Month: December 2016

Categories
SEO

Mobile Wins: Google Using Mobile-First Indexing

In November, Google started using mobile-first indexing. This move is the first stage of the death of the desktop in terms of ranking sites. Under this process, Google looks at the mobile version of your website first to determine the ranking, and then falls back to the desktop version when it cannot locate a mobile version. Marketers and SEO professionals have known this was coming, as Google made hints at it more than a year ago, but they made the announcement on their own blog. As time goes on, the search engine will continue to place more importance on mobile-friendly sites.

Why? Google gets more queries from mobile devices than it does from desktop devices every day. Before the shift, Google used the desktop version of a website to determine the ranking, but as more mobile searches come in, it just makes sense to evaluate the mobile version in determining what ranks when and where.

After all, there are a lot of mobile pages out there with less content than the desktop version. When the crawlers are evaluating the desktop versions, rather than the page the user actually sees, that can lead to some quality issues with the results – and thus degrades the user experience for the searcher. We preach all the time about how you have to have a stellar user experience online, regardless of industry or niche – and Google is making this change to keep their user experience a good one.

What does this mean for you?

Google will look at mobile websites first to determine ranking, and serve those results to users regardless of whether they are using a mobile or desktop device to initiate the search. There won’t be any [additional] mobile-friendly adjustment, and if you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, your rankings will be affected even with desktop searches.

Right now, this is a testing phase for Google, but eventually, it will roll out for everyone. That means you need to make sure you have an optimized mobile presence so you’re ready for when the changes become the new norm.

 

I Don’t Have a Mobile Website?

If you don’t have a mobile website, there’s no need to panic because the algorithms will rely on your desktop version. But, you may want to consider investing in a mobile website just to make sure you can address your users’ needs. Take a look at your analytics data to determine how much of your audience is coming from a mobile device. If a significant portion of your audience uses mobile devices, then you want to make sure you have a mobile-friendly website.

There’s no need to spend a lot of time and money building a completely separate mobile version since responsive design takes care of it for you. It automatically adjusts everything to the appropriate screen size for the querying device. If you’ve already got a responsive design, or a site that otherwise sends dynamic content with equivalent markup regardless of device, there’s nothing you need to do.

If you are building a mobile version of your site rather than opting for a responsive design, don’t launch it until it’s ready. Since your desktop site will be indexed in the absence of a mobile site, it’s better to allow a full desktop site to index than a partially built or broken mobile site to be indexed in its place.

Once you have a mobile website, if it’s not a responsive website, make sure the content and links remain similar enough to maintain the correct rankings so it can be ranked the same way as the desktop version will be. You’ll also want to make sure you’re serving structured markup for both versions of your website. You can use the Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure the structured markup is equivalent for both desktop and mobile versions. Type the URLs of both versions into the tool and compare the output. As you add your structured data to the mobile site, avoid adding large amounts of irrelevant markup. Use only what’s appropriate for the specific information in each page.

If your mobile site has less content than your desktop site, it could affect the ranking of your site simply because there’s no guarantee Google will see both versions of your site when it crawls. The basic theory is that if the content isn’t important enough to be on your mobile site – then you likely aren’t the best result for that query or content.

This is why the responsive design approach is best – all pages remain the same in terms of content and links. You can use the Mobile-Friendly Test tool to determine whether or not Google thinks you have a mobile-friendly website. If you do, but the testing tool thinks you don’t, take steps to remedy the issue, like making sure the crawling bots aren’t blocked in your robots.txt file.

 

My Website Has Expandable Content… How Will I Be Affected?

If your desktop site has content hidden in tabs, expandable boxes, or in accordions, it won’t be weighted highly. But, on the mobile version of your site, as long as the expandable content is done in such a way that it is necessary for, or enhances the optimal user experience, it will be weighted fully. The reason for this is because expandable content makes more sense on mobile devices than on desktops.

 

When Will the Full Roll Out Happen?

The roll-out began in November 2016, and will take months before it is complete. There is not a date for when the full roll out will occur, simply because the company is still testing code. Google will increase the number of searchers once they know the mobile user agent crawler is working well. As more information becomes available, I will update this post accordingly.

 

Mobile Website Optimization Tips

  • Speed: Though recent news suggests speed isn’t going to be an initial factor in the mobile-first indexing, it’s still worth considering overall. According to this YouTube video, you should aim for a site that loads in under half a second. If it goes over two seconds as an e-commerce site – you’ve got work to do. Optimize images, compress your code, cut down on the number of redirects, and make use of browser caching to improve your site speed. Test it with the Mobile-Friendly Test Tool, here, or here.
  • Mobile Design: While I’m a huge fan of responsive design, regardless of which mobile design approach you take, here are a few pointers: stop using popups – you’ll frustrate users, leading to a higher bounce rate and decreased ranking; don’t use Flash – it won’t work on Apple devices. Use HTML 5 or Java instead; and make sure your design is “finger-friendly.” People are scrolling, zooming, and clicking with their fingers, not a computer mouse. Remember that.
  • On-Page Optimization: There’s less room to work with on mobile screens, so keep titles and descriptions concise. This helps the bots understand your site faster, and helps users, too. As such, you’ll likely end up with higher click through rates, which can help improve your rankings.
  • Local Optimization: In September, Google released the Possum update, which was a major change to the local search algorithm. Mobile search plays a major role in helping businesses bring more foot traffic into the store. Research from the search engine giant itself shows that local searchers are ready to act. Half of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, as do 1/3 of the people who use a computer or a tablet. Local businesses stand to gain a great deal from mobile-first indexing. If you’re a local business and you want to increase mobile visibility, make sure to include your business name, phone number, and address. You’ll also want to include your city and state in the:
    • Title tag
    • H1 heading
    • URL
    • ALT tags
    • Meta description

 

Will Mobile-First Indexing Cause Major Ranking Changes?

Google representatives have said this really shouldn’t cause any major ranking changes. The company hopes the changes will be minimal, but it’s too early to tell. Their goal is to not have the change in indexing to impact rankings much.

If you’ve followed the advice thus far – Mobilegeddon in April 2015 greatly penalized sites that were not mobile-friendly – then you should be in good shape over the course of the index change. Because of the ranking boost mobile-friendly content has already been given, if yours isn’t already, you’ve likely already suffered the ranking hit you were going to suffer.

 

How Can I See What Mobile-First Indexing Bots See?

Use the Fetch and Render tool in the Google Search Console. Make sure to specify the mobile:smartphone user-agent, as this is the mobile bot. Look at what displays after the fetch and render is complete. What you see here is likely what the mobile bot (Google) sees and indexes from your site. If you notice content is missing, take steps to fix it. Once it’s fixed, run the tool again and see what changes. You are aiming for a desktop and mobile experience that is nearly identical, for best results for not only search ranking, but overall user experience, as well.

You can also test your robots.txt file, to make sure the mobile agents aren’t blocked from crawling your code. Use the Robots.txt Tester Tool. Submit URLs – as there may be some you don’t want the bots to index – to see whether or not the robots.txt file has them properly blocked or crawable.

 

Will the Desktop and Mobile-First Indexing Converge?

Right now, and for some time in the future, there will be two separate Google indexes – one for mobile-first, and one for desktop-first. Some people, though it will be a relatively small group, will get results from mobile-first indexing, while others will get results from the desktop-first index. Users will have no control over which index their results are served from.

As Google starts to see the mobile bots and index as useful and reliable, we expect to see the mobile-first index become the only one in use. However, if the results of the mobile-first experiment don’t work the way Google wants – it’s possible they’ll go back to a desktop-first index as the only option. In their blog post, they say they’re only experimenting with mobile-first at this stage.

 

Don’t Wait Until the Change is Official

There’s still a great deal to learn as Google continues their experiment with mobile-first indexing. But, taking action now can help ensure you have great visibility in mobile and desktop search, regardless of whether there are separate indexes or not. There’s no need to wait until an official change to take action.

Has the shift to mobile-first indexing created any havoc for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo credit: iStock

Categories
Social Media

15 Tools for Stellar Social Media Images That’ll Get You Followers

This post was originally published on Sachs Marketing Group.

