Now, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) metrics collectively serve as your compass. And, of course, it shouldn’t be broken. Your chosen metrics should help you navigate your marketing performance successfully. Hence, refrain from using vanity metrics. They do not provide any actionable insights you can use for revenue generation.

54% of companies that carefully choose insightful marketing metrics gain higher profits than average. 

So, how can you find metrics that truly matter? 

Let us tell you: First, you need to identify which ones you need to avoid, AKA vanity metrics. Then, pick the most effective ones to measure your ABM campaign. 

So, let us begin. 

Get Away From the Vanity Metrics Trap

These metrics create distractions that often lead your business astray. They focus on counting sheer volumes instead of assessing real value or fixating engagement, creating an illusion of success.

Here are the examples of vanity metrics to avoid: 

• The Illusion of Engagement: Content Likes

Vanity metrics like a high number of likes on a post suggest popularity. But, it doesn’t necessarily translate to genuine interest or conversion.  

• Limited Insight into Customer Intent: Open Rates and Pageviews 

 Tracking open rates may indicate that your email caught someone’s eye. But, it doesn’t reveal whether the reader found your content compelling or if it led to further exploration. 

• Feel-good Numbers Without Context: Running Total of Customers, Purchases, and Downloads 

Software solutions, service trials, and apps are especially susceptible to this metric. The total count cannot decrease, failing to provide meaningful insights into your business’s performance. 

• Unmeasurable Online Presence: Social Media Followers

It is another deceptive statistic. It does not accurately represent the quality or impact of your brand’s social presence. Moreover, it’s easily manipulated by purchasing followers or likes.

As you can see, vanity metrics provide a skewed view of your ABM efforts. It leads to misguided decisions and a diminished return on investment (ROI). 

Therefore, you must avoid the vanity metrics trap and move toward a more informed, practical ABM analysis. 

Essential ABM Metrics to Measure Success

With the vanity metrics deterred, you must navigate toward a strategic ABM measurement. All you need is to align your metrics with specific business goals, ABM marketing, and sales trends.

You can create a targeted framework for selecting the right ABM metrics. 

Here’s the 2-step framework to follow: 

1. Define your ABM objectives. Are you seeking increased brand awareness, lead generation, or customer retention?
2. Create a unique set of metrics to measure the success of each goal accurately. 

Check out the illustration of different ABM marketing goals aligned with insightful metrics:

Advanced ABM Metrics for Data-Driven Decision-Making

You know that personalization is the key to the practical ABM approach. That’s why  

tracking customer behavior and account-level data is crucial for you. By doing so, you can enjoy all the pros of ABM, such as: 

• Uncovering buyer behavior, patterns, and preferences
• Identifying decision-makers and influencers
• Personalizing engagement and content
• Predicting future behavior and identifying opportunities
• Aligning sales and marketing efforts
• Building stronger relationships
• Optimizing budget allocation

Seemingly, you can’t miss out on grabbing these insights. However, you need advanced ABM metrics to track your target customer’s behavior and each account’s data. A profound expert ABM agency can provide great help to you here. 

These metrics should measure how strongly your accounts are engaging and showing, buying signals. 

So, here is the list of advanced metrics that can satisfy the above mentioned requirements: 

• The Number of Minutes

Track how many minutes a prospect spends with your brand. These minutes must cover when the prospect:

• Respond to your marketing programs
• Use your product’s various features 
• Interact socially
• Talk with your sales team

When you combine these interactions at the account and individual levels, you genuinely measure the prospect’s engagement.

Thus, allocate a specific duration to each activity. You may not find out the precise minutes. In this scenario, you can use approximate durations for each activity type. 

For instance:

• Email opening: Approximately 2 minutes
• Content downloading: Roughly 10 minutes
• Webinar participation: Estimated at around 45 minutes

Further, you can visualize all these activities as an account timeline to use: 

• During quarterly business reviews, accurately illustrate the impact of ABM marketing on the target account.
• Analyzing interactions/touchpoints that played a role in influencing the account after a deal closes.

• Most Engaged Organizational Parts

Monitor organizational engagement using a heatmap. Sum the minutes from each matrix cell and use color coding to indicate varying levels of engagement, like this example.

Use this visual representation to pinpoint:

• Highly engaged personas (darker areas)
• Areas requiring increased engagement (lighter spots)

Additionally, it helps identify which parts of the target organization need new content to engage diverse audiences.

• Account’s Heatmap vs. Ideal Heatmap

It helps find possible areas you might not be paying attention to. While it’s crucial to concentrate on primary contacts in an account, having a good mix of relationships is vital. 

By comparing an account’s heatmap with your ideal one, find where you might lack engagement from an important person or group.

• Meetings Count

Tally the overall scheduled and conducted meetings at target accounts. Ensure an effective mechanism is in place to monitor and record these instances. This metric shows the number of sales opportunities. 

• Aggregate Account-level Engagement

It involves totaling minutes spent by all contacts within an account. Keep an eye on the overall engagement trend. 

For instance, you may find that target accounts spent 4,200 minutes responding to your marketing activities this quarter. And it is a 122% increase from last quarter’s value.

Explore the obtained data to highlight the following:

• Sales territories
• Industry segments
• Personas responding more and progressing ahead in the funnel. 

It signals positive progress in the middle of your sales funnel!

The above metrics mainly focus on finding the most engaged accounts and other organizational parts. 

You can amplify your search with technologies like predictive analytics and machine learning. These techs use historical data and patterns to identify high-potential accounts. Thus, it allows you to prioritize and target prospects with precision.

Through continuous learning, these tools adapt to evolving market dynamics. Thus, they ensure your ABM efforts remain strategic. Plus, it yields maximum impact on customer acquisition and retention.

These techs aid this data-driven experimental marketing approach in lead generation and campaign performance. 

Balance Leading and Lagging Indicators for Holistic ABM Measurement

These two indicators are like the yin and yang to navigate the ABM landscape successfully. They ensure your campaign is impactful today and equally relevant tomorrow.

Leading indicators are like trailblazers—they hint at future performance, such as engagement rates and intent signals. 

Conversely, lagging indicators are historical benchmarks, like conversion rates and revenue growth, reflecting past successes.

Now, why balance both? 

It’s akin to driving with a rearview mirror and a GPS!

Leading indicators guide your strategy, steering you toward potential opportunities. Meanwhile, lagging indicators keep you on track by showing what worked.

For example, high click-through rates (a leading indicator) might predict successful conversions (a lagging indicator). 

Similarly, the number of outreach emails sent (a leading indicator) can predict conversion rates (a lagging indicator) showing outreach effort resulting in desired action. 

And, a Net Promoter Score (a leading indicator) may predict the customer retention rate (a lagging indicator). 

Make them work together for a comprehensive ABM measurement strategy. 

Challenges and Solutions in Implementing Advanced ABM Metrics

Your job doesn’t end at finding high-value and advanced metrics. You need to implement the metrics properly to ensure desired outcomes.

Thus, you need to navigate through your team members and the current marketing tools and technologies you use. There are many other challenges you may face. Here is the list of possible challenges and their solutions for a robust ABM strategy: 

1. Overcoming Resistance to Change

Challenge: Team members might resist leaving their comfort zones. It’s mainly because of their familiarity with existing practices.

Solution: Foster open communication, highlight benefits, and offer training to ease the transition.

2. Cultivating a Metrics-Driven Culture

Challenge: Your marketing team may be working according to proven organizational tactics. Thus, shifting this mindset towards adapting dynamic decision-making based on data can be challenging.

Solution: Instill the importance of metrics from the top down. Emphasize how they help identify the strengths and weaknesses of ABM campaigns. Also, it shows how precise metrics empower the team members to make informed decisions at every level.

3. Addressing Common Concerns and Misconceptions

Challenge: Fear of the unknown can hinder progress. Moreover, incomplete information on advanced metrics can cause the team to misjudge its effectiveness. 

Solution: Tackle myths head-on and provide education on metrics you want to apply. You can share success stories to dispel doubts and common misconceptions. 

4. Integration with Existing Systems

Challenge: Your legacy systems may not be compatible and struggle to implement needed metrics. It can hinder seamless integration.

Solution: Prioritize systems integration planning and invest in compatible technologies. You must also seek expert consultation for smooth implementation.

5. Seamless Integration with CRM and Marketing Automation

Challenge: Do your advanced ABM metrics align seamlessly with existing CRM and marketing automation tools? If not, then it’ll be impossible to use these metrics effectively.

Solution: Work closely with IT teams and utilize APIs for integration. Perform thorough testing of chosen tools to identify and address prevailing compatibility issues.

Conclusion

ABM marketing’s true success hinges on employing the right metrics. These metrics steer your campaigns toward measurable outcomes. Often, businesses falter, fixated on vanity metrics that stop genuine progress. 

You must distinguish signal from noise. Embrace metrics that foster a data-centric culture. 

