SEO for Distilleries & Spirits Brands - Part 1
This is an exclusive resource for Members of The Gin Guide. This and future editions will enable you to make the most of your website and marketing and they will hopefully give you even more value from your Membership by helping you generate greater website traffic and online sales. Just one small improvement from the tips below could result in improved visibility, more website visitors and/or more online sales or tour bookings for you. Read on and improve your search engine visibility (and please do not share this guide publicly).
I (Paul Jackson, Editor of The Gin Guide) am a CIM Chartered Marketer with over a decade of experience in online marketing. Having previously been recognised by Google as one of the UK's leading digital marketers, I have had the pleasure of working with multinational food and drinks companies in the UK and Australia and on consultancy projects for Google, as well as being a conference speaker for the likes of Google, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Pure London and Brighton SEO (the UK's largest SEO conference). Marketing remains a great passion of mine and you're in safe hands with the tips and recommendations below :-)
If you have any questions or would like help with the implementation for your specific website and gins/distillery, let me know and I'll be able to give further guidance or help directly. I'll also be hosting exclusive live Website & Marketing Sessions for Members of The Gin Guide, during which I'll be happy to answer questions and give guidance.
I (Paul Jackson, Editor of The Gin Guide) am a CIM Chartered Marketer with over a decade of experience in online marketing. Having previously been recognised by Google as one of the UK's leading digital marketers, I have had the pleasure of working with multinational food and drinks companies in the UK and Australia and on consultancy projects for Google, as well as being a conference speaker for the likes of Google, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Pure London and Brighton SEO (the UK's largest SEO conference). Marketing remains a great passion of mine and you're in safe hands with the tips and recommendations below :-)
If you have any questions or would like help with the implementation for your specific website and gins/distillery, let me know and I'll be able to give further guidance or help directly. I'll also be hosting exclusive live Website & Marketing Sessions for Members of The Gin Guide, during which I'll be happy to answer questions and give guidance.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of enabling your website to appear as highly as possible in the search results on Google and other search engines when people search for something related to your business. For the purposes of this article, when I say 'Google', I'm referring to all other search engines too, such as Bing. The higher you appear in the Google search results...
Whether it's people searching on Google for your brand name or distilleries in your area, you want your website to be the one that they visit. E.g. if you have a distillery in Lincolnshire and someone searches on Google for 'gins from Lincolnshire', 'Lincolnshire gins', 'distillery tours in Lincolnshire' or any similar relevant phrases, you want your website to be there as a top option.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of enabling your website to appear as highly as possible in the search results on Google and other search engines when people search for something related to your business. For the purposes of this article, when I say 'Google', I'm referring to all other search engines too, such as Bing. The higher you appear in the Google search results...
- The more visible you are,
- The more likely people are to visit your website,
- The more likely they are to read your content, make a purchase, book a tour or get in touch,
- And it's less likely that these potential customers will opt for alternatives/competitors instead.
Whether it's people searching on Google for your brand name or distilleries in your area, you want your website to be the one that they visit. E.g. if you have a distillery in Lincolnshire and someone searches on Google for 'gins from Lincolnshire', 'Lincolnshire gins', 'distillery tours in Lincolnshire' or any similar relevant phrases, you want your website to be there as a top option.
- Tip: Google's search results are split into 2 sections. At the top are typically up to 4 adverts which are paid features called Google Ads and say 'Ad' at the start of them (these are an upcoming topic for another resource coming soon). Beneath the ads are 8 - 10 other search results - SEO helps your website appear as high as possible out of these results.
How is SEO done?
SEO is all about proving to Google that when someone searches for a specific phrase (e.g. 'distillery tours in Lincolnshire'), your website is the absolute best option for Google to show to the person searching. To appear top, your website has to outperform all the other options Google could show there. To decide this Google monitors and takes into account hundreds and hundreds of factors about your website, from how fast each page loads and the wording on those pages to how long people spend on your website and how many pages they visit. The tips below will take you through some of the most important factors including some quick wins and best practices to implement and stick to moving forward. There are 'key takeaways' and action points at the end of the guide.
What happens if you don't do it?
Without optimising your website to rank highly in the search engines, there may be potential customers who don't find your website, potential customers may find your competitors' websites instead, more sales may go through your retailers (e.g. Amazon) rather than direct through your website where the margin is highest, and you are at risk of new competitors entering the market and jumping above you. For example, if you search on Google for 'Gins from East Sussex', the top few search results are blogs about gins from East Sussex and are highly relevant results. However, if one of the distillers in East Sussex could optimise their website to move up over time and be the top result, the increase in website traffic and direct sales could be very significant.
