This Small-Business Owner Increased AdWords Profits by 50 Percent in 60 Days

Struggling to make the most of your AdWords campaign? You’re not alone. Every day, I talk to small-business owners who know they need to do more with digital marketing but aren’t sure what’s right for their business or how to execute the best strategy. Ground zero for confusion? Google AdWords.

Related: 4 Key Findings from AdWords Audits

Small-business owners are constantly bombarded with blog posts, news articles and how-to guides telling them “why small businesses need to use AdWords” or that AdWords is one of the “best marketing strategies for small business.” Yes, AdWords is an inbound marketing strategy that’s measurable and flexible. Yes, it’s faster than SEO and more engaging.

What’s more, controlling advertising spend is easy. And, with 95 percent of search results now containing AdWords ad placements either at the top or bottom – not to mention how much above-the-fold real estate is now taken up by AdWords – it’s a must for beating the competition.

But, even while I agree with all those reasons for using AdWords, I also understand that getting started isn’t as easy as just setting up accounting, magically conducting keyword research and snapping your fingers for success.

Recently, I sat down with Thomas Tarasiuk, the founder and president of Discount Water Softeners, to learn more about how he’s learned to maximize truly the impact of his AdWords spend. The first piece of advice Tarasiuk shared with me? Don’t be afraid to bring in the experts.

In fact, he said, it was his decision to work with digital marketing expert Adrienne DeVita that helped his business grow its AdWords profits by 50 percent in 60 days — all while lowering the company’s cost per acquisition by up to 70 percent.

DeVita, the online marketing director for Digital Media Cube, worked with Tarasiuk to put together an over-arching digital media strategy, with a particular focus on AdWords optimization. DeVita continues to provide assistance with day-to-day execution and is currently developing a new social media strategy for Tarasiuk’s business.

Related: 7 Common Mistakes Companies Make With Google AdWords

So, if you’re feeling frustrated that you can’t keep up with SEO changes, don’t be. Doing so is truly a full-time job! As DeVita says: “There are many facets of SEO now, more so than when I began helping clients online almost 12 years ago.

“Keeping abreast of all the changes to Google’s policies on a daily basis means changing our marketing strategies and SEO strategies to coincide with our goals to increase sales and continue to reduce costs — which is happening every single day.”

Therefore, if you’re struggling to move your offline business into the online world, here’s what your business needs to know about Google AdWords:

1. Benchmark your ROI. 

Yes, it’s possible to make money online with minimal advertising investment, but as any business with AdWords will tell you, you need to be comfortable spending money to make money. For most businesses, it’s the easiest and most obvious option for online marketing. But as DeVita warns, it’s also easy to burn through some serious cash with little or nothing to show for it.

So, if you’re just throwing money at the wall and hoping something sticks, you’re following the wrong approach. How do you know if you could be making more money? Benchmark your ROI against the industry competition.

2. Fine-tune your PPC campaigns. 

One the first things DeVita did when she started working with Discount Water Softeners was to overhaul its AdWords account. 
“In the first 60 days, I was able to increase profits by 50 percent and reduce the cost per acquisition by up to 70 percent,” DeVita told me.

Why the big increase? Tarasiuk admitted that when he called Google AdWords support, he trusted they were looking out for his best interests. That trust wasn’t completely warranted. “Once Adrienne showed me all that was involved and applied it, I was shocked to see how much money we were wasting and how much traffic we were losing,” Tarasiuk says.

3. Understand your true cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

AdWords is not the right strategy for every small business. Even if your conversion rate is high, if the ultimate return from those conversions is low, you could be spending more for sales leads than you could ever hope to earn from those leads.

As DeVita explains: “Statistically on Google Search, for every 100 clicks, you will get a 1-to-2 percent conversion. That means you will get a form fill-in, phone call or sale. If your cost per click is $5, it will cost $500 to get one-to-two sales/leads. If you only make $25 on that lead or sale, then don’t consider AdWords.”

Bottom line: SEO takes a lot of time. And AdWords’ promise of immediate results can be very enticing.

Related: 10 Ways to Boost Results Using Google AdWords

However, if you don’t take the time to truly benchmark your performance, fine-tune your campaigns and understand your actual CPA, you could find you’re spending far too much money trying to grab leads that will never offset your overall campaign investment.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

Vía Entrepreneur: Latest Online Marketing Articles http://ift.tt/1P22LIj

4 Methods for Building a Successful Ecommerce Brand

Thanks to the Internet, entrepreneurs can now do more than ever before. Yes, brick and mortar businesses still have their place in the world of entrepreneurship, but many people are now building incredibly successful e-commerce brands from the comfort of their own homes.

Whether it be through a personal website, eBay account, or Etsy profile, there’s a reason e-retail spending is pegged to increase by upwards of 62 percent in 2016 — the digital marketplace is an active marketplace. Even better, there’s plenty of room for you and your groundbreaking idea.

So, if you’ve flirted with the thought of ditching the nine-to-five lifestyle for one filled with passion, freedom, and excitement out on the Web, now is the time to take action. Still nervous? No need — the digital realm has provided you with plenty of tools to help launch a successful ecommerce brand.

Run Facebook ads.

