7 Essential Shopify Apps to Boost Holiday Sales

Shopify apps have made it easier than ever for businesses of all sizes to sell online. With the holiday season right around the corner, it is critically important to ensure your online store is capitalizing on every opportunity.

As online shoppers arrive on your website, eager to buy gifts for friends and loved ones (and themselves!), how sure are you that you’re successfully converting browsers and visitors into happy customers?

Attract more customers, improve your shopping experience, maximize upselling and suggestive selling opportunities, and make it all work seamlessly with the essential Shopify apps in your arsenal. Here are seven top picks for this holiday shopping season.

#1. Dialogue AI Personalization 

Not everybody sees the same Instagram feed or Netflix recommendations. Why should everybody see the exact same version of your website? The Automated Personalization Shopify app by Dialogue elevates your online store to a whole new level, powered by artificial intelligence.

The smart AI personalization algorithm intelligently analyzes users and displays only what they want to see. To the end-user, the experience is seamless and individually enhanced.

As they browse your catalog, they’ll receive personalized product recommendations and rich content based on their past history and unique customer journey. The Dialogue AI Personalization app increases cross-selling and upselling by promoting relevant, supplementary products on the cart page and at checkout too. Thanks to AI, this easy-to-use all-in-one solution drastically increases session times and conversion rates.

#2. Mailchimp Forms

Your mailing list is undeniably one of the most powerful marketing tools you have in your toolbox. But your mailing list isn’t going to do you much good if no one actually signs up for it. This very much becomes a virtuous cycle during the holiday shopping season. As more people come to shop on your site, you have more opportunities to grow your mailing list. And, as more people sign up for your email list, you have more opportunities to get more people on your site.

Serving that objective is the Mailchimp Forms app by Mailmunch. This Shopify app empowers you to add popups, bars, or banners quickly and easily, reminding visitors to sign up for your email list. The popups can be triggered by exit intent, for example, and you can use them to present tempting coupons, enticing customers to complete the transaction and sign up for your list.

#3. Automizely Dropshipping App

While many companies certainly develop, source, create and sell their own unique products, the reality of eCommerce is that just as many (if not more) online stores have achieved tremendous success as dropshipping companies. Customers might not see or know everything that happens behind the scenes, but business owners definitely want to streamline the process.

If this resonates with you and your business, then the Automizely Dropshipping App is for you. Tap into the vast inventory and catalog of AliExpress with a comprehensive dropshipping solution. With this app, you can find the right products to sell, offer free trackable shipping to the US, automate your pricing rules, edit product details, and even add your branded stickers on packages shipped from China.

There’s no code needed to import products into your Shopify store in bulk. A few quick clicks and you’re ready to sell.

#4. Loox Product Reviews and Photos

When it comes to overcoming any hesitancy a would-be customer might have, two of the most compelling arguments come in the form of customer reviews and excellent product photos presented in a beautiful way. These are absolute necessities for any online store, especially during the holidays.

The Loox product reviews and photos app pulls all of that together for you in a simple and aesthetically pleasing way. When customers buy any of your products, they can automatically receive an email requesting a review. Entice customers to add a photo or video to their review by offering a discount.

This visual “social proof” creates another virtuous cycle, as future customers see real photos and reviews from past customers, encouraging them to buy. Boosting both virality and retention.

#5. Whatsapp Chat + Abandoned Cart

Great products at attractive prices are one part of the equation. Excellent, timely customer service is another. Customers respond well to prompt support requests. The immediacy and omnipresence of messaging apps make them ideal for the busy holiday season too.

With the Whatsapp Chat Shopify app by Push Daddy, customers can ask any questions they may have and get the answers they desire. There’s even a chatbot for an automated reply, as could be handy for cart recovery, order confirmation, or tracking updates. And while this Shopify app specifically names WhatsApp, supporting both web and mobile, you can also connect to other platforms like Facebook Messenger, Line, Telegram, WeChat, Snapchat and more.

#6. Free Shipping Bar

Customers, like all people, respond to a sense of progress. And it’s a great feeling when they think they’re getting a great deal. The Free Shipping Bar app by Hextom combines these two elements, not so subtly working to boost your sales as customers try to reach the minimum purchase amount to earn free shipping.

Studies have shown that the average customer is more willing to buy a $100 product with free shipping than they are to spend $80 on something if they have to pay $20 for shipping. The total out-of-pocket cost is the same, but the psychological experience is vastly different. The Free Shipping Bar app not only promotes your free shipping offer, but it shows a progress bar with an updated cart goal. This motivates customers to buy more and boosts cart value. Additional features include advanced targeting options and curated holiday themes too.

#7. PushOwl Web Push Notifications

When a customer is actively browsing on your website, you have a fair bit of control over their shopping experience. But what happens when they leave? How can you encourage them to come back, especially if they’ve abandoned their shopping cart? The PushOwl Web Push Notifications app lets you reach your customers wherever they are, even after they’ve left your site.

This is a very powerful way to drive more sales during Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season, especially as users often shop on multiple websites. Keep your store and brand front of mind with automated notifications, including messages about items back in stock, retargeting opportunities, and flash sales. Plus, you can remind them of an abandoned cart so they can come back to complete their purchase, all on autopilot.

Dominate holiday sales with these essential Shopify apps

No matter how big or small your Shopify store or online business might be, it’s important to make sure you are using the right tools and solutions to get the job done right. This ultimately is one of the biggest determining factors when selling anything online.

According to the latest Shopify stats, it’s predicted that seasonal shopping will start earlier this year than ever before. And when it comes to finding the right product to purchase, 39% of users rely on search engines, while another 32% are buying directly through online brands and apps.

In summary, be sure to take a moment to skim through each of the names mentioned above, and see which of the tools and solutions being offered would benefit your online marketing efforts. Q4 selling is one of the greatest times of the year, so make sure your online business is ready before the competition!

Guest author: Zac Johnson is a world-renowned blogger and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience in the online marketing space and has helped his readers generate millions of dollars online. He shares his story and guidance at ZacJohnson.com

The post 7 Essential Shopify Apps to Boost Holiday Sales appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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8 Techniques to Try When You’re in a Sales Slump

Working in sales can be fast-paced, exciting, and rewarding. However, when you aren’t armed with the right sales techniques, it can also be stressful. If you’re not performing or bringing your business many sales, you aren’t showing your company your true worth. If you’re currently experiencing a sales slump, here are a few tactics to try to get back on track.

#1. Sales tracking technology

Something as simple as a sales tracking Excel spreadsheet could be the answer to your sales woes. Sometimes, not having the tracking technology you need to chase leads and plug gaps can lead you down a dangerous road of dwindling sales and drying up leads.

By using a program or piece of software that tracks your performance, you can gain insight into what’s working and what isn’t. As you can also highlight problems and enjoy clear reports on who you have and haven’t contacted, you may be in a much better position to refresh your approach and try again.