Apply the metrics and tips shared in this guide to transcend distractions. They’ll help you ensure your ABM campaigns thrive purposefully and yield tangible, meaningful results.

The post Why Vanity Metrics Won’t Cut It: ABM Metrics That Actually Matter appeared first on SiteProNews.

Because clicking from Google results to a website used to be the go-to action for gathering information online, the effectiveness of SEO was often measured in website traffic. However, our search behaviors have transformed dramatically in recent years. Today, people can often get the information they’re looking for without a single click. To thrive in this new world, marketers must rethink how they measure SEO success.

The Shift Towards Zero-Click Searches

We used to click around for information on consumer goods and services, but now we read Google’s snippets right on the search results page. Similarly, when looking for the nearest pharmacy, we now turn to Google Maps instead of navigating to a drugstore’s website.

We’ve entered the era of the “zero-click” search, where users obtain the information they need directly from search results. Essentially, people are clicking significantly less, primarily due to the sheer convenience of these changes. The rapid adoption of media platforms like TikTok, Spotify, or YouTube further demonstrates this shift, where the user is automatically taken from one video or song to the next, no click required. This convenience-driven evolution has also been influenced by emerging privacy constraints and advancements in consumer technology designed to thwart ad tracking.

In fact, recent studies have found that between 25% to 65% of all searches end without a click. Apparently, people can get all the information they need without visiting individual websites — so they’re opting not to click over. This trend shows no signs of slowing down, especially as search engines like Google and Bing incorporate artificial intelligence into their results. As a result, digital marketers are left grappling with the challenge of deciphering the impact of these changes on their paid digital media efforts. Marketers who traditionally relied on clicks as the primary gauge of success now also need to redefine what numbers are truly important.

SEO Metrics, Redefined

In this evolving digital landscape where the click is no longer king, our measures of success must also evolve. As marketers, we must ask ourselves: What really matters today? Do we care solely about SEO rankings and website visits, or do we need to take a more holistic view of search data?

If we place too much emphasis on traffic as the ultimate metric, we overlook critical aspects of how people access information today. A diner searching for a restaurant’s operating hours on Google Maps may never visit the restaurant’s website, yet having this info readily available on Google can sway dining choices. Similarly, when shoppers at a convenience store consider a battery purchase, finding the information they need on a search results page can quickly and directly contribute to battery sales even if they never click on a manufacturer or retailer’s website.

So, how can we measure success in the no-click era? Here are some approaches:

Consider Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE). In public relations (PR), AVE serves as a vital metric, assessing the value of earned media coverage by estimating the cost of equivalent ad placements. We can apply this concept to SEO efforts that secure top search results — as well as knowledge panels or AI-generated results — on Google, since users read and engage with the information, even without visiting websites. Think of those top results as a premium billboard: highly visible and attention-getting, even if unclickable. Picture your SEO like owning the world’s most coveted billboard space and consider its value in terms of Cost Per Mille (CPM).

Pay Attention to Impressions. For a comprehensive understanding of your SEO’s impact, explore the connection between overall brand searches and zero-click impressions. Impressions, another commonly used PR metric, represent the number of individuals who have seen a piece of earned media. In the context of searches, we can examine search impression statistics. While these figures are softer as they don’t reveal what actions viewers took or the impact, they still offer valuable insights. Think of your top Google search ranking as a high-profile media impression. What’s the value of that exposure, even if it doesn’t translate into a click?

Monitor with third-party tools. Most SEO tools today alert you if a search query results in a rich result, such as features in knowledge panels or “people also ask” recommendations. As these SEO tools continue to evolve, they will likely track keywords against evolving AI results, which will prove valuable in measuring zero-click data.

Survey Site Visitors. Consumers are asked for feedback on nearly every good or service these days, whether the comfort of a flight or the fit of yoga pants. As a result, many people readily and habitually provide valuable input, often at no cost. Capitalize on this by asking site visitors about their brand discovery or selection process, as their purchase may have started with a prior zero-click search.

Try Correlations and Causation Modeling. Explore whether an increase in overall search, including zero-click searches, correlates with overall results on your website or other retail channels like Amazon. Regardless of clicks, does search behavior drive sales? A univariate or multivariate regression model can help you understand the relationship between a search impression and revenue for the business. A time series regression model, for example, may find that 1000 zero-click search impressions are worth $100 in revenue. This is valuable information that can be used to justify or expand your search presence.

For a clearer understanding of the impact on your website traffic, start by taking these initial steps:

1. Benchmark and monitor your current high-ranking impression and click keyword data in Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — then track your clickthrough rate (CTR) and daily traffic as zero-click searches increase.
2. Monitor your direct website traffic to study if it increases as AI-provided results become more common.
3. Monitor AI search results for the links to your website, if any.
4. Monitor your keyword search impressions and note any changes as search generative experience (SGE) becomes more common.

Ultimately, We Must Think Beyond the Click

Clearly, the role of SEO has evolved dramatically. Today, SEO is less about driving website traffic and more about seamlessly delivering precise information to users when and where they need it. The click is no longer the primary measure of success — it’s just one piece of a bigger, more intricate puzzle.

Undoubtedly, search engine results pages (SERPs) are evolving quickly today, with changes happening on a near-daily basis. In this environment, we need to vigilantly monitor Google, Bing, and industry news reports to stay up to date. As digital marketers, adapting to this new landscape is not a choice but a necessity. We must boldly overhaul our metrics, crafting them to accurately capture the value of zero-click searches and embracing the far-reaching impacts of SEO. These new metrics will require adaptability and customization, molded by factors such as industry dynamics, consumer expectations, and changing online behavior.

Continuing to fixate on clicks will result in wasted effort and missed opportunities. Those ready to shape a fresh, more insightful digital marketing paradigm will emerge as the victors in the no-click era.

The post SEO Strategies for the No-click Era appeared first on SiteProNews.

When it comes to website analytics, it’s easy to get lost among the forest’s trees. You may not be sure what information matters most and what you should be looking to improve. While your site is instrumental to your business’s digital marketing strategy, a lot goes on underneath. Below we’ll explain how to master the four most critical website analytics and why they’re so important.

1. Examine Traffic Sources

In general, a lot of your website traffic will either be organic or paid. Organic means visitors find your online content by searching for it. Maybe not your exact URL, but a search engine returned your site’s content as a match for the keywords someone used. They found the preview of your content promising enough to click on it.

This traffic is organic because you didn’t pay the search engine to show the links to your site. Paid traffic is the opposite. You embed links to your site’s content in a pay-per-click ad or a boosted social media post. Targeted audiences see the ads and posts since the objective is to attract visitors who match specific profiles.

Boosting your organic traffic can help serve your growth marketing goals. Search engine optimization strategies use keywords to generate traffic and leads. Ideally, you want more of this traffic to be organic than paid. In the long run, it’s more cost-effective, and you stand a greater chance of nurturing genuinely interested prospects.

But you also want to examine the keywords you’re targeting and whether they match visitors’ search terms. A deeper dive into your traffic analytics will reveal this data. The information will show whether the keywords you’re using effectively acquire leads. Plus, it can indicate where your SEO strategies could use a facelift.

2. Identify What Visitors Do

Getting people to your site is great. But once they’re there, how do they engage with your content? Just because your traffic numbers are up doesn’t guarantee that visitors enjoy your pages. Metrics like bounce rates, page entrances, and exit percentages can tell a more insightful story.

Your bounce rate reveals what percentage of visitors came to a specific page and left without doing anything else. They didn’t go to another link on your site, including contact forms. This means they came, saw, and didn’t engage any further. Your bounce rate doesn’t tell you why they left, but it can indicate the content didn’t meet their expectations.

Page entrances tell you what pages people are coming to first. Perhaps more visitors are landing on a specific blog post versus your e-commerce store. Numbers like this show that your blog post is outperforming your store pages in terms of attracting visitors. But if your goal is to get people to your store, you might need to experiment with your blog posts. Trying different call-to-action links may help direct a percentage of traffic toward conversion.

A page’s exit percentages aren’t the same as the bounce rate. The former metric means people left your website from the page but may have spent time browsing through your site. If your visitors are leaving on a purchase or sign-up confirmation page, you’re in good shape. If they’re bailing midway through the marketing funnel, you’ll need to investigate further to determine what’s prompting their departure and make necessary changes.

3. Measure Conversions

Your website isn’t there to only look good. You want people to do something once they get there. It might be purchasing a product, signing up for your emails, or registering for your upcoming webinar. With conversions, you could have more than one objective. Plus, those goals might vary by audience.

One aim isn’t necessarily better than another. However, measuring conversion rates will reveal whether your strategies are working. Determining how you want people to engage with your content will help you shape it. Also, you’ll need to benchmark your desired conversion rate. Otherwise, you won’t know when to declare victory.

Averages can sometimes help set your own targets. For example, the average online store conversion rate is between 2.5% and 3%. However, you likely want to surpass industry averages. Your goal could be to work up to the top of the average range if your site is new. It depends on what will be feasible for your team and make the most sense for your business’s growth objectives.

