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Our focus in this article is what you can do to give your locksmith business a boost through digital marketing, which will produce enquiries in the short and long term.

We’ll start with the pros and cons of pay per click – Google AdWords & BING Ads. The biggest attraction to this form of advertising is the instant results that you can achieve. A well-structured campaign, given the right level of attention and optimisation can produce an instant hit, but as many locksmiths also discover, this form of advertising can be extremely competitive. To some, pay per click can be an unsustainable advertising platform due to the highly competitive nature of other advertisers. Click fraud can also be an issue, this is where competitors click on each other’s ads to inflate their spend – Click Guardian Pro is an imperative digital tool for any locksmith trying to get the best from Google AdWords as it protects against this budget busting activity. To summarise, pay per click is great for instant results but expect it to be highly competitive.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a much more in-depth subject than pay per click but arguably offers a more sustainable approach to being found online over the medium to long term. SEO is all about getting everything right in a bid to influence the way in which Google ranks your web site in their organic results. Over the years many web site owners have suffered from Google’s algorithm updates, which have completely reshuffled the positions they had, often in a very sudden way. This has led to business owners having to revaluate the way in which they try to optimise in an effort to do everything by the book. Those who perform what’s known as ‘Black Hat SEO’ may get a short term gain but as soon as Google identify their techniques will often ban them from ranking well indefinitely. Black Hat SEO is where a web site owner tries underhand tactics to boost their site’s popularity, effectively they try to cheat Google’s algorithm. The reverse term is White Hat SEO – this is the only ‘right’ way to get your web site ranked highly and also considered the only way you’ll be able to sustain a high position.

So, what are considered the best top tips for White Hat SEO in 2017 so far?

1. Cloudflare – this is a combination of a content distribution network and DNS caching. This technical combination helps render your web site quickly in the browsers of your visitors. Page loading times are absolutely imperative and if you’re serious about getting ahead of your competitors then this is definitely for you!
2. Applying an SSL certificate may be another tricky one to initially install but it’s become apparent over the last 12 months that this is a small ranking signal which is set to become stronger at Google. Whether the website collects personal information or not, Google will reward sites with SSL Certificates with a boost in search ranking.
3. Having a mobile friendly web site is now an absolute must. Not only is this hugely important for SEO but as a locksmith, the majority of your visitors will be searching from mobile devices.
4. You’ve probably heard the term ‘content is King’. This couldn’t be more accurate in today’s SEO landscape. It may seem obvious but content is absolutely vital in getting your message across and Google reward web sites that have quality content in terms of volume and uniqueness over sites that have a couple of paragraphs, duplicated from site to site! In fact duplicate content is just as harmful as no content!
5. If you’ve got an aging web site then you may have a poor navigation. Not only will your visitors struggle to navigate around your web site but Google have crawlers that identify poor navigation and missing pages, commonly known as 404’s. It’s not difficult to identify with the right SEO tools – this is a commonly overlooked area of SEO which is becoming more important. A top tip is to visit your own web site on a desktop and a mobile device and simply navigate. Any errors should be corrected and Google updated through a sitemap connected to Google Webmaster Tools.

A startup company called Brizebox is making sure online shoppers receive their orders when not at home. They have designed a simple Parcel Delivery Box that requires minimum courier intervention, keeps parcels totally secure and continues to receive parcels until full.

Brizebox has hit the ground running and their products are available in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada with Australia and New Zealand to follow soon.

Their products come in three sizes and are the first to be adaptable for use in apartments.

brizebox.com.

With many ex-service people choosing security and locksmithing as their second career when they retire from the armed forces, organisers of Lockex, the pioneering new exhibition for locksmiths and auto-locksmiths, has nominated Pilgrim Bandits Charity www.pilgrimbandits.org  as its chosen charity when the show debuts at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, next month from 16^th to 18^th September.

Hosted by the locksmith industry’s leading trade magazine, The Locksmith Journal, part of Clearview Group, the show has been designed to deliver exactly what locksmiths want to do and see at an exhibition, based on research carried out with the magazine’s readership. Exhibitors from an array of renowned industry suppliers will be representing hardware and security, along with an extensive programme of workshops and seminars presented by industry experts.

Lockex Director, Rob Exley, was first introduced to Pilgrim Bandits Charity when he attended a local music event in aid of the charity. Pilgrim Bandits Charity was established by a small group of Special Forces veterans in 2007 with the sole aim of using their unique training and experience to help and inspire wounded soldiers to live life to the full. The charity funds extreme expeditions for amputees from the armed forces and emergency services and then shares experiences with underprivileged young people.

Following a conversation with the charity’s patron, Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson MBE, who is reputed to be the most severely injured soldier ever to survive when his WIMIK Land Rover detonated an anti-tank mine in Afghanistan, Rob and the Lockex organisers felt it was a natural step to support Pilgrim Bandits Charity at the show when it premieres next month.

Rob said: “Many of the locksmiths that read The Locksmith Journal, and who will be attending Lockex, are ex-service people. The work that Pilgrim Bandits Charity do to rehabilitate and inspire really resonated with me. We have invited them to come to the show and we hope our exhibitors and visitors will join us in supporting this very worthy cause.”

To visit the show and book your place at one of the workshops register at: https://lockex.eventsair.com/lockex/visitor/Site/Register. The first 1,500 people to register will be entitled to a free £5 lunch voucher and bacon sandwich.

Welcome to the new Cornwall Locksmiths website.

Working in Collaboration with PirateFM Digital Media, we are proud to present our new, mobile friendly website.

If you have any comments, please get in touch via the contact page and we will get back to you as soon as possible.