Why Website Design Is Important For SEO

If you are under the impression that website design and search engine optimization (SEO) are two independent activities, then it is not correct.

As a business owner, you must understand that both are related and any failure in recognizing the fact could adversely affect your business.

Aesthetics should be considered when designing your website, but it important to keep in mind the fact that website design encompasses much more than that.

It has the potential to impact everything from SEO and number of visitors to conversion rates and branding.

Good Website Design Is Important

The result of a study to determine whether the content factors and different design elements had an influence on the trust of visitors coming to the websites showed that website design is more important than content.

When the people who participated in the survey were asked as to why they mistrusted websites, the comments of 94 percent of the participants towards the website design elements. Only 6 percent of them made any reference to specific content.

Content Is Important

Website design might be very important, but content relevance and quality continue to be vital. When the participants of the abovementioned survey were asked as to why they trusted a particular website, the answers given by 83 percent of them revealed that content did have a key role to play.

People like websites that are informative, relevant, clear, unbiased, and fresh. Further, they like websites much better when age-specific information is given and answers to questions that come up often are provided.

Fonts and other typographic elements are also important, but the focus should be on delivering more accurate messages to your audience.

Anyway, overdoing these elements may not do any kind of additional good to your website. Too much content can mess up your web pages and affect the conversion rates.

Website Design Has Far-Reaching Effects

Both website design and content are important and they go hand-in-hand. However, it is the quality of design that attracts visitors to your website and makes them spend time and read the content you have provides.

According to website design and internet marketing experts, it is important to design your website, keeping the needs of your entire business in view. Or else, you will find it difficult to compete in the market.

Therefore, when you design your site to make it attractive to the visitors, it should also be kept in mind that it has the potential impact the other areas of your business.

Relationship Between Website Design and SEO

When creating your website, keeping SEO in mind, it is important that you think long term. Design trends keep changing, but the presence of your brand has to last for a much longer time.

Therefore, it is not wise to focus too much on the trends. It can cause problems for you. However, you should not completely neglect the prevailing styles.

To give you an example, a trending design style may be very attractive. Users may like the design because of the convenience the style provides. As a website owner, you may like to use the style because it keeps the users engaged.

However, what is more important is to determine whether the search engines like the trending style or not. As you remove the website structure that the search engines are traditionally used to crawling, you might be inviting problems for yourself.

On the other hand, you may really want to embrace the trending responsive designs for websites. This is because, in the near future, Internet searches are likely to be done more on smartphones rather than desktops and laptops.

There is a tremendous increase in the number of smartphone users around the world. Further, the search engines have started rewarding websites that invest in creating responsive web pages.

In addition to eliminating the need to run two separate websites and the risk of paying penalties for providing duplicate content, it helps you to greatly bring down the bounce rates.

The examples given above give you a fair idea as to why it is important to connect website design and SEO. However, there are a few other factors that need to be kept in mind when designing your website.

Website Design and Branding

You need to make a distinction between website design and branding. The design of your website cannot be considered as your brand at all.

Of course, it is a brand element that can help you to build trust among your target audience. Branding is actually an investment. It grows over time and makes people say that they have trust in your products and services.

Brands are perceptions and the elements of branding such as logos, trademarks, names, taglines, and packaging, are the shortcuts to reach those perceptions.

Typically, consumers tend to lean towards trusted brands. They will buy products and services when they are able to correlate with a strong brand.

As such, from the website design perspective, it is very clear that the elements of design you choose will have a direct impact on your overall branding strategy as well as market position.

Website Design and Conversion Rates

Website design also affects the conversion rates, particularly with respect to the elements listed below:

1. Navigation

It is very easy to understand as to how accessibility and navigation are related to the conversion rates. If your web site’s design is such that it presents challenges to the visitors, then they are likely to lose interest quickly.

On the other hand, an intuitive website structure will encourage users to remain on your site and continue browsing. Navigation assumes a lot of importance when there are several pages on your website.

Therefore, you need to include a menu that clearly shows the list of web pages or a well-labelled navigation bar. A well-developed navigation plan enables users to not only explore but also understand your website much better.

You are not required to use state-of-the-art typefaces at all. A simple and intuitive navigation arrangement makes visitors come back to your website again and again.

