Participate In The End Of Financial Year Sales

Okay, we admit this one seems kind of obvious, but that’s precisely why we have to talk about it. If you’re not running an End Of Financial Year Sale, you’re missing out big time. Everywhere you go during this period, on every website you browse, you’re guaranteed to see the same familiar signs…

EOFYS! EOFYS! EOFYS! 

We all know that acronym, what it stands for, and what it means. It means sales, savings, deals you don’t want to miss out on, and stock you’ll never see again. People shopping at this time of the year expect to see these signs. What’s more, they’re ready to spend their money with any company that has one, be it in their shop window or on their website… This is exactly what makes EOFYS so important for your business. 

According to a study conducted by Mozo at the end of the 2021 financial year, 81% of Australians were expected to take advantage of last year’s EOFY sales. With such an overwhelming majority of people around the country anticipating these sales, marketing them is almost too easy. People are actively searching for these sales all throughout May and June. If you’re yet to inform your customers that your business is participating in EOFYS too, we suggest letting them know ASAP. Reap the rewards before it’s too late!

To really make the most of this opportunity, we recommend getting in touch with an SEO agency. They will help you with SEO marketing, informing you of the specific keywords people are searching for during this time so you can optimise your content. With such an uptick in searches from people ready to purchase, any investments to advertise your EOFY sales will be well worth the time and money spent. 

Buy One Get One Free

EOFY is the best time of year to clear out old stock and make way for new products. Accurate stocktake plays a vital role for many businesses as they put together their financial reports in preparation for tax time. This stock count has to be precise as there’s no room for error when it comes to the tax office! With most small businesses unable to afford the technology needed to automate these stock counts, many find themselves conducting them by hand. 

Not only is the time-consuming nature of large stock counts just downright unpleasant, but it can also lead to errors. The more stock you have to count, the longer it takes to get the job done. The longer the job takes, the more time there is for mistakes to occur. Getting rid of as much old stock as possible through incentives such as “Buy One Get One Free” makes this process much easier and more efficient. On top of making your customers happy with the reward of a free gift, you’ll also be making yourself and your staff happy as you begin organising your business’ tax report. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved! 

Introduce A Loyalty Program

As we know, EOFY is an incredibly busy time for Australian businesses. The majority of consumers are seeking out new sales to participate in. Because of this, loyalty programs present a golden opportunity for increasing customer retention. Loyal customers are almost guaranteed to purchase from you if you run a sale. It’s likely you’ll gain new customers during this time too. With such a high increase in site traffic, there’s no better time to introduce a loyalty program. 

Loyalty programs are a fantastic marketing tactic. They allow you to capitalise on the current sale while also creating opportunities for more revenue in the future. There are two effective ways to implement a loyalty program. The first is to create a site pop up that appears as leads make a move to click off your website. The second way is to allow them to opt-in at checkout. Both options encourage customers to further engage with your site and increase customer retention. 

Start Advertising New Products

Right now, you’re likely preparing to say goodbye to your old stock in time for the new financial year. So it makes sense to begin advertising the next line of goods that are about to become available. Why not run social media campaigns to tease future stock? Or give people an incentive to join your mailing list by opening preorders to customers who sign up? However you choose to advertise your next line of products, make sure it remains fresh, consistent, and exciting.

In the lead up to the launch, we recommend leaving out just enough information to encourage people back each day for updates. If you run a clothing business, for example, it can be a good idea to tease your audience with fabric prints without revealing the whole product. Another idea would be to introduce a different product each day on your social media. Then, once the entire line has been revealed, open up pre-orders. 

Structuring your content to consistently push the entire collection without seeming repetitive is essential here. You want to keep your audience invested in your advertising campaign without becoming an annoyance. Focusing on a different product every day will leave your customers feeling excited by the upcoming launch rather than exasperated by it. In turn, this will make them much more likely to make a purchase when the collection finally drops. 

