5 Tips for Successful Content Marketing in 2015

The secrets to successful content marketing in 2015 are simple really. Know what makes you different, know your customers THEN engage with your customers in an honest, authentic, clever and original way.

Here's 5 tips to make your content marketing efforts work smarter for you in 2015:

1. People are becoming immune to content so make your content stand out

With so much content freely available these days it's hugely important that your own content stands out from the average, the ordinary and the dull.

During 2014 content marketing grew by over 200% and I estimate that it will continue to grow at the same rate during 2015. With this in mind, brands that create engaging and authentic content with their target audience in mind will benefit from the continued growth of content marketing.

Tip: Make your content stand out with better, more targeted and clever content.

2. Know your customers through customer profiling

If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you won’t know what to say. Who are your customers, where do they hang out, what are their needs, desires and fears? What motivates them to buy?

Tip: Get to know your customers BEFORE you try to market to them.

3. Don't ignore the power of social media

Social media is here to stay so get used to it. Not only will social media give you brand exposure, it will also helps a brand to connect and engage with it's target audience and is essential to support search engine optimisation. Twitter has been putting more emphasis on its indexation and SEO efforts and as a result more tweets are being found on page one of Google. Plus producing well written content is essential to encourage social sharing so brands reach a wider audience.

Tip: Develop content for social media that's brand supportive, targeted & shareable.

4. Content, social media and seo: a marriage made in heaven

Brands must realise that content marketing, social media AND seo are all needed if they want to succeed online. It's no longer one or the other. Great content (written, video, infographics, images) will be 'liked' and 'shared' more on social media and more social media engagement will indicate to Google that the content is deemed to be valuable. Therefore Google will rank valuable content higher in the search results to benefit it's users.

Tip: Integrate SEO, social media and content marketing into your online strategy.

5. Content marketing is more than just writing a few blog articles

Add variety to your content marketing strategy. Written content is great but tweets with images get 150% more re-tweets than those without, by 2017 video will make up almost 70% of consumer internet traffic due to the increase in mobile and tablet use, and around 65% of us respond better to infographics than textual content.

Tip: Mix content types for successful content marketing.

Thanks for reading.

Lisa

7 online marketing trends you can't ignore in 2015

As you plan for your 2015 online marketing strategy, here are 7 trends that we expect to see and 7 actionable tips to benefit your strategy.

1) Mobile will continue to grow

During 2014 the amount of time we spend on our mobile has overtaken PCs. In a survey of US adults it was found that on average we spend 2 hours and 51 minutes on our phones vs 2 hours and 12 minutes on computers. Many companies have now moved to responsive websites which resize according to the screen the visitor is using but as we go forward into 2015 further optimisations for mobile will be necessary to maintain a share of mobile traffic.

One huge factor is load time. The average load time for a top 10 Google ranking website is 0.99 seconds. Search Engine Land recently reported that Google is experimenting with ways to favour in search results websites that are mobile friendly. Already Google takes into account user behaviour, penalising websites which visitors don’t stay on for long or look at many pages on – two behaviours which are directly affected by load time. Not only are there ranking benefits from a fast loading website, Amazon reported that for every 100 millisecond improvement in website load time, they see a 1% increase in revenue.

Tip 1: Make sure your website is mobile friendly, that it loads in under a second and that your content is easy to read and looks good on all devices.

2) Local SEO will become increasingly important

 

Research has shown that 50% of customers who performed a local search on their mobile visited a bick-and-mortar store within 24 hours of their search and 18% of these queries led to a sale. The fact remains that many people still prefer physical shopping to online shopping; there’s something about holding a product in your hands. A report by Accenture revealed that 82% of customers say they prefer shopping on the high street than online. Google understands the importance of providing the best local results to users and they’re fine tuning their algorithm to this end.

Tip 2: Local businesses with physical shops must make use of Google+ and local search so that they’re listed in search results for mobile users. (Oh and make sure you apply tip 1: to having a mobile friendly website!)

3) Specific targeting will be needed for success

 

The days of scatter gun marketing approaches are numbered. Best marketing results will be seen when businesses break down their customer base into segments and market specifically to those segments with the correct voice and tactics to reach that group. It also means more repurposing of content to promote it in a relevant way to each segment. A targeted approach is essential to make sure ROI of time spent creating and money spent advertising content is maximised.

