This week’s collection of annotated articles focuses primarily on strategies, search, and usability to extend your traffic and conversions.
Strategies
“Why 55% of Potential B2B Buyers Might Not Trust Your Website Content” by Dianna Huff, Content Marketing Institute, April 2, 2014
This article contains advice for B-to-B businesses on gaining that important lead or conversion, specifically regarding what is and isn’t on your website’s Contact and About Us pages. The findings are based on responses to a survey that asked: “What elements cause you to leave a website due to wasting your time; interrupting your train of thought; and reducing a vendor’s credibility? Two biggest answers: lack of contact information and not knowing what the company really does.
“Creating Content for Service and Product Pages” by Melissa Fach,[COPY]PRESSED, April 3, 2014
Are you targeted visitors understanding and connecting with your business? Do they understand what you do or offer? To make sure, follow this advice to create relevant, meaningful content for your targeted visitors, especially regarding your product or service. Five questions will get you started: What is this service or product?; Why is this service or product useful to me?; Why are you the best option?; Why is it urgent to invest now?; and What related service or product should they know about?
“The Rules of Link Building – Whiteboard Friday” by Cyrus Shepard, The Moz Blog, April 4, 2014
In less than nine minutes, this video will go over the correct way to build links in 2014 especially since doing it correctly has become a critical aspect for businesses. Google’s algorithm changes, along its issuance of manual penalties for unnatural link building, bring this topic to the forefront for many businesses. If you’re a local business that hires an outside agency for link building, you should also watch this video.
“Search Yourself: A Personal Branding Must” by Barry Feldman, Feldman Creative, April 5, 2014
Perception is reality. Do you know how you or your company looks on Google? Your customers do. The author illustrates this point by searching for his company and then breaking down the results. Do the same exercise in Bing. It’s helpful to take a day every month to see how your business appears on Google+, Yelp, and other review sites in case they’ve changed the profile layout, and to monitor reviews.
“3 Offline Marketing Lessons That Will Boost Your Online Conversions” by Ritika Puri, Unbounce, April 8, 2014
Want more customers? Apply these real world lessons: reduce friction, provide great customer service, and surprise your audience (in a good way) to increase your website’s conversion rates. While the examples are tied to larger company website, the concepts apply to businesses of all sizes.
“Reviews: Sometimes You Miss the Forest For The Trees” by Mike Blumenthal,Understanding Google Places and Local Search, April 2, 2014
Good reminder article on how reviews should be the result of good customer experiences rather than being a goal. The review should be part of the client relationship process.
Search and Usability
“Surfacing your business’s contact and local info in Google” by Justin Boyan, Product Manager, Jonathan Sidi, Product Manager, Pierre Far, Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google Webmaster Central Blog, Tuesday, April 8, 2014
As a local business, you want Google to find you and display your information. Google has updated its recommendations on building location pages for Googlebot and for your users, including layout, indexing and crawling suggestions and schema — a way of providing information by using specific codes. In addition, phone numbers can be specified including customer service, technical support, billing support, and bill payment phone numbers. Location pages for local businesses and organizations.Schema.org examples for location pages.
“Content Marketing Fundamentals to Always Remember” by Gregory Ciotti,GregoryCiotti.com, March 2014
Knowing and understanding your true readers and customers, going for big results when you have limited time, using email effectively, and conversion are just a few of the suggestions for building an audience for your company’s blog. One caveat: the author mentions syndication, but be careful that your site is seen as the primary source or you could have duplicate content issues.
“5 Ways to Build Long-Lasting Authority” by John Jantsch, Copyblogger, April 8, 2014
Building authority is a major topic, especially when Google is using it as a signal of relevance and is appearing to make it part of their algorithm. While there are numerous ways to build authority — establishing authorship and creating content — this article looks at building authority for the long-term, by creating a code of behavior for your business. Topics include: Say “No” more often; Say “Yes” when afraid; Charge what you’re worth; Build few, deeper relationships; Say “Thank You.” It’s about building relationships that build your business over time.
“SEO for Ecommerce: A Comprehensive Guide” by Adam Audette, RKG – SlideShare, April 2, 2014
Written for the more technically minded and for those who need to oversee your ecommerce website, this 214 page, SlideShare presentation addresses five areas of concern for the ecommerce website owner: Technical SEO, On-page and Content, Social Media, Reporting and Analytics, and Business Concerns. Actionable insights are offered.
“2 Ecommerce Product Page Reviews” by Peep Laja, ConversionXL, April 7, 2014
In five minutes, learn some tips for improving your ecommerce product pages. See how the layout, fonts, content, calls-to-action, surrounding information, and pictures can influence a buyer’s decision.
“Five inspiring examples of B2B product pages” by Graham Charlton, Econsultancy, April 2, 2014
As the title suggests, five B-to-B product pages or landing pages from Basecamp, KISSmetrics, 99designs, Squarespace and SmartRecruiters are shown and why they are good and of value to prospective customers.