Wednesday, 31 October 2018

6 Scary Good Tips to Take Your Content Marketing ‘Beyond the Grave’

Save Your Content Marketing Campaign from the Digital Graveyard

Save Your Content Marketing Campaign from the Digital Graveyard After conjuring all the budget, talent, and creativity you can muster, the moment you release your content marketing campaign into the digital wild is devilishly satisfying. All your hard work comes alive right before your very eyes, and that’s certainly cause for celebration. via GIPHY But after the campaign lives its best life, what will its fate be? Oftentimes, all that spooktastic work is retired to the content marketing graveyard. However, with the right mix of will and witchcraft, your campaigns can be saved from the digital depths of darkness and be given new life. How? Below we offer several frightfully fantastic tips to take your content marketing campaign well beyond the grave.

#1 - Consult your book of spells before going into the wild.

Campaigns create spine-tingling spikes in activity. But that excitement can quickly die out if there’s not significant investment in ongoing organic and paid promotion—or if it falls flat for your target audience. As a result, early-on in the campaign planning process you should consult your documented book of spells—your documented content marketing strategy—to ensure your campaign can contribute to delivering value and insight to your audience and drive toward your objectives. via GIPHY As Robert Rose, Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory, told us earlier this year: “As part of the creation process, we have to ask how every piece of content we create delivers value to our audience first, and us second. It is an approach that will never fail.” As you consult your spell book, some questions to ask yourself include:
  • Will this campaign deliver value to my audience now and in the future?
  • Will this campaign help me achieve my overarching marketing goals?
  • How will I amplify campaign content long-term?
  • How will this campaign content lend itself to other marketing efforts going forward?
  • What tactical considerations do I need to consider to extend the life of this campaign?
Read: Better Together: Why Your Content Marketing Campaigns & Always-On Programs Should Work Together

#2 - Identify when, where, and how you’ll spin your web of amplification.

Sometimes, there’s no substitute for the tried-and-true. I mean, everybody knows that garlic is a powerful vampire repellent, right? So, when it comes to maximizing the visibility of your content marketing campaigns, you need to think on-site and offsite. For the former, consider cross-linking as an SEO fundamental. For the later, remember that cross-channel amplification is a must. By creating a plan of cross-linking attack, you can ensure that your campaign content is relevantly represented within existing site content—and that the anchor text supports optimization for search. A good place to start is conducting a mini content audit on your keyword topic area of choice. This will allow you to identify top performing content your campaign can help bolster, as well as potential gaps that your campaign can fill in the blanks for. When it comes to developing your amplification plan, remember that it's not just about social media. Certainly, that can be your starting point, but there are dozens of other tactics to include in your strategy securing third-party editorials or links, writing guest posts for industry blogs, email marketing, and so on. [bctt tweet="By creating a plan of cross-linking attack, you can ensure that your campaign content is relevantly represented within existing site content—and that the anchor text supports optimization for search. #ContentMarketing #SEO" username="toprank"] Read: 50 Content Promotion Tactics to Help Your Great Content Get Amazing Exposure

#3 - Infect the minds of your audience with stunning visual CTAs.

Humans are visual creatures by nature. And perhaps one of the best ways to enchant your audience is through the use of infectious visual CTAs across your channels—particularly on your website. Let’s start with social: Your social media amplification plan should absolutely include visual content and messaging that intrigues and inspires your audience to take action. And to breath new life into the campaign, take the time to refresh the creative. When it comes to your website, our advice is scary simple: Attractive and compelling imagery can and should be used on relevant, high-traffic pages to capture the minds of the visitors you’ve already enticed to come to the site. via GIPHY They’ve already made it to your site, so make the most of it. If you’ve followed the previous tip, identifying some of the right pages will be streamlined.

#4 - Perfect the creature you’ve created.

