How do you optimize the conversion of your low-traffic website?
Your website is the signboard for your organization.
You set this up to help a visitor on his way to making choices and to proceed to, for example, a purchase.
Unfortunately, setting up a website properly is often a big challenge.
Elements are regularly added to the website with the idea of being able to help the user better, but this has a counterproductive effect.
By applying conversion optimization, it is possible to better understand website behavior.
As an organization, you can then respond well to this!
Conversion optimization is the scientific validation of adjustments on a website. This way you test whether an adjustment is actually an improvement or whether it is based on chance.
That way you ensure that your organization only makes pre-validated adjustments that actually have a positive impact.
This is an essential part of growing as an organization and thus better serve your users.
Loss-making adjustments are avoided in this way. Risk management of the highest order.
Yet there is also a caveat to conversion optimization.
In order to be able to make a scientific judgment, there are requirements for the number of visitors and transactions.
That can be difficult, especially if you have too few visitors. Because what does this mean if you only have a handful of website visitors per day?
Fortunately, there are still opportunities to improve your website data-driven if you have little traffic.
Analyzing the users on your website is essential to see where users drop out and how you can serve them better.
In addition, you can see what has a positive effect and what does not in a data-driven way.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to improve a website for your users when you don’t have enough traffic to actually test for conversion.
Let’s go!
What steps can you take to improve low-traffic websites?
Low website traffic is a problem for organizations of all sizes.
As mentioned earlier, a certain group size is needed to validate whether an effect is due to chance or not.
Nevertheless, data-driven work is always better than making changes indiscriminately. Having insight into website behavior helps your organization in setting priorities.
Data-driven work is split into two phases. Research your users and actually validate your solutions to user problems.
1. Research your users
There are all kinds of studies that can help your organization understand how users use the site, where they drop out, and what objections they have to not making a purchase.
Gaining insight into these bottlenecks is the starting point of your website optimization. If you do not know what is happening and for what reason this is happening, achieving more transactions is quite difficult.
Web analysis/quantitative research provides insight into what is happening on your website. Which pages do your users come to, on which device do they visit your website and where do they drop out?
The possibilities are endless and this is an essential part of any analysis.
Surveys (questionnaires) offer you the opportunity to ask questions directly to your users. This can be done in all kinds of ways. Think of showing a questionnaire to users who want to leave the website or asking questions to users who have made a purchase.
This way, you can ask specific questions about a user’s reasons for making or not making a purchase.
Customer service research is also an easy way to find out about customer problems.
Customer service employees are in daily contact with your customers and know exactly what is going on and what customers encounter.
Session recordings and heat maps provide insight into how users actually navigate through your website. By viewing session recordings, you can immediately see what users are up against.
Heatmaps also provide insight into which part of a page is being viewed and to what extent important elements on your page receive sufficient attention.
User testing or usability research gives the possibility to let users carry out an assignment on your website. You can directly ask the user about the motivation behind all the actions he or she performs on your website.
This gives a lot of insight into the user-friendliness of the website and whether it meets the expectations of the user.
Something can be designed in a certain way, but visitors get in the way of finding what they are looking for.
Competitive analysis provides insight into how other organizations have set up their website to help users make a purchase.
This way you can immediately find out differences and you also get direct insight into how you can distinguish yourself from the competition.
You have to take into account that competitors may implement things without testing. Copying competitors does not necessarily increase your chances of success.
2. Validating your solutions
Now that you as an organization have a good insight into the bottlenecks of your user, it is time to actually implement improvements.
You do this by converting your ideas to improve these into hypotheses. We do this on the basis of the so-called ABC principle: assumption + proof + control.
Supposition: Based on [data], we expect that [adaptation] for [user group] motivates them to [behavior] for this [reason].
Proof: This assumption is correct if we measure an [effect] on [growth metric].
Control: The assumption appears to be [(in)correct]. We’ve learned that [lessons]. The next step is [follow-up action].
By performing a duration calculation, you know exactly how long your test must run and what the impact must be on your metric to achieve significance.
Significance is the scientific basis that determines the probability that your adaptation is based on chance or not.
Your term calculation depends on two factors:
- How much traffic will get on the page you want to customize?
- And how many people convert on the goal you want to influence?
There are a lot of tools that can help you make a term calculation. An example is this tool.
Although this tool can be very useful to help you gain more insights into your optimizations, we strongly advise you to apply one of the strategies below.
The reason for this is that the calculator may be able to display unrealistic numbers when entered. This can give a wrong picture on which you may want to base your approach.
Example: you will achieve a 30% conversion uplift to be able to measure a significant difference in four weeks. Such a large improvement does not often occur in practice.
But how do you deal with low-traffic pages that do not come out of the duration calculation?
Unfortunately, there is no standard answer to this. Nevertheless, there are ways to gain insight into this.
Combine similar pages
If you have pages with a similar layout such as product detail pages or category pages, combining these pages in an experiment can provide enough traffic to get a significant result.
Use a micro conversion as a goal
Transactions and leads are the clearest metrics to hang results on.
These are very tangible and can be calculated directly in expected extra turnover. If these metrics do not take place sufficiently to experiment, it can be very relevant to measure micro conversions.
For example, you can think of the number of users who click through or the number of users who add something to the shopping cart or come to a product page.
When using micro conversions, it is essential that there is a logical link with your end goal. And that you also take the impact on your end goal into account when analysing the results.
Lowering your significance limit
As indicated earlier, the significance determines the extent to which an improvement is based on chance.
You often see that a limit of 95% certainty is used. That would mean that out of every 20 winners, 1 experiment is not an actual winner.
By lowering this limit to, for example, 80%, you can test more things, but the risk that something is based on chance is also greater.
And therefore also the risk that you implement a change with a negative effect.
If you choose to do so, always include other insights outside of your most important metric to get a good overall picture of your experiment.
At low numbers, this method is the least advisable, so let’s quickly move on to the next method.
Make adjustments and monitor them in the long term
If there is really very little traffic, it can be an option to simply implement changes and use quantitative analyses (web analysis) to monitor what happens to your metrics from the moment it is implemented.