4. Look at Repeat Visitors

Businesses can’t grow based on new customers alone. In fact, most of your growth will come from existing clients. With digital marketing strategies and online stores, this translates to repeat visitors to your site. Even before leads convert, more than one visit to a page can indicate strong interest.

It’s like when a prospective homebuyer comes back for a second viewing. The repeat visit indicates that the property is probably a top contender. The buyer may have additional questions, but they like what they see. Measuring unique versus repeat visits to various pages on your site shows which audiences are most likely to buy.

This data also tells you who your loyal customers are. You can use this information to retarget them for specific campaigns, such as product and service bundles. When certain pages get a lot of repeat hits, it shows you what’s relevant to your audience members. Use the insights to craft related content to boost retention, engagement, and conversion rates.

Understanding Website Analytics

Data about your website is there to guide your online marketing strategies. The insights can steer you toward opportunities and reveal wins. Analyzing traffic sources, visitors’ behaviors, conversion rates, and repeat page hits will give you a clear performance snapshot. Understanding what that snapshot says can help your business grow in the direction you desire.

The post 4 Tips to Help Master Your Website Data, and Why It Matters appeared first on SiteProNews.

So it comes as no surprise that so many amateur bloggers don’t give their website copy a do-over when needed. Even if you are writing evergreen content with concepts that don’t change in response to the passage of time, it’s still important to update certain sections with new information.

It’s not simply enough to provide users with a visually good-looking interface and then call it a day. That’s just the hook that buys you a few more seconds with your prospects. The website copy gives them further reasons to not only extend their stay but also follow through with a desirable action (whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or buying a service. 

Without a good copy, you’ll have a hard time trying to convince readers to part with their money. 

So what are the hallmarks of good website copy?

Below is a rough overview that gives you a good idea:

• It should resonate with the reader’s pain points
• It should provide in-depth information that keeps up with the times
• It should provide actionable advice on how to solve a problem
• It shouldn’t be too sales-y 
• It shouldn’t be too flashy

The last point needs a bit of clarification. Far too many website creators believe that setting up a flashy website with an eye-catching design is all that it takes to convince readers to stay. That’s just one part of the equation. You must also complement the visuals with accompanying text proving that you’re an authority on the subject.

Speaking of flashy design, if your website is too visually complicated, you run the risk of scaring off visitors (that is, even if your page loads in the first place). 

In this blog, you’ll learn about 4 signs that it’s time to re-evaluate your website copy and give it a spruce up – if need be.

New Trends in Keywords Have Emerged

It is absolutely important for any SEO professional to keep monitoring keyword trends and updating their content accordingly.

This is definitely true in the case of webmasters who haven’t updated their copy in several years. There is a good chance that your niche has evolved to include new keywords that originally didn’t have any interest.

Here’s an example.

The keywords “cherry brown” and “mechanical keyword” were useful back in 2010 for keyword vendors. In 2021, new technology has emerged, and with it new keywords. So if you created a blog that includes keywords covering only Cherry MX switches, it’s probably time to include information about Kalih switches. 

Customers Have Moved On

A savvy marketer knows that their prospective clients are always evolving in terms of the problems they encounter and the solutions they require.

This is why a good website copy should understand the problem, resonate with the reader, and then proceed with a solution. 

Your goal in content isn’t restricted to selling stuff – it’s to demonstrate empathy. To be relatable. 

Suppose you provide data protection services.

Making blanket statements such as, “data protection is complicated” won’t do anything to empathize with the problems your clients are currently facing.

You’ll have to properly address their pain points and understand the issues that they are facing.

In the data protection example, the problems businesses are facing today are a lot different than they looked a few years ago. 

For example, the recent pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns required businesses to transition to the cloud.

In a matter of days, the pain point of most businesses changed to protecting their employees from data breaches.

IT vendors who were savvy sniffed the change in the air and updated their web copy to reflect the new dangers of a data breach now that most people were working from home. 

This is just one example. There are countless others depending on the type of niche you operate in.

Your Competitors Are Getting More Traffic

This one requires quite a bit of introspection – and that may be a bitter pill to swallow. But it’s important to take a step back and go over your web copy to see if it’s lacking somewhere.

It’s a good practice to compare your web copy with that of your competitors.

Evaluate the other copy for the following markers:

• Does it cover more pain points?
• Does the author appear more empathetic to your prospects’ needs?
• Is their brand more credible and trustworthy?
• Do their products or services cover more ground than yours?
• Does it read better than yours?

This requires honesty. 

The primary goal of your website copy is to empathize with the reader, present the solution, and give reasons as to why your company is the best provider of that solution. 

If your competitor is doing better than you, chances are, they’ve got better website copy. 

The Original Copy Was Written Without Research

Let’s face it. Not every marketer has all day to devote to writing.

Most entrepreneurs need to get something out and they don’t have the luxury of time. So they prepare something in a matter of hours. The final work looks rushed, plain, and very simple. 

Content marketing in 2021 requires you to play dress-up with your blogs. This requires constant back and forth – and that can take several days. 

Now we’re not asking you to write a Pulitzer award-winning copy – but something that looks like it was written by a professional.

An experienced copywriter will likely spend several hours (and maybe even days) coming up with the required research and text variations to truly wordsmith your content. They probably did several rounds of revisions before proposing the final copy to their client for review.

This kind of research, detail, and wordsmithing requires time and effort. To buy that, you’ll have to cough up more than $10 per page. 

Find a bigger budget than last time – invest in a content writing service that can provide you with a succinct copy and reap the rewards.

The post 4 Signs Your Website Copy Needs Updating appeared first on SiteProNews.

When selling fashion online, you need to optimize your conversion rate. In this context, your conversion rate refers to the rate at which customers buy products from your website.

A proper SEO strategy can play a very significant role in improving your conversion rate. The following points will help you better understand how:

Attracting Visitors

It’s a basic point, but it’s an essential one. When your SEO strategy is strong, your pages are more likely to rank high in the results pages when users perform relevant searches. The more people see your pages and click on your links, the better the odds your conversion rate will be high.

Don’t overlook the importance of ranking high in search results. Research indicates pages that show on the second page of search results account for a mere 6% of online clicks.

Attracting the Right Visitors

This may sound similar to the point above, but to a degree, it’s a separate point.

The fact that many people visit your site doesn’t guarantee you’ll have a desirable conversion rate. There are plenty of reasons you could have a relatively low conversion rate despite your pages attracting a fairly high amount of traffic.

For instance, maybe the people who find your pages and click on them aren’t the types of people to buy your products. They click on your pages because they get the impression that they’ll find what they’re looking for on them, but when they see what you’re actually offering, they may realize they were mistaken.

A proper SEO strategy won’t merely attract visitors. It will attract visitors most likely to be interested in what you’re selling.

Reaching Online Shoppers

Did you know that mobile Internet browsing is now more popular than desktop browsing? Similarly, it’s becoming increasingly common for people to make purchases via their mobile devices.

SEO specialists account for these types of trends when developing and implementing their strategies. For example, a smart SEO professional will know it’s important to optimize a page for a mobile device by ensuring the content can easily be scanned on a small mobile screen and confirming the page functions properly on a smartphone or tablet. When your SEO strategy involves optimizing your site for mobile, naturally, you’ll be more likely to make sales to customers shopping via mobile devices.

Ensuring Functionality

That last point touched on an important detail that some overlook when developing SEO strategies. Although including the right keywords and formatting content appropriately are certainly critical elements of an SEO strategy, they’re not the only factors to consider. SEO also involves a technical side. You need to ensure your site performs reliably for your SEO strategy to deliver ideal results.

It’s easy to understand the role site performance may play in your conversion rate. A visitor is simply far less likely to make a purchase than they otherwise might be if your site is laggy or otherwise has performance issues. An SEO strategy should address this.

Focusing on User Intent

When developing an SEO strategy and researching which keywords to use in your content, it’s important to consider user intent. People use different types of keywords for different types of searches.

For example, someone typing in “red dress” may be searching for a red dress to buy, but that might not necessarily always be the case. Maybe they’re looking for images of red dresses. Maybe they’d like to buy a red dress in the future and are thus looking for ideas, but they don’t plan on making a purchase anytime soon.

On the other hand, a search for “red dress on sale” or “buy red dress” will likely be made by someone ready to make a purchase. An SEO strategy will leverage these types of keywords to ensure the guests your pages attract are prepared to buy a product.

All that said, SEO can be complex. You might not have the qualifications or time to develop and implement a strategy yourself. If not, strongly consider hiring a marketing agency to help. Experts will work with you to ensure your strategy yields optimal results. For more information on this topic, check out the article “20 Digital Marketing Tips for Fashion Businesses.”

The post How SEO Can Boost Conversions appeared first on SiteProNews.

White label is a wider concept. It covers a lot more than you could envision. Let’s find out.

