What makes people decide which articles to read and which to ignore?

How can you improve the CTR of your article?

Most writers will tell you that headlines make or break your article. It doesn’t matter if your article contains the secret to eternal happiness, no one will read your article if you don’t have a great headline.

To convince readers to click-through your article, your headline needs to induce curiosity while being honest and simple. This article will guide you through some tricks that can be used to create good headlines that will improve the organic click-through rates for your website or blog.

 1.  Make Sure Your Headline is Optimized

According to search engine people, 75% of Internet users don’t scroll beyond the first page of Google results. This is not surprising, given that Google’s algorithm gives you relevant results to your query in the first page. However, this means that you need to fight harder to put your article out there in the first page.

For this, your headline needs to be search engine optimized. Of course, this applies to the article in general and not just the headlines, but why forego a chance to optimize your article wherever possible?

Use tools like Answer the Public and check what questions are being asked about the topic you are writing about. Try and structure your headline to answer a commonly asked question. This could help put your article right on top of the Google search results.

Additionally, keep headlines short – preferably below 60 characters. Search engines won’t show the full headline if it is above 65 characters and this may reduce the effectiveness of your headlines.

Take these headlines for example

Headline 1 – Pesky Insects Eating Your Plants? Try These Products to Get Rid of Bugs in Your Backyard

Headline 2 – 10 Tips To Eliminate Bugs in Your Backyard

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the first headline. However, some experts believe that headlines with 8 words perform best for optimizing conversion rates.

2. Use Numbers Within Your Headlines Whenever Possible

Headlines with numbers really do work! Additionally, smaller numbers work better than bigger ones. And for reasons unknown, odd numbers read better than even numbers.

It is possible that people who see numbers in your headlines intrinsically feel like they gain quantifiable value when they read your article. Or maybe they feel like they know what they are getting into when they see a specific number in your headline. Take the headline of this article for example – When you read “10 hacks”, you get a sense of the countable benefits you gain from reading this article.  Whatever the reason, use numbers whenever possible in your headline without forcing it.

According to a survey by Conductor, 36% of all potential readers preferred articles with numbers in them.

Use this graph as a guide to make headlines that work

What’s more, 39% of women prefer enumerated numbers in them as compared to the 32% of men who took the survey.

The study also shared some interesting headlines about the casing-preferences of headlines.

• 64% of the population preferred headlines with title casing
• 21% preferred headlines with capital letters
• Only 7% of the participants preferred headlines in lower-case

Researchers saw an unexpected trend in this study. They found that a lot more people than they had anticipated liked headlines in upper casing. This means that headlines like “10 WAYS TO MAKE ART OUT OF SCRAP” appealed to an average of 1 out of 5 participants.

Headlines in title casing is the more popular choice

3. Speak the Language of Your Audience

Most articles are written for a specific audience. If you are writing about troubleshooting code errors, then your article should target people who deal with code. However, if your article is focused on helping beginners learn easy fixes to code errors, then your target audience would be say, content writers who dabble in basic codes. Your headlines in this case cannot be filled with industry-specific jargon.

So, how do you do this?

Think like your audience -

Ask yourself what you would look for if you were in the place of your reader. If you are a beginner looking to make a simple html code fix, then you are likely to type “HTML code fixes for beginners.

Construct headlines using keywords that target your audience –

If your article is intended to help beginners fix code errors, your headline could read:

- A  Beginner’s Guide to Fix HTML Code Errors

- 10 Easy HTML Code Fixes Every Content Writer Should Know

- Learn How to Fix HTML Code Errors Without Any Coding Experience

4. Concise and Crisp Headlines are Sometimes the Better Headlines

When constructing your headline, make sure that is clear and concise. If your headline is rambling and long without a concise objective, then it irks everyone who reads it. Think about how your article will be shared in social media websites – in sites like Twitter and Facebook, your headline is often the only thing seen.

Follow these Tips for a Well-Constructed Headline

– Write to the point; don’t complicate it

– Identify the crux of your article and find a way to phrase that in one sentence

– Use words that convey urgency and purpose like “Stop” or “Eye-Opening”

– If you are writing about hacks or tips, then include the problem and the solution in your headline

For example;

10 Hacks to Get Rid of that Pesky Garden Insects – Identifies the problem of pesky garden insects and the provides the solutions to these problems.

5. Let Your Headline Answer the Questions Your Readers Ask

Trust is an important factor to consider when creating content. One major function of writing articles is to keep readers coming back for more.  This cannot happen if your readers don’t trust you. Avoid creating headlines that create hype without substance to back it. A headline that reads “We didn’t believe it and you won’t either” is vague and most readers know better than to read your content. Readers don’t want to be tricked into reading anything. Remember the instinctive beliefs readers hold – If the headlines are vague, it’s because the content has nothing worthwhile to say.  

An interesting statistics we stumbled on in Hubspot is that 50% of search queries are four words or longer. Which means that when people type in a query, if your headline is a response to the query, then your article might just get ranked higher on the Google search page.

For Example –

Your headline that reads “ 12 Amazing DIY Supply Stores in Seattle” would be chosen by Google as a relevant answer if a user types the query  “DIY Supplies in Seattle”.

Additionally, sensationalism and headlines that exaggerate may work once, but would keep people from visiting your site again.

