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Crowded and hard-to-navigate designs are two of the biggest reasons users leave a website. When users quickly leave, engaging them and boosting conversions is impossible. One way you can help keep users on your site engaged is by implementing a visual hierarchy.

What is visual hierarchy?

Visual hierarchy is one web design principle that involves arranging elements on a page or site in order of importance. This helps to avoid pages becoming overcrowded with design elements that detract from the user experience.

One of the most prominent problems users experience online is overcrowded websites, so visual hierarchy is crucial. Data from HubSpot estimates that around 84.6% of users find overcrowded web designs a mistake for small businesses.

Typically, the most important design elements are situated at the top of the page or in a prominent position so users can easily see them. Otherwise, every design element would have equal importance and provide no guide for overcoming customer needs.

A strong visual hierarchy will seek to place logos, whitespace, typography, visual storytelling, and more in a way that predicts the user’s flow. As such, you have a much greater influence over how users interact with your site.

A good visual hierarchy captures the user’s attention and guides them through the content using an intuitive flow and priority levels. Understanding visual processing can help create effective visual hierarchies in web design.

Why is visual hierarchy important?

Visual hierarchy in web design is essential for creating a positive user experience. User experience refers to how the different elements on a page or website make users feel and whether they help them achieve their goals.

A positive user experience is vital as it affects the likelihood of users staying on your site and whether they convert. There is a strong correlation between a strong visual hierarchy and positive user experience.

Aside from impacting a positive user experience, visual hierarchy is one of visual design’s four pillars (the other three are space, contrast, and scale). The four pillars work together to ensure a strategically organized website design.

It also helps guide users to take a specific action or highlight a certain message. This is crucial for creating strong first impressions and experiences that will bring users back.

Whether users are clicking a call-to-action (CTA), submitting a form, or registering for a newsletter, visual hierarchy ensures the important elements stand out so users can act when ready. Otherwise, there may be uncertainty about how to act and take the steps.

A good visual hierarchy grabs users’ attention when they first land on your site or webpage. Ensuring you capture their attention is vital, and it is the first important step to engaging users and keeping them on your site.

It also gives users a scannable layout. When important elements and items stand out on a page, users can scan the page to find what most appeals to them, allowing them to find solutions to their pain points quickly.

Understanding visual processing

Before creating a visual hierarchy, it’s important to understand how the brain processes visuals and eye movement. Eye tracking research has revealed two major methods humans use to process information: F-shape and Z-shape patterns.

F-shape pattern

The F-shape pattern is one method humans use to process information. Typically, users process and scan information from left to right, top to bottom. Placing elements in users’ gaze or eyeline makes a big difference.

The F-shape pattern involves organizing content into an F shape. It is the most common method for visual processing and is most widely used for text-heavy content without subheadings or visuals to guide users.

As a result, users will read the first few words or sentences at the top of the page and then scan the first words of each line or sentence to find certain words or phrases. In terms of visual web designs, this layout indicates poor formatting and visual hierarchy.

Z-shape pattern

This is where the Z-shape pattern comes in. Similar to the F-shape pattern, the Z-shape pattern follows a scanning or reading pattern of the letter Z. This layout pattern is much more effective for minimalist web designs that want to emphasize CTAs and forms more.

Unlike the F-shape pattern, the Z-shape pattern provides an excellent basis for a strong visual hierarchy that seeks to attract and engage the user. Using a landing page as an example, users will typically scan the page as follows:

When creating web designs with the Z-shape pattern in mind, there are some key considerations. First, you must prioritize what information or visuals you want the user to see. This will typically be something that captures the attention.

You must then consider what order or structure you want the user to follow. This includes content structure, visual layout, CTAs, etc. Finally, you need to decide on the action or outcome you expect a user to take from the page, e.g., submitting a form.

How can you implement visual hierarchy?

Now that we’ve covered what visual hierarchy is and why you need it, it’s time to explore some tips for implementing an impactful visual hierarchy.

Utilise size

Sizing and scaling are two methods for prioritizing content or visuals in web design. The content or visuals you want to emphasize should be much more prominent on the page.

Items with a larger size or scale will typically attract more attention. When using size and scale in the visual hierarchy, it’s important to use no more than three sizes and that the most important elements are the biggest.

Colour and contrast

Color and contrast can play a significant impact in creating an appealing visual hierarchy. The strategic use of color helps elements stand out and draws the eye to the areas or content you want users to see first.

For example, a CTA with a strong contrasting color will stand out more prominently to users. Understanding the psychology of color and its impact on users can help ensure you create a visual hierarchy with compelling visual components.