There are just over one billion people signing into Facebook each and every day. No matter your brand’s specific niche, odds are high that the body of buyers you’re looking for aren’t only taking to Facebook, but they’re doing it with plenty of predictable regularity.

Related: 3 Types of Ecommerce Business Models

When designed the right way, Facebook ads are visual, relevant, provide value, and include an  enticing call-to-action (CTA). But here’s the best part — not only are Facebook ads affordable, they’re highly targeted. For just a few bucks, thousands of your ideal buyers will see your ad in their feeds.

Take to influencer marketing.

There’s no denying the fact that social media has people more connected than ever before. Because of this, potential consumers no longer need to first look to businesses for buying advice. Instead, they do something much more enjoyable — communicate with fellow consumers.

That’s not all they’re doing, though. It’s one thing to speak with family members and friends, it’s another to look to an industry authority for help. Regardless of outlet, when your products and services are mentioned or endorsed by an influencer, expect serious traffic to be sent your way. This is a competitive marketing strategy, but it’s well worth your time and effort.

Experiment with Snapchat.

Snapchat isn’t for all ecommerce companies, but if your target audience falls between the ages of 18 and 34, you should give the platform strong consideration. With over 100 million daily active users responsible for nearly 400 million snaps per day, the user base is active and engaged.

Use Snapchat to give brand fans an inside look into how business is conducted, further solidifying their emotional connection. Or, get creative with the channel and run a few contests or promotions. And no — you don’t need to be a celebrity or household brand for this to work.

Related: What’s Next for Ecommerce in 2016?

Make Instagram a real focus.

While Facebook and Twitter might still be seen as leaders of the social realm, Instagram is in hot pursuit of inclusion. In the spring of 2014, Forrester conducted a study in which it found that brand posts received an average engagement rate of slightly over 0.1 percent.

On the other hand, that same study discovered that Instagram for business accounts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21 percent. If math isn’t your strong suit, that result is 58 times more effective than those of Facebook and Twitter.

No wonder the Instagram authorities at Kickstagram recently claimed that Facebook is quickly losing ground to Instagram as an ideal marketing network. So, whatever your social strategy may be, make certain that Instagram is given the attention it deserves.

Related: The Top 5 Reasons You Should Start an Ecommerce Business

Regardless of the tools you use to ensure your latest entrepreneurial endeavor is a complete success, starting and growing your own ecommerce business is a worthwhile experience. Enjoy the process and take pride in your work. In the end, you’ll be happy with what you’ve accomplished.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

Vía Entrepreneur: Latest Online Marketing Articles http://ift.tt/1XcXE0r

Does Google look at anchor text in internal links?

Internal linking is a key SEO tactic, one which allows websites to send clear signals to Google on the relative importance of various pages.

It also works from a user experience perspective, helping visitors find pages that are relevant or potentially useful to them.

It’s something I place great importance on as an editor, as it’s one part of SEO that I can control, and I’ve seen the benefits for sites I’ve worked on.

Internal linking: examples

Let’s take an example from Search Engine Watch. I wrote this article on internal linking, with examples and tips, back in September 2015.

I’ve since linked to it using that exact anchor text (and variations on it) on at least 10 occasions. Essentially, I’m telling Google that this is the page I want Search Engine Watch to rank for that term.

As we can see, it’s worked well. Third on Google, and first for related terms (internal linking best practice for example).

Then there’s Mail Online. The most visited English language newspaper on the web had a relatively haphazard approach to internal linking until recently.

For common, high traffic terms (world leader’s names, celebrities etc) would be used regularly in articles.

The result was that each article would end up competing against previous articles for the same keyword or phrase.

The chart below shows its rankings for ‘David Cameron’ over a six month period. 80 different URLs were returned from the Mail for that search, but it didn’t rank consisitently for the term.

The answer was a consistent internal linking and hub page strategy. Mail Online created hub pages for common terms and consistently linked to them.

The result is a more consistent ranking from November 2015 onwards, when the changes were implemented.

There have been some fluctuations, perhaps due to inconsistent implementation of the linking strategy, but the page is performing much more effectively. As a result, the site will pick up more traffic for that term. Applied across the whole site, this can make a big difference.

Does Google count anchor text in internal links?

This is the question Shaun Anderson from Hobo Web sought to answer recently.

In the examples above, the pages targeted with internal links all contain the keywords used in the anchor text. So, Google could be using the content of the page, and the fact that several pages link to it to decide on the ranking.

In other words, this doesn’t prove that Google is taking note of the anchor text when choosing to rank a particular page.

So, Shaun set up a test. He added an internal link to one page on his site using the target keyword as anchor text.

It’s important to note that the target page did not contain the keyword used, so the only signal that it was relevant to said keyword was the anchor text on the link.

As we can see from the chart, a number of days after the test was implemented, the page ranked for the target term. When it was removed, the page dropped again.

As that page had no other relevance to the term other than the link, the anchor text appears to be the only reason for the page’s ranking.

It’s worth reading Shaun’s blog post for more detail, and for further variations on the test, but the indications are that the answer to the question in the headline here is yes.

It would be good to see other tests to back up this with more evidence. In fact, I’ll see if I can devise one on this site along similar lines.

