Content is the common thread tying together SEO and digital marketing. Want your website to be at the top of search results? Make great content. Want to sell something? Make great content. Since that’s where the two goals intersect, it’s clear that superior content is the gateway to greater rewards in each.

And video might just be the winning ticket you were looking for.

Want proof? The most prominent example is YouTube. Video content helped it become a giant on par with Google itself, enough to make YouTube SEO its own thing – to say nothing of all the ad revenue generated there. Video can be packed with more information than any other medium, which makes it such a potent tool in communication. And that’s what SEO, digital business and video marketing are all about: reaching and communicating with your audience.

Need more reasons to start using videos? Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty.

Video Marketing Statistics in 2022

“The 2020s will be the decade of video.” How I wish I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that over the previous decade. I’d have enough to make Elon Musk cry!

Two and some years into the new 20s, how is this prediction holding up? Spoiler alert: very accurate so far. Countless businesses have bet on video content and they did not regret it – quite the opposite, in fact. Numbers can do a great job describing the impact video has had on digital businesses – and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is an infographic: the fruit of Renderforest‘s research on video content and how it has been used by businesses in the 2020s. Below the infographic itself, we are going to highlight the most impressive points.

1. Benefits of video content

Videos are widely used (and that’s an understatement). There are plenty of businesses and marketers to vouch for the benefits. What does the majority say?

Using videos in your marketing campaign increases:

• Return on investment
• Brand awareness
• Lead generation
• Site traffic

Every single thing that matters, as you can see.

85% of businesses use videos in marketing and consider them a vital part of their strategy. What’s more, videos have proven to be especially effective during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to 91% of marketers.

2. Video consumption

They didn’t lie when they said the 2020s would be the era of videos. Halfway and some into 2022, global video traffic is climbing past the 82% mark – as expected. And thanks to such a high percentage, we can see how users prefer their videos:

• 33% of viewers will stop watching a video after 30 seconds. That’s how little time you have to hook them in!
• 25% of viewers finish videos that are over 20 minutes long. Not great, not terrible.
• 75% of viewers prefer horizontal videos to vertical ones.

3. Types of videos

There are many kinds of videos out there. What do businesses prefer? How effective are those preferred kinds at their job?

• Explainer videos: these are used by 62% of businesses, as well as by 82% of B2B businesses. This type of video has an enormous audience: 94% of people who want to know more about the product will watch an explainer video. Also, 93% of millennial viewers love how-to videos.
• Logo animations: they are present in 46% of videos made by businesses, and in 58% of B2B business videos.
• Video ads: they are less common than you’d think. Only 38% of businesses use them!
• Demo videos: these are even less common, employed by 33% of businesses.
• The 3 most popular types of videos are webinars, demos and social videos.
• And the most effective types (as reported by businesses) are informative and entertaining.

4. Videos and platforms

Now, everybody knows YouTube is king when it comes to videos. But what about other places?

It turns out businesses use videos quite effectively on their own sites. Putting a video on a landing page can increase your conversions by up to 80%!

What’s more, having a video on your landing page increases its chances of appearing on Google’s first SERP by 53%. Naturally, that includes homepages.

And here’s my favorite part: videos are effective even in emails!

44% of people are willing to watch a video included in an email. In fact, a video can increase an email’s CTR by up to a whopping 300%.

However, only 25% of businesses use videos in email marketing as of now (partly due to people being cautious about spam in emails, but that’s where verification tools like SPF record checkers come in). Sounds like a powerful, untapped niche you could use!

5. Videos on social media

We’ve seen how effective landing pages and emails can be. But when you want to post a video somewhere, what comes to mind? YouTube first, social media second, right?

Let’s look at the numbers.

• 81% of social media users say videos are their favorite type of content.
• 75% of people are more likely to follow a brand’s page if it has video content.
• For 74% of businesses, their videos receive the most engagement in social media.
• Twitter in particular is going through a video Renaissance of sorts: its video views are 220 times greater in 2022 than last year.
• Lastly, 56% of businesses post at least 5 videos per month on their social media.

