ImagesMagUK_April_2021

www.images-magazine.com APRIL 2021 images 33 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ■ Check out the competition Not sure whether a given keyphrase is truly relevant to your business? Google it and find out! The top search results for your chosen query should give you a pretty good impression of whether it’s the right market for you – if page one is primarily populated by your competitors, you know you’re on the right track. Looking at the websites that already rank for your keywords will also give you a rough idea of what you’ll need to do to rank among them. Do your competitors offer something you don’t? Do their websites have features that your one lacks? Are they presenting their information in a different, more digestible way? Would the average user have a better time on your website than on anybody else’s, or is there room for improvement on your part? Remember, search engines want to point their users to the very best content the internet has to offer – so make sure that’s you! W hile search engine optimisation (SEO) has come a long way since the days when repeating the same phrase over and over again was enough to get you on the first page of Google results, it’s still important to know your keywords before writing a piece of web content. Choosing the right keywords for your website will maximise your website’s chances of being seen by your target audience in the organic search results. Here’s how to do it. ■ Do your research Keyword research is a critical part of any SEO project. You may think you know what your customers are typing into Google and Bing, but spend a little time on a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer, and you may be surprised. There could be popular words and phrases that your future clients use every day, but which you hadn’t thought of. ■ Don’t just go for the biggest numbers Bear in mind that raw search volume isn’t everything. The keyword that gets the most searches isn’t necessarily the keyword that’s most relevant to your business, and the people who enter that popular keyword aren’t necessarily the ones most likely to part with their cash. Think carefully about the product or service you offer, and try to select keywords that are both popular and highly relevant. More specific search terms are likely to have a higher conversion rate, and they tend to be less competitive as well. Speaking of which… Choosing keywords for yourwebsite Joel Dear is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk T he information age is in full swing. We can now say “Hey Google, how do I thread a bobbin?” or “What is the best heat press?” and have all the information right there in front of us in a couple of seconds. YouTube videos are an easy format through which potential buyers can conduct research. Rather than just looking at straightforward marketing videos from manufacturers though, the best type to watch is one where the product is showcased by a ‘real person’. For a viewer, seeing someone they’ve come to know through social media use a product in a studio environment allows them to imagine how the product would work in their own studio. The trust is built as someone else has already invested in the item and has managed to integrate it into their workflow. De-risking the purchase and endorsing it gives it more value. [A similar approach is used with the Telling it… series in Images where readers share their thoughts on equipment they’ve purchased and used – turn to page 58 for this month’s reviews.] With this in mind, you can see why some brands are using brand ambassadors to spread the word about their products and, better yet, expose their products to an already curated audience. Musicians have been doing collabs for years, putting themselves in front of a new audience, so why are more big companies not capitalising on this? And why don’t you How to win friends and influence people use your relationships with companies to grow your audience? People think about buying from research and then pull the trigger after a recommendation. We get asked multiple times a day about what ink we are using or what embroidery machine we have. So, next time you have a new product or simply want to get more exposure – have a go at borrowing someone else’s audience. It worked for Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson! Chessie Rosier-Parker is director and studio manager of Squeegee & Ink, a screen printing and embroidery studio that also provides pre-exposed screens and film to printers along with tutorial videos and resources. www.squeegeeandink.co.uk/ learn-to-screen-print