by Mark | Feb 15, 2019 | Content Strategy, Sponsored Content
The hype around voice search has been building up ever since it was introduced around a decade ago, from the time when users were required to dial in a number and verbally state their search queries.
Since then, various companies have made gigantic leaps in the development of voice-search, thanks to superior machine learning algorithms and the influx of data derived from search engines. Currently, the market for voice search has expanded into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with the biggest players, including Amazon, Google, and Apple, all competing for a piece of the pie.
The profound impact voice search has on search engine optimization (SEO) means that it affects everybody and anybody on the internet. Professionals directly linked with the Internet, and digital marketing in particular, need to stay one step ahead of the curve to ensure they are ready when the tide changes.
Why Is Voice Search Important For SEO in 2019?
Amit Singhal, the head of Google SERP ranking team stated in 2013, that “the destiny of Google’s search engine is to become that Star Trek computer.” If anything, that explains the direction voice search has taken in the last few years, and where it is headed in the years to come.
As a component of speech recognition technology, voice search uses voice commands to perform online searches. The core idea behind it was the facilitation of the consumer experience; people would find it more convenient to speak – and let the computer transcribe the search query – than manually typing it in.
This simplistic view has been expanded upon through the gradual growth in technology. Innovation, such as personal voice assistants have proven revelatory for voice search advancement, offering the much-needed personalization and customization when catering to users’ queries.
Voice Search Is the Future
Such developments were the reason why back in 2014, Andrew Ng – the Chief Scientist at Baidu – was confident enough to predict that by 2020, 50% of all searches would be conducted through voice search.
As of 2017, 41% of online adults were conducting at least one voice search a day and the numbers have only increased since then. Voice search has already become the fastest growing search type, and the trend’s trajectory doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon in the foreseeable future.
By January 2018, 1 billion voice searches were being carried out a month. These numbers aren’t surprising as people look for faster, more efficient alternatives to typed searching. While people can only type about 40 words per minute, they can speak 150 in the same amount of time.
Additionally, the NLP (natural language processing) prowess of voice recognition software has enhanced multi-fold. Back in 2017, Google voice search’s ability to understand language and speech was 95% equivalent to that of humans, and, it has only grown since then.
As a web professional, voice search adaptability is a necessary accessory for your toolkit as you prepare to take on 2019. 58% of consumers are already utilizing voice search features to find information on local businesses. As the number of voice searches increases, businesses need to implement sound SEO techniques to reap the benefits i.e. increased organic traffic.
How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search
Does voice search have any benefits at all? For sure. Don’t take our word for it, ask Amazon. A study reported that the implementation of voice search technology on its eCommerce platform resulted in $1.8 billion of the tech giant’s revenue in the last year – a figure that is expected to reach $40 billion by 2022.
Let’s face it, creating an attractive and relevant website can be a real challenge so outsourcing web professionals can be a great solution. However, they also need to stay relevant and continually grow to be able to deliver a valuable service to their clients. Here are some of the ways web professionals can optimize a website to maximize results derived from voice searches:
Focus On Featured Snippets
Appearing at the top of SERPs, featured snippets aim to present a concise answer to a user query. With this feature, Google aims to present the most relevant content at the very top of the user’s search result for a smoother experience.
In addition to ensuring high-quality content that justifies its relevance and quality to the search engine, you can go a step further and include a brief summary of the crux of your content above the fold.
The average voice search result is about 29 words long, so keep that in mind when devising content summaries. Additionally, long-tail keywords are a prominent feature of the “snippet” and should be included for added visibility.
Include Long Tail Keywords Using Conversational Tone
When optimizing your site for voice searches, it is imperative to keep in mind that the way we speak is inherently different from the way we write.
While typed queries are very short and concise, conversational search queries make use of more words. This translates to the emphasis placed on long tail keywords, which sound natural, and are more likely to be used in voice searches.
This helps in traditional SEO, and keywords that contain multiple words face less competition and hold a higher chance to top the SERP rankings. It might require additional and extensive keyword research, but is well worth it.
