The worldwide web is overflowing with content as it churns out more than two million blog posts every day. Content writers from all over the world are doing exactly what you’re doing right now – writing a blog post in the hopes that your website will rank higher in search engines. With two million blogs posted every day, you’re probably wondering how to stand out from a crowd of high-caliber writing and then a mass of not-so-good clickbait content.

Don’t lose hope, though. True, it isn’t easy… but it is not far from possible either.

Imagine a person right beside you all the time — from morning till night, maybe even as you sleep (if you could even sleep, that is). This person shouts the same thing over and over again, non-stop. Wouldn’t you feel the least bit uncomfortable? This is how people feel when they’re being bombarded by the same hard-sell advertising repeatedly.

Content writing counters this distressing approach by either being informative or entertaining (or both) all without having to be aggressive and demanding.

Let’s look at the statistics here. According to Demand Metric, 82% of consumers will trust a company after reading their custom content. On the other hand, according to a study by Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, two-thirds of readers have felt betrayed upon realizing that the article they were reading was sponsored by a brand in one way or another.

This only means one thing: Your audience can see right through you and your marketing tactics. They know when a content can be useful and valuable to them and they know when they are just being sold a product or a service

As marketers or business owners, there is a quote by Tom Fishburne I would like you to be familiar with:

The kind of content the worldwide web needs right now is one that helps, not one that keeps slapping product after product right in front of unwilling customers and even potential consumers. The kind of marketing we need right now blurs the line between us and them. The kind of marketing we need is audience-centric.

Having audience-centric content means exactly that — centering on your audience. It means understanding them or as an old idiom says: “putting yourself in their shoes.”

Here are just some things you can do to bring your audience into your content:

 

Define your audience

There is a question I want you to answer: Do you really know who you’re marketing to?

Audience-centric marketing goes beyond the data from demographic statistics and the familiar answers to buyer persona profiles. It goes well beyond what your audience’s jobs are or how much they earn. It’s not as simple as determining that your real estate website should be targeted at prospective homeowners, or your local business page must attract the attention of your community.

Instead, become a friend and ask conversational and every day questions such as:

• What are your interests?
• What are the challenges you face in their job or in their life in general?
• What do you value most?
• What motivates you?

Initiate an emotional connection with your target audience. Understand how they feel, what they think and do, what they believe in, and what they want and need. Defining your audience not by numbers will eventually empower you to write better content that will resonate with them.

 

Know the language they speak

It’s important to know how to communicate with your audience. Cut out the jargons or at the very least, minimize them. Jargons will only alienate them and would eventually make them turn away from you.

There is always a better way to say the things you want to express. Keeping it simple and clear would make your audience feel as if they belong. As humans, we all have a basic psychological need to connect and create meaningful relationships with others. So make them feel that connection. Your company or brand and those who will read your content might be far apart, but your writing has the power to bridge that gap.

Also, using jargon doesn’t automatically make you sound smarter. In fact, a jargon-filled article would only imply that you actually don’t know your subject matter all too well because you can’t explain it in plain speech.

Here are just some ways on how you could avoid jargon:

1. If you know someone who is not familiar with your industry’s jargon, have them go over your work and ask them to give constructive feedback. This would make you mindful of the words that your audience might find a tad bit too hard to understand.
2. Keep your audience in mind. Write as if you are talking with them and not to
3. Think of another word for buzzwords unless you want your work to lose meaning. If you can’t think of anything, use a dictionary or a thesaurus. And if all else fails, Google will always have your back.
4. If you really can’t avoid it, use anecdotes or highly relatable examples to get your point across.
5. Another way to avoid confusion is to put up a glossary of these terms with their proper definitions, especially if they are frequently used on your posts.

Listen and engage

One of the most effective ways to really know your audience is to engage with them. The questions and suggestions from your readers and audience across the web are a gold mine of possible future topics for your blog. As long as your content helps in any way, your audience will trust you and your brand and this would in turn make you an authority in your field of practice.

Here’s how you can interact with them:

1. If they comment on your content, acknowledge them. Thank them if they added to your idea and answer their most pressing questions.
2. Take time to talk with them on forums and discussion boards or sites like Reddit and Quora. There might just be questions there that only you can answer.
3. Sites like Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn might just be the places where they share their interests. Listen. Social media listening is when you just sit down and track the conversations around the topics you and your audience similarly care about. Really tune in on their discussions to know what they want, what they need, and what they value.
4. Put down the research and drop the phone. Talk with your audience face-to-face. Spend time with them without a screen separating you and listen closely to what they have to say. Be part of their world.

The process of listening and interacting with your audience is not a onetime thing. You have to constantly learn more about your audience as the things they care about will eventually evolve.

 

Remember that they are just as human as you

Your audience are not robots, they are real people. They have emotions too. Just like you, they desire to be happy and just like you, they desire to feel. If you’re gifted with humor, take that opportunity and crack a joke once in a while. Not only will you be providing valuable information, you might just also make someone else’s day.

Show them that you are human by tapping into their empathy. Get a little personal by sharing an experience or two that they could relate to. Tell them how you resolved the difficulties you have experienced and ask them how they did theirs.

Remember that “emotion is better than logic in advertising.”

 

Know where they interact the most

The world became closer — thanks to the internet and all the websites we could use to interact with each other. There are tons of social networking sites and apps you can use to market your business. However, when it comes to distributing your content, you have to truly know and understand the right social media channels for your audience.

It is vital to familiarize yourself with the social media networks your audience uses most. From there, you have to build a presence to further establish your authority in your industry. When your current customers and potential consumers see you as an authority figure, they are more likely to trust you and your brand.

When it comes to trust in advertising, people rely on what their colleagues, peers and friends have to say more than anything else, so make sure that your content is easily shareable.

 

Your website has its own About Us page. As much as possible, that should be the only page where you talk about your products and services and other things related to your business. Other than that, it’s all about your audience… especially in content writing.

The point is that you have to write content for your customers first. Search engines only come at a close second. Audience-centric content is not a new concept but it is often forgotten as new trends arise and as marketers strive to be at the top of SERPs. While it is true that the search engines are the ones ranking us, it is imperative to realize that we wouldn’t even be ranking without our audience. This is a notion that anyone investing on digital marketing in the Philippines should remember.

In a world like ours today, it has become increasingly exhausting to keep up. Everything changes faster than we could even finish blinking our eyes. We have watched trends die and resurrect almost instantly and our own culture has changed dramatically. What was once gold might be considered junk the next day. What was once relevant two days ago, might have already been forgotten.

Everything happens in a snap.

Frightening, isn’t it? Especially for us businesspeople as it is pertinent for us to keep our brands in the hearts of our audience. Or the minds, at least.

So how do we make sure that our products and/or services will stay important to our audience in the Internet Age?

Just ask the big guys from IBM, Cisco, Intel and a list of other top brands — they have the answer.

Lucky for us, they don’t keep the reason for their success a secret.

Content Marketing. It’s that simple.

And it’s that complicated.

 

Defining Content Marketing

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Content marketing is not just writing. It’s writing with a purpose and a concrete goal in mind — to get and keep an audience.

If you’re wondering what good it brings in terms of SEO, content is the basis of SEO.

SEO needs content. SEO will not be SEO without content. It needs keywords, articles and everything related because SEO is content.

To put it in simpler terms, you simply cannot market (especially in the internet) without content. This is because search engines like Google and Yahoo detest spam. To counter this, they only reward the top spots of their ranking pages to the businesses that consistently publish high-quality copies. Remember that the higher you are in the SERPs, the more visibility you get.

I’m pretty sure you know what spam is and I’m also sure that, like your customers, you’re not fond of it. Nobody likes it. Content marketing isn’t spam. It’s marketing without the selling part.

Content marketing is as subtle as marketing can get. It’s practically its own art form. With it, you can’t stress your audience into purchasing whatever product or service you have. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s not telling them: “Hey, come buy our product! NOW!”

Instead, you tell them “Hey, here are some things you need to know.”

If you deliver consistent content that your users will care about – whether new information, tutorials or what-have-you – they will eventually do business with you. Plus, you could have a higher chance of gaining their loyalty and trust.

 

The Current State of Content Marketing

The worldwide web is oversaturated with content that it becomes overwhelming when you realize that you – as someone who needs to deliver a constant flow of cutting-edge and original material – have to stand out to at least two million blog posts per day.

If you frequent marketing blogs, you’re probably tired of that ginormous number already. But it is there and no – nobody’s stopping. Nobody wants to. After all, why should they?

Just look at the many advantages content marketing brings to the table:

• 42% of B2B marketers have reported that their content marketing strategy is effective
• 67% of B2B buyers have said that content online has a “moderate to major” effect on their purchasing decisions
• Custom content is on the rise as 61% of consumers are influenced by it
• Conversion rates can come up to six times higher for businesses who adopt content into their marketing strategy
• Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing generates up to three times as many leads
• 70% of people prefer to learn about a company through articles rather than advertising

 

The Problem with Traditional Content Marketing

Content marketing is of the most influential internet marketing strategies there is, that’s why many people are jumping on the bandwagon.

