Why Are H1 Tags Important For My Website?

by Anna Hoade | Aug 3, 2020 | Blog

Why Are H1 Tags Important For My Website?

looking at how correct use of tags and titles can help your websites positioning in search engines

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Looking at the importance of well-structured H1 tags for your website.

In the big online game of SEO, there are multiple factors that can affect your ranking – but you’d be surprised how overlooked one of the most well-known factors, H1 tags, are.

While it’s arguably easier to update on your website and requires less planning for than other SEO factors (looking at you link building), its simplicity often leads people to give it less attention than it deserves.

Don’t fret though – read through our handy guide to ensure your H1 tags help propel your website to number one.

What is an H1 tag?

An H1 tag is typically the title of your page or post and is the first visible heading on the page itself. While it is important from both a search engine and user perspective, its main objective is the same – it helps both better understand what your content is about.

For search engines, a H1 tag helps to make crawling your website and pages more efficient, sharing more information and giving your page a better chance to appear in SERPs (search engine results pages) for the search terms you want to appear for. From a user perspective, it outlines what the content of the page is going to be about, and helps them decide if the page will contain the information they are looking for.

As an example, just take a look at this very blog you are reading. Our blog is all about understanding the importance of H1 tags, so it would make sense that our H1 tag reflects that!

What’s the difference between an H1 tag and a Title Tag?

While your H1 tag is essentially the title of your page, it’s important to make the distinction between a H1 tag and a title tag. While they are similar in some respects, they are not the same.

While both give context as to what your page is about, the key difference between an H1 tag and a title tag is that a title tag is what appears when people search for your page in SERPS, while an H1 tag is what appears on the page itself.

While they appear in different places, they do serve a similar purpose – they give the reader a good understanding of what they are about to read. The only difference is a good title tag can be the difference between a user clicking on your link or not, while if a user will only read your H1 tag if they’ve already arrived on your page.

Due to having the same user intent, it’s natural that your H1 tag and your title tag will be very similar. The key thing to remember is they don’t have to match exactly – perhaps you really want to include a specific keyword in your title tag to help with ranking but now you’ve run out of space to write out your full title for the blog? Use the extra space that your H1 tag will provide.

Best practices for H1 tags

At this point you’re probably thinking though, how do I write an effective H1 tag?

The first thing to bear in mind when creating your H1 tag is length. If yours is too short, you’re simply wasting space you could be using. On the flip side though, if it’s too long, the key message in your heading may go over people’s heads. As a frame of reference, aim to keep your H1 tag between 20 and 70 characters.

In terms of what you should actually include in those 20 to 70 characters, the same rules we have already spoken about still apply – user intent. Your H1 tag should give the user the outline of what your content will be about; a promise that your content contains exactly what they’re looking for.

While you’ll likely have a good idea of what your H1 tag will need to include, make sure this is backed with some all-important keyword research. Using the right keywords in your headings can directly affect how well your page ranks, so make sure you’re using them.

Finally, make your H1 stand out! Make your title the first thing a user spots when landing on your page. With the proper formatting, H1 tags should naturally be larger than the rest of the text on your page but if they’re not, make sure they are to ensure they really stand out.

And there you have it, your guide to understanding the importance of H1 tags and how to use them effectively!

There’s plenty more to learn about SEO though. Be sure to check out some more of our blogs for more info, or if you’d like to learn how to run effective SEO for your own website then check out our courses.

Daniel Otway

Senior Content Executive

Learn New Digital Marketing Skills

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The Ultimate Guide To Social Media Style Guidelines

by Anna Hoade | Mar 1, 2019 | Blog

The Ultimate Guide To Social Media Style Guidelines

start standing out or get lost in the abyss

With over 60 million active business pages on Facebook alone, it is clear that when it comes to standing out on social media, it requires a little more than just being active.

With so much competition, social media profiles can’t afford to be someone who blends into the crowd. Instead, your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter profiles need to be the person dressed in a bright pink tutu, screaming the lyrics to God Save the Queen through a traffic cone, from the roof of a car.

