Are you an SEO agency yourself from North America, a business owner or a manager?

Is there a challenge in outsourcing SEO (we have written a piece about it here)—Yes—But here is a guide on how to consider some SEO agencies to outsource to—so it works like a charm for yourself and your customers for the years to come 2017 onwards.

So let’s begin…

Most people fear outsourcing because of the geographical distances, cultural differences and we know trusting someone far away to be an integral part of your ambitions can be terrifying.

However…

Being in the business for over 10 years, what we can say is that using simple internet tools like email, skype and project management tools like basecamp just makes this world seem way smaller than what you could imagine.

It simply feels your SEO provider is actually right next door.

Philippines is known to be an international destination for outsourcing. Culturally, the people from the Philippines are very adept and comfortable working with Americans because they have been doing so for over two decades making us a top contender for outsourcing.

Trusting someone far away need not be a fear anymore. Seo providers in the Philippines, have been around for decades now and you can always check their standing in Social media, call their past clients and there are tons of other ways to know if someone is to be trusted or not.

But,

I think the three considerations above are not as important, in outsourcing, those are basically standards.. What you really want to know is – Who To work with?..

You want to work with someone who has evolved with Google and its users. If you see a provider who has a list of “X” number of links and “Y” amount of blogs per month as an SEO package without even having audited the site first, of course — This a no brainer these days. That`s the one you avoid!

Basically anyone who has an “Auto-pilot” SEO method. Any provider who has a templated method will fail in Google this year and the years to come.

The one you want to short list to your list of possible SEO agencies to work with will have these qualities.

1. Amazing Site Audits that contain:

• Design UX
• Page Load Optimization
• Competition Analysis
• Site Content Comparisons
• Site Visitor Value
• Call To Action
• Amazing Analytical Insights

2. Recommendations and Flexible Cost/Time Estimations

After the audit, the provider can give you a recommended list of what items to action first and what can come later. This allows you to be flexible with your costs for SEO and deliverables.

 

3. Understands User Value

If your SEO provider is paying a lot of attention to the site users. How the pages load, what messages come, how they fill intake forms and how long they spend on the site is an excellent indicator of a top notch SEO agency.

 

4. Understands Link Building vs. Actual Traffic

Using content as a referral traffic growth indicator vs getting linked to by other marketers. – In this distracted world, marketers are great at marketing to each other and not to the desired audience.

SEO agencies have become great at guest blogging and syndication content to each other. While their link profiles may get better, a truly great SEO agency focuses on getting traffic from a desired audience.

Content marketing for just links is just like doing a lot of dumb work.. Just as George Lois said, “If you think people are dumb, you will spend a lifetime doing dumb work.”

1. Analysis Paralysis (the cost of no-action)

SEOs have other 1000 things to action. However, if their priorities are not set up properly, they do not get results quick and often end in Analyzing and Auditing more than “action-ing” the right things first.

 

2. Call, Chat and Email Support 24/7 on workdays

For over 10 years our office has been open 24/7. We do this so that clients always know that we have someone who they can rely on for immediate answers or concerns.

Sites go down sometimes. There may be some critical errors in the site/s etc… This is why our expert Web Team and SEO team are there to support and repair things when needed right away.

 

3. Designated Project Management

All of our customers have an appointed project manager so that they have only one person they need to communicate with as opposed to 2-3 people that makes things complex.

 

4. Weekly and Monthly Reports

We don’t just report ranks. We report all items executed and other important Google webmaster Console and Google Analytic metrics in our reports and give our action items for the next period.

 

Wow – you have shortlisted the agencies you want to work with and now, you need to come on-board.

There are some formal paperwork that you need to work on with your agency, such as:

 

NDA (Non-Disclosure Policy)

Get the agency to not discuss you and your operation and other details with others.

 

PROPOSAL

Get a proposal per site/s. This will make sure that each of your site has been given due attention in terms of Audit, Cost and Time deliverables.

 

EXCLUSIVITY

Sometime clients often want exclusivity, meaning that the agency will not work with a competitor in the same niche. These maybe slightly more expensive but it is something worth asking your vendor about.

 

CONTRACTS

Look for shorter contracts to work with. After satisfactory results, you can opt for yearly contracts. At Redkite, we take clients on-board for the first term for only three months. This way we want them to feel at ease with their decisions and focus on results more than anything else.

 

Now, different agencies will have different client on-boarding systems but what we do at Redkite, is we use Google Drive—that we share and collaborate with various teams at our agency together with the clients.

 

You may have just one site or scores of them. Although the on-boarding process is basic, the action items are very custom per project because that is based on the audits and recommendations per site which is based on-top per contract items signed by us and our clients.

 

After contracts are signed, payments are made and teams are oriented, we start executing items one by one.

 

Links, content and any change we make even things like Meta-data are not effected until we get a direct approval from the client. We always need client approval until there is a time where the client has enough faith in us and we are asked to execute items without their approval.

 

Clients can always look into their campaign Google Spreadsheets to see what was done, what is being done and what will be accomplished the next few weeks.

 

Weekly rank reports tell our clients how they are ranking at Google and our monthly reports are a comprehensive report on work done and what we intend to do in the next month.

 

It`s a fairly simple process.. you just need to find someone that resonates with you. Someone you can trust, someone who has done the job before and someone who cares about your customers.

 

Best of luck and wishes form all of us at Redkite!

Emotions are removed in a business landscape. They are thought to be a hindrance to productivity. Well, sure—many personal emotions between workers can be highly destructive but an emotion we all need at work is Passion!

History tells us the difference between amazing work vs mediocre work. And it is the passion of its creator that makes the difference.

Take a look at Blendtec and Oster’s website. Notice the way they each brand market their own blenders. Whose tagline appeals to you more? Which website excites you in having your own blender—or make you want the blender being offered even though you already have one at home? Which website design appeals to you more?

Testing products in front of an audience or camera is common in television shops promoting kitchenware and appliances. But Blendtec made a difference that made them stand out—they started blending all sorts of things from wood blocks to iPhones.

Another brand that dared to go against the current trend was Panda Cheese and its Never Say No To Panda advertisement produced by Advanced Marketing for manufacturer Arab Dairy. The ad showed a completely different take on the panda image—while media has been depicting pandas as cute and cuddly animals, Panda Cheese did the exact opposite.

Unlike most manufacturers which have their mascots describe and offer products to audiences, Panda Cheese’s mascot showed the (funny, slightly violent) consequences of turning down Panda.

Blendtec started its Will it blend? series in YouTube in October 2006,  and now it has almost a million subscribers. The Never Say No To Panda campaign was considered bold and refreshing, and even won an award from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

It’s because Blendtec and Panda Cheese did more than just present a product. They presented something that lasts longer than mere material objects with a different nuance.

