their green credentials for business and commerce. This may include:
However, there are many more ways that companies can enhance the sustainability of their operations. In fact, anything you do to minimise your organisation’s impact on the environment serves to increase your green credentials.
Becoming more sustainable has a positive impact on the planet but it can enhance your commercial performance too. Recent studies have shown that 85% of consumers have become ‘greener’ in their purchases and 76% of global consumers are calling for companies to reduce their environmental footprint.
Furthermore, analysis has shown that products making ESG-related claims averaged 28% cumulative growth over a five-year period, compared to 20% cumulative growth for products not making ESG-related claims.
As consumers becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues, demand for sustainable products and services is growing consistently. No matter where your organisation sits in the supply chain, this demand is trickling through and affecting every type of business, including B2B, D2C and B2C.
In addition to this, companies are facing increasing environmental regulation and threats of carbon taxes. As green compliance issues are set to come to the fore in upcoming years, businesses must embrace sustainability via green credentials if they are to retain and expand their market share.
However, your green credentials will only deliver business benefits if they are promoted effectively and that’s where green marketing and sustainability branding comes into play.
Whatever green credentials your business has, it’s important to integrate them into your brand and incorporate them into your marketing strategies. After all, the sustainability of a business is impacting consumer decision-making and your customers can only consider you an eco-friendly brand if they are aware of your green credentials.
By giving your green credentials meaning and context via your marketing strategy, you can ensure that your target audience is aware of your commitment to minimising your environmental footprint and your ongoing efforts to reduce your environmental impact.
As a result, ‘sustainability’ will become a more intrinsic element of your branding and a core brand value that is associated with your business. In turn, your target audience will consider you sustainable company and make purchasing decisions accordingly.
Sustainability marketing (or green marketing) can be a powerful way to showcase your green credentials but developing an effective sustainability marketing strategy can be trickier than it seems.
Nearly half of consumers state they don’t know who to trust when it comes to corporate sustainability commitments and pledges, while ongoing concerns regarding ‘greenwashing’ are making consumers wary of believing companies that claim to be eco-friendly.
Fortunately, there are ways to restore the confidence of your target audiences with sustainability marketing, such as:
Integrating your green credentials and sustainability efforts into your content marketing strategy and PPC strategies will ensure that your target audience is aware of your green credentials and begins to consider your brand to be sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Whatever green credentials you choose to promote, make sure they can be evidenced and exemplified. From releasing annual sustainability reports to shining a spotlight on your sustainable suppliers via social media, there are many ways to showcase how you’re becoming a more sustainable brand.
When potential customers are searching for sustainable brands online, it’s vital that your web pages appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). If you design, manufacture or sell clothes, for example, and you’re working with sustainable fabric suppliers, be sure to integrate relevant keywords, such as ‘eco friendly fashion’ or ‘sustainable fashion’ into your SEO strategy.
While consumers may be wary of taking brands’ sustainability claims at face value, you can build trust by formalising your green credentials via independent certifications. The ISO 14001 standard confirms that a company has an effective environmental management system in place, for example, while B Corp Certification shows that your organisation meets ‘high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability’.
At Smarter Media, we’re dedicated to helping companies achieve their objectives via innovative, data-driven digital marketing services. Working closely with our clients, we bring your green credentials to the fore and showcase your company’s sustainability to elevate your brand.
To find out more, contact the Smarter Media team now on 01793 292 171 or email us at hello@smarter-media.co.uk.
There are different types of links that you can build from your content. Popular ones include dofollow links and nofollow links. However, what exactly do these terms mean? And why do you need to know about them?
Unlike Nofollow links, Dofollow links pass PageRank signals. In other words, dofollow links directly benefit SEO since they share link juice, while nofollow links benefit SEO indirectly.
The main difference between the two lies in how each link is evaluated by Google. Google search crawlers use the rel="nofollow" tag to determine whether the link impacts PageRank scores.
A dofollow link is a hyperlink that passes authority from one website to another. This type of link allows search engine crawlers to follow it and understand the relevance of the linked content on both websites.
