Started a business and wondering how your competitors manage to get their websites onto that coveted first page of Google? Ranking highly for search terms such as ‘personal trainer + [your location]’ can greatly benefit your business by increasing your monthly customers and improving your brand’s exposure. Combined, these changes will ultimately lead to an increase in your business’s revenue.

But how do you get your site to rank for these local search terms? Especially when your competition is equally cottoned on to the techniques and is already reaping the benefits.

Unfortunately search engine optimisation (SEO) for any industry website is not a quick, one-time process and you should be wary of any SEO company that offers this as a service. Ranking highly on Google and other search engines requires a combination of knowledge, understanding, best practice and persistence. In short, it’s a long-game, adjusted to suit ever-changing algorithms.

That doesn’t mean however that you should give up before even starting. If your business is just beginning to utilise SEO and you are looking for SEO tips to steer your site in the right direction, then the five steps described in the rest of this article can give you the necessary foundation to help Google start recognising and crawling your site.

Before You Begin...

Before you start working your way through our SEO steps it is important that you understand the basics of how Google results pages work and how they have changed in recent years. Ever since mobile technology, such as tablets and smartphones, became a common commodity increasing amounts of people are opting to conduct searches from these devices over desktop.

Google understands this and has changed the way it displays its results to provide the best system it can to fulfil the changing requirements of its users. Through developed technologies Google is also able to get a user’s approximate location based on the following:

• The user’s IP address.
• The Location History if it is turned on.
• Google Toolbar’s My Location feature if it is turned on.
• Recent locations that have been searched for.

If you have been using Google for a while you may have already be aware of the changes and if you are even more in the loop you may even have noticed the changes to Google + Local listings specifically. The new results pages for local searches (those with a place name) often include a map with pinpoints of relevant results and three businesses listed below.

You can see an example of what we mean in the screenshot below:

Where there would once be around four or five organic (non-paid) results, such as Ayrshire Spray Tan Salons in the example above, the Google + Listings box now commands that space. Studies have shown how many users are likely to explore the map function or click on the results shown in this box before exploring the results below so getting your own webpage on here is crucial to increasing visibility.

If your business has a physical address and provides products or services to a geographically targeted area, then tailoring your online goals to rank in these local searches can really become a valuable expedition.

Here are 5 steps to help you achieve that goal.

STEP 1: Claim your Google My Business listing

Last year Google made the move to create Google My Business, a unified interface aimed to help make life easier for local business and brands. Using Google My Business is crucial in helping get your business on the map, literally. Google+ pages are now managed through the Google My Business dashboard so if you already have a Google + page you will easily be able to set up a My Business page.

As a local business, a Google + Local listing is going to be one of your most important online marketing tools. The first step to getting your business showing on map results is to claim your location via Google My Business. You can do this by visiting this link and setting up an account, or logging in if you already have a Google Account.

Once you have done this you will need to choose between Storefront, Service Area and Brand as your business type. The former help you find an existing business, whilst the Brand option is reserved for those wishing to create a non-local Google+ page.

STEP 2: Verify your Business on Google

After creating your Google+ and My Business pages you will need to verify your business. Once you have set up your account you will be able to search for an existing listing using an address, or create a new one if no business exists. You will be sent a verification mail through the post (how old fashioned) although in some circumstances can be done via phone of instantly (visit this webpage for more information) which you can use to claim your listing.

Once you have claimed and verified your listing you should add images of your business and post relevant and engaging content using keywords and hashtags. You can even create a 360 degree tour, such as the example from The Berkeley Clinic below:

It is important that you keep the information up to date including your opening hours and post updates regularly. Regular posts allow Google to see you are active and this helps build authority for your business.

STEP 3: Optimise for mobile

Google have openly showed their preference for responsive websites (those which adjust to the size and resolution of different screens) and penalize websites which are non-responsive. You can check if your website it responsive here.

A responsive website has also proven a great way to decrease your website’s bounce rate as users are able to navigate more easily and don’t have to pinch the screen to access information. The need for a mobile site is imperative in today’s market and will only set to continue. Not having a responsive site will seriously limit your website’s ability to grow and rank.

STEP 4: Get to grips with the basics of SEO

As a starting point for checking your website’s SEO you can use free tools such as the Local SEO Checklist to see all the areas your website is missing. Checking all the boxes will help you to tell Google your website if a quality one and the right site for your given location. Another great way to boost your business’s SEO efforts is through producing great quality content. Adding a blog to your website offers a simple way to do this, for free.

STEP 5: Reviews = Gold Stars = Clicks & Rankings

Once your Google page is up and running you can start asking customers for reviews.

Reviews have proven time and time again to be a key influencer in click rates. Your business will need at least five reviews to get the stars showing on your results and since Google bought over YouTube many people already have a Google account setup, making the review process even more straightforward.

