Google supremo Matt Cutts sent the world of online marketing into a slight tizz a few months ago. In a post to his blog, the head of Google’s webspam team announced the end of guest blogging “as a way to build links”.

“Stick a fork in it”, he said, “guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy”.

So is this really the end of guest blogging? Why has Google declared war on guest blogs? If so, how does this affect website content writing? How can online marketers get ahead in a post-guest blog world

What’s Google’s beef with guest blogging?

When Matt Cutts made the announcement, it was hardly a shock to us online marketers. Matt had been railing against the deterioration of guest blogging for a good couple of years in a series of YouTube videos.

For the most part, guest blogging had descended over the last few years from a respectable and worthwhile brand-building tool to a low-quality link building method. It had merely become another way for short-termist, low-quality websites to buy links.

Is this really the end of guest blogging?

Well, no – but more on that in a minute. However, it does signify another victory in Google’s battle against low-quality content and paid link building techniques. If you’ve been paying for links from guest blogs in order to build your link profile, you’ll start to see these techniques lose their effectiveness – that’s if they haven’t already.

You just have to make sure you’re guest blogging the right way. As Matt himself said in the thread below his blog, “If you’re doing really high-quality guest blogging to get exposure or branding, that’s great”. Guest blogging shouldn’t be seen as link building for link building’s sake.

You need to engage your target audiences through interactive, interesting and innovative content so that relevant, high-quality websites. Links should be earned, not bought.

How does this affect content writing?

In truth, Matt Cutts’ war on guest blogging is great news for quality content creators like us, who have always done things the right way when it comes to website content writing.

Are you looking for snappy, exciting online content that engages your target audience and pleases the search engines? We can help. Find out more about our content marketing techniques online today.

The post Is This Really the End of Guest Blogging? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Edward Green, the luxury English shoemaker, has appointed Graphic Alliance to redesign its online presence. The new website, which is due to launch later this year, will be responsive and fully transactional.

For over 120 years Edward Green has been at the apex of English shoemaking and British craftsmanship. From Tokyo to Honolulu, discerning men look to Northampton and to Edward Green for elegant, crafted footwear. The new website will be a window into that world telling the story inherent to each shoe and exploring the personalities, past and present, that make Edward Green one of the world’s leading luxury brands.

Account Manager, Luke Bowler, said: “Our collaboration with Edward Green comes at an exciting and pivotal time in the company’s 124-year history. It is a brand rich in tradition but far from staid or tired, compelled by its ‘above all never satisfied’ attitude.”

“There is a conscious focus on customer experience and personalisation throughout the project, leveraging the qualities of the Edward Green brand that are inherently differentiating.”

Edward Green is no stranger to the creative industry having commissioned Shoreditch-based Moving Brands to refresh its identity in recent years. The end result should firmly position the business as a staple of British craftsmanship and a destination for domestic and international afficionados.

The post Edward Green to Launch New eCommerce Website appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Betty Ellis, who has become the latest member of the Graphic Alliance team. What better way to get to know Betty than with a fun questionnaire covering the essentials!

Name:
Betty

Position in the company:
Operations Manager 

Describe yourself in 3 words:
Happy, chatty, tall

What sort of music are you into?
Mostly Indie, but there’s always time for a bit Rihanna & Beyonce of course

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Elton John 

What is your biggest achievement?
I flew an aeroplane once

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
Napoleon Dynamite, just because he’s awesome

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy?
A ticket to South America 

What superpower would you most like to have?
The power to pause time -just like ‘Bernard’s Watch’

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water?
A dinghy, fine wine & factor 50 sun cream

Famous last words?
I’m never drinking again

The post Meet The Team – Betty Ellis appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Our latest project welcomes luxury menswear brand Spencer Hart to Graphic Alliance, where we’ve been entrusted to  ‘dress’ the company’s new website as they would dress themselves.

Cool doesn’t really cut it here, as Spencer Hart have dressed and impressed a versatile selection of celebrities and royalty including P Diddy, Prince William, Laurence Dallaglio and Benedict Cumberbatch. Also alluded to as the ‘Golden Globes pioneer’ by the FT, Spencer Hart has become the go-to brand for bespoke suits and attire for high-profile events. Yet Spencer Hart’s influence stretches beyond the realm of the celebrity, with new products being launched throughout the year, namely the laid-back Palm Springs collection and the much-anticipated ‘affordable luxury’ line, Spencer Hart Hollywood.