6. Add a Dash of Mystery to Your Headline

This tip seems contradictory to the previous one, but this method does have its (sparing) use. This is a thin line to follow – the headline must pique the curiosity of readers without making exaggerating claims. While this form of headline structure is used everywhere, it is particularly useful in technology-based articles. Headlines that read “This technology has changed the way NASA looks at space exploration” would be an example of such a headline. This form of headline is borderline overused, so you should take care when using it.

7. Use Punctuation to Add Character to Your Headlines

According to the Content Marketing Institute, headlines with a colon or a hyphen indicate the presence of a subtitle and works 9% better than regular headlines. Headlines with hyphens indicate an extra layer of information present in the article. This serves to increase the curiosity quotient of your readers.

Other punctuation points are also useful. While copy editors cringe at the thought of ending a statement with more than one exclamation point, researchers show that headlines with 3 exclamation points doubled their chances at being clicked when compared to all other punctuations.

8. DO NOT be afraid to Tap into Your Reader’s Emotions

The structure of headlines has changed over the years. While emotionally neutral headlines were preferred earlier, headlines today are structured to appeal to people’s  emotions.

This  headline is an example of the use of emotional appeal -

These 10 mistakes are damaging children’s self-confidence, Are you making these mistakes?

Parents who read this headline are instantly worried and are bound to click the link to check if they are part of the demographic mentioned in the article. 

When Negativity Works its Magic

A study by Outbrain tell us that the click-through rate for negatively headlined articles (The 10 Worst Foods to Give Your Dog) is better than the CTR for positive headlines (10 Foods that All Dogs Love).

According to this study, articles headlined with negative superlatives performed 30% better than those headlines with no superlatives. Headlines with negative superlatives fared 63% better than those articles with positive superlatives.

Psychology has an explanation for this – people are drawn to negativity because it serves to protect them from danger, while positive emotions make them disconnected.

This does not mean that all headlines should ooze negativity. Marketers believe that while the CTR for negative headlines are higher; people are more likely to share headlines with positive words.

9. Construct Formulas that Work for You

No two writers have the same writing process. Play with different headline formulas that could help you create sure-fire ways of making good headlines.

This could be your go-to formula when you have a high-stake article to push

One successful formula used by writers is using call-to-action words like “Learn” or “Try”. Headlines with these words invoke a sense of urgency in readers that make them more likely to want to read your article.

For example; People pay attention to headlines like “Stop What You’re Doing and Look at These Mind-Blowing Pictures of Solar Flares”.

Simplify Your Job

It is often difficult for writers to think of the best-possible adjectives to use in headlines. It is more likely that they think of good adjectives when they are working on something else. For this reason, it is suitable to make a list of adjectives and add to them whenever you think of new ones.

10. Use Terms in Your Headlines that are Commonly Used while Speaking

It is best to make content that is adapted to new trends like voice searches. 

Let’s look at the statistics given below (Courtesy, Hubspot)

– 19% of people use Siri at least daily

– 37% use Siri, 23% use Microsoft’s Cortana AI, and 19% use Amazon’s Alexa AI at least monthly.

– 20% of search queries on Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches.

– 43% of mobile voice search users do so because they say it is quicker than going on a website or using an app.

People using voice searches are more likely to search for “Best restaurants in London” than they are to search for “Spectacular Restaurants in London”. When writing headlines, use words that are commonly used. These words may bore you as a writer,  but for readers, they act as a link to familiar emotions and meanings. With several headlines vying to get their attention, readers aren’t going to spend more than a moment’s time in trying to decipher the intent behind your headline.

In a nutshell –

There are 10 tips to remember when making great headlines

• Optimize Your Headlines for Search Engines
• Include Numbers When Possible
• Make Headlines Relatable
• Don’t be Afraid of Keep it Simple
• Construct Your Headlines to Answer Potential Questions
• Use Terms that will Pique Your Reader’s’ Curiosity
• Don’t Shy Away From Punctuation
• Tap into the Emotions of Your Readers
• Find the Perfect Headline Formula That Works for You
• Use Words That are Commonly Spoken

A lot of factors go into making a headline work for you. Don’t shy away from experimentation. Sometimes the outrageous ideas are ones that work best.

If you have any other points to add, hit us up in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you!

10 Hacks to Write Great Headlines for Improving Organic CTR

The post 10 Hacks to Write Great Headlines for Improving Organic CTR appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is simply an organized system of achieving marketing goals through social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube. However, the actual process of doing that effectively requires expert marketing ability, knowledge of human behavior, data analysis and other valuable skills which a Social Media Marketing Specialist must have.

How to become a Social Media Marketing Specialists know more.

Brief Introduction about Social Media Marketing

Being a form of internet marketing, social media marketing specifically focuses on creating and sharing content in social media networks. Such content include text, images, videos or any type of content designed to drive audience engagement. It may also include paid social media advertising.

For a successful social media marketing campaign, whatever activities are carried out must be centered on the company’s marketing and branding goals.

How Social Media Influences Business Growth

Jason Stone’s MillionaireMentor Instagram account is an incredible example of monumental business growth influenced by social media. Through strategic partnerships with other entrepreneurs on Instagram and producing valuable content for his followers, he amassed 2.5 million followers. He then capitalized on this to net sales worth $7 million in one year, by sharing carefully selected affiliate offers.

