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What you need to understand about SEO: A basic guide to increase traffic to your website.

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As soon as you put your foot into digital marketing it is nearly impossible not to hear about the term Search Engine Opmitization. In today’s digitalised and competitive market this tool has become more important than ever. So, in case you are not fully sure about how this works I will try to cover any gaps of basic knowledge in this post.

First of all, a definition:

“Search engine is a kind of software, which collects data about web sites – collected data includes the web site URL, some keywords or keyword groups that define the content of the web site, the code structure that forms the web page and also links provided on the web site.” (Yalçin, & Köse 2010)

The real purpose of SEO is to match the content on a website to what people are trying to find, enabling people to find what they are looking for. In other words, you need to make sure your goals match the goals of your visitors. Companies use SEO as a method of increasing sales by boosting their website traffic.

The process of SEO consists of the following steps:

It is a basic and very important step to work on Keyword Optimization – research, how to find the right keywords?

The main aim is to find keywords that:

  1. Have a high search volume
  2. Have low competition (smaller amount of results will mean your chances of ranking higher improve)
  3. The keywords are relevant to your site

A successful keyword analysis will be carried out according to the following rules:

  • A strong list, which includes potential keywords, must be formed through keyword analysis,
  • Links must be counted, and their target keywords must be found,
  • Words, which were not tested in the keyword analysis, must be found and listed, (Yalçin, & Köse 2010).

To accomplish this a good tool is:

Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool, which shows results based on Google searches and with an AdWords account, it will also give a list of keyword ideas customized to the site.

The following links will be useful if you want to start using SEO on your website.

How to Do an SEO Audit of Your Website

These 9 SEO Tips Are All You’ll Ever Need to Rank in Google 

However, according to Sagot, Fougères & Ostrosi (2017) SEO can cause some difficulties.

  • Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving to provide more relevant results. For example, two Google updates are Panda and Penguin.
  • On the other hand, the results of the SEO process are uncertain due to the dynamic and evolving nature, the large number of criteria and the uncertainty of the results. If it is not supported by a tool, this high complexity will make the optimization efforts difficult for the webmaster.

Business constraints

The disadvantage of a decision support system is that it will only favor criteria according to their influence on the ranking, sometimes at the expense of the company image.

According to Sagot, Fougères & Ostrosi (2017) business constraints are:

  1. The working time: the more a manager allocates time for the SEO activity, the less the webmaster will be able to devote himself to other activities.
  2. The visual appearance change: if the visual appearance is degraded, it could have a consequence on the users’ experience. As a result from a bad experience, the users may leave the website, potentially causing a client loss.
  3. The efficiency: It defines the relationship between the two previous constraints. For example, when the webmaster spends a lot of time on SEO optimization and alters a lot the visual appearance of the webpages, the efficiency will be poor.

References:

Berman, R. & Katona, Z. 2013, “The Role of Search Engine Optimization in Search Marketing”, Marketing Science, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 644-651.

Egri, G. & Bayrak, C. 2014, “The Role of Search Engine Optimization on Keeping the User on the Site”, Procedia Computer Science, vol. 36, pp. 335-342.

Sagot, S., Fougères, A.J & Ostrosi, E. (2017) Business Constraints Integration in a Search Engine Optimization Fuzzy Decision Support System, 2017 IEEE 19th Conference on Business Informatics.

Yalçın, N. & Köse, U. (2010), “What is search engine optimization: SEO?”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 9, pp. 487-493.

How do brands “follow” the influencer marketing platform Instagram? Pros and cons.

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Social media marketing has been quickly growing over the past years. It is less expensive and more efficient than common ways of advertising such as TV or radio advertising. Cost Per Click (CPC) has replaced Cost Per Thousands (CPT) as a way of paying advertisements.

Both Facebook and Instagram are known to be the mostly used social media in order to develop a digital marketing strategy. Businesses use them to boost their presence, visibility and reputation in order to optimize commercial results.

Instagram has reached 700 million monthly actives in two years, Constine (2017). With so many users, brands can’t miss the opportunity to appear in this digital platform, hence they use it to strengthen their branding strategy.

  • Click here to to find out 25 Instagram facts that you want to know.

