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  • 10 things your SEO company won’t tell you

    10 things your SEO company won’t tell you

    Don’t fall for the slick sales-pitch or the expensive offices – Here are 10 things to help stop you getting ripped off

    Don't get ripped off by poor quality SEO
    Don’t get ripped off by an expensive poor-quality SEO company

    So, you’ve either paid for or are considering paying for search engine optimisation (SEO services) but you’re not sure what to expect or how to measure the results. This article helps dispel a few myths, and talk about the pitfalls to watch out for to make sure you get excellent, tangible results and value for money when you hire and SEO company. Follow the advice here to help stop your website getting penalised by Google, make sure you don’t get ripped off and help make sure to don’t spend more than you need to.

    1. There are keywords and there are keywords

    It’s easy to get to page one of Google. Here is a quick example: if you do a search for ‘jfjfjf’, right there in in position one, page one of Google there’s a YouTube video uploaded by someone called ‘GRRRRRR145’. If you’d like me to get you to page one, position one for the keyword ‘jfjfjf’, no problem. Of course I can do it for you… but what is the point? Just as I wasn’t searching for a video of a girl talking after breathing in helium when I typed in that phrase, neither will your potential customers be using that phrase to find your products and services.

    These poor quality SEO companies might get you to position one, but it will often be for the wrong phrases (keywords). It’s not a coincidence that there is very little competition for some these phrases – it’s because no one is searching for them and that is why it’s so easy to get you right up the rankings for them. This is what a lot of poor quality SEO companies will do when they promise you page 1 for your website.

    If you’re going to get to for first position on Google it needs to be a relevant search phrase or there is no point. Agree your keywords in advance, monitor their position, and make sure they’re words your customers will actually be typing into Google to find your products and services.

    2.The SEO effect often stops shortly after you stop paying for it

    The poor quality SEO companies will give you an endless list of SEO activity they will provide for you, but in reality, they’re often just focusing on inbound links. Why? Because that’s not only easy but it’s the way it’s always been done and the only way most of these companies know how to do it.

    The problem, however – and it’s a very serious problem – is that as soon as you stop paying for link-building, the effect starts to disappear. For example, high quality on-site SEO and articles linking to your site from high-quality sites will give you an excellent long-term increase in the Google rankings. poor quality links will at best do nothing for your long-term SEO and may even damage it by getting you penalised by Google

    When it comes to link-building, focus on quality not quantity.

    3. They’re trying to deceive Google

    Google has become clever enough to spot the type of SEO that poor quality sites create for you – because it’s effectively attempting to deceive Google. Now, more than ever, trying to deceive Google is a very bad idea as you’re likely to wind up getting penalised for it. Inbound links should certainly be part of your SEO strategy but they have to be natural links from high quality (and preferably relevant) sites. The poor quality SEO companies unfortunately don’t discriminate between good and bad sites.

    Not all links are valuable – poor quality inbound links can have a very serious detrimental effect on your Google rankings

    4. You can’t pick an SEO company based on price

    Cheap SEO isn’t necessarily bad SEO just as expensive SEO isn’t necessarily good SEO. That friendly, chatty guy you know has unfortunately just baffled you with bullsh*t. he’s told you that the SEO his company does is better than the SEO services provided by the ‘other’ companies, however, ultimately, you’re just going to get the same SEO as if you’d bought from the cheapest company you could find.

    Unless you get regular reports with tangible results showing you clear methodology, you won’t know whether you’ve been paying for good quality SEO or poor quality SEO until it’s too late.

    5. Google wants your site to be good quality, which doesn’t mean contrived inbound links

    If you’ve paid for SEO services in the past and have had a bad experience, there’s a good chance probably got the ‘poor quality’ stuff – probably at best just some poor-inbound links and not much more. Poor quality purchased links are effectively an attempt at deceiving Google and Google is smart enough to spot this and you may get penalised for this loosing position in the rankings.

    This about it like this – good quality SEO is about helping your site communicate well with Google – communicating your sites subject, purpose, products, services, geographical area, etc. Poor quality SEO is cheap attempt to manipulate Google into thinking your site is more important or authoritative than it really is. A poor quality site not only reflects badly on your business but also ranks badly. Therefore, logically, you should focus on quality with everything you do including your SEO

    A good quality site provides a good user experience. One of the things that adds to the user experience is good quality content. This is the first step in helping build natural, organic links. Of course, not every business is going to be able to get natural, organic links, but it’s something to bear in mind.

