Facebook is the most widely used social media network with over two billion monthly active users. The social media giant is also in trouble for mishandling millions of users’ consumer data.

Consumer data was often collected like this . . .

The unsavory attention Facebook is getting has caused the company to make some big changes in the way it does business. These changes are ultimately causing issues for content marketers.

Changes to how data is used and privacy policies affecting marketers and businesses that leverage social media include:

• No more Facebook Messenger chatbots (at least for the time being)
• Stronger restrictions on Facebook data
• Decrease in the number of organic posts for businesses
• Decrease in the collection of mobile user data

These new policies may alter the very fabric of social media. It is also a blow to content marketers who use Facebook to target consumers via ads.

Won’t New Social Media Policies Favor Users?

The troubling news of how Facebook misused user data has caused a stir in the digital marketing space. The big question is can social media be saved? Well, chances are, people will continue to use social media.

Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social channels allow people to connect with friends, family, topics, and issues they care about. This is what makes social media so powerful.

With little surprise, the changes to social media policies after the Facebook situation had severe consequences for marketers. For example, cost per thousand impressions (CPM) has skyrocketed to 77 percent as impressions drop significantly.

Problems for users are also possible. In theory, many would think that stricter user data privacy policies would return power to users. Not really.

Yes, there are benefits for consumers, but social users may also be bombarded with a slew of non-targeted ads under new policies. This could also open up consumers to more malware attacks via ads.

Is there a solution? Can social media be saved in a way that benefits both consumers and marketers? The answer to both is absolutely. Enter blockchain technology and decentralization.

How Blockchain Technology Will Save Social Media for Consumers and Marketers

The relationship between blockchain technology and social media is nothing new. In fact, much of blockchain and cryptocurrency popularity can be attributed to social media through networks and forums.

Ironically, the technology social media helped reach the masses will be the technology to save it. How? The obstacles social media is struggling with can be overcome using blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology can return control of personal data and browsing history to users while still allowing marketers to still deliver targeted ads. It is a win-win way to ensure debacles lie the one Facebook is currently recovering from will never happen again.

What is the catalyst blockchain technology serves up that social media is in desperate need of? Decentralization! Here are a few ways decentralizing social media will make the difference.

1. Transparent Open Source Social Networks

Many consumers have got a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to centralized institutions. Facebook, Twitter, and Google are networks that can be censored by the government and have algorithm biases in place to direct consumers toward the content they consume.

However, blockchain technology is all about decentralization. It will take out the centralized bias and oversight, thus returning social networks to peer-to-peer interactions. This will make social channels open source and highly transparent.

Steemit is a good example of a decentralized social platform where people can share content via peer-to-peer interactions.

2. Fraud Free Advertising and BAT

Marketers are simply not getting the ROI on ads anymore. Why? Middlemen are selling off inaccurate user data. Marketers are also not the only ones getting middleman consumer data either, so are online scammers.

This has caused a lot of fraudulent ads and malware attacks on consumers. These attacks have led to the rise of ad blockers and other online safety measures, because consumers no longer trust the ads they get.

Blockchain technology can change this. By cutting out the middlemen, users regain control of their browsing data. Marketers can then ask consumers if they would like to share their data with them in return for cryptocurrency like the Basic Attention Token (BAT).

Contrary to what many would think, BAT is good for marketers. Instead of getting inaccurate consumer data from middlemen, they no get data straight from people interested in the products and services they are delivering ads on.

This leads to better ROI for marketers, and less chance of fraud and malware attacks for online consumers.

3. Better Influencer Marketing

Cutting out the middlemen, marketers can decrease operation costs. Where can you invest this saved marketing money? Influencers. You can save on influencer marketing by cutting out middlemen here too. For instance, influencer manager or agency fees can be as high as 30 percent per ad campaign.

Using blockchain technology and its decentralized protocols, you can analyze the true value of influencers as well. From micro-influencers to celebrities, blockchain verification protocols make vetting influencers accurate and easy.

This allows marketers to pinpoint what influencers have the biggest ROI potential, and ensure that the audience they are appealing to is real and not social bots.

