It’s probably why I always get asked what my average day looks like. So, let’s break it down to give you a better idea of what SEO copywriting really is and the reality behind the pages you read online.

The Start of My Day as An SEO Copywriter

I start by checking my to-do list to understand what needs doing and when. After replying to some emails and feeling pretty darn productive, I move on to one of the most important tasks of my working day, making a coffee.

Task One: Keyword Research

Keyword research is the backbone of search engine optimisation, so, coffee in hand, I start researching keywords for a batch of new blogs and service pages. I pray that I find terms with high volume and low difficulty that match the hilarious blog ideas I’ve come up with.

No luck, and I settle for a different angle on practically every piece. I’ll make them work.

Task Two: Actual SEO Copywriting

I add placeholders to the pages and blogs before I start, writing things like “CTA here, obviously” and “secondary keyword here, dur”. I make sure the H1 and first paragraph have that hallowed primary keyword included, and that my other headings are in place and ready to rock.

Then, I get to writing.

Obviously, I get carried away because I’m now suddenly very invested in what I’m writing, which is the different kinds of pressure washing services available in the UK.

I switch my focus to a milk frother blog, and find myself adding one to my cart. I don’t need a milk frother, but I suppose that’s the strength of compelling SEO copywriting, and the reason an SEO copywriter is a job in the first place?

I get another coffee.

Task Three: SEO Copywriter-Themed Existential Dread

Next, I start to disengage from reality because the best products might not be the best products, but simply have the best SEO. Are we all being fooled? Am I part of the problem?

This puts me into a bit of a spin, so I go out for lunch.

Lunch as An SEO Copywriter

I get into conversation with the waiter about what I do for a living. After failing to explain what an SEO copywriter is, I go with something along the lines of “I write websites so people can see them on Google” to a blank look.

Foolishly, I ask what he does for work, and he looks around, says “this”, and walks away. He doesn’t make small talk when he returns with my food.

Afternoon Task One: Competitor Research

I think about the lunch encounter a thousand times. Then, I start some competitor research for one of the blog articles I’m writing.

I find a ranking article and immediately judge their H1 tags, feeling smug. I then realise that I’ve written a similar article, which theirs is ranking higher for.

Audit time, but first, another coffee.

Afternoon Task Two: Write an SEO Optimised Service Page

Audit complete, I go back to my trusty to-do list and tackle a service page. I get into the groove with a clean structure, on-point metadata, and well-distributed keywords, and it even sounds like a person wrote it.

Because a person did write it. It was me.

I get way too into the writing and abandon my structure. I remember that people want a step-by-step guide built around search intent, not for me to run off on a tangent about the etymology of a verb I find interesting.

I re-focus and get a 90% ready draft completed. Job’s a good ‘en.

Afternoon Task Three: Optimise an Old Blog Post

Using the data from the audit, I refresh the old blog post so it can rank well with the Google overlords. This means doing all that good stuff: strategic edits using new terms, metadata rewrites, and deleting that one sentence that made me die inside on re-reading.

I then add internal links and polish off the blog with some good, royalty-free imagery and fantastic alt text. I’m as specific as possible, rather than writing something like “man smiling”.

Afternoon Task Four: Polish Off the Projects and Get Ready to Send

Time to get everything ready to send, which means loads of unnecessary final touches.

These include:

• Rewriting a headline 12 times and realising SEO copywriting is mostly arguing with yourself.
• Making another coffee, and noticing I didn’t drink my last one. Accidental cold brew, anyone?
• Spending 20 minutes coming up with a fun CTA for a blog, just to remember the client wanted me to write “the usual contact details” instead.
• Writing an email “briefly” explaining what I did for each page, which takes an hour.

Afternoon Task Five: Procrastinate

I need a fresh headspace before I click send, so I scroll through Google SERPs as if it’s Instagram. Nice featured snippet! I think to myself. I cringe.

The Final Task of The Day: Fire Off The Docs

Save the document. Attach to an email. Re-read and find two spelling errors. Edit and re-attach. Go back and remove the daft CTA I thought was cool at the time. Send to the client.

Rinse and repeat for every project I’ve done today.

The End of My Day as An SEO Copywriter

Close the laptop and hunt for the cat. The cat will make everything okay.

The post A Day In The Life Of An SEO Copywriter appeared first on POSH Agency.

How to use ChatGPT

In order to do anything with Chat GPT, you will need to actually know how to use AI. Follow these simple steps to start your ChatGPT journey:

• Visit chat.openai.com and log in (or sign up).
• Type your prompt in the message box on the homepage. This will tell ChatGPT what you want it to do.
• Once you receive a response, you can enter a new prompt, regenerate the response, copy it, or like/dislike it.

What can ChatGPT be used for?

You can use ChatGPT for a huge range of things. Plenty of people use Chat GPT on a daily basis, for small, personal tasks as well as larger professional ones. Here are just some of the uses of ChatGPT:

Explaining complicated topics

Sometimes, no matter how many times you re-read something or research it in different ways, things just do not make sense. If you’re struggling to understand a concept or a topic, you can use ChatGPT to get an easier-to-digest explanation.

You can simply give Chat GPT the prompt “explain x to me like I’m 5”, and it will provide you with an explanation much less convoluted than pages like Wikipedia. This can really useful for theoretical concepts, especially if you don’t want to pause reading a text or a brief but are stuck on one word. Rather than spend half an hour researching, simply ChatGPT it.

