May 21 2024
7 Ways AI Took My Job [To The Next Level] via @sejournal, @CallRail

With AI-powered call attribution, you can gain valuable insights into which channels are driving the most conversions.

How Call Attribution Works

  • Step 1: Assign – Select unique call tracking numbers to assign to each campaign or listing.
  • Step 2: Track – Potential customers see your ad or listing and call the associated phone number.
  • Step 3: Forward –The calls ring directly into your main business phone, regardless of which number they use.
  • Step 4: Analyze – Because they used one of your tracking numbers, you instantly know which ad or campaign inspired them to call.

With AI-powered call tracking, gone are the days of wondering how your digital marketing efforts are tied to high-value inbound calls.

For agencies, this helps prove the real value of your services and extend the life of your client relationships.

2. AI Can Help You Save Time On Manually Reviewing Calls

Listening to and analyzing phone calls manually can be time-consuming and inefficient for agencies.

However, it’s an important part of understanding the customer experience and sales team performance.

With AI-powered call analysis tools, you get quality, keyword-tagged transcriptions with near-human-level accuracy.

Not only can this technology help you save over 50% of the time spent listening to phone calls, but it can also help you deliver actionable recommendations to clients and drive better results.

Conversation Intelligence, for instance, is trained on over 1.1M hours of voice data and enables real-time analysis for instantaneous results.

This advanced tool provides opportunities for you to improve your strategy through the following granular insights:

  • Spotting disparities in the industry-specific lingo your sales team uses, compared to the lingo your prospects are using to describe their business challenges and goals.
  • Identifying trends or gaps in your service offerings based on what your prospects are asking for.
  • Identifying frequently asked questions and other important topics to address through content marketing.
  • Setting goals for lead qualification — not just the quantity of leads generated for your business.

Conversational AI is perfectly suited to summarize the content of long conversations – however, the call summaries still require a human to read them and determine the main takeaways.

But if you work in a bustling small business, it’s unlikely you’d have the bandwidth for tasks such as call transcription, summaries, keyword spotting, or trend analysis.

Rather than displacing human labor, conversational AI is assisting businesses in taking on tasks that may have been overlooked and leveraging data that would otherwise remain untapped.

3. AI Can Help You Lower Cost Per Lead / Save Money On Tools & Ad Spend

Ever wonder why certain campaigns take off while others fall flat? It’s all in the data!

Even failed campaigns can offer invaluable insights into your client’s audience and messaging.

But if you can’t spot the underperformers quickly enough, you risk wasting your ad budget on ineffective tactics.

The quicker you can identify what’s working and what’s not, the quicker you can pivot and adjust your marketing strategy.

With AI-powered tools, agencies can access instant insights that enable them to reduce wasteful spending and improve overall campaign efficiency.

How To Deliver More Value With AI

  • Make a bigger impact in less time: AI-powered technology creates a force multiplier within your agency, allowing you to make more of an impact with the same level of inputs you’re already using.
  • Unlock actionable insights from call data: AI is revolutionizing the way companies leverage call data by enabling them to gain insights at scale. As a result, businesses can increase their ROI and deliver greater value to their clients by analyzing hundreds of calls efficiently.
  • Foster alignment with data-driven strategies: By analyzing customer conversations with AI, businesses can align their marketing strategy with data-driven recommendations, enhancing overall coherence. Additionally, the ability to create triggers based on specific phrases enables automated analysis and reporting, further streamlining the alignment process.
  • Drive effectiveness with rapid insights: Leveraging Conversation Intelligence enables agencies to deliver better insights faster, increase conversion rates, refine keyword strategies, and develop robust reporting capabilities.

With the right AI-powered tools, you can access the insights you need to ensure maximum ROI for your clients.

4. AI Can Help You Improve Overall Agency Efficiency

Are you spending too much valuable time on tasks that produce minimal results?

Many agencies find themselves bogged down by routine, administrative tasks that don’t contribute much to their bottom line.

But with AI automation, agencies can streamline their operations and redirect their energy towards more strategic endeavors.

From email scheduling and social media posting to data entry and report generation, AI can handle a wide array of tasks with precision and efficiency – giving you time to focus on high-impact activities that drive growth and deliver tangible results.

Ways Your Business Can Benefit From Automation

  1. Automatically transcribe your calls to boost close rates: See how your team is handling difficult objections and ensure that they’re delivering your businessʼ value proposition in an effective manner.
  2. Score calls based on quality and opportunity: Take the time-consuming work out of scoring your calls and determine which campaigns drive the best calls to your business.
  3. Classify calls by your set criteria: Qualify, score, tag, or assign a value to the leads that meet your criteria, automatically.
  4. Automatically redact sensitive information: Protect your customers by removing billing or personal information. Keep your data safe and secure through complete HIPAA compliance.
  5. Monitor your teamsʼ performance: Use Conversation Intelligence as a valuable sales training tool to ensure your team doesn’t miss any key messaging marks.
  6. Know your customersʼ needs: Identify conversation trends in your phone calls and stay privy to evolving customer needs.
  7. Improve your digital marketing strategy: Use AI-powered insights to inform your digital marketing strategy and boost your online presence.

By automating mundane tasks, agencies can optimize workflows, increase productivity, and improve efficiency across the board.

Looking for 5 – 7? Download The Full Guide

Rather than fearing AI, the future belongs to those who embrace it.

By strategically combining human creativity with artificial intelligence, you can unlock capabilities that transcend what either could achieve alone.

Want to discover even more ways to level up your agency with AI?

Get the full guide here.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 8 2024
Top 15 Ways To Secure A WordPress Site via @sejournal, @inmotionhosting

Thankfully, there are plenty of steps you can take to protect your WordPress website.

Easy WordPress Security Basics

When setting up your WordPress site security, there are some basic things you can do to beef up your protection.

Below, we will take a look at some of the first things you should do to help protect your website.

1. Implement SSL Certificates

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates are a standard technology that establishes an encrypted connection between a web server (host) and a web browser (client). This connection ensures all data passed between the two remains private and intrinsic.

SSL certificates are an industry-standard used by millions of websites to protect their online transactions with their customers, and obtaining one should be one of the first steps you take to secure your website.

2. Require & Use Strong Passwords

Along with obtaining an SSL certificate, one of the very first things you can do to protect your site is use strong passwords for all your logins.

It might be tempting to create or reuse a familiar or easy-to-remember password, but doing so puts both you and your website at risk. Improving your password strength and security decreases your chances of being hacked. The stronger your password, the less likely you are to be a victim of a cyberattack.

When creating a password, there are some general password best practices you should follow.

If you aren’t sure if you are using a strong enough password, you check the strength of one by using a free tool like this helpful Password Strength Checker.

3. Install A Security Plugin

WordPress plugins are a great way to quickly add useful features to your website, and there are several great security plugins available.

Installing a security plugin can add some extra layers of protection to your website without requiring much effort.

To get you started, check out this list of recommended WordPress security plugins.

4. Keep WordPress Core Files Updated

As of 2024, there are an estimated 1.09 billion total websites on the web with more than 810 million of those sites using WordPress.

Because of its popularity, WordPress websites are oftentimes a target for hackers, malware attacks, and data thieves.

Keeping your WordPress installation up to date at all times is critical to maintain the security and stability of your site.

Every time a WordPress security vulnerability is reported, the core team starts working to release an update that fixes the issue.

If you aren’t updating your WordPress website, then you are likely using a version of WordPress that has known vulnerabilities.

There is especially no excuse for using an outdated version of WordPress since the introduction of automatic updates.

Don’t leave yourself open to attack by using an old version of WordPress. Turn on auto updates and forget about it.

If you would like an even easier way to handle updates, consider a Managed WordPress solution that has auto updates built in.

5. Pay Attention To Themes & Plugins

Keeping WordPress updated ensures your core files are in check, but there are other areas where WordPress is vulnerable that core updates might not protect such as your themes and plugins.

For starters, only ever install plugins and themes from trusted developers. If a plugin or theme wasn’t developed by a credible source, you are probably safer not using it.

On top of that, make sure to update WordPress plugins and themes. Just like an outdated version of WordPress, using outdated plugins and themes makes your website more vulnerable to attack.

6. Run Frequent Website Backups

One way to protect your WordPress website is to always have a current backup of your site and important files.

The last thing you want is for something to happen to your site and you do not have a backup.

Backup your site, and do so often. That way if something does happen to your website, you can quickly restore a previous version of it and quickly get back up and running.

Intermediate WordPress Security Measures That Add More Protection

If you’ve completed all the basics but you still want to do more to protect your website, there are some more advanced steps you can take to bolster your security.

Let’s take a look at what you should do next.

7. Never Use The “Admin” Username

Never use the “admin” username. Doing so makes you susceptible to brute force attacks and social engineering scams.

Because “admin” is such a common username, it is easily-guessed and makes things much easier for scammers to trick people into giving away their login credentials.

Much like having a strong password, using a unique username for your logins is a good idea because it makes it much harder for hackers to crack your login info.

If you are currently using the “admin” username, change your WordPress admin username.

