Cravenplan was established in 1984 as a web design and SEO company in High Wycombe.
We now have offices in the following locations:
01494 538 441
Cravenplan – Web Design, Social Media & SEO High Wycombe
www.urbanmediahighwycombe.co.uk
01923 601060
Cravenplan – Web Design, Social Media & SEO Salisbury
www.urbanmediasalisbury.co.uk
01722 440371
Cravenplan – Web Design, Social Media & SEO Watford
www.urbanmediawatford.co.uk
Why do you add content to your website?
Some of the responses I often hear when I ask this question include:
- To attract new visitors
- To inform your market of changes
- Because I was told to
- To answer questions
- To make my site bigger
- Because my competitors do
Content can be added to websites for many different reasons, not all of them as beneficial as you might think they should be.
I was sent a report recently by Hubspot that claims they have surveyed 4,000 businesses to learn what makes a difference to their visitor and enquiry levels and amongst their findings were:
This sounds good, and I do not know a business who would not want 4 times their usual number of visitors and the chance to secure more sales – so is all content treated the same by the search engines? Is it purely the act of adding content to your site that makes the till ring?
The short answer, of course, is no. The message from the search engines is that content must be unique, but is that really enough? Copying information from Wikipedia and putting it into your own words would make it unique – but it does not add anything to the web in terms of value.
Unique Is Not Enough
If we think about what the search engines want to achieve with their results, we should be able to work out what they want from website owners and internet marketers.
What Google wants: All Google wants to do is display the most relevant results for a search at the top of the listings.
What a website owner wants: To get as many sales or enquires from their website as possible.
So how do we make both Google and the website owner happy?
We produce content that is not only unique, but useful and relevant to the audience of that website. We show the search engines that we are experts in whatever area of business we work. This is achieved by:
- Explaining facts and figures
- Talking about industry news
- Discussing events and issues that affect the industry you operate in
- Giving your expert opinion on issues
- Training
- Product reviews
Paying lip-service to these things is no longer acceptable, as Google are working to detect not only duplicate content (they have been able to find this for years) but now they are looking for useful and insightful content.
They want to see something on your site that makes you stand out from the crowd – what makes you the best website for this search?
If you think about it, that is also what people want to see when they are searching for things – they do not want to see result after result saying the same thing.
This is what the search engines have realised, and with the growth of social media, the internet is no longer controlled by webmasters who dole out links. The web is controlled by all of us; users who have blogs, Facebook, Linked-In or Twitter accounts, and all the other ways we are able to talk about the information we consume.
The search engines monitor all these social discussions and signals and use them the way they have always used links to decide who are the most important people in an industry.
Google have indicated that what they would like to see are different things related to each search. For example, if you do a search in Google for “New York Hotel”, you get a list of the hotels in New York (in the Google local maps section) as you would expect.
Below this, in the organic listings, we see:
The top three results in this list are:
- Expedia– they offer a listing of many hotels arranged by star classification, how close they are to an airport or a place of interest, brand of hotel, etc.
- Travel Supermarket– They have a page with lots of information about New York, including things to do and places to visit. Handy hints on travel and how to prepare for your trip.
- TripAdvisor– This is another site that offers lots of hotels that people can choose from, they offer a rating system that is done by people who have stayed in the hotels previously.
As you can see, you get different information from each of the top three results for this search – so if you do not find what you are looking for on one site, there’s a good chance you will find it on one of the next two.
What Does This Mean For My Business?
This is a great chance for you to rise above the usual suspects and become an expert in the eyes of Google. By creating content that people find useful, informative and engaging, you will get your information shared around the internet. People on Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter will share the information you provide with other interested groups, which will lead new visitors to your site from places in which you had no marketing before. And if all of your content is of exceptional quality, they will bookmark your website and return regularly.
Now that people are bookmarking, Tweeting, liking and sharing your website all over the internet, Google and the other search engines will realise that you are a person of interest, and they’ll begin to take notice when you speak.
This means that the next time you post new content to your website, the search engines are going to come running to learn what you have to say, and will make the information available to people when they search on that topic. You get listed quicker, more often, in higher positions and once Google trusts your site, you will rank for the competitive terms in your industry – sometimes even above the recognised brand leaders.
This means that you can make more sales, just like you wanted – and Google get to list great content in their results, just like they want.
If you have ever attended a networking event to help promote your business you may well have felt a little intimidated, in a room with a lot of people you did not know and when you look around they all seem to be chatting to each other quite happily.
