Tools and techniques to support site migration
We are currently living in an era of Digital Darwinism , a time where evolving technologies - from mobile, real-time, to social media and the Internet of Things - are disrupting traditional business models and markets.
In order to adapt effectively many larger businesses are creating digital transformation programmes to ensure that businesses look beyond the here and now and focus on how disruptive technologies are affecting customer behaviour and the impact this has on their business in the future.
The continuous evolution of the website to support digital transformation
For most, a company’s website is at the centre of their digital ecosystem, and with the explosive growth in mobile and tablet usage , the form and nature of the website is changing to keep pace with the changes in…
Broken Links = Missed Opportunities
It's common with the growth of website Content Management Systems that websites have multiple editors & frequent updates, so this can easily result in mistakes. An area that often suffers as a result is internal & external linking from within webpages.
While easy to manually check, it is often the case that sites are just too big to go through page-by-page to check. Luckily for webmasters and marketers alike there are tools that will help you identify broken links on your website.
Why are broken links such a bad thing?
Not only are you disrupting user journeys through the website which could leave users frustrated with your brand, but you are also making search engine spiders jobs more difficult and therefore reducing your opportunity to rank well. If search engines are unable to crawl / index you site easily they will be less likely to appropriately rank it.
Broken links from other sites are also an…
A 5 step tutorial on using SEMrush and other tools to improve SEO and PPC keyword targeting for online stores
When growing your online store, every bit of knowledge you can get counts. Any mistake, money spent on wrong keywords perhaps or landing pages not delivering what your customers are looking for can cost you a lot. But sometimes that knowledge lies with your competitors. They are the people who potentially have been running their business longer than you. Or at least have already tried various strategies you want to employ now.
By conducting a clever competitive research, you can tap into their experience and discover strategies that are worth considering for further use. A properly conducted competitive research offers great benefits for your online store:
It will help you keep pace with the changing market. Markets change over time. Chances are…
Google’s use of “rel=author” markup to stop but Google+ posts to continue featuring in search results
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Google announcement of end of Authorship
Summary of the change
John Mueller of Google Webmaster Tools announced in a personal Google+ post on 28th August that Google will now stop showing authorship results in Google Search, and will no longer be tracking data from content using rel=author markup.
From a Google user point of view this means you will no longer see author images in pictures like this one from a briefing written by Chris Soames in 2012:
In fact, you may have noticed from around a month ago that Google removed the author images. In this new announcement they are taking the next step and removing the author information too.
We’re also alerting you to this since more significantly from an SEO point of view Google has said that they are no…
Are you reaching your audience on mobile?
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: IAB/IHT Mobile advertising report
This month, the IAB and IHS Technology's published a survey that shows strong demand for global mobile advertising, as revenue almost doubled last year to 19.3 billion dollars and mobile growth accounts for a large proportion of this. In terms of the format of mobile advertising, display has shown the most growth followed by search and then messaging. According to Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB.
'as mobile ad campaigns become easier to plan, create, buy, and measure – in great part due to programmatic strategies – these operational efficiencies are spurring the growth of the mobile display ad market. And, this impressive rise in mobile advertising is unquestionably a worldwide phenomenon, with strong year-over-year upticks being seen in every corner of the globe.'
Globally, there are differences…
“Close variant” keyword matching to become default by end September can increase clicks by 7% on average
Importance: [rating=4] (If you’re not already using this feature)
Recommended link: AdWords official announcement
Context for the change to match types
The Match types advertisers use in AdWords are important since they control whether relevant ads are displayed to searchers based on the keywords they type. This in turn affects the clickthrough rates, Quality Score and the ROI you get on your campaigns.
Here’s a reminder of the main match types from iProspect:
What is the change?
In their announcement, Google explain that starting in late September, they’re applying close variant keyword matching to all exact and phrase match keywords. Previously it was possible to opt-out of these.
Close keyword variations include Close variations include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings (such as floor…
Why and how marketers must respond to the decline in organic reach
There are many articles talking about the demise of Facebook, articles like this on Forbes discussing the decline of organic rearch. Other research suggests growth in users is strong, albeit from new markets. At the same time, Facebook is demanding that we now ‘pay to play’, no more organic reach - at least not reliably for those cheap contests and product-led posts brands seem to love so much - this is resulting in fellow whining marketers like these guys bemoaning the gifted “free” ride that we’ve had for the last free years. But hasn’t it always been this way, haven’t we had to evolve with this change from Google too as they led the search engine charge that marketers were so keen to follow, a case of déjà vu?
Remember how…
5 reasons why your content marketing campaign may fail and ideas to make content more 'viral'
We know from our research into Managing Content Marketing that one of the main challenges for marketers at the moment is selecting relevant content which will become viral and shared.
Creating sharable, viral content is a challenge, so we thought this infographic is useful since it reminds us of the basics that we sometimes forget, as we focus on finding and curating content. There are 5 practical steps on improving reach from this infographic shared on Business2Community.
1. Highlight emotional appeal. Positive engaging content will need to 'trigger emotions' to make people laugh, be inspired or amazed. Use this in your headlines and copy sharing the content asset.
2. Create shareable content. Shareable content makes the sharer look good - it needs to be useful or entertaining.
3. Timing. Share at the right time when your audiences are most likely to…
5 reasons why migrating all site pages may be a bad idea
Importance: [rating=1] (Signal currently affects only 1% of queries)
Recommended link: Google Webmaster Blog announcement
You will know that Google uses hundreds of ranking signals to return the most relevant results for a search, plus many filters to remove spammy or duplicate results too. But it’s rare for Google to announce what these are or to disclose new signals. So, the recent announcement from the Google Webmaster Blog that use of a HTTPS (HTTP Secure) will be used as a positive ranking signal prompted many, particular retailers who will already use HTTP Secure in checkout, to take notice. Google’s precise words were:
“Over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections…
New report reveals the effectiveness of different Facebook retargeting options
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Facebook ad research
With the continued decline in organic reach in Facebook, opportunities for brands to get visibility for their brand page status updates is getting severely limited.
According to this Social@Ogilvy report, the organic reach of brands’ posts may soon reach zero, meaning that brands will no longer be able to reach their Facebook fans at zero cost. They recommend advertising as one option, which begs the question of the clickthrough rates and costs of Facebook ads. This new report from Facebook retargeting service AdRoll provides useful data for brands to make the case for investment in Facebook advertising.
The research shows that overall clickthrough rates of both News Feed targeting on desktop and mobile were significantly better than general web retargeting according to the report, with desktop…