Optimise And Advertise 

Our final tip will help you use what’s left of your business’ budget before the new financial year. Invest in Google Ads and SEO marketing with help from a digital marketing expert. These strategies have an incredible Return on Investment (ROI) and are the perfect marketing solutions. Hiring a digital marketing expert will help you in both the short and long term. 

Short term, running paid advertisements during EOFY will generate traffic at the best time. Remember, people have an increased incentive to buy and are actively searching for deals. Long term, SEO marketing is a great way to prepare your website for the new financial year. Fresh SEO content will help your website to appear on the first page just in time for new product launches. It’s also a fantastic way to use up the remainder of your budget!

Talk To The Search Marketing Experts Today For More Tips This EOFY!

Now we’ve gone over our top five tips, you’re well on your way to ending this financial year in the best way possible. If you’re ready to implement these ideas with help from digital marketing experts, get in touch today! We will grow your digital presence and optimise your website, increasing your online success and boosting your business. Whether you need help with SEO marketing, Google Ads, full website rebuilds, or something else entirely, we have the services for you. Contact the Search Marketing Experts today and learn how we can help your business reach new heights in the upcoming financial year.

The post 5 Marketing Ideas For This EOFY appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

David Herrmann, president of Herrmann Digital, a paid social advertising company shared on his Twitter account a screenshot of ad placements on TikTok’s search pages. The discovery seems to be a beta test on the platform for additional ad placements. Video ads have a “Sponsored” label and are placed within the top four search results, above the “Others search for” section. The search ads, though, are just placements, according to Herrmann. Keyword targeting is not yet available. New ad placements are always a welcome addition for advertisers, especially one looking to diversify their reach. TikTok has been shown to have an audience with high purchase intent. Companies would do well to further study and consider TikTok for future advertising.

Google Trials New Multisearch Feature

Ever experience being at a loss for words when trying to do a search for the perfect piece of clothing to add to your wardrobe, or when trying to find a tutorial on how to care for a plant whose name you don’t know? These moments of speechlessness are what Google’s Multisearch feature is trying to solve. Using the Google App, users will be able to make a search query using a combination of text and images. Take a screenshot of a stylish blue dress and refine your search by adding “pink” to find it in another colour. Or you can snap a photo of those hydrangeas and the query, “care instructions” to find tutorials on how you can make your flowers flourish. Still only available in English in the U.S., Google’s Multisearch definitely has the potential to take search an innovative step forward.

Instagram Updates Ranking Algorithm

This April, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced that Instagram is updating how it ranks content on the platform, this time putting more emphasis and focus on original content. “If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you are resharing something that you found from someone else,” he said in a video tweet announcing the changes. Content re-shared from other apps like TikTok, which include a watermark would continue to be downranked. Aggregator accounts that post content from other accounts will see a decline. The same goes with accounts that post trending memes. While the change is still a work in progress, it’s definitely a welcome change in favour of content creators.

Twitter Looking to Add Edit Feature

After Elon Musk published a poll on Twitter asking audiences whether they wanted an edit button or not, Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal responded in such a way that Twitter was indeed working on adding an edit button. Testing will begin with Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming months. Of course, concerns of people maliciously changing their tweets. However, according to reverse engineer, Jane Manchun Wong, it seems as if Twitter’s edit option will not update an existing tweet. Rather, it will create a new version of the tweet that will be published in its place, meaning that the edit history will be preserved. The edit button will definitely be a handy tool for users that want to correct misspellings and typos, and it will certainly be easier than deleting a tweet and retyping and republishing it once more.

The post April Digital Marketing Industry Updates appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

Of course, coming up with content can be difficult, especially when thousands of blog posts come out every day on virtually any and every possible topic. Thankfully, we’ve put together a shortlist of the types of blog posts that will yield you the highest results and traffic for your website.

1. Review Blogs

There’s nothing revolutionary about a blog post featuring a product review. And yet 89% of customers say that they read reviews before making a purchase. The best way that you can leverage review posts, then, is by reviewing popular products within your industry. 

