SEO
7 Ways To Use Email To Boost Organic Traffic
It’s the bread and butter of your career, but possibly also the bane of your existence.
Calling to targets like a siren’s song, whether they’re in the office down the hall or on a beach vacation across the world, it’s nearly inescapable. And, the modern world couldn’t function without it.
Of course, we’re talking about email marketing.
Typically a softer sell than other types of marketing, it offers incredible ROI, returning on average $36 for every dollar spent.
But, what is it exactly?
According to Wikipedia, email marketing is “the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email.
In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations.”
For digital marketers, this means primarily one thing: directing recipients to a website, either for more information, to make a purchase, or to perform some other action.
In other words, traffic is the name of the game.
But, can you really use email marketing to boost your organic traffic? Of course!
A key part of search engine optimization (SEO) is off-page factors, including social media shares and backlinks.
High-quality traffic will also affect how your site is ranked by Google and other search engines.
And, one way to encourage all of these is through effective email marketing.
So, let’s look at the $10,000 question: HOW do you use email marketing to drive traffic?
Here are seven ways you can increase visits to your website:
1. Target With Accuracy
Bounce rate – it’s a dirty word in online marketing.
And while there is such a thing as email bounce rate (that is, emails that were returned by the recipient’s server), what really matters to digital marketers is website bounce rate, i.e., the percentage of visitors who leave your site without taking action.
This is where email marketing can really shine. Whether you’ve bought your list or compiled it on your own, you should be equipped with some basic information about your audience, which will allow you to run highly targeted campaigns.
To improve traffic, your email campaign should go to people who are genuinely interested in your content, whether because they’ve expressed some interest in the past or your content can help solve a current pain point.
These types of visitors are likely to spend a longer time on your website, which signals to search engines that your website is a good resource. Google will recognize your site’s authority and increase your ranking accordingly.
2. Understand User Intent
Why are your email targets opening your messages? Because you’re offering them something of value and they see some relevancy in what you’ve sent them. (Or maybe you just write the world’s best subject lines.)
There are three main types of user intent and email marketing can be used for all of them:
- Navigational – in which a user is trying to get to a certain site, in which case, congratulations, job done.
- Informational – where a user is looking for information.
- Transactional – when a user is prepared to buy or take another online action.
If you’re also running your organization’s SEO, you’re probably familiar with this concept.
If not, get with whoever is and ask them for the long-tail keywords or descriptive searches that are driving people to your site.
Then, use these to craft email messaging that will connect with your audience.
By providing content that addresses user needs, you’re weeding out low-quality visitors, enhancing your SEO via an improvement in quality visits.
3. Use Newsletters With Exclusive Content
Once you know what your target audience is looking for, you can create content to address it.
And, regular newsletters with exclusive content are a great way to keep your brand at the top of a consumer’s mind.
Show your audience your brand’s value and establish a reputation as a thought leader in the field by sending out a weekly or monthly email with relevant information.
If you have a company blog, this is a great source you can mine for content that your audience won’t get anywhere else. And by clicking on the “read more” in your newsletter, they’re doing exactly what you want – visiting your website.
4. Integrate Email And Social Media
On their own, both email and social media marketing are useful tools. But when combined, the effectiveness of both grow exponentially.
Use your social media presence to invite followers to subscribe to your email list and vice versa.
This will not only build rapport, but will also let you develop more personalized communications.
Include “Share” tags in your emails so recipients can cross-promote content.
Incentive-based referrals are another effective marketing tool you can use to engage with customers, e.g., “Follow us on Facebook for 10% off” or “Send this link to a friend for an exclusive ebook.”
Sharing email content like this can drive both searches and traffic to your website.
5. Personalize Your Email Content
Which email message do you think is going to get a better response: One with a generic opening like “Dear customer,” or one that says “Jeff, we have a special deal just for you!” (Assuming your name is Jeff, otherwise that would just be weird).
As a marketer, you probably already know: that personalized emails have better open rates and click-throughs – and that’s just when they use the recipient’s name.
If you really want to maximize the impact of your emails and drive traffic, you need to be taking advantage of segmentation.
By dividing your list into smaller groups based on specific criteria, you can provide relevant content that is more likely to get clicks.
For example, let’s pretend you’re running an email campaign for a computer store that sells both Macs and PCs.
By segmenting your list into those with Macs and those with PCs, you can ensure your content is pertinent to the recipient.
You could do a shotgun approach, but the amount of people interested in both is probably minimal, so you start to run the risk of becoming annoying and driving unsubscribes.