Increased sales are just one of the ways social media can influence business growth. The following you get through social media sites can:

• drive up website traffic
• raise brand awareness
• create a positive brand association
• build brand identity
• improve targeted communication and interaction with specific audiences
• serve as a support desk for existing and potential clients
• build greater influence
• serve as an alternative advertising platform

High Paying Countries for Social Media Marketing Specialists

Although social media marketing is a global phenomenon utilized by businesses in virtually every country in the world, certain countries stand out with the greatest investments in it and having the most influential companies. Hence, Social Media Marketing Specialists in such countries naturally earn the highest pay.

Social Media Specialist Salary – Top 10 Countries:

1. Australia

Social Media Specialists in Australia earn an average salary of AUD 70,272 (USD 53,405.31) per year. It’s one of the highest paying countries for Social Media Specialists, with salary ranges between AUD 34,000 and AUD 136,000 (USD 25,839.32 – 103,357.28).

2. Unites States of America

According to PayScale, Social Media Marketing Specialists have a salary range between $36,000 and $69,000 per year, with the median salary being $45,860 per year.

Neuvoo gives the average salary for Social Media Marketing Specialists as $44,674 per year, which is $23 per hour. This is about 1.5 times higher than the US median wage.

3. Spain

Based on an experience of 3 to 15 years, a Social Media Specialist in Spain earns between €35,000 (USD 39,905.25) and €50,000 (USD 57,007.5).

4. Canada

The average Social Media Marketing Specialist’s salary in Canada is C$50,000 (USD 38,821.38). This is higher than the overall Canadian median wage of C$32,790 (USD 25,459.06), and doubles the Canadian minimum wage of C$20,378 (USD 15,822.04).

Here, most Social Media Marketing Specialist professionals start off at a low of C$32,368 (USD 25,131.41), which increases to a high of C$56,278 (USD 43,695.8) for experienced professionals.

5. Netherlands

Netherlands offers Social Media Specialists a median salary of €30,000 (USD 34,204.5).

6. United Kingdom

£27,301 (USD 35,204.64) per year or £14 (USD 18.05) per hour is the average salary for Social Media Marketing Specialists in the UK. It’s similar to the UK median wage.

The actual salaries range from a low of £19,000 (USD 24,500.5) for entry-level positions, to a high of £38,000 (USD 49,001) for experienced workers.

7. Singapore

Entry-level Social Media Specialists in Singapore earn a median salary of S$45,000 (USD 32,560.35). Such salaries typically range between S$36,000 and S$55,000 (USD 26,048.28 – 39,795.99).

8. Germany

The average net monthly salary of a Social Media Marketing Specialist in Germany is USD 30,218.

9. Japan

Social media specialists in Japan earn an average net monthly salary of USD 30,218.

1. Italy

Looking for work as a Social Media Marketing Specialist in Italy, you can expect an average salary of €21,667  (USD 24,703.63) per year, which translates to €11 (USD 12.54) per hour. This is 1.4 times higher than Italy’s average salary.

Entry-level positions have a low of €15,000 (USD 17,102.25), while experienced professionals can command salaries as high as €30,000 (USD 34,204.5).

Social Media Marketing Career Path

Starting as a Social Media Marketing Specialist, you can advance your career to higher level positions.

To succeed, start by advancing to these higher level positions directly related to social media marketing:

• social media manager
• social media director
• social media strategist

Thereafter, you can move on to these higher level positions indirectly related to social media marketing:

• digital marketing manager
• marketing director
• senior marketing manager
• digital strategist
• online marketing director

Conclusion

Considering the enormous influence social media continues to have on business growth, demand and pay for Social Media Marketing Specialists is likely to increase globally. Moreover, the profession has immense potential and multiple opportunities for career advancement.

Interested in Social Media Specialists/Experts? Check out Market Motive’s Social Media Marketing training course.

High Paying Countries for Social Media Marketing Specialists

The post High Paying Countries for Social Media Marketing Specialists appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

All online marketing efforts are classified as digital marketing. This means Digital Marketing Specialists must possess a wide range of expertise to manage and coordinate varied forms of online marketing campaigns, in multiples platforms.

Become an expert to handle all online marketing channels from our Digital Marketing Specialist program.

Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is all about utilizing multiple online channels and assets to connect with current and potential clients.

Such online channels and assets include; company website, blogs, e-books and white papers, infographics, email, search, social media channels (includes Instagram, Twitter and Facebook), earned online coverage (includes PR and reviews), online brochures and lookbooks, and branding assets (includes logos and fonts).

The Digital Marketing Specialist should be skilled in managing such assets and online channels using well-coordinated tactics, like: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), inbound marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), marketing automation, native advertising, email marketing, and online PR.

Why Digital Marketing is Important

Currently, people are spending twice as much time online as they did 12 years ago. This means the audience that was originally accessible offline is now found online; hence, marketing efforts must also follow.

Moreover, increased online purchases mean businesses which desire greater sales need to place their products and marketing efforts online.

B2B companies can build online leads through digital marketing, which spur potential clients to contact their sales personnel. B2C companies also benefit by building an accelerated buyer’s journey from the first contact with the brand to purchase of products.

Compared to offline marketing, digital marketing is much more effective at measuring ROI of all marketing efforts.

It’s particularly valuable in attribution modeling (tracking your sales back to your customers’ initial touch point with your business). This helps Digital Marketing Specialists identify customer discovery trends in order to adjust and refine marketing strategies. That’s an immensely valuable benefit, considering that a strong sales and marketing alignment produces 20% annual growth rates for companies, compared to a 4% revenue decline with poor alignment.

