What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPC

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO |What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPCDid you know that a staggering three quarters of internet users don’t click past the first page of search results on Google? This is the reason why search engine optimization, or SEO, has been and still is a dominating force in the world of digital marketing. However, while SEO is arguably the most important factor to consider, it is not the only factor that is going to help you maximize your online sales. SEO can and should be combined with both SEM and PPC for optimal results.

Here is what you need to know about all three.

SEO

SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your company’s website for search engines. In other words, the ultimate goal of a good search engine optimization strategy is to rank higher in search results, something that MackMedia can help you to ascertain. SEO is comprised of both on-page and off-page factors. On page factors refer to those aspects of SEO that you can control on your own website, including metadata, user experience (UX), keywords, alt tags, and internal linking. Off-page SEO refers to the aspects of SEO that happen off of your website, but have a direct effect on your website’s rankings. Off page factors include backlinks, domain authority, and social promotion.

PPC

PPC refers to pay per click advertising via search engines. Essentially, you decide on a budget for your campaign and create ads that display on Google or on various social media platforms (most platforms have their own PPC tools and procedures). You only pay a specified amount if and when someone clicks on your ad. Generally, the ad directs the person to your website and drives a specific CTA, often resulting in a conversion or at least commencing/progressing the buyer’s journey. You have the power to set a specific budget per day and/or per month so that it is impossible to overspend.

Many business owners put more effort into PPC because it promises immediate results and automatically takes their ad to the top of the Google search results. Many also opt to make use of PPC because they believe that it positively affects their organic rankings. However, this is a myth. No matter how much you spend on PPC advertising, it will not alter your organic rankings in any way.

SEM

SEM is short for search engine marketing and it is very similar to PPC. Most experts will tell you that PPC is a large part of SEM, but that SEM extends further than just PPC itself. While PPC is generally more focused on paid advertising via search engines, SEM is focused on paid advertising across the digital board, including on third party websites like online directories, Amazon, and YouTube.

At the end of the day, a great digital marketing strategy will encompass SEO, SEM, and PPC in order to generate maximum results and maximum brand awareness. Not sure how to get started? It is always a good idea to consider hiring a professional digital marketing company for assistance if you do not feel secure enough in your own skills. That way, you can reap all of the rewards without having to put in the extra effort.

How to Advertise Your Business to Generation Z

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Generation Z|How to Advertise Your Business to Generation ZMove over Millennials, because Generation Z is here. These new kids on the block are slowly but surely leaving college, getting jobs, earning their own wages, and taking control of all the world’s buying power.

Gen Z is set to have the buying power in the palms of their hands for at least the next ten years, so if your business is to survive throughout the ‘20s, you’re going to have to consistently find a way to appeal to this young audience. To do that, you’re going to have to advertise your company in a way that engages and interests them.

To find out how you can advertise your business to Generation Z, be sure to read on.

Work on your online reputation

Many experts have determined that the first Generation Zers were born in 1995 and the last were born in 2012. This means that this generation, also aptly named the iGen, has grown up blissfully unaware that there was once a world in which the web did not exist. Having had the internet quite literally at their fingertips for as long as they can remember, one thing is for sure: Generation Z is incredibly well versed when it comes to searching the web, so you won’t be able to pull the wool over their eyes in this instance. They will search your company online, they will find what they’re looking for and, ultimately, they’ll decide whether to bring you their custom based on the information/content that they unearth.

If you’re to stand a chance of advertising your business in the best possible light via the web, you’re going to need to work on your online reputation. Fortunately, there are companies out there that can assist you in this instance, meaning you don’t have to go it alone.

Typically, a reputation management company such as Reputation Rhino will leverage the following tactics in their bid to boost your online presence by:

  • Monitoring online mentions
  • Publishing professionally written content
  • Interlinking high-impact content
  • Optimizing social media profiles
  • Editing or removing negative content

Work alongside influencers

Generation Z spends most of their time scrolling through their feeds and keeping up with the updates on their timelines. The fact that they use social media so regularly means that you must advertise on the likes of Twitter and Instagram if you’re to stand a chance of reaching your young audience.

When you do decide to market via social media, a good piece of advice is to work alongside influencers. These are people that post photo and video content promoting certain products and/or services.  You can also collaborate with Twitter and Instagram marketing agencies.

When looking for an influencer to collaborate with, it’s important that you don’t set your sights too high. Don’t attempt to partner up with world-famous celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kim Kardashian, or Ariana Grande because, even if you do miraculously get through to their PR teams, they’re going to charge boatloads of cash to advertise your products for you. Instead, set your stall out a bit lower and seek to reach out to ‘micro-influencers.’ These are people that have a social following of between 1,000 and 100,000.

To set your business up for a decade’s worth of success, you’re going to need to start appealing to Generation Z as soon as you possibly can.

Why UX Is Essential for your Website

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Why UX Is Essential for your Website

There are so many aspects that go into a successful website, but the user experience is undoubtedly one of the most important. When we’re looking to rank our websites, it’s easy to pay attention to what we think the search engines want and forget that it’s real-life humans who are actually going to be using our website.