Also, add an annotation to Google Analytics right away.
Do you see a structurally positive effect on your conversion metric?
Then at least your adjustment doesn’t seem to hurt. If it shows a negative effect from that moment on, you can therefore consider reversing your adjustment.
Be aware that you are now looking at correlation instead of causation.
In other words: you can never prove afterward that an improvement or deterioration in your conversion rate is the result of your change.
Usertesting / usability research
For larger re-designs or adjustments, a user survey is recommended.
This gives you direct insight into the reactions to adjustments you want to make.
The disadvantage here is that there are often only a handful of users participating in the survey who may not be representative of all users of your website.
In addition, the users will go through your site more consciously because they have to give feedback. This can cause different behavior than when they actually visit your website themselves.
Stay practical
It is now clear that data-driven working is of great importance. Even if your website does not directly lend itself to A/ B testing, there are still many possibilities.
All in all, it’s essential to know what helps your users and what doesn’t. If you don’t work data-driven, you won’t be any the wiser.
So it may just be that you make the wrong adjustments.
Of course, you don’t want that for your organization. So try to use the most practical way for your organization and learn what works and what doesn’t. Also in your approach.
Good luck with actually improving your website and helping your users!
The Pros and Cons of AI Technologies: How They are Changing Our Lives
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have been rapidly evolving in recent years and are having a significant impact on our daily lives. From personalized recommendations to autonomous vehicles, AI is transforming the way we live and work. In this article, we will explore the positive and negative aspects of AI technologies and how they are changing our lives.
Positive Impact of AI Technologies:
AI technologies are having a positive impact on various aspects of our lives, including healthcare, user experiences, and productivity. Let’s take a look at each of these in detail:
- Improved healthcare: AI technologies are enabling healthcare providers to diagnose and treat patients more accurately and efficiently. For example, AI-powered tools can analyze medical images and detect early signs of diseases such as cancer, leading to faster diagnosis and treatment.
- More personalized user experiences: Artificial Intelligence can provide personalized recommendations to users based on their past behaviors and preferences. This allows businesses to offer personalized experiences to their customers, leading to increased engagement and loyalty.
- Increased productivity and efficiency: AI technologies are automating mundane tasks, allowing workers to focus on more complex and creative tasks. This leads to increased productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
Negative Impact of AI Technologies:
While Artificial Intelligence is having a positive impact on our lives, there are also some negative aspects to consider. These include potential job loss, increased reliance on technology, and ethical concerns around privacy and bias. Let’s take a closer look:
- Potential job loss: As AI technologies automate more tasks, there is a risk of job displacement. However, it is important to note that AI can also create new job opportunities in fields such as data science and AI engineering.
- Increased reliance on technology: As we become more reliant on AI, there is a risk of losing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Additionally, there is a risk of becoming too dependent on technology for decision-making, which could lead to errors and mistakes.
- Ethical concerns around privacy and bias: Artificial Intelligence relies on data to make decisions, which could lead to bias and privacy concerns. For example, facial recognition technology has been criticized for being biased against certain groups of people.
Case Studies/Examples of AI in Action:
Let’s take a look at some case studies/examples of AI technologies in action:
- Smart home devices: AI-powered smart home devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are becoming increasingly popular. These devices can perform various tasks such as playing music, setting reminders, and controlling smart home devices.
- Autonomous vehicles: Autonomous vehicles are becoming more common on the roads, with companies such as Tesla and Google investing heavily in this technology. These vehicles use Artificial Intelligence to navigate and make decisions on the road. According to a report by Statista, the global autonomous vehicle market is projected to reach over 556 billion U.S. dollars by 2026. This shows the potential for AI technologies to revolutionize the transportation industry and improve road safety.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040100/autonomous-vehicle-market-size-worldwide/ - Healthcare applications: AI-powered healthcare applications such as Babylon Health and Ada Health are enabling patients to diagnose and treat themselves using AI-powered chatbots.
Future of AI Technologies:
The future of AI technologies looks promising, with advancements in AI expected to continue. As Artificial Intelligence becomes more widespread, we can expect to see more applications in various industries, including healthcare, transportation, and finance. However, it is important to address the potential negative impact of AI technologies and ensure that they are developed ethically.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, AI technologies are rapidly changing our lives in various ways, bringing both benefits and challenges. While the advancements in AI are exciting, it’s important to approach them with caution and consideration of the potential consequences. As we continue to explore the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, we can expect to see more integration of AI in various industries and aspects of our lives. To learn more about the future of AI, check out this article by Forbes.
Read More: The SEO Trends for 2023
Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
How to Rank Your Website in Google with SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase the chances of your website appearing at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. In this article, we’ll discuss some tips and best practices for ranking your website in Google with SEO.
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Understand Your Audience
The first step in optimizing your website for search engines is to understand your audience. Who are they? What are their interests? What are their pain points? By understanding your audience, you can create SEO based content that speaks directly to them and addresses their needs. This will not only help you to attract more visitors to your website, but it will also help you to rank higher in search engine results pages.
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Conduct Keyword Research for SEO
The next step in optimizing your website for search engines is to conduct keyword research. Keyword research is the process of identifying the keywords and phrases that people are using to find information related to your products or services. By identifying these keywords, you can create content that is optimized for them, which will increase the chances of your website appearing at the top of Search Engine Results Pages for those keywords.
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Optimize Your Website’s On-Page SEO Elements
Once you have a list of keywords, the next step is to optimize your website’s on-page SEO elements. On-page SEO elements include the title tag, meta description, headings, and images. By optimizing these elements, you can make sure that your website is properly indexed by search engines and that your website’s content is relevant to the keywords you’re targeting.
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Build Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. They play a critical role in how search engines rank websites. The more backlinks your website has, the more authoritative it appears to search engines. To build backlinks, you can reach out to other website owners and ask them to link to your website. You can also participate in online communities and forums, and include a link to your website in your signature or profile. One way of building backlinks is by guest blogging, for instance, you could check out this website: www.digi-sparkz.com
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Monitor Your Progress
The final step in optimizing your website for search engines is to monitor your SEO progress. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website’s traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate. By monitoring your progress, you can identify areas of your website that need improvement and make the necessary changes to improve your search engine rankings.
