The crawl will generate a page like the one displayed below once complete. Notice that even Chipotle.com needs some improvements. By the end of this guide, you will be able to say that you have a better SEO rating than Chipotle.com.

Have A Purpose

First, consider the purpose of each page of the website. How do customers use it? What information do you want available on this page and what action do you want users to take on the page? Identify what the ideal call to action (CTA) would be for the page.

Keywords That Bring The Right Crowd

Hooray! You defined the purpose of the webpage, next identify a ‘Target Keyword’ for the page. Target Keywords directly affect your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), or how a webpage appears in search engines like Google. If the page includes information about ordering burritos, the keyword should be something like ‘order burritos online.’

Meta Descriptions That Convert

Next, check your meta description. Your Keyword is highlighted in bold and accompanied by a straightforward CTA. Chiptole wants to convince users to click and order now.

Optimized Headlines

The next step in your SEO Audit is to focus on headlines. Also known as an H1, this is one of the first things search engines look at when crawling a site. Update headings in the text field of your Content Management System or an SEO plugin like Yoast. Be sure to include your Keyword within your H1 to reinforce that the page is about a certain topic. 

Now how do you implement these changes? Updating your website can be done in the text field of your Content Management System or through an SEO plugin like Yoast. Below are all free tools that will give you more insight throughout your SEO Audit.

(Free) Tools Of The (SEO) Trade

Google Search Console identifies broken links and other technical site issues. Use Google Analytics to take a deep dive into where the traffic on your site is coming from and going. Google PageSpeed Insights analyzes the load time of a webpage, if it’s slow Google will not prioritize the webpage. Google Structured Data Testing Tool reveals another layer of information when analyzing websites that is useful. Analyze structured data for interactive tools, graphs, charts, or images and whether the data is clean and working properly. it acknowledges. SERP Simulator will give you a preview of how a webpage will appear in search engines. 

In conclusion, generate business from your Search Engine Optimization effort by showing up in the Search Engine Results Page when prospects search for products or services and building a great reputation in the form of positive reviews and ratings. If you have any questions about your online reputation or need some words of advice, feel free to give us a call at 203-836-8390 or shoot us a note. If you’re not a client yet, feel free to schedule a 15-minute demo of our affordable and highly effective AdEdge Reputation Builder service. And do sign up for our newsletter to get monthly digital marketing tips delivered straight to your inbox.

The post An SEO Audit For Any Brand appeared first on AdEdge Online Marketing.

Creating Social Media Business Profiles

The next step is to set up business profiles on the social media platforms that matter most to your business. Don’t spread yourself thin. Simply being on a social platform doesn’t mean that it will help your business image. It may even hurt your brand if a profile lays vacant and inactive.

In addition to a personal profile, creating a business page lets you connect with people who want to know more about your work. You can share updates, progress reports, and ideas with a wide range of folks who may not visit your website on a regular basis. Take a look at some quick tips to get your business profile started.

Get To Know Each Social Media Platform

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, you can create a company page and build an online community around it, getting customers and potential customers to follow you. To learn more about LinkedIn for business, see its official guide. 

Twitter

Twitter’s ad platform allows you to target particular audiences and reach them so they learn about your business and have an opportunity to become followers and engage with you. Take a look at its official guide to see how it can be part of your online business efforts.

Facebook

For a business to succeed on Facebook, it’s about connecting with a community that engages with your content. If your product, service or idea is something people like and want to connect with, they will want to do the same on Facebook. To learn more about using Facebook for business, take a look at its official guide. When content is posted to your business page, the number of people that see it is called Reach. Increase your content reach with a few helpful tactics.

Instagram

You should also explore Instagram’s advertising options and see how they fit in with your overall strategy. Instagram is all about getting existing and potential customers excited about what you do, so be sure to explore it. To learn about its business potential, take a look at its official guide.

There may be other social media platforms that your customers spend the majority of their time on – dive into where your audience is and adjust accordingly. Note: AdEdge team will continually update this blog with new and relevant social media platform information to best inform your business decisions.

Expanding Your Brand Via Social Media

After determining where your target audience is and spends the most time, you can start pumping out useful content that your following will love. If you haven’t already, find out how to create content your audience will want to share. Each platform has a different algorithm that it uses to release content, expand your brand with a unique approach for each of your social media business accounts.

Smart, relevant, timely posts can help you build a better company profile, especially when you use hashtags in a professional manner. Participating in popular hashtags when they are relevant to you works well. This should be a prioritized element of your social media strategy, while occasionally using hashtags around your products or services. 

Features like Instagram Stories, which allow you to update your audience using multiple photos and videos, are ways to use Instagram in a business environment. These stories last for 24 hours, which could be time-consuming to produce when considering the limited time it is available to your audience. Most of the time, you are better off creating visuals and graphics you can use on multiple platforms that will also have a longer shelf life. 

Advertising Is Different For Each Social Media Platform

Learning how Facebook ads work is essential for your digital marketing plans. You may find yourself under pressure to pay to boost your posts. However, organic growth models on social media almost always work better than paid acquisition. Instagram ads are often (but not always) created in conjunction with any Facebook campaign that is being launched. Their ad platforms are unified because Instagram is owned by Facebook. There is also a lot of cross over between campaign metrics and options for visual elements.