91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content in their efforts to up their rankings. Additionally, 60% of marketers write or design at least one piece of content every day to be consistent with their marketing efforts.

This is where the problem lies. If you don’t have the names like Neil Patel or Rand Fishkin, you would have to climb mountains or swim oceans to truly stand out. Even if your content is already really good.

That’s the challenge content marketers face every single day.

51% of marketers have said that what they find very difficult is the lack of time or bandwidth to create content. This is followed closely by the problem of producing enough content variety or volume to deliver to their audience (50%).

But that’s reality and you can’t keep producing mediocre content just for the sake of it. One, it doesn’t work – Google will find you and will pull your rankings down – and two, you’ll drown in a sea of voices, leaving your own voice (or the voice of your company) unheard of.

Competition is tough and it just keeps getting tougher by the second.

What can we do?

Maybe we should try suggesting that content is dead and just scrap it from our marketing plan all together?

You might have heard people debating about this particular topic all over the internet. However, rather than sticking the word “dead” in there, we should instead say “content marketing is not dead… it is evolving.”

From black text against white background, content has evolved into what we normally see now as today’s version of content marketing.

 

Visual Content for the Visual Creatures

If we were in the early 2000’s, you could have gotten away with that text-only content you’re about to publish. It might have even been shared multiple times across multiple platforms. But in the years since social media has erupted, you just cannot rely on text alone anymore. Block after block of wordy paragraphs would only overwhelm your audience, resulting in barely-read content.

Here’s what statistics says: pairing content with relevant images will get 94% more views than content without any corresponding media.

94% more views. Just let that sink in.

Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster compared to how it sorts out text. Ninety percent of the information communicated to our brain is visual and 65% of people learn through illustrations, photographs and graphics.

What’s more is that almost two thirds of posts on social media are visual content.

Neil Patel explains, “We are wired to take in visual content faster and more effective than we are with words.” To put it simply, it is all part of our being human. It comes natural to us as we are visual creatures.

Visual content is unavoidable. It is what people are looking for. It is probably what you’re also looking for when you browse through websites or scroll through your social media feeds.

It is effective because it gets people’s attention; it gets them talking. Plus, visuals will most certainly make your brand memorable because humans retain almost two thirds of the information they see.

And besides, who hasn’t shared a photo or a video they found relatable, important or entertaining in their social media accounts?

Here are the three major types of visual content:

Images

Among all the visual content forms, images are the easiest things to start with. Since our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, breaking your texts into sections and adding images could make your content easier to digest.

Aside from that, images are everywhere. You can use high-quality stock photos (that don’t feel like stock photos) or – to really add your own brand’s touch – take a few of your own. You don’t need to have an elaborate studio and expensive equipment — all you need is a little creativity and the camera of your smartphone.

Don’t worry about the quality, everyone craves authenticity nowadays. As long as you have a story to tell, people won’t mind.

If stock photos cannot be avoided, here are just some useful sites to get great quality stock photos:

Pixabay
Picjumbo
Morguefile
Public Domain Archive

Remember to have the right balance between text and images. Just a few photographs might become boring to your audience, but too many could overwhelm them. The optimal image to text ratio is one photo per 75-100 words.

Video

If an image is already powerful, then what more a video? With the rise of video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, it has become effortless to upload your own video content for all to see.

And don’t you worry, videos are not as heavy as they used to be. Because of newer available formats, they are lighter than ever and you can easily embed them on every platform you use – on your blog, your website or even on your social media platforms.

When it comes to using video for your internet marketing campaign, your imagination is the limit. How-to videos, product reviews and demonstrations, or maybe a culture video or two. You can even get your customers to send in their own content through customer testimonials.

Making videos would require a lot of time and effort though because it isn’t as easy as it looks. But trust us (and the statistics!), it’s well worth all your blood sweat and tears.

Landing pages are your websites “money pages” so it’s best to place a video there as this will increase conversion rate by 86%.

What’s more is that 90% of users have said that product videos help them significantly in their decision process.

Infographics

Data can throw off your readers in a snap. Sure, it’s vital to add it in because it would make what you are writing a reliable source. But oftentimes, numbers, facts, figures can appear so dull and forbidding.

Fortunately, there is a way around this and that’s through infographics. Making your charts, diagrams, graphs and tables pop out in unique ways would not only make your content easier to understand — it would also make it shareable, especially on social media sites.

You can likewise use infographics for step-by-step instructions or how-to guides.

Also, did you know that infographics are liked and shared on social media 3x more compared to any other visual content?

Other Kinds of Visual Content

If you think the Big Three are a tad bit too archaic, here are other kinds of visual content you can experiment with:

• Annotated Screenshots
• Animations
• Gifs
• Data Visualization
• Memes
• Comics
• Interactive Carousels
• Slideshows or presentations

Now, wait just one minute. Before you upload your visual content online, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Don’t add visuals just for the sake of having visuals. Every element in your content has to be relevant. Your readers will know if you’re just jamming visuals to get traffic.
• As much as possible, avoid overused stock photos or videos… please?
• Always make sure to optimize the images you will use. Your audience – especially those on mobile – will thank you.
• You don’t have to buy expensive equipment or software to create compelling visuals. Make use of what you have. Also, there are tons of free online tools that you can take advantage of.

The bottom line is, visual content has the ability to humanize your brand. With it, you can communicate your brand’s message more effectively than text-only content. With a visual content strategy, not only will you enjoy a higher revenue, you’ll also be engaging more with your customers.

Now that’s marketing!

Visual marketing is a breakthrough, but ever since it blew up, marketers have become more and more creative with how they present their content.

So if visual content is still not enough for you, then the future of content marketing might just be what will excite you.

 

Interactive Content as the Future of Content Marketing

Part of marketing our businesses is keeping track of every trend there is. And in the world of content marketing, there are plenty.

As like every marketing tool, we’ve seen content grow from what was static before to what is active now.

Often the people we market to do not have all the time in the world to immerse themselves in long articles with sparse images and videos. It’s so easy for them to close a website and move on to the next. And we can’t do anything about that. After all, it is we who alienated them in the first place.

This is what interactive content intends to break.

Interactive content marketing aims to tear down the walls between us and them.

This is the kind of content that has the power to retain your audience’s attention as it compels them not to close your site just yet because there is a lot more to come.

Interactive content, as defined by Jean Spencer of Kapost, is “content that produces highly engaging experiences with the buyer.”

Now interactivity is not an entirely new concept as marketers have been experimenting with it to further enhance their strategies and to engage with their users on a higher level. Still, brands continue to come up with newer and newer ways to get their audiences involved.

Interactive content works because people get excited. People like being communicated to. In psychology, interaction is defined as a basic need for us human beings.

That is not to say it is easy to produce this kind of content. It takes a lot of time, hard work and dedication. But hey, it gets 70% of conversions, compared to only 36% for passive content so it’s definitely worth giving a shot.

Interactive Content Marketing by the Numbers

If you’re not convinced yet, here are reasons why interactive content marketing is king:

The Value of Education

One of the advantages of interactive content marketing is that not only is it engaging, it also makes educating your audience effortless. This is what most content marketers aim to do. On a survey by Content Marketing Institute, they found out that the number one reason marketers use interactive content is to educate (75%) followed closely by engagement (59%).

This is how it is supposed to be from the very start because customers value education. 75% of B2B consumers use content to “research a business idea.” Best keep your content useful and they’ll come flooding in.

Static Versus Interactive

81% of marketers believe that interactive content is more attention-grabbing compared to static content. What’s more is that 79% of them agree that this type of content has more reusable value than traditional marketing.

When you pit static content against interactive content, it’s clear as day as to who has the advantage.

More Engagement on Social Media Sites

Social media has taken over the web and in those platforms, consumers value visuals over text. If you posted a status update with a photo attached, it will get liked two times more than if you simply post a text update. Likewise, videos are shared 12x more than link-based and plain text updates.

Make your content social media-ready by adding pictures and sneak peeks of what your interactive content has in store when your audience clicks on it. With a compelling call-to-action, your interactive content might just go viral in no time.

Interactive Content Types

Interactive content continues to blow up as there are many ways you can mix and match these content types to consistently create something fresh. As with all marketing mediums, the limit is your imagination. Now here are just some examples of the most common interactive content you can start with:

• Calculators

Much like the ones typically found in your office drawer, calculators make it easier for your prospects to directly calculate on your site. Whether for computing costs, ROI, time savings, mortgage and insurance estimates or revenue generations, calculators give the user freedom to input their information on specified fields. They would then get personalized results based on the data they gave. These are typically found on banking and real estate websites.