These acts of not following the bandwagon of long-time advertising traditions could and might encourage more people to be braver to take the road less travelled. As Robert Frost wrote in his poem The Road Not Taken, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I—I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Marketing is not just about numbers and trends—for evergreen results, we need imagination and new ideas. If you’re someone who still thinks that marketing is all about crunching up numbers and hyperactively posting on all kinds of social media to promote your product (or service), then maybe it’s time to think things over.

It’s not how often you post ads using how many platforms, but how extraordinary and inspiring your communications are. Because that’s how you’re going to be remembered. This is something you would really want to apply if working on digital marketing in the Philippines as the country’s people are very attuned to their emotions.

No one underestimates the passion that Steve Jobs brought to Apple. Jobs did not just revolutionize the Personal Computer, he in fact, changed the music distribution industry and the mobile industry as well.

George Lois (The Ad-man who influenced the TV series Madmen) is famous for doing brilliant ad campaigns including the famous “I want my MTV” movement with Mick Jagger when MTV was almost grounded.

What’s common between these guys and the people at Blendtec and at Panda Cheese?

Big Ideas! That sold itself to the world.

 

To the average business owner, it can be mind-boggling to imagine how search engines rank their websites. After all, not a lot of people are fully aware of how search engine optimization and SEO management work.

Before signing up for SEO services, it’s best to know which ranking factors directly affect your webpage. This will help you understand how the SEO process works; making it easier to determine how you can proceed on your online marketing strategy.

Let’s discuss a few of the notable factors that digital marketing experts in the Philippines and the rest of the world tend to focus on.

Insightful Content

Of the 200 or so various ranking factors, content remains to be one of the most significant of all; often cited as making a serious impact on page rankings.

Content helps drive visitors who are looking for information and it sparks conversations among its readers.

Better content quality results to a higher number of return and new visitors. Quality content also increases your brand authority; a solid reputation can attract more people to visit your webpage.

A few years ago, experts advocated the need to employ keywords related to your niche to improve your online ranks. These days, page owners are slowly turning towards using natural language for key content segments like the headings and meta-description.

Recent studies reveal that only 53% of the top searches have keywords in the title. And even less had keywords in their headings. Content relevance has become an important aspect in how search engines rank your page.

With all this talk about keywords and headings it can be easy to forget the main aim of your content: to impart valuable knowledge to your visitors. Keep in mind that user engagement can only be achieved if your content is compelling and insightful.

Speaking of user engagement…

Valuing User Experience

You may have a portfolio of compelling and trustworthy posts on your website, but you have to remember that it’s only a segment of what helps your page rank up. The value of your content is lost if the user does not take away anything useful from it.

User experience is a key metric that gives hints to search engines about the value of your page.

A better user experience means that visitors found your page informative, easy to navigate through, fitted with relevant content, and loaded with interactive features. Search engines will then take this as a sign that you have an excellent page that deserves a better position in the SERPs.

You should always prioritize on improving your website’s user experience. In the end, it is the customer who gets the most benefit from visiting your site. Your SEO efforts will mean nothing if you don’t think of how your page will affect visitors.

How can you tell that your page has excellent UX?

Typical indicators include post shares and reposts, visits and revisits, relevant comment counts, and outbound links pointing back to your site.

A high amount of reposts or actual comments (as opposed to obvious SEO-centered comments) mean that people find your page informative and valuable, and that they had an enjoyable experience while visiting your site.

Keep in mind that search engines are slowly getting a better picture of how user behavior works. They will eventually determine whether your page contains relevant information. If it doesn’t, they will adjust your website’s rank accordingly.

Always keep your pages relevant for whatever niche you are in to avoid penalties based on content.

The Power of Links

Website links connect your page to other websites with information that is relevant to your niche.

A higher number of inbound (pointing to your site) and outbound (directed at external pages) links can send the signal to search engines that your website receives a lot of traffic.

Keep in mind that this is not always a good thing, and that there are other factors related to links that can affect how your page ranks.

• Domain age plays a vital part in determining a backlink’s quality. The standard doctrine goes that older domains carry more weight than newer domains when it comes to references.

• A high variety of class-c IP addresses linking back to your page can be seen as positive indicator. This means that you have a high number of unique pages linking back to your website.

• The type of referring link can also affect your linking rank factor. A low variety of link types (for example, multiple links pointing only to social media profiles) can be flagged for spam, incurring penalties for your page.

Remember that links can only have a positive effect on your page if they are used naturally (as a reference for content, for example). If it was linked only for SEO purposes, it will have a detrimental effect on your page instead.

Architecture and Technical Factors

The site architecture determines how a website is displayed to others.

A solid site architecture means that all relevant and vital points are readily available and accessible to the user. Apart from those aspects visible to visitors, site architecture also concerns the page’s ‘backend’: page indices, internal linking, data encryption and metadata. These, and many other aspects, can be referred to as technical factors which can both directly and indirectly affect your page’s ranking performance.

• New page owners tend to overlook technical issues because they lack knowledge of how it affects their website. Recent studies explained the value of maintaining a solid site architecture; emphasizing the importance of fixing technical issues promptly.

• Indexing content on search engines is easier when a Metadata is provided. Failing to add relevant metadata to your pages can adversely affect their visibility. Without it your pages can turn into ‘orphaned’ content with no sites linking back to them. while pages with inappropriate metadata may be flagged for spam.

• Page security and encryption (using the HTTPS protocol instead of the older HTTP) not only protects the integrity of your data against attackers. It also shields visitors from potentially malicious exploits by external parties. It’s much safer to visit secure and authenticated websites. Thus, giving them a higher page authority than competitors that do not use the same encryption standard.

Ranking factors can directly affect how your page performs in search engine results; they play one of many vital roles in increasing your visibility online. In the end, the quality of your products, service, and customer engagement will determine the rise and fall of your webpage. Learning the basics of website ranking factors and following up with excellent end-user support will help your business go far.

As a business owner in today’s connected business environment, you already have the general idea that a strong social media presence can help promote your brand and the entirety of your digital marketing in the Philippines.

You know how effective social media marketing is in connecting a brand with its clients, increasing awareness and maintaining a strong relationship with a target market. – And so you hope to emulate this success with your own business.

The problem is, you may be confused as to which platforms to sign up for in order to effectively promote your brand to your potential clients.

Effective social media marketing isn’t just about knowing how to promote yourself and your business; it also involves knowing which platforms is best to market in, and how you can effectively use available features to suit the needs of your brand.

Knowing the basics will help you know which social media platforms to work with.

State Your Aims

Before going ahead and thinking of which social media channel to use for your brand, you must first determine what your purposes will be when you create a social media account. This way, you can lay out your proposed social media plan more decisively.

Determine which points can be adapted, and move along to choosing a channel.

When determining your objectives for your social media marketing campaign, keep these pointers in mind:

• Do you want to promote your brand to a niche market, or do you aim to increase your b2b presence? Knowing the intended target of your social media campaign will help you choose the appropriate channel for the job.

