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Intuitive web design: Top tips

Proactive Marketing Solutions have put together a blog series about intuitive web design. This week we are looking into the notion of trust

In this series we will cover how you can get an intuitive website and highlight ways to encourage repeated website visits. With between 10 -20 seconds for a website to prove itself before a visitor decides to stay or go. It is vital you communicate that they are in the right place.

What is intuitive design

You might be wondering what intuitive design is and how these terms relate to your website. If we consider two concepts, one being seamlessness and the other user experience (UX) and look at how these translate into your website then we are getting closer. Knowing what works for your visitors, and, just as importantly, what doesn’t is a great starting point.

Your visitors will probably return to your site if it is user friendly and running at a good speed.  But if it is chaotic, badly designed, and doesn’t match what is advertised then they will most likely leave, never to return. Its time to be honest with yourself, which category does your website fit into?

Would you trust your site?

When we use the word ‘trust’ we don’t mean anything other than a typical dictionary definition, -‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something’. Although you aren’t entering a long-term relationship with your visitors it’s still important to acknowledge that online services, compared to on street shops, are disadvantaged when it comes to trust. So, in essence, you have your work cut out! – We really do need to look at ways we can get our visitors to trust us.

Why is your online shop disadvantaged?

We know that customers are far more likely to buy a product once it’s been picked up and investigated.  In a physical shopping environment, you’re able to read between the lines- questions things like- how products are being displayed, the way staff behave- are they interested in you and the stock? Is the shop sign hanging off and the floors dirty? Or are the staff attentive and the shop immaculate? All these subliminal messages inform us on quality, and whether a shop can be trusted. Remove all these cues and suddenly we have a situation where customers do not know who to trust. With big brands encouraging the public to buy into their services and products through massive campaigns, it can be tricky to get a piece of the action.

These issues aren’t going away so its best just to embrace them. Google have started to rank websites based on trustworthiness and ethics, which is significant when we consider 96% of smart phone users come through a google search. If you neglect Google’s rules, then your business SERPs may be considerably lowered therefore, It’s time to get on board!

Practical steps that can be taken to build up a sense of trust

  • Use customer reviews- historical and up to date – promote them on social media and a no-nonsense page on your website.
  • Is your website full of problems – because if it is, visitors might begin to believe your services and products are also riddled with issues – Build a space where visitors can happily click through your content without confusion or frustration and won’t leave after only seeing one page – known as a bounce rate.
  • Put out good social media posts – regularly – containing relevant content.
  • Avoid asking for unnecessary information – its suspicious – visitors will be sceptical about why you want their information.
  • Provide your visitors with a means to contact your business – such as messenger – Let your potential customers know how long they will need to wait for a response.
  • You should look closely at your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – For more specifically about SEO, look at our ‘If SEO blows your mind, read this’. Or click here for more help.

False pretenses

Ideally, you want to look at whether your SEO and keywords reflect what your website has to offer. Unethical practices that involve dangling a carrot to tempt visitors should be evaluated, for the sake of pleasing Google and aiming to work honestly. A good bit of news is, 90% of people haven’t made up their minds about a brand when using a search engine which means you can capture this audience without sneaky black hat techniques.

The round up

I suppose a big question to ask yourself, or more constructively others, Is, ‘how much thinking do you need to do when using my website’. Beyond seamlessness and good UX, it is fundamental to reward your visitors with what has been advertised. I suppose it’s about honestly, not luring visitors to your site and giving them a clunky and irrelevant space.

Ensure your social media platforms are being used to their full potential and are linked to your website. If you are a thriving business show the world how you are positively interacting with your visitors and customers. Avoid giving visitors the impression that you are a dodgy individual in a back street, because your website and social media accounts are redundant.

Here are a few more elements to consider which we will look at in more detail over the next few weeks:

  • Say no to unnecessary distractions
  • Get help with speeding up your website
  • Be clear about what your services/ product are
  • Show your potential clients that you care
  • Be careful about demanding and gathering information

For more help on any of the areas covered feel free to get in touch with Proactive Marketing Solutions.

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If SEO blows your mind: Read this!

