You’ve created your free Google business listing, now the next question pops up: how do you get people to review your business? The quick answer, you can send people a direct link to review it. But let’s investigate the step by step process and learn all the little secret tricks.
How to Get Reviews on Your Listing
We all know the power of the internet, over 90% of consumers do an internet search before deciding which company they will become loyal to. Creating a Google listing should be a part of your reputation management strategy.
The easiest way to get people to review your business, is to make it as straightforward as possible. After you’ve completed a project or delivered your goods, contact the customer directly, thanking them for the business and request a review.
By including a direct link to the review, you ensure that the customer doesn’t lose interest or become frustrated because it is too complicated to figure out the reviewing process. Although there are various search engines out there, Google is by far the most popular and powerful.
Did you know? More than 80% of online queries are performed on Google
Reviews on your Google My Business listing is completely transparent to the public. Potential customers can form an independent opinion of your business, not through what you want to tell them about your product or service on your website, but through real customer reviews.
How Important Are the Reviews?
These reviews should not be taken lightly, studies show that 84% of people give the Google reviews as much authority as a personal referral from a friend or family member. The reviews also serve the purpose of adding oomph to your Google ranking on search page results.
After your first five reviews, you will start seeing organic search engine traffic results for your business. This means your listing will appear more frequently on the first page of search results. It might be tempting to try and create your own reviews, but this tactic will backfire in the long run. Google’s main aim is to provide relevant and useful information for its users.
Create A Prefilled 5-Star Review for Your Customers
Although you don’t want to tamper with the review results, you can use a technique of creating a link with the 5-stars automatically filled in for customers to use. The aim of a review is to get both a star ranking as well as personal feedback from your satisfied customers.
To create this link, you will need a mobile phone. Once created, it will be functional for reviewing from any device. It will take a bit of effort to set this up, but it’s highly recommended to invest the time to prepare it.
To start the process, verify your address once you’ve created a Google My Business page. Next, open an incognito page on Google Chrome from your phone. Go to your company’s listing on Google My Business. You will see a Knowledge Graph with your company’s details.
Find the section called “Review and Rate”. On the right you can tap the 5 stars. Click on the “Leave a Review” page. You can now copy the address from the URL bar with the automated 5-star review into an email. Use a URL shortener to create a sleeker URL to send to your customers. Before sending it to a customer, first test it out on your own phone and computer.
Note: if you struggle with this technique, contact one of our Cape Town SEO specialists to assist you with the process. Click here for help.
You can also consider adding the review option onto your website, with a specific page dedicated to reviews. Use the automated review link and change it in your website backend to something more relevant, such as https://www.companyname.com/review. This can be done through a 301 redirect link.
Next, you can create a message to request a review from a customer. Remember, the point of the reviews is to receive honest feedback. Once you’ve sent the link to the review, the response is out of your hands. If you believe the review violates the Google listing policies, you can flag it for removal.
Create a message thanking the customer/client for their business. Request a short, honest review for your Google My Business listing, including the link you’ve created. Remember that the customer is under no obligation to leave you a review, so you need to choose your words carefully to not make the request seem forced.
If you were using other communication methods such as SMS or WhatsApp, you can consider using this. But it will depend on your level of relationship with the customer. Emails are generally seen as a less intrusive method.
Your customer needs to have a Google account to create a review. Add a note in the review request email to explain this to the customer, to avoid frustration when the link doesn’t work. Many people have Gmail accounts, but you most likely were communicating with a client via their official work email.
Google Accounts are also linked to YouTube, Android phones, Blogger and more. It is also linked to other Google services such as Google+, Drive, Analytics, AdWords, Search Console, Calendar and more.
The reason Google decided to add this security method, is to prevent anonymous reviews, that can promote dishonesty and malicious attacks. If your customer doesn’t have a Google account, you can alternatively request a review on your Facebook page.
Alternative Method to Create A Review Link
If you feel uncomfortable with the above suggestion of preselecting 5-stars for the review, you can create a link from a Google Search. Use your computer to create a more accurate link. Firstly, search for your business on Google. Locate the listing on the right, scroll down and click “write a review”. Next, copy the URL in the address bar. Use the URL shortener to create a more professional link. You can use a link building service such as bitly.com to track and optimise your links.
Three Key Changes to Google Review Guidelines
These changes affect the Google algorithm’s filtering process. The guidelines aim to specifically deal with review spamming. Another big change is that the criteria is now part of the Google Maps content policy.
Mostly the guidelines are straightforward no-go’s that make logical sense. It deals with major issues such as no adult content, no hate speech, no confidential info, no copyrighted or illegal content, and more.
#1 Former/Current Employees Cannot Leave Reviews
Previously this was a grey area and sometimes Google did not want to comply with deleting a horrible review. Now the system is on your side and you can rest assured that a disgruntled employee can’t publicly badmouth you on your business listing.
