Tag: seo

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Growth Academy

Website Audits: Beautiful Site, Beautiful Sales

Website Audit
Website Audit

If you’ve ever felt getting in-depth, specific advice on your website would help improve your advertising strategy for Shopify, get a full website audit!  Read below to learn more about the benefits of a site audit, and how they help increase sales on Shopify.

Why is a Website Audit Important?

To begin, a website audit assesses the structure, function, useability, and overall “look” of your e-commerce store.  Specifically, site audits ensure you know what changes to make to increase your sales on Shopify, and how to change them without affecting your store!

Therefore, getting a fresh evaluation of your online store’s presentation helps boost conversions by improving the user experience and upping your site rank on Google!

What are the Key Factors a Website Audit Analyzes to Increase Sales on Shopify?

  1. SEO Content & Online Display

First, do you have well-spaced paragraphs?  Second, is everything grammatically correct?  Third, is text organized so the page design looks seamless? Finally, what about keyword phrases and long-tail keywords?  Site audits review solutions to the most pressing questions regarding your online presentation.

In addition, site audits also evaluate your social media presence and engagement levels through market data analysis.

2. Website Speed & Technical Performance

Site audits make sure your site is literally “up to speed” and loads quickly with no broken links.  Otherwise, the user experience suffers – and so does your Shopify paid advertising!

3. Design Features that Boost Conversions

Knowing where to put your “call to action” (CTA) buttons can make a huge difference in your sales conversions – same with toolbars, ad popups, and your overall site presentation!  

As a result, it’s not one big thing, but a bunch of little mistakes may be affecting the user experience.  So, if you want a service to ask a whole bunch of questions related to “What can I do to improve my e-commerce store and my Shopify paid advertising?” get yourself a website audit ASAP!

The 6-Part Website Audit Checklist for 2022 [Epic Google Sheet]
source

Ad360 Offers Free Website Audits to New Clients

Want the support of a step- by-step review of your e-commerce store?  To expand our business, Ad360 is currently offering a free in-person website audit.  Get all your questions answered in a valuable, step-by-step evaluation. Above all, we’ll provide actionable insight for how to make your e-commerce store stand out from the pack 😉

Get our free website audit to help Increase Sales on Shopify today!

Categories
Growth Academy

Shopify Blogs: The Key to Boosting Sales?

Blog icon in front of green bag
Shopify Blogs

How Blog Content can Increase Sales on Shopify

They say content is king, and for good reason: blogs are a proven method to boost your Google ranking and increase sales on Shopify.  This post explores how consistent blog posts can benefit your e-commerce business while also providing a few tips to inspire your own original posts!

Authentic Blogs Support your Shopify Sales

Recently, Google announced that any AI-generated content online will be labelled “spam.”  Business owners should reassess the content they are putting out to catch their audience’s audience.  Marketing data shows that, while helping increase your Shopify sales, online users primarily read blogs for entertainment and information. 

So, when writing your posts, keep an informational, educational, and entertaining tone at the heart of your piece.  There’s no need to push your products too hard.  Customers who have just discovered your site or product will appreciate quality, authentic posts for their enjoyment.  Combined with social media posts and audio-visual entertainment, consistent blog posts can become a crucial element to increasing your Shopify sales.

Blogs Complement Social Media & Video Ads

Think of regular blog posts as an extension of your social media posts.  In fact, it’s best to link your Shopify blogs directly on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Tik-Tok!  All these engaging posts provide a comprehensive narrative you can build regarding your brand and business. 

You can embed key infographics, images, and videos into the blog to push your most important audio-visual content across your ad channels.  It not longer takes a tech wiz to combine text, picture, and video content, as Shopify has boiled down adding these functions to one click.  It’s simple on a technical level, but it does wonders for your reputation online.

An e-commerce store that has an active blog and social media presence appears dynamic, consistent, and trustworthy to your audience.  Over time, your Shopify store will increase its traffic and sales by coming across as an authority in your industry.  If you can find the time or hire the talent, consistent, quality blog posts will become a key marketing strategy to increase your Shopify sales.

Inconsistent Blog Posts Harm your Google Ranking and Brand Reputation

You ever surf a website, impressed the professional layout, but find that their last blog content post was from 3 years ago…?  Not a good sign!  It gives the impression the brand is withering, and, despite its clear informational benefit, the business abandoned regular posts.