Building Better Social Networks with Blockchain Technology

There are plenty of upsides to decentralizing social media. Not only will user data be managed and used better, marketers can get a clearer picture of consumer behavior. This can lead to increased trust via transparency, better influencer marketing campaigns, and most importantly, increased ROI. How can blockchain technology help your social media marketing game?

The post 3 Ways Blockchain Tech Will Save Social Media Marketing appeared first on Relevance.

Blockgeeks CEO, Ameer Rosic, said that the revolution in cryptocurrency is not Bitcoin, but blockchain technology innovations. As a serial entrepreneur, my attention has been pulled in the direction of blockchain for this very reason.

Let’s take a closer look at how blockchain technology will disrupt digital marketing, the role consumers will play, and what new innovations are already in place.

Blockchain Technology Is All About Consumers

One of the most important ways blockchain technology will disrupt digital marketing is returning the power back to consumers. In fact, the blockchain-based protocols will impact the value of your future digital marketing campaigns.

“Blockchain will allow consumers to take control of the ads they see and, hopefully, give advertisers a modern, sophisticated means to producing high quality leads,” Brian Hart of Inc. explained.

How will these shifts happen? Enter the Basic Attention Program, or Basic Attention Token (BAT). BAT aims to eliminate middlemen, letting users regain control over their browsing history and personal information.

What is Basic Attention Token (BAT)?

Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a blockchain technology that eliminates the control middlemen have in the current digital marketing space. BAT is a token supported by BRAVE, an innovative browser launched by the creator of Firefox.

BRAVE will allow consumers to keep their personal information and browsing history secure. This gives consumers the choice of who can access their information, like marketers and/or brands for example.

BAT also allows marketers to attain far more accurate consumer data due to the paradigm shift from middlemen to consumer. Right now, digital marketing has too many middlemen. Their sole purpose is to compile and sell consumer data for a price. Unfortunately, this has led to inaccurate consumer data for marketers, and poor information security for consumers.

“Using ‘micro-currencies,’ companies will vie for actual audience ‘attention’ — not just imprints,” Daniel Newman of Forbes explained. “And they’ll be able to prove they’ve gotten that attention before the currency is exchanged.”

Let’s take a closer look at the current issues plaguing digital marketing today, and how Basic Attention Token can fix them for both marketers and consumers.

Digital Marketing Woes for Consumers

Currently, consumers are fed online ads based on their browsing history. Ever notice seeing an onslaught of ads for something you have recently searched for via Google? Personal information regarding purchases and search history is being sold for substantial profits.

This is a big problem for consumers. Why? Hackers! Hackers can use personal information and browsing history to create and serve up fake ads. This can expose consumers to online security breaches and malicious software, like ransomware for example.

The consumer issues that exist in digital marketing today can pose a big problem for your marketing campaigns. Not to mention that marketers are not seeing the ROI on the consumer data they receive from middlemen.

Digital Marketing Woes for Marketers

Many consumers are aware of the potential dangers that come with clicking malicious ads. This has made ad blocker programs more popular than ever. Over 600 million users have ad blocker programs. Ad blocker use also increased by 30 percent in 2016.

What does this mean for marketers? Ad blocker programs lead to poor ROI on digital marketing spend. They also make serving your ads to your target audience nearly impossible. So who is benefiting? Middlemen!

But middlemen are about to be booted from digital marketing very soon. Blockchain technology and the inception of BAT will change the dynamic, making everyone but middlemen happy!

BAT is the Future of Digital Marketing

BAT will change the landscape of digital marketing. It not only allows consumers to regain control of their information, but also gives marketers the chance to feed targeted ads to an interested audience with a satisfactory ROI.

What does the future of digital marketing look like with BAT? It will evolve into an opt-in ad system. Consumers can use BAT to choose who gets their information, what ads they will see, and have a more secure online experience free from malicious ad attacks.

For marketers, BAT will revolutionize the way they deliver ads. Instead of playing the numbers game with inaccurate consumer data, they can serve up ads to an already interested audience. This will have a huge impact on your digital marketing campaigns’ ROI.

