Social Media Optimization (SMO) techniques are not new in digital marketing; however, the name is not as popular as Search Engine Optimisation.

To define it, Social Media Optimization refers to all the tactics (and strategies) used in ensuring social media accounts of a business generate enough buzz that could sell its products and services and also bring traffic to its website.

Here are the five Social Media Optimization techniques that would put you ahead of your competitors and increase your brand awareness and sales.

1. Integrate Social Icons into Your Website

It is not uncommon that some well-designed business websites do not have social media icons integrated; some have the icons integrated, but the icons point to invalid social media profiles or wrong social media profiles. This is not a good practice, and if your business website does not have social media integrated, you are missing a lot.

First, you are not providing an avenue whereby people that love your business can follow keenly. Second, you are missing the backlinks from these social networks. By putting social icons on your website and putting your website URL on your social media profiles, you would earn no-follow backlinks, which indirectly impact your website’s ranking on Google.

Moreover, if your social media account is well optimised, they would pop out on Google when people search for your brand name.  Another side of social media optimisation technique that is related to integrating social icon into your website is adding social media sharing buttons to your blog page. Doing this would allow people easily share your posts and that would likely bring in more traffic to your website.

2. Complete Your Social Media Profile with Constituent Information and Images

The more the information you provide about your business on social media, the more people get to know what your business does. So it is good you do not leave any stone unturned in completing your social media account profiles. You should provide all the necessary information in the profile of each of the social media account you registered on, and ensure the information is consistent throughout all the social media accounts.

As for the profile photo, it is recommended you use the logo of your business; if you do not currently have a logo, it’s high time you hired a good logo designer as that’s one of the branding techniques that would make you stand out among your competitors. The cover photo of your social media account should be of high resolution and professionally portray your products and services.

Most importantly, you should follow the recommended resolution for each social network’s profile picture and cover photo.

3. Develop and Implement a Posting Schedule

Besides having social media accounts with filled profile and good images, the Social Media Optimisation technique that would put you ahead of your competitors is developing and implementing a posting schedule. The posting schedule allows you to consistently share relevant contents with your followers and engage them with your products and services.

It builds your relationship with them, shows them you are good at what you do, makes them visit your website, and makes them patronise your business.

4. Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags are a way of categorising related posts on social networks. Lots of social media users use hashtags to find what they are interested in. So by researching trending hashtags in your industry and using them when sharing posts on social networks, you increase the chance of making people who are not following your accounts see your posts.

The caution about hashtags is that you should not go overboard by stuffing your posts with too many hashtags – as too many hashtags would overshadow the texts carrying the message in your posts. You should use only the very relevant hashtags – especially on Twitter and Instagram. Hashtags are not so effective on Facebook.

You should also create personalised hashtags for your brand, too. Your followers would soon come to identify with the hashtags and might start using them while sharing posts about your products and services. That gives way to user-generated content.

5. Track and analyse

The time a post is shared impacts its impression, reach, and engagement. Imagine sharing a post at 3 AM, when everybody is sleeping; only a few people would see the post. So one Social Media Optimisation technique you should try is experimenting with different posting time and see the time your posts have the highest impression, reach, and engagement.

The prime time that most people are online on social media is from 6 PM to 10 PM when they would have come back from work and school. However, depending on your followers, the prime time might be different; so experimenting with different posting time – or using paid social media management software that could analyse when followers are online – would help you determine the best time to post.

In-built analytical tools like Facebook Page Insight, Twitter Analytics, etc., also provide some insight into the best time to posts.

Apart from finding the best time to post, you should also use tools like Google Analytics UTM codes and URL shorteners to determine which social media sharing channel is bringing the highest traffic to your website.

Conclusion

Well-optimised social media accounts not only give your business a strong online presence that translates into awareness and sales but also helps you build a formidable brand that’s ahead of your competitors. By following the above tested-and-trusted Social Media Optimization techniques, you can get to the level of being formidable and having a strong online presence in no time.

If you need further assistance on bespoke digital marketing strategies or require help on implementing the tips provided here, do contact us and one of our experts will be in contact.

