We all want to make the most of our marketing funnel, but you need to understand the consideration of visitors, leads, prospects and customers. The infographic below shows how by, earning the attention of prospects and making it easy to find you and your products can you draw more customers to your website. The key to all of this is producing the kinds relevant and engaging content your customers value.
I know one of my biggest complaints about most eCommerce websites is the lack of quality content on the page. Relevant content for your customers can be as simple as a quick video describing or review the product on page. Zappos and REI do a great job putting a personal face on think kind of Owned Media. The Zappos and REI associates introduce themselves and then describe what is great about the product and why it is great for you all in less than two minutes.
These quick hit videos give visitors a personal connection to the product AND the seller, allowing you to see the product either in use or in real life, not just some beauty shot, to help you decide if what you are looking at is a must have. As an inbound marketing strategy goes, this is pretty brilliant. It gives visitors a video to interact with, a relevant landing page, and nurtures the visitor into a lead, let’s Zappos measure the interaction with each video to see what works best to help with the conversion. Using the right kind of CRM technology and analytic package Zappos could even follow up with an email to non-converts who did not view the video with a video embed in the communication.
Our Internet Marketing and Web Development teams here at InteractOne we can help you plan and execute your Inbound Marketing strategy from both the customer facing and back end development of your site to help turn visitors into customers.
Duplicate content is a huge problem for many eCommerce sites, for the following examples we’ll be looking at Magento because that is what we specialize in here at InteractOne. After you’ve done all the basic SEO on your site the rest of the issues relating to duplicate content and/or nearly similar content for products that you’re selling have to be a top priority.Moving on to these advanced SEO tips to solve these issues.Here’s a list of URLs with exactly the same content that you’d find in Magento:
Along with these pages, you’ll find pages like product reviews, with almost the exact same content. Categories are another problem you’ll run into; you get a ton of duplicate content with layered navigation and option sorting. What does all of this mean? Worst case scenario Product “A” is also on 4 other pages.
Ideally you want to get rid of all those duplicate content pools; however you want them to be spidered but not indexed.
You’ll also need to fix the sorting options and layered navigation for categories.
In order to do this you’ll need to add Noindex, follow for non-content pages What this does, is keep the search engines from actually indexing these pages all of the links will still be followed.
The next step to optimizing your eCommerce site is to nofollow all unnecessary links, those links are your login page, checkout, whishlist, and all other non content pages. Other pages you need to include in this list are RSS feeds, layered navigation, add to whishlist, and add to compare types of pages.
The third item on the advanced list is Canonical URLs, these help search engines understand the duplicate content of your pages and suggest the preferred version of the URL for each page.
The last item is XML site maps, XML sitemaps are a way to let search engines know where your content is. It’s not going to get you rank; however it might get you indexed faster.
You can put this line of code in your robots file: Sitemap:http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to point search engines to your sitemap.
Of course you’ll have to remember to generate a new sitemap as your products change.
As always if you need help optimizing your eCommerce site feel free to contact us for a free consultation.
Consumers, Marketers Disagree on What Makes Effective Ads
In a world where marketers have taken strongly to digital advertising, we aren’t abandoning traditional media. TV still takes the largest share of ad dollars in the US, and that percentage of the total dollars spent isn’t slipping. But with the measurability inherent in online ads, confidence in their efficacy is generally high.
In an October Adobe survey of marketers and consumers, US marketers even rated online ads better than TV ads. 51% of marketers say that online ad were more effective. But consumers appeared to disagree, with about two-thirds claiming TV commercials were more effective.
Consumers appear to like seeing ads in traditional media better than on newer digital devices. Asked about their preferred venue for ads, 45% said they liked seeing them in their favorite print magazine and 23% on their favorite TV show, compared to just 11% who chose favorite websites, 3% who chose social media and 2% who liked to see ads in digital magazines.
Marketers, and the consumers they are trying to reach, disagree on the effectiveness of a wide variety of ad types, according to the survey. While both groups thought the best ads were those created by professional marketers, nearly half of marketers said this, compared with just 36% of Internet users. There is a large disagreement about the effectiveness of paid search ads (touted by marketers, played down by web users) and outdoor advertising (the reverse). Internet users were also much more likely to say there were no good or effective ads.
What did consumers like? Nearly three-quarters thought ads should “tell a unique story, not just try to sell,” while about two-thirds said videos and user product reviews were good and that in-store experiences were more important than online ones.
The message for marketers appears mixed, it’s not exactly news that consumers don’t love to see advertising, but with the holiday’s approaching keep in mind, according to Google, 76% of people say they’ve searched online before making a holiday purchase”… do you want to miss out on an opportunity to serve your ads to those Internet users? Regardless of what they think about being advertised too, compelling and engaging marketing can turn even the most ardent anti-marketing Internet user into a customer.
Guest blogging is always good for link-building… right?
Currently, guest blogging is the favorite activity of webmasters for link acquisition. Due to its easy nature, lots of “spammy” activities are going on like article spinning etc. Is Google going to hammer websites for links acquired by guest blogging? Watch the video below from Google’s head of Web SPAM Matt Cutts to find out!
