October 2019
How To Make The Most Of Your Online Content
28/10/19 16:25
Hello
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "online content"?
If you've a website for your animal care business, having good content is important so that:
a) you've information potential (or actual) customers want, and
b) people can find your content. So for instance your website will feature higher on search engine rankings.
Read on for some tips to help you get started with developing search-engine-friendly content!
Why Bother With Google?
Google is not the only search engine people can use to look on the internet. But it does account for over two-thirds of all internet searches worldwide. So with that in mind, it’s a good idea to ensure your website can perform well on Google. But this isn't as easy as it may sound!
The algorithms that Google other internet companies use often change. They're designed to be unfathomable. That is as they don’t want people to know how they rank websites and accounts. If everyone knew the exact method for getting top ranking success then it would create a host of issues. Not least because a lot of people would stop advertising on Google or the internet companies. Also, businesses wouldn't need so much support from website and online marketing companies!
A helpful free tool offered by Google is “Google Search Console”. You may wonder why you need that if you have Google Analytics? Let me explain the difference.
Google Analytics will show you your traffic. But it won’t show you all the keywords which are driving that traffic. It will usually say, “Not provided”. Because of data and privacy reasons they don’t showcase when people are logged in to Gmail or Google. And which keywords they are searching for. But Google Search Console will showcase that data.
Knowing what keywords are being used by people finding your website is vital. It'll help you develop more content that is relevant. You may find it surprising what keywords people do type into Google to search for - it may not always be what you expect. A bit of keyword research now can help you in the longer term through having content people want to read.
Action Point 1 - Go to the Google Search Console here and set up your account.
What sort of content should you use?
An article or blog post work well in creating higher rankings. Videos and audio tend not to rank so high on google. But it’s not the case of only posting articles and blogs. Instead publish information that people engage with. Google knows a lot of things. Including whether people are scrolling a page. If they're clicking, reading and viewing the images, etc.
Try and be “conversational” in your text. So use words like “you” and “I”, Google can tell the content of articles and whether it’s going to be user friendly. Of course there will be random examples which don’t seem to fit with this, but generally it does make a difference.
Action Point 2 is to review your website, blog and any other places on the internet that you have content. Ask yourself:
I hope this has been helpful for you to develop your horse or dog care website.
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "online content"?
If you've a website for your animal care business, having good content is important so that:
a) you've information potential (or actual) customers want, and
b) people can find your content. So for instance your website will feature higher on search engine rankings.
Read on for some tips to help you get started with developing search-engine-friendly content!
Why Bother With Google?
Google is not the only search engine people can use to look on the internet. But it does account for over two-thirds of all internet searches worldwide. So with that in mind, it’s a good idea to ensure your website can perform well on Google. But this isn't as easy as it may sound!
The algorithms that Google other internet companies use often change. They're designed to be unfathomable. That is as they don’t want people to know how they rank websites and accounts. If everyone knew the exact method for getting top ranking success then it would create a host of issues. Not least because a lot of people would stop advertising on Google or the internet companies. Also, businesses wouldn't need so much support from website and online marketing companies!
A helpful free tool offered by Google is “Google Search Console”. You may wonder why you need that if you have Google Analytics? Let me explain the difference.
Google Analytics will show you your traffic. But it won’t show you all the keywords which are driving that traffic. It will usually say, “Not provided”. Because of data and privacy reasons they don’t showcase when people are logged in to Gmail or Google. And which keywords they are searching for. But Google Search Console will showcase that data.
Knowing what keywords are being used by people finding your website is vital. It'll help you develop more content that is relevant. You may find it surprising what keywords people do type into Google to search for - it may not always be what you expect. A bit of keyword research now can help you in the longer term through having content people want to read.
Action Point 1 - Go to the Google Search Console here and set up your account.
What sort of content should you use?
An article or blog post work well in creating higher rankings. Videos and audio tend not to rank so high on google. But it’s not the case of only posting articles and blogs. Instead publish information that people engage with. Google knows a lot of things. Including whether people are scrolling a page. If they're clicking, reading and viewing the images, etc.
Try and be “conversational” in your text. So use words like “you” and “I”, Google can tell the content of articles and whether it’s going to be user friendly. Of course there will be random examples which don’t seem to fit with this, but generally it does make a difference.
Action Point 2 is to review your website, blog and any other places on the internet that you have content. Ask yourself:
- What sort of content is it?
- Is it text based?
- What is the ‘tone’ of the piece?
- Does it read well for the reader?
- If someone doesn’t know anything about you or your service, does it make sense?
