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eLearning web design UK

What is SEO and why do I need it?

By Marketing, PR, SEO, The Web Surgery

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

You need SEO to help increase your visual presence and to get your website seen by potential clients on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask etc.

Our SEO approach is to review your website, create a SEO strategy and then get to work building traffic to your site.  We create specific keywords for your business that potential clients are likely to use when searching for your product or services; we also consider how to benchmark your organisation from its competitors.

Our SEO process

We have a simple SEO strategy that we follow and this helps our clients drive new traffic and business to their websites.  The SEO process is:

  1. Research
  2. Strategy
  3. Onsite
  4. Offsite
  5. Evaluate
  6. Repeat

Get a FREE SEO health check

Free digital health check for current SEO and Marketing
Free health check for your current website

All you need to do is contact The Web Surgery and ask for your free SEO Health Check and let us know your name, tel, email and website address.
Content Creation, 5 Tips to increase traffic, 5 ways to increase traffic

Five Ways to use SEO to increase Traffic

By SEO, The Web Surgery, Web Design UK

Search engine optimisation (SEO) should be an integral part of your website’s growth strategy.

It can be used effectively to drive more organic search traffic to your website but it has to be done properly.

Small changes and slight edits within your content and also within your code can be the difference between an increase in traffic and simply staying put. SEO is all about search and how your website can match up to the search requirements of your target customer. If you’re smart and put in the work, your SEO results will soon deliver valuable website traffic. Below are five SEO tips which will help boost traffic.

1. Optimise Titles and Permalinks

It is sometimes tempting to opt for a post title which is fun and quirky but instead, stick to the keywords. If you can manage to create a clever, keyword-specific and concise title then you have the perfect formula.

However, this isn’t always possible and so you have to work with what you’ve got. Most search engines only pick up the first 60 characters so keep your title to that length. If you create a keyword rich Post Title, then you should also have a matching permalink.

2. Use Descriptive Image Names

Always rename images before uploading them to your blog posts and pages. The name should be something which is descriptive and fitting with the site. It should describe the image and where possible incorporate the keywords relevant to your site. Search engines crawl images and look for relevant text and this can then ensure your image comes up in image searches and leads back to your site again.

3. Don’t Forget Image ALT Tags

The Image ALT tags are one of the main places search engines look for information about the image. It is a chance to get even more descriptive than the file name for your image and it can be rich in keywords relevant to the post. ALT tags should include around 5-6 individual key phrases which are relevant as a maximum and it can match your post title if that makes the most sense for your business and content.

4. Be Careful with Categories and Tags

Creating categories and tags within your website’s blog results in more URLs (known as ‘slugs’) being created. Every new category or tag has its own slug and this can begin to get disorganised if you have too many. Every time you post under a certain category or tag search engines will recognise that the slug URL has more content and this will be viewed positively. However, it is possible to go too far. You should be constantly creating content for all your slugs so you don’t want to have more than is relevant to your business or more than you can regularly update. Each category or tag should have around 10 relevant posts to it.

5. Fill in your Meta Tags

A Meta Tag supports your Page or Post Title when it appears in search engine results. It is therefore a chance to further attract potential customers and satisfy search engines. In terms of volume your Meta Title should be 60 characters or less and your meta description should be 160 characters or less. It should incorporate keywords which are relevant to your post and are useful for the reader. Phrases should be included rather than full sentences as this can waste the characters and each one is precious.

The Web Surgery offer FREE SEO Health Checks to anyone wanting to know how successful their current strategies are. You can get in touch today to arrange yours.

eLearning web design UK

Top Tips For Converting More Website Leads

By Marketing, SEO, The Web Surgery, Top Tips, Web Design UK

With an online presence you expect your business to generate more business.

Investing in a quality web design means you have the base to work from but what are you doing to ensure traffic that comes to your site turns into sales? Converting the traffic that arrives at your website into tangible custom does take a certain

Investing in a quality web design means you have the base to work from but what are you doing to ensure traffic that comes to your site turns into sales? Converting the traffic that arrives at your website into tangible custom does take a certain

Converting the traffic that arrives at your website into tangible custom does take a certain skillset but it can be learned. Anyone who visits your website is a potential customer and each lead has the potential to become a sale. Here we’re looking at several ways you can improve your conversion rates and see more leads turn into customers.

1. Goal-Orientated Design

Your landing pages must be focused on the goal you have in mind. You must optimise your landing pages with a clear and unmissable call to action. Without a clear call to action your potential customers may be enthusiastic and interested, but they won’t necessarily bite. Keep the pages uncluttered, the content concise and the focus on the sale and the benefits you’re offering your customer. Landing pages should be free of anything except the core deal or offer and how to redeem it.

2. Effectively Measure Results

You need to have a full understanding of your conversion process. Map it on a step by step basis so you can track individual actions and see exactly how each converted sale occurred. As you learn this process you will begin to see patterns emerge and these patterns can guide future exchanges with potential customers, improving the chance they too will be converted into sales. Measurement is essential for understanding your conversion rate and taking the next steps needed to improve it.