Whitespace

Whitespace is a crucial element of successful web design. The blank space or area within a page design, whitespace helps the different content on a page breathe and declutter the layout. It also adds legibility and a visual balance.

Using whitespace effectively between and around different elements on a page makes it much easier for users to absorb the information and removes potential distractions. While there is no set standard for how much whitespace you should use, aiming for at least 30% helps create a good visual hierarchy.

Repetition

The human brain is naturally wired to seek out patterns. Using repetition in a visual hierarchy can help the human brain better understand how content or elements on a page are related.

Repetition also creates a sense of unity within your web design. Repetition can apply to typography, shapes, image layout, or use of color. As a result, users’ understanding and recognition of your content are much stronger.

Alignment and composition

Another way to implement visual hierarchy in your web design is through alignment and composition. Good alignment and composition of elements in a visual hierarchy create a structure for design elements and a focal point for users.

Two methods can be used to implement alignment and composition in the visual hierarchy: the rule of thirds and the rule of odds. The rule of thirds refers to dividing the sections of a page into a horizontal grid of nine equally sized squares.

The intersection lines are focal points where you should consider placing important design elements on your page. Then, additional design elements are placed around these focal points. Consider placing hero images, CTAs, and headlines along the focal lines of the horizontal grid.

The rule of odds is another method of alignment and composition. It refers to creating pleasing and appealing visual hierarchies using an odd number of elements (most commonly 3) rather than an even number.

This creates a stronger dynamic and balance between the elements around a focal point. Using an even number of elements can create a symmetry that seems unnaturally static and less visually appealing to users.

Visual hierarchy keeps users engaged and more likely to visit your site. Implementing an effective visual hierarchy that emphasizes the most important elements ensures your web design has the desired impact on boosting conversions and driving success.

Featured image by Victor Freitas on Unsplash

The post What is visual hierarchy, and why do you need it? appeared first on noupe.

Content marketing is essential in any digital marketing strategy if you want to attract and engage your audience. But creating an effective content marketing strategy is no easy task, with many potential mistakes you’ll need to avoid. To help you, we’ve covered 7 fall downs and pick-ups in content marketing. 

Importance of an effective content strategy 

An effective content marketing strategy is important for any business to help reach new prospective customers and boost sales. It’s all about delivering content that is both relevant and helpful throughout each stage of the customer journey. 

Content marketing is about showcasing your brand’s value to help build relationships and trust with your audiences. Effective content marketing will address your potential customer’s pain points and provide answers to their questions. 

Unlike paid advertising which results in short-term growth, marketing strategies provide long-term business growth. Around 67% of marketers report their content marketing efforts to generate leads, according to the Content Marketing Institute. 

It’s also worth noting that content marketing is one of the most important ranking factors for Google. Not only will an effective content marketing strategy win over your customers, but it will also boost your search engine rankings. 

To summarise, content marketing is important to: 

• Build trust 
• Increased lead generation and conversions 
• Stronger online presence and brand awareness 
• Become an authority in your area 
• Provide value 
• Higher website traffic 
• Increased sales 

Spotting these content marketing mistakes quickly and understanding how to address them can do wonders for generating leads and conversions. To help you deliver the high-quality content that your customers have come to expect, here are 7 content marketing fall downs and pick-ups. 

Fall down #1 – No plan or long-term goal 

The first fall down you can make with your content marketing strategy is not having a plan or long-term goal. Successful content marketing will need a plan or goal. You should be able to identify what it is you want to achieve with your content strategy. If you can’t, you’re in trouble. 

Without this focus, your content marketing strategy will be misguided and won’t be focusing on the bigger picture. Creating content ad hoc is a sure way to lead to an ineffective and failing content strategy. It’s pointless spending all that time and effort on content that won’t drive worthwhile results. 

The pick-up 

The pick-up for this fall down is to make sure you establish a long-term plan or goal for your content marketing. Ask yourself, what do I want to achieve with my content marketing? To improve the clarity and focus of your content strategy, make sure your goals are SMART: 

• Specific – clear and specific goals are easy to work with and achieve 
• Measurable – adding a measurable component allows you to measure success 
• Achievable – make sure the goal is achievable and identify the steps you can take to achieve it 
• Relevant – is the goal relevant to your business? 
• Timely – when do you want to achieve your goal? 

Fall down #2 – Ignoring or not using data 

Another common fall down in content marketing is ignoring the data. Many businesses will fall into the trap of developing content ideas they think would be a good fit for their business or customers. Throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks only leads to disaster. 