Poor user experience can impact your website in many different ways. We’ve all been on a terrible website, which makes the simplest things so difficult, and it can be seriously irritating. However, frustrating your users is only one example of the many problems a poor user experience can cause.

Whether it’s conversion rates, ability to rank, or advertising costs, a poor UX can have serious consequences for your website. To find out if you need a UX revamp, get an audit from someone who offers affordable SEO services.

Ability to Rank

The reason so many people keep going to Google to get their information is because they trust it to give them the best results to answer their queries. If Google suddenly started sending you to websites with a poor UX, then it wouldn’t be long before you tried out a different search engine.

Consequently, Google does all it can to not send its users to websites with poor UX. There are many aspects that enter into Google’s algorithms, and some of them correlate closely with user experience.

For example, if your website doesn’t load properly, then people are going to leave your page without interacting with it, increasing your bounce rate. A high bounce rate signals to Google that users don’t find your page useful, and as a result, you’re less likely to rank well.

Conversion Rates

So, the chances are, you’re already getting less organic traffic because of a poor UX, but the problems don’t stop there.

Converting your website visitors into customers is about building a relationship, and if you have bad UX, this relationship is going to get off on the wrong foot. If you can’t put together a website that works for your users, why would they expect that your products can?

UX problems vary in size, but whether they’re having a small effect on your conversion rates or a big one, that’s money that you’re losing out on. Earning a sale is hard enough, so don’t let a UX problem make it even more difficult.

Advertising Costs

Whichever way you look at it, UX problems are going to make your advertising more expensive. If you’re judging it by cost per conversion, then you’re still going to be paying for the same amount of clicks, but as previously mentioned, you’re less likely to convert those clicks, bringing your cost up.

It’s possible a poor user experience can also mean you pay more for every click you get. Search engines use a quality score to judge how relevant your advert is, and a poor UX can lead to a lower quality score. This means Google is less likely to show your ad, and you can end up paying more when they do.

Whichever way you look at it, user experience is something you want to keep a close eye on, because it can make a huge difference to your website.

 

How Digital Marketing Impacts Business Growth

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There were an estimated 3.9 billion Internet users in 2017, according to data compiled by Statista. Indeed, the vast majority of people no longer get their information from traditional media, but instead search for information on the Internet using various devices, including desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices.

If your business isn’t implementing the latest and most cutting-edge digital marketing methods (such as search engine optimization, content marketing, influencer marketing, and social media marketing), then you’ll lose out to business competitors who’re more adept at adopting — and harnessing — the best practices.

Listed below are some of the reasons why your company should adopt some of the latest digital marketing practices to stay ahead of the competition.

4 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Dynamic Digital Marketing Strategy

Google Search is the way of the future

Google’s search engine now represents 90.46% of the global search engine market, and the site receives over 63,000 searches each second on any given day. Even if your company has an official website, if it isn’t showing up on Google’s search results, you will be losing out in terms of revenue, customer acquisition, and business growth.

Coupled with the fact that Google’s search algorithm is getting better at understanding the nuances, intent, and context of its users’ searches means that it’s getting better at serving accurate and relevant results to its users.

But how do these developments impact your business? Well, for starters, if your site lacks the information that users are searching for, then Google is highly unlikely to rank your web pages in its search results. And even if your site is updated with the right business information and contains great content, if it isn’t optimized correctly, it’s not going to attain the rankings and traffic that will positively impact your business growth.

SEO helps drive traffic and conversions to your site

Now more than ever, a dynamic and cohesive SEO strategy is needed to keep your website positioned strategically on Google’s unpaid (or organic) search results. But what exactly is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. The discipline consists of multiple strategies, best practices, and actions that are utilized with the end goal of improving your website’s position on the search engine results pages (also known as SERPs). There are two types of SEO: on-page and off-page. The former consists of elements you can control on your site to improve your position on the SERPs, while the latter consists of actions done on other websites to boost your site’s position on the SERPs and overall authority.

If your business lacks the expertise to devise and implement a viable SEO strategy, then you’ll need to hire a great SEO specialist or outsource the task to a reputable digital marketing firm.

Content marketing drives profitable customer action

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing “is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

The practices and objectives of content marketing are closely aligned with inbound marketing, which is a business methodology that aims to attract customers to products and services by serving them useful and actionable content at every stage of their journey to becoming loyal customers.

Great content comes in the form of blog posts, white papers, downloadable reports, videos, and other types of consumer media that prospective customers will need to educate themselves to make informed decisions—one of which is opting to become loyal customers and advocates of your brand.

An effective content marketing strategy will require the expertise of seasoned editors, writers, and content strategists. And these professionals will need to align their goals with those of SEO specialists to drive targeted traffic to your site and web assets. As with SEO, if your organization lacks the expertise or bandwidth to accommodate a content marketing strategy, then it’s best to hire specialists or outsource to the right digital marketing firm.

Social media marketing strengthens your brand

Billions of people around the world now use social media platforms to connect with others, reach out to brands, and consume media. Facebook—the world’s largest social media website—now attracts 2.41 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2019, according to Statista. Facebook users harness this platform not just to connect with others in their circle, but also to discover and engage with brands and companies, and consume entertainment and other media.

