It’s long been said that “content is king” in the modern world of online marketing. It’s no secret – Bill Gates famously made that statement way back in 1996.

Since then, it’s become a facepalm-inducing catchphrase for high-ranking bigwigs the world over, right up there with other classic business BS like “low-hanging fruit”, “moving the needle” and “peeling the onion”.

However, unlike the needle-moving, onion-peeling fruit-grabbers of the world, the “content is king” mantra is actually backed by some pretty solid substance.

Quality content that’s both informative and engaging is a winner on all levels: increasing leads, enhancing brand awareness and strengthening customer relationships, ultimately boosting revenue as a result.

That being said, if content is king, then quality writers are akin to royal advisors, entrusted with providing the king with a healthy supply of quality insight, accurate information and razor-sharp wit.

However, quality writers are hard to find – especially ones that are more gooder!

As such, companies often take one of two routes: hiring in-house writers or drafting in external ringers through outsourcing. Both offer their own pros and cons, but which is better?

Differences Between In-House and Outsourcing

While both options ultimately offer the same end-result, the fundamental difference between the two is as follows.

Outsourcing involves hiring a third-party that’s independent of the business to provide content for your company. Meanwhile, in-house production (aka insourcing) involves a dedicated team or specified individuals on staff who are assigned to the task of writing content.

Depending on your company’s approach to content marketing, you may be more familiar with one than the other; however, it’s well worth getting acquainted with both. You never know when you may need to flip the script and rely on the road less travelled.

Benefits of In-House Content

 Perhaps the biggest benefit of having an on-site team of content staff is their loyalty and connection to the company. An employed team of contributors that are a genuine part of the brand will likely care far more about the company than a team of non-partisan outsiders.

This affinity for the brand often results in a relationship that’s inimitable in an agency setting, leading the workers to be more motivated to positively contribute as a result. This contribution can also be incentivised further by the possibility of rewards, bonuses or even potential promotion.

Meanwhile, a team of on-site staff will also have an in-depth knowledge of your company goals, values and services, effectively streamlining the whole content creating process – from briefing to proofing – while also providing a better level of content contextualisation.

Additionally, a team of on-site workers will answer to one boss and be both governable and supervised, undistracted by other clients’ demands and deadlines. If you need some content done by a certain time, no other tasks will take precedent over yours.

That being said, hiring staff that are inexperienced or underqualified in the pursuit of saving money can be a fruitless labour that does more damage than good. If you are going to invest in an in-house team, don’t cut corners and hire the best candidate, not the cheapest.

Benefits of Outsourcing Content

While in-house content can be great for familiarity, outsourcing can be the perfect way to provide a fresh perspective from someone outside of the office bubble. This can often result in new and exciting ideas, a novel approach and a fresh tone of voice that is both engaging and notably different from an in-house team.

Meanwhile, outsourcing also provides you with a team of widely experienced professionals that don’t need any training, coaching or development. From a budgetary POV, this can be extremely useful; not only does it give you access to an entire team of on-demand professionals but it also allows you to fluctuate the workload depending on budget constraints.

Speaking of budget, outsourcing can also be a great option for those companies working to tighter purse strings, that may not have the financial resources to hire full-time content staff. Meanwhile, some businesses may not require such a high volume of content to necessitate a dedicated staff member or team, making outsourcing a cost-effective alternative.

However, while it can be more financially beneficial for businesses that don’t require a high-frequency of work, the phrase “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” is also very applicable here. While it’s always important not to overpay, content writing is very much a business where you get what you pay for and this is one area you won’t want to penny-pinch.

Best of Both Worlds

Even if you do opt for the in-house approach, you may find yourself in a situation where additional workload, unforeseen tasks and looming deadlines can see you snowed under in no time. Should this be the case, outsourcing can be a great safety net to have.

A blended approach can be extremely useful, offering the best of both worlds. As such, it may be worth having a trustworthy source in mind for third-party content, should busy periods warrant an extra pair of hands.

What’s more, a cocktail of in-house/outsourced content can be a truly symbiotic relationship that serves to boost both methods. External content can motivate in-house staff and vice versa, creating a healthy competition of sorts.

After all, as they say, you’re only as good as your competition and it’s a lot easier to run fast when you’re being chased. Creating an environment where you’re not restricted to one option can be the perfect sweet spot for a thriving creative environment.

For more information on content sourcing or content services from Designer Websites, why not drop us a line today? Call now on 01446 339050 or get in touch online using the button below.

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Wading through the muddy waters of Lake Google can be a troublesome task at the best of times, particularly when it comes to SEO.

Regular algorithm changes habitually move the digital goal posts, making the ability to adapt and react a vital part of the job for any self-respecting online marketing with an eye for SEO.

