How A Consumer Friendly Web Design Can Help Your SEO Efforts

There are some people today who think web design will not have an impact on your SEO score. Many studies show that the opposite is true. Consumers demand the best web design from brands. A brand’s landing page is the first impression it makes to its site visitors. It can make a difference whether or not consumers will choose you or your competitors.

You’re likely thinking about how web design can improve your SEO game. Today, I’ll discuss ways a consumer-first web design can help accomplish your mission. I will also dive into how to achieve a web design that will make you and your consumers proud.

Faster Site Speeds

Search engines view your site speed as an SEO ranking factor. Every second can make or break a decision whether or not consumers do business with your brand. Pages with long load times will more than likely have high bounce rates. High bounce rates signal to search engines that consumers don’t have a good UX on your site. Your page rankings will see a drop as a result of a slow site speed.

According to Load Storm, 25% of site visitors would exit a page that loads longer than 4 seconds. 64% of shoppers from the same study would shop elsewhere in the future resulting from a subpar site UX.

Here are some tools you can use to help enhance your site speed:

Bing Speed Test
Google Page Speed Insights
GT Metrix

Adjusting your pics and videos to the proper size will help make a positive impact in meeting your site speed goals. As site visitors easily access your page, they’ll be more likely to visit you in the future. Search engines will then notice your efforts and reward you with higher page rankings.

Scripts You Can Externalize

Search engines look at your site through what is in an HTML document. If CSS and Javascript are in the doc, they’ll see more code lines and be ahead of your site content. These internal scripts can slow down how search engines crawl your site and cause your UX to decline.

As you code your site, look to place the scripts outside your HTML doc. Adding these measures will help search engines access your site content fast and attract your audience to your page.

Block Pages You Do Not Want Search Engine To Index

You have the option to block pages you don’t want search engines to index. Pages under this category usually add no value to your site and may contain server-side scripts. There are also some site sections where you may have test design projects.

If web bots expose these pages, your site could end up with repeat content and have a weaker content density. They can also cause site visitors to bounce from your page and harm your search rankings. Robots.txt files help you block those bots from getting to those pages. If you have page sections you use as test centers, look to use password protectors. Web Dev platforms like JSP or Wamp Server can also help you resolve web crawl issues on test sites.

Utilizing these tactics help your site to only show content you want your visitors to view. They can go a long way in helping you upgrade your SEO game.

Sites That Adapt To Any Screen Size

Sites that have exceptional UX exist across every screen size and device. Responsive design helps you design your site to auto-scale your content to match the screen size of devices. These adaptable features help users avoid pinching their screens to view site content.

Search engines value sites that are mobile-friendly and responsive to devices (e.g., desktops, mobile phones, tablets). A Digital Examiner study shows that 80% of the world’s top-ranking sites are mobile-friendly. Sites with responsive design will provide your audience with the best experience and grow your SEO efforts over time.

URLs That Are Easier For People To Find Online

Search-friendly URLs have keywords that accurately describe a page’s content and make sites more crawlable by search engine spiders. Here are some examples of URLs for a sandwich shop that offers different types of foods:

sandwichshop.com/menu/low-fat-sandwiches
sandwichshop.com/menu/vegan-sandwiches
sandwichshop.com/menu/veggie-sandwiches
sandwichshop.com/menu/italian-sandwiches

As you choose page URLs, look to avoid the usage of content management tools that use random codes or numbers. The best CMTs give you many ways to customize your URLs to meet your exact needs.

Fresh Content Search Engines Can Read

Authoritative and informative content is a website’s star power that grabs the attention of search engines and consumers. As you build or upgrade your site, check that it has these clear content structures:

Headings
Links
Paragraphs
Subheadings

Sites with little content or poor content structure usually struggle most in search results. You can address these problems by planning in the design stage. If you use images with text, look to use CSS background image replacement tools. For blog posts or guest article writing, save some room for excerpts of recent posts to place on every page. When you make excerpts, look to avoid showing off the whole post, as this can lead to repeat content issues.

Search engines will prioritize fresh content since it means your site is active and engaging to consumers. When your page crawl frequency increases, you’ll be on track to attract the right people to your site. You may even win up gaining new customers in the process.

Web Design That Focuses On People Is The Key To SEO Success

As you put together your web design, look to have your consumers in mind and give them the best UX. People-First web design efforts will help your brand stand out to your audience and boost your SEO game. When you tailor your web design to your consumers, your brand will be on track toward moving up the search results page and having more sales.

What else do you feel is the best way to create a web design that can help your SEO plans? How else does web design play a role in SEO success for brands? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share your thoughts below. Also, feel free to share this blog post online and follow me here or on my social media platforms.

