So you’ve got your nice new shiny website & it’s live for all to see. You want people to come & visit, look around, explore the links, enjoy that piece of flash you broke the budget for, but instead it languishes in cyber space devoid of attention & neglected by all but you.

So what’s wrong with your new site?

Putting a website on the net is akin to having your business cards printed and throwing them into the Atlantic Ocean in the hope that somebody, better still the right somebody picks one up from amongst all the other business cards also hoping to find a somebody. Your new site is probably the result of dozens of hours of work, not to mention the hundreds of hours spent on the plan you made in your mind & conveying ideas & designs to a website company. After so much toil why would you leave it to fend for itself in the belief it will sort itself out?

Your pride & joy, the fruit of your labour, your brainchild, what ever term of endearment you wish to coin for your website, you have to accept that it’s in its infancy. Your site needs nurture, of the steady, regular variety. A newborn foal may walk within minutes but you wouldn’t expect it to take part in the Grand National. Acorns to mighty oaks… (you get the gist).

If you were wise, well informed or just fortunate, your website will have been built with SEO principles in mind. It will have a content management system that allows you to manipulate text, images, links & meta tags. It will have search engine friendly URLs & a site map. It will be full of rich, original, well thought out text & there will not be an  “under construction” or “404 error” to be found.

If this is not the case do not despair, as all is not lost. Help is at hand for you & your website. We have had many clients visit from the “My website’s been banned by Google” club to the “I can’t find my site on the internet” collective and have the strategy to overcome any issues your site may have. Speaking to an expert at Hot Waffle costs nothing more than a phone call. Invariably the problem is surmountable & can be resolved with the right knowledge in conjunction with the correct approach. Give us a call and make sure your site doesn’t become the needle that no-one can find in the internet haystack.

Google introduce many updates to its algorithm during the course of a year. Many of these tweaks pass by unnoticed by webmasters and site owners but occasionally changes take place that have a large-scale impact on the search engine results page.

What is the algorithm? If you own a website it’s position on Google’s search pages will be dictated by your ‘quality score’ as determined by a program that crawls your web pages, indexes them and ranks their relevance according to the algorithm. There are many indicators contained inside the programme that rates your site and it’s relevance against many factors, some more important than others. The details of the algorithm are a closely kept secret although Google does publish guidelines for webmasters so that they can promote their website according to a best practice and hopefully rank successfully for their chosen keywords and search terms.

One indicator of the algorithm is the amount of back links that a websites has, which acts as a vote of confidence for a website and internal web pages. Of course where there is opportunity for gain there is also opportunity to manipulate the results and this is where Google has concentrated its focus in its latest update. The ‘over optimisation’ update released a day ago concentrates on those tactics that attempt to manipulate the search results through ‘unnatural’ link building. Obtaining links through constructed blog networks, paid means and link farms is sometimes practised and is viewed by Google as poor practise.

As Google States

In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.

Google estimates that the change will effect 3% of English searches although we predict the figure to be much higher. The Algorithm update has concentrated on weeding out those pages with poor links, keyword stuffed pages and ‘over optimised’ methods of manipulating the search results. Our advice is to concentrate more on the quality of your business with a keen regard for always bettering the experience of using your website. Constantly think of ways of improving the experience of your customer and be ingenious with ways of creating the right ‘buzz’ around your business. It may be tempting to take a shortcut but it isn’t the best way of building a business with longevity and a website of quality that the user enjoys to navigate.

You may well have come across the name, or you may have even set up your own Pinterest account. If not, we’re pretty certain that you will shortly become familiar with the latest social website, so thought we should give you a ‘heads-up’ as to what it is and whether it’s something that your business should be tapping into.

What is Pinterest?

Simply put, it is a social photo sharing website, which allows you to ‘pin’ photos and images that are of interest to you (and ideally to those who you are sharing with them with) onto your virtual pinboard. Just as your can retweet with Twitter or share other people’s status with Facebook, users can ‘repin’ images to their own pages and collections, thereby spreading the network and reach of the original pinned photo.

