Content Writing - Search Marketing Group

How to get 5-star reviews for your business

July 5, 2022

We all want to be recognized for our hard work. For businesses, that recognition comes in the form of the coveted 5-star rating.

Everyone wants five stars to call themselves a 5-star business. Who wouldn’t? But unfortunately, it takes more than being good at what you do to get there.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t got more reviews or how to get 5-star reviews for your business, look no further. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to get 5-star ratings on Google, Facebook, and any other review platform.

Let’s get started!

The power of 5-star reviews

You know that five stars are good and 1 star-reviews are bad. And while it’s easy to take it personally as a comment on the quality of your business, reviews have far more power than we often realize.

It all boils down to this:

Humans are inherently social creatures. Therefore, we care A LOT about what other people think.

This is so ingrained in our psyches that 48% of people won’t even look at a business with less than 4 stars.

Of course, there is a delicate balance. Having all 5 stars can look too perfect, meaning businesses want to aim for a 4.7 or 4.9 average. It also means that the odd one or 3-star review won’t kill your business, so you can take a breath if you’ve been worried about that negative commenter who seems to have it out for you.

But at the end of the day, the more 5-star ratings, the better. So we’ll show you how to start bringing those reviews in droves.

How to get 5-star Google reviews

Not only do reviews account for 15% of your local SEO ranking, but they are also apparent.

As you can see below, our Google rating appears under our business when a potential customer searches for the ‘Search Marketing Group®.

Thankfully, we’ve brought in quite a few stars with our commitment to service. But if your customers are a little less happy…

…Well, it’s safe to say that your future customers will know about it.

So how can you make sure you get positive ratings? Here’s how you can get more 5-star Google reviews.

Keep doing what you’re doing – excellent work!

A quick note: before you can get a 5-star review, you need to give the customer something worth reviewing. You’re already delivering amazing products/services and customer service, so you should be covered.

But just in case, do a quick assessment of your business. Are there any areas where you could improve to generate more positive feedback? Have you received negative feedback on certain aspects of your business that you could take into consideration?

Of course, you’ll want to be careful with this. Many bad reviews out there tend to be fake, but it’s always worth considering the opinion of someone expressing genuine concern or letdown.

Ask every customer for a review.

What is the most reliable way to get 5-star reviews? Just ask.

Well, you can only ask for A review. But chances are you have a lot of satisfied customers who just aren’t taking the time to leave a review after their experience.

In fact, 70% of customers will be thrilled to leave a review for a business when asked.

So how do you go about it?

If you sell online or collect emails, simply send a follow-up email. Depending on the type of business you are in, you may want to send one immediately, or you may want to give people time to try and love your offering first. The choice is yours.

You can also put the call out on your social media accounts and display your request in-store.

Make it easy for customers to give you reviews.

Sure, most customers are happy to give you reviews. But they won’t jump through hoops to do it, so you want to make the process as easy as possible.

You can do this in several ways, including creating a custom link that sends customers straight to your reviews. Here’s how to create a custom Google review link.

You may also want to create a custom QR code for people on mobile devices and display these in your store, marketing material, and packaging.

Respond to reviews – even the negative ones.

Responding to reviews allows you to show appreciation for those who have left reviews and encourage others to follow suit.

And who knows? You might transform that 2-star rating into a 4 or 5-star with excellent customer service!

Apart from getting you more 5-star reviews, responding to reviews also helps boost your SEO, so this is a must.

Provide incentives

Some customers may love sharing their opinions or want to show their support, but others may need more prompting. There is a range of incentives that have been proven to work on customers, including:

Receiving a product free of charge. While this may not be ideal for small businesses, perhaps you have a small item in stock that you could use or a service you could add on top for a customer.
Receiving a product before everyone else. Those willing to give reviews are often your biggest supporters. Tempt them with a new item in stock that hasn’t been sold to your general public yet, and they’ll feel unique and valued.
Discounts with your store or brand. Everyone loves getting a deal. This is one of the most typical incentives businesses use – for good reason. You get a review and another purchase, with hopefully more to come. Consider offering a 5-10% voucher for anyone who gives you a review or something like free shipping.
Loyalty points with your store or brand. This may be the most doable for small businesses, as it doesn’t require you to give away stock or price things lower. And it is quite adequate, with 59% of consumers saying they’d be happy to leave a review in exchange for loyalty points. Not to mention that a good loyalty program is a great way to keep customers longer!

