Why SEO is Critical for Your Online Business Growth

Why SEO is Critical for Your Online Business Growth

by | 18 Jul 2020 | SEO, Digital Marketing

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Small business marketing is often a case of having to pick and choose which strategies to implement and campaigns to operate within a tight budget and without a great deal of resource. Yet the real investment to be made in online marketing and business development is often a technical one – and that is, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation to refer to it by its full name).

SEO can make or break a website, but what is it, how does it work, who ‘does’ it and how can you manage it? Read on for the full lowdown and to answer the most common questions that we get asked regarding online business growth.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation is the intensification of a website’s content for it to become as noticeable as possible to the automated algorithms of search engines – preferably boosting its profile to the top of search engine results pages (or SERPs, for short). With search engines bringing up hundreds of thousands of results for most words and phrases searched, identifying relevant information for users is key.

SEO is a marketing practice in its own right and should absolutely form part of any company’s digital marketing strategy for online business growth.

Why is SEO SO Important for Online Business Growth?

The world ‘google’ is as much a verb now as it is a name, and society is increasingly dependent on the search engines they can access through their smartphones and other tech devices to find information quickly and efficiently.

Businesses should view search engines as a marketing channel. Any person looking for a product, service or industry relevant to them should be able to easily access information on their brand; so that they can gain awareness of the brand and its products/services, and ideally, eventually, make a purchase.

SEO is important for businesses because as society moves more and more online, so do their buying habits. There are very few industries not yet with any online presence at all; and for those that do have some, businesses without any SEO will find that their brand is ranked below the search engine results displaying information on their competitors.

SEO is imperative amongst small business marketing and online business growth as it is something that can deliver an inordinate amount of results for a relatively small outlay of finance and resource.

How Does SEO Work?

SEO works by tapping into the automated programming within search engines that determines where to rank what in terms of the results individuals using the search see. This is achieved by ensuring that the algorithm recognises a website as relevant, appropriate, genuine and an expert in a specific niche. It should be able to judge the who, what, where, when, how and why about a brand… just from a millisecond automated scan of the content on its website!

Put simply: search engines are library catalogues. The programs that manage them are the librarians.

The exact ways SEO works change all the time as algorithms and programming develop and grow. The technology involved in search engine operation is always improving and so SEO is never just a job to be done once and never again – businesses serious about it should aim to continuously advance and enhance their efforts toward it.

What Benefit Does Good SEO Give a Business Over Poor SEO?

Good SEO increases a brand’s visibility in search rankings, so when done better than a competitor, gives competitive advantage.

Being top of the search rankings for a relevant search to your business isn’t just important – it’s damn near imperative!

Think of your own search engine behaviours. Do you scroll through pages and pages of results to find the info you want or do you just click through to the first few? Your business needs to be where people will see it, otherwise it will lose out to those who are.

What Do SEO Services Include?

Some marketers have training in SEO and can implement it and optimise a website and its content, however this training needs to be taken in a continuous cycle and the content updated with it. If you are going to invest in SEO services, we highly recommend working with an SEO expert.

SEO experts are consultants who stay up to date with the near daily changes and are able to use this knowledge to implement SEO into a site on an ongoing basis, for best results and online business growth.

Being an SEO specialist is a full-time job. SEO consultants have to ensure every part of a website fits with the current search engine algorithms. That includes, but is by no means limited to: ensuring all written content is optimised, ensuring the website page layouts are optimised and work across different devices, building backlinks to and from other websites to build authority, ensuring every page on a website is tagged and categorised correctly, ensuring every image on a website is tagged and categories correctly, and ensuring that all the ‘backend’ data of a website is optimised.

How Long Does SEO Implementation Take?

The development of good SEO isn’t just a job that can be done once and then not re-visited. The nature of the internet and search engine technology is that it changes all of the time, so it needs to be a continual focus for businesses who want to remain at the top of their game online (and at the top of the search engines!).

It’s impossible to say how long an initial review and ‘go over’ of a brand’s website would take, as it depends on two factors: how bad the website’s SEO currently is, and how much content is on the site. However, an SEO specialist will be able to advise on the initial work required and then recommend an ongoing plan to keep on top of the situation.

SEO specialists are worth their weight in gold, and seeking one out is one of the most effective marketing strategies a small business can invest in. Ranking ahead of the competition in a marketing method where people are already seeking out relevant information? It’s a win-win!

Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency focussed on your business growth! Our SEO packages are paid monthly with no upfront investment making our service affordable for any size business! Get your FREE SEO Website Audit Report NOW!

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The Importance of a Great Website User Experience

The Importance of a Great Website User Experience

by | 21 Mar 2020 | SEO, Webdesign

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Having an online business presence is imperative, but just having a website is not enough – your website must deliver everything users are looking for when they visit it (or they will just leave the site). It is essential that your website design and content provides the user with a great website User Experience (UX).

