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What is an SEO Keyword?

What is an SEO Keyword?

by | Feb 17, 2022 | Digital Marketing, SEO

SEO keywords are ideas and topics that explain what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, you may also hear these called “search queries.”  

If you boil everything on your page down — all the images, video, copy, etc then your SEO keywords are what will get you FOUND. 

Why are keywords important?  

When you optimise your content around words and phrases that people are searching for, your website can rank higher for those terms.  

Also, ranking higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) can help drive more targeted traffic to your website. Therefore, finding keywords people are searching for is step #1 of any successful SEO campaign. 

What makes a good SEO keyword? 

Your target keywords need to meet four criteria — significant search volume, high relevance, strong conversion value, and reasonable competition. If any of these are missing, your SEO is likely to fizzle out and not make a BANG! 

When choosing your SEO keywords, focus on keywords which have a high search volume and a low SEO difficulty. Keywords with low search volumes and high competition are not good choices for SEO keywords. 

What are examples of keywords? 

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. For example, if you were looking to buy a new jacket, you might type something like “men’s leather jacket” or “black leather jacket” into Google.  

Even though these phrases consist of more than one word, they are still SEO keywords. 

How many keywords should I use for SEO? 

We recommend that you focus on one main SEO keyword per page while also including two or three SEO keyword variations.  

Each of your pages should be focused on a single topic with the most important keywords for SEO purposes being included. This means that each page can rank for its individual topics by using different keywords.  

You should pick one to three keywords centred on your topic for each page. For example, if you are writing content about beds, you will struggle to rank for such a broad keyword. However, you may want to use “storage bed”, “ottoman bed” or “lift up beds” as your 3 keywords. 

How do I add SEO keywords to my website? 

First, use your main keyword in the first couple of sentences of your content, or at least within the first paragraph.  

Next, use that keyword and variations of it throughout the rest of your content. The best practice is to include latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords rather than the exact keyword every time. 

How do I find SEO keywords? 

  1. Study your niche: Once you decide on your niche, you need to study it. Find out exactly WHAT you are looking to rank for. 
  1. Define your goals: Decide what you want from your SEO keywords, do you want to rank higher or rank for more keywords or something else?  
  1. Make a list of relevant topics: What are topics related to your niche? Make a list of all of them. 
  1. Create a list of keywords: Form a list of keywords that you would like to include. For example, if you run a cooking blog, you may want to include “quick recipes”, “vegetarian recipes” and “one-pot recipes”. 
  1. Use good keyword research tools: Use research tools like Ubersuggest and Answer The Public (more on that later) to research your keywords. 
  1. Study the search intent: What are people searching for? When are they searching? Are your keywords dependant on seasons? 
  1. Identify long tail keywords: Long tail keywords are more specific than normal keywords, these are usually less competitive and are closer in relation to how people make search queries. 
  1. Find out about your competitors. Do you know your competitors? I’m sure everyone knows a few other businesses in their niche who could be a competitor. Look into them and find out what they do. 

Now you know how to find your keywords, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Here are some common mistakes that people make when starting out with SEO keywords: 

  • Only doing keyword research once. Where’s that going to get you?!?   
  • Targeting keywords that are too competitive. Don’t make it so difficult for your pages to rank! Target keywords that have a high search volume but low competition.  
  • Forgetting to update and expand your keyword list. We suggest performing keyword research weekly/monthly. ALWAYS update your keyword list.  

Once you have found your keywords, you need to know where to use them:  

  • Title  
  • URL  
  • Throughout the page text  
  • Image alt text 

If you want to read up more on where to use keywords and other amazing website SEO tips, click here.  

SEO Keywords Best Practices  

Google Suggest 

A lot of people struggle with SEO because they target keywords that are WAY too competitive. If you’re just starting out with SEO, we recommend focusing on long tail keywords. These keywords are far less competitive and easier to rank for.  

