SEO for Online Tiles Shop – Client Case Study

Web Designer Vip was first approached to undertake SEO work for an online tiles shop back in 2011. The client were having difficulties in getting a good return on investment for their SEO work and wanted assistance and consultancy with onsite optimisation to increase their revenue and grow their business.

SEO for Tiles Shop: Approach

After a full keyword analysis and examination of the conversion potential of the current online shop, we used our experience with ecommerce SEO to begin advising on changes to the site structure, code and content which would benefit the optimisation of the website.

  • Optimisation for long tailed, high converting product keywords using improved product copy and page
  • General SEO theming of the website for the broad phrase “tiles”
  • Category level SEO work both on and offsite for broad phrases such as “bathroom tiles,” “wall tiles” and “mosaic tiles”
  • Suggestions to improve wireframe and design of the website to increase conversion potential and boost revenue, not just traffic volumes
  • Improvements to meta data copy to improve search clickthrough rates
  • Better code level optimisation, accessibility and validation to improve search engine crawl rates and boost relevant organic traffic

Initial onsite SEO work improved content dramatically and caused a sharp increase in relevant organic traffic over the first year. After this work shifted to offsite link development to build domain authority as the shop developer had difficulties maintaining valid and optimised code. The focus here was principally to grow domain authority using sustainable and high value inbound link development.

  • Creation of authority “brand neutral” marketing sites on DIY tiling and interior design focused around tile fashion and decoration trends
  • Content development to produce high value inbound links
  • Advice and content provision for website assets to encourage natural backlinks from users – a process called “linkbaiting”

SEO for Tiles Shop: Results

The graph below shows organic search traffic growth over time (exact figures are not shown to preserve client data confidentiality). Click to enlarge.

The graph below shows revenue growth for the tiles shop for the duration of natural search marketing work (exact figures are not shown to preserve client data confidentiality). Click to enlarge.

The site currently maintains levels of over 50% more relevant natural search traffic than it did when work first began. Typical results for any given month include (figures taken from real client data):

  • 33% year on year revenue increase from organic search traffic
  • 17% organic traffic increase for product and brand keywords
  • 44% year on year traffic increase for broad match keyword “tiles”
  • 4% year on year increase in organic traffic conversion rate
  • 24% year on year increase in shop transactions from organic traffic

If you are looking for sustainable and effective growth for your online tiles web shop, Extra Digital’s SEO services, sector familiarity and design and development assets can help you realise significant growth in revenue, traffic and business brand. Contact us today to find out more, get a free website SEO review and find out how we can help you grow your online tiles business.

 

SEO for B2B Cold Storage Provider – Client Case Study

Web Designer Vip was first approached to undertake SEO work for a major cold storage provider in 2010. The client required SEO work and consultancy with onsite optimisation to increase their revenue and grow their business. The cold storage provider wanted to increase the leads gained through natural traffic as well as PPC management.

SEO for B2B: Approach

After an extensive keyword review and examination of the conversion potential of the current site after website redesign, we used our experience with onsite optimisation to begin advising on changes to the site structure, code and content which would benefit the optimisation of the website. Following a redesign of the UK website, the Ireland website was to be redesigned and recoded for better conversion potential.

  • Better code level optimisation, accessibility and validation to improve search engine crawl rates and boost relevant organic traffic through website redesigns.
  • Optimisation for main keywords such as ‘refrigeration’ ‘cold rooms’ and ‘blast freezers’ as well as industry related keywords.
  • Copywriting of high quality, optimised copy for keyword specific landing pages
  • Offsite SEO to increase the volume of quality inbound links to improve domain authority. This included offsite article creation and content development to produce high value inbound links – to encourage natural backlinks from users – a process called “link baiting”
  • Improvements to meta data copy to improve search click through rates

Initial onsite and offsite SEO work improved content considerably and over time, there was a gradual increase in not only the volume of traffic from organic traffic, but the amount of enquiries also.

SEO for B2B Cold Storage: Results

The graph below shows organic search traffic growth over time (exact figures are not shown to preserve client data confidentiality).

The site currently maintains levels of over 158% more relevant natural search traffic than it did when work first began.

The graph below shows that SEO has grown to be the highest source of leads from the site since 2010 and the percentage of leads via search traffic is improving every year.

 

514% increase in Backlinks

Here at Web Designer Vip we have always maintained a policy of never paying for links to websites, all of the backlinks that we build for our clients are organic and natural links. Over the past seven months we have actively been working on steady and positive improvements to the levels of backlinks for one of our clients. Their backlinks have increased by 514% in seven months, that’s an increase of around 100 backlinks per month.

Below you can see the steady increase we have achieved over the past seven months of search engine optimisation work.

This increasing level of backlinks for this client has seen a knock on effect on the number of visitors coming to their site and the ranking of the site on SERPs. All of which have risen in the same time period. The client is very pleased with these results for their website and has seen an increase in the level of enquiries and leads they are receiving.

What are Backlinks?

For those who are not already aware, backlinks, as the name suggests, are links to the site from external sites. These backlinks help to drive traffic to your site which in turn helps to increase your visitor levels. Backlinks are also very useful for search engines and allows them to see which sites people are visiting for relevant keywords, this helps them to show only the more popular and relevant sites in their search results.

This means that a high level of quality non-spammy backlinks can help see not only your ranking improve but also the level of relevant traffic increase. Increasing the number of backlinks to your site is just one of the many methods that can be employed to help improve the ranking of your website and in turn the number of visits your website receives each month.

 

Case Study: 54% increase in revenue for online shop

Project

Social marketing and search engine optimisation for Occasion Photo Frames, an online gift retailer. This project saw 54% more website revenue created year on year, leaving our clients happy and pleased with our work.

SEO management for online shop

Client Quote

The website is doing very well under your leadership and you are always on the phone when I need you, very helpful.”

Peter Grove, Occasion Photo Frames

SEO Target

To increase the revenue from the website by bringing in more “ready to buy” visitors from natural search

SEO Summary

Relevant site visitors increased and significant rise in online revenue was generated.

SEO Approach

  • Optimisation of valuable product keywords to increase their search engine ranking
  • Offsite article and copy generation to improve SEO
  • Onsite content enhancement and optimisation to boost onsite SEO
  • Extensive social media campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Squidoo and Yahoo Answers

SEO Results

  • 54% more revenue from the site compared to the previous year
  • 256% more visitors to the site over previous year

Case Study: SEO for GRP Products

SEO Case Study: Significant natural search traffic increase

Web Designer Vip has provide SEO services to Kingsley Plastics since September 2010. The initial work was very successful with Natural search figures increased by 73% in six months and over 400% in two years.

Three years later, all target product keywords are on the top page of Google with most in positions 1-3. This is from consistent, high quality SEO that does not risk being penalised by Google updates.

SEO Client

Kingsley Plastics provide a range of industrial GRP products and housings; including kiosks, cabinets and covers. They wanted to improve natural search figures and keywords rankings for their website.

