​Last week, 13 July, Christine Huntingford from Perfect Layout Digital Marketing was invited to give a presentation at the Havering Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) breakfast meeting, where members and visitors attended. She thought long and hard about what to talk to them about and decided to make it an interactive session with the participants and let them know in 10 minutes, after a few simple checks, whether their website was working well for their business and whether their website and digital marketing need some real Tender Loving Care (TLC).

Christine Huntingford, CEO, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing will be one of the guest speakers at the Havering Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (HCCI) breakfast meeting this Friday (13 July). She will talk about how businesses need to invest in their website and digital marketing; in order to stay ahead of the competition. Breakfast meetings are free to members and guests are welcome too.

If you have accessed your Google My Business (GMB) listing recently you may have noticed some changes. Whilst you may think, ‘here we go again, another thing to add to my to-do list’ it is worth taking the time to update your profile and ensure that everything is relevant and fresh.

If you are a small business you will know that reaching a wide customer base can be tricky. With this free-to-use profile, invest the time to make your business shine. Be one of the leaders in this change making sure that your profile is singing your praises from the rooftops.

If you haven’t created a Google My Business listing, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing recommends that you do. Not only does it show the essence of what your business has to offer, but the new features means that this platform is more attractive than before.

Why is local SEO so important?
If you are a local business, local SEO could have a huge impact on the success or failure of your business. You can use local SEO to outrank the competition. The relevant information is accessible for everyone to take advantage of and whilst many local businesses spend their time running their business, digital marketing is usually at the bottom of their list of things to do.

For companies making use of local SEO and in the case of Google My Business, taking advantage of the new features demonstrates to potential customers that they are: staying up-to-date, that they are knowledgeable and well-informed and that they are taking strides to separate themselves from the competition. The result is that it can help secure potential customers more easily. Would you like this to be you?

So what’s new with the Google My Business Listing?

Information section
This is a snapshot of the most important information that a potential customer may be interested in The information section includes opening hours, reviews, address, phone number etc.

Company Description
Ok, so what’s so great about the description feature? Well it’s back! And that IS exciting. When Google My Business was called Google Places, the description section about your company was available, but then they took it away. Now all businesses have the opportunity to describe the wonder of their business on GMB in 750 words or less. Make sure you spend time writing a description that will attract customers to engage with you.

Messaging
In 2017, Google released a new messaging feature, which allows you to 'live message' with customers directly from the search results page. So if a customer has a quick question, when you have this function enabled they can send you a message and in an instant you can reply…talk about fabulous customer service before they have even come to you!
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If your information changes, like your business location, name, or telephone number, Google will allow you to easily make updates to your dashboard. This is another feature that they once removed but has resurfaced again and it is this tool that will help you make changes more easily.
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Videos
Yes Google My Business Photos has added video content as a feature. Posting videos on your listing can help encourage customers to stay on your listing for longer and therefore find out more about you. These videos can give you the edge to your competitors. Currently, video clips are limited to 30 seconds in length and they will feature next to the photo section.

Restaurant Menus
If the business you own is a restaurant and your listing is categorised as a restaurant (vs a café or bistro), Google have been thinking hard about you guys. Restaurant owners can now add and edit menus on their Google My Business listing. There is now a facility that will allow you to categorise the food into sections, such as starters, mains and desserts, as well as adding descriptions and prices.

Again, this is a powerful tool that can help you stand out from the crowd. Why is your restaurant different from the others in your area, what makes you special? Do you have something unique? Do you have special offers?  Remember to include as much information as you can to help you stand out and get the diners through the door.

Posts
‘Posts’ is the most exciting feature that looks to have a big impact on local businesses and their local search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. The feature will allow businesses to quickly connect with customers, both new and old, in a unique and attention grabbing way.

Posts allow you to share content with people who are searching for terms related to your business. It can be seen as a cross between social media marketing and search engine optimisation. It not only allows you to increase the visibility of your business, it also offers a way in which you can give deeper information about your services and products, that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. You can also post links to your website and include call to action buttons like ‘Buy’ or ‘Learn More’. Using Posts also helps you to get more of the organic search impressions and clicks.