Your website’s structure, metadata, and web copy must be optimised for SEO – and you need an SEO expert to do that. A good SEO company in Nigeria would help you optimise your website for all search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yandex, and Baidu so that your website can get its fair share of the free organic traffic (and customers) these search engines are sending to millions of websites every day.

5 Good Reasons to Hire an SEO Company in Nigeria

Experience and Technical Know-How

SEO companies in Nigeria are expected to have a team of experienced SEO experts who have handled lots of SEO jobs in the past. Aside from this, they have the technical know-how and the tools to make your website rank on the front of Google’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

Besides, the company would also help to develop a short-term and long-term SEO strategy that will eventually strengthen the Domain Authority of your website while enabling you to compete with that of your competitors. Domain Authority is a term used in describing the ability of a website to rank high in Google; it is measured from 0 – 100. A higher number depicts a strong domain authority while a lower number indicates a weak domain authority.

High Chance of Getting Results

Another reason to hire an SEO company in Nigeria is the high chance of getting results. An SEO company that knows its stuff would be able to perform keyword research to know the exact keywords or string of words used by your prospective customers when searching on Google. It is worth stating that the importance of keywords research in SEO cannot be underrated or handled unprofessionally.

The company would also be able to set up a Google Analytics account for your website, and be able to measure, track, and analyse results of its SEO strategy.

Time-Saving and Stress-Free

SEO is very dynamic – that’s no thanks to the frequent algorithm updates by Google. Aside from this, SEO takes time; there isn’t a silver bullet. A technique that works today may be obsolete tomorrow, a strategy that catapulted your web pages to the front page of SERP today may get your pages sanctioned tomorrow.

So if you are to do your SEO yourself, you will need to dedicate a lot of time to performing keyword research, writing on-page search engine optimised contents, carrying out off-page SEO, and following the latest SEO trends and Google algorithm updates. You should also be able to determine if your business needs a Natural SEO and/or a Local SEO.

When you think of doing all these yourself, it is better you outsource these tasks to an expert SEO company in Nigeria so that you can dedicate your time to the running of your business, which is your strong point.

After you might have given your website’s SEO job to an expert, all you would need to do is request a report, which will provide details of improvements and how your website is bringing in new visitors. You will also be able to confirm the work done when there is an increase in engagement, leads and sales conversion.

Cost Effectiveness

Many business owners (and CEOs) believe hiring an SEO company in Nigeria is expensive, so they rather hire an in-house team or do the SEO themselves. Sincerely, if you are not an SEO specialist, doing the SEO yourself is a big risk, especially when it comes to off-page SEO.

You can hinder your website from ranking top, rather than help it. As for hiring an in-house SEO team, this can be very expensive especially for SMEs. When you think of the cost of getting the desks, the computers, and the needed SEO tools – not to talk about the salary – you will agree that it’s better to hire an SEO company in Nigeria.

A good SEO company in Nigeria, like us, will discuss with you (and your team) to understand your business (and your business model) and use the information to develop a robust SEO strategy that with will deliver results within the shortest time possible.

Interestingly, our SEO services are result-driven and affordable. If you require SEO services for your website, do not hesitate to contact us. Let’s talk about how to drive targeted traffic (and leads) to your website.

Don’t just take our words for it, see how we are ranked on Google for a few targeted keywords:

More than SEO offers

SEO is just one part of Digital Marketing, so most top SEO companies do offer other related online marketing services such as email marketing, online advertisement, content marketing, social media marketing, web development and designing, etc. By hiring an SEO company in Nigeria, you can leverage the relationship and opt for the other add-on services, and there is a possibility of getting a slash in price because you are already a client.

The company can help you with the content marketing effort needed to keep boosting traffic to your site, and can also advise on how to improve the user interface and experience of your website, and how to make your business establish a strong online presence.

If you need further assistance on bespoke SEO strategies or require help on implementing the tips provided here, do contact us and one of our experts will be in contact.