Not only does infrequent blog posting harm your brand reputation – it costs you ranking on Google’s search engine!  Less blogs posts means less webpages for Google to index, and the longer you go without posting, the more you lose authority on Google’s Search Engine. 

Even if you can only find time to write a 500 word post – maybe with a video embedded – remember that not each one has to be your magnum opus!  Some weeks, it is simply the consistent effort that will benefit your store in the long run.  Marketing research shows that e-commerce sites with 11+ blog posts a month experience a spike on monthly traffic.  Furthermore, sites with 400+ blog posts archived gain an edge on Google’s search rankings, as the sheer number of webpages indexed bumps them up the rankings ladder!  As we all know, a higher spot on Google’s rankings means increased sales on Shopify.

source

Boast a Call to Action at the End of every post

After providing valuable, entertaining information to your audience for free, drop them a hyperlink or “Call to Action” button at the bottom.  In this world, everyone could use a little self-promotion, so have it! 

If you want a good “rule of thumb” to follow when deciding what to blog, ask yourself this question: “What would I want to read?  What kind of post would I sit back and appreciate someone putting into words for me?”  If you know your audience, they’ll appreciate your work, too.

For further assistance and information on the value of blog posts, you can try a free demo by Ad360 today.  Our app provides 360 degree coverage on all aspects of your digital marketing, giving you a sense of clarity on how to best promote your product and boost your Shopify sales.  See what we did there? 😉  Reach out today!

Categories
Growth Academy

A Glossary to Increase Sales on Shopify

Ecommerce Glossary
Glossary of common ecommerce terms.

A common pattern we find with ecommerce business owners – especially one from brick-and-mortar shops – is frustration with the frustration with the jargon, acronyms, and lingo used when discussing ways to best increase sales on Shopify.

“This will help your CPC decrease, thereby increasing your ROAS and ensuring your website’s SEO becomes more robust and dynamic, funneling customers along the AIDA hierarchy.  In fact, we may move to a CPM ad model soon over CPC.  Or would prefer a PPC payment model?”

…. WHY!  WHY SO CONFUSING?!?!  It can almost seem like online marketers are purposefully throwing difficult jargon out there to test the business owner’s knowledge of the e-commerce landscape.  From there… it becomes doubtful their sole aim is to help your business increase sales on Shopify.  Instead, beating you over the head with technical lingo gives the sense marketers want to muddle the conversation to the point it’s impossible to get a straightforward answer on how exactly their services helps your business.  It all can feel very esoteric and disconnected from your promotional goals to increase sales on Shopify.

To help combat overcomplicated explanations, Ad360 wants to provide a small glossary of terms – and how they work in an online marketing context – so you feel knowledgeable and secure when discussing your business aims with potential clients or partners.  That way, as you search for ways to boost your Shopify sales, you won’t be lost when discussing the more technical side of online marketing.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a standard online advertising method, where businesses agree to a specific amount charged every time a customer actually “clicks” on their ad.  It involves setting a “maximum amount” you are willing to “per per click,” but, based on other factors, you may not end up actually paying that amount! 

Let’s say there are 3 keywords you want to establish a Google ad campaign for, and each one is ~$3 per click.  You want to make sure you get at least 100 clicks, so 100* 3 keywords *$3.00 per click = $900 ad budget.  HOWEVER!  If you pick keywords with less “competition” (less companies bidding for the same keyword), you can bring that cost down per click.  PPC ad channels are a fundamental tool to increase sales on Shopify. See the next term for more info on that 😊

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC (cost-per-click) is basically the “other side of the coin” and relates directly to PPC (pay-per-click).  While PPC (pay-per-click) is the actual ad campaign itself, CPC (cost-per-click) refers to the amount your business ends up actually paying to run the campaign.  Instead of the max amount you set, CPC refers to the “average cost per click” you end up paying.  Based on your ad’s quality, the keywords use, and the day-to-day changes in the marketplace, your CPC will fluctuate.  However, you will never pay more than the “max amount” you set when starting your “pay-per-click” (PPC) campaign.

CPC ad campaigns are best when the goal is not to spread broad awareness of visibility of your site, but for increasing sales on Shopify through upping your conversion rate.  By paying for each click, you are ensuring you do not pay a dime to the publisher until customers actually click on the ad. 

Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)

More accurately, CPM stands for “Cost per mille,” the latin prefix for “1,000.”  In contrast to “Pay-Per-Click” (CPC) campaigns, CPM campaigns focus on web visibility rather than conversions.  Businesses pay a certain amount per 1,000 “impressions,” meaning 1,000 people at least scrolled past the ad on their web browser or app. 

CPM campaigns are best for awareness campaigns in the online ecosystem because there is no guarantee users will actually engage with your ad.  If you only run CPM campaigns, you risk being scrolled by, paying for thousands of impressions but landing no conversions.  When trying to get customers comfortable with your brand, it can help to run a few CPM campaigns.  When looking to increase sales on Shopify by boosting conversions, you should consider other ad channels besides CPM.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR (Click-through Rate) indicates the percentage of visitors who, after seeing your ad – referred to as an “impression” – actually took the step of consciously clicking your ad to view your landing page!  Major online advertisers like Google and Facebook keep track of how many “impressions” your ad received, meaning these metrics are available to online business owners.  Measuring your CTR will be important when analyzing how to best increase sales on Shopify.

CTR (click-through rate) is related to your conversion rate – the percentage of visitors who actually end up purchasing something.  For example, if you have 100 visitors and 10 perform a “buy” action, that is a 10% conversion rate (10/100).  Pay attention to both when assessing ways to improve your digital marketing strategy and boost sales on Shopify!

Return on Ads spent (ROAS)

Return on Ads Spent (ROAS) is a more convention marketing metric most business owners will understand and recognize.  Basically,

The wrinkle in ecommerce ROAS is making sure you use the right customer data and analytics to calculate an accurate ROAS for each campaign.  Whether using Facebook ads, Google ads, or another platform, remember you should be running segmented “niche” ad campaigns that may vary in their purpose and structure.  With that in mind, you want to attribute your increased revenue to the correct ads.  Doing so will ensure you can distinguish which ad channels are bringing in a high ROAS vs which ones, after A/B testing, are proving to be a dud with your audience.

ROAS is closely related to ROI (Return on Investment), which takes into account the product cost when calculating your overall profit margin.  When working to increase sales on Shopify, it is important to know the merits of each metric.  Again, taking the 360 degree view, it is important you can sort out which ad campaigns are attributed to bumps in your revenue!  Otherwise, any clarity on which ad channels are truly driving your ROAS become muddled.  Retrace which ads were responsible for which conversions, and you’ll gain much greater insight into what boosts your Shopify sales 😊  

Bounce Rate (BR)

These terms are more straightforward – bounce rate is simply the percentage of online users who leave your page without taking any action.  No further clicking, no purchases, nada.  Make sure to not let any slick-talking marketer take your bounce rate out of context.  Sure, it’s an important metric and acronym to know, but it doesn’t mean jack until it’s put into context with the rest of your website. 

Regardless, you want users to feel there are plenty of cool options to continue clicking through your site, so step into the shoes of the customer, check out your home page, and ask yourself, “What design pieces or clickable links/buttons can I put in here to keep my customer’s attention?”  Answering that question will be a big step toward increasing your sales on Shopify!

Call to Action (CTA)

Call to Action buttons are those “big shiny red buttons” in the movies that you want to click… in this case, the world won’t blow up if you do.  Instead, you’ll boost your Shopify sales!

While too many can become a distraction, make sure mobile ads, landing pages, email campaigns, and basically all your social media ads have clear, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing and even “fun-looking” CTA buttons.  One of the biggest issues Ad360 sees when working with clients is a lack of CTA buttons that make it easy for the customer to purchase from your site, converting more sales for you.  More conversions mean increased sales on Shopify, so definitely reassess how you have organized your CTA buttons across all your ads, social media posts, and your ecommerce site itself.

AIDA Customer Awareness Funnel –

AIDA is a customer model that segments your audience into 4 basic categories:

1. Attention – do customers know you exist?  Do they know they have a problem, and you offer a solution with your product?  At this point, you are providing valuable information to your customer, not being “pushy” or “In your face” with your product offering.  Folks ain’t ready yet.

2. Interest – Customers here are leaning forward.  They like what they heard already, and you’ve officially piqued their curiosity.  It doesn’t mean they are ready to buy, but they are primed to hear your offer.

3. Desire – Ok, now they’re ready to buy.  Here, you re-enforce why your product is desirable to your audience.  Take it from the point of view, “How do I communicate to my audience their lives will be better off buying my product?”  Make them desire that end goal.