    If your site is built properly from the beginning, including good quality content, your site will naturally communicate your products & services clearly and therefore organically reflect its importance in terms of communicating with Google – no need to further SEO, Google will already have a clear picture of your site and rank it accordingly. The problem with most SEO in its current form is that is attempting to make sites appear more important that they would otherwise have appeared. obviously, Google doesn’t want this to happen!

    To conduct search engine optimisation properly you need to communicate clearly with Google, not attempt to deceive it.

    6. It’s really not rocket-science, or witchcraft, or magic – SEO is very simple

    Falling for the SEO companies ‘slick sales pitch’ about how their ‘technical approach’ is better than everyone else’s is probably just BS to get you to sign up. You do and you’re then immediately passed to some spotty 17-year-old account manager. And going with the company with the expensive offices means your money being spent on their business rates when it should be going on your website SEO.

    The reality is that SEO is not particularly complicated and doesn’t involve any ‘magic’. What it does involve though, when done properly, is a lot of time. Optimising images, re-writing content, creating SEO optimised articles, building good quality links, doing the search engine hand-shakes, etc. are all very time consuming which is where your money should be going.

    Don’t fall for the salesman, speak to the guy who’s going to be doing the leg-work to make sure they know what they’re talking about and you’re going to get value for money.

    7. There is website traffic and there is website traffic

    What use is a million visitors to your site if none of them are your target customer? Failing to do a comprehensive competitor and search analysis before beginning your SEO campaign might mean you get it completely wrong and wasting money could be the least of your worries!

    Badly optimised images and a badly optimised site combined with a lot of traffic can, for example cause your hosting account to become suspended or maybe worse!

    Optimising your on-site content and focusing on the correct key phrases from the start of your SEO campaign will mean you’re much more likely to get the right visitors to your site and you’re less likely to have server problems.

    8. Google continues to become smarter at spotting poor quality SEO

    From what I have seen over the past few years, I would say that this year is probably the last one you’ll be able to get away with poor quality SEO that focuses on link-building.

    Google continues to become smarter and, as we’ve seen earlier in this article, it doesn’t like to be deceived… but more importantly; don’t deceive yourself that poor quality SEO is anything other than attempting to deceive Google!

    Unless you know you’re getting high-quality SEO services, you are taking a very big gamble with your website!

    9. Protect your professional image

    Your reputation is vitally important and therefore you need to protect it. Allowing someone else to write and publish information about your company, pertaining to have come from you and without you having approved it could be asking for trouble.

    Are you sure the articulate guy who sold you the SEO services in the first place is the one also doing the writing? How much do they actually know about your business? How much time is spent on quality control?

    Simply focusing on quality as opposed to quantity gives you much more opportunity to make sure the information being published properly reflects your business.

    10. On-site SEO is your number 1 priority

    Every house starts with its foundations. Obviously, you don’t invite people round for a house-warming party until it’s built – that would be silly! And this is the same with your SEO. Failing to get the basics done properly at the start means you’re throwing away your money.

    Start with the foundations and build from there. The irony is, simply getting the basics done properly in the beginning will often mean that you don’t even need to spend anything on any further SEO!

    Get your website properly optimised and continue creating good quality content for it before you start your inbound linking SEO

    How do I get good quality SEO help & advice?

    For high quality SEO and making sure your web development is done properly, call Seven Creative today on 0114 383 0711 or contact us through the contact page

  • Improve Your Website’s Search Engine Rankings with These 5 SEO Tips

    As a business owner, you’re no doubt bombarded by spammy emails offering you SEO services from companies that promise they can get your website on the first page of Google. As a reputable Sheffield SEO company we know that no-one can really guarantee these results with 100% certainty. But there are certain things that you can do to help your website rank highly in the search engines, therefore increasing traffic to your website. 

    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO services) from Seven Creative
    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO services) from Seven Creative

    SEO is an abbreviation of search engine optimisation. This is the process of improving the ranking of a website in the results pages of a search engine for certain keywords in order to get more organic traffic to the site. When carried out properly, search engine optimisation provides valuable results that make a significant improvement to the amount of traffic your website receives. With that in mind, here are our top 5 SEO tips that will help to improve the ranking of your website in the search engines.