What Is White Label SEO?

White label SEO comprises two concepts – white-label and SEO. White label is the concept where services offered by one company are used by a second company under its brand. While SEO is the total sum of activities that help your website to grow and gain organic traffic.

So, white label SEO (also referred to as SEO reselling) simply signifies that your agency offers SEO services to your clients under your own brand. But the clients are unaware that all the work is done by a white label SEO provider.

Benefits of White Label SEO

There are proclaimed benefits of using a white label SEO. But what can it offer to your agency? Why should you go for white label services instead of independent contractors (ICs), freelancers, or SEO experts? How would white labeling SEO have a positive impact on scaling your revenue?

To put it simply, if you possess all the resources to be able to afford an in-house SEO team then nothing like it. But if not, then you have white label SEO at your service. 

A professional white label agency can aid your business and serve the following benefits:

1. Scaling Revenue with No Extra Overhead

SEO is said to drive 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media does.

If you are an agency that isn’t equipped enough to offer proper SEO service to your clients, then hiring a white label agency is the best option. It helps you increase your agency’s revenue since there is no employee hiring, training, or customer enablement involved. Hiring a white label is much less costly than setting up a whole SEO team in-house. 

2. Experience and Expertise Hand in Hand

Collaborating with an SEO provider, you need not need to build a team infrastructure from scratch. You can take advantage of your provider’s experience and expertise as soon as you subscribe to their service. 

3. Mutual Benefit

One of the important aspects of an SEO partnership is that your agency’s success is directly proportional to the white label provider’s success. The more clients your agency pitches, the more your white label partner prospers.

This relationship is mutually beneficial. Your provider will serve you with all of the collateral you need to fish and retain SEO clients. The more clients you bring, the more work the white label gets. Thus both benefit from the partnership. 

How Do You Choose a White-Label SEO Provider?

Finding an appropriate white label SEO provider amidst the thousands of available options is crucial to the success of your agency. These are some questions that you must ask while looking for a white label SEO agency.

Are they equipped to provide all the services your clients may need? How reliable are their services? Will clients be getting value for their money? Do they maintain timely and reliable customer feedback?

With these considerations in mind, let’s find out what makes a white label service stand out:

1. Transparency in Communication

Your white label partner should communicate well and be transparent about their terms and services, reporting, pricing and campaigns, policies, etc. Bad communication is no communication. The SEO provider should be transparent while communicating with its client agency. 

2. Experience and Worth

Make sure the SEO team you’re going to work with has enough experience to be able to serve your clients in the best possible way. Talk to some of the members of their SEO team. Research their past success stories and case studies. 

3. Enquire about Processes and Deliverables

During your inquiry or demo call, make sure you ask about how they execute campaigns. What steps are demarcated in the entire process? Take reference to the expectations mentioned above as a guide to judge their actions. 

Do not forget to enquire about their deliverables. Ask them, what clients can expect from them? Always mention that the end goal of hiring them is– organic traffic growth. Their sole aim should be to improve organic traffic to your client’s website.

4. Check Online Reviews

Online reviews can prove to be useful while choosing a white label SEO provider. You can effortlessly find out how a company has been performing in the past by viewing what customers have to say about them. Success is equivalent to happy clients. Browse through reviews left behind by each service’s past clients and you’ll get a sense of how good they are at what they do.

5. Scale the Growth of Your Agency

The sole reason for hiring white label SEO is to promote your agency’s growth. Small agencies crave rapid growth for their brand, but unfortunately, they lack the resources required to maintain an in-house SEO team. Look for an agency that can prove their claim to pave your agency’s growth. 

6. Vision or Goals that Align with Your Agency

Every business has goals and vision. These goals need to be met for any business to expand and grow. When you opt for a white label marketing agency, you must check to see if their vision matches well with your business objectives or not. Since they are white labeling services to your brand, you vouch for them in the market.

7. Technical Prowess and Know-how

When looking for an ideal white label SEO provider for your agency, you must not overlook their experience and technical know-how in the field. You must consider their experience as an asset to your company. No matter how technically sound a company is, experience still counts because a new agency may not be able to perform well under arduous situations. 

Here, the experienced win the race. Experience and technical knowledge are both equally important. 

8. Performance Proof through Reporting

Reporting is the key to analyzing the success of any campaign. You must ask your prospective white label SEO agency to provide ROI to your clients through a Key Performance Indicator Report. Never opt for a white label that does not provide performance proof through timely and systematic reports. 

Wrapping up

It is paramount that you choose the right SEO reseller partner for your business. The research may prove to be a tedious job, but it’s all worth it since choosing the right white label SEO for your business may lead your agency to success.

The post A Complete Guide on Finding the Ideal White Label SEO Solution appeared first on SiteProNews.

In a nutshell, more traffic simply means more profit. If you have already learned to direct website traffic where you need it the most, the next thing you should ask yourself is how you can increase that traffic and keep on looking for new ways to perpetually attract website traffic.

Because this is so essential for every business person we bring you this article to give you some tips and some surefire strategies to direct website traffic to the pages that matter the most. 

This should be one of the core processes of your company and you really don’t want to be left behind or miss out on some easy pickings if at all possible. 

If the methods you are using don’t give you the results you are expecting then it’s time for you to start thinking of other ways to attract website traffic and you really should have started yesterday.

Blogging

Running a blog is definitely a powerful strategy for generating traffic to your website. On your blog, you will be able to talk about your website’s products and services, and also add some links to your website. It is also possible to respond to any queries that your prospective customers and buyers could possibly have. 

By blogging on a regular basis, you will have new content that can get your website indexed by search engines and also rank highly on these search engines. As a result, your website traffic will greatly improve.

Use WordPress recommended hosting provider Bluehost to host your website. This list of Bluehost pricing and plans can help you to get the best deal for yourself.

Start your own forum

Start a discussion board or a forum related to the products or services you promote on your website. Having a discussion board on your specific niche market, you become established as an expert in your subject matter. 

Simply by responding to queries or concerns and assisting people in your specific niche market on your own discussion board, you direct traffic to your website due to the fact that your website link is posted as part of your signature on the discussion board.

Publish your own e-newsletter

Having your very own e-newsletter where you can regularly offer no-cost ideas or tips and content can help increase your website traffic. Your own e-newsletter will have your website links posted on it, so those people who will read your e-newsletter will likely go to your website.

Trade links

Trade links with websites that have high popularity (PR) rank. Almost all you have to do is to locate websites that are related to whatever you offer on your website and trade website links with these sites. 

This really is a powerful strategy if the website possesses a high popularity rank on search engines. As a result, you will have traffic generation on your website through the sites you are linked with.

Give some freebies to your audience

Offer no-cost reports and content material. Handing out a few giveaways and including your website link within those giveaways is an efficient and affordable strategy for generating traffic to your website. 

You can write a few valuable short reports with your website link in them and give those reports at no cost on a website in which you request people to leave their email address prior to downloading the no-cost report, articles, or blog posts. 

Article Marketing

Articles enable you to turn into an expert in your specific niche market. By means of writing excellent and educational articles or blog posts within your specialized niche, you then become an expert. Additionally, you develop trust and confidence in your prospective customers. As an expert, customers will certainly feel comfortable purchasing from you and this also increases your sales and online business profits.

It’s an inexpensive method of website traffic generation. You can write your own articles or blog posts or you can seek the services of a freelance writer to write a number of articles or blog posts for you, and this is not very costly. 

You can then publish your articles or blog posts to numerous directories. There are several tools that can be used to automatically publish your articles to numerous directories and will increase the number of inbound links pointing back to your website.

Great Graphics and Web Design

An added attraction can be a good design and excellent graphics for your website. Providing an interactive capability ensures that your website can be used to communicate with visitors. 

Not only is this a clever marketing ploy, but also a way of receiving opinions/suggestions from people who wish to leave messages on your website. 

Web hosting providers provide a collection of free tools that can be used for setting up this kind of interactive capability. Setting up links across the website will certainly help increase website traffic. 

Constant participation in online community forums can also help you to show your interest in others and thereby show-case your own interest.

Paid Advertising

Generating free website traffic is not the only way to increase visitors to the site. You can also buy web traffic to drive people to your site. Whether you buy traffic or get it for free, you need to target the traffic effectively in order to be successful. 

If your website is not successful and is not able to get visitors, you will unnecessarily waste bandwidth and Web Hosting space. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to buy web traffic to benefit you in the long run. The consultants or firms from whom you buy traffic are experts in that and ensure that you get great results! 

If your website features a lot of videos, you can increase video traffic by advertising these videos properly. People are extremely fascinated by unique and interesting videos; therefore, providing interesting videos can increase video traffic and thereby website traffic to your website.

On-Page SEO

On-page search engine optimization is the first and foremost step to getting online traffic for free and as such it is critical. You really want to do this properly because if your on-page search engine optimization is messed up, then the free website traffic generator will be rendered useless. Even if it means outsourcing the task, it can be well worth it. 

