Bespoke News Blog

Backlinks : Quality Vs Quantity

2009-10-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Some great backlink tips here from the guys at SEOmoz

SEO for small businesses: the basics

2009-10-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

For some small businesses, a website is the only marketing tool they have. It is essential, therefore, that each page of that site is working as hard as it can to attract customers and promote a company's products and services. Here are three top tips to get you started on your online marketing campaign.

Search engine copywriting

OK, we know you've heard it all before, but if there is one thing to put your heart and soul into during your SEO campaign it has to be your content. Your website is not a place where you can throw down a few tag lines and hope things sell. Web users are fickle and impatient – bore them and they're off. Take time to think carefully about your content and consider asking a search engine copywriting expert from Bespoke News to give you a hand.

Keyword research

Keywords, or search terms, are the words and phrases which web users type into search engines such as Google to try to find information. So, if you are a small business selling green pens with flower print you want to be right up there at the top for this search term. The more niche the keyword, the smaller the competition so try not to optimise for terms which are too general. Remember, web users are becoming more savvy with their searches every day so a longer, more descriptive phrase is usually more effective.

Link Building

Building quality backlinks to your site is crucial if you are looking to be indexed in a good position on search engines. When we say 'quality' mean it – don’t just register with every web directory from here to Timbuktu. The sites that link to yours should be relevant to your product and already have as good reputation themselves. Backlinks from government and educational sites are taken more seriously by search engines as there are seen as being highly reputable. There are several ways to create backlinks, including submitting news articles and press releases to newswires, participating in forums that let you include a link in your signature line, commenting on blogs or simply picking up the phone and asking for one!

For more advice on search engine copywriting or SEO for small businesses please contact Bespoke News.

You can also discover some great small business marketing packages at Launch Marketing.

Solicitors need to start bouncing back

2009-09-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

It came as little surprise to the Bespoke News team when recent figures revealed that internet users spend an average of just two minutes on law firm websites. Over 83 legal practices, from large firms to sole practitioners, had their websites analysed with the data showing a huge volume of visitors are clicking away in under a minute. According to the study, over 40 per cent of visitors across all firms looked at just one page and then headed straight off to another website. In the SEO world the speed at which someone leaves your website is known as its bounce rate – or in simpler terms "they came, they hated, they left".

Web users may be flocking to your site but if they 'bounce' away before they've even looked around it has been a wasted journey. As you can imagine, the longer someone spends on a website, the more likely they are to buy something, contact the business or subscribe to a service. A good bounce rate also shows search engines that the content on your site is highly relevant to those browsing it. So what can you do to increase the 'stickiness' of your visitors? All it takes is good quality, engaging content which provides them with something new whenever they decide to come back. You need compelling news stories, blogs, images, videos – things that hold people's attention and encourage them to explore further through integrated links. Most people can write decent copy but in today's competitive world that just isn’t enough. Be dynamic. Be daring. Be different.

It's not all home sweet home

2009-09-22T03:34:00.000-07:00

Here at Bespoke News we are often surprised at the number of websites we come across with amazing homepages and not much else going on. When it comes to websites, people tend to view their homepage as their masterpiece. The ultimate platform where they can show off all their business can offer. Many small businesses in particular obsess over the look and feel of their homepage, slathering it in rich content, images and funky logos. But click through to other parts of the site and everything looks just a little bit vacant. With so much copy stuffed into the homepage, there is little left to fill the rest of the site.

But so what? No one really looks at the 'profile' or 'about' pages anyway. Surely your homepage is the most important page on your site? Wrong. In fact, unless people are searching for your brand name specifically, the chances are they will land somewhere else. These landing pages are the first thing your customer sees and although you may have a homepage worthy of hanging in the Tate Modern, your visitors are unlikely to get that far. So start spreading the love. Make sure each and every page on your sites is packed with keyword rich compelling content and can be easily navigated. Two very simple ways to ensure customers stick is top quality SEO copywriting and the integration of a bespoke news feed. So what are you waiting for? Get working on those landing pages and for goodness sake, stop staying at home!

Being ignored? Blog it.

