6 Tips for Small Businesses to Rank in “Near Me” Searches

Being the best at what you do doesn’t help much if no one knows you exist. For small businesses, having a strong local presence is often the difference between steady foot traffic and an empty shopfront. The good news? You don’t need a huge budget to compete—you just need to show up when and where people are searching. And that’s why you need strong local SEO to help you achieve this goal.

“Near me” or local searches—like “café near me”, “travel agency nearby”, or “SEO services Auckland”—are now part of everyday life, especially on mobile. People who make these searches usually have a specific reason behind their queries, whether that’s looking for a store’s location or booking a service on the spot. Think of them as fundamentally different from your general SEO, which targets wide audiences and zeroes in on specific locations. Overall, local SEO is a perfect match for small businesses looking to make a big impression in their own backyard.

This blog post walks you through some practical tips for improving how your business ranks in “near me” searches, so you can stay visible, competitive, and just a few taps away from your next customer.

Optimise Your Google Businenss Listings

Let’s be honest—if your business doesn’t show up on Google Maps, it might as well not exist for a lot of potential customers. Claiming and fully optimising your Google Business Profile is one of the most powerful things you can do to boost visibility in “near me” searches.
Make sure your listing is accurate, complete, and regularly updated. That means checking your business name, hours, phone number, website link, and address. Add quality photos that reflect your services or space, and pick the most relevant category for your business. It’s also worth posting updates like promotions, events, or occasional announcements. The more active and informative your profile is, the more Google (and potential customers) will trust it.

Get Listed in Reputable Local Directories

It’s not just your own site that affects how much you show up in people’s search results—it’s everywhere else you appear online too. Local directories act like digital signposts that guide people and search engines towards your business. The more consistent, trustworthy mentions you have across the web, the better.

Reputable websites like Yelp, Yellow, and Finda are perfect places to start. From there, you can look into niche or industry-specific directories as well. Just make sure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent everywhere—right down to the formatting. You’re effectively giving Google extra proof that your business is real and easy to find.

Add Local Schema Markup to Your Website

Search engines are clever, but they’re not mind readers. Schema markup is a bit of behind-the-scenes code that helps clarify what your business is all about—your location, services, hours, and more. It’s like giving Google a cheat sheet to better understand your site.

Local business schema tells search engines, “Hey, this page belongs to a business located right here that offers these services.” While it may sound technical, most website platforms or SEO plugins make it fairly easy to add. If you’ve got a developer or agency helping you out, it’s worth asking them to check that this is properly set up. You’ll be helping your website speak Google’s language more fluently.

Write Local-Focused Blog Posts or Content

If your website only talks about your products or services, you’re missing a golden opportunity to connect with your local audience. Why not write content that highlights your community involvement, supports local events, or simply answers questions people in your area are asking? It may just surprise you what a big impact that bit of extra effort can make.

Think blog posts like “5 Easy Plumbing Fixes Before You Call a Pro (Wellington Edition)” or “Where to Find the Best Flat Whites in Hamilton.” Not only does this help with your rankings, but it also shows you genuinely know and care about the people you’re serving. It’s local relevance with a personal touch.

Use Google Maps Embed on Contact Pages

Nothing says “we’re right here” quite like a live map on your contact page. Embedding a Google Map is a basic but extremely useful way to help customers figure out where to find you. In the process, it reinforces your physical presence to search engines too.

This simple addition acts like a little trust signal. It tells Google, “Yes, this business really does operate at this location,” and it helps users get directions in just one click. For a step that takes only a few minutes to implement, it packs a solid punch in the local SEO department.

Link to Other Businesses in the Area and Get Links in Return

When it comes to search rankings, links are like digital endorsements. And local links? Even better. Getting backlinks from nearby websites—other small businesses, local blogs, community groups—can help boost your authority in your area.

You can start small by linking to a nearby partner on your website, and ask if they’d be open to doing the same. Collaborate on content or events. Support a local fundraiser and get a mention on their site. These reciprocal connections help loads with SEO. They also build a stronger sense of community around your business, which customers tend to notice and appreciate.

At the end of the day, the steps you take to make sure your site shows up consistently in people’s “near me” searches all help stitch your business into the local fabric. Ready to claim your rightful place as a community favourite in your niche? Let us at Author Digital help you out. Get in touch with us today for an up close and personal chat about improving your SEO rankings, digital marketing, website design, and anything else you need.

A note

Henry Blackwell

Henry Blackwell is a marketing professional. He has spent the last 10 years working in-house and within agencies, growing profitable businesses through brand and customer-centric digital marketing in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

“My approach to marketing is a combination of heart and head. My heart brings an empathetic and intuitive approach to deeply understanding the qualitative requirements of marketing that many simply do not care to do. My head brings an analytical mindset that leverages data-driven insights to deliver profitable performance for the businesses I work with.

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

From Leads to Sales: How to Build a Conversion-Driven Digital Marketing Funnel

Picture a funnel. Not the kind you use to pour juice or petrol with, but a hypothetical one that takes in sales leads on the wide end and turns them into customers when they reach the other end of it. While it’s certainly not a perfect analogy for how customers convert, the funnel model has been used as an example to explain conversions for decades, being modified and adapted to better fit various sales and marketing needs.

However you choose to define your marketing funnel, it helps to think of it as potentially your best-ever salesperson. Once built, the processes that make up your funnel will be constantly drawing new and old customers. However, unlike your most charismatic and vivacious salespeople, your funnel will be working silently in the background as it improves all your sales efforts, including those initiated by your sales team.

Unfortunately, funnels have a way of becoming bloated, especially when a business operates across multiple digital and offline channels. It can’t always be helped, but regardless, an overly complicated model of customer behaviours can lead to confusion and bad decisions later on. For instance, with an overly complex funnel, you can be running expensive ad campaigns that result in a lot of clicks and views but still have dismal sales overall.