8. Hide Your WP Admin Login Page

On top of using a unique username another thing you can do to protect your login credentials is hide your WordPress admin login page with a plugin like WPS Hide Login.

By default, a majority of WordPress login pages can be accessed by adding “/wp-admin” or “/wp-login.php” to the end of a URL. Once a hacker or scammer has identified your login page, they can then attempt to guess your username and password in order to access your Admin Dashboard.

Hiding your WordPress login page is a good way to make you a less easy target.

9. Disable XML-RPC

WordPress uses an implementation of the XML-RPC protocol to extend functionality to software clients.

Most users don’t need WordPress XML-RPC functionality, and it’s one of the most common vulnerabilities that opens users up for exploits.

That’s why it’s a good idea to disable it. Thanks to the Wordfence Security plugin, it is really easy to do just that.

10. Harden wp-config.php File

The process of adding extra security features to your WordPress site is sometimes known as “hardening” because you are essentially giving your site some extra armor against hackers.

You can “harden” your website by protecting your wp-config.php file via your .htaccess file. Your WordPress wp-config.php file contains very sensitive information about your WordPress installation including your WordPress security keys and the WordPress database connection details, which is exactly why you don’t want it to be easy to access.

11. Run A Security Scanning Tool

Sometimes your WordPress website might have a vulnerability that you had no idea existed. That’s why it’s wise to use some tools that can find vulnerabilities and even fix them for you.

The WPScan plugin scans for known vulnerabilities in WordPress core files, plugins and themes. The plugin also notifies you by email when new security vulnerabilities are found.

Strengthen Your Server-Side Security

So you have taken all the above measures to protect your website but you still want to know if there is more you can do to make it as secure as possible.

The remaining actions you can take to beef up your security will need to be done on the server side of your website.

12. Look For A Hosting Company That Does This

One of the best things you can do to protect your site from the very get-go is to choose the right hosting company to host your WordPress website.

When looking for a hosting company, you want to find one that is fast, reliable, and secure, and will support you with great customer service.

That means they should have good, powerful resources, maintain an uptime of at least 99.5%, and use server-level security tactics.

If a host can’t check those basic boxes, they are not worth your time or money.

13. Use The Latest PHP Version

Like old versions of WordPress, outdated versions of PHP are no longer safe to use.

If you aren’t on the latest version of PHP, upgrade your PHP version to protect yourself from attack.

14. Host On A Fully-Isolated Server

Fully-isolated virtual private servers have a lot of advantages and one of those advantages is increased security.

The physical isolation offered from a cloud-based VPS is inherently secure, protecting your website against cross-infection from other customers. Combined with robust firewalls and DDoS protection, your data remains secure against potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Looking for the perfect cloud environment for your WordPress website? Look no further.

With InMotion Hosting’s Platform i, you receive unparalleled security features including managed server updates, real-time security patching, web application firewalls, and DDoS prevention, along with purpose-built high-availability servers optimized for fast and reliable WordPress sites.

15. Use A Web Application Firewall

One of the final things you can do to add extra security measures to your WordPress website is use a web application firewall (WAF).

A WAF is usually a cloud-based security system that offers another layer of protection around your site. Think of it as a gateway for your site. It blocks all hacking attempts and filters out other malicious types of traffic like distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or spammers.

WAFs usually require monthly subscription fees, but adding one is worth the cost if you place a premium on your WordPress website security.

Make Sure Your Website & Business Is Safe & Secure

If your website is not secure, you could be leaving yourself open to a cyber attack.

Thankfully, securing a WordPress site doesn’t require too much technical knowledge as long as you have the right tools and hosting plan to fit your needs.

Instead of waiting to respond to threats once they happen, you should proactively secure your website to prevent security issues.

That way if someone does target your website, you are prepared to mitigate the risk and go about your business as usual instead of scrambling to locate a recent backup.

Get Managed WordPress Hosting featuring robust security measures on high-performance servers, complete with free SSL, dedicated IP address, automatic server updates, DDoS protection, and included WAF.

Learn more about how Managed WordPress Hosting can help protect your website and valuable data from exposure to hackers and scammers.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 6 2024
Google Core Update: How To Write High-Ranking, High-Quality Content in 2024 via @sejournal, @fiverr

This post was sponsored by Fiverr Pro. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Were you impacted by Google’s recent core update?

Have your search visibility and rankings begun to drop?

Even in the era of automation, quality still wins over quantity when it comes to search rankings.

With the recent surge of generative AI, the demand for human-created, high-quality content is greater than ever.

Google’s latest update aimed to improve search result quality by reducing unhelpful, unoriginal content by 40%.

So, what kind of content does Google deem high quality these days?

How can you ensure your content performs well on search engines in 2024?

The simple answer is to focus on user experience rather than the search engine itself – in other words: make human connection the priority.

While many businesses are taking advantage of AI tools to populate their sites, those who still see the value in human-created, user-centric content will ultimately win out.

In this guide, we’ll break down the key steps to creating high-quality content that ranks on Google in 2024.

Step 1: Align Your Content Strategy With Campaign & User Journey Goals

Delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time is crucial for SEO success.

And with Google’s latest core update, it’s more important than ever to provide a seamless and personalized experience for your audience throughout their user journey.

Here’s how you can use audience research and user insights to create content that drives results:

  • Identify Your Target Personas: Start by defining your ideal audience personas. Understand their demographics, preferences, pain points, and behaviors.
  • Map Out Your User Journey: Visualize the various stages your customers go through, and identify the touchpoints where they interact with your brand.
  • Tailor Your Content To Each Stage: Meet your audience at each stage of the user journey, and address their specific needs with content that’s relevant, targeted, and effective.

Pro Tip: Don’t have the time or bandwidth to tackle these tasks? You can still move your business forward by hiring a professional SEO strategist to help plan your campaigns and keep you on track.

Image created by Fiverr Pro, April 2024

Step 2: Analyze Real User Data & Identify Content Gaps

As you’re building your content strategy, you’ll need insights into your audience’s behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns.

Utilize analytics tools to gather valuable user data and track key metrics such as website traffic, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

With this information, you can conduct a thorough audit of your existing content and identify gaps and areas for improvement.

Here’s how you can adjust your strategy to a more user-centric approach:

  • Build credibility by honing in on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
  • Try leveraging real experts as content creators, elevating their first-hand experience to create truly helpful content from a trustworthy source. (This is particularly helpful for subjects such as finance or medicine.)
  • Be sure to display the writer as an experienced, authoritative figure in your post, with a link to an author archive page.
  • Maintain relevance by keeping your content up to date and checking frequently for possible revamps.

Get started by outsourcing your audience research and content auditing needs to a Fiverr Pro freelancer.

Step 3: Plan Content That Matches User Intent

Once you gain a deeper understanding of your customer touchpoints, it’s time to plan your content accordingly.

Start by developing detailed outlines for each piece of content that match user intent and meet their needs and expectations.

“Understanding and aligning content with user intent is crucial for SEO success. With Google’s algorithm updates, it’s essential to create content that is not only helpful but also answers specific questions your target audience has. Focus on crafting content that resonates with your audience, addresses their needs, and communicates your message clearly, while ensuring it’s relevant, engaging, and directly addresses the concerns and interests of your readers.”

– Alan Redondo, SEO and PPC Expert

It’s also important to establish your own unique voice, as authentic and original content tends to rank higher on SERPS.

And make sure to avoid fluff and keep your content to the point – searchers want to see their questions answered and needs addressed with as little fuss as possible.

If content is not exactly your specialty but you’re ready to start laying out the process, try Fiverr Pro’s professional services to get the help you need.

Image created by Fiverr Pro, April 2024

Step 4: Write Content With Proactive Engagement In Mind

When you create content, the goal is to encourage interaction, discussion, and sharing among users, which boosts your brand awareness organically.

One effective strategy is to craft compelling headlines, introductions, and calls-to-action that prompt users to engage with your content.

You can also use interactive elements such as polls, quizzes, and surveys to encourage participation and feedback.

If you’re looking to maximize user engagement, a multichannel approach is key.

Choose the most appropriate content formats and channels for each stage of the user journey, and consider using blog posts, social media, email campaigns, etc. based on where your audience is most active.

Pro Tip: User Generated Content (UGC) can be beneficial for your overall search strategy. With Google favoring human insights, comment sections and other forms of human interactions are helpful for discoverability.

Ready to start getting the most out of your content and utilizing the multitude of channels available?

Whether you need a social media manager or an email marketer, Fiverr Pro has you covered.

Step 5: Analyze Performance & Pivot

Once you’ve implemented your content strategy, it’s essential to regularly monitor its performance and be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

Keep an eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of your content, and pay attention to user feedback and comments to understand how your audience is responding.

Are they finding it helpful and engaging, or are there areas where you could improve?

Take note of any trends or patterns that emerge and use this information to inform future content decisions.

Image created by Fiverr Pro, April 2024

Embracing Human Talent In The AI Era

The human touch is essential to SEO success in today’s landscape, and Google’s latest update supports that.