    1. Write Interesting, Engaging Content

    Interesting, engaging content has never been more important for SEO on your website or blog. Great content helps to establish you as a thought leader in your industry, and an expert in your field. Search engines prefer fresh, original content that engages users, and writing relevant content that users find interesting will not only engage users, but also build your credibility. And as you become a trusted resource for information, users will be more likely to buy your services.

    2. Share your Content on Social Media

    Another great way to boost your SEO efforts is to share your content on social media. The more your content is shared, the more links and traffic it will receive. Therefore, the more popular and relevant it seems to Google. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest to promote your content, and get it shared by other users. Do your best to promote your content on relevant forums, blogs and newsletters too.

    3. Optimise Meta Data and Tags

    Optimising your titles, meta-tags, meta-descriptions and images for SEO is a must for on-page optimisation. Title tags are used on search engine results pages (SERPs) to display preview snippets for a given web page, and are important for both SEO and social sharing. Titles should be a concise and accurate description of a page’s content; getting it right is really important for both the user experience and search engine optimisation. Also, remember to use ‘Alt text’ for images, because without them, your images won’t be read by search engines, meaning that they’ll have no SEO value whatsoever.

    4. Optimise Content with Keywords

    When creating content, focus on writing great content for human readers that includes keywords and phrases to help search engines find it. But make sure that you use these keywords naturally; cramming them in where they don’t make sense or don’t read comfortably could be detrimental to your site.

    5. Use Analytics to Monitor Performance

    After all this hard work, you want to know whether or not your SEO efforts are working, right? The best way to keep track of your success is to use a tracking tool such as Google analytics to monitor the traffic coming to your website. This will enable you to pinpoint the keywords that are driving traffic, identify the pages that have had the highest numbers of visitors, and figure out which pages your customers are converting on. By keeping your eye on your analytics, you can make regular tweaks and changes to optimise your results.

    Sheffield SEO Company and Marketing Agency

    Although carrying out successful search engine optimisation takes effort, it can bring real traffic to your website. Taking these steps will certainly help you on the way to increasing the amount of web introduced business you generate. If you need some help, or would simply like to chat to an expert, Seven Creative can help. Give us a call on 0114 383 0711 or email us at info@sevencreative.co.uk to find out how we can help to grow your business with quality SEO services in Sheffield.

  • 10 signs there might be a problem with your website

    10 signs there might be a problem with your website
    10 signs there might be a problem with your website

    You’ve got a successful business, you’ve got a website, but is your site bringing in as much business as it could? Here are 10 signs to look out for that mean there may be a problem!

    Please note; I’m using Google here when referring to a search engine as it’s the largest and therefore the one we generally focus on when optimising for the web.

    1 – You’re not getting many visitors to your site

    It’s often difficult to gauge how many visitors you should be getting to your website for many reasons – maybe your products or services are very niche, or maybe the majority

    The first thing you need to do is identify your keywords and phrases – the things your target customers will be typing into Google when they’re looking for your products and services. This isn’t always as black & white as you’d imagine, however, with a bit of time you can usually get a good comprehensive list of these phrases. Don’t forget to also get an idea of the average search volumes.

    Now you need to see where you appear in Google when you search for these phrases. If you appear as the first result on page one of Google, you should be getting around 30% of the clicks, for example, if 10000 people per month search for the key phrase you’re at position 1 for, you should be getting in the region of 10 visits a day for that phrase (i.e. ((10000/30)*0.3)).

    Get your site’s SEO analysed ASAP

    2 – You’ve got a high bounce rate

    Many websites get the traffic but that traffic is not properly qualified through Google so they immediately leave the site without clicking internally – otherwise known as a bounce.

    It’s very important to monitor your keyword density to make sure Google is getting an accurate picture of your products and services. Many people neglect the search engine in favour of the site visitor and often end up with a site that has high usability but poor search engine optimisation. The trick is to take account of both!

    If your bounce rate is higher that 40 to 50%, it’s time to look at your search engine optimisation, conversion rate optimisation and usability ASAP

    3 – Your phone isn’t ringing

    The job of a website is varied and depends on the business. For many it’s to help establish credibility as a supportive sales tool, however, if your site should be generating leads for you and it’s not, we need to find out why!