I hope this has been helpful for you to develop your horse or dog care website.
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
Is There a Perfect Offer For Your Customer?
21/10/19 15:46
Do you think you need to have a sale or a special offer for your business? To help both keep existing and get new customers? Is this something you've had success with or feel like you're missing out on with your business?
What Do You Want To Achieve?
A special offer or a sale can be helpful to boost most type of businesses. Including animal care / veterinary businesses.
But there is a possibility if you have too many sales or special offers, it damages your business. Why? It puts people off of actually using your service or business when it is full price. You de-value your service through too many special offers. Because many love a bargain! If it’s known by waiting a few weeks they can buy your service at a lower price, then many will do that.
Yes, even if their animal could do with your treatment or products now. Depending on what it is wrong with them, people can unfortunately put off treatment. This may happen if they aren’t sure whether their insurance company will pay. Or they know they won’t or they don’t have insurance at all.
Also, it’s important to consider how you construct your offer, this can be vital. Will it be for new customers or existing? It can make existing customers unhappy. If they know they’re having to pay full price and yet new people are getting your service or products cheaper.
You may've heard in the media about companies giving discounts to new customers? Whereas existing customers have to pay ever increasing prices. So it’s been often better for people to shop around and go to a new company. So don’t let that happen to you!
Why should people pay "full price" for your service? Instead consider always charging full price. BUT offer some kind of loyalty programme instead.
Action Point - Have a plan - what do you want to achieve with any offers?
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
What Do You Want To Achieve?
A special offer or a sale can be helpful to boost most type of businesses. Including animal care / veterinary businesses.
But there is a possibility if you have too many sales or special offers, it damages your business. Why? It puts people off of actually using your service or business when it is full price. You de-value your service through too many special offers. Because many love a bargain! If it’s known by waiting a few weeks they can buy your service at a lower price, then many will do that.
Yes, even if their animal could do with your treatment or products now. Depending on what it is wrong with them, people can unfortunately put off treatment. This may happen if they aren’t sure whether their insurance company will pay. Or they know they won’t or they don’t have insurance at all.
Also, it’s important to consider how you construct your offer, this can be vital. Will it be for new customers or existing? It can make existing customers unhappy. If they know they’re having to pay full price and yet new people are getting your service or products cheaper.
You may've heard in the media about companies giving discounts to new customers? Whereas existing customers have to pay ever increasing prices. So it’s been often better for people to shop around and go to a new company. So don’t let that happen to you!
Why should people pay "full price" for your service? Instead consider always charging full price. BUT offer some kind of loyalty programme instead.
Action Point - Have a plan - what do you want to achieve with any offers?
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
How To Optimise Your Horse or Dog Care Website
14/10/19 12:02
SEO - What Is It & How Can It Help Your Horse or Dog Care Biz?
Search Engine Optimisation. Otherwise known as SEO is something that applies to anyone who has a website. Including you as a horse or dog care professional. Even if you've a great website that says what you do. It needs to be "optimised". Otherwise it's unlikely that it'll rank high on search engine rankings.
Why is a high ranking important on search engines?
It'll mean that people are likely to find you if they type in a search related to your business. Otherwise, it'll mean people may not find you through 'organic' search results. So your potential customers can then only find you if you. a) use paid online advertising (e.g. Google Ads) or b) they type in your website address (if they know what it is)
Does SEO make a big difference?
Yes it is important. Most marketing experts agree! Paid advertising can be helpful for getting your business known online. BUT you don't want to be spending lots of money on advertising that is 'making up' for a lack of an optimised website. Instead advertising should 'enhance'.
It can take several months though to see results from optimising your website. As with many marketing efforts, it's not a quick process for most.
Stage 1 - Where to Start with SEO?
Research and competitor analysis is the first stage. With the aim of understanding more about the keywords that others are using. And defining what you want to use for your service.
There are various online tools that you can use to help you with this - like "Ubersuggest". Type in keywords related to your service area. (E.g. if you're an animal physiotherapist, this could be the type of animal(s) you work with. Or physiotherapy, veterinary, horse care (if you work with horses), etc).
The online tool will then suggest other keywords which are similar. How many times they're searched for and cost per click. Even if you're not paying for Google ads. By knowing that a keyword is a high cost per click, this is likely to mean that it's often used. So worth using.
Research and defining what keywords to use to market your business is vital. For instance if you're only delivering your service in a certain geographic area. You want to optimise your site to reflect that. If you optimise to increase traffic generally. Then you may end up with thousands of website hits every month. But not necessarily those which are going to convert into paying customers.