To help with this, and to put it in slightly less metaphorical terms, we have collected some of our top tips to spruce up the style of your social media profiles.

Tone of Voice

Anyone who has ever heard me talk, especially in my Social Animal training for Giant Campus (plug, plug, plug) will know that I am never one to shy away from my love of the wonderful smoothie brand that is innocent.

If you read any of their social posts, comments, website material or the bottles of their drinks, you will see the same light-hearted humour and positivity. In today’s age of declining organic engagement, it is a testimony to innocent’s strength of voice that people flock to the comment section to see what witty replies lie in wait.

For businesses and brands on social media, it is important to make sure that every element of the posts and pages themselves reflect the tone of voice of your brand that’s seen elsewhere. Keep it authentic, keep it friendly, and keep it relevant, and you’ll see greater results with your posts.

Be ambitious with your images

A good way to imagine your social media efforts is a bell curve with low to maximum effort on the side, and a breakdown of every business profile on the bottom. In short, there is a level that everyone else will be doing, and then there is the section above that – where people spend more time and effort but get better results.

Nowhere does this apply more than in the images you send out with your posts. Everyone and their nan can use stock photos – or worse, rip photos straight from Google – but the best businesses on social media are the ones who put their own personal stamp on it.

Using tools like Canva, Snapseed and Photoshop make it super easy to add your own branding to images, or to make them look more professional within a few minutes. And while photos are great, do you know what’s better? GIFs or videos. With smartphones and free apps, it doesn’t have to be a trial making these types of visuals, so give it a go.

Platforms are releasing new post formats constantly, so there are plenty of options when it comes to creating interesting content. 360 photos, live video, and memes are just a few of the many tools at your disposal. Struggling to use know how to use memes on social media? Check out our recent blog which talks about this very thing.

Make it consistent

Whether you get your social media fix from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or one of the other social media platforms of choice, branding should be the same.

Logos, names, descriptions and cover photos should all be consistent, regardless of their channels. This stops people getting confused with other brands, or stops your profile coming off as unprofessional.

Create some guidelines and company practices for images sizes, replying to comments and dealing with complaints, and make sure this is the same for all channels.

Mix it up

Now, this isn’t only here to check to see if you are all still paying attention. Though elements like the tone of voice and branding should be consistent between channels, it is important not to discount the fact that all platforms are different.

Don’t be one of those people who auto-post across all of their channels. You are better than that. We know it, and deep down, you know it too.

To help with this, here are some things to consider when posting on different channels:

Image size
Hashtag usage
Profile audience
Tagging in other businesses
Post length

There are some great tools to help with these aspects in case you are wondering what is best for each profile. An always up to date guide to image sizes can be found here, and to find hashtags to use, Rite tag is a great tool to help.

In short

Following the above advice will set you well on your way to increasing your social media style, and helping you stand out from the crowd.
These practices are what we follow at Sleeping Giant Media and Giant Campus (alongside our infamous social media mantra), so try our advice and let us know what you think.

Dan Otway

Digital Creative

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How infographics can help boost your social strategy

by Anna Hoade | Feb 14, 2019 | Blog

How Infographics Can Help Boost Your Social Strategy

how to visually represent your data effectively

The internet has a lot of information. Like a lot of it.

In our busy day to day lives, be it the daily news or a list of the cutest cat videos this week, we’re increasingly wanting that information easier and quicker. From a business perspective, that means the information you put out on your social profiles needs to easily be able to put across what you want, and fast.

But just how do you do that without losing out on all the important bits? A picture may be able to tell a 1000 words, but sometimes an image just won’t cut it. A video might help, but they take time to make and you might not have the resources available.

If only there was a format that combines the best of visuals and text into an eye-catching and easily digestible way… oh wait there is! Let us introduce you to infographics, and show you how they can help boost your social media strategy.

What’s in an Infographic?

