A/B Testing for Effective SEO
Running PPC campaigns or testing an email is deemed the most challenging task in digital marketing. But do you know what is more difficult? A/B testing for the SEO landing pages. Things become tougher if you are taking help from the Google Website Optimizer.
If this scared you and you are planning to ditch A/B testing already, think again. When I was running a marketing recruitment agency, I was not paying much attention to A/B testing. However, I soon learned about its importance. So before I share how it helped me, let’s learn about what it is, and some terms that will come in handy.
What is A/B Testing?
People also refer to A/B testing as split testing. During this test, you change one or more features of your test page and compare the results with the original page’s performance. After you have a look at the results, you can analyze and decide whether you want to make the changes or not.
In case, the audiences’ response is overwhelming, you would want to try the test page. The ‘A’ in the test is your original page while the ‘B’ is the test page. There is nothing much complex about a simple A/B testing. A very straightforward test that will display the comparison before you. Some of the most common features that people test using the split test are CTA messaging and the color changes.
What is Multivariate Testing?
Multivariate testing is more complex when compared to A/B testing. This type involves the simultaneous testing of various sections on a single landing page simultaneously. Here, you get to test the multiple combinations of a single page. And you will have to decide which one receives the best response.
Companies use this approach to optimize their landing pages better. Multivariate testing also gives you insights about how the various elements of a page are working together. It throws light on the impact of one element on the other. Some of the common combinations that companies test include the many combinations of images and headlines. Apart from that, combinations of buttons and body text also get tested quite often.
Impact of A/B and Multivariate Testing on SEO
You might be wondering that what is the need to get into such complexities and why do companies need to carry out these tests. The answer lies in the great impact that these tests are capable of having on SEO. In most of the cases, these tests will have a positive and favorable impact. However, if you are not aware of how to manage them well, these tests can even have a negative impact on SEO.
There are many reasons for the tests going wrong and not giving the expected results. Some of them include:
Cloaking – In case there is a huge variance among the test versions and the search engine sees a very different version of the testing age, cloaking occurs. This can demote your website’s ranking. The worse yet is that your website can even get removed from the organic search altogether as a result of cloaking.
Page duplication – If your website’s pages are identical to each other, the search engine will treat them as duplicates. Hence, creating problems.
Inconsistent redirects – If your web pages keep redirecting to other pages, then that can pose problems as well.
What do Search Engines Want?
Because it is SEO aka Search Engine Optimization, you have to listen to what the various search engines expect from you. Only then will you be able to conduct A/B and Multivariate testing with success.
According to Google, it is the stability and consistency that matters the most. Google hates getting redirected to another page whenever the search engine crawls your test page. Everything that the search engine sees after visiting the page is what it thinks the audience will see as well. And that is how it is. Therefore, anything that causes inconvenience of any kind gets labeled as a red flag from Google. Thus, affecting your test.
Bing
As far as Bing is concerned, it is no different than Google when it comes to the stability of the website. According to the reps of Bing, you should run a test over a course of weeks and not hours to get a fair comparison.
How can I Improve My Tests?
Serve the Primary Content
Make sure that you feed Google the primary content that you wish to have a ranking for. If the original page contains a section that is missing in the test page, then Google will not accept this. It cannot access the page to make a fair comparison. Avoid Cannibalization and be very careful when it comes to title tags, internal links, and body content.
Not Very Different Pages
No doubt that if you wish to test something different, the test page will need some tweaking. However, you should be careful when making these changes. The two pages should not come across as very different from each other. In case they are, it gets labeled as cloaking and you would have to request a manual action to get it fixed.
302 Redirects
In case a split test involves redirection, then you should use a 302 redirect between the test URLs. This tells the search engine that the redirect is temporary. Thus, sending a message to include the original page in the index.
Retain the Original Page
Preserving the links’ equity is essential. If you run your test on the various URLs and your test page performs better than the original, you should not just go about switching the original page off. Instead, consider updating the old page with the changes that received a positive response on the new page. In case, this option is not available, you can always bring 301 redirect t to use.
Run Tests When Necessary
You might get tempted to run tests for a long period. However, it will do you no good. Run the tests as long as it is necessary for you too. This will help ensure that you have enough data gathered to make a fair comparison.
When I had to introduce a webpage on my site highlighting the importance of talent acquisition strategies, I remember creating 2-3 variants of it. Then I let the test run for 2 months. It was a great success because I took care of everything.
