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How To SEO Optimise eCommerce Product Pages?

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In the highly competitive world of eCommerce, it is crucial to ensure that your product pages are optimised for search engines. With the right SEO strategies in place, you can significantly improve your online visibility, attract more potential customers, and ultimately boost your sales. In this article, we will delve into the importance of SEO for eCommerce and explore key elements that can help you optimise your product pages effectively.

Understanding the Importance of SEO for eCommerce

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, plays a vital role in driving organic traffic to your eCommerce website. By optimising your product pages for search engines, you can rank higher in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you. Higher rankings not only increase your visibility but also establish trust and credibility among your target audience.

But what exactly is SEO and why is it so important for eCommerce businesses? SEO is the practice of optimising your website and its content to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

When a user searches for a specific product or service, search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine which websites are most relevant and authoritative. By implementing SEO techniques, you can increase your chances of appearing on the first page of search results, where the majority of users tend to click.

 

The Role of SEO in Online Sales

When it comes to online sales, visibility is everything. In today’s digital age, where competition is fierce, having a well-optimised website can make all the difference. By utilising SEO techniques, you can improve your website’s ranking, which in turn increases its visibility. 

Studies have shown that the vast majority of users do not go beyond the first page of search results. Therefore, if you want to capture their attention and drive conversions, you must optimise your product pages for SEO.

Imagine you have an eCommerce store that sells handmade jewellery. You have a wide range of beautiful necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that you want to showcase to potential customers. 

However, if your website doesn’t appear on the first page of search results when someone searches for “handmade jewellery,” chances are they won’t even know your store exists. This is where SEO comes in. By optimising your product pages with relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and building backlinks, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search results and attracting more visitors to your website.

How SEO impacts your eCommerce visibility

SEO impacts your eCommerce visibility in multiple ways. First and foremost, it helps search engines understand the relevance and quality of your content, making it easier for them to index your product pages. 

When you optimise your website with relevant keywords, search engines like Google can better understand what your website is about and match it with relevant search queries. This increases the chances of your website appearing in search results when someone is looking for products or services that you offer.

Moreover, SEO ensures that your website is easily navigable and user-friendly, resulting in a positive user experience. When users visit your website and find it easy to navigate, find the information they need, and make purchases without any hassle, they are more likely to stay longer and explore other pages. 

This, in turn, encourages visitors to spend more time on your site, decreasing your bounce rate and improving your search engine rankings.

Let’s go back to our handmade jewellery store example. Imagine a potential customer lands on your website after searching for “handmade silver necklace.” If your website is well-optimised and provides a seamless user experience, they will be more likely to explore other pages, such as your collection of bracelets or earrings. 

This not only increases the chances of making a sale but also improves your website’s overall visibility and authority in the eyes of search engines.

SEO is a crucial aspect of any eCommerce business. By optimising your product pages for search engines, you can increase your visibility, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately drive more sales. So, if you want your eCommerce website to succeed in the competitive online marketplace, investing in SEO is essential.

Key Elements of an SEO-Optimised Product Page

Now that we understand the importance of SEO for eCommerce, let us explore the key elements of an SEO-optimised product page.

When it comes to creating an SEO-optimised product page, there are several key elements that you need to consider. These elements not only help improve your search engine rankings but also enhance the overall user experience on your website.

Product Titles and SEO

Your product titles play a crucial role in SEO optimisation. They should be descriptive, concise, and contain relevant keywords. By including keywords that accurately reflect your product, you increase the chances of your page being ranked higher in search results.

When crafting your product titles, it is important to strike a balance between being informative and engaging. You want to provide enough information to entice potential customers while also incorporating keywords that will help search engines understand what your product is all about.

Additionally, it is worth mentioning that product titles should be unique for each product. This not only helps avoid duplicate content issues but also allows you to target different keywords for different products, thereby expanding your reach in search results.

Importance of Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions provide a brief summary of your product page in search results. These snippets not only entice users to click on your page but also influence search engine rankings. Therefore, it is essential to craft compelling, keyword-rich meta descriptions that accurately represent the content of your product page.

When writing meta descriptions, it is important to keep them concise and informative. Aim for a length of around 150-160 characters to ensure that your description is displayed in its entirety on search engine result pages. Including relevant keywords in your meta descriptions can also help improve your page’s visibility in search results.

Remember, meta descriptions serve as a mini advertisement for your product page. So, make sure to highlight the unique selling points of your product and create a sense of urgency or curiosity to encourage users to click through to your website.

Image Optimisation for SEO

Images are a vital component of eCommerce product pages. They not only showcase your products but also have the potential to impact your SEO efforts. Optimising your images can improve your website’s loading speed and enhance user experience, ultimately leading to better search engine rankings.

When optimising your images for SEO, there are a few key factors to consider. Firstly, it is important to use descriptive file names that accurately reflect the content of the image. This helps search engines understand what the image is about and improves its chances of appearing in relevant image search results.

In addition to descriptive file names, using alt tags is crucial for image optimisation. Alt tags provide alternative text that is displayed when an image cannot be loaded. Including relevant keywords in your alt tags can help search engines understand the context of the image and improve its visibility in search results.

Lastly, compressing your images without compromising their quality is essential for optimising your website’s loading speed. Large image file sizes can slow down your website, leading to a poor user experience and potentially lower search engine rankings. By compressing your images, you can strike a balance between image quality and website performance.

Overall, paying attention to image optimisation can significantly improve your website’s SEO performance and enhance the visual appeal of your product pages.

Implementing Keyword Research for Product Pages

Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of SEO optimisation for eCommerce product pages. It plays a crucial role in driving organic traffic and improving the visibility of your products in search engine results.

When it comes to keyword research, it is essential to understand the language your target audience uses when searching for products similar to yours. By identifying the right keywords and incorporating them strategically into your content, you increase the likelihood of your product pages appearing in relevant search queries.

But why is keyword research so significant? Well, imagine you have a fantastic product that solves a specific problem. However, if you don’t use the right keywords, your potential customers may never find it. 

That’s where keyword research comes in. It helps you uncover the specific terms and phrases people are using to search for products like yours.

The Significance of Keyword Research

Keyword research helps you understand the language your target audience uses when searching for products similar to yours. By identifying the right keywords and incorporating them strategically into your content, you increase the likelihood of your product pages appearing in relevant search queries.

Moreover, keyword research allows you to gain insights into the search volume for specific keywords. This information helps you prioritise your efforts and focus on the keywords that have the highest potential to drive traffic and conversions.

Additionally, by analysing the competition level for different keywords, you can gauge the difficulty of ranking for those terms. This knowledge enables you to choose keywords that strike a balance between search volume and competition, giving you a better chance of ranking higher in search engine results.

Tools for Effective Keyword Research

Fortunately, various tools are available to simplify the process of keyword research. These tools provide valuable insights into search volume, competition, and related keywords, empowering you to make informed decisions and optimise your product pages effectively.

One popular tool is the Google Keyword Planner, which allows you to discover new keywords, analyze their search volume, and get ideas for related terms. It provides data directly from Google, giving you a reliable source of information.

Another powerful tool is SEMrush, which offers comprehensive keyword research capabilities. It not only provides search volume and competition data but also allows you to analyze your competitors’ keywords and discover new opportunities.

Moz Keyword Explorer is another tool worth mentioning. It provides in-depth keyword analysis, including search volume, difficulty, and organic click-through rates. With its user-friendly interface and robust features, it is a valuable asset for any SEO practitioner.

By leveraging these tools, you can save time and effort in your keyword research process. They provide you with valuable data and insights, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and optimise your product pages for maximum visibility and organic traffic.

The Role of User Experience in SEO Optimisation

User experience is an integral part of effective SEO optimisation for eCommerce product pages. Providing a seamless and enjoyable experience for users not only increases their satisfaction but also plays a crucial role in improving search engine rankings. Let’s delve deeper into the various aspects of user experience that impact SEO.

