10x digital

The Successful Intersection of SEO, SEM & PR

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Today’s public relations is certainly not the same process as was practiced during the golden ad age of Mad Men. PR has almost completely morphed from the way it was taught and implemented –just a few years ago.

Before the recent digital age (or to define more specifically) –before 2007 and the unveiling of the smartphone and mobile devices—PR was a completely different animal. And from a similar viewpoint, just a decade ago there was a wider chasm of understanding and general lack of linkages among PR, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). More than a decade ago, content marketing wasn’t even a recognized term. What Happened? Read the full article by 10x digital President Holly Rollins on Crowd Reviews.

Five Tips for SEO-friendly Infographics

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Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 1.23.47 PMThe use of infographics (IGs) in digital marketing has soared over the past few years due to the aid they provide in effective, memorable communication. Research shows the brain is better at retaining and retrieving information tied to visual stimuli–an image processor. When IGs are well-researched and well-designed, they can appeal to the right audience. They can also be powerful for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign and help you rank higher.

Five tips to remember when maximizing infographics for SEO include:

1. Customize your IGs: avoid design templates that are elementary, customize new designs that help you stand out from other IGs;
2. Use hard data: primary research is necessary to obtain noteworthy data via online focus groups or surveys. For example, Couponbox.com created a Real-Time spending IG based on hard data and a thoroughly-vetted algorithm;
3. Appeal to your demographics: reach your intended audience by creating IGs that appeal to them and contain content they want to see. Couponbox also created a hot toys list IG for Black Friday, appealing to their demographic of parents;
4. Get editorial links: it’s easier to receive editorial links if your IG contains good data and captivating graphics;
5. Shareable content: is your IG’s content and message worth sharing? If you do your research, your audience will want to share your beautiful, content-rich IG.

This content was previously published on hollymrollins.com.

What’s Conversion & Why It’s Important

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conversion rates_FotorThere are many analytics to pay attention to when monitoring your overall marketing efforts or a specific marketing campaign. Whether you are adjusting your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) budgets or ROI on SEO campaigns, conversion rates are the most important factor when looking at the bigger picture. Conversion rates measure if your marketing efforts and ROI are actually working and how many leads you are converting into sales. These analytics can tell a business which areas of a campaign need to be adjusted and improved. Drew Hendricks writing for Forbes states, “While far too many businesses focus on site traffic acquisition, what you need to worry about is what percentage of visitors are adding value to your bottom line.”

Conversion Rates: A Big Indicator
A conversion rate is the percentage, or ratio of people who do something (purchase an item etc.) out of all the people who were presented with the option to do so (total number of website visitors). A recent article published by Mashable explains that conversion rate metrics may not always indicate a sale, but it does indicate that a person took some sort of action, pushing them farther down the sales funnel. That action could be many things such as: they filled out a form on the website; they clicked on an email address or they made a purchase. Keeping an eye on conversion rates helps ensure you are spending marketing dollars wisely and targeting people who will accomplish the overall goal and make a purchase.

Break Down the Elements of Conversion
It’s important to break down conversion into steps and analyze each element so you can adjust as necessary. Dan Barker, ecommerce expert, recommends examining consumer pathways on your site and which pages are the most important. For example, in regards to purchase conversion, breaking down each individual step to checkout can help you figure out problems or issues hindering your sale. According to a SlideShare published by SwayHub, three in five US shoppers abandon shopping carts before purchase. Message vehicles, incentives and promotions paired with other marketing tactics including social media can help you push customers over the edge who are not following through with their purchase. You should always create a compelling Call to Action (CTA) to give the customer a reason to follow through. Also, creating urgency around purchase decision is an easy way to spike activity and increase conversions.

Conversion: Part of a Whole
Of course conversion rates should not be the only metric marketers focus on and pay attention to. Mashable points out that conversion rates do not take into account time spent on the site, pages per visit or how much a user is engaged. Also, conversion rates vary widely between referrals. Looking at the bigger pictures helps you consider which approach works for each referral channel. Content posted on Facebook targeting specific customers may create awareness and lead to a conversion rate that is totally different from the same content posted on LinkedIn. If past conversion rates were particularly high for a certain piece of content or blog post that got a ton of shares and led to action, you should continue campaigns that align with such success.

The key to maximizing conversions and increasing profitability is to understand the audience, analyze the entire sales funnel from each individual channel and tailor marketing efforts accordingly.

