Your Google search ranking influences your audience’s awareness of you and the amount of engagement you receive. The better your ranking, the more likely you are to be seen by customers.
However, in today’s age of internet advertising, many businesses choose paid ads over organic search. Money, on the other hand, will not increase your website’s search engine ranking.
With all of that being said, today we are going to highlight some of the most effective ways to improve your rankings in Google. Through the list of the ten suggestions listed below, along with a combined work effort, marketing strategy, and commitment, anyone can see an improvement in their Google search rankings in a short period of time.
Keyword research is key!
To determine the ideal goals for each page on your website, use search data and research your competition. Start with the pages that have the most information and are beneficial to your customers, depending on the size of your website and the resources you have available. Your top one or two product/service pages, for example, or a well-written blog article that gives specific information your consumers are seeking, are both excellent examples.
Write copy that people want to read
You know more about your field than anybody else. Create content that is useful and includes keywords and synonyms that will help Google and other search engines find your website. Include keywords throughout the page to boost your search engine ranking, but don’t go crazy with keyword stuffing. Make sure your content is something that people want to read. To develop clear and appealing messaging, we recommend using the Storybrand method.
Give your page a title to assist search engines and people
The title tag, also known as the meta title, is used by search engines to determine what the page is about. Because your title tag is also the blue link that everyone sees on a search engine results page, be sure it contains the keywords people are looking for. This title is distinct from the bold heading that everyone sees on your page, usually the heading tag. As a result, you can create one title for the search engine results page (SERP) and another heading for your webpage if it helps you obtain more clicks.
Use HTML header tags to create pages
The most significant heading on the page is the first heading or H1 tag. The H1 tag is usually the first thing a visitor sees when they arrive at your website. Header tags are frequently used for style. However, they should be utilized to organize information instead.
One of the most effective strategies to increase search engine ranking is to employ subheadings. Heading tags have more weight in search engines than ordinary content, making it easier for users to browse the page. If you’re having difficulties updating your heading tags, you’ll almost certainly need to hire a developer to make the necessary changes.
Give your URLs purpose
Don’t be one of those people that ignore the URL of the page! Keyword research should also be applied to URLs. The name of the page will show in the URL if you use a CMS like WordPress. Check the URL and what you named the page before launching it.
Link to additional pages inside your site
You’ll frequently find yourself referring to other things that you’ve already written when creating content for the page. Selecting a sentence and adding a hyperlink to the blog post or page you’re addressing is internal linking.
These links will encourage some readers to go through and read your other pages, but search engines will also crawl them. Anchor text refers to the terms that you hyperlink. This provides context to the user and search engines about the website you link to. Therefore it’s critical to utilize relevant keywords in the hyperlink.
All of your photos should have ALT tags
Images visually support the message on the page. Users and search engines alike adore them. As a result, every one of your photos should include descriptive (keyword-rich) ALT tags. Alt tags also make your site more accessible, which might help you avoid a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Page speed and mobile-friendly design
It’s no secret that mobile visitors are increasingly visiting your website. Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly. Optimize graphics, code, and content to ensure that each page loads quickly. Slow websites will lose visitors, and search engines will notice. This is why having a quick website can help you rank higher in search engines. When it comes to making your website rank, you need great content, but website design and development are crucial.
Avoid duplicate content
Search engines favor new and unique information. Find any duplicate content and change it significantly or delete it entirely. Saying the same thing over and over has no benefit, and Google will punish you for it. You’ll most likely have duplicate content in one of two circumstances.
You’ve written a lot of content over the years and sometimes forget that you or someone else has already written a page or blog post on the same subject. This isn’t a total duplicate, but if the information overlaps considerably, you should combine it into a single powerful page.
Your website contains numerous versions of the same page that you aren’t even aware of. You can also use a site checker tool to help in the process of finding and removing any duplicate content from your site as well.
This may be the result of someone duplicating a page by accident, or you’ve made numerous copies for different languages or tracking. You can use a canonical URL to tell search engines that you copied a page on purpose. If you need canonical URLs, the Yoast plugin for WordPress makes it simple to do so.
Make an XML Sitemap and keep an eye on crawl errors
Sitemap submission
Search engines will index your pages faster if you provide a sitemap. After you’ve validated your site with Google Search Console in the first step, you may submit your sitemap to Google. You may also submit a sitemap using Bing’s webmaster tools dashboard.
