UX How to increase the conversion rate of your site

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Build your UX site as unique as you are!

You have decided to redesign your site, to purify it, and to optimize it for the search engines by working on your content and your target keywords. Your positioning has improved, and you have gained great organic visibility in the search results pages. You have gone from the 2nd to the 1st page.

However, your turnover has barely changed. You have bet everything to show up organically on a SERP, but you are not completely satisfied and are looking for an acquisition lever that can unblock the situation.

UX

Are you familiar with the term “user experience” or UX? Well, know that it has been estimated that 68% of users leave a site if they have a terrible experience while browsing and that of this 68 %, 44% will share their bad experience with their loved ones.

But how can you increase your conversion rate by improving the (UX) user eXperience of your site?

UX Design definition

First, let’s start by discovering together what the concept of user experience or UX is.

In the web environment, UX (User eXperience) designates the experience lived by the user on a website. That is to say, and it will directly imply the emotional impact felt by your user.

It is a necessarily speculative discipline which is divided into 7 distinct disciplines:

  1. UX Research which allows, with the help of interviews or user tests, to understand the end-user and his relationship with the product (the context of use, the problems encountered, etc.)
  2. The information architecture that will allow information to be structured clearly and precisely
  3. The conception of the interaction which aims to anticipate the behavior of the user with the product
  4. The usability assessment will measure the quality of the user experience when using the product
  5. The visual design that will aim to create the visual of the final product
  6. The content strategy that will allow the creation, dissemination, and publication of useful content
  7. Even if it may seem enormous, you should know that a site with a well-worked UX will optimize the conversion rate.

Conversion rate: Why your customers don’t convert

There are 5 reasons why your website does not satisfy the visitors who enter it:

  1. The loading time of your site: in fact, 20% of users abandon their shopping cart when they consider the site too slow.
  2. Poor ergonomics and accessibility to information: 44% of visitors leave a site if they cannot find the contact information.
  3. The unpleasant interface design of your website: 48% of users say that the design of a website is an essential factor for the credibility of a company.
  4. The lack of trust and legitimacy that your site inspires: the tone or the products presented by your website may seem suspicious.
  5. The little use that can be made of your content: your content is trivial, uninteresting and does not add value to your visitor.

For a surfer, entering a site requires effort and attention, which represents a cost for him. If he does not bother to stay on it, then your user cannot quickly and easily find the information he is looking for on your site. Thus, giving it an immediate value to which it can hold on will allow you to no longer scare him away.

User experience: How to inspire your customers

Encouraging your users to invest in your products is crucial to identify which are the blocking points in the eyes of users.

These are 4 methods to let you know which aspect of your site is affected:

  • Measure absolute loading time, traffic and conversion volume, page views per session.
  • Calculate the bounce rate by type of pages (how long it takes visitors to leave your page)
  • Know the route traced by your users on your site with tools like HotJar
  • Test with users to find out if the user interface is usable and understandable and find the sticking points

But how do you use this information effectively? By refocusing your site on the user.
It is necessary to rebuild or optimize your site so that it offers a defined path to the user, a path by which he will gradually deepen the value that we seek to bring him.

This consists of arousing your desire from the first page visited without immediately revealing the value offered in its entirety.

The best way to do this is to optimize a “conversion funnel,” which will naturally direct your user from the first acquisition page to the shopping pages.

The construction of this funnel is based on 3 conditions:

  • The technical performance of your site which must be as efficient as possible so as not to frustrate the user (loading and browsing speed) and a design which must be responsive, that is to say, adapted to any support
  • The graphic charter which must be simplified and pleasant so as not to associate your value with a negative feeling
  • The most important condition: written content that urges your users to action. This involves creating buttons called “call-to-action” that directly encourage your users to click on your links and change pages, writing landing pages, titles and tags that arouse emotion and support on the user’s need, and the production of content that reassures and convinces your user to appeal to you.

If these conditions are not met, the user could feel that he is wasting his time and will, without hesitation, leave your site.

Retention: How to make your site a real growth driver

All these conditions more or less fulfilled; your site finally begins to bring the customers you need. Still not enough for you? Do you want to expand your activity and accelerate its growth?

This is where the concept of experience really takes on its full meaning.

Because what will make your product or service will mark a user and that more and more customers will come to you, is that he will live a unique emotional experience on your site. How to create it?

Providing interactive and lively web content: through videos, podcasts and photo albums which transmit a compelling story-telling
By offering content that can make your user feel that he is having a conversation with you thanks to a personal, playful writing style and by chatbots integrated on your site
Personalizing the offer and the content that you offer the user. Thanks to a data deepening that you collected about him.
It is through this reliable and effective methodology that your brand and your turnover will genuinely grow.