First things first, what exactly is an infographic? Put simply, it’s a graphic that presents data and information in a condensed and easy to read way.

Let’s say you own a dog adoption centre, and your social profiles need some jazzing up. You’ve also just acquired some great dog facts, and want to put them out on social in a fun and engaging way. Instead of simply listing them in a post, why not display them in an infographic like so?

The breakdown of an Infographic

Cute dogs aside, there are some things that all infographics should include in order to ensure the best chances of success of social.

A snappy title that explains what the information will be about should stand out and be located at the top of the page. When it comes to the font, sometimes simple really is best. Don’t be eager to use the most outlandish font out there because you think it looks ‘cool’ if it sacrifices readability.

As for the info and data itself, an infographic gives you the freedom to present it in different ways, but certain ways lend themselves better to particular types of information.

Our Doggos R Us info is made up of simple facts containing numbers. The numbers are the key thing to take away, which is why we’ve circled them and used them as headers to introduce each fact.

However, let’s say we were also given the average height of the top 10 most popular dog breeds. Immediately, presenting this information in our current way won’t work. however, the use of a graph could help make the information far more digestible, like the guys over at Canine Journal, have done here:

Alternatively, if you have information that compares things to one another or to show change over time, a bar or pie graph is a better choice to display the information. Don’t just pick the style that looks the nicest – pick the one that will help show the information in the best way for the user.

Finally, you want people to know that it’s your infographic! Always ensure your infographic, at the very least, includes your brand’s logo somewhere that can easily be seen.

Why infographics?

So infographics can help make information easier to read, but is it really worth all the trouble?

The short answer – yes.

The long answer? Aside from presenting information in an easier format, infographics are also much more likely to be shared on social as opposed to say, a blog. More shares mean more awareness of your brand, which in turn leads to more traffic to your site.

What’s more, showing your audiences you know your stuff helps to establish your brand as an expert in your particular field. This naturally helps build audience trust, meaning people will be more likely to turn to you when they need your services.

Making an infographic

Now we hear you asking – but how do I make an infographic? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.

There are plenty of tools out there, be we recommend Canva. Not only is it a powerful but simple online tool that can help you make infographics, but its free! We even made our Doggos R Us infographic on it!

For the more creatively inclined (and those with a bit more cash), tools such as Adobe Photoshopcan really help you make professional looking infographics, even if there is a bit of a learning curve.

Boost your social skills

Now you know how to make infographics, why stop there? Learn how to become a social whiz just like us by coming along to one of Social Animal training courses here at Giant Towers!

Dan Otway

Digital Creative

Learn New Digital Marketing Skills

3 things for brick & mortar businesses to do to quickly get online

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What are memes and can they help my online presence?

by Anna Hoade | Feb 5, 2019 | Blog

What Are Memes And Can They Help My Online Presence?

using memes in business to help your creative strategy and further yourself in the modern world

Have you ever seen those funny pictures or videos on social media that everyone seems to share? Ever wondered where on earth they come from, and how they seem to change every week?

If you’ve ever asked any of those questions, then do we have a blog for you! Let us guide you through the weird and wonderful world of memes, and show you how you can take advantage of them to improve your social media strategy.

Sit tight, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

What is a ‘meme’?

Many people think that memes came into existence with the birth of the internet and social media. Fact check – memes have actually existed for thousands of years, just not in the form they have currently taken today. The traditional definition of a meme is:

“An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.”

In plain English, it’s simply an idea that is passed around and copied. Where’s the best place to share ideas in a variety of formats that people copy and imitate? You guessed it – social media.

With the rise of the internet and social media, people began sharing all sorts of content, but it was only from 2011 that its usage and popularity spiked drastically. The word meme and its counterparts easily get between 700-800k searches a month in the UK alone, so to say they’re popular online is a bit of an understatement.

How do I use memes with my business?