Site Speed and its Impact on SEO

Site speed is a critical factor in user experience and SEO rankings. Slow-loading product pages can frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates. Imagine a potential customer eagerly waiting for a product page to load, only to lose patience and abandon the site. To ensure optimal site speed, it is crucial to employ various strategies.

One effective strategy is to compress images without compromising their quality. By reducing the file size of images, you can significantly improve page loading speed. Additionally, minimising HTTP requests by combining CSS and JavaScript files can further enhance site performance. 

Leveraging browser caching is another technique that allows users to store certain elements of your website, reducing the need to download them again when revisiting the page.

Moreover, optimising the server response time and using content delivery networks (CDNs) can help distribute the load and deliver content faster to users in different geographical locations. These techniques not only enhance user experience but also contribute to better SEO rankings.

Mobile Optimisation for Better SEO

In today’s mobile-first world, optimising your product pages for mobile devices is imperative. With the increasing number of people using smartphones and tablets to browse and shop online, neglecting mobile optimisation can be detrimental to both user experience and SEO rankings.

Responsive design is a fundamental aspect of mobile optimisation. It ensures that your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes, providing users with a consistent and user-friendly experience across devices. 

By employing responsive design, you eliminate the need for users to zoom in or scroll horizontally, making it easier for them to navigate and engage with your product pages.

Fast page loading is another crucial factor in mobile optimisation. Mobile users often have limited patience and expect instant access to information. 

Optimising images, leveraging browser caching, and minimising HTTP requests, as mentioned earlier, are all strategies that contribute to faster page loading on mobile devices.

Furthermore, simplifying navigation on mobile devices is vital for improving user experience. Ensuring that menus are easy to access and use, and that important information is readily available, can make a significant difference in how users interact with your product pages. 

By providing a seamless mobile experience, you not only enhance user satisfaction but also boost your SEO rankings.

User experience plays a pivotal role in SEO optimisation for eCommerce product pages. By prioritising site speed and mobile optimisation, you can create a user-friendly environment that not only delights your customers but also improves your search engine rankings. 

Remember, a positive user experience is the key to unlocking the full potential of your SEO efforts.

Monitoring and Improving your SEO Strategy

Implementing effective SEO strategies is not a one-time task. Continuously monitoring and improving your SEO efforts is crucial for maintaining and enhancing your online visibility.

Regular Auditing of Product Pages

Regularly auditing your product pages allows you to identify areas for improvement and fix any issues that may negatively impact your SEO performance. It involves analysing your keywords, meta tags, content quality, and overall site structure. By conducting regular audits, you can ensure that your product pages remain relevant and optimised for search engines.

Keeping up With SEO Trends and Updates

The field of SEO is continuously evolving, with search engines updating their algorithms regularly. It is essential to stay informed about the latest trends and updates in SEO practices. Keeping up with these changes enables you to adapt your strategies accordingly and maintain a competitive edge in the online marketplace.

By following the above guidelines and implementing effective SEO strategies, you can SEO-optimise your eCommerce product pages, enhance your online visibility, and ultimately drive more sales. Remember, SEO optimisation is an ongoing process, so continuous monitoring and improvement are key to achieving long-term success.

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Content Marketing

Creating a Content Calendar From SEO Insights

Creating a Content Calendar From SEO Insights

Content calendar (or editorial calendar) is a simple concept: a schedule of when and where to publish future content (posts, video materials, podcasts, etc). An efficient content calendar normally includes dates for publishing upcoming content, planned promotions, social media promotions and posts, and updates to previously published content.

A content calendar is of extreme importance for businesses because it helps devise and track marketing strategies. Not only does it help a business stay organized, but it also helps with monitoring SEO performance.

How to Use a Content Calendar Efficiently

That being said, even the finest of content calendars won’t be efficient if they are not used to their full potential. In plain words, creating a content calendar and not following up and updating it is not the way to go about things.

The most common goals a content calendar should help achieve are, as follows:

  • Ensures that planned tasks are going as planned
  • Provides overview of upcoming tasks
  • Ensures ideal content distribution
  • Ensures that collaboration is taking place

Additional features may be added as per specific goals, but these are the very basic and essential ones.

Elements of a Good Content Calendar

As is the case with everything in life, there is no universal rule when it comes to content calendars. However, while they are highly customizable, they still should feature a number of elements that are crucial for every marketing strategy. These include editorial, promotional items, platform and upcoming ideas.

A content calendar should be planned well ahead and created in such a way that it can be easily customized as needed. To ensure best results, stick to your OKRs.

Editorial

Editorials should be the starting point of every content calendar. Namely, their goal is to list the posting schedule and all content planned for publishing.

Promotional Items

Promotional Items are pieces of content that will promote your services. They can vary in form and usually include a mixture of posts, podcasts, newsletters and various announcements.

Platform

Choosing the best platform where to host your content calendar is paramount, especially when there are multiple contributors. The calendar should be easily accessible to every contributor at all times.

A good email marketing calendar relies on swift responses, so if you’re running a large business, a suitable platform is essential.

There are numerous options when it comes to the choice of a platform and other content calendar tools, the most popular of which we will list hereby:

  • Trello (for marketing teams)
  • Asana (for marketing teams)
  • Slack (for marketing teams)
  • Coschedule (for marketing teams)
  • Google Sheets (for individuals)
  • MS Excel (for individuals)
  • Google Calendar (for individuals)

Certainly, there are other options as well, but there is a good reason why some tools are more popular than others.

Upcoming Ideas

Finally, note all ideas as they come as these can be later turned into efficient strategies. Keep in mind that audiences change (and so do trends), so the ideas you get along the way are extremely significant.

Whether it’s the new Gmail templates or customer feedback, make sure to note all of the important insights in your content calendar.

How to Organize Your Content Calendar

Organizing a content calendar is a serious undertaking, especially for businesses with many contributors. However, it is not impossible and there are some best practices to help you in this matter, too.

First of all, make sure you have chosen the very best platform for your needs. Immediately define the dynamics of posting.

Content calendars for small-scale marketing plans may include only post titles and the dates when to post them.

On the other hand, complex content strategies should best feature all the steps of the content creation process that are easily understandable to all contributors.

Calendar Templates

Creating a template is always a good idea as it serves two purposes:

  1. It simplifies the process.
  2. It helps contributors get used to the routine, making the whole process faster and more efficient.

Again, no rules are set in stone, but some elements are simply logical to include in a content calendar template. Here are some tips:

  • The topic
  • Content-type
  • Publishing date and time
  • The channel where the content is to be published
  • Person in charge (for marketing teams)

Remember to follow through to ensure your content strategy is going as planned.

The Frequency of Publishing

This is a tricky question, especially since feedback is essential in this matter and is often one of the toughest elements of a marketing strategy.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, we will still provide some ideas in hopes they will help you make better decisions.

I.e., social media posts can be published more frequently, as they also include reposting of older content that new followers haven’t had the chance to see.

It is generally recommended to publish at least one new blog post weekly, as you’ll want to keep your audience engaged.

Recycle Older Content

As mentioned above, there will always be new customers and followers who haven’t seen all previously published content. Hence, it is always a good idea to recycle older content.

In addition, it is highly recommended that you update older posts with new information, so re-sharing the updated versions is simply a must.

Be clever in your approach. Even if there won’t always be new information to add, you can make an infographic using the existing blog posts. You can go one step further and turn them into video material, a podcast… ideas are endless.

Conclusion

As you can see, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to brainstorming your content calendar. It is an inspiring process, but don’t forget to simplify the steps that can be simplified.

It is of utmost importance to ensure that the entire content team is on the same page and that all new content is relevant.

Keep updating older posts and recycling the content for best results, and your marketing strategy will flourish.

Guest Author

Viola Eva is passionate about digital entrepreneurship, flow, and mindful marketing. As a marketing consultant and founder of Flow SEO, she has worked with clients ranging from individual digital entrepreneurs to software companies to multi-national corporates and government institutions. She is a speaker, educator, and specialist on all things SEO known from Search Engine Journal, UnGagged, Pubcon, Wordcamp Europe and many other events and publications.