Photo belongs to: https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/05/instagram-stories-archive-highlights/

Instagram stories are a quite recent addition within the Instagram app. According to SocialMediaToday (2017) it is wise to invest time and resources in Instagram Stories. It has 300 million daily active users and constant additions like being able to go live with a friend and camera roll uploads. Some brands’ Instagram Stories content reflects their larger Instagram strategy and branding.

Some advantages of using Instagram for brands include:

  1. Visual marketing is key and has the most success within digital marketing. Brands get to people through powerful images and quality videos of their products and services. The digital platform humanizes the brand in a natural way introducing the audience to the team and showing the way things are done, sometimes even explaining the processes products go through, proving that they are more than a logo. A company which uses Instagram is perceived as modern users have to be active and committed to their accounts.
  2. Instagram users are mainly young, sometimes also referred as the millennials, therefore it is an essential channel for brands who target this crowd.
  3. Instagram belongs to Facebook therefore both platforms are interlinked. A good presence in Instagram could help improve the brand’s presence on Facebook.
  4. As Red Idea (2014) mentioned, through Instagram customer service gets impersonal. However, customer service has also become more important than ever. Customers can comment their opinions and decide whether to follow or unfollow as a way of raising their voice and rating the service or products. They are willing to interact with brands and companies online, this is why it is key to listen and to communicate with them.

    “This is big opportunity for B2C and B2B business to get in direct contact with their customers and benefit from their questions and ideas”, (Red Idea 2014).

  5. Overall Instagram allows companies to optimize advertising efficiency by optimising their content. With the platform brands target customers, locally as well as globally.

Whereas disadvantages are:

  1. The App is limited to iOS and Android because although it can be accessed through a PC or laptop functionalities are very limited.
  2. Moreover, in Instagram there is a lack of space for brands to give detailed information about their services or products. Customers who want to search for a particular brand have to at least know the name of it. Once in the brand’s account Instagram users will get to know the products mainly through photos which have been previously posted.
  3. Despite being one of the most popular and powerful social media platforms, should brands only rely on Instagram? It may be just a fleeting fashion trend or it may continue to grow. Online trends change rapidly.
  4. Last thing to consider is; what about the customers who can’t be reached online?

References:

Constine, J. (2017) Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users, TechCrunch (available at <https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/instagram-700-million-users/>) [accessed 6th Jan 2017].

Red Idea (2014) Digital Marketing – Benefits, chances, risks (available at <http://redidea.eu/digital-marketing/benefits-opportunities>) [accessed 6th Jan 2017].

SocialMediaToday (2017) The 6 Benefits and Risks of Instagram Stories, (available at < https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-6-benefits-and-risks-of-instagram-stories/510649/> ) [accessed 6th Jan 2017].

 

Luxury brands – Are their marketing strategies as deluxe as their products?

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Traditional, elite and exclusive are three adjectives which can be used to describe luxury. On the other hand, the Internet does not relate to any of those concepts, it is possibly the complete opposite. However, combining the two, (exclusivity and technology) has been the perfect formula for many luxury brands over the recent past years.  The Luxury industry has had to understand how fundamental ecommerce is in today’s digital universe, hence embracing change and thriving for new opportunities.

IMAGE [http://www.wearona.com/style/best-luxury-brands-digital-age/]

There is an obvious shift in consumers’ behaviour in every sector, including the luxury one. People prefer online shopping over physical stores. Already in 2014 a report by McKinsey estimated that digital was influencing at least 45% of all luxury sales. Moreover, according to Chris Bischop, 2016 luxury brand customers are “cash rich and time poor”, but their lifestyles make them constantly online and on mobile devices. Across the world 95% of luxury shoppers have a smartphone (McKinsey, 2014). They have the best devices and expect their online shopping experiences they have on them to be equally high spec.

Brands are aware of this change and therefore have had to implement new digital marketing strategies. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a key one and when replacing traditional offline media it has helped to stay competitive and boost sales.

“Google is one of the most influential channels when it comes to helping luxury shoppers find products, learn more about brands, and make their purchase”, Marcus Taylor 2017 (VentureHarbour).