Additionally, the easier your sentence reads – the better it is for your SEO. We speak less formally than we type, and that means reduced wordiness. In fact, a majority of the voice search software conform to 9Th-grade reading levels. You could be writing about genetic engineering, but it should be written in a way that makes it easier to comprehend.
Make Sure Your Page Loads Fast
The reason why people use voice search is a convenience, and what convenience does a slow loading speed provide?
Not only does Google’s algorithm tilt towards websites that load faster, and as a result, ensure optimal user satisfaction and reduced bounce rates; it also benefits the consumer.
This is basic on-site SEO in action, with a special emphasis on mobile responsiveness. With Google Mobilegeddon causing mobile-responsive sites to rank higher, it is vital that your website is compatible with smartphones as well.
Faster page-load speeds are achieved through the utilization of images that are optimized, compressed files, and website caching, to name a few. People already use voice search widely, and its acceptance will only grow drastically in the future.
Conclusions
Those who take voice search into account in their SEO strategy already have an edge over other players. Voice search operates by narrowing down results, only catering to the top three. Companies that capitalize on voice search integration early on will benefit from higher content visibility, which will only keep increasing.
While it may seem ominous now, the future is clear: voice search will form the core of SEO, and preparing for it now will give you a competitive edge above others as they try to catch up in the coming years.
Editor’s note: this sponsored content was provided by Antonija Bozickovic.
Antonija is an internet marketing specialist at Point Visible, a marketing agency providing link building and digital marketing services. She has a great interest in digital marketing and a soft spot for graphic design. She’s never tired of searching for new inspirations, listening to her favorite music and creating digital illustrations.
by Harshala | Feb 1, 2019 | Content Management Systems, Content Strategy, Industry News, Web Content, Web Design, Web Development
We covered the fundamentals of static site generators recently. Let’s take a deeper dive into one of them.
Jekyll
Jekyll remains the most widely used static site generator. With Jekyll, you’ll typically work with content in Markdown, a lightweight markup language designed for text formatting. The Liquid templating engine is used to place this Markdown content into the HTML template, and to combine templates representing various parts of a page (say, header, footer and content) in a modular and re-usable manner. It also has support for Sass for those with a preference for CSS pre-processing, and it’ll play fine with libraries like Bootstrap. Also included with Jekyll is an HTTP server which can be used to easily deploy and test your static pages locally.
Importers is a feature which enable an existing site to be migrated to Jekyll with relative ease. For example, you can take an existing WordPress site as a starting point with Jekyll using one of the importers.
If you have a GitHub repository, you’re able to create a GitHub pages site for free using Jekyll. This can be a convenient way to give a polished landing page to your GitHub project.
The big downside of Jekyll – and this applies to most generators – is that it can seem complex at first and is a new technology to master.
If you want to try it yourself, here is the link to install Jekyll.
Installation of Jekyll
You first need to install the Ruby DevKit or you will experience errors. If you are installing Ruby only for the purpose of running Jekyll, Portable Jekyll will give you a full working Jekyll install in less than 5 minutes.
Few easy steps:
To set up your site locally with Jekyll, follow these steps:
- Create a local repository for your Jekyll site.
- Install Jekyll using Bundler.
- (optional): Generate Jekyll site files.
- Build your local Jekyll site.
- Keep your site up to date with the GitHub Pages gem.
- Configure Jekyll.
Does Jekyll generate valid HTML?
Jekyll essentially a parser that converts plain text content written in a special formatting language called Markdown into HTML. These content blocks get inserted into one or more templates to build final output for a static page or a post. Markdown is a styling language used to prepare written content such as blog posts in Jekyll that can eventually be converted into HTML. Markdown allows user to focus on content by using an easy-to-read and easy-to-write plain text format, which can then be converted to valid HTML.
My experience working with Jekyll
Jekyll is widely used Static Generator. I tried working with Jekyll. I followed easy steps to install and run a Jekyll post locally. I first installed Ruby, then used the command prompt to get the desired Jekyll output locally.
Here are some screen captures to get an idea how the site look like. It is a simple blog post without any graphics.
