5 Next Big Trends in Social Media Marketing (2021)
Do you want to know what’s going on in the world of social media and stay updated about it?
In a short period of time, social media has managed to become a vital part of our lives. What began as a way for friends and family to remain in touch quickly evolved into a way for brands and companies to interact with their target audience through social media.
There are always upcoming and ongoing trends which can be seen on social media every year.
With Each year, social media trends keep on evolving as social media sites add new features and update their algorithms. The social media market is growing faster than every day, and we must be aware of the latest trends to stay updated and above competition.
Some of 5 social media marketing trends to incorporate in 2021 are given below:
#1. Influencer marketing
Social media today is dominated by influencers and will continue to do so for years to come. Humans prefer to buy products which are recommended by their known circle. Influencers have large social media following and when they recommend a product their followers tend to buy it. It is comparatively more economical to invest in influencers than running ad campaigns. Moreover it delivers good results. These are the reasons why influencer marketing is becoming more popular these days.
Companies are now working with a whole network of micro and niche influencers. These kinds of influencers get much higher engagement and don’t cost much. Companies are preferring this strategy over going for a single celebrity and spending too much money.
Influencer Marketing can be a very good strategy for Instagram.
#2. Employee Advocacy
Employee advocacy means the promotion and awareness of an organization or by it’s staff members. (1)
Employee Advocacy is about transforming your engaged staff and creating more promotion and sales. It gives better market efforts by creating better content.
Employee advocacy gives better engagement, more productivity and an increase in sales. A good advocacy will generate more leads, customer retention and brand exposure.
Employee advocacy helps in increasing the reach and is an effective tool on Linkedin
#3. Use of groups on social media
Social media groups are communities of professionals from different niches who come together to share their knowledge on social media platforms. These are mainly private groups for like-minded people with similar likes and interests.
Brands can learn a lot about their audience’s interests and behaviors and get feedback about their products in the group. These interactions can help build brand trust and loyalty and drive engagement. The group can help brands create better content for their social media pages. Having conversations with their customers will make them feel seen, heard and respected.
Groups can be a powerful tool on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
#4. Stories
Stories of social media were first invented by Snapchat and then copied and amplified by Instagram and Facebook and recently by Linkedin and Youtube. Stories are the next best way to communicate on social media.
These virtual stories last for 24 hours and give people many opportunities to create different types of content which are recent in nature and let them express their thoughts in a creative way. They are more casual as compared to posts on the feed and hence give you a place to experiment.
The main advantage is that they are very short to watch which makes it easy for people to watch them on the go. Examples of stories can be behind the scenes, opinion pieces, editorials, podcasts and more.
#5. Direct interaction
Direct messaging allows individuals to connect instantly. It allows companies to connect with their customers directly by messaging. Messaging allows you to connect with the people you need digitally without meeting them in real life.
Businesses can communicate through direct messaging for order and product questions, feedback and queries. This helps your business to stand out from others by creating a more positive and meaningful customer experience.
Instagram and Linkedin are the platforms which give the option of direct messaging.
Conclusion
Above given trends are dominating social media in 2021 and will dominate beyond. Businesses need to adopt the trending features to have an engaging and effective social media strategy so that they can remain ahead of their competition.
References
7 Effective Link Building Strategies 2021
Today in 2021, link building plays an important role in determining the ranking in search engine optimization. Search engines discover new content through links and judge the quality of the content.
A good link is a good sign to be seen as a healthy content by Google. Google has also improved its ability to detect bad linking patterns. This means search engines can detect which links are useful or not, the quality of the links and the type of links.
Since AI and search engines are getting smarter everyday, using traditional strategies of link building no longer work. Link building should be helpful, high quality and natural.
There are three types of link building that are crucial for your website:
- Backlinks
- Outbound links
- Internal links
Some of the 7 effective link building strategies for 2021 are:
#1. Using strategic Guest blogging:
Using guest blogging strategy is a content marketing strategy that involves creating content for another company’s website, boosting recognition and authority of your own. Posting guest posts on your own blog will help you bring new perspectives and fresh content to your audience.
Some benefits of guest blogging:
- Build and improve your personal brand awareness.
- Grow an audience through social media, subscribers, etc.
- Improve SEO performance
- Build your backlinks
- Grow your network expansion
- Increase organic traffic
- Get more leads, users and even customers.
Image source: webindiamaster.com
#2. Using Broken link Building strategy
Using broken link building strategy is a way of finding dead and broken links on a website and providing them with a replacement link that leads back to your site and the site becomes more user and SEO-friendly.
Benefits of broken link building:
- Increases your website’s visibility and improves website traffic.
- Gains a competitive advantage in SEO.
- Boosts domain authority.
- Enjoy expanded opportunities.
- Improves search rankings.
Image Source: searchengineland.com
#3. Using Link exchange method
Using a link exchange method is simply a way of linking two sites to each other to increase visitors and page ranking. Link exchange methods help to increase trust and authority to attract more organic traffic.
Benefits of link exchange:
- Increase your website rankings and traffic.
- Increase in link popularity
- Increase in higher search rankings.
Image source: www.edupristine.com
#4. Building links using Q&A sites
Are you in a dilemma whether adding links to question-and-answer sites will be valuable?
People typically type long queries to search for answers and are asking questions rather than searching by keywords. Q&A sites are platforms for such people to discover new information on different topics.