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1WWRtwL

The most expensive 100 Google Adwords keywords in the US

Google is on track to make more than $70bn in revenue in 2016, and the lion’s share of that number will be generated by its insanely successful advertising business.

As I’m sure you know, advertisers pay a fee every time somebody clicks on a link in one of their ads. Some of the costs per click being paid are absolutely staggering, though they must be worth it, from the advertiser’s perspective.

Last month I analysed a large chunk of Google Adwords data from SEMrush to discover the most expensive keywords in the UK. Today, I’m releasing the same research for the US. The old adage suggests that everything is bigger in the States, and that certainly seems to apply to advertising expenditure.

So, here are the top 100 terms, based on a massive dataset of 80m keywords…

As you can see, the legal sector dominates, with the most expensive term closing in on a truly incredible $1,000 per click. It sounds insane, but consider that the average mesothelioma settlement is in excess of $1m and it starts to make a lot of sense. Legal terms account for 78% of the top 100, and nine of the top 10.

Water damage is another big ticket item, with clicks costing more than $250 for the top terms. Repair costs and associated claims for water damage into the tens of thousands, so again, it figures.

The other sectors that need to spend big to make an impression include Finance (largely focused on insurance), B2B (typically around the provision of business telephony) and Health (the top terms being linked to rehab).

One of the most obvious difference between the UK and US research is the total absence of any terms related to gambling in the latter country, where it remains illegal to gamble online. Gambling terms account for 77% of the UK’s top 100 terms, with the most expensive cost per click coming in at around $220.

The other thing is the lack of typos. In the UK advertisers are quite happy to seek out people who cannot spell, something that makes the eyes narrow when those terms are linked to gambling.

Sector by sector

Here’s a sector-specific breakdown of the top five most expensive terms in the US. Note that I’ve adjusted the scale for each one, such is the variance in click costs between industries.

You can share these charts individually, should you wish to do so.

As Google continues to turn the screw towards a fully fledged pay-to-play model my bet is that we’ll see even more keyword inflation over the next few years, though ultimately there may be a point at which things start to plateau.

What do you think? Are you surprised by the amount being spent by advertisers? Do leave a comment below…

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/25wS3TF

The continuing rise of voice search and how you can adapt to it

Google’s I/O developer conference brought several huge announcements about Google’s future direction and projects, including two new technologies which demonstrate just how important voice search and natural language processing are to the company’s future development.

The first, Google Assistant, is a voice-activated digital assistant which builds on “all [Google’s] years of investment in deeply understanding users’ questions”, as Google’s blog declared. It takes Google’s voice search and natural language capabilities to the next level, while also allowing users to carry out everyday tasks like booking cinema tickets or restaurant reservations.

The second is Google Home, Google’s long-awaited smart home hub to rival the Amazon Echo, which comes with Assistant built in. Google Home – which will be “unmatched in far-field voice recognition”, according to VP of Product Management Mario Quieroz – will give users access to Google’s powerful search capabilities in answering their questions as well as linking together smart devices all over their home.

It’s no surprise that Google is focusing heavily on voice search and natural language going forward when you consider that in 2015 alone, voice search rose from “statistical zero” to make up 10% of all searches globally, according to Timothy Tuttle of the voice interface specialist MindMeld. That’s an estimated 50 billion searches per month.

Indeed, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed in his keynote speech at I/O that 1 in every 5 searches made with the Google Android app in the US is a voice query. Bing produced a similar statistic earlier this month when it announced that a quarter of all searches on the Windows 10 taskbar using Bing are voice searches. And statistics like these are only like to increase further as search engines, apps and developers respond to this trend.

Digital assistants: The agents of voice search

Siri. Cortana. Google Now. Alexa. Google Assistant. These are only the names of the most well-known digital assistants from the major technology companies; a search for “digital assistant” on the iOS or Android app store shows just how many different varieties of these voice-controlled AIs there are.

Digital assistants are overwhelmingly the medium through which we interact with voice search and carry out natural language queries, so it makes sense that they, too, are on the rise as companies compete for the biggest share of this rapidly expanding market.

The figures show just how recent much of this uptake of voice search is. Late last year, MindMeld published a study of smartphone users in the U.S. and their use of voice search and voice commands. It found that 60% of smartphone users who used voice search had begun using it within the past year, with 41% of survey respondents having only begun to use voice search in the past 6 months.

Image: MindMeld

With that said, digital assistants are not just confined to smartphones any more, increasingly integrated into devices like smart home hubs and game consoles. And the more that we speak to and interact with assistants, pushing the limits of what they’re capable of, the more sophisticated they become.

The newest generation of digital assistants, including Google Assistant and Viv, a new AI from the creators of Siri, are capable of interpreting and responding to long, multi-part and highly specific queries. For example, during a public demonstration in New York, Viv showed off its ability to accurately respond to queries like, “Was it raining in Seattle three Thursdays ago?” and “Will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the Golden Gate Bridge after 5PM the day after tomorrow?”

At the demonstration of Google Assistant at Google’s I/O conference, Sundar Pichai made much of the fact that you can pose follow-up queries to Assistant without needing to restate context. That is, you can ask a question like, “Who directed the Revenant?” and then follow up by saying, “Show me his awards,” and Assistant will know that you are still referring to director Alejandro Iñárritu in the second query. (It’s worth noting, though, that Bing’s web search has been able to do this for a while).