Whatever strategies you implement, and through whichever channel or medium you employ them, the end result has got to be that one thing – driving organic traffic to your website.

For this reason, it is essential to know how to drive targeted visitors to your website in Nigeria. In this post you will get to know 7 fail-safe tactics that you should employ to attract target website visitors whilst utilising the endless pool of resources available online to your advantage.

1. Optimising your website content to comply with search engine parameters

Search engine optimization is a focal factor to the success of your website in securing a healthy amount of traffic that yields positive results for your service. Efficient optimization of search engine parameters include using relevant keywords, making useful and descriptive titles, providing relevant visual content, creating concise metatags, link building etc.

There are many factors that you can work on to make your content unique and appealing to your target website visitors. Some of which are creating engaging subheadings and submitting your URL to search engines. See this post on top SEO tips that ranks your business higher in Nigeria.

2. Making use of Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is one of the most effective and efficient ways to draw in target audiences that are looking for the services and products you offer. Paid advertising campaigns require realistic and sustainable investment to attract traffic to your webpage directly from your ads.

When your services cannot attain organic reach, paid advertising can get your ad on the first page of a search result page that is relevant to your ad, thus increasing chances of getting at least a lead. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are great examples of paid advertising that can get you immediate sales if well setup. The good think about Paid advertising is that you can decide to only pay if a certain objective is achieved, or when someone actually click on your ad.

3. Utilizing Social Media Platforms to reach target audiences

Social media platforms offer some of the best options for reaching out to specific target audiences, and making sure your business reaches those visitors to whom your service is useful and relevant to.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ are a few social media platforms that filter the needs and preferences of users to bring to them relevant posts. Similarly, social sharing tools like StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit bring relevant traffic and help to create a bigger audience pool for your ads. If you need a social media marketer to create your social media pages, and/or manage your business pages for you, TopYouGo Digital Agency can help engage your audience, nurture your leads, and convert your leads to sales. Find our more

4. Forum Posting

Relevant online forums offer great niche-specific media for your service to get noticed by potential audiences. Posting short, helpful and attractive content and using a marketable forum signature to get recognized is very helpful. A forum signature should be a visual representation of your service in a small image. Examples of such forums in Nigeria are Nairaland.com, Naijapals.com, EarlyFace.com, and NaijaBestForum.com.

5. Blog Posting and Blogging

Blogging about your services and any relevant content can generate a lot of traffic into your webpage and also account for unique visitors to your webpage who find your blog interesting and want to know more about your service. Therefore, it is important to provide unique and engaging contents on your blogs. A good content marketing service will help you to put together an article that your audience will find very useful and shareable. Some top blogs in Nigeria are Bellanaija.com, naij.com, vanguardngr.com and punchng.com.

6. Conducting Webinars

Webinars are online live seminars where companies can initiate live interactive sessions with potential audiences, clients, business partners and professionals. Webinars will not only help you procure expert opinions on how to drive targeted visitors to your website, but also create important connections with your target audience

7. Question/Answer Platforms

Question/answer platforms offer a great way to draw in traffic by providing relevant support or assistance with topics that concern your service. Try to keep answers short, useful and unique. It is also important to cite your webpage as a reference, provide social media links, and remember not to spam the post in an effort to attract website visitors.

If you need further assistance on bespoke digital marketing strategies or require help on implementing the tips provided here, do contact us and one of our experts will be in contact.

However, the updates actually make it easier for many businesses in Nigeria to get to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) by adopting very straightforward SEO practices and avoiding those deemed by the mighty Google as ‘black hat’.

There’s no secret to good SEO, although it does require some de-mystifying and mastering. Here we give you some top SEO tips that actually ranks your business higher in Nigeria. These tips will further help to maximise your chances of hitting the top spot when potential customers and clients are making searches relating to your business. Here are the tips:

Don’t Overthink your SEO

Google wants its users to have a better search experience, and for that reason, it matches search enquiries to web pages that provide the most recent information with the most relevance to the searches being made. So if you avoid thinking about the complexities of SEO and focus your own effort on providing a good experience for visitors to your website, you’re more likely to be successful. Once you know your business, and you have identified the keywords that describes your business, which are the same or similar keywords your visitors will be searching for online, the rest becomes easier.