Top 10 High Paying Countries and Salaries for Digital Marketing Specialists

The most prominent countries in the online sphere typically offer the highest salaries for Digital Marketing Specialists.

1. Australia

A Digital Marketing Specialist in Australia earns an average salary of AUD 82,166 (USD 62,444.52) per year. The average hourly wage is AUD 42 (USD 31.92) per hour. That’s about 1.4 times higher than the Australian median wage.

Apparently, Australia offers quite lucrative wages, since entry level positions offer AUD 58,000 (USD 44,078.84), and experienced workers get paid as much as AUD 115,000 (USD 87,397.7).

2. Netherlands

In Netherlands, the salary for Digital Marketing Specialists ranges from €34,000 to €57,000 (USD 38,765.1 – 64,988.55).

3. USA

Digital Marketing Specialists in the US earn a median salary of $47,853 per year. On the low end, such professional earn $35,122, which increases to $63,810 for top professionals.

4. Canada

According to PayScale, the median salary for Canadian Digital Marketing Specialists is C$47,818 (USD 37,127.22). Here, entry-level professionals can expect a salary of C$36,003 (USD 27,953.73), whereas experienced workers get a high of C$67,810 (USD 52,649.56).

Neuvoo estimates the average Digital Marketing Specialist salary in Canada to be C$55,690 (USD 43,239.26) per year. That’s C$29 (USD 22.52) per hour, which is about 1.7 times more than the Canadian median wage.

5. UK

In the UK, the average Digital Marketing Specialist’s salary is £33,393 (USD 43,060.27) per year (£17 (USD 21.92) per hour). Starting professionals earn £23,000 (USD 29,658.5); whereas, professionals with years of experience get as much as £47,000 (USD 60,606.5).

6. Ireland

Ireland offers Digital Marketing Specialists an average salary of €37 000 (USD 42,185.55) per year. This equates to an hourly wage of €19 (USD 21.66), and it’s about 2 times more than Ireland’s median wage.

€26 000 (USD 29,643.9) is the typical entry level wage, and €52 000 (USD 59,287.8) is the expected salary for the most experienced workers.

7. Austria

In Austria, Digital Marketing Specialists earn an average salary of €30,800 (USD 35,116.62) per year (€16 (USD 18.24) per hour). This ranges from €22,000 (USD 25,083.3) at the entry level, to €43,000 (USD 49,026.45) for skilled workers.

8. Italy

Being a Digital Marketing Specialist in Italy, you can expect an average salary of €30,650 (USD 34,945.6) per year or an hourly wage of €16 (USD 18.24). That’s almost 2 times the average salary in Italy.

Salaries start at €21,000 (USD 23,943.15), going up to €43,000 (USD 49,026.45) for experienced professionals.

9. Singapore

Digital Marketing Specialists in Singapore earn between S$38,880 and S$59,760 per year (USD 28,132.14 – 43,240.15). The variation in pay is mostly based on experience level, industry, and company size.

10. Spain

Digital Marketing Specialists in Spain earn between €27,000 and €31,000 (USD 30,784.05 – 35,344.65) per year.

Digital Marketing Specialist Career Path

Through a gradual process, it’s possible to advance to high-level positions, starting from a career as a Digital Marketing Specialist.

Beginning as a Digital Marketing Specialist, you can move on to the position of an Online/Display Advertising Manager, and then become the Head of Online/Display Advertising. Alternatively, you can progress from a Digital Marketing Specialist to a Digital Marketing Manager, and then to the Head of Digital.

Conclusion

Digital Marketing Specialists are an in-dispensable part of modern firms due to the critical role of digital marketing in delivering an organized sales process and sustained revenues. This is why many countries offer competitive salaries for such professionals.

Want to grab a high paying digital marketing role, our Digital Marketing Certification program should help.

Top 10 High Paying Countries for Digital Marketing Specialists

The post Top 10 High Paying Countries for Digital Marketing Specialists appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Over the last several years, marketing professionals have come to recognize the power of compelling content to engage their customers and drive traffic and brand awareness. As a result, marketers are being presented with countless new innovations designed to help in the creation, management, and distribution of content.

The most successful marketers utilize several different channels for distributing content – tweets, Facebook posts, blog articles, Instagram, and more. While this broad approach to social media and content leads to better campaign results, it also creates a large organizational burden and an endless stream of tiny deadlines.

Recently, a variety of content calendar tools has emerged as a way to plan and automate the delivery of different types of content. As most marketing departments are eager to increase their focus on consistently delivering content across many different channels, familiarity and expertise with content management calendar tools will become even more important.

The Right Timing Gives the Best Results

Recently, there has been a lot of research providing insight into content marketing best practices. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 60% of the most successful marketers release new content every day, and 85% of content leaders release content on a consistent basis.

What this shows is that, for any amount of content, the industry leaders will gain an edge through timing their delivery. Whether it is daily, weekly, or somewhere in between – there is a demonstrated benefit to utilizing content in a way that engages your audience on a regular basis.

Dedicated use of a content calendar ensures you take advantage of this fact. Being able to shuffle around your planned content delivery with an eye towards consistency and regular engagement is a huge benefit all by itself.

More Types of Content, Managed in One Place

Since a content calendar template is built to organize and plan several types of content, marketers can easily add different delivery channels and content types into their regular rotation.

