Internet Marketing Blog

What's up with Internet Marketing in Ashford?

Every so often I look at my own website, and take a look at our keyword research tools to see if there is anything I would like to rank for in Google. I was pleasantly surprised when my research told me the keyword term 'Internet Marketing Ashford' was being searched many times each month and there was little competition.

Are there no Internet marketers in Ashford? Why aren't they competing for this juicy keyword? I am based pretty close to Ashford, so I thought I'd write a blog that will get ranked for 'Internet marketing Ashford' and also serve as a small guide to all you Ashfordians (and others) reading this on how to find a suitable keyword and build a page to rank for it. 

The first step is to identify the keyword you are going to target. For this you will need a keyword tool: my favourite is WordTracker - it is very easy to use for the non-technical, and it's available on a seven day free trial. Remember to check out the video tutorials on the dashboard - they will tell you everything you need to use to identify the keyword, so I won't repeat it here.

Step two is to build a web page, or a blog around the chosen keyword. The trick here is to weave your keyword into the text and titles in a natural way, so the language isn't stilted or odd. If you have to chose between readability and shoe-horning your keyword in - chose readability. The important places you need your keyword to appear are:

• The page title (i.e. the text displayed in the browser title bar)
• The page heading
• The page text
• In the image 'alt text' (you must put in an image!)
  

The third step is to build some external links to your page containing the keyword in the anchor text. Anchor text is usually the blue underlined text in a link. For example Internet Marketing Ashford.

You can create the links in free blogs or directories. Google 'do follow directories' for a good list.

If you are interested in getting your website ranked in Google, or Internet marketing in general you may be interested in our 30 day free Internet marketing trial.

Full Internet Marketing Partner Services in the UK

As a business owner or marketer in the UK, it makes complete sense to use full Internet marketing partner services. But what can an Internet marketing partner do for your business?

Reduce your costs

Depending on your industry and online objectives your Internet marketing campaign can be a time consuming activity. Rather than soaking up your internal resources, or taking on more staff, partnering with a specialist company is a cost effective solution.

Increase your ROI

Return on investment is the true measure of effective Internet marketing. Having the right Internet marketing partner will deliver a ROI that is second to none.

Reduce your Risk

With most marketing - traditional or Internet - there is an element of risk. If you spend you marketing budget and for whatever reason you don't get the response you wanted heads will roll. GMIG offers a free trial to demonstrate how we operate as an Internet marketing partner.

Stay up-to-date

Google and the other search engines change their ranking criteria, almost daily. It's difficult enough for an Internet marketing company to keep track of what is happening in the Internet marketing universe, but it's even harder for a company not in-the-trade. Partnering with a specialist company is an excellent way of keeping ahead of the curve.

If you are considering partnering with an Internet marketing company, check us out for free - take our free 30 day trial - you have nothing to lose!

Managed Internet Marketing Company Benefits for SMEs

If you are the owner or marketing manager of a SME you probably have a dilemma: you want to take advantage of the Internet's massive potential as a marketing tool, but you don't have the in-house skills, you don't have the time to spare, or you just don't have the inclination to do your own Internet marketing.

You might think a managed Internet marketing company is out of your reach, but there is good news - it's not as expensive as you might think. 

The problem is not so much the actual cost of managed Internet marketing companies, but the perceived risk involved. Most, if not all, SMEs  have a finite marketing budget and they must get the best bang-for-their-buck. The risk of supporting an Internet marketing campaign with uncertain results is just too high, so often SMEs dabble here and there - a little PPC here, and an email blast there.

When the return on the investment of these marketing methods is analysed the result is usually disappointing, so it seem logical to go no further, but there is an Internet marketing methodology build specifically for SMEs, delivering up to six times the return on investment compared to other forms on Internet marketing.

Inbound marketing to the rescue!

Inbound marketing is a methodology built specifically for SMEs to generate website visitors and leads online. combined with a wealth of case studies and statistics to back up its claims is a risk-free trial. 

SME's websites generally fall into two categories: those who have no traffic, and those who have the traffic, but convert no leads. GMIG's free 30-day trial will either build a buzz around your website and attract relevant website visitors, or, we will convert some leads from the traffic you have - often we do both!

