The Keywords Meta Tag

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team has debunked the myth that they use the keywords meta tag as an indicator for search ranking. You can read more over on the official Google blog.

The Description Meta Tag

Although there are no direct, rank-based benefits of adding this tag, there’s certainly reason for its inclusion.

The content in the meta description tag is sometimes displayed on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPS) underneath the link to your website. This gives you the opportunity to write some compelling, marketing copy to sell your website.

Well written meta description tags can lead more customers to click on your website on Google’s SERPS, leading to a higher click through rate (CTR). SEOMoz produce a Search Engine Ranking Factors study each year that aims to identify the specific indicators that Google uses to rank websites in their SERPS. “CTR from Google’s SERPS to your page” was ranked as the number 1 indicator within their “Page Level Traffic Data” (View Here) so although no direct benefit is gained from using the tag, it will improve your CTR if written well, which is believed by the professionals over at SEOMoz to provide some SEO benefit.

In short, remove your keywords meta tag and write some compelling sales copy to add to your meta description tag. This way you won’t be wasting the time you haven’t got!

Alex is making a healthy return on investment on each HGV training course sold, so he’s more than pleased with the service.

Alex has said that, “Sarah and Townpages are worth their weight in Gold” when recommending our services to others.

If you need HGV training by a DSA registered company call 0800 0197 140 or visit their website at http://hgvtrainingltd.com/

Your NAP information should remain the same across all websites as far as possible; this can mean in practice you avoid changing your company name, even when adding a new aspect to your business. You can also make sure that every online advert or information is anchored to the same page which makes it even easier for your clients to locate you and feel confident in who you are and what you do.

Another thing that all companies can do is to regularly search for your company online and if you are appearing on directory sites or review sites with a different NAP, contact them and make sure that the NAP information is the same as your core identity. Again, this maintains a consistent identity across all adverts and online exposure.

To make this work, you should stay just exactly the way you are. Avoid changing your business name; maintain the same phone number and check regularly to make sure that your core identity or NAP is not being contradicted elsewhere.

What is Pinterest?

You can think about Pinterest as an online Pinboard that you use to share and organize the interesting things you find on the internet. Sharing your images on Pinterest is particularly easy to do.

Who uses Pinterest?

The users on Pinterest are split between business users and personal users while the gender split is weighted towards female users on a 70/30 split. This makes Pinterest a particularly valuable route to attracting female clients. For some wedding sites, for example, Pinterest now routes more referral traffic through than Twitter and Facebook put together.

How can I make Pinterest work for my business?

While the users on Pinterest may be weighted toward females the actual content is fairly evenly split or neutral in gender. Many sports teams are using Pinterest and the used car industry is finding it very useful, especially with the simplicity involved in sharing images on there.

Any business that will benefit from showing images of recent work like a newly refurbished bathroom, a well-designed loft conversion will find that setting up a Pinboard to show recent work will be highly beneficial. If you design and create cakes, build fitted wardrobes or take photographs you can show your most recent images on your Pinboard and this can be shared quickly and simply.

Using the Pinterest button

There are a variety of Pinterest buttons that you can add to your website to make it easy for people to share your products and services. When a [P] appears next to an item on your website the user can click it and share your business instantly on Pinterest. The button works exactly like a Facebook and Twitter button so we recommend that you use this in the same place you use your other social media sharing tools.

In Conclusion

Businesses that got on board with Facebook and Twitter in the early days before they became ubiquitous are the businesses that are benefiting the most through these routes to market. If you have a product that particularly appeals to female clients then you should use Pinterest right away, all other businesses will benefit from establishing themselves on here as soon as possible as this is one social media site that is bound to take off in a big way in the coming months.

One of the ways you can test how results are affected is to take a site that has an Adwords campaign and is also performing well in organic ranking. You can then suspend the associated Adwords campaign, and compare the results before and after.

A report from Google in February 2012 showed that when doing this, 85% of clicks from the PPC (pay per click) Adwords campaign was lost and not recovered by a sufficient increase in clicks on the organic listing. If the budget for Adwords was decreased but not totally suspended, you had a loss of 80% of clicks.

The improvement due to high SEO (search engine optimisation) may be due to the added consistency of your message, the reassurance that your company is genuine or the fact that your customers get double the chance to see your company on one page and gives the customer two bites of the cherry.

However the process works for your individual business, PPC and SEO work together to maximise your company’s exposure on Google. This will give positive results to the companies that handle their internet presence correctly.

In conclusion, there is a direct business benefit from combining PPC and SEO strategy. CTR (click-through rate) tends to be higher if there is an associated organic listing that is performing well and appearing high up the listing. In fact, the higher the organic listing, the more successful the CTR becomes on the Adwords campaign so maximising your exposure is always a worthwhile exercise.

Have Townpages designed your website?

Do you have a new product that you would like to launch?

Read on for some great offers…

We’re now creating FREE landing pages on existing Townpages websites.  If you want to market a new product or service, simply take out one of our monthly, fixed cost GL campaigns for £100 or more and we’ll create a brand new page on your site, completely FREE! One of our copyrighting team will contact you to gather some information about what you want to push, and from there, we’ll create a brand new, targeted platform to sell your new product or service.

