Google wants organic, high-quality content because that is simply what we want. It’s really that simple.
The SEO path will forever be a long and winded, yet exciting path to follow. It’s always evolving and introducing new methods that can boost search engine rankings, and you truly need to stay […]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you have probably heard that Google has now revised their desktop user interface to eliminate ads from showing on the right sidebar. This is a huge change that affects many people, and it’s important to understand why Google made this adjustment, […]
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. January 28, 2016. C2 Consulting Group (C2CG) has become a Silver Woo Expert, based on its expertise with ecommerce platform WooCommerce. C2CG is one of only a handful of web design firms worldwide earning this honor from WooCommerce developer Automattic, also the developer of WordPress.com, among […]
Another year has come and gone, and with a new one here comes just as many web design trends for 2016. During the last year, web design experienced a lot of changes as it moved away from being jam-packed with information. Instead, a more aesthetic approach was taken that […]
With a new year here, there are just as many new eCommerce design trends for 2016 that everyone needs to be aware of. You’ve set new goals and made some new years resolutions, many of them likely pertaining to your success. These trends can certainly get you well on […]
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. December 2, 2015. C2 Consulting Group (C2CG) has become a Certified Google Partner, earning the right to display the Certified Google Partner logo on its website and be listed in Certified Google Partner Search. The certification shows agency clients and prospects that C2CG excels at using […]
Traffic is great, but it isn’t doing much for you if your store’s visitors aren’t converting into paying customers. While there are many major changes that can be done to enhance your sales, such as the store’s design, coupons and new copywriting, it is just as important to never […]
Without utilizing excellent SEO marketing practices, you are missing out on a large amount of potential traffic. Although high quality content is vital to gaining traffic organically, you can’t expect that everyone is going to be able to just find you online. SEO content marketing strategy is similar to […]
SEO can seem like a real pain to learn, and for this sole purpose, many people skip right over it. However, what they don’t know is that without utilizing Google’s SEO (search engine optimization) properly, they aren’t getting the traffic and success from their website that could be a […]
Social Media; it truly rules the industry if you invest your time into it correctly as it is one of the best tools for showcasing your content and generating those leads. While many people solely focus on SEO practices for rankings, social media can sometimes be shoved under the […]
Google wants organic, high-quality content because that is simply what we want. It’s really that simple.
The SEO path will forever be a long and winded, yet exciting path to follow. It’s always evolving and introducing new methods that can boost search engine rankings, and you truly need to stay current with the times in order to truly reach the pinnacle of SEO. Here is everything you need to be know to becoming a master at SEO today.
One major thing you have to be aware of today is Google’s impending Penguin update. It’s an attack on spammy links, and as such, any websites that have poor quality links will not be rewarded. Ouch! Additionally, anything that seems unnatural will be viewed as questionable in the eyes of Google, and can do a significant amount of harm on your SEO and rankings.
The good news is that there are many services available online that analyze link quality, and can help reject any link(s) that could cause you problems.
Penguin works in correlation with Google’s Panda and Hummingbird updates in order to deliver more accurate and reliable results. Panda is all about rewarding high-quality, organic content, whereas Hummingbird is used to improve search engine’s capabilities, such as being able to understand words and semantics. However, no matter how in-depth your understanding is of these Google updates, you can never truly predict how such changes will affect each website.
One of the most powerful marketing tools for the past several years, and very much so in 2016 is social media. It has introduced a new platform for business to interact with their customers, but what may surprise you is that it also has a large impact on SEO. While there is a vast array of social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and Pinterest are amongst the most popular ones. Having likes, posts, shares, comments ad ultimately, followers can significantly expand your business within branding, and within search engine results as well.
Internet searches are increasingly being performed via mobile devices. As such, mobile optimization is no longer an option, but a necessity to becoming successful. It’s so important that companies that do not have a mobile optimized websites are likely to be penalized by Google. The key is to not only have multi-screen marketing, but to ensure that each page loads quickly. Since the average Internet user has a very short attention span, your website speed is crucial to ensure low bounce rates, as it can take mere seconds for customers to abandon a website because the page doesn’t load promptly.
Content is an incredibly important factor in order to reach the pinnacle of SEO, as it’s no longer a place to stuff keywords (and hasn’t been for quite some time). Instead, it’s all about quality over quantity. Since Google’s algorithm is becoming even more intelligent, it will pick up poor quality content, and penalize the website in the meantime. Ensure that all content provided is valuable, engaging, useful and relevant to your viewers, and
Google will correlate with this. Additionally, longer content has been proven to be more beneficial than short, shallow pieces.