Creating social media images that stand out from the crowd is incredibly important. If the image isn’t clear, captivating, and chosen to fit within the company brand it can have a negative impact on the viewer’s impression of the company. Alternatively, a well-chosen image that has been carefully cultivated to impart a message that resonates with branding and customer expectations has the potential to create buzz throughout the social media channels on which it is shared.

There are two important components in creating authentic and memorable social media images; finding the right picture and editing it effectively. It is possible to address both components at no cost. Doing so for free may require more time, creativity, and design flexibility. For those who have a more substantial budget the options are truly limitless.

Finding Social Media Images

The first step to creating memorable social media images is choosing the perfect image. There are numerous online sources that can be used to help bloggers and businesses find the perfect picture, graphic, or video to promote their social media efforts at an acceptable price point. Remember when searching for the background of your image not to limit yourself. Be willing to experiment with vector images and short video clips if they speak to your objective.

Pixabay – This site has free images that are available to be used with Creative Commons copyright rules. At last count there were nearly 500,000 images to choose from. These include not only photographs but also vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. They can be used for commercial or private use and can be edited and altered as desired which makes them ideal for a variety of social media purposes. Many are free to use without requiring license attribution, so you don’t have to share credit.

Freepik – This company specializes in vector graphics that are required to meet some of the highest quality standards in the industry. They have implemented a freemium policy which ensures the majority of the images they offer are available to be used for free. The only requirement is that the illustration being used is credited back to Freepik. A monthly premium subscription opens up even more vector images and allows any image selected to be used without attribution.

LibreStock – This is one of the most comprehensive image search engines available. It searches numerous stock photography sites to produce the most relevant results that all are under CCO license. It’s a great way to find a wide variety of images that can be freely used, modified, and distributed without restriction.

Unsplash – This collections features stunning high resolution photographs. Through email subscription or by visiting the site daily it is possible to receive 10 new images every ten days completely free. These can be used without crediting the source of the image in any commercial or personal project. The images are presented in the larger more visually impactful version. However, it can be easier to load and view past collections by selecting the grid format.

PicJumbo – This site has several membership tiers as well as a selection of images that are available for free. While the free options are not as extensive as some of the other websites in the list, they premium membership is reasonably priced and provides new images to members every month. Higher level membership packages provide access for entire teams with a single count.

IM Free – Not only does this site offer free images for social media purposes, it also has a variety of other design resources. Some of these include button makers, templates, and icons. This can be especially useful for those who are looking to develop brand identity with cohesive components.

Gratisography – This is one of the only sites that has work created entirely by one photographer. Ryan McGuire offers a remarkable collection of his images royalty free to be used for personal or business purposes. New high resolution images are added weekly and announced via social media channels. These definitely have a creative flare that is a bit edgier than images found in other stock sites. For those with a quirky sense of style, this is a true gem.

Adobe Stock – This is one of the most natural selections, especially for those who already use one or more of the Adobe editing products. Their stock images are easily accessible from all of their editing platforms and are moderately priced. While most well known for their high-quality images, there are also a surprising number of videos and graphics available. As an added benefit, it is possible to preview the watermarked images within one of the Adobe apps before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.

 

Editing Images

Once you have artwork that will work with your concept it is time to create social media images that will bring your vision to life. It is important to note that one design will not fit all platforms. Images designed to be shared on Pinterest are vastly different from those that are used on Twitter or Facebook. Be sure to choose the platform and design tools that will create a design appropriate for the social media channel you intend to distribute it on.

There are many powerful free options available that allow the average person to create images that would have only been possible for a graphic designer a few short years ago. The level of editing skills needed and options available vary widely between the following options. All have a free version which makes it easy to try various editing platforms out to find the one that works best for your skill level and design needs.

Adobe Spark – This is one of the most powerful free tools available. It allows you to create social media banners, posts, videos, and even pages completely free. As mentioned previously, it is integrated with Adobe Stock and there are numerous free image options available as well as the ability to upload your own image to work with.

For social media posts there are template options that make creating copy for a specific platform easy and intuitive. You can add a variety of tinting effects, borders, and text to create a branded message. There is also a mobile app that makes creating on the go almost instantaneous.

Canva – Canva has a free platform that is robust and user friendly. The free templates are broken down by design type, channel, or document with many options available in each category. It is also possible to create an image using individually specified dimensions. As with Adobe Spark, it is possible to search through a catalog of stock images or to upload your own image. Many of the images in the Canva library are entirely free to use while others available for purchase at only $1 each. One of the more unique features of this platform is the ability to overlay images to create something with your logo prominently featured.

Canva for Work is the subscription based service that offers more flexibility by providing far more options.  It is possible to save colors, fonts, logos, templates, and transparent backgrounds. It also gives you the option of uploading your own fonts and creating custom folders and has features that promote team collaboration. The resizing feature available with the Work package makes changing social media platforms with one design much easier.

PicMonkey – PicMonkey is one of the darlings of social media aficionados. There are numerous filters, fonts, and effects that can be used in an almost endless combination. The one drawback for using PicMonkey is the lack of image integration. It is easy to upload your own images but finding one to work with needs to be done outside of the site like those listed above. The other option is to use a solid or textured background, which can be stunning in its own right. These can be further modified with a number of tools such as overlays and themes. One of the really great features of using PicMonkey is that you do not have to sign up at all and can use the basic features directly from the website. However, with this option ads are prominently displayed.

As with many of the photo editing websites, there is an upgrade available. PicMonkey Royale. With the monthly subscription there are more effects, touch-up tools, fonts, cloud storage, frames, textures, overlays, collage layouts, and no ads. Both options can be accessed with the mobile app.

Gimp – This is an open source platform that is completely free to download and works in a way comparable to Photoshop. If you have the ability to code using Perl, Python, or Scheme it is possible to create some truly impressive customization options for your social media images. You can use it to create social media icons, backgrounds, banners, gorgeous images, and posts.

The one caveat is that it is best for those with design experience. Some of the tools may be too advanced for users who want a quick and attractive social media post. However, if you want tremendous flexibility, have the ability to utilize all of the tools, and do not want to pay for one of the higher end photo editing platforms this is a fantastic option.

Pixlr – This platform has two great options; Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Express. Pixlr Editor is more like Gimp or Photoshop in that it allows you to create layered images, replace colors, and even transform objects. For those who really want to up their creative game this is a powerful options.

Pixlr Express is probably the better option for people who want to quickly make creative social media posts for a variety of different platforms. It’s possible to add borders, creative effects, text, and overlays. The templates make it look like you have years of experience even if it is your first foray into the world of image editing.

Pixteller – This hidden gem has the ability to make social media cover images, posts, and posters. Like many of the options listed, this company does not have an easy way to access images. With your own image or a willingness to work with textured colors. While not as robust as some of the other options, it does offer valuable community resources that can be useful for those new to the process.

Fotor – Another free resource that makes creating basic social media images almost effortless. The editing options are more limited, however, that can make it easier for novices to use effectively.

The Right Tool for the Job

Which one of these is the absolute best tool to create a social media post that will go viral and help spread ideas across the globe? That really depends on the individual behind the creative process. There are some image sources that are more popular than others and every blogger and social media manager has their favorite editing software. However, that is their favorite and there is no clear consensus on which would be the uncontested winner for best in show.

When it comes to finding the best image, the most useful approach is to have a variety of sources that have the style and quality you are most comfortable with. That way you are not limited by the offerings of one company. If you have a clear image of what you want to create it will be far easier to locate the right visual elements to bring that image to life no matter which curation site you use.

As for transforming an image, quote, or idea into a stunning social media masterpiece, the best editing software will be the one you are most comfortable using. The best method for finding out which one of the services will best fit within your abilities and stylistic preferences is to experiment with the free versions of a variety of options until you find the one that clicks. It is important to also note that preferences may change overtime as your editing abilities and social media design needs increase. Pick what feels most comfortable to you in the moment and be willing to revise as the need arises.

Photo credit: Pexels

Categories
Social Media

Foolproof Ways to Adapt Social Media Content Across Channels

This post was originally published on Sachs Marketing Group.