If you are looking for a simple way to ask your customers for reviews you could try using follow up emails after appointments or recent purchases to link clients to your page to review. If the experience is fresh in their minds, they will be more likely to fill out a review so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity and provide timely follow-up emails.

It is also a good idea to reply to reviews to help add personality and warmth to your business. If a potential customer is searching for your product or service in your area then they will often read what others have to say about their experience, good or bad. Reading a response from your business can help them get a feel for your professionalism and can also be a good way to encourage others to review. It is also important to respond to negative reviews so that potential customers can see your level of customer care.

Digital Marketing Help from The Experts

The above steps are just some ways that you can use to start improving your website’s online presence. Following them will help your business to show for local listings, a key part of search in today’s world. For more help or advice, just contact our team here at Kommand!

If you run any kind of website then it will come as no surprise that you must make your web presence accessible from mobile devices. Mobile preference for online search and shopping has already overtaken desktop in many countries and is set to sustain growth as devices become better connected and software continues to develop.

Offering your customers a smooth online experience regardless of the device they are using is an important step that must be taken to increase leads and sales, remain competitive, boost your business’s reach and build brand affinity. However taking your customer’s experience onto mobile from desktop can be a confusing process.

The question that many face when optimising for online users is whether a business should opt for a mobile app as an alternative, or alongside, a mobile-friendly (responsive) or non-mobile friendly website. The decision will depend upon the varying amounts of resources from your chosen development team so it is important that you make the right decision.

For many businesses that choose to have a mobile app, one of the main ways that they can advertise it is via a pop-up (interstitial) on their website. Of course, it is possible to advertise apps through other means however if you offer visitors an app as an alternative to a mobile site then a full page interstitial is a way to direct them to use an app instead. The interstitial usually includes a link to download the business's app from an App store. The user can then access the business’s information from the app instead of a web browser. The user can of course choose to close the pop-up and continue on the webpage if they prefer.

Mobile Apps Can Hurt SEO

There are many articles detailing the positives and negatives of mobile apps vs mobile websites with contrasting answers of what is best. However the debate has taken a new turn as Google announced last week that it would begin penalizing the search rankings of websites which choose to use pop-up mobile ads to ask users to install their app.

The search giant posted an article on its Webmaster Central Blog explaining how app download pop-ups do not provide a "good search experience and can be frustrating for users because they are expecting to see the content of the web page." The article is followed by advice indicating that websites which do not cohere to these new standards will no longer be considered 'mobile-friendly' suggesting a possible drop from top spots in search engine results pages.

Why are Google Making These Changes in Mobile Requirements?

Google's primary aim has always been to provide the best user experience it can for its visitors. Internal research carried out by the organisation was used to highlight how frustrating users find pop-up app ads, especially on mobile, with 69% of their study abandoning the webpage altogether. If you consider this research in relation to your website, this could account for as many as seven out of every 10 potential customers that you could be losing before they even make it to your website.

Google’s Way or the Highway?

Whilst it is not suggested that mobile apps in themselves will affect your ranking it is suggested that the advertising of apps in full page pop-ups will. The alternative to this, suggested by Google, is non-obtrusive banner ads at the top of a webpage which allow the user to still access the information on the page:

The news from Google does not mean that having a mobile app in itself is a negative. However the release of their study findings does back continuous advice suggesting that responsive websites are the preferred design as they provide a more user- and SEO-friendly experience than non-mobile friendly websites or a mobile, m. website which requires separate URLs.

Responsive Design Websites Improve Your SEO

The question that you now face is what the best tactic to employ for your customers. A small business is likely to have limited resources and budget to spend online. App design can be great especially for large Ecommerce stores such as ASOS or Amazon. However for small businesses or CMS websites an app may be an unnecessary, expensive addition. Responsive web design can offer the balance you are looking for to remain competitive and SEO friendly on both desktop and mobile devices.

With Kommand website builder you can have a fully mobile responsive website that can rank highly on search engines for as little as £9 a month. Our easy to use software means you can bring your site to life on your own and we offer flexible bolt-ons allowing you to add the items you need to make your perfect website. Alterntively you can work with one of the Kommand web designers to design your site and logo. Whatever your requirements are we can find a solution that's right for your business. For more information on our packages, prices and design please contact us today. One of our team will be happy to discuss your website.

What is Mobilegeddon?

Mobilegeddon is the nickname given to Google’s Algorithm Update which was launched on April 21st. The update was created to improve the browsing experience of mobile device users by boosting websites that are optimised for mobile and penalising those which are not. The update is a result of the shift to mobile device search, which has now overtaken desktop in over 10 countries. At the time, The US and Japan were the only countries of the 10 that were confirmed as having a higher mobile search volume than desktop. However, during her talk yesterday (June 15, 2015) Eileen Naughton, Managing Director and VP of sales and operations for Google UK-Ireland, confirmed the UK to be another country in this list of 10, indicating the importance of going mobile for the UK market.

