How Do I Prepare For A SEO Interview?

I have applied for many jobs in my SEO career to date, received interview calls from a few out of those, failed miserably in most cases, so I know (to great extent) - how it feels when you are so eager to join an organization but unable to do so due to some reason.

I am telling you one thing about me today that, I never stopped searching for suitable SEO jobs (as per my thoughts) and applied. In fact, I regularly check the job sites in search of not only for jobs but also for information related to the latest SEO trends. Believe me, if you are serious about the digital marketing profession you are in, keep checking the jobs posted by recruiters on the job sites, to come to know about, what the actual SEO skills are on-demand, accordingly you may portray yourself through your personalized resume and most importantly, keep yourself up-to-date to remain competitive and updated.

How do I prepare myself for an SEO interview?

In today’s post, I have accumulated a couple of questions from my previous experience that a candidate often faces in an interview (maybe in the first round or during the final round of interviews), but since the answer was not up-to-the-mark, they missed the opportunity. Please read through these non-technical questions and answers below, ready yourself properly for the upcoming interview, and overcome the challenges elegantly.

Q 1. Tell me about yourself:

The most regularly asked question in interviews. You need to have a short testimonial ready in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound prepared. Limit it not to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Talk about things you have done and jobs you believed that relate to the position you are interviewing for. Start with the point farthest back and work up to the present concisely.

Q 2. Why did you leave your last job?

Stay constructive regardless of the circumstances. Unless absolutely necessary, never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of managers, co-workers, or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Rather talk about leaving for an optimistic reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special, or other forward-thinking reasons.

Q 3. What experience do you have in this field?

Speak about essentials that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have a particular skill, get as close as you can.

Q 4. Do you consider yourself successful?

You should always answer yes and concisely describe why. A good reason is that you have set realistic goals, and you have met some on time and are on track to achieve the others.

Q 5. What do co-workers say about you?

Be ready with a quote or two (for example, refer to LinkedIn recommendations) from co-workers. Either an exact testimonial or a summary will work. For example, Ryan Dutta, a co-worker at Tenet Company, always said I was the smartest worker he had ever known. It is as powerful as Ryan had said it at the interview himself.

Q 6. What do you know about this organization?

This question is one reason to do some study on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are going. What are the current issues and who are the major stakeholders?

Q 7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

Try to include development activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of accomplishments can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones within reach to refer.

Q 8. Are you applying for other jobs?

Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and elucidate what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.

Q 9. Why do you want to work for this organization?

This may take some thought and definitely, should be based on the study you have done on the organization. Authenticity is very important here and will easily be recognized. Relate it to your long-term professional goals.

Q 10. Do you know anyone who works for us?

Be aware of the policies on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your selection even though they questioned about friends, not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.

Q 11. What kind of salary do you need?

A tricky question. So, do not answer it hurriedly. Instead, say something like, Can you tell me the range for this position? Or, how much you are willing to offer? In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job responsibility. Then give a wide range.

Q 12. Are you a team player?

You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your attitude towards work in a team. Do not brag, just say it in a down-to-earth tone. This is a key point.

Q 13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?

Specifics here are not worthy. Something like this should work: I'd like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I'm doing a decent job.

Q 14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?

This is thoughtful. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do for the best interest of the organization. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.

Q 15. What is your philosophy towards work?

The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery thesis here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That's the type of answer that works best here. Short and confident, showing values to the organization.

Q 16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?

Answer yes if you would. But since you are alive, need to work to stay active physically and mentally, so this is the type of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.

Q 17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?

If you have not, say no. If you have, be straight, brief, and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.

Q 18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization

You should not feel nervous here. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points (your X factor) as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.

Q 19. Why should we hire you?

Point out how your skills, knowledge, and experience meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison.

Q 20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made

Have a worthy one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered fruitful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.

Q 21. What irritates you about co-workers?

This is a trick question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A gentle declaration that you seem to get along with people is great.

Q 22. What is your greatest strength?

Numerous answers are fine, just stay positive. A few good examples: Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your interpersonal skills, Your positive attitude.

Q 23. Tell me about your dream job.

Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be discontented with this position if hired. The best is to stay generic and say something like: A job where I love the work, like the folks, can contribute meaningfully, and can't wait to get to work.

Q 24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?

Give several whys and wherefores in addition to skills, experience, and interest.

Q 25. What is more important to you: the money or the work?

Money is always important, but work is the most important. There is no better answer.

Q 26. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?

There are numerous good possibilities: Professional, Diligent, Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise, Initiative, Patience, Smart, Creativity, Problem solver.

Q 27. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor

Another trick question and possibly the main. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. So stay alert and positive.

Q 28. What has disappointed you about a job?

Don't get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include: Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction. The company did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.

Q 29. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.

You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.

Q 30. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?

Definitely this one; that’s why you appeared for the interview. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.

Q 31. What motivates you to do your best on the job?

This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are - Challenge, Achievement, and Recognition.

Q 32. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?

This is up to you. Be totally straightforward.

Q 33. How would you know you were successful in this job?

Several ways are good measures: You set KPIs for yourself and meet them. Your productivity was high and the outcomes are a success. Your boss tells you that you are successful.

Q 34. Would you be willing to relocate if required?

You should be clear on this with your family before the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career as well as in your personal life. Be candid at this point and save yourself future grief.

Q 35. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?

This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical consequences. Just say yes.

Q 36. Describe your management style.

Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like a liberal, salesman, or harmony, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.

Q 37. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?

Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it a small, well-intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be experimenting too far ahead of the industry trends on a project and thus throwing synchronization off.

Q 38. Do you have any blind spots?

Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them unless absolutely necessary.

Q 39. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?

Be careful to maintain parity between traits that are needed and that you have.

Q 40. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?

Regardless of your qualifications, clarify that you are very well qualified for the position.

Q 41. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?

First, if you have an experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up; then, point out (if true) that you are a smart yet hard-working quick learner.

Q 42. What qualities do you look for in a boss?

Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates, and holder of high standards. The catch is all bosses think they have these traits.

Q 43. Tell me about an incident when you helped resolve a dispute between others.

Pick a specific event. Concentrate on your problem-solving technique and not the dispute you settled.

Q 44. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?

Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.

Q 45. Describe your work ethic.

Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.

Q 46. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no ill feelings.

Q 47. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.

Talk about having fun by accomplishing something meaningful for the organization.

Q 48. Do you have any questions for me?

Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive and what type of projects I will be able to assist on are a few common yet good examples.

Hope this helps you all a lot. Let me know if I am overlooking anything obvious.

This is my last contribution to this blog for this year - you may consider this as my two cents to the digital marketing community.

Wish you all happy holidays. See you all next year!

8 Damaging Habits Of Less Effective Digital Marketers & How To Overcome Them

At times, it’s our ignored, damaging routines that disrupt our success.

Our daily activities define our lives.

What you do every day, is what decides your professional career.

That’s why habits are so influential and why more and more digital marketers have to look into their routines.

If you search the web, can find tons of research work on how to build more positive habits. But hardly anything conclusive for digital marketers.