You can also use a website called SEMrush. This enables you to type in your URL and it will show you your closest competitors and common keywords. You can also type in different keywords and see what websites are also using them.
How Often To Do This?
Definitely when you're first developing your website. And also every month or two. It depends on how complex your website is (e.g. different subjects you're covering) and how much time you have! But if you make a good start at the beginning it shouldn't take too long to review.
Action Point
If you've a website, when was the last time you checked how well optimised it was? And if you have relevant keywords featured/in built?
Use the tools suggested here. Assess your website. And think about what keywords you can use that are relevant to your animal care service.
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
Search Engine Optimisation. Otherwise known as SEO is something that applies to anyone who has a website. Including you as a horse or dog care professional. Even if you've a great website that says what you do. It needs to be "optimised". Otherwise it's unlikely that it'll rank high on search engine rankings.
Why is a high ranking important on search engines?
It'll mean that people are likely to find you if they type in a search related to your business. Otherwise, it'll mean people may not find you through 'organic' search results. So your potential customers can then only find you if you. a) use paid online advertising (e.g. Google Ads) or b) they type in your website address (if they know what it is)
Does SEO make a big difference?
Yes it is important. Most marketing experts agree! Paid advertising can be helpful for getting your business known online. BUT you don't want to be spending lots of money on advertising that is 'making up' for a lack of an optimised website. Instead advertising should 'enhance'.
It can take several months though to see results from optimising your website. As with many marketing efforts, it's not a quick process for most.
Stage 1 - Where to Start with SEO?
Research and competitor analysis is the first stage. With the aim of understanding more about the keywords that others are using. And defining what you want to use for your service.
There are various online tools that you can use to help you with this - like "Ubersuggest". Type in keywords related to your service area. (E.g. if you're an animal physiotherapist, this could be the type of animal(s) you work with. Or physiotherapy, veterinary, horse care (if you work with horses), etc).
The online tool will then suggest other keywords which are similar. How many times they're searched for and cost per click. Even if you're not paying for Google ads. By knowing that a keyword is a high cost per click, this is likely to mean that it's often used. So worth using.
Research and defining what keywords to use to market your business is vital. For instance if you're only delivering your service in a certain geographic area. You want to optimise your site to reflect that. If you optimise to increase traffic generally. Then you may end up with thousands of website hits every month. But not necessarily those which are going to convert into paying customers.
You can also use a website called SEMrush. This enables you to type in your URL and it will show you your closest competitors and common keywords. You can also type in different keywords and see what websites are also using them.
How Often To Do This?
Definitely when you're first developing your website. And also every month or two. It depends on how complex your website is (e.g. different subjects you're covering) and how much time you have! But if you make a good start at the beginning it shouldn't take too long to review.
Action Point
If you've a website, when was the last time you checked how well optimised it was? And if you have relevant keywords featured/in built?
Use the tools suggested here. Assess your website. And think about what keywords you can use that are relevant to your animal care service.
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
How To Benefit Your Horse or Dog Care Biz With Twitter Chats
07/10/19 16:50
Join Twitter Chat Hours To Develop Your Horse or Dog Care Biz
Are you interested in using Twitter to develop your animal care business, but aren’t sure how? Then this post is for you!
A great way to engage with people on Twitter who will find your horse or dog care business interesting. Is to take part in relevant Twitter chats. There’s chats (which focus on a particular hashtag #) for hundreds of topics. Including animal related ones. The participants of these chats, use Twitter to make lasting connections. Whether with other like-minded individuals and brands. So they are likely to be valuable followers who will help share your message and engage with your brand.
Get the most out of Twitter chats by actively taking part. By replying, and following new people. Plus keep the relationship going after the chat has ended. For instance this could mean using the # hashtag outside of the dedicated hour. (many chats focus centered around a particular hour in the week).
Examples of animal related Twitter chats include (1) #EquineHour (2) #HorseHour. But there are many others - so do some research, look at different animal related brands and see what they’re using. You can create your own - yes you can!
If you can’t find a chat that makes sense for your business, then establish your own. It will need though you to make a concerted and sustained effort to build awareness of it. So depending on your available resources this could be a worthwhile investment. Or be too time consuming - promoted advertising is something to consider too.
Get more confidence in using Twitter with my free 1 page Twitter Basics Guide - Download Here
How to Get Confident Using Social Media With Your Equine or Canine Business
Visit https://animal-star-social-media.teachable.com or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk to learn more.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.