Tag: seo

Does any industry compete with the wedding industry when it comes to the sheer volume of questioning? Was that another question? Anyway…

We’re guessing that there are probably more questions asked throughout the wedding planning journey than there are in any other events industry.

Questions from guests to couples, couples to wedding suppliers and suppliers to couples; not to mention questions from suppliers to suppliers…and the list goes on.

Nowadays, more and more engaged couples are building wedding websites to help them easily manage questions they receive from guests, and by sharing answers to all the questions they’ve already been asked they can help inform guests without having to speak directly to each of them about the same things.

Makes sense, right?

So if couples have realised the huge advantages of having FAQ-style question and answer pages, why haven’t all wedding suppliers?

 

Realising the many benefits of FAQ pages

FAQ pages tend to be the ones that customers visit most but website writers think about least.

So why does this disconnect exist?

It’s a mystery to us. Perhaps the FAQ page just isn’t sexy enough. But there are plenty of companies doing it justice and even stamping their personality on the page in the form of creative answers.

Here are 5 core benefits to including an FAQ page on your wedding website:

• Reassuring couples that you’ve got their questions covered and that they’re not asking anything you haven’t heard before
• Improving the efficiency of first meetings with couples by providing answers to common questions beforehand, allowing you to focus on the details that matter most
• Opportunity to improve SEO through targeted content development
• Earning trust by showing you’re a professional expert in your field
• Allowing couples a snapshot of your personality by creatively answering their questions

Whether you’re a wedding venue, a wedding photographer or a wedding caterer, you’re probably asked the same sorts of questions every time you meet a new couple.

Are we right?

So an FAQ page will save you heaps of time.

Deciding on questions to include, and structure

When choosing questions to include in your FAQ section, focus on relevancy and any opportunities that allow you to develop answers into pages and encourage further engagement.

To start, think about the questions couples always ask you before and after booking, such as…

• Does your wedding venue provide the option of a late night extension?
• What are your deposit and payment terms?

If you end up with an extensive list of questions, group them into categories such as “Deciding on which wedding photographer to book” and “What to ask once you’ve booked your wedding photographer”.

Categorising your questions not only helps your visitors to navigate the FAQ page easily it also helps you ensure that you’re organised and are including all important questions.

Structured content also brings with it great SEO benefits, seeing as Google likes order. Being able to read a content-heavy page by category and tagged headers makes Google-bots happy.

In terms of how you write content for an FAQ page, make sure that you write your questions from your customer’s perspective (e.g. “How do I…”) and answer from your business’s perspective (e.g. “You should…” or “We provide…”).

And remember that your FAQ pages are a great place to convert interested couples into your next wedding booking. End each answer or page with a call to action that links to more information about your services, prices or the question/answer topic.

Tip: it’s important to update your FAQ page with any new customer concerns as they arise. Remember, all website pages should be regularly updated so that they don’t go stale!

Leveraging your FAQ page for SEO purposes

One of the great, secret benefits of FAQ pages is that they give you the opportunity to search engine optimise your website beyond that of ANY competitor – if you do it well.

Here’s how…

List out all of the questions you are regularly asked plus any questions you think potential clients would type into Google when researching a wedding supplier like you.

Even if your target audience isn’t searching for topics related specifically to your wedding brand, they might be searching for answers to questions related to the wedding industry in general via search engines.

You could include queries like…

• What questions should I ask wedding photographers before booking one?
• How much should a wedding venue cost?

Then link from these questions to content/landing pages that answer in detail and continue the journey from question to conversation to (hopefully) conversion.

By adding content or landing pages that are optimized for specific search queries and that further expand on answers to popular questions, Google will read you as highly relevant in your industry which means your wedding website will rank higher in results pages and subsequently, couples will be able to find your company more easily when searching for wedding suppliers like you.

Plus, having more detailed answers to popular questions on your website will encourage newly engaged couples to think of you as an industry leader in your field. They’ll likely choose the wedding supplier who’s ‘in the know’ when it comes to making that booking.

Get drafting those frequently asked questions today!

The FAQ page is often an afterthought for many websites. But used strategically, it can add a lot of value to your wedding website and your business on the whole.

Get started today – you can thank us later.

Any questions?

 

Looking for more wedding industry trends and couple insights? Head to the Bridebook Business Hub, the home of wedding industry knowledge. 