As the digital marketing industry is growing rapidly, the competition becomes fierce, and as a result, all will be successful in their respective field of work.

However, whatever success might mean to you, it is always a result of your daily activities.

Our daily activities contain some good as well as some bad ones. We often consciously or subconsciously ignores to eliminate those harmful routines from our lives.

So let’s focus on eliminating a few bad habits that can help to increase your happiness, productivity, and success in your digital marketing profession.

1. Don’t take things personally

Taking things personally costs us hundreds of hours in repent.

Once you stop over-analysis the sayings of others, you will feel much happier and relaxed.

Next time you feel offended by a statement, ask the commentator what he really meant.

Since communication is versatile, and misunderstandings can happen all the time.

Instead of thinking about what somebody might have meant, just ask.

2. Stop recalling the past

On average, we have 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts crossing our minds per day according to a study and the majority of our thoughts are negativity oriented.

We are either thinking about bad things that could happen in the future or are trapped in the past that we can’t change.

But both are damaging anyway.

Thinking about the future with proper planning and positivity can motivate you. But holding on to the past, quite the opposite.

We can’t change what happened already, so letting go of it is the smartest and most effective thing to do.

What helps us to close the past is taking some time to learn from it for allows us to structure our thoughts based on experience. So, it gets easier to deal with future challenges.

3. Regulate your social media usage

For tons of people, social media is the number one weapon for digital media success.

However, it’s time to re-evaluate how we should use it.

Are you producing and sharing valuable content or just consuming what others share?

Use social media to get motivated and to build deep connections which amplifies your professional effort, not to make yourself odd.

This might sound peculiar, however, by reducing your passive social media usage, you will have a clearer mind with innovative ideas during active hours.

4. Don’t over-stress

With a few simple strategies, digital marketing jobs become stress-free.

As stated above, most of our worry is because we are not present at the moment. We are either concerned about the imaginary future or busy recalling the past.

On the contrary, you will not feel any stress, if you are present at this moment.

By doing meditation and exercise, you will quickly realize that over-stressing does not make sense and harms your career. Plus, it will be much easier to let go of the negative and focus on the positive side of your job.

5. Take control of your sleep

Sleeping can be your number 1 productivity and energy booster.

Getting a great rest is inevitable for a happy, healthy professional life.

Be reachable 24/7 is not smart, but a dumb thing in the corporate world. There is a difference between expectations and requirements. We all have to manage the expectations of our time.

Do activities like writing, meditation, reading, or light yoga exercises to control your irregular sleep cycle.

6. Take control of your diet

What you eat has a major impact on your energy level.

If you want to increase your intensity level at the workplace, changing your diet is one of the quickest and most influential things to do.

Getting rid of junk, unhealthy foods is the first step.

Additionally, make sure to stay hydrated. Drinking adequate plain water is the basic need for a stable and robust energy level.

7. Stop complaining repeatedly

We are all just a part of a process, and all of us are experiencing challenges.

However, those who manage to embrace the challenges with a smile are happier and healthier.

Complaining about things without taking action means inviting negativity.

Nobody likes to be around someone who always complains and spreads skepticism.

Don’t be the person who is increasing negativity, instead of spread positive vibes.

By doing so, you will be happier, and people are going to feel comfortable working with you.

8. Stop pleasing others

Living your life according to the rules of others is the best way to be unhappy.

In the end, you will look back at all the changes you didn’t take to make yourself proud.

Through your work as a digital marketer, you can create your legacy among your peers.

In the end, people (colleagues, bosses, clients, etc.) often remember you for the same reasons.

Start respecting yourself too and saying no to things that you won’t be proud of at the end of your career.

Use every moment you have, to increase your dignity to live up to your own expectations. Instead of pleasing others, create your own glittering professional life story.

7 Ways To Deal With Impatient Clients Before It Hinders Your Agency Growth

Agency owners who often feel insecure - despite being smart, skilled, capable professional teams, this post is for them. They worry that clients may into thinking that they're not good enough. As a result, they live in fear of being "lose the business".

This insecurity is actually fairly common and many agency owners have suffered from it at one point or another. But that doesn't make it any less damaging to a person's confidence and business growth.

So if you feel like you're suffering from similar anxiety syndrome or something like it, know that there are ways to curb these feelings in a healthy, proactive way.

Know the signs.

We often overlook the signs of clients’ unhappiness for whatever be the reason. However, recognizing these signs is the first step toward overcoming them:

• You feel like you "got lucky" when you actually not prepared well and worked hard
• You accept praise when you didn't actually do something right
• You cheat mindfully to escape from the fear of failure
• You avoid reporting real progress report card with confidence
• You're convinced you're not enough

Pay attention to your professionalism, especially when it comes to delivering real work. Do some reflective thinking on what it means to the reputation of your agency.

Here are some tips to help you get started and turn the situation in favor of you:

• You are not the only option
• Humility should not be seen as a sign of weakness
• Let go of your inner carelessness
• Be kind to your client (from the inside, not from outside)
• Track and measure your successes
• Say "yes" to new opportunities
• Embrace the challenges, and use them for improvement

It's really hard to get rid of dishonesty completely - especially if you've had it for years and years. The fact that hugely successful entrepreneurs feel the opposite way after all they've accomplished is evidence that it can be an achievable task.

That's why the best angle from which to tackle your business crisis isn't cheating clients; it's embrace challenges as opportunities.

How I Managed PPC During The Coronavirus Outbreak?

The advertising landscape has reformed virtually almost instantaneously with the spread of the COVID-19.

As a result, the majority of trades shutting down across the world.

This will require advertisers to be more courageous, creative, and patient with our ever-changing situation.

Here are five tips to help you manage your paid search ad campaigns during this pandemic as unofficially it's not over yet.

1. Plan to intact business value props

In many cases, businesses have shifted to promote different products or services that have more demand in the current scenario.

Check if your product or service be considered essential now?

If your product or service can be fit into or can be modified to fit into a necessity, shift into a temporary plan to promote these initiatives.

Also, explore possibilities of providing complete online solutions.

Review the current campaigns and determine if the messaging (in ads and/or on landing pages) is still a good fit and what should be added/edited to accommodate the shifting landscape, for example:

• Revise CTAs like “Visit us in-store”
• Review images with people in groups or close-contacts
• Add curbside pickup information
• Edit shipping information with revised delivery timeline etc.
• Review hours of operation and any deviation from the normal operation hours
• Messaging on your company’s response to the present crisis

Some of these can be used in the primary ad copy and on the landing page, but don’t forget to utilize ad extensions such as site links and call-outs to convey the information optimally.

Be sure to match messaging clearly between the ad copies and the corresponding landing page.

Keep the brand’s value proposition and continue to embrace the challenges because users are now picky more than ever.

It is advisable to recognize the severity of the current crisis and take a custom marketing approach.

Don’t make it difficult for you to recover the lost ground later.

2. Match budget with spend

Now is a good time to reconcile your allotted budget and actual spend on ads.

You may want to shift budgets into those products or services that have more chance to succeed during this global emergency.

At the same time, you definitely do not want to hamper the performance of the best campaigns to maximize results.