2009-09-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

The big topic of the day here at Bespoke News offices has been the victory of 23-year-old blogger Andrew Sharman whose complaints about holiday company Thomson beat them to the top of Google. After failing to get a response from the firm the youngster decided to publish a "rant blog" moaning about his sub-standard trip to Tunisia. Andrew received 10,000 visitors and reached the top position in Google for key search phrase 'Thomson Tunisia trip' … brilliant! Speaking to the Telegraph about the benefits of blogging he said: "If someone is trying to complain and they find themselves up against a brick wall, I'd definitely advise setting up a blog. It all went a bit mad. If you typed 'Thomson Tunisia review' or 'Thomson Tunisia trip' into Google, my site came up before theirs." Andrew finally managed to claw back £600 from Thomson days after he mentioned how popular his blog had become. The web design and online marketing agency developer used the social networking site Twitter to publicise the blog.

Solicitors urged to invest in SEO copywriting

2009-09-15T10:37:00.001-07:00

As a solicitor, your work is of top quality. You have an impressive staff and good systems. You specialise in areas that are difficult to publicise. So how do you attract clients to the practice? The internet is fast becoming the first port of call for clients seeking solicitors' services. Gone are the days when a few dusty brochures in the waiting room or the occasional recommendation by the bank manager were enough to reel-in clients. Now, whether practitioners resist or not, the world is going online and websites are becoming a primary marketing tool. Few would dispute that a firm without an online presence will appear out of touch with the modern world but today, even a well-designed, attractive-looking website is not enough. Sites are expensive to launch and maintain and must therefore work hard for the firm. Paying for a great looking website is all very well, but if it is not bringing in business it is not doing its job. A website is a crucial and dynamic marketing aid as well as a repository of static information and should be optimised to ensure it is being found and read by those who matter most – the potential client. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo are the way web users navigate their way around the internet. Google has become highly sophisticated in the last few years and, along with other engines, cannot be ignored by anyone who wants to see results from their website.

Search engines draw information through web 'crawlers' or 'bots', which trawl the internet to find sites to match web searches. Unless you have key terms on your site, placed where the crawlers can find them, they will simply pass you by. The internet is full of information on how to ensure these static elements of your site are search engine-friendly - any savvy web developer should be able to advise on this. However this is just the first step, there is one important area where your technical team has limitations, namely ensuring that your website has regular refreshing, unique, keyword-heavy content. Fresh, good quality, helpful content brings the crawlers to your site.

So how do I include relevant content? One simple and inexpensive way to keep a site refreshed is to write your own regular blog –a great idea but in reality there are few (if any) solicitor practitioners who can take an hour out of their day or even out of their week to update such a blog. An alternative, and relatively low-cost solution, is to include a news section within the site. This can contain content about the latest goings on in the legal world, developments in your firm's specialist area or simply things happening within the practice itself. Crucially articles can be tailored to include key terms that your clients are inputting, helping to improve your search engine ranking and encouraging interested potential client traffic to your site. Your site will also become a broader information-based portal, ensuring that the firm is projecting an interest in the wider legal world. A content-based campaign of this sort is a long-term strategy, aimed at harnessing the strength and importance of the web by creating a useful bridge between potential clients and firms providing services. A website health check, which includes considering the integration of a news feed, should be top of the list of marketing-based projects.

Small business should be thinking big

2009-09-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

Last week, we picked up the phone to a small business owner who was desperate for a higher search engine ranking but adamant that there was no way any more than two paragraphs of copy could be written about his product. We won't mention any names but what he was selling was certainly niche. In fact, it was limited to customers not only within a certain location but of a very particular age group. So what does one do when their product is something to be looked at rather than read about. And how can you fill your website with plenty of rich, keyword dense content when – to be honest – just a sentence would do? It's a tough call and small businesses in particular often struggle to come up with more than a couple of sentences to describe their offering. However, as every SEO consultant will tell you, it is vital to think outside the box when it comes to filling a website with relevant copy.

For those with a product or service that is pretty self explanatory, it can be difficult but the trick is to think big. So you're selling wedding cakes. You've managed to upload a collection of beautiful images but to be honest, there's not much more to say. They're cakes, they taste great, they look pretty amazing and er … that's about it. But lets think about the customer for the moment. Could you provide him/her with something that your competitors can't? Perhaps introduce a blog with videos of how the cakes are designed, a newsfeed on the latest celebrity weddings or even a branded Facebook group where newlyweds can share their experiences of their big day? It's vital to focus less on the product and more on the customer – what will bring them to your site and more importantly, what will keep them coming back?

Welcome to our brand new blog!

2009-09-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

Welcome to the brand new Bespoke News blog. Here you can keep up with all the latest from Bespoke News HQ as well as join in discussions about the latest news and views from the world of SEO copywriting.

Please feel free to add your comments to any of the issues discussed and don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions about our service.

We look forward to meeting you soon!

The Bespoke News team.