Solving maths problems with a step-by-step explanation

For people who simply cannot get on with maths equations, ChatGPT can help hugely. Not only will it answer your question, but it can break the answer down into a step-by-step of working out. It allows you to get an answer, but most importantly, it shows you how to do it yourself. This can be really helpful for revising students.

Creating a meal plan

Trying to decide what to eat each and every night can be exhausting. With the help of ChatGPT, however, that is a thing of the past! No more getting to 6 pm and ransacking the fridge to see what you can make – give it prompts about the kind of foods you want it to make.

For example, you could ask ChatGPT:

• “What are some high-protein meals that use red peppers, beans and cottage cheese?”
• “Can you suggest some low-fat dinner ideas that only take 20 minutes?”
• “What can I cook for someone who is gluten-free, vegetarian and lactose intolerant?”

Any of these will give you a handful of meal suggestions, allowing you to get your tasty evening meal without having to do too much thinking.

Suggesting things to do

If you’ve got a group of friends over, ChatGPT can be really helpful in picking something to keep you all busy. You could ask ChatGPT for ideas for card games, or questions to ask to break the ice, you could even try to ask it for a murder mystery game!

Using ChatGPT for business

Chat GPT has uses beyond just personal projects. You can also use it to help with a variety of business tasks. For example, it can help you to plan your time effectively, conduct market research or plan online content and social media posts.

Coming up with hashtags and keywords

Since ChatGPT can scour the internet, it can be really useful in finding social post hashtags for you to use in your marketing. Likewise, ChatGPT can be used to find keywords for you to use in your articles. All you will need is to type in a few of the keywords you already have and it will provide a list of related words.

Creating outlines for articles

Once you’ve got keywords and a title, you can ask ChatGPT to provide you with a list of subtitles and headings for a piece of content. It will keep them as closely related to the keyword that you’ve given as possible, and make sure that the article has as much information as possible.

You can then provide your writers with the outline to shape the content perfectly. Just make sure you give the outline a once over before you send it out, as sometimes it might include headings that don’t fit your content plan.

Creating business strategies and schedules

If you outline your target audience and goals, ChatGPT can help you to create a marketing strategy with content calendars and schedules. It can help you with processes, time management and workflows across many areas of your business, such as HR, sales and payroll. Within your industry, it can identify current trends and gather market research and insights. It can also carry out competitor analysis and suggest improvements. Even if it isn’t perfect, it provides a good base to work off!

When not to use ChatGPT

So if ChatGPT can do all of these things, surely you should use it for everything? It would make life easier – right?

Well, the short answer is no. Using it to create keywords, strategies, and outlines is fine. But beyond that, you run the risk of it harming your performance. Google’s algorithm, as it stands, can identify AI-generated content, and it will penalise pages accordingly. If you use ChatGPT to write content for your pages, you may find that the pages do not do as well as you’d like them to. No matter how many keywords it has or how much you promote the page. You may also find that some of the generated content has inaccuracies or irrelevant information, which can add to the spread of misinformation.

It is also important to consider that while ChatGPT can be used to craft content strategies, others may do the same. If your competitors are also using ChatGPT to create their strategies, you might be using the same strategy. That won’t work well for either of you.

Real humans still needed!

So, in summary, ChatGPT can be really useful for some things. It can reduce the number of hours you need to spend doing some things. Meaning you can get on with other things that you wouldn’t normally have time for. Or spend more time on special projects. And, of course, it is still learning. Future iterations will no doubt give even better solutions to the tasks detailed above.

However, what is clear is that using a real human being is still the way forward for other things! So, if you need help with your website, content creation, blogs, etc., we have real human writers and marketing experts. Get in touch to see what we can help you with.

The post How to use ChatGPT appeared first on POSH Agency.

Having worked with all sorts of businesses in the hospitality sector, we know what works best for businesses. Whether you run a local bed and breakfast full of charm or a hotel in a bustling city, we’ll be able to adapt our services to best suit your business needs.

What separates us when it comes to hotel websites?

Our team is passionate about their work and will work hard to help your business soar. When you work with POSH, you’re not just hiring a team of hard workers, but a team that knows the hospitality business like the back of its hand.

We have a track record of creating elegant websites that bring customers back time and time again. Our websites are built with both your business and your customers in mind. We want to make sure that your website is easy to crawl and index for SEO purposes. But more than anything, that makes sense to your customers and converts leads into sales. Booking a night or a holiday away will be smooth and easy for your customers.

Our work

If you’re not sure what we mean when we say that what we do stands out from the crowd, browse some of our work. Our clients are more than happy with the results of the work our team has done with them. And we’re excited to continue working with them to improve on those results.

Kingsmills Hotel

Kingsmills Hotel is a luxury 4-star hotel in Inverness, with luxurious rooms, incredible dining options, and spa facilities. When Kingsmills Hotel came to us, their website was not working for them. We worked together to rebuild the website and implemented a highly focused SEO campaign. Since working with us, Kingsmills Hotel’s overall online revenue has increased by 503% annually.

It doesn’t stop there, though. The hospitality industry changes all the time, and as the experts, we continue to work with the folks at Kingsmills Hotel to maintain their website. This allows us to help guide their hotel website and their business in the right direction.

Parliament House Hotel

Our team has been working with Parliament House Hotel for 11 years now. In that time, we have worked together on everything from SEO to PR, constantly adapting our relationship to fulfil the business’s needs. We understand that businesses change over time, and so we’re always happy to work on a range of projects with clients.