2. Words Used

According to experts, the words that you use in your calls-to-action statements have the potential to directly impact the conversion rates. For example, incorporating the word ‘Free’ when requesting visitors to either download something or sign up on your site often tends to increase conversions by about 4.2 perc3ent.

3. Colour

Colours do have a role to play in improving conversions. Research studies show that big, bold red colour is best suited for headlines. Navy blue colour helps to improve the feeling of trustworthiness when you use it in your call-to-action buttons.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important that you have a clear understanding of the impact of your website’s design on SEO. It is just not a simple matter of preference or making a minor choice. Your website’s design has the potential to make or break your online business.

It has to actually make a difference as to how your target audience perceives your business or brand and the visitors to your website need to be converted into your customers.

All said and done, using a design that provides an impressive and easy to navigate user interface will go a long way in enhancing your conversion rates, contributing to improving the bottom line of your business.

In today’s digital world, more and more businesses have started developing responsive websites to stay ahead of their competitors. So, the earlier you act the better for you.

12 Website Design Strategies To Improve Your Business

Technology is constantly changing and businesses have been constantly evolving to take in these changes. From traffic to content, conversion rates and branding, there are many aspects of a website’s design that affects the presence of the business on the Internet.

Two perspectives

It is a true fact that very few business owners realize the importance of building a well-designed website. Many business owners, big and small see the entire effort as more of a chore.

What they fail to realize is that a website is a fully separate channel that will bring in the leads for your organization. What is better is that it takes less effort to set up a well-designed website than train an entire sales team.

On the other end of the spectrum are those entrepreneurs that invest thousands or even millions of dollars on website design/redesign. Web design, though important from the aesthetic point of view, is much more than just being attractive.

This article chooses to explore why web design matters at all and what impacts it has on different aspects of an online business.

1. Trustworthiness and basic design elements

In some of the studies that were conducted one startling fact that was revealed was that respondents labelled a website as being trustworthy or otherwise more on the basis of the design elements present than its content.

The ratio was 94:6.

Websites that have small prints, those that displayed pop-up ads, complex website layout, all contributed to mistrust from the respondents.

Another aspect that was revealed was that whereas some colours were good when used for specific businesses, it would not suit certain others.

In case the business already has a logo or a colour scheme, it pays to use the same on the website for easy recognition and relatability.

Use of similar colours and similar fonts as the logo is important. Use highlighted text sparingly. Go for a simpler logo than a complex one if you are designing a new one.

2. Navigation should be easy and consistent

Site-wide navigation that is the same on every page is appealing for a website. Your visitors should know at any point in time as to where to start.

Display of a search box in direct view of the user always is recommended. If your website ends up challenging the visitors, there is a high chance that they will lose interest and quit browsing further.

Avoid displays that clutter up and provide the visitor with information without any interruptions.

3. Faster websites sell more

The speed with which a website loads is an important factor in satisfying the customer. Almost half the respondents in a survey said that they expected that the website would load in about 2 seconds’ time.

Any additional delay of a second in the loading time of a website is costly for the business and there is also a substantial reduction in the customer satisfaction.

It is important to give that experience to the customer which they will be happy to remember. If your website’s loading speed is good, they are likely to talk about it to their peers.

4. Make the Call-to-Action visible

Place the call-to-action button on every page of the website. Ensure that it is visible and the visitor does not have to scroll down to see it. More importantly, add a benefit to the call-to-action.

That is more than likely to get you more conversions. One research showed that use of the word ‘free’ along with the call-to-action button increased conversions by about 4.2 percent.

Other phrases which were seen as appealing ones included, “Buy now”, “Start the two-week trial”, etc., among others.

5. Make video stories

Include storytelling videos on your website. Studies have indicated that videos dramatically increase conversions in websites.

Great video ideas include those that tell the visitor what is happening behind the scene video that shows how your product is created and what work has gone into it, product tours and case studies about a specific problem that a customer encountered, the solution and the end result accompanied by a simple attractive script.

Testimonial videos are known to do their bit for your website. Allow people to announce how happy they are after using your product or service.