• Personality Quizzes

The internet never runs out of personality quizzes. When you start taking them, you might just never stop. Plus, if the results are good, you’ll probably share it with your friends on social media. The reason for their success? They are personalized. What’s more is that there are no right or wrong answers in this kind of quiz. Personality quizzes creates a dialogue between you and your audience.

Another benefit of using personality quizzes is that it gives you an insight into your audience. The data they will input on your content could help you know your audience better — and eventually produce better content.

• Knowledge Test

Also known as trivia quizzes, these types are used to evaluate knowledge, skills, aptitude, abilities or performance of those taking it. Compared to personality quizzes, these tests have only right or wrong answers. This way, you’ll get to know the level of knowledge each of your users has on a specific topic.

• Polls and Surveys

Polls and surveys are a great way to collect feedback and insights from your audience. These kind of interactive content work because people love giving their complete and honest opinion on a variety of things and see what others think as well. Whether for product and features, voting or opinions, polls and surveys are simple but powerful ways to engage with your audience.

• Contests

Contests are as old as time, but they still continue to be one of the greatest marketing strategies out there. Even in the digital age. What makes them effective is their ability to draw out our natural desire to compete and win. Contests can easily lure prospects and therefore inspire engagement with your business. Examples of contests are user generated photo or video contests or user generated text or caption contests.

• Brackets

They look a lot like the tournament brackets in your office when game season starts. Brackets are another way to bring out the competitiveness in people. It usually uses a round-by-round voting format until it reaches a winner. It’s a pretty long process so you’ve got yourself quite a lot of time with your audience. You will be able to hear their opinions, but unlike polls and surveys, you’ll get them multiple times. Some examples of these are “Best Of,” “Worst Of” and “Fan Favorite” brackets.

• Galleries

If you want to stick with photos and videos, galleries are one way to make them more interactive. They can be used to showcase products, events highlights, customer reviews or examples, portfolios or even user generated content.

• Interactive White Papers or E-books

These are the long-form content that show no sign of ever stopping. But why not make it an interactive experience for your audience? Interactive white papers and e-books strike a dialogue with your consumer. Give them the power to navigate as they wish. You can even pair these with surveys, assessments, calculators or even knowledge tests. With these types of interactive content, not only will you educate your audience, you’ll also be providing an experience they won’t soon forget.

• Interactive Video

Video is already a compelling and engaging medium as it is but interactive video just steps it up a little bit more. Adding clickable elements within the video itself will give your users the unique chance to choose what they want to view and learn. This gives your users a highly personalized experience that they have absolute control of.

Interactive Content Tools

There are a ton of other interactive content types out there and they continue to grow in number as our technologies advance and more innovations are presented to us. If you find it a little hard to create these types of content from scratch, here are some online tools that might help you start:

SnapApp

SnapApp gives you the ability to create and analyze interactive content. With it, you can generate personality tests, knowledge tests, brackets, galleries, contests, interactive white papers and infographics, polls and calculators.

Content Tools

If you are learning more towards trivia, polls, contests, personality quizzes, rankers, “Can You Guess” and “Caption this” content, then Content Tools is a user-friendly online tool that can help you.

Ceros

With Ceros and its drag-and-drop functionality, you can make these six types of interactive content: magazines, infographics, nanosites, e-books, lookbooks and shoppable catalogues.

Now that we have all these interactive content examples and all these online tools, how do we measure our success?

With interactive content, you have to pay attention to the metrics recording your content’s reach, completion and amplification.

Reach simply means the number of users who interacted with your content. This would be the number of consumers who clicked through to take your quiz or e-book or the number of views on your video. This is the initial engagement your content receives.

Completion is what indicates the number of users who actually finished the interaction. An example would be the number of people who completed your quiz or the number of users who joined your contest.

Finally, amplification simply means the number of social shares your content received from users. This indicates just how many people re-tweeted your quiz, liked your interactive infographic or shared your contest.

With these metrics, you can identify what is effective and what is not. You can use them to further improve your interactive marketing strategy, therefore making content that will resonate most with your audience.

 

The Future of Content Marketing

As far as marketing goes, the future of interactive content – or rather, content in general – really depends on us. We can experiment with it as much as we want to find more and more creative ways to market our businesses. After all, isn’t that what were really good at doing?

The important thing here is that we should always make sure that the type of content we will be using directly correlates with our brand’s voice — because that is one voice we cannot compromise.

As Brian Hughes said, “Like all effective marketing, your medium should naturally complement your message, not take away from it.”

Content marketing and the whole digital marketing system in the Philippines still has a long way to go. Similar to all other marketing channels such as television and print, content is not dead. One might even say that it shall never die. It is simply evolving in newer ways than we could ever hope to count.

To some entrepreneurs, online marketing may come across as something that is easy to do – just hire a web developer that can come up with an awesome website, then produce a bunch of content that will explain the nature of your business; afterwards, find yourself a reliable SEO professional who can help pull up your website’s search ranking, and voilà — now your business is aboard the train of online marketing.

Easy as 1, 2, 3, right? But not really.

Designing a layout and coding the site already take weeks up to months at a time to accomplish, depending on how simple or advanced the website’s functions are. What follows is a series of intensive internal quality assessment which is done by the developers to ensure a smooth sailing website with zero issues.

Then comes content generation — this includes everything starting from a website’s homepage headline down to its published blogs. And lastly is the icing on the cake: The site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – say hello to keyword research, link building and site auditing.

I bet I’m already boring you with all these jargons, so let’s stop here. One would assume – especially if you’re the type of entrepreneur who focuses more on your business’s face-to-face marketing rather than your online presence – that after all the time and money invested on web development and SEO, you would see a big spike in your conversions.

If you did, then kudos to your web and SEO team! If not, then something is clearly not right.

 

Landing pages are the site’s “Money pages”

The quality of your landing pages is the biggest factor that can affect your website’s conversion rate. It is through this pages that web visitors are encouraged to take specific actions which can potentially turn into sales. For this to be attained, a landing page needs to have these qualities:

The quality of your landing pages is the biggest factor that can affect your website’s conversion rate.

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An Effective Headline

A website’s headline is everything. (No, this is not an exaggeration.)

The headline, which is the first element a web user should see when visiting a page, is the key player that determines whether the person will opt to stay and engage with your site or not.

Your headline should be clear and self-explanatory so that when people visit your page and read your headline, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to understand what you offer. Make it simple and straight to the point. Play safe and don’t attempt to come up with a “clever” headline that may end up confusing potential customers.

Managing to gain web visitors in your page is already an achievement. It doesn’t matter whether they discovered your site through organic search or by referral. The point is you’ve already done something to lead your customers to your homepage. So don’t make the mistake of putting up a lousy headline that will drive them away.

 

A Clear Call to Action

A call to action may vary depending on what you want your web visitors to do when they’re redirected to a landing page in your site.

Whether your aim is for your web visitors to subscribe to your newsletters, purchase a product or avail a service, make sure that they focus on the action you want them to do. Avoid distracting them with lots of other requests.

Displaying ads on important landing pages – most especially your homepage – is a big NO. We all know how short people’s attention span are nowadays, so stir away from putting unnecessary links to avoid distracting your potential customers.

Helpful Tip: Experiment with the colors, sizes and placements of your call-to-action buttons. Avoid using the same color as your layout background. Also, try not to come off as too demanding when making a call-to-action copy. It’s more advisable to use subtle words such as “Support our cause” compared to “Donate Now.”

 

A User-friendly Layout

Remember that when designing a website, the layout you see on your big HD monitors may not be the same with how web users view it in their own devices.

One crucial aspect that needs to be considered is a site’s optimization not only on desktops but also in other devices such as smart phones and tablets. Now that the demand for smartphones are on the rise, more people are opting to use their handheld devices in doing online searches and purchases.

Helpful Tip: One best practice you can do to make sure that your landing pages – especially your homepage – are optimized for any type of device is to put the most important elements on your site at the center of the page. Inform your designer to adjust the display and check the layout at different resolutions. In this way, you can be sure that everyone can see the headline and call-to-action buttons without scrolling even if they are using different monitors.

 

Good Set of Visuals

This applies not only to your homepage but also to all other important landing pages as well.

Keep everything simple.

Aim for a clean design so that web visitors will not trail away from your call-to-action. Use fonts that can be easily read and never underestimate the power of good paragraphing and bulleting. Note that when people browse a website, they don’t actually read the entirety of the content — most just skim through the pages looking for the information they need. Blocks of text will just push potential clients to press the back button.

Yes, graphical content stimulates attention but too much of it can sidetrack your web visitors. Don’t let design be the cause of your problem. Instead of cluttering your landing pages with lots of images and videos, experiment on what works best for your business. Determine where your audience reacts better – Is your conversion rate higher when you showcase images and illustrations or does putting up videos help your page more?