As it stands, content that’s created for and by humans will outperform generic, AI-generated content every time.

So if you’re looking to set your website apart, it’s best to pivot away from sheer search volume and more towards what will resonate deeply with your target audience.

After all, the more value you provide to users, the more likely you are to beat the algorithm and boost your rankings.

But let’s say you’re a small business owner with a small team and limited hiring capacity.

How do you compete with organizations that have the in-house expertise necessary to implement this kind of content strategy?

How can you access the human talent needed to form genuine connections with your audience?

Whether you’re seeking an SEO professional to help you target your users, or a writer/artist to help you create content, it might help to start bringing on freelancers to fill in any talent gaps.

Fiverr Pro, for example, is a great solution for matching and collaborating with top-tier, pre-vetted freelance talent.

You can use it to find people with the right set of skills to help you execute your projects and add that much-needed human touch to your content.

In the meantime, use these tips to build out your content strategy, so that as you begin to expand your team, you’ll know which tasks to prioritize, moving forward.

Elevate Your Content Strategy With Fiverr Pro

With Google’s updates constantly shaking things up, the key to staying ahead is staying true to your audience and their needs.

While AI may be able to churn out content at lightning speed, it’s the authentic, user-centric content that truly stands out these days.

By creating content that connects with real people on a human level, you can ensure sustained SEO success in 2024 and beyond.

So if you’re looking for the right talent to bring that human touch to your content, Fiverr Pro is the ultimate solution.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a seasoned marketer, this subscription-free service offers a wealth of talented, pre-vetted professionals ready to elevate your content strategy.

Get started with Fiverr Pro today and let their experts find talent, plan, and manage projects for you.

Plus, you can hire with confidence, knowing that you’ll get a full refund if you’re not satisfied with the results.

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Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Fiverr Pro Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 1 2024
[PPC] Automation & AI: What Humans Should Be Doing For Success via @sejournal, @CallRail

Paid media’s main job is to increase visibility and drive traffic for your brand.

And as digital marketing evolves, so, too, will your strategy.

In the current state of paid, the main overarching theme is, you guessed it, AI and machine learning.

As paid media platforms get smarter and constantly find ways to infuse AI into campaign workflows and optimizations, marketers must find a way to keep up with the platforms.

The other side of the coin is maintaining user privacy all the while trying to use AI effectively.

So what major changes should you make to your paid media marketing strategy in 2024?

Here are seven changes you should incorporate without a second thought.

Paid Media Marketing In 2024: 7 Changes Marketers Should Make

1. Review & Revise Google Tags

If you rely on Google tags for conversion tracking, this change should not be ignored.

In January 2024, Google made an update to its Consent Mode for its Google tags, which will, for now, affect any marketers who run ads targeted to users in the European Economic Area (EEA).

This update requires marketers to take action by March 2024 in order to keep using ad personalization and remarketing features in Google Ads.

Simply speaking, the Consent Mode will need to be updated to adjust its tracking behavior based on how a user interacts with a website’s consent banner.

The two new parameters introduced to Consent Mode are:

  • ad_user_data: This controls whether user data can be sent to Google for advertising purposes.
  • ad_personalization: This controls whether personalized advertising (remarketing) can be enabled for the user.

As privacy measures continue to become stricter in the United States, it would not be surprising if this becomes required for US advertisers in the somewhat near future.

Keep in mind that in 2024, we’ll have to get comfortable being uncomfortable with imperfect data because of privacy regulations.

2. Make Influencers Part Of Your Marketing Model

Small and large influencers alike are an awesome resource at your fingertips, just as long as your audiences align.

Even brands with a few thousand followers can utilize influencer marketing to make a big difference and gain traction in the market.

Go on a hunt to find the top influencers in your space. Then, figure out the cost per acquisition (CPA) for working with each of them (because you have to court influencers, especially the bigger ones).

From there, you can create a win-win partnership that gets you more leads while the influencer earns income.

Pro Tip: You can use influencer marketing tools to help you in your journey to integrate core influencers into your business model. Some of the most popular include AspireIQ, BuzzSumo, Upfluence, and NeoReach.
Whichever you choose, make sure the influencers you find are big enough to provide real value to your brand — and that you’re paying a CPA that makes sense for your budget and overall goals.

3. Strategic Audience Management On Multiple Platforms

2024 is the year to nail your audience management strategy, both from a holistic perspective and within each encapsulated platform.

That means before building your audiences, you need to understand at a high level who your target customer is.

Further, identify what platforms those types of user-profiles spend their time on.

Once you’ve identified your ideal target customer, then it’s time for the first step in this process:

Building audiences.

From there, you must set up a strategy to target folks within every stage of the funnel – from upper to lower – and decide which networks make the most sense for the different audience cohorts.

Perhaps the most crucial part of this process is analyzing and refreshing your audiences as the year goes on.

You should definitely plan on retargeting and testing new audiences throughout the year.

If you fail to incorporate this part, you run the risk of targeting the wrong sector of people, ultimately throwing money down the proverbial drain.

However, if you retarget and refresh your approach, you’re bound to find a dynamic audience that correlates with your vision.

In the end, audience management alone can be worth its weight in gold.

4. Prepare For Video Content Dominance

You’ve likely heard this phrase before in marketing: content is king.

With a slight tweak for 2024, the new hot phrase should be: video content is king.

Not only is video taking over social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, but it’s also asserting its dominance in YouTube Ads. YouTube Shorts, the platform’s short-form video offering, is booming.

With this new form of video comes a new ad format: vertical video ads.

Not only should marketers focus on video marketing in general – 2024 is the year to get more sophisticated with video strategy.

Marketers should prioritize creating engaging and high-quality video content that’s appropriate for each platform on which it will be delivered.

If the thought of creating video content for multiple platforms scares you, just remember that a little goes a long way.

Start by creating evergreen content about your brand and test those with different lengths.

These can be used and recycled on multiple platforms and can be used for organic and paid video content simultaneously.

Just remember to create a variety so that your users don’t see the same message or content on the same platforms, which can reduce the effectiveness of video marketing.

5. Don’t Sleep On Microsoft Ads

Microsoft Ads continues to enhance its advertising platform year after year.

Not only does it have many of the same coveted features as Google Ads, but it has added features that are unique to the platform.

As a marketing professional, your brand will surely benefit from digging into it more in 2024.

Some of the most notable updates Microsoft Ads launched in the last twelve months include:

  • Video and CTV ads: Microsoft unveiled these new ad types on its platform in September of 2023. Advertisers can choose from online video ads or connected TV ads that are non-skippable while a user is streaming content. This gives advertisers big and small a leg up on what once used to be a very complicated process of buying TV ads.
  • Three new generative AI solutions: Also announced in September 2023, Microsoft came out with three new AI features to help grow and scale. These include Compare & Decide ads, ads for Chat API, and Copilot campaign creation.
  • Data-driven attribution reporting: Gone are the days of last-click measurement! Microsoft Ads enhanced its UET tagging solution and implemented data-driven attributing modeling. It uses machine learning to calculate the actual contributions of each ad interaction.

While Microsoft still holds a lower share of the available search engines, just remember that you’re leaving a whole slew of potential customers behind by not considering this underestimated ad platform.

6. Focus On Optimizing The User Experience

Between a mix of shorter human attention spans and limited marketing budgets, every interaction and website experience counts.

If you find that your pre-sale metrics are favorable – such as high engagement or high CTR – but never result in a sale, you likely don’t have an ad problem. You have a user experience problem.

In 2024, consumers expect more from brands, especially if they’re spending their hard-earned money with that company.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you sat down and went through your website’s checkout process through the lens of a customer?

If you’re not sure where to start on optimizing your website experience for users, here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Use tools like Hot Jar or User Testing to get real-life analytics of how your customers are interacting and what their pain points are.
  • Review the website landscape on desktop and mobile. While this may be a no-brainer, many websites still forget to optimize for mobile!
  • Make sure that any relevant call-to-actions (CTAs) are above the fold – yes, on mobile, too!
  • Check your site speed.

These are items that should continuously be monitored and not a “set and forget,” which unfortunately happens quite a bit.

Optimizing the website user experience can have a positive impact on those paid media campaigns and can make those dollars go further in the future.

7. Use AI Tools To Your Advantage

Let’s face it: Machine learning and AI aren’t going anywhere.

For marketing leaders, 2024 really is the time to lean into its advantages instead of running away from the inevitable advances.

It’s not a question of whether to use AI or not. It’s a matter of how to use AI to your advantage.

While companies are tightening their budgets and scaling back staff, PPC marketers are constantly being asked to do more with less.

This is where AI comes in.

In fact, using AI can strengthen your ROI for paid media campaigns of all kinds (whatever channel you prefer).

Just make sure you don’t sacrifice your brand’s personality for a little efficiency.

One way you can do this is with Google’s generated AI assets (currently in beta). Using its Gemini-powered AI solution, the tool allows for more streamlined campaign creation and generated ad assets, including images, headlines, and descriptions for ads, and more.

Additionally, you’re likely already using one of Google’s Smart Bidding strategies to automate the bidding process.