It may be easy to create a single message to share across your social media channels – but that is far from being an effective way to reach your audience. There are several social networks people use – and all of them have a different “hook” to get their attention. Simply crafting a message and keeping it the same across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others doesn’t cut it if you’re looking to expand engagement and reach. So, how can you make the same general social media content applicable to the networks where you’re trying to build traction?

Adjust the Social Media Content for Each Platform

What works on Facebook isn’t going to perform the same way on Twitter. What works on Twitter won’t work for Pinterest. What works on Pinterest won’t work on LinkedIn, and so on. Whatever the content you have to share may be, it’s best to adjust it according to the style and nature of each network.

Familiarize yourself with the best practices for each social media platform. This way, you know what kind of adjustments to your messages for each of them. When you have something to post, think of the delivery method based on these broad concepts of what each social network responds to the best.

  • Facebook: The most popular social network, with the most brand competition, Facebook strategies are harder to nail. Because you have a bit more freedom with text length – don’t be afraid to share more of a back story or context around a post. Facebook users want entertainment and value.
  • Twitter: Twitter’s audience is there to learn more about what’s going on in the world right now and to connect with others. They want news, tips, how-tos, and interesting articles. Because updates disappear quickly, it’s normal to post the same update more than once, as long as it’s spaced apart, so don’t be afraid that it won’t get seen. And because of the immediacy of the network, it makes an excellent platform for customer service. With more people turning to social media to get an answer from businesses today – it’s a good idea to make use of it.
  • Pinterest: This network is an audience of creatives – combining stunning images with instructions. The more content you can fit into that visual, the better. If you’re venturing into infographics, Pinterest is a great network for this. Create boards built around core topics associated with your business, and expand as you find topics your customers are interested in. Don’t write off Pinterest because you’re worried its core demographic won’t be interested in your brand; plenty of businesses are rocking Pinterest marketing in unconventional ways.
  • Instagram: Like Pinterest, Instagram is a visual network, but you can add video, too. Just make sure when you use it, you’re posting quality images that speak to your brand. Photos shouldn’t look overly staged, and shouldn’t be serious if you’re a funny, lighthearted brand. Use the platform to share experiences. Use hashtags to categorize content, and invite customers to share photos showcasing their experiences with your products or services. Choose the most visually pleasing part of your content, and share that. If you don’t have an image, use a tool like Canva to create one. (It’s great for those of us who lack mad Photoshop skills!)
  • LinkedIn: Focused on business and job listings, this network is best for the B2B market, or those in the B2C market targeting an audience of professionals. You can share articles to your newsfeed, in groups, or the LinkedIn publishing platform. When sharing articles to a group, think about what information would be valuable to that audience. For example, I share articles on digital marketing and SEO to groups of marketing and communications professionals.

General Electric (GE) is a brand that’s over 100 years old, so you’d think they wouldn’t be able to rock social media like they do, but, they’re one of the brands that always stands out. Looking across their social channels, there’s a great mix of content, customized to each network.

On Instagram, for example, GE shows off their technology by using images to create experiences – while showing their engine factories and wind farms. On Twitter, GE focuses on sharing infographics, photos, and reports, designed to educate their audience on science and technology.

On Facebook, GE is more verbose, sharing a mixture of technology, company news, their products in action, and more.

On Pinterest GE has a wide collection of boards, related to all of their technology and products. Plus, they have science information, inside looks at factories, and even funny boards like this one.

In 2014, they took Best Brand on Vine (read the recent announcement about that platform’s demise.) from the Shorty Awards. But, they were also nominated in the Best Fortune 500 Brand on Social Media in the Twitter and Instagram categories.

Online home goods retailer, Wayfair.com customizes their messages for social media based on network quite well. They use Twitter for the immediacy and news focus, sharing seasonal, relevant articles from their own website, as well as from other related publications, like Real Simple.

When you look at their Facebook page, you see the same kind of information, presented in a format better suited for the Facebook audience. The page also includes embedded versions of their Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Wayfair uses Instagram to showcase their products in actual use cases, and uses stunning, visually appealing content – both images and video. This not only promotes what they have to sell, but makes it easy for customers to envision how the products would look in their own homes, and provides guidance for how to style them once they’re purchased.

Wayfair uses Pinterest to organize topics their customers find interesting. And, to keep things fresh, they build promotions around themes to encourage user generated content – like Turkey Day Table Challenge.

Ultimately, GE and Wayfair want to engage and inform their audience regardless of which social platform they use – and they want to sell products. The different strategy with each network still allows them to showcase products in ways that the audience will respond to.

Simply posting the same text/photo to each network at the same time gets stale quick. and doesn’t yield the highest possible return. Match each network for the benefit to customers – use Twitter for customer contact and chatting back and forth. Use other networks for showcasing benefits, contests, and generating buzz. Change headlines and text accordingly.

Keep The Content Visual

It’s no real secret people respond to visual content better than they do plain text. After all, research shows colored visuals increase a person’s willingness to read content by 80%. (That’s why I have so many images in this piece, you know.) While networks like Instagram and Pinterest are built around visual content – don’t forget to factor it into Facebook and LinkedIn, too.

Stock photography is obvious these days, especially where people are featured. It’s okay to use it in a pinch, so long as it’s appropriate. When possible, take your own photos, or if your budget allows, have a photographer do it for you. If you don’t have products or people to feature in photos, create your own.

Avoid Posting Too Many Updates at Once

Even though you should not assume that everyone who follows you on Twitter, also is a Facebook fan, a Pinterest follower, and so on, it’s best to stagger your updates so not too many are posted at once. Posting too often is considered one of the most annoying social media habits, so do what you can to stick to a schedule that’s best for each network.

If there’s time-sensitive information, by all means, post it whenever and wherever you need to, but stick to the varying the content in accordance with the network.

Include a Call to Action

Never assume your audience knows what you want them to do, or that calls to action have no place on social media. Calls to action are helpful to increasing conversion rates. Adding calls to actions on your Facebook page can increase your click through rate by 285%. If you want your social media channel to drive traffic to your website, then tell your audience to visit for more information. You should see a burst in traffic compared to leaving the call to action off – because only a portion of visitors will visit without being “told” to do so.

Create a Social Media Content Calendar

Going into social without a plan is like going to the grocery store without a list. You can do it – but you’re either going to spend too much money, or you’re not going to have anything to show for your trip when you get home.

Planning your updates in advance has a number of benefits:

  • Know what you’re posting and when so you can keep on top of promotions, holidays, and other relevant themes.
  • Schedule updates in advance so your social media content is never quiet. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can help accomplish this for you. Schedule Instagram posts with something like ScheduGram or Latergramme, bearing in mind the whole concept of the network is “instant.”
  • Allows multiple team members to have input on the social media content.

That said, you shouldn’t schedule all your updates. Be available to your customers in real-time when you can, and interact accordingly outside of your scheduled updates.

Start with a spreadsheet that details the message you want to send, with a tab for each network. Include the text of the update, and links to any photo or video assets, and any links to articles/content. It’s also helpful to include the date and time of the post so you know you’re posting at the right intervals and frequency in accordance with your strategy.

You Can Craft Unique Content Without Wasting Too Much Time

Though it may seem like a waste of time to craft individual status updates for each network, having content suited to each platform is the best strategy for your social media marketing. With these tips, the process becomes a bit easier to manage. You’ll develop a streamlined workflow for your social efforts once you determine the best course of action.

Keep an eye on the analytics built into each platform, but also pay attention to what Google Analytics tells you about your social activity. Use this information alongside what you know about your target audience and sales history. Then, when you see patterns in what’s working, stick to it as you refine your social strategy.

Which social channels do you use for your business? How are you finding that varying your content is affecting your engagement? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Photo credit: StockSnap.io, Screenshots from respective brand social media accounts.

Categories
Digital Marketing

8 Ways to Personalize the User Experience Without Being Creepy

Social network concept with smiling young people holding smart phones in front of big white wall.