How to get 5-star Facebook reviews

As with Google reviews, Facebook reviews are essential to the buyer’s journey. Not only will they be seen by people looking up your business on Facebook, but Facebook pages also often rank on the results page whenever anyone searches for your business.

We can see below that our Facebook page is the second result when searching for Search Marketing Group® our Facebook page is the second result.

And under that result? Our 4.6-star rating.

Now, it is possible to disable ratings for your Facebook. However, this is an excellent opportunity to build trust with your customers and show them that others have received value from your business.

Provided that you can get those 5-star reviews, of course.

Most of the tactics we explored with Google reviews also apply to getting 5-star Facebook reviews. However, some other ways you can get reviews that are more specific to Facebook are explored below.

Make sure your reviews are set up.

Turned your reviews off at some point? Here’s Meta’s guide to turning on Facebook page reviews and ratings.

Ask customers to check in.

Facebook prompts people who have checked into a place to leave a review. So if you have a brick-and-mortar store, encourage your customers to check in while visiting – either verbally through your employees or with a reminder in-store.

This lets Facebook do the heavy lifting for you and means you can get reviews without asking!

Create a Facebook post asking your customers to leave reviews

As we explored above, many people just need to be asked in order to leave a review. Create a Facebook post asking for reviews and a link to your reviews – chances are, your followers will be happy to comply.

Keep your Facebook updated.

People will be far more likely to engage with you on Facebook – including leaving you reviews – if you’re active. Make sure you’re posting on a regular basis and give your customers fresh, exciting content that augments their experience with you in the real world.

Don’t have time to keep up with your socials? Our social media marketers can take care of everything for you. Book a free consultation today.

Wrapping up

We’ve shown you how you can get 5-star reviews for your business and boost your online reputation. While we only focused on Google and Facebook, the same principles apply to TripAdvisor, Yelp, Trust Pilot, and any other review site.

So go forth and get those stars!

For more digital marketing advice, check out our Blog . You can also reach out to our team of digital marketing strategists – we’ll be happy to chat about how you can improve your online reputation.

Our SEO Agency Ballarat, SEO Agency Bendigo, SEO Agency Adelaide, SEO Agency Sydney, and SEO Agency Brisbane services are planned and executed with the highest level of precision and thoughtfulness, leading to excellent results and satisfaction for the clients.

Why email marketing is still the key to your business success in 2022

February 25, 2022

Today, you may think it’s time to ditch email and focus more on the future, like social media.

And while you should be considering a range of different things in your digital marketing strategy – including search engine optimization, ads, content, and social media – email is something you won’t want to ignore.

The truth is that email is an evergreen asset for your business. It adapts to the times and plays a vital role in communicating with your customers, even in 2022. And it can be highly profitable, especially for businesses with a tight budget.

Read on and find out why you should focus more on email marketing (and how to start creating your campaign).

The benefits of email marketing

Email is affordable

Think about how much you spend on ads right now. In general, businesses can expect to see $2 for every dollar they spend on Google Ads – an ROI of 200%.

Pretty good, right?

But according to a report by Experian, email can generate a $44.25 return for every $1 spent. That’s a massive 4425% ROI!

And unlike Google, social media, or other online ad platforms, you don’t have to pay to get into a subscriber’s inbox.

An email has a vast reach.

This year, global email users are expected to hit 4.3 billion. That’s over half of the population of the entire world!

And as most emails are now opened on mobile, both here in Australia and worldwide, you can reach your subscribers whenever and wherever you need.

This might explain why 87% of content marketers are using email to distribute their content, and 86% look at email metrics such as open and click rates or downloads to measure the performance of a piece of content.

You can track your success and progress.

Data is at the heart of any good digital marketing strategy. And with email, it’s straightforward to obtain and use.

You can access a range of analytics that will tell you exactly how your emails are performing, including who opened the email, how many receivers have unsubscribed, which links they clicked on, and many more.

