Making a YouTube video ‘thumbnail’ that gets noticed
If you're not a Photoshop wizard, there are online tools which make it simple.
Our Daily Articles: Complete Index 2008–2019
Descriptions: a way to make your videos work harder
As with the thumbnails, this can be done retrospectively to existing videos.
ICYMI – All the blog posts from November 2018
Our monthly listing of everything which has been in the blog in the last month...
They have your best interests at heart
Only half as many people who agree that (these strategies) work, actually do them
Does a mention without a link still have SEO value?
We shouldn't be surprised if journalists see providing links as something to avoid
Why advertising your videos is great value
You can get hundreds of extra views of a video each month for £1 a day
New website? Create a brief but make it brief
You'll need a short brief, so that they're all quoting for the same thing
Why SEO should cost serious money
This is the sort of thing which top SEO consultants can do for big companies
How to create great content with how-to content
"How To" content takes a little bit of effort to set up, but it's incredibly productive, helping existing users and attracting prospects.
The daily grind of changes to Google Ads
Obviously if you run your own Google Ads campaigns you'll want to keep up with all this
Has anyone copied your content online?
Does it matter? If the site has been 'scraped' for no apparent reason, probably not.
Domain name registration: 1 year or forever?
If you want to help ensure you never lose your domain name, pay for a decent length of registration (e.g. 10 years)
Time for an early Christmas present
I'm pretty certain that "This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See" will be worth reading
In SEO as in so much else, size isn’t everything
If you're trying to rank for something obscure, your competition may be negligible
How pay-per-click advertising has revolutionised the industry
I don't suppose I need to convince many of the readers of this blog of the advantages of PPC search advertising.
Make sure you have an up-to-date Google My Business account
Google is adding new features all the time, which you need to take advantage of
What does your business look like on Google Maps?
I think it's more important than ever to ensure your company is properly listed and described in Google Maps
Revealing the SEO secrets of websites
One or more of these browser features and add-ons may prove fascinating
How do we improve Quality Score for a keyword?
In a classic example of '80/20', the problem is easier to work on than you think
Are Business Directories still relevant in 2018-19?
If you think the traffic is worth the money, go ahead and re-book.
ICYMI – All the blog posts from October 2018
Our monthly listing of everything which has been in the blog in the last month...
Your Google results have to work really hard
The page title which is displayed needs to be written with all the care you'd put into an advert
Don’t send your best advert responders to ordinary pages
But wait a minute: why do we have to do it for every product?
The increasing need for both quantity and quality
Of course, creating a 2,000 word article isn't easy
Subject lines are more important than ever
I try to write them short enough to appear on most desktop PC screens
Don’t get carried away with ad extensions
The display of some of these extensions is starting to look really tatty
How to brief a writer for your website
Give them a steer in the right direction – they'll thank you for it
All you need to know about Search Console
With a new interface and new capabilities, now's a good time to catch up on what it can do
Should I drop the ‘www’ from my website?
It's perfectly possible to have our entire website at the 'root domain' level
All about redirects and deleting pages
If you're removing a page from your website, you should set up a 301 redirect
Spotting your Google results which aren’t delivering
As is so often the case, Google Search Console is our friend
Let Google record your incoming calls? No thanks!
Our clients needn't worry - we wouldn't touch this with a barge pole.
Getting prospects the answers they need (2)
Email can be done through web forms, but few of us trust these
Getting prospects the answers they need (1)
It would be criminal to lose someone who's that close to contacting you
Google favours pages which change with the times
There's a lot to be gained by regularly adding and updating them
Should I have an online store?
They were also convinced that they'd got many more new clients who found the company through the store
Get your search right or don’t have it at all
Your site search has to deliver results to the standard that people expect
Why it’s good to get in character
As soon as several people contribute, you need some sort of policy.
ICYMI – All the blog posts from September 2018
Our monthly listing of everything which has been in the blog in the last month...
Let’s see if your website really does its job
If your page doesn't pass both tests, resolve to do something about it
The critical signal to the visitor
It's criminal to then risk them clicking 'back' while the page loads because it looks like nothing's happening