Whether your initial campaign results are great or grisly, the beauty of digital and content marketing is the ability to optimize on the fly. via GIPHY Is some of your organic social messaging falling flat? Dig into native analytics to see which messages are resonating and look for themes. Then take what you’ve learned to create a new round of messaging to release. Did you work with influencers and want to unleash more reach? Make sure you’ve made it incredibly easy for them to share by providing pre-written messages and graphics. If you’ve done that, follow up with some initial results—and another round of pre-written messaging—to renew excitement. Are you gaining traction in organic search for derivatives of your target keyword? Consider tweaking the on-page and technical SEO content where it makes sense to help widen your search umbrella. The big takeaway here? Always be monitoring results and looking for hair-raising opportunities. [bctt tweet="Always be monitoring your #contentmarketing campaign results and looking for hair-raising opportunities. @CaitlinMBurgess" username="toprank"]

#5 - Resurrect creativity by repurposing content for different audiences.

Campaign content—especially if it includes the unique perspectives and tips of influencers—is a frighteningly fabulous candidate for repurposing. From white papers and eBooks to blog posts and original or third-party research, all of that robust and niche content has the potential to be carved into something new. For TopRank Marketing’s CEO Lee Odden, microcontent is a ghoulish treat. “Snackable content can often be managed and repurposed like ingredients to create a main course,” Lee says. “On their own, short form content like quotes, tips, and statistics are useful for social network shares and as added credibility to blog posts, eBooks, and articles.” Read: A Tasty, Strategic Addition to the Content Marketing Table: ‘Repurposed Content Cobbler’ [bctt tweet="Snackable content can often be managed and repurposed like ingredients to create a main course. @leeodden #ContentMarketing #repurposing" username="toprank"]

#6 - Use paid hocus pocus to get extra lift.

In today’s gravely competitive market, pay-to-play digital marketing tactics have become a spellbinding part of the digital marketing mix, especially when it comes to making a splash with a campaign. If you’re struggling to get traction on your PPC or paid social efforts, start by looking at your keywords and/or messaging and how they relate to the content you’re promoting. Quality, relevant content is the foundation of digital advertising. As our own Annie Leuman points out, “There’s content behind every SERP.” And the same is true for any marketing channel. From there, consider how and where you’re targeting, and implement tweaks. via GIPHY If a campaign is already exceeding objectives and expectations, consider pushing the limits a bit by experimenting with different paid tactics. For example, if you’ve had great success with LinkedIn, consider building a similar audience on Twitter. Or add more budget and expand your audience on the channels that are already working.

Rise Your Content Marketing Campaigns From the Dead

If you’re about to embark on a new campaign initiative, take time to figure out how your new treat will fit in your bag of tricks. In addition, whether you’re mid-campaign or want to resurrect something ancient, embrace tactics such as cross-linking and ongoing optimization that have delightfully haunted the profession for years. Finally, get creative with repurposing and paid tactics to extend the life of your campaign. It takes will, work, and a bit of witchcraft, but your content marketing campaigns can escape the grave. No content marketing campaign is beyond saving. So, get to work—and you’ll see who has the last cackle. via GIPHY Don't let the untapped potential of your content marketing campaigns haunt you. Cure invisible content syndrome with these tips and insights from some of the industry's leading marketers.

The post 6 Scary Good Tips to Take Your Content Marketing ‘Beyond the Grave’ appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/6-scary-good-tips-to-take-your-content.html

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

20 More Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers

Dumb Marketing Jokes

Dumb Marketing Jokes A great pun is like a great digital marketing campaign: If you do it right, it will stick with people until they’re compelled to share it — even the simplest ones require a level of sophistication to make and to appreciate. Every marketer I know is incredibly smart — whether it’s my team at TopRank Marketing, the influencers and thought leaders we work with, or the folks I’ve met at marketing conventions. Marketers are sharp, detail-oriented, intellectually rigorous, and susceptible to flattery. So, if you’re a smart digital or content marketer, take a break from your challenging, rewarding work and enjoy these jokes. And remember: If your colleagues don’t laugh, they’re just not as sophisticated as you.