 

📈 Looking to take your digital presence to the next level? Look no further! Our top-rated SEO agency in Singapore is home to a team of talented and innovative minds who are dedicated to helping you stand out online. Don’t wait any longer to make your mark – get in touch with us today!

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Search Engine Optimization

Need Your Website Ranking To Get Higher? Here Are 5 Ways To Increase It Fast

With all the massive changes in the digital landscape over the past few years, you might be tempted to think that SEO is a thing of the past. However, SEO remains one of the most potent online marketing strategies around. SEO has been evolving with every Google update to their search engine, but the desired results remain the same. An effective SEO strategy should be able to increase your website’s traffic, brand awareness, and ultimately your conversions.

A sound SEO strategy is not a wand that you can just wield anytime for instant results, though we may all wish a hidden Harry Potter inside us. According to Forbes, it takes at least 6 months or longer to implement an effective SEO process. This often involves a step by step process consisting of research and planning, technical SEO work, content creation, and analysing results. The amount of legwork involved would take an awful lot of man-hours.

However, we also understand the need for quick wins although ‘fast’ here is a relative term. If you want to see improvements for your website rankings on Google, there are a number of things you can start doing immediately.

1. Publish content regularly

regular content

One of the driving factors of SEO is quality content. Making sure that you are publishing quality content on a regular basis means you are already on a certain path to having your website rank higher in search engines.

The critical word here is quality. Make sure that your content targets your ideal customer or audience. After publishing the post, be sure to share it with family, friends and current customers as well as on relevant forums and social media channels. Then, watch your website’s traffic increase!

Don’t forget to identify a keyword phrase for each page that you want the page to rank for. A good exercise would be to make an educated guess on how your audience would search for the content you’ve just published. Lastly, repeat that phrase and variations of it a number of times within your content.

As long as you can publish smart, quality content on a regular basis that people enjoy reading and sharing, you’re on your way to good search engine rankings.

2. Create a sitemap for Google Search Console

create a sitemapA lot of marketers overlook the value of creating a sitemap. According to Google, if a website keeps putting new pages then it is likely that Google web crawlers might overlook some of them. However, creating a sitemap is vital whether your website page count is constantly growing or it’s stagnant and small.

Even if your site is new and contains few external links, submitting a sitemap to Google is important. Googlebot and other webcrawlers scour the Internet by following links to go from one page to another, which may result in your website getting overlooked if you do not submit a sitemap.

How to Submit A Sitemap

The first thing that you need to do is figure out which pages on your website need to be crawled by Google. Find a canonical version for each page. Figure out which site format you want to use (you can find a list of sitemap formats here). There are numerous third party software that you could use to make your sitemap, including Google Sitemap Generator.

Next, you should test your sitemap. This will determine if the sitemap that you have created is valid. In order to do this, just go to Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools), click on Site Configuration and go to Sitemaps. There is a tool at the top right called Add/Test Sitemap.

sitemap

If the test Google runs is successful, add your sitemap to your robots.txt file and submit it to Search Console.

3. Check your Metadata

Your webpages contain metadata or information regarding the content of that page. Meta tags have been around since the early days of webpages and are an important element of SEO. Metadata is not as huge a factor as it once was in Google’s algorithms, but it can still play a big role in your website’s ranking. There are three types of metadata that you should know about:

The first is Title metadata. This is the title that will be displayed within the tab in your browser window when you load a page. It is also shown as the clickable link within Google search results. See the image below.

Browser Tab

On Google

The second is the Description metadata and it is the text description that will be used as your site’s summary. This should be short but insightful, providing the right information to get readers to click. It shows up on Google under your main link. See image above.

Lastly, we have the Keyword metadata. These are the search phrases that your audience will may type to find your pages. Don’t overpopulate this. Try to keep this under 6-8 phrases containing 1-4 words. Do note that meta keywords are not a Google ranking factor but are a nice-to-have, so if you want, you can also ignore them.

4. Create a better URL structure

url

Check the URL structures of your pages and make sure that they are optimized. Making it easier for Google and your audience to decipher your URLs will yield you better results in page ranking.

For example, make your URL easy to read so that people will easily figure out what they should be expecting from your page. You have probably seen webpages with URLs like “mydomain.com/ hdh23hrakhd/44uh34su2iu/jasnja=f#loaddelay” Not only is it impossible to remember, it’s also confusing and looks unreliable.

Wouldn’t it be better if your website URL was “mydomain.com/amazing-outdoor-photography/landscapes”? It is clean and gives the reader an instant idea as to what he/she should expect to read on your page. Furthermore, it’s much easier to recall. Just like humans, Google also prefers URLs to read like this, as it makes it easier for them to determine the topic of your page and rank it.

5. Create relevant anchor text for links

anchor text link

Anchor text is the characters or words that is visible for your hyperlinks. Different people have various approaches to what they use as anchor text. Some prefer an exact match, which means that the anchor text uses an exact keyword, from the page that it links to.

Others use a variation of the keywords as their anchor text. There are also other ways like images, generic words such as ‘click here’, or brand names.

Anchor Text Guidelines

There are some guidelines to what makes great anchor text. First and foremost is to make the anchor text relevant to the page that it is linked to. The next would be to avoid using generic words for anchor texts.

For example, instead of using words like “click here”, try using words like “check out some amazing landscape photos”. Try to keep it as short and as clean as possible. A good rule is to decide on the fewest number of words to still make the anchor text pop.

Final Thoughts

What we’ve shared are quick action items to start improving your website ranking today! However, if you want an in-depth and effective long-term strategy, then check out our SEO services section. We would love to hear from you and discuss how we can further improve your search rankings and drive more traffic to your website.

Do you have any anecdotes or additional tips about quickly improving a website’s ranking? Please feel free to share with us in the comments section below.

🚀Elevate your brand’s visibility, boost traffic, and obtain leads with our award-winning SEO firm in Singapore. Our team uses data-driven strategies to collaborate with you and achieve your goals. Contact us today!

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Digital Marketing

Everything You Need to Know About Website Localization

How to promote your business locally | Website Localization | 2Stallions

Are you searching for strategies to improve your company’s regional presence? If so, you definitely want to focus on website localization to kick things off.

If you have a global or regional audience, digital marketing channels, such as your website, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns help you to reach out to them. However, you may find your concerted digital marketing efforts are not bearing fruit in the forms of conversions.

Why Localize My Website?

A big challenge is that most companies share a single marketing message to their entire audience, regionally or globally. This, in today’s digital landscape, does not work. Every digital user that interacts with your brand looks for a personalized message that resonates with them. This personalization can begin with localizing your website.

Internet users are booming – with more and more people coming online. They speak different languages and prefer consuming information in their native tongue. In fact, a survey evidenced that language can have a direct impact on purchasing behaviours.

Website localization does not end with translating your content into different languages though.

The goal of localization is to build up your branding in each locale to foster trust in the audience from there. This, in turns, leads to growth and success in that locale.

Website Localization Considerations

Let’s take a closer look at how you can achieve a localized online experience on your website for your audience. Effective localization entails the following elements:

1.  Branding

How potential customers perceive your brand matters a lot. If your website does not make an immediate impression, they are likely to tune out within a few minutes.

You may need to revise your branding message or tag line for different regions to connect emotionally with your potential customers there and establish your brand identity and awareness. A direct translation may lose its meaning, or even worse, turn you into a laughing stock.

Here are examples of popular slogans that fell into the direct translation trap:

  • Pepsi. Its slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” is translated into Taiwanese as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.”
  • Ford. The Ford Pinto failed to break into the Brazilian market. The term “Pinto” is Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals.”
  • Mercedes-Benz. The luxury vehicle attempted to enter the China market under the name “Bensi,” which means “Rush to Die.” Later, the company changed its brand name to “Benchi,” meaning “dashing speed.”