Eight Ways On How To Use Conversion Rate Optimization To Bring Your Brand Success

You have succeeded in attracting your ideal customers via quality SEO strategies. The question now is, “Now What?” Now that you’ve attracted them to your website, the next thing you do is to seal the deal. To accomplish that, you need to give them what they’re looking for in a way that makes your brand unique.

There’s one method that will help turn your website visitors into paying customers and that is Conversion Rate Optimization. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the act of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on your site. Desired acts can include anything from signing up for a newsletter to purchasing a product.

To succeed with CRO, you’ll need a clear strategy that offers clarity and differentiates your brand from your competitors. These 8 tips below will help bring your brand success via CRO. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Make Your Web Design Simple

People these days look for information that is clear and to the point. This could not be more true when it comes to your web design. You never want to have your visitors go through a maze when searching for information on your site. That is a good way to harm your bounce rate which we don’t want at all.

When making changes to your design, you want to keep it simple for your visitors. This means to make their search in as few clicks as possible. You also want to remove any unnecessary links or design elements from your navigation bars and copy. This will help make your page short, simple, and to the point for your visitors. This will help give your visitors a great user experience and increase the likelihood of them converting.

Add Testimonials & Reviews

Nothing helps build consumer confidence in your brand than what people like them have to say about you. That is why it is essential to include testimonials and reviews on your page. Adding them will help make big-time improvement in conversions – even up to 400% as in this case. You can also add logos of companies who do business with you and trust your brand. This will also help build consumer trust in a big way.

Don’t Have Too Many Form Fields

One thing you never want to do when trying to turn visitors into customers is having too many form fields. In many instances, this is a big turn off with many people asking for more fields than they’re willing to give. That’s why you need to limit your fields to only the essential ones needed to accomplish your end goal. Taking this step will help you improve that conversion rate while opening the door to future opportunities.

Have A Strong Call To Action

Do you know what else will help improve your conversion rate? Taking even a few minutes to work on your call to action (CTA) copy. Generic CTAs like “sign up” won’t give you the best results in terms of conversions. You need CTAs that paint offers in a positive light. CTAs that start with the word “Yes” such as “Yes, Give Me [Offer]” help accomplish that. In the end, you’ll make it more likely to improve on getting your visitors to convert.

A/B Test Your Headlines

Headlines make a big difference in whether people decide to read more or not. That is why you need a headline that is to the point and helps engage consumer interest. A great way to ensure that your headlines lead to success is to perform A/B Tests on each.

A/B Testing (or Split Testing) is the practice of showing two variants of the same web page to different visitors at once and then comparing which one converts more. It is advised that when deciding between headlines that you experiment with variants like tone, length, and use of statistics or numbers. This will help give you a better idea of which headline type resonates best with your audience.

Offer One Clear Path For Your Visitors

Another great way to put your brand on a path towards increased conversions is offering your users only one path. That means have a clear, predetermined roadmap for your website visitors that leads to only one action. Work to avoid any distractions and stick to only including what your visitors need to know.

Always great to use visual cues like arrows that point to the end goal you want your visitors to take. On top of that, resist any thoughts of adding more than one choice. These actions will help visitors see the path you want them to take as clear and to the point. This helps make it more likely that they’ll do business with you in the end.

Offer Guarantees To Help Build Trust With Your Audience

When it comes to conversions, trust is a major factor. Oftentimes, customers feel uneasy when they’re about to click the Buy button. That’s why you need to work to make your site one that is trustworthy for your online visitors. A great way to do that is adding trust seals like McAfee Secure to your website. 48% of users were more likely to trust a site they’ve never heard of if it had guarantee seals. Taking this step will help remove any doubt users may have and makes it more likely that they’ll click Buy.

Use Colors That Best Compliments Your Brand’s Message

One key detail that gets overlooked when it comes to CRO is color usage. Who doesn’t love colors? Colors contain messages, evoke emotions, and encourage action. For example, the purple color is seen as wise, creative, and imaginative as Yahoo is known to be.

Not only do colors work wonders in encouraging action from users, they also help complement your web design. This will help encourage visitors to stay longer on your site. The longer you keep their attention, the more likely that they’ll convert into paying customers. With that said, always make color usage a part of your CRO strategy.