 

If you’ve set up a wedding website for your wedding business, you’re in the SEO game.

And with the search landscape guaranteed to become more competitive throughout 2018 you need to make sure that you aren’t ruining your chances of ever ranking well; regardless of how much time and effort you want to spend on developing your website ranking right now.

 

Ensuring that brides and grooms can actually find you is pretty darn important and being able to rank highly without having to pay for the privilege is an art. However it’s a logical and systematic art form that is actually pretty easy to nail – if you know the basics.

Here are some simple things you can do – or not do – to improve your chances of becoming a major player in the SEO sphere and to reduce your chances of sabotaging your wedding business (eek)…

1. Choose your keywords wisely

There’s a place for broad keyword phrases but your main focus in 2018 has to be local keywords.

Broad keywords are classed as general words or phrases, such as “weddings” or “wedding venue”, and they’re highly competitive. Yes, it’s good to include these generic phrases in body content but you should set your primary keyword phrase for each page as something specific and where possible, local.

 

An example of local keywords could be: “wedding venue Ware, Hertfordshire”. This local term should be set as your H1 or H2 (depending on how your website is tiered). These are the first and second headings on the page you’re choosing to edit and they will signal to crawlers what your page is about and the specific keywords that relate to your topic.

People are more search savvy than ever before and they’ll type highly specific requests into Google and other search engines. Think about it; when do you ever search for the phrase “restaurants”. You’d have a job sifting through your options unless you searched for “restaurants near me” or “restaurants in Soho, London”.

Head to this previous Bridebook article for tips on developing a local SEO strategy.

 

2. Meta data matters

Meta data is the ‘language of search engines’ and it’s what Google-bots will read to find out what your pages and posts are about.

Meta data is essentially just keyword phrases and words describing the contents of each page on your website, and each page should have its own unique title tags, meta tags and page description.

 

Your images rank alongside your content so you also have to make sure that you include Alt tags so that images are fully optimised.

If you’re using a content management system like WordPress, you’ll have access to this information and will be able to formulate and input your own tags and descriptions. However if you’ve created your website via a developer using a custom built CMS, you’ll need to contact them to request unique meta data on each of your website pages.

 

3. Anchor text ensures that internal links don’t drift from the core topic

One of the easiest ways to improve your SEO is to use anchor text wisely.

 

Links to other pages on your website or external pages should be optimised so that Google knows why they’re being referred to another source. Inconsistencies in subject matter and links that don’t flow between relatable topics signal to Google that there’s dodgy link business happening on your website.

For example, we might choose to send our readers to a related SEO post, so I’d include an anchor text link in this phrase: find out more about the latest SEO techniques for wedding pro’s in an earlier Bridebook post.

We’ve told Google and our readers what the page is about before we’ve sent anyone anywhere.

Top tip: broken links harm SEO efforts. Regularly check all site links to make sure you’re not harming your website ranking over something so easily solvable.

 

4. Don’t run before your website is crawled

In order for Google to rank your website in the search engines or update your ranking after you make improvements, Google bots need to “crawl” your website. In simple terms, they need to find and scan your content before they can index it (or add it into search) so that it can be discovered by potential clients.

 

To ensure that your website is regularly crawled, check that you’ve created a sitemap and that your sitemap is submitted to Google Webmaster Tools.

By default, every WordPress post and page is indexed so once again, you’ll only have to request the above are completed manually if you’re not using WordPress CMS.

 

5. Keep up the (good) content

So you already know the importance of website content. Not just any content but regular, informative, keyword rich and user friendly content.

It’s getting competitive out there in the big wide world of wedding websites but you can still make a big impact on your sector by leading the way with rich content.

Boring, badly written content is picked up by Google bots and they can detect spelling mistakes, bad grammar and poor syntax which is bad news for your website and will harm rankings.

 

Approach wedding website SEO improvements with determination (but patience) this year

SEO is a long term (in fact, lifelong) strategy and you won’t experience instant results; even if you made every possible positive change today.

 

Sure, you’ll see some results quickly but others may take months or even years – quite simply because we’re all dependent on search engines and the process of crawling, indexing and ranking.

 

Are you interested in finding out more about the advanced SEO predictions of 2018?

