Infoserve Blog

How to Optimise Your Google Business Profile in the Age of AI Search

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:12:23 GMT

Search is changing rapidly. With AI powered results, conversational search assistants, and large language models (LLMs) influencing how customers discover businesses, your Google Business Profile (GBP) has become more important than ever.

Where traditional SEO once focused heavily on websites alone, today your business listing itself is a primary ranking asset. It helps determine whether your business appears in map results, voice searches, AI summaries, and recommendation style responses across search platforms.

If you want to stay visible as search evolves, here’s exactly what you should be doing to optimise your Google Business Profile right now.

Why Google Business Profile Matters More in the AI Era

AI search tools don’t behave like traditional search engines. Rather than scanning an index of web pages and ranking them based on E-E-A-T guidelines and keywords, LLMs pull structured data directly from those sources to generate instant answers.

Your Google Business Profile feeds heavily into that data.

It contains the kind of information AI relies on to understand and recommend businesses, including:

Your services and categories
Customer reviews and ratings
Opening hours and availability
Location and proximity signals
Photos and visual proof of your business
Frequently asked questions and answers
Overall consistency across the web

So when someone searches for something like:

“Best dentist near me open today”
“Reliable accountants in Leeds”

AI tools often pull directly from business listings, especially Google profiles, to decide which businesses to feature.

That means your visibility isn’t just about having a website anymore. If your listing is incomplete, outdated, or unclear, you’re far less likely to appear in:

Map results
Voice search responses
AI generated summaries
Local recommendation panels
Zero click searches

Step 1: Make Sure Your Core Business Information Is Complete

Before getting into more advanced optimisation tactics, you need to get the fundamentals right. It might not be the most exciting part, but it’s absolutely essential.

Think of your Google Business Profile as a puzzle. The more complete it is, the clearer the picture becomes, not just for customers, but for search engines and AI systems too.

At a minimum, your profile should include:

Your exact business name (consistent with your branding)
A correct and up to date address
A local, reachable phone number
A working website link
Accurate opening hours, including holidays
A well written business description
One clear primary category and several relevant secondary ones

Google actively rewards listings that are fully populated and regularly maintained. AI systems follow the same logic; they prioritise data they can trust. An incomplete profile sends the opposite signal. It creates uncertainty, and uncertainty reduces your chances of being shown.

Step 2: Choose the Right Business Categories

Categories might seem like a small detail, but they carry a lot of weight in local search rankings.

Your primary category tells Google exactly what your core service is. It’s one of the strongest signals used to determine when your business should appear. Secondary categories then expand your reach, helping you show up in related searches.

For example, if you simply label your business as a “ Consultant ,” you’re giving very little context.

But if you refine that into:

Primary: Digital Marketing Agency
Secondary: SEO Agency, Marketing Consultant, Advertising Agency

you’re suddenly much more relevant to a wider range of searches.

You need to be accurate and specific. The clearer you are about what you do, the easier it is for search engines (and AI) to match you with the right customers.

Step 3: Add Services and Products Properly

Service lists help AI understand exactly what you offer.

Instead of relying only on: “ We provide plumbing services ”, list individual services like:

Boiler installation
Emergency plumbing
Leak detection
Bathroom fitting
Radiator repair

Step 4: Keep Your Opening Hours Accurate

It sounds simple, but accurate opening hours can make or break your visibility, especially in time sensitive searches.

Search engines are constantly trying to provide the most useful, relevant results. If someone is searching for a service “open now,” Google will prioritise businesses that clearly meet that need.

If your hours are missing, outdated, or incorrect, a few things can happen:

Your listing may not appear at all in those searches
Customers may lose trust if they arrive and find you closed
AI systems may deprioritise your listing due to unreliable data

Make it a habit to regularly check and update:

Holiday hours
Seasonal changes
Temporary closures

Step 5: Upload Photos Regularly

When potential customers are comparing options, visuals help them build trust quickly. They want to see what your business looks like, who they’ll be dealing with, and what kind of results they can expect.

Uploading high quality, relevant images can:

Increase engagement with your listing
Improve click through rates
Strengthen credibility
Signal activity to Google and AI systems

The best profiles regularly add:

Exterior shots to help people find the location
Interior images to showcase the environment
Team photos to humanise the business
Products and services in action
Before and after transformations

Fresh content tells Google that your business is active and active businesses rank better.

Step 6: Collect and Respond to Reviews Consistently

Reviews are one of the strongest local ranking factors today.

From an AI perspective, they provide real world validation. They show:

What services you offer
Where you operate
How customers experience your business

Encouraging customers to leave detailed reviews can make a big difference. For example:

“Great emergency plumber in Bradford, arrived within 30 minutes.”

That kind of review contains valuable context that AI systems can use to match your business to relevant searches. Just as important is how you respond.

Replying to reviews, both positive and negative, demonstrates:

Engagement
Reliability
A commitment to customer service

All of which contribute to stronger trust signals and better visibility.

Step 7: Use the Q&A Section Strategically

The Q&A section is often overlooked, but it’s a hidden opportunity to strengthen your profile.

Instead of waiting for customers to ask questions, you can proactively add your own and provide clear, helpful answers.

Think about the kinds of things customers typically want to know:

Do you offer same day appointments?
Are quotes free?
Is parking available?
Do you operate on weekends?

Step 8: Publish Regular Google Posts

Google Posts allow you to share updates directly within your profile, almost like a built-in social feed. They’re a great way to show that your business is active and evolving.

You can use them to highlight:

Special offers
New services
Company updates
Events
Seasonal promotions

For example: “ Now offering same day boiler servicing across Leeds.”

Regular posting sends a strong signal that your business is current, engaged, and worth showing to users.

Step 9: Keep Your Business Description Natural and Detailed

Your description helps AI understand:

who you are
what you do
where you operate
who you serve

A strong description should include:

your services
your location
your experience
what makes your business different

Avoid keyword stuffing. Write naturally and clearly instead.

Step 10: Ensure Your Business Details Match Across the Internet

Consistency across directories matters more than ever. AI models compare multiple sources before trusting business information.

Make sure your:

name
address
phone number

match across:

directories
maps platforms
social profiles
industry listings

This strengthens your location authority signals.

Step 11: Add Booking, Messaging, and Interaction Features

Google increasingly rewards businesses that make it easy for customers to take action. Features like messaging, booking, and appointment links send positive engagement signals.

By enabling these, you:

Reduce friction in the customer journey
Increase the likelihood of conversions
Show Google that users are interacting with your listing

The easier it is to contact or book with you, the better your profile will perform.

Step 12: Think Beyond Google Optimise for AI Discovery

While Google is a major player, it’s no longer the only place your business data lives.

AI powered tools pull information from a wide range of sources, including:

Business directories
Review platforms
Mapping services
Industry databases

To stay competitive, you should aim for:

Consistent listings across multiple directories
Active review generation on different platforms
Accurate, structured data everywhere your business appears

The more aligned your information is across the web, the stronger your overall presence becomes.

The Future of Local Search Is Listing Led

Your Google Business Profile is now a primary search visibility asset.

Businesses that:

keep listings accurate
add services properly
collect reviews consistently
upload photos regularly
stay active with updates

are far more likely to appear in AI-generated results and recommendations.

As search continues to evolve, the businesses that treat their listings like living digital storefronts will stay visible while others slowly disappear from local discovery.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our Listing Manager allows you to manage your listings from one place. We help you increase your search visibility, manage reviews and posts, stand out on Apple Maps and even optimise for voice search, so you continue to profit from your online presence.

Written by Daniel Bland, Listing Product Lead

Facebook Ads, Attitudes, and Adjustment: Your Strategy Alphabet

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:49:18 GMT

Facebook Ads remain one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available today, but they’re also one of the most misunderstood. Businesses often think success comes from simply boosting a post or throwing money at the platform, but in reality, long term ROI and strong ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) come from careful planning, constant monitoring, and strategic adjustment.

To make this more actionable, Infoserve has broken down Facebook Ad strategy into an alphabet of essentials.

A & B: A/B testing

Split testing means running two (or more) versions of an ad with only one variable changed. Why only one? Because otherwise you won’t know what caused the difference.

Think of A/B testing as your scientific method for Facebook Ads. Without it, you’re flying blind; approaching a paid service with the sort of maverick mindset that equates to throwing wet spaghetti at a wall and hoping it sticks.

You can have all the experience in the world, but without comparable results, you have no idea whether you’re running the most effective ad campaign available.

With A/B testing, you can identify which headlines, images, and CTAs are most receptive with your audience.

For example:

Imagine you were a fashion retailer launching your new summer edit. You come up with two headlines:

Version A: ‘Shop the Collection Today’.
Version B: ‘Upgrade Your Wardrobe in Minutes’.

After a week, you find Version B delivers a 25% higher CTR (click through rate). That insight doesn’t just improve one ad; it informs future campaigns, landing page copy, even email subject lines.

C: Content

Content is arguably one of the toughest elements to nail when creating Facebook ads. Those hooks that look simple have often been whittled down over days. And the reason they’re so short and snappy? Statistically, you have a matter of seconds to make an impression .

Standing out doesn’t mean being louder or more salesy. It means being distinctively you. Ads should reflect your brand’s voice and values while also being tailored to the specific needs and desires of your target audience.

The danger is blending in. If your ad reads like everyone else’s, users scroll right past it.

Practical adjustments include:

Refreshing creative elements every 4-6 weeks to avoid fatigue.
Balancing promotional ads with storytelling, education, or entertainment.
Maintaining visual consistency (colours, fonts, style) to build brand recognition.

D: Duration and budget

Budgeting is where many businesses lose money. Spend too aggressively, and you reset Facebook’s learning phase. Spend too conservatively, and your ads never reach statistical significance.

Scale budgets gradually. Think of scaling ads like fuelling a fire. Too much kindling can smother your efforts and you’ll have to start again. But slowly stacking firewood and coal at the right time will build a stable, lasting flame.

Duration matters too. Ads need time to gather data, but leave them running indefinitely and performance decays. As a rule of thumb, let ads run for a minimum of 7 days before gathering data, but 2-3 weeks is ideal. As soon as you notice engagement beginning to drop, conduct an investigation and figure out whether you need to refresh or start a new campaign.

E: Engagement

Engagement might seem like the end goal, but this is not the case. Engagement is simply a measurement of resonance, not of success. The goal of Facebook ads is almost always conversion.

However, Facebook registers engagement as a relevance signal. The more engagement your ads get, the more people it will be shown to as a result. But, not all engagement is equal. Shares and positive comments carry more weight than a simple like . On the other hand, hidden posts or negative reactions can drive costs up.

Practical adjustments include:

Crafting ads that invite conversation, not just clicks.
Highlighting testimonials to spark trust based interaction.
Monitoring sentiment and responding quickly to maintain brand reputation.

F: Frequency

On average, a customer needs to have 7 points of contact with a company before they convert.

Facebook users need to see your ad frequently. This is why it’s important that anyone who engages with your ad is retargeted or shown the ad multiple times. The latter is taken care of by Facebook, but your ad spend will determine the reach you have. The former will be tackled in more detail later in this blog.

G: Goal Setting

Never launch an ad without a goal. Are you building awareness, generating leads, or driving sales? Each requires different KPIs, creative, and budget expectations.

But goals alone aren’t enough. Granularity is where expertise shows. Break your audiences down into segments:

Cold audiences (lookalikes, interests).
Warm audiences (website visitors, video viewers).
Hot audiences (cart abandoners, past buyers).

Tailor creative for each stage. A broad awareness ad shouldn’t ask for an immediate purchase. A retargeting ad shouldn’t waste time on brand introductions. Granularity makes ads feel personalised, not generic.

H: Hashtags

On Facebook, hashtags aren’t critical, but social signals are. The algorithm rewards ads that spark conversations, reactions, and shares.

Monitor sentiment closely. Positive comments boost reach; negative comments erode trust and inflate costs. Sometimes, the attitude around your ad matters as much as the creative itself.

I: Insights

Running Facebook Ads gives you access to more data than most platforms: impressions, clicks, conversions, demographics, placements, and even breakdowns by device or time of day. But data is just noise if it isn’t interpreted properly.

It can be easy to get excited by surface level KPIs like CTR or CPC. These matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. For example:

A high CTR (click through rate) might look great, but if conversions are low, it could mean your ad is misleading or your landing page is underperforming.
A low CPC (cost per click) could be exciting, but if the traffic doesn’t buy, your ROI still suffers.

Insights are only meaningful in context. Look at the entire funnel: from impression to click to ‘add to cart’ to purchase. A weak point in the chain shows you exactly where to adjust. Sometimes the ad is perfect, but the checkout process is clunky. Other times, the audience is right, but the creative doesn’t match their intent.

The worst mistake is collecting data but never acting on it. The best marketers set aside time to interpret insights, document findings, and apply them to the next round of campaigns.

J: Journey Mapping

Most customers move through a journey, from awareness to consideration to conversion, before they’re ready to buy. Your ads should guide them along this path, not rush them through it.

Map your customer journey:

Awareness stage: Tell stories, highlight problems, spark curiosity.
Consideration stage: Show solutions, use testimonials, provide value.
Conversion stage: Deliver strong incentives to invest in your product/service.

K: Key Visuals

Creative drives 70-80% of Facebook Ad performance.

Invest in a diverse creative library: static images, videos, carousels, GIFs and rotate formats to keep things fresh. Test emotional hooks like joy, curiosity, even fear of missing out. And always, always brand your creative so it builds recognition, not just clicks.

Adjustment here is ongoing. Review metrics weekly. If CTR drops or frequency rises, swap in new visuals.

L: Landing Pages

An ad is only half the journey. If your landing page is slow, confusing, or inconsistent with your ad’s promise, conversions collapse.

To maximise ROI:

Ensure page design matches ad creative (continuity builds trust).
A/B test CTAs.
Simplify forms; fewer fields mean higher completion rates.
Add trust signals (reviews, security badges, guarantees).
Keep messaging consistent across ad and landing page copy.

M: Messaging

The way you frame your product or service directly influences how people respond, whether they scroll past or stop to engage.

Clear, benefit driven messaging helps your ads connect quickly. Instead of listing features, focus on the value those features create for your audience. For example, a message about ‘saving three hours a week’ will resonate more strongly than one about automation tools.

Adjustment tip: Review your campaigns to see which phrases, tones, or offers consistently generate higher engagement rates. Use these findings to refine your messaging and keep future ads aligned with what truly connects.

N: Networking

Collaboration multiplies reach. Influencers, brand partnerships, and user generated content extend your voice beyond paid ads. Customers trust other customers more than polished ads. Showcase reviews, testimonials, or customer photos in your campaigns. Often, these outperform branded creatives.

O: Optimisation

Optimisation is the process of making continual, data driven improvements to your Facebook Ads. It’s not a one time task and makes the difference between campaigns that plateau and campaigns that scale profitably.

Even small optimisations compound over time. A 10% improvement in CTR, combined with a 15% drop in CPC and a better conversion rate, can double ROAS without increasing spend. This is where the real gains in ROI are made, not through massive overhauls, but through smart, incremental adjustments.

What to optimise:

Creative: Refresh images, videos, and copy to combat ad fatigue.
Audiences: Refine targeting and exclude irrelevant segments.
Placements: Compare performance across feed, stories, reels, and audience network.
Bidding: Adjust manual vs. automatic bidding to control cost efficiency.
Landing pages: Ensure the post click experience matches ad intent.

P: Pixel

Meta Pixel ‘is a snippet of JavaScript code that allows you to track visitor activity on your website’ . Without it, you’re running ads in the dark. Installed correctly, it tracks events like purchases, leads, or cart activity. It powers retargeting, builds lookalike audiences, and provides attribution for ROI analysis.

Adjustments involve:

Auditing setup (is it tracking the right events?).
Using custom conversions for business specific goals.
Checking attribution windows to ensure accurate ROAS reporting.

Q: Quality Score

Facebook rewards relevance. Ads with high quality scores are delivered more widely and at lower cost whilst poor quality means higher CPMs and weaker ROI. It seems so simple, but it’s still vital.

Quality ranking explains how your ad’s perceived quality compares to other ads who are targeting the same audience. It gives you the data you need to identify underperforming ads and take action.

Possible values for quality ranking are (where average represents the 35th to 55th percentile):

Above average
Average
Below average (bottom 35% of ads)
Below average (bottom 20% of ads)
Below average (bottom 10% of ads)

R: Retargeting

Retargeting is where ROI is often won. People rarely buy on the first touch, but retargeting keeps your brand front of mind.

As we discussed earlier, most customers don’t convert on the first touchpoint. Research suggests it can take 7 interactions before someone feels ready to buy. Retargeting ensures your brand stays present throughout that decision making process.

Types of retargeting

Retargeting strategies change depending on the conversion stage the customer reaches:

Website visitors: Target users who viewed key pages but didn’t convert. A simple reminder ad can nudge them back.
Cart abandoners: Some of the best leads you’ll ever get. Incentives like free shipping or a time limited discount often tip the scale.
Engaged users: People who watched your videos, clicked your ads, or engaged with posts but haven’t purchased yet. They’ve shown intent, now it’s time to build trust.
 Past customers: Retargeting doesn’t stop at the first sale. Use it for upsells, cross sells, or customer loyalty campaigns.

Why retargeting works

These audiences already know your brand. Retargeting ads don’t need to introduce who you are, they need to resolve doubts, build trust, address objections, or provide the final push to act. This makes them significantly cheaper and more efficient than cold calling campaigns.

S: Strategy

Doing your research and accessing this content shows that you’re already engaged with strategy building.

A sound strategy puts you ahead of your competitors and gives you the tools you need to scale your business and maximise your ROI.

T & U: Testing & Understanding Metrics

Testing alone isn’t enough, you also need to understand what the results are telling you.

What to test:

Facebook allows experimentation across almost every element of a campaign. The key is to prioritise tests that will yield the most impactful insights.

Creative: Test headlines, visuals, formats (video vs. static), and calls to action.
Audiences: Compare interest groups, lookalike audiences, and broad targeting.
Placements: Measure performance in feed, stories, reels, messenger, or audience network.
Bidding strategies: Test automatic vs. manual bidding, cost caps, or value optimisation.
Offers and messaging: Run variants of your key messages to see which drives the strongest conversion response.

Understanding the results:

If a benefit focused headline beats a feature focused one, your audience values outcomes more than specifications.
If video outperforms static images, it suggests they prefer storytelling over snapshots.
If broad targeting wins over interest based targeting, your product may appeal to a wider demographic than you thought.

V: Value Proposition

Video isn’t just another format on Facebook, it’s the format the platform prioritises. From Reels to Stories to in feed video ads, the algorithm consistently rewards video with greater visibility and lower costs per impression.

Why?

Video allows you to do what static images can’t: tell a story, demonstrate value, and build emotional connection in seconds. Audiences retain 95% of a message when it’s delivered in video compared to just 10% when read in text. On a platform where attention spans are short, video captures interest and keeps it.

To make video-first work, refine constantly:

Test hooks: The first 3 seconds decide whether viewers keep watching.
Use captions: 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
Aspect ratios: Square (1:1) and vertical (9:16) formats perform better on mobile.
Split lengths: Test short (under 15s) vs. longer storytelling (up to 60s)

W: Word of Mouth

Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful drivers of Facebook Ad success, even in a paid landscape. Recommendations, reviews, and shares carry far more credibility than any branded message. When people see peers engaging with your brand, they’re more likely to trust, click, and convert.

Facebook’s algorithm rewards content that generates authentic engagement. Ads that are shared, commented on positively, or recommended by friends not only increase reach organically but also lower CPC and CPM.

So, design content that’s relatable, entertaining, or valuable enough that users naturally want to share it.

X: X Factors

The biggest wins often come from the unexpected. Maybe it’s a bold creative, a surprising offer, or a new format like reels. Don’t shy away from experiments. Dedicate some of your budget to testing outside the box ideas.

Just remember that if these aren’t working, it’s okay to go back to the drawing board and find something less out there but just as creative. You only want to invest your budget into ads that give you sustainable ROI.

Y: Your Audience

Even the best creative, offers, or targeting strategies fail if you’re speaking to the wrong people. Your audience determines engagement, click through rates, conversions, and ultimately ROAS.

Segment audiences by behaviour, intent, and engagement level:

Cold: People unfamiliar with your brand, focus on awareness and curiosity.
Warm: Engaged users, build trust and demonstrate value.
Hot: Ready to convert prospects, use urgency, social proof, and offers to close the sale.

Refine targeting using Facebook’s Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences . Monitor performance and iteratively adjust based on engagement, CTR, and conversion data. The more precise your audience insights, the more effective every ad becomes.

Z: Zealous Optimisation

Zealous optimisation is the relentless pursuit of improvement across all aspects of your campaigns.

Optimisation is both systematic and ongoing. Regular review cycles, coupled with decisive adjustments, turn small improvements into a substantial uptick in ROI.

Focus on high impact areas:

Refresh underperforming visuals and copy
Adjust audience targeting based on engagement and conversion data
Scale top performing campaigns gradually while pausing low performers
Optimise placements and ad formats according to what delivers results
Refine landing pages to improve post click conversions

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our PPC experts handle your ad campaigns from start to finish. We have access to decades of insights and tracking information to deliver the best possible outcome for your business.

For an in depth guide into the basics of PPC, download our FREE PPC White Paper where we cover everything you need to know when setting up your ad campaigns.

8 Branding Tips to Elevate Your Marketing Efforts

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:35:18 GMT

Branding is your identity, everywhere.

If your business is a cell, your brand identity is your mitochondria. The powerhouse of your marketing. The reason your company breathes. The thing that sets you apart. The ‘why’ that your customers buy into.

Yes, we know what you’re thinking. If you’re here and asking questions, then this probably seems a little bit overwhelming. You might be looking at the bigger brands and wondering how they managed to get such distinctive messaging. Realistically, all of those brands started off exactly like you: with an idea in their heads and only a vague idea about how to market it. Luckily, at Infoserve , we are experts at taking a holistic approach to SMB marketing, and we know exactly how to help you position yourselves amongst your competitors with distinctive, but effective, branding.

What is branding?

Your brand is the personality of your business.

It consists of key identifiers including brand colours, messaging, values, graphics guidelines, logos, and other elements that determine who you are at your core.

It is the combination of applied research, audience understanding, market positioning, and various other tested processes, cultivated into one big pack that says ‘ this is who we are.’

Branding is your identity, everywhere: It is consistent across all of your marketing material. Online, in person, offline. It is inseparable from your business.

Why is branding important?

Branding sets you apart from your competitors.

It’s what makes you memorable.

To explain the importance of branding, let’s talk about a couple of examples of truly remarkable branding in big companies:

Hoover , whose branding was so effective that we now refer to vacuum cleaner products by their name.
Innocent , who took the playful persona to the extreme and are now recognised for completely changing the way we see branding. But the thing that truly stands out is their authenticity, their humour, and their wacky charity events that encourage customer participation.

These are brands that are trusted, and their branding is responsible for that. They knew how to connect with their audience, how to market themselves in just the right way to stick in consumers’ minds whilst staying true to who they are.

The crux of branding is this: it looks at your audience and asks who they want to invest in.

And that’s exactly why it is so important. It creates an archetypal persona that resonates with your audience and carries across the brand and remains consistent.

Think of branding this way:

When stitching your brand identity together, don’t think of yourself as an online corporation. Think of yourself as the smallest business on the high street, run by a single employee.

Who is that person?

Think about all the reasons why loyal customers want to go back to that business. Not for the product, but for the personality and service that only that business owner provides.

Who is that business owner? What do they offer?

Picture a small dry cleaning business.

Like any other dry cleaning business, they offer exceptional cleaning with fast turnaround and are careful with the delicate clothing left in their care.

But, more importantly, they’re personable. They’re local. They know who you are and why your clothing is so important to you. They have a laugh with you at the counter. They’re warm and considerate. They’re not regal or stuffy. Their shopfront is humble, but tidy. They hum while they work, and take pride in not being flashy because being dependable is far more important.

That’s their brand.

No matter how big the company grows, that will remain their brand.

10 Branding Tips

1. Know your story from every angle

One of the greatest follies in branding is the vague attempt to create something completely new from scratch.

Many people say they don’t know where to start with branding because it feels like such a big ask. When really, you already have the bones of your brand right where you stand.

It’s who you are. It’s who your audience is.

That’s where you start.

Good storytelling always sits at the heart of good branding. And every business has a story. So use it.

Write down the following pieces of information about your company:

Why did you start the business? For example, a small tea retailer began from a kitchen when you discovered how many flavourings are in shop bought tea, and you wanted to change that. You love tea and wanted to make authentic home brews that are healthy, organic, and honest.
Why is this company important to you? Why did you choose to sell this item or service? Is it a family business? Do you have a passion for the product? Do you care about the issues of your customer base? Do you relate to your customer base? Is training craftsmen at the heart of your process?
How have you grown? Since starting your business, how far have you come? What has changed and what hasn’t changed?
Who is your team? Are you local heroes? Are you a group of misfit individuals who wanted to begin a business? Are you phenomenal craftsmen? Do you all share the same sense of humour? How have your values seeped into the business? Are you neurodivergent? Do you work in a unique way?
Where do you come from? This is not always vital to branding, but for local businesses, having a local image can be an important part of your brand identity.
What are your values? We’ll dive into this later.

2. Find your brand archetype

Brand archetypes are a concept coined by Carl Jung who theorised that humans use symbolism to place people into categories. This helps us understand those people.

From this, he created twelve brand archetypes that help companies define their personality and their audience.

These are:

The Innocent: The Innocent represents traits of goodness, safety, optimism and youth.

The Everyman: The Everyman seeks a position of belonging and connection. They are loyal, down to earth, supportive, warm, and uplifting. Infoserve ourselves champion this archetype.

The Hero: The hero seeks a better world, and they want to make it happen. They are inspirational and bold.

The Outlaw: The Outlaw breaks the rules. They look outside the lines. They’re not afraid to step on toes or be seen as rebellious or different.

The Explorer: The Explorer craves risk, discovery and adventure. Think Jeep or Red Bull . Outdoor and adventure brands often sit within this archetype.

The Creator: The Creator is as the Creator sounds; inventive, full of imagination, inspiring a sense of belonging and newness. In marketing, Adobe is a stand out example of this. In general life, Lego .

The Ruler: Prestige and status are key personality traits of this archetype. There is often a sense of power in their branding, of exclusivity, sophistication, or a demand for respect - Rolex , Jaguar, Hugo Boss .

The Magician: The Magician wants to make dreams come true. They are seen as visionaries, forward thinking and future led. Yes, Disney does sit comfortably within this archetype, as does Apple and a number of other entertainment brands.

The Lover: The Lover inspires moments of desire and devotion. Their marketing is often intimate and close, with the senses sitting at the heart of their marketing strategy. Think of food brands like Galaxy or M&S. Many luxury brands like cosmetics fall into the Lover category.

The Caregiver: The Caregiver represents compassion and nurturing. They are a figure of security, offering protection and support across their products and their service.

The Jester: As implied, the Jester finds connection through humour. As brands, they are entertainers, mischievous and joyful at their core. As mentioned previously in this blog, Innocent Smoothies is a prime example of the Jester at work.

The Sage: The sage is a balm, acting as an advisor in a world of chaos. They embody wisdom and value knowledge.

When you decide on your brand archetype, you’ll find it far easier to create your brand image.

3. Know your brand positioning

Brand positioning defines how and why a brand is different from its competitors. It is where you position yourselves within the existing market.

It’s the deliberate effort to influence consumer perception so your brand occupies a specific, meaningful, and differentiated place in their minds.

Creating a strong brand position involves strategic research and creative thinking. It can be one of the most difficult elements of developing a brand. But, we recommend you start by defining a few core elements:

Target Audience: Who are you speaking to? Understanding your ideal customer is the foundation.
Market Category: What space are you operating in? Are you a budget friendly service, a luxury provider, or something else?
Unique Selling Points (USPs): What do you offer that no one else can?
Brand Promise: What can customers consistently expect from your brand?
Reason to Believe: What proof or support backs up your claims? (e.g., testimonials, awards, guarantees)

When it comes to branding, you don’t need to be different, but you do need to be distinctive.

4. Clearly define your values

Every brand should have clearly outlined values, and they should shine through in your branding.

It might seem obvious, but there is no point positioning yourself as the Ruler archetype if your values are compassion and security; you’d end up with a very disjointed image. Everything must align and begin with your values.

You should have 3-5 brand values that are written clearly in your brand guidelines. They shouldn’t contain any verbal fluff, but should be phrased with your tone. Every member of your business should know and champion these values so you present a united image to your customers.

We recommend writing them out in the following format:

1. [Your Value]

[How this value is reflected in your operations.]

2. [Your Value]

[How this value is reflected in your operations.]

3. [Your Value]

[How this value is reflected in your operations.]

For example:

1. Sitting Sustainably: Today, Tomorrow, Together.

We are committed to creating a more sustainable world in every corner of our business. From the manufacturing of our products to delivery and service, we put the planet first at every stage. As we grow, we will never put profit above our eco-conscious ethics. Our team continues to undergo sustainability training to ensure we uphold this intrinsic standard every day.

Once you have your values, you can continue to refine them to reflect the language of your business.

5. Connect with your customers

You customers are everything to your brand. Your brand should be formulated for their benefit.

The whole point of a brand identity is to connect with your audience. To build trust, familiarity, and awareness. How could you possibly do this if you don’t consult your customers? If you don’t know who they are or what they want.

Imagine making a cake for your friends and not stopping to consider whether they like the flavours you’ve chosen. Or worse, putting a cake in front of a gluten intolerant customer and then saying ‘well I didn’t know you had celiac disease?’ You wouldn’t. You’d make sure they didn’t have any allergies before you started baking and then make a cake using gluten free flour.

So, why would you market your company to an audience without first knowing what it is they want?

To discover exactly how to click with your customers, take a look at our tips on How to Define Your Target Audience .

6. Refine your messaging

Your messaging outlines the voice of your brand, and generally consists of two key elements:

1. Your Primary Message

Your primary message is the core message of your brand. It should be short, memorable and concise. Think of it as a slogan; an overarching phrase that encapsulates the most important value of your brand. For example, Tesco’s ‘Every Little Helps’.

Your primary message should have supporting text of 1-2 sentences that explains the message. The message shouldn’t make sense without the context of your business.

2. Your Secondary Messages

Secondary messages provide supporting context to reinforce your primary message. They take your unique selling points and spin them into wording that sits seamlessly beside your brand voice. For example, ‘Moving Your Business Into The Future’, to represent the selling point: ‘Innovation’.

You should have 4-6 secondary messages that consist of a heading and supporting text.

Top Tip: Don’t be afraid of getting out a big piece of paper and some felt tip pens to brainstorm ideas. This can be a really great way of linking initial thoughts together to create something more cohesive.

Get all your ideas down on paper. When you don’t know where to start, begin by piecing together all the initial messy thoughts. You can refine it from there.

7. Research colour psychology

Colour psychology is an often overlooked but crucial area of branding.

You might be thinking that colour is never overlooked in branding; it’s the centre of everything, the first thing any company chooses in their branding.

And yes, that’s partly true. The crux of the problem lies in the simple fact that many brands choose colours based on what they like. On what they think looks good. Not on what will resonate most with their customer.

In order to choose your brand colours, you need to know:

Your values
Colour positioning within your company sector
Your brand archetype
The colours of your competitors: How colour psychology influences user behaviour
The fundamentals of colour psychology
How colour tone will impact your identity

It’s a careful balance between what looks good, and what resonates with your audience.

8. Refine your visual identity

Visual identity encompasses a wide range of visual elements beyond your brand colours and your logo.

There are a multitude of considerations that form your aesthetic as a whole, including:

Typeface
Spacing
Line weight
Graphic style (curved edges, soft lines, sharp lines, formatting)
Imagery

And this is just the start. Every single visual element that you use across your website, social media, print marketing, paid ads, TV ads, and even in your staff guidelines, should be carefully considered and consistent.

Serif and sans serif fonts aren’t chosen only for their visual appeal, or because someone liked them. A serif font with soft edges and flicks might be chosen for a jewellery brand because it gives the illusion of sophistication, of class, of approachability. The graphics chosen would then have soft corners to match this style.

Every visual element has its place.

A flower doesn’t look pretty for the sake of it. Each colour, each petal shape, each curve on the leaves has been honed over millions of years to have a vital purpose. Without one of these things, the flower would not attract vital pollinators.

The same applies to visual branding and design. If one element is off kilter, it can have a knock on effect on the rest of your brand.

Not Sure Where to Start?

At Infoserve, we know branding. We also know how difficult it can be to find your brand identity when you’re an SMB with plenty of other things to occupy your mind. Branding is difficult, and that’s why we are only too happy to help you define who you are with expert Branding services, Website Design , and Copywriting.

We will conduct an in depth call to determine who you are so we can sculpt your branding around your existing values and structure. Get in touch today to discover what we can do for your business.

What We Do for Local Businesses in Harrogate

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:54:32 GMT

Bolstering local businesses is a passion that has grown significantly in recent years, and at Infoserve , we believe it is our duty to make sure that the businesses around us have a strong online presence, so the communities around us thrive.

Our Leeds based business has over 25 years of digital marketing experience, and we use the knowledge we gain to boost businesses in the surrounding areas, including neighbouring Harrogate. But don’t just take our word for it; it shows in the results we achieve for our clients.

Trusted by lead search engines themselves, as the only Google partner and Microsoft Elite partner in Yorkshire, our in-house team knows exactly how to build an online presence.

Web Design Harrogate

At Infoserve, our web design services in Harrogate are results-led, driven by a passion for generating beautifully designed websites that are functional, clean, and checked by digital marketing experts.

Our in-house web designers have been trusted by hundreds of clients across Yorkshire to bring life to their ideas with carefully crafted, bespoke designs. Together, we work to establish branding that converts site visitors into customers at an affordable cost.

How Infoserve’s bespoke web design helps businesses in Harrogate:

Design visually appealing and user focused websites tailored to each client’s goals and their customers’ needs
Use data and insights to boost conversion rates through strategic conversion optimisation
Collaborate with clients to develop cohesive branding, including logo creation, color palettes, and typography
Provide ongoing SEO and design support
Offer access to a professional online content editor, empowering clients to manage and update their websites with ease
Craft compelling, SEO friendly content that attracts and engages website visitors

Our results:

Take a look at Cook House Gallery and Yorkshire Escapes to sample some of our web design successes.

SEO Harrogate

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a necessary component of any website, and can make or break your overall conversion strategy if handled incorrectly. That’s why Infoserve has a team of in-house SEO experts near Harrogate who have been working in the industry for over 20 years.

Infoserve proudly aids you in boosting organic search traffic as standard with all our digital marketing packages, leaving no stone unturned from the moment you entrust your website to us.

Our SEO team in Harrogate use up to date link building, keyword strategies, and competitor research to create the most effective plan for our clients.

How Infoserve uses SEO to help businesses in Harrogate:

Optimise on-page SEO to boost search engine visibility and rankings
Strengthen link building strategies to improve domain authority
Utilise performance reporting tools to track progress and keep clients informed
Monitor website health and performance using trusted industry tools
Develop high quality written content optimised with top performing keywords to attract traffic
Perform in depth competitor analysis to guide and refine SEO strategies

Our results:

Get your free SEO audit today.

PPC Harrogate

Our PPC team near Harrogate supply results driven PPC management that gains our clients 3 times more traffic than the industry average.

How Infoserve beats industry average ROI using PPC strategies near Harrogate:

Comprehensive in-house PPC management and performance monitoring
SmartAds upgrade for improved conversion rates and reduced cost-per-click
In depth keyword research to strategically guide PPC campaigns
Continuous advanced campaign optimisation for maximum effectiveness
Online dashboard included for tracking enquiries, recording phone calls, and monitoring form submissions
Dedicated PPC expert provides monthly performance reviews and insights

Our results:

Check out how Cook House saw a 20k return on investment in one month using our PPC strategies.

Run your free PPC audit today.

Social Media Harrogate

Our team of PPC experts are experienced in delivering exceptional social media marketing services across Harrogate . We have worked in collaboration with our customers for over 25 years to deliver consistent messaging whilst bringing your ROI and conversion rates up.

We strive to bring innovative new techniques to our social media strategies so that your business can benefit for years to come.

How Infoserve uses social media marketing to improve online visibility in Harrogate:

Strategically manage Facebook and Instagram Ads to drive high quality traffic to client websites
Implement bespoke audience targeting to reach the most relevant users
Leverage a variety of ad formats, including image, video, and text ads, to maximise engagement and reach

Our results:

Claim your free social media audit now.

Don’t just take our word for it

Infoserve have a TrustScore of 4.7 on Trustpilot for our client focussed Digital Marketing services near Harrogate, and our customer stories prove just how effective our efforts can be.

Why us?

Need help with your website or business?

At Infoserve , our digital marketing agency near Harrogate is on hand to help you grow your business online at an affordable price.

What Are Display Ads? A Complete Guide

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:08:59 GMT

What are display ads?

Display ads are a type of advertising that allows businesses to display banners and other visual ads across websites, apps and certain social media platforms.

These ads can include text, images, video, or interactive elements, and are designed to reach a broad audience. The main goal is often to raise brand awareness, drive website traffic, or encourage specific actions, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

But there is so much more to Display Ads than that, and Infoserve ’s PPC team knows all about it.

The difference between display ads and search ads

Unlike search ads, which show up in response to specific search queries, display ads are placed in strategic locations on websites, where they aim to attract and engage visitors, even if they weren’t actively looking for a product or service.

There are a few main ways that display ads and search ads differ from each other:

Placement:

Targeting method:

Visuals:

Goals:

Types of display ad

Banner Ads

B anner ads appear at the top, bottom, or sides of a webpage. They are named as such because they are rectangular and take the appearance of a hanging banner.

These ads can be static (images) or dynamic (animated graphics or videos) and are designed to attract the user’s attention with visually appealing designs and a CTA (call to action) button. They are often placed alongside text to draw the eye of the user, making them difficult to ignore.

This is why they are so effective.

Pop Up Ads

Pop up ads do what they say; they pop up in front of a web page.

They are most commonly used to get your user to take a specific action, and can be set to appear at certain trigger points throughout the website.

Pop up ads need to be used sparingly and strategically because they can easily interrupt user flow on your website. This is why they’re often set to appear when a user has been on your website for a certain amount of time, or scrolled to a particular point on the web page.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads work in a similar way to pop up ads, but instead of only covering a small portion of the web page, they appear over the entire screen. They’re also displayed at transitional points. For example, when a user switches between web pages or app screens.

They are most effective for pushing promotions.

Rich Media Ads

Rich media display ads are arguably far more engaging than other forms of display ads because they offer interactive elements. This can include moving graphics, videos, and clickable elements.

Rich media ads could use a slidable bar that reveals the effect of a product. For example, a company that sells home paints could create an ad that displays the same room with two different shades of paint on the walls, and a slidable bar that the user can move to reveal the difference that each colour makes.

They can also be in the format of quizzes and forms.

Retargeting Display Ads

Retargeting display ads are used to target users who have previously interacted with your brand in some way but didn’t convert. This could be by visiting your website, clicking on an ad, or even searching your social media accounts.

These ads are particularly effective because, as marketers know, it takes an average of 7 interactions with your brand before a user is willing to make a purchase. So, the more you can put your company in their mind, the more likely they are to come back and invest.

Retargeting display ads can be targeted specifically to the area of your brand that the user was interested in. This could be offers, specific products, or even unique selling points. For example, if they clicked on an ad discussing the environmental aspects of your business, you can create specific pathways that show them more content about the environmental aspects of your business.

Native Display Ads

Native ads blend with the content of the website or platform where they appear, mimicking the format and style of the content around them. This makes them less intrusive and more likely to engage users without disrupting their browsing experience.

For example, social media ads can appear in the format of an Instagram post that appears whilst a user is scrolling. They can choose to scroll past, but it feels less like an ad because of how closely it resembles the other content they are looking at.

Ad formats

Each of the above ad types can appear within a category of formats. These are:

Static Ads:

Static ads are ads that consist of unmoving elements like images, graphics and text.

Any of the following can appear as static ads:

Banner ads
Pop up ads
Interstitial ads
Retargeting ads
Native display ads

Animated Ads:

Animated ads use motion to create a more cohesive storytelling approach.

Any of the following can appear as animated ads:

Banner ads
Pop up ads
Interstitial ads
Retargeting ads
Native display ads

Video Ads:

Video ads are as they sound. Ads that contain video footage. They may also include sound, and can be more engaging than static ads.

Any of the following can appear as video ads:

Banner ads
Pop up ads
Interstitial ads
Retargeting ads
Native display ads

Interactive Ads:

Interactive ads engage users through elements that users can interact with.

Any of the following can appear as video ads:

Banner ads
Pop up ads
Interstitial ads
Retargeting ads
Rich media ads

Benefits of display ads

Hopefully at this point, we’ve done our job and you can see the benefits of utilising display ads to further your brand’s awareness and growth.

However, if you’re still on the fence and want to know why you should consider display ads, here are just a few of the advantages you could experience with a targeted display ad campaign.

1. Wide Reach

Display ads can be shown across millions of websites, apps, and platforms. This means that businesses can reach a broad and diverse audience, even those who might not have specifically searched for their product or service.

2. Brand Awareness

One of the primary benefits of display ads is their ability to build brand awareness. Even if users don’t click on the ad, the mere exposure can help them recognise and remember your brand when they’re ready to make a purchase.

3. Targeting Capabilities

Display ads allow for precise targeting. Advertisers can reach users based on factors such as:

Demographics (age, gender, income)
Interests and behaviors (e.g., users who have recently visited home renovation websites)
Geographic location
Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet)

This means that you’re not just flinging ads at a wall and hoping they stick. You’re intentionally placing them in a spot that attracts the attention of those who are interested in what you’re selling.

4. Visual Appeal

Since display ads can include images, animations, and videos, they’re much more visually engaging than search text ads. This can help catch users’ attention and entice them to take action.

You can also have a lot more fun with how you demonstrate your products/services to new customers. There are so many more possibilities.

5. Retargeting Opportunities

Display ads are also powerful for retargeting potential customers who have interacted with your brand before.

For example, if a user visits your website and looks at a product but doesn’t make a purchase, you can use display ads to show them that product again as they browse other websites.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our PPC experts handle your ad campaigns from start to finish. We have access to decades of display ad insights and tracking information to deliver the best possible outcome for your business.

For an in depth guide into the basics of PPC, download our FREE PPC White Paper where we cover everything you need to know when setting up your ad campaigns.

Seasonal SEO Content Tips That Work With Search Trends

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:18:11 GMT

Did you know that search queries experience fluctuations in volume throughout the year? Maybe you hadn’t thought about it before, but now it’s been pointed out, it makes perfect sense.

Either way, now you know that search trends, you need to start using them to your advantage. How do you do this? You create relevant seasonal SEO content strategies that help you optimise your website all year round.

Infoserve has collected a few of our key tips just for you.

What are seasonal search trends?

Seasonal search trends refer to the natural fluctuations in search query volume throughout the year.

Seasonal search trends refer to more than just the spike in commercial search trends surrounding Christmas, and occur for various different reasons.

There are typically considered to be two types of seasonal search trend:

1. Time:

Time based search trends change depending on the time of year. For example, certain keywords receive more searches in summer or winter, and others will spike during certain months.

Imagine you are selling winter clothing, for example. People are more likely to search for ‘down jackets’, and ‘thermal socks’ from October to February than they are in the middle of July.

This is demonstrated when you search for ‘ thermal socks ’ and find the monthly search volume trends below:

2. Event:

The second type of search trend surrounds events and set dates that take place throughout the year. You’ll find that many search queries will eb and flow around a number of annual events including:

Christmas
Easter
Valentine’s Day
Bonfire Night
Mother’s/Father’s Day
Ramadan
Diwali

For example, ‘ Diwali food recipes ’ as a keyword has an average of 590 searches per month, but when you look deeper into the monthly trends, it has between 50-200 searches every month except October, when monthly searches increase to 2,280, and November, when monthly searches increase to 3,610.

The importance of search trends

Seasonal SEO helps you increase traffic to your website, with the goal of ultimately converting more customers. Just like on social media, working with trends boosts the engagement you are likely to get.

Let’s use Christmas to explain this.

If you’re planning an advertising campaign for Christmas, you wouldn’t fling a reel together on the 20th of December and hope it brings in sales. For one, you will have completely missed the final posting date in the run up to the 25th. For another, your customers will be limited to people who are searching for really last minute gifts - so last minute that they’re willing to risk them arriving late.

Companies start planning for Christmas months in advance. They start targeting campaigns in September. This isn’t just because it’s the ‘done thing’. It’s because they’re looking at seasonal trends, buying habits and customer behaviour to determine when the best time is to show their ads.

Working with seasonal SEO data is just another way of analysing customer behaviour, but applying it all year round.

How to work with search trends

1. Check the search trends

To work with the search trends, you need to know the search trends, and luckily there are so many tools out there that will not only tell you how often a term is searched for, but will break this information down monthly.

This means you don’t have to play guessing games with the search results. Because you can find out exactly when your keywords are peaking throughout the year.

Then, you can aim your content around this data.

Make a list of the keywords that you want to rank for, and find out their monthly search patterns. For example, keywords with the word ‘gift’ in them tend to experience a spike in search traffic throughout November and December.

The image below shows how many people search for ‘ tea gifts ’ each month from October to May.

Of course, it’s important to remember that content can take an average of 6 months to start trending, so don’t leave it too late.

2. Don’t be late

On that note, our second tip is to always think, plan, and publish SEO content ahead of time.

Now, we do understand that you may be reluctant to publish Christmas content, for example, in the middle of July, but if you are going to start pushing seasonal SEO content in the winter, be prepared to start seeing results the following year.

Remember, SEO is all about playing the long game. It is very different to publishing company news or standard blogs that discuss your latest products or deals. For the strongest strategy, we would recommend creating both types of content year round.

Promote your current products, but also create blogs that will remain relevant in future years so that you can benefit from ongoing results with little maintenance.

But, always plan in advance to see the highest reward for your efforts.

3. Consider trends when analysing data

This trips a lot of people up, unfortunately. Even us, as marketers, will sometimes forget that a drop in traffic is often just a result of search trends fluctuating.

Always keep this in mind so you don’t panic when you’re not seeing your desired result month to month. If search trends for your chosen keyword spike in February and drop in June, then the content’s traffic will also spike in February and drop in June.

It doesn’t always mean that the content isn’t working.

However, if the content spikes in February and your content is in position 1 on Google, but you don’t see any traffic in February, this may be an indication that you should focus your efforts on other key search terms.

It’s all relative. As long as you keep this in mind, you’ll be on your way to working with search trends rather than against them.

4. Other seasonal content tips

Alongside these key tips, there are other things you can do to optimise seasonal SEO content. We recommend:

Repurposing existing seasonal content
Staying relevant to the messaging of your business
Analyse the way your competitors respond to seasonal trends

Not sure where to start?

If you’re still struggling to create a plan for your seasonal content, then Infoserve can help. Our content experts and SEO team create bespoke web and blog content that helps you get found online and our web design experts are on hand to help you design and build a unique, functional and responsive website.

SEO Blog Copywriting 101: How to Get Started

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:39:35 GMT

Do you want to have a go at SEO (search engine optimisation), but keep getting lost amongst all the jargon and technical terms? You’re not alone. SEO consists of advice and tips that have grown, changed, and advanced for years, and even the most experienced marketers started where you are: by looking at this information and wondering where to start.

But, blog copywriting doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, if you remove the jargon and word wizardry, you can create a piece of blog content that works. And, our copywriting team at Infoserve wanted to break down the basics.

Selecting your blog topics

In order to choose your topics, you need to understand the main purpose of SEO blog content: To provide less direct ways for customers to find your brand by targeting key search queries.

They are not a tool used to give your customer more information about your product/service. That is why you have product/service/about us pages across your website.

It is estimated that around 80% of internet searches are informational (where a user is looking for a specific piece of information), which means the number of people likely to land on your website who are just looking for the service you provide is actually very low in comparison.

Blog content aims to put your website in front of the 80% who are only looking for information by guiding them through a narrow path and out onto the high street where your shop front is right in front of their eyes.

1. Create a mindmap

Well, a metaphorical mindmap.

We suggest starting by creating a spreadsheet of topic clusters that you want to target or boost, and find ways to angle them in a less direct way.

Let’s say you rent out holiday homes in Yorkshire. A good topic group would be ‘things to do in yorkshire’. This is a great angle for a collection of blogs because it is aimed at a group of people who want to visit Yorkshire but don’t know what there is to do, and may be looking for a place to stay whilst they’re there. In this case, you can guide them towards your properties in the blog’s conclusion.

If you’re struggling for ideas, try having a look at your competitors.

2. Break this down further

You can then use your spreadsheet to break these topic groups down into more specific blog subjects.

For the example we’ve already used, you could create blogs on:

Best walking routes in Yorkshire
Top 10 places to eat in Yorkshire
Family days out in Yorkshire
5 ideas for planning the perfect romantic day out in Yorkshire
What to do in Yorkshire over Christmas
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge
Wildlife in Yorkshire

3. Conduct keyword research

Arguably one of the most important aspects of SEO copywriting is your keyword research.

Because you can write as many blogs as you want, but if no one is searching for the search terms, then they’re not going to be seen.

Keywords do have a strategic application, and using them appropriately is vital because it helps Google understand the context of the content, and place it in the right search results.

So, once you’ve come up with your blog ideas, take yourself to a keyword research tool and see how many people are searching for information surrounding those topics.

But here’s the catch: more isn’t always better.

You should aim for a mix of keywords that have high search volume and low search volume. This is because search terms with a high search volume are going to be highly competitive. As a small business, we would suggest starting with low-medium search volume to build a solid SEO foundation and sprinkling some with high search volume in between.

Now let’s take a look at the search volume of the blog titles above:

Best walking routes in Yorkshire: Walking routes in Yorkshire (40)
Top 10 places to eat in Yorkshire: Best places to eat in Yorkshire (170)
Family days out in Yorkshire: Family days out Yorkshire (660)
5 ideas for planning the perfect romantic day out in Yorkshire: Romantic nights away in Yorkshire (260)
What to do in Yorkshire over Christmas: Yorkshire christmas events (480)
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge: Yorkshire three peaks challenge (4.4k)
Wildlife in Yorkshire: Wildlife in Yorkshire (20)

Structure your blog

If I’m ever sent blog content and asked to proofread it, the very first thing I will do is look at the structure. It’s often one of the easiest fixes, and really does make a difference.

Structuring your content effectively makes it easier for users to read, which increases the amount of time they spend on your website (Google loves this!), and makes it easier for Google to crawl (read).

Make sure you:

Use headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings are one of your biggest friends when it comes to creating SEO content. It breaks up content blocks making it easier to find key information, and helps search engines understand the context of your content.

Headings and subheadings will likewise improve your chances of being considered for a featured snippet, and make it easier for text readers to scan for disabled users.

Keep your paragraphs short

Short paragraphs make your content easier to read on mobile devices. And in general, really.

Use structured elements

Bullet points and numbered lists are always encouraged to make content more readable.

But be wary of using them too many times in a single blog, and only use them where they fit. If they don’t work organically within the content, then don’t force it.

Where to put keywords

You need to make sure that you’re using your keywords appropriately in your headings.

You should:

Include your main keyword in the blog title
Use 2-3 secondary keywords in your headings
Mention your main keyword in your introduction
Include your main keyword in your meta description

Do background research on your customers

This will help you tailor the questions you pose in your content. Including, maybe, some lesser thought of questions that your competitors aren’t asking.

Now, we know that saying ‘do customer research’ is incredibly vague, and even the most experienced marketers can get a bit overwhelmed when they first start. Because, there’s so much you could know.

So here’s a top tip: Think of yourself as James Bond’s team at MI6 doing background checks on a potential suspect. Find everything .

Try to get in their head (not literally) so you know what they’re thinking. What do they want? What do they want for their family? Why are they on the internet today? How much money do they have to spend? What websites have they visited recently?

Let’s put this into a bit more context.

If you ran a beauty salon, and you were writing a blog entitled, ‘how to take care of your nails,’ because you discovered that it has 170 monthly searches, you need to understand what your customer is getting out of the blog. Why are they there, and what do they want to know?

So, you ask yourself the questions:

What do they want? They want to know how to take care of their nails from home.

What do they want for their family? They want their family to be happy, and kind, and maybe they’re looking to give their family some advice on nail care.

Why are they on the internet today? Because they aren’t happy with the way their nails look, and they are trying to change or update their nail care routine.

How much money do they have to spend? You know the average earning of your ideal customer better than we do, but the assumption with the customer searching for this particular query is that they don’t have money to splash on an expensive manicure, which is why they are trying to find out how to care for their nails at home. Give price information for nail care kits, budget options, or explain that they can treat themselves with a manicure.

What websites have they visited recently? Have they been searching for beauty tips for a while? Do they have a more practical lifestyle that would damage their nails? What are their spending habits online?

What is their career? If they have a busy 9-5 lifestyle, they might not have spare time to visit a salon. If they work in a professional environment, then they might be looking for basic care rather than elaborate nail design ideas.

People that land on your blogs don’t always fit within your customer profile, so making sure you’re keeping this in mind and staying vigilant each time you start a blog is an important step.

Avoid keyword stuffing

When you start writing for SEO and you learn about the effectiveness of keywords, it can be tempting to stuff it in here, there and everywhere.

But! This isn’t just frowned upon, it is actually part of a group of old SEO tactics known as ‘black hat SEO,’ that will get your website penalised.

Build your links

Links are your friend. Links build trust. Google loves link building.

External links

One of the things we hear from customers most is that we’ve included links to external websites in our blog content, but we don’t do this flippantly.

The reason we hear most often is that it takes people off your website, but you can set the link to open in a new tab so it doesn’t affect time on site. As long as you’re not linking to companies that are competitors, you are golden.

And Google will think you’re golden, because you’re showing that you got your information from a credible source, and that you can about your customer having access to other resources.

Try not to overdo it, and use only a few external links per blog.

Internal links

And of course, alongside external links, internal links are always essential.

Internal links give search engines more context on how your blog relates to the products/services you provide.

We recommend:

Including at least one text link to your home page in the conclusion
Include at least one link to the service you are promoting in the conclusion, as well as your main service
Link to your contact information somewhere in the blog

One of the best things you can do is make sure they sit naturally in the text. For example: For more information, check out our free SEO White Paper to discover all of our tips and tricks for getting started on your SEO journey.

No one likes to see a plain URL in the middle of a blog they’re reading.

Our top SEO blog tips

These are the very basics of how to build an SEO blog from scratch with minimum tools at your disposal. But, before we sign off from this blog, we just wanted to give you a few more top tips to take with you:

1. Publish regularly: Publishing regularly indicates that you are an active company who cares about their customers.

2. Update your old blogs: Updating outdated blog content can be one of the most powerful SEO tactics, and it takes far less time than starting a blog from scratch.

3. Write for people, not for search engines: Of course, we don’t mean you should disregard SEO altogether. But, SEO techniques should never override the quality of the writing. Avoid jargon and complex language unless you explain its meaning.

Don’t know where to start?

Infoserve ’s experienced content writers work closely with our SEO team to create highly effective, valuable and customer driven content to help you get found online.

Consistency in Web Design: How Structural Patterns Influence User Behaviour

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:44:09 GMT

Consistency in web design is essential.

Why?

Not only does it make your website look professional and trustworthy, but it also ensures that users can interact with it easily, which increases conversion rates.

Retaining a predictable structure to your website might seem limiting to your overall design but it’s actually critical when it comes to understanding user behaviour, and creating a user journey that flows naturally.

As web design experts, Infoserve knows all about it. And we are going to share some top tips on how to make sure your website is adhering to structural patterns that are proven to boost engagement.

What is consistency in web design?

Website design consistency refers to the practise of making sure the elements on your website are both:

Consistent with each other
Consistent with what is expected from a website’s structure and layout

Why is consistency in web design important?

Consistency in web design is as important as any design element you add for aesthetic appeal.

As a web designer, think of yourself as an architect; while you have the creative freedom to create a design that is unique, visually exciting and state of the art, you will need to follow certain structural rules to ensure optimum functionality and avoid confusing your users.

Like buildings, websites must observe basic structural principles as users have become accustomed to expect certain features to follow a conventional pattern. For example, home, contact and FAQ pages are always located in the same place so users will expect them to be there.

Navigating a website, like navigating a building, should be easy.

And this comes from making sure all of the main elements are exactly where the user expects them to be.

The impact of inconsistent design

Inconsistent design can have a much bigger impact than many people realise.

According to Webdesigner Depot , 42% of users will leave a website because of poor functionality .

The structure of your website goes hand in hand with its functionality. And, when it takes a user less than 5 seconds to determine whether they are going to stay on your website, you need to do everything to make sure they feel comfortable.

Inconsistent web design can:

Confuse Users: If elements like navigation menus, buttons, or logos move from one page to the next, it can frustrate users. They might not know how to get to important information or feel lost within the site.
Increase Bounce Rates: When users struggle to navigate your site due to poor design consistency, they’re more likely to leave and look elsewhere. High bounce rates often indicate a frustrating user experience.
Decrease Trust: A site that looks disjointed or inconsistent can feel unprofessional. Users are less likely to trust your brand if they perceive your website as poorly designed or difficult to navigate.
Make your website less accessible: Accessibility is not just a luxury, it is a necessity and unpredictable website design can be harder to navigate with screen readers and even cause disruption for neurodivergent people and people with reduced eyesight.

How to achieve consistency in web design structure

Aesthetic Features

The internal elements of your design need to be consistent across the website. If you have a solid branding pack, then you’ll already have an idea of all the details of your design, but there shouldn’t be any surprises when it comes to:

Colour Scheme:

Your website’s colour palette should be consistent across all pages. Stick to your brand colours as defined by your branding guidelines or style guide.