#2. Learn who your customers are

To make a successful sale of a product or service, large or small, it helps to know who your customers are inside and out. Knowing your general target market is enough for small sales, but large-quantity purchases need much more.

When you’re trying to sell an expensive product or an ongoing service, your research needs to be more in-depth. This can be particularly true if you’re targeting a business in a B2B sale. In that case, learning everything about them may enable you to switch up your sales techniques to lure them in for a closer look.

For example, find out who their competitors are, their strengths, weaknesses, and what they hope to achieve. You can store all of this information inside a spreadsheet for easy access. Your ultimate goal might be to identify their biggest problems and solve them with your product or service.

#3. Know your sales pitch

A potential customer can easily pick up on uncertainty in a sales pitch. It may simply be a case of not practicing enough, but your wavering can come off as a lack of confidence in yourself and your product.

Dedicate time to brainstorming what you want to say and how you want to say it. Prepare a script, and prepare answers to questions your potential new client might ask. The more you know about what you are selling, the easier it might be to confidently answer any questions a customer might throw your way.

#4. Don’t overwhelm your customers

You might be enthusiastic and passionate about your product, but try not to overwhelm people when you’re trying to sell it to them. Focus on the problems they’re having, and note particular features your product or service has that could solve them.

With this approach, less is more. Don’t run through every single specification or feature, but separate them into categories. For example, instead of listing all the features your software has, you can open discussions by saying it boasts many time-saving features. You then have an opening to elaborate on that since many people can relate to never having enough time.

Trying not to overwhelm your customer with product options is essential. A visitor to your car yard might be interested in purchasing a car, but being shown dozens of options might lead to confusion.

Instead, find out what features they require and what their daily needs are, and describe your solution to those needs.

#5. Be honest and ethical

When sales have been slumping, and you’re desperate to boost your numbers, it can be tempting to throw out all the stops and talk up your product or service to the point where the facts are no longer accurate.

You may be able to offer a standout product, but keep your honesty and ethics intact. If you overpromise and under-deliver, you’ll end up with a dissatisfied customer who ends up going to your competition instead.

Honesty and ethics are important throughout the entire sales process, including once you have them on board as a customer. If you don’t have the answers to all their questions, tell them you don’t know and attempt to find out the information they need. The more honest you are, the more respected you can be in your sales field.

#6. Be yourself

You might think you need to change yourself to sell a product or service to a client, but that’s not the case at all. Take note of your body language and oral language in discussions with friends, then try to maintain that language when meeting with your next client. While you don’t want to be too familiar with someone you’ve never met before, your warmth and authenticity will get your sale over the line.  

#7. Be generous

Be generous with your time and product offerings, and you may find yourself with a new customer quicker than ever before. Sometimes, customers just want to know that they are getting value for money and that you’re going to take the time to help them reach a decision. No one ever wants to feel rushed into deciding, nor do they like feeling as if you’re not giving them the best deal you possibly could.

Spend time before meeting with a potential client to learn about the margins of your products and your absolute bottom dollar. It also doesn’t hurt to allocate plenty of time to big business clients and even invite them out to lunch on your company’s dime if it’s going to strengthen your sales opportunities.

#8. Take note of what isn’t working

For you to be experiencing a sales slump, you may have noticed that something’s not working. See if you can identify what it is and change it.

After you’ve left an unsuccessful sales pitch, play the events in your head and see if anything sticks out to you. You may know your potential customer was in the market to buy, and believe you had the right product. Therefore, it could be something you said or how you presented yourself. Next time, try a different approach, and you may identify a critical change that makes all the difference.

Wrapping up

There are so many different reasons why salespeople find themselves with declining sales. It might be a lack of organization, a product failure, or even a weak or unfinished sales pitch. Try any of these sales techniques above, and see if they help boost your sales figure and, ultimately, your confidence.

The post 8 Techniques to Try When You’re in a Sales Slump appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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10 Tips for Mobile-Friendly Email Campaigns

The numbers are out and strictly in favor of mobile phones! A whopping 68% of netizens are opening marketing emails on their smartphones. If we talk about the most pitched-to lead group – the millennials – 73% of them prefer marketing communication over email.

So, it’s safe to say that your email campaigns must not only be mobile-friendly but also mobile-first. Designing campaigns, first for smartphone viewing and then other devices drives higher engagement and boosts conversions. Otherwise, you stand to experience a definite departure from high open and response rates.

Not sure what to do to devise mobile-friendly email campaigns? Worry not! Here is some hands-on expert advice to help you get it right on the first go.

10 Ways to create engaging mobile-friendly email campaigns

Here are 10 tips for concocting email campaigns for mobile devices. Take notes:

1. Simplify Viewing by Using a Single-Column Layout

Image Source: HubSpot

Don’t worry; there’s nothing wrong with a spread-out multi-column layout if you’re designing an email to be opened on laptops or tablets. Those devices are meant for landscape-style viewing. But, this isn’t the case with smartphones.

Here, users view things quickly and do it in portrait mode. Therefore, your email must appear like a pillar text – everything condensed with correct spacing and imagery in one column. The more columns you design, the more your viewer has to scroll side-to-side instead of scrolling up and down, which comes far more naturally. And, when this happens, readers lose interest quicker than you think.

Avoid this under all circumstances, and allow viewers quick and easy readability by using a single-column email layout as shown in the picture above.

2. Write Shorter Subject Lines

If you’re confident you write crisp and concise subject lines, riddle us this – do you mean for computer screens or smartphone screens? Okay, do this quickly, open your inbox and tally how many characters appeared in your last subject line? If it was around 60, congratulations, your subject line is optimized. But, only for a desktop or laptop!

For a mobile phone, anything over 25 to 30 characters is simply too much. Why is your subject’s character length so important? It is the first thing your leads quickly glance at when they receive your email.

Their smartphone’s alert bar itself shows them the subject line, which, if not concise and impactful, will leave the email unopened. So, keep your subject lines within the 25 to 30-character limit when designing for smartphones.

3. Less is more for body content

Image Source: PayPal

Before you roll out your email marketing campaign, be sure to create consumable content for it. Think of writing a mobile email as designing a User Interface (UI) with a serious space crunch. You should ensure it is an easy-to-scan page. How? Here are a few tips for limiting your body content without compromising on quality.

• Never write a single block of text. Either break the paragraphs up or finish what you have to say in a couple of sentences. 
• A picture is worth a thousand words. Use images, videos, animated GIFs, or infographics to get your point across.
• If you must write a substantial amount of text, split it using bullets, headings and sub-headings.
• Embed easy-to-see calls-to-action (CTAs).

4. Provide Context Using Pre-Headers

Image Source: MailerLite

Leverage the pre-header space to inform readers of the purpose of your email. Doing this instantly builds context and piques their interest in opening your emails. While reading the pre-header, they can also glean through your subject line.

If used right, pre-headers speak volumes, thus optimizing your email for mobile users. Think of it as prime email space, and don’t waste it by writing sentences like “can you read this email.”

