Tag: sheffield SEO

Back to Basics: What is Content Marketing and How Can it Benefit your Business?

No doubt you’ve heard the phrase ‘content marketing’ being thrown around in the last few years; but do you really understand what it means? Everyone knows that the ultimate goal of marketing is to grow a business, increase sales, and therefore increase profit. So where does the ‘content’ come in?

Content marketing grows a business by creating and sharing information with your target audience. This content may educational, insightful, or simply entertaining; and by engaging with people through this content, they will be more likely to buy your products and services.

The Content Marketing Institute sums it up nicely:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Why is Content Marketing Important to Your Business?

In order to understand why content marketing is important to a business, it’s useful to describe the four steps of the buying cycle (as outlined by Forbes Magazine).

Awareness. Prior to awareness a customer may have a need, but they are not aware there is a solution.

Research. Once a customer is aware there is a solution, they will perform research to educate themselves. For example, a car buyer will try to find out what different types of cars exist, and which one will fit their needs.

Consideration. At this point the customer starts comparing different products from different vendors to make sure they’re getting a high quality product at a fair price.

Buy. Finally, the customer makes their decision and moves forward with the transaction.

Traditional Marketing vs. Content Marketing

So, traditional marketing is perfect for the latter 2 stages, in so much as it allows customers to educate themselves about the solution, and provides them with the information to compare products. But content marketing goes that little bit further; it enables companies to raise awareness of solutions, and educate consumers about products that they may have never thought about before.

Content marketing allows potential customers to get to know your company before you’ve even met them. They can find your content, find value in it, and by the time they pick up the phone or send an email to make contact, they’ve already made the decision that they want to work with you. The trust has already been established, meaning that high pressure sales tactics are no longer needed. Customers are already well into the sales cycle by the time they contact you. Genius, right?!

Content Marketing, Social Media and SEO

The benefits of content marketing don’t stop there. Content marketing supports other digital marketing channels by providing additional content that can be shared on social media. It will also have a positive effect on your SEO as it will generate natural inbound links, and build up good content on your website or blog that will be found by search engines.

Expert Content Marketing Company in Sheffield

Are you too busy to get to grips with content marketing, or don’t have time to manage it in-house? Here at Seven Creative, we’re content marketing specialists, and we can help. We can write engaging, informative content on your behalf; content that potential customers will find interesting, engaging and useful. We’ll even share it across your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts for you, increasing the return on investment from your social media. 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 content marketing today.

17th November 2014
63rd Birthday of the Peak District National Park Celebrated by Google Doodle

As a digital marketing agency offering social media management, SEO services and web design in Sheffield, it’s always a lovely surprise to see what Google has in store with the latest Google doodles.

We love this morning’s doodle, which celebrates the 63^rd birthday of the Peak District and Britain’s first national park.

The doodle features the sun rising behind a gritstone tor called the Salt Cellar, which has been formed over the centuries by years of erosion from the elements. The sun forms the second ‘o’ in Google, and the colourful illustration of the rolling hills features two walkers exploring the rugged landscape.

It goes without saying that we are massive fans of the Peak District, Sheffield is a fantastic city and it’s great to have such a beautiful national park right on our doorstep. Nice job Google!

17th April 2014
Ever wondered if SEO will work for your business?
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
21st March 2014
Search Engine Optimisation – getting it wrong vs. getting it right

If you’ve ever paid for search engine optimisation (SEO) or are wondering if it will help your website, you need to read this.

SEO is certainly a buzz word at the moment but where do you get all the facts – how much should it cost? What results should I expect? How do I tell if it’s working? Am I being ripped off?

This article will show you how SEO done well will give you great long-term results and how SEO done badly can ruin your website rankings.

So, what is search engine optimisation?

SEO is simply the process communicating with Google and the other main search engines to make sure they have a clear understanding of how important your website is, where your target customers are, and what your products & services are.

Once this is done properly, you’ll appear in search results when your target customers search for the products and services you provide… or at least that’s the theory!

So, why is this not simple?

It’s not possible to get an accurate number of how many websites there are currently available but the last estimate put this approaching three quarters of a billion (750,000,000) with the majority of these in English.

Every one of these sites wants relevant visitors and the search engine’s job is therefore to fetch the appropriate results for you when you do a search based on factors such as where you are, what language you speak, and what you’re looking for.

The problem is that if Google can’t understand the purpose of your site or doesn’t get a true representation of how important your site is, you won’t appear in the right results.

So, what is the wrong type of SEO?

Google is a piece of software, it visits sites using what is known as its ‘Googlebot’ and the measure it uses to evaluate sites is called its algorithm.

