A successful call-to-action strategy is one of the best ways to succeed in internet marketing. Without it, you cannot even call yourself a marketer. The best way to create an effective call-to-action strategy is to observe what the best internet marketers do. Of course, you have to make the strategy your own or adjust it to suit your particular needs. Let’s take a look at the strategies of some of the top CTA campaigns:

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is an email- and web-hosting company which also sells domain names and offers other online services. GoDaddy is well-known for having one of the best CTAs in the business. Their CTAs are very noticeable because of their high contrast and very visible buttons that follow the reader as he scrolls down the page. One of their secrets is using a remarkable and actionable title for their buttons. They use the phrase “continue to registration” which is not only enticing but also very effective because it follows the visitor around the page. There is a higher possibility that the visitor will click a button if it is always noticeable and visible.

Try It: Create a CTA that follows the visitor around the page. Also, you have to create a CTA button that is transparent or tells the visitor exactly what will happen once they click the button. This will avoid confusion and help gain the trust of your visitors.

Yapta

Yapta is a hotel and flight price-tracking site that assists their users in getting refunds. Their strategy in doing business is almost as excellent as their CTA strategy. The company’s claim to fame is threading their copy and CTA buttons impeccably. Their ability to compel the user to move from page to page is seamless. Also, their CTA strategy is simply a work of genius. They use CTAs that are directly related to particular page content making the transition from reading to action very smooth. It is so smooth that users can only notice the progression due to the clear headlines and images.

Try It: Make your CTA buttons, copy, images and headlines in line with each other when it comes to language and content. The goal is create something unified or seamless. Remember to create unique CTAs for each page or content.

Conclusion

Try one or both of the proven CTA strategies stated above. Don’t forget to adjust it a little bit in order to suit your particular situation and needs. Experiment a little and figure out what kind of strategy is best for your business.

Internet marketing is very difficult in the beginning. This is because of the presence of many internet marketing misconceptions from blogs and so-called experts. To become better in the internet marketing game, it is important to build your knowledge on actual tried-and-tested information and not on common misconceptions. Here are some of the most common misconceptions that you should be aware of:

Asking Your Followers to Share/Re-tweet Doesn’t Work

This is one of the biggest internet marketing myths that has been around for several years now. Many marketers underestimate the effectiveness of asking their visitors/followers to share their content. Surprisingly, most users don’t think this is a desperate move unlike most marketers think. This is according to an online survey conducted recently. As a matter of fact, the same survey indicated that they are about 4 times more likely to share content if you ask them to. Don’t forget to include a CTA when you are asking your followers to share your content so that people who will read it will know that it came from you. They will also know how to act on it.

Social Media is not a Podium

Many so-called social media and internet marketers think that social media are places for conversing with the audience; they think it is a place to talk with the audience and not to talk at them. Yes, social media is a great place to talk and engage with your audience and potential customers. However, there are a lot more people who are just listening or “lurking” than those that are engaging. This means that social media is more like a podium compared to being a platform. This means that when you are marketing on social media sites, you should make both informational and conversational posts.

Never Call Yourself an Expert

The internet marketing industry is generally sick and tired of people who label themselves as an expert or guru. The common misconception is that this turns off a lot of people who are disgusted by the overconfidence. However, the truth is that marketers who label themselves as gurus or experts have a lot more followers than those who don’t. Also, their followers are more engaging and the “experts” usually have more social influence that those who don’t label themselves as such. It is okay to label yourself as an expert or guru as long as you are really very good at what you do. If you’re not, then you shouldn’t do it or else you will be turning off a lot of people.

There’s no doubt that optimizing your website for search engines posts a big challenge and time allocation for any company. It is a game where rules are constantly changing so you have to do some legwork, or else you might fall for outdated or downright awful advice. You need to find the right approach to avoid ending up with SEO disaster.

But despite the whole SEO game’s drastic change over the past months, you probably know that there is one element that remains unswerving— the importance of keywords. Indeed, SEO has been consistently driven by keywords. They are always a major player in your links, content, META tagging, even in your URL structure. They remained unharmed even among the evolving Google algorithm updates, particularly Google Panda.

However, top Google Search executive Amit Singhal’s statement about the upcoming update to shift Google to semantic search technology makes it all clear— the human element will be added to this tricky game, daring every SEO to step up to the challenge.