The pick-up 

Every content strategy should revolve around data. Data should be placed at the start and finish of content creation. Data-driven content strategies can help inform your content creation, allowing you to see what works and what doesn’t. 

Data should inform both the start and finish of content creation. Using data from Google Analytics and other tools allows you to measure the success of your content strategy against your goal and campaign KPIs. 

Fall down #3 – Not creating reusable content 

Creating high-quality content can take a lot of time and effort. Yet many businesses will fail to see the value of reusing existing content. Chances are you have a wide library of material you can reuse. Content marketing doesn’t and shouldn’t just focus on developing new content. 

A one-and-done approach to publishing content not only uses valuable resources but can also eat away at your return on investment. Content developed with a short shelf life that’s soon forgotten about is a waste.  

The pick-up 

Picking up from this content marketing fall-down is simple. Make use of what you have by repurposing content. Whether it’s a long-form blog post that can be repurposed into a guide or a tutorial that can be repurposed into a video. 

Secondly, most, if not all of your content should also be evergreen. Evergreen content is content that continues to stay relevant. Creating content on trending and topical issues is all very well at the time, but what happens to that content in the future? It becomes outdated and unusable again. 

Fall down #4 – Limited content types 

Another common fall down in content marketing is not taking full advantage of the wide range of content types available. If you are stuck in the process of continually churning out blog posts or social media posts, your content marketing strategy is experiencing another fall down. 

The pick-up 

There are lots of different content types, including written, visual, and audio. A successful content strategy will make use of a variety of different content types, not just one. When planning your next piece of content, consider if it works better as another content type, such as: 

• Infographics and images 
• Short-form and long-form videos 
• Podcasts 
• Webinars 
• Checklists and how-to guides 
• Whitepapers 
• Case studies 

Fall down #5 – Not understanding your customers 

Similarly to not using data, not knowing or understanding your customers is another fail. No matter how good a piece of content is, if it’s not right for your audience, it’s irrelevant. 

You cannot deliver value to your customers through your content if you don’t know who they are. In many instances, there is a gap between what a company thinks its customers want and what their customers actually want. 

Around 63% of customers state they don’t feel understood by the brands they love, according to a study by IBM. This content marketing fall down can be easy to get into, but a tough one to try and get out off. 

The pick-up 

To ensure you are developing content that is right for your customers, you should be creating buyer personas. These are semi-fictional representations of your customers. An effective buyer persona will be informed by the data and insights you gain about your customers. 

A buyer persona will seek to identify: 

• Who your audience is (demographics) 
• What are their needs or behavior (behavioral) 
• Values, lifestyle, and interests (psychographics) 
• Goals and challenges 
• Habits and preferences 

A well-defined buyer persona will be supported by research. Nothing in your buyer persona should be purely speculative otherwise it doesn’t accurately reflect your audiences. For the best results, you should develop a buyer persona for each of your audiences (limiting yourself to no more than 5). 

Fall down #6 – Lacking a schedule 

How often do you publish a piece of content? Do you stick to a schedule? If not, your content marketing strategy is experiencing another fall-down. If you want to be growing your business online, you need to be sticking to a schedule to help create consistency and keep you organized. 

Without a schedule to provide the bigger picture, your content strategy will lack focus and become chaotic. It also reflects badly on your target audience if they have long periods without any content updates. 

The pick-up 

For each month, consider setting up a content schedule for the content that will be created and published. Try to keep this calendar as visual as possible and easy to understand. Using your content schedule, you should be able to plan your campaigns across different platforms too. 

Your content schedule should also include a review or approval process. No piece of content should ever be published before it is checked. Every piece of content needs to reflect the style of the brand. Content can also contain inaccuracies and mistakes, which can easily be avoided. 

Make sure at least one peer reviews a piece of content before you hit the publish button. Monitoring the review process can be tricky, but using a project management platform can make it much easier. Trello, ClickUp, and Asana are project management platforms to consider. 

Fall down #7 – Pushing promotional or sales content 

Being over-promotional or pushing out too much sale-related content is one of the biggest content marketing mistakes many businesses make. While every business wants to try to increase sales or usage of products and services, taking an overly promotional approach is the wrong way. 

It’s a similar situation to someone who is always bragging about how good they are. People get bored and tired of listening surprisingly fast. The same goes for your customers. Constantly putting out content that tries to gain a sale will just cause people to unfollow. 