With a combination of creativity and machine learning, your ads have the potential to go farther than ever before.

Your 2024 Plan Should Not Be Static

If the past year(s) have taught us anything in marketing, it’s to be fluid.

In some cases, tactics that used to be tried and true are now more volatile than ever.

Take advantage of advances in AI to boost your strategic advantage, and keep in mind platforms that you’ve typically shied away from – the time may come to incorporate them into your 2024 strategy.

What changes are you most excited to try this year?

More resources:

Featured Image: Sutthiphong Chandaeng/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 25 2024
Google Universal Analytics 360 Sunsetting Soon: Migration Tips & Top Alternative Inside via @sejournal, @PiwikPro

This post was sponsored by Piwik PRO. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

This year, Google will finally phase out Universal Analytics 360, requiring paid users to switch to Google Analytics 360.

This is not something you can skip or postpone, and the clock is ticking.

The new analytics differ significantly from the previous version, and you can’t migrate data between them, so the transition can be challenging for organizations.

Since you’ll be starting from scratch, now is a good time to explore other options and determine if there are better solutions for your needs.

The three main areas to consider when deciding if you want to stay with Google or move to another platform are: the migration process, privacy and compliance, and ease of use.

When Is Google Universal Analytics 360 Sunsetting?

July 1, 2024 is when Google will phase out Universal Analytics 360.

What Should I Do Next?

Google encourages you to migrate to Google Analytics 360 as quickly as possible.

If you don’t, you could:

  • Lose critical advertising capabilities.
  • Lose the ability to export historical data.
  • Face delays in setting up Google Analytics 360.

    How To Migrate To Your Next Analytics Platform

    Moving to a new platform is much more than just implementation; it is vital to plan your migration properly. Below are five steps to help you through the entire process.

    Step 1. Evaluate Your Stack & Resources

    Before you switch analytics tools, take the time to evaluate your entire stack, not just the tool you’re changing. Ensure that your stack is up-to-date and meets your current business needs. Migrating to a new analytics vendor almost always requires more people and more time than originally estimated. It’s a good occasion to remove redundant tools from your stack; it might also allow you to integrate with new ones that can help you run your analytics and collect data more comprehensively.

    Step 2. Tidy Your Data

    Over time, data collection may get messy, and you find yourself tracking data that isn’t relevant to your business. A migration gives you a chance to clean up your data taxonomy. Ensure that your new tool allows you to use the same categories of data as the previous one. Pay close attention to any data that needs to be collected automatically, like location data (country, region, city), and device details (device type, browser). Finally, make sure the SDKs you need are supported by your new tool.

    Step 3. Implement A New Platform

    This step involves setting up the tracking code that collects data about visitors to your website or app and making any necessary modifications. Remember to set up tags to gather more detailed data through events or connect third-party tools.

    Speed Up The Transition: If you switch to Piwik PRO, you can use a migration tool to easily transfer your settings from Universal Analytics (GA3) and Google Tag Manager.

    Step 4. Evaluate Tour New Data

    Once you’re done implementing your new platform, you should run it parallel to your existing tool for a few months before finalizing the migration. During this time, you can audit your new data and correct any errors. In this manner, you can retain your historical data while simultaneously generating new data segments on the new platform.

    Step 5. Provide Training For Your Team

    All end users need training to comprehend the platform’s operations, retrieve necessary data, and generate reports. This step is frequently missed as it falls at the end of the project.

    Upon finishing this step, you will be set to switch to your new platform fully. If you find the migration process challenging, consider getting help from outside sources. Some analytics vendors offer hands-on onboarding and user training, which accelerates product adoption.

    Is Switching To Google Analytics 360 Worth The Hassle?

    You might be thinking, “Migrating to the successor of UA 360 won’t be a walk in the park,” especially if you work for a large organization.

    In addition to subscription and data migration costs, you may also need to train your staff or increase fees for external marketing agencies that will face new challenges.

    While Analytics 360 has incredible use cases, there may be other tools that better suit your needs.

    Switching to alternative solutions may be a good option for you.

    How To Pick A Replacement For Universal Analytics 360

    To decide whether to choose a new platform or stick with Google, consider a few important factors:

    1. Because GA 360 is a different software, your marketing and analytics departments will need to allocate extra resources to learn the new platform. You will also need the support of analysts, developers, and data architects to help you reconstruct reports based on the data architecture of the chosen platform. Choosing a solution with similar features and user experience to UA 360 can be a good option, because it saves resources, making onboarding faster and easier.
    2. You will also need to redesign your entire customer journey, because the data model in GA360 has changed from sessions to events. This process can be more challenging and costly than choosing a session-based platform or one that offers you freedom of choice.
    3. Another important consideration is the level of support offered by the vendor. This can greatly affect the quality of the migration and onboarding to a new platform. Although Google Analytics is currently the most popular tool for analyzing web traffic, the level of support it provides is limited. Other companies like Piwik PRO can offer more in this area, including personalized onboarding, product implementation, training, and dedicated customer support at every step.

    Consideration 1: Think About Privacy & Compliance

    Organizations around the world are increasingly concerned with data privacy and compliance. A 2023 Thomson survey found that 80% of business professionals acknowledge the importance of compliance as a crucial advisory function for their organizations. Gartner, on the other hand, predicts that, by 2025, 60% of large enterprises will use at least one privacy-enhancing computing (PEC) technique in analytics, business intelligence, and/or cloud computing.

    This is due to a growing number of new regulations that place greater control over personal data at the forefront. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are two of the most prominent examples. The landscape has been further complicated by events such as the Schrems II case, Brexit, and China’s Personal Data Protection Law. Data protection is also increasingly important in some sectors, such as healthcare, where regulations like HIPAA are mandatory.

    If your company operates globally or has ambitions to do so, the first thing to consider is who has full ownership of the data, where the servers hosting the data are located, and who owns them. Google Analytics 360 only offers cloud deployment in an unknown location, which means that data might be transferred between data centers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This makes it difficult to know exactly where the data is stored and ownership is unclear. For now, the issue of data transfers between the US and the EU has been resolved by the EU-US Privacy Shield framework agreement, but the future stays unclear. Last year, NOYB, led by Max Schrems, announced that it would soon appeal this decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

    To meet privacy and compliance requirements in different countries and industries, choose a platform that allows you to customize your hosting plan and set specific parameters for data collection and analysis. Platforms like Piwik PRO Analytics Suite enable you to store your data on servers in Europe, the US, and Asia, based on your preferences. This translates into flexibility and security of your data.

    Consideration 2: Ease Of Use & Integration

    This may sound counterintuitive, but the new GA 360 might be too complex for many. While it offers numerous advanced functions for data analysts, it lacks features specifically designed for marketers. As a result, marketers may need help in configuring the system to efficiently use the data.

    On the other hand, in GA 360, the data model shifts from session-based to event-based. This is especially important if your teams depend on UA 360 behavioral reporting, benchmarking, and e-commerce flow reports, as these features are unavailable in the new release. You also need to revise all the reports for all the stakeholders.

    Conversely, Piwik PRO strongly emphasizes simplicity and enables marketers to quickly access the necessary data. Additionally, the data model combines both session-based and event-based structures. This approach ensures that you can start working with the data faster and deliver the reports that stakeholders are used to. Another big advantage of Piwik PRO is its model for working with raw data, which is a valuable source of knowledge about users and provides richer reporting in more contexts. Google Analytics does not provide raw data exports, so you have to use various services and tools to accomplish this. To be fair, however, exporting large raw data packets with Piwik PRO software may take longer than with Google solutions.

    The new GA 360 is most effective when used mainly with products from the Google ecosystem. When considering data activation, Google Ads is the most suitable option. When it comes to Piwik PRO, you still have this option, but integrating with other solutions is much easier. The platform offers four modules: Analytics, Tag Manager, Consent Manager and Customer Data Platform (CDP). The CDP module, available in the paid plan, lets you create detailed customer profiles and categorize your data into various audience segments. You can activate them to provide a personalized experience and run effective campaigns across multiple channels.

    The landscape of modern analytics is constantly changing. On the one hand, there are ongoing discussions about privacy and compliance regulations, while on the other, companies are trying out various methods to collect and analyze data. In the end, your choice of analytics platform will impact the performance of your marketing and sales efforts. So take the time to explore, and you may find other solutions that better suit your organization’s needs.

    Piwik PRO is a solid choice to explore for your next primary analytics solution. Book a personalized demo of the Enterprise version and see the benefits of introducing Piwik PRO Analytics Suite in your organization.

    REQUEST A DEMO

    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Piwik PRO Used with permission.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Apr 16 2024
    24 Effective Link Building Tactics That Work In 2024 via @sejournal, @Brian_W_Gareth

    1. Check Your Direct Competitors’ Backlinks

    Since link building helps your site rank higher, we can assume that the highest-ranking sites on SERPs have lots of good backlinks.

    The same is true for your competitors who rank higher than you.

    And if there are a lot of authoritative sites linking to them, wouldn’t it be nice if they linked to you too?

    Of course it would.