Avoid adding random colours that don’t match your established palette, as this can disrupt the visual flow and create a disjointed experience for users. Use consistent accent colours for buttons, links, and call to action sections.

Typography:

Fonts should also follow a uniform pattern.

Choose a primary and a secondary font that complement each other and stick to them throughout the website. Ensure that headings, subheadings, and body text are formatted similarly across all pages, with consistent font sizes, line spacing, and weights.

Layout:

Consistent layouts across pages ensure that users know where to find key information, no matter what page they are on. Keep page structures uniform by using the same grid system, spacing, and alignment.

This helps users feel oriented as they move from one section of the site to another.

Imagery and Graphics:

Your choice of imagery should align with your brand identity and remain consistent in style. If you use illustrations, make sure they follow a similar theme.

Stock photos, custom graphics, or illustrations should have a consistent tone and quality. This applies to not just individual pages, but throughout the entire website.

Buttons and Interactive Elements:

Buttons, hyperlinks, and interactive elements like forms should follow a similar design language. They should look and function the same way across all pages, reducing any uncertainty for the user when interacting with different sections of the site.

Structural Consistency

Structural consistency refers to the arrangement of key website components that align with user expectations. Websites that use a consistent structure make it easier for its users to navigate and find important information, regardless of where they are on the site.

Your user shouldn’t need to learn how to use your website when they land on it. Although it can be fun to change things up, it can also put people off because it takes more effort to get the information they’re looking for.

Use these rules to standardise your website and make sure it is as easy to use as possible:

1. Main Navigation at the Top of the Page

The navigation menu must sit at the top of the page where users can quickly access key information. The links within the navigation should be in a consistent order, following the pattern of:

Home Page
About Us
Shop/Services
Contact Us

In some instances, you can get away with changing the order of these categories, adding more categories in, or even having two lines of navigation. However, keeping your main navigation bar at the top of the page creates a predictable experience that is intuitive for users to understand.

2. Logo Placement in the Top Left/Center

The placement of your logo should be either at the top left or top middle of the page. This is applied so it becomes the first thing user’s see when they land on your website as the eye is naturally drawn there due to English reading patterns.

Keeping your logo in a predictable spot also reinforces brand identity throughout the site.

3. Clickable Logo Links to the Homepage

It’s an industry wide best practice to make the on your website logo clickable, with a link back to the homepage.

This feature has become so common that users expect it, and will automatically click on the logo rather than the main navigation to return to the home page. Therefore, if your logo doesn’t take them back to the homepage, it can lead to frustration.

4. Shopping Cart Button in the Top Right

With the logo in the top left corner, you leave space for the shopping cart button to be in the top right corner. Because this is one of the most critical elements of the user journey, it becomes even more important that finding it is as easy as possible, and placing it in a predictable location achieves this.

It will create a smooth check out experience, and also lead to less frustration if potential customers want to check or manage their order.

5. Secondary Navigation in the Footer

The footer serves as a great space for secondary navigation.

While the primary navigation handles the most important links, the footer can offer easy access to additional pages such as legal information, FAQs, privacy policies, or social media profiles.

Consistent footer design ensures that users always know where to look for this secondary information, no matter what page they’re on.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , we build websites that everyone can use. Our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a UX first website with accessibility built in, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Are USPs (Unique Selling Points) an Outdated Concept?

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 07:55:46 GMT

When we discuss web design or copywriting with a client, one of the questions Infoserve will always ask is: ‘what are your USPs?’ However, we have noticed that there has been some discourse online regarding the relevance of USPs in modern marketing, and whether they really hold as much value in 2024.

With an overload of marketing messages and customers bombarded by choices online, some argue that USPs are no longer effective in grabbing attention. But, when standing out against your competitors has become even more of a challenge, can we really afford to let them go?

What are USPs?

Unique selling points (USPs) are aspects of your business that set you apart from your competitors. The purpose of a USP is to give your marketing and branding a clear focus, and display to your audience immediately what they get when they invest in your service.

A good USP is one that immediately sets you apart. It is something that displays the benefit of your product rather than just its features.

Are USPs outdated?

The short answer is no; unique selling points are still very much vital to your marketing and website design, however, the way they are used and placed in web design has changed over time.

The problem itself is not with USPs as a concept, but with the way that many businesses approach them: as another box to tick.

When done this way, they lose their power. They lose their gravitas. They look forced. Not just to us as marketers, but to customers as well.

Really, the reason many people believe that USPs are outdated is because a lot of businesses will throw them onto the website as a design feature rather than something done with intention.

And a generic USP runs the risk of gaining the copy and paste effect. Where every business in your industry claims to do the exact same thing in the exact same way, as though they’ve just duplicated the same information.

And, if that’s the case, what’s the point in even putting them on your website in the first place?

USPs are not outdated, but in some cases, their execution could use a little bit of work.

Why USPs are still relevant

USPs remain highly relevant when crafted and communicated effectively. The key isn’t to dismiss the concept of USPs altogether but to adapt them to be more customer centric.

Here’s why USPs still hold value:

1. They provide clarity

2. They distinguish you from competitors

3. They help guide marketing and branding
4. They address specific pain points

How to define your USPs

There is no ruling formula for settling on your USPs.

Selling points will differ depending on the industry, the purpose of your business, the nature of your business, what you sell, who sells it, and a number of other factors.

If you’re finding it hard to create USPs, don’t worry. You’re not alone. USPs are one of the hardest aspects of marketing, because they are so integral to your messaging. Even experienced writers and marketers spend days crafting them.

But, you have to start somewhere. So put your thinking cap on and take a look at our tips for creating USPs that definitely aren’t outdated.

1. Keep it specific

There is nothing worse than a general USP.

Because, simply saying ‘top quality service’ tells your customer nothing. It looks vague, and like you’ve thrown it on your website as an afterthought.

Quality service is an expectation from businesses, not a selling point. So, dig a little bit deeper into what makes your service worth their while. Do you offer 24 hour phone support? Is your service endorsed by recognised names or awards?

If you’re struggling, take a moment to think about how you would pitch your business to a customer in person. What stands out about your product or service that you would be most excited to tell them?

As a small business owner, we know you are incredibly proud of what you’ve built, so when you ask yourself that question, it is likely that a few selling points popped into your mind. Use them, condense them, and make them as purposeful as possible.

Start with what you know.

2. Lead with the benefit

A common piece of marketing advice, and one that holds true.

Our Copywriters will always tell you that the best content promotes the benefits of features rather than the features themselves. This bleeds over into your USPs.

If one of your selling points is that you’ve won an award, you know exactly what that award means. But, the chances are, your customer doesn’t.

3. Know your ideal customer

This leads us on to our next point.

Who is your ideal customer and what do they want from you? It’s no use creating a selling point if it has absolutely no selling power.

Look at their pain points. What do you offer that they want but can’t find elsewhere? What are their goals and how do these tie into your service?

For example, if you offered accommodation to students, they might want:

Housing that they can afford
Predictable prices that don’t change during their studying
A safe place for them to study and socialise
To not just get through university, but to thrive
To set up roots for their future
A safety net

These wants are a fantastic starting point. Some of them are even USPs in themselves. You could take the fact that they want predictable pricing and say: ‘ we provide stability during the most formative years of your life. ’

Of course, this is only an example and it would need tweaking and personalising, but it’s a start.

One of our top tips is to speak directly to your customers and take note of what they’re saying about your business. What do they love about the service you provide? What stood out to them? Why did they recommend you?

This can be done by looking at reviews, social media and even your customer service calls.

4. Take a sneaky look at your competitors

Look at the messaging they’re using, and the angle they take with their selling points.

Remember, a unique selling point is only unique if it sets you apart.

Try:

Conducting a competitive analysis to identify the USPs of your top competitors
Listing features, benefits, and strategies they focus on
Identifying any areas of weakness or issues they’re not addressing

For example, if your competitors are all focussing on the low cost of the service, you could angle your USP at the quality gained for the price.

5. Be authentic

Try not to get caught up in the process of creating USPs and end up with statements that are misleading or inauthentic to who you are.

Whilst it is important to stand out amongst your competitors, this should never come at the cost of your branding, values or service.

The best USPs are honest, genuine and consistent with your brand voice.

So, avoid using buzzwords and cliches, and make sure that any claim you make is backed up by testimonials, reviews and your experience in the industry.

Top tip: Conduct a survey to find out whether your USPs resonate with real customers. Surveys are likewise a fantastic way of figuring out what your customers love about you.

6. Test and refine your USPs

As with everything in marketing and conversion rate optimisation (CRO), you need to test your USPs and refine them as your business changes and adapts over time.

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve will always ask you what your USPs are. This is information that we won’t come up with ourselves. We just won’t. Because you know your business far better than we do. You know what makes your product, service, and employees special.

What we can do is use our expertise in copywriting and web design to ensure they are angled towards conversion.

How to Create a Contact Page that Converts

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 15:28:28 GMT

Contact pages are often overlooked by business owners and, at Infoserve , we believe the reason for this is because they seem like the least exciting page on a website. Many people think that all it takes to create a solid contact page is to add your contact details, a form to fill, and a little bit of text encouraging your customers to get in touch.

And, sure, these features are essential.

But there’s so much more to it than that.

Why you need to optimise your contact page

Contact pages are vital for conversions. In truth, they are one of the most important pages on your website.

One fatal error can prevent potential customers from finishing the enquiry process.

In fact, in a study conducted by Zuko software , it was found that only 66% of people who start a form successfully complete it .

These customers are clearly interested in the company and the services provided, so where did they go wrong? At which point during filling the form did they change their mind?

Well, the chances are, you’ve made a mistake in the format of your contact form.

So, let’s get into our top tips on how to make sure your contact form is geared towards conversions:

How to create your contact page

1. Arrange them in order from easiest to hardest fill

One of our top tips for contact forms is to arrange the questions in order of easiest to hardest to fill. Once you cotton on to this tactic, you will notice that every other contact page does it too.

You may have even planned to do it subconsciously yourself, because the pattern is so ingrained in us now.

Structure your form fields in the following order:

Customer name (first then last if you require both)
Their contact information (email address, phone number)
Their reason for contacting you

2. Align text to the left of the form

This positioning makes text easier to read, and draws the eye before your customer gets to the form. You can use this to direct them to other methods of contacting you, or simply tell them how long it will take for you to get back to them about their request.

Some contact forms don’t require text and can be left as just a few short form fields, but including text can make the page feel more personal and less transactional.

Just make sure you keep it short and to the point because cluttering the page with text can detract from its purpose.

3. Include a clear heading

We probably don’t need to over explain this one because every page on your website needs a clear, bold heading.

You can play around with the wording a little bit, but make sure it aligns with your company branding.

Some popular contact page headings include:

Contact us
Contact [company name]
Get in touch
Give us a shout
Let’s talk about your project
Need help and advice?
Contact our sales team
Contact our support team
Book a free strategy call

4. Utilise auto-fill functionalities

Using common terms makes it quicker and easier for customers to fill out your form using auto-fill and reduces the faff.

Many technologies will now store information like names and contact information so that users can fill out forms and check outs with a single click. So make sure that you name your form fields in accordance with these.

Luckily, they are quite simple as, ‘first name,’ ‘second name,’ ‘email address,’ and ‘phone number’ are incredibly common form fields, and labelling them is easy.

5. Address user concerns

Provide summary boxes on why you need certain information to alleviate customer concerns about handing over their personal information to a company they haven’t used before.

If you need to ask for a phone number, just give a quick one sentence explanation as to why you need it. For example, ‘we use your phone number only to contact you about your query.’ You could also include a short explanation on how you store this information to give them peace of mind.

Reducing the amount of information you need from them can likewise relieve customer concerns.

Think of a time when you’ve filled out a contact form and information you don’t want to give has been a required field. It makes you uncomfortable and less likely to complete the process.

So consider this with your customers. The less form fields, the better.

6. Make them straightforward

There is absolutely no reason for a contact form to be complicated. You want your customer to be able to fill out your form as quickly as possible, and adding unnecessary features will only put them off, thus reducing conversions.

7. Provide alternative contact options

Some of your customers might not feel comfortable filling out contact forms, or may just prefer a different form of communication. For example, many people prefer to talk to businesses on the phone. So give them the option.

Make sure that on your contact page, you display the following information in an accessible location:

Your company’s phone number
Your company’s email address
Live chat, if you offer this feature

One of the most popular and effective contact page structures is to have your contact information and contact form sitting parallel to one another on your contact page.

8. Have a clear purpose

Make sure your customers know exactly why they are filling out your contact form. No ambiguity. No confusion.

Are you a roofer? Make sure your contact page states that your customers should contact you about roof maintenance or replacement.

Are you a drinks company? Make sure your contact page is clear about it being strictly for customers wanting to know more information about your products.

Looking for stockists? Your contact page should state this clearly.

9. Add a map

If you’re a local business then it can be very helpful to your customers if you include a map on your contact page.

We would recommend placing it below your contact form so it doesn’t distract from the purpose of the page. However, including it can help customers find your location more easily, and give them the option to ask questions in person.

10. Align your contact page with your branding

It probably goes without saying but your contact page should flow nicely from the rest of your branding, and this goes beyond the design itself.

Think about the language you’re using. If you have a very formal tone of voice then ‘contact us’ is a good use of phrasing. However, if your content is more casual, then your wording needs to match this. ‘Let’s have a chat’, ‘get in touch’, ‘give us a shout’, could be more appropriate for you.

11. Make it mobile friendly

Let’s just say that again:

Make. Your. Contact. Page. Mobile. Friendly.

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fill out a contact form on a phone screen when it hasn’t been designed in a mobile friendly way.

Picture it. Tiny boxes. Illegible typeface. Constant zooming in and out as you double tap by accident trying to open that one box for 5 minutes when all you want to do is enter your name.

We’re getting frustrated just thinking about it. And this problem becomes even worse when your users have accessibility needs.

All you have to do to fix this is:

Make your boxes big enough to click with a thumb
Space your boxes out so users aren’t clicking the wrong ones
Invest in responsive website design
Keep your loading time to a minimum

This improves overall user experience and increases the likelihood of visitors reaching out.

12. Test your contact page regularly

When it comes to website design, things don’t always work out the first time. There is almost always a way to make your pages more effective at converting customers, and luckily we now have access to plenty of analytics tools that allow you to analyse exactly what your users are doing on your contact page.

But don’t just look at the numbers. Ask why.

If your users are disappearing halfway through the form, it is possible that you have too many fields to fill.

If your users are disappearing immediately after they open the page, it might be taking too long to load.

Testing your contact form regularly gives you the insight you need to make it more effective and therefore, increase your conversions.

Thinking of investing in modern web design?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you update your website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

E-Commerce in Summer: How to Convert Outside of the Fourth Quarter

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:13:15 GMT

The preconception that businesses only make profit in the fourth quarter is a common trap that many new e-commerce companies fall into. It is true that many shops, particularly bricks and mortar shops, will make the bulk of their annual profit in the final months of the year due to the Christmas shopping rush, but this doesn’t mean that it is impossible for profit to be made during the rest of the year.

This is for many reasons including the fact that Christmas is only celebrated within certain cultures, and the need for products doesn’t suddenly stop once January comes around.

So, how do you ensure you’re reaching your customers outside of this peak selling period? Let’s take a look.

1. Invest in PPC

One of the greatest mistakes we’ve seen small businesses make is to pull their PPC budget as soon as the fourth quarter ends.

However, if you’ve invested in PPC over the winter, then keeping it over spring and summer can give you a competitive advantage. This is because your competitors have probably considered doing the exact same thing.

Instead of removing your PPC presence, we would suggest shifting its focus:

Ad copy

Obviously we are not suggesting that you continue your Christmas campaigns past Christmas. You will need to take any winter focussed ads down and create new ones. There’s no way to get around that fact, and it might take a bit of time.

But, one of the first places to start, as you may have guessed, is to look at the collections you planned to launch in the coming months and create fresh, exciting ads to promote your fresh, exciting products.

Change up your copy to target keywords associated with these products and make it enticing.

Target seasonal keywords

Use analytics tools to determine which keywords people search for throughout the year and reallocate your budget.

For example, if you are a clothing shop, use your analytics tools to see what keywords people search for in the summer. This could be:

Summer dresses (165k)
Beach dresses (27.1k)
Holiday outfits (14.1k)

Of course this is a very generalised example, but by bidding on terms that see a spike in the summer, you can attract high intent traffic that is likely to convert outside of the fourth quarter.

Promotions and offers

Summer is a great time to highlight promotions, deals and discounts and PPC can be an incredibly effective way to push these to customers who might be looking for more affordable products.

Use ads across search engines and social media to display these deals using high value keywords.

Retargeting

If you’ve had customers show interest in your product over winter, then looking towards the coming year can be the perfect time to set up retargeting campaigns for these customers.

Remarketing is a more targeted tactic that can help you maximise ROI in the months when you might see a reduction in profit margins, and can therefore act as a more efficient way to spend your allocated marketing budget.

For more information on how this works, take a look at our blog: How to Maximise ROI with Remarketing .

2. Keep your SEO efforts going

SEO is a long term strategy and is therefore not a tactic we would recommend to push seasonal campaigns, which is exactly what makes it ideal for pushing sales all year round.

SEO might not convert your customers, but it will definitely bring them to your website through targeted optimisation. The most important thing to remember is that your efforts must remain consistent for you to see the results you’re after.

Make sure you:

Publish content regularly
Have clear and concise title tags
Structure your pages using headings
Embed internal links within your text
Give images, graphics and videos alt text
Invest in listings to increase your backlinks

For a deeper dive into the complexities of SEO and how you can optimise your website, our SEO White Paper is the perfect SEO how-to guide for small businesses.

3. Look into your listings

Understanding how to choose the right directories for your business can have an impact on your conversions. When you choose the right listings , you will attract customers who are looking for your products when they are ready to make a purchase, which in turn helps you convert outside of the fourth quarter.

Remember, it takes an average of seven interactions with a business before a customer is likely to buy from a brand, and sometimes finding multiple listings that appeal to the same customers can pay off.

Playing around with these tactics as well as choosing reputable, relevant business directories, blogs and online news articles throughout the year can help you find the perfect combination for boosting your SEO and bringing customers with high lifetime value to your site.

We recommend starting with:

Google Business Profiles
The Yellow Pages - that’s right, they’re online now!
Facebook pages
Yell
Hotfrog
LinkedIn Company Directory
Apple Maps

4. Make sure your website is up to scratch

Once you have users on your website, you need to know how to convert them, and embracing UX design is just the way to do it.

We recommend taking a look over the following elements of UX design and optimising your website before the fourth quarter so that it is ready to drive conversions as soon as peak season is over:

1. User Flow

User flow refers to the movement a user takes to navigate a website. To determine user flow, you need to consider what the user is trying to achieve, what they need to do and what barriers are in the way.

Key Components of User Flow:

Entry Points: Where users first interact with the website.
Actions: The specific steps users take to accomplish a task.
Decision Points: Moments where users make choices or decisions.
Exits: The points where users leave your website.

Top tip: Create a flow diagram to visualise which steps & pages the user will follow to meet their end goal.

2. Keep your website consistent

Keep your website consistent across the board so your users know exactly how to navigate your website, and there are no obstructions in the way of them making a purchase.

This includes:

Colour consistency across the website
Using rich media like graphics, images and videos only when they are relevant
Including clear, simple and obvious CTAs

3. Mobile responsiveness

If your website isn’t responsive in 2024 then you are missing a trick. And that trick is the ability to convert over half of your potential customers.

Because web design can seem overwhelming at times, we have broken it down in our Web Design White Paper so you can boost your website’s usability without the help of experts.

5. Keep emails consistent

Email marketing is a great way to put your brand into the minds of customers for even a few minutes a day.

What’s better? These customers are already interested in your brand, or have already converted before.

And the golden rule of marketing is that customer retention is far easier than customer acquisition. So, use the tools at your disposal to remind your customers what they love about your products.

Make sure you:

Update your customers on promotions and offers
Remind your customers to review your products
Make your emails user friendly
A/B test email content to find the most effective content
Personalise content based on previous purchases
Keep your emails mobile-friendly
Send valuable content
Include one call to action per email, and lead your customers to it

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website aimed at converting customers, and our PPC , Listings and SEO teams help your website get found.

The Benefits of Microsoft Advertising: 8 Reasons to Put Your Trust in Bing

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 10:43:58 GMT

We like to think that Google has a monopoly on PPC ads but if you look a little closer into Microsoft advertising , you may just find another arrow to stash in your marketing quiver. One that could even hit your target at a greater speed, and with greater accuracy depending on how it is applied.

In fact:

Bing has more than 500 million unique visitors each month - Backlinko

At Infoserve , our PPC team knows all about it.

Reaching a new audience

One of the standout benefits of investing in Microsoft Advertising is the ability to reach a wide audience, even beyond Bing’s search results.

Unlike Google which focuses primarily on their SERP (search engine results page), with Microsoft Advertising, you can target Yahoo, AOL and other search engines that allow you to reach even more potential customers.

It may even be the case that your target customers are more active on these platforms.

Less competition

A common complaint we hear at Infoserve when suggesting Microsoft as a viable place to put your ad spend is that it has fewer users, and therefore isn’t as impactful in terms of gaining a significant return on ad spend, but we would argue that this attitude is precisely what makes it such a powerful tool.

Because many businesses still have this attitude, it means that there is far less competition for ad space, which lowers CPC (cost-per-click) and therefore increases ROAS (return on ad spend).

When you have less competition, you don’t need to work as hard or spend as much money to see the results you’re after.

Therefore, Microsoft ads are not to be underestimated.

Targeting using Linkedin

For B2B businesses, Microsoft Advertising offers a unique advantage through its integration with LinkedIn.

This feature allows you to target ads based on LinkedIn profile data such as job title, industry, and company size. This level of precise targeting is particularly useful for businesses looking to reach professionals within specific industries, ensuring that your ads are seen by the most relevant audience, increasing your likelihood of conversions.

Microsoft audience network

Microsoft audience network is Microsoft Advertising’s display advertising platform that allows you to create ads across the Microsoft network including Edge and Outlook.

These ads are native, because they adapt to the platform they are displayed on as well as being personalised to the user thanks to various AI capabilities.

Campaign importing from Google

If you’re already running campaigns on Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising makes it easy to transition. The platform offers a simple campaign import feature that allows you to transfer your existing campaigns from Google Ads.

Google Ads Import is a simple process that is outlined in Microsoft’s Advertising’s guides.

Understandable campaign management

Microsoft Advertising is easy to set up, easy to monitor and easy to optimise.

With clear reporting and analytics, you can gain valuable insights into your campaign performance and make informed decisions based on the data rather than a lucky hunch. This ease of use ensures that even those new to PPC advertising can effectively understand their campaigns and achieve their marketing goals.

Multiple ad types

Microsoft offers a variety of ad types that give you plenty of options for your business. Different ad types will suit different businesses, industries and audiences which makes this a really powerful tool.

You can choose from:

Text ads
Responsive search ads
App instal ads
Image ads
Video ads
In the feed
Vertical ads

Targeting your audience

Microsoft audience network offers a wide variety of targeting, allowing you to target your audience with accuracy using the following categories:

Demographic: Target your audience by age, gender, socio-economic background, education and more.
Location: You can narrow down your search to geographic regions, countries, counties and even postcodes.
LinkedIn profiles: One of Microsoft Advertising’s most unique features, targeting your audience by job title, industry and company type.
Interests and attitudes: Ads can be targeted depending on the interests of users or the interests of those who have previously interacted with the ad.
Wholly personalised: This feature gives you the ability to remarket using customer data from your website

Within these segments, you can narrow down your audience further

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our PPC experts handle your Microsoft Advertising campaigns from initial research and creation to optimisation. We have access to decades of local keyword insights and tracking information to deliver the best possible outcome for your business.

For an in-depth guide into the basics of PPC, download our FREE PPC White Paper where we cover everything you need to know when setting up your ad campaigns.

What is Social Listening?

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:56:09 GMT

If you don’t use social listening then you are neglecting one of the most useful marketing tools that can inform your marketing strategy.

But what is social listening and how can you apply it to your business? Join Infoserve as we explore its uses below.

What is social listening?

Social listening tools track and monitor every mention of your brand across social media.

Yes, you read that right. Every single one.

You might wonder what the purpose of this is when you could simply type your name into the hashtags and see what people are posting about you. Well, as you may have discovered already, the information you gain from doing this is selective and limited.

With social listening tools, you gain a full overview of everything that is said about your brand online, whether that’s positive, negative, throwaway or a general feeling about your products/services.

You can also use social listening tools to:

Track the conversation around competitors
Monitor social trends
Keep an eye on topics that are close to your customers’ hearts

Why you should invest in social listening

Social listening tools give you a broad spectrum of public opinion on your business, without the need to go trawling through reviews and deep diving into hashtags.

Not only does this give you a more honest opinion on your products, services and branding, but it gives you the opportunity to proactively adjust your marketing strategy, or even adapt your products.

Data isn’t always in the statistics, it can also be in the overwhelming volume of people online who love your product but give the same piece of constructive feedback.

The benefits of social listening

1. Discovering valuable audience insights

If you are an established brand, then your audience and customers will be talking about you online, and this can give you a really good idea of what they want from you.

For example, if you were an online drinks company, you may have a customer mention that they love your product but find it difficult to open the lid. Your customers might not be the type who want to leave customer reviews, but would post an amusing video on TikTok of your drink going everywhere after they spent a few minutes trying to open it.

Social listening tools give you instant access to this information.

2. Managing PR problems

Social media listening tools can inform you instantly if the conversational tone around your brand shifts suddenly, and exactly why this is.

This gives you the opportunity to identify and address any issues before they become a crisis for your business, and prevent you from making the same error in future campaigns.

3. Identifying opportunities for collaboration

When influencers who like your brand post about one of your products, you will be notified straight away, which removes any blindness in your search for collaborators. Instead, it delivers opportunities right to your door.

You will also be able to see which influencers talk about you regularly vs which ones mentioned you once.

This is incredibly valuable because it allows you to find and work with people who are already passionate about what you do, in a space where it can be tough to find your way through the noise.

4. Monitoring competitor activity

You can use social listening tools to monitor your competitors too.

You’ll be able to see what people are saying about them, and identify any gaps in the market that you could slip into. Learn from their pitfalls and respond to their positive feedback.

5. Targeting campaigns with accuracy

Marketing campaigns always yield the highest return when they are targeted and accurate, and with the insight social listening provides, you can better tailor your efforts to a more personalised audience.

You’ll be able to identify and apply:

The language your audience uses
The social issues they care about
Background and location of your audience

For example, if your audience is currently engaging heavily in the conversation around plastic waste, then you might want to address this in your marketing campaign to better resonate with them.

How to use social listening tools effectively

1. Filter out the noise

Social listening can give you access to an overwhelming amount of information so you need to know what to look for.

For example, one negative Instagram review from an individual who is not in your target demographic is not the end of the world, but if a large number of your followers are giving constructive feedback about a feature of your product, this is definitely something to address.

2. Identify the right topics and words

Like keywords in SEO, you need to give social listening tools the right search terms to look out for. Using irrelevant keywords could waste time and money when you should be looking elsewhere.

Understandably, your name and social media handles will be included in this list, but consider looking out for industry specific keywords, competitor names, the name of your current and previous campaigns, and branded hashtags.

These can adapt and change over time so it is important to update them to keep them relevant.

3. Find the right platforms

Using a broad range of platforms will give you a more varied impression on how people feel about your business because conversations will differ depending on the format of the media.

Over time, you will gain a better overview on which ones to look out for.

Make sure you choose platforms that discuss your company in both a positive and negative light as both are incredibly helpful. Try not to filter out the bad because these voices will give you the opportunity to address issues and improve.

4. Adapt your strategy over time

Like any other marketing strategy, you will need to adapt it over time. You may want to try throwing a larger net to begin with and then narrowing your search when you get to grips with the technology.

5. Find the right tools

There are a number of social listening tools with different applications and costs, and what works for one business might not work for others.

These are some of the most popular and reputable platforms:

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Google is Deleting the Chat Service from Google Business Profiles: What this Means for Your Business

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:33:24 GMT

On July 31, 2024, Google will remove the chat feature from Google Business Profiles.

Small, local businesses will know just how useful this function can be as it allows customers to contact you directly from Google Maps to make a booking. Now that it is being removed, your company may be affected, but how will this change impact the way that customers can contact you, and what can you do to ensure that you are easy to reach?

Join Infoserve as we walk you through the key changes that you need to be aware of.

Will customers be notified of this change?

Customers in existing chat conversations will be notified about the upcoming change on July 15.

Can customers still contact my business?

Yes, but not through the chat function.

As long as your contact information including your phone number and email address are correct, customers will still be able to contact your business through your Google Business Profile.

If your company’s phone number is not visible on your GBP profile, then you need to make sure it is visible from July 31.

Will customers still be able to request a quote?

Customers will no longer be able to request a quote through your GBP profile.

Who will this change impact?

This change is most likely to impact small, local businesses who depend on Google Maps searches for conversions.

How to prepare for this change

This change to a feature that is essential for local businesses will undoubtedly change the way that you generate leads online, but there are plenty of ways that you can prepare for this change.

Make sure you:

1. Redirect customers towards alternative methods of contacting you

Google Business Profile chat is still live until July 31. Until then, use the existing chat to redirect your customers to alternative methods of contacting you.

This could be:

Your business phone number or whatsapp channel
A contact form on your website
Effective online listings

2. Ensure your online presence is up to date

A correct and up to date online presence will help customers find you with ease.

This means that, regardless of the loss of the chat function, your Google Business Profile should have the following information about your company listed accurately:

Your location
Your most appropriate contact details
Your opening hours
Your website link
Directions to your physical location
Reviews
Social media platform links
Popular products/services

One of the most effective ways to optimise your online listings is to use Listings Manager . In our blog, Google Business Profile: How to Optimise Your Local Business Presence , we dive into the details explaining how to create, maintain and get the most out of your Google Business Profile to draw in the best leads.

3. Update your website

One of the best ways you can tackle this change is to have a well built website that allows potential clients to contact your business with ease.

These are our top tips for helping your customers contact you without any fuss:

1. Include your contact details in the footer

When you include your contact details in the footer of your website, it allows customers to find them within seconds of landing on any page. Having your contact details in this position is expected, so customers will know exactly where to look to find your phone number and give you a ring.

2. Apply simple navigation techniques

Cut out the complex navigation menus and have a simple menu bar where the contact page can be accessed with a single click. Customers liked to use the chat feature because it gave them a quick and easy way to get in touch, so make sure that everything you do on your website reflects this.

Instead of flitting through multiple pages, they will be able to send you a message with the click of a button - as they could previously.

It can also benefit contractors to have a contact form on their main or home page to make this even simpler.

3. Create a simple but effective contact form

To ensure your contact forms are as user friendly as possible, make sure you:

Make them straightforward and convenient to fill out
Use a maximum of 5 boxes to avoid overwhelm and clutter
Align instructive text to the left side of the box so it’s natural to read
Give the form a clear, bold title
Ask for email address rather than phone number where possible
Utilise auto-fill functionalities by using common terms

4. Turn your contact details into a button

To make your contact information as easy to use as possible, make sure your phone number and email address are clickable so customers are only one click away from contacting you.

Your email address should redirect to their email app, with your address already loaded so they don’t need to enter it again.

5. Don’t neglect your messages

Customers opt to use Google’s chat feature because they get a quick response. So, you need to make sure that you are getting back to your customer’s emails swiftly.

Thinking of investing in modern web design?

If you’re concerned about the removal of GBP chat, please get in touch and Infoserve will be more than happy to discuss ways that we can continue to help with your conversions. Our web design experts are on hand to help you update your website, and our Listings , PPC and SEO team help your website get found

Influencer Marketing: The Who, What, and Why

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 17:00:54 GMT

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing refers to the situation in which a brand collaborates with an influencer in order to promote their product or service.

This could be to boost a marketing campaign, to improve the image or reputation of your overall brand, or to push a new/popular product.

Influencer marketing has been around since before even the internet. Brands used to employ celebrity figures to star in their advertisements on posters, tv and even radio. Today, we tend to associate influencer marketing with social media, and the wide variety of influencers that made a career based on their own personal brand.

When utilised effectively, influencer marketing can have a positive impact on your business.

Join Infoserve as we explore the ins and outs of this modern marketing method.

Should you invest in influencer marketing?

The answer to this question is far more nuanced than a simple yes or no, because it can depend entirely on the industry you work in, the budget you have available to you, and whether you have the resources to search for, and maintain, positive working relationships with influencers.

One thing you have to remember is that influencers are their own business, and so the working relationship you develop will never be as simple as paying someone to mention your company every now and again. It requires work and commitment from both parties.

You need to consider it carefully within your marketing strategy, and decide if it is right for your brand.

The benefits of influencer marketing

If you are considering influencer marketing, then there are several tangible benefits that come along with it, if it is done right:

1. It establishes trust with your audience

As a new business, it can be difficult to establish initial trust with your audience, but when an influencer they love endorses your brand, they are far more likely to take a chance on your products.

2. It helps you reach your audience

Influencer marketing can put your brand in front of your audience’s face, without the need to pay for ad content, and before your months of SEO work begin to pay off.

Instead of waiting for them to search for your product and find it themselves, it gives you the opportunity to insert it into their daily lives, in a way that will feel more organic than a paid advertisement that interrupts their scrolling.

3. It shows that your product really works

It is no secret that customer reviews are one of the biggest endorsements of your brand, and when they can see that someone they love online has tried and tested your product - with good results - they might just give it a go themselves.

4. It improves your SEO

Lots of influencers have blogs of their own where they try and review products. This can add valuable backlinks to your website that drive traffic and act as a trust signal to Google.

Which industries does influencer marketing work best for?

Unfortunately, influencer marketing is not suited to all industries, and there are definitely some that it works best for.

These include:

Beauty
Cosmetics
Travel and hospitality
Health and fitness
Entertainment
Food and beverages
Technology

How to find influencers for your brand

1. Find someone who believes in your brand

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your search for influencers is being too general in your search. If you’re just starting out, then it might be difficult to find someone who knows you, let alone believes you, but you should never settle for someone who is just accepting your money to show a product every now and again.

Why?

Because people want authenticity, and can tell when someone is truly passionate about the product they’re promoting. Plus, if they love your product, they’ll be more willing to showcase it, and wax lyrical about its benefits.

If you already have a following, then there are plenty of ways to find influencers who will want to promote you. You could try searching hashtags to see who has mentioned you, or use social listening platforms.

Otherwise, you could try looking at the influencers your target audience are interested in, and offer them some free products. The people who get back to you and say they loved it are the ones you should focus on.

2. Match your audience with your influencer

Your audience is the key to matching your brand with an influencer.

Create audience profiles and create a spreadsheet of the type of person they follow. You will be far more likely to be successful in boosting brand awareness this way than if you target the wrong people.

3. Consider the platform carefully

The platforms your influencer uses matter more than you might think. This is because the audience will change, as will the method of advertising and the format of content.

For example, Youtubers can be a really good shout if you’re promoting meal plans. This is because it is really natural for an influencer to slot footage of using your meal plan into their daily vlog. Fashion can be showcased more easily in TikTok reels than landscape facebook videos.

Consider carefully who you want to buy your product, and which platforms they might be using, then this will better inform your choice of influencers.

4. Look to your competitors

Take a look at who your competitors use for their influencer marketing.

You won’t be able to pinch their influencer’s time and energy, but you will be able to find similar public figures this way. You may also find influencers that you hadn’t considered before.

For example, if you sold book lights and book stands, you may have rightfully thought to look for Instagram influencers within the reading space. But, you might find that your competitors are advertising their products to new mums who want to relax in a way that doesn’t disturb their sleeping newborn. They might also have neurodivergent or disabled influencers who need a more accessible method of reading.

Through this, you can better align your products with influencers.

5. Do your research

Whilst influencers can have a positive impact on your brand, they can also break it if you choose the wrong person. Make sure you know who they are, understand their history, their online behaviour and their ethics.

If they are unpredictable or do something that doesn’t align with who you are as a brand, it can sever the trust your audience has in you.

So choose wisely, and know who you’re working with.

What to avoid in influencer marketing

As well as the many things to look for in an influencer, you also need to know what to avoid.

1. Expecting fast results

Sourcing influencers and creating trust are two tasks that do take time. Whilst influencers can persuade people to put their faith in your brand quicker, it isn’t going to happen overnight. Be patient, and expect steady growth.

2. Just paying someone with a large following

Popularity isn’t everything.

As we established before, just because an influencer has a large following, it doesn’t mean that they will believe in your brand, or that your audiences align.

Like everything in marketing, shooting blind is nowhere near as effective as being specific, targeted and thoughtful in your approach.

3. Generalising your approach

Every influencer is different, and you need to tailor your approach to them. It might be that all they want to do is work with you because they believe in you, and receive a small endorsement or access to free or discounted products. But, this is the exception.

You need to be mindful of their lifestyle, and work alongside them to come to an agreement that works for you both.

Remember, they will have spent years cultivating their personal brand into a business, and you need to be fair, honest and respectful of this.

How to measure influencer marketing

Like every marketing campaign, you need to set specific and measurable goals for your influencer campaign.

There are many factors you can use to determine how successful it has been including:

Followers gained during your campaign
Impressions
Conversions

We recommend introducing the following techniques to give yourself something more tangible to measure:

1. Trackable links: Assign a unique URL to your links that only your influencer has access to. This will demonstrate how many people have clicked through from their posts.

2. Discount codes: Give your influencer a discount code specific to them. You can easily track the number of people who have used this code at the checkout.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

How to Choose the Right Directories for Your Business

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:32:48 GMT

‘A business directory is like an online version of the Yellow Pages.’ - SEO Glossary, Conductor

Once upon a time, before the internet came into our lives, the best way to get the name of your business into people’s minds was through the Yellow Pages: a large book filled with every company in every industry you could possibly imagine.

Now that we have search engines, you may think that these lists have become null in void, but the truth is they now exist in a digital format, and any company or individual can create their own listings. Only today, they are known as online business directories.

Aside from The Real Yellow Pages , there are plenty of options out there for your business, so how do you know which directories are right for your business, and where you should invest your time and money? Infoserve ’s listing experts know all the tips and tricks.

What is a directory?

Business directories are lists of businesses online, often so that information can be found easily by users. Companies that own directories will gather information about businesses and categorise them by industry, location and other key identifying information.

The purpose of business directories is to drive traffic to websites via an external source.

Examples of business directories

Online directories exist in many forms, some more recognised than others:

Google Business Profiles
The Yellow Pages - that’s right, they’re online now!
Facebook pages
Yell
Hotfrog
LinkedIn Company Directory
Apple Maps

How to find the right directories for your business

1. Understand your target audience

We’ve spoken about understanding your target audience more times than we can count, and we’ll do it again. And again. And again.

And, when you’re searching for online directories that work for you, you need to know which platforms they use to hunt for businesses like yours.

For example, a 20 year old influencer hunting for the best phone light isn’t going to search The Real Yellow Pages for this product, and they’re unlikely to use Google Maps to find a local business for it either. You need to know which platforms they’re using, which blogs they’re reading, and whether they’re more likely to use social media or search engines for this purpose.

Otherwise, you won’t reach your potential customers and you will have wasted precious time and money.

Consider:

Demographics
Interests
Behaviours

2. Find general directories

Although there are some directories that it might seem pointless to join, the backlinks they generate can do wonders for your E-E-A-T rating by generating backlinks.

As we know, high quality backlinks boost your trustworthiness to Google. You will want to look for directories like Google My Business, Google Maps, Apple Maps and Social Media.

Whilst they might not generate the most traffic, they are free to join, and give more credibility to your business. So you need to make sure you’re on them.

3. Set up a Google Business Profile

Whoever your business is and whatever your business does, it needs to have a Google My Business profile.

If you want to be found online, this is a non-negotiable. In fact, when Infoserve takes on new clients, regardless of whether you have signed up for Listings, SEO or Web Design, one of the first things we do is check your Google My Business profile.

This is because it is one of the most powerful listings on the internet.

Take a look at our blog to discover How To Optimise Your Google My Business Profile to ensure you are making the most out of its features.

4. Research industry specific directories

Next, conduct research to identify industry specific directories that are relevant to your business.

These directories are often more targeted and can provide valuable exposure to customers who are already interested in the products or services you offer. Look for directories that are well established and have a strong reputation within your industry.

For example, startup makeup brands would do well in online beauty magazines that list their favourite beauty products with reviews and links to the website.

We recommend:

Conducting an online search: Use search engines to find industry specific directories by searching for directories with your company’s keywords. E.g. ‘ Beauty product directories’, ‘holiday home directories,’ ‘japanese restaurant directories’.
Use industry forums: When asked how they found industry specific directories, many professionals said they used online forums, discussions and networking events to find recommendations.
Look at your competitors: Conduct research into your key competitors and discover which listings they appear in. This could be done by typing their name into a search engine.
Consult the experts: Approaching listings specialists is a good place to start if you’re not sure what to look for. They know exactly where to look for the best listings, and can analyse the authority and traffic potential of business directories on your behalf, saving you valuable time and getting the best result possible.

5. Don’t forget local directories

For businesses with a physical location or a local customer base, local directories are essential.

These directories help improve your visibility in local search results and make it easier for nearby customers to find and contact your business.

Be sure to optimise your listings on platforms like:

Google My Business
Yelp
Yellow Pages
Apple Maps

6. Check the domain authority

When evaluating potential directories, consider factors like domain authority and website traffic.

Directories with high domain authority are more likely to rank well in search engine results, providing valuable backlinks to your website. Additionally, directories with high traffic can drive more visitors to your business listing, increasing the chances of generating leads and conversions.

Directories with low domain authority can harm your rankings so it is important to be vigilant, and not skim over this research.

7. Track and evaluate performance

Once you have listed your business in various directories, it's important to monitor and evaluate their performance.

Track metrics like website traffic, leads generated, and customer inquiries to determine which directories are providing the most value. Use this data to refine your directory strategy and focus on platforms that deliver the best results.

By following these steps and investing time in finding the right directories for your business, you can enhance your online visibility, attract more customers, and ultimately grow your business. Remember, the key is to be strategic and selective in choosing directories that align with your goals and target audience.

Not sure where to start?

What is Website Accessibility?

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 09 May 2024 12:00:59 GMT

Website accessibility isn’t simply a convenience, it is a legal requirement. And, even if it wasn’t, it is still non-negotiable. Everyone has the right to use the internet, and as web designers and business owners, we have a responsibility to remove barriers of access to websites.

Join Infoserve as we explore the basics of web accessibility, and what you can do to make sure your website is accessible to everyone.

What is web accessibility?

Website accessibility is the process of creating web pages that are usable by everyone, including those with both physical and cognitive disabilities. This can be achieved through design features and coded elements that make it easy for anyone, regardless of ability, to interact with every area of the web.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities including:

Auditory
Neurological
Physical
Visual
Vocal
Cognitive

As well as making the web accessible to people with disabilities, accessibility guidelines are also in place to allow people without disabilities, but with other barriers, equal access. For example:

Those accessing a website where the primary language used is not their first language
People whose ability to access the internet is impacted by ageing
Anyone who does not have access to a fast internet connection due to their location or financial situation
People whose limitations occur due to their social/economic situation

Who manages web accessibility?

Accessibility guidelines are outlined and managed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WIP) .

They are responsible for publishing and upholding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) .

How to make your website accessible

The WCAG has determined that in order for a website to be accessible, it must be perceivable, understandable, operable and robust:

But let’s dive a little deeper into how you can incorporate this on your website:

How to make your website perceivable

1. Offer text alternatives:

Every element of your website that isn’t text must have a text alternative. This is more commonly referred to as ‘alt text.’ Images, videos, and audio features must have text that ads context for anyone without the ability to perceive them clearly.

Alt text can be added easily through website editors, and is added to the HTML code of your website, making it easy for assistive technology to parse.

2. Offer alternatives for video and audio media:

Time sensitive media, and media that relies on audio processing as its main form of communication should be equipped with text alternatives like transcripts, captions and subtitles.

This makes it more accessible for people who are deaf, live with hearing loss, struggle to process auditory information, or are neurodiverse.

3. Structure content so that the information is clear in HTML:

Structured elements of your website like headings, lists, bold and italic text files should be written in a way that ensures they are still understandable if the structure was taken away.

4. Make content easy to see and hear:

Using strong colour contrast and including the option to increase text size makes content easier for people to read. You could include a function that allows users to increase or decrease the contrast of elements on your website so that the user can tailor this to their level of sensitivity.

For example, people with colour blindness or who have limited visibility can increase the contrast, whereas neurodiverse individuals with visual processing differences might wish to have less extreme colour contrast.

How to make your website understandable

1. Use simple language that everyone can understand:

Text elements on your website should be easy to understand by everyone including anyone with learning disabilities, and those who don’t speak English as their first language.

This means avoiding local slang, industry jargon without clarification, or complex idioms. To ensure inclusion in your writing, simple really is better.

2. Write useful error messages:

Error messages can be confusing and frustrating at the best of times, let alone to someone who doesn’t like unpredictability or is not tech literate.

Make your error messages clear, and outline in simple terms what your user can do next. For example, including links to another page.

Your error messages are not exempt from accessibility guidelines, so make sure they themselves are upheld to all web accessibility standards.

How to make your website operable

1. Ensure total functionality using the tab key on keyboards:

Make sure your website is operable by anyone who is unable to use a mouse or touchpad by ensuring you can successfully navigate every area of your website using the keyboard alone.

The most common application of this is making sure that you can jump between clickable features using the ‘tab’ key, and click on buttons using the ‘enter’ key.

2. Avoid using blinking or flashing content:

There was once a time when flashing and blinking images were state-of-the-art, but now it is recognised that this content can trigger epileptic seizures and autistic meltdowns. Therefore, you should avoid this altogether.

3. Provide consistent navigation options:

To ensure all users can operate your website without difficulty, keep the navigation predictable, simple and consistent across your website.

4. Give plenty of time to engage:

Sliding banners and videos are popular on websites, but you should always take into account that different people have different processing speeds, and that assistive technology must be able to keep up with moving elements.

We would recommend:

Giving users a clickable button that allows them to move through sliding elements in their own time
Allowing any videos to be paused or rewinded
Making sure drop down menus don’t disappear as soon as the mouse moves elsewhere on the screen

How to make your website robust

1. Write HTML that can be parsed easily:

Assistive technology allows disabled users to use laptops, monitors, tablets and phones without the assistance of another, however, this only works if your website is amenable.

These technologies translate HTML files into a format that is recognisable as text. Therefore, your HTML should be well written and correctly formatted.

Not sure where to start?

Is My Website Outdated?

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 09 May 2024 08:14:16 GMT

57% of users say they will not suggest a business with a poorly designed website on mobile - UIUXDen, LinkedIn

Your website is the online storefront of your business. And, like the window displays that draw your eye on the high street, the appearance of your web pages matter more than you might think.

An outdated design can quickly put users off buying your products or enquiring about your service. But, because design trends are constantly evolving, what was considered cutting edge in 2015 can make your business seem untrustworthy in 2024.

So, how do you know if your website is in need of a refresh? And more importantly, what steps can you take to bring it up to speed? At Infoserve , we recommend looking for these tell tale signs that your website might be outdated:

Signs that your website is out of date

1. Unconventional navigation

People expect certain things about a website and predictable navigation is one of them. They want to know where to click to get the information they want.

Sure, the fancy and cool navigation bar that sweeps down from the top of the page might be exciting and new, but once the novelty has worn off, it can become frustrating.

Remember, your users are on your website because they want something. And you need to make it as easy as possible for them to get it.

By confusing them with unexpected navigation, you are delaying this process, and even putting them off staying on your website altogether.

To make sure your website’s navigation is top notch, make sure you apply the following standardised rules:

Keep the structure of your primary navigation simple
Include navigation in the footer of your website
Don’t offer too many navigation options on one page
Include hypertext links within your page copy
Try to keep your site structure no more than 3 levels deep, so that your user can find what they’re after quickly
Turn your logo into a button that takes your user back to your home page

A great example of unconventional navigation is Innocent Drinks. Rather than an obvious navigation bar, they have opted to add a button in the top centre of their website that gets lost amongst the hero video image.

Although this is fun, and does suit their branding, it takes longer for the user to figure out. Not only this, but it can be difficult to find for anyone who is colour blind, or uses accessibility features on their laptop.

2. Lack of visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is the process of creating a website layout that leads your users to your desired action in the most natural way possible. They should travel through the elements of your website in order of intended importance.

Your website may lack visual hierarchy if:

The colours are cluttered: Colour should be used to tell a story across your website. It should be used to ensure some elements are enhanced and others recede. If you look at your website and cannot pick out the most important features through colour alone, then it is definitely not being used to guide your user seamlessly across your website.

Important elements are in small print: The most important elements of your website should be bold, stand out, and catch your user’s eye. It might seem obvious, but make sure the most important messages are the biggest.

This can be achieved through the use of headings, banner images, USP graphics and emboldened text.

Your website lacks grouping: Grouping is created using both proximity and white space. It directs users to specific groups of elements and lets them know that they are linked.

3. Colour clutter

Visual clutter is a big no in modern website design, and for good reason.

Consider the last time you opened up a news article online and were instantly confronted with ads. Did you feel that they distracted your attention from the article?

What this format tells us about web design is crucial to understanding the movement to remove visual clutter.

When we are online, every single day, we are presented with an overload of information. And, it is given to us so quickly now, with the surge of short videos on social media, that your website needs to get straight to the point. Otherwise, you risk losing the attention of potential customers.

By only giving your users the most relevant text, imagery, and graphics, you can make their journey through your website that much easier.

You can reduce the clutter by removing unnecessary/unhelpful elements, applying white space effectively and clearly defining brand colours and their purpose.

Simple is better.

4. Too many text blocks

Text blocks are tiring.

Mobile responsive websites are thriving.

And, text boxes are even more boring on phone screens.

In 2024, it is estimated that around 60% of all website traffic will come from mobile phones.

So, short and snappy text really is the way.

To declutter your text:

Remove any sentences that feel unnecessary
Reduce your sentences so they are short and sweet
Chop your paragraphs into bite sized chunks
Make your CTAs stand out more than text blocks

5. Overarching hero images

Hero images are still a popular website design choice because they tell your user who you are and what you do within a matter of seconds.

And, as we know, it takes a user less than 7 seconds to decide whether your website is worth their time.

However, with mobile-first design taking over, it is easy to see why cumbersome hero images might not have the desired effect.

Not only do they take longer to load, but they can look out of place if not adapted correctly.

Hero images are still in, but simple and responsive hero images are best.

6. Non-responsive design

You could probably tell this one was coming, but if your website is not mobile-responsive then it is, sadly, outdated.

We’d love to sugarcoat it, but there really is no way around that fact.

If you do not have a responsive design then you could be losing up to 60% of potential customers.

It really is that simple.

7. Lack of website accessibility

Website accessibility is not just a nice to have feature, it is an absolute necessity. Without accessibility features, those with limited visibility, learning disabilities, deafness and physical disabilities may be excluded from using your website.

Websites must be:

Perceivable: Users must be able to perceive or understand the content on your website
Understandable: All content should be easily understood by all users, including those who don’t speak English as a first language
Operable: Users must be able to use the website without disruption
Robust: Content should be easily digested by all users, including those who use assistive technology.

Thinking of investing in modern web design?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you update your website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

For an in-depth guide on the basics of Web Design, download our FREE Web Design White Paper where we cover the fundamentals of website design, marketing and copy.

Google My Business: How To Optimise Your Local Business Presence

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:47:33 GMT

46% of all searches on Google include local intent - Safari Digital

One of the most impactful changes you can make to your small business is the creation of a Google Business Profile. Think of this online listing as your business’s trusty sidekick: the Robin to your website’s Batman. But, like Robin, it needs to be equipped with the right gear to stand by your side and work to your advantage.

At Infoserve , one of the first things we do for our businesses is ensure their Google Business Profile is working as effectively as it can be, because it is that important. But, exactly how can it be optimised to act as your website’s comrade? Join us as we explain everything you need to know.

How to create a Google Business Account

Creating a Google My Business Account is actually pretty simple. All you need is a laptop or phone, and a few basic details about your business:

Step 1: Log in to the Google account associated with your business, or create a Google account for your business.

Step 2: Click ‘Manage Now’ in the top left corner.

Step 3: Enter the details of your business. Google will ask for your company name, location, business category, phone number, and website URL.

Step 4: Verify your Google Business profile. This can be done by phone, email, or postcard. Google also offers instant verification, and bulk verification for businesses that operate from multiple places.

Is a Google Business Profile free?

Yes, Google Business profiles are completely free. There are no fees for either creation or management.

Benefits of having a Google Business Profile

1. Increased visibility

When you have a Google Business Profile, Google is far more likely to show your company towards the top of the search results, as well as in the maps feature.

2. Access to reviews

Unlike many other review sites, Google’s review platform is completely free for businesses. This means your customers will be able to leave reviews without any expense to you.

Having reviews that are instantly accessible and visible to your customers helps your business gain credibility with future customers, as well as search engines themselves. Thus, improving your online reputation.

3. Presence on Google Maps

Having a Google Business Profile doesn’t just boost your presence in the SERP (search engine results page). When you enter your address on your profile, you will be displayed on Google Maps.

You will be shown to people searching for your business or businesses like yours in local search. For example, if you were a skin clinic based in Mayfair, your practice would be shown to anyone near Mayfair who searched for ‘skin clinic near me’ on Google Maps.

4. Customers have instant access to business information

Google Business profiles display important information about your company on the SERP so customers don’t have to open your website to contact you, or know where you are based. This cuts out the middleman.

Google Business Profiles can display:

Your location
Your most appropriate contact details
Your opening hours
Your website link
Directions to your physical location
Reviews
Social media platform links
Popular products
Upcoming events

5. SEO signal

Google My Business is crucial for your SEO strategy for a multitude of reasons including:

Boosts traffic and visibility
It improves your local presence online
Establishes you as an authority in your industry
It acts as a trust signal to customers, pushing them to your website
Helps you reach a wider audience

How to optimise your Google Business Profile Listing

Having a Google My Business Profile is an excellent way of boosting your presence, but are you making the most out of its features?

When you optimise your account, you can reach an even bigger audience, and gain trust from customers who have only just discovered your company.

Make sure you:

1. Include all of the standard information

GMB listing should have the following elements as standard:

Your business name
Your business address
Your business hours
The category of your business
The contact details of your business (phone number, email address)
Google reviews

2. Include keywords

You might not think that including keywords in your GMB listing is important, but on your profile they act in a similar way to basic SEO.

In your description, including your main keywords can reinforce their relevance to your business, and signal authority in your industry.

3. Keep your information up to date

Ensure all the information on your GMB listing is accurate and up to date. This includes opening times, contact details, location and company branding. Out of date information can be confusing to customers.

You must also make sure all of the information displayed aligns with the information on your website. Disjointed data can negatively impact your rankings.

4. Include images

Displaying images of your business makes it appear more credible to your customers. This could be photos of your shopfront, your employees, or the products you sell. All imagery should be high quality and relevant to your product/service, as well as up to date.

Avoid having visuals for the sake of having visuals, and take pride in what you post.

5. Create a product catalogue

Google My Business allows small and medium businesses to display a catalogue of products, which can be incredibly useful to customers. Before they even click on your website, they will know what you sell and whether they are interested in the look and price of your products.

This can also entice them to click.

You will be able to display:

Product price
Product images
Product details

6. Make use of the special attributes

One of Google Business Profile’s more specific features is the special attributes category. This includes:

On-site accessibility
Special attributes including black-owned and women-led businesses
Dining options
On-site amenities like wifi
Accepted payment methods
Atmosphere attributes

7. Respond to customer reviews

When you respond to reviews, you show your customers that you care.

If the review is positive, thank the customer for their time. It can help to personalise your response a little, as standard responses can make your customer feel unseen. Sometimes, simply addressing them by their username can make all the difference.

If the review is negative, make sure to address the issue promptly. This will differ depending on the service you offer, but resolving issues quickly can restore trust from them as an individual, and any other future customer who is looking through your reviews before they make a purchase.

Ensure your response is compassionate, and don’t brush aside any complaints.

Not sure where to start?

Digital AI: Why Google’s March Update Filters Out AI Content

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 14:11:39 GMT

Google’s March update 2024

In March 2024, Google announced its new core update that included new spam policies with the aim of showing users less content that feels as though it was generated solely to attract clicks.

It aims to filter out the following bad practices within SEO:

Expired domain abuse: The practice of purchasing an expired domain name with the intent to manipulate search rankings, without the aim of providing value to users
Scaled content abuse: Generating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little value to users
Site reputation abuse: When third party websites are created in order to take advantage of the original site’s existing ranking signals.

But what does this mean for businesses? Infoserve has unpacked AI generated content and its impact on SEO.

Does this update impact AI generated content?

Google itself has stated that:

‘Our long-standing spam policy has been that use of automation, including generative AI, is spam if the primary purpose is manipulating ranking in Search results.’ - Google

In the same text, it also says:

‘Our new policy is meant to help people focus more clearly on the idea that producing content at scale is abusive if done for the purpose of manipulating search rankings and that this applies whether automation or humans are involved.’ - Google

Whilst Google is quite firm in its belief that content can be considered spam whether it was created by a human or AI tools, many SEO marketers believe that the purpose of ‘scaled content abuse’ is to reduce the spread of AI content across search engines.

This is for a number of reasons.

The clues are in the wording.

Google says: ‘this abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content’.

The intent behind so many people using AI content generators is to do just that. Create large amounts of content, without the cost or labour of a human employee. Whilst this can be a benefit to smaller businesses who require a more affordable method of creating content, it can unfortunately saturate the internet with ‘unoriginal content.’

