Simply Translate is specialised in providing translations for online business. We therefor frequently subjects relating to translations and being successful in running an online business.

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How to communicate with your target audience?

At our office we read quite a number of articles throughout the week. We regularly ask ourselves the question for what target audience an article was actually written. In most cases the answer is the same: for a broad audience. However, addressing a broad audience may negatively affect the persuasiveness of an article.

Let me give you an example: when you tell 65 year old people that they can play very awesome games on an iPad, it will probably not sound appealing to them. On the other hand, when you tell them that they can easily borrow electronic books (e-books) at the local library, they will surely pay more attention to that message. This is a simple and very general example, it does however highlight that the manner and style in which you communicate with your target audience is very important. In this blog post I will give you three examples on how you can tailor your communication to your target audience.

#1 Do not try to target everyone

Strategy is focus. Let me illustrate this by an example: you have a restaurant. Which of the three options below would be the most suitable one for you?

  • The focus lies on people between 40-70 for whom eating healthy food is more important than the price and who would like to take a seat in a place with a peaceful atmosphere.
  • The focus lies on people between 20-35 who have a preference for a trendy décor and a wide range of special beers or cocktails at a market price .
  • Focus? Everybody is welcome! There is a large menu so everyone will be able to find something he/she likes.

Obviously you would pick one of the top two options. When it comes to online businesses, this is often not the case. Online businesses tend to forget about the need for focus and try to have an online business that targets everyone. If that is what you are doing right now, you should better split your target audience and target each group in its own appropriate manner.

#2 Segment

Now, when you have determined what market you want to target, it is time to start the segmentation. Imagine segmentation as an orange which is being divided into several parts. According to old standards the division of your target audience would be done based on for instance gender and age. Nowadays, big data is more and more accessible to a lot of companies. Therefore, use big data to gauge the needs of your segment and to address them more specifically with the right type of communication.

#3 Dare to be unique

Your business should be a reflection of who you are, what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. Tailoring your marketing to people who are interested in the same topics is easier when you have a unique identity. This way you speak to the right people and at the same time you are honest about what you are doing. Do you prefer to do business with small businesses? Gently give the impression that you do so. Your external communication will be more appealing to small businesses this way and they will be more interested in doing business with you.

If it is about browsing, the uniqueness of communication plays a major role. Example of companies that distinguish themselves thanks to their unique content are companies like Zalando and GoPro. Think text, images and videos. By communicating to different target groups in different ways, they know how to convince them time and time again.

At GoPro, you do not only see this uniqueness in their products, but also in their job vacancy for a new Director of Ecommerce Operations. A standard job offer in a scarcity market will in fact not conquer hearts of a many people.

In a nutshell

How to communicate with your target audience is of utmost importance and it will make your life way easier if you do it the right way. Your communication with the outside world begins with defining your target audience.

Targeting the right audience in the right way increases the likelihood of successful communication. If you have a limited marketing budget, you will actually be able to take advantage of this principle. After all, you will only have to communicate to a select group.

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7 important SEO tips for E-commerce websites

If you want to sell products or services online, the position of your website in Google is of big importance. After all, your goal is to beat the competitors and to be easily found by potential clients. Regardless if your website has an innovative design or that you sell products for the best possible price, it will not matter if your business is hardly findable online.

Research conducted by online advertising network Chitika shows that websites which have the first position in Google have a Click-Through Rate (CTR) of 33 percent. Second position websites have a CTR of 18 percent and after that position the visitors’ interest decreases quickly. To make sure that you do not lose valuable website traffic, I collected seven extremely important tips that will help get your website a better position in Google through SEO.

TIP #1 Research the most effective keywords

As with all the projects, it is important to start with the preparations. That is why you should first research which keywords will help to increase traffic to your website. The most effective way to do this, is with the free Google Keyword Planner.

To achieve the maximum conversion rate it is recommended to use ‘long-tail’ keywords that are not too generic. This will make it easier for you to enter the competition. Also pay extra attention to words with a high search rate that are related to your website. The rule of thumb is that it is important to take the relevance, search volume and the level of difficulty for high ranking into account when looking for a keyword. Thus, make sure that a keyword is not too broad and too competitive at the same time.