Pinterest has been around a while – it was launched in beta form in March 2010 following its development in December 2009. By the beginning of 2012, Pinterest was reported as being the fastest growing site ever, with 11.7 million unique visitors, the majority of which were American women.

How is it different from Facebook and Twitter?

Pinterest is affiliated with both Facebook and Twitter and follows the same social objectives – to facilitate interaction and engagement with a community, sharing hobbies, events, occasions, interests and so on with a group of contacts. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” and the focus is on graphical images, photos and videos, enabling users to upload, save, sort and manage these media content (known as ‘pins’), to create a pinboard that can then be viewed by others within the community. Once viewed, other users can ‘like’ images that have been shared and can also ‘re-pin’ them in order to share the image/media amongst their own community.

Is Pinterest right for my business?

Pinterest is proving to be an increasingly popular social media network which should not be overlooked by businesses, particularly if they have strong images or videos to share. Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest enables businesses to increase brand loyalty and awareness, driving traffic to their site and encouraging existing and potential customers to share their experiences, ideas, tips and so on.

If your business has a story that can be told via a pinboard, then Pinterest will work for you. The hospitality industry is taping into it, with hotels and restaurants showing off their rooms, recipes, events photos and so on, so if you are in this market, then you should be setting up your Pinterest profile. Similarly, Pinterest works well for the retail industry, with latests fashions and new designs being pinned and shared to great effect. If you’re a small, start-up cup cake baker, then absolutely, give Pinterest a go and pin up daily photos of your latest creations. If what you have to promote looks good in picture form or on video, then Pinterest should be added to your marketing mix

How do I set up a Pinterest Account?

Pinterest is easy to use and there are a number of ways by which a user can be registered and an account created:

1. Be invited by a friend. New users can be invited to join by an existing Pinterest user.
2. Request an invitation. Via the Pinterest website, prospective users can request an invitation and within a day or two, one will be sent directly from Pinterest. Ours came from Ben (thanks Ben!).
3. Link to Pinterest from Facebook or Twitter. A Pinterest account can also be created and accessed by linking Pinterest to your Facebook or Twitter profile. If you choose this route, you need to be using Facebook’s Timeline format.

Pinterest is easy to use and is a powerful tool. However, like any social media, for it to be successful as a marketing method for your business, it needs to be a key focus for you, requiring regular input and therefore, time and effort dedicated to it.

If you would like to discuss whether Pinterest is right for your business, give us a call and we will be happy to discuss the potential benefits and marketing strategy to suit your needs. Happy pinning!

Social media is a term which is pretty common place nowadays. Most of us know what it is and are involved in it in some form or other, whether in a business capacity or on a personal level.

Marketeers have been responsible for the introduction of many hypes and new media, some with greater longevity than others, however we can be confident that social media is here to stay and not only that, is fast developing and evolving.  Ignore it at your peril!

So, what is Social Media Marketing? Well, put simply, it is communicating your businesses messages to your customers using online channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and the like. The Facebook story is a familiar one, particularly since the release of the recent ‘Social Network’ blockbuster. It was originally set up as a method by which friends and peers could network and communicate, however it is now recognised as a valuable business tool, ensuring effective and regular customer contact.

So, how can businesses expect to benefit from social media?

Search Engine Rankings – As an SEO company, we are always interested in search engine rankings. Through the effective use of Social Media, businesses are able to increase the number of links to their websites. Search engines love links, so the more links you have, the higher you will be ranked.

Effective Customer Communication – One of the biggest challenges for businesses is ensuring effective communication with their customers. So often, the delivery of our services is all-encompassing, leaving customer relationships and communication to fall by the way side. Social media is an excellent channel by which you can very quickly, and very positively manage your customer contact, keeping them up to date with latest news and activities, for little cost and a small time investment. Customers who feel they are being kept informed generally are much more loyal since they will feel valued. The greatest reason for customers to move away is ‘indifference’. Contact through social media channels not only facilitates regular updates, it also enables multi-way communication, giving customers and prospects the opportunity to interact. Used well, it really is a very powerful tool.

