What does NAP mean?

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Introduction

When you first hire an SEO agency, there more than likely to present a list of tasks that your website needs to bring it up to scratch.

And the descriptions used are often very confusing, that’s to say often a lot of marketing jargon is used.

But do not fear, as this is where our digital marketing agency is different. We explain things so simply that you will know your backlinks from your meta descriptions in no time!

And if your investing in local seo, well your bound to have heard the term “NAP” stated over and over again.

So without further ado, lets explain what NAP means, and how seo businesses use your businesses NAP details to help improve your local seo.

So, what does NAP actually mean?

Okay, so you’re probably waiting for some complicated and rather drawn-out answer, but simply put NAP just means your businesses name, it’s address and phone number.

So that’s the simple bit out of the way, the more complicated part comes when you have to optimise your businesses NAP information. But do not fear, as we will give you an idea of how seo companies, like ours use your businesses NAP information to improve your local seo.

Get your website right first

First things first, you have to make sure the NAP information is correct on your website. Now we know what your thinking, your thinking why would the NAP information be incorrect?

Well here’s some common mistakes we often see on websites which implement NAP incorrectly:

NAP information written into a picture

Sometimes some web design agencies write the NAP information within a picture. This will make it very difficult for Googlebot to read the NAP information.

A far better way is to write the NAP information in plain text, so that Googlebot can crawl and index the NAP information.

Better again, the NAP information should be marked-up using Schema, which is a structured language.

NAP information is inconsistent onsite

Sometimes the NAP information is inconsistent, that’s to say the contact information on contact us page does not match with the NAP information that’s written say in the footer.

Incomplete NAP information

A lot of websites get bombarded with spam, this then means tons of junk mail is sent to the business.

To avoid this businesses, use contact forms, yet this often means that NAP information is incomplete.

The reason for this is that the contact us form may replace stating where the businesses address is and instead direct users to fill in a contact us form.

Its important that the NAP information is complete, that’s to say the contact us page should have the businesses:

·        Businesses name

·        Address

·        Phone number

Now that your NAP information is correct on your business’s website, you should now optimise your Google My Business account

Now that your NAP information is on your website, its now time to set up a Google My Business listing.

Without a Google My Business listing your business will not show up in the Google My Business results.

You should optimise your Google My Business listing by doing the following:

·        Make sure the NAP information matches your website

·        Write a detailed business description

·        Add as much information about your business as possible

·        Make sure that if your NAP information changes, that you update your Google My Business account

Build business citations

Once you’ve built your Google My Business account, its then time to build business citations.

You should only build citations on quality websites, such as Facebook. There you can add a company page, you should add your businesses NAP information.

When building business citations, its important that you write the NAP information exactly how it appears on your website.

Schema

A lot of businesses these days use Schema to mark-up the businesses NAP information. This allows Googlebot to clearly know what the businesses name, address and phone number is.

Does your business require help with its SEO?

We are a white hat seo company. If your business requires help with its local or national seo then why not give us a ring?

 

 

How to improve your local SEO in seven steps

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Introduction

There are quite simply loads of guides that explain local seo in an over complicated way. This only serves to confuse business owners, and to sometimes put them off investing in SEO altogether.

However here at this digital marketing agency we do things differently. We are different at this agency because we don’t bore our clients socks off by using complicated marketing jargon.

No, we do things differently. We explain things clearly, this way our clients know what they are getting for their money, and this we way we have been able to retain clients for many years.

So, here’s our simple guide on how to improve your businesses SEO in seven easy steps.

 

#1 Obtain your Google My Business account

First things first obtain your businesses Google My Business account. This is easy to do, that’s because Google will walk you through the process.

Then all you have to do is wait for Google to mail you a postcard that has a verification pin. Once you have your pin, you simply type this in, once you’ve logged into your account, and there you have it, you will have a Google My Business account.

But don’t stop there, as any good seo company will tell you, you should add as much information as you can to your Google My Business account.