Afterword

I think it won’t be long before augmented reality becomes the next booming trend. But for now, video content is king, and these statistics should be enough to convince you. It can be tough to make a good video, but this type of content has the highest ROI – that’s a proven fact.

When you are making a video, have fun! The audience respects professionals who love their work. Enjoy what you do, and the viewers will happily join in for the ride.

Additionally, you can use WebCEO’s SEO content assistant to ensure your video content reaches its maximum potential audience.

The post Video Marketing: The Future of SEO (Infographic) appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

2019 is going strong, so forget the marketing mistakes you made last year. It’s time for a fresh start with both your goals and your digital campaigns. Take this year as a chance to start strong.

If you want to take your digital marketing strategies to the next level, first consider overhauling your analytics. Start by measuring certain digital marketing metrics you might not have known about, let alone realized were important.

Not sure what exactly these metrics are? No worries. We’ve got you covered and even have an infographic to make our message ring more powerfully.

Here are seven digital marketing metrics you need to start measuring today.

1. Top landing pages

Your landing pages provide leads and drive traffic to your site. This is why measuring effective and ineffective pages is important to your digital marketing strategy.

Analyzing your top landing pages will show you which ones are the most visible across the web, especially in search. This allows you to make any necessary adjustments to maximize your top-performing landing pages.

2. Channel-specific traffic

The traffic your website gets on a daily basis comes from a multitude of sources that can include (but are not limited to):

• Organic search

This is when a user finds your website via a search engine.

For instance, a user logs into Google and types, “Best sporting goods stores near me.” A second later, results appear and the user sees the link for your website on the first page. You get organic traffic when the user clicks that link.

• Direct traffic

You get direct traffic when a user searches for your website directly on a browser instead of going through the results page of a search engine. High direct traffic means people are already familiar with your brand.

• Social media traffic

This is when a user visits your website via a link from a social media network.

Here’s a scenario of how it works. Let’s say you have a blog on your website, and a customer reads one of your articles. This customer likes the article so much they post the link to the article on their Facebook profile. Their Facebook friends then see the link, develop interest, and decide to click.

A healthy social media following combined with quality content is a great way to earn social media traffic.

• Email traffic

This traffic comes from the links included in your email marketing campaign. You could use links to your blog or product pages to entice subscribers. Hopefully, they’ll click onto your website and bring you more traffic.

• Paid search traffic

Website traffic from paid search comes from links that you include on your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

Monitoring these (and other) marketing channels will give you a concrete idea of where the majority of your website traffic comes from, so you’ll know which one to spend more of your budget on.

3. Cost per lead

To get your cost per lead, take the amount you spent on a digital marketing campaign over a given time period and divide it by the total number of leads the campaign generated over that same period.

Here’s a sample calculation:

You ran a PPC campaign for one of your products, and it cost you $10,000 over a period of 30 days. In those 30 days, you were able to acquire 400 new leads. That means the cost per lead for your PPC campaign was $25.

$10,000 PPC campaign / 400 leads = $25 cost per lead

Calculating the cost per lead of your various campaigns shows you which campaigns are strong and which ones you might need to re-evaluate or eliminate altogether.

4. Exit rate

This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site from a specific page.

Keep in mind that exits are not the same as bounces, even though the two terms are often used interchangeably by marketers. The key difference between an exit and a bounce is the method of exit.

An exit occurs when a user views multiple pages on your website before leaving. For example, a user starts on your home page, then goes to your “About Us” page, then goes to your “Products and Services” page before exiting.

A bounce, on the other hand, happens when a user leaves your website immediately after viewing only one page. It’s only recorded as a bounce if the user exits your website from the same page they entered.

You need to measure the exit rates of the pages in your website because a page with a high exit rate can indicate certain problems. Is the page slow to load? Does it lack information that will help the user? These are the things you need to find out.