• Do you want to go head-on against your competition? If you can determine what platforms your competitors are using, you will either have to devise a plan to get ahead of them or divert your resources to other social media channels.

• What materials are you using to promote your brand? Most social media sites are optimized for a specific kind of content. For example, YouTube, NicoNico, and Vimeo are notable video-sharing platforms, while Pinterest and Imgur are notable for image-hosting and sharing. You can easily pick up a social media site to sign up for if you know what type of content you will be focusing on in your campaign.

Once you have determined your main objectives for starting a social media campaign, you can go ahead with the next step.

One for All, or All for One?

One of the prevalent questions when it comes to choosing a social media platform would be, ‘Should I stick to one channel, or should I go for as many of the popular sites as I can?’

With a multitude of social media sites to choose from, it can be daunting for you to determine the appropriate platform to employ for your business. The number of social media profiles you have can dictate how large and how wide your brand’s reach can be, after all.

In many cases, sticking to the more established social media platforms is recommended, especially for first-timers. Facebook and Twitter feeds have a solid reputation of keeping you connected with your target market in real-time. It allows you to gauge their perceptions and moods almost instantaneously and giving you a better picture of how to serve them better.

Established brands and your competitors may have a plethora of social media platforms that they use to promote their brand, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to follow their lead. Keep your marketing aims in mind to help you single out the platforms that you will definitely need.

If you’re planning to stick to just three or four social media accounts, having a LinkedIn profile should be on the list. While it may not directly affect your client acquisitions, it can help establish your brand among fellow professionals. An excellent LinkedIn profile establishes a more professional image of your brand and increases your brand authority.

Where is everyone?

Knowing the platforms your target market are in can help ease your social media decision-making. Once you determine their regularly-visited social media sites, adjusting your strategy accordingly will be easier.

You usually don’t have to exert a lot of effort to learn the demographic breakdown of most popular social media sites. Professional statistical data providers like Pew Research release relevant data on a regular basis, which helps industry professionals to leverage their marketing plans accordingly.

In some cases, however, you will have to do some checking on your own. This usually happens when you’re looking at potential platforms to your current list of active sites. You may have to put in extra effort to check some of these niche social media platforms, but the returns can be massive if you know where to look.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for other potential niches in other social platforms that you don’t use as much. They can turn out to be another potential market for you, if you know their demographics.

Work within Your Boundaries

Facebook and Instagram are now providing paid options; allowing brands to increase their social media visibility through priority ads and link recommendations. These paid options are effective but you have to consider how viable they can be for your brand. If you are just starting out with your social media campaign. Choosing whether or not to allot a budget for extra ad options for social media is crucial for your brand.

• Take advantage of newer social media platforms. There are sites that offer cheaper or free alternatives to the paid options available on bigger platforms. Startup channels like Snapchat can help you deliver your content without needing to spend a fortune on fees.

• If you do choose to go for paid social media options, remember to work within your budgetary limits. You can scale back on your paid social media campaigns while increasing your presence in other niche platforms.

• Don’t fret if all your initial social media options have paid features that you can’t access with your current budget. Remember that your skills and knowledge will still determine how your marketing campaign will go. See which platforms are best suited to your current capabilities and go ahead.

Social media marketing is a time-consuming process; even selecting which platforms to use can already use up much of your time. Once you find the right platform for your business, you can effectively promote your brand to the right audience. Make sure to leverage your strengths, work within your bounds and know the quirks of your chosen platform; this way you can ensure the success of your social media campaign.

Online marketing is a process; a gradual process that requires a lot of build-up, research and preparation to execute right.

It is NOT an overnight miracle.

Any digital marketing service provider will tell you that online marketing does not always bring immediate results, but will be successful if you stick to the basics and stay patient.

Many people outside the industry think that online marketing has become easier; thus attempting to do things based on what they see as ‘popular’ platforms. They think that social media makes it easier for anyone to handle their own brand marketing. – If a marketer knows the basics of using these platforms effectively it gives him a bigger chance to gain positive results.

Brand management works because it is anchored on tried-and-tested fundamentals.

Following these fundamentals is the first step to ensuring that your online campaign will reap benefits.

Building Connections

Businesses have always been about the customer.

A business fails if it cannot maintain a strong and loyal customer base throughout its existence.

The age of social media has provided brands with a means to keep in-tune with what their clients need in real-time. However, it has also constrained the traditional channels, with fewer instances of physical interaction between client and provider.

Keeping a strong relationship with your customers is a must if you want to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment. The methods to do so, however, can be simple yet time-consuming.

• A face you can trust. Providing voice chat options for your customer assistance portal can go a long way. It gives your brand a ‘face’, and if done right, it can promote your business as a trustworthy company that provides prompt responses for client inquiries.

• Constant communication through the proper channels. Keeping in touch with your clients isn’t just through the complaints and suggestions box. Even if social media helps in monitoring customers in real time, this is sometimes not enough. As mentioned in a previous post, connecting via opt-in emails can help you maintain a stronger line of communication with your most loyal clients. Opt-in emails are often used to give loyal users with advanced information regarding upcoming products; a move which helps maintain loyalty with the brand.

• Customer loyalty programs. You will always have one or two clients who always avail your products and services, so why not give something back for their continued patronage? Establishing a loyalty program can help you retain clients by providing rewards for certain purchases or promos that they avail of. You can also use social media as a channel by running contests and similar events on a regular or seasonal basis.

Value-Added Marketing

Gone are the days of bare bones advertising and simplistic approaches to brand promotion.

If you want to make a name for yourself and your business in the online world, you must be able to stand out among the competition. The best way to do that is to add value to your marketing and business approaches.

When we say ‘adding value’, we’re not talking about going fancy with your approaches or designs. Rather, we are talking about ensuring that your target market can get the most out of your marketing goals, products and services. You don’t just create a major marketing plan; you create a marketing plan that appeals to your target market the most.

• Update your methods. Sometimes the usual ad copy or even a blog post won’t cut it anymore. For many industries, interactivity is the way to go. Come up and design interactive videos, graphics and apps that can carry your brand further. Investing in this method can take time, but its returns can be massive.

• Add in the ‘human’ factor. Simply put, learn how to relate to people. Include their stories in your methods of communication. A customer becomes more attached to a brand if they feel like they can relate to it and if they believe that the brand values them as customers. For a fairly recent example, a local fastfood chain created an online video campaign for Valentine’s Day that immediately went viral, simply because people can relate to the stories. The discussions which erupted further support the major effect of a value-added campaign on a brand.

• Stay current. Nothing encourages higher bounce rates more than a webpage that looks stuck in 1997, or a social feed that rarely updates. This level of carelessness can cost your business dearly. Always keep your website design and social media platforms up-to-date by enhancing and modifying your previous content based on current trends.