This can tell you how relevant your content is, among other things.

You can also apply this to the different components of your email – your subject line, for example, or your call to action. This makes it super easy to conduct split-testing: sending two different versions of an email to a small section of your audience to see what performs better before sending the best version out to the entire list.

You can take things slow.

With an ad or a sales page, you must go for the hard sell – otherwise, you’ll lose a customer. But with email marketing, it’s all about that slow-burn relationship.

By supplying your customers with relevant and valuable content, you build trust. You get people who see your email and open it without hesitation.

This means that over time, you can position yourself as the right solution in your customer’s minds, build a need and desire for whatever you offer, and convince them that their lives are better with you (and your product/service).

It also means that when it’s time for the sale, or you need a significant response fast, you can be sure your subscribers are ready.

You can get personal.

Personalization is one of the most significant benefits of email marketing. And while lots of businesses have discovered how to include a subscriber’s first name in their email, there’s so much more you can do.

Personalization can mean providing content triggered by a customer’s behavior or patterns.

Those ‘We think you’ll love…’ emails from businesses you’ve bought from before?

That helpful reminder that you forgot to check out or that the product you looked at the other day is almost sold out?

That weekly summary you get from Grammarly or other services telling you what a great job you’ve done?

All personalization.

This can be great for building relationships with clients and delivering the correct email at the right time.

It’s worth noting that there’s a fine line between helpful, personalized emails and content seen as ‘creepy.’ Be mindful of your customer’s boundaries and ensure that whatever you’re sending will add value to their life instead of being a reminder of how much of their data you have.

How can I create an effective email marketing campaign?

In 2022, 333.2 billion emails are expected to be sent every single day. So to stand out, you must create some pretty awesome emails.

Below are five tips to help get you started on the right path.

Have a goal in mind for each email – and stick to it

Each email you send should have a purpose. This doesn’t have to be to buy it shouldn’t always be. If you’re always going for that hard sell, your subscribers may get tired of your emails and label you as ‘spam.’

That said, every email should still play a role in selling. Or, in other words, nudge your subscribers closer to that sale.

You may aim to get a minor conversion, like sharing one of your blog posts on social media or educating your subscriber on an area of your niche or offer. Whatever your goal, make sure that it’s the sole focus of your email – otherwise, you run the risk of overloading the reader, meaning they’ll do none of the things you hoped for.

Segment your audience

You have a range of customers who are all likely interested in a range of different things. If you want to create relevant content, they won’t immediately delete or relocate to their spam folder; you need to break your audience into smaller sections – otherwise known as segments.

According to Lyris, an email marketing platform, marketers who segment their audience have:

Higher open rates
Lower unsubscribe rates
Fewer bounces and less spam filtration
Better revenue

You don’t need a lot of segments to get started. For example, you may simply want to break up your subscribers into your target markets or based on things like which parts of your site they’ve visited.

Optimise for mobile

When businesses think about mobile-friendly content, they often just focus on making sure that their website is up to scratch.

But like we said before, most users are opening and reading your emails on mobile. And if your content isn’t optimized? It’ll be a swift journey to the Bin.

80% of subscribers will immediately delete any email that isn’t easily read on their phones.

To make sure that your emails are suitable for mobile users, you’ll need to consider the following:

Keep your subject line under 60 characters to ensure it is fully displayed.
Break up your paragraphs – the shorter, the better. One-sentence sections are significant; no paragraph should be longer than three sentences.
Ensure you include pre-header text (that preview you can see below the subject line before opening).
Place your primary call to action at the top of the email.
Keep the layout clean and easy to read and click.

Invest in well-researched, well-written content.

With how short many emails are, it can be pretty tempting to spend 5 minutes on one and send it off without another glance.

But if you want that crazy ROI, you must put in the time and effort.

Research your audience: who are they? What topics are they interested in? What information do they need to become paying customers? What obstacles and objections may be preventing them from buying?

This will form the basis of your campaign plan. From there, you can create a series of emails tailored to your subscribers, designed to slowly lead them from ‘interested in what you have to offer’ to ‘needing your offer today’.