4. Action – You have a customer ready to purchase!  Make sure your website is secure and optimized so the buying process is smooth, and follow up with them in an email newsletter or something of the sort!  You may have a new regular 😊

AIDA has utility in providing structure to multi-channel ad campaigns.  That way, different segments of your audience receive different messaging depending on their “awareness” of your product.  You can prepare ad banners that cater to each level of the AIDA funnel, giving you a 4-pronged attack when increasing sales on Shopify!  It’s a nice framework for guiding your promotional efforts.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is thrown around a ton, and we have done a full article on it here, but basically, it encompasses all the factors that help bump your ecommerce store on the rankings.  A higher ranking on Google directly correlates to increased sales on Shopify, so it is crucial you consider the SEO factors for your online business, some of which are listed below:

  • Genuinely interesting and engaging content with quality keywords
  • Good-length text descriptions
  • Site speed and optimized loading time
  • Quality backlinks that lead users from an outside side to yours (be prepared to pay for this)

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Search engine results dictate a huge portion of web traffic, and SERP is simply the acronym for the “pages” that list each result.  Being on page 1 is a highly, highly desirable position.  If your business makes it onto page of one Google’s SERPs, you will almost certainly see an increase in sales on Shopify.

Secure-Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS)

Both SSL and TLS are acronyms for the technology that encrypts customer payment info at checkout.  Make sure you have a good provider and include their trust badge, verifiable by the customer by clicking on the badge itself.  The badge should lead directly to the third-party certification of your site.  These encrypted “checkout” technologies make your customer feel more secure when purchasing from your site, thereby increasing your customer conversion rate on Shopify. 

Quick note – TLS is the more modern and secure version of checkout encryption technology, so go for a TLS certification if you can manage it.

Conclusion: Knowing Digital Marketing Metrics can Boost Shopify Sales

Now if you see these words casually thrown around on the Internet, you’ll feel confident in your response.  Throwing out a piece of complicated jargon or acronyms is a classic way for marketers to “size up” what kind person they are dealing with.  Based on your response, they decide whether you are someone they can “gloss over” meaningful details with, or are someone who will ask hard questions and demand better solutions.  We hope this glossary of terms serves to make more the latter and not the former 😊

If you want 24/7 support willing to walk you through each stage of digital marketing, reach out for a free demo from Ad360 today!  Acronyms aside, we commit to providing services all relating back to the core goal: increasing your Shopify sales.  Boost your bottom line with Ad360 today!

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Ad360 News

Ecommerce Success hits 50 subscribers

ecommerce-success-by-ad360-youtube-channel-hits-50-subscribers
The "Ecommerce Success by Ad360" YouTube channel hits 50 subscribers


The “Ecommerce Success by Ad360” YouTube channel hits 50 subscribers!

Today we’re celebrating an important milestone for our YouTube channel.

“Ecommerce Success by Ad360” is a YouTube channel where we share tips, news, best practices to help business owners be happy, productive, and successful!

We make daily videos reviewing ecommerce businesses websites, giving them tips and advice to improve their conversions and better their marketing, advertising.

Making merchants happy and successful

Ad360’s mission is to make millions of merchants happy and successful. We take care of all your promotional activities, allowing you to focus on your passion & core business.

These videos are an important way for us to provide value, free advice and free website reviews to business owners. Our goal is to be informative, educational, while being useful as the same time, providing actional tips that e-commerce business owners can take home and implement right away.

We cover a variety of topics and discuss all things e-commerce, advertising, marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), conversion rate optimization (CRO), website design, branding, retargeting, social media, communication, and many other themes that could help businesses be more successful.


Sample Topics covered

Here are a few examples of videos we’ve made, to give you an overview of what you can learn from the YouTube channel:

Advertising

How much to spend on ads before you get sales
In this video we discuss about a business question on Reddit about how much they need to spend on ads before they get enough results to draw a conclusion.
https://youtu.be/4GZVrQU81RE

Money losing ad! What to do?
In the video, we’re discussing a few of the common advertising Key Performing Indicators (KPI) such as CPM, CPC, CTR. We’re giving a few tips to a Reddit post author to help them improve their ad results.
https://youtu.be/uM6TxGK9aNM

Homepage VS Product page? Which destination is best for advertising?
This video examines whether businesses should use their Homepage or Product page as a destination for their ads. We explain pros and cons of both, and why the best solution might be something else: a dedicated landing page. If you don’t know what this is, this video will go over the theory of why a landing page will outperform homepages and product pages.
https://youtu.be/aAyC2_7EseU

