MARKETING
Boost your Website Traffic with these Essential SEO Hacks
Introduction
The significance of SEO is seen in the fact that 67.6% of clicks happen on the top five search results on Google, research by Zero Limit Web suggests.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, helps you organize and create your website in a way that it can compete for the first page with other webpages in the same niche. The higher traffic you get, the more likely it is to get your traffic to convert.
By researching for keywords and semantics, utilizing relevant links, adding media and other simple practices, you can get your webpage to rank higher. Consistently updating content helps your webpage stay relevant in searches. There are certain other hacks that you can employ to help drive more traffic to your website. Let’s see what they are.
Hacks to Boost Traffic Using SEO
Employ the following hacks to get the most out of your SEO strategy.
Create Content Around Important Keywords
Creating quality content around primary and secondary keywords ensures that the information you are delivering is relevant and meaningful. That alone gets search engines to boost your rank. Strategically place primary keywords into informative, descriptive titles and subheadings that clearly communicate the purpose of the blog. Pick secondary keywords that complement your primary keyword and help you deliver more detailed information on the subject. For example, if “SEO for blogs” is your primary keyword, the secondary keyword you pick can potentially be, “Best SEO practices”, which can help you communicate more on the subject.
Use Good URLs
Believe it or not, URLs can also be SEO-optimized. Use of keywords in URLs also helps boost search engine rankings. Try to keep your URLs short and use primary keywords in them if possible. Additionally, they should be easy to understand for your audience.
One trick is to keep them just under 60 characters, as it is known that search engines encounter a hassle trying to process longer URLs and push such webpages down in search result rankings.
Get Good Quality Backlinks
Getting backlinks is a great SEO strategy that gets you ranking higher in search results, and helps you stay there. However, it isn’t an immediate occurrence, and may take time to really build up and start yielding results. However, you can do some things at the beginning to speed things up a bit:
- Seek out the reputed publishers and media figures in your niche, and reach out to them for writing guest posts on their websites
- Offer your research or authentic data to such outfits to publish on their website, which will get you a backlink
- Try to get your brand name added to online listings of industry forums or networks
Attempt to Rank for Featured Snippets
Featured snippets appear at the very top of Google search results, and is a highly coveted spot for which all digital marketers strategize intensively. Usually, content that directly and relevantly addresses a specific user query gets selected as featured snippet. Ensure that your blog posts are optimized according to the semantics in use. That, and the use of primary keywords intelligently (no stuffing) can help you compete organically for the spot.
Use SE-Friendly Templates and Formats
Search engines understand structured content better than paragraphed text. It is important to use a text format that a search engine can easily crawl and comprehend so that the ranking of your page gets a boost. Use of headings, subheadings, bullets and tables helps keep content easy to understand – both for the reader and the search engine – and helps your webpage rank higher in the search results.
Also, consider the maximum and minimum lengths of sentences and paragraphs.
Include a Page Title and Meta Description
It is easy to overlook these two components of a webpage. When a webpage doesn’t have a meta description, search engines automatically pick up a random paragraph from the page and feature that as the meta text. However, it may not always communicate what your page is about, costing you traffic. Include a clear page title and a meta description that summarizes the blog in under 30 words. Use primary keywords in both.
Only Use Quick-loading Elements
Let’s face it – users don’t have the time to wait for the heavy content on your website to load. If it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, that traffic is likely going elsewhere. Use Google’s free tool to analyze the loading speed of your website, and try to get the highest score possible by removing any website elements that are taking longer to load or are jamming up the bandwidth.
Publish High-Quality, Original Content
Google is a very smart search engine, and it can differentiate well between content that is original from the one that has been spun using software (or duplicated). Duplicate content will not only get your website to rank lower, but also get it blacklisted if this practice doesn’t stop.
High-quality, original content with the right keywords and media always gets recognized by Google’s algorithms and gets higher ranking.
Study Your Competitor’s Website
Which of your competitors are ranking higher than you? Check out their website. Create a log of what they are doing differently that you can adopt for your own website and have a chance at competing for their spot. Chances are that their content is higher in quality, or the use of the right keywords follows better strategy. Maybe they are using good media and have a solid backlinking network as well. Whatever the case is, try to inculcate the same things in your website.