Do you also want a site that gives your customers experience? Our digital agency brings together the skills of back end / front end developer, UI / Ux web designers, and marketers. Whether for a complete overhaul or the proposal of a new website model or prototypes, contact us.

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10 Points to retain visitors on your website

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If you are an entrepreneur, then you know the importance of having a professional website and acquiring regular traffic. Getting traffic is good but it’s only half the work. The real challenge at this point is to keep the visitor on the website for a long time to learn more about what you have to offer and, even better, to bring it back because you have attracted interest and want to know more.

So, what makes visitors come back to visit your website? What can you do to keep your visitors past the first few seconds?

Be clear about your activity

When a visitor arrives on your site, is he able to clearly understand the nature of your website? Your visitors need to know very quickly if your website is relevant to their query. If they can not understand what you are doing, they will move quickly to a competitor’s site. Keep this in mind, if a visitor has landed on your website, it is very often for a very specific reason. He is looking for something that meets his needs or a solution to his problem. Your job is to help him find the information he needs as quickly and clearly as possible.

Know your target audience

Everything about your website, from its graphics chart, its color code, the size of characters to its content and the editorial tone used, must speak to your target market. If your website tries to reach everyone, you will end up not interested in anyone. Do not be afraid to really zoom in and be specific about the ideal customer you want to serve. In fact, the more specific you are, the better.

Keep your website simple

Your website can offer an out-of-the-ordinary user experience, or offer animations or awesome features from a technology perspective, but if it does not engage your visitors and keep them off the first few seconds, you lose them forever.

Boost your site

Everything in this world is going very fast. People are very busy and getting their attention is difficult. Your website should load quickly otherwise you run the risk of seeing your visitors go elsewhere. No one has the patience to wait more than 3s for a web page to load, especially if it is open on a mobile device. Make a technically clean website to make sure nothing is slowing it down. If your site is slow and you do not understand why? You can get help from a professional.

Look professional.

Make sure the ‘look & feel’ of your website can bring credit, that your business appears trustworthy and not spam. Why not a site made by yourself as long as you respect the basic design rules and have an eye for aesthetics. Make your choice and evaluate the opportunities between investing in a professional website (think about the advice you can get) and making one yourself.
The problem with a tinkered site is that it feels like miles. Ultimately, why should your potential customers invest in your products and services if your website says loudly ‘I do not want to invest in my own business? ‘.
Naturally, independent contractors often have a tight budget at startup. However, a professional website, good photographs and flawless writing are some of the key investments you should not be saving money for.

Hunt for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Spelling mistakes and bad grammar send bad signals to your visitors. We are talking about trust here: if a potential customer has to spend money on your products and services, they need to be able to trust your business. Spelling errors and grammatical errors make your business seem less trustworthy.
Many studies show that potential buyers will tend not to use a company that presents content with obvious grammatical or spelling errors on their website. The argument is that they would not trust the company to provide quality service.

Fresh and up-to-date content

If the last article on your blog is a year old or older, if the latest news starts in 2012 then it’s time to dust off the content, hunt the cobwebs or your visitors will assume that your business is no longer very active. Make sure you keep your site up to date. Nobody wants to do business with a company that presents content that seems old and not brought up to date. Having recent content also tells search engines like Google that your website is still active.

Make it easy to use

Make sure that your website is easy to navigate and that your visitors can find the information they need quickly without having to analyze too many levels of information.
Use images and white space to provide an easy-to-read layout. Too much text will repel reading. Use text caps, titles, and subtitles to prioritize information by giving the possibility of a quick diagonal reading. Use the categories and hierarchy of your website to group the contents in a logical way. Make your visitors contact you easily.

Easy on the pub

If you have a blog that you want to profit from with advertising, be careful not to disturb the visitor with too much advertising display. This makes navigation on the site difficult. Ads that contain a lot of animation are particularly bad. Also, having too many ads on your site makes it slower to load. Monetizing your site is a good idea, but be attentive to the expectations of your visitors. Think about strategic locations for ads.

Clear call to action (CTA)

Do not assume that your visitors will automatically know what to do. You must tell them clearly. Want to subscribe to your newsletter? Tell them that so clearly with a call to action button. Think of an incentive to do so. Do you want to request a quote? Tell them where to go to fill out the form or display your telephone number clearly. You want that they organize a free consultation call? Provide the link to book a call with you.