The best way to go about this is to head on over to Google and do a search like, “Best smartphones 2022” or “best project management software”. You’ll notice that popular tech websites are covering this topic a lot. Pay attention to how long these articles are, how many products they compare, and what headings they use. Afterwards, go and write a much more comprehensive and thorough blog post compared to these. The more value you’re able to offer, the more likely you are to slide into that top spot on Google.

2. Frequently Asked Questions Blog Post

Have you ever noticed that when you type in a Google search like, “What is SEO?” oftentimes the top result already shows you the answer to your question? This is what is called a featured snippet, and is practically the Holy Grail of SEO.

That’s where FAQ posts come in. A lot of searches on Google are usually written in the form of a question. And it’s this question and answer format that makes FAQ posts rank potentially higher on results pages. 

How to find out what frequently asked questions to write about: 

• Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest.
• Start typing in a search on Google and look at the questions that populate the “People Also Asked” section.
• Do the same over on YouTube and look at what suggestions dropdown from the search bar.
• Head over to the question-and-answer website, Quora to find common and related questions.

3. Expert Interviews

When you’re just starting out, one of the fastest ways to grow your network and reach is to leverage another person’s audience and influence. One way to do that is to invite them for an interview. Interviews continue to remain a popular form of content, especially in podcasts.

Ask questions that your readers are interested in finding out and learning about and compile it all into a post that provides value and insight.

4. Step-by-Step Tutorials

A lot of users searching for answers online do so because they’re trying to learn something new and unfamiliar. Creating step-by-step tutorials for beginners is a good way to leverage off of that interest. In fact, calling your post a “Beginner’s guide to…” can go a long way in enticing readers to visit your website.

Break down a complicated topic like investing in stocks, or coding and programming into simple and basic steps that could help readers get a jumpstart in their educational journey. Remember, it’s a beginner’s guide! So there’s no need to cover everything. Add simple step-by-step instructions, some background information and definition of terms, and then just link to more detail and comprehensive information.

5. Ultimate Guide Posts

The more comprehensive and complex version of the step-by-step tutorial is the Ultimate Guide. Where a step-by-step tutorial usually only covers the basics, Ultimate Guides are exhaustive in the way that they tackle every necessary step in a complicated process.

Ultimate Guides also tend to do really well, as it was uncovered that in 2021 the average blog post was 1,400 words long. And what’s more that same study also found that blog posts over 3,000 words tended to perform better. When creating an Ultimate Guide, make sure that you cover every single step. You want to make sure that a reader comes out of that complete with everything they need to accomplish the task.

6. Case Studies

When it comes to building authority, nothing beats a good case study. Case studies are also a very good way of generating backlinks, particularly because they’re real-life examples of what worked and what didn’t work. When creating a case study, it’s always good to talk through the process of how you went about creating your results, whether that’s losing 10 pounds in 1 month or earning $100,000 in one week with Facebook Ads.

7. Learn from My Mistakes Blog

For those willing to be vulnerable enough in front of their audiences, one type of case study that works well is a “Learn from My Mistakes” blog. This type of case study focuses on the storytelling, whether that tells the journey of how you got rid of a debt of $1 million, or what adjustments you made to your Google Ad campaigns once you started to lose a lot of money.

These types of posts can be powerful in building connections with your audience. Once you’ve earned their trust and respect, they’re more likely to do business with you, and follow you as you continue to make progress towards your success.

8. Industry News

A lot of blogs (41% of them, in fact), particularly in the tech and digital marketing space, tend to cover news surrounding their industries. And for good reason! These types of blog posts have a very loyal following, particularly if the industry is ever-changing and fast-paced.

These types of posts also cover the latest trends. So whether you’re in the tech, fashion, or entertainment industries, covering what’s new and what’s happening is always a good way to generate traffic.

9. “Best of” Blogs

“Best of” blog posts are usually roundups surrounding a specific niche or topic. The great thing about this type of post is that it can work for virtually any industry, whether you’re covering the “Best Netflix shows in 2021”, the “Best online cooking courses” or the “Best hotels in Queensland”. These can also be a roundup of your own content such as “February’s Top Writing Articles” or “Best Case Studies of 2021”.