For example, let’s say you have a Pizza Oven business. It’s going to be super hard to rank for keywords as such as: ‘pizza’ or even ‘pizza oven’. Whereas ‘Garden Pizza Oven’, or ‘Outdoor Pizza Oven’ are not going to be too difficult to rank for.  

Finding long tail keywords has never been easier too with Google Suggest. When you hop on Google and you start typing in the search box, what appears below? Suggested keywords. Generally, you will see 3 – 5 suggestions, sometimes however 10 suggestions are displayed.  

A user that is performing the search can click on any keyword from the Google autofill list and immediately see the search results page. This experience is both fast, convenient and a method we use to perform keyword research daily. 

Answer The Public  

Do you ever want to create a blog post but don’t know what to write about? Or what questions people REALLY want the answers to?  

Answer The Public is a free online keyword research tool where you input a keyword and it will tell you the most common questions searched in relation to this keyword.  

This is useful to understand your audience and create content that will appeal to them. No one wants to waste time creating a blog that no one is going to read.  Click here to check out more of our top marketing tools for business. 

Are keywords still important for SEO? 

In 2022, keywords are still important and useful in SEO, but they aren’t the most important factor. This is because SEO is far more complex than putting SEO keywords on a page.  

Keywords are still important for SEO however there is much more to it than that. To optimise your SEO, keywords cannot be your only focus. 

If you want to optimise your SEO but do not know how to start, get in touch now! It’s what we’re good at! 

Marketing Agencies, Are They Worth It?

Marketing Agencies, Are They Worth It?

by | Feb 10, 2022 | Digital Marketing, Marketing Consultancy

I’ve been there, directing or managing a sales and marketing operation and needing marketing support to deliver. You don’t have dedicated marketing resources for what you need, or you do have marketing resources but there are aspects that you need more support with.   

Then you get a warm referral from someone you know, you start talking needs and prices, and then you sign up with a marketing agency for support of some kind.   

Maybe it’s putting articles out, or looking after your social media. Maybe it’s keeping your website updated with case studies. Or maybe it’s PR, or just maybe you go as far as wanting creative support and ideas.  

Then, gradually, after several months, you find yourself wondering… 

Is it all WORTH it? 

You might find yourself feeling like marketing agencies are a waste of time if your experience is like many others! Feeling like you are either being pestered to provide all the content and ideas that you thought you were paying them for, or that you are chasing them to deliver what they said they were going to deliver!  

You don’t have TIME to check up on these folks all the time to see if they are delivering what they promised. If you find you are being let down, you can find it is a bitter pill to swallow and it leaves you heavily biased against marketing agencies in the future!   

What I Tell People Who Ask “Is a marketing agency worth it?” 

Marketing is a widely misunderstood subject with a great many subcategories that are often even MORE misunderstood.  

Marketing agencies are worth it if you find the right people to work with who understand your business AND have the skills to make a difference, PLUS have the time to do what they say.   

If I tell people we focus on HELPING people with content marketing and organic SEO through blogs and web page updates, they mostly look at me as though I am talking in a foreign language.  

When I tell people we are a marketing agency, they will often assume we make flyers and posters, or we do PR campaigns.  

“If I have learnt anything through 20 years in Technology and Engineering companies, outsourcing is never easy.” 

Whether that’s getting hundreds of engineers set up in a faraway country with an aim to save time and money on a multi-million-pound development (which is hit and miss), or trying to get people to understand you and your business so that they can market you, without you having to spoon-feed them constantly, it can be a thorny road.  

I also know that employing people directly, trying to get as many competencies and skills in as few people as possible for the best price can be just as frustrating and challenging, not to mention how many people get comfy and a little lazy in their jobs past their probation period.  

Determined to Be DIFFERENT… 

So, having been down the road where so many companies find themselves, when my partner and I decided that we were going to launch a marketing agency and focus on helping people get found, I knew we were going to be DIFFERENT.  

We were determined to be different. 