Since the average attention span has decreased from 12 to just eight seconds – meaning goldfish now can hold attention longer than we humans can, it’s important to take steps to stand out whenever possible. We’re constantly bombarded with information, especially when we’re online – and to cope with that overload, we process things quickly – sometimes at the expense of making connections with our intended audience. Personalizing user experience, despite how creepy it may seem at first, is one of the most effective ways to make that connection.

Let’s look at the types of personalization you can use, the various ways you can create a tailored user experience, and why you want to integrate personalization into your strategy in 2017 and beyond. Personalizing your web experience can help you see an average of 19% higher sales.

 

Ways to Personalize User Experience

  • Individualized Personalization: In this model, each user has their own unique dashboard or options, based on information available about each person. The computer will generate a model of who is person is, and then present different information for each one. For instance, based on the search and purchased history, the computer may determine that someone’s engaged.
  • Role-Based Personalization: In this model, users are grouped together according to the characteristics they share. Target figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before her own father did – based on her browsing and shopping habits. With customer data, they noticed patterns specific to pregnant women – such as the increased consumption of supplements and lotion. Using the trends, they were able to start sending coupons to women throughout various stages of pregnancy.

 

Where the Data Comes From

You cannot personalize anything about the user experience without the data to show you how. Get the data you need from:

  • Customer Purchase History: You should have a system in place to keep track of who is buying what. Use that information to figure out how often they’re buying, how often they’re visiting your website (whether they are making purchases or not), how they got to your website in the first place, and more. This will help you figure out what keeps people coming back, so you can include it in any future strategy.
  • Website Analytics: Google Analytics and other platforms can help you see demographic information about your visitors – such as where they live, their age, gender, and the device they’re using to access your website. You’ll see how people came to your website, what page they came in on, what pages they visited, which page they left on, and how long they were there. This information can help you see which demographic segments find your business the most appealing.
  • Social Media Profiles: If you’ve implemented social login options on your website, you can sometimes see social profile information on your customers. This information can help you learn how to further personalize user experience.

People don’t mind giving information to companies, if that information is used to improve their experience. However, the majority of online users want to know why you’re asking for their information, what information you’re asking for, and how you’re going to use. For best results, keep the customer in control of the information they share, and allow them to revoke that permission should they decide to do so in the future.

According to a global study from Microsoft, The Consumer Data Value Exchange, people want to be rewarded for the information they share with a company. 56% of people are okay with sharing their date of birth and address, and 53% are okay with sharing basic demographics like age, marital status, and gender.

But, 64% expect cash rewards and 49% say they’d expect significant discounts in exchange for the information. 26% of customers are willing to exchange their date for services that help the find new products, ideas, and content, and 29% are okay with the information sharing for an improved streamlined process.

Whatever you do – make sure the data collection remains transparent, respects customer boundaries, and helps add value for the customer.

  1. Use Dynamic Content

As your customers browsing habits provide a wealth of data about them, you can present more targeted content for each visitor. With every page they view, form they fill out, and email they open, you’ll have more information to further fine-tune the content they’re presented with each time they visit you. As they see the changes whenever they take a look at your site, they’ll begin to see how the content is personalized to them, thereby appreciating the effort to make the experience about them.

  1. Make Recommendations

Leading retailers show product recommendations based on browsing and purchase history. This not only helps to personalize user experience individually, but can also help increase revenue. Amazon, for instance, shows products to buy based on past viewing history. But, they take it one step further and show items that are frequently purchased together, as well as related products customers have also bought after buying a product.

You can use a similar recommendation engine that will become increasingly more accurate as customers use your website. Though the data is from 2012, the Amazon recommendation engine helped increase sales by 29%, likely because they’ve integrated recommendations in nearly every part of the purchasing process, even sending out emails with recommendations based on purchase history.

  1. Use Smart Calls-to-Action (CTA)

Smart CTAs know when customers have already viewed the product, so another CTA steps in to replace the original. If you’re getting repeat visits to your ecommerce site, it’s not ideal to offer the same things over and over. If a customer clicks the “Learn More” button, they don’t need to see the same CTA on the second or third visit as they did on the first. If they download a white paper that shows information about your products the first time they come by, they should be getting another offer for more information on subsequent visits or logins. Studies show personalized CTAs convert 42% better than static, so there’s no reason to serve the same old thing to everyone.

  1. Location-Based Personalization

Many online retailers also have mobile apps to complement them, making it easy to reach people while they’re on the go. For instance, with the Kohl’s app, you’ll get special offers via push notifications when you’re near a physical store location. But, not only can you shop in the app whenever you want, you can manage and redeem your Kohl’s Cash and gift cards, as well as your Yes2You Rewards. You can customize the app with store mode to choose your local Kohl’s, check prices, see related items, and search store inventory. If you place an order within the Kohl’s app while at the Kohl’s store, you’ll even get free shipping.

But this works in other ways, too. If your customer is at the gym, your mobile app can offer them a special deal on protein bars from the store that’s around the corner, or a heart rate monitor.

Location personalization is available on desktop websites, as well, with retailers like T-Mobile asking permission to get your location data so they can show you deals available in your area, as well as the closest store locations.

  1. Personalize Your Emails

A 2013 report revealed personalized emails generate an average of 600% more revenue than non-personalized emails. But, surprisingly, 70% of brands aren’t personalizing email. Personalized email, at the very least featuring the recipient’s name in the subject, can help improve your brand impression.

Email personalization also improved unique open rates by 29%, and unique click through rates by 41%. Personalized subject lines got 26% higher open rates overall, with travel industry emails getting the biggest boost as a result of the tactic.

  1. Make it Social

If you offer social login, social sharing, and social invitations, you can merge social media platforms with your website experience. Amazon makes it easy to share your purchases with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and via email. You can do the same thing, because when people are really excited a purchase, they’re likely to share it with their friends. And when the purchase gets shared with the network, there’s a chance at least one, if not more of those friends will click through to learn more about the product. There’s also a chance that at least one of those click throughs will translate to a purchase. A purchase that likely would not have happened without the social share.

  1. Personalize Your Loyalty Program

70% of customers won’t sign up for your loyalty program because it is inconvenient to do so, and takes too much time. 72% of them would be more likely to sign up for the program if the process was simplified with text messaging. 80% of Generation Z is willing to sign up for a loyalty program to get deals and discounts in exchange, though 33% of Millennials say they don’t like rewards programs because there are too many cards to carry.

To increase participation in your program, personalize the offers to the buyer’s shopping habits. It does no good to offer a loyal customer a 25% discount on books, if he shops at your store for tools.

  1. Personalized Live Chat

Your customers are humans, just like you. I know you hate dealing with automated systems as much as I do. Why would you think your customers are different? And why would you think being treated like a number online is any different than dealing with automated phone system? Software can help you engage with your website visitors in real-time, helping them get to the products and services they’re looking for, and impressing them with your top-notch customer service.

Human to human contact generally makes a better experience anyway, but personalizing the experience takes it to the next level. Users should enter their contact information or be invited to register with social login. This will ensure your customer service team has relevant information on hand to personalize the experience.

Personalization vs. Customization

Personalization is not the same thing as customization. Personalization is done on the system side, based on developers and the way users are identified. It can be done at the individual level, or at the group level.

The users themselves, handle customization, when the system allows. This allows them to make the changes they want to improve their experience, such as adjusting the layout, or choosing specific topics of interest. Many online retailers make it possible to choose the number of products to view on a page, or to sort the products in a number of ways, such as alphabetically, or by price.

Why Personalize User Experience?

As a business, the goal of personalization is to make sure your content and functionality matches your users needs, with no effort from the users themselves. Your system will profile the user and make adjustments to the interface accordingly. This will emphasize or restrict information based on the user’s profile, creating a unique experience. You can also use customization to enhance the user experience, but neither personalization nor customization can fix a broken site.

If you don’t have quality content that captures user interest, then it doesn’t matter how you use personalization or customization. Instead, the solution will lie in changing the site structure or the way the content is presented. Once that’s fixed, you can move into personalization and customization options to improve the experience. Start with personalization because it doesn’t require the user to do any work – and then give users the option to customize their experience based on their preferences. Remember, users will have to invest time in setting everything up to their specifications.