#2 Do Not Request Reviews in Bulk
This change is a bit tricky, as the criteria for “bulk” is very ambiguous. An easy rule of thumb to use, is to not get trigger happy with sending out hundreds of emails to customers every day and getting more than 10 reviews in a day.
As always, the Google algorithm is a mystery. Does a link used too frequently trigger the system? If this is the case, is it the click on the link or the actual review that sets off the bulk sensor? Google tracks links in emails, so the system alert could possibly pop up after the same link has been sent out multiple times in a day.
The volume of reviews linked to the historical trends could also potentially be a trigger. This sometimes happens after a listing had been dormant for a while and suddenly the owner decides to start requesting reviews from customers.
Rather start slowly and build up your reviews in a more organic way. As you finish a project, send out the review request, as mentioned above. And spread out the review invitations to older customers across a few weeks.
#3 Missing: Mention of Kiosks
In the previous set of guidelines, it was clearly stated that you should not set up a review kiosk or station at your business. Although the new guidelines do not explicitly mention the use of review stations, you should read between the lines with this one.
It’s mentioned on Google’s Get Reviews page that you should inform your customers that it’s very easy to leave a review from a phone or computer. It’s been proven that Google tracks the devices from where the reviews are generated. So, if numerous reviews appear from the same device, Google will most likely filter them out.
Please Note: it’s against the Google Review Guidelines to incentivise people to leave a review.
Spam Alert
Local guides are encouraged and incentivised to create longer reviews with photos. Keep an eye on the frequency of reviews on your listing. If you notice a suspicious increase in reviews, check the source of the review. There is a photo spam on the rise from fake LG profiles.
Let Storyteller Design Assist You with Your Google Business Listing
Creating a professional business listing can boost your online presence in many ways. Potential customers can get a better idea of your business identity. Also, with a well-written “about us” section and good choice of photos, your business listing can be effectively turned into a virtual brand ambassador. The choice of words in the description can also be used to boost your SEO ranking on the search result pages.
Contact us now for a free evaluation. Let us help you harness the power of the Google Business listing!
I have noticed that when Google populates the search results for this question there are actually two different questions being asked by a similar search.
The first asks:
How do I create a shortcode that outputs the value of an Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin field.
The second asks:
How can I dynamically populate a short code using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
I was trying to find the answer to the first question, but I will try to show both answers here, so that you do not have to search again.
How do I create a shortcode that outputs the value of an Advanced Custom Fields plugin field.
- To do this you must first install and activate the ACF plugin on your WordPress website. You can download the free version here.
- Create a field group with the information you want to use. You can learn more about how to do this on the ACF website.
- Once you have your field set up you can start creating your shortcode. You are going to do this in the functions.php file of your child theme.
- First create a function. Here is an example<
function my_shortcode() { $myfield = get_field('my_field',false,false); return $myfield ; }The trick here is to first create a variable using the get_field ACF function and then return that value as the output for the function./li>
- Once that is done you need to register your function as a shortcode.
add_shortcode( 'myshortcode', 'my_shortcode' );
- Putting it all together you get
function my_shortcode() { $myfield = get_field('my_field',false,false); return $myfield ; } add_shortcode( 'myshortcode', 'my_shortcode' );
- First create a function. Here is an example<
It is important to note that you only need to worry about this if you are using more advanced field than just a text field. If you are only using a text field you can use the inbuilt ACF shortcodes.
e.g.
[acf field="field_name" post_id="123"]
You can learn more about that here.
How can I dynamically populate a short code using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
Since I didn’t have to actually code this, I am taking it from an example I found on StackOverflow. You can read it here.
Say you have an ACF field ‘contact_form’ which is the ID of a contact form 7 form. You want to populate this ID dynamically using ACF.
Your normal short code that you would use in a template is
echo do_shortcode( '[contactform id="1457"]' );
To get this to work is as simple as
echo do_shortcode( '[contactform id="'.get_field('contact_form').'"]' );
The trick here is to use the ACF get_field() function instead of the ACF the_field() function.
Please note that the contact form 7 short code has been changed so that it is not called here, and you can see how we use it. Otherwise we get a 404 contact form shortcake showing.
I hope this helps.
If you have any questions please leave a comment below.
You’ve probably interacted with AngularJS numerous times, without even realising it. AngularJS and other react-style frameworks are slowly taking over the internet. To name a few popular sites currently using the technology – Upwork.com, Udemy.com and Youtube.com.
You definitely recognized the last one, nowadays a lot of people spend numerous hours each week scrolling through the latest YouTube video clips. And you would agree that using the YouTube website is a pleasant experience.
Angular JS SEO
React-style frameworks create a more streamlined web experience for both the site users and web developers.
What Is A Single Page Application?
Firstly, Single Page Applications (SPAs) and Single Page Websites are not the same thing. SPAs are web apps using dynamic updates to load a single HTML page and update information as the user interacts with the website or app.