As with the other platforms, you should see if LinkedIn advertising features make sense for you. LinkedIn notoriously has higher costs per action than other social media platforms. But is that worth it when dealing directly with your target audience. CEOs or Product Managers from specific companies can be targeted for instance. Looking for a place to start? The AdEdge Team wrote about the costs and benefits to using LinkedIn or Facebook.

While creating a social media strategy may seem complex at first, these tactics are fairly simple to implement. More importantly, a good social media plan can build a community around your brand and be highly cost-effective. Want to learn more about social media strategy?  Contact an AdEdge Specialist at 203-682-4585 or info@adedgemarketing.com. If you’d like to keep up with the latest and greatest digital marketing tactics, sign up for our once-monthly newsletter.

The post Creating Your Social Media Strategy appeared first on AdEdge Online Marketing.

Retargeting is a way of reaching people who have previously interacted with your website. It works by presenting this audience with digital display ads created specifically for them. Have you ever visited a website and seen ads about their products or services soon afterward? Congratulations – you’ve been retargeted! Retargeting is an extremely effective conversion tool …but it’s also a great retention tool. You can use it to reach past customers, keep your brand on top, and upsell or cross-sell new products. Retargeting has become an essential tool for online e-commerce businesses.

Why is it so important to reach those people who did not make a purchase? On average, only 4% of purchases are made by first-time website visitors. Depending on your industry, buyers may take weeks, or even months to make a decision. This is especially true with higher-end, complex, or more expensive products or services. It’s vital that you stay top of mind while your prospects are considering all of their options.  

Retargeting Helps Your Sales Funnel

In digital marketing, the “sales funnel” is the process that moves prospects to leads to customers. Like an actual funnel, a business initially captures a wide net of people and as they move toward making a purchasing decision, this group of prospects narrows down to leads and eventually purchases. The funnel starts with awareness, then moves to interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and finally, a purchase. 

Retargeting makes it possible to re-engage with those customers who are further down the funnel but have not yet decided to purchase. You can set your focus on those very close to purchasing, by targeting only “cart abandoners” if you have a limited budget.  You can also set your efforts to reach all website visitors if you have a high lead time that involves a lot of evaluation by your audience. Examples of highly evaluated products are cars, legal services, higher education, or any product or service that requires a significant investment in time or money from the buyer.

The great thing about retargeting is that you can give each type of customer the attention that they need in the manner that they need it. It gives you a second chance to advertise, an opportunity to cross-sell, up-sell, or nurture your audience with your content marketing efforts. You can now engage with visitors even when they leave your website, encouraging them to convert at their own pace.

Why Should You Try Retargeting?

As we already mentioned, since only 4% of first-time visitors purchase, that leaves 96% of your website visitors potentially lost if you don’t continue to engage with them. Over 63% of digital marketing campaigns on Google and Facebook do not use retargeting tactics. This represents a huge opportunity for those who do to strengthen their brand and improve their conversion rates. In a world with increasing distractions and competition, reminding your “online window shoppers” why your brand is important to them is crucial. 79% of people abandon their shopping carts on average. You can reach those people with retargeting.

Remarketing vs Retargeting

Retargeting is the process of targeting users that have visited your site with ads.  There are many ways that you can retarget your audience but it falls under the umbrella of Remarketing.  Remarketing entails how you are targeting your audience in terms of which channels to use, what audience to target, and what message the ad should contain. This whole process is Remarketing. Some still say Remarketing is only focused on emails but that theory is outdated with all the new ways that you can re-engage with your audience today.

How Do You Deploy A Retargeting Strategy?

A “pixel” or “cookie” is placed on a website to traffic users. The pixel is a piece of JavaScript code that is stored on computers of people who visit your site. The pixel identifies website visitors, enabling you to serve ads when the time is right. After they leave your site and continue to surf the web, you can show them ads to convert them from leads to customers, cross-sell, or up-sell based on what they viewed on your website.  

Initially, you may find that remarketing volume is relatively small, simply because there are a few pixels placed at first. But as the number of people who capture your pixel grows, your remarketing audience grows, exponentially improving the effectiveness.  For smaller organizations, retargeting may not be the best fit for your marketing strategy. A 30-day window to build an audience could be too small to reach the Google Ads minimum of 1,000 users.

Retargeting By The Rules

Utilizing email lists retained from customers by using “Customer match” in Google Ads enables you to engage with existing customers. This tactic allows you to reach those on your CRM list or another external list with banner ads. We’ll dive into that tactic in another blog.

Prior to implementation, notify your website visitors that you will be using cookies to track them for advertising purposes. Update this on your website’s privacy policy page. It is also necessary if you service anyone adhering to GDPR rules and guidelines.

While Remarketing and Retargeting may seem complex at first, these tactics are fairly simple once you dive in. More importantly, a good remarketing plan can beat your competition to the punch and be highly cost-effective. If you would like to learn more about how remarketing may benefit your industry and company specifically, and how it fits in with your overall digital marketing strategy, feel free to contact us at AdEdge at 203-682-4585 or info@adedgemarketing.com. If you’d like to keep up with the latest and greatest digital marketing tactics, sign up for our once-monthly newsletter.

The post What Is Retargeting And Should You Be Using It? appeared first on AdEdge Online Marketing.