Test everything

We mentioned how easy it is to conduct split-testing on email – use it! At the bare minimum, you should test your From names (who the email is from), subject lines, and calls to action (the links you want subscribers to click through).

You can easily send two variations of your email using platforms like Mailchimp, making it simple to conduct split-testing for the various elements of your email.

It’s important to note that testing is a continuous process. To get the best outcome for your business, you must keep iterating, with the ‘best’ result from your last test becoming the new standard against which to test.

For more digital marketing expert tips and tricks, check out our Blog. You can also reach out to our expert team anytime – we’re always happy to chat!

Here’s Why We’re Investing More in SEO, Because of COVID-19

August 20, 2020

With all the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought into the world of business, it is no wonder that companies are revisiting their marketing strategies.

Considering that the world of marketing — and the world itself — is in constant flux, deciding the best way forward for yourself, your employees, and your business can be challenging.

Companies have been chasing the next big thing in online marketing for years. And every year, without fail, we see posts and articles asking, “Is SEO still worth it?”

Even before the pandemic was in full swing, an article in Forbes detailed that SEO is still an essential part of any business’s online marketing strategy and is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The truth is that SEO is still one of the best ways for businesses (especially those with a local focus) to bring customers straight to their door. It is a powerful driver of organic search results, which accounts for most website traffic and leads.

And, seeing as only about a third of business owners invest in a solid SEO strategy, you will stand out from your competitors when your potential customers are searching online.

In this post, we’re going to look at the following:

Why SEO matters during the coronavirus pandemic (especially for smaller businesses)
Why you should invest in SEO now to reap the benefits post-COVID-19 and emerge strong

First of all, what is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

You’re probably familiar with SEO, but what does it mean?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that has been a mainstay of digital marketing since the late 1990s. Over twenty years later, it remains one of the most effective ways for businesses to maintain a digital presence.

SEO is exactly what it says on the tin; it is ensuring that your website is optimized to appear as high as possible in the search results to get in front of your target customer. No one reads past the first page of Google anymore. Therefore, it’s crucial that you actively engage in SEO to get your business ranking in the top 10 positions for keywords that your ideal customer is searching to find you.

Because of the sheer size of the online market — especially now, with so many businesses pivoting and making a mass exodus to e-commerce — SEO is essential to your marketing strategy. You must take SEO seriously to rise above your competitors and be seen amongst all the noise.

Just having a website is not good enough in today’s digital landscape. It’s all about getting that website in front of the right audience that wants to engage in your services.

If done correctly, a website that generates leads day after day, month after month, is one of the most valuable assets a business can have.

Check out some of our clients who invested in SEO and are now enjoying regularly consistent leads despite COVID-19:

Why is SEO so crucial during COVID-19?

While J. Paul Getty’s quote may seem to refer to stocks or real estate, it illustrates a fundamental principle that is the secret to investing successfully and getting ahead of the pack:

Invest in SEO while your competitors are not.

Experts argue that SEO is more important than ever. As some services may be delayed or put on hold due to lockdown/restrictions, now is a perfect time (if you haven’t started already) to swoop in and take competitive keywords while the competition is dropping out.

You see, COVID-19 has shut down many businesses but has opened up a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for forward-thinking business owners.

Keywords that were once a long shot, dominated by heavy competition who’ve been doing SEO for years, are now easy pickings for those playing the long game.

After all, the SEO cost is considerably less compared to a staff salary or office rent. Neither of those things is a prerequisite for engaging in SEO: all you need is a website.

Some businesses may benefit more from SEO right now than others—health-related services, trades business, eCommerce, for instance, and other essentials—but investing in an SEO strategy now will mean that once we emerge on the other side of the pandemic, your business will already have a head start through the gates ahead of your competitors.

During a recession or economic downturn, SEO is the best online marketing strategy compared to Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Marketing costs will soon fly through the roof as more and more businesses start marketing for leads/sales. SEO, on the other hand, is free. Once you rank on the first page, you’re not charged for every visitor visiting your website.

And, if the past is any indicator, consumers will be ready and far more willing to spend in the aftermath of a recession. So you’re investing in SEO services in Sydney now, which means you could sit on the first page as the market starts picking up.