Effortlessly cool, masculine yet understated, the brand’s roots lie in their store situated on Savile Row. Unlike its competitors, however, it remains quintessentially British. The brand’s founder, Nick Hart, is influenced by alternative culture stretching from jazz legends Miles Davies and John Coltrane to David Bowie, and iconic films including Chinatown: think The Rat Pack meets Sundance festival. But ultimately Nick’s passion lies in linking music with fashion: ‘When I was about 13 or 14, I was sort of a soul boy, and I remember going to these nights at The Goldmine in Canvey Island where they’d play jazz, soul and funk. In the middle of the set, for just half an hour, they’d drop in 30 minutes of swing music, just out of nowhere. Soon, people would start dressing up just for that section of the evening – they’d arrive with a change of clothes. That just seemed incredibly romantic to me.’

With a gallery full of stunning shots to choose from, ranging from backstage at the Golden Globes fittings to exclusive LA dinner parties attended by the coolest clientele, we’re spoilt for choice as to which images to include on the new website. The new site will pay homage to the many adjectives that describe the brand’s identity: effortless, masculine, modern, clean, sharp, and understated. Expect to see latest collections, stories of the brand’s identity and a catwalk-type hub of celebrities donned head to toe in Spencer Hart. But beware those who thrive off Social Media networks to find out the latest news, as controversially Spencer Hart have requested that we create an ‘Anti-Social Media’ page: basically, they’re too cool for Facebook.

The site is expected to go live in June. An e-commerce part of the site will be launched later in the year, so keep your eyes peeled.

The post New Website for Spencer Hart, Dressed by Graphic Alliance appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Have you noticed that your website’s traffic has bottomed out recently? It can be very difficult to figure out why this sudden drop has happened, the first thing you should check is if you’ve been hit by a Google penalty. This can happen when a new Google update hits or if your website has been found to be using spammy techniques to make your site rank.

Here’s everything you need to know about why you were hit with a penalty and how to get it removed:

Why Did This Happen?

Before you can even think about trying to fix the problem you need to understand why it has happened. Think of it like trying to plug a leaky pipe with the water still running – even if you do manage to get a patch over it, after a little while the leak will simply start back up again.

Do the research to find out exactly where you went wrong. It could be that you had unnatural links, keyword stuffed your website or been spammy with your anchor text. Any of these can be penalised by Google, even if you’ve done it accidentally, which will remove you/ lower your position in the search engine results.

What Next?

Once you’ve figured out why you got the slapped wrist you will need to start making the repairs. Poor quality, unnatural links will need to be removed by contacting webmasters or by having them disavowed – in Google’s Webmaster tools you can find out who link to your site the most which can make the process of sending disavow requests much more streamlined.

Not all links need to be removed, you can use nofollow on partner sites or simply request removal if you can gain a dialog with the webmaster. It is important not to go Gung-Ho here and remove every link to your site – carry out a link audit to find out which of your links are good and ensure they stay put.

Clearing up your site copy is a much easier process, but it can be just as time consuming. Go carefully through your site and rewrite the content in a way that is meant for the reader rather than to be picked up by search engines. The more natural it looks to Google the better it will be for you – in other words less is more when it comes to keywords.

Document Your Work

When it comes to sending Google reconsideration requests, they won’t take you on word of mouth – that’s why you should record your work in Google Docs, showing exactly what you’ve done to try and remove these links. This can be a very time consuming process, but it is absolutely vital in getting your website back on its feet. So, if you’re struggling to make your website perform, get in touch with us about our SEO services today. Call, email or pop to our office in London and we’ll use our expertise to get you back on track in no time!

The post How to Recover From a Google Penalty appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Like a fish out of water.

That’s how many businesses feel when they’re faced with the prospect of standing out in the wild, overgrown, overpopulated and noisy jungle called the Internet.

Your customers are being bombarded by thousands of Tweets, Emails, Likes and Blog posts every single day from hordes of companies who all have the goal of growing their businesses and crushing their competition.

What should you do? And where should you get started?

Well whilst there are many ways to get started, one of the easiest ways to get started is a simple service provided by Google called Google Places for Business.

Click here to see a short video from Google demonstrating Google Places.

The Yellow Pages of the Internet

Another way of understanding what Google Pages is, and what it can do for you is to compare it to the old Yellow Pages.

In its heyday, the Yellow Pages was the way for a business to get found by customers. It allowed you to:

• List your business name under a relevant category
• List your business address and contact details
• And even advertise your business to the customers who were flipping through their dogged-eared copy.