Semantic Search Defined

Semantic search is not really a new concept. In fact, search engines have been giving some focus on natural language over keywords since 2008. But since many of us aren’t familiar with Semantic search, let’s discuss what it really is and how it works.

At present, Google search typically parses through keywords like a dictionary in order to comprehend the query’s meaning and the intent of the user/searcher. In other words, Google merely based its search results on the keywords and text you encoded in that search, providing you its finest guess. But semantic search will no longer use this method, but rather employ artificial intelligence. Google will grasp the relationship between the words you put into the search, how they work together, then try to figure out what the words mean.

But how come Semantic search concept is creating a buzz just now? It’s because Google pays attention to it now. Another why question? Well, it’s because of Siri. Google Assistant’s response to Siri makes Google take notice of the whole concept, not to mention that Google Assistant will also be out on Android services this year.

How Does Semantic Search influence SEO?

Semantic search could be a big game changer. If many SEO find it easy to manipulate keywords, well working with “intent” is undoubtedly fiddly. To land a higher rank in semantic search, you must not only place your keywords strategically, but you also have to identify the actual meaning of the keywords and make content out of that explicitly. This means, you will need to focus on keyword research. You must put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and try to think how they think. You must be able to answer specific questions relating to that keyword.

For instance, if a user searches for a certain keyword, say “ballet”, semantic search will focus on what the searcher actually means. Here is to name a few:

• What is ballet?
• The different types of ballet
• How to do various ballet positions
• The best type ballet shoes
• Ballet concert videos

There are never-ending possibilities. Moreover, focusing on the natural language is a key consideration here. Semantic search uses the Knowledge Graph that allows Google to answer questions by itself, rather than depending on another website to give out the information. Truly, the semantic search world has its set of rules and appropriate line of attack. You’d be competing with other companies for ranking and at the same time, compete against Google.

Social media marketing isn’t really as difficult and time-consuming as most people think. Initially, people will get overwhelmed by this important aspect of internet marketing. However, as you gain more experience, everything gets easier. The best advice is to make use of the best social media marketing tools that are available. There are a lot of these valuable tools all around us. We’re just not giving them a chance to help us. After testing numerous apps available, here are the best ones that you can use for social media marketing success:

Arkayne

This is perfect for bloggers who are trying to promote their blog. This outstanding tool is an all-around tool that offers a powerful dashboard along with metrics and analytics. This tool puts a bar at the bottom of your blog post which recommends related blog articles across Arkayne’s network. Does this mean that it directs traffic way from your site? Well, it does direct traffic away from your site. However, it alsodirects traffic to your site. Just remember to follow the search optimization rules in order to be well-promoted on the network. This is easy especially because of their built-in analytics tools which help you determine what you should be working on. The best thing about Arkayne is that it doesn’t matter which particular blogging platform you use.

Wibiya

Wibiya is one exceptional tool when it comes to social media marketing. The toolbar is located either at the top or bottom of the webpage depending on the user’s preference. It is very easy that it allows visitors to interact with a website socially even without leaving the website. It enables users to share content, chat with their Facebook friends, add the page to their RSS feed, like posts, translate the website, etc. without having to leave the webpage. If you’re still not convinced, Wibiya also includes metrics that keeps track of how your visitors are interacting with your page along with the Wibiya bar.

Formulists

This is for Twitter users. It helps organize large Twitter followings by creating a simple but very handy sortable list. This means that it will not be necessary to manually sort through your followers or use Twitters complicated sorting tools. Formulists will allow you to access the specific information or groups you really want to see. This is really such an invaluable tool when it comes to social media marketing using Twitter.

Website traffic is the most important aspect of an online economy. A significant part of increasing traffic and profit is having a high clickthrough rate not just to attract new customers but also to encourage repeat business. However, most of the time, the solutions we use are not as effective as before. If this is the case, then we need to kick it up a few notches and improve our overall campaign. The good news is that there are very simple yet effective ways of significantly improving CTR. The problem is that most SEOs tend to forget about these strategies and just focus on complicated and advanced strategies.

Attract Interest and Keep It

Web surfers want something that attracts their interest. If there is nothing that attracts their interest, they will move on and go to another website. Clickthroughs should intrigue them and gain their curiosity. It should keep them hanging and make them want to find out more. Use the right words that appeals to people’s curiosity and leaves a little mystery. This way, there is a higher chance for web users to click on the ad.