A report published by The Manifest in April of this year looking at the data on the latest SEO strategy trends stated that SEO is one of the best practices businesses can invest in during the pandemic:

Most people ignore Google-sponsored ads — you need to rank organically

Over half of all website traffic comes from organic search results; it’s been noted that up to 80% of people will automatically ignore Google-sponsored ads. Many customers, especially the ever-growing millennial consumer group, distrust paid advertisements.

But if a page has managed to reach the top of the search results without buying the spot? You’re getting one out of every three clicks, with the top three results accounting for approximately 70% of traffic.

Users trust organic rankings more than paid; they see it as a sign of quality, as Google is a source they rely on. 81% of shoppers will search before buying a product or deciding on a service, and 49% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product.

Appealing directly to a customer who is invested in what you’re selling means that the quality of the leads and traffic you get with SEO is far higher; having your page front and center when a customer is considering purchasing may garner that sale.

Organic traffic is related to user intent, which is the heart of the Google algorithm. By investing in SEO, you will be able to increase the amount of organic traffic directed to your page, which in turn directs even more traffic! You have to get that ball rolling.

Compared to other expenses, SEO is your lowest cost for the highest return

One of the main appeals of SEO for smaller businesses — especially now — is the ROI you can get for relatively cheap. SEO gets you 15 times more clicks than PPC advertising, and 70% of people surveyed by Databox reported that SEO was better than PPC in generating sales for their business.

Paying for ads can be an expenditure that is not worth it, as any gains disappear the moment you stop paying; SEO, however, is cumulative. Even if you don’t see results right away, you are setting yourself up for the future.

As mentioned, the cost of ads can increase as more and more businesses try to get online, meaning you might have to sink a lot more money into ads than you get in return.

SEO, on the other hand, is not subject to inflation. Even as we see searches increase with more and more e-commerce, you will only have to invest the same predictable amount, allowing you to grasp your marketing budget better.

With COVID-19, businesses may be experiencing budgetary constraints. SEO is a relatively cheap method of digital marketing that gets long-term rewards, bringing in more clients and more money (especially when things start to return to normal — you will be in the perfect position to reap the rewards).

We keep saying long-term, and it is essential to realize that SEO is not an instant miracle to improve leads and online traffic. It takes time, patience, and skill. SEO is all about gaining the search engine’s trust by creating good content and making a user (and Google) friendly website.

46% of ALL Google searches feature a local intent

Results For A Landscaping Company

? From 0 leads pm to 300+ leads pm

? 200x Growth

Results For A Mechanic

? 50% Increase In Business

Wouldn’t results like this be great for your business? Get in touch and see how we can help!

This is an area where SEO shines. Local SEO is one of the best opportunities for locally-focused businesses during and after COVID-19.

Yes, paid ads can be targeted to customers in specific locations, but this doesn’t always work. For one, the user is less likely to trust an ad they know is paying to be in front of them. (While we all know that we’re constantly being watched, we hate being reminded of it).

And two, as we’ve already established, why pay more to target your clients less effectively when you could be utilizing Google’s algorithm to work for you?

Google is smart — more intelligent than all of us, probably. It knows that you want to see the results that are the most relevant for you, so it tailors the results that it shows you to your geographic location. Optimizing your website content for specific areas where you know that your potential customers are clustered and more likely to come from will rank highly in the local search results for your specific niche.

This is a powerful tool that local businesses of any size can utilize to their advantage. It was found that 72% of customers who did a local search visited the store; while this may not be possible during COVID-19, it still indicates the likelihood of conversion.

Especially considering the current push to support local businesses in one’s immediate vicinity (and the more realistic travel restraints that prevent us from patronizing other, further companies), SEO is essential during the pandemic.

And buying local is a sentiment that existed before the pandemic and is likely to remain long after the last COVID-19 case is diagnosed, so take advantage!

It’s what the big businesses are doing.

When in doubt, you should look at the giants in the field to see what kinds of business practices are letting them succeed. And interestingly, what has been working for some of Australia’s biggest brands is investing in SEO during COVID-19.

