What does NAP even mean?

Introduction

When a business starts to invest in local seo, well it can be a confusing time for some business owners.

The reason that is so, is because some seo agencies just use too much blooming marketing jargon.

So, you may well be just getting acquainted with your new marketing business, when they state a sentence something like this:

“Its important that your NAP information is correctly implemented, otherwise conflicting citations may cause confusion the algorithm as to where your business is, jeopardising your chances of visibility in the local map listings”.

Now, this is a mighty confusing sentence, yet one so many marketing types blurt out all too easily.

We are different, we don’t like our clients being confused, this is why we explain everything clearly.

So, without further ado, let’s demonstrate our ability to make the confusing, simple!

What does NAP even mean?

NAP simply stands for name of your business, its address and phone number, and that is it.

The search engines, like Google use this information to gain greater confidence in where your business is based, and its contact details.

So, SEO agencies for donkey’s years have been adding NAP information to a website, then creating a well optimised Google My Business account, and supplementing this with business citation to improve where a business ranks.

Why it’s important that the NAP information is correct on your website

So many businesses get the basics wrong, here are some common mistakes that we often we at our marketing agency.

By the way, this is not the way to implement NAP:

NAP details are written into an image

Googlebot will have a very hard time reading NAP information that’s contained in an image. So instead your businesses NAP information should be written in plain text, and ideally marked-up with a structured language, like Schema.

The Schema part we appreciate sounds a bit complicated, so you might want to ask an seo agency for help.

The NAP details are inconsistent

Sometimes the NAP information doesn’t even match on the same website, so for example, the contact page NAP information may not match with the NAP information written into the footer.

The NAP information should be consistent, that’s both on the website, and offsite. By consistent we mean that the information should match exactly with one and other.

Google My Business

After you’ve got the NAP information on your website, its then time to optimise your businesses Google My Business account.

Here’s our agencies top advice when optimising a Google My Business account:

·        Make sure the NAP information matches your website

·        Write a detailed business description

·        Make sure that your business keeps your Google My Business account up to date, so if you change your businesses phone number, this should be updated on your Google My Business account.

Why using a local phone number is important!

Sometimes a business can’t avoid using a mobile phone number, for instance, a locksmith would often need to use a mobile number, rather than a landline.

But if you can use a local landline number do just that. Most digital marketing agencies think that it can be beneficial for a business implementing local seo to use a local phone number, rather than a mobile number.

Schema

Your business should use Schema to mark-up its Nap information.

How our digital marketing agency can help:

If your business requires help with its local seo, then why not give us a call? We offer affordable prices, and our work is always white hat.

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7 essential things your business needs to know about local seo

Introduction

Let’s be fair, most businesses now want to be ranked at the top of Google. Yet, with that said, only the businesses that invest their time and money in the best quality SEO will succeed.

That’s to say there’s simply tons of misinformation out there, and also seo agencies that will just grab your money, and the underdeliver.

So, what is the solution? Well its actually quite simple, your businesses needs to invest in white hat SEO.

Yet to be able to beat your competitors, your going to need a marketing strategy. Now depending on how strong your competitors are, will dictate how long it takes to get your business onto page one of Google.

So, do be aware that if your competitors have super strong seo, well it might take a long time to catch-up.

You got it, you won’t see SEO success in the organic rankings or local rankings in a flash. Things simply take a lot longer.

So, with that in mind, lets have a look at what our agency deems as seven important facts that your business should know when investing in local SEO.

#1 Obtain your Google My Business account  

First things first, your business will need to claim or sign-up to Google My Business. Now this really essential that your business does this, as if you don’t your business will not be shown in the Google My Business results.

And also, don’t rush creating your businesses Google My Business account. Instead make sure you offer as much detail as possible.

And you should especially take the time to fill these parts in correctly:

·        Make sure that the businesses address phone number and name match exactly with what is stated on your website (NAP information)

·        Make sure you write a descriptive description of your business

·        Add pictures of your business, so for example if you run a shop take pictures of the outside of the shop and the inside of the shop

·        Make sure there is a backlink to your business

·        Add the opening hours for your business

#2 Obtain real customer reviews on Google My Business

Sometimes some businesses hand all SEO tasks over to an seo agency, and after all that’s what were paid for, right?