20 Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers

1. Q: Why did Dracula add the Creature from the Black Lagoon to his marketing team? A: A-COUNT based marketing…at scale! 2. I made a joke about organic reach on Facebook… nobody got it. 3. My marketer friend quit and started a bakery. I tried to walk in the door and this big swatch of fabric popped up and blocked my way! I backed up; it disappeared. I walked forward, big cloth thing in the way again! “Hey,” I shouted at my friend, “I can’t get in!” “Oh, sorry,” she says, “You have to click on the banner to accept cookies.” 4. I hired an earthworm, a centipede and a millipede to do my email marketing. They’re really good at segmentation. 5. I’ve been retweeted a couple times by Altimeter Group — but I take little Solis in that fact. 6. I’m doing content marketing for a cheese company. We’re creating blog posts and a few grated assets. That Was a Gouda Joke Meme 7. I like to run all my AB tests in reverse after the first round. I call it AB/BA testing. It’s great, but only works if your target audience are dancing queens, young and sweet, only 17. 8. I have this marketer friend who still believes in last-touch attribution. He just opened a brick-and-mortar store. He says his highest-performing sales rep is the counter in front of the cash register. 9. Knock, knock! Who’s there? Documented content marketing strategy! Documented content marketing strategy who? I’m not surprised you didn’t recognize me… Joe Pulizzi was right. 10. I nicknamed my cat “The Vast Majority of Social Media,” because he doesn’t like me, follow me, or share anything. 11. And I nicknamed my dog “Number of Twitter Followers,” because he doesn’t pay the bills but he makes me feel important. Woof, That Joke Was Ruff Meme 12. How many CRO experts does it take to change a light bulb? 100 the first time, 98 the second time, 93 the third time, 104 the fourth time, 25 the fifth time…. 13. I handed Scott Brinker my iPhone and he scratched it! Then he picked up my tablet and scratched it, too! He even put a dent in my Google Home! I said, “Scott, what are you doing?” He said, “What I do best: mar tech!” 14. Knock, knock! Who’s there? Brand standards! Brand standards who? Sorry, knock-knock jokes don’t fit our mission and purpose statement. Could you tell this as a light bulb joke instead? 15. I’ve lined up Scooby-Doo, Rin Tin Tin, and Lassie for my latest eBook. I call it influencer barketing. We don’t have signed contracts, but we shook on it. 16. Have you heard about the tech startup trying to disrupt honey marketing? They go on and on about the  “authenticity” of their bees and their “next-generation bleeding-edge hive.” If you ask me, it’s all buzzwords. 17. I’m trying to get in shape, so every time I schedule a post on social media, I do ten push-ups. I’m already getting Buffer. 18. So a social media marketer lost his job and went to work on a farm. He worked hard, but had one weird quirk: every morning, he would do a belly flop into the hog trough! After a few days, the farmer had enough. “You city folks sure are strange,” the farmer said. “Why are you always floppin’ headfirst into the pig slop?” “Sorry, force of habit,” the social media marketer replied. “I’m trying to make an impression in your feed.” 19. Jokes about amplification are only funny if everyone gets them. 20. Hey, pirate marketer, do you have trouble proving that your campaigns generate revenue? “Arr! Oh, aye.” Parrots, The Original Retweeters Meme

Great Marketing Is No Joke

I said up top that great puns and great marketing campaigns have a lot in common. Here’s one important difference: A joke is a single discrete unit, meant to score a laugh and then vanish so the next joke can hit. Marketing campaigns work best when they’re an always-on, sustained effort that builds a relationship. So, you should use creativity, humor and even wordplay in your marketing. But don’t just toss out individual jokes and expect them to do the heavy lifting. For example, I wrote ten puns just last week for a client, hoping at least one of them would go viral. Unfortunately… No pun in ten did. Ready for more laughs? Fear not. We got 'em.