So make some smart moves to manage PPC on a small budget optimally.

To do that, first, take the time out to analyze the budget and actual spend simultaneously to find out whether the budget has been distributed and utilized throughout the campaigns optimally or not.

Depending on the ROI, instead of adjusting the ad budget too much, consider improving conversions to beat campaign spend.

This will help you run campaigns successfully with limited ad budgets and aim for other critical campaign management tasks.

Smart Bidding is a feature available inside Google Ads that will help you automate the process and other platforms offer automated bidding features too to maximize conversions.

This allows the platforms to automatically adjust CPC bids based on historical search behavior and contextual data in real-time to match the advertiser’s goals.

This automation feature powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence can help you be the most agile as customers’ behaviors quickly change.

Do check your maximum CPC, target CPA, and target ROAS while using these features.

3. Research on search behavior

While people are maintaining social distancing, they will still be browsing, and pay for stuff online.

For example, many are searching for solutions that can be obtained virtually and turn-around times for delivery of solutions is pretty much normal.

So if we craft ad copy or ad extensions along with a landing page to showcase benefits like free delivery, fast delivery, curbside pick-up, porch drop-off, etc., then we will have a fair chance over others to get the business.

Another example, depending on your industry, will likely see minor or major changes in search queries triggering your ads.

This will require a two-pronged strategy:

• Reactive: Reviewing CTR and conversion rate on search terms and ads.
• Proactive: Forecasting searches that may trigger your ads and create negative keyword lists (to keep Quality Scores as high as possible) that can be applied and easily manageable across campaigns. A great tool to do research on search behavior for building an effective list of negative keywords is Google Trends.

4. Diversify channels

People staying at home will be consuming more content digitally and using more online communication tools than ever before.

Facebook reports a 50% increase in utilization, with voice and video calling more than doubling on Messenger and WhatsApp respectively.

With a large percentage of users centered on and around messaging, groups, and live streams, Facebook says many of these features are not commercialized yet, so they are seeing a decrease in ad revenue.

Despite this, overall, many people are returning to Facebook who had previously abandoned the platform over privacy concerns.

The decline in revenue in many digital ad platforms means there is an opportunity for advertisers to face less competition and increase market share without incurring extra costs.

The chance to reach more prospects through PPC and paid social ads is now in full swing.

Opportunities worth exploring now as opportunists can think about:

• Expansion to the Google Display Network and Microsoft Audience Network
• YouTube and in-video ad placement options
• Pinterest for consumers discovering products for buying
• Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Ads, but with a strong yet custom campaign management approach

5. Back to basics

At some point, the quarantine will be lifted - in whole or in part.

When that happens, buyers will be ready to get outside and re-engage.

Whether that will be with the same level of enthusiasm as pre-virus is yet to be seen.

But it’s not good to feel worried unnecessarily about any and all future changes.

When we talk about getting back to basics, we suggest that people have become too concerned with complicated imaginary details or new theories and should concentrate on simple, important ideas or activities. Nurtured carefully, the businesses can once again get back to basics.

Stay safe.

8 Daily Habits That Are Drastically Improving My Facebook Ads Campaign

These habits will help you in the Facebook Ads campaign setup, run, and optimize better.

Very often, what stands in between success and you is you - your attitude, your habits, your actions, and your beliefs.

Here are the 8 daily habits - they’ve drastically improved the performance of my Facebook Ads campaign - they’ve made my campaigns more productive and increased my ROI.

1. Putting my smartphone on airplane mode before sleep

I feel good to wake up with zero notifications, zero alerts, and zero messages.

Checking your campaigns from the phone first thing after waking up increases your stress levels and hinder your brain for creativity. More importantly, it automatically sets you in a reactive state instead of a proactive one - you give away your peace to your reactions to campaign alerts. Your brain becomes overwhelmed with information.

Putting my phone on airplane mode ended this vicious cycle. I now wake up stress-free, distraction-free, and stay always energetic to manage my ad campaigns.

2. Meditating every day

I’ve been building the habit of starting my morning with a mediation session and I’ve noticed a considerable difference in my thought process.

It helps me find calm and clarity while also allowing me to think critically on campaign optimization tasks.

3. Do exercise every morning

Doing exercise makes me more flexible now.

With some stretching and meditation, through daily exercise, I begin my day mentally focused and emotionally calm which helps me accept the usual ups-n-downs of campaign performance.

4. Performing appreciativeness

Every day before sign-off, I check my ad account and ask myself: “What have I achieved today?” And then I map it to campaign KPIs.

That’s it. And this habit helps me go to bed in a much more positive state.

You can look back over the week and find a lot of small steps you took to improve the ad campaigns’ performance and were glad. That’s called self-appreciation, and isn’t it worth being cheerful for?

5. Writing every day

Writing has given me more clarity. I wrote down my campaign’s goals to reflect on their progress periodically.

This, in turn, makes me more aware of my situations and clearer of what I need to excel in my ad campaign’s performance.

Writing also helps me stay aligned with concepts and ideas; I can never forget to try new things when writing them down.

I’ve become a more productive, self-aware, and disciplined ad campaign manager because of the habit of taking notes on important observations related to my campaigns.

6. Practicing consistency

Whatever it is you want to achieve through running ad campaigns, there’s only one thing that will get you there: consistency.

Consistency transformed my thinking about building better campaigns to achieve my goals. The campaign analytics tool is the act of tracking your campaign performance so you can measure your progress as you work toward conversions and ROI.

Define a list of KPIs you want to track for a campaign. Around that, set an actionable plan. Then split the entire plan into smaller modules to make it simpler. Here your goal is to not break the chain of modules - so that you can meet KPIs on time. For all these, you need dedication - and dedication comes with consistency. Just keep moving forward.

7. No more chasing ROI blindly

I used to chase ROI. I set unrealistic campaign goals, I pushed myself too hard, and eventually, I easily become fatigued. And ultimately, my ad campaigns fail to deliver.

That’s when I decided this:

I will stop chasing ROI blindly, and I will make sure to do everything step-by-step to generate ROI. Progressing gradually means analyzing your campaign properly and giving adequate time to every optimization method it deserves. It means you are not afraid to make any changes to your campaign settings. It means not over-optimizing the campaigns for the sake of quick ROI. It means taking a systematic approach to reach a level of optimization backed by proper campaign data analysis.

Sure, ROI is important but the point I want to establish here is, focus on progress, not on the end result. Progress (no matter how little it is) means actively working towards your goals, one small step at a time. Steady progress means you are managing the campaigns without self-inflicted pressure.

8. Practicing innovation

Reading expands our minds and boosts our creative imagination. That’s why I turn to an article online.

The idea is simple: There’s a wealth of knowledge out there and the more relevant input I consume, the more output I can produce, so I do my best to read every day and learn something new – and then apply it in my ad campaigns optimally.

If you search on the web for tips on Facebook Ads campaign optimization or get the best results on Facebook Ads, you will see many resources available to explore. You will get some fantastic hacks like -

• Optimize your Facebook Ads' likes and shares
• Use the FTO (fast take off - Facebook's Accelerated Delivery option) method
• Optimize your ad schedule
• Utilize image rotation optimally in ads
• Optimize your ad placement
• Always A/B test your ideas
• Test highly distinguished variants
• Select the right campaign objective and many more..