A visitors engaged is a potential buyer

Caring commitment of visitors is one of the most important things for you, website owners. Engaged visitors will be more likely to buy your products, buy your services and sign up for your mailing lists. They will also remember your business and return more easily to learn more

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Landing page optimization tips

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9 tips to optimize your landing pages

Implementing a digital marketing strategy is a significant investment for your business. Despite the variety of channels you use, research has shown that 98% of visitors will not complete a transaction on your site. But, it is possible to remedy this problem.

A landing page by target

In a web-marketing strategy, looking for ways to gain traffic is a priority, converting this traffic to real prospects is even more important. Landing pages are made for this: it is the marketing tool that will convert this visitor traffic into customers and prospects. Having a home page landing page is a common mistake.

A homepage is a general, informative page where the visitor is likely to browse or search for more information. A landing page is a page with a persuasive action on the web on a specific target and relative to a specific offer. The landing page aims to convince this target to perform a specific action: registration, contact form, etc …

The content of your landing page must be coherent with your action of acquisition. For example, if your landing page is the landing page at an AdWords ad, the visitor must find on your landing page arguments that support and demonstrate the title you had on your AdWords ad.

The design of a landing page should not be taken lightly. You must take into account many parameters to convert a maximum of visitors into prospects. With a neat and professional landing, know that you can increase your conversion rate (CR) by up to 300%. The strategies you will need to put in place are based on digital marketing techniques. Here are the essentials to optimize your landing pages.

Identify the purpose of the landing page

This step is fundamental because it guides your strategy. To determine the reasons for your landing page, first, identify the type of conversion you want to achieve. Is it to encourage users to buy your product? Is your jump page a tool to increase your e-reputation? Once you have clarified the final goal of your landing page, you will now be able to define your target audience and adapt the content according to the ‘personas’ frame of reference.

Optimize your call-to-action

Your landing page should have a call to action. Think of a goal, a single message, an action. Your basic message and call to action MUST be visible above the waterline. The call to action can be repeated throughout the page.

Are you an e-commerce site? Are you considering launching a new product? There are surefire ways to increase the conversion rate of your landing page with Call-to-Action (CTA). Highlight your offers for visitors to pass the act of purchase. In this case, you can opt for expressions such as ‘limited offers’, ‘flash sale’, ‘add to cart’ … to inform users that this is a one-time offer. To better choose the strategy, take the time to observe the behaviors of your targets. For example, it is possible to vary the location of CTAs.

If the purpose of your landing page is filling a form, you will need to minimize the number of mandatory fields to be completed by visitors. If you need a lot of data, try running A / B tests with varying amounts of input fields to know the acceptable dropout rate for the additional information captured. Note that a ‘social share’ button in a choice form, greatly increases the conversion rate.

Take care of the design of your web page

The landing page should reflect your company’s image. Make sure that the design is consistent with the Visual identity of your brand. You should also standardize the formatting of your landing page and of your site. This tip is very important so that your potential customers do not get lost. Also be careful about the choice of typography. It is best to put a simple forward, but nice font to see. In order to increase your conversions by up to 86%, it is also possible to insert video or pictures on your landing page.

Choose a catchy title

Studies have shown that 80% of Internet users interested in the title of articles, only 2 users out of 10 decide to stay longer than 5 minutes on a page. Choosing a catchy and relevant title is, therefore, essential to attract your potential readers to continue visiting the site. There are no general rules to create a captivating title. Strategies have however been proven on the web and helped to increase the CRO. The use of adverbs such as ‘how’ and ‘why’ is most often affected, because it allows responding to your readers.

Opt for a responsive design

Do you want to reach more prospects? The responsive design must be integrated into your digital marketing strategy. You must create a landing page that is suitable for all media. With the evolution of technology, mobiles and tablets are everywhere. In Canada, they are more used to connect to the internet, because more than half of users are opting for these terminals. To ensure the success of the responsive design, you must make your web page more ergonomic regardless of the tool used. The choice of the display format is essential to achieve this goal. It is also important that your web designer uses programs to allow users to quickly access the landing page.

Share consumer reviews

A satisfied customer can greatly increase your brand reputation to the general public. Prospects who do not yet know your products and/or services will be attracted to your brand by relying on the testimonials of your customers. There is nothing better than offering a way for consumers who have already tested your products and/or services to share their reviews on your landing page. With this information, you will easily optimize your landing page. Don’t be tempted to create false testimonials. By inducing Internet users to make a mistake, you will hurt your reputation.

Make the visit to your landing page more attractive

Your landing page captures the attention of visitors? This is already great news, but there is still work to be done. Internet users need to spend as much time as possible. You must, therefore, multiply your efforts to surprise your visitors. Do you know that videos always attract users’ attention? It is possible to gain a conversion rate of more than 75% through a video. For hosting this multimedia file, you can, for example, use Youtube or Vimeo. The ‘chat’ is also an interesting solution to encourage interaction with potential customers.