Now you know what a meme is, let’s look at some examples of some and how businesses have used them effectively. If we can direct your attention to Exhibit A:

The “You vs the guy she told you not to worry about” meme became one of the most popular to emerge back in late 2015, with its popularity exploding online in 2016. The idea is to share two images of people or objects, with one being more favourable than the other, for humorous effect.

Needless to say, businesses soon caught wind of the idea, leading them to make their own to post on social media channels…

As you can see, American sandwich provider Jimmy John’s made its own version using one of their own products. While the brand gets decent levels of engagement normally, their post using the meme exploded, leaving it with over 5000 likes and 2500 retweets.

Where do I find memes?

By the time many businesses discover a new meme they could use for marketing, there is a 99.9% chance that the window for ensuring the most engagement has passed.

Why? Memes simply have a very short lifespan. New ideas are constantly being produced every day, and what was hot this week likely won’t be the week after. If you’re seeing lots of the same meme all over Facebook or Twitter, you’re jumping into the game too late.

To ensure a greater chance of success, you need to find a meme before it reaches peak popularity. Reddit is a literal goldmine for finding memes before they find their way onto the more popular social media platforms.

Subreddits (basically communities within Reddit) such as r/memes and r/funny are good places to conduct some research, but we recommend r/memeeconomy due to its ability to easily show you which memes are gaining popularity before they reach their peak.

What memes are right for my business?

However, don’t just assume you can pick a funny meme and watch those comments and likes roll in.

Certain businesses are more likely to see success with memes than others, and that’s largely due to the fact they already have an audience likely to relate and share the meme in question.

Memes can be used by anyone, but they have particular popularity with young people. If your business’s primary target audience is the younger generation, then using memes could prove to be an excellent marketing tool.

Even with the right audience though, relevancy will still be the number one factor to consider. Just because a meme you found had you in hysterics, doesn’t mean it will have the same effect on your audience.

Take the time to pick one that’s trending, but is easy to alter into something funny that relates to your business.

Making memes work for your business

With a bit of research and luck, your post could receive tons of likes and retweets – which are great to raise your brand awareness. However, these on their own don’t automatically mean people will flock to your site and buy what you’re selling.

Memes are therefore a way to push people down the sales funnel – they don’t create a sale by themselves. Only when they are combined with other effective forms of digital marketing can they help get people buying your goods and services, which is what we’re all aiming for at the end of the day, right?

We’ve taught you all you need to know about memes, but if you want to learn more about social for business, why not sign up to one of our upcoming social animal courses?

Daniel Otway

Digital Creative

Learn New Digital Marketing Skills

3 things for brick & mortar businesses to do to quickly get online

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Top 7 ways to optimise your Instagram account

by Anna Hoade | Jan 11, 2019 | Blog

Top 7 Ways To Optimise Your Instagram Account

don’t struggle to get the engagement you deserve

So, you’ve got yourself a fancy Instagram account. But are you still struggling to get the engagement you want from it?

You might think you’re doing everything right, but like all social media platforms, there are lots of little things you may not be doing that could end up making a big difference. If you’re looking to optimise your Instagram account to boost engagement, here are a few top tips that are sure to help.

Make sure you’re using an Instagram Business account

If you’re a business on Instagram and you’re not using a business account, then why on earth not? An Instagram business account not only allows you to boost your posts to reach more people, but it allows you to tap into the platform’s analytics tool, to see just how well each of your posts is doing.

There’s no point putting content out there if you can’t tell who’s engaging with it, and how. Sure, you can see likes and comments without analytics, but these metrics only tell half the story. Having an Instagram Business account will allow you to see how many people saw your post, how many interacted with it, aside from likes and comments, as well as the types of people interacting with your posts.

To turn your Instagram account into a business account, you need to go into your profile settings and select “switch to business profile”. Note that you will need to have a Facebook Business page to do this, but the app will help you create one if you don’t already own one.

Make sure images are the right size

You probably don’t need us to tell you that Instagram is a very visual form of social media – its focus on imagery is far greater than that of Facebook or Twitter.

