Digital Marketing Archives /Tag

Web Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization: a Powerful Combination
On-page search engine optimization (SEO) and web accessibility are two crucial components of a successful website. But what many people don’t realize is that web accessibility and SEO have a lot more in common than you might think. Both aim to make websites more usable and understandable, whether for human users or search engines. By making your web pages accessible to everyone, you’re also boosting your chances of being found on search engines. Below, we will examine how web accessibility and SEO work hand in hand when it comes to:
1. Meaningful Page Titles

A page title is a short, concise name of a web page. It appears in the HTML code as a <title> tag and is usually visible at the top of the user’s browser bar. Page titles help improve web accessibility and SEO by determining the content of a page.

How Do Meaningful Page Titles Help Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility requires page titles that provide a brief and accurate description of the page’s content. For example, Success Criterion 2.4.2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 says that users should be able to quickly understand the page’s purpose without reading the content.

The title tag should be concise and should be at most 60 characters. Short and snappy page titles provide a better user experience, especially for users with a screen reader that hear content. The title should also be unique to each page on a website, and it should be relevant to the content. Good page titles help users identify content quickly and reliably.

How Does a Meaningful Title Tag Help SEO?

A page’s <title> tag is a clickable link displayed on a search engine’s results page. The information gathered from a page’s title determines its relevance to a user’s search query and placement within their search results. After all, web accessibility and SEO are about getting relevant content to users.

For example, suppose you were to use the search query “web accessibility” and “SEO.” In that case, the results will include titles with the exact terms included. If your <title> matches the content of your page, it is more likely to be found in search engine results and keep users engaged.

2. Headings

Headings, or <h> tags, give structure and hierarchy to the content on a web page. They appear more prominent than other text through font size or weight, making scanning and navigating the page more accessible for users.

How Do Headings Help Web Accessibility?

UHeadings help users navigate and understand the content quickly. They are typically formatted using HTML code, ranging from the main title, <h1>, to <h6> subheadings within the content. Each heading level serves a specific purpose in organizing the content. According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 1.3.1, it is essential to use headings in a logical and sequential order. Starting with the <h1> heading and using subsequent headings in order, like so:
- <h1>Main heading</h1>
- <h2>Section heading</h2>
- <h3>Subsection heading</h3>
- <h4>Sub-subsection heading</h4>
By formatting the heading correctly, individuals with disabilities can navigate content logically and meaningfully.

How Do Headings Help SEO?

In addition to accessibility, headings are also critical for SEO, as they help search engines understand the content of a page. Search engines use headers to determine the relevance to a person’s search based on the keywords used and the significance of the content to their search.

3. Lists

As you know, lists containing text, images, and multimedia content can be ordered or random. However, using lists on a website can make the content more organized and scannable, helping to improve the user’s experience. But what you might not realize is that for the benefits of web accessibility and SEO.

How Do Lists Help Web Accessibility?

Lists can be a valuable tool for web accessibility because they help users navigate content logically and efficiently. For example, sight users will recognize lists with indentations or icons such as bullets or numbers. However, lists must be appropriately marked up within the website’s code to stand out from other content.

List markups define a group of related items or information presented in a particular order. For instance, <ul> is used for unorganized lists, <ol> for ordered lists, and <dl> for definition lists. By defining and using list markups correctly, your website will meet several WCAG success criteria, including:
- Success Criterion 1.3.1: Information and Relationships – Lists help to organize information and create relationships between related items.
- Success Criterion 2.4.3: Focus Order – Lists help to create a logical reading order, which is essential for users who rely on keyboard navigation.
How Do Lists Help SEO?

Search engines crawl a website’s content using complex algorithms to determine the relevancy and quality of a user’s query. Using lists can highlight the content’s critical points and make it easier for the algorithm to identify them.

Moreover, lists can help users navigate content logically and efficiently, improving the user’s experience. When users have a positive experience on a website, they are more likely to stay longer, share the content, and come back. This can significantly increase the overall traffic and engagement on the website, improving its ranking on SERPs.

4. Descriptive links

Interlinking content is an integral part of our customer journey. Being descriptive in the text you use to link to a new page is helpful for the user’s experience. It’s also beneficial for web accessibility and SEO.

How Do Descriptive Links Help Web Accessibility?

Descriptive links are hyperlinks that help users understand the link’s destination or purpose before they click. Rather than using vague or generic terms like “click here” or “read more,” descriptive links provide context for users and search engines. A screen reader user might navigate through all the links on a page to find where they want to go. Being descriptive helps them find what they’re looking for more easily.

Descriptive links also help meet essential web accessibility guidelines. For instance, WCAG 2.4.4 requires a descriptive title to provide the link’s destination context. Additionally, WCAG 2.4.9 states a process or technique should be available to identify each link’s purpose from the link text alone.

How Do Descriptive Links Help SEO?