Web Designer Vip SEO Approach

 

Web Designer Vip have monitored the Kingsley Plastics website continually to ensure that it is fully SEO optimised. Specific SEO tasks have included:

  • Review of keyword phrases to ensure the most relevant phrases are being targeted. For example the initial product names were manufacturer names and there were others used by customers that needed to be included.
  • Additional off page optimisation to support keyword ranking, through content marketing and offsite articles.
  • Minor page updates and amends to website to ensure they support the correct keywords

SEO Results

  • Natural search traffic increased in the first year of work by over 73% on the sites traffic back in August 2010
  • Increases in subsequent years of over 400% in natural traffic
  • 12 main keywords improved their ranking position, with over 16 keywords holding a Google UK search first page position
  • Cached pages have increased by over 13% in first three months of work
  • Back links have increased by over 74% in first three months of work

 

239.52% eCommerce conversions for fashion store

For the past six months we have been carrying out search engine optimisation on a Magento ecommerce store with fantastic results.

In six months we were able to…..

  • Remove errors from the sitefrom incorrect code and validation
  • Increase the organic flow of traffic to the site by 51%(when comparing the first month with the sixth month)
  • Improve the ranking of hundreds of keywordsfor the website as well as getting the website ranking high for hundreds of more keywords, even those keywords that were the most competitive keywords in the industry for our client
  • Increase the number of visitors viewing product pages (average of 659.38%improvement over the 6 month period) whilst also increasing the amount of time these visitors were spending on the page– a clear sign that people are able to navigate the shop with ease and are browsing as well as being interested in what they are looking for.
  • Improve the functionality of the sitein general to make the site more appealing for visitors and make it easier for them to browse and purchase from the ecommerce site
  • Implement know tools to help Google read the sitewith ease and therefore see the site rank better in search engines
  • Increase the ecommerce conversion rate– the percentage of visits that result in an ecommerce conversion – by 239.52% when compared with the previous year

To achieve these results we carried out an extensive review of the website, analysing its strengths and its weaknesses. Based on this we were able to work with the client and build an ongoing strategy with clear aims to be achieved. Our work took place on site as well as off site to build good quality back links to key landing pages and to ensure that when visitors landed on the site that they were met with a clear path and good quality content that was relevant and helpful.

Magento Ecommerce SEO Services at Web Designer Vip

Here at Web Designer Vip we have a high number of Magento sites that we currently carry out SEO work for, we also build Magento ecommerce stores and a number of other stores on various other ecommerce platforms. We can also provide PPC management for Magento ecommerce stores as well as web development services to help you provide a better site for your customers

 

168% increase in search traffic Charity Fulfilment Provider

Web Designer Vip planned, executed and monitored the internet marketing activities for a major charity fulfilment provider. Late in 2012, the site content was changed completely and so the site needed complete re-optimisation to bring relevant traffic to the website, to increase leads gained through organic traffic.

Internet Marketing for B2B: Approach

We re-analysed the current content on site and carried out extensive keyword research and competitor analysis to identify the key areas that the site needed to rank for. Using our experience of onsite optimisation, we began making the changes necessary to realign the content to target a range of carefully selected and researched keywords.

  • Optimised existing new website copy to improve accessibility and conversion potential
  • Used high quality copywriting to create keyword specific landing pages, to target high converting long tail and short tail keywords and increase traffic to the site
  • Offsite SEO to increase the volume of quality inbound links, to improve domain authority. This included offsite article creation, content development, social media management, online PR and blogging to produce high value inbound links – to encourage natural backlinks from users
  • Improvements to meta data copy to improve search click through rates

The onsite and offsite SEO work improved content considerably and over time, there was a gradual increase in not only the volume of traffic from organic traffic, but the frequency of impressions (or appearances) in search engines.

SEO for B2B Charity fulfilment provider: Results

The graph below shows organic search traffic growth over time (exact figures are not shown to preserve client data confidentiality).

internet marketing for B2B

The site currently maintains levels of over 168% more relevant natural search traffic than it did in December 2012.

The graph below compares the frequency of the site appearing in search engines at the start of the project compared to present figures (exact figures are not shown to preserve client data confidentiality).

Internet Marketing for b2b

The site is averaging more than 7 times the amount of impressions since the new optimisation work began.

512-fold increase in website traffic in 12 months

Effective SEO and quality generation are still key in achieving spectacular growth in website traffic.

The graphic above shows real case study data from analytics, and shows website visitors growing from 825 in December 2013 up to a staggering 423 thousand visitors in December 2014.

This is for the medical website Doctoori, which provides medical information in Arabic. Generating a large user base is key to the business development and Web Designer Vip were asked to help with the SEO and online marketing.

In terms of daily visitors, this has increased from about 30 /day up to well over 14,000 visitors per day. The total number of users of the website now exceeds one million.

Within one year, SEO had grown the user base to over one million people. Data from analytics is able to give information on were these people are based and what articles and topics they are interested in.

So how do you use SEO to get such a dramatic increase in visitors?

The answer is surprisingly simple. You build a quality website with SEO optimised code, you add quality content that is interesting and engaging and you promote this content to others.

SEO Case study detail

Q: Did you use link building?

Web Designer Vip have never used the traditional link building SEO techniques as Google has never liked them. We do promote the website elsewhere by writing quality articles or blogs (in Arabic as this is an Arabic website). But we have never seen the need for large scale link building techniques. And if you can get a 512-fold increase in website traffic without this rather proves that traditional link building is not needed!

Q: Did you use social?

Yes – social marketing is an important ingredient within forward looking SEO work. It is used to build engagement and promote the website. Google has sophisticated algorithms looking at how people talk about and share information on websites and understanding this helps achieve better SEO results.

Q: Are there any differences with Arabic SEO – is it harder than English?

SEO is all about gaining high visibility – climbing to the top of the search results in your market. So English and Arabic are different markets. There are fewer Arabic website so external SEO work – aimed at promoting the website on the internet is actually harder. And a surprising number of SEO tools still do not support Arabic language characters.

The Doctoori website also had a huge advantage in that it was built on the ExtraCMS which was built with multilingual SEO in mind, and makes multilingual SEO much easier. Many content management systems require SEO modules to generate search friendly websites  – but it is more efficient to build SEO friendly to start with.

 

SEO for Supply Chain Consultancy – 40% increase in organic

Towards the end of 2014 we carried out a short term SEO boost for a well known supply chain consultancy firm. They wanted a SEO boost to see them into 2015 and to giving them a ahead start on their competition online.

Despite the fact that the months of October to December are traditionally the quietest time for companies like theirs, Web Designer Vip create an increase of 40% in organic traffic due to vast improvements in the keyword rankings of many key industry terms. In many cases we took the company’s rankings of key industry terms from not ranking at all, to ranking on the first page of Google!

 

Source: Google Analytics

This improvement is even more impressive when you consider that the company themselves were predicting a seasonal drop of 20% in this same time period based on year on year statistics and industry benchmarks. We achieved a result that was 60% higher than what they should have been seeing from their website in just three short months!

This improvement in their keyword rankings in major search engines saw their impressions (the number of times their website is shown to search users) increase by 175% over the three month period despite a lower search market for their industry in this time period.

But we didn’t just get this client’s website up the rankings and made their site more visible to search users, we also achieved a much higher click through rate as most of the keywords and terms they were showing for are now on the first page of Google rather than the tenth (or not at all). Here at Web Designer Vip it is our firm belief that all search traffic generated for your website should be useful and sales/lead generating, not just ‘traffic’ for traffics sake. We achieved that here and we can achieve that for you.

On top of this ranking work we carried out to achieve the above results, we also carried out work building them a strong domain authority and creating shareable content that people would want to reference and connect to. This type of work is growing in importance due to changes in Google’s algorithms and its focus on quality content, strong interaction and share-ability.