When you go into the limitless expanse of online markets, what you want is a conversion-driven digital marketing funnel. This way, your whole organisation always has its eyes on the prize, saving resources and ensuring more of your activities are geared towards conversions—the thing that truly matters for a functional business.

There’s no better time to fix your funnel than the present. To make things simpler, you can consult with a trusted marketing agency. They can help you come up with a digital marketing strategy NZ-based customers will respond to, ramping up your conversions, brand, and profits. In any case, let’s look at some things you can do to make your digital marketing funnel focused on conversions.

1. Know Who You're Talking To

Before you build anything, you must know the ins and outs of your audience. No, your audience cannot be just whoever wants to buy, otherwise you will find yourself screaming into the void with no conversions to show for it. If you do have a target audience, you must dig deep to understand their pain points, motivations, and deal-breakers. Aim to build your funnel like you’re designing it for your best mate and you should be in the right place.

2. Hook Your Audience with an Offer That Makes Sense

Digital marketing has changed significantly since the 2000s. Most customers now demand some kind of exclusivity. This can come in the form of discounts, eBooks—anything that holds unique value to your target audience should be good.

The key here is to focus on real value. Your hook must talk about things that resonate with your customers. After that, good copy, professional visuals, and a solid call to action should be created to guide your leads through your funnel.

3. Set Up a High-Converting Landing Page

Your landing page should be optimised to convert. Declutter it to highlight the benefits, include a bit of social proof, and a call to action that makes it easy to buy. While that sounds simple, these things can be deceptively difficult in practice. Designing a high-converting landing page isn’t always so straightforward, but a good digital marketing agency should be able to help with that.

4. Use Retargeting to Draw Back Errant Leads

While real-world funnels direct all the stuff down to the spout, it’s possible for leads to escape at different points in a digital marketing funnel. That’s why retargeting is so important. Remarketing can warm your lost leads back up and set them back into your funnel where they can convert later on.

Treat remarketing efforts like ads, social media, content, and email campaigns as necessary, ongoing expenses to stay top of mind with your leads and existing customers. When warranted, give occasional incentives to drive more of your customers down the spout.

5. Don't Forget Mobile Users

Chances are that a majority of your online visits come from smartphones and other mobile devices. If your business targets young adults or teens, an overwhelming majority of your visits and conversions are going to originate from mobile devices. Even if your customers prefer to use a desktop for purchases, they may still have found your business over mobile. This is all to say that your funnel should look good and work smoothly on every screen size.

Mobile friendliness is no longer a negotiable part of web design. Regardless of who your customers are, make sure your website has fast loading times, readable text, and zero annoying pop-ups. Depending on your audience’s behaviours, you may even want to develop a mobile app to make it even easier for customers to buy.

6. Test, Optimise, Repeat

A funnel isn’t a one-and-done thing. Your first version will never be perfect, and if by some miracle it is, it won’t be for long. Knowing all that, it’s a good idea to run A/B tests on your campaigns, landing pages, subject lines, headlines, and other digital marketing elements as your resources allow. This will give you points of comparison for conversion rates and bounce rates, giving you a clue if there’s something that needs fixing.

7. Track What Matters

Vanity metrics are the bane of any serious business. Sure, it’s nice to see a bump in visits or have a post get a thousand likes. Still, these things mean little if they don’t bring in any conversions.

At the end of the day, you want your sales and marketing teams to be focused on:

Conversion rates
Repeat sales
Cost per acquisition
Email open rates
Return on ad spend

Though other metrics can be useful, you want to focus on the ones that tell you if your funnel is doing its job. Work with an agency with a solid track record to build a funnel that boosts all the right numbers.

Ready to Funnel Leads Like a Pro?

Whether it’s the first time you’ve ever heard of a funnel or you simply want some clarity in the one you have, give these ideas a try. If you want to avoid the trial-and-error of refining your funnel yourself, give the experts at Author Digital a call. Our multidisciplinary team can help you look at your funnel from all angles, guiding you towards a solid pattern of success through simple, results-driven journeys.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

How SEO and Web Development Work Together to Drive Business Growth

Many businesses see SEO and web development as two buzzwords that seem to orbit in completely different galaxies—one tied to keywords and content, the other revolving around code and other technical nuts and bolts. But when you break it down, both work towards the same goal: helping your website perform better and bring in more customers.

When it comes to search engine optimisation, it’s all about making sure your website shows up when people search online for the terms that are closely related to it. It covers things like choosing the right keywords, writing helpful content, and making sure your pages are easy for both users and search engines to understand.

Web development, on the other hand, is the behind-the-scenes work that brings your website to life. It handles things like your site’s structure, loading speed, design, and functionality—all the elements that make your site usable and enjoyable, rather than just visible.

At the end of the day, you can’t optimise what’s broken, and you can’t convert traffic if the site is clunky or confusing. Any successful website will have both SEO and web development working in smooth harmony. Want to know even more about how and why they make such beautiful music together? Let’s get into it.

Performance and Page Speed Directly Affect Rankings

Ever clicked on a site that took forever to load, then gave up and closed the tab? Google doesn’t like that either. A slow website is frustrating for users and sends all the wrong signals to search engines, which can hurt your chances of ranking well.

Lots of different factors can influence page loading speed: how big your images are, how efficient your code is, how fast your servers respond, and more. This is where web developers come in, whether you employ them in-house or work with third-party web development services. They can optimise your site’s performance by compressing images, minimising scripts, and cleaning up the code. Once they’re all done, you’ll get a faster, smoother experience that keeps visitors on your site longer and improves your standing in search results.