Poor quality SEO companies will tell you that Google assesses a website is by looking at how many other sites link to the website in question– in other words, lots of links to your site = important website – but this only has a very small element of truth in it.

The reality is that Google is not stupid. Back in the old days of the internet you could get away doing SEO like that but Google continues to become smarter and its algorithm continues to update.

In fact, you probably heard of the recent infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm updates where sites that had focussed on inbound linking to increase their position in the search engines suddenly dropped out of the rankings overnight – and there were some very high-profile casualties of this!

So, what is the right type of SEO?

Getting your SEO right is not rocket science, it just takes a bit more care and attention. Selling someone SEO and then simply creating links to their site is either lazy or unethical (or both!). It may work for a while, however, as soon as you stop paying for this, the results will disappear again… and this is your best case scenario!!! Google is now also penalising sites that use poor quality links so, if your site is important to your business, you’re really taking a huge gamble!

This graph shows the difference between focussing your SEO on inbound links vs. focussing on good quality content and on-page SEO

I did say, however, that there was an element of truth in using link building as part of your SEO strategy, and there is. Link-building should form at least part of your SEO strategy, but you have to be very careful to make sure that the links pointing to your site are from good quality and relevant websites. Get this right and you’re on your way. Get it wrong and it can be disastrous!

The best way, however, to do your SEO properly is to do what we here at Seven Creative have always done – focus on high quality content. You’ll see not only an instant boost and an increase in rankings whilst your SEO campaign is in progress, you’ll also see a long-term boost way beyond this. This way, link-building is not something that has to be pro-actively conducted, rather it becomes something that happens organically.

We (here at Seven Creative) have always said that good quality SEO should primarily focus on ‘quality content’ & ‘on-page SEO’ – and it’s what we’ve always done. Don’t get ripped off, get it done properly.

Call Seven Creative today on 0114 383 0711 or get in touch through the contact page to see how SEO done properly can benefit your business.

19th August 2013
3 BIG Reasons to be Blogging for Business

Here at Seven Creative, we know that blogging is incredibly important, and why it needs to be an integral part of any marketing and SEO strategy.

We also know that it takes up a lot of time and can be hard work, (which is why many business outsource their content writing) – but it really is worth it.

329 million people read blogs each month. With this huge potential readership, why miss out?

Here are 3 BIG reasons why your company should be blogging!

1.       Keep Up With the Competition

Do you want your business to lead or follow? The chances are, someone in your business will start blogging soon, if they aren’t already of course. And that will give them a massive advantage. Over time, they will begin to dominate the online space in your industry, pushing you further down the list.

Why allow your competitor to be a thought leader and authority in your industry when you could be?!

2.       Blogging Boosts SEO

Blogging produces impressive SEO results – FACT. As Sheffield SEO experts, we know that the more indexed pages you have, the better your Google rankings will be. And on average, blogging produces a massive 436% increase in the number of indexed pages.

Also, because of Google’s recent algorithm changes, quality content is more important than ever. And what is the best way of producing quality content that Google will love? Regular, original blog posts!

3.       Content is King

So, you know that good quality content boosts your SEO and social media marketing effectiveness. The truth is, high quality content is one of the best marketing values that money can buy.

According to Entrepreneur.com, 73% of people now prefer to get information about an organisation through articles, as opposed to traditional advertising. And this is possibly the most powerful statistic – 61% of people feel better about companies that deliver custom content and are more likely to buy from them.

Seven Creative is a full service digital marketing agency providing Sheffield SEO, Sheffield website design and content writing in Sheffield. If you would like experienced blog writers and copywriters to produce high quality content for your blog, do not hesitate to get in touch on 0114 383 0711 or email info@sevencreative.co.uk.

9th August 2013
Content Writer – Copywriting for SEO

An SEO Content writer will produce website copy optimised for search engine indexing whilst still making sure it’s clear, engaging and natural to read

It’s no secret that in order to get your website to index to its potential, it will probably need a little help now and then. The problem is, though, that the majority of people who you ask for help in this department will probably end up with someone telling them that just they need inbound links… and lots of them!

Suddenly, however, for a lot of website owners it all went wrong! Google changed the way it evaluates websites and many people who had spent money on SEO saw their sites free falling out of the rankings overnight. The two things you need to know about Google are firstly, it’s not stupid and secondly, it doesn’t like to be manipulated.

Whilst it is partly true that inbound links are important, what these so-called experts don’t tell you is that, as with everything to do with SEO, it’s all about quality – not quantity.

Good quality inbound links should only be part of your website SEO strategy.

Having a high number of poor quality inbound links was all-of-a-sudden one of the indicators Google used to see that the site owner was trying to manipulate the search results by making their site appear more important that Google would have assessed it as.