Keep Content Fresh, Compelling and Relevant

When people are searching online for goods or services or just information on a field of interest, they want to get the most accurate, relevant and up-to-date results. If you regularly update and refresh your web content, your results will be favoured by the search engine. Your prospects don’t want to have their time wasted by reading something that is not specific to their enquiry. So once you have engaged interest, you want to stimulate it further. Find out more about how to keep your contents fresh and well-linked for maximum SEO impact – click here.

Make Sure your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Most people use their mobile devices to make their online searches and so you have to make sure you deliver a good user experience no matter what device your visitor is using. It is important to optimise your website so it displays neatly on a small screen as well as a large screen, and it’s easy to navigate and packed with functionality. Having a quick website load time is the key, if you don’t want visitors to lose interest while trying to access information. You can use software like Website Auditor to crawl your site regularly and identify any technical flaws. Please note that search engines like Google favours businesses using responsive website design with higher search engine result page ranking over their competitors using non-responsive website design.

Building Relationships are more important than Links

Link-building has always been considered an essential part of good SEO, but not any more however. Now it’s more important to build your credibility within your sphere of enterprise by creating relationships with non-competing concerns. Credibility is built when others perceive your brand as an authority or influencer and as a consequence, they link to your website. For example, if you have a gym you can create a relationship with a health supplement provider and develop two-way SEO advantages that way. Build connections that add value to your client or customer base and you will naturally attract more traffic to your online content.

Pay Close Attention to your Keyword Use

Don’t stuff your website with too many relative keywords and expect to see your business ranking anywhere on the first page of SERPs. This is now broadly considered the ultimate act in black hat SEO and can result in penalties which would definitely damage your online visibility.

The importance of keyword research cannot be overemphasized – be specific and moderate in the use of keywords. You’ll know that there are endless variants on the words relating to your products, goods or services and so you can still get away with a liberal smattering but the important thing is to keep them in context.

In other words, your content has to make sense and should be well written to attract positive attention from Google searches. Mentioning where your workshop or offices are based too often is known as ‘Location stuffing’, which is also a cardinal sin in SEO. However, you can still mention your location and any other localities near you as long as you do it so that it reads well and makes grammatical sense.

Research your Customers and Create Keywords that Relate

The most important aspect of SEO is to know what questions your target market is going to be asking the oracle, that is Google. You want to get into the demographic of your audience and relate to them in the terminology they’re familiar with so that it engenders good communication and increase sales.

Consider the fact that they will be typing questions in the search engine box and if your website contains the answer to those specific questions, it will naturally rank higher in the results. Remember that you’re an expert in your field and your customers and potential customers want to pick your brains. If you become a trusted source of information, your name will be foremost in the minds of your audience when it comes to buying.

Use Meta Descriptions to attract more Traffic

This is an area that’s often neglected by marketers when it comes to SEO. Each page on your website can be described very succinctly in a short sentence which is then ‘tagged’ to the page to encourage click-through to your website on SERPs.

You can see when you search with Google yourself that some of the results have your search terms highlighted in the heading, and some have a short but sweet description. That is how using Meta data displays if you use them correctly.

Conclusion

There is no secret to achieving SEO success if you are passionate about your business and just want to tell the world about it. If you’re just trying to get as much online attention as you can have without having anything to deliver to the user, you’ll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

The current Google search algorithm has zero-tolerance for spammy SEO and is determined to stamp it out in favour of websites that represent value to those using its search engine.

By following the above tip, and keeping your website specific and of great use to interested visitors, you really can’t go wrong.

If you have already setup Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics for your website, please follow the steps below. If you are yet to do this or not sure if it has been setup or not, please contact us and we will be happy to assist further.

