Andrew Hutchinson just recently published “Why is Digital Marketing Important for Business in 2019?” on April 7, 2019 in SocialMediaToday using infographics, which will also be shown. Digital marketing is a significant part of any modern day business approach. The article contains 100 data points that highlight just how important it is for business to utilize digital marketing. It states that business can use digital channels as leverage including email, search engines, websites, and social media in order to connect with current and prospective customers. In Figure 1, Hutchinson shows statistics that prove just how impactful digital marketing can be. I found it interesting that more than 51% of people using smartphones have found products first by using their phone. In the next two years, video advertising will grow into a $22 billion industry, and global retail e-commerce sales will make more than $4.5 trillion.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  is a marketing discipline that increases visibility in non-paid, or organic, search engine results. It focuses on both the creative and technical elements while improving rankings, increasing traffic, and creating awareness through search engines. Figure 2 contains statistics to prove just how important SEOs are for one’s business. As the figure shows, Google is responsible for up to 94% of organic traffic on the Internet. Around 61% of marketers believe that it is important to improve one’s SEO and create more organic awareness by making it a top priority. I found this part to be intriguing because it says that video content increases organic search results up to 50 times more than plain text, which I was not aware of before analyzing this article. It shows that location is linked to 30% of mobile searches, which can be helpful when improving one’s SEO.

PPC represents pay-per-click, which is a marketing model that advertisers pay a single fee each time of their advertisements are clicked. One of the most popular forms of PPC is using search engine advertising. This type of advertising allows advertisers to pay for ad placement through sponsored links. For instance, someone can search a keyword for a particular service or product, and related advertisements will pop up when the keyword is searched. Figure 3 shows that around 66% of buyer-intent keywords are through PPC, and 64.6% of viewers click on ads through Google when they are looking to purchase something. The article also discusses the important of content marketing, social media, video marketing, and email marketing.

Reference:

Hutchinson, A. (7 April 2019). Why is Digital Marketing so Important for Business in 2019?” SocialMediaToday. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/why-is-digital-marketing-so-important-for-business-in-2019-infographic/552160/

Inside Business published an article by Molly Yurick on March 25, 2019 titled “Five website features that may be working against you.” Yurick explains how one’s website is  more than selling products, providing services, and sharing information. She states that it is more important to focus on the audience that will be viewing your website. One must tailor the website to meet the needs of the people who visit their site. Yurick says, “As a website owner, your job is to turn those visitors into paying  clients.” She reminds people to find ways to hold the customers’ attention while they are looking at the site. She discusses five website features that might work against one’s favor. The list includes aggressive pop-ups, translation plug-ins, auto play video, bad mobile version of site, and an infinite home page. Viewers do not want to spend more time closing pop-ups that exploring the page content. It is important to be cautious of translation plug-ins as it can “skew the meaning” of the text, but it can be smart to use one if you want to expand your business to other parts of the world. More people browse the internet on the phone over a computer, so it is important to make sure the mobile site is easily accessible. Finally, an infinitely long pay might be confusing and distracting to anyone viewing the website.

The textbook discusses how companies should invest effort into creating and maintaining websites with a good design. Larson & Draper (2019) says that businesses should make each web design decision carefully while thinking of the end goal each time. Most web designers use design principles that they follow. Hendricks writes in Forbes (2015) that a website’s design will affect the entire presence. He found through a research study that design elements are actually more powerful than the content itself. I enjoyed reading Yurik’s article because she offers advice on what not to do when creating your website design. It can be overwhelming with all of the web design elements that are available, and one might not know what works best for their particular audience. Like the textbook mentioned, web design might have more power than content because it is what catches the viewers’ attention to initiate that interest in the site. I know that I do not like to get on a website and see too many pop-ups. It is also important to make sure that the display does not change whether someone is on a desktop computer or a mobile phone.

References:

Hendricks, D. (2015). Understanding The Full Impact of Web Design On SEO, Branding, And More. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/02/11/understanding-the-full-impact-of-web-design-on-seo-branding-and-more/#5f8d6cdc64fe

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2017)Digital marketing essentials. Rexburg, ID: Edify.