I transferred all generated files and also post I created via FTP to a server. It didn’t give the desired output shown in above images. For example, the link to the CSS file appears to be broken upon transfer.
During my course of study as a Web Developer I tried many different CMS and installed different software, but working with Jekyll is little different. It has a bit of a learning curve and I think someone before working may need someone to have a little technical background. I am still trying to see what I need to change in the background code when it is transferred to a server. Clearly, something did not work properly.
These are my initial observations on using the tool. You may have different experiences and we look forward to your comments. The biggest issue with using any static generator is that you must generate the entire site each time you make updates (so all the links work). You would then need to transfer the appropriate files to the server each time. In my opinion, there are other tools (such as WordPress) which would seem to be more efficient (although less secure as they interact with a database).
As always, we look forward to your comments.
by Gary Stevens | Jan 18, 2019 | Content Strategy, ECommerce, Web Content
Online buyers have many choices when it comes to products or services. If you’re an internet retailer, then you want every advantage to gain more sales. In that regard, video can be crucial to converting online traffic to revenue.
In their recent, annual video marketing survey, Wyzowl surveyed 570 professional marketers and online consumers. Of this group, 76% reported that website videos generated more sales.
A Liveclicker survey of retailers noted a significant increase in average order value (AOV) on product pages that contained videos. As well, 57 % of retailers who used video witnessed a sales increase of 50 percent on their products.
This marketing trend is valuable intel to businesses and will continue to be strong in 2019. Whether the video is animated, featured in a header, or used for a sales campaign, the results from marketing with video have been shown to attract more revenue.
Here’s how video converts online visitors into paying customers.
1. The Video Hook
One of the most valuable steps to a video campaign that is going to generate online sales happens in those first few seconds. Folks are just not going to stick around without having their interest piqued. Like a well-written article, a video needs a solid hook.
One of the most famous marketing video series begins with the zinger, “Will it blend? That is the question.”
The blender company, BlendTec, offers a unique hook that makes customers curious about their remarkable, sturdy kitchen blenders.
Following the hook, founder Tom Dickson proceeds to blend anything imaginable, including cameras, marbles, and even an iPhone playing the series’ intro. This innovative marketing strategy has resulted in viral videos, with millions of views and the lion’s share of the kitchen blender market.
2. Video Length: The Short and Long Game
Online shoppers make quick decisions. For them, there is great value in a short video that highlights the product in a simple and clear fashion. However, some shoppers may bite on a longer video when contemplating how their lifestyle fits with the company’s mission, brand, and products.
Short for Sales
Short, short, short. For sales, it’s often best for the video to come in under two minutes.
Video software company Wistia reports that two minutes is often what companies need to shoot for. Videos that sneak past the two-minute mark show a significant drop-in engagement.
For short videos, a good strategy is to be concise. Be clear on message. Don’t try to do too much. Though the business or retailer wants a sale, the mission is just as important to feature as the product. Even in a short video, the customer is buying into the company as much as the product itself.
Long for Brand
While short is often essential to sales, that is not always the case for engaging customers with your brand, which is why long-form videos have their merits.
Businesses interested in showcasing their brand or a particular message may not be able to do that visually in 120 seconds. It may be necessary to craft a longer narrative. In that case, you want careful planning and a proper budget.
Longer videos can result in more shares and views, which is the result of a 2017 study by Wochit, a leader in video platform. More shares and more views can ultimately lead to more revenue. Paul’s Boots and Patagonia are great examples of using the long-form video to attract consumers and reinforce their brand.
In their “Worn Wear” video, Patagonia takes the viewer and/or potential customer on a journey of experience and aspiration. With breathtaking outdoor scenes and rich stories about rugged individuals who care about the earth, their video is targeted directly at these interested consumers, and even new ones, who want the same journey, lifestyle (and that awesome outdoor wear!). You may be surprised at how quickly the twenty-eight minutes passes.
3. Videos Can Be Fun (and “Quality” is Negotiable)
BlendTec’s “Will it blend?” series were not high-quality at the onset, and they didn’t need to be. For videos showcased on social media sites, small businesses in particular can get away with off-the-cuff, down-to-earth feel of a low-rez video. And this is what BlendTec did in the mid-2000s.