6. Improve the trust by displaying badges

Incorporate badges as part of your website. It is indeed a design element that can bring in more trust from your website visitors. They can be categorized into:

  • Trust badges: Procure and display trust badges from review sites. TripAdvisor and Trustpilot are popular badges.
  • Security badges: Companies such a McAfee show to the visitors that the link to your website is encrypted and allows for safe transactions to be sent through the website’s landing page by the visitor.
  • Award badges: Display industry’s best awards if you have any. Do not fail to announce the awards, if any have been won by the designers and developers of your website.

7. No distractions, please

To increase conversions, it should be easy for the customers to make decisions. Do not make the website journey a confusing one for our visitors. Offers, pop-ups and too much of movement are likely to confuse the visitor.

Too many offers will end up becoming counterproductive. When there are too many, the visitor will be confused as to which one to pick.

The website visitor has to be safely guided through the sales funnel and get them to make a purchase. The golden rule is to keep distractions to a minimum.

8. Website-SEO relationship is important

SEO is a good method to make your website more visible to the search engines and customers at large. Getting a top slot in the search engine listings gets you your prospective customers’ attention.

This translated to a higher amount of traffic and consequently more conversions. The first step of SEO is good website design. With a great website design, you have already announced your arrival.

The rule of the thumb is do not neglect traditional website design structures that search engines look for while crawling in favour of modern trends. Have a healthy mix of the two.

9. Become Mobile Friendly

Most buying decisions of today are made with the mobile. With most people using the web on mobile phones and tablets, you can lose out if your business website is not optimized for a mobile device.

If you want your website to be seen on a computer as well as a mobile device, then you should have only very little media that is attached to the website design.

This may not work out the way you want all the time. However, it is better to have a mobile-optimized version of your business website. The website should contain all the relevant information that the customer needs to see.

10. Keep your website design contemporary

The bounce rates are going t be higher if you have an outdated website design. Old-fashioned websites are likely to be a turn-off. If they feel that you are not up-to-date, in either your content or design, they are going to bounce off your pages.

It is a good idea to review your website once in a couple of years or every year and freshen it up to reflect the latest trends.

11. Content is still king

While website design is important, content is still the king. Websites that presented lucid, no-nonsense and unbiased information were liked by most users. Other popular designs included FAQ’s and sites giving information to specific age groups.

12. Website design is one of the most important of your brand elements

The design of a website does not equate to your brand. However, website design by itself is an important brand element that helps your customer to place trust in you.

Branding is that invisible factor, or a perception, that grows over time and gets your client to trust your product/service no matter what. Other brand elements can be logos, taglines, packaging, trademarks etc.

The dozen points discussed above are basic ideas that can get your web design on track and make a difference to your customers. How your website looks and functions are key factors that would influence the outcomes of your business decisions.

 

20 Ideal Places To Share Your Content [Infographic]

Content methodology involves processes such as research, identification, content creation, proofread, approval & publishing, social media distribution, etc.

But, are we promoting the content on right social media channels?

The answer might be a big no.

Writing blogs and publishing on your website does not guarantee you best content marketing results.

You know what, more than 3 million blog posts are being published by different websites daily.

So, if want to achieve any real traction, you need to think outside the box.

You need to look beyond publishing content on your website.

Think about sharing your content on industry or niche platforms to get it discovered by more people.

Here is an infographic illustrating 20 ideal places to share your content for better conversions.

places to share your content

How to Use Dynamic Content to Boost Conversions

Creating an online experience tailored as per the needs and preferences of customers is the ultimate goal of any marketer. In fact, recent trends in technology have made it possible for businesses to modify websites as per individual viewing experiences.

This strategy involves the use of dynamic content based on various sets of information about the user giving them just what they need to engage with your brand or take steps in the direction of leading to a conversion.

Dynamic content makes the user experience more engaging and intuitive, thereby resulting in increased conversions.

It eliminates all sorts of extra and irrelevant information that could otherwise cause a friction or frustration with the customers. These techniques offer a logical step to the customer taking them forward in the customer lifecycle.

Here are 5 ways you can use dynamic content to give your website visitors a smoother and user-friendly experience to boost conversions:

1. Personalized Recommendations

Recommender systems have gained immense popularity in the recent years. This technique collects consumer data and takes users through their journey by offering recommendations and relevant content at every stage of browsing.

In fact, product recommendations tremendously help in increasing online revenue.  The focus lies in improving the experience of customers engaging with your brand instead of running after the prospective ones.