Write Longer Content
Longer content doesn’t only give you the opportunity to communicate more with your audience, but also the chance to:
- Get more backlinks
- Include more internal links
- Include more keywords
- Add more media to posts
It all adds to creating a post that checks all the boxes for a good SEO strategy. Try to aim for content that has higher than 1000 words, and the information included therein exhaustively covers the subject being talked about.
Conclusion
While it is easy to implement SEO strategies on your website, these nifty tips and tricks, these nuances are known better by professional SEO services companies. Hiring one can help you rank better on search engines.
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MARKETING
YouTube Ad Specs, Sizes, and Examples [2024 Update]
Introduction
With billions of users each month, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and top website for video content. This makes it a great place for advertising. To succeed, advertisers need to follow the correct YouTube ad specifications. These rules help your ad reach more viewers, increasing the chance of gaining new customers and boosting brand awareness.
Types of YouTube Ads
Video Ads
- Description: These play before, during, or after a YouTube video on computers or mobile devices.
- Types:
- In-stream ads: Can be skippable or non-skippable.
- Bumper ads: Non-skippable, short ads that play before, during, or after a video.
Display Ads
- Description: These appear in different spots on YouTube and usually use text or static images.
- Note: YouTube does not support display image ads directly on its app, but these can be targeted to YouTube.com through Google Display Network (GDN).
Companion Banners
- Description: Appears to the right of the YouTube player on desktop.
- Requirement: Must be purchased alongside In-stream ads, Bumper ads, or In-feed ads.
In-feed Ads
- Description: Resemble videos with images, headlines, and text. They link to a public or unlisted YouTube video.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that play outside of YouTube, on websites and apps within the Google video partner network.
Masthead Ads
- Description: Premium, high-visibility banner ads displayed at the top of the YouTube homepage for both desktop and mobile users.
YouTube Ad Specs by Type
Skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Placement: Before, during, or after a YouTube video.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Action: 15-20 seconds
Non-skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Description: Must be watched completely before the main video.
- Length: 15 seconds (or 20 seconds in certain markets).
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
Bumper Ads
- Length: Maximum 6 seconds.
- File Format: MP4, Quicktime, AVI, ASF, Windows Media, or MPEG.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 640 x 360px
- Vertical: 480 x 360px
In-feed Ads
- Description: Show alongside YouTube content, like search results or the Home feed.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Headline/Description:
- Headline: Up to 2 lines, 40 characters per line
- Description: Up to 2 lines, 35 characters per line
Display Ads
- Description: Static images or animated media that appear on YouTube next to video suggestions, in search results, or on the homepage.
- Image Size: 300×60 pixels.
- File Type: GIF, JPG, PNG.
- File Size: Max 150KB.
- Max Animation Length: 30 seconds.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that appear on websites and apps within the Google video partner network, not on YouTube itself.
- Logo Specs:
- Square: 1:1 (200 x 200px).
- File Type: JPG, GIF, PNG.
- Max Size: 200KB.
Masthead Ads
- Description: High-visibility ads at the top of the YouTube homepage.
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher.
- File Type: JPG or PNG (without transparency).
Conclusion
YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to reach audiences effectively in 2024. Whether you want to build brand awareness, drive conversions, or target specific demographics, YouTube provides a dynamic platform for your advertising needs. Always follow Google’s advertising policies and the technical ad specs to ensure your ads perform their best. Ready to start using YouTube ads? Contact us today to get started!
MARKETING
Why We Are Always ‘Clicking to Buy’, According to Psychologists
Amazon pillows.
MARKETING
A deeper dive into data, personalization and Copilots
Salesforce launched a collection of new, generative AI-related products at Connections in Chicago this week. They included new Einstein Copilots for marketers and merchants and Einstein Personalization.
To better understand, not only the potential impact of the new products, but the evolving Salesforce architecture, we sat down with Bobby Jania, CMO, Marketing Cloud.
