Excuse my title. “Drumming Up Some Serious Traffic” was another suggestion, that and half a dozen other drum related puns. Why? We’ll, being married to a drummer who wanted to start offering drum lessons, I decided to use my super-duper SEO prowess to find him some students. Or more correctly, cause students to find him. Being a man who though that a website was a camping ground for spiders he took a little convincing but eventually he let me create one for him.  A WordPress template and mates rates hosting from the SME gang later, and www.drumlessonsleicester.co.uk was born!

I decided to use an exact match domain (a domain that matches exactly a key term or phrase that you are targeting). The term “drum lessons Leicester” gets over 40 searches a month compared to other terms like “drum teacher Leicester” which has a much lower search volume. Exact match domains work well when you are trying to crack a small/local market. Nick wrote a great post on exact match domains if you want to learn more!

We all know that high quality and unique content is important for SEO. Simon and I spent time writing the home page to ensure that it not only read well to the user but also to the search engines. Not wanting to be a massive spammer, I tried to include my key term and other long tail phrases as naturally as possible as well as some synonyms too. We also added some pictures of Simon and his kit as well as some videos and a blog in order to inject a bit of personality. Having such a targeted domain name can sometimes make a site feel impersonal when compared to others in the same market who, in this case, go for things like simonsdrumschool.co.uk or sddrumlessons.co.uk.

The site indexed quite quickly and after a couple of weeks by mid-November it was sitting firmly at number 7.  We got an email enquiry just before Christmas and a telephone call just after but nothing came of either. Then a couple of weeks ago, just as Simon was starting to doubt my SEO super powers, the phone started to ring off the hook. The site had jumped up to position1 and boy did it make a difference! Simon has gained nearly as many pupils as he has capacity for and he is even considering making it his full time job! He now firmly believes in this ‘SEO malarkey’ as he has seen first-hand how much of a difference it can make.

Vicky

I have recently been working with a client to add new landing pages to their site in order to capture more traffic through long tail searches. There are a number of SEO and Conversion Optimisation factors to take in to account when creating a new landing page and so I thought that I would share my top 5 tips with you!

•   Leather Chairs are Relevant to Furniture NOT Eggs

In other words you need to link to your new landing page from the most relevant page. Links work as paths for search engine spiders. There are a number of ways that a search engine finds and crawls pages. This could be through site maps, Google +1s or manual submissions but one very important way is through the pointing of links towards the page. However, it is not just a case of stuffing a link to your new landing page in any old place. You should place the link on the page that is most relevant to the landing page content. This is not only good for SEO but for the user experience. For example, if you are an online store that is selling furniture you will probably have categories like ‘Beds’, ‘Storage’ and ‘Chairs’ in your main navigation.  If you created a landing page called ‘leather tub chairs’ you would link to it from the ‘chairs’ page as this is most relevant.

• CLICK ME! BUY ME! SIGN UP!

Having all this extra targeted traffic is great but you need to know what to do with it. When planning a landing page always have a goal in mind. If you want visitors to fill out an enquiry form can you insert one on to the page? Or if you want them to buy a product can you have a buy now button somewhere on the page? If I have captured traffic for my new leather tub chairs landing page for terms like ‘buy leather tub chairs’ then that visitors has pretty much already made a purchasing decision and that is why landing pages are so great! Make it easy for your visitors to take the next step!

• Make Them Keyword Rich not Keyword Crazy

Having a page that is dedicated to a very specific type of product or service will mean that you can use your key terms and their variations much more naturally. This could be in the body of the text, the headings or the title tags. This targeted content will help to show the search engines that your page is relevant to return for specific search queries.  It will also appeal to those visitors who are particularly interested in specific products or niche topics. This in turn should have a positive knock on effect on your conversion rates. However, this isn’t a licence to key word stuff

• If You Like Pride & Prejudice Then You Will Love Persuasion 

Even though your landing pages are bringing in much more focused traffic there is still a chance that the user may not have found exactly what they are looking for.  Having links to some related products or content will help to combat this and improve your dwell time which in turn can have a positive impact on your rankings as the users aren’t clicking straight back to the SERPs. Think Amazon with their “frequently bought together” and “customers who bought this also bought…” categories.

• There’s No Smoke (conversions) Without Fire (SEO)

Basically you can’t have one without the other. Imagine having the most fantastic website in existence but no one visiting it. On the other side you could have tonnes of traffic but the most horrendous landing pages that don’t convert.  Striking a balance between these two things can be a critical success factor for some websites. For example we all know that unique and high quality content is good for SEO, especially if it is nice and high up on the page. However, if you place 250 to 300 words of text at the top of a page and push the call to action to the bottom in order to rank well you could end up damaging your conversions. The best solution would be to have a small amount of introductory text alongside a strong call to action above the fold. You could then add the rest of the text below the fold so that is doesn’t distract the user but is still helping towards the SEO.

