If you thought that GMB was shorthand for a trade union, think again! In the modern age it’s much more likely to be a reference to Google My Business.

You may feel that people “google” your business all the time, but do they always find you? Google’s free product Google My Business (GMB) is incredibly useful for helping people discover you and for putting your name on the first page of search results. 

So, yes you do want to be on Google My Business.

When you click on one of the named business it will take you through to their individual GMB listing, containing more information including a location map and often a photo, video, blog and lots of useful info.

1. Achieving prominence in search results
A listing can help your business to stand out in search results, and can help people to find your business, whether it’s online or offline. Your objective should be to get into the top 3 search results, which is where factors such as review scores are important.

2. Local search for local services
If you want to improve your chances in local search results, then a GMB listing is the key. Research shows that 46% of all searches are for local businesses while the “3 pack” format of results now appears in 93% of all local searches, so you have to be there!

3. Searching on your mobile
Most local search is now done on smart phones and GMB listings dominate mobile search results.

4. Make it easy for customers to find you
GMB listings provide a quick snapshot of your business. Maps, opening times, images and reviews all help searchers quickly decide whether they should visit you.

5. Think about your competition
If you’re annoyed that your competitors always appear in searches and you don’t, it’s because they have a GMB listing. Something as simple as that will mean they’re getting some of your business, unless you get on GMB yourself.

6. Gives you credibility
Users are accustomed to seeing these profiles, and it can lend some credibility to your business. Listings look professional and provide key information that helps people to decide whether you’re a credible business or not.

7. GMB has amazing features
Google are constantly updating their GMB features, so you can now add all kinds of fabulous elements to your listing, not just photos but videos too. Videos are a great way of educating customers and really help them make buying decisions.

As with everything on the internet it pays to keep your GMB listing fresh, so make sure to add seasonal special offers, events information, and to add regular blog posts. They all help in making you easier to find and to ensure you appear in the “3 pack”.

8. Free and Easy
Google My Business is free and easy to set up, but if you don’t have the time or feel you don’t have the skills it’s second nature to our digital whizz kids at Perfect Layout. 

If you are unsure or don't have the time to set up your GMB, give us a call, we can help you get your business visible online.​​

This month’s regular bi-monthly blog feature sees Perfect Layout talking to an established business based in Romford. We believe that learning from others and how they run their business is the key to increasing one’s overall knowledge.

Even if the sector of the business isn’t like yours, it’s the management and processes employed by that company that can resonate and lead you to improving the systems that you have.

We are passionate about promoting the fantastic, successful growing companies that exist right here on our Essex doorstep.

Keep reading to find out more about this month's business under the spotlight - Crafty Arts.

Perfect Layout recently sponsored Havering Museum's Rom Skatepark exhibition. Above is an image of the newspaper article featured in the Romford Recorder.

Christine Huntingford, one of the founders of Perfect Layout says "We are proud to be associated with Havering Museum, and we sponsored this particular event, as it bridges the old and the new, and attracts a mixed age group of visitors." 

The exhibition was held in March/April 2019.

To find out future events at the museum visit www.haveringmuseum.org

Great content can help you build trust with your leads and customers. When consumers read your content, they start to develop an opinion of your brand. If the content that they find is engaging, educational and valuable, then they will start to think the same things about your business. The more value you can provide with your content, the easier it will be to build trust with your target audience.

Publishing collaborated content or sharing your content with influencers also helps you further build trust within your target market.
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Writing more meaningful, or optimised, content is always good for SEO. With this practice, you have the chances of ranking in search engines for more keywords. An optimised article can rank for various keywords. 

Here’s a tip: It is difficult to rank on popular keywords like ‘insurance’. Try to select long tail keywords. Example ‘workers' accident compensation insurance’ - there aren’t many firms who are trying to rank for these niches. Learn more about long tail keywords for SEO.

Content is where you express the service or the product you are offering. Use more than text to provide good content. Can you create an explainer videos or do you have relevant images will create better content overall. Edits and changes also serve as a freshness factor and help you better your rankings.