Continuing the conversation: Google’s Assistant can now handle follow-up questions to a previous query without needing to hear the subject again

How voice queries are changing search

So how is this upswing in voice queries and technology’s increasing ability to respond to them changing the way that users search?

We don’t search with voice the same way that we search with a keyboard. Computer users have evolved a specific set of habits and expectations for web search based on its limitations and capabilities. So we would start off by typing a quite generalised, keyword-based search query like “SEO tips”, see what comes back, and progressively narrow down through trial and error with longer search terms like “SEO tips for m-commerce” or “SEO tips for beginners”.

Or if we were looking to buy a pair of red shoes, we might search for “red shoes” and then navigate to a specific website, browse through their shoes and use the site interface to narrow down by style, size and designer.

Whereas now, with the advanced capabilities of search engines to understand longer, more specialised searches and the advent of voice search making natural language queries more common, we might start off by searching, “Quick SEO tips for complete beginners”, or, “Show me wide-fit ladies’ red shoes for under £50.”

We search differently with a keyboard to the way we search with voice

The increasing rise of voice search brings with it a wealth of new data on user intent, habits and preferences. From the first query about SEO, a site owner can see that the searcher is not just a novice but a complete novice, and is not looking to spend a lot of time researching in-depth SEO guides; they want a list that’s easy to digest and quick to implement.

From the second query, a shop owner can tell exactly what type of shoes the consumer is looking for, down to the fit and colour. The price range indicates a budget and an intent to buy.

When mobile users are conducting voice search with location enabled, site owners and business owners can also gain valuable location data. Often, the voice query will contain the important phrase “near me”, which shows that the searcher is looking for local businesses. Mobile voice searches are three times more likely to be local than text, so optimising for local search and mobile will also help you to rank for many voice searches.

With the growth of voice search, we can expect to see more and more long-tail search keywords and natural language queries, which give increasing amounts of contextual information and useful data about searcher intent. The addition of voice assistants to smart home hubs like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home (Apple is also reported to be developing its own smart hub with Siri built in) will also give the companies behind them access to untold amounts of data on users’ daily life and habits, purchases, interests and more, opening up new avenues for marketing.

How can you capitalise on voice search?

With all of that in mind, what practical things can website owners do to take advantage of this new search frontier?

Look out for natural language queries in your site analytics

At the moment, there’s no way to tell outright which users are reaching your site through voice search, though Google is rumoured to be developing this feature for Google Analytics. But by looking out for natural language queries in your search traffic reports, you can start to get a feel for what users might be asking to find your site, learn from it and use it to inform your SEO strategy.

Think about how people are likely to phrase queries aloud

We need to start moving our approach from thinking of endless variations on different keywords to thinking about different types of questions and phrases that users might search. Ask yourself which questions might bring a user to your site, and how they will speak them aloud. What are the extra words, the ones that wouldn’t appear in a regular keyword search, and what information do they give you about the user’s intent on your site?

Make sure your site is set up to answer searchers’ questions

Once you’ve considered the types of questions a user might be asking, consider whether your site will satisfy those queries. Rob Kerry, in a presentation on the future of search at Ayima Insights, advised website owners to start integrating Q&A-style content into their sites in order to rank better for natural language searches and better satisfy the needs of users who are asking those questions.

Q&A-style content can also be excellent material for featured snippets, which is another great way to gain visibility on the search results page.

Develop content with a conversational tone

Because natural language queries reflect the way that people speak, they aren’t just longer but more colloquial. So consider if there are ways that you can create and incorporate content with a more conversational tone, to match this.

Use voice search!

One of the best ways to understand voice search, how it works and what kind of results it returns is to use it yourself. Search the questions you think might bring people to your site and see what currently ranks top, to get a sense of what works for others. Are there questions that aren’t being addressed, or answered very well? You can take this into account when creating content that is geared towards voice search.

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1Uf1HlX

20 Crucial WordPress Plugins

Better user experience is a goal that has jumped to the top of most businesses’ priorities list in recent years. Making sites easy to use, responsive and user friendly are qualities that can make or break a brand’s success.

Related: 7 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Website

Over the past six months I’ve been working hard to make my site Hostt a much better site for our customers. We’ve been working on SEO, forums and streamlining processes. Since our site is built on WordPress, we’ve had to explore many options to be able to scale in the way that we need. 

I’ve done some of the heavy lifting, testing out countless plugins that did and didn’t work. That’s why I’ve come up with a list of the top WordPress plugins for 2016 that will make website management quicker and easier, as well as keep viewers pleased and eager to come back.

1. WordPress SEO by Yoast.

WordPress SEO by Yoast has recently been named the top plugin for WordPress users. This plugin functions as a complete optimization platform for the user’s page content. In addition to SEO, this plugin features a snippet editor, XML sitemaps, permalink cleanup, Meta descriptions and configuration and more.

2. BackupBuddy.

This is the most vital WordPress plugin because BackupBuddy acts as a crisis prevention tool, ensuring that content is safe from being lost. It really should be the first plugin any WordPress user installs after creating their site, which is great because it’s one of the easiest plugins to setup. With Backupbuddy, users can also schedule routine backups, so forgetting to do it won’t be an issue.

