# VC Marketing (UK) --- ## Pages - [Dental SEO Services](https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists__trashed/services): Complete 360 range of SEO services that ensure that your dental practice is found on the first page of Google. - [Local SEO LP](https://vcm.co.uk/local-seo-lp): We deliver local SEO that works every time Just to prove we can deliver the SEO services you want, we are offering the First Month completely free of - [test](https://vcm.co.uk/test): Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? - [For Dentists 15.11.24](https://vcm.co.uk/for-dentists-15-11-24): Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your dental practice?Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) - [Case studies](https://vcm.co.uk/case-studies): Our marketing case studies Our clients have doubled their traffic with our successful content marketing service. Successful SEO for 46+ dentists Dental - [test](https://vcm.co.uk/test-2): View this post on Instagram A post shared by VCM Marketing (@vanilla.circus) - [Mobile App Development](https://vcm.co.uk/mobile-app-development): Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? - [Best Dental Marketing - Paid](https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing-paid): Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - [Best Dental Marketing - Free](https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing-free): Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - [Ash](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/ash): If you've been searching for "SEO for businesses" or "digital marketing near me," you've just found a team that delivers. - [Reigate](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/reigate): If you've been searching for "affordable SEO services Surrey" or "SEO website responsive design," you've just found a team that delivers. - [Ashford](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/ashford): Finding customers online in Ashford isn't about luck — it's about strategy. At VCM, we focus on building long-term digital success for local businesses. - [Caterham](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/caterham): We focus on building long-term digital success for local businesses by delivering high-impact SEO and marketing - [Sunbury](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/sunbury): Our all-in-one packages include everything you need to grow online. Start by seeing where you currently stand with a free marketing audit. - [Woking](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/woking): Searching for "the best SEO agency" that works with businesses, big and small, that can help boost your digital presence with no fuss? - [Camberley](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/camberley): We're a no-fuss SEO and content marketing agency that works with all Camberley businesses regardless of size or budget. - [Epsom](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/epsom): Epsom SEO and marketing company Free onboarding for Surrey companies. Fixed prices. Fully transparent. Proven to work. - [Byfleet](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/byfleet): VCM is an accredited SEO and content marketing agency that works with all Byfleet businesses, regardless of size or budget. - [Redhill](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/redhill): At VCM, we help local companies like yours connect with real people searching for your services through SEO and social media. - [Egham](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/egham): We're not just another SEO agency. We're a diverse team based nearby who get your goals, speak your language & deliver marketing that works - [Horley](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/horley): We're a clever team based nearby in Surrey who get your goals, speak your language, and deliver marketing that works. - [Walton](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/walton): If you've been searching for "SEO content services" or "digital marketing near me," you've just found a team that delivers. - [Guildford](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/guildford): Looking for SEO in GU1? VCM is a leading SEO provider and content marketing agency close to Guildford (just 10 minutes away). - [Surrey](https://vcm.co.uk/surrey): Boost your online presence with expert digital marketing services in Surrey. SEO, PPC, social media & more to grow your local business. - [Best Dental Marketing](https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing): Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - [Dental Marketing - 24.03.25](https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing-24-03-25): Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - [Earn Attention](https://vcm.co.uk/earn-attention): Stop buying attention - earn it. VCM helps brands achieve long-term growth through SEO, social media, and traditional marketing. - [Earn Trust](https://vcm.co.uk/earn-trust): Trust is earned through honest marketing. VCM helps businesses build trust, attract super customers, and drive long-term growth. - [Super Customers](https://vcm.co.uk/super-customers): Super customers are loyal, pay on time, and champion your brand. VCM helps you attract and retain valuable customers through trust-driven marketing. - [Google Analysis](https://vcm.co.uk/consultant/google-analysis): Our Google Analytics experts will set up, initialise and report on your key peformance metrics each and every month. - [Metric tracking and reporting](https://vcm.co.uk/consultant/reporting): We take great pride in our marketing reports, which include the work completed to the smallest detail and current results and metrics. - [Training Courses](https://vcm.co.uk/seo/training-courses): Digital Marketing Courses in Surrey, covering all aspects of online marketing including SEO. Taught by people currently working in the industry. - [privacy-policy](https://vcm.co.uk/privacy-policy): VCM Privacy Protecting your private information is our priority. This Privacy Policy governs data collection and usage of the products, services and - [Advertising](https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing/dental-advertising): Online adverts are the most ignored form of advertising that has ever been invented. Here's what you need to do in the long term. - [Consultancy](https://vcm.co.uk/consultant): Consultancy is more than just giving advice. A senior SEO consultant is Benedict. He is well known in the industry has been used many companies both large and small. - [Dental Marketing](https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing): Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - [Copywriting](https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting): From strategy to content plans, VCM are experienced copywriters in the digital world where everyone is saying look at me. - [Content Plans](https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting/content-strategy/planning): Content plans are a flexible roadmap that allows both the client's team and VCM to collaborate successfully. - [SEO Content Writing](https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting/website/seo-content-writing): We have literally thousands of client’s webpages the rank on the first page of Google for a number of very different keywords. - [Design Services](https://vcm.co.uk/design-services): VCM are skilled at translating our clients call messages and products into both words, designs, graphics and infographics and of course video. - [Digital Marketing](https://vcm.co.uk/digital-marketing): VCM are a full-service digital marketing agency. We can ensure that your digital marketing has a clear strategy and plan. - [Landing Pages](https://vcm.co.uk/conversion/landing-pages): A regular web page encourages visitors to engage and explore your products and a landing page is to convince a user to take action. - [SEO](https://vcm.co.uk/seo): If we cannot rank your website number one on Google then we believe no one can. We've had success across every industry. - [Content Marketing](https://vcm.co.uk/content-marketing): VCM has a team of copywriters, designers and marketeers who create the right types of engaging content for the right platforms. - [Email Marketing](https://vcm.co.uk/digital-marketing/email): Email marketing when used correctly can be hugely successful. It is always a question of interesting the recipient without being intrusive. - [SEO Audit](https://vcm.co.uk/seo-audit): All our SEO Audits are carried out by humans with experience in identifying where websites can be improved to gain a higher Google position. - [Blog](https://vcm.co.uk/blog): Marketing Blogs Latest news, information and marketing advice for all industries - [SEO Packages | Monthly Affordably Priced SEO | UK](https://vcm.co.uk/seo-packages): Our fully inclusive SEO Packages include all the ingredients for Google ranking success. Our proven formula is based on 18 years of ranking sites #1. - [80 New Patients Per Month Package](https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/costs/80-new-patients-per-month-package): Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 80+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - [50 New Patients Per Month Package](https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/50-new-patients-per-month-package): Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 50+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - [30 New Patients Per Month Package](https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/costs/30-new-patients-per-month-package): Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 30+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - [Invisalign](https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing-lp): “Our dental marketing strategy shows potential patients why your practice is the right choice & gets them to make appointments.” Powered by Advanced SEO. - [Free Offer](https://vcm.co.uk/free-offer): Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your business?Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) has - [Contact VC](https://vcm.co.uk/contact-vc): Contact VCM Please use the form below to contact us. We usually get back to you the same day. Kick start your marketing Call 01483 921741 - [About](https://vcm.co.uk/about): About VCM Ltd Our clients have full access to a passionate and diverse team with years of experience in their fields, making our company the go-to for all - [Home](https://vcm.co.uk/): Digitial Marketing is about securing the right customers; being famous with the right audience that buy your products and reward your business with long term loyalty. --- ## Posts - [Best Simple SEO Fixes Any UK Small Business Can Do in 2026](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/best-simple-seo-fixes-any-uk-small-business-can-do-in-2026): If you have had your fill of watching endless 'how to SEO your website' YouTube videos and Podcasts, then perhaps this blog can help. - [Setting up a Dependable localhost](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/setting-up-a-dependable-localhost): Windows computers don’t nativly process PHP files so a few tricks are required to allow working on them as if using a web server. Once setup you can use - [Buy Now! Pay Later What does this really tell us about paid media platforms and mobile?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/buy-now-pay-later): Another day, another new media product! Well, it’s only available in the US, but it’s still exciting for us on this side of the pond. X (Twitter) has - [How I Made My Link Removal Process 5x Faster](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-i-made-my-backlink-removal-process-5x-faster): If you are unlucky enough to be faced with the mundane soul-destroying task that is link removal, fear not! For I have found the remedy. We spent quite - [How to develop a Professional PPC re brand strategy (and survive)](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-develop-a-professional-ppc-re-brand-strategy-and-survive): As you know we have recently re-branded as . While the design team were beavering away at the website, it fell to me as Group Head of PPC to develop our - [Improved Helpful LESS resources list](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/improved-helpful-less-resources-list): Previously, in one of my front-end development projects based on the Bootstrap framework, I encountered and made use of an awesome tool called LESS. If - [Query deserves freshness (QDF) in practice](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/query-deserves-freshness-qdf-in-practice): Search engine & informational retrieval technologies have come a long way yet they are still in their infancy, particularly when it comes to sentiment - [Lifetime Google: Your New Magic 8 Ball](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/lifetime-google-your-new-magic-8-ball): I personally have found that over the last few years, Google searches are changing. Users aren’t typing in search terms anymore. They’re typing in - [Is Programmatic OOH Advertsing Still Relevant?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/is-programmatic-ooh-advertsing-still-relevant): We’ve all seen Minority Report and wondered whether this (scarily) personalised out-of-home advertising is possible. Clear Channel, one of the largest - [Enhanced – The Great Campaign Robbery](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/enhanced-great-campaign-robbery): Google celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bruce Reynolds and Ronnie Biggs’ mastermind 1963 Train Robbery by pulling off a stunt of their own. The Plan - [Proven Conversion Tracking For Your Accurate ROI](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/proven-conversion-tracking-for-your-accurate-roi): It’s every PPC manager’s worst nightmare finding an account that doesn’t have any form of conversion tracking. No matter how small the daily / monthly - [The Essential Blog on How much technical debt can you afford?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-essential-blog-on-how-much-technical-debt-can-you-afford): Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve compromise on the quality of your work or service to get things done faster? If that compromise entails higher - [Official: How the UK government and Google will watch you](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/official-how-the-uk-government-and-google-will-watch-you): Social media is all about large-scale perception and memetic engineering. In fact, any marketer or SEO consultant who doesn’t understand the importance of - [Are Calculated Metrics They Way Forward Or Back?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/are-calculated-metrics-they-way-forward-or-back): A few days ago, Google Analytics announced it was introducing ‘calculated metrics’. When we got chatting about this in a planning meeting recently, half - [Can Ethical Art, Data, Technology and Digital Marketing Converge?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/can-ethical-art-data-technology-and-digital-marketing-converge): There are two very cool art exhibitions coming up that I’m excited about, because both are doing very interesting things with digital data and technology - [How to Write an Effective Lifetime Press Release](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-write-an-effective-lifetime-press-release): Grabbing - and retaining - a publisher’s attention is tough. As marketers, once we’ve decided something’s newsworthy the hardest part can be persuading - [Excellent Data-led content strategies on Steroids](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/excellent-data-led-content-strategies-on-steroids): In this post, I will share an overview of the methodology I use to conduct competitive research that enables me to create insightful and data-led content - [Will Conversational Ads Actually Create Conversation?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/will-conversational-ads-actually-create-conversation): So, X (Twitter) have released a beta for Conversational Ads. But what is a Conversational Ad? And will it create conversation between a brand and its - [The New Essential Beginner’s Guide to E-Commerce SEO](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-new-essential-beginners-guide-to-e-commerce-seo): E-commerce SEO E-Commerce is lucrative and the best route to take if you're considering digital marketing. However, as easy as it is to make money from a - [As recommended by Mental Health Awareness Week](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/as-recommended-by-mental-health-awareness-week): Protect your mental health online Mental Health Awareness Week The growth of social media over the last decade has established a new medium for human - [Exclusive New Year’s Resolutions for Your Website in 2026](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/exclusive-new-years-resolutions-for-your-website-in-2026): If you are one of those people who spend the first month of the New Year twiddling your thumbs, because business is slow. Well now is the ideal time to - [What is Expert local SEO and why do I need it?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-expert-local-seo-and-why-do-i-need-it): Well, depending on what type of business you are in, you are not needed at all. See businesses that work with local SEO. Local SEO differs from normal or - [Moneyback Accounts, Campaigns, And Ad groups](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/moneyback-accounts-campaigns-and-ad-groups): In our previous blogs, I have provided small tutorials on linking your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account and vice versa. This month, I - [Scientifically proven Body language of a website - is there such a thing?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/scientifically-proven-body-language-of-a-website-is-there-such-a-thing): I attended a great talk about the importance of body language in business and life in general. She reminded me that over 60% of the way we perceive - [Tested & Correct GA4 Configuration](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/tested-correct-ga4-configuration): There are many instances where you might need to implement GA4 Configuration tracking in your Flash or Flex project. A while back I integrated Google - [Advantages of Understanding The Value Of Social](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/advantages-of-understanding-the-value-of-social): “Dear shareholders, I’m pleased to announced that our X (Twitter) followers have increased by 15%”, said no CEO ever. Marketers know, and have known for a - [Extraordinary Studies show Instagram Is Right for Your Business](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/extraordinary-studies-show-instagram-is-right-for-your-business): With over 700 million users, it’s a great time for your business to start using Instagram! This guide outlines exactly how you can ensure to get the most - [The Most Important On-Page Factors for Local SEO](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-most-important-on-page-factors-for-local-seo): There are many reasons as to why on page optimisation rings true now as much as it did at any other time, especially for local rankings where we aren’t - [Show Expertise when optmising your company blog](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/show-expertise-when-optmising-your-company-blog): Posting regular, well-optimised blog content is a great way to increase your Google search rankings, making your website more visible to searches and in - [What is Worldwide social commerce?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-worldwide-social-commerce): What is social commerce? You may have adopted social media for your business and started your journey into social media marketing?You may be well on your - [What’s in a word: Analysing the Perfect Anchor Text](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/whats-in-a-word-analysing-the-perfect-anchor-text): A lot of the algorithm looks at your backlink profile - links from external sites pointing to yours, and particularly focuses on the anchor text (the - [Your Family run Business Should Have a Digital Marketing Agency Like VCM](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/your-family-run-business-should-have-a-digital-marketing-agency-like-vcm): 4 Reasons your business should have an online marketing strategy With 90% of UK adults online, it comes as no surprise that digital marketing spend is set - [Wise Answers to speed up the time it takes for your SEO to be successful](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/wise-answers-to-speed-up-the-time-it-takes-for-your-seo-to-be-successful): One of the great debates we have heard for years is how long search engine optimization takes to work? Well, in short, it depends. - [Top 3 SEO Trends & Features According to Experts](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/top-3-seo-trends-features-according-to-experts): Part One: Reflecting on the SEO trends of 2020 While Google makes hundreds of changes to it’s search algorithms every year, the vast majority of changes - [10 Fun Facts about Facebook](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/10-fun-facts-about-facebook): 10 Fun facts about Facebook As the third most visited website in the world, Facebook is arguably the most successful social network of all time. To honour - [Writing Authentic Content for your Website](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/writing-authentic-content-for-your-website): Summary: Tips and ideas on writing content for your website. Writing content for your website is never easy. Companies and, in particular, small - [5 Incredible Benefits of Blogging for Your Business](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/5-incredible-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-business): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [More Feedback Please: Help Me Get In Touch With A Blogger](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/more-feedback-please-help-me-get-in-touch-with-a-blogger): Possible bloggers reaction* when asked for a free link *Not really There are many ways to get in touch with bloggers, some more successful than others and - [Your SEO Campaign Will Fail Without These Essential First 3 Months Tasks](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/your-seo-campaign-will-fail-without-these-essential-tasks): Is your SEO not working as fast as you would like? We have created a first 90-day checklist to help. Adapt and use as you please. - [6 Approved Laws for Social Media Success](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/6-approved-laws-for-social-media-success): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Fully Reverse Engineering Your Competitor's Social/Content Strategy](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/fully-reverse-engineering-your-competitors-social-content-strategy): The key points that I would like to stress upon are as follows: Content is not king, it is king-maker. Creating shareable and compelling content is - [Instagram Allows Schedule Posts](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/instagram-now-allows-businesses-to-schedule-posts): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Genius Way of Structuring your Google Ads account](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/genius-way-of-structuring-your-google-ads-account): When it comes to structuring your Google Ads account, you may think the account/campaign/ad group layout is confusing, but it’s really quite simple and - [Researched SEO Tip For 2025](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/researched-seo-tip-for-2025): Insert Random Image to Signify Success In The Search Rankings Google has come out fighting in 2022 with Penguin, copious amount of Panda Updates and - [Honest Advice On How to Create Great Email Marketing Content](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/honest-advice-on-how-to-create-great-email-marketing-content): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/should-you-worry-about-your-bounce-rate): Should you worry about your bounce rate? As digital marketers, we check our client’s Google Analytics regularly and treat it as a routine ‘health check’ - [5 Incredible Things You Didn't Know About WordPress!](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/5-incredible-things-you-didnt-know-about-wordpress): We love WP.It’s our CMS of choice for its flexibility, support, ease of use and its bundle of awesome features. If you’re not a veteran WordPress user (or - [Your Business Should Have a Blog](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/10-reasons-why-your-business-should-have-a-blog): 10 reasons why your business should have a blog Blogs are known to be the interactive hub of your website as it delivers numerous benefits that you can’t - [A Trustworthy Marketing Manager’s Guide to Better Results with Six Sigma Principles](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/a-trustworthy-marketing-managers-guide-to-better-results-with-six-sigma-principles): As you’ll know, Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for improving a process. It was formally introduced to the world of manufacturing in the 1980s, - [Landing Pages That Drive Over 200% More Leads Guaranteed](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/landing-pages-that-drive-over-200-more-leads-guaranteed): With this post I am going to kick start a series of blog posts on human psychology, consumer behaviour and marketing from a digital media perspective. You - [Introducing Trust Words Within Content And How to Use Them Effectively](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/introducing-trust-words-within-content-and-how-to-use-them-effectively): Words tell stories, and the right trust words tell Google a lot about your business and how it should be ranked. - [Independent Bloggers And Best-selling Publishers, will they be here in 2026](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/independent-bloggers-and-best-selling-publishers-will-they-be-here-in-2026): For many, The Independent’s decision to move towards becoming a pure digital publisher wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Print circulation has been in a - [What Is The Difference Between Data Mining And Ai](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-data-mining-and-ai): Humans have always relied on using as much information as possible before deciding. However, in the past couple of decades the internet has dramatically - [Why not only the best designers should get excited about web font tech](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-not-only-the-best-designers-should-get-excited-about-web-font-tech): Web typography has progressed fantastically over recent years. With the support of OpenType features growing and responsive fonts being developed, we are - [7 Tips to Consider When Using Old School Leaflet Dropping](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/7-tips-to-consider-when-using-old-school-leaflet-dropping): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [The Trending Names In SEO and Marketing in 2025](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-trending-names-in-seo-and-marketing-in-2025): Here are the relevant names (in no rankable order) to listen to when optimising and improving your website's SEO. - [Inclusive Adwords Acronyms, Abbreviations & Definitions](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/inclusive-adwords-acronyms-abbreviations-definitions): When I started studying Adwords, my poor underdeveloped brain simply could not remember all the jargon. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) the only occasion when - [Reliable Marketing tips for Instagram](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/reliable-marketing-tips-for-instagram): Marketing tips for Instagram Already killing it with your business on Facebook & Twitter? And now considering starting up an Instagram account? Here - [Typography & Where it all Began](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/typography-where-it-all-begun): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [What You Need to Know About Social Media](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/3-things-you-actually-need-to-know-about-social-media): 3 things you actually need to know about social media Whether you're managing your own social media channels, or you have a fabulous social media manager - [Our Best selling Social Media Training Courses](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/our-approved-social-media-training-courses): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Instagram advertising A beginner’s guide](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/instagram-advertising-a-beginner-s-guide): Instagram advertising A beginner’s guide If you’re not utilising Instagram ads, you should be.Businesses of all shapes and sizes flourish thanks to - [Six of the biggest Wed Design Mistakes to avoid 2025](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/six-of-the-biggest-wed-design-mistakes-to-avoid): 6 WEBSITE DESIGN MISTAKES TO AVOID in 2025… …AND AN OPPORTUNITY AT THE END FOR YOU TO RANT! Whether you are creating a website for business or personal - [How to Reduce the Bounce Rate of Your Website](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-reduce-the-bounce-rate-of-your-website): How to reduce the bounce rate of your website Is your website’s bounce rate high? That can indicate that your website is not converting your visitors to - [What is the famous 7 Point SEO Process](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-famous-7-point-seo-process): SEO is a process of hurrying up and waiting. Our work in one month will not show results until the following month. - [Case study on How Digital Marketing Grows Small Businesses](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/case-study-on-how-digital-marketing-grows-small-businesses): Use digital marketing to grow your small business Digital marketing influences what we talk about, what we buy, where we visit and how we work, and - [What Colours to Choose for Your Brand?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/ever-wondered-what-colours-to-choose-when-branding-your-business): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Benefit from the creative skills of a copywriting agency, but without the agency baggage!](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/benefit-from-the-creative-skills-of-a-copywriting-agency-but-without-the-agency-baggage): Benefit from the creative skills of a copywriting agency, but without the agency baggage! VCM takes a unique approach to deliver powerful, effective - [RankBrain Just Smashed Your Content Plan To Pieces, Right?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/rankbrain-just-smashed-your-content-plan-to-pieces-right): Every day Google responds to billions of searches. Most of these searches are repeats, where Google has solid experience on what is the best result. But - [Google Hoaxes - That time of Year](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-hoaxes-that-time-of-year): So we are just over a days away from April Fool’s, and many people in Google have probably spent the past couple weeks thinking up some jokes of - [Effective website copywriting demands a clever approach](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/website-copywriting-service): Effective website copywriting demands a clever approach “Combining creativity with cleverness is secret of a great website copywriter.” It’s essential to - [A strategic SEO website edit is one of the most effective ways to propel your site’s visibility](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-website-edit-is-one-of-the-most-effective-ways-to-propel-your-sites-visibility): A strategic SEO website edit is one of the most effective ways to propel your site’s visibility “Within 3 weeks my ranking for my main keywords had gone - [Migrate A WordPress Site To A New Domain and Hosting Without The Fuss](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/migrate-a-wordpress-site-to-a-new-domain-and-hosting-without-the-fuss): Moving a WordPress site to a new domain may seem daunting, but follow the steps below and you’ll be up and running in no time. The instructions below will - [Do You Still Believe that You Don't Need a](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/still-don-t-think-your-business-needs-a-website): Still don't think your business needs a website? As a digital agency, one thing we've discovered whilst networking is that many small businesses - - [Social Media on your Smartphone](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-take-top-notch-shots-for-social-media-on-your-smartphone): How to take top-notch shots for social media on your smartphone A picture paints a thousand words, which is why visual content consistently performs - [SEO Checklist for Fresh Content in 2025](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-checklist-for-fresh-content): SEO Checklist for Fresh Content in 2025 There are many techniques you can endorse in order to have your websites content favoured by Google’s web - [Why Regular Brainstoring Is An SEO Must To Keep Focus](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-regular-brainstoring-is-an-seo-must-to-keep-focus): Ever month we strive to improve on last month's content and on and off page optimisation. It is a time of new ideas and team motivation. - [Guide to Understanding Important SEO Concepts](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/digital-reflow-s-guide-to-understanding-important-seo-concepts): VCM's Guide to Understanding Important SEO Concepts SEO can be a minefield, so having an understanding of particular SEO concepts helps you better - [Google Analytics 360 First For Business Data](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-analytics-360-first-for-business-data): Google’s Analytics 360 Suite announces itself as an enterprise analytics/advertising solution for a multi-screen world. But it’s the potential it brings - [Quick Guide to Identifying Your Competitor's AB Tests](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/quick-guide-to-identifying-your-competitors-ab-tests): Conversion optimisation is an important and fruitful part of digital marketing. It is an area of digital marketing that I am passionate about as it brings - [Tap into Our knowledge as a straight-talking SEO consultants.](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-consultancy-services): Tap into our knowledge as a straight-talking SEO consultant. We are based in London but cover all of Surrey, London, and the surrounding areas. “SEO - [Is Cool Music in the workplace a Good Idea?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/is-cool-music-in-the-workplace-a-good-idea): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Learn the new Google Ranking Factors 2025-6](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/learn-the-new-google-ranking-factors): GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS 2023 There are over 200 known Google ranking factors that affect your SEO performance. So many of these are not known to us as - [Faqs On How Content marketing For SEO Differs From Social Media](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/faqs-on-how-content-marketing-for-seo-differs-from-social-media): Content marketing for SEO, for clients in London, Surrey and beyond. “If good content is published on a website but nobody is reading it, is it still good - [Local SEO or Local Google Ads](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/local-seo-or-local-google-ads): Today we’re going to be having a look at something that, in my eyes, is always underrated: ‘Local adverts’ - Appealing to people’s heightened interest in - [Do Social Media Influencers Really Influence?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/do-social-media-influencers-really-influence): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Identify, define, and track key metrics Doing Measurement Frameworks Right](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/identify-define-and-track-key-metrics-doing-measurement-frameworks-right): What is a measurement framework? Not all metrics were created equal. While the number of pages viewed by users could be considered critically important - [Hands-on Guide To How to Appoint a Marketing Agency](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/hands-on-guide-to-how-to-appoint-a-marketing-agency): 3 things to think about before appointing a marketing agency When running a small business, you can be so focused on the day-to-day tasks of getting - [Stay Safe on Social Media](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/staying-safe-on-social-media): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [The Follower Number Means Nothing](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-follower-number-means-nothing): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Why are Reviews so Important for your Business](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-are-reviews-so-important-for-your-business): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Top 3 Predictions for SEO trends](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/top-3-predictions-for-seo-trends): Part Two: VCM’s Top 3 Predictions for SEO trends in 2025 In our previous blog we looked back at some of the SEO trends that we focused on in 2020, but as - [Where has whitehat SEO Gone?