Most recently, during COVID, we rebuilt the Parliament House Hotel website. This was a big task after such a long working relationship focused on creating pages with precise SEO targeting! It worked out incredibly, though, with the hotel having since increased its online revenue by 280% per year.

As it stands, POSH is responsible for Parliament House Hotel’s social media, SEO, digital strategy, and newsletters. We hope to continue providing the team at Parliament House with outstanding results.

What makes good hotel booking websites?

Over our 15 years in business, we have learned what it takes to create a really good hotel booking site. Through plenty of user testing, we’ve made lots of discoveries about what works really well, and what doesn’t. We have skilled staff who can help your website and business when it comes to:

SEO management and cracking content

Getting your website to rank on SERPs can be difficult, especially when the algorithm changes all the time. Our team of highly skilled SEO content specialists keep on top of trends and write cracking content. They make sure that the clients we work with are still ranking well on Google so they get more conversions and a higher ROI.

UX web design for smooth, elegant websites

As well as our talented web developers, we have a team of UX web designers who craft beautiful, user-friendly websites. And making sure that the websites serve the business while providing the business’ customers with a great experience. They focus on building a reputation and making sure customers come back time and time again. And you can choose between a bespoke site or a budget one.

PPC advertising and more . . .

Our PPC advertising experts offer the opportunity to increase website traffic using clever campaigns. Improving revenue and keeping business flowing for our clients!

That’s not even half of it, though. To create truly wonderful hotel websites, you need experts in analytics, social media marketing, and a solid digital strategy. And a team who will work their absolute hardest for you in every aspect of digital marketing. But where do you find a team like that?

Here! We are that team. Read more about our web design services and contact us today to see how we can help your business (and website) be the destination to visit.

The post THE experts for hotel websites appeared first on POSH Agency.

All of our feedback is taken and used to shape the way that we continue to work, ensuring that we are consistently providing our clients with the best service possible.

Our services

We offer a large range of services to help businesses maintain their traffic and to generate more ROI and conversions. Whether you’re looking into UX web design, website development, digital strategy, social media marketing, analytics or SEO services, we can help. We become part of your team and support you all the way. We also offer digital marketing packages to suit all budgets.

Just like we did for Apex Hotels, who have said that our ‘guidance and support’ was ‘invaluable’. We helped Apex to strengthen their position, so much so that the company exceeded their revenue expectations in the early months post-launch. Likewise, David Brown of Rugby Plus told us how much he loves ‘the drive and enthusiasm’ our team has shown while helping his business. He recognises that ‘the continual support from POSH’ keeps Rugby Plus achieving highly successful results.

In addition to our enthusiasm, everyone on the team at POSH is highly-skilled and knowledgeable. We will ‘meet every challenge’, as Table Manors found. This leaves our clients ‘delighted with the result’ of the websites we create and work on for them. Those we represent as a PR agency are ‘thrilled to be represented by POSH’, and we have a ‘great blogger and journalist outreach’ to provide you with the best digital strategies and PR.

For more about the services we offer, take a look here and see how we can help you to improve your online presence. And take a look at our client testimonials below.

What have our clients said about us in their testimonials?

So what exactly do our clients have to say? We’ve given you sneak peaks into our clients’ satisfaction, but here are a handful of our clients’ reviews of our stellar services.

Kingsmills Hotel

We worked with Kingsmills Hotel on their website, we manage their social media and we created a digital strategy for them. The sales and marketing manager, Joyce Arbuckle said,

“I have worked with POSH for 10 years now and can highly recommend them. They deliver digital solutions for our hotel with creativity and enthusiasm. Their engagement with our product and market has been outstanding and a huge plus when creating the marketing initiatives on our behalf.”

Islay Cottages and Peatzeria

We built new websites for Islay Cottages and the Peatzeria. And we make sure they have fresh content optimised for SEO to bring in new customers. David and Caroline Thompson said,

“We have used the POSH agency for some years now, they have now created websites for two businesses for us on Islay.  You really feel they are working in partnership with you.  Virtually all of our business is online, and our bookings have increased dramatically.”

And went on to say,

“Our ranking has been consistently high since POSH started to manage our digital marketing for us.  This directly results in much higher levels of business, great company to work with.”

Persabus Farm and Pottery Cafe

We built a fantastic new website for Persabus Farm and Pottery Centre and helped with content for it. The owner, Rosemary Fletcher said that she is really happy with the overall design and layout.

She says that the website is outstanding and surpassed her website dreams! She finished her client testimonial with,

“I really appreciate all of your help, support and encouragement with my written pieces and then for the amazing professional job you have done in processing it all into such a fantastic site.”

Want to read more? Check out our client testimonials here. We hope to add yours to the list soon! Give us a call to see what our team can help you with.

If you want to take a peek at our work, look at our client list and explore their websites!

The post Our client testimonials appeared first on POSH Agency.

There are two main aspects of website design: UI and UX. UI stands for the user interface and refers to the screens, buttons, and toggles. Predominantly visual elements. Whereas UX stands for user experience, and refers to the interaction that visitors have with the website. UI has been the focus of many websites and apps for a long time. But in order to succeed, a website needs to have good UX and UI design. Here at POSH, we know how important user experience design is to websites, and we have a skilled team that works to help companies to perfect their website with excellent UX design.

What exactly is web UX design?

Web UX design considers every single element that will shape a visitor’s experience when visiting a website. It considers how each element will make the visitor feel. It aims to make the website easy to use, efficient, fast, relevant, and pleasant to use. The goal of a good UX designer is to ensure that each visitor leaves the webpage as satisfied as possible.