Many SMEs can have a lot of success like BlendTec by crafting fun videos that don’t require a large budget. Small businesses can shoot on cell phones without expensive light kits or a boom mic and DAT recorder taking in the sound.
An often overlooked part of the video equation is the value of knowing which web hosts can handle large amounts of traffic. Whether you end up with a flashy, high-dollar mini-movie or a low budget infomercial, you need a host and plan with the computing resources available to push it out to viewers quickly and without fuss.
Even low quality videos are an enormous bandwidth drain. If yours don’t load fast enough, thanks to a below-average host, expect potential viewers to click away as fast as they arrived, leaving all your video efforts to amount to squat. The bottom line is that all hosts are not created equal so exert some effort to find a good one.
4. Video Creation and Editing
Given the video capabilities of phones (the 2015 feature film Tangerine was shot on an iPhone), marketing videos can be created in-house with a decent look.
Also, with the ease of some basic video-editing software like Lightwork or DSVC, these videos can be edited with ease.
A small business does not necessarily have to hire a media company to shoot video though it is recommended if there is a budget for it.
Most iterations of the iPhone produce extraordinary video quality. As well, Apple offers their iMovie software, where you can edit on phone or Mac.
Offering free and paid versions, Magisto is another type of software that allows for shooting with a phone and editing within its interface. Magisto specifically targets users wanting to upload social media videos.
[Update Nov. 18, 2019] Resources like this one (How to make a promotional video for your company: 7 steps) may also help.
The Bottom Line
With a solid marketing strategy, video creation allows businesses, small and large, to grow revenue and gain more online sales. For large firms, this can be more high-quality videos or storied films about their brand and products. But even small business can get in on the game with video by grabbing more average order value (AOV) simply by posting product videos with heart and humor.
by Harshala | Dec 28, 2018 | Content Management Systems, Content Strategy, Industry News, Web Content, Web Design, Web Development
What is a static website generator?
A static site is a collection of pages contained in basic HTML files. A static site generator is a compromise between using a hand-coded static site and a full CMS. You generate an HTML-only website using raw data such as Markdown files and templates. The resulting build is transferred to your live web server.
An Introduction to Static Site Generators article was published a few years ago. The basic concept has remained constant. It explains the popularity of static site generator. It also help people of all skill levels understand exactly what static site generators are, acknowledge their advantages, and understand if their limitations are a deal-breaker or if, on the contrary, they can be overcome.
How static sites work?
The proposition of a static site is to shift the heavy load from the moment visitor’s request the content to the moment content actually changes. Using a news kiosk metaphor, think of a scenario where it’s the news agencies who call the kiosk whenever something newsworthy happens.
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by Will Ellis | Dec 14, 2018 | Content Strategy, Cyber Crime, ECommerce, Industry News
If you earn a living – or even just spending money – selling stuff online as an affiliate, you should be concerned about cookies.
Digital cookies are the behind-the-scenes gizmo that credits you with a sale generated by a web page visitor. What you may not realize is that it is entirely possible for a clever hacker to hijack those cookies and end up with a sale that should have been credited to your account.
We’re talking big money. Shawn Hogan drew the attention of the FBI when he redirected around $28 million from rightful affiliates to his own account over the course of a few years.
The process in question is known as cookie hijacking or session hijacking.
To protect your cookies, it’s time to get serious about cybersecurity. It’s time to learn what cookies are, how they get hijacked, and what you can do minimize the risk.
Understanding Cookies
A cookie is a small packet of data that a web server transfers to a browser when someone visits a web page. Think of it as a message that originates with the server and is received by the visitor. Unless the visitor has blocked cookies, that data downloads onto the system and makes it easier for the page to load the next time the visitor returns.
That’s the main purpose of cookies: to make visiting a page simpler by ensuring it loads a little faster. It also helps the owner of the page have a better idea of how many visitors the page generates, if there are return visitors, and in general keep up with traffic patterns.