10. List Articles (listicles)

Last but certainly not least are list articles, more commonly known as listicles. These remain very popular types of content that users consume. In fact, according to 57% of bloggers, they’re the 2nd most popular type of content. This very article is a good example of it.

Coming up with blog post ideas can be easy once you know what types of content you want to focus on. And if ever you’re not sure what topics you should cover, it’s always a good idea to ask your audience directly what questions they have about your industry, or what are the things that they’d like to learn.

And if you’re looking to optimise your already-existing content for search engines, our Search Marketing Experts are more than ready to lend a hand and guide you towards online success!

The post 10 Best Blog Post Ideas to Bring You Traffic in 2022 appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

Naturally, as an e-commerce business, you want to take advantage of this opportunity and rising trend. For that reason, we’ve put together a few quick and simple improvements that you can make to your website to help you increase your sales and conversions, and lessen the burden of shopping cart abandonment. Let’s check them out.

1. Improve Site Speed

Besides making your website mobile-friendly, site speed is one of the most important things you have to optimise. This is because 40% of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

You can use tools like PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s benchmarks and find ways that you can improve loading speeds.

Some of the most basic ways to improve site speed include enabling caching, reducing image sizes, or using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN helps by duplicating elements from your site and then delivering these to visitors from a server that’s closer to their physical location.

2. Organise & Clean-up Your Navigation Menu

One of the best ways to improve your e-commerce website is to clean up and simplify your navigation menus.

For shops selling clothing, for example, having an extensive menu that lists down different categories and styles of clothing can be daunting. Sometimes it’s better to keep your navigation menu simple, and instead optimise each of your product pages so that they’re easy to find using your site’s search bar.

3. Ask For & Display Customer Reviews

When it comes to closing sales for your e-commerce website, customer reviews are the primary ingredient. About 49% of users look at online reviews before purchasing. Make it a standard process to always ask for a review whenever you make a sale.

Send customers an email asking how they liked your product? If possible, ask them for a photo of them using it. The more user-generated content you can encourage and gather, the more authority you’ll bring to your products and your brand.

4. Review & Improve Product Copy

Your product copy and descriptions can sometimes make or break the checkout process. Too little information and customers can begin to doubt whether or not the purchase is worth it. 

Always make sure to list down any measurements or specifications on your product detail pages. If a percentage of the profits go to some non-profit or charity, it’s good to mention that as well.

Also, make sure to list down any unique selling points your products might have. Are they handmade, locally made, crafted or produced? Can they be customised or personalised to fit the customer’s personality or purpose?

More than just specs, though, make sure that your product pages are also optimised for search engines. Only 37% of marketers optimise their product detail pages for SEO. That means that the rest are not showing up on search engines, leaving you with a tremendous advantage against the competition.

5. Simplify Checkout Process

According to Shopify, 69.57% of all shopping carts are abandoned. While 60% of these cases are due to shipping costs and issues, that still leaves 40%.

For one reason or another, customers end up leaving items in their shopping carts unprocessed. This could be due to a complicated checkout process. That said, make it easy for customers to checkout. Simplify and minimise the number of steps that they have to take.

Some stores require that customers create an account before checkout. The truth is, however, that 23% of visitors will abandon their shopping cart if they’re required to create one.

6. Be Available for Live Chat

One interesting thing to note is that most people (60%) prefer to use an automated self-service portal. This is why chatbots are also becoming increasingly popular. According to a report by Comm100, conversations fully handled by chatbots receive a satisfaction rating of 87.58%.

However, according to Microsoft, 30% of consumers say that not being able to get in touch with a human is the most frustrating part of a bad customer experience. Additionally, 73% of customers find live chat the most satisfactory form of communication.

This means that while it’s alright to have your site or social media pages be managed by chatbots, having someone on standby for live chat can make all the difference.