Here are the steps on how to share Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics with TopYouGo Digital Marketing Agency:

1. Sign it to your Google Webmaster Tools Page here.
2. Once you have successfully signed in, find the website you want to grant access to, and click Manage Property drop down on the right, and then select Add or remove users.
3. On the Users and Property Owners page, click on Add a New User.
4. Add us as a new user using the email address supplied on the project questionnaire, and select Full permission as shown below. Click on Add button to finish the process.

What untapped ideas do you need to implement in your quest to effectively market your local business on the internet? Combining new ways of marketing with the conventional offline marketing methods in your locality should make a significant impact on your business if you do the right thing.

Here are 5 proven ways to market your local business online:

1. Create a blog: With millions of blog posts published online on a daily basis, chances are that you’re missing out on potential customers your blog could have brought you. It’s no news that people search Google for virtually everything. Statistics from ExpandedRamblings shows that the total number of Google search from the US for the month of May 2016 was about 34 billion. Assuming your business is based in a locality with a population of 70,000 and 6 other competitors doing the same business like you, you’ve definitely lost out on at least 10,000 potential customers. Through your blog, you teach people how to use your products and services, you share information on latest trends in your business and the feedback/comments on your blog help you to improve your services to them. Creating a blog that is well optimized would help your website’s search engine rankings. Your website and blog should be professionally designed, else you’re going to lose customers. Please read this article on how to use content to generate new business leads.
2. Embrace social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and every other social media platforms record millions of users on a daily basis. Embracing social media opens you to a much wider audience than your blog can offer you, but you shouldn’t jump into social media marketing without a plan. Get ready to spend a couple of bucks on marketing on social media through ads. It is also pertinent to avoid making some of the following mistakes in your social media marketing campaigns:

• Having multiple profiles on a social site
• Having incomplete social profiles
• Targeting a narrow audience
• Leaving your campaign running for long
• Click-baiting and spamming
• Purchasing followers and likes
• A not-so-strong call to action
• Focusing on conversions instead of building a relationship with your followers.

While using social media, follow the social trends and create content that relates to your business using those trends.

3. Listing your business on online local directories: One of the many reasons why you should consider listing your business on online directories is the increased visibility it gives to your business when people search for services in your region. This is one of the many advantages on undergoing a local SEO. Please understand the difference between traditional SEO and local SEO, as they are both different, and so is their approach.

When people search local business directories for information, it simply means they’re almost ready to buy a product or service, and they’ll probably look at reviews on your profile on those online business directories. It’s an effective way of advertising your business for a few bucks per month if not free, whilst developing your brand image and connecting you to the right audience in search of your services. It’s also a source of traffic to your website, and the SEO benefits are great especially when the directory it is listed on ranks well on Google. The quickest way to boost local business online is through local SEO Nigeria.

4. Give out free trial offers/ offer discounts occasionally: While it may hurt to give out a product/service worth ₦10,000 for free all in the name of marketing your business, it sure does make up for itself when you start getting an influx of customers. A great way of starting free trials is to send your product to a notable figure in your locality and have them take a picture of themselves using the product. You could also organize contests on your website/blog/social media accounts and randomly select 3 winners that will review your product or service in return.

 Belle Beth Cooper sums up the importance of free trial offers in her article on HelpScout where she said: “A free trial gives prospective customers the opportunity to try your product in the context of their own data, their own business, their environment, and the way they work.” It is also important to intertwine your free trial offers with your social media campaigns. This would help attract more fans to your social media accounts while bringing in prospective customers willing to spend their money on your product or service.

5. Use Videos: Most business owners are yet to leverage the benefits of using video to promote and market their local businesses online. Some of the benefits of video marketing include higher engagement since most people prefer to watch than to read as well as an increase in your social media shares. Here are a few tips if you intend to create videos:
   1. Create short videos that show how your business solves the customer’s problem. It should have a 3 part storyline; the problem, your product and how your product/service solves the problem.
   2. It should be 1 minute long and should be crisp and clear.
   3. It should have a clear and concise call to action.
   4. Use captivating and irresistible thumbnails.
   5. It should have a little bit of humor here and there.
   6. Share the heck out of your video on social media. Don’t spam, rather, you should run ad campaigns for the video.