When you decide to include Posts on Google as part of your local SEO strategy, remember that this task will never stop. This is another beast that will need constant feeding. However, it is worth giving it a try. What have you got to lose versus how much do you have to gain?
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If all of this just seems too much, help is at hand. Give Perfect Layout Digital Marketing a call on 01708 578015, or fill out the quick form below so we can get in touch with you.

​There are many online directories where you can list your business for free. If you choose to go down this road you may find that many of these companies will be in touch with you soon after offering you the opportunity to enhance your listing, i.e. pay for an upgrade. Dependent upon your budget, paying for an upgrade is not needed at this point unless you’re happy to do so.
 
Being listed across the internet on different online directories adds weight and authority to your business. It also indicates that your business is live and active.
 
Here are some points to remember:
 
NAP (Name, Address and Phone number)
You must be consistent across all listings with exactly the same layout. Any discrepancies can confuse the search engine algorithms and make it think that your one business is in fact, two, three or even four separate businesses. You can see how this can be perplexing and it may affect your organic search positioning.
 
Description within the listings
While it’s extremely tempting to create an introduction to your business and copy and paste this across your all of your other listings - this could penalise you. Search algorithms can detect text that is exactly written the same way elsewhere. When this happens, you compromise your organic search positioning.
 
Add personality through images and photos
Let your potential customers get a feel for what your business offers. If you have photos that are of your business’ services, use them to give your customers a sense of who you are.
 
Build out as much as you can
Each directory will enable you to add a varying degree of content. While this can be a time-consuming task initially - getting it right and enhancing your listing to the max will pay off over time. So do it well and do it once.
 
If you are busy with your business and would like help, Perfect Layout can do this for you for a small fee. Email us at [email protected] to schedule this work in with our team.

Will I lose my existing SEO when I change platforms?
If done properly you shouldn’t see any impact of changing your website to a new platform.
These are some key points, as recommended by Digital Marketing Pro:

• Setup the new website on a temporary URL
• Test new website and make sure that everything is working and there are no broken links
• Create a list of all pages from your old website
• Create page by page 301 redirections to redirect old urls to new urls
• Switch to the new website (all at once)
• Make sure that the new website is verified with Google Webmaster tools
• Use 'Fetch as Google' to check that Google can properly read the new website
• Check robots.txt
• Resubmit sitemap to Google and Bing
• Monitor your rankings

 You can read more here about the considerations to be aware of when switching platforms on an existing domain.

​Talk to your web designers about any concerns that you may have and ensure that they are following all the recommended steps to ensure that everything transitions smoothly.
 
Now you can see that changing platform, but keeping your existing domain and SEO, is a straightforward process.

As the saying goes, ‘you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure’…In our business, quite often we are told by clients that their friend or a family member was building/has built their website but:
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…they have spent months (even years) working on it and it’s still not finished
...it doesn’t look the way they thought it was going to
...it's not working the way that they want it to
 
Usually, when they are a friend or family member (and not a web designer), they invariably take an off-the-shelf package thinking 'how hard can it be?’. It’s true that building a website from one of these off-the shelf-packages isn't necessarily hard, but do they really know what they are doing? Do they really understand how to make a website perform well and not just look good?
 
There are thousands of cook books out there and it's easy to follow a recipe, but that doesn't mean the results will always be the same, or that what you make will even taste nice. There is a knack to good cooking and the same principle applies when building a website.
 
Often it's the things that look simple that can be complex underneath.

​Building a website in itself isn't rocket science, but there is a method to making a website great. A website with all the right elements in place will add value to your business. A nice looking website, may simply be aesthetically pleasing but does nothing for the growth of your business. The fundamental components you need include:
 
Superb content
By that it needs to be clear, well-written, grammatically correct and keyword rich. Content IS King. Being found in search results is determined by the search engines algorithms matching the users’ keywords with the content on the site. If your content is sparse, poorly written, not properly thought through (using a range of keywords) it is likely that you will feature low down in the rankings.
 
Search Engine Optimised headings
Headings carry more weight than body text, so ensure that your headings are relevant to what your audience is searching for. Using keyword-rich content in header tags will improve the search engine visibility for your target keyword. Mashable also recommends not having the same article title as you would for your page title, and advises how to write a good meta description.
 