Give a Call to Action

Give your potential customers a reason to buy right now. This is why weekend sales and limited editions are available. You need to create a sense of urgency in order to encourage web users to purchase now. Tell them why they need to act now and the consequences of not doing so. Naturally, people hate losing out on great deals. You need to instil a sense of urgency with your online offerings. Some examples are limited time discounts, limited quantities available, buy-one-take-one deals, etc.

Targeting

Most people think that all web users don’t like advertisements. This is a not true. Web users don’t like irrelevant ads or those that have no importance to them. For example, if you are looking for furniture, branded clothes at discounted prices are irrelevant and probably won’t interest you. Ads should fit with the customer base in order to get clickthroughs. Targeting can be used to show the right ads to the right audience.

Summary

Increasing clickthrough rates results to numerous benefits. This includes increasing income, decreasing advertisement-related expenses and improving traffic. Essentially, clickthrough rates can make or break a campaign. Improving these rates may take a lot of time and effort through experimentation but once you find the right formula, you will experience all the benefits.

Directing prospective customers through the conversion process is very difficult. However, it is made a lot easier by having a strong foundation. When it comes to conversion, it is a must to have a rock solid foundation. This is why you need to be aware of the most common mistakes that internet marketers make which leads to declining conversions:

Focusing on Quantity Instead of Quality of Leads

This is one of the most common problems of internet marketers: finding a lead and adding it to your list then forgetting about it and going after other leads that seem more promising. Due to their sheer numbers, some leads are just more attractive compared to others. This is a very big mistake since high-quality leads have more potential in filling your sales funnel. If you only have limited time then you can hire someone to do what you can’t. Remember that only about 25% of leads are ready to become customers. While converting 25% of your leads sound okay, it also means that you’re missing out on a huge percentage of your sales opportunities. Stop filing leads away and focus on moving these leads through your sales cycle.

Not Taking Advantage of Your Best Offers

As a general rule, you need to put your best offers on a pedestal or highlight these offers on your homepage, blog, email offers and social media accounts. Also, include your best offers in non-traditional areas such as call-to-actions, forum posts, product pages, etc. Timing is everything so you have to ensure that your best offers are sent to your leads at the right time.

Bad Timing

Timing is a critical part in sales. If you send your offers at the right time, there is a much higher chance for conversion. If it is sent at the wrong time, the common result is the much dreaded unsubscribe request. Timing means the difference between making a sale and losing a prospect. To ensure that your email timing is right, test your email marketing frequency rates. You can also use marketing automation tools to help you send emails at the right time during the sales cycle. Monitor and study the current market trend using your social media networks. Don’t forget to check around for mentions not just on your brand but also your competitors.

Not Using Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing automation tools offer personalization which is invaluable to your conversion campaign. The information you can have regarding your prospects’ on and off-site behavior can help you significantly when it comes to lead nurturing. The correct segmenting of your lead list and using a special personalized approach are things that marketing automation tools can give you. If you do these manually, it will take a lot more time and effort. Stop beating your head against the wall and find the best marketing automation tools for your particular situation.

Basically, Google evaluates websites by consistently changing its ranking algorithms. Google rewards the top-quality sites by ranking them high on search engine results, while knocking down shoddy sites. But did you know that Google also employs people to manually assess websites for quality? This means Google follows a certain criteria, right? Well, the good news is we have highlighted the relevant factors for evaluating the sites manually.

The Value of Query’s Intent

Determining the search intent is important when evaluating the sites. In fact, Google trains “raters” to assess the intent of a search query when ranking results. Web pages that satisfy the most common searches rank higher than web pages that don’t.
Google classifies search queries into 4 categories:

1. Know queries – The searcher is looking for information. Take note that relevant pages rank higher than information pages when the user is searching to accomplish an action.
2. Go queries – The user searches the web for a particular web page.
3. Do queries – The user searches for a website to do a task/activity, for example, purchase a product, download music, play a game, etc.
4. Combination searches – The user searches the web to perform two or more goals in a single query. An example is a combination of “know query” and “do query” since majority of users do product searches prior to finally buying a certain product.