Online Reputation – by embracing social media, you are showing your customers, prospects, suppliers and competitors that you are ‘leading edge’ in your field and proactive in your approach to marketing. Not only that, you are also making it clear to all concerned that communication with your customers is of great importance to your business.

Quick Results – social media is quick to set up and can penetrate your contact base immediately. Furthermore, say something interesting and note-worthy, and very quickly you will find your message is retweeted to your customers’ contacts, then your customers’ contacts’ contacts, and so on. Increasing your number of ‘followers’ is obsessive – once you have the bug, you will wake up wanting to tweet!

Affordable Marketing – in tough economic climates such as these, marketing is usually the first budget to be slashed. Happily, social media marketing is affordable in that it is free to set up, and only requires your time and focus to ensure you are regularly communicating with your contacts. Yes, it requires some creativity. Yes, it needs you to be active, but it can achieve an awful lot for very little overhead.

If you wish to see how Social Media can help your business, or you need some help in making it work for you, give us a call.

Twitter is a fantastic tool for business, both in terms of connecting with the customer and networking amongst those in your Industry. Building (relevant) followers on Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool that increases Company exposure. As you complete the process of setting up a Twitter account the resulting profile page can seem something of a wasteland (cue tumble weed ) but there are many quick and simple ways for you to increase your Twitter Following & here are a few….

Don’t be afraid to ask employees, family and friends to follow you to get the ball rolling. They may not feel like ‘real’ followers but they already have their own networks in which there will be people with a real interest in what you do.

Add a photograph to your profile along with an interesting bio. Quite often prospective followers are enticed by a succinct and witty description of what you do and an interesting picture that best reflects your style.

I know it’s tempting to describe the contents of your lunchbox when struggling to conjure a tweet but try sticking to interesting snippets that are more likely to get you Follow Friday’s & retweets (both excellent ways of projecting your business to an even larger audience)

Ensure that there is a link to Twitter on your website so that happy customers/clients can be redirected to your profile.

Use your Twitter name and link on e-mails, business cards and newsletters

Don’t be afraid to follow others in your industry or those that tweet about relevant topics there is likely to be a pool of people who may catch sight of your profile and follow

Interact with people in a sensible way (do not get drawn into sticky subjects or involved with those looking for a fight) contributing to a conversation will increase your exposure and draw relevant followers to you

 Offer something on Twitter such as a prize or free lunch. Lots of business’ offer competitions that ask people to follow and retweet the deal which can build a much increased following by the time of competition close. 

If you are struggling to find people who may be interested in your business, head over to the competition and follow some of their followers. Word will soon spread and we guarantee relevant people will soon begin following your account. 

Search engine optimisation may sound a) expensive & b) complicated, when neither assumption is true. SEO may also sound like something that cannot benefit a small business, the reserve of corporations with annual budgets & departmental resource when the opposite is true. Online business is the one arena whereby David can take on Goliath and make progress, responding quickly, crossing online channels and paying attention every day in a very unique way.

I remember some time ago reading an article about Ling Cars, owned by a Chinese lady who took on the car leasing market and was winning in a big way.

The Online Marketeer said one very smart thing during the interview, that she simply paid her website daily attention, much like a pet, feeding and watering. This is true of any small business success online, the need to be present whether creating new products, posting blogs or displaying customer reviews, the key is to pay attention and attend to some small daily tweak or addition. Google pays ever increasing attention to those websites with fresh content and so Ling’s advice is never more true than today.

I did uncover a more recent article of Ling & interestingly she now speaks of a constant social media attention and marketing through the masses, another channel as open to a sole trader as a multi national company.

Quite often there are only two factors that prevent a small business utilising optimisation and marketing tools and that is time and confidence.

Social media platforms such as twitter & Facebook are perfect channels to shout about your business, promote fabulous deals and engage with your customers, whether on a local or national level. It may seem scary projecting your company on such a large stage but it is the ideal vehicle for connecting with your audience and promoting your brand in a cost effective way (conventional branding is an expensive business). Of course the cost is your time and it can be difficult juggling the running of your business and its promotional needs but start small & post every week to begin with, you will soon see some shoots of interest to build upon.