Dofollow links point back to you every time you place them on your website, allowing search engines to see which other websites, blogs and posts link back to you. A "backlink" from a reputable site can significantly impact PageRank values and make brands more visible.
So when adding external links to your blog, ensure they are from trusted sites since this will increase the authority of your blog.
Dofollow links are essential for SEO success. They can help establish credibility by connecting with other authoritative websites, which adds value to your own site. Additionally, they pass along “link juice”, which helps boost the rankings of your website on SERPs.
All links are dofollow by default unless they're changed from dofollow to nofollow manually or automatically. Dofollow values are simply descriptors since HTML doesn't offer a dofollow attribute.
A dofollow link in HTML looks like this: example
When another site links to your site without adding the nofollow tag, Google and other search engines will naturally find your site and increase your PageRank. Having dofollow links on your site that come from reputable sites is ideal.
When adding links to your own website, the same applies. In your own content, you can include links to reputable websites for search engines to index.
Guest post: As soon as you have found your niche, approach websites with similar products and content. The link to your website can then be included in the author bio or the post's conclusion.
Email outreach: You can also get dofollow links by creating excellent content and promoting it via email. Using this approach works best if your content is unique, interesting or valuable to the people you're contacting.
Make business mentions into links: Check Google Alerts to find online mentions of your business. You’re likely to get a link from most people—you just have to ask.
Use dofollow links when the website:
A nofollow link is a hyperlink with the rel="nofollow" attribute. Search engines ignore links with the nofollow tag. These links transfer neither PageRank nor anchor text, so the destination URL's search engine rankings are unaffected. Nofollow links aren't even crawled by Google.
Nofollow tags were introduced by Google in 2005 as a means of combating spam comments. Other search engines, such as Yahoo and Bing, eventually adopted the tag.
Indeed, nofollow links do not directly improve your website's SEO. However, this link plays a vital role in maintaining your website's search engine ranking stability. Nofollow links:
Increase your website's traffic
Quality traffic can be driven to your page by nofollow links since they can be clicked and interacted with like any other link. Increased rankings, more traffic and higher conversion rates can be achieved with more traffic on your page.
Build brand awareness
There is still traffic to your site coming from nofollow links, as previously mentioned. Upon visiting your website, this traffic learns about your business and products. You need brand awareness to grow your company online, and nofollow links can assist you.
Serve as the safest tags
A nofollow link is the safest tag for your website. Your website won't be negatively affected by nofollow links. Because of this, Google won't penalise yours for backlinks.
Adding rel="nofollow" to the anchor tag in HTML creates a nofollow link. A nofollow link attribute appears between the destination URL and the linked text.
For example:
You can then add the link to the source code of your website using your CMS.
Here are a few examples of when and how to use nofollow links:
Comments containing links
Link posting in comments is likely to result in abuse. Anyone can create links to wherever, and you will pass on PageRank and link juice to them. This is basically your endorsement of the website, and that's not what you want. By using nofollow links, you can also facilitate discussion since meaningless comments won’t interfere with real people's comments.
Paid links
You should assign a rel="nofollow" attribute to all links on your website that are primarily intended for profit. In this way, any site can be discouraged from paying for links on other sites to improve its search rankings.
Your niche is irrelevant to the whole page
Imagine that you own an auto repair shop. Suppose you post a blog about cooking or promote a contest for short stories on your site. For that topic, you link to lots of interesting resources. Because it differs so much from your regular content, Google might assume it was added without your knowledge. This would be considered Black Hat link building and penalised by the search engine. You can use a nofollow meta tag in such cases.
Read another one of our blogs, Understanding Backlinks to learn more about different linking opportunities.
Are you looking for an SEO expert in the UK to boost your search engine optimisation efforts? Smarter Media’s team of search engine optimisation consultants is highly knowledgeable in all aspects of SEO and can help you increase traffic and visibility to your website. With our support, you can improve your online presence and gain an edge over your competitors. Contact us today!
Getting audited sounds like bad news for most companies. This is not the case for SEO though. In fact, an SEO audit is a good thing - it helps strategists measure how well your website is doing based on the strategies implemented.
Are the SEO strategies being used working? Where is it going wrong? How can the strategy be improved?