Mobile Responsiveness Is a Must, Not a Maybe

More people browse on their phones than ever before, so your website has to look and work just as well on a tiny screen as it does on a desktop. If buttons are too small, text is hard to read, or pages don’t load properly on mobile, visitors are likely to bounce. In turn, Google will definitely notice the negative user experience your site is bringing and bump your search rankings down. This is because they’ve taken a mobile-first indexing approach in recent years, so they’ll always assess the mobile version of your site before the desktop one.

A developer can build you a layout that adapts well to all screen sizes and devices. SEO strategy, meanwhile, will make sure that the mobile content is just as relevant and user-friendly as the desktop version. Together, they’ll get your site up and running for the modern web in no time flat.

Clean Code Helps Search Engines Understand Your Site

Even the smartest search engines will still need help understanding what’s on your website. That’s why you can’t skip out on clean, well-structured code. If your site’s HTML is messy or inconsistent, it can confuse search engines and make it harder for your pages to rank correctly.

Proper use of things like header tags (H1, H2, etc.), alt text for images, and structured data helps search engines scan your content efficiently and interpret it correctly. A good developer will make sure these elements are implemented correctly, while SEO best practices ensure that your website is using them in meaningful ways. It’s a quiet collaboration that can make a big difference to your visibility online.

Technical SEO Needs Developer Support

The parts of SEO happening behind the scenes are just as important as those you can see working upfront. Aspects like setting up XML sitemaps, configuring your robots.txt file, implementing canonical tags, or adding structured data all help search engines crawl and understand your site more effectively. These aren’t tasks you can usually tick off in a content management system without a bit of technical know-how.

That’s where your web developer becomes your best friend. They can properly set up and maintain all these back-end elements for you, so you’re not accidentally blocking important pages from search engines or sending mixed signals about your site structure. It’s not glamorous work, but you need it if you want your SEO strategy to actually get results.

Good UX Means Better Engagement (and SEO)

If visitors land on your site and don’t know where to go, they’re unlikely to stick around no matter how good your content is. A confusing layout, broken links, or cluttered navigation will just send users heading for the exit. And when that happens, your bounce rate goes up… and your rankings can go down.

Search engines pay attention to how people interact with your site. A clean design and intuitive, logical navigation encourage people to explore and engage. While developers focus on creating a smooth, functional user experience, your SEO strategy should make the content clear, relevant, and easy to find. The result? Visitors who are happy to spend extended amounts of time on your site and also more likely to take action while they’re there.

A strong website isn’t built by code or keywords alone. When SEO and web development work together, you’ll get a site that performs, attracts, and converts like a dream. We at Author Digital think every business should benefit from the perfect synergy of these two key elements, and we’d be glad to make that happen for you. Reach out to us for top-tier advice and attentive service today!

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

How to Optimise Your Website for Local SEO and Google Maps Ranking

If you’ve ever Googled something like “best fish and chips near me,” then you’ve already seen local SEO in action. Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is all about helping businesses appear in search results when people are looking for products or services in a specific area. One key part of this is how your business shows up on Google Maps—because let’s face it, if you’re not on the map (literally), there’s a good chance your potential customers will end up taking their business somewhere else.

Getting noticed locally isn’t just a nice bonus—it can help your business make big waves in your local community. Small businesses in particular need strong local SEO and good placement on Google Maps to keep foot traffic steady from day to day. You’ll also find that people are often ready to take action when searching locally. After all, they’re always happy to book a service they need, visit an interesting-looking shop, or make a quick decision on where to eat. When you make your business easy to find online and ensure it leaves a reliable impression when it pops up, you’re already ahead of a good chunk of the competition.

So, what can you actually do to improve your visibility in local search results and on Google Maps? The good news is that you don’t need to be a tech wizard to get results. This feature will walk you through some practical, no-fuss tips to help your website and business stand out where it matters most—right in your own backyard.

Create Localised Website Content

While there’s no need to mention your suburb five times on every page, weaving in local references can work wonders for your rankings. Creating content that reflects your neighbourhood, your city, or the areas you serve tells Google that your business is rooted in a real location—and that’s exactly what local searchers are looking for.

Think of it this way: New Zealand cities each have their own character, so it only makes sense for Auckland digital marketing content to differ from the content that businesses in Dunedin and other parts of the country produce. Try writing blog posts about local events, customer stories, or services. Even simple tweaks—like naming the suburb on your homepage or having location-specific landing pages—can help. Just keep it natural. You’re not trying to trick search engines; you’re helping them understand where you operate and who you’re for.

Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile

Imagine walking past a shop with no signage, no opening hours, and no suggestion of what’s inside. You’d probably keep moving, right? The same logic applies online, as you can basically think of your Google Business Profile as your digital shopfront. Claiming it is step one in making sure people actually find you, and know what to expect when they do.

Once you’ve claimed your profile, filling it out with correct and complete information is going to do wonders for your online presence. Choose the most accurate business category, add your location, phone number, and website, and upload high-quality images that reflect your brand. It’s also a good idea to use the “Posts” feature to share updates, promotions, or events. A well-maintained profile helps you show up in local results and signals to Google that your business is active and trustworthy.

Ensure Your NAP Information Is Consistent Everywhere

Say you run a business named “Joe’s Bakery,” but one listing shows you as ‘Joes Bakery Ltd’ and another as ‘Joes Bakery’. These variations might seem really minor, but even tiny inconsistencies in your business information can damage your local search credibility. If your name, address, or phone number (also commonly known as NAP information) is even slightly different across multiple platforms, search engines might not realise it’s all the same business.

Quick audits of the places where your business appears online are always a good idea, just to stay on the safe side. It’s well worth it to go over your website, social media, local directories, and anywhere else you’ve been listed. You want your NAP info to match exactly, right down to abbreviations and punctuation. The more consistent you are, the more legit you’ll look to Google. In the process, you’ll also keep potential customers from getting confused—or worse, lost.