On-page search engine marketing mainly deals with the meta tags, header tags, page description, and proper use and placement of keywords. Failing to do so has great consequences in the search engines and can waste all your effort.

Use tools such as Semrush to increase your online visibility. Activate a Semrush free trial and use the tool worth $119.95 for free.

Off-Page SEO

A free website traffic generator will really start to draw in some serious, targeted online traffic once you do off-page SEO. This is a critical extension of on-page search engine marketing as you attempt to gain web traffic successfully and that’s why it shouldn’t be missed.

Off-page search engine optimization involves commenting on blogs and forums, marketing articles and videos, document sharing, social bookmarking, social media marketing, press releases, podcasts, RSS feeds, and other efforts associated with getting as many one-way backlinks to your website as feasible.

Keep your website up to date

You need the data on your website to be current and relevant. This means writing material that won’t get dated or adding items constantly to keep it fresh. Both strategies are actually a good idea because you want to have return traffic as well as newer customers. 

The best strategy to keep visitors coming back is to continually update the site news so that there is always something new to read each time.

Posting on sharing sites

Articles on sites that are focused on revenue-sharing are also great for marketing and directing website traffic. Your articles are included in a roster of search engine results, which consequently improve your site statistics. 

You can create numerous links to your website in the articles posted on these sites and therefore increase the possibility of people being redirected to your page. Moreover, your articles are protected in that other writers cannot gain permission to duplicate or syndicate your material. 

This is because some of the income from the ad banners posted on the sharing sites will be given to you. Definitely, you would have to be the legitimate owner of the article.

Conclusion

Learning to attract website traffic is not an exact science because every niche has different preferences and different requirements. 

Therefore, care should be given in fostering any of these methods so that when you take the extra time to actually learn to direct website traffic properly it will reward you by continuing for months or years into the future.

The post Best Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic for Making More Sales appeared first on SiteProNews.

What is Google Analytics?

Google has provided its users with a vast array of tools to help them maintain their pages. One of them is Google Analytics – you can use it to monitor your website activity and check stats regarding session duration, source of traffic, bounce rate, etc. This tool is free – to some extent. Small businesses can use this tool free of charge. However, the more professional features come with a fee. To start using Google Analytics, make sure you enable it in your Google Admin console. 

How to diagnose traffic drops – take a deep breath and start

There are several steps you can take to get to the bottom of your problem. It’s essential to be realistic and objective and start this process slowly and in detail. Let’s see what things you can do to diagnose traffic drops. 

Drops can happen; just be sure to diagnose them fast and react accordingly. 

PPC traffic or Google organic traffic?

First, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a problem with organic traffic. That is often not the case – sometimes, drops come from paid traffic. That’s why you should start this diagnostic process by checking– organic traffic or PPC traffic.  Also, don’t forget other traffic sources – direct visits, email, social, etc. Checking them all out may lead to the solution to your problem.

Locate the problematic pages 

If there are one or more pages that have experienced a drop in traffic, the first thing you should do is to find out which one it is. You can easily do that by using Google Analytics. 

Check out the ‘All Traffic’ section and click ‘Channels’. Under the ‘Organic’ section, select the period you want to check and compare it to the previous period. You should be able to see your landing pages and the way they have performed in the last week or month. Commonly, the drop is related to the most popular pages on your website. They should be at the top of the list. However, if the drop has affected all your website pages, it’s a sign of a bigger problem. Perhaps you received a Google Penalty, or you were unaware of a recent update. 

Make sure it’s not a seasonal thing 

Sometimes, some businesses are less popular at certain times of the year. For example, companies that sell Christmas lights or decorations will not get the same amount of traffic during summer. You can determine this based on your previous experience and industry knowledge, but also by using Google Analytics. Just be sure to compare the traffic of the exact weeks/months in two or more years. It will show you if you’re dealing with a seasonal drop or there’s another problem to look for. 

The way your website performs may be affected by trends and seasons. 

Check the users responsible for the drop

Another way to diagnose traffic drops is to take a look at users responsible for the traffic drop. There are two types of people visiting your website – new users and returning users. Let’s look at both: 

New users 

 If fewer new users are coming to the website, the problem is in the way they find it in search results. This is the time to check:

• your keywords –  these are an essential factor in ranking your pages on Google. Sometimes, it is necessary to pick a fresh set of keywords as the market and people visiting the pages change;
• updates – very often, Google comes up with an update that can affect your rankings because the old optimization methods don’t comply with the new update;
• penalties – if a penalty is applied to your website by Google, it will affect the way Google ranks your pages. 

Returning users 

If you notice returning users are not returning anymore, you need to take a closer look at your website user experience.  The most common problems are broken pages and slow loading speed. These may disappoint returning users, forcing them to leave the website and find an alternative destination. Be sure to check all of the factors that help improve the user experience and do your best to bring it to perfection.

Don’t disappoint old and new users – make your website flawless. 

Combine GA with Search Console for complete results 

When you need to diagnose traffic drops and take a closer look at your website, Google Analytics is a great option. However, you should complete this investigation by using some other great tools – one of them being Search Console. Only then can you be sure you have examined all the aspects of your problem to find a fast solution. Google Analytics will help you explore the user-oriented aspects of the traffic. On the other hand, Search Console is more focused on search-engine related issues. It can tell you more about your website’s visibility, SERP presence, keyword problems, etc. Combining two or more tools will give you an in-depth report on your website’s performance and lead you to the most effective solutions to get back on track and welcome many new visitors.

The post Using Google Analytics to diagnose Traffic Drops appeared first on SiteProNews.

Sometimes, you genuinely have a great blog post—it’s thoughtful, digestible, and complete. You’ve pulled all the stops, corrected mistakes, and improved what it’s lacking. So, why isn’t it ranking high?

If you’re doing this by yourself, you might want to consider either finding proofreaders or editors. After all, writers can sometimes miss grammatical and spelling errors in their work. However, there’s also a good chance you’re making SEO mistakes that do not benefit what might otherwise be high-quality content.

Let’s discuss the possible reasons why your high-quality blog post might be getting buried and develop simple solutions you can implement as soon as possible.

1. You’re Not Optimizing for Mobile Searches

While laptops and PCs haven’t fallen into disuse, smartphones and other mobile devices are now more commonly used to surf the web. There are various apps that aim to satisfy consumer needs—and they all have a downloadable mobile app. It’s not uncommon to see someone open their phone, type into Google’s search bar, and find something they want to purchase.

Not optimizing for mobile sites could simply be a matter of difficult-to-read font sizes, excessive indents, and wrong text placement. It could also be due to inserting specific keywords that are not commonly used in mobile searches. Not taking Voice Search into account might also slow down your mobile optimization efforts.

2. You’re Posting Repetitive or Duplicate Content

When Google’s algorithm finds two very similar content, it decides which is more useful and disregards the other. That means that the second blog post has not benefited your SEO efforts in any way. No matter how good both posts are, one will have to win out over the other.

Instead of writing updates and supplementary posts, refresh your old blogs instead. You can add changes to the information based on current events, changes in legislation, or changes in popular SEO strategies. Don’t split up two well-written pieces if you can manage to put them together.

3. You’re Overusing a Limited Set of Keywords

Setting a goal to rank high in high competition keywords is not a bad idea. However, looking for several high-competition keywords could really help you in the long run.

If you’re blogging to market a specific product or service, make sure to diversify the keywords you are using. A hundred different posts using the same exact keywords and anchor texts are all going to compete against each other. There are so many daily searchers that do not use the same popular keywords each time.

Also, consider localizing your keyword strategies. You can do this by planning to use keywords most popular in your area of practice or store location. Switch between global and local keywords when you’re writing your blog as a way to diversify them.

4. You’re Website Has Bad User Interface

Good blog entries can be enough to convince users to make purchases. However, visual design, layout, and the overall organization of your site can affect their first impression of you.

If the default text, site colors, and animations make it hard for users to read, they might just click off your post. If you’re using large or unfitting image formats for the design, it might slow the entire loading time. If your contact details or store links are difficult to find, a converted client might choose to find products and services elsewhere.

If your blogs are walls of text with no images to break paragraphs or sections, they might intimidate or bore the reader.

While site design does not directly affect the quality of your writing, it does affect how users experience the content you’re putting out. Make sure your site is accessible, and your formatting is easy to read.

5. You’re not giving the Audience What They Want

Well-written blogs do not always equate to good SEO. You might be creating thoughtful, well-researched content but still can’t satisfy a searcher’s need.

There could be many reasons for users clicking and leaving your page within seconds. If your user interface is excellent and your post is well put together, then it might be that your blog post didn’t have what they’re looking for.

Part of Google’s criteria for ranking pages is its user reception. The number of people who click on the site, the longer they’re on it, along with how trustworthy Google thinks your page is, will influence the ranking.