Many people are now starting to use voice searches as opposed to typing out queries. This is crucial to recognize because people using voice-related tools to search the Internet will do so in a manner as if they were talking to another person. Having a similar conversational tone within your content can bring a huge boost in traffic.
Search engines have amazing capabilities that can track how many times a viewer clicks on a website from the search engine result pages, and then returns to look for another website within the same search. Ultimately, this tells Google that the first website clicked on did not have valuable information, which brought the viewer back to find one that does. Click-through rates could also be a strong indicator that said website is optimized for search engine optimization, but doesn’t follow in suit with high-quality content. It’s crucial to maintain a good CTR, and can easily be done with engaging content.
Everyone should be using Google Analytics to track the progress of their SEO tactics. You can instantly comparing before-and-after statistics, which then allows you to make adjustments and updates to your website to further your success. These kinds of comparisons allow you to see what changes may have contributed to a decreased traffic, high bounce-rate, etc. so you can make alterations to your SEO strategies as needed.
The bottom line is that Google wants quality over quantity. The trick to SEO is to truly be as genuine, engaging and unique as possible. Anything that appears to be a tactic in the eyes of Google will certainly be frowned upon. However, with these tips, you will be sure to reach the pinnacle of SEO in 2016.
If you would like more information on SEO as well as a free SEO analysis on your web brand visit us @britecode.io/marketing
Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you have probably heard that Google has now revised their desktop user interface to eliminate ads from showing on the right sidebar. This is a huge change that affects many people, and it’s important to understand why Google made this adjustment, and what it means for you.
Although Google’s user interface has appeared to remain the same over the years, there have actually been many changes that have been implemented. For example, back in 2007, Google did not always show any top ads, and if they did, it was usually only one or two organic results.
Screenshot circa 2007
Today, Google’s search pages show four ads at the top, as well the beginning of a map section. Additionally, some of the ads now have six lines, as opposed to the previous maximum of three lines.
Screenshot 3.2016
Since there are fewer available ad spots on the search result page, Cost Per Click prices will increase. In other words, advertisers will have to up their bids in order to get above the fold impressions. However, some say that with the additional fourth spot and ads still remaining at the bottom of the page, the change isn’t so drastic. But there is still a lesson to be learned about mobile bidding, and it’s that you need to be at the top positions to get those clicks. There will be significantly more competition for the top spots, which increases Cost Per Click prices. When this increases, the value of organic ranking will also increase because Adwords is all about the value of keyword.
With the new changes, users now have to scroll down the search page to find the organic results. If we look back at the comparison of 2007, you’ll see that today, Google has increased the size of the map and local results. While the local search results were decreased from showing seven to only showing three, the amount of screen shown was increased to actually such results. As a result, organic results were again, pushed further down the page. Now, with the fourth ad spot being available for highly commercial search queries, the organic results are being pushed even further down the page, which is why those top positions in Google are so favorable. However, results that appear lower on the page tend to have a lower click through rate, and this is expected to decrease even more.
Third party CTR data shows a rapid drop in the CTR as position increases. This winner takes all phenomena has been discussed extensively and is why top positions in Google are so valuable.
Source: Advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy
You may be wondering how a decreased click through rate and increased cost per click will affect SEO. This can easily be determined by using a formula that calculates the value or organic rankings.
Monthly Organic Value = Monthly Volume x CTR of Position x Adwords CPC
This exact formula takes the cost of running Adwords campaigns as an equivalent for the organic results. The keyword planner provides approximate cost per clicks, as well as the monthly number of search for said keyword. Then, the estimated click-through rate is then provided for that keyword. Thus, an estimate in the value of organic rankings is provided.
What this essentially means is that there would be no reason for advertisers to pay a flat fee for organic listing, as opposed to paying for Adwords. However, paying Google for an organic slot isn’t even an option, but you get the jest of it.
Now, it is unfair to say that these are the exact changes that will be seen for CTR and CPC. However, the prediction is that Cost per Click will increase more than the actual organic Click Through Rate decreases. If this is accurate, it means that the value of an organic position will also increase. Thus, companies will be more willing to spend even more money on programs that improve their rankings. This can also be said for local SEO, as more small businesses will be eager to appear in the local 3-pack of Google.