Get Backlinks from Local Sites

Backlinks—other websites linking to yours—act like online votes of confidence. But when those links come from local sources, they’re even more valuable for improving your local search ranking. It tells Google that your business matters not only generally but specifically in your area.

The good thing is that you don’t need a viral campaign just to get noticed. You can start by reaching out to local bloggers, collaborating with community groups, or getting involved in events where your business could be mentioned. Even sponsoring a neighbourhood sports team or charity drive could earn you a link from their website. No matter what kind of business you run, it’s always worth it to build local connections both on and offline.

Collect and Respond to Reviews

A glowing five-star review can do more than boost your ego—it can bump up your rankings too. Google values businesses with regular, authentic reviews because they show that customers trust and are happy to engage with these companies. The more genuine feedback you receive, the more credible you appear in local search results.

Given this, there’s no shame at all in encouraging happy customers to leave a review, maybe through a follow-up email or a friendly sign at the counter. Just as important: respond to those reviews, good or bad. People will appreciate it if you thank them for their kind words, and even more if you address complaints calmly and constructively. It shows you’re paying attention and that you’re the kind of business that people want to support.

When you make it easier for customers to find and trust your business, you’re paving the way for them to have a good experience and stick around for more. Need a hand getting your foot in the door on Google Maps? We at Author Digital would love to give you a hand. Let’s talk about how our digital marketing services can help make your business a community mainstay both online and on the streets.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

Key Tips to Strengthen Your Brand Identity Through Consistent Web Design

While “good” web design can include many things, consistency is the one thing it should always have. Online businesses these days typically operate over multiple channels, including their own e-commerce site, third-party marketplaces, and possibly even dedicated mobile apps. No matter where your business is, your customers must always be able to recognise it at a glance.

Without consistency, it becomes significantly harder for your customers to trust you. Not necessarily because they think you’re sketchy but because they simply don’t understand what to make of you when they see you. Once every landing page, call to action, social media profile, and touchpoint is aligned with your visual brand, you can expect your credibility and conversions to improve.

Let’s be clear — maintaining consistency across your entire online presence isn’t easy. Setting your brand apart in all the right ways requires finesse and an intimate understanding of your market. If you primarily deal with a domestic audience, engaging with web design services in New Zealand can give you better results than more generic solutions.

That said, once you’ve got the right people, it’s time to get down to business. Let’s break down some key ways you can use consistent web design to strengthen your brand.

1. Start With Your Story and Brand Values

Before you fix your web design, you need to have a solid definition of what your brand is all about. This may mean revisiting your brand’s story and its reasons for existing. If your business has been around a while, you’ll also need to look at what your customers feel about your business. Once you’ve fully defined your brand, making the right web design decisions will become so much easier.

2. Create a Visual Identity System

Your logo, colours, icons, and other visual elements should form a defined system. They should never be just a random mix of things you fancy. Pick consistent shapes, styles, and layout patterns across all your online and offline assets so that you can build and maintain a familiar user experience wherever you go.

These elements can’t be just “close enough” either. For instance, you want to use the exact same colours and font systems across your entire brand, not just things that look similar. All these choices must be compiled into a brand guidelines document, and any updates should be intentional. This brings us to our next tip.

3. Be Intentional With Your Brand Fonts and Colours

Fonts and colours are more than aesthetic choices, since they can also evoke very specific emotions. What’s more, fonts and colours are front and centre in your copy and web design, possibly even more than your logos.

As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to choose a small set of colours and fonts and use them consistently. Work with experienced designers so that your choices pass readability and accessibility tests that won’t get in the way of your conversions.

4. Use Repetition Without Being Repetitive

The goal here is to build “visual familiarity” without being dull or fatiguing your audience. We already mentioned using the same fonts and colours, but this also applies to other visual elements that you might use online. Keeping consistent patterns, iconography, or layout blocks can make different parts of your site feel connected, which ultimately builds recognition and trust in your brand.

5. Develop a Copy Writing Style That Matches Your Visual Design

Copywriting and visual design must be able to fit like a glove. At the most basic, your web copy should avoid the dreaded “wall-of-text” effect commonly seen on amateur websites. When in doubt, go with clear, concise copy and a tone that matches your visual elements’ personality.

6. Prioritise the Typical User Experience (UX)

If you have a traditional brick-and-mortar business, building your brand identity can be a straightforward affair. People might walk into your shop and buy something just because it looks nice or the ambience seems right. Online businesses, however, have slightly different concerns. You’ve got a fraction of a second to make an impression before a visitor clicks off to your competitor.

While you do want a good-looking site, it’s best to first focus on proven UX elements like site speed, navigation, and CTAs. Consistency in these areas avoids frustration, makes things easier to find, and creates a sense of comfort, boosting both trust and conversions. At the end of the day, no one ever complained about a website being “too easy to use.”

7. Design With Mobile Responsiveness in Mind

While websites are usually designed and coded on desktops, most users access them over mobile devices. Even in cases where customers convert over desktop, chances are they first found and explored the site over their mobile devices. Knowing that, make sure your site design adjusts elegantly to different screens so that it maintains consistent visuals and performance. If you also have a mobile app, the user interface and visual design should also be fully aligned with your web experience.

We’ll Make Your Brand’s Pieces Fit—From Logo to Landing Page

Brand identities are more than just logos or standard sets of colours. If businesses were people, brand identities would be their personalities. As with real people, personalities matter a great deal for everything from making good first impressions to owning a conversation.

Of course, brand identities often need to do much more. They need to convince people to hand over their money. Not an easy feat when there are now millions of other businesses trying to do the same. Bring the technical aspects of web design to the mix and things start to get really dicey.