Secondly, it is widely known that AI content generators can only create content that is ‘unoriginal.’ This is because they are essentially just a large database of existing website content. When a user places a request, the generator will trawl this database and extract information from it.

Therefore, the content it gives its users is pulled from the same articles in its database every time.

Whilst it can be a helpful tool, it is only that: a tool. It lacks the originality, emotional intelligence and nuance that a human mind possesses. All of these qualities are the pinnacle of what Google’s algorithms consider valuable and useful.

The benefits of AI in content generation

Of course, there are benefits to adopting AI in an SEO strategy, and this is why many businesses use generative AI in their content strategy:

It is an affordable tool: For small businesses who cannot afford the luxury of an in-house content writer, AI can provide a solution. However, all AI content requires a human touch before it is published.

It can help unstick writers' block: If you have a blog idea in your mind and you don’t know where to start, AI can help with heading ideas, structure and key research points to help you get started. It generates content quickly so it can give writers a good starting point which improves workflow.

It can be used for brainstorming: Content ideation is famously time consuming and AI can help remove this hurdle. Be wary of taking ideas at face value because nothing quite beats the ideas that come from a team meeting where human minds are bouncing off each other.

Creates effective skeleton content: When you have come up with a blog idea, AI tools can create a basic skeleton blog for you to expand, improve and work from.

The downfalls of AI content

AI content is neither smart nor stupid. It is a tool that can be used to assist human minds in the generation of content. On its own, it has many pitfalls that Google’s quality guidelines penalise:

Inability to recognise the nuance of language

The ability to understand and apply nuance in language is an inherently human trait. One that AI simply cannot replicate. Human communication is colourful and creative, and the beauty really is in the details.

Likewise, AI has no ability to recognise offensive turns of phrase. It might have the ability to filter out offensive language, but it might include a sentence that is phrased inappropriately, but wouldn’t be able to pick up on this.

For example, when asked the question, ‘what is a woman?’, a popular AI tool gave me this answer:

‘A woman is an adult human female. In terms of biology, women typically have two X chromosomes, but there can be variations due to genetic conditions. Beyond biology, being a woman can also involve aspects of gender identity, societal roles, cultural expectations, and personal expression. Gender identity refers to a person's internal sense of their own gender, which may or may not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Women, like men, can be found in diverse roles and professions, and they contribute to society in various ways, ranging from leadership and innovation to caregiving and community building.’

The final sentence, although factually accurate, lacks nuance and could easily be taken to offence.

Content is unoriginal

As discussed previously in this blog, AI content is unoriginal.

AI content generators were created by putting a wide range of content into a large database that the tool can pull information from on request. This means that any information it gives its users comes from this same content.

It will rephrase rather than reframe this information, and give it back to you in the format you have asked for. It is effectively just regurgitating the same information over and over again, creating unoriginal writing and ideas.

This is why it is not the best place to go for content ideation, because the ideas it generates will be taken from other company’s previous ideas. It won’t be able to find an interesting or original angle.

Lacks knowledge of your brand

AI tools lack internal knowledge of your brand. They won’t be able to adapt to your tone of voice, or recognise the unique audience you have built.

Whilst they might have external, or surface information that can be found on your website, they cannot understand who you are as a whole, or the image you are trying to create through your content.

It lacks the emotional intelligence of human content

Google loves content that is valuable to its users, and let’s be honest, the best content online possesses a skill that AI sorely lacks: storytelling.

AI cannot connect with your audience in the way you can. It cannot reason, it lacks real human insight and emotional wisdom, and it can’t connect with the day to day problems your customers face. It can’t look into the minds of your customers and tug on their heartstrings.

It still requires a human touch

Although AI content can generate content quickly, it still requires human time to make sure it is publishable.

It can create a plagiarism risk

Because AI content is generated off the back of existing content, there is a risk of duplicate content and copyright. Although the content isn’t plagiarised, it is always worth double checking sources.

How to spot AI content

Once you have used AI content a few times, it can become fairly easy to spot the language and sentence patterns it uses. In fact, AI content is so detectable that there are now tools online that can scan a piece of text and tell you to 90% accuracy whether it was written by AI.

If you have used AI as a tool, and transformed it into content that suits your brand and is useful to your audience then you shouldn’t be concerned. However, this does mean that Google will be able to recognise and filter it out, if it deems it to be spam-like.

AI content has a few common signs including:

Repetitive phrasing and language
Incorrect or outdated information
Lack of individuality or personality
Specific/repetitive sentence structure

If you’re an avid LinkedIn user, then you may have noticed that particular phrases have become a common joke amongst marketers. If content starts with phrases like ‘in the digital realm,’ ‘in the vast online landscape,’ or ‘in the ever-evolving metropolis of…’ then there is a high likelihood AI was used to generate it.

There is nothing wrong with utilising AI. It exists for a reason. It makes a complex and difficult skill easier. In fact, 65% of businesses But, it should always be taken with a pinch of salt, and edited to make it more personable, unique and ultimately human, before it goes on your website.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our SEO team and content writers are experienced in creating human-led, personalised content that helps your website get found online. We take SEO seriously, which is why we ensure that all of our content is hand-written by professional Content Writers so that it works for both your users and Google’s quality guidelines.

Web Design Psychology: How Colour Influences User Behaviour

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:35:54 GMT

Colour is more than just a thing that makes your website pretty.

The psychology behind colours is a topic that is constantly fascinating designers because the impact it has on user perception is astounding. Choosing colours for your brand, finding images for your website and choosing a mood for social media all heavily depend on emotional response.

At Infoserve , our design team are experts at utilising colour to influence user behaviour, and we want to let you in on the fascinating world of colour psychology within web design.

After all:

‘Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. ’ - Steve Jobs

What is colour psychology?

Colour psychology is the study of how colours impact emotional and physical responses in people.

Different colours, tones, gradations and contrasts of colours can heavily influence a person’s mood and the subsequent actions they take. These emotional responses can differ depending on the distinct culture and experiences of an individual.

The implications of this are enormous.

The psychology of colours

The psychology of Red

Red is a colour most often associated with power and intensity, but the bright tones that come to mind when you think of red are not the only ones used in branding.

Softer red tones can elicit a sense of adventure particularly when paired with subtle colours like navy blue.

One brand that uses red across its branding is Red Bull. Despite the fact that red is in the brand’s name, they are known to have chosen this colour because it symbolises energy and vitality in parallel with the red cloth associated with bullfighting. Perfect for an energy drink brand. Red is also known to encourage feelings of hunger or thirst, moving people to consume a product.

However, despite red being present in its logo, it is surprisingly absent from their website, except in the very prominent call to action (CTA) buttons. When used for this function, red creates a sense of urgency, pushing users to take action.

How to use red in UX design:

When using red in web design, UX designers will:

Pair it with a secondary colour: Secondary colours help balance the positive aspects of red with the less advantageous aspects. It softens the colour, and stops your user from immediately seeing it as a warning
Use red for CTAs: As Red Bull have demonstrated, red should be used to signify important actions you want your user to take. Contrasting it with a white background will reinforce this
Use varying shades to create softness: Different shades of red used in parallel soften the starkness of the colour. Browns, maroons, pinks and light reds can change the tone of a website from urgent to vintage, passive or even promoting passion

Warning: Red is also associated with danger, so striking the perfect balance in tone, shading, positioning and shape requires a delicate touch.

The psychology of Orange

Orange is a colour that represents a wide array of positive emotions including:

Optimism
Freedom
Freshness
Confidence
Creativity
Safety
Good health

How to use orange in UX design:

Brands that use orange on their website create a sense of warmth and vibrancy that can feel comforting for a user.

It draws attention without being as powerful as red. It is often used to create accent lines and patterning, as well as muted highlights in graphics.

The psychology of Yellow

Yellow, like red, should be used with care in web design. When positioned correctly, it can generate feelings of happiness and optimism. But, it can also trigger feelings of caution and irrationality.

How to use yellow in UX design:

Yellow should only be applied to a website where it already exists within the branding, as it can be jarring.

Follow these tips when using yellow on a website:

Elements you want to stand out: Yellow draws the eye, and your user will gravitate towards elements in this colour
Paired with neutral colours: This makes it stand out even more, keeps a balanced design, and avoids bombarding the user with too many vibrant elements
Use it sparingly: Yellow is a bold colour, so make sure it is used in moderation to maintain a harmonious design
Choose the right shade of yellow: Yellow comes in a myriad of shades and tones. Choosing the right one can make the difference between understated or gripping your user’s attention. A good example of this is the softness of Marie Curie’s Memory Cloud website vs Nikon
Create contrast: One of yellow’s biggest powers in web design is creating contrast

The psychology of Green

Green is a beloved colour in wellness and nature-based industries because users associate it with health, harmony, sustainability and life. It is very closely connected with positive emotions. It is attributed to the feeling of going somewhere, that life could be better where the ‘grass is greener’.

And studies have proven that websites with green imagery leave their user with a feeling of hope.

However, green can also be associated with sickness and envy in certain cultures.

How to use green in UX design:

Green colours can be used to highlight areas of your business that are sustainable. With green in your branding, there are a multitude of possibilities and combinations, but there is little proof that there is a specific application that influences user behaviour.

However, using vibrant green in contrast with a white background can influence users to click on a button.

Think of it as giving them the green light.

The psychology of Blue

If you’re seeking feelings of contentment across your website then blue is the colour to use. Both the colour of the ocean and the sky, it is associated with feelings of tranquillity, calmness, relaxation, security, peace and trust.

How to use blue in UX design:

Blue is a colour that doesn’t draw attention to itself and is therefore best used in imagery, graphics and across your website’s overall branding.

Use deeper shades of blue, like navy, to draw attention to important elements such as CTAs.
Create plenty of white space to bring more subtle colours to the forefront
Contrast dark blue backgrounds with white text and light imagery to avoid a gloomy appearance

The psychology of Purple

Purple is a regal colour whose connotations include mystery, harmony and luxury. At once, it is known to physically awaken introspection and insight by calming the mind, whilst not being so subtle that it fosters relaxation.

How to use purple in UX design:

Purple is a colour we love, but it should be applied sparingly within website design. It is not a colour that works for every brand, but when used appropriately, it can signal that your website offers a superior, sophisticated service.

Create clarity: Deep purples are excellent for creating clarity between elements such as buttons or blocks
Apply to banner elements: Purple is fantastic at drawing the eye to big, bold areas of your website design
Soften with shading: Bright and bold purples can be jarring when used too frequently, so be sure to soften them with grey tones and calmer secondary colours

The application of Monochrome

Monochromatic websites are few and far between on the internet and the reason is because this colour scheme is not considered stimulating but, black and white features do have their applications:

Purpose: News websites are often created using black and white colour schemes because it avoids distraction and allows users to focus on the purpose of the website
Typography: Black typography is a tale as old as time and for good reason. Black text on a white/lightly coloured background is legible and avoids distraction
White space: White is vital for website design. It provides separation between elements and reduces visual clutter. It also helps features like CTA buttons stand out

Other factors that impact colour psychology

Individual colours have their own unique applications within UX design, but there are other factors that impact user behaviour when it comes to colour psychology:

Colour tone
Shading/softness
Gradation
Contrasting/complementary colours
Colour combinations
White space

Tips for choosing colours for your branding

Simply choosing your colours is not enough. Take a look at Infoserve’s top tips for choosing colours for your UX design:

Use a maximum of 5 colours for your website:

Less is often more when it comes to colour. Aim to use a maximum of five colours for your website or branding materials. This helps maintain visual consistency and prevents overwhelming your audience with too many competing hues.

The golden ratio of colours:

Just like the golden ratio in design, there's a golden ratio of colours.

This concept suggests using a dominant colour for about 60% of your design, a secondary colour for 30%, and accent colours for the remaining 10%. This balance ensures balance and visual appeal across your website.

Create a scheme of primary and secondary colours:

Primary colours are the foundation of your design and secondary colours add depth and variety across your website to give your user the best visual experience.

Secondary colours can be used to highlight important areas and buttons as they will stand out more against your primary colours.

Opt for complimentary colours:

Complementary colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel and create a vibrant contrast when used together. Incorporating complementary colours into your branding can make elements pop and evoke strong emotions.

Contrasting colours help elements stand out:

Applying colour contrast to a design causes certain elements to advance and others to recede. This determines which elements catch our attention first and signifies their importance in the hierarchy of information. The contrast between an element and its surroundings can also create this effect.

Simplicity is key:

Avoid overcomplicating your colour palette with too many shades or intricate patterns. Opt for clean and minimalist designs that are easy on the eyes and memorable for your audience.

This way, you’ll be able to seamlessly guide your user across your website to take your desired action.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create a website that engages your audience through the expert application of colour, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

EAT and YMYL: Understanding Google's Content Quality Guidelines for SEO

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 17:51:54 GMT

Why quality is important for SEO

It can be easy to forget that Google isn’t an anthropomorphic being that magics information out of thin air, when it is, first and foremost, a business. And, like every other business out there, it aims to provide its users with the best product possible: a search engine that gives them relevant, valuable and correct information.

Or, in other words, a search engine that gives them the highest quality of content.

Which is why this should be at the forefront of your mind when creating SEO articles.

Infoserve ’s SEO and content team know all about creating high quality content, so we thought we would explain this vital component and give you a few tips on how to implement EAT in YMYL articles.

What is EAT?

EAT stands for: Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness.

These principles are outlined in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Although they are not considered a direct ranking factor, Google’s algorithms apply them to indirectly signal high quality content.

So, what are these and how can you apply them to your content?

Expertise

Google values content created by individuals or organisations with expertise in their respective fields. This means demonstrating knowledge, experience, qualifications, and credentials relevant to the topic. For example, medical advice should come from licensed professionals, and legal guidance should come from qualified attorneys.

If you apply this to a real life scenario it makes even more sense. You wouldn’t approach a quantum physicist and ask for his expert opinion on the relevance of iambic pentameter in traditional English poetry. You would find someone qualified in this area of research.

Google wants users to find the expert too.

Authority

Authority might sound the same as expertise but it actually refers to the reputation of the source rather than its expertise. High-quality backlinks, positive reviews, citations from reputable sources, and mentions in the media can contribute to perceived authority.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is undoubtedly one of the most important ranking factors Google has. It needs to know that your source is coming from a place of sincerity, and that it will not give users false, misleading or offensive content.

You can prove your content is trustworthy by:

Clearly stating who wrote your content. You will be given additional credit for naming the content author, and listing their credentials to discuss the topic at hand
Editing for factual accuracy
Citing your sources. These must be trustworthy and considered experts in themselves.
Including quotes from experts. This also provides additional opportunity to link to a trustworthy source
Avoiding the use of excessive ads. Make your content front and centre, and show you want your audience to access that information freely and without jumping through hoops

For a deeper dive into EAT, take a look at our blog: What Are the E-A-T Principles and Why Do They Matter?

What is YMYL?

YMYL stands for Your Money Your Life. This refers to topics that significantly impact a user’s life such as financial stability, health and safety.

EAT is particularly vital for these pages due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, and the harm that can be caused if the wrong information is given.

Here are a few examples of YMYL topics:

Websites that report on current affairs i.e. news channels
Websites with medical advice and information
Advice on fire safety and evacuation

How to improve EAT on YMYL pages

1. Create high quality content

Prioritise creating comprehensive, accurate, and well researched content that demonstrates your expertise in the subject matter. Support your claims with credible sources and data.

Google wants content to be:

Original: Content with unique insights is useful to the reader of your content. For example, as a content writer, my unique experiences in creating content for SEO purposes give me the expertise to create content that is backed by industry knowledge.
Helpful to users: Get straight to the point and give your users the answers they are looking for.
Written by people, for people: It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the technical aspects of SEO and forget to write for your reader. Create content that you yourself would be interested to read, and avoid falling into the trap of creating content simply to assuage Google’s algorithm.

2. Establish authority

Build your brand's authority by publishing authoritative content regularly, earning backlinks from reputable websites, and engaging with your audience across various platforms.

3. Provide transparent information about writers

As stated previously, Google wants to know that the information you provide has come from a reputable source. Someone who has the experience, accreditations or qualifications to give accurate information.

One of the best ways to do this is create an About Us page that introduces members of your team, with their experience listed. Author bios establish the expertise of your writers.

You could also consider hiring an expert to write guest blogs, as their authority will show Google that you care about the information you put on your website. Linking to their website can add an additional level of trustworthiness.

4. Cite credible sources

Citing credible sources is the online equivalent of pointing to a textbook written by an industry expert to prove that you are right.

If you have taken information or a quote from another source, do not be afraid to add a link to that source, as long as it demonstrates expertise. Doing this doesn’t make you look like any less of an expert; it reinforces your point.

Credible sources can be in the form of:

Online research texts
Studies conducted by experts in the field
Web pages that Google already ranks highly
Tweets by recognised industry professionals
Academic databases
News articles

As long as the source is both official and trusted, make sure you link it.

For example:

In March 2024, Google announced a new core update that is: ‘ designed to improve the quality of search by showing less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, and more content that people find useful. ’

5. Find backlinks

Backlinks are any links that redirect someone from an external website to your website. They show that other people online trust your company enough to recommend it.

The quality of backlinks matters more than you might think. In fact, the expertise, authority and trustworthiness of the website linking to you can impact your overall website rating. So, it is vital to seek credible websites for your backlinks.

Backlinks can also happen organically as your website grows.

6. Keep content updated

Information is not constant, and although the facts you listed in your content might have been true at the time, they may have grown outdated. This is particularly true for statistics, or updates to medical information as the way we understand and interpret health adapts.

In order to improve the EAT of YMYL content, make sure you revisit it annually to make sure it is still accurate and relevant. If it was written by an expert, they may even wish to return and edit it themselves upon discovering new information.

This signals to Google that you care about giving your reader honest information.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re still struggling to understand E-A-T or simply want a hand implementing it into your content strategy, then Infoserve can help. Our Content Experts and dedicated SEO team are experts in creating relevant content that demonstrates your expertise, authority and trustworthiness to Google. Simply give us a call today to discuss your requirements.

Google Business Profile Websites Shutting Down

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:05:19 GMT

From March 2024, Google is shutting down over 21 million Google Business Profile websites.

This service was provided to help businesses establish a basic website using the information on Google My Business listings. Users visiting your site will be redirected to the company’s associated Google My Business Profile.

So, how will these changes affect your business and what are the next steps for those who rely on Google Business Profile websites?

What to expect from the shutdown

As outlined by Google, the following changes will be made:

Domains that end in business.site or negocio.site will be removed from Google My Business Profiles from March 2024.
From March 2024, customers will be redirected to your Google My Business profile when they visit your website domain.
After June 10th 2024, customers will be shown a ‘page not found’ or ‘404’ error when following any link to your Google Business Profile website.

What happens when my website is turned off?

When users visit your website, they will be redirected to your Google My Business Profile.

This redirect is due to end on June 10th 2024, so creating a new online platform is vital to ensuring your customers are still able to purchase your product/service online.

Who will be most affected by this change?

The nature of Google Business Profile websites initially appealed to small businesses who could not afford to have a website built.

Anyone who took advantage of this service will be affected by this change.

Should I seek a new website?

When your Google Business Profile website is shut down, you have three main options:

Optimise your GMB listing to its maximum potential
Have a new website built to suit your business
Get listed in business directories

The option you choose will depend on your budget and the needs of your business. Optimising your GMB listing is the first step towards ensuring you are still found online. Regardless of whether you need a new website, Listings are a vital component to business success and we always recommend utilising all of the features available to you.

However, if you rely on your website for online conversions, then ensure you have at least a basic website in place.

At Infoserve, we can redesign your website for as little as £100 per page, depending on your requirements. Our professional web design team are experts at creating sleek, modern websites that align with your budget, so you can ensure your business continues to grow beyond this major change.

Having a website that you own and control will prevent any unexpected changes like this one from unsettling your business.

Create predictability and stability with a new website. Contact Us today.

Will the change impact Google My Business Profile?

Your Google My Business profile will continue to function, meaning your business will not completely disappear from Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

However, optimisation of this profile is now crucial.

Should you alert customers?

If you have a social media presence or email directory, it is a good idea to notify customers that your website will be shut down. But, reassure them that your business will continue to run as usual.

If you plan to invest in a new website, let them know something new is coming. This can be a good way to entice customers, and be a fantastic opportunity to update your branding .

What if I’m running an ads campaign?

If you are running an ads campaign that links to your Google Business Profile website, then you must update the links before March 1st 2024 or pause your campaign until you have a new website running.

How to optimise your Google My Business Profile

As standard, you GMB listing should have the following elements:

Your business name
Your business address
Your business hours
The category of your business
The contact details of your business (phone number, email address)
Google reviews

But, there are many ways that you can optimise your listings for maximum benefit:

1. Include keywords:

Including keywords on your business profile acts in a similar way to using them for basic SEO purposes.

2. Review the information regularly

Ensure all the information on your GMB listing is accurate and up to date. This includes opening times, contact details, location and company branding.

3. Include and respond to reviews

One of the most beneficial aspects of GMB listings is its ability to give customers instant access to social proof. Your interactions with customers can have a magnanimous impact on the way new customers view your brand.

4. Post from your Google My Business Profile

Google My Business allows you to publish posts directly from your profile.

5. Include images

Visually displaying your business makes it appear more credible to your audience. Make sure photos are high quality and relevant to the service/products you sell.

6. Catalogue your products

GMB listings allows small and medium businesses to create a catalogue of your products. You can include information such as:

Product price
Product details
Product images

7. Invest in an external Listings Manager

Listings experts have all the tips and tricks to make your GMB profile stand out, as well as access to a wide range of listing options under their belt.

If your Google Business Profile website is being shut down, then professional listing managers can remove the hassle of optimising your GMB profile from your shoulders.

Trust our listings experts with your business and we will ensure it continues to thrive beyond the shut down of your Google Business Profile Website.

How to Maximise ROI with Remarketing

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:50:29 GMT

On average, customers require seven interactions with your brand before they make a purchase.

Join Infoserve as we explain how you can apply remarketing techniques to ensure you get the most out of each customer interaction to maximise ROI.

What is remarketing?

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, involves targeting ads at users who have previously interacted with your website in some way but didn't make a purchase or take your desired action. It is an effective way to convert customers who have already shown interest in your product, service, or brand as a whole.

Remarketing vs retargeting

Remarketing differs from retargeting because it involves connecting directly with customers who are already involved with your brand. This could be through email engagement, social media channels or other promotions.

Retargeting is coming into contact with customers who have shown interest in your brand but not yet converted. This is often achieved through strategically placed ads following engagement with your website.

How does remarketing work?

Remarketing uses customer behaviours and interests to more accurately target them with content that will convert them.

It requires extensive creative strategy and an intrinsic understanding of the different segments within your target audience and their specific interest in your service.

Let’s dissect this for a second.

If you were an online shop that sold personalised hampers to your customers, the chances are you have a broad range of items available. Your main customer base might be people buying gifts, but within this you have further segments. There are those who are more interested in savoury items like cheeses and chutneys, those who prefer to gift cookies and chocolates. You might have a vegan audience, an audience who wants drinks hampers, even one who filters items in your inventory by gluten content.

With targeted remarketing strategies, you would use their activity on your website to send an email that aligns with their tastes.

For example, if somebody had created a hamper full of vegan goodies and abandoned it at checkout, you would use their email address to send them a reminder that they left something behind, with a follow up email recommending plant-based chocolates that they might be interested in.

This more personalised approach to remarketing is far more likely to tempt them back to your website to see what else you have to offer.

Types of remarketing

There are different types of remarketing that you can apply to your business:

Dynamic remarketing:

Dynamic remarketing refers to displaying content to users who have visited your page but taken no action. For example, if a customer visited a product page on your website, cookies might take this information and display an ad for this product the next time they search for a similar item on Google.

It responds to the specific behaviour of the user on your website or social media page, and responds with messaging and imagery tailored to the products or services they engage with.

This can include displaying the exact item they added to their cart in their Instagram, Facebook or TikTok newsfeed.

Email remarketing:

Email remarketing involves sending personalised emails to users who entered their email address on your website, whether through email sign-up or at check out. For example, abandoned checkout reminders are one of the most common forms of remarketing used by businesses.

How to maximise ROI with remarketing

Define your audience

Over 60% of marketers believe that segmentation is an outdated term, and that categorisation of customers based on shared traits is rigid and unfit for purpose within current digital marketing trends. This is because user behaviour is adapting quicker than it ever has before, and marketing methods are becoming so personalised that segments are almost not applicable.

But, having a clear understanding of your audience, the different pain points of your customers and their reasons for investing in your brand is still one of the most important first steps in ensuring your marketing gains traction.

In short, if you don’t understand your audience, you are not going to gain a sustainable return on investment (ROI).

If you know where your audience is shopping, you can create remarketing ads on that platform. If you know that they check their emails on the train to their 9-5 job, then you know what time is most efficient to send them. If you know that there is a huge cross section of customers between yourself and another, unrelated brand, then you can play with their messaging or create a collaborative remarketing campaign.

Never begin any marketing campaign without a fundamental understanding of who it is you’re selling to.

Create compelling content

Once you’ve discovered who your audience are, the next step is to create compelling ad content that grabs their attention and entices them to click.

Avoid being general .

Retargeting is about drawing your customer in. It’s about giving them a personalised experience based on their interests. Your content must reflect this.

In order to maximise ROI through content, you need to make sure your content is optimised using CRO (conversion rate optimisation) techniques.

Try the following techniques:

Benefits over features: At the point of remarketing, the customer is probably already familiar with the features of your product/service. So sell them the reasons why it is of benefit to them. How will it remove their pain points? How will it make their day-to-day lives easier?

Short and sweet: Concise content is best. Keep the messaging simple.

Include social proof: Previous positive customer experiences are one of the top reasons why people invest in a brand. So, use it. Include reviews on landing pages, in your emails and on social media. Hire influencers to create collaborative ad content.

Break it up with images: Imagery can invoke an immediate emotional response that can be invaluable to remarketing.

Include clear CTAs: Make your call to action clear, relevant to the content and highly visible.

Optimise landing pages

Even the most compelling ads won't be effective if they lead users to poorly designed or irrelevant landing pages.

To maximise the ROI of your remarketing campaigns, ensure that your landing pages are optimised for conversions. Keep them visually appealing, easy to navigate, and aligned with the messaging of your ads.

Test different elements, such as headlines, images, and calls-to-action, to identify what resonates best with your audience and drives the highest conversion rates.

Use the available tools

There are many tools at your disposal that are specifically designed to make remarketing easier on your marketing team. When used effectively, these tools can reduce the number of hours spent on campaigns, and do most of the dirty work for you, meaning you are more likely to gain a worthwhile return on your investment.

Try using:

Google Ads Remarketing
AdRoll
Mailchimp
Facebook Custom Audiences
Outsourced digital marketing agency

Monitor results

Finally, to ensure that your remarketing campaigns are delivering the best possible results, it's essential to monitor their performance closely and make adjustments as needed.

Keep an eye on the following metrics to determine the success of your campaign:

ROI
Return on ad spend (ROI)
Cost per conversion
Conversion rate
Customer lifetime value

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Geo-Targeting in PPC: How to Reach Your Ideal Audience Locally

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:33:38 GMT

Nearly 1/3 of all mobile searches are related to location - Think with Google

Imagine having the ability to display your brand's message strategically to potential customers when they're actively searching for products or services like yours. Now imagine you’ve created a limited time only promotion that applies within a certain county in the UK. Well, geo-targeting in pay-per-click campaigns might hold the key to your success.

Truly impactful PPC that delivers the return on investment (ROI) you deserve for your efforts requires more than simply throwing money at keywords and hoping they stick. Whether you're a local business targeting customers in your city or a countrywide industry looking to expand your reach, mastering geo-targeting in your ad campaigns can make all the difference. And Infoserve ’s PPC experts know all the tricks.

What is geo-targeting?

Geo-targeting is targeting consumers with content based on their geographical location. It involves choosing specific locations for PPC ads to appear.

This tactic targets consumers where they are most likely to convert, and will ensure your ads appear at the top of the search results for the following groups of people:

Those who give search engines access to their location, and are local to the area
Those who give search engines access to their location, and are visiting the area
Those who include the location and your keywords in their search query

Why is geo-targeting important?

36% of searches on Google are associated with a location - Roar Digital

If you fail to optimise your ad content by location, then you’re missing out on over a third of your prospective customers. This could be the difference between business growth and stagnation.

Geo-targeting has many benefits, including, but not limited to:

1. Increases return on ad spend

Geo-targeting enables you to allocate your marketing resources more efficiently by focusing on areas with the highest potential for return on ad spend (ROAS).

Instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, you can concentrate your efforts on geographic regions that have shown greater receptivity to your products or services.

2. Increases conversion rates

By delivering localised content and offers, geo-targeting can significantly boost your conversion rates. In fact, it has been proven that people searching for local queries on Google are significantly more likely to convert, because the query itself is transactional.

Transactional queries imply that your prospective customer is looking to purchase something specific, but they haven’t yet decided where to buy it from.

3. Provides a competitive advantage

When you invest in geo-targeted PPC ads, you are placing yourself immediately above your competitors on search engines. You will not only appear at the top of search pages, with an ad that Google has deemed trustworthy enough to be there, but you are also delivering a more tailored message.

This is through your use of their location, as well as a targeted landing page.

4. Personalised content

Geo-targeting enables you to create tailored experiences for users based on their location, making them feel valued and understood by your brand.

You could provide:

Relevant local information
Geo-specific services
Location specific promotions

Location targeting options

Geo-targeting options cover:

Countries
Regions
Cities
Territories
Counties

You can even set your own radius.

Broad geo-targeting

Broad geo-targeting allows you to target ads at people who not only live in your target locations, but search for your target location from anywhere around the world.

Excluding locations

Search engines give you the option to exclude locations that you don’t wish to show up in. This can give you a more targeted approach, and avoid your ad from being displayed in regions that have the same name.

For example, if your cafe is based in Birmingham UK, you wouldn’t want to show up when someone is searching for coffee shops in Birmingham, Alabama.

This function can likewise be used to exclude areas within your radius that haven’t performed as well under testing.

You can also exclude locations in a more macro sense. For example, if you are an online freelance business and you only provide services to English speaking countries, you can exclude your ad from being shown to regions where English isn’t their primary language.

Geo-targeting tips

1. Use your existing data for more accurate targeting

Make the most of the data you already have.

If you have an existing website then you’ll already have access to an abundance of data that can inform your ad strategy. Take a look at your analytics for organic traffic and apply it tactically.

Where are your existing customers located? Which location based search queries do they use to find you? Which products are the most purchased in each location?

This will help you collect an image of your customers, allowing you to invest your ad spend more wisely.

2. Avoid being too narrow

It can be easy to fall into the trap of being overly specific with your targeting.

You might think that because you are based in one small village that this should be your primary focus, but you are unlikely to gain significant traction for your ads if you keep your radius too narrow. Try expanding instead to your county and you’ll find your ads are far less restricted.

3. Split-test your ads

Split testing provides you with a more transparent overview of how your ads are going to respond. Experiment with different ad radiuses, messaging, and offers across various locations to see what works best.

4. Structure keywords for more efficient geo-targeting

Keywords play a crucial role in geo-targeting success. Structure your keywords to include location-specific terms such as city names, county names, or regional identifiers like ‘North East England’.

Incorporating geo-modifiers like ‘near me’ or ‘[city] restaurants’ can further enhance the relevance of your ads and capture local search intent more effectively.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our PPC experts handle your ad campaigns from start to finish. We have access to decades of local keyword insights and tracking information to deliver the best possible outcome for your business.

For an in-depth guide into the basics of PPC, download our FREE PPC White Paper where we cover everything you need to know when setting up your ad campaigns.

Video Marketing: How to Leverage it for Higher Rankings

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:18:43 GMT

Video content has long been revered as one of the most engaging methods of capturing a user’s attention online. In fact, the appeal for this type of content arose long before the TikTok tidal wave engulfed the minds of marketers and business owners.

So, it only makes sense that search engines prioritise high quality video content when ranking websites. Despite this, creating and marketing video content remains one of the most challenging areas of business promotion, so how exactly can you leverage it to ensure you gain the most effective result for your efforts? As marketers ourselves, Infoserve ’s SEO team has a few tricks up our sleeves to help you leverage video content for higher rankings.

Types of video marketing

Video marketing covers a broad range of content that you can use to boost your rankings and overall visibility online.

These include:

Testimonials
Product videos
Webinars
Case studies
Behind the scenes videos
Youtube content
How-to/educational videos
Introductory videos
Paid ad content

How video marketing can boost your rankings

Video content on your website primarily increases time on site, which is a top ranking factor for Google. Likewise, sending additional traffic to your website through carefully curated social media videos and paid ads will positively impact your website’s rankings.

It also increases trust with your audience and is more appealing to mobile users.

Where to apply video marketing

Video marketing should be relevant to your business. Therefore, where you apply video marketing should be tailored to not only your product/service, but the overall feeling of your website too.

For example, if you were a luxury holiday provider then introducing videos that provide a tour of your available accommodation could be an effective strategy for boosting SEO and sales, however, how-to guides would not apply to your industry.

In contrast, a small, family run business selling indoor plants might benefit more from educational video content providing expert advice on how to care for your newly purchased shrubs.

We would recommend taking a look at your target customers and making a list of content that they would find useful.

In 2023, online video accounted for 82.5% of all web traffic - Lemonlight

How to create a video marketing strategy

1. Evaluate your target audience

In order to gain any traction from your video marketing, you need to understand exactly what kind of video content your audience is engaging with. Whether it's on social media, ad response, or website analytics, keep an eye on their online activity.

Do they want educational content? Are they more interested in down to Earth, personal videos? Are they lured in by humour and lighthearted entertainment or do they respond to bite sized videos that get straight to the point?

It can also be useful to pay attention to the platforms they use as this can inform the decisions you make. If your audience primarily uses TikTok then short videos are more likely to catch their attention. If they’re YouTube oriented, then longer, educational videos or even company vlogs might be more likely to keep them interested in your brand.

2. Create a plan that aligns with your messaging

Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, develop a comprehensive plan that aligns with your brand messaging. Clearly define your goals, whether they are to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, or boost product sales.

Craft a compelling narrative that communicates your brand story and values consistently across all your videos. A well-defined plan ensures that your videos contribute cohesively to your overall marketing objectives.

3. Choose your platform

Different platforms cater to different audiences, so it's crucial to choose the right ones for your brand. Whether it's your website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, each platform has its unique characteristics and user demographics.

Consider where your target audience spends the most time and tailor your video content to fit the platform's format and style. This ensures that your videos are not only seen but also well-received by your intended audience.

If you’re using a platform outside of your website, make sure you find a way to subtly lead them back to it as this will help boost your website’s sessions, which leads to higher rankings.

4. Set a budget

Effective video marketing doesn't always require a massive budget, but having a clear plan is essential. Determine how much you can allocate for video production, promotion, and any other associated costs.

5. Create the video

It's time to bring your vision to life. Whether you're creating educational content, product demonstrations, or storytelling videos, ensure that your videos are visually appealing, emotionally resonant, and aligned with your brand identity.

You should always strive for quality and ensure you have multiple options for your videos. Remember, raw footage can always be edited and cropped to suit your needs.

6. Track your metrics

The success of your video marketing strategy relies on continuous evaluation and improvement. Track key metrics such as views, engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Whilst social media offers its own analytics tools, these will not be helpful in measuring the impact on your website’s rankings so opt for software like Google Analytics and find correlations between social media redirects and an increase in the page’s traffic.

Tips for leveraging video marketing for SEO

Our SEO experts have compiled the following list of tips on leveraging video marketing for SEO:

1. Consider the context

Context is everything when it comes to video placement. Nothing will confuse your users more than a video on a blank page, so make sure it has a purpose and fits in with your existing content.

2. Educate, don’t stipulate

52% of people reported watching more than two instructional or informational videos each week - TechSmith

Use your content to educate and entertain, rather than to push your product. Users are far more likely to engage with, and keep watching, this kind of content. By keeping your audience interested, you’re increasing the time they spend on your site which will boost that page’s ranking ability.

3. Consistency is key

As with any form of SEO, consistency is the key to ensuring success. Be sure to continue optimising the value of the video content you create, and don’t give up at the first hurdle. Video content is undoubtedly one of the most difficult pieces of media to get right, and it might take some time to discover exactly what engages your audience.

4. Insert alt text

As with images, video content requires various technical optimisations to ensure it is crawlable.

One of these is alt text. This refers to text describing the content of the video so that Google and other search engines can find and identify the video. This will skyrocket your chances of ranking closer to page 1.

5. Make sure the video is accessible

Making your video accessible is vital to ensuring ranking potential, whilst creating a truly inclusive brand that appeals to people of all abilities. You can improve the visibility of website video content by:

Including text transcripts
Providing audio descriptive options
Adding visible captions to videos
Removing autoplay options
Allowing playback using assistive technology

6. Quality over quantity

Don’t simply create a video for the sake of creating a video. Your video content should be of high quality and high value to your users. Otherwise you risk them losing interest quickly. This will reduce the time they spend on your site, and decrease their overall opinion of your brand.

7. Create videos with meaning

Your users will notice if a video is misplaced on your website, or if it was created with the sole intention of having video content. Video content should have meaning in its placement. They should be there for a specific reason or purpose, and if you can’t find one, then that video might not be valuable enough to warrant space on your website.

8. Leverage paid ads

Paid ads and SEO often work together in online marketing. If you can drive traffic to your website through an effective ad campaign that utilises video marketing then your organic rankings are likely to improve alongside it.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

How to Engage Your Audience Emotionally

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 12:44:33 GMT

Emotionally connected customers are likely to spend double with their favourite brands - Spiralytics

Take a moment to think of a brand you love. A company you’re likely to go back to over and over again. If you feel a swell of emotion when they come to mind then the chances are they’ve managed to connect with you on a personal level. Did you realise they were doing it?

The most impactful way for your business to retain customers is to engage with them emotionally using subtle yet ingenious tactics. Join the experts at Infoserve as we explore the various methods you can use across your website that bring emotion to the forefront of your conversion tactics.

1. Start with the why, not the what

When writing content, people often fall into the trap of explaining the ‘what’ of their product rather than the ‘why’.

This means that you can get so enveloped in describing the features of your product that you forget to explain why your product benefits your user.

Let’s use a couple of examples to explain this:

Luxury Holiday Accommodation:

Imagine you offered luxury holiday accommodation. You’ve spent weeks carefully decorating your properties into the picture of relaxation, complete with a toasty fireplace, games room and fully equipped kitchen.

Listing these features is useful, and may well entice visitors, but let’s reimagine the way these features could be interpreted as benefits.

Rather than seeing the feature, your audience will now be picturing themselves and their loved ones in the accommodation, creating long-term memories.

100% Premium Leather Shoe Retailer:

Now, for a slightly trickier example. The features of a product like this might seem trickier but the easiest way to turn them into benefits is to remember why you decided on the features in the first place.

For example:

2. Tell the story of your brand

This one is fairly self explanatory.

Having a brand story shows the user that you are human, which makes you more relatable.

It is quite often the case that people see big corporate businesses as instruments that are out to get their money, and a brand story can soften this feeling. It is the reason why an ‘About Us’ page is considered an almost essential element of any website.

Explain why you began your business. What was your idea? Where did you come from? Why did you think the product/service you sell would make other people’s lives easier?

Bring them into your world.

3. Address your audience personally

You might have noticed that this entire blog is written in second person.

That’s not an accident.

One of the easiest ways to ensure your audience is connected to your content is to address them directly.

Instead of saying ‘plants should be watered when the top layer of soil becomes dry, say ‘ you should water your plants when the top layer of soil becomes dry.’

Instead of saying ‘this blog is written in second person,’ say ‘ you might have noticed that this blog is written in second person.’

Use the words you, your, yours and yourself so your reader feels as though they are being spoken to personally.

4. Find your vocal niche

Your brand voice is more valuable than people believe it is.

Invoking emotion doesn’t always reference tugging on the heartstrings of your audience like an invasive pair of tweezers. It can mean that as a brand, you present yourself as compassionate, as relatable, or even as funny.

For example, Innocent Drinks relate to their audience through their sarcastic and humorous brand image. By not taking themselves too seriously, they bring joyous emotions that leave a lasting impression.

5. Utilise imagery effectively

Images are incredibly powerful when it comes to engaging your audience through emotions.

A one-size fits all approach doesn’t work when it comes to selecting the right photos for your brand, as your audience’s perception of the images will differ depending on your brand and your product/service.

However, it has been proven that customers are more likely to respond emotionally to images that have faces in them. This means that showing people using your product can be far more effective than a picture of the product itself.

For example, although breathtaking scenery can generate feelings of longing, try including images of people enjoying the area. For example, families on walks, a couple enjoying a picnic or even a wedding party.

Take a look at your service and determine which emotion you want people to feel in response to it. Do you want them to feel nostalgia, happiness or comfort?

Determining the feeling can help you find the right imagery, regardless of whether you take it yourself or utilise stock footage.

6. Colour perception

Pay close attention to:

Colour tone
Shading/softness
Gradation
Contrasting/complementary colours

Each of these can set the tone for your company image.

Likewise, individual colours can generate different emotions in people:

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create a website that engages your audience through emotion, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Mastering the Basics of UX Design

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 11:41:22 GMT

38.5% of web designers believe that outdated design is the top reason why visitors leave a website - (GoodFirms, 2021)

As expert web designers, Infoserve knows our way around a website, from the fundamentals of user flow to the complexities of UX design, but can you master the basics? Take a look at our top tips on UX Design to discover exactly how it is used to guide user behaviour.

What is UX design?

UX (user experience) design is the process of creating a website that is functional, easy and enjoyable to use. It is the principle of generating something that is effortless to consume, whilst providing a memorable experience.

User design is based on the principles of:

Simplicity
Consistency
Clarity
Accessibility
Hierarchy

How UX design is shaping the future

The significance of UX design goes beyond simply creating visually appealing websites. It is a fundamental component of online engagement, combining user psychology with online marketing tactics to drive the way we experience the online world.

UX designers are at the forefront of creating innovative and user-centric websites that will rethink the way we prioritise certain areas of digital marketing.

What is user flow?

User flow refers to the movement in which the user will navigate a website; to determine user flow, you need to consider what the user is trying to accomplish, what they need to do and what barriers are in the way.

Key Components of User Flow:

Entry Points: Where users first interact with the website.
Actions: The specific steps users take to accomplish a task.
Decision Points: Moments where users make choices or decisions.
Exits: The points where users leave your website.

Top tip: Create a flow diagram to visualise which steps & pages the user will follow to meet their end goal.

UX design tips

1. Know Your Users

Understand your target audience, their preferences, and pain points. Conduct user research to gather insights that inform your design decisions.

2. Embrace Consistency

Maintain a consistent design language, including colours, fonts, and UI elements, to create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity.

Draw attention through your visual aesthetic by:

Choosing colours reflect your logo, mission, and company type
Including rich media only when it is relevant, or draws on your user’s emotions
Using an engaging ‘hero image’ on your home screen
Including clear, simple and effective USPs
Continuing these elements across every page on your website

3. Create Intuitive Navigation

Design a clear and consistent navigation system that guides users seamlessly through the website.

It shouldn’t take more than the necessary steps for a user to reach your desired goal for a web page.

If your customer’s goal is to get a quote, it should be made as simple as possible for them to get there. Or if their goal is choosing a product/booking a property, there should be a straightforward flow for them to follow from the moment they land on your website.

4. Mobile Responsiveness

With the increasing use of mobile devices, ensure your designs are responsive and provide a consistent experience across various screen sizes.

Google is now a mobile-first index , with over 55% of internet usage coming from mobile phones and tablets.

Mobile first design is a MUST. There are no two ways about it.

5. Prioritise Accessibility

Make your designs inclusive by considering users with different abilities. Follow accessibility standards to ensure a broader reach and usability.

Websites must be:

Perceivable : Users must be able to perceive or understand the content on your website

Understandable : All content should be easily understood by all users, including those who don’t speak English as a first language

Operable : Users must be able to use the website without disruption

Robust : Content should be easily digested by all users, including those who use assistive technology.

6. Generate a Visual Hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is the practice of arranging a website to ensure users naturally gravitate towards the most important elements first and lead them to complete your desired action in a way that feels natural, not forced.

This can be created using:

1. Colour and contrast

Applying colour contrast to a design causes certain elements to advance and others to recede. This determines which elements catch our attention first and signifies their importance in the hierarchy of information. This can also be applied to typefaces that are strong in contrast or emboldened.

2. Scale

Bigger elements stand out more. Make the most important elements the biggest to draw the eye of your user.

3. Grouping

Groupings help us to see the structure of a page and direct attention to specific groups of elements. This is usually conveyed through the use of proximity and white space. Let elements breathe and don’t crowd or clutter them.

7. Iterate and Test

Regularly iterate on your designs based on user feedback. Conduct usability testing to identify areas for improvement and refine the user experience.

Common UX design mistakes

Whilst the principles of UX design appear fairly simple, there are a few key mistakes that prevent your website from becoming the most user-friendly version it can be:

1. Using large, intrusive headings: Headings should be responsive, adaptable and fit seamlessly with your design.

2. Using thin or small fonts: Small fonts can disappear into white space when adapted to mobile screens. It may look delicate and clean on a laptop, but a dainty font can make your text difficult to read.

3. Avoiding contrast: Text should contrast strongly with the background it sits on to improve readability and accessibility.

4. Using automatic scroll functions: When you use sliding banners, ensure the user has control over the speed and timing of the scroll with clear buttons.

5. Ignoring user feedback: Your users use your website. Thinking you know better than them could just be the difference between success and losing your audience.

6. Prioritising aesthetics over functionality: Your website should strike the perfect balance of both, but functionality is essential.

7. Using too many pop-ups: Pop-ups should be used only when necessary, and with user benefit in mind. If you turn your website into a pop-up city, your customers will look elsewhere.

8. Overlooking white space: White space is integral to visual hierarchy and reducing clutter. It is just as important as any other element on your website.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a UX first website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

For an in-depth guide on the basics of Web Design, download our FREE Web Design White Paper where we cover the fundamentals of website design, marketing and copy.

How to Prepare Your Marketing Strategy for a New Year

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 11:21:34 GMT

The New Year is a time to reflect on your goals and prepare for a new start. But, whilst many are at home assessing their New Year’s resolutions, businesses and marketing teams should be taking a long look at the successes and potential for improvement in the coming year.

At Infoserve , we know exactly how this should be done.

How to prepare an annual marketing strategy

Take a good long look at your SMART goals

If you set goals at the beginning of the year then it’s time to reevaluate your progress.

Go over both annual and quarterly goals and ask yourself the following questions:

How did your performance match up against the goals you set? Did you surpass them? Do you think you can push them further, and if so, how can your 2024 goals help you achieve this?

When setting long-term goals, remember to keep them SMART:

S pecific
M easurable
A ttainable
R elevant
T imely

Evaluate audience response

You cannot reevaluate your existing marketing strategy or prepare a new one without understanding your audience’s response.

Analyse KPIs (key performance indicators) like engagement rate, share rate, conversion rate and customer feedback.

Are there patterns or trends that could be used to inform future decisions? Is there a type of content that performed better than others?

Use the information you gather from audience analysis to refine your approach and tailor campaigns to better resonate with your target audience.

For example, if you drew in more customers organically through SEO-informed blog content than via social media ads, then it might be time to increase the time/budget allocated to blog content in the coming year.

Understand your competitors

Competitor analysis is an ongoing process that should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. If you analyse your competitors only once, we can guarantee that you won’t absorb all of the information you need to know about their process, successes and failures.

This is because, just as you do, they will reassess their marketing strategy at regular intervals, make changes and adapt to their audience’s needs.

Ensure you:

Determine whether your competitors have remained the same
Identify any upcoming competitors
Research their tactics, campaigns and outcomes
Reassess their pricing and promotional material
Analyse engagement on their content
Review their content strategy

Divide your strategy into quarters

A year is a substantial stretch of time, and breaking it down into manageable quarters allows for more focused and agile planning. Each quarter can have its own set of goals, campaigns, and themes.

This approach ensures that your marketing strategy remains adaptable to changing circumstances and industry shifts. Regularly reassessing and adjusting your plan throughout the year enables you to capitalise on emerging opportunities and navigate challenges proactively.

Identify opportunities early

Effective marketing is not just about reacting to trends but also about identifying opportunities and trends as they arise.

Communicate with your suppliers, and keep all teams informed. Impulse decisions can create amusing and effective content when a social media trend emerges, but long-term success requires a thoughtful and analytical approach.

When you identify opportunities early, you allow yourself the time to respond in the most considered manner possible.

Opportunities should align with your brand identity and contribute positively to your audience's experience

Expect regular reevaluation

The only constant in marketing is change.

As you prepare your strategy for the new year, embrace the reality that regular re-evaluation is essential for success. Be open to adjusting your tactics based on data, feedback, and emerging trends. This adaptability will position your brand as dynamic and responsive, fostering long-term success for your business.

Prepare for 2024 marketing trends

Alongside preparing your standard annual marketing strategy, you must also keep your eye on shifts in consumer behaviour. Trends within marketing are ever-changing, and the way you respond to them can define the way your company is viewed by your audience.

With 2024 fast approaching, here’s how to stay on the ball:

1. Conduct industry analysis

Conduct a thorough analysis of your industry, paying close attention to market dynamics, consumer preferences, and technological advancements. This foundational knowledge will serve as a springboard for tailoring your marketing strategy to align with emerging trends.

2. Embrace the data

Analytics tools exist for a reason, and that is to help you make more informed decisions regarding your business’s strategy. Utilise this data to remain vigilant and responsive to your adapting audience.

By understanding the nuances of their behaviour, you can finetune your marketing strategy and capitalise on trends.

3. Emphasise your commitment to customer experience

As consumers become more discerning, personalised experiences are no longer a luxury but an expectation.

Invest in technologies that enable personalised marketing efforts, from tailored content to custom product recommendations. Additionally, prioritise delivering exceptional customer experiences across all touchpoints.

Brands that excel in customer satisfaction are more likely to thrive in an environment where consumers value authentic and meaningful interactions.

4. Explore sustainable practices

Whilst we consider sustainability to be a necessity rather than a trend, establishing yourself as a forward thinking industry with ethical practices allows you to keep up with increasingly conscious consumers.

Communicate transparently about your commitment to sustainability and ethics, as authenticity grows more vital to generating customer loyalty.

This could relate to the logistics of your business, the technology you use, production methods, materials and equipment, or even the products themselves.

5. Invest in influencer marketing

Influencers are often the front line of social media marketing, as their job is to keep on top of consumer trends. They have an already established social media presence with a following whose ethics reflect theirs implicitly, which means they know exactly what your audience wants to see.

They will be able to adapt more swiftly to changes than your already busy marketing team, without you needing to engage.

Identify influencers whose values align with your brand and collaborate on authentic campaigns. The credibility and reach of influencers can significantly amplify your message as we head into a new year.

6. Adapt to evolving social media trends

Social media platforms are dynamic ecosystems that evolve rapidly. Stay attuned to shifts in user behaviour, algorithm changes, and emerging platforms.

Tailor your content to align with the nuances of each platform and leverage the latest features to enhance engagement. A proactive and adaptive approach to social media will be crucial in navigating the ever-changing landscape.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

6 Reasons Logo Design Matters (More Than You Think)

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:47:47 GMT

Logo design is often hailed as the pinnacle of good branding, but it's more than just a brand identifier. A well crafted logo can set the tone for customer perception of your company, and it plays a crucial role in shaping your brand's identity.

Join Infoserve as we explore six compelling reasons why logo design matters more than you might think.

Why logo design matters

1. Grabs Attention

Whether it's online or on the street, a captivating logo has the power to cut through the noise and grab the viewer's attention. Whether it's displayed online, on a billboard, or on product packaging, your logo is often the first thing people see. It's your chance to make a memorable first impression.

Consider the iconic arched M of the McDonald’s logo. Studies have proven that 88% of adults recognise this yellow symbol worldwide. When you see this sign, even along the motorway, you know that one of your favourite fast food restaurants is just around the corner.

This immediate recognition is the result of a bold, well designed logo that has successfully captured the attention of millions of customers.

2. It can form the foundation of your brand

Your logo serves as the cornerstone of your brand's visual identity. It's the anchor that unifies all aspects of your branding.

The colours, fonts, and imagery used in your logo can set the stage for the entire brand experience. From your website to your packaging, from your marketing materials to your social media presence, your logo's design elements are carried throughout your branding efforts, creating a consistent and easily recognisable identity.

For instance, the iconic Apple logo is not just a picture of an apple; it represents innovation, simplicity, and quality. These attributes are mirrored in all of Apple's products and marketing materials, creating a cohesive brand image that resonates with its target audience.

3. They are a key identifier

According to Zippia , 75% of people recognise a brand by its logo .

Think about some of the world's most renowned brands: Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple. What do they have in common? Memorable, instantly recognisable logos. These logos have become key identifiers for the brands, and consumers can spot them from a mile away.

The Coca-Cola script, with its flowing letters and iconic red background, has become synonymous with refreshing beverages and good times. This level of recognition is invaluable for brand loyalty and customer trust. Your logo becomes a symbol of your brand's values, making it easier for consumers to connect with your products or services.

73% of consumers are more likely to trust and buy from a brand that they know

4. There is an expectation for a logo

In today's business landscape, consumers expect to see a logo associated with any reputable company. It's a symbol of professionalism, legitimacy, and a commitment to branding.

A well designed logo signals that your business is credible and that you take your brand's identity seriously. It's a visual assurance to your customers that they are dealing with a trustworthy and established entity.

5. It separates you from competition

In a world filled with competitors, a unique and thoughtfully crafted logo can help you stand out from the crowd.

Your logo is a visual representation of what sets your business apart from others. It can convey your brand's personality and values, making it easier for consumers to choose you over similar competitors.

For example, think about Nike's iconic ‘swoosh.’ It represents movement, power, and aspiration. This logo has allowed Nike to separate itself from countless other athletic apparel brands and establish itself as a symbol of fitness and motivation.

In this sense, a strong logo can become a powerful tool for differentiating your brand and driving customer loyalty.

6. It conveys your brand’s personality

Your logo is not just a piece of art; it's a strategic tool for conveying your brand's personality and values. The design, colours, and fonts you choose can evoke specific emotions and associations in your audience.

An effective logo can communicate whether your brand is professional, playful, trustworthy, innovative, or any other characteristic that aligns with your brand's identity.

For example, the playful, childlike face that is the Innocent Drinks logo conveys a sense of approachability, creativity and silliness that perfectly reflects the company’s culture. This personality shines through in all aspects of Innocent’s branding, from social media and product packaging to the way their marketing team engages with customers, and even their office space which is open to the public.

In contrast, the Operations Manager at Infoserve is a strong advocate for The Telegraph’s branding and website design. As a popular news outlet, their logo consists simply of their company name in professional typeface reflecting the more serious content they generate.

Why the big brands change their logos

Many established brands have spent years, or even decades, building recognition and trust around their logos. So, why would they choose to change them?

The decision to rebrand and redesign a logo is not one made lightly. There are several reasons behind this seemingly bold move, and they all have strategic implications for the brand's future:

1. Adaptation to modern trends

One of the most prevalent reasons for big brands to change their logos is to stay current and relevant. Design trends evolve over time, and what was considered cutting edge a decade ago may now appear outdated.

To remain competitive in a fast paced market, brands often opt for logo updates that reflect contemporary aesthetics and design principles. An updated logo demonstrates a brand's commitment to staying fresh and aligning with the tastes of its target audience.

2. Simplification and versatility

Logos need to be versatile and easily adaptable across various platforms and media. A complex or intricate logo may not translate well to smaller screens, social media profiles, app icons or promotional merchandise.

Big brands often opt to simplify their logos, making them more adaptable and scalable without losing their core identity. This simplification can enhance recognition and consistency in a brand's communication.

3. Repositioning and brand strategy

A change in a brand's strategic direction or a shift in its target audience may necessitate a logo redesign. When a brand is repositioning itself or broadening its appeal, a new logo can be a visual representation of this change.

It's an opportunity to signal to consumers that the brand is evolving, offering something new, or catering to a different set of needs.

4. Cultural reasons

When companies merge or acquire others, they often face the challenge of integrating multiple logos and brand identities. A redesigned logo can help unify the newly merged entities under a single brand image.

5. Creating a fresh brand image

In some cases, brands may change their logos due to legal issues or cultural sensitivities. Legal disputes over trademark infringement can force a brand to alter its logo to avoid litigation. Cultural considerations can also lead to logo changes when a brand enters new markets or when the existing logo may inadvertently offend certain cultural groups.

For instance, the clothing brand The North Face altered its logo for the Japanese market to avoid any association with a local gang that used a similar design.

How to design a business logo

Because the importance of your business’s logo is so important, trying to design or choose your finished graphic can feel overwhelming. But if you stick to the following tips, you’ll be on your way to finding the ideal logo that will see your company through many exciting years of success.

1. Start by reflecting on the essence of your brand

Take it back to basics. Remind yourself of all the reasons why you started your brand in the first place, what you aim to achieve and what it is you sell. Your logo should align with your brand’s persona. For example, if sustainability is a fundamental principle of your business then you might wish to reflect this in its imagery.

2. Seek inspiration

There are many brands who have already set the tone for what makes a successful logo. Consider what it is about these logos that catch your attention, and which type of logo you feel would apply to your brand most.

This could be letterform like the McDonald’s ‘M’, abstract like the Nike sweep, a mascot or a symbol like the WWF Panda.

3. Simple is better

95% of brands use only 1 or two colours in their logo.

This is because, when it comes to logo design in the modern world, simple really is better. The adaptability of simple logo design cannot be underestimated and neither can its timeless effect.

4. Avoid rushing the process

It can feel tempting to rush creating your brand’s identity when trying to get your business off the ground, but this will only let you down in the long run. You need to have the time and clear head to find a logo that you love, and that will stand the test of time.

