enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 9 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

We invite you to join the webinar to learn more about SEO and UX on September 22nd at 10am PST, 1pm EST. Forget Will and Kate. The real wedding of the century is between the most unlikely of couples: SEO and UX. Long considered polar opposites – enemies, even, in some camps – these two critical elements of your digital marketing are actually quite interdependent. When you bring the two together, your online presence succeeds in ways you never imagined. We’d love to show you how. Join BrightEdge and Noble Studios for the webinar to learn how to make SEO and UX live happily ever after. By giving us just one hour of your time, you will learn:

• Why UX is a growing part of SEO effectiveness
• What you don’t know about UX could hurt you
• How SEO and UX work together to drive business impact
• How proper UX improves conversion
• Tools to integrate UX into your SEO plan

Tapping into our experience and insights with an integrated approach to UX and SEO, the Brightedge and co-marketing partner Noble Studios team will walk you step-by-step through best practices for not only boosting traffic but converting visitors through your marketing campaign with journey maps.

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 9 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

Local search optimization is the careful process of helping your website appear in relevant searches in the area around the user. These local searches are often answered by a local 3-pack that provides easily-digestible listings for businesses in the immediate vicinity. Local search is quickly becoming a dominant component in commerce. An estimated 78 percent of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases with 18 percent leading to sales within a day. As mobile usage continues to rise, the importance of these on-the-go devices in local business continues to grow as well. Sixty percent of American adults say that they use smartphones or tablets to look for local product or services information. It should be clear why local search optimization and helping your brand stand out in local searches is important. You should also note that Google answers 93 percent of searches with local intent with a local 3-pack. In others words, in the vast majority of the searches performed for local businesses, users will automatically be drawn to three main listings in the top center of the page. The better that businesses are able to understand how local SEO works and what they can do to boost their chances for success, the easier it will be for them to appear in these key listings and help their businesses stand out in their area.

How does local search optimization work?

Google creates local search results based upon the businesses that are located the closest to the exact location of the user. This means that a position change of just a few miles will impact the results. The results that appear for local searches, particularly on the local 3-pack, are continually changing. For businesses, this provides both benefits and drawbacks. Since the results are continually in a state of flux, brands have ample opportunity to enhance their local SEO and start to see an increase in their own appearance in local search. On the other hand, it means that no matter how well their site is optimized, if they are on the other side of the city and there are other quality businesses located closer to the user, they likely will not appear in the critical 3-pack. There are some opportunities to boost one’s appearance in local search. For example, if a user searches for the ‘best’ pizza place near them, the results will differ than if they just searched for a pizza near them. This means that Google is filtering through the results around the user to find those with the highest ratings. This may encourage the algorithm to widen its parameters, even slightly, to focus on the top-rated local businesses. Brands that therefore focus on cultivating positive reviews and using related keywords can therefore increase their chances of appearing in a greater number of local search 3-packs.      

Do not neglect standard optimization for the local 3-pack

When the 3-pack is displayed for a local search, it automatically dominates the page. Other organic results are pushed to the very bottom. On mobile, the standard organic results are not even visible without scrolling. Brands that want to succeed in local search optimization cannot neglect this key area.

• Focus on the NAP. Make sure that your name, address, and phone number are consistent on all your listings so that Google is confident in your information.
• Claim your Google+ page for your business and build it out. This means including quality pictures and writing descriptions using local keywords.
• Cultivate reviews. As explained before, high-quality reviews can help increase the chances of your brand being listed on the 3-packs. It will also help your business appear even more reputable on any 3-pack where it is listed. Take steps such as encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews after transactions and including links to your Google+ page on newsletters, business cards, and your website.

What can I do to make my local search optimization efforts stand out?

Since the local search results change easily and are so user-dependent, it is easy to feel some level of frustration over how much influence you can have over your local search optimization efforts. Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to make your business and domain stand out.

Remember the power of PPC

Ads appear even above the local 3-pack and can provide you with an additional opportunity to attract local attention. They can help you tap into a prominent position on the SERP for important local keywords and thus boost brand awareness and click-throughs. To do local search ads correctly, however, you need to make sure that your ad fits with local search intentions. A study conducted by Neustar Localeze and 15 Miles examined the purpose of local searches. They found that the top three reasons for conducting these types of searches were:

• Finding the address or location of a business
• Searching for area organizations with the products or services being sought
• Looking up the phone numbers for businesses

The Google local 3-pack makes most of this information obvious right from the listing, so your PPC ad needs to similarly serve the needs of these local customers. Including information about your location, click-to-call links, or links to information about your business can help you increase your success with paid search. When the user clicks on your ad, you want to continue the positive user experience. This means having the landing page optimized for local users - with information about who you are, what you do, where you are located, and how to contact you featured prominently.

Create content for local searches

You can also enhance your local search optimization by creating content designed for people in your area. You can use BrightEdge to uncover keywords directly related to your area and put them in a specific group to track their progress. Create content that focuses on events and developments in your area and how they impact your industry. Build a reputation in your area as the local expert in the business. You can also expand your brand reach and awareness by participating in local events. For example, set up a booth at local fairs or sponsoring local charities and events. You can then promote the event on your website for even more attention.