However, as brilliant as the Yellow Pages was at letting its vast reach of customers know about your business…it was horrible at letting you know about your customers.

It couldn’t tell you how many people had even noticed your entry in the Yellow Pages, or what problem they were trying to solve when they skimmed across the tiny writing describing your business.

Enter the Internet and Google Places

With 2 billion searches on Google every single day, Google is extremely good at letting you know about your customers. It can tell you:

• Where they are
• What they are looking for
• The specific terms they are using to do a search
• The time of day that they are searching
• And many pieces of information that the Yellow Pages couldn’t even begin to fathom

With Google Places, you now have the best of both worlds.

You can find out all sorts of useful information about your customers…and you can share all sorts of useful information about your business with your customers.

In other words, Google Places makes it extremely easy to find your customers and be found by your customers.

And as you saw in the short video above, your business’ listing appears in Google Maps along with all your details. This makes it easy for local customers to find you as they’re searching on their mobile devices.

Get Started on Google Places Today

Unlike the Yellow Pages of yester-year, Google Places is a dynamic, powerful tool that you can use right now…for absolutely free. And with the right use of SEO, this tool could be the one thing that turbo-charges your business growth this year.

For specialist help in unleashing the power of Google Places for your business, contact us today. We are a team of Web Designers and SEO Consultants based in London, managing the web strategy of some of the world most important brands.

The post The Importance of Google Places for Business appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Amy Bowler, who is the latest intern to be initiated into the Graphic Alliance team. What better way to get to know Amy than with a fun questionnaire covering the essentials!

Name: Amy Bowler

Position in the company: Intern

The post Meet The Intern! Amy Bowler appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Hiscox Global Insight, the editorially focused web app for London Market brokers, made it onto the shortlist for the CorpComms Magazine DigiAwards 2014. The awards were held at the Museum of London last week and involved a variety of household names, from consumer brands like O2 and Thomas Cook to corporates like Barclays, TFL and Aviva.

Hiscox were nominated for two awards; “best corporate app” for the Hiscox corporate web app designed earlier this year by Browns, and “most innovative product” for Hiscox Global Insight which we launched last year.

There was some stiff competition and, whilst Global Insight fell just short of the winners circle – in a tough category – we’re delighted to have been recognised for our collective efforts.

Amongst the entertainment was illustrator Chrissy Marshall. In a matter of minutes, Chrissy had our senior designer, Andrew, down to a tee.

Many thanks to our friends at Hiscox for letting us be part of the festivities and here’s to a win next year!

The post Hiscox Shortlisted for DigiAwards appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Join us by waving your ‘shakas’ in the air, as we introduce to you Loco Sports TV; the video sharing platform designed for amateurs to showcase their tricks, stunts and general passion for all things Extreme Sports.

Users are encouraged to upload, rate, review and share their Extreme Sports experiences and each month Loco Sports offer a kudos raising $1,000 online for the most skillful and ‘loco’ rated enthusiast. The result is a single destination that caters for your every extreme sport need.

The project started with a brand development exercise that saw Graphic Alliance’s design team work closely with Loco Sports to capture the essence of the brand and produce a look and feel that works across digital and print. With the creative direction in place, the website, locosports.tv, successfully blends user generated content with eCommerce, enabling users to tag their preferred equipment for others to buy.

“It took some extreme coding to deliver a user generated video portal that works responsively across desktop, tablet and mobile,” says Kas Sinclair, who account manages the project.

“What differentiates www.LocoSports.TV from other Extreme Sports websites is the attention given to the user experience. Moving forwards we will collaborate with Loco Sports TV to continually enhance the website design and functionality, that allows lovers of sport to document and share their extreme experiences”.

From improved page load speeds to social account integration, there is plenty in store for Loco Sports. Stay tuned.

The post Extreme Sports Comes To The GA! appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

We’re delighted to announce that Aromatherapy Associates have appointed Graphic Alliance to manage its family of e-commerce skincare websites across all their markets globally.

Aromatherapy Associates have been the leading experts within aromatherapy for over 30 years. The founders, Geraldine Howard (below) and Sue Beechey, have been teaching, practicing and blending therapeutic oils all this time and in 1985 began to share their expertise within the greatest spas in the most luxurious locations.

Today the brand is famous for its award-winning, natural essential oil blends, body care and skincare products as well as results-driven treatments that are as effective as they are luxurious.

Aromatherapy Associates is present in many superb hotels, resorts and day spas throughout the world. They are also stocked in highly respected retail outlets such as Liberty, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.