Well yes, that is true. However, there are loads of things that a business can do help improve the businesses SEO as well.

For example, if you have a customer that’s really happy with customer service they have received, well you could ask that customer to leave your business a review.

But don’t leave it to chance as to where that customer leaves their review, instead ask them if they can leave the review on your businesses Google Business account.

The reason being is this can help your businesses local seo. Yet, do not be tempted to leave a ton of fake reviews about your business yourself.

The reason being is Google’s algorithm is super clever, the algorithm will know that the business reviews are fake. The algorithm will then stop your business from being displayed in the Google My Business listings.

So only obtain genuine reviews from real customers.

#3 Schema

Most business websites have tons of information, for example you may well run a dental practice, and its normal to have loads of blog posts giving away free advice on how to look after your teeth.

After all, good quality blog posts can help to improve your businesses SEO. Yet, when we look at these blog posts you will see that normally there is just loads of writing, and that’s because they have been written for us humans to read.

Yet, its Googlebot that has the job of finding work that has been added to a website, and reporting this back to Google’s algorithm. And this mass of text then has to used by Google’s algorithm to work out what that page is about.

Now its likely that most of the blog posts were talking about how to look after your teeth, yet there may also be other blog posts, such as welcoming a new member of staff, or an awards ceremony the business has attended.

So Googlebot and the algorithm may have a hard time working out what all this text means. This is why Schema was created.

Schema is a structured language that can be used to mark-up certain bits of text so that Googlebot and the algorithm knows exactly what that information is.

So, for example, most seo agencies mark-up the businesses name, address and phone number using schema.

 #4 Add quality content marketing such as blog posts

If your business wants to improve its local seo, it’s important that the business invests in good quality content marketing.

So this doesn’t mean just writing a few hundred words every now and then for the companies blog. Instead the business must invest in quality content marketing, which means answering questions your customers are likely to have, but answering them the best you can.

You really do have to make sure the content marketing is of a good standard, as low quality seo will mean your website could incur a penalty. For example, a Google Panda penalty can result from adding low quality seo to your businesses website.

#5 Technical SEO

Your digital marketing agency should make sure your websites technical seo is up to scratch, this means making sure the following are optimised in a white hat way:

·        Meta titles and meta descriptions

·        Alt tags

·        Making sure that each page has enough written content and is not “content thin”

·        Anchor text is used

·        And loads more seo factors need to be considered

#6 (NAP) Business citations

Your seo business should create business citations. The means that the NAP information, which stands for name, address and phone number for your business should be on your website.

Then the NAP information should be copied exactly onto quality citations.

 #7 Make sure that you refresh your knowledge on regular basis

Sometimes some people learn about seo, but then ever bother to keep their knowledge up to date.

However, Google’s algorithm regularly has tweaks and improvements that are made to it, so if you don’t keep your knowledge up to date, well it can quickly become somewhat obsolete.

This is why so many businesses pay an online marketing agency like us to manage their SEO, reason being is we can keep our fingers on the pulse as to changes that occur.

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What is schema and how can it be used to improve my businesses SEO?

Introduction

Have you just got your latest seo report from your marketing agency? And when you cast your eyes down the report, you may see that the marketing agency has been working on implementing schema.

Now, as a business owner you may not have the foggiest clue as to what schema is, or how it can be used to help your business.

So if you want a clear explanation as to what schema is, and you don’t want to hear tons of marketing waffle, well you’ve come to the right business.

We are also going to explain how you add schema to your website, using a tool that’s provided by Google that’s super easy to use.

 

So what is schema?

The majority of information that’s shown on a businesses website is what is called unstructured data.

So, just imagine for a second your off to buy a new car. Naturally you will want to check a view reviews about that new car first.

So you start to have a look at reviews, and one website pops out at you, that’s because it has the star rating clearly displayed in the serps.

So how is that possible? Well, its possible because the website designers or the seo company has implemented schema.

This means that the whole page may have unstructured data, such as describing how the car drives and how economical it is.