With all these changes in mind, however, you still have to think about the marketing and advertising of your business so that you can drive traffic and sales to your website.

If you feel like you need help getting more online exposure and really scaling your business to the next level, get in touch with one of our Search Marketing Experts and we can whip up a solid strategy to help you maximise your online sales and presence.

The post 6 Simple Improvements to Your Website to Increase Online Shopping Sales appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

Have you ever wanted to organise your browser history in such a way that you could easily find and go back to the pages and sites you were referencing for some research? Well, something new along those lines is coming to Google’s web browser app, Chrome, called “Journeys”. What is Journeys? It is a Google Chrome desktop feature that now groups pages in your search history by topic or intent.

The feature will be especially useful when conducting research on a certain topic, whether you’re just a regular Chrome user, or a content creator. If you’re planning a party, for example, and want to revisit some of the pages and sites you reviewed a few weeks ago, all you have to do now is simply type “party” or “party planning” into the search bar and then click on “Resume your research”. You’ll then be shown a list of sites visited based on activity related to party planning. The feature was being tested since last year, October. However, this month, Google announced that they would be rolling it out to Chrome. So make sure to watch out for it on your browser history, especially if you’re doing research of any kind.

New & Improved Google Search Ads 360

New changes have arrived for Google’s Search Ads 360 platform. For those unfamiliar with it, Search Ads 360 was first developed more than ten years ago to help advertisers build, manage, and optimise their search ad campaigns. Recently, Google has revamped the platform and given it a new and easy-to-use interface that more resembles with what advertisers are used to when managing campaigns through the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising platforms.

The new Search Ads 360 provides a centralised platform with features catered to help optimise the daily tasks and workload that’s involved with managing search ads. These features include improved search engine support, campaign management, budget management, automated rules, and labels, including over ten new Microsoft Advertising features designed to enhance productivity. In fact, some users have claimed the Search Ads 360 has helped them minimise workload by at least 20% and save their team 2-3 every week. If you’re looking to manage your search ads in one centralised location, then it might be worth giving Search Ads 360 a try.

Introducing Microsoft Cruise Ads

This month, Microsoft announce a new ad solution to help businesses reach more people and acquire more leads and sales. Microsoft Cruise Ads is the latest among those new additions. Geared towards helping businesses in the Travel Experiences, Financial Services, and Automotive industries, Cruise Ads aims to add a more engaging and eye-catching ad experience both for users and advertisers.

For starters, setting up Cruise Ads is a breeze as advertisers no longer need to provide keywords for their campaigns. Rather, Cruise Ads uses search intent and dynamically-generated elements to deliver a relevant ad experience. Advertisers can still optimise their ads by adding negative keywords. The use of search intent to deliver ads promises to help advertisers get better results and higher-quality clicks. If your business encompasses one of the industries mentioned, then it might be worth investing a bit in Microsoft’s Cruise Ads.

What if You Could Write, Post, and Share Entire Articles on Twitter?

Twitter has always been a form of mirco blogging, starting with 140 characters per tweet, and then expanding that to 280 characters. However, because Twitter has also noticed how some users sometimes screenshots long blocks of text and then post those on Twitter, the social media platform might be looking to provide a solution for much longer forms of tweets.

Recently, reverse-engineering expert Jane Manchum Wong discovered a new tweet test option named “Articles” on the app which provides a platform for long-form posts. How this will eventually work inside of Twitter’s ecosystem is still up in the air. However, should the development of Twitter articles push through, it would definitely be something to consider getting into to test out.

The post February Digital Marketing Industry Updates appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

Facebook Removes 4 Major Targeting Categories in Ads Manager

Twitter Tests Advanced Search Options for Direct Messages

The last update that Twitter made for their direct messages was back in 2019 wherein they implemented the “Search for People and Groups”. Recently, some users have noticed a new feature in the back-end code that gives them advanced search options for DMs. Should the changes be implemented, it would be of great help for businesses to sort through their customer service responses, by helping them find certain keywords or topics throughout their DMs. There might be some privacy concerns and considerations should Twitter decide to roll out advanced search, but overall it would be a helpful tool for both regular users and businesses.