- to optimize an advertising campaign. Sure, these are all fine. But I decided to cover some points that are unconventional yet essential for optimizing paid social campaigns. I have applied all these habits/tips/techniques in my own life and observed tremendous growth in the performance of my Facebook Ads campaigns. The reason is simple, to optimize your campaigns, first learn to optimize your body and mind.

Good luck!

5 Habits of Highly Dependable Account Managers

Sharing some easy-to-follow steps to create meaningful changes in your relationship with clients.

If you want to be more dependable in eyes of your clients, where is the best place to start?

To me, the answer is pretty clear: confidence.

It’s what separates the reliable from the rest. It’s that inner feeling of motivation that enables you to face any challenges.

Confidence is a universal characteristic that (almost) any client is keen to find in you.

So how can you become more dependable? Read below.

I. More gentleness, less judgment.

If you want to be more reliable, you must first start by relying on others. Every single person on the planet has their flaws & limitations. So if you can accept them, others reciprocate.

When you develop the ability to understand the rationale behind the client’s annoyance, it allows you to empathize with their circumstances to create common ground.

II. Ask great questions.

The reality is that people love talking about themselves. So listen, take mental notes of what clients say during the conversations, and ask more about their favorite topics. You’ll be surprised at how positively people react when it becomes clear you’re sincerely listening to what they have to say.

III. Greet them by their preferred name.

When you are in a client meeting, don’t be shy to say their first name several times during a conversation. Even if it’s just during the initial greeting, we can make others feel much respected when saying their name instead of Sir/Ma’am, etc.

IV. Create a great first impression.

Most people decide if they like you within the first few minutes of meeting you. So act accordingly.

We all know somebody who doesn’t feel confident inside, often loses eye contact while talking, and wants to escape from the discussion. As a result, they make an awful first impression on those they meet.

Making a lasting impression is basic to your trustworthiness. So look in the eye of your client, give a firm handshake, and show positive body language to ensure that client wants to see you again.

V. Smile more.

People tend to be friendlier if you choose to match the positive body language of the other person. So if you lightly smile during a conversation with the client while making eye contact, it creates a level of social intimacy and bonding.

If you check minutely, these five habits are influential and interconnected with each other. I have written this post based on my days in agencies.

Cheers!

Introduction to Statistics - Measurement scales and statistical tools

As we know every subject has its origin, development stages, scope, uses and limitations. In “Introduction to Statistics”, we will discuss origin and development, definition, scope, uses and limitations of statistics. In our daily life we are using statistics knowingly or unknowingly, because

1. Most of the decisions taken by us being are based on past experience
2. Future events are also predicted by using the past behavior of that particular event

Statistics is a branch of science which deals with collection, classification, tabulation, analysis and interpretation of data.

MEASUREMENT SCALES

In Statistics, act of counting and measurement is divided into 4 levels of measurement scales known as

1. Nominal Scale
2. Ordinal Scale
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio Scale

1. Nominal Scale
Under Nominal Scale we divide the objects under study into two or more categories by giving them unique names. Nominal scale is used when we want to categories the data based on the characteristics such as gender, race, region, religion, etc.

Example, (i) Classification into different categories based on gender

(ii) Classification into different categories based on Meal

(iii) Classification into different countries based on Continents

2. Ordinal Scale

As we already know order does not make any sense in nominal scale. So if in a measurement scale orders also make sense then, this scale comes under Ordinal scale. It is used when we want to measure the attitude scores towards the level of liking, satisfaction, preference, etc. 

Example, based on economic condition of a family, generally families of a society are divided into three categories: Higher class family > Middle class family > Lower class family. But the actual difference cannot be measured, as we can only give order/rank. 

3. Interval Scale

In interval scale actual differences can be found. Say, if I = [12, 18], then length of this interval (here we are using the concept of interval) is 18-12 = 6, i.e. difference between 12 and 18 is 6, i.e. we can find the difference between any two points of the interval. Interval scale includes +, - in addition to >, < and =, ≠.

From above three definitions we have learned,

• Nominal scale gives only names to the different categories
• Ordinal scale moving one step further and provides the concept of order between the categories also
• Interval scale moving one step ahead to ordinal scale and also provides the characteristics of the difference between any two categories

4. Ratio Scale

Ratio scale is the highest level of measurement because other than names, orders and characteristics of difference; ratio scale also provides natural zero (absolute zero). In ratio measurement scale values of characteristics cannot be negative.

Ratio scale is used when we want to measure weight, height, length, age, mass, time, etc. Ratio scale includes x, ÷ in addition to +, -, >, <, =, ≠ . 

One of the advantages of measurement scale is that these help us to decide which statistical tool should be used in a given situation.

Based on information provided by measurement scales, their levels from lowest to highest are nominal, ordinal, ratio and interval

That is why all the Statistical tools applicable on the lower scale will automatically be applicable on the next level. It is understood that statistical tools which are permissible for nominal will be permissible in case of ordinal and so on. Advantages of measurement scale are that these help us to decide which statistical tool should be used in a given situation.

MEASUREMENT SCALE	PERMISSIBLE STATISTICAL TOOLS	LOGIC/REASON
NOMINAL SCALE	Mode, chi-square test and run test	Here counting is only permissible operation
ORDINAL SCALE	Median all positional averages like quartile, Decile, percentile, rank correlation	Here other than counting, order relation (less than or greater than) also exists
RATIO SCALE	Mean, SD, t-test, f-test, ANOVA, sample multiple and moment correlations, regression	Here counting, order and difference operations hold
INTERVAL SCALE	Geometric mean (GM), Harmonic mean (HM), Coefficient of variation	Here counting, order, difference and natural zero exist

Permissible Statistical Tools

For my next blog post, we will discuss on different types of data.

9 Tips To Recover Your PPC Campaign Performance In 2020

With 2020 bringing so many ups and downs how do you safeguard your PPC campaign performance? 

Tips to do PPC advertising successfully

Over the past few months, PPC or pay-per-click advertising has lost some ground due to the COVID-19 outbreak but now out to become again a promising online advertising solution for businesses of all types.

In the digital era, PPC advertising has a substantial impact on the success of a business that grows online. Not only PPC ads improve your leads, but they also increase sales. Even Google confirms that PPC can boost brand awareness by 80%.

If you’re the PPC campaign manager of an organization, but not getting enough success out of your advertising effort, this post is for you.

I am sharing a few actionable tips that will considerably improve the performance of your campaigns, but first, let’s quickly understand what precisely PPC ad is. If you already know, you can skip this section.

Unlike most online advertising methods, PPC is well-known to provide better control over your advertising costs as it enables you to analyze your ad clicks in real-time.

Nine advice to boost your PPC campaign performance -

1. Have a clear goal

Until you have a clear and measurable goal, you can’t optimize your PPC campaign properly. Remember, your goal is the foundation of your optimization process. If you don’t have an accurate road map to follow, you won’t reach your target. Firstly, you need to decide what you want to achieve from your paid search ads. Depending on your business requirements, your goal could be:

• Getting traffic to your website
• Getting leads
• Improving sales

Always set clear and realistic goals. They should encourage your entire team to work toward the completion of your company’s goals.