 

So, for example, you should add:

·        Your businesses name, address and phone number

·        Your businesses opening hours

·        A description about your business

·        Show customers pictures of your business, for example the shop front

·        You must keep your Google My Business account updated, so when you change your address you should update your business details

 

 

#2 Obtain genuine reviews on Google My Business

You should obtain genuine reviews from your customers. So, for example, say you’re a plumber, and a customer states that you have done a great job, well why not ask them to leave you a review on your Google My Business account?

This can help to improve your businesses SEO. Yet, with that said, do not write the business reviews yourself.

That’s to say don’t add fake business reviews. The reason being is Google’s algorithm will know, and then your business will not show up for searches that are relevant for your business.

For example, if you run a dental practice, and you notice all the other dentists are coming up with great reviews, well you may be tempted to write a bunch of fake reviews about your business.

However, Google’s algorithm is really clever, it will be able to spot that the reviews are fake, so when anyone is searching for a local dentist, your business will never show in the Google My Business listings.

#3 Use structured data, such as Schema

You may need the help of an seo agency for this one. Yet, its well worth adding Schema to your website.

Your seo agency may use schema to mark-up your businesses name, address and its phone number.

This will make it much easier for Googlebot to know businesses NAP information, and to then check this against your business’s citations.

 

 #4 Add quality content marketing

As any white hat seo business will tell you, its important to add good quality content marketing to your website on a regular basis.

And if you are aiming to improve where your business ranks locally, your seo agency should be looking to add content marketing that’s relevant to your business and the area.

For example, perhaps you run a solicitor’s practice, you may therefore wish to blog about a local business award you have just won.

Or perhaps your solicitors’ practice is raising money for a local charity or going to do a presentation somewhere within your city. This provides your business with a great opportunity to talk about how the event went, and what your business was offering.

For example, perhaps your law practice specialises in the area of divorce, in which case you may have offered your advice to a newspaper that was writing an article about divorce. This will also allow you the opportunity to talk about the advice you offered to that local newspaper.

Remember that all SEO work should be white hat, so if you are unsure how to implement white hat seo, you should talk to a respected seo business.

 

#5 Technical SEO

Your business may well be a start-up business, if it is you most probably have recently got your website back from a website design agency.

However, all too often a website design company just focuses on just that, the design of the website, and often the basic seo details are lacking.

So, your seo business should therefore optimise your website, by implementing white hat seo in the following areas:

 

·        Meta titles and meta descriptions

·        Alt tags

·        Ensuring that pages on your website has a sufficient word count, and are not “content thin”

·        Ensuring that there is no duplication issues

·        H1 to H6 tags

·        And loads of other SEO factors should be considered

 

#6 (NAP) Business citations

Your business should obtain business citations, this NAP information should match your website.

NAP stands for the name, address and phone number of your business.

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

Some people learn about seo, then let their knowledge stagnate. This is no good, as seo is always changing.

The reason for this is that Google is always improving its algorithm, so you should keep your seo knowledge up to date.

There are loads of free resources where you can learn seo, however only learn from a respected business, such as MOZ.

What exactly is Schema mark-up and how can this improve my SEO?

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Introduction

When sitting down with your seo company, to discuss ways your website can be improved, you may feel like your ears have been bombarded by tons of marketing jargon.

The reason for that is some seo agencies just like to make things more complicated than they need to be.

So, if your currently in a daze as to what schema mark-up is, and how it can be used to improve your businesses seo, well this is the blog post for you.

 

Unstructured data

Let’s say your shopping for a new car, and you visit car review websites. Now these websites will normally have loads of information, as most people want an in-depth car review.

So this normally means loads of text to read through, which is great for the reader that’s excited to know if that car is any good or not.

But Googlebot, which is the bot that Google uses to read websites, well it will be presented with loads of what we seo’s call “unstructured data”.

Now don’t get us wrong, unstructured data is useful, is actually essential to any good white hat seo strategy, yet picking out the important detail from a ton of other information, well can be hard work.