Track your conversion rate

It’s always a good idea to have concrete data to know where your landing page conversion rate is. Is your strategy effective? What are the points to improve? With Google Analytics, you’ll have reliable statistics on the number of monthly conversions and the conversion rate. This tool can also count the exact number of sales, downloads … With these data, you will be able to react in time.

There is no strict rule to follow to increase your conversion rate. These tips will help you make your landing page as effective as possible. Take the time to study each point and improve your strategy.

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5 Questions to ask before creating a new website

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Why have a website?

Creating a website for your business is a great idea. Not having one at the moment is to take the risk of losing a large share of the market. Because the Web is now a very powerful prospecting site. Think about it! What do you do when you want to buy a product or use a service? You start by searching on Google or another search engine. Well! Know that your customers and your prospects are doing the same. Not being visible on the Internet is, therefore, depriving a very interesting clientele.

Web Design Agency: A major asset

A website is not done in a day. This is a job that takes time, but also skills. Contrary to what some platforms suggest, creating a free and easy website is not necessarily a good idea. Because of the mere fact of owning one is no longer exceptional: many companies have a website. The big challenge is to create one with real goals and a strategy to achieve them.

Applying to a web design agency is, therefore, a real asset for companies wishing to develop a good website, which will allow them to distinguish themselves from their competitors and to be important on the Internet. Thanks to Great Northern Marketing, you can enjoy the benefit from the expertise of our Web professionals who will realize for you an effective communication and marketing strategy.

Website creation: The 5 questions to ask

Creating a website is not an innocuous gesture for companies. It requires careful thought, even before it starts. To help you, GNM Web Design agency has decided to take up 5 questions that you must ask before starting your project.

1) What are the goals of your website?

For an Internet site to be effective, the first thing to do is to determine its role, that is to say, the objective (s) it pursues. Based on these objectives, you will then create an adapted and measured communication and marketing strategy that will allow you to reach them easily.

What goals can be attributed to a website? They are many and varied and can, in some cases, be combined.

  • Selling your products and services online
  • Increase your brand awareness
  • Present my company and my products/services
  • Acquire new customers
  • Build customer loyalty

For each of these objectives, a specific strategy must be put in place. For example, if you want to retain your customers, you can create a blog on which you regularly publish relevant tips that will make them want to come back regularly to read new ones. Or you can set up a personal account system that allows customers to identify themselves to follow an order or have benefits.

2) What are the important keywords for your business industry?

In order for your website to be visible, it must be well positioned in search engine results like Google, Bing or Yahoo. And for that, two solutions, usually worked together, are available to you: you can optimize your site with SEO and create SEA campaigns (Google Ads).

For both, it is necessary to determine keywords relevant to your industry. What is it about? A keyword (or a key phrase) is a set of words typed by a user in the search bar of Google, Yahoo, Bing … It allows the user to navigate among thousands and thousands of internet sites that exist on the Web and thus obtain the most relevant answer for its query. It also allows search engines to understand the content of a site and, thus, to reference it when someone searches on the subject.

But how to determine the useful keywords for your website?

You have to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and determine what they could type in the Google search bar to find your services or products.
There are tools created specifically to do this work, some of them are free, others are paying (examples: Moz, Keyword explore, Google Ads …).

3) How does the competition work?

Another important point is to follow the level of competitors on the Web. Are they real competitors, hard to beat? Or, on the contrary, going past them will not be so complicated? These are questions you need to ask yourself. The interest of a web design agency is that it can achieve for you a competitive study. The objective is to determine the best and worst practices of your competitors and ways to distinguish yourself from them.

It is therefore important, even if you use a web design agency, to think about the competitors of your website yourself. Be careful, however, not to limit yourself to the competitors you know. The best referenced on important keywords are not always the ones we think about in the first place. Broadening your competitive analysis is therefore essential: you must also find out about companies that you do not know but which are well referenced on the keywords that interest you because they are also part of those you have to beat.

4) What budget do you want to spend on your website?

By going through a website agency, you will necessarily have to pay a certain amount for your website. One of the very first questions you have to ask yourself is about the budget: how much are you willing to pay to have a good website? The price of a website depends on many different data: the type of website it is about (e-commerce, showcase site …), the number of pages, the writing or not of the website content, hosting or not the site, the chosen features, etc.