Vicky

As the newest member of the SME team I thought that before I launch into what has been going on this week RE: internet marketing, I had better introduce myself; I’m Sophie and this is the end of my very first week here, pleased to make your acquaintance!

Now then, just what has been going on in the fast paced world of internet marketing? I don’t think I could write a post that relates to the internet in any way without discussing SOPA, so let’s take a look at what SOPA is and how it could affect internet marketing.

The Stop Online Piracy Act, most commonly referred to as SOPA is a bill that if made law, would increase the ability of law enforcers and copyright holders to take action against online trafficking. In a nutshell, court orders could be served to websites thought to be either allowing copyright infringement to take place, or actively facilitating it. If a person is found guilty of this, they could face prison sentences of varying lengths of time depending on the severity of their involvement.

SOPA has been championed by some and fiercely contested by others, most notably by Wikipedia who in an act of protest blacked out their English language site for 24 hours this week and encouraged other websites to do the same. Wikipedia share the views of many when it comes to the threat of SOPA; that being the introduction of SOPA will be the end of our freedom to share online.

In SEO terms, this may prove quite unsettling to say the least as website rankings could take a hit due to inbound links disappearing as other sites are shut down around you. Even worse, your own site could be blocked completely by search engines should they be flagged up as hosting content that is in breach of SOPA. It is because of this that many internet marketing companies have announced plans to launch campaigns against this potential new law.

With a decision as to whether the SOPA bill will be made law drawing closer, now is the time to delve deeper into exactly how this could affect you as a business owner, internet marketer or simply just an online user.

Sophie

WordPress is a great blogging platform. You can sign up for a free account on their website and start sharing your opinions with the world. When you have signed up you will need to create your first post. Here is a quick video about how to do that!

Happy Blogging,

Vicky

This week I spent some time teaching someone how to use Twitter. Having been a tweeter for a number of years it is really easy to forget how daunting tweeting for the first time can be. So if you don’t know your @mentions from your direct messages then this post is for you! If you want to know about how to choose the best picture for your Twitter profile then click here.

Tweeting: Write your tweet in the “What’s happening?” box on your home screen and click send. You are limited to 140 characters per tweet so use them wisely.

Timeline: All tweets that have been tweeted by those people that you follow will appear in your time line. Your sent tweets will also appear here.

@metions: Tweets where anyone mentions your @username will appear here.

Direct Messages:

When you make an @mention in your tweet everyone who follows you will be able to see the tweet. A direct message is private between you and the recipient. To view your direct messages go to “messages” at the top of your Twitter screen. From here you can compose new messages, view messages that have been sent to you and see an archive of all your sent messages.

Retweet:

If you see a tweet that is interesting and you want your followers to see it too, simply hover your mouse over the tweet and the retweet (RT) button will appear at the bottom. Tweets that have been retweeted by those you follow will appear like this in your timeline:

In the retweet menu at the top you can see all the tweets that you haveretweeted , tweets that your friends have retweeted and instances where people have retweeted your tweets.

Hash Tags:

Hash tags are a way of grouping together tweets around the same subject.  You can use them in your tweets . Here is an example of a tweet using the #xfactor tag.

For example you could tweet “Im currently watching #xfactor”. If you click on the #xfactor or search #xfactor in the search bar you will then be able to see all the tweets that have used the #xfactor tag. A lot of events are allocated a hash tag. This way you can read all the tweets that have been made about the event and connect with people who were at the same event. Hash tags that are used the most will generally become trending topics.

URL Shortners:

As you only have a limited number of characters per tweet, you don’t want to be using them up with really long URLs.  A url shortner such as https://bitly.com/ will take long URL’s and make them shorter for use in your tweets.

For example it will shorten the following URL

http://www.google.co.uk/search?pws=0&gl=uk&q=twitter+time+line&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&sourcjzjzifjiodgpfgd;fgdo=wi&biw=1366&bih=667&sei=%20QqKuTt-KB8KZ8QP41PG6Cw

to

http://bit.ly/u8S0Dd  <you then paste this in your tweet as it will use less characters

In your bit.ly account you will be able to view how many people have clicked your link. As you can see the following link had 143 clicks.

If you have any questions about the basics of Twitter then leave me a comment below.

Happy Tweeting!