The post 20 More Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/20-more-dumb-jokes-for-smart-marketers.html

Thursday, 25 October 2018

Shopify SEO Best Practices: 7 Traffic Boosting Tips That Work

Ecommerce

If you want to succeed in today’s ecommerce world, search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be a substantial part of your strategy.

You can have great products, the best online store, and a top-notch product. But if no one can find you in the search engines, you won’t sell anything.

But SEO can be a difficult task. And if you go it alone, there’s a lot that can slip through the cracks.

One potential solution to this is to use an ecommerce platform like Shopify to help ease your introduction to SEO and help you sell effectively.

In this article, I want to introduce you to Shopify and how it can impact your SEO.

So to get started, let’s look at what Shopify does and why you should consider it.

Why Use Shopify?

As I’ve already alluded to, Shopify is an ecommerce platform that allows you to build a store and start selling with relative ease.

And when you look at the success stories, it’s easy to get drawn in by everything Shopify has to offer. For example, the indie game developers at Snowman recently launched a merch store through Shopify that brought in 60% of their previous year’s revenue in just 30 days.

That’s a huge positive push in Shopify’s direction.

But does it live up to the hype?

From a numbers perspective, Shopify is no small apple. They boast that more than 600,000 businesses have won more than $63 billion worth of sales on their platform.

(Image Source)

So for store owners who are looking for a solid, proven platform, Shopify seems like a good go-to pick. Reviews widely agree that it’s easy to use for newcomers and a great choice for a more aesthetically-oriented user experience.

If you are new to selling online or if you get stuck, Shopify also gives you access to tons of helpful resources that can help you troubleshoot and fix common issues.

And if you’re not a gifted web developer and designer, there’s a vast library of plug-and-play themes that will help you.

More benefits include:

  • High level of flexibility
  • Easy-to-use backend
  • Built-in tools designed to help you grow
  • No coding required.

And on top of all that, Shopify’s platform comes at a fair price.

So it’s clear that Shopify is an enticing ecommerce platform. No matter what your experience level is, it can help you sell your products.

But now for the big question:

Is Shopify a good ecommerce platform for SEO?

And here’s the honest answer: It can be.

Get Your Free Shopify SEO Checklist

Enter your email and instantly get a Shopify SEO Checklist to ensure that your store is following SEO best practices.

As we’ve seen, Shopify is great if you want to keep things simple. In keeping with that theme, they’ve designed their platform to be a great turnkey solution for those who are new to SEO. You don’t have to sweat the basics, which is a huge plus for many.

But there’s one major downside with Shopify that undermines your ability to get to the top of the search rankings.

Shopify technically owns your store, even if you use your own domain name. That means that much of the true SEO tinkering that you’re able to do with a WordPress site is nonexistent.

You’re completely at the whim of their larger structure, which may not always be good for your specific brand.

That being said, there are still ways that you can optimize your store and improve your rankings.

Tips to Improve the Organic Performance

If you want to beef up your Shopify SEO efforts, there are at least seven proven tips that will help you boost your traffic. Let’s take a look at them.

SEO tip #1: Be sure to use SSL

When someone comes to your site to spend money, they want to know if their information will be secure.

Consequently, so does Google.

They announced in 2014 that HTTPS encryption (also referred to as SSL) on sites would be a minor ranking signal. Since that announcement, webmasters have seen a steady increase in HTTPS pages that make it on the front pages of Google.

(Image Source)

So if you want to generate more traffic to your online store, then one of the best ways to start is ensuring security across the board by using HTTPS.

And thankfully, Shopify makes this easy by offering it as a free service. But since it’s not a default setting, you’ll still need to turn it on.

To do so, you’ll just go to your Shopify Admin and Activate SSL.

It’s a simple step, but it’s a great start for your SEO.

SEO tip #2: Use an SEO app

While Shopify boasts solid out-of-the-box SEO, it’s always a good idea to use an extra tool where you can. It has a robust app store with thousands of possible add-ons for your store, which you should use to your advantage.