Tip 3: Speak to your customers; find out their wants, needs, lifestyles and habits then tailor your approach to each group. Make sure that whatever you say fits in with the audience you’re saying it to.

4) Content will be expected to entertain

 

As more and more companies have embraced content marketing our lives have become even more flooded with content. To stand out from the noise content will need to become more than informative, it’ll need to be entertaining. Investment in video is becoming a must for brands that want to stay relevant and cutting edge.

Content is and will remain the driving force behind inbound marketing – especially since over 50% of 19 to 34 year olds will look at 4 or more sources before making a purchase. Now that the effectiveness of content marketing has been demonstrated, distribution will become just as important.

In 2015 we will see more of a focus on re-purposing and distributing to get maximum value from the content we create. Great content marketers will create different thumbnails according to platform, format restrictions and audience preferences so that campaigns consistently look good across all platforms. We’ll also see the same content being promoted in different ways, for example a topic might start out as an article, then an infographic, and then thumbnails and also as a Slideshare. This really follows on from Tip 3: knowing your audience and being specific with how you target different groups.

Tip 4: When you’ve created a great piece of content promote it across several platforms multiple times. Pull out nuggets of information and create interesting, engaging social posts about your content. Use images and video to create something that will stand out.

5) We’ll see more paid advertising

 

We’ve seen the rise and growth of social media success with many businesses adopting social for customer service and to reach out to new prospects. Now however there is increasing need to advertise on social platforms. With Facebook’s algorithm update it’s become increasingly hard to get content in front of consumers without advertising. This algorithm change lead to a 44% decline in brand content in users’ new feeds. LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest have followed Facebook and have all launched sponsored ads to put content in front of a specified group.

Tip 5: Budget for sponsored ads on social platforms, even £5 a day can dramatically increase your reach on Facebook. Once you invest, use analytics to measure your success and fine tune your strategy.

6) And more user reviews

 

Consumer reviews are certainly not a new trend but what we will see increasingly is companies asking customers to share their experiences become brand advocates. User generated content is invaluable. In the words of Jeff Bullas: “Reviews are a source of truth that will live on the web indefinitely”. It’s one thing saying you provide a great product or service, how much more valuable is it if your customers sing your praises for you? According to Neil Patel, customers are ready and willing to talk about great buying experiences: “50% will write about positive experiences, and 39% will write about negative”. Customers want you to wow them, and when you do they want to tell people about it.

There are various ways that you can collect reviews; on Google+, Trustpilot or with onsite review functionality. Collect reviews on Google+ one of the results when customers type your brand into Google will be your Google+ page with your shinning reviews. Companies that grasp this in 2015 will benefit from higher levels of trust and, consequently, better conversion rates.

Tip 6: Start asking customers to leave reviews on your Google+ page. We’ve written a couple of articles on the topic: 11 ways to encourage customer reviews and User Reviews: why they’re essential for e-commerce SEO.

7) We’ll expect increased personalisation

Another trend is increasing personalisation. More than ever customers are expecting companies to reach out to them personally. This is especially true of millennials who have grown up in the digital age and now have money to spend. They expect companies to court them for their business, they want to feel valued and personalisation is one way to do this.

Tip 7: Start sending out personalised follow up emails after cart abandonment. It shows that you do really value their purchase.

Thank you for reading.

11 of the best internet marketing infographics

Infographics have really surged in popularity over the last couple of years. And it’s no wonder really as visuals make a topic easy to understand and instantly digestible.

We've picked out 11 of our favourite infographics. Together they create a beginners guide to internet marketing, search engine optimisation, content marketing and social media marketing.

If you’re new to internet marketing, these infographics are a great place to start. And if you know your way around the world of internet marketing pretty well, we hope this blog post forms a useful bank of statistics for you.

1) The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors (published 2013)

This infographic clearly explains the most important factors involved in SEO. It splits these factors into two groups, On-The-Page and Off-The-Page Factors with an explanation for each. Rating and colour coding the different factors between +3 for really effective SEO tactics and -3 for harmful practise, makes it obvious which to use and which to steer clear of.

Take away: Make sure you (or your SEO agency) only employ SEO tactics that have a positive rating in this table.