This information is meant for us, the readers, that want to find out about the car. Therefore text is normally unstructured.

Yet this can present a sort of problem to the search engines. As if the information is written for us mortals, well it can sometimes be hard to figure out what the website or that page is about.

That’s because the text may cover many topics, for instance this blog post is talking about schema, seo and now new car reviews.

So you can appreciate that this gives the search engines a headache when trying to work out the meaning of the page.

This is partly why schema was created, and that’s to make a universal mark-up language that makes it a piece of cake to mark-up in structured language what the website, or page is about.

So, in this instance, the person wanted to know opinions and reviews on a new model of car. So, this means that the business will have used schema to mark-up the star rating, this is so that this clearly was displayed in the SERP’s.

 

CTR, click through rate

This leads us on nicely now to our next point, which is why your seo company should be aiming to improve your businesses CTR.

Now, as you can see from our last example, if your business stands out from the crowd, by having say a star rating for your business or a product, well more people are likely to click the business listing.

But this hasn’t got to be just a star rating of your business, it could also be something like opening hours for example.

So having schema added to your website, increases your chances of Google using the information so that your business shows up more prominently in the serps.

This can help to improve your businesses CTR, and this means that when people have loads of options in terms of which businesses they can choose to click on, yours is clicked more because it stands out.

Of course, the businesses that are ranked right at the top of Google are more likely to get clicked on.

Yet with that said, say if someone wants a product or service, and they are conscious they want a business with a good reputation, well seeing the businesses star rating in the serps may persuade them to click a business that might be ranked much lower down the page.

So in a nutshell, schema can help you to stand-out, and then help to improve your businesses CTR.

 

Local SEO

If you know a thing or two about local seo, then you will know that an essential part of the seo process is optimise your businesses NAP details.

NAP stands for name of the business, address of the business and the phone number. And seo agencies mark-up this information using schema.

This makes it a lot easier for Googlebot to read the NAP information, and to then cross check that this is correct with the businesses citations.

How do you add schema to a website?

Google has made it super easy to add schema to a website. The Google Structured Data Markup Helper is really easy to use, and helps you to add schema to your website.

 Can our SEO business help?

We are a white hat seo agency, if your business requires help with its seo, then we can help.

 

 

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Does your SEO company guarantee results?

Introduction

When we order something for our business, its normal that we want the item we’ve purchased to be delivered by a set date.

That’s to say if we are kitting out the office with brand new desks, well we would expect that all the items are delivered by an agreed date.

So, you can see why business owners believe that when they invest in seo, they then expect the company website to be on page one of Google by a set date.

However, when ringing around all the various seo agencies, you may quickly find that not many agencies guarantee results.

And the reason that SEO businesses don’t guarantee results is with very good reason, and we shall explain why that is so now:

Your competitors may have been investing for a lot longer than your business

The websites that are at the top of Google will often be investing in white hat SEO.

This means that your business may face competitors that have been investing for a very long time.

For example, you may run a construction business, and you may have three very strong competitors.

These competitors may well be investing in seo, that’s in order to obtain more customers. So the marketing business may well be tasked with making sure the business ranks at the top for:

·        Loft conversions

·        Property extensions

·        Builders

This means that the companies which are established, well they have been investing in organic seo for many years. This means that they may have been invested many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds into seo.

This is why a new business that just starts investing in seo would have unrealistic ambitions to want to reach the top of Google in a matter of a few months.

Every business sector is different, so how fast your business can reach the top, this is dependent on the level of competition.

And as your competitors will be investing in seo on an ongoing basis, this is often we marketing agencies are reluctant to say when your business will be at the top.

Black hat and grey hat seo

Sometimes some marketing agencies offer really cheap prices, yet sometimes there is a good reason for such low prices.

And that reason is the marketing business may well be cutting corners, that’s to say they may well be using low-quality seo methods, which are called “black hat” and “grey hat” seo.

Basically, such methods look to fool the algorithm into thinking your company website has better SEO than it really has got.

This can sometimes move a website onto the first page of Google, but only for a very short period of time. Those businesses that invest in grey hat or black hat seo will incur a penalty.