Building links using Q&A sites give you the following benefits:
- Helps to diversify your link profile. For example, Quora.
- Drive Traffic to Your Site
- Establish Credibility & Trust
- Improve SEO
Image source: webmetools.com
#5. Considering Web 2.0 Backlinks
Web 2.0 backlink strategies are ways to help to share information or material of a site directed to a website to control the conversation of a content. These types of backlinks from highly authoritative domains can carry some high ranking power and allow users to interact and collaborate giving more traffic to the site.
WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Medium are some of the popular Web 2.0 websites of today.
Benefits of Web 2.0 backlinks
- You can create the blogs yourself.
- Web 2.0 backlinks don’t go against any of Google’s policies and are safer to use.
- A lot can be used from a variety of websites.
- Improves the page rank and increases the website traffic.
- Helps in earning money, branding websites or business etc.
Image source: nomvo.com
#6. Building Link with Images
Building a link with images is a link building strategy that involves earning or soliciting links to your website from external sites that use an image created by a website. Images add more value to the overall web usage through enhancing visual experience as well as in helping give more definition to web-based content.
Benefits of building links with images:
- Helps to make a point in an article or blog given and prove their worth in the image.
- Builds brand recognition
- Good for building a strong link profile by diversifying the types of links generated to the site.
- Images can take many different forms such as locations, photographs, drawings, infographics, memes, GIF, people, web comics, charts and graphs that can easily attract links, or act as link bait.
Image source: buildinglink.com
#7. Using Infographic Submission
Infographic submission is the most recent and most effective technique used for the purpose of SEO through social media. It’s a way of submitting a type of graphical representation depicting some information or integrated data on other websites in order to get targeted visitors and audiences.
Advantages of Infographic submission
- Mostly shared on social media like Facebook and Twitter.
- Convenient to use in websites and convey complicated information in an easy way.
- An effective way of being creative and informative in a presentation.
- It earns more incoming links and also enhances sales and traffic.
- Visualization of your brand logo.
- Helps you establish as an expert
Image source: fiverr.com
Conclusion
SEO is not complete without link building. A successful link building strategy should always be aimed to enhance your ranking, boost your traffic and grow your business significantly. The above given strategies are some of the most commonly used in today’s date. We hope this blog guides you to get started or improve your link building strategies.
Do you know of any other good link building strategies that we missed? Please mention in the comment section below.
References
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guest-blogging
- https://www.infidigit.com/blog/broken-link-building/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-guide/question-and-answer-sites/
- https://www.craigcampbellseo.com/web-2-0-backlinks/
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/13-efficient-link-building-strategies-for-busy-marketers/
5 Best Content Management Systems In 2021
Are you looking for the best Content Management System for your website? Which one to choose – the most popular or the most recommended one?
Content Management System (CMS) is an application designed to simplify website building, so you can add different functions and manage whatever content you want to fill the website.
CMS is very important for developing a website, whether it’s for an eCommerce store or a simple blog. A CMS must have a sleek user interface, a reasonable pricing and an amazing community behind it.
5 CMS platforms that we feel are truly the best are:
#1. WordPress
#2. Hubspot
#3. Shopify
#4. Magento
#5. Wiz
1. WordPress
WordPress is the most popular publishing platform in the market for bloggers and a content management system. WordPress provides a high security, SEO friendly environment and a user-friendly backend which includes unlimited storage for all your documents and information. In addition it provides a customized domain, simple and specially designed for your enterprise.
Pricing details: Mostly free but paid subscription is around $25/month.
Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Simple and easily accessible.
- Cost effective.
- Search engine and SEO friendly.
- Compatible with mobile devices.
- Automatically updated regularly.
- Attractive themes.
- A great support community and a number of plugins.
- Website security.
Cons
- Modification requires knowledge of PHP, HTML, etc.
- Plug-ins are vulnerable to software errors, piracy and viruses.
- Site maintenance and security systems are complicated and time consuming.
- Poor customer support.
2. Hubspot
Hubspot is a web content management system designed to help your business more effectively. It is built on a CRM platform. When developing with the HubSpot CMS, carefully plan your website, provide user-oriented content, and make sure your content is produced in a language familiar to readers.
Pricing details: The Starter plan is $25 to $300/month.
Pros
- Easily accessible.
- Flexible pricing is there.
- Can easily create and manage website pages.
- Over 3500 free and paid templates and themes.
- Social media scheduling, email marketing, tracking landing pages and forms can be done easily.
- Learning platform is there for beginners to professionals.
- Customers experience a personalized and secure environment.
Cons
- It is very costly.
- Mobile version needs improvement.
- Limited gallery for plugins and themes.
- It lacks flexibility.
- It is difficult to use properly.
- Lack of customization to suit the needs of the customers.
- Lost data is irretrievable.
- The template is difficult to modify.
3. Shopify
Shopify is one of the best CMS platforms which helps to build an online store for business. It provides the best pricing plans. It provides you with a mobile app which lets you manage your store from anywhere.
Pricing details: The cheapest plan is $29/month and the most expensive is $299/month.
Pros
- It is mobile-friendly.
- Simple dashboard to manage products, payments and shipping.
- The customer support team is amazing.
- Faster loading speed.
- Very advanced security system.
- Provides excellent performance and an uptime guarantee.
- Free hosting and API support.
- Unlimited products and more than 100 professional themes.
Cons
- It’s costly and offers less customization.
- Limited selection of themes and apps.