So, what does this all mean? Google’s user interface is still quite far from becoming a page strictly of paid-for-ads, and SEO still has a significant amount of power and value to businesses. Things will certainly be more competitive, especially for those ad positions, but with a strong SEO strategy, you can still prevail within the search results.
While we are still a long way from a Google UI that is all ads, the most recent change by Google notches us one step closer. For people questioning the value of SEO, these most recent changes will only make the organic results more value to businesses. Here is what we see happening:
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. January 28, 2016. C2 Consulting Group (C2CG) has become a Silver Woo Expert, based on its expertise with ecommerce platform WooCommerce. C2CG is one of only a handful of web design firms worldwide earning this honor from WooCommerce developer Automattic, also the developer of WordPress.com, among other Internet publishing and developing services.
WordPress is the world’s most popular open-source web content management system (CMS), powering over 74 millions websites on the web today. The Woo Commerce Platform enables ecommerce on this popular CMS and also conserves the WordPress ease of use, as well as thousands of ready-to-use extensions already out there. . Its architecture has a very small footprint so it can run smoothly on low-cost LAMP web hosting, unlike other ecomm platforms. On top of that, it provides a very powerful API, so in terms of extensibility the sky is the limit. According to web designers, business owners and business customers alike, it’s very well-thought -out and intuitive to use.
According to the WOOTHEMES website, WooCommerce is “The world’s favorite eCommerce solution that gives you complete control to sell anything.” Automattic promotes its signature ecommerce solution this way: “Hang your sign online, all the world at your doorstep. A plugin for you.”
Of becoming a Silver Woo Expert, Caneja commented, “Automattic is rightly stringent about the designation. They don’t just let anyone “in the door” as a partner. We had to prove our skills in a structured one-on-one interview and show a variety of client projects demonstrating a breadth of experience with Woo Commerce. Automattic not only was blown away with some of our current implementations, but also with our design process and how we bring the CONCEPT TO REALITY experience to the client. We feel honored and privileged to be chosen as one of an exclusive group of Woo Commerce partners.”
Since its founding in 2010, C2CG has offered customized, cutting-edge strategies to help clients achieve their goals—including branding, web design and development, ecommerce, SEO and online marketing. Among its differentiators is a true ROI tracking system with C2CG proprietary call tracking and web-2-lead technology. These are must-have features to track marketing success, yet not many companies out there offer this feature.
Another year has come and gone, and with a new one here comes just as many web design trends for 2016. During the last year, web design experienced a lot of changes as it moved away from being jam-packed with information. Instead, a more aesthetic approach was taken that revolved around simplicity and empty space. Many web sites are now looking similar to magazines, using large, high quality photos and typography to engage their readers visually before providing further content. These changes are continuing to thrive in the new year, and there are some key web design trends for 2016 you need to consider.
Forget the vibrant colors and information overload on your website because it is all about minimalism. Simplify your logos and fonts, and you will instantly clean up the look of your website as a whole. If something isn’t necessary, consider it clutter and get rid of it. Everything from footers, sidebars and borders are getting kicked to the curb. Keep things minimalist with one dominant color, and captivating and worthy content.
This trend seems like a no-brainer, since mobile technology has continued to thrive over the years. Websites are now being designed with the mobile market in mind, and as such, it has changed the way content is organized and how readers can access it. The app-like menu web design trend goes hand-in-hand with the prior, as it takes on the minimalism approach by forbidding sticky menus and sidebars so there’s more room for content people actually want to see. Menus are often hidden at the top of the screen, and can be found with a simple click on an icon.
Although it was mentioned to use a more simple font, that doesn’t mean that your typography has to be boring – and it certainly shouldn’t be. An engaging font can instantly captivate your audience’s attention, without being too distracting. This is an important web design trend to consider, as the rest of the web site is fairly simple, you need something that sparks a bit of excitement!
4. Use of Stock Photos That Aren’t Obvious
Generic stock photos are so last year – finally! Captivating visual content is where it’s at for the web design trends for 2016. There are plenty of online resources that allow you to grab high quality photos in which you have the rights to do whatever you want with to it. This provides a more authentic and pleasing look to your website.
Yet another trend that goes hand-in-hand with another. Mobile technology has once again, changed web design, as no one wants to click across multiple pages just to get to content they want to see. Websites are now taking on a single page design that allows your readers to view all content with a simple scroll. Depending on the complexity of your website, it may not sound plausible to have everything on a single page, but reducing the amount of pages on your website is certainly recommended. It’ll also be highly mobile-friendly, and with mobile Internet usage being consistently at an all-time high, you want this.