With the use of HTML5 and AJAX, Single Page Applications create a fluid and responsive experience, without constantly reloading the page. Also, the JavaScript updates happen on the client side.
How Single Page Application Work
Traditional websites load each individual page while the user navigates through the site. This includes calls to the server and cache, loading of resources, and page rendering. SPAs cut out a lot of the back-end activity by loading the whole website when a user lands on any of the website pages. This means that a single HTML page is updated dynamically while the user interacts with the website.
How Does Single Page Applications Impact Web Crawlers?
The biggest benefit of Single Page Applications, is that the user has a streamlined speedy interaction with a website. Web developers also enjoy using it, with an effective universal template that allows for easy customization, testing and page optimization.
But the downside of an Angular or React site, is the SEO challenge. With all the data hidden in the background, it’s not only hidden from the site visitors, the Googlebots can also not access the information.
The Google crawlers rely extensively on HTML/CSS data to interpret and render site content. If the HTML content is hidden behind the site scripts, the crawlers have no content to use for indexing to list a website in the search results.
According to Google it is possible to crawl JavaScript and with a few SEO tests their claims are true. But the Googlebots still seem to struggle with most sites built on a Single Page Application framework. Oftentimes the only search engine results page (SERP) that appears after a crawl of the website, is the homepage.
The other issue that arises, is capturing Google Analytics data. The data is tracked by collecting pageviews when a user navigates from page to page. Without the usual HTML response trigger, the pageviews can’t be collected effectively.
A Five Step SEO Solution for Websites Using Single Page Applications
These steps will assist you to index pages for search engines, as well as rank on the first page of search engine results for specific keywords. Firstly, you need to create a list of all the site pages. Next you must install Prerender and activate the “Fetch as Google” feature. Thereafter the Google Analytics must be configured. Lastly, the site needs to be “recrawled”.
Step 1: Create A List of All Your Site Pages
If you’re thinking “this will take me ages to do”, grin and bear it, in the end it will be worth it. You might be lucky and all you need to do is export an XML sitemap for your site. Even if you have hundreds of pages, this task will help you to create a reference guide to consult while indexing your site. The list will also help to pinpoint any issues that might pop up during SEO optimization.
Tip: divide the content into sub directories, instead of listing individual pages.
Step 2: Install Prerender
This is a crucial element for effective SEO on a website operating on a Single Page Application framework. The Prerender service renders your site in a virtual browser. Next it provides web crawlers with the static HTML content.
With this solution you are getting the best of both world. Your users can still enjoy the speedy SPA experience and the search engine crawlers are happy with the indexable content for effective search results.
View Prerender’s pricing
Step 3: “Fetch as Google”
This is a very handy feature in the Google Search Console. You can enter a URL from your website and fetch the data in the same way a Googlebot would while crawling your site. Selecting “Fetch” will provide you with the HTTP page response, including a download of the source code, the way that a Googlebot interprets it. The “Fetch and Render” option offers you a page screenshot, showing you how Googlebot and site visitors view the page.
Even though Prerender can improve your site indexing, sometimes Google still displays some pages only partially. Or key features might not be featured. By using the “Fetch” or “Fetch and Render”, you can also assess the keyword rankings. Furthermore, you can use the “Request Indexing” option to improve the search results.
Step 4: Configure Your Google Analytics
Because Google has trouble fetching Google Analytics data from a Single Page Application framework, you need to use an alternative method in addition to the traditional tracking code.
Use the Angulartics plugin to replace the standard pageview tracking with virtual pageview tracking. The plugin tracks the user navigation across the entire site. It compensates for the SPAs loading HTML content dynamically, by creating a virtual version of the traditional Analytics tracking.
Another option is to use the Google Tag Manager “History Change” triggers. The biggest challenge is to make sure your Google Analytics record the user interactions with your pages, replacing the pageviews method.
Step 5: Recrawl Your Site
Once you have completed steps 1 to 4, you need to manually check that all the possible crawling errors have been removed. Prerender is a handy application to use, but sometimes a few technical hiccups can still pop up.
Storyteller Design Can Assist You with SEO Ranking for Single Page Applications
We’re not going to lie to you, the SEO process for a Single Page Application site is very tedious and troublesome. But luckily you can make use of our professional SEO services to take care of it for you.
We have the tools and knowhow to tackle this process on your behalf and make sure that you can offer site visitors the dynamic SPA interaction experience on your website, while keeping the GoogleBots happy.
Take our free SEO audit now.
We all suspect that mobile phones are taking over the world. But do you know just how big the mobile movement really is? A few stats that Neil Patel has gathered:
There were close to 150 billion mobile app downloads worldwide in 2016. If this trend persists, statistics predict that in 2021 the mobile app downloads will be over 350 billion. BrightEdge reported recently that their web traffic was 57% mobile generated, versus the traditional desktop computer generated traffic.