How Exactly Does BAT Works?

Now that you know the why behind blockchain technology based protocols like the Basic Attention Token (BAT), it’s time to cover how it works.

BAT is supported by the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-20) and paired with the BRAVE browser. BRAVE is an open source browser that blocks ad popups and tracks malware. When it comes to digital marketing, it serves as a ledger system, calculating consumer “attention” to reward them with BAT tokens.

In the end, consumers keep their personal information and browsing history secure and receive BAT tokens based on their level of interest (attention). Marketers get a better ROI due to the qualified leads they serve ads to.

Make Your Digital Marketing Agency Crypto-Friendly

Digital marketing of the future will have some form of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency influence. It is time to think ahead by making your agency crypto-friendly. It is actually quite simple. The rise of cryptocurrency popularity has led to a number of online digital wallet platforms.

Here’s how you can begin accepting cryptocurrency for your digital marketing agency:

1. Signup and setup an account on a cryptocurrency exchange or online crypto-platform.
2. After your account is ready to go, generate receiving addresses for all the cryptocurrency you accept.
3. Once you have a client ready to pay with digital currency, give them the unique receiving address for payment.
4. After payment is processed, exchange the cryptocurrency into the fiat currency you pay vendors and employees with.

Don’t be shy to accept a few different types of cryptocurrency. As the crypto-market becomes mainstream, it could be worthwhile having a diverse cryptocurrency portfolio. This could serve as market capital for your agency’s future growth.

Making blockchain technology part of your digital marketing strategy could prove powerful. By adopting BAT and the Brave Browser, you can take your agency into the future of advertising. You may even be surprised on how many clients prefer to pay in cryptocurrency. How will blockchain technology improve your marketing agency?

The post The Blockchain Technology Impacting Digital Marketing (Are You “Paying Attention”?) appeared first on Relevance.

The mobile-first index is in full swing. But there is still a few important questions floating around about what exactly the Google mobile-first index is, and how it can impact ranking for site owners.

The following compilation of questions serves as your definitive guide to Google mobile-first index. Let’s take a deeper look:

How has Google Mobile-First Index Changed Things?

More searches are happening on mobile, and as a result, Google aims to index based on the bulk of their users’ preferences. According to a Hitwise study, around 58 percent of all organic searches are via mobile.

In fact, Google uses the mobile version of the web as the primary search engine index.

In the past, Google has crawled the web and all sites from a desktop viewpoint. However, with mobile-first index, Google is crawling the web from a mobile browser perspective.

This makes your website’s mobile view more important, since Google is looking at that version of your site first, and ranking it accordingly.

What if I Don’t Have a Mobile Site for Google to Crawl?

No mobile site, no problem, according to Google. However, since mobile is becoming increasingly important, you may want to look into making a mobile-friendly site to increase rankings.

According to Google developers, “If you haven’t made your website mobile-friendly, you should. The majority of users coming to your site are likely to be using a mobile device.”

Until then, Google will crawl your desktop site as usual. When developing your mobile site, it is essential to make the mobile site as similar to your desktop version as possible. This means similar content, links, pages, etc., allowing Google to crawl it with ease.

When Will Google Mobile-First Index Be 100 Percent Active?

Chances are, Google mobile-first index is in full swing. It may not be 100 percent rolled out, but pretty close. There have been rumors that mobile-first indexing will make a big impact for sites with mobile optimized sites in 2018.

At SMX Advanced Gary Illyes of Google said, “We have some ideas for when this will launch, but it’s probably many quarters away. Our engineers’ timeline was initially end of 2017. Right now, we think more 2018.”

Between mobile-friendliness, mobile page load speed, and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, you should be preparing for your site this year.

Is the Mobile-First Index Just a Mobile-Friendly Boost in Ranking?

This is a very common question. If your mobile website is mobile-friendly, you are probably already enjoying some ranking benefits. However, having a mobile-friendly website is only part of the ranking battle.