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/where-has-whitehat-seo-gone): Search Engine Optimisation takes many forms, from quality content marketing to outright spam and everything in between. It can be tempting to fall for - [Why Was My Reconsideration Request Rejected?](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/reconsideration-request-rejected): If you happen to be amongst the many that have been hit with an unnatural links notice, it’s highly likely that you have experienced a range of emotions - [A Day In The Life Of A Professional Copywriter](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-professional-copywriter): Get to know our... Copywriting Martha... she is the one to go to for all your requirements regarding pricing and is looking forward to taking VCM to the - [An Outstanding X (Twitter) Guide for Small UK Businesses](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/an-outstanding-x-twitter-guide-for-businesses): What is X Really ? In short, The lifeblood of X (Twitter) is ‘Tweets’. These short messages (up to 140 characters long) are quick to write, read and - [Improved Office Tools to Make Your Business Run Smoothly](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/improved-office-tools-to-make-your-business-run-smoothly): Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - [Meet Our Passionate freelance copywriters covering Surrey, London and beyond.](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/meet-our-passionate-freelance-copywriters): Passionate freelance copywriters covering Surrey, London and beyond. With over 18 years’ professional copywriting experience in corporate, freelance, - [Google And Its Love Hate Relationship With Backlinks](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-and-its-love-hate-relationship-with-backlinks): Thanks to Patrick Stox, who attended the recent Search Marketing Conference in Bulgaria, we now know some important information for SEO. - [Video Marketing Is The Fastest Growing Channel In The UK](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/video-marketing-is-the-fastest-growing-channel-in-the-uk): Getting the formula right for video marketing is essential, especially if you want to keep customers engaged. - [The New LinkedIn Feature](https://vcm.co.uk/blog/have-you-heard-about-the-new-linkedin-feature): Have you heard about the new LinkedIn feature? LinkedIn has finally caught up with other social platforms, by introducing the use of hashtags. For others --- # # Detailed Content ## Pages > Complete 360 range of SEO services that ensure that your dental practice is found on the first page of Google. - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists__trashed/services Dental SEO services See you practice on the first page of Google Gain attention from the right type of patient. Gain traffic for more profitable treatments. Convert more users into patients Elevate your practice's online presence Over the last 18 years we have developed a complete 360 range of SEO services that ensure that your dental practice is found on the first page of Google for both local patients and for more complex cases where patients are prepared to travel. Save time using one company: from web design to updates, from copywriting to backlinks. Full range of SEO services Dental Keyword Research We have studied dental keywords and advanced dental technology for 18+ years and regularly analyse Google Trends to see how patients react. For example, there has been a recent revolution in bonding. Other keywords we target include treatments, issues (yellow teeth), and FAQs like 'Is Invisalign worth it? '. SEO Content Creation VCM are professional dental and medical copywriters, who don't need to be briefed on the rules. We believe our knowledge and skill far exceed your average TCO. Evidence of our success and determination to produce the best content for our clients is on the first page of Google for over 71% of dental keywords. See here for confirmation. Competitor Research We know lots of people in dentistry. We are also familiar with the BACD and the GDC. We regularly read both news online and receive copies of Dentistry. We have also joined the mailing list of... --- > We deliver local SEO that works every time Just to prove we can deliver the SEO services you want, we are offering the First Month completely free of - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/local-seo-lp We deliver local SEO that works every time Just to prove we can deliver the SEO services you want, we are offering the First Month completely free of charge. Prices from £995 pmBelong to a group of valued clients who use digital marketing to promote their businesses locally. Get SEO Quote First month is completely free of charge. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *TelephoneEmail *Website / URL *Number of Locations (approx) *1 - 101 - 1011 - 2021 - 3031 - 4041 - 6060+So we can quote. Number of Keywords (approx) *1 - 101 - 1011 - 2021 - 3031 - 4041 - 6060+So we can quote. GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit Since 2007, VC has managed 620+ local search campaigns. We take great pride in delivering on any size campaign & any keyword, anywhere. 17+ Years in business 620+ UK projects 4. 2 Years retention rate What you receive A 100+ years of SEO experience & bespoke SEO strategy. Large increase in local search traffic month-on-month. Dramatically improved local keyword visibility. Outrank your local competition & stand out from the digital crowd. Monthly pages and blogs that instantly inform and sell your services or products. Seamless UX, flawless mobile experiences, enhanced online credibility. What you don't get... Old ideas Bad advice Poor content Unrealistic promises Unclear pricing Poor Focus What we do instead Keep... --- > Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/test Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? Effective Copywriting for Local SEO If your content is boring, then no one will buy from it. One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen. See Prices Provide a great page experience If your content is boring, then no one will buy from it. As Google becomes more interactive and uses AI and its host of data, it also has a better idea of what type of content is uninspiring and which content deserves to be ranked #1 in its index. Google tells exactly what they expect on their webpage here. However, Google does not use search engine optimisation to sell its products. Google does not have to write copy in 15 different ways to describe the same service. Focus on people-first contentI'd be very surprised if anyone in Google wrote content with a keyword in mind. Google's content only needs to inform the user of what Google is trying to communicate. Unlike Google who can write what they wish, every page we create has to in some way sell our client's products. It also must be professionally optimised. The pages must rank for the keyword and the location above the competition on the first page of Google or it has failed. It must always have keywords in mind as it needs to generate search traffic. It must intelligently inform and in under two seconds explain exactly what products or services we are selling. Prices £X Full Access To The Gym One... --- > Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your dental practice?Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/for-dentists-15-11-24 Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your dental practice? Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) specialises in dental SEO. We know our underbites from our Invisalign Pro. We have created a free 30-day trial of all our SEO Services worth £1000 and lasting 30 days. Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your dental practice? Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) specialises in dental SEO. We know our underbites from our Invisalign Pro. We have created a free 30-day trial of all our SEO Services worth £1000 and lasting 30 days. Is this what you want? Your website to rank #1 on Google. To generate more traffic & sales from organic search. Experienced SEO company that delivers results, not excuses. Measurable Metrics & Crystal clear reporting Your free trial will deliver all of the above & save you £1,000 Try before you buy offer Here is what's included for free within 30 days. All we ask is if we impress you, you consider us moving forward. Sound fair? Task Value Level Website audit and meeting to discuss your practice SEO and choose target keywords and content focus £120 Consultant We write a plan for new dental content, blogs, backlinks, and email for sign-off £60 Consultant We write 2 new dental blog posts and email them to the client to sign off £130 Copywriter... --- > Our marketing case studies Our clients have doubled their traffic with our successful content marketing service. Successful SEO for 46+ dentists Dental - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/case-studies Our marketing case studies Our clients have doubled their traffic with our successful content marketing service. Successful SEO for 46+ dentists Dental case studies Having worked for 46+ dentists, we have some impressive stats under our belt. Explore some of them below: 2,042 keywords on page 1 Month-on-month traffic increases every month of 2024. Read more 1900% increase in traffic In 4 years, we’ve gone from 1,000 users to 30,000+ Read more 1. 44m+ visitors over 5 years Highest organic search traffic for a dentist in the UK. READ MORE 1,219% traffic increase 80% of the site’s traffic from organic search. Read more Five-figure users every month 2-year ongoing SEO project that increased buying traffic by 122% Read more Organic search up by 169. 51% 9 month project to rank #1 for major dental keywords Read more Starter SEO for ne practice Project included web design, branding, marketing support and local SEO. READ MORE 1st page Invisalign Costs Clinic's first ever investment into SEO and saw impressive results quickly Read more From 300 users to thousands 491% increase in organic search traffic in 7 months Read more 82. 99% increase in total traffic Improving the website's rankings with only 10 hours of SEO per month Read more Ranking site for "orthodontist London" 12 month's SEO resulting in 472% more traffic 103% increase in organic search 72. 77% increase in total traffic for receding gums READ MORE Dental SEO Results Clients we've taken on in the last 12 months New dental... --- > View this post on Instagram A post shared by VCM Marketing (@vanilla.circus) - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/test-2 View this post on Instagram A post shared by VCM Marketing (@vanilla. circus) --- > Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? - Published: 2025-09-10 - Modified: 2025-09-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/mobile-app-development Why hire an internal IT person, when you can have an entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost? Effective Copywriting for Local SEO If your content is boring, then no one will buy from it. As Google becomes more interactive and uses AI and its host of data. See Prices Provide a great page experience If your content is boring, then no one will buy from it. You want your website to appear on the first page of Google for a range of keywords plus location. You want web page copy that ranks above the competition and is both informative and persuasive enough to make a sale. You want more traffic and more local clients. You also want future proofing, planning, advice and someone who knows exactly what they are doing and JUST GETS ON WITH IT. You are in capable hands; we offer the complete Local SEO Service SEO, GBP Optimisation, Copywriting, Web Design, On Page Optimisation, Off page Backlinks, Web Development We have been working on local SEO projects since 2007. Local SEO is about being found by the RIGHT clients in your area who want to buy your products or services, not those who are looking for free advice, a job or something that does not make you money. See the entire process. How we start: a partnership We create a Strategy We start: a partnership Our job is to explain exactly local SEO is, the process, timelines, reporting and how we measure results From you we need to understand your business, your products and your target audience. We need to know what your revenue... --- > Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - Published: 2025-06-09 - Modified: 2025-06-09 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing-paid Many dentists struggle to consistently attract new patients online — is that something you’re seeing too? We can help. Our marketing consultations have worked for dentists just like you since 2009. TWO HOURS CONSULTANCY £360 +VAT Google_"G"_Logo Recommended by 48 dentists Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Google_"G"_Logo Google SEO optimisation & copywriting Social media Facebook & Instagram ETC. B0D439A1-9FF0-4F9C-ACF5-527DEEDA407B Content marketing creating & sharing Who is it with? Google_"G"_Logo Call is with Benedict (Founder) Google_"G"_Logo 18 years dental marketing experience What ge does Google_"G"_Logo I analyze your practices current strategies Google_"G"_Logo I identify areas for improvement Google_"G"_Logo I develop plans to optimize performance Google_"G"_Logo I cover all digital marketing, SEO, paid advertising, content creation, and social media What you get Google_"G"_Logo One hours deep dive into your online presence with competitor comparison Google_"G"_Logo One Hour meeting to discuss findings Google_"G"_Logo Full written report on how to fix problems What it costs Google_"G"_Logo £320 + vat In a two hours, I can undertake a deep dive into your website's SEO, content and social media No hard pitch — just a actional steps to succeed Call is with Benedict (Founder) 17 years dental marketing experience I need to know your current marekting stragegy what is working and I need to know what is working I need to know your goals and targets In 15 minutes I can tell you how your consultancy works Schedule a Time Meet Benedict Digital Marketer since 2004 You need information to make an informed decision about your... --- > Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - Published: 2025-06-02 - Modified: 2025-06-03 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing-free Many dentists struggle to consistently attract new patients online — is that something you’re seeing too? We can help. Our marketing has worked for dentists just like you since 2009. HOW WE CAN HELP Google_"G"_Logo Recommended by 48 dentists Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Google_"G"_Logo Google SEO optimisation & copywriting Social media Facebook & Instagram ETC. B0D439A1-9FF0-4F9C-ACF5-527DEEDA407B Content marketing creating & sharing Latest comments Google_"G"_Logo "Super useful: We signed up immediately" Google_"G"_Logo "He undertood the patients we were trying to attract" Google_"G"_Logo "Ben had a refreshingly new take on SEO" Google_"G"_Logo "Breath of fresh air, he is now working with team" In a quick call, I can walk you through how I helped 48 practices increase new patients by 31% in 6 months No hard pitch — just a helpful conversation Call is with Benedict (Founder) 17 years dental marketing experience Schedule a Time Meet Benedict Digital Marketer since 2004 You need information to make an informed decision about your SEO and social media strategy. I want to demonstrate my 17 years dental marketing experience that can save you time and money. and if we are not right for you, we part as friends... Schedule a Time https://youtu. be/fjnqpioDcd8 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Have worked with Vanilla Circus for 5 years now. Initially with one site and now a second site. They have to come to the rescue to build, and position my new site with suitable ranking on google within months. Ben... --- > If you've been searching for "SEO for businesses" or "digital marketing near me," you've just found a team that delivers. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/ash We work with businesses of all sizes and budgets in ASh With VCM, growth isn't guesswork — it's backed by 18 years experience Google_"G"_Logo First-page rankings around your service Conversion-focused website design Results you can measure Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin We promote Surrey businesses by telling more compelling stories to Google that keep them visible, relevant and profitable We’re locally based in Ripley, SurreyReal, professional offices for face-to-face meetingWe do not wait to work, you can trust us to get on with itWe know what we are doing and need very little directionWe can design and build entirely new websites Trusted by Why use VCM What you can expect in your first 90 days with usHere’s how we’ll work with youA discovery meeting to understand your businessResearch and build a keyword strategy based on your goalsCreate and optimise content for search and conversionTrack everything from clicks to conversionsGet your website ranked locally for every town within 20 mile radiusImprove website design and create conversion-ready landing pagesRewrite and create new copy for your website that ranksCreate multiple graphics that highlight your services and offers Why your traffic will keep growing, month after monthHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which... --- > If you've been searching for "affordable SEO services Surrey" or "SEO website responsive design," you've just found a team that delivers. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/reigate We build websites that drive leads in Reigate, not just interest Our SEO packages include premium content creation and copy written by humans Google_"G"_Logo We are based in Surrey Too Experience in 35+ industries Established since 2007 Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Work with some of the best SEOs in Surrey Locally based in Ripley GU23Professional offices for face-to-face meetingsWe do not wait to work, you can trust us to get on with itWe have done it all before and need little directionWe can design & build entire new websites Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyHow it worksGoal-setting meeting, during which we get to know your business. We listen to your goals and targets. Develop a flexible marketing strategy that can change over time. Benedict, our leading consultant, will lead the meeting and follow up with an initial 90-day plan comprehensive strategy. There is no charge until you sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we’ll beat your competitionWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify content... --- > Finding customers online in Ashford isn't about luck — it's about strategy. At VCM, we focus on building long-term digital success for local businesses. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/ashford No Guesswork. No Outsourcing. Just Pure SEO Expertise. We take responsibility for connecting your SEO, website & social media Google_"G"_Logo 1000s of #1 results No setup fees or mystery charges Pay monthly for your marketing Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Our expert team handles social updates, email campaigns, and online lead generation — all under one roof Trusted by Our copywriters can write about every topic under the sunWe save you time, energy and stressOur clients have stayed with us on average 3. 7 years100 years of collective SEO experience Why use VCM What you can expect in your first 90 days with usHere’s how we’ll work with youWe start with a conversation about your business and your marketWe research the best opportunities for you based on search trends and competitorsOur team creates optimised content and web assets to help you rankWe measure what’s working, improve what’s not, and keep you in the loopYou get regular reports showing what we’ve done and where we’re heading next Why your traffic will keep growing, month after monthHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we out-strategise bigger competitorsWe create... --- > We focus on building long-term digital success for local businesses by delivering high-impact SEO and marketing - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/caterham Help with review generation and reputation management Ready to join the 58 local brands already dominating Google in Caterham? Google_"G"_Logo 1000s of #1 results No setup fees or mystery charges Pay monthly for your marketing Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Celebrating 18 years of proven experience in marketing & SEO Trusted by Team of copywriters, designers and codersNo outsourcing – every aspect completed in-houseFlexible monthly payment plansWe work with businesses of all sizes and budgetsTransparent pricing Why use VCM What you can expect in your first 90 days with usHere’s how we’ll work with youWe start with a conversation about your business and your marketWe research the best opportunities for you based on search trends and competitorsOur team creates optimised content and web assets to help you rankWe measure what’s working, improve what’s not, and keep you in the loopYou get regular reports showing what we’ve done and where we’re heading next Why your traffic will keep growing, month after monthHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we out-strategise bigger competitorsWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify... --- > Our all-in-one packages include everything you need to grow online. Start by seeing where you currently stand with a free marketing audit. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/sunbury packages include freebies like live chat, graphics & social support Over 80% of our clients see measurable results within the first 90 days Google_"G"_Logo 1000s of #1 results No setup fees or mystery charges Pay monthly for your marketing Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin As a small business too, we know exactly how to make the most of your budget Trusted by Our service has been designed to reflect your brand, goals and the transactional terms your customers are searching for. We create a 90-day strategy and a content plan to followWe know which commercial keywords to track and to prioritiseWe analyse your data and adjust and amend our strategyWe can give you up-to-date data and Google positions to track Why use VCM What you can expect in your first 90 days with usHere’s how we’ll work with youWe start with a conversation about your business and your marketWe research the best opportunities for you based on search trends and competitorsOur team creates optimised content and web assets to help you rankWe measure what’s working, improve what’s not, and keep you in the loopYou get regular reports showing what we’ve done and where we’re heading next Why your traffic will keep growing, month after monthHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and... --- > Searching for "the best SEO agency" that works with businesses, big and small, that can help boost your digital presence with no fuss? - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/woking 18 years Experience - 20,112 Page 1 Rankings You have come to the right website to choose the perfect SEO partner in Woking Google_"G"_Logo We cover multiple locations near woking 100 years of collective SEO experience Transparent pricing Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin We helped 57 Surrey & Woking businesses double their website traffic last year Short contract lengths30-day notice, low commitmentPrice to suit all sizes of businessAffordable with unlimited keywordsProfessional copy & content monthly Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyHow it worksA meeting to understand your business. You share your goals—we listen. Create a flexible strategy that adapts as you grow. Benedict, our lead consultant, will guide the session and follow up with a detailed 90-day plan. There’s no cost until you decide to sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Identify your ideal customer. Uncover the best search terms. Create original, high-converting content—no scraped or AI-generated fluff. Build high-authority links, citations, and solid SEO tech to drive momentum. Get anchor text and internal linking right. Fine-tune your site structure and speed for performance. Produce 5–10 blogs or pages each month—fully written, optimised & uploaded. Promote content across channels like social media. How we’ll beat your competitionWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify content gaps. Find new backlink opportunities. Highlight keywords the competition has not discovered. Study their language and words they use. Evaluate their content & frequency... --- > We're a no-fuss SEO and content marketing agency that works with all Camberley businesses regardless of size or budget. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/camberley 98% of camberley clients gave us five stars. == We build strategies that boost profits month on month Google_"G"_Logo Double your traffic & enquiries Experience in 35+ industries Strategy, content, design & SEO Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin We specialise in helping Camberley businesses dominate local search Save time by using our expert resourcesTransparent reporting every monthKnow exactly what we are doing & whyClear KPIS to measure resultsWe’re hands-on from day one Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyHow it worksA meeting to understand your business. You share your goals—we listen. Create a flexible strategy that adapts as you grow. Benedict, our lead consultant, will guide the session and follow up with a detailed 90-day plan. There’s no cost until you decide to sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Identify your ideal customer. Uncover the best search terms. Create original, high-converting content—no scraped or AI-generated fluff. Build high-authority links, citations, and solid SEO tech to drive momentum. Get anchor text and internal linking right. Fine-tune your site structure and speed for performance. Produce 5–10 blogs or pages each month—fully written, optimised & uploaded. Promote content across channels like social media. How we’ll beat your competitionWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify content gaps. Find new backlink opportunities. Highlight keywords the competition has not discovered. Study their language and words they use. Evaluate their content & frequency of posting. How... --- > Epsom SEO and marketing company Free onboarding for Surrey companies. Fixed prices. Fully transparent. Proven to work. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/epsom We Take Over. We Optimise. We Outrank. Imagine seeing your business at the top of search in Epsom Google_"G"_Logo We are based in Surrey Too Experience in 35+ industries Delivering great outcomes monthly Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin SEO that actually delivers - ask any of our 200+ clients We get on with work with very little directionClients never limited by number of keywordsCopywriters proficient in all industriesWe save you time, energy and stress Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyGetting startedWe start with a goal-setting session. You tell us your goals. We listen. We create a flexible strategy that can evolve. Benedict, our lead consultant, runs the meeting. He follows up with a 90-day action plan. No charge until you sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Find your ideal customer and key search terms. Write content that converts and is 100% original. Build high-authority links, citations, and solid SEO tech. Use smart anchor text and internal linking. Optimise your site structure and content. We create 5–10 blogs or pages each month. We upload, optimise, and promote them across channels like social media. How we’ll beat your competitionOutrank your competitorsWe build a better site than your competition—Google takes notice. Find content gaps they’ve missed. Uncover backlink opportunities they haven’t used. Target keywords they haven’t discovered yet. We study their language, content, posting habits, and more—so you stay ahead. How we’ll increase your website trafficDrive real resultsWe start with... --- > VCM is an accredited SEO and content marketing agency that works with all Byfleet businesses, regardless of size or budget. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/byfleet We work with 25 companies every month Websites we look after have traffic in the 1000s in Byfleet Google_"G"_Logo 1000s of Page 1 Rankings From SMEs to large enterprises Celebrating 18 years of proven experience Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin We keep up with Google algorithm changes so you don’t have to Quick to respond, even quicker to deliver resultsStrategy, content, design and SEO—all under one roofEverything we do is measurable, trackable and accountableWe’re hands-on from day oneWe’ve fixed, rescued and reimagined hundreds of websites Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyGetting startedWe start with a goal-setting session. You tell us your goals. We listen. We create a flexible strategy that can evolve. Benedict, our lead consultant, runs the meeting. He follows up with a 90-day action plan. No charge until you sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Find your ideal customer and key search terms. Write content that converts and is 100% original. Build high-authority links, citations, and solid SEO tech. Use smart anchor text and internal linking. Optimise your site structure and content. We create 5–10 blogs or pages each month. We upload, optimise, and promote them across channels like social media. How we’ll beat your competitionOutrank your competitorsWe build a better site than your competition—Google takes notice. Find content gaps they’ve missed. Uncover backlink opportunities they haven’t used. Target keywords they haven’t discovered yet. We study their language, content, posting habits, and more—so you stay... --- > At VCM, we help local companies like yours connect with real people searching for your services through SEO and social media. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/redhill We know the local market in Redhill well A team of writers, designers, coders and conversion experts available to you monthly Google_"G"_Logo SEO, marketing & socials Clients stay an average of 4 years Roll-on monthly contracts Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin What happens when you trust real experts? More revenue Specific marketing expertise for Surrey audiencesDelivering great outcomes monthlyA different SEO experience from the normTeam of copywriters, designers and codersNo outsourcing – every aspect completed in-houseWe scale traffic without increasing ad spend Trusted by Why Redhill businesses choose & stay with us Benefit from an advanced strategyGetting startedMeeting to understand your business & audienceAudit your current online performanceKeyword research & strategy buildingCreate & optimise content that attracts actionTrack performance, tweak & report — every month How we keep you at the top of GoogleHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we out-strategise bigger competitorsOutrank your competitorsWe build a better site than your competition—Google rewards. Find content gaps they’ve missed. Uncover backlink opportunities they haven’t used. Target keywords they haven’t discovered yet. We study their language, content, posting habits, and more—so you stay ahead What we do... --- > We're not just another SEO agency. We're a diverse team based nearby who get your goals, speak your language & deliver marketing that works - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/egham Using organic search, we can make PPC redundant Proud to say 92% of our clients work with us for over 4 years Google_"G"_Logo SEO that works for Egham and beyond Weekly updates & monthly reviews Pay monthly for your SEO Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Professional SEO. Transparent pricing. Local focus. Based nearby Egham. Easy onboarding, clear reporting, consistent resultsWe treat your business like it’s our ownWe track everything and improve constantlyFlat & transparent pricingNo set-up fees, charges for hosting or images Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyGetting startedMeeting to understand your business & audienceAudit your current online performanceKeyword research & strategy buildingCreate & optimise content that attracts actionTrack performance, tweak & report — every month How we keep you at the top of GoogleHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we out-strategise bigger competitorsOutrank your competitorsWe build a better site than your competition—Google rewards. Find content gaps they’ve missed. Uncover backlink opportunities they haven’t used. Target keywords they haven’t discovered yet. We study their language, content, posting habits, and more—so you stay ahead What we do differently to beat the algorithmDrive... --- > We're a clever team based nearby in Surrey who get your goals, speak your language, and deliver marketing that works. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/horley Your Website is About to Get a Whole Lot Busier Surrey’s go-to SEO team for 2000+ page 1 rankings and counting Google_"G"_Logo SEO that works for Horley and beyond social media, email remarketing, digital strategy Smart website responsive design Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Our service includes ongoing SEO, analytics, weekly updates and monthly meetings First-page rankings for the right search termsConversion-focused website design — built for actionOriginal, on-brand copy and visuals that lastStrategy that leads to results you can measureFree live chat setup to help filter your leadsLooking for pay monthly options? We offer interest-free monthly payment plans that end up paying for themselves. Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyPlan, implement, approve, review and repeatQuick call to understand your business & audienceAudit your current online performanceKeyword research & strategy buildingCreate & optimise content that attracts actionTrack performance, tweak & report — every monthOur process is hands-on and transparent. You’ll always know what’s being done — and what impact it’s making. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Find your ideal customer and key search terms. Write content that converts and is 100% original. Build high-authority links, citations, and solid SEO tech. Use smart anchor text and internal linking. Optimise your site structure and content. We create 5–10 blogs or pages each month. We upload, optimise, and promote them across channels like social media. How we’ll beat your competitionOutrank your competitorsWe build a better site than your competition—Google takes notice.... --- > If you've been searching for "SEO content services" or "digital marketing near me," you've just found a team that delivers. - Published: 2025-05-14 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/walton Join the 74 Local Brands Already Dominating Google in Walton We’ve seen every Google update since 2007 - and mastered all of them Google_"G"_Logo First-page rankings around your service Conversion-focused website design Results you can measure Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin 63% of companies saved money (and energy) after switching What we offer instead: Page one search engine rankings Bespoke, conversion-focused websites and landing pages Superior Marketing Analytics investigation Timeless copy and content tailored to your audience Clear, trackable marketing built around your goals Free human-managed live chat to support and qualify leads Most clients stay with us long-term, not because they have to, but because it works. The average client relationship lasts 4+ years. Trusted by Why use VCM What you can expect in your first 90 days with usHere’s how we’ll work with youSeveral meetings to discuss your business, goals and strategyResearch and build a keyword strategy based on your goalsGetting your website ranked locally for every town within 20 mile radiusImprove website design and create conversion-ready landing pagesRewrite and create new copy for your website that ranksCreate multiple graphics that highlight your services and offers Why your traffic will keep growing, month after monthHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and... --- > Looking for SEO in GU1? VCM is a leading SEO provider and content marketing agency close to Guildford (just 10 minutes away). - Published: 2025-05-13 - Modified: 2025-05-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey/guildford 18 Years in SEO. Zero Fluff. Just Rankings That Matter. We have helped 87 Guildford SMEs Stand Out in Google Google_"G"_Logo Offices in Ripley with 5 full-time staff Team of copywriters, designers and coders Flexible monthly payment plans Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Bespoke marketing strategies that fueled growth in 35 industries Receive a 90-day strategy and a content plan to follow. We know which commercial keywords to track and to prioritise. We analyse data & adjust our strategy as we progress. See up-to-date data and track your Google position. Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyHow it worksGoal-setting meeting to learn your goals and targets. Create an adaptable marketing plan that evolves with your business. Leading SEO consultant, Benedict will lead the meeting and then develop an initial 90-day plan comprehensive strategy. Meeting and proposals are free of charge. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Pinpoint your audience and gather the right search keywords. Produce graphics, copy and blogs that drive conversions. Creating unique copy free from duplication and AI. Build high-authority backlinks, citations, and technical SEO. Ensure proper anchor text and on-site linking. Enhance website architecture and structure. We typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we’ll beat your competitionWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify content gapsIdentify new backlink opporunitiesNew keywords... --- > Boost your online presence with expert digital marketing services in Surrey. SEO, PPC, social media & more to grow your local business. - Published: 2025-05-08 - Modified: 2025-05-16 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/surrey Imagine being inundated with enquiries We’ve Ranked 355 Surrey Businesses on Page 1 of Google Google_"G"_Logo We are based in Surrey Too Experience in 35+ industries Established since 2007 Read More FREE PROPOSAL Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Work with some of the best SEOs in Surrey Locally based in Ripley GU23Professional offices for face-to-face meetingsWe do not wait to work, you can trust us to get on with itWe have done it all before and need little directionWe can design & build entire new websites Trusted by Why use VCM Benefit from an advanced strategyHow it worksGoal-setting meeting, during which we get to know your business. We listen to your goals and targets. Develop a flexible marketing strategy that can change over time. Benedict, our leading consultant, will lead the meeting and follow up with an initial 90-day plan comprehensive strategy. There is no charge until you sign up. How we gain higher Google rankingsHow we rank you #1:Identify your customer and source the core search terms/keywordsCreate conversion-worthy content (no scraped content or AI insight)Build high DA links, citations + SEO tech to power the race. Ensure correct anchor text and internal linkingOptimise site structure and contentWe typically write 5 – 10 blogs and pages every month, which we upload, optimise, and cross-promote on other channels, such as social media. How we’ll beat your competitionWe create a better website than your competitors, which Google rewards with a higher rank. Identify content gapsIdentify new backlink opporunitiesNew keywords that the competition... --- > Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - Published: 2025-04-01 - Modified: 2025-05-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/lp/best-dental-marketing Our marketing has worked for dentists just like you since 2009 Our company uses SEO, social & traditional dental marketing to drive patient growth FREE MARKETING REPORT Google_"G"_Logo Recommended by 48 dentists Facebook Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Google_"G"_Logo Google SEO optimisation & copywriting Social media Facebook & Instagram ETC. B0D439A1-9FF0-4F9C-ACF5-527DEEDA407B Content marketing creating & sharing Try before you buy Free Tailored Practice Marketing Report by A human You need information to make an informed decision about your SEO and social media strategy. We want to demonstrate our 17 years dental marketing experience that can save you time and money. Claim a free report worth £320. 00Written by Benedict (17+ years of experience)Report outlines EXACTLY what is required for your website ranked #1 on Google and enjoy more social media engagement. We will email it to you; if you are interested, great; if not, we part as friends. FREE MARKETING REPORT https://youtu. be/fjnqpioDcd8 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Have worked with Vanilla Circus for 5 years now. Initially with one site and now a second site. They have to come to the rescue to build, and position my new site with suitable ranking on google within months. Ben and Libby are attentive, dealing with requests quickly and effectively, and answering any questions I may have. They grew my website traffic by 3000%. Highly recommend, Ben knows his stuff and will continue to work with them Ali Rifai 2025-05-02 Trustindex verifies that the original source of... --- > Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - Published: 2025-03-24 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing-24-03-25 Become dental famous, our clients win awards Since 2009 we have used both digital & traditional marketing to drive patient growth right here in Surrey. BOOK MY DISCOVERY CALL Making dentists smiles since 2009 Become the best practice locally We ensure your practice stands out on Google and Socials. Boost Revenue Boost Revenue with More Profitable Treatments Treat more patients hire more associates Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. o. Kind words from our dentists Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Have worked with Vanilla Circus for 5 years now. Initially with one site and now a second site. They have to come to the rescue to build, and position my new site with suitable ranking on google within months. Ben and Libby are attentive, dealing with requests quickly and effectively, and answering any questions I may have. They grew my website traffic by 3000%. Highly recommend, Ben knows his stuff and will continue to work with them Ali Rifai 2025-05-02 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Vanilla Circus have been undertaking a top notch service for me for the past couple of years now and my business has benefited as a direct result of their expertise. Thoroughly recommend. Simon Burrage 2025-05-02 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Having worked with vanilla Circus for many years both before and after Covid, ii found their service impeccable, professional and friendly, helping us create and... --- > Stop buying attention - earn it. VCM helps brands achieve long-term growth through SEO, social media, and traditional marketing. - Published: 2025-03-11 - Modified: 2025-05-13 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/earn-attention 1. Earn attention Better content + better SEO Enhance joined up Social Media Deisign & branding that outstrips the competion More sales Earn attention don’t buy it No attention, no web trafficThere are a host of advertising companies that will help you spend your money on Facebook and Google ads. Advertising is a fast way of increasing revenue in the short term. Increase interest in your brand: Get in front of the super-customersBuild for the long-term This is where our concept of earn attention, earn trust, earn super customers comes in. Three ways we earn attention 1. SEO & First Page Rankings We have 18 years’ experience of ranking websites number one in Google. We take your existing copy and website and optimise pages to be Google-super friendly. We optimise both code and words to ensure the website is easily understandable by Googlebot and is rewarded with a position on the first page for all your relevant keywords. We offer the full 360 SEO service from keyword research, technical SEO to on and off page optimisation. Explore 2. Social Media Promotion Social media is introducing your brand to potential super customers and getting noticed by people who fit the profile of your target audience. We want all of our clients to be famous. But we only want to be famous to the thousands who will become super customers. Both social media and SEO need to ensure that your brand has clarity and consistency, which is reflected in both the content on your... --- > Trust is earned through honest marketing. VCM helps businesses build trust, attract super customers, and drive long-term growth. - Published: 2025-03-11 - Modified: 2025-05-13 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/earn-trust 2. Earn Trust Trust in your brand is built on honesty, consistency, accountability, & integrity. Without it web traffic is just missed opportunities. Trust, but verify. Our marketing premise is built on attracting super customers. Super customers are a special type of person who rewards your business with loyalty and repeat business. Super customers' trust has to be earned. Super customers are referral magnets who consistently praise your brand and recommend your company to friends and family. If the reader doesn’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. Be like your customers People are naturally drawn to those who share their values, behaviours, and outlooks To attract super patients who have integrity, you must show honesty, consistency, accountability, and integrity yourself through the marketing of your brand. “Gartner research reveals that 74% of customers expect more from brands, not only in terms of their products and services but also in how they treat them. And 83% of consumers say they will not do business with brands they don’t trust. ”If your web visitor doesn’t trust you, they won’t believe what you’re saying. Free discovery call If the user doesn’t trust you, they won’t convert ever How trust in your business can drive performance Trust is slowly nurtured through a thousand small, consistent pages, blogs and web posts actions that demonstrate professional ability, integrity, and benevolence. Customer trust is the faith that you will deliveryYour website is your ultimate public-facing marketing vehicle. Here, we have to show all of these positive... --- > Super customers are loyal, pay on time, and champion your brand. VCM helps you attract and retain valuable customers through trust-driven marketing. - Published: 2025-03-11 - Modified: 2025-05-13 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/super-customers 3. Super customers All businesses that have survived over five years will likely have some super customers. These are the customers who are a pleasure to do business with. Not only do they pay their bills on time, but they also receive the goods or services with a thank you. What are super customers? VCM has many super customers for whom we are very grateful. You will know your own because they are the ones who say thank you, and your loyal and outside business could be a friend. If customers believe your business is always striving to provide the best buying experience, they’ll act as champions for your brand. Key to long-term business growth How to spot super customer It is not always the amount they spend; it's how they shop. If you are location-based business then the super customer (or a super-patient for doctors and dentists) would be someone who has an affinity with an area. Someone who is has put down roots. It is someone that understands that although nothing is free, they can expect a certain little bit of extra time and effort. They are realistic about prices and budgets. They pay on time. When they have a problem or a complaint, they let you know and give you the space to rectify the problem. They do not buy on price. They value personality and expertise. They are those types of clients who not only asked for advice but are happy to follow recommendations. Good customers... --- > Our Google Analytics experts will set up, initialise and report on your key peformance metrics each and every month. - Published: 2025-03-10 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/consultant/google-analysis Google Analytics Service Initialise and configure GA4 Google Search Console & GTM Set Up E-Commerce Event Tracking Key Event Set Up & Tracking Behavioural Flows & Funnel Visualisation Expert in digital data analysis to take your tracking to the next level Without the right digital tools, set up and data you'll never be able to take your services further - and better data means better decision making. In our two decades of experience, we know that most of the time Google Analytics implementations do not always tell the full story, especially when you want to dive deeper into consumer behaviour and channel performance. That’s why putting experts in charge of your website’s data will not only ensure accurate results and findings, but will most certainly give your business the competitive advantage too. GA4 Experts How we support your practice Once your data is clean and accurate, our experts can uncover insights that drive a real competitive advantage that empowers your company with the right insights to make smarter and better business decisions that fuel and drive ambitious growth. We’ll know everything there is to know about your users, from the devices they prefer to use, to how they move, navigate and behave when on your website. But, we offer more than just demographic reporting. Explore what else is included in our Google Analytics service: GA4 packageAnalytics health check: We’ll audit your current Google Analytics setup to ensure it’s collecting accurate data and reports on relevant metrics. GA4 Strategy & implementation:... --- > We take great pride in our marketing reports, which include the work completed to the smallest detail and current results and metrics. - Published: 2025-03-10 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/consultant/reporting Monthly reporting on key metrics Reporting on our SEO success, total conversions, KPI progress, domain metrics, work carried out that month and next steps. Know exactly what your marketign company has done this month Our end-of-project/month reports also include the next steps what we are planning to achieve in the next work period and, more importantly WHY. Software used in our reportsSERP Rankings (seobook. com)Ahrefs (ahrefs. com)Majestic (majestic. com)Moz (moz. com)Google AnalyticsGoogle Data StudioGoogle Search Console What the report includesList a summary of dates and hours of tasks we completedEvery single optimisation code or content change we madeA record of new content added to the site, blogs and pages, including reasonsA history of successful outreaches for backlinks, including URL, anchor text and written content publishedTraffic/page views (month on month)Google ranking positions improvement (SERPs) with a live feedEngagement rates, return users/unique usersBounce/exit ratesPatient conversion rate/goals (number of sales enquiries)Domain metrics MOZ and Majestic (month on month)GA analysis of user journeyNext steps and plans for next monthsSuggestions and notes Tailored reports for your business The four pillars of our report Your ROI & analytics Our reports demonstrate the progress of the campaign, the ROI and the elements we use that help justify the approach we have taken. Our goal is to help our clients understand our work so they can feel confident in our approach and the effectiveness of our skills. Conversions More excitingly, we report monthly on the total conversions achieved through multiple referral sources, pathways and mediums. When you are... --- > Digital Marketing Courses in Surrey, covering all aspects of online marketing including SEO. Taught by people currently working in the industry. - Published: 2025-03-10 - Modified: 2025-03-26 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo/training-courses SEO training Courses Range of courses and levels offered Remote or office-based learning Groups from 1-8 participants One day courses in Ripley Cheapest training in Surrey Take your SEO in-house Our courses help businesses learn the fundamentals and manage their online marketing better. Learn from SEO specialist, Benedict Sykes. Learn from the Experts Online SEO training courses We offer training to Surrey-based businesses with marketing managers and departments that want brilliant best practices for creating and optimising content for Google and social media. We offer a range of courses, from one-to-one beginner courses to more advanced digital marketing courses aimed at marketing teams with some prior knowledge of digital marketing. Online or in-house, or at your locationTailormade to your teams knowledge level1 – 8 participants1 full day or 5 x 2 hour online lessonsOur training centre is in Ripley near GuildfordOur internal courses, which take place in Guildford, follow a similar format and last between one and three days. Courses begin at 10 o’clock, break for lunch at 1 o’clock, and then finish at 5 o’clock. Free discovery call Guide to our SEO courses What you will learnUnderstand how search engines crawl, index, and rank web pagesHow to write a comprehensive SEO strategyHow to outrank your competitorsFind keywords to target (the how and the why)Identify different opportunities within local search resultsUse Google Business Profile to optimise your local map and search presenceWhat to write and Gap/opportunity analysisQuality Raters Guidelines and E-E-A-THow to perfectly optimise every page on your siteInternal linking... --- > VCM Privacy Protecting your private information is our priority. This Privacy Policy governs data collection and usage of the products, services and - Published: 2025-03-06 - Modified: 2025-03-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/privacy-policy VCM Privacy Protecting your private information is our priority. This Privacy Policy governs data collection and usage of the products, services and websites (collectively, "Services") provided by VCM Ltd. By using the Services, you consent to the data practices described in this policy and our Terms of Service. If you do not agree to any part of this Privacy Policy, then you should stop accessing the ServicesMore simply putBy using VCM, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. 1. Collection of your Personal InformationVCM may collect personally identifiable information, such as, but not limited to, your email address, name, physical address, telephone number and IP address. If you purchase our Services, we collect and store your billing and credit card information. The information that we collect and store often depends on the type of Service that you use. For example, when you register with VCM, we collect and maintain your account information such as login name, password, email address and contact information. If you use our document preparation Services, we collect and store the information you enter in the course of generating or editing your document (which may vary depending on the type of document you are preparing), as well as your edited documents. Suppose you use our business filings or registered agent Services. In that case, we collect and store the information you provide about your business entity or filing, such as the entity name, filing number, address, phone number, and in some cases, the names,... --- > Online adverts are the most ignored form of advertising that has ever been invented. Here's what you need to do in the long term. - Published: 2025-03-04 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing/dental-advertising Online advertising for dentists You will notice that we DONT talk a lot about dental advertising. While advertising works, we believe it best attracts sub-patients and not super-patients. Super patients by personality definition want their dentist to earn their smiles It is important to see evidence, such as before-and-after photos, social media activity, and reviews, to begin to trust a dentist. People trust businesses that appear organically on page one of Google or through thoughtfully crafted posts and socially suggested links. Most online dental adverts are the most ignored form of advertising that has ever been invented. Reaching the right demographic Online ads by dentists do not earn trust There is a generational divide between those who trust Google/Facebook ads and those who skip past them. If you are under 30 in 2025, then it has been proven that this demographic is more trusting of online ads. However, even with the younger demographic, only 1:6 click on adverts. If your super-patient is under 30, then advert away. If your super-patient is older and wiser, you may need to rethink. The difficulty with adverts is that potential patients are taken straight from an advert to a form. There is no brand interaction or connection with the practice. Ads provide poor leads The magic of dentistry ads is a trap that stops us telling a useful story This means that perhaps the enquiries are from people who are not bought in or do not care who does their teeth as long as... --- > Consultancy is more than just giving advice. A senior SEO consultant is Benedict. He is well known in the industry has been used many companies both large and small. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/consultant Gain a competitive edge with digital expertise SEO consultant London/Surrey What we can do Process Companies like eBay, Philips and Capital radio trust our advice Consultancy is more than just giving advice. Benedict is a senior SEO consultant. He is well known in the industry and has been used by many large and small companies. His specialist expertise in diagnosing problems and making recommendations can propel a website's traffic, rankings, tracking and conversions. Not only is he both friendly and approachable, but he has an effortless ability to facilitate client learning and organisational efficiency. Benedict has been working in the digital marketing industry for over 20 years and still works with several clients who have consulted him for over a decade. He will report on everything he does. Free website consultancy Get in touch Speak to Benedict by filling out the form below! You can also call us on 01483 921741 now to discuss your current goals. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *Telephone *Email *Website / URLGDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit --- > Our marketing strategies are based on generating traffic that converts into patients that your practice deserves. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-06-05 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing We focus on earning patient attention & trust, not buying attention (ads). Earn Attention Earn Trust Earn Super Patients Long Term Sustainable Growth How do you know if you have a marketing problem? That is simple. Your diary is not full, and the practice is not growing as you would want. We have a solution. You need more of the right type of patients. We call these super patients. VCM are a dental marketing agency with 18 years experience. We use both digital & traditional marketing to drive patient growth Google, local SEO etc. Social Media. On your doorstep marketing. No reliance on advertising. We can fix your patient funnel How we best support your practice Ensure you attract the right patients. Promote findable online content that demands attention. Optimise conversion and data flow. Reinforcing your USPs, expertise and suitability. Our Agecny supports traditional marketing to improve local patient capture. Metaphorically, hand those new super patients a megaphone to promote you. Free discovery call Solving patient problems Patient problem first Dental marketing is the generous act of helping a patient with their problem. We are marketing a change, a step toward a patient's dream. We tell true stories that resonate and hold up over time. We showcase your expertise, USPs and experience. We show concrete evidence of trustworthiness. We answer questions and remove barriers to sale. We facilitate interactions (bookings) How to earn patient trust Patients loyal to you Earn super patients Our dental marketing strategy is based on generating... --- > From strategy to content plans, VCM are experienced copywriters in the digital world where everyone is saying look at me. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting Marketing copy that results in sales Strategy and planning Website content Marketing support Your copy needs to capture a user’s interest in a few seconds From strategy to content plans, VCM are experienced copywriters in the digital world, where everyone is saying, "Look at me. "VCM’s copywriters can understand our client’s audience needs and respond with content that creates interest and inquiries. From newsletters and ad copy, VCM is experienced at creating engaging SEO content for the user that is perfectly optimised for Google. Persuasive Copywriting in Marketing Everyone knows that better, creative copy means more conversions Content is often given away in blogs and becomes free information. Companies waste thousands of pounds on content like blogs with high traffic but produce a poor ROI. So much content is noise. In Google optimisation terms, website copy is the most crucial factor. Why? Because it is one of the on-page improvement services that is hardest to cheat at and the easiest way for Google to ascertain expertise and knowledge. Free discovery call How to start Copy that search engines and customers engage with Our tone and narrative rank highly in Google and are the mechanism that magically converts users into customers. Our copywriting strategies encourage, entice and reason with customers, persuading them to buy and choose you. Good copy removes barriers to a sale and, through gentle education, encourages users to engage with your business and overcome any price concerns they may have. The right copy begins with an overview, a... --- > Content plans are a flexible roadmap that allows both the client's team and VCM to collaborate successfully. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting/content-strategy/planning Plan and manage your content will promote your business Strategy and planning Content plans for cross platform promotion Ensuring our clients remain relevant Goals, audiences, platforms and measuring success There is not the time or budget to create all of the required content in one go, and we might also not have all the data to undertake this process. Either way, this is where content planning comes to the forefront. It is a flexible roadmap that allows the client's team and VCM to collaborate successfully. The process is fast and efficient. We have clear voice, brand, and proofreading processes that allow our content plans to be executed successfully. Content that disrupts Data-driven content strategy We can create a clear how and when so the business is aware of what content has been released and on what platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube. Whether your customers are thinking of buying, gathering information to make a purchase, or looking to buy today, VCM can develop content that can disrupt your potential customers' search or scroll and place your business in the exact place the customer is looking. However, without careful analysis and appropriate auditing, the strategy remains a plan without an outcome. VCM are statisticians. We enjoy looking at the data and amending our plans to maximise what is working and then minimise or dump what is not. See examples of our copy Get in touch You can also call us on 01483 921741 to chat about how we... --- > We have literally thousands of client’s webpages the rank on the first page of Google for a number of very different keywords. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-07-30 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/copywriting/website/seo-content-writing Combine advanced Google optimisation with content that sells No AI ever 18 years SEO Copywriting Experience Over 10,000 keywords #1 SEO copywriting is not just for Google Google considers over two hundred factors when ranking a webpage in its index. Fortunately, we are familiar with all of them. We use code keywords and advanced optimisation combined with copywriting skills to engage, inform, and persuade the user to make an enquiry or a sale. We have literally thousands of clients' webpages that rank on the first page of Google for a number of very different keywords. These include competitive medical and financial words, along with a vast amount of local SEO-optimised content. VCM have five copywriters. All of which are experts at generating content that generates traffic and clicks, resulting in your website being found and your users turning into customers. What to write Write for users and search engines Knowing what to writeSEO copywriting, contrary to its name, does not mean that your content is stuffed full of keywords and is not meant to be read by anyone other than bots and search engines. Writing content that is rewarded by both Google with a high position in its search index and by customers by clicking the 'order' or 'contact us' button is the essence of what good copywriting is all about. The SEO part of content creation is a mixture of both words, code and markup language. It is a balance of knowing what people are searching for with correct... --- > VCM are skilled at translating our clients call messages and products into both words, designs, graphics and infographics and of course video. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/design-services Good content needs good design to convert Website Design Graphic Design Branding Video The user has a huge choice of platforms that demand multi-media design VCM are content marketers. While Google means both copy and images, social media demands a different type of design with fewer words and more visual impact. VCM is skilled at translating our clients' call messages and products into words, designs, graphics, infographics, and, of course, video. As the Internet becomes progressively crowded space clients need instead branding and a real difference in order to stand out from the crowd. Digital designers Get in touch You can also call us on 01483 921741 to chat about how we can help you achieve your current goals. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *Telephone *Email *Website / URLGDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit Our marketing team Meet our expert designers --- > VCM are a full-service digital marketing agency. We can ensure that your digital marketing has a clear strategy and plan. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/digital-marketing Improve visibility for your brand and products Full range of digital marketing services Latest tools and software Multiple case studies Est. since 2009 Our digital marketing is available to businesses of all sizes From SEO content marketing to promoting your business on social media to connecting with customers via email and video, VCM is a full-service digital marketing agency. We can ensure that your digital marketing has a clear strategy and plan and a set list of goals and targets to aim for. Digital marketing is ongoing. There are always new and different ways to connect with audiences that might not yet have been targeted, and there are always platforms where your visibility can be improved. We can fix your patient funnel Be more than recognised, be remembered. Turn users into lifetime customers. Improve search engine visibility, triple website traffic and convert clicks into customers. SEO to dominate the top of search Video, mobile and content marketing Unique copy written by humans Conversion rate optimisation Web design & UX experience Analytics and data analysis Free discovery call Pay monthly Gain unrestricted access to our digital marketing services monthly Included in your digital marketing monthly spend with VCM:New copy, blogs, pages and contentImproved desktop and mobile designEasier-to-navigate websiteResearch on local competitionNew branded images, offers & bannersOptimisation for the right keywordsAn up-to-date website that loads quicklyLive chat answered by a real personEnsure your website ranks for what it sellsPlease note we do not offer PPC or advertising services. Our clients never have... --- > A regular web page encourages visitors to engage and explore your products and a landing page is to convince a user to take action. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/conversion/landing-pages Turn your landing pages into profit We design landing pages in-house Offer A/B testing Combine information with persuasion We collect data and analyse Your landing pages are very different marketing animal Landing pages are not websites. A website encourages web visitors to engage with your brand and explore who you are and your products on your services landing page. The goal is to convince a user to take a defined action. Landing pages are most commonly used with adverts but are also very much used with local SEO. Here, we want the user to believe that they are at a location and to make an enquiry. When it comes to an advert, ensuring that we have the very best chance of generating a lead or a sale is imperative. Clicks are expensive. We can fix your funnel Why your landing page conversions don't increase when traffic increases Designing your website, and getting it up and ready to be seen by potential customers is a super exciting experience – especially if you’re seeing lots of paid traffic coming in. But it can be quickly demotivating when those same users do not convert. Trust us, we know. As websites have the potential to make you a lot of money, it can seem magical when lots of users start clicking through your adverts to your custom-built landing pages – especially if you have spent countless hours planning, designing, writing and tweaking them, but then seeing no results. Have a chat with us now... --- > If we cannot rank your website number one on Google then we believe no one can. We've had success across every industry. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo One of the oldest SEO companies in the UK Over a hundred years’ experience First page ranking for over 10,000 keywords Offers for SEO services, from content to back links Expert SEO marketing services Highly successful WordPress SEO Not all SEO services are created equal VCM has the colossal advantage of over 18 years of successful SEO experience. For nearly two decades, we’ve been studying Google’s algorithm and its improvements to predict its future for hundreds of clients. If we cannot rank your website number one on Google, then we believe no one can. SEO and the free traffic that Google generates are too important to leave to amateurs. We offer a complete range of SEO services, from content creation to outsourcing tactics. You can rest assured that VCM will help your website appear on the first page of Google. Surrey SEO SEO services We promote your business by telling a more compelling story to Google, keeping you visible, relevant, and profitable. Never be limited by a fixed number of keywords. With VCM, you can target them all to capture your customers at every stage of the purchase process. Local SEO to dominate your local market National SEO to expand your reach Technical SEO to keep you at the top On Page Optimisation to target customers Analytics, tracking and data analysis Dental SEO for practices selling cosmetic dentistry Free discovery call Ranking #1 is Easy with VC Gain & retain customers Seeing as the top three organic searches are the... --- > VCM has a team of copywriters, designers and marketeers who create the right types of engaging content for the right platforms. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/content-marketing We'll meet all of your content marketing needs Content marketing strategy Full-service agency From local SEO to Instagram B2B and B2C We make your content work harder VCM's expertise lies in planning content and delivering content in the right format on the platform. VCM has a team of copywriters, graphic designers, web designers, and marketeers who are all experienced with creating different variants of content for the right platforms. Optimising for Google Local or translating a client's latest offer into a format that works as a social media post is all part of our skill set, which means that our content marketing services are successful. Indirect Selling Creating and sharing unique content to attract, engage, and retain customers We're a content marketing agency with 18+ years of SEO experience generating traffic and leads with transparent ROI tracking. Content marketing is a long-term strategic approach that creates and distributes valuable, relevant, and consistent copy to attract and retain clearly defined audiences. The ultimate goal is to drive profitable customer action. Content strategy development Creative content creation SEO content optimisation Content distribution and promotion Email marketing design and copy Social media content management Free discovery call Our content marketing services Content marketing is an area of marketing that focuses on building relationships and providing value to your audience rather than directly marketing and promoting products or services. CopywritingRegardless of the type of your business or the industry you operate in, you’ll need to communicate with your customers with written words – and... --- > Email marketing when used correctly can be hugely successful. It is always a question of interesting the recipient without being intrusive. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/digital-marketing/email Email marketing when used correctly is a no-brainer Send advertisements/offers Connect with lapsed customers Build customer loyalty Quality over quantity, offers over news Our list of clients provides an immediate email list that can be used to upsell and build existing or lapsed relationships. VCM is an expert at creating and formatting emails that create interest and help build relationships between customers and brands. Email marketing, when used correctly, can be hugely successful. It is always a question of interesting the recipient without being intrusive. Emails have to have value to elicit a response. There is a delicate balance between too often and not often enough. Send Beautiful Emails Quickly Email marketing service Use email marketing to stand out in the inbox, promote your business’s products or services, and incentivize customer loyalty. No cold emails that damage the brand Turn warm leads into regular customers Re-engage old customers Welcome emails, thank you emails and reminders Regular newsletters to keep your customers informed Abandoned carts and new product alerts Improve open rates and click-through rates GDPR compliant emails Campaign analysis and reports Free discovery call Be Relevant Always Avoid automation, AI and spammy emails AI might save a lot of time, but it takes the thought, creativity and human away from connecting to your audience – and when there’s a sale on the line, it’s important to pay particular attention to your email marketing strategy. One email might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, leading to a customer unsubscribing... --- > All our SEO Audits are carried out by humans with experience in identifying where websites can be improved to gain a higher Google position. - Published: 2025-03-03 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo-audit SEO Audits to Supercharge your SEO Free SEO Audits Paid Audits All audits are carried out by humans All our SEO audits are carried out by humans with experience in identifying where websites can be improved to gain a higher Google position. We do this every single day. We are experts and proficient. 44% of clients who order the free audit purchase the paid audit. 