Quality CRO Makes Your Brand Unique In Your Own Way

There is no doubt that CRO will help bring you success in such diverse ways. It helps your brand stand out amongst the crowd in your own unique way. On top of that, you’ll be turning those visitors into customers while growing your brand in a big way. With all that being said, always take time to invest in your CRO strategy. It will pay great dividends for your brand in the long run

What do you feel is essential in helping make your brand’s CRO strategy a success? How do you feel about CRO being a crucial part of your overall Digital Marketing strategy? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Four Keys To Having A Top-Notch Social Media Strategy

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

When it comes to social media, it plays a huge role in helping grow your online presence. It is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. In fact, 78% of consumers have said that they will visit the physical retail store of a brand they follow according to Sprout. This just comes to show you the importance of having a top tier social media strategy.

Social media is not just about gaining the most followers. It is all about giving your audience an excellent experience and giving them what they’re looking for. These four tips will go a long way in helping you achieve just that. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Engage In Social Listening

One key tip that helps you have a top tier social media strategy is what we call social listening. Social listening is the practice of tracking, analyzing, and responding to conversations across the Internet. Social media is not just for posting pictures and life updates. It is also a powerful listening tool.

A great way to use social listening is to keep an eye out for mentions and conversations about all aspects of your brand. This can help you find new leads about new product ideas or features for existing products. On top of that, social listening can also help you differentiate your brand from the competition. Offering people something that is unique and gives them value is how you set yourself apart from others.

Know How To Measure Success

A key aspect of success for your brand via social media is knowing how to measure success. For that, you need to set the appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are quantifiable measures that are used to determine the success of a brand in meeting performance goals. One thing to be careful of is to not fall for vanity metrics. For example, getting likes on your Facebook page doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make more money.

Setting KPIs all depends on your business goals. There are four possible social media KPIs to use when measuring success. Here they are below:

Reach

If your goal is to increase your online presence, then setting KPIs based on reach is the way to go. Key things to watch for are follower count, impressions, mentions, and share of voice. These four things are key to measuring the success of your outreach strategy.

Engagement

If your goal is to get your audience to engage with you on social media, then you’ll need to set engagement KPIs. Things to watch out for are likes/favorites, comments, shares, retweets, ratings/reviews, and inbound website links. All these metrics are important when it comes to measuring your success with engagement strategies.

Return On Investment (ROI)

To check if your campaign is bringing you money, you’ll need to set KPIs based on Return On Investment (ROI). Key metrics to watch for are direct sales revenue, lead conversions, support costs-per-customer, and lifetime value. These things will help tell you which campaigns are earning you money and which need to be evaluated.

Retention And Loyalty

To check if you are attracting repeat customers or getting referrals, then you should set Retention & Loyalty KPIs. Key metrics to watch out for are reviews/ratings, issues resolved, service-level agreements (SLAs), time to resolution, customer satisfaction, and sentiment. All this helps you determine if you’re doing your part to satisfy customers and gaining referrals along the way.

For every type of KPI, make sure to revisit them every 6-12 months. This will help you determine whether your efforts are working or if they need to be adjusted.

Set Your Brand’s Voice And Tone To Make It Be More Human

In today’s world, people want to do business with brands that are more human as opposed to acting all boring. With that said, making your brand more human is a must. A voice and a tone are two things your brand must have in order to be more human.

A brand’s voice is the distinct personality or style of your brand. This helps give your customers a clear picture of what your brand feels like. For instance, HubSpot’s clear and inclusive voice helps them appear helpful and supportive in the minds of others.

A brand’s tone refers to the moods of specific content pieces. This can change based on the channel, situation, and audience. When choosing your brand’s tone and voice, ask yourself these questions below:

What purpose does my content bring?
Who am I addressing?
How does my audience feel?
What message should I convey to my audience?
Which tone of voice should I use?

By answering them, you’ll know what kind of content you should create for others in an appropriate tone and voice.

Provide Top-Notch Social Customer Service

A crucial aspect of having a top-notch social media strategy is providing your audience with top-notch social customer service. 49% of consumers say that they’ll unfollow brands that bring them poor customer service. 90% of consumers rate an immediate response important when they have a customer question. These reasons alone are why brands need to make social customer service a top priority in their social media plans.

Customers these days expect quick responses to their questions. Timely responses not only help problems get resolved faster, it also helps make customers more loyal to your brand. Even pointing your customers in the right direction gets your customers to think highly of your brand. All this makes it more likely for customers to stick with your brand in the long run.

A People-First Approach Leads To Success

No doubt that great social listening, great social customer service, and making your brand more human brings your brand success. It’s also crucial to set the right goals in order to help your brand get where you want to be. With these four great tips, your social media game shall lead your brand to great successes and long-lasting customer relations.