What you might not know is that Instagram uses different image dimensions than other forms of social media. Your amazing photo may look great in its original form – but it might not fit correctly when posted to Instagram.

Luckily enough, the platform now features three different image formats: square, landscape, and portrait. Depending on your picture’s size, it will likely fit better in one of these three layouts, so it’s worth experimenting to see which fits best.

Remember that not every post needs to be an original photo. You can get creative with infographics, pop art, GIFs etc, but again you’ll need to make sure these are the correct sizes. For reference, the ideal image sizes for Instagram are:

Square posts: 1080px x 1080px

Landscape posts: 1080px wide

Portrait posts: 1080px x 1350px

Have a Theme

In this day and age you can’t escape the modern clutches of business and branding, it is everywhere, and on Instagram, it’s no different.

Many businesses will have a visual theme that runs through their grid. Whether that be a specific filter, or overlay or even subject matter. This use of theme allows your audience to recognise your content easier and as a consequence improve the brand awareness for your brand.

No need to get all photoshop on this, Instagram has a great array of filters to choose from. And what filter gets the most engagement on Instagram, well currently, it’s Clarendon!

Use relevant and trending hashtags

Instagram loves hashtags, so if you aren’t using them – you should be. TrackMaven found that while Facebook and Twitter should only use one or two to ensure maximum engagement, Instagram posts with more hashtags actually perform much better, with 9 hashtags seeing the best results overall.

There’s an art to using hashtags though, and it helps to stay on top of what’s trending to make sure you’re using the hashtags that people are searching for. However, don’t trade popularity for relevancy. Use trending hashtags where possible, but don’t include them if they have nothing to do with your brand and business.

How do you find what’s trending? Hashtagify allows you to see the most popular hashtags used in a month, as well as see how popular individual hashtags are. There are also hashtags that are a pretty safe bet no matter the time of year. These are typically based around the days of the week, like #MondayMotivation or #TBT, giving you suitable hashtags no matter the day. You can find out more about them in this article from Vision Creative Group.

Be mobile orientated

Mobile is Instagram’s true home. With a desktop, you can only view posts on Instagram, and those with tablets don’t even have a dedicated app yet!

If almost everyone is accessing Instagram from their phone, then it makes sense that any links you include in your profile are mobile friendly. Your first port of call is making sure your own business’s website is mobile friendly – as your Instagram profile should at least include a link to your site.

What if you want to direct people to more than one link though? Not a problem – with platforms such as LNK.BIO, you can set up multiple links in your bio description. Handy for campaigns and one-off promotions!

From there, make it a habit to check that all links you include go to a website that’s mobile friendly. If you offer up links that aren’t optimised for mobile, users will be unlikely to click on them in the future, so it’s well worth it in the long run.

Have an easy to find handle

Your Instagram handle is essentially your username – it’s what people search for to find your business on the platform. And if it doesn’t match your brand, it could make it difficult for potential customers to find you.

Fortunately, it’s easy enough to change. Say you run a website called ‘Rock N Roll Clothing’, and that’s how it’s spelt on your logo and your website. If your Instagram handle is ‘rockandrollclothing’ people may not find you, because you’re using ‘and’ instead of the letter ‘N’. Make sure your handle reflects the spelling and grammar of your business accurately to ensure you’re as easy to find as possible.

Use Instagram Stories

Launched back in August 2016, Instagram stories allows users to post pictures and videos that are separate from their posts. What’s the point you ask? With the ability to use stickers, music, GIFs, ask questions, and a whole lot more, it opened a whole new way for businesses to creatively interact with their audience.

If you’re looking for additional ways to drive traffic and boost engagement on your profile, Instagram stories is a great way to do this. Get creative with the tools available and give your audience a reason to check out what you have to offer!

Want help making your Instagram account the best it can be? Check out our Social Animal courseto make sure your social media is up to scratch, or pay a visit to one of our creative content workshops to see how you can be generating awesome content for all of your platforms.

Daniel Otway

Digital Creative

Learn New Digital Marketing Skills

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