This part of our work saw the number of links to their website from authority sources jump by 45% in the same time period. This increase in authority backlinks saw traffic coming from these channels increase by 54% – proving that the work that we carried out was building useful strong backlinks that people, and not just robots, are using.

Source: Google Analytics

 

SEO for Tile Supplier – 564% increase in transactions

In January 2014 we were approached by Tile specialists to carry out SEO work on their struggling Magento ecommerce website. Being in the tile industry they were facing high competition online with household brands such as B&Q, but also other large tile specialists.

The Challenge

The challenge was to improve the general SEO of the website to provide them with higher page rankings for industry specific terms and products to improve the level of traffic generated to their website and ultimately increase their online revenue.

Seems simple enough but with black hat tactics carried out on the site by a previous agency which had pushed them back quite far in search engine results, the challenge was a large ask.

So What Did We Do?

As with all our clients when they first come to us for SEO services we carry out an in-depth audit of their website. This in-depth audit allows us to examine the data and paint a picture of what is happening on the website to date.

It highlights any immediate flaws that need to be prioritised and allows us to develop an initial three month strategy, six month strategy and a long term strategy for its continued growth and to make sure we achieve the aims set.

Over the past year we have been taking the information found in this original audit, and quarterly reviews since, combined with our in depth knowledge and expertise on SEO for ecommerce Magento stores to apply a fantastic SEO strategy to their website. Tasks included on site optimisation, content creation, offsite authority building, the removal of past black hat tactics, technical site enhancements and much more.

How Did We Do?

Below are just some of the many highlights from our work throughout 2014…

  • Organic traffic in January 2015 was106% higher than the organic traffic in January 2014
  • Bounce rate in January 2015 is nowunder the average and ideal bounce rate for ecommerce stores (this tends to be higher than the ideal bounce rate for non-ecommerce websites due to the fact that ecommerce stores are prone to people browsing and price comparing by nature)
  • Average session duration of an organic search user reached over 5 minutes showing that thewebsite is more engaging and captivating for its users

On top of these figures, the commerce conversion rate for this tile specialist improved by whopping 221% in twelve months!
Which then lead to 564% more transactions year on year!

These improvements exceeded all of our expectations and our own objectives, pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible in such a time frame. As you can see from just a fraction of the results above we achieved the challenge set with careful and diligent SEO work to ensure that there was a healthy, result for this company.

How Can You See These Results?

If you have a website in the tile industry or any ecommerce industry then we can help achieve results like these for you. We have a vast amount of knowledge and over a decade of experience in online marketing and SEO to apply to your business in your industry.

 

Online Ecommerce Store

The Problem

Be Safe Direct specialise in selling a variety of fire safety products from full smoke ventilation systems to fire extinguishers. Web Designer Vip have been working with Be Safe Direct for some time and have been able to help the business grow into a successful ecommerce store.

Web Designer Vip currently manage PPC, SEO and email marketing and also redesigned the current Magento store to make it more modern and user friendly.

The original site looked very dated and attracted a high number of useless visitors. The aim was to re-design the site to make the user journey easier for customers to make a purchase and to change the SEO and PPC strategy to attract customers that would convert into sales.

The Results

The graph below shows how conversion rate has increased throughout the year.

Total revenue has increased by 59% when comparing year on year since the website went live. The average order value has also increased as people are spending more time on site browsing through different items and buying more.

We have achieved this result by generally improving the SEO across the website, better optimising the PPC and updating the website to a completely new design.

 

Multilingual SEO Services

Take Your SEO Worldwide

The non-English speaking market is one of the fastest growing online. In order for businesses to take advantage of worldwide growth in many languages it is essential to secure professional multilingual SEO services to allow websites to be successfully promoted in the global market.

Web Designer Vip offer highly specialist services in multilingual SEO including translation, keyword and meta tag optimisation and even full multilingual website design. Our content management system is easily configurable to operate in different languages, even semitic languages such as Arabic, and we can provide expert consultancy services for a range of online marketing in many languages including social media marketing, PPC management and more.

Multilingual SEO Services Results

  • 83% traffic increase to Arabic website in under 1 year
  • 702% more Arabic-speaking visitors to website year on year
  • 400% increase in Arabic new business enquiries in just six months
  • 66% in Chinese visitor growth in one month after starting Chinese SEO
  • 39% year on year increase in new website visitors in Chinese
  • 549% increase in new visitors year on year to Brazilian website
  • 86% increase in new business leads in Brazilian in one month

At Web Designer Vip we understand that multilingual marketing is a means to an end – the growth and increased profitability of your business in the global market. That’s why our highly consultative services will work with you to decide on goals for your multilingual SEO which will help you to enlarge your revenue and grow your customer base, not just boost the number of visitors to your website.

 

Social Media Management

For Increased Sales

ExtraDigital’s range of social media management services is tailored to meet your precise needs whether you are in fashion, healthcare, tourism, ecommerce, B2B or any other sector.

Our goal is to create compelling Social Media Campaigns that create sales and leads for your business.

social media management

As well as using our years of experience and drawing on the benefits of a range of staff with varied and exciting backgrounds in social media campaigns across a range of platforms, we keep pace and ahead of all the latest developments so your business will never get left behind in this dynamic and fast moving channel.

  • Successfully generate sales and leads via social media
  • Improve your brand presence online by interacting positively with your customers
  • Grow customer loyalty to earn repeat and recommendation business
  • Focus on social ROI ensures you don’t lose money to unprofitable activities
  • A considered and results-focused approach keeps social media realistic

Social Media Management Services

Our range of cost-effective and inspired social media management helps you keep your brand at the forefront of the social space.

  • Account branding and page design aimed at your target audience
  • Full content strategy to keep customers engaged and attract brand champions
  • Regular posts, updates and monitoring to ensure positive engagement
  • Social PPC advertising and applications to improve your presence on all channels

To view more about how we will ensure social media works for your business – see our Social Media Strategy. 

View our Social Media Successes

Social Media for Crafts Shop

2398 visits via social refferal!

Facebook PPC Advertising

80% increase in site traffic

Social Media for online tiles shop

123% rise in onsite conversions from social

SEO Services

Grow Your Business With SEO

94 percent of B2B buyers research online for purchase decisions. These days, brands can’t afford to ignore SEO! Search engine optimisation can be the difference between failure and success. Our passionate SEO specialists provide comprehensive, customer centred SEO services which can be tailored to meet your precise needs.

  • Years of Ethical SEO experience
  • Revenue Growth
  • No Contract
  • Transparent Reporting

Years of ethical SEO experience

We have over 10 years of experience of creativity and innovation in SEO and have always prided ourselves on providing ethical, white hat SEO services. None of our clients have ever seen a penalty from search engines – and we’ve helped several websites recover successfully from a harmful penalty.

Want to see results? See our SEO management case studies

SEO services are one of the most cost effective and sustainable means to market your business online anywhere in the world. By running a long term and holistic search marketing campaign which concentrates on every aspect of your content we can help you to realise the dream of consistently rising visitor numbers, increased leads and more new customers, giving you the best possible return on investment that dramatically helps grow your bottom line.

View our SEO Successes

SEO for Arabic Health Site

512% increase in SEO traffic!

SEO for Magento Ecommerce Store

239.52% year on year increase in conversions

 

Multilingual Ecommerce

Ecommerce In Any Language

No matter how large or small your store is, our multilingual ecommerce development solutions can help you get found online and encourage your customers to make successful purchases, wherever they are in the world.