TIP #2 Add keywords strategically

Adding keywords to your website will provide a huge boost to your findability in Google. When using hyperlinks, make sure that you use this keyword combination instead of ‘click here’ or ‘read more’.

In addition, it is essential that you do not use the same keyword combination on each page. If you do so this can lead to cannibalisation of your keyword because it has been used on multiple pages. In that case Google will get disorientated and it will treat your pages as duplicates. Consequence of that is that your website gets a weaker position in the Google results. To avoid this, you could create a spreadsheet in Excel to list all keywords used. This way you ensure that you will not use duplicate words.

TIP #3 Write a catchy product description

If you are planning to simply use the product description provided by a manufacturer, then be aware that you will not get a good result and you will most likely be banned by all search engines. Google is becoming more and more advanced in finding duplicate texts and their original source. That is why you should try to avoid spam-like content and should create high quality E-commerce SEO texts. Remember that it is essential to create unique and catchy product descriptions.

TIP #4 Make good use of images

People are visually oriented by nature. That is the reason why they want to see the product they will be spending money on. E-commerce websites will benefit enormously when using high quality images that persuade customers to making a purchase. In addition, it is important that all your images are optimized to improve your Google position.
The spiders of search machines do not have the same brains as we have. In order to make the images recognizable for these search engines you should use an alt attribute. Make sure that any tag concerning an image is unique and that it correlates with the alt attribute of the image. Another important element is the size of a picture. Try to keep the size as small as possible without losing the quality so your page loads fast.

TIP #5 Keep good URL structure

Never underestimate the importance of a good URL structure for E-commerce websites with a large amount of products and descriptions. When your website is well structured, Google will find it easier to index it. Take into account that all your URLs should be unique. Furthermore good URLs should include the name of a product and it should indicate the keyword.

Another advantage of a good URL structure is the overview of the users’ satisfaction. When your customer has had an enjoyable and pleasant experience when using your website, the conversion is higher and at the same time you sell more. Which in turn will boost your website’s ranking.

TIP #6 Observe website visits

It is not a secret that everybody wants to get as many visitors to their websites as possible. Make sure that you always know the actual figures. To keep an overview and to evaluate your SEO marketing, use for instance a tool like Google Analytics.
You should not only analyze the search traffic but also identify how many visitors convert into a paying customer. If you know what is the source of your revenue, you will be able to tell what is yet to improve on your website. find their way to your website by organic search results. If you can find out where your revenue comes from, you can better tell what is not yet optimal on your website. This gives you an opportunity to customize your E-commerce SEO strategy and to generate more paying customers.

TIP #7 Ask for honest reviews

Around 80 percent of the online shoppers first reads online reviews before making a purchase. To boost the conversion rate of your website it is crucial to show customer reviews. To generate unique customer reviews you should encourage customers to write reviews. You can stimulate them to do so, by offering them a discount on their next purchase.
Honest customer reviews also have a positive impact on search engines. New customer reviews create new content for your website and ensures that your website remains active. This makes it easier to reach the top of the Google search results.

Apply my tips and experience a great difference. Using these tips will make your E-commerce SEO undergo an immense improvement.

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5 Deadly Sins of E-mail Campaign Authors

E-mails are an important part of your company’s communication. Surprisingly, they are quite often neglected as a good way to increase traffic to a website. Too often web shop owners and marketers use e-mails just because they feel they have to. This causes newsletters to become a routine rather than exciting news.

We all receive a ton of e-mails every day. I bet that deleting the biggest part of them is not your favourite way of spending free time. Time and time again you see the same type of e-mail that is shouting to you to buy something and you start to be fed up with the company that sent it. Thus, when it is your company that is sending e-mails, you want to achieve the opposite effect. You want customers to open e-mails they receive from you and to eventually buy your product or service.

E-mail marketing tools allow you to easily create your own template and even automate the sending process so you do not have to worry about sending e-mails all the time. Some of the most popular e-mail marketing tools are Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact.