61% of paid audits become regular clients within 24 months. Improve the SEO of Your Website Free website audits Our free website audits help our clients make data-driven decisions that improve their strategy and results immediately. They're specially designed to discover the problems, identify the solution and improve the performance of your website. Scanning your website for errors Identify over 140 common issues Review content for quality Assess top-performing keywords Learn what's working and what isn't What do we assess for? Here’s a list of every factor our free website audits will determine:Quality of your copy and content. Your branding message and conversion funnel problems. Website design, UX and site speed. Quality of keywords, ranking problems and opportunities. Your traffic, where it comes from and where it goes. Level of duplicate, common or AI content. Backlink profile, referring domains, trust and spam score. Domain authority, page authority and trust flow. Organic keywords and paid keywords. Top SEO pages and low-performing pages. Your video content and images, including optimisation, alt tags and schema. Your metadata, title tags and overall optimisation. How your website performs across all... --- > Marketing Blogs Latest news, information and marketing advice for all industries - Published: 2025-02-27 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog Marketing Blogs Latest news, information and marketing advice for all industries --- > Our fully inclusive SEO Packages include all the ingredients for Google ranking success. Our proven formula is based on 18 years of ranking sites #1. - Published: 2025-01-09 - Modified: 2025-03-26 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo-packages Our SEO Prices Just Got 25% Cheaper Make the right decision and buy with confidence. Unlimited keywordsNew content pages & blogsFree Google setupFree technical fixesMonthly Zoom & ReportingSales Conversion & ROI tracking January Sale Get the ball rolling You'll be glad you did. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *TelephoneEmail *Website *GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit "Our SEO has the advantage over other agencies as we have over 18 years of data and experience to draw from. " Based in Guildford, Surrey Content | SEO | ROI Tracked Want to appear on the first page of Google? Want to be there for a range of keywords + location? Want web copy that outranks your competition? Want content that's informative and persuasive? Want your marketing to be future-proof? Want a team that just gets on with it? Buy one of the packages below, and you will not be disappointed. We know how to drive traffic to your website with advanced SEO and have a team of copywriters who add new pages and blogs every month. Monthly SEO packages January Sale: 25% off your first three months All packages include: Free Google Setup Keyword research Technical fixes Free telephone support Local SEO15 hours pm Gain Local Leads and Customers £818 pm Unlimited Keywords 1 Hour Strategy & Planning Four PRODUCT Pages (700 W) Two x Blog Posts (600... --- > Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 80+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - Published: 2025-01-08 - Modified: 2025-05-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/costs/80-new-patients-per-month-package Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 80+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per month, a formula shaped by our 18 years of expertise in dental marketing. We have been specialising in dental marketing since 2007. 44+ Dental Clients, including BACD presidents. 12,911 Dental Keywords. Large corporations (Portman) to independents. Ranked #1 'All on 4' and #3 'perfect smile. 'Proven Google results & case studies. Full-service SEO, content to web design. Clear Reporting and ROI Tracking. Our SEO is Trusted by 44+ dentists Generate 80 New Patients pm Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients from your website, a strategy shaped by our 17 years of expertise in dental marketing. 80+ New Patients pm Package Here is what's included every month for your website.  You choose the focus; we work all the work. Find Out More? Next step is to analyse your practice website and email you exactly what needs doing to generate 80 additional patients per month. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *TelephoneEmail *What would you like to sell more ofInvisalign/OrthoDental ImplantsDental VeneersGeneral DentistryJust More PatientsPractice Website *GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit Other packages are available. Prices + vat30 New patients per month50 New patients per month Proof It Works: Current Results in Google (Click here... --- > Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 50+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - Published: 2025-01-08 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/50-new-patients-per-month-package Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 50+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per month, a formula shaped by our 18 years of expertise in dental marketing. No AdsWe have been specialising in dental marketing since 2007. 46+ Dental Clients, including BACD presidents. 12,911 Dental Keywords ranked on Google. Large corporations (Portman) to independents. Ranked #1 'All on 4' and #3 'perfect smile. 'Proven Google results & case studies. Full-service SEO, content to web design. Clear Reporting and ROI Tracking. Our SEO is Trusted by 44+ dentists Generate 50 New Patients pm Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients from your website, a strategy shaped by our 17 years of expertise in dental marketing. 50+ New Patients pm Package Here is what's included every month for your website.  You choose the focus; we work all the work. Find Out More? Next step is to analyse your practice website and email you exactly what needs doing to generate 50 additional patients per month. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *TelephoneEmail *What would you like to sell more ofInvisalign/OrthoDental ImplantsDental VeneersGeneral DentistryJust More PatientsPractice Website *GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit Other packages are available. Prices + vat30 New patients per month80 new patients per month Proof It Works: Current Results... --- > Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 30+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per - Published: 2025-01-08 - Modified: 2025-05-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/seo/dentists/costs/30-new-patients-per-month-package Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 30+ New Patients a month Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per month, a formula shaped by our 18 years of expertise in dental marketing. We have been specialising in dental marketing since 2007. 46+ Dental Clients, including BACD presidents. 12,911 Dental Keywords. Large corporations (Portman) to independents. Ranked #1 'All on 4' and #3 'perfect smile. 'Proven Google results & case studies. Full-service SEO, content to web design. Clear Reporting and ROI Tracking. Our SEO is Trusted by 46+ dentists Generate 30 New Patients pm Our marketing packages are designed to generate a specific number of new patients per month, a formula shaped by our 18 years of expertise in dental marketing from your website. 30+ New Patients pm SEO Package Here is what's included every month for your practice's website. Find Out More? We will analyse your practice website's SEO to discover what is required to generate 30 new patients pm. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *TelephoneEmail *What would you like to sell more ofInvisalign/OrthoDental ImplantsDental VeneersGeneral DentistryJust More PatientsPractice Website *GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Submit Other SEO packages are available. Prices + vat50 New patients per month80 new patients per month Proof It Works: Current Results in Google (Click here for live Google SERPs) 2007 Established 46... --- > “Our dental marketing strategy shows potential patients why your practice is the right choice & gets them to make appointments.” Powered by Advanced SEO. - Published: 2024-11-27 - Modified: 2025-03-26 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/dental-marketing-lp Our dental content gains 134% more patients than that of other agencies "Our dental marketing strategy shows potential patients why your practice is the right choice & gets them to make appointments. " We’ve been writing about Invisalign, crowns, implants and veneers for 18 years. Trusted by 46+ dentists Content marketing that generates traffic & leads through advanced SEO Gain traffic to your website through professionally written blogs, treatment pages and videos using advanced SEO & dental marketing. See case studies. Get Quote Content Marketing ExampleBelow are content ideas that work best to gain more Invisalign patients. Invisalign Treatment Pages (10) Invisalign braces/alignersInvisalign costInvisalign before and afterInvisalign near meInvisalign ExpressInvisalign LiteInvisalign ModerateInvisalign ComprehensiveOffers & DealsPatient Stories, Procedure, Cleaning & More Orthodontic Questions (Blogs) (12) How long does Invisalign take? How much is Invisalign on finance? Is Invisalign worth it? Does Invisalign hurt? Invisalign vs braces? How Invisalign Works? How is Invisalign Different? What type of Invisalign do I need? The difference between Invisalign comprehensive and lite? What Issues Can Invisalign Solve? Invisalign is not right for everyoneAlternatives to Invisalign Local SEO Content (10+) Invisalign + local location(s)Teeth Straightening + local location(s)Cost of Invisalign + local location(s)Fixed Braces + local location(s)Orthodontist + local location(s) Landing Pages (9) Invisalign + your locationInvisible AlignersTeeth StraighteningCost of Invisalign + your locationFixed BracesOrthodontistSmile AssessmentBraces + your locationAdult braces High Traffic Ortho Topics (7+) Crowded TeethOverbiteUnderbiteCrossbiteGap TeethOpen BiteSmile Guide for Parents "The same content strategy can then be repeated for implants, veneers, general dentistry etc. "... --- > Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your business?Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) has - Published: 2024-11-15 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/free-offer Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your business? Based in Surrey, VCM Ltd (established in 2007) has created a complimentary 30-day trial of all our SEO services, valued at £1000. Enjoy £1000 of free SEO Take Us For A Test Drive Can’t find the right SEO company for your dental practice? Based in Surrey, Vanilla Circus Ltd (Est 2007) specialises ONLY in dental SEO. We know our underbites from our Invisalign Pro. We have created a free 30-day trial of all our SEO Services worth £1000 and lasting 30 days. 2007 Established 44 + Dentist Trust Us 1,500+ Projects Since 2007 Recognised Dental Provider What You Receive SEO OFFERHere is what's included for free within 30 days. All we ask is if we impress you, you consider VCM moving forward. Sound fair? No catch, no deposit, no contract. Task Value Level Website audit and meeting to discuss your SEO and choose keywords and content £120 Consultant We write a plan for new content, blogs, backlinks £60 Consultant We write 2 new blog posts £130 Copywriter We upload the 2 new blogs to your website and optimise £120 Digital Specialist We write 2 new pages of content £140 Copywriter We add the two new pages to your website and optimise  £130 Digital Specialist We source two new backlinks, write the copy and publish (DA 20+) £240 Digital Specialist We report on the work and results, including recommended next steps... --- > Contact VCM Please use the form below to contact us. We usually get back to you the same day. Kick start your marketing Call 01483 921741 - Published: 2024-11-05 - Modified: 2025-06-05 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/contact-vc Contact VCM Please use the form below to contact us. We usually get back to you the same day. Kick start your marketing Call 01483 921741 talktovcm@vcm. co. uk 6 Hurst House, High St, Ripley GU23 6AZ Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Name *Telephone *Email *Website *GDPRYour data will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. Are you a UK Company? *YesNoSorry Submit --- > About VCM Ltd Our clients have full access to a passionate and diverse team with years of experience in their fields, making our company the go-to for all - Published: 2023-03-09 - Modified: 2025-04-14 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/about About VCM Ltd Our clients have full access to a passionate and diverse team with years of experience in their fields, making our company the go-to for all things digital. Caring about what we do makes us very good at it, and it’s always a pleasure to do the work we love. Our founder, Benedict Sykes, has the gift of looking at a website and knowing precisely what needs to be changed to gain a high ranking. We have over 18 years of digital and SME marketing experience. We have worked with SMEs and blue chips, ensuring that their business is easily found on Google and Socials Who does all the work? All content is professionally written, unique, and created in-house by content writers with degrees. Free from AI and using unique copy only. Pages and blogs are 500+ words. All work is clearly communicated and reported on. VCM Ltd is available five days a week by telephone (01483 921741) and by email. Benedict: ConsultantJohn: Creative DirectorLibby: CopywriterMarrtha: Digital Specialist Dedicated to delivering marketing excellence VCM is an established member of Nominet and has been featured in the media on Radio 4, The BBC and the Times. Everyone has a story. Here is ours... The Begining Prior to 2007, VCM offered traditional marketing services, with our roots being in print. However, for the last 16 years, we’ve evolved to a 360 digital marketing service, specialising in SEO and organic search traffic. The Journey Great success meant we could expand our... --- > Digitial Marketing is about securing the right customers; being famous with the right audience that buy your products and reward your business with long term loyalty. - Published: 2023-03-09 - Modified: 2025-09-22 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/ Earn attention online, don't just buy it Leading SEO | Social Media | Marketing Agency Google_"G"_Logo Earn attention Earn trust free-image Earn super customers Unbeatable SEO packages that will take you to the top of Google in 90 days Be visible on Google Connect with potential clients on socials SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT Pretty, convertable websites text here Website design Service 1 text here VCM's clients have a marketing problem. We have the solution. We attract more of the right customers We call the 'right customers' super-customers. They improve revenue and profitability,They enhance working life and reduce staff turnover. They actively promote your business to friends & family. They leave positive reviews. They are the heartbeat of every successful business. No Ad Spend Required 4. 9  4. 5/5 18+ Years Founded in 2007 600+ UK projects 98. 2% Client satisfaction 154,971 Keywords on page 1"We believe the future of successful digital marketing is fewer ads and more organically ranked content on websites that exude trust. " Benedict 96% of businesses rated us 5*https://youtu. be/fjnqpioDcd8 Engage your customers with our end-to-end marketing solutions Less noise, more conversations If you need a digital marketing agency in Surrey, get in touch. VCM offers affordable monthly packages that include SEO, social media, web design, copywriting, content, and branding to bring more customers to your business. Trusted by leading brands... We do it all, you just need to approve Meet our agency and experience... A team of passionate daily doers and marketers led by an... --- --- ## Posts > If you have had your fill of watching endless 'how to SEO your website' YouTube videos and Podcasts, then perhaps this blog can help. - Published: 2026-03-24 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/best-simple-seo-fixes-any-uk-small-business-can-do-in-2026 - Categories: Digital Marketing - Tags: digital marketing, seo checklist, seo tools SEO Changes You Can Make Today If you are a webmaster or business owner and have had your fill of watching endless 'how to SEO your website' YouTube videos and Podcasts, then perhaps this blog can help. Google tells you exactly what to do and how to do it. SEO is about language and Google will help you let it know how to represent that information in a way it can understand and rank highly in its index. You need data and a few tips to move forward onto page 1. Ensure you are using Search Console; this is how Google can give you feedback on what you are doing right or wrong. Several tools include everything from 404 errors to incorrect mobile optimisation, Sitemaps, JavaScript errors, etc. Every technical error that affects your business's SEO is listed here. Learn all of SC's features and how to validate changes. If you are using WordPress, consider adding structured data or rich snippets to your website and testing it here. Schema. org is your friend. If you can't find your website in Google, you probably have Crawling errors; use Search Console to help or read Moz. Indexing is simple: look at your page's code and search for noindex; if it is there, get rid of it. Want to reach out to the rest of the world? Google makes it easy to add multilingual elements to your website. To make redirects or 404 errors, don't worry. If you no longer sell a product... --- > Windows computers don’t nativly process PHP files so a few tricks are required to allow working on them as if using a web server. Once setup you can use - Published: 2026-03-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/setting-up-a-dependable-localhost - Categories: Technical SEO Windows computers don’t nativly process PHP files so a few tricks are required to allow working on them as if using a web server. Once setup you can use your PC as an ad-hoc host to test and work on scripts or even run a website or two. There are many programs to do a majority of the hard work such as installing and configuring PHP, MySQL, and PHPMyAdmin so we should start there. I suggest using WAMP as it has interchangeable components and is fairly easy to setup. Installing WAMP » Download and install WAMP - https://www. wampserver. com/en/download. php I find it easiest to install WAMP to the suggested directory of C:wamp as your final “web” folder will be C:wampwww. We will need to make a few changes after it has finished installing to emulate a web server a little more. We can start by creating a folder called “example. com” in the C:wampwww folder to store the files we are testing. Inside the example. com folder create a file called index. php and insert some random data such as “hello world” so we can see if it’s working or not. Allowing Virtual Hosts Allowing virtual hosts will enable multiple websites, or hosts, to run from one machine so we need to enable it in the httpd. conf file. Click the WAMP icon in your taskbar Click Apache Click http. conf to open the file Find:#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts. conf Change to:Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts. conf Now we have allowed virtual hosts... --- > Another day, another new media product! Well, it’s only available in the US, but it’s still exciting for us on this side of the pond. X (Twitter) has - Published: 2026-03-10 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/buy-now-pay-later - Categories: Socials Another day, another new media product! Well, it’s only available in the US, but it’s still exciting for us on this side of the pond. X (Twitter) has announced that, like Google did in July, it is testing a ‘Buy Now’ function. Customers can buy products and services directly within X (Twitter)—no need to go to a pesky retailer site—just search, click, and done. X (Twitter) has invested in the functionality because it will be compatible with Bigcommerce, Demandware and Shopify. The reason? To “remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process. ” In the UK, Twitter Has 23. 15 Million Users. I can’t argue with the need for that. It mirrors the announcement from Google that they aim for the functionality to improve conversions on mobile, and the results from the US will be fascinating to see. Can mobile conversions really be increased to equal desktop? If they can, then surely every e-commerce site will want it? Well, maybe not straight away... Paths to conversions are getting ever more complex and convoluted. This functionality may well facilitate purchases on a mobile but how will the customer have got to that point? If they see a ‘Buy Now’ ad early in their journey, couldn’t that put them off? Sophisticated targeting aligned to customers' journey is fundamental to making this work. It could hinder brand engagement and advocacy. Again on the buying cycle, buying direct from an ad will stop the engagement with the brand. The experience brands invest... --- > If you are unlucky enough to be faced with the mundane soul-destroying task that is link removal, fear not! For I have found the remedy. We spent quite - Published: 2026-03-04 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-i-made-my-backlink-removal-process-5x-faster - Categories: Backlinks If you are unlucky enough to be faced with the mundane soul-destroying task that is link removal, fear not! For I have found the remedy. We spent quite some time looking into ways in which we can make the process of link removal as efficient as possible. Our solution was CognitiveSEO. Thanks to some of CognitiveSEO's features, I no longer hate link removal. I am able to classify links and domains in a fraction of the time it would usually take when doing this manually. Previously, I would get through 500-600 domains daily using a spreadsheet. Thanks to CognitiveSEO, I do this in under an hour and a half. Let’s take a look at some of the features that have kept me from physically attacking the nearest colleague! Unnatural Links Detection Within the inbound link analysis dashboard, you are presented with an automated backlink profile assessment. If you require 100% certainty and wish to check the links manually, they have even made this process quick. The unnatural links detector even creates a disavow file for you and takes you to the submission page within Google Webmaster Tools. Introducing the unnatural Links navigator I’m not sure if it’s possible to say this without losing all street credibility. But this feature actually made link assessment rather pleasant. Below are a couple of screenshots of just some of the handy features within the unnatural links navigator. Automatic link classification Within the unnatural links classifier, each domain/link is classified as OK LINK, SUSPECT or... --- > As you know we have recently re-branded as . While the design team were beavering away at the website, it fell to me as Group Head of PPC to develop our - Published: 2026-03-03 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-develop-a-professional-ppc-re-brand-strategy-and-survive - Categories: Advertising, News As you know we have recently re-branded as . While the design team were beavering away at the website, it fell to me as Group Head of PPC to develop our PPC strategy. So here is my guide to creating a strategy for a new brand and getting out alive. YOU WILL NEED: 1. BIG PAPER. Bigger ideas require even bigger paper. Ensure your idea:paper ratio is correct. 2. NOTEBOOKS. To write things in. Duh. 3. CALCULATOR. Yes, this project is all very exciting but you still need to control cost. 4. HIGHLIGHTERS. To mark the best ideas and well... highlight things. 5. POST IT NOTES. Because some ideas just wont fit on your big paper. 6. COLOURED PENS. Colour coding is the future. 7. TIPP-EX. Because some ideas seem good at the time but in hindsight? Not so good. 8. TEA. For sustenance. 9. BRAND HANDBOOK. Every brand needs continuity. 10. DIARY. To keep track - launch date will be here before you know it. Step 1. Get your big paper and pens. As with most projects I work on, I started by getting a huge bit of paper (for huge ideas) and scrawling anything down that came to mind. And I mean ANYTHING. It’s better to come up with some bad ideas than discard good ones through fear. You think it’s a good idea to include a cartoon walrus in your ad? Write to down! (That’s what the tipp-ex is for, should you change your mind). Write down... --- > Previously, in one of my front-end development projects based on the Bootstrap framework, I encountered and made use of an awesome tool called LESS. If - Published: 2026-03-02 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/improved-helpful-less-resources-list - Categories: Technical SEO Previously, in one of my front-end development projects based on the Bootstrap framework, I encountered and made use of an awesome tool called LESS. If you don’t know what LESS is, it could be said that LESS is the same for CSS as what PHP is for HTML. Or in another expression, what PHP is for HTML in terms of generating HTML document (as in general, PHP is much more powerful language). Anyway, the idea is straightforward, LESS gives you an array of tools to produce CSS code dynamically, and simplifies sharing your stylesheets across many projects. After several uses of the tool, I found it difficult to switch back to another project that doesn’t use LESS. This is proof that pre-compiling (rather than hard-coding) is a more appropriate way of creating a stylesheet to generate an effective Web design. That’s where the origins of this blog post come from. I hope you will find the following list of LESS resources handy. Please bear in mind that I am using LESS in connection with Bootstrap, so apologies if some links below are too Bootstrap-oriented Syntax explanation / Tutorials: https://lesscss. org/ A great LESS syntax explanation with examples of input/output code. On this site, you can also find the latest version of ‘less. js’, which is a front-end LESS compiler, allowing you, for example, to preview changes you are making to your LESS stylesheet live (very handy in a development area). https://coding. smashingmagazine. com/2021/09/09/an-introduction-to-less-and-comparison-to-sass/A nice tutorial published on the Smashing Magazine... --- > Search engine & informational retrieval technologies have come a long way yet they are still in their infancy, particularly when it comes to sentiment - Published: 2026-02-21 - Modified: 2026-02-21 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/query-deserves-freshness-qdf-in-practice - Categories: News Search engine & informational retrieval technologies have come a long way yet they are still in their infancy, particularly when it comes to sentiment and intent analysis. Very often users with different search intents may submit the same search query to a search engine but they expect different search results. In this blog post I will explain content freshness and its impact on search results and Google’s method of handling hot topics. This post will help you understand how SEO consultants deliver good results on Google News. Internet users make over several hundred million search queries on Google each day and a large number of these queries require fresh results. Fresh results could be anything from latest football results to a new epidemic outbreak. Assuming there was a mad cow disease epidemic today; searchers wouldn’t want to get results dating back from 2018. This is because such a query is likely intended to get latest information on the current outbreak and not previous ones. In such circumstances Google’s “standard” PageRank algorithm is biased towards older content for several reasons i. e. older content might have thousands of links from authoritative websites. Therefore, such queries should be treated differently because they require fresh content; in some cases these queries may even explicitly mention the need for recent/fresh results. For example, a searcher looking for “upcoming London concerts” does not want upcoming concerts in London for last year or even a few months ago. Query: On the other hand some queries might... --- > I personally have found that over the last few years, Google searches are changing. Users aren’t typing in search terms anymore. They’re typing in - Published: 2026-02-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/lifetime-google-your-new-magic-8-ball - Categories: Copywriting, Google I personally have found that over the last few years, Google searches are changing. Users aren’t typing in search terms anymore. They’re typing in questions. For example: while auto locksmiths may have previously had their ads triggered for searches such as ‘auto locksmiths Surrey’ or ‘car key replacement Sussex’, they may now be treated to search queries such as: (These are real examples by the way)... ‘i have locked my keys in the car what do i do’ ‘i lost my mazda key’ ‘what happens if i lose my spare car key’ (and the slightly more colourful) ‘f*ck are my car keys’? (starred out so as not to burn out your innocent eyes) You only need to type ‘why’, ‘what’ or ‘how’ into Google to be presented with a vast array of (sometimes rather disturbing) questions. Do you know why? Because Google can apparently do everything - give you relationship advice, teach you French or diagnose an illness. (I feel I should mention that medical advice on the internet does NOT take the place of your GP, and if you have any medical concerns, you should book an appointment. Not Google it. ) I used to work in healthcare PR, which involved liaising between journalists and consultants at private hospitals to create a journalistic masterpiece. A common question journalists always wanted to ask was one piece of advice the consultant would give the general public. 9 times out of 10, the consultants would answer ‘Do not self-diagnose on Google’ because... --- > We’ve all seen Minority Report and wondered whether this (scarily) personalised out-of-home advertising is possible. Clear Channel, one of the largest - Published: 2026-02-07 - Modified: 2026-02-07 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/is-programmatic-ooh-advertsing-still-relevant - Categories: Advertising, News We’ve all seen Minority Report and wondered whether this (scarily) personalised out-of-home advertising is possible. Clear Channel, one of the largest outdoor advertising operators, has just announced the purchase of over 2000 phone boxes from Arqiva, which will be replaced with super high-tech kiosks kitted out with daylight-visible digital screens and a whole host of other features beneficial to the casual high street moocher. Clear Channel has also promised that through its Play iQ ad inventory platform, advertisers can buy real-time, contextually-relevant content that will be displayed on these digital screens. The foundations for super personalised out-of-home are being set, but I don’t think we’re ready for retina scanners just yet. What’s Possible with These Contextually-Relevant Ads? Let’s think a moment about that ‘contextually-relevant’ claim. What signals are available to an advertiser to enable programmatic ad buying? It might be very possible for the new high-tech ad kiosk to use beacons and other mobile technology to grab personal information from passers-by, but it would be lunacy for a brand to use that information to power an advert visible to an entire high street. So leaves advertisers with much less personal signals, like the weather, the news, notable local events, time of day and so on. But these signals still present some interesting opportunities for location-based marketing. Let’s pretend we run a small independent cinema and because we’re fans of sci-fi and Tom Cruise, we have a Monday night showing of Minority Report. But it’s 20 minutes until the showing starts... --- > Google celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bruce Reynolds and Ronnie Biggs’ mastermind 1963 Train Robbery by pulling off a stunt of their own. The Plan - Published: 2026-02-03 - Modified: 2026-02-03 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/enhanced-great-campaign-robbery - Categories: Advertising, Google Google celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bruce Reynolds and Ronnie Biggs’ mastermind 1963 Train Robbery by pulling off a stunt of their own. The Plan Like other agencies across the UK we are acutely aware of our middleman relationship between Google and our Clients. As part of Google Agency status we are assigned a Google Rep with whom we have regular chats on how we can improve our accounts. These chats would be once a quarter at best, but lately we have been in weekly contact. Whilst it could be that we have recently had a new representative and that they are just much better at their job, I am more inclined to be cynical and hazard a guess that this is part of a concerted drive for Google to improve their profit margins. After last quarter’s results it was clear that Google’s main source of revenue, Ad Sales profit, has shrank around 6% year-over-year; mainly due to lower CPC’s. These results came to the fore just as Google decided to go ahead with Enhanced Campaigns mandatory launch and I am assuming that Google is using this to drive up its search revenue. It would make sense right? They are still a profit driven company after all. So how do Google’s Enhanced Campaigns fill the deficit? By making companies pay more for their mobile clicks. So in the glory days, it used to be that advertisers could target Mobiles, Tablets and Desktops differently by creating specific campaigns. Everything could be... --- > It’s every PPC manager’s worst nightmare finding an account that doesn’t have any form of conversion tracking. No matter how small the daily / monthly - Published: 2026-01-22 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/proven-conversion-tracking-for-your-accurate-roi - Categories: Advertising It’s every PPC manager’s worst nightmare finding an account that doesn’t have any form of conversion tracking. No matter how small the daily / monthly budget is, conversion tracking is a must. Knowing what your return is from your Google Ads spend is important to every business; tracking the success of any campaign is critical. Conversions come in many different forms, the most common are: Filling out a form (enquiry forms / contact us forms / requesting a quote Purchasing a Product Requesting a call back Making a phone call Downloading a brochure / pdf Engaging in live chat Even just viewing a certain page on you site Tracking any of the above will allow you (or your agency) to identify which keywords and ads are most successful to your business. Understanding what you are getting for your spend is of utmost importance to any business (no matter the size). Without conversion tracking you (or your agency) are limited by how you can manage a PPC account; yes you can focus on clicks, impressions, cost, CTR and perhaps user engagement metrics such as time on site and bounce rate, but this will not give you a true understanding of what works and what doesn’t. If you are spending money on Google Google Ads (or any other platform, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn), whether it is £2/day or £2,000/day, implementing tracking should be a high priority. You might think that your money is being spent wisely on highly relevant keywords, but sometimes it’s... --- > Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve compromise on the quality of your work or service to get things done faster? If that compromise entails higher - Published: 2026-01-20 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-essential-blog-on-how-much-technical-debt-can-you-afford - Categories: News Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve compromise on the quality of your work or service to get things done faster? If that compromise entails higher costs in the future you’re dealing with classic example of technical debt. This term applies in particular to design shortcuts taken in IT projects. What are the types of debt and what are the causes? Basically there are two kinds of technical debt - intentional and unintentional. Intentional debt is caused each time you decide to take a shortcut with a certain purpose. Generally that sort of debt may be beneficial - it simply cuts the initial costs of a project and allows you to launch it faster. It’s a common scenario when you have to deliver a certain set of functionalities as soon as possible, as some things simply can’t be done properly in the available time. The result is a situation favourable to a growth of the debt. The main cause for this example is business pressure. Intentional debt also often occurs with a risky project. When it may be a good idea to take a technical loan (even with a high interest rate) and pay it back only if the project prognosis seems to be good (which is easier to decide after the launch). Causes of unintentional debt are slightly different. Generally they come from a lack of communication or an engineer’s lack of knowledge and experience. For example, at the stage of collecting requirements it’s important to ask the... --- > Social media is all about large-scale perception and memetic engineering. In fact, any marketer or SEO consultant who doesn’t understand the importance of - Published: 2026-01-09 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/official-how-the-uk-government-and-google-will-watch-you - Categories: Google, News Social media is all about large-scale perception and memetic engineering. In fact, any marketer or SEO consultant who doesn’t understand the importance of memetics is fooling himself/herself. So, don’t you yet believe that security agencies and large corporations are using social media for perception management? Well, word on the street is that DoD’s Sentient World Simulation or SWS has already been integrated with large social media networks such as