What is User Experience?

User Experience is the term used to explain users’ interaction with any product or service, which will result in the individual feeling either positive or negative toward it. This encompasses all aspects of the usage of the product or service – which for the purpose of this article is your business’ website.

The User Experience includes both usage and perception; the ease of use and efficiency of the website, as well as the way it looks and makes the user feel. Initial negative perception of a website can sometimes be altered should the user go on to experience it fully and find it positive – but realistically, most users won’t continue on a site they don’t think is of use to them and will click away without spending any time navigating it.

The term User Experience is often interchanged with Usability, but this is not correct. Usability refers to the technical concerns of a website – the efficiency, speed and ease of it – and while this does form part of the overall User Experience, it is not the entirety of it.

What Makes a Good UX?

A good website User Experience delivers exactly what the user wants, when they want it and how they want it. This means that the design of the website should be intuitive and uncomplicated. The website should load quickly (incredibly important), include all of the content a user expects it to contain, and be easy to navigate and understand.

For a website’s User Experience to be positive, the basics need to be in place. Surpassing expectations and including aspects to really delight the user can be applied after the foundations are laid and the site works exactly the way it should.

If you’re really looking to ensure that you deliver a great website User Experience to your audience every time that they visit your site, you may wish to consider hiring a specialist User Experience Designer. These professionals are able to predict a user’s interactions and journey through your website, and tailor its design for maximum UX satisfaction.

Why a Website User Experience is Important

There’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait ages for a website to load, and then not being able to find what you’re looking for, and (crucially) the website not being optimised for mobile. Users will quickly leave the site and head somewhere else. Chances are that what they’re looking for can be found elsewhere … on your competitor’s site instead.

Aside from being a driver away from your online presence, a poor website User Experience can give the perception of unprofessionalism, negate the call to action from your marketing, result in a loss of competitive advantage, and essentially result in loss of sales.

Basic UX Aspects to Easily Introduce to your Website

There’s are basics that can be applied simply to your website for immediate UX improvement:

  • Removing any large images or files that are slowing loading time
  • Ensuring the ‘look and feel’ of your website is consistent to your brand aesthetics
  • Sense-check all copy for any typos or errors
  • Click through all links (both internal and external) on the site and make sure they all work
  • Check the formatting of your site works on mobile browsers
  • Install an analytics software program into your website’s coding to track user journeys through your site
  • Ask your audience! Check in with a few people to see what they’d expect to find on your business website, and what they would change

Fixing the foundations of the site can have an immediate positive impact but this is not to say that it will be enough to gain continued competitive advantage or provide a fantastic User Experience every time. It is always recommended that a specialist website User Experience designer and developer are involved in order to ensure that all aspects are covered.

Centering Humans with User Experience

While developers work to improve UX across websites, it is worth noting that this is not always simply a technical concern. As a User Experience encompasses the entire user journey, considerations must be made to more than just code.

User Experience designers and developers come from a variety of professional backgrounds and their work is multidisciplinary, including programming, visual design, interaction design, accessibility and psychology. Those working in website User Experience must centre human behaviour in their provision, with everything down to how most people would scan a page for text to how big the text needs to be for ease of reading to be considered.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing describe the key to great marketing as “putting the customer at the heart of everything you do”, and providing a great, human-centred User Experience is one such way to do exactly that.

How Does UX Impact SEO?

While for many years SEO was considered simply the domain of keywords and tagging, Google (and other search engines) now consider User Experience a critical part of its ranking criteria.

If a search engine directs a user to a site and they find it doesn’t answer their query, that’s unsatisfactory – but not necessarily as frustrating as being directed to a site and finding it doesn’t work, it’s not secure or that it does contain the information required but that it’s too difficult to navigate to find it.

As a result, updates to the Google algorithm over the last few years have included a spotlight on usability. This includes, but is by no means limited to:

  • The time it takes for a page to load – the quicker the better, including across mobile devices where many businesses miss the mark
  • The time it takes for images or other content on a page to load – again, the quicker the better
  • The navigation of the site – is it easy to find your way around? Do internal links work?
  • Accessibility considerations – can the site be easily navigated with a screen reader? Can disability-friendly software be easily integrated into it?
  • A detailed sitemap setting out all of the content on the site
  • Mobile responsiveness – does the site format correctly on a mobile device or tablet?

Google judges these through various tests, but also through user’s genuine behaviour on the site. Statistics found in Google Analytics such as the amount of time spent on a website, bounce rate and click-through rates all indicate the level of User Experience being presented to those visiting the site.

Businesses can (and definitely should!) monitor their own Google Analytics to gain an understanding of traffic, conversion and other performance, but also to understand where areas of their website may fall short of expectation and to identify where there may be room for improvement or change.