CTA buttons boosting conversions on Instagram
Use Call-To-Action Buttons For Boosting Conversions On Instagram Business Profile
If you do not have a business profile on Instagram, you will be missing out on a lot of opportunities. This social media platform is fast rising in popularity with about one billion active users every month. The best part of Instagram is it understands the needs of business owners and rolls out user-friendly features regularly.
Businesses that use Instagram for their marketing and promotion state the platform has helped them to increase sales conversions drastically. You can convert your personal profile into a business account and start using it to attract the targeted audience easily. Instagram is a simple, user-friendly platform, and it does not take long for one to master its interface at all!
The power of words for your business success
In marketing,you need to be careful with words as they might make or break your business. If you are smart enough, using the right words can impress potential customers and drive sales to a large volume. The same holds true for Instagram business marketing, where the call-to-action plays a vital role in generating higher leads and revenue with success.
Incorporating call-to-action for a successful business marketing campaign
Instagram has gone one step further by incorporating a call-to-action button for its users on their business profiles. Users have the option to activate this button to see the conversion rates for their business increase.
These call-to-action buttons first made their appearance in 2015. At the outset, Instagram offered limited options to its users; however, with time, the platform has added more call-to-action buttons to match the requirements of specific businesses. Besides the Call, Email, Direction and Text buttons, business users on Instagram can choose Book, Start Order, Buy Tickets and Reserve.
These different action buttons have been created to cater to meet the specific needs of a business. Business owners can choose the right button to drive traffic and boost conversions. Get most out of your call-to-action buttons and boost the success of your business with them
When you are a business owner, you should always include a call-to-action button on your Instagram profile. Choose the relevant one that best suits your business and keep in mind the following tips to get the best results-
Use Instagram Live for your business-
Research proves that most people prefer to watch videos of products before they look at a social media post. This is where Instagram Live shows great potential. Here, you can post an Instagram Live video for your followers and drive them to click on the call-to-action button on your profile. When you are creating a video, do not forget to remind the viewer to click on the call-to-action button in the end.
Instagram Stories to reach out-
When you want to promote your product to the targeted audience, Instagram Stories is a great feature to use. They are a safe bet when you want users to click on your call-to-action button. When you are creating Stories for users, mention they can go to your business profile to make a reservation or book a ticket. You can also center a Story revolving on the above to boost improved social media visibility for your business.
Add a call-to-action to all your Instagram post captions
– To increase the number of likes and followers, you can contact credible companies for getting Instagram likes free trial offers. However, if you wish to do it on your own, you should start adding call-to-action to all your Instagram post captions. Though you already have a call-to-action button on your profile, you should invite users to click on the profile button in every post. To make these reminders successful, create post captions that are short and precise. The call-to-action should be visible in the first line as all of the users might not click on read more.
Include promo codes-
The use of promo codes is a highly useful tool to increase conversion rates for your profile. If you offer users promo codes regularly, the chances of them clicking on your call-to-action button is high.
Tracking the progress of the call-to-action button
Merely including the call-to-action button on your Instagram business profile is not enough. It will help if you track its progress as well. Most business owners look at the number of their business profile followers. This does not give you an accurate picture of the metrics. You should go deeper and pay close attention to the performance of the chosen call-to-action button for your Instagram business profile.
You should find out the posts or marketing campaigns that got the maximum clicks. After running some of them on your business profile, compare their performance altogether. You need to see what drives greater promotion to your business profile.
Once you get this information, you can focus your posts around them. In this way, you can make changes to your posts as and when needed. You need to know what your targeted audience expects from you. Regular monitoring of your posts and their performance will help you get a real insight.
Business-friendly features for small to large scale companies
The biggest advantage of using Instagram for promoting your products is its business-friendly interface and features. Every one of them has impressive potential if used in the right way. Once you have learned to use them correctly, you will find a positive difference in the number of customers you drive to your business and the revenue you generate.
To use Instagram for marketing the products of your company, you should plan and schedule your content keeping in mind your business goals. The call-to-action button is one such feature that does wonders for your business profile when it comes to naturally attracting present and potential customers.