2.  Cultural Nuances

Your localized website should communicate an understanding of cultural norms so that users can better relate to the information and feel at home on the site.

Culture-specific elements such as graphics, images, texts, and basic information like date, time and currency should be specific to that region.

For instance, you would not want to display or pun on hamburgers if your website is localized for India, where it is taboo to eat beef. The same sort of display would work perfectly fine in China and other parts of the world.

3. Transactions

E-commerce business sites offering transactions like product purchases or subscriptions should account for transactional elements like currency and payment options.

Your website should have an on-site price conversion to assist users in making purchase decisions, or even better, be able to accept the local currency.

Certain countries may have popular payment methods not found elsewhere. Being able to offer local payment methods reduces friction and results in greater sales.

For example, in Indonesia, payment processors like Xendit allow people without bank accounts or credit cards to complete transactions offline by paying in cash at over 10,000 retail outlets.

4. Communication

Communication plays an important role in engaging a local audience. A localized website should include trust elements such as local phone numbers, a local business address and in-language customer support capability.

Offering multilingual customer care unlocks sales opportunities. Foreign-speaking customer service representatives break through the language barrier issues, ensuring better service to customers and increasing trust in your brand significantly.

Benefits of Website Localization

1. Increase Brand Credibility

Websites that understand the linguistic and cultural distinctions across regional markets are more likely to receive customer’s trust and respect.

As mentioned earlier, in-language content can influence a consumer’s likelihood to make a purchase. This is because when you have a localized website with content in the local language, visitors perceive your brand with more trust.

Product or service information written in the widely-used native language could lead to increased profitable actions like product purchases or lead form submissions.

However, do note that you should probably hire professionals to translate your website. While automatic website translation via something like Google Translate is a lot more economical, the direct translation may lead to miscommunications via inconsistent brand messaging.

2. Effectively Cross Geographical Borders

While English is the most common language, only 20% of the world population or around 1.5 billion people speak it as their first language.

Website localization bridges the language gap and taps on a non-English speaking audience. This leads to increased customer reach within the specific region you are localizing for.

Over a period of time, this leads to stronger brand awareness in that region, generating increased word-of-mouth and better conversions for your brand.

3. Drive Better Results Online

Website localization also involves optimizing for search engines.

Local SEO optimization means your localized website has a greater chance of ranking on Google within that country for keywords that your global site would find difficult to rank for as your pages would not be as optimized for the local nuances.

For example, in the automotive space, trying to rank in both the U.S. and the UK – both English-speaking countries – is not that simple. See the table below for the nuances between the two. Your UK or US localized website would bridge that gap, allowing you to rank on search engines in both countries.

How Do I Localize My Website?

If you are convinced that you need to localize your website, here are five tips to adapt your website to a specific market:

1. Create Exclusive Content

You should develop exclusive localized content instead of doing a word-for-word translation of your existing website. The best approach would be to think of it as a new website when creating content, so you can use the appropriate terminology, expression and punctuation that is reflective of your target audience’s culture and society.

This will avoid misleading messages and drive better customer engagement and increase customer loyalty.

2. Localize Images, Symbols & Colours

You may need to tweak your branding guidelines slightly for different markets. Pay attention to symbols, colours and imagery being utilized on your website.

Colours have different meanings in different cultures. For example, green is a traditionally forbidden colour in Indonesia and represents death in South America as it is associated with dense jungles. In most Western culture, however, the colour represents luck, nature, and environmental awareness.

Same goes with symbols. Hand gestures, for instance, can mean different things in different cultures. In the USA, horn fingers signify approval or “Rock on” while in Latin countries such as Brazil and Argentina, it is considered an obscene gesture that their spouse is cheating on them.

3. Seek Help from Local Experts

Producing unique content for every market can get time-consuming. Look for local experts who can help not just with translations, but also produce unique localized content for you.

Individuals who speak the local language and understand the local culture better can help your content come across as more authentic and allow your brand to resonate better with your target audience.

4. Plan Your Multi-Regional Website Domains

Catering to multilingual audiences means you need to plan for a multi-regional website. You can localize your website domain in several ways to signal to search engines like Google to start ranking you within that country’s search results.

  1. Country-Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD). This two-letter domain extension is fixed to a specific country (i.e. .sg for Singapore and .my for Malaysia). Using this domain name will help users and search engines identify a website as being focused on a specific geographic location
  2. Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD). This is a generic domain name ending with .com, .net, and .org. You can set up geo-targeting for GTLD websites by using a geographic sub-domain or sub-directory structure. For example, sg.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com/sg and then informing Google about that via Webmaster Tools Geographic Target setting.

5. Add A Multilingual Navigation Option

Set up a global navigation system that allows visitors to select their specific localized version of your website.

One of the most common designs used is a drop-down menu, wherein users select their language from a list. You may also use a dedicated landing page that allows users to select their location or language.

Additionally, you can choose to immediately redirect visitors to a localized version when they enter your global domain by checking their IP address. This further reduces friction, resulting in fewer visitors dropping off.

Go Local If You Can Afford It

Website localization may be a complex process, but it pays off. It will increase the appeal of your website for audiences in your specifically targeted markets and result in better conversions – purchases or leads – digitally for your business.

🚀 Supercharge your online presence with the Leading SEO Firm in Singapore. Our data-driven strategies guarantee more traffic, more leads, and online success. Contact us now to ignite your digital journey!

 

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Online Marketing

How Much Should You Spend On Your Adwords Campaign?

A large chunk of the world’s population may not be familiar with Google Adwords but they have all likely interacted with its output in some form if they have ever searched on Google before or visited websites that served advertising banners. In 2015 alone, online advertising generated $67.39 billion in revenue for Google.

Online Advertising Graph

That is a whole lot of impressions and clicks that Google redirected to different landing sites with the potential to turn into leads and customers. And this is why Google Adwords continues to attract an increasing amount of advertising every year. If you’re not sure what Adwords or PPC is, and why your business should be engaging in Search Engine Marketing, we recommend you to read our article on the topic.

When it comes to your Adwords campaign, one question that always pops up is how much to spend every month? A major positive about Google Adwords is that it is very customisable and you can easily vary your budget for different needs and results. We know this sounds vague and non-committal. That’s why we’re sharing the blueprint for you to determine a sensible budget for your own Adwords campaign. We recommend DIY readers to always start out with a Test Phase in order to determine their budget. Since we’re focusing on budget, we’ve skipped the steps for setting up your Adwords campaign.

Test Phase

1. Determine the right keywords

Know The Right KeywordsCreate a list of keywords that are relevant to your business. Keep in mind that Google estimates cost per click (CPC) based on the keywords. This is known as ‘Adwords Suggested Bid’. To determine how much your keywords are going to cost, use the Keyword Planner from Google. When deciding on the keywords, be mindful of your goals and WHERE in the customer buying cycle you’re targeting for your visitors.

If you’re planning to increase your online sales, you want to focus on keywords that have more ‘buying intent’. For example, if you sell shoes, keywords like “buy shoes online” or “best deal for shoes” are more likely to convert to sale than a generic keyword like ‘shoes for dinner’. Some solid buying intent keywords include coupon, buy, discount, shipping and deal. You can also focus on product keywords like cheap, affordable, brand name & product, review, and best. Someone looking for these keywords in your phrase is much further along the buying cycle towards a purchase. If you’re looking to get as many visitors to your website, words like ‘free’ and ‘how to’ are good for attracting them, but these are not likely to convert to a sale.

2. Decide on a test time frame

You must decide on the duration for your test phase. A month can be a good length of time to determine the effectiveness of your keywords. Consider the nature of the product that you are selling when deciding on your timeframe. Does your product “fly off the shelves” or does it usually require a longer buying timeframe? Keeping these into careful considerations will help you make better sense of your data.