In conclusion, SEO is a vital aspect of online marketing that can help increase the visibility of your website in search engine results pages. By understanding your audience, conducting keyword research, optimizing your website’s on-page elements, building backlinks, and monitoring your progress, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
Read More: The SEO Trends for 2023
Marketing with creativity a lot more successful
We all know that creativity is important. Incredibly important even and essential within B2B marketing; you can’t escape it.
Yet many campaigns have other priorities than creativity. And that’s a shame!
When you start creating a new campaign, you need to include the creative aspect from the start.
But… unfortunately, many organizations do not have the right data or the right knowledge to do this.
Or they lack good examples of creative campaigns or previous campaigns that have run well using creativity.
That’s why in this blog we tell you why you should never forget creativity in campaigns and what is important for a good, creative campaign.
A campaign that appeals to your target group.
Does creativity contribute to the growth of your company?
The answer is simple: YES!
Powerful ads leave more impact. They ensure that the advertisement and the message behind it are remembered by the consumer.
And the more it is remembered, the faster the link is made between the advertiser and the consumer.
Of course, you might say, but this is not nearly as obvious.
Good ads stick in the mind of your target audience.
Almost half of the success of your campaign and of good advertisements is determined by the creative aspect.
Once you have a strong creative strategy, create campaigns that win. Campaigns that appeal to the target group.
The interaction of these types of campaigns is higher and they get more clicks and conversions.
With the right campaign material, you have up to almost twice as much price power, and there is five times more shared market growth.
And in addition, a strong, creative campaign is also 16 times more profitable.
These are some of the results of a study by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1.
Few creative ads according to research
LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 examined what percentage of their analyzed ads scored between one and five stars.
From previous assessments (through the ESOV strategy) by System1 from more than 40,000 advertisements, the organization has been able to draw up the scale below.
The ‘star rating’ and market growth go hand in hand, assuming 10% ESOV in each category.
“Brands that set their share of voice (SOV) above their share of market (SOM) tend to grow (all other factors being equal), and those that set SOV below SOM tend to shrink. The rate at which a brand grows or shrinks tends to be proportional to its “extra” share of voice (ESOV), defined as the difference between SOV and SOM.”
– LinkedIn Ads Blog, January 2020
The score scale is organized as follows:
^ Image 1:LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 report, page 10:
Of the 1,700 ads analyzed by LinkedIn’s B2B and System1, only 0.1% (!) achieved five stars on the one-to-five-star scale.
- 76.7% of all ads scored 1 star
- 18.8% of all ads scored 2 stars
- 6.0% of all ads scored 3 stars
- 0.4% of all ads scored 4 stars
- 0.1% of all ads scored 5 stars
^ Image 2:LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 report, page 11:
Which aspects are important for the profitable and creative success of advertisements?
Before you can start with the creative part of your campaign, there are a few basic parts that need to be looked at:
- research ad recognition and ad recall;
- calculate the sympathy for ads and the clarity.
Once this is clear, you can move on to the creative part.
In general, the successes can be divided into these five categories: the storyline, characters, music material, emotion, and smooth advertising:
- Story: those who can tell the story well can achieve their goal;
- Characters: we all want to be able to encourage someone (or something);
- Musical material: music appeals to the heart and to the imagination;
- Emotion: like music, emotion speaks to the heart;
- Smooth advertising: brand recognition reinforces the message (by using recurring logos and/or characters).
Nikon:
Nikon has a recurring song that is used in a lot of video ads. ‘Welcome, Home‘ (2007) is a song by Radical Face and has been used since 2010 for the Nikon ads, which were broadcast in several European countries:
Albert Heijn:
When it comes to smooth advertising, the Dutch supermarket chain is a standout. For a period of 10 years, there was always the same premise: a character.
Namely Harry Piekema’s Henk van Dalen!
Actor Harry Piekema as Albert Heijn’s Henk van Dalen character (2004-2014)
Respond to the emotion
The emotional value associated with advertising plays a major role in your marketing success.
Marketing expert Les Binet says: “Use the power of emotion. Automatically thinking of your brand when buying is only half the battle. Advertising should also reinforce brand preference. The other approach is to create associations between the brand, the buying opportunity, and a relevant feeling and feeling that encompasses buyers to choose the brand.”
Responding to emotions also creates affection.
When we find a brand attractive, positive thoughts arise about its benefits.
For example, it is likely that customers will also rate your products and services more positively.
Creative work and data-driven marketing go hand in hand. Together they ensure success and more customers.
As already mentioned, creativity is important, but creative material is essential.
People are story thinkers, not logic thinkers.
So, there you go.
Invest in the creative!
Read More: 3 steps that will help you grow your brand
Discover the digital marketing trends for 2023
Xpert Digital marketing specialists have already looked ahead to the new year: 2023.
The end of 2022 is approaching and that means that the new year is not that far away from us at all.
Do you want to discover new trends in digital marketing? Here we will discuss the macro trends for the new year.
In 2023, we need to focus on three aspects: people, measurability, and margin. It is important for organizations to focus extremely on this in the coming year.
In today’s market, it is becoming more difficult to find and retain the right people. Competition is increasing, revenues are under pressure, there are high costs, and measuring ROI is becoming increasingly challenging.
Retaining people with Digital Marketing
Just like the previous years – something that has really started since the start of COVID-19 – the so-called ‘Great Resignation’, the large outflow, is underway.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, more and more people have left their work sector and have started working in another sector or have started working less.
Others have found a way to live life in a different way. For this reason, the effective capacity of labor is shrinking.
If you look at the media and the technology sector – that’s where marketing, or at least online marketing, comes in, there’s also more outflow than inflow. Namely 55 percent versus 45 percent.
Where does the outflow go?
That remains unclear.