    Find those sites, and you can start building links there too, right?

    Not so fast.

    Step 1: Uncover Your True Competitors

    First, you need to know which sites are your online competitors. You don’t want to waste your time trying to outrank sites that are not even stealing your customers, after all.

    Here’s how to identify a direct competitor:

    • Their site serves the same purpose as yours and targets the same audience.
    • It ranks for the same keywords you want to rank for.
    • Their business operates in the same area as yours.
    • They rank higher than you.

    To start looking for your competitors, open WebCEO’s Dangerous Competitors tool.

    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    Click on the Settings button and visit these tabs:

    • Keywords: enter your ranking keywords there.
    • Competitors: if you already know some of your competitors, add their URLs there.
    • Search engines: add the search engines where you want to rank. Local business owners will also want to select locations to narrow down the results.

    Click on Save, and the tool will generate a table of sites belonging to your potential competitors. Visit those sites to make sure they are indeed your competitors.

    Step 2: Check Their Backlinks

    Time for the next step: checking their backlinks in Competitor Backlink Spy.

    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
    1. Open Settings and enter your competitors’ URLs in the Competitors tab.
    2. Press Save, and the tool will list all of your competitors’ backlinks – specifically, the pages which link to your competitors.

    And now all you need to do is find promising domains among those linking pages. Visit those sites and look for the ones who are likely to give your site a backlink, too – after you’ve created link-worthy content and presented your case to those sites.

    By the way, your competitors can also be your backlink donors. Feel free to build links on their sites too!

    2. Must-Do Websites For Link Building

    Before other sites start linking to yours, you can create a few powerful backlinks yourself. There are websites for that exact purpose:

    Carefully pick sites that are relevant to your niche and create listings for your business there. Now you have several authoritative sites in your backlink profile.

    What’s more, other websites’ owners can find you there, too. Exposure to others is the first step towards gaining even more backlinks down the line.

    And if your site is already well-known enough, you can try creating a Wikipedia page about it. Even though links from Wikipedia are nofollow, the website itself possesses significant authority and can share some of it with you.

    3. Run A Blog & Write Articles About Relevant Topics

    In order to gain backlinks, you want to have linkworthy content on your website – the more, the better. Write about many different, but related topics about your niche and your business. For example:

    • Your products.
    • News in the industry.
    • Interesting case studies.
    • Recent going-ons in your company.
    • Interviews with clients and partners.

    The options are limitless. And the more you know about your work, the more you can share with your visitors. Curious writers attract curious readers. Go wild with your pen!

    And when you create your content, there are a few more things you can do to help it get more backlinks:

    1. Optimize it for keywords. The higher your content appears in search, the more likely users are to find it – and link to it in their own content if they need to. Use WebCEO’s Keyword Research tool to find search queries your target audience uses the most often.
    2. List your sources – with links. If you refer to other sources in your content, then listing them will make you appear more credible, especially if those sources are also good. And users love linking to credible sites.
    3. Link to other pages on your site. Help your visitors find all the content they may need. Navigation and footer bars are a must since they have links to your homepage, FAQ, contact info pages, and more. However, blog articles on related topics should also link to each other, in case your users need more details.
    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    4. Write Guest Articles

    Good old guest blogging! The tried and tested method of building links. Write an article for another site and include a link to yours – what could be easier?

    Of course, there’s a catch. There are two important steps to take first:

    1. Find relevant sites whose backlinks would be a boon for you;
    2. Convince them to accept a guest post from you.

    You already know how to find backlink donors: with Competitor Backlink Spy. Local bloggers, newspapers, and magazines won’t be able to hide from you.

    What about the second step? Your best bet here is email outreach.

    Pick a promising site whose contact information is available and send them an email like this:

    Hi Susan!

    I’m John Doe, and I write for {Example Blog}. Nice to e-meet you! I’ve been following your blog for a while, and I’ve found your recent post series about networking very helpful.

    Anyway, I’m writing to you because I’m quite familiar with your blog’s topics and I would love to contribute if you’re open to new guest authors. I’ve been brainstorming some topic ideas that I think would be a good match for your blog:

      • {Topic idea #1}
      • {Topic idea #2}
      • {Topic idea #3}

    If you have different topics in mind, I will be glad to write about them as well. I appreciate your time and really look forward to working together.

    Cheers!

    John Doe

    If you don’t get a reply, it’s okay to try again – with a different text indicating that it’s not your first try.

    Be polite and remember that it’s meant to benefit you both. Good luck!

    5. Turn Unlinked Mentions Into Links

    If you’ve been around and doing business for a while, people are bound to talk about you. On their sites too.

    This is the easiest way to make backlinks. Somebody has already mentioned your business on their site – that’s already most of the work done! All that’s left is to add a link.

    Simply contact the person who can edit the page (via email or social media) and ask them to insert your site’s URL into the mention. Done and done.

    Finding unlinked mentions is even easier: just use a tool like WebCEO’s Web Buzz Monitoring.

    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    Just add your brand’s name in the Settings, and the tool will find pages with its unlinked mentions.

    6. Provide An Excellent User Experience

    Who will want to link to a page that’s barely working? Not the people who give out backlinks, that’s for sure. Even ordinary users will run if a page refuses to work – or even simply offends their eyes.

    On the other hand, there are only positives to pages providing good UX:

    • User activity leading to conversions (potentially spreading across the entire site).
    • Positive customer reviews.
    • Increasing Google rankings.
    • And new backlinks, of course.

    Imagine a perfect web page from your dreams, or just remember the best website you’ve ever visited some time before. Then make the same thing on your own site (or even better, if you can).

    What’s the recipe for the best user experience?

    • Helpful, high-quality content. Being helpful is more important than ever due to Google’s Helpful Content update. Your page can be informative and optimized with the best keywords, but if it doesn’t actually help your visitors, then it’s a huge problem.
    • High-quality visuals. Users love eye-catching images and videos, especially when they not only inform but also entertain. Make sure your images load correctly! If any of them don’t, find them with WebCEO’s Technical Audit tool and replace them.
    • No site errors. Broken images are but one possible issue that may ruin your site. Scan it for all types of errors with the same Technical Audit tool and fix them ASAP.
    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
    • Fast loading speed. A slow-loading page is a useless page: if visitors leave, nothing happens there. Test your site pages with WebCEO’s Speed Optimization tool and follow its tips for making them load faster.
    • Mobile friendliness. Smartphones drive as much traffic as PC, so your site must be optimized for screens of all sizes. Scan your site with the Mobile Optimization tool and follow its recommendations for becoming more mobile-friendly.
    • User accessibility. Make sure your site can be easily used by everybody regardless of their physical ability. Test your site with a tool like EquallyAI’s ARIA to see where you can make improvements.

    7. Get Rid Of Harmful Backlinks

    Next, make sure your backlink profile isn’t hurting your site. What kind of backlinks can do that?

    • Bought backlinks.
    • Spammy backlinks.
    • Links from irrelevant sites.
    • Links from non-authoritative sites.

    If Google detects too many backlinks like that in your profile, it may deem your site untrustworthy and lower its search rankings. It may even incur a manual action.

    You can’t let harmful backlinks pile up and bring you down.

    Scan your backlink profile with WebCEO’s Toxic Pages tool.

    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    By default, it looks for linking pages that are obviously spammy: those with tons of outbound links and a low trust level. If you want to, tweak the tool’s search criteria to your liking in the Settings. You can even exclude specific domains from the tool’s search if you trust them.

    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    Once you have your list of toxic backlinks, start getting rid of them. Your options are:

    • Delete the backlinks from those pages yourself.
    • Ask somebody who can edit those pages to do it.
    • Generate a disavow list in Toxic Pages and submit it to Google Disavow.
    Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024

    Want To See points 8-24?

    The full guide is exclusively available to WebCEO users. Sign up for free now and get your link building guide with 24 different tactics that will get you through 2024 and well beyond!

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Mar 27 2024
    Here’s What SEO Experts Have To Say About Leveraging SGE In 2024 via @sejournal, @fiverr

    Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) has come a long way since its experimental launch in May 2023.

    Starting out by simply generating paraphrased snippets for search engine queries, SGE now offers more comprehensive summaries and source links.

    Essentially, Google’s SGE is an interactive generative AI-powered feature that uses existing results to answer search queries.

    Think of it as a chatbot — but Google’s organic search results power it.

    Every indexed webpage that crosses a search engine results page (SERP) helps teach SGE what it knows.

    As exciting (and partly terrifying) as the feature is, you may be trying to understand its true potential to leverage it for your businesses.

    How Does Google SGE Work?

    SGE offers comprehensive answers to search queries, just like Open AI’s ChatGPT, but SGE cites sources.

    To see SGE in action:

    1. Navigate to Google to begin a search.
    2. Enter a search query or question into the search bar.
    3. Watch as multiple search results are written as a conversational response to your question.

    Context and more information are added to your result through SGE, especially when compared to the old featured snippets, which only displayed a snippet or sentence without its full context.

    Screenshot from Google for [conversational analytics] using normal search and SGE, February 2024

    As you can see, pre-SGE days allowed you to sift through multiple websites, giving each result traffic to their respective webpages.