2) The Blogconomy (published August 2013)

The infographic starts with the heading “why blogging is good for your business”. Then it goes on to list over 50 different stats/pieces of information on blogging. Thanks to the hard work done by ignitespot collecting all of these valuable figures into one resource, it’s easy to see why and how blogging will grow your business.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: If you don’t blog, start now. It generates leads and will boost your website’s visibility in Google search results.

3) The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Image Dimensions (published February 2013)

We really like this infographic because it’s so useful! Anyone setting up or refreshing their company’s social media profiles will need to navigate the tricky world of multiple profile image and channel art dimensions. Thankfully, this lovely infographic collects all of this information in one place.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: Don’t settle for stretched images on your social platforms. Get them right.

4) The Best Times to Tweet, Pin, Tumble and Post (published May 2014)

One of the most common questions our clients ask on the topic of social media, is when should I Tweet, Facebook or post to Google+, this infographic puts this information at the tip of your fingers for the 6 most used social platforms.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: Be strategic about when you post on social media to see more engagement.

5) 22 ways to Create Compelling Content (published February 2012)

We talk a lot about content here at angelfysh. And rightly so. It’s one of THE most important factors when it comes to getting your website to the top of Google search results. unfortunately, deciding what to write about isn't always easy. This infographic has 22 ways for you to get your creative juices flowing.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: Get blogging!

6) How to Increase LinkedIn Engagement by 386% (published December 2013)

This infographic has some great tips on how to take your LinkedIn use from personal networking to generating leads and revenue for your business. It includes useful information such as when to post, and what to talk about.

Click to see full infographic.

Take away: Include links or images in your LinkedIn updates.

7) Why Video Drives Sales (published October 2013)

Content marketing isn’t just about written content, it includes video too. This infographic shows why every company must include videos as part of their marketing strategy – e.g. 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week. And! Video traffic will account for a huge 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017.

Click to see full infographic.

Take away: Don’t just leave video to the ‘big players’ in your industry. Take the lead and add videos into your internet marketing strategy.

8) Mobile Marketing (published May 2012)

Did you know that 46% of users who view a product on their phone are actually standing in the store? And by 2015 43% of mobile users will make purchase on their phones. This infographic contains loads of great statistics on mobile usage which you can use to inform your mobile marketing strategy.

Click to see full infographic.

Take away: Make sure your website is responsive. A responsive website will resize to fit the screen (laptop, tablet, mobile etc.) being used to view the website.

9) The New Multi-Screen World (published August 2012)

Google has created this neat little infographic which contains some really interesting information on cross-platform consumer behaviour. By cross platform we mean shoppers who use more than one device in their buying journey. For example, 67% of people use two devices when shopping such as a phone and a computer.

Take away: Make sure your website is responsive, easy to navigate and easy to checkout on multiple devices.

10) Why Visual content Marketing Delivers Results (published September 2014)

This is really an infographic on why infographics work! If you’re still to be convinced of their merit here are some statistics that will leave you without any doubt of their effectiveness to engage.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: What subject could you create an infographic on to engage new leads or customers?

11) A Visual History of Google Algorithm Changes (published February 2014)

This infographic will give you a snapshot overview of the background of SEO today. It eloquently summarises the changes Google has been making to the way it finds and ranks websites over the last decade.

Click for full infographic.

Take away: Google will favour websites with quality content and quality links.


We hope you've found this interesting! If you've got a favourite infographic, please let us know in the comments below. Please also share this post with your own followers. Thank you.

Ranking factors: How does Google decide the order of its search results?

This is an easy question to ask - but a hard one to answer! It’s the £500 million question behind the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) industry.

Whilst the algorithm that Google uses is a closely guarded secret, we can go a long way to answering this question by studying search results in-depth. That’s exactly what searchmetrics have done.

They've recently released their annual ranking factors report comparing the top 30 results for the 10,000 most searched for terms on google.com.

In today’s blog post we’ll summarise the findings of their report including the factors which show the strongest correlation for search engine success. If you have a website for your own business, please read on as there’ll be some tips that you can implement to help your SEO.

First of all, what is a ranking factor? 

A ranking factor is an aspect of a website which affects where it will be positioned in search engine results. These factors are combined and weighted by Google’s very complex algorithm to determine the ranking of that website in its search results.  Some examples of ranking factors are: relevant keywords, back links, site load speed.

Types of ranking factors

In their report, searchmetrics divided the ranking factors into four groups:

Onpage technical: These factors describe the technical build of the website. For example how long the website takes to load or how the website is structured.