What do you feel is key in using social media to help bring your brand success? What are your thoughts on how social media helps build great customer relationships? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Four Ways Emotional Marketing Helps Connect With Consumers

Photo by Nathan McBride on Unsplash

Have you thought about what it takes to stand out amongst the online world of brands to attract consumers? People today are driven by their emotions when they weigh their buying options. Today, the importance of knowing every aspect of your consumer is a huge deal. Not only that but working to tap into their emotions in a way that connects with them is key. As Alina Wheeler once said, “Brand is the promise, the big idea, the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service or company. Branding is about making an emotional connection.” In other words, working to connect with them in a human way is how your brand stands out. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some emotional marketing methods that will help your brand reach your consumers.

Use Colors To Build Your Brand Name

When it comes to colors, brands use that to build their identity in ways that help attract their customers via emotional tactics. For example, Texas-based Whataburger uses orange to bring to mind feelings of hunger and nostalgia. Bright, warm colors like orange, red, and yellow can invoke feelings of comfort and warmth as they do for Whataburger. That being said, these colors can also bring to mind feelings of anger and hostility.

Dark, cool colors like blue, purple, and green can evoke feelings of calm and relaxation like the blue ocean breeze. At the same time, colors on the dark, cool side can also bring to mind feelings of sadness and indifference. When it comes to making the choice of color for your brand, it’s crucial to keep in mind how you want your consumers to feel. What-A-Way to be creative in order to stand out just like you like it.

Support A Great Cause

Doing good for others will help your cause with building trust with your customer base. For example, many brands are going the extra mile to honor the work of doctors and nurses during this pandemic. Companies like The North Face have really stepped up to do just that by giving them a 50% discount for their efforts. Supporting great causes like these will help people see your brand as one who cares about others. This would make it more likely for your brand to gain new customers in the long run.

Address Consumer Pain Points

This is where research will be key to the success of your brand. Brands who are problem solvers are those who will have the most success at gaining new customers. For example, Utah’s Nature Pro Cleaning works to address the concerns of chemicals in traditional cleaning options. They also address the concerns of tough stains, grimes, and other particles on carpets, tiles, and other home surfaces. What they do is offer non-toxic power washing options that are chemical-free and remove those foul particles from surfaces at the root. This helps those surfaces be free of them for good which allows people to enjoy a healthy home. By working to address consumer pain points like these, you’ll build trust with them in a big way.

Provide A Customer Experience (CX) That Speaks Their Mind

What will really help brands win over customers is providing them an experience that speaks their mind. Research is key in this regard which then leads to getting best results. Consumers love them offers that are tailored just for them. After all, 54% of them say that they’ll feel rewarded with offers that speak their mind. The mattress brand Purple is a great example of providing just that for its customers.

Their campaign of offering those in the military a 10% discount was received well by them. Purple did a great job connecting with them via their “Made In USA” brand identity. This kind of CX helped Purple up their conversions by 6X. This proves that providing your customers with that kind of experience makes a big impact for brands of all sizes.

Emotional Marketing For The Win

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

No matter what the goals of your brand are. Working to build your consumer outreach via these emotional tactics is key to growing your brand for the better. Even more important is getting to know your customers in order to better connect with them. That way, your brand will lay the groundwork towards giving your consumers that great CX. Brands who work to relate to their customers are those who will find the most success. By taking a Consumer-First approach to emotional marketing, your brand shall grow in a way people will be proud of.

What other emotional marketing tactics do you feel will help brands better connect with their customers? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this blog post & share your thoughts below.

Using Instagram To Establish Your Brand

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor and privilege in taking part of an Five-Day Instagram Engagement Challenge hosted by Social With Shayna’s Shayna Marks. It was there where I had the opportunity to work alongside many female entrepreneurs from different places with different backgrounds while learning a great deal about the work that they do in building their online presence. One of the biggest lessons I learned from this experience is that people crave authenticity. They prefer brands that are open to two-way conversations and make it about their target audience. In other words, they love brands that speak their language. In this article, we’ll discuss creative ways on how one can use Instagram to be personable on your way to establishing the reputation of your brand.

Defining Your Target Audience

When it comes to establishing your brand via Instagram, the first step is to know who your target audience is. It’s important to know that the “One Size Fits All” approach won’t do the job when targeting a specific audience. Depending on the type of business or page that you have, each will have their own type of audiences who have different kinds of needs. In other words, you must dig deep in researching the kinds of consumers that are more likely to perform a specific action on your page or even become your customer. Let’s say you own a Digital Marketing blog page and want people to read your blogs, you might want to target people who work in Digital Marketing who are looking for ideas on how to make them better at Digital Marketing. They would be more likely to do business with you than say a bicycle rider (BTW, I love riding bikes 😉). Definitely take time to know everything there is to know about who your potential consumers are. If you do that, you’ll be off to a great start in building up your online presence here on Instagram and on social media overall.