- Amp feature is only possible after installing a paid software from the store.
- Exporting blog posts is not hassle-free.
4. Magento
Magento is very popular and owned by Adobe, it provides online merchants with exceptional flexibility and a diverse extension marketplace and rich functionality of their e-commerce store. It has a great reputation and it’s often favored by fast-scaling and larger businesses due to its extensive setup, pricing options and development requirements.
Pricing details: Prices start from $2000/month.
Pros
- It is a mobile-friendly platform.
- Modification of the code, customizing templates, and developing features is easy.
- Site management features are there.
- Learning platform is there for beginners.
- Better search engine optimization results.
Cons
- Very expensive, so installation costs are very high.
- Website designing and listing is time-consuming.
- The platform is complicated because of the numerous functions provided.
- Lack of knowledge of PHP can be difficult for many users.
5. Wix
Wix is a leading free, hosted website building platform for online business. It is user-friendly and customizable without requiring coding from the user. The platform provides a drag – and – drop and SEO wix system with more functionality by installing more plugins. People who don’t have much coding experience can use wix very easily.
Pricing details: Wix is for free but paid subscription starts from $13 per month.
Pros
- 500 free design templates.
- Password protection is high.
- Mobile friendly
- Free and easy accessibility.
- Beginner friendly.
- Provides amazing SEO tools and guidelines.
- Excellent customer care services.
- No coding skills needed.
Cons
- The drag and drop design will limit your creativity.
- Loading speed of Wix is very time consuming.
- You cannot change the theme easily after selecting it.
- Extremely convenient use provided, it lacks complete control and advanced features.
Conclusion
Now that you know the pros and cons of various CMS platforms and how a CMS helps you with your content and manage your website with their system. Some of these CMS tools will help you launch your website and some will help you manage your website. Pick one with your preferences and comfortability. After all, it all depends on your goals and needs. The best way is to use free trials before putting your money into something.
References
- https://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-cms-platforms-compared/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/website/best-cms-systems
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/best-content-management-systems/
- https://www.guru99.com/best-cms-platforms.html
5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Digital Marketing Agency in 2021
There was once a time when only TV, radio, newspapers and magazines performed a huge role in marketing campaigns. While they have a prominent role to play even today, Digital Marketing is taking a bulk of the pressure from them. Moreover with this pandemic the importance of digital marketing has grown manifolds.
However even in 2021, the digital era, many companies do not have a clear and defined digital marketing strategy.
Do companies need to hire a digital marketing agency?
Image source: smartinsights.com
The above pie diagram indicates 44 percent of businesses don’t have a defined method in digital marketing.
The market has turned out to be highly competitive nowadays.
If your company is facing digital marketing issues, perhaps it is time to consider hiring a digital marketing agency.
Outsourcing digital marketing will allow you to focus on the core functions of the businesses
Image source: exabytes.digital
When you have a dedicated digital marketing agency taking care of your digital marketing strategy along with its execution, you are free to focus on what your business is all about, your CORE FUNCTIONS.
You can put your energies and efforts at what you know the best, your primary area of business. For example a manufacturing firm can focus on it’s supply chain, production and needs of the client rather than worrying about the marketing. Similarly a hospital can focus on it’s patients, doctors and operation rather than getting deviated for digital marketing.
Strategy and Execution by Experts will help you get better results
A good digital marketing company will have experts for all its services be it Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing or Online Advertisements as this is their core function. If you want to perform digital marketing for your company in house you’ll have to compromise on the quality of the services as it will cost a bomb if you hire experts.
Image source: marcomavenue.com
Explore latest digital marketing avenues which you may not have known
A professional digital marketing agency has been providing services to multiple clients. This helps them in building their expertise and skill sets in their domain. Also since digital marketing is their focus area they are likely to be well aware of the latest digital marketing avenues and platforms which you may not be aware of. Hence your business can benefit from these latest digital marketing avenues.
Get measurable results through audits, reports, etc.
Image source: zinetgo.com
A proficient digital marketing company would provide you with website audit time to time and regular reports on the services. These reports will help your business in understanding the progress you are making in terms of business growth as well as your business areas which need attention.
For example through digital advertising campaigns you find that you are getting enough website traffic but very less Contact Forms Filled. Here you can infer that users are hesitating in filling the contact form. The reasons could be long form with many fields which the user doesn’t want to fill or a field with bugs which is not accepting the value properly. You can investigate further to understand which problem is true for your website.
Once the problem is identified you can work towards solving it.
Get access to multiple resources under one roof
Image source: hdmediawilts.uk.co
An established digital marketing company would be providing multiple services under one roof. Hence by coordinating with one account manager you can get to avail all the services. Moreover, the tools, equipment, resources and subscriptions needed for digital marketing might make sense for a digital marketing company but might be a lot of expenditure for you. For eg SEMRUSH SEO tool’s monthly subscription costs around 500$ which might be affordable for a digital marketing company as they are serving multiple clients but might be way too expensive for a company carrying out SEO inhouse.
Thus digital marketing firms enable you to avail all digital marketing resources under one roof.
Conclusion
Hiring a digital marketing company can be really beneficial as the skills and resources they bring on the table can not be replaced by a digital marketing team inhouse specially if you are a small business or a startup.
Ecliqs Consulting is a result oriented professional Digital Marketing Company which provides its clients all these benefits. Our experts in digital marketing devise a custom made meticulously planned digital marketing strategy and then execute it perfectly so that your organic traffic, engagement with target audience and overall business start skyrocketing!