Here’s a Tip: Don’t write many articles or pages on the same topic. Try to find a way to combine them and create a concise article. Higher ranks in many keywords, increases Domain Authority.

If you need help with your content marketing strategy, give Perfect Layout a call. Our team of digital marketing gurus are waiting to hear about your business.

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Today, 21 March 2019 sees the world celebrate hypnobirthing. Mums, hypnobirthing practitioners, midwives and other health care providers come together to connect, support and share their hypnobirthing stories and experiences.

Here is a message from World Hypnobirthing Day's Facebook group:

There are 3 ways in which you can be apart of this special day:
1. Share the details of this day far and wide so that we can create more 'Hypnobirthing Hype' and awareness.
2. Whether your a Hypnobirthing teacher or a Hypnobirthing Mum/Dad host a 'Hypnobirthing Huddle' and celebrate in style ( that means with cake!)
3. A special recording will be uploaded to this page on the day for you to listen to so get comfy, dim the lights, put on your favorite smell, close your eyes and enjoy. We look forward to celebrating this very special day with you soon and thanks for sharing with your friends,clients and colleagues. World Hypnobirthing Day 2019.

So if you know someone how is pregnant, share this post on this special day and let them know about hyypnobirthing and how it can help them prepare for labour and birth.

#worldhypnobirthingday

Each topic was important and relevant to running your own business. There were knowledgeable women answering questions and pertinent points being raised by the audience.
 
We never tire of saying how important it is to network. To mingle with like-minded people, form new business relationships and give (and receive) help from others on your business journey. So take the plunge and do something about promoting your brand and services by attending a networking event today!
 
YBC runs regular meet-ups across the UK, so you are likely to have one near you. Find out where upcoming events are or maybe you would like to become a member…
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Every alternate month, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing goes out to local businesses to talk about how business is. The aim is to learn and share with you the personal experiences of these business owners. What is working for them and what they have learned do differently.

Perfect Layout believes that sharing knowledge is a great way to help other business owners develop. We are passionate about promoting the awesome, creative and varied companies that exist right here on our Essex doorstep.

Read our interview with registered baker Priya Shah.

Business name - Buttercup Cakes by Priya
Owner – Priya Shah
Location – Gants Hill, Essex

Tell us a bit about you? 
I am an accountant by trade and a mum of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy. I have a passion for baking and sugar work and this has been with me since I was five years old. I used to watch my mum go to classes and at home I would then offer to help her out whenever she would let me. She made cakes as a hobby and often made cakes for friends and family helping her with both baking and sugar work.

How long have you been making cakes? 
I have been doing it for the last 5 to 6 years as a hobby; making birthday and wedding cakes for family and friends. After a night out with friends and talking about how I would love to do this as a job, I decided why not give it a go. It was in October 2017 that I became a registered baker. In the past year I have been trying to establish the business as a commercial venture, whilst still doing a full-time job. 

How is business going? 
Really well. It’s picked up much quicker than I expected it to. It started as a side project and now I am fully booked for the next two months. I now need to work out how I am going to scale the business up.

I know you make celebration cakes, cupcakes and other sweet treats. Do you have a preference?
I make novelty celebration cakes and wedding cakes. I prefer making wedding cakes because of the more intricate sugar work, personalised toppers and figurines. At the moment, I am exploring a wide range of cake styles to discover what I enjoy most.

Have you had any formal training?
Yes. I have been on various courses along the way to practise, learn and enhance my skills. Courses that I have done include flawless cake covering, creating sugar flowers and how to make lifelike figurines for cakes (focussing on moulding and colouring). It’s amazing how quickly you can hone a skill with the right tutoring.

How did you come up with your business name? 
Being in a competitive market, it was hard to come up with the right name – I’m still not sure I am there… so many bakers have taken the names that I wanted. I came up with lots of ideas that I tested with friends and family. I wanted something elegant and simple. I also liked the flower theme, because I like the sugar work with flowers. Buttercup is a pretty-sounding flower. It may still change as my company grows...who knows.