Instagram Looking to Introduce New Feed Options for Users

The post Digital Marketing Industry Updates – January appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

SEO isn’t all that different.

In fact, in order for your SEO strategy to be successful, you have to be thinking long term. And there’s no better time to get started working on your long-term goals than before the year ends and a new one begins.

That said, we’ve put together 12 things that you can do to help improve your SEO rankings in the 12 days before or after the New Year begins.

Day 1 – Setup & optimise your Google My Business page

Setting up a Google My Business page is especially important if you’re a local brick-and-mortar business. Doing so can literally put your business on the map, especially for users that use search terms like “near me”.

Add to that the fact that it’s a good way to improve your business’ credibility. Potential customers will be more likely to put their trust in your business if they see that it’s tied to a physical location. Not to mention you can also gather customer reviews and testimonials once you’ve setup your Google My Business account.

Day 2 – Get an SSL Certificate

Just last October, Google announced that Chrome web browsers would be shifting towards an HTTPS-First Mode policy.

In other words, if a website doesn’t yet have an SSL certificate (which would move it from an HTTP website to HTTPS), users will be shown a warning that the website is not secure before loading it. This could put off any visitors that are looking to make a purchase on your website.

Installing an SSL certificate is easy, and could easily be done in less than a day.

Day 3 – Improve page loading speed

The first 3-5 seconds of page load time are the most important. In fact, website conversions drop an average of 4.42% for each additional second of load time between 0-5 seconds. 

Take a day to go through your website’s loading times, especially the pages where you get the most traffic and conversions.

Some things you can quickly do to increase load speeds:

• Compress all the images on your website, as they can cause the heaviest load.
• Remove unused plugins, media, pages and themes from your database or server.
• Install a caching plugin to compress your site.

Day 4 – Make sure your site is optimised for mobile devices

Did you know that 69% of internet users prefer to look for reviews on their mobile devices rather than talk to an employee in-store? Add to that the fact that 69.4% of users use shopping apps on their mobile devices to make their purchases.

If your website isn’t optimised for mobile yet, it’s about time to consider contacting your web designer and developer so that you can make the shift.

Day 5 – Audit & update your content

Several digital marketing experts have suggested that either deleting or reviving old and outdated content has helped them improve their SEO rankings.

If you’ve been blogging for years now, you probably have hundreds (if not thousands) of blog posts on a myriad of topics. Taking a day to go through each of those posts and pages and determine whether or not they’re worth keeping might just help you improve your rankings.

Search Engine Journal, for example, talks about how they’ve been able to improve their pageviews and organic traffic by over 60% year on year just by “hacking and slashing” their way through their archives.

Maybe it’s time to bring out those shears and start cutting.

Day 6 – Fix broken links

Broken links don’t just break your SEO, they also give visitors a bad user experience that just causes them to bounce, which ultimately affects your credibility and authority within your industry.

There are a lot of tools you can use to check for broken links on your website, making this an easy fix.

Day 7 – Optimise your images

Photos and images are great for your site content. They help break up walls of text, making it easier on the eyes for readers and visitors.

However, they can also be incredibly heavy because of their file sizes. Always make sure that any and all images you upload to your website are compressed.

Additionally, you should also make sure that your images are named using the keywords you’re targeting for that specific page. Search engines also take into account the file names and alt text of your images when determining search page rankings.

Day 8 – Structure content with header tags

Header tags not only improve the readability of your webpages, but Google also takes these into account when indexing your website.

While you want to make sure that your header tags are catchy enough to keep users on your page longer, you also want to put in your focus keywords so that they can also help with your rankings.

Day 9 – Create catchy titles and meta descriptions

Your blog and page titles are the most important part of your SEO strategy. You only have 65 characters to get enough of people’s attention that they’re willing to click through. 