  • Full translation and localisation into any language, getting your product information to consumers anywhere in the world
  • Highly search engine optimised – like all our websites, we build our stores to be search engine friendly (in any language)
  • Designed to convert visitors into buyers – we focus on building a website that will give you the best possible return on investment

Multilingual Ecommerce Design

We design beautiful, highly effective multilingual ecommerce shops which are designed to be highly visible to search engines in order to grow your customer base and increase your business revenue from your store.

No matter what you’re selling and wherever you are in the world, we’ll help you draw in customers. Why not check out our ecommerce website design portfolio to see some of our past work, or give us a call on +44 (0) 1227 68 68 98 to speak to one of our ecommerce experts today.

Multilingual ecommerce Development

If you are a designer looking for a multilingual ecommerce developer then we offer complete flexibility to give you the creative freedom to bring your client’s business to life.

Our development team never make use of pre-existing templates or themes – all our multilingual stores are coded straight from the ground up which gives you total and absolute freedom in your designs.

 

Ecommerce Marketing Services

If you’re selling directly to customers online, either as a small online shop or a full online retail platform, your online marketing strategy can make or break your store. Web Designer Vip have one aim in mind – to increase your ecommerce sales revenue whilst actively getting more for your marketing spend.

We believe that ecommerce marketing is all about having your product visible at the time that users are ready to make a purchase. We do this by making sense of the sales data and translating this into actionable items for strategic execution to increase your ecommerce sales.

To find out more about getting your ecommerce marketing off the ground to set yourself on the path to an effective and profitable online shop, get in touch with Web Designer Vip today and speak to one of our ecommerce marketing experts.

What Ecommerce Marketing Services do we offer?

  • Ecommerce PPC
  • Ecommerce SEO
  • Ecommerce Design
  • Ecommerce Social Media

Ecommerce PPC

Our Google analytics qualified account managers are passionate about craft creative ecommerce PPC campaigns aiming to attract those potential customers often in highly competitive markets. From Google Shopping Feeds, to Mobile Ads we can help create the perfect PPC campaigns for your ecommerce offering

 

Lesson: Occupancy of the new system is based on Android Remix OS on your computer without Faramtaath and enjoy applications and games | A great way

Ecommerce PPC that Pays Off

Did you know that over 66% of search engine users click on paid ads (the top 3 ads in search results). If your business isnt competitive in PPC you could find that you are losing valuable traffic to your competitors!

Our Google adwords qualified account managers are passionate about craft innovative ecommerce PPC campaigns aiming not only to increase clicks and click through rates, but to turn this traffic into real customers, making real purchases in order to give you a return on your PPC advertising investment.

We are results driven focusing on how we can meet and exceed your sales targets. We want your products to be flying off the shelves!

Why Choose Web Designer Vip PPC Ecommerce management?

  • PPC Expertise
  • Transparency
  • Proactive Approach
  • Leading PPC Strategy

Ecommerce Expertise

We have over 10 years of experience of creativity and innovation in ecommerce marketing. Our dedicated, analytics and adwords qualified account managers have produced innovative campaigns in many languages targeted to over 10 countries worldwide.

Want to see results? See our PPC management case studies

Increase your visibility and reach your sales goals

A shop is nothing without customers making purchases from it, and to get customers you need to be visible in your marketplace.

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others are the primary method of locating consumer products and services so in order to be found you need to clearly visible at the top of your market for relevant keywords and search terms to achieve your goals having of having a highly profitable ecommerce store.

 

Ecommerce SEO Specialists Web Designer Vip

Ecommerce stores have signalled a new business model for retailers as well as a fresh way of purchasing goods and services to consumers.

However, to be successful ecommerce’ sites face a whole host of challenges and this is where sales focused SEO can help.

At Web Designer Vip we offer you highly specialist ecommerce SEO management including:

  • Targeting effect keyword areas
  • Creative content generation for SEO and Outreach
  • Optimised search listings for great clickability
  • Technical SEO for a great site experience

Our work is always 100% tailored to your business and achieving your goals.

To find out more about getting your ecommerce SEO powering more sales, get in touch with Web Designer Vip today  and speak to one of our ecommerce marketing experts.

At Web Designer Vip we offer:

  • Ecommerce SEO experience
  • Revenue Growth
  • Transparency
  • Proactive Approach

Ecommerce SEO experience

We have over 10 years of experience in successful ecommerce SEO marketing. Our dedicated, analytics qualified account managers have produced innovative campaigns for a wide range of both B2B and B2C sectors including home improvement, the gifts market, industrial supplies and even music.

View our Ecommerce SEO case studies

A shop is nothing without customers , and to get customers you need to be seen.

Search engines like Google are one of the biggest ways customers find your website so it makes sense to use them to the max.

 

Ecommerce Web Design

Web Designer Vip truly believe that Ecommerce web design is an art and a science. It’s easy to throw products up onto a website and hope for sales but how much of your customer base is slipping through the net into one of your competitors due to poor web design?

At Web Designer Vip, our ecommerce experts review the current user experience of your ecommerce store and design with your users and conversion in mind. Our dedicated account managers share your passion for your products and relish the challenge of improving your bottom lineand conversion rates through well thought out ecommerce design.

Why Choose Web Designer Vip: 

  • Years of Ecommerce Web Design
  • Revenue Growth
  • Flexible Systems

Focus on revenue growth

Our ecommerce web design focusses on web design which converts your visitors into paying customers, closely mapping the user journey and optimising the site for sales with the aim of increasing your revenue and improving your bottom line. Additionally, we offer ecommerce search marketing services which boost your online sales to dizzy new heights.

Here at Web Designer Vip we have worked on a large number of ecommerce sites and are fully aware of how to persuade a visitor to stay on the site and convert into a sale and/or lead. It simply isn’t good enough nowadays to have a pretty site, visitors want more and have raised the bar on what is expected from ecommerce websites.

 

Ecommerce websites must be of a good design, search engine friendly, accessible and easy to use. Clear call to actions and simple yet effective menus are needed for simple navigation and an easy conversion. This is something that Web Designer Vip considers itself to be an expert in.

 

Which Ecommerce solution do you need?

Cutting Edge Ecommerce Web Development

Web Designer Vip offer cutting edge ecommerce development and performance services, creating smooth running, robust stores that run and convert like a dream.

Do you have page speed issues? Configuration problems? Difficulty updating your website? Whether you run a Magneto store with thousands of products, or a small store selling only a few, our bespoke ecommerce platform extraCMS, we can restructure, rebuild and redesign your store for optimal performance with one aim in mind – increasing your sales.

What can you expect from our development?

Our Ecommerce Solutions are:

  • Ecommerce Experience
  • Flexibility
  • Reliability
  • Support

Flexibility 

We have total flexibility in the content management systems we can use to build your site. We have experience of building on all of the popular CMS’s such as Magento, Prestashop, ExtraCMS, Shopify and more.

 

We use a variety of different technologies depending on the scale of the project, required functionality and available budget.

With all projects we sit down with you and really try to understand your business first so we can translate this into a solution that offers optimal performance for your customers which translates to an increase in sales.