This is why this form of search engine optimisation is a total waste of time.

Once the website incurs a penalty, it will drop in terms of where it ranks. Also, the money that is spent trying to rectify the penalty, for some businesses can often be a substantial amount of money.

Really low quality seo, well that can result in the website being removed altogether.

Google’s algorithm is now very sophisticated at detecting spam, or low quality seo. With algorithm updates such as the Google Panda, and Google Penguin updates, its really not worth investing in cheap low quality seo.

Organic seo takes time

If the marketing agency that you appoint is stating that they can get your business to the top of Google in no time, and the seo is really cheap, then you really do have to check that the agency isn’t using black hat seo.

The reason being is this, if seo is implemented correctly then it does take a lot of time. So if the company is saying that they can get results really quickly, well there may well be a reason for that, and that is the business is using black hat methods.

Invest in quality

Every year Google improves it’s algorithm with loads and loads of changes, which means that websites that use rubbish seo will often receive a penalty.

So, this means that just because some low quality seo methods may work today, well in all likelihood they won’t in the future.

This is why its best to stick to a quality company, and choose an agency that’s committed to using the best methods, these methods are called “white hat seo”.

Organic SEO never stops

You’re always going to have those businesses that cold call your business, or e-mail you offering fantastic offers, and sometimes these offers claim to improve your businesses seo for a one-off fee.

 

This means that a lot of companies pay an seo agency a monthly fee, and this monthly fee means that the businesses marketing agencies are always aiming to get their client to the top. This is why seo never comes to a stop.

White hat

You’ve probably heard this phrase used quite a bit within this article, yet its worth going over one last time. That is if your business requires online marketing, well its only white hat that you should invest in.

However, some unscrupulous marketing agencies will know that most businesses are aware of the Google penalties that could be placed on their website, that’s if they choose the wrong agency.

So, you guessed it, sometimes even the businesses that use rubbish seo call themselves white hat, just so they can pretend that they are a white hat agency.

So, you really do have to pick the agency that a rock-solid reputation, and do make sure that the work they are implementing every month is white hat.

Can we help?

If your business requires help with its digital marketing, then why not give us a ring?

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How did the Google Hummingbird update change SEO?

Introduction

Google regularly makes changes to its algorithm, yet in August 2013 a seismic change occurred to the algorithm that changed how some businesses implemented seo.

The Google Hummingbird update was a massive update, and as result its thought that the update affects about 90% of Google searches.

What changed?

Many SEO’s believe that this update was so large its like an overhaul of the whole algorithm, yet some of the old components that made the algorithm what it was, have been included.

So, for example Google’s Panda and Penguin updates are still part of the algorithm, and so are many other parts that help to eliminate low quality seo.

Yet what changed is Google’s ability to understand more complex questions. When we say complex questions what we really mean is Google now better understands what it is the user wants to find out, even if the question that’s asked isn’t that clear.

For example, someone may ask Google where can I grab a pizza? Well from this question it isn’t very clear whether the person wants to find a local supermarket, Italian restaurant, or grab a take-away pizza.

Google has therefore got very good at understanding intent, meaning what does the user want? Since they’ve used the word grab, well this indicates they want something quickly, which would suggest they want a take-away pizza.

Google has therefore combined the following to be able to come up with more accurate answers:

Google Hummingbird

This update examines what is it the user actually wants to know, and is able to decipher what the users wants even if the words can have multiple meanings. This means every word is analysed rather than just picking out a few words and providing answers.

Google’s Knowledge Graph

Google now has a much more in-depth understanding of how things interconnect in the real world.

For example, a famous person will have connections, such as what are they famous for? Is it for creating an invention, if so what invention? Who uses that invention, and what is the inventors relation to other inventors in this sector.

Therefore, Google can connect the dots and connects people and things with what they are famous for.

You may have heard your seo agency referring to us SEO’s moving away from strings to things.

This means that some seo consultants believe that in the future, we will be less reliant on building backlinks because Google will already know the connection between the business and other things, so backlinks will not be needed as a major ranking signals. However, we are not at that stage just yet, backlinks are still important.