Running a blog is also a worthwhile task for small business that projects a ‘voice’ for the business, generating interest and building brand image. The one key success for a blog is that the content is both compelling and fresh. Who knows more about your chosen area of expertise than you? Create competitions, extol the virtues of your product, provide tips and advice for the consumer and feed all this through your social networking pages in order that the ripples spread even further.

Make a little optimisation a day a good habit for your small business.

• Keep the tabs to twitter open and drop in the useful snippets of information when they arise.
• Keep a notebook to hand and when an idea for a blog post pops into your head simply sketch a quick synopsis for entering a later date in the week.
• Keep an eye on Google news alerts for your chosen market and make useful comments on relevant blog posts or news articles when they appear in your inbox.
• Work competitions into Facebook it’s a great way to generate interest and increase following
• Collect e-mail addresses on your website and put together a monthly promotional e-mail, its quicker and easier than you think

If you would like to discuss your Optimisation needs with Hot Waffle get in touch we could help to lighten the load

There are many aspects to creating a powerful website. For it to be effective, you will need to design the site with your customers in mind, so you will need your creative, sales and psychological heads on.

There are some fundamental rules when it comes to the design. Your site should:

1.  Capture your visitors’ attention. Visitors form an impression of your site within 2 seconds of hitting the home page, so you really have no room for error. If they don’t like what they see, they will head straight back to Google and on to your competitor’s site.

2.  Make the right impression, immediately. Your site needs to accurately reflect your business in a design and language that your customers and prospects will relate to. In order to achieve this, you need to ensure you understand your market and what your customers look for. If you’re not sure, some market research would be a good idea. Reproduction of printed promotional material such as company brochures is not the answer and should be avoided. Have a look at your competitors’ sites and consider their strengths and weaknesses, then use this to hone your own website’s design and content. Your prospects will be undertaking the same analysis.

3.  Be easy to navigate. The layout of the site and the content within it should be clearly visible from the home page. We have all heard the ‘one click’ rule. Visitors should be able to find and access what they are looking for with one click of the mouse. Search engines love this too.

4.  Focus on the strengths of your business. Whilst reproducing printed brochures is not recommended, you should remember that your website is your strongest promotional tool and should therefore paint your business or your offering in the most attractive light possible. Relish the opportunity to shout about what makes you unique, why you are the organisation to work with, the benefits you bring, what others are saying about you. Use the skills of an experienced designer to help graphically represent your strengths in order to ensure you are appealing to both the visual and auditory attentions of your visitors.

5.  Encourage your visitors to return. A visual impactful site that is easy to navigate and provides useful information will encourage your visitors to return, telling others along the way.

6.  Engage with your visitors. Organisations use many techniques to engage with their customers, including blog campaigns, newsletters, promotions and social media. All have excellent value in their own right, although depending on the nature of your business, some will be more suitable than others. It is important to ensure your site invites participation and interaction wherever possible.

7.  Be updated regularly. A static site will soon be ignored, not only by your customers and prospects, but by the search engines. You should ensure sufficient time is programmed in to your schedule to give your website the focus it needs to grow and blossom. In return, it will work hard for you, generating new business opportunities.

If you would like to discuss how Hot Waffle can help your business achieve new business opportunities through website enhancement and optimisation, give us a call for a free, no obligation chat.

We’ve all heard the adage “content is king”. When creating a website, this really is the case! Of course, having a site that is visually impactful and easy to navigate is of great importance, but above all, the content is what differentiates your site from your competitors and ensures it stands out in the very crowded Internet space.

We all run lives that are busier and fuller than ever, often leaving important things to the last minute and relying on our adrenalin reserves to see us through. Despite appreciating the importance of good content, it is easy to fall into the ‘something is better than nothing’ trap, particularly when deadlines are looming or in-trays are over-flowing. Whilst it is true that some content is better than none, we would urge you to concentrate on what is being said, thinking about things from a reader’s perspective as well as the search engines. Here are some quick tips to help you achieve powerful content, whilst continuing to manage your day-to-day demands:

• It’s a Sales Pitch!