Yurick, M. (26 March 2019). Five website features that may be working against you.” Inside Business. Retrieved from https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/columns/article_23bd8afc-4f3a-11e9-be92-d30fee8f6f06.html

In the “How to Use Search Intent to Get Results from SEO” video, Mitch Causey, who is the marketing director as Lessonly, showed us how to use search intent while focusing on strategies that result in revenue. He gave a brief overview on Architecture Content Endorsements (ACE). Some examples of the architecture part are an HTML sitemap or how quick websites load on mobile devices. Content would include any written word copy such as this blog post. Endorsements are third-party websites that link and direct traffic back to one’s website. Architecture, content, and endorsements play an important role in the website’s SEO success. SEO success leads to traffic, which further leads to revenue down the road. SEO is crucial to a website’s success because it is a priority to be found on the web. It gives you access to people all around the world to view your content. However, people have to know that it exists, which is why SEO plays such a dominant role. He discussed the type of content that one should write and publish on his or her website. 

Causey emphasizes the importance of understanding search intent. Search intent should be a main focus when brainstorming before writing content. He displayed the marketing funnel, or the intent funnel, and said that It was one of the most critical parts when making a successful marketing program work. It is an inverted triangle divided into three parts. The idea is that any search on Google can be found in one of the three parts. At this top level, people are not searching with the intent of purchasing. They are looking more to understand the product better, and traffic volume is high in this area. The middle area has a medium purchase intent as well as medium traffic. At this level, people are searching for comparisons. It is important to examine the comparisons between competitors. At the bottom level, purchase is intent is extremely high as people are searching with the intent to buy a product. The traffic is much lower as there are few people searching compared to the other two parts. Causey also mentioned the importance of mapping content and keywords to search intent. He constantly mentions how intent combined with volume results in success. Ideally, one chooses search phrases that will appear in several searches and rank well in keywords. His final tip was to utilize the Google Adwords Keyword planner tool. This tool allows people to see what people are searching for and the volume of search phrases. It gives a rough estimate of how many times each money keywords are being searched, which gives an idea of how much interest it could have. Before creating any content, it would be beneficial to use the Google Keyword planner took to better understand what it is people search for and how relevant the keywords are. It can help determine how much traffic the website may have, which determines how much revenue can be made. Causey refers to this tool as the “greatest social experiment there’s ever been.” In this expert session, I have gained a much better understanding of how important search intent can be when creating content.

Reference:

On March 7, 2019. Danny Richman discusses “How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform for SEO” in Ecommerce Platforms.  In this article, he discusses the important of having an ecommerce software that offers the most features that will be used to optimize ecommerce store in Google. They listed some of the top ecommerce platforms for SEO as well as some factors that play an important part in how well one’s ecommerce store will rank in the SERPs. One of the major factors consist of independent navigation links, and almost all of the larger ecommerce platforms offer this feature. Other factors that have much weight on SEO ere independent page titles, independent page URLS, and independent meta descriptions. Integrated blogging platforms are not a standard feature by some of the ecommerce platforms. One may have to pay or use another blogging platform, which would help little to none when it comes to ranking in Google’s search results. Another factor is social sharing buttons, which are icons such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. These icons are easy to recognize, and it allows visitors from the site to share the information or product by simply clicking on one of the social sharing buttons. It is important to research and choose the most effective ecommerce platform when dealing with SEOs (Richman, 2019). 

Search engines may be the biggest source for traffic on the Internet (Shah, 2018). The website will be ranked on SERPs for major business keywords, which can determine how much following is gained (2018). This week, we learned about on-site and off-site SEO. Larson and Draper (2017) discuss optimal keyword targeting, which relates back to Richman’s factors that relate to  SEO. It discusses how the goal of the SEO is to not just rank well for a search but rank well in as many searches as possible. Ranking is the website’s position in the SERP. When conducting on-site SEO, the first step is choose a list of search phrases used to improve search rankings. These target search phrases should depend on relevance, traffic, competition, and current ranking. The keyword relevance and the keyword search demand must be balanced. If no one searches for it, there is no point to ranking a search phrase. Websites need to target search phrases that have a high level of traffic. Google’s Keyword Planner is a tool used to estimate how the volume of search phrases (Larson and Draper, 2017). In Richman’s article, he discusses the importance of finding an ecommerce platform that would enhance one’s ranking. 

Reference:

Richman, D. (March 2019). How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform for SEO. Ecommerce   Platforms. Retrieved from https://ecommerce-platforms.com/compare/best-          ecommerce-platform-seo

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2017)Digital marketing essentials. Rexburg, ID: Edify.

Shah, A. (May 2018). Which is the Best SEO-Friendly Ecommerce Platform for Your Online           Venture. NCode Technologies, Inc.Retrieved from    https://www.ncodetechnologies.com/blog/which-is-the-best-seo-friendly-ecommerce-platform-for-your-online-venture/