Adjacent Accounts

In addition to defining your target audience, you also want to partner up with people who can be of help to you in establishing your brand. This is where adjacent accounts come into play. Now you’re probably wondering what adjacent accounts are. Basically, they’re businesses or page owners who have a target audience similar to yours but do different types of work. Let’s say that you’re a Digital Marketer looking for quality photos that capture the feelings of your target audience. A great type of adjacent account to try to partner with in this scenario would be brand photographers like Courtney Paige Ray. When it comes to partnering with adjacent accounts, it all depends on the needs of your business so I recommend that you take the time and research potential adjacent accounts who can collaborate with you while helping each other stand out in today’s online world in a positive way.

Using Location Tags

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about location tags. Well just so you know, location tags can actually be more helpful than you think. If you use location tags in a strategic way, you just might be able to grab the attention of your target audience. The important thing to keep in mind when it comes to grabbing the attention of your target audience via location tags is know which places they like to hang out at. Let’s say for example that you want to reach avid bicycle riders. More than likely, the best places they would hang out in would be in recreational areas or in parks such as Big Bend National Park. That’s where the location tags come in handy when it comes to making yourself known to your target audience. Assuming that the Instagram profiles of your target audience is public, reaching out to your target audience via location tags is pretty easy. Always remember to never be afraid to reach out to them via their “natural habitats’ as Shayna likes to call them.

Using The Right Hashtags

Now we arrive at the section where music instrument players call the “sharp sign”. Oh and did I forget to mention that I played the baritone and mini-tuba during my days at Ropes High School in small town West Texas.Those were definitely the days. Well anyways, these hashtags or “sharp signs” or whatever you like to call them are a valuable symbol that can get you visibility if you know how to use them to your advantage. Now you’re wondering how you can get seen by your target audience when you post on Instagram. What you’ll need to do to be seen by your target audience is identify 7-10 hashtags that they actively use. Now comes the tricky part figuring out which hashtags would actually help you get seen by your target audience. It’s important to know that many hashtags have a high density (over a million) and are more likely to be highly competitive meaning that you’ll have a hard time being heard by your target audience. Same thing goes for using hashtags that very few people use. The one time I recommend using low-to-no density hashtags is when you want to create your own unique hashtag that best identifies with your brand. Now what you want to do to be seen by your target audience is use hashtags that a more moderate amount of people use. The recommended hashtags that you should use as Good Ole Shayna told us are those that have a density in between 10K-200K. By following these tips on how to use Instagram hashtags, you’ll definitely be on your way in seeing your online presence grow and making your voice heard in today’s competitive online landscape.

Authenticity Is The Key

Now that we’ve covered the basics of researching your target audience and how to grow your online presence on Instagram, we’ve now arrived at the part where we talk about the best ways to actually engage with your target audience on Instagram. The #1 rule when it comes to Instagram engagement is to never use sales jargon or ask for favors right off the bat. That will never end well in almost every scenario. Whether you’re reaching out to an Influencer or to your target audience, the one thing that people seem to be craving in today’s online world is authenticity. People are interested in brands that speak their language and are personable with them. When reaching out to them via Instagram, start out by complimenting their work or how a certain topic related to their content resonated with you. When inviting them to connect with you via Instagram, definitely mention what you liked about them and how you look forward to hearing more about the work that they do. That will help your cause in a big way and will help lay the foundation towards great relationships. In addition to that, always remember to tailor your messages depending on the types of consumers, Influencers or businesses you interact with. This will help make your target audience feel that they had a personalized experience and would more than likely do business with you in the future. Definitely important to remember that this is a long-term game. It will take time to build up your brand but by making it all about your target audience, you’ll be on your way to establishing your online presence in a positive way.

Recapping How To Grow Your Online Presence Via Instagram

No doubt that today’s online world is constantly evolving. The days of sales jargon and the “One Size Fits All” approaches are over. To recap, online consumers definitely love brands that speak their language and go the extra mile in being personable towards them. Always important to remember that the key to making your online presence known in a positive way is to research your target audience, research potential collaborators, make great strategic use of your location tags and hashtags, and most importantly, never be afraid to be authentic. By doing all these things, you will without a doubt be on your way to great successes in establishing your brand for the better.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to Shayna Marks, Courtney Paige Ray and everyone else who took part in Social With Shayna’s Five-Day Instagram Engagement Challenge in inspiring me to write this latest blog post about how to go by building your brand via Instagram. I learned a great deal on how to be better as a Digital Marketer. I’ll definitely do another challenge like this in the future.

What do you feel is key when it comes to building your online presence in a positive way via Instagram or through other social media channels? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below