There are three main types of e-mails that you can send to your customers: regular marketing, notification and transactional e-mails. The first type of e-mails concern informative e-mails that are sent without the receiver’s action as an incentive. These are e-mails that include information about promotions and newsletters.

The second type of e-mails that you can send to your customers are notifications. This kind of e-mail can be sent after a customer took action. For instance, e-mails that you receive from Twitter or LinkedIn concerning activities related to your account, shopping cart abandonment e-mails, birthday e-mails or feedback requests.

Transactional e-mails are sent as a direct response to a certain action taken by a customer. Examples of transactional e-mails are for instance: welcome and thank you e-mails, e-mails with invoices, order, payment and shipment confirmations. These kind of e-mails are especially important for online stores, as most of the customers look for a confirmation of their actions.

Below, you can find a list of essential rules for creating e-mail marketing campaigns for online stores.

#1 You are being repetitive and bothersome

As I have already mentioned at the beginning, sending similar e-mails and telling people to buy your products almost every day is just not the way to go. By doing so you will deter customers rather than attract them.

Try to offer your customers informative e-mails that do not always scream “buy this, it is a must have!” Of course it depends on the business and industry. Try to be original and entertaining so customers remember you and not your competitor.

#2 You do not create a clear call to action

The best recommendation when it comes to creating a call to action is to make it short and concise. Some of the best examples are those including 2-3 words, for example:

If you use more than one call to action button, try to remember to emphasize only one. The less confusion for the reader, the better. Add words like “now” or “today” to your call to action in order to create an additional incentive to engage people.

#3 You are afraid of being creative

Nobody remembers plain e-mails. In order to stand out from the ton of e-mails that people receive daily you have to create an e-mail that catches attention immediately. You can do it by adding a video (it can be yours but can be also a YouTube video), creating a new design for your e-mails or by making your e-mails interactive (present one or more of your discounted products or services).

What is equally important to the content of e-mails are the subject line and preview text. Make sure that both are interesting and humorous. This will significantly increase the probability of your customers opening the e-mail.

#4 You do not treat clients personally

Addressing people directly is a proven way to make customers feel more positive about your advertisements. Thanks to personalization people find the content more relevant and tend to engage with it more often. Personalization does not only concern addressing your customers by name but also customizing the content they receive.

#5 You forget about timing

By sending your campaign the right day of the week and at just the right time you can increase the opening rates of your e-mails. Check out one of the recommendations about the right timing for sending newsletters and adjust it to your type of business.

When you apply these rules you will not be the next web shop sending repetitive, boring e-mails. Dare to go out of your e-mail comfort zone now!

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7 Warning Signs That Your Blog is an Advertisement

Writing a blog post in order to boost traffic to your website is a good idea – just make sure you are not secretly, or even unintentionally, writing an advertisement rather than an informative article.

We speak of advertising when your text includes hidden commercial message(s). At first glance, this type of article appears to be informative, however it is actually meant to promote a product or service. This is similar to advertisements on television – they are amusing until you realize that they actually foist something on you.

The greatest threat of an advertising blog is that it impairs your company’s image and it can deter potential customers. Do you want to know how you can prevent this loss and maintain your integrity so your website visitors will be naturally transformed into leads? Check the 7 warning signs that show your blog is an advertisement. If you recognize your blog’s characteristics in here, do not worry – you can always change it.

#1 You shout it from the rooftops!

Are you only using your company’s blog to tell how great your business is or when you have a new product online? If that is the case, you are doing more harm than good for your business. Visitors who were initially interested will soon drop out. Just think of how often you flick through channels on TV to avoid ads. A blog advertisement is treated similarly by its readers.

Instead, your blog should serve as an essential source of information. By showing your customers that you know what is going on in the market and by giving useful tips, you inspire them. You should work towards the situation where your customers are shouting your content from the rooftops, instead of you.

#2 You promise something, but you do not show it

Think of a pizzeria that has a blog post called “5 bizarre pizzas”. Scrolling through the article you realize that this blog post only explains why this pizzeria supposedly has the best pizzas in town. There is nothing written about the bizarre pizzas.