Google will be taking into account load speed, your mobile site’s user experience, bounce rate, dwell time, and other ranking factors similar to your desktop site.

The mobile-first index is very valuable to local listings. According to the Google Mobile Moments Study, 40 percent of mobile searches have local search intent. If your business is locally-minded, it would be best to ensure your site is mobile-friendly.

Can Google See My Mobile Pages?

The best way to know if Google is seeing, crawling, and ranking your pages accordingly, you can use the Fetch and Render tool in Google Search Console. Simply choose the mobile:smartphone user-agent and analyze after the fetch and render is completed.

What you see there is most likely what Google sees. If you notice some of your mobile content is missing, you should identify the issue and fix it as soon as possible to ensure your desktop and mobile site have the right rank-worthy similarities.

Will Google Indexes Always be Separated by Mobile and Desktop?

One day Google will only have one index, solely based on mobile content. However, the index will encompass both mobile and desktop users. For now there will be two separate indexes.

As the mobile-first index becomes more prominent in serving up search results, people will be served mobile-first results. Users will not have control over this, and many may not even know it’s happening. It very well may be happening now for a decent sized search group.

The Google Webmaster Blog explained, “Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.”

Is Your Site Ready for Google Mobile-First Index?

Chances are, the mobile-first index is currently serving up a large number of mobile content to fulfill search intent. However, until Google gives the official go ahead, we will all be waiting with anticipation.

The best thing site and business owners can do is be ready for the global roll out to launch 100 percent. As smartphone tech continues to be more innovative, mobile use will continue to grow exponentially. This means developing the best mobile site possible. Think user experience, similar rich content and links, fast load speed, AMP, and more.

Users want information faster than ever before, giving rise to mobile devices as primary search vessels. Are you ready for the mobile-first indexing?

The post Definitive Guide to Google Mobile-First-Index (Top Questions Answered) appeared first on Relevance.

People like simplicity and apps serve up ease of use and daily benefits to users. In fact, people use an average of nine apps daily and 30 per month. And the average daily digital use via mobile is 2.3 hours per day.

How can you make an app and have it become successful? The first obstacle is creating a valuable app in the mobile user’s eyes. Next, you need to know how to market your application to net your share of those hundreds of millions of downloads.

In this article, we’ll talk about eight crucial elements to creating and marketing a successful app.

1. Do Target Market Research

Having a clear idea of what the app is for and its value for users is absolutely important before your development begins. Researching your app’s target market can streamline success.

Ask yourself a few crucial questions prior to development:

• What makes your competitors’ apps special?
• Who are your competitors?
• What are your key user demographics (age, gender, interests, etc.)?
• How can you make your app stand out?
• What will users gain from your app?

One of the best ways to compile this data is to use a survey. You can utilize online platforms like SurveyGizmo to create your target research survey and launch it across social media.

Once you know your target market and why they would want to use your app development can begin. Not doing target market research can be a very costly mistake.

2. Quickly Grab User Attention

This is an old marketing method that is still crucial. With so many apps available you need to grab your target audience’s attention in seconds to be successful. Peak their interest using app store optimization tactics like a catchy icon, compelling screenshots, and powerful opening description.

Miximal app icon is a great example of how to grab user attention.

Once you have a user’s attention you will need to highlight a few crucial elements like low download space requirements or five star ratings and plenty of reviews. The name of the game is to stand out and showcase your app’s value and benefits right away.

3. Focus on User Retention

User retention is one of the most challenging parts of having an app. In fact, 62 percent of users will only use an app 11 times on average.

Also, one in four users will completely abandon an app after only one use. This makes user retention crucial for success.

A few retention tips include:

• Keep your app personalized to users.
• Identify user experience pain points and fix them.
• Utilize predictive insights to keep your app engagement up.
• Serve up more features.
• Always issue updates to ensure optimal user interaction.

One of the main issues with retention is that many app publishers and developers fail to evolve and bring new features to their users. You need to quickly grab attention, but also look long-term to increase your customer lifetime value.

4. Always Update Your App

Updating your app ensures you are delivering the newest version and best user experience. Fixing bugs and adding new features to increase engagement require updates and you will want to keep those coming if you want a successful app.

