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.

6 Digital Marketing Strategies For SMBs During COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, is having a tremendous impact on businesses and the economy worldwide. During this time, it’s key to stay calm and safe to explore all options for your business.

I’m going to discuss the six different digital marketing strategies that you can focus on during this COVID-19 outbreak for your business -

• Google My Business
• Online Reputation Management
• FAQ Schema
• Budget Optimization
• Google Ads Campaigns
• Social Media

But before that -

Stay safe.

Keep yourself, your family, and all who you care about safe.

And -

Stay informed.

There is a lot of misinformation floating around at present, so it’s crucial - more than ever - that we all stay informed by consuming information from trusted sources. Don’t panic.

Now back to business -

6 digital marketing strategies for businesses negatively affected by coronavirus:

These are hazardous times; everyone is anxious, but the worst thing you can do is react to everything out of sheer panic, including your digital marketing strategy. Hold patience on your search engine marketing effort can help you continue generating revenue, which is especially essential during potential economic downtime.

Here are some digital marketing strategies to help your business -

1. Update your Google My Business

Whether your business has closed during this period or remains open, it’s vital that you update your Google My Business profile. Google has announced that Maps will display if a business is temporarily closed.

Currently, the only way to mark your business as temporarily closed is to contact Google My Business Support. However, Google’s CEO, Mr. Sundar Pichai said, “In the coming days, we’ll make it possible for businesses to easily mark themselves as ‘temporarily closed’ using Google My Business.”

Google is proactively advising businesses to update their Google My Business listing, especially if they’ve been affected by COVID-19. Google has released information on how to update business information in a bid to help users with the most accurate information.

It’s important for local businesses to update their Google My Business page, especially now when “nearby” or “near me” searches are on the rise.

2. Focus on online reputation management

Businesses keep continuing to exploit blogs or other mediums to publish content relevant to their industry trends and growth as a means to update their customers. This will transmit reassurance to your customers and let them know what you’re doing to help them. Which in turn helps you maintain the online reputation of your business even in a crisis situation.

3. Use FAQ schema

People are using search engines like Google more than ever for finding answers to their questions. Ensure that your website content answers the questions that searchers are searching for. Think about implementing FAQ schema to your website pages correctly so you have an opportunity to appear higher on the search engine results page (SERP), which in turn, can increase your traffic and click-through rate (CTR).

4. Budget optimization

Buyer behavior has certainly changed a lot over the last few weeks and months, so you must be ready to shuffle your marketing budget to react to these changes smartly. This is especially important for businesses that run PPC ads. Now is the time to scrutinize the amount spend on online marketing to find out the most profitable channel.

Spend your total budget wisely, especially if you have multiple lead generation processes for your business. And, if you can afford it, invest in profitable plans only and utilize selected ways for the marketing effort.

5. Run Google Ads campaigns

This is one of the best ways even now, to reach customers who intend to buy. You can also use the ads to reach your target audience on social media.

As we can expect fluctuation in demand for certain products and services, now is the time to use online advertising more intelligently to turn the tide towards your business. Of course, depending on your product/service and/or industry, you’ll need to be mindful of running campaigns.

6. Use social media

Similar to Google My Business, use your business’s social media accounts to keep your consumers informed about every initiative that you take to make their lives easier during the crisis. You can create content related to your business operations.

In conclusion

Obviously, this is a creepy time, but you need to think about the effects that could have on your business if you stop all of your digital marketing efforts.

I cheer you to stay active online, answer your customer’s queries, and let them know that you’re still there - at their service.

We will get through this together. Stay safe.

COVID-19 & E-commerce Digital Marketing

COVID-19 has definitely made an impact on e-commerce businesses over the past couple of months now that isolation and social distancing measures have been put in place.

Employees in many infected countries have been asked to work from home, have been placed under quarantine and offices have been shut down.

Naturally, many brick and mortar stores have since forced to shut down, pushing traditional consumers to adopt e-commerce as an alternate.

Reconsider your e-commerce digital marketing strategy

Many businesses are reviewing their options in light of COVID-19, the budget of digital marketing and advertising will be a target for businesses looking to make cuts.

There is indeed a need to work smarter under the current situation, but it’s a crucial time for marketers to adopt strategies for long-term profitability.

1. Manage PPC budget smartly

Strategies like switching off PPC campaigns entirely could clearly be hugely damaging.

Instead, look to manage smartly across accounts where possible.

• Recheck where search-n-demand is waning, accordingly adjust the whole campaign
• Allot budgets for keywords with a higher chance of generating conversions

CPCs at the moment will likely be lower as many advertisers trim down theirs too, so think about capitalizing on this where possible.

Also, if other businesses stop advertising, you can make CTR gains which will improve your QS and lower your CPCs.

The reverse is also true as other people are also looking for opportunities and studying the market’s movement. So you should not just switch off campaigns unless absolutely necessary!

2. Maintain organic visibility

When it comes to organic traffic, SEO is clearly a longer-term strategy and must retain its effectiveness.

It is expected, Google will be regulating its algorithms now more than ever to ensure that the community gets the most relevant results, so to ignore the SEO basics would risk decreasing organic visibility.

The organic channel is one of the most sustainable traffic sources in any situation.

People will always be searching, perhaps more now than ever before as many are now at home with an internet connection.

Businesses with online exposure are in a better position than any to continue to do business in what is a tough time for many.

3. Continue with digital PR

Yes, digital PR activity shouldn’t break during coronavirus.

Now is a great opportunity to get connected with the audience with your news stories that are aligned with COVID-19 logically. Because many are searching for news as usual.

People still want to read worthy news stories and want updates about how the pandemic presently affecting the industries.

If the news is good, it can get noticed by many on news sites.

If your business is willing to help other businesses and people during this tough time, entice them strategically through your digital PR campaigns!

4. Stay social on social media

There will be a lot more people spending time on social platforms as almost all start to adapt to the working from home routine.

This is a great time to re-ignite your social media strategy.

Below are some common tips for brands looking to renovate their social media plan based on current trends -

• Be accurate: Give customers trustworthy information about the things they care about. Be unbiased and clear
  
  
• Be organized: Try to connect both locally and globally with prospects
  
  
• Be convenient: Consumer’s habits are evolving and it’s important to let shoppers know that solutions are available anyplace, anytime
  
  
• Be innovative: Find out-of-box ways to provide solutions as the customers are isolated and combating with both boredom and anxiety

So even though we all feel quarantined, this ongoing crisis actually gives our businesses an opportunity to be even more social and more community-led.

It also lets your brand become even more popular during this gloomy period.

Resume the business

The things discussed in this post are a general guide to adapting to COVID-19.

Clearly, there’s no one approach to digital strategy for all kinds of e-commerce businesses.

But one thing is sure, it’s that we as a marketer must ensure our brands must perform optimally online all the time so customers never feel reluctant to do business with us.

This will enable us to avoid a long-term impact on market share and keep us ready to do the business whenever the situation demands.