The algorithm of recommender systems captures, collects and analyzes consumer behaviour and other data to recommend the most suitable products for every individual. This process is known as ‘collaborative filtering’.

However, this does not mean that recommender systems are only suited to E-commerce companies. They are also beneficial for content portals, travel websites, and other platforms.

As a rule of thumb, if your business is involved in the marketing and sale of several different products, chances that the implementation of a recommender system will be beneficial are high.

2. Improve Site Search Experience

Search technologies have advanced in the last couple of years making it easy for users to find what they need. This means that the quality of search on your website can also influence conversion rates.

Dynamic content has the ability to optimize your site search. This includes simple strategies such as autofill and autocorrect.

Another way of utilizing dynamic content to improve site search experience is by providing search terms related to the products and categories near the search box.

This enhances the discovery process as users instantly jump to the product they are searching for, rather than going through the vast product range and listing pages on your website.

With popular recommendations, filter keywords and phrases, the scope of searches is narrowed making it easier for the visitor to make a choice.

Additionally, based on consumer behaviour, purchase histories, and other data, items can be sorted as per popularity benefitting both the business and the customer to view the best available products.

3. Tailored Call-to-Action

Call-to-Action buttons are a vital part of any business website. It is the element that connects the user and the business. However, its effectiveness is dependent on the copy that it uses.

Dynamic call-to-action buttons fasten the conversion process by giving users an incentive that is absolutely lucrative and relates to them instantly.

The copy of the button is customized according to the stage of the sales funnel that the customer is in. Giving a website visitor the right touchpoint at the right time helps to generate more leads and conversions.

For example, if you are reaching out to a new lead and expecting them to download the brochure, a ‘Download Now’ CTA is what you need.

Once the brochure has been downloaded, you wish to redirect them to a testimonial or a free trial offer and your button copy must reflect the same.

Tailoring the call-to-action button improves the product adoption process since the customer’s journey is already being tracked with the right actions being displayed in front of them.

Takeaway

Dynamic content may sometimes be confused with personalization. However, the former is infinitely more powerful. Content tailored as part of personalization is fixed while dynamic content is HTML content that alters itself on the basis of the user accessing it.

How to Create Readable Content

It is frequently neglected that there is a connection between readability and search engine optimization. Readable content can do wonders in SEO.

When you create content, it should be:

  • skimmable
  • composed at a proper reading level
  • use only compact sentence structures
  • prefer only uncomplicated words

At the point when your content is simple to read, chances are high that your visitors will keep reading. This implies a more extended occupying time, a superior bounce rate and better rankings in seeking.

In this article, we will give you tips to make your content more readable. Likewise, we will demonstrate to you a couple of tools that check readability before you click “publish.”

Tips for composing more readable content

Try your hands on implementing the following tips as soon as possible. Editing as your own for readability for your content can be time-consuming and also tedious.

If you can intentionally take a shot at making content clear as you think of, you won’t need to invest more energy in editing subsequently. Following are the best tips to make your content more readable:

1. Establish a solid first impression

In the event, if it’s a case study or a tale about a client experience, begin with a conflict and demonstrate the client’s challenge. Individuals with similar dissatisfactions will relate and keep reading to perceive how your business figured out the issues.

Regardless of how you begin, the presentation ought to mirror the substance of whatever remains of your post. That way you don’t deceive readers and they won’t leave the page when they don’t get what they anticipated.

2. Make the content skimmable

It is a fact that most of the people just scan through the web pages or web content. It might be hurting to compose a content realizing that your audience won’t really read the entire thing.

However, if you can give valuable data, readers will discover precisely what they are searching for while skimming through the page. They won’t leave your page in dissatisfaction.

One of the simplest approaches to make a content skimmable is to separate the duplicate with formatting techniques. Following are a couple of things to begin incorporating into your content:

Headings: Use of headings will help to recognize fundamental topics of the different segments of content. Utilize H1 and H2 labels to design your content, as well as to enable Google to access your page to understand what it is about.

Bullet points: Exactly like these kinds of pointer heads to differentiate content into segments.

Numbers & listicles: Using numbers is a simple method to compose a bit of content and split it up into sub-points and show how everything identifies with each other.

