Get my free proposal
logo
Get my free proposal

Author: Tom Buckland

Tom Buckland is the founder of HQ SEO - A technical optimisation, link building and inbound marketing company based in Cardiff, UK - helping businesses grow explode their business through Google.

Content Marketing Strategy for SEO: Why an SEO-Blind Content Strategy Is Toxic & What You Should Do About It

Posted on by Tom Buckland

It doesn’t matter what the topic at hand is. When you talk about SEO and content marketing in the same breath, you’re going to draw a few common emotions without fail. Here’s the biggest of ‘em all – confusion.

Do you let SEO take a free rein as if it’s still 2009?

Do you just concentrate on putting content out there, hoping one day it will all pay off?

Or, do you compartmentalize things for some peace of mind, assuming both SEO and content marketing will grow better, stronger on their own?

Let me tell you – this problem is actually a non-problem. Developing a content strategy that feeds off your SEO campaigns is the masterstroke that can actually drag your content marketing ROIs into the green zone (and, hopefully, far beyond).

Continue reading “Content Marketing Strategy for SEO: Why an SEO-Blind Content Strategy Is Toxic & What You Should Do About It”

How Technical SEO Can Add to Your Bottom Line

Posted on by Tom Buckland

Convincing businesses, marketers and developers of the real importance of SEO can be a tricky travel.

Despite the wide acceptance and love that SEO enjoys today, there are (and will always be) businesses that want to see instant results.

Try, in this scenario, making a specific case for technical SEO, and you will find no takers. The deep-rooted, simplistic understanding of SEO is so single minded – keywords, keywords and more keywords – that technical SEO often has to take a backseat.

It may not be the most glamorous thing out there, but technical SEO can add to your bottom line year in and year out.

Continue reading “How Technical SEO Can Add to Your Bottom Line”

Mini Technical SEO Checklist – Perform a Quick Technical SEO Audit in 30 Minutes Flat

Posted on by Tom Buckland

If you are reading this, you probably don’t need anyone else to tell you why SEO is important.

The equation is fairly simple – if they can’t find you, they can never become your customers.

While there are dozens of different aspects to SEO – all important in their own rights – it all always starts with technical SEO. Having come across and worked on numerous websites over the years, I know for a fact that people – especially those who run a ready-to-deploy CMS like WordPress – never really get around to working on technical SEO. For marketers, it’s tough to onboard clients with long-winding SEO audits, simply because there isn’t enough time.

Our mini Technical SEO checklist gives you a simple, easy to understand and actionable way around these problems. And yes, all it takes is about half an hour to find glaring holes that may already be costing your website an SEO fortune.

Continue reading “Mini Technical SEO Checklist – Perform a Quick Technical SEO Audit in 30 Minutes Flat”

Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses – A Quick Guide To Top Ecommerce Platforms

Posted on by Tom Buckland

Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses - HQ SEO

 

Starting an ecommerce business is one of the best ways of acquiring new customers and posting strong growth results. Much the reason why, a number of ecommerce platforms for small businesses have sprung up over the years.

The quest to discover the best ecommerce platform on the market is an ongoing goal for many businesses. Since there are so many to choose from and there are new emerging ones coming out all the time.

How do you decide?

If you are looking for an ecommerce platform guide to help you tell the good ones from the bad, you have come to the right place.

Let us look at the various types of popular ecommerce platforms and dive deep into the advantages and disadvantages that come with them.

Furthermore, we will take a look at new ecommerce trends and glance over some of the newly developed platforms.

Continue reading “Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses – A Quick Guide To Top Ecommerce Platforms”

How to Build a Digital PR Strategy – A 10-Point Plan of Action

Posted on by Tom Buckland

Digital PR works. It doesn’t just work – it works incredibly well if you use it the right way.

But what makes it work? What’s the secret sauce?

Well, it’s not much of a secret. Digital PR works only and only when it’s backed by a good PR strategy.

Because you will be spending a part of your digital budget on PR, it’s important have a digital PR strategy that ticks all the right boxes. In this post, we will see how to build an effective digital PR strategy from the scratch.

Continue reading “How to Build a Digital PR Strategy – A 10-Point Plan of Action”

How to Improve Your Google My Business Ranking (How To Rank Higher On Google Maps)

Posted on by Tom Buckland

How To Improve Google My Business Ranking - Rank In Google Maps

How to improve your Google My Business ranking is a question EVERY local business needs to ask of themselves from time to time.

If you don’t, you’re already losing out on a huge stream of organic traffic.

It doesn’t matter what you sell really – as long as you have a storefront your customers can visit (or even an office), you’ve got to make Google My Business work for you.

In this post, we’ll take an overview of what Google My Business really is, and how you – as a local business – can push your listing to the top of the local rankings.

Continue reading “How to Improve Your Google My Business Ranking (How To Rank Higher On Google Maps)”

Traditional PR vs. Digital PR: How Digital Has Changed Traditional PR

Posted on by Tom Buckland

So, we are in the PR territory again.

It’s a wonderful place to be, because – as far as marketing goes – public relations is one area that will never stop throwing up surprises. Just think about every good, bad and ugly thing you’ve ever heard about businesses and brands – PR had a lot to do with many of those.

Public relations campaigns give birth to good stories, and bad stories give birth to more public relations campaigns. If you run a business or you are a marketer and you can see the beauty in this cycle, you’ll never need anyone else to tell you that you need PR.

But PR has been changing. What was a slow and sure change about ten years ago has now turned into a major paradigm shift. In this post, we’re going to discuss how ‘digital’ has transformed the very idea of PR.

Continue reading “Traditional PR vs. Digital PR: How Digital Has Changed Traditional PR”

Why Do We Use Sitemaps? Understanding Sitemaps and Their Function

Posted on by Tom Buckland

Why do we use sitemaps in SEO? That is the question.
If you have been wondering what sitemaps are and how they are important for SEO, you are in good company. You might also be wondering how you can use sitemaps to your advantage.
You are about to find out.
Site mapping is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of developing your SEO footprint.
From the very beginning, I want to be very clear. Sitemaps are important for SEO purposes.
You are about to find out why this is and how you can use sitemaps to increase your SEO results.

Continue reading “Why Do We Use Sitemaps? Understanding Sitemaps and Their Function”

How to Use Google Tag Manager and Improve your SEO Results

Posted on by Tom Buckland

Google Tag Manager is something that you may have never heard of when researching tags.

Having not heard of it isn’t unusual since many people state that they have no idea what it is or how it works.

Would you believe that this tool has been around since 2005? Google Tag manager is free and fairly easy to use if you know how.

Let us help you understand what Google Tag Manager is and how to use it to propel your digital marketing forward.

Continue reading “How to Use Google Tag Manager and Improve your SEO Results”

Here’s Why You Need to Get HTTPS (SSL) Sorted Today

Posted on by Tom Buckland

You’ve got a great domain name, you’ve purchased a good hosting plan and your developers have set up a clean, feature-rich website. Everything looks good and your business is finally online.

That’s great – but that’s not all. If your website, user data and traffic aren’t secured, you jeopardise the credibility of your business, the authenticity of your online presence, the trust your business inspires in customers and the confidence you enjoy from them in return.

Sounds bad? It’s actually much worse.

This is where SSL certificates come to your rescue. A good SSL certificate can solve all these problems, and then some. In this post, we will discuss what SSL certificates are, why business websites must have one and why you should sort out potential HTTPS issues to avoid getting hit by Google penalties.

Continue reading “Here’s Why You Need to Get HTTPS (SSL) Sorted Today”

bg-prefooter

We Help Our Clients Make More Money

Get my free proposal