Where are your premises?
At the moment, I am doing all of it from home. Hopefully the business will grow soon to the point where I can have my own unit and be able to showcase my work. I would love a bigger kitchen and worktops from which to work from. A domestic kitchen is not quite enough. It would also be nice to separate work from home life.

Tell us about your most challenging cake…what lessons did you learn?
I recently did a scale model of a Routemaster bus, which collapsed twice. These style buses are quite narrow compared to their length. I wanted the bus to stand on its tyres, so it needed a stand that wasn’t visible. It took a while to get it just right. I had to use Dowling rods to secure it. I guess this all comes with practice. One tip I have learned from making cakes is that chocolate ganache is useful to use between sponge and icing. When this cake toppled the cake was one solid piece that simply fell onto the board – a buttercream layer may have been a different story!

There are websites that get found by people who have never heard of that business before. They stumble across these sites when they are searching for a solution to a problem or a question. These websites attract new visitors. These visitors are potential new clients, if they find information that is useful or engaging. So whether you are looking to build up a distribution list, your want to inform people of your services or have products to sell, a lead generation website is what you need. If these visitors go on to make an enquiry, through a contact form, email or phones call, and they provide their contact details and permission to get in touch, then they become a lead.

Having a website designed to bring in new contacts in various ways can pay itself back many times over. Watch the video or read more about how beneficial a lead generation site can be for your business.
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​Call Perfect Layout Digital Marketing, if you need ways of generating new leads for your business. Call us on: 01708 578 015.

Organic SEO or search engine optimisation is one of the most powerful online marketing strategies available to webmasters and bloggers. It takes a combination of high-quality content, social media presence and other factors to climb to the top of the search engine rankings for your specific keyword phrases. Without the right ingredients, your SEO strategy can actually backfire.

It all starts with the keyword phrases and the theme of your content. Without unique, high-quality content, you will struggle to find your website or blog listed on Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other search engine. According to Optimonster these are the most important SEO ranking factors:

1. A secure and accessible website
2. Page speed
3. Mobile friendliness
4. Domain Age, URL and authority
5. Optimised content
6. Technical SEO
7. User Experience
8. Links
9. Social signals
10. Real business information

 
Below, you will find the top five organic search engine optimisation techniques and a few tips to help you gain a larger web presence. SEO is no longer a world dominated by the website receiving the largest number of backlinks.

Good content
Content matters and it must be high-quality content. Low-quality, poorly written content doesn't rank very well because it doesn't provide the user with a great experience.

The goal of Google and all other search engines is to deliver the best possible search results for their users. High-quality, usable content provides the type of experience internet searcher want.

Most searchers seek information, such as a solution to their problem or a how-to type of article about something specific. When your content delivers this type of experience, you gain higher ranking on the search engines because they consider your content to be high in quality.

Use videos or images
Not all content requires a video or an image, but the use of both or at least one can greatly aid in ranking higher in the search engines. Images provide away to break up your content, give the user something to draw them in and give you the opportunity to increase your on-page SEO.

Whenever you provide a relevant image with your written content, you can change the ALT tag and the image title to match your theme. By using your main keyword phrase or a secondary keyword phrase as the ALT tag and title of your image, you score extra SEO points.

Images also provide a second benefit. Google and other search engines will list the images in the "image" search category. This means, when somebody is searching for an image and they find yours, it could potentially lead them back to your website. However, if you don't provide an image title or ALT tag, you may not get listed.
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Videos are another very powerful way to deliver content. Providing a video with your written content gives the visitor a better experience, as long as the video fits with the content. This is a very powerful way to build better organic SEO. In addition, videos tend to gain higher ranking on Google than some written content does. We can constantly find out more concerning techniques for organic search through correct searching. 

Create a blog
Websites without a blog can still rank high on Google, Yahoo and Bing, but they are missing out on one of the most powerful organic search engine optimisation techniques online today. Blogging provides the ability to target a broader subject area and cover very narrow topics within the broader spectrum.

