Can Social Media Marketing Help Local Bristol Businesses? (Part 1)

A recent study (by independent.co.uk) shows that we Brits spend an average of 62 Million hours per day on Facebook and Twitter alone!  That’s the equivalent to an hour for every man, woman and child in the UK!!

So what does this mean for local Bristol businesses?  Well, if you have a product, service or promotion that you wanted your customers to know about it makes sense to run that special offer through the median that is most likely to get your customers attention.

Traditionally, local businesses would have advertised via radio, yellow pages and local newspapers.  In fact, many still do given that the cost of TV advertising is still very high.

Smart business owners are realising the power of the internet and many have adopted some form of eCommerce or website to give them a presence online.

Having a website or online shopping cart is one thing, but getting customers (traffic) to your website is another.

Enter The SEO Consultant

We all know that when we search for something in the search engines like Google, if we don’t find what we are after in the first few pages, we simply amend our search.  Rarely do we waste time trawling through to page 5, 6 or more looking for that illusive Search result.

So after some time it becomes apparent that as a business owner, you need the help of someone that’s an expert at getting businesses onto the first page of Google.  The thing is, any real expert worth talking to will tell you that SEO takes time (usually 3-6 months) before you start to see any real results.

Sure, there may be those that claim they can not only get you onto the first page of Google, but also have you ranked #1 in a matter of days.

Sadly, this is usually some sort of short lived trick that may have you ranked #1 for a while, but it never lasts.  Google is SUPER SMART and always looking out for those trying to game the system.  They keep their formula for what makes a site rank high in its search results a secret and its not in their interest to reveal it to anyone.

However, by observing what works well and taking into account that Google wants to be the #1 search engine in the world for serving up its users the most relevant content available, it is possible to see patterns and implement strategies that will have your business rocketing up the search engine charts and staying there.

Enter The Social Media Marketing Consultant

Social signals have become a significant factor in terms of SEO importance.  Whilst having a well optimised website and credible back links pointing to your site are still important to search engines, they now want to know who else is talking about your site.  Is your website (and the content on it) relevant?

The more people there are legitimately tweeting, sharing, liking, commenting, etc about the content on your site the more search engines will consider your website an authority in your niche.

We will discuss the importance of these social signals and social media marketing in part 2 which can be found by clicking here.