What Is the Google Mobile First Update Impact On SEO?
The mobile usage trend is huge. So, it’s no surprise that Google has finally implemented the mobile-first search index criteria. There has been rumours about it for a while now. You might wonder why this is something to take notice of.
The Google Webmasters blog shed some light on how this will affect your website. The Google algorithms will systematically work towards eventually using only the mobile version of your website’s content to rank pages, evaluate structured data, and to display page snippets in the search results. Google’s search index will remain a single index of both websites and apps, but soon the mobile movement will completely take over.
These changes can either help or hinder you. If your website is not currently mobile-friendly, any attempts at a good SEO strategy will be futile. But if you respond swiftly to the algorithm updates, you can beat out the competitors in your industry that are lagging behind.
Related: The value of being in the first page of search results.
When Will the Google Mobile First Update Be Implement?
Unfortunately, Google is currently keeping everyone in the dark, not committing to a specific date. Gary Illyes mentioned at the March 2017 SMX West conference that it would happen as soon as Google views results as “quality-neutral”. They are monitoring the search results to remain close to a status-quo level, or a little above it.
Luckily there are a few basic steps that you can follow to ensure that your website survives the Google mobile first update. Firstly, let’s look at what exactly mobile-first indexing is. Till recently Google used only a desktop-oriented page ranking method.
Related: desktop indexing vs. mobile indexing
Back in the day, everybody used desktops to conduct searches. Desktops won’t disappear any time soon, but Google knows that it must pay attention to the mobile movement. Mobile traffic will constantly keep increasing.
The ranking requirements vary between desktop and mobile, but the indexing system remains the same. What it does mean, is that Google will be using your website’s mobile version as the primary means of ranking. Your desktop site version won’t be completely ignored, but Google will focus first on the mobile site.
Guide to The Google Mobile First Update
In the end, the main aim of the Google mobile first update, is to provide users with the most relevant and accurate search results, regardless of the device used for the search. Quite a few years ago mobile users exceeded desktop users, but desktops are not yet completely out of the running. The mobile movement does not point to a mobile-only shift, only a steady increase in mobile usage.
This increase offers you a great opportunity to tap into a different online market. Research shows that 78% of internet users have discovered a new business they were unaware of when browsing on their phone.
The Google mobile first update does not mean that Google will completely disregard desktop searchers. You need to keep both your desktop and mobile site up to date. This change will not be drastic, it simply means that Google is taking the mobile movement into consideration when determining site and page ranking. If your site is genuinely relevant to search criteria, Google will rank you near the top, regardless of where the search request is coming from.
For instance, if the search criteria were “best five star hotel in Cape Town” and you are one of the most prominent hotels in town, you will appear at the top whether someone is searching from their desktop computer or Smartphone.
Follow the Google Mobile First Update Rules
The trick is to make sure that whether the searcher is landing on your desktop or mobile site, they are still having an effective browsing experience. If your mobile version would frustrate even a five-year-old trying to navigate around your website, Google will start penalising you.
Google doesn’t like ranking sites that are frustrating to use. You don’t have to go overboard and completely redirect your SEO strategy, but it’s important to have an optimised mobile site. One of the most important reasons, is to ensure your competitors don’t outrank you.
Tip: use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure your data is optimised for Google to index your website correctly.
Step One: Test Your Mobile Site
Before you start making changes, determine the current mobile-friendly rating of your website. Google has set up a test to assess the quality of your site. Go to search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly.
It’s very simple to use, simply enter the URL you want to test and click “Run test”. The system will analyse your website. The results will offer you feedback about your website. If there are any existing problems, it will be clearly listed for you to investigate the issues. Click on the “Page loading issues” link at the top for a more detailed explanation of errors that were detected. You can also view more tips on the “Fix your WordPress page” link.
One of the most important elements to keep in mind with a mobile version, is how the user will engage with your content. Make sure that it loads quickly, and that the navigation is very simple to follow.
Related: basic checklist for a good mobile site
Step Two: Check your Content
If your site is listed on an “m” subdomain or if the mobile version uses adaptive/dynamic serving for content sending. The tricky part with a mobile website is that there are a few display limitations. You need to prioritize the most important elements, keeping the user’s experience of your website in mind.
This includes both text and visual elements. Ask yourself with each element how it fits into the visitor’s interaction with your company. Rather stick to the bare basics, than adding too much clutter that could be confusing.
Try doing a few random Google searches on your phone, click through to the websites, and take note of your first impression of the site’s mobile version. What did you enjoy about engaging with the content and what frustrated you?
Step Three: Check Site Responsiveness
Designing for a desktop experience is very different to mobile. Firstly, when browsing on your desktop computer, the little mouse cursor is doing all the clicking work for you. On the mobile version, you need to design for easy finger touch.