Author Digital can help you overcome these challenges, leaving you with a brand identity and web design language that works for your business and its customers. We build systems that fuse design, strategy, and performance, so your leads don’t just admire your website, they turn into loyal brand advocates. Contact our team to discuss what’s next in your branding and web design journeys.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Developing a Digital Marketing Strategy

The internet is now the place to be when it comes to contemporary marketing. Most of today’s consumers will be shopping and interacting with brands online before they ever set foot in a physical store. This means businesses have everything to gain from meeting and interacting with their audience in digital spaces, no matter how big their brand is or what they might be selling.

You can’t just pull an effective campaign out of a hat, however. You’ll need a sound digital marketing strategy to ensure that your marketing initiatives reach the right audience—and, moreover, that they spark enough interest in your offerings to actually generate sales. The trick to achieving this? Figuring out just what works (and what doesn’t!) for companies today.

We’re all about helping all kinds of businesses reach, and even exceed, their digital marketing goals. Read on for a rundown of some common digital marketing mistakes and how to avoid them like an expert.

Not Putting Enough Effort into Website Design

Imagine what it might be like to run a physical store. No matter what you might be selling, you’ll always draw in more customers with a fresh, eye-catching display rather than a drab and dull one. By the same token, you want your website to capture and hold the attention of those who visit it. Users who don’t enjoy the experience they have when they get there will generally not hesitate to leave in favour of a competing brand.

A well-designed website needs to be as functional and user-friendly as it is appealing to look at. Plan out a simple, logical navigational structure with clear call-to-action buttons and well-organised menus. Take steps to boost your loading speed, such as compressing large elements like images and videos. Lastly, make sure that the elements on your page are scalable to a variety of different screen sizes, so your site performs just as well on a mobile device as it does on a desktop computer.

Skipping Out on SEO Optimisation

According to Search Engine Journal, 93% of online experiences originate on search engines. They’re the go-to tool for pretty much everyone when it comes to finding any kind of information, so you definitely want your content to rank highly on people’s search results. The more visible you are on search engines, the more organic traffic you can draw toward your brand online.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) needs to play a major role in your digital marketing strategy if it doesn’t already. The first thing you need to do is get savvy with keyword research. Investigate what queries your audience is sending to search engines about your brand, your industry, and your competitors. Then integrate these keywords into your website and social media so that your brand appears more prominently in searches for those terms.

It’s worth noting that SEO is a rapidly evolving and frequently unpredictable field. Keeping abreast of research and updates from SEO authorities can ensure that you’re always implementing current best practices. Alternatively, we are more than happy to take the SEO reins for you.

Overlooking Content Marketing

Many businesses overlook blogging because it doesn’t show immediate results—but trust us, they’re worth the wait. The truth is that blogging is a long game with plenty of benefits for businesses that choose to be patient with it. It’s not just a way to drive traffic; blogging builds your brand’s personality and helps you become the go-to expert in your field. It also gives you more chances to interact with your audience and cultivate more personal relationships with them.

Consistency and a commitment to quality content are your keys to blogging effectively. Keep your blog updated regularly so your audience has more chances to find you. But on the flipside, don’t rush to throw up updates just for the sake of posting something. Take time to create quality content that your audience will both enjoy and be able to use. How-to guides, product recommendations, or thinkpieces on topics relevant to your industry could all work for these purposes.

Failing to Maintain a Strong Social Media

Most people today spend a lot of time on social media, but it would surprise you to find out how many practically live there. A recent study by WebFX, in fact, reports that the average internet user is on their chosen social network for as much as 28% of their total online time. This means that establishing a prominent presence on your audience’s favourite platforms can only work to your business’s advantage. Fail to do so and you’ll lose out on major opportunities to connect with your current customers and potentially reach out to new ones.

Before all else, you’ll need to find out which social media sites your customers favour and set up a page for your business there. Once your profile’s up, get posting! Share content regularly to keep people coming back for more. You may also want to invest in social media advertising if you want to level up your strategy even more. Social media advertising lets you appear prominently on users’ newsfeeds if you have specific content or offerings that fit their interests.

Investing Too Much in Paid Ads

Paid advertising is a popular digital marketing tactic for the quick traffic it generates. Be aware, though, that spending too much on it without a well-defined strategy can lead to diminishing returns and wasted resources. You need to take time to regularly optimise your campaigns, or else your business may keep spending on underperforming ads that use ineffective messaging or target the wrong audience. You also run the risk of tiring out your audience if you bombard them relentlessly with the same ads.

The key to using paid ads effectively? Balance them with organic tactics like social media engagement, content marketing, and SEO. Focusing on customer retention strategies and diversified advertising channels are also good ways to achieve a balanced marketing mix and pave the way for sustainable growth.

Digital marketing can feel like a minefield, but get clued up and you’ll avoid most of the big mistakes. Want to take your marketing efforts to the next level and shine your brightest online? Let’s work together to make sure you get the results you deserve. Contact us today and we’ll provide you with personalised advice on how to make the most of your every campaign.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

5 Tips for Getting Quality Backlinks to Your Website for Better SEO Performance

Backlinks are like votes of confidence for your website. The more you’ve got from trusted sites, the higher your SEO ranking will climb. These links, which serve as a cornerstone of search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns, figure heavily in driving targeted traffic to a website and determining its domain authority and rank.

The act of backlinking refers to the process of placing hyperlinks on other websites with the goal of directing users to your website. These inbound links tell Google that your content is worth linking to. In addition, getting an established website’s endorsement can help your brand gain credibility and consumer trust. This, in turn, can keep your website the top-of-mind option for organisations and individuals that require your products, services, or niche knowledge.

How is Backlinking Done?