The content marketers with the most impressive results use an average of 13 different marketing techniques. This means not only distributing content through different kinds platforms, but varying the format between short articles, infographics, videos, and more. It can be a headache to juggle different content types while also being mindful of the timing of the message and overlap with other campaigns. A centralized hub that displays all these different content types in one calendar format can make it a breeze to add new approaches to your content market roster.

Effortless and Immediate Results with Free Tools

Setting up a great content calendar doesn’t require a tremendous amount of legwork or expensive software. In fact, there are several free spreadsheet and calendar tools that can help you quickly organize and plan your content delivery.

Being able to visually arrange and navigate a weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule of planned content can provide an instant level of clarity that would be impossible to achieve otherwise. Making strategic changes or shuffling around different tweets, posts, and videos become much easier when these changes can be put in the context of all the other simultaneous content channels.

Even without using the deeper functions of content calendars, the boon to organization and planning is immense. Content can be planned days – or even weeks – in advance, and strategically timed to achieve maximum results. Deadlines for content creation will never be rushed because articles and posts will be confidently planned well ahead of delivery.  This, in turn, will result in more consistency to content marketing efforts.

Oh, and let’s not forget about timeliness.  Regardless of your niche, there are always ways you can plan marketing campaigns around holidays to get tremendous ROI.  Content calendars are a perfect way to integrate these types of ‘micro-marketing’ campaigns into your overall marketing strategy.

Calendar Functionality to Can Help Manage Teams and Track Results

Most free content calendars provide templates and spreadsheets for tracking different content channels, but can also be customized to capture the organization’s delivery workflow. Columns can be added to show which team members are responsible for creating, editing, and publishing the content piece.

With clever use of a content calendar, team strategy and individual deliverable details can be consolidated in one place. Workloads for teams and individuals can be synced with important business milestones and delivery goals to make sure that a plan is not only strategically well-conceived but also realistic and achievable.

In the same way, most content calendar templates already include, or can be modified to include key metrics to track the success of a piece of content. Data about traffic generated, bounce rate, and sales can be correlated to specific blog pieces. This can help identify areas of opportunity for delivery times, methods, and format. This can be a handy addition to, or even a replacement of, the marketing department’s current reporting suite. Being able to see results of previous content delivery, and then move over one tab to plan future content delivery, can drive impressive results.

One Part of the Content Puzzle

Recent marketing data shows that the companies that spend the most effort on content creation and delivery have the best results. It is becoming increasingly important to tackle content efforts with focus and long-term planning as the goal of engaging customers becomes more competitive. Social networks have constantly changing algorithms which give preference to engagement. Once we’ve figured out as to what time and type of content work with an audience, a content calendar helps retain and push for growth in a disciplined manner.

There are a plethora of great tools available that have been developed to capture campaign data and automate content delivery. Incorporating free content calendars into your daily workflow and planning sessions is a valuable way to centralize content marketing strategy, delivery, and results in one place. With their intuitive interfaces and low learning curve, content calendars can easily become invaluable.

Why using Content Calendars can take your marketing to the next level

The post Why using Content Calendars can take your marketing to the next level appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Google created a lot of buzz in the SEO circles last month after news of its Mobile first Index finally being part of its algorithm was known.

Garry Illyes clarified (again) that the update is months away (still). He went on to add that SEOs and webmasters need not freak out.

However, it’s not a bad idea to get ready. Is it?

There might be a few questions that might be pop up if you aren’t from the industry, like:

What is Mobile first Index?

Why was this update necessary?

How does it impact SEO?

What strategies should I employ to stay ahead of the Mobile-first Index roll-out?

However, before I dive deep and answer these questions (and a few others), let me explain what Mobile first Index actually means.

What is Mobile first Index?

Indexing is a process by which Google lists, stores and arranges all the webpages on the internet for it to be shown against search queries.

Google is now going to index the mobile version of your site first instead of the desktop version. This preference of mobile over desktop is Mobile First Indexing.

Now that you know what Mobile First Indexing is, let me give you a little background on how Google might have decided to make this happen.

If I need to find one line answer to this question. My answer will be:

Change in Search Pattern.

With the shifting search pattern from desktop to mobile since 2015, when Google announced that mobile search has overtaken desktop in US, this update wasn’t that big a surprise. Going by the trend, I’m actually wondering why it took them this long to make this happen.

Considering, Google is known to align its update with user behavior, Mobile First Indexing seems to perfectly fit the bill. With Internet usage in developing countries largely driven by mobile and Google being the dominant search engine by a big margin, Mobile-first Indexing helps cater to its majority audience.

As of now, webpages are indexed based on their desktop version. The problem with this is that webmasters and SEOs emphasize on improving the site’s desktop version to improve rankings. Mobile version gets ignored often.

Websites optimised based ONLY on desktop usage pattern might not give the ideal User experience to mobile users. Considering mobile users continue to outnumber desktop users, the gap increasing even further, it is natural for search engines to give preferential treatment to mobile. This move can also be seen as Google’s push to make website owners optimize their desktop as well as mobile versions.  Google, after all, is known to resort to such antics to make sure SEOs toe its line in following the best practices.

What about businesses without a mobile website?

Well, Google says there’s no need to panic.

Google has also clarified that websites which do not have a mobile version, their desktop version will be indexed. However, it would be fair to assume that this might change in the future and you’ll have to cater to any future algorithmic changes that would make mobile index mandatory.

Let me reiterate:

There’s no need to panic (as of now).

