To help your eCommerce store prep for the upcoming holiday shopping season, we’re publishing a multi-part blog series full of digital marketing tips you need to implement today.

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday sales season just a few months away, now is the time to start prepping your site’s SEO strategy.

Based on our work with dozens of eCommerce sites, we’ve gathered 10 tips to make sure your Cyber Monday and Black Friday SEO is in fighting shape.

Check out the full guide below, or use this list to jump to your favorite:

1. Confirm staff and contractor availability.
2. Plan site migrations and major updates accordingly.
3. Identify and refresh any existing holiday website content.
4. Create new Cyber Monday and Black Friday pages.
5. Create new sales and discounts content.
6. Prepare any on-site interstitials.
7. Ensure your local business listings are accurate.
8. Create a plan for out-of-stock products.
9. Create a FAQ/Q&A page.
10. Confirm your platform can handle traffic increases.

Want assistance creating your SEO holiday strategy? Contact our team anytime for a personalized proposal.

10 Holiday SEO Strategies for Your eCommerce Site

In many ways, your search engine optimization strategy for the holiday season should be no different from your long-term SEO strategy. Your content should be fresh and well-optimized, your site should present a great user experience, and your technical SEO should be in tip-top shape.

However, there are also some holiday-specific strategies to consider. Shoppers behave differently during the gift-giving season (which stretches longer and longer each year), and your site should be tailored to their needs and wants.

Here are 10 holiday SEO tips we recommend from our years of experience working with online retailers just like you:

1. Confirm staff and contractor availability.

Before you can create a holiday-specific SEO plan, you need to know when your team will be available to help you out.

Whether you’re working with in-house SEO staff or contracting your work through an eCommerce digital marketing agency, get on the same page about timelines and projects way before the fall — or else risk your optimizations never seeing the light of day.

We also recommend specifically reaching out to your website development team. If you want to implement or test certain site changes before the holiday season, you’ll need their assistance.

Your developer may be stacked with holiday projects over the next few months; get on their “to-do” list early to ensure your site updates are complete long before the first frost.

2. Plan site migrations and other major updates accordingly.

On the same note, if you do have plans to migrate your site or perform other intensive site updates, now’s the time to make it happen — but only if you can get it completely launched before the holidays. If you launch your changes later in the fall, you’ll not only have less “fix it” time, but you’ll also have fewer opportunities to test your site on shoppers. 

The last thing you want is to implement changes that negatively affect conversion rates before the busiest shopping period of the year. If you can’t get it done in time, we recommend pushing it off until after Christmas to avoid unnecessary stress (and potential disaster).

3. Identify and refresh any existing holiday website content.

When it comes to holiday SEO content, start with the path of least resistance.

Does your site have existing holiday content that you can spruce up for this season? While it may not have been applicable as it was pre-COVID, you can certainly take the time to update it for this year’s customers.

Update your old holiday gift guides with new and popular products, rewrite your seasonal messaging with your brand’s social media team, and look for refreshed images to add to your site.

Of course, don’t forget your keyword research/optimization or backlinks review, either.

4. Create new Cyber Monday and Black Friday pages.

Don’t have any existing holiday content from which to mine?

Gather your copywriting team and get to work now, so that your optimized pages have time to rank in the organic search results before the shopping begins.

There are plenty of opportunities for generating holiday sales through SEO content like:

• Holiday gift guides and online catalogs
• “Best of” products or sales lists (ex: “Best Black Friday Deals 2022”)
• Holiday contests and sweepstakes (also great for email list growth)
• Product comparisons and reviews
• Holiday gift landing pages (like Nordstrom’s, below)

While your long-term content marketing strategy should always help customers find and learn more about your products, it’s even more important during the holiday season. Remember: Many shoppers are buying based on others’ gift requests, not their own interest in the product.

Short on holiday content ideas? Use SEO tools like Semrush and Google Trends to research holiday keyword possibilities, or start brainstorming with our eCommerce content strategy guide.

5. Create new discounts and sales content.

Similarly, you can also create temporary content for any Cyber Monday/Black Friday sales your business plans to run. The first priority with this strategy is generating holiday revenue; SEO may be secondary, especially if you plan on removing those Black Friday deals from the site later.

For a compromise between the two approaches, consider creating an evergreen “Discounts and Sales” page on your website. That way, you can update it year-round with your current promotions, incorporate it into your link-building strategy, and optimize it for those customers specifically searching for site promo codes.

6. Prepare any on-site interstitials.

If you plan on advertising holiday discounts and sales on your website, you’ll want to prepare and test any plugins, pop-ups, slide-ins, and other interstitials ahead of time.

Make sure they work far enough in advance, and don’t forget to push them live at the right time — or you’ll risk losing out on some big revenue. 

Consider SEO factors like page speed, Core Web Vitals, and other ranking factors to prevent any negative effects on your organic traffic. We recommend working with your website developer to create a plan that minimizes impacts on your SEO strategy and maximizes visitor purchases.

7. Ensure your local business listings are accurate.

If you have a brick-and-mortar location, make sure your Google My Business listings properly display your address and hours of operation.

If your store will be open at different hours during the holiday season, make sure that is communicated, too. Otherwise, you risk frustrating customers who show up to a locked door with no notice.

Local SEO is important for online businesses, too. Make sure you’ve claimed your Google My Business listing; this will give you control over your listed contact information in the SERPs. Your GMB listing also allows for Google reviews, which can be a boon to your brand awareness.

8. Create a plan for out-of-stock products.

COVID-19 caused a long-term disruption in the supply chain for many online businesses. While we can hope those issues will be resolved prior to this year’s holiday season, you need to plan for the possibility that they won’t be.

Communicate with your suppliers and manufacturers now to get a lay of the land. Then, decide what steps your team will take to avoid customers turning to your competitors if the product they want is unavailable.

We recommend:

• Enabling pre-orders on product pages
• Enabling email notifications when products are back in stock
• Internal linking to related products
• And more, as detailed in our “out of stock products” guide

Pro tip: Keep our Out-of-Stock SEO Flowchart handy in the months to come.

9. Create a FAQ/Q&A page.

An increased number of customers to your website will also mean an increased response from your customer service. Head off some of the repetitive questions with a FAQ or Q&A page that’s easily accessible from your homepage, if you don’t already have one.

Use this page to address some of your customers’ biggest (and most searched) concerns about your brand, including:

• Shipping and return policies
• Product how-tos/details
• Phone orders
• Order statuses
• Use of personal information

10. Confirm your platform can handle traffic increases.

Finally, ensure that your eCommerce site can handle increased traffic during the busiest time of the year. 

While there are plenty of predictions for how this year’s online shopping season will go based on last year’s Black Friday performance, no one actually knows how (or how much) shoppers will spend. Be prepared for the best-case scenario — that browsers will flood your site — and make sure that your eCommerce platform can handle it.

Speak with your website developers or your platform representatives to discover which preemptive steps you can take to prevent a dreaded site crash.

Kick Off Your Holiday SEO Marketing Campaigns Now

Your SEO strategy will take time to implement and start working, and Google’s algorithm won’t work twice as hard just because it’s the holiday season. So, if you want your site to attract and retain holiday shoppers, now is the time to evaluate your SEO strategy and start making optimizations.

Work with your digital marketing team or agency to identify your biggest priorities before the holiday season, and use our tips above as guidance when determining your strategy. 

Want a helping hand (or just an extra set of expert eyes)? Request a free proposal from our eCommerce SEO marketers anytime.

In the meantime, review our other digital marketing holiday guides at the links below:

• eCommerce Holiday Marketing Strategies
• PPC Holiday Strategies
• CRO Holiday Strategies
• Best Practices for Holiday Email Marketing
• Social Media Holiday Ads Tips
• Pre-Holiday Code Freeze Best Practices

Although many countries, including the United States, have laws about accessibility (like the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] of 1990), accessibility-compliant eCommerce sites are few and far between. 

This is a huge disappointment for people who fall into this demographic — and a giant opportunity for your brand to level up and better serve your potential and existing customers.

In this guide, we’ll share a few recommended strategies from Zack Poelwijk, Director of Customer Success at ABILITY Digital Accessibility Co, that will help you reach a bigger audience, improve your accessibility features, and bring your online store closer to ADA compliance. 

As a bonus, these easy upgrades not only help your customers with disabilities, but they’ll benefit your overall SEO strategy, too!

Let’s get started.

What is Online ADA Compliance?

When we think of ADA compliance, we often recall the ramps installed where stairs are present in a building or braille printed on signs that point to bathrooms.

But what about online ADA compliance?

When it comes to accessible websites, eCommerce businesses need to think about customers with all sorts of abilities and support systems like screen readers, closed captions, and keyboard-only access. 

For example, users of a website who are on the visually impaired and color-blindness spectrum most likely use a screen reader or require larger font. Some people may not be able to use a mouse and can only navigate websites with a keyboard. Customers with cognitive impairments may need more time to process information before a decision can be made.

In other words, as Poelwjik describes, digital accessibility is “the philosophy of ensuring that digital assets are built in a manner, or retrofitted in a manner, to be accommodating to [various assistive technologies for customer usability].”

What ‘Compliance’ Means

Online accessibility is ultimately defined by one set of rules: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, also known as the WCAG.

This single point of truth for global accessibility standards makes it much easier for brands worldwide to achieve these goals, while simultaneously keeping complicated government speak out of the equation.

When it comes to ADA compliance, there are three different levels that companies can achieve:

1. A: This is considered the bare minimum standard a website must meet. 
2. AA: Reaching this mid-range level ensures that your website is built to avoid the biggest, most frequent barriers for disabled users.
3. AAA: This is the highest achievable standard and can actually be impossible for some websites to reach, depending on their content types.

Why It Matters

Digital accessibility is important from two main standpoints: altruism & legality. 

1. Altruistically, providing alternative, equitable outcomes to people with disabilities is part of the fabric of our communities. 
2. Legally, we live in the most litigious society in all of history, which means accessibility lawsuits are common. In short, your company could be sued if it does not provide equitable service to all of your customers, regardless of ability — and there are plenty of lawyers waiting in the wings to make it happen.

By committing to an eCommerce site with improved accessibility, you’ll provide more shopping opportunities for often-overlooked audiences. In return, they’ll be more likely to frequent your online store out of ease of use. 

Finally, improving the user experience for impaired customers improves the user experience for non-impaired customers, too. (We’ll discuss more on that below). In turn, this can boost SEO performance and overall revenue for retailers like you.

eCommerce Website Accessibility Best Practices

When it comes to accessibility for eCommerce websites, there’s one question to answer:

What additional accommodations are needed for a customer with disabilities to navigate a website, find the products they want, add them to the cart, and check out effectively?

The following suggestions are based on a few of the standards ABILITY highlights for anyone looking to improve online accessibility. 

This is a great starting point, but it’s not a comprehensive list. We recommend that your brand conduct thorough accessibility testing to identify every issue on your site and create a plan of action.

Only that way can you ensure the best user experience for your prospective shoppers.

1. Color Contrast

Visual impairments fall among the most common disabilities. Luckily, providing proper solutions for these users is fairly easy. 

By ensuring adequate color contrast anywhere text is present, you can alleviate many of the stressors that vision-impaired customers face. 

Adequate contrast is measured by comparing the color of your font against its background. This ratio is also determined by the size of the font. Standard size font needs a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1; for large or bolded font, you only need a 3:1 color contrast ratio.

Keep in mind that this high-contrast rule applies to everything — infographics, promotional text superimposed over an image, marketing brochures, product shot sheets, etc. 

Use a tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to check your font size vs. contrast ratio to understand your current contrast and mark which parts of your site need improvement. 

2. Image Alt Text

In addition to proper color contrast, you must ensure that all images on your site include alt text.

Alt text describes an image to your visitors so if they are visually impaired, they can still understand the content on your site. This is especially important in cases like infographics and product descriptions. 

Without alt text, your customers could miss crucial details about your products or important context on your webpage.

Decorative images are the exception to this requirement. But we recommend using alt text for all images to provide a fuller experience to your website visitors.

You can use software like Chrome’s Web Developer Plugin to view current alt text on your website. Watch our video below for a quick walkthrough of how it works.

The video below is hosted on YouTube. If you need assistance with viewing the video, please contact info@goinflow.com.

3. Tab Navigability & Visual Focus Indicator

After visual impairments, mobility differences are some of the most common barriers for website users. 

Able-bodied people use a mouse to navigate screens and websites and shopping situations — but what about those customers who can’t use a mouse? Many of them use the tab and directional keys to maneuver the internet.