Know Your Competition

Everybody remembers the old adage, ‘know the enemy as you know yourself, and you are sure to win many battles’.

True for wars, true for online marketing.

Knowing your competitors inside and out can help you better formulate strategies that can get more customers than they do. You can gain a better chunk of the market if you effectively apply this knowledge into a tangible marketing campaign.

Familiarizing yourself with the competition doesn’t only involve researching their strengths and weaknesses. It also include ways of determining how to get ahead of them. You can do this through a number of methods like:

• Getting ahead of your customers’ needs through regular monitoring of customer preferences and current trends

• Provide relevant copies backed up by research

• Providing alternatives to what the competition is offering, which may include appealing to niches within your marketing niches

• Updating your brand image and taglines

Note that this is one section where extra effort needs to be exerted. Knowing your customers’ needs can be grueling, and in some cases you won’t find anything useful for your campaign. This should not discourage you, but should drive you to further seek alternatives that will eventually score a hit with your target market.

Learning Never Stops

The marketing scene is an environment for innovators and trailblazers. Those who stick to the old methods tend to get left behind by their competitors who have learned to adapt to newer methods and techniques. This usually involves:

• Training and drilling yourself and your staff with current marketing techniques

• Keeping updated with algorithm updates that may affect your current, previous, and future marketing plans and implementations

• Indulging in marketing discussions with other experts in the same field

• Creating your own innovative approach to marketing based on what you have learned through practice and research

Staying current with the marketing methodology means that you will devote time to studying and reading up. However, that will not be enough unless you can apply what you’ve learned to your standard practices.

Consistency is Key

It can irk customers when you fail to maintain a consistent level of service for them. A lack of consistency in your marketing approaches and products can come off as a lack of professionalism on your part, and a lack of consideration towards your clients. It can also send the false signal that you lack the dedication to market your own brand, and thus should not be trusted as a service provider.

Inconsistency in your marketing can come through a number of sources.

• We’ve pointed out earlier that social media channels are a key platform for getting your message to more customers, so this bears repeating: DO NOT SLACK OFF when it comes to updating your online profiles and pages. Don’t just go for four posts a week on your first few weeks and then suddenly stop updating; people will think you’re no longer in business. Of course, try to keep it in moderation to avoid penalties.

• Your aim for consistency can also suffer if you adopt conflicting messages across your platforms. For example, you can post an update on your social media feeds about a new product you will be offering, but the update gets distorted throughout your Twitter feed, your Facebook update, and your blog post. People will be confused about what information is true, and this confusion can lead to your marketing plan ending in failure.

• Consistency isn’t limited to your online presence. Your real-life image is directly tied to how people view your brand online, so make sure that you don’t overlook it. A major disconnect between your online presence and your real-life image can make your brand suffer severely.

Establishing your brand identity, whether it’s online or in the real world, can be a difficult and taxing process. You can expect to face several setbacks along the way, as well. However, with the right tools and knowledge, as well as assistance from experts and veteran marketers, you are sure to achieve your goals of establishing a well-recognized brand and be successful in digital marketing in the Philippines.

Among all the online marketing methods, content marketing remains to be one of the most recommended.

Internet marketing providers swear by the effectiveness of content marketing in increasing both brand recognition and audience engagement. Interesting content helps spread a brand’s name by becoming the topic of meaningful discussions. You can get free exposure in a way, just by your written content alone.

The real catch, however, is making QUALITY content.

Quality online content requires time, effort, intelligence and creativity. You can spend every day pumping out one blog post after another, but if it lacks effort and quality it won’t convert to new customers or more site visits.

Good content gets recognition, but quality content gets results.

Quality content is not only made through time and effort. It is composed of various elements which come together to create the kind of content that starts conversations and gets results. If your digital marketing efforts in the Philippines have not yielded the results that you desire, taking note of the elements listed here may help you out.

Headlines! Headlines!

If you want to get your content across to people, one of the first things you can think of is a catchy headline.

Headlines are the condensed form of your content. It gives the reader the push they need for them to keep reading. Your click-through and bounce rates all depend on how well your headline conveys your message.

What constitutes a good headline?

• Brevity and Impact. Your headline must be short enough for ease of reading, but it must catch the readers’ attention right away. Many people tend to scan over various listed titles especially when they’re on ‘search engine mode’, so making a good first impression is important.
• No Ambiguity. Your headline fails if its wordings are too vague or open to multiple interpretations. For example, ‘Stolen Painting Found by Tree’ can lead to several misunderstandings and in-jokes. Alternatively, your headline fails if what it says does not reflect the content at all.
• Numbers and Adjectives. Strong language combined with precise numbers can easily grab your target audience’s attention when done right. ‘Five Guaranteed Methods to Write Catchy Headlines’ is much more read-worthy than ‘Ways to Write Headlines’.
• Avoiding the Clickbait Trap. Clickbait-type headlines are easily distinguishable because of their sensational and misleading headlines. In most cases the stories they link to are totally unconnected to the headline or have a fairly low writing quality, which is why many savvy readers avoid them.

Tag that Keyword

Keywords and tags may seem like items best left to SEO specialists, but they play a vital role in giving your content the exposure it needs.

Proper tagging and keyword application helps in categorizing your content, making it easier to be found on relevant searches. Higher viewership increases a post’s relevance to a search term, raising its rank through online databases and further increasing its visibility to more readers.

Basically, keywords and tags fulfill these roles:

• Categorizing your content for search engines
• Curating your content for easier internal searches on your website
• Increasing your brand visibility to your target audience by way of relevant keywords and tags

However, you should be cautious not to over-emphasize the keywords and tags on your posts. Too many keywords in a single post can have your content flagged for keyword stuffing, while excessive tagging can put your post in the wrong categories accidentally. Moderation is key to ensuring that you have the right amount of keywords and tags that can lead audiences to your posts.

Tell the Story, Tell it Right

Your content’s quality relies heavily on how your content flow goes.

A strong narrative, theme cohesion, and smooth content flow will help readers understand your message easily. Rambling paragraphs and roundabout terms are definite no-nos. Once you go on a tangent, you risk losing readers. When it comes to effective content narration, a few points come to mind.

• Spelling and Grammar Issues. Nothing is worse than reading an article that is rife with spelling errors, mismatched sentences, missing punctuation marks and out-of-context phrases. Proofread your work multiple times as needed, whether by you or by your editor to weed out any grammatical mistakes.
• Images, Graphics, and Visuals. The monotony of walls of text can be a turn-off for a potential reader, leaving your otherwise excellent post to languish in the low ends of the SERPs. Insert relevant and eye-catching images, videos, and graphics that provide context for your content or are relevant to your topic.
• A good post does not show its age; it stays relevant throughout the year, whatever season it is. A timeless post means that it can be relevant even if used as a reference several years later. Usually keeping the content updated can help, but sometimes it can stand on its own if it is already of a high level of quality to begin with.