A site that provides a good website User Experience will always be ranked above one that doesn’t – even if the content is not as relevant or as high-quality. As a result, it’s imperative that brands look to combine a fantastic User Experience with appropriate content to demonstrate relevancy and quality backlinks, mentions and references to prove authenticity and authority. Together, this will benefit the business with high organic search ranking and heightened exposure.

Why is Mobile Responsiveness so Misunderstood?

Websites format differently depending on the device on which they’re being viewed and now, of course, there’s more choice for consumers in devices than ever. Where traditionally, websites were formatted to present best on a desktop PC internet browser, today over 60% of all search traffic happens from a smartphone; and that’s before you consider the differing sizes of laptops, notebook computers, tablets, smart watches and even devices such as Google Lens.

Despite smaller and mobile devices having been around for several years now, there’s a definite lack of businesses keeping up by ensuring that their content displays properly. This results in a poor User Experience on some devices; and with Google’s update around accessibility, means that they’re more likely to be ranked down on SERPs.

The coding behind a site now can be made mobile responsive fairly easily but for more complex websites or content, it may require a specialist developer behind-the-scenes. This is always worth investing in as, SEO aside, a poor User Experience presented on any device can be devastating to conversion rates and customer experience and so should always be a high priority.

If you’re unsure of how mobile responsive your brand’s website is, a simple test may suffice to give basic results. Loading the site on several different devices with varying screen sizes, connections and browsers can help identify any immediate issues and give an indication of the differing User Experiences across them. However, these tests are only an indication – there may be more that can be tackled or improved and so ideally a specialist should be hired for more in-depth testing. It is no longer enough for a website just to be well-presented for those on a full-size internet browser.

Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency made up of experts in our various fields. With a Woya Pay Monthly Website Package, we provide you a rapid solution to refresh your online presence and really impress! We make business growth through digital marketing, affordable for any business!

 

 

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September 2020 – Mobile Friendly Website Cut-Off Date

September 2020 – Mobile Friendly Website Cut-Off Date

by | 15 Mar 2020 | Pay Monthly Websites

Reading Time: 3 minutes

It’s news to no one: the world, and the world wide web, is mobile. More of us than ever have global information at our fingertips and in our back pockets in the form of smartphones and internet-connected tablets. It should be a given that websites are enabled to operate on mobile devices and smaller screens seamlessly – yet there are still businesses out there without having optimised their web content to a mobile friendly website. Their days however, are numbered … courtesy of Google.

Google have announced that from September 2020, they will start moving to mobile-first indexing for all websites that appear in their search results. They estimate that 70% of the websites in Google listings are already mobile friendly and won’t be negatively affected: but the 30% remainder will be.

What is Mobile-First Indexing?

Put simply: mobile friendly websites will be featured at the top of search results, and those that aren’t will be ranked at the bottom.

Mobile-first indexing is the practice of ranking websites in search results based on their mobile friendly features. If a website is designed to automatically format properly no matter the device size or type, and includes like-for-like content (including text, videos, images, links, titles, descriptions and meta tags), it will be ranked higher in search results than those not formatted to be accessed on different devices.

Why is Google Doing This?

More users than ever are accessing the internet through their portable devices, so optimising search results to feature more inclusive results first simply helps Google deliver a better experience to those using their site. Mobile-first indexing will provide a better customer service overall: keeping search results useful, readable and simple.

What Does Mobile-First Indexing Mean for your Website’s SERPs?

If your business website is mobile-friendly, mobile-friendly indexing will have a positive impact on your SEO (search engine optimisation). However, if your business website isn’t mobile-friendly, it will be negatively impacted and demoted down the results.

SEO is a key marketing activity for businesses to enable visibility online against their competitors, and without careful management of SEO, it can be difficult for companies to be found on the internet. If there’s any chance that your business’ website could be ranked down as a result of these changes, action should be taken immediately to avoid this.

How To Avoid Being Ranked Down on Google

First off, if you’re not sure whether or not your website is mobile friendly, check online to confirm.

If it looks as though you do need to take action to re-format your website, make it a priority amongst your internal marketing and IT objectives. Although the indexing won’t begin until September, any changes to your website should be made as early as possible.

Dependent on how your website was created and is managed on an ongoing basis, it may be that re-formatting it to include mobile optimisation is a simple task. If not, web designers will be able to make a fresh ‘copy’ of your existing site that is able to adapt to the device its being viewed from and may even be able to enhance the overall user experience of the site. This doesn’t mean creating a separate website to your existing, but rather recreating it in a better, more accessible format.

If your website does need to be re-formatted, there are mobile-friendly guidelines set by Google that lay out their requirements for an optimised mobile website. Web design professionals will be able to follow these guidelines to ensure that your new web offering fits and will be prioritised within search results.