Trying these aforementioned guaranteed methods of marketing your local business is incomplete if you don’t look at your competitors in your locality and in other regions. You need to find out what they are doing, how they are doing it and why they are doing it if you intend to be on top of the game. Try to improve on areas where they are failing, and you’ll surely draw their customers to your business with time.

One more thing – never lower your prices so much that it cuts your profits significantly all in the name of attracting customers to your business. Focus on providing quality service that no one else provides and charge just a tad lesser than what your competitor charges, then relax and watch the business grow and attract more customers than you can handle. Don’t forget to combine offline marketing methods with these online methods for even faster results.

Top Search Engines such as Google and Bing offer a means to generate targeted traffic through the use of keywords. Hence the reason why you want the best keywords matching your contents, web pages, and businesses. Keywords can be likened to titling a textbook. The title of a textbook tells what the book is all about at a first glance, and in a nutshell. When readers look for a particular book amongst other books in a library shelf, the title guides the reader in making the right choice. A wrongly titled book would attract the wrong readers, just as it is with keywords, hence the reason why keywords are so much of importance in internet marketing.

Considering the analogy used above, a keyword can be defined as a word or phrase (consisting of more than one words) that describes the content of a post, article or web page, while keyword research analysis is the process of closely examining each keywords against several factors such as keyword complexity, difficulty and density, conversion rate, search volumes and demand. Webmasters have made it possible to be able to track keywords typed into search engines by visitors, which is often available to SEO experts when performing a keyword research analysis, alongside several other keyword research tools. A common starting point for SEO keyword research is the Google Keyword Planner tool which advises on estimated keyword search volume as well as the cost of AdWords Campaign for these keywords, which is determined by the profitability and competitiveness of such keywords. Another similar tool to consider is Bing Ads Intelligence tool.

It is also worth mentioning that the number of words in your keywords will hugely determine your success. Long tail keywords (that is, keywords with more than 3 words) are unique searches which are more targeted. Long tail keywords generally provide a better conversion rate, which gives value for money. In today’s world, short tail keywords (that is, keywords with 1 to 3 words) is quietly facing out as it has a lower conversion rate and are generally less searched. A good keyword research analysis will help you to choose the most profitable and high demand keywords which can equally rank high on Search Engines easily, with the right measures put in place. It also allows you to proactively respond to market demands and provide contents, products or services that web users are actively searching for.

Without deviating too much from the initial question “what are the best practices for carrying out a keyword research and analysis in SEO marketing?”, here are some guidelines:

1. a) Know your competitors! Have a good list of relevant keywords used by your successful competitors. Start with these lists.

For the purpose of this article, let’s assume a main competitor’s keyword for a service provided is “copywriting service”. Please note that using keywords in quote provides exact match in the results provided by the search engine, but in our case, it won’t be required.

In the image below, Google search result for keyword “copywriting service” shows over 3 million results. This is huge! It will take a lot of effort and Website SEO Auditing to beat the websites in the Top 10 as seen in the image below.

1. b) If you targeting a particular niche, location or country e.g. students, children, men, women, Lagos, Nigeria, London, Qatar, Chicago, Canada etc., it’s best to add it to your keyword so you streamline the result to your interest. Local SEO comes in handy for location specific keywords.

Let’s make the keyword more targeted by adding Lagos to the keyword, that is, “copywriting service Lagos”.

From the above image, Google search result for keyword “copywriting service Lagos” shows 27,000 results, which obviously looks more promising and achievable.

1. c) What adjectives best describe your web page? If necessary, use adjectives such as cheap, good, best, buy, quality, affordable, professional, premium, free, tips, top, discount or anyone particular to your niche.

Think about how else the search result can be narrowed down so as to lessen competitions? Looking at image 2 above, the top competitor added more keyword variation using “Professional”.

Google search result for keyword “professional copywriting service Lagos” shows 283,000 results which seems like a good long-tail keyword with more search results, and could easily get top ranked for both “copywriting service Lagos” and “professional copywriting service Lagos” keywords on Search engines.