Important note: Let’s say you own a real estate website, and decide to include lots of graphical content in your landing pages. It’s actually not a problem as long as everything you include is relevant to the overall purpose of your page. Optimizing the images you upload in your website is also something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Failing to optimize images can cause your page to load slower, which can negatively affect the user experience of your visitors.

 

A Substantial Social Proof

People are highly social which is why most of us tend to give high regards to the opinion of others. This goes especially true when it comes to trying new products and services. More often, people rely on the experiences of other consumers to determine whether they’ll try a product/service.

When you finally get the chance to gain loyal customers, don’t forget to ask for their feedback. This is a good way to show how people derived value from what you offer. Aside from testimonials, you can also display a list of your most prominent clients, press mentions and your usage statistics.

Helpful Tip: When displaying the logos of your clients, make sure to keep the design clean and in uniform sizes. If possible, display them in gray scale to minimize the attention they will get from your web visitors. Remember that the goal of putting in social proof is for you to convince people to trust your brand. 

 

The main purpose of your landing page is to prompt web visitors to take a specific action in your site. Seems simple enough but it really is a bit tricky and complicated. This is why testing different versions of landing page layouts is advisable. In this way, you’ll know what works well within your niche and your entire digital marketing strategy in the Philippines.

 

Entrepreneurs are people-pleasers and before we even consider venturing into a new business, the first question we should ask ourselves is how a certain idea can help and be of benefit to a target audience on our websites. It isn’t something that is impulsively done; weighing the pros and cons alone already takes up an ample amount of time.

Simply put, designing is tedious work and the results of it, whether good or bad, will always have a mutual effect on both entrepreneurs and customers. If our clients are happy and satisfied, then so will we.

However, this blog is dedicated to the delicate balance needed for user experience and better search results.

 

The Importance of User Experience

For years, Google has been constantly improving and updating its algorithm to ensure better search results for web users. Even if Google bots are the primary evaluators of a website’s quality, user experience (UX) still plays a vital role in the overall success of a page.

I know I’m not the only one who would agree that page appearance is important. It’s normally the first factor that can spark a web user’s interest.

A website doesn’t necessarily need to have heavily scripted user interface for it to deliver good user experience. Most of the time, a simple layout is enough to reel people in. Other factors that determine web visitors “on-site” visit duration are site speed, navigation, informative content and mobile optimization. Let’s discuss this further.

 

Site Speed

People nowadays have a highly short-attention span, especially when it comes to web browsing. It’s undeniable that most of us turn to the internet for information and when we do, we expect immediate answers. This is why a website’s load speed is an important aspect that greatly influences user experience. If a webpage takes too long to load, then know for a fact that your web visitors will opt to look someplace else for the information they need.

For you to ensure your website’s fast loading time, there are a couple of measures you can do:

1. Clean up your website regularly and run weekly or even daily speed tests so that you can be sure that nothing is interfering with your load times.
2. Install a good caching plugin.
3. Delete old unused drafts and images.
4. When uploading any form of graphical content, make sure to compress it so that it will take as little space as possible. If you’re not knowledgeable on how to compress file size while maintaining the image’s good quality, I highly recommend reading through this article that discusses tips on image optimization.

 

Navigation

How a website looks shouldn’t only be easy on the eyes — it must also be simple to understand. Aim to achieve the kind of layout wherein page visitors will be able to perform basic tasks without getting confused on your site’s navigation. You wouldn’t want to get your site visitors lost through the myriad pages your real estate site or business page can have, would you?

The pages on your site should be easily accessible and the categorization of important and frequently sought for information must be intelligently structured in menus and sub-menus. Aside from a page dedicated for showcasing products and services, a website must also provide an About Us section as well as a Contact Us page so that web users will have a way to get a hold of you if ever the need arises.

Note that Google’s algorithm is programmed to track the user activity going on in every website. This helps it determine how easy people are able to use a page. The simpler it is to navigate through your website, the better.

 

Informative Content

Just recently, I discussed the significance of content and how it influences search rankings; it’s a topic that has been blogged about countless of times.

If you ask an SEO professional what they think is the most important factor in developing a website, a lot of them will be giving you answers that falls within the lines of providing quality content – which is actually a good advice. When a website gets positive feedback, the reason behind it is likely because it offered the type of content that web users find to be interesting and helpful. No one can argue that good content can bring about positive results to a website. This makes it the key player in the success of a page.

Each of us turns to the web for answers. And when we do, we expect to get relevant information. What we look for is content and so if a website fails to deliver, we look someplace else. On the other hand, if content is presented right, it can be the reason a website is able to attract more visitors. It’s not just about creating a well-coded page; a website should be able to provide an experience that will drive web users to where they need to be, pique their interest and translate their needs. Through this, they may be converted into customers.

 

Mobile Optimization

It’s undeniable that majority of the things we do nowadays can be done using our smartphones. From looking for specific locations, booking flights and paying bills — almost everything can be accomplished through our mobile devices.

Everyone is always up and about that most of people’s search queries are done using their handheld devices. Compared to desktops, it takes a longer time for a website to load when it is accessed on a smartphone. This is one of the reasons why web developers make it a point to optimize web pages for mobile phones.

If a website is not optimized for mobile devices and has slow loading speed, a complicated layout and navigation, and poor content quality, then no matter how well you do link building and keyword research your website will still end up ranking down rather than up.

Google takes user experience seriously. Like what I have mentioned earlier, these search engines has a way to figure out if web visitors are engaging positively on your website or not.

 

There are two important indicators Google pays close attention to when it comes to user experience:

Time on page

When a web user performs a certain query, Google’s goal is to provide websites with content that may be able to address the user’s needs.

When creating a webpage, the landing page should be able to answer the needs of the web visitors. Encourage their next action to remain within your website. If a content fails to satisfy their queries, then they will leave.

The length in which people stay in a page is crucial. This alone can give search engines an idea if your website is useful or not. Getting a dwell time of at least a minute is already good. This indicates that web visitors have actually engaged in your content. Less than a couple of seconds can be viewed as a poor result, which brings us to the second indicator Google uses to determine user experience — bounce rate.

Bounce Rate

When people visit a website, the initial action is to skim through headings and menus. When a site loads slowly or the layout isn’t really that promising at first glance, people will leave your site. This is when bounce rate occurs. When a search engine detects that a website has a high bounce rate, then it can have big effects on its search rankings.

It’s important that as entrepreneurs, you should know what’s happening in the backend of your website. Study how things work and why it needs to be done a certain way.

It’s completely understandable if you would rather focus on offline marketing than digital marketing in the Philippines, that’s what we SEO professionals are here for. However, take time to understand the basics so you’ll know the value you should be expecting to get.

 

SEO has evolved over time. Today it has become more difficult for a website to gain a spot on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Page). Especially if a page and your digital marketing strategy in the Philippines does not abide by Google’s quality guidelines.

Because of their constantly changing algorithm, it has prompted webmasters from all around the world to step up their game in search engine optimization. Playing by Google’s rules is the only way a website can attain the best possible search ranking.

Those updates were not done to wreak havoc on the minds of SEO professionals (but it was definitely a nightmare especially to those involved in black hat SEO), Google just wanted to deliver better results to the search needs of its users and the best way to do that was to filter out everything that wasn’t satisfying the searchers` intent.

If you try to look into what some websites did in order for them to climb up the search page, it will either be because the business or the brand itself already has an established reputation or the website provided the highest quality of content it could offer. But at the end of the day a website will only be able to succeed in link building if the content it provides to web users is informative, relevant and helpful.

Make the right and relevant content first and it will be much easier to acquire quality links. You just have to remember that the value you give is also the value you receive.

 

Quality content = More Links

In our recently published blog, I discussed the effects site content has on search rankings. If you’ve read about it, you’ll understand what I mean when I say quality content has a direct influence on link building.

Like content generation, link building is another SEO strategy that can help a website climb to the top of the SERPs. Having quality content isn’t enough to pull your rankings up. If you don’t practice proper link building on your website, there’s a big chance that web users will have a hard time finding your page. If this happens, nothing good will come out from the content you provide no matter how informative or interesting it may be.

Think of it as having a cause and effect type of relationship — if a website provides content that is informative, helpful or it has piqued the interest of web users, then that positive impression will be able to influence your readers to action your call.

This may be through the sharing of your content on different social media platforms, a link back to your website from online bloggers, or as simple as a word of mouth type of advertising from the people who has visited your page and liked what they saw. These three, especially the first and second one I mentioned, are referred to as natural outbound links (I will discuss more of this as we progress.) and that is what every SEO professional aims to get from other websites and its page visitors.

 

How does link building work?

Understanding how link building works is quite simple. What comes as a challenge is when you actually apply it on a webpage.

I wouldn’t say that it’s the most important SEO skill compared to the rest, especially when content generation, web (UX/UI) development and site optimization is also a knowledge essential for SEOs to possess. If they fail to deliver on any of them, it will affect the overall effectiveness of a website. However, among the things I’ve mentioned, link building is probably the hardest skill to master in SEO as it deals with setting up relationships between sites and people.