These are some of the results that have emerged from McKinsey’s great attraction (2022) global study.
A possible reason that people are leaving their sector is that they dare to make more demands on employers (think, for example, of working from home or in the office).
It is also the case that employers can no longer expect employees to have certain studies or backgrounds. The employer is forced to look more at what the employees have to offer.
This brings the employee to a place where he functions well and performs work that the employee likes and can do well. A win-win situation for all parties involved.
A lot is changing within the field. People and organizations are increasingly going to work digitally.
This has a lot of influence on who performs the work, but digital developments also have a lot of effect on the work of marketers.
They are the linchpin in the organization when it comes to changing and moving with the latest market developments and customer demand.
They become centipedes and must be at home in all markets. Improving, changing, and continuously experimenting is the daily life of a marketer.
Maintain margin
For many organizations, it is becoming increasingly difficult to become or remain profitable.
The higher purchasing costs are partly due to the events in the Suez Canal, but also due to rising gas prices and inflation.
These aspects ensure that more and more people still keep their hands on the cut. And demand is already declining in some sectors.
The best way to deal with this is to start with an analysis of how you are doing. That’s step one.
In your digital marketing mix, you can then focus on that margin. See if the customer you bring in via channel A or B at the bottom of the line makes you money.
And how much?
Also, look beyond that initial purchase. And that lead that came in last? Has that become a customer?
In addition, it is also a pick your battle situation.
Because so many, and so fast, things are changing, it is almost impossible to make a profitable business case. Therefore, take a very critical look at your marketing mix.
The opportunity to switch from a target group or market to something else as a company can be rewarding for your organization.
It is often the case that companies start cutting marketing budgets. This is not always wise because it can mean a permanently deteriorated economic position in the market.
Improve measurability through Digital Marketing
Well-known programs used by almost every marketer will undergo many changes or updates.
In 2023, we will massively switch to Google Analytics 4 (now the beta version Web+App property).
Google Chrome will stop supporting and supporting third-party cookies in 2024. And this poses a threat to data quality.
Collecting data will therefore be done in a different way. But do you actually need all that data?
A large part does not. Often too much rather than too little data is collected. Or not the right data.
Solutions for this are certainly there, but they also cost time and money. Possibilities are:
- First Party Tracking;
- TraceDock or a CDP
- Server-side Google Tag Manager
Other possibilities and solutions are discussed in more detail in the Data & Automation podcast that will soon be online.
Many changes await us in the new year, but a new year also brings new opportunities.
For marketers, it can be fun. At least, if you have a growth mindset. There is still a lot to be gained and you can outsmart your competitors in many ways.
Keep looking at all the opportunities!
Read More: 3 steps that will help you grow your brand
SEO strategy – this is how you succeed in successful development!
Search engines regularly update their requirements for websites, which rank them at different levels. Many companies are now aware of the importance of SEO Strategy, but the expenditure which is behind it is often underestimated.
If you want to do good search engine optimization using organic traffic, you must first understand that this is not a nice feature that can be operated on the side. Instead, SEO requires close supervision and optimization so that you can constantly keep your website’s visibility at a high level. So it needs one ingenious plan and a strategy to meet the wants and needs of your customers. In this contribution, we will show you what to look out for with regard to SEO and how a successful SEO strategy is structured.
What is an SEO strategy?
An SEO strategy describes the method of designing, optimizing, and changing a website such as a blog using SEO in such a way that it achieves the desired Search engine standards as Google matches best. Which methods are successful and how, change at regular intervals, as search engines, update their definitions of what constitutes good SEO? However, it can be clearly seen that the trend toward the highest possible keyword density is decreasing. In the worst case, you can only achieve the so-called keyword stuffing which has significant negative consequences on the ranking of your website and, in the worst case, an Exclusion of Indexing leads. Instead, you should make it a point to consider long-tail keywords, since users primarily act with such search terms.
Defining different themes for a website forms the basis for a so-called Thematic cluster strategy This includes various, overarching topics that consist of a large number of individual keywords. On the second level are sub-topics, which in turn are represented by long-tail keywords. The corresponding structuring gives you clarity and an overview of your content, while your customers find what they are looking for on topics relevant to them.
What is an SEO strategy?
First of all: the one universal There is no such thing as an SEO strategy. The development always depends on the individual characteristics and goals of your company as well as on the behavioral patterns of your target group. Once you know which one needs should be taken into account by both sides, you can start planning and creating an SEO strategy. This basically consists of the following four pillars which may vary in content from company to company:
- Define company goals
- Analyze target group
- Take technical and content SEO measures
- Set priorities with regard to the individual measures
These elements build on each other and are not intended as a static strategy, but rather as one Bundle of individual measures, which are related to each other. The needs of the target groups have a high priority as all subsequent steps deal with how to meet them. Without knowing what your customers want, you cannot start with the first concrete SEO measures.
7 steps to a successful SEO strategy!
An SEO strategy is one long-term measure to increase your traffic, your conversions, and therefore your sales. Therefore, there is no quickly implementable plan that will help you to increase customer satisfaction overnight. Instead, SEO strategies turn out to be Marathon – not as a sprint. The following steps will help you build a successful search engine optimization plan piece by piece.
Step 1: Define your goals and KPIs
Before you really start developing an SEO strategy, you should first define business needs and goals. What should SEO do for the company? Does the business model fit SEO and vice versa? And finally: Does SEO even make sense for your business? As mentioned before, SEO requires a lot of preparation, effort, and time. Therefore, you should first deal intensively with whether all these factors are worthwhile and pay off in the long run will. In order to be able to measure your success, the definition is also different KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) necessary. These are measurable key figures that provide meaningful information about your SEO strategy.
Step 2: Competitor Analysis
To determine where your company ranks in the marketplace, you should take a look at the competitor before making your SEO Strategy. How big is the competition? Is there a “big fish” and many “small fish”? What development is the competition currently going through? These factors can be based on the size of other websites as well as the SEO traffic of the competition determined.