However, it would not be a bad idea to optimize your website for mobile users.

What will be the impact of Mobile first Index on SEO?

• Being slow will not get you anywhere: If you have a slow mobile experience currently, you might want to consider putting work into the mobile page loading speed.

• Greater push to optimize mobile websites: The rapid mobile adoption rate seems to have triggered the need for optimized mobile websites instead of mobile-friendly websites

• Focus on user experience over SEO parameters: Marry UX and SEO to reap rewards as search engines want you to focus on the user instead of robots.

• Reduced use of lightbox ads/interstitial ads: Bid Goodbye to all the fancy lead-generation popups that might be troubling the users.

• Less differentiation between content served on desktop and mobile: This is to bring uniformity in the type of content served on desktop and mobile

If you’re going, ‘That’s alright! But, how do I deal with the impact of  Mobile First Index?’

In other words, ‘What should I do?’

Here are 8 things you can do to form your Mobile First-index Strategy:

1. Get a responsive site:

If you don’t specifically need a mobile website, make the desktop version of your site responsive. This will help you stay ahead of the Google update without any additional effort from your end.

It is also helpful in bringing uniformity in the way content is served on the mobile as well as the desktop site.

2. Make page load faster:

The Gold Standard for mobile page speed set by Google happens to be less than one second for Above-The-Fold (ATF) content to help the user interact with the page.

Of course, this is what is known as the ‘Gold Standard’ of page load speed. Four seconds is the acceptable standard for a page load.

There’s a good chance that a user might be dissatisfied with the page, or worse, might leave if it takes a longer time to load.

Now, who wants that?

No one!

However, there are still many websites that seem to prefer a fancy UI over the page load speed.

3. Create AMP pages:

Yes, Accelerated Mobile Pages! Coz Accelerated, Duh!

AMP forces you to have streamlined versions of CSS and using off-the-shelf Javascript library made available by AMP. The preference over speed is the prime purpose of AMP.

Fast loading pages will give you an edge by loading pages faster and bring you in the good books of the big G.

4. Run a mobile-friendly test and review errors in search console

If you’ve been procrastinating all this while to review those errors that throw up on the search console, then it’s high time, you took it up.

Head over to https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly and run your website URL and find out if it passes the Mobile Friendly test. Ensure that all the errors, if any, are taken care of immediately.

5. Make content easily accessible to users:

Ensure the content is easily accessible to users and not hidden under accordions for them to click and read. Think of your content placement with respect to mobile and how it’d impact the mobile user experience of a page. Right from clicking on the URL to landing on your page to loading time to being able to satisfy the user’s purpose, ensure the availability of content isn’t an issue for users to navigate.

According to Google, the reasons for inaccessibility of content are:

-Pop-ups that cover the main content users originally landed on the page for

-Standalone interstitials that users have to close to access before viewing original content

-Layouts that make above the fold content appear to be an interstitial while original content lies at the bottom.

Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html

However, legally obligated popups like cookie notification or log-in information to access indexable/private content is not a part of it. Even pop-ups that take a limited space on mobiles are considered okay.

Google had earlier clarified that it would index content that is part of accordions.

6. Optimize on-page SEO component

Optimizing on-page elements is essential. Even without Mobile-first Index looming over our heads. But it becomes even more critical to have everything in place. Pull up your socks and verify if the Meta Data, interlinking, image attributes, etc. are in their place. And if not, then get to work, my friend, because this is important.

7. Add structured data:

Increasing discoverability and ensuring that search engine bots are able to access your site’s content should be a priority. Structured markups are essential to help bots discover content on your page.

Usually, desktop versions of the sites are marked up properly and the mobile version is ignored. Because, of course, the page load time gets affected with markups and it made sense to skip this practice on mobile.  However, with Mobile-first Index, this calls for a change.

You need to ensure that the essential data markups are present in the mobile version of your web page. Sure, you can skip the non-critical ones, when compared to the desktop version of the same web page, if you fear it’ll make the page size heavy and slow down the load time. Load time takes precedence, anyway.

8. Progressive Web Apps: 

Alibaba and Flipkart implemented Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and saw a jump in the time spent on their pages. Not only have the conversions increased, but they’ve resulted in less data usage. This seems to be a good enough reason for consumers to use this, especially in developing countries where Internet connections seem to be on the slower side.

Now, all that is good. But what exactly is Progressive Web Apps?

PWA acts as a layer between website and browser by storing offline pages in an app shell, which contains JavaScript, CSS Stylesheets, and images, to give an optimum view. Updated content, whenever a user accesses it, modifies the existing page.

Isn’t that something?

This can be one of the strategies that can be implemented.

If the strategies stated above appear alien to you, there’s help available in the form of Market Motive’s Mobile Marketing course which you can check it out.

I’d like to reiterate that this is indeed a welcome step from Google’s end to ensure that the user gets benefited and brings SEO good practices to focus. Although the update is months’ away from being implemented, it’d be wise to get started on this.

Check out this Infographic created on Mobile First Index by Chetan Ramesh:

To summarize, Google Mobile first Indexing will ensure:

• Presence of Uniform content across different site versions
• Fast loading sites
• Focus on User experience

Share your thoughts about this move by Google and how it will impact you in the comments below.

How to make your SEO strategy work for mobile first index

The post How to make your SEO strategy work for mobile first index appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Andrew Hutton used PPC training to kick-start a successful career in paid search.