With my background in industries like F1, Aerospace, H2 Fuel Cells, Rail, Electronics, IoT and Software through a career climbing from a project engineer to director overseeing sales & marketing operations, we knew what was MISSING from those I want to help.  

How many marketing agencies have a chartered engineer and engineering fellow on hand to translate for you?  

Add to that my partner, Andrea, who has 20 years of being a successful marketeer for her own business start-ups, running networking organisations, and has amazing communication skills which help her get over the line with businesses and allows her to easily translate technical terms in a simplistic way.  

Let’s not forget about our marketing team who are highly motivated, always on top of the trends and full to the brim of innovative and inspiring ideas. 

Andrea and Fred, Marketing agency

How many agencies have this kind of SUPPORT on hand?  

Imagine a world where a techy oriented company can talk to a marketing agency, and for those marketing folks to GET what they do, really UNDERSTAND them, have TECHNICAL competence, and a passionate and motivated team focussed on getting you found?  

Well, that’s what we’ve done with CREATIVE in TIME!   

Working With Us 

Does it sound too good to be true?  

That’s because there aren’t many agencies like us. It works perfectly. Once you’ve explained your business and how you help your customers, we can delve into the technical depths of what you do. This ensures we can translate it into simple language for your customers to understand HOW you can help THEM, and WHY they would choose YOU!  

I hate to say it but WHAT you do is of mostly no interest to your potential clients.  

With over 20 years working around techy oriented companies, I always found myself being the bridge between the proper techies and the more financial and business’ type folks. I could understand both sides without being an expert in either.  

I could explain the benefits of developing a bit of tech in a way a techie couldn’t, they will tell you all about what they need to do, I will tell you the benefits of what they need to do, and how much it will all cost.  

So, we realised we would be the bridge for complex or techy companies that need marketing support, we have built a team of amazing marketing execs that get trained by us in what our customers do, how they help people and why they should work with them.  

One Way We Are Different 

There’s one more ingredient in our mix other than our techy know-how. Whilst we are extremely familiar with CORPORATE environments including CxO level folks, we are persuading those same types to allow a little more fun to be injected into their messaging and put a little less “corporate” out there. 

People engage with FUN content, rather than the same old boring corporate messaging saying how amazing they are and how people should just buy their products over and over again.  

So, if you want to engage with people in a fun (and not quite so corporate way), if you do techy things that are often hard to explain to people outside of your business, then you could do with some help from some honest, decent and hardworking marketing folks just like us! You’ll be glad you did!  

Click here to get in touch with us now!

Fred RJ Warner  

Blogging: How to Start in 2023

Blogging: How to Start in 2023

by | Feb 4, 2022 | Digital Marketing, Uncategorized

So, you want to start a blog…GREAT! 

Blogging is an amazing way to bring more traffic to your website, become an authority in your field and build a community. 

What is Blogging? 

Blogging is the act of posting content on a website. They are informal articles written for the main purpose of showing thought leadership and expertise on a certain topic.  

Often, you will be reading a blog and won’t even know it!  

That recipe you just read, blog. 

List of fashion trends, blog. 

Technology tips, blog. 

If you’re searching for it then someone is blogging about it and vice versa, if you want to blog about something then the likelihood is that someone is searching for it. 

If you want to know the ins and outs of how to start blogging in 2023 then keep reading! 

Step 1: Choose your Blogging Host 

To get people to start reading your blog, it needs to be online! 

If you are starting from scratch, then you need to use a blog host to get your blog online. 

In this guide, we will show you how to use BlueHost for all of your blogging needs. Let me tell you a few quick reasons: 

  • They register your custom domain name for free 
  • 30-day money back guarantee 
  • Free, automatic installation of WordPress blogging software (this sounds scary but don’t panic) 
Image showing BlueHost screen showing prices for blogging hosting

Step 2: Create Your Account 

Once you visit their website, you need to select your plan. We would recommend that for a blogging beginner, you will only need the basic plan. 

Next, you need to input your domain name. Yes, this may seem like the complicated part. 