Now is the time to start thinking about your search engine optimization (SEO)

Even if you feel like running to the hills and hiding away from the subject, you shouldn’t. It can be hard to get your head around if you are unfamiliar with SEO but hopefully our friendly introduction will get you focussed and more confident with an understanding of how to build a happy relationship with your website visitors and search engines.

Keywords

Firstly, an important thing to note is that Google has unleashed an ‘over-optimization penalty’ which is targeting websites that use too many keywords (relevant words and phrases used to help people find your site) on each web page. So, the moral of the story is – don’t be greedy and don’t be a hoarder- Metaphorically speaking anyway! Keep your keywords simple and use a maximum of five per page. If you need some help and inspiration with finding the right keywords you could use Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This tool will help you to find relevant and up to date words inline with todays trends. Alternatively, get in contact to discuss you needs with our expert team.

Content

Try to make interesting content which your visitors will enjoy and find useful. Not only do you want to keep visitors looking at your site for more than 3 seconds, you also want to please the search engines… as dull as that might sound this is a great way to become more visible. The more content you produce of a high standard the more likely search engines will add more of your pages to their search indexes.

And, of course, we aren’t just a pretty face, we also share great ideas of what kind of content to create…

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Posting industry blogs
  • Reviews
  • Graphics

We hear you- creating quality content is hard work! You can come face to face with plenty of creative road blocks if you are trying to juggle many tasks by yourself. There are a few things you can do, hire a pro. This can come at a cost, however, it is worth it in the long run. Let’s be honest, building a successful business is playing the long game, success doesn’t show its face overnight. But in the meantime, keep your eyes on the idea that producing good quality content will engage visitors and impress those ‘oh-so’ important search engines.

Link building

The basic concept here is to get other websites linked to your own. If you consider these linked sites as your friends and you are running in a popularity contest, then you are far more likely to win if you have more friends than everyone else- Link building is a similar idea to this.

Ideally, you want to create quality links known as white hat techniques as this approach is considered more ethical. Google are also taking action on websites that use black hat techniques (yep, you’ve got it, the opposite to white hat) such as spamming. Avoid over using keywords and over posting the same content. If you are giving the time to improve business, then you might as well do it on good merit.

You could produce a blog and post it on some blogging websites, maybe even reach out to relevant industries for instance, if you have a restaurant business you might like to link up with food brands you use or sell. Probably best you don’t link with your direct competitors… just a suggestion!

Sponsorship is another way to engage companies and charities, this will help to develop positive links, however, we would suggest you actually engage, and not just make it about a financial transaction. Attend events, write up about them, link up on social media and show interest across all your platforms. This will help to build you an audience in an organic way.

Social Media

While your links to social media profiles may not always count towards your search engine rankings they will get you some attention and will help to drive visitors to your website which in turn is still useful to you.

Finally

Finally, this has been a brief look at SEO, my goodness there is a lot more to it, but hopefully you feel like you have had a friendly handshake with the concept and feel a bit more at ease. Click here if you would like further support from our team.

We’ll leave you with one last thought, and that is, the importance of tracking and monitoring your SEO progress. You can do this in many ways – one way is to use Google Analytics. Through Google Analytics you can learn about who your visitors are, how much time they are spending with you and the type of keywords they are using to find you. This can then feed back into the types of keywords you are using on your pages.

We wish you good luck and if you need a hand- do get in touch!

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Farang Mart – Free Ads Classifieds & Business Directory Thailand

Farang Mart – Free Ads Classifieds & Business Directory Thailand

All businesses are looking to get ahead of the competition and seek new ways in which they can achieve this. Most people are willing to accept that traditional forms of media advertising, namely print advertising, are now out of date and have little impact, failing to reach out to the potential clients and customers who they are aiming for. A natural progression has been for companies to look towards online advertising and here at Proactive Marketing, we feel we have found a great new platform by which you can achieve this in Farang Mart.

What is Farang Mart?

To those of you who are unfamiliar with the directory, quite simply it is Thailand’s fastest growing website that receives hundreds of visitors each day making it the most effective classifieds site. Working in conjunction with one of the best media teams in Pattaya, Pattaya One, the site has gone from strength to strength and is now a firm favourite with many SEO companies just like ourselves.