While still a busy sociology student at the University of California Santa Cruz in 2011, Andrew took on an internship with Market Motive; an experience that piqued a new interest in digital marketing.

When he graduated, he entered a competitive job market and found that his UC degree alone wasn’t going to be enough. So he dove back into digital marketing, taking certification courses with Market Motive.

It was a tough economy when I graduated. People were having a hard time finding careers. So I took courses to bolster my resume a bit, and to give me the practical experience I needed to find a job.”

Andrew threw himself into Market Motive’s courses, completing not one but three certifications: A Master Certification in PPC which he earned while studying directly with Google AdWords expert Brad Geddes, and self-guided Practitioner Certifications in both Digital Marketing Foundations and SEO.

And the impact it had was profound.

His Market Motive PPC training proved to be much more career-focused than his academic experience.

It was much more career-focused and skills-based; I was learning something that you can take and apply to an actual job. A lot of companies want someone who knows something specific like analytics, SEO, or PPC. The courses gave me much more of a practical background, and my practical know-how really helped during interviews.”

Not only did his newly honed digital marketing skill set give him an advantage, but the personal connections he made with faculty and fellow students helped give him the confidence and insight he needed to succeed in the job market.

The courses and connections I made, knowing Brad and others in the industry, was invaluable. Brad was super great with answering questions, and his insights were super helpful in finding a job.”

And a career was launched.

Armed with his new skills and connections, Andrew landed a job as a PPC and Digital Strategist with Mogo Interactive. And that turned quickly into a management position as PPC Manager.

Mogo is an integrated digital marketing firm that helps brands engage and transact with customers across display, video, Facebook, mobile & search. Andrew and his team are responsible for helping clients acquire, retain, reactivate, and upsell more customers. And his Market Motive training positioned him to help his clients succeed.

[Market Motive training] directly led to what I’m doing right now. I joined my agency when it was smaller but growing quickly; I’ve been here about 3 years now. The agency has doubled in size. I’ve been promoted a couple of times and now I manage a department.

It’s a great job and I am very grateful of the experience I gained at Market Motive as it has served me well.”

Return on Training Investment

Andrew’s certain that the investment he made — in time as well as money — was a smart one.

It’s well worth the investment and helped get my career going. The money you spend on it you’re going to get back 10-fold. My training gave me a leg up during interviews, because I had something to talk about when I first graduated.

And the faculty is excellent. These teachers are well-known figures in the industry; they’re the people who are at the forefront of teaching and sharing knowledge. But it’s more than just taking the class and never hearing from them again; you can email them or see them at conferences. I just came back from a conference and Brad was there presenting. It was great to say hello, and let him know that he’d helped me launch my career.”

We couldn’t be more proud of Andrew, and all of our successful students… their hard work, focus, and commitment to professional development is the reason we do what we do.

If you’d like to know more about digital marketing training with Market Motive, you can check out the courses Andrew took here:

Pay Per Click Training

Search Engine Optimization Training

Digital Marketing Training

How PPC Training Launched Andrew Hutton’s Career

The post How PPC Training Launched Andrew Hutton’s Career appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

How will Skynet impact SEO?

Every day, we see advances in human-like artificial intelligence, and search marketers are seeing big changes in the search landscape because of it.

But it doesn’t need to be the end of the world.

Yes, it’s true, Google is investing big in Artificial Intelligence (AI)… and Facebook and Microsoft aren’t far behind.

According to Bloomberg:

Google’s decision to deploy AI into search shows that companies are starting to entrust their most valuable businesses to systems controlled in part by machine intelligence. Facebook Inc. uses AI techniques to filter the newsfeed that comprises the personalized homepage of the social network and Microsoft Corp. is using artificial intelligence to increase the capabilities of its Bing search engine. Microsoft declined to be more specific about whether it’s using a similar approach to Google.

In fact, Google’s AI initiative – RankBrain – helps Google deal with about 15 percent of daily queries … specifically, unique new queries their systems have never seen before.

Although RankBrain is just one of hundreds of signals considered by the alogrithm in a ranking, it’s quickly become the third most important data point in rankings, and that’s no joke.

Essentially, the standard 200+ SEO factors could eventually become a thing of the past.

What’s that mean for SEOs?

Here at Market Motive we’re way ahead of the curve… In his Market Motive webinar last month, Danny Dover discussed how AI is affecting search, and how Moz’s Rand Fishkin had speculated that a good chunk of search results are processed by artificial intelligence.

In the video, Danny discusses:

• The Turing Test and what it means for artificial intelligence
• Examples of wide and narrow types of artificial intelligence
• How artificial intelligence is impacting SEO now and in the future
• How SEO best practices may shift in the coming years

This is a pretty big deal…

So we decided to make Danny’s video free.

Discover the most important advances in artificial intelligence, how they relate to Google specifically, and the strategies you can use to leverage Artificial Intelligence and SEO to stay ahead of this new search transformation.

Come with us if you want to rank.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SEO TRAINING

Read more from Bloomberg…

What Artificial Intelligence Could Mean for SEO

The post What Artificial Intelligence Could Mean for SEO appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Are YOU prepared for this awesome Web Analytics Career Opportunity?

If you have a good memory, you probably remember us singing the praises of Market Motive All-Star Mara Alvarez De Lorenzana.