5. Lead to close ratio

The different digital marketing campaigns you run at any given time can help you generate hundreds, if not thousands, of leads. However, the real question is this: How many of those leads actually convert in some form?

To get this information, you need to analyze the lead to close ratios of your campaigns. If you see your email marketing promotions are getting the most conversions, then you need to increase the budget for your email marketing campaign.

6. Conversion funnel rates

Like all companies, your business has a funnel that normally consists of four stages

• Awareness

The top-most part of the funnel: this is where you attract potential customers and try to catch their attention.

Example: Social media ads

• Interest

Once your potential customers are aware of your brand, this part of the funnel helps them know a lot more about what you’re offering.

Example: Blog content

• Desire

Now that your customers are familiar with your brand, they’re definitely interested in your product or service. This is the stage in which you build on that interest to lead them to the last stage.

Example: Product photos on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram

• Action or conversion

As the final stage in the funnel, this is where leads become conversions.

Example: Product checkout section of your website

You should keep an eye out for how your leads behave through each stage of the conversion funnel. For example, if you’re not getting enough leads, it could mean that the lead capture forms on your website are not attention-grabbing enough and might need improvement.

7. Mobile traffic

When you analyze your mobile traffic, you’ll be able to determine the percentage of your users who visit your website on a mobile device. You can even perform more granular analytics by tracking the specific devices your visitors are using, as well as each page they visit. You may even analyze the type of content they view on your site.

High mobile traffic means that your website is optimized for mobile. This is a good thing, as more than half of all traffic in the world is generated through mobile devices.

Furthermore, customers today spend significantly more time on their mobile phone than in front of a desktop computer. A study showed mobile users spend more than twice the amount of time online compared to desktop users.

To ensure your website is well-optimized for search engines and provides a seamless user experience across all devices, use WebCEO’s Website Audit Tool. This tool can help you check your website’s optimization status and identify areas for improvement, ensuring your site is accessible and engaging for both mobile and desktop users.

Wrap up

Measuring these digital marketing metrics will help you stay far ahead of your competition, so you need to start sooner rather than later.

If you and your team don’t have the capacity or resources for in-depth analytics, consider outsourcing these services. Digital marketing firms often have analytics experts who can help you with your goals. Either way, metrics can help you track your users and improve your company one iteration at a time.

The post 7 Underestimated Digital Marketing Metrics for 2019 [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

As Google changes all year round, so does search engine optimization. Webmasters who want to keep their rankings and traffic (and potentially gain even more) are always on the lookout for the new ways to beat their competitors, thus setting new SEO trends. And now that 2018 is rapidly approaching its end, it’s time to ask ourselves: what can we expect from SEO in 2019?

Folks from Logo Design Guru took it upon themselves to look into this problem. The result is an infographic describing the latest SEO trends which will be prevalent in the coming year. What are they?

1. Voice search domination

The list opens with the entry everybody saw coming. It’s hard not to, with so much talk about it! The bigger mobile Internet grows, the further we get removed from good old orthodox typing. Teaching computers to understand our speech – that’s what the future is about. And the path to this bright future lies through voice search SEO.

It is said that by 2020, half of all online traffic will be coming from spoken queries. I can only imagine what kind of futuristic technology will eventually come to replace voice search. Can you?

2. Video optimization

Voice search isn’t the only SEO trend taking over the Internet; videos are, too. They are an ever increasingly popular information medium, which makes them a rich source of customer traffic when you use them cleverly.

While your videos need to be excellent in order to rank on YouTube (any other quality standard is unacceptable there), they won’t be able to without being optimized for carefully picked keywords.

A different 2020 prediction says that videos will become a magnet for 75% of all Internet traffic. Get with the times or get crushed by the competition!

3. Mobile-first indexing

2018 was the year when Google finally rolled out their mobile-first index. How does it work? Simply put, websites are now ranked based on the quality of UX they provide on mobile devices. If a site has mobile and desktop versions, the index adds the mobile one; if there’s only the desktop version, it gets indexed the same as normal.