Onpage content: These factors look at the content of the website. For example word count, or the number of relevant keywords.

Back links: These factors measure different aspects of a websites back link profile, for example, the percentage of nofollow links and how well those websites giving a link back rank in Google.

Social: These factors measure how much the URL has been talked about on social media. For example how many times a website has been shared and liked on Facebook.

User signals: These are factors that describe the users behaviour, such as how many searchers click through to the website from the search results page or how long they spent on the website. These factors tell Google how useful or relevant users found a particular website for a particular keyword.

The results

Now on to the actual results from the study in chart form. How to read the chart:

• The numbers next to the circle show the average value across the top 10 results for that ranking factor.
• The longer the bar, the higher the correlation between the factor and a high Google ranking.
• A negative bar is best interpreted by reversing the statement.

What we can learn from these results?

Onpage technical tips

• Make sure your website loads quickly, average load time for a website on page 1 of Google was 0.99 seconds.
• 98% of the URLs studied had a meta description. Make sure your website has expertly written meta descriptions and titles.
• Internal linking structure is important, it should be easy to navigate.
• Make sure you keep your website up to date.
• These factors are a basic starting point if you want your website to be ranked high up on Google because if they are absent they will have a negative effect on your rankings.

Onpage content tips

• Write your content for the user. All copy should be easy to understand and well written.
• Top results had longer content, the average word count for a page 1 result was 975 words.
• Images and video content are important whereas ads aren’t helpful.
• Include a range of relevant related keyword terms in your copy instead of repeating an exact keyword.

Back link tips

• Back links are still one of the most important ranking factors.
• Quality is more important than quantity. Back links from websites that are themselves positioned well on Google are more valuable than those that aren't.
• Anchor text, the clickable text of a link, should be brand or domain name based and not keyword based.
• Build a balanced back link profile with some links pointing to the homepage but with a larger number pointing to specific pages within your website.

Social tips

• Promote your content on social media. Social signals such as likes and shares tell Google that your website content is good. On average, a Google page 1 listed URL had 143 Google+ Plus ones, 1,690 Facebook signals, 162 Tweets, and 36 Pins. We've written a blog post especially on this topic.

User signal tips

• Making your website engaging to keep users on your website for longer is also important. The average time spent on a Google page 1 URL was 101 seconds.
• Encouage users to visit more than one page of your website. If a user only visits one page of your website this counts as a ‘bounce’. Websites with a lower bounce rate are on average ranked higher. The average bounce rate for a page 1 URL was 37% of users.

In summary, high quality content along with a balanced, quality back link profile are essential for websites wishing to be ranked prominently in Google. Technical factors such as page load speed are crucial but will not get your website positioned if you don’t have great content.

SEO takes time and consistent effort. So keep adding useful quality user focused content to your website whilst you apply these tips.

You can find the original report by searchmetrics here.

47% revenue increase in 4 months

angelfysh has been working with Sage Gateshead now for 4 months on improving search engine visibility and helping the website to convert more visitors into ticket sales.

To say we're pleased with how things are going is an understatement.

During the months of May, June, July and August 2014 there's been an increase of 47% in revenue generated from ticket sales alone compared to the same period in 2013.

Of course we can't take all the credit as Sage Gateshead have their own strong marketing team and also work with Newcastle based Brand Consultants Violet Bick.

Thanks for reading.

Business owner or marketing manager? 5 tips to save money when hiring an SEO agency

Hiring an experienced professional SEO agency will set you back thousands of pounds every single year. But it's a necessity if you a) have limited or no knowledge of search engine optimisation yourself and b) you want to rank highly in search engines like Google.

So what can you do to save money if you have a set online marketing budget and time on your hands?

We've listed 5 things that you can do yourself that will not only save you money but also support the work that a professional SEO agency will do for you.

1. Blog regularly

Creating regular (at least weekly) high quality blog or news content yourself (or within your organisation) is an absolute must. If you don't write your own content your SEO agency will do it for you (and charge you for it). Creating an 'editorial calendar' will help you to organise your time and identify any seasonal trends that you should be preparing for.

Earlier this year we advised a household brand name on how to encourage and empower their 3,000+ employee's to create content for the brand. You can do it too.

Here's 18 stats to help you write the perfect blog post but remember that a great blog/news article should sell without selling.