After going through four (yes, four!) Self-paced Courses, she took on the big kahuna of the Web Analytics Certification Course, studying directly with Avinash Kaushik, getting personalized training and guidance, completing a challenging real-world analytics project…

…and finishing at the top of her class, earning Web Analytics Top Gun in 2013.

After graduation, she worked as a freelance Digital Analyst; and then moved into a position as a Senior Advisor for Web Analytics at Suncor Energy.

Here’s your opportunity:

Mara’s preparing for a 14-month maternity leave … and she’s leaving huge shoes to fill at Suncor during her absence that she believes can be best filled by a Market Motive grad.

As a Market Motive grad, I can attest to the rigorous and challenging workload lead by the best in the industry. Having these exceptional mentors personally review your work and give you tips from their real-life experience is invaluable which is why in hiring a digital analyst I would look to Market Motive graduates first! ” – Mara Alvarez de Lorenzana, Senior Advisor Web Analytics at Suncor Energy

Mara needs someone to fill in for her during her leave, and she’d love to have that person be another Market Motive grad.

And once you are in the door there is a very good chance that you can be reassigned to another position once Mara returns.

If you’ve already prepared by completing a Market Motive Coached Course in Web Analytics, it’s your lucky day!

Continue the Market Motive grad legacy at Suncor by stepping into the shoes of a successful Web Analyst.

Register for your Web Analytics Course experience!

If you’re not yet a Market Motive Coached Course Grad, get ready for your next opportunity by checking out the web analytics course.

You’ll follow Mara’s example by preparing for the future, so the next time an opportunity comes up, you’ll be the lucky one!

Either way, get moving.

Prepare for your opportunities, and create your own luck.

Visit Mara’s Market Motive Profile, and visit her on LinkedIn as well!

Market Motive Grad Creates Opportunity for Market Motive Grads

The post Market Motive Grad Creates Opportunity for Market Motive Grads appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Where in the world is the Market Motive Faculty?

At PubCon 2015!

If you’re planning on being at PubCon in Vegas this October, watch for our awesome faculty! You can hear them speaking on panels, or moderating, throughout the conference.

Look them up and say hi!

Here’s where you’ll find them…

Brad Geddes – Market Motive PPC Chair

The Changing World of PPC Ads

With the invention of ad customizers, dynamic ads, ad extensions, and other improvements, the ways in which you address and test ads has changed. In this session learn some advanced PPC tactics, how to use Google’s Display Network, and how you can take advantage of the options available to you.

See more…

Greg Jarboe – Market Motive Content Marketing Chair

Video and Podcast Marketing

Optimizing for multimedia is vastly different from text-based content optimization. This session will look at the special problems and opportunities of optimizing for audio, video, flash, and other embedded content. We will look at listings for various sources, including traditional search engines and multimedia engines, such as YouTube.

See More…

Jennifer Cario – Market Motive Social Media Chair

What Is New with Content Marketing in 2015

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will review content strategies that worked in 2015, teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique, yet relevant, topics to your industry.

See More…

Site Reviews: Focus on PPC (Moderator)

Examine pay-per-click (PPC) and other paid issues in this live site review session. Bring your business card to the moderator or any panelist at the beginning of the session, in order to have your site reviewed, or simply watch and learn as panelists examine PPC techniques and answer questions.

See more…

Todd Malicoat – Market Motive SEO Co-Chair

How to Recover from the Penalty Box

Panda, Penguin and Penalties. In this session you will learn what they are, why they exist, how to avoid penalties and, most importantly, how to recover if your site does get penalized.

See More…

Site Reviews: Focus on Content

Examine content and content marketing in this live site review session. Bring your business card to the moderator or any panelist at the beginning of the session, in order to have your site reviewed. Or, simply watch and learn as panelists examine how to review your website’s content through content audit techniques and answer questions.

See More…

Where in the world is the Market Motive Faculty? At PubCon!

The post Where in the world is the Market Motive Faculty? At PubCon! appeared first on Market Motive Blog.

Superstar dedicated student Ali Naqvi Amrohvi studying and new-parenting simultaneously.

It’s hard to make time.

As dedicated as our members might be to their professional development, as much as they might want to expand their skills and earn the certifications that’ll change their lives, it’s hard to make the time.

You get home from work, dinner needs making, the kids’ homework needs review, the dog needs walking, and by the time you can settle down and focus on a little “me time” all you’ve got energy for is “America’s Got Talent.”

But sometimes all it takes is a few minutes here, a few minutes there, lunch at your desk watching a short video, or the iPad on the treadmill while you work out in the morning.

Wherever you can fit in a few minutes, over time it adds up, and you’ve got new skills, new insights, and new confidence to accelerate your career.

Sometimes you need partners.

Even if you know all this, even though you’re studying on your own at your pace on your time, it helps to know you’re not alone.

Some folks create study groups… others do lunch and learns. Still others put reminders in their calendars to keep them on track.

That’s why we started #StudyBlitz.

STEP ONE: Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

STEP TWO: Watch for the hashtag “#StudyBlitz”. Every now and then, we’ll drop a reminder in your stream and urge you to take a few minutes to learn.

STEP THREE: Drop everything and study. Okay, not really; we know it’s not always going to be the best time for you. But if you can, take a few minutes and log in, watch a video, and get your learn on.

We truly believe that over time it’ll help you to acknowledge that now and then, a few minutes here and a few minutes there, is all it takes to build momentum.

And maybe you’ll meet a few like-minded peers along the way.

Ready? Go!

Market Motive #StudyBlitz

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