Descriptive text, or anchor text, as SEO professionals call it, helps search engines understand the content and purpose of a link. However, when links use generic or vague text, search engines cannot accurately categorize the page and rank it appropriately in search results.

Using descriptive links that include keywords related to the page’s content can help search engines understand the purpose and context of their pages—as a result, leading to higher search rankings and visibility.

5. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a navigation aid that appears at the top of a page and shows a user’s path to the current page. The name “breadcrumbs” comes from the story of Hansel and Gretel, where the characters leave a trail of breadcrumbs to help them find their way back home. Similarly, website breadcrumbs help users navigate to the homepage or higher-level pages.

Breadcrumbs typically appear as a horizontal menu bar showing the user’s website location. For instance, a breadcrumb trail might look like this:

Home > Category > Subcategory > Product

How Do Breadcrumbs Help Web Accessibility?

Breadcrumbs provide clear and consistent navigation to help users find necessary information, as outlined in WCAG 2.4:8: Location. They help to improve the user experience for everyone. But are particularly helpful for people with disabilities.

For example, they help people with memory problems or low attention span from becoming confused as they flow through pages. They also help screen reader users go back through a set of grouped pages much quicker.

How Do Breadcrumbs Help SEO?

Breadcrumbs can also help with SEO by providing additional contextual information to search engines. For example, breadcrumbs help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of a website, allowing them to index and rank pages.

When implementing breadcrumbs for SEO purposes, it’s important to use structured data to help search engines understand the breadcrumb structure. Structured data is a standardized format that allows search engines to understand the content and design of a website.

6. Alternative Text for Images

When most web developers or digital marketers think of the overlap between accessibility and SEO, alternative text is usually one of the first elements that come to mind. Alternative text or alt text is an HTML attribute value used to describe an image. It’s beneficial for users with visual impairments that rely on screen readers. Screen readers read the alternative text, describing the image to the user and providing context they might have missed otherwise.

How Does Alternative Text Help Web Accessibility?

Alternative text is crucial in web accessibility because it provides a non-sighted visitor with the same experiences as a sighted visitor. Therefore, it should be accurate, clear, and provide meaningful information.

All non-text content is required by WCAG 1.1.1, “Non-text Content,” to have a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. However, there are exceptions for non-text content that is pure decoration, only for visual formatting or is not present to users. In that case, alt text is not required. However, images need to be implemented in a way that assistive technologies can ignore.

How Does Alternative Text Help SEO?

Search engines recognize the information in alt attributes. While it’s not a significant ranking signal, it does contribute. After all, it adds more context to your page’s content, especially if you want the images on your website to appear high in Google Image searches.

Google’s Image Publishing Guidelines state, “alt text along with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand the subject matter of the image.” However, don’t feel tempted to stuff your keywords into alt text. This is bad practice for both accessibility and SEO.

7. Audio and Video Transcriptions

In the same way, alternative text for non-text content opens up visual content. Transcripts and captions do the same for audio and video content. They capture the spoken words, sounds, and other audio elements and transcribe them into text format. The text can make the content accessible to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or prefer to read instead of listen.

How Do Audio and Video Transcriptions Help Web Accessibility?

Users who are deaf and hard of hearing rely on accurate video and audio transcriptions to access any non-visual content in video or audio format. By providing transcriptions, you can ensure that all visitors to your website can access and understand the content you present.

If you use audio or video content on your website, adding captions to the video or transcribing the content helps you meet these success criteria in WCAG 2.1, including:
How Do Audio and Video Transcriptions Help SEO?

Although search engines are getting smarter, they are not listening to your videos and indexing what’s said, so they rely on the surrounding text to understand the content. By providing accurate transcriptions, you provide search engines with a complete understanding of the content in your audio and video files, which can help boost your website’s SEO. When videos have engaging and exciting content, providing a transcription on the same page or within the video is critical.

In Summary

Despite being separate disciplines, many of the same practices we use in web accessibility also open the doors for search engines. By working on one, we enhance the other. After all, a better user experience for your visitors also offers a better understanding to search crawlers.

That being said, If you’d like to talk further about your web accessibility initiative, schedule a complimentary ADA Strategy Briefing today with the experts at 216digital. We will help you take the steps towards web accessibility on your terms by developing a strategy to integrate WCAG 2.1 compliance into your development roadmap as part of the development process.
Greg McNeil

February 28, 2023

216digital, ADA Web Accessibility, Digital Marketing, SEO

ADA Compliance, Digital Marketing, SEO, Website Accessibility
The Small Business Marketing Guide to Surviving COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has been a drastic agent of change across the globe. It’s forced us to adapt how we live and work to the new pandemic environment.

If things go right and we flatten the coronavirus curve, we could be social distancing for quite a while. Already, this has put many small businesses in a difficult position, especially those that rely on in-store purchases.