Just look at Bunnings, Australia’s most trusted brand as of May 2020. Coincidently, it was also around this time that the company started to amp up its SEO efforts.

As we’ve said before, organic rankings build trust. Particularly in today’s climate, where a lot of misinformation and fear is flying around, it is important that we can trust the brands that we buy from.

This is a major factor in whether a client will buy from your business; according to a survey conducted by Edelman, brand trust is one of the most important considerations for a person when considering a purchase.

Instead of simply coasting on its reputation, Bunnings is actively increasing its organic search rankings to reach its customers online. This helps them to stand out in the eCommerce market, where they are not as dominant, and keep their image as a trustworthy source of DIY, garden, and home products.

While they could certainly afford to pay for the top spot and advertise to prospective clients, Bunning’s marketing team understands the value of well-implemented SEO and the priceless benefits it can bring to a brand.

Another staple of the Australian market, Kmart, has been working on its own SEO tactics, particularly starting in July. This was when the second wave of COVID-19 really started to take hold of the eastern states, again driving consumers online.

Rather than relying on its reputation to carry over from its brick-and-mortar stores to online purchases, Kmart took a proactive approach and doubled down on its SEO, meaning that it would be easier for customers to find them amongst all the other eCommerce options.

Many of the products sold by both of these brands can be found elsewhere online, as they are just a carrier. Much of their appeal is in the brick-and-mortar store, but without that?

These two brands made the smart move to capitalize on their reputation and trust, ensuring that they would be among the top results for the products their clients are searching for through the smart use of SEO. This has enabled them to not only survive but thrive during COVID-19 and beyond, as the eCommerce market will only get bigger and bigger.

“Okay, so I need SEO. What’s the next step?”

The best time to get started with SEO was months ago. The next best time is today.

If you want to come out on the other side of COVID-19, ready to tackle the future head-on, we can help. Check out our free SEO audit and see what you can be doing differently.

Audience Segmentation: The What, Why and How

May 7, 2018

When you are developing your digital marketing strategy you will come across plenty of complex activities that play a crucial role in developing an effective marketing campaign. Audience segmentation is one of these activities that are incredibly important for developing a successful online marketing strategy. If you are not sure what audience segmentation is, then you can read on because we are going to reveal the what, why and how of audience segmentation right now.

What is Audience Segmentation?

Audience segmentation is a key part of your audience analysis. When you are identifying your target audience you also divide the audience into smaller groups or you segment your audience. Businesses divide their audiences or customers based on their needs, preferences, values, age, gender, race, characteristics and more. When you segment your audience correctly you will quickly note that different segments will react differently to your marketing content. This is because these categories or segments share the same basic compassion and interest with regard to certain products or services.

Why is Audience Segmentation Important for Your Business and Marketing Strategies?

Digital marketing isn’t cheap anymore. Every social media platform, every website, and every blog you use will charge a certain amount for hosting and boosting your advertisements, posts, and blogs. With expensive digital marketing fees, you must ensure that every position you choose to boost and every blog article you decide to promote appeals as much to a specific audience segment as possible. For example, a shampoo for color-treated hair will be advertised to a female audience between the ages of 25 to 50 because this is the segment that is most likely to click-throughs to the cosmetics website. Audience segmentation makes it easy to see which customers are most likely to invest in your product, and it makes it much easier to design marketing content that will capture the attention of that specific segment of people.

How Audience Segmentation Can Be Done

You should do your audience segmentation while you are analyzing your target audience. This task can be completed in a few hours. Here’s how to get started;

Step 1 – Review the information you have on your most valued audiences. Your team should study how each audience is affected by the need for your product, demographics, the size of your audience, behaviors of your audience, psychographics of your audience, and other information that might help narrow down your specific audiences.

Step 2 – Segmentation isn’t always necessary. You only need to do audience segmentation if your audience is not likely to see your available marketing content or your budget is extremely tight.

Step 3 – Next, you need to identify your segmentation criteria. Criteria might include your audience’s social demographic, geographical location, behavioral habits, or psychographic values.