Everything on a website that you’d otherwise be able to interact with using your mouse — links, buttons, and anything that is clickable, actionable, and takes you somewhere — needs to be just as functional by using only the tab key.

When building this functionality, keep in mind that clicking the tab key should navigate a user through a website from left to right, top to bottom.

For example, your users should be able to move from your homepage to a product page with the tab key. Then, within that product page, they must also be able to select the size, color, and any other details of the item they are trying to purchase. 

In addition to that capability, the user also needs a visual focus indicator, so that they can see their progress on the page. Usually, this is a color change in text or a dotted line box around the current selection. 

You can accomplish this through CSS, which is a simple, superficial, top-level code change.

4. Programmatically Determinable

All of the elements of your webpage need to clearly show the user what the object is and what they are supposed to do with it. Generally, you can make this happen in the user interface development process.

To ensure accessibility, all of these same things have to be programmatically determinable. In other words, screen readers and other assistive technology must be able to understand what each piece is. 

When a webpage is programmatically determinable, it means that a screen reader can read a piece of code to identify what the thing/button/etc. is, along with its clearly identifiable, accessible name (the label we have given that thing in the code) that it shares with the user.

For most eCommerce sites, this step can be completed with the help of an experienced web developer.

5. Finalizing the Purchase

Once your customers can maneuver your eCommerce website with tab navigability, you must ensure that they can finalize the purchasing process with similar ease.

Your users should be able to fill and check out an online shopping cart through the help of their assistive technologies (and without using a mouse). For eCommerce sites, this can get complicated, because there are so many details involved in the checkout process and so many places things can go wrong.

From filling out forms to entering credit card numbers to verifying all the details, your brand needs to prioritize accessibility in the checkout process. Not only will this ensure your site meets WCAG guidelines, but it also prevents you from losing that valuable sale!

Again, we recommend hiring an experienced accessibility developer to make necessary improvements to your checkout process.

6. Fillable & Form Fields

When it comes to the online shopping checkout processes, fillable fields and form fields present a unique challenge. 

Each of these fields has very specific requirements and rules to follow. Making these rules known to your users and their support systems requires that every detail be programmatically labeled behind the scenes. 

Some fields will require numbers and others letters, while some will allow for both. These need to be as detailed as possible. You’ll also need to name each field, so that technologies can identify them for users — First Name Field, Last Name Field, etc. 

All of these labels can be created with simple HTML manipulation.

Don’t forget: You’ll also need to check color contrast and tab navigability with the visual focus indicator for each piece — so that your user and their support systems know where in the form they are, too.

Error messages also need to be made available to screen readers. These messages should have all the same accessibility traits, as well.

7. Mobile Responsiveness

How many of us use our phones for online shopping — whether we have an impairment or not? (Answer: About 36% of us.)

We all know the importance of mobile responsiveness (also known as mobile reflow) in website design and for SEO purposes. 

But, just like any able-bodied users, many users with disabilities primarily or only use their phones or tablets to surf the web or make online purchases. Therefore, it’s critical that your site be built to be responsive to their needs.

According to the WCAG, all web content needs to be able to elegantly stack to one column. (The association provides rules on how to do this with guidelines around pixel width and more.)

Unfortunately, some digital objects (like clothing size charts or large graphs and images) can’t necessarily be shrunk down to become mobile-sized. For example, big tables can’t be re-sized to be mobile-responsive and shrink to fit the screen because then, well, they’d become unreadable. 

To make these elements accessible and responsive, you build your mobile web design in such a way that mobile users can scroll in only one direction at a time — either up and down or side to side — so as to keep the information readable. 

Starting Your Accessibility Initiative

The tips above are a good place to start when it comes to creating an ADA-compliant eCommerce website for your customers. 

That said, following these rules alone will not automatically designate “full compliance” for your site. Instead, you may need to bring on more tools and services to ensure complete accessibility, provide the best experience for all of your users, and avoid litigation.

For brands looking to upgrade their customer experience, there are two main solutions available. 

Overlay Widgets

The first is to implement an overlay widget. These accessibility tools typically provide an accessibility icon that appears in the top corner of the site. If users click on them, the tool can provide some additional information and usability. 

Often, these overlays don’t produce the wide array of results they promise, so we don’t recommend relying solely on these for your accessibility needs. 

If you’re just getting started with accessibility and your budget is very low, they can be a temporary bandaid — but should not be trusted as the end-all-be-all of your site’s accessibility.

Full Accessibility Audits

The second solution is to conduct a detailed, person-led eCommerce accessibility audit. 

These audits are a much better way to ensure your company is in full accessibility compliance. If you want to reduce your risk, keep lawyers away, and sincerely make your site user-friendly to your entire target audience, an audit is the best solution. 

Fortunately, there is a range of audit companies out there for every need and budget:

• ABILITY provides a full suite of accessibility services that cover all of your digital assets. They offer an overlay product, as well as auditing, transcripts, closed captions, audio descriptions, and a compliance certification.
• Deque also offers a remediation overlay, along with audits and training for your in-house team to ensure that any further developments are made with accessibility in mind.
• UserWay provides a widget alongside their auditing services. They also can check for contrast and dyslexia font issues, as well as moderate your content.

If you’re already working with a digital marketing agency, they may have a partnership program with an accessibility service — so it’s worth asking if they have any recommendations for you, as well. 

Improve Your Revenue with Your Accessibility Strategy

Improving your eCommerce website’s accessibility will not only help you reach new customers, but it will also actually help your current customers more easily navigate your site. In addition, these updates can drastically improve your technical SEO strategy. 

In short, following the steps above can lead to greater revenues, market share, and conversions for your eCommerce store.

By streamlining your accessibility, you can outshine your competitors and draw in a loyal customer base. When people find online stores that are easy to navigate and buy from with clear access, they keep coming back — and you’ll reap the rewards.

Want a digital marketing strategy that addresses these accessibility issues and improves your online revenue? Request a free customized proposal from Inflow today to learn more.

If you want to start improving your site’s accessibility with a more DIY approach, we recommend the following resources:

• WCAG Quick Reference Guide
• Color Contrast Checker
• WCAG 2.1 Checklist

In digital marketing, you never make promises you can’t keep or set goals you can’t reach. 

But, in some cases, ad copy, the right messaging, and the perfect opportunity all line up to produce results that blow away any conventional expectations. 

In this blog, we’re sharing an incredible Facebook Ads case study about a former client of ours, Seltzer Goods. They’re a B2C brand that sells uniquely inspired home goods for modern living. 

Like most businesses at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, they saw a sharp drop in orders. But, instead of pulling back, they decided to double down and increase ad spend during this time — leading to substantial results, including:

• 9.68x return on ad spend (ROAS)
• 785% increase in monthly revenue
• $4.87 cost per customer acquisition (CPA)

But the success didn’t stop there. In addition to the improvements on the paid social channels, sitewide organic metrics increased significantly, too, with:

• 6.6% organic conversion rate
• 183% increase in monthly organic traffic.
• 931% increase in brand query and product searches 
• 200% increase in non-branded search query impressions 

Today, we’ll tell you exactly how we made it all happen — so you can replicate these results in your eCommerce campaigns, too.

Defining the Scope of the Project

Like many eCommerce businesses, Seltzer Goods was initially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their challenge to our team: Create more sales from their B2C products to offset the negative effects on their wholesale business. 

Fortunately, Seltzer Goods’ products lent well to the stay-at-home orders during early 2020, especially their artistically unique jigsaw puzzles. 

The brand had the right products and plenty of inventory to make a splash; it just didn’t have enough awareness of these products among consumers to create the desired sales.

So, we came up with a solution to drive the interest Seltzer needed.

The ingredients:

• 1 Facebook Ad
• 1 Instagram Ad
• Strong creative and ad copy for both
• A receptive (cold) audience
• Carefully scaled ad budget

Setting Up the Ads

Although Seltzer Goods had never run campaigns before on their Facebook Ad account, we knew paid social advertising would eventually be a key to their success. So, before we even began our engagement, our team added a Facebook pixel to the eCommerce site.

This gave us a major advantage: Because Facebook had been collecting data on purchasers and site visitors for months, we were able to hit the ground running when creating well-informed ads.

The Campaign

Here at Inflow, we believe in the power of the “See, Think, Do” Facebook Ad strategy. It’s served us extremely well when working with other eCommerce stores, so we used this framework for Seltzer Goods, too. 

Because we wanted to reach new customers and see how they responded to our ad creative, we started with a single campaign that only targeted cold audiences (with no retargeting ads). By choosing a conversion-based approach optimized toward purchases, Facebook and Instagram would serve the ads to users who were most likely to take action — weeding out the window shoppers.

With this setup, we’d send more qualified shoppers into Seltzer Goods’ sales funnel from the very start.

The Ad Set

When creating an ad set on Facebook, it’s easy to get lost in all the options you can select. 

For Seltzer Goods, we kept it simple and opted into all devices and automatic placements. This would give Facebook and Instagram’s machine learning more options to display the ads, leading to better results for our client.

Given the lower price point of the product and the likelihood that consumers would impulse buy, we used a one-day click delivery optimization, instead of the default seven-day click optimization. (We recommend using the latter only if your product costs more than $100 or if your customers have a longer buying cycle.)

The Ad Set Targeting

For our audience targeting, we started with an interest-based audience ad set that was closely related to the puzzles we were selling. 

Then, we quickly added in lookalike audiences for three segments of visitors that took action on the site:

1. Key page visitors 
2. AddToCart users
3. Purchasers (once the seed audiences were sufficient)

Having the Facebook pixel properly implemented and firing on key events such as ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase expedited the data collection on the seed audiences and built better lookalike audiences faster. 

Pro Tip: Take note of the age of your lookalike audience. For example, a 14-day lookalike audience could look and behave dramatically differently from a 180-day lookalike audience, particularly during abnormal time periods such as pandemics, holidays, or Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

When implementing the lookalike audiences, we used the existing post ID from the interest-based ad sets. This allowed us to retain social proof (likes, shares, and comments) from the original ads, which would act as a positive signal to Facebook’s algorithm and potential buyers.

Next, we applied a clean and consistent naming convention structure from the campaign to the ad sets, the ads, and the UTM tagging on the back end of the URL. This streamlined our optimizations within the campaign and made reporting much easier. 

Additionally, it allowed us to leverage the power of Google Analytics alongside the native reporting from Facebook Business Manager/Ad Manager, which is crucial in understanding your attribution models and entire audience journey.  

The Budget

For the best Facebook marketing results, we recommend incrementally scaling your budget over time. In the case of Seltzer Goods, we scaled up budgets by 10–15% every couple of days, as long as the ROAS was at least 5x.

A more significant increase can wreak havoc on well-performing campaigns and hurt ROAS or cost per acquisition (CPA) metrics when Facebook has to quickly adjust to new information and determine the best way to serve it. 

Breaking Down Our Ads

While targeting and budget are important for Facebook Ad success, you won’t get anywhere without first having an attractive, engaging ad. 

Facebook A/B testing is key to creating an ad your target audience wants to see. By testing a few options, you can combine the best creative and copy to drive sales, rather than waste money running one ineffective ad at a time.

For Seltzer Goods, we started by running two different ad creatives against the same in-ad copy.

The Creative

When creating our Facebook ads, we selected single-image ads in a 1:1 ratio. 

Because the majority of social media consumption happens on mobile devices, the 1:1 ratio gives advertisers the best chance of showing the ads in an optimal format to a wider audience. 

This particular creative captures the fun, bright, and artistic essence of Seltzer Goods’ puzzles and makes it an ideal choice for Facebook and Instagram advertising. By capturing the user’s attention, it stops the proverbial scroll and lends itself to a closer look.

Ad Creative #1:

Ad Creative #2:

Remember, your ad creative (image, video, or carousel) is the most important factor in a successful ad. It’s the one thing that is exclusively yours and the best way for your brand to stand out in the crowded social feeds.

The Copy

For this campaign, we chose to retain the same copy across both ad options for a few important reasons:

1. It’s relevant. Seltzer Goods recognized the value of people staying indoors during the time period in which we ran the ad. 
2. It’s positive. Exercising the mind is something that everyone — from doctors and nurses to grandmas, aunties, and your seven-year-old nephew — can agree is good for you. 
3. It uses a natural call to action. The statement “Strengthen your puzzle game” is subtly woven into the text field and invokes a challenge to shoppers.
4. It invokes a message of togetherness. Seltzer Goods’ Better Together series featured puzzles with modern designs from artists who meant something to the brand. It’s unique to Seltzer Goods, and, by highlighting this information in the ad, users had one more way to connect with the company. 
5. It uses positivity and hope instead of hard sales. The copy’s headline, “Brighten Your Day One Piece at a Time” is certainly not your standard ad headline (“Get Your Puzzle Today!” or “Hurry, Supplies Are Limited!”) — but it sparks more joy for purchasers in a time of stress and uncertainty.
6. It emphasizes a quick turnaround. During a time when out-of-stock issues abounded, using the phrase “In Stock & Ready To Ship” reassured consumers upfront that Seltzer Goods’ products were stocked and ready to go. 