Whether you’re an SEO expert, are brand new to the search engine game or would rate yourself somewhere in the middle, you should know that Moz is a fantastic reference site.

And Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin has a new year tradition which is to predict SEO trends for the coming year. And he’s more often than not correct (or at least not entirely wrong) with his predictions which is no mean feat in the unpredictable landscape that is search engine optimisation.

We’re going to leave the more enthusiastic SEO-ers with 9 Predictions for SEO in 2018.

Enjoy!

 

Looking for more wedding industry supplier stories and couple insights? Head to the Bridebook Business Hub, the home of wedding industry knowledge. 

Location plays a huge role in the search terms and phrases couples use when planning their wedding. Here are 5 simple ways to dominate local SEO in the wedding industry.

 

5 simple ways to dominate local SEO in the wedding industry

We’ve already discussed why content is key to SEO success and how to make it work for your wedding business so now we want to hone in on the importance of location-based SEO and targeting.

Location plays a huge role in the search terms and phrases couples use when planning their wedding and to be frank, they’re unlikely to search without it.

Think about it; which millennial couple would search for the term ‘wedding venues’ which returns almost 22 million results (most of which will be irrelevant) when they could search for ‘wedding venues in London’ and be presented with just over 2 million relevant results?

It’s a no brainer.

Here are 5 simple ways to ensure your website is optimised for local search.

 

1. Ensure you’re including specific local areas in all of your content

Rather than describe your business as a ‘beautiful wedding venue in London’ be as specific about your wedding business in your content as possible.

Narrow the search field and conduct research into keyword volume and competition for terms like ‘wedding venues in East London’ or ‘wedding venues in Hackney, London’.

The more specific you can be the better, as although you’ll be optimising for a smaller search volume there will be less competition for these super long tail keyword phrases and the improved intent of those searchers will mean that they’re more likely to convert to actual bookings.

Remember that Meta Descriptions and Title Tags matter too, and you should customise these so that they reflect the content on your page and the location or area you’re looking to target.

The more relevant your content is to those looking for a wedding supplier like you, the more likely you will be to boost traffic to your website, increase your website rankings and boost wedding bookings.

 

2. Include related local businesses and local events in your content

What’s happening in your local area this month? By incorporating details of what’s happening in your town and how you and your business are getting involved in your content, you’ll earn ‘Google points’ for relevancy that will help you gain authority for local wedding searches.

When you write about local wedding-related events remember to include the names of wedding venues, cities, towns and regions.

Top Tip: why not offer to link to other wedding suppliers in the local area in return for them sharing your content with their contacts and social media followers?

 

3. Ensure you’ve claimed your Google My Business page

You know those bulleted businesses that show up underneath a map at the top of most Google results when you include location in your search?

Those businesses are featured there because they’ve set up a Google My Business page.

Here’s an example of the wedding venues that feature when we search for ‘wedding venues in London:

 

It’s totally free to set up a business page and the amount of local interest and ‘click throughs’ you’re likely to earn for featuring here is well worth the small amount of time needed to set everything up.

As far as local targeting goes, this one is the biggie. Set up your free Google My Business listing today.

 

4. Reviews matter

In the wedding industry, reviews and recommendations play a huge role in winning new business. According to a recent survey, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, and seven out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if asked.

Focus on publishing reviews on your website but also on your wedding business’s Facebook page and Google My Business page. Having good reviews on these sites will attract local prospective clients and support your business in local results, as reviews and star ratings will appear alongside your contact details once you’re set up on Google My Business (as demonstrated in the example above).

 

5. Feature in online directories

One of the easiest ways to shortcut your way to more wedding bookings when it comes to local search is to feature on free online wedding directories.

The majority of these wedding directories have a lot more resource to throw at optimising their site for SEO, so rather than compete with them for space in the top 3 results, get listed on their site and you’ll be top of the search results anyway.

Some wedding directories even feature above local listings in the search engine results page which means it really is very important that you include complete and up to date information in your wedding business profile.

Is your Bridebook profile complete and up to date with your address, contact details, pricing and pictures?

 

Wedding location makes a world of difference

Let newly engaged couples know *where you are *to really drive online bookings for your wedding business.

Competition for local space is hotting up this summer and you can bet if you’re not on top of your rankings, your competitors will be.

Follow our 5 simple tips to get a head start and claim your space as the number one local wedding supplier in your area.