No matter what type of content you use, the same rules apply. When people view your content, they are not interested in how great you are. Whether it’s a blog post, a social media video, or a podcast, none of the above content marketing tips will be worthwhile. 

The pick-up 

The pick-up for this content marketing mistake is obvious. Stop being overly promotional or sales-focused in your content marketing. Instead, create content that focuses on your customers and what matters to them. In the long run, this will benefit your business much more than just another sales blog. 

By no means does it mean you cannot publish promotional content, far from it. You need to create content for all stages of the buyer’s journey. Not just those at the awareness or consideration stages. The general rule of thumb is an 80/20 balance. 

80% of your content should be tailored to your audiences by providing relevant and helpful solutions to their questions and pain points. The other 20% is about your business. You don’t have to stick right to these numbers, but it gives you a good idea of how to balance your content creation. 

Conclusion

Developing an effective content marketing strategy is not easy. With so many easy fall downs, it can be hard to continue providing value to your customers. But being aware of the fall downs and how you can pick yourself up again will stand you in good stead to develop an effective content strategy. 

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Social media is a way for you to communicate both directly and in a human way. As inbound marketing is all about creating valuable experiences and building long-term relationships, social media can be of great benefit to your inbound marketing. Let’s find out how…

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a relatively new approach pioneered by HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan. Traditional, outbound marketing, is focused on pushing messages to consumers they may not want, or provides little value for driving sales.

The hard-sell approach that was once popular no longer works in today’s digital landscape. Inbound marketing provides an alternative that empowers customers and develops long-term relationships.

Inbound marketing has 3 stages:

• Attract
• Engage
• Delight

Attract

Inbound marketing begins with attracting customers. The attract stage involves your potential customers seeking possible options to help address their challenges or pain points. Most potential customers will be unaware of your brand at this stage.

Delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time, allows you to attract high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into sales. While SEO plays a key role in the attraction stage, social media can also play a pivotal role in delivering messages that provide value.

Understanding your buyer personas (a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer) helps you to better understand your customers. A buyer persona will help to develop a message that provides value to your customers and identify the right channels to deliver your message.

Engage

The engage stage is all about developing long-lasting relationships with the potential customers you gathered during the attract stage. At this stage, your potential customers want to find out more about your brand and how your product/service can alleviate any pain points.

Personalization and creating tailored experiences can go a long way at the engage stage. Around 50% of customers are likely to purchase from a brand that provides a personalized experience, highlighting how important it is to deliver the experience customers expect.

You can continue to use social media during the engage stage to encourage customers to interact with your brand. Continuing to post relevant content to your social channels and engaging with customers helps to develop long-lasting relationships.

Delight

The final stage of inbound marketing is the delight stage. Your content strategy, SEO, and social media have all helped to convert your visitors and leads. But even though the hard task of converting customers is done, the job is not finished!

Even after a customer has converted, you need to continue delighting that customer and maintaining the long-lasting relationships you formed at the engage stage. Delighting your customers post-purchase increases loyalty which can lead to repeat purchases and brand advocacy. 

Social media continues to play a role during the delight stage. You can use your social media channels to respond to customer questions or suggestions. You could also look to explore running competitions, surveys, and events to continue showing support and appreciation.

What are the Benefits of Social Media for Inbound Marketing?

We’ve covered what inbound marketing is and how you can use social media at each stage, but what about the benefits of social media for your inbound marketing strategy?

It helps to raise awareness and attract customers

Social media can act as the building blocks for raising brand awareness. Making social media a core area of your inbound strategy will help to grow your reach and inform potential customers about your business.

Creating and sharing videos on your social media can be a great way to attract customers and raise awareness of your brand. Videos that resonate with your target audience and use emotional appeal are more likely to perform well.

Helps build your authority and online presence

Not only is it important for you to raise awareness of your brand and attract customers, but you also need to build trust and authority. Not only do you need to regularly update your social media pages, but you also need to engage to help grow your social presence.

Engaging with customers and responding to feedback goes a lot further in building credibility than just posting new content. Potential customers like to see that you care about customer satisfaction. 

Drives better quality leads and traffic

Social media can be a major source of driving traffic to your site and landing pages. Without social media, your traffic would be heavily limited to those from search (and we all know how difficult gaining top-ranking positions can be).

Social media makes life a lot easier for driving traffic. Every profile you have and every link you post is another gateway for potential customers. Increased exposure plus valuable content is a great formula for expanding your reach and building lasting relationships.