Easy to use navigation
If your user experience is cumbersome and clunky, it's likely to put customers off. Make sure that you think carefully about how your users might navigate through your web site. Keep it clean and simple. Before you ‘go live’, test your website out as if you were visiting it for the first time. Can customers navigate your website easily? Is it clear and easy to understand? Could any steps be simplified?
 
High quality images, but not high resolution
There are so many stock photo agencies these days, that having low quality images is not an excuse any more. Your photos need to be clear and crisp, but they must also be saved as smaller files. Large image files will make loading your page slow, which may put people off staying on your website.
 
Calls to Action
A Call to Action (CTA) on a website is a prompt to get the user to take some specified action. It could be a button asking you to ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Subscribe’. Visually it can be a button or hyperlink. When designing your website consider how your customer might want to get in touch with your business. Are you making it easy for them to do so? Are you giving them choice; email, online forms, telephone numbers? Find out more about why Calls to Actions are important.
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​When Perfect Layout Digital Marketing works with customers, these are the core principles which we adhere to as the starting point for building their website. These fundamental steps are the foundations to having the building blocks for great online presence. Though don’t be mistaken with thinking that the work starts and ends with a website alone. Consider the website edging of the puzzle - there are still other pieces to put together before the picture is complete. Perfect Layout Digital Marketing can talk you through what other digital strategies would work best for your business.
 
Perfect Layout can of course create a website that looks great and functions well - but we prefer not to do that. Because we want your business to beat your competitors and bring in a consistent stream of genuine customers, we encourage our customers to take up a support package. Month-by-month we will monitor your website against the competition, check where it is ranking in organic search and, if needed, suggest tweaks.
 
We also apply other digital strategies to ensure that your visibility online is not just limited to your website. Are you active on the right social media channels? Is your business listed correctly in external directories?
 
If you are unsure of what your next step should be, give us a call and let’s have a chat today.

So what is a citation?
A citation, or being listed, is an online reference that contains information about a business, namely their name, address and phone number (NAP). This mention can be made on directories, like Thomson, Yell or 192, on websites like Netmums, or social media platforms like Facebook.
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Google My Business is a core platform that all businesses should try and list their businesses on as it’s key to being seen on Google Maps. It also allows customers to connect with companies directly via a search, Maps or Google+.
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Is it worth taking the time to cite your business on local directories?
Yes! It allows you to be found by a greater number of online customers and search engines like Google and Yahoo.  The more directories your business is cited on, the better, as it will increase your chances to rank highly for local searches.

​Online directories have replaced the paper versions of Yellow Pages and Thomson Local.  Whilst they still exist in paper form, how many of us actually access them to find out where the Chinese restaurants are if visiting a new town? Or which shop on the high street sells your favourite perfume? Are you really going to carry a paper directory around, just in case you need it?  Didn’t think so!
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The fact is, online directories offer the facility for customers to find out much more about a business other than just the name, address and phone number. It has the added bonus of being accessible whilst on the move via your mobile phone, laptop or iPad.

Here is a list of the information that a business may include on a directory listing:

• Categories of the business
• Description of the business
• Opening hours
• Photographs relating to the business (images or videos)
• Methods of payment accepted
• Reviews/Ratings of the business and responses to comments by the owner
• Links to the company website and other forms of social media
• Details of the business email address/fax number/phone number
• Location of where the business is on a map

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​Listing a business on a directory is not difficult, but it can be time consuming. If you choose to give it a go yourself, make sure you do the job properly. If you don’t, it could affect your income, online rankings as well as your reputation.
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Follow these tips to ensure that search engines, like Google, view you as a business that’s real and worth trusting and ultimately worth ranking:

• Be accurate with what you write. Your NAP should be consistent across all directories.
• List your business once only per directory.
• Keep track of where your business is cited. If details of what your business offers changes (hours, phone number etc), then this will need to be reflected on your citations.
• If reviews or complaints are written, have a strategy of how you’ll be alerted to this.  Good customer practice is to follow up on all comments and engage actively with people.