Marketing

3 marketing techniques to increase revenue
Successful companies like Apple or Netflix use these marketing rechniques all the time to increase their average order value (AOV) and sales: Value/pricing ladder, Price anchoring, Compromise effect.
https://youtu.be/loZtTmK5tps

Convert more by assuming your customer knows nothing
In the video, we’re discussing a few of the common advertising Key The concept of the “5 Levels of Awareness” by genius marketer Eugene Schwartz can really help you understand how to make your website better for the majority of your visitors, which will increase conversions.
https://youtu.be/g7w6h4KIDP0

Clueless about Website Traffic Generation
This video responds to a user on Reddit, asking for help with Website Traffic Generation. We cover different methods to generate traffic and how they can apply these to help their business grow: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Advertising.
https://youtu.be/YiKaNWPU834


Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Introduction to the concept of SEO and how to get your website crawled, indexed, and delivered as a response to users’ queries on Google (and other search engines!).
https://youtu.be/yjoIgfjBYkg

Words Matter! Boost sales with descriptions!
Why Google still advises in 2022 website oweners to use more texts to improve your website’s content and make your pages more discovarable as search queries results.
https://youtu.be/IwzDRjBW7dA

New factors to rank on Google – Desktop page experience search signals
What are the new Core Web Vitals and other page experience signals that are now used by Google as a factor to determine how to rank pages for Desktop searches.
https://youtu.be/a2doaoYTTyY



Website Design

How to generate trust to increase e-commerce sales
This video reviews a website shared on Reddit and gives several general tips you can use to improve the website structure, design, content to improve conversion rates.
https://youtu.be/T7nGgTts5pY

Don’t lose customers because of colors
Colors can be a tricky topic because they can be seen as a matter of personal taste. However, there are design guidelines for accessibility and some colors combinations are more efficient than others. If you’re foreign to color theory, we share in this video a free online tool that can help you pick better color combinations in just a few minutes.
https://youtu.be/MzpUUF04exQ

Make your Ecommerce Website Stand Out
Standing out is key in a market where “10,000 alternatives to buy from are but a click away”. Hopefully, this video helps illustrate this key concept and gives a few practical tips about what can be done to make your website feel different, and convert more.
https://youtu.be/gtiDZYXu_Dc



Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

How to boost by up to 232% conversions by fixing CTAs
This video gives a few tips to this store owner to increase conversion rates by fixing the Call to Actions (CTA) buttons.
https://youtu.be/4HIov1ksii4

Why 75% of visitors abandon their carts
In this video we’re reviewing two studies about e-commerce statistics such as the cart abandonment rates, add to cart rates, conversion rates and average order values. Knowing key e-commerce statistics is important to gauge whether your business is doing fine or not, and which areas you need to focus on to improve your results.
https://youtu.be/aaLZoSsAEqk

85% Bounce Rate! How bad is it??
We give the definition of Bounce Rate and what the Google Analytics documentation teaches us about this topic. We also review a few tools that you can use to verify whether your website loads quickly, is responsive and mobile-friendly. These factors can impact bounce rate, as well as the ranking on Google, and are worth looking into.
https://youtu.be/cjn2Heyi460



Ad360 App Features Highlights

Public Release of Ad360 App for Shopify
This video announces that any Shopify user can install the Ad360 App for Shopify and grow their business with the easiest way to manage all promotional activities in one place.
https://youtu.be/-NX_bZcfXH8

What is Retargeting and why you must use it
In this video we’re talking about Retargeting, which is way too often overlooked by small businesses, whereas it is the most efficient form of advertising that you can do. Some studies say that Retargeting gets 1,300% Return on Investment (ROI). It’s definitely a big mistake not to employ it. Thankfully, we’re here to help you understand how to make the most of it, and get started with Retargeting thanks to Ad360!
https://youtu.be/YPr6V9rqPRg

Master hyper Local & Geo-targeted ads
We’re explaining why local-based ads are so important. We describe two advanced advertising techniques: Geotargeted ads & Hyperlocal ads. Both of these allow you to run ads that are personalized for specific areas, which will be more noticed and efficient to generate sales. Ad360 App for Shopify allows you to easily implement both of these techniques, in an easy way.
https://youtu.be/EIByOD0t9Cw



Get a free personalized review of your business


If you’d like help improving your website, and get a dedicated private call to review your e-commerce website, your marketing strategy and your advertising setup, feel free to book a consulting/audit call at any time on our website.