Your social media strategy can organically boost your SEO

Social media can help boost your SEO efforts too. But let’s make one thing clear. Social media is not a ranking factor. However, a link has been established between being active on social media and a boost to your SEO.

Establishing your authority and credibility on social media stands you in a much better position for gaining valuable backlinks to your site. Providing these also come from authoritative websites, you’ll benefit from some nice link juice.

Feedback can help develop your content creation

The great thing about social media is that it’s not a one-way street. Your business can gain from using social media as well as your customers. A brand that is highly engaged on social media can gain great insights from customers.

Social media can provide insights about your customers that will be beneficial for developing your buyer personas. Customers can also provide feedback, giving you ideas and directions that you may not have otherwise considered. 

Gain more insights into your customers

We also mentioned about the insights you can gain from customers on social media. But given how important this benefit is, it deserves a separate mention. The insights that social media provides about your customers are crucial for developing content that provides value.

Creating content that offers value is the bread and butter of any successful inbound marketing strategy. You’ll be able to find out what content appeals most to your customers, the best time for posting, and how customers want to receive the content.

It helps you to continue delighting your customers

While social media is most beneficial at the attract stage of inbound marketing, in no way should you disregard it from every other stage. You can use your social media to delight your customers by:

• Hosting live events or webinars
• Offering customer support through chat
• Conducting surveys and polls
• Engaging in social listening to find what customers are saying away from your page

The important thing to remember is that delighting your customers goes beyond satisfaction. At the delight stage, even the smallest gesture can go a long way in maintaining positive relationships that will continue to bring customers back again.
Social media is a vital tool for any inbound marketing strategy, providing many great benefits. Combined with a successful content marketing strategy, you can provide both valuable and engaging content that helps empower your customers.

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Gaining top-ranking positions in search results is the goal of anyone working in SEO. Unless you use paid ads, standing out in search results can be a continual battle, even with an effective SEO strategy. Fortunately, featured snippets provide an alternative to outranking your competitors. 

What is a Featured Snippet?

To answer the question ‘what is a featured snippet?’, we’ll use an example of a featured snippet:

Featured snippets (sometimes referred to as answer boxes) first appeared on Google back in 2014. Ever since the Hummingbird algorithm update, Google has been trying to understand the intent that goes into a search.

Featured snippets are one of the ways Google delivers helpful and useful answers to a search query. Featured snippets will typically appear in search results that ask a question (using the 5 Ws and how).

You may also be surprised to find that featured snippets play an important role in voice search. Optimizing for featured snippets can also help you optimize and appear in the voice search results. When nearly half of all searchers are performed through voice, you’ll be helping to further expand your reach.

The types of featured snippets

There are 3 main types of Google’s features snippets. These are paragraph snippets, list snippets, and table snippets. You can also get video snippets.

Paragraph snippets

Paragraph snippets (such as the definition example above) are the most popular form of featured snippet you’ll encounter. These featured snippets display small excerpts from a webpage that answers a particular search query, in the form of a tiny paragraph.

Paragraph snippets sometimes contain images that are relevant to the particular answer provided. Featured snippets will also contain a direct link to the page which the information has been extracted from. You will often find ‘People also ask’ displayed underneath a featured snippet.

The inclusion of a link helps to differentiate from other forms of ‘featured snippets’ that may appear in the search results. For example, a search query to convert a measurement is not a featured snippet and is instead termed a rich answer (or instant answer). These are provided by Google directly and don’t contain any source links:

Research carried out by Getstat found that paragraph snippets appear for around 82% of all featured snippets. 

List snippets

List snippets are the second most popular type of featured snippet you’ll encounter. Getstat estimates that around 11% of all featured snippets use the list format.

Unlike paragraph snippets, a list snippet displays information in a list, using either bullet point lists or numbered lists. List snippets can be both ordered, for steps and procedures, or unordered.

Table snippets

The other type of featured snippet available is the table snippet, where information is displayed in a table. Only around 7% of featured snippets will display a table snippet, according to Getstat, making it the least common.

Video snippets

Another type of featured snippet you may encounter is video snippets. Video snippets showcase a YouTube video that provides guides and tutorials. Sometimes a segment of a video is played that Google believes to be the most relevant to the search query, such as in this example:

Why are Google’s Featured Snippets Important?

Featured snippets can provide lots of great benefits. The main advantage of featured snippets is that they appear right at the very top of the search results, including above the number 1 organic result. Optimizing for a feature is a great way to achieve high visibility without a top-ranking position.

Because of the high positioning, featured snippets are great for improving brand awareness and driving traffic to your site. EngineScout estimates that featured snippets receive around 31% of a results page click share. 