3. W3 Total Cache.

Site accessibility and speed is essential for optimal user experience, not to mention search engine rankings.This plugin allows the user to set up caching for their site, making downloading features quicker and navigation smooth and concise for page visitors.

4. CaptainForm.

This is the plugin that is any WordPress beginner’s key to creating almost any type of form for their site. While this plugin is primarily used for contact forms, it can also be used for subscriptions, orders and a host of other form types as well. Using a contact or subscription form is a great way to attract a larger audience and obtain loyal visitors.

5. OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is the plugin best used for converting visitors to your site into subscribers. Because of the simplicity of this plugin, users can A/B test and generate lead capture forms without needing help from a professional developer. This plugin has built-in, easy to interpret analytics, and multiple form types, such as lightbox popups, sidebar forms, floating bars and more. OptinMonster integrates with all website and eCommerce platforms in just one click, so this one’s a no-brainer.

Related: The 7 WordPress Plugins Your Site Needs to Succeed

6. Edit Flow.

Organization is key for successful content distribution on any site. Edit Flow allows WordPress users to manage all their editorial in one place. From managing authors, creating workflow strategy, keeping up-to-date with editorial calendars and much more, this plugin gives users a one stop shop for keeping track of all editorial functionality.

7. Soliloquy.

Soliloquy is a slider plugin that displays a slider deck onto a WordPress site WITHOUT slowing the site down. The other bonus that makes Soliloquy the top-rated slider plugin is its streamlined visibility and responsiveness across all devices (i.e. desktop, tablet, smartphone, etc.).

8. Sucuri.

Sucuri is your “better safe than sorry” plugin. It’s too risky not to have a security lock on any site, and for WordPress users, Sucuri is the best option, as it’s a company that specializes in protecting WordPress sites. This plugin has malware cleanup, site auditing capability, blocks all hackers or attacks to the site, and much more.

9. Floating Social Bar.

This plugin is especially beneficial to sites that don’t need every social media platform icon linked to it. Floating Social Bar allows the user to only select the social platforms they use and/or the ones relevant to that particular site. This feature helps to avoid unnecessarily slowing down the user’s site.

10. AdSanity.

For WordPress users who are looking to run ads on their site, this is the best plugin option. It’s a smooth, easy to use platform and it includes basic analytics for ad click-through rates and reach. AdSanity allows for flexible advertising scheduling.

11. Envira Gallery.

Envira is the most important plugin for users who run photography sites or use digital imagery as a dominant component for their sites. There is nothing more annoying than trying to view images on a site that refuse to load, and Envira makes that annoyance a non-issue. Envira has a clean, responsive layout and it’s easy to use for beginners.

12. Login Lockdown.

To significantly lower the risk of hackers logging in to a site, Login Lockdown is a plugin that limits the amount of attempts a user has at entering their admin username and password before it locks itself down for a period of time. Just like on iPhones, if someone tries to guess your keypad code to unlock your phone too many times, the iPhone will automatically lock. With WordPress, that isn’t an automatic feature, so that’s why it’s a good idea to have Login Lockdown.

13. Term Management.

This plugin is especially helpful for beginners who do not know the difference between tags and categories on each post and how they organize the user’s site content. Term Management helps organize and merge these tools so that content is classified correctly and easier to find.

Related: 7 WordPress Plugins That Will Quickly Help Your Site Get More Traffic

14. TablePress.

This plugin is pretty straight-forward. WordPress users who need the ability to insert tables into their posts, need this plugin. For example, business or finance related content driven websites often times will use tables to display date.  

15. WPtouch.

This plugin allows users to convert their WordPress site into an app, allowing visitors to access the site via a mobile application, rather than simply viewing the desktop version on their phones. The most crucial part of this plugin is that users don’t have to play around with the App Store or direct visitors there in order to access their site.

16. Compact Archives.

This plugin is most useful for bloggers who have tons of archived content, which drags on and on at the bottom of their page. Compact Archives literally just compacts your archives into a smaller, more efficient display.

17. ThirstyAffiliates.

Affiliate marketing is a popular feature for WordPress users, but if users decide to do so, they absolutely need a link management tool and ThirstyAffiliates is the best option for when it comes to WordPress. This plugin automates the process, requiring less manual entry from users.

18. Display Widgets.

This plugin allows users to choose what widgets they want visible, and where. This plugin is best used for hiding certain widgets from visitors and requiring them to log in or subscribe before seeing said widgets. Doing this gives viewers another push to subscribe.

19. WP Mail SMTP.

This plugin gives WordPress users the ability to use an SMTP server to send emails, making email delivery more reliable.

20. WPForms.

WPForms is a drag & drop online form builder for WordPress. It allows you to easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, order forms, payment forms, and other type of online forms with just a few clicks.

What additional plugins do you use to scale your business?

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

Vía Entrepreneur: Latest Online Marketing Articles http://ift.tt/1TFtvR4

Five most interesting search marketing news stories of the week

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond.

This week we have a round of very exciting changes to AdWords and some stats about the intolerability of video ad formats.