Categories
Growth Academy

4 Keys to Unlocking SEO on Shopify

SEO for Shopify
SEO tips for Shopify e-commerce stores

And why it’s VITAL for Sales Growth!

In part III of our “Search Engine Optimization” series (part I and II linked here), we distill the top 4 “keys” to boosting sales with SEO.  Here, you’ll find the breakdown of actions you could take today to increase your store’s visibility on search engines like Google – and they aren’t complicated!  SEO may not be rocket science, but it does take strategic, effective marketing strategies on your part.

Read below for the 360 degree, step-by-step guide to learn the practical application of SEO strategy!

1.      Favicon design

Favicons are those little picture designs that appear in the corner of your website tab. Some popular ones are the multicolored “G” when on Google or the red “play button” icon on Youtube. 

These little guys may seem unimportant, but they carry a lot of weight for SEO ranking!  Simply put, they provide brand awareness, credibility, and customers an easier way to recognize your site.  Even if you have incredible goods in your store and provide top-notch service, customers subconsciously judge you right away if you don’t have a favicon like other sites. 

Picture a dilapidated, old storefront – looks like a tornado just hit it.  Even if the goods inside are amazing, and the store owner is a peach of a guy, chances are you won’t go in!  It looks too worn-down on the outside. You make a snap judgement to move on. 

That’s exactly what will happen to your store without a favicon!  Get one designed asap to increase sales to your Shopify store.

2.      Descriptive heading tags for well-organized site categories

We’ve mentioned in an earlier article the importance of descriptive heading tags to better organize your site’s web pages. Here’s why that is so essential.  Not only do users feel better browsing, Google’s “crawl” software won’t get confused indexing your site.  The clearer the web page headings and the better classification of your info, the more SEO-friendly Google will consider your site… and you will be rewarded with a better ranking 😊

Sometimes, these headings are referred to as “H tags.” Make sure to keep your ducks in a row when building the content on each page.  It should always start with a clear, descriptive, but not-too-wordy title!  That’s a major key to growing your Shopify sales.

3.       Detail meta and product descriptions

On top of good headings, remember that breaking up your info with easy-to-read product descriptions is essential for SEO best practices.  If you have any product listed on your site unaccompanied by at least a few lines of descriptive text, you are doing your online business a disservice!

Make sure you remember that new potential customers browsing your site (as well as Google’s web crawlers), are not experts on your industry like you.  If you can find a way to give them good information, segmented into different tabs on the product description, you give yourself the best chance to land on the first page in Google rankings. 

4.      Research backlinks through Google Search Console

This final key may be the most difficult to implement, as it involves some pretty serious market research: backlinks.  Backlinks are essentially hyperlinks that connect your site to another.  Consider when you look for, say, a new toaster online.  You find a site that lists the “top 10 toasters,” and there are hyperlinks leading to each option – those businesses successfully have been “backlinked,” linking them to more web pages across the web and increasing their visibility.

Now, when starting off green, finding the right sites to reach out to for a backlinks “shoutout” can seem pretty daunting.  So, we recommend starting by checking out Google Search Consoles information on backlinks here.   Make sure to check out what backlinks competitors have, and from there, you can begin your own marketing campaigns to increase the number of affiliate sites that offer a “backlink” to your Shopify store.  More quality backlinks, more sales for your Shopify store 😊

If you feel you would benefit from some SEO expertise to set up your store for success, reach out to try a free demo from Ad360 today!  We can provide a free consultation to evaluate how effective your SEO practices are, and what we can do to bring you up the Google ranks 😊  Cheers, we hope you enjoyed the 4 keys to SEO success!

Categories
Growth Academy

The Importance Texts for Customer Growth

Text Descriptions for SEO
Texts are a major component of SEO

Focus on Textual Descriptions for Search Engine Optimization

Business owners agree there is an element of excitement in designing a brand-new Shopify site!  They can pour their passions into the web page’s presentation, and digital advances have made it as simple as “cut & paste” to add all kinds of dynamic elements to the site: pictures, slideshows, videos, and interesting graphics that “pop” off the screen. 

Be aware that, without a couple lines of descriptive text, audio-visual elements go completely unnoticed by search engines like Google.  They won’t “pick up” what your store is putting down!!