5. Experiment with multiple ideas and visuals

Regardless of how certain you may feel by your initial logo idea, it is important to experiment with a few different ideas to ensure you create the perfect logo for your brand.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re still struggling to build brand authority through Logo Design, then Infoserve can help. Our in-house design team are experts in high quality Brand Design and we are committed to helping you stand out from the crowd.

5 Ways to Future Proof Your Web Design for 2024

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:30:45 GMT

The online world is constantly evolving, and with each passing year, new web design trends and technologies emerge. In 2024, it's more important than ever to ensure that your website is both aesthetically pleasing and adaptable to changes in user behaviour and technology.

To stay ahead of the curve and future proof your web design, consider the following five strategies from Infoserve ’s professional Web Design experts.

1. Choose a flexible website

The foundation of your web design is the content management system (CMS) or website platform you choose. To future proof your design, opt for a platform that offers flexibility and adaptability.

Popular options like WordPress, Drupal, and Duda provide a wide range of themes, plugins, and customisation options, making it easier to stay up to date with the latest design trends and functionalities.

Furthermore, consider platforms that allow for easy updates and maintenance. The ability to make quick changes, add new features, and adapt to emerging technologies will be crucial in 2024 and the coming years.

Or, invest in bespoke web design with a team who are able to respond to your requests.

2. Update your content

Content is the heart of your website. In 2024, staying relevant and engaging with your audience will be more important than ever. Regularly updating your content keeps your website fresh and interesting whilst improving your search engine ranking.

Develop a content strategy that includes blog posts, articles, videos, and other forms of media. Keep your audience informed about your industry, products, and services. Engage with your visitors through comments and social media, and respond to their questions and feedback promptly.

A well maintained blog or news section will not only keep your website current but also establish your authority in your field.

Take a look at our blog on How To Identify and Update Outdated Content to boost your website’s SEO and ensure you’re on track for 2024 content trends.

3. Minimalism is modernism

Simplicity is timeless, and minimalism is here to stay.

In 2024, clean and uncluttered web design will continue to be a trend. Minimalistic design is renowned for offering a visually pleasing experience alongside enhancing website performance.

It also provides more flexibility within responsive design, allowing your website to look its very best on tablets, mobile phones and app design.

Consider the following elements of minimalism for your web design:

Simple, easy to navigate layouts
A colour palette of 3 primary tones for a clean and consistent look
High quality, well optimised images and graphics
Clear and concise typography for easy readability
Removal of unnecessary elements and distractions
White space to reduce visual clutter

Minimalist design ensures that your website remains modern, user friendly, and adaptable to trends for years to come.

4. Allocate a design budget

To future proof your web design, allocate a budget specifically for design updates and improvements. This budget should cover tasks such as regular maintenance, security updates, design enhancements, and optimisation for new devices and technologies.

A well funded design budget allows you to stay on top of emerging trends and technologies without worrying about financial constraints. This ensures that your website remains competitive and user friendly, providing a seamless experience for your visitors as tastes develop across 2024.

5. Seek the services of professional web design experts

Whilst there are many DIY website building tools available, the expertise of professional web designers cannot be understated.

Web design professionals have a deep understanding of design principles, user experience, and the latest technologies. They can help you create a website that is not only visually appealing but also functional and user friendly.

When hiring a web design expert, look for someone with a proven track record, a portfolio of successful projects, and an understanding of design trends. Collaborate with them to create a web design that not only meets your current needs but is also scalable and adaptable for future developments.

At Infoserve , our Web Design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and future proof website for 2024

For an in-depth guide into the basics of Web Design, download our FREE Web Design White Paper where we cover the fundamentals of website design, marketing and copy.

How To Get Your Business Known Locally

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 11:04:32 GMT

46% of all Google searches are looking for local information - GoGulf

Gaining local recognition is crucial for the success of any business adventure.

As a proud Leeds based business who have been ranking for Yorkshire based keywords for years, Infoserve understands the vitalities of local SEO . But there are a multitude of methods you can use, both personally and professionally, to get your business known locally.

What type of businesses should be known locally?

Whilst local search is often said to benefit retail and service oriented industries most effectively, the truth is it should be a vital component of any marketing strategy. Unless you are based solely online, there is no reason why you shouldn’t adopt practices that get your business found in local searches online, or amongst your local community.

And here’s how:

How to get your business found locally

Post on Quora

Quora is a platform where individuals seek answers to their questions, making it an ideal place to establish yourself as a local authority. By actively participating in relevant discussions, answering questions related to your industry, and including local context in your responses, you can begin to build your local presence.

Top Tip: Look for questions specific to your area and provide insightful answers with a personal touch, even linking to your business’s website. This can help you stand out as a local expert.

Join local Facebook groups

Facebook groups have evolved into vibrant communities where people engage in discussions, share recommendations, and seek advice. Joining local Facebook groups allows you to connect with potential customers who are looking for products or services in your area.

Here are a few ways to make the most of these groups:

Only join local communities: Join your local village/town/city groups, and even a few groups in the surrounding areas. Avoid setting your margins too wide as people too far away might not be interested, and it can be a waste of your resources. Instead, focus on developing a solid reputation within your community.
Engage actively: Joining the group isn’t enough. You’ll need to participate in discussions, offer solutions to problems, and share your expertise within the group.
Be thoughtful in your approach: Share your business’s offerings only when it is relevant to the conversation, and avoid spamming the group with your contact information. It’s important to create a positive image.
Promote offers/local events: You may find that certain members of your community already want to invest in your business but haven’t taken the first step. Promoting offers and events you are attending can give them the push they need to give your company a try.

Local tags on social media

It is no secret that social media is one of the most powerful advertising tools many companies have in their quiver, but local functions aren’t always utilised to their full effect, despite the many options available.

When you post on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and even Facebook, incorporate location-based tags and hashtags. This will increase your visibility to local users who may be searching for products or services in your area.

For example, if you were a Yorkshire based restaurant chain, using location tags like #yorkshirefoodguide or #yorkshirebusiness can be highly effective.

These tags will not only attract your local community, but also bring in tourists who are visiting the area and conducting prior research on social media.

Create a Google My Business profile

Google My Business is a powerful tool for establishing your local presence. It allows you to provide essential information about your business, including your location, hours of operation, contact details, and customer reviews.

Every business should have a Google My Business listing regardless of whether you want to be found locally.

Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Log in to the Google account associated with your business, or create a Google account for your business.

Step 2: Click ‘Manage Now’ in the top left corner.

Step 3: Enter the details of your business. Google will ask for your company name, location, business category, phone number, and website URL.

Invest in Local SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for making your business discoverable online, but local SEO takes this a step further. It focuses on optimising your online presence for local searches, such as "restaurants near me" or "plumbers in [YourCity]."

To improve your local SEO, you should:

1. Provide consistent contact information

To make it easier for both search engines and people to find you, you need to make sure your contact information is consistent across platforms. This includes your address, phone number and email address.

In technical terms, your NAP (name, address, phone number) needs to be easily crawlable in HTML text in order for Google to display it in location based search results. Whilst this sounds fairly complex, we would recommend simply ensuring your contact information is displayed as text rather than images, or contact local SEO experts who can do this for you.

2. Optimise local keywords

In order to be found for local search, you need to use location based keywords. For example, if you were a plumber based in Dorset, you should ensure that your homepage, title tag and service pages include the phrase ‘Plumbers in Dorset’, or another variation.

Avoid spamming the keyword. Instead, place it strategically in title tags and headings, and use secondary variations of the keyword like ‘plumbing services Dorset’ and ‘gas safe plumbing Dorset’ in your body text.

3. Create tailored location pages

Location pages are created specifically to display your services with regards to a specific location. This can be done in a number of ways, but the primary function of a location page is to show up in the search results for a specific location that might not be the primary area where you are based.

Location pages work particularly well for industries that operate in multiple locations, or who have a primary base for their business but also serve the surrounding towns, villages or counties.

For a more detailed guide, take a look at our blog: How To Build Location Pages for Local SEO .

4. Create local content

Different to location pages, locational based content can likewise be incredibly beneficial to promoting your business locally. This could include location guides, seasonal events in the area, parking information or even safety requirements when visiting.

For example, a B&B business might create a guide on local attractions, places to eat and things to do whilst staying in one of their properties.

5. Search for inbound links

Acquire backlinks from local websites and directories to boost your local authority. This shows Google that you are trusted by other authorities in your area, and will also help potential customers find your website through means other than organic search and ads.

6. Ensure your website is mobile friendly

Mobile-friendly websites are no longer nice to have, they are a necessity. In fact, people search for local businesses on their mobile phone whilst out and about more often than any other method of search.

This makes it vital for you, as a local business, to have a responsive, modern and mobile friendly website.

88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours - Nectafy

Join local Listings

Local directories and listings, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and TripAdvisor, are excellent platforms for increasing your online visibility. By registering your business on these platforms, you expand your digital footprint and make it easier for potential customers to find you.

At Infoserve, we manage local listings for you with our Listings Manager .

Print marketing

In the digital age, traditional marketing methods still have their place. Distributing flyers in your community, advertising in local newspapers, and sponsoring community newsletters can help your business get noticed by residents in your area.

Partner with other local businesses

Collaborating with other local businesses can be a win-win. By forming partnerships, you can reach a new set of customers who are already engaged with complementary products or services.

You should:

Identify Complementary Businesses: Look for businesses that share your target audience but don't directly compete with you.
Create Joint Promotions: Develop joint marketing campaigns, promotions, or events to attract shared customers.
Develop a social media campaign: Joining forces on social media allows you both access to each other’s existing following.

Sponsor a local charity

Sponsoring a local charity not only improves your visibility within your community but gives you and your employees the opportunity to raise money for, and actively engage with, an important cause.

Search for local charities and find ones that align with the views of the company, or relate to your employees and come up with a fundraising activity.

Run Google Ads

While organic search efforts are crucial, you can supplement them with targeted Google Ads campaigns that specifically target local search terms and demographics. Google Ads can help you increase your visibility and reach potential customers more effectively.

Ads can be the quickest way to put yourself in front of a local audience if you are running a temporary campaign, or wish to boost the visibility of a specific service or product.

At Infoserve, we expertly manage PPC Ads to put your business in front of your audience, in your local area. Contact us today to increase inbound enquiries.

Ask customers for reviews

Positive reviews from satisfied customers can significantly boost your credibility and attract more local customers. Your Google My Business listing can be one of the most powerful tools for displaying reviews as they will appear as soon as a customer Googles your name.

But, you should make sure that your business exists on multiple review channels such as Yelp, Trustpilot, Amazon, Which? and even Facebook.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our SEO , Content, PPC and Listings teams work together to ensure your business is recognised online in your location. To get your website ranking for local search, contact our experts today.

How Your Social Media Presence Can Boost Your SEO

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:47:19 GMT

SEO and social media profiles might seem like two separate marketing methods that aren’t intrinsically linked, but when one works effectively, it can benefit the other. Social media platforms provide a wealth of opportunities to enhance your website's visibility, engage with your audience, and create relationships with your customers.

In an ever-evolving digital world, it's not just about being seen but about being recognised as a valuable and engaging resource, and social media plays a crucial role in achieving that status. Infoserve can help you put this into practice.

How social media boosts SEO

1. Boosts website visibility

One of the most apparent benefits of using social media for SEO is its impact on website visibility.

The truth is that social media has no direct impact on SEO, but Google and other search engines take engagement from socials into consideration when determining a website’s ranking. This engagement is known as ‘social signals’.

If there are a number of people clicking through from your social media, browsing your website and buying from your website, then search engines will take note. Therefore, the more website visibility you gain from social media, the higher you are likely to rank in the SERP (search engine results page).

However, there are a couple of other ways that social media visibility can impact your rankings:

1. Shares and engagements: The more your content is shared, liked, and commented on across social media platforms, the more it's seen as relevant and valuable by search engines. These social signals can influence your website's ranking.

2. Social media in search results: Social media profiles often appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). When users search for your brand, your social profiles might show up, expanding your online presence.

2. Boosts content performance

Customers are more likely to share a social media post with their friends and followers than they are to share a blog post directly. However, the true power lies in using social media as a launchpad for your content.

For instance, you can share an infographic on social media and encourage users to visit your website for more information.

Blog posts are an incredibly powerful tool in SEO. They give your audience the opportunity to find your company through secondary keywords that wouldn’t otherwise exist on your website. When a blog post drives traffic, and improves the average amount of time spent on your website, it boosts your overall rankings.

Imagine how much more effective this result can be if your follower-base on Instagram all clicked through and spent three minutes reading your blog without needing to prompt its appearance through a Google search.

Our top tips for sharing blog content on social media:

1. Leverage visual content: Infographics, videos, and eye-catching images are more shareable and can drive traffic to your website when strategically used in social media posts.

2. Engage and Entice: Use compelling captions and descriptions to pique curiosity and encourage users to click through to your site.

3. Relationship building

Social media platforms are not just about sharing content but also about building relationships with your audience. This is one of the most important factors in developing a solid, reliable base of people who are likely to become lifetime customers.

You might not feel like this links to SEO, however, brand loyalty on social media is a vital component when it comes to sharing content and word of mouth reviews in order to drive traffic to your website.

As we established before, higher website traffic and an increase in average time spent on page boosts where you sit in the search results.

Ensure that you are replying to comments on social media and creating a consistent brand voice across platforms, regardless of whether you’re invested in Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok.

4. The link tree

Giving your audience a direct link to your website from your social media reduces the number of steps your customers need to take to find you online.

Originally, the ‘ link in bio ’ function would only lead consumers to a single page on your website. But now, the link tree function is taking over and it can have a bigger impact on SEO than you might think.

Link trees allow you to add multiple links to your bio, directing potential customers to different pages who’s traffic you want to boost.

5. Opportunities for teamwork

In the world of digital marketing, teamwork can lead to incredible results. When your social media and SEO teams collaborate effectively, the results become more powerful.

Let’s say you were a non-alcoholic drinks company who saw a decline in the sale of alcohol-free beer. On further inspection, an SEO expert discovers that alcohol-free beer has declined in the SERP and wants to work on boosting its presence on Google and Bing.

To begin with, they run an audit and discover on-site and technical SEO elements that can be improved but they spot another opportunity: Social Media.

What they decide to do is enlist the social media team to run an ongoing campaign to promote alcohol-free beer across platforms with links to the category page in your link tree, and products linked to posts.

Together, the efforts from both SEO and social media experts can bring the traffic, conversion and time on site rates up in one fell swoop, demonstrating to search engines that you are a valuable company to their users.

6. Increased backlinks

With more attention on your company, you have a higher chance of gaining backlinks organically.

Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. They demonstrate trust to Google by acting as the online equivalent of recommending a product/company to a friend. You wouldn’t tell your friend to use a terrible product, and other companies don’t want to lose their customers’ trust by recommending terrible content.

Your content might be amazing, but if it goes unnoticed, you’re not going to get backlinks. It is as simple as that.

Social media provides a stepping stone to influencers, bloggers, and like-minded industries who will want to share your content to boost their own reputation.

Social media and SEO are not misaligned; they are interconnected and interdependent. A strong presence on social media platforms can significantly impact your website's visibility, increase engagement, and even enhance the user experience through link trees. By fostering collaboration between your teams and leveraging the power of social signals, you can take full advantage of how social media boosts your SEO efforts.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

6 Best Practices for Successful Landing Pages

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:21:41 GMT

Landing pages are powerful tools in the world of digital marketing. They serve as the gateway to conversions, whether that means signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or downloading an ebook. To make the most of these opportunities, it's essential to follow best practices for successful landing pages.

Try Infosrerve’s seven key strategies to help you create landing pages that convert visitors into valuable leads and customers.

1. Create a perfect headline

Your landing page's headline is like the cover of a book: it should grab your visitor's attention and entice them to keep reading.

A perfect headline is clear, concise, and directly relates to the offer or content. It should also convey the value or benefit of what you're offering, whether it's a product, service, or information.

Make sure you:

1. Align your messaging with your brand:

Whilst your campaigns might feel separate from your business, they don’t exist on a completely different platform. Imagine clicking the link on a landing page and jumping to a website where the tone was entirely different.

This is something you need to avoid.

2. Are clear over clever

One of our favourite phrases when it comes to content is ‘be clear over clever’. Remember, you only have seconds to show a visitor what your website is about, so make sure they know exactly what you’re offering from your primary text.

3. Agitate a pain point

You are far more likely to catch a visitor’s attention if you relate to an issue they are currently experiencing. Keep your target audience in mind, and use their pain points.

2. Design different pages for different campaigns

Not all landing pages are created equal.

Tailor your landing pages to match the specific campaigns or sources that bring visitors to them. Customise the content and messaging to align with the expectations set by your ads or promotions.

Consistency between the campaign and landing page is key to maintaining visitor interest, and converting those visitors into customers.

3. Craft relevant CTAs

Your call-to-action (CTA) buttons or links are the catalyst for conversions.

Make them stand out visually and use compelling language. The text should be action-oriented and convey precisely what the user will get by clicking.

1. Start your CTA with a verb

Verbs create a sense of urgency and prompt users to take immediate action. Begin your CTA with a strong and clear verb to guide your audience.

For example, you might use phrases like ‘buy now,’ ‘subscribe today,’ or ‘register here.’ These verbs ignite a sense of purpose, letting users know what they need to do next.

2. Emphasise value

Users need to understand the benefits of clicking your CTA. Clearly communicate the value they will gain by taking the desired action. For example, if you were offering a free consultation appointment, you would want to emphasise that the service comes at no cost to your customer, both in terms of investment as well as to their time.

3. Create contrast

Your CTA button should visually stand out from the surrounding content.

This can be achieved through colour, size, and placement. Use a contrasting colour that complements your website's theme, making the CTA button pop with plenty of white space surrounding it.

You’ll also need to ensure it's large enough to be easily clickable on both desktop and mobile devices. Strategic placement, such as at the top of the page or within the content where it's contextually relevant, can also increase its visibility.

4. Test test test

Effective CTAs are not one-size-fits-all. What works for one audience or webpage might not work for another. That's why continuous testing is vital.

A/B testing allows you to experiment with different CTA variations to see which one performs best. Test different colours, wording, button sizes, and placements. Analyse the results to refine your CTAs and boost conversions continually.

4. Use images wisely

Visual elements can enhance the appeal of your landing page, but they should be used thoughtfully.

Use our tips and tricks for imagery to create a fast-loading landing page that appeals to your customer base:

1. Use relevant images & videos

Never use imagery for the sake of using imagery.

Images and videos should support the primary message of your landing page. For example, if you were a cosmetic dentist and you wanted to focus your ad campaign on Invisalign then your imagery should demonstrate this service rather than be a simple display of general dentistry.

2. Avoid clutter

Avoid cluttering the page with too many visuals as this can distract from the primary CTA. The goal of a landing page is to encourage visitors to take your desired action with as little friction as possible and therefore, a simple, sleek design is always better.

3. Optimise for fast loading times

Images should be optimised to load as quickly as possible to keep your users’ attention. This can be done by compressing images, choosing the correct image format and ensuring it is responsive.

5. Simplify your forms

If your landing page includes a form, keep it as simple as possible.

Request only the information you absolutely need. In most cases, asking for a name and email address is sufficient. The longer the form, the less likely visitors are to complete it.

6. Keep it simple

Cluttered and overly complex landing pages can overwhelm visitors. Focus on a clean and minimal design that guides users towards your CTA.

Eliminate unnecessary distractions and provide straightforward, easy-to-follow content. Remember that less is often more when it comes to landing pages.

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve wants your business to have the highest return possible on your paid campaigns. As a Google Partner one of the UK’s first Microsoft Elite Partners in advertising, we know how to boost conversions through bespoke landing pages that are tailored to your business. Our PPC team builds, manages and optimises your search visibility to drive inbound enquiries through paid ads.

For a deeper dive into what PPC entails and how you can make it work for your business, take a look at our PPC Whitepaper .

5 Quick Fixes to Speed up Your Website

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:09:37 GMT

In 2023, where the attention span of online users is shorter than ever, the speed of your website can make or break your online presence. Slow loading websites not only frustrate visitors but also affect your search engine rankings and overall user experience.

Fortunately, there are several quick and effective fixes that can significantly boost your website's speed and performance. Infoserve wants to show you how.

Why website speed is important

Consider all of the times that you have opened up a website and been frustrated when it hasn’t loaded instantly. Think about how quickly you bounced off the web page.

You are not alone.

Statistically, it takes users less than 5 seconds to decide whether a website is worth their time, so you need to make sure every one of those seconds counts.

Whilst realistically we should all relish the fact that we have so much information at our fingertips regardless of how quickly we can access it, the constantly evolving online world has changed the way we interact with websites. Gone are the days of top down loading where people were willing to wait several minutes for web pages to load.

In fact, according to a study conducted by Portent , A site that loads in 1 second has an e-commerce conversion rate 2.5x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.

That’s a huge difference!

This is why you need to make every page on your website loads as quickly as possible.

How to speed up your website

1. Choose the right hosting platform

The website host and the plan you have chosen impacts the flexibility and performance of your website. This can all be impacted by how the host is configured and the design of the website.

The hosting plan you choose will have a limit on accessible resources, memory, and bandwidth as well as the scalability of your website

2. Reduce redirects

Redirects can significantly slow down your website’s speed. This is because it delays the response process and results in far slower loading times.

If you require redirects, make sure they are necessary and that all unnecessary ones are eliminated.

Companies such as Screaming Frog have a useful tool that allows you to identify redirects on your website, which makes it far easier to determine which are not needed.

3. Optimise images

Ensure that images, videos, and graphics are no larger than necessary to reduce loading time. This can be achieved by compressing images.

They should likewise be displayed in the correct file format. It is generally considered that JPEG is the best format for images and PNGs are better graphics with up to 16 colours.

CSS image sprites decrease the number of server requests whilst saving bandwidth by combining a collection of images into one single image that loads all at once. This means your users won’t be waiting for several images to load in one go.

Other methods for reducing image loading speed include:

1. Lazy loading: Lazy loading is a web design technique that involves waiting to load images until they are needed. Rather than everything loading at once, images will load as the user scrolls or changes pages – in other words, if the user isn’t interacting with the image yet, then it won’t be loaded.

2. Image optimisation plug-ins: Certain plug-ins will have image optimisation options that automatically compress and resize images in bulk, thus eliminating the need for you to do them individually. These save a huge amount of time and energy with worthwhile results.

4. Reduce plug-ins

Whilst it might seem counterintuitive to discuss reducing plug-ins immediately after suggesting the one’s application, having too many on your website can slow it down.

This is also true for outdated plug-ins that can tarnish performance.

If you haven’t checked recently, then it might be a good idea to go through existing plug-ins on your website and disable any that are no longer of use, or even replace old plug-ins with updated versions to avoid security risk.

You could also run a test to determine which plug-ins are causing the most significant speed issues by removing them individually and running a speed test before and after. This, however, does take a significant amount of time.

That’s why we’d recommend approaching a digital marketing agency and seeking professional SEO services to take the pressure off your shoulders.

5. Cache your web pages

Browser caching enables the browser to store various information about your website, so it doesn’t need to reload your web pages every time someone uses it. This optimises the speed of your pages with loading times that will astonish your visitors.

Browser caching is offered as a plug-in by various online platforms and can be completely free or offered as a premium package, depending on your needs.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional, and responsive website, and our SEO team offer ongoing support to ensure it is optimised to perform at a high speed, beating your competitors and boosting conversion rates.

8 SEO Mistakes Your Blog is Making

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:18:15 GMT

Blogs are an indispensable method for expressing ideas, sharing stories, and connecting with audiences worldwide. But they also have a vital role in boosting your website’s SEO.

It can be easy to fall into common traps when you first start writing for SEO, but the SEO Team at Infoserve are eager to help you avoid these at all costs. That’s why we’ve outlined these 8 SEO mistakes your blog is making and exactly how you can right them.

1. Being too specific with your topic

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make when planning blogs for SEO is being narrow minded about their topics. A blog shouldn’t simply be a newsletter but likewise should avoid being too broad, but meeting somewhere in the middle can feel like a tricky task.

However, sticking to blog content that only talks about what you do specifically isn’t going to work.

Your blog acts as an avenue to bring in new customers through keywords and phrases that wouldn't otherwise appear on your website.

For example, if you were a wedding photographer, it can be tempting to create blogs that focus around photography. These could be ‘how to find a wedding photographer ’ or ‘ how much do wedding photographers cost? ’

Whilst these are excellent questions to answer in blogs, you should think more widely about what your customer wants in order to indirectly bring them to you.

In this instance, people who look for wedding photographers are planning a wedding, so what other pieces of advice will they need? You could look at creating blogs that surround weddings abroad, how to create the perfect wedding aesthetic or artisan wedding venues in your area.

2. Writing for search engines, not people

When you first start writing content for SEO, it can be easy to muddle yourself up in keywords, linking strategies and industry jargon to demonstrate to Google that you know what you’re talking about. But this is entirely the wrong approach.

It is important to keep in mind that Google’s primary goal is to provide the best experience for its users. If you are creating content that is obviously not user-friendly, you will be penalised for it.

However, this is not the only reason why keeping your audience at the forefront of content is so vital:

Getting people to your page is only the first step. Google not only includes CTR (click through rate) and content quality as a ranking factor, it puts a heavy amount of weight on how long users are spending on your page.

This is because if your content doesn’t keep people’s attention and they click off within seconds, search engines will insinuate that it isn’t useful to them, and it will promote another piece of content that is.

Match your searcher’s intent.

3. Unoptimised structure

Correct blog structure helps Google to more easily crawl your content and identify what it’s about, as well as giving your user small text chunks to digest.

Think about a time when you’ve opened a website and been immediately faced with a long paragraph of text - they’re difficult to focus on, aren’t they? From these, you don’t always find the information you’re looking for straight away either.

This is why it’s so important to banish the ‘I’ve got my point across and included keywords so it’s okay’ mentality, and really think about how you’re structuring your content.

Try to include the following elements to create digestible content chunks:

Headings and subheadings
Bulleted lists
Numbered lists
Short paragraphs: 2-3 sentences

4. Stuffing keywords

Content can and does rank for multiple keywords, but this doesn’t mean it’s your job to shove as many as you can into a single blog article.

Once you have located your primary keyword, make sure that everything you write within the blog is in service of that keyword. Answer the question in depth, but avoid detouring too much for the sole purpose of fitting more keywords in.

Likewise, using your keyword repetitively can get your content flagged as spam.

5. Copying another website’s content

We all know piracy is wrong, but there can still be a temptation to copy the format and a few sentences from another website where you find the information. This is a big no.

Unless you are directly quoting and giving credit, you need to find a way to phrase the information that is more suited to your brand. This can come naturally when you correlate brand tone of voice with your overall company image.

Content doesn’t need to be entirely original, but it shouldn’t be copied either. Try to find the balance in between in order to engage your audience.

6. Ignoring technical SEO

Whilst blogging for SEO purposes is a content heavy job, there are also various other elements that play a vital role in creating an easily crawlable piece of content. They might seem complex at first, but if you’ve sought the help of a professional SEO expert, or use a website editor then these things can be made very simple.

Platforms like Shopify, Duda and Wordpress all include cues that allow you to include and optimise the following elements:

Alt text: Text that describes an image to help Google and screen readers understand its contents.
Anchor text: Also known as ‘link text’, this is a piece of text in the code of your website that tells screen readers what to read out when scanning a text link. For example, if you were linking to the Infoserve home page, your anchor text would say ‘Infoserve’ which is more legible than the URL.

7. Leaving old content alone

You may have heard that it takes around 6 months for content to begin ranking which means it ages like fine wine, right?

Well, that’s not entirely true.

Unlike wine that should be left until consumed, SEO content requires regular maintenance.

Some content can stay strong for extended periods of time, but older content that isn’t doing so well will continue to drop down the rankings, thus bringing your overall website down.

However, there are many benefits to updating old content. It might seem like a lazy tactic, but it actually saves you time and helps you adapt to the ever changing search engine landscape. Our blog, How to Identify and Update Outdated Content can help you pick out which content to update and how to make it bounce back up the ratings.

8. Avoidance of link building

Internal links that send users elsewhere on your site are just as important as building a backlink strategy for several reasons:

They help Google understand how the content relates to your product/service
They increase user’s time on website
They prove authority of any included quotes or information taken from another source
They help users navigate to relevant pages

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our SEO and content writing team work closely together to update, refresh and rework your website’s content to improve your search visibility. If you’re interested in discovering what we can do for your business, please feel free to contact us today.

7 Best Ways to Generate Backlinks to Your Website

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 15:28:20 GMT

Backlinks are one of the most important strategies in SEO because they demonstrate your website’s authority and trustworthiness to search engines.

But what are they, how do they work and how do you generate high-quality backlinks? Infoserve ’s SEO team are here to help:

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are created when one website links to another. They are also known as ‘inbound links’ because they often refer to links external to your website that send users to your web pages.

Why do you need to invest in backlinks?

Backlinks are vital to building your website’s authority. They are the online equivalent of word of mouth advertising, and establish a level of trust in your business from other companies, blogs and online magazines.

Google values this form of SEO because other companies wouldn’t want to lose the confidence of their own customers by sending them to an unreliable or even spammy site. Therefore, they can have a hugely positive effect on your placing in the SERP (search engine results page).

When we say ‘invest’, we mean investing serious SEO time into sourcing backlinks. Some blogging websites, journalists and even companies will request payment for backlinks, but this doesn’t mean that all non-organic backlinks are paid for.

How to generate backlinks to your website

1. Prioritise Authority Over Quantity

You may hear quality over quantity a lot with reference to SEO but this ethos is never more important than with seeking backlinks.

Why?

Because some backlinks are considered ‘toxic’.

Google gives every website a toxicity score and if the toxicity score is high, seeking backlinks from them can actively harm your rankings.

A link may be considered toxic if:

It comes from a website that has been created simply for the purpose of giving out backlinks
The content is low quality or shallow
The content of the website isn’t relevant to your product/service
It comes from a website without an SSL certificate
It exists across all pages of the linking website
It is hidden somewhere in the blog, including a footer or link list
Doesn’t follow anchor text rules
Links are obviously sponsored

In Google’s link scheme guide, they state:

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”

2. Allow Credit on your Website

People are always looking for ways to build a portfolio of work online and this may be an opportunity to link back to your website. From designers and copywriters to collaborations, giving credit to work creates an excellent opportunity to ask for a backlink.

For example, at Infoserve, we’re not only proud of the services we provide, but proud of the relationships we build which is why we display our clientele (with approval, of course), on our Business Directory. This not only helps us by displaying our work, but brings them backlinks from our website.

In response, the website’s we’ve designed often contain a backlink to us in order to give us credit.

Relationships where both parties can benefit from crediting work are mutually beneficial and a strategy we strongly recommend.

3. Seek Guest Blogs

If you are an expert in your field then there may be professionals or bloggers within similar fields that are willing to provide space for informed content that you create.

This is a strategy that takes a little more work as you will need to find, approach and pitch yourself in order to gain valued space on their website.

However, the rewards are worth it.

4. Create Shareable Content

One of the best things you can do across the board when it comes to generating backlinks is create content that is valuable and shareable.

This will not only bring more organic links to your content but also makes people more likely to take backlink requests. People only want to link to websites that are relevant to their audience and the more appealing your content is, the more likely they’re willing to give you the time of day.

5. Collaborate

When you collaborate with another business, you open up the opportunity to boost each other’s image and customer base whilst reaching a wider audience.

There are many ways to collaborate, for example:

Creating a new product together
Starting an industry related podcast
Create an interview series
Host a competition that combines your products/service
Collaborating with influencers

6. Network, Network, Network

You may have noticed a running theme within our ways to generate backlinks, all of which involve building relationships with other businesses, entrepreneurs and bloggers.

Another way to do this effectively is to network. It is quite easy for someone to ignore an online or email request for a backlink, but when you attend networking events you can build foundations and open even more opportunities.

Always stick to events within your niche. This will help you find the most beneficial connections.

7. Offer A Benefit of Your Own

Often people are more likely to accept backlinks if there’s something in it for them so offer something in return.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re still struggling to source backlinks and boost the authority of your website, then Infoserve can help. Our SEO experts find the highest quality inbound links to strengthen your company’s reputation online and push you further up in the search results.

How to Prepare for Voice Search

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:23:03 GMT

‘ There are 4.2 billion voice assistants in use as of 2023. This number will reach 8.4 billion by 2024. ’ - Demand Sage

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular amongst mobile users. Whilst we constantly discuss the importance of mobile first design, we also need to incorporate one of the fastest growing forms of search used on mobile devices: Voice Search.

Sci-Fi has become reality in the way we communicate with data on the internet with the advance of AI search tools like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and ‘Hey Google’. That’s not even taking into account home voice assistants like Google Home and the famous Amazon Echo devices.

But, as useful as these tools are with regards to helping their users, it can also be difficult for businesses to comprehend exactly how to prepare your website for voice search.

Join Infoserve as we take a look.

What is voice search optimisation?

Voice search optimisation is a group of SEO techniques that are designed to help your content appear in voice search results. The aim is to have your content put in front of prospective customers by addressing verbal search queries.

It comprises various techniques that overlap with general SEO practices but voice search optimisation is its own category.

How to optimise for voice search

Technical SEO

Technical SEO gives voice assistants more context surrounding the coded elements of your website’s content. It likewise improves your website’s overall user experience and reputation, making it more likely to be selected as a response for voice search.

Technical SEO optimisations that directly impact voice search include:

1. Focus on mobile-first design and site speed

Google has been a mobile first platform since 2020 and one of the most important aspects of this with regards to voice search is site speed. Studies have shown that the average site loading speed for voice search is significantly shorter than traditional SERP queries.

When it comes to voice search optimisation, site speed should be the first place you look.

2. Use Schema Markup

Schema Markup is a type of structured data that allows Google to more easily navigate and index your website. Without getting too technical, Schema Markup is invisible to users and is effectively code that provides information about your business to search engines.

This information includes opening hours, location, contact information, reviews and much more. In short, it structures the most important data so that Google can accurately present this to your users.

Think of structured data as a blurb for your book. It isn’t a part of the story but it does provide valuable information to booksellers that informs them where to place it in their shop. This then also makes retrieving the book easier for both you and the bookseller.

The ability to find information quickly in this way is incredibly useful to voice search assistants.

It also makes your website more relevant and improves your overall visibility online, making your website much more appealing as an option for voice search.

Local SEO

Local SEO is the process that involves improving online visibility for local businesses such as bricks and mortar shops, or service based industries that operate regionally. If your website is optimised for location then you’ll show up in search results for queries placed in your area, including for short tail keywords.

Let’s quickly explore why this is so important for voice search.

According to SerpWatch , around 46% of voice search users search for local businesses each day.

That’s nearly half of all voice searches. And it makes so much sense when you think about it.

Whilst people use voice search for any number of reasons, it is very commonly employed when people are out and about and looking for somewhere to eat or visit in the local area. Not to mention that with smart features such as FordPass , Android Auto and even Google Maps, now allow drivers to use hands-free voice search while they are driving.

And when you’re long distance driving, it’s very common to get a little bit peckish and search for a local restaurant.

To optimise for local voice search, make sure:

Contact information including an accurate address is featured on your website
You seek local listings that you could be featured in
Have an up to date Google My Business profile
Make it easy for users to act and visit your location

For more information on how to optimise for local search, take a look at our blog: How to Build Location Pages for Local SEO .

Content for Voice Search

Platforms with a large database of SERP (search engine results page) information are at a huge advantage when it comes to voice search capabilities. This is because they already have a hierarchy of valuable answers at their fingertips that have been indexed and ranked in order to appear when a user searches for a query.

With voice search, in the simplest terms possible, all their voice assistants really need to do is scan for this information and then read it aloud.

This means that the content you create still sits at the centre of voice search results.

So how do you make sure that you’re fully optimised for this?

1. Create content that answers questions

People use voice search to ask questions, so you need to answer them.

When searching for the right keywords for voice search, use longer, more specific and full questions. For example, people are more likely to ask questions like ‘are there any good flower shops near Leeds?’ instead of ‘florists near me’.

If you’re struggling to think of keyword questions, start by using the five W’s: who, what, where, when and why.

For example, if you were a florist, instead of using the short-tail keyword ‘cactus’ to optimise for voice search, you would optimise your website for ‘where to buy cactuses in Leeds’, and create a separate blog that answers the question, ‘how to care for a cactus,’ or ‘why is my cactus turning yellow?’

2. Be conversational in tone

Voice search aligns more naturally with dialogue because someone is reading out your answers, therefore it makes more sense to create content with a conversational tone.

Whilst SEO experts and content writers have been waxing lyrical about the many benefits to writing casually for years, it has become even more important with regards to voice search queries. People don’t want to hear very technical answers to simple questions, they want an immediate, understandable fix.

Additionally, studies have proven that people struggle to absorb the spoken word more than the written word, so you need to make sure that you’re not overcomplicating things. Otherwise, your answer might not sink in.

3. Optimise for featured snippets

More than 40% of the voice search results are from the featured snippets - Demand Sage

Featured snippets are one of the most difficult Google features to achieve, yet Google favours them as answers to voice search queries.

To optimise for featured snippets, you need to:

Answer questions directly
Be objective and concise
Identify areas you are already ranking for
Optimise your overall on-page SEO
Create high quality content
Monitor, update and refresh the content

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve wants your business to succeed online through bespoke SEO services that include voice search optimisation. If you’re seeking further information about how we can help you get found online, contact us today or take a look at our SEO White Paper where we take a deep dive into the basics of Google’s ranking factors.

What Are the E-A-T Principles & Why Do They Matter?

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 08:49:53 GMT

Every Copywriter and SEO specialist who generates content for websites will be familiar with the E-A-T principles. E-A-T outlines the importance of value and quality above all else when it comes to creating content that resonates with your audience but also ranks highly for relevant industry keywords.

But what exactly is E-A-T and why does it matter?

The Infoserve team has broken it down for you.

What is E-A-T?

E-A-T stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. It is referenced in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines , a document used by human quality raters at Google to assess how effectively it is fulfilling its user’s expectations. In this document, E-A-T is used alongside content quality to determine how well each content host is demonstrating these three main principles of user-focussed content.

E-A-T is a key ranking criteria in Google’s algorithm but the specifics surrounding exactly how it’s used and whether it truly matters are a bit wishy-washy.

So let’s take a deeper dive into the fundamentals of Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness as they pertain to Google’s ranking algorithms:

E xpertise

Expertise refers to the level of skill and knowledge demonstrated by the creator of the content.

Google places strong emphasis on expertise as it relates to the subject outlined within the content to ensure its user is receiving the most accurate and reliable information possible.

This expertise is more important in YMYL (your money or your life) subjects like financial, medical and legal because of the significance of their impact on the lives of the readers.

It’s difficult to represent expertise on your website outside of simply using factually correct information, however there are a few things you can do to signal this to Google:

Have an About Us page that includes accreditations, qualifications and awards won by team members
Only create content that is highly relevant to your industry. If you’re an SEO specialist and you create content on gym memberships then Google will consider this spammy content
Having a Wikipedia page and relevant backlinks from similar industry experts can signal expertise
Work with other experts who can be cited in content, or create guest content for your website

A uthority

Authority within SEO is all about your reputation, whether you’re an influencer or an expert in your industry. Authority is also outlined by the principle that you should be seen as the go-to source of information by your customers.

A good example of this within the Digital Marketing sector is HubSpot.

Hubspot is often seen as the leading source of information relating to online marketing because they have established themselves as an authoritative source of information.

Authority can be built up online through multiple positive reviews, references, recommendations by other experts, awards information, online news articles with positive intent and other credible information written about you on the internet.

However, Google has become very good at identifying affiliate sources, so it’s important to put your time into finding high quality external companies who are willing to support you instead of working internally.

T rustworthiness

Trust isn’t just bestowed upon you by your customers; Google is always looking for trust symbols in order to prove that you are a legitimate source of information.

Trust can be demonstrated through transparency, honesty and accuracy of content.

A few recommended strategies for developing trustworthiness include:

Visible contact information across your website
Stating who is responsible for published content i.e blogs
Using factually accurate content
Citing sources of facts used, for example statistics and quotes

Is E-A-T actually that important?

Although Google is fairly elusive about how they rank E-A-T, as a principle it really does matter with regards to all content across your website, whether it’s a blog, e-commerce site or personal brand.

It is not an official ranking factor, but the principles do directly impact how your content ranks.

This might seem confusing, but let’s break it down:

You may have heard the phrase ‘content is king’ when it comes to SEO and web design. SEO experts are always shouting about adding more high quality content to your website to boost ranking ability, but you may have noticed that you struggle to find many guidelines on what exactly makes content ‘high quality’.

That, in effect, is E-A-T’s purpose.

Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness are the guidelines Google uses to determine which content should be ranked higher due to being of superior quality. This relates to several different aspects of its algorithm.

According to these guidelines, content should:

Help users
Be created by an expert
Be posted on an authoritative site
Be trustworthy
Be updated regularly

Google says:

“At Google, we’re always working on ways we can improve your Search experience.

We constantly experiment with ideas to improve the results you see. One of the ways we evaluate those experiments is by getting feedback from third-party Search Quality Raters. Quality Raters are spread out all over the world and are highly trained using our extensive guidelines.

Their feedback helps us understand which changes make Search more useful.”

How to improve E-A-T

Google is ambiguous about how EAT is measured, but there are several things you can do to ensure your website is as E-A-T friendly as it can be.

These include:

1. Featuring high quality internal, external and backlinks

Internal backlinks show that you care about your user’s experience, external links explain to Google that you get your information from reputable sources, and backlinks show that other people online trust your company enough to recommend it.

2. Create detailed About Us Pages on your website

About Us pages give you the space to freely discuss the authority and expertise of your team and your authors in as much detail as you’d like. As discussed above, this includes qualifications, accreditations and awards that all signal a high level of knowledge and experience within the industry in which you operate.

3. Publish and update content regularly

Fresh content is a strong indicator of a trustworthy source to Google. This is because it shows that you care about your audience and the information they have access to, but it also proves that you are still active as a business.

However, a bigger signal of trust is a company that updates and repurposes old content to ensure it remains relevant and includes any new insights into the subject.

4. Seek mentions in community forums

Community forums represent the voices of real people with real opinions on your brand. Whilst backlinks from other websites are an important ranking factor, it is very common for businesses to pay for backlinks or strike a deal with other companies to gain mutual backlinks.

But forums contain honest reviews from customers who are recommending your product to others, making them one of the biggest trust signals on the internet.

5. Have a Wikipedia mention

We know that Wikipedia isn’t always an accurate measure of information but having a mention can significantly improve your authority in Google’s eyes.

In fact, their quality guidelines reference it by name as a source of reputable, unbiased source because Wikipedia requires information about your website/product/business to be verifiable by a third party source.

If Wikipedia thinks you are worthy of referencing due to multiple angles of credibility, then Google will take notice.

And getting a Wikipedia page is really difficult.

6. Ask your customers for reviews

Like community forums, customer reviews provide an honest insight into how customers view your business which is why they are taken into consideration as a trust signal.

For example, if you have 100 reviews and an overall one star rating, Google won’t want to disappoint its customers by offering your business on a platter on page 1 of Google.

However, if you have 100 reviews and an overall 4.7 star rating, then your stellar reputation will be paid attention to.

It is also worth noting that Google compares and contrasts reviews across multiple platforms when deciding on trust factors, so don’t simply rely on Trustpilot. Ask your customers to leave reviews on the following platforms:

Trustpilot
Yelp
Google
OpenTable

Avoid placing reviews from internal sources as these will be seen as fraudulent. Google can compare email addresses to those listed on company’s house and LinkedIn.

Is AI generated content impacting E-A-T?

A debate has been sparked recently regarding the rise of AI generated content and what this means for E-A-T. Within the Content Writing and SEO industry, copywriters are beginning to adapt to new methods of creating written content, and the question has been sparked: is AI content diminishing high quality content?

As you may be aware, AI generated content is derived from other sources of information across Google, and whilst it tries its hardest to find the most relevant, truthful and trusted sources, AI doesn’t always get it right.

The internet is highly saturated with information about all subjects, and when ‘quick-fix’ tools are used, content continues to be recycled rather than provide new insights.

The main element of E-A-T that is up for debate with regards to AI content is expertise.

The benefit of having an expert involved in creating content is that they know more about the inner workings of their industry than a tool such as this ever could, and the insights they provide are far more valuable to their user than other information that is found in several other articles on the same page of Google.

That being said, AI tools can also compare and contrast content across the internet to inform the content in question. The catch is, no matter how accurate AI is, it will always need a human expert to assess the quality of the work it has produced and make edits wherever necessary, as well as double check the facts.

The tools themselves state that any content generated might not be 100% accurate. And Google penalises false content.

So, whatever you use to create your content, however that content comes to be, it is vital to assess it for E-A-T qualities to ensure you are complying with Google’s guidelines and creating the most valuable content to your website’s visitors.

Not sure where to start?

The Growing Landscape: How Bing Ads Are Taking Over

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 11:25:34 GMT

In the online landscape, Google is often the most spoken about platform when it comes to both organic search and Ad performance, but what about Microsoft Bing? As long-standing Microsoft Elite Advertising Partners, the Infoserve team have kept our eye firmly on the potential that this search engine contains, proudly fighting its corner as one of the wisest investments you can make with your ad spend.

Now, we have more data to prove it:

Bing’s Latest User Surge

This year, Microsoft Bing reached 100 million daily users; a significant milestone in the search engine landscape. For the first time in 20 years, Google is facing severe competition.

This surge in Bing's user base comes after the integration of ChatGPT and Bing, making The New Bing the first search engine to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into its search capabilities. Additionally, Microsoft has released Copilot for Microsoft Edge , a new AI-powered browser that enhances users’ browsing experience, making it easier and faster to shop, get in-depth answers, summarise information, or discover new inspiration.

These new additions further strengthen Microsoft Advertising's already impressive ecosystem, unlocking even more potential for advertisers. This includes expanded customer reach, especially with younger and mobile audiences, richer understanding and personalised answers leading to better campaign ROI, and new opportunities to rethink traditional ad experiences and ROI scenarios on advertising objectives.

It is therefore more important than ever to keep Microsoft Bing in your sights when creating an online strategy that brings the highest return for your customers.

Who Does Bing Work For?

Bing Ads are suited to any business, with any budget.

If you’re not set up with Bing Ads, you could be missing out on vital leads that could help your business take off.

How Infoserve Use Bing to Boost your ROI

As a Microsoft Advertising Elite Channel Partner, Infoserve ’s goal is to help our clients succeed in this new era of search advertising. We work with you to plan and execute a strategy that positions your business to reach more users online and grow exponentially with Microsoft Advertising.

Our collective experience within the Microsoft space gives us indispensable insight into paid advertising and organic opportunities on Bing, giving us the best possible platform from which to expand your business.

For a service that promotes transparency, quality and multi-talented PPC experts, trust Infoserve with your Ad spend. Get your FREE PPC Audit today to discover how you can unlock up to £475 managed Ad credit with Microsoft Bing.

The Human Element: Why Real Person Customer Service Still Matters

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 11:52:10 GMT

Did you know: After more than one bad experience, around 76% of consumers say they would rather do business with a competitor - ( Zendesk )

Automation has been silently taking over the way we manage customer service for years, and whilst it has its benefits, sole reliance on automated services can also be detrimental to your business.

What is automated customer service?

You might not realise it but automation is everywhere. Automated customer service is any form of service that allows your customers to solve their problems without interacting with a human. This removes obstacles like waiting in a phone queue for hours whilst slowly being driven senseless by repetitive hold music, and only having access hours of 9-5.

Examples of automated customer service include:

Online reviews
Interactive voice response (IVR)/ automated phone receptionist
AI chat bots
FAQ pages on websites
Automated email responses to queries

With automated customer service, your customers can reach you at all hours of the day and have a response almost instantly. However, whilst it is often hailed to be more efficient and reduce in-house costs, does using automated customer service come at a higher price?

The benefits of real person customer service

1. Loyalty and trust

Customer loyalty is a hot commodity in the competitive online market and it’s no secret that companies who go above and beyond with their customer service are more likely to gain customer trust.

Why?

Because people want to feel listened to, and the problem with automated customer service features is that this outcome will never be achieved. If your customer is always faced with a chat bot, or a clearly mass produced email, they aren’t going to believe that you care. Or at least, they won’t believe you care enough to genuinely dedicate staff to creating the best experience possible with your end product/service.

2. Amicable solutions to complex problems

One of the biggest complaints with automated customer service is that the tools available are only equipped to handle basic, frequently encountered problems. This is helpful to the masses who experience your most common issues, but for those who have more difficult problems to resolve, the answers will fall short.

Real person customer service gives your customers access to tailored solutions to their individual problems, with a human voice on the other end of the phone who can adapt and remain flexible if the initial solution isn’t what they were after.

3. Retention is cheaper than customer acquisition

This one probably speaks for itself; once a customer has found your brand and invested in your product/service with a positive experience, it is far easier to keep them interested than it is to go and source new customers.

However, the more important factor to consider is that research proves companies who invest a little bit of their budget into real person customer service have a lower overall acquisition cost.

There are many reasons for this:

It’s more profitable to place company effort into customer retention
When you free up employee time to focus on doing the work they’re skilled at, you bring more money into the business
When customers have a positive experience, they’re more likely to recommend you to a friend
When customers have a positive experience, they’re more likely to leave a glowing review that acts as a trust signal to prospective customers

4. Customers are willing to pay for it

To explain this one, let’s remove the experience of shopping online from the equation.

Imagine you are out shopping for the day and looking for a new pair of walking boots for your next hike. You have 2 options available, both of which sell shoes of the exact same quality:

Shoe Shop 1: Have a variety of walking boots at an average price of £50.

Shoe Shop 2: Have a smaller variety of walking boots with a luxury label at an average price of £75.

First, you go to Shoe Shop 1 because you notice that the shoes are also of excellent quality, only a little bit cheaper than the luxury brand. You walk in, pick up your pair of shoes and when you check out, you are faced with a self service machine that isn’t working after waiting in a long queue. When you ask for help, the staff are dismissive and send you to the second self service machine. This machine is too slow and you’re in a rush, so you leave the walking boots and exit the shop with a bitter taste in your mouth.

Although the product was of excellent quality, the customer service was average and you’re left feeling dissatisfied.

You then run into Shoe Shop 2.

You are greeted as soon as you walk into the shop. The assistant asks if you require any help, and lets you know they’re there if you do need anything. The walking boots are noticeably of a very high quality but slightly out of your set budget for the day - you decide to let this slide because Shoe Shop 1 let you down. You notice they don’t have your size out so the assistant retrieves a pair from the back and a size larger because this is more convenient when you wear thick hiking socks. You decide to opt for the larger pair. The assistant carries your shoes to the check out for you, and has already processed them whilst you were putting your own shoes back on.

The entire transaction is done with a smile, you’re thanked for your time and you have a pleasant, human conversation as you’re paying.

Which shop would you be most likely to return to in the event that you require hiking equipment in the future? For the sake of helpful, human customer service, it has been proven that most people would be willing to use Shoe Shop 2 and pay the extra £25.

This is the same online.

5. Customer recommendations

A good customer service experience heavily impacts recommendations. 94% of consumers who give a company a “very good” CX rating are likely to recommend that company - ( Qualtrics XM Institute )

6. It aids marketing strategies

If you have an in-house customer service team who are regularly speaking to your customers about their issues with the company/service you provide, then they can pass vital intel onto your marketing team.

For example, as the front line of your business, your customer service team may have much better insight into how your brand is perceived by customers. You may see your customers as athletic and health conscious, but you may find that they are actually purchasing your product because it’s comfortable or they require it for a charity event.

This will make it far easier to align your brand image with your customers’ values.

7. Improves brand image

The most self-explanatory reason for investing in real person customer service is that it improves the way your customers see you.

Need we say more?

The importance of real person customer service

Good customer service isn’t just a nicety, it is expected. Even as little as one bad experience with customer service can turn a customer to your competitors.

No matter how seamless your production line is, or how spotless your product/service may be - you won’t be able to satisfy everyone. But how you manage and understand unhappy customers can make or break your business.

Does real person customer service still matter?

In short, yes it does.

The truth is that whilst automated customer service can be more efficient and get answers to your customers in less time, people still crave the human element .

Customers want to feel like they’re speaking to another person who truly understands their needs and can manage their individual query with the thorough attention only a human can provide.

Sometimes all that is needed for a person to feel valued is to hear the words ‘thank you,’ or ‘I’m sorry’ from the voice of someone who truly cares.

At Infoserve , we pride ourselves on going beyond simply valuing you as a client; we want you to feel as though we are an extended part of your internal team and we can only do this by providing tailored, person-to-person support.

Our help desk is on hand to support you 5 days a week with any requests you might have about the services we provide, or any issues that arise during your time as our esteemed client. We offer dedicated real life support so you aren’t faced with a chatbot at every turn.

Contact Infoserve

Telephone: 0800 089 0879 | Email: customerservices@infoserve.com

5 Common Mistakes ecommerce Websites Make

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 11 May 2023 08:41:23 GMT

I f you run an ecommerce business it can be difficult to break the online market. But you shouldn’t feel downtrodden. The complexities of creating, designing, launching and pushing a website can be overwhelming when you’re new to them and that’s why it is so easy to make mistakes.

Whether you’re just getting online or are struggling to gain traction for your existing website, there are plenty of small fixes that can be applied to ensure you’re gaining the attention that your business deserves.

That’s why Infoserve have collated some of the most common mistakes e-commerce websites make, and broken them down so that you can improve your online performance.

Lack of audience understanding

Take a moment to think about your favourite ecommerce brands online. The ones that really stic k in your mind. The ones that you’d return to because they really understood who you are and what you need from them.

Understanding your audience is a fundamental element of any business, whether you’re online or not. However, ecommerce is so highly saturated that you need something that will make y ou stand out to your audience.

And you can’t know how to appeal to your audience if you don’t know who your audience is.

This doesn’t mean that you need to create a controversial, loud personality for your brand. Simply start by breaking down the basics of what your customer needs relative to your product.

Let’s take a look at an example to explain this better:

The company Patch Plants nurses and delivers indoor and outdoor plants to homes across the UK. Their target audience is plant owners, plant lovers and even offices.

What do plant owners/plant lovers need from a company that sells plants?

Plants themselves
Plant care products
Information on how to care for plants

In response to this information, a plant retailer could create a tailored guide on how to care for houseplants. But, to resonate with their audience, Patch Plants has gone above and beyond.

They have created dedicated Plant Doctors that you can access via their website that provide specific advice on individual plants, and can diagnose any issues that their customers might be struggling with. They also have care advice on their website for each plant that you can access through a QR code that is sent to your home with your new plant.

This level of audience understanding and response to the needs of their customer has gained them a reputation as one of the top ecommerce businesses from which to buy indoor plants.

This only scratches the surface of what ecommerce compani es can do with their website when they truly understand their customer’s needs.

Tips to better understand your audience:

Create customer personas of your target audience
Listen to customer feedback
Take a look and both positive and negative reviews of your competitors
Use social media and online forums to discover pain points of customers who match the interests of your persona
Use chat boxes to answer questions
Use your own initiative

Choosing a poor hosting platform

There are so many options for website hosting in 2023 that it can feel overwhelming. It might seem tempting to go with the easiest option, or the first option that’s recommended to you.

This would be a mistake.

The hosting platform that you choose can have a huge impact on how your website performs, how it resonates with customers as well as the design features and functionalities that you have access to.

In addition to this, certain platforms perform better for SMEs whilst others are more suited to multinational corporations with a higher volume of sales.

Although we cannot recommend a specific platform suited to your company without first assessing the needs of your business, we can recommend that you do the appropriate research beforehand.

Most ecommerce providers offer free trial periods before committing to their service, so you have the option of testing a few before settling.

At Infoserve, we sort hosting and domain email setups for you so you can be freed from the hassle. Our bespoke Website Manager gives you the freedom to edit and access your website, giving you control when you need it.

Having a complex check out process

You might think that once a customer reaches the check out cart, that you’re guaranteed a sale. This is a common fallacy.

In fact, according to Baymard Institute , nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned.

This could be for any number of reasons. They co uld be window shopping, saving items for later, or maybe they were put off by the price of shipping. It’s natural, and it happens.

However, one of the most typical reasons people will abandon a cart is that the check out process is too complex. Luckily, this is an easy fix.

To increase purchase completion rates on your website, try:

Allowing customers to check out without creating an account
Only asking for relevant, necessary information
Use automated address shortcuts
Use a single page checkout system
Show shipping costs early in the process
Have a clear returns policy available before check out
Prioritise mobile friendly design

It is worth noting that certain website hosting platforms won’t allow you to customise the checkout page, so keep this in mind when selecting the right host for you.

Top tip: Ensure your website has a verified SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Badge

Poor web design

One of the most common misconceptions amongst small businesses is that getting yourself online is enough - the ‘ build a website and they will come ’ mentality.

But Web Designers don’t spend years honing their craft and studying user psychology for no reason. Because although a poorly designed website might bring visitors to your website, it is likely t hey’ll bounce quickly if the design is unappealing or outdated.

This doesn’t mean that your website needs to be revolutionary, but it does need to be sleek, modern and optimised for user experience.

For an in-depth guide on how to create a customer-first, results driven website, download our FREE Web Design White Paper .

Skipping SEO optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the technique of creating a website that works with Google’s algorithms to boost your position in search engine results. This is how you get found online.

Although many ecommerce businesses do grow their business through excellent social media presence, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine ( Ahrefs ), even in 2023.

In the same study, Ahrefs found that less than 10% of pages on Google receive any traffic at all.

Why is this?

Ask yourself the following question - how often do you scroll past the first page on Google when looking for a product, service or answer to a question?