 

Cull Internet Marketing Experts in the UK

I am absolutely sick of so-called Internet marketing experts in the UK. How many times have you been cold called by some guy promising to get you to the top of Google? Why are they resorting to cold-calling when they should be able to get all the clients they need from being at the top of Google themselves? They don't seem to appreciate the irony of it all. A cull is the only sure-fire way of getting rid of them, but since that's probably illegal, I've put together a dozen tips for spotting a lousy Internet marketing expert.

1. If they have to call you.
2. If they advertise on TV, Radio, Print adverts (editorial is okay).
3. If they mailshot you.
4. If they spam you.
5. If they promise to get you to the top of Google - guaranteed.
6. If they suggest you aim at other search engines than Google.
7. If they can't supply evidence of the Return On Investment they achieve for their clients.
8. If they can't supply references.
9. If they offer only pay per click advertising as a total solution.
10. If they offer only search engine optimisation as a total solution.
11. If they offer only social media as a total solution.
12. If they can do the whole thing for £99 (or there abouts).

Since I don't do any of the above, you will have found this blog by a search engine, from my newsletter or you have seen me speak at an event or you have been referred to me. If you would like to find out more about how I work, and what I can do for your business give me a call, or take a look at the free 30 day Internet marketing trial where I prove how I can drive quality traffic to your site and generate leads for your business.

Sussex Internet Marketing Survey

Have you ever wondered what your peers are doing to grow their businesses on the internet?

GMIG is conducting a survey of small and medium sized businesses on a county-by-county basis and Sussex is the first. We are collecting information across all industries about what return on investment business owners and marketers are getting for their Internet marketing efforts, and the tactics they use.

The resulting Sussex Internet Marketing Report 2010 will be published on our website, and as a special offer those businesses who take part and help us by passing the survey onto their own contact lists will be entitled to see the final report before it is released publicly. 

 Take the Sussex Internet Marketing Survey.

Social Media: London Business Leads the Way

Maybe it's not surprising, but London is leading the way in social media for business - thats is  London businesses are searching for it more than anywhere else in the UK. Data from Google shows that interest in social media marketing has rocketed in the last 12 months across the UK, but mostly in London.

Social Media UK Leage Table

Position	Location	Index
1	London	100
2	Leeds	99
3	Poplar	78
4	Brentford	74
5	Bletchley	68
6	Manchester	62
7	Bristol	62
8	Reading	58
9	Thames Ditton	54
10	Birmingham	50

Part of the reason for this surge in interest is the number of companies cottoning-on to how powerful social media is as a business tool. Websites like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook can all be used to extend a companies reach to new clients.

All these social networking sites are an excellent place to build up and maintain a following. Each one is slightly different, but there are some common best practices that will help.

• Complete your profile on each network - as you start publishing through these channels people will want to know a little more about you.
• Add value - give away a little of your knowledge and experience to your audience. It will keep your current connections and attract new ones.
• Publish regularly but not too regularly - 'train' your audience to expect your publications at regular intervals. If you publish too little your audience will be bored, too often and they will switch you off. 

Social media is an excellent way of promoting your business, but be warned - it's not a silver bullet. It is only one cog in the machine of Internet marketing.Discover more about how social media can help your business as part of an Inbound Internet marketing campaign. Try our free trial.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for Business Owners

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often still seen as a mystic art, particularly by those who most often buy it - business owners. In this article I'm going to de-mystify what search engine optimisation is and how to do it from a business owners' point of view.

Search engine optimisation is the process of making a web page about a single keyword and making it clearly understandable by the search engines. The starting point is to choose a keyword i.e. a word you would like to rank for in Google and the other search engines. Its important at this stage to be realistic - it's no good picking a massively competitive keyword and expect to be able to rank for it. Start off by picking a nice keyword - one that has some traffic, but is not that hotly contested. you can often manufacture these keywords by localising your keyword. For example, if you sell 'widgets' and the keyword 'widgets' is massively competitive, try 'widgets kent' , 'widgets sussex' or 'widgets wherever' it is likely you will cut your competition to a point where you can effectively compete.