This is a new concept that allows websites to be more captivating without being over stimulating. Parallax scrolling consists of a three-dimensional illusion that will entice your audience and bring them further into your website and the content you offer. In other words, background images move at a slower rate than foreground images, which creates the illusion of depth.
Flat design has been so popular recently that Google released a version called material design. Google’s version is similar to flat design as it takes on the same aesthetic approach that focuses on simplicity. However, it’s a bit more subtle as it uses gradients, shadowing and slight animation to add depth to the image. Flat design, on the other hand, includes simple illustrations to create minimalist two-dimensional content.
This trend is quickly becoming universal in web design. Line icons are a part of material design that is the other movement concluding the decline of skeuomorphism. Instead of having an icon that looks like the object it represents, they’re being created as simple lines and shapes to portray an action, thought or object, such as a magnifying glass representing a search function.
Split screens are a huge web design trend for 2016 as well. Basically, it splits your layout vertically, which allows designers to present more content all at once, in a clean and simple way. This is also an excellent way to show equality between two things, such as the needs of a car and what the car provides, as opposed to only being able to show the most important thing at first with standard web layouts.
If you can’t decide whether you want to have a photo or a video on your website, combine the two with a cinemagraph. It’s a moving image that says so much more than the thousands words that a photo is worth. It also uses up less bandwidth than a video and can truly liven up your entire site, while also adding visual content to long blog posts and keeping new visitors (and current ones) entertained longer than usual.
Captivate your audience with an interactive story right from the get-go by presenting an intriguing question. Since humans naturally love hearing stories and imaging themselves in the situation, this concept will make your reader curious, and furthermore, gets them clicking on one arrow to the next. Start off with a question, and don’t just provide the answer. Turn it into a story.
Needless to say, the web design trends for 2016 are certainly changing the game, and those who don’t adapt and are going to be left behind in a cloud of bounce rates.
With a new year here, there are just as many new eCommerce design trends for 2016 that everyone needs to be aware of. You’ve set new goals and made some new years resolutions, many of them likely pertaining to your success. These trends can certainly get you well on your way to achieving just that. Changes in site design are typically a result of change in site usage. Data is taken and analyzed to see how your website can further provide for your customers. Mobile site use has been at an all-time high and will continue to be so during 2016. As such, eCommerce design patterns and now providing shoppers with a just-as-convenient shopping experience online. Here are some eCommerce design trends for 2016 to consider.
This term has been popping up over and over again when it comes to the eCommerce design trends for 2016. A “card” encases everything from images, text, and other resources that are all associated with a one topic. In other words, they’re boxes of content, with each consisting of content that relates around the same idea. They are used to organize different topics in an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use way. Car layouts also work flawlessly with responsive designs, which everyone should have by now. Google’s new Material Design (and Android) has also implemented this trend into the mix. On the Lord & Taylor website, cards are used to featured categories or products.
One of the most hated forms of online promotion definitely has to be the pop-ups. Many consumers have even installed pop-up blocking services to stop these interruptions from happening, but many web browsers now block them as well. The weird thing is that this kind of interruption marketing is actually making a big comeback within website design in 2015. Shocking, we know. The difference is the content on these pop-ups, as they’re much more beneficial to the consumer and believe it or not, less hated! 2016 pop-ups now consist of discount codes for signing up to a newsletter or for following social media websites, or special promotions that are available for a limited time only. As such, they shouldn’t be popping up every time someone enters your website, and sometimes they only pop up once the consumer has scrolled so far in the site. The Indah Clothing site is just one example of a large, omni-channel retailer using modals on-site to promote email subscriptions.
Large, high quality photographs and videos are saying much more than just a thousand words when used properly on eCommerce sites, and they can be the perfect way to captivate your consumer and make that sale! Designers and developers are able to optimize how these items can boost your site’s performance across all platforms as well. The homepage video on olloclip.com shows you how easy the device snaps on and the video quality you get from its use.