2. Use the right keyword

In any PPC campaign, it is critical to select the right keywords. Although Google provides you a tool (Keyword Planner) to create a keyword list based on your set criteria, to ensure the success of your campaign, you must choose the keywords that have a high potential, which means typically high searches with moderate or low competition.

Check the success probability of keywords before including them in your ad copy. Choose the ones with supreme potentiality.

If your target audience resides in a different geographical location, it is advisable to figure out which keywords have maximum search possibilities in their region. Choose keywords wisely as not all will be beneficial in terms of quality output. You may need to use more than one tool if you want to invest in keywords with more confidence.

3. Optimize the value of keyword (keyword score)

One of the primary reasons most PPC campaigns tumble is, they have too many keywords. So, avoid keyword congestion. Instead, your aim should be to improve each finalized keyword’s quality score. Three of the primary factors that define the quality of your keywords include:

• The relevancy of your keywords to your ad copy
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• The relevancy of your keywords to your landing page

Here are some guidelines to improve the quality score of your keywords -

• First of all, check out whether or not your ad copy is properly aligned with the search objective of your selected keyword. You should focus on crafting headlines that are relevant and can hit the pain points of your targeted viewers.
• Figure out the number of clicks your every keyword receives. Keywords with high CTR will cost you less, help you generate quality traffic, which can improve your conversion rate.
• You can use DTR (Dynamic text replacement) and Dynamic Ads features to match your ad’s copy with searched keywords and with the content of your landing page. It will help you show personalized content to your targeted audience for each ad.

4. Build a list of negative keywords

Negative keywords can save your campaign budget to a great extent as it prevents your ads from being triggered by inappropriate searches. These keywords help you avoid junk traffic hitting your account. For example, if you deal with iPhone only, but your ads are being displayed for searches like iPod, iWatch, and iPad too, then you can add those keywords into your negative keyword list.

5. Create an engaging ad copy

Ad copy plays a major role in shaping the success of your campaign. So, put some serious efforts into constructing engaging ads.

Check out some quick instructions to craft exceptional PPC ads:

• Due to space limitations, you need to use each character in your ad very smartly; as writing convincing ad copy while adhering to all the restrictions is an art. Your ad copy should clearly state your USP and reveal why people should choose you over your competitors
• Try to be as relevant as possible. As mentioned above, match all your ads with their pertinent landing pages and keywords respectively
• Make eye-catching headlines
• Don’t overlook adding a compelling call-to-action
• Consider using power words such as Instant, Hurry, Exclusive, Free, Now, and more to trigger a psychological or emotional reaction from viewers

6. Utilize retargeting

A high bounce rate is a common thing in PPC advertising. Well, retargeting and remarketing is an ideal way to capture those bounced visitors if you are considered those as missed opportunities. You can use it re-capture the attention of prospects who are still in the awareness or consideration phase. Retargeting enables you to show targeted ads to shoppers who have already viewed your products or services (or visited the landing page). There are several ways you can boost the performance of retargeting to increase your conversion rate and return on investment. For example, you can try out -

• Different behavioral retargeting
• Lead magnets
• Work with famous influencers in your specific niche
• Re-engage people with abandoned shopping carts
• Up-sell or cross-sell to existing consumers
• Showcase different product categories and more

7. Utilize ad extensions

Add extensions to the ads are an ideal way to unveil added information about your product or service. There are two types of ad extensions:

• Manual Ad extensions
• Automatic Ad extensions

A manual ad extension is a customizable addition that further has many extension types such as site link, location, call, review, call out, etc. In contrast, automatic ad extension works automatically. Similar to manual ad extension, it also has quite a few types such as customer rating, the previous visit, dynamic site link, and more.

8. Run mobile-optimized campaigns

Today, when around half of the global population uses a smartphone, you can’t overlook mobile devices when creating your PPC campaign. Make sure your landing pages are mobile-friendly so that you can get the optimum benefit out of your campaign. Give more attention to campaign analytics data as behaviors of mobile users are distinct and they do not surf the web like traditional searchers. For example, mobile users do not type much and instead tend to use the voice search feature. You should also select keywords accordingly. You may also look for ways to reduce form size on your landing pages rationally in order to reduce typing for mobile users.

9. Keep track of campaign performance

To ensure the profitability of your campaign, you need to monitor it regularly. Some PPC account managers don’t invest adequate time to analyze their campaigns, which is another basic reason some PPC campaigns fail.

Don’t ignore the importance of systematic monitoring as it will help you gain valuable actionable insights to increase the performance of your campaign. If you’re using Google Ads, Google Analytics and Search Console should be convenient tools for you.

However, if you want to improve its effectiveness, you can invest in an automated solution that is capable of offering real-time reporting. If you can automate your Google Ads reporting, you can quickly find out critical information that you can use to optimize advertising strategies and enhance the performance of the PPC campaign. You can create some custom alerts for you inside Google Analytics so even the slightest change in your campaign’s performance gets your attention automatically and almost instantaneously.

No matter what the shape and size of your business are, PPC advertising can help you gain greater visibility on the web and boost conversion from online channels. However, to ensure your campaign is functioning as per the plan, you need to follow specific steps. In this post, we made you acquainted with knowledgeable information that will surely take your marketing campaign to the next level.

Share your views and questions in the comments below.

6 Ways To Keep Work-Life Balance When WFH

When you work in the same physical space that you use for relaxation, finding the right balance between work and day-to-day life can be a challenge. All too often, the boundaries begin to blur, and we find ourselves torn between the two. Whether you’re in the field of digital marketing, web design, or development, it’s not unusual to find yourself working till late hours. The question is: How can we keep the right balance between our professional lives and our personal lives? How can we maintain it especially when working from home?

The road to a decent work-life balance may be hard, but the following ways can help you achieve your work-life balance goals. But first -

What is work-life balance, and why is it important?

Work-life balance refers to how people arrange their time and effort between professional and personal commitments. It’s about evenly distributing 24 hours to set a lifestyle in which you’re always in a healthy mental and physical state. Several factors could impact your work-life balance. Some of these are easier to control, whereas others maybe not due to many reasons. However, finding a healthy work-life balance is key to your overall well-being. It can reduce stress levels and the risk of exhaustion or creative block. In addition, both employees and employers who have healthy work-life balance are likely to be happier with each other, resulting in improved commitment. As a manager, promoting a healthy work-life balance within your team can be a good way to support team members while working remotely.

Ways to balance work and life:

• Set specific work hours
• Determine achievable goals
• Take proper breaks
• Create a designated work-space
• Be good to yourself
• Accept imperfection

Let's explore each of these now.

1. Set specific work hours

When working from home, one of the best time management advice is to set specific work hours - just like your office hours. This way, you’re less likely to receive emails, phone calls, and meeting proposals during your non-work hours. Choose when you want to start and end each day. Take breaks like you are in the office. Look after personal responsibilities during those breaks. This will lead to a more fruitful schedule, helping you stick to your work hours productively.