So in order to help Google figure out the important details, us SEO’s use what is called schema.

So the things like the star rating of car that actual owners of that vehicle have left may well be marked-up with schema.

And you may now be thinking, well that’s great, but what use it? Well when your searching for reviews of that car on Google, the add that might jump-out at you may well be the one which has the star rating there in the SERP’s.

And guess what? To get that star rating in the serps the seo consultant will have used schema.

 

CTR, click through rate

This leads us on nicely to our next point, that is schema can help to improve your businesses CTR.

For those of you who don’t know, CTR stands for click through rate. Now, this is the important part, your seo agency should be looking to improve your businesses CTR rate.

The reason being is this, even though your business may well be on the first page of Google, it still has to compete with all the other businesses.

This means that sometimes you may lose business because someone clicks on one business, finds what they want, and doesn’t bother looking at the other businesses.

This is why marketing companies like us recognise that is super important to improve a businesses CTR.

So, in a nutshell, if the seo agency can get the business to standout, and have a business listing that’s a bit different from the other businesses, well this should help to improve the businesses CTR.

For example, imagine you were booking a hotel, and there were 10 businesses that were displayed, all saying pretty much the same thing, such as “luxurious hotel, which offers affordable prices”.

Yet there was one business which was different from the rest, it had a star rating which was really positive. It therefore stood out from all the other businesses.

Therefore in order to get the businesses star rating, in terms of what customers think of the business, being displayed in the SERP’s, you will need to mark-up the customer reviews using schema.

 

How do you add schema to my website?

Google has made it super easy to add schema to a website, that’s by using the Google’s structured Data Mark-up Helper.

 

Local SEO

If you know a thing or two about local seo, well you will know that is really important for your businesses “NAP” information to be easily read on your website.

For those that don’t know, NAP stands for name of your business, its address and phone number.

And as you can imagine, most business websites have loads of text. This text is obviously used to describe what the business can offer, yet in all that information the NAP information may get lost in the text.

So when your describing the businesses services, or products that the company sells, Googlebot may be struggling to work out where your business is based, the businesses name and phone number.

So, you may wish to ask your SEO company to mark-up the NAP information using schema.

This can help to improve your local seo.

 

Does your business require help with its seo?

If your business requires help with its organic seo or local seo we can help.

Does your seo business guarantee results?

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Introduction

Naturally, if a business is investing in something it wants to know what it is getting for its money.

This makes perfect sense, as we wouldn’t purchase say a new appliance like a washing machine unless we knew when it was going to be delivered.

So, the same can be said about SEO, if a business starts to invest, well they often want to know when the business will be listed on the first page of Google.

However, a lot of marketing agencies, that includes some of the leading business do not guarantee results when it comes to organic seo.

That may sound surprising at first, yet at the end of this article, you will be all the wiser as to why many agencies do not.

The benchmark has already been set

Google ranks websites according to how strong the websites “ranking signals” are. This means that over 200 signals are taken into account, and the websites that are strongest will rank at the top.

Yet, here’s the fundamental issue, your competitors may e already been investing many years prior to your business. So, they have had a head start.

In that time, they may have built hundreds, if not thousands of good quality backlinks. Also your competitors may have paid a marketing agency to implement hundreds of hours on onsite seo.

So in nutshell the benchmark and standard to beat, well that might be set pretty high.

What this means is that a new business that’s just starting off has to be realistic about what they can obtain with their marketing budget.

For instance, will the marketing budget allow the marketing agency to give your competitors a run for their money, or will the marketing budget be a drop in the ocean?

If the standard to beat is too high, why would anyone invest?

This is where the marketing agency and client must make a judgement, can they make good use of the marketing budget, and overtake the established competition?

Or is the bar set too high, and the marketing budget would not be enough, so that the money is more or less wasted?

Be wary of any seo business that agrees to getting your business to the top, yet does not weigh-up how strong the competition is. The reason is the business may use black hat seo, which we will describe how this works below.