By focusing on creating good “tap targets”, you will ensure that users will not become frustrated with engaging with your site. For most of the browsers 16px is the best default font size. For design elements, it is advisable to have at least 44 pixels of whitespace around a clickable element.
Together with the actual design, another important element is loading time. Users will simply click back to the search results page if your site loads too slow. Research shows that 53% of users will click the back button if the page takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Telephone numbers need to be in the correct format to be tappable. If a user needs to copy and paste a number to get hold of you, chances are you’ve already lost the potential lead. Same principle for your email address.
Tip: activated browser caching for user convenience
If you want to create an advance mobile site experience, use a site builder that will detect the device from which the user is browsing. This way your site will be automatically adjusted to display in an optimised format.
Step Four: Streamline the Coding
The speedier the mobile site, the better. There’s a few coding tricks you can use to make sure that your mobile version responds quickly, and the navigation is efficient. Try to decrease the HTTP requests as much as possible. You can achieve this by reducing images, or completely removing them if they are redundant to the browsing experience.
The next tweak won’t increase the speed of your mobile site, but it will increase the chances of searchers clicking through to your website. Also, on a Smartphone there’s less space for the meta titles and page descriptions. So, choose your words carefully.
Also, make sure your social metadata has been optimised to entice people to click on the link when someone shares your content on a social media platform. Each platform has its own system for creating engaging links to share. From Twitter Cards, to Pinterest Rich Pins – invest time in creating correct meta tags to entice people to share your content. Or you can use the Open Graph meta tags across all platforms.
Related: how to create effective social meta tags
Check that your media sitemaps and XML are set up correctly. Also pay attention to your linking structure. Finally, consider using the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) plugin. It’s a separate format, used by Google to cache your site, increasing the page loading speed. It won’t affect the search ranking of your website. But as mentioned before, it’s crucial for a mobile site to be extremely responsive, ensuring a good user experience.
Let Storyteller Design Help You Optimise Your Mobile Site
The Google mobile first update is a huge shift in the way that websites will be ranked from now on. There’s no denying that the mobile movement will only grow stronger. A mobile-friendly site is extremely important if you don’t want to be left behind with the mobile movement.
If your head is spinning from all the information in this post, not to fear. As a Cape Town SEO company, Storyteller Design we make it our mission to stay on top of the latest trends. We can assist you to tweak your existing website to adhere to the Google mobile first update criteria.
Take our SEO help survey now to give us a better idea of the health of your website.
Back in the day when you decided to go on holiday, you went to the closest travel agent and asked them advice about destinations and accommodation options. Travel agents still exist in 2018, but by the time someone arrives in their physical offices, they’ve most likely already done extensive online research. This is why Travel and Toursim SEO is so important.
The power of the internet has created the opportunity for people to even sidestep formal travel agents all together. Arm chair travelling is becoming more and more popular. With information at your fingertips, 24/7, you can educate yourself on practically anything under the sun.
The Tourism Ball Game Has Changed
With big websites such as booking.com and Trip Advisor offering people a new way of approaching travelling, if you want to stay in the game, you need to figure out how to create a strong online presence for your company.
Two of the biggest aspects of good online marketing, is SEO enhanced content and AdWords campaigns. The two go hand in hand. If you are competing for a highly popular keyword phrase, for instance “Cape Town accommodation”, you need to start thinking outside the box.
With this example in mind, you could compare the popularity of “Cape Town accommodation” vs. “accommodation in and around Cape Town” to refine your campaign. It’s very important to make sure your content is SEO-friendly, but most of the time you can’t only rely on this tactic.
A Smart AdWords Campaign
The more specific you can be with your AdWords campaign, the better. Continuing with the example, the first word combination is highly competitive. Firstly, it’s only three words and it’s very generic.
The second word combination can be worked into your content more naturally than the first. It’s an example of a long tail keyword phrase. Although long tail keywords sometimes generate less search traffic, the conversion value is higher, because the search is more specific.
The following are a few pointers to help you create a successful AdWords campaign.
Do Extensive Keyword Research
Put yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes and imagine what they will type into Google when searching for what your company offers. You want to attract people that are specifically interested in your services.
It’s not just about spending more money on a campaign, it’s about spending your ad budget wisely. Try to do a general survey to create a profile of your ideal customer and their search habits. Also, determine the desirability of your package or service before creating your first campaign.
Use the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool to research search volume and competition level of your selected keywords.
Tip: set the “Advanced Options”
Select a location, language and decide whether you want to target laptops/desktops or only mobile devices. Select the “Phrase” match in the keyword “Match Type” setting.
Focus on the following:
- Keywords with high search volumes
- Select keywords focused on intent to buy, not simply information searches.
- Weigh up the affordability of each keyword or keyword phrase
Determine Your Budget
It can be tempting to become trigger happy and select as many keywords as possible. But this will not necessarily guarantee more success. Rather use the information gathered from your research to strategically select specific keywords and keyword phrases.
Determine your maximum cost per click (CPC) budget and compare the estimated CPC against this target at all times. Factors that will influence your budget include your website conversion rate, profit per customer and your general profit margin. Not to worry if you are unsure of these figures, you will be monitoring the progress of the campaign and will be able to make more accurate calculations in the future.
Use this formula:
Maximum CPC = [(profit per customer) x (1 – profit margin) x (website conversion rate)]/100
Example:
Profit per customer at $200, profit margin of 50%, conversion rate of 10%
Max CPC = [$200 x (1 – 0.5) x 10]/100 = $10
Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
You can learn from your competitors what to do, and what not to do. With special software called KeyWordSpy you can analyse other websites to see which keywords have been selected. Don’t see this as cheating, it’s simply competitor intelligence.
Create A Strong and Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition (USP) will make you stand out from the crowd. The competition is especially fierce in the tourism industry. You need to answer the question customers have in the back of their minds while browsing your website – “why should I pick your company?”
A strong USP is the backbone of a successful marketing strategy. And your AdWords campaign needs to contribute to the holistic marketing approach you are implementing for your company. You will be able to generate more effective traffic to your website, eliminating useless leads. It will also boost the conversion rates.
Your USP can be a game changer to avoid price comparison shopping. You need to figure out how to offer something that nobody else in the industry has thought of. This will transform you from a mere commodity into a sought-after opportunity.
How do you create an effective USP? Listen to what your customers want and analyse shopping patterns. Together with this research, analyse competitor strategies. This includes their website, ads and keywords selection.
Create an Irresistible Offer
There are a few components that make up an offer that a potential buyer simply can’t resist. Firstly, the value offered, your potential customer wants to feel that they are getting good worth for their money. Next, the offer must be believable, don’t make the price too low or people will assume there’s something fishy going on. Try to reduce risk, people want to feel reassured that they won’t be conned into buying a special deal and then losing their money. Work in a money-back guarantee to appease the worriers. Lastly, create a specific and simplistic call to action (CTA).
Create Engaging Landing Pages
Be specific with where the potential customer lands on your website. Don’t use your homepage as the go-to landing page. People get annoyed when they must search for information. If your ad mentioned a special deal, let the customer land on the page that offers more information on the deal. Take the potential customer to the page with a clear call to action.
Track and Customize Your Campaign
You want to only invest in keywords that offer you a high return on investment (ROI). By tracking the conversions, you can manage your ads and tweak the keywords selection. If a keyword is not performing well, optimise the next campaign with an alternative.
The wonder of Google AdWords is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all system. You can tweak many elements to make sure you get the best value for money. There are a few specific settings to pay attention to.
Search vs. Display
These are two different types of advertising networks. You shouldn’t use the same set of landing pages, keywords and ads for these.
Device Bids
This is specifically for mobile-friendly websites. More and more people are using their phones to search for information, you can’t afford not to have a mobile responsive website. Mobile-specific ads can generate a lot of revenue for your company.
Keyword Match Types
Keyword types can be categorised as broad, phrase, and exact. The default type will revert to “Broad”. This means your ad will appear when a matching keyword or phrase is typed in. It offers a higher chance of generating irrelevant traffic, which will affect your bounce rate.
The “Phrase” type means your ad will appear when a potential customer’s search matches the selected phrase. It gives you more control over who can view your ad.
The “Exact” type is the strictest out of the three. The potential customer’s search query must exactly match the keywords you selected. It does offer you utter control, but chances of your exposure being less is also quite big.
Out of the three types, the “Phrase” type is most recommended.
Negative Keywords
This is a good way to narrow down the moments Google shows your ad. You can block certain phrases that’s not appropriate to your company. For instance, with the keywords “holiday packages”, you can distinguish between “exclusive holiday packages” or “cheap holiday packages”. These specifications will decrease unwanted traffic and increase ROI.
Remember It’s A Trial and Error Process
Even with extensive research, you can still be surprised with your AdWords campaign not performing the way you expected it to. By carefully monitoring your campaign and constantly making changes as you see issues arise, you will be able to reap the benefits. Things to keep an eye on include the keyword bids, the click through rate (CTR) and landing page conversion rate.
These three factors will influence your website’s ranking as well as its profitability. A good AdWords campaign will help your website to constantly hit the first page of Google search results, as well as convert users into loyal customers.
Let Storyteller Design Run Your AdWords Campaign
If you feel overwhelmed by all the elements involved in an AdWords campaign, you can rather make use of our services to help you successfully promote your company. We have extensive experience in digital marketing and know all the tricks of the trade.
Let us create a customised AdWords campaign for your company, so that you can also successfully target armchair travellers. Your website can become a brand ambassador for your company, enticing potential customers to do business with you.
Learn more about SEO
Why should you bother with using the best SEO tactics for your website? Consider the following SEO travel company example: You’ve finally saved up enough money for that dream holiday in Europe. The dreaming phase now moves into planning. But how do you plan a trip to the other side of the globe, to a place you’ve never visited before? You use Google.
Same scenario if you want to find the closest Indian restaurant to your house after relocating to a new city. Or if you want to research the best new running shoes on the market. When you don’t know something, you Google it.
Top 5 Benefits of the Best SEO Tactics
There are a variety of search engines out there, but Google has managed to become the top household name. People use it like a verb to describe a hunt for information. As a company, you cannot afford to not have an online presence. While there are other search engines as well, we advise that you allocate the biggest portion of your advertising budget to ensure a high ranking on Google.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a way that you can leverage the behind the scenes system of search engines to climb the ranks of the search results. Google Analytics is a highly sophisticated system that offers statistics about how users interact with your website.
You can also opt to activate Google AdWords to make sure that your website is featured at the top of search result pages. But an effective organic SEO strategy can help you achieve more sustained success. What can SEO do for your website?
Increase Traffic to Your Website
This is one of the biggest reasons why you should invest in a SEO strategy. Ask yourself how many times you’ve clicked through to the second page of the search results. Chances are, you usually click on one of the first five pages that appear.
Potential customers will be able to interact with your company much quicker after your SEO strategy kicks in and your website consistently ranks high on search results. If your website appears at the top of the search results page, people will assume you’re the best at what you do. Whether it’s true or not, being at the top of Google search results create industry authority.
Return on Investment (ROI)
With the help of software like Google Analytics, you can monitor every little step of your SEO strategy, ensuring that you are heading in the right direction. If you notice your website is not gaining any traction online, you simply adjust the strategy. Aspects that can be monitored include increase in traffic and search results ranking, as well as sales conversions. A SEO streamlined website will also attract more high quality clients looking for your specific product/service.
Cost Effectiveness
Setting up a good marketing campaign oftentimes feels like a hit and miss undertaking. For example traditional methods such as cold-calling or flyer distribution can be very pricey, with a very low impact. Investing time in creating a dynamic website with a solid SEO foundation can yield much better returns. It’s also a more targeted marketing approach.
The digital marketing trend is on the rise in South Africa. You want to remain at the forefront. By optimising your website with the best SEO tactics, you can quickly move up in the rankings and not get left behind. There are still many industries that don’t have competitive online campaigns. You can be the first company to move to the top in your specific industry. Once you’re at the top, it will be much harder for your competitors to catch up.
Increase Your Website’s Usability
There’s nothing more annoying, than landing on a website that has nothing to do with the search criteria you put in! You want to attract users that are interested in your unique product/service. And by adding the correct SEO keywords, you can access potential customers that are keen to do business with you.
Increase Brand Awareness
This lines up with the idea that you automatically gain credibility with potential customers when they see that you are at the top of the search results page. People trust the information provided by Google. By adding small little tweaks, such as an accurate meta description (the short piece of information below the website link) you can access the customers that will become passionate brand followers.
Why SEO Optimisation Is Important
SEO optimisation is all about showcasing your company effectively on search engines, with Google being the most popular one. You want people to click on your website link because they find your product/service most useful. This way you will attract potential customers that can benefit from interacting with your company, instead of having to sift through endless amounts of useless leads.
Search Engines Are Acquiring More Market Share
Stats show that between 80 to 90% of people first research a product/service online before deciding which company they prefer using. If you don’t optimize your website with the best SEO tactics, your competitors will snatch up the market share.
Local Search Optimization Is On the Rise
You need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly, displaying correctly on Smartphones. Mobile web users have steadily increased the last few years. It opens up a whole new aspect of SEO tactics, you can effectively target potential customers in your specific area.
A Bad Content Profile Can Damage Your Brand
Creating a website once-off and leaving it static for years, will get you penalized on Google. The search algorithm also takes other online platforms into consideration when ranking you, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. You need to be consistently active online, on various platforms. Sporadic social media posts, or blog posts once in a blue moon, is not enough. Google wants to know that you are actively engaged with your brand followers. Creating an SEO strategy that reaches across online platforms will be the best way of staying at the top of search result pages.
Your Competitors Are Definitely Using It
Search engine optimisation remains a never-ending process. You need to tweak your SEO strategy on an ongoing basis. Depending on your industry, keyword competition can be fierce. By thinking a little bit outside the box and using unique long tailed keywords, you can steadily inch ahead of your competitors.
Internet Usage in Africa vs The World
The Miniwatts Marketing Group estimated in June 2017 that Africa makes up 10% of the world’s internet users. In 2000 the South African population was roughly 44,900,000. On 31 December 2000, there were an estimated 2,400,000 internet users in the country. In 2017 the South African population was roughly 55,400,000. The latest estimate on 30 June 2017 of internet users was 29,935,634. This is a 1,147.3% increase in internet growth between 2000 and 2017.