One of the newest eCommerce design trends for 2016 is all about the smooth hover effects. They’re a CSS-based technique that can change certain components on your website when the mouse is on top of it. Some popular examples of how the hover effects are being used on eCommerce sites are by displaying detailed information when the mouse is over top of a product image. Or to display smaller images taken from different angles, or to simply change colors and shades of banners and links. This new trend can captivate your buyers’ attention by providing important details in an intriguing, user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing way. Greasegasandglory.com shows an alternate view of a particular garment simply by moving your mouse over it.
There are many tricks that a web designer can resort to in order to make your eCommerce store look unique. Custom-drawn illustrations are certainly one of the best that also happen to be a huge eCommerce design trend for 2016. Consider implementing small hand-drawn stickers into your website instead of generic ones found online, or large illustrated backgrounds. These small details provide a genuine appeal and unique experience for your customers. Just be sure to never compromise the usability of the site, or make it too crowded. Notice how Babel illustrates their elements to catch the imagination of their young audience.
Storytelling is one trend that is thriving across all forms of web design, especially with eCommerce websites. This is an effective way to communicate your ideas to your consumers, by simply engaging them. Don’t just show your product; share a story that will arouse greater interest and intrigue customers to stay longer on your website. Eventually, if done properly, this will all result in higher sales. Consider using more than just words to convey your story. Many large retailers are using full in-screen background videos to provide answers to their customers’ questions in a fun and captivating way. Another example of how a brand can gain a level of respect and credibility by thinking of others and not just themselves. Take a look at how Warby Parker makes a huge difference by giving away over 1 million pairs of glasses to people in need.
If you’re ready to take the new year by the horns, these are the eCommerce design trends for 2016 that you certainly want to implement into your website.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. December 2, 2015. C2 Consulting Group (C2CG) has become a Certified Google Partner, earning the right to display the Certified Google Partner logo on its website and be listed in Certified Google Partner Search. The certification shows agency clients and prospects that C2CG excels at using Google products, is trusted by Google, and employs Google best practices.
Says Carlos Caneja, founder and president of C2 Consulting Group: “I’ve been in IT and e-commerce for two decades. I’ve been part of an incredible technology revolution. About the only thing that has not changed is the fact that most companies do not understand—or have the time, resources or interest to understand – the rapidly changing technology landscape of engaging potential customers. That’s where C2CG comes in.”
He continued: “We know online marketing technology very well. We stay current with the latest tools available to us and our clients. Our clients can testify to the C2CG process and their business results. But achieving Google certification and becoming a Certified Google Partner provides formal and immediate recognition of our expertise and commitment. This is a major accomplishment. We’re proud to be among Google’s top solution providers worldwide. Seeing that logo on our site inspires instant trust, which we back up with 100% transparency.”
Since its founding in 2010, C2CG has offered customized, cutting-edge strategies to help clients achieve their goals—including branding, web design and development, SEO, CRM capabillityand online marketing. Among its differentiators is a true ROI tracking system with C2CG proprietary call tracking and web-2-lead technology. These are must-have features to track marketing success, yet not many companies out there offer this feature
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C2 Consulting Group is a digital marketing company providing its clients with fresh ideas that grow results. The agency believes it is their job to provide not only a website that is attractive, but a site that is user-friendly, search-engine-optimized and easy for clients to navigate in order to generate positive results. Its online marketing services are designed to optimize clients’ ability to be found on the web and convert visitors to customers.
For more information:
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Boynton Beach, FL 33426
(800) 746-5616
www.britecode.io
Traffic is great, but it isn’t doing much for you if your store’s visitors aren’t converting into paying customers. While there are many major changes that can be done to enhance your sales, such as the store’s design, coupons and new copywriting, it is just as important to never overlook the simple things that can certainly give you the boost in sales that you are looking for. This is a vital option for those working within a strict marketing budget, and simple elements within your store’s navigation have an incredible amount of potential, and can have an even larger impact on your sales. Consider making these following changes that are easy and affordable to implement into your store’s design that can significantly increase your sales.
Sometimes people go to stores without knowing exactly what product they’re looking for, and they may be seeking some inspiration or are visiting your site after being recommended by a friend instead. Highlighting top-level categories within your store can encourage those less decisive customers to make a purchase. Showcasing these broad categories of popular items on your site motivates them and basically shows them exactly what they want even if they didn’t know previously. For example, if you sell furniture, create sections in your menu that are specific to a room such as ‘bedroom furniture’ or ‘living room furniture’. However, when doing so, you must be sure to create the actual corresponding category landing pages as some stores do not and recent studies conducted by Smashing Magazine’s eCommerce showed that this was one of the biggest issues customers experienced. Research also showed that many subjects expect top-level categories to be clickable so that they could then land on the corresponding page of products. During the research, many top-level categories couldn’t be explored, which resulted in customer confusion and frustration. On the contrary, some of these top-level categories were clickable but directed the customer to a category that wasn’t the one shown in the menu. This also caused significant frustration amongst the customers.