When this happens, the blog’s visitors will feel deceived and will look somewhere else in order to find the information they were looking for. There is a big chance they will never come back to this blog. Therefore, you should avoid false promises in your title.

#3 You do not listen to your audience

When you are not listening to the needs of your audience, it can be that you write about too broad topics. Take for example promotional topics that are not specifically linked to a target audience. This can cause your potential customers to leave you because they cannot find anything interesting or applicable information.

If you want to decide who you want to reach, it is important to imagine who your ideal customers are. You can, for instance, imagine them as different characters. Then you can use this information in order to create content that aims at a specific audience.

#4 Your posts are stuffed with call-to-action buttons

Have you once tried putting yourself into the position of your customer? When you do, ask yourself if you would truly find your article interesting? Do you feel inspired after reading the text or did the text teach you something new?

Company blogs are often seen as appropriate channels to advertise, but appearances can be deceiving. Commercials and advertisements are not the things people are looking for when they are searching for information on or solutions to their problems. Blogs are valuable channels when you want to teach your customers something. When they consider the information you share to be valuable, the step towards a purchase will occur naturally. That is why you should not use too many call-to-action buttons.

#5 You serve yourself, not your visitors

Ask yourself if you are writing for your company or for your visitors. As a marketer, your goal should be to serve your visitors. If what you write is not valuable for your visitors, then there is a chance that they will leave your blog and never come back.

Surprise your visitors with content that stimulates them and gives them an incentive to return to your blog.

#6 You are not yourself

Are you one of those people who believe that there is nobody on this earth providing the same product or service? I hate to break it to you, but the reality is probably different. Even though your business is the best of its kind, it is almost impossible that no one else is offering the same product or service.

You do not need to criticize other companies in your blog to show your company is valuable. If your blogs have the interest of the reader as their fundamental goal and if they are informative, then the readers will regard you as an authority in your industry.

#7 You are selling instead of informing

Logically, you are writing from a subjective point of view. That does not mean you cannot provide sincere and authentic information. Your potential customers are looking for information that will help them make a decision. When they click a link thinking they are going to be informed about possibilities and they end up reading a blog which tries to sell them a specific product or service, they will feel dissatisfied. Try to be the source where a customer can find information that will help him or her to make a choice.

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When is language useful for images?

Photographs often form a large part of communication with clients or friends. Photographs create a certain image in our minds which is connected to feelings evoked by a text. Hence, a lot of documents we receive at Simply Translate from our clients include pictures and photos. The same goes for online documents.

For online documents it is important to pay attention to a number of elements. By translating the image details, you can improve both your SEO position and search results. It concerns the following four elements:

  • Title
  • Alt text
  • Description
  • Caption

#1 Give your photo a good title

Most of the cameras give photos a generic name like 000001.jpeg. This name does not say anything about what is in the picture and therefore does not increase the relevance of your website nor the significance of your image.

When you just publish a photo or a picture with the generic name on your website, you ignore the regulations of the Google Image Publishing Guidelines. Google advises you to provide your image with a title that is related to the topic of the picture.

Although the Google Algorithm is already quite advanced, it cannot verify titles and the content of the photo. This means that the algorithm looks at the text descriptions of the images in order to evaluate if the image is relevant to the search result.

Obviously it does not sound like an interesting job to rename all your images. However, when you do this, it will definitely increase your search results.

#2 Remember to fill in the Alt Text

If you want to post a picture on your website, the CMS system asks you to fill in various fields. If you have not been doing this, it is wise to take a look at the multiple benefits of completing these fields. I begin with the first field, the Alt Text.

Google declares that its algorithm checks for data filled in in the Alt Box to assess whether the content is relevant for a search or not. This means that you have to fill in the Alt Text in order to be found by Google’s spiders.

Moreover, the Alt Text has a more in-depth meaning. Alt Text is intended for users who cannot access images easily, such as people who cannot see well. Another reason why Alt Text is important, is that it is useful for people with a bad or slow Internet connection, or those having problems with downloading the images.

It is also of importance not to place keywords in the Alt Text. It will help you to avoid confusion. The best way to fill in the Alt Text is to write exactly what you see in a picture.