Crawl warnings and errors
Search engines also crawl Links on pages. To give your site the best chance of ranking high, keep an eye on any mistakes or broken links and correct them or establish redirects. On Google, you can discover free broken link checkers.
Google Rankings Improvement Summary
Search engine optimization isn’t just a trend that will fade away shortly. It’s something your website should focus on right now, as well as in the future. If you’re just getting started with SEO, you’re already behind, but it’s not too late to apply the ten steps outlined above.
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If you want to be on top of the game you need to help your customers in any way possible. Many in online businesses fail to realize this. They focus only on the short-term gain.
One of the most important aspects of business is the customer. Even more, your relationship with your customers. The better you are towards them, the better they will be towards you. Online sellers like drop shippers often forget about this. And that can be detrimental to their success.
What is Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a term that got popularized recently. It gained popularity in recent years and now you can hear about it even in the mainstream media. But what is it?
Dropshipping is a sales method. It sells products to customers like any other method. The thing that differentiates it is where the product comes from. Most sellers have stock that they ship from. Dropshippers don’t. They have agreements with the producers of said goods. They ship the products from the factory to the customer. [1]
This saves a bunch of money and lowers the risk of the seller. But it also detaches the seller from the customer. That’s why dropshipping experts have to pay extra attention to their customer experience. One small mistake and you lost a customer for life.
Why Customer Experience is Important
Remember the last time you had a great customer experience? Probably, not. But you do remember the awful experience you had years ago!
Happy customers are loyal customers [2]. Unhappy ones won’t go anywhere near your brand.
A good customer experience (CX) has a bunch of benefits [3]:
Customer loyalty
Customer satisfaction
Word-of-mouth marketing
Positive reviews and recommendations
CEOs may also deny the significance of customer experience. Sometimes bad budgeting also leaves them with no funds to step up their CX game. It has also been proven that Customer experience does not increase on its own. Not until it becomes the top priority for the company. This research got published by the Harvard Business Review.[4]
A lot of things can go wrong that will cause bad CX. Some of the common issues responsible for bad CX are:
Long waiting/response time
Employees that are not trained enough
Unresolved issues and questions
Too much automation
Non-personalized service
Rude/angry employees
Bad reviews
Real Examples
I’m sure everyone has his own list of worst experiences online. These are some of the most famous ones that prove that even big brands can mess this up.
Craigslist.com – Have you seen the website recently? It looks straight out of the early internet days. While it is not that hard to use, the design itself is so off-putting. It looks like some poor attempt at a scam website.
Berkshirehathaway.com – Can you believe this? This is the official website for a company that owns over $700 billion worth of assets? The user experience is horrible. Try finding anything on there, impossible!
Amazon.com – The biggest seller online also has a UX that could improve a bit. While not horrible, some things often don’t show up. Sometimes it is hard to judge the product by the images provided and the reviews are fake. All of these contribute to a non-perfect UX
Closer to the audience reading this are Shopify stores. Here the mistakes are often far bigger and more impactful as they don’t have any name backing them up [6].
theFamilyPup.com– This store is all about your dog and everything you could need for him. While the content is okay they have a big issue. They use review starts on their products, even if most of them have no reviews at all. People might assume that your things aren’t selling at all and that your store might be a scam. Only use review stars if people review it!
theMammaShop.com– This store focuses on bags for children and things you might need for your kids. It had some glaring issues before but most aren’t a problem anymore. Currently, the biggest flaw is that the descriptions are not that great. Customers might be put off by their lackluster description. Also, no reviews are possible on the website.
Some key stats that you should refer to:
96% of customers say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand.
Brands with superior customer experience make more money. They bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors that lag in customer experience.
73% of consumers say a good experience is key in influencing their brand loyalties.
Customers switching companies due to poor service costs U.S. companies a total of $1.6 trillion.
Loyal customers are five times more likely to buy again. They are also four times more likely to refer a friend to the company. [6]
What You Can Do To Improve Customer Experience
Some dropshipping businesses realized the importance of their CX. Here is an example of how companies match their online and offline stores CX-wise.
Amy Matthew from Qubole was the first to talk about this. She addressed the importance of the customer experience. She focused on aligning online customer experiences with offline experiences. One of the greatest examples of this happened recently. Major British retailer, Mark Spencers decided to mimic their offline shopping experience. Then they have reproduced it for their online presence. This helped customers experience a feeling of ‘familiarity’. It helped boost online sales and conversions. This was a great example of how to do it.