    Usability testing sounds expensive but can actually be very simple to do. For many business owners, they spend so much time within their industry that they forget that the jargon and acronyms they use in their day-to-day lives might not be understood by everyone else! Get someone who knows nothing about your industry to go through your website. Give them a task and get them to tell you when they hit a dead-end, get frustrated, get confused or even give up in exasperation – you may be very surprised at the results! Are your contact forms working? Are your contact details easy to find? Does your site work on all browsers? These are just a few of the things that make the difference between an enquiry and an exit.

    Visitors arriving at your site combined with a low bounce rate but no phone calls means there could be a problem with your calls to action, conversion rate optimisation and usability.

    4 – You can’t find your site in Google

    It might sound obvious but have you searched for your site within Google? Even if it was once there doesn’t necessarily mean it will still be there now!

    As Google’s algorithm get’s cleverer, any mistakes that may have been made may suddenly become evident and your site may be being penalised. For example, if you’ve traditionally paid for the type of SEO that has relied on inbound links, you may have recently disappeared from the rankings due to Google penalisation! Even if your site is still there, it may mean that your results are being suppressed!

    Not being able to easily find your site from a Google search you should get your SEO looked at ASAP

    5 – Exits from contact form but no enquiries

    You’re getting the visitors, you’ve got a low bounce rate but you’re not getting the enquiries. Have you tested your contact form? Are your contact details correct? Does your form work? Does your page work on the main web and mobile browsers?

    Another one that sounds simple but you’d be amazed how few people actually spend a few minutes each month testing the functionality of their websites.

    Send yourself a test message and try the number otherwise it could mean there is a problem!

    6 – High percentage of visitors from abroad

    There is a lot of information within a website that most people would never even give a second thought to. For example, how does Google know your site is UK English? Maybe it is American English or Australian! I suppose it could look at your server location or domain name and hazard a guess, however, don’t forget that Googlebot is just a piece of software that only has a very short amount of time to assess and categorise your site!

    Unless the hidden information within your site is included and correct, your site may not be optimised for its target geographical location and therefore may not be appearing in the right country. It’s important to get this checked and corrected if necessary.

    7 – Getting enquiries for products or services you don’t provide

    This one seems quite simple on the surface but is actually quite complex. A good website will not only index well within Google for the correct search terms and turn the visitors into enquiries, it should also help your site visitors to properly qualify themselves – or in other words, help them to decide if this is the site they need.

    If you bore your visitors with difficult to read text and fail to tell them what you do in a simple, concise and fast manner, the majority of them are going to do one of two things – leave or contact you to ask you what you do – Will you paint my kitchen? No, we only sell paint! What are your opening hours? No, we don’t have a shop! You end up doing what your site could be doing – letting people know if you’re what they’re looking for!

    Getting enquiries for products or services you don’t provide means you should test your site’s usability.

    8 – Slow loading times

    When was the last time you checked to see how quickly your site loads? Clear your cache and give it a go. Googlebot only spends a short time visiting your site and if a proportion of that time is spent waiting for your site to load, it’s not going to be indexing properly.

    Another one of the most common problems is badly optimised images. Simply specifying a width to resize an image is a terrible idea! Whether it’s laziness or inexperience, it will still cost you heavily in terms of Google ranking, bandwidth and usability!

    Check your bandwidth usage against your visitor numbers and see if they tally. Make sure your images are optimised and that your server is in the UK.

    Slow site loading times mean you should have your hosting and site optimisation checked.

    9 – Site not displaying properly on mobile devices

    Even if you don’t know the statistics you can probably guess that the number of people using mobile devices to access the web has recently exploded and is only set to increase!

    Even here at Seven Creative we use Android’s browser; Chrome for Android; Safari for iPad and iPhone; Silk for Kindle; and this is just us!

    It can be costly to optimise a site for mobile – especially when it comes to cross browser compatibility – however, there are a few simple things to look out for!

    Check your visitor statistics and see what browsers they’re using. Test your site on yours and your friends’ mobile devices. If your site uses Flash, oh dear… time for a new one! If you do find an issue, it might only be a small job to update your site’s CSS to accommodate the new mobile browsers.