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LINKEDIN ANALYTICS
LinkedIn is a professional networking site that enables its users to build business connections, search for jobs and find potential clients. Every business on LinkedIn has their business goals- awareness, sales, generating leads, building credibility or so. And without LinkedIn analytics, the ability to analyse the performance of these goals is merely a guesswork.
Understanding LinkedIn Analytics can get overwhelming. In this article, discover how you can use LinkedIn Analytics to analyse and improve your LinkedIn strategy for your business.
HOW TO USE LINKEDIN ANALYTICS?
To access LinkedIn Analytics, lookout on top of your profile. Analytics related to-
- Visitors
- Updates
- Followers and
- Employee Advocacy can be tracked
Let’s look at each of them in detail.
VISITOR ANALYTICS
Visitors are similar to traffic that lands on the LinkedIn page. From Visitor Analytics one can track –
Unique Visitors : To track how many individual members have visited your page.
Page Views : Page Views help in determining the total number of times your page was visited.
Custom Button Clicks : These are the total number of clicks on the given site- website, blog link, form link etc.
(The data for the above three is available for a 30-day time period.)
Visitor Metrics : Visitor metrics can be filtered by time ranges. The analytics can also be determined by filtering between pages – Home, About, Insights, People with respect to page views and unique visitors under each section. The metrics also present the device used to access the pages – Desktop or Mobile.
Visitor Demographics : Visitor demographics on LinkedIn are the ideal way to judge whether one is able to reach the target audience or not. The demographics are classified based upon- job function, location, seniority, industry, and company size.
UPDATE ANALYTICS
Update analytics are helpful in evaluating the quality and performance of content shared on the page. The following analytics are available for Page updates.
- Update Highlights : Update highlights show the number of total likes, comments, and shares in the last 30 days. It also indicates the percent of change from the previous 30 days.
- Update Metrics : These are key metrics for organic and sponsored updates over time and can be filtered by time ranges. The following metrics are available:
- Impressions : The total number of times the update was seen
- Unique Impressions : The number of times updates were seen by individual members
- Clicks : The number of clicks on your content, company name, or logo
- Reactions, Comments, Shares : The engagement on content through reactions, comments, shares
- Engagement Rate : LinkedIn calculates update engagement rate by adding the number of interactions, clicks, and new followers acquired, divided by the number of impressions the post receives.
- Update Engagement : Update engagement lists details of individual updates that can be filtered using time range. The metrics like – Impressions, Clicks, Reactions, Shares, Views (in case of videos), CTR, Engagement Rate, Follows, Comments are also enlisted corresponding to the update. This helps in determining the performance of each post.
FOLLOWER ANALYTICS
Follower analytics provide an insightful look into the followers that have taken interest in your Page. The data is helpful to tailor engagement strategy with followers. The following analytics are available for your Page followers:
- Follower Highlights: Follower Highlight shows the number of members who have followed your Page since it was created. It also shows the number of followers your Page has gained and the percent of change from the previous 30 days.
- Follower Metrics: Follower metrics show how your number of followers has changed over time and can be filtered by time ranges.
- All Followers : The list of all followers can be seen under this. This helps in providing a consolidated list of all the followers of the page along with when they followed. The list is shown in order of recency.
- Follower Demographics: Follower demographics helps in knowing the audience. The people who follow you on LinkedIn are the people who will see your company posts and updates. Understanding who they are, where they are, and what they do will help you create relevant and engaging content. The demographics are shown based upon Location, Job function, Seniority, Industry, and Company size data.
- Companies to track : Companies to track helps in comparing companies similar to the business based upon- Total followers, new followers, post frequency and engagement rate. This helps in understanding the performance of the company on LinkedIn in comparison to its competitor/s so that changes can be made to the strategy if needed.
EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY
Employee Advocacy analytics provide page admins of a LinkedIn Page the opportunity to gauge trends in employee and member engagement with content recommended to employees. These analytics are available on desktop only. The analytics include:
- Highlights : The analytics are an aggregate calculation from the past 30 days. The percentage increase or decrease for each metric can be used as an indicator of engagement with your recommended content. The metrics are:
- Recommendations
- Posts from recommendations
- Reaction to posts
- Comments on posts
- Reshares of posts
- Employee Advocacy Metrics : This determines the change in the number of recommendations, posts from recommendations, reactions to posts, comments on posts and re-shares of posts over a specified timeframe.
- Employees posting from recommendations : These are the number of posts shared by employees according to their Seniority, Job function and Location over a specified time range.
- LinkedIn Members reached : The data shows the number of LinkedIn members who interacted with your employees’ posts that were generated from recommendations according to their Companies, Location, Job function, Seniority, and Industry.
- Recommendation Engagement : The analytics are based on all recommendations made to employees over a specified timeframe. The data offers insight on impressions, reactions, comments and re-shares of the recommendation.
The employee advocacy data is therefore helpful in reaching out to the audience through updates recommended to employees and also helps in building the brand as it generates the credibility of the employee.
LinkedIn Analytics is a free tool and its valuable data should be harnessed to make the best of business on LinkedIn. Not only that, the data can also be downloaded to be stored for future use.
At Ecliqs we help brands grow through digital marketing. Our seasoned digital marketers can take your business to next level through digital marketing services –
WE GOT YOU COVERED!