Once you have chosen your keyword you need to create a new page around it, or, you need to optimise an existing page for it. Many different criteria are assessed by search engines to decide what keywords a web page is relevant for, and where to rank it, but the following elements of your web page should contain your chosen keyword:

• Page Title - the text you see in the top bar of the browser.
• Meta Keywords - part of the HTML code that most CMSs (Content management system) will allow you to easily edit.
• Meta description - also part of the HTML code, but this text must relate only to the page it is on - do not enter a generic site-wide description.
• Header (H1) - the main title on the page, otherwise known as the H1 tag
• Body text - include your keyword as close to the start of your page as possible, and repeat it as often as possible without jeopardizing the readability of the text.
• Images - add at least one image and add the 'ALT' text, which is the text that is displayed if you roll over an image on a web page in Internet Explorer. Google can be considered blind where images are concerned, and it uses ALT tags to 'see' the image.

So, now you have created a highly optimised page, and published it on your website with a link to it from your main menu, so Google can find it when it next visits your website - you can also add the page to your sitemap to help Google on its way. When Google looks at your page and finds your keyword in each of these critical areas it can't fail to know what keyword it is optimised for. However, that only about 30% of the battle to get ranked...

By far the most important element of search engine optimisation is to have lots of authoritative links pointing to your newly optimised web page. Google sees links as votes, and the more votes your web page has, the better it will rank. But just any ol' links will not do: you need good quality links with your keywords in your anchor text - and that can be pretty difficult to get. So, to explain a little more: you , no doubt, will have seen link that say 'click here' - 'click here' in this example is the anchor text, and this is one of the major criteria Google uses to determine what the page is about. Imagine how much more powerful that link would be if the anchor text said 'Widgets'.

Good quality links with keywords in the anchor text, linking to optimised pages are how to do search engine optimisation - to do it well is not easy.

If you are interested in finding out more about search engine optimisation as part of an Inbound internet marketing campaign free trial.

Business Using Social Media: Facebook

Social media has a buzz around it in the UK right now, but still many businesses don't know how to use one of the main players: Facebook. I've written a guide to Facebook for business that explains the power of Facebook and how any business in the UK can use it as part of their Internet marketing strategy.

It's useful to know how Facebook organises itself; social networks each have a slightly different way of managing their members, and referring to the associations between them. In Facebook, each individual has a single profile; that is, Facebook do not want anything other than one profile per living, breathing human being. This means they will delete duplicated profiles, or profiles set up in the name of companies, organisations or your pet cat. (believe me, people do!) 

Facebook's reasoning on this is to protect the integrity of the data they hold on their members. Facebook makes its money from selling advertising based on the demographic (who you are) and psycographic (things you like) profiles they build up. Therefore, if your pet cat, or business is included in that data it somewhat muddies the waters - who knows what books your cat likes to read!

Because Facebook is such a great forum for business, many organisations did setup 'fake' profiles for their business, so Facebook created the concept of a 'Facebook Page', that can be about any charity, pop group, celebrity, or your business.

In the Facebook universe, when two members connect they become 'Facebook friends', but this doesn't really work with non-human relationships. That is, you can be a friend of a business or charity, but they can't exactly be a friend of you. So to distinguish a slightly different relationship Facebook originally called this being a 'Fan' but have recently renamed it as 'Like'. So you can be said to 'like' a range of Facebook pages.

Now we understand how Facebook is organised and what the relationships are called, let's address the big question: how do I use Facebook for my business?

The first thing to do is to set up a Facebook business page. It's quite simple to do, and completely free. the only pre-requisite is you have a Facebook profile yourself. You will be asked a series of questions in the set up, like the name of your page and a description. It's a good idea to have these prepared before you start. 

The next step is to flesh out your page with as much remarkable, interesting information for the people you want to 'like' your page as possible. This can be pictures, links to your blogs or articles, company events - you get the idea.

Finally, and crucially you need to give your audience a reason to 'like' you. This may be a special offer, or a fan-only download. For example 10% off if you become a fan, or  a 'how to...' downloadable document. For the fan-only downloads you need to be a bit of a computer-wizz, so you will need to recruit your web designer or contact GMIG if you need a little help.

Now you are all set to build your audience in Facebook, by regularly publishing updates of remarkable, interesting information. One good idea is to setup a service to automatically post your blog titles (with a link) to your Facebook page - there are many services like ping.fm that will easily set this up. 