 

Getting your website ranking high enough to be noticed in web searches and knowing about what potential customers are searching for (recent trends) as well as and matching keywords is critical for businesses. Furthermore, even if luxury is still one of the leading sectors for in store purchases (82%), consumers tend to look at the webpage before buying – 78% of shoppers research online before buying, (Simon Bell, 2016).

 

 

According to Diligent 2015, when researching online only 7% of shoppers start their search with the brand name. It is common to start with the generic product category keywords e.g. “stiletto high heels”. It is after this then narrow their search by adding manufacturer or retailer’s name based on whom they find in their first search. If your site doesn’t come up on the first page of search results for these generic terms it is very unlikely you would be found by majority of customers looking for your products. So, it is absolutely crucial to have a good exposure in search engines.

 

SEO has experimented changes as businesses don’t tend to give as much importance to links and keywords, but rather focus on strong content and web design. Other advanced changes include the mobile world SEO with big impact of mobile devices that know your location, knowing the exact address of the client.

“Previously, SEO was about building links and about putting pages up with keywords so you can rank. Now it is about content that is engaging, great site design, pages that load fast. The old-fashioned and dishonest methods are starting to die away. It is becoming much more difficult for people to get any sort of results doing that, which is good for the industry.” Ian Duncan, from digital marketing agency MediaCo.

Nevertheless, some luxury brands have poor websites and not the best SEO either, making it difficult to capture potential customers. For example, when I type in Hermes in Google. Although it comes first up it is only one time and I find many other companies also called Hermes which seem to have higher relevance – particularly the delivery group Hermes. This is due to poor keyword targeting and poor on-site structure from the French luxury brand Hermès:

 

The fact that people spend more time online also means they spend more time inside apps like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. For some luxury brands, SEO and social media work together in harmony with social media marketing (with influencers making it even more effective). They both play important roles and therefore are being combined to obtain the best possible outcome.

 

Unlike other brands, luxury brands do not use the Internet as a strategy to reach a wider distribution of the actual goods but rather as a strategy to make a wider distribution of the content that creates the desire to buy their luxury goods.

 

Anderson, Tim (2014), Choose your weapon: SEO or social media?, The Guardian [online] <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/06/seo-or-social-media> [accessed November 26th 2017]

Bishop, Chris (2016) How creative SEO can deliver big wins for luxury fashion retailers [online] <https://www.econsultancy.com/blog/67439-how-creative-seo-can-deliver-big-wins-for-luxury-fashion-retailers> [accessed November 26th 2017]

Taylor, Marcus (2017)
10 Highly Effective Luxury Brand Digital Marketing Strategies, Venture Harbour [online] <https://www.ventureharbour.com/luxury-brand-digital-marketing/> [accessed November 26th 2017]

Bell, Simon (2016) Do Luxury Ecommerce Brands Need SEO?, Linkedin

[online] <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-luxury-ecommerce-brands-need-seo-simon-bell/> [accessed November 27th 2017]

Diligent (2015) WHY LUXURY BRANDS NEED AN SEO STRATEGY!

[online] <http://diligentcommerce.com/news/digital-marketing/luxury-brands-need-seo/> [accessed November 25th 2017]

Schmidt J.,Dörner K. et al (2015) The opportunity in online luxury fashion, McKinsey [online] <https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-opportunity-in-online-luxury-fashion> [accessed November 24th 2017]

IKEA – Listening Hub

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Hello!

I am an international business final year student and on this first post I am going to write about the swedish multinational IKEA.

For those who don’t know, I would say IKEA is mostly recognized for their easy ready-to-assemble furniture. It has customers around the whole planet and operates across 45 different countries (probably it won’t be hard for you to find one their stores nearby). IKEA is known to be the world’s largest furniture retailer.

One of their recent challenges is to start operating in social media in order to provide the best possible customer experience. They are working on a program which will “stablish social media as a valuable channel across regions, departments and applications in a collaborative and intelligent way“.

With the aim of becoming a socially intelligent business IKEA decided to create the The Listening Hub.

“The Vizia/Brandwatch Listening Hub at Inter IKEA Systems allows key IKEA stakeholders to gain fuller insight into global conversations about the brand. The Brandwatch Analytics platform provides senior stakeholders with an effective planning tool for multiple silos and regions.” Hans Garner, Digital Development, Inter IKEA Systems