Results & Takeaways

When it comes to paid social advertising, effective creative and copy are your not-so-secret weapons. Stay true to your brand, delight your customers with an ad creative, and you’ll win every time. 

At the same time, scaling vertically and horizontally can also reap huge benefits. But you need good audience data to do it right. 

The more recent your seed audiences, and the larger they are, the better lookalikes you can create — and the more sales you can drive through your campaigns.

Using these strategies, we saw great success with Seltzer Goods’ campaigns, including a 4.5x ROAS (9.68x ROAS with Facebook attribution) and less than $10 CPA ($4.87 with Facebook attribution).

In total, this campaign accounted for 25 percent of Seltzer Goods’ monthly revenue. Sitewide sales during this period, however, were equal to the total from the last seven months of sales — a 785% monthly increase.

So, what did it mean?

Our Facebook Ads campaigns didn’t just affect social revenue. It also affected other channels, too. 

How Paid Ads Affect Other Channels’ Performance

After everything was calculated, Seltzer Goods’ paid social ads only accounted for 25% of the total revenue generated in this 30-day campaign. 

That leaves another 75% of the generated revenue unaccounted for, which we can attribute to other channels — organic, direct, and referral traffic  — that also experienced significant increases in performance.

In other words, Facebook and Instagram ads can (and often do) have a quantitative and qualitative positive effect on other channels, too. 

Below, you’ll see Seltzer Goods’ top-level source data for organic, direct, and referral traffic, comparing the first month we launched our initial Facebook campaigns to the month before.

In addition to the new cost-per-click (CPC) traffic, direct and organic channels skyrocketed in both traffic volume and conversion rate (185% to 533% and 351% to 903%, respectively), suggesting both an increase in demand and intent.

While we acknowledge that this particular time frame was opportune for puzzle vendors, we also know that no marketing effort exists in a silo. While other eCommerce clients have also seen increased demand, traffic volume, and transactions as a result of COVID-19, Seltzer Goods is a unique case —  because the only marketing change we implemented was focused solely on Facebook and Instagram ads. 

Increased Referral Traffic

Our paid social campaigns increased the exposure of not just Seltzer Goods’ puzzle products, but also the brand as a whole. With that increased awareness came backlinks and referral traffic from BuzzFeed and Architectural Digest, as well as a better-established social media presence for the brand.

Using Google Analytics, we also saw that some of the referral traffic (such as that from BuzzFeed) found Seltzer Goods through Facebook and Instagram ads. It was quality traffic, too; for referrals from BuzzFeed, users, conversions, and conversion rates increased by 1,206%, 1,001%, and 18%, respectively.

The trend continued when we examined the organic side of these social platforms. For example, the organic Instagram referral source saw an almost 1,700% increase in traffic and transactions — which speaks to an increased level of engagement and intent from the users consuming Seltzer Goods content. 

Increased Organic Traffic

Google organic also showed strong improvement across the board. With a conversion rate of more than 6.6%, we wanted to dig a little deeper. 

Below, you’ll see a comparison between organic traffic during the time period the ads were running and the previous period — a 183% increase in users.

At the same time, we saw:

• 105% increase in total brand impressions
• 319% increase in clicks
• 105% increase in click-through rate (CTR)

Naturally, we wanted to know what types of queries were surging in organic traffic. What we found was highly encouraging for anyone struggling to convey the value of Facebook beyond the platform’s attribution model. 

For analysis, we split the site’s organic search queries into two primary categories and subcategories:

1. All Brand Traffic (“Seltzer Goods”)
   1. Brand traffic + product-specific mention (“Seltzer Goods” + “puzzles/pens”)
      1. Brand traffic + puzzle product-specific mention (“Seltzer Goods Ramen puzzle”)
2. All Non-Brand Traffic (“500-piece jigsaw puzzles,” “paper plants,” “seven-year pens”)
   1. Non-brand traffic with a puzzle product-specific mention (“Ramen Noodle Bowl puzzle”)

Upon slicing the data further, we saw impressions for “Brand Queries + Puzzle” jump 931%, with an 831% increase in clicks. 

Even more exciting: The non-brand segment of puzzles showed nearly a 200% increase in impressions, accompanied by a 1,134% increase in clicks — the segment with the largest increase in CTR (315%).

So, not only did the paid social ads have an impact on the volume of branded search queries in the search engines, but they also had a remarkable impact on the intent of those queries (further reflected by the increased conversion rate). 

While this is a smaller portion of traffic, it reflects the target market we were engaging and lends credence to paid social’s impact as a branding effort. Remember: There were no active SEO adjustments made during this time that would have had an impact on organic traffic. 

This data is particularly encouraging for two reasons: 

1. It shows the correlation between strong paid social media campaigns and organic traffic from a brand-awareness, upper-funnel perspective.
2. It demonstrates the correlation between a strong paid social media campaign and its impact on the bottom of the funnel.

Invest in Paid Social & Reap the Rewards

Let’s be honest: It’s very likely that Seltzer Goods would have seen an increase in puzzle sales, given the demand brought on by COVID-19. 

However, without these strong Facebook and Instagram ads campaigns, the results would not have been as explosive across all digital channels.  

This new brand awareness that led to links and brand searches probably wouldn’t have increased to such a degree, nor would we have expected the lifts in organic social, either. 

It’s hard to parse the exact impact, but we strongly believe that we took a wave of potential performance and turned it into a tidal wave of sales.

Ultimately, Facebook and Instagram ads accelerated the incredible increase in traffic, expansion in traffic portfolios, and improvement in purchase intent. By combining relevant targeting and strong creative that embraces both the brand voice and the advertising platform’s capabilities, we were able to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. 

All of these elements are critical in running a successful digital marketing campaign that has wide-reaching impacts across the entire digital ecosystem. 

“Inflow helped us quickly increase eCommerce sales in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. A multi-year strategy for growing sales and conversions was suddenly kicked into high gear. We really love their responsiveness, effort to understand our business, and determination to deliver the highest ROI possible.” — Gay Lam, Seltzer Goods

That said, this success wouldn’t have been possible without something worthwhile to advertise. With several products that radiate fun, brightness, and positivity, Seltzer Goods kept its advertising messaging and creative true to its brand. It delighted its customers by offering great experiences and first-class customer service, including handwritten notes with the purchases — all of which led to a COVID success story.

Follow this formula with your own brand, and you’ll win every time. 

Want an expert to do it for you? Our team can create paid social media advertising strategies that impact your digital ecosystem, measure your results, and put you on a path for continuous improvement. Request a free proposal from us anytime to get started.

Read more of our Facebook Ads case studies below:

• How a Dual Paid Social & Search Strategy Earned Tactipup Record-Breaking Sales
• Furniture Facebook Ads Case Study: ROAS 0 to 29.5 in 3 Months
• How We Used Facebook Ads to Help Vitrazza Reach $1 Million/Month in Sales

With Universal Analytics’ final goodbye less than a year away, the clock is ticking on your deadline to set up Google Analytics 4. To prep your business for success before next July, you need to get your GA4 properties in order — and tracking — as soon as possible.

For the last few months, our marketing team has worked diligently to transition our eCommerce clients from UA to GA4. Along the way, we’ve learned some tips and tricks for a smooth migration that captures everything a business needs to bring from Universal Analytics.

In today’s guide, we’re sharing that process with you, including a helpful GA4 eCommerce Tracking Toolkit to kickstart your efforts. Read through it now to start configuring your own accounts, or to give your agency a headstart with its operations.

And, if you ever need help with your Google Analytics 4 setup, Inflow is always here.

Table of Contents

• How GA4 Tracking Differs from UA
• How to Set Up Google Analytics 4: The Basics
  • Create Your GA4 Property
  • Set Up & Connect BigQuery Warehouse
  • Link Your Existing Accounts
• How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 Tracking
  • Add a GTM Container to Your Site
  • Set Up Conversion Tracking
  • Set Up eCommerce Conversion Tracking

How Google Analytics 4 Tracking Differs From Universal Analytics

Before we get into the details of setting up Google Analytics 4 tracking, you need to understand the crucial difference between this platform and Universal Analytics. 

GA4 is more than just an “upgraded” version of UA. It’s a completely redesigned system with a totally different approach to event and conversion tracking. Whereas UA tracked events as different “hit” types (page views, events, transactions, etc.), Google Analytics 4 tracks them all as an “event” — which means you’ll need to do some additional configuration for the most accurate data collection.

You can learn more about how GA4 differs from UA in Google’s complete guide, or you can check out our infographic below for the quick hits:

If you haven’t yet read our introduction to Google Analytics 4, we recommend you do so now, to familiarize yourself with the platform. You can also watch our explanatory video below:

The video below is hosted on YouTube. If you need assistance with viewing the video, please contact info@goinflow.com.

How to Set Up Google Analytics 4: The Basics

Before setting up your data tracking, you must first configure your Google Analytics 4 property.

If you haven’t yet done so, follow the steps below to get started. (You can also follow Google’s Setup Assistant within the platform.)

Step 1: Create Your New GA4 Property.

The first step to your GA4 tracking — make sure you have a property to track with!

You can easily create a Google Analytics 4 property for each of your existing Universal Analytics properties. After hitting “Create Property,” follow these steps to complete the process.

1. Click on “Property Settings” in the lefthand navigation menu.
2. Fill out the details for the Property as accurately as possible.

At this point, you’ll have your basic property created and populated with the must-have info. But there are a few other steps involved before you can configure your tracking.

Step 2: Set Up and Connect BigQuery Data Warehouse.

Remember that Google Analytics 4 is limited to a 14-month data retention period. Therefore, to store your long-term historical data, you’ll need to use a data streaming warehouse.

Here at Inflow, we’ve been using BigQuery for our clients, because GA4 provides an easy connection to the platform. It’s also free or very low-cost for many of our mid-sized eCommerce clients’ needs, with 10 GB of complimentary storage.

Before you can link this data stream to your Google Analytics 4 account, you’ll need to set up a project for your site. Follow Google’s guide to doing so, then link this warehouse to your GA4 property as outlined below:

1. In Setup Assistant, click on “Link BigQuery” in the “Linking” section.
2. Click the blue “Link” button.
3. Click “Choose a BigQuery Project.” (You may need to search for the Project ID if you don’t see it listed.)
4. Select the appropriate BigQuery project and then click “Confirm.”
5. Select the data location (your GA4 property name).
6. Select the data streams and frequency. We recommend leaving your frequency set at “Daily.”
7. Finally, click to the next step, where you can review and submit your data. You will now be able to see your account in the BigQuery Linking page. 

Step 3: Link Your Existing Accounts.

In addition to linking BigQuery, you’ll also need to link your Google Ads accounts. This will allow your business to take advantage of GA4’s advanced cross-platform data integration and reporting capabilities.

There are two processes involved in this:

Google Ads

1. In Setup Assistant, click on “Link Google Ads” in the “Linking” section.
2. Click the blue “Link” button.
3. Click “Choose Google Ads Accounts.”
4. Select your account and click “Confirm.”
5. Click on “Enable Auto-tagging.” Select “Leave my auto-tagging settings as they are.”
6. Click “Next” and then “Review your settings.” Hit “Submit” to finish the process. 

Google Merchant Center

If you’re using Google Ads for your eCommerce business, odds are you’re also using Google Shopping. 

To ensure your GA4 data gets integrated into your Google Merchant Center, you’ll need to link GMC to your new property with the following steps:

1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin.”
2. In the “Account” column, make sure that your desired account is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it will already be selected.)
3. In the “Property” column, select the property you want to link to Merchant Center.
4. In the “Property” column, under “Product Links,” click “Google Merchant Center Links.”
5. Click the blue “Link” button.
6. Click “Choose Account,” and then select the account you want to link your property to.
7. Click “Confirm.”
8. Click “Next.”
9. Under “Enable Auto-tagging,” choose to enable auto-tagging for the Merchant Center account (or leave the settings as they are).
10. Click “Next,” and then review and submit your configuration settings.