Short paragraphs: Make sure that you only put a couple of words on each line. Otherwise, it will relatively be irritating to read the content. You need to utilize more line breaks; however, an excessive number of it makes it troublesome for readers to understand the point of each passage and where to focus.

Visuals: Photos, videos, and different graphics help to separate the duplicate, as well as add interesting components to your content, urging readers to remain on the page.

Bold, italics and hyperlinks: Using these formatting techniques can feature keywords and the essential outcomes in sections.

3. Use suitable and natural language

Before creating content, you need to know who is your crowd. As you build up your purchaser personas, take note of the kind of the language your audience uses.

Concentrate on the content your audience absorb, regardless whether it is a famous blog or industry magazine, and focus on how they discuss the themes they cover.

Unless writing a technical stuff or for academic purpose, use a conversational tone. Using a conversational tone, you will have a capacity to address a more extensive scope of your audience.

Using pronouns, like “I” and “You” upgrade the conversational tone. It helps in building up a relationship with your audience by enabling them to become more acquainted with you.

It is likewise a review without bounds discussion that the prospect may have with a salesman. This kind of conversational tone is called natural language.

At the point when individuals make inquiries in a search engine, particularly when they use voice search, they are not using any keywords but they are utilizing full sentences.

So your content should answer these inquiries. Google’s algorithm has advanced to sorting out accommodating answers over keywords.

4. Be aware of word choices

Indeed, even with formatting that splits up content, complex word choices and long sentences will reduce readers. Following are a couple of formatting and writing tips to keep in mind:

Avoid fluff: Make sure you don’t use repetitive kind of words in your content. What is important is imparting your message plainly and being as connecting with as would be feasible.

Make use of active voice rather than passive voice: The subject of your sentence ought to do the activity. For instance, active voice resembles this: “Ram distributed the papers”, while passive voice resembles like this: “The papers were distributed by Ram.”

Passive voice can frequently cause negative responses since it’s lengthy and not as direct, and also sometimes irritating to read.

This is a simple error to make while you are writing, so bear in mind to search for it during the proofreading process.

Use only fewer adverbs: Like using the passive voice, an excessive number of adverbs undermine your written work. Adverbs change verbs and more often not end with ‘ly’, for example, “He rapidly hurried to class.” Instead of adverbs, use more expressive verbs. For the above-quoted example, it can be altered to “He dashed to class.”

Stay away from empty phrases and superlatives: Let’s consider the example of a baker and his marketing phrase goes like this “The world’s most delicious cookies.” That sounds great; however, the phrases are overused.

Besides, there is no real way to demonstrate it! Rather, ask what makes the following one interesting, “Does anyone has created such uber-delicious cookies that won the American Gingerbread contest last year?” This says significantly more in regards to the item without exaggerating.

How to review the readability of your content?

On the off chance you don’t have an editor on the team, recruit someone else in your company, or even a friend or family member if needed to review your content. A fresh set of eyes will be able to let you know how readable your content is.

There are also some scales that measure the readability of your content and review the average length of your paragraphs, sentences, and words:

The Flesch Reading Ease score: It rates in between 0 to 100, with 100 being the clearest. Scores rating between 60-70 can be rated as eligible for grown-up readership.

The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade: It indicates what reading level in school is required for somebody to grasp your content.

According to Readable.io, you should aim for grade 8 or beneath to guarantee your content is readable by 80% or greater amount of Americans.

Following are a couple of supportive devices to decide these scores:

Hemingwayapp.com – This is a free web application, or else you can pay to download it to your desktop. This app is particularly valuable for authors who tend to use more complicated words and sentence structures.

It provides your content a reading level and features all the issue regions so that you know precisely what to settle.

Yoast: This mainstream WordPress module for measuring SEO meta tags and definitions additionally has a component that decides readability.

It gives a Flesch Reading Ease score, which measures the usage of passive voice and recognizes the sentence length and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Readable.io – This is a web application that checks the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade, the Flesch Reading Ease score in addition to numerous other scales.

Also, it checks content details like characters per word, number of adjectives, reading time and so on.

Grammarly: Use this as an application or as a convenient Chrome extension. As the name recommends, it checks the language structure of your content, and additionally spelling, style, punctuations, and offers suggestions for correcting your content.