Whilst not a standalone story in marketing terms, having a mobile-friendly website will contribute to marketing communications – individuals can be encouraged to carry out website actions ‘on the go’ or to download apps, dependent on requirements. If your business’ website has been unformatted for mobile purposes until now, subtly demonstrating to your audience that it has been revamped may be beneficial.

Will Other SEO Measures Remain Important?

Yes! While Mobile-First Indexing is part of how websites are ordered on Google search results, it’s not the be all and end all. Other factors such as domain authority, trusted links, easy-to-read and navigate pages and relevant content will all continue to play a part in search engine ranking. SEO should remain a priority for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

As SEO experts, Woya has the tools, the skills and the ability to improve your SEO rankings with our established search engine marketing techniques. We understand the art of supporting websites to rank higher in Google for keywords relevant to your business and potential client searches. Find out how your website is performing with our FREE online SEO Site Audit Report

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Data Privacy Day

Data Privacy Day

by | 28 Jan 2020 | Digital Marketing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Data Privacy is a key issue around the world now as we increasingly rely on technology and incorporate it into our daily lives, sharing more of ourselves online than ever before. The information that others unrelated to you are able to access on you, is likely a lot more than you’ve ever considered – scarily so!

Yet unless you’re a big business or a high net worth individual, you probably do very little to manage your data privacy; instead relying on those companies you interact with, to do it for you. Introducing Data Privacy Day which we now have to create awareness around this topic.

What is Data Privacy Day?

Data Privacy Day is an (inter)national day aimed at inspiring dialogue and empowering a journey toward knowledge and action toward better privacy for both individuals and businesses. This means safeguarding their own data, respecting the data of others and in doing so, better enabling trust. There’s nothing to fear in the management of data privacy, but it’s a topic that’s definitely worth being aware of!

Why is DP Important?

For individuals, data is important because it’s often made up of your personal information – and the leaking of such info can result in identity theft, fraud and severely negative financial consequences.

The same can happen for businesses, but there are also legal consequences: there is a degree of privacy and security measures that companies must implement and manage as they handle data, be it their own or that belonging to others.

How Can Businesses Ensure They Keep Customer Data Safe?

Businesses have a responsibility to keep their customer data safe – however it’s also good business to foster trust with your customers! In order to best keep their customer data safe, businesses should strive to ensure they’re constantly up-to-date with the latest data privacy legislation and tools.

The enforcement and management of this as part of a cycle of continuous improvement, is something that can always be improved upon. This will allow firms to keep abreast of the latest developments in technology and data security.

Where Can Businesses Go for DP Guidance and Support?

Businesses looking to develop their data privacy procedures and policies should use Data Privacy Day as their first foray into the sector. You can access information and guidance through the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

There are also lots of data privacy specialists who are able to consult and offer tangible help with data security within businesses.

Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency made up of experts in our various fields. We believe in making business growth through digital marketing affordable for all businesses through our pay monthly marketing packages, with no upfront investment. Find out more about how we can support your business growth through digital marketing.

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Get To Know Your Customers Day

Get To Know Your Customers Day

by | 16 Jan 2020 | Digital Marketing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Life is busy for business owners and one day rolls into the next; so it’s important that we step back and take stock once in a while. We need to re-assess priorities and ensure our ship is continuing to sail in the right direction. It is crucial for business owners to be consistently and constantly aware of changing customer attitudes and appetites – so you’re able to adapt, pivot and continue to meet your clients wants and needs.

The purpose of Get To Know Your Customers Day is about doing just this – allowing us to promote business growth and customer understanding.

What is Get To Know Your Customers Day?

Get To Know Your Customers Day is a national day aimed at encouraging businesses to halt their usual work and touch base with their existing (and potential!) customers in order to address any issues, untapped opportunities and/or concerns.

This can feed into business operations, marketing and business growth.

When is Get To Know Your Customers Day?

Get To Know Your Customers Day doesn’t happen just once a year – but instead, every quarter! Usually held on the third Thursday of each quarter, it’s regular enough for businesses to keep on top of rapidly changing markets and attitudes.

Why it’s Important to Get To Know Your Customers

Customers are people, and their wants and needs change over time with changing circumstances, attitudes and appetites for products and services. Building up a trusting relationship with your existing customers fosters brand loyalty that can ultimately increase their value to you.

They’re also the audience you want to hear from to find out what they want, like or dislike – giving you distinct competitive advantage.

How Knowing Your Customers Can Impact your Marketing

The way in which you communicate to existing and potential customers is key to attracting them to start or continue on a relationship with your business. One of the things that can be gained from getting to know your customers is to find out how they would best like to be communicated with, and to identify the channels they use and prefer for communications.