Getting a link from other websites adds credibility to your page, especially if the outbound link came from a site that is relevant to the nature and scope of your webpage. Links allow web crawlers to see that a website is a trustworthy source of information.

When a lot of pages link to your content, whether it be a link back to your homepage or a link to one of your blogs, it will contribute greatly to your website’s ranking in the Google SERPs (or in any search engine for that matter). However, quantity should never be your top priority.

Even when you get a lot of websites to link back to your page, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your website will automatically rank higher.

Here are some important points that can help you in link building:

• Google’s Penguin update always looks into the relevancy and authoritativeness of a website that links back to your page.
• The best kind of links to acquire are from websites that have high authority. It doesn’t matter if a webpage receives only a few outbound links as long as each one of those links are from relevant websites.
• If a spammy page links back to your website, not only does it contribute nothing to your search rank, it may also be a way for search engines to classify your page as spam.
• If a webpage links to your website as well as to all kinds of other sites, the value of those links will be divided, which makes that backlink less valuable.

For the past few years, Google gave webmasters a lot of ethical techniques to use in optimizing websites for search engines. Sadly, many have abused those opportunities. This is why algorithms like the Penguin update as well as PageRank was rolled out. It aimed to see the value of every single link on the internet. Because of these set of rules, even if you have less links than your competitors, you may still rank #1.

 

How to acquire natural links

I’m sure you’ve already encountered a lot of blogs discussing about natural and unnatural links. But let me give a short summary about it in this blog.

Natural links are what all SEO practitioners aim to get. It’s another website’s vote of confidence towards your page. The more natural links you receive, especially from highly authoritative and relevant sites, the better.

Unnatural links on the other hand are the ones you should stir away from. These kind of links are usually acquired using black hat techniques. It might pull a site’s rank up for awhile. However, it wouldn’t take long for it to be pushed back down again on the search page.

Now that you know the drill, provide good content to get quality backlinks. I’ll share with you four useful tips you can practice to acquire quality links.

 

Tip #1 – Participate in the web community

Establishing a new website is tedious work. Coding, fixing the layout, and providing content is just the initial stage. – Marketing it is a whole other story.

You need to give people a good reason to engage on the content you share. Do your best to build the trust and gain connections. Try your best to participate in the web community.

Browse through different forums and websites related to your industry and see what you can contribute. Of course, the insights you share must be relevant and helpful. Do this as frequent as you can so that people will notice you. Partake fresh and unique ideas to gain the interest of your audience.

 

Tip #2 – Do original research  

Content found on the internet may be quite repetitive. Chances are, there are already a lot of businesses similar to yours.

If you truly want to pique the interest of web users, then do original research. It can be about new tools that is used for keyword research or link building. Or anything that you know a few people know about. Reiterate the pros and cons, state facts and provide useful information that they can use.

Providing these kind of content is a surefire way to encourage social media sharing and backlinks to your website.

 

Tip #3 – Include newsletters on your website

Initially, people will not subscribe to a website if they didn’t find the content in it interesting or helpful. This is why providing newsletters is a good strategy to keep your subscribers interested.

A lot of your subscribers won’t be able to browse through your page often. Providing newsletters is a great way to remind them about your site and show them the content you recently published.

Just be cautious not to spam the inboxes of your subscribers. Send updates about what’s new on your page but don’t bombard them with too much emails.

 

Tip #4 – Have a good site architecture

A site that is difficult to navigate and has a confusing layout can drive web users away. Even if a page provides good content, it can go unnoticed if the site structure is too complicated to navigate. This can hurt a website’s chance of gaining quality back links.

If you’re trying to develop a new website, be on the safe side and settle on a simple layout. Afterwards, slowly work your way up in improving your page further.

Are you here reading this blog because you’re trying to figure out how you can improve your website’s search ranking? Or are you planning to create a page but you don’t know where to begin?

If this is not the first blog you’ve read then I’ll assume that you already encountered a handful of advice that contains statements like “You should provide quality content” Or “Make sure your page offers good content,” and other related tips.

In this blog, I’ll basically give you the same advice (No, don’t leave just yet! Read through this. I promise it will be worth your time) but I won’t encourage you to start writing content this very second especially if you don’t even have a website to begin with.

Obviously, your first step is to create a website. If you already have one, make sure the basic navigation works well enough for web visitors to easily browse through the page. It doesn’t need to be breathtakingly beautiful (but we will definitely get there), you just have to guarantee that it’s accessible. Then comes the next step which I know you’ve been reading about all over the internet – Providing quality content.

In the SEO industry, one of the most (if it isn’t already ‘THE’ most) oft-repeated advice people get from SEO professionals is that a website should have quality content. Despite this sounding cliché to some of you, it’s actually a great advice that can bring your website more traffic as compared to having a good layout or smooth navigation alone. But of course, these three works hand-in-hand for the overall effectiveness of a website.

Content is your website’s distinction

Let me put it this way: let’s relate a website to a freshly baked cake.

Imagine that you baked a cake (I’m pertaining to your website) and it was laid down on a counter together with other cakes made by different people. Each one may have its own distinction (e.g. icing, decoration, etc.) but still, they’re all classified as cake.

What will truly set one apart from the other is its flavor. Some may look great but taste horrible, while those that appear plain and unappealing may be the most delicious ones.

The same goes for websites – page appearance is not what will make your site visitors stay, content will.

As important as it is to have an outstanding page design, it’s not really something you should invest time and money on during the initial stages of establishing a website. Settle on a simple-looking page with an easily manageable layout and navigation first, then focus more on creating a stable foundation by providing the highest quality of content you can possibly offer.

 

Why is content important?

When I say quality content, I’m referring to all the textual information present inside every single landing page of a website. This includes the content that explains about the company, complete information regarding the products and/or services being offered, and other relevant content that people will want to know.

Blogging about relevant ideas and insights that falls within the scope of your business is also a great way to build up a website’s foundation. This may also be an opportunity for you to show potential clients the level of expertise you have about the industry which your business belongs.

When Google’s Panda update rolled out, it became a crucial factor for a webpage to have relevant content. Gone were the days wherein a website will still be able to secure a spot on the SERPs even with just one excellently written page. Now, you have to make sure all your content are of its highest possible quality in order for your website to be spared by the algorithm that filters out sites with poor content.

Well written content must be provided on a landing page level of a website as well as the entire domain because of three important reasons:

 

1.      It catches the interest of your site visitors.

When a search engine delivers a result from a certain query, it pays close attention as to how the user engages with the content. If the user clicks on the first link on the results page but immediately pushes the back button, it will contribute to the website’s high bounce rate. If this constantly happens, the search engine will assume that the content present on the page does not satisfy the search intent of some users.

High impressions but low click-through rates is also not a good sign. Surely you wouldn’t want people just passing through your link, right? Even the simplest and shortest form of content like Meta descriptions play a big role in the success of your site. Reel people in with an awesome Meta description and finish it off with an amazing content. This will make web users engage in your website even more.

 

2.      It increases search ranking and web traffic.

Creating content for your website is tedious work, but it will be very rewarding especially if you craft well written information while tossing in some great keywords at the same time.

Aside from textual content, providing images, videos and other graphics on your page and blogs can also contribute a lot in pulling your rankings up. Search engines don’t have the ability to understand multimedia content like us humans do, this is why SEO professionals highly recommend the use of appropriate HTML tags and alt tags. In this way, web crawlers will be able to understand the purpose and meaning of your content, particularly the graphics. Search engines will also have an easier time redirecting traffic on your page whenever a relevant search query applies to your content.

If you want to learn more about optimizing your images, I highly recommend that you read through this blog.

 

3.      It’s a great way to create quality links to your website.

When you provide the kind of content that people love and appreciate, there are more chances that you push your readers into making an action that will benefit your page a lot.

They may opt to share your content on different social media sites or they may link back to your content in their own blogs. These inbound links, especially if it comes from highly authoritative pages, can help your website greatly in climbing up the search page. Aside from this, your content can gain more exposure to millions of readers.

No matter what kind or how many changes the SEO landscape goes through, one thing will remain consistent – content is and will always be king. Understanding how site content influences your search ranking is not enough to bring your page to the top, you must also analyze your content thoroughly. Make sure it’s what your readers want and need. Keep this in mind when doing digital marketing in the Philippines and success will surely be yours.

Surely you’ve heard of the saying hitting two birds with one stone. – In creating website content, that is exactly what you’re doing.

Webpages that offer quality content will always be the ones on the first page of the Google SERPs. If the content of a website is optimized, it makes both the search engine and online users happy. Most importantly, it benefits you the most since there is a bigger chance for your website to get higher site traffic and potentially even a better Return of Investment.