3. Start With A Small Budget

Based on the Adwords Suggested Bid for the keywords you select, as well as the price of your product, you’ll be able to gauge how much money your Adwords campaign may need to expense each month. However, it’s always a good idea to start slow, until you’re comfortable with the Adwords interface and with your potential returns. Based on the Keyword Planner tool, you’ll also be able to get an estimated optimum daily spend. Use this to keep your initial bid for each keyword low and maximize your impressions. Increase bids based on performance of the keywords. At this point, you should set up your campaign, your Ad Groups, your ads and keywords and then finally, put money into your Adwords account to get started. If you’re a little more savvy, also link up your Google Analytics to your Adwords account and set up goals for better performance tracking. When starting out a campaign, stick to broad match keywords.

4. Cull Your Non-Performing Keywords

It is estimated that one 1 in every 100 clicks of your online ads will result in a sale. While it is tempting to check your results everyday, we suggest looking at it once a week. Look at the search terms that people are finding your ads with. Add keywords irrelevant to your goals and business into your ‘negative keywords’ list so that you don’t waste money on them. By the end of the month, you would have a growing negative keyword list that your budget will not be wasted on moving forward. Go through your original keywords list and start determining the performance of the keywords. This can be based off a comparision of your Analytics data (if it’s connected to your Adwords, this is much easier) to your Adwords results. Figure out the keywords that brought in the right targeted traffic and generated sales. Start culling those that generated very little impressions or clicks (unless the buying intent is really strong). Start updating your keyword list by shifting from broad match to broad match modifier keywords, phrase match or even exact match keywords. This reduces the overall number of impressions or clicks you receive but drives much more targeted traffic to your site.

If you are struggling in determining your sales generating keywords, consider hiring a professional SEM service.

Maximize Your Adwords Campaign ROI

Maximise ROIWhen advertising online, you should aim to derive the profit generated from every click of your ads to ascertain the level of success your campaign is having. This is known as your Earnings Per Click (EPC),  which is the best way to determine your return on investment (ROI) and identify the keywords yielding the best returns.

How to Find Your EPC

To find your EPC, multiply your customer value and your conversion rate. The customer value is how much profit you generate from a paying customer and the conversion rate is the click percentage that turns into a sale. For example, if you are promoting a product that gives you $20 in profit and it converts at 1% then your EPC is $0.20.

Ideally, you want this value to be positive and getting larger month over month. Based on your EPC, and your profits, you can determine your monthly Adwords campaign budget for following months and increase or reduce it accordingly. Of course, to keep growing your EPC, you would want to optimize your campaign further. You can try out copywriting experiments for your ads, modify your keywords lists and experiment with pricing models other than CPC.

If your ads didn’t perform as expected in the first month, it’s not cause to give up. You probably need to take a closer look at your keywords list and optimize your Adwords campaign further, and test for another month. This is why starting with a smaller budget helps – it allows you to get acquainted with Adwords without being too expensive a lesson.

Do you run Adwords campaigns for yourself? We’d love to hear about your experiences and any tips & tricks you have discovered when setting the budget for yourself.

 

Looking to enhance your online presence and achieve real results? Our acclaimed Google Ads agency offers tailored SEM solutions and proven expertise to help you succeed in the digital world.

 

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Search Engine Optimization

Onsite & Offsite SEO Strategies That’ll Help You Gain Traffic

SEO strategy | Onsite and Offsite SEO strategy | 2Stallions

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps increase organic traffic to your website. Companies with well-developed SEO strategies have seen massive success through search. Despite this, there are still companies that sit on the fence regarding the importance of SEO.

In a recent survey conducted by Fractl, only 18.4% of respondents said that SEO is very important to the health of their business. Around 26% (not at all and slightly) didn’t see SEO as a critical element to their success.

The survey also looked into business owners’ understanding of how Google determines which search results to show first. Unsurprisingly, over a third of business owners find SEO a vague or unfamiliar concept.

Fractl survey, bar graph

These research findings drive home the point that there are many owners who are missing out on the benefits of SEO for their business due to this lack of understanding.

The good news is that it is never too late to get started. If search engine optimization is new and confusing to you, this article is for you.

Broadly speaking, there are three main pillars to SEO — Technical SEO, Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO. Understanding these will help you to develop a proper SEO strategy that will drive more targeted traffic to your website and drive up sales.

Technical SEO versus Onsite SEO versus Offsite SEO

Technical SEO focuses on code and performance improvements on your website. Your development team would be heavily involved here, under the guidance of an SEO Strategist expert.

The goal is to improve the code to be more friendly for search engines to understand, and optimize the speed and mobile-friendliness of your website. Together, these website optimizations would lead to improvements in your search engine rankings.

Onsite SEO, also referred to as On-page SEO, involves techniques implemented ON a website to optimize its overall structure and make it search-engine friendly. After developing a keyword strategy, the main elements of Onsite SEO would be keyword placement and content creation on your website.

Offsite SEO, commonly known as Off-page SEO, refers to optimization techniques done OFF your website. This includes activities that promote your website to grow links from other sites on the Internet, known as backlinks and improve the trust factor of your website.

SEO is like a 3-legged chair, with each pillar being one leg, that would not be able to balance unless you focus on all areas.

Technical & Onsite SEO Strategies

Technical & Onsite optimisation is the foundation on which offsite optimisation is built upon. Without focusing on these, your offsite optimisation efforts will be wasted.

1. Website Optimization with Technical SEO

You have to pay attention to your overall website structure and user experience. These are two critical Technical SEO factors that have a direct influence on the success of your website with SEO.

A well-optimized website architecture takes a lot of effort. Here is a quick website optimization cheat sheet to guide you:

  • Create a sitemap. This step is highly recommended, especially if your website has hundreds or thousands of pages. It helps search engine crawlers to find the pages you want to show up on their search engines.
  • Link to relevant pages. Add internal links to relevant pages within your website to increase user interaction and help search engines determine the important pages on your website and how to get there.

There are two kinds of links that you can incorporate into your web content—structural and contextual. Structural links are navigation links on your website (i.e. header, footer, breadcrumb navigation). Contextual links are links within your content; they point users to other related content (i.e. read more links).

  • Improve page load speed. Page speed is a critical ranking factor. If your website loads slowly, users are likely to hit the back button and look for another result. The ideal page load speed is 2.9 seconds or below.
  • Adopt a responsive web design. People use different devices to search on the web. That’s why you should make your website look good on any screen—be it on mobile phones, tablets, or PCs. Furthermore, search engines like Google have switched to “mobile-first” indexing since 2019. This means that the mobile version of your website has now become more important for rankings.
  • Make sure your site is 100% secure. It is important to secure your website with an SSL certificate. This enables HTTPS and ensures data from your website to the user and vice versa is encrypted. Implementing this protocol is now a ranking factor, and will help your website maintain good standing on Google.
  • Add Schema markup whenever possible. Schema markup is one of the most powerful forms of SEO. It uses code (semantic vocabulary) to mark up your pages in a way that search engines find easy to understand.

Here’s an example of schema markup in action on a local search result. The schema markup enables the SERP to display a schedule of upcoming hotel events, giving more context for searchers, and leads to improved click-through back to the website. The SERP looks as follows:

Example of schema mark up

Sample from Neil Patel

Together with your Technical SEO website optimization, you can also start working on your Onsite SEO by developing a keyword strategy and implementing it on your website.

Let’s dive into the strategies around Onsite SEO.

2. Keyword Placement

Keywords are the core of on-page optimization. They are terms or phrases that lead searchers to your website. Optimizing for them will make your website more visible on search engines.

Needless to say, your selected keywords drive the entire onsite SEO optimization process—from crafting content to satisfy readers to writing titles and meta tags that send the right signals to search engines.

Adding keywords naturally to your website content is a critical on-site SEO activity. You should place them strategically throughout your web content, being mindful of the keyword density.

By doing this right, you send the signal to search engines that the topic of your page revolves around your chosen keyword(s). Over time, this lets you rank better for those keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs).