Additionally, while it is crucial to offer broad product categories, subcategories should also be offered to enhance the customer’s navigation experience. For example, someone unsure of the camera type that they want will want to select the “Digital Cameras” category (a broad product category) as opposed to specifying a camera type (subcategory) that a more decisive shopper will. So in order to provide for your past, present and future customers, add broader categories as well as subcategories, and ensure that they all link to the correct location.
Now, you may feel as if the option of subcategories doesn’t apply to your store due to limited products available, but in these cases, create browsing categories by size, color or material. By filtering product selection with categories, you are furthering the navigation process on your store.
A prime example of a store offering limit products is the JOCO Cups Store. They only sell glass coffee cups, so their site navigation offers categories by size and the type of product (accessories or cups).
It’s all about creating a convenient path for your customers that browse your store.
This tip used to convert customers into sales should only be used when appropriate. If your store is large with a wide range of products, your customers may take different paths to end up on the same page. For example, a desk can be found by clicking on “office furniture” or “living room furniture” categories. As a result, if this applies to your store, you should be offering multiple links to the same subcategory to ensure that your customers can easily navigate through your store to find what they want. Best Buy does this by offering printer ink in both the “Computers” category as well as the “Office” category. However, you do not have to create two separate landing pages with different URLS for each subcategory. You just need to take advantage of a multi-link scenario by creating a subcategory under a main category that fits best.
For example, Staples may have the printer ink under “Ink & Toner Finder” and then added a custom link so it also appears under “Products”.
Once your visitors have selected a category to browse, offer them additional filtering to further help them navigate to the item that they want while also encouraging them to make a purchase – something no eCommerce store should ever be without. By filtering, you are allowing your customer to only see what they want, so it may be shoes in size 7, prices sorted low to high, color, age range, style, brand etc. The faster they see exactly what appeals to them, the faster they can add your products to the shopping cart.
To increase conversations with the navigation of your site, you should also consider adding visible links that send your customer straight to a desirable page, such as sales that you currently have, clearance items or even brand new items or limited editions. Your customers will feel more enticed to finalize a purchase when they feel like they’re getting a bargain, or something that no one else has. So analyze your analytics to see if you have more savvy shoppers or more customers that want to get something exclusive/limited. The trick to this tip is to make the links visible.
So, what do all these tips mean? It’s all about making your navigation clear and simple, and highlighting and correctly linking to landing pages that are truly going to attract your visitors. With too many menus and options, things can quickly become overwhelming for your customers, so try filtering to reduce the number of top-level categories and subcategories that you use. You should also always provide a search option and leave the footer of your page for minimal links, such as a contact form, social media links and your privacy policy. Be sure to run a test before finalizing any changes that you make to your site to ensure that it’s done properly and more importantly, that your customers like it. If the new design isn’t ideal, you can resort back to the original and go back to the drawing board. Lastly, as a rule of thumb, make it a habit to test your navigation periodically to ensure that all the links are working properly and linking to the correct places, and to also make sure that you haven’t forgotten to remove, rename, add or update something else on your website. Navigation of your website plays a huge role in how many visitors become paying customers, so make sure your layout motivates customers to convert.
With that said, while these simple tips are extremely important and should never be overlooked, its just as important to implement them with other marketing practices that will further reduce the bounces on your site while also increasing the curious shoppers making a purchase.
Without utilizing excellent SEO marketing practices, you are missing out on a large amount of potential traffic. Although high quality content is vital to gaining traffic organically, you can’t expect that everyone is going to be able to just find you online. SEO content marketing strategy is similar to placing a massive billboard along the highway of the busiest city – only for the internet, sans the massive price as well. All you need to do is think outside of the box, get a little creative, do some keyword research and know who your audience is. Here are 10 effective SEO content marketing tactics that will give you the best results for your efforts.
Infuse SEO From the Beginning
Learn SEO right from the beginning and infuse it into your content right away because learning these marketing practices afterwards will call for a lot of backtracking (and time lost). If you write for your audience and provide high quality content with SEO in mind as soon as you start your project, you’re only moving in one direction – and that is forward.