According to Cutts, if you’re article spinning, purchasing blog posts from authors and inserting an overabundance of links, you’re likely to get booted from the search rankings. On the other hand, Cutts discusses the high quality content writers who produce new, thought-provoking articles which is Google sees as valuable.
It’s important to note that Cutts also points out those sites producing articles that only meet the bare minimum of 200 to 400 words. Without giving the exact magic number, it’s clear that it’s important to produce those high word count articles that provide thought leadership and insight that is totally unique.
Bottom line, Google is wants good quality, NEW content for good SEO. Don’t fall victim to those spammy “unique” posts that are not new, are posted on several websites and contain an overabundance of links.
Google put together a whole post on the do’s and don’ts of Link schemes.
According to Google, the following schemes can negatively impact you site’s ranking in search results:
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
• Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
• Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links
• Using automated programs or services to create links to your site
Need help building good quality content for your SEO and Blog? Contact us and learn how we can help create Google lovin’ content.
Over the years we’ve run across some things that would flat out blow the average mind and make you shake your head in disbelief.
Like many have said in the past, it’s the version you create that you like the least, put the least amount of time in, that actually out performs what you thought was your masterpiece.
Don’t take anything I say here as a standard because I can assure you that your market will respond differently. The only way you’ll discover what works best is by split testing landing pages you create against each other.
We manage an older packaging supply site that has a 10 step checkout process that in my opinion should cost them orders, however just the opposite occurs.
For people that enter the funnel 28.31% of them convert to a sale.
A few years back I personally worked on a site that did automotive classifieds – let’s face it there’s only 2 paths you can take on a site like that – you’re looking to sell a car or buy one.
The home page handled this, but it gave visitors entirely too many ways to accomplish this simple task. It did well, but not nearly as well as a test where we sent all of the non-cookied visits to a page that only gave you two options and each of those lead to a form to collect at least name email and phone number.
That test more than doubled lead volume. Basically it was a similar to your typical paid type dating site where you have to opt in to go any further in the process.
While it may have turned away some visitors, it took total leads from 8,000 to more than 20,000 a month.
Since their money was made in a call center you can see this could have been a very profitable model.
It’s another great example; if we weren’t testing this out on a small segment of traffic initially we would have never discovered it.
These are just a couple of odd examples of A/B tests and why you should always be testing everything you do online and off.
If you’re looking for assistance with your testing or online marketing contact us today to take your website to the next level.
The SEO Puzzle is More Than Just the Corner Pieces
The puzzle that is SEO in the current climate of the web is larger and more dynamic than most people realize. There is not one quick fix to your website that will give you sustainable long term ranking success. To be successful and have longevity you need to fit all of the pieces, On Page, Off Page, Site Archiecture, and Coding, together.
The infographic below goes deeper into these categories, but we will take a look at what good SEO looks like in each of these buckets:
On Page Content
When it comes to On Page Content the discussion begins and ends with Quality Content, the more unique and relevant your content, the easier it will be to find your site the better you will rank.
No matter how good you Quality Content is without the right Keywords you will basically be throwing pickles against the window to see which one sticks. With the research and proper useage you will be able to captalize on what and how visitors are using keywords to find your site.
Just like on your Facebook Page you have to look at the end Engagement of your website. Are visitors engaging with your latest video or do they hit your page and bounce? Keep an eye on how your site engages users, Google wants to send people to sites that will help them, make it easy.
The last piece of the On Page Content corner is Freshness. Your content should always have a “sell by date” and once it starts to get stale it is time for a refresh. This makes visitors and search engines happy.
Website Coding
Is your site easily read and crawled by search engines? If the answer to either parts of that question are no, the you’ve got some updating to do. The Crawlability of your site is tied to everything from the URL Structure you chose to how your Meta Tags are filled out. Don’t forget to make sure all your links and images are accurately tagged and titled too!
Website Architecture
How your site is coded is only part of the the game, the overall Website Architecture is just as important. Does your site load quickly or does it take time to load? Website Speed is one of those key factors search engines look at when ranking your site. Have multiple Categories and Products on your site? Give them each their own page, search engines love that. Is your site reletaviely flat or do you have a mess of links that go nowhere and link back to nothing? The Hierachy of how your site flows is very important to how easily all of your content can be crawled and indexed.
Off Page Factors
The last corner of this SEO Puzzle is the Off Page Factors, that is how well you do in Social Media, are you an authority on your subject matter on Facebook? Do you have a ton of +1’s? All of this helps (it also ties in nicely to your Content and the overall freshness of your work). Other big factors are Links coming to your site. Do you have your site listed in online directorys? Do you regularly go to other blogs and sites to comment and engage, while leaving a link back to your site? If you do, nicely done. If not… get on it.
As you can see there is A LOT of work that goes into the puzzle that is SEO, and with each corner of the SEO puzzle there is overlap, but at the end of the day it takes having the right puzzle pieces in the right places to capitalize on getting your site found, engaging visitors and making conversion.
Vayu Media put together an infographic below it takes you through the puzzle of SEO. Or rather, through the importance of the way Google indexes websites.