Every blog post acts as a small traffic engine and provides the opportunity to gain more traffic from the search engines. Think of blogging this way, when you post high quality content to your blog, it's like deploying an army of individuals with a stack of business cards. Each blog post will go to a different corner of the internet and attract a different type of individual to your website.

Not only can the blog posts take over first page ranking on the search engines, but they also help you build a community. If your blog post covers topics somebody is interested in, they will subscribe to your blog. When somebody subscribes to your blog, you gain multiple opportunities to sell your products and services to them.
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Meta tag your website
Your META title, description and tags are really important to your overall SEO. Search engines use the meta data to better understand what your page or post is all about. When a search engine creates your listing, the meta data is used for the title and description showing up for your page or post. With the right title and description, you improve your SEO positioning.

Now that you know five of the most important techniques to help you get organic search traffic, it’s time for your to take action. This is not an overnight job, it takes a strategy, a plan and then dedication to keep it up regularly.

If running your business is taking up all your time and you need someone else to manage your organic search traffic for you, contact the team at Perfect Layout on 01708 578 015. ​

When a visitor lands on your site, you’ve literally got seconds to impress them and get them engaged with what you have to offer. This is the whole point of a landing page. But these days, people are so used to seeing rich media content on the internet that, quite frankly, text content often doesn’t keep them engaged.

Embedding a video on your website will not only increase the length of time that visitors stick around, but also, the number of conversions to paying customers, which, ultimately, is what SEO is all about.

Cons of using videos on a landing page
1. A low-quality video or poor video execution could possible cheapen your brand and offering
2. A video can be an overkill or a distraction when it's too long
3. An autoplay video might be annoying for users if the website is visited frequently by your prospects and customers.
4. In some instances, an image (meme, infographic, etc.) can be more interesting than a video, especially if your target demographic is less inclined to pay attention to videos.
5. Producing top-quality marketing videos will require hours of learning a new skill set.
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There are many different types of video content you can use. To give you a flavour of the different types on offer – here is a short list explaining some of them:

​call us on: 01708 578 015.
 
​email us at: hello@perfectlayout.co.uk

...or why not find out more by watching our video that explains our digital marketing services.
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SEM refers to paid search marketing in the search results. We can define SEM as serving an advertisement to a user using a search engine based in their query. For example, for a user who searches for a query, we can bid on certain keywords which match algorithmically to the user query and serve a text ad to them.

Search engine ​marketing has grown exponentially over the past decade. Google AdWords is the most popular paid search platform used by search marketers followed by Bing.​
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Social Media Marketing is a method to increase traffic and promote your content, product or
service using social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or other
social media apps. We can term Social Media Marketing as the process of using the potential
of social media to leverage the value of your business.

Content Marketing is promoting free or additional value to your targeted audience or users
that you already have. Good content either should provide information [that the user is
looking for to solve the problem], inspiration [So people can get inspired to buy or use the
product service to solve the problem.] or entertaining so that user will stick to the content for
better click through rates.

​Writing a blog, making video contents, creating a podcast can be few examples of Content
Marketing.
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Email marketing is a workhorse of digital marketing as you can deliver a highly personalised
experience, multiple times on a scale through email. The main advantage of an email marketing
is that you precisely know how many emails have been delivered, opened or clicked upon.
Tying up these numbers with revenue metrics, the numbers will have a big meaning to your
email marketing campaigns.

Example of email marketing can be sending promotional emails, email with offers or discount or
thanking customers or users for using the product or can be used to provide inspirations to try
your product or services. Some of the popular automated email marketing tools are MailChimp,
Constant Contact, drip and convert Kit.

Social media should be part of your digital media strategy, if you want your business to grow this year. As with all aspects of life, you can choose two paths:
1) to wing it and hope that the path that you follow will work out OK.
2) Set yourself goals and have a plan in place ,which enables you to carry out those steps that lead you to your goal.
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For business marketing, goal setting is a must, and within that social media should be included. Sometimes it can be difficult to define what your objectives should be. To help you out, here are some of the most usual social media goals to think about:
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