When focusing on keyword placement for your on-site SEO, the following areas are considered key:

  • URL. Include your main keyword in your page URL. This makes it easy for the search engines to find and understand the topic of your webpage content.
  • Title. The title tag describes the content of your webpage. Add your keyword to your title tag to increase the crawlability of your site. Note that this title shows up on SERPs, not on your webpage.

    Tip: Keep your title tag under 60 characters so that it does not get cut off on SERPs.
  • Description. Your meta description shows on SERPs below the title and URL. Using one of your target keywords and crafting this snippet to resonate with your intended audience can raise the click-through rate to your website from search.

    Tip: Google generally shortens snippets to 150-160 characters, so keep your descriptions around this character count.
  • Heading/ H1 Tag. This is the title of your page or blog post. Aim to include your main keyword in the H1 tag to improve your SERP placement.

    Tip: Your H1 tag should read naturally. If possible, use focus key phrases within subheadings (H2-H6) to make it clearer what the page is about.
  • Main Content Body. Adding keywords in the body of your content helps search engines identify the subject of your page and rank it in search results.

    Tip: SEO experts believe an ideal keyword density is around 1-2% for a page, which means one to two keywords per 100 words. Adding long-tail keywords or more specific keywords in the body may help in refining the search and generating targeted traffic.
  • Image Alt Text. Images are a great visual addition to any webpage. The priority is to provide context to the image. However, if possible, include your keyword in the alt text of at least one image on the page.

    Tip: Keep the alt and title texts short. Focus on writing a descriptive text that includes your target keyword.

3. Regular Content Creation

Writing regular blog posts is one of the most effective onsite SEO strategies. Google and most search engines favour timely, up-to-date and fresh content. They love it so much that it is a signal called Query Deserved Freshness (QDF) in their search algorithm to determine search rankings.

Google uses this algorithm to analyse the user’s search pattern and prioritize fresher content that fits the search intent. If your content provides something fresh on the topic, Google will give your page a boost in the SERP for days or sometimes, even weeks.

The major stumbling block with this strategy for most companies is time and resource. This is why not many businesses take advantage of it. If not in-house, you can choose to team up with professionals. The priority with every piece of fresh content should be quality over quantity.

Here is how you can ensure you stay on the “fresh” side of Google’s algorithm:

  • Generate topics. Topics don’t appear magically. Writers need to invest time in researching timely topics to write on that Google and other search engines construe as fresh content.

There are several ways to stay up-to-date with your industry’s latest news and trends. For starters, you can subscribe to email newsletters, visit Google Trends, use content curation tools, and follow influencers on social media.

  • Keyword research. Performing regular keyword research helps in the discovery of new and fresh content opportunities.

The keyword should be relevant to your niche, and popular with users to attract organic traffic from your target market. You should aim for optimizing content for keywords with a lower competitive score to have a better chance of ranking quickly.

  • Update old content. Have you already been creating content for a long time on your blog? In that case, instead of producing fresh content, it is time to give your existing content a makeover.

Try to reference new research, update statistics, include newer quotes, add semantic terms (long-tail keywords), link to new sources, and add updated relevant images to up the freshness factor for your older blog posts.

  • Maintain a content calendar. Whether you hire a content marketing agency or do content creation in-house, it is important to maintain a content calendar. An editorial calendar keeps track of your content creation process—from planning to publication.

Spreadsheet programs like Google Sheets can be used to create a content calendar. It allows users to access data, edit information, and collaborate with others in real-time. This simplifies keeping the content calendar up-to-date and helps you maintain your publishing schedule.

Offsite SEO Strategies

1. Link Building

Link building is a long-term offsite SEO strategy that involves building backlinks from other websites to improve your website’s position on Google rankings.

Search engines use links to discover new web pages. The collective reputation of the sites linking to your web page and the topics of those sites determine which keywords and what position on SERPs your web page will show up.

According to Backlinko, there’s a clear correlation between total backlinks and Google rankings. The study found that pages with quality backlinks rank above pages that don’t have as many backlinks. In fact, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than those in position #2-#10.

Below are some ways to generate backlinks to boost your off-page SEO:

  • Business listing. Submit your website to relevant online business directories. While inbound links from directories are not authoritative, they still help your business to be found online.
  • Content creation. “Content is king.” This phrase is a cliché but it is true. If your blog posts offer great value to your target audience, then it will likely get shared on social media, and be linked back to by other blog posts.
  • Social media marketing. Although some social media platforms use ‘no follow’ tags, it still makes great sense to optimize your social media presence. Linking your social media profile to your website lets that audience reach out to you and builds a link in the process.
  • Guest posting (external content). This refers to writing a piece of content on someone else’s website. The goal is to write on more popular websites so more people discover and read your guest blog, find it useful and come back to your own website. A guest post would also let you link back to your own website, thereby generating a useful backlink or two.

2. Local Optimization

Localized Website

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a highly effective offsite SEO strategy. This technique helps your business be more visible within local search results, where the competition to rank may not be as high.

People often search for products and services near them. If you let Google know your physical location and your offerings, your business would start showing up on SERPs for potential customers within your vicinity.

These statistics make a strong case to localize your website:

  • 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. (GoGulf)
  • 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles. (HubSpot Marketing Statistics)
  • 18% of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day, whereas only 7% of non-local searches led to a sale. (Think with Google)
  • 88% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact or visit the business within 24 hours. (Nectafy)

Here are some ways to improve your local SEO:

  • Optimize for voice search. Most customers run voice searches to locate local businesses. One way to optimize for voice search is by targeting long-tail keywords or specific key phrases that people would speak when doing voice search queries.
  • Claim your online profiles. List your business on major directory and review platforms like Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and more. This lets you easily connect with potential customers and signals your location to Google for ranking purposes.
  • Produce location-based content. Besides creating content based on local news or events, it is also a good idea to write content optimized for local keywords. For example, if you run a coffee shop business in Singapore, you can use local phrases like “kopi in Singapore” to target a more local audience.
  • Create a dedicated contact page. Make sure your website has a dedicated contact page. Include your business name, complete address, email address, and phone number on your contact page. Your phone number should be clickable on mobile devices so that users can call you without much friction. It also helps to add a map with your location.

3. Content Promotion

Content marketing plays a pivotal role in boosting your SEO. Interlinking articles is an onsite SEO technique while promoting your articles off your website is an offsite SEO activity.

Companies often spend an inordinate amount of time creating content with little promotional effort. However, you should ideally spend much more time on promoting your content instead of on producing it.

You can promote your content via multiple marketing channels to increase your reach. Here are some channels to focus on for promotion:

  • Social media. Share your content on your social media accounts. As per the Datareportal January 2023 global overview, there is an estimate of 4.76 billion social media users worldwide, so it is an excellent way to spread a word about your brand. There are three things to note when promoting content on social media:
    1. Choose the right channel. You should know that some content is best shared on Facebook while others are more suited for LinkedIn or Twitter.
    2. Know when to post your content. Utilising social media management tools like Hootsuite can help you determine what times of a day your audience is most active. Post when they are most likely to read your content.
    3. Use hashtags to your advantage. Research relevant hashtags for your industry as they increase your exposure but do not overuse them.

Watch this whiteboard Friday video from MOZ to learn how to drive traffic from Facebook.

  • Guest posting. Reach out to bloggers and media for a possible guest post submission to promote your content. Get started with guest posting by:
          1. Searching for sites with good Page Authority and Domain Authority.
          2. Writing an outreach email to the site owner or editor. Your email pitch should include topics that are relevant to their industry, as well as links to your published works.
          3. Promoting all your published guest blogs like crazy.
          4. Repeat.
  • Paid promotion. This form of online advertising covers a variety of tactics from paid social media to display ads, paid search and more.
            1. Social ads. Social media platforms let you customize the audience that would view your ads, so you can target the right niche likely to want to read your content.
            2. Search ads. Also called search engine marketing (SEM), these ads work best for intent-based searches. Use these for targeting users who already know what they want. The most common paid search tools are Google Ads and Bing Ads.
            3. Display ads. This ad format displays banners across partner websites. This means you can drive awareness for your content by displaying banners on websites on the same topic as yours or to users based on their demographics
  • Email marketing. Engage existing customers or subscribers via email. This is probably the most effective way to promote your new content. Build a mailing list and send out monthly newsletters to everyone in the list to keep them updated on your latest stories, events, and promotions.
  • Influencer marketing. Target influencers to help you create a buzz around your brand and specific content. Influencers, being experts or popular themselves, can encourage people to share your piece of content, comment on it, and build links.