Even though there is no readability score, Grammarly will catch a significant number of mistakes that will help to increase the quality of readable content.

Final Thoughts

The primary goal of writing readable content is to answer your reader’s inquiries. Your content has to be snappy and simple for your audience to absorb.

Figuring out how to create readable content needs a numerous number of rehearsals. However, it will be justified despite all the trouble over the long haul for better results of SEO.

5 Ways to Create Customer-Centric Content

In the modern era, the future of a brand lies in the hands of online communities. The collective voice of online consumers is so powerful that it can either make a brand successful or bring it down to nothingness. This has been the trend of marketing today and we’ve all seen such events unfold before us.

How many times have you come across a Facebook post wherein customers are roasting a particular brand for an oversight or mistake? This may not result in the end of a company but it can deeply affect its brand image. In short, brands must be wary of the voice of online customers and strive to leverage it to their own benefit.

One of the most popular yet challenging ways to gain customers’ trust is through customer-centric content. Such content helps to position your brand as an authoritative and credible leader in the market.

Now, let us understand what customer-centric content is?

In traditional forms of marketing, content is focused on putting the brand in the forefront. It is aimed at generating brand awareness, website traffic, and driving leads through the sales funnel.

Customer-centric content, on the other hand, targets these objectives through a more subtle approach. Some of the characteristics of this form of content are:

  • It is based on data collected from the target audience
  • It provides readers value without requesting for anything in return
  • It is customized according to certain user preferences
  • It is in sync with a brand’s customer-centric approach

Let us now look at 5 different ways of creating customer-centric content:

1. Create Customer Personas

Customer personas help in creating content that is relevant for the buyers. It is basically a guideline to understand the real customer, their job titles, their interests and preferences and education level. There are several free persona templates that startup brands can use.

Once customer personas are created, set out to establish your marketing message, your mission statement, and the possible reactions of the audience to your value proposition. Keep referring to these personas during content development to ensure that your communication remains relevant.

2. Interview the Audience

In order to understand the audiences’ mindset or fill out personas accurately, you must collect information and data. Interviewing the target audience is one of the best ways to acquire data. This could be a face-to-face interview or an online survey created using Google Forms.

Take a look at your customer personas to understand what kind of information you need and frame the questions of the interview/survey accordingly. You can maximize the response rate for your survey by offering a discount or incentive for responding to it.

3. Search Engine Optimization

This is a widely recognized approach and you must utilize it in the best manner possible. Creating consumer-centric content involves a presence on platforms that are used to find solutions to their problems. Search engines are one of the most popularly used discovery platforms for consumers. The tricks and tactics for this technique are easily available online.

You must also identify keyword opportunities on the basis of what consumers are searching for. AdWords Keyword Planner is a tool that can help to create the right content for the right customer using the right keywords. Make use of this tool efficiently as it will give you an insight into the topics that your customers are talking about.

4. Focus on the Content Format

The content format is dependent on customer demographics. For instance, if you are reaching out to professionals, you must utilize whitepapers, case studies or research reports. Similarly, if you are trying to engage with teenagers, your content must take the form of quizzes or humour.

Furthermore, the consumption channel will also vary on the basis of your target audience. This focuses on the social media platforms and an understanding of where your target audience is active.

5. Eliminate the Jargon

Certain brands tend to utilize jargon in their communication. Remember that this does not impress the audience since they are unable to comprehend what you are trying to say. Always keep the language simple and easy to understand. Keep it concise and straight to the point.

Customer-centric content is of immense importance today and no brand can attain success till they start focusing on this aspect of marketing. Without resourceful and engaging content, a brand cannot place itself in the customer’s mind and will eventually die out of the market.

Why Content Matters in Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has emerged as one of the most advantageous types of digital marketing. Businesses can grow exponentially if they utilize the technique in an effective manner. The success of a social media marketing strategy lies in the activity the brand chooses to execute and the way they visualize this form of marketing.

A lot of brands think of social media to be a means of getting more likes, engagement, reach, and retweets. But we suggest you focus on sharing high quality content in order to engage in a dialogue with users and thereby generate a lead.