List articles have always been a popular choice of title, and so are posts that begin with “How to”. Make sure your headlines always highlight the benefits that users will receive by clicking through. And once they do, make sure that you’re able to deliver on that promise.

Day 10 – Choose one focus keyword per page

There was a time when it was recommended to populate your posts and pages with as many targeted keywords as possible.

That isn’t the case today.

What Google and other search engines prioritise these days is quality content, not content that’s riddled with keywords. Writing for humans first, then, means focusing on just one target keyword, and then delivering tenfold on the quality of your content so that users will keep coming back for more.

Day 11 – Review & Improve Your Internal Linking Strategy

Are you linking to other posts and pages on your website? If you’ve been blogging and creating content for a while now, it’s always a good idea to look back and review how you can link your posts together.

Are there themes and topics that interconnect? Is there a way to string a series of posts together that will get users to dive deeper and deeper into your blog? Are your Portfolio and Contact pages easily accessible throughout your website?

Find opportunities to link back to some of the most important pages on your site, and improve the overall experience that users will get whenever they visit.

Day 12 – Create Quality Content

Last, but certainly not least, continue creating quality content. Google will always prefer new and updated content over old ones. If you have something new to say about a certain topic, or you have a new spin on an old one, write it out and publish it to your audience.

Long-form content always works better, especially for SEO. So don’t be afraid to make your posts as extensive and comprehensive as possible.

And if you need any help in accomplishing any of these tasks, we have veteran SEO experts ready to help you out before the year ends. Simply give us a call or send us an email and we’ll reach out to you to discuss how we can best help set you up for success in the new year.

The post 12 Things You Can Do to Improve Your SEO Ranking Before 2022 appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

Ready to Take a Moment to Reset by Closing Instagram?

Google Introduces New Feature Looking Ensure Your Safety

Google Performance Max Now Available Worldwide!

The post Digital Marketing Industry Updates – November appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

The social media giant is making some significant changes to its ad objectives in the weeks ahead. All current ad objectives are now going to be grouped into six new objectives, mainly: awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, sales, and app promotion. While Facebook has mentioned that the change will now affect reporting and results, it would be good for advertisers to better familiarise themselves with the current objectives. Facebook has also specified that any active campaigns will remain active, and will not require advertisers to make any changes. For any new campaigns being created, though, it would be a good idea to refer to Facebook’s ad objective grouping to avoid confusion.

Have You Applied for a Twitter Professional Profile Yet?

Twitter is opening up applications for their new Professional Profile! Beta testing for the new profile page started back in April, where Twitter invited a couple of businesses to test and take part. Recently, applications have opened for businesses, creators, and influencers wanting to look more professional on the platform. To apply, simply click through this link. Take note, however, that the process is still clunky, as users aren’t allowed to manually edit the profile once submitted. To make and apply any changes, you’ll have to resubmit your application. The new Professional Profile includes three modules: the About Module, which will contain your business information and contact details and your hours of operation, the Shop Module, which is a new feature that will allow users and followers to purchase your products on Twitter, and the Newsletter Module, which serves as a place to let your followers know about any recent news or updates. 

Google Introduces Continuous Scrolling for Mobile Search Results

Some recent news broke out from the search engine giant that has the digital marketing industry making noise. Google is now updating the user experience for mobile searchers that mimics social media platforms: the infinite scroll. Instead of the “See more results” button often found at the bottom of your initial search results, users will be served a continuous stream of relevant links. Users are curious about how this would affect their SEO and organic search. One thing is for sure, though, the continuous scroll could help those sites that find themselves on pages 2, 3, and so on of the search results page since mobile users will no longer be able to identify the difference.

Attention Needed! Google Updates Advertiser Identity Verification Policy

Google is making changes to its Advertiser Identity Verification Policy as a way to further improve the quality of advertising on their network. The update will require advertisers to accomplish the task of verifying their account within 30 days after they receive the appropriate email. Currently running campaigns will be paused at the end of the 30 days should the account fail to verify their identity. The update will allow Google to publicly display business information such as contact information, ad creatives, the dates and locations that these ads are being served, advertiser name change history, ads removed, and accounts suspended.