How do you feel about personalization and customization, both as a business owner and an internet user? Tell me below.

Photo credit: iStock

Categories
Uncategorized

Decoding Search Engine Speak: Friendly vs. Optimized

This post was originally published on Sachs Marketing Group.

In online marketing, a lot of terms are thrown around. Some are easier to understand than others, and some are used interchangeably, when they don’t mean the same thing. In search engine optimization (SEO), there are two common phrases – search engine friendly and search engine optimized – that are often used in place of each other, but have two similar, yet different meanings.

Whether you’re hiring an agency like Sachs Marketing Group, or looking to handle your SEO efforts on your own – it’s important you understand what both of these terms mean, and how to make both of them work as part of your strategy.

 

What is Search Engine Friendly?

Search engine friendly, or SEF, refers to building your website on a solid foundation that makes it easy for the search engines to read the code and crawl it for optimal indexing. It focuses on:

Website construction: Today, many content management systems (CMS), including WordPress, are built as search engine friendly solutions. This keeps your most important elements in HTML format, and avoids using Flash, Java applets, and other non-text elements. Non-text elements are generally either devalued, or worse, ignored completely, by the robot crawlers in charge of discovering and indexing your website.

Each page having unique content: This focuses on keeping all pages uniquely named, and structured, to avoid potentially confusing search engines. Each page will have unique content, whether it’s a just a paragraph or two, or thousands of words, depending on the needs and context of the page.

Title and description tags: SEF makes sure that unique title and description tags are used on each page, relevant to the content on each of those pages.

Readable URLs: The search engines clearly need to see the content to list the pages in their database, but they must also be able to see the links to find the content to begin with. That’s why a crawlable link structure is vital. Many websites structure their navigation in way that the bots cannot access, thus making it harder for those pages to be listed in the index.

What kinds of things can stop the search engines from being able to read a link?

  • Submission-required forms: If users must complete an online form before getting access to certain content, then the search engines are likely never see those pages. For some purposes, this is okay, because you don’t necessarily want those pages indexed.
  • Unparsable JavaScript: If you’re using JavaScript for your links, the search engines will either give them little weight, or ignore them all together. If you want them to be crawled, replace the JavaScript links with a standard HTML structure.
  • txt: This file allows you to restrict the files on your website you want the crawlers to access. If there are pages on your website that link to pages that are blocked by either the robots.txt or meta robots tag, those links won’t be counted, since the robots stop their crawl when they reach the information.
  • Relying on search boxes: While you should have a search box on your website to make it easier for your users to find information they’re looking for, you cannot assume the search engine bots will use it to find everything on your site.
  • Links embedded in plug-ins: The bots focus on text, so any links that are embedded within Java, Flash, or other plugins won’t get seen, crawled, and indexed, thus never allowing users to find them with a query.
  • Links on pages with hundreds (or more) links: The search engine bots will only crawl so many links on a page. They do this to avoid spam and keep rankings as user-friendly as possible. If you have a page with hundreds or thousands of links, you likely won’t see all of them crawled and indexed.
  • Frames/iFrames: Links in both are crawable, but the structure makes it difficult for the bots to organize and follow. Unless you’re a highly skilled developer who understands how the bots index and follow links embedded in frames, avoid them.

Canonical tags: Canonical tags are similar to a 301 redirect, but rather than actually redirecting visitors to a new URL, you’re just telling the search engines that multiple pages should be considered one. The 301 redirect sends all traffic, whether humans or bots, to the unique URL, and offers a much stronger signal that multiple pages have a single source, and can be used across domains, whereas the canonical tag cannot.

Current algorithm guidelines: SEF platforms should adhere to most of the currently published search engine algorithms. Many of the guidelines in use today were established years ago and are easily implemented at the code base.

SEF is a one-time process, done when a website is first setup. Of course, there are hundreds of elements involved, but once you’ve built a search engine friendly website, there is not much more for you to do. There’s always a chance that you’ll have to do something later, if there’s some kind of forced change to the system you’re using, but after you’re done, you’re pretty much done for good.

If you want to get an idea of how Google’s indexing bots see your website – look at the cached version of your website using a tool like Cached View. Compare that view to how your website looks in the browser, and you’ll see what is indexable. The Google bots crawl the web and take snapshots of each page to store for backup purposes, should a page not be available. If your site ever goes down temporarily, you can still access it with the cache. However, the cache may take a few days to update. It depends on how often your website is updated.

 

What is Search Engine Optimized?

Search engine optimized (SEO) is an ongoing process, as more content gets added to your site on a regular basis. There will always be more keywords to rank for, additional content to create, more links to go after and get, better rankings to achieve, more traffic to bring in, more conversions to get. It will never be done. It focuses on:

  • Site messaging: Rather than treating text as a placeholder on each page, optimization focuses on using keywords appropriately to signal to the search engines the page is on topic, but also on delivering the right message to the audience.
  • Optimizing content for rankings and conversions: This includes the use of keywords, but also calls to action, and ultimately relevant creating content that site visitors find useful and helpful.
  • Optimizing title and descriptions to drive clickthroughs: This process uses keywords appropriately to encourage users to click through the link to the actual page. These are built to match the users need and intent.
  • Eliminating issues with duplicate content: Optimized sites go beyond the bandaid fixes of simply directing the search engines to the correct content. It will, with the help of the CMS and as far as it will allow it to go, completely eliminate duplicate content issues all together, rather than sending the signals you have to hope the bots will follow.
  • Future algorithm guidelines: An optimized site, on the other hand, will consider more than what the search engines are looking at today. By focusing on the future, staying ahead of things like the spam filters, and providing real valuable content for visitors, optimized sites go beyond quick-fix loophole solutions designed to earn rankings. Any time there is a major algorithm change, we see a number of sites get hit hard, that spend months, if not years, recovering to build them again. If your site survives a major algorithm change like Panda, with little to no negative change in ranking, then you know you’re on the right track.

Because your website is never completely and fully optimized, there are a number of tools available to help you see how you’re doing in terms of ranking for keywords and the number of backlinks you have.

 

Using Both to Create a Stellar Web Experience

You can’t have SEO without SEF. If the foundation of your website isn’t built with the search engines in mind, there’s zero sense in optimizing your content for them. Start with a basic structure like something you’d find in WordPress, that’s built to be SEF. Then, move on to the various stages of optimization, according to the needs of your website.

If you’ve already established a website, and you’re not sure how well it fits the definition of friendly, or optimized, it’s time to do an audit. It will help you see the changes you need to make to improve your website, and then guide you through the process.

Begin defining goals. Check your Google Analytics and look at what the data has to offer. If you haven’t already, sign up for Webmaster Tools to get additional data Analytics doesn’t offer.

After this – it’s time to start the audit process:

  • Website crawl: Check in Google to see what they see compared to what’s actually on your website. In the Google search box, type: “site:http://www.yourdomain.com”. You can use a tool like Screaming Frog to get a deeper crawl and export everything into a spreadsheet so you can analyze your website’s current state. From there, you’ll see more information about page errors, links, and more.
  • Site Speed: Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to see how quickly your website loads on mobile and desktop. Pingdom can also help you see where the issues with site speed are, and how to fix them.
  • Domain: Checking both the www. and non www. versions of the domain in tools like org and whois.com can give you an idea of what the site used to look like, whether or not there were subdomains, and more, to help you see the kind of domain authority you’ve built up, based on what it was used for in the past.
  • Website information: Check the site with BuiltWith to learn more about what the site was built with, if you don’t already know for sure. This lets you know whether you’re on the right track with the platform you’ve built the site on.
  • Site structure/architecture: How many clicks does it take the user to get to where they need to go? Is there anything you can do to improve the process, thus improving usability? Is everything logically organized? If not, take steps to organize it accordingly.
  • File and URL names: Is everything readable for the visitor? Everything after the # in a URL Google ignores, so keep this in mind.
  • Key performance indicators (KPIs): Are there KPIs in place? Goals, engagement, sales, ranking, domain authority – whatever they may be, these are vital to know so you can work on making improvements in the order of priority.
  • Keywords: What keywords are you targeting? Which keywords are you ranking for? Use tools like SEM Rush to get some keyword insight. You may discover keywords that are easier to rank for because there are fewer overall results and less competition. With the keyword information in mind, move onto content adjustments.
  • Content: Adjust if necessary to be sure the keywords are used appropriately in the tags, on-page content. If written for the search engines rather than visitors, look for ways you can edit the content to provide real value to your reader.
  • Duplicate Content: Copyscape is a great tool for finding variations of your website’s content. Though you can also search for your content with quotes around it in Google, it’s a bit more of a painstaking process. When you find it, use canonical tags or 301 redirects to fix the issue as necessary.
  • Meta: Check meta tags and descriptions, for character length and proper descriptions. Keep titles limited to 70 characters, and descriptions limited to 160.
  • Images: Check to make sure there are no broken links to the actual image files. Check to make sure all images are properly compressed. If not, use tools like PicResize and TinyJPG to compress them for faster load time. Check ALT tags for optimal descriptions. Check image links – WordPress automatically links to the image file – and you may or may not want this based on whether or not the images will be useful in the search results.
  • Forms: Are your forms properly setup and operational? These are often necessary for conversion rates.
  • Links: Check all links on the site – internally and externally. Check for optimal structure, and make sure none are broken.
  • Social Signals: Do you have social profiles attached to the website? If not, get to work. Social signals play a role in overall ranking, so it’s critical to develop a social presence in the places where your audience is active.
  • Citations: If you’re a local business, citations in reviews and directories are important. Check for and claim listings in Google My Business, Yelp. TripAdvisor, and more.

 

SEF and SEO Create Magic

When you start with an SEF website structure, then build and optimize everything else, you’ll be well on your way to great rankings.

Have something else to add? Share it in the comments.

Photo credit: Adobe Stock

Categories
SEO

Local SEO Tactics for Brick and Mortar Businesses

This post was originally published on Sachs Marketing Group.

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business that serves one or more local areas, the traditional search engine optimization (SEO) approach won’t deliver the same impactful results you’d see if you were marketing on a national level. By making use of geographical keywords, local SEO, you’re alerting search engines to the fact that your business is relevant to local results, but you’re also decreasing your overall competition, since fewer businesses are competing for the same keywords within a certain radius of your city or town.

 

Begin with Keyword Research

Think about the words and phrases your customers are using to search for you. This is the beginning of keyword research. Using a tool like Keyword Tool or Google Keyword Tool, you can start with a basic phrase like, “roofer San Diego California” and get a list search volume and similar keywords you may wish to consider using in your optimization efforts.

Now, choose the keywords you’re most interested in using, and search them in Google yourself to determine what kind of competition you’re up against. Say for example you select:

  1. San Diego roofing: 577,000 results
  2. San Diego roofing companies: 865,000 results
  3. San Diego roof repair: 928,000 results

You can clearly see which one of the phrases will be harder to rank for just because of the number of results.

If you want to take it one step further, you can take note of the top 10 to 20 organic results for each of the phrases you’re targeting, so you can analyze the competition’s backlink profile. This can help you see who’s linking to them, so you can try to get links from those sources as well, and assist you in knowing how many links you should be aiming to get to outrank them. Beyond the number of backlinks, you’ll also want to pay attention to the number of pages and the length of the content on each of those pages so you can make your website a more comprehensive resource.

 

Optimize Your Website and Content – On Page SEO

  • Site Structure: Keep your site organized in a clear, easy-to-understand hierarchy. Build out logically from your home page.
  • Home Page: This may be the only page visitors ever look at – so make it count. Include all important pages – products, services, locations, and more – are visible with easy navigation.
  • Locations: If your business has more than one location, have a dedicated page for each location. This gives you a chance to provide location-specific information searchers are looking for.
  • Content: Your content should be written for users first, and search engines second. You want to naturally weave the keywords in the content as you describe the intention of the page. If your competition doesn’t have a blog, consider adding one to your website where you can add more valuable content for your readers, and include additional relevant keywords to help increase your ranking. For instance, your blog could include topics like: “How to Choose the Right Roofing Material for Your Home”, “When is the Best Time to Re-Do Your Roof?”, and “How Much Does a New Roof Add to My Home’s Resale Value?”
  • Meta Descriptions and Title Tags: The meta description is the small space underneath your link in search results. It’s a place to advertise why users should choose to click your link compared to the others on the page. It should explain what the page is about. Both are excellent places for keywords, along with your city and state.
  • Images: Images should be optimized for quality and speed, and include a descriptive ALT tag with keywords for web accessibility.
  • Page Load Time: The faster your page loads, the better. 47% of users expect a webpage to load in two seconds or less, and 40% of people will leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load. A one-second delay in page load time could decrease conversion rates by 7%. If you sell $1,000 a day, that’s a loss of $25,000 per year. Page load time is a search ranking factor worth paying attention to. If you find that your page is loading slowly, Google Webmaster Tools has advice to help you improve it. The search console can also provide other guidelines and advice about how to ensure your website is properly optimized.
  • Mobile Responsive: In April 2015, Google added mobile-friendliness as a search ranking factor, as mobile traffic becomes increasingly more common than desktop traffic. Working mobile responsiveness into your website design is as simple as choosing a responsive WordPress theme, or adding a responsive plugin.

 

Social Media and Link Building – Off Page SEO

  • List Your Business in Google My Business: Google My Business, formerly known as Google Places, is a directory that allows you get your business hours, phone numbers, and directions on Google Search and Maps. It allows you to keep your business information accurate, and controls how you appear in the results. Pay attention to how you list your name, address, and phone number here, as you should list it the exact same way in every site for the next step.
  • Create or Claim Listings on Review Sites and in Local Directories: Think about Yelp, TripAdvisor, Bing, Yahoo, YellowPages, Angie’s List, and any other niche specific options like Porch, Houzz, and Zomato. However you listed your business with Google, should be how you list your business in all of these.
  • Ask Customers for Genuine Reviews: Never use false reviews. User-generated content like customer reviews helps build trust and credibility in the eyes of your prospective customers, and the search engines alike. 92% of customers read online reviews, so your reputation matters.
  • Optimize Your Social Media Profiles: Include your business information and a URL back to your own website on all of your social profiles, keeping them consistent from one platform to the next. Ensure your Facebook page is categorized as a local business. Encourage your patrons to check in so you increase the chance of appearing in the Facebook search results, and claim any Facebook Place pages that were created as a result of people checking it and not being able to find our business. This allows you to get credit for all the likes and check-ins.

 

Make Consistent Effort

You’re not going to jump from the bottom to the top overnight. It is only through consistent effort, and working on these tactics a little a time that you’ll see results. Watch your analytics and use SEO tools to track ranking over time.

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

Do you have any local SEO techniques that you’ve seen work well recently?  If so, please share ’em in the comments section below.  Thanks!

Categories
Social Media

Top Annoying Social Media Habits to Avoid

This post was originally published on Sachs Marketing Group.

These days, having a stellar social presence is essential for online business growth, but simply creating profiles, getting followers, and posting whatever you want, whenever you want, isn’t enough to get there. There must be strategy, of course, but even when you operate within a strategy, there are a few things you can still get wrong. These are the top annoying social media habits I’ve seen brands committing regularly across social media – and I’m here to tell you to stop, right now. Even if you think you’re doing your brand some good, believe me, you’re not.

Posting Information Without Fact-Checking

If there’s ever a place full of misinformation that looks real, it’s social media. Tons of memes are floating around with false data, contributing to the dumbing-down of our society. If you see anything you think may be worth sharing to your audience, do everyone a favor and fact check it first. One of the best places to check is Snopes – but you can always go to Google, too. If people figure out the falsehood of what you’ve posted, you’ve knocked your credibility down a notch, and possibly lost a follower or two… maybe more.

Posting All.The.Time.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a real thing online, and that’s why we see teenagers posting everything from what they ate for breakfast to the movie they’re watching right now. You may think that because you have to compete with everyone else out there, the best way to do that is to post all the time. But, if you fill your audience feed too much, they’ll start to ignore whatever it is you’re saying, or worse yet, unfollow you all together.