How does user experience design work?

Using product development, strategy, market research and design knowledge, user experience designers aim for an intelligent, seamless experience for the user. They allow businesses to better meet their online customers’ expectations and needs.

Generally speaking, web UX design is done in five stages. These stages include:

• Research and understanding
• Prototyping and wireframing
• Testing
• Launching
• Iterating

Research

In the first stage, UX designers will do user research, market research and historical analysis. This is done in order to understand the market and what your competitors are doing. The designers will map out the goals, as user personas, and explore previous iterations of the website. All of this research allows designers to set a clear path for the website’s design.

Prototype

The web UX design team will then create a prototype and wireframe. This outlines how the website will work. Much like a building blueprint. Usually, the prototype will be used to get feedback so that the team can hone the UX even further.

Testing

After that, testing can begin. A series of tests will be run to identify any existing or potential issues that may damage the user experience. The goal is for the web UX designers to spot anything that may be confusing, slow, or not worth further development.

Iteration

The new pages can then be launched, although often in stages. Any issues from testing can be fixed, and a soft launch or beta launch can be done for additional feedback if necessary. After the launch, the web UX design team will work on iteration, where they continue testing their work and researching ways to improve it. UX design is never just ‘done’ – it can always be improved!

Can UX design really improve your website?

It makes sense that UI can impact your website’s performance, but can UX really help to improve your website? Is it important?

The answer is yes. Web UX design is really important, and a great way to improve your website’s performance. The long-term effects of good UX are:

Improved reputation

Word-of-mouth marketing can be paramount in achieving more traffic when it comes to running a business. Whether you’re running a hotel website or an e-commerce site, the happier your visitors are when they use your webpage, the more likely they are to recommend it to their friends.

Someone who is kept waiting at loading pages. Or who stumbles across random, ill-thought-out pages when trying to navigate a web page is unlikely to praise the site to their colleagues or friends. When a page loads seamlessly, and navigation is easy and effortless, people are likely to be much happier!

A better reputation directly correlates to better traffic. Reputation is essentially free advertising, so it’s important to make the most of it!

Improved visitor loyalty

When visitors to your page know that they can trust your website to work time and time again, they are likely to return. By improving your web UX design, you can improve customer loyalty, and build a community of customers who visit your web page time and time again.

Obviously, customers prefer a website with good UX design. 66% of people are even willing to pay for a better experience. And 86% of customers would also say that the experience on a web page matters just as much as the services it hosts!

Improved conversions and ROI

Having improved reputation and loyalty, it makes sense that improved ROI conversions would follow. This is perhaps the most important effect of user experience design. So ensuring great UX design is a no-brainer.

In fact, studies have shown that good web UX design can increase conversion rates by as much as 200%. And can help a website to reach a conversion rate as high as 400%! A recent study has shown that every $1 invested into UX earns $100, a 9,900% ROI.

Where to start with UX design?

If this all sounds brilliant, but you don’t know where to begin with your website’s journey into the world of UX design, you’re in luck. At POSH, we have a wonderful team of UX designers who can help you to take your website to the next level. Give us a call to see what we can do for your site and user experience.

The post What is UX Design . . . appeared first on POSH Agency.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it is essentially a series of rules that help companies make sure their website pages achieve high rankings in search results. Without SEO, landing pages, articles, and blogs, would just get lost in the ether.

When a webpage follows SEO guidelines, it is much more likely to bring more traffic to the website. People searching for services, answers, or even the news, are unlikely to scroll much further than the first few suggestions on their search engine. In fact, studies have shown that the top search result on Google will receive 31.7% of the clicks, and the top three will share 75.1% of the clicks.

Anything below those top three will still get traffic, of course, but not the most traffic possible. And nobody wants that! By understanding and implementing SEO tactics, businesses, and content creators can ensure that their web pages earn a place in those top few spots.

How does SEO work?

It’s impossible to correctly use SEO on web pages without first understanding how it works. Once you know what it is you’re doing and why you’re doing it, SEO becomes much easier to understand.

The first thing you need to know is that every search engine has crawlers, sometimes called spiders, which spread out across the internet to find new web pages. When they find new web pages, they are added to the search engine’s index. Then, when someone searches for something, the search engine will check its index and provide the most relevant web pages, ordered in accordance with their deemed relevancy. Much like asking a librarian for the index cards for the section that has books on the subject you want.

SEO works by increasing the relevancy of your web page. It targets specific keywords and phrases, links, and alt texts to ensure that crawlers can accurately work out what your web page is about. But that’s not to say that your web pages should just be full of random keywords and hyperlinks left, right, and centre. In fact, SEO works best when you try to understand what your audience is searching for, and then try to satisfy those needs with your page.

The basics of being an SEO content writer

In order to effectively implement SEO tactics as a business or a writer, you will need to do some SEO training. This will help you to really grasp the importance of SEO, as well as learn all of the key skills you need to maintain a good SEO strategy. For now, though, let’s take a look at the basics of SEO management. The key elements for an SEO writer are:

Crawlability

Like we said, Google and other search engines will crawl and index your web page. If the crawlers find your webpage to be difficult to crawl, perhaps because your sitemap is faulty, or there are no internal links, then they will not be able to report all of your web pages to the index.

If you’re not in the index, you are not going to come up on the SERP (search engine result page). This can be a catastrophe regarding traffic, but fortunately, it is often easy to solve.