How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 Tracking

Now that you’ve completed the first part of the GA4 setup process, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of conversion tracking.

Remember, Google Analytics 4 tracks events very differently from Universal Analytics. You can’t just import your UA setup into your tracking configuration; you’ll need to go through the following steps to properly configure your events tracking and ensure your data is collecting accurately.

In the section below, we’ve simplified the tracking process by offering a GA4 eCommerce Tracking Toolkit that your development team can upload quickly to your site. 

For a full description of the process without these tools, check out Google’s guide.

Step 1: Add a GTM Container to Your Site.

To get your Google Analytics 4 tracking to fire, you’ll need to use Google Tag Manager to add a custom tag to all pages on your site.

Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with our downloadable GTM container. It contains every piece of tracking code you need to start recording events on your eCommerce site. You can simply download it, import it, and configure it in a few steps.

You’ll find your unique measurement ID in Google Analytics 4. In Setup Assistant, navigate to “Tag Installation,” click on your web data stream, and then locate your ID in the upper-right corner of the page.

Add this measurement ID to our GTM container. You’ll also need to add this ID to your GA4 configuration tag.

Then, the container and tag will be ready for installation on your website.

Step 2: Set up non-eCommerce Conversion Tracking.

From a non-eCommerce perspective, setting up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4 can be fairly straightforward. We recommend identifying any applicable events and conversions in your Universal Analytics properties (again, saving eCommerce events for the next step) and making a list of those you feel comfortable replicating in Google Analytics 4.

Make sure to ignore events that are now automatically tracked — scrolling, outbound clicks, and more. In addition, “path”-type goals likely won’t need to be replicated for your site.

Once you’ve identified the metrics you need to track, you’ll want to set these up in Google Tag Manager using the Google Analytics 4 Event Tag type. 

Don’t forget to mark these events as “conversions” in the Google Analytics 4 interface when you’re done, if any of these events qualify as conversions.

Learn more about this kind of event tracking setup in Google’s detailed guide.

Step 3: Set Up eCommerce Tracking.

If your site is eCommerce, you’ll need custom tracking to gather data for all of your eCommerce site events. Fortunately, when you use our GTM container, this step becomes much simpler for your development team.

In essence, all they’ll need to do is code our GA4 Data Layer into your website. This data layer communicates to Google Tag Manager what eCommerce-related events are happening on the site. (This includes actions like purchases, add-to-carts, refunds, etc.) 

Adding the data layer code should be fairly straightforward for most eCommerce platforms. Our development partners typically report 5–10 hours of work needed to complete it. 

If you’re using a platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Magento, you might consider using an app or extension to install the GA4 Data Layer on your site, instead.

Set Up Your GA4 Tracking Now for More Data Tomorrow

While you technically have until July 1, 2023, to set up your Google Analytics 4 account, we recommend doing so much sooner than that. The earlier you upgrade to GA4 and start tracking your website data, the more historical data you’ll have when Universal Analytics meets its end.

In addition, because Google Analytics 4 is a completely different beast than Universal Analytics, starting your configuration now gives your team more time for trial and error, to learn the new platform, and to parallel track for accuracy of data.

As mentioned above, GA4’s Setup Assistant is a great place to start — but it can’t provide the detailed, personal instructions that your eCommerce business needs. For that, we recommend working with a digital marketing agency like Inflow, which can customize your migration process and ensure all of your tracking is correct long before next summer’s deadline.

Learn how our team can help you by requesting a free proposal today. In the meantime, review our other helpful guides on Google Analytics 4:

• New Google Analytics 4: Introduction for eCommerce Businesses
• Intro to Google Analytics 4: What Your Business Needs to Know [VIDEO]

Most people would gauge the success of any agency by its size, client list, and revenue.

But, if you really want to find the best eCommerce digital agency for your brand, you need to dig a little deeper.

As the founder of an award-winning agency that has helped hundreds of clients over the last 15 years, I know a bit about what “success” means — and it’s not about an agency’s bottom line. Instead, it’s about building an agency that people love to work for, with a list of clients who share our values, passion, and collaboration style.

Today, I’m going to share a few of the factors that have made Inflow a success in this “non-traditional” manner of speaking. In doing so, I hope to give you a more comprehensive list of characteristics to look for in your next eCommerce digital marketing agency, so you can find a partnership that brings your brand success in that more traditional sense — revenue and brand growth.

What Makes a “Top” eCommerce Marketing Agency?

In my early days as a CEO, my goal was to create a $10 million eCommerce marketing agency. But, as I gained more experience and got to know our clients better, I realized that this kind of high-velocity agency growth threatened two key ingredients in sustainable success: client satisfaction and team happiness.

Agencies that grow “for the sake of growth” are often tempted to work with clients that aren’t an ideal fit. In turn, they’re forced to stretch staff workloads or hire impulsively to keep up with client demands.

It’s a recipe for disaster. Both staff and clients will become dissatisfied with their experience, creating turnover that no one could call a “success.”

So, Inflow took a different approach, which we call the Inflow Harmonic Triangle. 

In short, we believe three aspects more accurately define the best eCommerce agencies today:

1. Results: Competency and achieving consistently great results for clients
2. Warmth: Great client experiences and mutually beneficial relationships
3. Team Care: A work environment that offers clear career paths, impactful benefits, and above-average compensation

By prioritizing harmony between stakeholders, an agency can create natural, sustainable growth that satisfies both clients and team members. It’s the best experience for all parties and ensures longer-term partnerships that really allow for the experimentation (and resulting growth) eCommerce stores desire.

The video below is hosted on YouTube. If you need assistance with viewing the video, please contact info@goinflow.com.

6 Factors to Look For When Choosing the Best eCommerce Agency for Your Brand

So, how can your online business ensure you choose one of the best eCommerce web agencies out there?

As you conduct your research, keep those three aspects mentioned above in mind. While a certain amount of your decision may be made from your gut feeling, you can see those characteristics in action by looking for the following:

1. They’re selective about clients.

Many startup agencies are desperate to get clients, and they aren’t picky about where they get them. But, as mentioned above, this can lead to strain on team members and unsatisfactory results for your brand.

Instead, look for agencies that research and vet their prospective clients during the sales process. Choose those professionals who seek a mutually beneficial relationship with your business — who also take the time to understand your goals and whether or not their agency is a good fit for your brand. 

For example, at Inflow, we serve a small slice of eCommerce websites — those who are mid-sized or larger, primarily sell their products online, and are looking for a long-term agency partnership. Most importantly, we only work with brands we believe in, which means we have turned down prospective clients who didn’t match our values.

When an agency is selective about its clients, you can trust that you’ll receive high-quality work from a team of experts who isn’t overladen with heavy workloads.

Remember: Waitlists aren’t bad! Instead, they’re a sign that an agency won’t sacrifice your work for the sake of bringing on a new client. While the wait can be frustrating when you’re looking for a new agency, it’s usually well worth it for the right fit.

The more selective an active client list is, the more time your strategists can dedicate to your accounts — and the better results you’ll receive.

Red Flag: Those who are solely focused on becoming bigger don’t leave much space for becoming better. Avoid agencies who rush you through the sales process and seem desperate to grow their client base. 

2. They specialize, not generalize.

Many online marketing companies try to become full-service agencies, covering everything under the marketing umbrella. It’s not uncommon to see an agency pitching search engine optimization (SEO) with pay-per-click marketing (PPC), graphic design, email marketing, conversion rate optimization, paid social media marketing, web development, and more.

But remember: Jack of all trades, master of none. 

You’ll get much better results by working with an agency that specializes in a few areas. They can provide a higher quality of service with advanced techniques and knowledge, thanks to their dedication to a few service lines. Compare that to a “full service” agency, which will either outsource additional services to contractors or attempt to offer them at a lower standard.

At Inflow, we don’t just specialize in eCommerce; we also focus on a few core areas. This gives us a narrower focus for optimizing our lead generation and allows us to develop a deeper understanding of each service line we offer.

For those services we don’t offer, we partner with other specialized companies to make introductions for our clients that will best serve their needs. 

Red Flag: Avoid agencies who promise a wide range of unrelated digital marketing services (like paid search, web design, mobile app development, content marketing, etc.) and cannot articulate the overarching strategy connecting them all.

3. They work with your budget and goals.

Every eCommerce company (including yours!) is unique. A marketing agency should respect that and build a custom strategy around your industry, products, audiences, goals, and resources — not force you into a cookie-cutter plan.

Unfortunately, many run-of-the-mill digital agencies will upsell you on services that won’t deliver. (It’s another way they put their bottom line over yours.)

The best eCommerce agencies, on the other hand, will only sell you on the services that will deliver the best results for your business. They’ll revisit those other marketing channels when it makes sense to, not when they’re in need of more client revenue.

Here at Inflow, we use an agile approach for all of our clients, meaning we flex our strategy and deliverables as needed to meet our client’s goals. We recognize that business goals change over time — and we believe a client’s strategy should reflect that, not remain static.

As such, look for an agency that will customize its eCommerce marketing services and pricing structure based on what delivers the best results for your brand.

Red Flag: Avoid agencies that offer a “standard pricing sheet” with their typical services. Look for agencies that diagnose your problems and build digital marketing strategies around your goals.

4. They set realistic expectations.

The best eCommerce marketing agencies can do a lot — but they’re not miracle workers. Your chosen agency should be able to rationally and realistically discuss what they can (and can’t) achieve for your brand, given your budget and your timelines.

Part of this onus is on your team (Have you properly researched the ROI of hiring an agency? Do you understand how certain advertising platforms work?), but your agency shouldn’t be afraid to educate you, either. 

Transparency and honesty from the start is the sign of a good future relationship that delivers maximum satisfaction for each party.

For example, our sales team has conversed with prospects who seemed like an ideal fit — until we got to the questions of goals, where they requested a 20-times increase in organic traffic within 12 months! When we told them that was unrealistic (even impossible), the prospect stood firm, leaving us to amicably part ways.

In short, look for an agency that isn’t afraid to address your goals in a straightforward way, even if it’s not what you want to hear.

Red Flag: Avoid agencies that overpromise and underdeliver. Ask for a strategy that realistically outlines how certain goals will be achieved.

5. They’re personable and excited to work with you.

Many eCommerce brands underestimate the personality aspect of a marketing professional. But, when you choose an agency based solely on results, you can end up with a working relationship that hinders your growth.

The best eCommerce marketing agencies employ teams who are passionate about what they do — and passionate about working with you. When you work with a team that is equally invested in your business, they’ll deliver more innovative strategies that drive real results for your business.

Here at Inflow, our strategists enjoy coming to work every single day. They look forward to brainstorming new marketing campaigns for our clients, and they’re never satisfied with the bare minimum. (In fact, it’s one of our core values.)

And our clients agree, too:

“We don’t want to be just another customer to you; we want you to understand how important this is to us and how passionate we are about it — and we’re looking for partners that share that same desire and urgency. And I think we found that in Inflow.” Jon Safran, CEO at KEH

Case studies and detailed proposals can only go so far. Trust your gut during your research process, and ask yourself: Do I get a good vibe from this agency?

Red Flag: Watch for agency contacts who are disengaged with their work, uninterested in getting to know your business, or otherwise distant in their communications. Avoid agencies that are slow to respond or ask too few questions during the sales process.

6. They care for their employees.

Where does the aforementioned passion come from? A welcome work environment that offers plenty of benefits and opportunities for employees.

An agency’s support for its staff is more than just tangentially related to your brand’s success. The better your agency can retain its staff, the less disruption it will suffer. With less disruption, they can focus on performing cutting-edge work, pushing the boundaries of eCommerce digital marketing, and achieving world-class results for clients.

For example, at Inflow, we provide an extensive benefits package for our team members — including a career development fund, mental and physical health support, and competitive salaries. We know that the longer an employee stays with us, the better results they can produce for our clients.

So, we make the effort to retain them, as all top eCommerce agencies should.

Red Flag: Avoid agencies who don’t actively invest in their in-house talent. Ask agencies about their employee benefits and retention rates, and don’t be afraid to do some sleuthing on their careers pages.

Finding the Best Agency for Your Needs

It’s my aim to build Inflow into one of the best eCommerce agencies out there, but I know the work is never done. After all, we don’t get to decide when we’ve hit that standard — our clients do.

So, as you’re investigating your agency options, keep the six factors above in mind. While they’re only a starting point for finding the best internet marketing agency for your brand, they can help you narrow down the thousands of options to identify the one that will deliver the full-service eCommerce solutions you deserve.

We know that option may not always be Inflow, which is why our sales team refers every prospect to the professional best suited for their needs — even when it’s a potential loss for our team. 