Usually, when we talk about web content, we initially think about blogs. This is not entirely wrong considering that blogs are essentially one of the aspects that makes a website better. However, that is not what this blog is about.

The main purpose of this blog is to help you determine if the content available in your website will fit the standards of an online user. And by content, we are pertaining to the pages that form the stable foundation of what your website is about – and these are the landing pages.

For entrepreneurs, coming up with good business ideas is fairly easy. What comes as a challenge is how to convince people that it’s worth their time and money. This is why the landing pages, specifically the homepage, determine whether your website visitors will deem your website suitable for their needs or not.

Regardless of whether your business is a start-up or a well-established company, if you do decide to pursue digital marketing in the Philippines, you have to step up your game and make all the content found in your website relevant and helpful so that potential clients will appreciate them.

So how would you know if your content is up to the standards?

Here are 4 useful tips.

 

Tip #1: Emphasize the business’ Unique Value Proposition

 

 

The first thing you should highlight is the promise of value.

You can’t reel a fish in if you don’t have a hook. This is the same as having a good value proposition. As soon as people enter your website, you have a few seconds to convince them why they shouldn’t just click the back button.

The less established your company’s reputation is, the more you need to think of a value proposition that could be easily recognized by your potential customers. Think of the products and services your business have then ask these three questions to yourself:

 

1. How will my product or service answer to the people’s needs?
2. What are the benefits of my product/service?
3. Why would people want to choose my product/service over my competitors?

 

Relevance, value, and differentiation – these are the only things you have to focus on when conceptualizing a unique value proposition (UVP).

Making people browse your website further all depends on the manner by which you deliver this message. One thing to consider is to present it on the website’s homepage for you to be sure that it’s the first thing that people will see. Explain it clearly and in a way that’s easy to understand – be as concise as possible.

 

Tip #2: Fulfill search intent

User intent is a major factor in achieving quality SEO as well as good visitor experience. As crucial as it is for a website to have a well-written value proposition, optimizing content for search intent is also an aspect one should never overlook.

Understand that publishing content for the sake of having content will simply not work.

If you want your click-through rate (CTR) to increase your conversion rate, make sure the content in your website addresses customer intent. If you succeed in giving the information people need, there’s a big chance you’ll also succeed in conversion optimization.

When people turn to the internet for information, they either visit a page they are familiar with – e.g. bookmarked pages – or they use search engines in the hopes of finding what they need. For a website to fulfill search intent, remember to keep the audience in mind during the process of conceptualizing and drafting content. This can help you greatly in deciding what information needs to be included and how everything should be presented.

 

Tip #3: Ensure website accessibility

 

 

You might be wondering how this tip got here when we are clearly talking about content. Yes, it has nothing to do with landing page content. However, it can be classified as technical content which is equally important.

In today’s highly technological world, most people use their mobile devices to search the information they need.

Most of the day-to-day activities that we do involve the online community – one way or another. From searching the address of specific places to traffic updates, almost everything can be searched on the internet. With more and more people relying on Google to find what they need, this gives you a concrete reason to have a website for your business.

So, let’s assume you’re done with establishing a website and creating content. What’s the next important thing to do? – Ensure your website accessibility!

Remember that Google’s algorithm is not a person you can negotiate with. It’s either you make a quality website or you get pushed further down the Google SERPs.

So what do you need to do?

Optimize your website! Check your load speeds and make sure everything is running smoothly on every web browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari) and is easily accessible whether online users are using desktops, laptops, or mobile devices.

Your website’s quality content will just go to waste if online users will have a hard time trying to access your page. If it loads slowly and is not mobile-compatible, your potential clients are more likely to move on to another website. We certainly wouldn’t want that to happen, right?

 

Tip #4: Provide engaging content

 

 

A webpage is not similar to a novel. People will not enjoy your website if it only displays blocks of pure text.

While it’s a good idea to be as detailed as possible in providing content for different landing pages, especially if the purpose of that page is to discuss about your products or services, keep in mind that the majority of people visiting your website would only skim through your content in search for certain information. If the content your website provides are chunks of lengthy texts, it will give them a hard time finding what they are looking for and this could be a reason for them to leave your page.

To keep your audience interested, make sure your website has engaging content.

You can make a video presentation of the perks your customers could get if they avail of your product or service. You may also consider providing images, animations, or even slideshows to spice up your website even more. Real estate websites, service providers, and online stores are just a few examples of websites that can benefit from this arrangement.

Use proper paragraphing when discussing a certain topic and provide subheads so that people can easily scan the content. Lastly, enumerate products or services belonging in the same category in bullet points to make the content easier to read. By doing this, you can avoid drowning your audience with too much information.

 

If you happen to come across webpages that are in the upper ranks of the Google SERPs but has very minimal quality content to offer, don’t think that it is okay to do the same. Comparing your webpage to these kind of websites will only lower your standards in what a quality website should offer. Remember to set a high benchmark for your website. The higher the standards, the better visitor experience you can give.

If you’ve been wondering about this, then let me clear things up for you. Yes, your customers definitely have their own search patterns. This is the reason why your SEO guy – that is if he knows what he’s doing – uses a variety of tools to keep up with the different search trends.

Keywords play a big role in your website’s success. This was discussed in one of our recent blogs, which makes it all the more relevant why you should keep tabs on your visitors’ search behavior.

If you have a new start-up business, online users probably don’t know about it yet. The best way to reach them and let them know about your business is by looking for generic keywords to use in your website through:

 

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Suggest

 

However, if you have already established a website and you’re looking for ways to improve the data you have by studying your site visitors’ behavior, then you can opt to use either:

 

• Google Analytics
• Search Console (previously called Google Webmaster Tools)

 

These are some of the most useful web tools that can determine your customer’s online search pattern.

 

Allow me to discuss this further.

 

Google Keyword Planner

 

 

In this highly competitive online world, people who want to jump on board to the ship of internet marketing without prior knowledge about the basics will surely get washed away by the high tides of other business rivals.

Luckily, the Master of all-things SEO has provided a useful tool for professional webmasters and beginners alike – The Google Keyword Planner.

 

“Is it necessary to use this?” – Definitely.

“I know what my business is about, I can provide keywords without the help of a tool.” – We know.

 

No one else is an expert of your own business but you. Let’s assume that you’re doing better than your competitors outside the web – that’s great. A product or service that is already known by the consumers has a bigger chance of achieving online success. However, if that’s not the case, then your website will likely to be swallowed alive by competitors that hold more reputation.

Remember that you are not only competing against other businesses within your industry, but also with the pools of marketing messages that bombard web users day-in and day-out. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to use the Google Keyword Planner to help you come up with a solid keyword strategy to get your brand seen by as many eyes as possible.

 

Google Keyword Planner offers plenty of advantages for easier keyword planning. Here are some of them:

 

• Makes it easier to research for keyword ideas.
• Identifies how existing keywords are performing.
• Gives a traffic forecast on how a list of keywords might perform for a given bid or budget.
• Provides hundreds of keyword combinations for you to choose from.
• Helps in understanding the search behavior of a certain target audience.

 

Anybody with a good sense of SEO knows that using Google Keyword Planner should not stop after a Website’s Preliminary Stages.

Updating your keywords is important!

As your business and website grows, your keywords should also develop. Checking new variations of your current keywords is also a feature this tool provides that will help you be up-to-date with search trends.

 

Google Suggest

 

 

This tool is Google’s auto-complete algorithm that aims to improve the usability of its search engine. The suggestions it displays help the searchers save time in typing long phrases by giving them a variety of associated terms in the drop down menu. Normally, Google suggest functions are catered to web users, but this is also a great tool that can help webmasters determine current search trends.

The list of recommended keywords Google Suggest displays is greatly influenced by how frequently they are searched. By typing in a certain word, you can already determine what online users are looking up the most. Aside from the drop-down menu in the Google search bar, another section of the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) also displays commonly searched keywords. They are found at the bottom of the page.

While this tool has its own advantages, it also comes with a set of risks and disadvantages, especially for competing businesses.

 

Risk #1

 

 

One is the chance of that it might distract the searcher.

For example, the searcher turns to the internet in search for a company that offers cars for rent. As the searcher types “car for rent,” other suggestions comes up like “car for rent discounted” or “car for rent low cost.”

There is a possibility that the searcher will click on one of the suggested link keywords. This will be an advantage for one company and a disadvantage for the other.

 

Risk #2

 

Another risk Google Suggest has is aimed at a company’s reputation management.

We all know how online users can affect a company’s image with the use of the different social media platforms.  One piece of information can spread like wildfire, especially if it piques the interest of online citizens. When a content goes viral, Google also picks up on it. It makes it appear frequently in the Google Suggest when similar keywords are typed in. Over time, as the hype of the trend dies down, it also goes further below the list of suggestions.

 

Google Analytics

 

 

Unlike Google Keyword Planner and Google Suggest that focus on the keywords that your target audience uses, the role of Google Analytics is to help improve a website further by understanding the behavior of every site visitor.

