Here we explain exactly what that means and how you can avoid potentially costly mistakes.

What exactly is copyright?

Whilst we’re not lawyers, we’re going to give you a quick overview; if you take a photo, then you own the copyright to that photo and can choose where it goes and who is able to use it.

You could choose to use it on your own website, or you could allow someone else to use it on theirs if you were happy for them to do so.

The key point is that you have control of the image and you’re happy for someone else to use it.

Where problems arise is if someone uses that image without permission. If you were browsing the internet and found that someone else was using your photo and hadn’t asked, you’d probably be annoyed and rightly so.

And this is where people are being caught out when they (hopefully innocently) use a photo that they don’t have permission to.

When can you use an image and when can’t you use an image?

You can use an image if:

–        You took it yourself.

–        You have asked for and gained permission to use it.

–        You have purchased a license to use it (usually from a stock photography website, such as iStock or Adobe Stock).

How about images you see on Google?

When you do a google image search you will see an option to allows you to select USAGE RIGHTS (you can get to this by tapping on ‘tools’ under the search bar).

There are two types of image copyright you can choose from:

Creative commons licences:

Creative Commons licences are free licences that a rights holder might attach to an image. It lets people know how they can reuse an image without having to go back to the rights holder to ask for their permission.

Commercial or other licences:

Commercial or other licenses: These images have non-Creative Commons licenses and can be from either site available at no charge or commercial sites that require payment.

The latter would need checking in terms of whether or not you can use it, but if in doubt, simply don’t.

What happens if you use someone’s photo without permission?

If they find that you have been using their image then you’ll likely receive an email from a company such as Alamy, who will detail the page and place you’ve used the image without permission. This will also include a fee they would like you to pay in compensation. This fee can run into hundreds of £’s, so the key point here is never to take images unless you have permission, have bought them or have taken them yourself.

Please note this article is not providing legal advice for image copyright and is only an introduction to the topic area. Always seek professional legal support should you wish to discuss or learn more about this subject.

if you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow, then get in touch with Mark and the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Staying on the right side of image copyright appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Stuffing your pages full of key phrases

So how do you rank for a certain key phrase ( a series of words someone would use to find your website)? You may think the answer is to artificially stuff your page with that word, as many times as possible, to make sure Google knows exactly what your page or site is all about.

You may have even had the misfortune to see this on sites that have a footer (at the bottom of the page) stuffed full of sets of key phrases!

Wrong.

Write naturally about a topic and you will by default include the key phrases relevant to the topic you’re talking about. Think about this page – I’m talking about SEO errors, Google and search engines. By default, I’m therefore going to be including these words as I write.

Don’t try to game the system by stuffing in the same word over and over.

Your visitor won’t like it and neither will Google.

Moving or deleting content and creating broken links

Over time you may move content from one place to another. Some content may even be deleted as it becomes out of date. What this creates is broken links; links that point to a page that no longer exists or has moved. Google doesn’t like this; consider how frustrating it is for your visitor when they click on a link and it comes up with an error. Google feels their pain!

Make sure you go through your site from time to time and check all of your links are working (there’s a plugin that’ll help to do this for you if you’re using WordPress).

Not having a sitemap

Imagine how hard finding an address without a sat nav or a map would be!

A sitemap is a file that tells Google where pages are, and when they’re added. This will enable Google to find your pages quicker and more easily than before.

If you don’t have one you should.

Tell the robots about it

Search engines such as Google find new content and keep their rankings up to date by sending robots called spiders around the web, crawling for new and great content.

On your site should be a little file that tells that robot where to go (this is called a robots.txt file and won’t be seen on your actually website, but should be in the files held on your server).

We’re getting geeky here, but what this should include is a link to the sitemap we’ve mentioned above. You can think of this as giving the search engine spider some tourist information before it explores your site. You’re essentially giving it the map to your site so it knows where to go when it arrives.

Duplicate content

We wouldn’t be impressed if we paid for a magazine only to find that many of the pages had the same information on them. Google won’t be impressed if your site has duplicate content. If you have the same information on many different pages then you’re going to be committing an SEO sin.

Every page should be unique. If they’re not then is there any real need for the content to be duplicated across more than one page?

Page Titles and Descriptions

The page title is the first line of your ranking with Google.

Your page description is the next two lines that appear underneath it.

These should also be unique on every page. Why? Because these two bits of information tell you what the page is about. If every page is unique, then the description and title of the page explaining what it’s about should be too.

Not sure where to find your page title? Hover over the tab at the top of your browser when you’re on a page. Your page title is the words that appear in that tab.

We often see lots of sites with these duplicated across multiple pages. If yours are too, you will be missing out.

Summary:

1. Write naturally and don’t worry about stuffing key words into your copy.
2. Check your site for broken links and fix any you find.
3. Add a sitemap to your website.
4. Refer to the sitemap in your robot file.
5. Don’t duplicate your content or your page titles.

Want to know more about SEO or to get your site reviewed and fixed so it can soar up the rankings? Find out more about our services here or our SEO audit by clicking here. You can also give us a call on 01566 784860.

The post Six Common SEO Mistakes appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Many businesses means much competition; as with most things in life, those doing it well will grow and strive forward, those doing it poorly or as an after thought will spend much time and never fully reap the potential dividends.

Here’s the five most common Facebook errors we see:

Setting up your business up as a profile and not a page.

Profiles are for people and pages are for businesses, groups, people of interest and basically anything that isn’t you as a person!

How do you know if you’ve got this wrong?

If you see the number of likes you have, it’s a page! You’ve got it right!

If you can’t then it isn’t (assuming you’re looking in the right place of course!)

Your business should always be set up as a page and not a profile; we’ve known of Facebook writing to those that have got it inadvertently wrong and on occasion removing the profile.