Link It In

You can further increase the value of your content by providing relevant internal links from related pages within your website.

With internal links, not only are you adding extra knowledge to your post, you are also increasing the visibility of your other pages, further promoting your brand.

Internal linking is fairly simple, but it still follows several rules to be done effectively.

• There is enough content to relevant topics that can be internally linked to. Internal linking will not be as effective if you only have five or six pages with brief amounts of content.
• There are relevant pages located deeper in your site’s architecture. These deep pages are usually links that are located far away from your homepage and other major pages, like a specific product page or a blog post in another category.
• The pages you link to must be relevant and must engage the reader. They came to seek knowledge, so any additional information that you can provide will definitely be appreciated.

Note that internal linking is meant primarily to boost the authority of the page where the link is added. This is your primary aim for internal linking; increasing the visibility and authority of the linked page should come as a secondary.

Sharing the Call to Action

The primary aim of your blog post is to impart knowledge to your readers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t slip in a few call to action in there too. After all, you will want them to keep coming back for your articles, products and services.

The call to action is meant to incite your readers to act based on the content that they have read. However, the CTA can fail if the content is weak or if the CTA does not follow up well with the content. Here are a few tips to make your Call to actions more effective.

• Straightforward is the way to go. Be direct to the point if you want the reader to see more articles or view products and services related to the current page.
• Keep it conspicuous but not too eye-catching. You wouldn’t want to distract your readers from the content you’re providing!
• Like a headline, brevity for a CTA is key. A short CTA of around five or six words is enough to get your readers to click ahead.

Related to CTA is the shareability of your content. You have a higher chance of getting free marketing for your brand if readers find your content compelling and thought-provoking enough to share with family and friends. A strong call to action that caps off your already high-quality content can increase its shareability, further promoting your brand.

The content you make for your brand can easily make or break your business and reputation. The quality of your content reflects your brand as a whole; the better the quality, the better the reputation your business can get. Make the most out of content marketing by only creating worthwhile and valuable content, and your brand will go further than what you expect.

Do you want to make an impact in your chosen market? – The best way to do that in today’s internet-connected world is by becoming a thought leader in your field.

Entrepreneurs are innovators who go against the tradition; following their own methods and creating opportunities for themselves in whatever field they specialize in. Where others see impossibility, thought leaders see a new approach to old problems.

Apple wouldn’t be half the company it is today if Steve Jobs didn’t stubbornly stick to his beliefs.

The advertising industry would not be the dynamic environment people know it to be without George Lois and his out-of-the-box ads.

Digital marketing in the Philippines and the rest of the world wouldn’t even be a possibility if it wasn’t for the various industry experts who defined the methods and principles online marketers follow and implement to this day.

Openly sharing what they know about their respected fields makes thought leaders well-respected. Years of experience in the business give more credibility to what they say, making them more authoritative. They also back up what they say with actions that get tangible results.

To some, thought leadership is exclusive to big names in the business. – But this is not quite so.

It’s easy to be considered as a thought leader. Especially if you have enough knowledge and experience to back you up. However, earning people’s confidence in you can be the challenging part.

Yet what is a Thought Leader?

Anyone can be a thought leader for their chosen field, but only a few can earn the right to be considered as one. Understanding your passions will help you determine how you can become a thought leader in your industry.

You can follow three steps to help you out.

• Your topics of choice – A true thought leader always has strong opinions about a particular topic or subtopic in their profession. Identify a subject matter that you are passionate about. This can help you determine what you should focus on as you hone yourself to be an efficient thought leader.

• Experience is the best teacher – Thought leaders know so much about their chosen topics because they’ve experienced it first-hand. Personal experience increments your knowledge in ways that studying alone cannot give. It is one of the best ways to gain brand authority.

• Skills and Specializations –  Think about the skills you’ve already perfected. Is it sales, customer support, or mid-level management? Maybe you have an extensive background in marketing, or a proficient knowledge in online advertising? Learning what skills you excel in will help you determine your thought leadership focus easier.

The ‘DON’Ts’ of Thought Leadership

Thought leadership relies on people making their opinions known to the right audience.

You can be recognized as a subject matter expert when you provide relevant information with the content that you post online. This information, backed up by experience and additional information from reliable sources, can help increase your credibility with clients and prospective partners.

However, many businesses fail to make an impact in their fields because they have the wrong idea about thought leadership. They waste their content by using the wrong approach to gain brand authority.

There are a few common reasons behind this situation. Allow me to discuss a few.

• Self-praising content – There are companies who tend to fill their content with their accomplishments. Instead of providing their audience with usable information, they bombard them with irrelevant self-promoting material.

• Sales Pitch-like tone – You are not doing your business any favors by using your blog section as another outlet for marketing your products and services. You will fail to reach out to your audience if all of your posts read like 800-word advertisements for your products. – These type of posts can easily push away potential clients and partners.

• Going through the wrong channels – Choosing the wrong channel to share your opinion is like talking to a wall; you say many relevant things to it but it will not reply to you at all. Wrong channels could mean anything, like pandering to the wrong audience or using obscure marketing platforms to get your content out there. You will fail in your attempts in thought leadership if you don’t use the right means to communicate with your target market.

Earning the Title

Thought leadership isn’t just a marketing fad; it has become a way of life for many professionals. You can’t just rest on the laurels of your company anymore. You have to prove that you can share your knowledge with the world.

Thought leaders are not lecturers, but conversationalists; they don’t just give out relevant information, but they gain information back. They open discussions that can lead to the betterment of the people in their field. This is how they gain their position as thought leaders.

There are a few things that only successful thought leaders often do which further increases their credibility. Apart from their experiences and accumulated knowledge, they also work on any of the following concepts:

• Personal branding – It’s hard to tell one expert apart from the other if they talk about the same topics. That is why successful thought leaders build a strong personal brand for themselves to help them stand.

• Online connectivity – A true subject matter expert knows that opinions are best shared and discussed. Thus, you must know how to create content that can engage your target market. This two-way method of communication increases credibility and enhances a person’s position as a thought leader.

• Transparency and openness – There is no harm in admitting that you have made a mistake with your earlier posts. Additionally, people in a rational discussion will understand if you are open about your differing opinions. This is the kind of honesty that increases a thought leader’s credibility.

• Answering the right questions – Sometimes all it takes is to provide helpful answers to everyday questions. Knowing the needs of your target audience can help you determine the information that is relevant to them.

Thought leadership can be for anyone; but not everyone is fit to be a thought leader.

You have to impart relevant knowledge in your industry. It is a two-way job that relies on credibility and communication. When you establish yourself as a reliable resource only then can you consider yourself a successful thought leader.

Consumer engagement plays a vital role in today’s increasingly-connected business environment. Companies fill their webpages with interactive materials and excellent content to keep their clients interested and to attract more visitors.