Step 3: Find out your own SEO status quo
In the next step, it’s time to analyze your own website and check for the existing content potential for improvement to check. You may even discover problems that negatively affect the user experience and can fix them at the same time. However, the SEO check is not just about technical aspects like the loading time of the website, but also about the type of content that you offer. You should also pay attention to internal links and references to external websites (backlinks).
Step 4: Research keywords
In terms of keyword research, it’s all about filtering out relevant aspects for your customers and from the most important keywords and subject areas to create. You should make sure that the overarching, relevant topics suit you as a company. It is of little use to you if the keyword in question has the highest search volume but is not associated with your website. Subtopics to be found that fit the main topics and logically link to them. Long-tail keywords are ideal for this, as they are usually more special and unique for SEO Strategy.
Step 5: Create a content strategy
Thanks to the pre-determined cluster of topics, it suits your Fixed schedule with a clear structure that you can use as a guide. The existing keywords tell you which topics you should include. This allows you planning security because you know months in advance when which texts will be finished and published.
Step 6: Evaluate results and take action
The long-term knowledge gained about your website and existing content should not only serve you as information – you should also derive measures from it. If the user experience proves to be lacking, you should restructure your website or aim for a relaunch if necessary before making an SEO Strategy. The setting of the Action priorities doesn’t fall short. What is absolutely necessary for your website – and what could you do without if necessary? Determine which aspects you should focus on to save valuable resources.
Step 7: Ongoing Monitoring and Optimization
Regarding SEO, it is immensely important to always be on the current status stay and adapt and optimize your strategy flexibly. What is a priority today may be completely unimportant to Google in a year’s time? So check back regularly to blogs or Google yourself about the current relevant standards and update your previous optimization. Don’t be afraid to continuously optimize your SEO strategy – it’s worth it!
Conclusion
SEO is not a sprint, but a marathon – this fact can be clearly confirmed by the many aspects, preparation, and intensive planning that such an SEO strategy requires. For long-term projects like this, your focus should be primarily on the needs of your customers lie. If they don’t find any helpful content on your website, they will quickly disappear again. Away from too many keywords towards structured ones subject areas with added value for the user – that should be your motto. If you have the necessary resources and accumulated knowledge to plan and implement a long-term SEO strategy, you should definitely take this step and face the challenge.
Need help planning your SEO strategy? As an SEO agency, we develop and optimize long-term measures and ensure that you achieve your goals and inspire customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an SEO strategy?
An SEO strategy means optimizing, adapting, and updating a website so that it meets the requirements of search engines such as Google and achieves a high ranking. This can be on- and off-page optimization.
Which SEO strategy is currently trending?
The major search engines are currently placing more value on certain topics than on keywords, as the former has a clear structure and offers the user added value. The topic clusters usually consist of keywords as main topics and long-tail keywords as subtopics.
What are the steps involved in creating an SEO strategy?
Basically, the following steps must be followed when developing an SEO strategy: definition of your own goals, analysis of the competition, determination of the status quo, keyword research, creation of a content strategy, evaluation of the results, and prioritization as well as the ongoing monitoring and adjustment of the Strategy.
Read More: The SEO Trends for 2023
15 reasons for learning Foreign Language
The importance of foreign language
Whether in everyday life or at work, learning a foreign language always opens up new opportunities for you and brings you into contact with exciting people and cultures.
According to the LLAS Center for Languages, Linguistics, and Area Studies, there are over 700 reasons to learn a foreign language.
1. Reason for a foreign language: broaden your horizons
When learning a foreign language, you will not only learn vocabulary and grammar, but also a lot about the country and its culture. If you talk to the locals, you will learn a lot about the traditions and the way of life and thinking in other countries.
In addition, you will get to know your next holiday destination much more intensively with foreign language skills. In conversations with residents, you might learn about wonderful places or traditional dishes that you would not otherwise get to know!
2. Reason for a foreign language: Improve your career chances
Multilingualism offers you a number of advantages over other applicants in professional life. With similar CVs and qualifications, the person who speaks more languages often wins out.
During your job, if you have good foreign language skills, you will be able to negotiate with foreign business partners or even work abroad yourself.
So you open up countless new possibilities with every language that you also master.
3rd reason for a foreign language: Travel more relaxed
With a basic understanding of the local language, you will travel much more easily. Easily order your favorite meal at the restaurant or chat with locals about the country’s best sights.
This also increases your motivation when learning a language.
Even a few words in another language will quickly get you further on your journey. You do the rest with your hands and feet.
4. Reason for learning a foreign language: Improve your mental health
Numerous studies show that, on average, multilingual people develop dementia later than people who only speak one language.
Learning a language keeps your brain fit, and increases your brain power and your memory.
So by learning a language you are also doing something good for your mind! So it’s always worth improving your understanding of the language.
5th reason for a foreign language: Get to know exciting people and new cultures
If you speak several languages, there are many new opportunities for you to get to know new people – either at work or in your free time.
Over time you will surely meet people with similar interests. Maybe this acquaintance will even develop into a long-term friendship.
6th reason for a foreign language is: Improve your learning ability
When you learn languages, you always discover new learning methods. Whether it‘s the Assimil method, suggestopedia or simply speaking your vocabulary on tape – you only notice which learning method suits your learning type best when you try it out.
The right learning method increases your ability to learn. This also helps you in other areas for which you are studying.
7th reason for a foreign language: Train your brain
As you learn languages, different areas of the brain are active: specifically Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area. Through the activity, you train your brain – similar to a muscle in strength training.
Science has found that multilingual people switch more easily between different tasks, i.e. are more flexible. In addition, their ability to concentrate is increased and they are less easily distracted.
8th reason for a foreign language is: Increase your stamina
Good stamina is one of the most important prerequisites for learning a language. If you don’t deal with a language sufficiently and in the long term, you will hardly be able to speak it.
If you learn a language, you prove to yourself and others that you have staying power. This will certainly not only impress your future boss.
9. Reason for learning a foreign language: Enjoy films, series, books, and songs in the original language
Many world-famous series do not come from Germany. The content is often more authentic in the original language – especially comedy series are more fun in the original language because the translation of jokes often differs greatly.