So how should you improve your customer experience? Here are a few tips that will help you!
Improve Your Emails
Automatic emails are some of the most important copies that you will ever write. If you get them right, people will think you sent each email yourself. That personal touch is hard to replicate and people love the real deal. Write a couple of “thank you” emails and a couple of newsletters/updates. Don’t send them all the time, use them sparingly as you don’t want to spam your customers. Write them with some spirit and humor, and always leave your signature! [7]
Provide Service
Customer support is important. While the classic approach to this is 24/7 phone and email lines, these aren’t the best. Research showed that over 70% of customers prefer to solve their problems. Nobody likes calling some hotline or writing long-worded emails. [7]
Make a great Q&A page and a great support page. These should have some common issues and problems addressed and explained. Create video explanations for that extra service. You will see, nobody will call or email you. They would all much rather solve it themselves!
Be Transparent About Shipping Times
A common mistake store owners make is to say that shipping times are less than they are. If you say shipping time is 2-3 days, and the product arrives in 10 days, you have a problem. The customer will think they are being scammed. That you lie and that something is wrong with their product.
The solution is easy. Be honest! If it takes 30 days, say it takes that long. Don’t lie, it won’t get you anywhere.
Read and moderate comments on Facebook
Facebook is important. If you have a page there you know that people love leaving comments and suggestions there. Take these suggestions into consideration. Read them and group them. If you find that some suggestions are common, give your best to put them in place.
Answer questions they might have. But look out, Facebook can be tricky at times. Competitors and internet trolls love spamming your pages with fake comments and profanities. These aren’t real customers, they want to give you bad PR. Block and moderate these comments.
If you see an actual customer complaining, don’t delete their comment. Reply to them and try to resolve the issue. Like I said before, don’t lie, it won’t get you anywhere!
Survey your past customers for their opinions
Are your customers happy with the products they bought? You don’t know? Ask them!
If they didn’t complain already, they are most likely satisfied with their buy. Try to get them to write a review or positive comment about their experience. This will influence others when they visit your page. Offer incentives like some small discounts and you will see the reviews come in!
Analyze reviews on Amazon to become better and sell better products
It is always better for your bottom line to learn from the mistakes of others. Luckily, today that’s pretty easy. Check amazon for similar products like yours and see the reviews and how the seller handles them. You will gain a feeling of what to do and how to respond. You will also see if people like these types of products.
With enough research, you will find new and interesting products that you can sell too. And you will know how to respond to customers’ inquiries.
Machine learning
Some more high-tech stores started implementing machine learning. With advanced AI models, they can better analyze CX and give valuable data. With this data, you can better optimize everything about their experience.
Research has shown that companies who implemented this showed financial growth. All in all, if you know-how and can afford it. Put in place some machine learning into your store. [8]
Key Takeaways
The key thing to remember here is that customer experience is important! With good CX your business will flourish. Without it, get ready for some losses. Use these tips to improve your business and rack up some sales! Always improve and never stop offering more! Good luck with your future endeavors.
Many predictions made in January for how 2020 was going to pan out have been crumpled up into a ball and tossed straight out of the virtual window.
This includes much of what was thought about the digital sphere and even some affiliate marketing tips.
Marketing techniques never stand still, but the global pandemic that has hit in 2020 is something new altogether. As the underlying market shifts and turns and with more consumers than ever before forced to stay at home, more businesses are turning to the online world. To stand out from the crowd online retailers alongside affiliate marketers, advertising and promotional methods need to embrace the changing tides.
The good news is, if the future of affiliate marketing follows its pattern to date, it looks set for vast expansion. So far, 2020 has seen some drastic changes to the retail landscape and in some cases, the loss of well-known brands in an uncertain climate. However, it is important that as an industry we are able to evolve and embrace as many changes as possible, in order to sustain growth in the affiliate marketing channel and therefore the wider economy.
1. Building trust
Consumers are becoming savvier and more used to the concept of affiliate marketing and online partnerships, particularly with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruling that content creators have to disclose these by law. They are more aware when they read about a product in a blog or email that the author is likely to be getting some form of compensation for the promotion. This has developed into a level of consumer cynicism, which means subscribers are only likely to listen to those they trust. Building trust is going to become even more important to the future of affiliate marketers.