It’s important to work together during this time. So, to help other small businesses, we’re sharing this guide to digital marketing during COVID-19. By improving your business’ presence on the internet, not only can you endure the pandemic, but build the foundation for success when it ends.

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Greg McNeil

April 17, 2020

216digital, Applied Ecommerce, Digital Marketing, SEO, Uncategorized, Web Design

Coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital Marketing, ecommerce website, SEO
Marketing Meets the Age of eCommerce

In 2017, Cyber Monday shoppers raked in a record-breaking $6.59 billion dollars. It was recorded as the largest online shopping day ever with sales increasing 16.8% over the year prior. It even topped Black Friday online sales by $1.5 billion, if you can believe it. With numbers climbing each year, it will be interesting to see what sales 2018 bring.

Cyber Monday is the online equivalent to Black Friday shopping, without all of the chaos and waiting in line! It was birthed out of the ever-growing digital age, where millions of consumers have chosen to skip the 3 AM alarm and avoid the unruly mobs at major retail stores. Now with your computer, mobile phone or tablet, you can check out your favorite retail spots at your own convenience. The savings are usually just as good and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home. This means no more cutting into your holiday and interrupting time with your friends and family.

Capitalize on Cyber Monday

If you are looking to take advantage of this growing trend, it is important to keep these tips in mind. Many people believe that most Cyber Monday shoppers already know what they want and are just waiting for sales to begin. This is not always the case. While it is common that most Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers form a game plan for where they are shopping, most consumers are visually driven. Don’t underestimate the ability to turn heads and draw attention, even on your website. Suggestive marketing and product placement work just as well in person as they do online, so keep cross-selling and suggestive selling products that are associated with one another. Dedicate an entire section to related products.

Start your content campaign by optimizing your products. SEO is a crucial tool to have all year, not just during this weekend. Doing your keyword research is a habit that never goes out of style, especially right before sales are expected to spike. Content and descriptions rich with SEO keywords will help your products be easily discoverable by the search engines. Be sure to include Black Friday/ Cyber Monday related keywords in your content and use wording that creates a sense of urgency to your consumers, such as “for a limited time only” or “while supplies last.”

Also, plan a schedule for your sales to ensure the correct discounts are applied at the appropriate times. Remember it is important to be competitive to stand out among the competition. Consumers are looking for a minimum of 20% off the original price, but Thanksgiving weekend is the time to go big or go home. You need to get yourself noticed among the thousands of competitors out there.

Social media is also a great way to capitalize on traffic. Not only is it a great way to gain exposure, but social media allows users to engage with your product. Your brand will get more visibility and others can engage with items, even users who aren’t shopping. This is extremely important as these are the users that come back in the future. Much of social media engagement depends on getting your name out there and developing a following.

The Amazon Myth

One thing to keep in mind is sales don’t always begin in the Amazon funnel. It is important to keep your Amazon storefront optimized accordingly, but don’t neglect regular search or PPC campaigns. Contrary to popular belief, most searches don’t begin with Amazon. A research study showed that 70% of searches begin as a query or a phrase in a search engine. If you are one of the consumers who aren’t sure what they want specifically or where to even find it, you would probably want to avoid Amazon initially. You would need to do your research first. Keywords that use phrases like “near me” are a great way to capitalize on that search. It makes more sense to ask a search engine than it does to start browsing blindly through products.

Often times the funnel does direct you towards Amazon if your products are optimized correctly. In optimizing your products for SEO, you actually have the opportunity to capture both types of search queries by using similar keywords. Don’t neglect your organic optimization by just focusing on Amazon when you are trying to gain visibility. It is better to be safe and plan for both than to miss a channel entirely.

Convenience Means Conversions

The beauty of online shopping is the ease of the transaction. Keep all the technical aspects of your page optimized to encourage a positive user experience. Site speed is crucial, especially during the chaos of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If your site speed is slow or appears to have a lag time, your customers may take their business to one of your many competitors. Timing is everything, especially this weekend. If you can ensure a smooth transaction during heavy traffic, it is much more likely that users will remember this experience. Always leave an impression to keep them coming back, even once the holidays pass.

Greg McNeil

November 28, 2018

216digital, Digital Marketing, Web Design

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Digital Marketing, ecommerce design, SEO
Simplicity is Key to Conversions: User Experience (UX) Produces Profit
Our brains are handling a lot right now. Processing work, making plans for the weekend, reminding you to breathe. You clearly have a lot on your plate. When it comes to focus and cognitive thinking, however, as humans we operate a bit differently. The human brain is not an automated processor meant to produce output multiple times a minute. Automated problem solving vs. logic and reasoning are what separate man from machine. We prefer to take on one small task at a time, solve it, process what we learned and move on to the next. The more practical the process, the easier it is for us. It is much more efficient than juggling multiple balls in the air at once. Keep it simple.