There are many studies on the best time to post on social media to guide your efforts. On Facebook, the data shows:

  • Sunday: 32% higher engagement
  • Thursday: 18% higher engagement
  • Friday: 18% higher engagement
  • Saturday: 32% higher engagement
  • 1 pm: Get the most shares
  • 3 pm: Get the most clicks

On Twitter, however, it looks a bit different:

  • Wednesday is the best day to tweet.
  • The best times are 12 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm.

Posting on Wednesday and noon and between 5 and 6 pm is optimal, though to increase retweets and clickthroughs, you can also tweet right at noon and 3pm. You can safely experiment with 2-3 am, 6-7am, and 9-10 pm.

Use Pinterest? Take a look at this:

  • Sunday: Best for Food
  • Monday: Best for Fitness
  • Tuesday: Best for Gadgets
  • Wednesday: Best for Quotes
  • Thursday: Best for Outfits
  • Friday: Best for GIFs
  • Saturday: Best for Travel

The best times to in are 2 pm, 9 pm, and 2 am. Avoid Pinterest during work hours, and for best results, include a call to action, and try to match the best topics of the day.

The data for LinkedIn shows the best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The best times to post are between 7 and 8 am, noon, and 5 and 6pm.

The data for Google+ shows you should avoid posting in the early morning or late evening. The best time to post is between 9 am and 11am, or between noon and 1 pm, especially on Wednesdays. The majority of people there are lurkers and will not interact with what you post.

The data for Instagram shows people are engaged throughout the week, but Mondays and Thursday tend to get a bit more attention. Avoid posting between 3 and 4 pm on those days. Videos do best every day between the hours of 9 pm and 8 am. Generally speaking, the best times to post to Instagram are between 8 am and 9am, 2 am, and 5 pm.

Factoring in time zones sounds complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Half of Americans live in the eastern time zone, and when you add the central time zone, you’re accounting for 80% of the population.

So, now that we have the best times to post for optimum reach and exposure, that still doesn’t answer the question about how often you should post to your business accounts. And just like each network has ideal times, each network has ideal frequencies.

Conventional wisdom says you should post to Facebook twice a day, but this only works if you have a following of 10,000 or more. Posting twice a day with a smaller audience translates to 50% fewer clicks per post. Those with less can post one to five times a month and see clicks per post double.

In terms of Twitter, there’s no clear cut answer, because it depends on your goals, according to this study. If you want to want to get the best engagement from each tweet, then stick to one to five tweets per day, but if you want to get more responses overall, tweet as much as you want… with up to 50 times a day having no negative effect on your account.

For Instagram, it’s not the frequency, but the consistency that matters. You can start posting multiple times a day, even up to 15-20x a day on your account without negative effects, but setting that standard means you have to do it consistently. Changing to posting just a few times a week will translate to lost followers and less engagement for each post.

For Pinterest, post between four and 10 times a day to get maximum engagement, but some studies show pinning up to 30 times a day is okay for brands with lots of content.

And while we’re at it – let me take a second to say – don’t post to your social profiles apologizing for a lack of posts recently. It’s pointless – and because posting more often doesn’t really offer any benefit, just jump back in to posting regularly. Take time to curate some content and get it queued up and ready to go so you can avoid gaps in the future.

Constant Self-Promotion

People don’t use social media to be sold to constantly. Yes, they use it to discover new products and services, but they want do so on their own terms. Constantly tooting your own horn will lead to followers ignoring you, or completely unfollowing you all together. Some self-promotion is okay, but focus on providing content that educates, entertains, and informs. “Interesting” content ranks as one of the top three reasons people choose to follow a brand on social media. If you’re creating interesting and useful content, getting that content in front of the right eyes, the rest will fall in line.

There’s no real hard and fast rule about how much of your social content should be about your brand, but the consensus seems to be to apply the 80/20 rule. This means only 20% of your social content should be about your brand, and the rest of it should be focused on building relationships with your followers.

Automated Messaging

The automated direct message on Twitter, to say “Thanks for the follow!” or “Check out my new…” may seem like a good idea to connect with followers who catch you when you’re offline, but really, it defeats the purpose of social media. Social media is a platform, regardless of which channel you use, to connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to meet… on a personal level. The automated message approach is highly impersonal, and can turn off new followers.

Informal Posting

Social media is fun to use among friends and family for your personal account, but it is fast becoming a powerful professional tool, and should be treated as such. It needs to be considered a conversation with a client you’ve known for a while. It’s okay to be conversational and casual, but don’t use that as a reason to be informal. You still want to show respect and leave an impression. TyPiNg Lik DiS, Or This, OR THIS, won’t do that.

Hopping on All the Trends

If you see something trending, your instinct may to be jump on the train and get in on the action. After all, if it’s tending, thousands of people are talking about it, so you’d get massive exposure outside of your current audience, right? Before you jump on that hashtag, do some research.

What’s the hashtag really about? In 2014, well-known pizza brand, DiGiorno taught the world a valuable lesson about hopping on trends without doing due diligence first. The brand jumped on the “#WhyIStayed” hashtag, with what ended up being an offensive tweet. The hashtag was actually in response to Janay Rice’s decision to stay with NFL player Ray Rice, after he’d committed acts of domestic violence against her. Thousands of women used the hashtag to share their stories, and DiGornio didn’t take 10 seconds to figure out what the hashtag was about before tweeting. As soon as they realized their error, they deleted the tweet and began issuing apologies.

Is the hashtag relevant to your business? If not, skip the trend. You don’t need to waste time talking about anything and everything. It could confuse your audience, and especially any new or recent followers.

Buying Likes and Followers

Okay, so this one should be dead obvious, and many of us know better. And yet, there are still countless services out there offering to get you likes and followers on any number of social media networks for a fee. It can be really tempting for an unsuspecting business owner to get a start that way, because they’re worried about having high numbers to make themselves look good.

The problem with this approach is – number one, these followers and fans are likely just spam accounts – up to 11.2% of Facebook accounts are. If they are actual user accounts, chances are they’re not targeted users, even if the service says they are. So, you end up with hundreds, if not thousands of followers who don’t give a flying hoot about what your business and what you have to offer.

Your business is far better served by 50 followers who are actively engaged in what you have to say and genuinely interested in your product – part of your target audience – than it is with 500 random people. Social isn’t a numbers game, no matter how much it looks like it. Quality over quantity is definitely true here.

Excessive Use of Hashtags

Hashtags are used on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as a way to categorizing information, curating content, and ultimately, reach a specific audience. Two to four hashtags is best – two for twitter, and more for Instagram where the image could easily appeal to a wider audience. Keep it simple, and don’t make up crazy ones.

Syncing Cross Posts

You think, “Hey, this is a good update for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, so I’ll just save time and sync them all to each platform automatically.” It sounds good in theory, but take the time to do it manually. Each network has its own style and the audience expects content to be delivered in a certain way. When you automate the process from one network to another – you’re sending the message that you’re lazy… and followers on all platforms see the same thing over and over.

Ignoring Requests from Your Audience

When someone sends you a message on social media, don’t ignore it. Do what you can to respond as soon as possible. 32% of customers expect a response within 30 minutes, while 42% expect a response within an hour. Think that’s rough? 57% of them expect the same response time outside of normal business hours, including nights and weekends. If you need to, have a team of people who can respond quickly. It’s okay not to be on top of things all the time, but make sure to include response time into your schedule so your audience can see you’re paying attention. One study found failing to respond to customers on social channels can lead to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers.

Putting it All Together to Create a Solid Social Strategy

Pay attention to your audience analytics on social media channels to see when your audience is most active. Use that data to determine the types of posts and topics they share and respond to the most. Focus less on how much you post, how many followers and fans you have, the hashtags you add to the content, and more on providing quality content, and responding to your audience. Remember your goals, and make sure everything you post fits into helping you accomplish them.

What other social media habits do you find annoying? Share them with me below.