And what about price differences between agencies? How is it that some web agencies request a larger budget than others to do the same job? If it happens sometimes that the price is indeed excessive, it may also be that it is a question of quality. There are agencies that are lowering their prices, but they are also less efficient. While others are more expensive but get better results, sometimes simply because they spend more time on the project than the less expensive ones that must still be profitable.

5) Are you ready to get involved in the project?

Creating a website, even though a web agency, takes time and asks for your inputs and some of your staff. Why? Because there will be meetings and exchanges of emails, that you will have to devote time to write or re-read the contents of the site, to check if you like the design of the site … And the implication does not stop only in the project. Digital transformation inevitably leads to changes within your company. Even when your website is online, we must continue to work on it:

It must be updated because a website with outdated information does not inspire trust and therefore cannot be effective. You have to answer the leads, the orders … that the website provides you so that the SEO of your website remains optimal, it must be constantly reviewed: it is necessary that your home page moves regularly, hence the interest of having a blog whose latest news can be found on the home page; if you have a blog, you have to keep it with short and long articles at a steady pace; depending on the competitors, you must also change your own pages a bit to stay on top; etc.
All of this requires the implementation of an internal strategy, which you must keep to ensure that your website meets the objectives you had previously set.

Conclusion

If your company wants to be as efficient as possible, neglecting the Web is a serious mistake. The Internet is now a great source for prospecting and if you don’t have a website is to risk not touching a large part of your target audience. Not only do you need to own a website but you must also make it effective. It must, therefore, fulfill specific objectives and follow a long-thought-out strategy to achieve them.

However, a website remains an investment in time and money. Before creating or using a web design company, you must ask yourself different questions that will allow you to see more clearly in your project.

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Why continue to use cookies and other personal data registration systems

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How can cookies help you design an effective website?

Since the entry into force of the GDPR (General data protection regulation) on May 25, the corporate world, and more particularly the BtoC, seems to be experiencing a real data psychosis. This new European regulation worries many companies, who do not know what process to put in place to protect the personal data of their customers on the Web. Suddenly, for fear of possible retaliation, some might have a false good idea to remove the use of cookies and other systems for recording personal data on their website (such as Pixel Facebook and contact forms).

However, the GDPR does not mean the end of the personal data. On the contrary, the aim of this new regulation is not to prohibit their registration but rather to protect them, in particular by allowing the person concerned to manage them more easily. In fact, the motto for companies that collect personal data is that they must be able to justify the source of the data they hold and confirm that they have received the consent of the data subject to process the data. Attention, also, that it is always necessary to let this person the possibility of asking that his data be erased.

But for the rest, the data and their recording techniques remain essential for companies, who should not be afraid to use them. Their benefits are numerous, both from the point of view of the customer’s browsing experience and digital marketing. Why? Because the resulting statistics allow you to optimize your web presence. But an effective website can bring more customers and therefore more money. That’s why, at Mestar Digital Marketing Agency, we think as a little reminder of the many benefits of cookies, Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, and contact forms is much needed.

What are cookies and other data recording techniques?

Cookies, Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics … All these techniques for recording personal data may have different reasons for being. Now let’s look at each one.

Cookies:

Cookies are mainly used to improve the browsing experience of the user (and god knows how important it is!). These files are deposited by your website on the computer of the user who consults. Cookies consist only of text and contain all the personal information that the user has encoded on your website: his name, surname, username, address, age, identifier, etc. They are therefore completely harmless and can in no way access the contents of the computer to obtain information that the user has not provided.

  • Allow you to memorize certain information such as username, password, and user preferences, in order to avoid the person returning to your website from having to encode them again.
  • They also memorize for a certain period of time a product that you have placed in your virtual basket but that you do not buy. That way, if you finally decide to crack, you can find it easily without having to do a new search.

Facebook Pixel:

The Pixel Facebook is a small piece of code placed on your website. It is triggered when an action that you have previously marked as important is performed (for example, a purchase).

  • The goal is to develop highly qualified audiences for your Facebook ads, by analyzing the behavior of your customers on your website. Let’s take an example: if you indicate that your important action is a purchase on your site and that you then launch an advertising campaign on Facebook, the Facebook Pixel will let you know which people your advertising must touch (for example, those who came on your site but have not made a purchase) and those that should not be (such as those that have just made a purchase, and therefore have less chance to start again).
  • It allows for satisfying both the user who is not automatically retargeted after a purchase and your business, which can target much more easily the right people.