Websites and eCommerce stores are no different. Simplistic design and rational navigation will always crank out the most conversions because these factors make sense to our brains. The structure is tailored towards the user. It helps define the overall experience for them and that is a crucial ranking factor with Google. Believe me, they will notice.

Guiding visitors towards the conversion funnel isn’t tricky marketing or a psychological sales trigger. It is just common sense. In fact, most users will expect some sort of assistance leading them through the process, especially the checkout. ECommerce developers know this, which is why the structure or layout of a site is one of many factors in the world of user experience or UX as it is commonly called.

What Makes Up User Experience

At its core, user experience (UX) is simply making the experience of the user, a pleasant one. That’s you. Whether you realize it or not, the structure, the placement, the ease of checkout and any other things related to the function of the site is designed for you. Let’s break down UX to some of its core features and discuss how a website can work with you to meet your goals. There are multiple factors that help a site function and most importantly, help you succeed. Some of the most common features that assist the user conversions include:
- The site’s navigation
- The site’s visual design
- The site’s technical optimization
- The site’s content
Here’s how each of these features makes your life easier and serve a purpose on a website.

Findability

When navigating a site, the easier it is to find what you are looking for, the better. Part of the reason is the conversion process. If you are looking to purchase something or submit a form, all signs should point to this. Users should not have to use a search toolbar to see products or checkout. Most eventually will get bored or frustrated and leave the page. This can lead to an ever-climbing bounce rate as you find more and more users navigating away. Make sure your menu or toolbar is practical and the placement of the pages makes sense. A website with a sensible layout can lead to maximum conversions.

Visibility

A site should absolutely be relatable and appealing. The aesthetic design should pull users and make them want to stay. The main toolbar should be eye-catching and draw the user to it. The best placement for the main navigation center is in the header or above the fold of the page. Most successful sites have their main features in this area, such as the blog, the cart or main login area.

It is often said “less is more” and the same is true of a website layout. In the digital age, the content should be compact and precise. Avoid lengthy paragraphs that would prevent a user from reading the entire post and break up information into more manageable pieces. Use bullets, logos, shorter lines and visual aids to draw the reader through the content. Also, be sure to include interactive buttons, hyperlinks or images that will keep your users stimulated. If it looks pretty, they are going to want to click on it.

Usability

A website has many visitors but they aren’t always human users. It is crucial to remember the robots are watching too. For a site to function properly, there are a number of technical optimization tools to use that will get you into the rankings. Things like SEO, page speed, image alt tags and mobile friendliness will earn you bonus points with the robots. In fact, some of these features are an absolute must with the Google algorithm updates. Missing any one of them could cost you rankings and site traffic.

Avoid the penalties and do your research. Get quality SEO keywords in your content and update it often. It is also vital that your site has an app that caches page content. This will dramatically decrease your load time, which the search engine robots will like. Humans will like it too.

Likability

One of the most challenging tactics to conquer is the site’s content. In order for a user to interact with your site and come back often, you have to have some sort of draw. Users have to like being there. Having quality images and technical cues are great, but at the end of the day, the users are reading your content. If it isn’t engaging or the content is difficult to follow, most users will leave. Some key things to remember in your content, along with optimizing for the search engines, are your style and voice. These should appeal to your audience, in addition to your topic choices. Never talk down to visitors or become too “preachy” in your delivery.

Also, do some marketing trends research. See what people are talking about and join the conversation. It is just as much your responsibility to be entertaining as to be informative. This will help build your audience and most importantly, keep them coming back for more. Focus on digital campaigns and enhancing your visibility.

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For those looking for assistance with digital marketing campaigns and enhancing visibility, 216digital offers Cleveland SEO services to help you with your rankings. We also offer Cleveland web development and digital marketing assistance. Let us help you build your brand and become successful. We are eCommerce developers with a passion to be creative and a drive to help you succeed. Contact us for help with Miva design or if you have been considering Miva developers for your website.
Greg McNeil

August 21, 2018

216digital, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized

Digital Marketing, SEO, User Experience, UX
5 SEO Metrics That Won’t Fail: The Recipe for A Good, Old-Fashioned Organic Listing

Between algorithms and techniques, SEO is constantly evolving in order to deliver the best results to users everywhere. With each and every update, best practices are changing and it is vital to stay on top of the game. The best way to remain relevant and become a front-runner with your content is to dedicate plenty of research and care when crafting each post. A well-informed page is a ranking page.

Do Your Research: Keywords Are Crucial

Before you set out to publish engaging and alluring content, it is important to develop a good baseline with in-depth keyword research. Not only does this research help to develop your topics, it allows you to get a sense for what readers are looking for. SEO keywords are your trail of breadcrumbs that help shape your article and give you a vision for the direction your content will go.