As you start to publish information on your page it will catch the eye of the larger Facebook audience and the ones that are interested in what you have to say will 'like' your page. This means that each time you publish information on your page they will be notified - you will become a valuable resource of information for them, so when you promote a special offer (keep the free information to special offer ratio to 10:1) when they are ready they will bite!

Facebook pages are an excellent method of nurturing potential clients who are not ready to buy just yet, into actual paying clients - a client incubator!

Internet Marketing: The Remarkable Truth

I've been in the search engine optimisation and Internet Marketing business for a while now - a world of jargon, mystery and confusion about just how to achieve that coveted number one spot in Google. I have decided to go public and spill-the-beans on just how it is achieved, and the remarkable and shocking truth behind Internet Marketing.

Despite what anyone in the Internet Marketing world tells you, the key to success is 'remarkable truth'.

When you create content for your website, make the blog headline, or page title in some way remarkable. Think of how newspapers create headlines - your job is exactly the same. A genuine headline in a newspaper was 'Kids Make Nutritious Snacks' - the article turned out to be about kids making snacks that were nutritious, rather than the kids themselves being a nutritious filling for a sandwich. But the headline is eye-catching and remarkable. It grabs the interest by being slightly comical and potentially scandalous - tempting the reader to buy the newspaper to find out more. This headline has done its job by being remarkable, and truthful in the context of the article, if a little misleading, but in an allowable way. No one would seriously expect children to be used as a sandwich filling.

Titles and headings of your website content will all benefit from being remarkable.

The rest of your content: blog, web page or article now has to do its part in your Internet Marketing campaign, and that is to be truthful. Of course, you won't get far by telling bare-faced lies about your company and its products, but often we find content on a website that is so bland, generic and wishy-washy it is not a truthful reflection of the business. The personality of the company has not been allowed to shine though. When I talk to a business owner, quite often, the passion and excitement of their business and products overflows. The conviction of what they are saying is inescapable, and frankly, impressive. But they have made the mistake of having their website written by someone that has little interest in their company and products, and of course, the passion is missing. The content is not a truthful reflection of the company, and does not serve it well.

Quite simply, the remarkable truth about Internet Marketing is to create content that is remarkable and truthful.

 

Find out more about how we create remarkable content as part of a 30 free Internet Marketing trial. 

How to Chose the Right Internet Marketing Agency in the UK

The UK is awash with Internet marketing agencies of varying levels of competence - but that's OK; better too many than too few. The challenge is how does a business choose the right agency? If you are contemplating using an Internet marketing agency, or changing from the one you have, then asking four simple questions will sort the wheat from the chaff, and get you the Internet marketing agency that is right for you.

Question One: What Internet marketing services do they offer?
Lots of agencies have a  particular focus. For example, they may only do pay per click advertising, or search engine optimisation. They may be a web designer who dabbles in Internet marketing. When you are speaking to an agency you should bear in mind that to get results, you need a marketing mix on the Internet. No one thing from social media to PPC is a silver bullet - they must all be used in the right situation and in the right proportion. Ask your prospective agency what skills they have, and ask for evidence of their competence in each discipline.

Question Two: Are they talking about rankings or ROI?
This question is for you. As the agency speaks about what they can achieve for you listen out for ROI - Return on Investment. The goal of the agency should be to deliver the best ROI for you, not necessarily rankings in Google for a particular keyword. 

A common problem is agencies will get a client ranked for a keyword, that actually delivers poor traffic, or the wrong type of traffic. If the agency focuses on ROI, the rankings will come, but they will be the right rankings. 

Question Three: Can they provide plentiful testimonials?
Ask the agency if you can speak to a couple of satisfied clients who fit the same profile as you. Clients who have been served well will have no objection in talking to you on the phone, and it will soon become clear how strongly they feel about the service they received.

Question Four: Can you have a free trial?
If you buy a car you expect to go for a test-drive, so why should you not see precisely what you are getting when you buy Internet marketing? Ask the agency if they will give you a free trial - a demonstration of exactly what they are going to do and how. If they are confident in the own abilities they will have no problem. If the risk is too great for them to offer you a trial, you may draw a conculsion about how confident they are in their Internet marketing working at all.