Web Design Blog

Negative Factors for Local Search

Today I am going to talk about the things you don’t do. These are not just things that won’t help. These are things that will bring you down in local search. Search engines will actually penalise you for doing these things.

Local Organic Search Factors

Today I am going to talk about the factors that affect your local organic search. Organic search is simply when someone puts a search term into a search engine and the results come up. It is not paid advertising nor the local pack (the top 3 that appear directly under the search bar), but the general results.

Local Pack Factors

In today's video, we will talk about the 9 most important factors that will influence whether you appear in the ‘Local Pack’.

Overall Local Search Factors

Welcome to the first video in this series on the topic of Local Search. In today’s video, I will describe the eight factors that SEO experts agree are the most important when optimising for organic local search. When ‘deciding’ which results to display, search engines receive ‘signals’ about your business from wherever your business is mentioned on the internet.

Are you on your second or third website, and still not happy?

You are not alone. It is estimated that most business have 3 – 4 websites before they are comfortable with their web presence. This is often because of a number of reasons, including

Eventually you forget where you met the person, what they look like and value you could add to each other persons business. A few specific people stand out but the rest just gather dust on your desk. And that valuable networking dollar is wasted.

There is no doubt in today’s digital world that any community based organisation requires a website. A website is now much more than an online brochure giving the general public information about your organisation. Your website can build community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your website can answer questions about who you are and what you do from people who are too afraid to ask. A silent teacher and educator.

Email marketing is a a very powerful marketing medium, but are you DOING IT RIGHT?

Email marketing works, particularly if you have an existing relationship with the members of your mailing list. They may be an existing client, a network connection, someone that you met socially that has passed on their business card, or even someone that sent a simple enquiry through your contact form on your website.

In the words of Bill Gates in 1996, Content is King?

But the question you need to think about is "what type of content".

There are a number of different types of content that you can include in your website to get your message across.

2015 is just about here. But are you ready for it. Or should we say. Is your website ready for it?

You should view your website as an organic process, growing and changing as your business grows and changes. As your business moves into the middle of the second decade of the century, embracing new technology and the needs of your target market is imperative and this should be represented through your website.

Use real people in your website content.

Including photos in your website content is considered good practice.

A good visual website design has a balance of photos and text. It is considered to be good practice to have a photograph of a person in your website content. This is supposed to build trust with the viewer, specifically if you can see their eyes.

Do you work with amazing clients -  share their thoughts about you.

A video testimonial is often the missing link connecting your satisfied clients and your prospective clients people researching about your business.

With the advent of Web 2 the marketing direction has changed from you telling your clients how great you are to other people promoting your products and services through various online mediums. 

A website is an organic process, growing and developing as your business grows and develops.

I have written a short story to illustrate this.

Once upon a time there was a small business owner called Mary. Mary had created a range of cookware products. She decided she needed a website, but as her business was only starting up she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted for a website.

If you have been in business for a while there is a strong possibility that your business has an existing web presence, even if you aren't aware of it.

You need to take ownership and leverage this web presence to increase your business's web profile.

Just Google your business name, and see what comes up. If you have a website, then hopefully it will come up first. But what else?

Writing for the web – Readability statistics

We have heard it all before. We are encouraged to blog, blog and blog some more. How easy is your blog to read?

But have you thought about the readability of your content. A simple tool to use to measure the readability of your content is available through Microsoft Word.

Your Domain is like the deeds to the land your house is built on.

All to often I get unhappy people coming to me for assistance with their website and they have no knowledge of where or with whom their domain is registered. Often it is registered under the account of the original web development company that created their initial website.  Does a builder register the land under their own name.

Liking the "Curly Fries" Facebook pages indicates you are smarter than the average person. What??

On Teds talks - Jennifer Golbeck tells us how "likes" in social media tells more than you would like to think. Interesting stuff.

In our world of online communities, a new value is emerging. With the development and increasing success of peer to peer market places like Airbnb, Kickstarter and Etsy, trust is fast becoming the new currency.

On Teds Talks, Rachel Botsman discuses collaborative consumption and the currency of TRUST.