SEO is all about proving to Google that when someone searches for a specific phrase (e.g. 'distillery tours in Lincolnshire'), your website is the absolute best option for Google to show to the person searching. To appear top, your website has to outperform all the other options Google could show there. To decide this Google monitors and takes into account hundreds and hundreds of factors about your website, from how fast each page loads and the wording on those pages to how long people spend on your website and how many pages they visit. The tips below will take you through some of the most important factors including some quick wins and best practices to implement and stick to moving forward. There are 'key takeaways' and action points at the end of the guide.
What happens if you don't do it?
Without optimising your website to rank highly in the search engines, there may be potential customers who don't find your website, potential customers may find your competitors' websites instead, more sales may go through your retailers (e.g. Amazon) rather than direct through your website where the margin is highest, and you are at risk of new competitors entering the market and jumping above you. For example, if you search on Google for 'Gins from East Sussex', the top few search results are blogs about gins from East Sussex and are highly relevant results. However, if one of the distillers in East Sussex could optimise their website to move up over time and be the top result, the increase in website traffic and direct sales could be very significant.
STEP 1 - Search Research
The first thing to do is to determine what your potential customers are searching for on Google and what searches you want your website to appear in the search results for. Crucially, you have to be realistic. Everyone would love to appear at the top of the Google search results when someone searches for 'buy gin online' or 'best gins', but thousands of website are trying to do this, some with employees or even whole teams dedicated to achieving such results. Think about what searches your website can be the best result for. E.g. If you're have a gin distillery just outside Lincoln, you may want to rank highly when people search for phrases such as:
Make a list of these phrases for each of the key pages on your website and what people might search for in order to find them. If you don't have a distillery or a geographic tie, focus on your brand/gin name and other angles, e.g. if your gin features an unusual botanical such as honey, people may search and be able to find you for phrases such as 'gins with honey in'.
The first thing to do is to determine what your potential customers are searching for on Google and what searches you want your website to appear in the search results for. Crucially, you have to be realistic. Everyone would love to appear at the top of the Google search results when someone searches for 'buy gin online' or 'best gins', but thousands of website are trying to do this, some with employees or even whole teams dedicated to achieving such results. Think about what searches your website can be the best result for. E.g. If you're have a gin distillery just outside Lincoln, you may want to rank highly when people search for phrases such as:
- Your brand, distillery and gin names
- Lincolnshire Gins
- Gins from Lincolnshire
- Lincolnshire Gin Distillery
- Lincoln Gin Distillery
- Distilleries in Lincolnshire
- Lincolnshire Distillery Tours
- Distillery Tours Near Lincoln
- Gin Making in Lincoln
- Gin School in Lincolnshire
Make a list of these phrases for each of the key pages on your website and what people might search for in order to find them. If you don't have a distillery or a geographic tie, focus on your brand/gin name and other angles, e.g. if your gin features an unusual botanical such as honey, people may search and be able to find you for phrases such as 'gins with honey in'.
STEP 2 - Making your website relevant to these searches
To continue the example, when someone searches for 'gins from Lincolnshire', Google can't simply guess or assume that your website is a good website to show to the person searching. You have to show Google and leave them in no doubt that your website is a good fit. Google looks at the words you use across your website, including the headings, the text and more to determine this:
To continue the example, when someone searches for 'gins from Lincolnshire', Google can't simply guess or assume that your website is a good website to show to the person searching. You have to show Google and leave them in no doubt that your website is a good fit. Google looks at the words you use across your website, including the headings, the text and more to determine this:
- Title Tags & Description Tags: Also known as 'Meta Titles' or 'SEO Titles', these are crucially important SEO elements (example coming up below) and they are typically easily editable from within your website platform and often are filled in by default with the website page name (so your homepage Title Tag might just say 'Home' at the moment) - if your not sure how, give it a Google, get in touch or ask your web designer.
- For example, If you search on Google for 'Gin Garnishes', 'Gin Garnish Guide' or 'Gin Perfect Serves', you will see the above result appear in Google. The line in purple is the SEO 'Title Tag'. Although it is a very basic example, it clearly includes the phrase 'Gin Garnish Guide'. The line beneath it is called the 'Description Tag', 'Meta Description' or 'SEO Description' and again it clearly includes related phrases. You'll also notice that the URL (website address) at the top also includes this phrase. It couldn't be any clearer to Google what this page is about and that it is a good fit for these searches. Furthermore, when the person searching sees The Gin Guide result above in the search results, they're extremely likely to click on it as they will be 100% clear it is what they are looking for.