Content marketing has evolved into a vital part of a company’s overall marketing strategy; without content, a company has lesser chances to entice prospective clients with their products.

Marketing experts stand by the effectiveness of content marketing in promoting a brand online. Engaging and relevant content aimed at the right audience can trigger discussions and queries, which can lead to increased brand exposure. Content that provides new and exciting information can also do wonders for a brand’s reputation.

Despite the benefits of content marketing, there are instances when it can go too far.

Sure, the brand may post new content at least twice a week, but does it provide something new or profound? Excessive content that doesn’t provide something new to a conversation can adversely affect a brand’s reputation.

Similarly, poorly-researched content can hurt a company’s name. When these combine, an information overload happens. As a result, consumers become less engaged because there is just too much content to go through.

Information overload is a real problem for business owners like you because it pushes away your prospective clients.

So, how do you deal with information overload without compromising your content marketing plans? Quite simply, all you need is to market bigger with less content.

Help! There’s Too Much Information!

Before delving into the importance of cutting back on content, it’s time to discuss the context of ‘information overload’ for business owners like you.

On average, at least 17 new web pages are published per second, while a whopping 2 million new blog posts are posted daily. Even if you gather data from just one week, you will observe an overwhelming amount of newly-published content.

Now, imagine the average internet user having to sift through all of these data just to get to the content that they want to read.

In the past, content marketers were more concerned with making sure that the business gets a lot of exposure online through various blogs and posts that highlight their features, products, and services. The old mindset was that exposure was the main driving force that can help gather more views and more customers for a brand. – This, however, has resulted in a glut of data that not everyone would want to read, leading to the aforementioned information overload.

Content marketers and business owners need to remember that what counts isn’t the amount of content, but the value of it.

Three blog posts posted a week would mean nothing if they don’t provide new ideas or they actually have poorly-researched data. Unless you are talking about seasonal topics and the like, repetitive information is a no-no, either.

Remember that content is created for the end-user’s sake; an information overload prevents the end-user from getting what he or she wants. So it is important to prevent that from happening as much as possible.

Going on a ‘Content Diet’

The gist of the ‘more marketing with less content’ idea is simple: focus on the topics you know best, and market it to the people right people.

This rings true now more than ever, especially since it is becoming more difficult to produce engaging content. This isn’t just a problem for regular content writers; even authoritative content providers with years of experience are finding it difficult to grab the audience’s attention.

The glut of information available online has made it difficult to keep audiences satisfied with new content. Posting plenty of content to a wide variety of channels won’t help, either. These days, it is better for you to go on a ‘content diet’ to avoid any adverse effects on your brand and audience engagement.

Basically, you are reducing the amount of content that you publish on a regular basis. For example, instead of going for four to five posts a week, you cut back to at least two posts a week.

Does Length Matter?

Reducing your content posting however, should not result in a reduction of the information within your posts.

As you reduce the amount of time dedicated to publishing, you must increase the amount of effort into creating high-quality material for your content pages. This means that what you write must be a major benefit, or at least be of immediate use to your target audience.

A quality post talks about a topic that is relevant to the target audience, contains credible and reliable research, and is easy to understand.

Do not fall for the illusion of length. When it comes to high-quality and engaging content, the post length does not matter. Beating around the bush won’t help make your brand more popular. People prefer reading content that is straight-to-the-point, and as such would avoid any content that keeps on looping around before going for the main idea.

There are a number of big-name content makers who are known for their lengthy blog posts, but it does not mean that what they do can work for your brand.

Each niche and each brand has their own style when it comes to marketing; their recommended lengths, writing language and content vary greatly. Writing in a style that fits your niche, marketing preferences and overall brand identity will help you make your content more effective, thereby attracting more customers.

Going Micro

We’ve already discussed how effective content marketing relies on quality content targeted at the right audience and posted in moderate intervals.

Written content is the main material that you can rely on to drive leads to your website. In some cases, however, you don’t have to write out what you want to say, but instead you just have to show it in visual form.

Making easily-digestible content is a must for marketers, especially if you are targeting the mobile user market. There are users who wouldn’t spend time reading an 800-word blog post even if the information is relevant to them. As such, relying on visual content can be a good alternative to getting your message across. Additionally, you can provide content that answers simple topics like how-to questions and industry-relevant historic quotes. Short as they may be, they can be a powerful marketing tool when used right.

Keeping your target market engaged can be difficult, even if you provide quality content. But if you maintain a consistent level of quality and avoid content overload, success can surely be within the reach for your digital marketing endeavor in the Philippines.

Before you go into setting up your own shop, you have to find out exactly what your target market wants and needs.

Even with the best online marketing services in town, your business can still fail if you don’t understand your potential customers.

If you’re starting a business based on a major trend or popular theme, there is a good chance that it won’t work well. If everybody’s selling the same kind of products to the same audience, there would be no variation.

Latecomers suffer while the older, more established brands retain their long-time patrons. To paraphrase the ‘information overload’ concept, just because there are more shops selling the same product doesn’t mean that the average consumer will buy from all of them.

Instead of selling to the same market as everybody else, why not focus on a niche market? Unlike general consumers, niche market consumers offer a small, dedicated target for your chosen business. Targeting a niche market is more profitable, especially for online businesses because of several reasons.

Allow me to discuss a few.

One Vision, One Purpose

If you know how to multitask, you can accomplish more work in less time. Of course, this is not always ideal, and those who can’t multitask properly can achieve even less positive results.

With online marketing, aiming for a wide number of clients doesn’t always yield the best results. You may have a lot of potential clients, but you can easily lose them if you fail to deliver with quality. This is harder for smaller businesses because they’re still trying to get their brand known in a very competitive market.

In contrast, niche marketing is focused on a single, dedicated user base with fewer competitors. Because of this, you can focus on improving your services and products for consumers instead of spending more time out-marketing your competition. Even if the market is small, brand loyalty is definitely assured once you consistently provide clients with the kind of products that they need.

Optimized On-The-Go

The mobile market is now an essential part of every online marketing plan for any brand.

A lot of companies now turn to the mobile market to make their products and brands more popular. Dedicated mobile pages and desktop pages optimized to be mobile-friendly have become standard for many companies.

Generalized companies can still face problems when marketing their brands in the mobile market, however. With so many items to load and many products to preview, it would take considerable time for the page to fully load on a mobile device. Bandwidth limits and data charges can suffer significantly from such ‘overloaded’ pages, and can lead to higher bounce rates.

Niche market websites are far easier to optimize for mobile consumption thanks to being focused on a single product type. Mobile end-users are brought directly to the product that they need without having to browse through many layers of general categories.

Wait times are also reduced because there is fewer extra information that needs to be shown. In addition, it is easier to keep mobile visitors engaged because the site is focused solely on the niche that they are in.