5. Don’t Use Images as Buttons or CTAs

Getting readers to click through your email is a very strategic process. Therefore, you must place buttons, also called CTAs, separately within the email. They must be easy to find, contain the right words to create a sense of urgency, prompting or compelling the reader to take the next action.

So, don’t make the mistake of choosing pictures as buttons that take them to another landing page for making a purchase. This doesn’t mean you don’t make your pictures clickable. A reader might want to click an image to enlarge it. Let them have this option, but keep your actionable CTAs irresistible, and separate from images.

6. Choose the Right Font Size and Type

Just because you’re designing for a small screen doesn’t mean you need a compact font. If anything, go beyond the usual size of 10 pixels, used by many of your competitor brands. Try incorporating font sizes that start with 12 pixels and go up to 14.

The logic at play here is simple. A bigger font size makes the entire email easier on the eyes. Know, what else helps with this? Using the right font type for higher legibility. So, roll out your emails in Helvetica, Garamond, Futura, Verdana, Arial, etc.

7. Draft Stand-Alone Emails

While it’s good to incorporate imagery in mobile-friendly emails, don’t rely on it. Because sometimes images and videos fail to load! And then your entire email effort ends up in vain.

Prevent this from happening by ensuring that your email makes sense even if the images don’t show. This doesn’t mean, write additional content. Simply modify the existing content keeping a stand-alone approach in mind.

8. Never Embed Navigation Bars

Remember, as long as your leads are only scrolling up or down; you have their attention. The minute you offer them side-to-side movement through navigational bars, you stand to lose them.

Besides, we’re talking about an email, not a website, so it’s best to avoid embedding this tool altogether.

9. Be Wary of the Email Size

While it’s excellent to embed images and GIFs that make mobile emails engaging, you must be wary of the entire file’s size. This is to ensure you have the shortest possible page load time. What is the ideal file weight?

Try not to go beyond the total weight of 1 MB for your mobile-friendly email marketing campaign. So, no extra high-resolution images or GIFs for better engagement from leads and subscribers.

10. Conduct A/B Tests

After incorporating all the above tips, formulate at least two email templates, and test them on different devices (Android and IOS) with different test batches. Track the engagement levels for each template, and choose the one that performs better.

Over to you

Perhaps you, too, receive several marketing emails on your smartphone each day. Some you like, while others you discard within an instant, even when they market stuff you need.

Next time, tally the marketing emails that engage you with the tips given above. Maybe, you like certain ones precisely because they end up following the tricks listed in this post. In the meantime, we’re leaving you with a great mobile-friendly email by Trello to get inspired!

Image Source: Sleeknote

Guest author: Rochelle Williams is a Senior Marketing Manager at Span Global Services. She comes with a strong marketing and advertising industry exposure of over 8+ years and has a deep understanding of SEO, SEM, SMO, branding, and allied marketing strategies. Connect with her on Twitter.

The post 10 Tips for Mobile-Friendly Email Campaigns appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Account-Based Marketing

Marketing today is all about personalization. Marketers compile massive amounts of data on potential customers to help build targeted B2C advertising experiences for anyone who happens to be online. But personalization is also taking over in the B2B world – account-based marketing (ABM) is a prime example.

There has been a tremendous push to get B2B ABM efforts fully underway in the past year. One survey found that over 94% of businesses had at least started to implement ABM programs. Of those organizations, nearly half had reached middle to late-stage implementation.

Of course, this leaves quite a few businesses that are still figuring out how to use ABM best. And clearly, there is still room for even those businesses who have moved significantly down the ABM path to improve their efforts.

In this post, we’ll look at how account-based marketing helps businesses maximize their marketing expenditures. We’ll also walk through the basics of getting an ABM program up and running and fine-tuning it to get the best ROI and conversion rate possible.

How do you optimize your account-based marketing?

Account-based marketing is a targeted strategy that focuses personalized efforts on a few high-value opportunities rather than spreading marketing efforts across large market segments.

Image Source

ABM relies heavily on relationship building. One benefit of the relationship-based approach is that it creates trust that drives higher conversion rates. And if the coordinated ABM team works to foster the relationship, there is the legitimate promise of long-term relationships with substantial repeat business.

Successful ABM campaigns require research, planning, diligence, and post-mortem analysis. You can get the most out of your ABM campaign by answering the following questions as you move forward.

Question 1: What are you trying to achieve?

This question is not unique to ABM, but it sets a necessary framework for the program. Every marketing campaign should have specific goals. And, as always, they should be SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive). Without clear goals, the ABM marketing team will have no way of knowing if they are successful, and they may wind up misdirecting their efforts.

Question 2: What are your most promising opportunities?

Here’s the major front-end effort for your ABM campaign. You must spend sufficient time researching potential target businesses to develop your shortlist. Beginning with a less-than-optimal pool will lead to poor results.

Image Source

Get started by thinking about the characteristics that define your ideal client. Are you most concerned with size, geographic locations, revenue, or other factors? Do you already have data from your existing clients that can help you narrow down the types of companies that will most likely respond to your efforts? Indeed, are your current clients the best place to start?

You can mine the existing accounting tools you use for tracking revenue, which should reveal much data about your clients’ buying tendencies. You can identify whether your customers are more likely to visit and make smaller purchases frequently, make larger purchases more infrequently, if they tend to buy products that are prominently displayed, whether they were referred to your site, or if they only buy after discounts.

Question 3: Who do you know at the target business?

Once you have selected your primary targets, you need to dig a little deeper. Specifically, you need to identify the people within the target organization with whom you will build relationships. Find the decision-makers, as they will be the focus of your efforts.

If an existing client is your focus, consider how you can leverage existing relationships to get to the right people. An introduction from a known source can go a long way to developing trust.

Keep your efforts focused. People talk, and if you are reaching out to everyone as a potential customer, you lose the personal aspect of the campaign.

Question 4: How will you determine success?

Key performance indicators (KPI) go hand-in-hand with goals; indeed, this is the measurable aspect of a SMART goal. You must decide what your success measures are. Is it a certain number of new clients? A certain amount of repeat business? Overall revenue increase?

Once you have set your KPI, you must be diligent in evaluating them. If you aren’t meeting them, you need to decide how to modify your campaign.

Question 5: What messages are you going to deliver and how?

Now it’s time to take your research and use it to develop a personalized communication strategy. You need to assess what types of materials will best engage your prospective clients, as well as the best channels to use for reaching out to them. Consider whether you can use modern tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to draw from your existing data on client behavior.

Make sure that your marketing materials specifically address known needs. If you are effectively cultivating your relationships, you may have already identified your contact’s pain points. Show them how you can help ease their pain.

Image Source

Of course, even the most relevant and convincing advertising won’t be effective if your target never sees it. Rely on the special knowledge you have built about your prospects. Do they frequently text business contacts? Do they rely on social media? Do they follow a particular influencer? Do they only want to make online purchases, as B2B e-commerce nearly doubled in value in only five years? Know how you can best reach them.