  • For clients on a more constricted budget or looking for an easy to use online shop that will let you get started selling products online but still give you plenty of room to grow, we offer online shops and ecommerce solutions on our bespoke content management platform, the ExtraCMS.
  • For high numbers of products we provide development on the Magento platform, an enterprise ecommerce development platform. Magento is one of the most popular systems for large online shops and it powers shops such as Kookai, Olympus, The North Face and Nestle.
  • For growing businesses without their own warehouse and fulfilment system or for charities wishing to sell cards or distribute fundraising material we provide an ecommerce with a managed fulfilment option

 

Huge Reduction in Bounce rate for Ecommerce Fashion Store

Beach Cafe is a successful online ecommerce store selling a wide range of beachwear and swimwear. They pride themselves on their ability to supply a fashionable and stylish garments perfect for your holidays, all in one online shop.

Responsive Design Ecommerce

The Problem

It was key from the beginning that their branding remained as is their identity, the main focus was shifting the website’s structure and design to better suit the website being viewed on devices such as tablets and mobiles. Over half of their traffic daily comes from these devices and their previous store wasn’t helping to ensure a good user experience for all customers no matter what device was used to access the website.

Product Page before the Redesign:

The Solution

After a collaborative design process where we looked into the current user experience and website data, focusing purely on the much needed usability of the site when viewed on tablets and mobile, we constructed a detailed, customer focussed plan of action to maximise the potential of the site.

  • Analyse the current site data, trends and traffic identifying important factors for conversion
  • Creating a well thought out design based on useability and best practice, taking into account how the users view and engage with the website
  • Including the functionality to integrate several shopping feeds and APIs without further development work required
  • Seamless transition between new site and old site, implementing the neccessary 404s to retain search engine value
  • Moving the website and its stock from Drupal to Magento for enhanced usability and integration with third party applications.

Product Page after Redesign:

The Results

Six months on from the site launch and the website is seeing big improvements from the new website. We’ve seen an impressive improvement in the sites ability to attract and retain its visitors. The website’s bounce rate has dropped from a huge 44% on mobiles alone in July 2014 to 1.80% in May 2015.

Below is a graph showing the bounce rates over the last year for desktops, mobiles and tablets. As you can see all devices have seen a huge drop in the bounce rate immediately from when the website went live towards the end of November.

bounce rates decrease

This substantial improvement in bounce rates has coincided with a surge in traffic to the website, with traffic in May 2015 over 50% higher than the traffic levels in May 2015.

beach cafe traffic

(site live end of November 2014)

This surge in traffic has also increased the revenue for the new Beach Cafe site greatly by nearly 300% when compared with before the new website went live.

Revenue Increase of 290% with new responsive website design

The new and improved Beach Cafe website has been well received by clients and customers of Beach Cafe. The stats speak for themselves and the client now has the ability with their new Magento ecommerce platform to expand the business and its functions in the future.

Here at ExtraDigital we have a wealth of experience and knowledge in designing and building Magento websites for ecommerce stores like Beach Cafe. Why not check the new Beach Cafe website out for yourself at www.beachcafe.com or see the many other websites that we have developed in our Porfolio today. On our website you can read many of the testimonials regarding our services and the work quality that our clients love.

3 Top Tips for increasing conversions through web design

Conversion

Having worked in the web design business for over a decade, we have seen many fads come, with trends changing more times than David Beckhams haircut. Whilst some of these trends have been purely based on opinion, guesswork can only take you half the way – Opinions don’t make money! The best trends we have seen are based on good old data.

With this is mind, our clients call us and ask us:

What can I do to increase the sales / leads of my website?

We’ve compiled some very basic factors that have seem our clients achieve some serious gains in leads and sales.

Modern Responsive Web Design

Modernize Your Design

Is your site looking tired and dated? We all know the old saying, don’t judge a book by its cover, but if you want to increase conversions, you’ll need to rethink this!

“Users make up their mind about whether to buy from a site within 3 seconds…”

…and attention span is only getting shorter and shorter. First impressions really do count and it’s vital that you make these precious seconds count. Your design needs to be so good that your users have no choice whether to stay or bounce. Delight your customers with fast loading, interactive and visually amazing design – the design quality of your website is often a direct reflection on the quality of your business.

Web design is an art as well as a science and like all great art, it can always be tweaked, tested and improved to make maximum gains. Simple things such as ensuring your site is mobile friendly is an absolute must for starters.

In the case of your desktop design, place the important elements above the fold but do not clutter the page. Social proof, navigation buttons, a search bar, sign-up forms, call to action and social media links are website elements that belong above the fold.

Ensure you have an awesome site structure in place to communicate your service offering in an attractive way and as quickly as possible, helping the user to get to the content that they need – and quickly. Which brings me to my next point….

Create Clear Landing Page User Experience

So through great web design and internet marketing strategy you’ve managed to attract a ton of visits to your site. Success!

Or is it? Your site looks like a million bucks but…

The problem is your users may have been able to find their way to your website but they can’t get to the content they need, meaning they won’t enquiry about your awesome services or buy your excellent products.

So how do you remedy this?

At the start of your web design project, you need to define your user personas and think of your website as a facilitator to their needs – guiding them on a journey to get to the content that they need. Each user goal can be first mapped out using the current website to identify any flaws or frustrations. This is often referred to as user journey mapping or customer journey. Once this is established, website designers can implement a user simple and intuitive user journey that doesn’t confuse users and enables them to reach their goals in the most efficient way possible.

Large Clear Call to Action

Okay so you’ve done all the hard work and managed to bring users to the correct area on the page with a stunning website design, with clear user journeys to help your users to get to the correct areas that they need to get to.

But still no conversions!

Go back to your design – Is it clear to your potential customers what the next stage is? Do you want them to call you? Fill out a contact form? Sign up for a newsletter? Register for an event? Add item to cart? CRO (conversion rate optimisation) plays a key role in converting your visitors to qualified leads.

We love buttons. Why? Because users love a good old button, they are used to buttons and trust buttons to get them results. But what exactly makes a great CTA button?

  • Compelling, clear, relevant and decisive language – You need to keep in mind that users need exact ‘clarity’ about what they are signing up for – don’t make people think too hard as this creates friction! Make sure your forms use language that tells the user exactly what to do or what they will receive. Results from content verve show a 90% increase in CTR by changing one word in the button. For example, Instead of using the phrase ‘sign up for newsletter,’ use headlines such as ‘Get our latest offers and discounts.’ CTA’s with no clear value for your users will end in failure. If you are offering a newsletter, tell the users what value they will receive in exchange for their details.
    • Increased call to action size – Is you contact form or add to cart button hidden away below the fold or tucked away at the bottom of your page? When it comes to your web pages, no one element lives in vacuum but, your call to action is arguably the most important factor on your page. Users are naturally drawn to the largest area on the page. Make sure the size of CTA button is visible so once again – users know exactly where to go and what to do.
    • Colour of call to action buttons – The colour of your action buttons can make or break your CTA and can be a major influencer to users. The button is a huge visual clue to users who will naturally ask the question ‘where should I click?’ The trick is to make your button stand out from the rest of the page in such a way that it’s easy to spot using contrasting colours.

Examples:

Mail chimp – clear call to action buttons with colour contrast against a visually stunning design. Clear h1 message at the top of the page which summarises Mailchimp in 3 words.

PBWIKI – clear call to actions. Clear value propositions so user knows exact features of the product.

Thinking about increasing your conversions with a website redesign? Before we rush right in there are some things you need to know:

  • Website redesigns can be risky – Changing everything in one go can often confuse users, who don’t like change. To minimise this, we perform a full website analysis to find out what is working and what isn’t – delving into the data to produce a design that is specifically tailored to your end users.
  • Don’t just make a pretty picture– If you really want to get the best out of your website – we can produce a design based on the very latest in conversion, usability, psychology and know-how. You need insight into the modern psychology of designing for conversion to produce a tangible solution that gets you leads.