According to an Apptimize study, the top 100 Apple App Store apps update three times more than any others. For instance, Pinterest updates ten times more than other apps.

However, there is a fine line. Users appreciate updates if they improve the overall experience. Updating your app without major improvements could annoy users and result in app deletion.

5. Have an App Content Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest mistakes is creating and launching an app without a content marketing strategy in place for it. Your app store landing page may have best ASO practices in place, but there are so many other powerful marketing channels.

Never count out Google organic search. For example, your app should have a dedicated website that will allow you to rank for your app’s most important keywords.

A website lets you develop keyword rich pages full of images, videos, testimonials, and more. Your site should also be tethered to an informative blog that showcases your authority in your app’s industry and niche. Let your app content marketing strategy boast a lucrative ROI while increasing downloads.

6. Maximize App Development and Marketing Budget

Costs can add up quickly while creating your app. For example, the more videos, animation, and images you use increases development cost. Yes, you definitely want to launch an app that will wow users, but you should always keep your budget in mind.

According to Crispycodes.com, the most basic of apps can cost up to $5,000 . . .

Your app development costs will include:

• Functionality and purpose
• Platforms and supported devices
• Visual assets
• Points of integration
• Mobile device hardware features
• Maintenance plans

Blowing your entire budget on development could leave your marketing piggy bank empty. Marketing your app is just as, if not more important. Unless you have an angel investor with deep pockets, it is best to keep the costs low.

7. Keep it Simple

If you have been doing your app research you know that having a unique app that stands out is important to a successful app. However, you don’t want to go to extremes and make navigating your app a confusing affair.

The best tactic you can take is to keep it simple and have clear commands for users to navigate the application with ease. Always be thinking about user experience. One of the best ways to keep it simple is to make your app feel and look familiar.

8. Limit Features and Functions

This is a great follow up to keeping it simple. The best apps are ones that specialize in just a few things. For instance, Facebook Messenger makes messaging friends and family seamless. The Uber app is the best way to get a ride. These apps don’t mix and match more than a handful of features and functions.

Your app should mimic this. Users want an app that has two or three specialized features and functions. These features and functions should be stellar in order to take up valuable mobile storage space.

It’s Time to Create and Market Your App Successfully . . .

From researching your target market to an optimized content marketing strategy, you now have a roadmap to a successful app. Apps are an investment of time and money, so maximize your ROI by creating and marketing an application that will age to perfection.

The post 8 Crucial Elements to Creating Successful Apps appeared first on Relevance.

With a little creativity and some marketing know-how, you can turn your tight marketing budget into sales.

Here are 13 Small Business Marketing Strategies

1. Get Local with a Google Business Account

Having your small business popping up on local Google search results is a sure-fire way to boost your brand awareness locally. It is also free! Use your Google Business account to appear in Google SERPs, Google+, and Google Maps.

2. Make the Most of Your Blog Content

Another tight budget marketing tip involves your blog content. Your small business blog should serve as your marketing foundation. Develop longer posts, use a number of keywords and LSIs, and ensure your blog content is answering your audience’s questions, comments, and needs.

3. Implement an Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs are perfect for raising brand awareness and serving up foundational content like eBooks and white papers. Affiliate programs for your small business can generate more leads and drive your customers down the buying funnel faster.

4. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Every small business owner on a tight budget loves free PR, and HARO can make that happen. You simply create a free HARO account and offer up key insight as an authority in your industry. HARO can also deliver backlinks to your website, increasing your Domain Authority and Google ranking.

5. Increase Touch Points with an Email List

Does your small business have an email list? If not, this is a great marketing strategy that you can employ to add more touch points with potential customers. You can send emails introducing timely deals and discounts, as well as newsletters using MailChimp, an automated marketing platform. It is a free email marketing service for businesses with less than 2,000 subscribers.

6. Become a Guest Contributor

Small business owners like yourself need to stick together. This opens up opportunities for you to share your industry insight. You can do a quick Google search with “your industry” + “write for us” to find a number of potential guest blogging opportunities.