The site offers both free classified ads along with premium adds which are superb for promoting items that are of a higher value such as cars, property or businesses. This makes it highly attractive to both buyers and sellers – the goal of any business directory. If you haven’t heard of it yet, we can guarantee that you will have in just a few months.

Why should I use it?

Farang Mart is a fantastic way to gain extra exposure for your business. As it is a directory that offers free classified ads along with premium ads so it ticks so many boxes for so many people. It is extremely user-friendly with the business categories clearly identifiable and on a national scale. This means that users don’t have to randomly browse through pages to find exactly what they are looking for. The fact that it is so user-friendly means that it is soon likely to become the directory of choice for many companies operating within Thailand – especially the ones owned and run by expats.

From an SEO point of view, Farang Mart is a great way of driving more traffic to your website. The free ads are a superb way to achieve this but we feel that the paid for banners are what will really set organisations apart from the competition. By using these banners it will be possible to target certain market segments such as real estate or cars along with being able to target by city or province, for example, Pattaya and Phuket, or Koh Samui. Using our complex analytics tools we can determine which categories achieve the most views and visitors therefore, enabling us to target your client base.

Conclusion

First and foremost, we believe that this is the ideal marketing tool for your business in Thailand. The more exposure that can be gained for any organisation regardless of size is the primary goal of 95% of companies. A directory that targets potential clients by not only sector but also by region is perfect and we firmly believe that Farang Mart achieves this and this is why we promote it to our clients.

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Why SEO Is So Important For Real Estate Agents

Why SEO Is So Important For Real Estate Agents

The Pattaya real estate market is notoriously competitive and increasingly brokers are looking to the internet to reach out to a wider audience. The problem is that all Pattaya real estate agents are all chasing the same goal- to be top of the rankings and be the ones who are most visible to prospective clients. Having a conspicuous online presence is essential for anyone involved in Pattaya property because, without it, their enterprise is destined to fail.

Merely having a website that people can refer to is no longer enough so a greater number of real estate brokers are looking at their SEO and how it can help them to achieve their goals. SEO or search engine optimisation to give it its full name takes on various guises and is becoming something of an art in its own right.  This is perhaps the main reason why Pattaya real estate agents are looking to professionals to assist them with improving their presence on the web.

Choosing the correct keywords, for example, ‘Pattaya property for sale’ and building high quality, relevant links are key to your success. This will mean that you can reach out to a wider but still targeted audience. Here are the main reasons why we think SEO is important for real estate brokers.

Target your geographical audience

Without doubt, the main target audience for Pattaya property agents is those people who are already in the city or looking to come in the near future. Targeting this group means that you increase your chances of bringing buyers and sellers together. As your ranking improves, the chances of building a stable stream of traffic and therefore a pipeline increases. This effectively means that you can continually expand your business.

It gives an excellent ROI

It is widely accepted that traditional forms of advertising and media are longer as successful as they were in days gone by. SEO compared to any other type of paid advertising yields a far better return on your investment. You can easily gain new clients without the necessary expense related to print media for example. Once again, this means that you can consistently expand and grow your Pattaya real estate business.

It gives long-lasting, stable results

A reputable SEO company will help you to achieve long-lasting, stable results. Your goal is to get on to and remain on the first page of the rankings and once this is achieved you will find the whole process considerably easier. After, the initial expense of getting there, you will then find that the costs thereafter are much less. This is one very obvious reason why you choose a reputable SEO company from the outset.

It gives you greater credibility

Having a greater presence on the internet means that prospective clients can find you via the main search engines will naturally give your brand greater credibility. This greater credibility means that attracting new business become easier. Posting blogs and reviews on your website in another method that you can use to boost your credibility further. Higher net worth clients, the clients who you dream about, will always lean towards websites that are more credible.

Therefore it seems natural that Pattaya real estate agents should be looking to make the most of online digital marketing methods and the best way to start is with SEO. The results and the returns will be quicker than you imagine, thus meaning that you can grow your business in a relatively short time period. When you consider this along with all the other points outlined above, it seems very obvious that you need to start conducting SEO.