There are endless other factors to consider with a webite redesign. The best way to ensure you avoid the pitfalls is to get in contact with us today on 01227 68 68 98 or tell us about your project below.

Summer Inspired Content Marketing

Content marketing can be really successful at attracting your customers, but all too often things can become formulaic and bland. A great way to keep things fresh is to bring a bit of summer sizzle to your content.

The following tips can help you get inspired to add a bit more summer to your content.

Target Summer Inspired Events

From bank holidays to summer fayres and festivals there is always a lot going on over the summer months.

Look for events that you can target and bring into your content for example if you’re a young fashion store advice on festival fashion tips or a checklist of what to pack can be great topics.

Think about what events your customers and potential customers will be planning to attend and how you can create content around that event that they will find useful.

If you have a reasonable level of local business then it’s good to attend and support local events but don’t forget to work these into your content too.

One of our clients is very active with local fayres and artisan markets and take an active role in promoting these through content marketing and social media. As a result they have found these to be a great way to connect with customers and build a loyal following at these events and online.

Professional Content Marketing Services – Contact Web Designer Vip

Bank Holidays

Bank Holidays are often great for discount weekends and mini sales so you can plan content that dovetails nicely with your promotions, perhaps bargain hunting tips.

If not promotions then you know most people will be off work so plan relevant content on how to get the most out of the long weekend. Remember to feature your products or services if relevant, but don’t go for the hard sell.

Being the UK make sure you check the weather and plan content for a wet bank holiday as well as a scorcher. That way you can use the most appropriate content in the weeks before and promote it through social media.

Summer Holidays

Summer holidays make a great subject for creative content, what to pack, where to go etc…

Even a B2B business can make use of this subject for example a practical work checklist of things to do at work before you go on holiday.

When planning holiday content you need to decide if it falls into one of these categories:

  • Prep – planning and before you go away
  • During – what to do during the holiday
  • Post – getting back up to speed after the holiday

If you follow this structure you can schedule prep and during content for much of the summer and post content towards the middle to end of August.

Bring a Summer Feel

Remember summer is about having fun so don’t get too serious always keep the feel light and try to add an element of fun.

Use images, colours and a tone that feels more carefree and bright.

Why not try getting out and being creative with video and photos to give a real feel to your content. With a little thought a smartphone can be a great tool to capture that summer feeling.

That being said don’t get carried away, plan what you want to achieve and how it will work.

This is especially true for video, which you want short, sweet and clear.

Conclusion

These are just a few tips to bring the summer to your content marketing, but I’m sure once you start you’ll think of lots more.

Why not try a brainstorming session with your team. Think about what you customers will be doing through the summer months and what help or tips they might need.

Keep the summer feel by being creative, fun and light with your images and video. You could even encourage your customers to contribute their own on social media.

 

Social Media for Ecommerce – Getting Started

A wise person once told me if you want to reach people you need to go to the places they are.

This is a key principle in digital marketing for all websites and works well for ecommerce. So if your business is ecommerce you need to be where your customers and potential customers are rather than just waiting for them to come to you.

This is one of the reasons social media has developed into such an important tool for digital marketing.

Where else can you so easily find connected groups of people keen to like, share and talk about their interests and opinions?

Yet despite what appears to be a perfect situation I have found many ecommerce sites and brands struggle to get to grips with the art of using social media effectively.

So I created this series of articles to help outline some of the basics you need start to master social media marketing.

To start with let’s look at the foundations to successful social media marketing for ecommerce.

Know What You Want

Too often businesses jump into using social media without thinking want they really want to achieve.

Before you start think about your business objectives and goals these could include:

Increase salesIncrease sales from new customers

Increase salesImprove customer loyalty and repeat sales

Increase salesIncrease brand awareness

Increase salesGrow email subscribers

Increase salesPromote new product

Increase salesGenerate positive reviews

Be clear and specific about what you want to get out of your social media.

Know your Audience

Know Your Audience

It’s a topic I bang on about a lot, but you need to know who your audience is and for this it’s worth investing time to create detailed customer personas.

You can create personas using data from your analytics, talking to your team, talking to your customers and doing research including customer surveys.

Once you know more about your audience you can start to understand the sort of messages and content that will appeal and work in harmony with your objectives and goals.

Pay close attention to what’s important to your customers and any objections they could have. Also consider their hobbies and interests as all this data will feed directly into the content you create for and share on social media.

Select the Right Networks

Select the Right Networks

It’s at this point you should start to select which social networks you want to use. Using a network just because you think you should or your competitors use it isn’t enough.

Do consider the following:

  • Used by target audience
  • Used by industry influencers
  • Can manage with resources available
  • Ease of use and available features
  • Good performance data available

You need networks that work well and can be used efficiently and effectively.

Warning: Don’t ever treat social networks as a one post fits all. You need to tailor your posts to your networks with content, links and images, what works for Twitter will need to be adjusted for Facebook. Take this into account when considering resource available.

These three points will give you a solid foundation to your social media marketing. In the next article we will look at Social Media for Ecommerce – Content Planning

Social Media for Ecommerce – Content Planning

In my previous article we looked at creating a solid foundation for your ecommerce social media marketing by:

  • Setting clear objectives
  • Understanding your audience
  • Selecting the right networks.

In this article I’m going to focus on the content that is going to power your social media.

In marketing we regularly hear the phrase “Content is King”, but is this true?

While content is very important not all content is created equal, good content is about quality not quantity.

Quality Content

Quality Content

What makes up quality content varies from one ecommerce site to the next, for example the content used to promote a beauty website should be very different from the content for a DIY online store.

What makes content good quality is:

  • Relevance to your products, customers and potential customers
  • Easy to read and share
  • Appealing to look at
  • Works across multiple devices
  • Helps the reader and the brand
  • Is unique and not duplicated

Quality content isn’t always a long article it can take many forms from quick tips to video.

Planning Social Content

For successful social media campaigns you need to plan your quality content in advance.

Start by creating a week by week breakdown by social channel with spacing for how frequently you plan to post each day (don’t forget weekends). I like to plan a month in advance and will use the data from orvious month’s to adjust posting times and frequency.

Then draft out:

Content TypeContent Typearticle, quick tip, quote, video, image etc…

Post wordingPost wordingthis can be rough to start with

Hashtags & TagsHashtags & Tagslook for popular related tags or start creating your own

You can start with rough ideas and flesh out your content as you refine your plan. By sure to use lots of different types of content to test what works best with your audience.

As I said in my previous article don’t use the same post on every network. You should tailor what you say to the social channel even while promoting the same content.

Be sure to add notes to your plan about key events related to your products or audience. Also include content related to your campaigns and promotions.

You can also look for content trends that your audience like to follow like #motivationalmonday.

Within your plan make sure to leave space to check for and react to trending topics that effect your business and audience.

Some of the best content on social media is planned, but still feels of the moment!

Aim to spend a good amount of time on your content planning it will save you time later on.

Ready in Advance

Now you have a clear plan of all the content you need, ideally a month in advance you need to get it created.

This way you will always have content approved and ready to go when you need it. Not having content preped in advance leads to poor quality as you rush to find something to post. I have seen a number of businesses social media grind to a holt due to lack of content.