3. Offer Something Irresistible

Special offers have existed since the first sale was made in the first market. However, they can be optimised and designed to be too good to miss for your business. If customers are looking at a special offer they need to be convinced and this is your job. At the point of considering the offer they are already halfway there in terms of making a purchase so you simply need to nudge them a little further.

However, they can be optimised and designed to be too good to miss for your business. If customers are looking at a special offer they need to be convinced and this is your job. At the point of considering the offer they are already halfway there in terms of making a purchase so you simply need to nudge them a little further. High quality persuasive content, video demonstrations of products and authentic testimonials are ideal for selling a special offer and convincing customers they’re making a sound investment.

4. Improve Lead Quality

People land on your website all the time but not all of them are your target customer. Unqualified leads can be a drain on resources if you dedicated time and energy to pursuing them. Instead, utilise the data you’ve collected from your previous sales and create highly targeted landing pages which fulfil the needs of your perfect customer. This content will not only appeal to them exactly, it will also mean that unqualified leads look elsewhere. This saves you time and effort and allows you to focus your energies on the customer group most likely to make a purchase.

5. Use A/B Testing

How do you know what your customer really prefers if you don’t give them various options? A/B Testing allows you to hone your sales pages to perfection. There is singular way of knowing which style of call to action is best for your potential customers, unless you test out a number of options. The same goes for button colour, email or telephone preferences and other changeable factors.

A/B Testing will always bring up changes you can make, and sometimes it is the smallest change, like switching a red Buy Now button to a green Buy Now button that make all the difference.

Once you have reached the point that your business is getting steady traffic you should rightly congratulate yourself. However, this is not the end of the process and the next step is to find the qualified leads amongst this traffic and get those valuable conversions.

Have some questions on our Top Tips for Converting more Website Leads?

Contact The Web Surgery for a free no obligation chat and see how we can help.

 

improve Website’s User Experience

How To Increase Your Website Traffic

By SEO, The Web Surgery, Web Design, Web Design Hammersmith, Web Design London, Web Design Solihull, Website Design Business

Bad SEO will kill your Business: Practices to avoid to keep Google on side

Statistics suggest that the first two organic positions on Google get around 51% of all search traffic. Those top spots are like gold dust and whilst you may feel like it’s worth doing anything to get there, the guys at Google and other leading search engines are savvy, all the old tips and tricks which used to catapult websites into that top spot are now amongst the worst practices you can carry out and black hat tactics and bad SEO practices could cost you dearly in the long run.

5 SEO Bad Practices to Avoid

Here are ten key things business owners simply must avoid to help keep their website on the good side of the search engines and moving closer to those coveted top spots.

1.  Duplicate Content

You won’t get away with copying. Copying large chunks of content from elsewhere without appropriate credit will not please Google in the slightest and even when you do provide credit, they won’t be impressed if your website is basically copied from elsewhere. If an article has already been indexed by Google and then you copy it, Google won’t even consider indexing yours so it’s wasted space. If you do need to copy or share content from elsewhere then use the noindex or nofollow tags within your coding.

2.  Guest Posting for Links

Outreach is a key part of your business’ development and it’s always nice to post content on other sites around the web to draw interest back to your own site. However, Google has grown clever to the act of simply writing the most basic, unengaging content for the sake of tacking a link back to your own page. Guest posting is brilliant if done properly but when it’s clearly a rush job and you’re doing it for the sole purpose of getting links, it won’t work in your favour. Highly relevant sites with high quality content which are of use to your audience are worth pitching to, but anybody else could be risky. The same goes for the opposite and accepting low quality guest posts for your site.

3.  Keyword Stuffing

This is the big one. It’s a practice which was absolutely done to death for many years. You’d find content which was barely readable because content creators were stuffing every sentence with searchable keywords. They took their time but the search engines caught on and repetition won’t work, it may result in penalisation and being pushed every further back in the SERPs. Your content needs to be written for your target audience, your relevant keywords and terms should flow naturally and this type of content is beginning to be viewed very positively and picks up social shares as well as pleasing the search engines.

4.  Too Many Ads

Too many ads spells bad news for your website, especially if they’re positioned above the fold. Not only will you alienate your users but Google has started to come down hard on websites which are too packed out with ads, especially positioned before the user can even see your content. Content first, advertisement later.

5.  Out of Date

An old website is almost as bad as no website at all. Google and the other search engines love fresh, new content and websites which are regularly updated tick many of their boxes. The design and structure of your website too needs to be in line with modern standards and sites which are just one or two years old become outdated and fall out of line with SEO best practices. Working with a professional web designer and checking in every once in a while with your chosen designer will help to ensure your website remains current and therefore keeping the search engines happy.

Contact Us

If you would like to find out more or have any questions then please get in touch with The Web Surgery.