1. d) What other similar words (synonyms) could your visitors possibly use in place of your keywords? In our example, “copywriting service” could also be regarded as “content writing service” by searchers online. All these variations can be used to form a long list of keywords.

Other possible long tail keywords that can be used in our example are: best copywriting service, quality copywriting service in Nigeria, etc.

2. When you form you own possible list of keywords, use Google Keyword Planner tool and/or Bing Ads Intelligence Keyword tool to check the search volume and profitability of the keywords.

3. After selecting your final keywords, put them in the right places without stuffing your web content or page with too many keywords. Your keywords should appear in your Meta Title, Meta Description, Meta keywords and severally in the body of your text, but most importantly, in the first sentence or paragraph. Best practice is to use your keywords once per 100 words of text.

Researched keywords are more effectual if the above best practices are followed. If ever in doubt, you can hire an experienced SEO analyst to perform this task for you. It is worth spending the extra quid to lay a good foundation, than playing a guessing game with your online success. Furthermore, it is worth knowing what Google thinks of the use of keywords in meta tags.

Lastly, the best keyword is the one with a lot of monthly search volumes, but yet not so competitive, and can also be easily ranked at the top of search engine result page.

Let’s take a look at the definitions and examples of both Natural SEO and Local SEO.

What is Natural SEO?

Natural or Organic SEO involves optimizing websites for certain keywords, and getting them ranked on search engines for those keywords. An example of a business that would require natural SEO is an online based business (e.g. an online retail store) which may or may not have a physical location.

Some examples of targeted keywords that could be used by online businesses for natural SEO campaign include:

• Health and safety training
• Daily deals
• Cheap flights
• Affordable women jewelries
• Furniture retailer company
• HR management software
• Self-publishing company

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO involves building relevant signals around a particular location or multiple locations, especially where the business is being carried out. Good examples of businesses in Nigeria that would require Local SEO are:

• Vet Doctor in Ikeja
• Ice Cream Shop Ugbowo Benin City
• Lekki Plumbing Company
• Cheap logo designer Lagos
• Digital Marketing Agency Ikeja
• CCTV Installation Port Harcourt
• Commercial cleaners Wuse

Now let’s look at some key differences between Natural SEO and Local SEO

• Links and Citations

A link is created when other websites are linking to your own website. Search engines like Google use the quality of these links to determine how valuable your website is before presenting it to users via their search queries. Links from high authoritative websites carry higher reputation, and can help improve your website’s reliability and trust.

On the other hand, citations are mentions of your business on citation websites or business directories referencing your business name, address, phone number and website. Citation helps to validate the existence of a business in a geographical location, thereby increasing the relevance of that business for search queries made within its geographical location. The more quality and consistent citation, the higher a business would rank on local search engine result page.

• Google Search Results Page

The search results for Natural SEO differs from that of Local SEO.

Searching on google.com.ng for keyword “digital marketing agency” shows the image below:

While searching for “digital marketing agency Ikeja” shows the image below:

The above images, clearly shows that search results for Local SEO differs from that of Natural SEO. The local SEO search results further shows the business name, address, phone number, opening times, reviews, website, and direction.

In conclusion, quality links are required in order to improve ranking for organic searches, while relevant and consistent citations are key to ranking high on local searches. If you have a local business, then you require a local SEO, and if you have a business that targets online users generally, then you require Natural SEO. If you have a physical business location and also provide your services online, just as TopYouGo Digital Marketing Agency appears in both images above, you can also optimize your business for both Natural and Local SEO.

These days, you can use content to attract a wider audience to your products, goods or services and catalyse growth which will ultimately improve your profit margins significantly.

However, there’s good content and bad content and there are also different kinds of content serving specific purposes, depending on the platform you’re publishing them on. Here, we will take a look at how you can maximise your marketing return on investment (ROI) through smart use of high-quality content to achieve measurable results.