For more information, contact your account manager directly.

The internet is both local and international, and the majority of our clients want to pick the right keywords to market locally for their customers. The purpose of this article is to help you select the right local keywords for your business.

1. Decide where you want to advertise.

This means the physical location of your business, the locations that you work in and the names of the areas that your clients consider they live in. Whether you are based in South London or in Bolton you need to establish all the areas you want to attract business in.

2. Decide what it is you sell.

Make a list of all the terms that would describe your services and be as niche or as specific as you want, these terms can all result in the right response that leads to a sale so are worth considering. Are you an Italian, Indian or Chinese restaurant? Do you clean domestic windows or only work with office blocks? Choose specific phrases that describe your business.

Now you have two lists that describe what your business provides and where your business operates. Using the keywords tool on Google (use this link) you can put these lists through the keyword tool and find out the number of searches on each phrase to compile a detailed list of local keywords that will work the best for your business.

3. Create long-tail, local keywords

Target longer variations of keyword like “commercial window cleaning Bolton” or “Italian restaurant Battersea”. This allows you to pinpoint relevant traffic at a cheaper price.

Getting the right local keywords is vital to getting the best results from your advertising spend on search engines. Your account manager is trained in this process and will be able to help you find the right keywords to suit your business.

In her own words,

“Just to say a big thank you; since I started to advertise with Town Pages my business has grown from strength to strength. I just signed up for the phrase Make up Artist London and within a week I nailed a £450 job and had to turn another down! Thanks so much and I look forward to a long and prosperous relationship together.

Fiona Tanner, FT  Makeup London”

Fiona and her team of professional makeup artists can transform you for any occasion. An Award winning makeup artist; Fiona has 10 years’ experience in makeup artistry and six as a hair stylist. She boasts a wealth of expertise and a vast knowledge of the industry.

If you would like more information about Fiona Tanner Make Up Artist London,

please call 020 7125 0595 or visit http://www.ftmakeuplondon.com/

Social Media is already recognised as a fantastic way to gain valuable marketing and target the right people for your products and services. Occasionally, however, the results can be a little hit and miss and you need something more targeted than the scattergun approach on many social media sites.

Google+ is a new social media website that brings together a collection of services that are already widely used and puts them all in one simple-to-use place that reflects real life. Instead of treating all online relationships as the same single relationship Google+ means that you can define social and professional relationships with your own definitions and choose how you relate to everyone on an individual basis.

+circles

Avoid sharing all your thoughts with everyone you know and just connect with who you want, when you want. You may have a team of people you regularly meet to discuss your area of business so instead of sharing your April forecasts with your auntie, create a +circle for business and only share within that circle. You can create as many +circles as you need to help you promote your business.

+sparks

There are always people that you want to discuss specific areas of your business with, whether this is about the most useful accounting software or the best way to take your latest product to market. +sparks allows us to connect with the right people at the right time and keep up to date with all the latest developments.

+hangouts

We have all had an “instant message” or “ping” at an inconvenient time, +hangout makes this a thing of the past Google +hangouts are fantastic for certain businesses with live multi-person video available for conference calls or chatting with reps out on the road.

+mobile

Most people use a mobile as a personal computer, the Google+ interface with your mobile is now seamless so you can still check monthly accounts, answer business queries and view daily forecasts when on the move.

Google+

In summary, Google+ is a flexible tool that gives you access to fantastic online promotion, up to date statistics about every aspect of your business while keeping in touch with your team or workforce. Take a look at Google+ and see how it can help your business.

While many extroverted people find networking quite enjoyable, there are many of us that find the process stressful and difficult, even after many years of this. We’re often asked by other businessmen how they can enjoy networking more, so here is a selection of our recommendations.

1. Have a clear purpose

Go into the networking event with a clear purpose and a goal for that event. Whether you aim to arrange a business meeting with three potential clients, to collect 15 business cards or simply to touch base with an old client set yourself a target and stick to it.

2. How long do you stay?

If you have set a clear and well planned goal for your networking then often you will be able to leave after completing that goal. You could take 15 of your own business cards and say to yourself “I am only going to leave when I have handed out all 15 business cards” then you can leave knowing that you have done a good job.

3. Remembering people’s names

There are a few tricks people use to remember names, the most commonly used method is to repeat their name when you learn it “Thank you Anita, how are you finding the networking event Anita?” and then make a mental association – “Anita drinks black coffee”.

4. What do you talk about?

This part can seem the most daunting, but is probably the easiest bit – prepare a small 10 second networking pitch that says why you’re there, what you do and who you are “Hi, I’m Simon, I run a successful marketing consultancy that specialises in the online sector”. The next thing is to listen to what the other person says and encourage them to speak by asking questions about their job, hobbies and their life in general. You will be remembered as someone that listens and cares.

5. Stay in touch

You may have left the event with 15 business cards, handed yours out to a number of people and met a load of potential new clients. The next thing to do is to stay in touch with monthly emails or calls asking about them and their business – as well as showing interest, it keeps your business in their minds as well.

Follow these 6 simple steps and no matter how nervous you feel, your networking skills will appear natural, effective and – you never know – networking may even end up being something you enjoy!