14 most important SEO tasks in order of priority

SEO can be overwhelming for any number of reasons.


Between local considerations, seeding the right content in the right
places, and various other on-page and off-page factors, it’s tough to
know where to begin even when it comes to basic SEO essentials.


What makes things even more difficult is that you can’t just start
anywhere and chip away at your work. If you want to see the most
success, it’s important to prioritize the SEO tasks correctly.


Although it’s not always publicized, prioritizing SEO tasks is
actually one of the things we see companies’ mess up most often. If you
do certain SEO tasks out of order, you’re going to spend a lot of time
and use up most of your resources to finally meet your goals.


In some worst-case scenarios you actually won’t be able to meet those
goals because you started with something advanced and skipped the
basics (without even knowing it!)


Although there isn’t an exact order to follow, it does help to split
up the most common SEO tasks into categories, starting with the highest
priority first…

#1 SEO priorities

Identify and remove duplicate content.


Nothing kills a website faster than duplicate content
issues. It’s confusing for Google bots so you won’t get any good
visibility, and even if readers did somehow make it to your website,
duplicate content is seen as spammy. Get rid of this immediately so you
can start with a clean slate.


Check navigation and UX factors.


You have to make sure your website is easy to navigate and everything
is cohesive. This has to do with the architecture and design. If you
send people to a website that is confusing, it’s far too easy to
click-away.


Make sure you have a responsive design.


In the past this may not have been such a priority, but mobile
compatibility is crucial. According to Google, more searches now take
place on mobile than on desktop, so you have to make sure your site
looks good on the small screen. The biggest and most basic way to do
this is through a responsive design.





As you may have noticed, all of your top priorities for SEO have to
do with on-page tasks. Keep this is mind if more ideas pop-up in the
future. You don’t want to be sending traffic to an unfinished or poorly
optimized website because that traffic will immediately click away (and
likely never return), so this is a crucial step to understand.

#2 SEO priorities

Setup Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.


Although you may not use it right away, getting setup with these
tools is crucial to being indexed quickly and accurately. It can help
solidify your website as real.


Make sure you’re being indexed.


You have to double check that Google is indexing your site, meaning
they’re crawling your website and you’re therefore showing up in SERPs.
To check this, visit your Google Webmaster Tools account and click the
‘Google Index’ tab to see the total number of pages Google has indexed.
Make sure it seems right!


Complete preliminary keyword research.


Understanding which keywords you want to target can help you learn a
lot about SEO if you’re unfamiliar, but it also sets the stage for many
of the other items in the next three sections (content creation and back
linking, most notably).


Create local search accounts.


The sooner you can setup local search accounts the better. This is
definitely more of a priority if you have a local business looking to
attract local customers, but it’s so easy to do, that every type of
company should get involved as soon as possible.





Start creating quality content frequently.


You want to be consistently putting out great content. This not only
gives you more options for Google to index your website, but it helps
show credibility and gives readers a way to engage. Start getting a good
rhythm going with high quality articles. That’s all you need to do at
first.

#3 SEO priorities

Create audience personas and get creative with your content.


Once you have a good content team and schedule in place, you can
start to really bring your content to the next level. This involves
creating personas to better understand your audience, writing on
keywords/ topics that are trending, and getting more advanced with
infographics, interviews, video, and more.


Create relationships with influencers.


You want to start getting your name out there in your niche
community. This is how you will eventually earn natural links and
hopefully get some great social shares out of the relationships.


Edit your title tags.


As you published content you likely wrote whatever headline you
wanted, which is fine at first, but eventually you should go back and
optimize your title tags. This will help you categorize your pages and
make sure that you’re sending the right people to the right pages. Visit
this article to learn more about title tags.

#4 SEO priority

Start working to build backlinks.


It usually surprises people that this would be so far down on the
list, but remember that SEO is not about backlinks—it’s about readers.
Focus on creating relationships, quality content, and understanding your
audience first.


Utilize SEO tools.


There are many different SEO tools out there that can help you with
different aspects of your SEO (usually best used for data). This is a
priority #4 because which tools you want to use and for what reasons can
get tricky, so it’s best to focus on this after you have the basics
down.

#5 SEO priority

Follow SEO industry news and blogs.