Look at your plan and see how you can group similar content together for quicker creation, for example if you plan a series of quotes its best to get these created in one go.

Once the content is created get it checked for any errors or mistakes these can put off potential customers.

Once your completely happy store the content and mark in your content plan to show which content you can ready for posting.

If your using a blog (which we recommend) you can often schedule the content on your blog so it will automatically go live when you want it.

Images & Video

Images and Video

Social Media loves images and video so try to include them in your content as much as possible. It can be tempting to use stock images, but actually real unique pictures and video work so much better and have a greater appeal.

Focus on creating your own quality images and including them in relevant posts where ever possible to maximise your reach and engagement.

You can also ask your audience to share images and videos of them using your products (if appropriate), this will open up the range of images and video content you have to work with. Why not reward the best ones with a free gift or discount.

Be sure to take advantage of image based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. These channels are great for brand and product awareness and we have seen them generate significant sales for a number of brands.

 

89% increase in sessions for FDS Consult

The Problem

Fire Design Solutions, a leading fire engineering agency in UK, approached ExtraDigital to redesign and market their website www.fdsconult.com.

The FDS Group is a major player in the Fire Engineering space and at the time of reading have reach 1,000 projects completed since 2003. They needed a consultancy website which demonstrated their expertise and showed their excellent work which included the Olympic Athletes Village in 2015 and the Alexander McQueen store in London.

The site had an increasingly high bounce rate and search engine performance was poor. Visually, the site did not appeal to their target audience and wasn’t making use of their brilliant project visuals they had collected since the company started in 2003.

website design for FDS

The Solution

We used the follow in our web design and digital marketing solutions for FDS:

  • User and persona research –
    built a deeper understanding of the target audiences and their needs
  • Creating a selection of well thought out modern designs based on usability and best practice –
    web designs took into account how the users view and engage with the website
  • Migrated the site from Joomla to WordPress
  • Ensuring all CTAs were clearly visible to increase the volume of webinar sign ups
  • Designed an intuitive case studies section to clearly showcase projects
  • Optimising all content on the site in accordance with SEO best practice
  • Successfully putting the site live and completing all 301 redirects so as to not lose any previous SEO value

responsive web design for FDS

The Result?

In terms of the marketing, the sites are performing well above the base line. The site operates in a very competitive niche, which makes us extra proud of the hard work and dedication the team have shown to produce these excellent results.

Here are the statistics a year on (November 2014 vs November 2015)

  • 89% increase in Sessions – site traffic nearly doubled year on year
  • 15% drop in the bounce rate
  • 37% increase in page views
  • 43% increase in SEO traffic

Social Media for Ecommerce – Being Social

In our last few articles we have looked at creating a foundation for your ecommerce social media marketing and creating a content plan. In this article we will look at getting to grips with being active on social.

If you think social media success is just about posting up lots of great content then you have really missed the point. Social Networks have grown to be so big online by bring people together to interact with each other.

If you don’t interact on your social channels with your audience and potential customers you are missing a huge part of what makes social media successful.

Audience Engagement

In the physical world if a customer says to a sales assistant they like a product or asks a question you would expect the sales assistant to acknowledge the customer and respond.

Well it’s no different for social media, when people interact with your content through likes, shares and comments it’s your opportunity to be the sales assistant and give a response.

You should always answer a comment even the negative ones, staying positive and be helpful is the key here.

You can thank people for sharing content, but if you have a lot of shares you might not want to do this on an individual level. It’s the same with likes you might not want to thank each person, but you could post how blown away you are by how many likes you got.

Make your audience feel valued and appreciated by not only engaging with them, but also actively asking for their opinions and feedback through questions.

Fan Hunting

As I said in my first article Social Media for Ecommerce – Creating a Solid Foundation you need to actively go out and find your audience on social media.

Try searching on key hashtags to your brand or products and you will find a whole host of content being shared that is relevant to you.

These fans may not be interacting with your channel of page, but are promoting you independently.

Liking, sharing and interacting with these posts can help you:

  • Grow your audience
  • Connect and build relationships with people already advocating for your brand
  • Increase sales

You can also use this method to find key topics being discussed that you might want to contribute on. In this case rather than fans your looking for potential fans/customers, for example someone might tweet about a beauty problem they have and as a relevant beauty brand you can comment with tips and ideas to help.

Following and Sharing Content

On social media it pays to follow the right people this not only gives other a feeling for what you are about, it can also help you connect with industry influencers and find content gems.

So who should you follow?

It’s up to you but a good rule is to follow:

  • Industry news and key publications related to your brand and products
  • Influencers on your subject – that could be a top beauty blogger with a huge following
  • Organisations, charity and bodies that post related quality content
  • Partner businesses – these could include suppliers, sister companies and business you collaborate with

I don’t recommend following competitors, do by all means keep an eye on the competition, but you don’t need to follow them to do this.

While most content on your channel should be your own its good practice to regularly share great content from others. It’s another reason to follow good content on social media.

When sharing keep it relevant to your audience and objectives, check and read what you are sharing carefully and be sure not to share competitor content.

Sometimes you might be asked to share content, which is fine, but always check it carefully to make sure you’re not being caught out with a hoax.

 

So by now you’re well on your way to making social media work for your brand with a good foundation, content plan and active social profile.

 

In my next series of articles I will take things a step further and look at social advertising, running competitions, retargeting and much much more…

 

B2B Marketing 5 Tips for Success

The internet is a great place to market B2B services and solutions, how do I know?

Well for over 12 years I have worked successfully with many B2B businesses marketing their services online. Since joining Web Designer Vip over 7 years ago I have had the pleasure of working with several regular B2B clients who are still seeing great results year on year.

The following are five of my top tips to create successful B2B marketing campaigns.

Set Clear Objectives and Goals

I can’t tell you how many times I run a training session or start a campaign where the first thing I say is “what are our objectives”.

You need clear objective in place with your marketing as these will not only guide all your endeavours, but also give you something to measure you success by.

When planning your marketing objectives and goals think are they:

  • Doable.
  • Understandable.
  • Manageable.
  • Beneficial.

Also make sure everyone knows the objectives and goals for your marketing both in-house and in your external agency.

Know Your Audience

This is more than just a vague idea of who your target businesses are for your marketing. Really successful campaigns have a much more detailed knowledge of the audience that is used to tailor content and messages.

This is often called personas, but really it’s about understanding what makes your audience and tick.

So consider things like:

  • Who makes the purchase decisions
  • What are their problems
  • How can you solve these problems
  • What objections might you need to over come

Select the Right Mix

Getting your marketing mix right is key, as to reach your audience you need to use multiple channels both on and off line.

Most online channels have some interaction with each other and a converted lead seldom comes from just one source like SEO or email marketing.

An example:

Mr Right sees your PPC ad and visits the website, he likes what he sees, but wants to check the market place to see if this is the best solution. After looking online he visits the website again, but this time via organic search results. He needs to get approval so he bookmarks the site. Once he has approval Mr Right comes back and completes the contact form via his bookmark link.

In your analytics you see the lead coming from direct traffic, but in reality both PPC and SEO had a part to play in this lead generation.

If you dig a little deeper in analytics data you can see conversion attribution data and work out which channels are supporting as well as closing leads. This data can help you see where to start to invest in your marketing.

Find more information on Google Analytics Attribution.

Try New Ideas

Sticking to the tried and tested is a common b2b marketing mistake and actually limits your reach.

