Scottish inbound marketing agency, Who Dares Marketing, has been awarded coveted partner status by search engine giant, Google.
The accreditation was granted just over a year since the business was established and follows an audit of the agency’s current search advertising campaigns against criteria set by Google.
Cameron McHattie, founder, said: “Receiving Google Partner status is the culmination of 12 months of hard work and ensuring that every campaign we run for our clients delivers the maximum value possible. Google set a pretty high bar when evaluating whether a company should be granted this status, so to meet the required standard reflects our commitment to providing high value campaigns to our clients.”
Google partner status is awarded based on various criteria set by the internet behemoth including; spend, campaign performance and certifications, which require at least one person connected to the business to hold up-to-date exams for various digital marketing disciplines.
At present, Who Dares Marketing holds partner status for Google’s core search, pay-per-click (PPC), product, although the agency has plans to gain further accreditations.
Cameron added: “Search advertising is a large part of our offering in which we add value to our client’s businesses as part of a rounded marketing strategy. This also includes, content, social media and web development. The business has ambitious growth plans over the next 12 months and this accreditation should give current and future clients further confidence in our services.”
A recent announcement by the city council indicated that on average residents in Edinburgh have the highest level of disposable income of any city in the U.K.
This, amongst other positive economic indicators including low unemployment and high levels of foreign investment.
No doubt of course that the Edinburgh economy is strong and its diversity has allowed it to weather many storms (unlike say, Aberdeen?) but do these numbers actually mean we’re better off?
We’ve taken one metric – average disposable income – and measured it against inflation over the period 1997-2015 (currently published figures) to see if we are indeed getting more prosperous in the city.
Granted its one metric and so we must be wary to read to much into these results however they do make for interesting reading in the interactive charts here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/cameron.mchattie#!/vizhome/Edinburgh-DisposableIncome1997-2012/Story1
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. To some, it’s a marketing must. A guaranteed traffic generator for your website and a steady source of engagement with potential customers. For others it can be a total mystery, a black box on the scale of an Agatha Christie novel.
The good news is that there are very few things in life that are a total mystery and SEO most definitely doesn’t fall into that category. If there is one question we get consistently asked by clients it’s this: “How do you know you can improve my search rankings?” And the answer is simple. Because it’s based on an algorithm and if you broadly know the set of rules that go into said formula, well you’re well on the way to taming the Google beast.
So, in this blog, we’re going to let you in on a few of its secrets, focusing in on a small sub section of SEO, on-page factors. Think of on-page factors as the most visible aspects of SEO. To use a well-worn analogy if SEO was an iceberg, on-page factors would be the part above the sea. So, without further ado let’s run through a few key aspects of on-page SEO and how you can alter them to your benefit.
#1 – The Title Tag –
As with any marketing what people see or hear about your business is kind of the whole point of doing it in the first place and SEO is no different. Which is why title tags are so important. Essentially an HTML element located in the header section of any web page, title tags are typically what search engines display as the clickable headline in their results. The best way to think about title tags are like the spine of a book. Picture yourself in a library. What part of the book do you read before taking it off the shelf? That’s right the spine! So, if you run a website, make sure that spine (title tag) is accurate, compelling and representative of the on-page content. Do this and you’ve just earned a big tick in the eyes of search engines.
#2 – URL Structure –
URL’s are an oft over looked tool in the SEO arsenal because they are, in fairness one of its more boring aspects. Why spend time fretting over URL structure when you can be creating a mind-blowing infographic or blog post, right? But the truth is that you should give thought to it, not only because it provides helpful navigation to users but because the information contained is used to evaluate the relevance of web pages by search engines. Remember all the search engine wants to do is be confident that when it sends people through to a web page the searcher will find what they searched for. Nothing more, nothing less.
And so, when you have a URL structured like this: www.examplewebpage.com/64638q3746464 your sending a message – intended or otherwise – to search engines that you’re not willing to help users understand what they might be clicking through to or where they might end up on your website.
Sure, it can be a pain (goodness knows we know!) but spending the few minutes to construct helpful URL’s can make a lot of difference in the long run. As the saying goes; the devil is in the detail.
#3 – On-page content –
Arguably the most important aspect of SEO and the part of your website that will play the biggest role in its success – the words. So important is this now deemed in the eyes of search engines it has sprung an entire sub-category of marketing, content and inbound.
The good news is this is probably the least technical of all SEO and by extension the most accessible to non-developers and the one that if executed well can generate the greatest search engine gains. The bad news? It’s probably the most difficult and competitive way to do so.
Difficult but by no means impossible and like any other aspect of SEO if you follow some crucial rules you can give your content a fighting chance. And the good news is you already know them! Think about any website or page which really engaged you? Our guess is that it was relevant to what you were searching for, provided unique and compelling information, had ample links back to other parts of the website and reinforced the topic throughout the page. Right? Well that is essentially the key points to on-page content. No secrets, no gimmicks. Just good, solid, useful information for users.