Find a keyword you’re competing for and check the first page. Read the content, pay attention to how the posts are organized, and find what yours are lacking. Chances are, there might be a difference in writing style and formatting, so pay attention to those and see how you can integrate that technique into your own content.

6. Your Content is Outdated

Look at your old posts and find what’s making them look dated. You could be using old statistical data, terminology that has fallen out of use, and less relevant examples than what’s on current events.

Your content refresh should not only add more information, but you have to also update for shifting social and political climates. Not acknowledging new laws, adjusting your use of popular vernacular, or ignoring high-impact societal changes decreases the relevance of your content.

7. You’re Not Promoting Your Blogs

The number of clicks from the search results to your page isn’t the only factor considered for ranking. You might have traffic coming in from other promotional platforms, like social media.

Unless you’re an established site with regular visitors, you will need to work harder to find traffic. Promoting it through other platforms—like Twitter or Facebook—not only helps  exposure, but counts towards your stats. Using email lists linking back to your website also helps.

Whether you are a long-time trusted site or just starting out, it’s good SEO practice to make your content visible to as many people as possible.

The post Reasons Why Good Blogs Don’t Get Traffic appeared first on SiteProNews.

Google is the leading search engine in the world in 2021 and is predicted to stay in this position for the foreseeable future. For this reason, it’s essential that now more than ever, your business invest in website SEO. 

Even Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, said that Google is a mountain; you can’t move it, but you can certainly climb it to reap the rewards of getting to the top of the peak. 

This blog will serve as your guide to increasing your organic traffic on a massive scale in 2021. 

Let’s start by clearing any misconceptions and defining what SEO is exactly.

What is SEO?

SEO is the practice of optimizing your web presence so that your website can rank higher on Google and other search engines’ pages for your desired keywords. This statement means that if ranking on Google is a game of archery, SEO is a highly fine-tuned bow that allows you to aim your arrow as precisely as possible and launch it accurately to pierce your desired bulls’ eyes.

Website SEO helps your business website rank higher in Google and other search engines, which allows your target customers to see your website more frequently, become familiar with your brand, and enter your sales funnels.

While SEO is the bow, keywords are your bulls’ eyes.

Have Your Websites’ Keyword Strategies Fine-Tuned

Keywords are the words that searchers type into Google and other search engines to find answers and information on what they are searching. If you think of your website’s SEO as an entire building, keywords are the individual bricks that make up the building and need to be strategically cemented in the walls and foundations.

This metaphor indicates that keywords need to be regularly added to your website’s SEO content. This content includes web content, pages, URLs, pictures, videos, titles, source codes, and more.

Keywords can be found manually using Google or through high-end tools that streamline the process when the user has the experience to use them. You can consult a top-notch SEO service for websites to find out the best keywords your website should incorporate to reach your target customers and beat out your competitors effectively.

The strategy that needs to be implemented for your website will vary depending on your website’s current size and reach.

If your website is already established and has a wide-reaching audience, you can have the most competitive keywords targeted, which also tend to have the highest user search volumes. 

If you’re just getting started or are in the middle of fine-tuning your website SEO, it would be in your favor to have lower competition, longer tail keywords targeted.

Low competition, long-tail keywords may not sound worth your time at first, but don’t be deceived. 

This is a powerful combination for small businesses that web SEO services can help you implement. It will be relatively more straightforward for your business to rank on Google compared to higher competition keywords.

Secondly, these keywords will be long-tailed, meaning visitors to your website from these keywords are far more likely to convert to customers.

Why is this?

The visitors from long-tail keyword searches are more likely to convert to customers because they’re searching precise search terms rather than general, short-tail search terms.

For example: if a person searches “pizza,” this is a very short tail keyword that will produce highly generalized results. 

So, even if a person visits your (hypothetical) pizza bagel website in New York after searching only “pizza,” they might not convert. Perhaps, they were seeking pizza recipes, or they live somewhere outside New York.

If, on the other hand, a person searches “pizza bagel places near Brooklyn in New York,” this qualifies as a long-tail keyword. You can easily see that this search term is far more specific than the first one, literally just “pizza.”

When a visitor searching this term visits your website, they’re much more likely to place an order on your website.

So, don’t let the “low” in “low competition” fool you because having these keywords targeted can significantly boost your website’s SEO. 

Once you’ve started ranking for the lower competition keywords, it will be significantly easier for your website to tackle the higher competition ones, winning your website even higher traffic.

You should consult with an experienced SEO service for websites to figure out the right keyword strategy for your business website as it currently is, including an implementation plan.

The website SEO service will create a highly valuable content plan for your business. Why is this content considered “valuable,” though?

Developing the Perfect Content

High-value content is helpful content. 

Content that is well-written and guides your target customers and those in your niche will help your business rise as a reputable authority in your field.

Think about it. When your business is providing consistent value to customers for free through valuable content, they think the following: 

“Dang, if I’m getting this much value from Business Website A without having paid them yet, imagine how much value they’d give me if I hired them!”

When a thought consistently goes through your target customers’ minds, your business will have regular conversions and skyrocketing sales.

That is the power of organic traffic resulting from SEO.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Increasing Organic Traffic in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Website optimization refers to the process of making certain modifications to your website to make it more accessible to the general public. Website owners implement various techniques to increase organic search results or the number of purchases. Separately, these changes might seem insignificant, but when combined, their mutual impact will lead to noticeable improvements in organic traffic. 

You might be wondering what exactly these changes entail. These rules are not set in stone since search algorithms tend to evolve quickly.  However, unless you optimize your website, it will not show up in the search results, regardless of the quality of your services. Therefore, we have compiled a list of simple, universal steps that will help you optimize your website. 

Thorough Analysis

First and foremost, you should begin with a thorough analysis of your website. Look at its good and bad points objectively. Make sure to determine the goals of your site. They shouldn’t be something universal that can apply to all businesses. Instead, as the website owner, you should do quantitative and qualitative research, as it will help you target possible issues. We advise you to start with the homepage since that is what usually comes up when we use a search engine. 

Put together a list of your weakest links and think of the ways to fix them to improve your conversion rates. Once you gain enough data, you can implement changes and run an experiment by testing out your modified website. 

When you receive the results, you can take the necessary steps to generate new ideas on how to improve your website permanently. Performing a thorough analysis before acting will save you time and help you focus on points that need revision. 

Research Your Keywords

Your SEO keywords enable the target audience to find your website. Therefore, choosing the right ones is of utmost importance. 

First of all, make sure to research them beforehand because their selection can make or break your website. Also, even if you feel your keywords are suitable, don’t forget to re-evaluate them from time to time. Trends in each industry change daily, so it’s unrealistic to expect them to stay the same. 

There are several things you should take into account when researching potential keywords:

• Make sure to take your industry and location into consideration.
• To avoid unnecessary competition, opt for the keywords relevant to your business, but refrain from choosing the overused ones.
• Don’t come up with variations once you’ve made your choice because this can alter your optimization.
• Use free tools to find long-tail keywords that will help generate more traffic.

Backlinks

If you are new to the world of SEO and are still unfamiliar with the term, backlinks are the links that lead the target audience from a third-party website to your page. Therefore, it’s not hard to understand why they play such an essential role in website optimization. Even Google has pointed out that, apart from content, backlinks have an integral role in site ranking as well. 

While every link that leads from another page to yours is a backlink, not all of them have the same significance. We can refer to them as the ultimate source of reliable recommendations. Think of it this way — you are more likely to believe a review of a new coffee shop coming from a trustworthy source rather than from some random person you’ve just met. 

The same goes for websites — search engines usually trust the backlinks from reliable, well-known sites. 

Pay Attention to Titles and Content

Have a closer look at the page titles of your website. Do they contain your primary keyword? Most site owners overlook this step and name their title pages after their business. Unfortunately, these are normally not optimized, which is why you should reconsider changing your website name into something SEO-friendly. 

Furthermore, you should assess the quality and the length of your content. Consulting experts who have experience with on-page SEO services is a good way to start. Having a poorly written page filled with grammar errors or spelling mistakes will most likely turn away any possible consumer. Your content should be well-written and captivating, with all of the necessary information. 

Mobile-Friendly Website

Having a website that looks good on a computer will no longer suffice. If you want your website to rank high, you might want to consider having a mobile version, too. Nowadays, most people access search engines from their phones because it is simply more convenient. If your website is difficult to access or navigate on the go, your target audience will refrain from using it. 

Therefore, make sure that your site loads quickly and that all of the content, including text and images, is visible. You can use a free online tool to check your website’s loading speed and see what needs to be fixed. Page speed is extremely important when it comes to website ranking, so any nanosecond saved is worth your time and investment.

Organic Traffic Growth

Use SEO to your advantage to attract organic traffic. Apart from choosing appropriate keywords, you can analyze your competition to get a better understanding of your target audience. Another way to increase your traffic growth is to have a strong presence on social media. Appropriate profiles and links will attract more visitors, who will then spend a certain amount of time on your website. 

