Guides · No fluff
Practical marketing guides
Straight answers to the questions business owners ask us every week — SEO, Google Ads, websites, automation and getting recommended by AI. Written by the Hidook team in London.
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Google Ads for small businesses in the UK: how to start without wasting money
Google Ads works for small businesses when three things are in place before spending: conversion tracking that records real enquiries and sales, tightly focused search campaigns on high-intent keywords for the areas you serve, and landing pages that match what people searched. Start narrow, measure cost per lead or sale, cut waste weekly with negative keywords, and only scale what is profitable.
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How to choose a digital marketing agency in London
Choose a digital marketing agency in London by starting from your business goal, not a list of services. Shortlist agencies that have worked with businesses like yours, ask exactly how they will measure success, insist that ad accounts and data are owned by you, and compare written proposals on scope, reporting and exit terms — not just on monthly fee.
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How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and AI search
AI assistants recommend businesses they can find, understand and trust. Make your site crawlable by AI bots, state clearly and consistently what you do, where and for whom, publish detailed answers to the questions customers ask, mark it up with structured data, and build a reputation that exists beyond your own site — reviews, directory listings, press and mentions on respected websites. This is often called generative engine optimisation (GEO) or answer engine optimisation (AEO), and it builds on good SEO rather than replacing it.
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How to market an event or conference in London
Market a London event by working backwards from the date: launch a fast event website with clear tickets and speakers 3–4 months out, build an email list from day one, use paid social and partners to create early demand, run Google Ads for people searching the topic, and plan reminder and last-chance campaigns for the final two weeks, when many tickets typically sell. Track ticket sales by source so budget follows what works.
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Local SEO for London businesses: a complete guide
Local SEO is how a business appears when people nearby search for what it offers — in the Google Maps 'local pack', in normal results and increasingly in AI answers. For London businesses the biggest levers are a complete, active Google Business Profile, a steady flow of genuine reviews, consistent name-address-phone details across the web, and a fast website with a clear page for each service and area you cover.
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Marketing automation for small businesses: what to automate first
Small businesses get the fastest return from automating the moments where leads and customers are currently forgotten: an instant reply to every enquiry, follow-up reminders until a lead is won or lost, a simple CRM pipeline, booking and payment reminders, and an automatic review request after each job. Start by mapping how an enquiry moves through your business, automate one step at a time, and keep a human in the loop for anything personal.
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SEO vs Google Ads: which is right for your business?
Google Ads buys visibility immediately and stops when you stop paying; SEO earns visibility slowly but keeps working and compounds. Choose Google Ads when you need enquiries quickly, are testing an offer, or compete for keywords where ranking organically will take a long time. Choose SEO when you can invest for months and want lower long-term cost per lead. Most growing businesses do best with both: ads for speed and data, SEO for durable growth.
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How to redesign your website without losing Google rankings
A redesign keeps its rankings when every old URL that has traffic or links is redirected with a 301 to its closest new equivalent, the content that ranked is kept or improved, titles, headings and internal links are preserved, and technical basics — indexing, canonicals, speed, structured data — are checked before and after launch. Benchmark first, launch carefully, and monitor Search Console daily for the first weeks.
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