High quality content

Content is king! Crawlers prefer it when your webpage has a strong standard of content. This means avoiding automatically generated content, or duplicate content, as well as content that has very little substance or is just full of unnecessary key words. And the internal links to the page as mentioned above. After all, if your website doesn’t link to the page you have written, why should the search engine offer it in results? You clearly don’t think it is important enough to link to.

In some cases, pages cannot help but be ‘low-quality’, when they’re doorway pages or pages that exist for a very specific purpose. Generally, though, it is best to use few of these and to focus on high-quality pages and content.

Keyword research and using keywords

When crawling your page, search engines need to be able to determine what it is your web page is talking about. To do so, they need to be able to pick up some keywords. Too many people take this to mean that they should stuff their pages full of keywords – that’s not the case.

The best way to use keywords is to do plenty of research into what your audience is looking for. This is called keyword research. You can then use these keywords to shape your content strategy, using them sparingly in your title, heading, and meta description. And then a spattering throughout the copy. This ensures that crawlers know what your page is all about without thinking it is spam.

Backlinks

Unlike the first two SEO elements, this is not something that you can add to your web page. It is known, for that reason, as an off-page SEO element.

Having backlinks can be greatly beneficial to your website, but they can be hard to build. Backlinks are links from other websites to yours, and they can really help to improve where you rank. Search engines will look at how many backlinks you have and where they are coming from. Backlinks from high-authority websites are worth more than spam or low-authority websites. But beware! There are lots of companies out there promising tons of backlinks for a price. Avoid these. Search engines will be able to differentiate between these and genuine backlinks from relevant sites.

How to make your first step with SEO

The key takeaway from this blog is that if you want to become an SEO writer or specialist, you need to really understand the following:

• SEO
• Keywords
• Backlinking
• SERPs
• SEO strategy
• And more

If you’ve never worked on SEO before, setting up an SEO strategy can be daunting. But don’t panic. There are plenty of ways to slowly introduce yourself to it, like SEO training, or hiring an SEO specialist like us here at POSH. To get you started, here’s our Key to SEO Success.

The post So you want to be an SEO writer? appeared first on POSH Agency.

But firstly, what is it? In simple terms, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about making your website more visible on search engines like Google. The more visible your website is, the more traffic you’ll get, which can lead to more sales or engagement. SEO helps you to make sure that your website is being ‘served up’ to the right people, searching the Internet for what you are offering.

Implementing SEO techniques, and doing the necessary research can make a world of difference. But, what a lot of people don’t think about is conducting an SEO review of their website.

Too often, businesses assume that once the SEO techniques are in place, they can leave it at that. In reality, though, SERPS (search engine results pages) are constantly changing because the algorithms that the search engines use change. An SEO review of your website can help keep your website at the top of the page. And POSH is here to help!

What is an SEO review?

An SEO review, sometimes called an SEO audit, allows you to evaluate how well your website is optimised for search engines. It can be used to identify errors and any issues that may prevent the website from performing and ranking well on SERPs. After all, every business wants its website to be at the top of page one!

What will an SEO review look at?

A comprehensive SEO review will at how your website is structured. And it will look at how easy the pages are to index. It will evaluate any keywords used, competitor benchmarking, the on-page SEO, and your backlink profile.

In essence, an SEO review aims to produce an SEO report that shows you what search engines will see when they look at your website. It’s like doing a mock exam before the real thing, and shows you the areas you need to improve on! Here at POSH, our SEO experts regularly provide SEO reviews for our clients. Give us a call to find out more.

Why is an SEO review important?

If you’re still not convinced as to why you need an SEO review here are 5 things that an SEO report can help with.

Determining which keywords your pages are ranking for

You may be using a huge number of keywords on your pages. But without an SEO report, you won’t know which of them you’re actually ranking for! We can help you figure out which keywords you’re performing well for on SERPs.

This allows proper optimisation of your content. Giving you the opportunity to implement any SEO techniques from those pages elsewhere if possible. At POSH, we can help you through this process, with our SEO experts raring to get your website performing as best it can.

Showing you which keywords are actually bringing in any traffic

You can rank for a keyword without that translating into traffic (or translating into the wrong kind of traffic). An SEO review will show you which of your keywords are bringing in traffic to the site, showing you exactly which pages and articles are doing well, versus what is not.

With this knowledge, we can work on your highly-ranking pages to get them to bring more traffic in. And we can work on those pages that aren’t doing so well to improve them.

Shines a light on any out-of-date SEO practices that you’re using

The nature of the IT world is that everything changes, and pretty quickly. Search engine algorithms are no different. If you want to rank on the SERPs, you need to be able to keep up with the algorithmic changes that occur.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by booking an SEO review or an SEO audit. It will quickly shine a light on any aged techniques that are holding your website back.

Prevents your visitors from running into broken pages

There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to buy something or book somewhere only to then have the Error: 404 message pop up on your screen. Customers will often immediately click away from your page when this happens, and it can ruin the user experience for them.

By booking an SEO review with POSH, you can ensure your visitors do not run into 404 errors and keep your website’s architecture nice and smooth.

Discovers any differences between desktop and mobile sites

Mobile pages need to run just as smoothly as desktop pages. After all, in 2019 53% of traffic came from mobile users. And this can often be where SEO gets forgotten. An SEO review will show you whether there are any discrepancies between how your pages work on both. And will highlight any issues with your mobile website. If the SEO report shows issues with your mobile site, then this is definitely something to put at the top of your SEO task list!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by it all, or want experts to take a look, contact us today for SEO help.