Vicky

This week in SME town we are looking at the use of images and SEO. One of the things I notice first about images and websites (being a woman) is the colour. As well as this there are a number of other things to think about!

Colour

Colours convey a message. People associate colours with certain feelings. You need to decide what you want people to feel when they look at the images on your website and use images accordingly. Let’s play a game of guess the colour. I will describe a feeling/state of being and you have to guess which colour I’m talking about. Ready…

1) Passionate, fiery and glamorous.

2) Awake, warm and cheerful.

Hand’s up all those who chose (1) green and (2) black? Nope….I bet that none of you did. Who would think of green as being a colour associated with glamour. Imagine the stars walking down a green carpet! Or who would think of black as being warm and cheerful? The correct answers were of course red (1) and yellow (2). So, choose your images and website colours dependant on what you want to convey.

Continuity

Maintaining continuity is an important factor when it comes choosing images for your website. The style of image that you choose should fit in with the colours and style of the rest of the site. We have a bit of a green and grey theme here at The SME Marketing Company and have tried to carry these colours from our logo through the rest of the website. The slider on our home page uses some of the shades of green that are in our logo and all of our avatars have green in them. Don’t go OTT with the colours (like the rainbow mania below), say 3 as a maximum! If your site is a professional looking site then use professional looking images. If you have a more fun site then go for more personal and vector style images.

Relevancy

All of your images need to have a purpose. You should never just have an image on your website for the sake of it. Images should help you communicate to you customers. You need to think about what it is that you are trying to convey and use images that fit the bill. Make sure that all of your images are relevant to the page that they are on and that they are actually adding value. Having a web page about cheese that has an image of a staple gun is a bad idea! Images are great for breaking up the written content on a page but should be used in context.

Image Quality

Don’t you just hate it when you are on a website that has low quality and pixelated images? Especially if the image of a product you want to buy is poor. The images you choose to put on your site should reflect your brand. Having low quality pictures will send a message to potential customers that what you have to offer is low quality.

Image Size

The size of image that you use on your site will affect your sites loading times. Google looks at the speed of a website as part of its algorithms and so you want to make sure that the images you have are optimised. Check out Nicks post on improving SEO with images.  Different file extensions have an impact on image sizes and loading times. To the right are a few quick points about how to choose the right file extensions for your images.

I hope this has been helpful!

Vicky

Welcome to my latest post which is all about how to change title tags and meta descriptions through a WordPress plugin. My video covers the basics of how to install and use the plugin and there is also some info about title tags and meta descriptions below!

How to edit titles and meta descriptions in WordPress from mightyvicster on Vimeo.

Title Tag: 

Your title tags are visible in two places.

1. In your browser

2. In the search results

Meta Description:

The meta description is the text that appears in the search engine results underneath the title tag and URL.

Meta descriptions should utilise your keywords and encourage the user to click through to your site. If you do not pre-set your meta descriptions then the search engine will scrape an amount of text from your page and display this in the results. Below is an example of this from my craft blog:

Here is another example from my craft blog of a post that has had the title tag & meta descriptions edited:

I had used Google keyword tool to research the title of my blog post and found that the long tail phrase “how to make paper bunting” had a good number of searches. I therefore used this as the title of the post, in the title tag and in the meta description. It is recommended that you use your keywords as early as possible within your title tag as it is useful for ranking and has a positive influence on the users behaviour.

Dan has written a post called maxing your meta which is all about how to get the most out of your meta descriptions, check it out!

What is your avatar on Twitter? A picture of you? Of your cat? Your business logo? Or is it the dreaded egg? I have seen businesses use all sorts of avatars; from stuffy corporate logos and cheesy motivational pictures to photos of pretty girls that have obviously been found on Google. Does your avatar really matter? Does it affect other Twitter users behaviour towards you? These are questions that I was pondering and so I decided to do a little experiment!

I set up an account for a very nice (and slightly fictional) chap called Garage Gary. Garage Gary likes DIY, cars and motorbikes. He also has a business selling garage doors. Over three weeks I used three different avatars; one corporate logo, the dreaded egg and an ‘actual’ picture of Gary. I followed 100 people over a one week period for each avatar and monitored how many people followed back. I also tweeted a link (the same link) and kept a watch on how many clicks each link got.

As you can see from the results on the left, having no avatar and a logo avatar pretty much amounted to the same thing. Almost exactly the same amount of people followed back on these two weeks. However, when we had a nice personal picture of Gary the amount of new followers doubled! Whilst I know that this experiment was a little crude I think that it helps to illustrate the fact that people connect with people. Think about your Twitter behaviour. If you are followed by “@pieintheskysolicitors” with a logo avatar you would immediately think boring tweets and pushy sales. However if you were followed by “@vickypieinthesky” with a more personal avatar you would be more inclined to follow back. (Apologies to all solicitors but I thought that the accountants needed a break!)