The ideal Alt Text is 16 words long. It will help people who cannot see your image, or those who cannot download it, by informing them about the image’s content.

#3 The Description

The next part is the Description. This text can be displayed on the attachment page for your image.

Does an image serve as an addition to a SEO written website? Then make sure that the keyword you used for the page text occurs at least once in your Description. You should not use the keyword too often because that could harm the readability of the sentence. This text is visible for the visitors of your website, so make sure that a good description of your image is being displayed.

#4 The Caption

The Caption of photographs may seem unnecessary. However, it still is very important that it is present. Visitors that briefly go through your website and cannot see the images can be triggered to look at your caption. This will increase the average time spent on the website and will decrease the number of people leaving your page. This important adjustment will help those with a high bounce rate (those that leave your web page immediately) and cause an incentive for them to come back. Do you not have a caption integrated yet? In that case the high bounce rates will negatively affect your SEO position.

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How to write a product description?

A lot of e-commerce businesses seem to forget how important it is to have good product descriptions. In some cases web shop owners even decide to use product descriptions from the manufacturer. That is a pity, because this can lead to a decrease in the amount of traffic on your web site. Unexciting and unoriginal product descriptions can actually harm your business. On the other hand, appealing product descriptions can bring a boost to your sales.

At Simply Translate we regularly get asked to write product descriptions. Through this blog post you have the possibility to have a look behind the scenes and find out what we focus on when we are writing product descriptions.

There are two main rules that you have to keep in mind:

#1 Describe the added value of the product

A product description must sell the product. It should indicate what needs it is satisfying, it should sound appealing to your clients and it should emphasize why the consumer should buy your product.

#2 Write according to the SEO rules

The chance that you simply appear on the second page of the Google search results is very slim. Therefore, you should make sure that your descriptions are written according to the SEO rules in order to increase your chances to a higher ranking.

You can look for inspiration, however, make sure that your text is unique. A well-written product description does not only increase your chances to be found, it also stimulates sales.

Original product descriptions are essential

The assessment of unique content has become more advanced over time. Google’s latest update, the ‘Farmer’ Algorithm, gives you some useful information on the new assessment style. Make sure that you will not be a victim of duplicate product descriptions nor duplicate text fragments. This even goes for duplicates on your internal pages.

If you decide to use product descriptions from manufacturer or from your competitor, expect a degradation in or even a complete elimination from the search results. The one who indexes content first is considered its owner. So, make sure that you always index your content after its published. You can do this with Google Webmaster Tools.

No plain text, but unique, appealing SEO texts

Before you start writing, try to conduct a research in which you pay particular attention to Google’s search results. Ask yourself: what words are customers using when they are looking for products you sell?

About 70 percent of people uses long tail keywords when they search the web. Usage of this kind of keyword is recommended. Use it in moderation though. In the past you could stuff your product description with keywords. Now you will be punished when your description has too many keywords. For the best effect, keywords should be used with a density of approximately 1,5 percent of the whole text.

Who is your target group and how do you communicate with them?

You should ask yourself this question before you start writing texts for this specific target group. Does your target group consist of housewives? Then try not to write text that is ‘too cool’ and full of slang that will only be understood by the youth.

If you write, do it with pleasure. Texts that are written with pleasure appear to be more sincere, interesting and sophisticated. You should also make sure that your product description is informative. Consumers read your content in order to find answers to their questions. Providing the right information stimulates consumers to make a purchase.

Write your product descriptions in a narrative way

This principle is especially important for the B2C market. An ultimate product description is one that tells a story. It is not about a product itself nor about your company, it is about you describing the experience or status provided by the product. In order to create a narrative product description, you need to have either money or talent, because not everyone is good in writing in a narrative manner.

Want to achieve success with your web shop? Then start writing original product descriptions and take the needs of your customers into account. Take them by the hand and ensure that you write according the SEO requirements in order to give your sales a boost.

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7 roadblocks to a translator’s career

You have been working as a translator for some time now. You like your job because as a freelancer you choose where and when you work. You have already worked on some interesting projects and would like to work on more. However, you feel like something is still missing in order for you to get more translation jobs.