If you have not added it to your Instagram profile, it is high time you start to do so. You can improve the number of conversions for your business. Your customers will get a convenient way to contact and interact with you. It is indeed a win-win situation for both boosting conversions on Instagram
Get to Know Reputation Management Tips for 2020
Reputation Management Tips for that works for Business
You would agree with the fact that online presence is a mixed blessing. No matter what type of business you are doing. At some point in time, you may need the help of reputation management. It is very rare that a business always has happy and satisfied customers; sooner or later you might get unfavorable reviews about your business. The internet empowers small businesses to gain massive exposure but this visibility comes with a price tag! Today we are giving you a few important Reputation Management Tips for your business
Anyone means anyone can ruin your business in a single day! What can you do about it? Getting a bad business review or any type of negative mention can cause a loss in your brand’s sales, revenue, even the trust of customers. This is where the need for a brand’s reputation comes into the light. Online reputation management is no smooth sailing, especially that one bad review can make thousands of positive testimonials pointless!
A website’s success will depend on its reputation. You have built and if this is positive all the way, this will be beneficial for you. There are some tips for improving online reputation management that you can follow in order to protect your brand. You have carefully done for years and don’t want it destroyed in just a click of a finger.
Some Great Tips for Business That’s works
Expand Your Internet Presence
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are often considered as the big three sources of building a strong brand’s reputation. For businesses to make a level with the highly competitive market, you need to be active on various other social media sites, specifically, that are specified to your industry.
The key point here is to identify which social media platforms your target audience preferably uses in order to establish a presence before any other damage to your reputation. This expansion not only allows you to reach your target audience. Maintains over the top search results related to the business you own.
Never Neglect Your Social Media Accounts
Though simply having social media accounts is not enough to manage the online reputation of a brand. But developing the audience on these platforms is essential too! In order to manage an online reputation and gain an organic following for a brand. it’s essential to regularly maintain these sources.
By filling social media feeds on a regular basis with relevant content, you will improve your effect, enhance your engagement, and have the chance to communicate with current and potential customers. Not taking concern of your social media accounts might leave them too frail any outrun any negative postings made about your business account.
Raise Online Visibility of Brands & Products
If you have any product or brand with name appreciation beyond your company name, it is required for you to build a web presence and social profiles for them as well. You need to build out online material and social profiles for more than your company name. Developing websites and content to rank those names is required as well!
Ignoring to claim ownership the additional products or brands related to your business could become perplexing and probably expensive too. Following this tip for better online reputation management, your task here is to develop websites, web pages, social media profiles, and ancillary materials to suit and reserve every brand name.
Secure Your Key Employees
For some of the businesses, potential customers might be searching for your services through referrals. Developing a strong social media presence for your employees is the best way to manage the reputation of your brand. One of the best tips for better online reputation management!
Keeping a low online profile on social media platforms makes an easy way for everyone to ruin your online reputation. We know as small as a negative post made about your business, which ultimately ruins your business reputation as well. A solid reputation strategy is required where the company’s integrity is embroiled with its executives.
Respond to Online Reviews
This is one of the best tips for online reputation management to follow! One of the best effective ways to build your business online reputation is to satisfy your customers and clients through online reviews. Customers highly rely on online reviews for making an online purchase.
Ask your customer base to provide reviews on Google My Business, Facebook, or other sites that will help your business to generate a positive influence and build customer’s trust. Along with collecting customer reviews, the factor on which online reputation management depends on how your business responds to negative reviews that it may receive, in any case.
Listening to Your Customers
Responding to your negative customer feedback is important. Considering what makes people provide such reviews is important too. There may be some validity to the comments being made on your business. There may be a chance that negative feedback is due to a specific concern! Acting professionally may help in such a case!
Instead of disregarding these online complaints, try to address the entire negative to worse feedback in a professional manner. Considering this feedback can be helpful in improving business operations. Every business and their owners must treat every good or bitter customer with respect irrespective of their behavior. Knowing that you value your customer’s feedback may help in building trust and improve your approach towards business.
Bottom Lines
Reputation management can also be giving your website all the techniques to improve your image. The positive details that can bring it the entire good outcome only. Optimization and paid promotions are only beneficial if these are all with good objectives and not spamming efforts. Because of the ease that people can put comments or any abusive words on the internet, especially on some social networking sites. Brand’s reputation can be an open target for any of the spammer.
This situation really calls for you to do some effective reputation management tips that are effective for your site and secure your brand.
4 best cloud services for small online business
In today’s date, online presence has become essential for a successful business. Now that people are avoiding a visit to brick and mortar stores due to Coronavirus outbreak, it is the online businesses that are gaining more prominence in the market. If you are also running a small business, you need to put it online. And for that, you will need a cloud hosting provider. Let’s talk about Best Cloud Services for Small Online Businesses
Image Source: Pixabay.com
A cloud service provider or cloud hosting company offers a certain amount of server space to clients for storing and sharing data. These clients are small businesses like yours. The cloud servers not only allow you to operate your business online. Offering flexibility, scalability, better security, cost-efficiency, and a lot of other features.