Step 4 – When you have your segmentation criteria, you can start segmenting your target audience. When your audience has been segmented into different standards, you can easily design or create content that suits a specific segment group perfectly. You can market based on socio-demographic differences such as age or religion. You can choose to target an audience based on location. Choose to target an audience based on their behavioral traits and habits or approach audiences with a specific psychographic approach that appeals most to their core vision.

Audience segmentation isn’t the easiest of tasks. Still, this activity is essential to save a lot of money on marketing, get more conversions from your adverts and boost your business revenue.

Being Unique with the Basics of Seo Blog Writing

October 18, 2015

If you have been thrown to the wolves and are suddenly in charge of your business blog, you might be a little lost when it comes to the importance of your SEO writing.

Many new business bloggers don’t understand the essential components of SEO blog writing and its aim of creating quality content to generate organic traffic to your website. As SEO Melbourne specialists, we want to give our loyal followers a chance to nail down the basics of SEO blog writing.

Nail your keywords beforehand.

Keywords: they are the point of an SEO blog post. You should include them within your blog post around 2-4 times for each keyword. Anymore and readers can notice that you’re trying to hook them in. Also, don’t forget to include your keywords within your title, meta-data, headings and subheadings, images and in the URL.

Write for your audience.

Remember who your audience is, why they are on your website, and how knowledgeable they are about your products, services, and topics. Sometimes, being too technical isn’t helpful; keeping it simple helps.

What’s the point of your blog post?

On top of understanding your audience, what is the point of your blog post? What are you trying to tell your audience and why? Before you even put pen to paper (or, in this case, fingers to keyboard), break down your message and how you deliver it, and make it clear right from the start of your blog post.

Keep it simple with paragraphs, headings, etc.

Using paragraphs, headings (or subheadings), bold, and italics is essential to blog posting. The idea is that it keeps the post flowing while you can break down the points and messages you are trying to communicate with your readers (just like we are doing this particular post – if you have not noticed!).

Keep the length on the point

The minimum word count for any blog should be around 300 words, any shorter and Google won’t rank your blog high. Google likes long articles; the trick is it can’t be too long as it might turn off your visitors. Keep the limit between 600 to 700 words. Make it short, sharp, and to the point to maximize the word limit.

Be unique with old information.

In the world of SEO blog posts, everything has probably been done plenty of times before, and you can find many blog posts repeating the same thing over and over. The trick is to be unique with your post; add a new perspective, provide new information, or write it in a new engaging way that is going to make your readers and audience come back for more.

Take advantage of social media.

Social media isn’t just there to talk to your friends. Put your blog post out there through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. This will bring in a larger audience and spread your workaround. Like this blog post, check our Facebook, Linkedin pages, and Twitter handles to see.

Write quality content

Sounds basic? It isn’t. The trick here is to talk and personalize your posts like real humans. Some blog posts come off way too robotic, and that turns off readers (cause why listen to a machine instead of a man?). On top of that, the proper use of grammar is essential to get your message across. Keep working at it, and it will come naturally to you.

Common SEO Mistakes that you should be keeping an eye on

October 5, 2015

There is plenty of information on the Internet that provides the “perfect” tips for mastering SEO for a business. Many business owners are diving in head first without understanding what they are doing. And they are making mistakes.

Yet, we understand that many business owners are making common errors because they don’t know these common mistakes. This is why we have listed several common SEO mistakes business owners should avoid and keep an eye on.

Using the Wrong Keywords

The big one. Are you using the right keywords for your campaign? The problem is that people usually choose the wrong words, thanks to a lack of proper research. Many business owners assume the keywords they think will work in relation to the website don’t end up working. Proper research is needed to determine which keywords work. Choosing the correct keywords will make or break your SEO campaign.

Measure Your SEO

Sure, you might be getting a lot of traffic to your website, but are they doing anything on your site? Is any conversion being made? It is easy to get swept away with high traffic ratings, and many owners do not measure the effectiveness of their SEO campaign. With so many online tools (Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, Piwik, and so forth), it would be folly not to measure your SEO to determine if your online objectives are being reached.

Broken or non-credible links

So imagine your customer clicks on your link and doesn’t find what they are looking for. That happens when a broken link is applied to a hyperlink or through an online search. That’s what happens to many business owners who don’t know enough about link building: SEO services Sydney promise plenty of links, but they don’t work. It isn’t good, too, because Google will penalize you by downgrading your website.