Keywords are also an insight into what is going on in the industry. Much like a fad, they are constantly changing depending on the times and trends. Digital marketing is a field where practices and methods can change by the hour, which is why it is so necessary to develop a good baseline of data and strategy. Best practices this month aren’t always in style by next month.

Target Users with SEO Content: Don’t Write for Robots

The best SEO content is natural, keyword-focused content. Google does not want to see content tailored towards the robots. Just write with a natural, conversational tone. People can sense when you talk above them or when writing becomes superfluous. Often times, adding multiple sentences to get a specific keyword ranking, or even dropping words can disrupt the content flow. Don’t ever compromise your quality. A quality SEO writer is first and foremost a writer.

It is vital to remember that content exists to help users and create the best user experience. SEO should reflect this in the tone, as well as the formula. Awkward verbiage or stuffed keywords can signal to Google that the page in question may not have the best SEO-driven content. Also, the language can take your reader out of their element or cause them to seek more engaging information. Similar to cooking, with SEO presentation is everything.

Keep it Fresh: Manage Content Regularly to Remain Relevant

An active domain is a happy domain. If Google scans your indexed pages and the number is regularly growing, it’s going to give your site some recognition. Although there is no penalty or suggested schedule for posting content, it is important to stay relevant. Activity shows the robots that the domain is updated regularly and is well-managed.

Similar to keyword research, keeping up with current trends and topics will also attract users looking for a fresh perspective and applicable tips. Writing about what’s in the news is also a great tactic to stay ahead of your competitors. Content writers that know the market are not only great resources to validate skills, but they are going to attract a larger audience. Websites with a generous following typically have a strong authority and will appear attractive to Google.

Don’t Ignore the Background: Technical Optimization is Crucial

If you haven’t already made the switch to HTTPS, stop whatever you’re doing right now and do it. It is one of the best things you can do for the health and integrity of your website. HTTPS is the most common and most secure protocol available. Not only is it a best practice, but HTTPS protects users from malicious parties that take advantage of your site. If Google detects a secure protocol, you’ve gained a major SEO advantage.

Also, be sure your site is mobile-friendly. Optimizing your site for AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages is not only something encouraged by Google, it is necessary to rank at all in the search results. Not having a mobile-friendly site can be a major penalty and hurt the integrity of your site.

Avoid 404 errors at all costs. Nothing will drop your ranking in the search results faster than having a bunch of 404 errors on your site. Fix these broken pages as fast as possible to ensure your links are in working order and boost the overall user experience.

Invest in Your Own Crawl: Audit Your Pages on a Regular Basis

Don’t wait for the search engine robots to crawl your pages. Technology is crucial to ensure your site is behaving as it should. Investing in crawling software to help you manage, strategize and audit your site on a regular basis. SEO strategy is ever-changing and a crawling software will be your best friend to help identify your trouble areas and stay on top of the SEO content. Also, it will help ensure every page is being properly indexed and visible.

If you need help with these tips or some are out of your control, contact 216digital to get the help you need! We are a local agency and Miva developer in Cleveland, OH. For Cleveland web development or assistance with SEO services, 216digital is the extra set of eyes your site needs. We specialize in social media, Cleveland web design and are experts with Miva design.

Though trends are ever-changing and updates come more often than not, one fact remains the same. Google is always seeking to capitalize on user experience. Whether you have a personal blog, a directory or an eCommerce page, keep in mind that your content has a larger audience than you may realize. After all, the robots aren’t the only ones who are watching.

Greg McNeil

July 3, 2018

216digital, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, SEO, Web Design

Digital Marketing, Miva Design, responsive web design, SEO
Welcoming 216digital’s SEO Specialist

Welcome Joey!

Joey Locicero came on board at 216digital as a Search Engine Optimization Specialist in March 2018. He was a graduate of The University of Akron in 2009. There he pursued a degree in English and Creative Writing and was also an avid member of the university breakout writers group.

He has gone on to pursue writing as a career. He has been published in literary reviews and in journals for poetics and script writing, two of his favorite forms. He has written copy for various industries and always enjoys a creative challenge. He often seeks ways to stretch and develop his creativity.

SEO Specialist at 216digital

Joey has a love for language and thoroughly enjoys crafting content, whether it be for web copy, blogs or social media in general. At 216digital, he will be performing keyword research, trending topics and SEO best practices to better improve client website visibility. With SEO-focused keyword content, we hope to increase our client’s websites rankings in order to drive traffic to the site and maximize conversions.

Networking and outreach are crucial parts of optimizing websites. Joey will also be constantly performing outreach to add potential backlinks to the client’s profile to create an authority with the search engines that will help to increase the site’s ranking overall. This will help to push the site closer to the top of the search results.

A Little More about Joey

In addition to writing, Joey is a self-proclaimed music buff. He loves going to live shows and following some of his favorite local bands, especially within the Akron music scene. He also loves to read and has a deep love for the south. He tries to travel to the ocean, whenever possible.