When it comes to SEO, there are plenty of affordable and effective apps that will help you double-check your efforts and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

A good place to start is with an app called SEO Doctor. It offers a quick fix for many basic SEO issues, and it will even help you see what your competition is doing for SEO.

(Image Source)

Finding the right SEO app is by far the fastest way to get everything optimized for your online store. At the very least, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that you have the basics taken care of.

SEO tip #3: Utilize Google Search Console

One of the major SEO pitfalls of Shopify is that it doesn’t always make it easy for Google to crawl and categorize your online store.

And if Google doesn’t have a good understanding of your store, then it will be much harder to rank.

Thankfully, this is a pretty easy fix. You’ll just need to manually submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

Here’s a quick video that will help you find your sitemap:

https://youtu.be/kM1m4fQUr4Q

Once you have your sitemap’s URL, navigate to Google Search Console and set it up if you haven’t already.

You’ll see an option that says “Sitemaps” in the navigation bar. When you find it, click it.

On this page, you’ll see a toolbar where you can add your sitemap URL. Copy/paste it into the box and then hit “Submit.”

That’s all there is to it. Google will now have an accurate picture of your site, which means that it can crawl and assess it the way you want them to.

Get Your Free Shopify SEO Checklist

Enter your email and instantly get a Shopify SEO Checklist to ensure that your store is following SEO best practices.

SEO tip #4: Focus on user experience

Customers that come to your site want to be able to use it intuitively. If it’s hard to find products or navigate, then they’ll likely just leave.

That means that everything you’ve done to win that traffic just goes down the drain.

That why SEO and user experience should work hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.

So how can you do that with Shopify?

One essential element that you must have is a mobile-friendly site. Google recently announced that mobile-first indexing is rolling out, which means your mobile site is going to be the biggest factor of your SEO.

If you have a poorly designed mobile site or none at all, Google will see that as a poor user experience and dock your rank accordingly.

But besides a mobile-friendly site, here are the recommended user experience tips from Shopify:

  1. Prioritize function over design. Get them to work together if you can.
  2. Customer-centric copy comes first.
  3. Build your navigation so that it’s intuitive.

Those tips are rather broad, but that’s for a good reason. Every site is going to have a different user experience, structure, navigational need, and so on.

And it’s broad because user experience requires input from a broad range of inputs. You have to consider the humans behind the design, your desired outcomes, and the hard data about how your site performs.

(Image Source)

Thus, this is an extensive, long-term process. You’ll have to refine your user experience over the years — much like other SEO disciplines.

But the pursuit is worth it. With the right user experience in place, you’ll be able to win more traffic, keep them longer, and turn them into customers.

SEO Tip #5: Boost Your Site Speed

If you haven’t already heard, your website’s loading speed is a huge ranking factor in Google’s recent updates.

So if your site is slow, you’ll have a hard time edging out the competition.

Thankfully, there are some robust (and free) tools that can help you stay ahead of this situation.

First of all, you’ll need a reliable way to test your site’s speed. A quick Google search will give you about a dozen or so, but you only need one. My suggestion is to use a site like Pingdom.

Image Source

When you insert your website’s URL (or a product page’s URL), Pingdom lets you test its speed from anywhere in the world. If you have an international audience, this a great tool to ensure their load time is optimal.

You also get a pretty good assessment of how fast your site loads, as well as a comparison to other sites from around the world.

Image Source

And if you don’t like what you see, there are options to help you lower your site’s size and boost overall load times.

For example, a tool like Tiny PNG will allow you to compress large images into smaller, speed-oriented versions. This is especially useful for product pages that may have more than one image.

Another good option would be to utilize Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMP) to create near-instantaneous load times on your mobile site.

Any of these options are good for optimizing your site and decreasing load times. It may not sound like much, but every second counts in ecommerce.