What does this tell us? You need to master mobile SEO! You must have a mobile-friendly version of your site, or else Google will index something you can’t show to mobile users. And a large chunk of traffic will go right past you.

4. Quality content development

Content is king, and high-quality content opens the path to high Google rankings; this is common knowledge. But what exactly does it mean? What kind of content counts as “high-quality”?

It’s actually pretty easy once you remember who the content is meant for: users. When they do a Google search, they hope to find something that will satisfy their needs 100% and then some more. When you take the users’ search intent into account, you can prepare a piece of content that does exactly that. The Internet will be dominated by people who are the best at getting into their audience’s mindset.

To provide the best copywriting, you should know where your competitors stand and what they have to offer. This is where WebCEO’s SEO Content Checker Tool comes into place.

5. Protection of user data

Online security is a huge deal – and fortunately, the powers that be are taking it seriously. Earlier this year, the EU enacted the General Data Protection Regulation which entitles users to more control over their private information that’s used by sites. While it certainly works towards making user data safer, there are still many vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious third parties. It’s too early to celebrate just yet!

2019 will undoubtedly present us with more data protection initiatives, as well as more ways to make our online experience more secure.

6. Seamless user experience

The user experience on a website can make or break a deal of any magnitude. Therefore, business owners who would prefer to keep making a profit with their sites will do their best to guarantee a silky smooth UX. That means an easy-to-understand, intuitive design, a low page load time, and absolutely no technical issues.

A website gives a better impression of a business than any advertisement. Never let your most powerful assets tarnish your reputation. For ensuring your site is up to the mark, use WebCEO’s Website Audit Tool to identify and fix any on-page issues and get to the high.

7. Blockchain for SEO

Blockchain technology has uses in making the Internet more secure, which is why it’s been getting more popular lately. Webmasters are looking for ways to integrate it into their sites and potentially profit from it. It is expected that blockchain can also be used in SEO for things like validating backlinks.

The exact effect blockchain is going to have on SEO is not clear yet, but enthusiastic webmasters are already carrying out their experiments. We may see the fruits of their labor in 2019.

8. Influencer marketing

It’s always great to have someone important vouch for you. Especially in business, where there’s so much competition and you want people to know at least that you are here for them. What tricks do companies use to get an advantage? There are too many to list, but one of the most trending ones is to involve an influencer in your marketing campaign.

To do that, you need to connect with an influencer first. Fortunately, pretty much all of them use social media, so it’s only a matter of finding a way to get their approval of what you do. Did you know that 99% of all influencers spend their time on Instagram? There’s your easiest chance to connect with a few.

9. Long and in-depth content

Everyone can agree that the more time users spend on your website, the better. Long content obviously takes more time to consume, which makes it seem like the ideal solution. In reality, size doesn’t matter. Or rather, you can’t expect users to be satisfied with size alone.

And yet the websites ranking on the first page of Google tend to have over 2000 words. If their secret is not the length of their content, that logically leaves its depth and quality. Content that is not just long, but also engaging keeps its status as the page one ranking winner even in 2019.

10. Artificial intelligence

AI technology has massive potential. It’s little wonder businesses are actively looking for ways to use it in their work. The same goes for Google, and if (or rather when) they figure out how to make it work, it will inevitably affect SEO.

As an example of how artificial intelligence could be integrated into Google’s ranking algorithm, it can be used to more effectively sniff out websites practicing black-hat SEO.

The post 10 Dominating SEO Trends for 2020 [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

A dream of every website owner: to wake up, open Google Analytics and see the graphs go up. Number of users, conversions, everything that translates into real-life benefits and makes having a website worth it. Unfortunately, many webmasters struggle with turning this dream into reality. They need user traffic, and they aren’t getting anywhere near enough.