GET IN TOUCH TODAY.
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REFERENCES
https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-analytics/
https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-analyze-linkedin-profile-using-linkedin-dashboard/
6 FREE SEO TOOLS THAT YOU SHOULD NOT MISS IN 2021
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process of improving the website’s visibility to have relevant searches on search engines.
Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing use technology to crawl on the web on different sites. Search Engines collect information about each site and then index it. Further, the algorithm analyses the pages in the index based upon many different factors to determine the relevant sites that appear in a search result. The ranking factors for SEO can be keywords, unique content, appropriate length of content, image attributes, etc. In order to facilitate the process, SEO tools play an important role in assessing the website’s health and its overall performance.
SEO tools enable various quick and efficient services like checking the speed and responsiveness of the website, identifying quality backlinks or conducting keyword research. Having SEO tools in one’s arsenal makes it easy to identify opportunities for the website in terms of increasing organic rankings and search visibility. There are free high-quality SEO tools that are helpful for organic ranking and increased visibility.
- Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free online tool that helps generate keyword ideas to improve the content marketing strategy. Ubersuggest includes features such as: Keyword Ideas, Keyword Overview, Content Ideas, Traffic Analyser Overview, SEO Keyword ranking and more. In addition to that, Ubersuggest can also help in improving the link profile and help to understand which links can have the most impact on your rankings. It is a highly useful SEO tool to get insight into the strategies that are working for competitors. One can identify and adopt (or use them in making improvements) for their SEO strategy.
- Google Trends
Google Trends is another SEO tool that provides data on the popularity of specific search terms used on Google. Google Trends also allows the user to compare the relative search volume of searches between two or more terms. The tool can be used to find out what’s trending, identify topics or subtopics within an industry and/or discover local geographic search trends. Through Google Trends, one can identify keywords, related keywords, discover related topics, lookout for trends and more. The software also enables users to compare two or more keywords in terms of various parameters like- search volume, location etc.
- SEMrush
Semrush is an all-in-one tool suite for improving online visibility and discovering marketing insights. SEMrush helps marketers in the following services: SEO, PPC, SMM, Keyword Research, Competitive Research, PR, Content Marketing, Marketing Insights, Campaign Management. With SEMrush, one can easily identify trends that occur within the niche. In addition, it audits on-page SEO and helps in improving pages for better lead generation.
- Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is another powerful free SEO tool that is designed to help marketers discover important keywords and to find data for certain keywords like search numbers, competition, and ad pricing. It allows one to discover keywords related to business and see the estimated monthly searches they receive. The planner is helpful when it comes to – discovering new search keywords, analysing average monthly search numbers for keywords and even for creating new search ad campaigns. Knowing how frequently keywords in your industry are searched for helps in building campaigns and strategies and Google Planner enables that.
- Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another free SEO tool used for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking and site audits. Ahrefs has one of the largest databases of live links. It uses crawling software to recreate your site how a search engine sees it. Through this, one can understand the site better and optimize it for the search engines. Ahrefs enables in gathering all vital information about backlinks along with measuring the website parameters and the quality of links. URL Rating indicators are expressed on a point scale that allow checking URL and domain linking profile.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful and important free SEO tools. Google Analytics tracks every bit of traffic you can imagine on your website—where it comes from, which page is receiving it and so on.It’s a helpful tool to track traffic. The ability to report on and analyze metrics like number of sessions, unique visitors and conversions can help one in developing a detailed understanding of your traffic that includes from where it came from, to where it went on your site, how it engaged with the content and where it exited. Not only that, one can easily get detailed user data, such as demographics and device usage in order to help in improving the strategy. It is the most cost-effective analytics platform for businesses of all shapes and sizes to nurture their traffic generation activities and boost any kind of SEO strategy.
These are a handful of Free SEO Tools in 2021 one can use to drive organic search and visibility of the site. Still feeling overwhelmed when it gets to building a strong SEO strategy for your business? At Ecliqs, we help businesses grow through our result-driven SEO strategies. So get in touch with us and scale your business!
FAQs
- What are SEO tools?
In order to facilitate the process, SEO tools play an important role in assessing the website’s health and its overall performance. Ubersuggest, Google Analytics, Semrush are some free SEO tools.
- Why are SEO tools important?
Having SEO tools in one’s arsenal makes it easy to identify opportunities for the website in terms of increasing organic rankings and search visibility.
- What SEO tools are used for keyword research?
Ubersuggest, Answer the Public, Semrush can be used to perform keyword research to build high ranking content.
- What is google analytics ?
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic metrics and their activity on the website.
- What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO improves the website’s visibility to have relevant searches on search engines.
REFERENCES
https://neilpatel.com/blog/free-seo-tools/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-free-seo-and-marketing-tools-to-use-before-the-end-of-the-year/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-free-seo-and-marketing-tools-to-use-before-the-end-of-the-year/
https://databox.com/best-free-seo-tools
https://www.semrush.com/kb/995-what-is-semrush
https://www.bespoke-digital.co.uk/seo-tools/answer-the-public
https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-determine-if-a-link-is-good-or-bad/
http://www.toolsinsight.com/blog/reasons-for-checking-websites-backlinks
https://stacksocial.com/sales/checkbot-pro-1-yr-subscription
https://buffer.com/library/free-seo-tools/
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5 Social Media Optimization Tips For Your Business
With businesses going digital, social media is an important digital platform that businesses can’t afford to miss in 2021. Proactive businesses have realized the importance of social media for businesses and have taken this opportunity. But today, being on social media is not sufficient. The business also needs to optimize their social media accounts, similar to using SEO (search engine optimization) to rank their website higher on search engines. Before diving deep into how a business can optimize its social media accounts, let’s first understand why it is important for a business to make this prerequisite effort!