These questions are answered through a detailed audit or analysis of the website. We can fix the problem when we know what's causing the problem in the first place. Only then can we start to adjust and adapt to create a better strategy to hit your goals and objectives.
Here is everything you need to know about SEO audits, SEO technical audits, and what to expect when your website is undergoing an audit.
Contact Smarter Media today to conduct an SEO audit for your website’s digital health.
An SEO audit is a process of analysing how well your website is fairing based on web presence and the strategies you have implemented. Conducting an audit helps identify foundational issues that affect organic search performance.
Here are some of the things SEO audits should reveal:
First, an SEO audit should be as comprehensive as digitally possible.
Besides covering structural and content component related to SEO visibility, an audit should show you the big picture of current events that are relevant to your website. If any of the pieces are missing, an audit shows which ones they are or if something should be removed if deemed unnecessary.
Second, an audit should be understandable, even to someone who doesn't typically delve into the realm of digital marketing. If you're confused about how to understand audits, it may be time to consult an SEO professional to help you in this aspect.
An audit should connect the dots to see how SEO is making an impact on your online priorities, goals, and revenue. This allows you to recommend what to do and what not to do with your website moving forward.
Third, an SEO audit should have recommendations that can be solved by tweaking the current strategy. It should be easy to follow and should be realistic to attain.
An SEO audit shouldn't be rushed. Although the statistics are easy to lay out, understanding the problem affecting your website's health takes time and a lot of strategy meetings.
An audit can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to finish, depending on the website's size. And because any major changes to a website or a website's SEO strategy require a lot of care, an SEO specialist should be the one calling the shots. It's through a specialist that an audit can have impactful recommendations.
An audit that works for one website might not work for the other.
While there is a baseline of technical elements for all websites, each website requires a situational analysis in order to diagnose the issue.
A technical SEO audit is an area of SEO that provides the information you need to improve search engine ranking and website crawlability. It involves improving site load times, checking robot.txt files, and ensuring that redirects are working fine.
Technical SEO audits to ensure that a website can be seen, crawled, and is eligible to rank in a search engine.
They also help you improve the technical characteristics of a website with the goal of improving organic traffic.
You just wrote the best blog article of your life. You know the topic like the back of your hand and have done the research to provide the best answers to possible queries. You implemented all the SEO content techniques and you want everyone to read your article.
With everyone at the edge of their seats, waiting for your blog's release, users can finally click on the link and read your article.
They wait for the page to load, and then wait some more.
It's been 20 seconds and your blog hasn't loaded. Your fans are annoyed and decide to read something else.
For every second your website takes to load, users are clicking away, making your bounce rate increase. It didn’t even matter if your blog post was good or bad - the fact that your website wasn’t functioning quickly enough was the driving force behind users clicking away.
Conducting an SEO audit can identify when and where this is happening in order to avoid this and other problems from ever happening.
Remember, if your site can’t be found and constantly has loading issues, even the most creative content won’t be read by users and in turn, negatively impact SEO.
Here are some of the other elements of technical SEO that is checked when performing an audit:
All websites should be safe, secure, quick to load, easy to crawl, and have clear navigation features. So if one of these isn't so great, your website isn't going to fare well in search engines.
Since no website is the same, no audit looks the same either. But they should have the basic, technical SEO stakes that are the baseline for any website. These include sitemaps, server errors, and metadata. For higher-level audits, accessibility, indexation, and optimisation should be included as well.
There are three main factors that SEO specialists need to look at when conducting an audit:
Because of the complexity of each factor, it takes time to address each point. This is another factor why audits take so long to complete. It's important to be patient and take the time to listen to what your SEO specialist recommends.
Here are other specific audit features you should be able to see:
It seems like a lot because it is. All this information is essential to capturing website health to make accurate recommendations that work.
Since audits can take anywhere from two to six weeks to complete, you might be wondering - what’s taking so long?
Audits take time because an SEO specialist analyses and unearths SEO opportunities on a website. If you’re getting impatient, you can request bi-weekly or weekly check-ins to keep you looped in.
Rest assured, specialists take the time to properly diagnose the problem to craft the best insights for better visibility and search engine rankings.
Once the audit is completed, businesses owners get a presentation by the SEO specialist to share their insights and recommendations with you. For new clients, SEO agencies usually do a lot of hand-holding, just to make sure you understand everything that is to be done on the website. A good SEO agency will take the time to answer queries and explain industry jargon, no matter how tricky the concept may be.
Conducting audits on a regular basis allows your website to be at its very best.
SEO specialists understand how important a website is to a brand - so they take the time to ensure that everything is in order.
Business owners often believe that once a website is up and running, nothing more needs to be done. But the reality is that websites need to stay fresh for Google to clock them as relevant to users. So keeping your website up to date and not stagnant should be the norm.
For example, content should be continuously added or removed every year or month to keep your website accurate.
This is where SEO audits come in - they are a way to identify which content should be replaced or which strategies should be altered. If there are any critical issues, they should also appear in the audit.
Audits are mostly effective when conducted by SEO professionals who have extensive experience in the field. Give us a call at Smarter Media for more information about how you can use an SEO audit to your website's advantage.
Smarter Media is a digital growth agency using our Smarter Approach to help your business grow digitally. Working side by side with our clients, we use our 'Smarter Way' Process to create a plan that delivers results and our 'Smarter Promise' to do what we say we will. For a more comprehensive look at SEO, or to find out how you can achieve a better ROI with SEO & Paid Media working side by side, set an appointment with Smarter Media today!
Social media posts are not links. They assist in your link-building campaigns by increasing brand awareness and the popularity of your website or blog. Do they count as backlinks?
A backlink is when another website links to yours. It’s crucial to have quality backlinks and leverage SEO link-building services to boost your site's ranking in search engines.
Google and other major search engines regard a backlink to a particular webpage as a vote of confidence for that page. As a result, backlink-rich pages usually rank higher organically.
When another website links to yours, it gives search engines an indication of how popular and relevant your site is. This improves your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), increasing your website's visibility and traffic.
The best way to rank higher in the SERPs is to build quality backlinks. The following are a few factors that contribute to a backlink's quality.
A more established website can pass on more authority by linking to your site. If a link originated from a reputable website, Google evaluates it favourably.
Relevant backlinks are more valuable to Google because they attract more clicks.
There are a large number of dofollow links on the internet. Google and other search engines ignore nofollow tags. Thus, nofollow links do not affect search engine rankings. Meanwhile, most of the nofollow links offer little value and typically come from sources like comments on blog posts, news releases and sponsored posts. Conducting a backlink audit can help you monitor backlinks to discern quality links from harmful ones.
Are social media posts counted as direct backlinks? No. A Twitter or Facebook post or page that links back to your website is technically not considered a backlink. Some may argue that, by definition, it can be considered a backlink. As mentioned, a backlink is any link on another website that links back to yours. So since Facebook is, at its core, a website, then a Facebook post that links back to your business website is considered a backlink by some.
But even if Facebook links can be considered backlinks by definition, how popular search engines, like Bing and Google, rank websites is another story.
A backlink serves as an SEO tool and impacts your search engine rankings. In this scenario, social media links aren't considered backlinks since they’re usually no-follow links. As stated, no-follow links don't add authority to your website or affect your search engine rankings.
Social media links have an indirect yet powerful impact on your website. However, engaging audiences on social media offers backlinking opportunities. In this case, social media can be an excellent tool for building links.
So while you should rely on something other than social media links to improve your website's search engine rankings, you should only discard them partially. In addition, since Facebook is a social network, you can establish long-term business relationships there, enhancing your SEO potential.
Social media doesn't affect your rankings, so it won't directly benefit you. But while the two don't directly correlate, social media also plays a role in SEO. This is where partnering with a social media agency in the UK that also provides professional SEO services comes in handy.
As your content becomes more visible on social media, it’s likely that more people will share your content across their networks. More traffic will be sent to your site, resulting in higher rankings.
Getting your web pages indexed by Google faster can be achieved using your social media accounts. For instance, as soon as new content is published on your site, share it immediately on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to increase traffic. This signals to Google that your page needs to be crawled and reindexed.