    Now, SGE takes up the space where direct webpage results used to display, meaning that many websites may no longer get the traffic they used to get.

    How Will SGE Change How Google Search Works?

    As you can imagine, many SEO experts believe SGE will eat into organic traffic from top-of-funnel queries.

    There are three key reasons for a potential drop in organic traffic from SERPs:

    • Featured snippets only offer one clickable source, while SGE offers many. If you owned the top position, you may now be sharing clicks with multiple sources.
    • SGE takes up too much space on the SERPs, pushing the traditional SERP below the fold, resulting in fewer clicks.
    • You can ask follow-up questions right, which keeps searchers on the SERP instead of traveling to a site for more information.

    That said, there is still potential for pages to get traffic as long as the content answers the query.

    SGE Sites Pages That Are Not In The Top 10

    There have been many instances where SGE cites pages that don’t rank in the top 10 results — indicating that the data is pooled from a larger sample.

    However, you should adapt your strategy as SGE emerges from its experimental phase.

    A recent study found that 49% of consumers are interested in AI-powered searches, indicating that AI-generated SERPs are perceived positively.

    If Google wants to stay competitive, especially with Bing Search’s hard comeback last year, SGE will eventually be a permanent part of the SERPs.

    What SEO Experts Have To Say About SGE’s Impact On Digital Marketing

    Many businesses, like yours, rely on Google for their revenue. Whether that’s in the form of ads or organic results, SGE is set to disrupt both of these formats.

    How SGE Impacts Organic Traffic

    On the organic side, achieving the top 3 positions could lead to lackluster results.

    How SGE Impacts PPC

    On the advertising end, you might be safe, as Sponsored results appear above SGE.

    However, that only pushes organic results even further down.

    Screenshot from Google for [monday competitors], February 2024

    Some experts believe SGE to be like Featured Snippets but on steroids. Ihor Rudnyk, CEO of Collaborator, explains:

    We saw sites that gave simple and fast answers lost some of their traffic. That’s because users receive these answers directly in the SERPs. For example, weather prediction, currency rates, short facts, etc.

    Businesses focused on short, easy answers and fast information are in the worst position. I don’t see how you can change it without creating additional value for users. However, it’s easy to predict that the importance of brand awareness and direct traffic will continue to grow.

    Additionally, there will be a larger focus on creating pages with depth. It could be in the form of original data, a differentiated view or commentary on trends.

    SEO professionals will start to become more quality-focused, and quality will be defined as bringing something new, original or interesting to the debate in contrast to what it is defined as now — being ‘comprehensive’ (code for boringly covering the same stuff the next guy does).

    — Patrick Herbert, Director at Singularity Digital

    What Can You Do To Leverage SGE For Your Business?

    So, how can you prepare to stay relevant on the SERPs as SGE will soon dominate?

    Here are a few tips to get you started:

    1. Move From Informational To Transactional Content

    SGE is the biggest threat to informational content — especially concise content.

    Businesses that create thin content optimized for search will suffer. Creating more transactional pages could help you avoid this issue.

    Transactional content is more nuanced and requires extensive research, so users will be more likely to dig deeper into product/service websites.

    Not only that, but it also allows you to appear in SGE for high-intent search terms, which is the goal for businesses.

    Screenshot from Google for [best accounting software], February 2024

    2. Monitor Changes In Search Intent Over A Period

    Many marketers will soon shift their reliance on traditional keyword metrics like keyword density (KD) and search volume to search intent.

    Even with high KD and search volume, ranking for these keywords can be difficult. So, with SGE, it doesn’t make sense to go after such queries unless you’re prepared to write ultimate in-depth guides.

    This is why you need to look at search intent first.

    Ask yourself:

    • Does the topic make sense?
    • Can I realistically rank for this topic or at least get credited by SGE?
    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Mar 20 2024
    2024 SEO Tools & Tactics To Refresh Your Strategy & Boost Performance via @sejournal, @ahrefs

    This post was sponsored by Ahrefs. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    With AI taking the digital world over, constant Google algorithm changes, and growing competition, how can you shift your strategy to keep up?

    Constant changes mean SEO professionals need to find new ways to reach SEO success in 2024.

    If you’re looking to not simply survive but thrive amidst these seismic changes, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and look for new ways to work on SEO.

    In this guide, we’ll uncover strategies to help you increase search discoverability, and we’ll introduce the tools you’ll need to implement them effectively.

    Some of the most significant improvements you can start making in 2024 include:

    • Knowing how to optimize processes with AI.
    • Mastering technical SEO and website optimization.
    • Executing and measuring your SEO more efficiently.

    How AI Capabilities Can Be Applied To SEO

    Everyone’s talking about how to best harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 2024.


    But if there’s one thing you should take away from the AI conversation, it’s this: AI can’t replace humans.

    Utilizing AI in 2024 is about striking the perfect balance and finding the synergy between human ingenuity and AI advancements.

    Rather than relying solely on AI technology, find ways to use it to enhance your results.

    For instance, if you’re a content marketer looking to streamline your process, AI could assist by offering insights, recommendations, and data-driven strategies to elevate the quality and relevance of your content.

    How Ahrefs Integrates AI in SEO & Content Marketing Tools

    With modern tools, keyword research became a simple and streamlined task. Except for finding good seed keywords to start with.

    If you’re familiar with Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool, you’ll be pleased to know that it was improved with a new AI assistant that effortlessly generates keyword suggestions.

    You can get AI keyword suggestions directly within the platform, without needing to go back and forth with ChatGPT when doing your keyword research.

    And when it comes to content marketing applications for AI, Ahrefs released a number of free AI-powered writing tools. With these tools you can:

    • Input your rough ideas and get an organized, well-structured outline in minutes.
    • Improve the quality, clarity, and readability of a sentence or paragraph with an instant content refresh.
    • Generate optimized meta titles for better search engine visibility.
    • Craft informative, SEO-friendly meta descriptions for your articles quickly and easily.
    • Simplify and summarize your content with precision.
    • Brainstorm variations of ready-to-use, SEO-friendly blog post ideas to drive more traffic to your blog.
    • Generate descriptive alt text for your images to improve accessibility and SEO without a hassle.
    • Get inspiration for your next piece of content by generating a variety of creative ideas.
    • And more!

    Stay ahead of the curve and start leveraging AI to your advantage with Ahrefs.

    How To Master Website Optimization & Technical SEO

    A well-optimized and technically sound website acts as a sturdy foundation, insulating you from the impact of ruthless core updates that search engines may roll out.


    With search algorithms becoming increasingly sophisticated, seamless user experience, fast loading times, and adherence to Core Web Vitals have become critical factors in SEO success.

    By mastering technical SEO and keeping your site in top-notch condition, you’re not just offering a seamless user experience but also signaling to search engines that your content is reliable and trustworthy. 

    This proactive approach helps to ensure your site remains visible and valuable amidst ever-evolving ranking criteria.

    With Ahrefs Site Audit tool, you can run a thorough SEO audit to uncover your website’s technical and on-page SEO issues, and find out exactly what’s holding your website back.

    Plus, the platform recently added some exciting new features to enhance your analysis efforts.

    Here are some key updates you should know about:

    • Core Web Vital (CWV) metrics: Filter your pages by various CWV data points during website recrawls. Visualize CrUX and Lighthouse scores, historical changes, and individual metric performance in the Performance report.
    • Google Data Studio integration: Build personalized reports by blending data from different sources and visualizing everything in the form of reports and dashboards.
    • Search by HTML code and page text: Easily search for specific elements extracted during a crawl, such as Google Analytics IDs or “out of stock” labels.
    • List of issues for a particular URL: Addressing an issue on a specific URL is streamlined with a dedicated tab showcasing all related issues, allowing comprehensive fixes.
    • Links Report in Site Audit Issues: Navigate issues more effectively with an additional links report tab, facilitating in-depth analysis at the links level. For instance, browse and export links related to 404 pages for a thorough understanding.

    Easy Way: Use An SEO Plugin To Help Optimize Your Content

    Ahrefs also launched a WordPress SEO plugin to further assist in your optimization efforts.

    With this new plugin, you can automate content audits and see how each article performs for a chosen target keyword.

    The tool also provides recommendations on how you can improve the article for better results.

    Here are a few key capabilities:

    Ready to get your site in tip-top shape for the year ahead? Check out Ahrefs’ latest offerings today.

    How To Execute & Measure Your SEO KPIs More Efficiently

    Keeping your website up-to-date with SEO trends is important – but the buck doesn’t stop there.


    Staying competitive requires you to keep a vigilant eye on your rival sites as well, dissecting their strategies, and adapting your own accordingly.

    Success in SEO isn’t just about visibility; it’s about outperforming your peers.

    With Ahrefs, you can use the Site structure report in Site Explorer to quickly see how a competing website is structured, and which parts generate the most organic traffic.

    Reassessing the competitive landscape and recalibrating your strategy based on real-time insights are the secrets to staying ahead of the curve.