We’ve mentioned in a previous blog on SEO (link here) that Google’s “web crawling” software, vital for a website’s ranking, does not do a very good job analyzing the “purpose and place” of pictures and videos.  Every time you leave you, say, a picture of your product, without a meaningful textual description, it will be missed by Google’s ranking software, and your website’s visibility will suffer.

Breaking Down Where & When to Add Text on Your Site

To keep it simple, Ad360 wants to provide a 360° view on the most important places to add text for boosting sales.  That way, business owners can quickly spot where they need to add full text descriptors to make their site more Google-friendly.  We know that can sound silly, but strategically placing text descriptions gives you the best chance to be on the coveted “first page” of Google search results.

i.                    Meta text

You know those little “preview” descriptions that pop up when you search something up on Google?  That is meta-text, a tagged part of your webpage that Google recognizes as providing a good “glimpse” of what your web page offers users.  

ii.                  Webpage Titles

It may seem redundant while you type them out, but every web page users click through should have clear titles and subtitles.  Even if it looks a bit silly to you, users who have never browsed the site – and Google’s “web crawling” software – will greatly appreciate the clarity!

iii.                Product Descriptions

We at Ad360 are always a little shocked how many visually-stunning sites we come across… that totally blow off product tags and product descriptions.  We would highly recommend having at least one sentence – like a caption – for every product preview, and then full descriptive text when the user clicks through to view the product in closer detail.  

For example, if selling a gold bracelet, the caption with the product picture could read, “24 carat gold bracelet, sourced from ethical vendors and made with adjustable links for all wrist sizes.”  When the user clicks through to view the product, give them a novel!  It is best to break the text up into tabs, but those full text descriptions to accompany your pictures and products will boost GEO rankings and grow sales far more efficiently.

iv.                     Branding Descriptors

Marketing research makes clear that, with the seemingly endless commerce options available to online customers, it pays to include descriptive text that “fills in the human picture” of who you are as a business, what you stand for, and the values you hold dear.  As an example, having a strong “About Me” text page correlates to increased sales, as does stating how your store supports its core values.  Are you an animal lover?  Have a page where customers can make a donation to your chosen charity.  Text elements that give a fuller picture of your brand’s core values go a long way in customers positively identifying with you!

V.                     Reviews

Make a page that lists your favorite reviews!  It adds more dynamic text to your site and provides a sense of “social validation” that new customers, who, after reading a few positive reviews, feel they are making a good decision 

It’s Ok Ramble – Lean Toward More Textual Description, Not Less

Here is the main takeaway: any picture, video, link,  or product should come with full descriptive text, so both customers and google crawling software can make sense of your website!  Always lean toward “more full description,” not less.  If it starts to feel a bit redundant or like you’re rambling, that’s ok!  Google’s “web crawling” software will reward you with a higher ranking and more traffic to your online store.  You can edit down the parts that confuse customers, but remember – you are structuring your site for optimized web success! If you feel unsure about your current text descriptions or feel like professional guidance may give your online store a lift, reach out and try a free demo from Ad360 today!  We provide a free 30 minute consultation that can evaluate your current text descriptions, pointing out where improvements can be made for optimal sales success 😊

Categories
Growth Academy

What is Search Engine Optimization?

What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization

What Exactly is SEO? What Value Does it Add to my Business?

Google defines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as “making your site better for search engines.” Put another way, SEO are all the changes to your text that make your site “ping” on Google’s algorithm when users execute a search!

Crawling for New Content – How Google Discovers your Site


How does it do that, you ask? Well, Google didn’t become a tech powerhouse for no reason. Google employs automated “web crawlers” that look for new/updated web pages based on how the site connects to the rest of the internet… hence the term “internet.” Basically, Google finds your page based on how it interlinks and interconnects to the rest of the web!

 

Indexed for Info – Google Programs Analyze Webpage Text to Evaluate Content

After Google discovers that your site exists among the 50 billion online web pages (congrats!) Google “indexes” the site’s content, using software to try and figure out the “purpose and place” of your online business. To check if your site is properly indexed on Google, type in “site:_________” and past your url into the blank.

There you Are – Having Google List Businesses on Search Results

After figuring out the “purpose and place” of your online site, Google will begin listing your business. The user’s location, language, device, and previous search history all play a role in what pops up for them, but those factors are out of your control. 

It’s time to put in stark terms how vital SEO is for growing your business! 