    There is also talk that Google may be about to start penalising sites that have a bad or absent mobile version so now is the time to act!

    10 – Your site looks tired and out-of-date

    Just as in person, you only get a very short time to make a good impression. When was the last time you updated your site? Does it look old or outdated? Are your images poor quality? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then that is the image of your business you are projecting. Of course, if that visitor met you in real life you’d impress them with your wealth of experience and industry knowledge, but the bad news is you’ll never get that opportunity. The visitor will hit ‘back’ and click on the next link – your competitor.

    Help is at hand!

    If you would like help with any of the potential website problems listed here, get in touch with us on 0114 383 0711 or contact us through out contact page

  • 5 Ways Great Quality Website Copywriting Can Help Your Business

    Great website copywriting can pay dividends for your business. Not only will it improve brand awareness with your potential customers; it can also help boost your visibility with the search engines.

    Whether you’re looking to update your existing content – or for brand new copy for a new website – our team of highly-skilled Sheffield copywriters are sure to be able to help. Here are a number of things great quality website copywriting can help you to do:

    Clearly Communicate the Core Values of Your Business

    SEO copywriting sheffieldPunchy website copywriting is the perfect way to communicate with your customers. When reading information published online, people want to be able to get to the point without it taking up too much of their time. The job of your website is ultimately to inform and convert your customers; and with snappy and engaging text you can do this to the best possible effect.

    New content also gives you the chance to re-evaluate the direction of your company. Refreshing the copywriting on your website can help you to assess how your goals may have changed and decide on new copy that may now be more relevant to your brand.

    Stand Out from Your Competitors

    High-end content will help you to stand out from the competitive market. Plenty of businesses are guilty of paying large sums for websites that look pretty; but are ultimately populated with content that renders that design work almost useless. You need the copy to match.

    By taking care of both the aesthetics and engagement-factor of your website, you can help to improve the experience your potential customers have whilst spending time on your site and ultimately rise to the top of the pile in your industry.

    Enhance Brand Reputation

    If you’re selling a high-end service, poor website copy can harm the reputation you’re trying to build. Poor grammar, content not written appropriately for the web and a complete lack of understanding when it comes to the needs of the customer are mistakes we commonly encounter.

    Taking the time to research exactly what it is your product or service can do to benefit your potential new clients will help you to clearly communicate the message of your brand. Once this has been decided on, the quality copywriting your website deserves can be written.

    Boost the SEO of Your Site

    Establishing yourself as an expert in your field through the copy published on your site is a great way to take responsibility for how it’s ranking. Well-written content – that is of genuine value to the industry you work within – will be incredibly well received by the Google algorithm.

    This can be taken even further with specialist SEO copywriting. By looking at the functionality of your website content with relation to keyword density and heading tags; copywriting specifically written for SEO purposes can drive more genuine traffic to your site. When done well, it can give your site the extra push it needs to work its way up the rankings.

    Increase Site Traffic and Convert More Customers

    Ultimately, content written by a great copywriter will entice more people to your website and help persuade them to buy your product or service. The higher quality the copy on your site, the more likely it is that your audience will engage with it for longer and convert. Get the message and tone right and you can look forward to further online growth.

    Speak to a Copywriter from Our Sheffield Marketing Agency Today

    The value attached to optimised website content is significant. For many, it’s just a case of getting round to its creation. Our Sheffield copywriters are highly experienced in the production of everything from SEO copywriting to site content re-writes; so please don’t hesitate to contact us at Seven Creative today. You can reach us by calling 0114 383 0711.

     

     

  • Ever wondered if SEO will work for your business?

    Sheffield SEO
    Sheffield SEO

    One of our fastest expanding services we provide at Seven Creative, here in Sheffield, is SEO, and there is one thing that nearly all our new SEO enquiries have in common – they’re nervous about the idea of embarking on an SEO campaign!

    So, why is this? Firstly, not many people truly understand what SEO actually is. To me, it’s simply about making sure a site is of high quality meaning that it can effectively communicate with Google about its subject and purpose (which is a win-win for everyone). It’s certainly not about creating a million inbound links from poor quality sites to manipulate the search results! Secondly, the results seem to intangible. This was something we noticed early on so we made sure that an activity report was available to everyone – regardless of their budget – on a monthly basis. Thirdly, many people have been ripped off in the past. Even now, knowing what we know about how Google evaluates websites, poor quality companies with unethical sales people are still conning trusting people out of their cash by providing poor quality SEO that somewhere between little and no effect to how a site indexes – in fact, poor quality SEO will often have a negative effect on rankings; so don’t underestimate Google’s increasing ability to spot a cheap link!

    It’s perfectly understandable why Google doesn’t like the current SEO industry – Google wants to be the one evaluating websites; historically, SEO has been about manipulating results to make a site appear more relevant and important that it would normally appear – so everything the search giant is doing in terms of regularly updating its algorithm is pushing site owners towards best practice and high quality content; and away from link building.

    So, to refer back to the initial question, it depends. Of course I would say you should call us but if you don’t here are my top tips to make sure you pick a good company:

    • Avoid companies that outsource – it’s probably a sign that it’s going to be poor quality SEO
    • Ask to see examples of reports – this won’t give you an idea of the results you’re likely to achieve but you’ll be able to see the way those results are presented.
    • Speak to their current customers – happy customers are happy to recommend.
    • Avoid pay-on-results agreements – this incentives the SEO company to provide poor quality SEO for an immediate boost that wears of very quickly when you stop paying.
    • Go local – we all know how nice knowing that the person you’re relying on is available when you need them!

    For more information about Sheffield SEO services, call Seven Creative on 0114 383 0711 or click here for more contact options

  • The really simple guide to SEO

    A simple guide to SEO
    A simple guide to SEO

    Search Engine Optimisation isn’t rocket science, it isn’t smoke and mirrors – no matter what some companies tell you, and it certainly isn’t something that needs to cost a fortune. It is just common sense applied to an understanding of what a search engine is and how it works.

    However, due to the confusion, I thought I should write a quick and simple explanation to help provide a better understanding of what SEO is and how it’s ‘done.’

    This isn’t a check-list or a how-to guide to SEO – it’s simply an explanation in normal language that will hopefully dispel some of the myths surrounding SEO.

    SEO starts with analysing your customers to find your keywords and key phrases

    There is a need for your services and people are looking for these services, but, what are they doing to find them? When we’re talking about SEO we’re specifically looking at on-line behaviour so we need to know what these potential customers are typing into the search engine when they’re looking for these services.

    “…analyse the past behaviour of your potential customers to find out the words and phrases they’ll be using in the future.”

    How do we do this? Assuming we don’t have the resources for a focus group, the fastest way is to perform a search for the words and phrases people use when they want to find your products and services. Basically, we’ll analyse the past behaviour of your potential customers to find out the words and phrases they’ll be using in the future. This list is often refined down to the few really important phrases and these are the ones we’ll focus on.

    It’s important to note, however, that these words and phrases aren’t necessarily going to be the ones that receive the most number of searches – they’re the ones that will be achievable within the budget, for example, if you are selling computers wanted to compete against Dell and Amazon, you’re going have to throw a massive amount of money at it for phrases like ‘new computer’ or ‘new laptop.’ If, however, you went for some of the more niche search terms that wouldn’t return the big players, you can make sure your getting your piece of the pie for a fraction of the budget.

    Optimise your on-site SEO content

    There are a thousand and one things normally wrong with your average website that are getting in the way of it indexing properly within the search engines. Everything from correct meta descriptions, meta keywords, titles and a correct hierarchical use of HTML to badly written code, poorly optimised images and cheap hosting. Unfortunately, by the time we point this out to people it’s too late and the cheques been cashed, however, it normally fixable.

    “[on-site SEO] is an area that most SEO companies don’t focus on either because they don’t know how to do it or they simply can’t be bothered.”

    The most important onsite changes are getting the copy right. Using the keywords and phrases we found in while profiling the customers, we need to optimise the text to the correct length, the correct mark-up and the correct keyword density. This, however, is an area that most SEO companies don’t focus on either because they don’t know how to do it or they simply can’t be bothered.

    A good example of this is when the most recent updates to the Google algorithm caused many sites to drop out of the rankings overnight – and there were some very high profile victims – simply because their SEO company had tried to deceive Google by ignoring good quality content, on-site SEO, and best practice one-content protocols and simply focussed on building inbound links from poor quality websites.

    “The recent Google updates were great news for us and great news for our customers.”

