How will a Google My Business account help to improve our local SEO?

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If run a local business within Bristol, or Bath within the South West of England, well, you may well be thinking of ways so that you can improve your businesses SEO.

After all, it doesn’t matter if you run a local scaffolding business, or you run say a hairdressing salon, most businesses will need to improve their marketing, and this is where a Google My Business account can help.

Most digital marketing agencies, ours included, use Google My Business as a way of improving a business’s local SEO.

What does Google My Business mean?

So, let’s say that you are looking for a local builder, so you ask Google, “find me local builders”- then if a business has a Google My Business account, then it may well appear in in the map listings.

So, this means that next to the map, there are normally three businesses that get listed, as local builders for example, these businesses will have set-up a Google My Business account.

How can this help to improve my businesses SEO?

If you were to ask most Bristol SEO agencies what they think is an important method that they can use to improve a businesses local SEO, then they are bound to say that setting up a Google My Business account, and also using business citations is a good way of improving a business’s SEO.

Business citations, and a Google My Business account can help to state your businesses NAP information.

NAP stands for name of your businesses name, its address and phone number, if this information can be read by Google’s algorithm then this confirms where your business is based, and can help to improve a business’s SEO.

As if your address for your company is within Bristol, in the South West of England, and someone is looking for a business in Bristol, then this is where having your NAP information on your Google My Business account can help your businesses SEO.

How can our business obtain a Google My Business account?

That’s really simple, just follow the link.

How can we optimise our Google My Business account?

Business reviews

You can obtain genuine customer reviews, however do not write fake business reviews, as Google’s algorithm will spot this, and your Google My Business listing may well be removed.

Opening hours

If you run say a shop or office, why not state your businesses opening hours?

NAP information

Make sure you mention your businesses NAP information, so for example the name of your business, your business address in Bath, or Bristol in the South West of England, and also your businesses phone number.

Business citations

Your business citations, which mention your businesses NAP information, should match exactly with your businesses Google My Business account.

So, for example, lets say your business is located on Bristol Road, there’s no point mentioning Bristol Road on Google My Business, then “Bristol RD” on your business citations, as the two do not match.

Your business citations must match your businesses Google My Business account.

Local SEO

Run a business within Bristol or Bath? Well, here’s why we think its especially important that you set-up an account

Whether you’re a plumber or let’s say a dentist, if you own a business within Bristol, or indeed Bath you will know that the level of competition that your business faces will undoubtably be high.

This is why we always recommend to all of our customers, not to just to invest in organic SEO, but also local SEO as well, this way your business stands a far better chance of being displayed in the map results, and the organic business listings as well.

How our digital marketing agency can help:

If your business needs help to improve its SEO, then why not give us a ring?

Why do my SEO quotes vary so massively?

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Introduction

So, you’ve just started your new business, and you’ve paid a lot of money to get an impressive CMS website created for your business.

Now you’re sitting back with a coffee in your hand and your thinking wow, that website looks good.

But as the weeks roll-on, and the weeks start to turn into months you start to get worried.

Your worried because the phones now gathering dust, and you had hoped more sales would have rolled in by now.

So you do your research, and you ask a friend and they say we know what you need! You need to invest in SEO.

SEO you ask, what on earth is that, your friend says search engine optimisation, it what can help to get your business onto the first page of Google.

So you phone a few seo agencies, yet you are shocked, and you are in a state of shock because the prices are different, but not by just a few quid, but sometimes be thousands.

So this has got your cogs turning, that is why do SEO prices differ so much?

Why do SEO quotes differ so much?

Well, there could be a million and one reasons, but that explanation doesn’t help anyone, so we thought we would ask our SEO consultants what they think the main reasons are that seo prices vary so much from agency to agency.

And this should provide you with a much better understanding as to why quotes differ so much.

White hat vs the get rich quick brigade

There are so many seo agencies that cut corners. These agencies know that when a business is shopping around for seo quotes, that when they go to some agencies, they will appear expensive, so if they offer an unbelievably good deal that they will get more business.

And what’s wrong with getting a bargain, nobody wants to pay more than they have to, right?

Well, here’s the thing if the quality of the SEO is low, well your website could incur a penalty.

And sometimes some businesses have had to spend thousands on another seo agency to fix the rubbish seo work that the previous seo agency had implemented.