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a tool that allows you to collect a set of anonymous statistics on the traffic of your website (audience, origin, pages viewed …). The goal is to help you better understand your traffic and behavior and then improve the performance of your website. Thus, Google Analytics allows you, for example:

  • Measure the effectiveness of an AdWords campaign or the effectiveness of your SEO, to optimize them.
  • Determine the most effective channels, social networks, AdWords ads, Google searches …, to further target them and thus increase your chances of achieving your goals.
  • Monitor the conversion rate you get, that is to say, to verify that the goals you have set for yourself are being achieved and to improve what should be if they are not.
  • Check that the bounce rate (ie the number of sessions where the user has viewed a single page, without interacting with its content) is not too high.
  • Determine if your content strategy is effective. For example, if you want to check the success of an article you can see how many people viewed it, how long they spent on the page, and so on. This way, you can better understand the topics that most interest your audience and write more about them, to their delight.

You see it with this non-exhaustive list, the benefits of Google Analytics are really numerous. This tool is very valuable for companies that want to make sure that their website is efficient and that it earns them money. It also allows them to offer a much better web-based customer experience and therefore to get the satisfaction of their customers.

The case of contact forms:

You do not need to delete contact forms from your website. When you think about it, even if you only indicate an email address to which the customer can reach you, you would still be a database because you would have to answer it and use your personal email address. As a result, the GDPR would apply anyway.

It is, therefore, more interesting to keep contact forms, the benefits of which are numerous. Thanks to them :

  • You limit the risk of being relegated to unwanted email (spam)
  • You increase your chances of being contacted in an ‘impulsive’ way: Internet users who have direct access to a means of contact are more likely to fill out your form. If they had to go to their personal mailbox, transcribe your email address, think about the information they have to provide … They have a much better chance to get discouraged and give up.
  • You automate your email processing: all your emails have the same structure and allow you to obtain qualified and targeted information.

Conclusion:

Of course, being compliant with the GDPR is important. Companies that process personal data (which is the case for almost all companies since a simple email address is a personal data) must imperatively learn about the new rules established by Europe. But do not panic, though! GDPR does not mean the death of data, either. You can always register them, as long as you can justify their provenance, you have the consent of the person concerned and you respect his right to be forgotten.

So rather than delete all the ways to save data via your website (cookies, Facebook Pixel, contact form, Google Analytics …), just make sure they comply with the new rules. Thanks to them, you will be able to improve your performances on the Web, those of your site, your social networks, your contacts, but also improve the browsing experience of your customers.

Cookies and analytics are the foundation of an effective website and help you deliver quality content and customer experience. Because this is the challenge of the Web: to combine a website that brings you money, which fulfills the objectives that you have set, but also offers a good browsing experience and is interesting for your customers and your prospects. Without these tools, the Web would lose its interest, while, thanks to them, it gains in efficiency.

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Google Speed ​​Update will take effect in July 2018

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Google Speed ​​Update: As of July 2018, the speed of a website will affect its ranking on mobile

In a few days, Google’s mobile search engine will take a look at its desktop version by integrating loading speed into its algorithm. What impact should we expect? How to improve the speed of a website? Answers.

Google Speed ​​Update: applicable from July

If the loading time of a website is part of the various ranking criteria on desktop since 2010 already, Google’s mobile search engine is also preparing to integrate this criterion to its algorithm. As of July 2018, websites displaying a slow loading time will be penalized.

“« People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible. (…) Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Today we’re announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches. » – Google.

We live in a world where immediacy is the proper action to take, as Google understood very well. We therefore wish to be able to find answers to our questions as quickly as possible. The concept of speed is even more important on the web, where it is not rare that we lose patience when we have to wait more than a few seconds to reach any page. If Google has integrated this concept of the desktop for quite some time now, the Mountain View firm will soon extend this reality to mobile too.

How to prepare for Speed ​​Update?

The Google Speed ​​Update, as it was named, will come into force in July 2018. So you have a few days left to work on the speed of your website, before it is likely to be penalized. How? Different tools are available for you:

Also check out the article we post before, which is directly related to the topic we are dealing with here: ‘Loading speed of your website’.

Feel free to contact us for more information and tips on Google SEO.

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What is quality content to Google

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 What defines high-quality content to Google

The key to success for your website: create the best possible user experience with original and high-quality content!
Producing quality content is essential if you want to stand out in Google’s search results (more than 95% of the search market). Original and quality content will make your site useful and unique, it is possible that your visitors come back and even refer your content on their own website. Engaging high-quality content is essential to attract as many Internet users as possible over time. Read more

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50 Questions to ask before launching an online store project

We want to set up an online store and sell our products on the internet’. This sentence is often written in the demands of client requests from the start of a project. Putting a sales tool on the internet seems a good idea. But like most good ideas, it can turn into a nightmare if things are not reflected from the start by the project team, but especially by the client himself. Indeed, setting up an online store (see the modernization or give it more importance) will have a significant impact on the operation of the company and requires the customer to define his needs and ask the right questions before starting. I would like in this post, define the questions to be asked before starting the project of setting up an online store.