There are hundreds of top eCommerce agencies out there, and any one of them could be the best match for your online store. You just need to do the research.

Start with the multitude of advertising agency directories to narrow down your options:

• Influencer Marketing Hub
• Forbes
• DesignRush
• UpCity
• BigCommerce

And, if you think Inflow could be the right fit for your eCommerce business, request a free proposal anytime to learn more about our custom, results-driven strategies. We can’t wait to hear from you.

The video below is hosted on YouTube. If you need assistance with viewing the video, please contact info@goinflow.com.

But, when you’re already investing in tactics like SEO, PPC, and social media marketing, finding room in your budget for a comprehensive CRO strategy can be difficult — even more so when you don’t know what to expect.

In this guide, we’ll help you better understand the facts and figures behind this marketing tactic. By the end of this piece, you’ll have a clearer answer to the question, “Is CRO worth it for my business?”  — so you can make the best business decision for your eCommerce store.

Get ready to learn:

• How much different CRO options cost
• Which factors will impact your overall pricing
• And whether this investment is worth it for your business

Table of Contents

• Why No Two Programs are the Same
• What You Can Expect to Pay for CRO
  • Ongoing CRO Testing
  • One-Time CRO Audit
• Main Costs of CRO
  • CRO Professional
  • Testing Tools & Software
  • Development Work
• Is CRO Testing Worth It for Your Business?

CRO Costs: Why No Two Programs are the Same

Although we’d love to talk dollars and cents off the bat, the truth is that it’s frankly impossible to say exactly what your CRO efforts are going to cost. 

That’s because no two CRO projects are the same. 

Depending on your website, your products, and your target audience, wildly different efforts may be necessary to generate the results you’re looking for. 

For some eCommerce sites, the solutions are very basic, like relocating the add to cart button. For others, it can be something more nuanced, like building trust in your target audience through long-term marketing campaigns and site updates.

Let’s consider two examples from our client list:

1. Quick and easy fix: KEH Camera was able to increase its conversion rates by 3% by changing its default category page sort from “Featured” (which showed a customized sort of products) to “Bestselling” (which used user behavior to determine which products should appear first).
2. More complicated, long-term project: For Mountain House, our team leveraged user-generated content (UGC) to ultimately increase sales by 13% — but finding out where that social proof should be positioned took several tests (some of which resulted in smaller lifts, no lifts at all, or even a decrease in sales).

To create the most effective eCommerce conversion rate optimization strategy for each client, many agencies (including Inflow) offer a range of services. You’ll need to understand what these are and how they work before you can start comparing costs from agency to agency.

Here at Inflow, we offer two types: a one-time audit and a continuous testing program. 

1. CRO Audit

An eCommerce CRO audit is a one-time investment that reveals your site’s biggest opportunities for improvement — and, in most cases, the less expensive approach to conversion rate optimization.

It typically includes four steps:

1. Understanding your business
2. Auditing your site
3. Presenting recommendations
4. Reviewing site changes before launch

While an audit always involves a personal review of your site, many recommendations are made based on an agency’s running list of industry standards. For example, Inflow’s CRO experts have spent hundreds of hours creating a Best in Class list of practices, which guide all of our client work.

Using that list, we evaluate every single page template of your site (homepage, category pages, product pages, etc.), reviewing metrics and factors like:

• Bounce rates
• Cart abandonment rates
• User experience (UX) features
• Calls to action (CTAs)
• Chatbots and live chat
• Site coding
• Product descriptions
• Product images
• Checkout processes
• Customer reviews
• Pop-ups and banners
• Shopping cart pages
• And more

Then, our team delivers a list of one-time recommendations for your site, including the changes most likely to result in significantly higher conversion rates. 

It’s important to remember that a one-time audit does not include A/B testing, which can often be the secret ingredient for maximum improvement.

Still, a one-time CRO audit might be best for your eCommerce website if you:

• Have a very low conversion rate
• Have never had an outside CRO audit
• Don’t have enough traffic to justify monthly CRO efforts

In short, a CRO audit is a great choice for small or medium businesses that are looking to improve their profitability on a budget — or, on the other hand, bigger brands looking for optimization opportunities that they can test and implement with their own in-house team.

2. Continuous Testing

In contrast to a one-time CRO audit, a continuous testing program involves ongoing A/B tests to improve conversion rates for site visitors. 

With this kind of program, strategists continuously run multiple tests on your website, tweaking your CRO strategy in real-time for steady improvement. 

While these services are more expensive, it’s worth it, especially for larger eCommerce websites. You’ll see significant and steady improvement in your sales through the program, as your experts hone in on your customers’ experience and their unique online shopping behavior.

Dollars & Cents: What You Can Expect to Pay for CRO

Now that you know what CRO services entail and why they vary from client to client, it’s time to get into the numbers.

Using our own package rates and those from competitors in the industry, we’ve compiled typical conversion rate optimization prices below, based on a few specific business factors:

Ongoing CRO Testing

• Tier 1: $3,000–$6,000 per month 
  • Website size: Small or mid-size eCommerce sites
  • Monthly traffic: 50,000+ visitors per month
  • Annual revenue: $10–30 million
• Tier 2: $6,000–$10,000
  • Website size: Mid-size or large eCommerce sites
  • Traffic: 1+ million visitors per month
  • Annual revenue: $30–50 million
• Tier 3: $10,000–$30,000 per month
  • Website size: Enterprise-level eCommerce sites
  • Traffic: 100+ million visitors per month
  • Annual revenue: $50+ million

Remember, the more complicated your project, the more you can expect to pay. If your scope of work is less (or more) than an agency’s typical engagement, your program costs will reflect that.

The best way to really understand how much CRO costs for your needs is by requesting quotes from several professionals. You’ll get a better idea of how far your budget will go — and what kind of results you can expect for those services (more on that later).

One-Time CRO Audit

Typically, an a la carte CRO audit costs between 150% and 300% of an agency’s typical monthly fee. However, additional services may increase that project cost.

Let’s say you choose to conduct user testing during your audit. User testing can be done cheaply (with a DIY method) or in an expensive manner (with a live test lab and costly staff and equipment). For example, a program like Foresee Results — which collects feedback from live website visitors to “audit” your site — can easily cost upwards of $50,000, depending on your site size.

Like with an ongoing CRO testing program, you’ll need to request quotes from several professionals for an accurate pricing estimate.

The 3 Main Costs of CRO

So, why does CRO cost so much?

Like with most digital marketing services, there are three important factors that influence a CRO program’s pricing.

1. CRO Professional

You have several options for your CRO professional. You could choose to use an agency, hire an outside contractor, or run some initial tests in-house.

As demonstrated above, a digital marketing agency is often the most expensive of these options — but for good reason. An agency maintains a team of trained CRO specialists, who perform website tests day in and day out. They’re up to date on the latest industry trends (thanks to working with so many clients), and they’ll bring that knowledge to your engagement.

For this reason, an agency typically provides the most bang for your buck. While pricier than your other options, the detailed and experienced services are more likely to result in a substantial revenue increase.

If your budget isn’t ready for the commitment of an agency program, you have two other options:

• Contractor/Freelancer: Most CRO contractors work on an hourly basis, and you’ll find a wide range of options for your budget. However, you get what you pay for here. Be wary of any consultants charging extremely low rates (anything under $50 an hour); they may not have the experience needed to manage a comprehensive testing program or deliver real results for your business. Instead, look for contractors with a substantial portfolio and a detailed proposal for your site. Typically, these experts can cost anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour.
• In-house: If your budget is severely limited, we recommend saving your money and running a few tests on your own instead. Recognize that your results will be limited with this option, too, and you’ll still need to pay your development team and for a testing program (read more below). There are a few ways you can develop your test ideas:
  • By purchasing a one-time audit from an agency
  • By researching industry best practices (like our list of DIY eCommerce CRO tactics)

Because CRO can be a hefty investment of both money and time, consider all of your options for improving your eCommerce website’s profitability before committing to a CRO solution. Always review a few competing agencies, as well as freelance options, before signing any contract.

2. Testing Tools & Software

In order to successfully run CRO tests, you need a testing program. These programs and tools can sometimes cost thousands per month, but they’re crucial for delivering statistically significant results.

A testing tool allows your CRO professional to test several site changes at the same time without harming your current user experience. For example, a testing tool can present two separate calls to action to your site visitors. By displaying these simultaneously to a subset of your audience, the tool eliminates as many confounding variables as possible.

Like the price of CRO agencies, the price of your CRO testing program will vary based on your site size and needs. Many offer custom subscription plans built specifically for your business. 

Some examples include:

• Google Optimize (free) and Google Optimize 360 (custom subscription)
• VWO Testing (starts at $199 per month)
• Optimizely (starts at $50,000 a year)
• Adobe Target (price upon request, customized for site size)

Keep in mind: Many CRO agencies will require you to cover the cost of these external tools (in addition to their own service costs), so they can test and implement changes on your site. But, here at Inflow, we use a proprietary A/B testing tool to build tests directly into your site — no extra fees required.

Therefore, make sure to discuss any testing program fees as part of your CRO agency evaluation process.

Note: A testing program is often not required for a CRO audit. If you choose this service option, you’ll save your team thousands of dollars in expenses.

3. Development Work

Finally, you need to consider the costs of hiring a development team (or increasing the engagement for your existing team).

Depending on your choice of professional, it may be your responsibility to implement changes to your site during tests and after those tests are complete. Not all agencies or contractors have the capability to complete this step for you, which will add another cost to your total price.

As you’re considering a CRO testing program, talk with your development team. How much extra bandwidth do they have? How much will those extra services cost?

Figure that into your decision-making process.

Is CRO Testing Worth It for Your Website?

Bottom line: CRO testing is an investment, which means your website needs to be ready to profit from this venture before you get started.

Therefore, CRO testing is usually only a good choice for mature eCommerce businesses that not only have a good sense of their customers but also know how to bring in enough shoppers and sales to be profitable in the first place. The more stable your site revenue, the more likely the high investment cost of CRO will be worth it — and will be able to drive the results you’re looking for.

When considering CRO services for your business, remember to ask yourself these questions first:

1. Is your online store generating enough traffic and sales?

CRO agencies need substantial traffic to run tests on a site — and enough baseline conversions from that traffic to provide statistical significance for the results. 

Typically, we recommend sites should only consider CRO when they have at least 50,000 monthly website visitors and at least 100 monthly conversions.

If your site has less than that, the money spent on a testing program simply won’t be worth it. You won’t be able to generate statistically significant results, and you’ll be better off simply following CRO best practices (without the A/B testing portion).

2. Is there space in your marketing budget?

If you want the best results from a CRO project, the best choice is a continuous testing program. However, if you don’t have the budget for a six-month commitment, consider a one-time CORE audit. 

Either way, be prepared to invest in your CRO — not expect a “get rich quick” solution. If you’re struggling to afford the costs of CRO in the first place, you won’t have the flexibility required to support the scaling up and down of your scope of work, not to mention the additional software and development costs involved.

3. Are you willing and able to make changes to your website?

Successful CRO depends on making changes to your website to make it more friendly for potential customers. 

If your website can’t be easily changed (maybe stakeholders are committed to its current design or administrative control makes updates hard), a CRO program is not the right choice for you. Similarly, if you have no room in your budget for increased work from your development team, all the tests you run will be for naught.

4. Are you ready for a long-term investment?

Like many digital marketing strategies, CRO is all about the long game. The right program will slowly convert more customers over time to steadily build up revenue increases. 

Yes, you can expect to see significant results within six months — but those results will accrue slowly, not suddenly spike. 

The longer you stick with CRO, the more stable those results will be, helping your brand become more profitable over the long term. For example, Inflow’s clients see an average of 20-30% increase in sales within six months of using our continuous testing service, with more substantial results for longer engagements. 

Get Custom CRO Pricing Today

If you’ve answered “yes” to all of the questions above, it’s time to start researching and pricing out your potential options. See where you might carve money for CRO out of your marketing budget, and review our case studies to see just why that money might be worth it for your brand.

Whether you’re ready to start a CRO program or simply want to know more about Inflow’s pricing structure, our team is always happy to help. Request a free proposal now to get started.

Just in case SEOs aren’t busy enough, Google is keeping us all on our toes with more core algorithm updates than ever.

Just as we recovered from 2021’s long-awaited Core Web Vitals update and double summer updates, 2022 came in with a bang, giving us the March Product Reviews update and the May core update. At the same time, you can bet Google’s continuously tinkering behind the scenes between each and every update — leaving us digital marketers to play catchup.