Seriously, how hard can it be to get views on your site? All you need to do is get it on Page 1, make the search result eye-catching, then get links from other sites and social media… On second thought, maybe it isn’t such a walk in the park. Website traffic can be pretty hard to earn! What is an honest law-abiding site owner supposed to do?

Worry not. You can get as much site traffic as you want, but only if you check out this infographic made by OneIMS. They’ve found 12 best ways to get a traffic boost, and all of them can work for you if you give them a try.

1. Optimize Landing Pages for SEO

Ideally, you’d want to improve website traffic for every page. However, your immediate business goals depend on the landing pages. That’s where you want conversions, and conversions can’t happen without visits. So most of the traffic has to go to landing pages. How to direct it there?

With SEO, of course.

When you design your landing pages to catch the users’ attention and draw them to the big shiny button, remember that a customer’s journey begins before they even open a search engine. Try to predict what they’ll type in Google, then find and use the best keywords for the task. The better you grasp user intent, the more traffic you can attract.

Building backlinks and spreading awareness in social media help a great deal, too.

2. Create Infographics

You often hear that infographics are a major help in SEO, and it’s true. They rank high in Google, they are shareable, they build backlinks like crazy, so is it any surprise they are magnets for user traffic, too? Any information becomes more fun to consume when you spice it up with visuals. Videos and presentations work better than plain text for the same reason.

So get in touch with your creative side. Start producing high-quality infographics and become popular with your target audience.

3. Embrace Latent Semantic Indexing

Google’s RankBrain is pretty good at understanding the contents of web pages. However, it can still make mistakes if the text is poorly written and the context around keywords isn’t clear enough. Help the AI understand your website better by enriching your vocabulary.

Research the topics you write about. Terms and synonyms related to your keywords will help more users to notice your website. More search terms and a ranking boost from Google will increase the number of website visitors.

4. Interlink Your Site’s Pages Efficiently

Links are one-way tubes that carry traffic between websites. Smart webmasters know to control the flow of traffic across their sites’ pages to maximize the benefits. They do it by designing an organized internal linking structure that ensures all the important pages get enough visitors. When you draw it on paper, it looks like a tree with the home page as the root.

Link your site’s pages in a way that will help users find the content they need. The rule of simplicity states: make the “click distance” between any two given pages three clicks or less.

5. Use Structured Data on Your Site

Have you ever seen Google search results with more information than usual? Review stars, telephone numbers, addresses and other minor details that make websites look more professional and credible? It’s all thanks to structured data. And you can implement it on your own site, too.

Learn how structured data works and use it to mark up your website’s pages. Google will see the schema code and decorate your search results with those pretty, click-attracting features.

6. Use Keyword Research Tools in Your SEO

Everyone knows the best source of new traffic is SEO, and SEO starts with keywords.

It’s not difficult to come up with a list of keywords from the top of your head. Unfortunately, our brains lack the means to calculate the keywords’ effectiveness. You need SEO tools for that.

Find new keywords and measure their search volume in tools such as WebCEO’s Keyword Suggestions and Google Adwords. If you want to gain an extra advantage over your competitors, spy on their keywords with WebCEO’s Competitor Keyword Finder.

7. Find Unused Keywords That Bring You Traffic

Did you know that your website appears in search results for keywords that you aren’t even using? This mysterious phenomenon can be explored in detail by using WebCEO’s Keyword Research tool.

Open the tool and the Keywords from Search Console tab in it. Find search phrases that you don’t use, but other people use to find your site. The ones with the highest rankings are the best candidates to be your new keywords.

8. Raise Your Organic Quality Score

The value of a website is measured by its content. Content is king. This famous principle defines modern SEO as we know it, and it’s the main reason behind how much traffic you receive at any given time. And what do we do with ironclad principles? Adapt to them and make them work for us, that’s what.

Fill your site only with high-quality content. If your site has any pages whose content is subpar, change and replace it with something greater. Increase the overall worth of your site to help it rank higher, and traffic will follow.