Also, make sure none of the links on your website are broken. There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a page, only to see the infamous 404 error. Not only does it seem unprofessional, but it will also do you a disservice when it comes to site ranking.   

Satisfied Audience

When doing website optimization, your primary goal should be a pleased audience. Competition has never been stronger, so brands and businesses have to make extra effort to come out on top. 

Having an eye-catching, user-friendly website that loads quickly and has quality content is your chance to achieve this. Focusing on users’ experience can help you detect behavioral patterns and improve your website.

Meeting the demands of your audience will bring you closer to securing a customer.  For optimal results, analyze these steps and see what works best for you and your business. Following this guide will only ensure your website’s imminent success.

The post How to Optimize your Website in 7 Simple Steps appeared first on SiteProNews.

What SEO testing is and why it is important

SEO testing is not much different from other types of testing. It involves searching for errors: 404 pages, broken links, irrelevant code, problems with loading pages, visual defects, and so on. All this can be found during UX testing, performance testing, or cross-platform testing. And the goal of SEO testing is to identify problems that can arise after changes in a website before they affect the quality of the web application and organic traffic.

From a tester’s point of view, the 404 error is not a significant bug: it doesn’t cause disruption of the website, and the visitor can go to another page and continue the search. But from the SEO perspective, hundreds of 404 pages can significantly reduce organic traffic. According to Google, 61% of users will leave a website if it has access issues. The search engine sees a lot of low-quality pages with duplicate content and lowers the “intruder” in the ranking.

Here’s another example of the direct impact of errors on traffic. Let’s suppose developers have updated an important page and deleted its heading – H1- by accident. And H1 is one of the mandatory ranking factors, according to which the search engine determines the page content. This is the heading of the page that users see. If H1 is deleted, this important page will simply drop out of the search results, which will lead to a drop in traffic.

From these examples, it becomes clear that any change can lead to the accidental loss of data important for SEO, which will affect the quality of the website and its ranking in the search engine. That’s why testers should devote their attention to SEO. This will allow a business to maintain an unbreakable chain:

1. The higher the quality of the website that QA provides, the higher the web application is ranked.
2. The higher the search engine score is, the more organic traffic comes to the website.
3. The higher the organic traffic is, the more orders for products or paid services the business receives.
4. The more leads the business has, the better.

No website is immune to problems with SEO. Google has over 200 ranking factors, and the search engine changes its algorithms up to 1000 times a year. You needn’t strive to please it. What’s important is to create a high-quality and user-friendly website and check it after each change in order to provide yourself with the first positions in the search results.

An SEO audit and SEO testing: what’s the difference?

Sometimes non-experts get confused about the difference between an SEO audit and SEO testing. The SEO audit is an analysis of the current state of the website manually or using a special tool. This procedure helps to discover whether the pages are indexed, whether meta tags are written for them, whether the images are optimized, etc. In other words, such research helps to identify content gaps or deficiencies in the information architecture.

SEO testing involves tracking the results after changes to assess their impact or effectiveness. A well-tuned QA (Quality Assurance) process for SEO includes:

• Benchmark testing, where two versions of the source code are compared (intermediate and production);
• Testing elements important for SEO (for example, metadata);
• Automation (using tools that collect all changes between preparation and production);
• Monitoring changes when the application is in production;
• An archive of web pages, which contains a history of changes and source code you can return to in the case of a traffic drop.

QA testing helps to identify problems with a website before a product hits the market. The practice of good QA for SEO works as a safety cable, eliminating potential problems and reducing the number of bug fixes.

How often should SEO testing be done?

SEO testing is worth doing as your website is updated. As QA practitioners note, identifying SEO bugs is quite difficult – they may not affect the overall functionality of the website. It takes time for the search engines to re-index the website after bugs are found and fixed. If an error is not instantly eliminated, the website will no longer be included in the first search results.

Fortunately, this is much easier to do, since experts have access to tools that automate the process of collecting data. They identify quality control problems that need to be solved. This makes testers’ jobs much easier, as they no longer need to manually check every page, link, or image.

SEO testing helps to prevent failed migrations, fraudulent redirects, unintentional indexing, disappearing tags, and more. It allows specialists to check important elements for ranking: broken links, missing content, page load speed, missing metadata, and other issues that affect SEO performance.

With so many hands working on a website (developers, designers, project managers, and so on), every new update poses a risk. Since these updates directly affect the sales and success of a business, SEO testing should be an important part of increasing organic search traffic on Google. Therefore, as part of SEO promotion, it is worth tapping into the services of QA specialists who focus on finding defects and improving the quality of software.

The post How Can SEO Testing Increase Traffic and Profits? appeared first on SiteProNews.

A high bounce rate is bad news for websites.

Why?

It indicates either/both of these two things:

• You are attracting the wrong kind of audience.
• Your website isn’t providing a good user experience.

In any case, a high bounce rate means your website is driving away visitors even before they have a chance to engage with your content. You can literally forget about converting them into customers or repeat visitors. Moreover, a high bounce rate is a red flag for Google and can lead to poor search rankings.

So, what can you do to reduce your bounce rate?

1. Enhance Your Content’s Readability

With attention spans dwindling fast, people just scan and skim content. If they encounter dense chunks of text as soon as they land on your website, they won’t stick around for long. Great content with lousy formatting is a dealbreaker for most people.

The best online writers use these hacks to create easy-to-read content:

• Write as you speak (use a conversational tone).
• Organize your content using H1, H2… tags.
• Try to use bulleted lists as much as possible.
• Break text walls up with images, charts, videos, and infographics.
• Use bold, italics, and underlining to highlight important information.
• Inject questions to encourage “active” reading.

Even if you’re writing a technical piece, avoid jargon and wordy content. Use screenshots, quotes, and real-life examples to make your writing relatable as well as interesting.

Need an example?

Here’s a post on the SiteProNews website that’s easy on the eye and easy to digest.

2. Get Rid of Popups

There was a time when popups were considered a great customer engagement tool. Indeed, they are useful when it comes to collecting email addresses or pitching personalized offers/content.

But that’s where the benefits end.

Popups disrupt the UX and annoy most people. I know that when I visit a website and am greeted by popups, I may decide to leave. 

What makes matters worse is that some marketers use aggressive language in popups. When you barely know a person, it’s completely unacceptable that you use bullying tactics to drive them towards a desired action. 

Take, for instance, this weather.com entry popup:

I’ve no problem with the pop-up copy as such, but the CTA is downright rude. Is it that hard to add a “please?”

You get the point, right?

If you need to use a popup, place it strategically and time it perfectly so that you don’t annoy visitors. Showing a popup to loyal customers after their 100th visit makes sense, but don’t greet first-time visitors with an entry popup. That’s just bad targeting!

3. Improve Your Page Load Speed

Slow-loading pages can kill your UX which, in turn, increases your bounce rate.

So, just how important is page load speed to your retention rates?

40% of people won’t wait over 3 seconds before abandoning a website. For ecommerce sites, this wait time shouldn’t exceed 2 seconds. Sometimes, your website loads quickly on desktops but is sluggish on mobile. 

Sound familiar?

Then, you need to rectify the situation soon since 46% of mobile users say slow-loading websites is their biggest turnoff.

To get your website up and running:

• Remove heavy Flash animations.
• Tweak the .htaccess file.
• Remove query strings from static web pages.
• Remove extraneous plugins.
• Switch to a better domain registrar.

4. Build Multiple Landing Pages for High-Volume Keywords

Having more landing pages means your traffic gets divided for the same keyword. This can lead to faster load and more conversion opportunities. You can segment visitors and target them better.

What else?

It also has an SEO benefit. If a searcher lands directly on your landing page instead of taking a detour via your homepage, it’s better. You eliminate friction from their journey, which translates into a richer UX and longer dwell time.

To create landing pages painlessly, opt for an effective landing page builder. This way, you have greater control over your website and its content. 

If you have the resources and skill to create landing pages from scratch, start with keyword research. To find high-volume keywords, you can use a tool like Google Keyword Planner or one of its alternatives. 

Type your main keyword + a qualifier and click on “Get ideas.” Try to figure out the search intent (informational, transactional, locational) of each keyword idea that shows up. Since your aim is to keep people on-page longer, aim for informational keywords.

For example, if your main keyword is “website design strategy,” you may see these keyword ideas:

• Web design prices: This keyword will attract bottom-of-the-funnel traffic that is near the conversion point. Visitors will either convert or not, and leave the page soon after.

• Freelance web designers: This keyword will drive top-of-the-funnel traffic that is not ready to convert yet. You can create a series of pages around this keyword, one for each web designer. Your visitors will keep flitting from page to page, increasing your dwell time.

Once you identify a few high volume-keywords, incorporate them into your content strategically. Craft quality content and don’t skimp on research. That should do the trick for you.