Coca-Cola are a great example of a brand that blogs well with a nice balance of different article types. Here's their blog.

Mint.com blog also do this well with a mixture of articles and infographics.

And the official Sharpie Markers blog is fun and innovative.

2. Automate your social network posting

Your social media platforms (Twitter, Google+, Facebook etc) should all be linked & setup from your blog to post automatically every-time a new blog article/news story is published. This will save you time manually publishing to each network.

3. Manage your own social media marketing

One of the factors Google looks for when determining how well a website should rank is 'social signals' (re-tweets, Facebook likes/shares, Google+'s etc). So make sure you provide your followers with information that adds value as this will encourage them to like and share your posts.

And remember to be well mannered... thank people who have interacted with you.

4. Encourage user reviews

Encourage your customers to leave a review of your company and/or products. You can encourage company reviews to be left on your Google+ page as well as on external websites such TrustPilot and TripAdvisor etc (depending on your market).

Product reviews should be encouraged within your e-commerce website as well as externally on websites such as reevoo and CNET. Use positive feedback as testimonials on your website homepage as this will help to lower the bounce rate (which is another thing Google looks at).

Here's a recent blog post we did on 11 ways to encourage customers to leave a review.

Amazon do a great job of this.

5. Write really good product descriptions

One of the most difficult things e-commerce website owners face is making sure that their product descriptions are well written, informative and unique. This is especially true if the very same product with the manufacturers description is being sold online elsewhere (DVD's for example). Google doesn't like duplicate content so take the time to make your product descriptions different. Encouraging user generated reviews of your products (as mentioned in point 4) can help with this.

Not sure what makes a good product page? Here's some great examples for you:

Naked Wines - Great way to display content saving space and the use of user generated content to make the page unique.

Firebox Chilli Chocolate - Quirky and well written content with a lovely tone.

Mr & Mrs Smith Hotels -  Very informative page with information about the hotel, facilities and the surroundings.

If you've enjoyed reading this post why not share it?

Personalised Google Search Results and how they affect your website

It might surprise you to hear that no one sees exactly the same search results even if they type identical words into a search engine. The search results we see are personalised to suit us 'better'.

To Google, the accurate tailoring of search results to each user is a huge part of being the 'best' search engine and it's has been the driving force behind Google Now.

Many users will see very similar results, but there will be differences due to factors such as search history, location, device and even someone’s social contacts.

How much does personalisation change search results?

A 2013 study showed that:

• 73% of personalised #1 ranked results originated from position #2.
• 93% of personalised #1 ranked results come from the first page - in other words the top 10 ranked websites.
• 82% of original rank 1 results remain somewhere on the first page of personalised results.

Google doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to personalising results. Websites that are ranked high up in Google will still be ranked high up in personalised results but their position is not absolute. This is reassuring considering the hard work that goes into achieving a #1 ranking.

What factors are used to personalise our search results?

Personal search history

The primary way that Google personalises your search results is by using your search history. Put simply, Google will rank websites you've visited and found useful higher up in search results as they think that you will find them useful again.

It’s important to note that your search history is used by Google whether you’re signed into a Google account or not. If you’re signed out Google can still see up to 180 days of search history collected using anonymous cookies stored on your web browser.

Location

This is the most obvious and understandable customisation, we’re all shown results depending on country and locality. Google uses your IP address to tailor your results when you search for keywords associated with places such as ‘restaurant’ or ‘zoo’.

These types of search queries will bring up Google maps and Google+ local business pages according to where Google thinks you are located. This creates a great opportunity for local business owners who can set up a Google+ business page and more easily appear in local search results.

You can easily see and change your location by clicking on Search tools, entering a location and clicking ‘Set’.

Additionally, some keywords mean different things depending on your location. For example, ‘football’ would bring up American Football in the USA but in the UK we would expect to see results like the premier league.

(What’s an IP address? – Your IP address identifies the location of your computer. Check out What's my IP to find out your IP address.)

Type of search query

Different categories or types of search terms have a higher degree of personalisation. We’ve already mentioned personalisation due to location. Brands are another category for which search results can differ dramatically depending on the above factors, whereas factual queries starting with ‘what is….’ are far less personalised.

Justin Briggs tells us that 82% of results for ‘what is…’ queries are identical, while only 43% of results for ‘gadgets’ are identical. Politics, places, gadgets and brands are all types of search queries which show a high degree of personalisation.