You can reach him through email at joey@216digital.com

Joey Locicero, SEO Specialist

Greg McNeil

May 4, 2018

216digital, Digital Marketing, SEO

Digital Marketing, SEO
Welcoming 216digital’s Project Manager

Welcome Nicole!
Nicole Walkemeyer joined the team at 216digital as a Project Manager and Marketing Specialist in March 2018. She graduated from the University of Akron in Spring 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. She was the Vice President of the American Marketing Association, and as a result participated in digital marketing competitions. In addition, she has had the opportunity to oversee several projects in the Accounting, Human Resources and Business Education industries. Her background has been improving the productivity of her department by implementing strategic project management strategies.
Project Manager at 216digital
Nicole is fueled by her creativity and is passionate about applying her marketing expertise while helping businesses succeed. Hence at 216digital, she will work closely with designers and developers to ensure that all client’s project expectations and deadlines are met. Furthermore, her role in the marketing department will carry out the vision of 216digital to help acquire new customers, and increase brand recognition. At 216digital, we are always looking for ways to help our clients attract their audience through effective, high performing websites. Creating a website involves a lot of expertise, and we strive to turn visits into conversions. Nicole is here to help our process run as smoothly as possible, so that clients are getting a custom website that drives more sales. Especially relevant, she is constantly staying in tune with the latest digital marketing trends and loves facing new challenges. Due to her ability to communicate as a marketer, she will work well with designers and developers which will contribute immense value to the 216digital team.
A little bit about Nicole
Most of all, Nicole loves to travel and is always looking for new places to visit on the weekends. She enjoys watching series on Netflix, drawing, painting, and spending time with friends and family in her spare time. She currently resides in Copley, Ohio with her cats Charlie and Zulu. You can reach her through email at nicole@216digital.com or phone at 216.505.4400 ext. 122
Nicole Walkemeyer, Project Manager
Image of Nicole Walkemeyer

Greg McNeil

March 27, 2018

216digital

Digital Marketing, Project Manager
Black Friday Shopping: Is Your Online Business Ready?
America’s favorite shopping season is right around the corner and with it a barrage of online bargain shoppers. Is your site ready to handle the Black Friday shopping rush? If the answer is anything but yes, you may want to consider a quick preparatory revamp. Why? Because the year-end holiday season is not only the best time to meet your annual sales goals, but a great time to capture new customers. Following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the last two months of the year are prime for gift-giving; people are shopping for themselves, their family, and their friends. Not to mention, over the last eight years, Black Friday retail e-commerce spending alone went from $534 million USD to $1970 million USD – and it’s only expected to rise again this year. Which means optimizing your site for online sales now can ensure your business is ready to roll this holiday season. So how can you prepare? The first step is to decide which holidays you want to run promotions on. Once you’ve determined that and set up a promotional calendar, you can move on to polishing your website and online holiday marketing strategy. To make it easier, we’ve compiled a checklist to help get you on your way.
Getting Your Website in Gear
Image of a person browsing an ecommerce platform

Check Your Server Traffic Capacity. Black Friday weekend is sure to draw a lot of traffic to your site, especially if you are running promotional deals. So making sure your server can handle the influx of customers is likely to make both their and your experience easier. Check your server capacity before the season starts at LoadImpact.com or Blitz.io.

Create Landing Pages for Your Black Friday Deals. If you plan on setting your customers up with some awesome deals, it’s important to make sure they know what they are and where to find them. Landing pages on your website specifically made for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions can help alert your customers to all the seasonal discounts you have on offer. Going the extra mile and creating a banner for your deals to be displayed on every page, will also help ensure no one misses out!

Make sure your website is mobile friendly. The share of mobile sales on Black Friday in 2013 went from 27% to 48% in 2016. And with more and more customers turning to their phones for online shopping, having a site with responsive design is more important than ever. Don’t know whether your site is mobile ready? Check it out with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. And if you still can’t figure it out, let us take a look!

Test and troubleshoot everything. Even with the best promotions, the holiday shopping season could still be a complete bust if your customers aren’t able to make purchases from your site. Whether it’s a broken link or simply a slow loading page, it’s important to make sure you’ve tested the durability of your landing pages and made sure your promotional coupons are working fine.

Make the checkout process as seamless as possible. Simplicity is key. Customers like it when they can make a purchase with the fewest clicks possible – and obvious clicks at that. So spend some time ensuring your website has a user friendly interface with clear add/delete item and checkout buttons. And if you need a little help, let us know.

Have your Shipping and Returns Policy for the shopping season in fine print. To prevent any future misunderstandings or complaints, it’s best to have your holiday season shipping and returns policy listed on your website where customers can easily access or see it.