9. Optimize Your Images for Image Search

Did you know that images are subject to 30% of all online searches? That sounds like a rich opportunity to get more visitors to your website. How do you make this awesome fact work for you?

Obviously, you start by using images on your website – or else you can’t get any of that sweet image traffic. What kind of visuals should you use? Anything you can think of, really.

• Photos
• Diagrams
• Screenshots
• Comics
• Gifs
• Infographics

But to gain traffic from them, you need to optimize them for image search. That means using keywords in their titles and ALT tags. If you make them shareable across the social media, you’ll get even more traffic from there.

Important note: be careful with your images’ file size. “Heavy” pictures put a strain on website loading speed.

10. Refresh and Improve Your Old Content

Some pages on your site might not be getting as much traffic as they could. One of the possible reasons could be their content. If that’s the problem, it’s time to breathe new life in your weaker pages!

Find these problematic pages in WebCEO’s Rank Tracking tool (By Page tab). They have these traits:

• They have lost rankings and traffic with time;
• They have never ranked high.

Then improve their content and unleash their true potential.

11. Push Page 2 Keywords to Page 1

Some of your pages might be just slightly behind the coveted Page 1. All they need is a little push, and it’s in your power to give it. How can you help them?

Start with opening WebCEO’s Rank Tracking tool (Brief tab). Find which of your keywords are ranking on Page 2 of Google (their positions will be between 11 and 20), then find pages associated with them. Once you’ve identified those pages, build more links to them: either from higher ranking pages on your site or from external domains.

12. Get Featured Snippets for Your Content

Schema markup isn’t the only thing that can make your website stand out in SERPs. Another way is to master the art of getting featured snippets. How do you win a rich search result for your site? Google prefers pages that fulfil the following requirements.

• Optimize for a long-tail keyword in the form of a question phrase. The higher the search volume, the better.
• Write the question in your content and follow it up with a detailed and organized answer.
• Include a numbered or a bulleted list.
• Include a table written in HTML code, just like the list.
• Include an image associated with the topic of the page.

The post How to Get More Traffic to Your Website [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

SEO has given rise to an entire industry, providing countless people with a steady means of doing business. Whether you’re an SEO professional, an entrepreneur, or you just have an agenda you want to push in front of a few billion-strong audience – a market exists, and it’s waiting for you. SEO has come a long way since its humble beginnings, and there is no stop in sight.

However, for all the sophistication of SEO as we know it today, the optimization world is still incredibly mired in a lot of myths. They disrupt work plans and cause people to waste not only their time, but also their efforts and resources. What are they?

One SEO myth that many people still believe is about instant SEO results. Some dubious “professionals” and “companies” stain the SEO industry’s reputation by claiming they can do the impossible: namely, make any website rank well in the search engine results pages (or SERPs) within a week or two. In truth, SEO efforts often require you to wait for months before they bear fruit. Anyone who promises quick SEO results either has no idea how search engines work or is a fraud trying to make money off of you.

The myth of quick rankings is older than dirt and just won’t die no matter how many people fall victim to it. Do you want to renounce SEO myths and take solid SEO facts instead? Then this infographic is for you!

The post 16 Annoying SEO Myths in 2018 – Debunked Once And For All [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Which is the better way to get backlinks: do it proactively or to just sit on your thumbs and wait for them to appear? You’ll most likely agree the former is superior by a long shot. For anyone who’s serious about SEO, link building is a vital part of making their websites rank. Unfortunately, many are at a loss about how to build links – and how to get high quality backlinks, in particular.

But we’ve got you covered. If it’s link building techniques you’re after, you are going to love this!

The editorial team at WebCEO has researched the best ways to acquire backlinks and we put them together in this shiny new infographic. Below are illustrated 18 of the most powerful link building strategies, many of which are diverse in approach. Not only will they carry your website through 2018 and far beyond, they may also reveal something new about you personally – depending on how you prefer to build backlinks.