When around 28.5% click on the top organic search result, featured snippets can help you to improve clicks. It mainly comes down to 2 reasons; featured snippets provide a direct answer to a question, and they are much larger and more prominent (especially on mobile, as shown in the example below) than the top organic search result, leading to higher click-throughs:

Other great benefits of gaining a featured snippet include:

• Higher perceived authority from searchers
• More leads and conversions
• Increase in keyword rankings

If you don’t currently have a top-ranking position in search engine results pages, featured snippets could well be worth considering to expand your reach.

The only downside to featured snippets is you cannot choose which part of your content is extracted to appear. That’s all done by Google. Featured snippets also appear underneath paid ads. While it is unlikely that you’ll come across both in a search query, it’s still worth bearing in mind.

Also, in 2020, the deduplication update removed duplicate listings on the first page of search results. That means if you gain a featured snippet, you won’t appear in the organic results. If you don’t have first-page rankings, the update could work well in your favor!

How can you Optimize Content to Gain Featured Snippets?

Before we outline some tips for optimizing your content to gain featured snippets, it’s important to note that you cannot directly tell Google to include certain content within a featured snippet. Featured snippets are always changing too which means optimizing is a continual process, not a one-off.

Target long-tail keywords

We already mentioned that most featured snippets will appear when a question is entered into Google using the 5Ws and how. The same is true with long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that are usually entered into search engines when a user is towards the point of purchase.

Targeting long-tail keywords is essential for gaining a featured snippet, particularly any keywords already targeted with existing featured snippet content. That’s because many featured snippets are triggered when a long-tail keyword is entered into Google.

Research by SEMrush found that keywords indicating user intent at any stage in the sales funnel are more likely to display in a featured snippet, including long-tail keywords. Conducting keyword research will allow you to find long-tail keywords to optimize for.

Using a keyword research tool, such as Ahrefs or KWFinder, will help you to identify long-tail keywords that are likely to display in a featured snippet.

Content length

Featured snippets are brief, so if you want to gain a featured snippet, you need to answer a question briefly. That’s not to say start developing very short pieces of content (because thin content doesn’t help your SEO).

Instead, you need to provide concise answers for the long-tail keywords you previously found. To optimize for a featured snippet, consider including the keyword in a heading with a concise answer underneath. Afterward, you can expand upon your answer in more detail.

To optimize content for a featured snippet, consider these average lengths:

• Paragraph snippets – between 40-60 words with an average of 250 characters
• List snippets – between 6-8 bullet points, with an average of 45 words
• Table snippets – an average of 5 columns with 2 rows
• Videos – short videos around 6 minutes or less

In the event your content does overrun the length of a featured snippet, a ‘More items…’ or ‘X more rows…’ will indicate the additional content. Clicking on the link will direct the user to the page where the content from the featured snippet is hosted, helping to boost your click-through rates.

Use schema markup

Schema markup is the language of search engines and so implementing schema into your content is another great way of optimizing for a featured snippet. Using schema markup helps search engines to better understand your content, leading to a higher probability of gaining a featured snippet.

Adding schema markup to content does involve accessing the code of a page. Even if you are not too familiar with HTML, you can still easily implement it into your content. Any schema that needs to be implemented can be found on the Schema website. The website also has a test feature to allow you to validate your schema markup.

Implement a content structure

An effective content structure will make use of a title and headings to split a piece of content, such as a blog article, into smaller sections. Not only does an effective content structure improve the readability of your audience, but it’s also essential for featured snippets.

Alongside adding schema to your content, you need to incorporate title and heading tags (or metadata). Headings and lists are fundamental for featured snippets. That’s why it’s important to implement a structure to your content with headings and lists. An efficient site structure can also help boost SEO rankings.

We also mentioned that featured snippets sometimes include an image. Including a relevant and high-quality image is also a good idea. Pages and content are more likely to be used as a featured snippet if there are:

• 1,110 words or more
• An average reading time of 5 minutes
• Around 14 headings (including subheadings)
• 8 images throughout the content

Also, content that stays objective and concise with a clear format is much more likely to be used for a featured snippet.

Conclusion

Gaining a featured snippet is not guaranteed, but following the tips outlined above should stand you in a better position. The great value and benefits that a featured snippet can provide make it a great companion to your existing SEO efforts. And don’t forget to keep publishing high-quality content too for a successful content strategy!