Impact of the Google Update on Your SME

The Google mobile update did not have as an explosive effect as some marketers and businesses feared. Some businesses saw no change in their rankings and some even saw an improvement in their rankings without making any changes, purely due to competitors with poorly responsive sites dropping down in search results pages.

Research shows an overall decrease of 21 percent in the number of websites which are not mobile friendly on the first three pages of search engine results pages with a 17.3 percent decrease on page one alone.

If you are unsure of the impact of the Google Update on your website here is two ways that you can check:

1. Perform the Google Mobile Friendly Test – Google have created a free tool that you can use to check how mobile friendly your website is.
2. Analyse your traffic – You can use your Analytics to look over your traffic in the period before April 21st and after to understand if there was any change, positive or negative.

What is the Long Term Plan?

If your website has not been affected by the update or has seen an improvement in rankings then you should not view this as your website having weathered the update storm. The update is said to be rolled out over a number of months, with it being less than a month since it launched. It is important to make your website responsive, not only to satisfy Google algorithms, but to improve your user experience, although the two do go hand-in-hand.

Since their beginning Google have aimed to provide the best user experience possible. They have made it clear that a website providing this for their users will see a natural improvement in their rankings. If you are looking to improve your organic placement in search engine results pages then following the indications and trends that Google are adapting their algorithms for is a good idea. 

Looking for a Mobile Responsive Website?

If you are interested in creating a mobile responsive website then Kommand website builder may be able to help. All of the website development packages we offer provide a mobile optimised version, allowing you to build a stunning website and have a mobile version ready straight away. Visit our packages page and avoid getting caught in Google’s Update storm.

Google often changes its algorithms and updates to ensure user friendly service for its web surfers. Now Google is releasing mobile friendly labels which will determine if the website is mobile friendly before even visiting it.

Statistics show that 72% of users say a mobile-friendly site is important to them, because it improves search results and experience. So what are the main advantages of responsive web design to your customers?

• Text is easily read.
  Content adjusts to mobile screen size.
  No horizontal scrolling or zooming.
  Links spaced for east tapping.

Improve your business and marketing techniques by handling mobile traffic in a new way. A huge proportion of traffic is coming from mobile devices so choose to improve your SEO strategy the Google way. The new update will come out on the 21st of April, so make sure your website is mobile ready before the date.

Did you know that all Kommand.me website templates are already mobile friendly? All you need to do is add your content, pictures and videos to make your website live! If you already have a website, but it is not performing well contact our team and we will help you to rebrand your business. Be Google ready and make sure your website is ranking higher than your competition.

The Way Ahead

Consistent responsive website design gives website owners and content publishers a way forward, a chance to consolidate pages and offer digital content in a new way.

Create and improve your complete mobile site. Let mobile analytics and mobile marketing be a part of your mix. Utilise responsive web design and ensure new markets are open and all opportunities for online business taken.

Mobile Marketing Is Growing

Responsive web design encourages the growth of mobile marketing. A mobile-friendly website is essential if SEO is a part of your marketing strategy.

The importance of mobile-friendly websites increases with the growth in smartphone use. Make a change, utilise specific web design expertise and adopt a mobile friendly website.

What does Google Recommend?

Google recommends adding responsive web design to your search engine optimization strategy 2015. A responsive website will provide better user experience across various screen sizes and device types.

Responsive web design allows one website to provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes, and it also makes managing SEO strategy easier.

The majority of webmasters are familiar with the Panda and Penguin updates which have affected millions of websites worldwide. However, this mobile-related update is designed to make online navigation easier, faster and hassle-free for the mobile users.

The official launch of mobile label comes after months of detailed testing and improving. This new update created by Google is designed to help web surfers who use their tablets or mobile phones to find what they are looking for in a lot quicker manner.

What are the benefits of mobile friendly labels?

Smart phone and tablet users often find it hard to land on the mobile optimised web results. Despite the fact that an increasing number of digital marketers and business owners have started to adopt a responsive web design that moulds itself depending on the device used to access the website, these mobile friendly websites only account for less than half of the total number of websites available on the internet. By introducing this particular feature as a part of the Google search result snippets, the giant search engine aims to make life of the mobile users easier.

Landing on a non-optimised webpage can be very frustrating and time-consuming, not to mention the low conversion rates of these websites. Thanks to the new label, users can now recognize which pages to click on if they want to navigate smoothly and without any problems, when using their smart phone device or their tablet. Click here and find out more about mobile friendly web design.

What’s next?

Google has announced that it is also experimenting with a brand new algorithm designed for websites that have been properly optimised for portable device users. This should benefit both the portable device users and the website owners.