This tool can provide a lot of information that can help determine possible reasons why your website is ranking or not. At its core, this premium tool shows you what’s working and what’s not.

Just imagine a software that can track every single interaction a website gets, then summarize everything into easy-to-understand reports. Google Analytics is exactly that. This tool is like your very own web gossiper. It’s quite handy to use in keeping tabs of search patterns within your site. Not only does it give you a complete and accurate picture of who your audience are and what they want and need to see, it also has functions that can help improve your site to achieve optimum performance.

The functions of Google Analytics include the following:

 

• Provide the routes users take for them to reach your site as well as the number of visits it gets
• Determine the keywords used to find the website
• Discover the most viewed or least viewed content in your website
• Measure sales and goal conversions
• Figure out the pages visitors stayed on the longest and the pages that are performing well compared to those that don’t
• Give insights on how the performance of the website can be improved
• Generate a report to show why the website is receiving the traffic it gets
• Identify the devices used to access your site

 

Google Analytics might just be the best tool to use when it’s about understanding search patterns and website improvement.

Whatever online business objective you may have, whether your website falls in the category of E-Commerce, Google Analytics could help in finding ways to increase your sales. It will also track the performance of your website over time. The data generated can then help you in conceptualizing a strategy that could work.

If it is for Content Publishing, this tool can track what keeps the site visitors engaged in your website and if they are finding what they need. This can be determined by the content people view the most as well as the pages that perform the best.

If your objective is for Branding, Google Analytics can generate data that will help you determine if the website is being shared on social media, linked to in other websites, or just simply engaged with on other parts of the web. It’s a great way to know if your business is getting the kind of exposure you want.

Google Analytics, together with an intelligent strategy, can be your secret ingredient to help your website attain its performance goals.

 

Search Console

 

 

Similar to Google Analytics, Search Console (previously called Google Webmaster Tools) also helps webmasters understand the search habits of online users.

Search Console has a section called Search Analytics, which shows the traffic you get from organic search. This feature can show which keywords your visitors used to find your website.

Another cool thing about the Search Analytics feature is it provides a website’s click-through rate (CTR), as well as the impressions it gets from online users. Knowing the amount of impressions and the CTR of a website is a great way for us to fully understand a user’s search behavior.

Having lots of website impressions is awesome! This means your page is visible in the organic search results. But what you should be paying more attention to is your click-through rate. Having high impressions does not always equate to a website’s high visitor traffic. When this happens, you should realize that there’s something wrong.

Let me give you a perfect example for the statement high impressions ≠ high CTR.

Let’s say you’re a real estate agent and you currently have an open house. If you stay alongside a busy road waving flyers to the cars passing by, surely you’ll get a lot of impressions because there’s a big chance that the people who passed by saw you. But the manner in which you tried to catch their attention didn’t spark their interest to actually stop and check out the properties you offer.

You have to give the people a reason to stop. Consider putting a big sign that briefly explains what makes your houses different from other properties. Let them know if you have incentives for those who would want to invest. Maybe you have an early bird rate or a discount on a specific type of property for those who decide to buy right there and then. These are some of the things you can do to reel them in because 95% of the time, waving at them alone will simply not work.

The same goes in handling webpages – the Meta data serve as your hook. This is the set of information an internet user sees in the SERPs.

Let’s assume a person typed in “Google Webmaster Tools,” Google will display a variety of results from different websites. And these websites show different titles and descriptions.

 

Here’s an example:

 

 

Note that the chances of a website getting a click-through all depends on the Meta data it displays. The suggested character count for HTML title tag is 55 to 60 characters (including spaces). For Meta description, on the other hand, it is 150 to 160 characters (including spaces). Abiding by these rules will prevent your Meta data from being truncated in the search results.

Your Meta data is the manner in which you try to capture the interest of people passing by.

If your website offers a poor set of Meta title and description, there’s only a slight possibility that online users will consider browsing your website. That would be such a waste, especially if you’ve provided quality content, right?

 

Compare the example below from the previous image above:

 

 

If you were the one looking for information about Google Webmaster Tools, which link would you prefer, the first one or the second one? Hopefully I got my point across.

 

Aside from Search Analytics feature that focuses on search pattern, Search Console also does the following:

 

• Monitors site performance monitor
• Identifies website issues
• Allows you to submit content for crawling and gives an option to remove those you don’t want to be indexed
• Monitors backlinks
• Lets you know if a problem arises in your website—such as crawling errors, manual penalties, and increase in 404 pages. It will also notify you if it detects malware.

 

So let me conclude this blog by answering its question again – yes. Yes, your customers do have an online search pattern. And yes, you need to know how it works so you can maximize your business and thrive in digital marketing in the Philippines.

 

Start-ups can be difficult to establish in the 21^st century since a lot of the bright business ideas entrepreneurs can possibly think of are already up and running. Even so, I know for sure that tight competition alone will not hinder business-minded people in investing especially if they think it has a good shot in today’s market.

Given the fact that you are here reading this article, I will assume that you are either venturing for a new start-up or you’re looking for information on how much of your resources for digital marketing in the Philippines should you be allocating for your online campaign.

Either way, the first thing I suggest that you do is to put yourself in your prospective client’s shoes.

Let’s say through word of mouth you learned about this new product or service that can address your current needs. What will be your initial action? Most people will want to know additional information about the product, right? It is through this background check that you can determine if this company fits your standards or not.

And where would you usually do this research? Online.

Even for a start-up business, allotting at least a bare minimum of your financial resources for internet marketing is something to be prioritized.

You have a new business that needs to be recognized, get a website. You don’t have a website but your product or service is already known and enjoyed in the market, then the more you need to have your presence online to reach a bigger audience and get better ROIs. It just makes sense.

 

The Evolution of Businesses

Considering that no two businesses are the same, there may be different methods on how to apply your internet marketing strategy. Knowing where to allocate your internet marketing resources will help your business go a long way.

Usually there are three stages that new businesses undergo when they pursue internet marketing:

 

The Preliminary Stage

 

 

When a business starts, most will focus 80 to 90% of their resources towards organic search while the remaining 10% will be for social media. Start-up businesses are mostly the ones that go through this since they depend mostly on generic keywords to boost their online searches and rankings.

SEO is a must.

During this initial stage, you’ll need all the SEO help you can get. If you have knowledge on site optimization, that’s great. If you hired an outsourcing company to do your SEO for you, it’s better! Having an outsourced team that can dedicate all their time on developing your site to improve your rankings will allow you to focus on your business outside of the web.

 

Stage of Development

 

 

As your search rankings start to work, your next focus should probably be towards website improvement and enhancement. At this stage, your allocation for search engines may drop to at least 50%.

User retention is the key.

Concentrate more on how you can make your site visitors stay on your page. This is not just about making the site look good; you should also start improving the pages. This can be achieved by:

–          Adding quality content on your homepage and other landing pages

–          Provide functional tools that your visitors can use such as share and save buttons

–          Include forms that potential clients can fill-up when they want to avail of your products and services

–          Make sure your website has fluid navigation so that your visitors will not have difficulty in browsing your page

–          Conducting regular site check-ups and audits should also be done to ensure that your website is running well

By doing this, your site visitors will be able to see the quality of your website and it will contribute to their overall satisfaction. This can make people sign up more which will in turn improve your conversion rates.

 

Reaching Nirvana

 

 

Following those 2 stages is the last one which you achieve when you’re already happy with how your site works, the traffic it gets and the visitor experience it gives. At this point, your allotted resources for organic search can go down to 20% while the remaining 80% goes to the other sources that can increase your website traffic. This includes:

– Social Media

– Paid traffic through:

• Retargetting
• Pay-per-click
• Facebook ads
• Twitter promoted tweets

Since you already have an established site, this will probably be the best time to improve more on your business’ presence in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You may also consider Instagram and Pinterest if it fits well with the nature of your business. Paid ads are also desirable since your site is well and running. There is no reason for you not to go all-in at this point.

 

Think of this as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs but having only 2 levels that needs to be satisfied before you reach Self Actualization, or in this case, “Nirvana.” The Preliminary Stage will be on the lowest level making it the first that needs to be fulfilled followed by the Stage of Development. Answering to both of these needs will make for a better website and help you allocate your resources on things that have the highest importance during the early phases of your business.

 

 

 

Having web traffic is great but getting quality traffic is better for your digital marketing in the Philippines! – This is where keywords come in:

It plays such a big role that it can either make or break your website’s ranking and conversion rate. This makes it vital that you choose keywords which can bring quality traffic to your website.

First, let’s be technical.

Before disclosing the important points of this article, let me help you understand your user’s point of view. These are the three types of queries you have to be well-aware of:

 

Action Queries

 

These are the type of searches that aim to “do”. This means that the person is not just searching a specific information for the sake of knowing. Rather, he has an intent of going to a certain place or purchasing a specific item.