Would it surprise you to know that only 5.7% of web pages ever end up on page one of any search engine? That’s less than 10%.

User psychology suggests that people are looking for a quick fix to their problems when they type a search query into Google, and this means they’re unlikely to scroll past the first page. Not to mention that Google is constantly providing adapted ways to supply users with exactly that.

If you neglect SEO on your website, you’re never going to compete with the top 10 results on Google. Therefore, you need to implement SEO strategies in your ecommerce business as soon as you get online.

Download our FREE SEO White Paper for easy to implement SEO strategies that will get you started.

Not Sure Where to Start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Take a look at our Web Design Process for more information on what to expect when you trust us with your ecommerce website.

The PPC Process

Francesca.Taylor@infoserve.com (Francesca Taylor) — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:44:01 GMT

When you sign up for PPC with an external agency, you don’t want to be left in the dark about where your money is going. At Infoserve , our team is committed to ensuring we feel like a part of your business, not just a tag on.

So we’re exposing our PPC process for your ease of mind.

This short guide explains exactly what to expect from first contact with our PPC experts to the tools you will receive to monitor the progress of your ads.

Let’s get started.

What to expect with Infoserve PPC campaigns

1/ Introduction

In our initial calls with you, we’ll need to understand your goals with PPC. We will discuss your expectations, the number of services you wish to promote and potential budget.

At this stage, we will be able to brief you on what to expect in our process and answer any questions you have.

2/ Client Briefing

At the Client Briefing stage of our PPC process, our team will want to gain a deeper understanding of your business in order to target your audience with your messaging.

We will work in the background to discover related keywords and competitors as well as identify potential strengths and weaknesses with your website.

To ensure we are working for you, we will need to know:

Who you are as a business
Your primary products/services
Your unique selling points as a brand
The products/services that drive the most revenue within your business
Geographical areas you’d like to target

We will also require up-to-date information about where you are in your marketing efforts because a website’s SEO, listings and Design can impact ad performance.

3/ Discussion with Product Teams

From the information we have gathered, we will be able to discuss internally and create a sufficient proposal along with a quote that incorporates your budget.

4/ Quote and Proposal

We then create a quote and proposal based on initial research and planning conducted to meet the initial brief.

This can differ depending on the industry as well as your requirements and budget.

First we undertake keyword research if the account plan includes search campaigns. This involves looking into historical data for keywords, potential cost-per-click, and search volumes for the target geographical areas.

We base our budget recommendation on this data.

If the account plan includes a shopping campaign, we first audit the product feed to identify potential blockers and areas where the product feed needs improvement. We issue some diagnostics and recommendations at this stage before starting any work on our campaigns.

Our proposal includes an overview of the channels and campaign types we'll deploy to meet our client's marketing objectives and recommended budgets.

5/ Execution

If you are happy with our proposal, we’ll begin the process of creating your ads. We create ad copy and keyword strategies using insights we have gained over decades of managing ad campaigns.

We also utilise Microsoft Advertising UI and Google Ads UI to open opportunities to achieve better overall performance.

In order to analyse campaign success, we will need access to track your website through Google Analytics, a code snippet or Google Tag Manager. This will not impact the usability or security of your website. Instead, it gives us the tools we need to improve your campaign performance.

6/ Follow Up

To ensure you’re fully satisfied with the ongoing progress of your PPC campaigns, our team conducts follow up calls where we give you a comprehensive breakdown of your results, as well as propose strategies for increasing conversions.

PPC Dashboard:

Our PPC Dashboard gives on-demand access to the metrics that matter most. The platform uses this data to make adjustments to the placement of your campaign budget, aiding keywords that are driving sales and shifting away from ones that are underperforming.

You will have full visibility of your dashboard to monitor how many enquiries, phone calls and form fills your PPC campaign is producing.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our accomplished PPC experts handle your ad campaigns from start to finish. We have access to decades of keyword insights and tracking information to deliver the best possible outcome for your business.

For an in-depth guide into the basics of PPC, download our FREE PPC White Paper where we cover everything you need to know when setting up your ad campaigns.

Understanding the Google Ads Auction

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:13:33 GMT

If you’re confused by Google Ads then we don’t blame you.

Despite the vast benefits that investing in a PPC campaign can bring to your business, if you’ve not explored this marketing avenue before, the ins and outs can seem confusing. At Infoserve , we don’t think anyone should feel alienated by ‘in the know’ terminology, so we’ve broken down one of the most basic elements of Google Ads: the Google Ads Auction.

Because when 63% of people have clicked on a Google Ad ( The Social Shepherd ), how can you afford to miss out?

What is the Google Ads Auction?

When a user types a search query into the search engine, Google runs an auction. In essence, it analyses all of the ads that match the searcher’s keyword and spits out the most relevant ads and decides the order in which they appear.

This is determined by:

Keyword relevance
Landing page quality
CPC (cost per click)

When setting up a Google Ad, companies will identify keywords they want to rank for and then set a maximum CPC bid.

How does the Google Ads Auction work?

Auctions begin when a user makes a search query on Google. If an ad is relevant for auction, it goes through the following process according to Google :

When someone makes a search query, the Google Ads system finds all ads that match the search
From this, Google removes the ads that aren’t appropriate for that search including location specific searches
The ads that remain are then sorted according to which has the highest Ad Rank

Because the auction is repeated each time a new search query is made, every auction can have different results. Therefore, it’s normal for your ad to appear 1st one day and 2nd on another.

However, if your ad is more relevant and of higher quality then you may find yourself with a high CTR and conversion rate than a higher ranked ad.

The position of Ads also changes constantly. For example, as this blog goes live, Google shows 3 ads at the top of the search results and 3 at the bottom.

What is Ad Rank?

Ad Rank is a value used to determine where ads are shown in search results (ad position). It is calculated using:

Bid value: Your cost per click as compared to other relevant ads
Ad quality: Expected CTR, relevance to the query and landing page quality/experience
Rank thresholds: The minimum bidding threshold for the ad
Auction competitiveness: Volume and quality of other relevant ads
Search context: Type of search query, location, device used, time of day, organic results attributed to the query and other relevant factors
Expected impact of ad: How your ad is expected to perform. This could be based on landing page experience and previous performance

The ad with the highest Ad Rank will appear first in the search results, the second will appear second and so on.

How is ad rank calculated?

Ad rank is calculated by multiplying an ad’s quality score by the maximum PPC bid. This will take the above factors into consideration.

Therefore, ad quality and cost both impact each other. If you have a low budget but the quality and relevancy of your ad are high, you might still achieve a high Ad Rank score.

Minimum Ad Rank Threshold

For each auction, Google sets minimum reserve prices to determine whether an ad will be shown at all. This is to maintain the highest quality and relevancy of ads.

Thresholds are determined at the time of the auction with consideration for the following factors:

Ad quality
Ad position
User signals i.e device type and location
Search topic
Search nature
Related queries

Ad Ranks Thresholds impact your actual CPC:

According to Google: ‘ If your ad is the only one that’s eligible to show, (for example, because none of your competitors meet their Ad Rank thresholds), you’ll pay the reserve price ’.

What is CPC?

CPC (cost per click) bidding is a form of bidding where you pay for each click on your ads.

When you use CPC bidding campaigns you’ll set a maximum CPC which is the maximum you’re willing to pay for each click. This will be used to calculate your Ad Rank.

Although you set a maximum CPC, you are likely to be charged less per campaign, depending on the competitiveness of your keywords.

When setting your maximum CPC, you’ll have the choice between:

Manual bidding: You choose your bid amounts
Automatic bidding: Google sets your bids to maximise your overall budget

What is Quality Score?

Quality Score is a tool used to determine the overall quality of your ad compared to other Ads. It is ranked from 1-10.

Ads that are considered more relevant, user friendly and useful are given a higher Quality Score for the associated keyword.

Quality Score is determined by 3 main factors:

Ad relevance: How closely your ad content matches the searcher’s query
Landing page experience: How useful your landing page is to the user
Expected click through rate: Predicted click through rate for your ad. This is determined by calculating number of clicks ÷ impressions

How to improve Quality Score

According to Google, the following strategies can improve your Quality Score performance:

1. Review your quality score components:

Discover insights into how to improve quality score by reviewing Expected CTR, Ad relevance and landing page experience. This will tell you where improvements need to be made such as ad text, keyword relevancy or even landing page flow.

You will be given a score of ‘average’, ‘above average’ or ‘below average’. Improve the lowest scoring areas first to bring your overall average up.

2. Make ads more relevant to your keywords

Try matching your ad text and landing page text more closely to your keywords. Including them directly within titles, headings and body text can drastically improve your relevancy to the query.

You could also split your ads into ad groups that rank for different, but related keywords that more closely resemble searcher’s queries.

3. Improve CTR

To improve CTR, try:

Editing ad text to something more engaging
Ensuring your ad matches the search intent
Referencing the benefit of your product rather than its features
A/B testing ads with different text and CTAs (call to actions)
Improving specificity of ad text

4. Update your landing page

Give people what they’re looking for and make sure your landing page is optimised towards a single, specific CTA. Make sure the messaging aligns with your ad text and that all content is mobile friendly.

Still not sure where to start?

Infoserve ’s dedicated PPC team exists to cut through the noise and make investing in PPC as simple as possible and our expert Web Design and Content Writing experts can create a targeted landing page that maximises conversions.

Increase your lead gen with Infoserve PPC today and get £475 free managed ad credit.

The Web Design Process

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:31:48 GMT

Signing up for a new website can be daunting if you don’t know what to expect. You might be hesitant about spending your marketing budget on a product when there are uncertainties involved.

At Infoserve , we pride ourselves on our process driven experience and the transparency of our internal operations. So we have outlined exactly what you should expect when you request a website design and build with our team.

Who is involved in the web design process?

We know that it can be frustrating to always feel like there’s a middleman between you and the agency you’re trusting with your business.

When you sign up with Infoserve, you will have the opportunity to speak directly to the creatives who are building your website. This includes:

Project Managers
Web Designers
Content Writers
SEO Experts
Listings Managers

The extent of communication depends on the individual website products you have invested in, as well as the package you agree to.

What to expect with Infoserve Web Design

Your website will be bespoke to your needs, with SEO included as standard in the build and maintenance process.

But what should you expect along the way?

1/ Discovery

Your web design experience with Infoserve will begin with a discovery meeting. This is to ensure we understand your target audience, competitors and your desired branding.

At this stage, we will also discuss the functionality of your website and conduct a thorough analysis of websites you admire. We will need to establish the number and type of pages you expect for the website.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager
Design Coordinator

2/ Content

If you have opted in for bespoke website c opy, you will then be invited for an exploratory call to discuss your requirements. This includes brand tone of voice, guidelines on messaging and any competitive content you are particularly keen on.

We can discuss:

Web page content
Brand messaging
Blog content if added

Once we have established the above, a professional copywriter will create your content and send it to you for approval and final edits.

Who’s involved:

Content Writer

3/ Sitemap

Your sitemap is the structure of your website and it is fundamental to our process that we establish this before major design and content decisions are made. We’ll need t he number and type of pages, your menu options and any private areas of the website for staff access.

This will involve:

Meeting set up with professional web designer to discuss layout and your desired structure
Ensure all products/services and private areas of website are included
Agreeing upon a sitemap - which pages go where and how they connect

Who’s involved:

Project Manager
Web Designer

4/ Wireframe

After we establish the structure of your website, we’ll need to discuss the layout of your website’s main pages. Before the design is added, a wireframe will be mocked up to b est represent your ideas and the body you require.

These will be for internal use, and will determine the structure of design, branding and content.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager
Web Designer

5/ Design

You will then be involved in creative meetings to establish the design of your main pages. We may ask for examples of websites that inspire you, or that have a feeling you connect with. This can help us better understand your expectations of the end result, and give us inspiration for the design.

Once we have put together a first draft design, this will be sent to you for approval. Depending on the package you choose with us, you will have access to either a set number or unlimited edit requests on your design.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager
Web Designer

6/ Build

Now the design is agreed upon, a developer will start to build your website.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager
Web Designer
Web developer

7/ Delivery

After testing, refinement and discussions, Infoserve will seek approval for the delivery of your website.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager

8/ Go Live

Once you are satisfied with the final design, your website will go live. Infoserve takes care of domain and hosting for a smooth transition as your business enjoys its shiny new website product.

Who’s involved:

Project Manager

Or, to put it more simply:

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

For an in-depth guide into the basics of Web Design, download our FREE Web Design White Paper where we cover the fundamentals of website design, marketing and copy.

Why You Need a Dedicated Paid Landing Page

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:19:05 GMT

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when investing in paid ads is neglecting to create a dedicated landing page for their campaign. Whether it’s Google, Facebook or Bing, your business will benefit massively from having a singular, targeted page that boasts the benefits of the product or service you are paying to advertise.

At Infoserve , we are dedicated to helping your brand experience the very best from your paid campaigns, so we have crafted this simple guide on why you need a dedicated paid landing page, and how to measure its success.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a website page that a search engine displays in response to a searcher’s query online. It is usually a dedicated page created for a specific product or service, and commonly used during paid campaigns.

This could be your home page, a specific product page or a bespoke page that links to your website but doesn’t exist there outside of your paid campaign.

Paid landing page objectives

The objective of a landing page is to persuade visitors to convert with as little distraction as possible.

With a paid landing page, this becomes even more important. This is because you are paying for every visitor that clicks on your ad, so you want them to engage and complete your desired action without going elsewhere.

But let’s dig a little bit deeper into why a paid landing page is so necessary for paid campaigns:

Why you need a paid landing page

1/ To create focus

Paid landing pages are designed to reduce clutter and drive focus towards a specific goal. This includes removing menu and service options, and any ads you might have attached to your main website.

This makes it much easier for your visitor to complete your goal and therefore convert into a customer.

2/ To aid results analysis

When there is a singular conversion point on your website, it is far easier to analyse results and search for ways to improve your user’s journey on the page.

If they have clicked on your ad then you know they are interested in your product or service. However, you may have missed a trick with layout, design or even copy.

When your page is simple and focussed, you can more swiftly identify which of these you need to update to create resonance with your audience.

3/ Create a specific path to conversion

Targeted landing pages create a path to conversion for a single product or service.

They allow the space and ability to drive a single conversion point in a way your main website might not. It removes distractions that may take users away from the main page.

This could be a single call to action (CTA) button, or form fill that appears on the page. This way, they don’t need to follow additional links or faff around on your website to find what they’re looking for.

Paid landing pages also provide an easier route for your customers through the conversion tunnel; from awareness to consideration to desire to action.

4/ Easier to map user behaviour for optimisation

When you have a single point of focus for a paid campaign, it can be easier to map user behaviour.

We would recommend attaching analytics tools such as Ahrefs to your landing page because this shows exactly how a user travels across your page. It can track the position and movements of your visitor’s mouse and display this as ‘heat mapping’ and ‘click mapping’:

Heat Mapping software shows the position of a user's mouse, including where they have hovered. This can show you if they have considered converting, or focussed on a specific area of the page
Click Mapping allows you to see the areas of the page where a user has clicked

Both of these can tell you where a visitor’s focus is drawn to on the page, allowing you to optimise those areas to push them towards conversion more efficiently.

5/ Higher conversion rate

When you invest in a paid campaign, you’ll want to see the highest ROI possible. Without focus, it can feel like you’re throwing money at a wall.

In 2021, Search Engine Journal found that “ the average click-through rate across all industries sat at 3.17%.”

This might seem a little low for an advert you’ve paid for, but there are ways you can boost conversion across your landing page. For more information, take a look at our 10 landing page tips to boost conversions .

How to measure landing page success

Your landing page should have a single point of conversion that is tracked through your chosen analytics platform. The success rate of this landing page should be your sole measure of success, however there are ways that you can optimise your landing page for higher ROI.

Pay attention to the following metrics:

1/ Bounce rate: Customers clicking onto your landing page and immediately closing the window.

2/ Session duration: The amount of time users spend on your landing page.

3/ Touch points: Where your visitors have clicked on the website. Is this to complete your form fill? Are they clicking on your logo to explore the rest of your website?

4/ Page views: How many people view the page? How many other pages on your website do they view - if customers are leaving your landing page to explore your website, then it might not be focussed towards your desired goal.

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve wants your business to have the highest return p ossible on your paid campaigns. As a Google Partner one of the UK’s first Microsoft Elite Partners in advertising, we know how to boost conversions through bespoke landing pages that are tailored to your business. Our PPC team builds, manages and optimises your search visibility to drive inbound enquiries through paid ads.

For a deeper dive into what PPC entails and how you can make it work for your business, take a look at our PPC Whitepaper .

How to Prepare Your SEO Strategy For a New Website

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:06:07 GMT

If you’ve made the decision to build a website for your business then you need to begin investing your time in SEO now. If you don’t put the groundwork in from the moment you establish your online presence then all of the effort you have put into the design will fall flat.

At Infoserve , we are dedicated to helping small businesses like yours find their way online so we’ve created this quick How To guide to help you prepare your SEO strategy for your new website.

Why you need to include SEO in your website strategy

SEO isn’t a luxury. It is a non-negotiable fundamental element of your website. Without it, you simply won’t get found online.

Even if you choose to invest in paid ads, you’re unlikely to be considered for them if your SEO isn’t up to scratch. But when the tools are available to help you get found for free, why wouldn’t you utilise them?

How to prepare an SEO strategy

Choose a high speed website hosting platform

Speed is a trust signal.

A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds. - Portent

… and Google notices!

Slow site speed has a huge impact on how Google views your website because it:

Increases bounce rate
Reduces the number of pages per visit
Plummets conversion rates

So, if you’ve spent hours optimising your website for SEO but neglect site speed, you’ve fallen at the first hurdle. The website host you choose can make or break this.

Set up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is an invaluable tool when it comes to achieving SEO success.

It can help you:

Optimise content with analytics
Provide key insights into which keywords are drawing customers to your site
Fix issues immediately with email alerts
Understand how Google sees your web pages
Analyse page performance

And many more.

Establish your goals

If you don’t have goals then you don’t have direction. This is the first hurdle of any marketing strategy.

You’ll hear it said time and again that you cannot pursue your goals if you don’t know what they are. Without them, it’s impossible to analyse results or optimise your website to achieve those results.

Here are some examples of SEO goals:

Increase organic traffic
Decrease page loading speed
Strengthen domain authority
Increase the number of leads/goal completions
Capture rich snippet positions
Achieve X number of pages per visit
Increase conversions from organic search
Create a structured internal linking system

The specifics of these goals should be tailored to your business.

Study your competition

Your competition are your main indicators for the type of content you should be creating. This is because they have already put the ground work in to discover exactly what gets them ranking.

There are many things to look at when analysing your competitors including:

Their website structure
The keywords they rank for
The keywords that drive traffic to their website
Whether paid ad listings impact traffic
Placement of keywords on their pages
Use of media such as images, video and graphics
Content format - do they use bullet points, tables, paragraphs, FAQs?
Frequency of new content
Backlink profile

Tools such as Ahrefs, SEMRush and HubSpot can help you discover and analyse your competitors.

Top Tip: As a new website, choose small fry websites as your competition. You won’t be able to compete with the top ranking websites just yet, so start small and work your way up as your business grows.

Create a keyword strategy

This might sound daunting but once you have conducted your competitor analysis, it should be fairly simple to create a keyword strategy.

Keywords are the fundamental basics of any SEO strategy because they connect your content to the user's search query.

There are 4 types of keyword that classify intent:

Informational keywords: Searchers are looking for the answer to a question
Navigational keywords: Searchers want to find a specific website or web page
Commercial keywords: Searchers want to investigate services or brands
Transactional keywords: Searchers are intending to complete a purchase

The type of keyword you attribute to each web page should depend on which stage your customers are along the buyer's journey, as well as the type of page.

For example:

Commercial keywords are typically assigned to home pages and about us pages.

Informational keywords often lead to FAQs or blog content.

Transactional keywords should lead to product/service pages.

For each web page, choose a single keyword that you want to rank for and think carefully about your customer’s intent when landing on this page to do so.

You should also make sure your keywords are highly specific to your industry and business.

Create a quarterly content plan

Once you have chosen your keyword strategy, you need to create a content calendar.

This is because it’s not enough to simply create a piece of content and throw it out into the wilderness hoping it will survive. You need to nurture your website by continuing to optimise content from initial research to post-publication updates.

It should be consistent, include frequent updates that could be encapsulated within a blog or resources page, and be the product of careful analytics assessments.

We recommend a quarterly assessment of your progress before analysing your results. This will give Google time to index and rank your content. However, it can take around 6 months to see progress from SEO so don’t be disheartened if results are slow.

Incorporate off-site SEO

The aspects of rankability that exist off your website are just as important as on-site factors.

In order to build trust with both Google and prospective customers, make sure you:

Create a Google My Business account
Search for backlink opportunities
Establish a strong social media presence

Consider accessibility

Accessibility isn’t always considered within an SEO strategy but it can have a direct impact on how both Google and your users view your site.

To create an inclusive, easily crawlable website, keep the following in your head when constructing your SEO strategy:

Alt tags on all images, videos and graphics
Anchor text to improve readability of text links
Use headings, bold and italic text to highlight important segments
Ensure total functionality using the keyboard
Provide simple navigation options

If you’re unsure about how to incorporate the more technical SEO factors then it might be worth employing a developer or experienced SEO agency to maintain your website.

Incorporate user experience

It’s one thing getting people onto your website, it’s another to convince them to stay.

It can be easy to get carried away with optimising your website and forget that there are customers on the other end who need it to make sense. So make sure that amongst all the technical factors, you continue to write content in a humane way, and create a visually appealing design.

For more information on how to create a website that delivers functionality and design effectively, download our Web Design White Paper .

Promote your website

Although the point of an SEO strategy is to bring traffic to your website organically, it is incredibly beneficial to promote it elsewhere along the way.

Once it has gone live, make sure you promote your pages on social media, YouTube or even an email list. An increase in traffic will alert Google that people are interested in your brand, and this trust signal shouldn’t be underestimated where SEO is concerned.

Search for backlinks

Our final piece of advice for your SEO strategy is to search for high quality backlinks. You may find that these occur naturally as your brand begins to grow online, but it’s always worth hunting for like-minded brands, blogs and online directories that are willing to give your website link space on their platform.

High quality backlinks show Google that your content, product or service is valuable and trusted by reliable sources and is rated one of the top SEO ranking factors by search engines and marketers alike.

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve wants your business to succeed online through bespoke SEO and Web Design services. If you’re seeking further information about how we can help you get found online, contact us today or take a look at our SEO White Paper where we take a deep dive into the basics of Google’s ranking factors.

How to Build Location Pages for Local SEO

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:22:18 GMT

If you have multiple bricks and mortar locations for your business or operate in different areas around the country then local SEO is a necessity. If you neglect this area of optimisation then you are losing valuable customers.

One of the most effective ways to implement local SEO is to introduce location pages to your website. But what are these and how do they work? Infoserve has a proven track record of converting customers for our clients with local SEO, so we know a thing or two about how to build location pages that convert.

Why build location pages?

Location pages are crucial for any business that operates in multiple locations. They give you the ability to rank in that location without impeding on user experience elsewhere on your website.

They are also particularly effective for companies within highly saturated industries.

In fact, ‘46% of all Google searches are looking for local information’ - Hubspot

So, if you don’t optimise your website for geographic keywords, you could lose nearly half of your potential audience.

What to include in a location page

A geographic keyword

The first thing you need to do is construct your geographic keyword. This is very easy to put together because it consists of two things:

The service you provide
The location you want to rank in

Simply combine the two and you have your geo keyword.

For example, if you were a dentist based in Leeds, your geo keyword might be ‘dental surgery Leeds’. You could then create separate pages for ‘dental surgery Yeadon’, ‘dental surgery Wakefield’, and ‘dental surgery Bradford’.

This keyword should be included in the:

Title tag
Meta description
H1 header
URL
Body text

Information that is unique to the location

Location pages are notoriously difficult to get right. This is because it can feel like you’re regurgitating the same information over and over again when actually the page needs to feel unique to that location.

The process becomes easier when you’re able to relate to your audience in that area. Try including:

Unique insights about the location i.e. nearby restaurants, parking or resources that would be useful if they’re visiting your site
Contact information for the specific regional branch
Opening times
Products/services specific to that location

Photos of your product

Although posting images of storefronts might seem like the easiest route when selecting images for location pages, it’s not the most effective; the easiest route usually isn’t the most user friendly route.

As with other pages on your website, you’re far more likely to convert customers if you show them your product or service from the get go. Studies have shown that you’re even more likely to convert if you display images of people using your product/service.

For example, if you run a restaurant chain, customers want to see images of the food and get a feel for the atmosphere of the restaurant before they book. This can’t be achieved with a photo of the front window.

However if you own a bakery with a display window or a bistro with outdoor dining, you may think differently.

Reviews

Social proof is one of the strongest signals to prospective customers that your business is worth buying from.

So don’t exclude it from your location pages.

Find reviews that mention the regional branch and include them on your location page. These could include specific services you offer, or mention staff members by name.

Internal links

Don’t simply rely on CTAs for links on your location pages. Include them in the body text too.

For each service based paragraph, try including an integrated text link to that service as this will give Google an even stronger indication of how your location page relates back to your overall website.

Explicit call to actions (CTAs)

Don’t be flimsy with your CTAs on location pages. These are vital for lead generation so you need to make them specific to what you want a customer to achieve from your page.

Do you want to give them more information about products or services? Do you want to give them directions to your location?

Choose your goals for the location page wisely and make it as easy as possible for your customer to achieve.

Don’t forget to include one final CTA at the bottom to increase enquiries. This could be your contact information, a location specific form or an obvious link to your ‘contact us’ page.

Content for your audience

It’s important to strike the right balance between writing for SEO and writing for your audience.

Remember that location pages are designed to echo a landing page so you still need to put customer experience at the forefront of your design, CRO (conversion rate optimisation) and content decisions.

Create paragraph style content that gives your customers an insight into your business and leads them through the marketing funnel with ease. And never compromise on user experience - the best SEO blends seamlessly with your user’s needs.

Not sure where to start?

Infoserve are experts at crafting unique, tailored and SEO conscious location pages. To get your website ranking, contact Infoserve where our SEO experts and Web Design team will help your website get found.

Create a Robust Valentine's Day Strategy with these Insights

melissa.odonnell@infoserve.com (Melissa O'donnell) — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 17:12:42 GMT

Whether you’re a lover or a hater of Valentine's Day, as an eCommerce business owner you simply cannot ignore this holiday. With around half the British population planning to celebrate Valentine's Day, there’s an opportunity to increase sales and engage with customers.

Categories and keywords that are seeing the most traction year on year (YoY)

Have you ever wondered what prospects seeking Valentine’s gifts are putting into search engines?

Here we look at the most popular keywords in the industry, so you can tailor your campaign to target those who are looking for you.

You may not be surprised to learn that cards are the number one gift of choice.

In fact, according to Microsoft: Out of the top 100 Valentines Day related queries in February 2022… 18% included terms related to cards greetings or clip art.

The top 3 keywords searched for those requiring a card were:

Valentine’s cards
Valentine Day cards
Free printable Valentine's cards

Flowers are another traditional gift that sees a huge increase in the lead-up to Valentine's Day. According to a report by Finder, 55% of UK men planned on spending money for a Valentine's Day gift in 2021 compared to 45% of women. Nevertheless, UK women don't often over-indulge in Valentine's Day shopping, receiving flowers is a winning gift for 30% of UK adults.

The top 3 keywords searched for flowers were:

Valentine's Day flowers gifts
Valentine’s Day flowers
Valentine’s Day cards gifts flowers

Top tip: You can maximise sales by upselling or cross-selling particular products. Showcasing a product with a ‘ customers also bought ’ section, helps to encourage another sale.

Although some categories have seen a decline on year on year growth there are several that showed YoY growth last year between January 14th and February 14th, they are:

Cooking
Jewellery
Dining & Nightlife
Parties & Supplies
Luxury Travel
Clothing

When to target your customers

New ParagraphData from Microsoft shows that typically people start to shop online for Valentine’s gifts somewhere between the 14th of January right up until the 14th of February, with peaks in the last week running up to the big day. That being said, Google claims “Valentine’s Day searches actually start the day after Christmas ”, and the deciding factor of when consumers start to shop, depends on how much they intend to spend on gifts.

Consumers are looking to buy their Valentine’s gifts all in one place, so be sure to highlight the products you sell that are paired well. Start creating a marketing strategy after Christmas, but be prepared to see a peak in sales in the last week leading up to 14th February.

How to Personalise Content to Suit your Audience

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 15:03:41 GMT

The most successful businesses focus their efforts on benefitting their customer, not their company.

Because customers can tell the difference.

They know when a business is simply trying to make money, rather than prioritising their needs.

So if you’re not putting emphasis on tailoring your content to your audience, you will be losing your main body of prospective customers.

At Infoserve , we often discuss the more technical side of marketing, so we thought we’d switch it up by explaining how you can get a little bit more personal with your audience, and create content that truly prioritises them.

Why you should create content to suit your audience

If you ask any marketer how to make more sales online, one of the first things they will always say is ‘ find a way to resonate with your audience ’. This phrase will come in all shapes and sizes of course, but the sentiment remains the same:

How can you sell to your audience if you don’t know who they are or what they want?

The simple answer is you can’t.

As a savvy businessperson, you probably already know your audience inside out.

You have studied your position in the market, segmented your audience into demographics and dissected their pain points.

Therefore, you already know that your audience has different reasons for investing in your product/service.

So how do you create content that appeals to each of these demographics?

You personalise it.

What is personalised content?

Personalised content looks beyond the generic marketing strategy, and gives your customers a seamless experience through the marketing funnel.

You need to consider what your audience wants and needs as individuals and use this to tailor their experience. This can be done through email marketing and creating targeted website content.

For example , a bookseller might sell a wide range of novels including historical fiction, fantasy fiction, romance and the classics.

In January, they run a promotion that is only available to email subscribers - 20% off your next purchase of non-fiction. This would be fantastic to send to those who had previously spent time browsing, or made a purchase of non-fiction textbooks.

But if you sent this to a customer who had only perused the fantasy section, the offer won’t resonate with them, and they may feel as though they’re being sent useless information and unsubscribe from your email list.

However, if instead of sending them a generic discount, you created a highly targeted email that recommends your latest fantasy releases, they will feel heard and probably take a second look at your website.

How to personalise content for your audience

1. Recommend Relevant Information

Some of the most well known examples of content personalisation are the ‘we recommend’ sections that use previous customer activity to recommend other products or services that are relevant to them.

Companies who do this well include streaming services such as Netflix and e-commerce websites like Amazon.

They very cleverly collect data to curate information that is relevant to you.

2. Create Email Funnels

Email funnels respond to specific actions taken by your customer on your website to dictate which automated emails are sent to them.

One of the most simple examples of this is the ‘abandoned cart’ email. When a customer adds items to their shopping basket then leaves the website without checking out, your website will send them an automated email reminding them that they left something behind, including a list of the items they considered buying.

Although this is a generic feature, it still uses personalised information on your customer’s activity and interests.

You can make email funnels as simple or as complicated as you like.

3. Offer Advice and Guidance

If you sell a product that requires a very specific sort of care, then sending email reminders or care information with the delivery is a very easy way to personalise your content.

It ensures your customer gets the most out of your product whilst showing that you care about quality.

For example, the plant retailer Patch Plants has a cleverly crafted email system that delivers a series of instructions to customers on how to care for the specific houseplant that they have purchased, including where is best to put it in your home, when to water it and how to tell if it looks unhealthy.

They know that each of their products requires care instructions that their customer will need access to, so they provide them immediately.

4. Use Google Optimize

Google Optimize is a tool that allows you to split test web pages by showing variations of content to different users on the internet.

It uses highly technical features to increase your conversion rate by discovering which content features are more likely to achieve your desired goal.

5. Get Interactive

Many online businesses have begun offering interactive quizzes to their audience to more efficiently recommend the right products for them.

This is commonly seen in the beauty industry, with websites like Aveda giving the option of a ‘ Hair Quiz ’ that asks the customer a series of questions about their hair type and hair goals to determine which products would be best suited to their needs.

This creates a seamless, customised experience that guides consumers through the sales funnel with minimal friction, and makes them feel listened to.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our content team is vigilant in our approach to creating content that is tailored to your audience’s needs. If you’re interested in discovering what we can do for your business, please feel free to contact us today.

How to Identify & Update Outdated Content

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 14:37:22 GMT

If you’ve got content sitting in the far corners of your website, gathering dust and getting buried under tonnes of more recent articles, you could miss making the most of some golden, relevant content.

Although it may seem tempting to ignore this content because it seems like it has served its purpose, there is actually a huge benefit to updating older articles and reworking them to suit your current situation.

There are many reasons why you should revisit your old content, and Infoserve wants to show you exactly how this can benefit your business.

Why you should update outdated content

Google likes it

Updating old content is more than just a last minute trick of the trade; it is a genuine SEO and marketing tactic that Google will acknowledge and reward.

The reason for this is simple:

It is a well known fact that Google likes fresh content. Which means that, whilst strong web pages do stay relevant for a long period of time (sometimes known as ‘Evergreen Content’), the older web pages that haven’t gained much traffic are likely to keep dropping positions.

But, if you refresh the content, expand, improve keyword relevancy, and delve into the finer SEO details, you will have created a fresh piece of content in Google’s eyes.

It will have new rankable HTML and a new publish date - and let’s not forget that Google rewards small, consistent SEO updates over large sporadic ones.

It saves you time

SEO is a long-winded, time consuming area of marketing that can take months to come into effect. Which is probably why so many businesses believe that when you make a single change to the content on your website, it will take around 6 months to take effect.

This is true - but only if you are making consistent changes, and not occasionally updating a single web page and expecting to see results.

SEO takes a lot of work, and we are under no illusion that creating fresh content is one of the most difficult areas of website maintenance.

So, instead of spending hours curating and crafting brand new content ideas, you can easily save time by revisiting year old content and finding new ways to help this content resonate with your audience.

Updating content is a quick win that leads to fast growth.

The internet is changing

Web design, web development and even SEO are constantly developing, changing and growing which means it can take a relatively short amount of time for your website and its content to become outdated.

You may have previously spent time applying certain SEO techniques to a piece of content that are no longer Google’s priority when it comes to ranking strength.

But if the content is already ranking, you can refresh it simply by updating areas that need SEO updates.

When to update content

You can update content at any time but we would recommend choosing either of the following scenarios:

1. Your content has peaked

Whilst content has a relatively lengthy lifecycle, it can have a peaking point.

This is because, as we have mentioned before, Google likes fresh content.

Your article could be sitting at the top of the search results page for weeks, maybe even months, when a competitor creates a completely fresh blog that is more informative, has more information or is simply more SEO friendly than what you’ve created.

No matter how trustworthy your website is, or how trustworthy Google deems you to be, there is always the possibility that a fresh piece of content will outrank you.

This is why we recommend consistently updating this piece of content before it drops in the rankings. Keep it strong, fresh and relevant at all times.

2. Your content isn’t ranking

If you’ve had a website up and running for a while now, then you’ll be familiar with content that isn’t shifting.

This could be for any number of reasons; you’re operating in a highly competitive industry, the keyword has a high difficulty score, or maybe the content isn’t up to scratch.

You might be tempted to scrap it because it’s not helping your website, but a page is almost always salvageable, as long as you’re following Google’s guidelines.

You just need to look for ways to improve.

But what are these? Let’s take a look.

How to update outdated content

1. Check the content volume

Google likes long-form, highly informative articles that give your audience an in-depth insight into your chosen subject. This is because it wants to give its users the best possible answer to their search query, and avoid showing them flimsy or spam-like content.

If you’ve got a blog that has a very low content volume, it might be time to bulk it up. You’ve already got the bones of the article mapped out, you simply need to expand on the subject.

Add additional headings to create structure and answer more questions in relation to that search query.

For example, if you were a tea merchant, you might have a blog entitled ‘the health benefits of tea’, which you could easily expand by discussing the history of tea for medicinal purposes, which types of tea are known to soothe which ailments, and give examples of your own products that would fit into these categories.

For more information, take a look at our guide on Why Long Form Content Matters Today .

2. Inspect the SEO

There are so many factors that impact SEO rankability, so it can be easy to miss a few of them the first time you write the content.

Double check that:

Your images have alt text
All links have anchor text (website managers will give you the option to add a ‘link title’ or ‘display text’ to any text links within your content)
Your chosen keyword is explicitly shown in the URL, title text, H1 heading and body text
You structure your content with clear headings and subheadings
You include clear CTAs (call to actions)
You have included both internal and external links , including at least one link back to your homepage

3. Update the data

Sometimes, you only need to update the small things in an article to make it relevant today.

If you have statistics in your content that could be considered outdated, change it to data that you’ve found in a more recent study that was conducted this year.

For example, if you have put the statistic:

‘There are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide’ - 2019

In your article, Google will recognise that this fact is outdated. All you need to do is change this one sentence to:

‘As of January 2023, there are 4.9 billion social media users worldwide’ - Demand Sage

This one tiny change can make a huge difference to how Google sees your content.

4. Adapt to searcher intent

Consider how you can make your blog more equipped to perform its function; to give your viewer what they want.

Even when you’ve hit the searcher’s intent the first time, there are always ways that you can do better.

For example, if your user is looking for instructions on how to perform a certain task, and you’ve written an in-depth guide, consider whether adding a short video to the page could improve your ability to guide them through the process.

5. Go mobile friendly

In 2020, Google announced that they were switching over to mobile-first indexing across the full scope of the web. This means that any content created before then that hasn’t been optimised for mobile has probably slipped down a few places in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Even some content created after this date might not align with the new ranking algorithm.

Try skimming through your old articles on a mobile phone and figuring out how you can make them more user friendly.

For example, you could:

Increase the size of CTA buttons
Make headings shorter, clearer and more concise
Use photos to break up the text
Opt for short, snappy, easily digestible paragraphs
Transform listed content into a bulleted or numbered list
Remove pop-ups that interfere with user experience
Use bold/italics to make information stand out
Use clear language over clever or lengthy phrasing

By changing any one of these content elements, you’ll be able to give Google a fresh perspective on your content and improve your search visibility.

Not sure where to start?

How High-Quality Content & PPC Compliment Each Other

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 13:02:21 GMT

Are you investing your time and energy into SEO or PPC and seeing little to no return for your efforts? It might be time to update your strategy to include both.

SEO and PPC are often mistaken for being separate marketing strategies with no connection. However, marketers know they compliment each other’s success.

Join Infoserve as we explore the various ways that you can combine your strategies to boost ROI and brand awareness in 2023.

Why invest in SEO and PPC together?

Each area of digital marketing is a root of the same tree.

The roots work together to gather nutrients (customers) that help the tree grow.

Social Media Marketing is one root. Web Design is a second root. PPC and SEO are also individual roots.

If you remove one root, the tree may still grow, but at a much slower speed with less intake of nutrients and therefore less branches will be open to you in the future.

In order to help the tree grow to its full potential, you need to nurture every root in tandem with the others.

So how does this work in relation to SEO and PPC marketing?

PPC Ads nurture organic traffic

SEO is a long-term strategy that builds sustainable brand authority and ranking strength, but it can take 6 months to see results from your efforts.

Consider the fact that over 6 million blogs are being published every day. Each of these blogs is battling for Google’s attention.

So how do you stand out amongst your audience?

Leverage PPC ads that expose your brand to customers while you’re waiting for your SEO strategy to take off.

PPC and SEO work more in tandem than you might think. When you use PPC, you target a higher quality of customer who is specifically searching for the service you provide.

By targeting the same keywords across SEO and PPC and creating strong SEO content that keeps your consumers interested, you can boost your ROI whilst simultaneously showing Google that your organic content is trustworthy and relevant.

A simple strategy, but one that is proven to work.

PPC gives you the trust factor

People subconsciously trust Google Ads more than they trust organic results.

Why?

Because Google trusted you enough to accept your ad proposal.

But how does this impact organic traffic?

Studies have shown that while consumers don’t always click on ads during their initial search, they are more likely to remember your brand if it appears as a paid ad. Therefore, they’re more inclined to search for your brand organically in the future.

Keyword insights come naturally

The biggest thing that SEO and PPC have in common is their use of keywords.

The difference is that PPC lends you crucial insights into keywords instantly. These can then be applied to your SEO strategy to boost its performance.

PPC can give you actionable information such as the click through rate (CTR) of keywords, commercial intent and which branded keywords drive the most traffic.

PPC also allows you to A/B test ad campaigns using separate keywords which gives you the opportunity to refine your keyword strategy using results from your ad campaign.

Boosts brand reputation

When you create a PPC ad, you have the opportunity to design a landing page that resonates with your customers.

This can be done through sleek design features, emotive storytelling and the overarching landing page feature: simplicity.

When we talk about simplicity with a landing page, we don’t mean to make it blank and featureless. Simply that it should guide your customer towards a single conversion point as smoothly as possible.

If you give your customers a state-of-the-art, pain-free experience, they’ll remember your brand and return to you via organic search results.

Take up space in the SERPs

This might seem greedy, but it’s a successful click through strategy as old as digital marketing.

The ‘rule of seven’ is a marketing principle coined by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. It states that a consumer needs to be exposed to a branded marketing message at least 7 times before they take action .

Consumer behaviour is constantly changing, so the figure of 7 might no longer be accurate, but the principle still applies.

Consistent exposure to a brand is more likely to convert a prospective customer than a one off blog post they came across on the internet that one time.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to take up as much space in the SERPs as you can using industry and consumer specific keywords.

Think about it; if your landing page appears in the paid search results and then again immediately below in the organic search results, users will be more inclined to believe that you are a trusted business.

Not sure where to start?

At Infoserve , our SEO and PPC team work closely together to ensure you achieve the highest ROI possible. If you’re interested in discovering what we can do for your business, please feel free to contact us today.

Understanding How Google Analytics 4 Can Benefit Your business

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:01:16 GMT

No matter what your business objectives are, digital analytics is critical for understanding your users and their actions. Analytics help you to optimise your campaigns and make better-informed strategies and decisions.

Keeping up to date with digital analytics is imperative to ensure you have accurate information and user insights. With the launch of Google Analytics 4 now only months away we wanted to write an article to help you better understand what it is and how it can benefit your business.

What is digital analytics and what are its benefits?

Digital analytics can help you understand how your customers are using your app or website so you can better meet your marketing goals.

User expectations are rising with regard to privacy online. More global regulations, and decreases in browser support for cookies have made digital measurement much more challenging.

Google Analytics can help you and your business measure your needs to achieve your business objectives.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) takes over from Universal analytics in July 2023, but you can get ahead and start to change over to GA4 now.

GA4 has the flexibility to measure many different kinds of data, delivering a strong analytics experience that’s designed for the future. It allows businesses to see unified user journeys across their websites and apps, use Google’s machine learning technology to predict new insights, and most importantly, it’s built to keep up with an everchanging ecosystem.

Universal Analytics offers a variety of privacy controls whereas GA4 is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for its users. It helps businesses meet their needs and user expectations, with more granular controls for data collection and usage.

Importantly, GA4 will also no longer store IP addresses

This is important in today’s data privacy landscape where users are increasingly expecting more privacy protections and control over their data.

GA4 helps you to:

Understand your customers across touchpoints

You are able to get a complete view of the customer lifecycle with an event-based measurement model that isn’t fragmented by platform or organised into independent sessions.

Improve ROI with data-driven attribution

By using the data-driven attribution setting you can analyse the full impact of your marketing across the whole customer journey. It assigns attribution credit where you want it to rather than just to the last click using your Analytics data and helps you understand how your marketing activities collectively influence your conversions. You can export that analysis to Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform media tools to optimise campaigns.

Measure engagement and conversions with business and compliance needs in mind

With new country-level privacy controls, you can manage and minimise the collection of user-level data, like cookies and metadata while preserving key measurement functionality.

Get greater value from your data

Machine learning generates sophisticated insights about user behavior and conversions. It creates new audiences of users likely to purchase or leave and automatically shows critical insights to improve your marketing.

Easily activate your insights

Integrations with other Google products, like Google Ads, work across your combined web and app data, making it easy to use Analytics insights to optimise your campaigns.

Address your enterprise measurement needs

The new sub and roll-up properties in Analytics 360 allow you to customise the structure of your GA4 properties to meet data governance needs. This ensures that different teams or partners, like advertising agencies, can access the data they need in accordance with your policies.

Remember: Each property should represent a specific user base

You should use separate properties to collect data from each user base you’re interested in understanding better, for example, a specific brand or region. If data will be analysed together (product line, brand, application), that data should be in one Analytics property.

If you are already using Universal Analytics to track events on your website, you can set up a new GA4 property and continue to use your existing Universal Analytics property. By doing this you’ll be able to take advantage of all GA4’s features and start collecting data with existing property remaining the same. It’s best to use the GA4 properties alongside the existing properties you use in Universal Analytics right away, taking advantage of the most up to take features and beginning to collect data for the future.

Track the actions users are taking on your website

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 12:03:57 GMT

When marketing your business it’s important to interact and communicate with your audience in a way that they understand and, on platforms they actually use. In order to find this data though, you need insights into what’s working, and what’s not working.

Event tracking, sometimes known as action tracking refers to any website interaction . It looks beyond a simple web page load and delves into specifics, highlighting areas on your website that are being engaged with, and the areas that are not.

What can be tracked on your website:

Buttons clicked
Pages visited and exited
Videos played
Forms filled
Documents downloaded

Event tracking helps you to define what you’re doing well, and what you should do more of which, creates a much more strategic and effective approach.

Event tracking shows you the journey the user has been on in order to get to either a point of conversion or an exit page.

What are the benefits to event tracking?

Creates transparency
Highlights top performing keywords
Identifies the high and low-performing pages
Identifies sources of new traffic
Reveals what the ROI is from a PPC campaign

When implementing a PPC campaign for example, event tracking can be used to monitor the success of your campaign; it will measure visits to your landing page and how many of those have converted. Event tracking also helps you to fine-tune your PPC campaigns by showing you exactly where on the website a conversion has been made or perhaps, lost.

Not sure where to start?

Googles Tag Manager is a simple tool used on many websites. Rather than having to hard code into a website in order to track the events, the Tag Manager interface can be introduced to track events. It cuts out time-consuming resources of coding into every web page and helps to analyse results producing more comprehensive granular reports.

Event tracking works best when you have a specific goal, like ‘to increase the number of white paper downloads by 10%’, rather than attempting to track everything.

Some key areas of a website that should be tracked are:

Add to cart
Downloads of documents
Registrations and subscriptions
Link clicks to social media
The use of a tool that gives immediate results

Event tracking is a powerful way to see what’s helping your prospects to convert. Valuable insights are gained from tracking prospects' movements on your website. It also enables decision-making for future campaigns to be more targeted as you will have comprehensive results to reflect on.

If you need any help with event tracking, feel free to get in touch !

Online marketing is all about conversions

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:38:42 GMT

The main goal of your website and landing pages is to attract new leads and convert them into enquiries. Measuring conversions ONLINE is simple, you have the answers at your fingertips. Google Analytics , Social Media Analytics , and PPC dashboards let you see which campaign or page of your website is converting the most visitors.

Tracking OFFLINE conversions though isn't quite as straightforward. Measuring something like views of a billboard or, someone enquiring after they've seen you at an event can feel unquantifiable.

It's not impossible to measure offline conversions though, and this blog explores how to track your offline conversion data and how it can help improve your overall strategy.

Understanding your offline customer journey:

A customer journey is the series of interactions that a customer has with your brand, whether it’s online or offline. A few examples of what interactions might look like:

Seeing your logo or advertisement on a branded vehicle or billboard
Attending events/conferences
Seeing a social media post
A recommendation of your brand
Receiving some email marketing

Data is the key to success in today’s online landscape. When you have data about your website, you can use it to improve your marketing, your website design and even the brand itself.

If you’re not tracking offline conversions, you could be leaving money on the table. This is especially true if you’re in a B2B industry or otherwise rely on qualified leads coming into your website (as opposed to more direct sales).

Do you want to know if someone has previously visited your site but converted in other ways at another time?

We understand that running a business often means your time is limited.

When you come on board with Infoserve we can establish and configure your offline conversion tracking for you. Meaning you get to reap the benefits without having to spend hours of your time setting it up.

Through collaboration with you, we will work to integrate offline tracking into your strategy.

Sending Google and Microsoft data to pinpoint exactly what ad, campaign or even keyword, directed prospects to your site, ultimately leading to a conversion. Additionally, we will track the value of the conversion to optimise automated bidding.

Meaning you can discover what works best.

If someone clicks a link in an email or visits your site from social media, do they then go on to purchase? Being aware of this kind of data is important for where you're getting the lowest CPA.

Likewise, if people are visiting your website and not converting, offline conversion tracking can help you identify areas for improvement.

If you would like more information on how offline conversion tracking works, contact us or give us a call on 0800 089 0879 .

How your business can get ahead for 2023

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:32:48 GMT

With 2023 fast approaching, and December typically being a quieter month for many B2B businesses, now is the best time to start thinking about a marketing strategy for the first quarter of 2023. Often the key to success is in the planning so keep reading to prepare your business for the new year.

Check your website

December is a great time to ensure you have your website in check, and ready to go into Q1. Often a refresh is required to ensure your portraying the desired message and image to your users. It’s a good time to check that any additional pages have been added to your website and that they are optimised on all devices. It’s also a great time to review your website’s SEO performance.

Why not try our free website audit tool to see what is and isn’t working on your website? https://www.infoserve.com/digital-marketing-audit

Align your goal for social media accounts.

If you post on various social media platforms, ensure your content is consistent throughout. Plan now for the new year about what content has worked well in the past 12 months and what hasn’t. Take the time to look at what competitors have been doing and where possible anticipate any trends that are looming that you can take advantage of.

Promote a referrals program.

If you don’t already offer this, starting a referral program is a great way to reward loyal customers and keep them satisfied. It also helps to draw in new customers. If this is something you already do, take a look at how you are promoting it and what other channels you could utilise to get the most from it. Don’t forget that referrals are a cost-effective way to promote your business and result in a higher conversion rate.

Set out your marketing goals

Marketing plans are as good as the data that informs them, so making sure you analyse your results and data that you’ve gathered over the year is critical for success. Create a strategy based upon the data and insights you have gained this year.

Setting your business up for success is easy if you know how. If you need any help creating a plan for the new year, get in touch , to speak with one of our strategists.

Infoserve's Parntership with Martin House

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:33:26 GMT

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Martin House!

For those of you who don’t know, Martin House is a family-led hospice providing care and support to children with life-limiting illnesses.

The hospice, in Boston Spa, Leeds, has the facilities to care for nine children at a time, each of which has their own bedroom which allows parents to stay overnight with their child.

In addition to the hospice, Martin House offers support to the community for children and their families from the comfort of their own homes.

The areas Martin House covers are:

North Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
East Yorkshire

Martin House does unbelievable work when families and children are in need of care and support but being a charity, they need support in return.

As part of our partnership with Martin House, we have been fundraising in various ways to support the Yorkshire-based charity.

In August we had a ‘fun day’ at our Leeds headquarters where members of the Infoserve team baked cakes, played an incredibly tense game of giant Jenga and agonised over what should have been a relatively easy quiz.

We then decided it would be fitting to burn off all the cake and hike up Whernside, Yorkshire's highest peak. With an unfit (but enthusiastic) team of 9, we laced up our boots and climbed the peak on what turned out to be a beautiful September day.

If you would like to support this amazing charity within your business, why not try one of the following activities to get you started:

Office bake sale
Give employees the opportunity to volunteer for a day
Sponsored walk/outdoor activity
Pledge to give up something for a year
Encourage colleagues to bring in unwanted items to donate to the shops

With 13 shops scattered around the Yorkshire region, you can support Martin House by donating unwanted items you no longer need. Alternatively, you might pick up a bargain yourself. You can also visit their eBay shop where you can find designer wear, vintage products, book bundles, and children’s toys.

If you would like to simply donate, head over to: www.martinhouse.org.uk/get-involved/ways-to-get-involved/donate-now/

Web Design: Trends for 2023

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:58:19 GMT

Innovative, contemporary web design is vital to business success.

In fact, 38.5% of web designers believe that outdated design is the main reason visitors leave a website - (GoodFirms, 2021).

Great web design utilises user psychology to influence buying decisions through design features, layout and marketing strategy.

However, creating a stylish web design then neglecting to update it can be one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business.

That’s why, at Infoserve , we stay up to date with the latest web design trends to keep your design modern, sleek and dynamic.

Here are some trends you might want to watch out for as we fast approach 2023…

1. Parallax scrolling

Parallax scrolling is engaging, dynamic and creates a 3D effect on your web pages that encourages visitors to stay on your website for a longer period of time.

It’s where images in the background are designed to move slower than images in the foreground when the user is scrolling.

This is also used to create texture.

2. Infinite Scroll

Infinite scroll isn’t a new web design technique and has been used by social networks for years, but the application is growing in popularity for websites as we head into 2022.

This tactic eliminates the need for stagnated web pages by loading content continuously as the user scrolls, rather than loading content once it has been reached.

In essence, your user will be able to experience uninterrupted interaction with your content because it loads before they reach it.

It seems simple, but this can have huge implications for overall user experience, and vastly increase your chances of keeping a visitor on your website.

3. Interactive forms

Forms on websites can sometimes be seen as laborious, stuffy and dull.

This is why more online businesses are opting to update their traditional form structure to something a little more engaging in 2023.

Rather than laying out your form as a standard list of questions, create an interactive model that gives your user something to engage with whilst simultaneously allowing you to learn more about them.

This could include:

Calculators
Quizzes
Poles
Surveys
Interactive animations

4. Adaptive UX

Web design is getting smarter, and with it comes the ability to tailor content to your user based on previous interactions with your website, as well as their browsing history.

This can be very basic, from registering the geolocation of your user in order to display the correct currency, to giving your visitor a completely bespoke viewing experience.

5. Dark mode

Dark mode options for laptops, phones and tablets came into fashion when studies revealed that blue light tricks our brains into thinking it’s daytime.

However, introducing dark mode on your website is becoming a growing trend as we head into 2023. Not only does this reduce eye strain for your users, but it can encourage them to continue using it in dark lighting, shows care for your customers and can give a sleek appearance.

Effectively all it really means is using low-light and dark colours in your website design to reduce the amount of blue light it emanates. Simple.

6. Micro-interactions

Micro-interactions are small animations that provide information to the user.

Again, this is not a new feature and has been used in web design for several years. You may have seen it commonly applied to buttons that change colour or move playfully when a user’s mouse hovers over them. This is its biggest use, because it cleverly guides your user through your website in the order you intend.

However, the use of micro-interactions is moving forward in 2023 with many web designers discovering new ways to utilise movement to give users a more comprehensive idea of the product/service on offer.

This small feat of psychology is dynamic, aesthetic and highly effective at increasing CTR (click through rate).

7. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is becoming web design reality.

With the varied number of applications virtual reality can have on a website, designers and marketers alike are finding more ways to apply this feat of technology to their strategy.

You may have seen it used in previous years by furniture brands that allow you to place sofas and tables in your own living room to see if they’ll fit. Paint companies such as Dulux provide users with their Dulux Visualiser App to help customers choose the right colour for their homes.

Virtual reality is one of the most exciting steps forward in web designs and the ways it can be utilised are endless.

However, you should only consider it if there are real applications for your business model that make it useful for your user.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

5 Ways to Leverage Seasonal Content for SEO Campaigns

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:43:49 GMT

The holiday season is fast approaching.

Seasonal searches are beginning to spike on Google. So, if you’re a business owner, you should already be thinking about your seasonal content.

But where do you start?

At Infoserve , our SEO experts and Content Writers are busy preparing our content strategies for Christmas and the New Year, so we thought we’d give you a few tips on how to create bespoke, effective seasonal content that ranks when you need it to.

1/ Repurpose existing seasonal content

If you’re on a tight schedule or low budget, repurposing old content is the quickest and easiest method of creating seasonal content for the coming year.

Don’t worry, this isn’t cheating. In fact, Google will rank existing content higher if it sees it is being maintained and updated.

For example, if you’re an e-commerce business who posts annual gifting guides, you could update the gift ideas to current products you sell and you have a new piece of content. It really is that simple.

BUT you need to determine which content will be the most effective to update.

How to choose the best content for updating:

When choosing which content to repurpose, ask yourself the following questions:

Is ranking opportunity reasonable compared to your competitors? Take a look at competitive content that is ranking for the same/similar keywords and opt for the content with low competition.
Is the content ranking already? Find content that is already experiencing minor success. If you’re positioned very low in the search results, this might not be the best place to start.

How to repurpose seasonal content:

Repurposing content can be as simple as updating the publish date to the current year. But you could also consider:

Reformatting the structure
Updating the H1 title
Updating any product listings in your content
Checking for broken links, or updating existing links to more relevant content
Contacting other companies to ask for backlinks to your content

2/ Use analytics tools wisely

Just because the content is seasonal, doesn’t mean the general rules of SEO no longer apply.

You’ll find that around the holidays, seasonal keywords tend to spike in November and December when people start looking for Christmas presents.

In order to target the correct customers using the correct search terms at the right time, you need to conduct keyword research.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Christmas present ideas:

As you will see below, the search term ‘Christmas present ideas’ peaks in November when people begin to think about budgeting for Christmas:

So, if you were going to target this keyword, you shouldn’t wait until December to promote your Christmas products, offers or content.

Christmas Teas:

The search term ‘Christmas teas’, on the other hand, has even traffic across November and December, but you can deduce that you should begin targeting your content in time for November to gain a broader audience:

If you were a tea merchant, this would be a better keyword for you to leverage at Christmas because it is highly targeted and will have less competition than the more general ‘Christmas present ideas’ keyword.

Always take search trends into account when generating your plan for seasonal content.

3/ Study your competitors

We may sound like a broken record when we say ‘study your competitors’, but for good reason.

