MARKETING | ORGANISED

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What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is a series of actions that you can take to make your website perform better in search engine results (be found on Google, Bing or Yahoo or any other search engine – there are a few you might not have considered).  These actions can be On-Page for example adding meta data to the website or Off-Page for example engaging audiences across the web with shareable content.

What is basic SEO?

Google uses over 200 Ranking Factors – ranking factors are the signals that Google uses in its algorithm to rank your website above or below others. No-one, no matter what they tell you, knows what all those factors are (except maybe Google employees) but many experts have made educated guesses.

There are a number of larger categories of ranking factors that make up basic SEO. These include Links, Content, Meta Data, User Experience and Mobile first. 

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are pretty much what they say on the tin. Links that bring visitors back to your websites from other websites. They are important as they establish what industry you are in and your level of expertise within that industry. Having said that, who links back to you is as important as how many people link back to you.

Why are keywords important to SEO?

Two of the main categories of ranking factors are Content and Meta Data and both depend on keyword research. Keywords are words and phrases that your customers use to find your website so getting them right is critical otherwise you won’t be found in searches. Hint: keywords are often quite different to what you think they will be.

What is meta data?

Meta data is made up of a Meta Title (not to be confused with your page title) that sits at the top of the browser window and is shown in search engine results, and a Meta Description. This snippet of text is sometimes shown in the search engine result below the title, but at other times the search engine chooses to use another piece of text from the page that is more relevant to the search that was performed. For now, I am going to ignore Meta Keywords. Both the Meta Title and the Meta Description have character limits.

User Experience and Mobile First

While the main focus of SEO is on search engine robots, it is just as important to make sure that the real visitors to your website enjoy the experience and find what they are looking for, otherwise they will leave. The speed of your website is one of the most important, no-one enjoys a slow website!  Everyone knows that mobile traffic is growing, so making a website that works on mobile is key to pleasing both search engines and visitors to your website. 

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LOVE Elemis Superfood Skincare Campaign

Elemis are targeting millennials with a campaign that includes lots of video and Insta Stories and they’ve cleverly included the stories on their website home page.

© Elemis

The range is plant based and nutrient dense and the strapline is feed your skin. Lots of lovely natural colours – vibrant green, avocado, blackcurrent and berry purple backgrounds feature for the adverts with product isolations.

Videos featuring a diverse range of models that are clearly having fun are very appealing. I’m sooo tempted by the Superfood Kefir-Tea Mist: https://www.elemis.com/superfood-kefir-tea-mist.html

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Kapwing Online Video Tool

I have spent literally hours online recently trying to find an easy to use video tool that anyone can use and that doesn’t cost the earth. I really only wanted a couple of basic things: the ability to upload my own images (multiple) or footage, the ability to add text over the top of images, and the ability to download as an MP4 without losing resolution or the video being resized. That’s not really a lot to ask…. or so I thought….

And then I found Kapwing.

What do I love about Kapwing?

The sign-up process is so super quick! Fantastic. The easy to use interface means I don’t waste time working out what each button means! I can upload multiple images into scenes, reorder the scenes or delete the scenes.

Adding text in Kapwing

There is a text button that is clearly labelled (honestly, I never thought that would be a feature!). You can change the font and the colour and opt to have black or white outlines or none. You can also animate text.

Adding audio in Kapwing

There is a button that is clearly labelled Audio and an easy browse for a file and upload feature.

Adding images in Kapwing

You can upload your own images using the Upload button or you can browse an image library using the Image search button. Great stuff. Once you have added an image to a scene, it is easy to edit it and resize the image or replace it, if you have changed your mind. You can also add layers to a single scene.

Video ratio in Kapwing

Kapwing has around 5 standard ratio sizes including 1:1 and 16:9 and an option for custom dimensions. Note, if you go from custom to a standard size, you can’t go back (at least that I could find!)

Other features

There are a couple other handy features like background colour and shapes that you can add, make transparent and change the colours of. The one feature I miss is being able to change transitions, but not enough to worry about it. I guess there is a compromise between making it easy to use and complex features.

Kapwing pricing

As with most free software, Kapwing add a watermark and you have to pay to remove it. You can do this for as little as $6 for one video. Go check them out, they are worth a visit.

https://www.kapwing.com/

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The theme of my holiday has been generosity

The theme of my holiday (and my first week back at work) has been generosity. Generosity not necessarily of a material nature, but of time and knowledge. People have taken the time to invite me into their homes, to spend time showing me their favourite places (blue lagoons) and activities (snorkelling, sailing and hiking). Entrepreneurs have explained their business ideas to me and shown me the inner workings of their businesses. People have shared their future career concerns with me. Experts have given me knowledge about business psychology and market research. None of them asked for payment and nor did I charge for the career counselling 😉 It is wonderful.

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Inspiring Women: Dr. Sue Black

A woman in tech

Sue is an Honorary Professor at University College London in the Department of Computer Science and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. An outstanding advocate for women in tech, Sue founded BCS Women (a network for women in tech) and #techmums (a social enterprise that empowers women through technology). By 2020 TechMums aims to have 1 million women in the worldwide network.

Change in mindset

Sue started out in tech at a time when there were very few women in the industry and she says statistically (after all she is a polymath) not a lot has changed, but public opinion has shifted. In her own journey, her confidence grew after she attended a conference in Brussels where the delegates comprised 100 women (& 1 man) in tech. For the first time, she was in the majority. Not ignored or belittled but amongst women just like her.

Say positive things to yourself like I am completely awesome” (and don’t forget to strike a superwoman pose while you do!)

Women like me

#techmums was a course Sue would have liked to be available when she was a single parent, living in council accommodation and on benefits. It was a suggestion from her college tutor who told her to do Polymath rather than A Level Math as she would get bored with it, that set her on her tech career path. After she qualified, she could have gone into the tech industry, but instead she went on to do a PhD as it fit in better with school hours.

Life challenges

Life has thrown a lot at Sue – from losing her mother when she was only 12 (to a brain haemorrhage), through suffering the ‘loss’ of her father into a new relationship, leaving home very early and then single parenthood (after an abusive relationship), so she is often asked how she coped.

If I can do it so can you. All I did was work out where I wanted to be and put one foot in front of the other until I got there.”

This redhead is on fire

If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens and who wants a life like that?”

Sue is very proud of her public involvement whether that is campaigning to save Bletchley Park (where half the 10,000 employees were women), to speaking in front of 16,000 women in Orlando (where she got them to shout “I am going to change the world”) or her championing of women in computing. Despite all these achievements, however, the most publicity Sue has received was after her now husband Paul proposed (very appropriately) via code entered into the Enigma simulator.

Social media-holic

Sue has some sage advice on social media for mums. “Think about the fact that anybody in the world could be reading what you are putting out there so don’t put anything too personal which could affect your or your kids life in some negative way.” She suggests that as a parent you have to educate yourself about what is going on. Banning children from social media doesn’t work, it only lessens the chance that your child will talk to you when they need to. She doesn’t have all the answers, as we are all working out what the best thing to do is, but her message is to ‘be your best self’ on social media.

If Sue has inspired you, you can find out more about #techmums or BCS Women here:
https://techmums.co/
http://bcswomen.bcs.org/