You can also identify which marketing strategies are really impacting your target audience, and therefore focus on these moving forward. This allows you to tailor your marketing to best reach your audience where they are.

Knowing Your Customers Will Benefit Your Business

Really knowing your customers will affect every area of your business! Assure those that you’re interacting with that you want their honest, open feedback on EVERYTHING. Consolidate all the information you receive and work out how the results can best be applied to your business operations and strategy as a result.

Pivoting a business’ direction based on changing markets and client requirements is key to business growth and success, and is something that every business should be reviewing at regular intervals.

Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency made up of experts in our various fields. We believe in making business growth through digital marketing affordable for all businesses through our pay monthly marketing packages, with no upfront investment. Find out more about how we can support your business growth through digital marketing.

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The Importance of Ranking in the Google Local Pack

The Importance of Ranking in the Google Local Pack

by | 2 Jan 2020 | SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

UPDATED 2022 VERSION

To ‘Google’ is now officially a verb worldwide, and for brands, it’s an imperative one. If your business can’t be found on Google, your customers (both existing and potential customers) can’t find you.

In a world of quick searches and a reliance on social media, a Google business ranking can be a key factor to an organisation’s survival and success and as a result, all marketing strategies should include SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

There’s a common misconception that smaller or local businesses don’t require as much focus on these efforts, but the opposite is true. Those serving particular communities or geographic areas can benefit hugely from featuring in Google’s Local Pack, and this heightens their online visibility and exposure to very targeted local traffic, as users search for related products or services.

So, what is the Google Local Pack, is it likely to be helpful for your local business, and how will it support your local SEO efforts?

What is Google’s Local Pack?

The Google Local Pack forms part of the Google Mapping offering and is a prominent section featured in the Google Local search results. The top ranking business listings in a location are displayed in a different manner to standard search results to make them stand out to local customers, listed with: the business name, map location, company description, contact information, opening hours, online reviews and any other helpful submitted information.

Local business owners are encouraged to add photos regularly too!

The three businesses which are top ranked on Google Local Pack can enjoy a pronounced listing that catches the eye with better visibility, without having to pay for a financed ad placement.

Why is it Important for Businesses to Rank in the Local Pack for Local SEO?

The statistics behind Google Local Pack are pretty compelling – with some sources such as ThinkWithGoogle finding that 50% of users who searched for a local store on Google Maps using their smartphone visited one of the results within 24-hours, and 18% of those visits lead to a purchase within that time period, too!

Search queries on Google including the phrase ‘near me’ have increased an impressive 34x since 2011, reflecting the increasing amount of searches happening on mobile devices. A case study by Moz found that 44% of users click within Local Pack search results, 29% click on the organic listings and just 8% chose to load more listings – highlighting the effectiveness and relevancy of those results at the top.

Of course, ranking above competition increases the chances of users clicking the first local business listing, but this further demonstrates the benefits of being ranked within the Google Local Pack.

It’s also been found that nearly 1 in 3 mobile searches are location-specific, Google is the top search engine used for local business searches and that 99% of consumers have used it within the last year to look up a local organisation close to them.

The Benefits of Ranking Highly in the Local Pack for Local Businesses

A Google Local Pack ranking holds many benefits for businesses, including:

Cost
A Google Local Pack listing is free: despite the fact it gives a much more prominent listing than can be achieved with a paid-for advertisement. It saves money yet produces exemplary results!

Higher Organic Traffic
Higher placement in Google Local Pack usually delivers a decent click-through rate, driving more traffic to the business’ website, resulting in more leads and sales.

More Localised Traffic
Ranking in the Google Map Pack highly targets local business listings to those in or searching within a certain location, which drives more local traffic from a geography relevant to the business and ensures that those searching appropriately are more likely to navigate through to an organisation’s physical location on the Google Map.

More Direct Contact
Even if a user doesn’t click through to a Local Pack result, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they haven’t found it useful to view.

The nature of these results are that they provide contact, current location and business hours without the need to click through further, and so indeed a user may well have found the details they need without ever having to leave the search results page. Anecdotally, businesses often say that they receive more direct contact through phone calls and emails as a result of ranking on the Google Snack Pack.

Increased Competitive Advantage
Ranking higher on Google Local Pack than local competitors provides businesses with vast competitive advantage, leading to an onward trend of more customer reviews, more visibility and more word-of-mouth marketing.

More Mobile Traffic
When browsed on a mobile device, the Google Local Pack takes up most of the visual space of the screen, making users faster to respond, more likely to click through and, as indicated by their mobile usage, more likely to visit a physical address quickly.

How to Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile Listing

In order to rank on Google Local Pack, an organisation must have claimed their Google Business Profile Listing (initially Google My Business) and added all relevant business information to it. This can be done by visiting business.google.com and filling out the required steps.