​Remember, citations that are accurate help your business to be discovered. Which business wouldn’t want the traffic to their website to increase?
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Have you undertaken a review of where your business is cited lately?

If you are in the process of deciding on an appropriate name for your business, you’ll soon realise that whilst registering your domain name may be simple – deciding on the right name for your business can be something of a mine-field.

Domain name registration is big business and there are many firms vying for your income. The big hitters in this market are; Godaddy, 123-reg and Ukreg who all facilitate registration as well as offering links to other services. So get clued up and read on…

Tip 1
Give your business a name that is relevant to the type of service you are offering. For example, if you are a caterer selling freshly made sandwiches to order for local offices a name like, ‘Gourmet Goodness’ might be too broad and vague. What type of gourmet food is being sold exactly? An indistinct name could slow the growth of your brand recognition and rankings.

Tip 2
A name that is too specific to your services, products or geographic area could also harm your business long term. If your 5-year strategy includes the gradual introduction into other services, products or areas, the business name mustn’t be too restrictive. If this same sandwich making business, for example, wanted to eventually offer home-made desserts, being called ’Sandwiches At Noon’ wouldn’t do. In the same way that the name ’London City Sandwiches’ would restrict growth if areas outside of the City were being considered.

Tip 3
To avoid any legal issues check with the Companies House web service that the name you have chosen is not already taken. You may also want to check that your name of interest is not the subject of a third-party trade mark. Taking the time to ensure that you are free to use your preferred name at an early stage may help to avoid unnecessary costs further down the line.
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To sum up, don’t buy a domain name simply to get ahead in the search rankings. There are many other ways for your website to be optimised that over time will see customers continually coming to you because they know your name.

Having a good website seems easy to do these days. There are many website builders on the market offering web packages at reasonable prices, but there’s a lot you need to know when it comes to ensuring that your website design has everything in place to make it work for you - especially if you want to generate more leads.
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​​1  Content is King. Make sure that you explain what your business is about, ensuring that you use keywords that customers will use when searching for you. Google can then marry up your website with their search terms. If you don’t have the copywriting skills yourself, we can help you get keyword-rich content onto your web pages.

2  Use Call to Actions. If you want your customers to strike while the iron is hot make sure that you have Call to Actions on your page. This could be your phone number, contact forms or special offers to make them act at that moment.

3  Make sure your website is user-friendly. Make it easy for people to find their way around your site. Bad navigation could lose you a lot of business.

4  Use external directories to help boost your online presence. Is the platform that you are building on mobile friendly?

5  If your website isn’t responsive Google will penalise you and your website could suffer in organic rankings.

These are 5 essential tips to keep in mind when you are looking to build your website. If you feel out-of-your-depth and would like some help, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing can offer you a free consultation and put together a digital strategy to get your business to where you want it to be. We can either look at hosting you on one of our monthly packages, or you can arrange ad-hoc work, such as re-writing your current website copy, based on our hourly fee.

If your website has already been built, but you feel like you are not getting enough new leads, it could be because you are missing out on other digital strategies that help boost your online presence; this is known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If you don’t know how to do this, Perfect Layout can help you with elements such as keyword-rich content, setting up and activating Google My Business and Bing Places accounts, as well as listing you on other directories.

Perfect Layout Digital Marketing is a web design company in Romford, Essex. While most of our customers are local to us we do have clients in London and across Essex. Whether you need ad-hoc work to help improve your website design and online presence or you would like ongoing website support, we can help you.

Give the Perfect Layout web development team in Romford, Essex a call today on 
​01708 578 015.

When a local hypnobirthing instructor set up her business, she was not aware of the importance of search engine optimisation and the use of keywords; in not only her site and but her url.

Whilst having a successful website under the business name Magical Baby Moments, she felt that having a second website, specifically called Romford Hypnobirthing would help her with local search.

Both sites are on page 1 of organic search, for key terms such as ‘Romford Hypnobirthing’ and ‘Hynobirthing in Romford’. This success on the search engines isn’t by luck, but instead because of tools and techniques implemented to deliver these results.

By adding these factors to her business, there has been an increase in local leads being generated from online searches.

If your business is struggling to be found online call Perfect Layout Digital Marketing today on: 01708 578 015.
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