I classify the questions into four main categories of questions which are the main areas on which to focus on:

1. The basic questions to ask
2. Product management
3. Customer management
4. The objectives and maintenance of the shop

Each of these areas raises many questions that will allow you, by responding, to set a roadmap for your project and give specific guidance to development teams. Here are the questions to ask yourself:

THE BASIC QUESTIONS TO ASK

  • How to integrate the online store to the website? Is this a section of the main menu? A dedicated website? A subdomain?
  • How many languages are available in the online store and for which countries? Do I set a geographical limit in the delivery?
  • What are the currencies that can be used on the website?
  • Do I apply price differences depending on the selected country?
  • Do I sell physical products, digital products or both? How many products will I propose?
  • Which delivery systems do I want to use? Do I have agreements with delivery companies? How will I submit my delivery policy? My purchasing policy? and Can we have a free delivery?
  • Do I already have a stock management and accounting system? How will the products available on the website be managed on my system?
  • Do I want to have exclusive products for sale online? Are products available only in store? What are the rules to apply?
  • What online payment systems do I want to use? Can the customer pay by check? Can the customer pay on delivery? Do I want to offer multiple payment systems?
  • On which account do I wish to deposit the money received? How do I make sure payments are received?
  • How to present my physical stores (if I have), what is the complementarity with the online store? Can I pick up products purchased online in my stores?
  • Do I want to have featured products on my homepage? On subpages? Do I want to set up ads on my main site to bring back to the online store?
  • What is the desired navigation on tablet and phone?

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

  •  Do I want one page per product or product list without displaying details?
  •  What information do I want to present for each of my products? Documents to download, videos about my product?
  •  Do I have enough relevant content for a page? Do I have to write a text for each product?
  •  What is the technical information to communicate about my product? Do we need tables of characteristics?
  •  Do I have a beautiful image for each product? Are they all on the same graphic signature? Do I need to redo pictures?
  •  How are my products organized? Are they organized by sector, brand, use?
  •  Do I want to suggest other products on a product page? How? What criteria?
  • Do my product categories need a presentation? Can information be presented only at the category level of the product?
  • What will be the navigation in my shop? How to search for my products? What criteria?
  • Do I want to be able to compare products with each other?
  • Do I need a balances system? How does the balance apply? A fixed sum? A percentage?
  • Do I want to introduce brands or suppliers of my products?
  • Do I want to give the opportunity to rate products and have a customer feedback on my products? If I want customer comments, what place do you give them?
  • Can we remove the possibility of buying a product, but continue to publish it on the website?
  • When to withdraw a product online? When it has more stocks? From a certain date? When does my accounting system tell me to unpublish a product?
  • Do I need a coupon management system to set up marketing campaigns?
  • On which social networks do I choose to share my products? How to advertise my product?

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

  • What information do I need from my clients?
  • Do I have different types of customers, are there rules that apply to a specific customer?
  • How do I want to communicate with my client? Email? Contact form? Phone? Newsletter campaign?
  • Can I order online without registering as a customer in the online store?
  • What information is presented by the customer’s shopping cart? Is it present at all times on my site? Is it on a specific page?  Can we buy a product directly without going through the basket?
  • Do I want to give a private space to my clients? What tools do I want to provide in the customer area: order tracking? Saving the list of wishes? Update its information? Opportunities to recommend an order already placed? Purchase history? A more complete profile to complete?
  • Can this ‘client’ connection give access to hidden pages? Some products exclusive? Some news?
  • Do we want a support area with documentation or a discussion system with online technicians?
  • Once a customer has registered and ordered, how do I renew contact? What are the next steps / offers that will push him to return to the website?
  • Is a customer entitled to loyalty points? What will these points give him as a bonus: a discount? Free delivery?
  • How can I manage my customer information? Do I need to export them, save them in another system?
  • What are the steps of the processing of an order: registered, validated, processed, sent?
  • How to process a rejected order? Am I allowed to refund?
  • How to save and export my orders to my accounting system? What are the specific rules to respect?

OBJECTIVES AND MAINTENANCE OF THE ONLINE STORE

  • What are the criteria for success of my shop? The visibility? A goal of turnover over one year? Over 5 years?
  • How many visits a day I wish for my shop? Do I want one sale per hour? Per day? Per week?
  • What actions do I want to put in place for better SEO? Do I want to invest in an SEO campaign for better descriptions and be more visible on Google searches?
  • Who will be responsible for maintaining the online store? Do I want to set up a team to answer questions, manage orders, update product information?
  • What is the implication of the other services of my company?
  • Do I want to invest for this to be a daily job? Weekly?
  • What is my strategy to ensure visibility of my shop via my news and my social networks?