The same applies to foreign-language films, books, podcasts, or music. For example, you always wanted to know what your favorite song is about. With foreign language skills, you will find out.
10th reason for a foreign language: Develop yourself personally
Researchers were able to show that multilingual people are more able to work in a team than monolinguals. In addition, learning a foreign language increases self-confidence, which improves your ability to make decisions.
So you notice: When you learn a language, you do a lot for your personal development.
11. Reason for a foreign language: Improve your knowledge of your mother tongue
Understanding a new language will even help you with your native language. Because by learning a foreign language you develop a general feeling for the language.
You analyze grammatical structures and learn the basics of a foreign language. Use this knowledge and improve your grammatical knowledge as well as your reading and speaking skills in German.
12th reason for a foreign language: See the world with different eyes
With every language, you learn, your way of thinking changes. You develop a new perspective on different aspects of life and strengthen your critical thinking.
With good foreign language skills, you have the opportunity, for example, to read the press from all over the world and watch reports from other countries. In this way, you form your own opinion in a more targeted manner.
By the way: Have you ever considered the advantages and disadvantages of emigrating ? If you intend to live and work in another country, you should definitely speak the local language. Multibhashi supports you and helps you to expand your active and passive vocabulary .
13. Reason for a foreign language: Overcome your language inhibitions
Especially at the beginning of language learning, many are afraid of speaking. However, the more contact you have with a foreign language, the easier it is for you to communicate. Therefore, speak in a different language regularly from the start.
In addition, if you know foreign languages, it will be easier for you to paraphrase unfamiliar words. You develop creative solutions and behave confidently in conversations with others despite the language barrier.
14. Reason for a foreign language: Have fun
Learning languages can be a lot of fun. Especially if you learn in a varied way and have a clear goal in mind.
Perhaps friends or your family would also like to learn a foreign language? For example, talk to each other in English at the next dinner – it is unfamiliar at first, but makes for a lot of entertainment over time.
15th reason for a foreign language: Increase your creativity
Studies have shown that learning languages increase creativity. On the one hand through the constant mental activity, on the other hand through new thought patterns that you develop while learning.
Increased creativity brings many advantages in professional and private life.
Why learn French?
Learning French gives you access to a diverse, exciting culture. For example, the French language has a strong influence on the areas of gastronomy, fashion, and theatre!
In addition, French not only helps you on a trip to the city of love but also simplifies your visit to many African countries.
Why learn Spanish?
Why learn Italian?
Italian is one of the most beautiful and expressive languages in the world. If you would like to master an emotional language, learning Italian is particularly useful.
In addition, Italy is always worth a trip – the nature is beautiful, Italy has great cuisine and is particularly rich in culture. The geographical proximity to Germany also offers a great advantage.
Why learn Russian?
Russian is not only very difficult to learn because of the Cyrillic alphabet. Grammar and pronunciation are also foreign and unfamiliar to many learners.
Are you looking for a challenge? Then learning Russian is just right for you! Another motivation for you is definitely that you learn the language of the largest country in the world.
Why learn Chinese?
The Chinese culture has made a great contribution to our politics, religion, and science. China also has a strong influence on world politics and the economy.
If you want to learn more about the connections, learning Chinese is definitely worthwhile.
Read More: 5 reasons to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing
Hidden opportunities in Google Ads: discover them today
Today I will take you through various possibilities of Google Ads, the existence of which is not known to everyone. Interesting!
If you have been involved in the SEA profession for years, you will know these possibilities. But as a less experienced user, you might miss some of the hidden parts of the interface.
No worries – I’m going to help you! In this blog, you will discover a number of lesser-known features within Google Ads that can help you make your marketing activities even better.
Advanced control technology of Google Ads
Sometimes you just have to look for those parts. There are all kinds of features and possibilities that hide, simply waiting to be discovered.
Such a hidden tool is the advanced control function. To find them, navigate to Tools & Settings > Strategies. Next, look for the button labeled “advanced controls”.
Once you’ve found it, you can adjust two things: Data exclusions and Seasonal adjustments
With data exclusions, you can exclude certain data from the total dataset. This can be useful if there has been a measurement problem or if you want to exclude certain outliers that cause noise in the algorithm.
The data remains visible but is no longer included by the Google Ads algorithm.
With a measurement issue, it may be that the algorithm has become upset.
If you suddenly measure twice as much turnover, that is a signal for your bidding strategy to start bidding. While this is actually not the case at all. Data exclusions ensure that this is resolved.
The other functionality is seasonal customization.
This method allows you to adjust bids during upcoming events, such as a sale or promotion.
Only use seasonal adjustments if you expect a serious change in conversion rates, as “Smart Bidding” already manages seasonal events.
Seasonal adjustments are ideal for short events of one to seven days. They don’t work as well if you use them for longer periods of time (more than fourteen days at a time).
If an event is coming that you think could benefit from seasonal adjustments, be sure to take advantage of it.
You say to Google: “Please note, I expect a peak in sales coming, do you make sure you are ready?”.
Automatic extensions
The next tip is really hugely well-hidden. And actually, we think Google doesn’t want you to use it either:
Automatic extension settings.
Google increasingly makes its own dynamic extensions or copy, fully automatic. However, these automatic extensions often do not correspond at all to the corporate identity or message that you want to convey. You can also just pause it.
First, navigate to Extensions > Summary. Scroll down to automated extensions and press the three dots with ‘more’ on the right. Here you click on ‘Advanced settings’ and voilà, there they are.
All ready to be turned off.
So don’t get frustrated, remember that you have the power to change them!
Item library
The item library is actually not hidden. But so little use is made of it that I take it with me.
It’s like a drive where you can store all your images and banners grouped together. In the item library, you can create your own folders. For example, easily sort your footage based on seasons/promotions, etc.
Do you use a lot of different content? Then this is a very nice tool!
The ‘Make video’ function is quite hidden here. You’ll find it under the same heading.