Tune into the Aromatherapy Associates website for offers, updates and interactive design features – all delivered by the team here at Graphic Alliance.

The post Aromatherapy Associates choose Graphic Alliance for skincare website appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Hiscox, the small business insurer, released its sixth annual DNA of an Entrepreneur study this morning with a dedicated micro-site designed by Graphic Alliance.

The study of 3,500 small business owners in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the USA discusses the qualities that entrepreneurs share and the growth that small businesses are experiencing in 2014.

The micro-site is responsively designed, catering to tablet and mobile devices, and can be navigated using your keyboard’s arrow keys or by swiping left, right, up and down. Each page is brought to life through a combination of animated charts and lazy loading and includes social sharing to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

Graphic Alliance has also been appointed to manage paid social and search campaigns for the report.

The post Hiscox Release Sixth Annual Entrepreneurial Study appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Well it is official, Google has run out of cool animal names for their algorithm updates and so we have Pigeon. Despite being named after a diseased, winged rat, you actually should pay this update a fair bit of attention as it has completely changed local search. Google haven’t gone into a lot of detail about what has changed, but we will:

Two main updates

So far it is clear that Pigeon has made two very important, very influential changes which are:

1. They are using the organic algorithm ranking signals to provide better results to their local algorithm. Now it isn’t just about where you’re located, but traditional signals as well as this.
2. Improved Google’s location-targeting parameters for more relevant results ensuring that you receive the most relevant results based on your location.

These core changes have had a large impact on local search results and local businesses are likely to see a change in their traffic as a result, but surely this is a better thing for users? Theoretically, yes. This change should eradicate non-existent or broken business listings, meaning that the user receives the most relevant listings, however it also means that some local businesses may get pushed out of the listings.

One change that is already evident is the increased rankings of local directories, who now often show higher than the businesses they feature. A quick Google search for “Cardiff Restaurants” for example, churns out TripAdvisor as the top result, then the map carousel which followed by other review and directory sites for the entire first page. In fact, individual restaurant websites don’t show up at all until you hit the second page.

Inception of search results

The results that users are receiving from their searches are arguably worse than they were prior to this update. Now, the results you receive are search results within search results – like inception, what’s real? While it is understandable that local directories would show up when vital keywords are included, by producing these results many local businesses are missing out and users are greeted with irrelevant results.

Google results still show a map-pack of local businesses, but it takes a lot more interaction to get from the SERP to the website the user wishes to use. However, not all industries have seen a significant change like this – less location specific or more niche business searches have seen almost no change at all or changes that only feature in areas where there is high traffic for that search term.

Merging desktop and mobile

Many people have been seeing an increase in the number of 3-pack results that are shown on both mobile and desktop searches. This unity across the devices could be pointing to a merging of these algorithms with the aim to produce less results but with the ones that are shown being far more relevant. Theoretically, this is an excellent idea when it comes to local listings as you will be able to get the best quality results without having to scroll through several pages.

Overall conclusion

Google’s new algorithm has once again made it harder to optimise for local listings, but they have made it much easier for local directory sites and big businesses to rank. This isn’t something that most small businesses want to hear, but it is likely that in the next couple of months we’ll see further updates rolling out to make more subtle changes.

Don’t be put off by trying to rank for local terms though. Graphic Alliance offers professional SEO services in London and UK-wide and can help your business to stand out from the crowd and overcome the Pigeon update.

The post What Did Google’s Pigeon Update Do? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

When it comes to making your website rank, you need to ensure that your SEO is up to scratch and part of that is removing any Negative SEO. There are many different forms of negative SEO, some of which may have been carried out accidentally, while others could have been done in order to jeopardise your website.

In this article we will cover everything you need to know about Negative SEO and some of the best ways to combat it.

What is Negative SEO?

In the most basic form, Negative SEO is anything that goes against Google’s code of practice and will result in penalties being given to your website. This will depreciate the value of your website and cause your visibility in search engine results to drop considerably. Some of the types of negative SEO include:

• Paid linking
• Stealing content
• Duplicate content
• Deliberate over-optimisation
• Porn spam

Why do people use Negative SEO?

The main reason anyone would use this tactic is to downgrade the competition’s website and therefore gain an advantage within the industry. It is also done to try and suppress bad news stories about an individual or company as a form of Search Engine Reputation Management. Some cyber criminals also carry out targeted attacks for political, financial and even personal reasons.