Flaws in Google’s Keyword Planner

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Untitled design-18_FotorSearch engine marketers rely heavily on Google and the data it provides for keyword research. Google Keyword Planner is used by ultimately all SEO marketers, yet it has a few flaws that can provide inaccurate information for keyword metrics. Some digital marketers are aware of this concern and in addition to the keyword planner, use third-party keyword tools to make smarter decisions for their clients.

Rounded Averages
A recent article published by Moz, describes how the Google keyword planner gives averages for “Average Monthly Search Volume” that are heavily rounded. The rounding algorithm that Google uses categorizes keywords by traffic volume using “buckets.” Long-tail keywords are usually three to five words phrases while head tail keywords are typically one or two words. Long-tail keyword buckets are very specific, with volumes separated by 10 or 20 visits, and head tail keyword buckets are very broad with thousands or visits separating traffic volume. This creates a problem because the bigger the search volume, the less certain you can be about the accuracy of the Average Monthly Searches (AVS).

Strange Recommendations
In addition, Google Keyword Planner uses metrics other than just phrase matching to determine recommended keywords, so some of the results may be inaccurate. Moz explains that the computer may make some connections that the human brain never would, so it’s important to review keyword by keyword instead of blindly adding these recommendations to your Adwords campaign.

Hidden Keywords
Adam Thompson, 10x digital Director of Digital and an SEO specialist states, “Google’s keyword tool routinely hides 50 percent or more of the keyword phrases it knows about that has search volume. Even if you enter in a list of keywords to get search volume for, Google will not return the data for some of the keywords.” These inaccurate results could be impacting Adword campaigns by not accounting for those keywords. “You should enter the keywords one by one to force Google to give you the true search volume. SEO specialists can use this to their advantage by finding the keywords Google hides, as they may have lower Cost Per Click (CPC)’s since most advertisers won’t be able to find them,” states Thompson.

Third-party Tools
Third-party keyword research tools, such as SERPs, are useful and arguably provide more comprehensive data than Google Keyword Planner. “In my own tests, I’ve found that the SERPs tool will provide up to twice as many keywords (that have search volume according to Google) than Google’s tool. In my opinion, this tool is the best single tool for longtail keyword research,” Thompson claims. There are other keyword research tools that can be used to build a list of keywords to then use in Google Keyword Planner to find search volume.

Digital and search marketers should be aware of inaccurate results within Google’s Keyword Planner tool and therefore use a combination of tools for keyword research to ensure they are producing successful campaigns for their clients.

Notable Digital Marketing Movements in 2015

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Untitled design-13The year 2015 proved to be a defining one for continuing advancements in the digital space. An article published by Forbes in November 2014 predicted successful marketing strategies for the next year. The term “agility marketing” was used to describe companies that obtain more consumer data, are capable of faster adaption, have shorter lead times and provide real-time marketing. The successful digital marketers in 2015 have learned to adapt to these new methods brought upon by the transition of traditional to digital.

1) Google’s announcement in April of its modified search algorithm— which rewards websites that are fully optimized for mobile platforms– is arguably the top marketing movement of 2015. Because the number of mobile users has surpassed desktop users in recent years, this new addition to the algorithm forced almost all businesses to optimize their websites to improve user experience on mobile devices in order to stay competitive. And of course those late adopters who still haven’t optimized for mobile are either blindly unaware or don’t realize how not being a part of the 21st century is impacting their business. Mobile SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has become more important as a result of this algorithm change. In addition, Google announced their use of machine learning, or an artificial intelligence system, as a part of their search algorithm process– foreshadowing future technological advancements for the year 2016.

Other notable digital marketing movements in 2015 include:
2) An increase in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and SEO campaigns. Adam Thompson, 10x digital director states, “2015 continued the general overall trend of PPC being gradually more complicated, with more features, tools, etc.” He goes on to explain that the ability to target Google ads to a list of email addresses, a feature that was previously used by Facebook, was introduced this year. In addition, “2015 was relatively quiet in the SEO world, although content-based link earning is still the king. Editorial links continue to be the goal targeted by all the good SEO’s, yet Google is still far from perfect at filtering out or penalizing spammy links,” he added.

3) Personalized communication in the form of content marketing as well as producing platform specific content has seen a huge increase in 2015. Businesses are gaining a better understanding of publishing content that both builds brand awareness and communicates effectively with their audience. With each social channel and the variety of each audience group, content creation must be customized in order to see maximum engagement. The article 5 Marketing Trends in 2015 That You Can’t Ignore states, “your content marketing plan, your email communication—even your offline marketing efforts—need to be more about connecting with, educating and engaging your supporters and less about the pitch.” For digital marketers (and those who want to be an active part of this group), these changes in the industry are important milestones for the year and need to be heeded for optimal marketing practices.