7. Host Webinars

Webinars are a great way to advertise your small business and insert your industry authority. Webinars have traditionally been seen as not so budget-friendly, but there are actually a few cost-effective options for small business owners. You can get your webinars up and running at ClickMeeting for just $25 per month.

8. Join Local Networking Groups

The digital era has made it easier than ever to find like-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs. You can join local networking groups and find businesses that may need your products or services. You can do a quick search of groups and events, free to join, and of interest on MeetUp.com.

9. Make Your Small Business Social

Social media serves up a number of marketing opportunities for small businesses on a tight budget. You can raise brand awareness, engage with potential customers, and post ads that are personal and localized to your audience’s interests and location. Social media ads on Facebook are excellent, because they are scalable. You can post an ad for $1 or $100.

10. Video Marketing

Videos have become a very important marketing asset. Consumers want more engaging content, and videos deliver just that. Create a YouTube channel for your small business and create videos highlighting your products, services, and community. It is free, and you can even hire a video production freelancer on Fiverr to make your videos really stand out.

11. Create a Small Business Yelp Page

Yelp is another free marketing asset for local small businesses. You not only increase your online visibility and brand awareness, but you also net an audience looking to visit your store and make a purchase. Yelp also serves as a place for your customers to leave reviews about your business. This is a great way to add confidence to buy for future customers.

12. Leverage Industry Influencers

Influencer marketing has a high ROI, with an average return of $6.50 per every dollar invested. For local small businesses, you can offer free products or services to a well-known community member to try and recommend on his or her social media. You can also find influencers on sites like FameBit, but be sure your influencer is relevant to your industry and has a high follower engagement.

13. Sponsor a Contest

Consumers love a good deal, and they definitely love free rewards. You can co-sponsor a contest with another small business to sweeten the reward and cross-promote. For example, if you’re an indie game publisher, you can team up with a company that sells gaming accessories for mobile devices.

There are definitely a variety of strategies to market your small business on a tight budget. You can also do a little financial detox to find a little more marketing money, allowing you to employ several of the above tactics. The important thing is to measure your marketing success with key goals and metrics in place. How will you market your small business in 2018?

The post 13 Strategies to Market Your Small Business on a Budget appeared first on Relevance.

Use Hreflang Tags for Multiple Languages

When expanding your site across different languages, use link elements called hreflang tags, which are invisible to users, but indicate to robots the presence of a language variation (the “lang” in hreflang stands for “language”).

When translating content into multiple languages, hreflang tags are the best way to ensure that the correct content will be displayed to the right audience. For example, the following variation will ensure that Canadian audiences and American audiences receive the right version of your content:

• <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-us” href=”http://www.MyWebSite.com/usa/” /
• ><link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-ca” href=”http://www.MyWebSite.com/ca/” />

Avoid Duplicate Content with Canonical Tags

When using a canonical link element in conjunction with hreflang tags,  search engines that support canonical tags (like Google) will perform a “soft 301 redirect,” which avoids duplicate content and steers traffic to the primary URL.

Place the canonical link element in the <head> area of your website, as seen in the following example: <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://example.com/wordpress/seo-plugin/”>

Consolidate All Domains into a Single URL

Many victims of Panda penalties have found that improving content, making sites more user-friendly and cleaning up link profiles was not enough to get out of the hole. In some cases, merging domains was the only way to get back in Google’s good graces and regain high search rankings.

Merging two decent sites into one results in a highly concentrated power site. The three-step process of planning, implementing and monitoring site migration/consolidation is not a complicated process, but it is its own article. This checklist is a good place to start.

Take Care with Redirects

When redirecting visitors from an old page to a new page (or an entire site), it is critical to do it right. Failure to use the right redirects can result in 404 errors, distrust from Google, and massive drops in traffic and search rankings.

It is usually appropriate to stick with permanent 301 redirects as opposed to temporary 302 or 307 redirects, as well as slow meta refreshes. Ensure that your site doesn’t have the wrong redirects by conducting an audit with the help of a redirect trace extension tool.