2. Set achievable goals

Take a look at your work plan and to-do list ahead. Ask yourself what your priorities are at work: any specific deadlines? Once you have a clear vision of what you need to work on today or the whole week, you’ll be able to set your goals and plan out your deliverables. Try to make your goals as realistic as possible. In turn, you’ll be more likely to adhere to deadlines and improve your productivity, focus on other aspects of your life and meet them, something that brings you joy.

3. Take proper breaks

When working from home taking proper breaks from work is equally required. Taking your eyes away from your computer monitor is important for your work and life balance. It will give you the breathing space you need to rejuvenate. You may also find that taking breaks will help you be more creative. Set aside time for your breaks, and do your best to disconnect from your professional duties during this time. So when you are back to work, you can fully concentrate on your work.

4. Create a designated work-space

Working from home isn’t always as desirable as it may look. If you really want to balance work and life, it’s probably the best idea to select an appropriate spot at home where you can set up your home office. If you have no dedicated spare space, do your best to create a temporary workspace that feels comfortable for you. Try to keep your workspace clean and organized to avoid distractions. Your home-based temporary office should get you in the right professional attitude, so to make your job easy.

5. Be good to yourself

With juggling so many responsibilities, being good to yourself is a must. Prioritizing your own well-being is important than many other professional and personal duties but without being selfish. If you feel pleased, the chances are you’ll serve well as an employee, a partner, parent, and so on. Some most common ways are, give yourself time to relax after work, proactively unplug yourself from the internet, disconnect yourself from the outside world, and let yourself be composed again. Allocate time for yourself and your loved ones. Maintain meaningful human relationships and engage yourself in something you enjoy.

6. Accept imperfection

While there are plenty of ways to maintain a work-life balance, the reality is that you can’t always expect your two worlds not to interfere with one another. Sometimes, even if you try hard, you need to accept that the division between work and life won’t always be ideal in the real world. You could find yourself having to answer a work call while playing with your children, or responding to an important email as you sit down for dinner with your partner.

Be realistic. Ask yourself where you can be flexible, without risking anything. For example, set boundaries with your potentially overworking manager. Accustomed to the way household tasks are done at home by your partner. Whatever agreements you come to with the people around you, being realistic with yourself is the key. A perfect work-life balance may not be within reach on the first attempt but the constant thrive for it, can allow you to achieve it sooner than later.

The 5 Steps To Digital Awareness

Digital marketing isn’t usually regarded as necessary for many businesses until the COVID-19 outbreak.

It’s mostly considered as an optional way of how you ought to be more successfully run the business. Thus it might seem like digital marketing isn’t really a necessity - rather just a choice.

The reason is the lack of digital awareness.

I think there is some common confusion about digital marketing’s omnipotence. These thoughts are pervasive, looming again and again. Even in the year 2020, their dominance still hinders progress.

In today’s post, we talk about how to build digital awareness in steps so all the entrepreneurs who still hesitate can go for digital marketing services with confidence.

The 5 steps to digital awareness

A checklist for starting your journey to opt for digital marketing service without any doubt.

1. Habits

Nearly all forms of self-awareness first require that you change your habit.

Habits, then, start forming your behavior.

For example, to get fit you need to have a habit of eating well and exercising. To get rich you need a habit of saving and investing. To expand your business you need to find new ways of communication with your potential customers; you need to penetrate deep into where they are.

I am not against any other form of marketing, but if your customers prefer online mediums, build marketing habits central to that theory, to serve them better. You wonder when you will see how the timely and contextually right digital marketing campaigns have impacts on business ROI.

2. Goal-setting

How can you trust a method if you don’t measure the outcome from it? Goal-setting not only help you decide what to do but also planning how to do it. It’s a common misconception, digital marketing is more about qualitative and less quantitative.

A good heuristic for goal-setting is that they should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) which is absolutely feasible in digital marketing.

3. Systems

Systems implements structure in behavior. Any process is one type of system - in this case, aimed at helping you get work done by organizing the things that generate ROI.

The opposite of systems is a haphazard approach. Systems often encourage you to create and follow explicit rules or guidelines.

Digital marketing is also a system and is often built on applied productivity plans.

Digital marketing is spontaneous, intuitive, and creative with a touch of the emotional approach to generate ROI. Nonetheless, understanding systems, even if you choose to apply them selectively, is a core concept of digital awareness.

4. Learning

Learning here means studying new opportunities and gaining knowledge from experience, and get better at anything.

Learning is a core concept of digital awareness.

Learning is an important tool simply because it pours knowledge into your system that means you can understand which is a better way to reach the goals, even if others don’t.

5. Thoughts & Beliefs

Thoughts and beliefs are much mental than verbal, but our digital awareness is dependent heavily on both and act as an instrument for achieving things.

Regardless of the origin of thoughts and beliefs, they influence the degree of digital awareness for multiple reasons.

Since your thoughts and beliefs have a heavy impact on your behavior, and thus on your results, you may stay within a self-imposed mental boundary.

Thoughts and beliefs try to control our emotions by overpowering the rational mental state inside us as well.

The transformation of thoughts and beliefs is depending on how soon you want to get yourself out from comfort zone. Regardless of where you sit in this spectrum, the content of our thoughts and beliefs is central to true digital awareness.

To successfully employ any system, you have to keep faith in it by centering your thoughts and beliefs on it. Similarly, if your thoughts and beliefs powered by learning tell you to go for digital marketing, restricting yourself with lame excuses will hurt your business’s growth only. Or in fact, you haven’t learned. Else, you should have approach digital marketing differently.

Which step did I miss?

There certainly are other concepts in blossoming digital awareness inside you. I’ve skipped some here. Because though are important but didn’t seem as universal so I excluded them. If you have your own thought on digital awareness, please share them in the comments!

Solutions To 10 Google Ads Challenges For SMBs

Google Ads platform offers an enormous opportunity to all, but it also throws a lot of challenges especially to small businesses if not managed properly. In today’s post, I walk through 10 common Google Ads challenges for SMBs and their solutions.

Ten common Google Ads challenges for SMBs (and how to overcome them)

Optimum use of Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is easier said than done, especially if you’re new to online advertising.

If you are a small business owner, the situation is more overwhelming for you. But the good news is - these initial challenges are common and are possible to overcome even you are new to Google Ads. Nurturing effective ad campaigns requires study, optimization, and a whole lot of patience. But with proper guidance and courage, you’ll eventually generate ROI for your business consistently through running Google Ads campaigns successfully.

Getting started with Google Ads is easy, but getting results (i.e. real leads and sales) is typically hard.

This is true - I know from my decade of experience.

But I also know how to overcome these common challenges -

Challenge #1: Find the right audience for campaigns

A beginner-level slip-up when starting in Google Ads is to build out campaigns without knowing who your target audience is. Sure, you as a business owner have a fair idea but adding the right keywords to represent that same idea independently - is a challenge. In the worse case, you may end up with less than expected traffic or with lots of junk traffic!