Photo credit: iStock

  • Gotta have more cowbell?

    Sign-up receive 10 MORE annoying social media habits to avoid.

Categories
Digital Marketing

Set Yourself Up for Success in 2017 by Conducting an EOY Analysis Now

The holidays are a busy time of year for us, but the end of the year (EOY) is an excellent time to stop and evaluate your business progress. What you choose to include in yours will depend highly on your niche, products and service, and goals. But, no matter what you choose to include, the purpose is to analyze progress, look for bottlenecks, and locate any time sucks that took away from your productivity, so you can adjust your strategy to make for an even better 2017.

If you’re a small business (yes, even solopreneurs out there) I know you’re stretched thin, running low on time. It’s the holidays, and it’s a stressful time for everyone. It may seem like this is a waste of time – and the goal of this exercise, at least in part is to identify the places you’re wasting time – so you can just skip it, right?

Wrong. Taking the week off – shutting down the business – to collect and analyze your current state and progress compared to last year, or even last quarter, can make it easier for you grow your business in the next year, simply because you can create an informed plan of action.

 

What Can You Include in a EOY Analysis?

It’s a good idea to make your EOY analysis as comprehensive as possible. If you’re digging deep into data and crunching numbers, you may as well go over everything from your financials, to the day to day operations of the business to make sure you’ve covered all bases.

 

Financial

Take a look at your financial documents and statements for the year. If you have an accountant, ask them to go over everything with you to give you a clearer picture of where your business is going.

If you don’t have an accountant, go to your accounts and gather your bank statements. If you use something like PayPal or Quickbooks, then you’ll have a quick profit and loss statement you can use to see where you are.

As you look over your finances, pay close attention to your expenses, and where they are coming from. Are you spending a lot of money on office supplies? Could you find a new vendor to save money next year? Are you spending too much on marketing? Can you reallocate funds to the marketing methods you know are working, away from those that aren’t, so you can at least get a higher return on investment?

What was your profit this year? If you didn’t make any profit this year, what are you projected to do next year? What steps can you take to improve it? Some of the answers may not be clear until you’ve gotten a little further in your analysis, so at least keep note of how much money you’ve spent on the various areas of your business. As you move through the analysis, you can decide if those investments were worth it.

 

Website Traffic

With the financial numbers out of the way, it’s time to start looking at the website traffic numbers. If you’re not already pulling together an end-of-month report, it may be worth it t put it on the list of things to do in 2017 so that next year’s EOY analysis is a little easier to do.

Login to your Google Analytics account. Set the dates on the top right hand side of your screen to January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016… or whatever the date you’re doing your EOY analysis on that’s closest to the 31st.

This presents you with a full view of your website’s activity for the entire year. You can change the appearance of the graph by clicking on on various options below the date box, including hourly, day, week, or month. These can help depending on the metric you’re looking at.

Key numbers to consider as you’re reviewing your EOY website activity for your business analysis include:

  • Audience Overview: This is the default report you’ll see after you adjust your dates/. This can help you see trends and spot the times of the year that are harder for you to get the kind of traffic you’re used to – which is especially helpful if you’re a seasonal business and some of these things are to be expected. Compare this report to the previous year to see if you’ve grown, and by how much.
  • Site Content: This helps you see what was most popular on your site overall, not just on the blog like you’ll see on the content drilldown report. With it, you’ll be able to see which products or services you offer got the most response, letting you know which services or product lines you may want to consider expanding upon or nixing all together in 2017.
  • Content Drilldown: This will tell you which blog posts were most popular, along with the most popular categories on your website. Create a compiled list of all your blog posts over the year so you can see which ones were clear winners. Though you may have an idea of what your best performing pieces were, the real data may surprise you. When you know what the most popular content is, you can use it to craft a winning strategy for 2017.
  • Social Referrals: This lets you know which social media networks are driving the most traffic to your website. It’s highly possible your traffic isn’t coming from the places you’d expect. It’s not uncommon to find out an outlier, such as a link from anther blog or website that you didn’t even know existed. If you find this to be the case, tweet or shout on Facebook to thank the linking site and share the love with your audience.
  • Page views vs. Social Ad Campaigns: If you’re doing any kind of advertising on a social media platform, your traffic will likely spike up and down, depending on whether or not your campaign is running, and at what capacity. Changes in traffic are okay as long as you can explain why they happened. Some companies will run a campaign all the time to keep analytics and page views from plummeting, but that’s not always an option for businesses on a tight budget. Likely, the more your spending on your campaign, the more exposure you’ll get t and the more traffic you’ll see as a result. But, if you have to stop the campaign, it’s okay to see a dip in traffic because not as many people are seeing your ads and clicking on them.
  • Goal Completions: If you’ve setup your goals in Google Analytics, good job! Look at this report to see how well you were able to meet those goals from month to month. If you met it some months, but didn’t others, what could have influenced that change? If you didn’t setup goals in Analytics, that’s okay, too, but I recommend you do it as soon as you determine what your new goals are, so you can track them with ease in 2017.

 

Social Media

Open all the social media platforms you’re active on, and look at their built-in analytics data. See how you’re doing in terms of follower growth, of course, but realize it’s not necessarily the best indicator of success. What you really want to see is engagement – shares, comments, and likes. But, it’s never a bad idea to have an overview report that looks at:

  • Follower growth
  • Influencers that are following you
  • The number of posts you’ve published
  • The reach rate – how many people saw your posts, either organically or because you were advertising
  • Total engagement
  • Engagement per post – how many people were liking, sharing, commenting on each post, on average?
  • Engagement per follower – are all your followers engaging with you, or is just coming fro a select few of really dedicated fans?
  • Number of clicks – how many people are clicking away from your social media channels to your website?
  • Which network is bringing the most traffic to your website? You’ll be able to find this in the Google Analytics referral report.

If you use social media scheduling tools like Buffer, some paid plans feature analytics data to make it easier to create reports, but you can get all the information you need from Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics.

 

Reflections on 2016

With all the information you’ve compiled on where you spent money and how much money came in, it’s time to reflect to see what you did well, and where you could make improvements. Some considerations include:

  • Did I hire too many employees too soon? Did I make a mistake by not hiring more employees?
  • Am I ready for employees? Could my business do better using independent contractors to remove some of my liability?
  • What areas did I excel the most in?
  • What areas do I need help in? How can I get that help? Do I need to hire a consultant, or can I do it on my own?
  • Where did my most valuable customers come from?
  • Where did my least valuable customers come from?
  • What kind of money did I pay out to vendors? Are there any vendors or services I no longer need? Can I renegotiate service contracts to save money?
  • What marketing channels worked the best? How can I keep that momentum going?
  • What marketing channels didn’t work as well as I expected? Is there anything I can do to improve their performance, or should I scrap the channels?
  • What kind of content performed well on my website? How can I maximize that type of content for my editorial calendar next year?
  • What kind of content didn’t do so well? Why didn’t it do well? Can it be edited and improved upon, or should it be scrapped?
  • What have I learned?
  • What have I accomplished?
  • What mistakes were made?
  • What obstacles did I face?

 

Planning for 2017

  • How much profit do I want to make this year?
  • How much more money do I need to invest in my business? Where should I invest it for the best possible return?
  • What social media platforms do I want to focus my efforts on? Are there any I should give up on completely? Do I want to try to everything organically or invest in advertising? How much do I want to invest in advertising?
  • What will my social media calendar look like this year?
  • What will my editorial calendar look like this year?
  • Are there any events I can market myself with?
  • Are there any new programs or initiatives for small businesses in my area or my niche that could help me grow this year?
  • What tasks can I eliminate or consolidate to improve my workflow, saving time and money?
  • What are my goals for this year?
  • What can I do throughout the year to make the 2017 EOY analysis process go smoother?

Using the answers to the questions during your reflections on the year, you can now begin to put together the start of a plan for 2017. At this point, you should have a good idea of what your budget looks like, where you’ll need to spend money, where you can save money, and where you can shift money around to get a higher return on your investments.

Do you conduct any kind of EOY analysis for your business? What do you include?

Photo credit: iStock

Exit mobile version