A page is fundamentally different from a profile and will give you a platform from which to promote and share your business, which brings us on to advertising…..

Advertising to everybody

Facebook has an incredible amount of information on its users.

If you’re going to be spending your hard earned money on Facebook advertising then you want to make sure you’re reaching the right people.

We’ve heard tales of gaining 1,000’s of likes in a short period of time, sometimes in a matter of just a few days.

Sounds fantastic doesn’t it?

This is almost definitely unfocussed advertising; reaching everybody, everywhere no matter if they’re going to be interested or not.

We all love big numbers but we draw the line way before paying for a larger number to be written on our Facebook page!

Remember that 100 active and engaged Likes are certain to have a greater value than 5,000 that will never engage or be interested in you.

If you advertise to people that won’t give you value all you’re doing is paying to have a larger number on your page.

Letting your advertising run and run

So you’ve avoided error number two and you’ve targeted the right people with the right message.

That’s it? Job done? Just leave it and reap the perennial gains surely?

After a certain period your advertising campaign will become stale and the rewards you gain from it will diminish. Think of it this way, if you’ve seen the same advert repeatedly how often do you click on it and show interest after the 10th time you’ve seen it?

There is a case for repeated brand exposure here but lets for this example focus on the definitive return, which will be decreasing.

Don’t believe us? Check your stats!

Make sure you continually address your advertising and what it is delivering. This isn’t just for Facebook; Google make a whole lot of money from people using PPC and letting it run untouched for month after month and in some cases even year after year!

Not integrating with your website

Ok, so a bit of a cheat here as it’s not technically on Facebook, but so often the integration of social media with other marketing activity amounts to a Twitter and Facebook icon lodged in the top right hand corner of a website.

You can do better; we know you can!

Look at ways in which you can better integrate your Facebook page with the rest of your web presence.

Can’t think of any ways? I bet we can help!

Marketing creates greater rewards when it’s integrated and all working together; make sure you’re doing that and you’ll see the difference. Drive traffic to your website, pass it back to your Facebook page. Build brand engagement and enjoy the fruitful relationships it brings.

Making it salesy

Ah the ultimate temptation; you’ve got a sales platform so get on the soap box, dust off the Derek Trotter fur coat and begin selling.

This time next year Rodney!

Unfortunately this time next year you’ll likely be driving the same three-wheeled car as if you go to salesy it’ll back fire worse than a Robin Reliant!

Use your page to engage, to add value, not only to you but also to your location, to those around you and your clients!

The post Five Common Facebook Errors appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Not having objectives or a purpose

There are two phrases that we here more than any others when we talk to businesses about their social media and Twitter presence:

“I know I need to be using it but I’m not quite sure how or why!”
“I’m too busy to be tweeting all the time!”

The two are linked.  Without focus to your activity your time will be less well spent; it will take you longer to achieve the same goal because you’re not sure what your objectives are.  You’re unfocused.
Who you’re trying to reach, what you’re trying to gain and how it links in with your other marketing and promotional activity should be at the heart of everything you do on Twitter.
What you’re tweeting about, who you’re interacting with, the content you’re favouriting and re-tweeting should all be inextricably linked to the objectives you have.
If you don’t have a reason then why?

Not using social media to be social

So the hint is in the title here; at the centre of all social media activity should be social interaction.
Take a look at your last 100 tweets.
How many of them are outbound tweets from you?
How many are retweets?
How many things have your favourited or commented on?
How many tweets form part of a conversation?
The sum total of the bottom three points should by far outnumber the first question.
The example I always give is if you’re at a dinner party or an evening gathering what impression will people have of you if all you talk about is yourself?  You’ll quickly find people moving toward the other end of the room or making their excuses to head to the bathroom.
Social media is no different.  Show interest in other people and what they do and they’ll ultimately return the favour and you’ll begin to develop social relationships.
The ability to attend an event, to meet new people in the real world and for them to instantly know who you are as a result of your Twitter account is an incredibly powerful tool but you’ll only get to that stage by holding conversations, by interaction and by taking an interest in others.
This will ultimately help you fulfil the goals you’ve set for your activity, no matter what they are.

Thinking it’s all about getting your sales message across

Social media gives us and every other business an audience.  It can therefore be tempting to focus on getting our sales message out there, to tell people what it is we do and who we do it for.  Find a happy balance and don’t make all of your tweets about your services.  This is where content comes in; be informative, give them information of value and once more make it targeted to whom you want to reach.
If you’re sales message is too strong the only thing on the increase will be social dissonance for your message, and not your bottom line.

Following and then Unfollowing

Bit of a bugbear of ours is this violation of social media etiquette.  Now we know there isn’t such a thing but if there were then this would be on the list of definite no no’s!
You’ll get people following you, waiting for a short period of time and then unfollowing if you don’t follow back.  If you do this then why are you doing it?  More often than not it will be to boost your following numbers.
We all love big numbers; website visitors, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, we all want them to be as big as possible but they need to be the right people.
Even if brand awareness is our goal it still needs to be with the right people.
Simply following people to get them to follow you back shouldn’t be the goal.  Following people that are of interest that fit with your objective and then interacting with them should.

Following everybody

The account that is following more than 10 times the amount of followers they have.  You should want to reach the right people so when you follow someone make sure it has a purpose.  We don’t just follow everybody that follows us because our goal isn’t to have the Twitter account with the most followers.  It’s to have the account that has the most value to our business.
The more unfocussed you are with your following the more cluttered your news feed will be.  You’ll miss things and ultimately spend more time trying to keep up.
For more information on how we can help you with your Twitter activity or social media presence please give us a call on 01566 784860 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post Five common mistakes on Twitter appeared first on MiHiDigital.