And because the folks at Mailbird really know what email marketing is about, they’re gonna share their know-how on interactive emails with us. Let’s get going!

Want to create highly converting emails instead of digital soulless messages? If so, then you are on the right path. Customers want to feel involved in your content without leaving their inboxes, and interactivity makes this possible.

According to studies, interactive content — including videos, quizzes, image carousels, polls, or other visual elements — can drive an increase in click-through rates by up to 300%. But what are these conversion steroids you can inject into your emails to make them more effective? Let’s find out!

The Benefits of Interactivity in Emails

More sales? Check. More website visitors? Check. Interactive emails grab your readers’ attention immediately, bringing better results to your email campaigns. You can make more out of email marketing if you combine juicy copy with interactivity, regardless of your goals. These elements we’re about to share can help you: 

• Keep subscribers entertained, 
• Increase customer retention,
• Drive up your click-through rate (CTR),
• Make customer data easier to gather,
• Increase customer engagement.  

Interactive emails work best on three main occasions: when promoting new products or features, preparing your audience for an event, or simply increasing your email engagement. It doesn’t have to be super complicated, but where can you grab some ideas? We’ve got your back. Let’s explore some examples together. 

Examples of Interactive Email Content (with Templates)

It’s important that your interactive elements are not mismatched with the email copy (e.g., the email talks about a discount, but there’s a GIF of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.) To avoid such whoppers, we’ve peeked into a few major brands for real-life examples. 

Clickable and Entertaining Events

When emails have interactive events, users have to take some kind of action to reveal what’s behind them. Especially if you’re introducing a new discount in your e-commerce store, clickable events raise more curiosity and get more people onto your website. 

Hiding discounts behind a “scratchable” button is a good example. But it doesn’t always have to be a discount. Events can be used to cover product descriptions, reviews, or distinct features as well. Instead of having customers visit your shop to explore different products, you can bring this experience right into their inboxes. 

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That’s what Google Pixel Buds have achieved by adding buttons to change the buds’ color when tapped. The email seems like a landing page, but it’s actually a minimalistic focus on the product’s features and versions. 

GIFs

We usually only exchange GIFs with close friends and others we know well, but they can be useful in marketing too. GIFs are a fantastic way to entertain and connect with your audience. They should help you make new friends among your prospects, who will then be more inclined to buy. Adding a viral GIF or making one yourself isn’t hard at all nowadays.

Those good GIFs will make your emails enjoyable and strip off their formality. Let’s see an example: 

Source

Feelunique is a beauty retailer with bold marketing campaigns. Since users seem perplexed by complex app interfaces, they’ve broken down the buying process into a few steps put together and animated in GIF form. Remember, your GIFs don’t have to be premade or memes you see go viral. You can create them in your style too. 

Feelunique’s approach is designed to increase interactivity and enhance user engagement. However, users won’t engage as much as they would with star ratings. 

Star Ratings

Whenever customers purchase or have been with you for a long time, send them a rating survey to see how satisfied they are. A typical email builder gives you the tools to create a simple star-rating survey right within your email message. 

Depending on the rating, you can even follow up and address users differently. For instance, those who gave lower ratings can be directed to a Google Form. Here, you can collect detailed feedback about their poor experience. For example: 

Source 

This email from Mack Weldon is simple yet perfect: it thanks users and asks them to rate their purchases. Below, the email has links to related products, which enhances the effectiveness of the sales funnel because it informs and sells. 

So far, we’ve involved users quite a lot, but can we do more? Can you optimize your newsletter with more interactive emails than these? Let’s try to figure it out. 

Quizzes and Surveys

We turn to quizzes because we find them fun, challenging, and entertaining. That’s why adding them to emails bonds readers to your brand. By using an email account management service, creating quizzes becomes even easier — you can integrate other apps and unify all your accounts in one space. 

Surveys work well with quizzes to achieve positive results. Finding inspiration shouldn’t be hard with the presence of sites like BuzzFeed, where you can find plenty of quizzes on topics ranging from the Marvel Universe to food and geography. Brands like Cosmopolitan, Seventeen Magazine, and Road Scholar are well-known for using quizzes to keep their subscribers engaged. 

Source

This email is specific and hasn’t just posted a random quiz out of nowhere. Rather, it uses an event to pick the topic from. This one is inspired by Independence Day (US). Choosing options is easy, and you don’t have to leave your inbox to provide answers. Always create quizzes in this way, with a clear motive. For instance, if you have a fashion line, create quizzes to test your customers’ knowledge of famous designers or celebrities’ clothing styles. Making emails as personalized as possible should be your goal, and that’s what we’ll discuss now. 

Personal Touch

Who doesn’t hate those robotic emails that remind you of spammers or insurance companies informing you that your latest payment is due? Don’t be like them. Genuinity is the key. Add that personal touch to avoid sending emails your users don’t want to receive.

The best email marketing companies know that simple actions, like addressing customers by their first names in a friendly manner, isn’t enough. What if you could give your customers the option to make decisions specific to their preferences right from your emails? That’s what Sephora introduced a few years ago. 

Source

Adding this questionnaire at the end of their emails helped them better understand their audience. It also helped the respondents browse well-categorized products that matched their personal needs. Not everyone thinks of filters when searching for products, so presenting this option in the form of a quiz leads customers directly to a landing page with pre-filtered choices. 

Final Thoughts 

During these crowded times, shoppers are bombarded with so much interesting and engaging content that they’re unlikely to read your emails without a scale of interactivity. Incorporating events, GIFs, quizzes, and star ratings make your emails more fun to read and keep subscribers entertained. 

Psychology says that making people feel rewarded infuses a sense of indebtedness in them. If you entertain them, they’ll give you their feedback, browse through your products, and buy more often. With these tips, you can ditch the boring bulletins and stake a place in your audience’s minds as that cool company that sends fun emails. 

The post How to Generate More Sales with Interactive Emails appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

With more than 2 million customers worldwide, Namecheap is the place to go when you want to buy a domain name. This is why we’ve invited them to give us some tips on how to choose the right domain name. Read on!

Your website’s success depends on the name you choose. You may not be able to change it easily if you pick the wrong one at the beginning. As a result, picking the best name from the get-go is critical. But coming up with creative website names when you’re just getting started can be a challenge.

If you find yourself plagued by such worries and in need of a good website name, then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ll go over all the resources and advice you’ll need to come up with some great name concepts. After you’re done reading this, you’ll even be able to handle bulk domain registrations easily! So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Sticking with ‘.com’ Might Be Best

It’s not always a good idea to go all out when it comes to extensions. Here are your guidelines:

• While new extensions like ”.me” or ”.pro” may feel fashionable and eye-catching, ”.com” is still the easiest to remember and most regularly used. In fact, more than three-quarters of all websites end in “.com.” as their domain extension.
  
• Consider obtaining the .com name for your company or start-up. For starters, you’ll need to find out who owns the dot com domain first. You won’t be able to afford to buy your preferred.com if it’s currently owned by a major business unless you have a fortune to spare. Other well-known extensions like “.co,” “.net,” or “.org” can be used instead of the coveted “.com.”
• Then there’s “.nl” for the Netherlands and “.de” for Germany, which are country-specific extensions. These are completely OK if you’re not planning to do business outside the country you chose. For instance, the .ca extension is perfect for a Canadian corporation operating only in Canada.

Source: Statista

Make Sure It’s Easy to Say

Even when people aren’t likely to say the name out loud, pronounceability is still vital. Due to what is known as processing fluency, our brains can digest large amounts of information quickly. When it comes to remembering a name, those that don’t need a person to think too much are usually the best.

All of that potential traffic is wasted if your address is frequently misspelled by users due to its complexity. As a rule, the majority of individuals will give up searching for your brand’s website after a few failed Google searches.

Basically, you’ve lost if you have to spell it out over the phone. Make it easy for your customers to find you, and you’ll reap the benefits! For example, if teachers wanted their voices to be heard better, they should have chosen something other than teacherstalking.com! Though this domain is for sale now, it’s not a good bargain.

It Should Represent Your Brand

As a URL, your domain name is the face of your business. You must therefore make certain that it sounds like a brand.

So, what exactly can you do about accomplishing this challenging task? Rely on simplicity, freshness, and memorability. Remove punctuation marks and anything else that makes it seem weird. A wonderful example is Pepsi.com. When compared to alternatives like ”Pepsi-cola.com” or ”Pepsi-2-drink.com”, the utter simplicity of the actual domain really steals the show.

Brevity is Desirable

Short names can be simple and memorable, but if they’re too short, they can actually be more difficult to remember. Here’s a thought experiment. PastaScience.com versus PastaSci.com: Which is better? Although it is shorter, the abbreviated version is more difficult to say and recall. The first version works well.

The key to success here is finding a happy medium. Keep it simple, but don’t mutilate your name by slashing off entire words.

An acronym may be a good choice for a name if you’re looking to save space. If your brand or product is frequently referred to by its initials, it’s usually a good idea to use the initials. For example, WWF.org is the address of the World Wildlife Fund. Since their charity is well-known and commonly referred to as “WWF,” this is ideal for them.

Do Your Research Beforehand

It is important that you have a memorable name. If the name is too close to that of an existing brand, consumers can get the two mixed up. You don’t want to have to deal with any legal difficulties at the end of the day. If a trademark is infringed upon by your name, you run the risk of having to change it.

In addition, always look up on social media and YouTube to make sure your chosen name is unique and doesn’t overlap with an idea someone else has had in mind!

Keep in mind that a search engine is nothing more than an algorithm. If it is possible for consumers to confuse the name of your firm with that of another, then a search engine stands no chance. If you choose a name for your company that is too similar to that of another company, the search engine results for your name may be cluttered with unrelated links.

Source: Unsplash

Use the Right Keywords

Make no mistake: keywords are king. By including relevant keywords in your domain name, you may provide search engines with information about the content. If you include applicable search terms in the name of your website, it may achieve a higher ranking in relevant searches.

It might be very challenging to find an appropriate domain name that includes your primary keywords and is not currently in use. You’ll need to get creative with the keywords and other terms you use on your address if you want it to stand out from the competition. Try a keyword generator to ensure you’re always given the best choices for your domain!

Avoid Hyphenated Website Links

When thinking of a name for your address, hyphens are never a good idea. Because you do not want to be associated with spam domains that contain hyphens, it is imperative that you steer clear of them.

Hyphenated domains are also susceptible to mistakes for other reasons. For example, if you use a name that contains hyphens because the name you want is already taken, then it is possible that visitors to your website will be led to that of a rival if they forget to type in the hyphen. This is because the name you want is already taken.

Try Not to Repeat Letters

Because doing this boosts the possibility that website users may make typing errors when accessing the page, it is in your best interests to steer clear of names that contain duplicate letters. For example, a website with the name Paperreview.com has a higher chance of having its name misspelled, which will lead to a decrease in visitors.

You may make your name easier to type and easier to remember by avoiding the use of duplicated characters. This will have the added benefit of making your name more memorable.

Keep Room for Growth

Choose a website name that relates to your industry or specialization to offer your website’s visitors an idea of what it is about before they visit. On the other hand, you don’t want to put yourself in a bind for the foreseeable future.

Orchidblog.com might not be a good choice for a florist who wants to blog about different types of flowers, such as roses or hydrangeas, because they may not attract readers who are interested in flowers other than orchids. 

If you don’t handle it correctly, migrating your page to a new address can be a time-consuming and stressful procedure. That’s why it’s critical to choose a site name that can grow with your business.

You Can Change Things as a Last Resort

You tried following the instructions given above, but you still ended up with a name that was already taken? When you apply to register a domain, there are a number of things you can do to make your name stand out from the crowd, such as adding a suffix to it or modifying it in some other way.

Options for a prefix or suffix include phrases like “ThePastaTerra.com” and “PastaTerraShop.com,” respectively. Utilizing a different extension is also an alternative, provided that it does not go against the advice that has been given thus far and that it is suitable for both your brand and the demographic you are trying to attract. Terra.pasta is an appropriate point of reference.

The final word

All these tips should have taught you how to choose a domain name that is not only perfect for your brand but actively promotes your company and grows with your expanding business. This is something every company worth its salt needs, and now that you know how to pick one, you should be able to reach the next level and grow your business beyond your wildest dreams!

The post 10 Smart Tips For Choosing A Winning Domain Name in 2022 appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

Are you struggling to grow your business?

Building any high-growth startup is challenging, but there are a few pitfalls that slow down nearly every entrepreneur.

Thankfully, they’re pitfalls you can overcome—if you learn how. Today, I’ll share how I’ve grown a successful SaaS business and the five biggest mistakes I’ve discovered that every entrepreneur should avoid.

How I bootstrapped a SaaS startup (and what I learned along the way)

In 2014, I founded JustReachOut.

JustReachOut helps founders connect with journalists and build PR for the brands. Our model is similar to most B2B software businesses—someone who’s interested schedules a demo and subscribes monthly.

But along the way, we hit plenty of roadblocks and made a number of major mistakes. Learning from those experiences gave me insight I’d like to pass along to you about finding and converting leads the right way.

Now let’s get on to those 5 mistakes you should avoid…

Mistake #1 –  Focusing on getting leads instead of fixing retention

The first lesson I learned is focusing on the growth metrics that really matter.

Every business needs to get great ROI from marketing, especially startups. It’s no wonder that ROI is the top concern for CMOs and brand managers, with 98% saying it keeps them up at night.

But when we take ROI and make it concrete, the solution becomes vague. Most people think a smart ROI mindset is “grow, grow, grow,” but that’s only partly true: growth only works if you find new customers you can keep.

That’s why it’s a mistake to only focus on getting new leads.

We found that fixing retention and churn is a better way to spend your money. Keeping the average customer around for even an extra month or two can mean five, six, or even seven figures of additional business revenue over the long term.

And improving retention is usually more affordable than acquisition. You aren’t paying ads, running partnerships, or finding new opportunities. You’re just leveraging the strengths of your existing team to improve the customer experience.

And that is what reducing churn is all about: the customer experience. Customers tend to start because they want results, but leave because they aren’t happy with how they’re treated.

Have conversations with former customers who are leaving and understand why. Dedicate time to improving even small complaints from customers who leave.

To succeed with a business that runs on recurring revenue, focus on retention, not just new leads.

Now that your business keeps customers loyal and happy, we need to turn to nurturing leads.

Mistake # 2. Miscommunication between support and sales

Speaking of focusing on retention, one of the best ways to keep your retention rates high and set yourself apart from the competition is a solid system for sharing communication between sales and support.

This may sound simple but it’s easy to get wrong. For example, is your live chat software flagging requests from existing customers? Are you getting the context of previous conversations when someone reaches out?

You will struggle with streamlined communication until you have a good system.

We found that an omnichannel solution helped us the most to synchronize support and sales. We integrated several different technologies all into one communications platform.

For example, we combined HelpScout with HubSpot using Zapier, tying everything together.

Where it shines most for us has been having a help desk, VoIP phone system, live chat, SMS text and CRM all in one. We’ve been delivering a much better customer experience using this method.

We can pick up customer conversations right where we left off, even through different channels. Incoming requests are matched to the relevant customer data. And we can deliver customer support that feels seamless.

If you’re just starting, you might be able to get along without an omnichannel solution, but it’s only a matter of time. Start looking for a communications tool like this now and upgrade as soon as possible to move your business forward.

Synchronized communication delivers a better customer experience that affects everything, from retention to customer satisfaction to conversion.

Mistake #3 – Incorrect tracking and attribution

How often do you get a new prospect and have no idea how they found you?

If you’re like most startups, it happens all the time. For example: let’s say you’re running a Google ads campaign on your WordPress site you might be getting leads from that, but at the same time you might be doing webinars and newsletters and you might be getting leads from that effort as well.

Tracking software can do a great job, but it isn’t as effective as you might think. For example let’s say: someone learned about your tool from an ad but signed up for the tool three days later after they read your newsletter. 

Focused landing pages do a much better job of tracking your leads, and help you track people who find you in ways you wouldn’t expect.

For example, we have a partnership offer with Silicon Valley Bank. It’s a straightforward landing page that targets customers of a bank that appeals to entrepreneurs—a win-win for both of us.

But let’s say an SVB customer sees our offer and clicks on the page. But instead of scheduling a demo, they signed up for our newsletter. They forward information to the CEO, who reads third-party reviews and the pricing page on mobile, then signs up for a demo the following week on their desktop computer.

Scenarios like this are more common than you’d think. And they’re nearly impossible to track.

The solution? Asking people how they found you. We’ve learned it’s an excellent tool to help break through the confusion of automatic attribution.

And for even more detailed information, leave it as a text box, not a multiple-choice question. Have each lead write how they found you in their own words. You’ll learn a lot, and robably be surprised with the unexpected ways people discover your brand.

One advantage of this method is that you’ll spot new opportunities for marketing. And another benefit is that it’ll give you valuable information you can use to segment properly and present the right offers to the right people at the right time.

But tracking and attribution are only as valuable as the leads you can qualify.

Mistake #4 – Not qualifying leads with questions

I see a lot of founders focusing on the number of prospects they bring in. Leads are essential, don’t get me wrong, but they can become a vanity metric if you’re not measuring conversion rates.

What matters is sales, and it’s impossible to run a lean sales team if they’re spending most of their time on leads that will never buy.

We’ve found that one of the best ways to convert leads is by asking questions. A lot of questions. Seven, to be exact—plus contact details, here is how our “book demo” page looks like:

There is a great article on the Colibri blog titled “The Chronicles of WordPress Lead Generation” with more examples on the topic.

Many marketers focus on reducing the questions in signup forms to get more leads, and we certainly lose prospects because of how much we ask.

But our thought process is that if someone isn’t willing to spend 1-2 minutes filling this out, they aren’t interested in our product (and probably aren’t worth 30+ minutes of our time in a demo).

So it works as a filter. But it also pre-qualified leads with a lot of detail. For example, we ask about their budget for the next six months, whether they have a dedicated content person on their staff, and more. We’ve found these factors determine whether or not someone will succeed with our product.

We can immediately see who’s a perfect fit for JustReachOut, and who might not be ready for it (yet).

If you want to start converting more leads, try this method. Ask more qualifying questions in the signup process. If you’re worried about losing too many prospects, give it a test and see how well these pre-qualified leads perform.

And those qualifying questions have another advantage. They help us target leads more directly.

Mistake #5 – Forgetting to personalize and segment

The next mistake is not customizing the experience enough for each lead. Once someone has expressed interest, you need to make that journey unique and valuable.

Otherwise, you’ll lose them.

Segmentation divides your leads into groups, like one-person solopreneurs versus medium-sized businesses. Personalization is customizing each message, like using their name or referencing previous conversations.

It’s nearly impossible to segment and personalize by hand. That’s why I recommend automation software to help.

One of the simplest ways to do so is by utilizing the lead intake form we talked about earlier and simply adding multiple fields to segment your target audience and personalize follow ups.  

At JustReachOut we used a WordPress form, then used Zapier to connect different parts of our funnel without needing to intervene. For example, a simple Zap connected new leads to ConvertKit, ready to send a welcome message.

This message is part of a sequence that builds rapport with new customers and onboards them to our software. But you can create an email series to interact with any kind of prospect or customer, from warming up new leads to building an intro sequence to your newsletter.

And you can also personalize with most email platforms, including ConvertKit. Any information you collect, like their first name or business, can make your emails that much more relevant.

Over time, you’ll learn better and better ways to customize your message for your audience. Start segmenting now and test as you go on.

But great personalization extends beyond just automation.

The final word on mistakes to avoid

There’s a lot to learn when growing your business. And thankfully, the fastest way to learn those lessons is from those of us who have gone before.

As I’ve grown my business, I’ve learned that the key to long-term growth is less about bringing in leads and more about how we treat them once they show up. We need to make sure they’re qualified, even if it means fewer leads passed on to the sales team.

We need to track, attribute, personalize, and segment better. And we need to keep our paying customers around with great support and high retention rates.

Building a business isn’t easy, but if you avoid some common pitfalls, you can speed up the journey.

The post 5 Mistakes to Avoid when Growing Your Business appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

A brick-and-mortar local business like a restaurant, or shopping center wouldn’t make much use of internet marketing that spans the globe. It would be an inefficient use of local businesses’ marketing budget to target a global audience.

A general rule in internet marketing is to target those most likely to take your desired action — in this case, come to your local business. These businesses would benefit more from local internet marketing.

Local internet marketing, as the name states, is a digital marketing effort targeting those within the business’ immediate area of operations. Targeting this specific area is a more efficient use of your marketing budget. Keep reading for your quick yet comprehensive guide on local internet marketing.

1. Create localized content

While western culture is the dominant global culture universally understood by most people, you’d want to resonate with that of your specific area of operations. Shown below is an Indian cafe page that showcases in its copy the hospitality of Delhi.

Source

It helps if you, or your marketing officers, know the local culture at a native level. If you were born and raised in your area of operations, you should have no trouble creating localized content.

Know your Audience

Research methods like focus groups are helpful, but the most optimal way to know your exact target audience is by hiring a superior marketing officer from the local community.

Entrust that they know the culture inside and out, and delegate to them the voice of your local marketing.

How to Create Content that Resonates with My Audience?

Once you know your target audience, your content should:

• Use imagery familiar to them. A good tip for local marketing is to use landmarks and map directions in your content.
• Some ad platforms let you know what pages your social media audience like. You can use this to determine your customers’ interests, allowing you to craft more engaging marketing content.
• Speak their language including slang and colloquial.
• Celebrate local events. The village you’re operating in may have its own festivals and celebrations.

When your brand goes global, part of your project roadmap should be a decentralized brand tone across your different branches. This is to resonate with the culture of your various branches, but still, be true to your brand guidelines.

2. Target geo-specific keywords

Google, and other search engines, are your friend. Potential customers find local businesses through search results. You can improve your search results ranking within your local area by targeting geo-specific keywords.

These keywords improve your local SEO results, helping you rank highly in the search engines’ results pages (SERPs). New customers tend to search for something along the lines of “restaurants in…” That’s assuming they dominantly speak English.

Source

If you’re operating in Delhi, India, the keywords you’d want to use are “Delhi” and “India.” The search term you’d want to optimize for may look something like “Best cafe in Delhi.” From there, you’d want to perform deeper keyword research.

Keyword Research for Local Search Marketing

• When using keyword suggestion tools, set your area to the city you’re operating in to show you the results generated in that city.
• Only use keyword suggestions relevant to your business.
• An important rule in keyword research is to look for low-volume long-tail searches. These are less competitive and more specific. For example, if you serve spicy food, you could target the search term “Spicy Food in Delhi.”

You’d also want to consider that searches performed in your area of operation may not be in English.

If the country you’re operating in speaks a different native language – take, for example, Thailand – then you’d want to use Thai for your keywords and content. This is useful for local search marketing.

Audit On-Page SEO

Once you’ve gathered your keywords, you’d want to look through your current website’s content. Add in the necessary keywords to your website so that it ranks for the appropriate local searches, improving your local SEO. However, you’d still want your content to read naturally.

Follow these steps and you’re likely to be found on the first page of SERPs.

3. Optimize your Google My Business

If you want your business to be on the map in today’s digital age, you need a Google My Business listing. Think of it as local listings or business listings for online marketing.

Google My Business puts you on Google Maps

Your business will show up for “near me” search queries, just like how local directories function. This is important, considering the on-the-go behavior of people performing searches on their mobile devices.

There’s a lot more functionality to being placed on Maps, such as location tagging for UGCs. We’ll get to that later.

Google My Business allows you to receive Google Reviews

These testimonials attract more nearby customers and uplift your brand reputation.

Receiving Google reviews will provide your business with social proofing, thus attracting more sales to your business.

How to optimize your Google My Business listing

You’d want to keep your Google My Business listing in optimal shape.

• Fill in your most relevant business type. If your local business is a sushi bar, indicate that.
• Add other relevant categories to your business. If you also do corporate meetings, indicate that in your sub-categories.
• Add your website’s URL and contact numbers to your listing.
• Add images. You’d want to add pictures of your business’ front, the interior, and the products/service you provide.
• Collect reviews and testimonials. More on this later.

The above tips will optimize your Google My Business listing, helping your online marketing efforts. A detailed listing also appeals to most customers easily by providing your location, services, operating hours, etc.

4. Don’t Forget The Testimonial

Word-of-mouth marketing is the oldest and most genuine form of marketing. Today, there are more online marketing tools and methods that can emulate this genuineness. Let’s take a look at testimonials.

Testimonials encourage more users to try out your product. When you see good reviews on Amazon, you’re compelled to buy the product. Just like photos and videos, testimonials should also be used in your marketing collateral. Here’s how you can gather testimonials:

• Personally ask for reviews when customers visit your business. You can reward them with a discount, a free item, etc.
• Ask for reviews via an email marketing campaign. Your email list, being your most engaged leads, will likely provide you with reviews.
• Interactions with your customers may also be reviews (i.e., Thanks, I really enjoyed your pizza!). Ask them for permission before publishing these messages.
• Search for brand mentions and hashtags on social media sites. 
• Invite your most engaged customers for an interview. You could make much use of a video-format testimonial. Give them a token of appreciation.

Alongside testimonials, you can also use other forms of user-generated content to support your local internet marketing efforts.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content is content created and posted by individuals. According to Stackla, UGC is 79% more persuasive than brand-posted content, thereby giving you a more effective web presence.

How to Generate UGC?

There are two easy ways to generate UGC:

• When you’re on Google’s maps, users may tag your location when they upload photos of your business.
• Have a brand hashtag. Encourage customers to use that hashtag when they upload social media content.

Take a look at this image:

Source

Shown above is a UGC for Triveni Terrace Cafe in Delhi, India posted on Instagram.

5. Adjust the geographic reach of your social media ads

Don’t waste money targeting areas you’re not even serving. You’d want to limit the targeting of your paid advertising (i.e. Facebook Ads, Google Ads) to the geographic location of your business.

You might find more use with a 2m radius since proximity is a major factor for customers deciding which local businesses to visit. This makes a lot of sense when doing paid advertising for local internet marketing.

Benefits of Geographic Social Media Marketing

• Limits your reach to a relevant area (i.e., Las Vegas, Texas, Delhi, Gurugram), optimizing your marketing budget.
• Your social media followers will primarily consist of people within your vicinity. This means that your posts can focus on catering to the ideal potential customer.
• The denser the area of reach, the more likely word about your business will snowball to nearby areas via word-of-mouth.

If you feel you’ve reached a bottleneck with your radius targeting (the projected reach doesn’t rise in proportion to the ad spend anymore), that’s when you can opt to add 1m more to your targeting radius.

6. Get proper inbound links

There are likely a bunch of content websites that cater to your country, region, or city’s niche. Generate links to your website via mentions on their pages. This increases your website’s domain authority, ranking, and organic traffic.

Source

Cafe Delhi Heights is a well-reviewed restaurant in Delhi. However, they don’t have the best domain authority. To combat this, the restaurant tries to secure inbound links. For example, they got featured in a top travel blog and received a high-quality inbound link. 

Here are ways you can generate inbound links from relevant content websites:

• Guest Blogging

Write a blog that they’ll publish on their site. In exchange, insert a link that leads to your website.

• Pay to be Featured

Pay to be featured on a list blog or feature article. If you’re a restaurant, you’ll benefit from food and travel blogs published by local websites linking back to your website.

• Conduct an Outreach Campaign

Do an outreach campaign, tapping as many reputable local sites as possible. The more quality inbound links you’ll generate for your website, the better your SEO performance. You’d also want to actively avoid low-quality sites as they can negatively affect your backlink profile.

Reach out to the top bloggers in your area for marketing partnerships that will earn your business these links. Getting featured on multiple local sites increases your brand’s reach. More local people will become aware of your business.

Conclusion

Local internet marketing is digital marketing for local businesses such as restaurants and plumbing services. To bring in more traffic to your business, create local internet marketing content that appeals to the locale.

In your digital marketing efforts, target geo-specific keywords by utilizing the name of the area you’re operating in. This optimizes your site for local search results. Create a Google My Business page and optimize it. This will act as an online business listing. Generate customer testimonials and utilize UGC to attract more customers. Adjust the geographic reach of your paid ads to target those that can walk into your store. You’d also want links from local content websites whose niche complements yours.

Follow these steps and more potential customers will be attracted to your local businesses, generating more sales.

The post A Comprehensive Guide to Local Internet Marketing appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

A website is a shop window, and a communication channel between business and client. But a website is only as effective as the number of customers and potential customers who engage with it. The priority for any website owner is driving visits to their site, and more importantly, having those visits result in purchases or hiring services.

So, how can you increase your website’s traffic? Well, social media marketing and blogging can both be effective, and of course, search engine optimization is a mainstay. There’s no doubt that the best SEO tools will significantly boost the site traffic. There are also pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising options, although these can be expensive.

But there’s another solution that is sometimes neglected, and that is increasing referral traffic. But what is referral traffic?

Referral traffic is basically one website recommending another. It happens when someone clicks on a link on one website that takes them directly to a different site. Following links in this way is of course the internet’s MO, it’s how the ‘everything-is-connected’ world works. But how can you make this work for you and your business? Well, there are various referral tools available. Let’s take a closer look at how to grow and understand your website’s referral traffic.

1. Understand your referral traffic using Google Analytics

So, how can you find out if and when referral traffic is hitting your website? The answer is analytics. Through analytics, you can arm yourself with the information you need, to assess where your referrals are coming from.

Google Analytics basically tracks website traffic. It can identify by default: organic traffic (from search engines), direct traffic (traffic from people that type the website or have bookmarked your site), social traffic and referral traffic. Referrers are the sites that carry the hyperlinks that lead to your site. Clicks from these hyperlinks are logged and tracked.

If you run paid ad campaigns, email campaigns, or campaigns on  other channels, these can be tracked as well. You just need to tag the links that will get clicked and bring people to your site. 

You can view your referrals and check how visitors are finding your website. Helpfully, and most importantly, it can also show you what those visitors are doing once they get to your site. This is an important piece of the picture when it comes to knowing your website conversion rates.

So, how is this information accessed and presented in practice? There are basically five simple steps:

1.  Go to the Acquisition tab.
2.  Go to the All traffic tab.
3.  Select Referrals.

At this point you should see a table showing the sources of your referral traffic. You can select any date range, in order to focus on specific time frames.

Now, perhaps you’ve partnered with another site to drive traffic, or you’ve embarked on a new content marketing strategy. Whatever the situation, looking at analytics is enlightening.

You could see how traffic from a specific source evolves during certain periods, how that specific traffic converts. You can even segment by country and device.

Next you could include those good-performing sites into your strategy. Maybe you could publish an article there, decide on a mutual promotion strategy, etc. One way of doing this is developing a referral program. This is a win-win strategy. Here’s more info on best referral programs.

Now let’s look at steps you can take to actively drive that traffic and increase referrals.

2. Get listed inside directories

Publishing your website on online directories is an effective but simple way to drive referral traffic.  The advice here is to be targeted and focused. Don’t publish on every directory available.  

Focus on your industry sector and search out directories that have a high referral traffic rate. It’s also important to think local. Consider which directories cater to your city or geographical area and check which are the most popular. 

And take a look at that, the folks at Moz have prepared a list of such directories, by category and city.

3. Guest blogging 

Guest blogging is another great way to get visits your site. Most blogs have external links embedded in their biographies, stories, and calls to action.

The most useful blogs are going to be on websites specific to your industry. Reach out to website owners and bloggers, and suggest them a topic they can’t refuse. Make sure you research the topic and the current blog content of the website you’re reaching out to.

For example, the folks at ConvertSquad published an article with the title “Psychology Concepts to Apply in E-Commerce Web Design and copy”, on the Design Your Way website.

They published an article that speaks of e-commerce design on a design website. ConvertSquad is a blog that talks about e-commerce. See the relevance of the topic for both sites?

When you blog, remember to use your own name. This may sound obvious, but although hiding behind a pseudonym might be useful at times in the online world, it’s counterproductive when blogging to drive traffic to your company.

When blogging, look at the style of other posts and articles on the site, and consider the audience and what interests them. Look for a way you can both stand out, especially with your blog post heading, yet fit naturally among the other posts.

 4. Commenting to blog posts

Blogging is most definitely time consuming,  but commenting on blogs can also be really effective and much cheaper in terms of your valuable time.

Commenting as often as possible can drive SEO and create referral visits to your site. But be careful about what you say in the comments. You must be relevant and positive, and you should avoid bragging, humble or otherwise, as it’s far more obvious than you might realize to the reader.

Here are a few tips for good practice with comments:

•  Praise, but don’t gush. Aim to be positive and well informed.
• Acknowledge the content of the blog. Comment on what it’s about.
• Mention the blogger by name. Be personal and polite.
• Reference other blogs they have written, this will go down very well!
• Commit to sharing the blog if that’s appropriate for you.
• Link to your website, but make it as well integrated into your comment and subtle as possible.

5. Get smart with your social media strategy

Many marketers recognize social media as the one of best sources of exposure and a valuable way of increasing referral traffic.

Social media use varies when it comes to which platform your target audience or demographic prefer. Doing some homework in this area is therefore advisable. Tag people, businesses and brands in some of your posts to gain more reach and, traffic, in the end. But don’t abuse this. 

Being active on social media platforms is an opportunity to like, share, pin content, and engage with customers. It increases your chances of appearing high up on a search and directly boosts your referral rates.

6. Get your product reviewed on review websites

Review sites can bring a good stream of referrals your way, but it will depend on whether you trade with the public, or with other businesses. Obviously, businesses who deal with private customers tend to get reviewed more often.

Generally, visitors to review sites are serious about making a purchase or hiring a service, they are in the process of researching, in order to make the right choice.

Getting your website linked to from a review site is a great way to send customers your way. But the catch is that customers have to want to review your products and services. The only real way to guarantee this is to make sure your offering is top-notch. But you can also incentivize and suggest that customers comment. Follow-up emails after a transaction can help.

7. Infographics

Infographics are appealing and simple to take in. They cater to the shorter attention spans all of us have these days, and how little spare time many people can dedicate to taking in information. Infographics turn dense data into clear and easily digestible pictures.

What you want is for your infographics to be shared, pinned, and liked on other sites and social media. It’s worth spending the time and resources on infographics as if you can get them embedded in other people’s blogs, articles and accounts, you will drive traffic to your site.

As with the reciprocal nature of blogs, it’s also important to post other companies’ infographics.

8. Show up in industry forums

 This is an area many companies neglect, but online industry forums can be another source of traffic to your site.

 Choose forums that are specific to your business and sector, and make sure the forum is active. There are many forums that are basically frozen in time and essentially abandoned. Don’t waste time posting on these.

 Once you’ve found a relevant and active forum, register with your brand name. Use real life personal examples when commenting, and most importantly, create a signature that includes a link and a call to action. It’s also good to begin threads yourself rather than just adding to existing ones.

Summary

The key to increasing your website’s referral traffic as we have seen, is basically arming yourself with data to begin with, then deciding which strategies are a good fit for your business and above all your available time.

Business website owners have competing demands, whether their business is all online or has an online presence. Not every business owner can commit to blogging or reviewing. Finding a level that’s feasible for you and your business is important if it is to be sustainable.

Whichever strategy you opt for, going back to check the stats to find out if your efforts have resulted in referrals, is key. Tracking affiliate marketing is also a valuable activity. Sometimes the analytics throw up surprises, a strategy you weren’t so sure would result in referrals might turn out to be the most productive. The key to a successful website is to check, drive, then check those referrals again.

The post How to Increase Your Website’s Referral Traffic: an 8 Point Guide to Success appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

The quickest and easiest method of snagging donations? Crowdfunding. 

The crowdfunding market is growing rapidly. After COVID-19 shifted more work and play online, fundraising horizons expanded to usher in more cutting-edge, tech-based fundraising strategies. Current projections show that crowdfunding will grow by more than USD 196 billion by 2025. 

To get a piece of the pie, you can tap into the crowdfunding market to promote, market, grow, and expand your big dream while generating much-needed revenue. 

If you are the DIY type, making a crowdfunding website can be quite tricky. You need to safely handle  payments and user registrations, create rewards and tiers, follow milestone, and more. But, now worries, there are several plugins that can help you out. On the other hand, you can also rely on external platforms.

But, let’s take approach this one step at a time.

Crowdfunding 101 

First up, what is crowdfunding? If you’re fuzzy on the term, not to worry. It’s simple: crowdfunding is all about raising cash with donations from a diverse group of supporters. 

Unlike typical fundraising efforts we’re all familiar with—bake sales, canned food drives, and those guys with clipboards that accost you on the street—online crowdfunding campaigns are strictly digital. 

Sponsors share their projects with stories, pictures, and videos and invite donations on fundraising platforms like RallyUp or Kickstarter. What makes crowdfunding so effective is that it has the potential to reach a massive, global audience. 

Foolproof Strategies for Collecting Donations

Whether you need cash to organize an event, expand your school library, or help homeless animals, a crowdfunding campaign can inspire global support for your cause. 

For example, the Save the Children Fund, dedicated to improving children’s lives through education, healthcare, and economic well being, has an extraordinary crowdfunding project called Donate Your Birthday. 

The basic idea is that instead of receiving gifts on your special day, you ask for donations to Save the Children made in your name. People get the chance to give and receive meaningful gifts, and the organization benefits from increased revenue. It’s truly a win-win. 

Here are our tips to start dreaming up your own crowdfunding campaign:

Timing

Use the unique power of important events, like birthdays, awareness months, or historical dates to help your story go viral. 

Black History Month, for instance, is an optimal time to fundraise for your Black-led nonprofit. Your wedding anniversary is the perfect day to kick off your family-run food bank. 

Storytelling 

Everyone loves a good story. What makes a story good? We think it all comes down to pathos and heroes. 

• Pathos. First, tell people there’s a problem and why they should care about it. If you’re an educator, maybe your school lacks a good computer lab that the kids really need. If you suffer from celiac disease, maybe there are zero gluten-free dining options in your area. 
• Heroes. Once you’ve identified the problem, it’s time to offer a solution. Sure, a depressing fact might generate sympathy, but that doesn’t make the world a better place. The point of crowdfunding is that diverse people can be the heroes in your story by helping you launch that gluten-free restaurant and build that school computer lab. 

Get Inspired by Impressive Crowdfunding Campaigns

1. Flow Hive. One of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns of all was run by Flow Hive, which involves an innovative beehive that extracts honey without disturbing bees. By focusing on the environmental importance of bees and harvesting honey in a gentle way, the father-son team told a compelling story on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo that people really wanted to be a part of. 
2. Love Army for Somalia. This crowdfunding campaign used the Somali drought crisis to generate millions of dollars to help people get access to clean water. By sharing a problem and then empowering donors to be part of the solution, these campaigns inspired people to make a real difference. 
3. Support the RNLI. To address the refugee crisis, the Irish politician Simon Harris launched a crowdfunded project that brought in nearly $185k for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a UK charity dedicated to lifeboat search and rescue. 
4. Pizzas for Heroes. A campaign doesn’t have to be a major international affair to make a difference. Recently, a small but mighty campaign called Pizzas for Heroes capitalized on public support for healthcare workers to deliver pizzas to those working on the front lines of the pandemic. 
5. Duke’s Place Called Home. If you’re an animal lover, take a cue from this touching campaign that raised nearly $100k from supporters all around the world. It told the heartbreaking story of an injured calf named Duke to create a home for him and other farm animals, called CALF Sanctuary. 

The right platform

Not all crowdfunding platforms are created equal. While they have a similar basic process, each one has one-of-a-kind features that can help propel your campaign to success. When evaluating which platform is right for your project, consider pricing, ease of use, and integration options. 

Our top picks for different types of projects:

• Kickstarter has been around forever and is a reward-based platform. That means supporters get incentives to donate to your cause, like merch or discounts. More investment means more perks.
• Patreon is an interesting choice for podcasters, vloggers, and live streamers of all stripes, who offer their content to paying members.
• SyndicateRoom is useful for startups that prefer alternatives to the Kickstarter-style reward-based structure. The UK-based platform connects rising business stars to angel investors with equity-based fundraising, which means that investors get a share of equity in return for their contribution. 
• RallyUp has clever features that make it a go-to for nonprofits. The platform empowers organizations to combine different fundraising experiences, like branded donation pages, silent auctions, Athons, and live streaming. The best part? It’s free to use. 

Collect Donations on your WordPress Site

If you already have a community of supporters and want to ask for donations on your own site instead of using a fundraising platform, we’ve got you covered. With a crowdfunding plugin and the right theme, you’ll have an even bigger crowd of fans cheering you on. 

7 Popular WordPress Plugins for Donations

1. GiveWP. One of the most intelligently designed donation plugins, Give lets you create customized donation forms, accept donations via tons of payment gateways, manage donors, and generate tax-deductible receipts. 
2. WPForms. If you’re looking for a super easy donation plugin, WPForms has customized drag-and-drop donation forms and prefilled, ready-to-use templates. The end result looks good on mobile, too, automatically resizing the forms to fit across all devices. 
3. WPForms Lite. If you’re just getting started with fundraising, this free version delivers the same drag-and-drop form builder as its meatier counterpart, but with fewer features. 
4. WP Charitable. With the capability to set up customized donation forms and run unlimited campaigns for free, this is a trusted option with more than 10k installs.
5. Smart Donation. If customization is important to you, Smart Donation allows you to get creative while also analyzing your progress and sending thank-you emails—keep in mind that the free version is pretty limited.
6. Seamless Donations. Easy to set up and use, Seamless Donations is free, but offers a lot of paid add-ons. Like many other WordPress donation plugins, it lets you accept one-time or recurring payments and send thank-yous. 
7. Paypal Donation. PayPal has been around the block more than a few times and has mastered online payments in multiple currencies. The donation plugin is simple, streamlined, and everyone trusts the name. 

The Bottom Line

Of the many online fundraising options out there, crowdfunding is the easiest way to get donations rolling in quickly. 

Crowdfunding easily lends itself to endless customizations, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to dreaming up a catchy and imaginative campaign that connects global audiences with YOUR unique story. So, get brainstorming and fundraising!

Now, if you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to design a WordPress website, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

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The post WordPress Crowdfunding and Donations: What Your Need to Know appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

Video is an excellent marketing tool, especially following the pandemic. Roughly 86 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, which is up from 85 percent in 2020.

Furthermore, 87 percent of video marketers reported that video offers a positive return-on-investment (ROI), which is up from the 33 percent that felt that way in 2015.

If you want to get the best results from video, however, you need a strong video marketing strategy and a solid understanding of the different types of video, how to use them, and how to set your business up for success.

The Benefits of Video Marketing

If you’re not familiar with video, it can be intimidating to start. Filming yourself or your products takes some work, so you may be wondering if it’s worth it.

Yes, video marketing is worth the effort. Using video to market your brand opens up a world of opportunities to reach your audience and grow your business. Here are some of the biggest benefits of video marketing:

• Videos are proven to boost conversion rates
• Video provides a positive ROI, especially with all the options for creating and uploading videos
• Using videos can build trust in your audience, boosting your conversions, customer retention, and customer loyalty
• Videos boost your ranking and improve search engine optimization (SEO)
• Videos are more likely to resonate with users, encouraging sharing on social media

Different Types of Marketing Videos

Like any content, videos have subcategories. Knowing how to use the subcategories to your advantage helps you target them to the right phase of the sales funnel.

Let’s take the different types of videos one by one.

Sales Generation Videos

Sales generation videos are created with the intent of landing a sale. You may be familiar with sales generation videos that are on the radio or television. While traditional sales generation videos like these still exist, digital marketing led to a rise in online sales generation videos.

Where Should Sales Generation Videos Be Posted?

In most cases, sales generation videos should be on social media platforms and landing pages. The social media channels you publish videos on depends on your audience – where do they spend the most time? Let’s say you have a cosmetics brand for teenagers. Probably Instagram and Tik Tok would be your main social media channels.

Sales generation videos need to be approached with in-depth market research to ensure you’re getting the most for your effort and marketing spend. Keep in mind that sales generation videos have excellent conversions on landing pages in particular.

When Should Sales Generation Videos Be Used?

Sales generation videos have the sole purpose of driving sales of a product or service. These are direct response marketing and should be created with the intent to sell in mind. Because of this, it’s important to understand the stages of the buyer’s journey and use the sales generation videos during the decision phase.

What Videos are Sales Generation Videos?

Sales generation videos may include:

• Paid ads: These are the online version of radio and television commercials.
• Brand awareness videos: These videos introduce your business and your product or service. BarkBox has an excellent brand awareness video with a fun and playful tone.
• Humorous videos: Humor can be used for persuasion, so many businesses use funny videos to market their products and capture the attention of their audience. Best of all, humorous videos are more likely to be shared on social media. Here’s a great example of a humorous video for a natural deodorant.

What can Sales Generation Videos Do?

Done well, a sales generation video can:

• Convert leads to buyers
• Improve brand awareness and increase online presence
• Gain the audience’s attention to influence a purchase decision
• Address customer pain points and concerns
• Connect the customer’s problem with the solution your product or service offers

Product Videos

Product videos are specific to a product or service you offer. They act as a promotional tool to highlight your brand and share individual offers. In many cases, product videos take an educational stance and teach your audience how to use a product to solve their problem.

A product video can be used to flow into your sales generation video, but that’s not its intended purpose. The goal of a product video is to address the customer’s problem and highlight a product or service as the solution.

Where Should Product Videos Be Posted?

Unlike sales generation videos, product videos can go anywhere. You can include a product video as part of a blog post or other long-form content. You can use the blog post to address the problems and offer your product as the solution, then show your audience how with a product video.

Product videos can also be used in emails. If you can create a strong subject line and email, your audience is more likely to engage with your video in an email than on the internet.

When Should Product Videos Be Used?

In terms of the buyer’s journey, product videos belong in the consideration phase. They’re intended to address the customer’s problem and offer the product as a solution.

The consideration phase differs from the decision phase in a few key ways. The consideration phase means the customer is early in the process of researching the solutions to their problem and considers your product as a possible solution. It doesn’t have the same urgency as the decision phase, in which the customer is ready to buy. You’re trying to prepare your customer for the decision phase and the sales generation video.

What Videos are Product Videos?

Product videos focus on the product or service. These include:

• Testimonial videos: These are videos that feature a customer’s review or testimonial of the product or service. They’re not only social proof, but add a layer of authenticity to your business and product. These often go into detail about the problem and the product as a solution, giving customers more confidence in what the product can do for them. Take a look at this wonderful customer success story for Hubspot.
• Demo videos: These videos show the product and highlight its features and benefits. Typically done with the business owner or an employee showing how the product works, these videos are in-depth and clearly connect the features with the real-world benefits. This is a great time to highlight the unique value proposition, or what differentiates your product from the competitor’s product. Check out this innovative example of a demo for a meditation app.
• Lifestyle videos: These videos focus on showing how your product or service works in the real world – how it fits into a customer’s life. Your audience sees other people with the same pain points and learns how the product or service helped them. This lifestyle video shows all the real-world benefits of TheTube Wearable Waistband.

What can Product Videos Do?

Done well, a product video can:

• Show in-depth benefits and features of a product
• Outperform competitors
• Create customer loyalty
• Position your business as an authority in the industry
• Educate buyers to lead them toward the purchase

Educational Videos

Educational videos are videos that teach the audience something. They’re among the most valuable of the video types since they’re all about helping the customer first. These can be used to nurture your audience and position your business as an authority.

Where Should Educational Videos Be Posted?

Educational videos can go anywhere, but they tend to perform best on social media. You can post educational videos using live options like Facebook Live or IGTV on Instagram, or pre-record the content and post.

These videos are also helpful for supporting your blog content. If you have a blog that teaches your audience something, a video can be a wonderful complement that can boost rankings and help your audience better understand the content.

Another option is to take an existing blog post and turn it into an educational video. Some users prefer learning through watching a video than reading a tutorial, so you can reach an entirely new segment of your audience.

When Should Educational Videos Be Used?

Educational videos are a good choice for the start of your buyer’s journey. They capture attention, show the problem and the solution, and provide tons of value. Keep in mind that you should be providing value throughout the entire buyer’s journey, however, and not just in the early stages.

What Videos are Educational Videos?

Educational videos are designed to teach a lesson. These may include:

• How-to videos: Often posted on YouTube, how-to videos offer live demonstrations of how to use a product, solve a problem, or master a skill. Here’s a good example of a how-to video for using Asana for Slack.
• Explainer videos: Typically short, explainer videos are direct and use simple methods and languages to showcase subcategories of the product or service. Grammarly has an excellent explainer video that shows you how the service can make you a better writer.
• Webinar videos: This is an online version of an in-person seminar. Webinars are long and bring together different community members. You must also sign up for a webinar, making them excellent for lead generation. Though most webinars are live-streamed, webinars may be recorded and offered to viewers at a later date. Notion has a powerful webinar video that offers real value to its customers.

What can Educational Videos Do?

• Create a flow between discovery and consideration phases
• Position your business as a thought leader in the industry
• Capture leads
• Widen the brand reputation
• Generate interest and engagement on social media

What Videos Work Best for Increasing Traffic?

• PPC ads: Pay-per-click ads, or PPC ads, are placed on search engines and websites to generate traffic to your website. As the name suggested, you’re charged when someone clicks on the video.
• Social media videos: Social media videos may be paid or organic, but both offer an opportunity to increase reach and build an audience. Social media channels offer options to filter your audience and only show your videos to the people most likely to interact with your business, whether by past purchase behavior, gender, location, or age.
• Viral videos: Viral videos are excellent are increasing website traffic, but there’s no easy way to make a video “go viral.” While you can’t aim for a viral video, you can focus on delivering the most valuable information to the audience in the most relatable and sharable way to encourage engagement.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Videos

Though a bit more advanced than other types of video, AR and VR videos offer an immersive experience for the viewer. VR videos make your viewer feel as though they’re standing in the middle of the content, whatever it may be, and allow them to control the experience. Videos are usually viewed through specialized VR devices.

AR videos are similar to VR videos in that they create an immersive experience, but they simply add a digital layer to whatever the viewer is already seeing. Many brands use AR to show users how a product would fit into their lives, such as art or furniture. The user simply points their camera at the bedroom or living room, and the technology places the art or furniture into the space. See how AR can bring a product to life with this example.

Both VR and AR can be used in a variety of ways and on a variety of platforms, but they’re not ideal for every brand. They’re also more complex to create than standard videos, but well worth it if they help your customer say “yes” to the purchase.

Tips for Video Marketing Engagement

In addition to creating compelling content, you can increase video engagement with a few tips:

• Respond to comments live to show people that you care about their needs and encourage a two-way conversation.
• Experiment with use cases for newer features, such as Instagram Live and Facebook Live, to learn about best practices, dos and don’ts, and more.
• Check metrics for the videos you post to see how many viewers you had, how many times viewers replayed the video, and how much engagement the video received. You can get insights into what worked and what didn’t to improve your next video.
• Film in a controlled, quiet environment to limit background noise. Viewers will be less likely to continue watching your video if they’re struggling to hear what you’re saying.

Choosing Your Video Marketing Methods

The best part about video marketing is that you have numerous options for how to create videos, where to post them, and what to include. Ideally, you should create a variety of videos to reach wide audiences and see how your content performs, but if you’re limited by your time or budget, you can focus on a targeted strategy.

Each video has its place in the buyer’s journey, and it’s vital to know where your video fits in the process. Once you know that, you can tailor your video content to connect with your audience and choose the best place to post.

Get Started with Video

Now that you know the options for video marketing, the best practices, and some tips, you’re ready to get started. You can make videos with your computer or smartphone, and as you grow and learn, you can invest in professional equipment, a studio environment, and other tools to improve your video quality.  

The post A Guide to Video Types, When and How to Use Them   appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

Marketing plays a big role in helping secure conversions and growing sales. With the internet now having become the main source of information, it makes sense to focus on content that online users are becoming more drawn to when making purchasing decisions. 

User-generated content (UGC) originates from real-world consumers of products that are eager to share their experiences and opinion of a brand. The content can include written reviews, images, and videos from amateurs or even industry experts. 

Video content is highly appealing as 85% of US online users make a point of watching video content on their devices. It also offers the highest return on investment (ROI), with experts predicting that people will be watching as much as 100 minutes of video content per day in 2021. This popularity has encouraged as much as 60% of businesses to incorporate it as a marketing tool. 

User-generated video content (UGVC) has come to overshadow professional productions because online users perceive it as being more credible. This has encouraged greater conversions as consumers feel they are getting genuine information rather than the highly customized imagery and modeling done in the studio to cover up possible flaws. 

For businesses, the appeal lies not just in the boost in sales that can be achieved, but also in the lower cost. There is little they have to spend in securing the content as brand loyal customers are often happy to create content and share it with them. They do not pay for the production yet by securing the content, can use it to make money. 

So how does UGVC lead to greater conversions and sales for businesses?

UGVC boosts engagement

Social media campaigns that include user-generated content experience a 50% increase in engagement. Whether it is going to check out reviews or asking a question in the comment section, this engagement means they have an interest in the product or service and are that much closer to making a purchasing decision. 

UGVC is often short but also condensed. It provides valuable information that consumers would be interested in and encouraged to take the next step. Incorporating it increases the chances they will travel further down the sales funnel and convert.

One of the most aggressive UGVC campaigns has to be Doritos Legion of the Bold community that sought to have consumers improve on the brand through creative participation. The campaign has worked great in providing ample research and insights sourced through consumer interactions, focus groups, and social media content. The more users participate, the more they can unlock contest opportunities with various rewards up for grabs. 

UGVC provides content that users want to see

According to Statista, 27.2% of online users watched over 10 hours of video content weekly in 2020. Given that the average user spends about 23 hours a week looking at digital screens for work, entertainment, and communication, video content represents a healthy chunk of online activity. 

For businesses, focusing on the type of content that online users desire, find entertaining and engaging is most strategic. The more likely they are to opt to watch a video, the more likely it will lead to them clicking through links and landing on your e-commerce platform to make a purchase. 

Many brands are now switching to a more inclusive approach when it comes to marketing their products. For instance, those in the fashion business that went for rail-thin high-fashion models are now drawing on their customers of all sizes, races, and even ages, to create ads that are more relatable to fellow consumers. And going by the viewership numbers, they want to see more of. 

Dating platform Bumble used the “Find Me On Bumble” campaign to highlight and celebrate its diverse clientele through UGVC. Talking about themselves and what they were looking for in short video clips made into a collage helped market Bumble as the ideal place New Yorkers of various backgrounds and interests could meet. 

UGVC adds authenticity

People are no longer as enamored by professionally made advertisements and posters. They understand that this was an effort by the business to portray their product or service in the best light possible. They know that making sales and profit are what matter most. 

For the consumer, however, getting their money’s worth is what is important. UGVC makes them feel like they are getting an authentic opinion on the true value of the product or service on offer and can make an informed choice from there. It comes from someone who is just as invested and can honestly tell them what benefits and flaws to expect. 

UGVC can be instructional

UGVC content is not just about basic reviews. Some content can be lengthier, even showing demonstrations of how the products can be used. They can even delve into the product’s specifications, educating the potential buyer on the nitty-gritty details that make the product unique. 

This lengthier content may be created by existing customers, or can even come from within the business. Many businesses will have their in-house experts develop video content on how products are made, can be used, and even hacks. Their opinions can also be better trusted by consumers than professional models hired for an advert. 

This instructional content can help to boost sales as it enlightens users on the various ways products offer good value for money. This trend has successfully been used to sell everything from fashion to cars. 

UGVC is short yet comprehensive

UGVC is often short but highly informative. This is because consumers are more likely to watch videos to the end if they are brief and to the point. 

Videos that are less than 2 minutes long attract the most engagement. Any longer and people tend to lose interest. Not a surprising statistic when you consider how fast platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube shorts have come to dominate. 

You can share a much larger amount of information on a product in a video than you can in text or using just images. As the content creator talks, they can also display the product and demonstrate how it works, creating a quick yet comprehensive way to market. 

Linking to E-Commerce Sites

When you secure permission from the content creators, you can use the videos on just about any platform you have a presence on. This includes social media sites, blogs, and your main business site landing page. Anywhere you share content about your products, you can easily incorporate this content. 

It is easy to include links that will allow online users to go directly to where they can buy the product that has been reviewed. UGVC helps drive traffic where you can better secure conversions and sales. 

Taps into Influencer Marketing

Influencers are great for showcasing products. Top influencers can have a massive following and with just a simple endorsement, can drive your sales through the roof. While they may use different kinds of content to share their opinions, videos are the most powerful tool. These videos will often go viral and can drive sales exponentially.

Rapper Nicki Minaj has severally thanked Taylor Swift for endorsing her Super Bass track while on a radio show. Minaj credited the spontaneous endorsement for giving her greater visibility and pushing the track over 80 spots up the charts. The clip of Swift’s utterances has been viewed millions of times. 

Summary

UGVC can strongly impact the success of a brand by influencing the perception that potential buyers will have about their products and services. More and more businesses are making this video content very much a part of their marketing plan and have seen their brand visibility and sales grow as a result. 

This content works by:

• boosting engagement that will stir the interest and the desire to make a purchase
• providing content that appeals to online users and guiding them where they can partake of the brand’s offerings
• adding an element of authenticity that makes consumers more likely to trust in the views expressed 
• providing additional content value that includes instructions and real-world demonstrations of how products work
• offering short yet easily digestible content that is comprehensive on what benefits the product offers
• directing online viewers to e-commerce sites where sales can be easily executed
• tapping into influencer power to boost sales and grow following

The consumption and influence of UGC keeps on growing, with video content becoming a prominent player. Optimizing your marketing strategies to incorporate this content will help improve the performance and outcomes of your sales funnel. Take a bold step and look into ways you can stimulate your existing followers to contribute and share this across your social media presence. 

The post How User-Generated Video Content Can Help You Increase Website Sales appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

As a manager or business owner, you want to see sustained year-over-year growth. Achieving that growth is hard. Most of the time, you need to get customers from a competing firm for your business to scale. You can be sure your competitors are doing everything they can to retain their market share.

Yet despite the hardship, most growth strategies follow proven models. This guide will discuss five approaches you should explore if you want to scale your business quickly. Read on to learn more.

1. Make Decisions Based On Data

When scaling, your overall success will depend on the decisions you make.  The right decisions will boost your track, while the wrong ones will set your efforts back.

The key to good decision-making is relevant data. Data can help you get new customers and teach you how to engage your current customers. Luckily, getting data these days isn’t that complicated. 

With over 4.66 billion people on the internet today, you have a treasure trove of data to leverage on. Most websites use cookies that help them gather information about their customer’s habits and preferences. And platforms like Google Analytics and Mouseflow record your website’s traffic.

Google Analytics and Mouseflow show you how your customers move through your funnel. These tools show you user bounce rate, how their web sessions go, and as much information they can make available. Although when you need info from an offline audience, you should hire professional market analysts.

Consumer information is not the only data available online. You can also find information on economic conditions and weather forecasts. In addition, local news, authority blogs, and government pages are excellent sources for information that may influence your decisions. 

2. Ask For Help When You Need It

A vital part of the entrepreneurial spirit is the can-do attitude. It’s the secret to having confidence in your ability. But this strong-willed spirit may have you feeling alone in chasing your ambition.

Understand that there is no harm in asking for help, and many start-up founders have admitted to asking for help.

Take Steve Job, for example. He’d asked an angel investor, Mike Markkula, to help him in the early days of Apple. Mike accepted his request and helped him oversee the development and release of the first Apple products.

In giving back, Steve Jobs mentored the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, by teaching him how to build a focused and innovative team.

When you ask for help, it’s not admitting weakness. Instead, it’s acknowledging that you’re human, not omniscient or an AI machine. Do not let your pride or shyness get in the way of your business’s expansion.

Build your network, keep close contact with people who you admire and trust. And work on your relationship so that they’ll help you when you ask. 

3. Avoid Cutting Corners To Save Money

When you cut corners, you compromise on your quality, values, and ethics. Scaling your business is not the time to cut corners. The road that seems easiest may entice you in a moment of desperation, and you may feel compelled to cut back on production costs by reducing quality— don’t do it. 

That includes falsifying data to attract investors. Trust us; cutting corners has a higher chance of destroying your business than growing it. Many customer complaints and business scandals arise from companies cutting corners. 

Here are two examples of companies that failed by trying to scale dishonestly.

Nikola 

Not too long ago, in 2020, a start-up, Nikola, was exposed for ‘faking it.’

Nikola and its CEO, Trevor Milton, had misrepresented their hydrogen-powered freight truck. They portrayed it as a completed project by releasing a video that showed it in motion. When in reality, they had pushed it down a hill to create that illusion. 

This false project convinced General Motors to propose a partnership with them, and it was the perfect ruse until word got out. The CEO — Trevor Milton, resigned, and General Motors pulled out of the deal.

Wirecard

In the same 2020, there was also the Wirecard scandal.

Former CEO of Wirecard, Markus Braun, believed that his company had $2.1 billion to spare and began some charity construction. Unfortunately, this ill-informed decision led to the collapse of the company and a massive loss to its investors.

But the deception did not begin in 2020. Wirecard was a major fintech firm in Europe, and it held the public’s trust. That’s why it chose to expand and keep growing despite its CEO seeing its looming collapse.

Wirecard falsified data that made investors value it at $27billion and list it as one of the 30 members of the DAX stock exchange. Soon, they came under suspicion for fraud, and after investigation, auditors declared €1.9bn missing. These cumulative events made Braun resign as CEO and saw the inevitable collapse of Wirecard, with its stock crashing from $233 to $0.52 in less than one year.

These examples show that every action you take when scaling your business has an impact on your outcome. There’s no denying the power of hard work and integrity. Cutting corners would only be a colossal waste of time and effort. So, again, don’t do it.

4. Pay Attention To Your Customers

Customer acquisition is necessary to kickstart every business. But startup businesses thrive when customers patronize them repeatedly. That’s why one of the immediate problems you’ll tackle as a new company is market acceptance. 

It’s necessary to create loyal customers. The way customers perceive you will influence their interactions with you business. And in a way, this perception can either make or break your business.

According to The Nielsen Company, 74 percent of consumers claim that word of mouth influences their buying decisions. As a result, many companies put in the effort to meet their customer’s needs.

Customers are your best critics. For example, you can carry out beta tests and sampling, alpha prototypes, or release early access products to understand how your products fare in the market. After which, you compile this feedback into a folder and share it across the board.

With active social listening and measuring business specific-data, you can gauge user experience and expectations with your products or services and use this feedback to guide your scaling decisions and processes.

Canva — the graphics and design software for amateurs — invested in active listening by implementing a visual graphics feedback widget. This development has allowed Canva to increase its services and scale as a remote collaboration tool for designers through user comments, feedback messages, and tags. 

To ensure that they please their customers, Canva also integrated an in-app visual feedback tool. The tool allows users to send screenshots and annotations of in-app issues.

Since a happy customer has higher chances of becoming a brand advocate, ensure you keep customers at the fore of your thoughts.  

5. Take Care Of Your Staff

While you focus on your customers, do not neglect the team that’ll help you scale the company. Your employees play a vital role in the public’s perception of you. When you’ve got a productive staff, you’ll scale faster than you thought possible. But if they aren’t effective, you might waste your resources.

Try to keep employee morale high as this will increase productivity.

Source: Research Gate

You can boost your staff’s morale by creating a conducive work environment, like making in-house communications swift or without lags. With unified communications, you can unify video and file sharing and boost team collaboration that ramps up productivity.

Also, provide your staff with adequate training to get them ready for scaling. Finally, while you’re at it, recognize every individual’s input to the business’s growth and offer non-financial incentives where and when possible.

If your employees believe that you value them, they’ll care about your vision and work towards it. But remember, showing your staff that you care is not the same as spoiling them into a state of laziness. Instead, create equilibrium, and your scaling dream will be a step closer to success.

Conclusion

Every business has its moments, and scaling yours can launch it to the next stage or set it further back. So yes, scaling up a business is anything but easy. We’ve already covered the essential things in this article, such as seeking mentorship from a successful business owner and being honest no matter the cost. 

Whatever industry you find yourself in, you too can scale a business by leveraging the right strategies and putting in an insane amount of effort. Be smart, invest your money the right way, stick to a direct growth path, and you’ll achieve your goal of scaling up quickly.

The post 5 Ways You Can Quickly Scale Your Business appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

Every website on the internet is trying hard to get to the top positions in the search results. Or at least wanting to be there.

But, they are clueless about the starting point. And it is justified to be unsure in the beginning because SEO is vast and complex.

It can be broadly classified into on-page and off-page SEO, yet that’s just showing the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more that goes into acquiring the top search rankings for your target keywords. To make it easier, I’ll be talking about 10 on-page SEO elements, which must be well-optimized in the first place.

But first, let’s get the basics right.

What Is On-Page SEO? 

Search ranking refers to the position of a given web page for a specific query (primary keyword/target keyword) on the search results page. On-page SEO is all about optimizing elements present on a webpage to improve search rankings and drive more organic traffic. It is different from Off-page SEO, which is about building backlinks and other practices that improve organic search performance. 

The on-page SEO elements include optimizations across keywords and topics, URLs, title tags, alt text, internal links, and meta descriptions. 