This is incredibly important, but following the latest news and SEO
blogs can be a little bit overwhelming if you’re a beginner. That’s why
hearing about the latest and greatest new tactics is probably better
handled after you’ve been in the trenches with all of the items in the
last four categories.

The takeaway

Of course this is not an extensive list. There are hundreds of little
things you can do to improve the SEO of your website, but above are
some of the biggest and most important tasks. What needs to be done will
also depend on your company – industry, size, goals, etc. – but this is
a great place to start. In the meantime, let us know what you would
change or what you would add to the list in the comment section below.



By Amanda DiSilvestro

How to unconnect people on Linked In.

JANUARY 23, 2016

“A healthy professional life starts with healthy relationships,” a prudent tagline on LinkedIn’s Connections page reads. But what happens when professional relationships go sour, like when you fire a problem employee or you’re no longer satisfied with a vendor’s work, and you no longer want to be associated with them on LinkedIn?

When a romantic relationship fall apart, it’s time to break up. When a career connection tanks, it might be wise to disconnect from them on LinkedIn. Think of cutting ties with someone on the 400 million-member social network like the professional version of Facebook’s “Unfriend” 

Here’s how to remove a connection from LinkedIn’s website on a laptop or desktop computer in a few quick clicks, should the need ever arise:

1. Go to LinkedIn’s home page.
2. Enter the first and last name of the person you wish to disconnect from in the search box at the top of the page. The connection’s profile will appear below the search box. Select the person’s profile.
3. From the connection’s profile page, scroll down to the blue rectangle icon that reads “Send a Message” and hover your cursor over the down arrow on the right side of it.
4. A drop down menu will appear. Scroll down and select “Remove connection” and you’re done.

To remove a connection from LinkedIn’s Android app, iOS app or from your mobile browser:

1. Launch your LinkedIn app or go to www.linkedin.com from the Internet browser on your mobile device.

2. Navigate to the profile of the person you wish to remove as a connection.
3. Tap the Menu icon on the top right corner. (It looks like three white dots.)
4. From there, select “Remove Connection.”

As with Facebook, when you remove a LinkedIn connection, the person won’t be notified that you’ve disconnected from them. However, it’s not hard to figure out, should they search their LinkedIn connections and see that you no longer appear on their list of connections.

It’s also important to note that, once disconnected, any endorsements or recommendations that the individual made of you that appeared on your LinkedIn profile will disappear. And they won’t reappear if you decide to reestablish your connection with the person at a later date.Our best advice? Think long and hard before disconnecting from someone to avoid any potential awkwardness, especially if the they're connected with you elsewhere online or in person, or if they have you on speed dial.

Get your Seo off to a flying start in 2016

Thinking about using an Seo, Social media or Web Design company you have never seen testimonials for or previous work? 

Get 2016 off to a flying start with digital4trade.co.uk

With over 50 clients to contact for testimonials and over 100 previous projects to show you what we can do, I'd say it's a no brainer! 

Digital 4 Trade: Top rank or money back offer.

Top rank or money back offer.

 

With January being slow for many businesses and just around the corner, we would like to offer you an opportunity to beat the competition with high Google rankings and a massive reach on social media.
Using the web to grow your business depends on many things, and we’ve got them covered., we formulate powerful digital marketing campaigns and get your website high rankings.

Everyone likes to get the best price on top quality services. Whether you’re looking for search engine listing, ranking or social media presence, our packages cover all of this and more for your budget and needs! Take a look at our most popular services, or contact us to see which package is best for your website!
Join us this week on any of our packages and we will guarantee you a top rank or your money back!

Whether it’s a new beginning to your online presence or you need that extra boost, we offer an ideal balance of marketing services and task implementation that focus on maximising your internet visibility and Return On Investment.