An effective Content Marketing strategy is not isolated to your website, having a strategy looking at social media, blogging, white papers, and landing pages allow you to maximize your marketing efforts, while feeding search engines what they need to rank your links highly.
Keep in mind search engines are looking to create the best possible search engine results pages for the user base on the relevant information from their browser and connected social networks. You’ll hear talk of having an overly complicated SEO strategy, with questions as to how you will get your page to page 1, and how you will keep your links competing for the top spot. In reality using content creation and curation as your strategy in the current state of search you will benefite from crating visitor-friendly pages and experience, thus increasing your rankings; regardless of browser history.
In the infographic below 92% of marketers say content creation is “very” to “somewhat” effective for SEO. 40% of those site whitepapers as a very effective tool. Using whitepapers allows you to get a good amount of targeted content in front of visitors in one sitting to help them along in the consideration of making a purchase, booking a trip or following through on your set conversion.
When asked on if Google give more weight to brands in ranking, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, says, “Try to make a site that is so fantastic you become an authority in your niche.”
What he is saying, is by focusing on giving visitors the best content available you will be rewarded by Google for being the authority on the topic in question. If you have the best product on the market, and are finding you are continually failing on a top placement, you are probably not flexing your authoritative muscles in your category. Shift your focus to what you area saying about your product, and say it great and you’ll be rewarded.
To find out more about why Content for SEO is so important check out the inforgraphic below:
SEO vs SEM – Where are all these free clicks coming from?
As the real estate on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) continues to shrink for organic listing, currently only about 15% of organic results sit “above the fold”, having a solid strategy to get the most out of your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) grow more and more important. We all keep hearing about “Pandas” and “Penguins” (OH MY!) and how they effect the search results, and it seems like every time Google updates one, that update goes into battle against the other (Panda vs. Penguin).
With all of the continual changes to Google, how long will it be until things cycle around to place more importance on Organic traffic? In the meantime, if you want to compete you will need to make sure you rank well in both paid and organic search results.
What do you think about who will win this showdown? Is SEO becoming a thing of the past? How will Google continually adding new options for Search Ads push organic traffic down the page?
Check out the infographic below breaking down ‘The War on Free Clicks’:
In honor of Halloween we found this great infographic, put together by Confused.com. They look at several of the most familiar breeds of social media zombie. Everything from the “check-in zombie,” who can’t go to anywhere without telling their friends; to the “hashtag zombie,” whose posts you can’t read due to their liberal use of numerous #hashtags.
For more, check out the full infographic below; then, in the comments, tell us what types of social media zombie or are, or more importantly the ones you’ve seen in the wild.
Who doesn’t know a Facebook Baby-Obsessed Zombie? The Baby-Obsessed Zombie
This zombie can’t stop compulsively posting statuses about their child.
Telltale Signs:
Terrifying ultrasound profile photos
Barrage of requests to vote for their baby in creepy infant photo contests
Constant references to child’s sidekick Sophie the Giraffe Feeds On: The lifeblood of their childless, unmarried friends.
Or better yet the Instagram Foodie Zombie…
The Foodie Zombie
These zombies run in packs and linger around hip food trucks and new gastropubs. Telltale Signs:
Mindlessly document every meal and beverage
Sits silently in restaurants, entranced by their smartphone
Not satisfied by a meal until it’s liked by at least 5 followers Feeds On: Double-digit likes on their brunch pics.
Don’t ignore the Pinterest Zombie Bride
The Zombie Bride
This zombie can’t stop pinning over-the-top favor ideas, save-the-date designs, and color palettes. Telltale Signs:
Covered in chalkboard paint
Armed with a hot glue gun and broken mason jars
Shrieks when they spot a new hair tutorial Feeds On: Cake tasters and the mediocre nuptials of couples who married before Pinterest.
Ok, Ok…Maybe we’re all a bit guilty of these Social Media no-no’s at some point in our lives but we all know those zombies in our news feeds don’t we?
A new infographic from Google, out as part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, covers the process of how the search giant keeps your ads safe. The infographic explains that 134 million ads from 824,000 advertisers were stopped last year, while explaining how parts of the process used; automated systems, Google’s internal expert review and reports from outside the company work together to keep serving up “healthy” and safe ads.
Is the process perfect? No, but last year Google agreed to settle a dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding illegal pharmaceutical ads where Google paid a hefty $500 million fine. The video below is a quick look at how Google shows you the right ad at the right time:
Here is the infographic:
Google wrote a blog post earlier this year about all of these b ad ads and discussed the improvements made to their detection systems. Improvements include search “query watch” which monitors sensitive keywords related to counterfeit goods which also helps them track back to bad sites selling those goods. Google has also created a new “risk model” that scans for particular violations and policies. The updated model is supposed to be more precise in detecting bad advertisers. They even increased their processes for manual reviews which is supposed to make the manual review process more fast. Finally Google implemented a new twenty-four hour response time after receiving complaints.
You can stay up to day on googles best policies so you never accidentally trip up.
Over the years we’ve run across some things that would flat out blow the average mind and make you shake your head in disbelief.