But, while you may feel at the mercy of Google’s algorithm changes, your SEO strategy doesn’t have to be.

Today, we’re sharing our approach to post-update SEO for eCommerce websites. In this guide, you’ll learn:

• Why we’re not too worried about it (no, really)
• Which tools we use to evaluate post-update site performance
• Which contributing performance factors we watch for
• And what we recommend for eCommerce websites

A Brief History of Recent Updates

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s recap the last few search ranking updates we’ve seen, starting with the unprecedented year that was 2021.

In a rare move, Google split its summer 2021 broad core algorithm update (known as the “Page Experience Update”) into two parts released over two months. At the same time, Google finalized its user-experience-focused Core Web Vitals update last June, confusing many marketers who attempted to attribute organic traffic changes to one update or another.

Google’s final 2021 update rolled out in November, giving us more than six months of breathing room before the next one would rear its head.

In May, Google returned to form with a one-part summer update, which rolled out over the course of a few weeks. That means, as of this guide’s updated publish date, any effects from this most recent Google update should already be seen in your site’s performance — for better or for worse.

For a comprehensive look at Google’s core algorithm update history, check out this compilation from Search Engine Land.

The Hard Truth: The Damage is Already Done

Whether your eCommerce site is recovering from algorithm updates in 2022, 2021, or even earlier, take comfort in knowing that no quick fixes could have saved you from harm.

Google’s webmasters are notoriously vague about which ranking signals are tweaked when each core update is released, meaning you can’t make last-minute changes to your site to avoid a hit to your organic traffic. 

As we all know, SEO is a long game. The only way you can “take advantage of” a core update is to already be implementing a solid eCommerce search engine optimization strategy of quality content across your site.

However, in some cases — like last year’s Core Web Vitals update — Google will provide helpful tools for analyzing your site’s current performance ahead of time, giving you benchmarks to work toward. (If you haven’t already, use the Page Speed Insights tool to check your site, and then learn how to improve your Core Web Vitals scores accordingly.)

That’s why we highly recommend working with an expert SEO professional who stays up to date on any latest news, so they can prep your site as needed.

eCom Business? No Need to Worry

We’ve been shepherding dozens of eCommerce brands through Google updates over the years, and the vast majority have avoided any volatility in performance due to updates. In fact, most of their sites keep moving along like nothing has happened, even after this year’s product reviews update. (While the update wasn’t expected to impact eCommerce sites as an industry, we still closely monitored our metrics — just in case.)

Save any upcoming eCommerce-specific updates, we anticipate the same for the future.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t care. Even if a core update doesn’t affect your site, it’s still a good indicator of how Google’s algorithm is evolving and good education for your ongoing SEO strategy. 

We recommend paying close attention to what digital marketing leaders are reporting, so you can adjust your long-term approach to what is (and isn’t) performing well for the SEO community.

How to Evaluate a Google Core Update’s Effects on Your Site

Admittedly, there’s a lot of mystery wrapped around Google’s ranking algorithm updates, but you don’t have to be in the dark about its effects on your site.

For this summer’s updates and future ones to come, identify any clear changes to your organic performance by following our approach:

Step 1: Monitor site performance during the rollout period.

Google will frequently announce upcoming core updates ahead of time, so you’ll know exactly when to start looking for traffic changes. Most updates take a few weeks to roll out completely; when evaluating site traffic, look at a time span of about a month for the most accurate picture.

If your site has felt an impact from the update, it will be easy to see.

Here are some examples of surges I’m seeing. Some of the sites seeing increases have been waiting a long time (and have worked very hard to improve). I hope this sticks for them. Remember, the July update could reverse some this… Time will tell. pic.twitter.com/PeG9DjZQSM— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 6, 2021

We initially use Google Analytics to evaluate any core update effects on our client’s sites. Our strategists typically check traffic reports every day (or every few days, depending on the size of the update) for a few weeks following the confirmed update. As mentioned, most of our eCommerce clients’ sites haven’t historically been impacted by recent updates — but, if they were, we’d see it in Google Analytics right away.

Step 2: Look for seasonality.

If a Google core update is rolled out during your business’s slow or busy season, you’ll need to rule out seasonality as a contributing effect. 

Let’s say your online store sells school supplies. If you see a jump in traffic and revenue after this summer’s update, it may not be an effect of the update at all — just a normal increase in parents getting ready for the back-to-school season. 

If your site sees a change in traffic after a Google core update, look at week-over-week, month-over-month, and year-over-year trends. Compare the results; if this traffic change is new to this summer, it could be an indication that the Google update has affected your site.

Another example: One of our former eCommerce clients (a seller of cigars and cigar products) was concerned about a drop in organic traffic following a Google update in the winter of 2017. But, when we compared their January 2018 performance with that from a year before, we saw the same drop in traffic: 

Don’t have accurate YOY data to mine? You can also compare your site with Google’s overall trends.

Here, we see a steep drop in “cigar shop” interest around January, indicating our client’s drop in traffic was indeed due to seasonality, not that winter’s Google update.

Of course, remember that YOY comparisons may not be 100% accurate, depending on COVID-19’s effect on your industry in 2020 and onward. We recommend comparing multiple years, just in case. (Here at Inflow, we’ve been using 2019 as a “baseline” for most of our clients.)

You can also look at competitors’ performance to confirm a seasonality drop.

Using these processes, we were able to eliminate the update as a contributing factor, understanding that this change was just a normal drop-off in cigar interest around the new year, perhaps due to New Year’s resolutions.

Step 3: Consider searcher intent.

Even if you see a drop in traffic to your site after a Google update, it may not necessarily be harmful. Google often uses core updates to clean up keyword search results, reducing the number of irrelevant web pages for search queries.

If your site was inadvertently ranking for an unrelated keyword or topic, the core update may have fixed that mistake — or, in the case of our own site, introduced the mistake!

While unrelated to a core update, an unconfirmed change in Google’s algorithm caused Inflow’s organic clicks to spike on March 25, 2021. Just a few days later, they dropped back down to normal levels.

Upon further investigation, we found out that our guide to Majestic SEO had suddenly started ranking in the Google search results for the phrase “explain the majestic benefits” — likely searched by students trying to avoid doing their homework for an unrelated topic. When it became clear that our guide was an irrelevant result, Google’s algorithm made the adjustment to the SERPs.

Ranking for irrelevant keywords isn’t an uncommon issue, especially in eCommerce sites with thousands of blog, product, and category pages. If you see similar fluctuations in sessions or keyword rankings over the next month, make sure to look at your revenue. If conversions and revenues are holding steady (or increasing!), there’s likely no reason to worry.

Irrelevant keywords may have been the source of the traffic change, not a negative hit from the core update.

What to Do if Your Organic Performance Drops

If your website traffic takes a hit after a Google update, and it can’t be explained by seasonality, keyword cleanup, or another obvious reason, try to confirm the algorithm’s effects through additional tools, and then reevaluate your overall SEO strategy.

Step 1: Connect the free Panguin tool to Google Analytics.

The Panguin tool (not to be confused with the Penguin update!) is one of our favorites for evaluating the timelines of Google’s updates as they compare to our site’s performance. It’s easy; authorize Panguin to view your Google Analytics data, and the tool will overlay Google’s updates on your performance data.

You can use the Panguin tool to look at older Google core updates and their effects, too.

Step 2: Check for patterns with Google Search Console.

If your site sees an unexplainable drop or increase in traffic, identify exactly where those changes are coming from with Google Search Console.

We use Google Search Console to see if a pattern of page types or keyword buckets has dropped or increased in search traffic.

See our example below:

Within a space of two months, one client saw a steep drop in clicks to a certain group of keywords. While this particular example was unrelated to a Google core update, if there had been an update around this time, this pattern would indicate we needed to look into the site performance a little closer.

By comparing this data with core update reporting from SEO experts, we can then determine whether those patterns are in line with the suspected algorithm changes. (Although Google typically doesn’t give details for which types of pages and industries are affected by a core update, digital marketers can often deduce what they are based on with a little detective work.)

If we see a similar pattern in page or keyword type, we automatically know what to focus on as we reevaluate our SEO strategy for that site.

Often, the pages that take a hit are those we’re already aware of — those with thin content, overly long content, or other low-quality SEO approaches — and give our clients even more motivation to tackle those issues.

Step 3: Reevaluate your SEO efforts.

Not all Google algorithm updates are obvious. Usually, it’s difficult to identify exactly which technical and content SEO strategies are being rewarded with core updates. We just see the final result in which kinds of industries and websites are most affected.

However, a core update can be the motivation your brand needs to reevaluate your current SEO strategies. If you’ve got thin website content, now’s the time to beef up your SEO copywriting techniques; if your tech SEO setup leaves something to be desired, get a developer on the phone.

Some of the biggest SEO offenses we see from eCommerce sites?

• Lack of content on product and category pages
• Poorly optimized content on product and category pages
• Extensive blog-like content on product and category pages
• Technical site speed and performance issues (especially in regards to mobile search)

While solving these issues won’t help before this summer’s update, it will put your site in better shape for the Google core updates of the future.

Start identifying these common issues with our DIY guides:

• eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit
• How to Conduct a Technical SEO Site Audit for eCommerce
• Content Consolidation & Pruning: Complete Guide

The Best Core Update Defense: A Good SEO Offense

When it comes to Google’s core updates, the best use of your time isn’t trying to “game the system” with backlinks and other quick fixes; it’s creating a long-term, well-rounded SEO strategy that builds high-quality content based on proven strategies. 

Need some help figuring those out? Our SEO strategists are always happy to help. (Contact us anytime for a free proposal.)

We also recommend digital marketers and eCommerce brands stay up to date on Google’s algorithm changes as they continue to roll out. For the best real-time coverage of ongoing updates, check out reporting from:

• SearchMetrics
• Marie Haynes
• Glenn Gabe
• Search Engine Land
• Barry Schwartz

Not always.

It’s common for new digital marketers and SEOs to believe that more content on a website is always better. After all, it shows depth and breadth and gives crawlers more places to look!

But, if that content is low-quality or redundant, your optimization efforts would be better off without it.

Finding low performers among potentially thousands of pages can be challenging. Knowing which ones to merge or prune can be an even bigger headache.

Today, we’re going to share the strategies we follow when it comes to consolidating and pruning content for our eCommerce SEO clients. This step-by-step process will show you how to get started in order to see greater impressions, clicks, and even revenue with improved content density.

Along the way, we’ll also tell you how this process helped one of our clients see a 70% increase in impressions and a 92% increase in clicks — results you could emulate for your site with a few easy updates.

What is Content Consolidation?

Before we get too deep into the process, let’s understand what content consolidation is.

In short, content consolidation involves taking low-performing webpages (often targeting similar keywords or discussing similar topics) and merging them into one, to streamline content marketing and SEO efforts. 

Here’s a common scenario: 

Let’s say your eCommerce site has been around a while. During this time, you’ve been creating content regularly to keep your audience informed and to keep the crawl bots happy with new information. 

Even with the best content marketing strategies, it’s likely you’ll eventually reproduce pieces that cover some of the same topics.

Remember that a search engine results page (SERP) will usually only show one or two results from a website for any given request. That means that, if you have duplicate, redundant, or thin content, your own website might be competing against itself for search engine rankings — not just with your competitors’ sites.

Conducting a complete content audit is a great starting point to understanding the current state of your site’s pages. Once you have a clearer lay of the land (and know which low performers to focus on), you’ll be able to develop initiatives to clean up your content and provide more value to your customers — often, through content consolidation.

Benefits of Content Consolidation: An eCommerce Case Study

Removing subpar website content (also called content pruning) can seem like a small effort — but it can lead to big results in your SEO.

Take our client BlueWater Technologies, which came to us looking for greater engagement on their web pages. During our initial audit, we identified two pages that contained similar content and were good candidates for consolidation.

After updating and merging them, we conducted a five-week test period to see what the results might yield. In that time frame, we saw a 70% increase in clicks per day and a 92% increase in impressions!

It was clear that the two pages were cannibalizing each other’s rankings and damaging their digital marketing efforts. Now, with a single dedicated page for that information, this eCommerce site is on its way to better revenue and engagement.

Keep in mind: These improvements were the result of consolidating just two pages into one. 

Can you imagine how many more clicks and impressions you can get when you take on your entire website?

How to Consolidate Website Content

Quality content over quantity of content is the name of the game for this website upgrade. 

During pruning and consolidation, we want to remove low-performing pages that are doing more harm than good — in turn, making it easier for search engines and your audience to find the content they’re looking for. 