Question 6: How often will you contact the prospective client?

It is crucial to schedule your AMB efforts. Everyone in the team needs to know who is doing what when. You don’t want to annoy your contact with excessive contacts just because one team member was unaware that someone else from the team called the contact the day before.

You should also make sure to document your communications and share them with the team. That way, the next person in line can further refine the material for the subsequent encounter.

Question 7: How did it go?

This question goes beyond a simple KPI review. Instead, you should think holistically about the overall effectiveness of the campaign. You want everyone on the team to think about what did and didn’t work and what you need to improve for ongoing and future efforts. Learn from your efforts and build on them.

Conclusion

You have now learned a lot more about your target business and your contacts in it, including likes, dislikes, and idiosyncrasies. Use that knowledge for the next round because you will want to keep developing new business from the client for a very long time. After all, that’s why you started the relationship in the first place.

Guest author: Lee Li is a project manager and B2B copywriter from ShenZhen, China, and is currently based out of Singapore. She has a decade of experience in the Chinese fintech startup space as a PM for TaoBao, MeitTuan, and DouYin (now TikTok).

The post How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Account-Based Marketing appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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8 Tips to Choose an SEO-Friendly Domain Name For Your New Website

Choosing the right domain name is crucial for your new website. It’s the initial step to build a brand online where most beginners fail.

Picking an SEO-friendly domain name is not as easy as it sounds. It takes time and a lot of consideration.

If you pick the wrong domain name, you may end up losing search traffic, revenue, or the worst that can happen, Google will mark your website as spam.

But don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.

In this article, I will share eight tips that will help you choose an SEO-friendly domain name for your new website.

Don’t have a website yet? Read this guide on How to Start a Blog!

What is a domain name?

A domain is your website’s name on the internet. It’s the address that people type into their web browser to reach your website.

In a domain name, the first part (before the dot sign) is called the domain and the last part (after the dot sign) is called the domain extension. For example, in the domain name “JeffBullas.com”, “JeffBullas” is the domain and “.com” is the extension.

When you register a domain name, you need to choose both the domain and extension based on your website type.

Why is your domain name so important?

• It defines your brand: A good domain name increases awareness of your brand and retains your customers.
• It adds credibility to your website: A domain is the first thing your visitors will see. A good domain name makes your website look professional.
• It increases the click-through rate: A good domain name helps to increase the click-through rate (CTR) as well as boost search traffic.

Let’s check how to choose an SEO-friendly domain name for your new website.

How to choose an SEO-friendly domain name

1. Use top-level domain extensions

Before purchasing a domain, you need to know which domain extension is right for you or suits your business.

There are over 1,000 domain extensions available in the domain name system and it’s pretty confusing to choose one.

According to W3Techs, more than 49% of all domain names have the “.com” extension. There are other popular domain extensions available that you can use like “.net”, “.org”, “.edu”, “.info”, etc.

Here’s an image below of top-level domains (TLDs):

The most used domain extensions are “.com”, “.net”, “.org”, “.edu”.

However, if you are going to start a blog, business or any kind of profitable website, then I highly recommend you go with the .com domain extension.

You may notice when somebody tells a website’s name for the first time, we usually access the website with the .com extension. This is because it’s so popular.

You may wonder if there is any SEO benefit of choosing a .com domain. If you are asking so, then in a domain name, the only thing that matters is the domain, not the extension. These extensions were created to differentiate different kinds of websites.

For example;

.com – .com is used for commercial businesses or any profitable websites. For example, Apple.com.

.net – .net stands for “networking”, which was created for network-related websites, such as, slideshare.net.

.edu – This extension is mostly used by education-related websites. For example, harvard.edu.

.org – Non-profit organizations mostly use the .org extension, such as Wikipedia.org.

Now, you can understand which type of domain extension suits your site. If you have a website for the purpose of making a profit, then go with the .com domain. However, if you are still not sure which extension is right for you, you can read an article that explains the difference between .com and .net domain.

Now, here comes the problem.

The .com extension is so popular; it looks like all the good .com domains are already taken. In this case, you need to come up with new domain names or go with .net or .org.

2. Go for brandable domain names

Have you ever wondered why many popular websites rank always higher than a brand-new site? The answer is they are not just a website, each of the websites is a brand. Search engines like Google use ‘brand signals’ to show articles from high-quality websites.

But what makes a domain name brandable? Well, there are several factors that come into play, for example,

• A brandable name is unique and has no specific meaning, for example, Google.com
• It’s very simple and easy to remember
• It’s simple to pronounce
• It stands out from the competition

For example, the domain “Apple.com” looks more brandable than the domain “TheNewBrandApple.com”.

To come up with new names, you can try adding relevant keywords or random suffixes but make sure the new domain sounds like a brand like we discussed before.

3. Keep your domain name short

Try to keep your domain name as short as possible. Short domain names are super easy to pronounce and also remember.

You see that most successful companies have a short name like Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and so on.

According to a study, the most typical domain name length is approximately 12 characters. We recommend you to keep your domain length between 6-14 characters.

This site – “JeffBullas.com” is exactly 10 characters long.

4. Avoid hyphens and numbers in your domain name

When choosing a domain name for SEO, it’s always better to avoid hyphens and numbers.

Hyphens and numbers make it harder to pronounce.

Let’s take Apple.com as an example.

Apple.com is a very short domain name and is easy to pronounce. More than that Apple.com sounds like a brand.

What if there were any hyphens or numbers in the name like “App-le.com” or “Number1Apple.com”, of course, the company could not have spread so promptly if that was the case.

So, if you are finding a domain name for your new website, always keep it simple and avoid hyphens and numbers.

5. Make sure it’s easy to type and memorable

Finding a domain name that’s easy to remember is very important to success online.

If you have a complex domain name such as jjkmysitee.com it is very hard for users to type. It’s also very hard to remember for them.

Now think, if your users want to revisit your website, your domain name will confuse them, and if they mistype your domain name, they will end up visiting another website. Not to mention, this way you will lose your visitors as well as revenue.

Just think how successful sites or companies choose their domain name. For example, Google, Facebook, BBC, Twitter, Yahoo, etc.

One thing they have in common is that they’re all simple to spell.

6. Don’t use repeated letters

Another thing you need to keep in mind when purchasing a domain is to not use repeated letters. Always keep it simple.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s compare two domain names, “flowershop.com” and “floowershoop.com”.

The first one “flowershop.com” is a good domain name because it’s simple. The second domain name “floowershoop.com” contains repeated letters.

Now both the domains sound the same but look different. If your domain contains repeated letters then most of the time visitors will mistype your domain name and go to another site.

Indeed, most of the good domain names are already registered. But you shouldn’t use the same brand name and repeat the letters just because your business is in the same category.