Reformatting content that has been successful for your competitors can be one of the most rewarding routes for your SEO campaigns.

This remains true for seasonal content.

For more information on how to navigate around your competitors, visit our blog: 5 Ways to Stay Ahead of Your Competition .

4/ Stay relevant to your business

Creating seasonal content can be one of the most exciting things to do as a business. It gives you the freedom to be more creative and playful with your message. This is why it can be tempting to stray from your brand’s guidelines.

But remember to stay on topic.

If you were a digital marketing agency, you wouldn’t create a blog at any other time of the year that wasn’t related to your niche.

We wouldn’t explain the history of Christmas trees to our users, for example, because we know that our customers aren’t looking for this when they come to our website.

Stay true to your target audience.

Outside of this, the perimeters of your content are entirely up to you.

5/ Create seasonal content in advance

Ranking doesn’t occur overnight.

It can take an average of 3 months for Google to index your content.

This means that you should begin scheduling and optimising your content in advance.

Let’s use Christmas as an example.

If you want to have the best chance of ranking in time for Christmas, you’ll need to post or repurpose your content in October or even September.

This may seem like overkill, but you wouldn’t want to put weeks worth of effort into a campaign and risk missing your target month. Remember, you have a limited window each year when seasonal content will bring traffic to your website, so give yourself plenty of time to plan, execute and publish your content.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re still struggling to create a plan for your seasonal content, then Infoserve can help. Our content experts create bespoke web and blog content that helps you get found online and our web design experts are on hand to help you design and build a unique, functional and responsive website.

5 Ways to Stay Ahead of Your Competition

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 10:07:43 GMT

It’s impossible to avoid competition as a business.

There’s no two ways around it. Even if you have created a patented, innovative product that no one else on the market has thought of, you still need to compete with other companies who aim to solve the same problem that your product soothes. The difference is that you do it better.

Unfortunately, the work doesn’t stop there. You still need to navigate your way through your competitors to stay ahead in the industry. At Infoserve , we want to explain how.

1/ Know who your competition are

Before you can stay ahead of your competition, you first have to know who your competition is.

But not just who they are; you also need to know what they do, how they work, and whether there are any limitations to the product/service they provide.

From this information, you’ll be able to springboard yourself into a position where you can take these limitations and turn them into resolutions for your customer.

How to study your competition:

Research your competitor’s marketing tactics
Pay attention to their pricing and promotional tactics/patterns
Learn what technology your competitors use
What are their products or services?
What language do they use?
What is their customer service like?
Analyse engagement on your competitors’ content
Use analytics tools to find gaps in their SEO strategy
Perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis
Take a look at their customer reviews - the good, the bad and the in between
Are they making most of their sales through paid ads or organically?

2/ Listen to your customers

They know what they want.

In 2022, we have a breadth and depth of communication like never before. In fact, customers now have direct access to brands across 7 different types of social media including image sharing platforms, social review sites and community blogs.

They aren’t afraid to show their displeasure.

If you listen to the needs of your customers, and the needs of your competitors’ customers, you can provide solutions and predict their needs before your competitors do.

3/ Find your niche

If you’re trying to stay ahead of your competition then the chances are you aren’t the only company in your industry that provides the product/service you do.

So you need to find your niche. Find the thing that sets you apart from your competitors and use this to your advantage.

Start by creating a list of your unique selling points (USPs) to find the aspects of your service that set you apart from your competitors. What are you uniquely exemplary at?

Once you find your niche, refine it and use it as your foremost selling point.

4/ Think differently

Be an industry leader rather than an industry standard.

Don’t wait for someone else to find the next best thing, look for it yourself.

Let’s use Apple as an example. Their groundbreaking technology, including the iPod, iPhone and various Macintosh computer models, have been repeatedly ranked the most successful advancements in their field. Why?

Because Apple dares to look beyond their competitors and do things differently. They didn’t simply create another MP3 player; in 2001 they released the first ever iPod which was compact, boasted a 10 hour battery and had the storage capacity for 1,000 songs.

They took the problems that customers faced with their competitors and created a truly unique, patented solution.

5/ Remain flexible

While it’s simple for us to say that refining your product or service is the easiest way to stay on top of your competition, the truth is that you can’t do this without remaining flexible in your strategy.

Research has shown that 20% of businesses fail within the first year.

Although it might not seem like it, rigidity in strategy is one of the greatest pitfalls of small businesses.

The most successful companies in the world are constantly adapting their way of thinking to meet the needs of their customers and stay ahead of their competitors.

So stay on your toes, and be ready to make changes to your marketing plans should the need arise.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Digital Marketing for Small Businesses: 5 Conversion Driving Tips

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 09:49:28 GMT

There are a multitude of things to consider for small business owners, and it can be easy to get carried away with acquisitional tactics, and forget to push conversion once your customer has landed on your website.

If you’ve reached this conjuncture and feel like you’ve hit a stalemate with your customers, then try these top cost-free tips from Infoserve on how to drive conversion through your online strategy.

Create clear CTAs (call to actions)

Clear, concise and convenient CTAs are the bread and butter of conversion strategies.

You may have heard us ramble on about this before, and we won’t stop anytime soon.

Don’t believe us? Try A/B testing 2 different CTAs on your website or social media, and watch the difference it makes.

How to create CTAs that work:

Make your CTA stand out: Use white space, contrasting colours and clickable buttons to make your CTA easily recognisable
Use clear, simple language: You might be tempted to be clever with your CTA, but when it comes to conversion, clear instructions win every time
Generate urgency: Make your CTA compelling and specific by using phrases like ‘get your free quote’, ‘sign up in seconds’ or ‘learn more’
Never use the fail-safe ‘click here’ button: Think about it, does this make your solution obvious to your customers?
Make your CTA a clickable button: This both entices your customer and makes your CTA stand out
Optimise for mobile viewing: Mobile accounts for 65% of e-commerce viewing. Make sure your button is touchscreen friendly in size, font and responsiveness

Provide proof of Value

According to dixa : ‘92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase when there are no customer reviews’.

As a small business, gaining reviews really can make a huge difference to your conversion rate.

Reach out to previous customers and ask if they’re willing to leave a review of the product/service they received on one of the following trusted platforms:

Trustpilot
Tripadvisor
Google Reviews
Amazon
Which?

Still unsure? Take a look at our 6 easy ways to get more Google reviews .

Use your USPs

USPs (unique selling points) are the aspects of your business, product or service that set you apart from your competitors.

At Infoserve, we always recommend placing these in plain sight instead of hiding them within your main bulk of text.

It is always best to position them either at the very top or bottom of your home page and ‘about us’ page, as well as inserting individual product/category USPs at the bottom of product pages.

This is how we display ours:

Know your audience

If you don’t know who your audience are and why they need your product, then you’ll never be able to persuade them of its use in their life.

Every customer who lands on your website has a problem that they need solving. What you need to do is get ahead of the game and find out how your product/service resolves that problem. Then, angle your content towards that resolution.

For example, if you were a bespoke bakery in Leeds who specialises in event cakes, your main demographic might be wedding planners or newly engaged couples. Their key dilemma could be their budget, or finding a bakery that will create their big, bold, unique design.

Therefore, you need to make sure your website’s content gives them the opportunity to book a consultation where you’ll listen to their design ideas and create a bespoke, affordable wedding cake with free tastings.

For a deeper dive, check out our blog: how to define your target audience .

Optimise for Location

Safari Digital found that ‘ a purchase follows 28% of all local searches’.

So, if you’re a small business, you can’t afford to miss out on this SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy.

How to optimise your website for location based search:

Set up a Google My Business page
Make sure your name, address and contact information are consistent online
Add location pages to your website to outline the services of individual operational locations within your business
Create local content such as area guides, local news stories and blog content
Make sure your website is mobile friendly, and your customers are able to contact you easily

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

5 Ways to Build Brand Authority with Content Marketing

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 14:36:38 GMT

Brand authority can make or break your business. It is as simple as that.

Small companies who are strapped for time often make the mistake of rushing content which can harm the value your customers receive from your company.

At Infoserve, we know just how valuable time is to SMEs, which is why we recommend investing it in these strategies that are guaranteed to build solid, effective brand authority that resonates with your audience.

What is brand authority?

Brand authority is intangible. It’s the way your customers feel about your company. It’s their trust. It’s the extent to which they view you as an expert within your industry.

In 2022, Heinz released an advert that demonstrates this perfectly.

They said:

‘ We asked people to draw ketchup, they drew Heinz ’.

This is brand authority on an awe-inspiring scale.

But, you don’t need to achieve this height to create brand authority, and content is a great place to start.

How to build brand authority using content

1/ Create in-depth long-form content

Long-form content refers to content that describes a specialist subject in depth. This could be white papers, e-books, downloadable guides or even long blogs.

It’s a fantastic way of demonstrating expertise and utilising your knowledge to prove your authority within your industry.

Step outside of your marketing team and use your in-house experts . Find out what they know, or ask them to create content that you proof read. You could also use the opportunity to create a podcast, webinar or video interview. This is because people trust people, so seeing the faces of your brand will build confidence in your words.

To find out how to create long-form content that works, take a look at our guide: Why Long Form Content Matters Today .

2/ Answer your audience’s questions

Connect with your audience by answering their queries and concerns in an easy to find format.

One way to do this is to create FAQ sections on your product/service pages using commonly searched for terms. You can find these by:

Using keyword research tools
Browing the ‘people also ask’ sections on Google
Checking the comments/inbox on your social media
Searching for your product/service/industry on message boards like Quora
Paying attention to customer concerns in reviews and question bots

Another great example of how companies incorporate customer concerns onto their website is by including size charts.

3/ Use proof of value examples

People trust people.

We’ve mentioned it already, but it is vital to remember when generating plans for digital content. If people can’t physically hold a product in their hands or see the result in person then they’re less likely to trust its quality.

Unless it is backed up by positive reviews from real people.

Build brand authority by including the following things in your content strategy:

Customer reviews
Case studies
Before and after photos
Awards that your company has won
Other valued companies that use your product

4/ Conduct your own studies

When you’re tight for time it can be tempting to pinch statistics from other people’s studies, give them credit and move on.

However, when you invest your time in conducting original research that is unique and valuable to prospective customers, you demonstrate your authority. This can even provide you with ground-breaking insight that is highly shareable within your community.

Time is a far more valuable asset than money, so use it wisely.

5/ Create collaborative content

It is also possible to ‘borrow’ another brand’s authority by collaborating. This could be via social media, writing guest blogs for their website or even leaving each other reviews on Google and Trustpilot.

This is the ultimate sign of respect between brands, and when companies support each other, customers do too.

Look for brands that operate within a similar industry, but aren’t direct competitors.

For example, if you are a bespoke interior design business, you could try collaborating with respected material suppliers, sustainable home accessory brands or even a company that sells indoor plants or office stationery.

Many analytics software now provides tools that recommend brands for backlinks and collaborations to make this step easier.

If you’re still struggling to build brand authority, then Infoserve can help. Our content experts create bespoke web and blog content that helps you get found online and our web design experts are on hand to help you design and build a unique, functional and responsive website.

How to get found in Leeds

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 09:34:50 GMT

Being a Leeds based company ourselves, we wanted to share some valuable advice and give insight to SME owners about what things they can access and utilise in our exciting city that could help grow their business whilst making valuable business connections.

If you’re looking to connect with local business owners in various industries around the city, gain many new clients, referral partners and of course increase brand awareness, then you could take advantage of some of the networking events that are held in Leeds. Events such as:

The above are a great place to start with building your contacts and exposing your brand to like-minded people. Not all events require a membership so it’s a risk-free way of seeing if it’s something that can help you.

If you’re considering hiring a space for anything ranging from a meeting room to hosting your own event, then follow the link for the Leeds government website which gives a multitude of options for spaces in Leeds: www.leeds.gov.uk/commercial-opportunities/city-centre-advice-on-activities

If you're looking for a space to promote an event in Leeds then there are 8 main places in Leeds city center that can be hired on a daily basis. These spaces are in the highest footfall locations in the Yorkshire region and are a great way of promoting your products to a large audience.

Pop Art Media Group manages advertising on poster drums illuminated 6-sheet advertising panels on lamp posts and a number of billboard sites around Leeds.

Bay Media manages banner advertising on lamp posts around Leeds city centre, offering a fully managed service that includes print, production, installation, and removal.

CP Media manages sponsorship of boundary signs across the city. These feature an advertising panel sitting beneath a ‘Welcome to…’ sign.

All of these marketing efforts are a great way to get found in Leeds, however, could be wasted if you haven’t invested in your online presence.

Search engine optimisation (SEO), or more importantly Local SEO is your best friend when it comes to being found online in your local area. There are 526,043 people living in Leeds and we know 94.8% of the population use the internet, that’s a lot of potential people to get found by if done correctly.

Check out our web design and see how it can convert more visitors to customers, and also our SEO products and the benefits it can bring to your business.

Find out now how your website is currently performing by inputting your website’s URL into our free website scanner to see how your website scores for SEO: www.infoserve.com/digital-marketing-audit .

Why Isn’t My Website Getting Traffic?

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 11:09:47 GMT

Investing time and money into a website that isn’t gaining any traffic is incredibly frustrating. When you put yourself out there, you want a worthwhile return.

All too often, Infoserve sees websites that are built solely for aesthetic, but not functionality or usability. This is one of the biggest mistakes that SMEs make when positioning themselves online.

When you’re a growing business, you can’t afford to mess around. So if your website isn’t gaining any traffic, make sure you’re not falling victim to any of these errors:

Your content isn’t up to scratch

Search engines like Google and Bing have become outstanding at recognising well written, high quality content that users respond to.

If you aren’t creating content that is relevant to your business and resonates with your audience then search engine’s won’t put it in front of your target customers.

To create great content, make sure you:

Keep it relevant to your business
Check out your high ranking competitors’ content
Use analytics to discover what your target audience is searching for
Remain concise
Target your customer’s pain point immediately
Have one main goal for your audience on each page and guide them towards it

So what makes content rank well?

Take a look at our 8 easy tips for better content and higher ranking to find our top tips that will elevate your website’s performance.

Targeting high competition subject matter

Is yours a highly competitive industry?

This could be why you’re struggling to attract traffic.

It is notoriously difficult to rank in search results for businesses with lots of competition, but there are things you can do to crawl your way up the rankings:

Optimise your business for local search by targeting location specific keywords and setting up a Google My Business Profile
Ask your customers to leave reviews on Google to provide searchers with proof of value for your business
See what your high performing competitors are ranking for and repurpose their ideas
Create a social media platform that drives traffic to your website ( how to use social media for business )
Consistently write high quality blog and web page content that targets key search queries

Your design isn’t responsive

Google is now a mobile-first platform, and prioritises websites that have responsive design.

Responsive design refers to websites that are flexible and respond to different screen sizes.

Your website might look incredible on a laptop, but if it’s frustrating to use, slow loading or badly laid out on mobiles/tablets, search engines won’t put it in front of your customers.

Luckily, Google provides a free mobile-friendly responsive test so you can check whether your website is up to scratch.

Remember: Google aims to give its users the best possible content, so will always put their experience first.

Your website is slow

According to Google, improving your website’s speed by 0.1 second can improve conversion rates by a massive 8%!

Even the tiniest increase in loading speed can greatly improve the volume of valuable traffic on your website.

Try Google’s free Test My Site tool to discover how fast your website loads, and find suggestions on how to improve your loading speed.

Ineffective SEO practices

One of the biggest mistakes made by new businesses is assuming SEO is a one-time fix. This mentality is the quickest way to guarantee low website traffic.

If you’re not gaining traffic, check if you’re:

Using outdated techniques
Sticking to the same tactics instead of thinking strategically
Expecting immediate results
Only optimising on-page SEO and neglecting off-page and technical SEO
Neglecting data provided by analytics tools
Ignoring user experience/customer wants and needs
Responding to the strategy of your competitors
Being impacted by ‘toxic’ backlinks

Any of the above could be negatively impacting your website’s ranking capability.

Use our free website & SEO audit tool to assess your website’s performance today.

You’re targeting the wrong audience

One of the very first things SMEs need to do when creating a brand is define your audience. Who’s pain points are most relevant to the product/service you provide?

If your website isn’t gaining traffic then you could be targeting the wrong audience.

Not sure whether this is the case? Take a look at our guide on how to define your target audience to develop a winning digital strategy.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re an SME and are struggling to gain traction to your website, Infoserve is more than happy to help. Our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

How to Measure the Quality of your Website Traffic on Google Analytics

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:50:08 GMT

Are you acquiring traffic to your website that isn’t translating into sales? Are you stuck wondering why this might be?

Google Analytics provides helpful tools to help you assess the quality of your traffic as well as the quantity, and these vital metrics could be key to identifying why your efforts aren't quite making those sales. At Infoserve , we use Google Analytics to gain insights into how customers use our client’s websites so we can implement the best strategy for them.

Why is quality of traffic important?

Unless your business goal is to increase brand awareness, the volume of traffic to your website is irrelevant if it isn’t accompanied by a strong conversion rate.

Think of it this way:

If you had 500 visitors per month with a 1% conversion rate, this would mean out of 500 people only 5 made a purchase.

While 500 visitors looks good on paper, it’s not a fantastic metric by which to measure the success of your campaign.

How to measure the quality of website traffic on Google Analytics

To measure quality of traffic on Google Analytics, you need to pay attention to a few specific KPIs (key performance indicators).

Pay attention to:

Engagement metrics
Conversion metrics
Relevance metrics

Engagement metrics

Pages per session

Pages per session is the average number of pages that a user visits on your website per session. This metric tells you how interested a user is in your content/service.

The value of this metric will depend on the architecture of your website and the service you provide.

For example , if you were an ecommerce business selling tea online, you would expect your customers to navigate to your desired action in more steps than a car repair service website. This is because, as a company selling products, you’ll want your users to visit multiple product pages before making their purchase.

How to find ‘pages per session’ on Google Analytics:

Acquisition > Overview > under the behaviour bar you’ll find ‘pages per session’.

Average session duration

Average session duration measures the average time your users spend on your website. This can be measured over any time period that you select, including daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

The longer someone spends on your site, the more interested they are in your content.

This can also indicate quality of your content, effective internal linking and CTAs, and successful UX.

Average session duration still measures session duration if the site isn’t being actively used, for example if it’s open on a tab in the background. If a user is on your site for 30 minutes but doesn’t click anything, it will be counted as a bounce.

How to find average session duration on Google Analytics:

Audience > Overview > under overview, click ‘average session duration’

Exit rate

Exit rate tells you how often a user has left your site from specific pages. This also measures the rate at which someone has moved from one page on your website to another.

This will tell you how relevant your content is to your customer.

How to find exit rate on Google Analytics:

Behaviour > Overview > beneath ‘Pageviews’ graph on the far right, you’ll find ‘% Exit’.

Conversion metrics

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who have landed on your site and completed your desired goal. Google Analytics allows you to set goals for your website and will measure each one separately.

This is one of your most valuable metrics as it directly measures the quality of your web traffic. It also tells you which goals you’re meeting and whether your content is converting visitors into customers.

Conversions > Goals > Overview

From here you’ll be able to select a specific goal using the drop down menu.

Relevance metrics

New vs returning visitors

New vs Returning visitors is an important metric to analyse when measuring the quality of your web traffic. This is because returning customers are considered more likely to make a purchase than newly acquired customers.

It is also important to note that if a large number of customers return to your website, it shows that they’ve had a positive experience, which is an incredibly beneficial piece of information to have at your disposal.

How to find new vs returning visitors on Google Analytics:

Audience > Behaviour > New vs Returning

Bounce rate

As far as analytics go, bounce rate tells you more about the quality of your content than it does visitors, but utilising it correctly can easily show you which pages need to be improved to keep valuable users on your website.

How to find bounce rate on Google Analytics:

Audience > Overview > Bounce Rate

User location

Geo-location is useful to companies with international interests, as well as small, local businesses. In this area of Google Analytics, you’ll find a user’s geo-location, as well as their online behaviour and acquisition.

Use this to discover how location impacts the quality of traffic to your website and whether you need to adapt your strategy for different regions.

How to find geo-location using Google Analytics:

Audience > Geo > Location

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

7 Things to Implement in Your Next Social Media Strategy

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:49:59 GMT

Is your social media strategy not working? Are you not achieving your desired results? Is your content feeling disjointed or lacklustre?

Don’t panic.

Infoserve recommends implementing these 7 simple things in your next social media strategy that are guaranteed to unlock the key to success.

1/ Set goals

Always begin your social media strategy by setting SMART goals to give direction and clarity.

What is a SMART goal?

SMART stands for:

S pecific

M easurable

A ttainable

R ealistic

T imely

For example, instead of ‘ improve reach’ , try using something like ‘ improve conversion rate from LinkedIn by 150% by the end of Q3’ when setting your goals.

2/ Target audience research

You have to know who you’re marketing to before you determine how to market. Trying to sell your product to everyone is one of the most common mistakes that new businesses make, and it is guaranteed to fail.

When researching your target audience for a social media strategy, find out:

Demographics such as age, location, occupation
Which social media platforms they use
What time of day they’re using allocated social media platforms
Their interests and values
The sort of lifestyle they want
What their pain points are
Search habits, including which hashtags and competitors they’re following

From this information, you’ll be able to create a clear image of who your target customer is, and how your content can best showcase your product/service as the solution to their current dilemma.

3/ Set measurable metrics and KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to measure SMART goal success. KPIs for social media include engagement, reach, return on investment (ROI), customer retention, and number of leads; these should be determined before you create your social media strategy.

Consider how you are going to measure your KPIs.

For example, if your SMART goal is to ‘ increase click through rate (CTR) from LinkedIn by 150% by the end of Q3 ’, your KPI would be the number of people who clicked through to your website from LinkedIn. To measure this, you could create a unique landing page for your LinkedIn links and track how many people land on this page.

Check your progress regularly and adjust your strategy accordingly.

4/ Align content with the social platform

Your followers on LinkedIn will be a different demographic from your followers on Instagram, or even Facebook. Their needs, wants and habits will be very different, and the content they wish to see will differ.

Create a separate social media strategy for each social media platform and adapt it to the key user of this platform. This way, you are far more likely to see engagement and success from your efforts.

5/ Consistency is key

Posting consistently is the key to sticking in your customer’s mind, and most social media platforms will reward it.

This doesn’t mean you need to post every single day, especially if you are a small business with limited time. Instead, use analytics tools to discover when your follower base is online and set up a content calendar to schedule posts at consistent times throughout the week.

6/ Measure progress

This one may seem obvious, but you will never know how well your content strategy has performed if you don’t measure its progress.

Imagine you’re training for a marathon. To do this, you get up every day and go for a run in the morning. You feel fit, and strong and you’re confident you’re going to reach the end of the race, but on the day you find yourself falling short. Why? Because along the way, you forgot to track the distance of your practice runs.

Tracking the progress of your social media strategy follows a similar premise. You need to measure the success of your strategy at regular intervals to ensure it is working effectively towards your end goal.

7/ Collaborate with other departments

Even if you are a small team, you are likely to have a range of talent around you in the form of other marketing departments. Utilise content writers, content producers, PPC experts and even SEO specialists to create content that is unique, valuable and engaging for your audience.

You could also consider outsourcing some of the work if your social media expertise is limited.

In short, utilise every available resource around you to develop a social media strategy that is as impactful as it can possibly be.

For more advice on how to build a successful social media strategy, check out our blog on How to Use Social Media for Business .

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Why Long-Form Content Matters Today

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:41:57 GMT

When it comes to content marketing, terms like ‘long-form’ and ‘short-form’ content are mentioned regularly, but unless you are familiar with content writing terminology, you may not understand what they refer to.

Infoserve is here to bust the myth of marketing jargon and explain exactly what long-form content is and why it matters today.

What is long-form content?

Long-form content is written content that describes a specialist subject in depth. The ideal length of long-form content will differ depending on who you ask, but according to Hubspot , long-form content is typically between 1,000-7,500 words long.

Its purpose is to provide valuable information to your customer.

Long-form content can take the form of:

White papers
Case studies
E-books
Downloadable guides
An in-depth blog article

Long-form vs short form content

Short form content differs from long-form content because it is usually less than 1000 words in length. Short form copy can apply itself across all forms of marketing including blog posts, social media posts, emails and even print and digital advertising.

Why is long-form content important?

You may have heard the phrase ‘ content is king ’ coined by Bill Gates in 1996, and even 26 years on this is still true, possibly even more so. This is because the online world is bursting at the seams with content about every conceivable topic at all times.

In essence, anybody can publish content and at the same time fight each other to be considered the most relevant content within that subject.

So, how do you make your content the most valuable, engaging and interesting resource out there?

It’s simple: you create in-depth, long-form content that is unique, detailed and highly relevant to your customer.

Long-form content can:

Position you as an expert in your industry
Turn highly valuable prospects into customers
Give you the ability to be specific and explore a topic in depth
Improve your ranking on Google by increasing time spent on your web page
Earn you a reputation as a useful source of information

These reasons combined create a brand image that will lead to business growth and brand trust.

How to create long-form content for your business

1/ Start by figuring out where your expertise lies

Make a list of all the reasons why your product/service is valuable to your customer and create a list of topics surrounding this. Are they able to be explored in depth? Would they be received well as a long blog post, white paper or step by step guide?

2/ Set goals for your long-form content

Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals that will determine how you plan to market your long-form content and the results you aim to achieve.

3/ Make a plan for your long-form content

Decide how you want to market your long-form content, and then create a plan for its creation and publication.

4/ Optimise your long-form content for SEO

Optimising on-page SEO for your long-form content will have a far greater impact on your website’s rankings.

For example, include opportunities for call to actions (CTAs) at regular intervals throughout the content to boost lead generation; make sure the content is formatted using headings, engaging graphics and page breaks; and, if the content is featured on your website, ensure off-site and technical SEO are up-to-date.

5/ Measure the progress of your long-form content

Once your content is written and published, you’ll need to measure its success. Use analytics tools to determine whether CTAs are functional, see whether your customers are reading the full article and if it is being shared on social media and other websites.

Top tip: Break down long form content into smaller chunks that can be accessed as short form blog or social media content that directs readers to the long-form content. This keeps them on your website longer and makes you look like a helpful and valuable resource.

Don’t know where to start?

Infoserve ’s experienced content writers work closely with our SEO team to create highly effective, valuable and customer driven content to help you get found online. This includes monthly blogs in both long and short form, tailored to the specifications of your business.

Best Practices for B2B Using LinkedIn

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 09:56:20 GMT

Want to know how your business can reach more people and potential customers through LinkedIn’s platform?

With LinkedIn having almost 828 million members and over 58 million registered companies, can your business really afford to not utilise this platform to generate more leads?

Users are spending 300% more time on LinkedIn compared with last year due to improved algorithms, meaning they are receiving more targeted content.

So, what can you do to get your brand in front of potential customers? Here are a few simple changes you can make today that will make a lot of difference.

Ensuring that your profile is set to public will enable you to be seen by more people.

Have a declutter of the people you are following and only follow people who are relevant.

Adding skills to your profile allows people to endorse you, which gives you credibility.

It’s really important to be actively engaging in other people’s posts as well as posting content regularly yourself, we recommend twice a day.

Using keywords in your job title, that your potential clients are likely to use, will help you get found by those requiring your services.

Using hashtags in your posts are a great way to acquire continuous engagement even months down the line. Posting an article or blog as the post rather than a link in the comments helps with algorithms as LinkedIn wants users to stay on their platform, rather than be directed to another.

Prospects need 18-20 touchpoints with a business before they will consider buying a product or service. We need to make sure that when a potential client is exposed to our brand they know exactly how to make a next step. Having a website that is accessible and contact details readily available is essential to converting leads into enquiries.

Having a strategy is paramount when it comes to your presence on LinkedIn. It’s important to think about what you want to achieve, whether that be more followers and engagement on your posts or generating more leads. Do your posts allow potential customers to access more information easily? What kind of posts are generating the most engagement? Is your profile fully optimised with keywords? Are your posts demanding people’s attention by using hooks? It’s good to also consider what kind of posts you are sending out there, this may include videos, blogs, graphics, a general status, social proof, the list goes on.

Build your LinkedIn network

Lastly, if you're using LinkedIn to grow your professional network and gain leads then you need to make sure your posts are engaging. Ask questions, provoke a response and remember that LinkedIn is full of professionals that might not have all the time in the world, it's more about quality than quantity with what you put out there.

10 Landing Page Tips to Boost Conversions

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:35:41 GMT

Landing pages are a must have in your campaign strategy because they are a fantastic tool for driving leads, sales, and awareness of a specific product or service.

Landing pages require different sales tactics to website pages, and it can be tricky knowing how to create a landing page and how to optimise it for conversions. That’s why Infoserve has put together a list of 10 landing page tips to get you started.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone web page that is generated specifically for a campaign or business advertisement. Its purpose is to promote a specific product, service or offer; generate leads; and drive conversions. A landing page can be both paid and unpaid, depending on the goals and lifespan of the campaign.

1. Create a benefit focussed headline

Create a benefit focussed headline that immediately demonstrates how you plan to eliminate your customer’s pain point. Don’t create headlines that are deceptive, misleading or vague; this will diminish trust in your offer.

Top tip: Match the headline on your page to the blue link text on the SERP for optimum engagement and SEO functionality.

2. Increase loading speed

Slow loading speed will drive customers away from your landing page before they even get the chance to browse it.

To improve your landing page’s loading speed, optimise and condense images, eliminate unnecessary content, and enable browser caching.

3. Reduce clutter

When it comes to landing pages, simple is always better.

Remove unnecessary links, buttons and drop down menus and make your offer the sole focus of the page. Customers should get the information they need from your landing page immediately. This will catch their attention and make it clear exactly which action you want your customer to take next.

4. Focus on ONE CTA

The purpose of your landing page is to encourage customers to take a desired action, so make sure this is the only action they can take.

Focus on optimising for ONE call to action (CTA) only, and scatter it at convenient intervals throughout the page, ensuring it is both at the top and bottom of your landing page. If your CTA is to fill out a contact form, position it at the top of the page.

Your CTA should command urgent action, so avoid generic ‘click here’ or ‘call now’ buttons. Phrases such as ‘ hire our bespoke web designer today ’ are far more effective on landing pages.

5. Make your landing page visually attractive

Draw your customer in by making the page visually stand out. Depending on your brand this could be sleek, stylish and simple, or bright, colourful and bold. Either way, make sure it grabs your customer’s attention immediately.

Top tip: Try split testing (A/B testing) 2 separate landing page designs to see which design encourages the most engagement.

6. Optimise for mobile

Invest in responsive design to ensure your landing page is eye-catching and functional across all devices. More people than ever are using mobile devices to browse through the SERPs for quick solutions; investing in responsive design for your landing page is vital.

Small, fiddly buttons and slow loading designs will remove a customer’s urge to take your desired action.

7. Include proof of value

A landing page is often a customer’s first contact with your business so develop trust in your service by rounding off your unique selling proposition with reviews, testimonials and case studies.

These will keep viewers on your website whilst they make the decision on whether to take action. It will also show that they can trust you enough to convert into customers.

8. Speak to your target audience

As with all things digital marketing, keep your target audience at the centre of all decisions. This includes using language they respond to, provide immediate solutions to their key pain point, and encourage engagement using their internet habits.

9. Include video content to support your offer

According to Hubspot , ‘ 80% of video marketers claim that video has directly increased sales ’, with a majority of customers claiming video content helps inform their buying decisions.

Customers are becoming more enamoured with video content than text, so including high quality video that provides value to your customers at the top of your landing page will drive conversions.

10. Test, test, and test again

Okay, you don’t need to test 3 separate times, but testing the effectiveness of your landing page is crucial to increasing the number of conversions it obtains. Once you’ve tested and your landing page is live, check its progress at regular intervals and make any necessary adjustments to improve its performance.

For this, you do need to check, check and check again.

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

6 CRO Mistakes & How to Fix Them

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:20:25 GMT

The importance of converting website visitors into customers can’t be underestimated when it comes to business growth, and having a solid CRO strategy in place is vital to achieving maximum success from your online campaigns.

Simple errors in your CRO strategy can drastically decrease your chances of generating high quality leads. At Infoserve , we want to help you iron out these mistakes to grow your online presence.

What is CRO?

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action. This could be making a purchase, filling out a contact form or making an inquiry.

CRO is achieved through website enhancements, split testing and workflow improvements and leads to more relevant customers, lower cost per acquisition (CPA) and increased trust in your brand.

So, how do you fix CRO mistakes? It’s simple:

1. Not setting clear KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that set clear margins for success. Failing to establish these before embarking on your CRO strategy will misalign your actions with your goals and diminish the results.

The fix:

Determine your SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely)
Decide which elements of your website need optimising in order to meet those goals
Set clear, measurable KPIs to monitor the success of your CRO efforts
Execute your CRO strategy
Use your KPIs to measure the success of your strategy
Make adjustments to your strategy using the data your KPIs provide
Neglecting CTA links

If you are wondering how misplacing call to action (CTA) links can negatively impact your conversion rates, then you probably need to take a look at where you’re positioning them and what they say.

CTA links that don’t inspire urgency or are placed too far down on a page can prevent customers from taking the desired action of that page. If taking actions are not straightforward then customers may be reluctant to do so.

The fix:

Make CTAs specific to the page and avoid generic ‘click here’ buttons. Try generating urgency by using phrases like ‘book your appointment today’.
Display your CTAs as buttons to make them obvious and straightforward
Make sure CTA text is legible
Include a ‘call now’ button towards the top of the page
Include your company phone number on your Google My Business profile
Embed text links within your blogs to direct customers to product and service pages

2. Poor website navigation

Studies have shown that poor website navigation as well as too many buttons on a website can decrease the number of visitors who click links.

The fix:

Simplify navigation options and make buttons clear and straightforward
Prioritise ease of navigation over complex website design
Invest in responsive website design to make website use easy and accessible for all screens
Make CTAs obvious and optimised for mobile use; small buttons and links can be difficult to click using thumbs
The desired action you wish your customer to take should be made clear at the start and end of each web page

3. Cluttered landing page

You will lose your website viewer’s attention immediately if your landing page content doesn’t immediately line up with the text on the search engine results page (SERP). This can decrease your conversion rate drastically.

The fix:

Create simple, clutter free designs
Encourage engagement from the top of the page
Prioritise conversion actions and make a hierarchy of actions (i.e. phone call > booking > form fill >) and use this to effectively organise your CTA structure on the page
Run split tests (A/B testing) to distinguish the most effective landing page design

4. Retargeting avoidance

It can seem natural to focus all of your energy on acquisition over retention, but retargeting existing customers can yield more value and lead to increased return on investment (ROI) and brand trust.

The fix:

Leverage retargeting ads on social media and search engines to remind customers of your brand
Encourage customers to sign up to newsletters, marketing emails and catalogues
If customers have reached the checkout stage of your website but not purchased, send them an email reminder
Generate personalised shopping experiences that recommend products/services based on previous buying history
Use wish lists, ‘buy later’, and ‘remind me when this is in stock’ options to attain customer information aimed at retargeting

5. Hiding proof of value

Don’t have reviews in an easy to find location? This could greatly diminish the chance of a potential lead. People trust people more than they trust organisations, and checking reviews before a purchase is usually the final step in informing their buying decision.

The fix:

Include reviews, case studies and badges in an obvious location
Display Trustpilot score at the top of your homepage and any landing pages in campaigns
Set up a Google My Business account where your Google reviews will be presented on first contact with your business in the SERPs

Not sure where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Infoserve Improves LHA London’s Conversion Rate by 50%

Fri, 27 May 2022 08:59:27 GMT

Infoserve have been working with hostel provider, LHA London , for a number of years. After seeing substantial year-on-year growth, LHA challenged us to push this even further.

LHA provides young people and students with safe, affordable and long-term accommodation in London that offers complete contract flexibility. The company originated in 1940 with the aim of providing hostels for the homeless, and now have 13 large hostels scattered across London that cater for students, young professionals, apprentices and interns.

LHA wanted to target their key audience online with the help of Infoserve to improve efficiency of its online market spend. As a long-term partner of Microsoft Advertising, Infoserve saw an opportunity to increase conversion rates while lowering cost-per-click (CPC) by implementing Microsoft Audience Network to drive highly personalised ads.

Microsoft Audience Network uses highly sophisticated ad targeting software that leverages AI capabilities. The results for LHA were immediate. This strategy effectively targeted LHA’s target audience across a wide range of networks and channels to drive conversions up by 50% between Q2 and Q3 in 2021.

“ When people think of native advertising, typically they think about brand awareness, but the audience targeting capabilities of the Microsoft Audience Network make it a fantastic tool for converting customers .” Dan Lezcano, Head of Paid Search, Infoserve

The partnership between Microsoft and Infoserve was incremental in this success which not only increased LHA’s conversion rate and awareness within their target audience, it also lowered cost per click (CPA) by 52%.

“The Microsoft Audience Network has made a significant impact on our client’s business, and they are over the moon with the results.” Dan Lezcano, Head of Paid Search, Infoserve

Infoserve are proud partners of Microsoft Advertising, supporting SMEs on behalf of one of the world’s largest search engines. Infoserve was named the UK’s first Microsoft Elite Partner when the programme was first launched, and we use this trust in our business to foster growth for small businesses using Microsoft’s exclusive software, resources and connections. They trust us so that you can too.

Not sure where to start?

Start a PPC campaign with Infoserve and you could claim up to £785 managed ad credit. Our dedicated PPC experts are committed to helping your business get found online.

Get a free PPC audit now .

How to Improve Your ‘About Us’ Page in 3 Easy Steps

Tue, 24 May 2022 09:47:58 GMT

Your ‘About Us’ page gives you the opportunity to convey your USP’s, mission and values in a concise and accessible way.

It’s the story of your business, and like every story, it needs a beginning, middle, and end.

Infoserve wants to provide you with 3 essential steps to improve your ‘About Us’ page which will ultimately lead to higher conversions.

Why you need an ‘about’ page:

‘About’ pages are a great way to:

Establish trust
Reinforce your brand personality & message
Build an SEO profile
Highlight your USP’s

1. Create a strong opening

Hook your visitors in with compelling copy, images, or video.

It is a common error to fill your page with paragraphs of text, which can be highly disengaging for the reader.

Start strong, define your unique selling points, and be as concise and engaging with your copy as possible.

Take this example of London City Skin Clinic .

The message captioned in bold immediately introduces the customer to the roots of the company’s message, and draws on their pain point.

2. Generate an informative middle

Your ‘About Us’ page should contain three main pieces of information:

Who you are
What you do
Why you do it

These should be easy to navigate. Break the information into digestible chunks using headings, video content, and imagery.

Captivate your reader by explaining why you do what you do, and reinforce your story with customer testimonials and examples of your work.

Include links to other websites that reinforce your expertise such as awards, sponsors and collaborators. This will not only build trust with your customers, but help Google navigate your website easily which boosts your rankings in the search results.

London City Skin Clinic uses a video which includes options to like, share or watch later which encourages visitors to take action.

They then continue to demonstrate why you should trust their services.

Your ‘About Us’ page is a great place to showcase Client feedback which helps reinforce confidence in your business.

3. Finish with CTA

As with every page on your website, you should finish with a call to action (CTA) that encourages further engagement with your business.

Avoid generic ‘click here’ sentences, and instead add a button that makes it clear what action you want them to take.

Tailor it to your service and make it personal and on brand. For example:

Join us on our mission
Check out our gallery
Opt in to receive our newsletter
Request a tutorial now

Top Tip: Make sure you provide contact details below the CTA to encourage visitors to enquire.

London City Skin Clinic once again displays this perfectly.

Still unsure?

At Infoserve , our web design experts , SEO team and content writers are experienced in creating ‘about’ pages that convey your message and are optimised to perform.

You Could be Losing 50% of Your Website Visitors Due to Design Faults

Tue, 24 May 2022 09:14:08 GMT

Your website homepage is typically a prospect’s first impression of your business; you have approximately 10-seconds to grab your visitors' attention. Having a well-designed homepage makes the difference between prospects staying on your website, or leaving to visit competitors.

38.5% of web designers believe that outdated design is the top reason why visitors leave a website - (GoodFirms, 2021)

Infoserve , prides ourselves in crafting web design that converts website visitors into leads. We want to share with you some of the simple changes you can make to your homepage to ensure it has a lasting impact.

Builds customer confidence

our website homepage is your online shop window; it’s important to use it to make a memorable first impression.

A quick design refresh could be the difference between gaining an enquiry or losing a customer.

Keeps your business relevant

Adapting promptly to current online trends and revamping outdated designs gives you the edge against your competitors. It can also establish you as a leader in your industry.

This extends to modernising the language used on your homepage to instantly grab a customer’s attention.

Improves site performance

According to Hubspot : 88.5% of visitors leave a website due to slow loading speeds .

Updating your homepage can improve its functionality and lead to higher conversion rates. By shifting Call To Actions (CTAs) further up the page, adding unique selling points (USPs), and condensing image size, you can boost your website’s performance.

Making changes regularly ensures you remain ahead in the online market.

Top tip: Add descriptive alt text to your images to help Google, and aid blind customers navigate the visuals on your website.

Adds functionality

Updating your homepage allows you to add functionality to optimise user experience, and put you ahead of your competitors.

These include, updating your services, realigning your homepage with your target audience and reviewing relevant keywords.

Top tip: Consider adding chat bots to your webpage to offer additional support and personalised service to your users.

Responds to all screens

According to Smart Insights : more than 50% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices.

Put simply, if your website doesn’t work to its optimum level on a mobile or tablet, you could lose over 50% of potential customers.

If your website isn’t optimised for responsive web design , this should be at the top of your priorities list.

Top tip: Use Google’s free mobile friendly responsive test to see whether your website is fully responsive for mobile devices.

Infoserve ’s web designers can refresh your homepage or create a fully bespoke web design that is built to convert, and offer branding advice. To see what we can do, view our customer stories or watch our webinar on Website Design Requirements for more information on how updating your website can improve your business.

You can also access our free digital audit tool to find out whether your website design is affecting your Google rankings.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Website Domains and SEO

graeme.buckley@infoserve.com (Graeme Buckley) — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 14:01:17 GMT

An early step when building a new website is choosing a suitable domain name. A new domain name has to go hand in hand with your branding and sets out the first port of call when people see your online presence.

Infoserve has written a quick guide on choosing a suitable domain name and offers advice should you wish to change it in the future.

Choosing a suitable domain name

1/ Choosing your top level domain

The 'top level domain' (TLD) is the ending of the domain name - you will have seen the most common TLD's in your travels around the web over the years, for example...

.com,
co.uk
.net
.uk

There are literally thousands of different top level domains available, but to save you time, choose a co.uk or .com domain.

Without going into the technicalities of top level domains, having a .co.uk or .com domain will make vi sitors (especially from the UK) feel more secure on your website, especially if you sell products / services on your website, as a popular TLD will build trust.

2/ Choosing your domain name

The 'domain name' itself is the main section of the address, before the top level domain and after the www.

Obviously, the best domain name will be your company name, and hopefully your company name will include the keyword of your business focus.

For example, John Smith Accountants or Jane Doe Veterinary Clinic domains could be www.johnsmithaccountants.co.uk and www.janedoeveterinaryclinic.co.uk.

It is important not to ‘keyword stuff’ your domain, as one of the functions of Google's search algorithm is to look for keyword heavy domains, so do not choose domains like thebestaccountantsforbusinesses.co.uk or dogsandcatsveternaryclinicinlondon.co.uk . Having a keyword in your domain is still good practise, but it can also result in a negative ranking effect on Google if overdone.

Also, it is worth pointing out that people will remember your domain name if it is obvious.

✓ QUICK TIP: Avoid using too many hyphens, one at maximum, or not at all.

Thinking of changing your domain name?

For various reasons, you may be thinking about changing your domain name - whether you are thinking of rebranding, or lost a business partner from your company name, or you have become a limited company - there are things to consider before changing your domain name.

Domain age

Your domain ages like anything else, sadly! But in this instance, it is a good thing!

Your domain will build up 'domain weight' as the years go on. In technical terms, as time passes, your domain will hopefully accrue more ‘backlinks’. These are links on external websites to your website and the more domain authority they have, the better for you. If you have been running any kind of on-going paid SEO, you will likely have amassed backlinks, which are important for SEO.

Therefore, moving your website to a new domain is effectively starting again, but the loss can be minimised by making sure you migrate your domain correctly .

Lastly, you can check how old your domain is, or how old any domain is via Whois - www.whois.com

✓ QUICK TIP: If your domain is only a year or two old, domain age shouldn’t be a factor if you change domains.

Online Presence

If you have spent any time and money investing in directory listings or any kind of paid adverts online, then you will need to update the weblinks on these adverts, or contact the company looking after them to action this.

If you do change your domain…

✓ Remember to update your Google My Business listing

✓ Remember to update any listing products and paid adverts

✓ Install a redirect on your old domain to point to your new domain

✓ Inform your customer base

More information

If you would like further information, please read our previous blog which goes into more detail on the basics of SEO .

If you are interested in a new website, our experienced website design team will advise you on the best course of action when purchasing a domain, or putting a new website live on your current domain.

Also, please contact us and get a FREE SEO audit on your online presence today!

What We Do for Local Businesses in Leeds

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:23:14 GMT

Infoserve has over 25 years of experience in Digital Marketing. The power of our knowledge and targeted methodology is evidenced by the results we achieve for our clients.

Trusted by lead search engines themselves, as the only Google partner and Microsoft Elite partner in Yorkshire, our in-house team knows exactly how to leave an impression with consumers.

So, how do we use this to help SMEs build their online presence?

It’s simple:

SEO Leeds

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the benchmark strategy for finding organic traffic across the internet, and Infoserve proudly includes this as standard with all our digital marketing packages.

Our SEO experts in Leeds use up to date link building, keyword strategies, and competitor research to create the most effective plan for our clients.

How Infoserve uses SEO to help businesses in Leeds :

Optimise on-page SEO to increase website visibility
Refine link building strategies to improve authority
Use performance reporting tools and update our clients on their website’s progress
Use industry respected tools to monitor websites
Create written content using top performing keywords to drive website traffic
Conduct competitor analysis to inform our SEO strategies

Our results:

Web Design Leeds

Infoserve believes that winning web design is more than just a beautiful design; it’s a craft that combines an expert eye with unrivalled digital marketing techniques.

Our in-house web design team in Leeds are trusted by our clients to create unparalleled, bespoke websites. Together, they work to establish branding and functionality that has been converting site visitors to customers for over 20 years.

How Infoserve’s bespoke web design helps businesses in Leeds:

Create effective, attractive website designs that suit our client’s requirements and their customer’s needs
Use data and insights to increase conversion rates through conversion optimisation
Work with clients to create consistent branding including logo design, colour choices and fonts
Offer free ongoing SEO and design support as standard
Give our clients use of our professional online content editor that allows our clients to manage their own website
Write engaging content that drives website traffic

Our results:

Take a look at Cook House Gallery and Yorkshire Escapes to sample some of our web design successes.

PPC Leeds

Our PPC team in Leeds supply results driven PPC management that gains our clients 3x more leads than the industry average.

How Infoserve beats industry average ROI using PPC strategies in Leeds:

In-house PPC management and monitoring
SmartAds upgrade for a higher conversion rate and cheaper cost-per-click
Detailed keyword research to inform PPC campaigns
Ongoing advanced optimisation of campaigns to achieve the most effective result
Include an online dashboard for enquiry tracking, phone call enquiry recording and form-fill tracking
PPC expert talks our clients through their monthly results

Our results:

Check out how Cook House saw a 20k return on investment in one month using our PPC strategies.

Social Media Leeds

Our team of in-house writers and designers have been trained to deliver top quality social media marketing in Leeds.

We have worked in collaboration with our customers to deliver consistency, execution and innovation across social media Ads.

How Infoserve uses social media marketing to improve online visibility in Leeds:

Manage Facebook and Instagram Ads to drive quality traffic to clients’ websites
Use bespoke audience targeting methods to make sure that the right users are targeted
Utilise an array of ad types such as image ads, video ads and text ads

Our results:

Don’t just take our word for it

Infoserve have a TrustScore of 4.7 on Trustpilot for our client focussed Digital Marketing services in Leeds, and our customer stories prove just how effective our efforts can be.

Why us?

Need help with your website or business?

Our digital marketing experts in Leeds are on hand to support and grow your business online. Whether it's appearing at the top of your prospects search or generating more inbound leads, we can ensure you reach your goals. Drop us a chat to enquire today!

5 Ways to Build a Relationship with Customers Online

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 11:24:19 GMT

Customers are the most important element of any successful business, without customers a business would simply cease to exist. That’s why building a relationship with your customers is paramount to creating a thriving organisation where both you and your audience feel valued.

Infoserve is here to show you how.

1. Create a consistent brand

Building a brand is the very first thing start up companies consider when shaping their business, and branding can often sway a customer's investment in a product or service.

There is a common misconception that branding limits itself to tangible components such as a company logo, colour scheme and recognisable voice, but it is so much more than that. In the words of the man who built the Amazon empire:

‘ Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room ’ - Jeff Bezos

A company with a reliable, consistent and human reputation gains the trust of it’s customers. Establishing a trustworthy brand is vital to building relationships with customers online.

2. Build a user focussed website

Often, your website will be the first interaction that a prospective customer has with your business.

According to Super Office , 55% of consumers say a bad mobile experience makes them less likely to engage with a company.

Positive user experience on a website offers ease of service, and this comes from ensuring your user is at the forefront of your design decisions. Offering value, responsive web design , and a personalised experience builds positive impressions and relationships with your customers.

Top tip: adding a chat bot to your website offers visitors personalised help and advice which is a simple and low-maintenance way of building relationships with potential customers.

3. Engage with customers

Building a relationship begins when an interaction occurs, and while positive user experience might create trust with your company, it shouldn’t be where the interaction ends.

Engaging in conversation with customers before, during and after a purchase shows that you care about their investment in your company, and goes a long way to establishing long term relationships and purchases.

There are various ways to respond to customers online including social media engagement and responding to online reviews.

Check out our blog, How to Avoid Post and Ghost , to find out more about how to engage on your website, social media platforms and Google Reviews.

4. Utilise social media

Social media is one of the fastest growing methods for businesses to show the personality of their brand and connect with their customers online.

Never is this more relevant than with Innocent Drinks who use their social media platforms to advertise products in a fun and entertaining way. Innocent very cleverly sells its personality using a distinctive brand voice and responding to comments rather than pushing its products on customers.

This strategy has gained the brand a loyal following who regularly share their content and consequently advertise their products in doing so.

This proves just how effective social media can be at creating positive relationships with customers.

To help you utilise these methods, Infoserve has created a handy guide on how to use social media for business .

5. Provide excellent customer service

Good customer service is expected of companies, exemplary customer service sets them aside in the minds of consumers, and bad customer service creates business for their competitors.

Every business has a place online, including your competitors. This means that potential customers have plenty of other options if they are being offered superior service elsewhere. That’s why creating strong relationships with customers by offering unparalleled service is essential.

Luckily, there are multiple ways you can make sure your business stands out in your customer’s minds.

For example, use feedback from negative reviews to improve your service for disappointed customers, and offer resolutions to those who leave them. Offer loyalty schemes and rewards, and check-in with your customers after they’ve made a purchase by sending an email to ask how you did.

Customers who have a positive experience will recommend you to their loved ones, and become loyal brand ambassadors for your company. All you have to do is reach out.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

Are you guilty of post and ghost?

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 12:26:57 GMT

At the crux of every successful business is the ability to utilise the online tools at your disposal, but it is all too easy to fall into the latest internet trap: post and ghost.

Infoserve has created a ghoul-proof guide explaining how you can avoid this common error.

What is post and ghost?

Simply, post and ghost is the practise of posting content and leaving it without further engagement.

Are you guilty of post and ghost?

Have you ever ignored comments on your social media posts? Do you look at negative reviews of your company and think they’re not worth the hassle? Have you posted a blog to your website with your fingers crossed and not revisited to see if it's gaining traffic?

Then you are guilty of post and ghost.

Post and Ghost on Social Media

Common social media engagement errors:

Freezing post interaction as soon as it has gone live
Liking comments rather than responding to them
Ignoring valuable interaction with your brand from customers including post shares, story mentions, and direct messages
Not following/engaging with other brands

How to engage with social media

Social media can seem like a minefield of algorithm changes, competitors and features that you’ve not used before, but remaining responsive is easier than it would seem.

How to avoid post and ghost on social media:

Set SMART goals for improving engagement so that you have a target to motivate your efforts.
Encourage engagement from your followers so you have something to respond to.
Spend 5-10 minutes every day responding to comments, direct messages, and shares.
Respond quickly to comments, shares, and mentions. Keep your notifications on in order to keep your response timely.
Use a social listening tool to monitor mentions of your brand so that you can stay up to date with relevant conversations.
Engage with other brands’ content. Sharing content from other businesses can encourage them to do the same for you.

Post and ghost on Google reviews

Google reviews are a valuable tactic for building brand trust, but it isn’t as simple as allowing reviews to accumulate.

Responding to every review you receive, including negative ones, shows your customers that you care about improving your business. Review negligence can make your customers feel ghosted.

How to engage with Google reviews

Engaging with Google reviews is straightforward.

How to avoid post and ghost on Google reviews:

Respond to every review possible. Even leaving a simple ‘ thanks for your kind words ’ goes a long way to helping your customers feel seen and valued.
Be gracious for negative reviews, and reply offering a solution. If you plan to make the conversation private, responding publicly anyway shows customers that you are keen to resolve their issues.
Share positive reviews to other platforms such as your website and social media to show that it meant something to you.

Our Listings experts can manage your online reviews so that you never become guilty of ghost and post.

Post and ghost on websites

Posting and ghosting your website seems unlikely on the surface, but is actually a very easy mistake to make.

Imagine spending months decorating your house then not checking if any of the new pipes you installed had any leaks. Spending weeks optimising your website’s performance and then not checking if hyperlinks continue to work has a similarly detrimental impact.

How to engage with websites

All content and design features on your website should be revisited regularly to check that they are still functioning to their optimum potential.

How to avoid post and ghost on websites:

Use analytics tools such as SE Ranking to monitor your SEO progress.
Check the functionality of your website every time you make a change to ensure it is still performing as designed.
Run regular website audits to identify technical and design errors.
Manually check your website. This includes making sure all graphics are clear; your website functions successfully on mobiles, tablets and laptops; and that the overall design is visually appealing.

Use our free website and SEO audit tool to ensure your website hasn’t fallen victim to post and ghost.

To avoid haunting the internet with post and ghost faux pas, contact the team at Infoserve who will take the responsibility of being responsive online off your hands.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

How to Use Social Media for Business

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 12:17:52 GMT

Looking to build business reach on a low budget? Social media is your handy, cost-effective marketing method that is accessible to everyone.

Whether your business has an established social media presence, or you want one but don’t know where to start, Infoserve have put together a simple guide on the hows and whys of social media marketing to get you started.

Why your business needs social media

4.62 billion social media users were recorded as of January 2022. In fact, Data reportal states:

‘ Global social media users have grown by more than 10 percent over the last 12 months .’

With Hubspot reporting that 67% of consumers are more likely to spend on a brand they follow, you absolutely cannot afford to miss out.

So:

Here are 4 key reasons why your business needs a social media platform:

Social media can be used to:

Increase brand awareness and trust
Build customer relationships
Make direct sales
Network efficiently

How to create a social media strategy

1/ Conduct a social media audit

The first step to creating a social media strategy is to conduct an audit on your existing social media platforms. This will give you a solid understanding of what has worked for you in the past, and define areas for improvement.

For a free social media audit, contact the social media team at Infoserve.

2/ Set SMART goals

You should always set goals before creating a social media strategy, as this will give you a sense of direction, and a viable measure of success.

Make sure you set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (SMART goals). You will need to refer back to these regularly to ensure your content strategy is succeeding.

3/ Define your target audience

You need to understand your target audience before you can advertise your product to them. Begin by asking yourself what their pain points are, and consider how your company provides a solution.

You should:

Look at your current customers
Study your competitors
Know the benefits of your product/service
Determine your market’s interests
Create customer personas

Visit our blog on how to define your target audience for further details.

4/ Choose the right platform for your business

There are a multitude of social media platforms in the world that each have a different purpose. While it might be tempting to focus all of your efforts on Facebook because it has the most users of any social media platform, this is not the most effective strategy to adopt.

Start by looking at your now defined target audience and which platforms they are most likely to be using.

For example, if your target audience are other businesses (B2B) then your first priority should be creating a trustworthy profile on LinkedIn.

5/ Conduct competitor research

To understand which strategies work best within the social media market, you have to know what your competitors are doing.

It might be tempting to create a profile that is entirely unique and different, but if your competitors are creating content that gains traction, you need to understand why.

Look at the hashtags they are using. Are they tagging their location? Is their content mainly video, text, or image based? Are their stories interactive? Do they have an overall colour scheme?

All of these considerations will help you understand why their profile is performing well within their market, and how you can replicate the results.

6/ Create a content plan

Create a content plan that is well structured, accessible, and aligns with the wider company calendar. It should be kept flexible in order to adapt to changes in social media trends as well as algorithm updates.

Using scheduling and automation tools will keep your posts in one place, and save time.

Keep in mind that you might not see immediate results, and that’s okay. Keep updating your plan, looking for ways to improve your content, and analysing results.

How to increase social media engagement

In order to grow your social media audience, you need to create content that is relevant , responsive , and engaging . Remain flexible on strategy and experiment with your tactics.

Offer quality and value

Quality over quantity is never more important than when building a successful marketing strategy. Producing quality content will get you noticed and shared, and providing value to your followers will convert them into leads and even customers.

Sell WHY not WHAT

Customers buy why you do what you do. Be personal and human, and don’t use your social media platform as a means to simply push your products on people. Explain why your product adds value to their life, stay relatable, and have fun with it.