What type of a link builder are you? Foxy, nerdy, creative or sociable? Read this infographic and find out.

Did you like our infographic? Feel free to embed it on your site by copying and pasting this code:

<a href=”https://www.webceo.com/blog/seo-link-building-infographic”><img title=”18 Powerful Link Building Strategies in 2018 (Infographic)” src=”https://www.webceo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/link-building-infographic-how-to-build-backlinks.png” alt=”18 Powerful Link Building Strategies in 2018 (Infographic)”/></a>

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The post 18 Powerful Link Building Strategies in 2018 (Infographic) appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Digital marketing welcomes change. Every new technology is an opportunity to deepen the relationship between marketers and customers, and our technologically advanced world offers countless such opportunities. Are they going to shape 2018 in a new way and completely eclipse last year’s achievements? Rest assured, your expectations will not be betrayed.

So what are the future trends in digital marketing that 2018 is going to bring? That is the question Liana Technologies took upon themselves to explore, and their answer is presented in the form of the infographic below. It sums up 21 of the most important trends that you can bet on in the new year:

1. Content tailored for your customers based on their browsing history and behavior.
2. Tighter online security in order to ensure the safety of your customers’ privacy and their data.
3. Even more video content to satisfy the users’ cravings.
4. Exercising more caution when collaborating with influencers (such as measuring ROI and complying with legislation).
5. Integration of artificial intelligence in more projects (like Pinterest has already done).
6. Thorough analysis of Big Data as a means to improve customer service.
7. The Internet of Things expanding, analyzing more of the customer input and providing more relevant information.
8. Careful management of budgets by measuring return of investment.
9. Making preparations for 5G mobile phones entering the market.
10. Stay updated with the latest SEO factors influencing website rankings with WebCEO’s Website Audit Tool and evaluate your site’s current performance.
11. Using Live Chat to provide customers with real-time answers.
12. Using chatbots to handle the simplest customer requests.
13. Identifying the moments right before customers make a purchase (known as micro-moments) and reacting in time to offer your product or service.
14. Leveraging user-generated content to spread awareness of your brand.
15. Leveraging short-lived content and platforms that support it.
16. Adopting Artificial Reality and Virtual Reality technology.
17. Social media taking a more active part in e-commerce by allowing transactional activities (a.k.a. social commerce).
18. Adopting modern marketing strategies to target Generation Z.
19. Providing a consistent online experience on all types of devices (cross-device marketing).
20. Optimization of landing pages and conversion rates.
21. Implementing the option to pay via a mobile device.

The post 21 New Trends in Digital Marketing for 2018 (Infographic) appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

What is considered a good click-through rate, exactly? The average CTR across all industries is only slightly under 2%. Any lower than that, or especially if you’re under 1%, definitely gives you a reason to be worried: that’s as critically low as it gets. That is why today we will share with you this infographic, made by Larry Kim of MobileMonkey and Brian Dean of Backlinko. When these big names share their experience in how to improve click-through rates, you know you can trust them.

Here are the important takeaways:

• Use Google Search Console to identify pages with the lowest CTR. They’ll be the ones to reward you the most when their CTR increases.
• Emotional, “power” words in titles and descriptions attract users much better than dry, keyword-heavy phrases.
• Write headlines from the perspective of someone relatable: a friend, a bearer of news, a comedian. Do you have your own favorite persona?
• Use this recipe for your articles’ titles: a number, the format, an emotional hook, the content type and your subject. Look no further than this post’s title for an example.
• Facebook posts which receive a lot of clicks are a great source of title ideas.
• Try out many different variations of the abovementioned format. And make them actually different, in more than just a single word.
• Make your URLs readable and descriptive instead of random strings of symbols.
• Keep an eye on ad previews in Google AdWords to see what your PPC ads will look like.