Unfortunately, these tactics do have a tendency to work quite effectively which is why it should be your top priority to protect your website from these attacks. Before you start getting seriously worried about being hit by a Negative SEO campaign, it is important to note that:

• Sites with strong domain authorities are less likely to be affected by negative SEO
• Most legitimate SEO agencies will not engage in this tactic
• Google is aware of negative SEO and has systems in place to help them recover from this issue
• Monitoring your backlinks and reviews regularly will help to give you early warning to any negative campaigns.

How to set up a defence

There is no programme or software you can put in place in order to stop your website being attacked by a negative SEO campaign, although there are many practices that will help to ensure that you aren’t as heavily affected. By ensuring that your SEO campaigns follow the rules of Google and build a strong foundation, then it will be very obvious when negative SEO is being used.

Having a good search engine optimisation agency working for you is the best defence against spammy attacks and purchased links. There are many tactics that can be employed to counter these issues and keep your website performing well. To find out more, come and talk to us today!

The post What is Negative SEO? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

When it comes to online marketing, you need to be creative in order to ensure that people click through on your adverts. In some cases this can be very difficult, especially if you have text-only ads, but it is possible, and when done right it is almost impossible to not click through!

Here are four phenomenal examples of when PPC has been done brilliantly by using creative techniques:

#1 The Perfume Shop

One of the best bits about PPC is that it doesn’t have to be word-for-word what people are searching for. In fact, it could be almost unrelated or connected through a very tenuous link. The Perfume Shop, used the fact that they sell celebrity perfumes to push their adverts onto celebrity videos on YouTube.

Why did this work? Because the audience was right. The users were already interested in the celebrities and therefore immersed in celebrity culture which makes them the target audience for these type of adverts. The Perfume Shop received a whopping 236% ROI on view-through-conversion for this campaign.

#2 Alec Brownstein

Knowing your audience is absolute key in having a successful campaign. You don’t need to be a huge corporation or have years of experiencing in marketing, you just need a clever idea that works. Alec Brownstein was just a simple freelance copywriter who decided to set up ad campaigns that targeted the names of New York’s top creative directors. To explain further, check out this video.

Why did this work? He knew these big bosses would Google themselves and he appealed to their curiosity. This was different and outside the box thinking that people like to see – especially creative directors.

 #3 Sky News

When you have thousands of news stories on your site every day you may think that a PPC campaign would be almost impossible. However, Sky News managed to do just that by running their RSS feed through Darwin Optimiser technology which created keywords that were relevant to particular news stories.

Why did this work? Due to the very low CPCs and the high number of traffic as a result of these ads, Sky News was able to receive a 400% increase in the number of their page impressions. Low cost + high traffic = excellent PPC campaign!

#4 Ann Summers

When it comes to being a bit cheeky, Ann Summers’ pay per click agency really know their stuff – and we’re not just talking lingerie. They implemented a strategy that they quite appropriately referred to as the ‘sexy search’ which would put the Ann Summers brand in high visibility and unusual places.

Why did this work? This may not have been hitting their target audience and making sales, but it did wonders for brand visibility. All in all they received over 1.5 million impressions and got media coverage in The Guardian and The Independent all for a budget of less than £5k!

Need a creative pay per click agency who can help you to make the most of your budget? Come and talk to the friendly team at Graphic Alliance today and find out what we can do to help you reach your goals.

The post Four Fantastic Examples of Creative PPC Campaigns appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

9 seconds.

That’s the attention span of your customers on the Internet, and that’s how long you have to grab their attention and persuade them to engage with your blog post.

This means that crafting the perfect blog title is vital in order for you to compete in this 9-second attention world. And to help you, here are 9 steps you can follow to write the perfect blog title.

#1 Write for one person – before figuring out what to write, you need to know who you are writing for…and then focus completely on connecting with that one person. It might be a customer you already know, or a persona that you create to help focus your writing.

#2 Make it engaging – having decided who you are writing for, the next step is to make your title engaging. That’s a very clichéd thing to say, but the question is…how do you do this? After all, what’s compelling to someone who loves steak may not be compelling to someone who’s a vegetarian.

And so the key to making your title engaging is to think about your customer’s fears and desires…and then make a compelling promise that addresses them.

#3 Keep it short and sweet – keeping your title short and sweet is vital. Since your customer is likely to come across your title in the SERPs of Google, keeping your title under the 70 character limit guarantees that your customer will be able to read the title in its entirety.

#4 Think about keywords – the issue that trips many people up in writing blog titles is whether or not they should write an engaging title for their reader, or stuff their title with keywords that will delight the search engines. This is a tricky step. But the goal is to write a title that enables you to delight your reader using the keywords that they are searching for.