Whether you are a sales person or not, you need to ensure what you are saying in your content positions you well and sets you apart from your competitors. Concentrate on your differentiators (your unique selling points) and make sure these stand out within the body of the text.

Furthermore, make sure you are selling the benefits of your products or services rather than the features. People will base any buying decision on the solutions your offering provides them, how it will make their life easier/better/wealthier/happier/less-frantic, so you need to be concentrating on ‘what’s in it for them’ rather than the product or service itself.

• Make it Punchy!

Research shows that when using the web, people make split-second decisions and will spend little time on each page. It is therefore vital that your content is ‘sticky’, afterall, you’ve worked hard at enticing your reader to visit your page, you don’t want them to lose interest and disappear. Ensure your content is to-the-point, engaging, helpful and informative. Don’t be verbose. Use sub-headings and bullet points to help people to skim-read information and find what is interesting to them.

• Focus on Keywords.

Your content should focus on the keywords that your customers and prospects would use to search for your products and/or services.  The keywords should form the basis of your content and all material should be developed around them. If the keywords you use are not those your customers use, your content won’t be found by them, so it is important to spend time thinking about the appropriate keywords to target.

• Keep it Original

Whilst tempting to replicate sales material found in printed brochures, content for websites needs to be created with the online reader in mind. We highlighted above how readers on the web will skim-read, so their attention needs to be grasped at the earliest point, with enough to keep them interested to encourage them to delve further, exploring all the pages within your site.

Equally important is to use your own words – do not ‘borrow’ other content as this will be very poorly received by Google and other search engines, who will not treat your site as authoritative and will rank you poorly.

•  Keep it Simple.

Don’t use jargon or terminology that won’t be universally recognised and understood. Furthermore, keep it in mind that all sorts of people use the internet, so keeping your content simple will ensure you do not confuse or alienate any of your visitors.

If you would like to discuss your Content Writing needs please get in touch info@hotwaffleseo.co.uk

Most companies have some sort of website nowadays whether a brochure style site or fully trading shop. E-commerce has become an accessible way for individuals to make money from home either as a main business venture or  in addition to their main income. With large wholesalers offering affiliate schemes and drop ship systems website owners do not even have to hold stock. What is surprising however is that despite many overcrowded market places only 5% of online companies understand or use SEO (search engine optimisation).

So why are some companies more successful than others on the Internet? The answer is that they are implementing a Search Engine Optimisation Plan. SEO is now a requirement for any size business and the only difference between large and small organisations will be the budget and personnel involved in promoting the prominence of the company’s website. I have worked with large and small organisations alike and have seen plenty of ways in which the David takes on Goliath in ways that have not been available through traditional advertising and marketing tools. The Internet is now a shopping and reference tool for everything, the telephone book and catalogue. How can you have to rank better than your competitors? You’re among 2 billion other sites so can you stand above all others in your industry?

“My website is the dogs proverbials when it comes to design, isn’t that enough?” Well actually no its not, the design of your site is very important when it comes to converting visitors to your website but they have to visit in the first place. Imagine the most beautiful shop front anyone has ever seen with bounties never seen before on the planet to tempt the shopper but the store is on the third rock South side of the Assynt Peninsula & nobody can see it. Placing a website on the internet is akin to designing a business card, taking a boat across the Atlantic Ocean and dumping them overboard box by box hoping that they will be found by the right person. Yes design is important but without an SEO plan to complement the hard work your visitor rates will be low and conversions however impressive will only be operating on a small scale. When it comes to website promotion and marketing what goes on behind the look of your site is actually more important than the visual aspects or fancy flash technology. Getting ranked for the things that you want people to find you for has become a science but also a science in perpetual motion with changes in method on an ongoing basis. Good Seo involves constant fine tuning and walking the sometimes fine line between successful website promotion & spamming which can have disastrous results. Knowledge is the key and knowing how to use the results of your analysis will allow you to unlock the potential of your web site. Flexibility, patience, stamina, a systematical approach and creativity all combine as qualities for good SEO.