I attend a lot of these events and I felt just like that at my first few, but with time, practice and a little preparation it becomes much easier and you can get much more out of the business networking events.
I have read an extremely well written guide on businessballs.com, unfortunately I could not find an author name as I would like to read more by the same contributor.
The article covers many different aspects of the networking environment such as
Along with a number of other useful tips. If youthink you may benefit from this article you can read the full thing at http://www.businessballs.com/business-networking.htm
I have just found an interesting post on jimsmarketingblog.com called top marketing tips and he is not over selling it at all, the marketing information is well worth everyone reading, it does not matter if you are a complete newbie to marketing or an old experienced had it never hurts to read a fresh approach, or to confirm you are doing the right things.
He is extremely keen on both content and email marketing and has a proven track record of success with his own blog generating more than £140,000 in sales last year.
In the article are 11 tips that you are bound to find something useful in, not to spoil the article but he recomends using profesional SEO and marketing people to work with on your website. The full post can be read at http://jimsmarketingblog.com/top-10-marketing-tips/
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What Is Panda?
What Does This Mean?
How Will This Affect My Website?
What Can Be Done?
What Makes A Good Link?
Good Links:
Bad Links:
So What’s The Next Step?
Sean and John will once again be attending LinkLove on the 30th March in London. This one day conference designed for SEO experts, will equip Cravenplan with the latest link building strategies, as well as getting innovative ideas to implement in to our client’s projects, keeping them at the top of the search engines rankings.
John and Sean will also hear from industry leaders on the best new practices for building links with social media and to product pages. What’s more they will find out what outreach tactics actually work which will then be deployed on behalf of our clients.
On the 20th February Cravenplan held their “E-Bay for fun and profit” seminar at Salisbury Playhouse as part of their sponsorship of the play, The Seven Year Itch. This event was held at lunch time and repeated in the evening and welcomed many new faces along, all with varied levels of experience of E-Bay but who were interested in how to get the most out of it.
The seminar looked at the history of E-Bay and how, since it launched in 1995, there are E-Bay sites in 39 countries, making it a widely recognised platform to buy and sell goods. At the same time, areas for caution were explored such as checking feedback to ensure the seller has a good reputation. Similarly when you are selling you should always include the postage and packaging costs in the price, otherwise you may ultimately make a loss and how ending the sale on a Sunday evening can potentially double the amount you receive.
This seminar equipped the delegates with many tips on how to maximise their use of E-Bay whether for personal use or to promote a business and make profit.
For more information about how Cravenplan can help you generate more business through your Web site with their bespoke Web marketing support.
08 March – Digital Photography (lunch or evening) – Salisbury Playhouse
15 March – Digital Photography (lunch or evening)
20 April – Search Engine Optimisation
18 May – What Makes a Web Site Successful? 3hr Workshop
14 June – Using Video on the Web
10 July – E-Bay (lunch or evening
03 August – E-mail Marketing
07 September – Law and the Internet
26 September – Facebook for Businesses 3hr Workshop
11 October – Psychology of the Web
01 November – 101 Ways to Promote your Website
21 November – Conversion Rate Optimisation
06 December – Writing for the Web
On the 15th February Cravenplan took one of their seminars on the road, the first of five external seminars in 2012. They teamed up with Icon Business Solutions and were the first to host an event at the new Salisbury and South Wilts Sports Club. The seminar was attended by a variety of local businesses all looking for innovative ways to improve and promote their business.
Chris Stanbury managing director of Cravenplan opened the seminar with 101 ways to promote your Web site. These suggestions ranged from straightforward and free recommendations like ensuring all of your staff know your Web site address to the more bizarre and paid forms such as projecting your Web site address with a laser onto a building. The 101 ideas were designed to offer each person five or six to suit their own business model and budget, as well as suggesting methods for measuring success such as QR codes and track-able freephone numbers
Tony Field C.Dir business adviser from Icon Business Solutions, discussed 3 vital steps to grow your business. He explained how if your business is not growing then it is under threat of going under. Tony’s motivational presentation got people thinking about how to make money, reduce working hours and build a successful and committed team. For more information on how Icon Business Solutions can help your business please visit www.iconbusinesssolutions.com.
The two presentations showered the attendees with top tips for taking their business forward, through clever online promotional ideas and improving internal business systems.