7. Use domain name generators for new domain ideas

There is no wonder that most of the good domain names are already registered.

Luckily, there is a way you can generate hundreds of thousands of domain names. That’s where a domain name generator comes into play.

Basically, a domain name generator automatically adds relevant and most common suffixes.

NameCheap is a great domain name generator tool. Here’s how to use this tool to generate an unlimited number of domain name ideas.

8. Add a keyword to your domain name

If you are already familiar with search engine optimization (SEO), then you know how important keywords are.

On a page on your site, for example, you usually add the keywords in the title, in the meta description, in the URL, and several times inside the article.

So, why not add a keyword into your domain name?

It has no specific SEO benefits but it could help boost your search traffic by getting more people clicking on your listing. For example, if you are a web developer, then a good domain name that contains a keyword would be “webdevs.com”.

To register a domain name, write down a few domain names that suit your business. You can also use a domain name generator tool if needed.

Also, register your domain with the most popular extensions that I have discussed above, if you can. Remember, if you are late, somebody will register that domain.

Bluehost – Get a FREE domain for a year

Bluehost is one of the best web hosting companies out there and they are powering over 2 million websites worldwide. They are also officially recommended by WordPress.org.

In general, a domain costs around $14 for a year and web hosting $11-$14 per month. That’s pretty expensive if you are just getting started.

Luckily, Bluehost offers a 60% discount on their hosting plans. With Bluehost, you can register a domain for FREE for a year. They provide almost all types of top-level domain extensions such as .com, .net, .org, .info, and many more.

Their hosting plan includes a free SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, and more.

Conclusion

Choosing a domain is not easy. There are many things you need to keep in mind. By choosing a good domain name, you can easily create a brand as well as boost your search traffic.

In this article, I have shared eight tips that will help you pick an SEO-friendly domain name for your new website. Now it’s your turn.

Guest author: Jyoti Ray is the founder of WPMyWeb.com. He writes about Blogging, WordPress, Hosting, Affiliate marketing, etc.

The post 8 Tips to Choose an SEO-Friendly Domain Name For Your New Website appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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4 Abandoned Cart Email Strategies for eCommerce Businesses in 2021

Abandoning an online shopping cart may not be a big deal for a customer – but, for an eCommerce company, it could be a lucrative opportunity lost.

An effective abandoned cart email strategy is the perfect solution.

Start with this list of four abandoned cart email examples that will bring folks back to complete their checkout on your website.

Why are abandoned cart emails important for eCommerce?

According to an industry benchmark report, the standard abandoned cart email makes $5.81 in revenue per recipient. That same study showed that companies with an average order value of $100–500 also recovered 4–5% of their abandoned carts through this email marketing strategy.

In short, abandoned cart emails are a major customer retention lifeline for eCommerce businesses.

Every eCommerce brand should have a customized abandoned cart email framework as part of its email automation workflow and retargeting strategy.

A thorough framework will help you identify:

• The exact point in the buyer’s journey where the customer clicked out
• The kind of copy that brings them back to the site (or helps make a sale)
• How to then upsell and/or increase brand affinity

In addition to that, it also helps you grow your email list for further remarketing.

When coupled with a high-level understanding of customer needs and email marketing data quality, an abandoned cart email marketing strategy works as a great remarketing tool.

How does an abandoned cart email work?

An abandoned cart email is an automated response that’s triggered by the customer leaving an eCommerce site or product page. Depending on the site and the brand’s strategy, the email can have various trigger points.

For example, a customer could trigger an abandoned cart email if they exit the site during the payment confirmation phase of checkout. In other cases, they could opt into the email just by viewing some products and then clicking out.

In both cases, the business needs a customer to provide their email address. This can be done in exchange for a discount code via a popup right before the home page, or while collecting delivery information.

Getting Customers’ Emails

Some business owners ask: Can you retarget an abandoned cart without a customer’s email?

No. Email acquisition is the key to abandoned cart emails. And, while collecting email addresses as soon as possible in the buying journey is beneficial to businesses, it’s not always plausible, considering how few customers actually share this information upfront.

Luckily, there are many ways to collect email addresses from your customers, including through:

• Pop-ups: The tried-and-true method of email acquisition, you can use browser-close actions that ask for an email when a customer moves toward the exit button. You can also launch pop-ups at a certain step in the checkout process, or as a customer moves through different product pages on your site. Include discounts and other incentives to provide value for customers.
• Chatbots: Not every customer who visits your site will engage with a chatbot. However, those that do engage will do so with a purpose. Build on their shopping intent and ask for their email for personalized responses from your customer service team.
• Retargeted ads: If customers are leaving your site for a better buying opportunity elsewhere, you can market your business to them on other sites with a discount or personalized incentives. When they return to your site, make asking for their email the first pop-up that appears.

Creating Your Strategy

Like with all email marketing, testing is key with abandoned cart workflows. Before you implement your strategy, you’ll need to do some experimentation to identify the optimal timing, frequency, and trigger delay that motivates your customers to purchase.

Consider testing manual and automatic workflows, and don’t forget to include seasonal changes in buyer behavior and other parameters in your research.

While actually sending the abandoned cart is easy, the work required to design your strategy correctly is where you’ll spend most of your time. Fortunately, you’ll likely generate some degree of return on your investment while you’re still working out the kinks.

Using Your eCommerce Platform

Many eCommerce platforms make it easy to implement these triggers and workflows. Take Shopify, for example.

To set up this workflow on your site, you can go to the “Orders” page on the Shopify Admin dashboard and click on “Abandoned Checkouts.” From there, you can either send a recovery email manually by clicking on “Send a Cart Recovery Email” or automate the entire process by clicking on “Automatically Send Abandoned Checkout Emails.”

Contact your platform’s help team to see how the process works for your website.

4 Abandoned cart email examples and strategies to test

Every eCommerce business is different. Your customers have their unique needs and buying journeys, and it’s your job to identify how to best reach them after they leave your site.

That said, it never hurts to try a few successful strategies from other businesses first to see if any of them stick for your shoppers.

As you test these strategies, pinpoint the elements that seem beneficial to your brand, mix in your own insights and audience research, experiment, and accumulate the effective tactics into an abandoned shopping cart email framework that works for you.

1. Offer incentives to customers

Peel is a minimalist product retailer that offers incentives for uncertain customers at multiple stages of the buying process, including in the first abandoned cart email.

Sending a reminder email isn’t enough to convince browsers to purchase. Make it worth their while with a clear incentive. The top-level positioning of “Free Shipping on Orders Over $49” draws potential buyers’ eyes immediately upon opening the message.

In addition, Peel uses the copy “Still Thinking it Over?” to reignite customer interest. Don’t ever assume your customer has abandoned their purchase; your cart abandonment email should nudge them to re-engage with their buying journey.

2. Don’t wait for items to be placed in a cart

“Add to cart” is a great indication of customer interest, but you don’t have to wait for that action to send abandoned cart emails.