The post Tips for Optimizing Content to Gain Google’s Featured Snippet appeared first on noupe.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful tactic that every marketer could dream of. Positive word-of-mouth can influence buyers purchasing intentions, build trust, and drive your conversion rate higher. You may be surprised, but it can help your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts too.

Reviews and testimonials are one of the ways customers help build the trust and credibility that is needed for those all-important conversions. But many businesses will not realise the potential of reviews or testimonials, leaving them out of their content marketing strategy despite how effective they are. 

What are reviews?

You may not realise it, but online reviews are very impactful and have a big influence on your online presence. As e-commerce sites and online shopping continues to grow year on year, the importance of reviews will continue to grow too.

But what are reviews? A review is feedback that a customer will give on the experience they received from using a product or service. A review can be positive or negative and are usually publicly available for all to see. Reviews can include a rating (or star) system, as well as short comments, outlining the customer’s experience.

It’s estimated that around 90% of customers will look at reviews before visiting a business or making a purchase. While reviews can improve trust and credibility, leading to potentially higher conversion rates, a lack of reviews or negative reviews can have the opposite effect.

Reviews are mainly hosted on third-party sites, such as Google, review sites, or listings on business directories. However, businesses can also host their own reviews on their own website or e-commerce platform. We’ve all looked at the Amazon reviews before buying an item, haven’t we? The same goes for any other e-commerce store.

Reviews help other potential customers to get an insight into whether the solution you are offering for a particular problem or pain point resolved such issues. They can also be used by businesses to measure customer satisfaction. Where negative feedback is given, it provides a business with a chance to improve its service or product.

What are testimonials?

A testimonial is similar to a review, providing much more detail and insight. As testimonials are longer, there is much more scope for outlining an experience using a product or service as a story. 

Unlike reviews, a testimonial is directly collected and managed by the business. Despite this, testimonials are still very effective in a B2B environment, unlike reviews that are more suited for B2C. A testimonial usually includes the company the person works for, their name, and a profile picture.

Even though businesses collect and manage testimonials, they are still effective in influencing potential buyers. Testimonials’ strength is in their length. Testimonials that provide as much detail as possible are much more effective than shorter testimonials.

Testimonials can take different forms, including:

• Text
• Video testimonials
• Quotes
• Audio
• Case studies
• Social media
• Peer and press review

Reviews work much better as shorter items, but in greater quantities. The opposite is true for testimonials. However, testimonials that go beyond 3 paragraphs are typically less effective. As potential buyers can relate to the problems outlined in a testimonial, it allows an emotional connection to be made, which helps alter buying intentions.

Testimonials are typically given by customers or clients that have used a product or service. While the person giving the testimonial will be unknown to potential buyers, the experience they have using a product/service and their pain points help form a connection with potential buyers. 

Recommendations from influencers with strong followings don’t class as testimonials. That’s influencer marketing. While influencer marketing is an effective way to generate and amplify word-of-mouth and alter buying intentions, the two are different techniques entirely.

The importance of reviews and testimonials

Reviews and testimonials have a strong impact on potential customers. Just take a look at these 2 statistics to see how:

• 88% of customers trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation from friends or family.
• A business or product with excellent reviews (typically 5 stars) is likely to increase customer spending by 31%.

Here are more reasons why reviews and testimonials are important:

• It helps to build trust and credibility for your business and brand
• You can build a stronger connection with your customers
• Letting customers express their experiences helps develop brand advocates
• Helps increase brand awareness
• Increases lead generation and conversion rates
• Higher click-through rates
• Influences buyers’ decisions toward your brand, product, or service offering

The power of word-of-mouth

So, we’ve mentioned word-of-mouth being a powerful marketing tactic, but just how powerful is word-of-mouth? Word-of-mouth is considered to be much more effective at driving 5x more sales and generating leads than any form of paid marketing. Not only is word-of-mouth free but it’s also organic.

Long before the days of social media, reviews and testimonials, word-of-mouth was a powerful promotional technique. However, as it is now much easier to share and express opinions online, the power of word-of-mouth has only amplified and grown stronger.

Word-of-mouth is so powerful and impactful as customer trust is factored above all other forms of marketing. While 92% of people believe recommendations made from friends and family have the strongest ability to alter purchasing intentions, recommendations from others can still be very strong.

Word-of-mouth has the power to both attract and convert customers. Word-of-mouth is very good at raising brand awareness, and when used in the right places, can lead to a customer converting and taking that all-important action at the end of the buyer’s journey.

Customer reviews and testimonials are just one of the many ways a business can generate word-of-mouth. But remember, word-of-mouth isn’t just spreading positive experiences. Negative word-of-mouth can be just as influential for all the wrong reasons!