The post 11 Proven Tactics to Increase Your Click-Through Rate [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Halloween is near. Scary things crawl out of their dark holes to celebrate and feed. Some of them may already have found their way into your site… and when midnight comes, they will gnaw at your rankings, suck your link juice, then dump your site’s cold, shriveled body on page 2 of Google!

That’s what happens when you practice black magic. Or, in SEO terms, when you dabble in black hat SEO practices. Demons hear your call and gleefully answer it, drawn to the scent of a sinning webmaster. For the “meager” price of making your website their home, they promise you high rankings, lots of visitors and a spike of traffic – and then take it all away. Sometimes demons drag the website itself to the abyss, too.

But there is a ray of hope. The best way to not get caught by these hellspawns is to know what dwells inside the darkness of black hat SEO. Know the demons and the tricks they use before their teeth bite through your career’s throat. To safeguard your website from these black hat practices and monitor your SEO integrity, consider using WebCEO’s Website Audit tool.

(Spoiler alert: Google kills them all and then burns you at the stake in the end.)

1. Doorway pages have only one purpose: to lure you in. They are designed to rank well in search results, that’s how they get you. You click on them only to find yourself on a page filled with keywords and incoherent nonsense… then the trap springs, and you are redirected to somewhere else.

2. Hidden texts and links, which are parasites unseen to the eye. They are the lesser and the weakest of the horrors, their tiny hungry mouths desperate to suck in some undeserved traffic.

3. Keyword stuffing. When a site puts on a black hat, its keywords breed uncontrollably, trying to trick search engines with their numbers.

4. Content scraping, wearing the face of another. One may simply try to appear as somebody else – somebody you love and desire – to tempt you, and when they wickedly steal pieces of content from too many others, the site turns into a monstrous chimera.

5. Cloaking, another art of deceiving appearances. Some websites have a face of unparalleled beauty, which they show to search engines. But on the back of their heads, they have a second face, hideous and disfigured, which they show you when you are drawn in.

6. Link spam is another name for when a black hat wearing website spreads its tendrils chaotically. Sites need backlinks to rank high in SERPs. Sometimes they turn into beasts, latch onto other sites uninvited, drink their domain authority and try to catch unsuspecting users when they can.

They lurk in dark corners, eager to jump on your defenseless back, dig their claws in your face and your neck. Remember: a black hat will bring misfortune to sites that wear it. Monsters who feed on traffic and rankings are drawn to the black hat. Don’t let them murder your SEO!

(Source of the infographic: SEO.com)

The post 6 Black Hat SEO Practices That Will Doom Your Soul [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Keeping customers happy has never been easy, and it’s becoming even more difficult nowadays when people’s attention spans are shrinking by the day. The good news is that you can easily make your customers more satisfied if you do just one little thing: optimize page load time!

It might seem like a few seconds here or there won’t make a huge difference for the big stuff like conversion rates and revenue, but it’s quite the opposite. An improvement of just 1 second can bring you more revenue, higher conversion rates, and better search engine rankings.

How Reducing Load Time Can Do Wonders for Your Website

The importance of optimizing web speed cannot be stressed enough in this day and age when customers are drowning in content as websites trample over one another trying to win over customers’ attention. If you’re a business owner stressing over low conversion rates and abandoned carts, the first thing you need to do is improve your page load time. Utilizing a comprehensive Website Audit tool can be a crucial step in identifying and rectifying issues that slow down your site.

Keep in mind that 47% of all customers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less, while 64% of smartphone users will wait no longer than 4 seconds for a page to load. Even what seems like a negligible delay of 1 second can reduce your conversion rates by 7% and page views by 11%.

Websites That Could Benefit from Improving Speed

According to several case studies, some of the most popular websites could improve their performance significantly if they sped up their load time. These include Amazon, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Microsoft, Shopzilla, among others.

To find out what the results of web speed case studies for these and other websites are, take a look at the informative infographic below and see for yourself how optimizing page load time can lead to better web performance.

(Source of infographic: Skilled.co)

The post How Speed Affects Your Website SEO [Infographic] appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.