So, what’s that old saying? I think it goes like this, buy cheap, pay twice. It’s just with SEO if a penalty is placed on the business’s website, well you won’t be paying twice, you may be paying a hundred times more for example to fix the problems.

That’s why our seo agency calls these seo agencies that offer low quality seo, the get rich quick brigade.

We call them this because even though they are charging low prices, they often don’t do much work for this. For example, the low quality work may well be automated link building, so they just click a few buttons, and there you have it millions of links built.

But we most definitely would not under no circumstances recommend such an approach to seo, as sooner rather than later the algorithm will detect this lazy and rubbish seo, and the website will drop down the rankings faster than an elevator falling because its had the cable cut.

So what’s white hat seo?

Ahh, we glad you asked, white hat seo is the seo that your business needs, it’s good quality seo.

But here’s the thing, and we don’t want to confuse you with this, but it’s the truth, some seo agencies say they are offering white hat seo when they are not.

So which SEO agency do you trust?

Well, that’s the dilemma.

You really do have to choose an agency that you know comes with strong recommendations, and even then you have to check that the work is white hat.

The agency doesn’t want you

This sounds a bit harsh, but its true, what we mean by this is some agencies have grown to such a size as a business that they don’t want to attract businesses with small marketing budgets.

Yet, some businesses may perceive that they are getting the best seo because they are handing over so much money.

Well, this might not be the case, that’s to say the agency may have deliberately set their prices high so they can only deal with larger businesses. So if you’re a small business, and your paying more because you perceive the expensive agency as being better, well you do have to grab a coffee, and have a think, are you paying over the odds?

Location

A really obvious point, but one we have to mention, that is the cost of SEO is often dependent on where the seo agency is based. So, for example a digital marketing agency in London is most probably going to be more expensive than a company that’s based elsewhere in the U.K.

Also, you may live in a busy city, and the prices for seo may well be high where your business is located.

So, if you find an seo agency say in the neighbouring city that’s cheaper, and one you know offers good quality seo, well why not use them?

Okay, but what about you, do you offer SEO services?

Yes, yes, we do! We glad you asked!

We can offer organic seo and local seo, and our prices are very reasonable.

So why not give us a call, so we can go through what we can offer your business?

 

What can we do to improve our businesses local SEO?

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Introduction

It really doesn’t matter today if you own a shop selling guitars, or you’re a law practice that employs hundreds of staff, most businesses simply need to invest in SEO.

However, with so many marketing events, where various speakers recommend different ways that a business can improve its SEO, and with so many digital marketing agencies all recommending different ways to improve your local SEO on their blogs, well which information should you trust?

Well, the truth is there’s many ways that a business can improve its local SEO, and we are going to go through a few of the most popular ways.

Set up a Google My Business account

Okay, so this is important, if you run a local business, and you want to improve your local SEO, as well as improving your chances of showing up in the Google My Business results, well your going to need a Google My Business account.

Now this doesn’t just happen all by itself, nope your going to need to sign your business up, and this is a piece of cake.

The reason why so many SEO agencies recommend setting up a Google My Business account is simple, it can help to improve your businesses NAP.

Now NAP stands for name of your business, the businesses address and phone number. Most SEO companies, ours included, believe that it can help to improve a businesses local SEO, if the company’s NAP information is mentioned on your website, on business citations, and also on your businesses Google My Business account.

Content Marketing

Content marketing if done correctly can help to improve your businesses SEO, however so many businesses get this wrong.

For example, the Google Panda penalty may deem the content marketing as low-quality, and this can mean that the page drops in terms of where it ranks.

If the entire website has low-quality content marketing, meaning for example, that each page on the website on has a few lines of text, well  the entire website may well drop down the ranks.

This is why its especially important to work with a website designer, when your website is being created to make sure that sufficient information about the products or services is added to each page.

Sometimes a website that just has a few lines of text, could be deemed to be “content thin” so the businesses SEO may not do that well.

Quality content marketing on the other hand is completely different, it is content marketing that is useful to your customers.

So for example, lets say you sell electric bikes, and a common question that your bike shop gets frequently asked is “why do the prices of electric bikes vary so much”- so this is a great opportunity for your business to write a blog post, with this as the title.

You can then explain the different features that the bikes have, and why the price does vary so much.

If a lot of people want to find an answer to that very question, then the blog post is likely to attract a lot of readers, which could help to improve your businesses SEO.

White hat SEO agency

If your business is looking for a white hat SEO agency, then why not give us a ring?