Naturally, the sheer volume of competition makes it difficult to swim to the surface of the SERP rankings, leaving you to jockey for position in an extremely crowded pool.

While it can be tempting to take shortcuts, the purest approach is often the one that has the longest lasting effects and they don’t come much purer than White Hat SEO.

So, dust off your ivory caps, mount that high horse and head for the moral high ground, as we take a look at the ins and outs of White Hat SEO.

What is White Hat SEO?

If you read our last blog on Black Hat SEO techniques, you should know all about what not to do and which SEO tactics to avoid. From keyword stuffing to invisible text, it’s a dark art and one that can also be pretty risky.

This underhanded approach of manipulative methods and sneaky shortcuts will only work for so long before you inevitably get found out. The resulting penalty can see your site plummet down the search rankings and possibly even banished from the SERPs altogether.

On the other hand, there is White Hat SEO. The Ying to the Black Hat’s Yang, White Hat SEO offers Google-approved SEO strategies that play by SEO rules and regulations. White Hat SEO tactics are the best way to create an ethical online listing that isn’t in danger of falling out of favour.

Examples of White Hat SEO Techniques

Now we’ve identified what White Hat SEO is, it’s only fair that we paint a full, snowy picture to completely illustrate its squeaky-clean, albino goodness.

To help keep your SEO plan righteous, virtuous and, most importantly, effective, here are a few examples to keep you on the White Hat straight and narrow.

Keyword Research

Like any job, doing your homework before you jump in can reap many rewards and SEO is no different. Modern KW technology makes it relatively simple to identify a laundry list of keywords for you to sprinkle within your content in order to keep it ranking and relevant.

However, it’s important not to go overboard. There’s a fine line between keyword inclusion and keyword stuffing, and overuse of keywords could see the former become the latter with seamless ease.

Additionally, try not to choose keywords that are hugely competitive. The greater the demand, the less likely you are to rank. Instead, target long-tail keywords for a better chance of hitting the jackpot.

Quality Content

In the world of SEO, content is truly is king and quality content will rule the roost long after it’s first penned (especially if its evergreen). As such, creating well-written content that’s readable and engaging is one of the most effective White Hat SEO techniques there is.

While it can be time-consuming, providing original content that is relevant and useful to your site visitors can translate into serious results. The top 10 blog listings on Google typically comprise of 2000 to 4000 words, so don’t be afraid to dive deep into the subject matter.

Creating unique content about topics you fully understand and have expert insight to can help establish you as an authority on the subject, making your content both original and sharable. Which leads us nicely to…

Link Building

Backlinks are Google’s main indicator of which site page is most reliable and relevant to the search term, and therefore most worthy of a high SERP listing. As a rule of thumb, the more backlinks a page has, the higher it will rank on Google.

Backlinks can be gained ethically by writing testimonials, guest blogging and creating partnerships with other sites. Meanwhile, creating original, authoritative content that’s sharable is also a great way to organically bolster your backlinks.

Business Listing

In its never-ending quest to provide increasingly accurate results, Google also takes into account the location of a business when displaying SERPs. This can particularly helpful for those looking for local services.

For example, a Brummy on the hunt for a restaurant in Birmingham probably isn’t going to be interested in a steakhouse in Birmingham, Alabama. As such, Google weeds out the irrelevant and reports back with the most applicable geographical results.

Adding a Google My Business (GMB) listing for your company is a great White Hat technique in ensuring local SEO. Meanwhile, it could also attract additional traffic through Google Maps’ “near me” function – a tool used by 82% of overall smartphone users (rising to 92% for Millennials) according to figures published by Uberall.

For more information on White Hat SEO techniques and how to avoid Black Hat SEO, drop us a line on 01446 339050. Alternatively, drop us an email using the button below.

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Any business owner or content provider will be well aware of the importance of SEO when it comes to online visibility. The better the SEO, the stronger your page will be in terms of SERP rankings.

However, like any arduous process, there are always going to be those who seek out shortcuts in the hopes of getting from A to B quicker and with as little effort as possible.

Welcome to the world of “Black Hat SEO” – the black market of page ranking; the seedy underbelly of content manipulation; where businesses go to achieve digital dominance by any means necessary.

If you’re thinking of going rogue and donning a black hat in your quest for SEO supremacy, you may want to think again. It isn’t without its risks and short-term gain could very easily result in long-term heartache.

What is Black Hat SEO?

In the halcyon days of the western cowboy movies, the heroes and the villains were commonly distinguishable by their choice of headwear. For the purpose of black and white cinematography, the colours of choice were logically monochrome: the good guys wore white, while the bad guys wore black.

So, perennial silver screen hero, John Wayne, would typically be found sporting a milky Stetson, while someone like Lee Marvin would don an inky, villainous crown. For a more recent example, see Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma (FYI: top film!).