Make sure that doesn’t happen by brainstorming with the free Keyword Planner tool found in Google Ads. You’ll find the suggestions for various relevant keyword terms along with supporting data for what you’ll pay per click.

Challenge #2: Overspending on clicks

Your competitors love making money from Google Ads just as much as you do. For new campaigns, I typically starting with high bids because I want to put my ads in a position to get more clicks, which leads to high CTR and ultimately, cheaper clicks. Bidding too high, sometimes though, exhaust your advertising budget which causes a negative return on your investment.

It’s a balancing act, but you can make it out with some simple calculation. Evaluate your maximum bid capacity with this formula:

Max CPC = (average profit per customer) x (conversion rate of your online customers) x (1 – desired advertising profit margin)

You’ll need to assess your business situation, market condition, and Google’s suggestions to estimate these numbers when you’re just starting out, but you can connect actual outcomes with the campaign’s data as you go. Consider leveraging the Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on keywords with projected costs below your planned Max CPC.

Challenge #3: Keeping pace with competitors

As you know, one of the secrets in business is to stay one step ahead of your competitors whenever is possible if not always. The same is true in Google Ads.

To keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, I recommend using tools like SpyFu and Ahrefs. Sure, there are many other powerful tools available for use like SEMrush and Moz. I have used all these along with many others. SpyFu is one of the best I have ever experienced. Using this tool, you’ll be able to “spying” on your competitors’ work like ad copy variations, keyword combinations, and many more insights on their ad campaigns. This is valuable information you can use to improve your own campaign’s performance and get a competitive advantage.

Challenge #4: Defining business USPs

Why should consumers click on your ad over all the others?

To answer this question is to outline what makes your offers special. That may not be challenging; but this is, when I say, you must summarize that uniqueness in a very limited space in your ads. Focus your ad on whatever it is your business does better than everyone else, and construct ads around those USPs.

By doing this, you will influence your ads’ quality score which is another essential ingredient like CTR to be successful on Google Ads. The more relevant your ads are with selected keywords and landing pages, the better chances to receive high QS which eventually leads to high CTR and ultimately conversions.

A few months back, in a Google Office Hours hangout, Google’s John Mueller answered a question about why a site lost rank. Yes, it’s about SEO. John’s answer centered on the power of being different and how this quality can help a site ranking better. I believe, this is relatable to PPC too. In fact, for any form of digital marketing and advertising.

Challenge #5: Limited characters space for ads

Your ads must be compelling enough to grab Google users’ attention, encourage them to clicks, and drive conversions. However, with standard text ads (one of the most used and most powerful ad formats), you only get 30 characters for your three headlines and 90 characters for your two description lines.

That’s not much space to work with, but not little too, especially when you are focused on:

• Convey unique selling points (USPs)
• Offer custom deals and discounts
• Add a call to action (CTA)

Like all writing, the main step is to start. Once you have a few drafts, then you can compare, edit, and refine them to find the best 2-3 variations you want to try out first. Remember, no one knows for sure which ad copy will perform best so always run multiple variations and let the data guide you. Also, I am encouraging you to test ad copies until you reach an optimum level in terms of their performance. But refrain from unnecessary experiments with Google Ads.

Challenge #6: Right landing page selection for ads

It’s comparatively easy for us to do adjustments in our ad copy but this is not the right approach especially when you only focus on your ad copy rather than reviewing your ads and landing pages together.

Your Google Ads quality score can tumble over poor landing page experiences, resulting in fewer conversions and more expensive clicks. Google can even stop showing your ads over what it deems to be inappropriate landing page content a.k.a. false advertising. On top of that, you’re likely to end up with a bad user experience (UX) that might have otherwise converted.

Before altering your ad copy, first make sure that your plan, is well aligned with your landing page. If your revised ad offers pay on delivery, then people who click that ad should found that offer too after landed on your web page. Those irresistible offers play a massive part in bringing people to your site and journey to goal conversion, but if you don’t follow through on your landing page, neither will your prospects.

It is okay to edit your ads here-n-there based on data (or sometimes your gut feeling) without touching the associated landing page. But when changes are critical (in most situations), good to maintain the alliance between your ads, landing page, and keyword.

Challenge #7: Targeting users on mobile

Most web developers today building websites that are equally functional on both mobile and desktop platforms. However, many small business websites are not mobile-friendly since were built before mobile took off.

Three things will happen if you advertise to mobile devices without a mobile-optimized website:

• Potential consumers will bounce because the page will not look or function properly on their mobile (a.k.a. you’ll lose sales)
• Your quality scores will suffer, which leads to higher costs and lower ad position
• Even if you are running campaigns and exclude handheld devices to display ads, you are missing out on a large portion of your probable customers which again adversely affect your ROI because your competitors are ON mobile

So choose to not advertise to mobile devices is not really a smart option anymore, especially if we know that an estimated 100 billion Google searches per month originate from smartphones and this number is growing!

Unfortunately, the world is now working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. So mobile searches are expected to grow rapidly in the future. Accordingly, businesses should tweak the Google Ads plan.

Challenge #8: Goal conversion tracking

Enabling goal conversion tracking is an absolute necessity. Without it, you won’t ever know which keyword, ad, the campaign is driving the most leads and sales.

Get your conversion tracking code from Google Ads and embed it within the landing page of your website that indicates a completed goal. If your goal is to drive sales, then embed the code on your delivery confirmation page.

If you want to drive leads, then embed the code on the page that shows after your contact form is submitted a.k.a. thank you page. This code allows Google Ads to track when prospects complete your forms so you can see exactly which ads and keywords result in more conversions.

Additionally, if phone calls are important for your business, then don’t forget to set up call conversion tracking so you can see which ads and keywords are driving leads/sales over phone calls.

Challenge #9: Using ad extensions

Extensions are additional components in your ads that can make your ads much more enticing to users - especially those who are searching for local merchandise and services. Ad extensions include call extensions, site link extensions, callout extensions, price extensions, and more.

Google does show some extensions automatically, but you’ll miss out on the most useful extensions if you don’t set them up by hand.

Start with this feature under the “Ad extensions” tab in Google Ads and follow the directions to set up each extension.

Challenge #10: Optimizing campaigns

Optimizing the campaigns is an ongoing struggle. From the day you launch the ads, you should always be split-testing ad copy, adjusting your bids, trying new keywords, stopping poor-performing keywords, analyze different targeting options, and split-testing landing pages - do all kinds of calculative experiemnts.

Successful campaigns eventually require less elevation and, like everything else with Google Ads, it gets much easier over time, and one of the prime reasons for that is from the learner, you also turn into an expert in due course.

When you attend my online/offline training, I’ll show you exactly how to profitably manage your Google Ads campaigns, so you minimize your ad costs, generate more leads and sales, and maximize your profits!

If you manage your own Google Ads campaigns, or if you manage Google Ads campaigns for clients or on behalf of others, you should definitely attend this program.

A Basic SEO Audit Checklist

A site’s health is a key factor that influences the ranking of your website. In today's post, we look at the basic search engine optimization (SEO) audit checklist, and more.