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve explained four effective ways to decrease your bounce rate. Apart from this, leverage website design tips to reduce bounce, such as intuitive architecture and navigation. But remember, no amount of cosmetic changes can help you unless your content is unique and authoritative.

Do you have any questions about this post? Please write them in the comments. I’ll be back with the answers soon.

The post 4 Proven Tactics to Reduce Your Website’s Bounce Rate appeared first on SiteProNews.

Organic traffic simply means the visitors that land on your webpage from unpaid search results. They arrive after finding you on, say, Google or Bing, and not from a link clicked on another website. Pinterest is a rich source of organic traffic, and this article brings you the best ways you can use it to get more visitors. 

How Pinterest Helps Increase Organic Traffic

Pinterest is huge on the social networking scene. As of 2021, there are 459 million monthly users. The platform jokes that it would surpass the United States as the most populous county in the world if it were a country. So, it is clear that Pinterest has a significant audience to send to your site. 

The question therefore is, what are the best ways to generate more organic traffic with Pinterest? Below, we list our top suggestions.

Know the Best Image Type for Your Industry

Pinterest has this thing called “Pins,” which are images upon images. You have to take advantage of this by making pin-worthy images for every page on your website. You can start by looking at pictures shared by similar websites on Pinterest. 

It will provide insight into the type of images people likely to visit your website pin. It also shows what they are likely to engage with and ultimately click on to visit your website. Note that a good pin-worthy picture should be a high-quality photo that evokes an emotion in the viewer. 

It helps if the image solves a problem, like showing direction on how to do something. Capitalize on infographics to provide information and have a header. It also doesn’t hurt to include pictures of someone using a product or service you offer. 

Use Relevant Keywords in Your Board Names

If you’ve ever engaged in online dating, then you know you can narrow your search by using specific keywords. Similarly, you can increase the chances of your pins appearing in “Picked for You” and your interest feeds by using keywords. For instance, if you own a digital marketing website, you can name your board “Reasons why your SEO is not working to increase traffic.” If you deviate from the services you render, you will have little chance of generating organic traffic. 

Use Relevant Keywords in Your Pin Descriptions

Another place where keywords are vital is in the pin description. Again, you have to use industry-specific words if you want the pin to generate organic traffic on your website. Note that Pinterest is more of a visual engine, and millions of people search for things from gifts to buy to the best holiday destinations. 

So, it’s wise to think of Pinterest as a visual Google, and like the search engine, keywords place you at the forefront of searches. Thus, place two to three keywords in pins that redirect viewers to your website. Have the same words in five to ten other pins because you can’t tell which one might get the highest engagement. 

Increase Engagement 

People engagement is always key when trying to increase organic traffic. For this reason, you have to keep people engaged by constantly posting images. If you want to rank number one for your industry-specific keywords on Pinterest, the number of repins you get will play a key role. 

It’s simple logic. A pin that gets over a hundred repins in one day would outrank the one with just ten. Also, if those repinning your images are active users, they will help you rank higher. The higher you rank, the more chances you have of people visiting your website. 

Apply for Rich Pins

Rich pins contain extra information that helps pins stand out on the Pinterest feed. There are rich pins for different niches like products, travel, recipes, places, gifts, movies, and apps. There are also rich pins for articles, and they rank high alongside that of products. 

When seen on mobile devices, Rich pins show a favicon next to an article, while on desktops, they appear in a bolded title. Rich pins help your images stand out from the regular Pinterest feed, increasing their chances of getting clicked. Furthermore, when a person clicks on rich pin articles and scrolls down, they’ll see the meta description of the original blog post. 

To apply for rich pins, you have to carry out some backend work. You’ll also go through a validation process. Visit Pinterest to find out how to get rich pins. 

Add Pins Consistently

Repetition is the law of deep and lasting impression. So, if you want to get lots of clicks and improve organic traffic, you have to consistently keep adding pins. The beautiful thing about Pinterest is that pins have a longer half-life than Facebook posts.  

According to AOC, it is advisable to pin at least ten times per day if you’re producing evergreen content. However, depending on how competitive your industry is, you can pin more times than that number. Pinterest gives preference to the pins of people who pin consistently. 

Be Patient 

You might wonder what this is doing on the list. But the truth is that to carry out everything we’ve discussed so far, you need a great deal of patience. Generating more organic traffic won’t happen overnight. It’s a slow and steady process, and you need to keep at it until you start seeing the result you desire. All you need to keep in mind is that Pinterest will pay off eventually if you don’t back out too early. 

Conclusion

Pinterest is a good source of organic traffic to your website. Once you get the hang of it, you should utilize it to its full potential to get the desired result. The key is to stay consistent, know what works for your industry, and constantly engage with pinners.

The post Best Ways to Get More Organic Traffic with Pinterest appeared first on SiteProNews.

Monitoring website traffic is a key analytic. It shows that people are finding your site and, when used in connection with other website traffic statistics, you will be able to determine who is accessing your site, for how long, popular content and so on.

But a sudden drop in website traffic is indicative that something has changed. But what? And how is it rectified?

1. Search engine algorithm update

Google, the biggest search engine, releases multiple updates to its algorithm throughout the year, as do other search engines. When there is a major update, it can hit websites hard. All the keywords and other SEO factors you’ve been relying on to keep your website on page 1, could suddenly disappear. 

Sorting the issue

Google doesn’t release exact details on its algorithms, and neither does it release concrete details on any major changes and rollouts it makes. In other words, there is a certain amount of “guesstimation” when it comes to what the changes are.

Google, and other search engines, will confirm some changes, however. There may be some SEO and ranking factors that can be easily fixed, but there are others that are the long SEO game from updating content to working differently with keywords.

2. Major changes to your website

A re-design or major revamp of your website may affect your website traffic literally overnight. A significant cull of content or pages, for example, may affect the crawl ability of your site, a common reason why website traffic may be suddenly affected.

Fixing the problem

In the Google Search Console, go to Crawl – Crawl Errors. Take a look at the graphs, you’ll be able to identify abrupt changes. This console will also list the broken links, which in time, you’ll be able to fix. 

You’ll need an additional tool such as Website Auditor. It’ll take a few minutes to search your site and provide the information that you need. You’ll need to remove broken links, as well as checking what is being indexed on your site.

3. Manual search engine penalty

It is possible to incur the wrath of Google bots and their manual reviewers. Being hacked can be one cause of concern and Google has a comprehensive guide to clawing back into their good books. There are other penalties that may be incurred, and they are slightly easier to sort through.

How to deal with penalties

• User-generated spam – with some kind of barrier, such as Captcha, it is difficult for users to generate content that is spammy. Getting rid of this content and placing a barrier to prevent this from happening will help.
• Unnatural outgoing links and sneaky links – a huge number of paid-for links and other sneaky links can come tumbling down around your ears, earning you manual penalty points. Get rid of paid-for links.
• Thin or duplicated content – pages with small amounts of text, e.g. 200 words with 60 outbound links, won’t be suggesting the quality that you want.

There are other issues that can lead to manual penalties from Google, and in some cases, other search engines too. Understanding current algorithms and keeping your website is the best shape possible should see you avoid penalties.

4. The tracking code

It could be that the sudden and unexplained drop in website traffic is actually due to poor data. One reason behind this is your site’s tracking code.

The site tracking code – such as Google Analytics code – is a code unique to your site and is the key identifier that pulls together a range of data.

Solving the tracking code issue

Take a look at your Google console and check that the code is working as you want it to. It is a relatively simple issue to sort. The code can be interrupted by changes in pages and content, amongst other things.

5. Keyword cannibalisation

As your website grows, there will be lots of new content going on there, sometimes on a daily or weekly basis. Whilst building content and pages are great – and useful in the first instance – allowing content to build unfettered and unmonitored can lead to a problem with organic search results. 

Keyword cannibalisation is when keywords across a high number of pages cause them to compete with one another. 

How to solve it

Monitoring your website and how it appears in search engines is key. You can find out if pages are competing and suffering from keyword cannibalisation by using a platform such as BigMetrics. You can sign up for a free trial or opt for the paid platform if you feel you need the input of the platform to deal with a larger problem.

6. Competitors and SERPs changes

Within the field of SEO, SERPs matter. If the traffic to your site has been dropping for some time and then takes a sudden nosedive, it could be that there have been changes in keywords, resulting in a drop in traffic.

It could be that your competitors have got wise to your keywords, the ones you have been ranking high for, and staged a successful PPC campaign.

Fixing the issue

You’ll need to do some reverse engineering to claw back the advantage you had over your competitors. This means a quick keyword analysis as well as keeping an eye on what you have been ranking. Using a platform such as RankTracker can help.

Maintain your website’s ranking position

You have worked hard to bring your website up to its current position and so you’ll be keen to maintain it. A sudden drop in website traffic can be startling, almost frightening, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot recoup your position or even improve it. You must identify the cause quickly, however, and make moves to rectify it.

The post Drop in Website Traffic? 6 Things to Check appeared first on SiteProNews.