From the biggest companies like Facebook and Netflix to simple assignment writing companies like MyAssignmenthelp and Allessaywriters.com – almost every online platform uses cloud hosting services. If you are a bit clueless about which cloud service provider will be ideal for your business, this blog can help you find one.
1. Amazon Web Services (AWS):
Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world right now. Among the successful subsidiaries of this company, Amazon Web Services (AWS) gets a special mention. It is one of the fastest-growing cloud platforms in the world. In fact, 90% of the public cloud in the world is covered by AWS. Some of its highlighting features are:
- Offers free sign up, and you can use the services free for the first year under the free tier usage.
- It has multiple layers of security for the network, with fine-grained access control of the services.
- Has a wide range of cloud hosting services with custom pricing plans; pay only for what you use.
- It even has dedicated applicable services for website hosting, mobile data backup, business app hosting, and more.
The free tier is available for one year only. After this period, you need to spend around $8-$10 every month. AWS is regarded is the Best Cloud Services for Small Online Business
2. Dropbox for Business:
Dropbox is quite popular as a personal cloud service provider. They also offer cloud hosting services for businesses as well. It is one of the leading cloud hosting companies in terms of file storage capacity and sharing of data. Some of the highlighting features of the cloud-hosting platform include the following:
- Offers as much space as needed, making it a great place to store your data.
- Provides unlimited file recovery and version history.
- Even offers 256-bit AES and SSL encryption, making the network safer.
- It also has centralized administration and activity monitoring and additional security settings.
- You get priority email and live support with your subscription.
You can get the free trial of this cloud service for the first 14 days. After that period, you will have to spend a minimum of $12.50 per month.
3. Box:
Box is another popular choice in the domain of cloud hosting for small businesses. It offers you all the necessary features such as file sharing, collaborating, and access to other tools to manage the stored data on the cloud. Its popularity is the enterprise-level security it has to offer. Some of the major features of this cloud hosting platform are:
- It allows you to share screenshots and screencasts from the desktop in an instant.
- Allows you to search for texts in the content of a stored file in the cloud.
- It helps centralize your business data, making it easier to collaborate.
- It not just allows you to store, sync, or share documents but also allows for editing documents in the cloud.
- Has a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature, making you data a lot safer on the cloud.
This cloud service comes with a free 14-day trial. After that period, you will have to spend around $15 per month.
4. Microsoft OneDrive for Business:
One of the leading tech companies in the world, Microsoft offers cloud-hosting services through OneDrive. It offers amazing packages for individual users, they also have some amazing cloud services line up for businesses. It even has downloadable software that helps to keep remote and local data in sync. Some of its highlighting features include:
- Offers seamless collaboration with anyone inside or outside the organization.
- Allow you to create, view, edit, and share files on the go with its mobile app.
- It lets the administration manage the security policy for better safety to business data.A
- Allows easy recovery of files from malicious attacks and accidental deletes.
- It automatically syncs the offline edits made in a document every time it’s connected.
Offers free sign up for everyone. However, the plans for businesses start from $6.99 per month.
There are several other names in the area of cloud hosting which deserve special mentions. They are JustCloud, OpenDrive, SpiderOak, and Syncplicity. Before you choose a cloud hosting service for your business, you need to understand your business requirements and see which cloud hosting platforms are most likely to fulfill them. Moreover, you need to do a fair share of homework before you trust your business data to an online platform. Hope you like the Best Cloud Services for Small Online Business
4 ways to plan your branding strategy to create a lasting impression
What comes to your mind when you look at a half-eaten apple? Or a Mickey Mouse silhouette drawn on a paper? I, for one, would always think about an iPhone or Disneyland!
Do you know what happened here? A brand has extended its territory to the ordinary things around.
Unlike common assumption, building a brand that creates a lasting impression is a tough row to hoe. Slapping a bunch of ideas and a logo is not a brand strategy. If an entity does so, they will likely be lost in the large pool of endeavors willing to rise.
Brands today need a detailed outline and understanding of what their strategies should be.
Brands are not tangible
A brand is not something you can see or touch. It is how a person feels and perceives a particular product/service. The collection of visuals, emotional responses, and experiences defines the opinion of an individual about a brand.