Here’s what content can do for your social media marketing strategy and help to build a brand:

  1. Expand your network and establish credibility

High-quality content can do wonders on social media. In fact, experts suggest that social media and content marketing go hand-in-hand. All you need to do is figure out what types match the best with each other, and once you have discovered the right pair, you will be able to reach out to large audiences without any obstructions.

Usually, brands publish content on their official website and promote it using social media handles. They expect immediate results but content marketing is not able to deliver the same. Content marketing must build up momentum in order to deliver the kind of results brands desire.

According to content marketing experts, companies must consistently provide valuable content to their target audience. In the course of time, this engaging content will be able to pull the users and help the brand establish credibility. This is an organic approach and may take time to reap results.

If you are confident of the value of your content and believe that it is worthy of the reader’s attention, you may force it to more audiences using sponsored posts and tweets on Facebook and Twitter. You could also tie up with influencers and grow your brand’s reach.

  1. Establish a connection with the brand

Content marketing focuses on establishing a connection between a brand and its target audience. This connection must have an emotional appeal to it. Moreover, content has the power to make people empathetic towards a brand.

A content marketing strategy must be so strong that it should be able to convince prospects to convert into sales. This means that you require content that is unique and valuable. Start by sharing and demonstrating the values of your company through the content you share on social media.

  1. Be an authority

If you regularly address current affairs and specific topics of concern relevant to your industry, you are viewed as an authority. The value and relevance of your content strike a chord with the readers and they will await the next piece of content you publish. And social media is the best place to share such content and engage with your users.

People today don’t have much time, but if they come across content that is valuable, they love it. They tend to share it in their groups and networks giving you the publicity and engagement you require. You need not use technical jargon or absolute facts based on research in order to be an authority. Content written in a manner that is interesting and understandable has huge potential with the reader.

  1. Improves conversion rates

Content marketing is the only tool that permits you to create appropriate remarketing lists. This is done using content analytics.

Your website has a number of webpages with different content and there’s also a lot of content on your social media handles rerouting the user to different links on your website. Google Analytics sets a code on your website that tracks visitors and gives you an analysis of their behaviour. This data is further used to prepare remarketing lists and show prospects content that they were interested in.

If your business stays in front of the prospects at regular intervals, chances that they become a customer when considering a purchase decision are high.

Social media platforms have become the new tool for marketers, however, if you are looking at reaching out to more customers, your content must be high-quality and valuable. Perform a thorough analysis of your target audience before devising a content marketing strategy so that you can offer the content they are looking for.

15 Best Content Curation Tools You Can Use in 2018 [Infographic]

Creating content that is relevant to your audience is crucial for digital marketing success. Content curation can help you to find interesting topics from a variety of sources and share it strategically via different social media channels. It also help you to determine the interests of your target audience. There are many tools available for content curation. Using the right tools will help you to generate content that your target audience like to read.

We have listed some popular content curation tools in the form an infographic to help you create high quality content.

Let’s have a look

best content curation tools to use in 2018 infographic

Guide to Create Exceptional Content for Your Business

It is totally your choice on how much time and effort you want to put into creating exceptional content and helping your brand prosper. You can choose to go on with bad content but you will definitely not get anywhere with it. It will prove to be a total waste of time, energy and money.

In order to boost your ranking in SEO and increase website traffic, you need quality content on your website. If the content is original, then that could help you get more exposure on search engines. In fact, Google penalizes sites which have copied or duplicated content. So, quality content would not only help to make your website look more attractive but also help to improve the overall ranking of your website.

Below are a few tips to create exceptional content for your business:

1. Create Original and Unique Content

Copying content from other websites could lead to severe consequences from Google and your visitors. When we say originality, we mean original ideas and not re-phrasing the existing content and concept. If you think that you can hire cheap labour to just fill up your website with content or just collect different articles available on the internet and re-post them, then you are making a big mistake.

Always remember, if you pay well, then you get quality and if you don’t have any quality content, then it is better to not write anything. These are two simple principles which you should remember. These would take you a long way.

2. Pay more focus on Headers and Sub-headers

Your content should have proper headings and sub-headings. If the headlines are interesting, then the reader automatically gains interest in the article. As per commonly known statistics, about 80% of the people tend to read only the headlines and only 20% of the readers actually spend the time to read the other content under the headers.