Google AdWords launches new features for mobile ads and maps

As Sophie Loras reported last week, Google has “introduced new tools and features to AdWords to specifically address the consumer shift towards mobile.”

These include:

Expanded text ads for a mobile

Headlines in AdWords will increase from one 25-character header, to two 30-character headers, giving advertisers more room to explain their products and services.

The description line will also increase from two 35-character description lines to one 80-character description line.

Responsive display ads

These are designed to help advertisers with the many different content shapes and sizes across the more than two million publisher sites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN).

Bid adjustments for device types

AdWords will soon allow advertisers to set individual bid adjustments for each device type (mobile, desktop and tablet).

Connect online and offline with mobile

Google is introducing new local search ads across Google.com and Google Maps to reach consumers as they search for physical business locations.

New ad formats on Google Maps

To make it easier for users to find businesses around them Google Maps will offer promoted pins as well the ability to include details for one off special offers or sales.

You can now tie-up all your web properties together in Search Console

As I reported a few days ago, you can now track the combined search visibility of all your managed web properties.

So all the separate platforms you operate for one single brand – websites, mobile sites, apps – you’ll be able to treat as a single entity. You can even add HTTP or HTTPS versions of the same site and combine multiple apps.

The aggregated data from your properties will be found in the Search Analytics of Search Console and you’ll be able to check everything from clicks, to impressions to CTR, as you would normally with single properties.

Silent ads for the win

Latest research from Wibbitz on the state of video advertising reveal some fascinating – if not obvious – home truths on our tolerance for video ad formats.

45% of people said that muted ads are more tolerable than targeted, autoplay or interactive ad formats.

Also, the survey found that 70% of people won’t watch an ad longer than 10 seconds, 61% admit they always skip video ads and 42% disapprove of autoplay ads.

Bing’s share of the search market is growing faster than Google’s

According to comScore, in April 2016, Bing’s share of the search market rose by 0.2% while Google’s dropped by 0.2%.

Also according to SEJ, “Google’s total share of the US desktop search market has dipped below its previous 64% to 63.8%. Microsoft’s share of desktop search is now sitting at 21.6%.”

Google’s new title and description lengths: ‘it’s just a test’

Google has been experimenting with a variety of expanded title tag and meta description lengths in its SERPs over the last few weeks.

However, as we all expected, Google’s John Muller has this to say about Google’s constant honing of the look of its search results…

@JulianMHoffmann@methode We’re always experimenting, so I’d have a tough time saying “new” to any particular change.

— John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 24, 2016

So yeah, don’t get too excited.

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1X0ripx

Winners and losers of Google’s last mobile friendly update: USA

Last week, Google’s John Mueller confirmed on Twitter that Google’s latest, stronger Mobile Friendly Update has been fully rolled out.

FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out. https://t.co/fTB3ia6LJ2

— John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 12, 2016

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

This update is supposed to give an even more powerful boost to mobile-friendly pages.

When we try to figure out the winners and losers of this, it’s actually much easier to identify the losers. This has to do with Google using the same index for both desktop- and mobile-searches.

This means that a small positive change, caused by the website’s SEO or webmaster, can actually improve the visibility of both the desktop and mobile results.

This makes it quite difficult to figure out the if the ‘Mobile Friendly Update #2’ was the cause for the increase.

Nonetheless, I will show you some examples for websites where the update is the most likely cause for success.

As far as the losing websites are concerned, we are able to check for all the problems that Google said webmasters should look out for, when it comes to mobile.

We looked at the mobile visibility for 200 domains for the time frame between April 25th and May 16th, 2016. We only took those domains into account which had a visibility score of at least 3 points for the Mobile Visibility Index.

Here are the most interesting cases:

Losers

1) Instructables.com

Instructables.com crashed from 44.9 points to 12.2 points in the Mobile Visibility Index (a decrease of -70.56%)

This case is very interesting as we can use the new Google Mobile Friendly Tool to analyse their mobile version.

For many URLs there are up to five resources that are blocked to the Googlebot. Some of these blocked resources are from advertisement platforms, but just blocking the resources does not mean that Googlebot might not still see the following during their crawl…

When I visited the website from my iPhone, or using the Google Chrome browser, I was shown some annoying advertisements and there are also some interstitials.

As Googlebot will obviously ignore cookies, it is very likely that Googlebot gets to see these interstitials every time it visits the site. The crash may be caused by either problem.

It not only lost visibility in the USA but also in UK and ES (they also have content in Spanish that ranks on Google.es)

2) Moveflat.com

Moveflat.com went from a visibility score of 3.272 to 1.929 (a decrease of -41.05%)

This is a very simple case: moveflat.com is simply not showing their mobile website to mobile users, by default. The user must actively click on a link. This makes them a good example when we consider John Müller’s statement:

“The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal – so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank well if it has great, relevant content“

It seems that this website does not belong to the above category.

3) Hipmunk.com

Hipmunk.com went from a visibility score of 13.593 to 9.770 (a decrease of -28.13%)

While the people at Hipmunk.com seem very likeable with their chipmunk mascot, they also have some technical problems.

If we run the site through Google’s Mobile Friendly Test, we notice that Google will analyse the desktop version of the page. The sad part is that, if I open the website with my smartphone, I am shown a mobile version of the page.