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” says, “Buyers make most decisions by relying on their two-second first impressions based on stored memories, images, and feelings.”
To make your promotional methodologies effective, the image you’re trying to build must reflect the business positively and accurately.
Branding to create a lasting impression
The core reason for branding is to make yourself more recognizable to the customers. It inspires people to take action, change, or get fixated to your story. Without strong brand recognition that promotes easy recall, your organization will likely fall into obscurity.
It is essential to get the limelight your brand needs to stand out. Improving your site’s ranking using social media is a good place to start working on it.
According to Circle Research, almost 80% of B2B marketers agree that without branding, their businesses couldn’t expand and develop.
Now the question is, what are the ingredients of a brand that leaves a prolonged impression?
Your logo and social media strategies play a vital role in your branding process. You can get a logo, merch, social media graphics and all you need to creative marketplace like designhill. Designhill had worked with many small and big businesses for branding and their graphic needs.
Here are X things we suggest you must include in your branding strategy:
1.Discover the purpose of your brand
A brand purpose is a reason for an organization’s activities. It defines what the company believes in and how they’re willing to make a difference. Note that the purpose must derive from a place of passion.
In a world where customers are looking to interact with personality-driven enterprises, you cannot afford to be bland or basic. Following are the questions you should address when trying to look for a purpose:
- Why do you exist?
- What makes you unique?
- What problems do you solve?
- Why should people opt for you?
Your brand purpose will give you the compass to stay consistent and likable for the audience. Nike, for instance, is purely an athletic brand. They have always worked hard to help people overcome adversity and achieve their goals. It falls in line with their mission of escalating fitness levels of their userbase.
Simon Sinek, in his very famous TED Talk, explains that people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Indeed, something to stick by!
2. Find your voice
Besides the visual identity, there is one more element of significance for every brand out there. That is, tone and voice. It refers to the personality and emotion infused in a company’s communication.
The brand voice ensures your marketing message cuts through the noise and retains for a long time with the potential customers. The difference between tone and voice is:
- Voice: This reflects your company’s personality.
- Tone: The emotional color applied to your voice.
Even though your voice remains consistent, the tone may change according to the context of the message. For example, a Facebook post about the upcoming discounts would have a more light-hearted tone than the one that breaks the news about company tragedy.
Given that social media calls the shots for brands these days, familiarize yourself with new social media marketing techniques. It will allow you to determine the tones for each platform on different occasions.
There are various market parables to look at, like MailChimp. The voice it creates reinforces the ease of use for everyone. The tone they set is warm and welcoming for new entrants.
Dig some more, and you’ll spot some more brands nailing their voice.
3. Keep it simple
94% of the world’s population recognizes the Coca-Cola logo. (The Coca-Cola Company)
Its simple red and white color scheme and cursive font have earned a global reputation and off-the-charts recognition. Everyone knows the name, whether they consume soda or not. Similarly, you’ll find loads of other successful brands who’ve always stuck to the basics.
Bear in mind that keeping things simple increases brand recognition and aids in creating an emotional connection. While you’re working on your branding strategy, the multitude of ideas thrown at you by the web can be overwhelming. In case you lack expertise in this regard, you always have the option of outsourcing the task. A professional logo design team will help you choose colors and styles that match your brand personality.
Apart from the visual element, the overall experience you offer your customers should be simple too. Brands like Google and Amazon cut through the clutter by delivering their customers what they want.
Hence, by simplifying customer experience in a complex world, these brands create a lasting impression that leads to customer loyalty.
4. Educate your target market
Provide your prospects with useful information. It should not be about the features and benefits of your product/service. Instead, tell them what the product can do to solve their problems. The smart consumer will prefer to buy from a company that’s educated him/her on an issue and presented him with different solutions.
Your prospects need to know that a problem exists before they make a purchase decision. So educate them about it.
The failure of tech juggernaut, TiVo, contains many lessons for everyone trying to build their brand. Its idea was to allow television viewers to skip the commercials. Sadly, it failed to reach its full sales potential by forgetting to teach its industry customers.
The lesson here is, educating prospects about the perks of your solution-oriented product is always a wise choice.
Final Verdict
When you’re working on your branding strategy, make sure you are not the only sailor of your ship. Build friendships during the process and work collaboratively with the stakeholders. Everyone in the company has to be on the same page. It will create a cohesive brand image and one that flourishes for long.
Do you have any tips for helping entrepreneurs drill their brand image among the userbase? Let us know in the comments below.