As it relates to affiliates, those cookies also make it easier for you to get credit when a consumer purchases something via your page.
How Can They Be Hijacked?
Cookies are dead simple, which may be why they are often overlooked as a means of committing a crime. All it really takes is for a hacker to seize the cookie and make a minor alteration.
The next time a visitor lands on your page the cookie ensures that the hacker’s content loads. In most cases, it will be an almost perfect mirror of the original page. What’s different is the packet of information downloaded for the session is not original. It’s been altered. That sets the stage for the hacker to control what happens next.
What Does this Mean For Affiliates?
Why would cookie hijacking matter to an affiliate? After all, doesn’t the visitor use the URL to get to the right place and make a sale? What does the cookie have to do with it anyway?
The thing to remember is that the cookies make loading the order page easier. If you alter the data in the cookie so that the affiliate ID is no longer the same, the credit for that order is redirected to another source. That’s because the cookie is often stored in the raw URL for the session. Alter the cookie by changing the affiliate ID and the end user doesn’t really notice anything.
In other words, it appears that the consumer is placing the order with you, but it’s actually being placed with someone different. You never get credit for the sale and certainly don’t receive a commission. That makes this little malfeasance a form of affiliate fraud.
How Do You Know If Your Affiliate Cookies are Hijacked?
Cookie hijacking is difficult to spot. In fact, it would be almost impossible to detect when it happens during a live session. Whether the session hijacking is active or passive, you only have a chance of identifying the damage once it’s done.
One sign that something is not right has to do with the performance of the web page. If it begins to function erratically for no apparent reason, that could mean something has been altered. Alternatively, the page shutting down can be an indication something has been changed. At this juncture, you may want to check the cookies related to the page closely and see if the affiliate ID or even some other aspect of the cookie code is not as it should be.
If your affiliate partner emails or texts you when individual sales occur, compare that information to the commission report. If they don’t match, and there’s no evidence of returns or canceled orders, someone else is ending up with your commissions.
Are There Ways to Prevent Hijacks?
Preventing a hijack is actually simpler on the visitor side. If the page visitor has up to date malware and antivirus software, the protections in those programs will likely spot that something was changed during a session. This gives the individual the opportunity to end the session before completing a transaction. The problem is the high rate of old malware and antivirus software in use.
Your affiliate can provide some support in terms of preventing cookie-jacking. Depending on how the servers download cookies and what sort of security is used for your customized affiliate page, it may be possible to prevent hacking software from modifying the cookies and the session ID that’s generated.
Create Your Own Encrypted Internet Connection
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. The concept of a virtual private network or VPN is coming into its own and likely will become an indispensable component of internet connections before too much more time has passed.
A VPN works in conjunction with your ISP. It is a separate service that encrypts the data that flows between your device and the internet. You don’t have to be a cryptographer to realize that encryption makes it harder for a hacker to complete his task. The extra ten or so bucks a month is money well-spent.
Make sure your affiliate pages use HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) rather than HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Doing so adds another layer of protection by scrambling the code that’s shared between the originating server and the recipient
The Bottom Line
You don’t devote time and energy to building a business only to have someone else steal sales as certainly as if they reached over and grabbed twenty bucks from your wallet. Make it a point to educate yourself about online security. Subscribe to a blog or two. You don’t have to be a techie to stay updated on the latest threats and keep solid malware protection in place.
by Gary Stevens | Oct 26, 2018 | Analytics, Content Strategy, ECommerce, User Experience, Web Marketing
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a fancy term for a dead simple task – getting more of your website visitors to take the appropriate action. Note we said that the visitor’s side of the equation is simple, and it is. All they have to do is sign up for an email list or buy a product or service – whatever it is that is the reason for your site’s existence.
For the rest of us website owners desperately seeking the Holy Grail that will ratchet our conversions up, the task is more complicated, especially if you’re new to the whole art/science/voodoo that is modern CRO.