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We will be discussing them in detail later in this article. 

And when we do so, you’ll realize that these elements are under your control. You can optimize them to better your site’s overall SEO.

But, before proceeding, you must know where your site stands in terms of SEO.

Check Your SEO Performance

Using RankWatch’s free website SEO analyzer, you can do a quick and thorough check. Just enter the web page URL you want to test, and the tool will give you a report within 60 seconds. It will tell you whether your web page has a meta description, meta tags, heading tags, page links, etc., or not.

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Also, it highlights the errors so that you can fix them and improve your SEO. 

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It is a good practice to audit your site and check for errors frequently. So, you should make it a point!

Now, without further ado, let’s begin.

10 Essential On-Page SEO Elements

Knowing the essential elements of On-page SEO helps you optimize and achieve better results. Here’s a rundown of the 10 On-page SEO elements we will be talking about:

1. E-A-T (Expertise-Authority-Trust)
2. URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
3. Title Tags
4. Meta Description
5. Heading Tags
6. Keywords
7. Page Speed
8. Internal & External Links
9. Mobile Friendliness
10. User Experience

Let’s learn more about them one element at a time.

1. E-A-T (Expertise-Authority-Trustworthiness)

E-A-T is Google’s latest addition to its Quality Rater Guidelines. It has become the most important on-page SEO element, so you must not miss out on E-A-T. First, understand what the three terms in E-A-T mean:

• Expertise: Is the content written or produced by an expert? Does the author have good knowledge about the subject?
• Authority: Is the content published by a reliable source? Can we trust the accuracy of the information?
• Trustworthiness: Is the source transparent about its identity? Can we reach out to the publisher if needed?

In a nutshell, Google wants you to create valuable content for users. If your content is high-quality, Google will boost your rankings and organic search performance. So, you must optimize your web pages for E-A-T. Here are some tips:

• Get links and mentions from high-authority sites
• Provide your contact information on your site
• Publish highly knowledgeable and expert content
• Mention details about the author with the content
• Collet more positive reviews from users
• Build your online presence

Once you have produced content, you must work on your URL.

2. URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

URL makes it easier for the Google crawler to understand your webpage. It appears in the address bar like this:

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But, incorrect URLs can seriously affect your organic search performance. But worry not. The following tips will help you create SEO-friendly URLs:

• Mention your primary keyword in it,
• Keep it simple and short,
• Stick with lowercase,
• Avoid numbers and special characters,
• Use hyphens not underscore as separators,
• Go with HTTPS security.

Next, work on your title tags.

3. Title Tags

The clickable links present on the search result page are known as title tags.

You can also spot them in the browser tab when the web page is open and on social networks when the page is shared.

They help users and search engines to get an idea about the web page and decide whether to click or not. Using the <title> tag in the HTML code, you can add a title tag to your web page.

But, there are certain things that you must keep in mind while working with title tags:

• Keep your titles under 60-70 characters
• Make it relevant to the page’s content
• Use target keywords but don’t overuse
• Add your brand’s name if possible
• Don’t use boilerplate, be unique
• Avoid stop words (to, so, was, etc.)
• Use action words at the start
• Don’t copy-paste the page heading

If you abide by them, you will be able to create SEO-friendly title tags easily. Most people often neglect this on-page SEO element because of its small impact. They sideline title tags’ potential altogether.  But if you use this with other elements, it will help you rank and drive organic traffic to your site. 

Now let’s keep the drum rolling and talk about what’s next on the list. 

4.  Meta Description

A meta description is a short summary of a web page, appearing below the title tag on the search results page. 

Like the title tags, they also help users and search engines understand a page’s content and influence click-through rates. So, optimizing them is very important. 

Here are a few things you must take care of while writing meta descriptions:

• Wrap it up within 150-160 characters
• Describe your page’s content sufficiently
• Include target keywords 
• Use it for advertising your content
• Make them compelling 
• Encourage clicks 
• Keep it unique and original

With that, you can influence your page’s CTR (click-through rate) and its ability to rank.

Now, let’s discuss the heading tags.

5. Heading Tags 

Heading tags or header tags help you separate the content present on a web page. They indicate the relative value of one part of the web page in comparison to another. H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 are the most widely used header tags, with H1 having the highest value and H6 lowest.

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Every web page must have a minimum of one H1 tag and a few H2 tags. It helps to structure the information and differentiate one part from another.

Here’s an example:

<H1> <Big bang theory></H1>

<H2> <About the theory></H2>

<H2> <Scientific conclusions for the theory></H2>

The best SEO practices for using header tags are:

• Using H1 tags to introduce the main title
• Following the hierarchical structure
• Giving subheadings to break the monotony
• Including target keywords in header tags
• Structuring the content for snippets
• Keeping the tags consistent

Once you get used to it, working with header tags becomes a breeze.

6. Keywords

Keywords are the terms or phrases people type into the search box to find what they are looking for.

Search engines understand a page’s content with the help of keywords. When you use the right keywords in your content, it ranks well. Without keywords, your content will not perform as desired.

So, researching the perfect set of keywords for your content piece and using them helps your SEO. 

Here are a few tips for using keywords in the best way:

• Select the most recent keywords
• Go for long-tail keywords
• Separate primary keywords and secondary keywords
• Distribute them evenly throughout the content
• Use them naturally in sentences, don’t stuff
• Add them to meta description, title tag, URLs, etc. 

Here we follow on to the next element.

7. Page Speed 

The one thing we all hate while browsing the web is to wait for a site to load! 

When it takes more than 10 seconds to display the desired page, we shift to another webpage. That’s common user behavior.

So, websites need to optimize their page speed. They need to reduce the time it takes to load the webpage’s content and show it to the user.  If the web page’s loading time increases, it causes the users to leave the given website.  It adds a bad experience to the user’s history, which reduces the traffic on the website.  Most website auditing tools like the free website checker by RankWatch will point out page speed issues with your site. Also, they’ll help you figure out constructive solutions to improve your page speed.

In general, people enhance their page speed by:

• Compressing images and videos
• Minifying CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files
• Reducing redirects
• Implementing lazy loading
• Using browser caching
• Using a CDN (Content Delivery Network)

You can also do it. Having a good page speed will ensure your on-page SEO efforts pay off and users don’t bounce back.

Now, let’s learn about the links.

8. Internal & External Links

A link is simply a word or set of words with a hyperlink. When users click on it, they get directed to a new web page.

There are two types of links present on a web page:

• Internal Links (Links to pages of the same website)
• External Links (Links to pages of another website)

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And you’ll find two attributes attached to them:

• Do-follow (telling search engines to crawl the link)
• No-follow (asking search engines to ignore the link)

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When used in the right way, links can greatly influence a website’s search rankings. Links help crawlers discover and index new content on your site. They also help users navigate to other relevant pages. So, you must add links to your web pages, wherever and whenever necessary. And while you do so, here are a few things you must keep in mind:

• Use appropriate anchor texts
• Make sure the linked page is working
• Don’t add too many links
• Don’t embed links in Flash or JavaScript
• Link to mentions and citations, always

If you wonder which link attribute to use, let me tell you that it depends on your purpose. 

However, generally, people prefer no-follow for external links and do-follow for internal links. It saves their crawl budget and helps them get more of their web pages ranked. With that, optimizing links on your web pages will get easier!

9. Mobile-friendliness

In 2021, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 54.8% of global internet traffic. And as years go by, this number will increase. So, optimizing your web pages for mobile devices is necessary.

What does mobile-friendly mean? It implies that the page’s content adjusts itself according to the screen resolution. The images, videos, text, links, etc., realign for ease of use on mobile devices. To achieve this, most web admins use a responsive web design. 

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You can check if your website is mobile-friendly or not using Google’s Mobile-friendly Test. 

If your web pages are not mobile-friendly yet, don’t panic. Here are some tips to ensure your content must look good on all mobile devices:

• Use a responsive web design
• Make navigation easy
• Keep your input fields small
• Display CTA buttons clearly
• Add a search option
• Don’t use pop-ups
• Break-up your text
• Select right fonts and sizes

10. Core Web Vitals

Google recently announced the Page Experience Update, adding Core Web Vitals to its list of UX-related ranking factors. Core Web Vitals help you understand your site’s performance when a real-world user interacts with it. It includes three metrics:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measure of your page’s loading speed.
2. First Input Delay (FID): Measure of your page’s interactivity or responsiveness.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measure of visual stability of your page’s content.

And here are the ideal scores for each metric:

1. LCP: Less than or equal to 2.5 seconds.
2. FID: Less than or equal to 100 milliseconds.
3. CLS: Less than 0.1.

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Collectively, these influence the search rankings. So, you must optimize your web pages for them.

Some ways to better your Core Web Vitals are:

• Implement server-side caching
• Minify CSS and JavaScript files
• Compress images and videos
• Use progressive loading
• Reserve the slot size for the ads
• Allot ample area for embeds and iframes
• Avoid animations, etc.

Using PageSpeed Insights, you can analyze your Core Web Vitals. It will tell you if you are in the Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor zone. 

Accordingly, you can improve your site and improve your SEO performance.

That’s about it.

Poor On-Page SEO Can Be An Ache

Search engines require a clear understanding of your page’s content to rank it better in the SERPs.  Plus, they want to ensure that users will have a good experience while on your site.

So, not optimizing your on-page elements can be detrimental to your overall SEO strategy. I hope the tips mentioned in this article will help you better your on-page SEO.

The post 10 On-Page SEO Elements that You Must Know & Optimize for appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.