WHY A BUSINESS NEEDS SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMISATION (SMO)
Statista reports that “Globally, over 3.6 billion people use social media and the number is only projected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025.”
Another insight shared by SproutSocial is that, after following a brand on social media, consumers engage with the brand in different ways, such as visiting the website or application or sharing/recommending the brand to family/friends. It has been observed that 91% of users visit the brand’s website after finding them using social media.
Backlinko reports that India has the highest percentage of people using social media for work-related purposes, i.e., 47%, followed by Canada and Australia at 31% and 30%, respectively.
It makes it pretty evident how aggressively businesses are moving towards using social media to grow themselves. A well-optimized social media account will help it stand out from the crowd and help meet its social media goals.
The key benefits of optimizing social media account for businesses are three-fold:
- Increase in visibility and reach of the social media account.
- Obtaining better ROI in terms of set goals- awareness, engagement, content reach, etc.
- Add value to social media plans.
SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMISATION TIPS FOR BUSINESS
Here’s how a business can optimize its social media accounts to make the most out of it.
1. Profile Optimization
In order to generate profile visibility and drive high-value users to the profile, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., it’s important to optimize the profile. The main areas where the profile needs to be optimized are:
- Username: The username needs to be consistent across all social media platforms to make it easy for people to search. With that, it should be professional, i.e., omitting the need to belong or having too many special characters.
- Profile Photo/Cover Photo: Profile photo preferably needs to be the logo of your business that is cropped well to the dimensions specified. Likewise, a cover photo is also important. The cover photo reflects your business’s products/services and gives a broader picture of your business.
- Bio/About: The bio/about section speaks to your audience directly. It needs to be up to date, talking about how your business can help the brand. The bio needs to have relevant keywords relevant to the business. It’s important to add a website link here to direct people to learn more about business.
- Contact Details: Contact details relevant to a business, such as mail id, contact number, and business address, should also be mentioned to optimize the profile.
2. Content Strategy Optimization
Businesses get overwhelmed when posting on social media due to the bucket of choices available to them. A well-optimized content strategy comes to the rescue. In order to optimize content strategy, the business needs to:
- Identify the right platform(s)
- Determine what content format works best- text posts, images, or videos
- Plan and execute consistent publishing frequency and volume of posts
An optimized content strategy can help the business stay structured and share content that aligns with the business’s goals. It also helps the business make the most of every social media platform.
3. Post Optimization
Every post is unique and has been shared, keeping a purpose in mind. Therefore, each post must be optimized. Posts can be optimized using:
- Captions: Captions need to reflect upon the post shared. Captions build the personality of the brand. The style of caption differs from business to business. Therefore, the business needs to identify its right style for captions. Another important factor for caption writing is the inclusion of relevant keywords to optimize the post.
- Call To Action: Call to action phrases help direct the audience to perform a desired action such as commenting, liking, sharing, visiting the website, etc. It’s important to include a call to action in the post to encourage the audience to take action and build two-way communication.
- Hashtags: Hashtags make it easier for users to find the content. It’s important to integrate relevant hashtags into the post. It helps in expanding post reach and driving new leads to the business. Hashtags, thus, need to be carefully researched to get the best results.
4. Optimizing Content Sharing
Content sharing schedule can depend on factors like- social media platform, posting frequency, and audience. What’s the point of content creation if it didn’t reach the audience? The audience isn’t always online. It’s therefore important to determine the time they are active the most and share our content accordingly. It’s also important to maintain buffer time in between the posts shared. Optimizing content sharing will help in reaching the audience at the right time and right place.
5. Monitoring Social Media Analytics
Social media optimization is not limited to optimizing profiles and content. It’s also important to monitor social media analytics to identify how the posts are performing and take care of deviations. Tracking metrics like shares, likes, retweets, mentions, etc., can help analyze the performance of content or business on social media in general. It can also help in building the content strategy in the future.
Here were a few but not limited to tips on optimizing social media and boosting their business. Social media is an integral part of a digital marketing strategy. If you want to make the most of your presence on social media platforms, Ecliqs Consulting is there for you.
Our social media experts are there to take your business to new heights with social media management and optimization strategies that work best for your business.
Join us on Social Media:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
REFERENCES
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-optimization/
https://www.webfx.com/blog/social-media/social-media-optimization-tips/
Website Design and Development Trends in 2021
The digital world is highly competitive. Trends are born and they die extremely quickly in the digital space. And when it comes to changing trends, website trends are no different. Website trends that once seemed highly modern and captivating are now boring and overdone. Think of accessing a flashy website that has a poor loading time with a weird layout. Clenching your eyes?
Website today is the identity of a business. No matter what you do, a website can help you grow. Checkout our blog Who Should Have a Website and Why to know how having a website can play an important role to help you or your business grow. The last thing a business wants is to lose conversions because of a sluggish website. Therefore, it becomes very important to foresee the trends and adapt them.
Here are 5 top website design and development trends for 2021.