Seo is hard work

There’s no two ways about it, SEO is hard work. Whether you run a solicitors practice, or you are a tree surgeon by trade, your competitors will often not give up their top place on Google without a fight.

That’s to say, some businesses now solely rely on all their new customers coming through their website.

So to overtake the competition will involve a lot of hard work by you, or your seo agency.

Yet, there will always be companies that don’t want to do the hard work, that’s to say they want to cut corners.

These are the companies that implement what is called black hat seo. These companies may agree that they will take your business to the top of Google, because quite simply they are not implementing any hardwork.

Instead they use automated methods to try and fool Google’s algorithm into thinking your website should be at the top.

However, when Google detects this black hat seo, which Google is very good at, then your website will incur a penalty.

A penalty can mean that your website drops in terms of where it ranks, and if the seo is really bad, well the business could be removed altogether.

And its also worth mentioning that sometimes it can take a very long time to recover from a penalty.

So cheap seo, and companies that state they will take you to the top of Google for little money, well are often a waste of time.

If you want to find out more about this, read more about the Google Panda, and Google Penguin updates.

It all boils down to time

This is why seo agencies are often reluctant to guarantee results, because nobody knows if a competitor will step up seo activity.

Therefore it all boils down to time, how much time is a business willing to invest in a website.

And if the business sector is massively competitive, such as the car insurance sector, well this wont be one persons time working on the businesses website, it can be many hundreds of people.

So, it all boils down to time, and which company is willing to invest the most in the best seo minds the business can find.

How should we know which SEO company to choose?

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Introduction

Let’s be fair, there are simply tons of digital marketing agencies out there now. Most businesses will be constantly bombarded by offers from seo agencies, whether that’s through a cold call, or via floods of e-mails coming into your company’s inbox.

So this can only be a good thing right? Thousands, if not millions of companies to choose from means that there are loads of companies all bidding for your business.

Yet, what can often happen is when a company does need a marketing business, well it can be hard to find the right business. That’s to say finding that diamond of a business, that offers the marketing skills you need, well how do you find such a business.

Well, do not worry, as we will now walk you through four things that we think you should consider when choosing a marketing agency.

#1 Make sure you invest in white hat work

As you know there’s loads of companies to choose from, yet not all agencies will offer good quality work.

That’s to say writing really good quality content marketing and building quality backlinks does take a lot of time, so there will always be those rubbish marketing agencies that cut corners.

Yet, cutting corners is never a good idea when it comes to SEO, and the reason is a business could incur an algorithmic or manual penalty.

Basically this means that Google will be able to spot rubbish seo, and then implement a penalty.

The penalty can cause a drop-in rankings, and it can also mean that the business is removed altogether.

Penalties can be costly to recover from, because sometimes some businesses approach a seo business to correct the problems.

Sometimes then a lot of time is needed to fix the problems, such as disavowing spam backlinks, and this can sometimes result in a rather hefty bill from a marketing agency.

So, in a nutshell, its really important that you choose a white hat agency. Yet, also be aware that some digital marketing agencies say that they are white hat, when they are not.

#2 Don’t overspend!

Okay, taking onboard our last piece of advice, you may be thinking cheap seo is a waste of time, and you would be right. So, some companies then go the complete opposite direction, and then choose the most expensive agency they can find.

Sometimes this means using the most well-known agency in your city, yet you have to ask yourself this, is this sustainable?

We use the word sustainable for a reason, that’s because SEO is quite different from other forms of advertising, in that most businesses pay a monthly fee to an agency.

And where some forms of advertising can give you an instant return, such as radio advertising, seo often does not.

And here’s why, your competitors may have already been investing in organic seo for some time, which means they may have set the benchmark quite high.

Now, in order for your business to overtake the competition, your website must be stronger. To be stronger often takes a lot of time, so be prepared to invest for the long-term.

Plus, when your marketing agency has your business at the very top, well the seo investment shouldn’t stop there- and you’re probably thinking, well sure you would say that!