A trusted SEO services provider can lean on several strategies to offer businesses like yours high-quality backlinks. As part of our bespoke SEO campaign for your New Zealand- or Australia-based business, for example, we can employ the following techniques to acquire backlinks and ensure that these efforts translate to tangible benefits for your organisation.

Focus on Creating Quality Content That Other Websites Will Want to Link To

Create content that people actually want to link to. Not just any content, but stuff that answers burning questions or solves a problem that your readers have. That’s how you’ll earn those valuable backlinks.

Articles, ebooks, infographics, or videos that answer common questions or offer expert insights can serve as reliable sources that readers and other content creators will want to link back to. Adding a hyperlink from their website to yours lets these users show where they got their information. It also serves as a recommendation on where to get similar content. This gives your organisation the added benefit of building a reputation as a leader in your field.

More than easy access to insider knowledge, you need to understand what your readers need to provide them with engaging and useful content. Identify the content format that is best suited for delivering the information you want to impart. If website visitors want to understand how a certain product is processed before it’s ready for the market, for example, you can post a guide that tackles every step. In case they want to use the said guide as a reference for their own articles, these readers can post a hyperlink on their websites that leads to yours.

Write Articles for Reputable Websites with Deep Connections in Your Industry

Getting your content featured on a respected site in your field? That’s gold for SEO. It’s a win-win for everyone, too, as your article helps the said website’s audience, and you get a valuable backlink in return. Using this strategy means posting an article, one with an inbound link to your website, on another person or organisation’s website. The benefit goes both ways since you can get a link from a trusted website, while the website can post a high-quality article that offers in-depth knowledge to its respective audience.

Identify Broken Links on Other Websites and Fix Them

It’s possible that a portion of the existing backlinks to your website no longer work as intended. This can happen when a linked page on your website has been deleted or its URL structure has changed without proper redirection. Users who click on these links are directed to an error page instead of finding your website, which can subsequently dampen their experience.

The good news is that it’s possible to fix these broken links and make them work again. First, you need to identify them by using a tool like Ahrefs that can scan your website for such irregularities. Then, you can reach out to the owners of the websites where these broken links are posted and work together to fix the issue. This partnership allows webmasters to improve user experience on their website, while your website can regain endorsements from authoritative sources.

Offer to Write Testimonials and Reviews for Products and Services Your Business Uses

Not all backlinking techniques need to be resource-intensive. Don’t underestimate the power of a well-written review. Share your thoughts on products you use and post these reviews online. This is an easy win for backlinks, plus it’s a great way to build relationships with other businesses.

Many business websites feature testimonials from their current and former clients. Take this chance to build better relationships with other businesses and get backlinks from reputable websites. Post an honest review, and make sure to focus the write-up on the products or services that your business uses. You can add the link to your website in your by-line or include it in the body of the review.

Participate in Collaborative Projects That Can Be Linked Back to Your Website

Being an active participant in industry events such as case studies, webinars, or even charity activities can make it easier for your businesses to find opportunities for backlinking. Collaborating with companies that complement what your brand offers allows you to reach a shared audience. At the same time, you’ll have the opportunity to include backlinks to your website on the promotional materials for the event.

Partner with Author Digital and Maximise the Benefits of Quality Backlinks

We know that getting the right backlinks is more important than getting loads of them. Our bespoke digital marketing agency in New Zealand makes it a point to obtain backlinks from industry-specific websites or those that are closely related to your company’s niche. This signals to search engines that your content is highly relevant and valuable to that particular field, thus improving your chances of appearing in related searches and reaching an audience that is specifically interested in what your business has to offer.

Let’s work together to widen your brand’s reach. Get in touch with us today by leaving a message on our contact page.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

5 UX Elements That Can Significantly Improve Your Website’s User Experience

User experience (UX) is a term that describes how the end user of a product or service interacts with and perceives it. Most assume that UX mostly has to do with user-friendliness, but it actually extends beyond that. At its core, UX doesn’t just shape how users interact with your site but also how they feel about your brand overall.

Almost all customers today will seek out a business’s website first if they’d like to learn more about it or browse its offerings. These individuals will, without a doubt, be expecting a superior user experience. Good UX in the context of websites typically has to do with how easy it is for users to navigate through the site, find information, and complete any other tasks they seek to accomplish during their visit. Online environments that feel memorable, legitimate, and secure to users also indicate effective UX. This is especially true if the website contains an online store or otherwise requires visitors to share sensitive personal information with the company.

One of the best ways to optimise UX design for your business’s website is to invest in professional web design services from a reputable third-party organisation like us. Our team is not only highly skilled and attentive to the unique needs of every client we work with, but we also pride ourselves on our familiarity with current industry best practices. In this feature, we’ll walk you through some key elements that can enhance user experience on your website:

Optimised Loading Speed

Customers in the digital age have better things to do than wait around for a page to fully load. People expect instant access and will bounce without a second thought if your site takes too long. Lots of research backs this up—just a five-second delay can send your bounce rate skyrocketing by over 20%, according to Section.io.

Fortunately, there are many relatively simple ways to boost your page speed, such as using caching techniques and minimising the code and markup on your web pages—a process known as “minification.” Large images are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to a slow-loading web page, so make sure to compress all the images you intend to use on your site before loading them on.

Intuitive Navigation

Your website’s navigation system is one of the pillars of its overall user experience, so it needs to be easy to figure out. As a rule of thumb, you want to help users accomplish anything they set out to do on your website in as few clicks as possible. That might be looking up specific information, making a purchase, getting in touch with your support team, or anything else.

Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes and ask yourself what they’re here for. Once you know that, you can make it easy for them to get stuff done. Make sure that the vocabulary you use in your labels and headings especially is both appropriately descriptive and familiar to the user, so they don’t have a hard time understanding which options to choose to get where they need to go. Don’t hesitate to spend time trying out different navigation options and testing these with real users before committing to one particular scheme.