Engage, Engage, Engage

Engaging with your followers online builds trust in your business.

How to engage with your followers:

Respond quickly to comments, shares, and mentions.
Use social media interactive tools ; utilise hashtags, get customers involved using polls, ask questions.
Encourage engagement from your followers by suggesting they leave comments, share posts, or ‘ get in touch ’.
Be reactive and proactive.
Avoid post and ghost: www.infoserve.com/are-you-guilty-of-post-and-ghost
Use a social listening tool to monitor mentions of your brand including keywords, topics, and competitors so that you can stay up to date with conversations.

Monitor competitors

Keep up to date with your competitors’ social media strategies, and see which trends they’re employing.

Stay up to date with trends

Respond proactively to trends, even if this means adapting your content strategy. This could be a change in global affairs such as the coronavirus crisis; changes to social media algorithms including Instagram prioritising video content; or the latest viral video trend.

Social listening tools such as Brandwatch and Hootsuite help brands stay up to date with social media trends relating to their business.

Employ paid ads

Paid advertisements are a fantastic tool for boosting content that is already receiving valuable engagement. You should use paid ads on content that is sure to get a worthwhile ROI (return on investment).

Find out how our PPC experts are using SmartAds to create world-leading paid ad solutions.

Check out our blog on how to supercharge your social media for more top tips on how to increase your social media platform.

How to measure social media engagement

SMART goals

Keep your SMART goals to hand at every stage of the reflection process. Use them to analyse the success of your campaign. Did you hit your target? What went well during the process? What can you improve over the next quarter?

Measure using KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to measure SMART goal success. Performance measures for social media include engagement, reach, ROI, customer retention, and number of leads; these should be determined before you create your social media strategy.

Consider how you are going to measure KPIs.

For example , if your SMART goal is to increase leads by 150% in 3 months time, your KPI would be the number of leads generated from your social media platform. To measure this, you could create a unique landing page for your social media links and use it to confirm the number of website visits and leads created from your social links.

Check your progress regularly, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Avoid vanity metrics

Vanity metrics are surface metrics that look good on paper, but don’t correlate with your SMART goals. These will change depending on your SMART goals.

For example follower count might look impressive, but if your goal is to double lead conversions in 6 months time, these numbers aren’t actually a measure of success. However, they might be a measure of success if your goal is to increase business reach.

Use Analytics Tools

Analytics tools save you the hassle of calculating results yourself. They measure activity related to your social media pages including number of post views, click through rate (CTR), and overall engagement.

How to build a social media platform

Brand your cares away

Your brand is the centre of everything your business does. If it’s wishy-washy, potential customers can be dissuaded from engaging with your company.

Make it shine through consistently across all of your social media platforms, and let it lead your content strategy. Your brand logo must be your icon, and be of good quality and high resolution - avoid pixilation at all costs.

Build a business profile

Creating a business profile allows you to:

Use the social platform’s analytics tools to see how your posts are performing
Include a link directly to your website i.e. LinkedIn’s ‘ Learn more ’ button
Advertise for jobs and display employees (LinkedIn)
Manage your business using tools like Facebook’s Business Manager
Access community hashtags
Showcase your company’s tag line/slogan to your followers
Use paid ads functions
List your services
Add a shopping section directly to your business page

Define your target audience

Build your platform around your target audience, and make sure your bio, description, and content are what they want to engage with.

Create a clear content strategy

Create a clear content strategy that you implement from day one; a jarring social media feed can put people off following your content.

Build a network

Build a strong network of customers, like-minded businesses, and profiles that represent your company’s ethos. This will grow your business online and build brand reputation and trust.

If you need further advice from our social media team on how to grow a social platform for your business, please drop Infoserve a message on our website or LinkedIn page and we’ll swiftly get in touch.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.

What are featured snippets? How can they benefit your business?

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:27:57 GMT

Google’s Hummingbird algorithm was designed to gain an understanding of the intent behind customer’s search queries, provide the most relevant search results, and offer the best user experience possible. One of the most sought after features of this is the featured snippet.

Understanding what a featured snippet is, and how to get one can be difficult to get your head around, which is why we have put together a guide to help you optimise your content to pinch a featured snippet spot.

What is a SERP?

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. Simply, it is the page that a search engine displays in response to a searcher’s query.

SERP features are any search result feature that isn’t a traditional organic ‘blue link’. These include paid ads, map packs, shopping results, and featured snippets.

What is a Featured Snippet?

Featured snippets, also known as answer boxes, are snippets of text that are displayed at the top of Google’s search results in response to a searcher’s query. They are extracted from the top 5 search results and usually take the form of a short summary paragraph, list, or table.

Featured snippets are a fantastic method of gaining organic traffic to a website as they appear above the #1 spot on Google, which is also referred to by marketers as ‘ Position 0’ . Because featured snippets generate organic content, they can be utilised by anyone at any time.

Featured snippets are one of the best ways to capture the attention of voice searches, as they are likely to be read out as the direct answer to a searcher’s query on Google. With voice search features continually on the rise, content producers are now considering it paramount to adapt to this change in the market.

How to Optimise Content for Featured Snippets

Follow these best practises:

1/ Identify areas that you are already ranking for

Specialist areas that you are already ranking for will be the easiest to optimise for featured snippets because Google already considers them to have value.

Look for current featured snippets, and create content that is more valuable than the existing one in order to outperform your competition.

For example , if you were a coffee shop, you might be ranking highly for a blog surrounding the topic of ‘ what is a chai tea latte ’. Within this you may find that the search terms ‘ what is a chai tea latte ’, and ‘ how to infuse spices into tea ’ have featured snippets that are taking valuable organic traffic from your website.

Instead of creating entirely new unique content in an attempt to compete with these featured snippets, you should optimise your existing blog on ‘ what is a chai tea latte ’ to provide more value to searchers than your competition.

2/ Know your keywords

You need to know what your audience is searching for if you are going to optimise posts for featured snippets; keyword research is critical to achieving results.

Aim to find specific long-tail keywords within your already high ranking pages, such as ‘ when should I put honey in my tea ’, rather than ‘ chai tea latte ’. This is because search queries that include long-tail keywords and ask ‘ how ’ and ‘ what ’ questions are more likely to display featured snippets.

3/ Answer questions directly

The purpose of featured snippets is to provide searchers with a quick and direct answer to their search query. Answer questions outlined in your titles and headings directly so Google can understand them straight away.

Go into detail and cover lots of areas within your chosen topic. This will give you the best chance of appearing in a featured snippet as your content answers multiple searcher’s queries.

For example , a blog discussing ‘ what are chai tea lattes ’ would also contain long-tail headings such as ‘ what are the health benefits of chai tea ’, ‘ where does chai tea come from ’, ‘ how long should I steep chai tea for ’, and give direct answers to those questions in the form of lists, paragraphs and tables.

4/ Be objective and concise

Make sure your answers to questions in content optimised for featured snippets are objective, clear, and concise; the maximum length of a featured snippet paragraph is 97 words, or 8 points for a numbered or bullet pointed list.

Avoid using fluffy, descriptive language to give your content the best chance of being featured above the #1 spot in the SERPs.

5/ Format content clearly

The most important thing you can do to optimise content for featured snippets is to make sure it is formatted properly. Google is becoming increasingly competent at matching search results to user intent and content with a confusing structure will be skimmed over and considered not able to fulfil it.

How to format content clearly for featured snippets:

Break down the information into digestible chunks, and feature them in the form of short and concise paragraphs, lists, and tables.
Use titles and headings that match searcher’s queries directly, and ensure that subheadings are directly answering the questions of the headings.
Use a clear structure for your code. HTML headers and title tags should be clear; using H2 and H3 headers formats your content in a way that Google can recognise and crawl easily.

6/ Optimise your overall on-page SEO

If your overall website isn’t following on-page SEO best practises, then the chances of it ranking on page 1 of Google, let alone being considered for a featured snippet, are slim.

Make sure that your images are stored at the size they are displayed at, or condensed to reduce loading speed; your website is enhanced using backlinks and internal links; and your website is following Google’s best practises for keyword optimisation.

7/ Create high quality content

The foundation of any SEO strategy is creating valuable content for your customers. If your content isn’t valuable then your customers won’t read and share it, and Google will not class you as a trustworthy source of information.

Creating high-quality content that provides more value to users than your competitors is key to challenging the current featured snippet champion.

Quality content is determined by Google based on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T), so aim to emulate these attributes. E-A-T is important to consider when creating any content for your website because failing to demonstrate these 3 things, or spamming your website with low-quality content will get you penalised by Google’s Panda algorithm.

8/ Monitor progress

Success is not determined by posting once and leaving the work to accumulate traffic. In order to fully take advantage of featured snippet opportunities, you need to monitor the progress of your posts.

Content optimised for featured snippets is not going to jump to the position overnight. Make sure that you fully commit to the process by checking your post every day to see if there are any changes to the post’s traffic, interaction, and shares.

You should also keep an eye on the featured snippet position. If the position you are aiming for changes to a different piece of content that isn’t yours, try updating your content once again to compete with the new snippet.

Remember that making your content more suggestive to featured snippets will only improve your chances of getting one, it is not a guarantee.

At Infoserve , our SEO experts and professional Content Writers are committed to delivering high quality content and using SEO techniques to drive your website forward. For more information on how we can improve your position in the SERP, please contact a member of our friendly team.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team are help your website get found.

Call us today 0800 089 0879

6 Easy Ways to Get More Google Reviews

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:57:59 GMT

Whether you are a small business attracting new customers, or an established enterprise looking to improve your online reputation, Google reviews are an important part of your marketing strategy.

Gaining quality reviews for your business impacts how the online world compares you to other businesses, and getting more reviews in itself is a viable way to build trust with potential customers.

Why Bother with Google Reviews?

Google is estimated to handle over 5.6 billion search queries a day, and dominates 92% of the global search engine market share, so having Google reviews makes your business easily accessible to a large audience.

Since more people trust and use Google than every other search engine combined, your business being verified by them as a legitimate source is vital to gaining trust from your customers.

Furthermore, when you register for a My Google Business account, your business, and its reviews, will appear on page 1 of the Google search results so that your customers can access your reviews free of hassle.

How to Get my Business on Google

To get Google Reviews, you will need to set up a free Google My Business Account. This will allow you to create and manage your Google listing. Here’s how:

Step 1: Log in to the Google account associated with your business, or create a Google account for your business.
Step 2: Click ‘Manage Now’ in the top left corner.
Step 3: Enter the details of your business. Google will ask for your company name, location, business category, phone number, and website URL.
Step 4: Verify your Google Business profile. This can be done by phone, email, or postcard. Google also offers instant verification, and bulk verification for businesses that operate from multiple places.

Where are Google Reviews Shown?

Search Engine Results

Google reviews will appear in Google’s search results alongside any other information that your Business Profile displays. This means reviews of your business are accessible from the moment you appear in the search results when someone has searched for your business name.

Google Maps

Your Google reviews will appear when someone searches for your business on Google Maps, whether this is done on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.

Google Maps Listings also show reviews, which may be a critical factor for those deciding on whether or not to purchase. At the stage of searching on Google Maps people are very likely to make a purchasing decision, they are simply looking for something in their area, a positive review could make your business the obvious choice.

When 76% of online local services result in a phone call, why take your chances?

How to Get Reviews on Google

Deliver excellent service

There is no fast track method to gaining Google reviews; the ultimate trick is to make sure that you go above and beyond to ensure that your business is delivering excellent service.

Ask for reviews

If you want reviews, you have to ask for them.

After a customer has used your service, it never hurts to send an email asking them to leave a review on Google. Asking for feedback, and making it clear that you want to improve your service, will encourage them to leave an honest review.

You can also ask for reviews:

When you have concluded a phone conversation.
After you have handled a customer complaint.
At the point of purchase.
During a face-to-face interaction.

Show your customers/clients how to leave a review

Some of your customers won’t know how to leave a review on Google, so showing them how will only give them encouragement. Remember, even though 1.5 billion people worldwide have Gmail accounts, they may not be aware of the process.

An easy way to leave a Google review involves:

Step 1: Sign in to your Google account
Step 2: Type your company name into the search bar
Step 3: Click on the Google reviews in your Google Business Profile
Step 4: Click ‘write a review ’

You could also make this simpler by leaving a hyperlink or URL in an email so they have one-click access to your Google Reviews page.

Remind customers/clients to leave a review

It is worth remembering that your customers may be too busy to leave a review the moment it is asked for, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t keen to give feedback on your service.

Wait 2-3 weeks after your initial interaction, and send them a gentle reminder that you welcome their feedback. This could be set up automatically through your chosen scheduling system.

Respond to your reviews

Online customer engagement builds trust.

Responding promptly to both positive and negative reviews shows your customers that you are grateful for their support, and that you take their feedback on board. Even simply saying ‘thank you for your glowing review’, goes a long way.

Be gracious for negative feedback, and don’t show frustration in your response. Keep in mind that reviews are public, and that any negative feedback is an opportunity to show your customers that you care about improving your business.

Do something about your reviews

Simply allowing your reviews to accumulate is not enough to gain trust from your customers.

If you have been given a negative review, show your customers that you are actively trying to solve the issues they have put forward, and other customers will be more likely to bring forward constructive feedback in the future. They may also feel encouraged to leave a second review discussing how you have fixed the issues they raised.

What to do With a Bad Google Review

Negative reviews aren’t always a bad thing because they give a balanced view of the business, as well as an opportunity to improve and show your customers/clients that you care about their feedback.

Unfortunately, you may receive an occasional malicious or fake review that Google’s spam checking systems have missed. While it may be tempting to respond snarkily to these reviews like big corporations do on social media, doing so will harm your company’s reputation more than it will soothe your frustration.

Due to Google’s policy, there is no option for removing a fake review, but you can ask Google to remove the review by selecting the flag as inappropriate option.

What you should do:

Flag the review as inappropriate.

This alerts Google that the review doesn’t comply with Google’s review policies.

Respond to the review.

Even though you know the review is not legitimate, your customers don’t. Responding calmly to the review will help to maintain your reputation, and show that you are keen to remedy the situation.

Select what is wrong with the review.

You will be given a list of potential reasons for reporting the review. Select the one that applies.

Submit your report.

Your report will be sent to Google.

It is worth remembering that flagging a malicious review is not always 100% reliable, and the best way to avoid this review harming your reputation is to stay calm, respond to the issue, and continue providing fantastic service in order to gain more positive reviews.

Our Listing Management Services take the responsibility of managing your listings and reviews off your hands, to increase online visibility and handle your reviews all in one place.

If you require any information regarding Listing Management, or to inquire about our other services, give Infoserve a shout and we’ll be more than happy to solve your digital marketing queries.

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team are help your website get found.

Call us today 0800 089 0879

Why you need responsive web design

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 14:15:06 GMT

Responsive design is a critical element to consider when building a website right now. However, if you’re not a designer you could be wondering what this means.

In fact, if you’re a business owner, you’re probably more intrigued by this concept and how implementation could benefit you.

At Infoserve , we’ve seen first hand just how responsive design can help you solve problems on your website. A responsive design will make your website mobile-friendly, enhance the way it looks over a number of devices and increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website. It can even help improve your rankings in search engines!

What is responsive design?

Good question, essentially responsive design is a way a website is expertly designed so that it automatically scales all content and intricate elements to match the screen size a user is viewing from. This makes for a much better user experience as visitors don’t have to do extra work to read your content, or will large images block their viewing.

People want instant gratification. They don’t want to spend unnecessary time scrolling, zooming and resizing your website just to receive the information they want.

If your website is difficult to navigate it will lose you potential customers.

This doesn’t mean designing multiple websites to suit a computer, laptop, tablet or mobile device, it’s designing one website that scales up or down to suit the user and the device it’s being viewed on.

Responsive design is a critical element to consider when building a website right now. However, if you’re not a designer you could be wondering what this means.

In fact, if you’re a business owner, you’re probably more intrigued by this concept and how implementation could benefit you.

What is responsive design?

People want instant gratification. They don’t want to spend unnecessary time scrolling, zooming and resizing your website just to receive the information they want.

If your website is difficult to navigate it will lose you potential customers.

5 reasons to invest in responsive design

We live in a society that uses multi-screens daily.

How many people do you see scrolling on their phone while looking at their laptop or tablet?

It’s so important that your site is viewable over as many devices as possible in order to appeal to the broadest number of people.

As well as delivering a sleeker look, some of the benefits of choosing responsive design for your website include:

1/ Cost effectiveness

Trying to maintain separate sites for mobile and non-mobile audiences can end up costing you a lot of money. Instead you just need to invest in one single site design that can appeal to all visitors over a number of devices.

2/ Flexibility

A website with responsive design means you can make changes and additional edits really quickly and easily. If you want to make a design tweak or typo adjustment you just have to do it once.

3/ Improved User Experience

User experience is as critical as ever. If people don’t like your website, it can be really hard to convince them to come back. If a mobile visitor lands on your website and it takes forever to load, or they can’t view information with ease, it makes you look unprofessional. They’ll only get bored and look elsewhere!

Did you know? 84% of mobile users say they will leave your site immediately if they cannot find what they’re looking for.

4/ SEO gains

The search engine gives preference to websites that are mobile-friendly. Along with other ranking factors, responsiveness can help provide a big boost in Google’s search page rankings.

The closer you are to the top, the more chances you have of potential customers accessing your services.

5/ Ease of management

Responsive design makes your site much easier to manage. You don’t have to worry about links to social media, redirect links or form fills working for the right visitors on the right sites - everything will be adapted to suit.

Responsive design is an important part of any modern web strategy, and it should be part of yours. It will guarantee that any user, on any device will have the best possible, consistent experience on your website.

Moving to a responsive design will help your business:

Increase reach to customers on smaller, on-the-go devices
Create a satisfying user experience that can increase lead generation, conversions and sales
Track analytics and reporting in one place
Decrease time and cost of on-site management
Ensure you stay ahead of competition

Is your website mobile friendly?

Google offers a mobile friendly responsive test. Simply enter your URL and receive a score!

Did you get a green tick?

Your website has passed the Google responsive test. You may know why responsive design is important to your users.

Did you get a red X?

Your website has failed the Google responsive test. Consider a new design optimised for mobile users.

✓ Get mobile-friendly

✓ Start ranking on Google

Contact our innovative web designers at Infoserve…

Call 0800 089 0879 or contact us here.

How to define your target audience

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 13:54:45 GMT

A target audience is a cluster of people interested in your brand, products or services. Basically, the potential customers of your business. They could share the same location, age, gender, education or other target customer demographics.

Why define your target audience?

Defining your target audience helps you create good quality marketing content. If you know that the majority of your clients work within a particular industry, are in a particular age bracket, or have a particular budget, for example, it will help you create content that will resonate with them specifically.

Who is your target audience?

If your answer is everyone , then your marketing efforts are going to fail to convert.

How to define your target audience

1/ Look at your current customers

This is the first step you need to take to define a target audience. Check your existing customers’ demographics and discover which characteristics they share in common.

Once you’ve got this statistical data you can clearly identify market segments and which target demographics to focus on, for example location or age.

Google Analytics (GA) can reveal the demographics of your visitors.

Open GA > Audience > Demographics > Overview...

2/ Study your competitors

Regardless of the business you own, competition is always present. While some may see competitors as a threat, you can use them to help you understand your target market.

List your competitors
Use Google Analytics and other tools to check the demographics and interests of visitors
Study your competitors’ sales funnels

3/ Identify your target market’s motivations

Exploring what your audience is looking for is critical. You need to know the types of products and services they are buying from you and the information they want to know.

Whether it’s your website, blog content or socials, look at what your customers are engaging with most. Using Google Analytics you can track visits, dwell time and bounce back rates.

4/ Learn the benefits of your product or service

Defining the benefits, rather than the features, of what you’re selling or providing can be beneficial when determining your customer base's needs.

This can help build a better picture of what your customers look like, how they behave and what their pain points are.

5. Determine your markets interests

When defining your target audience, it is important to consider their psychographics, such as:

Lifestyles
Behaviour
Hobbies
Values
Interests
Personality
Common characteristics

Google Analytics can provide vital information about who your audience is and what their interests are. Understanding these aspects will help you persuade and tap into their market behaviour more effectively.

Open GA > Audience > Interests > Overview

6/ Create customer personas

Define your target audience with the help of customer personas. These are representations of your market, almost like fictional characters that help you identify needs and wants.

Creating these customers will indicate who your market is, what they are looking for, and how your product or service can help them. Use these as a guide to keep you on the right track. When creating marketing resources, challenge them against your customer personas.

These personas could include demographics, income level, marital status and interests.

Who do you think your existing customer is?

Who is your ideal customer?

Who do you want to attract?

Finding your brand voice

Your visual identity is one of the most crucial aspects when building a website. You need to know who you are and how you communicate, specifically what your brand voice is. Your brand voice determines your personality.

What language do you use?

What vibe do you want to give off?

Creating a customer persona will help determine the type of content that will speak to your desired audience.

Content in the right tone of voice can influence first impressions and determine how your message resonates with a customer.

Ask yourself…

Purpose : Why does your brand exist?

Vision : What are you trying to create?

Mission : How do you plan to reach your vision?

Values: Who are you? How do you work?

Consider these questions…

When people interact with your brand, how do you want them to feel?

How does your brand voice differentiate from competition?

Who do we NOT want to be/ what tone of voice do we want to avoid?

These helpful tips are sure to go a long way in helping you find your target market. Once you fully understand who to target you will have clearer guidance on how to create and tweak marketing strategies that will, in turn, increase sales.

If you’d like help defining your target market, or perhaps more advice regarding your digital marketing, or growing your business then you can count on us, here at Infoserve , to provide the support you need.

Call Us

0800 089 0879

Email Us

customerservices@infoserve.com

How we generated 372 new enquiries for Oakham Dental

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 20:46:30 GMT

As an established Digital Marketing Agency, we have worked with several dental clinics across the UK. This means we have both the experience, and expertise to understand and place the correct conversion rate optimisation to turn website visitors into customers. From placement of buttons to layout of contact forms; 20 years of building websites for small businesses has given us unrivalled data and insights.

To put this into perspective, let’s take a look at what we achieved working with Oakham Dental…

Great Results

Infoserve’s Role

Web design

Our talented in-house Web Design team designed and built Oakham Dental website with care, precision and skill. Tailored to their requirements with functionality streamlined for a smooth customer journey on every device.

For Oakham Dental we:

Used Google Analytics to discover how customers were interacting with the website.
Redesigned the website to be more responsive to customer needs with an easy to navigate and attractive design.
Added on-site SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure the site was visible to local customers on the SERP (Google Search).
Ensured the website was accessible on any device.
Streamlined the site with ultra-fast loading speeds.
Compiled the website with search engine updates so customers could reach the business with ease.
Gave visitors an easy user experience with simple, but effective, call to actions.
Worked alongside to establish a clear brand story and design.

At Infoserve, all of our websites include on-site SEO, combined with lightning fast loading speeds and an easy to use website editor, so you have all the tools you need to succeed online.

PPC Ads

Years of managing Google and Bing Ads for dentists provided us with unique insights and data, which allowed us to create a high-performing ad campaign. Enquiry tracking came, as usual, as standard, allowing our monthly marketing meetings to be centred around what's important; how many new patients Oakham Dental were receiving from our campaign.

From our PPC Ads Oakham Dental gained:

More visibility (Those looking for local dental work finding the clinic through a simple Google search)
More traffic (Oakham Dental showed near the top of the SERP when potential customers were browsing)
Highly interested prospects (Paid search ads target specific queries so targeted customers already looking for a whiter teeth/dental implants/check-ups)
Detailed analytics (Paid ads allowed us to see where potential customers were geographically located, what devices they were using, which pages they visited, how much time was spent on the site)

Social Media

Our social media strategy consisted of audience targeting, professional ad creation with flair, and budget optimisation. As a Facebook partner, our team of experts are trained by Facebook themselves ensuring the most professional results are delivered.

Facebook Ads

Did you know the 45 million social media users in the UK spend an average of 3 hours a day on social media?

Every business needs to build their brand awareness with Facebook ads.

For Oakham Dental, Facebook Ads allowed us to:

Reach their exact market by specifically advertising to people based on age, interests, behaviour and location.
Achieve immediate results as Facebook ads can reach thousands of people per day.
Increase brand awareness by making people aware of what Oakham Dental had to offer.
Boost website traffic with a website click campaign targeting their audience.
Increase customer attribution (The amount of times their audience sees their brand).
Break into new markets with increased exposure.
Rival competition effectively.
Appeal to the (very large) mobile audience.

Instagram Ads

Whether people were looking for new dental implants or researching whitening their smile, we put Oakham Dental at the forefront of their target audience.

Oakham Dental benefited from Instagram Ads through:

Increased traffic (Call-to-action links within posts drove customers to their website).
Increased visibility (Instagram ads ensured potential customers saw their posts).
Increased brand awareness (Adverts appeared in the newsfeed of their target audience).

Why us?

Need help with your website or business?

Contact our friendly digital marketing experts who are best at what they do, at an affordable price.

0800 089 0879

Building a website: Your questions answered

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 20:15:57 GMT

Today, owning a business means understanding the world of online marketing. Whether you’re a well-established company or scaling a start-up, investing in your digital marketing is fundamental to success.

Creating a user-friendly website to showcase and accelerate your brand ensures you stay relevant in a fast-paced evolving market. However, the process involves more than just designing and building a web page.

To build a strong online presence requires a lot of thought, so here at Infoserve we’ve put together some of your commonly asked questions to help you stay ahead of your competition when building a new website .

Why do I need a website for my business?

If you’re a small business owner on the fence about creating a website please believe us when we say you need one. 97% of consumers go online to find and research local businesses, so a professionally designed website will not only help you differentiate your brand but will assist you in creating new leads and increase sales.

A great website also builds credibility and trust with your audience; it shows that you’re a professional.

Did you know? 94% of consumer’s first impressions are web design related…

Astonishingly, we only have seven seconds to capture a visitor's attention, meaning it’s imperative to make sure your website has eye-catching design and clear and concise information that is readily available.

Who is hosting my website?

If you already have a website, you’ll need to know who is hosting it, to find this out you need to…

Go to lookup.icann.org .
Search field, enter your domain name and click Lookup.
On the results page, scroll down to Registrar Information. The registrar is usually your domain host.

Does my website need a privacy policy?

You must post a Privacy Policy on your website. Your Privacy Policy must provide notice of the cookies that are used to collect data. You must disclose the use of Google Analytics, and how it collects and processes data.

This could be in the form of a pop-up as you enter your website.

How fast is my website?

Fast speed results in a better user experience. A user typically stays on a site longer if the site speed is faster, fast speed also has better conversion rates and bounce less.

To test your website speed simply place your URL in a page speed checker .

Did you know? 85% of consumers get the feel of a website before making a purchase decision…

How many backlinks should my website have?

Backlinks, sometimes known as ‘inbound links’, ‘incoming links’ or ‘one way links’ are links from one website to a page on another website. Google considers backlinks like ‘votes; for a specific page.

A ranking of 60 to 100 is fantastic.
A ranking, 40 to 50 is okay.
A ranking below 40 isn't great.

If you want to build high-quality backlinks, then start by building links from high domain authority websites that are also relevant to your niche and trusted by searchers. Linking to irrelevant sites to create a backlink won’t work.

Need help creating backlinks? Contact us today at Infoserve !

How do I make my website secure?

There are several layers involved when ensuring your site is secure, that’s why it’s always important to use a professional, experienced web designer. However, here are a few essential pointers to help you out:

Install SSL (A simple Secure Sockets Layer certificate).
Use anti-malware software to scan for and prevent attacks.
Make your passwords STRONG – 1234? Think again!
Keep your website up to date.
Don’t offer a helping hand to hackers – look out for phishing emails and other scams.
Run regular backups to prepare for the worst case scenario.

How does SEO work?

Search engines such as Google and Bing use ‘crawlers’ (sometimes called bots or spiders) to gather information about the content you post.

This crawler starts from a known webpage (mostly the homepage) and follows internal and external links. The structure, context and links help the crawler understand what the pages are about and figure out how they are semantically connected to the rest of your pages within the search engine’s database (their index) .

When a user speaks or types a query into a search engine, it uses algorithms to push what it thinks is the most accurate and useful information to the top of the search.

Do I need SEO for my website?

Yes, if you want to show up amongst your competition then SEO is essential to boost your credibility, earn more traffic, and improve your online visibility.

How can I improve my website SEO?

There are several technicalities involved in improving your website’s SEO but here are a few quick wins to get you started:

Publish relevant, authoritative content.
Update your content regularly.
Add metadata to each page (ensuring every page is different).
Ensure you have a well designed link-worthy site.
Use alt tags (alternative text for an image eg. HTML).

Our SEO agency team based in Leeds, has the experience, data and insights to get your business found organically on search engines. Take a look at what's included each month with our comprehensive search engine optimisation service and let us do the hard work for you.

For further advice read our SEO Blog covering everything you need to know.

What is SEO content?

SEO refers to search engine optimisation, or the process of optimising a website so that people can easily find it via search engines like Google.

By content, we mean any information that lives on the web and can be consumed on the web.

To create SEO content you need:

Keyword research - Write about relevant topics (or find keyword niches) that people are already searching for information about using a programme such as SE Ranking .
Keyword optimisation - Know where and how to use keywords in your content for maximum searchability - is this blog for or on-site text?
Content organisation - The content on your site should be organised and displayed in a way Google, and your readers, can digest easily with headings, bullet points and numbers.
Content promotion - Increase visibility to new content you create by sharing it on social networks and building links to your content (both internally and from external sites).

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay-per-click, a form of digital marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.

Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. Advertisers can bid for an ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches a particular keyword that is related to their business offering.

Did you know? We are Yorkshire's only Google Premier Partner and Microsoft Elite Partner . The highest level of partnership, earned by high-performance PPC Campaign Management .

Which is better: SEO or PPC?

SEO is best for long term solutions - it can take a long time to see results but is effective for more permanent results.

PPC is best for quickly increasing search traffic - it's great for time-sensitive events, or for businesses where customers are in a sense of urgency.

What are the best keywords for my website?

To find the best keywords for your website you need to:

Think like a customer - What would they be searching to find your products?
Study the competition - What keywords are they using?
Understand the long tail and short tail variations - They are both important.
Use keyword research tools - SE Ranking is a great tool for discovering what customers are searching.

How do I check my website rankings?

You can check your website ranking using Google Analytics .

Sign in to your Analytics account.
Navigate to a view in the property to which you added the tag. If you only recently added the tag to this property (website), it is likely that there will only be one view.
Open Reports.
Select Real-Time > Overview.

How can I promote my website?

Prioritise your SEO as Google is the main way people find most of the websites they visit.
Use social media to share your website.
Create high-value content (relevant blogs in your niche).
Join and participate in online communities and forums in your area.
Connect with influencers.
Become a source of information relevant to your product.

Starting or maintaining the running of a successful business means upholding a certain standard of professionalism. It’s vital your online presence adds to your businesses credibility and showcases the correct level of sophistication.

Customers like to be informed, they want to know where and how they are getting their products and services from, whether that’s from the comfort of their own home or out on the move in the local area.

If you don’t have an online presence or your website is poorly designed you will be losing potential business.

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve , our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team are help your website get found.

Call us today 0800 089 0879

How Yorkshire Escapes seen a 300% increase in enquiries per day

Sun, 19 Dec 2021 17:45:15 GMT

Yorkshire Escapes boasts a portfolio of beautiful handpicked holiday lettings alongside a comprehensive management service for holiday homes in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Escapes face significant competition meaning a strategic marketing plan was crucial to stand-out in this luxury market.

It’s important businesses go the extra mile to stand out in a highly populated crowd. Creating a strong brand is imperative to not only grab but retain your audience’s attention.

Victoria remained hands on throughout the entire process creating a unique and personal brand. At Infoserve we take pride in our agility; no two projects are the same, allowing customers to be as hands-on or hands-off as they desire.

What did we do?

Branding & Logo Design
UX/UI Design
Web Design & Development
Managed PPC Campaign
SEO

The results

"Infoserve increased my enquires from two, every few days, to twenty each day"

Victoria (Owner, Yorkshire Escapes)

How did we do it?

Branding & Logo Design

Researched target audiences and competitors.
Capitalised Unique Selling Points.
Developed audience and brand personas.
Created a brand story.
Pin-pointed clear brand missions and values.
Selected brand colours using colour psychology.
Picked out website and logo fonts to suit their visual style.

It’s important businesses go the extra mile to stand out in a highly populated crowd. To do this, they need to invest in creating a strong brand that will not only grab but retain people’s attention.

Victoria was very involved in the process, as she still wanted to have her own personal stamp on her brand. At Infoserve, we work very closely with our customers to ensure they get a very personal experience; being as hand-on or off as they desire.

Web Design & Development

We design and develop websites to generate more customers, for Yorkshire Escapes we:

Used Google Analytics to discover how customers were interacting with the website.
Redesigned the website to be more responsive to customer needs with an easy to navigate and attractive design.
Added an on-site customer-focused search-function.
Embedded an easy-to-use content management system so Victoria can add/update listings when needed.
Ensured on-site SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) was fully optimised to ensure the site was visible to local customers on the SERP (Google Search).
Made the website attractive and accessible on every device.
Streamlined the site with ultra-fast loading speeds.
Compiled the website with search engine updates so customers could reach the business with ease.
Gave visitors an easy user experience with call-to-actions based on UX/UI Design.

It was important to Victoria, and us, that the website functionality was really clear and easy to use so that customers can find exactly what they are looking for without having to delve too far.

SEO

Due to the outstanding competition it was crucial to optimise a strong SEO strategy in order to be found on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), especially in the market of large luxury houses.

Our results-driven search engine optimisation consisted of searching and identifying the right keywords to optimise the website and campaign for targeted traffic.

We continue to:

Review and optimise elements on the website, such as meta tags, URL structure and content.
Report on performance and alter our ongoing SEO Strategy to suit.
Create and publish content marketing articles on a monthly basis based on searched terms.
Create high quality, authoritative backlinks to the website from credible domains across popular blogs and directories.

Managed PPC Campaign

Once the website design was complete, we ran a managed PPC Campaign which resulted in triple the enquiries from two every few days, to 20 per day.

Implementing paid search provided:

More visibility and traffic (Yorkshire Escapes showed near the top of the SERP when potential customers were browsing)
Highly interested prospects (Paid search ads target specific queries so targeted customers already looking for a holiday homes in Yorkshire)
Detailed Google Analytics (Paid ads allowed us to see where potential customers were geographically located, what devices they were using, which pages they visited, how much time was spent on the site)

Paid search advertising was a valuable strategy to generate brand awareness, leads and sales, but when paired with optimised post-click landing pages, these ads reached their full potential.

"Infoserve has been amazing from start to finish. I couldn't recommend them enough. Before I started working with them I just had a couple of properties on my website. Fast forward 2 years and our business is flying with over 20 properties and we're now looking to expand nationwide!"

Victoria (Owner, Yorkshire Escapes)

Infoserve can offer you a FREE online website audit, which quickly and thoroughly checks your website quality, SEO strength, PPC, social media and listings presence.

You can run your business through our audit tool here: www.infoserve.com/digital-marketing-audit

If you are unhappy with your business's audit score, contact our friendly team who can help you improve your online presence.

The local finder vs. Google maps: How do they differ?

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 17:24:07 GMT

An online presence is critical for any business. Search engines play a crucial role when consumers are researching brands, products, and services they intend to purchase.

Since Google is the most popular search engine, with more than 86% of the market share, it’s essential your strategy capitalises on the value search engines can provide.

Infoserve exists to help ambitious businesses grow. So, we wanted to delve deeper into Google’s functions and what they have to offer you.

Google Local Finder is a subset of Google Search - it contains an extended listing of local businesses which appear when you click on the ‘ more places ’ link at the bottom of Google’s local pack.

These commonly include many Google My Business listings. Signing up to a ‘ Google My Business Account ’ is guaranteed to increase your credibility and allow you to show up on tools such as Google Maps and Google Local Finder.

What’s the difference?

Well, businesses' ranking on Google Local Finder can differ from their rankings on Google Maps despite the same search query being used.

What does this mean for my business?

This means that depending on how a customer searches for your brand or business, they may see completely different results.

Which is better for my business?

Study the results for your targeted search query on both Google Maps and Local Finder…

It is good to know the rankings (you and your competitors) for particular search queries.

Generally, Google Maps opens a broader net than Google Local Finder. So if you’re a brand that wants to rank beyond your location, this is something to consider.

It’s important to note, however, that while the radius is more expensive, your ranking could actually be lower as you’re competing with a more saturated market of other businesses.

A strategic marketing plan could help boost your ranking in these cases…

We can help you get listed, everywhere

We offer premium, rich listings across over 45 powerful publishers, all of your online reviews, managed all in one place, with our Listing Manager .

Our Advice

The best way to perform on both platforms is to offer as much business information as possible to Google My Business.

As Google is constantly rearranging content, so, rather than worrying which you will appear on best, just feed Google with as many details as you can give. This gives users the opportunity to obtain as much information about you as possible.

Nevertheless, be sure your website is optimised for the keywords you want to rank for. You can also boost your ranking by earning publicity through third-party websites that Google references as your listings.

Why is my business not listed on Google maps?

Once you’ve created a Google My Business listing for your business it should appeal in the Google Maps section of search.

If this isn’t happening, it could be because:

Your Google My Business listing is not verified
You lack location authority on Google Maps
Your GMB listing is suspended
You’ve relocated your business

Google My Business listing not verified?

Google Business Profile Help will be able to help you resolve this!

Lack authority on Google Maps?

Location authority means the higher your listing will rank in Google local search results.

To improve your ranking you need to ensure all information about your business is correct, such as:

Business name (inc. spelling)
Business address
Contact information

Google My Business listing suspended?

There are several reasons why your Google My Business listing could be suspended, there are:

The information on your listing has changed and Google is still verifying it.

Google is questioning the location of your business (they may request a picture for proof).
You used a forwarding URL in your listing.
You used a virtual office location, i.e. a P.O.Box
You don’t have a physical business location.

Have you relocated your business?

It is essential you update your address on Google My Business. If Google picks up you’ve moved without updating your information, you could end up getting suspended.

Not sure how your business listing is performing?

Check your Business Listing presence today for FREE!

Why your website headings are very important for readability and SEO!

graeme.buckley@infoserve.com (Graeme Buckley) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:28:05 GMT

What are website ‘headings’?

Good question! There are a lot of terms thrown around with websites; headings, headers, titles, descriptions, tags, elements...the list goes on!

Headings are titles above sections of content that reflect the overall subject of that particular section.

Headings are considered very important for website readability, design and SEO.

Generally, you will see a large heading on the first part of the website, and also headings used as titles in the main sections of content.

For example, these are Infoserve’s website headings…

Main heading - "3-in-1 web design"

Secondary headings

Footer headings

Are headings important for SEO?

Yes. Correct and proper use of headings can boost your SEO.

Please follow our guide below to make sure you are using headings correctly.

Where should you use headings?

Headings should be used throughout your web pages; in the header, the main content area and the footer.

Whenever there is a new section of content, it should start with a heading.

Here is a screenshot of one of our customers websites with their headings highlighted. As you can see, each heading is a title to the proceeding content…

Are there different types of website headings?

Yes, there are 6 different types of headings and they have a hierarchy, so a webpage should use headings from H1 down to H6, in descending order.

H1 - use once

H2 - use sparingly

H3 - can be used repeatedly

H4 - can be used repeatedly

H5 - can be used repeatedly

H6 - can be used repeatedly

What headings should you use on web pages?

For best practise, you should only use the H1 heading once, as your main page title. H2’s can be used as secondary titles, or taglines. H3’s will act as all of your main content headings. H4’s can be the sub headings in the content. H5’s and H6’s can be used as headings in your website footer.

With the website example above, you can see the headings used on this website follow the correct hierarchical use of headings, from H1 down to H4.

How to create headings on web pages

Depending on which content management platform your website lies on, it will be a different method of how to apply headings to your content.

Infoserve’s website editor easily allows you to alter and set headings…

What text should you use in your headings?

On each page, the first and most important heading - the H1, needs to sit at the top of your website and reflect the main content of the page.

On the homepage, the H1 needs to include the main category of your business. Here is a good example of H1 use...

H2 headings can be used as secondary sub-titles, or sub headings.

H3 headings can be used repeatedly in the main content areas as titles to the proceeding content.

H4 headings can be used repeatedly in the main content areas as secondary subheadings in the main content.

H5 and H6 headings can be used as titles in your website footer.

Tips for creating effective headings

✓ TIP: Make sure your H1 is the same or similar to that pages title tag. If you are unsure about title tags, read our blog about title tag optimisation .

✓ TIP: Use your business keyword and location in your headings, and make sure each heading is related to the content that follows it.

✓ TIP: If you are unsure what to write in your title tag and H1 heading, why not match or base them off your main category in Google My Business, this can really help your rankings.

✓ TIP: Do not stuff your headings full of keywords and locations! It has to read correctly for visitors and Google.

How to check a websites headings are used effectively

Run the website through our free digital marketing audit tool .

Our marketing tool acts as a website audit and SEO audi t platform and can show you how the website headings are scoring.

If our audit is picking up issues with your website headings , contact our friendly team and we can help you.

Or, check out our websites and SEO product pages

Case Study: How we’ve helped Wise Bartender gain 187% ROI

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 14:26:59 GMT

How Infoserve helped Wise Bartender gain 187% ROI

Wise Bartender is an independent, growing family business that launched in 2017. Nestled in the heart of Somerset, their aim is simple; to make alcohol-free drinks as accessible as possible.

The smart choice for alcohol-free, Wise Bartender successfully sells a variety of high quality, alcohol-free alternatives to wines, beers, ciders and spirits, as well as providing a broad collection of beverages that satisfy a number of dietary requirements.

While their business was successful, they wanted to get a better return from their Google Shopping Campaign and approached Infoserve with a goal of growing their existing audience to the next level.

We did this, and more...

After beneficial results, Wise Bartender soon extended with us to manage thier Microsoft Shopping, Facebook and Instagram.

Over a period of 1.5 years, in which the client has been with us, what started as £250 spent on 1 PPC product has advanced into a £3k split over 4 different product platforms.

Overall, investing £18,440 in their campaigns has recieved a return of £37,510!

Spectacular Results

£37.5k
Revenue in the last year

Defying predicted results during a golbal pandemic

187%
Return on investment

Helping Wise Bartender to rapidly grow their sales

10.39%
E-Commerce conv. rate

Almost 9x the Google average (1.19%) for Shopping

£37.5k
Revenue in the last year

Defying predicted results during a golbal pandemic

187%
Return on investment

Helping Wise Bartender to rapidly grow their sales

10.39%
E-Commerce conv. rate

Almost 9x the Google average (1.19%) for Shopping

"Over the last two years, Infoserve has utilised their wide range of professional services to significantly grow my business online."

Tom (Owner, Wise Bartender)

Infoserve’s Role

PPC Campaigns

We are Yorkshire's only Google Premier Partner and Microsoft Elite Partner. The highest level of partnership, earned by high-performance PPC campaign management.

During the Covid-19 pandemic many people were turning to online shopping. Nonetheless, that didn’t mean we just sat back and let sales increase naturally, we used the boost in online visitors to our advantage. During this crucial time, we increased budgets and covered all bases when it came to paid ad campaigns, to make sure our client was getting noticed above the rest of the noise and competition.

How...

Delivered content by location, device and user preference for an effective personalised experience for the user.
Provided every customer with a unified voice and clear brand identity.
Created unique and engaging experiences for the customer journey.
Launched campaigns that capitalised on trends with efficient workflows and content tools.

Results...

Highly segmented insights for daily campaign deep dives.
More visibility and brand awareness.
Highly interested prospects.

Our managed PPC finds the best-converting traffic and lowest cost-per-click in real-time, from Google and Bing.

We provide results that outperform the industry average and we didn’t fall short when it came to Wise Bartender.

SEO

Our SEO team worked on a range of relevant keywords for Wise Bartender and carried out various on-site and off-site tasks to help bring the average of their rankings from page 6 to page 1 of Google.

For example, Wise Bartenders main keywords of 'alcohol free drinks', 'alcohol free beer', 'alcohol free cider', 'non alcoholic beer' and 'non alcoholic spirits' are all now on page 1 of Google.

Social Media

All of our social media marketing includes audience targeting, professional ad creation with flair, and budget optimisation. As a Facebook partner, our team of experts are trained by Facebook themselves.

Facebook

Wise Bartender already utilised a product catalogue on Facebook for use in their organic social strategy. Their goal, however, was to use this catalogue to generate more business.

After various a/b tests, we discovered in order to sensibly scale the campaign, we had to attack different parts of the funnel, focussing on high and mid-funnel campaigns, alongside retargeting lost sales.

Following a well structured plan and a goal in mind, the campaign yielded returns of more than £20,000!

How...

Reached their exact market by specifically advertising to people based on age, interests, behaviour and location.
Achieved immediate results.
Increased brand awareness by making people aware of what Wise Bartender had to offer.
Boosted website traffic with a website click campaign targeting their audience.
Increased customer attribution.
Broke into new markets with increased exposure.
Rivaled competition effectively.
Appealed to the (very large) mobile audience.

SEO: The basics you need to know

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:19:11 GMT

What is SEO?

SEO stands for S earch E ngine O ptimisation.

It’s a set of practices which improve the positioning and appearance of web pages on the SERP ( S earch E ngine R esult P age). As people are searching everyday, organic search is a prominent way for people to discover online content. This means a good SEO strategy is essential if you’re wanting to improve both the quantity and quality of traffic to your website.

Why is SEO important for businesses?

Let’s break this down into three easy parts:

Organic search results

Organic search results are the unpaid search engine results that the search engine has decided are the most relevant to the user’s query.

Paid ads (PPC - Pay-Per-Click ads) will appear first with ‘ Ad’ , then organic results will follow.

The positioning of these ads is based on the search engine’s organic ranking algorithms not advertised bids. Basically, you can’t pay for your page to rank higher in organic search results.

Quality of organic traffic

How relevant the user and their search query are to the content on your website is important.

You could have all the visitors in the universe but if they’re leaving your site without conversions, you’re not offering what they are looking for.

High-quality traffic is visitors who are genuinely interested in your products and resources. Quality SEO capitalises on the search engine’s efforts to match user’s intent with the web pages listed when they search.

Quantity of organic traffic

Users are more likely to click on search results at the top of the SERP, rather than scrolling through pages of results. Your SEO strategy can help you rank relevant pages as high as possible. The more quality visitors you attract to your site the more likely you are to see an increase in valuable conversions.

Our SEO agency team, here at Infoserve Leeds , has the experience, data and insights to get your business found organically on search engines. Take a look at what's included each month with our comprehensive search engine optimisation service.

How does SEO work?

Search engines such as Google and Bing use ‘crawlers’ (sometimes called bots or spiders) to gather information about the content you post.

When a user speaks or types a query into a search engine, it uses algorithms to push what it thinks is the most accurate and useful information to the top of the search.

Organic results can include:

Web pages of text
News articles
Blogs
Images
Videos
Local business listings

There are a lot of factors that determine the search engines algorithms. These factors are evolving all the time to keep up to date with changing user behaviour and advances in machine learning.

Here is what they look for:

Domain-Level Link Features
Page-Level Link Features
Page-Level Keyword and Content-Based Features
Page-Level Agnostic Features
Engagement and Traffic/Query Data
Domain-Level Brand Metrics
Domain-Level Keyword Usage
Domain-Level Keyword-Agnostic Features
Page-Level Social Metrics

As a Google Partner, we know some of these terms may sound complex. If you’ve got any questions about implementation then please contact us on 0800 089 0879 , and one of our SEO experts will be sure to help you understand these ranking factors.

We can help you implement search marketing strategies that include a balance of technical, on-page and off-page best practices while prioritising your user experience.

How to improve SEO

1/ Create relevant content

One of the best ways to develop your SEO strategy is to develop interesting, trustworthy content that will guide searchers to your site.

If you don’t have a blog already then you should consider integrating one. WordPress is a great free content management system which is really easy to set up.

Then you need to post articles that offer valuable advice, expertise or insights that will draw new users in who are searching for specific search queries.

In your blog you need to include images and links to relevant pages within your own site and other high quality sites. This tells Google your information is well researched and authoritative.

✓ Top tip: Be conversational, tell interesting stories and engage your audience.

2/ Use the right keywords

When creating content for your website or blog be sure to naturally incorporate keywords that will help you rank in search engines. Basically, words and phrases that your customers are specifically searching for.

Use these as headings across your site and content, as well as in your titles and metadata.

If you would to read more about website headings, please read our blog about optimising website headings for SEO .

What are the best SEO tools for this?

Ahrefs and SE Ranking are both great SEO keyword tools to check search volumes and difficulty rankings of particular keywords.

3/ Optimise your titles and meta data

Each page should have it’s own unique optimised elements including titles and meta descriptions.

A free WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO should make editing these much easier.

Infoserve has seperate blogs about optimising title tags and writing concise meta descriptions .

4/ Use static simple URLs

Always opt for a static URL (www.infoserve.com/blog/seo-content) over dynamic URLs (www.infoserve.com/blog/?id=1234) to ensure they are easily read and don’t become broken when linked to.

The best way to do this is keep it as simple as possible.

Ask yourself, could I predict the content of this page just from the URL alone?

If you want to learn more about URLs, please read our blog about the correct use of website URLs .

✓ Top tip: Separate words with hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_).

5/ Create a simple site structure

A simple, logical easy-to-navigate structure will make it easier for your search engine to crawl and index your page. Plus, it will make it easier for visitors to navigate your content and find the pages they are looking for.

Create a hierarchy with main categories and subcategories.

How to drive traffic to your website

While improving your SEO may seem like a huge challenge, many of the basic tasks we have explored today can be implemented straight away.

By thinking about your website optimisation before you create new pages and content, auditing existing content and planning a website redesign you can get ahead of the competition and get your business crawling up that search engine.

Need some advice?

Get a FREE website & SEO healthcheck in 60 seconds! Is your online presence in good order?

graeme.buckley@infoserve.com (Graeme Buckley) — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 14:10:58 GMT

How well is your website built? How does it measure up for Search Engine Optimisation? What is the health of your company's online presence?

In this day and age of digital solutions for business, it is easy to get overwhelmed with how many platforms you need to keep on top of to make sure your website, SEO and online presence is in good working order.

A business owner must make sure the following key factors are properly addressed when making sure their online presence is inline with today's fast moving digital marketing landscape…

Website

Every business needs to have a neat, fast, eye-catching website, properly built to convert visitors into customers. Do you have a website? If so, is your website doing it’s job correctly?

SEO

Your website also needs to be in good shape for todays search engines. To be found online locally, your website needs to be optimised to target your local or national audience. Is your website optimised for search engines?

Google My Business

Even though a Google My Business listing is free, it is still a very powerful tool that allows you to alter how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. Is your Google business listing claimed? Is it optimised?

Social Media

Is your social media presence strong? Does it entice new customers and keep existing customers up to date with your services and offers?

PPC

Are you utilising paid adverts to drive relevant traffic to your website?

Listings

Is your business listed on the major directories online to get you found on maps and search?

These are some of the most important questions you should be asking yourself if you want to fully take advantage of the digital marketplace.

Infoserve has a very powerful audit tool to give you answers to these questions in 60 seconds .

We know every business owners life is hectic, however it is important to give your business that ever important healthcheck!

Infoserve can offer you a FREE online website audit, which quickly and thoroughly checks your website quality, SEO strength, PPC, social media and listings presence.

You can run your business through our audit tool here: www.infoserve.com/digital-marketing-audit

If you are unhappy with your business's audit score, contact our friendly team who can help you improve your online presence.

What is a URL? What is a 301 redirect? How do they fit into SEO?

graeme.buckley@infoserve.com (Graeme Buckley) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 08:17:01 GMT

Have you heard of a Uniform Resource Locator, or a 301 redirect before?

Maybe not, we don’t blame you!

URL stands for U niform R esource L ocator and it is basically a web address, that's it!

For example, this blogs URL is: https://www.infoserve.com/what-is-a-url-what-is-a-301-redirect-how-do-they-fit-into-seo

Infoserve’s SEO product URL is https://www.infoserve.com/search-engine-optimisation - which indicates a protocol (https), a hostname (www.infoserve.com), and a page name (search-engine-optimisation).

How are URL’s created?

Website URL’s are created when one builds a new website page and are easily set in a content management systems such as Wordpress.

If you are lucky enough to have an Infoserve website , URL’s are automatically set in the website editor and can easily be edited at anytime…

What makes for an effective URL?

As previously discussed in our title tag and meta descriptions blogs, each page should be treated as its own website and properly indicate what the actual webpage is about. The same goes for URL’s - creating webpages with obvious and simple URL’s will help your SEO and also the customer journey - so people know where they are on your website.

For example, if you are an accountant and creating a bookkeeping page on your website www.abc-accountacts.co.uk, then the obvious URL will be www.abc-accountacts.co.uk/bookkeeping

What are poor URLs?

Sometimes you will come across a website which has pages such as…

www.abc-accountacts.co.uk/service1

www.abc-accountacts.co.uk/dufuefwu_341

www.abc-accountacts.co.uk/untitled

These are not good for SEO as Google reads your URL’s as part of it’s scan of your website, so make sure your URL’s are simple and related to what is on that page.

URL’s and Local SEO

How can you make your URL’s work for your SEO?

✓ A quick tip is to include your location in the URL: www.abc-accountacts.co.uk/bookkeeping-leeds

You don’t need to do this on every page, just your actual services pages.

This action can help Google see that you offer ‘that service’ in ‘this area.’

x Do not cram more locations into the URL

x Do not use underscores _

x Do not make the URL too long

What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect is used on a website as a response code for a permanently moved or deleted page.

Think of a 301 redirect as a Royal Mail forwarding address once you move home. Mail getting sent to your old address will now get diverted to your new address.

If you delete a web page, or rename it, then setting up a 301 redirect from the old page to the new page is important for the following reasons…

Traffic - People going to your old webpage will automatically be redirected to your new webpage.
Maintains your sitemap - Makes sure you have no broken links on your website.
SEO - Your webpages will build up SEO weight over the years, and adding a 301 redirect maintains this. Without one, it’s like starting again.
Google - your old page address will be kept on Google’s search results for a while, so having a 301 redirect will make sure people coming from Google land on the right page.

How do you setup a 301 redirect if making a new page/altering a current pages URL?

This all depends on what platform your website is built on.

Unfortunately, some older content management systems don’t allow you to update your URL and install 301’s easily, or at all.

However, modern platforms like Wordpress have 301 plugins which easily allow you to setup new 301 redirects.

Infoserve websites automatically setup 301 redirects for you when you change a webpage URL and you have full control over them, so you don’t have to worry.

If you have any questions, contact our friendly team and we can advise you how we can help you improve your URL's or install 301 redirects.

Or check out our websites and SEO product pages.

Case Study: How we generated 3,000 enquiries in 12 months for Inglis Vets

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 12:34:42 GMT

How we generated 3,000 enquiries in 12 months for Inglis Vets

As an established Digital Marketing Agency, over the last 20 years we have worked with several veterinary clinics across the UK. We know the marketing strategies to put in place when turning website visitors into new customers.

At Infoserve , we care about you and your business, and treat it as if it was our own.

We’re obsessed and driven by results .

Let’s take a look at what we achieved with working with Inglis Vets:

Conversion rate of 18%

For every 100 website visitors 18 people now enquire - this figure beats Google’s benchmark by over 500% !

(Google benchmarking reports use anonymous data from other websites so you can see how well your marketing is performing against the aggregated data of others).

Working with a Google and Microsoft Certified Partner , like us, means you’ll get quality customer service, professional strategy and see a return on your investment.

Over 250 calls a month

Inglis Vets now receives an average of 250 calls per month, with their best month receiving 412 calls - now that’s a lot of pets!

Over 30,000 website visitors

Through Infoserve Marketing our specialist product teams worked together as one to drive over 30,000 website visitors to Inglis Vets.

How?

Let’s take a look…

Web Design

We design to generate more customers, for Inglis Vets we:

Used Google Analytics to discover how customers were interacting with the website.
Redesigned the website to be more responsive to customer needs with an easy to navigate and attractive design.
Added on-site SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure the site was visible to local customers on the SERP (Google Search).
Ensured the website was accessible on any device.
Streamlined the site with ultra-fast loading speeds.
Compiled the website with search engine updates so customers could reach the business with ease.
Gave visitors an easy user experience with simple, but effective, call to actions.
Worked and guided Inglis Vets to establish a clear brand story and design.

Search Ads

While SEO is great for bringing in organic traffic, it can take a little time to provide the best results. To speed up the process we also focused part of our digital strategy towards paid search ads.

Paid search advertising is one of the most popular forms of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising .

Implementing paid search provided:

More visibility (Pet owners finding the clinic through a simple Google search)
More traffic (Inglis Vets showed near the top of the SERP when potential customers were browsing)
Highly interested prospects (Paid search ads target specific queries so targeted customers already looking for a veterinary clinic)
Detailed analytics (Paid ads allowed us to see where potential customers were geographically located, what devices they were using, which pages they visited, how much time was spent on the site)

Paid search advertising can be a valuable strategy to generate brand awareness, leads and sales. Well put together professional targeted ads increase the effectiveness of your advertising efforts, but when paired with optimised post-click landing pages, they reach their full potential.

Facebook Ads

Did you know the 45 million social media users in the UK spend an average of 3 hours a day on social media ?

Every business needs to build their brand awareness with Facebook ads.