#5 Use headline templates – similar to baking, there are numerous headline ‘recipes’ or ‘templates’ that you can use to make the headline writing process easier and faster. You can find numerous headline templates using Google, and here are a few links to templates that you can use right now:

• 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
• 41 Classic Copywriting Headline Templates
• 5 Headline Templates That Grab Readers
• 15 Twitter Headline Templates That Pull Twitter Traffic

#6 Learn from others – as well as using headline templates, look at what your competitors are doing as well as others in your industry and beyond. Observing what’s working (and not working) is the fastest way to learn how to write a perfect blog post title. Here are some actual examples to inspire you:

• Do You Make These Mistakes In English?
• The Amazing Secrets of a One-Legged Golfer
• Amazing Human Computer Humiliates Wall Street for 21 Consecutive Years
• Boy Eats Own Head
• How Chipper Jones Saved Atlanta Braves Star From Epic Snowstorm Traffic Jam

#7 Write your headline first – writing a blog post without a headline is like boarding a train without checking its direction. In other words, you have no idea over where you’ll end up, or whether it’s somewhere you want to go in the first place. Writing your headline first gives you direction and lets you know where you are trying to take your reader.

#8 Write more than one headline – writing more than one headline forces you to dig deep in really thinking about what headline would engage your reader’s 9-second attention span. The art of perfecting your blog titles is found in constant writing. Or as the brilliant writer Ernest Hemingway said: “The only kind of writing is rewriting.”

#9 Get feedback – they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And the only person who gets to decide whether your blog title is ‘perfect’ is your reader. So get feedback on the headlines you’ve written from actual customers, do split-tests on the different headlines, and then learn from the feedback that you get.

If you’re looking for a team of specialists to help you with developing excellent website content, writing compelling blog titles, and engaging your customers…contact Graphic Alliance by clicking here now.

The post 9 Steps to Writing the Perfect Blog Title appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

When it comes to blogging for your business, it is essential that you are touching on things that your audience cares about. If not, the hits on your website will become fugacious and will eventually dwindle away into nothing. However, knowing what to write about to keep your audience interested can be very difficult – that is, unless you carry out longtail keyword research!

Here’s everything you need to know about how carrying out this research can benefit your blog:

More Targeted Traffic

General search terms bring in general traffic, more specific the keywords are the more specific your traffic will be. You may sacrifice numbers of hits you get on the blog, but the people that do come through will be much more engaged making them more likely to buy your products/ services or enquire for more information.

Easier to Get Higher Rankings

There is much less competition for longtail keywords than there is for generic keywords. This means that you can get your content to the front page of search results much easier than you would with highly competitive phrases. Being closer to the front pages means that they will get much higher click through rates and therefore give you better traffic than competitive terms that don’t rank as well.

Find Audience Ready to Buy

The online buying process is very long and complex. People tend to read a wide range of blogs, articles and reviews before they actually put in their details and click ‘buy’. By using longtail keywords, you can pinpoint the people who are further down this buying process and are much more likely to purchase from you. This will see your blog have a much more successful conversion rate than if you simply wrote a blog with no previous research.

Link Pages

When you write a blog, there are often things contained within it that could easily be expanded on. If you feel that there is another blog topic within the initial blog then write it and link the two – this promotes natural flow between linking content, allowing the visitors to learn more about the topic and maybe give them the extra encouragement they need to make a purchase.

Finding Niches

By doing longtail research you can find hidden niches that you previously wouldn’t have thought about exploring. This is a great way to expand your market and draw more attention towards your blog. Longtail research can bring up questions that need to be answered, find gaps in the existing product market and even narrow down if people are searching specifics like colours or sizes.

If you want to get the most from your longtail research then talk to Graphic Alliance – SEO consultants in London – about helping you to discover the search terms that will get your blog to grow and convert into sales. Learn more about the SEO services we offer here.

The post How Long-tail Keyword Research Can Help Your Blog Grow appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

It’s an age-old saying “a picture speaks a thousand words” and it is true. Even Hemingway’s immaculately descriptive writing is no match for Van Gogh’s paintings, because while the words and the imagery may be magnificent the human mind is much more easily captured by visual stimuli.

This is the reason why almost every blog, news article or advert you read has a picture to accompany it. So how do you make the most of this feature without having to pay for every photo you use? Let’s explore:

Stock it To Them

Ah, stock images, the automatic fail-safe of businesses around the world who want a photo to show who they are and what they do. But they don’t get this, instead everyone has the same pretty receptionist (source) answering the phones and the same two businessmen shaking hands (source).

