Wondering how to respond to negative reviews on Google? You’re not alone. It’s a disheartening situation for any business owner: Receiving a scathing one-star review with the power to single-handedly unravel your reputation and all your hard work (well, so it feels like at the time!) But negative Google reviews are really not as big a deal as you think. In fact, when managed correctly, they can actually be an amazing opportunity for growth, and a goldmine for businesses wanting to improve their services! It’s all in how you handle it – but how do you handle what feels like such a personal and ..read more

As a digital marketing agency specialising in search engine optimisation (SEO), one of the most common questions we get asked is “Why is my SEO not working!?” It’s a frustrating scenario that many business owners find themselves in. You might have employed an agency, or maybe you’ve had a go at it yourself. Yet the expected surge in business is … just not there. Before you hit the panic button, let’s delve into the reasons behind why you may not be getting the results you hoped for, and look at potential solutions. HOW have you concluded your SEO is not working? First you need to identify how ..read more

New Statistics on how many local businesses have claimed their Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) Listing … It was while preparing to teach our own DIY SEO HQ group about managing their Google Business Profile, that we discovered some fundamental problems with the existing statistics. While multiple websites quoted that “56% of local businesses hadn’t claimed their Google My Business profile”, few referenced the original site. Turns out, this data was from 2017. That’s FIVE YEARS AGO. The world has changed just a bit since then, not least because of the Covid pandem ..read more

If you talk to a dozen different SEO experts about how to improve the ranking of your website, you are likely to hear some very different – even conflicting – advice. Is it any wonder that business owners are confused about the whole subject of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and are often reluctant to add this valuable strategy to the other eggs in their marketing basket?! Before we answer the question of why SEO experts give conflicting advice, let’s start with some background about how Google ranks websites. Shhhh! It’s A Secret Google has very complex algorithms for deciding which websi ..read more

New Statistics on how many businesses have claimed their Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) Listing … It was while preparing to teach our own DIY SEO HQ group about Google Business Profile, that we discovered some fundamental problems with the existing statistics. While multiple websites quoted that “56% of local businesses hadn’t claimed their Google My Business profile”, few referenced the original site. Turns out, this data was from 2017. That’s FIVE YEARS AGO. The world has changed just a bit since then, not least because of the Covid pandemic – the stats would ..read more

If you want to increase traffic to your website, then backlinks are important. What is a Backlink? Backlinks are created when other websites link to yours. There are three crucial elements to making your website rank highly in search engine results – what we call the 3 Pillars of SEO. These are: Keyword Research – to determine the keywords that people are actually searching for when looking for a business like yours; Onsite Optimisation – placing those keywords strategically in your website copy and settings, as well as improving the user experience (eg ensuring your site loads quickly); and ..read more

We received an email recently from somebody wondering about one page websites and SEO. As in – are they good for SEO, or not? Apparently a website designer had told them that it was the way “most modern websites are built”. There is a certain appeal to having a one page, scrollable website: they are simpler – and therefore cheaper – to set up; and they are ideal for being viewed on a mobile device (which is what many of us are using these days to browse online). However when it comes to whether they are any good for SEO (ie optimising to make sure it’s easily found in Google), the short answ ..read more

Shock, Horror! Did you know that the aim of SEO is not (just) to rank well in Google and Co?! There’s no point to appearing on the front page of Google – unless when users are searching online and scanning the results, the item they click on is YOURS. But even that’s not the true indicator of the success of your SEO! What you really want is for that visitor to stick around and actually convert (ie sign up, follow you on social media, call you, book an appointment, fill out your contact form, or buy the thing). How to Increase Dwell Time – and Why it’s Important Once you’ve actually got someon ..read more

So you’ve heard the buzz: when it comes to marketing your business, SEO is the way to go! (What is SEO? – click through for a simple explanation.) It’s the marketing method of the future. That’s because people are living in the online world more and more each day – reading, playing, chatting, banking, researching and shopping. Naturally, you want your website to be the one they find when they are researching and shopping for your product or service – and not those of your competitors! This is where SEO comes into play. However, there’s both good news and bad news. The Bad News The bad news fi ..read more

If you have a website for your business, you have probably heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). And for good reason! SEO (search engine optimisation) is crucial if you want your website to generate leads for your business: more clicks means more clients, and ultimately, more sales. These days, it seems that most website builders and digital marketing agencies include SEO in their service offerings. But not everyone is an SEO specialist. Why an SEO Specialist? Imagine for a moment that you need heart surgery. Would you want your GP to perform the operation – or a specialist? It could ..read more