You'll need to do this for all the pages on your website that you want to appear more highly in Google searches. Every page should have a unique Title Tag and Description Tag that clearly tells Google what searches that page is relevant for. If your Tags are the the same on every page, Google doesn't know which to show and may not show any of them. For your homepage, for example, your Tags may be...
- Title Tag: Example Gin - Lorem Ipsum Distillery, Lincolnshire
- Description Tag: Discover Example Gin from Lorem Ipsum Distillery in the heart of Lincoln, made with organic Lincolnshire honey.
- Top Tip: Title Tags should be under 60 characters long otherwise Google truncates them, and Description Tags should be under 160 characters (here's a handy character counter tool). They must be formatted as natural prose and not as lists of words. And if you come across something in your website platform called 'Meta Keywords', you can ignore this as it is a now a defunct element that Google does not take into consideraton.
- Headings: On your website you are likely to have a heading at the top of each page and possibly other sub-headings further down the page. On your homepage the heading might be the name of your distillery and/or the name of your gins. For example, on your page about distillery tours, your heading might currently be e.g. 'Tours'. Google can detect when text is in a heading and it takes that wording into account even more, so make your headings as relevant as possible to what people might search for. On your 'Distillery Tours' page, rather than a heading just saying 'Tours', improve it to say 'Gin Distillery Tours & Tastings' or 'Lincolnshire Gin Distillery Tours & Tastings'. If your distillery isn't open to the public, you could have a homepage heading e.g. 'Example Gin from Lorem Ipsum Distillery in Lincolnshire'.
- Text Content: Google also takes into account the text on each page of your website. Just like the Title Tag, Description Tag and Heading on each page, the text should use similar and relevant wording. In the above example of our Gin Garnish Guide, the text leaves Google in no doubt about what the page is about and that it is a perfect website to show when someone searches for 'Gin Garnishes' or similar phrases. You'll notice that the wording used in the headings and the paragraph of text is entirely consistent with the wording used in the Title Tag, Description Tag and URL (and it reads as natural prose). If these elements aren't all consistent with each other or some of them are missing, Google may become uncertain about what the page is about and can be less likely to show it as a search result.
- Image Tags: Also known as 'Alt Tags' or 'Alt Descriptions', these are hidden text descriptions that you can give to the images on on your website. They're important because without them Google doesn't know what your images are of. If you have a photo on your website of your distillery and you give it the Alt Tag of 'Lorem Ipsum Gin Distillery in Lincolnshire' it will help Google know that your website and that specific page on it are highly relevant when someone searches for that phrase or similar phrases. It will also mean that your images will appear more prominently when people are using Google Image Search.
On most website platforms you can look at the advanced settings for an individual image on a page or in your website media library, and from here you should see an option to add to update your Alt Tags. For more assistance you can Google how to do this on your specific website platform or you may wish to ask your web designer. - Top Tip: Ideally you should also name your image files in this way too when you save them on your computer, as once they are uploaded to your website, Google can detect the file names in the coding of your website.
Key Takeaways & Action List
That's it for Part 1 to get you started on generating more website visitors and more online sales and tour bookings! Parts 2 and 3 will follow soon, with Part 2 looking at website performance and visitor behaviour, and Part 3 looking at common pitfalls, more top tips and useful tools. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected] or ask your web designer. I can also help with full SEO Audits and implementations as a service too. Here's the action list:
That's it for Part 1 to get you started on generating more website visitors and more online sales and tour bookings! Parts 2 and 3 will follow soon, with Part 2 looking at website performance and visitor behaviour, and Part 3 looking at common pitfalls, more top tips and useful tools. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected] or ask your web designer. I can also help with full SEO Audits and implementations as a service too. Here's the action list:
- Step 1: Decide what search phrases you'd like each key page of your website to appear for in Google search results, e.g. 'Distilleries in Lincolnshire'.
- Step 2: Then, based on these phrases, update or add the following elements to include these phrases and similar wording:
- Title Tags
- Description Tags
- Page Headings
- Text content
- Image Alt Tags
- (Image File Names if you're going all out for best practices, but it is not critical)