If you already have previously paid to register a domain and wish to use that to host your blog, then you can put it in the right box. If you have not, then input your chosen domain name into the left box and click “next”. 

Now for the easy part, I’m sure most of us have bought something using the internet before, so fill out your billing details on the registration page now. 

You will also need to choose your hosting package and extras, for a beginner blog, it is likely you are not going to need any extras as your account plan will have everything you need for your blog. 

You are now ready to create your BlueHost account and password! Not to be that person but please choose a secure and unique password, I don’t want any birthdays or full names here! 

Confirmation picture from Bluehost for blogging host

Once you have your account set up, you will be shown an installation helper but since you are reading this you can just click on “skip this step” to follow along with us instead (or do both!). 

The WordPress blogging platform will automatically install, and you can click on the “log into WordPress” button on the top right-hand corner to go to the administrator section of your blog. 

Step 3: Customise your blog 

This is where the fun really begins, here is your opportunity to customise the appearance of your blog! 

How you want your blog to look is personal preference, there is no right or wrong answer for how your own blog should look.  

One of the benefits of WordPress is its “themes” which can be accessed through the “appearance” tab. You should have some free WordPress themes already installed for use on your blog and unless you have a very specific design in mind, we would recommend using one of these. 

Once you pick a theme, all you need to do is hover other the theme and click activate. It’s that easy! 

If you don’t like any of these themes, just click “add new theme” to browse lots of other WordPress themes which you can install and activate. 

Step 4: Start writing 

The first step to any good blog is coming up with a title but we aren’t going to talk about that today, we already have a blog about that! Click here to find out about how to create engaging and catchy titles that people will WANT to click on. 

Step 5: Post! 

On WordPress, go to the menu on the left and click “posts”. 

Delete the post which is already there (it defaults on all new blogs and is not needed) and then click “add new”. 

You can now add in a title, your content and even extra things such as images. Don’t forget your SEO as well (what is SEO for blogging, you ask? Click here to find out). 

If you are creating your own blog, then you will also need to promote it. What’s a blog if it isn’t being read? 

Some ways to promote your blog are through social media, email marketing and search engine optimisation. 

If you are unsure of how to do this then get in touch now!  

What are SEO backlinks? 

What are SEO backlinks? 

by | Jan 21, 2022 | Digital Marketing, SEO

SEO, backlinks, ranking, domain authority, do all of these words mean nothing to you currently? Well once you’re finished here you should be well versed in the world of backlinks. 

Did you know that 55.24% of pages don’t have a single backlink? 

This is even more mind-blowing when you hear that the top results on Google’s first SERP have 3.8 times more backlinks than results below them! 

Backlinks are alive and kicking and just waiting for you to make the most out of them… 

Simply put, backlinks (aka incoming links and inbound links) are links from one page to another. 

Backlinks are seen by search engines, such as Google, as “votes” for the page.  

The more backlinks a page has, the more likely it is to have high organic search rankings and be found. Here at CREATIVE in TiME, we are alllllll about being FOUND! 

A backlink can be compared to a positive vote. Each time your website receives a backlink, it tells search engines that your content is useful, relevant and trustworthy. 

As you may know, Google makes changes regularly to its algorithm however backlinks have always remained as a key ranking factor, building backlinks isn’t going out of style anytime soon so hop on the trend! 

No, having a high number of backlinks is perfect however this is only the case for high quality backlinks. 

Quality over quantity. 

Having a few high quality backlinks is more desirable than having 100 low quality backlinks. Think of it this way, are you more likely to trust a recommendation from a sketchy guy’s website or from Forbes? Exactly. 

1. It comes from a trusted website 

As we have previously mentioned, the website from which you have a backlink is important. This is called having “domain authority”. Domain authority means that the more authority a website has, the more it can pass onto your site through the link. 

Backlinks from authority sites have more weight under Google and can easily boost your organic search traffic. This does mean that quality backlinks are harder to get than low quality links, but they are absolutely worth the effort. 