This way you can immediately make a beautiful video of your images. Which can be useful for Performance Max.
Migration tool Performance Max
Performance Max?
A little SEA specialist has known for a few months that this is coming.
Google is constantly changing the way we do things.
Sometimes it involves small things, such as a new button or layout in the interface. But sometimes it’s a big change that affects the way we work every day.
For some a curse, for others a blessing. Whatever you think about it, you will have to learn to work with it.
Google will automatically convert the Smart Shopping campaigns, but you can already do this yourself. Go to your Shopping campaigns, click on the recommendations, and voilà there is the one-click migration tool from Google.
Note: you still have to add a few things yourself, but it is an easy way to keep your current Smart Shopping set-up.
If you’re like most marketers, you’ve probably cursed Performance Max at least once. We don’t get a lot of information about the distribution of expenses by channel.
We challenge you to dive into the ‘reports’ tab and see what insights you can find.
The first step is to get a better understanding of where your money is going.
So go ahead, take the plunge and see what you can discover about the performance of your Performance Max campaign.
Portfolio bidding strategy in Google Ads
Old school, but still alive and working: the portfolio of bidding strategies.
Portfolio bidding is a great way to manage multiple campaigns at the same time.
It’s very simple: where you normally use one strategy per campaign, here you use one bidding strategy for multiple Google Ads campaigns together.
Now we come to the hidden part. You can still work with a maximum CPC under advanced settings.
For example, you can set up a tCPA or tROAS where you determine your maximum click price yourself. This is not possible with a separate bidding strategy.
Spoiler Alert: tCPA and tROAS will be phased out to convert and maximize conversion value.
There is a good chance that with this phase-out, this tool will eventually disappear.
Customer value
Ready for the first step towards CLV?
Then think about optimizing customer value over the past 12 months. This option is located under ‘Added value for the customer under the tab ‘Measurement’.
You can see here exactly how many weeks a customer is on average. But also how much the average customer generates in terms of turnover over a longer period of time.
Easily see the distribution between your valuable customers, average customers, and one-time customers. Think about how a strategy increases the share of valuable customers and analyze whether the strategy works.
6 great tips to get started!
Have you implemented everything? And are you looking for more? Coincidentally already heard about reporting conversions with cart data and costs_of_goods_sold? There are always new things to discover in Google Ads. That’s what makes the profession so beautiful. Please contact us if we can help you with anything!\
Read More: The SEO Trends for 2023
5 reasons to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing
With more than 750 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become the number one website for companies.
That alone should convince you to focus on marketing via LinkedIn.
Curious about 5 other reasons to get started with LinkedIn for B2B marketing? Then read on!
On LinkedIn, as a B2B marketer, you can find a new business partner, introduce a company to potential customers and attract new talent to join your company as an employee.
But you can also get valuable benefits from it with the right use of marketing.
Reason 1: Content!
Where social media channels are often used as a pastime, which is different from LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is mainly used for professional networking and for development. A time investment!
LinkedIn users are often engaged in self-development and gaining knowledge about their field.
When you use LinkedIn for B2B marketing, you have the advantage of context. Users are open to content that is really relevant to them.
As a company, you can perfectly respond to this with your content!
Example: A LinkedIn user is looking for a time management solution for his/her company or training software for their employees, and look – there you are.
When you advertise on LinkedIn, your ads appear in a news feed filled with industry news, expert advice, and insights and recommendations from colleagues.
An advertisement on LinkedIn will therefore be better received in this context than an advertisement on Facebook.
When a lead generation ad is shown on LinkedIn, it is shown to people who want to improve their industry. When it is shown on Facebook, it is visible to someone between different private photos.
This may be the same person, but think about it: When are you most likely to fill out a form to read a work-related white paper or case study? When you’re in relax mode? Or when you’re in work mode?
Much of the data LinkedIn uses for ad targeting comes directly from its users.
If used in the right way, this data brings your company to the attention of the most valuable target groups.
Reason 2: Business targeting capabilities
For each campaign, you need to carefully consider which target group you want to reach and how you can reach them.
This way you can reach users who are actually looking for your product or service. This way you can respond to their questions and needs.
But what possibilities are there in terms of targeting?
Target at the company level
Often you already have an idea of which or what kind of companies you want to focus on.
Based on a company level, you have several options.
On the one hand, you can choose a specific industry and, for example, companies with a certain number of employees with LinkedIn for B2B marketing.
Do you already know specific company names? Then you can also reach the employees of a specific company by targeting company names.
Depending on your target group, you can already target very specifically with this option.
Target at the job level
Do you not want to focus on specific companies, but on functions?
Then you can target based on job titles.
Because everyone on LinkedIn has entered a job title, you can target very specifically in this way.
In addition, you can also select based on seniority. For example, don’t want to reach interns with your ads? Then you exclude it.
Targeting on a personal level
Don’t know someone’s exact job title? Or do you want to reach beyond industry or function?
Then you can also use targeting based on skills, groups, education level, etc.
For example, when you use multiple IT job titles, you might reach people with those job titles, but not someone in IT with an unclear job title.
One way to address this is to also target skills. This way you also reach people who have IT skill on their LinkedIn profile.
What works best? That’s a matter of testing!
Set up different audiences with the same ads and compare the results.
Reason 3: Use your own data effectively
Do you already know who exactly you want to reach?
Upload a list of emails and LinkedIn will match those emails with user profiles.
When your list successfully matches 300 or more profiles, the end result is a matched audience that you can use in any campaign on LinkedIn.
Do you want to reach people who are similar to your current customers?
Then create a look-a-like audience based on your customer list.
In this way, LinkedIn looks at which profiles match and match your current customers.
This way you reach a completely new target group.
Reason 4: The right tool at the right time
Of course, it has been known for a long time that it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach people organically on social platforms.
Social advertising is one of the ways to reach prospects.
LinkedIn’s advertising platform provides everything a marketer needs to ensure that the ads reach the right people with an effective ad spend.
In addition to the countless targeting options that LinkedIn offers, there are also multiple advertising products available.