Don't know how to utilise search engine optimisation (SEO) in your marketing strategy for your small website? Many people are looking for professional SEO services to solve their problems. If you want to use SEO in your marketing strategy, you've come to the right place. Read on to discover how SEO can enhance your marketing efforts and how investing in small business SEO services can benefit you.
SEO refers to improving a website's position in the search engine results page (SERP) for certain queries. Small websites can benefit from SEO in the following ways.
Keeping up with search engines' rules ensures that your site is in top condition. This will benefit you in more ways than just improving your rankings. It also makes it easier for customers to trust you since your website provides them with a good user experience.
SEO can help small websites compete with more significant sites. It helps create a level playing field and allows small businesses to gain exposure.
SEO also drives traffic to a website, increasing sales and conversions. When done correctly, it can be a lucrative long-term marketing strategy.
Investing time and money into building a beautiful website is ineffective if no one can find it. Here are some tips for incorporating SEO into your small website marketing strategy to generate more traffic.
With SEO, you can increase traffic to your site. It is wonderful to have traffic, but it won't be helpful to your business if it comes from people who don't need or want what you offer. It’s better to attract targeted traffic, which consists of people who will most likely be interested in purchasing from you.
To determine your target audience, ask questions such as: What are my customers' pain points? What problem do I want to solve? How would I describe the demographics of my ideal audience? In what ways can I help my customers with the content I publish?
A successful SEO strategy begins with choosing relevant keywords for a blog, article or other pieces of content. The primary keyword you want to rank for is the primary focus of your content. It needs to reflect your brand, marketing strategy, product or service.
Additionally, it would be best if you had secondary keywords, which can be long-tail variants, subtopics or synonyms of your main topic. Reliable search engine optimisation consultants can help you discover the most relevant primary and secondary keywords to put on your website.
Backlink building must also be a priority. A backlink is a vote of confidence and helps your site rank higher in search results. Backlinks, however, are not all created equal. They must come from a niche or industry-relevant, high-quality site. Backlinks can be built through writing guest posts and using social networks.
Web pages have title tags and meta descriptions displayed in search results. Meta descriptions and title tags should contain your targeted keyword and capture users' attention.
Meta descriptions build off of title tags. In your meta description, describe your content briefly and include a few keywords you are targeting.
Don't just create content around keywords; create content that brings real value to readers. The idea is to provide prospects with the information they are seeking. Relevant content boosts your search engine rankings and attracts paying customers.
Any content created, whether a blog post or a social media post, must have a specific purpose and prioritise client needs. Users visit your site for a reason, and providing the right content can increase search visibility and conversions.
Managing a small business can be hectic, with most employees handling multiple tasks and balancing daily duties. As a result, it can be challenging to incorporate SEO into your marketing strategies. Nevertheless, it's crucial for long-term success.
Plan your content and posts to maintain consistency. Make sure you remain consistent and provide regular content, even if it means only one or two posts per week. Being consistent over time will make your audience look forward to your new content.
Regularly auditing your website ensures that it's easy to use and works well. It helps you identify and fix SEO issues like slow page loads, unresponsive pages and 404 errors.
You can learn a lot about the performance and optimisation of your website by conducting an SEO audit. Smaller audits can analyse competitors, conversions, linking or user experience.
Make your website easy to navigate, and ensure visitors can immediately see who you are and what you offer.
Add several headings to improve readability, and put keywords in them. The speed of a website is also important for SEO. You don't want your visitors to be frustrated with a slow website. Last but not least, you'll want to make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
Choosing a professional SEO company has many benefits.
SEO professionals have the expertise and knowledge to boost a website's search engine ranking. Additionally, they will know about the latest algorithm updates and SEO best practices.
Search engine optimisation can take time. When you aren't able to do the work yourself, an SEO company is a wise choice. A company that provides SEO services helps you save time as well.
Finally, hiring an SEO company gives you confidence because you are assured that your website is in good hands. So while they handle your website's SEO, you can concentrate on running your business.
Small businesses and start-ups can benefit greatly from SEO. These businesses can generate significant leads and customers from organic traffic.