Device

Google also recognises when you’re searching with a mobile and will favour responsive websites and local search results for the mobile user, different to the results that a desktop user may see.

Social signals

Finally, since 2012 Google has been personalising your searches to be influenced by what your friends on Google+ are saying. Who you know, what they’ve shared and what you’ve shared - these ‘social signals’ are used by Google.

When commenting on Google collecting of data to personalised search results Fast Company said this:
“Some might call that a creepy amount of shared data. Others might call it the future.”

How do you stop your search results being personalised?

By now you’ll probably be thinking how am I supposed to know where my website is positioned if my results are personalised.

Well, Google has provided these instructions themselves:

Pause your Google account history

You can pause or delete your web history. Start by going into your Account Settings > Account History and then click ‘Pause’.

Delete and turn off your Google search history

• Visit your Search History page at google.com/history.
• In the top right corner of your Search History page, click the gear icon then Settings.
• Click Delete all, then click the Delete all button to confirm.
• Finally click Turn off to stop future searches being stored.

Delete your browser history

Your searches may also be stored in your browser or the Google Toolbar. Learn how to delete your history on Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

Turn off results customisation 

• Sign out of your Google account. 
• Go to google.com/history/optout.
• Click Disable customizations based on search activity. This will turn the setting off for anyone who uses the same browser and computer as you until someone signs in.

Use ranking software

If you’re an angelfysh client, the easiest way of seeing non-personalised search results is to sign into our SEO ranking software at clients.angelfysh.com. If you've lost your logins, just email us and we’ll send you new logins.

…

Hope we've helped you to find out where your website is really positioned in Google search results. If you’d like to speak to someone about getting your website ranked higher up in Google, that’s what we do - it’s called SEO and we have a 100% record of success. Give us a call on 0191 276 6904 or drop us an email to hello@angelfysh.com.

16 stats that show the value of SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media

Anyone else love a good juicy statistic? We certainly do!

In this blog post we've rounded up 16 stats for you that demonstrate the value of SEO, content marketing and social media - three things which go hand-in-hand with internet marketing and e-commerce success.

SEO statistics

Outbound leads cost 61% more than inbound leads. An example of an outbound lead could be direct mail or print ads, sources of inbound leads include SEO and content marketing. HubSpot.

SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate. Search Engine Journal.

44% of online shoppers start their buying journey with a search engine. IPSOS.

75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. Hubspot.

70-80% of users searching on Google and Bing ignore paid ads. Search Engine Journal.

Search is the largest traffic driver providing 41% of visitors compared to 11% coming from Social Media. Search Engine Land.

Content Marketing statistics

Companies that blog have on average 4 times more indexed pages, pages that Google has deemed valuable enough to store in its index. Social Media Today.

Companies with blogs on their websites have on average 97% more back links. Social Media Today.

90% of consumers find customer content useful and 81%  trust advice from blogs. Social Media Today.

Social Media statistics

There are 3.2 billion interactions on Facebook and over half a billion tweets published every single day. KissMetrics.

77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B companies have acquired customers on Facebook. HubSpot.

34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter. Digital Buzz Blog.

Marketers reported that demand for social media marketing increased by over 60% in 2013. Moz.

71% of social media users are more likely to purchase from brands they follow online. Balihoo.

Interesting content is one of the top three reasons customers follow brands on social media. Social Media Today.

50% of Companies struggling with SEO aren’t integrating social media. Search Engine Land.

...

We hope you've found this collection of statistics both interesting and helpful to your online marketing efforts! Let us know if you've got any SEO stats you'd like to share by commenting below.

6 steps to fit blogging into your busy schedule

Running a business takes a lot of time, for many businesses writing blog posts can come way down their list of priorities. Which is a shame because creating interesting content for your website is so important to its success in search engines – so how can you streamline your blog writing process so it fits into your busy schedule?

1. Decide how often

Consistency is key. Decide how often you want to schedule blog posts, which day of the weeks and what time you want your blog posts to go out. Hubspot research showed that you’re likely to get more views, links and comments if you publish in the morning.

Once you’ve decided on your schedule you need to stick to it! Block out time in your calendar and be consistent with it.

If you can have a couple of back up articles on the ready then you'll have something to fall back on if you miss the odd deadline.