And even if your audience doesn’t open your email, your brand name will still be in the back of their mind, so the next time they do a web search, you’ll be familiar and more likely to receive a click.
6. Conduct A/B Testing With SEO Keywords
We touched on this briefly in number two, but it bears repeating; your email campaigns should be using A/B testing, just like your landing pages and other content.
You should be trying out different versions of emails using SEO keywords to determine which get the best results.
Experiment with placing your brand’s most popular search terms in subject lines, preview text, and body copy.
What’s great about this is that it works in reverse too – finding you’re getting great results with a certain keyword in emails? Try adding it to your SEO terms and it will help drive traffic to your site.
7. Ask For Reviews
Every brand will claim it’s the best in its field. But consumers know this and take it with a grain of salt.
Reviews, on the other hand, have a much larger influence on decisions because they give legitimacy to your marketing claims.
After all, 98% of consumers read reviews. People tend to trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
And smart marketers like you know email marketing is a great way to solicit them.
One of the most effective times to send them is post-purchase when the newness of your solution is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
Personalize your emails and include links to review sites to make it easy. Keep your email short, and you’re much more likely to get a response.
If you’re doing email marketing for a local business, asking for reviews is especially helpful. They will not only impact your ranking in local search results, but they also let customers feel like they’re helping someone in their community.
Email Marketing And SEO Go Hand-In-Hand
Your digital marketing channels are all pieces of a much larger campaign.
They’re all connected and by taking a holistic view, you can use them to your advantage and help each perform better.
If you improve the quality of your email marketing, you’ll drive more qualified traffic to your website.
You can also direct targets to specific pages where they’re more likely to have longer visits and engage with your content. This, in turn, increases their likelihood of converting.
Sending your content via emails also earns more shares and attracts more visitors. It encourages other sites to backlink to your content, thereby boosting your credibility.
And all of these working together help make your SEO efforts more effective.
More Resources:
Featured Image: NicoElNino/Shutterstock
SEO
Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome
Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.
The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.
Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025
Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.
Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The statement reads:
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”
Continued Engagement With Regulators
Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.
This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.
The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.
Transition Period & Impact
In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.
However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.
The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.
While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.
Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.
Publisher & Advertiser Implications
The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.
Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.
However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.
With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.
Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock
SEO
How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results
ChatGPT is a game changer in the field of SEO. This powerful language model can generate human-like content, making it an invaluable tool for SEO professionals.
However, the prompts you provide largely determine the quality of the output.
To unlock the full potential of ChatGPT and create content that resonates with your audience and search engines, writing effective prompts is crucial.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the art of writing prompts for ChatGPT, covering everything from basic techniques to advanced strategies for layering prompts and generating high-quality, SEO-friendly content.
Writing Prompts For ChatGPT
What Is A ChatGPT Prompt?
A ChatGPT prompt is an instruction or discussion topic a user provides for the ChatGPT AI model to respond to.
The prompt can be a question, statement, or any other stimulus to spark creativity, reflection, or engagement.
Users can use the prompt to generate ideas, share their thoughts, or start a conversation.
ChatGPT prompts are designed to be open-ended and can be customized based on the user’s preferences and interests.
How To Write Prompts For ChatGPT
Start by giving ChatGPT a writing prompt, such as, “Write a short story about a person who discovers they have a superpower.”
ChatGPT will then generate a response based on your prompt. Depending on the prompt’s complexity and the level of detail you requested, the answer may be a few sentences or several paragraphs long.
Use the ChatGPT-generated response as a starting point for your writing. You can take the ideas and concepts presented in the answer and expand upon them, adding your own unique spin to the story.
If you want to generate additional ideas, try asking ChatGPT follow-up questions related to your original prompt.
For example, you could ask, “What challenges might the person face in exploring their newfound superpower?” Or, “How might the person’s relationships with others be affected by their superpower?”
Remember that ChatGPT’s answers are generated by artificial intelligence and may not always be perfect or exactly what you want.
However, they can still be a great source of inspiration and help you start writing.
Must-Have GPTs Assistant
I recommend installing the WebBrowser Assistant created by the OpenAI Team. This tool allows you to add relevant Bing results to your ChatGPT prompts.
This assistant adds the first web results to your ChatGPT prompts for more accurate and up-to-date conversations.
It is very easy to install in only two clicks. (Click on Start Chat.)
For example, if I ask, “Who is Vincent Terrasi?,” ChatGPT has no answer.
With WebBrower Assistant, the assistant creates a new prompt with the first Bing results, and now ChatGPT knows who Vincent Terrasi is.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023You can test other GPT assistants available in the GPTs search engine if you want to use Google results.