Yet it is true, and here’s why, your direct competitors will be looking to knock your business off the top spot. So, if your business was to strop investing, well its sometimes be only a short amount of time before a competitor succeeds in reaching the top, and your business must then move down.

So, in a nutshell, organic seo often requires a monthly investment, so don’t choose an agency that’s too expensive as you have to have a monthly spend that your business can comfortably afford.

#3 Don’t just settle for speaking to the sales person

Most seo businesses have a sales person, that person will obviously go out and sell that agencies services to other businesses.

All well and good, yet you should really visit the agency, and ask to speak to the person who will be managing your seo account day to day.

As if they haven’t got the foggiest about what your business does, well how the heck are they going to implement a marketing strategy that works?

#4 Think about using a specialist marketing agency

As we have mentioned there are now so many seo businesses to choose from, this means that there are also specialist marketing agencies.

This means there will be a digital marketing agency that specialises in offering SEO for certain types of businesses. So, whether you run a dental practice, or you are a divorce lawyer, you may wish to use a specialist marketing agency that only works with businesses in your business sector.

The advantage of using such an agency is they should have a much better understanding of your business. Yet, which ever business you do choose, make sure that the seo work is white hat.

What is a 301 redirect?

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Introduction

If your thinking about investing in SEO, then you’ve probably already noticed that most agencies websites are full of complicated marketing jargon.

One such term that you may have come across is “301-redirects”, this is often used when advertising seo services.

Some agencies therefore say that they will be able to quickly fix any 404 pages on your website, and then implement 301-redirect where necessary.

Well its hard for any business owner to know the value of this service unless they know what a 301-redirect is.

Within this article we are going to explain clearly what a 301-redirect means, and how it may help your businesses seo.

What is a 301 redirect?

301-redirects help to fix 404 errors on your website. This means that sometimes the url on your website will be changed.

So, for instance, you may well retail luxury cars, and you may stop selling a particular brand of cars.

Instead of people looking for that brand of car being presented with a 404-page, instead a 301-redirect could be used to send the visitor to another brand of car that you do sell.

What this can do is help to keep more visitors on your website. What could happen instead is a visitor see’s a 404 page, they may see that they can not find the car that they want, and then quickly go to a competitor’s website instead.

So, a 301 redirect can be useful in terms of helping to retain visitors, plus also not lose link equity, which we will explain more on later.

404 pages 

From a customer’s perspective 404 errors can sure be annoying. Imagine just for a second your looking for a large screen t.v, ready for an important football match. You find the right t.v, the right price, yet when you click the link you land on a 404 page.

It provides the customer with the impression that the website isn’t updated, and you don’t need a marketing business to inform you that something which doesn’t work, well it doesn’t bode well on the company’s image.

So, 404 errors should be fixed by a website designer, or your marketing agency. This way you can redirect visitors to another item, and you can also send link juice through the link at the sametime.

Permanent redirects

Here’s the important stuff, you may have a top online marketing agency working for your business, and part of the seo process they may well be building backlinks for your business.

Now as most people know, good quality backlinks can mean your website goes up the rankings.

Yet, if your seo agency has built backlinks to a page that is no longer working, well those seo efforts will be a total waste of time.

This is why your seo company should implement 301-redirects to the new page. 301-redirects are considered a permanent redirect, and many seo companies believe this means that the link juice can be passed through.

So, what this means is, the links that you once had connected to the old page, the link equity can be sent to the new page. Now link equity just means the seo benefits that the backlinks bring, can now be transferred to the new page.

However, as all good digital marketing agencies will tell you, not all backlinks are good. So before your marketing agency implements a 301-redirect, they should check that the backlinks that are leading to your website are of a good quality.

Poor quality backlinks can mean that a website drops in terms of where it ranks.

Google Search Console

Your business can use Google Search Console to tell you which urls turn up with 404 errors.

How we can help

Whether your business is looking to generate more sales locally, or globally we can help. Why not give us a call today?