Create a Local Presence with Contact Information

Contact information that is local to the region where you want your website listed tells the search engines that your site is relevant and useful to the local audience. It is highly likely that you have neither the resources nor the need to set up a call center and open an office in multiple countries. But international SEO best practices dictate setting up a P.O. box and a virtual phone number to list on your website, neither of which are complicated or cost prohibitive.

Speak Their Language

It’s no secret that link quality matters in SEO. This standard does not stop being true when you go international. Build “local” links — links to and from sites in the same language and from the same geographical location that is hosting your site.

Coordinate Your Efforts with Google

Configure your geographic and language settings in Google Webmaster Tools. Google will help you manage multilingual versions of your site, target site content to a specific country, build your URL structures and duplicate content on international sites.

Use Local Translations

In the U.K. they toss the rubbish in the dustbin instead of throwing the garbage in the trash can. They watch football instead of soccer, and they go on holiday instead of taking a vacation. The point is that even among closely related English-speaking countries, local dialect can vary wildly.

The only way to ensure you don’t miss the important cultural and linguistic nuances that make a website authentic is to hire a local translator. Automated translation software will not do the trick, but if you use software, at least pay a translator to proofread the results. Try a site that offers translation services on a freelance basis, like OneHourTranslation.com.

Add Keywords in the Target Language

Just as with links, keywords are a critical part of SEO in any language. Keywords don’t usually translate, so a good trick is to type in a search string in the target country’s version of Google without hitting enter. The resulting suggestions will show search strings which locals are entering in real life. From there, use an international keyword research tool.

Track and Measure

Just as with any SEO campaign, international SEO is fruitless without a set of metrics and a standard to measure them. Measure your local traffic and presence using Google Analytics. Ranking tools such as AuthorityLabs can track results in specific countries.

It takes skill to succeed in international marketing. But that skill all comes down to knowing what to do. International SEO is designed to bridge the gap between languages, cultures, and countries. Some elements, like hreflang tags, are unique to global SEO. Others, however — like link building and keyword research — are the backbone of SEO in any language.

The post 10 Multinational SEO Best Practices appeared first on Relevance.

Technology makes it possible for even businesses of modest means to develop a customer base in a foreign country, but you have to take steps to lay the foundation on which you will base your success. Follow this guide to marketing your eCommerce website overseas.

1. Create Subdirectories for Each Target Country

In order to pick up traffic for searches generated in the language of your target country, create a subdirectory of your US-based website. If the target language is Spanish, an example subdirectory would look like this: http://YourBusinessWebsite.com/es. Link the subdirectory pages to new product pages that are translated into Spanish, or whatever the target language.

2. Hire a Human Translator

Google punishes mechanical translation from services such as Google Translate. Perhaps more importantly, mechanical translation misses the nuances and subtleties associated with every language and culture such as slang, necessary formality, and racial or cultural sensitivity. Use a service like Upwork to hire a freelance translator who lives or has lived in the target country.

3. Set Up a P.O. Box

Contact information is critical to both Google rankings and brand credibility. A physical local address will go a long way to convincing both the search engines and your customers that you are credible, relevant and trustworthy. Set up a P.O. box with instructions to forward any incoming mail to your offices back home.

4. Establish a Local Number

Like a physical address, a local phone number is part of the critical contact information that Google considers when ranking websites. It also lends credibility to your company and gives your customers a way to reach you without calling complicated, unfamiliar country codes. By establishing a virtual number, you don’t have to maintain an actual phone line in a foreign country.

Virtual numbers are local international numbers that are linked to a forwarding service. Your customers call a number they saw on your ad, and the call is routed to your offices back home — without the caller ever knowing that the call left the country.

5. Customize Forwarding Options

Once you establish a local virtual number in the target country, it is critical to set the options to meet your standards.

For example, you can use simultaneous dialing to ring several different numbers at the same time. As soon as the call is answered on one line, it stops ringing on the others.

Sequential dialing rings numbers in a predetermined sequence. If the primary number doesn’t answer, the call is transferred to a secondary number, a third, and so on.