#4 – Image alt-tags –
Despite recent product launches from Google and Apple, computers are still some way off universal image recognition and, for the foreseeable future at least, search engines will likely remain a text-only piece of software. What do we mean by that? Well just that, it has the capacity to read text-only and as pretty as the pictures on a website may be, they have no way to differentiate between an apple and an orange. That is of course, unless we tell them. And that is where the image alt-text comes in.
Ask yourself this, how many times have you hovered over a photo online and a long list of numbers and letters appear? A lot presumably. Well that is an example of poor image alt-text. Again, it might not be the most glamourous aspect to SEO but it is vitally important to an effective SEO strategy.
Remember, search engines are just software like any other and they rely on our inputs to tell them what to think and how to respond. So, if you’ve got an image of a banana on your site, label it as a banana. You’ll keep the folks at Google happy and make your site vastly more searchable for potential users.
As outlined above SEO is a large area of marketing and with updates being made to search engine algorithms all the time. That said there are some key principles that are unlikely to ever change. If in doubt put yourself in the user’s shoes and ask yourself the question: if I was on my website would it make me more or less informed about a given topic. If that answer is no – then you’ve probably got work to do. But if you’re willing then the prize is there with better visibility online, more website users and more informed customers.
If you’d like more information about SEO or inbound marketing then please get in touch with us today for a free consultation. www.whodaresmarketing.com
If there is one thing everyone loves, it’s a freebie.
That unexpected free piece of cake with coffee, the fiver lost and then found again in the pair of jeans at the back of the cupboard – we all love them. And if you’re the cost conscious owner or manager of a business chances are you love them even more!
At Who Dares Marketing we’re exactly the same and so to help you out and satisfy your inner thriftiness we’ve compiled the top 5 free marketing tools you can use for your business.
1 – Canva
Do any research into the most searched for things on Google and its a guarantee that tucked away in there will be “Free online photoshop” – it’s as predictable as day turning to night but for good reason. Photoshop is brilliant! An excellent piece of software that makes editing imagery easy and straightforward. Of course that fluid experience comes at a price and for most businesses the ends don’t justify the means hence the frequency of the above search.
Well fear not because there is an alternative and as it turns out a pretty great one. You may not have heard of Canva before now but from here on in we guarantee it will be a permanent fixture in your favourites list. Perfectly proportioned social media posts? Check. Flexible design options? Check. Download completed designs? Check. Of course it doesn’t have the depth of something like photoshop but for most small businesses it will be more than adequate.
Data is a major trend in marketing and indeed the business world right now and for good reason – it helps businesses make better decisions. A company website is a potential treasure trove of useful data but of course you have to collate that first and of course how do you do that? Well the Google URL builder is one step on that ladder and one that will help you evaluate accurately the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through Google Analytics.
Let’s say for example you have a new blog post (much like this one) and you promote that post through various channels online. If you have the one link that goes everywhere it becomes difficult to tell which area your clicks are coming from or if any meaningful actions took place as a result of the post. The Google URL builder solves this problem, putting unique parameters into each link allowing you to be able to judge exactly how effective each part of your marketing is.
3 – Hootsuite
Social media. Depending on who you speak to its the greatest thing to happen in the last 30 years or its the cause of all the worlds problems. Either way there’s one thing that can’t be denied, it’s value to businesses. After all where else can you speak to potentially thousands of customers all at once. That said it doesn’t come without its challenges with some people doing Facebook but not Twitter or keeping one channel up to date more because after all who has time to update multiple profiles? Well with Hootsuite all those pains vanish and through one simple dashboard you have control over all your profiles in one place. What’s better still is that you can post to all of them at the same time! Assuming you run 3 social media platforms you’ve instantly cut your workload by three, not bad!
4 – Codecademy
Have you ever wondered what exactly is happening when you open a web page? What the difference is between HTML, CSS and Javascript? Or how that button changes colour when I hover over it? Well wonder know more with the web’s foremost web development teaching site, Codecademy. A wealth of resources, Codecademy will have you grasping the basics of web development in no time at all.
If you’ve made it this far (and why wouldn’t you have!) you’ll notice that this is the second mention of our friends at Google this time for its keyword planner. A major tool as part of its AdWords platform the keyword planner allows you to research in great detail exactly what and where people are searching related to your business.
Notice an increase in searches for a particular product and service and you can run a campaign targeting these potential customers. It’s also a good tool for looking at trends and can be used to make informed decisions about what customers are interested in allowing you to plan activity in advance.
So there you have it, the top 5 free marketing tools for your business. At Who Dares Marketing we specialise in creating compelling, content oriented, data driven inbound marketing campaigns.
If you you have any questions or would like more information please get in touch today on 07837008301 or by visiting our website at www.whodaresmarketing.com