SEO Tip #6: Optimize and Update Your Product Pages

When you’re creating your finished product page, you want to make sure that it’s using the best practices, and that you update it from time to time for “freshness.”

Let’s look at what that means in practice with a real-life Shopify store created by Bremont.

On any of their product pages, you’ll find keyword-optimized titles, internal links to high-value pages, suggestions for cross-selling, and top-notch product imagery.

Image Source

Combined, all of these elements means the page has a higher chance at ranking well for the given product.

Another great example of this, albeit with a different style, comes from Condor Cycles. Their emphasis is more copy-driven but still contains the elements pointed out above.

Image Source

But where do updates come into play with these product pages?

According to a study published by Moz, Google seems to have a preference for “fresh” content.

Over time, your product descriptions, images, and other copy will start to get a little “stale” from an SEO standpoint. That means it will be less successful for the searches you want to rank for.

Image Source

To combat this, it’s good to do regular audits of your product pages (and other content) to ensure that it’s not stagnating. If you see a page moving in the opposite direction, that’s a good sign that you need to update your copy and images.

Get Your Free Shopify SEO Checklist

Enter your email and instantly get a Shopify SEO Checklist to ensure that your store is following SEO best practices.

SEO Tip #7: Set Up 301 Redirects For Unused or Discontinued Pages

In many cases, when a product is temporarily out of stock, you’ll want to display that on your product page without changing or redirecting your page. While inconvenient to your customer, product pages with out of stock items will still retain their SEO value.

But what happens if a user comes to your site expecting to find a product that you’ll never sell again, only to find a 404 error page?

The likely outcome is that they leave your site forever.

When users “bounce” like this, it can severely impact your SEO.

The solution is to set up 301 redirects in this situation.

To do this in Shopify, select the Online Store section in your toolbar. Then choose Navigation and find the URL Redirects option.

Image Source

Use this to set up the redirect to a newer page with an in-stock item. Or, if you do a full website redesign at some point, use this to ensure that you don’t miss customers due to newer URLs.

With fewer bounces, you’ll have better long-term SEO, and hopefully more customers as well.

Just make sure to use this strategically and only when absolutely necessary. You don’t want to lose your SEO progress on a page that you intent to use again.

Conclusion

If you’re starting the process of building your online store, Shopify should be on your list of ecommerce platforms for a number of reasons.

As we’ve seen, it’s a large platform with plenty of tools and themes that can help you, no matter what your experience level is. It’s also built for fast and visually-oriented execution, which are two huge plusses.

But when it comes to SEO, things can get a bit tricky. You’ll still need to ensure that you have the basics in order if you want to be at the top of search rankings.

The perfect starting point is to ensure that your free SSL certificate is turned on. Google views secure sites favorably, which will help in the long run.

Then, make sure you install an SEO app to double-check that you’re doing everything you can to boost your traffic.

You should also take the time to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. This will help Google crawl your site and assess it as accurately as possible.

It’s also a good idea to spend some time optimizing your user experience. The last thing you want is for hard-earned traffic to leave because they can’t use your store.

Take some time to improve your site’s speed, as this will lower bounce and lead to improved revenue over time.

And take strides to keep your best-performing products and landing pages. Google often prioritizes fresh content, which can give you an edge.

Finally, set up 301 redirects for old pages that may no longer exist. This will lower bounce and help your SEO in the long run.

If you implement all of these tips, you’ll be in a far better position to win traffic to your Shopify store in the long run. With more traffic, you should see more customers, revenue, and long-term growth.

Get Your Free Shopify SEO Checklist

Enter your email and instantly get a Shopify SEO Checklist to ensure that your store is following SEO best practices.

The post Shopify SEO Best Practices: 7 Traffic Boosting Tips That Work appeared first on HigherVisibility.