The post Digital Marketing Industry Updates – October appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.

According to the Australia Post, growth in online shopping in Aussie households grew by 57% in 2020. Just over eight months of online shopping in 2020 already overtook 12 months’ worth in 2019. 

The frequency of online shopping also shifted. Out of 2.3 million low-frequency online shoppers, 52% more were shopping online in 2020, and 26% of that number shopped at least 10 times between March and December 2020.

So for those running Google Shopping ads, how can you make the most out of this change in consumer behaviour?

1. Optimise your shopping feed

Your Google Shopping feed is the list of all your product SKUs (stock-keeping units). This spreadsheet is vitally important, as it is where Google pulls the information it needs about your products to determine which of your products is relevant to which search query.

That said, the last thing you want to do is just take your entire product database and then upload it directly to Google Merchant Centre. This is a mistake, as there will be some compatibility issues that can lead to your products not being listed, duplicate listings, or at worst, the suspension of your account.

Before uploading your database, go over it again and make sure it contains critical information such as the product ID, pricing, images, stock levels, titles and descriptions, as well as links to your product landing pages.

You can reference Google’s Product Data Specification page to make sure that you get everything right before uploading your database.

2. Build on and leverage Google Seller Ratings

Google Seller Ratings are basically your Google customer reviews that can automatically appear as extensions below your ads. The higher your seller rating is, the more likely consumers will click through. And an increase in click-through rate is always good as it can save you money for your advertising.

Selle ratings aren’t available off the bat, however. Google usually requires that businesses be able to collect 100 or more eligible reviews within the last 12 months before they can confidently calculate and display a seller rating score.

The best and only way to build your seller rating, is to be proactive in asking customers for honest reviews of your products.

3. Include relevant keywords in your product descriptions

It’s important to note that Google Shopping campaigns run differently from Google Ads search campaigns. For Google Shopping ads, you’re bidding on Product Groups rather than keywords.

That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s okay to forgo putting keywords in your product descriptions. Google will still look at your product titles and descriptions for relevant keywords, and so will potential customers.

Write your product titles and descriptions with the customer in mind. What keywords would they key in to search for and discover your products? 

4. Structure and segment your campaigns

Lastly, pay close attention to how your campaigns are structured, because this can make all the difference when it comes to results and ad spend.

For starters, it’s always best to separate campaigns by device type. Mobile shopping comes out on top of the list, of course. As of 2020, 91% of online shoppers in Australia use their mobile phones, whereas 76% used a laptop or computer, and 61% shopped on tablets.

Shopping behaviour differs significantly as well, depending on what device one is using. While desktop is the preferred purchasing device for holiday season shopping, mobile remains on top overall.

Secondly, you might also want to separate your products into different ad groups, depending on the price. You want to give your highest SKU more exposure since they have the highest margins, and underbid on your low-priority products. Balancing this is key to making sure that you get the most out of your ad spend.

5. Pay close attention to your bids

Bidding is the second most important piece of the puzzle in creating Google Shopping success. The main difference between Google Shopping and Google Ads is that in Google Shopping you’re not bidding for a spot or position on page 1. Instead, you’re bidding on whether you’ll show up on the ad space or not.

There’s no shortcut to optimising your bidding. You’ll have to experiment and test which bids are working, and which aren’t. Overbidding can have your ads show up for more general and irrelevant queries, which lowers your overall results in terms of clicks and conversions. In other words, don’t always go for the higher bid.

Managing Google Shopping ads can be tedious and time-consuming, no doubt. That’s why it’s often better to leave it to experts and professionals, especially during the holiday season. That way, you, as a business owner can focus on the overall customer experience and deliverables. If that’s you, then pick up that phone and give our agents a call. We’ve had years of experience helping small businesses succeed online. And we can help you achieve that same success.

The post 5 Ways to Succeed in Google Shopping this Q4 appeared first on Search Marketing Experts.