2. Always be on the lookout for ideas

Have somewhere to store your ideas. It’s hard to think up ideas on the spot so collect and jot down ideas through the week when they come to you. These could be questions that customers are always calling to ask, inspired by an interesting article you’ve read or a different spin of on article that’s done well on a competitors blog.

The key to a successful blog post is to create value for the reader. Every single blog post you write should help your reader in some way. Every single one.  Use this rule to judge if your article idea is a good one… or not.

You’ll end up with a bank of ideas to choose from when you come to putting pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard. Spend just 5-10 minutes choosing one of your ideas.

We’ve also written a whole blog post on blog post ideas here.

3. Start with an outline

First decide on your title, keep it under 65characters and make sure it’s compelling. There are some more tips on blog headlines here.

Next write your introduction, conclusion and list the points to include in the body of the blog post.
Your introduction should be clear and engaging; it should tell your reader why they need to read the post and what it will teach them.

Conclusions should be a simple summary of the main points from your post and include a call to action. Calls to actions are really important, if the reader has enjoyed your post you want to keep them on your website moving along the journey to becoming a customer. The call to action could link to a related product, webpage, or another relevant blog post.

4. Write

Now it's all about adding meat to the structure you have and since you’ve already decided what your points are you’ve already done the hard bit.

When you’re writing be sure to keep things simple. That means no jargon! Jargon only alienates readers, you want to reach out to them.

Keep your writing to the point, if you can say it in half the words then why don’t you? Longer content is only a good thing if it tells the reader more.

Back up what you say with stats or links to studies. This both substantiates what you’re saying and it tells the reader that you are well read on the subject.

5. Get someone else to proof and schedule it

There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it’s really hard to spot your own typos because you know the article you’ve written too well. A fresh pair of eyes is needed.

Secondly, proofing, adding pictures and scheduling a blog post can take an extra 30 minutes – which is time you probably don’t have when you’re busy running a business. Getting a member of staff  to do this for you solves this problem.

6. Don’t forget to promote your content

If you’re a busy person, you want to see the largest return for every minute you spend on something.

Promoting your blog posts will not only get it in front of more people it will also make it more discoverable in search results. You can promote your blog posts by including a link from your newsletter, Tweeting it, putting it on Google+ and Facebook. Again, this is something you can delegate to one of your team. (We could actually write several articles on this... I'll add it to my list of blog post ideas!)

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So that’s it; decide how often, get your creative juices running with ideas, outline, write, get help proofing and promote your articles.

Hope we’ve made blogging sound a little less scary and a lot more manageable! It really is something that can benefit your businesses’ online presence tremendously so if you can crack the art of producing great content efficiently, you’re on to a winner.

6 ways to improve your bounce rate to boost SEO results

Bounce rate, as explained by Google is “the percentage of visits in which users view only a single page of your site.”

If you have an e-commerce website, your aim is to get visitors to stick around, look at your products, read about your business, put items in their basket and make a purchase – then you need to get your bounce rate as low as possible as a high bounce rate means low conversion.

Bounce rate is also used by Google to measure how relevant a website is to the search terms or keywords used to find it. This means that if a website has a high bounce rate, not only will it convert fewer visitors, its Google rankings will be negatively affected. And on the flip slide, lowering your bounce rate shows Google that your website is relevant and useful, positively impacting your rankings.

How do you find out your bounce rate?

a) Firstly you’ll need to have Google Analytics set up.

b) If you’ve already done this, go to Behaviour > Site Content > Landing Pages.

c) Select Comparison View from the icons at the top right of your data table.

d) Select Bounce Rate from the (compared to site average) drop down, and you should see a chart like this:

Now on to how to reduce your bounce rate.

1. Drive quality traffic

As mentioned above, bounce rate tells Google how relevant a website is to search terms used to find the website. Driving quality, relevant, hungry-to-buy traffic is more important than getting large volumes of less interested visitors as poor quality traffic will only result in a high bounce rate.

First concentrate on ranking in Google search results for keyword terms that correlate closely to what your website is about, rather than more vague and competitive keywords with a large number of monthly searches.

2. Focus on customer intent

One reason that visitors don’t stick around on a website is not being able to find what they’re looking for. You know the frustrated feeling; you instantly hit the back button and go to the next website in the list of search results.

Overcome this by thinking about what your customers are most likely to want, need, expect, be looking for on your website and then clearly provide a route to that information from your landing pages. (A landing page is any page that a visitor enters your website on.)