When you shop at JCPenney, you don’t have to click out at the checkout stage to trigger abandoned cart emails. Instead, you could simply browse some product pages for the system to register your interest and send a discount coupon.

Customers do need to link their browsing experience to a JCPenney account to receive this email, so always prompt shoppers to save their preferences by signing up or signing into their accounts.

Using this method as part of your triggered email workflow offers an opportunity to build or improve brand affinity — by offering value at a point in the buyer’s journey where customers often forget to complete their purchase or begin looking for alternatives.

3. Promote a sense of urgency

ELO (Export Leftovers) is an online retailer that offers exclusively production surplus clothing and accessories, with a focus on fast-moving items.

At first look, their abandoned cart email seems basic, with no consideration or incentive for customer needs. However, because their business is based on high-demand clothing at affordable prices (which causes unpredictable fluctuation in availability), urgency is emphasized in the “while they’re still available” copy.

Doubling down on availability-related messaging reminds customers that their viewed items may not be in store for long. It also works extremely well; urgency-related copy subject lines increase open rates by 22 percent.

4. Use creative copy

Shoppers are bombarded with eCommerce emails, so make yours stand out with copy that speaks to your unique audience experience and personas.

Dote, which used to offer trendy clothing and accessories for younger buyers, had this strategy down pat. Its message to almost-customers is one of the best-abandoned cart email strategies for its particular audience.

Dote’s email had it all, from clever copywriting to a very clear call-to-action (CTA). They played with language familiar to its Gen Z customers and incorporated feelings of endearment with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

As you draft your abandoned cart emails, use email copy that resonates with customers on a high level. Funny one-liners, prevalent social trends, or meme/punny language can turn a boring email into one that improves brand enthusiasm and perception.

Start testing these strategies today

When it comes to a solid abandoned cart email marketing strategy, a catchy and effective template is as important as any distribution strategy. However, like any other digital marketing toolkit, you’ll need to test components first to identify what works best for your brand and your customers.

Don’t have the time? Consider reaching out to an eCommerce email marketing agency for an expert’s help. They can create your abandoned cart email strategy from scratch and improve your chances of retaining a greater range of would-be customers.

Guest author: Entrepreneur and digital marketer Mike Belasco has been the founder and CEO of eCommerce digital marketing agency Inflow since 2007. His background as a web developer and SEO expert built an agency that has worked with major brands like Amazon, Overstock.com, Dish Network, and many more. Today, Belasco leads a team of more than 25 PPC, SEO, and conversion optimization specialists as a boutique, fully remote eCommerce marketing agency.

The post 4 Abandoned Cart Email Strategies for eCommerce Businesses in 2021 appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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13 Proven Steps to Grow Your Domain Authority Fast

In the current digital marketing ecosystem, search engine optimization (SEO) is a legitimate concern of everyone who runs a website. Securing a spot on the first page of Google search results is deemed to be one of the most sought-after accomplishments today.

What makes it harder is that the complete list of factors affecting ranking on Google is a great secret. All we have is a list of basic steps and best practices for search engine optimization.  

Therefore, it is necessary to have a reliable idea of how well a site will rank on search engine result pages.

Enter Domain Authority (DA)!

What is domain authority?

Domain authority refers to a score that indicates the authority of your website and predicts how well the site will rank on search engine result pages. The score ranges from 1 to 100, and a higher score implies a greater ability to rank.

This metric was initially developed by our kind friends at Moz. However, other entities such as Ahrefs and Majestic have since created similar systems. The different companies understandably have different algorithms, but they all utilize your site’s data to determine its possible ranking in the eye of search engines.

In a manner of speaking, the score shows a site’s importance in a particular industry. So, if a site is established as a thought-leader in a subject area, its status will invariably influence its ranking on search engines.

In calculating a site’s domain authority, a number of factors are weighed. Factors such as the total number of inbound links, the number of root domains linking to the website, the authority of the linking domains, how many other unique domains those sites link to and much more.   

It is important to point out that the score is neither authoritative nor conclusive. It just helps with estimation and comparison. 

The smartest thing to do is to think of it as a comparative metric that shows how your site matches up against other sites in the same industry. 

Noteworthy also is the fact that the score is not considered by Google in determining your site’s ranking on its result pages. After all, Moz considers only about 40 factors while the almighty Google takes into account plenty more.

Therefore, a low domain authority score shouldn’t depress you. In fact, knowing that you can grow your domain authority is good news.

The importance of domain authority

Firstly, the algorithms utilized by Google in determining how well a site will rank on its result pages are some of the best-kept secrets of the 21st century. So, domain authority is a welcomed development because it gives a fair understanding of how Google and other search engines rank sites.

Also, I once said to a friend that search engines have so much in common with battlefields today (the only difference being that there are no dead bodies lying around, thankfully).

Competition is stiff!

Believe that.

However, with domain authority, you can get a trusted representation of the search result terrain. This gives you an insight into why a site will rank higher than another on search engine result pages.

Consequently, you will obtain knowledge on what steps to take to grow your domain authority. If you can grow your domain authority, then you certainly can grow your site’s visibility in the eye of search engines.

The implication is that you can monitor your competitors and also make great leaps that will help you rank higher than them.  

Do you know what that means?

More organic traffic!

It is always better to be armed with the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, instead of groping about mindlessly in the dark. 

Is domain authority the same as page authority?

No, it isn’t. While they are similar, page authority doesn’t use metrics that stretch over the entire domain. Instead, it only utilizes metrics that apply to a particular page.

Think of page authority as a measurement of the neatness of a room in a house as opposed to the neatness of the entire house.

How to check your site’s domain authority

Checking your site’s domain authority can be done effortlessly. In my opinion, the domain authority is not something you should obsess over. However, it doesn’t hurt to take a peek once in a while.

To check your domain authority, visit Moz. A page similar to the one below will pop up. Then you enter the URL of the site you want to check.

I typed in jeffbullas.com.

Click on the yellow button saying “Get free link data”. If you already have an account with Moz and are logged in, the domain authority score will show up instantly.

But, if you don’t have an account with Moz, it will prompt you to create one. Don’t worry. It’s nothing stressful. Once you’ve created the account, you can then check the domain authority of whatever site you please.

Below is an image of the result for JeffBullas.

A domain authority score of 72 is simply fantastic.

You can also use Ahrefs to check. The process is equally simple.

The page below will appear, and you can enter the URL in the tab, and fire off!

Now you can assess your site’s performance or spy on your competitors.

How to grow your domain authority

To keep it real with you, every high authority site on the Net today started at the bottom rung. You’ve just gotta work your way up (Siri, play Drake’s “Started from the bottom”). That’s how the system is designed.

Actually, getting a higher score gets tough as you climb. Therefore, it is easy to go from 1 to 20, and this is the lower tier of the scale.

Landing within the range of 40 to 60 is quite another level of challenge, but if you hit it, then you deserve a pat on the back. Why? Because you’ve made it to the big league!