Below, we’ll introduce you to the step-by-step process our team uses to consolidate and prune website content, so that you can improve your eCommerce website’s SEO strategy & boost link-building efforts, too. 

These steps include:

1. Identifying potential candidates
2. Choosing whether to consolidate or prune
3. Creating a consolidation content brief
4. Updating your content
5. Redirecting the pruned URL

Step 1: Identify potential candidates for consolidation.

Any duplicate content and cannibalizing pages tend to surface during our comprehensive content audit. That’s because, while we’re gathering the data for the audit, we start to notice similar URLs, which tips us off to potentially parallel content. 

Most websites have duplicate content in their blog posts. But, when it comes to eCommerce websites, you also need to assess other types of content, including product and category pages and internal search results.

For example, if you sell knives and knife paraphernalia, your product categories could be sheaths and knife sheaths, or perhaps large knife sheaths, medium knife sheaths, and small knife sheaths. Over time, some of this content could start mirroring other pages, which can hinder the performance of all involved.

While a complete content audit is the best way to collect this information, there are other ways to find consolidation and content pruning opportunities, if you’re not opting for that level of deep dive quite yet. 

Some of these tools are:

Ahrefs.com

• Enter your domain.
• Go to the Organic Keywords report.
• Toggle “Multiple URLs only.”

SEOTesting.com

• Go to Reports.
• Run a Keyword Cannibalization report.

The Search Analytics for Sheets Chrome plugin

• Install the plugin.
• Export the keywords for the time period of your choosing.

Between a content audit and these website survey tools, you’ll end up with a good list of potential candidates for the next step.

If you’re ready to DIY a full website content audit, download our eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit for free templates and a step-by-step guide.

Step 2: Choose whether to consolidate or prune completely.

Once we have our list of URLs, we consider multiple metrics and purposes to choose the best path forward for each.

There’s no black and white way to determine whether a page is worth merging or whether pruning content would be better.

Start by reviewing your existing content for thin, duplicated, obsolete, or outdated pieces, along with lonely pages that don’t get any website traffic. Then, make a list of URLs to examine further. 

Once you have that list, review important KPIs for each piece. Determine whether the page is receiving organic traffic or revenue, as well as the amount of dwell time, high bounce rates, or cannibalization of keywords by similar pages. 

Sometimes, the best thing is to remove or deindex a page entirely. In most cases, however, there will be some content worth saving that can be moved to another page; you just have to identify what that is.

For example, if you’re getting a decent amount of impressions but hardly any clicks, does that content need to be updated or deleted? (An update to your meta description might be the better first step.) 

If you’re getting clicks but no further activity and no revenue, how can you improve the on-page content itself? 

For duplicate or similar pages, which is performing the best? How can you best merge the content and topics of each so as to point all relevant traffic to a single page, funnel link equity, and boost rankings?

Ultimately, the decision is up to you and your SEO marketing team.

Step 3: Create a consolidation content brief.

Once you’ve decided which pages need to merge, you have to decide how best to do so.

Review all related posts, and determine which content is unique to each and which is duplicated. By first identifying the goal of the new, consolidated piece, you can then arrange the combined content so that it provides value to your customers. 

During this process, you should also conduct research on your target keywords and identify other SEO improvements, so that those goals are incorporated into the new, improved content as well. 

You can make this process more organized with a content brief that gathers the content from both pages, reevaluates keyword targeting and SEO possibilities, and clearly identifies the intent of the page.

Step 4: Update your content.

When it comes to updating your content, focus on bringing the best of the related pieces together and cutting out the redundancies, while prioritizing user experience. 

For example, if you’ve previously published blog posts that answer multiple customer questions on disparate pages, bringing them together into one FAQ page will provide more value to your audience.  

Best practices for updating your pages include balancing value-forward content for your customers with technical SEO-focused efforts. We have a few resources that might help you, including our SEO copywriting guide and an eCommerce copywriting guide.

And don’t forget the benefits of improving the content structure. Adding visuals/headers/subheaders and breaking up big blocks of text with ample white space goes a long way in boosting the content itself.

As you create new content for your site, keep these guidelines in mind. If you want to add to or update old content you’ve already published, don’t reinvent the wheel. Take the outdated content and optimize it for the current state of the market to avoid cannibalization.

Step 5: Redirect the pruned URL.

Once you’ve spent all that time researching, pruning, and consolidating, you arrive at the most important part — redirecting the URL!

Without taking the time to set up a redirect, the pieces of content will continue to compete with each other, split up traffic, and prevent any SEO gains.

Removing, deindexing, and redirecting URLs are some of the biggest possible improvements for the least amount of time and effort invested. Remember: Your site authority is determined by all of your indexed pages. If you have content on your site that is not bringing value, it might be dragging your whole site down with it.

Check out our step-by-step guide to 301 redirects now.

Start Improving Your Content Performance Today

With just a few simple steps, you can start realizing improvements in impressions and clicks, just as our clients have. Keep this guide handy during your SEO strategy planning, so you can quickly follow these five steps whenever an opportunity arises.

These easy fixes are an important and effective part of any SEO content strategy. To flesh out your site’s strategy, we recommend downloading our eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit. It will give you a thorough look into maximizing your SEO efforts and identifying which pages should be pruned or consolidated on your site. 

Not sure where to start with your content consolidation strategy? Let Inflow’s team of eCommerce SEO experts craft a customized SEO approach just for your website. 

Request a free proposal today to get started.

In our conversations with hundreds of eCommerce business owners, many have told us that their Google Ads campaigns aren’t performing as well as originally thought — and could be working more efficiently for a lesser cost.

Many of these brands assume that setting up their product feed and launching one Shopping campaign containing all of their products is all that it takes to create a profit.

Spoiler alert: It takes a lot more than that to create a successful eCommerce PPC strategy.

If managed correctly and implemented by pros, Google Ads can be a great revenue driver to grow your eCommerce business — but it takes more than just keywords and ad creative to bring it to fruition.

Today, we’ll show you how to make it happen, by demystifying the combination of eCommerce PPC marketing strategies that we use to get results for dozens of online businesses.

In the following case study, we’ll cover:

• The Google Ads strategies we used for a 9.89x ROAS
• The tiered bidding strategy that drives substantial Google Shopping results
• And the other PPC best practices we recommend to reduce your brand’s spend

The Real-Life Results

It was this common scenario — frustration in their subpar Google PPC campaigns — that brought this client to our doorstep.

As an online retailer in the camera equipment niche, they needed to improve their Google Search and Google Shopping campaigns for an investment return on their substantial spend.

Six months after Inflow took over their PPC efforts, we helped them exceed that goal, with a 76% increase in ROAS (5.61x to 9.89x) from their previous agency’s work.

Even better: Year over year, we netted them a 56% increase in ROAS, from 6.34x to 9.89x.

So, how did we do it? 

Keep reading to find out.

Our clients include not only seven- and eight-figure businesses, but nine-figure annual revenue eCommerce companies, as well. Talk to us today to see if our eCommerce marketing experts can improve your brand’s PPC advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, and conversion rates.

eCommerce PPC Strategies Implemented for a 9.89x ROAS

While every eCommerce store presents unique advantages and challenges, by working with hundreds of them, we’ve learned just how important it is to follow a system.

Before we do anything else, we always start with an audit and analysis of the client’s product feed, campaigns, and other KPIs to see what is (and isn’t) working.

For this client, their website had a high search volume and an extensive product catalog of cameras, lenses, and other camera-related equipment. But, due to the store’s scale, there was incomplete and missing information about those products in their Google product data feed. Their current PPC campaigns were also too broad given the different product categories on the site, which created wasted spend.

So, we created a plan to increase the client’s ROAS through the following steps:

1. Product data feed setup and optimization
2. Google Search & Shopping campaign restructure
3. Google Display ad optimizations
4. Implementation of successful Google campaigns into Bing

By optimizing each of the above, we positioned our client’s products to encapsulate the customer’s entire buying journey — resulting in less spend per click and more sales.

1. Product Feed Setup & Optimization

The Google product feed (found in Merchant Center) contains all of your products and their related information, including: 

• Product category
• Brand
• Quantities
• Sizes
• Colors
• Materials
• And more

Google Shopping Ads and Display Ads pull this information directly from your store’s feed to populate its search engine results pages (SERPs). This is why optimizing your product data feed is so important.

For this client, we had to ensure that information (like camera brands, lens sizes, and so on) was all present, accurate, and easily found by Google.

Because of their massive product listings, the site had huge potential to be shown for many different specific product queries — but, due to the limited feed data, Google couldn’t match those search queries to products in the store’s catalog.

Now, when a shopper searches Google for a product in our client’s catalog (such as a specific camera lens model), our client’s product is more likely to appear right there as a Shopping ad. 

Hot tip: You can easily optimize your feed using a tool like Feedonomics.

2. Shopping & Search Ad Campaign Restructures

We recommend a mixture of Google Shopping ads, Google Search ads, and Google Display ads for most big online retailers. Implementing all three often leads to enhanced product visibility across the buyer’s entire journey, from research through purchase.

So, with their product feed optimized, we began restructuring the client’s Search and Shopping campaigns.

Because this particular industry has high search volume, it makes it much easier to gain traffic to ads — but also harder to determine the specific combination of queries that drive the highest return.

To address this issue, we created multiple tiered campaigns segmented by product type. In other words, we built different tiers for different product categories — in this case, a lens tier, digital camera tier, video camera tier, film camera tier, etc.

3. Display Ad Optimizations

Product ads that follow customers around the web might seem annoying at first glance. But, in fact, retargeting ads convert very well and have a great ROI. 

Why? Because they market to customers at the end of the buying cycle (once they’ve already visited the store and looked at product pages).

Before we came on board, shoppers were visiting our client’s store but not being remarketed to. Using Google’s dynamic remarketing feature, we automatically displayed ads to customers who left the client’s site without completing a purchase.

Dynamic remarketing uses your product feed to determine which products Google displays on its ad network. It can also intelligently group different products together based on what’s likely to convert best.

Using dynamic remarketing is a fairly straightforward strategy to skyrocket eCommerce sales and brand awareness, and we believe it’s a must for any online retailer.

Hot tip: Combine your PPC retargeting strategy with your paid social media remarketing data for cross-platform efficiency.

4. Bing Account Changes

Once we saw what was working in Google, we began transferring those changes to attempt to replicate that success in Bing Ads (now called Microsoft Advertising).

While Bing has a far lower search engine market share than Google, we’ve found that what works well in Google Ads can often work in Bing Ads, too. 

So, why not duplicate the strategies that work in Google to capture shoppers from another search engine?

Before we could do that, though, our team first had to gather real data for these campaigns in Bing — to figure out what did and didn’t work on the platform. Because Bing continues to differentiate itself from Google, direct integration of campaigns won’t always be successful. Where necessary, we pivoted our bidding and targeting strategy to better accommodate Bing’s setup.

Of course, this exact approach may not work for every eCommerce business — but, given the lower advertising cost of Bing, it’s often worth the experiment.

Inflow’s Tiered Bidding Strategy: Implementation & Best Practices

When it comes to eCommerce PPC campaigns, patience and willingness to adjust along the way are important. Over time, you’ll identify the highest-return queries and adjust your bids to prioritize them. However, it’s an ongoing process.

In this client’s case, we identified the highest-return search queries based on this store’s different product categories and the account’s historical query data. Then, we created a tiered campaign for each category.

Below, you’ll find a visual representation of that tiered strategy. The search queries each tier drives are based on negative keywords. For maximum return, we created multiple tiered campaigns for each product category.

How to Establish Your Tiers

Replicate our tiered approach for your Shopping campaigns by following these steps:

1. Run Search Query reports.

Review historical performance in Google Analytics by running search query reports, going back at least six months. Identify the queries or query combinations that have driven the highest revenue or ROAS for your brand in the past.

2. Filter those queries in Google Analytics.

Identify which terms of these high-return terms have churn (and which don’t). Then, decide which ones you want to filter into Tier 2 or 3.

3. Mark any interesting patterns. 

Because your business and target audience are unique, take note of any patterns or trends that pop up during your review. 

For example, with this client, we saw a pattern of queries containing certain modifiers that tended to convert well. So, we identified the revenue and ROAS for those terms for more informed campaign planning.

4. Build out your findings in a spreadsheet.

Organize any found patterns in a spreadsheet list containing the search query, revenue, and ROAS numbers.

5. Segment tiers according to revenue and ROAS numbers.

Once you have all the data, it’s time to optimize your Google Shopping campaigns. For this client, we used priority settings, bid stacking, and negative keywords to create tiers.