1. Having less website loading time
Less website loading time is an extremely important factor when it comes to user experience and SEO. If you are looking to improve your page rankings and enable conversions, having a fast loading speed is a must. It has been observed that users expect a site to open in no more than two seconds after clicking on the link. Review42 reports that 40% of consumers will leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. A slow website can lead to a loss of users, not for once, but forever.
2. Adding micro animation on the website
Micro animations act as interactive elements on the website. They make a website stand out, making the website design unforgettable. These animations are highly helpful when it comes to guiding users and enhancing user experience. Adding animations on the website not only helps in guiding the users, it can even make them buy. Using micro animations can help in drawing the users attention and can help in improving conversions and ROI. However, it should also be taken into consideration that too many animations on the page can make it slow and disturb the user experience as well as SEO. These should be incorporated moderately.
3. Adding short videos on website
When it comes to website design and development trends in 2021, adding short videos on the website is bound to make it to the list. Videos are the most effective online marketing tool. Gone are the days of embedding a YouTube video to your website. In 2021, a well thought and high quality video that speaks about your business is important to help your business grow. Not only videos help in marketing, they are also helpful in building the image of the business.
4. Giving dark mode feature for the website
Website developers in 2021 are opting to provide users with dark mode for their website. While on a practical end, dark mode can help in reducing the screen glare and eye strain, on a design level it can make the website design stand out. It’s important to note that when designing for dark mode, it needs to be ensured that the content which will be at the forefront has a strong focus. Websites having a dark background works better for interfaces based on graphic elements rather than content-heavy websites. Also, when it comes to having the dark mode feature for your website, the workload also doubles up as the website designer has to work out the color scheme for the light as well as the dark mode and design the website accordingly.
5. Integrating chatbots and automated assistants to the website
Integrating chatbots and automated assistants to the website has come out to be an important development for the website. Chatbots provide quick assistance to the users. The technology replaces support managers and saves cost for many companies. B2C companies are making great use of it by provisioning 24/7 assistance to their users using the chatbots feature, and thus, enabling a better user experience. With the sophistication of artificial intelligence and machine learning, chatbots can offer the user the exact thing/assistance they are looking for.
Conclusion
Trends are fast changing, and it’s important to implement them and make the best out of them while they last. Implementing all or a few of website design and development trends as mentioned can help you grow your business. At Ecliqs Consulting we provide best design and development services for your business. Our team of expert website designers and developers can help your business stand out and grow! Get in touch with us today.
Join us on Social Media:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
References
https://www.droptica.com/blog/benefits-dark-background-your-website/
https://www.theedigital.com/blog/web-design-trends
https://lanars.com/blog/top-web-development-trends
https://line25.com/articles/animation-web-design-why-and-when-to-use
Why is SEO important for business in 2021?
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process of improving the website’s visibility to have relevant searches on search engines. Better visibility in search results makes the site attract the attention of the users.
Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing use technology to crawl on the web on different sites. They collect information about each site and then put them in an index. Further, the algorithm analyses the pages in the index based upon many different factors to determine the relevant sites that appear in a search result. The ranking factors for SEO can be keywords, unique content, appropriate length of content, image attributes, etc. Optimizing the site with SEO factors can facilitate crawling and indexing and help the site rank higher in search results. Unlike paid search ads, organic rankings on site can not be achieved on search engines. Therefore, it becomes important to optimize websites to rank higher in search results.
When it comes to Statistics, The first five Google searches on the first page account for 67.60%, while only 0.78% of Google searchers click on the second page. 70% of the marketers consider SEO more effective than PPC for generating sales. 51% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online. These are a few statistics to highlight the importance of SEO in 2021.
An effective SEO strategy can help the page rank higher and reach the right audience and increase website traffic when it comes to businesses. It can also help in getting conversions. Readout why SEO is important for businesses in 2021.
1. Increases visibility of a website
SEO, when done right, can help businesses increase their visibility on the website. It is the direct driver of improved visibility and impressions in the search results. Using the right keywords, adding backlinks from high domain authority websites, optimizing metadata on the site, and sharing unique content are among the few factors that can help the site increase visibility. SEO facilitates crawling and indexing, which helps in increasing the visibility of a website.
2. Increases website traffic
Organic search is crucial to a business. Search Engines contribute to a business’s visibility, and SEO can help users land to the site. SEO builds an online presence, increases website traffic, and helps the business to grow. The higher the website ranks, the more traffic the business shall receive. The first Google search result has a 28.5% click-through rate which falls down to 2.5% for the tenth search result.
3. Enhances user trust on website
SEO establishes the authority of content on the search engine by acknowledging parameters like unique content, quality backlinks, higher page ranking, and user behavior, which enhances user trust in the website. Sites that are indexed on the search engine are considered credible than the pages that aren’t. Quality SEO helps establish business credibility, gives exposure, and enhances its reputation.
4. This leads to a better consumer experience of the website.
SEO can help in improving the consumer experience and providing quality content to the consumers. It makes the content reliable through quality backlinks and the right keywords. SEO helps search engines in identifying the right sites that are helpful to the user. Website speed is another criterion that plays an important role. A slow website will have a high bounce and tends to distort the user experience.
5. Search Engines are not perfect, and if you don’t take relevant steps, your website will be ranked lower.
Search Engines need or, as we call, various conditions to identify site relevance. SEO enables the search engine to effectively judge its relevance and show the same in the search results. The better these conditions are satisfied, the higher the page ranks, which can help the business get website traffic, build credibility, and lead to conversions.