A Name You Can Trust

Big-name companies spend years to attain the kind of consumer trust that they enjoy today. These large companies have to put extra efforts to keep a good reputation with clients. Not only do they have to maintain their products’ good quality, now they also have to provide prompt responses to customer queries.

The internet and social media can help boost brand reputation, but it is a tougher job for generalized companies.

Niche businesses enjoy better engagement with their users thanks to the narrowed-down focus of their products. They can maintain direct communication with their consumers easier, and as such can attain a higher sense of trust with them.

A proper combination of quality products and solid user engagement can keep a niche company rolling for years to come.

However, a more stable target market also means a higher chance of situations that can ruin your brand reputation. You will have to put extra effort to deliver the best products to people while also keeping them engaged online. Word-of-mouth travels faster in niche markets than anywhere else. Bad news related to your brand can spread quickly and hurt your reputation and profits.

Easier to Mark, Easier to Find

Running a marketing campaign for a generalized company means there are a lot of keywords you need them to rank for.

While offering a variety of different products can be good, it is also difficult to promote everything in one campaign. Maximum effort must be given to get the most important links and keywords to rank.

Niche marketers are lucky to have fewer targeted keywords to rank. You only need to work with a few variations. And when you do this right, you can grow your client base and maintain your product’s online presence. However, try not to over-expose your brand; overexposure in a niche market can lead to a decline in your sales. Practice moderation where you can.

Whether you run a startup company or a recognized brand, niche marketing is a good way to go for your digital marketing in the Philippines. You can provide products for loyal group of consumers if you do it right. However, niche marketing has its own set of risks that you have to be careful about. A solid niche marketing plan is the best way to get your business ahead.

Today’s internet would have a hard time functioning without the big search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Since the dawn of the internet age, search engines have provided users with a simple way to browse the web. Instead of having to spend hours trawling through countless websites, search engines queue up relevant results for searchers.

Search engines have become a vital part of the internet’s structure, with web marketing experts putting a priority on search engine visibility when it comes to promoting their clients.

The average internet user is often exposed to the most prevalent search engines like Google and Yahoo but this isn’t really much of an issue.

However, for certain online marketing firms, relying on a small number of search engines may be counterproductive in promoting a brand to a wider audience. Meanwhile, other companies are not fans of the various algorithm changes implemented by the bigger engines which can adversely affect the way they do their marketing plans.

Sticking to the big-name search engines is standard for many of us in the industry. But there may be times where it is good to promote clients through alternative channels.

Here are a few of the bigger, though less-known alternative search engines thriving in the internet today that can help your digital marketing undertakings in the Philippines.

DuckDuckGo

Don’t let the funny name and whimsical duck mascot fool you.

While seemingly cheeky in appearance, DuckDuckGo has earned a place for itself.

Knowledgeable internet users consider it as a notable alternative search engine because of its ‘no-user-data-tracking’ feature.

A few industry experts think of this as a good thing, pointing out mostly to the bigger search engine’s notable use of user data tracking to determine how their search results come about in the future. DuckDuckGo provides a wide variety of privacy-focused features that allows users to stay under-the-radar when doing their internet searches.

What’s more, it can even maintain its no-track features when clicking on other sites during the same session. Another one of its key features is the option to provide a connection to the Tor deep web network via an easy-to-install plugin.

DuckDuckGo’s Interface

DuckDuckGo’s search interface pretty much follows the same setup for Google. It’s simplistic and straightforward, leaving no room for distraction for the user. Aside from this, it doesn’t fill its pages with unnecessary ads and links that would annoy you.

Results-wise, the engine only provides a single page of query returns; nonetheless, it can be more than enough for most users. The added features of Instant Answers and the carousel-style above-the-fold links to other relevant topics. This adds to the ease of use that DuckDuckGo provides.

If you are looking for a search engine that respects your privacy and keeps only the most relevant search results for you without much hassle, DuckDuckGo is the one for you. As for online marketers, learning the intricacies of DuckDuckGo can help you do a better job of promoting to your clients even in privacy-centered circles.

Yandex

It’s forgivable if you’re not familiar with Yandex. After all, it is known in only a few countries. – Mostly in Russia where it holds a large userbase; and was also created long before Google was founded.

It plays pretty much like Google in terms of calculating search algorithms. However, in terms of user experience, Yandex works more like Yahoo! or Bing. This is because Yandex is both a search engine and a portal that many Russian users go to when they start their day.

It offers many of the services that Google provides like mail, online data storage and multimedia. But since it is more familiar with the Russian identity, it appeals more easily to Russian users.

Yandex’s Interface

One thing you’ll notice with Yandex’s search results interface is the presence of favicons for each result entry. This helps users identify the pages easier, confirming their identities without the need to click on the page itself.

The real value of the Yandex engine, however, lies in its mother language. Yandex is a search engine that is fully optimized for the Russian language. As such, it can provide more relevant results for Cyrillic-based queries than other search engines.

This is significant for marketers and brands looking to rank higher in Russian-speaking markets; adapting to Russian language-based searches can go a long way in expanding your reach in these areas.

Boardreader

Forum pages and message boards may not be the type of places you go to for accurate and objective information, but they hold a treasure trove of opinions that can easily help you gauge the mood and trends in your target market.

However, scouring the forum pages can be quite a daunting task. Especially with so many channels and boards to look through, and a search function that may not be fully optimized for non-members.

Thankfully, a few startup owners have taken this into account and have come up with Boardreader, a search engine designed specifically to search forums and message boards. This unique search engine focuses only on online messaging and forum communities. It tracks down the most relevant results so that you don’t have to browse through the various forum topics on your own.

In addition, it also views other online social communities like Reddit, keeping you abreast of what people in larger online neighborhoods are talking about right now.

Boardreader’s Interface

Boardreader’s search environment isn’t as straightforward as Google or DuckDuckGo, but it does provide other features that set it apart from other engines.

Favicons are also present for the engine’s search results, a feature it shares with Yandex. Broadreader’s ‘advanced search’ settings also provide a time frame and language limit to narrow down your results further.

One thing that is unique to this engine is the ‘trends’ tab, which gives an overview of how your search terms are trending over a given period of time. While not as accurate as most online analytics tools, the ‘trending’ tab can provide you with a snapshot of how people in forums think about your target keywords.

Keep in mind that Boardreader’s results aren’t always sorted by date, popularity or relevance by default, so you might still have to do some tweaking on your own before you can get the results you need.

IXQuick

IXQuick is probably one of the more obscure search engines around today; it is possibly more obscure than Boardreader or DuckDuckGo in some circles.

However, this nifty little engine also offers its own set of privacy features that most users would appreciate and most marketers should learn to work with.

First and foremost, this engine does not store information; there will be no prompts asking for your email verification or alternative social media links. The engine also does not store or provide cookies, or little bits of information that websites look into to determine what content to suggest for you.

The best feature this engine provides is that user preferences are automatically reset after 90 days of inactivity, keeping your options safe from prying eyes.