Master Reverse Prompt Engineering
ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for reverse engineering prompts because it generates natural and engaging responses to any given input.
By analyzing the prompts generated by ChatGPT, it is possible to gain insight into the model’s underlying thought processes and decision-making strategies.
One key benefit of using ChatGPT to reverse engineer prompts is that the model is highly transparent in its decision-making.
This means that the reasoning and logic behind each response can be traced, making it easier to understand how the model arrives at its conclusions.
Once you’ve done this a few times for different types of content, you’ll gain insight into crafting more effective prompts.
Prepare Your ChatGPT For Generating Prompts
First, activate the reverse prompt engineering.
- Type the following prompt: “Enable Reverse Prompt Engineering? By Reverse Prompt Engineering I mean creating a prompt from a given text.”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023ChatGPT is now ready to generate your prompt. You can test the product description in a new chatbot session and evaluate the generated prompt.
- Type: “Create a very technical reverse prompt engineering template for a product description about iPhone 11.”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023The result is amazing. You can test with a full text that you want to reproduce. Here is an example of a prompt for selling a Kindle on Amazon.
- Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {product), capture the writing style and the length of the text :
product =”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023I tested it on an SEJ blog post. Enjoy the analysis – it is excellent.
- Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {text}, capture the tone and writing style of the {text} to include in the prompt :
text = all text coming from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bard-training-data/478941/”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023But be careful not to use ChatGPT to generate your texts. It is just a personal assistant.
Go Deeper
Prompts and examples for SEO:
- Keyword research and content ideas prompt: “Provide a list of 20 long-tail keyword ideas related to ‘local SEO strategies’ along with brief content topic descriptions for each keyword.”
- Optimizing content for featured snippets prompt: “Write a 40-50 word paragraph optimized for the query ‘what is the featured snippet in Google search’ that could potentially earn the featured snippet.”
- Creating meta descriptions prompt: “Draft a compelling meta description for the following blog post title: ’10 Technical SEO Factors You Can’t Ignore in 2024′.”
Important Considerations:
- Always Fact-Check: While ChatGPT can be a helpful tool, it’s crucial to remember that it may generate inaccurate or fabricated information. Always verify any facts, statistics, or quotes generated by ChatGPT before incorporating them into your content.
- Maintain Control and Creativity: Use ChatGPT as a tool to assist your writing, not replace it. Don’t rely on it to do your thinking or create content from scratch. Your unique perspective and creativity are essential for producing high-quality, engaging content.
- Iteration is Key: Refine and revise the outputs generated by ChatGPT to ensure they align with your voice, style, and intended message.
Additional Prompts for Rewording and SEO:
– Rewrite this sentence to be more concise and impactful.
– Suggest alternative phrasing for this section to improve clarity.
– Identify opportunities to incorporate relevant internal and external links.
– Analyze the keyword density and suggest improvements for better SEO.
Remember, while ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it’s essential to use it responsibly and maintain control over your content creation process.
Experiment And Refine Your Prompting Techniques
Writing effective prompts for ChatGPT is an essential skill for any SEO professional who wants to harness the power of AI-generated content.
Hopefully, the insights and examples shared in this article can inspire you and help guide you to crafting stronger prompts that yield high-quality content.
Remember to experiment with layering prompts, iterating on the output, and continually refining your prompting techniques.
This will help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of SEO.
More resources:
Featured Image: Tapati Rinchumrus/Shutterstock
SEO
Measuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey
Understanding the impact of your content at every touchpoint of the customer journey is essential – but that’s easier said than done. From attracting potential leads to nurturing them into loyal customers, there are many touchpoints to look into.
So how do you identify and take advantage of these opportunities for growth?
Watch this on-demand webinar and learn a comprehensive approach for measuring the value of your content initiatives, so you can optimize resource allocation for maximum impact.
You’ll learn:
- Fresh methods for measuring your content’s impact.
- Fascinating insights using first-touch attribution, and how it differs from the usual last-touch perspective.
- Ways to persuade decision-makers to invest in more content by showcasing its value convincingly.
With Bill Franklin and Oliver Tani of DAC Group, we unravel the nuances of attribution modeling, emphasizing the significance of layering first-touch and last-touch attribution within your measurement strategy.
Check out these insights to help you craft compelling content tailored to each stage, using an approach rooted in first-hand experience to ensure your content resonates.
Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or new to content measurement, this webinar promises valuable insights and actionable tactics to elevate your SEO game and optimize your content initiatives for success.
View the slides below or check out the full webinar for all the details.
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