We recently announced that The Web Bureau had 3 entries shortlisted for this year’s Digital Advertising Northern Ireland Awards. Last Thursday night, the moment of truth arrived.

Primed as the industry event of the year, our Digital Marketing team dug out their dresses and suits, and headed down to one of our newest and much talked about Belfast conference venues, the iconic Titanic Building. 

The impressive gala event run by Naomh McElhatton and her team at Digital Advertising Northern Ireland was a fantastic evening which included a champagne drinks reception, a delicious meal, entertainment and the awards ceremony itself, hosted by Belfast comic actress Nuala McKeever.

The team at The Web Bureau were delighted to receive accolades for all 3 shortlisted entries.

Our Search Engine Marketing campaign delivered on behalf of the Grand Opera House Belfast received the Runner Up award for Best Use of Search, and our Kingspan entry, based on their Sensor Systems Oil Alarms website was Highly Commended in the same category.

Our own marketing and PR campaign, the Northern Ireland Website Scrappage Scheme also received a Highly Commended award in the Best B2B Marketing Campaign Category.

After a successful night with a few trips up and down the replica Titanic Staircase without incident, we all had a fantastic evening, and are keen to share our success with you.

Our Success Is Your Opportunity!

The DANI Awards highlight the importance of digital marketing to business growth and sustainability.  Key to achieving success is having both the right strategy and the right team in place to make your visions a reality. 

In the words of Benjamin Franklin,“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”.

The Web Bureau is offering companies the opportunity to avail of £500 off the cost of a Digital Strategy. If you fancy being our next digital success story, visit our website for more information about how to avail of the offer.

Our recent article, 2012: The Year Google Became Local, announced the introduction of Google+ Local, and the Google Venice algorithm update, elements of Google's strategy to return the most relevant search results for users.

If your business targets customers in your region for new and repeat business, there are many advantages of investing in local search engine optimisation. Those who rank well locally can attract regular visitor traffic and new customers to their site. With mobile searching on the increase, ranking well for local keywords is increasingly important.

Local businesses gain trust more easily due to the map, address verification, customer reviews, and content that local business pages typically contain. Conversion rates tend to be higher for local search terms, than national terms as geographic proximity results in increased click-through rates and repeat visits. Securing reviews from these local customers who purchase often, also enables local businesses to establish credibility quickly. 

So How Can a Local Business or Organisation Rank Well for Local Search Terms?

Stage 1: Keyword Research 

Identify suitable keywords to use to optimise your website, social media profiles and anchor text for link building. Local search marketing is challenging as you are targeting both industry-specific and geo-specific terms.

Stage 2: On-Site Optimisation for Local Search

Tell the search engines the locations you are targeting by including geo-specific information, keywords and phrases on your website:

Meta Data
Include your local keywords within title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, H tags and so on.

Local Address & Phone Number on All Pages
Include these details on all pages within the text, not in an image. Most businesses place this information in their website’s footer. This is good for search engine bots and for people on mobile phones as your phone number may be clickable.

Location-Specific Pages
If you have more than one location but only one website, create a page on your website specific for each physical location. This way, anyone searching for your business in a particular region, city, state, or country should be directed to the appropriate page.

Embed a Map
The best place to start is to get listed on local search directories. Some good examples include Google+ Local, 4NI, Yelp, Yell,Cylex and Free Index.  Include as much content as the directory allows to best optimise your listing. Some local search directories are free, others incur a cost. 

Enter the address on Google Maps, get the HTML embed code and add the map to your website. To be extra sure Google and other search engines pick up on this, get your web developer to create and upload a KML file to your website.  KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. Instead of waiting for Google to find out where you are, this will tell them where you are!

Stage 3: Off Page Optimisation / Link Building for Local Keywords

There are a number of strategies that businesses can employ to secure local links to their website:

Local Search Directories & Reviews
Boost your visibility by monitoring your business listings. Encourage your customers to provide a review and respond to both good and bad reviews as the listing owner. Positive ratings can elevate your business in search results, especially on sites that allow visitors to sort businesses by the number of positive ratings. Here are some tips for getting great social local search reviews:

• Add Icons to Your Website - Let your website visitors know they can rate your business on directories by adding links to your business listings on your website.
• Encourage Reviews in Your Store - If you have a store or restaurant, encourage local reviews by simply putting a mention or link to your business listings on receipts.
• Encourage Reviews via Emails - Email people after they purchase from your website or sign up to your mailing list and ask them to rate their experience on their choice of business listing.
• Ask! - If you interact with customers daily, simply ask them to add a review on your business listing.