 

Information Queries

 

 

This type of queries’ sole purpose is to “know” or to learn about a specific place, product or business.

 

Navigation Queries

 

To put it simply, these are searches that looks for a specific place which a user intends to go to.

By understanding this, you’ll be a step closer into knowing whether the keywords your website uses brings you quality traffic. Keep in mind that if the keywords you use is able to provide the answer to at least 2 out of the 3 types of search queries, chances are the search engines will recognize your website more than your competitors which can result to higher rankings and better traffic.

So now let’s cut to the chase.

The faster you understand this, the sooner you can apply it into your website. Basically, there are 4 questions you need to ask yourself before you can answer the title of this article:

 

First and foremost; do I have the right research data for keywords?

 

As an entrepreneur, you may have an idea on how important research is. Knowing the ups and downs of every business opportunity plays a vital role in achieving success. One will simply not dare to set sail if he doesn’t know what direction the wind blows, right? Yes. That is why research is an absolute must.

There are two simple steps in researching for your keywords:

 

1. Use Google’s Keyword Planner.

This is a research tool you can use to understand the search habits of your target audience. It also tells you how much competition you have when you use a certain keyword. Plus, it gives you an idea of what other related keywords and phrases you can use.

Keyword research can also be done by simply using Google search. Refer to the example below:

 

 

By typing in the keywords you use, Google will suggest other related keywords that users search for. You can also refer to the related searches that can be seen at the bottom of the page:

 

 

2.UPDATE your keywords.

I couldn’t possibly give enough emphasis on the importance of this second step. Ask yourself, when was the last time you updated your keywords? Are you chasing the same keywords since 2012. Make sure that the keywords you are currently using are still being searched for and if not, look up newer variations of your old keywords that users are searching for.

Updating your keywords every year is also a smart SEO strategy to implement because Google queries and trends change from time to time. People nowadays are known to use long tailed queries such as “where to purchase Iphone 6s+ on discount” as compared to just “Iphone 6s+”.

Knowing what tools to use in keyword research is important. However, keeping your keywords up-to-date should also be prioritized.

 

Second; are my keywords practical?

 

Stir away from general keywords because you’ll have too much competition unless you are informed on the challenges ahead of you and how much resources maybe needed for such keywords.

Let’s assume you have a startup business and you want to promote your website that is similar to those of Amazon and Ebay, it will be a bad move for you to use keywords like “gadgets” or “second hand iPhone 6plus” since those keywords may have too much competition and such well-known and popular competitors obviously will hold more reputation.

You have to think, is there anything I can use to give my website an extra “oompf” that will get it more recognized by the major search engines? Whatever your business may be, whether it’s a product or a service, try to think of unique points that can help you be visible during searches.

 

Third; how much am I willing to spend on this?

 

As far as organic keywords go, there will really come a time wherein you will need to bring out your financial resources to give your website an extra push. Whether it’s a startup business or a full blown company, you always have to keep score on how far along your website is from your competitors.

Using Google Adwords or Pay-per-click can be very helpful especially if you have a new campaign that you want to market. One important element you must keep in mind is that you should bid on keywords that is highly relevant to your business and website. By doing this, the more cost effective your online marketing campaign will be.

Note that you don’t need to spend so much money on this as long as you choose keywords that are highly relevant but not too competitive. It is your job (or your SEO guy) to discover the sweet spots of less competitive but highly relevant keywords through– yes, I already discussed this– KEYWORD RESEARCH.

Other factors you should consider is the workforce you have available that you can utilize. Do you have a person that can come up with content? Or a photographer that can provide images? It is not just about paying for the tools you need to achieve a successful campaign but also the people you hire that can make all that possible. Which leads us to the fourth and final question;

 

Do I, my team, or my SEO guy have sufficient knowledge to do this? 

 

After all that has been discussed, no matter how much you understood if you don’t have sufficient knowledge on how SEO works, then it will be difficult for you to apply these important points into your website. However, if you do know how it’s done and can easily put this to practice, then who will take care of your business? If you have an SEO guy, are you sure you have the right one that can do the job? For you to know for sure, you can conduct an audit. Know your outsourced SEO’s plan and strategy and ask yourself if what they propose to do makes sense, is it not overselling and will not under perform? You call the shots, what will it be?

Extravagance, lavishness and pure first-class living – these are what luxury homes offer. And that too, is how your luxury real estate website should come across when it is visited by your prospective clients.

You have to make an instant connection with your target market as soon as they enter your site. Make them feel at home. The homepage has the biggest contributing factor on whether potential buyers will choose to continue browsing or not. Bottom line, getting a good first impression all depends on the presentation of your homepage. From the very beginning, your website’s homepage should be able to reflect which market you cater to. It is rather undesirable to display townhouses, duplexes and the like on your luxury real estate website. It may seem impressive and versatile in your part, but when it comes to making these type of websites you must remember to set boundaries in order for you to maintain a sense of exclusivity for your niche audience. Keep in mind that as you go along with your digital marketing in the Philippines, your website’s aim shouldn’t just stop at getting a good first impression through the quality of your homepage. The webpage as a whole should be able to give your visitors the ultimate luxury real estate website experience. There are 4 important categories that you should tailor within your webpage design in order to improve your site’s visitor experience, these are:

• Art and Design
• Site Content
• Functional User Tools
• Accessibility via Search Engines and Device | Browser Compatibility

 

 The Challenge of Art and Design

  In luxury real estate websites, branding is probably the most essential message you want to communicate through design. Fonts, colors and site design needs to be consistent throughout for the website visitors’ experience. High Definition Images of your inventory are also a must. How else can you market your listings without these? The pictures needs to be big and amazing and it should all be in high resolution. Providing visual representations that can give justice to the beauty of the properties you’re selling can help you greatly in scoring a sale. However, we shouldn’t be contented with images alone! Since luxury is defined as ‘having more than the basics’, your website should exude the emotion of being lavish. You can add some cool features that makes sense to luxury home buyers.

• Add Google maps for the location of the properties.
• Complement the page with virtual and drone tours of the property.
• New video technology such as Facebook 360 can be used and sent to prospects who opt-in for more information.
• Property suggest features where the site is programmed to suggest different properties to the user based on their navigational behavior.
• Include access to private and exclusive luxury homes that can only be seen after registration.
• Save and compare property functions that can be accessed even through mobile devices.

  Your website’s navigation falls in the design aspect of this category. A site that has fluid navigation is something that a lot of website visitors will appreciate. Understand that no two customers are the same. Some people will prefer to see kitchen designs of your luxury properties, others will opt to look at master suites. Some buyers might want to filter your listings showing only the type of architectural designs they want while others may desire to see it by location. – It all depends on the preference of your clients. This is why as a real estate professional, you have to be sure of the information people might want to know.  A clean and concise navigation design allows for faster, logical and easier access.

 Informational and Creative Content

  Content is Vital! Having high res images and virtual tours is not enough to address all the questions that potential buyers may have. Since they are very keen to details, your website should also provide the necessary content that lays out all the information about a property that your clients will want to know. This includes lot area, how many bedrooms and bathrooms the house have, are there any built-in appliances, and the indoor and outdoor amenities that the property features. Another type of content that your website needs to have are blogs. These doesn’t necessarily have to focus solely on luxury homes. Consider the target demographics of your blogs, it can vary from young professionals, growing families, or even empty nesters. Topics can tap anything that coincides to the idea of luxury. Be as creative as possible when publishing this kind of content since it can significantly contribute to your visitor’s overall website experience satisfaction. The main purpose of all content is to establish yourself as the “go-to” person in your city/area for information regarding all things that is luxury real estate related.

 Functional User Tools

  When a potential buyer visits your website you should never risk the probability of them forgetting the properties that captivated their hearts. Because of this, having functional tools available is appropriate especially in luxury real estate websites. Save buttons are very handy to visitors who are canvassing for a property that they can buy. Send buttons allow your clients to show their wife or husband the home they are eyeing without any hassle. And share buttons that directs to different social media outlets can be a great way to reach other potential clients. Through these tools, there is a big chance that you will be able to evoke an action from your website visitors and this will not only result to better visitor experience but will also be a way of promoting your site.

 Accessibility and Device | Browser Compatibility

  Optimizing your website is one major step that you should never think of skipping if you really want to attain the satisfaction of your site visitors. No matter how beautifully designed, filled up with informational and creative content and doesn’t fall short in providing functional tools your site is, all these will be for naught if people will have a difficult time accessing your website. Furthermore, not only should your website work smoothly on desktops and laptops, it also needs to be mobile friendly. Notice the amount of time people spend using their phones compared to their computers. People nowadays tend to do a lot of online searching and browsing on their smartphones which is why optimizing your website in a way that it will work efficiently in both desktops and mobile phones using any type of browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari) is one surefire way to ensure good visitor experience.