Instagram, another popular social media site that deals with pictorial and video content sharing, has one billion monthly active users, making it the third most popular social media site after Facebook and YouTube. Considering the sheer number of eyeballs that can be found on these platforms, your brand or company cannot afford to remain anonymous on them.

A strong and engaging presence on social media can help your company achieve the following:

  • Boosted brand awareness
  • More inbound traffic
  • Improved conversion rates
  • Increased brand loyalty and authority
  • Improved search engine rankings

The immense rewards aside, social media marketing requires great ingenuity, creativity, and dedication to drive results. You’ll need to hire the right specialists or outsource the work to an awesome digital marketing or social media management company if you want this done right.

Other Business Benefits of Digital Marketing

Improves Lead Generation

A cohesive and dynamic digital marketing strategy that utilizes the right methodology and marketing methods will result in improved lead generation for your business. What’s more, most digital marketing methods are far cheaper than more traditional marketing outlets, such as buying ads in magazines or booking TV airtime for commercials. The rewards, on the other hand, are considerable, as you could potentially reach a global audience of thousands or even millions.

Improved Conversion Rates

If you’re using digital marketing to successfully guide your leads down the conversion funnel, the end result should be improved conversion rates. Another great thing about digital marketing is that you can use data and analytics tools — such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Kissmetrics — to better understand your website users. By objectively analyzing your traffic information, you can make adjustments to your conversion funnel and better understand what makes your target audience tick.

Outside Of SEO, Why Is Your Content Gold?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO|Outside Of SEO, Why Is Your Content Gold?It’s impossible nowadays to launch your online presence without considering the importance of SEO – Search Engine Optimization – in your business growth. Indeed, mastering the art of boosting your SERP ranking — aka your ranking in the search engine result pages – can substantially influence web traffic. Search engines such as Google and Bing prefer content-rich sites that diversify their content and update it regularly to reflect on current trends.

Ideally, blogs are one of the most effective tools when it comes to creating keyword-targeted content.

Content, as a result, is the key to your SEO strategy and, by extension, your digital visibility. Creating new and informative content has become a major marketing strategy for any business trying to leverage their online presence. It’s not uncommon, as a result, to design a content plan that addresses major primary, secondary, and long-tail keywords to maintain your presence in a constantly changing market. However, you’d be wrong to assume that content only matters to support your SEO strategy. Content, as it happens, is a crucial factor of growth for your entire business. Here’s everything content can transform that isn’t SEO-related.

It establishes your reputation

While your products are your main offering, your content is the closest your audience can get to understand your brand. Therefore, ensuring you push your content online, not only on your website but also on social media platforms can help to build your brand reputation. Indeed, your audience uses online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to interact with businesses – it’s the favorite channel when it comes to customer care inquiries and complaints. As a result, it’s fair to say that your social media posts are considered with great interest. Not only can you engage in direct interactions with your audience, but you can also launch a campaign to share your latest updates. Your choice of hashtags is detrimental to reaching out to a broad audience and establishing your reputation. Additionally, your attitude and behavior on social media are public, which means that the way you choose to share content online can affect your brand image too.

It generates passive income

If you’re an established blogger or digital influencer, you understand that content is money. Indeed, a youtube affiliate, for instance, use their content creation as part of their traffic strategy. Creating videos that appeal to a broad audience can maximize their channel subscriptions – aka the number of active and loyal followers – and views. It’s important to understand that users don’t need to follow a channel to watch its content. The affiliate network can share both the subscription volume and viewer number with businesses that are looking for advertising partners. The collaboration typically defines the affiliate earning by considering the total number of views each video receives. Therefore, building an informative and popular portal of content can indirectly create a stream of passive income through affiliate activities.

It showcases your expertise

Very few experts can claim they don’t worry about competition in their niche. Showcasing your expertise when you’re one of many other market players can be challenging. While success stories and portfolios can help to display your skills, they may not be enough. Ultimately, nothing seems more suspicious of potential leads than reading testimonials from your past clients. What evidence is there that those clients are real or that you’re as good as they say you are? None and as such, most digitally-savvy users tend to ignore testimonials – these are, after all, very easy to fake. However, you can publish your opinions, tips, and case studies online to attract your audience. Guest articles on a popular blog, for instance, are an ideal ice-breaker to reach out to a new audience. You can even consider creating tutorials or online courses to share your knowledge.

It gives your website depth

Sure, you might have a responsive web design, but what good does it do if you don’t have enough content? For a web visitor, reaching a site that feels content-light or that hasn’t been updated with new content leaves a poor impression. Most visitors judge your business by your site. If you don’t provide enough informative background – about the business and its expertise – people tend to be reluctant to purchase. Your content gives an additional dimension to your company, turning the online presence into a professional and trustworthy organization.

Content is at the heart of your business growth. It builds your online visibility through SEO ranking, but that’s not all it does. High-quality content can help to establish your brand and showcase your expertise. Additionally, you can use your content to support your affiliate marketing income. Finally, content brings trustworthiness to your online presence.