But you can rest easy. Even if you’re the wettest behind the ears newbie imaginable, we’re about to open up a world of possibilities by presenting the first four CRO tools you should consider as you begin (or continue) your battle to make a buck online. Easy to use but powerful, get ready to have your wildest dreams of profit come true. Just having a little fun there, but you never know…
Why You Should Care About CRO
In case you feeling compelled to dismiss the importance of a better conversion rate, consider the following:
- Higher conversion rate = better ROI
- You can make more money with the same amount of visitors
- It’s the best way to circumvent online impatience from visitors
Achieving these three goals is all in the data and how you analyze it. Let’s get started.
Powerful but with a short learning curve, Hotjar allows you to analyze a website up to 2,000 pageviews a day at no cost. For 10,000 pageviews a day, your price will be $29 a month and it goes up from there. What can you do with Hotjar? Quite a lot, actually.
Features include: polling, surveys, visual heatmaps, conversion funnel tracking, form analytics, visitor recordings, and more.
The cool stuff: If you haven’t heard about visual heatmaps, they’re all the rage in CRO conversations. Put simply, they allow you to identify hot and cold spots on your website – in other words, where visitors click and where they don’t. If your prize BUY NOW button is in the deep freeze, a heatmap lets you know a redesign is in order.
Visitor recordings can also be helpful as you launch a CRO strategy. Did you ever wish you could stand behind a visitor’s shoulder and watch as they navigate your site? Being able to see exactly where they got bored, confused, frustrated, or simply leaped up to answer the call of nature would be immensely valuable. That’s what you can do with visitor recordings. Play back the click journey(s) and you’ll soon be able to tell where the process falls apart.
Crazy Egg is definitely a major player in the CRO field. With a generous 30-day trial period and pricing that starts at $29 month, this service allows you a chance to practice before committing actual money.
The cool stuff: The big three offerings from Crazy Egg are heatmaps, visitor recordings, and A/B testing. We’ve already touched on heatmaps and visitor recordings, so let’s define A/B testing, which is a basic but critical part of CRO.
The overall process of CRO is to figure out what isn’t converting on your website and change it. The simplest way to do that is create nearly identical pages and split your traffic between them. Note we said NEARLY identical. By changing one thing at a time on a page, like say the color of the “buy” button, you can compare which version converts better.
By continuing to make one change at a time, you incrementally improve your conversion rate.
While heatmap tools are pretty standard fare with most CRO tools, EyeQuant has taken a different approach. Rather than relying on visitors’ actions to discern hot and cold spots on a web page, this company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the areas that draw visual attention which, obviously, is a precursor (and perhaps more valuable measurement) to action.
The cool stuff: Where heatmaps collect and combine real world site interaction that plays out over time, EyeQuant’s Attention Map lets you upload a snapshot of a web page and delivers the verdict within a few minutes. This almost instant analysis comes to us courtesy of technical AI advances that make an educated guess as to where human eyes will go first.
One thing to keep in mind is that this service seems to work better with e-commerce websites. It tends to automatically decide that text heavy sites are too busy. While EyeQuant’s price might appear to be a state secret, we’ve managed to determine that entry-level packages start at around $100 per month.
As to whether your needs can justify the price – your call – but the case studies are pretty impressive.
The old war horse of CRO is something you’d have a hard time avoiding if you spend much time at all online but just because it’s been around a while doesn’t mean it’s past its prime. Not only has Google Analytics (GA) been revamped in recent years to make it even more valuable for CRO practitioners — it’s free. Included in GA are all the usual suspects of CRO like A/B testing, exit page, behavior flow, and more.
Final Thoughts
An often overlooked part of tuning your website for maximum conversions is how quickly it loads. Everything else being equal, a faster website means higher conversions. You’re doing yourself a serious disservice if you don’t pay attention to this. While we’re not trying to turn you into a programmer, there is a lot to accomplish through a few relatively simple strategies related to file compression.
Check out this Pingdom page to find out how quickly your website loads. Keep in mind that Google recommends two seconds or less and even uses this metric as part of its vaunted algorithm that determines where you place in search results. Improving site load speed is an ongoing parallel process to focus on at the same time as you learn to use the CRO tools we’ve discussed here. Good luck!