Don’t be afraid to try something new, but do test it properly with again clear objectives and goals. Also be sensible is posting on Instagram really going to appeal or reach your target audience.

Areas like social media, retargeting, creative content and even ecommerce can work well for B2B marketing, when they are carefully planned and executed.

Here is one of the advantages in using a good outsourced marketing agency like Web Designer Vip as they will be actively training and testing new marketing channels, tools and methods.

Set Targets

Having clear targets helps focus your marketing be that in-house or with an external agency.

Targets must be specific and realistic and so a good place to start is by reviewing your previous results year on year as well as industry data.

Be sensitive to the marketing channel and the resources you have available.

SEO can take time to build strong positioning, while PPC is much more instant, but will depend on competition and advertising budgets. Social may take time to build a following as can email marketing.

Also be prepared to adjust targets if circumstances change for example you may plan to add 2 new case studies per month, but your content writer leaves part way through the year and has not been replaced.

 

What are you doing to prepare for voice search?

Whether you use voice search or not, marketers need to sit up and listen to recent noise and make a judgement – but we urge you to think long term.

We all know the love affair that is teenagers and their mobiles – who has time to type these days? It’s predicted that over 55% of teenage smart phone users use voice search in some form showing signs that it may become ubiquitous in the next few years. Remember, for longevity of your brand, markets should also be thinking about the next generation of users and how they interact with technology to get your message to right people at the right time using the right medium.

So how will voice search affect your content?

Every one of your users’ needs a question answered and are looking for a product or service to solve their problems. In the information age the aim of the game is to education and demonstrate your subject leadership to build trust that you or your product can do exactly what it says on the tin. If you’ve been producing great quality content that users find valuable and ‘answers your consumers questions and concerns’ – congratulations – your 90% there.

If not – where have you been!

Here are some quick content tips:

Consider the questions your consumers ask in your content marketing strategy (sidebar: If you don’t have one see this article on content strategy for guidance in how to get started). Voice search aside, providing this information is the key to demonstrating knowledge and thought leadership. Let’s consider a hypothetical real estate business. Your consumers will be in the market for a new house and asking:

  • Where is the best place to live in X
  • What are house prices like in X
  • Are there any local schools in X
  • (And of course) Is there a Nandos in X

It’s your job to communicate your content, message and brand by being present at this in the sales funnel us marketers call the awareness and consideration stage – remember, content attracts and engages! Be your client’s best mate and be there for them when they need you the most.

To summarise the effect on content:

  • Focus on relevance not keywords
  • Answer your users questions in your websites content
  • Consider your users personas

So how will voice search affect your SEO?

Semantic Search

Remember that Google uses semantic search.

Wikipedia: “Semantic search seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable dataspace, whether on the Web or within a closed system, to generate more relevant results.”

This means that Google no longer looks at a short keyword phrase but the relevance and context of the whole site. These advances have moved us from former queries like “restaurants in Rochester,’ to more specific queries such as ‘where to eat Indian food in Rochester’ or ‘what is the best place to eat Indian food in Rochester.’

With that said, again the focus is on creating relevant content that answers questions.

Mobile Optimisation

The majority of mobile searches will come from those using mobile devices equipped with Siri or Cortana. If you still haven’t made the jump to a responsive website yet, maybe this will give you the push. It’s been common knowledge for some time that Google ranks mobile optimised sites more highly in search engines. Be sure to optimise your content for mobile first to take advantage of this rise.

Local Search

Have you invested in your local strategy? Searches such as ‘best Chinese restaurants’ will serve local results as opposed to a list of Chinese restaurants and voice search will take advantage of this!

Local SEO has very much changed. Doing a search for ‘plumbers in Kent’ hardly returns individual websites and results. You will generally see Yelp, check a trade and other review sites dominating the top of search results. Ensure you are listed in Google my business, and build relationships with many local business to promote your local work to help you take advantage of local voice search.

So Should I have voice search on my website?

Our verdict: there is no short or medium term gain in developing native voice search within a website. The technology at present is nowhere near completion due to the following issues:

  • Browser support for voice  / microphone input is too patchy – the infrastructure and technology just isn’t that far along yet to get relialable results from voice searches for websites. Millions has gone into refining mainstream voice search platforms such as Siri. Browsers have a long way to go.
  • Accessibility issues when no microphone device attached – if your user doesn’t have a microphone, then voice search is as useful as a chocolate teapot.
  • Voice search would be used outside the website to access info in the website or land in the website – voice search results will show a snippet of content from a web page and may give users even less incentive to go onto the site.

 

Disadvantages of SEO

Can there be disadvantages to SEO?

Yes there can, as experts in digital marketing at ExtraDigital we know that all marketing channels have their benefits and disadvantages, this article will cover some of the ones we have most commonly observed.

Before we look at the disadvantages let first examine what SEO is.

What is SEO?

SEO or search engine optimisation is a digital marketing method that works to optimise a website to perform well in search engine results.

This includes ranking and appearing well for search terms and variations that are used by your target audience in natural or organic search listings.

The SEO method involves not only making adjustment to the website itself, but also work on the wider internet to build a sites authority and position.

Benefits of SEO

If you have spent any time looking at the SEO services available you will see lots of focus on the benefits.

While SEO has many benefits two areas we like to focus on at ExtraDigital are:

  • building relevant traffic to your website
  • supporting and generating leads and sales

Disadvantages of SEO

Getting noticed by more than your target Audience

1)  Getting noticed by more than your target audience

As you get more visible online through SEO so your competitors will start to notice and they may well up their game to compete.

Increased competition is fairly common once competitors see your marketing is working especially if their leads and sales are dropping.

Also expect to be targeted by a lot more people trying to sell you their services. From other SEO agencies, to advertising the greater your exposure online the more others will start to see you as a desirable prospect to work with.

Spam too can increase for the same reasons, but with good filters in place this can easily be managed.

Over Success

2) Over Success

As much as every business wants to be a success there is a real danger of too much and too fast. If you can’t handle the volume of leads and sales then opportunities will be lost and customers let down.

Once SEO gets into full swing I have seen cases where the up surge in leads has been more than the client could handle.

Unlike channels like PPC which can easily be switched on and off SEO isn’t so instant. Even if you stop your SEO it’s likely the work already in place will have some lasting effect. Although over time your SEO position will slip if not maintained often due again to the increased efforts of your competitors.

As you can see it’s very important to make sure you have the right structures in place to cope with increases in leads and sales.

Black and White Hat

3) Black Hats and White Hats

The SEO world can feel a little like the Wild West, while most agencies offer a good and fair service there are some that don’t.

Some companies (Black Hats) will happily break the rules to get you to the top in the short term only for you to find you get caught with a Google Penalty that gets you kicked out of search results due to their methods.

Then there are companies (White Hats) who work hard to stay within the rules and give you great SEO results through regular quality work.

There are also companies who sit between both camps almost grey hats so to speak.

Often it’s hard for businesses to know who to trust with their SEO and we sadly do see websites that have been damaged by bad SEO work.

Our advice is to look for the White Hat SEO’s, they won’t be the cheapest, but they will give you the best value for your investment.

Check the company’s reputation, have any of their clients had a Google penalty?

At ExtraDigital we are proud to be White Hat’s, working within Google guidelines with innovative as well as tried and tested SEO. While we have helped websites recover from Google Penalties we happily have never had one of our clients receive one.