Use enquiry emails to provide you with insight into questions customer couldn't easily find the answers to on your website. You can use these questions to create an FAQ page, write blog articles on, add information to your landing pages, improve your product pages, and so on.

3. Get your website looking its best

With the online world becoming increasingly competitive, customers have higher expectations, they’re more impatient and less tolerant of poor design. Good design now signals legitimacy, trustworthiness and providing a quality product and service.

Google actually gives redesigning the landing pages of a website as the first piece of advice to websites with high bounce rates.

4. Improve usability

Usability is just as important as design. A website which looks amazing but offers a very tedious checkout process will lose customers to its competitors. How easy a website is to use is actually a reflection of the quality of customer service provided, it will not only build trust it will keep your visitors on your website, reducing your bounce rate. You can read more about how to improve your usability here.

5. Make your website mobile friendly

This is simply a website that will resize according to the screen it’s being viewed on. It’s a great way to optimise your website for those browsing on mobiles or tablets. Mobile traffic now accounts for one quarter of all web searches and 30% of shoppers say they will abandon a website if checkout is not optimised for mobile.

Additionally 57% of mobile users will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Clearly, making your website accessible to mobile users can have a massive effect on reducing your bounce rate.

6. Give visitors a clear reason to buy from you

We've already mentioned how competitive e-commerce can be; this final point is one we couldn't leave out. Is it obvious to visitors why you are different to competitors? If you provide the best value for money, best quality product or fastest delivery service is this clearly stated on your website?

This differentiation actually comes down to brand definition. Visitors need to be given a compelling reason to stick with you rather than going back to the previous, maybe slightly cheaper but not as great, product. Providing this will keep them glued to your website and to you as a customer.

15 e-commerce best practices you CAN'T ignore

The purpose of this blog article is to showcase some best practices when it comes to e-commerce websites in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).

So here are just a few examples of how to make your e-commerce website not only user friendly but Google friendly too.

1. Product reviews using rich snippets

Rich snippets are any additional pieces of information included in a search result. Here's an example of a product review rich snippets as displayed on a search engine results page.

2. Advertiser and business reviews using rich snippets

Here's how advertiser and store reviews using rich snippets are displayed on a search engine results page.

Other examples of how rich snippets can be used include:

• Reviews
• People
• Products
• Businesses
• Recipes
• Events
• Music

3. Display delivery information prominently

It’s important to clearly display delivery costs, free delivery and free delivery threshold options.

4. Homepage advertising / marketing

Give your visitors (and Google) something new to look at each time they visit your website. Keep it fresh. This can include displaying special offers, sale items, what’s new and more.

5. Star ratings

Displaying product star ratings in the category view of your website will help your visitors to decide which are the best products based on customer reviews.

6. Customer product reviews

Here's an example of the use of summary scores for different aspects of a product.

And here's an example of how customer reviews can be displayed a product page.

7. Reviews of your business

Prominent placing of reviews of your business from external review engines such as Trust Pilot can help your customers to trust you more.

8. Google+ reviews

Positive Google+ reviews reassure customers searching for your brand in Google of your quality. Google+ has so many other features to take advantage of too so it shouldn't be ignored.

9. Give your customers confidence

Tell them why they should buy from you.

10. Stand out from the crowd

Tell your visitors how and why you are different from your competitors. This should be displayed prominently on your website. (And it shouldn't be that you're simply cheaper than your competitors). Your brand agency can help you with this one.

11. Compare products

The functionality to have an easy to view product comparison table is advantageous in certain retail markets such as electronics, household appliances, automotives etc.

12. Tabbed product pages

Great to keep your product pages informative yet non-cluttered.

13. How secure is your website?

Let your customers know that it’s safe to buy from your website. This must be clearly displayed for any visitor (repeat customer or new prospect) to see.

14. Validation error

Don’t make your customers re-enter information twice if they make a mistake first time round filling in a form.

15. Thank you page optimisation

Here's an example of social sharing, related items / customers also bought etc. on a thank you page after checkout is complete.

These are just some examples of what you can be doing to help make your e-commerce website as usable as possible for your prospects / customers. There are so many other things to consider including customer retention and the optimisation of your checkout process but these are for another article.

Thank you for reading and if you'd like to chat to us at angelfysh about how we can help you get the best out of your e-commerce website then please get in touch.