Know your Target Audience

This is the most important step before implementing any kind of content marketing strategy. It’s worth taking the time to compile a profile of your client demographic with as much detail as possible, including lifestyle choices, hobbies and any other random fact you may have noted about the individuals or companies you do business with.

This allows you to generate content that will appeal directly to the demographic most likely to buy into your product or service. The objective here is to create a community among your existing and prospective clients or customers, where you become the go-to source for whatever you have on offer.

Use ‘Gated’ Content to Grow your Prospect Database

Once you’ve established what kind of content is going to be of genuine interest to your clients and prospects, be it a special promotion or an offer or a new development in your sector, you can start to ‘gate’ certain pieces so that you can collect data.

Most people who have worked in sales and marketing know that the secretary of a prospect is referred to as the ‘gatekeeper’. They are the ones who determine who will or will not be passed through to speak directly to the person the caller is trying to reach. In other words, they ‘qualify’ every caller by taking contact details and finding out the reason for the call.

With content you can do something very similar, particularly if you have written a juicy white paper or industry report. You have to ensure your content serves a purpose to your prospects. Make it interesting, engaging and compelling enough for them to want to read what you’re producing.

Then you can host your document on your website or landing page and let everyone know it’s there by emailing the download link to your database, tweeting or posting links on your social channels or running a small AdWords campaign.

Before a download is permitted, the visitor is encouraged to complete a form with whatever information you want to record, like email address and phone number. Try not to ask too many questions and most importantly, make the document something that’s really worth your prospects’ effort.

Using Links in your Blog Articles is Essential for Good SEO

Creating good backlinks to your website is good SEO practice and it encourages more traction among your visitors who will stay longer to find out more, thereby increasing the possibility of turning a prospect into a sale.

You can also link to other non-competing businesses in your sector to increase your profile in the search engine results, particularly if it’s an organisation or company you refer to in your blog pieces or news articles.

It’s important to make all your links relevant so that Google doesn’t flag your pieces for bad SEO. If you’ve written a blog about a certain aspect of your business, that’s a great opportunity to link to another piece on your website along similar lines.

It’s always a good thing to quote and link to industry or government sources in your pieces and write about any current and relevant consumer or manufacturer surveys for your field, as Google looks favourably upon those types of links, boosting your position in its rankings.

Create a Regular Newsletter for your Existing and Prospective Clients

The best way to grow a community among your client database is with regular communication with a newsletter. It’s also the perfect opportunity to summarise and link to any articles you’ve written that month to generate more traffic.

This way you can reach out to those prospects that have shown an interest in your content and encourage them to read more. Whilst engaging your prospect’ interests directly with your blogs, articles and white papers, you will also be establishing yourself as an authority in your field and they’re going to be even more likely to do business with you.

You can publicise your newsletter through your social channels too, as with all your other content, by posting an enticing sentence that fits the character limit, together with a download link. You can choose to gate your newsletter and encourage subscribers and followers too.

Make sure you are consistent if you decide to produce a regular newsletter. Repetition is key when it comes to delivering your marketing message.

Always have a Call to Action (CTA)

Whatever you write and publish for your clients and prospects, make sure you end with a specific call to action. If you want to promote a special offer for example, include information on how readers can take up your offer in the conclusion, and also encourage them to act immediately.

Don’t go overboard and have several CTAs littered through everything you write and publish – just have one and make it simple, direct and compelling enough to encourage a click-through.

If you aren’t the Best Writer, find someone who is!

Google is continually updating its algorithm to favour well-written, informative and current information over keyword-stuffed, meaningless text walls. If you want to get to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs), you have to keep your content fresh, engaging and relevant.

A good writer is a specialist in the content marketing arena and knows how to navigate algorithm updates and approved SEO practices to ensure you get the highest rankings. If you don’t feel up to the challenge, hiring someone with the knowledge makes enormous business sense.

The content your business produces represents you and indicates your level of professionalism (and success) in your chosen field. Whereas in the past, it was the tech-heads that commanded the highest salaries, these days you’ll find out that it’s in fact the writers that are at the top of the food chain – and with very good reason too.