6. High website traffic would lead to higher conversions.
Conversions can be referred to the desired goal the site or business has. That can be enabling sales, subscribing to a service, increasing readership, etc. Quality SEO promotes high website traffic which in turn leads to higher conversions. High-engaging websites are bound to get a better conversion as they can gather maximum eyeballs.
Conclusion
SEO has become a critical component to the online success of businesses. Businesses who want to make sure of their strong online presence need to invest in SEO. Ecliqs Consulting provides the best SEO services for your business.
Join us on Social Media:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
References
https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/visibility
https://www.reliablesoft.net/what-is-search-engine-optimization-and-why-is-it-important/
https://vwo.com/grow-website-traffic/
Everything You Need to Know About Online Advertising
Online advertising, internet advertising, digital advertising- regardless of how you refer it as,has completely changed how businesses market themselves. Online advertising involves the use of online platforms in order to reach its audience and market the business/product/service. With consumers going online, online advertising has become the need of the hour. It’s important for business to reach its targeted audience where they spend their most of the time- on the internet.
With the world fighting the pandemic, online advertising has never been more important than it is today. Businesses that are successfully advertising their products/services online have a better edge surviving the economical consequences of the pandemic than the business that rely merely on traditional advertising channels.
Today being online is not sufficient for a business to survive. Yes, online presence gives an added advantage over offline presence, but it’s also important to make use of online presence and expand it. That’s when online advertising comes to the role. It has been observed that businesses are reluctant to invest in online advertising ignoring the benefits it delivers in a cost effect way.
Taking into account the case study of Chumbak for example, the brand was able to increase its sales by 35% in just three months in a small budget using Google ads for online advertising. Smart businesses today understand the importance of investing in online advertising and when done correctly, how it helps meeting the desired goals. It has also been observed that businesses that use social media for online advertising get a 129% higher conversion rate.
With so many options available- SEM (search engine marketing), display advertising, social media advertising and more, it can get overwhelming for one to pick out the right online advertising strategy.
Fret not! Ecliqs Consulting is there to help your business grow by leveraging the power of paid search and paid social media advertising. From Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Youtube Ads and LinkedIn Ads; we got you covered!
- GOOGLE ADS
Google Ads AKA Google Adwords is Google’s online advertising platform that works on PPC- Pay Per Click model. The platform offers online advertising using the Google Search Network and/or through Google Display network. Both the approaches work on PPC bidding system and shows the advertisement to users who are actively searching for the keywords that you have selected. When it comes to advertising budget, there is no minimum spending commitment and one can work up on their own suitable budget. Google Ads also offer to make changes to the ad campaign any time and offers to easily measure the impact of the ad.
- FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM ADS
When it comes to online advertising, two most important social media platforms- Facebook and Instagram can not be left behind. Both the platforms had their sweet beginnings to be a platform for sharing social life through photographs and images and now have turned into an essential space for businesses to build themselves. Unlike Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads are devoid of text based ads. There exists another difference between the two that is- Facebook and Instagram Ads show the ad to the users even before they are aware of their need to have the product/service while also capturing those who are interested. To understand the differences between the two in detail you can read- Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: What’s the difference?
Facebook and Instagram advertising both are helpful to gain exposure, website traffic, generate new leads and to move current leads down the funnel. When used together, they have proved to give exponential results. Both platforms make the best use of their data to show ads to the appropriate audience. This adds to an added advantage since it enhances the chances to reach the right target audience. Advertisers also have the flexibility to allocate their budget based up on the results they are looking for and can change and monitor the campaign.
- YOUTUBE ADS
YouTube is the world’s second most popular website that draws more than 2 bn logged-in visitors per month. Ads can be discovered on YouTube in various ways. These can be video ads like- skippable in-stream ads, non skippable in-stream ads, video discovery or non video ads like overlays and banners. YouTube offers the PPC model where you only have to pay when someone chooses to watch at least 30 seconds or clicks on your TrueView ad. It offers setting up the budget that works for the business. Over the last two years, the number of small- and medium-sized businesses advertising on YouTube has doubled.
- LINKEDIN ADS
If you are looking to establish yourself as an influential business, LinkedIn is your go to platform. LinkedIn ads have the potential to take your business to the next level with its different advertising options. LinkedIn offers text ads, display Ads, email ads and video ads. Not only that, the ads can be targeted to specific users and targeted messages to LinkedIn-member inboxes. LinkedIn ads also help in reaching the right human resource one is looking for. From a business point of view, the ads are helpful in reaching the right audience in order to gain brand recognition and get noticed by experts in the field. LinkedIn follows the PPC model for advertising. The audience can be targeted based up on industry, geography, seniority and skills.
The choices to run an online advertisement are many. However what makes a successful ad campaign is how strategically the ad has been created and how it connects with people. Online advertising is no longer a trend but has now become the need of the hour. The internet has become a big space and to stand out and get the right eyeballs, it’s important for a brand to reach the right audience by using online advertising methods.
At Ecliqs Consulting, we understand and implement the ad strategy that works best for your business. Our team of seasoned digital marketers are there to help you grow your brand. Connect with us to leverage your business using online advertising services!
Join us on Social Media:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
References
https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/adwords/what-is-google-adwords/
https://scalarly.com/marketing-book/introduction-to-online-advertising/
https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-ads-guide
https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-advertising/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/11/20/instagram-advertising
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-and-instagram-ads