Facebook, X (Twitter) and LinkedIn. In fact there is even an official document in the public domain which sheds some light on their future ambitions. What is SWS and what does it do? The SWS is a model that helps translate the real world into a virtual model, effectively enabling organizations to test a memetic campaign and its anticipated effect on a target mass in real time. SWS is based on Synthetic Enviroment for Analysis and Simulations or SEAS. A commercial version of SWS is available for the private sector through Simulex Inc. Interestingly enough Simulex’s corporate website poses a rather interesting question on its homepage. “What happens when you take gaming technology, inject it with the latest discoveries in management, economics, and psychology, and apply it to business, political, and social situations? The answer is Simulex’s” The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency aka DARPA wants to have tools that overshadow the existing SWS model. According to a latest document, DARPA highlights scenarios where social media can be used for perception management. Given that social networks form the 3rd largest “country”... --- > A few days ago, Google Analytics announced it was introducing ‘calculated metrics’. When we got chatting about this in a planning meeting recently, half - Published: 2026-01-08 - Modified: 2026-01-08 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/are-calculated-metrics-they-way-forward-or-back - Categories: Google, News A few days ago, Google Analytics announced it was introducing ‘calculated metrics’. When we got chatting about this in a planning meeting recently, half of us said, “Yes! That’s cool”, the other half weren’t so enamoured. I was in the excited half of the group. And I immediately wanted to rush into GA, setup my 5 calculated (or compound) metrics and sit back and wait to be amazed. But it made me think, is this a good thing or could it pose us marketers a serious headache? Let’s start by looking at calculated metrics and why they could be a good thing. What Are Calculated Metrics Calculated Metrics (commonly referred to elsewhere as Compound Metrics) are the product of combining two existing metrics. The issue we’ve had with Google Analytics is that whenever we needed to combine two metrics, we had to export raw data into Excel and do the maths there. Now, with this new release, Google Analytics is able to calculate the product of two metrics. Two examples, given on the Google Help Doc are: Revenue Per User. To calculate the average revenue generated by each of your website users, you would now have a calculated field that worked out the sum {{revenue}} / {{users}} Currency conversion. This is handy for businesses that operate in a number of regions. For each country’s reporting view, you can use a calculated metrics that converted the global revenue figure into the local currencies. For example to convert GBP to EUR would... --- > There are two very cool art exhibitions coming up that I’m excited about, because both are doing very interesting things with digital data and technology - Published: 2026-01-05 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/can-ethical-art-data-technology-and-digital-marketing-converge - Categories: Software There are two very cool art exhibitions coming up that I’m excited about, because both are doing very interesting things with digital data and technology and there is something about their approach that has a lot of relevance to marketing. The first is at Somerset House in London and is called Big Bang Data. With the proliferation of data (emails, selfies, online transactions, Google searches, social profiles and more) coupled with the new ways of storing and accessing that data, we have become a data-driven society. There are of course pros and cons to this, but this exhibition explores whether we really understand our relationship with and the capabilities of data. The second is slightly further afield in Florida at The Dali Museum, which is going to be offering a virtual reality (VR) experience called Dreams of Dali. This will allow visitors to immerse themselves in one of Salvador Dali’s paintings by actually being able to move around inside the painting. Visitors will experience this through a VR headset but can also access it through mobile, desktop, Google Cardboard and Samsung’s Gear VR. Why Are These Exhibitions Relevant to Marketing? Firstly, Big Bang Data uses creativity to bring meaning to what could potentially be overwhelming and meaningless data. There is something powerful in the approach taken here, in that the artists asked questions of the data and interrogated it to find meaning, which not only entertains us but also helps our understanding of the world. Secondly, the VR experience at... --- > Grabbing - and retaining - a publisher’s attention is tough. As marketers, once we’ve decided something’s newsworthy the hardest part can be persuading - Published: 2026-01-05 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-write-an-effective-lifetime-press-release - Categories: Branding, Content Marketing Grabbing - and retaining - a publisher’s attention is tough. As marketers, once we’ve decided something’s newsworthy the hardest part can be persuading the media to get as excited about it as we are. Getting noticed is paramount and the best way to do this is by writing a killer press release, so here’s how. WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY AND HOW You’ve heard it before, but including the who, what, where, when, why and how is crucial. Not only does this information paint a clear picture of the news you’re sharing; it provides journalists with all the information they need in one place. The quicker a release can be turned into a story – with as little effort and correspondence with you as possible – the more likely it’ll be published. WHO? This not only encompasses the ‘who’ focus of the story, but who the release is aimed at. The former could apply to a person, product, event, organisation or response to existing media. For the latter, consider whether you’re targeting the media, investors, customers or event planners. Whoever it might be, ensure you refine and target your audience accordingly. WHAT? Within the ‘what’, the message needs to be clear. What is the most fundamental piece of information for the reader? Whether it’s product USPs, the person in focus, shocking statistics or data, times or dates; this ‘what’ should appear right at the beginning of your piece. WHERE? This could be a physical location or a website. The most... --- > In this post, I will share an overview of the methodology I use to conduct competitive research that enables me to create insightful and data-led content - Published: 2026-01-04 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/excellent-data-led-content-strategies-on-steroids - Categories: Content Marketing In this post, I will share an overview of the methodology I use to conduct competitive research that enables me to create insightful and data-led content strategy. This post is based on an imaginary company that competes in the same niche as BufferApp and highlights a brief overview of the following process: Identify destinations of choice in a given niche Develop personas Identify the most shared content of the destinations of choice Identify influencers who amplify content within our niche Develop content strategy At this stage, I will cover the initial four processes highlighted above. As developing a content strategy requires other processes, I will cover that in a separate post. Identifying Destinations of Choice To succeed in your niche, it is crucial to identify the destinations of choice and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Destinations of choice could be your direct competitors or blogs and sites that are relevant to your prospective visitors/customers. If you have worked in a niche for long enough, you already know the destinations of choice within your sector. However, if you are new to a niche then you need to do some digging to identify them. There are various way of identifying destinations of choice, here are a few that I regularly use: Customer Surveys Cision Index (Handy for identifying popular blogs) Search Metrics (Competitive Research) Customer Surveys The prerequisite for using customer survey as a vehicle for content research is to have a list of contacts – pretty obvious stuff but I thought... --- > So, X (Twitter) have released a beta for Conversational Ads. But what is a Conversational Ad? And will it create conversation between a brand and its - Published: 2025-12-27 - Modified: 2025-12-27 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/will-conversational-ads-actually-create-conversation - Categories: Twitter So, X (Twitter) have released a beta for Conversational Ads. But what is a Conversational Ad? And will it create conversation between a brand and its followers? Let’s start with, “what is it? ” To quote X (Twitter): “These formats, exclusive to X (Twitter), make it even easier for consumers to engage with and then spread a brand’s campaign message. It’s a powerful way for advertisers to extend their presence across X (Twitter). ” In simple terms, Conversational Ads allow you to create customisable calls-to-action that include a defined (but editable) message containing an image, some text and hashtags. When the user tweets the ad’s message, they receive a thank you message from the advertiser. Sounds like a case of so far, so good for the advertiser – it can enjoy better creative options and a better reach for their content. But am I missing something? Where’s the conversation? A conversation, according to my favourite dictionary, is “a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged. ” So while I like the capabilities the new ad formats bring, I’m not convinced it will create conversation. What Makes for a Good X (Twitter) Conversation? Unsurprisingly, the ingredients for a good X (Twitter) conversation are the same for the offline, real-world, down-the-pub conversation: Authenticity Humour Personal An interest in what the other person has to say Here’s an example of a brand having a conversation (source: Hootsuite) with a user on X (Twitter).... --- > E-commerce SEO E-Commerce is lucrative and the best route to take if you're considering digital marketing. However, as easy as it is to make money from a - Published: 2025-12-27 - Modified: 2025-05-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-new-essential-beginners-guide-to-e-commerce-seo - Categories: SEO - Tags: magento, seo, shopify, shops, stores E-commerce SEO E-Commerce is lucrative and the best route to take if you're considering digital marketing. However, as easy as it is to make money from a product, it's much more difficult to appear in search results against much larger competitor brands with budgets in the millions and a long history behind them. But that's not to say it cannot be done. You just won't be able to do it without professional expertise. What do we mean? Ecommerce SEO is the technical task of generating more organic search traffic (i. e. free traffic, non-advert traffic) from major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo - and even within Google Local. What the rest of the internet is not telling you right now is just noise—taking your newly launched site to number one for competitive search terms like "watches" will be near impossible if you follow guides teaching you how to do metadata. So, if you're serious about bringing your product to market properly, here's our popular marketing checklist you'll need to get up and running (which is far more helpful than reading ten pages on tips that will never get your brand on the third page, let alone the first). Marketing & SEO E-Commerce Step-By-Step Check-List The basics to getting you seen online: Devise a strategy or a roadmap of what the following year in business looks like for you. Next, plan how you will achieve your strategy; what steps will you take? Find an SEO & Marketing company to conduct... --- > Protect your mental health online Mental Health Awareness Week The growth of social media over the last decade has established a new medium for human - Published: 2025-12-25 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/as-recommended-by-mental-health-awareness-week - Categories: News Protect your mental health online Mental Health Awareness Week The growth of social media over the last decade has established a new medium for human interaction. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have allowed us to stay connected around the world 24/7. According to research, there will be 3 billion active monthly social media users by 2025. It’s clear that social media has become an integral part of our lives. Social media can be a positive place to raise awareness for campaigns, immediate news notifications, and businesses to reinforce a positive message. However, it has shown some implications for people's mental health, with the younger generation being the main ones affected. This has received some significant attention over the years and is correlated with the growth of social media. Social media is often linked to instant gratification — the need to experience fast and short term pleasure. The hit of dopamine in the brain acts as a reward that reinforces this behaviour, leading you to refresh your social media feeds. The detrimental effect this can have on young users is that if gratification isn't received, the user may internalise beliefs that they aren't enough, or they're not popular or funny, purely based on the number of likes they receive. People are looking for personal validation through these platforms, despite this not being a true reflection of their image in others eyes. The absence of this gratification increases the feelings of anxiety and loneliness. There is a variety of ways... --- > If you are one of those people who spend the first month of the New Year twiddling your thumbs, because business is slow. Well now is the ideal time to - Published: 2025-12-24 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/exclusive-new-years-resolutions-for-your-website-in-2026 - Categories: Web Design, WordPress If you are one of those people who spend the first month of the New Year twiddling your thumbs, because business is slow. Well now is the ideal time to re-evaluate your website. In this post I look at some of the things worth considering for 2024. Redesign If you have had your website for a few years now, and not done much to the look of it, the chances are it will begin to look a little bit dated. Technology is moving so fast on the web that it is not always viable to keep bang up to date. However, it is important not to get left behind while your competitors get new e-commerce sites or cater to the ever-increasing use of mobile devices. Your website is like a shop front and you need to keep the windows clean, the display dust free and contemporary, and the paint work looking fresh. Make the website suitable for mobile As once again the top selling items this Christmas have been Smartphones and Tablets, it is really time to consider making your website mobile friendly. There are a number of ways of doing this. The two main ones are creating a whole new site for mobile or making your current website responsive. I would suggest going along the responsive route as creating a separate site means more to maintain. Responsive Design is where your current website adjusts its width and layout based on the screen size of the device you are viewing... --- > Well, depending on what type of business you are in, you are not needed at all. See businesses that work with local SEO. Local SEO differs from normal or - Published: 2025-12-23 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-expert-local-seo-and-why-do-i-need-it - Categories: Advertising, Google Well, depending on what type of business you are in, you are not needed at all. See businesses that work with local SEO. Local SEO differs from normal or nationwide SEO by including a location metric. Location metric can mean three things VCM Ltd (solicitor + London) keyword near me (solicitor near me) keyword, and Google defines your location via your IP address. (solicitor) If you are based in London, then the search results should all be very similar. Where there is a difference tends to be in Google My Business Google Local Maps. However, there can be a very poignant difference as if you are logged into your Google account. Google tracks all of your searches and all of your locations in your Google account. So if you're based in Edinburgh and that is where you normally reside then your Google account will probably think you're in Scotland. So if you search for a solicitor, you are likely to get a solicitor plus Edinburgh. Google is not perfect. Local search and what it means to business One problem with the Internet is that you can search for a carpenter or solicitor who is based close by, only to make an enquiry by telephone and find their location miles away. Alternatively, as a business, you can get an enquiry that looks very exciting and is worth a ton of money, only to find out they're based in Timbuktu. It is a hard part of conversion optimisation to ensure that all... --- > In our previous blogs, I have provided small tutorials on linking your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account and vice versa. This month, I - Published: 2025-12-23 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/moneyback-accounts-campaigns-and-ad-groups - Categories: Advertising In our previous blogs, I have provided small tutorials on linking your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account and vice versa. This month, I will investigate Google Ads accounts themselves, review what the industry is saying about account structure, and share my thoughts on the matter. There are many blogs about how you should and shouldn’t structure your Google Ads account; should you use BMM and Exact match? Phrase, Exact and BMM? Phrase and Exact? Or BMM and Phrase? Once you have decided this, there is then a decision to be made as to whether to put all your match types in one ad group or split them out into individual ad groups? All these blogs telling you different things can be very confusing, there’s so many choices! I have seen a blog for every strategy under the sun claiming each different way to be “the best”. Unfortunately I’m not going to tell you which structure is the best, because the honest answer is, I don’t know myself. I have tried and tested a number of different ways of setting accounts up and have found that most of them work. I am unable to compare the different structures because I have used each of them on different accounts, with varying budgets and varying industries. Having said this, there are a few simple rules that I believe everyone should follow, these rules themselves will help you run a successful Google Ads campaign, no matter what match type structure you... --- > I attended a great talk about the importance of body language in business and life in general. She reminded me that over 60% of the way we perceive - Published: 2025-12-20 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/scientifically-proven-body-language-of-a-website-is-there-such-a-thing - Categories: Web Design I attended a great talk about the importance of body language in business and life in general. She reminded me that over 60% of the way we perceive someone is through their body language rather than what or how they say something. One of the questions she posed was why radio works when there is no body language on the show, but it does. Body language is all about engaging with the person/s you are conversing with. Can the principles of body language be applied to how your website works with visitors, or is a website like radio, where body language does not play a role? Build rapport What can you do with your website to make it more engaging, to ‘hit it off’ with the visitor and to encourage them to choose to take the action you want then to take. Effective body language is all about building rapport. This is the same with your website. So how do you build rapport with your visitors? Understand your target audience - if you truly understand who you are targeting you will know how they think and what they associate with How you look – the design of your site is a critical element. How you look is important – on a website this is achieved through good design which can communicate your company values. You only have one chance to make a first impression and often it is your website. Use right images – body language is visual and mostly... --- > There are many instances where you might need to implement GA4 Configuration tracking in your Flash or Flex project. A while back I integrated Google - Published: 2025-12-14 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/tested-correct-ga4-configuration - Categories: Google, Technical SEO There are many instances where you might need to implement GA4 Configuration tracking in your Flash or Flex project. A while back I integrated Google Analytics in a Adobe AIR application which was specifically built for social media marketing. To use Google Analytics, you have to create an account and then create a website profile. Once a website profile is created, Google Analytics will provide a UA code, which is a unique ID that it uses to send and store metrics data. Google provides an open-source ActionScript 3 API for Google Analytics data collection, which can be downloaded from https://code. google. com/p/gaforflash/. This API allows you to track up to 5 million events and pageviews per day without any restriction; you can have more than 5 million requests only if Google approves. After creating a profile on Google Analytics, you have to install GaforFlash on your system. The main component required in ActionScript development platform is the AnalyticsLibrary component that needs to be installed in the /Configuration/Components folder. GA4 Configuration: I am a huge fan of OOP development so I will always implement Google Analytics as an external class that I could invoke wherever and whenever I like. Below is a simple class that you could use to start tracking events and pageviews. package com. elevatelocal. model{ import com. google. analytics. AnalyticsTracker; import com. google. analytics. GATracker; import flash. display. MovieClip; import flash. events. MouseEvent; import flash. events. Event; public class AnalyticsTrackToday extends MovieClip { private var _stageAccess:MovieClip; private var... --- > “Dear shareholders, I’m pleased to announced that our X (Twitter) followers have increased by 15%”, said no CEO ever. Marketers know, and have known for a - Published: 2025-12-11 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/advantages-of-understanding-the-value-of-social - Categories: Branding, News, Socials, Twitter “Dear shareholders, I’m pleased to announced that our X (Twitter) followers have increased by 15%”, said no CEO ever. Marketers know, and have known for a while, that social media offers so much value. But why is it that most business owners, sales, operations and finance managers don’t see it? I think that as marketers we can only point the blame at ourselves. The Social Media credibility challenge is a self-perpetuating one. Marketing doesn’t show the value of Social Media to the business -> The business doesn’t have the case to invest in Social Media initiatives -> Marketing have less budget to make social work. How do us Marketers fix this? Set Objectives The Business Understands The first thing is we need to do is talk about objectives that the rest of the business understands. As Marketers, we know that a RT or a share is quite often a digital signal that someone is on the way to converting, but our colleagues in other business functions may not. The solution is to focus Social Media on metrics like: Increasing revenue Generating or influencing sales pipeline value Reducing operational costs For anyone who’s had experience with producing a business case for more investment, the key to success is showing a return in financial terms. The same is true of Social Media. As soon as you’re able to demonstrate it will generate a positive ROI, you’ll find that your colleagues in the boardroom will take it seriously. Choosing Your Platforms Wisely The... --- > With over 700 million users, it’s a great time for your business to start using Instagram! This guide outlines exactly how you can ensure to get the most - Published: 2025-12-11 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/extraordinary-studies-show-instagram-is-right-for-your-business - Categories: Branding, SEO With over 700 million users, it’s a great time for your business to start using Instagram! This guide outlines exactly how you can ensure to get the most out of Instagram’s ever-growing features and boost the popularity of your company. First Impressions First impressions count and when clicking onto your profile, the user will first come face to face with your bio, username and profile photo. Therefore, it is important that these elements endorse professionalism and brand continuity. Profile Photo This should ideally be your company’s logo and should cohere with the profile photos used on your other social media profiles. It should look good when cropped into a circle as Instagram will do this automatically. Username As with your photo, your Instagram username should be the same as your other accounts, ideally your company’s name for recognisability. Bio Your bio should explain briefly what your business is about and it is a good idea to include a few branded hashtags within this. Additionally, there is a space beneath your bio for your company’s website URL. Content Clearly, the most important part of your Instagram account is the content that you post, which by following these tips can be optimised to boost your profile’s following. Visual As with the remainder of your profile, visual consistency is key to getting the most out of your Instagram account. WebDam’s 2023 report found that 60% of the top brands on Instagram use a consistent filter. Therefore, establishing a recognisable aesthetic within your posts... --- > There are many reasons as to why on page optimisation rings true now as much as it did at any other time, especially for local rankings where we aren’t - Published: 2025-12-07 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-most-important-on-page-factors-for-local-seo - Categories: Local SEO, News There are many reasons as to why on page optimisation rings true now as much as it did at any other time, especially for local rankings where we aren’t relying on large budgets to help us achieve the rankings that we all desire. Here are some things to make sure you have optimised on your landing pages: Image from Scott Wong Title – Gone are the days where we look to cram as many keywords we can in to the title, not any more my friend, it’s now time to be concise and helpful to the user. Include the local area you are targeting and a keyword you are targeting throughout the site, but don’t get carried away with jamming in as many keywords as possible. Meta Description – Now many will have already realised that Google doesn’t take into account the Meta Description when it comes to rankings but that doesn’t mean we should leave it alone. This is the perfect opportunity to first catch the user’s eye with what the page within holds, entice them and use it as a call to action. Header Tags – Use a heading tag to capture the user’s attention, make it interesting and something that would encourage the user to read on. Don’t try to over optimise it and keep it natural for the reader. Google + Authorship – An interesting one, and one that we are currently experimenting with in the office with one of our clients. By setting up the... --- > Posting regular, well-optimised blog content is a great way to increase your Google search rankings, making your website more visible to searches and in - Published: 2025-12-07 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/show-expertise-when-optmising-your-company-blog - Categories: SEO Posting regular, well-optimised blog content is a great way to increase your Google search rankings, making your website more visible to searches and in turn, increasing the amount of traffic that’s arriving on your website. It is, therefore, essential to keep Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) front of mind when you’re writing blog content for your website. It’s widely acknowledged within the SEO community that blogging helps boost your website’s SEO quality. However, just writing a few paragraphs of content is not enough, which is why every blog you write must fulfil a series of easy-to-follow SEO ‘fundamentals’ for it to actually affect the way you are ranking in Google’s search. Not got a blog? Discover 10 reasons why your business should have a blog. To help you craft new blog content for your website, and ensure it meets the demands of Google’s algorithm, we’ve compiled below our top 3 tips to blog ranking success. 1. Focus on ‘Long-tail keywords’ To keep this short, do not try and shoehorn in as many keywords into your blog content as possible. This is known as ‘keywords stuffing’ and Google does not like it! Instead, you should focus on long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific phrases that people use when searching Google. Particular phrases make up the majority of search volume and whilst they get less traffic, they are more likely to convert. Long-tail keywords are often question based - hence why this blog is called ‘How To optimise your company’s blog’ rather... --- > What is social commerce? You may have adopted social media for your business and started your journey into social media marketing?You may be well on your - Published: 2025-12-05 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-worldwide-social-commerce - Categories: News What is social commerce? You may have adopted social media for your business and started your journey into social media marketing? You may be well on your way to creating a following and brand awareness on Facebook and Instagram? Great! ... . But have you heard of social commerce? What would you say if we told you that your social media marketing efforts could transcend into real-time sales? You’d be interested right! ? This new area of creating potential sales is a very new dynamic for businesses, and it is something smaller businesses should definitely be jumping on! So what is social commerce? In simple terms, social commerce is sales made via social media. We aren't releasing mind-blowing news when we say that people are glued to their mobiles. The mobile is taking over guys, and consumers spend on average 2 hours a day scrolling through their social media platforms. It was inevitable that social sites were going to become the new place to shop! Brands have got clever and rather than push marketing efforts on social media, they are taking it one step further and pushing direct sales from social platforms. Sell clients the idea and then build on this and take advantage of the impulsive nature of consumers. Genius! Need some more convincing? Over a third of Instagram users have purchased products on the mobile app. That's a huge amount of potential clients! 1 Billion Facebook users are using the app on their mobile device daily! That’s a... --- > A lot of the algorithm looks at your backlink profile - links from external sites pointing to yours, and particularly focuses on the anchor text (the - Published: 2025-11-30 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/whats-in-a-word-analysing-the-perfect-anchor-text - Categories: Anchor Text, SEO A lot of the algorithm looks at your backlink profile - links from external sites pointing to yours, and particularly focuses on the anchor text (the visible part of the link which labels your site), and assesses whether your site is fit for display in their indices (search results). If their algorithm determines that your backlinks are untrustworthy and unnatural looking, you might be looking at an over optimisation penalty – and your site will never see the light of day. What are considered unnatural and untrustworthy links? In the case of the Penguin update an unnatural backlink profile would contain a high disproportionate amount of links with exact match anchor text pointing to your site. For instance, if you were after the keyword phrase ‘red widgets’ and around 75% of your links had exactly that same phrase, you could be under some scrutiny by Google’s algorithm. This coupled with links from disreputable sites containing the exact anchor text and you have real cause for concern. Untrustworthy or low-quality links have many factors, these can be links from: Sites unrelated to your niche Low-quality articles/blog posts Comment spam on blogs If you have exact match anchor text over-and-over again on the above you can expect to suffer. So what links should I look out for? Quality comes with links from authority sites in your niche, whether you comment on their blog, post on a forum, write a guest post, or list in a directory. Build quality content that people want... --- > 4 Reasons your business should have an online marketing strategy With 90% of UK adults online, it comes as no surprise that digital marketing spend is set - Published: 2025-11-30 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/your-family-run-business-should-have-a-digital-marketing-agency-like-vcm - Categories: News 4 Reasons your business should have an online marketing strategy With 90% of UK adults online, it comes as no surprise that digital marketing spend is set to exceed that of traditional media globally by 2025. With the ability to reach target audiences quickly and efficiently, more small businesses are turning to online marketing over traditional mediums to raise awareness and ultimately generate sales. It’s cost-effectiveTraditionally, small businesses might use leaflet drops or outdoor advertising to attract new clients locally, but unless you’ve got the marketing budget of Dominos Pizza it’s going to be a real challenge to make a serious impact. For a leaflet drop you’ll first have to get the artwork professionally designed, then there’s print costs and the physical distribution, which can cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds depending on how many homes you’re targeting. When marketing your business online the cost-per-click on platforms such as Google Adwords or Facebook Ads can start at just a few pence, meaning you can reach more people at a much lower price. Improved targetingNot only is online marketing more cost effective, but because of its targeting capabilities you’re not wasting resources presenting your message to people who simply aren’t interested. Think about how many times you’ve received leaflets through your door and dumped them straight in the recycling bin because they’re just not relevant to you. At its most basic you can target users online based on their location, age and gender, but with paid social ads you can... --- > One of the great debates we have heard for years is how long search engine optimization takes to work? Well, in short, it depends. - Published: 2025-11-27 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/wise-answers-to-speed-up-the-time-it-takes-for-your-seo-to-be-successful - Categories: News, SEO - Tags: how long does seo take, seo, seo timeline, seo timescale SEO Timelines One of the great debates we have heard for years is how long search engine optimization takes to work. We've often seen SEO companies and other colleagues shake their heads and start muttering, "How long is a piece of string? " The answer, as elusive as ever, is that it depends. We'll walk you through why below. The timeline will depend on a new or old website There is a common misconception that SEO takes anything from 12 weeks to 12 months to impact anything. However, the reality is often dependent on how old the website is and how long it has been functioning in its current state and under its current ownership. Most websites rank somewhere for their core keywords. But it might be on page 5 or 6 of Google. Myths It will take three to six months to see any results. "It typically takes between 3 and 6 months for SEO to show results. That's according to the 4,300 people who responded to our LinkedIn and Twitter poll. " See here. You must publish a new blog post every week. Links don't matter. Or, links are the elixir of Google magic. Bad reviews on Google. We have tested four websites with bad reviews, and none is adversely affected; all rank on the first page of Google! Think of companies with the worst customer service; they still rank in Google. How would you write an algorithm that takes into account bad reviews? Do you reduce a... --- > Part One: Reflecting on the SEO trends of 2020 While Google makes hundreds of changes to it’s search algorithms every year, the vast majority of changes - Published: 2025-11-25 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/top-3-seo-trends-features-according-to-experts - Categories: SEO Part One: Reflecting on the SEO trends of 2020 While Google makes hundreds of changes to it’s search algorithms every year, the vast majority of changes are very minor, yet they still affect your ranking in the search engine results page (otherwise known as SERP). With a very hard year for businesses behind us, we reflect on 2020’s top 3 SEO trends. 1. Optimising for voice searchThis is a trend that has been in our rearview mirror for a good few years, however, when voice search was first released many disregarded the technology and assumed it would die out. Today, we now understand more about voice search and with the help of Schema. org, we have a better understanding of where it will likely go in the future, meaning SEO experts can no longer ignore voice search. 