Don't wait any longer to use SEO to boost your marketing efforts. Smarter Media offers SEO services to help you increase your website's visibility, so you can attract more visitors and generate more leads. Contact our team today to learn more about our custom packages and SEO cost.
Being visible on search engines is one of the most important requirements for competing online. There is a secret to success: you do not have to be an expert in everything. If you follow these simple steps, you will soon be able to understand the search engine optimisation process.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation, which is organically increasing a search engine's visibility to a website without having to pay for advertising. With the help of SEO and partnering with an SEO expert in the UK, you will be able to improve your website's search engine rankings in a way that makes it easier for search engines to find and rank your website.
Search engine optimisation has become an integral part of any business's marketing strategy in the digital age. SEO benefits businesses by allowing them to reach a broader audience online, increase leads and sales and brand themselves more effectively.
Every business should include SEO in its marketing strategy since it is a powerful tool for attracting more customers online. If you don't take advantage of SEO best practices or partner with a reliable SEO agency in the UK, you are losing out on a great chance of growing your business.
Keyword research consists of finding and analysing keywords people enter into search engines.
Best practices
Identify broad topics related to your topic: Create a spreadsheet containing general categories or buckets for your keywords. These could be related to product categories or anything you believe would interest your target audience. List topics in a concise manner, no more than 5 to 10.
Add phrases your customers use to each topic: Once you've identified a few topic buckets, choose keywords that belong there. These keyword phrases are the ones you think will rank well in the SERPs since your target customer is likely to search for them.
Search for related terms: Adding keywords to your list can be done in many ways. For instance, you can enter a keyword phrase into Google and scroll down, revealing a list of related search terms.
Use keyword research tools: Keyword research or SEO tools are the easiest ways to determine the strength of your keywords. When doing your analysis, be sure your keywords match people's exact search terms. You should also consider the search volume, meaning you shouldn't structure a strategy around a keyword phrase if few people use it. And lastly, you want a keyword that gets more search traffic and has lower organic competition.
A professional SEO company can help you discern the best keywords to maximise visibility.
Technical SEO ensures a website's technical requirements are met to improve organic rankings.
Best practices
Secure your website with SSL: Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, provides an encrypted connection between a browser and a web server. Websites with SSL certificates appear higher in search results than those without.
Optimise your site for mobile: Search engines consider responsiveness in a site to be a very important ranking signal. Therefore, your website should be fully responsive and optimised for mobile, tablet and desktop devices.
Boost your site's speed: Sites that load quickly are preferred by search engines. You can speed up your site in several ways, such as choosing a fast hosting service or compressing your images.
Check for duplicate content: Duplicate content can be avoided by ensuring that your CMS does not publish multiple versions of a page for the same content or by utilising canonical links to indicate to search engines where your main content is located.
Make an XML sitemap: An XML sitemap aids search engines in crawling your website. It provides important details about your site's pages, including their last modification date and priority.
Enhance your website with structured data markup: You can add structured data markup to your website to make it easier for search engines to understand its content. Search engines can use this data to index your site more efficiently and deliver relevant results.
On-page SEO involves modifying a page's content, internal links and tags to rank better in searches and attract more visitors.
Some best practices include:
Put a strong emphasis on readability. Make your content scannable so that users can find information quickly.
The first 100 words of your article should contain your target keyword.
Keywords shouldn't be overused.
Link externally. Search engines use external links to determine the topic of your page. Your page will also appear to Google as a hub of quality information if it contains well-placed external links.
Optimise your images by adding SEO-friendly alt tags and selecting the correct format and file size.
Best practices
Make linkable assets: Linkable assets aim to attract links. Infographics are an example of linkable assets. Infographics tend to be read more than full articles, so creating links with accompanying infographics will appeal to readers who do not want to read the full article.
Engage in social media: Posting your content on social media is easy to build backlinks. Regularly share brand news and updates, reply to comments from your audience, acknowledge brand mentions, and participate in niche-specific social media discussions.
Reclaim backlinks: While you should always look for new opportunities to build links, it is also helpful to identify and reclaim lost backlinks you earned in the past.