    Site structure is not the only noticeable update to Ahrefs Site Explorer tool. Its overview report has also been updated and is worth exploring.

    Not only does it load noticeably faster than the previous version, but you get access to the following new features:

    • New history chart.
    • Comparison mode.
    • Paid traffic data.
    • Year-over-year mode.
    • Google algorithm updates.
    • Calendar report.
    • Site structure report.

    Start Ranking Higher & Maximizing Opportunities With Ahrefs Now

    In the rapidly evolving SEO landscape, Ahrefs emerges as a strategic ally, providing the tools you need to not only stay afloat but rise to new heights.

    From leveraging AI tools intelligently to mastering technical SEO and executing with precision, we’ve dissected the key strategies that will redefine your SEO in 2024 and beyond.

    It’s time to embrace change and elevate your search performance.

    Start your journey to sustained SEO success with Ahrefs’ vast array of tools and exciting new features.

    With their updated usage-based pricing model, you can access the features you need most. Try it today!

    TRY IT NOW

    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Ahrefs. Used with permission.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Mar 13 2024
    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical Expertise via @sejournal, @Brian_W_Gareth

    Step 1: Demonstrate Each Element Of E-E-A-T

    First things first: how do you assert yourself as an authority on your chosen topic?

    If you are familiar with the concept of E-E-A-T, you won’t be surprised that it’s closely tied to topical authority. Working on one is the same as working on the other. And E-E-A-T makes it very easy to understand what exactly you need to do.

    What does E-E-A-T mean, and how do you demonstrate it?

    1. Experience: what you have personally dealt with as a person and a professional, and what you can share with your audience. Example: a detailed product review where you describe how you have used it.
    1. Expertise: a high level of skill and knowledge in your field. Example: a Knowledge Panel with an expert’s name, photo, credentials and contact information.
    1. Authoritativeness: earning the title of an expert by creating content and gaining rankings and backlinks over a long time. Example: being referred to as a credible source of information by another website.
    1. Trustworthiness: having a good reputation in the eyes of your target audience. Example: positive user reviews.

    Each of these elements signals to Google that your website is run by a real pro who knows what the users want. This is your end goal in very simple terms; now it’s time for details.

    Step 2: Stick To A Single Niche

    Can you dedicate your site to multiple niches?

    Sure. But as the saying goes, the person who chases two rabbits catches neither.

    If your chosen niches are not closely related, then Google will not view you as a specialist. But if they are closely related, then it’s very much possible.

    For example, TripAdvisor is a very well-known authority on all things related to travel: destinations, HoReCa, popular activities, and more.

    If you want to be acknowledged as an expert, the best bet is to pick a single niche – and commit to it fully. But if you are feeling ambitious, then pick several related topics and start pumping out content like the Internet will shut down tomorrow.

    Step 3: Start Gaining Experience & Never Stop

    How do you get good at something? By doing it countless times, of course!

    The more experience and knowledge you have, the more you can put into your content and show to your audience – and to Google. And the more you have to show, the more credible you appear in everyone’s eyes.

    And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. A bad experience is also a valuable experience.

    Step 4: Create Original, In-Depth Content – Lots Of It

    Obviously, no expert steals other people’s work. Real stars create their own content and make it as good as they can.

    Be original, be amazing, be productive – that’s pretty clear.

    What else should you do to get the most out of your content?

    • Update your outdated content. It’s easier and faster than writing a more up-to-date article from scratch. It’s also more correct from an SEO standpoint, as older pages have more authority than freshly made ones.
    • Include links to other sources. The more authoritative they are, the better. It makes your own content look more credible too, since you clearly know the best sources.
    • Fill your content with relevant keywords and phrases. Only your own experience can identify the best phrases to use, but WebCEO’s Keyword Suggestions tool is a great place to start looking.
    • Promote your content. Social media and email outreach are your best options.

    Also, quantity matters as much as quality. If you want to become a real authority, one or two articles won’t be enough no matter how great they are – you will need to make many more to cover your niche in full.

    Step 5: Create Different Types Of Content

    You may be sticking to one niche, but every niche can be presented in multiple formats.

    Therefore, you should rely on more than just blog posts. What else is there?

    • Podcasts.
    • Graphs and diagrams.
    • Case studies and research reports.
    • Images (photos, infographics).
    • Videos (including shorts, streams, webinars).

    The more you can make, the better. However, it’s okay to focus on only a few types of content as long as you can make them excellent.

    Step 6: Use An Efficient Internal Linking Structure

    When one page links to another, it shares some of its own authority with it.

    Interlink your site’s pages in an efficient way, and you will achieve two important goals:

    1. Your visitors will easily find any content they want.
    2. Your important pages will receive as much authority as possible.

    Note that page authority is not the same as topical authority. But the two are still connected, and increasing one increases the other.

    How Do I Create An Efficient Internal Link Structure?

    As was mentioned before, you need to create lots of content to explore a niche in full.

    Some of the pages you make will be closely related by covering different aspects of the same topic. Those pages can be grouped into a topic cluster.

    What Is A Topic Cluster?

    A topic cluster has (usually) one page with the main topic and several others with related topics. For example:

    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from Conductor.com, April 2018

    The hub page has the most authority in the cluster and shares it with the rest, making them more visible in search, too.

    So how do you maximize your page authority – and topical authority with it? For that, you need to know exactly how much authority your pages hold. Find out with WebCEO’s Internal Links tool.

    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from WebCEO, February 2024

    Then build topic clusters around your most authoritative pages.

    Step 7: Get Backlinks From Authoritative Sites

    Remember about authoritativeness? That’s the A in E-E-A-T, and it’s one of the most time-consuming parts because it requires building links to your content – the toughest part of SEO.

    But before anything else, you must find trusted sites whose backlinks will boost your authoritativeness. And the best way to do it is to see where your competitors are getting their backlinks.

    Open WebCEO’s Competitor Backlink Spy.

    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from WebCEO, February 2024

    Add your competitors’ sites in the Settings and press Save. The tool will generate a table with all of your competitors’ backlinks, with anchor texts and domain authority.

    Ideally, you will want to build your own backlinks from the most authoritative sites. And yes, your competitors are fair game, too! Here are a few effective link building methods:

    • Create content that’s likely to get backlinks. The best examples include case studies, research papers, and statistics – users love interesting data.
    • Find unlinked mentions of your brand and turn them into backlinks.
    • Find articles with outdated information on other sites. If they have links to outdated sources, offer to replace them with a link to your own, up-to-date source.
    • Find broken links on other sites and offer a replacement from your own site.
    • Collaborate with other specialists in your niche (e.g. via podcasts).

    Step 8: Grow Your Online Reputation

    Gaining clout requires transparency.

    People and companies cannot become authorities by staying hidden in the shadows like the infamous hacker Anonymous. At the very least, you will need to attach a name and a face to your content – for example, in an author bio.

    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from Inc.com

    The more professional it looks, the better.

    What else can you do?

    • Get positive reviews from your users. Often, they leave a review if you simply ask. Don’t be discouraged by bad reviews – having a few of them makes you look more natural than having none at all.
    • Create an About Us page. Describe your company and your experts, and feel more than free to brag about your successes.
    • Create pages on social media. Ideally, you want a page for your company and a page for each of your experts on every social network where your presence makes sense. Of course, if you work solo, then all you need is a single page just for you. Don’t forget to link to your social media pages from your site.
    • Engage with your followers on social media. Like their posts, follow them back when appropriate and, most importantly, reply to them as soon as possible. Setting up a chatbot can help you tremendously with the latter.
    • Engage with your competitors in social media. Be active on their pages, and you just might end up stealing from them a client or two (or more).

    Step 9: Create A Wikipedia Page

    Wikipedia is a very well-known and trusted resource. Having a page there is a huge boost to any person or brand’s image – especially if the article is filled with detailed information.

    Of course, you can only create a Wikipedia page about yourself as a person if you are already famous. Otherwise, your best bet is a page about your company.

    Either way, you are going to need an auto-confirmed Wikipedia account – one that is at least 4 days old and has made at least 10 edits. After that, you can start making your page. Feel free to use other, similar pages as a basis.

    And remember to include citations and sources from sites other than your own.

    Step 10: Provide Excellent User Experience

    And of course, a true expert’s website is expected to run flawlessly. Professionals have standards – and so do users who consult experts.

    What can you do to make your site a welcoming place?

    • Increase your loading speed. Find your slow-loading pages with WebCEO’s Speed Optimization tool and follow its recommendations for improving them.
    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from WebCEO, February 2024
    • Ensure mobile-friendliness. Your site must be responsive and work well on all devices. In the same Speed Optimization tool, click the Mobile tab and see where your site is falling short.
    • Fix technical errors. Find all errors on your site with the Technical Audit tool and fix them promptly.
    10 Steps To Grow Your SEO Authority & Topical ExpertiseScreenshot from WebCEO, February 2024
    • Translate your content into multiple languages. If you are after a multilingual audience, this is a must.
    • Ensure user accessibility. Make sure all kinds of visitors can use your site, not just healthy ones. Use a tool like ARIA by EquallyAI to see what sort of additions your site needs.