Crappy Content

Do business owners know what defines “quality content”? Plenty of websites publish blogs on a consistent basis, but they do not bring the right people. When it comes to online content, it is imperative to make high-quality posts. Some essential points include the following:

Proper grammar and spelling
Visually appealing Web 2.0 features
Engaging and interesting content
Length of content (too long can be draining; too short can be unappealing)

Having Copied Content

Remember back in school when you used to copy your classmate’s work? That’s a big no-no when it comes to online content. Regular SEO audits will sometimes find some similarities of copied content, but purely stolen content will lead to problems. Firstly, it’s illegal. Secondly, Google will bury your website so deep in the search engine that no one will find it. Or if it’s awful, they’ll de-index your website off the grid.

It’s essential to have original content, not just for these reasons but also to make your content stand out from the rest of the competition. Your copy will define what your business and website stand for.

No Unique Title Tags or Meta Descriptions

Every page has a unique title tag, and your pages need to stand out. Title tags are important because users will be much more likely to click on your result over others if you use the right keywords to draw them in.

Meta descriptions (the little blurbs under the search results) are just as important. In less than 150 words, you need to nail down the content that will convince users to visit your site.

Combining Conversion Rate Optimisation and SEO: The Why & the How.

September 8, 2015

Do many online marketing companies get into the debate about which strategy is better to improve online conversion rates: old-school search engine optimization (SEO) or highly adaptable conversion rate optimization (CRO)?

Both strategies are essentially the same in the increase of conversions, albeit in different ways. CRO aims to increase the number of online visitors into becoming paying customers. SEO is used to achieve high rankings in search engines through keywords that match a user’s search.

As you noticed, both are made to convert online traffic. But why would marketing companies use one when combining the two would lead to a higher and more successful conversion rate for websites?

That is why it is essential to bring the two strategies together. SEO brings people to your website; CRO ensures visitors have the best online marketing experience and entices them to become paying customers. Combining the two will increase online traffic and establish a loyal customer base. To ignore such a combination would be considered a failure.

But how do you successfully combine the two? Effectively integrating SEO with CRO is quite simple.

Speed Counts:
In this fast-paced age, people don’t have patience. Your website must load quickly and effectively. Be careful not to overload it, as search engines will not load up slow pages. It is a fine balance, but it is crucial.
Understand your keywords:
You must understand the “why” of your online traffic. Why are they coming to your site? Keywords are the factor here in determining that understanding. An effective landing page, which serves as the entry point for your website or for a particular section of a website, can determine the potential of a client’s intentions.
Use keywords wisely:
The aim of bringing in online traffic is to make sure those users are part of the “right traffic” – users searching for your products or services. It is imperative to dissect and decide which keywords are going to be the most effective in bringing in active customers. Learn and test which words will work to complete a conversion.
Focus on products or services:
Focusing on a particular product or service will not only improve site rankings on searches but also increases the conversion rate. This strategy works well when you promote more than one product and if those products are not competing against each other. Focus each page on one specific product, and that way, your visitors will get what they want, and you will get that conversion.
Make that conversion simple:
Ensure your website is easy for your customer to make a call to action. It should be clear and straightforward so that it leads your visitors to the next step of the buying process. Streamlining your website’s navigation, too, will help with increasing your conversion targets.
Don’t ignore being social:
It is at your peril to discount the influence of social media. Make sure you put more effort into your social media engagements. It brings in more traffic and more conversions.
Test the success rate and analyse where to go to next:
Your aim should be to assess what SEO techniques are working alongside specific CRO proficiencies to see what is working and what isn’t. It is a matter of trial and error to determine which combined technique will ensure you maintain high traffic while seeing those numbers being converted.

There is no perfect formula when combining the two. The online marketing industry is constantly changing, and it is essential to always keep up with the latest trends. The strategies should be both sustainable and flexible.

SEO Sydney and CRO strategies are only as good as you craft them, so combining technical elements with interactions will make you happier clients. SEO gets users to your website; CRO makes them stay, convert and come back. Don’t miss out on using both.

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