The basic premise is to apply low, medium, and high bids on search terms with low, medium, and high returns — thus optimizing your cost-per-click (CPC). Conversely, apply high, medium, and low priority levels to low, medium, and high bids/returns. 

For context, priority setting determines the order in which Google will cycle through the campaigns. High priority literally means Google takes that campaign into account first. (To use prioritized bidding, you’ll also need to set up a shared budget among the campaigns.)

The Real Client Example

Here’s how this tiered system played out for this client:

Tier 1: 

We placed low bids on our catch-all campaign that drives all general queries. We also added negative terms to avoid targeting queries that we wanted to bid higher on in the other tiers. 

We set this tier to the “high-priority” setting.

Tier 2: 

We placed medium bids on search queries we found to have a higher return than those in Tier 1 (but lower return than the queries we want to filter to Tier 3).

Like in Tier 1, we added negative keywords for the queries we wanted to filter to Tier 3. This tier was set to a medium-priority setting.

Tier 3: 

Knowing what the most profitable search queries were for this client, we placed the highest bids on them. This tier was set to a low-priority setting.

Why the tiered system works: By recognizing the performance of a store’s different relevant search queries, you can have much more control over how much ad spend is allocated to each query, which was key in delivering results for this client.

Other Google Ads Strategies to Reduce Spend 

Many factors can influence the success of your eCommerce PPC strategy. Like with most digital marketing efforts, you’ll need to run some tests and continually adjust your campaigns for maximum return.

In our years of working with eCommerce sites, we’ve identified a few other best practices that drive sales with minimal spend. 

As you set up your campaigns, consider incorporating these additional PPC strategies for eCommerce:

1. Always send the best-performing/highest-return queries to Tier 3.

By identifying the highest-return queries, you can ensure less wasted budget by spending the least amount of money on low-return queries and allocating the largest percentage of money to terms you’re positive will actually drive a high return.

In addition, by using your highest CPCs/bids in Tier 3 and your lowest CPCS/bids in Tier 1, you can control spend allocation and individual ROAS for each tier, too.

2. Use negative targeting.

Negative keyword segmentation in a tiered system allows us to pay less for lower-returning queries. It’s also a helpful tool in regular campaigns for filtering out low-intent or irrelevant search terms.

By adding your most profitable queries as negatives to Tier 1 and 2, you’ll push those queries to Tier 3 —  where you want them, with your highest bids.

Note: If you want to negate irrelevant terms in a tiered system, a shared negative list must be applied to all tiers.

3. Optimize by device.

After your tiers have run for enough time to gather significant data, further analyze performance by device to ensure no wasted spend.

Many of our eCommerce clients see better performance from desktop, so we typically separate tiers into desktop and mobile counterparts. That way, you can use lower bids in your mobile-specific tiers to save more money.

4. Cut spend on the worst-performing hours/days of the week. 

After gathering significant data, you can use a time-of-day analysis to ensure you’re optimizing for our best-performing days and hours. 

For example, if your PPC ads have higher click-through rates (CTR) in the evening hours than in the early morning hours, allocate more money to the former for a better potential ROAS.

5. Launch Search competitor campaigns.

Running Search ads built around other brands’ keywords and bids allows you to target your biggest competition. (Rest assured that they’re doing this for your ads, too.) 

Don’t know who your competitors are? Start with these seven Google Ads competitor research tools.

Combine this strategy with your regular search ads to maximize your audiences and make it harder for your competitors to succeed.

6. Optimize by demographics.

Run demographic-based analyses for age, gender, and household incomes of your audience. Then, implement your bid adjustments accordingly.

7. Optimize display ads to capture retargeted audience.

While bids and budget are important in your display ad campaigns, you also need to continually update your ad copy to better target shoppers at different stages in the buying funnel. For example, newer users require more brand-focused messaging and calls to action, while previous purchasers do not. 

8. Embrace new ad features.

Google is continually releasing new features and capabilities within its advertising network, like its Performance Max campaigns. Don’t hesitate to test these new features as soon as they’re released!

Being the first to implement these features will often give you a competitive advantage, as other brands may be slower to adopt these new options.

Takeaways & Results

If there’s one thing to know about eCommerce PPC, it’s that it’s a dynamic advertising strategy. You’ll need to continually manage your campaigns and approach for the best results, based on what you learn from tests and past performance.

In other words, Google Ads is not a “set it and forget it” platform.

But, when you do put in the work to continually optimize and improve, the results can be well worth your time. After all, it was this ongoing adjustment to our client’s strategy that delivered a 56% increase in ROAS, year over year.

If you learn anything from this case study, I hope it’s how a Google Ads strategy based on systematic review and restructuring can quickly yield a higher ROAS for your eCommerce brand.

Want to see similar results for your business? Every eCommerce website that works with Inflow receives a customized set of strategies like these to maximize their Google Ads campaign budgets.

If you would like us to evaluate and improve your online store’s PPC marketing campaigns (or identify additional growth opportunities), request a free proposal today to see how we can help.

For most businesses, this means creating an SEO content brief.

Today, we’ll walk you through the five integral factors to include in your content briefs for maximum organic search performance. We’ll also share our in-house template (available to download for free!), so you can replicate the results our eCommerce SEO clients see daily.

Let’s get started.

What is an SEO Content Brief?

An SEO content brief is an outline for your content, incorporating not just key parts of the usual writing process but also important factors for search engine optimization.

Every team’s brief will look different. As you advance your content marketing strategy, you’ll identify which aspects are more (or less) important to your team, whether your content writers are in-house or outsourced.

When you’re just getting started, we recommend creating as in-depth a brief as possible. That way, you can tweak your template as you discover what your team does (or doesn’t) need during the writing process.

Typically, an SEO content brief will include:

• A content outline
• Alt text suggestions for images
• Target keywords
• Updated metadata (page titles and meta descriptions)
• Insights on competitor content
• Suggested topics to cover
• And more

Download our SEO Content Brief Template below as a starting point.

Why Content Optimization & Re-optimization is Key

You can have the best-written content in the world — but, if you don’t optimize that content with SEO tactics, it can get buried in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and never get seen by your target audience.

By incorporating SEO techniques into your drafting (or rewriting) process, you make it easier for search engines to recognize the value of your content, giving your pages a leg up on your competition.

Remember that Google’s algorithm is always changing, serving up new results in the SERPs as it sees fit. Using an SEO content brief for your content decay strategy allows you to improve your existing content based on what’s working now, not when the original content was published.

Take, for example, a blog post on Restorative Practices in Schools that we recently updated for our client Next Generation Learning Challenges. While the original content was extremely well-written and in-depth for readers, it wasn’t very digestible for readers and search engine bots.

By improving key SEO factors — metadata, keywords, etc. — and reorganizing the copy with better headers and images, we aimed to drive more organic traffic to the page.

And it worked.

After we implemented our brief in late September 2021, year-over-year traffic improved by about 428%, with a 420% increase in new users to the site!

The blog’s keyword footprint improved as well, almost doubling since the page update:

With the right content brief, just a few hours of work can pay off in dividends, as this example shows. 

So, let’s talk about the key points of the brief that made this update work — and help you start crafting your SEO content briefs today.

How to Create an SEO-Focused Content Brief

As mentioned above, your SEO content brief will be unique to your team’s needs. You may need more detail in each brief as you begin, and then slowly reduce the amount of time and data you incorporate before the writing process.

Whatever you do, make sure to include the following important aspects every time. That way, you’ll maximize your organic performance and keep your content high-quality for your readers.

1. Identify Your Goals.
2. Conduct Keyword Research.
3. Review Competing Content.
4. Identify Multimedia Opportunities.
5. Add Original Content & Notes.

Step 1: Identify Your Goals.

Before you start writing or even drafting your content, you need to decide what your goals will be.

Obviously, improving your organic performance (traffic, sessions, etc.) is part of this. But you also need to take into consideration your audience, brand voice, buyer personas, their buyer stage, and their needs.

Remember: You’re not creating content for Google. You’re creating content to educate and inform your readers about your products, services, and brand.

Consider writing a brief statement for each piece of content, identifying the page’s goals and how it will serve your audience. Don’t forget to include a statement on how this content will help you achieve your business goals, too.

Here’s an example for this blog:

“The goal of this content is to help readers understand the different aspects of an SEO content brief, so they can replicate it on their own. By offering a free downloadable template, we can help our readers kickstart their own SEO strategy. Because this is a top-of-funnel piece, most of these readers will be developing their own strategy from scratch or, contrarily, look to improve their existing processes. This blog will not only provide value to those readers; it will also add to Inflow’s position as a thought leader and go-to resource within the industry.”

Step 2: Conduct Keyword Research.

The base of any good content brief is your keywords. By deciding which phrases and terms to target, you can better control where your pages end up in the SERPs — and ensure that your content addresses your readers’ needs.

This research is a vital part of the content creation process. It will not only help you determine search intent and find related keywords but also subtopics that need to be included when writing content. Take advantage of free and paid keyword research tools, from Ahrefs to Google Search Console.

Many new digital marketers start by going after high-volume keywords in hopes of drawing in as much traffic as possible. For the highest-quality traffic with the most potential, we recommend using an intent-focused content strategy, instead.

Let’s take this blog as an example. It can be tempting to target keywords like “content brief,” which overshadow more niche phrases in terms of search volume. But, by focusing on lower-volume, long-tail keywords like “SEO content brief” and “SEO content brief template,” we more accurately represent our content to search engines and have less competition.

Of course, a well-rounded keyword strategy will also include a few of those higher-volume search terms for relevancy, even if they’re not the primary keywords.

For more guidance on selecting your primary and secondary keywords, read our advanced keyword research strategy now.

Step 3: Review Competing Content.

As you create your brief, don’t forget to review your competitors. Understanding which content is currently being served in the SERPs can help you improve your own. 

Look for content opportunities like:

• Headings and subheadings
• Popular image and video types
• Featured snippets (like “People Also Ask” and other highlighted sections)

For example, when looking at competing content for this blog, we see that most results in the SERPs follow a “how-to” structure, with a list of aspects to include. If we hadn’t already planned to structure our piece in that way, we would consider changing up the outline to better reflect those pages in the results.

Be wary of becoming a copycat, though. There are thousands of content mills out there that use AI and other tactics to quickly churn out almost identical content to what’s ranking in the SERPs. 

Your goal is to provide something new in this space, whether it’s by structuring your content differently, incorporating additional resources (like a free template), or taking a stance that goes against conventional wisdom.

If it doesn’t work, you can always reoptimize your content with a different strategy later on.

Step 4: Identify Multimedia Opportunities.

No one wants to read a block of text. So, as you’re creating your content brief and outline of topics, identify opportunities to add multimedia elements (like screenshots, video embeds, and infographics).

If you’re reoptimizing an old piece of content, review the images currently on the page. Should they be replaced with more modern versions? Are they really serving any value to your readers — or are they stock images you could find on any run-of-the-mill site?

Work to make your multimedia as unique and valuable as possible. It may take more time to create new images than simply use the old, but fresh multimedia will keep your readers on the page longer.

Don’t forget about alt text, which describes an image and makes your content more accessible for readers who are visually impaired.

Step 5: Add Original Content & Make Notes.

Now that you’ve done all the preemptive work, it’s time to update your content outline — or, if you’re reoptimizing a piece, add in your existing content and make some notes.

An outline is crucial to delivering a piece that meets your goals and standards (even more so if you’re outsourcing your writing to freelancers). The more detail you can provide in each section, the more on-target the final product will be.

Go through your outline or existing content with a fine-toothed comb before you start making edits, noting opportunities for:

• Content length
• Important topics to cover
• Keyword usage
• Multimedia placement
• Internal and external links (with proper anchor text)
• Brand mentions and CTAs

If you haven’t already, create brand standards and copywriting guidelines to reduce edits and rewrites later on.

Putting Your Briefs Into Action

While it’s tempting to “save time” and jump right into the writing/editing process, an SEO content brief will actually save your content team wasted hours later on. And, since SEO is a long game, the better your content is when first published, the better results you’ll see and fewer pain points you’ll run into.

To help you get started, we’ve created an SEO content brief template that you can download today for free. 

Our template is always evolving, and so should yours. Use this version as a starting point, and don’t be afraid to add and remove certain aspects based on what works best for your content creators.

When you’re ready to dive in on your content writing or rewriting, we’ve got plenty of other resources to help:

• Complete SEO Content Writing Guide
• Content Optimization Tips for High-Quality Content
• Free SEO Content Calendar Template