In order to improve your translation skills you first have to realize what you might be lacking and what skills you can improve. That is why we made a list of the most common bottlenecks of translators and we give you tips on how to clear the path to success.

Clients and translation agencies will surely prefer you over other translators if you stick to advice given in this article.

#1 Continuity

Unfortunately, it is quite common for translators to lack continuity. However, this actually concerns a lot of people, not only translators. Lots of people achieve a certain level of their profession, start working and are satisfied with the outcomes of their job and then they… stop studying.

A real pity, because there is always a lot more to learn. A person who want to know and speak a language fluently never stops educating him- or herself. When you do not continue to study a language you will probably start forgetting words, sayings or jargon of your field of specialization, just because you do not use it that much.

How to avoid this? Try to practice language day by day. Read, listen or speak the language, even if it is just for a short time. Practice often, so you are continuously challenged to remember the information!

#2 Passion

Is the time you are working on a translation the only time you spend practising and using this language? That is a shame! When working with languages it can become much more than only a job. It can even develop into a passion.

Have you ever tried soaking in the language? Try to spend some time on reading the news or a book that you have always wanted to read. You could also watch TV, movies or spend more time with native speakers of the language. Unless you are raised bilingually, you should never stop learning.
By making language your passion, you can achieve better results in your work.

#3 Cultural knowledge

It is not surprising that in order to fully understand a language you should also emerge in the culture of the country or countries where this language is being spoken. Some people know a language well, although they lack knowledge about the culture related to it. This means there is still room to learn.

Writer Rita Mae Brown explains why language and culture are inseparable: “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Additionally, by understanding the culture of a country, you will know more words and that will make the whole translation process easier.

#4 Good Time Management

As a freelancer you know that your job depends on your time management skills. As a freelance translator you are your own boss. Even though some freelancers can manage their work and time really well, there are many people for whom it is really difficult to meet a deadline.

Remember that the quality of your translation prevails. It is key to your future career. The best translators plan everything ahead and leave some extra time for possible changes at the end. You can use several tools like Google Calendar or Evernote to manage your time better.

#5 Good Communication Skills

For most freelancers, communication skills are extremely important. For freelance translators even more so. Good communications skills are crucial when you communicate with your client or translation agency, especially when you only use Internet or phone calls.

On the contrary to physical contact, it is more difficult to express yourself via e-mail or a short message. Experienced translators often communicate with their client in case of questions or issues with the source text. If they spot a mistake in the source text, they report it to the client. If they feel that they will not meet a deadline and they need more translators to work along with them on a project, they inform the client or a translator agency about it.

#6 Good Research Skills

All people who learn a language or translate a text will remember spending too much time on searching a word or a sentence, which was just extremely difficult to translate into other language. That is why good research skills are beneficial to translators or actually anyone who learns a new language.

Finding information, the meaning of words or whole phrases quickly is important as it can make you save time. Remember that you can also learn when you search for information.
Whenever you find new word or phrase that caused you a problem, write it down. This way you can remember it , what will profit you in the future.

#7 Specialization

It is very useful for a translator to have in-depth knowledge about one or more topics and to constantly keep on learning. The best way to thrive your career is to specialize in a field you are interested in or you want to work in the future.

Moreover, in the market there is a high demand for translators who specialize in specific areas like for instance legal, e-commerce or technical translations.

In short, learning continuously, managing your time well and better communication will boost your career as a translator.

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Content Tips for E-commerce Sites

Many online marketers have predicted that in some industries Content Marketing would be overtaken by big data. However, in the e-commerce sector Content Marketing still takes the first place on the podium.

In a recent research of Smart Insights, marketers were asked what would have the biggest impact in the e-commerce industry in 2015. Below, you can find the results:

Content is key to success. However, content needs to be created first and then needs to be properly used to have impact. Therefore we give you some tips on how to make your content profitable.

There Is More Than One Type of Content

Relationship building content is what many people think of when they hear Content Marketing. This form of content can be published through a blog, Instagram, YouTube or other platforms that are designed to attract visitors, to gain their trust and to present you as an expert in your field.

Good content should not contain your sales text. It can, for example, refer to your products, but it should mostly consider general issues, advice, guidelines and new ways of thinking about industry-related issues.

The so-called Transitional Content is developed to allow customers to switch from brand familiarity to the stage of product search and eventually to the product purchasing stage. A good example of a company that creates Transitional Content is Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has created multiple sub websites which are not only informative but also entertaining. Some examples of the Coca-Cola’s campaigns are The Ahh, Coca-Cola freestyle and Share A Coke.

Use Videos and Pictures

Writing blog posts and frequently asked questions is helpful, however, it is not the only way you can use content. According to Video Brewery 45 percent of the Internet users have watched at least one online video during a one month period of time. There are approximately 100 million Internet users who watch at least one online video every day. 90 percent of online shoppers find videos helpful when they make online purchases.

That is why it is important to think carefully about the possibilities of using videos. Videos can be used in an instructive way or to as product presentations in order to bind potential customers. In addition, the same goal can be achieved through usage of Instagram or Snapchat.

A good example of companies that bind customers through videos are Red Bull and Blendtec. Blendtec, for example, has more than 830,000 subscribers on its You Tube channel. Quite good for a blender producer, right?

Use Instructional Content

Almost all companies try to get likes, followers and clicks or to draw the customer’s attention. Your company must be quite appealing to make people take any of these actions. However, when you create instructional content and people find that content interesting, then you do not even have to ask them for likes. The likes will follow naturally.

Stimulate Clients Reviews

Who can better tell something about your brand than a customer who has already purchased your product or service? Nowadays, customer reviews are a crucial element for the decision making of online shoppers. A research of Dutch Cowboys shows that 92 percent of the surveyed online shoppers read customer reviews before they commit to buying anything. That means that people prefer to read the opinion of other online shoppers before they trust a company and make a purchase.

There is always a possibility that you will get a negative feedback. Remember that you can use negative feedback as an extra impulse to show the quality of your customer service. If you have no customer reviews, however, potential customers can choose to make a purchase at your competitor.

For now, the motto Content is King will still remain true. If you take the right actions and make the right decisions now, it will definitely pay off in the future.

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2 SEO trends for 2016

Google has been adjusting quite some aspects of its search algorithm and it is wise to keep a close eye on these adjustments. As a web shop owner it could just happen that, unexpectedly, one day you will generate less income just because of Google’s changes. We advise you to be especially up to date with these changes when content marketing, search positioning and SEO are the part of your daily routine.

In short, you will mainly have to pay attention to mobile search and voice search.

#1 Mobile is the future

There will be more mobile than desktop searches in 2016

According to eMarketer 2015 is the turning point when it comes to searches. The majority of the search results comes from mobile devices and this specifically involves organic traffic and paid clicks.

What does it mean for you as for an online entrepreneur?

Besides making your website mobile friendly and creating a responsive design for all devices, there is still more to be done.

Try out your website on a mobile device yourself and see how a client experiences your website. Determine in advance how your content should appear on mobile devices before you start creating a lay out for a website, product pages and landing pages.

Your goal is to give your mobile website visitors the same optimal experience as desktop website visitors. In other words, companies that are present in a digital world have to pay attention to their:

  • Mobile marketing strategy
  • Mobile design
  • Mobile search marketing and advertising
  • Mobile e-commerce and payment
  • Mobile CRM
  • Mobile coupons
  • Integration of social media on mobile devices

Claim your business in Google Search, Google Maps and Google+

A recently published research from Google shows that 72 percent of consumers who googled information about local stores ends up in a shop that is within a 8 kilometre radius.

The optimization of this information has an enormous impact on local businesses and especially on companies in the retail and catering industry.

This fact stresses also how important it is to have your business registered (including your location). Google + and Google Maps offer you the possibility to fully personalize your page. That means a complete description of your products, services, images, videos and reviews.

#2 Voice search

Do you talk to Siri (Apple), Google Now or Cortana (Windows)? If not, try it out! More and more people talk to their phones to have their searches performed.

People who have simple search requests will more often talk to their devices in order to search for information. This is better known as Voice Search. Voice Search help you find answers for simple questions like how, what, where and why. When you ask for example: ‘Where is the closest supermarket?’, your phone will show you results instantly. It will provide a list of supermarkets nearby and it will show you a Google Map so you know how to get there.

Voice Search changes the way we work, because the answer to your search result can be delivered faster. That is because having the phone reading the answer to you is faster than you reading the text yourself. This new technology has been developed as an answer to the ever increasing popularity of mobile search. Thanks to Voice Search, mobile searches are being streamlined and that saves you time.

What can you do to move forward with this change?

You should give a boost to your local SEO. Search results depend on many factors, including a full description of your product or service (price, location) and reviews. All these factors are important when it comes to ranking your website higher in the search results of mobile devices.

It is also important to make your apps search friendly. Recently, an increasing number of apps is being integrated into Google search results because Google began to index app content. Companies can make sure their app can be found easily in the results among web and applications and therefore make it more accessible for their users.

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How Google qualifies your content

The time when you could trick search engines with systematic implementation of keywords is over. Google is now focusing on increasing the true quality of content.
For most of the marketers this is not big news. However, the way that Google assesses “content as good” changes on continuous basis. Recent reports show that the time spent on the website also influences the position in Google. That is why it is extremely important to bond the reader to your page.

Below you can find the most valuable tips that are necessary for the creation of “good content” for your website or web shop.

#1 Make it relevant and readable

An element that is still becoming more important is the number of words and the Flesh-Kincaid Readability score. You can have your text scored here. If you look at all the big players you will see that the length of the website texts have increased by 25% on average since 2014. This suggests that Google looks at the length of the text and appreciates the longer ones.

Naturally, it seems a logical concept, because if you create a short text you cannot go deep into a subject. A lot of people distribute similar content about a specific topic and that is the main reason why Google has found a way to distinguish the quality and depth of the texts on websites.

Readability is the second logical reason for that movement. No matter how spectacular the content you create is, if your text consists of complex linkages and contains meaningless jargon, you will lose the readers’ attention.

#2 Focus on User Experience

As it has been already mentioned in many of the SEO articles, it is a very important element and it is probably not a surprise that Google takes it into account for the website ranking.

If people can easily navigate through your content and if it is well structured, they will be less inclined to look somewhere else to find information they are looking for. When people spend more time on your website, Google receives a signal that your content is relevant and valuable.

The focus, however, lies not only on the desktop experience but also on the usability of the website on mobile devices. This trend will develop even more in the following years.

#3 Stop worrying about keywords

It was not so long time ago that the pages were completely filled with keywords that were related to the topic of the page. Sentences were fully modified to ensure sufficient keyword density.
Fortunately, this is in the past. This phenomenon certainly has influenced what we are still presented with when we are using the search engines. Nowadays, however, consumers benefit more from improved readability and marketers can express their creativity in other ways.

Thus, when you write a text for your website, no matter what the subject is, your main goal should be to provide the reader with high quality content. That means that you should aim at creation of interesting and well readable texts.

However, if the content you write is relevant for the keyword, you should, naturally, implement keywords that are relevant to the topic.

#4 Backlinks are becoming less important

The relation between backlinks and search engine positions have become less significant over the recent years. Instead of link building you can better spend your time on writing content that people want to read and share. This will result in more social media links. Backlinks with a keyword in the “anchor text” are becoming even less relevant. This implies that the unnatural backlinks will no longer be appreciated by Google.

#5 Social media?

It is a gray area, but many see the correlation between the number of social media posts, users and the position in Google. The more people share your link, the more visitors will end up on your website. This is not only essential for your brand awareness, but also for the number of visitors of your website.

In addition, the signals from social media are of relevance to marketers and help them find out whether the content appeals to the audience or not.

#6 What now?

Now it should be clear: the quality of the content is important. In conclusion, most of the former tricks to help keep your Google position high, do not (really) work anymore. Results from the past simply do not provide any guarantee for the future.

Would you like to read more about this research? Click here for the full study.

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