Other forms of generating word-of-mouth include:

• User-generated content
• Affiliate marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Referral marketing
• Partner programs
• Brand ambassadors
• Social media

Using reviews and testimonials in content marketing

Now we’ve covered how impactful reviews and testimonials can be as a form of word-of-mouth, how can you implement them into your content marketing strategy? Here are a few ways you can:

Include on your website

One of the first places many businesses will add reviews and testimonials is on their website. Whether it be a separate page dedicated to customer testimonials or reviews on individual product/service pages.

You could also include them on your homepage, which is the page that will see the most traffic. You even have the opportunity of embedding reviews into your site from third-party sources, such as Google. If you have great reviews, why let them sit idle when they can be used to highlight the value and benefits your product brings for solving a problem?

Add to your blog

Including testimonials in your blog posts can be a tricky one as you don’t want them to overshadow your content or distract the user from digesting your message. Yet when placed correctly, testimonials can be a welcome addition to your blog posts. Consider including testimonials in the sidebar to prevent any distractions and increase the chances of a customer becoming more interested in your brand or product.

Social media

With so many users and the ease of sharing content, using testimonials and reviews on your social media pages is a sure way of influencing potential customers. When many will form an opinion about your brand based on what you post on social media, social media is an ideal platform for sharing your testimonials. Combine with your optimal posting times for maximum effect.

Case studies

Case studies are very similar to testimonials but written from a business perspective. For that reason, case studies don’t have as much influence on buyers. But there’s nothing to stop you from including testimonials in your case studies, especially in the results or outcome section.

Email marketing

If you’re sending out regular emails to your subscribers, consider including reviews and testimonials to help drive conversions. Emails that are sent to leads can have a much stronger and more meaningful impact when paired with testimonials that highlight the benefits or strengths of your product. Just make sure the reviews and testimonials are relevant.

Near call-to-actions

What better place to include reviews and testimonials than near to where a customer is going to act? Placing reviews and testimonials in a strategic location near your call-to-actions will help increase the likelihood a user will act and make that all-important click.

How to get reviews and testimonials

You can’t use reviews and testimonials in your content marketing if you don’t have any to start with. So, here are some ways you can start building up your reviews and gathering testimonials.

• Ask your customers or clients after making a purchase, it’s estimated that around 70% who are asked to leave a review will.
• Exchange testimonials with your clients
• Encourage customers to leave reviews by offering an incentive. Be careful about this though as you could be breaking the conditions of some platforms, such as Google.
• Use the reviews on your Google Business Profile alongside business directory and listing sites, such as Trustpilot, TripAdvisor, and Yell.
• Conduct marketing research, such as surveys, to find out customers’ opinions
• Use your existing praise from customers, but ask permission first
• Set up Google Alerts to track mentions of your site and reviews on third-party sites, such as news reports or testimonials on other blogs.

Responding to reviews

It’s not enough just to get reviews. You need to take the time to reply and respond to reviews, whether they be positive (and especially) or negative. If you don’t take the time to respond to reviews, it may seem to your potential customers that you don’t care once they’ve purchased from you.

When responding to reviews, there are some tips you should consider to help develop a positive experience and build relationships with your customers. Whether you are responding to a positive review or a negative review, consider these tips:

• Try to respond to the review as quickly as possible
• Thank the customer for their custom and for leaving a review
• Use the customer’s first name
• Keep your reply short and sweet
• For bad reviews, apologise and sympathise with the customer and acknowledge a mistake was made. Avoiding responsibility or denial only makes the situation worse.
• Address the problem and try to provide a solution (where possible)
• If there’s an issue, take the conversion to a private form of communication, such as email, chat, or phone)

Righting any wrongs is a chance to turn a negative into a positive. It also means you may not have lost that customer either. Correcting any mistakes and admitting responsibility shows you are open and honest.

You also can respond to reviews with your targeted keywords, such as your business name or products. Not only will you be building better relationships with your customers, but your SEO efforts will get a little boost too.

By dealing with the problem, a customer who left a negative review may be more inclined to stay with you in future. After all, it’s 7 times cheaper to retain your existing customers than to acquire a new one. Why not give customers a second chance?

Conclusion

Reviews and testimonials are powerful marketing tools that every business should consider making use of. Not only does it help in building trust and credibility, but the influence word-of-mouth has on altering buying intentions shows just how effective reviews and testimonials can be in your content marketing. So, why not get started?

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