It is much tougher to grow your domain authority to the 70-100 range. Much tougher? Yes. Impossible? No.

So, instead of lamenting about how many other sites are way ahead of you, gear up! I am about to share with you the surefire steps to get your domain authority rocketing.

Are you ready?

Let’s get to it!

1. Work on your off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to activities that take place outside your website. Think of it in terms of external tactics geared towards effectively marketing your site and reaching a wider audience.

An off-page SEO tactic that has proven its worth is influencer outreach. This involves reaching out to established entities (businesses and individuals) and asking them to kindly share your content.

Another aspect of influencer outreach includes reaching out to authority sites and asking them to link to a quality post that is relevant to them. 

Of course, they will only share your content if it meets a certain standard. However, if they do share your content, that means that you’ll have the attention of their followers.

Your site will thank you for the visibility it will experience.

Another move that seems underrated is joining relevant discussion forums and replying to questions on “question and answer” sites. These sites are dear to the hearts of search engines and people who need information.

Your role is to answer questions that are related to your niche and also become an active participant in discussions. Essentially, you are positioning yourself as an authority in that industry. Also, include links to posts on your site which are relevant to the question asked.

The outcome?

An upthrust in your domain authority, site traffic, and brand exposure!

2. On-page SEO matters, too

On-page SEO refers to optimization activities that are carried out on the pages of a website. They are easy and can be implemented in an instant, quite unlike their off-page counterparts.

An important aspect of on-page SEO is a site’s URL structure. It should be arranged in a manner that displays the category hierarchy of the site.

Search engines pay attention to it because it helps determine a given page’s essence. It also matters because if it contains keywords (it should contain keywords), users will easily link with the keyword.

On-page SEO also involves title tags. Title tags specify the title of a website page. It is easy not to think much about them. But they play the role of attracting users to click on your site when it shows up on a search engine result page.

Also, they briefly describe the content of a page on your site and help with SEO. You should make them attractive enough to capture your users’ attention, or else you might lose that click.

There is always a tendency for users to get distracted and lose track of your content. In that case, a good title tag serves as a placeholder and reminds them of the page’s content in the event that a user has multiple tabs open.

Additionally, social media platforms utilize and display the title tags when you share your page.

Keywords are part of on-page SEO

Hardly ever is there talk about on-page SEO without mention of the term “keywords”.

In fact, many think that SEO is just all about keywords. It isn’t, but keywords are important if you are concerned about growing your domain authority and boosting your site’s visibility.

Keywords should be smoothly added to a page’s content so that it flows naturally. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing. Worse still, Google penalizes sites that are guilty of it. Therefore, keywords should be cleverly spread throughout the text, and even included in the image alt texts.

3. Go hard on technical SEO

Obviously, you need to improve on all aspects of SEO if you are keen on growing your domain authority.

Technical SEO is aimed at optimizing the workings of the complete website for the sake of search engine crawling, indexing and general visibility.

As the name implies, a measure of technical knowledge is required. However, the good news is that for the most part, once you get your technical SEO on lock, you won’t have to do it again.

Security is one core facet of technical SEO. You should add SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to your site to make it HTTPS. This means that your site can only be accessed with https and not http.

The big deal with HTTPS?

It helps with search engine ranking, and also develops trust with your users. It shows that any information transferred between your site and the server is encrypted, and thus protected from malicious eyes.

If you’ve ever made a purchase online, then you know how relevant this is.

Optimizing your 404 page aids technical SEO

From time to time, site owners delete certain pages from their site. Frequently, users make mistakes when typing URLs into their browsers. That brings us to the need for the optimization of the 404 page.

As part of technical SEO, an optimized 404 page informs users that the page they are searching for is not available. It also provides a simple way of returning to important pages of the website or suggests related pages. It should also have the same navigation and structure menus as your site.

To have a feel of what your 404 page looks like, just misspell a URL of your website in your browser and search. Make sure you type in the root domain correctly, though.

Below is an image of this site’s 404 page. Pay attention to the URL I typed in. I don’t think avocado smoothies have much to do with internet marketing.

4. Increase your site’s speed

As far as increasing your site’s domain authority goes, a faster website blows a slower one out of the water. Website speed falls within the lines of technical SEO, but it is worth a separate mention.

According to an infographic by Kissmetrics, 40% of people say that they will leave a site page that takes 3 seconds or more to load.    

There are different metrics for measuring site speed, and they are:

• The time it takes for 100% of the resources on the page to load;
• Time To First Byte (TTFB) and this measures how long it takes for a page to start the loading process; and 
• First meaningful paint (first contextual paint) which refers to how long it takes to load enough of the resources for the content of your page to be actually read.

A wise move would be to improve your site speed based on all these metrics. Better to err on the side of caution, right?

Here are some tips to make your website faster:

• Compress your images. This might be the billionth time you’ll hear this, but large images make your page slow.
• Also, trim your code. Codes resulting from shoddy developer work are bad for your domain authority.
• Enable browser caching. With this, a user will store parts of your site in their browser, and this will help your site load faster upon subsequent visits.
• Apply a Content Delivery Network (CDN). It identifies your visitor’s physical location and then serves up your site from a nearby server.

Additionally, you should keep track of your site speed. You can do this by utilizing tools such as Google Page Insights, Google Mobile Speed Tools and others. They normally give tips and recommendations after an analysis.

5. Make your site mobile-friendly 

You must be living under a rock if have not noticed the prevalent use of mobiles in accessing the Internet. A 2019 survey shows that there are way more mobile Internet users than desktop Internet users.  

A site’s mobile-friendliness is another technical element that determines its domain authority. In fact, Google seems to have a thing for mobile-friendly sites.

How else would you explain the introduction of the mobile-first index (a ranking principle that displays mobile content first regardless of the searcher’s device)?

A solid tip on making your site mobile-friendly is to make it responsive. This makes the content and layout respond to the user’s particular device.

The benefits of making your site responsive include:

• A bump in user-friendliness.
• A single URL which eliminates the need for a separate URL (M. configuration) and also makes for easy sharing of content.
• No need for dynamic serving which demands different HTML for a different device.
• No worrisome redirects and SEO problems.

Some recommended tools to help you check your site’s mobile-friendliness include Google Developers Mobile-Friendly Test Tool and Bing Mobile-Friendliness Test Tool.

6. Good content means a higher domain authority

Stellar content will help you grow your domain authority.

High-quality content is content that understands your audience and thoroughly answers their questions.

Some tips on how to create amazing content are:

• Provide deep information, as scanty posts of 500 words might not help you. Also, make use of casual language. Save the jargon and strange language for classes at Hogwarts.
• Let the post be helpful and provide a solution to a particular challenge. When writing long-form content, it is easy to lose sight of the intended goal. Maintain your focus.
• As much as users want to learn and be informed, they want to be entertained and thrilled too. Think of your post as a conversation between you and the reader, and lace it with elements of emotion and popular culture.
• Make it easily readable. The truth is that lots of people breeze through posts. Also, large walls of text are intimidating. Therefore, to keep people from running away from your post, utilize short paragraphs, bold letters, numbered lists and bullet points.
• Use keywords efficiently. Spread keywords through your post evenly, and make good use of synonyms and varying word forms of the keyword.