Do not neglect the I-want-to-go micro-moment

Google has recently been impressing upon marketers and businesses the importance of micro-moments. These are intent-filled instances when users want to accomplish a specific task. During the I-want-to-go moment, users often turn to mobile devices to help them reach a specific destination, such as a local business. Customers want quick answers that address their needs. To match these desires, brands should construct their websites to ensure that critical information, such as locations and content information are prominently featured on the landing page. With the rise in mobile device use and the importance of mobile search with commerce both on and offline, brands need to understand how local search works and how they can improve their own local SEO. While it can seem frustrating to try and optimize for perpetually changing, user-dependent results, these search optimization tips can help brands better prepare for the local 3-pack while also boosting their reputations and reach in the region. This helps local search optimization and ensures that the organization takes advantage of search opportunities around them.  

maspillera

M Posted 9 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

Considering that there were over three billion people online by June of 2016, it is clear that the Internet has forever changed how we communicate with one another -- and with the businesses we are interested in buying from. Within the business space, digital marketing has become increasingly critical to success. Consider that:

• 81% of customers and 94% of B2B buyers say they use online research when making a purchasing decision
• 71% of people say they are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media
• 2/3 of businesses either have already introduced a digital transformation program, or they plan to shortly
• 71% of brands plan on increasing their digital marketing budgets

We have developed a fun digital marketing quiz that will allow you to test your own knowledge of digital marketing. See if you know the industry well enough to earn that perfect score!

Take Digital Marketing Quiz Now

Andy Betts

M Posted 9 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

“At VMware, BrightEdge is a fundamental part of our web strategy. It allows us to optimize our landing pages, attract quality traffic and grow our business. We cannot imagine doing it without the support of BrightEdge.” - Cindy Phan, VMware

We recently had the chance to sit down with Cindy Phan, the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing Strategy at VMware, one of our fantastic speakers at Share16 to discuss hot topic - personalization. We chatted about her upcoming presentation as well as her thoughts about the latest trends and opportunities in the digital marketing space, including what she has to say on personalization. She had some great insights, and we wanted to share them with all of you.

BrightEdge: What is the biggest trend in marketing that you see as we approach the end of 2016?

Cindy Phan: So the biggest trend that I am seeing in my personal world of digital marketing is a shift towards more coordinated campaign efforts across online and offline channels. Before, and even up to this point, a lot of people ran inbound marketing campaigns on different digital channels as well as outbound email campaigns in a very siloed way. You would have a campaign on social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and then your search and display networks campaigns separately with different sets of KPIs. At VMware, and I am noticing this across the B2B industry, there is a march towards more coordinated digital nurture efforts. For example, if you go on LinkedIn, Facebook, or vmware.com and you interact with a VMware offer, your behavior will start being tracked. We will retarget you with the next-step experience to accelerate your digital journey.  You will not see the same offer again if you already consumed it regardless of which digital channel you are on. We are slowly working towards increased cooperation across all channels. I think this is the biggest trend in B2B marketing largely because the technology is improving. We can now build our own digital data hub that allows us to do this higher level of personalization.  

BE: What do you think is the biggest opportunity for brands and marketers moving forward?

CP: I think the next step is to continue with the growing technological capabilities. There is now the opportunity for more personalization within the framework of digital campaigns. It is important to remember that not all campaigns are created equal, how you optimize the campaign really makes a difference. Marketers now have the opportunity to optimize the framework and their campaigns and personalize them to the customer’s experience. They now have the chance to incorporate all their first, second and third party data into the same data hub. I am excited to see where this technology and these opportunities lead in the future of B2B marketing.  

BE: What is the biggest mistake you see marketers make?

CP: A lot of marketers do not look at data as much as they should because not all marketers are the best analysts. To be a successful marketer, I think you need be analytical, creative as well as technical. It is also best for marketers to have a business mindset because it doesn’t matter how much you spend or how many click-thrus you get; it’s the ROI that matters. Marketers have to be able to analyze campaigns from end to end - from vendor dashboard to their own internal funnel metrics - to come up with conclusions.  When you run campaigns across a lot of channels often the data comes from different vendor/agency dashboards. For example, if you run a campaign on LinkedIn, you will get campaign performance data from the LinkedIn dashboard about how well your campaign is doing and how many clicks/engagement/CPC/etc you are getting. Then when you look at your own internal data to see how these efforts are directly contributing to brand growth and revenue, you find that sometimes things don’t line up. This is the time to pause and optimize your campaign. Marketers need to be able to look at things from multiple angles and data points.  Digital marketing is like a hybrid between art and science.  

BE: What are your suggestions on how to elevate SEO and content marketing with executives?

CP: SEO is an important element in our web strategy. It cannot be siloed by itself; it must be baked into the overall digital framework. I rely heavily on SEO to drive quality traffic when I create campaign plans, and marketers need to be able to show that necessity to senior executives. You need to be able to show ROI and how SEO benefits the entire campaign. For example, you can start the journey with organic and quality traffic coming to the site then build behavioral segments to better target them later. With content marketing the same thing applies. We all rely on each other. Poor content will not be read by anyone, and without SEO, website traffic will be impacted in a negative way. Before walking into a presentation with your senior executives, you need to be able to show how these elements work together to drive results and ROI.

BE: What will you be speaking about at Share?

CP: I will be focusing on the omni-channel personalization campaign framework that we’re adapting at VMware as well as some personalized digital nurture campaigns we are running. I will share slides about inbound sources that drive traffic to our web properties, how we capture the data, and how to create segments to nurture the visitor after they leave the web property. As technology develops, it will be easier for people to create these more coordinated campaigns, and I will be providing them with insight about how they can get started.

BE: Do you have any words of wisdom to share with us all?

CP: Always be curious! Without curiosity the leading marketers would never discover the next best thing. It was great to have the opportunity to speak with Cindy about personalization and the other digital marketing trends, and we look forward to continuing the conversation at Share16. She also shared with us that she might look a bit ‘different’ when you see her in October - she is due with her second child in December! We wish Cindy all the best and look forward to hearing her presentation in a few weeks.