2. Building relationships
Anonymity is no longer acceptable in the online retail industry, as people buy from people. This will become even more paramount to the future of affiliate marketing, as bonding and building relationships over time are the key to forging trust. However, the benefit to affiliate marketers is they will learn quickly what their audience wants. Although it may take time to initially build that relationship, each campaign will likely become more successful in a shorter timescale, due to the long-term connection with the audience.
A starting point to building relationships is by providing free valuable information to potential consumers, and when the time is right within the sales funnel, demonstrating how affiliate products can help consumers solve a problem.
3. Content
Content has been king for a while now and it won’t be stepping down from the throne in 2020. Building a successful campaign will continue to rely on great content. The importance of original and fresh content that resonates with the audience cannot be underestimated. Marketing campaigns producing compelling and original copy are likely to see higher rates of conversion. Advanced software and technology enabling the testing of sales pages will make this task easier than ever, allowing marketers to utilize the best content within their toolbox.
Focusing on spending more time creating content that offers genuine value to their subscribers for free will help marketers improve their campaigns long term. Marketers who appreciate the impact quality content will have on their campaigns will stay one step ahead of the crowd.
The focus should be on providing quality content in the form of long copy; this is essential for SEO and traffic, and ultimately conversions. Filler content or repetitive sales material is easy to spot by the savvy consumer and erodes their trust.
4. Telling stories
Human beings are storytellers. It’s something which sets us apart and it helps us connect and engage. Engagement will continue to be key to conversions and should lead to more and more real-life stories and case-studies being used to add credibility and social proof.
Many consumers are no longer satisfied with just the affiliates’ point of view, but prefer honest and believable testimonials showing how the product can work for them.
5. Utilizing tools
According to top affiliate marketing experts, fundamental affiliate marketing concepts will not change. Instead, what will change is the technology and media networks affiliates use to promote, such as video, audio, podcasts and long-form content. The industry will continue to evolve and expand.
Existing tools, such as automation for email and artificial intelligence bots that chat online, will continue to play an important part of the marketer’s arsenal. What we have seen quite obviously in 2020 is people connecting via video and the rise of the virtual event. This is something brands and affiliate marketers should very quickly get comfortable with. Facebook Live, Zoom and Google hangouts are being utilized far more than ever before to engage the audience and, moreover, audiences are becoming more used to this style of content.
Further development of artificial intelligence and machine learning will also provide advancements in the ease of gaining new customers. Google and Facebook have introduced learning mechanisms which help pinpoint target audiences and aid those using paid methods of advertising to find customers and provide clearer ROI.
Instagram and Facebook have also been quickly announcing new features, such as their ‘shop local’ badge for stories, augmented reality shopping, Instagram Shop and Live Shopping. By connecting with Shopify, BigCommerce, Woo, Channel Advisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube, and Feedonomics, this could be utilized by savvy affiliate marketers to push brands they’re choosing to work with.
6. Marketing channels
As the importance of building relationships becomes paramount, advertisers will focus even more on marketing channels targeting consumers who have already shown an interest in you and your affiliate products. These include retargeting and remarketing through social platforms and search browsers, as these algorithms become more refined and dynamic. Artificial intelligence and technology supported by it are still on the path to becoming more streamlined and effective.
With people having more time on their hands to consume content, blogger outreach strategies will also continue to become more relevant. Building relationships with other influential marketers not only opens up advertiser products to a new market both within and beyond the affiliate channel, but also helps to build upon authority and trust.
7. Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers are said to be those with a following of between 1000 to 100,000. Though there have been discussions around the ability of influencers to effectively market products with the current state of the world, this form of marketing still looks set to grow in the future. Those who are active and engaged with their audience are finding new and innovative ways to connect during the pandemic, and will likely continue to do so after it ends. We will see companies adding micro-influencers to their strategies more and more as trust is stronger on a micro-level. As we have already seen, affiliate links are becoming common across social media platforms, allowing a greater variety of people to become affiliate marketers.
8. Payment on influence
Further to the above, it’s becoming increasingly important to look at how affiliate marketing fits into a purchasing cycle. Some publishers may not always garner the final click, but are still vital in the advertiser’s purchase process. Tracking this across multiple platforms can be challenging, which is why the Awin US Group introduced the Payment on Influence system. This is something advertisers should really consider in 2020, as it can be a contributing factor to being able to work with good quality publishers.