Answering these 50 questions seems like an insurmountable task at first, but asking them seriously allows you to establish a complete roadmap that will help you avoid unpleasant surprises. There are questions that often have not been considered by the customer and that allow to open his thinking and to imagine new uses of his shop. Even the answers to these questions may change over time because new needs or uses will arise depending on the integration of the online store in your company or investments made to make it a success factor in your overall strategy. In addition, having the answers to these questions will make it easier for you to set up a budget for your online store with your suppliers and also to define more precisely the technologies that will best meet your needs. These are questions and answers that are needed from the start of an online shop project and that I have learned to ask in my digital marketing agency and SEO consulting business experience.

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How to optimize images for SEO

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How to take advantage of the traffic potential associated with searching images? Here are some tips to optimize images for SEO on your website. One of the SEO strategies that have been neglected is to optimize images for SEO. This era is over since the advent of Google’s universal search in 2007, resulting in the appearance of images and photos in the engines search results.

Since the birth of Google Image in 2001, image search is constantly growing on Google and other search engines. Google Image is the most complete image search on the Web. In 2015, 80% of Google search results display universal search with an image in 35% of cases.

Why should you optimize your images?
Getting a good position in the results with a sales image linked to your business is the assurance of acquiring qualified and potentially important traffic. For certain categories of websites, a good positioning of the images is essential today, it is the case for:

  • E-commerce sites,
  • Portfolios of artists, graphic designers,
  • The image banks,
  • Travel agencies and tourist sites,
  • Printers,
  • The web agencies,
  • The photographers, …

Here now the 8 tips to optimize images for SEO

These are 8 simple tips to implement (on WordPress in particular) to optimize the optimization of images on your website and acquire qualified traffic.

1 – The names of the images

Google cannot read an image, it’s up to you to indicate what is on your image or your photo. For example, if you want to reference photos of the Niagara falls, avoid image names like IMG19762.jpg and prefer Niagara-falls.jpg, admit that it will be easier for Google to position your photo with relevance by placing a few keywords in the file name. (avoid accents and prefer dashes for better interpretation of the file name by Google)

2 – The alternative text or tag ‘ALT’

The alternative text or attribute ‘ALT’ is a text read by the search engines, so it is essential to optimize the referencing of images. In addition to the name of the image, the tag ‘ALT’ also improves the SEO of your site since it allows to accommodate additional keywords that will be interpreted by the engines, be careful with keyword stuffing your image. Keywords placed in the ALT tag will replace the image if the browser can not display the image.

3 – The format and weight of images

Preferably use JPG, GIF and PNG formats even if some engines are able to read other formats. Also, specify the height and width of your image to tell search engines how big your image is. Ideally, the native size of your image should be the same as the display size. Doing so, this will reduce the weight of your images resulting in reduced loading time of your pages.

4 – The content and the context around the images

The context and content (including the caption and title of the image) on the page where the image to be referenced provides search engines with important information about your image.

For example, avoid embedding a business card picture in a kitchen recipe page, and send a confusing message to the search engines about the subject of the business-card.jpg image.

Search Console Help Center Guidelines: Make sure you place your images near a relevant text as much as possible. We also advise you to assign titles and descriptive captions to your images.

The environment of the page is therefore essential to optimize images for SEO purposes.

5 – The title of the image

The title of the image (title attribute) is a text that is displayed on mouseover. The information of this attribute has no effect on the SEO, it is against a plus in term of accessibility and user experience.

6 – A specific sitemap for images

Once all your images are optimized, you can submit a sitemap for images via the Google Search Console interface.

7 – The legend of the image

The legend of the image corresponds to the text displayed under the image. It does not bring any direct added value in terms of reference. It can be useful for the UX and brings content around the image, the legend helps to heal the context.

8 – The long description

Like the caption, the long description of your image is not read directly by Google. However, it is very useful for attachment pages. This is also a great SEO lever for portfolio sites or sites dedicated to photography.

In conclusion, and by following these simple tips, you can optimize images for SEO and improve your positioning. If the results are not there, an audit of your website will certainly highlight points of blocking.

To know more: the future in the search of the images will pass also by the quality of these, the progress of the engines will allow in the long run to identify a blurred photo!

Since 2017 Google Images has evolved, websites are no longer displayed in the background. Sessions from Google Images are no longer counted on Google Analytics.

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