Currently the internet researches about 54.0% of the South African population. And on 30 June 2017 it was estimated that 16,000,000 South Africans were using Facebook. For more African internet statistics, visit internetworldstats.com.
Storyteller Design Loves a Good SEO Challenge
If you created your website before SEO tactics became a crucial element of digital marketing, you don’t have to recreate your site to jump on the bandwagon. All you need to do, is assess your content and optimize it to include relevant SEO keywords to almost instantly push up your Google ranking..
At Storyteller Design we stay on top of all the new SEO trends, ensuring that our client websites consistently hit the first page of search results. We can assess your website and inform you of changes needed.
To continue with the SEO travel company example, people research and plan their trips online. They might use websites such as TripAdvisor or Airbnb, but they are most likely to enter very specific keyword phrases. By using a combination of an organic SEO strategy and an AdWords campaign, you can effectively target a niche market of potential customers.
Click here for a free SEO audit of your website.
UPDATED 14-02-2019
We love using the WordPress plugin Contact Form 7 for the websites we build for our clients. It is extremely easy to use but very powerful and has reasonable documentation. A big plus for us is that it is a much loved plugin in the WordPress community and so answers and solutions can be found for almost all issues on sites like Stack Overflow and WordPress support.
At Storyteller Design we help out clients drive traffic to their sites through SEO and Google AdWords as well as the other search engine marketing like Bing Ads. One of the most important metrics for us is the conversion of these visitors to our client’s sites. A conversion is whenever someone completes a contact form, downloads a pdf or information sheet or calls the client.
We use Contact Form 7 for most of our contact forms and download forms. Once the form has been completed and the submit/download button clicked we want to redirect the visitor to a page where we can log that conversion in Google Analytics and pass that information back to our Google AdWords campaign.
Contact Form 7 used to suggest using an easy copy and paste technique to redirect to your thank you page. However this method has been depreciated by Contact Form 7 and will no longer work after the end of 2017. This leaves two options.
See Old Depreciated Method
Go to the “Contact” menu item in your WordPress back end side bar, click on the form you want to redirect and then click on the “Additional Settings” tab.
Add this code into the field provided:
[javascript]
on_sent_ok: "location = ‘http://www.example.com/thank-you/’;"
[/javascript]
You need to replace the http://www.example.com/thank-you/ with the url of your thank you page.
- If you are not familiar with coding you can use a plugin called Contact Form 7 Redirection. They have both a free option available through WordPress but their Pro version adds some fantastic functionality that we often use for our clients.
This plugin uses the “wpcf7_mail_sent” action hook to redirect to the thank you page, and this hook shouldn’t be depreciated soon. This plugin has been tested to WordPress version 5.0.3 so it will continue to work well for you. It requires Contact Form 7 version 4.8 or later.
We suggest you try this plugin first and if it doesn’t work then move onto the second option.
- Use some php in your child-themes functions.php file.
The method now recommended in the Contact Form 7 documentation is to use javascript to redirect when the wpcf7mailsent event occurs. The code to use is:
<script>
document.addEventListener( 'wpcf7mailsent', function( event ) {
location = 'http://yourdomain.com/thank-you';
}, false );
</script>
If you only use one contact page, or only use on thank you page then all you need to do copy and paste the code below into your child theme’s function.php file.
//This function prints the JavaScript to the footer
function cf7_footer_script(){ ?>
<script>
document.addEventListener( 'wpcf7mailsent', function( event ) {
location = 'http://yourdomain.com/thank-you';
}, false );
</script>
<?php }
add_action('wp_footer', 'cf7_footer_script');
Again remember to replace the http://example.com/thank-you with your thank you page.
However we often use multiple contact form 7 forms on a website with multiple thank you pages. This is because we want to know exactly which pages, forms and calls to actions are converting our website visitors into leads so we send more traffic there, and optimise our conversion funnels.
In order to redirect different contact form 7 forms to different thank you pages you need to use the code below:
<?php
//This function prints the JavaScript to the footer
function cf7_footer_script(){
//if page name is contact.
if ( is_page('contact')) {?>
<script>
document.addEventListener( 'wpcf7mailsent', function( event ) {
location = 'http://example.com/thank-you';
}, false );
</script>
<?php }
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'cf7_footer_script');
Here is an example of the code for two different pages.
<?php
//This function prints the JavaScript to the footer
function cf7_footer_script(){
//if page name is contact.
if ( is_page('contact')) {?>
<script>
document.addEventListener( 'wpcf7mailsent', function( event ) {
location = 'http://example.com/thank-you';
}, false );
</script>
<?php } else if ( is_page('download')) /* if page name is download */ {?>
<script>
document.addEventListener( 'wpcf7mailsent', function( event ) {
location = 'http://example.com/thank-you';
}, false );
</script>
<?php }
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'cf7_footer_script');
We hope this helps. It is important to note that this code will redirect all contact forms one a page to the same thank you page.
Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.