From an SEO standpoint, the same rules apply: “white hat SEO” ethically relies on human audience behaviour as opposed to the search engine’s, while “black hat SEO” focuses on manipulating the search engine and breaking the rules, all while showing two fingers to search engine guidelines.

Examples of Black Hat SEO

The dark arts of Black Hat SEO come in many forms, from the glaringly obvious to downright devious. Here are a few examples of the most common offences and how to spot them.

Spam Comments

If you’ve ever read a blog or online article with a comments section at the base, chances are that you’ve come across comments comprising of nonsensical fluff that’s completely irrelevant to the preceding post.

The comments section is a veritable playground for Black Hat SEO tacticians and typically filled with more spam than a war-time lunchbox.

While this was somewhat effective in the mid-2000s – resulting in follow links and flowing pagerank to your site for the priestly sum of zero – this process has since been found out, making the minimal benefits hardly worth the bother.

The net is now largely wise to these tactics and spam comments now offer no follow links, while many websites have removed the ability to embed comment content altogether.

Nevertheless, playing the law of averages, the more spam comments of this nature, the more referral traffic you can expect to receive, albeit of a questionable nature of varying quality.

Duplicate Content

Content created in a copy/paste manner can be used to deliberately manipulate search engine rankings in order to generate more traffic to a chosen site. While this can not only negatively impact the user experience, it can also detrimentally affect the original site.

Search engines universally prefer unique content to duplicated text and typically won’t show multiple forms of the same content in the SERP. As such, twin copy replicated elsewhere can become problematic and leave certain pages omitted from the results page.

Duplicated content can confuse the search engine, making it difficult for it to know which result is more relevant to a given search. In turn, this can have an adverse effect on ranking and a knock-on effect on traffic as a result, while it can also dilute link equity as well.

Keyword Stuffing

As the name suggests, keyword stuffing is the process of overcramming certain buzzwords and phrases into your page in order to maximise its visibility for those particular terms.

While, on the surface, this may seem logical, it can quickly degenerate into a smorgasbord of spam that not only seems unnatural but, at times, can become almost unreadable.

Spamtastic copy often makes little sense and, needless to say, is not user-friendly, negatively affecting your user experience, tarnishing your credibility and ruining the professional presentation of your site.

Invisible Text

Perhaps the sneakiest of all the examples on this page, invisible text takes keyword stuffing to another level.

This method uses coloured text on an identically coloured background, camouflaging it from visible view.

As a result, the site still ranks for the chosen keywords present in the hidden copy, yet the text remains unseen to the site visitor.

Black Hat SEO Tactics to Avoid

Naturally, Black Hat SEO tactics aren’t without their risks. Playing against the rules is essentially playing with fire when it comes to your website ranking. While you may get away with for a while, it’s only a matter of time before you face a serious burn.

Black Hat tactics can result in notable damage to your page’s long-term performance, while repeated offences can see your site banned from certain search engines entirely (although this punishment is admittedly quite rare).

More typical ramifications commonly result in a site receiving a serious demotion in the search rankings, nullifying the Black Hat tactics in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, the risk of digital banishment is an ever-present danger if you repeatedly stray to the dark side.

To avoid your Black Hat strategy turning into Black List misery, we recommend steering clear of these short-term fixes and instead focusing your time and efforts on conventional White Hat methods that don’t draw the ire of the SERP police.

For more information on Black Hat SEO tactics and the effects of unethical SEO, drop us a line today on 01446 339050. Alternatively, get in touch using the button below and find out more about how we can help you achieve SEO results the right way.

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SunSpaces is a well-established part of the Greensquares family of brands, offering a range of high-quality garden rooms, verandas and awnings to help residential and commercial property owners make the most of their outdoor living spaces. SunSpaces stand out from their competitors because their products can be customised to suit every client’s unique requirements and preferences.

We were recently asked to re-design and update the SunSpaces website. Many elements of the site including the colour scheme, page layout and menus have been refreshed by our web designers to create a contemporary, professional-looking new website.  

You will notice that the new website includes many products that have always been a part of the SunSpaces brand, like the Aspire garden rooms and Compact awnings. However, in addition to these longstanding favourites, their new website incorporates a variety of new products and accessories, such as the Avant-Garde and Ultra garden rooms.

The new SunSpaces website is packed with features that make it enjoyable and easy to use. Our development team used the very latest coding techniques and schema tags to build a bespoke, responsive website that stands out in the search results and works seamlessly on both desktop and mobile devices.

We included a content management system (CMS) so staff can control products and prices, categories, photo galleries, banners, landing pages, performance reports and more. We integrated Salesforce so that staff can easily manage quotes and follow up requests.