Not sure which to choose? Our Packages and Plans are designed for everyone from SME’s to global corporations. Compare all our packages offers and prices here.
Our cheap and affordable search engine optimisation (SEO) packages will help you reduce your marketing costs while improving sales, without compromising on quality. We pride ourselves in providing quality and effective solutions, this is what makes our approach different from others not just Seo in Coventry but all over the UK. We practice white-hat SEO and meticulously follow Google Webmaster Guidelines when formulating strategies that will work for your business.
Our services are tailored to be relevant in 21st century search engine optimisation and cater for new business websites and existing websites. Our services include on-page and off-page SEO geared toward providing excellent user experience with the right solution for our customers in accordance with Google’s latest updates. In addition to a full website audit, we provide three SEO packages. All our packages come with Google onsite set up, search engine submission and a dedicated SEO specialist to provide you with a personalised service and cater for all your needs. In addition, we carry out extensive keyword research and analysis for all our clients. Further details of our SEO packages and site audit are presented below.
As well as this we run a social media campaign on your behalf. This is ideal to promote an event, promote a launch, reach a new audience or simply increase awareness of a product or service. We will work with you to plan and a social media campaign that will make a real difference. During the campaign we will fully manage your social media publishing, content creation and engagement in relation to the campaign. We will use our expertise to ensure your campaign achieves the maximum return.
More and more prospective buyers are using social media to check out potential suppliers and get a feeling for their values and personality. Many business owners and marketers want to get involved in social media to help them develop relationships with this wider audience of prospects and to engage with customers on a more personal level. But often you don’t have the time, or don’t know how to get started. It’s all so confusing with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Plus, and lots of others – what to start with? What to use each one for?
That’s were our fully trained and qualified professionals come it, we do the setup, management and engagement on your behalf, leaving you to do what you do best.

Merry Christmas!
Anthony Johnson
Digital 4 Trade

What the recruitment figures say.

Staffbase Recruitment has learned that Ninety-four per cent of UK employers are operating with limited capacity to take on more work, according to the latest JobsOutlook survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

With three quarters of employers (76 per cent) signalling that economic conditions are improving, and almost half (47 per cent) saying that confidence in hiring and investment decisions are ‘getting better’, businesses are actively looking to take on more staff.

Eight in ten businesses (80 per cent) plan to hire permanent staff in the next three months, and three quarters (76 per cent) plan to increase headcount in the medium term.

Staff Base Recruitment

The regular monthly survey of 600 employers found that:

• More than two thirds (67 per cent) have either increased pay or headcount in the last year.
• Eight in ten (79 per cent) take on agency workers in order to access key strategic skills.
• Six in ten (59 per cent) have made at least one temporary worker permanent in the last year.
• Ninety-four per cent say that agency workers are paid more or the same than if they were permanent.
• A shortage of candidates is expected for permanent managerial roles (13 per cent), driving and distribution roles (13 per cent), and blue collar roles (11 per cent).
• A shortage of agency workers is expected for technical/engineering roles (16 per cent), construction roles (11 per cent) and driving/distribution roles (11 per cent).

“The demand for skilled people is especially acute in construction and engineering as a result of newly announced house building and infrastructure projects. A reported shortage of people to fill driving and distribution roles is also concerning and could cause major problems as retailers and logistics firms seek to take on staff to meet increased demand over the Christmas period.”

Staffbase Recruitment Managing Director Garry Shipman says:

“Employers across many sectors are finding it very difficult to fill their vacancies. Pay is rising as the competition for staff increases and businesses react to the need to keep hold of the staff they already have. In areas where permanent roles are particularly hard to fill, employers are turning to temporary workers in order to fill their skill gaps.

Staffbase Recruitment in Rugby has a team of professional recruitment consultants who have access to all leading UK jobs boards and we can help you to find the talent that you need to fill your permanent and temporary vacancies.

Who is Anthony Johnson?

The path to becoming a successful digital marketeer with 38.9k followers by Anthony Johnson, founder of Digital 4 Trade.

 

• A series of fortunate accidents in the life of a self-confessed geek
• Experiences from the last 12c years of Anthony’s career (don’t worry - we’ll explain the 12c years
• See his hints and tips on successful digital marketing

 

 

Who is Anthony Johnson?

We met Anthony at the BNI Inspire Chapter in Coventry early one Thursday morning a couple of months ago. Now, he did try and avoid us to start with but he needed to try much harder than simply not replying to one email. We’ve moved past that now to the point where Anthony doesn’t (visibly) wince when he sees us – I think he might even quite like us. Or maybe he just likes the opportunity to talk about himself. Probably best to ask him directly to be certain about that @AnthonyJohns0n.