So what’s the SEO solution?

We’ve always said that content is king. If you focus on creating a high-quality website that people will enjoy and you’ll do well in the search results. Good quality, engaging content – and lots of it – will provide information and resources for your site visitors and Google will reflect this accordingly in the search results.

Copywriting for SEO is creating that text specifically crafted to make sure you clearly communicate to Google what your site is about. It will include your keywords and key-phrases at a natural density whilst still making sure the content is clear and engaging.

A good SEO copywriter or SEO content writer will produce clear, legible and engaging text that will be feel natural to read but still include the correct density of your keywords and key-phrases

…and the best thing is, it’s all perfectly above board according to all the major search engines! This is a win-win situation as your site visitors will be presented with well-written copy and the search engines will be able to figure out clearly what your site is about.

What is a good content writer?

A good content writer is someone who is able to produce clear, natural feeling content that is easy to read and engaging whilst still making sure that the content is optimised for search engines.

Content writers know that SEO is a very important consideration for nearly all sites these days whilst remembering that ultimately it will be humans who read this text.

Copywriting for SEO refers to content specially created to help your website index within search engines by clearly communicating what the subject of page is. if this is done correctly, your visitors will engage with you and Google will index you.

Why is Seven Creative different to the other SEO companies?

Here at Seven Creative, we’ve been practising high-quality, above-board SEO for many years. Our main focus has always been on quality content and not inbound links so the recent Google updates were great news for us and our customers.

We specialise in content writing, copywriting for SEO and general SEO services and we provide a tangible, long-term boost right up the rankings with a tangible return on investment

Find out today if your website content is optimised for SEO by getting in touch with us. We’ll provide you with a free initial analysis of you site and a list of recommendations.

With prices starting from £199 per month for SEO services it’s within almost all budgets.

Call us on 0114 383 0711 or email seo@sevencreative.co.uk or visit our contact page

17th July 2013
The really 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

21st June 2013
Top 5 Things Your Website Must Have!

Here at Seven Creative marketing agency in Sheffield, we firmly believe that a great website and an effective marketing strategy have the power to transform a business. So, to help you out, we’ve put together 5 simple but very important things you need to do to have a successful website!

Compatibility with mobile devices

A recent study has shown that 93% of people in the UK use their mobile device to access the internet every day. In fact, more people actually log on to the internet through a mobile device than through a computer!

We come across lots of websites belonging to small to medium sized businesses that are simply not compatible with mobile devices.

As people move away from their desktops, preferring to browse the internet on the go on tablets and smart phones, your website needs work on these devices, and work well. If not, you and your business are missing out on a huge audience.

An email address and contact number on your homepage

This is an absolute MUST! An email link and a contact number must be displayed clearly on the home page of your website – if people want to contact you, don’t make them work for it, make it as easy as possible!

Email is a quick and easy way of getting in touch, and without a visible email address, you risk missing out on inquiries and sales.

It is also incredibly important to have a phone number listed on your homepage. Some questions are better answered by phone, and some people prefer to speak to an actual person as opposed to emailing.

Obvious contact details also go some way in establishing the reputability of your company, and can make visitor feel more comfortable. A visitor to a site without a phone number, for example, may even question your legitimacy.

A built in inquiry form

A form-fill option on your website is the perfect way to allow consumers to request information. Information inquiry forms should be built into your site, connected to a CRM, an email system, and an ecommerce system. That way, the lead is not just being collected, it’s also being prepared for the business owner to communicate with and generate business via that lead.

Links to your social media accounts

On 13 June 2013, the Office of National Statistics reported that the UK has the second highest proportion of social networkers in the EU, and 57% of internet users said that they used “social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter“.

So, by not using social media channels to market your business, you’re missing out on a huge captive audience and a very powerful marketing tool. You also run the risk of falling behind your competitors.

Social media buttons should also be displayed clearly on the homepage of your website, so that visitors have the option of connecting with you on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Effective search engine optimisation

As you’ll know by now, having a website is absolutely essential. But what’s the point of having a website if no one can find it? Search engines are used every day to find websites, and naturally, those that rank higher in the searches get visited more often.

Effective search engine optimisation will increase your website’s ranking in Google, therefore driving more traffic to your site, and resulting in more leads.

As a web design and SEO company in Sheffield, we know how important it is to have all of these points in place. If you are worried that your website isn’t up to scratch, is struggling in the search engines, or you are missing any of the above, don’t panic – we can help.

Get in touch via our website, call us on 0114 383 0711, or send us an email to info@sevencreative.co.uk.

19th June 2013
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

“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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13th June 2013
Make Your Website Work For You With SEO

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.

12th June 2013