Track EVERYTHING. To make sure you’re getting the results you want and your leads are converting into sales, keep a detailed track record of every change you’ve made to your site and how it has affected your conversions. A great way to do this is through tracking your Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel data.

Marketing Yourself Right
Now that you have your website ready to go the next thing to tackle is your marketing strategy. To start, look at your past marketing data to see how your business performed during previous years. This will make it easier to plan a marketing strategy as you’ll have a better idea of what worked and what didn’t. Once you have that data, you can start to plan for the future holiday season. And the following tips will help you put your best foot forward!

Research your customers. A good marketing strategy starts with great research. For example, do you know 100% who your customers are? Have you created buyer personas? If you haven’t, check your Google Analytics demographics to ensure that the personas you have in mind match the factual customer data retrieved by Google. This will help you market to not only your current customers, but all potential buyers as well. Still unsure? Take a look at this helpful B2B Buyer Persona Guide for a more in-depth look on how to make your customer-data work for you.

Create a winning PPC Campaign. Pay-per-click is one of the best ways to reach targeted customers. If you have optimized your campaign with the right keywords, your ad should appear at the top of Google’s search results. However, if you did not have the time to get your SEO and keyword targeting in place, PPC can help! For example:

Shopping Ads is one of the best ways to get your products in front of your customers, because its CPC is much lower when compared to a Text Ad, and it can get you better conversion rates. You can also target local customers with Google’s Zip Code Targeting.

And if you are already running PPC campaigns, the holiday season is a good time to start a remarketing campaign. Reach your customers who are actively searching for your products, or are loyal to your business with remarketing campaigns.

Utilize social media for customer insights. Your social media channels can be a treasure trove of information. Places like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are full of consumer opinions on products and services. And not just on products they currently use, but items they are interested in buying. Put this information to use by –

Promoting your Black Friday deals on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook.

Creating product hype and awareness by offering special discounts to your followers.

Closely monitoring comments or mentions on your social channels and responding to any customer queries and feedback promptly. You can even make use of social listening tools to listen to what people are saying online about your brand or products.

Creating your own hashtags for the holiday season. You can stick to the regular hashtags of #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday, of course, but you can also create hashtags specific to your business. If you do, make sure you plug them on all your marketing channels- website, social media, and emails.

Using Facebook Dynamic Shopping ads, which are a great way target customers who visited your website and added a product to their cart but never followed through with the purchase.

Start an email campaign targeting current customers. When it comes to getting results, email marketing is still very effective. Triggered emails like those to customers that abandoned full online shopping carts, still tend to bring in more customers than many social media campaigns. To get the most out of your email campaign –

Categorize your email lists. Segmenting your emails into specific customer lists based on products they’ve looked at or purchased is likely to get you more email open rates.

Personalize! Include the name of the subscriber and offer specific promotions based on their location.

Create and manage your email workflows in advance. This will ensure that every email is catered to the customer receiving it, and be less work for you in the long run.

Leverage your current customer base through exclusive deals. Not only will this help build anticipation for future Black Friday deals, but it will show your loyal customers that there is some advantage in following you.

Create a countdown timer for your emails to promote urgency.

In the End
No one knows your customers as well as you do and any website adjustment or marketing campaign should be planned with them in mind. However, we hope these tips will help get you and your site on your way to holiday-ready! And if you still have questions, let us know!
Sources
Desktop retail spending on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States from 2008 to 2016 Share of mobile online sales on Black Friday from 2013 to 2016 How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business Get Local with ZIP Code targeting Effects of List Segmentation on Email Marketing Stats Why You Should Spend More on Google Shopping vs Text Ads
Greg McNeil

October 18, 2017

216digital, Digital Marketing, Ecommerce Platforms, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, PPC, Responsive, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

Digital Marketing, ecommerce design, ecommerce website, PPC, responsive design, responsive web design, SEO
Content Writing: Taking Miva Design To The Next Level

Completing The Miva Design Picture with SEO Content Writing

So you have a killer Miva design for your online store. You’re ready to sell your great niche products to a hungry market. You’ve heard about SEO (search engine optimization). You don’t know quite how to do it, but you hope to pop up on the first page of Google someday. You keep checking, but your competitors are bumping you down to the 4th, 5th, even the 6th page of search results. What’s going on? Why aren’t your niche customers flocking to your great Miva design?

Miva Design: A Skeleton In Need of Flesh and Blood

Don’t let me confuse you: mobile responsive design is critical to the success of any online store, but it’s only part of the picture. Think of a great Miva design as the skeleton on which you’ll hang the healthy, athletic body you’re building. One critical component of that body is your store’s products. Okay, you’ve got that covered. But the final element—and the most difficult to master—is engaging, well-written content.

The doomsday predictions on increasing web use and decreasing literacy have turned out wrong. If anything, the web has all of us reading more than ever. It’s not how much we read that’s changing—but what we read, and how we read it. Tapping into this knowledge and using it strategically in your content writing is critical to engaging your customers—which, by the way, is critical in SEO.