    We have only ever focused on high-quality content focussed SEO so the recent Google updates were great news for us and great news for our customers. Where other sites dropped out of the rankings, the sites we had optimised shot up the rankings.

    Focus on inbound links from high quality and relevant sites for better SEO

    “The volume of quality inbound links and the better quality those links are all go into the equation which says where your site should appear in relation to your competitors”

    Once the on-site SEO is complete it’s time to turn our attention to the inbound links. As we’ve just seen, Google isn’t stupid and certainly won’t tolerate an attempt to deceive it. Therefore, your inbound links have to be the high quality. Publishing articles, press releases and good quality links all bring Google back to your site when they’re found and, in turn, increase Google’s opinion of how important your site is. To put it very basically, the more important your site is, the volume of quality inbound links and the better quality those links are all go into an equation which says where your site should appear in relation to your competitors. If you have poor inbound links, the opposite will happen and you can even find your site is being repressed in the results.

    In summary

    It’s actually amazing when you realise that the only reason there is such a huge SEO industry is because the majority of sites have just been built badly by people who don’t know what they’re doing and that no one has ever realised that sites need to be built from the visitor’s point of view.

    Get this right at the start and your 90% of the way there. Good quality content, compliant code, adherence to standards and a focus on your customers is the foundation for a robust and solid website that naturally indexes really well.

    More information

    Seven Creative provide SEO services in Sheffield, nationally and internationally. Get in touch today for more information. Visit Seven Creative’s website for more information about the range of SEO services

  • Find Out For Free if Your Website Should Be Ranking Higher in Google

    Find out for free during June ’13 if your website is working as well as it could be. Call us on 0114 383 0711
    Find out for free during June ’13 if your website is working as well as it could be. Call us on 0114 383 0711

    “Why am I not on page one of Google?”

    So you’ve got your website, you may have even paid for extra SEO services, but if you’ve ever thought to yourself: “I wonder if my site could be doing better in Google?” or “I wonder if there are any problems with my site that might be stopping it from indexing properly?” – then good news! If you’re based in the UK and are one of the first 10 respondents to this post, we’ll provide you with a completely free report on how your website is performing in relation to its potential.

    “Your free website evaluation”

    Basically, we’ll analyse those often invisible aspects of your site that can mean the difference between page one of Google or page ten. Everything from whether your inbound links are beneficial or detrimental to your site; whether your content and images are optimised; whether your site is converting visitors efficiently; what your competitors are doing better than you; what your keywords and phrases are; and much more.

    “Small tweaks to your site may be all that is required to get you up the rankings in Google”

    Often, just a few simple tweaks is all it takes to get up the search engine rankings. This might be, for example, removing a few bad inbound links or getting the density of your key-phrases right through SEO copywriting services. Whatever the reason your site might not be indexing as well as it could be, we’ll find out for you and let you know the steps you need to take to fix the problems.

    “Don’t delay!”

    Simply fill in the required details below, press send, and we’ll get back to you a few days later with our findings. If you’d prefer to speak to us in person, drop in for a coffee or call us on 0114 383 0711

    Remember, this is completely free but only during June 2013 for the first 10 UK based respondents, so get in touch now!

    Apply for your free web evaluation from Seven Creative

    Please fill in the following required information to request your free website evaluation.

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  • Make Your Website Work For You With SEO

    SEO services Sheffield from Seven Creative
    SEO services Sheffield from Seven Creative

    You might not want to hear it, but simply having a website often isn’t enough these days. The World Wide Web contains nearly 15 billion web sites and this number is growing by the second. With competition like this, if you’re not in the top positions for the right search terms, it’s really hard for potential customers to find you.

    With so much competition on the digital high street, Search Engine Optimisation is often needed to make sure that your website is actually being seen, and more importantly, seen by the right people.

    What is SEO?

    SEO can be described as the simple activity of ensuring that a website can be found in search engines for words and phrases relevant to what the website is actually about.

    The practice of SEO increases the visibility of the website, meaning that it is likely to be found more often by the right visitors.

    On-site Search Engine Optimisation or SEO (otherwise known as on-page SEO) is focussed on things like keyword inclusion, and off-site Search Engine Optimisation or SEO (otherwise known as off-page SEO) primarily focuses on link-building.