2. BERT still going strongBERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) enables anyone to train their own question answering system and impacts 1 out of 10 search queries. The BERT model is used to increase the chances for feature snippets appearing in search engine results and for Google to understand natural language. Featured Snippets are short snippets of text which appear at the top of the SERP to answer user’s queries quickly. The content for snippets are pulled through from web page content. These snippets are an opportunity for websites to increase their clicks and organic traffic without having high Google rankings. SEOs refer to the Featured Snippet position as ‘Position 0’ as this... --- > 10 Fun facts about Facebook As the third most visited website in the world, Facebook is arguably the most successful social network of all time. To honour - Published: 2025-11-24 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/10-fun-facts-about-facebook - Categories: Facebook, Socials 10 Fun facts about Facebook As the third most visited website in the world, Facebook is arguably the most successful social network of all time. To honour our favourite social platform we’ve compiled a few fun and helpful facts about the $479 billion company that started in a college dorm room back in 2004. When Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard College friends initially launched Facebook it was called Facemash. According to its latest figures, Facebook has 2. 4 billion monthly active users. That’s nearly a third of people on the planet! Facebook serves its users with 100 million hours of video every day. Videos also earn the highest rate of engagement, despite only making up 3% of content. Posts published on Thursday and Friday receive the highest engagement. The less people want to be at work, the more likely they are to be on Facebook! The most popular person on Facebook is Cristiano Ronaldo with 122 million fans. Facebook has spent in excess of $22 billion buying competitors such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. They have also acquired companies specialising in artificial intelligence, fitness tracking and a New York design agency. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan own a Hungarian Sheepdog called Beast. His Facebook profile has over 2. 6 million followers. Over 2 billion people can be reached via Facebook Ads, yet only 6 million businesses are active advertisers, despite there being over 60 million active business pages. The average number of friends on each account is 338.... --- > Summary: Tips and ideas on writing content for your website. Writing content for your website is never easy. Companies and, in particular, small - Published: 2025-11-24 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/writing-authentic-content-for-your-website - Categories: Content Marketing, Copywriting Summary: Tips and ideas on writing content for your website. Writing content for your website is never easy. Companies and, in particular, small businesses, have a certain knack of delaying their literature when it comes to their website. For so many businesses the problem is what to write about. Many a tradesmen hit a type of writer’s block saying “What else can I write about? ” Content plays a crucial role in Internet marketing. Not only does it help users make informed decisions and convert visitors to sales, but it also plays a vital role in SEO for rankings and PPC for landing page conversions. Content should be informative, easy to read, easy to follow, intuitive, and to the point! Ideas for Content Creation Although Elevate provides content for our clients, many businesses prefer to write their own copy. Here are a few ideas to creating content: Consider what makes your company unique, your services, and anything that stands out from the competition. Prices, offers, etc. Have a look for unused company literature. Sometimes, those leaflets and pamphlets have short bursts of text and bulleted lists that can be very helpful when expanded on. Add information on history and notable events within the company. Tips and tutorials. Sharing helpful advice relevant to your line of work goes a long way. FAQs are interesting and very good for generating leads online. Answering questions that are frequently asked removes doubt from the visitor, and less company time is wasted answering those questions.... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-11-22 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/5-incredible-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-business - Categories: Advertising, Google Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights 5 benefits of blogging for your business By VCM On Jul 16, 2024 Blogging might have begun as little more than a tool for the untrained writer to spout opinions and inform the digital world of their unexciting lives, the practice has rapidly grown and evolved into one of the most useful and successful ways of marketing a business. We know blogs are time-consuming and resource-draining but here are some reasons you might want to reconsider your lack of strategy. Benefit #1: A Blog Drives TrafficA website with no traffic is like that proverbial tree that falls in the forest; if no one’s around to see it or hear it, does your site actually exist? A regularly updated blog will automatically draw people to you. Perhaps not instantly but over time more and more readers will show up like clockwork to see your new updates. An interesting and insightful blog will lead to lead conversions and greater brand trust. Benefit #2: It Makes You Into An Authority on Your SubjectWhen writing a blog you must ask yourself; do people care what I’m saying? The only way for your business to succeed is by building trust with your clients and demonstrating to them that you know what you’re doing. A professional-looking blog with clear, concise messaging to prove to... --- > Possible bloggers reaction* when asked for a free link *Not really There are many ways to get in touch with bloggers, some more successful than others and - Published: 2025-11-21 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/more-feedback-please-help-me-get-in-touch-with-a-blogger - Categories: Backlinks Possible bloggers reaction* when asked for a free link *Not really There are many ways to get in touch with bloggers, some more successful than others and some that will reap more rewards than others. The key thing to remember every time is whether you are getting value for what you are giving up in return e. g a big prize, money, a reciprocal link (which we wouldn’t actually do, but people ask for them). Depending on what your client offers plays a role in what you can offer, winning a bouquet of flowers (take note people, Mother’s Day is round the corner and mums are expecting gifts) is far more exciting than winning a round of golf for four (ok that’s a blatant lie as this is probably every dads ideal gift for father’s day, again take note). It is more exciting than winning a lesson on how to polish shoes (check no clients specialise in this and get offended... check). The point is you can only work with what you are presented with. Here are some different options and ways of getting in touch with bloggers: Competition—A competition is fun and exciting and allows you to be creative, but don’t get carried away. The more entries, the better, so don’t exclude people with a tough question. Simple competitions often work best, even if they use Rafflecopter, which is simple enough and will make sure anyone can enter. Guest postings – these are or should be seen as mutually... --- > Is your SEO not working as fast as you would like? We have created a first 90-day checklist to help. Adapt and use as you please. - Published: 2025-11-18 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/your-seo-campaign-will-fail-without-these-essential-tasks - Categories: Our Process, SEO - Tags: seo, seo checklist, strategy What The First 3 Months of SEO Essentials Is your SEO not working as fast as you would like? We have created a first 90-day checklist to help. For all new clients, we create a simple strategy that outlines what is expected from both parties, who to report to and what is essential to emphasise. The length and scope of the plan depend on the size of the business or the complexity of the SEO work. Month 1: Discover the website's current positions in Google. Discover which products/services the business wants to focus on. List branding rules, voice and company USPs to include. Discuss strategies and options moving forward. Start to research all possible keywords and list them as a priority. (Ongoing process). Create backlink profiles for clients and competitors Create a list of words used on the client's website and compare them to the language used on competitors' websites. Repeat the task and study the anchor text within the client and competitors' websites. Look to match and then surpass the #1 ranking website in time Compare client web pages and blogs with competitors; what are we missing? Create a plan with lead times and milestones. List what we require from the client. Liaise with client marketing to share some of the workload if possible. Create and then introduce offers if appropriate. Research local competition and gain prices, service level, USPs and branding messages. Create stick in sand for current web traffic from Google Analytics Visit the Search Console and... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-11-16 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/6-approved-laws-for-social-media-success - Categories: Advertising, Google Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights 6 laws your business must follow to succeed on social media By VCM On Jul 25, 2024 Is your business looking for social media success? Perhaps you want to generate new prospects, improve your SEO or you simply want to provide a platform for your clients to engage with you? Whatever your goals, in order to succeed on social media there are a number of rules you need to follow in order to succeed and the guys at Business. com have put theirs together in the infographic below. Other Insights September 23, 2024 Social Media Content Calendar October 2020 September 16, 2024 Get to know our... Account Director September 4, 2024 Get to know... Our Junior Developer August 25, 2024 Social media calendar September 2020 View all Want to work with a unique, results-driven consultancy? Discuss your project with us Contact The Old Joinery, Maldon Road, Birch, Essex CO2 0LT Follow LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter From the Studio Email address Flexible Payment Options © 2020 LTD T/A VCM 10913387 GB275582666 Privacy Policy Web Design Essex --- > The key points that I would like to stress upon are as follows: Content is not king, it is king-maker. Creating shareable and compelling content is - Published: 2025-11-14 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/fully-reverse-engineering-your-competitors-social-content-strategy - Categories: Content Marketing, Socials The key points that I would like to stress upon are as follows: Content is not king, it is king-maker. Creating shareable and compelling content is neither cheap nor easy - in most cases. Leverage your competitor’s content to find out what works. In this post I will shed some light on the method I use to create shareable content, with the help of my competitor’s hard work. In this particular case I have used SEOBook. com as an example. Content is not king, it is king-maker Leaving technical SEO aside, content is the most important driver of success when it comes to your digital strategy. Yes, there are ways of manipulating the search engines without quality content, mainly through “black-hat” techniques. These methods are short lived and they are only good for seasonal products and services. For example, if you are in a business that only caters for Christmas season then you might want to manipulate search engines very aggressively with all sorts of dark techniques a couple of months before the season starts. You can take this risk because you are only interested in a 2-3 month boost but after that it wouldn’t hurt you a lot if search engine penalise your site because you will have another 8-9 months to recover from such events. I am not an advocate of aggressive methods regardless of “what-hat” they are. In today’s world businesses who succeed and thrive in the digital realm are ones who produce valuable content that helps... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-11-03 - Modified: 2025-11-03 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/instagram-now-allows-businesses-to-schedule-posts - Categories: SEO Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Instagram now allows businesses to schedule posts! By VCM On Feb 5, 2024 Yes, you heard right, Instagram now allows Businesses To Schedule Their Posts! You can probably hear if you listen carefully; the sound of businesses all over the globe rejoicing at the news! This move has been a highly anticipated moment for social media managers; and according to Hootsuite’s CEO, ‘16 million clients sent Instagram scheduling as their number one request’. Lots of businesses must have had a very happy day in the office on the 31st January when the update was pushed live! So yes it is now possible for businesses that use social media software to schedule in their posts ahead of time. We welcome the feature with open arms here at VCM as it brings an enormous benefit to businesses and of course, we are going to explain to you what that is. Why Is This Such Good News? The best benefit to come out of Instagram scheduling is that it is no longer necessary to take the time out of your day to upload a post manually. Prior to the update social media managers were able to use push notifications to upload Instagram posts. They would be able to input the image and the caption and schedule it for a certain date... --- > When it comes to structuring your Google Ads account, you may think the account/campaign/ad group layout is confusing, but it’s really quite simple and - Published: 2025-11-02 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/genius-way-of-structuring-your-google-ads-account - Categories: Advertising When it comes to structuring your Google Ads account, you may think the account/campaign/ad group layout is confusing, but it’s really quite simple and VERY important in setting up your account. The structure of a Google PPC account is as follows: Campaigns should be thought of as large categories. So for example, if you sold shoes, you may wish to have two campaigns, or categories, for ‘mens trainers’ and ‘womens trainers’. Ad groups are smaller catagories inside the campaigns. Therefore a campaign should cover a product set with relevant catagories inside it. So using our shoe example, a campaign for ‘mens trainers’ may then include ad groups for ‘mens running trainers’, ‘mens tennis trainers’ etc. Keywords and adverts are then attributed to each ad group. Each ad group has one set of keywords and one set of adverts so it is best for each adgroup to stick with one theme to encourage relevancy throughout the account. Our account now looks like this: The main aspect to remember about Google Ads is that it’s all about relevancy. By having specific ad groups, you can tightly theme the keyword lists and adverts within. Google likes to see your keywords being highly relevant to the advert and the most themes you are trying to cover in one ad group, the harder that is. Depending on your business and user behaviour in your particular industry, you may wish to structure your account differently (e. g. , by size, colour, location, or quantity). The best,... --- > Insert Random Image to Signify Success In The Search Rankings Google has come out fighting in 2022 with Penguin, copious amount of Panda Updates and - Published: 2025-10-31 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/researched-seo-tip-for-2025 - Categories: Images, SEO, Web Design Insert Random Image to Signify Success In The Search Rankings Google has come out fighting in 2022 with Penguin, copious amount of Panda Updates and punishing low quality sites with Exact Match Domains (EMD’s), all things to keep the SEO’ers out there, on their toes. And all signs point to 2023 continuing in a similar direction. There’s been somewhat of a buzz word doing the rounds over the past couple weeks about how we can move forward with our SEO efforts in 2023 and stay ahead of the game and continue to see the improvements we want to – and that word is Diversify! Yes, something that I’m sure many of us were doing already, but that hasn’t stopped people from stressing just how important it is for everyone to get involved in 2023. But this doesn’t mean to just diversify your link profile – I hope we all have diverse link profiles out there, if not stop reading and amend this – this also means you really should be looking to Diversify your Anchor Text, your marketing and even your traffic sources. Let’s start with the basic diversifications – Anchor text and your link profile Anchor text – gone are the days of trying to force in your exact keyword in to a sentence that just doesn’t work. Believe it or not but hammering and forcing in your anchor text of ‘Foot long turkey sandwiches’ in to sentences which start off going on about ‘renting flats in Scotland... ’... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-10-30 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/honest-advice-on-how-to-create-great-email-marketing-content - Categories: Advertising, Google Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights How to create great email marketing content By VCM On Nov 7, 2024 Email marketing is one of the best digital marketing tools available to us. But with 1,000s of marketing emails being sent on a daily basis, how do you make sure your message doesn't get lost in transit? Here's a how-to guide on creating email marketing that will actually get read and responded to! infographic courtesy of Backlinko and Iconicontent Other Insights September 23, 2024 Social Media Content Calendar October 2020 September 16, 2024 Get to know our... Account Director September 4, 2024 Get to know... Our Junior Website Developer August 25, 2024 Social media calendar September 2020 View all Want to work with a unique, results-driven consultancy? Discuss your project with us Contact The Old Joinery, Maldon Road, Birch, Essex CO2 0LT Follow LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter From the Studio Email address Flexible Payment Options © 2020 LTD T/A VCM 10913387 GB275582666 Privacy Policy Web Design Essex --- > Should you worry about your bounce rate? As digital marketers, we check our client’s Google Analytics regularly and treat it as a routine ‘health check’ - Published: 2025-10-29 - Modified: 2025-10-29 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/should-you-worry-about-your-bounce-rate - Categories: News Should you worry about your bounce rate? As digital marketers, we check our client’s Google Analytics regularly and treat it as a routine ‘health check’ for the websites we manage. If we see good results - great! However, sometimes there is an issue that we need to review and follow the right steps to ensure our clients get the very best return on their investment. The overview report you see when logging into Google Analytics is a great starting point to discuss important metrics such as page views, unique visits, average visit duration and bounce rates. All these essential metrics are mostly self-explanatory, except for the bounce rate, which clients often struggle to understand. In this blog, we answer the most common questions about bounce rates to provide a better understanding of what your bounce rate metric means for your website and business. What is a bounce rate? Google defines Bounce Rate as the percentage of a single pageview visit to a website. In layman's terms, the number of people who only view one page on your website. However, in reality, it’s a little more complicated... The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking an action, such as clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase. Therefore, they could spend time reading through all your page content, they just don’t take any action. What are good and bad bounce rates? For anyone outside of the marketing industry, this can be... --- > We love WP.It’s our CMS of choice for its flexibility, support, ease of use and its bundle of awesome features. If you’re not a veteran WordPress user (or - Published: 2025-10-25 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/5-incredible-things-you-didnt-know-about-wordpress - Categories: WordPress We love WP. It’s our CMS of choice for its flexibility, support, ease of use and its bundle of awesome features. If you’re not a veteran WordPress user (or even if you are! ), you may be missing out on some clever features that not everyone knows about. This is part 1 of our “Things you didn’t know about WordPress” series, hoping to open the box of tricks that is WordPress. 1 Changing how often the trash is emptied You may not be able to get your bin men to turn up more often, but you can certainly control when WordPress empties trashed pages and posts. All you need to do is add the below code to your wp-config. php file found in the route of your WordPress installation. The number 2 is the number of days you want WordPress to keep trashed items for. define( ‘EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS’, 2 ); 2 Changing how often WordPress autosaves your content You may have noticed that when editing a page or post, WordPress autosaves your content every so often. If you have ever been furiously tapping away at your keyboard only to accidentally close your browser or lose your internet connection, you may find that you have lost some of your content. To change how often WordPress autosaves your content, add the below code to your wp-config. php file. The number 160 is the number of seconds WordPress will wait before autosaving. define( ‘AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL’, 160 ); 3 Automatically embedding video, audio and other media... --- > 10 reasons why your business should have a blog Blogs are known to be the interactive hub of your website as it delivers numerous benefits that you can’t - Published: 2025-10-21 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/10-reasons-why-your-business-should-have-a-blog - Categories: Advertising 10 reasons why your business should have a blog Blogs are known to be the interactive hub of your website as it delivers numerous benefits that you can’t necessarily achieve through other pages. Blogging is a crucial part of your content marketing when it comes to generating organic traffic to your site. Time-consuming maybe, however, your blog offers you the opportunity to have a voice within your particular industry. Why Should I Start a Blog for My Business? Your blog will boost your SEO. Search engines love valuable content. A blog creates a two-way conversation with clients and industry peers. It encourages interaction, comments and feedback. It's fun! Blogging is exciting, inspiring and something your readers will look forward to each week. Blog writing makes you think, about newsworthy topics, your industry trends, your clients and the world around you. A blog keeps you focused on your content marketing strategy. You must create a schedule and stick to it to continuously deliver purposeful content. A blog builds confidence, relationships and sales. Customers will look to you as a reliable resource for information on your industry; then come to you to buy. You can tell your brand's story. A blog is a great place to offer more insight into your company, employees, and ideas. Tell your clients why you’re in business and how you can help them. Blogs are cost-effective marketing investments. Every post you publish is a long-term asset that helps build brand awareness and promote your expertise, products and... --- > As you’ll know, Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for improving a process. It was formally introduced to the world of manufacturing in the 1980s, - Published: 2025-10-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/a-trustworthy-marketing-managers-guide-to-better-results-with-six-sigma-principles - Categories: News As you’ll know, Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for improving a process. It was formally introduced to the world of manufacturing in the 1980s, as a way to ensure products are made defect-free. What set it apart from other quality-improvement initiatives at the time was its clear focus on achieving measureable financial returns by making data-driven decisions. I think there is a really effective way to use Six Sigma to deliver better marketing performance — whether you are a marketing manager delivering campaigns with an in-house team, or with an agency. Let’s start with understanding a bit about one of the key elements of Six Sigma we’re going to be focussing on: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC). Understanding DMAIC One of the methodologies used by Six Sigma is DMAIC: Define: An understanding of the problem, the desired output and the scope of the task. Measure: Analysis to identify and quantify the gap between current and desired performance. Analyse: To list and prioritise the potential causes of the gap in performance. Improve: A plan to identify, test and implement a solution. Control: A plan to implement most effective solution for long-term gains. As Six Sigma was designed to improve manufacturing output, these steps were originally intended to look at manufacturing process. But I think these 6 steps are actually the ingredients required for a solid marketing campaign. Armed with these, any marketing manager should be able to craft the perfect brief and run an effective campaign.... --- > With this post I am going to kick start a series of blog posts on human psychology, consumer behaviour and marketing from a digital media perspective. You - Published: 2025-10-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/landing-pages-that-drive-over-200-more-leads-guaranteed - Categories: Content Marketing, Web Design With this post I am going to kick start a series of blog posts on human psychology, consumer behaviour and marketing from a digital media perspective. You are probably reading this blog post because you are interested in getting your online business off the ground or are helping one of your clients convert their visitors into paying customers. If you believe that creating a great landing page is about pairing great copy with aesthetically pleasing design, you will be surprised. While both of the aforementioned attributes play a central role in converting visitors into paying customer, they don’t encompass all aspects of action-driven and persuasive landing pages. The first impression of a landing page has the ability to strike a connection between itself and the visitor. Therefore one must concentrate on instilling and evoking emotions within the first few seconds else the vast majority of your visitors may not convert. Believe it or not, only through instilling and evoking emotions will you be able to make someone part with his/her cash, this is particularly true in our consumerist world. Great landing pages focus on the following characteristics: Urgency Create a sense of urgency by offering: Limited time offers Free shipping Countdowns Limited quantities Value Tie in that sense of urgency with value Freebies Discounts/Savings Free trials Free consultation Credibility Demonstrate that you and your product/service are credible Client testimonials Social proof Awards Association with industry leaders Trust Finally, induce a sense of trust. Accreditation logos Verification (particularly if its e-commerce... --- > Words tell stories, and the right trust words tell Google a lot about your business and how it should be ranked. - Published: 2025-10-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/introducing-trust-words-within-content-and-how-to-use-them-effectively - Categories: Copywriting, SEO - Tags: copywriting, trust words, writing content You Should Be Using Trust Words in Your Content - Here's How (Writing for Google in 2025) Writing for Google involved adding keywords and key phrases as often as possible. It is interesting that several SEO copywriters still believe this. With the advent of semantic search, keywords and key phrases needed to include synonyms, antonyms, and variations of what a user might be searching for. Keyword stuffing is officially dead. However, with the introduction of Google Quality Controllers, things have changed in another way. Google quality controllers are (physical) people employed by Google to rank the trustworthiness of a website. They do this by viewing the website and scoring it against set criteria. Read more here. Google is looking for additional features and aspects of coding and content that it might not use as a ranking signal within its algorithm. Hence, the birth of what is known as trust words Some of the most popular trust words used on the Internet by SEO content writers are 'best', '#1' and 'award-winning'. Search for any design and advertising company; these are the words you will see in most Google adverts and meta titles. Most dictionaries have over 350,000 words, but within these words, how many are considered those used by companies and businesses that display (correctly) a level of trust and reliability? This is where the Quality Controllers come in. It would be easy to scan all websites deemed "trustworthy" and begin compiling a new list of words that Google would expect... --- > For many, The Independent’s decision to move towards becoming a pure digital publisher wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Print circulation has been in a - Published: 2025-10-14 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/independent-bloggers-and-best-selling-publishers-will-they-be-here-in-2026 - Categories: Content Marketing, Copywriting For many, The Independent’s decision to move towards becoming a pure digital publisher wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Print circulation has been in a declining trend for years and I doubt costs have decreased at the same rate. The biggest surprise was that they were the first to do it. As Evgeny Lebedev’s letter to his employees said: “We will be the first of many leading newspapers to embrace a wholly digital future... But UK print newspaper market conditions mean this change is inevitable... With the spirit of a start-up, and all the authority of our heritage, this transition means the world’s most innovative news brand can embark on a sustainable future. ” BBC Three made a similar statement when it announced its move to online-only on February 16th. The Independent’s site currently has a monthly readership of 58 million and its predicted online revenue will grow by 50% this year. What Does The Future Of Independent Publishing Look Like? But, is digital really the sustainable future they are hoping for? I’m not doubting whether digital is here to stay, nor that it has radically changed our consumption habits. Just this week the IAB reported 70% of people use a connected device whilst watching TV and most online activity is done during a programme, rather than during ad breaks. The challenges facing digital Despite the facts outlined above, there are some big challenges and changes facing digital: Ads on site are a key form of revenue, but with the growth of... --- > Humans have always relied on using as much information as possible before deciding. However, in the past couple of decades the internet has dramatically - Published: 2025-10-05 - Modified: 2025-10-05 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-data-mining-and-ai - Categories: Analysis & Data, Technical SEO Humans have always relied on using as much information as possible before deciding. However, in the past couple of decades the internet has dramatically changed the volume of information available; dealing with 2. 5 quintillion bytes of data produced every day is an overwhelming workload for the human brain. Gaining useful insights from complex datasets is a far from trivial task. While current website tracking methods generate a vast amount of invaluable user behaviour information, in many cases those are not taken into account and decisions are made intuitively. While big datasets can be partially explored by cherry picking a few parameters based on initial hypotheses, such an approach might provide half-truths or lead to neglecting unintuitive facts that might be evident in the remaining unexplored part of the data. This fact, combined with the aforementioned data explosion, led to the development of various techniques that utilise the processing capabilities of computers in order to extract usable information from data. Those methods fall under the broad term of data mining, which is a buzzword used whenever a large-scale data processing or analysis is performed. In reality, data mining describes a multidisciplinary subfield of computer science which among others involve statistics, database management, data visualization and machine learning; another term that everyone is talking about these days. What is machine learning? While the term machine learning sounds a bit overwhelming, it describes a rather simple concept. The goal is to feed available data as input to a machine (i. e. a... --- > Web typography has progressed fantastically over recent years. With the support of OpenType features growing and responsive fonts being developed, we are - Published: 2025-10-01 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-not-only-the-best-designers-should-get-excited-about-web-font-tech - Categories: News, Web Design Web typography has progressed fantastically over recent years. With the support of OpenType features growing and responsive fonts being developed, we are able to produce beautiful sites which users can access from anywhere, on any device they wish. Recently, Nick Sherman talked at Ampersand Conference about a further exciting development in web typography that will help us all: font interpolation. So, what is font interpolation and why should website owners and marketers be excited – aren’t fonts just for designers to drool over? The current web font situation Currently on the web we have to load individual font files to make up a page’s design. That includes the body and heading fonts as well as bold and italic, just in case they are used on the page. Loading all these files can make page load slow. While the server searches for your font file, it can display no content (depending on how the site has been developed and if it uses technology such as lazy load). As users become accustomed to high-speed internet, they become increasingly impatient with page load times. 40% of consumers spend less than three seconds waiting for a page to load and so showing a page with no content can be very detrimental. While you may now think “Let’s just put everything in normal Arial! ” that doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. Font weights help with hierarchy, guiding the user through the page as well as making it more interesting to look at. If this text... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-09-30 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/7-tips-to-consider-when-using-old-school-leaflet-dropping - Categories: ROI, SEO Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights 7 tips to consider when leaflet dropping By VCM On Feb 22, 2024 There are so many forms of marketing now for your business with advanced, and electronic adverts, but that’s not to say you can’t resort to traditional methods. It’s been proven by many successful businesses that leaflet campaigns do work, this is why lots of businesses of all sizes use them. Naturally, there are sceptics, and often that is because they have tried door drop distribution and it’s failed, but here are our 7 tips to consider when leaflet dropping to try and create a successful campaign. 1. Don’t Put Too Much InformationIt is important to get your message or main mission/aim/product across but what you don’t want to do is drown people in paragraphs, which can often overwhelm the reader and put them off. Keep it simple with a good, well thought out, punchy headline. 2. Think About Your DesignA good, attractive design is essential to get a good response. Many people often put a leaflet together without giving the layout, design or copy much thought. Don’t make the leaflet too busy, and spell check! It will not look professional if you have spelling mistakes and an in your face leaflet. 3. Quality! It’s more obvious than you think to tell between a cheap, poor... --- > Here are the relevant names (in no rankable order) to listen to when optimising and improving your website's SEO. - Published: 2025-09-29 - Modified: 2025-05-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-trending-names-in-seo-and-marketing-in-2025 - Categories: Digital Marketing - Tags: digital marketers, digital marketing, famous seos SEO & Marketing Influencers to Follow in 2025 For Daily Tips and Advice With so many names in the SEO space presenting conflicting opinions, it can be tricky to know who to listen to - and seeing that SEO has the power to rocket your sales, it's critical to follow the right advice. Well, take it from us, the experts. Here are the relevant names (in no particular order) to listen to when optimising and improving your website's SEO... 1. Neil Patel https://youtu. be/Exw3t1MSHhE @neilpatel *Rated top ten marketed by Forbes and a New York Times bestselling author The brilliant and credible Neil Patel has been a favourite of mine for many years. I know him mostly for his long guides and how-to articles on his website. But he's gained more popularity through his YouTube shorts, explainer videos and the creation of a free site audit tool, Ubersuggest (which is excellent for SEO beginners, by the way). Ten years after I started reading his blogs, Neil Patel's fame has grown, making him a prominent, well-known name in the marketing industry. 