LET’S GET SOCIAL THE POWER OF
Last month we looked at how social media marketing can help your taxi business flour- ish but this month we look at how you can take advantage of Google.
Whether you realise or not, we use Google every day. Whether this is to look for a local plumber for a leak, to find a last minute outfit to that wedding you forgot about or to find pro- fessional advice for your business, we are using it every single day as a solution to our problems.
The same goes for your customers. We don’t arrive in a new city knowing the name of the local taxi company and location of their main office; we have to search to find out this infor- mation and, typically, we do this on Google.
However, it is no longer just as simple as search- ing for your query on Google and being greeted by ten results in a list format. Google now gives us the option to choose from this list as well as a selection of ‘featured snippets.’ These come in the form of Local Maps, Google My Business pages, Knowledge Graphs, Reviews, People Also Ask boxes and many, many more!
Most businesses aren’t aware that they can actually achieve a position on the first page of Google and in one of these features. This can be done through implementing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on your website.
Let’s take a look into it works.
SEO is the process of getting your website ranking on the Google results page through ‘organic’ methods. SEO doesn’t use adverts. It is actually about tweaking your website and creating content that Google understands and wants to use.
How often do you look further than the first page of Google when you need something? Only when you are desperate for an answer. This is why you need to optimise your website to get on the first page of the results. Without this, you will see very few people visiting your website and generate no income through the search engines.
Optimising your website can be done in a vari- ety of ways which all follow four main principles; onsite, offsite, technical and content.
ONSITE SEO
Onsite SEO is all about making sure Google can read your website and understand exactly what it is about. We all want our business to show up in the search results when someone searches for a specific term and onsite SEO is one of the
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best ways to do it. Making sure that every page on your website is optimised around a keyword and has content supporting your business’s knowledge on the topic is essential.
OFFSITE SEO
Confusingly, not all SEO efforts take place on your own website. You need the help of other websites to improve your rankings. You need their relevance, authority and trustworthiness to help you appear resourceful in the eyes of Google.
This is achieved by prompting these websites to include a link to your website on theirs. Something as simple as this link allows Google to know you are a useful website that others are willing to vouch for.
TECHNICAL SEO
Technical SEO relates to what is going on behind the pretty pictures and information on your website. It covers a whole host of prob- lems and issues including page speed, URLs, indexing your website and much more!
This is one of the harder areas of SEO but is also the most important. Without technical SEO, Google wouldn’t know your website even existed!
CONTENT SEO
Now for the fun bit! Content SEO is where you can get creative. This is your chance to incor- porate your keywords on your website and to show Google that you are producing interest- ing, reliable and helpful content.
This can be in the form of blog posts, videos with a transcript, written interviews - anything you can think of! Without this quality content on your website, you will struggle to show Google how clued up you really are.
Having a content plan in place is essential, knowing what you will be putting up and when will give you a clear understanding of what keywords you are focusing on and which rank- ings you should be watching. Create a month to month plan of the types of content and the topic they will be based on to get you started.
Put all these principles together and then you have a faultless SEO strategy. These four ele- ments need to be your first port of call when starting an SEO strategy and are essential for getting your website to appear in top ten search results, let alone in one of the featured snippets.
SEO has one big downfall and that is the time it can take to see a difference. Google has ‘crawlers’ that go into each page of a website and investigate what it is all about. They will find out what industry your website is based around, what topic each page covers and then will review how useful this content will be to users. Upon completion of these crawls, your website will start to appear on the search engines. The easier to crawl and to under- stand, the further up the search engines you will appear!
This process can take time. No one knows the exact amount of time it takes for Google to do this. Most search marketers say, on average, it will be three months before you start to see the impressive changes that SEO can make happen but, trust us, it is worth the wait!
Search engine marketing should be an essen- tial part of every business’s marketing plan with over 87 per cent of the UK using Google. SEO and PPC work amazingly alongside each other but can also work wonders for your business as separate entities.
So next time you are writing a blog, adding a new web page or playing around with your website features, consider what it is that Google wants to see. Is the information you have added relevant and will it be of use to anyone?
While Google is crawling your website, you should get to work on your Google ‘My Busi- ness’ profile. This is one area of SEO from which you can see almost immediate results. This is what shows when someone searches for your business name and includes all of the essential information about your business.
Google ‘My Business’ is a quick hit for those customers looking to book a taxi right away as it includes a call button for smart device users. For those potential customers looking into a business partnership, this is brilliant to see in the research stage of the buyer’s journey.
Make Google your business’s latest priority and start reaping the benefits that will come from the search engine!
This is only the start of how you can use SEO to benefit your business. With so much more to explore, we’d love to help you!
Curtis Gabriel, social media experts in the taxi industry.
www.curtisgabriel.com 0191 340 3600
OCTOBER 2019
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