Putting Together Your SEO Strategy

After reading to this point, if you are asking “Which works better, Onsite SEO or Offsite SEO?”, then quite frankly, you are asking the wrong question.

All three areas of SEO – Technical SEO, Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO – play crucial roles in helping your website ranking on search engine results, building relationships with your target audiences, and growing conversions from organic traffic.

The strategies and tips discussed can be implemented on your own at no cost and WILL lead to significant results for your organic traffic growth. However, it is extremely time-consuming and would likely require a dedicated expert to work on it.

Oftentimes, companies find that working with an SEO agency partner, such as 2Stallions, is a much more cost-effective solution that leads to excellent results long-term. If you are interested in making SEO part of the digital marketing mix for your company, reach out to us.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, we can assist with your SEO, content marketing and online advertising needs to help you drive results online.

📈 Elevate your digital presence with the trusted SEO firm Singapore. Our data-driven strategies will help to ensure an increase in traffic, gain leads, and success in your online campaign. Contact us now and start transforming your digital success!

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Online Business

A Marketer’s Story – Interview By Marketing Institute Of Singapore

For the April to June 2016 issue of The Singapore Marketer, I was interviewed by the Marketing Institute of Singapore. Here, I talked about how I started in digital marketing and gave vital information on how to be better at it. Check out the full interview below:

Daniel Heerkens is a Dutch Entrepreneur who has worked & studied in more than seven countries. Working previously for FMCG multinationals in The Netherlands, Malaysia & Singapore, he is now the Digital Marketing Strategy Expert at 2Stallions. TSM had a chat with Daniel to get his valuable insights on the digital marketing landscape and its correlation with public relations.

Daniel Heerkens Interview

What does your job entail at 2Stallions?

I am in charge of developing, planning and monitoring the digital strategy for MNC and SME businesses in South East Asia. I manage and monitor the digital marketing of the business, which means managing all facets of interaction with the client, including Web Development and design, Content Marketing, SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Display Advertising and Display Retargeting. I am a bit of a digital nerd and love analysing web analytics data and interpreting reports for my clients. I have a great team supporting me.

They always keep the client at the front of their mind to ensure conversion rates are continually tested and optimised. My goal is to expand upon our testing culture for the whole business. Besides that, I’m involved in several committees at different Chambers of Commerce as well as Business Associations, where I advise MNCs and SMEs about their digital strategy. I can see that while most businesses seem to understand the power of digital innovation, many have failed to apply it to transform their own business.

We do our best to educate businesses. For example, we ran a Content Marketing workshop based on demand from clients and the tech community. These are small steps to get more awareness for digital innovation, while keeping a low barrier to entry for all businesses, large or small, to learn and hopefully, implement it in their own business. We also run events to help the spread of digital innovation. Our recent event #SpeakEasySG, which attracted over 100 attendees, explored how businesses at different stages of growth approach their digital strategy.

How did you get your start as a digital marketer?

I have always had a passion for marketing – or should I say understanding people’s behaviour and how to help them solve their challenges. My first experience was with FrieslandCampina (also known as Dutch Lady & Friso in S.E.A), researching why mothers are uptrading from mainstream to premium infant formula and what the underlying reasons for that behaviour. Part of the research indicated that these mothers would surf the web and find relevant information to justify their purchase of more expensive milk for their babies. Their unique behaviour fuelled me to pursue a career in Marketing with an emphasis on Digital.

What has been your biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge and frustration is the lack of action taken by many businesses despite seeing the changing digital landscape. For example, in the Netherlands, where I’m from, I can see that eCommerce has made a significant impact on our shopping streets. Outside of the top 4 cities in the country, the shopping space is shifting to Digital, with shopping streets becoming emptier and emptier. This change happened within the last five years. This shows that Digital is rapidly transforming the entire business landscape and if businesses continue to ignore it, they may not be around for very long.

Share with us one campaign you did for 2Stallions with a remarkable result.

While we run many campaigns, our most recent one sticks out in my mind due to the remarkable result we achieved. We had a client approach us to drive online ticket sales to his event with TWO major challenges:

• We had only one week to promote the event.

• With eight other similar events happening in the month, there was tough competition for the same demographic.

We took on the challenge and ran the campaign for five days. Our team ran a three-pronged advertising campaign on Facebook and also ran online advertising on search engines to drive traffic to the ticket sales page AND convert these visitors. In five days, we were able to drive a staggering 2,772 in online ticket purchases. The client was over the moon as he saved on offline marketing channels, sales and printing costs AND he made an 18X return on investment. Needless to say, we’ve cemented a long-term partnership with this client moving forward.

Please list three things one/company should be aware of when embarking on a new digital marketing campaign.

When hiring a digital marketing agency for your digital marketing campaign, you should do a check on the following:

1. Practice what you preach There is a very low barrier to entry into the digital space, which means there are many digital companies out in the field. You will find a very large spectrum in the quality of the work on offer. I honestly believe in walking the talk. When a company claims to be an expert in SEO/Content Marketing, don’t just ask them for their portfolio of clients but also work they do for themselves. It’s like dealing with an interior designer. Would you trust one who doesn’t have a good-looking showroom to create a great space for you? For digital agencies, have a look at their SEO or traffic before they start an SEO/SEM campaign for your business. Alexa. com, owned by Amazon, is a simple and effective way to check their site traffic and ranking.

2. Price shouldn’t always be a reference point Good quality comes with a reasonable price tag, especially when you expect proper development and design to be done. Don’t expect the world if you are not willing to pay for it. Shortcuts also happen a lot in the Digital Space under the hood, so be smart about it and ask for clear explanations. A digital agency should be able to answer sufficiently your questions as to HOW the campaign they are running is effective for your business.

3. Change is the only constant in Digital Digital is changing so fast that even digital companies are continually playing catch up to the latest trends in SEO or Content Marketing. Always make sure you work with an Agency that knows the latest digital innovations and can implement for your business. See if they have their blog, how much traffic their website gets (see trafficestimate.com for reference) and whether they have good references.

Digital has quickly become a crucial component of every marketer’s brand strategy, What are the important elements of synergising public relations and digital efforts?

Synergising public relations and digital efforts is the key to every marketer’s brand strategy. I have done quite a fair bit of Digital International PR and based on my experience the most important elements are:

1. Be featured on websites with a high thought leadership authority that is ranked well in Google. This website are seen as the leader in their particular industry and other websites will take their news and put it on their websites.

2. When these websites feature you, it is crucial to receive a link back to your website. This will drive immediate traffic to your website and it may also improve your website’s ranking on Google for SEO. 3. Analyse your closest competitor in your industry field and see how they are doing in the digital space. Also, study the industry leader in the Digital Space and try to find a substitute product or service you can leverage on.

3. Analyse your closest competitor in your industry field and see how they are doing in the digital space. Also, study the industry leader in the Digital Space and try to find a substitute product or service you can leverage on.

What is a digital one-big-thing that one should be looking forward to in the year 2016?

The Digital One-Big-Thing in 2016 is Content Marketing combined with Marketing Automation. Those two elements are crucial in attracting potential leads and converting them into customers. Content Marketing and marketing Automation are not simply buzzwords but important drivers of businesses online.

What kind of digital marketer would you call yourself?

I think of myself as a ‘roll-up-my-sleeve-and-get-dirty’ type of Digital marketer. I am hands-on with clients and strongly believe in explaining concepts to businesses to ensure they understand their investments fully. Our diverse team has excellent technical and design capabilities that synergise to help clients achieve their business objectives online.