For more information about how Cravenplan can help you generate more business through your Web site with their bespoke Web marketing support, contact us
20 February – Digital Photography (evening) – Salisbury Playhouse
08 March – E-Bay (evening) – Salisbury Playhouse
15 March – Digital Photography (lunch or evening)
20 April – Search Engine Optimisation
18 May – What Makes a Web Site Successful? 3hr Workshop
14 June – Using Video on the Web
10 July – E-Bay (lunch or evening
03 August – E-mail Marketing
07 September – Law and the Internet
26 September – Facebook for Businesses 3hr Workshop
11 October – Psychology of the Web
01 November – 101 Ways to Promote your Website
21 November – Conversion Rate Optimisation
06 December – Writing for the Web
On the 2nd February 2012, Cravenplan held one of their free monthly seminars on Google Analyticsand Web Statistics. The seminar saw a record turn out of 52 delegates from local businesses who were all interested in how may visitors their Web site gets and how to interpret the data.
Most Web site owners run statistic reports, but many don’t actually analyse the results or refer to them. This is not surprising due to the confusing and unreliable nature of the reported statistics and confusion over what they really convey about a Web site. With this in mind some of the terminology was clarified to enable people to understand their reports and maximise their Web site. People often get excited as they have a high number of “hits” on their Web site, unfortunately this is not the same as visitors, it is simply how many files are downloaded from the server which could be by one visitor requesting these files, showing 101 hits when there has only been1 actual page view.
Another challenge faced by Web site owners is the caching of pages, which is where Internet service providers save Web site pages for later viewings in an attempt to save bandwidth. Therefore reducing actual visits to your website as well as retaining out of date information, which in turn is detrimental to your statistics and understanding of who is visiting your web site.
So what do Google Analytics and WebTrends actually tell you?
They both show which files have been requested from the server and at what time. You can also find out which browser has been used to view your web site. However visitors can’t be identified unless your Web site requires a log in, therefore you cannot follow up with them. What’s more the exact number of visitors can’t be obtained due to the issue of caching mentioned earlier. Also, don’t forget your own visits to your Web site. Finally you do not know what search terms didn’t find you, which would be valuable information for search engine optimisation.
Google Analytics vs Logfile analysis (using WebTrends)
Google Analytics is free and uses Java Script but as a result does not give the most reliable interpretation of the statistics, regularly under reporting by 50% therefore not giving the whole picture. Whereas WebTrends use logs which are private and give a more reliable picture of your Web site statistics, however WebTrends figures don’t include cached pages.
You may well be asking yourself what is the point of Google Analytics and WebTrends as you can’t fully rely on them? They are incredibly useful to your business in terms of measuring the effectiveness of your Web site and monitoring the way people use search engines and thus responding to these trends to get more business through your Web site.
For more information on how Cravenplan can help you increase business through your Web site, with their bespoke web marketing support, contact us
15 February – Refocus your Business for 2012 (5:30pm) – Salisbury and South Wilts Sports Club
20 February – Digital Photography (lunch or evening) – Salisbury Playhouse
08 March – E-Bay (lunch or evening) – Salisbury Playhouse
15 March – Digital Photography (lunch or evening)
20 April – Search Engine Optimisation
18 May – What Makes a Web Site Successful? 3hr Workshop
14 June – Using Video on the Web
10 July – E-Bay (lunch or evening
03 August – E-mail Marketing
07 September – Law and the Internet
26 September – Facebook for Businesses 3hr Workshop
11 October – Psychology of the Web
01 November – 101 Ways to Promote your Web site
21 November – Conversion Rate Optimisation
06 December – Writing for the Web
As the SEO industry continues to expand, and more and more businesses wise up to the fact that website optimisation is a crucial aspect of marketing, more and more SEO agencies are springing up all over the world.
Choosing the most capable, the most suitable and the most cost-effective company to promote your business can therefore be a tricky business; particularly as web optimisation is a relatively new industry. Too many business owners are falling prey to false promises and quick fixes from black-hat SEO companies – so here are a few tips on selecting the agency that’s right for you.
Step One – Identifying Potential Candidates
It’s best to start your search locally, for a number of reasons.
Step Two – Are They Legit?
Once you’ve set your sights on an SEO agency, it’s time to make sure that they’re as good as they seem. Visit their website, and see how they measure up when it comes to these factors.
Step Three – The Final Hurdle
So they rank well for their keywords, their website seems up to scratch and their clients speak highly of them. It’s time to get in touch with the agency, and ask them a few final questions.