The post Why you need a website SEO review appeared first on POSH Agency.

Glasgow is a bright, beautiful and booming city. With so many new businesses forming and existing companies growing, it’s a great time to think about how well your website is performing. Our POSH team have local knowledge of the area and our clients love that we can talk to them about how promoting the city can help develop their own business. Posh’s SEO services in Glasgow are one way to do just that.

SEO company in Glasgow

Search engine optimisation or SEO is all about making sure Google can read your website, understand what you do and serve up this information to those searching for it. A well optimised website means Google can trust that the information it offers to its customers is accurate and relevant. Our job is to make sure this happens and that you are at the top of the list. After all, have you ever searched on the second, third or fourth page of Google search results? No, neither have we.

Some companies want to target local people whilst others aim for tourists from across the world. There is so much opportunity in Glasgow that deciding on the best strategy can be difficult. This is where we come in and can help you find focus. By doing so, we can make sure your site targets your potential customers, increasing your online visibility. 

SEO is a long game and takes time to rise in the rankings. By working together in partnership with you, we can ensure we grow your site and enhance your SEO over time. 

Web design Glasgow

We use WordPress to design our websites. This is a creative tool which lets us create original and bespoke websites. Need an online shop? You’ve got it. Want to have a hotel booking system integrated? No problem. Whatever you need, we’ll find a way, and make sure users can navigate around it easily.

Our websites are all responsive and mobile friendly.  From mobiles to tablets to gaming PCs, your website is going to look fantastic on them all. 

SEO in Glasgow

If you’d like to find out a bit more about us, you can read more about our services here. When you are ready, get in touch online or give our friendly POSH team a call on 0141 278 6702

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Based in Scotland, our outpost in Edinburgh means we can feel the pulse of the city. This helps us to connect with the needs of our clients and their customers. By feeding in our local knowledge, we can create bespoke websites which will rank highly on Google search results. This is thanks to our proven SEO digital strategies. Our skills at website design in Edinburgh go hand in hand with our search engine optimisation knowledge. As such, we will create a powerful online marketing tool for your business.

So whether you want to capitalise (sorry) on Edinburgh’s historic architecture, promote the range of tourist attractions like Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile or Arthur’s Seat or even develop your site into a thought leader in finance and the economy, we are quite literally here to help in Edinburgh.

Search engine optimisation in Edinburgh

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a way in which we can let Google know what your website is about. This way, it can serve up your pages to its customers who are interested in doing business with you. A website with optimised SEO will regularly appear towards the top or organic search results.

Additionally, we can write engaging blogs for you. Blogs ensure your website is consistently updated with new and relevant content about your business. This way, you can connect with your potential customers a bit more and build trust.

Upgrade your existing site’s SEO with POSH

If you already have a website and are looking for it to be upgraded into one which has been optimised for search engines, then we can help. We will go through your pages and analyse the on-screen text, as well as how the site is coded. This way, we can improve your SEO. This will enhance your position on Google search results. 

WordPress web design Edinburgh

WordPress is a powerful web design tool. This is why here at POSH we use it to create your bespoke site. Throughout the design process, we will work with you as a partner to ensure everything is exactly how you want. Our high standards mean that we ensure every aspect of your website has the user in mind to ensure they can understand your business, and how they can buy from you. So as a result, you know you are going to get an original, built-from-scratch website which is exactly how you imagined it would look.

Our websites are all mobile friendly. They look just as great on an iPhone, iPad and Samsung mobiles as they do on a top of the range PC. Therefore wherever your target audience are, your website will look perfect.

SEO and website design in Edinburgh

If you’d like to find out a bit more about us, then you can read more about our services here. When you are ready, get in touch online. We are a marketing and SEO agency in Edinburgh so you can also give our friendly POSH team a call on 0131 215 1306. 

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So how do you make sure Google knows who you are and what you do?

The basics of search engine optimisation

Here’s something not many people know. When you are searching on Google, you’re not actually doing a live search of the web. Instead, you are looking through Google’s archive of the internet. This is why changes made to websites do not tend to show up straight away on search result pages. 

So what is Google doing when it trawls the web and comes across your beautifully designed hotel website created by POSH Agency? Well, one of the first things it does is try to work out what the website is about. It does this by checking your keywords. These are words and phrases that help describe what a particular page is writing about. So for example, if you are a cruise company offering holidays around Scotland, then chances are you are using words and phrases like “Scottish cruises” and “cruise holidays in Scotland” quite a lot. Google will pick up on that and understand what you are about. Making sure Google knows what you are offering is key to ensuring your site is served up to the correct audience.

It will also take cues from the alt text on your page images. Alt text was originally used for those using the internet with screen readers to understand what the images were portraying. They now also offer the chance to tell Google what they are too, and further clarifying what the page is about.

And this is the basics of website SEO – to make sure you are using keywords that are relevant to your page, and are phrases that people are searching for. 

How do we optimise your website?

Long gone are the days when websites could just cram a load of keywords at the bottom of a page and expect to be found on search engines. Now, context is key and care needs to be taken to use keywords that are being used to search by customers on Google. A good way of doing this is to write blogs (like this one!) that keeps your website up to date and relevant.

Good hotel SEO practice also means assessing what keywords will work, and which ones are too popular. So for example, let’s say you are a new independent hotel setting up in Glasgow. Using the keywords “Glasgow hotels” would seem like a good idea, and indeed should be on your website. But there are around 15,000 searches using these keywords each month. Chances are the larger and more established hotel chains in Glasgow will be using the keywords (they may even be paying to use them) and so Google will send most customers there instead of to you.