So, Anthony, is a Digital Marketeer (Marketer?) who loves Twitter (it’s his favourite form of social media). His Twitter bio describes him as:

“Im just a #geek who has been doing Digital Marketing for 12 years or so, giving free #SEO and #SocialMedia advice to #Business & #StartUps@Digital4Trade #BNI”

 

and that’s pretty much how he describes himself in person too. His love for Twitter comes from his short attention span: everything moves so quickly on Twitter that there’s always something new to look at, engage with or a technique to try out. The advantage of the speed is that, if you say something wrong, it’s gone in minutes. Conversely, though, that makes it tough to be heard above the noise sometimes.

 As for the rest, he’s not a fan of Periscope nor is he a fan of all the gimmicky stuff you can find for example apps that teach you how to communicate with people because, while he might be a digital geek, Anthony knows the value of a phone call. This is also quite literally meant – a phone call just netted Anthony £10k.

His rationale for why this works? It all comes down to people: marketing shouldn’t be considered B2B or B2C but rather people 2 people. To be successful you need to engage with real people through real content on a real level. It can be easy to forget you’re in work mode or separated from others by technology but people warm to the genuine and authentic.

What is digital marketing?

According to Anthony, it comprises 4 elements: 25% social media, 25% internet marketing, 25% SEO, 25% PPC

 

 

You don’t need to ace all of them. We were given Groupon as an example. flick’s Suzee got a Groupon for her Hollywood tour of star homes (as totally irrelevant side note – Suzee was in her element with this. She knew more than the tour guide). Anthony suggested that we wouldn’t have found Groupon for searching for Hollywood Tours but I ended up using them anyway – I found them (or, more likely through the use of cookies, they found me).

Not wanting to fall into the trap of believing what we’d been told about Groupon, we did the search for ourselves. You can see the results below and, guess what, Anthony was right.

 

How did Anthony get started?

It was 12c years ago.

This means 15 years ago. He didn’t want to say he’d been in the business for 13 years (surely also a superstitious chap) so he stuck with the 12 year mark. In hindsight, moving to the format of 12a, 12b, 12c seems more entertaining.

It was an accident.

In a series of rather remarkable accidents, Anthony stumbled across internet marketing by accident. By accidentally writing a football blog for Coventry Telegraph: he sent in his thoughts on a Cov City match and, in fact, one day he did that five times and all five blogs got published. The result: an accident blogger.

What Anthony did next. 

He went off to learn more. Given what he describes as his natural ability to understand systems and a very good memory, he set about figuring out how to be successful by picking apart someone else’s system. It was probably also helpful that he’d always been intrigued by computers and had a ZX Spectrum* when he was young. Once confident that he could achieve, he put his neck on the line with the company he worked for at the time doing a deal with them which gave him 6 months to succeed. He did.

This prompted what Anthony considers to be a very successful career – he “lived the dream for a while” and enjoyed his business (I wonder how many of us can say that?). Quite ambitiously, there are still some goals left to achieve and that’s after setting up Digital 4 Trade and his previous company, the number one SEO company, SEO GO, where companies 5-times his size were using him to white-label their SEO.

*in case you're also wondering what a ZX Spectrum looks like (we had to Google it) imagine an even more basic-looking version of the BBC computer. 

Look at him in action

(and check out the difference between Google then and now!)

 

 

 

NB - this video is a few years old so the guidance isn’t in keeping with modern day best practice.

 

A trip down memory lane…

We discussed what Old School SEO was (see it in action below):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you get it? It was back when you used white text on a white background to simply add in loads of the key words. It seems so far off the SEO guidelines we’re using today.

We also reminisced about the early days of the internet and what we could remember being around at the time Anthony was starting out on this path. We’ve put together a timeline of the evolution as best we could remember but we weren’t 100% sure. What can you remember?

 

 

 

Share your memories with us

 

Top tips on digital marketing success from Anthony Johnson

 

• Love what you do – if you can’t give 110% then it’s not worth doing

• Stay hungry to learn more – with SEO the boundaries are always changing, this means you’ve got to stay on your toes to keep up.

• It helps if you’re competitive – the SEO game is about being number-one and going up through the rankings. If you’re the type of person who aspires to be the best, then the spirit of this will appeal to you more naturally (and if you want to see how flick applies this spirit to e-learning, you can find out more in our blog on 10 way reasons e-learning should be gamified) 

• A/B testing – success comes from a relentless sequence of trial and error, trial and error. You learn what works and then you keep refining it until it’s hitting the right levels of success for you.

• Communicate in the language in which people are talking to you – you can try and fight it and try to educate them but it’ll be quicker and easier to simply talk their language.