Time-of-day routing lets you determine which line incoming calls are routed to depending on the time of day or day of the week the call was placed. This is an excellent way to get around difficulties that come with doing business in different time zones.

6. Create a Bill of Lading

Bills of lading are documents that make international shipping easier for you, your customers and customs officials by transferring titles to the recipient. Create a bill of lading template with a service like Shopify, and use it to extend your branding by including your logo or other brand imagery.

7. Target the Right International Social Media

Facebook dominates the social media landscape — in the United States and much of Europe. QZone and Sina Weibo, however, dominate China. Are you selling in Russia? You’ll have to create a presence on Orkut. Don’t assume your domestic social media strategy will translate to your new audience. Instead, get to know the international social media landscape and tailor your strategy accordingly.

8. Learn International Laws and Regulations

Aside from language barriers, the hardest part of doing business overseas is navigating the web of international laws and regulations, which vary from country to country. Countries like Germany, France, and Belgium, for example, are strict when it comes to language in advertising. The United States, on the other hand, is comparatively lax in allowing advertisers to use words and phrases like “best” or “number one.” International business law can be complicated, and you may need to hire professional legal help.

It has never been easier for companies of all sizes to do business overseas, but don’t assume you can simply translate your eCommerce site and wait for the sales to roll in. Everything from translation to shipping to social media becomes more complicated when you do business on a global level — but if you do it right, it also becomes more profitable.

The post 8 Crucial Steps to Succeed at Global Ecommerce appeared first on Relevance.

And yet, marketing departments across the world are still not getting nearly as much as they could be getting out of the buyer persona concept.

Dominance In B2B Marketing

Of the 85 percent of content marketing and messaging professionals who use buyer personas, a full 80 percent were from the world of marketing. Of those, 95 percent use the strategy for B2B marketing. Well over half of all respondents, however — 57 percent — only created their first buyer persona within the last two years. That means that it took nearly a decade after the arrival of the first buyer persona for the technique to even begin to draw mainstream acceptance — and that acceptance has come almost exclusively from B2B marketing.

Qualitative Research & Persona Success

A major flood of acceptance over the last two years does not, however, mean that marketers are reaping a sudden whirlwind of benefits — just 15 percent said they found the concept to be “significantly effective.” Sixty percent, in fact, said that they didn’t learn anything new at all from buyer personas or just relearned what they already knew.

But for anyone watching closely, the percentage of success stories — 15 percent — was too close to another related percentage to be a coincidence: the number of respondents who used in-depth, qualitative research was also a meager 15 percent.

Could it be that qualitative research equals success in buyer personas?

The answer is evident in the fact that the 80 percent who were confused about what buyer personas were, also reported being unsure of the role of qualitative research methods. The takeaway has to be, then, that a good grasp on qualitative research — not just standard demographics — is crucial to understanding and implementing buyer personas.

Data Alone Is Not Enough

What this all means is that data — like the kind gathered from SEO and Google Analytics — is not enough. A company can do all the right things. But if qualitative research isn’t the foundation of their buyer personas, they’re still not going to be looking at their audiences as three-dimensional people. Instead, they’re going to be collecting scattered data and building fragmented, incomplete personas. No one should be surprised when that doesn’t work.

The Next Phase Of Marketing Personas

The first evolution was from obscurity to mainstream acceptance — or at least recognition. Next came widespread attempts that weren’t backed up by the qualitative research necessary for success, which is where things seem to be right now. The next evolution will hopefully be a shift away from personas being pigeonholed as a supplemental marketing technique, and instead a positioning of personas at the head of the strategy-shaping table.

In 2002, the world contained exactly one marketing persona. Fast-forward 13 years and more than four out of five marketers are using personas as part of their strategy. But many still aren’t getting as much as they could from the technique. The fact is, although buyer personas are no longer a mystery, they are also not fully understood by the overwhelming majority of marketers who don’t recognize the direct connection between qualitative research and persona success.

The post The Maturation of Buyer Personas and Their Role In Marketing appeared first on Relevance.