In order to rank high under this new upcoming algorithm digital marketing managers need to meet several basic requirements. For instance, they must avoid using software that is not usually used on portable devices, such as Flash. In addition, they must optimise the written content in such a manner that the website visitor can read it without having to zoom on it, and it is also important to size the content to the screen, so that portable device users do not have to waste their time trying to zoom or to scroll horizontally.

Is your website mobile friendly?

If you have a website, but it doesn’t meet the most recent Google requirements you can redesign it using Kommand.me platform. If you are considering getting a new website Kommand.me allows you to create mobile optimized and professional websites at the affordable prices. You can choose the most suitable web development package, pick your website’s theme and start building. The best bit about it is that you don’t need any programing knowledge and you are not tided into any contract. Be a designer of your own website.

Introduced on the 24th of July, 2014, Pigeon algorithm is similar to the actual pigeons that used to deliver messages to various locations. This algorithm focuses on SEO geolocation. With features that influence page rank but with improvements in auto-correcting and synonym recognition, Pigeon is undoubtedly meant for small and middle businesses that hope to be found easily via Google’s local searches.

How Can Pigeon Help your Business?

According to Search Engine specialist Chris Marentis, Pigeon is meant to assist small and medium businesses in competing with bigger companies. Using local SEO strategy, some small businesses are already enjoying the fruits of Pigeon algorithm, which truly began from August 2014 onwards. This is hardly surprising considering how mobile local searches have expanded over the five years in line with the expansion of various mobile gadgets like iPhone and Samsung Android.

What will happen before and after Pigeon?

One common feature of various US and Italian companies were to focus on using keyword in their company's domain name. The other common practice was to create scores of websites of the same network with similar content except for city names. After Pigeon, none of these features are going to work. As a matter of fact, Pigeon and Panda 4.1 may decide to penalise some of these sites. In other words, local companies are favoured by Pigeon.

How to improve your SEO before Pigeon's Official Launch in Europe?

For now, Pigeon is active in the US. But soon enough, it will be officially launched in Europe and Asia. Regardless of whether it has been launched or not, there are some things that you can do to improve the rankings of your local business. One is to make full use of Google + which is meant for local searches. Set up a Google Plus account for your business and make sure that the information is accurate.

Check all the online directories that your company has in order to ensure that contact details match your business address and name. Set up a landline if your company has not got one yet. The landline is usually registered based on a numerical prefix where it is localised. It will boost your local searches and perhaps direct web traffic to your website.

Create strong title tags and meta-descriptions filled with high value keywords to attract your desired target market. Start focusing on SEO geolocation and encouraging positive customer reviews especially of those who are located in your area. With both Pigeon and Panda 4.1 which are more pro small and medium businesses rather than large ones, now is the best time to utilise SEO strategies fully.

It may seem to some that Google intentionally penalises their website. But the truth is that there are valid reasons why Google does so. Some optimisation techniques are classified as forbidden or illegal by Google.

What are the Key Reasons for Google's Penalties?

One of the main reasons why Google may penalize your website is plagiarism. It is a number one no-no. Other than a drop in page ranking, your online site obtains a negative image in relation to search engines. The wiser thing to do would be to publish inventive and exclusive content on your blog or online site.

Another main reason for Google's penalisation has to do with abnormal keyword stuffing. Google is very strict on this considering the number of online site or blog owners that Google found with a penchant for stuffing their site. Contrary to what some site owners may think, keyword stuffing does not lead to good page ranking, at least not anymore.

Link spamming and header tag overuse are another two things that don't fall into Google's favour. Abnormal use of tags and the presence of false referrals or links that have nothing to do with the site in question are not a great idea. Link spamming only ends up in a negative image of your website. Cloaking, which has to do with using fake keywords on an online site is not taken lightly by Google as well.

How to Gain Google's Favour?

To gain Google's favour, ensure that there are no broken link referencing on your site. Dead links, which redirect users to 404s are not taken kindly by Google. Remember that in Google's point of view, an online site or blog should be user friendly or provide value to its users. Permanent redirects to 301s are recommended by Google.

In relation to this, a website's very slow response or downloading time is not in Google's good books. The same goes for hidden links or texts. You may think it is a great idea to use the same colour for some links or texts as your site's background as a means of hiding them from a site user's view. But Google would not think so.

Both robots.txt and sitemap.xml files are vital for Google's crawlers that rely on these files for learning about your site's structure (available URLs and their relevant status). By making things easier for Google, you definitely can gain a massive advantage for the rankings of your website. Another good way to earn Google's credibility is by selecting the most suitable URL for your website.

For example, choosing one of these names, greatengineering.net, greatengineering.net, greatengineering.net/index.html or greatengineering.net/home.php for your site is possible. Though they may all seem similar in a virtual sense, but in truth there are differences in terms of credits. This credit influences the main landing page's credibility.

If you would like to find out more about search engine optimization for your website contact Kommand.me team today!