Struggling to find the stats you’re looking for in Google Analytics? Then you’re going to love Google Data Studio! A relatively new product from Google, Data Studio allows you to create at-a-glance reports from multiple data sources, including Analytics, Adwords and Google Sheets. And even better, since February this year, Google Data Studio has been free to use for all businesses. Why use Google Data Studio? Instead of having to go into Analytics and spend time unearthing the key statis...

There are many things that can stand between a good marketing campaign and growing your business. Here's a few common reasons (and their solutions) that marketing fails. Lack of in-house knowledge and skills Over half (57%) of businesses say they don’t have the right people in their team to manage successful marketing campaigns. Solution: Try outsourcing – it's more cost effective and you can access a wider range of skills. Bad branding You could have the best marketing campaign in the ...

Want more people to find your blog posts via Google and other search engines? Here’s what to do... 1. Answer questions The easiest way to optimise your blog for search engine is to research what questions people are already asking that relate to your business. There are lots of ways to do this. Read our keywords blog for some ideas, or try a tool like Answer the public. Once you’ve found a question to answer, Google it yourself and look at the current search results. Prioritise topics th...

Now that there’s so much content online (over 2 million new blog posts are published every day!), writing a good blog post is key if you want it to have any traction. Here’s what every good blog post should contain: Title Your title needs to be compelling so that people will want to click on it. This is easier said than done, so try keeping a note of every blog post you click on and refer back to them when you’re writing your own titles. Your title should also be optimised for search e...

Put simply, keywords or key phrases, are what people are searching for in search engines. As a business, they’re important because you want to come up in search engines when people search for the keywords or phrases that are relevant to your products or services. To stand a chance of being near the top of the results, you need to include those words and phrases in your website. For example, if you’re an accountant that specialises in small businesses, you need to have the words “Small bu...

Website security isn’t the most exciting topic, we get it! But not thinking about it could put your business at serious risk. Your website is a valuable business asset, and if compromised, it puts your business reputation on the line, plus potentially your customer privacy. With GDPR rapidly approaching, securing your website is now more important than ever. If your site is targeted, you could lose revenue for every day that it's down. What's more, sites that are compromised are penalised in...

Just getting started with online marketing for your business? Many of the best marketing tools are free or offer a free version or trial. Here’s 16 helpful marketing tools that won’t cost you a thing... Content marketing 1. Google Trends Find out what people are searching for so you can create content on trending topics. Also helpful for working out which term to use – for example searches for "blogging" are dropping but searches for "content marketing" are on the rise. 2. Buzz Sumo U...

Are your marketing efforts non-existent, ad-hoc or just not going as planned? Here’s ten signs you should use outsourced marketing... 1. You want to grow Planning for business growth? Outsourcing your marketing can help you get where you want to be quicker, with less overheads than employing full time staff to cover all marketing specialisms.   2. You’re not doing any marketing activity If you’re not doing any marketing activity at all, you might be surprised how much of a difference ...

Wondering how much you should spend on marketing your business? In short, there’s no definitive answer. It’s often recommended that you spend 10% of your turnover on marketing if you're planning for growth. Here’s what that would look like for businesses with a...Turnover of £120,000 = £12,000 marketing budget Turnover of £500,000 = £50,000 marketing budget Turnover of £3,000,000 = £300,000 marketing budgetIn reality, the 10% figure is far from gospel. If you search the...

We’re massive fans of WooCommerce for a whole host of reasons. It’s easy to use, highly customisable, secure and amazingly, it’s free! Recently WooCommerce got even better thanks to the addition of Apple Pay as a payment method. Why add Apple Pay? For users with iPhones, Apple Pay provides one of the easiest and quickest ways to make a purchase. The more obstacles you can remove on the path to purchase, the better. With Apple Pay, buyers don’t have to get up to find their credit card...

New privacy regulations are coming in next year and many companies are unprepared. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will come into force on May 25th 2018. Although it might seem a long way off, the new regulations are much more involved than current UK Data Protection Act rules, so there’s lots for businesses to do in preparation. Although it's unlikely, those who don't comply could be hit with huge fines – up to 20 million euros or 4% of turnover, whichever is higher. Who is...

Wondering if outsourcing your marketing could be right for your company? There's numerous upsides, especially for small and medium sized businesses. Here's ten benefits of outsourced marketing... 1. No long-term commitment One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your marketing is that there's no long term commitment. Most firms operate on short or rolling contracts, so you can try out marketing activity without committing long term. 2. Removes risk of investing in marketing As there's no ...

If you’ve been wondering whether outsourced marketing could work for your business, read this guide to outsourcing your marketing. What is outsourced marketing? Outsourced marketing is exactly as it sounds – outsourcing your business marketing activity to a third party. An outsourced marketing team can be used in addition to an in-house team, or it could replace the need for in-house staff entirely. Why outsource marketing activity? There's numerous reasons to outsource your marketing, b...

Thinking about buying an off-the-shelf WordPress template or wondering if a bespoke Wordpress theme would be better? In this blog we cover the pros and cons of both. Turnaround time Wordpress templates can be a great option for small businesses just starting out. Those that are tech savvy could have a simple site up and running within a few hours, providing they have the content ready. On the other hand a bespoke theme would take longer to develop, but it would be entirely tailored to your bu...

We first wrote about SSL certificates way back in 2014. That was when Google first announced that they would be starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal in their algorithms. In 2015, we talked about the subject again, after Firefox announced they would stop displaying sites that were not secure. Back then, we concluded it wasn’t essential to install an SSL certificate if you didn’t run an ecommerce website. Now, things have moved on, so it may be worth reconsidering an SSL certificate fo...

Before you can set up your WordPress store you’ll need to setup your Wordpress website and install an ecommerce plugin. Our plugin of choice is WooCommerce. Once you've done that, here’s a checklist for getting your WordPress store up and running. WordPress store checklist 1) Product descriptions Write product descriptions that are clear and easy to read. They should include everything your prospective customer will need to know to make a decision about buying your product, including: ...