Have as many headings as possible in your article. You should try to highlight the headings to make them prominent to your readers. Take the time to create good, relevant to the topic and interesting headlines. A good way for deciding headings would be by thinking of a few and then shortlisting the one you like the most. Don’t ignore the headings. Depending on the headings, people decide if they are going to read your blog or not.

3. Give your Readers Actionable Content

You should give proper guidance on how to use or apply the information given in the content. Don’t feel that you are degrading the users by telling them what to do. You must give assurance to the readers that they are very well aware of how to use the knowledge they have picked up from the content.

In your content, you must give tips to your readers about what information you are offering to them. You have to write in a way that you cover all the possible questions the readers have in mind – why, what, how, where etc.

4. Your Content should be able to Give all the Answers

When people use a search engine like Google, they are looking for some answers. They search for a particular query and search engine delivers the answer to their query. Similarly, when a reader is reading your blog or article, then he is expecting some answer so that he can gain some knowledge about the topic.

You should make your content easy to read and scan because readers are looking for answers, that too fast. So, it is important to make sure that they get all the answers too quickly. Include as many titles and sub-titles in your content which makes it easy for the reader to read and understand.

5. The Source of Information and the Statistics should be Accurate

Thousands of people are going to read your content and it is extremely bad for the reputation of your business in case the information stated in it is not relevant.

The content on your website is the reflection of your business. You must get statistics verified before you mention them on your website. Accuracy is important to gain the readers’ trust. Below are certain tips which you can follow when tackling the accuracy issues:

> Be sure of the source from where you are picking up the statistic details. If you are intending to provide a link to another website in yours for statistics, then you must make sure that it is a genuine and authentic website. If it is a quality website, then it would help gain the trust of the readers.

> If you are linking content within your website to substantiate what you are writing, then that can be extremely helpful in gaining the readers’ trust. People start feeling that the content is authentic as it can be validated.

> If you link your content to other sources then that would help the search engines in knowing about your content and it will help them categorize it.

6. Create Content that keeps the Readers Engaged and Curious to Read more

If a reader finds your content engaging and interesting then he spends more time on your website. The only trick to achieve this is by writing your content well. Here are a few tips to achieve this:

  • Include many questions in the article which keep the readers thinking about what the answer could be. You need to build the readers’ curiosity to continue reading to get the answers. Remember not to leave any question unanswered in your article. This could make the reader feel irritated.
  • Most of the readers read the first few lines of the article properly and continue reading the article only if they like the introduction. You should have an interesting and involving start to your article or blog. You should discuss the key features of your article and give the readers a motivation to keep reading.
  • Visitors like reading about different experiences and stories that people have actually experienced in life. Stories keep people involved, engaged and give them a huge amount of information.

7. Adding Images and Videos is Always Liked

As we all know that people understand better by seeing, images and videos are always a good idea to make people learn about what you are talking in the article. Diagrams and graphs are also a great way to illustrate your point..

8. Content should be Crisp and Precise

You should always remember to make your content brief and to the point. Make sure you don’t repeat the same point in your article in different ways. Readers don’t like repetition. No need to worry about the word count, instead focus on making it precise. Avoid going off the topic, as that might make readers lose their interest in your article.

9. Keep Updating Your Article Frequently

Once you build a website, you should always remember that you have to stay committed to it forever. Search engines prefer those sites more who are regularly updating their content. Most of the top websites update their content very often. There are several statistics too which prove that websites whose content is updated frequently tend to attract visitors.

Don’t treat the content of your website lightly. It is difficult and extremely time-consuming to write good content. You must make sure that the language you use is simple and the article shouldn’t have grammatical and spelling errors.

After you have written an article, you should proofread it at least two times before publishing it on the website. Keep the content entertaining and original for the readers.

11 Reasons Why No One is Watching Your Video Content [Infographic]

Video is a powerful medium for promotional activities of businesses. As a marketer, you might have created several videos for the promotional activities of your business. Though such videos are of good quality you may not get enough viewers for it. What will be the reason for this? There may be many reasons for less viewership of your videos. The problem may be with your video content strategy.

We have a created a list of reasons that keep the viewers skip your video. There are also suggestions listed here in the form an infographic to get you more viewers for your marketing videos. We hope this illustration will help you to formulate a better video content strategy next time.

no-one-watching-your-video-content-infographic