2. Your target keyword is in the link’s anchor text 

What is anchor text, I hear you ask? Anchor text is the visible text part of your link which people click on.

If possible, you want the anchor text in your links to include your target keyword. Including your target keyword has been shown to cause higher rankings for said keyword. 

If you are thinking “this sounds too good to be true”, well you aren’t totally wrong. You want to be careful not to go overboard with keyword-rich anchor text as this can harm you if you’ve done too much. 

This is likely the most obvious of all, Google wants to see a relation between your website and the website which is linking to you. 

For example, you have written a blog detailing how to bake a cake. 

Google will put significantly more weight on backlinks from websites that are related such as baking, cooking and recipes as opposed to websites about fitness and electronics. 

Reach out to other people in your industry, you likely already know people who will have relevant websites and may wish to host each other’s backlinks. 

Backlinks from new websites are more effective than websites who have already linked to you. If a website links to you more than once, all links after the first will have lower returns. 

Once you have a link from a domain, do not focus your efforts on being linked to AGAIN.  

The number of websites linking to you is more important than the total number of links. 50 links from 50 websites is better than 100 links from 1 website. 

If you want to get backlinks, then you need something for people to link to. You need something that other people will recognise as being worth linking to. 

We would recommend: 

  • Blog posts 
  • Videos 
  • Quizzes 
  • Surveys 
  • Software 
  • And anything else that people will want to link to. 

For people to link to your website, it needs to be useful and relevant content. Here’s a tip, when creating your content, look at what other people AREN’T doing.  

If you are writing a guide then check out what other people are missing, maybe they haven’t included examples or do not have enough detail. If people are looking for the best guide on a topic, ensure that yours will be the most relevant. 

Another way to build backlinks is through guest posting. Writing guest posts for quality sites in the same field as you is ideal. Avoid guest posting for unrelated topics as this can look suspicious to Google. 

Find websites in your niche that support guest posting and try reaching out to get the ball rolling. 

You should now know what backlinks are, why they are important and what links are most desirable for your website. 

If your website has backlinks and is still struggling to be found, get in touch with us now. Our team of SEO experts are just waiting to get stuck in! 

How to Check Your SEO Ranking

How to Check Your SEO Ranking

by | Jan 7, 2022 | Digital Marketing, SEO

You can, theoretically, rank for ANYTHING! If people are searching for it, you can rank for it (people can Google some out-of-the-box things). For example, have you ever Googled yourself? I’m sure we’ve all done it, but if you haven’t, I’d strongly recommend doing it after you read this just for a giggle.  

If you haven’t started optimising your SEO ranking and want to start, click here to learn HOW to optimise your SEO for your business. If you’re in the process of optimising your SEO, and you’re interested in finding out how to check your SEO ranking, read on! 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the way in which you can help customers to find your site through search engines such as Google. By improving and optimising your SEO you can drive more traffic to your website and therefore generate more sales. 

How to Check Where You Rank on Google  

How many have you done this? When you want to see where you rank on Google, you type your website into the search bar and then scroll and scroll, hoping your website pops up in the first few results.  

DON’T DO THIS.  

Do you know there are websites that do this for you? We’ll touch more on this in a second.  

Did you know that web pages rank and not websites? Each of your web pages has the potential to rank, this includes blogs and articles if you write them (which you should, click here to find out why!) 

What is a website’s ‘SEO Ranking Position’ on Google? 

Google ranking systems are designed to sort through hundreds of billions of webpages in their Search index to find the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second and present them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for. 

In simple terms, to generate an ‘organic’ search result, Google matches every word or phrase you type in the search box to its index of web pages to find matches. What YOU want to do, is get your website to SHOW UP for your keywords and phrases. You do want to be found, right?! 

Google displays these matches as search results which are simply lists of web pages in order of relevance. So, the first organic result is the web page Google believes to be the most relevant to your search, and so on.  