2. Tom Marriott View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tom Marriott ? SEO Punk (@theseopunk) @theseopunk A micro-influencer who presents his SEO content in a fun way, Tom Marriott posts SEO tips and humorous posts that make learning a little bit easier. Tom's career in SEO began ten years ago in a start-up, from which he progressed to working with large FTSE100s and international enterprises. Listen to... --- > When I started studying Adwords, my poor underdeveloped brain simply could not remember all the jargon. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) the only occasion when - Published: 2025-09-26 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/inclusive-adwords-acronyms-abbreviations-definitions - Categories: Advertising When I started studying Adwords, my poor underdeveloped brain simply could not remember all the jargon. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) the only occasion when anyone should have to ‘Google’ an acronym 3 times is to decipher your nephew’s texts. Whilst I’m ranting about txts and abbreviations; Mum, if by some miracle you have stumbled upon my blog, it’s not 2004 anymore, you can stop using cul8er... Well, VCM didn’t have a comprehensive resource to refer to when I was learning, so I hope someone finds this list of Google Ad's definitions applicable. Jargon Description Keywords are words and phrases that you want to appear for when they are searched for on Google. Match Type This is how keywords trigger your adverts. Currently there 4 different match types: Broad Only one word in this keyword match type has to be present to trigger an ad. E. g. Dog Trainers could trigger an advert for Nike Trainers. BMM +Broad +Match +Modifier allows your advert to be triggered no matter the order the words are searched in so long as all words are present. Phrase “Phrase” match means that the searcher has to type in the words in the same order, but other words can be searched either side. Exact Match means that the search term has to be typed in precisely the same before the keyword triggers your ad to be shown. Negative Keywords These are the searches that you don’t want to appear for. Search Terms The searches that actually... --- > Marketing tips for Instagram Already killing it with your business on Facebook & Twitter? And now considering starting up an Instagram account? Here - Published: 2025-09-18 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/reliable-marketing-tips-for-instagram - Categories: ROI, SEO Marketing tips for Instagram Already killing it with your business on Facebook & Twitter? And now considering starting up an Instagram account? Here are a few pointers we think you should know before you get started! --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-09-18 - Modified: 2025-09-18 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/typography-where-it-all-begun - Categories: News Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Typography: Where it all begun By VCM On Sep 3, 2024 You may think typography has only been around for a few decades. But, the first type of message found in historical records was a series of pictures that told a story, also known as Pictograms. In 1200 BC Phoenicians were discovered in Egypt. Since then the Greeks adopted the Phoenician language and begun to develop the source of our modern alphabet. The Romans then improved on the alphabet and added short finishing strokes at the end of letters, now known as Serifs. One of our most recognised fonts to date is Times New Roman. Which was created back in 1931 by Stanley Morison who was commissioned by 'The Times' newspaper to create a new easy-to-read typeface. Since then typography has grown to be part of a brands identity. Usually, the font of a website can be the last thought, but ironically it is one of the most important. Even with great illustrations, photography and graphics, if, you choose poor typography it will turn the reader away. It's essential to choose good typography, to ensure your website delivers the right message and attracts potential clients. Below we have given examples of how the same font can look different depending on the style. Nowadays typography has moved in such... --- > 3 things you actually need to know about social media Whether you're managing your own social media channels, or you have a fabulous social media manager - Published: 2025-09-17 - Modified: 2025-09-17 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/3-things-you-actually-need-to-know-about-social-media - Categories: News 3 things you actually need to know about social media Whether you're managing your own social media channels, or you have a fabulous social media manager - like us! - running your channels for you, there are 3 Things You ACTUALLY Need to Know about Social Media. We all know by now how great social media is, and how we shouldn't limit ourselves to using one platform, and how we should regularly update our channels - but these are 3 questions that we're often still asked, as an agency offering social media services. Can we post about this right now please? As a social media manager, what we choose to post about, when we choose to post it, how many posts we decide to share a day, what we retweet or share - all of this is down to finetuning a method that works best for YOUR brand. Everything that's posted is posted with some thought behind it, so expecting/asking someone to post something immediately isn't best practice. Feel free to send over relevant links or bring up suggestions, but try not to dictate WHEN you think something should be posted. Can you make this go viral? What happens when a post goes viral? You'll receive a sudden burst in interaction - likes, comments, shares - and then this will die down as soon as the next 'viral' piece of content arrives. Is this always actually beneficial for your company? In short - no. Viral content is often viral because... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-09-17 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/our-approved-social-media-training-courses - Categories: Advertising Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights VCM Social Media Training Courses By VCM On Nov 23, 2024 About our training coursesHere at VCM, we are now offering training courses to teams of up to 6 people from £60 per person. If your wanting to know more about how to divert traffic to your website or make sales through social media, whether that be from using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn, we are here to help and have a team of experts to bring your knowledge up to speed in the world of social media marketing. We provide a relaxed environment for you and your team to spend the day, where you can ask any questions along the way or bring up any open discussions. Who we have trained so farWe have worked with local clients Poplar Nurseries, HOGIT, White & Co Solicitors, Impamark, The Square and Compasses Pub and Upchurch Jewellers. Quotes:“Really enjoyed the social media course this morning! It was really interesting learning different ways I could use Facebook to market my business. ” Ellis from HOGIT. "Thank you for coming down and teaching me about social media. I have to say that you’ve taught me more than I thought I would learn. " Rory from Impamark. Why do a social media course? You may not think that a network used for socialising... --- > Instagram advertising A beginner’s guide If you’re not utilising Instagram ads, you should be.Businesses of all shapes and sizes flourish thanks to - Published: 2025-09-17 - Modified: 2025-09-17 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/instagram-advertising-a-beginner-s-guide - Categories: SEO Instagram advertising A beginner’s guide If you’re not utilising Instagram ads, you should be. Businesses of all shapes and sizes flourish thanks to targeted advertising on Instagram, which has only been possible since Facebook purchased the platform in 2023. Not to mention, audience engagement on Instagram is ten times higher than Facebook. Different types of Instagram advertInstagram has five different adverts you can choose from:Photo ads – appear on the feed using a clean and simple canvasStories ads – add and complement your feed contentVideo ads – the same as photo ads with the added video formatCarousel ads – lets users swipe to view multiple imagesCollection ads – helps to sell your products with video, images or bothThere are also a variety of call-to-actions (CTAs) to choose from to increase your traffic and leads. Which advert should I choose? First, determine your goal. Each ad type is designed to drive a different outcome. If you want to increase your brand awareness, you should avoid a collection advert as the format is designed for direct selling. Instead, consider a single photo or video with a CTA. On the other hand, if you want to showcase a new collection of products, a carousel ad is ideal as you can upload multiple images for viewers to swipe through. Whichever style you use, make sure it aligns with your business goals. Reaching your audienceUse Instagram’s targeting options to tailor your audience. You can deliver ads to users based on their location, demographics such as... --- > 6 WEBSITE DESIGN MISTAKES TO AVOID in 2025… …AND AN OPPORTUNITY AT THE END FOR YOU TO RANT! Whether you are creating a website for business or personal - Published: 2025-09-15 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/six-of-the-biggest-wed-design-mistakes-to-avoid - Categories: News, Video Marketing, Web Design 6 WEBSITE DESIGN MISTAKES TO AVOID in 2025... ... AND AN OPPORTUNITY AT THE END FOR YOU TO RANT! Whether you are creating a website for business or personal use, you need to ensure that it is designed to make visitors want to engage with it. While the content on your website goes a long way towards making that happen, a site that is not user-friendly can do real damage to the level of engagement it receives. If your site is guilty of any of the website design mistakes below, it might be time to consider a redesigned website or perhaps even build a new one altogether. 1. WEBSITE HARD TO NAVIGATE The general rule of thumb with any website is that users should be able to find what they want with just one or two mouse clicks. If they have to do any more than that, there is a greater chance that they will give up and move on. When designing, ensure that the navigation of your website is logical. Make sure that important pages can be reached easily and never force the user to return to the homepage just because that’s the only place that has apparent links to the rest of the site. 2. FONT AND COLOUR Red and blue might be your favourite colours but that doesn’t mean they will be everyone else’s. It also doesn’t mean that they will translate well to the overall look of your site. The same rule applies with fonts. Don’t... --- > How to reduce the bounce rate of your website Is your website’s bounce rate high? That can indicate that your website is not converting your visitors to - Published: 2025-09-09 - Modified: 2025-09-09 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-reduce-the-bounce-rate-of-your-website - Categories: SEO How to reduce the bounce rate of your website Is your website’s bounce rate high? That can indicate that your website is not converting your visitors to act on your call-to-action. Your website is not getting a sufficient chance to convince and convert your clients. By implementing our techniques, you will begin to see a reduced bounce rate and in return, increase your conversions. What is a bounce rate? The bounce rate is when a visitor lands on your website and then leaves immediately or after a short amount of time without browsing other pages. A high bounce rate indicates that your page isn't able to convert your visitor. To give you an indication of what a good and bad bounce rate is we generally apply these rules. 84% and more is bad70-84% is poor60-70% is average30-60% is excellent20% or below may be a tracking error such as an incorrect tracking codeUse this as a helpful guideline for bounce rates across all industries. For more tailored statistics, we suggest researching guidelines for your specific industry. How to reduce your bounce rate? It's crucial to not fall into any common pitfalls. Here's what to identify and solutions to help reduce your bounce rate. Optimise page load timePeople's first thought when it comes to a high bounce rate is the quality of the content on your landing page. But could the issue occur before the user even has a chance to read the content? If your page load speed is slow, the... --- > SEO is a process of hurrying up and waiting. Our work in one month will not show results until the following month. - Published: 2025-09-08 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-famous-7-point-seo-process - Categories: SEO, Strategy - Tags: marketing, seo process SEO as a Marketing Process SEO is a process of hurrying up and waiting. Our work in one month will not show results until the following month. It is a lengthy process of convincing Google that our client has superior online information and offers a better (business) service to be positioned above other dentists in search results. As the work is ongoing, we charge a fixed monthly retainer. Whilst there are many strategic discussions to be made, once that information is in place, we follow the same SEO process we have developed over 17 years. 7-Point Process: Create a content plan that furthers the practice's goals for patient acquisition. Execute a content plan: Write content, developing a tone and voice. Upload content to the website. Write metadata and choose the URL and site structure for future-proofing. Add images. Optimise and interlink content into the site. Submit to Google. Analyse and monitor how Google receives the content (SERPs). Further, optimise content to improve Google's position. Write additional content to support keyword variations (cost of, how-to, etc. ). Introduce off-page optimisation techniques like backlinks and social media signals. Analyse page/section traffic and conversion rate analysis. Ask for practice feedback on new patient numbers or any missing information. Make changes and improve content. Repeat with new keywords. If you use this process religiously, you will be able to gain more and more organic search traffic. We appreciate that it is a big ask for any business owner, but it can be done one... --- > Use digital marketing to grow your small business Digital marketing influences what we talk about, what we buy, where we visit and how we work, and - Published: 2025-09-08 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/case-study-on-how-digital-marketing-grows-small-businesses - Categories: News Use digital marketing to grow your small business Digital marketing influences what we talk about, what we buy, where we visit and how we work, and encompasses more than just having a website. It’s now near impossible for small businesses to survive without investing in new methods of digital marketing. The changing business landscape Many businesses try new methods of digital marketing half-heartedly, not allowing for experimentation, trial and failure. But it takes all three to find the right approach, which means an adaptable long-term strategy is essential to ensuring your business isn’t left behind. How to take advantage as a small business There are a variety of digital marketing methods to choose from – not necessarily to replace your traditional methods but to work alongside them. The prominence of Facebook and Google Ads, amongst other platforms, means you can reach and specifically target clients interested in your service or product for a fraction of the cost of traditional media. Better still, you can track the performance of your ads and gain a better insight of your clients, which you can use to improve your ads, all while having control over your budget. Even the simplest of campaigns can increase leads and sales. Getting started The first step is to map out characteristics of your target audience and where they look for products and services like yours. Are they searching on Google? Do they browse Instagram? Are they only looking at industry publications? Ask your clients these questions and pinpoint... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-09-01 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/ever-wondered-what-colours-to-choose-when-branding-your-business - Categories: Advertising, Branding Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Ever wondered what colours to choose when branding your business? By VCM On Jun 6, 2024 Colours can influence your mood, emotion, behaviour and even the products you choose to buy! This knowledge can be harnessed by brands and businesses to evoke different reactions and impact their decisions. According to studies, 62-90% of people choose to purchase a product based on colour alone! We are going to explore the psychology of colours and how we can use them for your branding! Credit: The Logo CompanyYellowYellow represents optimism, warmth and happiness. If you need to lift someone's spirits, increase their confidence or provide inspiration, opt for yellow. Many companies use yellow to appear welcoming and friendly - it entices people to become 'friends of the brand'. BluePeace, tranquillity and reliability are all associated with the colour blue. Many businesses use blue as a predominant colour as it ignites the feeling of trust. GreenGreen resembles nature, health and peacefulness. Many health brands use the colour as it has earthy and natural connotations. Darker green relates to money and wealth whereas lighter greens relate to growth and freshness. RedRed can relate to our physical needs whether that's love and affection or fear and terror. It is an energising colour that is powerful and strong but can give a sense of aggression... --- > Benefit from the creative skills of a copywriting agency, but without the agency baggage! VCM takes a unique approach to deliver powerful, effective - Published: 2025-08-31 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/benefit-from-the-creative-skills-of-a-copywriting-agency-but-without-the-agency-baggage - Categories: Copywriting Benefit from the creative skills of a copywriting agency, but without the agency baggage! VCM takes a unique approach to deliver powerful, effective copywriting throughout Surrey, London and beyond. Confused about copywriting? Unsure of what to say? Know what you want to say, but don’t know how exactly to say it? Think how much easier your job would be if there were someone to find the right words for you... VCM is an award-nominated copywriting, SEO and website design company, founded by professional copywriter and digital marketing specialist Martha Smith. VCM offer intelligent copywriting, creative content and measurable digital solutions, delivered with over 18 years’ of practical marketing knowledge. Based on the border of Surrey and London, VCM supports individuals and small to mid-sized businesses that value transparency, jargon-free conversation and clear results. VCM offer a more personal relationship than a large copywriting agency, greater accountability and absolutely no marketing waffle! It’s a different way of doing things, and it’s a logical approach that works like magic. VCM is a far better choice than a copywriting agency - here’s why... I’m not like a traditional copywriting agency, marketing agency or digital agency – VCM don’t believe in hard selling and I won’t ever push my services onto you. VCM have got a great bunch of clients that I love working with and that makes what I already love doing even more enjoyable. I’m friendly and approachable but I’m also honest and open – if VCM don’t think we are the... --- > Every day Google responds to billions of searches. Most of these searches are repeats, where Google has solid experience on what is the best result. But - Published: 2025-08-30 - Modified: 2025-08-30 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/rankbrain-just-smashed-your-content-plan-to-pieces-right - Categories: Google, News Every day Google responds to billions of searches. Most of these searches are repeats, where Google has solid experience on what is the best result. But 16% of searches have never been seen by Google before. Historically, Google has used human raters/reviewers to ensure the algorithms are serving accurate results for ambiguous queries. Of course, using people to review millions of individual searches is just not feasible. As voice search increases in popularity and digital assistants rise, the volume of never-seen-before queries will explode. Therefore, it was imperative for Google to find a scalable solution. This is where RankBrain steps in. RankBrain is Google’s Artificial Intelligence. It uses machine learning to guess the meaning and context of these never-seen-before queries accurately and filters the results served to the user accordingly. Google has also announced that RankBrain is the third most important ranking signal. As a marketer, you should consider this. What’s This Got To Do With Your Content Plan? Your content plan probably had your editorial agenda, topics and resources neatly lined up for the next six to twelve months. But now we know RankBrain is actively looking to respond to the long, long, long tail of search (undoubtedly as a result of the proliferation of voice search and digital assistants), your content plan needs to address the ever-changing language your users employ and the diversity of questions they enter into a search engine. So, your content plan now also needs to address the super-detailed questions your users might have... --- > So we are just over a days away from April Fool’s, and many people in Google have probably spent the past couple weeks thinking up some jokes of - Published: 2025-08-29 - Modified: 2025-08-29 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-hoaxes-that-time-of-year - Categories: Google So we are just over a days away from April Fool’s, and many people in Google have probably spent the past couple weeks thinking up some jokes of themselves to try and catch the gullible out – not Danny Sullivan though, he has been far too busy informing us about the ‘new’ over optimisation penalties. Over the years Google has rolled out some classic pranks and many of us fallen to them – I myself have even been prone to a prank from Google. I’m not afraid to admit it and neither should you... (Pause for a Spartacus-esque moment). More. Starting in 2000, Google started to roll out a prank on April 1st and have continued to do so ever since then with a few breaks in between. There have been a few farfetched ones and even ‘April Fools’ that have turned out to be true, they have thrown a whole host and variety of them out there. What I do know is that every year people come in to the building and go ‘have you heard what Google have do... ’ that’s when I check what day it is and that’s when I switch off, although hand movements may distract me sometimes. Seeing people mimicking G-Motion movements was highly amusing. Like many of us, Google play these hoaxes for there’s and our amusement, and if you know what they are up to you can appreciate it. Pigeon Rank (PR) for example, something that for a long time many SEO’rs... --- > Effective website copywriting demands a clever approach “Combining creativity with cleverness is secret of a great website copywriter.” It’s essential to - Published: 2025-08-27 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/website-copywriting-service - Categories: Copywriting, News Effective website copywriting demands a clever approach “Combining creativity with cleverness is secret of a great website copywriter. ” It’s essential to get your copy absolutely right for a new website While you should naturally bear your reader in mind when writing your copy, a great sounding website will mean very little if people cannot find it in the first place. This is where website copywriting differs from copywriting for print. A website copywriter doesn’t just have to write words that are catchy, creative and compelling, they have to be clever about it too. SEO copywriting is a valuable process for any new website. Unless your copy is well optimised with the appropriate keywords in the relevant places, Google will not know what your site is about... and if Google doesn’t know what you do, then they won’t know to suggest your website to potential customers who are looking for your goods or service. Already got a website? Great! I can then PROVE the effectiveness of your new website copy. If you already have a website, and I am rewriting your existing copy, I can prove that it will be more effective than what you will be leaving behind. You often can’t demonstrate the effectiveness of something creative, but with website copywriting, you can. I track where you are already ranking for the keywords and terms you want to appear for before VCM provide you with your new website copy. This way, once your new web content is uploaded to... --- > A strategic SEO website edit is one of the most effective ways to propel your site’s visibility “Within 3 weeks my ranking for my main keywords had gone - Published: 2025-08-24 - Modified: 2025-08-24 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-website-edit-is-one-of-the-most-effective-ways-to-propel-your-sites-visibility - Categories: News A strategic SEO website edit is one of the most effective ways to propel your site’s visibility “Within 3 weeks my ranking for my main keywords had gone from ‘not in the top 50’ to between positions 1 and 7, ie all on page one of Google. ” (Amanda Patton, Client. ) How does a strategic SEO edit get your website ranking higher? There are thought to be some 300 factors that influence the SEO ranking of your website – some more than others. Based on extensive research from many SEO experts, this is probably true, but Google are very guarded and would never fully disclose the methods they use to rank your website. What is evident though, is that they are more than willing to give us clues. At times, they will even reveal exactly what we should be doing, as you can see by visiting their webmaster guidelines. I help businesses make a quick impact with their website. VCM have got dozens of happy customers all over London, Surrey and even further, who have all seen their website traffic increase and their profits rise as a result of me giving their existing copy an SEO copyedit. Please get in touch to hear more about my SEO editing service or to discuss your SEO copywriting requirements. My techniques are legitimate, honest and explained to you in full detail. I never practice ‘black-hat SEO’ and VCM don’t take shortcuts that could get you penalised in the long run. --- > Moving a WordPress site to a new domain may seem daunting, but follow the steps below and you’ll be up and running in no time. The instructions below will - Published: 2025-08-22 - Modified: 2025-08-22 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/migrate-a-wordpress-site-to-a-new-domain-and-hosting-without-the-fuss - Categories: Images, Technical SEO, Web Design, WordPress Moving a WordPress site to a new domain may seem daunting, but follow the steps below and you’ll be up and running in no time. The instructions below will help you move a standard WordPress site to new hosting and configure the site to work correctly on the new domain. This guide assumes the following: The site is moving to a new server The domain name is changing Your new domain name is already pointing to the new server You know how to access your hosting control panels You have some basic knowledge of WordPress, Databases, Hosting and FTP Clients. Step 1 – Backing up your site The first step in moving your WordPress site is to make sure you have a backup of all the site files locally on your computer. We will be using these file to upload to the new server, so we need to make sure that we have a confident copy of every file. To do this you will need to connect to your old server via ftp and download the entire WordPress installation. Depending on your broadband connection and the size of the site this can be a lengthy process, so grab a cup of tea and put your feet up! Alternatively you can make a start on step 2. Step 2 – Backing up your database WordPress is a CMS system that stores important information and content in a MySQL database. This database is vital to the way your website looks and acts.... --- > Still don't think your business needs a website? As a digital agency, one thing we've discovered whilst networking is that many small businesses - - Published: 2025-08-20 - Modified: 2025-08-20 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/still-don-t-think-your-business-needs-a-website - Categories: News Still don't think your business needs a website? As a digital agency, one thing we've discovered whilst networking is that many small businesses - particularly in the construction industry - don't feel the need to have a website! Their business is ticking over quite nicely, they're getting great recommendations from past clients and word of mouth is making sure their phone keeps ringing. But with more and more of our lives becoming integrated with technology and the internet - can your business really survive in the modern world? The next generation of your clients are used to receiving all their information online. It is second nature for them to head straight to Google if they're in need of a plumber, a builder, a landscaper... if you're not online, you could be missing out! Here are 20 things to help you consider whether getting a website would be beneficial for your business:Infographic from Adworx --- > How to take top-notch shots for social media on your smartphone A picture paints a thousand words, which is why visual content consistently performs - Published: 2025-08-12 - Modified: 2025-08-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/how-to-take-top-notch-shots-for-social-media-on-your-smartphone - Categories: SEO How to take top-notch shots for social media on your smartphone A picture paints a thousand words, which is why visual content consistently performs better than plain text on social media. But how often do you have photos professionally produced for your social channels? The reality is that most of your photos are probably taken on a smartphone, so ensure your images are top-notch with our top 10 tips for taking the very best photos on your smartphone. 1. Invest in a tripodGo hands-free and ensure your photos are level by investing in a small tripod. These can be picked up from Amazon for less than a tenner, but are totally priceless. 2. Be aware of lightingSmartphone flashes aren't great, they cast a horrible stark light and are very unflattering for portraits, not to mention the red-eye! Take advantage of natural light by shooting outside, but if you have to take photos indoors then position yourself near a window for optimum natural lighting. 3. Shoot according to the platformFacebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all favour landscape images for posts, whilst you’ll need square shots for your Instagram feed and portrait for stories. As a rule of thumb turn your phone on its side and shoot landscape, as you can always crop your images for Instagram. Social platforms change their optimum image sizes all the time, so keep up to date with this quick reference guide from Hootsuite. 4. Don’t zoom! Zooming is a big no unless you’re using a professional camera.... --- > SEO Checklist for Fresh Content in 2025 There are many techniques you can endorse in order to have your websites content favoured by Google’s web - Published: 2025-08-12 - Modified: 2025-08-12 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-checklist-for-fresh-content - Categories: News SEO Checklist for Fresh Content in 2025 There are many techniques you can endorse in order to have your websites content favoured by Google’s web crawlers. When you follow these simple rules of thumb, your content will be far more likely to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) and in Google News listings, generating organic traffic to your site! Bear in mind that this list is not conclusive of all the techniques that a professional SEO would use on a day-to-day basis, but for a novice, these techniques will get you much closer to best practice. Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions & Header TagsMeta title tags should be between 60-60 characters long, including spaces. Your most important keywords need to be first in your title tag, with your least important words (if applicable) coming after. Meta descriptions should be between 160-160 characters and targeting the main keyword(s). Well written and optimised descriptions will entice users to click. Also, users' search terms in Google are bolded if they are also included in your meta title and description, which also increases CTR. The H1 header tag should be targeting your most important keyword but should not be the same as your title tag. A way around this can be to include both your primary and secondary keywords in your meta title, but only use your primary keyword for an H1. You should always have only 1 H1 tag per page. You can have the less important but related keywords as H2’s,... --- > Ever month we strive to improve on last month's content and on and off page optimisation. It is a time of new ideas and team motivation. - Published: 2025-08-12 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-regular-brainstoring-is-an-seo-must-to-keep-focus - Categories: SEO, Small Business marketing - Tags: brainstorming, meeting, seo. clients How We Work: Brainstorming & Strategy At the beginning of every month, our team meets, reviews each client, and determines the next steps for their campaign. Every client has an SEO strategy document that aligns with and provides a foundation for their business marketing goals and targets. This includes an overall SEO plan and a content plan that lists all content needed at a top level, i. e. , products or services. It also contains blog-level content to fill the gaps for questions and longer-tail keywords. The purpose of the meeting is to identify alternative ways to create a different narrative for a client's products and services. Websites are repetitive, and people use keywords and key phrases differently. Our approach is to present a webpage for a variation of key phrases. This way, we maximise a client's exposure to all organic search traffic. Other SEOs like CC Digital will tell you that duplicate content is wrong and somehow bad but websites are not books, user don't start on page one and keep turning the pages until the end. They can land on any page on your website, so webpages need to be hammering home the most important USPs or brand messages. But we agree, huge pieces of dupilicate content is a no-no. Thinking from the perspective of the target audience When we consider other ways of selling a client's products or services, we put ourselves in the target audience's position. What are they looking for? What do they want? Who... --- > VCM's Guide to Understanding Important SEO Concepts SEO can be a minefield, so having an understanding of particular SEO concepts helps you better - Published: 2025-08-11 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/digital-reflow-s-guide-to-understanding-important-seo-concepts - Categories: Advertising VCM's Guide to Understanding Important SEO Concepts SEO can be a minefield, so having an understanding of particular SEO concepts helps you better understand what our SEO experts are doing every day and can help you build your foundational SEO knowledge. Because of this, VCM has created a visual guide to help you understand important SEO concepts. Got a project in mind? Get in touch with our team today. What are Canonical Tags? A canonical tag (rel canonical) tells search engines that this specific URL represents the master copy of a page. This tag helps prevent duplicate content issues on multiple URLs. As duplicate content is complicated, understanding that search engines crawl multiple URLs with identical or similar content can cause a lot of issues for your website’s SEO. The issue of duplicate content causes are the effect it has on your website’s crawl budget. This means that if a search engine crawler has to wade through loads of duplicate content, it will most likely miss your unique content. Additionally, duplication of content will make your website’s organic positions plummet. This is because it’s possible that the search engine will choose a different URL over yours as it may believe that the latter is the original author of this content. Why Do You Need Hreflang Tags? Hreflang Tags are useful when you have content that is specific to your business’s local audience. For example, if your business's local language is English but a consumer is searching in Spanish, these tags... --- > Google’s Analytics 360 Suite announces itself as an enterprise analytics/advertising solution for a multi-screen world. But it’s the potential it brings - Published: 2025-08-11 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-analytics-360-first-for-business-data - Categories: Analysis & Data, SEO Google’s Analytics 360 Suite announces itself as an enterprise analytics/advertising solution for a multi-screen world. But it’s the potential it brings for digital user experiences that’s got my mind racing. Google’s enterprise ‘stack’ (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics Premium, DoubleClick, Adometry) is being bundled together into a modular offering called Google Analytics 360 Suite. Current users of Analytics Premium can expect to see name changes. Google Tag Manager also looks set to be replaced by Tag Manager 360. But the 360 Suite means more than a few name changes. Until now, Google’s enterprise stack has always lacked a Data Management Platform (DMP). The 360 Suite appears to resolve this. With the 360 Suite’s DMP, you are able to collect customer data from multiple sources for the purpose of building powerful audiences that can be marketed to via a demand-side advertising network, like DoubleClick, AppNexus, Adform and so on. This is clearly the message Google are leading with: you can now collect user level data as they interact with your brand on a variety of devices, combine the data in their DMP and build segments/audiences based on a holistic view of each user. And as the 360 Suite appears to be open to third party providers, you can use the segments/audiences in Google’s DMP to affect advertising campaigns on a range of ad exchanges, not just Google’s. This opens up huge opportunities for advertisers as DSPs like AppNexus can now be combined with Google’s advertising products to reach users, wherever they... --- > Conversion optimisation is an important and fruitful part of digital marketing. It is an area of digital marketing that I am passionate about as it brings - Published: 2025-08-08 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/quick-guide-to-identifying-your-competitors-ab-tests - Categories: Conversion optimisation Conversion optimisation is an important and fruitful part of digital marketing. It is an area of digital marketing that I am passionate about as it brings forth the convergence of science, art, data and psychology. One of the best ways to start CRO on your site is to start studying what your competitor’s are doing, identify what could be working for them and apply it for your own site. You could start by studying your competitor’s HTML output to see if they are using any A/B testing tools such as Visual Website Optimizer, Google Experiments, Optimizely etc. Once you have established that your competitor is carrying out A/B tests, you then need to keep an eye on their site or specific landing pages to capture their various tests. This process enables you do learn about their tests and at some point you will be able to identify their winners - you can then use elements of their “winner” variation and apply them within your landing pages. Doing this manually may be feasible in some instances; however, it requires time, patience, and a lot of cache clearing, IP rotation, etc. You can choose to do this manually, or you can use CRO Monitor, which automates the entire process and notifies you when it comes across a new variation. The following are some examples of variations that we detected using CRO Monitor. KISSMetrics A/B Tests Below are three different KISSMetrics variations that CRO Monitor has identified. Variation 1 Notice how KISSMetrics is... --- > Tap into our knowledge as a straight-talking SEO consultant. We are based in London but cover all of Surrey, London, and the surrounding areas. “SEO - Published: 2025-08-05 - Modified: 2025-08-05 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/seo-consultancy-services - Categories: News Tap into our knowledge as a straight-talking SEO consultant. We are based in London but cover all of Surrey, London, and the surrounding areas. “SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. No customer will ever complain that you made something too easy to understand. ” What on earth is SEO? Put simply, SEO (search engine optimisation) is all about ensuring that the search engines love your website. As clever as Google is (and Yahoo! , BING etc) it is still fundamentally just a computer programme – albeit a brilliant one that processes algorithms that even the experts can’t claim to understand fully. Unless you build your website and optimise what you put on it with the search engines in mind, they will likely have difficulty understanding your site. If you give them a helping hand, it puts you in a much more likely position to be ranked more highly against your competitors. As an SEO consultant, I help you understand that the search engines view your website differently and how to speak their language. You may look at your website and think “but it looks much nicer than that other site that appears above mine” and you may well be right, but again, that would be attributing human characteristics to a search engine. Google sees some of what you see, but it is less concerned with your opinion about your website and more interested in ensuring it sends out the best site to suit the query that a user is searching... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-08-04 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/is-cool-music-in-the-workplace-a-good-idea - Categories: Advertising Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Music in the workplace - a good thing or bad thing? By VCM On Aug 6, 2024 One of the great workplace debates, to listen to music or not? ! It is a lot more common nowadays to have music playing in the office. Multiple studies that prove music can increase productivity and accuracy among employees. Almost 84% of warehouse workers agree they are more productive when background music is playing. Over half of UK businesses say music in the workplace makes them more productive, and one in five believe they would lose business if they didn't play music. With the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and big radio stations such as Radio 1 and Heart FM. It is becoming easier to access music during work hours. A lot of businesses are using music to set the tone for new visitors within their reception areas, so that first impressions aren't just visual. There is still the argument that music will distract you and not allow you to concentrate on the best of your ability, which is true to a certain degree. If you are writing a blog, for example, it is best to listen to music that is familiar to you or songs that don't have any lyrics to them, as they are the least distracting. A lot... --- > GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS 2023 There are over 200 known Google ranking factors that affect your SEO performance. So many of these are not known to us as - Published: 2025-08-03 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/learn-the-new-google-ranking-factors - Categories: News, SEO GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS 2023 There are over 200 known Google ranking factors that affect your SEO performance. So many of these are not known to us as Google keep pretty tight-lipped about what exactly their ranking algorithms are based on, but they do give hints and tips. Sometimes they even tell you what is influencing the position of your website, in which case, pay attention! The list below is formed of a combination of SEO ranking factors – those that Google have come out and directly said will influence where they rank your website, as well as those that are generally accepted to be ranking factors, but they haven’t specifically admitted. These are typically thanks to months, and years, of industry research into what will help your website appear higher up in the search engines. A HELPING HAND WITH SEO For ease, these have been split into categories. Whenever writing website copy, or designing a website, all search engine optimisation principles below will be applied, but if you already have a website then please feel free to use this checklist as a handy guide to ensure that you are doing everything you can to be as visible as possible online. You are welcome to download or save the ‘Google ranking factors 2023 checklist’ to make this job even easier for you. CONTENT SPECIFIC SEO RANKING FACTORS -Content quality/unique content -Min 300 words per main page -No content duplication -Keyword density -Keyword appears in H1 heading -Internal linking structure -Important content... --- > Content marketing for SEO, for clients in London, Surrey and beyond. “If good content is published on a website but nobody is reading it, is it still good - Published: 2025-07-31 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/faqs-on-how-content-marketing-for-seo-differs-from-social-media - Categories: News Content marketing for SEO, for clients in London, Surrey and beyond. “If good content is published on a website but nobody is reading it, is it still good content? ” Content marketing for better SEO won‘t work unless it’s interesting Scarecrows were once known as ‘hobidy-boobies’ The part of your back that you can’t quite reach to scratch is called the acnestis, which is derived from the Greek word for cheesegrater There was no word for the colour orange in English until about 450 years ago Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. Why are these facts important? Well they’re not, but they are interesting, and that’s the key thing about great content marketing. It needs to be interesting, or useful, as that’s the only reason people will choose to share it. ( I bet you share at least one of the facts you just read) Sharing is the key to great content. Content gives people a reason to view your website. You want more people to do that. Therefore, what better way than to create content that they want to read. Moreover, what better than to have them share it (i. e. do the advertising for you) and encourage even more people to then go and read it too! As a copywriter and content marketing professional, my job is to take a topic, a product, a business or an idea and find interesting words to describe and ultimately sell them. Content marketing comes... --- > Today we’re going to be having a look at something that, in my eyes, is always underrated: ‘Local adverts’ - Appealing to people’s heightened interest in - Published: 2025-07-30 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/local-seo-or-local-google-ads - Categories: Advertising, Local SEO, SEO Today we’re going to be having a look at something that, in my eyes, is always underrated: ‘Local adverts’ - Appealing to people’s heightened interest in local businesses is the key to standing out in today’s ‘advert-packed’ internet. The majority of small businesses I see advertising online seem to be focused on having an internet presence that makes them out to potential customers as a big national business. While this seems like a great idea to build trust and reputation there is a downside to this tactic and, something that is very often overlooked, is the need to appear as the stereotypical friendly, family-run business that delivers nothing but great products and warm smiles to the local community. And there are some big differences in the way people feel about national corporations and local businesses: Users feel that a national corporation provides them with: Trust / Reliability / Speed / Value for money Trust – “A big business with lots of reviews and a lengthy trading history. I can trust them to be there with big call centres any time of day when something goes wrong or I want to complain. ” Reliability – “Delivery service for their tens of thousands of products, usually in store, they never close early and are always open on Sundays. ” Speed – Free next day delivery is now ‘the norm’ for trading giants, you also get self-service checkouts, automated doors and even packing services. Getting your money & getting you back out the... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-07-30 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/do-social-media-influencers-really-influence - Categories: Advertising Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Do social media influencers really influence? By VCM On Jun 18, 2024 Social Media Influencer - it doesn’t sound like a job that could pay your bills, does it? Well, you’re mistaken, it's one of the hottest jobs, due to the rise in social media. We're spending longer on our phones than ever before, and brands are starting to take note. Nowadays people are becoming famous on social media by posting what they're passionate about and building their following. Whether it's on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. The bigger the following, the bigger the paycheque. A blogger who is just starting out, with around 5-10k followers could earn around £200 per post. Whereas, the social media giants like Kylie Jenner will receive thousands to promote a product on her social channelsYouTube has boomed within the past few years. Zoella is one of Britain's highest-paid YouTube stars and earns her millions by posting her life to her large following. Brands send her products every month in the hope Zoe will give them a mention in one of her vlogs that goes out to her 12 million subscribers. People buy from people. Influencers are real people, and they're more likely to be authentic and to interact with their target audience. 70% of teen subscribers think YouTuber’s are more relatable... --- > What is a measurement framework? Not all metrics were created equal. While the number of pages viewed by users could be considered critically important - Published: 2025-07-30 - Modified: 2025-07-30 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/identify-define-and-track-key-metrics-doing-measurement-frameworks-right - Categories: Analysis & Data, News What is a measurement framework? Not all metrics were created equal. While the number of pages viewed by users could be considered critically important for a publisher generating revenue from ad impressions, the very same metric is relatively meaningless for a lead generation website. Unless you can consistently pin down the numbers that matter to your business, it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. When this happens, it becomes impossible to determine the effectiveness of marketing spend. If this sounds like a familiar story, you are certainly in need of a measurement framework. A measurement framework defines what success looks like for your business. By connecting objectives to metrics, it becomes easy to understand how digital marketing is driving your business forward. Defining a robust measurement framework is the first step on the road to accountable and data-driven performance marketing. More. 1. Identify your business objectives A good measurement framework begins with identifying the top priorities and ambitions of your business. All businesses have objectives, such as to maximise net profit or to increase the number of high quality leads. Alternatively, objectives might look to solve a problem, like reducing the load on a call centre or to improve the public perception of a product or brand. Digital marketing is simply one of the tools required to achieve these objectives. 2. Link objectives to key performance indicators (KPIs) With your objectives in mind, think carefully and identify the two or three metrics at your disposal that most... --- > 3 things to think about before appointing a marketing agency When running a small business, you can be so focused on the day-to-day tasks of getting - Published: 2025-07-28 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/hands-on-guide-to-how-to-appoint-a-marketing-agency - Categories: News 3 things to think about before appointing a marketing agency When running a small business, you can be so focused on the day-to-day tasks of getting sales, fulfilling orders and all the admin that goes with it, that your marketing activities get left behind. The pressure these days to have a good website, be present on social media, have great photography and so on can give way to the ‘that’ll do’ school of marketing. Too many companies make do with an iPhone for their pictures, a downloaded WordPress template for their website and get their gap year nephew to do their social media. All this is fine in theory, but the problem is you’re starting with the tactics and the output, rather than with a strategy and a clear sense of what you’re trying to achieve. Doing everything in house (and frankly, on the cheap! ) means you’re going to get what you pay for and that’s often not very much at all. The alternative is to do what many successful companies do and outsource your marketing to a specialist agency instead. To put you in the best place to decide how to take your marketing forward, we’ve pulled together three steps to help you stay focused on the most important aspect of all - a return on your investment! 1. Know what you want to achieve before you choose someone to work withBefore you meet any marketing agency, consider the following:What marketing activities do I currently do? People often... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-07-26 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/staying-safe-on-social-media - Categories: Advertising Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Staying safe on social media By Duncan Hewitt On Sep 6, 2024 Social networking is a global revolution, enabling around a billion people worldwide to stay in touch with their friends, share experiences and photographs and exchange personal content. The key word here is PERSONAL. There is a sense of the untouchable when it comes to social media. This is a dangerous sentiment. For all of social media’s positives and innovations, its accessibilities must be respected and not to be trifled with. This blog will explore the best practices to utilise all the unequivocal positives about social media but also the dangers people can encounter. Getting StartedNever disclose private information when social networking Be wary about who you invite or accept invitations from Think very carefully before being persuaded or harassed into changing your basic beliefs or ideologies Be careful about clicking on links in an email or social networking post Various social networking sites are also valuable tools used by many companies and individuals to extend their contacts and deliver marketing messages. The nature of social networking – having such an enormously engaged base of users who are unknown to you – means that using it carries a degree of risk including becoming a target for cyber-criminals. The RisksDisclosure of private information by either yourself or friends/contacts... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-07-24 - Modified: 2025-07-24 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/the-follower-number-means-nothing - Categories: News Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights The follower number means NOTHING! By VCM On Oct 15, 2024 In recent news, it has been revealed that up to 96% of an ‘influencers’ following is in fact, fake! So how do you avoid these fraudulent influencers? The Social Chain Group has launched a tool to identify fake engagement amongst influencers called Like-Wise. The information released so far states it collects data from the large engagement bot farms, building a database of millions of fake profiles, which replicates engagement behaviour by automatically liking and commenting on posts. Social Chain said it has trialled the tool with several major brands and found that in one case an influencer who charges over £760 per post had a fake engagement rate of 96%. The agency reviewed over 10,000 influencers who are regularly called upon by brands and agencies in social media campaigns. They found that more than 25% of influencers have engaged in this type of manipulation or fraud. "From what I know about the deep dark shadows of what's possible, the follower number means nothing: it isn't relevant or interesting. " - Social Chain Group CEO Steve BartlettBartlett went on to say, "There are major brands paying some people thousands of pounds for fake influencers to be flown around the world when they literally have zero influence. Zero. There’s... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-07-22 - Modified: 2025-07-22 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/why-are-reviews-so-important-for-your-business - Categories: News Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Why are reviews so important for your business By VCM On Aug 27, 2024 Reviews. The perception your clients have of you and your business. It's a scary thought that all your hard work and dedication over the years is in the hands of someone else. Here's what you can do to be sure your business gets the good reviews it deserves and tips for handling those negative ones if they occur. As Google ranks websites in order of their reviews, they are vital to your business and with so many sites popping up online, such as Yelp, Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot. It is so easy for millions of people to use these sites to leave reviews, and influence a purchase. So, if you want to stay a step ahead of your competitors, you know what you need to do. As many as 92% of clients read reviews before making an online purchase. With increased business visibility due to social media, it's crucial you make sure that the impact you make on your clients is as translucent as possible. Positive reviews can turn interested consumers into clients. A study found that 72% of consumers say that positive reviews improve the trustworthiness of a local business. Based on this information, it’s clear that positive feedback can bring clients... --- > Part Two: VCM’s Top 3 Predictions for SEO trends in 2025 In our previous blog we looked back at some of the SEO trends that we focused on in 2020, but as - Published: 2025-07-21 - Modified: 2025-07-21 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/top-3-predictions-for-seo-trends - Categories: SEO Part Two: VCM’s Top 3 Predictions for SEO trends in 2025 In our previous blog we looked back at some of the SEO trends that we focused on in 2020, but as one year comes to an end, we look to the future and the trends we should prepare for in 2025. Take a look at our top 3 predictions for 2025:1. Google’s EAT principles are here to stayKeeping Google’s EAT principles (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) in mind when creating content will remain critical for ranking success 2025. These core principles are:ExpertiseTo be seen by Google as an expert, you need to demonstrate how deep your knowledge is and how well you know your niche. This is important to ensure you stand out next to the thousands of businesses who are all working towards the same goal. AuthoritativenessAuthority is measured to see how well you, your brand or website stands against your competitors. Users are looking for websites in which they trust the expertise from someone they know is the best in their industry. So when you’re writing content for your website, keep in mind that Google looks for content that is expertly written, but is the most authoritative to their users. TrustworthinessGoogle measures trustworthiness based upon a website’s backlinks from other domains. However, a misconception of backlinks is the more you have the higher authority a website has, but this is not the case. A website’s backlink strategy should be about quality, not quantity. The more links your website... --- > Search Engine Optimisation takes many forms, from quality content marketing to outright spam and everything in between. It can be tempting to fall for - Published: 2025-07-17 - Modified: 2025-07-17 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/where-has-whitehat-seo-gone - Categories: SEO Search Engine Optimisation takes many forms, from quality content marketing to outright spam and everything in between. It can be tempting to fall for marketing rhetoric such as “get to the top of Google in one day. ” The difference between white hat SEO (good marketing) and black hat SEO (bad marketing) is a simple distinction to make, but can sometimes be difficult to classify from the sale pitch of your chosen company. Back to basics To improve the position of your web page in search engine results pages (SERP), you have to know how search engines work. Search engines categorize web pages based on keywords, which are important terms relevant to the page's content. Search engines such as Google use keywords to associate your website with a niche market and rank sites with higher relevancy to the market in question. Trying to trick search engines can lead to great short-term success, but it never lasts and can even get you banned from appearing at all in the most extreme cases! What is Black hat SEO? Automated spam Scammers and hackers Sneaky and hidden links or keywords Delivering different content to users and search engines Black hat SEO usually provides limited short term success and can have a severely negative affect on your website. What is White hat SEO? Content marketing Website optimisation Link building Community interaction White hat SEO provides the most reliable long term success. Does it really matter? Black hat SEO engineers often make claims that may... --- > If you happen to be amongst the many that have been hit with an unnatural links notice, it’s highly likely that you have experienced a range of emotions - Published: 2025-07-16 - Modified: 2025-07-16 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/reconsideration-request-rejected - Categories: Backlinks If you happen to be amongst the many that have been hit with an unnatural links notice, it’s highly likely that you have experienced a range of emotions when thinking about the recovery process. Many of us initially start off in a state of denial trying to kid ourselves about creating a clean back-link profile that includes a mass amount of directory links and comment spam. We soon relax and simply accept the long-winded arduous task ahead of us. Assuming you have carried out the required work, the penalty will only be lifted if you submit a successful reconsideration request. There is nothing more frustrating than receiving the dreaded message of rejection after waiting in anticipation for weeks on end. A reconsideration request can be rejected for a number of reasons. This could be due to unnatural links that remain within the back link profile or simply down to the lack of evidence provided. Here are some common reasons as to why your reconsideration request may have been rejected. A lack of effort demonstrated in the link removal process Sometimes Disavowing a domain just isn’t enough. Google’s web spam team want to see that you have actually made the effort to remove the ‘bad’ links. In order to do this effectively there are a couple of steps that can be taken. 1. Use Login Credentials If you have previously built naughty links through a large quantity of business directories or article directories, simply log in and delete the listing or... --- > Get to know our... Copywriting Martha... she is the one to go to for all your requirements regarding pricing and is looking forward to taking VCM to the - Published: 2025-07-09 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-professional-copywriter - Categories: Advertising, Copywriting Get to know our... Copywriting Martha... she is the one to go to for all your requirements regarding pricing and is looking forward to taking VCM to the next level with our business development team. 1. How does your morning usually start? 5. 30 am dog walk with a cup of black coffee. 2. What’s your favourite thing about being an Account Director? Talking with people. 3. What’s on the menu for lunch? A coronation chicken and mango chutney sandwich with prawn cocktail crisps and an egg custard. 4. What songs are you playing in the office? As long as it's not silent,t I will listen to anything. 5. What’s your proudest achievement? Everything we did to buy our first home. 6. Aside from the necessities, what is one thing you could not go a day without? A hair clip or bobble. 7. Three words to describe your personality Passionate, kind, clumsy. 8. What is your favourite place in Guildford and why? My Dad’s house as the family always gathers there for food and drinks. 9. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher. 10. Who did you look up to growing up? My mum, I wanted to do everything she did from cross-stitch to playing house and my Auntie who was a primary school teacher with the best wardrobe I’ve seen and always looked so glamorous. 11. Favourite app and why? I use WhatsApp more than any other app to share daily videos with my... --- > What is X Really ? In short, The lifeblood of X (Twitter) is ‘Tweets’. These short messages (up to 140 characters long) are quick to write, read and - Published: 2025-06-30 - Modified: 2025-07-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/an-outstanding-x-twitter-guide-for-businesses - Categories: News, Socials, Twitter What is X Really ? In short, The lifeblood of X (Twitter) is ‘Tweets’. These short messages (up to 140 characters long) are quick to write, read and accessible anywhere. X (Twitter) is defined as a real-time information network. Anyone can post, view, and share messages (Tweets). You can follow people, groups or themes you are interested in and you can build a community of people that follow you. A follower will see all of your Tweets in their timeline. Why are businesses using it? X (Twitter) – when used well – is a brilliant tool for businesses. It can be utilised in many ways – including: Sharing offers/product news quickly Building relationships with your customers Gathering market insight And SEO (search engine optimisation) – Google loves X (Twitter) and when used well it can help your search engine visibility The X (Twitter) jargon What is: A ‘Mention’? My user name is @SamElevate. If someone wants to mention me in a Tweet they include @SamElevate. An example would be ‘Great job on the new website @SamElevate’. I would then be notified of that mention. A ‘Retweet’? If you see a Tweet you like you can push the Retweet button bellow it. That will then share that Tweet with your followers. Note – people like being Retweeted – so you can build bridges this way. A ‘Direct Message’? To send a private Tweet to an individual you can start your Tweet with DM or D. An example is ‘DM @SamElevate –... --- > Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects - Published: 2025-06-30 - Modified: 2025-04-02 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/improved-office-tools-to-make-your-business-run-smoothly - Categories: ROI, SEO Business as usual for - Got a project in mind? Got a project in mind? Talk to us today About Solutions Projects Insights Contact About Solutions Projects Insights Contact Back to insights Office tools to help your company run smoothly By VCM On Jan 31, 2024 In any office, managing tasks on your own and as a team can be a challenge. In the VCM office, we use a range of tools to make working together easier and far more efficient. Having the right office tools is essential to ensure your company can run smoothly. A lot of the tools we use also allow us to be more organised as a team. Now the tools we use may not work for everyone but we’ve found them to be very helpful. As we work with freelancers and are not always in the office, having tools which allow us to have constant communication or access makes working together so much easier. TrelloThis app is great. Available online and as an app on your phone. It gives your whole team access to boards created by yourselves which can include tasks, checklists or cards with ideas that members of your team have created. Trello is especially good if you work with a number of companies, or have lots of products to work on in one go, as you can add specific team members to the cards but you can all still access and edit giving the whole team a view of what’s going on... --- > Passionate freelance copywriters covering Surrey, London and beyond. With over 18 years’ professional copywriting experience in corporate, freelance, - Published: 2025-06-30 - Modified: 2025-07-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/meet-our-passionate-freelance-copywriters - Categories: Copywriting, News Passionate freelance copywriters covering Surrey, London and beyond. With over 18 years’ professional copywriting experience in corporate, freelance, agency and international environments, VCM know how to craft words that people will want to read. Why come to me for freelance copywriting support? Why come to VCM for freelance support, rather than go to a large marketing or copywriting agency? The answer is simple. VCM offer all of the benefits of an agency, but without any of the baggage. My headquarters are in Sutton, near Kingston, rather than in a big London building and I’m very honest about that. I also don’t pretend to have a team of 20 staff. With VCM, what you see is what you get, and what you get is: THE BENEFITS OF AN AGENCY Without the associated costs. MARKETING SUPPORT Whatever the size of your business. COMMUNICATION & ACCOUNTABILITY You meet the person doing the work (me), not an account manager or office junior. DIRECT ACCESS No middle-men, no outsourcing. Here’s how VCM do it. Quotes are provided before a project begins and after we have gathered all the necessary details. I charge on a price-per-project basis, rather than on an hourly rate. This way you will always know how much of a budget you need to set aside and there will be no nasty surprises or additional costs if a project overruns. SEO reporting and keyword tracking are slightly different in that it is offered at a fixed monthly rate, as is competitor SEO research... --- > Thanks to Patrick Stox, who attended the recent Search Marketing Conference in Bulgaria, we now know some important information for SEO. - Published: 2025-06-28 - Modified: 2025-04-01 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/google-and-its-love-hate-relationship-with-backlinks - Categories: Backlinks, News, SEO - Tags: backlinks, google conference, google update, seo Google's Latest Backlink Update Thanks to Patrick Stox, who attended the recent Search Marketing Conference in Bulgaria, we now know some updated, important information for SEO. Posted to his Twitter (X) on April 19th 2025, Product Advisor, Technical SEO, and Brand Ambassador at Ahrefs, Patrick Sto, revealed: "We need very few links to rank pages... Over the years, we've made links less important”, which was commented on by Google’s Gary Illyes. Is this more evidence that links matter less than at any other time in SEO history? The tweet, posted six days ago, has gathered 143. 6K views and caused a stir, with SEOs scrambling and defending the importance of link building for SEO. But does the direct quote from Illyes confirm that publishers should focus on other factors and ignore links altogether? Illyes replied to Stox's tweet, confirming his statement. However, the statement can be confusing, seeing how Google’s system was initially built on backlinks. Our interpretation is that links are not unimportant; it’s more about their quality, and Google has gotten better at identifying which ones are not very good. As more AI content spreads online, quality links are critical, as they’re the basic form of finding content across the web. It’s just that backlinks might not be the main signal they focus on now, as opposed to before. The background of links for ranking In 1990, links were discovered to be a good signal for search engines to validate a website's authority. From this, Google discovered that... --- > Getting the formula right for video marketing is essential, especially if you want to keep customers engaged. - Published: 2025-06-27 - Modified: 2025-03-10 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/video-marketing-is-the-fastest-growing-channel-in-the-uk - Categories: Video Marketing - Tags: digital marketing, video marketing Should You Invest in Video Marketing? How Can It Help Your Brand and Rankings? When done right, video marketing can be a powerful tool to complement text on a page, especially as users remember visuals much more easily than written copy. However, you've got to be careful because videos, at the same time, can be annoying for users, which might cause them to bounce from your site rather than engage with it. So, getting the formula right is essential, especially if you want to keep customers engaged. What the data tells us Businesses using video marketing grew their revenue 59% faster than those that didn't. Videos generate significantly more engagement on social media than text or images. Videos are not appreciated as much on websites as on social media unless they are in headers and gif format. 90% of consumers reported video content helped them make their purchasing decisions. In 2019, 80% of internet traffic was attributed to internet videos. On average, Facebook generates 8 billion video views per day. YouTube reports that the number of users using mobiles to view videos has grown by 100% annually. Only 8% of users do not share videos with others. Videos on Facebook have a 135% greater organic reach than photos. A video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%. Why videos are good for business Videos humanise your brand and give you a better chance to connect with users. Proof can be seen with YouTube entrepreneurs, who post informative content... --- > Have you heard about the new LinkedIn feature? LinkedIn has finally caught up with other social platforms, by introducing the use of hashtags. For others - Published: 2025-06-27 - Modified: 2025-06-27 - URL: https://vcm.co.uk/blog/have-you-heard-about-the-new-linkedin-feature - Categories: SEO Have you heard about the new LinkedIn feature? LinkedIn has finally caught up with other social platforms, by introducing the use of hashtags. For others like Instagram and Twitter, it has been the centre of their success. When Twitter introduced hashtags in 2007, it brought a new dynamic to social media. Previously it was always frowned upon to use ‘informal’ use of communication on a professional platform. LinkedIn has built its reputation upon being the ultimate business platform, where you can take your professional life to a new level by looking for new opportunities to grow your career and keep connected with all the latest business trends. LinkedIn has introduced hashtags, due to the enormous database it has populated over the years. It has been rolled out to make your time on the site a faster and more efficient experience, where you're able to categorise and filter your searches. This new element will increase your LinkedIn reach and make sure your profile is a step ahead of the rest. You can interact with people who you're not directly connected to; getting further likes and comments on your status updates. This feature is great for companies moving forward as they will be able to raise brand awareness through hashtags, making their visibility even greater. Now when you visit LinkedIn and type any hashtag into the search bar, you will get a list of relevant people, companies, groups and posts. You will also be able to see what people are talking about... --- ---