If you are serious about boosting your domain authority, then having a blog on your site is a no-brainer. It serves as a chamber for the production of content. The benefits of having a blog on your site are tremendous and cannot be over-emphasized.

It doesn’t really matter what name you give to it. Some websites have different captions such as “What’s New”, or “Tips”. All that matters is that you have a section of your website dedicated to the provision of content for your audience.

7. Get high-quality backlinks

Say it again!

To some, high-quality backlinks are the brain, heart, and spine of boosting your site’s domain authority. Such persons might not be far from the truth. Generating high-quality backlinks is an aspect of off-page SEO, but it is worth a separate mention.

The simple implication is that getting high-authority sites to backlink to your website will make your domain authority grow. You know what they say, “the higher the site’s authority, the sweeter the link juice”.

What?

Isn’t that how the saying goes? 

Well, at least you get the idea. Find sites that are considered thought-leaders in your industry and get them to link back to your site. One surefire way to hit this goal is by writing guest posts for high authority sites in your niche. 

What you are essentially doing is giving them a quality post in exchange for a quality backlink.

With good backlinks comes more referral traffic for you, greater visibility and a climb in domain authority.

Another way is to create first-class content that such sites would want to link to. You could also reach out to them and ask them to link back to any of your posts which they find link-worthy and relevant to their audience.

Whichever means you opt for, the outcome is that a high-quality backlink is sure to help grow your domain authority.

8. Conduct link audits

Health experts advise that for good living we need constant self-examination and de-cluttering of our environments.

Come, lemme whisper a secret to you.

THE SAME APPLIES TO YOUR WEBSITE!

The function of a link audit is to comb through your current links to determine whether or not they are good for your site’s health. Generally, a link audit helps you:

• Find links sending traffic to your site.
• Identify risky links, weak links, and the strongest links.
• Figure out how to improve your overall link strategy.
• Know which parts of your website are drawing the most inbound links and which parts are lagging behind.

They say prevention is better than cure. It is best to conduct a link audit sooner than later because bad links incur penalties. A thorough link audit will expose unfavorable links, and you can disavow them.

To effectively grow your domain authority, you must avoid bad links like the Black Plague. 

Links which are generally considered bad include:

• A link from sites that activate a virus warning when you enter their URLs.
• Links from sites that haven’t been indexed.
• A link from spam sites.
• Links from sites with odd content and sites that promote social vices.

However, I must point out that a bad link and a low-quality link are not entirely the same thing. In fact, you should allow some links to stay, even if they seem to have low quality.

That’s because the site having the low-quality link might be on its way up, and disavowing such a link will rob you of the juice that is to come.

Some tools that you can use to check your backlinks are Google Search Console, and Moz.

Conduct a link audit regularly, and watch your domain authority go boom.

9. User-experience is a factor

Focus on your site visitors. This is the long and short of user-experience. Make your site all about them.

User-experience involves many things from the technical aspect of your site down to how you write your content. It is all geared towards making your users enjoy their time on your site.

One effective way is to make your site responsive to mobiles. The majority of Internet users today are on mobile. Honestly, nobody wants to have to zoom in and zoom out all the time to view stuff simply because your site has a poor layout.

Another angle of user-experience is tailoring content with a proper understanding of searcher intent and conducting keyword research. It reveals the various words that searchers use when seeking answers and enables you to write accordingly.

Let your posts nourish your users with information and entertain them at the same time. Their experience on your site should be a memorable one.

10. Apply good site navigation 

A well-structured site trumps a poorly structured site any day.

Site navigation is also called the internal linking structure. It refers to the links that connect pages on your site. 

They make your site easy to navigate, and also indicate to search engines what pages are on the site. Whenever you step into a supermarket, you find that it is organized and divided into sections. A proper internal linking structure works in the same way.

There are several tips on how to make your site easily navigable. Firstly, if you want to convert your users to buyers include a link to a product to enable a purchase.

Also, mega menus are helpful if you have a ton of content on your site. They efficiently group subpages and keywords and also isolate pages that are relevant to the same keyword.

Another tip is to utilize image carousels. Since they occupy very small spaces, they come in handy if you have lots of information on your site. Additionally, the pictures they contain easily capture the eyes, and in some cases, the heart too.

11. Publish regularly

Frequent publishing of content is another tip on how to grow your domain authority. Regular publishing indicates that your site means business.

Besides that, it also helps with quicker indexing by Google if your site is new.

A solid tip on steady publishing of content is to create at least one post in a week. It might not seem like much, but keep the pace and watch how far you’ll go in 2 months. 

Slow but steady, right?

12. Keep your social media marketing game on lock

Don’t mistake social media for a platform only suitable for the sharing of funny clips. Remember that on the Internet everything is connected.

With that being said, social signals do your site’s domain authority a world of good. When you publish a post, go ahead and share that link on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even LinkedIn. If you are active on other platforms, by all means, continue your campaign over there too.

These platforms are highly regarded by search engines, and if your link features prominently on them, then you are in for a treat, I tell you.

Jeff Bullas is extremely active on Twitter. Every post is shared there for tons of followers to click and read. What a way to bag optimized visibility, greater traffic and higher domain authority in one fell swoop.

13. Be patient

As much as we all would like to have our domain authority scores touching the skies overnight, the truth might burst your bubble.

A site’s domain authority might be anything, but it is not a magic beanstalk.

An increase in domain authority is a product of strategic moves made over a significant period of time. I daresay that any site with a domain authority of at least 50 has been up and running for a number of years, and has oodles of good content.

You can use Webconfs to check any site’s domain age. Peep at the domain age of this site in the image below.

This site has been up for a decade and then some. Recall that it has a DA score of 72 as we saw in an image earlier.

That should tell you something.

Therefore, instead of lying awake in your bed all night, expecting a growth spurt in your domain authority score, rest easy, my friend. Do all that I have discussed above and let time pass. Because time will pass, regardless.

Every good thing takes time. The same goes for the growth of your domain authority.

Wrapping up

So, having touched on these matters, get to work and watch how well your domain authority will grow in due time. Now, tell me. What have you learned from this post? Do you have any other tips that can help grow a site’s domain authority?

Let us know in the comments. Kindly share this post too. 

Guest author: Bright Ewuru is a professional freelance writer for hire. An expert in the marketing and business niches, he passionately creates rich content for his amazing clients, and helps their businesses flourish. Visit his website Bright Ewuru to find out more about his services. You can also connect with him on Twitter or on LinkedIn. He is a great lover of video games.

The post 13 Proven Steps to Grow Your Domain Authority Fast appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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