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How to Write Page 1 Ranking Blogs

How to Write Page 1 Ranking Blogs

There is a reason why people want to rank top of Google’s search rankings, it is because the top ranking site receives 33% of all traffic – in fact 92% of all browser don’t search beyond the first page.

To achieve this organically, you need high-quality content that is well written and informative. However, just having this alone will not achieve the results that you are looking for. This is where having an SEO strategy comes in, the content needs to keyword-focused so that your website attracts traffic from people who are looking for your products and services. Attracting the right kind of traffic is far more important that just generating traffic to your site.

Blogs are a great way to achieve this but where do you start in creating this high-quality, relevant content?

Choose the right keywords

Globally, Google deals with tens of thousands of searches a second. This means that for your site to outrank your competitors it must contain the right keywords and phrases that your potential clients are browsing for. In other words, your content needs to contain those specific terms.

So, how do you find out what people are searching for? Social media is your best option, see what is trending for your target audience. This is where you need to be creative but you also need focus on exact phrases as these are used to monitor popularity.

Google Trends is another tool that is well worth considering as this again tells you keywords that trending. Equally useful is this fact that it tells you which searches are declining in popularity so always focus on ones that are popular at the time, or, and perhaps this is the key, ones that are increasing in popularity as this may give you the chance to get ahead of the game.

Knowing what your competitors are doing is always useful. SEMRush allows you to enter their domain name and tell you what keywords they are using. Not only that, you can also see where they are ranking for those keywords and the traffic that they receive – all very useful information.

It is advisable to steer clear of the most popular or generic keywords and use “long-tail” keywords instead. These make up around 70% of all search traffic and could be the key to your website’s success. Think of your location, something specific that you do or something else that makes you stand out from the crowd.

Once you have come up with a few ideas you can check them in a keyword search tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner. This will give you a great idea about how effective they are likely to be. It is important to remember that keywords evolve so you need to be aware of the changes in your market – remember Google Trends mentioned above!

The keywords must appear naturally

When you write a blog, it is best to focus on just one keyword for optimum results. Obviously, it is important to think of keywords from your customers’ perspective so try to build up a persona for them. Choose topics that will appeal to this persona, strike a chord and force them to continue reading.

You then need to include the keyword in your content but it must appear naturally and on the same note, you want to include variations that you can appear from time-to-time in the post. For maximum results your primary keyword, the one you are focusing on, should appear in the title, in sub-headings and throughout the content. If you can include it in the URL and meta description then that is even better.

However, don’t slip into the trap of writing to suit the search engines, your main audience is humans. Engaging with readers means creating content that is interesting and informative so keywords should appear naturally and not be forced.

Build links to key influencers

Linking to external bodies is always wise, so long as they are not your direct competitors. Go for relevant sites that are well-regarded. This creates a place that readers can go to in order to obtain more information. It also shows Google that you have researched the topic as offering supporting information and facts appeal to everyone.

Aim for longer posts

Although humans have notoriously short attention spans, 8 seconds according to some reports, search engines prefer long articles. 300 words should be the absolute minimum if you are looking to rank on page one but most successful articles are around 1,000 words. However, the articles should be easy to skim read. Bullet points are useful along with paragraph headings. Make the article as easy to read as possible and think about mobile devices.

Internal links

External links are great but you need to build links to your own site as well. You can link to other pages on your website or previous posts. This has a two-fold purpose, firstly it encourages readers to become more familiar with other content on your site and secondly, it also helps to create a sitemap.

Links, both internal and external, should appear naturally and avoid terms that could be viewed as being linked to spam such as “click here” or “top deals”. Try to be as descriptive as possible so that readers know exactly what to expect when they click on your link. The more they know about it, the greater the chance that they will click on it. Don’t overdo the number of links that you have in a blog as this can have a negative impact as well as they may appear forced.

Finally!

There is no getting away from it, the purpose of your blog is to appeal to YOUR audience. However, you must appeal to the search engines too if you wish to rank highly so you must optimise your blogs to appeal to both groups. Aim to become viewed as an expert if you want to realise your site’s potential and to achieve this, you must do your research.