High Quality Content
Busting out some generic information infused with SEO isn’t going to ‘catch’ like it will if you put some time and effort into the quality of the content you’re providing. Google loves authentic websites that aren’t only providing content for SEO purposes, and if that isn’t a benefit in itself, good content will propel itself as soon as it’s published.
Mobile Friendliness is a Must
Google recently released an update that they will favor websites that have a responsive design. In other words, your website should automatically adapt to whatever device it is being viewed from, whether it’s a Google tablet, phone, iPhone, iPad, desktop, laptop or any other kind of the hundreds out there. Why is having a mobile friendly website that much more important? Statistics show that more and more people are going online via their phone. Thus, without being able to view your website properly on mobile devices, you could be losing a lot of potential traffic.
Do Email Marketing
Email marketing has a fine line between bombarding your customers with too many emails, or not enough and for this exact reason, many businesses are afraid to indulge into an email campaign. The most important thing to determine is what works for you and your audience. While some business may thrive on a daily email of discounts, others are better off providing a weekly recap. While you do have to be cautious when selecting the email marketing you wish to do, it should never be left out of your SEO content marketing strategy completely.
Spotlight Content
Your website is probably full of different kinds of content, whether it’s different categories and tags for your blog posts, or a website, blog, service page and so much more. It is important to spotlight incredible website content to further engage your audience and keep them coming back. If you have recently written a piece that really sparks interest, show it off with a spotlight. Maybe you have some new deals this week – put a spotlight on it. Make the best portions of your website stand out.
Use Social Media
All of your content, especially the stuff you choose to be spotlighted on your website as mentioned above, needs to be shared across your social media pages. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus are excellent places to share your content to get some views and more importantly, to go viral. Again, people won’t always find your content organically. You need to advertise it, show it, debut it and social media is an excellent place to start and should never be skipped out.
Collaborate With Experts
Social media can also be incredible for networking, and provide you with many opportunities to collaborate with experts within your niche. It also gives your audience a new voice and information that you may not have provided yourself, and with that, they’ll share it and get more views heading back to your website. So, network and collaborate.
Pay for Promotion
With so many ways to promote your content without having to put out a dime, it is easy to disregard promotion that comes with a price tag. However, there are some services that are certainly worth it and the fees are fairly minimal. Some of the most traditional ones being Google AdWords, Twitter and Facebook ads and PPC campaigns. There are also other content distribution companies such as OutBrain, Tabooa, and literally so many more. Explore these options and find some that work for your niche, content and audience. Promoting your content has never been more affordable. Forget about those expensive billboards and television commercials.
Never Duplicate Content
While it is okay to promote your content on social media platforms several different times, you never, ever want to duplicate your content completely. Sure, retweeting your content link is okay, but you typically want to revamp the 150 characters that are attached to it. People will get sick of seeing the same stuff. So, don’t try to rehash the same stuff repeatedly.
Analyze Your Statistics
If you have no idea what’s working for you, you risk being stuck at a standstill. Get in a habit of viewing your rankings, statistics and traffic to your website. See what is bringing you the best traffic, and tweak the areas that don’t seem to be working for you. If you don’t analyze your stats, you won’t know how to improve and grow in success.
In a nutshell, marketing your high quality content is really all you need to create a successful marketing campaign. These 10 tips will make sure that you are providing what Google and your audience wants, while also ensuring that the most amount of people are going to see it. After all, you’re just selling yourself short within diving head first into these marketing practices.
SEO can seem like a real pain to learn, and for this sole purpose, many people skip right over it. However, what they don’t know is that without utilizing Google’s SEO (search engine optimization) properly, they aren’t getting the traffic and success from their website that could be a potential had they taken a couple of minutes to figure it out all. That’s also not to mention that SEO isn’t a difficult thing to learn. You just have to stay on top of it, so let’s get you started with White Hat SEO.
Great question, and an even greater place to start when figuring out SEO. White Hat SEO is all about the ethical things you can do to improve the ranking of your website within Google’s search engine. How is this different from regular SEO? The white hat tactics are geared more towards your audience as opposed to the search engines per se, while still following the search engine rules and guidelines that Google has put in place. “White Hat” also refers to the good kind of computer hackers; the ones that use their expertise to secure your system as oppose to exploiting it.