The Problem with Searching for Your Keywords 

If you do show up on the first page of Google when you search your site, this may be wrong. When you sit down at your own computer or pull out your phone and search for yourself, you may not actually be seeing accurate results. Why is this? Well… 


This could be down to:  

  • Your Physical Location: When searching, Google takes the searcher’s location into account to tailor the search results to show businesses near them. 
  • Your Browsing History: To get you the most helpful results, Google prioritises sites you’ve visited before in your search results. It will show those sites higher in the search results in case you’re looking for them again. If you visit your site often, then it will automatically show higher. 

 
So, How Can You Truly See Your Accurate SEO Ranking?   

There are a variety of websites which can be used to check your website’s SEO ranking and your websites ranking for specific keywords. 

UberSuggest 

Our personal suggestion would be Ubersuggest.  

On Ubersuggest, you can add your business website as a ‘project’ which allows you to see a variety of statistics about your website such as backlinks, SEO issues, and site speed.  

When using Ubersuggest to view your ranking, you should add the keywords that you are trying to rank for so that you can track where your site ranks on Google and when any changes occur such as moving up or down in the rankings. 

Top Tip: Set up a project on UberSuggest and see what keywords you rank for higher and lower over time. If you see your keyword falling in ranking, start posting more content or update your current pages with this keyword. You won’t regret it!  

Google Lighthouse  

Another great tool for checking out mobile speed and SEO is Google Lighthouse. No, we don’t mean those blinding lights that guide boats! 

Lighthouse is a page experience tool built by Google. The tool executes five audits for accessibility, performance, SEO, Progressive Web Apps and an extended list of best practices.  

Powered by the new Core Web Vitals, these audits together give you an excellent overview of the quality and performance of your mobile website as well as your desktop site, or web app. 

We find that Lighthouse is the BEST for checking out site speed. In 2022, site speed is super important to Google, and a lot of websites still don’t have mobile-optimised experiences.  

Top Tip: Take a look on Lighthouse (you can find it by right clicking on your site and inspecting element) and see what you can do to make your speed better. For example, do your images take too long to load? Don’t forget, this will need to be on the Google Chrome Browser and not Safari!  

Take it from your personal experience, would you stick on a website that is struggling to load? Or would you bounce out and find a faster one? Site speed for the win! 

Google Search Console 

Another one we swear by is Google Search Console. Through Google Search Console, you can crawl your website, see what people are searching for when they click on your website, check out which keywords get you the most traffic and clicks and so much more.  

Google Search Console is a FREE tool and it’s amazing. Every website SHOULD have it set up already, but if you don’t, click here.  

Once you have Search Console set up, navigate to the “Performance” tab on the left.  Then click the colourful buttons at the top to turn on Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average Click-Through-Rate, and Average Position. 

Top Tip: Google Search Console is also used for submitting sitemaps. If you haven’t submitted your sitemap to Google yet, then you need to do it. NOW. For SEO, having a sitemap is critical to having your important pages indexed, demonstrating which pages are valuable, and having them indexed regularly to make sure only your most-up-to-date content is appearing in search results. 

Why should you check your SEO ranking? 

You should check your SEO ranking regularly to see where your website is ranking on Google and which keywords you are ranking for. 

If you do not keep up to date with the standard of your website, then you will not be able to improve. Find out what keywords you want to be found for and find which ones you are not currently ranking for; Use this information to include these keywords in your future website improvements and content. 

Top Tip: Blogs are a great way to be found for keywords. You do not want your website to become cluttered and disorganised due to too many keywords, blogs are a great way to be found online and for people to visit your website. 

If you have started optimising your SEO already, brilliant! If you haven’t started, first of all why? Secondly, click here to learn HOW to optimise your SEO for your business.  

If you want to check out your SEO ranking and optimise it for your business but don’t know how, then just get in touch! Digital marketing is what we love to do. Click here to book a discovery call now to see how we can help your business.  

CREATIVE in TiME
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