However, in order to ensure a high ranking in Google Local Pack, this profile should be optimised, too. This can be done by completing the following:

  • Ensuring all information in the Google Business profile is complete and up-to-date
  • Keeping all business social media profiles consistently branded, and linked back to the same URL (this forms the social signals the Google algorithm needs to demonstrate cross-channel relevancy)
  • Including mention of specific local areas on the business’ website that correspond locally to the listed business address (this forms on-page signals for Google algorithms)
  • Ensuring appropriate local bodies, businesses and/or press link to the business’ website (this forms link signals for Google to demonstrate relevancy and authenticity)
  • Claiming any appropriate online listings and directories for the business (but ensure these are genuine and well-respected sites)
  • Encouraging customers to write public reviews on the Google Review site, and responding to those reviews (this indicates to Google a genuine customer base who are well served).

There are truly a myriad of factors that influence SERP listings placement – across Google organically, on Local Pack and through paid-for advertising. It is no longer enough for businesses to just pay lip service to SEO and instead must prioritise it a critical marketing activity.

Does a Business Need to Hire a Full-Time SEO Expert?

While SEO can certainly take up the equivalent of a full-time role, many businesses are not in a position to hire a resource in-house. Instead, working with a specialist agency such as Woya Digital allows organisations to reap the benefits of having a dedicated SEO or local SEO professional working on their digital presence without having to pay for another FTE on the team.

At Woya, we work with local businesses and organisations of all shapes, sizes and types to rank as highly as possible in local search and Google maps, and benefit hugely from the increased exposure and conversions that Google Local Pack can bring. Get in touch today to chat about how we can support your business with local results.

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Small Business Social Media Marketing Strategy

Small Business Social Media Marketing Strategy

by | 23 Dec 2019 | Digital Marketing, Social media

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Social media platforms provide a fantastic opportunity for small business growth, however a considered plan is required to really optimise what they have to offer. We’ve put together this blog as a “Where to start” for business owners with their small business social media marketing strategy.

When it comes to social media marketing, the following quote perfectly sums it up: Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat – Sun Tzu

1. Establish Your Goals

You should know your business goals. Whether you manage your social media marketing yourself or have a marketing partner to manage it for you, you need to establish  realistic goals that you wish to achieve through your social media marketing.

A business generally has one or more of these 6 objectives behind their social media strategy:

  • Drive website traffic
  • Create brand awareness
  • Build audience trust
  • Provide customer support
  • Attract leads
  • Increase sales

Once you know why you are doing what you are doing, you can do it better. Each post you publish will be as a result of one or more of your established goals.

2. Create Audience Persona(s)

Many business owners underestimate the value of audience persons. You should not start a social media marketing campaign without understanding who your targeted audience is.

An ‘audience persona’ or ‘buyer persona’ describes the attributes of your target audience in as much detail as possible.

Understanding the habits and behaviours of your prospects helps you find and create personalised content especially for them. Depending on the nature of your business, you may have to create more than one audience persona.

3. Select the Right Social Media Platforms

As of 2019, 7 social media platforms dominate. Each has hundreds of millions of active users, and its own unique strengths. For example, Facebook has more subscribers than YouTube; however it can’t beat YouTube when it comes to video content marketing.

You shouldn’t limit your business to just one platform, having said this, you don’t need to be active on every social media platform. Use your business goals and audience personas to identify which social media platforms your target audience are on, and also what your capacity is for consistent content creation and distribution.

4. Identify and Study Your Competitors

Studying your competitors will help you identify market trends, establish what is and isn’t working for their audience, and which platforms your competitors are on.

Take out time to thoroughly analyse what your competition is doing. Do not go out to copy what they are doing, but to do it better, and learn from what they are doing.

5. Set Up Your Social Media Accounts

You will need data from all first three steps to implement this step efficiently. While setting up a business profile on a social media platform is not difficult, there are ways to optimise how you do this. It’s worth doing a bit of research.

This step will include having logos properly sized and header images created, and completing text boxes with company information overviews. Much of the information should already be on your website – don’t feel you need to re-invent the wheel!

6. Plan and Schedule Social Media Marketing Content

Planning and scheduling are two different parts of content marketing.

In planning, you have to determine the content that is relevant to your business and attractive for your target audience. In scheduling, you have to plan which content to publish, and when. You also need to establish how many posts you are going to post each day, to each platform. This again will be determined by your capacity to create relevant content.

Consistency is an essential element of social media posting.

7. See What Works and What Doesn’t

Marketing is a continuous process, and you are guaranteed of constant changes and development. An important part of each social media marketing campaign includes gathering and analysing data and using it to improve upon the next one.