White Hat SEO Techniques
SEO is packed with all kinds of techniques and tools you can practice to place your website at a higher ranking, and the white hat ones pertain to gaining long-term results as opposed to immediate ones like PPC (pay per click). While complying with Google’s webmaster guidelines, you must also be providing the same quality of content that Google indexes, and one of the most important things you could know is that white hat SEO focuses on the people as mentioned previously. Thus, the content you provide can’t just be for Google rankings, and must be readable, high quality content that people can actually use.
White Hat VS. Black Hat
Now, you must be sure not to get white hat SEO and black hat SEO confused because the latter is the bad of the bunch and pertains to malicious hacking tactics. The techniques are very deceptive and manipulate the search rankings to get you a better ranking… Until Google catches you, that is. One of the most common black hat SEO tactics is keyword stuffing. So, black hat is bad, and white hat pertains to good content that is authentic.
That’s also not to mention that Google will find you if you are manipulating their search engine rankings, and then you’re penalized and not getting much for your websites. So, it is crucial to not only follow Google’s SEO guidelines, but to also practice the white hat SEO techniques.
Social Media; it truly rules the industry if you invest your time into it correctly as it is one of the best tools for showcasing your content and generating those leads. While many people solely focus on SEO practices for rankings, social media can sometimes be shoved under the rug but it does have the potential to be just as beneficial, and when combined with SEO, you’re creating a killer marketing plan. Since SEO is forever changing, it’s so important to stay consistent with the rules. One of the most monumental changes was in 2013 with the Google Penguin and Google Panda updates. This is when a more integrated strategy became priority, which is one of the main reasons social media is so vital to internet and search engine success.
Many businesses know that they should be doing social media, but just have no idea where to start or can’t see the value of investing time into updating a 140 character Twitter status or posting a picture onto Instagram or Facebook. While it may all sound like fun and games, there’s much more behind it. Since Google’s search engine optimization practices place emphasis on high quality content that is also getting shared and noticed, while also receiving link backs to your website, social media could be the key you’ve been looking for. Here are some statistics that provide definitive proof that social media brings value to your marketing and SEO.
Social Media Benefits Your Content
There are many ways that social media can benefit your content, which is a huge component to successful SEO practices as of Google’s current guidelines. Here are some of the most popular ones.
It Gives You Reach
Without social media, the only people finding your content are those who stumble across it or search for it directly. This doesn’t leave you with much opportunity to reach potential leads. Utilizing social media is kind of like placing your content on a billboard. People see it. It gets the word out; giving you reach to current and potential customers. As a bonus, your content can then be instantly shared beyond your audience. This also sometimes results in some link backs that are 100% organic. As long as you’re producing high quality content that people want to see and share, and taking advantage of social media, you’re golden. You’re getting that reach to potential, new and old customers.
The Opportunity to Collaborate
Networking is definitely one of social medias largest benefits, as you can connect with people and other businesses within your niche, as well as outside of your niche. By creating these business relationships, there are many opportunities to collaborate together, whether it’s a sponsored giveaway or contest, or even shared content and links. The platform is there, so start sharing your ideas and collaborate.
A Source of Inspiration
Use your social media as a source of inspiration. If you have no idea what to write about for this week’s blog posts (which you need to stay on top of for SEO purposes), log onto your social media accounts and see what people are talking about. Instantly, you’ll have a couple of ideas popping up that are trending, current and wanted. That’s also not to mention that if you infuse some inspiration into your content, it encourages others to share, and suddenly, everyone is everyone’s muse. This can definitely generate more leads.
Brand Recognition
Your social media accounts allow you to put a face to your brand; provide an authentic appeal to your company. This is a huge trend within the business industry as people want to be able to relate back to the company that they’re purchasing from or utilizing. It also keeps you active; people will see that you’re creating constant content and that your gears are always grinding with something new. This too, can generate new leads.
One of the most important things that you could ever know about integrating social media into your marketing plan is that you must be authentic with it. You can’t go and create these social media profiles, post one thing, and never touch it again. You also can’t create a bunch of random accounts on the same platforms and have some clients here, other’s there and everything scattered. Create one account per social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and provide consistent content and interaction. While this does require frequent effort, the results can be very beneficial as you’re investing in furthering your SEO and marketing strategies. So, focus on your SEO rankings – yes. However, don’t forget about thinking outside of the box and finding new and creative ways to engage, connect and promote your content. Social media is an excellent place to start that can also provide you with the Google rankings that you want.
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