Re Objectives
LinkedIn offers different advertising goals so that there is always a suitable objective for your campaign! Below they are listed:
Knowledge
Brand awareness: Tell people about your product, service, or organization.
Consideration
Website visits: Drive traffic to your website or marketing landing pages.
Interactions: Increase engagement with your content, such as likes, comments, shares, landing page clicks, or clicks or tracks from your LinkedIn page.
Video views: Share videos with more people.
Conversion
Lead generation: Find leads on LinkedIn using a lead generation form pre-populated with LinkedIn profile information.
Website conversions: Capture leads on your website or drives leads that are valuable to your business.
Applicants: Tell more people about relevant vacancies at your company or send applicants to your vacancies.
Talent leads: The talent leads objective is only available to companies with an active LinkedIn Recruiter contract. Generate leads from candidates who are interested in career opportunities within your company.
Reason 5: Make use of your employees
As with everything in business, your employees are the most important thing.
Give them the resources they need to thrive.
Employees can be a good source for distributing content on LinkedIn.
With well-optimized profiles, employees can become important assets and spokespersons for your company.
Optimized profiles — both your company’s and employees’ — boost visibility in search results.
Google doesn’t leave LinkedIn out of the page-crawling fun. Google will crawl both employee and company profiles. So use your profiles and update them regularly to highlight what’s important.
Another way to get more out of LinkedIn is through employee reinforcement.
When an employee shares one of your LinkedIn posts, the organic reach will be strengthened.
As with Facebook, organic posts on business pages rarely appear in the average user’s newsfeed.
But once someone shares the post, it will appear in many more feeds. Take advantage of that!
Time to get started and get the most out of your LinkedIn page! Do you want to know more about LinkedIn for B2B marketing or do you need help? Please contact us!
Read More: Create perfect lead magnets that customers can’t ignore
3 steps that will help you grow your brand
Branding takes a lot of time and it is difficult to measure? You often hear this reaction when you drop the term ‘branding’.
Fortunately, this is a thing of the past.
I can already hear you thinking, “How do I get people to recognize my brand? And what does it take to make them part of the buying process?”.
I’ll help you on your way!
By getting started with the principles below, you will grow faster than ever before.
The 3 principles for brand growth:
- The louder the better
- Mix it & fix it
- Stand out of the crowd
The louder the better
The more people who know your brand, the larger your market share is. That’s just the way it works.
According to research, there is a strong link between market share growth and investment.
In other words: SOV (share of voice) = SOM (share of market). That basically means that when you shout louder (spend more money), you end up taking a larger share of the pie.
In other words: you have a larger market share, your share of market.
Just an example. Think of a physical Friday afternoon market. The one man behind his vegetable stall who screams so loudly probably also has most people at his stall.
This is the same effect as online.
How do you know if you are using this tactic optimally?
The most reliable is calculating the excess share of voice where you compare your SUM to your competition.
For this it is important that you have the figures ready. But… it can be a big challenge to get this done yourself.
Looking for an alternative? Look at the share of search (SOS). This is the percentage of a brand’s total search volume relative to its competitors.
Studies show that SOS often equals SOM.
By looking at the search volume of a product category versus your brand name plus product category, you can find out how you stand.
Here’s a quick look:
SOV = Share of voice
SUM = Share of market
SOS = Share of search
But beware! It’s not a matter of ‘just increasing budgets’.
Increase your budgets and only start shouting louder after you have the following two principles in order: mix it and fix itandstand out of the crowd.
Mix it & Fix it
Performance and branding are two different things.
Performance teams focus on short-term results such as conversions, while brand managers think about the whole funnel and creating brand awareness.
You can imagine that this can cause quite a few discussions within a company when you split the two teams.
Why do we settle for impressions in a branding campaign and why is the emphasis on a higher CTR and a lower CPC for performance?
These two approaches reinforce each other when they are combined.
Take a look at your branding campaign with your performance glasses on. And vice versa.
For example, the performance team can learn from storytelling. The branding team in their time again of applying more analysis and data-driven decision making.
Ideally, you no longer want to look at performance or branding.
Instead, you look at brand growth. The growth of your brand.
That’s what you end up doing it for.
Mix your teams and make use of each other’s strengths. Only in this way can you really grow.
Mix it and fix it.
Make sure you have a healthy balance between your long-term and short-term campaigns.
The overall ratio between brand building and sales activity is 60:40. This of course depends on the industry and the maturity of the brand. This is based on official research by Les Binet & Peter Field.
This way you achieve results much faster. You can also determine your next steps more clearly on the basis of data.
Stand out of the crowd
Social media channels are designed to let you scroll.
We see 4,000 ads a day. Bizarre a lot!
Sometimes it feels like we stand out in the crowd, because our ad just scrolled by without being clicked on or even noticed!
Imagine what this means for your business…
How do you make sure you stand out?
It’s super important that you get people to stop scrolling.
You have to find something that sets you apart. You have to dare to jump out of the crowd.
By being creative you have a chance to be seen and remembered. According to Nielsen research, creativity even has a 49% impact on final sales.
What can you do to stand out?
Start working on your brand salience!
Brand salience is a similar metric to brand awareness. The difference is that brand salience is aimed at measuring awareness during the actual purchase decision rather than overall brand visibility.
If you have a high brand of salience, then you have a strong brand presence that consumers recognize and think of when they need a product.
An example: suppose you are in the mood for coffee and are on your way to a customer appointment.
Where would you stop to get a coffee? Which brands are you thinking of at the moment when you want to make a purchase?
Right, those are the brands that have a high brand of salience for you.
Ask yourself, “Which coffee brands do you know?”.
The answer you get to this is brand awareness.
It is therefore very important to map out where your customer may be thinking of you.
This way you can increase your brand salience and make a difference with your brand and if you want to know how to attract more customers to your brand, you may check the article “Create perfect lead magnets that customers can’t ignore.”
If you are looking for a good Digital Marketing Company in Kolkata that can handle your Social Media Marketing or Brand Promotion, then you may check our reviews on Google.