If you do not have an appropriate mobile version of your website, or if Google cannot find/access it, you will have problems trying to rank well for mobile searches.

In the next chart you can see the historic ranking data for the desktop and mobile results for hipmunk.com for the keywords “cheapest flights.”

The red line shows the desktop positions while the blue line shows mobile rankings.

We can see that in the desktop-search they have been ranking in the top 10 for this keyword for a long time, while for mobile they only managed to crack the top 10 results three times, which is actually a pretty good summary of what is happening with the mobile friendly Google update.

Winners

As I said before, it is easier to identify the losers than the winners. While the winners could be where they are because they benefited from Google’s latest mobile friendly update, they could also show an increase because of positive SEO changes.

1) Boardgamegeek.com

Boardgamegeek.com managed to increase their visibility from 5.774 points to 10.024 (an increase of +73.60%)

This case is interesting as we see a decrease in desktop visibility while the mobile-visibility is on the rise. The amazing thing is that they actually do not have a mobile version at all!

This will likely come back to Jon Mueller’s statement from before that: “even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank well if it has great, relevant content.”

This could definitely be the case for Boardgamegeek, a domain that is already 16 years old, has a massive community of users and a lot of relevant content for the more than 77.000 games they cover.

2) Brainpop.com

Brainpop.com went from a visibility Index score of 8.973 to 12.950 (an increase of +44.32%)

The target audience for this educational website are young adults, who – as we all know – live glued to their smartphones. In the above chart we can nicely see how they break their negative trend after the update went live.

This shows that the same URL (the mobile update works on a URL level) has a better ranking for mobile than desktop for the keyword “electric circuits.”

3) Reuters.com

Reuters.com managed to increase its visibility score from 19.315 to 27.311 (an increase of +41.40%)

In many countries we see news portals sporting a higher desktop visibility, while here we see the mobile visibility come out on top.

If we look at the ranking history below, for the keyword “indian temple”, we see the desktop rankings in red and mobile in blue. In the past, neither ranked very high, but after the update, the mobile version jumped into the top 10.

It is very likely that the domain was then able to create positive user signals through their mobile results, which then also helped the desktop ranking. This very much makes sense once we consider that Google only has one index for mobile and desktop.

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1ORl8Qc

Five ways UX blends with SEO to improve a site’s performance

For many years there has been a debate on whether UX and SEO can really go hand in hand, but this is not the case anymore. Today we’re examining how UX and SEO can make the perfect match.

There’s no need to question nowadays the need to blend UX with SEO when building a website, as none of these two can stand on its own.

User Experience (UX) focuses on target groups of people and usually bases decisions on their design preferences, as well as the industry’s trends, while SEO tends to focus more on the actual site and its data, in order to increase the content’s visibility in search engines.

However, there is a spot that these two meet…

Google made it very clear in its Webmaster Guidelines that even in SEO optimisation, users should be the centre of attention:

Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.

And this is only a reminder on why SEO cannot work in isolation from other factors that affect a site’s performance, especially when the focus of the old days on keyword-stuffed topics is long gone.

Here are five points that remind us how UX can blend with SEO to improve a site’s performance:

1. Creating content for the user

Both UX and SEO should focus on the user and despite the older perception that SEO’s effectiveness depends on keyword and page optimisation, Google keeps reminding us to also think of the users when creating content.

It’s the human element that both users and search engines appreciate, as it indicates that the main goal is to satisfy the user, rather than the engine, although the latter will also favour the specific page in the ranking.

Whether it’s design or optimisation, the emphasis on the users’ needs help a page improve its performance and the audience will reward this effort with an increased time spent on the site.

2. Readability

Content should aim at relevance, quality and engagement, in order to become appealing and thus, convince the users to spend more time on it.

UX can enhance the appeal and the readability of a page and this may boost SEO, as the quality of the content is favouring a site’s crawlability from search engines.

Readability in SEO is the optimisation of the content in order to be clear, relevant, and informative, covering a topic as much as possible, in order to increase the page’s authority for search engines.

What’s more, keywords and on-page optimisation (even with the simplest steps) favour a post’s readability, providing that they are properly applied to enhance the browsing (and crawling) experience.

There’s no need to focus on target keywords anymore to increase the page’s ranking on SERPs, especially if it affects the quality of the content and its readability, as neither search engines, nor users will appreciate it.

Readability for UX is all about pleasing the users that access a page, ensuring that their first impressions will be positive.

A clear structure and a functional page, which works for all devices and browsers, contribute to an improved user experience and increase the chances of creating an engaged audience.

It’s the concise, legible, functional and properly formatted content that defines readability both for SEO and UX, with the combination of the two making a great match that users will enjoy.

3. Visual appeal

Visual content may contribute to the appeal of a page and both UX and SEO focus on its optimisation.

As human beings process visual elements faster than written information, images, videos and any other types of visual content are becoming important to the user experience.

In terms of SEO, visual content can be optimised to help search engines discover it and provide another way of leading traffic to your page through the rise of visual search engines.

User experience understands the importance of including visual content to a page, in order to increase its effectiveness, although it is very important to maintain the right balance, as visual content should not replace the actual text.