Appropriate White Space

Packing your pages with too much content is like shouting at your visitors. Give them some breathing room. It’s better to incorporate enough white space around your text and titles, as this actually makes it easier for users to focus. You’ll end up with fresh, modern-looking pages that your visitors will surely enjoy browsing.

Of course, it’s also possible to have too much of a good thing. Aim for a balanced approach where all the most important information your viewers need to know is above the fold—that is, in the upper part of the page that they can immediately see without scrolling. You can then surround that information with white space to highlight the text and any supplementary images.

Mobile-Responsive Design

Everyone’s glued to their phones these days, so your site needs to look and perform like a dream on every kind of screen–not just desktops. In fact, it’s safe to assume that a large chunk of the traffic your website gets will be coming from mobile users! Responsive layouts, big, easily clickable buttons, and text that users can easily read without zooming in are all must-have elements for a mobile-friendly site.

Properly Differentiated Hyperlinks

Besides your main menus and section headings, users will probably be finding their way around your website through hyperlinks—clickable links embedded within the written content on your webpages. Make sure to use visual cues that make these links easy to identify, such as underlined text or differently colored text. Most content management platforms, for instance, will readily default to the blue underlined text as a clickable link, so it may benefit you to stick to this convention. Just make sure not to cluster too many links together, as this makes it harder to click them, particularly for users on mobile.

Now that you know a little more about what goes into effective UX design for websites, it’s time to work on getting your own up to snuff. We help businesses of all sizes craft websites people actually enjoy using. Let’s chat about how we can do the same for you.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

10 Important Reasons Why Website Maintenance Is Crucial for Your Business

There’s no getting around it. Website maintenance can be incredibly tedious. For many businesses, this is reason enough for site maintenance to take a backseat to other activities. Given their labour limitations, this is often the case with microbusinesses and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). However, it’s also surprisingly pervasive among larger businesses.

No matter the size of the business, it’s not uncommon for decision-makers to see site updates as overwhelming or irrelevant, especially if they have non-technical backgrounds. Even when a business does have an IT team, chances are that they are already too stretched thin, with few resources to space for a proper update.

To be clear, a lack of site updates won’t necessarily make an immediate impact on your business. Rather, what happens is a slow and steady degradation of your business’s online visibility, reputation, and visitor experience. Eventually, you will just find that your business is no longer easily searchable on major search engines, which can significantly hamper your online sales.

In this day and age, the value of a good website isn’t even debatable. Ensuring regular upkeep should no longer be regarded as a technical obligation but, instead, an essential investment in your brand’s success. Below, we’ve prepared several reasons why your site maintenance should never be overlooked. If you’re interested in keeping your site up-to-date, contact us to learn about web development services tailored for New Zealand businesses.

1. Keeps Your Site and Users Safer Against Emerging Cyber Threats

Hackers love outdated websites. Old plugins, expired security certificates, and neglected updates are basically an open invitation. Thanks to the emergence of next-generation generative AI tools, hackers have been able to dramatically step up the volume and sophistication of their attacks, increasing the risk for all businesses. At the bare minimum, you should be regularly installing security updates and performing backups to ensure your website’s data and sensitive customer information remain secure.

2. Enables a More Engaging Visitor Experience

Without periodic maintenance, even the best-built websites will eventually slow down. What’s more, they may also develop broken links and feature outdated content that can further frustrate visitors, especially if you’ve been making undocumented changes to the website, potentially driving them to your competitors. Routine check-ups keep your site running smoothly — so visitors stay, enjoy, and actually want to come back.

3. Helps Your Business Dominate Search Engine Rankings

Human visitors are not the only ones who care about your site’s user experience. Search engines like Google and Bing also send out virtual visitors or ‘bots’ to explore websites so that they can be assessed for relevance and usability. Regular optimisation of your site’s navigation, experience, and content signals to search engines that your site is active and is, therefore, trying to engage with visitors, which can boost your rankings. Without periodic updates, search engines may assume that you’re not particularly interested in organic traffic, which can cause a drop in your search rankings.

4. Enables You to Reach Users Across All Devices

If you still imagine desktops when you think of the internet, it’s time to rethink your assumptions. Not only are the majority of global internet users browsing on mobile devices these days, but there are tens of thousands of different device types with various configurations being used at any given time. Regular maintenance ensures that your site remains accessible across all devices, boosting your brand’s visibility to a wider range of internet users.

5. Avoids Expensive Outages

Old content can be funny…or just plain embarrassing. Keep things fresh so your site always reflects your best. Though daily updates aren’t always necessary, adding a few updates every now and then ensures your website reflects your current offerings and customer needs. Many search engines see regular updates as a good indicator of a healthy website that’s worth updating on their respective search results, so it’s important to keep your content fresh and constantly updated.

7. Increases Conversion Rates

For many businesses, this is what it really comes down to. If your website also functions as an e-commerce channel, consistent maintenance is a must to guarantee the site performance and overall experience needed to turn visitors into paying customers. As mentioned earlier, site performance tends to degrade with time, so you will need frequent maintenance to keep your site converting as designed.

8. Helps Your Site Grown With Your Brand

Whether by design or due to external forces, your business must continuously evolve. As this happens, your website should evolve with it. Regular maintenance sessions provide opportunities to add integrations, design enhancements, and updated branding to reflect your growth. With consistent updates, your site can become a truer representation of your brand, inspiring more confidence in its current and future customers.

9. Avoids Serious Legal Challenges

If you haven’t updated your site in a few years, you might already be violating some laws. Across the world, privacy laws such as NZ’s Privacy Act 2020 are constantly being rolled out, often at short notice and with little fanfare. Regular updates and audits help ensure your site meets the regulatory requirements of all the countries and territories it operates in, safeguarding your business from expensive regulatory fines.