Voice search and also AI

Google’s combining its Knowledge graph knowledge, with voice search and AI. Google can therefore interpret a complex question that may well be asked in a conversational manner.

What we mean by this is more people are talking to Google as if it is a real person, AI technology and the Hummingbird update means Google can better understand questions asked this way.

Google is very good at understanding natural language, and so can combine this with Knowledge Graph knowledge to answer very complex questions.

How does this change SEO?

It changes SEO on many levels, mainly by confirming that old methods of seo no longer work.

No longer should an seo business optimise a website by cramming keywords into the websites text.

Google has moved on from just looking at how many time a phrase or keyword appears in a block of text. Now Google is only interested in serving answers that offer the most useful, the most accurate answers.

As it has a massive amount of knowledge, through Google’s Knowledge Graph the search engine can better understand if a piece of text contains accurate information.

For example, a solicitor’s website may well be offering divorce advice, yet when stating when certain laws were introduced correct? Google has the ability to check, and often only the most accurate websites, which offer the best answer to a question will be ranked high.

A solicitor’s practice on the other hand that invests in cheap seo, and the marketing agency just keeps plugging the terms “divorce solicitor” to try and get the business to rank higher, well that business is likely to incur a penalty.

This is why its important that you only invest in an seo company that offers white hat seo.

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What is a 301 redirect?

Introduction

When shopping around to find an SEO agency, it’s very easy to get confused by all of the marketing jargon that is often used.

For example, you may e-mail around various seo companies for a quote. The business may then get back to you with a quote that is full of complicated seo jargon.

Sometimes businesses will state that your website has a number of 404 pages, and that a business should implement 301-redirects.

This just sounds confusing, and sometimes a business owner will be put off from investing.

However here at our agency we do things differently, we do this by explaining things clearly.

So, within this blog post, we are going to explain what a 301 redirect is, and how it may be useful for your business.

What exactly is a 301 redirect?

Have you ever been looking for an item to buy online, clicked the link, yet you landed on a 404 page?

Some people will get annoyed with a business when they can’t get to the product they want. This can result in a visitor simply choosing another business.

So, some business implements 301 redirects, this means that when that page on a company website is removed, a redirect is put in place to send the visitor to another page.

For example, you may well be looking for a kitchen for your home, and you find a link that describes your perfect kitchen.

Yet, that style of kitchen is no longer stocked by the business, so instead you may well be redirect to the main kitchen page.

This way you can narrow down which item you want, even though you have been redirected away from the kitchen you have originally clicked on.

What are 404 pages?

404 pages are simply broken links. This can happen a lot when a business adds loads of new products to a website.

That’s to say these new products may well be added, yet the old products are simply deleted.

Yet, Google’s algorithm may not have indexed these new products your business is selling. Instead Googlebot will have indexed the old products, and may well be sending visitors to your old products.

Resulting in visitors landing on a 404 page, the websites bounce rate most likely increasing and this is not good for your companies seo.

So, your digital marketing agency, or your website designer should implement 301 redirects where needed.

Is a 301 redirect a permanent redirect?

A lot of seo business consider 301 redirects as permanent redirects, and this is important if you want to redirect link equity.

For those that do not know, link equity simply means all the equity that is sent through backlinks to that page.

Now this is important, because most online marketing agencies will tell you that backlinks are important to seo.

In matter of fact, some agencies believe that backlinks are the most important ranking signal that there is.

This means that if your business severs these backlinks, so that they do not get redirected and pass link equity, then sometimes a business can see its rankings drop.

Google Search Console

Your business can use its Google Search Console account to find out which URL’s turn up with a 404 error.

If you run a business that is regularly adding new pages, and changing the products that you stock, your seo agency should be ensuring that they resolving any 404 pages.

Regardless of if your business has one 404 page or hundreds, you should consult with your marketing agency whether you should use 301 redirects.

Can our online marketing agency help your business?

Whether you run a small business and require help with your local seo, or you run a global business, and you require online marketing help to sell your products globally, simply put we can help.

We only ever implement the best quality white hat SEO work. We offer affordable prices, so why not give us a ring?

 

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