Related Local Businesses
Identify local businesses from the same industry, which are not competitors. If their websites have resource pages that link out to other businesses similar to yours, try to get your link listed as a valuable resource their visitors.

Local Bloggers
Find bloggers in your region whose audience might be interested in your business. Offer to do a guest post for them, or give them the opportunity to sample your products or services in exchange for a review on their blog.

General Local Resource Pages 
Search for other local business resources where you may be able to get your site listed e.g. your local Council’s website.

Competitor Backlinks
Use tools like Open Site Explorer to find out what backlinks your local competitors’ websites have to see if you can get yourself listed on them as well.

Local Events
If you sponsor or exhibit at local industry conferences, expos and shows, check if they link to their exhibitors and sponsors on their website. 

Local Charities
Sponsor and donate to local charities. Many will have websites that thank their local sponsors and donors, linking back to the sponsor’s and donor’s websites.

Actively delivering all of the above will have you well on your way to achieving a strong position in local search results, but the challenge does not end here. 

Our previous article, ‘Be a Social Animal for Search Engine Optimisation’ illustrated that SEO in not complete without the support of Social Media Marketing. Our next article will identify social media marketing strategies that will strengthen your Local Search Optimisation strategy.

There was much excitement in our Digital Marketing team last Friday afternoon as we received confirmation that three of our entries to the Digital Advertising Northern Ireland (DANI) Awards had made the shortlist.

Paul Haslam, Director of The Web Bureau said:

“We are delighted to have been shortlisted for these celebrated industry awards. This is testament to the hard work and dedication of our committed team.”

The Web Bureau is nominated for Best B2B Campaign for the Northern Ireland Website Scrappage Scheme and Best Use of Search for two Search Engine Optimisation campaigns delivered on behalf of clients, Grand Opera House Belfast and Kingspan Environmental.

Best B2B Campaign – Northern Ireland Website Scrappage Scheme

The Northern Ireland Website Scrappage Scheme was a nationwide marketing campaign launched in April 2012 by The Web Bureau to encourage businesses to ditch their old website in exchange for £1,000 discount off a new site.

Paul Haslam, Director explains the rationale behind the campaign: 

“Your website is the first port of call for many potential customers or stakeholders and first impressions last. Many websites in Northern Ireland look dated, lack fresh content and are not designed and content managed in a search friendly manner.”

Paul adds, “We had a great response to the scheme and had the opportunity to educate many Northern Ireland businesses on the value of having a visually engaging, functional and search friendly website.  Special thanks must go to the PR team at Lighthouse Communications for their assistance with widening the reach of our message through traditional and online PR channels.”

Best Use of Search – Grand Opera House Belfast

The Best Use of Search award offers recognition for a campaign that successfully enhanced the visibility of a website in search engines organic listings.

Grand Opera House is well known for its shows, however, this SEO campaign focused on using search engine marketing to generate awareness of less well known services including meeting and conference room hire and lunch and dining facilities on site. 

 

Best Use of Search – Kingspan Environmental

At The Web Bureau, we have delivered many web design, web development and digital marketing projects for various brands within the Kingspan Group. This particular project, launched in final quarter of 2011 sought to promote their Sensor Systems Winter Fuel Essentials products website, www.oilalarms.com, at a time of year when demand for these products is naturally higher.

Both companies experienced significant jumps in their rankings for keywords from positions beyond Page 10 of Google UK to Page 1 and subsequently extended the projects.

Denise Cowan, Digital Marketing Manager commented:

“We are delighted to be recognised as one of the leading search engine optimisation providers in Northern Ireland, and to have the opportunity to continue to work with the Marketing teams at Grand Opera House and Kingspan Environmental. Our clients also deserve recognition for their forward thinking approaches to marketing and ongoing commitment to implementing successful digital strategies.”

The DANI Awards recognise businesses, organisations and individuals, working in the digital media sector in Northern Ireland. With ten categories, entrants can gain recognition for successful web design, e-commerce, mobile marketing, social media, search engine optimisation and digital strategy projects. In addition, DANI present an individual award for the Digital Business Person of the Year. 

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Titanic Building in Belfast on 13 September. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

If you are interested in search engine marketing to drive traffic to your website and grow sales, contact The Web Bureau on 028 9073 1190 or email denise@thewebbureau.com