We also added intelligent landing page control and advertisement tracking so that advertising campaigns can be monitored and altered effortlessly. The new site is also integrated with conversion tracking so that its performance is continually recorded and easy to assess whenever necessary.

With these new features and a modern re-design, we are confident that the SunSpaces team and future SunSpaces customers will take pleasure in using the site. We have been able to create a new website for SunSpaces without compromising any of the features that made the old site such a success!

You can visit the new SunSpaces website here: https://www.sunspaces.co.uk/

If you’re looking for a professional website for your business, look no further. Get in touch with the team here at Designer Websites for a free, no-obligation web design quote.

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In the world of SEO and content marketing, there’s no disputing that content is indeed king. However, not all kings are created equally.

Like any monarch, a good king wants to reign for as long as possible and, in the world of SEO, the true king of longevity is undoubtedly evergreen content.

What is evergreen content?

Okay, before we go any further, let’s put a label on evergreen content so we know exactly what we’re dealing with here.

Taking its name from the evergreen tree that maintains its leaves all year-round, evergreen content is content that stays relevant long after its initial publication date.

For example, a blog titled “Fashion Tips for 2019” will automatically become dated the moment 2020 hits, not to mention the content within it will be very much seasonal and specific to that time period.

Conversely, a blog based on the subject of “How to Get Bigger Biceps” may still be relevant in ten months, if not ten years times, provided the text within it doesn’t refer to anything topical at the time of publication.

Benefits of evergreen content

Most content, particularly newsworthy posts and topical reporting, stays relevant for a relatively short period of time.

Take a review of a football match, for example. While the article may receive a lot of attention upon publication, the hits will significantly drop off in next to no time, as the story quite literally becomes “yesterday’s news”.

Meanwhile, evergreen content will remain consistently applicable, regardless of when you view it. As such, the KPIs of evergreen content are a steady flow of traffic over time, self-generating repeated backlinks and healthy amounts of sharing over social media.

When it comes to content marketing ROI, evergreen content also provides excellent economical value. While it may take a little longer to produce and require more time and attention to detail, the end result will last and provide a far greater return over time.

Creating evergreen content

If you’re looking to create long-lasting content for your site, there are a number of tips for evergreen content that are well worth keeping in mind.

Here are a few different ways to approach your content in pursuit of evergreen pastures.

Get educated

Content that’s designed to educate and inform is a great starting point when it comes to creating evergreen content. “How To” guides and FAQs are prime examples of this, providing a solid base for useful information that can be relevant long after it’s published.

For example, if you own a website that sells musical instruments, a post detailing how to change guitar strings is pertinent and won’t become dated any time soon.

Meanwhile, a history site that posts factual blogs dedicated to historical events is unlikely to feature information that changes over time, barring any new evidence or scientific breakthroughs.

Be practical

Similarly, practical content that can be used by the reader can also stand the test of time. This is particularly applicable to content that promotes personal growth and self-betterment.

Useful information that can be applied in the real world in a manner that’s not tethered to a specific time period can live a long and prosperous life, even in the fast-paced environment of today’s modern world.

For a prime example of this, look no further than How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie’s self-help classic was first published pre-WW2 in 1936 and still sells in bundles to this day.

Vital statistics

Research, results and statistical information are also key players when it comes to evergreen content. Authoritative content backed by supporting evidence is also a magnet for backlinks, which can be invaluable for SEO.

While date stamping and time referencing is generally to be avoided when constructing evergreen content, research and statistical info are somewhat of an anomaly, as information such as this can often be referred back to after the fact and still be deemed useful.

For example, a post studying crime rates in the UK can be utilised years after the fact as a point of reference for comparative purposes, providing a useful means of measuring positive or negative change and trends.

Subject matters

The topic itself can also have a heavy influence on the longevity of an article, with fast-moving industries that are constantly evolving typically breeding posts with a shorter shelf life.

Subjects such as fashion, sport and politics where a revolving door of news is commonplace often feature content that becomes old extremely quickly. Meanwhile, steady topics that remain relatively constant over time – such as health, careers, parenting, etc – can prosper long into the future.

After all, career advice from the 1980s can still be relevant today. Fashion advice, not so much.

Stand out

If your site produces content at a rapid pace over the course of the day, week or month, it won’t take long for your evergreen content to become buried beneath other content that may not be as enduring.

To keep your evergreen content strong in the public consciousness, it may be worth adding an additional tab or drop down in your site navigation, such as “Top Blogs” or “Guides”.

This can help highlight these pages and make them stand out from the crowd of daily blogs and content.

It also allows you to expose your visitors to your evergreen content in a far simpler manner, without requiring them to dig through pages of historical content to find them.

For more information on content and SEO, give us a call today on 01446 339050 or hit the button below to get in touch online.

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