IXQuick’s Interface

IXQuick’s search interface is fairly minimalist.

You can say that it looks like a Yahoo! results page without the ads popping up from time to time. Although it does have the occasional Google paid ad on top.

The maximum number of searches, UI language, and other features can be set up in a dropdown menu. But as mentioned earlier, it automatically resets if the site is not used for 90 days.

IXQuick isn’t as feature-packed as other search engines, but its simple design can be enough for some users. Its no-cookie policy also gives insights that can be useful for internet marketers.

Dogpile

Another playful search engine in terms of appearance and UI is Dogpile.

It looks more like a web design student’s first school assignment in terms of layout and design. However, this deceptively cute-looking page actually has a lot of stuff up its sleeves.

Primarily, it’s a search fetching service. This means it can fetch results for a keyword from various popular search engines and group them together by relevancy. Basically, all the results for Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other big engines like Yandex and possibly Baidu are curated here.

It gives the user a snapshot of how the search results appear in other engines. Instead of having to browse all the engines individually, Dogpile does it for you.

Dogpile’s Interface

Notice how all the tabs for the most relevant search types are already available from the start page.

Trending search ‘fetches’ are regularly updated to show latest search trends. The search results page offers a host of various results from many of the larger search engines that’s listed by relevancy.

The ‘preferences’ tab allows the user to customize how the results are shown. All in all, Dogpile doesn’t really stand out in terms of usage and searchability. But its primary feature of fetching results from bigger sites and pooling them together in order is a good thing to have for marketers who are keen on monitoring.

Search engines are a vital fiber in the internet’s growing web of connectivity. It shows your brand to relevant searches. However, sticking to a single search engine routine may be more divisive than what you can expect. Learn more about how various search engines behave, and you will surely go far in the online marketing game.

 

How many years has your website been online? Two years, maybe three;

Maybe your website has been up and running for a decade now;

Perhaps it’s your personal blog page where you post your portfolio in the hopes of being recognized by big organizations;

Or maybe you’re a business owner and you know the benefits of having online presence for the enterprise that you own.

Whatever your motivation may be, you have one definite reason for creating a website: to attract visitors to your page and get positive results.

Taking that into account, isn’t it frustrating to see your page views fluctuate or outright dwindle from time to time even if you invest a lot of effort to keep it up to date?

Site visits are the lifeblood that keeps a website going. There is no point in learning even the most basic web master tools and skills if you can’t have users browsing through your site. And it’s not just about one-time visitors, either; a site is truly successful only when it can retain a good number of regular visitors.

High bounce rates and limited page views are particularly worrying, especially for business owners who provide a lot of products and services through their online portal. Taking all these into account, just what do you have to do to increase the number of page views and regular visitors to your site?

Don’t Panic and Investigate

Here’s the current situation: you found out that your page has high bounce rates. Only a few people re-visits your site and most of them don’t even bother to see more than two or three of your subpages before they decide to close the tab.

Most uninformed website owners would take this as a sign to go into panic mode. They would rush to plug holes that they believe to be causing problems for their site. Predictably, this does not help much.  If the site owner continues to make rash changes and modifications to the site, it will eventually backfire which might force them to shut the website down.

Many websites have failed in the past because their owners let the panic set in before any viable solution can be provided.

If you are confronted with these kinds of problems for your page, remember to always keep calm. Look around your website and do some basic investigation. There are plenty of clues that provide a good idea of why people are turning away from your site at a high rate; these clues are usually easy to find.

Does your website take a while to load?

Remember that most people expect your pages to load within two seconds after they click your links. Anything longer can be a cause for them to leave. You can try checking the page load speed yourself, or you can rely on online page speed analyzer tools to get a breakdown of what needs fixing with your page.

What can you offer to your potential visitors?

People visit a page because they believe that it holds something that is relevant to them or something that they can use in the future. They will move on elsewhere if your page does not provide what they are looking for, or if they believe that they can find better information elsewhere. If you think this is causing problems for you, you might want to check your content and see if it needs some pruning and re-doing.

Are your pages provided with relevant links?

A key part of on-page material is linking; this provides your on-page content to have additional resources to support them, either from elsewhere in your site (which would help increase visitor staying time) or from a trusted external source (to provide your content with something authoritative to back it up). It can be a cause for a quick bounce out if people can’t find additional information on any of your pages, so taking note of related links for a page’s content can help increase a visitor’s time on your site.

Taking the time to snoop around your page’s front- and back-ends can wield a treasure trove of information to help you determine what’s causing your site to lose visitors, but the task doesn’t end there.

From the User’s Point of View

Now that you’ve done a thorough investigation of your website and noted some ‘points of interest’ from your lackluster pages, you are ready to implement whatever needs to be done to get your website back in shape.

That means you can go fancy with your page buttons, layouts, and content, right?

Well… not exactly.

Before you go on a damage control spree ask yourself first:

“Will the changes I implement benefit my clients/users/current and future page visitors in the end?”

This is a valid point you have to consider if you want to increase your site views and visits.

When your site provides excellent user experience even for the most basic of features, you can expect people to come back to your page. And eventually, new visitors will pop in to have a look as well.

Typical fixes for this aspect includes the following:

• Increase optimization for all the items in your portal – helps in reducing page speeds
• Improve page layout, buttons and links – puts focus on the most relevant links
• Provide relevant content right from the get-go
• Reduce or eliminate features that may not be welcome to certain users – pop-ups usually come to mind in this regard.

Credibility and Authority

As noted earlier, one reason people visit a site is to look for relevant information. If the link they click on doesn’t have what they need, they will move on without a second thought.

There’s a bigger chance for return visits if the page has relevant content and is written in an authoritative standpoint,

What makes a website credible and authoritative? – A page is both credible and authoritative if its content is presented in a professional and consistent manner. For example, the content is backed-up with relevant sources and additional materials that support the content’s agenda; or the page has been recognized by other trusted brands in the same industry.

Building a positive online reputation allows you to gain a better foothold in your chosen field. It also gives off a better impression to other users. The better service you provide, the higher credibility you get for your online presence.

On paper, achieving a higher level of authority all comes down to retaining positive feedback from repeat visitors and patrons. In actuality, you have to put in some effort to gain credibility with people in your field.

If you want to be recognized as an expert, you have to walk your talk; that is, you have to know what you’re trying to tell other people. Practice what you preach. Try to provide concise but detailed information about what you’re working on. And if you can, stock up on your knowledge with the latest developments in your field.

However, try not to go overboard. Don’t be that self-proclaimed expert who rambles on without meaning. Instead, be the less chatty individual who actually provides information when people need it.

Increasing your overall page views may seem like a colossal undertaking. However, with the right tools and the proper knowledge, you can gain more site visitors. And if you properly execute the strategy discussed above, it’ll be easier to retain existing visitors on your website and be a champion in digital marketing in the Philippines.