That’s where POSH Agency can really help your business grow and your hotel prosper. We can identify lesser-used but more specific keywords and phrases to lead people to your door. We’ll look at your hotel’s USP and work out what the selling points are. Then we’ll discover searched-for keywords that people are using that relate to that. 

Our SEO makes sure you are seen by the right people.

POSH Agency and your website SEO

If you are setting up a new hotel business, or are looking for a change in your digital management, then get in touch with POSH Agency today. We are experts in the Scottish hospitality industry and in how best to promote you using hotel SEO and a range of other techniques. Give us a call or email today to start chatting!

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Go Back And Change Post Launch

And once our wonderful website is live, do we go back and change elements based on what our users are telling us? Of course, our online shoppers aren’t going to tell us directly what’s wrong. No, this advice comes from our own hard work post-launch. We have to dig, watch and assess our data and statistics for this. And run some all-important user testing!

But How To Design A Website?

But before we can user test our new website and adapt it, we need our new website! So, we start with the exciting design phase.

We all put so much time and thought into designing a new website with our website agency. And, of course, we ask our creatives to design websites with as few clicks as possible, big imagery, video, oh and of course the all-important SEO. But do we all really understand exactly how a user surfs a website? And more importantly, does your Scottish, English or foreign website agency? Wherever you are in the world, site usability is just as important!

Also, do we remember what our key objectives during the website design phase? At the end of the day, looking pretty isn’t as important as making money. But we all want to look pretty… don’t we?!

So, without further ado, here is our advice on how to manage your website designers and developers to create a beautiful online brand presence, but one that really works for the end-user too!

Questions To Ask Your Website Agency

First off, it’s good to ask your agency what website user testing they do. You need a website development agency that regularly runs online user testing and is clued up on data mining to understand usability online for your market. And you must ask them to demonstrate this. Get them to walk you through their knowledge of how your customers navigate a site. And so you know, below is how…

How Online Usability Works

So, your web agency should know that first of all, your customer will wait for the top banner to load. Here should sit your core message of that particular moment in time. This should change on a regular basis as required around your seasonal and tactical needs – not just be a brand placeholder.

And then, we know through user testing, that the customer will randomly scroll down and back up your page until an image, title, or CTA (Call to Act) catches their attention. So, the journey certainly doesn’t start with your top navigation or top piece of online copywriting. This comes into play once they have clicked further into your website from another element, further down, on your homepage.

Managing Website Designers

Often, after having spent a fortune on having their new website built, brands come to us in need of help. We hear all too often that these lovely new websites are not generating the income they anticipated. So they just need some good SEO, right? Many believe their business should be booming because they have the best website on the internet. However, the most aesthetically pleasing site doesn’t necessarily mean that this translates into money.

What we see a lot of designers missing out on is the CTA – the Call To Action. If you don’t have clear CTA’s such as ‘Book now,’ or ‘Contact Us,’ then you’re not going to get the results. Users subliminally click what we ask them to at the end of reading a piece of text, or when it (as an attractive button) catches their eye as they scroll up and down a page.

Looking Pretty Doesn’t Make Money Alone

So, it is not enough to have a great-looking website alone. Further, your SEO has to be top-notch! And so does your customer user journey. Site usability is so important.

1. What do you want them to click
2. What happens after they finish reading your wonderful marketing copy?
3. And is your copy written in “good English” or “Google English”?
4. Oh, and how clear is your offering? If you had never heard of your brand before, would you instantly understand the product/service offering from the homepage?

Top Website Designers

Finding the best website designer means hiring one that is willing to compromise “slightly” on your site design in order to deliver effective online customer journeys. This doesn’t mean settling for an unattractive website. It simply means there are needs and requirements that cannot be omitted from the design phase and must first be understood.

Jenny Mills, an online strategist, states “Often, when a customer is designing a website for their brand, they get so caught up in their personal likes and what they want from their website design, that they forget about the end-user. It’s our job to help guide and support that.”

Interestingly, the customer is not sitting critiquing your brand, like we do as brand ambassadors. In fact, their only goal is trying to find the quickest route to solving their problem of that moment. Be it buying a pair of shoes for a work event, booking a holiday for the family or choosing where to eat, it’s an entirely subliminal journey. Let me say it again… it’s an entirely subliminal journey! So hold their hand and guide them. At the end of every single section, click or place on your website, think “what do I want them to do next?”

Know What Your Site User Wants

So, when considering a new website, your site has to be designed in a way that makes the decisions for the customer. Don’t make them think, and don’t let them site wth questions – this is where they will simply fall off your site and go elsewhere.

People are busier and more impatient than ever before, so it’s important that customers aren’t having to think too deeply during their journey. Moreover, site designs must always consider the user’s desires, frustrations, and your business’ ultimate end goal. This is often where a website goes wrong. For example, most people who work in marketing are considering how a page looks to them, over how a customer will actually use the page.

How to Plan An Online Customer Journey

So, think about what you want your page to do for the customer, rather than how the page looks. Design is the secondary function that fits your intended website user journeys.

As such, here at the POSH Agency, we do a lot of user testing with our client websites post-launch to record and analyse the whole journey from end to end. Post-launch, website user testing must be an essential part of your web project. And you must consider some money in the pot post-launch. Use this to fix any snags and improve the online customer journey as a result of what you have learned from your customers.

But what online user testing tools can we use to do this?