Elevate your brand and soar to new heights with Singapore’s premier digital advertising agency. Our tailored strategies fuel a seamless digital transformation to keep you one step ahead of the competition. Get started now!

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Websites

Turn Visitors To Customers With Conversion Funnels

Bringing your business online is a big step and for any business. This decision is motivated by business objectives that are unique to each. For any business, including yours, there will be business objectives that lead to a decision to create a business website.

However, all of these objectives eventually lead to the same end – improving the bottom line of your business. In this article, you will find out how to convince your website visitors to become your customers. And after that, you’ll know how you can refine that process to increase the number of visitors that convert to customers.

Definitions

Before going ahead, we want to define some terms that you will encounter here:

  • Conversion – An action desired by you taken by a visitor to your website
  • Conversion Rate – The % of website visitors that took the desired action
  • Conversion Funnel – An actual channel through which you send website visitors to convert to your desired goal, such as becoming customers
  • Conversion Optimization – Tweaking your website to improve your conversion rate at different parts of your funnel
  • Call-To-Action – A call to action is anything that entices your visitors/leads into taking an action desired by you on your website.

Conversion Funnels

Let’s take a moment and look at your brick and mortar store. You probably have a few ways to draw people to your store through your business strategy and marketing efforts. You hope that each person that visits buys something from you.

When a visitor steps into your store, he/she may either approach one of your friendly sales staff or may prefer to browse on his/her own. Based on their conversation or browsing, some decide to leave without buying anything. There will be some who may mull over products and decide not to buy this time. However, there’s a possibility that they may return to purchase. And finally, some of these visitors will end up purchasing. If you were to analyze your sales, you may find that those who interacted with your sales staff are more likely to buy from your store or that the items closer to the front of the store or in the display as they are walking in or those at the eye level of your customer end up selling better than other products.

What we walked through above are the conversion funnels for your physical store where you acquired visitors, activated them by getting them to engage with staff or products and finally monetized some visitors by selling to them.

Setting up your Conversion Funnel

Setting up conversion funnels will allow you to mirror a similar sales experience on your website. While there are many versions out there, we really like the customer journey stages depicted below as it outlines the customer journey beyond conversion. Your relationship with customers should not end after the initial sale.

Potential Customer Lifecycle Stages
Originally shared by Neil Patel

Do not confuse the above for a conversion funnel. A conversion funnel is an actual path that you set up for visitors while what is shown above are the potential stages of people in their interaction with your business online.

As a business, it is extremely difficult to focus on building conversion funnels for every stage of the customer journey at once. As outlined by the Digital Marketer, it’s wiser to create funnels for different stages of the customer journey to nudge them towards your goal. They proposed – Acquisition, Activation, and Monetization – which concentrate on customer psychology progression to improve your conversions.

Acquisition – Converting a visitor to lead

If you are a business just starting out, you likely want more targeted visitors to gain awareness of your business. Here is an example conversion funnel for acquisition:

If you are a fashion eCommerce site, you can incentivize visitors to sign up to your site by giving away a free Lookbook. Why a Lookbook? The Lookbook acts as a fantastic lead magnet because the people eager to download it are exactly the type of visitors you want as leads. Your Lookbook is also a great way to provide these readers with value through your own product advertising. At the end of the Lookbook, you can push these leads with an offer of a coupon code for a low-cost item. You should continue sending them useful content in the fashion space to keep your brand in their mind. A potential conversion funnel for this scenario is an email opt-in form that shows up on the homepage or as a pop-up on sub-pages with the desired action of typing in their email address and pressing the ‘subscribe’ button.

Email Opt-in Popup - 2Stallions
Email Opt-in Popup To Entice Visitors To Convert To Leads

Do not SELL to someone who has just landed on your website. Most visitors need to trust a brand before becoming customers. That is why you create trust by providing them something of value by using a free lead magnet. This lets you push the qualified leads to the next stage in the customer journey. Remember, at this point, you should not be looking to make a profit or a sale with these leads.

Activation – Converting a lead to a first-time customer

If you’re a business that already has a good online presence, your focus will be on Activation. This is where you prompt and engage your leads to become customers. Back to our example:

convert lead to first time customerIf a lead has downloaded your Lookbook and then used the coupon code, then this lead is ready to make a purchase. If they haven’t made use of the coupon code, you can follow up with a reminder to use the coupon code. A coupon code is meant to make it easy for the lead to make a purchase and it’s important to push them to make that purchase – this purchase shouldn’t be a big-ticket purchase as these leads are still on the fence. Something simple like a tie would suffice. Price at something they wouldn’t balk at. You can also consider offering time-limited offers to spur them into action. The touch point with the lead would be through their email collected via Acquisition to get them to land on the tie product page. The desired action would be adding the product to the cart and completing the checkout process.

To activate users, you are trying to drive them to purchase from you and move them from being a lead to a customer. Begin by getting them to take small actions. Consistently send them useful content and asking them to like it or comment on it.

Monetization – Converting first-time customers to regulars

Finally, once you have built a community of customers, you need to ensure these existing customers continue to buy from you and refer more leads to you. Going back to our earlier example:

Someone who has bought a heavily discounted tie from you is now invested and trusts your business. You can send them content on up-sells. This can be a shirt or pants that would go well with the tie they bought. These items are of higher value but now, the customer trusts your business and the quality you provide. Get these customers to refer friends by incentivizing them with discounts to continue feeding the conversion channel you built for Activation of leads.

Your goal is to drive your customer to purchase higher ticket items that complement their earlier purchases and incentivize them to refer their friends.

Conversion Optimization

Once you have the funnels set up for the different stages of your customer lifecycle on your business website, track them using Google Analytics and set up goals for your conversions. Google Analytics provides you data. This is essential feedback as to how your strategies are doing. You will also know whether it is giving you the returns you need. This data is important when it comes to conversion optimization. It will show the exact touch points of visitors from the page they land on your website and the different steps they take on your website. Although you build specific funnels, it is likely that visitors will end up landing on other pages in your site before beginning on the funnel you set for them. A conversion in the diagram below is defined as an enquiry left by a visitor.

conversion funnel sample

As you can see, at every stage, there are many visitors that leave your funnel. This is known as ‘drop-off’. When you think about conversion optimization, your goal is to reduce the drop-off rate. There are a number of approaches to improve that figure.

Optimize By Page

Optimize the inquiry form page by experimenting with the copywriting or changing the call to action design. As stated in the image, optimization of 1% has the potential to jumpstart your enquiries by 50%. A general rule of thumb is to begin tweaks from the bottom of the funnel (unless there is an identifiable website page which has a significant drop off that requires immediate attention). Small improvements further down the funnel lead to significant changes to overall results. It is crucial to do constant testing. It’s also important to give changes enough time to identify which ones improved your results.

Besides the pages that you specifically built for your funnel, look through your analytics. See the path visitors take on your website to reach your desired action and optimize the most popular ones.

Optimize By Referrals

Through your analytics, it is possible to see where your users came from. The source of this traffic can also be tweaked. For example, if you’re running a PPC advertising campaign and you see this source is seeing the most drop off in your users in the funnel, you can assume that either your ads need to be tweaked or it’s not a marketing channel that’s working for you.

Optimize By Device

Look at what device your users are using to view your landing page. If you have a high number of mobile users and your landing page isn’t mobile friendly, you should change that pronto.

Optimize by Browsers

Often, it never crosses your mind that your funnel needs to work across different browsers. This is because you are used to using Chrome or Firefox. Check your analytics to see which browsers are the most popular. Test on those browsers what the user experience is like for them in your funnel. Optimize your code to work well across the most popular browsers based on your analytics.

Conversion is a time-intensive endeavor that requires plenty of research. You need to have an understanding of your customers and their habits, as well as of your own business. Although it is a time-consuming process, conversion funnels are the best way for to turn website visitors into regular customers. This will eventually help you meet your ultimate business objectives.

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