This corporate imagery does nothing aesthetically except to maybe confirm to the consumers that they are probably dealing with a faceless, soulless business. But what are the alternatives?

Google’s Creative Commons

We love Google’s image search, and we love it even more when you filter by creative commons! Not only do you find pictures of what you are actually looking for, but some of them can be absolutely mesmerising! You may not find the perfect picture for everything you want, but by cleverly choosing your search terms and thinking outside the box you are bound to find an eye catching photo that will just leap off the page.

(Source.)

Licence for Modification

Some photos are copyrighted but available for use if they are being changed from the original. This works really well if you’re a wiz with Photoshop or other editing tools, as it opens the possibility up way beyond basic stock images. Some of the best uses for this are when you can’t find a picture that really stands out, but you can find what you need – this gives it the added ‘pop’ to grab attention and bring in the audience.

(Source.)

Take Your Own Photos

If you’re already a Photoshop genius then it could be extremely beneficial to take your own photos. You don’t even need an amazing camera (although it would help) as most smartphones these days offer decent image quality. In doing this you can take pictures or draw whatever it is you need to go with the article. Another added benefit is that you could take stock photos and sell them on, meaning that not only do you get images for free, but you can actually make a profit from it!

(I did this.)

Professional content writing services providers know that in order to keep their audience engaged they need to give them other things to explore other than simply words on paper. To learn more about how these services can help you to grow and expand as a business, come and talk to Graphic Alliance today.

The post A Picture Speaks 1,000 Words, But How Do You Get Them For Free? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

You’ve probably heard the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Well when it comes to selling products online, this is absolutely true. Because as eloquently as I describe the mouth-watering long-smoked Texas barbecued brisket…it’s not nearly as effective as showing you the picture below:

But it’s not just about using a picture…it’s about using the right kind of picture. And so to help you in choosing the right picture for selling your products, here’s a 6-point checklist.

#1 Background – Many products are showcased against a plain white background so that there are no distractions…the customer’s eyes are completely focussed on the product. But if white doesn’t give you enough contrast, then choose a background that allows your product to completely stand out e.g. photos of diamonds against black velvet.

#2 Lighting – Generally speaking, take your product photos in the day to take advantage of natural lighting. But if you’re looking to create a specific atmosphere so your photo strikes a certain tone…then don’t be afraid to experiment with lighting on the product you’re photographing.

#3 Natural environment – Setting the product in its natural environment makes it easy for customers to imagine themselves using the product in real life. So for example, if you’re taking a picture of shoes/clothing, take a picture of somebody modelling those things. If you’re selling a coffee table, take a picture of that coffee table in a living room to help your customer see how the coffee table would look in their own real environment. Do whatever you can to make it easy for your customer to imagine themselves using your product in real life.

#4 Sense of scale – A description of size and dimensions is good. Showing a picture of the product next to items that give a sense of scale is even better.

#5 Choose it on the big screen – Don’t make final decisions about the product pictures based on what you see on the camera screen. Often, images look different on a larger screen, and so wait till you’ve uploaded the pictures you’ve taken onto a computer screen before making any final decisions.

#6 Tell a story – Of course, all these steps add up to one thing: telling a story. The goal of product photography is to tell a compelling story to your customer that motivates them to buy what you’re offering. Use pictures of your product that make it easy for your customers to tell themselves a story of why they want to buy what you’re offering.

If you’d like specialist help in producing compelling product photos, then contact Graphic Alliance – we are a Digital design agency in London – by clicking here now.

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What are social logins? How do they work? And why are they so essential to online stores? For the answers to these questions – click here now.

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

This quote from Jeff Bezos – CEO of billion dollar online retailer, Amazon.com – highlights the most important ingredient when it comes to running a successful eCommerce site: customer experience.

The experience that customers have on your site has a directly positive or negative impact on the bottom line of your business. And so anything you can do to improve this experience is time and money well spent.

One of these ways is through a simple tool called “social logins.”

A social login, according to the dictionary, is defined as:

a form of single sign-on using existing login information from a social networking service such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to sign into a third party website in lieu of creating a new login account specifically for that website.

And this definition immediately presents 3 reasons why social logins would be extremely invaluable for an eCommerce site:

• Convenience
• Trust and control
• Word-of-mouth

One of the key frustrations when engaging with an eCommerce site for the first time is being asked to register with the site in order to make purchases from it. With social logins, the customer is able to use the social networks where they’ve already entered their details, and focus simply on purchasing their item from the site.