Useful websites for improving the user journey

Two systems we use for our website user testing are What Users Do and Users Brain. And these systems don’t cost the earth. All our website design work is based on what we have learned from the end-users via online user testing in tools such as these. So, we know what works and what converts well.

But we also know that our clients need the flexibility to adapt and change their site post-launch without excruciating costs. So why we encourage everyone to build their website upon an open-source platform only. No matter what your digital marketing agency says, a bespoke CMS is ALWAYS going to cost you more in the long run!

A lot of companies are sadly still selling their bespoke content management systems. However, open-source platforms such as WordPress and Magento offer you and your customers so much more.

WordPress is open and it’s a global source. So, you have millions of developers thinking up and creating solutions, new plugins/functionality. And equally, you have many more eyes finding and fixing any bugs that occur. Therefore, if something goes wrong, it’s such a big network that it means you have so much more capability at your fingertips.

Find out more about Open Source vs Bespoke CMS websites >>

Tips on improving the website user journey

Your website user testing journey doesn’t have to start post-launch. Take time to speak to your people on the frontline;

1. The people in your team who are answering customer phone calls.
2. The ones responding to current online contact forms
3. And your social media managers monitoring comments and messages

So web design is not just about creating a pretty picture, nor is it about creating the coolest website that you can. It’s about making it work and thinking about the whole scenario.

Here at POSH, the most important for us is maintaining long-term relationships with our clients. We are keen to ensure we do the very best job that we possibly can. And to make sure that you get the biggest possible return for your money. And that’s why so many of our clients remain with us long term. Meet our clients >>

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Google+ has long been a contemptuous topic among social media marketers. When Google’s attempt at social media was launched it reached its first 100 million users quicker than Facebook and Twitter. This caused some to call it the next best thing to happen to social media. SEOers also got excited about the possibility of it increasing search rankings. Because Google loves it when you actively use its products, right?

But whether or not this channel adds any weight to your online marketing efforts, social or otherwise, has always been up for debate. Die hard Google+ promoters believe the platform boosts your SEO efforts, while others categorically deny it.

The trouble started with studies like the one conducted by searchmetrics in 2013. It claimed social signals counted for 7 out of the top 8 factors correlated with search results. The study went on to indicate Google +1s carry more weight than engagement factors of other social platforms. At the same time, Moz did some research too. They found that “after Page Authority, a URL’s number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor.” The signs were clear and all roads indicated this was a worthy social platform contender. It also looked like it packed an impressive SEO punch.

From Bad To Worse

In the midst of marketers jumping on the Google+ bandwagon, a few key factors were overlooked. Firstly, how did it hit the 100 million user mark as quickly as it did? Well, it was because marketers helped drive the sign up. Google bullied people into completing their Google+ profiles before they could access their Gmail accounts. Which means we were actively pushing out content to disengaged, inactive users. Secondly, in 2015 we chose to ignore Google’s repeated attempts to tell us “social signals do not directly influence your ranking”.

As there is no logical reason to dispel searchmetrics and Moz’s findings – they have the data to support their findings after all. Social media marketers have been erring on the side of caution ever since. Arguments could be made for the value of building social links back to your website. Or the fact that a social platform is in fact a link to your website and therefore it needs to be authoritative. Google+ very well could have contributed to improved rankings at some point in time. Probably around the time searchmetrics and Moz carried out their studies. It may still. Which is why we do just enough to keep our presence on the site known, despite very little engagement in return.

But amidst the online world, a growing contempt for Google+ has been brewing. The belief that Google+ was dead was only spurred on when they revamped their entire platform to be more engaging and user-friendly and no one noticed. And yet we still clung to the platform in fear of failing search rankings. With so much contradictory information out there, our relationship with Google+ continues to be a love/hate one. So to help shed some light on this controversial issue, we decided to put Google+ to the test for ourselves.

Making A Case For Google+

In October 2016, we decided to increase our efforts on Google+ for one of our clients. We chose the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness. To test the value of the platform as a social outlet, we created a number of Google+ Collections designed to streamline the content we shared.  We joined and actively contributed to Communities that shared common interests. We even started a Community of our own, and invited link-minded companies and individuals to join and contribute too.

To test the SEO value of the platform, we tracked where the Kingsmills Hotel ranked for key phrases at the start and end of the month.

Our Findings

In the entire month of October, we received one +1 from another die-hard Google+er trying to make the platform work.

Incidentally, they were also the only company to join our “Things to do in Inverness” Community.

After +1ing a photograph on a “Scotland photography” Community, the contributor reached out to us … on Facebook.

As for search results, the key Collections we created seemed to have little or no effect on search rankings. In fact, despite a big push for the term “things to do in Inverness” on Google+, we dropped 2 places in search rankings. The areas that did see improvements was the result of pages we refreshed and optimised on the website during October.

But the biggest indicator of Google+’s ineffectiveness for SEO? It was the massive decrease in social referral traffic we saw on Google Analytics in October. This was despite our increased Google+ efforts.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, we can now say that despite our best efforts, Google+ had no impact on our search rankings, social engagement or referral traffic. But before ruling out the platform for good, we would need to test the impact of stopping activity on the channel altogether.

We also need to consider other factors that could cause a decline in social referral traffic. Until then, the jury is still out on whether or not Google+ has any impact on our online marketing efforts.

As for content creation, we will continue to do our best to create engaging content for Google +. But without an engaged audience to receive it, the non-existent performance of Google+ is not something we will not be losing sleep over.

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