10. Maximises Your Site's Return on Investment

Your website isn’t just a digital placeholder—it’s one of your biggest business assets. Treat it that way. When well-maintained, it can be foundational to your brand’s credibility. Even if visitors don’t convert on your site, its performance can still have an impact on their trust by potentially securing their conversion through other digital and offline channels. Keeping your site tidy and optimised is necessary for protecting its value and ensuring it continues to deliver traffic, leads, and sales.

Author Digital Offers Web Maintenance Services That Moves Your Business Forward

Website maintenance is more than just keeping the lights on—it’s about showing you care about your business and your customers. It shows that your business cares about its impact and, by extension, its customers. Investing in site maintenance is just as much an investment in your credibility as keeping your physical stores and offices clean.

The real challenge, though, is ensuring that your maintenance activities consistently support your business goals. We specialise in helping businesses like yours surmount their digital marketing challenges, not just through big actions like site redesigns and rebranding but also through critical but overlooked activities like consistent and comprehensive web maintenance. Whether you just need someone to implement security updates or need thoughtfully crafted content to push your business in a new direction, we’re ready for the task.

Get in touch with us and explore our extensive client portfolio. Let’s talk about how we can support your website maintenance needs. We can handle the technical details and anything else you need so you can focus on shaping your business’s narrative and its long-term growth.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director

SEO and Paid Advertising: The Winning Combination for Digital Marketing Success

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about getting your content to rank higher in search results—think Google, Bing, or even internal searches on Amazon and Facebook. Nail your SEO, and you’ll boost your brand’s visibility, attract better leads, and reduce your reliance on paid ads. Not bad, right? Tailoring your content to appeal to search engines can increase your brand’s baseline web visibility, which minimises the need for paid ads while also attracting more qualified leads.

SEO works, but here’s the catch—it takes time. Especially for things like link building, which can feel like digital networking on hard mode. Results are also dependent on how search engine owners choose to develop their products. This could mean that it takes several months of consistent work before your campaigns produce any fruit. What’s more, there may be short-term dips and spikes in traffic as the search engine makes algorithmic changes in the background.

Why Pair SEO With Paid Ads?

In contrast to SEO, paid ads are far simpler. All it boils down to is to pay the search engine their asking rate for a keyword, and they will put your content on top of the search results. This simplicity is probably why so many businesses gravitate towards paid ads rather than SEO.

The catch? Paid ads only work as long as your budget does. If your content isn’t pulling its weight, those gains vanish the moment you stop paying. If your content isn’t optimised for its audience, most of your advertising gains will disappear as soon as you stop paying. And with the value of global digital marketing activities likely to hit USD 1 trillion by the 2030s, you can be sure that the cost to be seen is only going to keep increasing over time.

Fortunately, you can make a paid ad campaign sustainable with relatively modest investments in SEO. Properly executed SEO bolsters paid advertising by improving quality scores, enhancing your business’s credibility across a wider audience, and reducing costs for PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. Better still, it may enable you to preserve some of your gains from paid ads.

Simply put, SEO and paid advertisements amplify each other to maximise your brand exposure. Let’s explore key ways this winning combination works for digital marketing efforts.

1. Better Contextualised Keyword Strategies

Think of paid ads as your SEO testing ground. The data they generate tells you which keywords work best—so you can fine-tune your SEO strategy and get better results long-term. PPC campaigns can help you rapidly identify which keywords drive the most conversions for your business, allowing you to integrate these findings into your SEO strategy without delay. This way, as your content draws in more organic traffic, you can start reducing your reliance on paid ads over time.

2. Heightened Brand Visibility and Authority

These days, many users understand that businesses can simply pay to be on the top paid search results. While paid ads might still help boost your business’s credibility, there is a limit to just how much they can do. On the other hand, if you earn your visibility through SEO, users will think that your site is more relevant than its competitors since search engines often prioritise positive user experiences.

Combining organic and paid visibility helps take customer trust to a different level, putting your brand in front of more potential customers regardless of the specific keywords they use. This is highly desirable, as research ties consistent, multichannel messaging with authority and conversions. SEO + PPC is a dream team for product launches, seasonal campaigns, and any time you need to grab attention—fast.

3. Better Customer Retention and Retargeting

SEO helps attract first-time visitors to your website through high-value content. However, not all first-time visitors who have good conversion potential will necessarily understand your value proposition the first time around. This is where paid ads can help.

You can leverage paid ads to quickly retarget leads who have already visited your website. These ads can be tailored to match the behaviour of these customers, keeping your business on top of their mind and increasing the odds of a later conversion. This kind of integration ensures no potential customer is left behind.

4. Improved Quality Scores for Ads

Even if you’re paying, Google still judges your ads. A high-quality score means lower costs and better ad placements—so good SEO actually makes your paid ads cheaper.

As you might have guessed, proper SEO implementation plays an important role in improving ad quality scores. When your website’s content and keywords are well-optimised, it tells search engines that your landing page provides a valuable user experience, resulting in better scores, lower CPCs, and a much more sustainable paid ad campaign. In this way, investing in SEO can also be seen as a way to reduce the often steep cost of paid online advertising.

Transform Your Online Presence With Smarter Digital Marketing

As digital marketing becomes more complex, it’s easy to lose sight of how different strategies work together. SEO and paid ads aren’t competing strategies—they’re two sides of the same marketing coin. Combining the two can help your business achieve greater visibility and authority without the need to seriously ramp up your marketing budget.

Getting the balance right takes skill. Whether you’re fine-tuning your SEO, launching killer ad campaigns, or doing both, having an expert team makes all the difference. Contact us today to start building your digital success story.

A note

Henry Blackwell

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director