    Wrapping Up

    If you set the goal to become an expert in your field, then gaining topical authority will be a natural part of the process. It will take years of hard, prolific work; it’s your choice whether to commit or not. But the reward for this choice is acknowledgment in your community and in search engines.

    Take the first step on this long road. Arm yourself with SEO tools that will help your content reach the top rankings faster.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Mar 12 2024
    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts] via @sejournal, @calltrac

    This post was sponsored by CallTrackingMetrics. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    If you’ve been enjoying having random conversations with ChatGPT, or trying your hand at tricking a car dealership chatbot into giving you a new car for $1, just wait until you start using safe AI professionally.

    Marketers are finding lots of ways to use generative AI for things like SEO research, copywriting, and summarizing survey results.

    But one of the most natural and safe fits for AI is marketing data discovery during conversational call tracking.

    Don’t believe us?

    Here are a ton of AI marketing use cases that make perfect sense for your teams to start using.

    A Quick Call Tracking Definition

    Call tracking is the act of using unique phone numbers to tie a conversation to its marketing source, and collect other caller data, such as:

    • Location of caller.
    • New or returning caller.
    • Website activity associated with the caller.

    It can help attribute sales to:

    • Best performing marketing materials.
    • Best performing local website landing pages.
    • Best performing PPC campaigns.

    Manually tracking and analyzing each conversation can take hours, and often, important nuances are missed.

    This is where AI can help speed up marketing insight discovery and automatically update contact and sales pipelines.

    All you need is a prompt.

    What Prompt Or Quick Recipe Can I Use To Get AI Insights From Call Tracking?

    Your automatically logged call transcriptions + an AI prompt = automated conversation intelligence.

    Once you have this setup configured, you can drastically speed up your first-party data collection.

    To get more specific, prompts have two main parts. The question you want answered, and how you want AI to answer it. As an example:

    The question: What prompted the Caller to reach out?

    The prompt [how should AI answer]: You are a helpful Sales agent responsible for identifying what marketing channel prompted the contact to call. If the contact did not identify what prompted their call please only respond with “None”.

    Below are some example responses on what a contact might say:

    • Podcast ad.
    • Social post.
    • Friend or family recommendation.
    • Stopped by event booth.
    • Read reviews online.

    1 – 18. How To Use AI To Update Customer Contact Fields

    Starting off boring, but powerful: Generative AI can take your customer conversations and automate data entry tasks, such as updating caller profiles to keep them relevant and qualified.

    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts]Image created by CallTrackingMetrics, March 2024

    Impressive? No.

    But the time savings add up quickly, and let your team work on the things they like (that make the company money) instead of manually filling out wrap-up panels after a call.

    What Contact Information Can AI Automatically Update?

    1. Name – You’re going to get a name from caller ID which is a great start, but is it the name your caller prefers? Is it up to date or is it still the name of a former customer who left their company to chase their dreams? With a quick AI prompt, you can make sure you’re greeting the right person when they call back.
    2. Email Address – It might be a default value for form submissions, but getting an email address from a caller can take a lot of back and forth. AI isn’t going to ask for that last part again, or require you to read it back to them to verify. It’s just going to do it.
    3. Company Name – You might be using a sales intelligence tool like ZoomInfo to pull this kind of thing from a database. Still, you might also enjoy the accuracy of extracting directly from the words of your prospect.
    4. Buyer Role – Maybe not a basic field, but one AI can fill out nonetheless (much like other custom fields below!). Give your AI a list to choose from like a researcher, influencer, or decision maker. Sure would be nice to know how much influence they actually have without having to ask directly.

    Can AI Automatically Tag Conversations In My CRM?

    Of course!

    In CRMs and sales enablement tools, tags are used to categorize and segment your conversations for further analysis or follow-up.

    Some popular tags for call tracking are marking someone a new or returning caller.

    You can set a tag manually. You can set a tag using an if/then trigger. And because of what this whole thing is about, you can update tags using AI.

    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts]Image created by CallTrackingMetrics, March 2024

    Use AI to automatically add tags to your prospect’s profile, based on their actual calls.

    1. Spam – Sure, you can mark something spam yourself, but why not let AI do it for you so you can move on to real work?
    2. Product Tags – What was the caller asking about? Add product tags to calls for further analysis, or to jump right into the sales pitch when they call back.
    3. Lifecycle Tags – Have AI examine what kinds of questions your prospect is asking and qualify them along a scale of just learning to ready to buy. Or even, mark them as an existing customer.
    4. Target Account – Did the caller mention their company size? Maybe you asked them about revenue or tech stack. If you let AI know what your ideal customer looks like, it’ll help you quickly identify them when you’re talking to one.

    Can Generative AI Score Leads In My CRM?

    Yes! However, if 100% of your calls end in sales, skip this part.

    For the rest of us, phone, text, and chat leads range from “never going to buy anything” to “ready to give you my credit card info.”

    You need a way to gauge which leads are closer to “ready.” This is where lead scoring comes in.

    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts]Image created by CallTrackingMetrics, March 2024

    While there are lots of ways to score your conversations, you can use AI to sift through the transcription and qualify a lead for you.

    For call scoring, this often looks like a score of 1 to 5.

    So, here are a few examples of how AI can automatically score your leads from transcripts and chat logs.

    1. Readiness to Buy – The most classic approach to scoring is asking, “How likely is this lead to buy?” A score of 1 is unqualified, and a score of 5 is they’re already paying us.
    2. Ideal Customer Fit – Just like adding a target account tag above, train your AI on what a good customer looks like, and it can also give you a score. How closely does this caller fit your ideal profile?
    3. Coaching – Not everything has to be about the lead. Sometimes we want to grade our own team. How well did your sales team stick to the script? Were they friendly? Let AI roll it up into a score for you.
    4. Follow-up Priority – Aggregate readiness to buy, customer fit, and other inputs to decide on how aggressively to follow up with your leads.

    Can Generative AI Capture & Update Custom Fields From Phone Calls & Chat Logs?

    Your company is likely not the same as every other company using call tracking to get customer insights.

    You’ll want some flexibility to determine what’s important to you, not what your call-tracking provider has determined to be important.

    With custom fields, you get to put your creativity and strategy together with AI’s scalability to automate pretty much anything.

    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts]Image created by CallTrackingMetrics, March 2024

    AI can accurately assess and notate:

    1. Product Familiarity – You’ve tagged a call with a product name, but how much time do you need to spend educating the prospect vs. selling them?
    2. Related Products – What else could you be selling this person?
    3. Appointments – If your team runs on appointments or demos, having an AI add a calendar date to a custom field opens up a world of automated possibilities.
    4. Next Steps – Follow up with an email, a call, or an appointment confirmation text. Have AI pull the best next step from your conversation.

    19 – 21. How To Use Generative AI To Take Action On Automatically Updated Sales Contacts

    Ok, so there are some time-savings when you use call tracking and AI to update fields.

    If that’s not quite exciting enough, let’s see what you can actually do with those automated fields.

    21 AI Use Cases For Turning Inbound Calls Into Marketing Data [+Prompts]Image created by CallTrackingMetrics, March 2024

    19. Automate Advertising Optimization

    Use conversion data to inform your decisions.

    Throw AI into the mix, and you go from A to optimized without lifting a finger.

    How?

    The tags and fields your AI just updated become qualifiers to send only the signals that matter to your business over to platforms like Google Ads where their machine learning will go wild to find more of the same. Where you might have been stuck sending a simple conversion (like any call with talk time over 90 seconds) now you can send those conversions with a three or better score for readiness to buy, and a product tag.

    20. Better Personalization In Your CRM

    To kick things off, your AI automatically scraped the conversation for an email address, so now you can add a new contact to an email-centric tool like HubSpot immediately at the end of the conversation. H

    ave you updated product tags? Use that as a great trigger to enroll them in a highly relevant email drip.

    Feed your call scores and product tags into your CRM’s lead scoring system and add complexity to a usually surface-level approach. Or do something as easy as sync their company name to their record so you can personalize outreach.

    21. Following Up & Closing Deals

    You’re not having AI fill out custom fields for fun, you’re doing it to make your job easier.

    And one of your primary jobs is following up after a conversation to get someone closer to purchasing.

    Agreed on a time for your next meeting? Send that date field to your favorite scheduling tool and get a calendar invite in their inbox. Or maybe you had a softer “call me next week” agreement? Use that to send the caller to an outbound dialer that’s set to call as soon as you log in the next week.

    How To Use AI For Analyzing Calls

    Moving beyond data entry, when you give AI a call transcription to work with, it can pull out insights to help your team get better.

    In the time it would take you to read through one eight-minute phone conversation, AI has analyzed your whole day’s worth of calls and is off taking whatever the robot equivalent of a coffee break is.

    What can AI do to upgrade your conversation intelligence? Unfortunately, after 16 use cases, we’re bumping up against our word count and we’ll have to save that for part two: Another Ton of AI Use Cases for Call Tracking.

    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by CallTrackingMetrics Used with permission.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments