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There are many ways you can improve SEO for your Shopify online store and one that we consistently see overlooked is user-generated content. UGC can be impactful in many ways and the great thing about it is that other people are doing the work for you!
What business wouldn’t want to capitalize on that? Below, we explain UGC content, why it is important for SEO, and some simple methods that you can use for your Shopify store.
User-generated content is invaluable for Shopify SEO and it helps make your online store stand out in search engine rankings but also in customer perception. UGC offers the following benefits:
At its most basic, Google loves UGC as it helps show the realness, validity, and quality of your Shopify online store. It gives more depth to your search results in the form of rich snippets and customer reviews and also means you get fresh content generated regularly.
From a customer perspective, UGC helps build trust and show that your products or services have merit and are worth buying. It’s a known fact that people are far more likely to make a purchase if they have read a positive review from a real customer for example.
UGC is the next step for your Shopify store and it can give you a competitive edge with these four simple methods you can make an immediate impact on your SEO:
Rich snippets using things like product schema markup look great and they help make your company stand out from the competition. These are enhanced pieces of content that show more than just a typical website and title.
You can create rich snippets using Shopify product info like customer reviews and star ratings. These look appealing and immediately give your potential customers more info, but Google also loves rich snippets as they help with indexing and explaining your products and services in more depth.
If you use Shopify SEO services the company will be able to show you how to enable customer reviews on your product pages. When a customer clicks on a product page they will be able to leave a review and maybe even give a star rating.
These reviews can then be displayed – much like you see on Amazon product pages. Customer reviews are excellent for SEO as they give social proof of the worthiness of your products and services and contribute to content generation.
Make sure that the reviews are pruned as it is not uncommon to get spam reviews or bot reviews – these should be removed immediately. Also, if possible, make sure you reply to review comments as this improves SEO via a boost in engagement.
Aside from having customer reviews displayed on your product pages, a simple Shopify SEO technique is to have a dedicated product review or testimonial page.
This is great for SEO as it adds another piece of unique content, more internal links, and more user-generated content.
The reviews and testimonials must be real and should only be used with the customer’s express consent. Regardless, having a dedicated review page helps build user confidence and allows potential customers to see what you have to offer.
Referal programs are a win-win situation for you and the customer. You get free promotion and marketing, and a boost to your SEO while the customer gets something in return like a discount or free shipping.
Referral programs are tried and tested and they can do wonders for your SEO due to the increase in link sharing and traffic. You have to create a referral program that gives some benefit to the referee while still being profitable for your company.
An example could be that the referee gets a 10% discount on their next purchase if they refer a friend who spends a minimum set amount at your Shopify store.
Customers improving your SEO? Who would have thought it? User-generated content can give a huge boost to your SEO as you can see from the above but it also helps build a bond of trust with your customers.
Today, people want more information and real insight into the products and services they are spending their hard-earned cash on. Customer reviews, referral programs, and rich product snippets all help with this and show that your business and products are worthwhile.
Joshua George is the founder of ClickSlice, an SEO Agency based in London, UK.
He has eight years of experience as an SEO Consultant and was recently hired by the UK government for SEO training. Joshua also owns the best-selling SEO course on Udemy, and has taught SEO to over 100,000 students.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, AgencyAnalytics, Wix and lots more other reputable publications.
In the ever-evolving realm of digital advertising, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns have emerged as an indispensable tool for businesses striving to maximize their online visibility and drive targeted traffic. At the core of any successful PPC strategy lies the astute selection and pricing of keywords—a critical factor that can make or break the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.
As businesses vie for the attention of their desired audience, understanding keyword pricing becomes paramount. In the following comprehensive guide, we’re going to demystify the intricacies of keyword pricing in PPC advertising: what it is, how it works, and factors that influence its pricing. Let’s take a look!
So, what is keyword pricing? At its core, keyword pricing refers to the cost associated with bidding on specific keywords in PPC advertising platforms such as Google Ads or Bing Ads. Keywords are pivotal words or phrases that encapsulate the essence of a business, product, or service, and are used by search engine users to find relevant information. Advertisers participate in auctions to secure ad placements for these keywords, with pricing determined by a combination of factors including competition, relevance, historical performance, and quality score.
In the fiercely competitive digital landscape of online advertising, popular keywords attract a multitude of advertisers vying for prime ad positions. Consequently, the increased demand raises the bidding prices for these keywords. Understanding the competitive landscape is crucial for businesses to identify cost-effective alternatives and optimize their budget allocation.
Search engines prioritize delivering relevant results to users, and will consider factors such as ad quality, landing page experience, and expected click-through rates when it comes to assigning keyword costs and top ad spots. Advertisers who craft highly relevant ad copy and landing pages tend to be rewarded with higher quality scores, which can lead to lower keyword costs. If you’re looking to secure that top-spot for a competitive keyword, investing in compelling and engaging content should be your first step.
The cost of keywords can fluctuate based on seasonality and current trends. For example, during the holiday season, certain keywords related to gift-giving or travel tend to witness a surge in demand, resulting in increased bidding prices. By monitoring trends and adjusting your keyword strategies accordingly, you can seize opportunities for quick gains while also mitigating unnecessary costs.
The geographic location targeted in a PPC campaign can significantly impact keyword costs: advertisers operating in highly competitive markets may find it more cost-effective to target specific geographic regions or niche markets, which also tend to be less expensive than general or generic keywords.
Now that we’ve explored how keyword pricing functions, it’s important to delve deeper into the strategies that businesses can employ to determine keyword costs with precision and extract maximum value from their PPC campaigns. Here’s what we recommend:
The foundation of successful keyword pricing lies in meticulous research and analysis: it’s important to identify relevant keywords that align with your target audience’s search intent. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Moz Keyword Explorer provide valuable insights into search volume, competition levels, and historical data, aiding in informed decision-making. Through comprehensive research, businesses can uncover high-potential keywords that strike a balance between relevance and cost.
While popular and generic keywords may attract a significant amount of competition, long-tail keywords offer a valuable alternative: long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that target niche audiences, and although they may have lower search volume, they often come with lower costs and higher conversion rates.
Crafting compelling and engaging ad copy is pivotal in reducing keyword costs. It’s a good idea to run A/B testing and try out different ad variations, so you can generate better click-through rates and conversions by analyzing how customers react to your campaigns.
Effective bidding strategies are instrumental in ensuring optimal keyword pricing, and there are several approaches you can employ:
– Manual bidding: Advertisers set their bids manually, allowing for precise control over keyword costs. This strategy requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment to respond to market dynamics and campaign performance.
– Automated bidding: Leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning, automated bidding strategies adjust keyword bids dynamically based on predefined campaign objectives. This approach saves time and effort while optimizing keyword costs based on real-time data.
– Target CPA or ROAS bidding: These bidding strategies focus on achieving specific cost-per-acquisition (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS) goals. This strategy can help to ensure efficient resource allocation, while also maximizing the profitability of any PPC campaigns.
Negative keywords play a crucial role in preventing wasted ad spend by filtering out irrelevant search queries; it’s a good idea to identify and exclude negative keywords from any PPC campaign, allowing you to refine your targeting, improve click-through rates, and reduce unnecessary costs. Regular monitoring and updating of negative keyword lists are also both essential to maintaining campaign efficiency.
Keyword pricing is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. Regular monitoring of campaign performance, keyword costs, and market dynamics will allow you to make informed decisions and adapt your strategies accordingly.
If you’re new to the world of PPC, you might want to consider hiring a growth-driven ecommerce PPC agency – an agency will be able to provide you with the expertise needed to navigate the complexities of keyword pricing, while also ensuring you don’t make any rookie errors during your campaign.
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, understanding key metrics is paramount for campaign success. One such vital metric is the average cost-per-click (Average CPC), which, along with the average cost, acts as a barometer for campaign performance in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms such as Google Ads. So, what exactly is average CPC, and why does it matter? In the following guide, we’re going to go over everything you need to know about CPC, how to optimize yours, and help you understand why this key metric can impact your business. Let’s take a look!
The term CPC stands for “cost per click,” denoting the amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on their ad. It’s a crucial metric for advertisers using PPC campaigns because it directly impacts both the cost of advertising and the return on investment (ROI).
The average CPC is simply the average amount you’ve been charged for a click on your ad. It’s calculated by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks. This metric is significant as it allows advertisers to gauge the financial efficacy of their campaigns and determine whether their ad spend is generating a satisfactory return.
As you likely already know, Google Ads operates on an auction system, where advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their products or services. When a user performs a search query that matches the chosen keywords, Google displays the ads of the winning bidders. The actual CPC that an advertiser pays is determined by a combination of factors, including the bid amount, the Quality Score (a measure of the ad’s relevance and quality), and the competition for the keyword.
In contrast, the ‘average cost’ in Google Ads is the average amount you’ve spent on a campaign, ad group, or individual ad over a specific period. It’s calculated by dividing the total cost of your ads by the number of times your ad was shown (impressions). Understanding these metrics – average CPC and average cost – is critical for several reasons:
Knowing your average CPC helps manage your advertising budget more effectively. By understanding how much, on average, each click is costing you, you can allocate your budget to maximize ROI.
These metrics enable you to assess the performance of your ad campaign. High average costs might suggest that you’re overbidding on keywords, or your Quality Score is low, prompting you to optimize your ads.
CPC data is also useful in evaluating the profitability of different keywords. It helps identify which keywords are driving conversions and which ones are costing more than they’re worth.
A clear understanding of your average CPC helps in adjusting your bid strategy. If your average CPC is high, you might need to reduce your bids or improve your Quality Score. If it’s low and you have budget headroom, you might consider increasing your bids to garner more clicks.
Understanding the concepts of average CPC and average cost is just the beginning. The real challenge is learning how to optimize these metrics to improve the performance of your Google Ads campaigns, which we’re going to take a look at further on.
Effective management of your average CPC can significantly enhance the performance of your Google Ads campaigns. Here are a few strategies to optimize your average CPC.
Google rewards advertisers who deliver high-quality, relevant ads with a better Quality Score, leading to lower CPCs. Enhance your Quality Score by improving your click-through rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience.
Google Ads offers several automated bid strategies that adjust your bids based on the likelihood of your ad getting clicked. For instance, strategies like ‘Maximize Clicks’ and ‘Target Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)’ can help control your CPC. You can always enlist the help of an ecommerce PPC company if you’re unsure how to switch bidding strategies.
Long-tail keywords – longer and more specific keyword phrases – are generally less competitive, leading to lower CPCs. They also tend to attract more qualified leads, which can help when it comes to improving your conversion rates.
By analyzing the performance of your ads across different times of the day and week, you can identify when your ads perform best. Adjust your bid modifiers to bid more aggressively during high-performance periods, leading to better results and potentially lower CPCs.
If your ads perform better in certain geographic locations, consider adjusting your bids to focus more on these areas. This strategic move can result in a lower average CPC and higher conversion rate.
While average CPC gives an idea of the cost efficiency of your clicks, understanding the average cost is also crucial. It provides a more comprehensive picture of your ad spend by considering the total cost of your ads, irrespective of whether they resulted in a click or not.
Understanding your average cost helps ensure your budget is being spent wisely. If your average cost is rising but your average CPC and conversion rates are steady, it might suggest that your ads are being shown too often to the wrong audience, leading to wasted impressions.
You can lower your average cost by refining your targeting to ensure your ads reach the most relevant audience. Consider leveraging demographic targeting, remarketing, or interest-based targeting to reach users who are most likely to engage with your ads.
In the complex world of pay-per-click advertising, understanding metrics like average CPC and average cost is crucial. They not only provide insight into how much your business is paying for its Google Ads but also indicate the efficiency and effectiveness of your campaigns.
Understanding these metrics is the first step; the next is using this understanding to optimize your campaigns. By continually refining and adjusting your strategy, you can ensure your advertising budget delivers the maximum return on investment. Remember, while these metrics are important, they should not be viewed in isolation. Always consider them in the context of other performance metrics such as CTR, Quality Score, and conversion rate.
As a successful B2B company you have a solid customer base with a host of recurring business. That’s fantastic and should provide consistent cash flow. But how do you start to push past this and grow your business?
Acquiring customers in B2B is often difficult as companies typically get comfortable with a specific supplier for example, or simply aren’t aware of the different available options.
Luckily, there is a range of proven strategies you can use to bring in new business and we discuss eight of these below.
Search Engine Optimization is one of the best customer acquisition methods as any B2B SEO company will tell you. This is the process of improving your web content and using keywords so that your site can be indexed by search engines and when businesses use those keywords in their searches, your company appears at the top of the search results.
Email newsletters have great potential to bring in new business and keep customers interested in what you have to offer. You can start with something simple like a newsletter sign-up option on your website. The email content must be engaging, interesting, and not too frequent – you want to keep reminding potential customers you exist without annoying them!
Affiliate marketing can be incredibly effective providing that you only create affiliate partnerships with the right businesses. This is a simple process where other businesses market your company and products on your behalf and receive a commission in return. You must vet the affiliate companies and create strict guidelines relating to how they market your business to maintain your brand reputation.
Referrals are a tried and tested marketing method for B2B and for the most part, they are inexpensive as the referee is doing the work for you! Referral schemes should benefit both the referred business and the referee in some way and this could be through something like a discount. Just make sure a referral scheme is still profitable for your business too.
Many B2B businesses have a YouTube channel and create video marketing to enhance their products and boost their visibility. Creating how-to videos relating to your products, or even fun videos showing the culture of your business can do wonders for your reputation.
Social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok have a huge influence and millions of people and businesses use them daily. Creating active social media profiles and building your audience can be a great way to generate new business. This is more circumstantial for B2B, however, and it’s wise to research if your company would benefit from using social media first.
Content marketing is often overlooked but it is vital for SEO and also gives real value to your customers. This is the process of producing fresh and engaging web content such as blog posts and product information articles. The idea is to give potential customers more knowledge and insight about your products and/or services.
PPC advertising with platforms like Google Ads and Facebook is proven to yield results and can produce excellent conversion rates. These pay-per-click campaigns are great at targeting your ideal B2B customers and influencing those who are actively looking for new suppliers. Google Ads is the better option for B2B as you can control your spending budget and use things like negative keywords to improve your ad’s potential.
Acquiring new customers doesn’t have to be difficult but requires a varied approach using multiple channels. You must assess which of the above channels are best suited for your B2B company, industry, and customers and then create effective strategies to suit.
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