Introduction – Tell me WHY SEO is Important


If you ever question, “Why is it important for my business to rank on Google anyway,” consider this fact:

71% of all online users click through from the “first page” search results 

With that in mind, it’s essential for any online business to identify the most commonly searched keywords/phrases when customers are browsing for your line of products. If you are serious about leveraging online search engines to optimize your sales growth, learning to “move up the rankings” through SEO is a must! Organic SEO growth is more effective at growing sales and driving traffic to your website than virtually any other online tool. Remember that there are over 5 billion searches conducted on Google per day. Being at the top of the list for the searches pertaining to your business… you can see how that might spur sales growth!

Picture This – Example of SEO’s Utility for Growing Sales


For a quick hypothetical – picture you’re a custom soap maker. You’ve taken a 360 degree view of your online marketing, and every time a user searches the phrases, “custom soap,” “boutique soap,” or “soap for sensitive skin,” your site pops up as one of the top three results. Just by that remarkable visibility alone, you’re going to receive a steady, consistent stream of sales no matter where else you advertise. Think about it! Google’s search engine is literally advertising for you! 

However, to get to a place where SEO is, in a sense, doing your promotional work for you, it takes in-depth research and serious legwork to perfect your site’s key phrasing and text. Every line of business needs a wholly unique approach to their SEO, while still hitting the most relevant key phrases universally searched online… this part is easier said than done. 

How Online Business Make Quality SEO Webpages


Making unique, engaging online content involves some artful human ingenuity, but there are specific metrics and guidelines to follow for how you structure that content to best optimize search results. 

  1. Aim to be descriptive as possible with all titles and headings

No need to be wordy, but picture a software crawler… it’s not as smart a human! You need to be really clear with titles so the crawler software goes, “Oh! I get that!” You’re not just writing for your customers – you’re writing for the online ecosystem as a whole. 

2. Make Each Webpage Stand Alone as a “Complete” Entity

We love a phrase Google uses when giving the 411 basics on SEO, “Google is smart, but we can’t guess what you don’t tell us.” It’s easy, as a business owner, to assume the folks reading are making the same leaps in logic you are… but they aren’t! Neither are Google’s programs. Give a logical rundown of your entire business offerings; don’t assume Google gets what you imply. Even if it seems painfully obvious to you, give Google a break – it’s sifting through 50 billion webpages! 

3. Be Topical, Be Up-to-Date 

Show your business can grow and change with the seasons – think holiday bundles and special deals of that nature! Those updates keep your business moving up the search queue, as Google will record, “These guys are with the times, maaaan.” We’re pretty sure that’s how Google software talks when no one is listening 🙂

4. USE TEXT!

Let’s start by acknowledging how cool it is to be able to share and upload pictures/videos with one click – memes have straight up changed the world. HOWEVER! When it comes to growing your sales through SEO, Google software still understands text formats more effectively than others. While having an aesthetically pleasing and dynamic webpage, complete with aural-visual elements, is highly recommended, it should not come at the cost of accompanying text. Having clear textual complements to any picture and video on your site will benefit your business greatly in terms of growing sales. Don’t have any picture/video without at least a little caption of explanatory text attached!


Most Important Web Elements for your Site’s SEO Rank


To give you a 360 degree view of SEO, we thought we’d leave readers with a list of all the design, web, and marketing research factors that improve your site’s “searchability” for boosting sales:

  • Site content 
  • Site structure/Web Page layout 
  • Intersection with online ad campaigns
  • Keyword research (e.g. – Term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis)
  • SEO development
  • Precision marketing to specific market “niches” or geographic locations

Modifying a single keyword/phrase can be the difference between Google finding 10 million or 100 million results. Market research on these keywords, therefore, are essential to aligning your online business with the most precise, potent keywords related to your industry!

Conclusion: Using the Right Tools for SEO Sales Success


We know that it feels a bit overwhelming that all these different factors play into SEO. Some business owners have all the savvy on their products they ever need, but figuring out the most SEO-friendly text to convey the value and purpose of their services becomes a whole challenge in itself. 

If you feel your business would benefit from 24/7, 360 degree support, reach out to try a free demo from Ad360 today! As a proud Google partner recognized for our ability to maximize company sales, Ad360 has all the tools, analytics, and organizational expertise to push your business to the top of the Google chart 😉 Drop us a line today for a free SEO consultation – we look forward to your future sales success.