8. Run Social Media Advertisements

After you have succeeded in creating the initial presence of your business on social media channels, include paid advertisements. Organic social media reach has plummeted over the past few years,  so an element of paid advertising is critical

Every platform offers paid promotion, and it should be a part of your social media marketing strategy. However, make sure you first fully understand your market and audience to get maximum return on investment.

There is more to each point highlighted above when structuring your small business social media marketing strategy, however you need to start with understanding the basics, and then work into the detail from here.

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Local Citations to put your Business on the (Google) Map

Local Citations to put your Business on the (Google) Map

by | 16 Dec 2019 | Digital Marketing, SEO

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Businesses (especially smaller ones) have to do whatever they can to get their name heard, and with the internet providing everyone the opportunity to carve out their own little space online, it can often be difficult to stand out from the crowd.

When targeting customers or potential customers in a specific geographic area, local citations can be key to a business ranking highly on Google maps. A small focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can boost your profile on Google and help you feature higher than your competitors.

What are Local Citations

A ‘local citation’ isn’t a Google term, but instead refers to a really basic form of marketing on the internet. It is simply an instance of your business’ NAP (that is: business Name, Address and Phone number) appearing online – be that on your website or on others. This may be in business directories, press articles, advertiser sites or reviews of your firm.

How Do Local Citations Benefit a Local Business

Aside from it being a small ad boost, every time someone sees your information; a local citation helps reiterate to Google (and therefore Google Maps) that you are a leading business in your area and that you are a genuine business. Google’s algorithms are well developed to identify spam and disingenuous entries and so good, organic reach through local citations is an easy way for it to understand proper local businesses.

What are the Elements of a Local Citation

The three main elements of a local citation are your NAP: business Name, Address and Phone number. The key is to keep them entirely consistent throughout all citations online – any differentiator will break the link between the citation and it relating directly to your business. It may be worth considering therefore if you have a ‘Ltd’ in your name or a space/unusual capitalisation/sub-brands, that you instead revert to one shorter name for your public-facing communications to avoid any confusion.

Other elements that may be included in citations (but aren’t imperative) include e-mail addresses and links to social media profiles. Where you can, keep the names of such profiles consistent and ensure you refer to yourself in the same way across all of your marketing.

Why Local Citations Matter

Local citations are the best way for Google’s automated algorithms to understand who you are and where you are; and that you’re genuine! The internet is full of bots and false entries, and citations are genuine reviews to show you’re not one of them. Citations alone are responsible for about 10% of Google’s decision in who to rank where on Maps, and with 76% of visitors accessing local results and then visiting one of the businesses featured within 24hrs, it’s a no-brainer that it’s an area of your online presence worth investing in!

Search marketing, SEO or search engine optimisation helps websites to rank well in Google and other search engines. At Woya Digital we are specialists in small business growth through digital marketing, including Local SEO services. We make SEO services affordable for small businesses through our pay monthly marketing packages, with no upfront investment. Find out more about how we can support your business growth!

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Official Motorsport Marketing Partners for the Alfa Romeo Championship 2020

Official Motorsport Marketing Partners for the Alfa Romeo Championship 2020

by | 14 Dec 2019 | Motorsport, General, Sponsorship

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Motorsport in general is having to work harder than ever to survive! Motor racing championships are currently facing exactly the same pressures as business and as we speed into a new decade, the challenges are likely to increase for the less prepared.

This trend is no different for one of the oldest and well-known motor racing series in the UK, the Alfa Romeo Championship, which is just one year away from its 40th anniversary. It may have a distinguished motor racing heritage, but it certainly is a progressive Championship.

It is with this at the forefront that the Alfa Romeo Championship has announced a new appointment, an official motorsport marketing partner for the 2020 season, Woya Digital.

West Sussex based Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency comprising of experts in respective marketing fields with a main focus on SME business growth. This is achieved through affordable, integrated digital marketing methods such as: lead generation marketing, making friends with Google via essential local SEO and organic SEO, plus designing fully optimised websites.

Managing Partner, Natalie Karr commented “We are delighted to be working with the Alfa Romeo Championship this season, a genuinely fantastic fit to our experience and growing automotive / motor racing portfolio. With so much racing heritage and the desire to expand, we are excited about what we can achieve together.”

As digital marketing experts, Woya Digital has a specialism in motorsport marketing, experience in igniting motorsport sponsorship and is generally superb at generating leads for businesses through marketing. They are working with the Championship to maximise the potential of the 2020 season and beyond.

“The challenge for all UK motorsport is real, from club racing to the dizzy heights and proven success of the BTCC.” Championship Co-Ordinator Andy Robinson commented. “Maintaining healthy driver entry levels, developing new motorsport sponsorship relationships and attracting fresh race spectators on all platforms is key and an essential goal for all levels of motorsport. This is why the Alfa Romeo Championship has taken this bold move to engage with digital marketing and motorsport enthusiasts Woya Digital.”