For Inglis Vets, Facebook ads allowed us to:

Reach their exact market by specifically advertising to people based on age, interests, behaviour and location.
Achieve immediate results as Facebook ads can reach thousands of people per day.
Increase brand awareness by making people aware of what Inglis Vets had to offer.
Boost website traffic with a website click campaign targeting their audience.
Increase customer attribution (The amount of times their audience sees their brand).
Break into new markets with increased exposure.
Rival competition effectively.
Appeal to the (very large) mobile audience.

Instagram Ads

Instagram ads allow you to reach out to your perfect customer.

Inglis Vets benefited from Instagram through:

Increased traffic (Call-to-action links within posts drove customers to their website).
Increased visibility (Instagram ads ensured potential customers saw their posts).

Increased brand awareness (Adverts appeared in the newsfeed of their target audience).

Need help getting noticed?

Contact our friendly digital marketing experts who are best at what they do, at an affordable price.

0800 089 0879

Meta Descriptions - What are they and do they have any impact on SEO?

graeme.buckley@infoserve.com (Graeme Buckley) — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:59:42 GMT

What are meta descriptions?

Meta descriptions provide quick explanations of the contents of a web page and are HTML tags, and just like title tags , they appear on every webpage.

Here is Infoserve.com’s homepage meta description…

While not essential for any website, meta descriptions have been used by web designers for years to describe the content of that specific webpage.

Furthermore, meta descriptions can display under your website in Google’s search results. Therefore, well written meta descriptions are extremely important in gaining user click-through from Google, as these short paragraphs are your chance to advertise your content to searchers and let them know exactly what the given page contains. For example here…

However, it not 100% certain that Google will use your meta description on it’s results page, and like with title tags, if they are not done or are poor, Google will use it’s own.

Do meta descriptions have any impact on SEO?

Well, not directly.

U nfortunately, years ago, people used to spam their meta descriptions and keywords fields with the hope of it improving their rankings. Like any underhanded practise, Google picked up on this and disavowed any SEO impact for the meta description field, but they are still used on the search results pages.

T herefore, since meta descriptions show in the search engine results, they can affect CTRs (click through rates), which are linked to SEO & rankings. So, in theory, meta descriptions might have an impact on SEO and are generally always looked at on online website and SEO audits.

I nfoserve have always made it their practise to write meta descriptions for every website we build and for any SEO project started.

How do you write meta descriptions?

In the early days of website design, you had to write the meta description directly into the document, however these days most websites are built on a content management system, such as Wordress or similar to our Gravity sites, which easily allow one to add and edit meta descriptions.

Tips for writing effective meta descriptions

Here are some handy tips for writing concise meta descriptions.

Keep the meta description under 150-160 characters, Google will cut off the rest.

Make each meta description unique to that page.

Include your pages keyword amongst the description.

Treat each page as it’s own website, explain what is on ‘that’ page.

Make your meta descriptions readable, not a list.

How to check on a websites meta descriptions

Run the website through our free digital marketing audit tool .

Our marketing tool acts as a website audit and SEO audit platform and can show you how the meta descriptions are scoring.

If our audit is picking up issues with your meta descriptions , contact our friendly team and we can advise you how we can help you.

Or check out our websites and SEO product pages.

The SEO power of properly formatted Title Tags

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 14:40:42 GMT

Does your website have optimal title tags?

What are title tags? How do they work? Do they have any impact on SEO?

What are title tags?

Webpage title tags define the content of a particular online page. They sit at the top of a webpage document, inbetween the <title> tags and are displayed in the top window of any website browser.

This is Infoserve's title tag...

This how Infoserve's title tag looks in a browser...

Google uses the page titles in its SERPs (search engine results page)...

Google sometimes reworks a websites page titles for display purposes.

Why are title tags important?

Writing page titles is very important and should always be done, on any website. Here are the reasons why...

1/ The title tag tells Google what the page is about and defines the content of the page. Correct use of page titles, alongside relevant content, headings and images helps Google see what your page is aimed at.

2/ On social platforms, when people share a link to your website, the page title is used as a preview of that website, so it needs to be accurate.

How do you write title tags?

In the early days of website design, you had to write the HTML title tags directly into the document, however these days you will probably have a website built on a content management system, such as Wordress or an online website builder, such as Infoserve's web builder. Most modern day content management systems will easily allow you to add and edit title tags.

Do title tags really have an effect on SEO?

Definitely! With our SEO package, title tags are one of the first things Infoserve look at on a website.

One of our clients came to us and asked us to help them with their rankings and we discovered the company's title tags were not optimised for their keywords. After we rewrote their main pages title tags, the website started to rank better for their keywords...

Tips for writing effective title tags

Here are some handy tips for writing effective title tags which will help your SEO and social sharing.

Imagine you are Google, or a website visitor on your webpage - what is this page about? How do you communicate to them what the page is about? The first thing to do is write obvious and simple title tags. For example, if you are an accountants based in Leeds, your title tag should be something like "Accountant | Leeds | ABC Accounting"

Keep your title tags short, making them long will not help. Google search results only display between 55-60 characters of the page title tag.

Do not stuff your title tag with keywords and locations. As described in the point above, keep the length short and do not overly spam the title tag.

If you are unsure what your title tag needs to be, check your Google My Business account, if this is setup correctly, you can use the main category and location from GMB for your title tag. This will count as a good SEO move.

Treat each page as its own website, make sure each page title directtly relates to what is on that individual page.

Follow this format "Service | Location | Company Name"

Are your website title tags optimised?

If you have followed our advice above, you should be on the right track. However, why not run your website through our free digital marketing audit tool ?

Our marketing tool acts as a website audit and SEO audit platform and can show you how your title tags are scoring.

If our audit is picking up issues with your title tags, contact our friendly team and we can advise you how we can help you improve your title tags. Or check out our websites and SEO product pages.

How to Measure & Improve Website Engagement

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:44:27 GMT

Here at Infoserve , we’re going to be exploring a question that many people have when it comes to their website, and that is how do you actually measure website engagement?

Perhaps you’re wondering this as you consider: is your website actually meeting your goals?

Rather than shooting in the dark with guess work, there is a lot you can gain from a basic setup in Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to measure your website engagement.

How to measure website engagement

First we’ll address the ways to measure, then we will discover how you can improve these levels of engagement.

How to track CTA’s on my website

You may sprinkle your website with CTA’s (Call-to-actions such as call now), but you don’t know if anyone is actually looking at them. While page views are important, they tell you nothing, a page view could mean someone has opened up your page but not taken in any of your information. It could also mean they’ve seen information, but not done anything important with it.

What you can do in Google Tag Manager is create an element called a visibility trigger.

A visibility trigger is basically what it sounds like, in Google Tag Manager you can set up a visibility tracker so everytime the CTA is visible to a user, it is recorded.

You can also add these to website forms, where views are only recorded when a visitor clicks a button. This gives you a much better indication of how many people are actually viewing the form and how many are actually filling it in.

This can help you discover some good user behaviour decisions in regards to your website.

How to track website forms

Forms have been playing a vital role on websites for some time now, and they continue to do so.

Again, in Google Tag Manager there is a piece of JavaScript which allows you to run a record of how and when people fill out forms. Did they click into it, did they skip fields or did they fill it out in full.

This can be particularly useful when you’re wondering if you’ve got too many, or too little fields in the form. It also gives you a good indication of how inviting the form is to fill in.

How to track visitors on my website

Google Analytics is a great all-round tool which gives you a wide variety of visitor tracking data collected from your website. It can be used with all Google sites and you will have to enable it with an analytics account ID.

You can track visitors by including a tracking code right after the HTML document. If this looks, or sounds too difficult, don’t worry we understand, you can use some WordPress plugins that automatically add this piece of code to your website, or you can contact us, here at Infoserve , and we will set this up for you or offer advice.

Google Analytics provides a range of solid features; Real-time visitor tracking, ECommerce tracking, Conversions tracking and more.

You can watch your site in real-time and check the impact of your promotional content right from the analytics dashboard.

Google Analytics offers both a paid and free version. The free version will work for you if you own a small business as it includes all the basic tracking features.

Why do you need visitor tracking tools?

There are several reasons visitor tracking rolls are recommended. Making use of the right tracking rolls can optimise your marketing and content strategies and help you gain a better understanding of your target audiences preferences.

The data you want to track and corresponding tools will depend on your business purpose and goals. Tracking can range from visitor counts to advanced analytical packages that provide much deeper insights.

Tracking benefits

Helps perform better website analytics.
Helps you identify popular/engaging content on your website.
Provides information on which social media posts or ads are driving traffic to your website.
Allows you to identify the products and pages with the highest views so you can easily track down and improve your under performing pages.
Shows you live visitor count data.

How to increase website conversion

Okay, so you’ve set up your tracking metrics and you’re not creating as many conversions as you’d like.

Now what?

First of all, ask yourself this question...

Is my website mobile friendly?

Optimising your website for mobile is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your online presence isn’t being overlooked.

Mobile users make up more than half the global audience, so if you’re not targeting mobile traffic by ensuring your website is optimised for smartphone screens, we suggest that’s a good place to start.

Here are some simple steps to make sure your website is mobile-friendly:

Create an appropriate template
Keep images and videos high quality but small
Design with responsive web design in mind
Remove navigation links that aren’t necessary
Make it easy to download content
Create an appropriate template that works on any device.

Add live chat support

Customers want to communicate with businesses just as easily as they do their friends and family.

Adding a live chat support means no waiting lines, no need to pick up the phone and is a great way of holding onto potential customers.

Create a sense of urgency

You run out of milk, the supermarket is closing in 15 minutes. You pick up your purse or wallet and you head straight out the door.

A sense of urgency makes people move and act faster.

There’s no reason you can’t do this online too.

Incorporating offers, discounts, special services with time limits make quicker buying decisions.

Improve your CTA’s

Customers rarely take action unless they're pushed, or encouraged into it. That’s why it’s essential to get your CTA’s just right.

Your customers, as much as you’d like, can’t read your mind. You have to clearly invite them on that journey with you or they won’t. Simple.

Additionally, adding once CTA won’t do the trick you need to add them all around your site in easy to notice places. You will also want to consider colours and design.

But, that’s where people like us, here at Infoserve , come in...

Add a pop-up email capture

Pop up email capture tools are a fabulous way to gather new leads, as well as maintain existing ones. They can be added anywhere on the website - homepage to product or service pages.

If you’re worried about disrupting the user experience, don’t. When done properly they are a great way to build your customer database.

Done wrong, well visitors won’t hesitate to leave your website.

Consider these key takeaways

Adding a pop-up when a visitor is about to exit your site.
Sliding in a request once your visitor scrolls down the page.
Displaying a sticky bar that stays on the screen and scrolls with the page.

Remove all distractions

If your website isn’t converting it’s likely the user is struggling to focus.

If a website feels cluttered, confusing or filled with too much content, the user will feel overwhelmed. People prefer clean, simple sites that let them navigate and evaluate quickly and easily.

A few tips:

Make sure your navigation is minimalistic.
Avoid using too many colours.
Ensure colours used are consistent with your brand.
Don’t use too many moving graphics.
Don’t over advertise with flashing ads.
Make sure content is clear, concise with headings, subheadings, benefits and features.
Add testimonials and reviews so customers can quickly resonate.
Use simple branded visuals.

Now you’re ready to start converting those hesitant visitors into eager paying customers…

If you need help with any of the elements covered above, here at Infoserve , we offer website design by our in-house agency team in Leeds, which includes conversion rate optimisation (CRO) to turn visitors into enquiries.

0800 089 0879

Case Study: How Cook House Art Gallery saw a £20k return in one month

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 23:37:15 GMT

How Cook House Art Gallery saw a £20k return in one month

Many businesses can relate the pressure and strain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges put in place by subsequent lockdowns.

Cook House , a contemporary British art and crafts shop, specialising in original paintings and prints of the Lake District, like others, had to close their gallery for extended periods of time, making them well aware that it was time to generate income through their website.

Cook House joined Infoserve at the start of the first Covid lockdown, as the gallery closed. At Infoserve we are a market leader in digital marketing and web design for Art Dealers. Boasting over 20 years experience and unique partnerships with Google and Microsoft, our in-house team knew exactly how to put a robust marketing strategy in place in order to get Cook House noticed online.

We had some spectacular results...

200% return on ad spend in the last 3 months

Defying predicted results during a global pandemic

10.72% click-through-rate for PPC

Beating the U.K average CTR by an incredible 8% more

£20k return in one month from a £700 spend

Truly market-leading results, almost 9x the Google average

"Infoserve's advertising has raised our profile to both existing and new customers, which has been key in helping our family business continue while our stores were closed during lockdown." Rachel Sudders (Owner)

How did we do it?

Let’s take a look…

Smart Ads Campaigns

We used a smart ads solution to generate sales, through Google, Microsoft and Facebook ads.

By implementing Smart Ads Campaigns for House Cook, we:

Delivered content by location, device and user preference for an effective personalised experience for the user.
Provided every customer with a unified voice and clear brand identity.
Created unique and engaging experiences for the customer journey.
Launched campaigns that capitalised on trends with efficient workflows and content tools.

This resulted in:

Highly segmented insights for daily campaign deep dives.
More visibility and brand awareness.
Highly interested prospects (Paid search ads target specific queries so targeted customers already looking for art).
Detailed analytics (Paid ads allowed us to see where potential customers were geographically located, what devices they were using, which pages they visited, how much time was spent on the site).

During the Covid pandemic many people were turning to online shopping. However, that didn’t mean we just sat back and let sales increase naturally, we used the boost in online visitors to our advantage. During this crucial time, we increased budgets and covered all bases when it came to paid ad campaigns, to make sure our client was getting noticed above the rest of the noise and competition.

Our managed PPC, here at Infoserve , finds the best-converting traffic and lowest cost-per-click in real-time, from Google and Bing. Results that outperform the industry average.

Need help getting noticed?

Contact our friendly digital marketing experts who are best at what they do, at an affordable price.

0800 089 0879

Alexa, how do I optimise for voice search?

Thu, 20 May 2021 11:27:43 GMT

The most notable shift that has occurred in the last 10 years is the universal adoption of online search as a means of finding business information. In fact, the average digital user spends twice as long online, and 10x longer on their mobile phone than they did.

While this comes as no surprise, voice search is poised to change search once again. It is already a necessary feature in modern cars and has made its way into homes through the increasing popularity of smart home devices. In fact, over 49% of Google Home and Amazon Echo users find them a necessity.

We now see people speaking into their watches, interacting and getting voice responses to their phones. Let’s face it the allure of voice chat, for many is undeniable - it’s faster, it’s hands-free and you can still multitask.

What is voice search?

Voice search occurs when a user utters a query or command to a virtual assistant on a device. The assistant recognises the voice command or query, analyses the user intent, and provides a response to that query from search engine results.

The latest data on voice search from Google states that 20% of all mobile searches were conducted through voice. As Google has around 90% of the mobile search market share in the US, data straight from Google is our best indication of where mobile voice search is heading.

When a consumer utters a command like, “OK Google/Hey Siri/Alexa, find the best hairdresser in my area,” the accuracy of business information, across certain key directories, will determine whether a business is recommended in search results.

As voice search evolves from voice recognition to voice understanding, Google is one step closer to its aim to transform voice search into “an ultimate mobile assistant that helps with your everyday life so that you can focus on the things that matter. ”

Conversation and context

Context and conversational search are now essential as voice search continues to grow in popularity.

Marketers must thoughtfully incorporate a voice search strategy into their websites in order to ‘double down’ on excellent content.

It requires the understanding of two people :

People who type a query
People who ask questions into a voice search

The ‘ typer ’ might be okay with conducting research while the ‘ talker ’ will typically want instant quick results.

The trick is to appeal to both of these groups.

How to make content more discoverable for voice search

1/ Understand your type of customer and device behaviour

Marketers must dig deeper into understanding the consumer and their behaviour. Research and real-time data can help you understand how different people use voice search and the types of devices they are using.

2/ Use conversational keywords

Short tail keywords are never going to disappear, but it’s important to consider more conversational long-tail keywords. It’s likely the way people will be more descriptive with their search query over voice search, as they would typing into a Google search engine.

3/ Create compelling persona-based content

Context and relevance are essential when optimising for voice search.

As well as your existing SEO strategy, you need to think about:

Creating detailed answers to commonly asked questions
Answering questions very clearly and concisely

The best way to do this is:

Create content with a commonly asked question as a clear headline
Add a short concise answer immediately underneath
Elaborate after with further detail

This way you’re more likely to appeal to Google’s ranking algorithm for both users. The short information you’ve displayed might even become a featured snippet. Win win!

4/ Provide context with Schema Markup

It’s important you get your head around Schema Markup, if you haven’t already.

Schema can help you mark up your content and tell search engines what your site’s about.

Schema is a HTML add-on that helps search engines understand the context of your content, which means you rank better in searches and can be found easier through specific queries made through voice search.

5/ Incorporate FAQs in your content

Voice searchers are likely to start their query with ‘ Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’ , ‘When ’ and ‘ How’ .

This means they are looking for answers that fulfill an immediate need.

Ensure your FAQ page begins each question with these adverbs, then answer them conversationally to appeal to voice searchers.

6/ Optimise for mobile and local searches

It’s essential you think about mobile working hand in hand with local search, especially when it comes to voice search.

When people are out and about in the local area, it’s likely they will perform on-the-go local searches.

This is where you need to ensure directions to your shops and XML sitemaps are readable to both visitors and search engines, while optimising “ near me ” searches on mobile.

Voice search is clearly on the rise, so appealing to both types of searches is crucial if you want a take-all search result

If you’d like advice to reach the right users, boost traffic, or improve your SEO strategy, Call us today for a FREE Marketing Review, here at Infoserve .

0800 089 0879

Is your brand logo doing it’s job?

Wed, 05 May 2021 09:54:33 GMT

A brand logo can be described as the face of the company, and is often the first thing that a potential customer will notice about your business. It’s more than just an image, or title, it’s a point of recognition for clients, and an essential foundation of branding for your company. Ultimately, it sculps your entire brand architecture.

All too often, small businesses miss the mark with their branding, not feeling the need for a logo, or not feeling developed as a business to really delve into their brand image. It’s important to highlight that a well-designed brand logo is an easy way to convey a potential message and target new customers, even at the very start of your journey.

Let’s take a look why…

1/ Grabs attention

We’re all aware how short attention spans are these days, meaning that businesses have around 2 seconds to make an impact, and convince customers that their products are worth considering over competitors in the market. A logo can easily communicate core values, and ideas in an engaging and interesting way.

2/ Makes a strong first impression

Your logo will be your customers first interaction with your business, if designed well it can pique interest and invite users to learn more about the company and its offerings. A poorly designed logo could, however, have the opposite effect, disengaging users, and steering them to a competitor with a more established, professional looking brand.

3/ It’s the foundation of brand identity

Behind every successful business is clever branding. Branding done right will tell a story that influences customer’s emotions, and set the entire narrative in which the brand is built. Whether it’s colours, tones, or fonts, it sets your story right in front of your customers. This branding should translate everywhere, from landing pages, business cards to even letterheads. The best place to start is to start with a story based on a theme, which of course needs to blend effortlessly with your brand values. Storytelling is a great strategic business tool as it evokes a strong neurological response and gives your customers something to relate to.

4/ Visual and memorable

Ideally, you want people to connect with the sight of your logo, and they should be able to visualise your brand as a whole. A good logo isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, it should trigger positive emotions for your customer, than a company name alone could not provide.

5/ Separates you from competition

Ultimately, your logo needs to differentiate you from your competitors with a unique and distinctive design. A logo should convey your values and really highlight why you stand out from your competitors, this will continue to feed through your whole branding.

6/ Fosters brand loyalty

As your brand grows, so will the familiarity with your brand, that’s why you need something memorable. It’s got to connect to a wide range of target customers, as well as be trustworthy and accessible in the market. A lot of brand trust is built on well-done branding, and brand loyalty is quick to follow.

7/ Evokes emotional responses

The way a brand sculpts it’s logo and brand message can evoke emotional responses. Being authentic sells. Consumers feel a real connection when brands show a real or vulnerable side, as it makes them more relatable. Use a ‘know, like, trust’ model and share your story. Really understand your customers, and make them the centre focus of your initiatives and ideas. Start by creating conversations with your customers, find out their likes, dislikes and what they value most. Introduce surveys, explore customers reviews, check social media comments, and study the cultures and habits of your target market.

8/ Reflects your business

Your logo should reflect your business in the best possible way. It should be distinctive and unique, but relatable and simple enough to work across multiple media and promotional channels.

Do you require a logo for your business, or maybe you wish to refresh an existing with an exciting fresh look and feel?

0800 089 0879

8 Easy Tips for Better Content and Higher Ranking

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 11:00:24 GMT

The goal of SEO content is to produce online content that ranks high in google, drives significant traffic, engages readers and leads them to take action.

While traffic is important, if it doesn’t contribute to your business objectives, then it’s pretty much useless.

So, how do you create content that achieves it all?

Here’s some handy tips you can implement immediately:

1. Match the three C’s of search intent

Content types

Content types are blog posts, product category, landing pages or videos.

If a customer is searching for the ‘ running trainers ’ then it’s likely they want Google to take them straight to ecommerce category pages, whereas a searcher looking for the ‘best running trainers ’ may be at the awareness stage and searching for information in the form of a blog.

Content format

Content format applies to informational content mainly. This can be how-tos, news articles, opinion pieces, reviews and listicles. Writing in such a way makes it much easier for the audience to interact with the content.

Content angle

This is all about finding the right angle to showcase the main selling point of the content. If someone is googling ‘ How to play tennis ’ the chances are they are a beginner, so the content must align with this.

2. Analyse the top-ranking pages

Google wants the most relevant, and useful information on the first page. So you need to earn your place there.

You do this by covering everything users want to know and expect to see.

You need to address the main search intent immediately, otherwise a user will bounce off almost immediately.

Top tip: Look for a content gap. If the top of the SERP is competitive, look how you could approach from another angle. Instead of the ‘ best wireless earphones’ why not try ‘ best wireless earphones for iphone ’.

3. ASMR Formula

Annotations : Sidenotes, blockquotes and call out boxes help break up monotony of a blog post.

Short sentences : Long sentences are long and tiresome to read. Swap transitional words and break up into shorter sentences.

Multimedia : Videos, images and GIFs can help illustrate points and keep readers interested.

Read : Reading content outloud can help pinpoint areas where words don’t flow.

4. PAS Formula

Identify a problem
Agitate the problem by digging into their pain point
Promise a solution

5. Boost your CTR with title tag hacks

Add power words: Captivating, Remarkable…

These trigger a positive or negative emotional response:

5 best hiking views

5 captivating hiking views

Strengthen your title with parentheses:

8 benefits of outdoor exercise

8 benefits of outdoor exercise (backed by science)

6. Improve engagement with the inverted pyramid

You need to give readers the information they’re looking for without them having to work for it, or bouncing around the SERP.

Your introduction should answer the main question you’re targeting.

Start with ‘need to know’

Finish with ‘ nice to know’

7. Write in your audiences language

To persuade your audience and compel them to read you need to prove you understand them. You do this by speaking their language.

If you’re familiar with the niche, this should be easy. If not try browsing communities where your target audience hangs out.

Facebook groups
Reddit
Slack communities
Quora
Blogs
Forums

Top tip: This is also a great place to gain insight into customers pain points, and discover blog topics.

8. Use CTAs to move customers down your marketing funnel

If you want readers to take the next step, you need to instruct them to do so, in the form of call-to-actions (CTAs) in your content.

Not every CTA should lead to ‘ buy this product ’, as not every reader is ready to buy.

They could be anywhere on their buyer’s journey.

Imagine you sell Geolocation subscriptions. You create an article “ What is Geolocation” , it ranks well on the SERP, and attracts traffic.

So, what?

As it’s a beginner-level topic, your reader is very unlikely to convert straight away.

So, rather than convert them into a customer, you need to pull them into the next stage of the marketing funnel.

Create an article “ 10 reasons everyone needs Geolocation software ” and you could internally link to it.

This way, readers will be one step closer to converting.

Increasing pageviews, reducing bounces and sending positive engagement signals to Google.

Always match the right call of action to the right stage of your customer's journey.

Ultimately, SEO is not only about ranking in Google. It’s about engagement, traffic and increasing your bottom line. That’s why your copy is so important.

Grow Your Business With Local Ads

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 14:16:50 GMT

Local Ads help you connect with local customers who are looking for your services.

To put it simply, your ads show up for customers in your area, and you only pay if they contact you directly through the ad.

Sounds good, but why are Local Ads so valuable, and how can implementing them change my business?

Increased footfall with Google Local Inventory Ads

Say a customer is in the vicinity of your shop, and they search for a specific item on the Google search engine, what will appear will be sponsored product ads in a carousel form.

This then leaves the customer with the option of buying the product online or in-store. Now if a customer is in the area, it’s likely they'll want to visit your store. Google displays your local storefront online, meaning customers can gain access to opening-hours, in-store inventory, customer reviews and directions to your store.

LIA’s fill the gap between the online and offline retail worlds, meaning retailers can give their physical shop more visibility. Even brick-and-mortar stores with no online presence can use this advertising tool to attract footfall to their stores.

The way we shop has become more omni-channel, with 39% of ecommerce transactions incorporating multi devices along the marketing funnel to help buyers with their decision making process.

Did you know? 83% of smartphone users use their device to find local businesses.

One-click calls with Google Adwords

Google Adwords can increase your website traffic and promote possible leads. One of it’s best best functions is the option for customers to ‘click to call’ directly from the search results.

How to request calls from Adwords

To request calls from your Adwords there are 2 options:

Adwords Call Extensions: This can be added to existing text or display ads. You can select preferences such as mobile devices; but it will still show on desktop and tablet. These ads leave the option for visitors to visit your site as well as allowing one-click calls.

Adwords Call-only ads: This is used exclusively to encourage calls to your business and is only visible on devices you allow. This option won’t send traffic to your site.

Which businesses can most benefit from calling ads?

Real estate promoting houses, apartments etc…
Restaurants making it easier for customers to make a reservation
Food businesses that offer take-out and delivery services
Local businesses that provide home services such as plumbers, electricians etc...

Instant gratification

We live in a world where customers require instant gratification. People are time precious, they want to search what they’re looking for and gain answers in an instant. This is a powerful force that Local Ads provide. All you have to do is give your customers what they want - instantly or soonest possible.

Google is the place where people search where to go, what to do, and what to buy in their area. Appearing on Google when someone is looking for a service like yours can turn into valuable customers.

Local ads by Google receive 13.8% of local SERP clicks (BrightLocal, 2019).

Keeping up with trends

20% of all searches come from voice search and Local Ads are one of the few ways you can make sure that you’re found on the 400 million devices powered by Google Assistant (Google).

Navigational queries and call functions have remained the top uses of Google’s voice recognition technology. This showcases a great opportunity for advertisers hoping to drive traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. Voice search is being used to get directions, openings hours, parking availability. It’s a function that local customers are using, and will continue to use on the move so imagine the potential for even greater voice search integrations with local search listings.

Targeting the right customers

Local Ads allow you to target the right customers for you using target local keywords and locations.

Including your keywords in your Local Ad text, especially in your ad's headline, will show customers that your ad is directly relevant to their search. When people see their search terms in your ad text, it shows them that your ad is probably relevant to what they're searching for. You can even schedule your ads during open business hours or during your target customers most active times.

Testing and tweaking

The great thing about Local Ads is you can regularly review your campaign performance then test and tweak your campaigns to get the results you want.

You can test out multiple Local Ads, by experimenting with different offers and call-to-actions, this way you can see what's most effective for your advertising goals.

Local Ads provide greater visibility, and allow you to monitor and review both your in-store and online performance. The omnichannel nature of LIA brings more touch points which improves your customers' buying journey. Overall Local Ads make your brand much more accessible to consumers on the move.

Google Expands Phrase Match: What Are Advertisers To Gain And Lose Under The New Treatment?

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 13:10:06 GMT

Google's recently updated treatment of phase match to include broad match modifier (BBM) traffic shakes up advertisers.

The latest in a series of changes made to its keyword match types, Google’s updated phase match places emphasis on machine learning and automation over manual inputs from advertisers. While some advertisers have acknowledged how alike BMM and phrase matches have rolled out, other advertisers see the change as a loss of data control, in order for Google to prioritise its own revenue over the best interests of the businesses that advertise on its platform.

While this new roll out is aimed at an overarching trend, advertisers must ensure their campaigns are still performing.

But do advertisers have more to gain or lose?

What might advertisers be gaining?

Eliminating BBM may help advertisers save time due to fewer options.
Simplified data collection.
Smaller businesses will be on a more level field to larger accounts.
A match type solution that better mimics how match types currently work will be available.

What might advertisers be losing?

Updated phrase matches will only respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.
New treatment will be more restricted than BBM.
Accounts that heavily relied on BBM keywords may lose traffic.

How can advertisers prepare for an updated phrase match?

It’s essential that advertisers are fully aware of their baseline performance before the new phrase match treatment is rolled out. We would suggest exporting your current date to see just how broad the match performs in your account. This way you are in a great position to prepare, and what to expect once the change rolls out.

If you need to pivot - now is the time to do so.

If you’ve been reliant on BBM you will need to be particularly vigilant about this change. Google will be expecting advertisers who have been mainly using BBM to see an decrease in clicks and conversions. Google has said “The majority of the decrease will likely come from applications of BMM. Additionally the consideration of word order may also filter out searches that may have previously matched BMM.”

What you will need to do is trim out all the broad match modified terms, so you are in a better position to analyse what Google really means by these changes. You need to be implementing versus phrases, versus regular broader and exact.

Advertisers that rely heavily on phrase matches may experience an increase in clicks and conversions due to the new, additional queries that are eligible to match. The best thing you can do to maintain this control is to complete regular searches to see what Google is recommending and ensuring they align with the goals of your brand.

All in all, if the new phase match is capturing poor matches for your advertisements you can add negative keywords. This way you can decrease any wasted budget.

Infoserve a Finalist at 2021 Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards!

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 18:00:05 GMT

Exciting news for Infoserve; We’re Finalists for Microsoft Advertising Partner EMEA Channel Partner of the Year, AND Client Partnership of the year!

We’re absolutely delighted to be chosen as finalists for these elite Microsoft Awards, and that our holistic marketing strategies, cohesive partnerships , and communicative teamwork has been recognised across the board.

Channel Partner of the Year is awarded to the channel partner who has shown excellence in partnership with Microsoft Advertising. This is carefully scrutinised through the lens of engagement, search and native revenue growth, feature adoption, joint business planning, marketing partnerships, and training activities.

Last year at Infoserve, we set out to collaborate closer with the team at Microsoft; Anoushka (Partner Development Manager) , and Mathieu (Partner Search Specialist) . This was to increase our marketing activity and help reach several more small, and medium businesses in our local area, and across the UK.

We implemented the latest innovative marketing technologies and features to an extensive number of businesses in the UK, including reliable campaign conversion tracking and Microsoft’s Syndicated Partner Network. Delivering these high performing campaigns brought tangible results to businesses’ across different verticals.

“A long-time partner, Infoserve really goes above and beyond for their customers and it’s fantastic to see them get recognised for their hard work in 2 categories this year. Fingers crossed for the finals!”
Anoushka Singh, Microsoft Partner Development Manager

While Covid-19 continued to place strain, and economic struggle, on small businesses, we proactively engaged and built relationships across the country. We introduced interactive marketing activity and daily webinars, with our Operations Manager, Matt Wiles, hosting a weekly digit al marketing webinar covering the latest insights. This provided an opportunity to create, and deliver high-quality beneficial content, and collaborate with our customers and thousands of business owners, on a more personal level.

Client Partnership of the Year is awarded to a client and their respective partner who has shown superiority in their digital advertising campaigns. This new award takes into consideration revenue, feature adoption, and overall collaboration in areas such as marketing, thought leadership and insights.

We’re overjoyed that our work wit h LHA London provides a great example of what marketers can achieve through Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft Audience Network and Syndicated Partner Network .

Again, 2020 has been an unprecedented, and tough year for everyone, however, the Microsoft Advertising campaigns have helped LHA London maintain great occupancy levels, at a time when relocating residency was difficult. We benefited from setting granular digital marketing objectives, reaching beyond general goals such as ‘conversions’ to more specific ones. Our Microsoft Advertising campaign helped LHA London sustain the quality of the service they provide to the community, through an increase in the number of volunteer applications.

Our Elite Channel Partnership with LHA London is at the forefront of everything we do, so we’re more than thrilled to have aided in a significant way to their charitable cause.

We’re so proud to be nominated for these highly regarded awards, as it puts a spotlight on the wonderful collaborative team efforts showcased everyday, here at Infoserve. While we work as one, we must highlight Daniel Lezcano and PPC his team, as their efforts have been highly integral to these nominations.

Infoserve's CEO, Derek Oliver, commented “We are thrilled to have been chosen as finalists for not just one, but two, prestigious Microsoft Awards, here at Infoserve. It has highlighted the excellent work we have achieved with Microsoft Advertising, and celebrates the collaborative results of fluid teamwork, strong partnerships, and innovative Microsoft features. We’re extremely proud of our client partnership with LHA London, and how our efforts have helped sustain the quality of the service it provides to the community, in a particularly challenging year for all.”

Winning the Client Partnership of the Year Award would invigorate the strong collaboration between the teams at Infoserve, LHA London and Microsoft, and serve as an inspiration to partners and businesses around the globe.

As well as showcasing just what we’re capable of, our MA finalist position has provided a platform for reflection, to celebrate our customer wins, and a drive to excel, moving forward, in a competitive, fast-paced industry.

T he winners are announced 25 February 2021 at 4:00 PM - Wish us luck!

2020: Our Story

derek.oliver@infoserve.com (Derek Oliver) — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 15:47:36 GMT

In a year of ups and downs, Infoserve evolved in more ways than one. We summarise our own 2020 achievements , below.

It was a difficult year for many people. We think you will be tired of talking about COVID19 or the challenges we all face, so we'd like to focus - if we may just this one time - on our own achievements and how we helped hundreds of small business owners in 2020.

We've had many questions from friends and business owners alike, asking how we've evolved, our team and where our Darlington office (see picture above) has gone! Well, here's a nice bullet point timeline, below :

March 2020

At the end of March, when everything went a little bonkers, Infoserve made the swift decision to move all of its employees to a work from home (WFH) operation. The safety, comfortableness and mental health of our team are paramount.
We had never done this in a full time capacity before, so the operational transition had to be slick.
Microsoft Teams was immediately introduced to provide employees with a platform to effectively communicate with each other, feel in touch and generally become the 'virtual office'.
Within 24 hours, over 40 employees were working from home, setup with all systems, ready to go.

April 2020

At the very start of April, our Operations Manager, Matt Wiles, launched a daily webinar to offer support for business owners in what was a very challenging and scary time for many.
Joined by his marketing team, Matt's daily webinars quickly became very popular, watched by thousands of businesses. The advice they gave was free and extremely valuable. Glowing reviews started pouring in: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.infoserve.com .
The webinars became so intense that the team had to move to a weekly format! Since April, Infoserve has delivered over 50 free webinars. Most can now be found on our Help Hub .

May 2020

After a challenging April, Infoserve incredibly had one of its strongest months on record. What we found in May was that many businesses were quickly adapting to the changing landscape, moving to eCommerce or looking to actually grow their marketing budgets. Our advice was simple; in challenging times, do the opposite with your marketing. Do more. Even if it is with another agency — we just strongly believe that good marketing can grow a business, even during recessions. Indeed, we saw the big brands doing the same. The likes of Apple were launching more products in the space of 6 months, than ever before.

Summer 2020

Our advice to business owners started to pay off; the results we were seeing were incredible. Many of our clients were seeing double, triple the enquiries and bookings, thanks to an increased focus on marketing.
We were so overwhelmed with the thank you's, reviews and feedback that we decided to put together some case studies of what we were seeing. Eventually, these case studies would be sent off to Microsoft and consequently get Infoserve into the final for the Microsoft Advertising Partner of the Year Awards, a highly prestigious and unique position to be in.

September 2020

We launched 'Help Desk'. A dedicated team there for any business owner who needs our support. Simply call us and we'll help, with none of the typical 'sales pitch' that you find elsewhere. Help Desk is a big investment from Infoserve, designed to continue the free support we provide through webinars.
Infoserve launched its brand new website, right here! Infoserve.com is radical and demonstrates our capability to change direction, be different and understand what website visitors want.
Work from home was proving very successful. Our team was working even closer together than ever before, embracing technology and providing even better support to business owners.
Infoserve's head office is based next to Leeds Bradford Airport. A vast office spanning two large floors, capable of sitting 60 people. We therefore made the decision to move all of our employees - from Darlington and Leeds city centre - to head office, albeit for now; virtually!
WFH was continuing but head office became a central hub for meetings and face to face communication. It worked perfectly.

October 2020

Throughout 2020, Infoserve had pressed forward with what it had been planning for many months before; a higher-end 'agency style' marketing provider. Our core offering caters for SMBs but we had increasingly been successfully in providing more advanced marketing, such as brand identity design and content, high-end bespoke websites that rival the best in the world, PPC campaigns that brought industry-leading result s and advanced SEO (search engine optimisation). We also believe that we have some of the best digital marketing consultants in the world. Hefty claims, we know, but our unique partnerships and results speak for themselves.
During 2020, Infoserve quietly launched its 'bespoke' marketing for businesses on a large budget. Businesses who want to turn over millions of pounds. Businesses who are serious about their brand, design and return on investment. With dedicated and precise project management, end-to-end support, we leveraged our very best talent in design, content and ad management to deliver incredible results.

Winter 2020

The year was coming to an end. Looking back on a challenging year, we were blown away by our our results and growth. Some say it's one of our most successful years on record, and we've been around since 1999!
We ended the year (well, it was the start of January when we found out) on a massive high; being nominated as a finalist in two categories for the Microsoft Advertising Awards in Europe. In one of the categories, it is just Infoserve and one other company representing the U.K contingent. With many agencies spread across Europe, we are humbled and over the moon to be awarded such a prestigious position (and badges!).

We recognise that it was a challenging year for many. Indeed, even within Infoserve there were people who found it incredibly difficult. To all of our team, and those who have worked with us during 2020 (you know who you are); we wish everyone a very happy 2021 and hope it is filled with good health and happiness.

Supercharge Your Social Media

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 12:22:09 GMT

10 tips to supercharge your business social media

So you’ve got a Facebook page for your business, your kids forced you to get an Instagram account, you think you signed up to twitter once and you definitely have LinkedIn (if you can figure out the password), but you’ve got no idea what to do with these platforms to actually help your business!

Have no fear, we’ve put together an easy checklist of 10 things you can do TODAY, to supercharge your social media!

1) Brand Correctly

It’s no secret that things that look good tend to do better, the same can be said about your social media. Make sure your logo is prominently displayed, in the correct size and resolution. There’s nothing more off-putting than a pixelated, off-centre logo! The same care needs to be paid with any header images, crystal clear and representative of your brand!

Utilise the cheat sheet here for image sizes:

FB Logo: 160 x 160 pixels

FB Header: 820 x 312 pixels

Instagram: 110 x 110 pixels

Twitter: 400 x 400 pixels

Linkedin: 400 x 400 pixels

Linkedin Page Header: 1128 x 191 pixels

2) Use the correct platforms for your industry.

There are so many social media platforms today, and utilising the correct one for your business can make a huge difference.

If you’re selling eco-fashion to consumers, you’re likely to find your customer base on Instagram. Providing B2B consultancy services, you’re going to find the correct customer profile on Linkedin! If you’re providing plumbing services, set up your home on Facebook, the big range demographics of users means you’re going to find a good customer base here!

It’s well worth maintaining a presence on each social platform, but focussing in on one or two can seriously improve your returns.

3) Build a content plan.

Content marketing is hard, no lie, coming up with at least 1 piece of content 5 times a week can tax even the most creative of brains! This is where a content plan comes in, planning a few weeks ahead means you can pencil in random ideas as they come to you, but you can also plan overarching themes, which will keep your feeds looking more professional and less like the inside of your brain!

Top tip: Don’t plan anything specific over a month in advance, this means your content will stay relevant and you can quickly react to any huge changes in your industry/ the world.

4) Post consistently.

You don’t need to be posting once a day to utilise your social presence, a few times a week can work. The main thing to pay attention to is being consistent. If you post on Tuesdays, consistently post on Tuesdays.

Not only will your audience be expecting your post and be willing to engage, but the social algorithm will also be expecting your post, thus giving you more organic reach (more people seeing your post).

5) Try different styles of Content.

There are lots of different ways to post on your businesses social media. There are text posts, single-image posts, infographics, image collections, videos, gifs, AR experiences, live videos, story videos, to name a few!

Unfortunately, there’s no sure-fire way to figure out what works for your audience, it means testing different styles, seeing how your followers react and using the data you gather to inform your next round of content.

6) Post at the correct times.

There are times when different social platforms are more active. Posting in these times means your fresh content is going to hit more of your followers, which increases engagement and increase the chances of returns!

The insights tabs on your profiles will be able to give you in-depth data on times and days when your audience is most active. The general trend is early/late mornings Tuesday to Thursday are the most active times, but look at your own data for a more coherent and personalised picture!

7) Interact with your own posts.

This is a weird one, I know, but hear me out! The social media algorithm’s job is to put relevant content in front of a user. It decides on what is relevant based on previous interests, but also engagement on posts.

Whilst interacting with your own posts can feel a little like patting yourself on the back, interacting with your posts gives a little boost to the reach, getting them in front of more users and increasing engagement levels!

Top tip: Get a few groups of people you can message after a post to engage and give it a quick boost. Alternate between groups so the algorithm doesn’t pick up on the same people interacting!

8) Competitions!

Competitions are great to generate a big boost in engagement. Getting your clients to like, comment and share pushes your brand out to people who are yet to interact with it! Furthermore, the promise of free stuff will get a lot of engagement from those who are usually lurkers than active social media users!

You could also funnel users to a landing page that collects their data for the competition, this gives you the added bonus of having an ‘oven ready’ marketing list for further campaigns!

9) Utilise user-generated content.

There’s nothing better for building trust with potential clients than having previous clients show how delighted they are with your work! In the old days, this meant a review, but it’s 2020 now, there are so many more ways to get a client to shout your praises!

If you’re lucky enough to be in an industry where clients take photos of your product or services and tag you direct, (hair and beauty, food, fashion, etc.) then great, simply get their permission to use their shots and you’ve got some good content to put out.

If your business is outside of these industries, it can be difficult to get content like this, but there are ways! Run a competition, get your users to take pictures or videos of work you’ve done in their house (if you’re a tradesperson) or a group shot of the group you trained (if you’re a consultant), and offer a voucher for the best picture. You’ll end up generating some new reviews, and get some good content to share in the future!

10) Embrace Ads.

Unfortunately, we’re way past the days of unlimited organic reach for businesses on social media. The model they currently use makes ‘going viral’ a lot harder than it used to.

This is where ads come it. They can quickly, and in a fairly cost-effective way, get your content in front of relevant people. The level of data that the social platforms hold on each and every one of us; means building ads that are targeted to the type of people in your customer base is easy, allowing effectively prospecting for brand new customers, or even retargeting of previous customers!

To learn more about how Infoserve can help, head over to our social media solutions.

Advice for Free Business Listings

derek.oliver@infoserve.com (Derek Oliver) — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:11:23 GMT

Our tips to pick the right business listings for SEO

Free business listings can be acquired from hundreds of online directories. What's important though is that you spend your time choosing the listings that will have a positive impact on your search engine optimisation (SEO).

Here's 3 tips for choosing the right business listings...

Tip 1) Run the domain through an authority checker

If you're looking for strong backlinks to your website, a high domain authority is important. The higher the number, the higher the authority, thus better backlink juice! Try https://ahrefs.com/website-authority-checker for a free domain check.

If you're not bothered about domain authority and just want to list your business in as many places as possible, there's plenty of tools available to do that in one go. For example, we provide a tool called ' Listing Manager ' which lists your business in credible platforms.

Tip 2) Here's 8 places where you MUST list your business!

There's free business listing directories and then there's essential directories that we would always recommend. Here's our handpicked directories for you to get listed on:

Yelp

FourSquare

Apple Maps

Google My Business

Bing Places

Cityvisitor (our own directory, has a domain authority of 67)

Trip Advisor (hospitality businesses)

Yell

Tip 3) Rich data will boost your listing

What is 'rich data'? Well, it is the extra bits on your listing after your NAP (name, address, phone number). Rich data can be business description, photos, opening hours and more. It gives search engines more content to find, associated with your business. This is a good thing as it provides trust indicators in your business.

Listing Manager provides all of the business listings you need, plus rich data, review management and posting functionality. No, this isn't a hard sell of our own product, we just think it's very useful for any small business owner looking for listings!

3 Top SEO Tips (from our friendly Leeds SEO agency team!)

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:50:23 GMT

Our Top 3 SEO Tips to Get Your Small Business Higher on Google

Looking to get your business found on Google or Bing? Think SEO sounds like a minefield? We've simplified things for you and condensed a large SEO checklist into our TOP 3 'must-do's'!

There's a lot more to search engine optimisation, but these top 3 tips are a good starting point for small businesses. For your interest; Infoserve is a Leeds SEO agency, working with businesses across the U.K. We are one of the first SEO agencies in the UK . Okay, so now you know who we are, let's get started!

Tip 1) title tags

Title tags are the most overlooked element with small business websites. To check your title tag, you can either view it on the tab at the top of your browser window, or click here to run your business through our free SEO checker tool. The tool is completely free and instant with results, don't worry!

Your title tag should read something like this:

Main keyword, secondary keyword, location, company name

If yours says 'home', or just has your business name, get it changed to the above, ASAP!

Tip 2) headings (H1)

Heading (H1's) are the main headlines on each website page. Again, you can view your headings by using our free SEO audit tool , or simply by looking at each page, right click on a heading and hit 'inspect' or 'inspect element' (depending on your browser). You'll then see some code. You're looking to see if you've right clicked on the H1.

Your H1 should include your main keyword, revenant to what's on that website page.

Tip 3) location pages

These are dedicated pages to locations that you cover. For example, you should have an 'Areas We Cover' in your main website navigation menu, then that should be a drop down to the multiple areas you cover.

On each of these location pages you should match the keyword and location in your title tag, to the keyword in your heading (H1). You should also add your location in the heading, too.

Content on each page needs to be unique, so don't duplicate it!

That's it! Those are our top 3 tips for SEO from our Leeds agency team. Thanks guys!

If you're interested in Infoserve's SEO services, please visit our dedicated product page, here .

11 Tips to Improve Your Website Conversion Rate

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:11:04 GMT

Improve your website conversion rates

Let's focus this post on assuming you're running a PPC Ad campaign. Before any Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign can begin, it’s really important to address what pages are going to work with your ads.

When someone clicks on an ad, it’s because the content of that ad has interested them and they want to know more (and maybe even find out how to call you to become a direct customer).

However, if someone clicks on an ad but that link takes them to an unrelated or generic page on your website such as your homepage, your prospect is likely to bounce and move on to a different company.

This is why it’s crucial to optimise your pages so that they are relevant to your ad.

Other factors that can lead to you losing customers includes your pages loading slowly, difficult navigation in the menu bar and other technical problems.

It’s really important to maximise your site conversions so that prospects will follow through from seeing your ad to becoming a valued customer.

There are lots of elements you need to incorporate to turn your landing pages into a success.

This includes using clear and compelling calls to action, using a simple design with white space to make your message clear and writing compelling and attention-grabbing headlines that people will read.

11 ways you can improve your website conversion rates:

Use video and images strategically to retain attention.
Make information easy to digest by using bullets, stand-out quotations and visuals.
Don’t focus on design over user experience. A site may look beautiful, but if users feel it loads too slow or that the information is unclear, or taking actions is not straightforward (e.g. filling a form, finding a phone number, buying online) then the user experience is bad.
De-clutter landing pages and keep it simple. Put the most important elements (headlines and sub-headlines, USPs and phone numbers) above the fold. Use high quality images to draw the eye, build trust and keep users interested.
Keep navigation simple. Remember, every link is another distraction from your conversion goal. Think about how to simplify your navigation for conversion optimisation. Studies have proven that too many options actually reduces the number of visitors selecting any option at all.
Page content around keyword intent, from headlines, to CTAs, to descriptions, text and images.
Prioritise conversion actions on landing pages and create a hierarchy. (Phone Call > Form Fills > Downloads...). CTA's should be organised following conversion actions hierarchy.
Keep CTAs specific to the page copy, rather than generic. They should use words to inspire action and create urgency and should be displayed in buttons that look like buttons and with text that is legible.
Consider all devices. Elements of a page that might be perfectly reasonable on a desktop could be very challenging or frustrating on a mobile device. Also consider the user's mindset on desktop as well as mobile.
Establish credibility and develop trust. (reviews, badges, etc.).
Look at site speed. Use PageSpeed suggestions to make the website faster.

Infoserve is available for advice or a FREE PPC Ads audit. We will show you what you're doing wrong and how you can fix it. Alternatively if you start a new campaign with Infoserve, you'll get a voucher worth at least £150.

Learn more about our PPC management here , or contact us directly.

Tips to improve your SEO and rankings

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 12:23:52 GMT

Get found higher on search engines

Want to get your website ranking better, higher, quicker, above your competitors? Of course you do, but how is this achieved?

Search engine optimisation, or SEO as it’s widely termed, can seem like something of an enigma to business owners wondering what they can do to get their websites more visible. While the world of SEO is ever-evolving, there are some fundamentals that hold firm.

To drive more organic traffic to your website and improve your rankings in the search engines with no risk of penalty, there are a few basic things you can do.

Website and Page Load Speed

You need to ensure that your website loads as quickly as possible; page speed is a crucial factor for good SEO. Life has changed and where a slow load time a few years ago did not deter visitors, expectations are now far different and a slow-loading site is an absolute no-no in today’s marketplace.

A slow page will only frustrate a user and discourage people from using your site and ultimately from buying your product and service. A delay in page load time is proven to result in a significant loss in conversions.

Evidence shows that 40% of people abandon a website which takes over three seconds to load (eConsultancy). Of those people 80% will not return. That’s massive.

Site speed is one of the most important ranking factors – Google dictates this.

What this means is if your website pages are slow you are going to struggle big-time for organic listings, regardless of how good, cool and researched your content is or how snazzy or professional your website design.

One of the first things you may want to look at is image size and reducing them. Images can play a significant role in your site speed. They are often very large files which can slow down the load times of your website’s pages.

Remove all the non-essential elements that slow down your site, such as WordPress plugins, minimise and optimise everything on your site, look at reducing server response time, your hosting, browser caching, reduce redirects, run a compression audit and enable compression, prioritise over-the-fold content and monitor mobile page speed.

Link-building

Link-building from and to other websites relevant to your business and with relevant content is a great way to positively influence your website’s SEO. See it like a network of like-minded people and online ‘friends’. It can help build credibility and trust and add fuel to your SEO efforts. As with a friendship or network group, link-building is about quality not quantity. You’ll garner more trust.

Write authentic content for people

This may seem a strange thing to suggest, but if you have been reading content online over the years you will surely have come across the keyword and key phrase-stuffing technique whereby content writers and website owners try to play the SEO game by writing content featuring their products, services, locations and company name as many times as possible in the hope that it will pull them up the rankings. This may have fooled the search engines for a while, but it really is very bad practice and will not serve you well or win you any SEO points today.

Engaging, valuable content that focusses on your customers and your brand, product or service is the best way forward. Do not try to manipulate the search engines, or your customers. Write content for the user – they are the people who will engage with you and ultimately spend money with you.

Write content that is actually useful; this way you will gain more trust and credibility and build trust with your audience.

Use web analytics

Using web analytics such as Google Analytics will help you track your success and see where visitors to your site are clicking and how they move through your site and ultimately exit it. You can put this information to great use and modify and change your efforts to maximise return on investment.

Metadata, Metadata, Metadata

If you do anything on your site make sure you spend time on the Metadata and craft a Page Title, Description and some relevant Keywords for each page and blog on your website.

The Metadata for each page needs to be unique and relate to the information on that page. It will help the search engines deliver the very best match for a user’s search query and help get you found for your products, services, locations and company name.

Fail to do your Metadata and you are missing out on great SEO opportunities.

Check your URLs

A URL is a page’s unique address and you should ensure that you use readable and meaningful URLs that relate to each page. Use words that mean something to the search engines and users.

It’s always useful to remember that the search engines’ spiders that trawl the web are not human, they are bots and you need to keep things simple.

Don’t forget social in your SEO

Social media is important to SEO and can be used to engage with people and also draw people to your brand. Social signals can help your SEO and you should always be mindful of this.

Create content that people want to share, encourage people to share and build engagement.

Pictures are important too

Don’t forget to alt tag and title tag all the images you use on your website. It’s good to remember here that Google has an Image tab and features all images here. If you don’t alt tag and title tag each image you could be missing out on valuable SEO; the Google bots won’t know what your image is of if you don’t tell them in words. Keywords and phrases are as important when it comes to images; it’s more SEO juice. Again be authentic and relevant – no keyword stuffing, no game-playing.

Fresh, unique content

Content takes time to produce but it is well worth the effort when it comes to improving your rankings. Unique and engaging content is what users and the search engines want. The search engines want to give users the best, most relevant return on searches and if you produce fresh, unique content you have a greater chance of being in the mix.

Content marketing, when done well, can be a highly effective lead-generation tool.

We know there is a lot to think about when it comes to SEO; it’s always changing, even for us working in the industry.

Working with small to medium-sized businesses throughout the UK and as a Google Premier Partner and Microsoft Advertising Elite Channel Partner puts us in a unique position to assist you with not only SEO, but also web design, PPC, listings and social media.

If you feel you need help, would like a free one-to-one consultation, please get in touch now. Call us on 0800 089 0879.

Keep in touch with site visitors and boost loyalty

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 10:33:56 GMT

There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors

Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know, and do your best to write well.

Show customers your personality

When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through. This can be a great tool for showing your distinct personality.

Blogging is a terrific form of communication

Blogs are a great communication tool. They tend to be longer than social media posts, which gives you plenty of space for sharing insights, handy tips and more.

It’s a great way to support and boost SEO

Search engines like sites that regularly post fresh content, and a blog is a great way of doing this. With relevant metadata for every post so search engines can find your content.

Drive traffic to your site

Every time you add a new post, people who have subscribed to it will have a reason to come back to your site. If the post is a good read, they’ll share it with others, bringing even more traffic!

Blogging is free

Maintaining a blog on your site is absolutely free. You can hire bloggers if you like or assign regularly blogging tasks to everyone in your company.

A natural way to build your brand

A blog is a wonderful way to build your brand’s distinct voice. Write about issues that are related to your industry and your customers.

Tips for writing great posts that increase your site traffic

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 10:33:56 GMT

Write about something you know. If you don’t know much about a specific topic that will interest your readers, invite an expert to write about it.

Speak to your audience

You know your audience better than anyone else, so keep them in mind as you write your blog posts. Write about things they care about. If you have a company Facebook page, look here to find topics to write about

Take a few moments to plan your post

Once you have a great idea for a post, write the first draft. Some people like to start with the title and then work on the paragraphs. Other people like to start with subtitles and go from there. Choose the method that works for you.

Don’t forget to add images

Be sure to include a few high-quality images in your blog. Images break up the text and make it more readable. They can also convey emotions or ideas that are hard to put into words.

Edit carefully before posting

Once you’re happy with the text, put it aside for a day or two, and then re-read it. You’ll probably find a few things you want to add, and a couple more that you want to remove. Have a friend or colleague look it over to make sure there are no mistakes. When your post is error-free, set it up in your blog and publish.

Infoserve Blog

How to Optimise Your Google Business Profile in the Age of AI Search

Why Google Business Profile Matters More in the AI Era

Step 1: Make Sure Your Core Business Information Is Complete

Step 2: Choose the Right Business Categories

Step 3: Add Services and Products Properly ﻿

Step 4: Keep Your Opening Hours Accurate

Step 5: Upload Photos Regularly

Step 6: Collect and Respond to Reviews Consistently

Step 7: Use the Q&A Section Strategically

Step 8: Publish Regular Google Posts

Step 9: Keep Your Business Description Natural and Detailed

Step 10: Ensure Your Business Details Match Across the Internet

Step 11: Add Booking, Messaging, and Interaction Features

Step 12: Think Beyond Google Optimise for AI Discovery

Not sure where to start?

Facebook Ads, Attitudes, and Adjustment: Your Strategy Alphabet

A & B: A/B testing

C: Content

D: Duration and budget

E: Engagement

F: Frequency

G: Goal Setting

H: Hashtags

I: Insights

J: Journey Mapping

K: Key Visuals

L: Landing Pages

M: Messaging

N: Networking

O: Optimisation

P: Pixel

Q: Quality Score

R: Retargeting

Types of retargeting

Why retargeting works

S: Strategy

T & U: Testing & Understanding Metrics

V: Value Proposition

W: Word of Mouth

X: X Factors

Y: Your Audience

Z: Zealous Optimisation

Not sure where to start?

8 Branding Tips to Elevate Your Marketing Efforts

What is branding?

Why is branding important?

10 Branding Tips

1. Know your story from every angle

2. Find your brand archetype

3. Know your brand positioning

4. Clearly define your values

5. Connect with your customers

6. Refine your messaging

7. Research colour psychology

8. Refine your visual identity

Not Sure Where to Start?

What We Do for Local Businesses in Harrogate

Web Design Harrogate

SEO Harrogate

PPC Harrogate

Social Media Harrogate

Don’t just take our word for it

Why us?

What Are Display Ads? A Complete Guide

What are display ads?

The difference between display ads and search ads

Types of display ad

Banner Ads

Pop Up Ads

Interstitial Ads ﻿

Rich Media Ads

Retargeting Display Ads

Native Display Ads

Ad formats

Benefits of display ads

1. Wide Reach

2. Brand Awareness

3. Targeting Capabilities

4. Visual Appeal

Step 3: Add Services and Products Properly

Interstitial Ads