6 URL Grading Scale

Google raters also rate the URL’s utility based on the following grading scale (from best to worst). Take note that utility of the URL is a major element of search engine quality.

1. Vital – It is only used for special circumstances. Example: when the main objective of a query is navigation, thus the purpose is the landing page.
2. Useful – It means, the URL is useful for most searches or the URL is a good match for the search query. The useful pages are well-ordered and can be trusted. Moreover, the content is derived from trustworthy sources and does not contain “spammy” pages.
3. Relevant – This means the URL is average to good and helpful for many or some searchers. Relevant page could rank more favorably in less competitive terms or markets. Using SEO can help convert a relevant-ranked page to useful page.
4. Slightly Relevant – This rating is used for URLs that display outdated information or too broad content. URLs with poor content, plagiarized content or original content yet too broad are also ranked slightly relevant. If the URL or landing page features query terms but its content does not support the necessary information, slightly relevant ranking still applies.
5. Useless/Off-Topic – Pages are ranked useless if the content is not related to the search query.
6. Unreadable – This is the lowest rating on the grading scale. It may cause the URL to be dropped from the index or flagged for review. Unreadable ranking is used for pages that do not load, written in a foreign language or for URLs with errors, blank, have no displayed content, contain malware warnings or request for certificate of acceptance.
Note: Spam flags – Google raters may also flag the page as not spam, maybe spam and spam.

Not Spam – The page was not created using deceiving web design tactics.
Maybe Spam – The page seems “spammy” but the Google rater is still uncertain.
Spam – The page has been designed and created using deceiving techniques that include cloaking, hidden text, JavaScript redirect, keyword stuffing, framed pages, and computer-generated garbage.

Surely there are SEO geniuses out there who think they can outsmart Google. But in reality, a lot of SEO “experts” have attempted but Google remains unbeatable. Google is by far the search engine of all search engines and it would not budge anytime soon. It will always find a way to eradicate wicked tactics that try to unfairly manipulate the system.

What Is Black Hat SEO Technique

The term itself, “black hat” speaks for itself. Black Hat SEO techniques are dishonest, unethical practices that attempt to manipulate search engine results. Google firmly condemns these strategies and unrelentingly cracks them down by eradicating “spammy” sites from search engine results.

But despite Google’s efforts to put an end to such unlawful and unethical practices, some SEO companies still take chances on using black hat SEO techniques. Don’t get confused, majority of these companies are legit but you’ll be astonished by how dirty and sneaky their line of attack can get.

We have compiled 3 commonly used black hat SEO techniques, but keep in mind NOT to bring any of these into play:

Hidden Links – Having more links gives your higher ranking on search engines— this was an effective strategy before but not anymore. In fact, more links on a web page is considered “spammy” which won’t really do you any good. But some people again take their chances and use the “hidden link” tactic. They make links invisible by using the same background color. This black hat SEO technique aims to have search engines see links, while the users only see plain text. Generally, this shady tactic uses automated software to create links.

It’s a lot safer and proper to use reputable linking strategies. For internal linking, link main pages to secondary pages and so on, while external links must not be unnatural or automated.

Doorway Pages – This black hat SEO tactic pertains to specifically-designed, standalone web pages to drive search engine visitors to your site. Doorway pages are generally stuffed with keywords and scrawled content, but it looks normal to unsuspecting website user. As the name suggests, these web pages merely act as doorways to your website like a worst case of giant banner ads.

Here is the typical scenario. You are searching for “installment laptops” so you click a legit-looking search result. But instead of getting an installment laptop site, you see a page that says “click here for installment laptops”. Isn’t it confusing? You just did that so why do you have to repeat the process, would you click it again?

Truth is when users encounter a doorway page, they do not click further but rather hit the back or cancel button. But SEO companies use this and report those initial visits to clients as successes. This is why doorway pages are deceiving. The firm reports 200 visits a day to client but the client actually has no record of visits in their products or services pages.

Content Scraping – Some companies scrape content by using software that spawn content from other high-ranking websites in major search results. These companies steal the content and use it to their advantage. We all know that any website must only contain original content. Besides, you readers/ target audience also prefer fresh, relevant and 100% unique content.

Rule of thumb: Engage only on reputable SEO techniques if you do not want Google to penalize or ban your site. Cheaters never win.