ENDS

About Woya Digital

West Sussex based Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency comprising of experts in respective marketing fields with a main focus on SME business growth. This is achieved through affordable, integrated digital marketing methods such as: lead generation marketing, making friends with Google via essential local SEO and organic SEO, plus designing fully optimised websites.

www.woya.co.uk

About the 750MC – Alfa Romeo Championship

With nearly four decades of racing history, the Alfa Romeo Championship features a grid spanning a huge variety of different models from the Italian marque, as well as allowing competitors with Fiat, Abarth and Lancia machinery. Three main classes (Modified, Power Trophy and Twin Spark Cup) cater for the different models in addition to the Italian Invitation class, meaning that grids include everything from a 33 to a Mito. The 750 Motor Club offers the UK’s best value racing with a continual drive to offer the highest quality competitor experience and paddock for the club-level driver, as well as a host of other benefits to suit both novice and experienced racers.

www.alfaracer.com 

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Create your Business Social Media Content Calendar

Create your Business Social Media Content Calendar

by | 9 Dec 2019 | General, Social media

Reading Time: 3 minutes

There’s nothing worse than suddenly realising you haven’t tweeted/posted to Instagram/pushed out a Facebook post for an occasion you needed to promote, to inform the world of your latest brand developments! Cobbling together a last-minute post and sending it out at any time of day, just because you need to get something out is not ideal – and it’s certainly not in the social media marketing textbooks!

These situations (amongst other reasons) are why you need to be using a social media content calendar to help you plan, track and strategise your content all year round, without any unnecessary stress.

What is a Social Media Content Calendar?

Put simply, a social media content calendar is a calendar that plans out what content you will post, to which social media channels, and when. It’s best to create as an e-document that can be regularly updated and amended as required.

Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar

Planning out your social media content calendar in advance allows you to ensure: you’re covering all business aspects, you’re aligning your posts with your business goals, you maintain consistent branding, you’re tailoring your content to your target audience, and you’re making sure you are optimising your content for maximum reach and follower growth.

Part of this process involves researching what your customers want to see and which hashtags work best for you to maximise exposure to both your existing and your potential customers and/or service users.

Before You Get Started

Before you even start on your calendar there are a few basics that you need to first have established to allow you to move forward:

  1. KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMER IS – establish exactly who your target audience is so that you can create content specifically for this audience
  2. ESTABLISH YOUR GOALS – identify what the reasons are that you are even posting to social media. Establish your “whys”
  3. IDENTIFY YOUR PLATFORMS – many businesses we work with have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram social media account – because they believe they need to be visible everywhere – this is not true. Based on your capacity to regularly create and post content, identify which platforms your target audience is on, and focus your energy on these
  4.  ESTABLISH YOUR BRAND IDENTITY – especially for new or small businesses, have your logo, brand colours, fonts and all other design elements established – basically this should be standard to the look and feel of your website. It is important to have a consistent online presence as it means viewers can get familiar with your brand, find you easily, and this allows you to build up trust through familiarity

How To Arrange Your Social Media Content Calendar

Different social media channels call for different types of content, and planning ahead allows you to ensure that you’re structuring all your content in the way best suited to the particular social media channel it is intended for. On the whole, there are some basic rules you can follow to really optimise your social media usage:

  1. DON’T HARD SELL – there’s a clue in the name ‘SOCIAL media’ – it’s more about engagement and being social! Be more discreet and position yourself as a thought leader/expert in your field rather than making every post a sales pitch
  2. STICK TO THE 80/20 RULE ­– in the same way it’s annoying if you follow someone who only posts selfies, it’s frustrating to see brands just posting about themselves. 80% of your posts should inform, educate and entertain, and only 20% should be business promotion
  3. MIX IT UP ­– however niche your brand, get creative and mix your content up. Try a combination that works for you, i.e. product, then current affairs, then industry, then customer, then motivational quote…and so on. The key is keep it ‘social’ and encourage engagement
  4. IDENTIFY THE BEST TIME TO POST – through analysis, establish when your target audience is online, and schedule your posts around this. There are general time guidelines which can be found online, however it really depends on your industry and your social media platform insight reports will allow you to track and identify when your audience is most active online

Options to Manual Posting

For our sanity – there are social media scheduling tools available! There are a range of software options available which allow you to schedule your social media posts, with image, text and hashtags as far ahead as you like. The software will then automatically publish your posts on the chosen day, at the chosen time, and on the chosen platform!

Social isn’t going away, and if you are not yet taking advantage of social media marketing to grow your business, you are going to get left behind!

Woya Digital is a small digital marketing agency made up of experts in our various fields. We believe in making business growth through digital marketing affordable for all businesses through our pay monthly marketing packages, with no upfront investment. Find out more about how we can support your business growth through digital marketing.

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