This is especially important when you consider the number of customers using mobile devices where entering information can take even more time, given the smaller keyboards on these devices. Most of these customers have been observed to abandon a site that doesn’t load within 3 to 4 seconds. And so a social login option will protect you from losing customers…simply because you made it easier for them to engage with your site.

Social logins also provide the customer a sense of control and trust by giving them centralised control over who has access to their information. This sense of control will endear them to your site, particularly in the current climate of identity theft and concerns over privacy.

Finally, social logins offer an amazing opportunity to tap into the power of word-of mouth. That’s because each time a customer engages with your site, they immediately have the opportunity to tweet, like or share your site with their followers on their various social networks. This network effect is a huge marketing asset to your business, as people tend to believe the recommendations of their friends over those of complete strangers.

Of course, with hundreds of social networks springing up, the question then is: which one should you focus on? Which ones offer you the best security options whilst providing you with data that you can use in your business?

These are vital questions to answer; so much so that it warrants investing in the expertise of a social media. London, New York, Melbourne, Hong Kong…it doesn’t matter where your business is. Ensuring a great customer experience is vital the whole world over.

Getting it right is worth it; just ask Jeff Bezos over at Amazon.

Want expert help in improving the customer experience of your site with social logins? Contact Graphic Alliance – social media agency, London .

The post The Importance of Social Logins for eCommerce Sites appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Everyone is talking about the importance of having a responsive website, but what are the real world implications? Here’s everything you need to know:

Back in the day computer screens used to all be a very similar size. However, times have changed and now your website can be brought up on anything from a 2 inch screen on a mobile phone to being blown up on a 90 inch projector.

But how often does this happen in the real world? What effect can a non-responsive website have on your company? This is what may happen to you if your website can’t cope with the demands of modern technology:

Big Bounce Rate

One of the first things that you will notice with a non-responsive website is that your bounce rate will shoot right up. That’s because people are landing on your site and are leaving without interacting with anything there. With a non-responsive website this most commonly happens because:

• The site doesn’t load correctly
• It takes too long to load
• Navigation doesn’t work
• Site appears cluttered
• Site is non-compatible with device
• Poor usability

What are the real world implications?

Quite simply, you will lose out on sales. Potential customers won’t be able to access your site due to compatibility issues. An increased bounce rate will make your site look less relevant to Google and other search engines which means you may not rank as well in the results. 

Your Website Won’t Rank for Mobile Searches

The biggest issue you will face with a non-responsive website is that you won’t be found easily on mobile devices – including tablets. Considering that a growing percentage of web traffic comes from smartphones and tablets, this is a huge number of potential customers that you will miss out on.  While having a mobile site can help, a responsive design ensures that it works well regardless of the size of the screen and will rank for all mobile searches.

What are the real world implications?

Your website won’t show up for mobile search, which can mean that you miss out on a huge chunk of relevant traffic. This can be particularly harmful if you are a local business.

Slow Loading

Many non-responsive websites can be very slow to load on certain devices, especially if they are trying to pull through high resolution images, videos or complex themes. This will have a direct effect on your bounce rate, but will also damage the usability of your website. Your users may be looking for something specific but experiencing long delays while trying to find the product – this can cause them to give up and look elsewhere.

What are the real world implications?

You’ll find many abandoned baskets as people will become fed up waiting for the webpage to load. In addition to this, you are likely to see a huge decrease in the number of completed sales and may experience a large increase in people phoning or emailing rather than dealing with the website.

One Website for Everything

Some businesses create two different websites in order to accommodate mobile traffic. While there are certain benefits to doing this, you can experience difficulty with duplicate content, mixed brand messages and even confusion over whether they are the same business. From an SEO perspective, you will have to build each website’s authority individually which can drastically increase the amount of work that needs to be done. With a responsive website, it is just the one site eliminating any confusion and the need to build up authority for two separate websites.

What are the real world implications?

Having one really good website is a much better idea than having two mediocre sites. You will eliminate any confusion between the two and can easily build your authority from an SEO point of view. Not only that, it is much easier to keep track of a single site than have to ensure that everything looks, works and ranks as it should on two separate sites.

If you’re looking for someone to design the perfect responsive website for your needs then get in touch with Graphic Alliance today. As a full-service digital design agency we are able to create the perfect internet platform for your business to grow on – get in touch with us today to find out more!

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