Online Marketing News Recap – Week of December 9

How are your holiday sales going? This week, we’re taking a look at a couple articles that will help you to keep thriving. We want to help you stay on top, and so do the writers of these pieces. Check them out!

The New Rules of Competitive Research – Navneet Kaushal – Search Engine Journal

Part of running your online business brilliantly is keeping a constant eye on what your competitors are doing in many respects. When it comes to maintaining an awesomely effective SEO campaign that really gets you the great results you want, you absolutely need to check in with what other businesses in your niche are doing from time to time—and the more often, the better. And just what it is that you’re looking for and paying attention to will shift as the landscape of online marketing evolves. This week, Navneet Kaushal of Search Engine Journal has some ideas for you to consider when it comes to scoping out what the competition is doing. He suggests, for example, that you pay attention to the really high-quality links a rival web site has obtained, rather than sheer numbers of links (we’re always emphasizing quality over quantity when it comes to links—it really makes a difference!) He also believe it’s more important to publish content that appeals to human beings, not just search engines, and that when you’re browsing other businesses’ content, you need to keep that in mind. For a full explanation of how to peruse your competitors’ web pages and gain valuable insight, have a look at this helpful article. Knowledge is power—don’t let anyone have an edge on you!

Survey: Majority Use Mobile Search, Find it “Harder than PC” – Greg Sterling –  Search Engine Land

Speaking of staying on top of the competition, Greg Sterling at Search Engine land has some interesting information about the way users are finding information these days. It probably comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone that the results of a Google-sponsored study indicate that 74% of smartphone owners use search engines. (You’re probably one of them!) In other words, all the smart SEO tactics you’re using to drive traffic to your web site apply to mobile users as well as desktop users. What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re successfully guiding potential customers to your page, you can safely assume that a good number of them are viewing it on their phones. This is one of the reasons we place a lot of weight on the importance of great responsive design for your site. Once you’ve attracted a customer to your page, browsing your products, choosing items for purchase, and checking out should all be a piece of cake—and it should all look nice, too. 61.4% of the users surveyed indicated that searching on a mobile phone is more difficult than on a traditional computer. Don’t let them observe anything similar about viewing and interacting with your web site! After all, this could be the deciding factor between making a purchase from you or choosing one of your competitors. Sometimes, the site that makes the process easiest and most pleasant wins. Make sure that’s you!

 

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  • By Dennis Consorte
  • Published on December 12th, 2013