Moreover, both SEO and UX advocates agree that large images may affect the browsing experience, as they may disrupt the layout of a page and increase its load time.

Thus, always optimise your visual content, while keeping in mind the different devices, favouring both the desktop and the mobile experience.

4. Usability

It’s not just the design, but also the functionality of a page that affects the user experience.

An easy navigation allows users to further explore a page and and a proper menu functionality, internal link structure and clear navigation labels contribute to the time the users spend on a page and most importantly, they affect whether they will find what they’re looking for, which was the reason they initially clicked on the page.

What’s more, sitemaps are useful both for users and search engines, as they help the indexing, the navigation and the crawling of a site, which both SEO and UX want.

SEO and UX also agree on the importance of maintaining the right page speed, ensuring that heavy images, ads and faulty functionality won’t affect the time it takes to load a page. As users are becoming impatient with the loading speed of a site, it is critical to measure and improve the page speed, in order to keep the bounce rate as low as possible.

It is also important to test a page’s performance in all the browsers and the devices, aiming for a seamless experience for each user, with an additional focus on mobile users that keep increasing.

Furthermore, accessibility is also significant, both for SEO and UX, and it can be enhanced by ensuring that all pages are useful for readers with visual impairments, for example,  who use screen readers to navigate a page.

Is your content descriptive? Is the navigation checked? Are your images captioned?

5. Retain users

UX aims to provide the site experience that helps users browse and find relevant and informative content and the right navigation pattern can guide them to the next steps in an easy and simple way that seems effortless to them.

Navigation and user paths may ensure that you retain users on your site, and by the time this is achieved, it’s time to think about conversion.

Both SEO and UX should have the idea of conversion in mind, either by turning visitors into loyal users, by encouraging them to subscribe to an email newsletter, or by turning them into clients.

Don’t be afraid to create calls to action that will help the users know what you expect from them. After all, users prefer to have clear guidance, rather than being exposed to multiple options that may paralyse them.

You don’t have to create content by simply having the idea of conversion in mind, but still, it’s the ultimate goal to understand what your audience wants and blend a great browsing experience with your business goals.

How UX and SEO optimisation may enhance a site’s performance

It’s not necessarily complicated to blend SEO and UX to improve a site’s performance, and it’s even more important to understand why these two cannot work independently anymore, at least not with the same effectiveness.

It’s SEO that may lead traffic to the site and help it reach a higher position on SERPs, but it’s UX that will determine whether the traffic can be maintained and converted into the set goals.

Thus, every site trying to improve its performance through UX and SEO should offer:

• Quality, informative, and relevant content
• Easy to use structure and simple and effective navigation
• Optimisation of text and images to please both users and search engines
• Appealing design that focuses on accessibility
• Clear call-to-action, both around the users’ next clicks, but also around the desired conversion

via Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1sBYxSW

4 DIY Marketing Tips for Empty-Wallet Entrepreneurs

I love asking emerging entrepreneurs if they have a lead generation strategy. The typical response is: “We are bootstrapping, we can’t afford strategy”.

#WhatYouAreReallySaying: “We don’t know what to do to build a strategy, and we don’t have the money to buy expensive consultants.”

The dilemma for the do-it-yourself entrepreneur is that you can’t afford to waste money on the things that do not work, yet you have to get something working for you — quickly and with little expense. What to do?

1. Facebook news feed ads.

Facebook News Feed Ads are perfect if you offer a free giveaway or a lower cost product; do not “boost” or create promoted posts. These are easy to manage but not as effective. Successful ad campaigns start with a visually stunning image. Create amazing images with free tools like Canva, integrate a clear call to action, mention your giveaway in the image, pay special attention to the landing page. For example, LeadPages team has spent years perfecting their landing page templates.

Related: 5 Musts Before Launching Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

2. Facebook custom audience targeting.

Rule # 1 of online marketing — always be collecting email addresses. As long as you have at least 20 people on your email list, you can start a Facebook Custom Audience campaign. Select “Look Alike” targeting to find more people who are just like your customers. Its Cost Per Click (CPC) option charges only for the clicks you receive. Your $50 will go a long way.

3. The LinkedIn sponsored update.

Don’t ignore LinkedIn’s 600 million professional community. Experiment with LinkedIn Sponsored Updates. Sponsored Updates appear in the LinkedIn users’ newsfeeds. They look like a regular update and are hard to miss. Publish a free article to showcase your industry expertise and deliver value to your audience. A link to a downloadable white paper is a great way to collect email addresses. Once your post is written spend the LinkedIn minimum of $10 a day to promote it. 

Related: 6 Social Media Marketing Tactics That Give the Best Bang for Your Buck

4. Twitter Lead Generation cards. 

Twitter Lead Generation cards are highly effective. The main advantage of the Twitter Cards is a shorter path to receiving leads. No landing page is needed. Use Tailored Audience targeting to reach an email list or specific Twitter IDs.

Related: 6 Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy

The do-it-yourself, empty wallet entrepreneur can get a lot of lead gen strategy accomplished through social media. Trust me, it will be the best $50 you’ll ever spend.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

Vía Entrepreneur: Latest Online Marketing Articles http://ift.tt/1OQ1rID