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5 Powerful Messaging Tactics For 2019 And Beyond From Pubcon Experts

The post 5 Powerful Messaging Tactics For 2019 And Beyond From Pubcon Experts appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/5-powerful-messaging-tactics-for-2019.html

Friday, 19 October 2018

Top Brand Personalization Secrets From Scott Monty at #Pubcon 2018

The post Top Brand Personalization Secrets From Scott Monty at #Pubcon 2018 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/top-brand-personalization-secrets-from.html

4 Reasons to Get AMP’d Up About Google AMP with Google’s Ben Morss

What’s up with Google AMP? That’s what a room full of marketers were determined to find out on Thursday’s Pubcon Pro session with Google’s Developer Advocate, Ben Morss. In his session, Ben outlined the current state of Google AMP, why marketers should care, and how it can work along with PWAs (progressive web apps) to deliver a seamless, fast and immersive experience. Below are four top takeaways from Ben’s session:  1. Speed = Money There are real world consequences for bad user experience on your website. Some of the stats Ben included to illustrate exactly how include:
  • 53% of users abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load according to a Doubleclick study of Google Analytics Data.
  • One additional second of load time can lead to a 3.5% decrease in conversion rate and a 2.1% decrease in cart size according to a Radware report.
The message is clear -- people will leave your site if it’s slow, which leads to fewer conversions. And of course, Google uses loading time as a ranking factor. It’s in the best interest of your business to focus on page speed as a key objective, if not for your rankings than certainly for your customers and prospects.  2. You can use Google AMP to help speed things up Google AMP can help you speed up your site by:
  • Discouraging or banning things that will slow down your site
  • Removing or banning distracting ads
  • Waiting to load elements until they’re needed
Ben also emphasized that AMP was created to help improve the look and feel of surfing the mobile web. Sure, you can create a dull, featureless website through AMP, but it’s not recommended. The sites that have the best success using AMP are ones that utilize AMP HTML, AMP JS and AMP Cache. This allows for exciting, interactive design experiences that load quickly. Developers can control the design and CSS of their site, while mitigating the risk of accidentally slowing down their mobile sites after adding image files that are improperly sized, or Javascript that slows down load times. 3. PWAs and AMP make a great team A PWA is a progressive web app - it provides an app-like experience on the web. It should be fast, integrated with the device, reliable, and engaging. Like the mobile web, PWAs have a lot of reach and are discoverable anywhere. And like an app, PWAs have a lot of power, and are a user friendly experience. If you do a PWA the right way, Ben says, you get the best of both worlds. So, what are the benefits of PWAs?
  1. You can use an app shell for fast transitions. The shell loads before the content, and dynamic content then populates the view.
  2. Users have the power to add the PWA to their home screen like an app for easy access, without having to download an app.
  3. PWAs can provide a full screen experience on mobile and on desktop, similar to an app interface for a more immersive experience.
  4. Users can access content within a PWA offline through caching
  5. Users can opt-in to push notifications, though Ben cautions that we should use those notifications wisely.
 4. AMP and PWAs can be used together for the best of both worlds - speed and experience Using AMP helps users discover the content through AMP search results, and have a seamless page loading experience. The content is delivered quickly. Then, when they click in to additional pages, they’re upgraded to the PWA experience to continue to browse. This helps not only deliver content quickly, but provide an engaging experience throughout the browsing process. Can this be done without AMP? Certainly, according to Ben. Does that happen often? Definitely not. The reason being that it’s common for developers to inadvertently slow loading time by adding additional script elements or files that aren’t optimized - he even admitted that it happens at Google. AMP helps reduce that risk. You can go to amp.cards to see a demo of the AMP to PWA experience. It’s worth a look! Note - it works best in mobile. Did you miss Pubcon Pro this year? Or just want to revel in the glory of what was? Check out the rest of our Pubcon Pro live blogs here.

The post 4 Reasons to Get AMP’d Up About Google AMP with Google’s Ben Morss appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/4-reasons-to-get-ampd-up-about-google.html

Digital Marketing News: D&B’s New B2B Report, Facebook in 3D, & Google’s New Discover Feed

The post Digital Marketing News: D&B’s New B2B Report, Facebook in 3D, & Google’s New Discover Feed appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.


Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/digital-marketing-news-d-new-b2b-report.html

Thursday, 18 October 2018

Reduce Friction, Increase Loyalty: Key Insights from Roger Dooley at #Pubcon Pro

Did you know, only 5% of our brain’s decision making is conscious? Leaving 95% for decisions made on a nonconscious level. As marketers, charged with increasing the quality and quantity of conversions (i.e. decisions), how do we address the 95%? Roger Dooley, speaker and author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing, the popular blog Neuromarketing, and Brainy Marketing at Forbes, addressed this in his session at Pubcon pro. Here are the top three takeaways to help you increase your conversions without much more than common sense -- and a little user data. 1. Friction changes behavior Momentum is what causes us to keep moving, like sliding down a slide. Friction is what stops us from completing that motion. When it comes to your digital properties, like your website, you likely have specific actions you want prospects and visitors to take. In some cases, motivation can overcome friction. As an example, Roger told the story of how his dog (like most) is extremely motivated by food. He uses many ways to try to increase his dog’s friction while snarfing down his tasty dog food, but none have slowed him down to the point where he gives up. In this case, his motivation trumps friction. However, as Roger points out, ‘your customers aren’t dogs.’ And according to Gartner, almost 98% of leads on site don’t convert. This means there is a significant amount of friction to overcome. 2. Lowering friction increases conversion If you want your prospects to take action on your website, you must reduce friction. Since they’re not singularly motivated to convert on your site, you have to make the experience as easy and seamless as possible to help encourage the behavior you want. This friction can come in many ways, for example:
  • Do your prospects have to fill out a crazy-long form before they convert?
  • Is the CAPTCHA you’re using too hard to complete?
  • Do your auto-fill settings routinely malfunction or fill in the wrong information?
  • Does the actual information on your site take a long time to load, especially on mobile?
Roger encourages us to take a few steps to help increase conversions by reducing friction:
  • Test everything, as though you’ve never been to your own website - this is where you’ll find out if something is broken, providing a strange user experience, or unnecessary all together.
  • Reduce the complexity of your checkout or form fill process - Think critically about the data you’re collecting. If you don’t need to know that information immediately, don’t ask for it.
  • Evaluate whether or not it makes sense for users to need to register to check out - does that make sense for each interaction? Or is this something that can be circumvented and later replaced with a loyalty program, for example.
  • Look at user data - are your website users taking a long, winding path toward conversion? Are they giving up halfway, and usually around the same point? Use that data to investigate, evaluate, and fix the friction they’re encountering.
3. Low friction experiences increase loyalty Loyalty programs, special deals and discounts, or even advanced benefits don’t increase loyalty in and of themselves. In fact, according to Accenture, 71% of loyalty programs do not increase loyalty. If someone shops with you or routinely visits your blog, that behavior can be stemming from convenience or habit. Loyalty is emotional, not transactional. It’s the customer’s experience with your brand that encourages their loyalty. How easy can you make it for them to convert? He used Amazon as an example here - their one-click buying option that shows shoppers exactly how and when they’ll receive their package, doesn’t require additional information, and can be completed in seconds. That’s the ultimate reduction in friction -- and one of the reasons why in 2018 Amazon is projected to own 49% of online sales. His advice is to focus on the outcome that’s most desired, and find out what the quickest and easiest approach is to taking that action. Make it easy for users to convert, and they’ll continue to return and do so. After all, according to Gartner, 94% of users that reported needing low effort to purchase repeated that behavior, compared to 4% with high effort. For more insights from Pubcon, follow the TopRank Marketing team on the ground: @LaneREllis, @LeeOdden and @Tiffani_Allen. And, stay tuned for more insights over the next week on the TopRank Marketing blog.

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Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/reduce-friction-increase-loyalty-key.html