Keeping up with all the latest trends can be crushing for someone who has just started out SEO. Besides, making sure that the existing SEO operations are in place as per the latest Google algorithm changes can be an overwhelming task for some.

To make sure that you and your site are up-to-date and are not missing out on anything obvious from an SEO point of view, you should perform an SEO audit of your website regularly. With an easy-to-follow ready checklist, you do a standard SEO audit task that ensures none of the critical factors are missed.

In today’s post, I will brief you with a comprehensive checklist that will help you execute the SEO audit of your website effectively and efficiently.

The benefits of having an SEO audit checklist are:

• Helps you identify the site’s configuration issues and work on them
• Helps you with your site’s on and off-site SEO
• Helps you improve your site’s speed and performance optimization
• No need to depend on others for website auditing
• Helps you increase the organic traffic
• The checklist helps you find any SEO exclusions or unlawful activity
• Help you improve the website’s ranking on SERP

I have tried my best to create a comprehensive checklist so that you don’t miss out on the key parts of SEO.

Now, let’s explore the checklist for your next SEO audit.

Define the scope of SEO audit

Before you dive in, determine the purpose of your work to know why you need an SEO audit. These objectives will eventually define the scope of your checklist and help you navigate smartly.

For example, if your website is not achieving the desired load speed results, you might want to conduct an SEO audit accordingly to figure out what’s causing the trouble. Or, if there is a sudden downfall in the traffic metrics, your line of action will be different to fix things through an SEO audit. Well, there may have many separate or inter-connected goals behind performing an SEO audit; so by carefully assessing them, you will be able to perform an SEO audit more effectively.

That’s the reason, there will be certain areas that I have purposefully skipped from this basic checklist.

1. Keyword analysis

Analyzing keywords is a good idea to begin your audit with the analysis of the keywords your site is targeting and if you’re using the right ones.

In general, the right keyword will be relevant, measurable, and obviously will help you do business better. A few tools that you can use are -

• UberSuggest
• SEMrush
• Google keyword planner
• Ahrefs
• Google trends

Beware of keyword cannibalization, is another damaging factor for your website. It occurs when more than one page of your website competes with each other for the same keyword. Make sure that you implement resolutions to take care of it.

2. Content analysis

Content that’s on your site must be unique and free of plagiarism, which is a basic requirement of doing SEO properly. Well, there are several other facets of content analysis checks that must be safeguarded.

Begin by checking the presence of duplicate content on your site with help from tools such as Siteliner.com. You can also take the help of the Copyscape tool to see if any of your content has been plagiarized or not.

Typically content that helps your website rank better is customer-engaging and search engine-friendly. Make sure that you are using the targeted keywords throughout a page on your website. Some recommended places are -

• Keyword in the title of the post/page
• Keyword in the first paragraph
• Keyword appearances in the H1 Tag
• Use of keyword in the meta description of the post
• Keyword appearances in the URL structure
• Keyword in the alt text of the image used
• Keyword appearances towards the end of the post’s content

To make sure that your content is engaging, always answer the user-generated queries through the content of your landing pages. Keep updating old content with regularly publishing new content for the audience so that you can get a fair share of traffic on both.

Making sure that your content is containing the right information is just as important as using the right language. Create the right content strategy which is well balanced with both text and multimedia content including a regular content publishing plan is sure boosts your SEO.

3. UX and UI analysis

The UI furnished by a website is a huge determinant of the site’s UX and the conversions from landing pages.

Google Analytics and Search Console can help you fix the UX issues on your website to a great extent. Alternatively, you can figure out a smooth UI for your site’s audience so that they can seamlessly surf through the pages of your website and take the action you want them to do.

Another critical site UX ranking factor is the presence of any broken links or pages within the site. Link checker Tools can help you remove such links and ensure that your site doesn’t have them.

4. Image optimization check

Make sure that you are optimizing the images present on your website. There are various tools available online which can help you optimize images. And don’t forget to implement the following -

• Use high-resolution images
• Resize them to match with your site’s UI
• Use a relevant image that matches with text surrounded by
• Name your image file appropriately (keyword focused)
• Use image alt attribute (keyword focused)
• Check for CDN settings for delivering image content appropriately

Additionally, check for copyright if you use ready-made images.

5. Social media account analysis

If your website is employing social media platforms to share its updates and news, make sure that they are well integrated and are working as planned.

6. Web hosting check

The right web hosting service boosts your site’s SEO efforts by adding its server reputation, website uptime, and the loading speed it offers. In an SEO audit, you must review the performance of your existing web host and if there is a need, search, and select a better service provider.

Resources like PCMag can be very helpful for comparing the performance of the hosting service providers.

7. Website loading speed check

Use a tool like Pingdom and/or PageSpeed Insights to fix the issues (if any) with the speed of your website. If it is taking more than a set standard to load, make sure that you take the necessary steps at the earliest.

Don’t forget the website loading time to optimize for both desktop and mobile devices.

8. Site uptime

During the site’s SEO audit, you must check the site’s uptime records too. Site uptime means your website is up and running - accessible to its users. On the other hand, a website with frequent downtime will adversely affect your site’s ranking. To take care of your site’s maintenance and maintain uptime, you can leverage tools like Uptime Robot, Site 24*7, and Pingometer.

9. Back-link analysis

Make sure that the links from other sites to your website are relevant and working. Moz, Ahrefs, and Majestic are great link checker tools if you want to find out the quality of the backlinks to your website. These tools will help you classify the backlinks detected by their sophisticated web robots for given domains, subdomains, or URLs.

Besides, you scrutiny all the outbound and internal links present on your website and get rid of all the junk links.

10. URL check

The right URL structure is critical for SEO as it tells quite a lot about the page on your site. All the URLs on your website must be SE optimized (and user-friendly too) rightly.

11. Google penalty check

Any Google Penalty can cause a lot of damage to your site’s online brand value which costs your site’s SEO work. If you are not aware of such a penalty being imposed on your website, all your efforts to improve your SEO score can go in vain.

Hence, during an SEO audit, Google Penalty check to see if your website has been penalized or not is an absolute must. There are several tools available such as Panguin and Fruition’s. You can through Google Analytics and Search Console tools though identify if anything bad happened with your site. A sudden drop in traffic will be an easy indication in many cases.

12. Sitemaps

XML sitemap files help search engines better understand the structure of your website by sharing information about your site. All you have to keep the files free of any errors.

A Google Search Console feature will help you figure out how many URLs were indexed successfully after submitting the sitemap files through the tool. It will also notify you of any errors in files. Bing Webmaster Tools have a similar feature. Use tools like CodeBeautify and XMLValidation to check your sitemaps for errors before submitting them to Google and Bing for crawling.

13. Site security check

A site’s security is another crucial factor that determines the ranking of your website. If you are doing SEO on an e-commerce website, security is even more important. Since having an SSL certificate is now obvious for a website, make sure that your website has it and while performing your next SEO audit, check the certificate hasn’t been expired.

In conclusion

Once you are making progress, periodical SEO audits will help you keep your SEO strategy alive. With the checklist provided above, you will be able to perform a more efficient SEO audit and run more effective SEO campaigns for your site.