Why not find someone at your organisation who is outgoing (and trustworthy) and make them your designated social media person. This way your tweets will get an injection of personality and your following will grow. Always add value to your followers twitter experience and remember that having a nice personal avatar doesn’t give you the right to spam people. Adopt the 1/4 rule. Only 1 out of every 4 tweets should be promotional whilst the rest should be fun, informative and useful.

Have a look at your avatar and ask yourself this question “would I follow myself?”

Happy tweeting!

All of us were impacted in some way by the recent riot situation that burst on to the streets of our capital and other major cities just a couple of weeks ago. Here in Leicester we had a small amount of unrest and you can see what happened by viewing my Tweet Timeline. Many small and independent businesses across England were innocently caught up in the thick of the violence and had their livelihoods ruined. Many people turned out to help clean up in the days that followed the rioting and it made many of us feel proud to be British. For those of us who live outside of London and want to help there is now a fabulous way to get involved!

The riot raffle is the creative communities response to what has happened and a way of reaching out to those smaller retailers who are trying to rebuild their businesses. Lots of great prizes have been donated by those who wanted to do their bit but couldn’t physically help with the clean up. These prizes include fine art prints, handmade soaps, bags, broaches, cushions and so much more! Tickets are just £1 each and can be bought through JustGiving.

As well as making the most of JustGiving, Riot Raffle also has a Twitter account (@RiotRaffle) and a hashtag (#riotraffle). Many bloggers are also getting on board by writing posts to help spread the word.

I think that this is a really great example of the internet being used for social good. I want them to reach their £3,000 fundraising target and I encourage you to visit their website, buy tickets and tell your friends all about it!

Vicky

After the fantastic response to my tweet time line of the rioting in Leicester on Tuesday night. I decided to do a follow up time line of the Wednesday clean up and police patrol in the evening. Shovan and I took a little walk around the city centre on Wednesday and he took some pics of the damage.

Glass swept away in Granby St. The clue that anything happened last night: people stopping to look at buildings they walk past every day.

via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jlampon

Jonathan Lampon

Construction workers have arrived in Granby St. They're here to continue work on this stretch. They're quiet. Very quiet.

via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jlampon

Jonathan Lampon

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped and offered to help! We're not really needed now. I've cleaned up some litter, but that's all there was!

via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@CleanupLeics

Cleanup Leicester

NEWS: 13 people arrested after incidents of disorder in the city centre http://dlvr.it/fZD7R

via dlvr.itReplyRetweetFavorite

@leicspolice

Leics Police

'Leicester is a proud, harmonious and peaceful city' - City Mayor's letter on today's Mercury frontpage #leicester

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@Rory_Palmer

Rory Palmer

@kieran_95 Some of those involved last night may have EDL affiliations however, there was no organised EDL presence. We will monitor this

via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@leicspolice

Leics Police

Utterly disgusting. RT @JonAshworth: Age Concern in #Leicester. Last night their 17 seater bus that picks up elderly was totally destroyed

via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@tomwilliamsisme

Tom Williams

Peace vigil taking place at #leicester clock tower now - http://yfrog.com/h2a4avtj

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@RupalR

Rupal Rajani

Just briefed some fantastic community mediators - out engaging with young people to divert them from getting involved in disorder #Leicester

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@InspBillKnopp

William Knopp

All quiet and calm in City tonight. Drizzle and a much larger police presence = a quiet night hopefully. 3 arrests: 1 drugs 2 weapons.

via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jlampon

Jonathan Lampon

A great deal being done tonight in #Leicester in terms of 'mediation' -groups, police and community leaders talking to young peeps on street

via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jlampon

Jonathan Lampon

A man who decided to come into the city in possession of a hammer has been arrested. This man is now in custody and hammer recovered.

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@leicspolice

Leics Police

Lots of young people here to see anything that happens. McDonalds at Clock Tower the hub for stop n search

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@citizenseye

John Coster

Tonight thanks to our communities, excellent mediation engagement, police action & good behaviour of residents #leicester, no disorder

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@leicspolice

Leics Police

Morning All. This cafe was attacked on Tuesday night. Now it's not just a cafe, it's a statement. #Leicester http://t.co/H5CAmic

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@jlampon

Jonathan Lampon

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRltozMtq8k]