    Getting your website to rank highly on Google will not only increase your online visibility, but it can also save you money on digital advertising campaigns and other sponsored listings.

    SEO Services Sheffield

    Here at Seven Creative, a leading web marketing and SEO company in Sheffield, we consider the money spent on Search Engine Optimisation services an investment, not a cost. By investing in SEO services, your website will inevitably climb the search engine rankings, and you will attract more visitors to your website.

    We offer SEO packages that provide the full spectrum of search engine optimisation activity, to make you website work for you. They are based on a fixed monthly fee and can be designed around your needs, dependent on who you want to target and what you key words and phrases are.

    If you would like to talk to an SEO company in Sheffield who really know their stuff, contact Seven Creative on 0114 383 0711 or email seo@sevencreative.co.uk for more information.

  • Google Doodle Celebrates Thomas Chippendale’s 295th Birthday

    Here at Seven Creative web agency and Sheffield SEO company, we’re big fans of the Google doodles. You’ll often hear a little yelp and the words ‘Google doodle!’ from behind a computer whenever we come across one.

    google-doodle-chippendale-furnitureToday, we are treated to a Google doodle commemorating Thomas Chippendale, the English 18th Century cabinet maker and furniture designer.

    He would have celebrated his 295th birthday today and holds the record for the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold – The Harrington Commode, a chest of drawers that sold at auction for £3.8 million.

     

    It’s a very elegant doodle too, with the Google letters delicately surrounding 2 chairs, a dressing table and an ornate mirror. The ‘G’ sits on one of the chairs, and appears to be applying make up in the mirror!

  • Social media successes and failures

    Social media marketing can be a fantastic tool for promoting your business online and marketing your brand. Done properly, social media can generate a buzz that has the power to be seen by thousands if not millions of people. On the other hand, a post that goes bottoms up has the potential to be seen globally.

    Here at Seven Creative, we’ve put together a few of our favourite social media successes and fails for you amusement. Enjoy!

    Social media successes

    Honda’s upside down approach to social media paid off in a big way when they offered $500 to the most active Pinners on the social scrapbooking site Pinterest to take a 24 hour break from the site to promote the new CRV. Ingeniously, they called the break a ‘Pintermission’ and then asked the winners to create a board about all the activities they enjoyed on their day off. Honda reached more than 5.5 million followers of the chosen Pinterest users  with this campaign.

    We love the chocolate Facebook thumbs up created by Cadbury too. And no, not just because it looks delicious! Constructed as a Thank you to their fans, a real time video feed of the construction process drove massive fan engagement and resulted in a huge quarter of a million people actively involved in the campaign. They also gained an extra 40,000 fans! I wonder how many more they would have gained if they’d promoted a competition to win the giant choccy hand??!

    Cadbury-Facebook-Thumbs-Up

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Social media mega-fails

    McDonalds dropped a real clanger with their social media activity which resulted in their campaign being terminated within just two hours. Using the hashtag #McDStories, Twitter users were ‘supposed’ to share heart warming anecdotes about their McDonalds experience. Instead,  tweets about food poisoning, fingernails found in burgers and chicken nugget horror stories went viral. Well, we could have predicted that!

    American Apparel’s Hurricane Sandy promotion backfired spectacularly after it offered customers 20% in an email stating “In case you’re bored during the storm, 20% off everything for the next 36 hours.” In reality, those 36 hours turned out to be devastating, with more than 130 deaths, 4 million with no power and billions in damage. American Apparrel apologised saying the campaign came from a good place. Too late, damage done!

    Australia’s SellItOnline.com said that it would donate money to Tasmania’s bush fire crisis, but only if people liked its Facebook page. Understandably, an angry fan responded, “Don’t take advantage of this situation. If you’re for real, donate through the right sources. Don’t manipulate social media for your own benefit.” Another wrote, “F*** off with your opportunist marketing trying to take advantage of other people’s tradegy. If you were a decent company you’d just be putting a message up saying you were donating x amount and earning some kudos.” Mmm you’ve got to see their point……

    If you’re struggling with social media, and would like some advice on setting up and or managing your businesses social media accounts, Seven Creative can help. We offer a social media set up service, social media management packages, and even regular social media workshops in Sheffield. Contact us on 0114 383 0711, email chris@sevencreative.co.uk or contact us through our website.