9. Social Media
Social media has been subject to much criticism over the past few years, with fake news and fake accounts top of the agenda. We’ve seen many small changes during that time, such as Facebook announcing the platform would return to its roots in 2019 as a tool for connecting with friends and family. This left some affiliates wondering what the impact would be on their advertising campaigns; however, it was not the massive pivot which was expected from the platform. Social media has remained an excellent place for affiliate marketing, and even more so while people are increasing their online usage in isolation.
The aim of social media should not be about how many followers or shares you get, but rather on the trust and true engagement your followers give to your brand through social media. If you share and comment on relevant and good quality information, your followers soon learn what you are posting is pertinent to them. Shares will automatically follow. This is a great time for brands to build trust, make consumer connections and hopefully instil a little bit of hope.
10. User experience
Your user is more important than Google. Even Google knows this, and as such the web giant has tried to move further towards a user-centric system and algorithms. Though they have made great progress with this, a computer is still a computer; therefore, you should optimize your landing pages for your visitors rather than for Google’s web-bots. The page should load quickly and give them the information they need without having to dig deep. The better the user experience, the higher your rankings will be.
Publishers also favor affiliate programs with a great website focusing on user experience and therefore, providing a strong platform for conversion. Their focus will be to move away from one-off niche sites relying on just one keyword and instead look for brands who provide websites focusing on building authority and offer solutions to the problems experienced by their audience.
11. Mobile responsive websites
According to ComScore, mobile-only internet users exceed desktop-only internet users. Furthermore, as per Hootsuite’s 2020 Q2 updated report, 76% of internet users have stated they have significantly increased their mobile internet usage since January 2020, compared to 45% for laptop computer usages and 32% for desktop computers. This would be even more prevalent while many people are at home in isolation.
Having a mobile responsive site is also crucial for Google’s ranking algorithms for advertisers and publishers alike. Usability and speed are becoming more and more important, so for affiliate marketers to stay ahead of the game they will need to ensure their website performs spectacularly, both on desktop and across all mobile platforms. Google launched its mobile-first algorithm last year, really highlighting the importance of the platform and having this mentality.
12. Be different
Being different and thinking outside of the box is an important consideration now and in the future. If audiences are consuming more content, there is more noise to cut through and they will begin to search for originality and new ideas. This will mean running an affiliate campaign will take more thought and creativity to attract the right audience. Whether you are an advertiser or a publisher, think about your USP (Unique Selling Point) and brainstorm how you can show the world this in the most creative way. No one is exactly the same (if they were there would be much more copyright infringement). In turn, this will lead to more varied and interesting campaigns with a greater range of products and services, focusing more on the end-user.
13. GDPR and data privacy
The GDPR really shocked the world and panicked marketing spheres, particularly those who dealt internationally, when first announced in 2018. Since then people have found a level of clarity and comfort with the laws. Affiliate marketing covers an expanse of different sized affiliate operations, from one-man bands to large players. The latter have generally been able to put the infrastructure in place to embrace the new regulations with greater ease, but smaller online businesses are finding their way.
Outside of the EU, there are several other countries with similar privacy laws to consider. This isn’t a trend looking to change. It’s a huge affiliate marketing tip to stay up-to-date on all data privacy laws in the countries you have a large audience, particularly with cookie tracking and retargeting in place.
14. Holistic view
Justin Cooke, Founder of Empire Flippers, wants to see more affiliate sites take a holistic view of their visitors and try to solve a problem for consumers.
Consumers want to know their issues are important to those they reach out to. In response, advertisers will need to take a more holistic view of visitors’ requirements, and right now, there are a lot of issues. Looking at the bigger picture is going to be a crucial aspect of long term success to affiliate marketers, resulting in all the involved channels taking on a united campaign front. This could lead to email marketing campaigns increasing, using personalized drip campaigns that are segmented and highly targeted.
15. Diversify your offering
If 2020 has taught us anything it’s things don’t always go to plan. If you have created a business around one product or service and the world tips upside down with seemingly no warning, you and your affiliate marketing campaign can be left scrambling to survive. Once you have a firm grip on who your audience or customer is, start to figure out how you could diversify your product offering to suit them in order to create a range of revenue streams.
In summary
Though the world is at a strange place right now, this is actually a great opportunity to thrive in the online world. Affiliate marketing will continue to evolve, bringing more focus than ever before on value and customer experience. Finding a niche, becoming an authority, building links and giving consumers a great user experience will all lead to great long term partnerships.