• Be committed – don't approach social media with a “have to” attitude. Engage and commit for the best returns.

 

Top tips for companies looking to outsource digital marketing

• Don’t believe everything you read online – blogging, for some, is a business, so be discerning: are you looking at a blog or a paid ad/endorsement? There’s a big difference. Or it’s a matter of wording:

The spin – “previously worked with Muhammad Ali”

The reality – did the SEO for the UK website selling t-shirts showing Muhammad Ali and/or things he said.

• Always speak to previous clients for a testimonial – don’t outsource your digital marketing until you’ve spoken to a happy customer of the company you’re considering. This will separate those who talk a good talk from those you’ll get you to the top of Google or gain a million followers on Twitter (feel free to substitute for your own personal goal)

• Only buy a .co.uk domain if you also buy the .com domain – within 12 months you won’t be able to use the .co.uk site if you don’t own the .com site.

• Follow the progress/growth throughout a SEO project – don’t wait until the end of the project to calculate as you can track things as you go through. Social media engagement in the early days can help initially while other stuff kicks in. Be cautious about measuring certain stats in isolation eg traffic volume as there’s nothing to ensure that it’s the right traffic for your company/product. The key metric is conversions.

 

Just for fun!

Apple vs Google – Apple for hands on hardware/kit, Google for the virtual world

Tea vs Coffee – Tea

Cats vs Dogs – Dogs

 

and that's it for the latest in our guest blog series. Thanks for taking part, Anthony. Would you like to be part of it too? If so, leave us a comment below and we'll get in touch.

 

Keep Business Simple.

Ockham's Razor states that all things being equal, the simplest and most direct solution with the fewest number of steps is usually the correct answer to any problem. It's a powerful philosophy named after William of Ockham who popularized the strategy centuries ago. When I find myself at a stalemate, I often think of this age-old principle.

The problem is that business leaders and entrepreneurs like to pride themselves on their originality, intelligence and problem-solving skills. The thought of deciding on the "simplest" solution or the "too obvious" choice causes otherwise smart decision makers to bypass the right option.

Most of us are guilty of needlessly complicating business with complex spreadsheets, fancy jargon or far-sighted business plans. Here are six examples showing why Ockham’s Razor can work for you:

1. Everyone understands it.

The beauty of a simple solution is that it won't be difficult for your team members, throughout all layers of your organization, to understand the vision. The more complicated the directive, the greater the jeopardy that the message will be lost in translation as it disseminates from the top down. A clear, concise vision that can be boiled down and communicated directly maximizes your chances of everyone "getting it." This is half the battle.

2. Everyone buys in.With the increased clarity referred to in point number one, there's a far greater possibility the entire organization will rally behind the chosen direction. Never underestimate the direct correlation between people's level of confidence when they understand the message and their willingness to support it wholeheartedly.3. Your customers get it.Not only is it critical that your employees understand the vision, it's equally important that your customer base does, too. Who you are, what you do and what you stand for certainly will influence your customers' decisions. As it relates to your brand, the clear and simple message has the maximum possibility of reaching the broadest customer audience.

4. It's easier to duplicate a simple model than a complex one.

The more things that have to happen right for your business to succeed, the greater the risk. As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, enduring, outstanding companies focus on what drives their economic engines, a single ratio that highlights a single 'X' that will produce the highest return. Companies able to grow quickly are ones who have a clear understanding of what drives them. They also can replicate their successes quickly and efficiently.

5. With direct initiatives, results are easier to measure.

Overly complex strategies not only are hard to implement, they  often make it more difficult to gauge results The most successful companies have a straightforward direction, along with clear and simple measuring sticks that keep them on track.

6. Mastery is more difficult with intricate strategies.More complicated programs will always take longer to implement as well as  to master. Keeping strategies simple allows all involved to develop a quicker understanding,  thus shortening the learning curve and accelerating the time to mastery. Once this occurs, a company is ready for explosive growth.A key part of Ockham's Razor is the phrase, "all things being equal." A business leader should not treat this as a carte blanche excuse to ignore alternative options or eschew creative solutions. All ideas should be flushed out, debated and thoroughly explored.Once that happens and "if" there is a standstill between two competing strategies, it's wise to remember the old but tried and tested philosophy: Choose the simplest, most direct solution with the fewest number of steps.