Dig deeper: Salesforce piles on the Einstein Copilots
Salesforce’s evolving architecture
It’s hard to deny that Salesforce likes coming up with new names for platforms and products (what happened to Customer 360?) and this can sometimes make the observer wonder if something is brand new, or old but with a brand new name. In particular, what exactly is Einstein 1 and how is it related to Salesforce Data Cloud?
“Data Cloud is built on the Einstein 1 platform,” Jania explained. “The Einstein 1 platform is our entire Salesforce platform and that includes products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud — that it includes the original idea of Salesforce not just being in the cloud, but being multi-tenancy.”
Data Cloud — not an acquisition, of course — was built natively on that platform. It was the first product built on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s new cloud infrastructure architecture. “Since Data Cloud was on what we now call the Einstein 1 platform from Day One, it has always natively connected to, and been able to read anything in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud [and so on]. On top of that, we can now bring in, not only structured but unstructured data.”
That’s a significant progression from the position, several years ago, when Salesforce had stitched together a platform around various acquisitions (ExactTarget, for example) that didn’t necessarily talk to each other.
“At times, what we would do is have a kind of behind-the-scenes flow where data from one product could be moved into another product,” said Jania, “but in many of those cases the data would then be in both, whereas now the data is in Data Cloud. Tableau will run natively off Data Cloud; Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud — they’re all going to the same operational customer profile.” They’re not copying the data from Data Cloud, Jania confirmed.
Another thing to know is tit’s possible for Salesforce customers to import their own datasets into Data Cloud. “We wanted to create a federated data model,” said Jania. “If you’re using Snowflake, for example, we more or less virtually sit on your data lake. The value we add is that we will look at all your data and help you form these operational customer profiles.”
Let’s learn more about Einstein Copilot
“Copilot means that I have an assistant with me in the tool where I need to be working that contextually knows what I am trying to do and helps me at every step of the process,” Jania said.
For marketers, this might begin with a campaign brief developed with Copilot’s assistance, the identification of an audience based on the brief, and then the development of email or other content. “What’s really cool is the idea of Einstein Studio where our customers will create actions [for Copilot] that we hadn’t even thought about.”
Here’s a key insight (back to nomenclature). We reported on Copilot for markets, Copilot for merchants, Copilot for shoppers. It turns out, however, that there is just one Copilot, Einstein Copilot, and these are use cases. “There’s just one Copilot, we just add these for a little clarity; we’re going to talk about marketing use cases, about shoppers’ use cases. These are actions for the marketing use cases we built out of the box; you can build your own.”
It’s surely going to take a little time for marketers to learn to work easily with Copilot. “There’s always time for adoption,” Jania agreed. “What is directly connected with this is, this is my ninth Connections and this one has the most hands-on training that I’ve seen since 2014 — and a lot of that is getting people using Data Cloud, using these tools rather than just being given a demo.”
What’s new about Einstein Personalization
Salesforce Einstein has been around since 2016 and many of the use cases seem to have involved personalization in various forms. What’s new?
“Einstein Personalization is a real-time decision engine and it’s going to choose next-best-action, next-best-offer. What is new is that it’s a service now that runs natively on top of Data Cloud.” A lot of real-time decision engines need their own set of data that might actually be a subset of data. “Einstein Personalization is going to look holistically at a customer and recommend a next-best-action that could be natively surfaced in Service Cloud, Sales Cloud or Marketing Cloud.”
Finally, trust
One feature of the presentations at Connections was the reassurance that, although public LLMs like ChatGPT could be selected for application to customer data, none of that data would be retained by the LLMs. Is this just a matter of written agreements? No, not just that, said Jania.
“In the Einstein Trust Layer, all of the data, when it connects to an LLM, runs through our gateway. If there was a prompt that had personally identifiable information — a credit card number, an email address — at a mimum, all that is stripped out. The LLMs do not store the output; we store the output for auditing back in Salesforce. Any output that comes back through our gateway is logged in our system; it runs through a toxicity model; and only at the end do we put PII data back into the answer. There are real pieces beyond a handshake that this data is safe.”
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