People search the web for everything imaginable. As this article from Search Engine Land explains, people use Google not only to find specific websites, to get information, and to buy things, but also to delve deeper into a topic for which they have only basic knowledge.

Engaging, Useful Content: The New SEO Rocket Fuel

How can content improve your business’s SEO? That depends on what you’re selling. Take a step back and look at your market. Most markets that can support online stores also have knowledge and entertainment angles that businesses can leverage into blog posts.
Think about it: the only transaction you make without needing further information is your regular grocery shopping. You always get the same kind of toothpaste. You buy whatever toilet paper is on sale. This kind of market—which sells simple, cheap commodities that everyone needs—doesn’t have much of a content angle to it. But niche markets, which sell specialty products to a base of avid enthusiasts, are another story entirely!
Let’s look at it from the user’s perspective. (By the way, that’s the first rule in content writing!) Say you’re a car enthusiast. You just bought a car for customizing, and you’re joining a passionate community who modify this make of car. You’ve customized other cars, but you know very little about the specifics of this model. You want to learn about common modifications, inherent design strengths and weaknesses, and possible pitfalls before you start taking things apart. You google something like, “X model powertrain customization.” You find a great blog post at SomeKindOfCar.com/blog that explains not only the basic characteristics of the stock powertrain in your car, but some of the most popular mods to the powertrain. The post has a few links in it leading to the aftermarket car parts you’ll need for these mods. You buy the parts, noticing that the online store lives at the same URL—SomeKindOfCar.com.
Guess what? The folks at SomeKindOfCar.com just sold you the exact parts you wanted, using SEO-guided content writing.

Leveraging Content Writing for SEO

Writing great content to improve your business’s SEO takes more than an ear for language and a deep knowledge of your products. A good SEO content writer couples three things together: the artistic ability to write with power and precision, the technical knowledge of the subject matter, and a strategic SEO vision derived from detailed keyword analytics tools.

Good SEO writing isn’t just search engine food. It isn’t a poetry contest, either. It hangs squarely between best technical practices, informative coverage, and engaging style.

That’s a demanding list to hit. Many businesses can cover one or two of these requirements in-house, but not all three. If you can’t hit all three of these with your existing staff, consider outsourcing your writing to a dedicated SEO content writing team.

At 216digital, our content writing team researches every client’s market for topics, style, and voice. We analyze our clients’ existing writing on landing pages and blog posts (if a blog exists). We formulate recommendations for improving landing page copy, and we watch these changes jack that page up in Google search. Through consistent communication, we nail down a blog voice for each client. Then we crank out informative, well-written posts day after day—all of it strategically informed by our extensive suite of keyword analytics tools.

If you’re ready to watch your site leap through page rank, get in touch with our SEO content writing team today. We’d love to start talking about your next big thing.

Greg McNeil

June 12, 2015

216digital, Digital Marketing, SEO

Content Writing, Digital Marketing, Miva Design, SEO

1. Meaningful Page Titles

How Do Meaningful Page Titles Help Web Accessibility?

How Does a Meaningful Title Tag Help SEO?

2. Headings

How Do Headings Help Web Accessibility?

How Do Headings Help SEO?

3. Lists

How Do Lists Help Web Accessibility?

How Do Lists Help SEO?

4. Descriptive links

How Do Descriptive Links Help Web Accessibility?

How Do Descriptive Links Help SEO?

5. Breadcrumbs

How Do Breadcrumbs Help Web Accessibility?

How Do Breadcrumbs Help SEO?

6. Alternative Text for Images

How Does Alternative Text Help Web Accessibility?

How Does Alternative Text Help SEO?

7. Audio and Video Transcriptions

How Do Audio and Video Transcriptions Help Web Accessibility?

How Do Audio and Video Transcriptions Help SEO?

In Summary

Capitalize on Cyber Monday

The Amazon Myth

Convenience Means Conversions

What Makes Up User Experience

Findability

Visibility

Usability

Likability

Do Your Research: Keywords Are Crucial

Target Users with SEO Content: Don’t Write for Robots

Keep it Fresh: Manage Content Regularly to Remain Relevant

Don’t Ignore the Background: Technical Optimization is Crucial

Invest in Your Own Crawl: Audit Your Pages on a Regular Basis

Welcome Joey!

SEO Specialist at 216digital

A Little More about Joey

Welcome Nicole!

Project Manager at 216digital

A little bit about Nicole

Getting Your Website in Gear

Marketing Yourself Right

In the End

Sources

Completing The Miva Design Picture with SEO Content Writing

Miva Design: A Skeleton In Need of Flesh and Blood

Engaging, Useful Content: The New SEO Rocket Fuel

Leveraging Content Writing for SEO