Demian Farnworth says, “Take a moment to try this thought experiment … At what point in your life did you look at your birth certificate to confirm that you were indeed born on the day that your parents said you were born? For most people, the answer is never. You simply took your parents’ word. Because you trusted them. Your parents hopefully did a lot of things to help build that trust — like feed and clothe you, teach you lessons, play with you, and protect you. People who don’t have that experience, however, feel something entirely different: they question everything. They don’t... [...]

Morgan Jacobson says, “An inspiring call-to-action is equal parts design and psychology. Prompting the desired response is never easy, especially as consumers become savvy to the tricks and tactics that online retailers use. The last thing you want is for your CTAs to be labeled “click-bait,” but you have to get buyers to convert somehow, right? We’ve shared a lot of tips over the years for creating compelling CTAs. While some of the components may change a little over time, the basic requirements remain. An image of the product or service, some compelling copy, and a button that stands... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook is adding more signals to its ranking of video in the News Feed, adjusting the mix to make sure people see more of the videos they like on the social network. To do that, the company will expand on the traditional like, comment and share metrics and start also taking into account whether people are activating audio, making video full screen and other actions that indicate interest. Facebook has been surveying users about News Feed preferences and has learned that people don’t always like, comment on or share posts despite finding them meaningful. Such research... [...]

Jami Oetting says, “It would be great if there was a handy tool that could tell you what tweaks to make to your landing page to get more leads, more shares, and more customers. But until that day, marketers still need to test, test, and do more tests to figure out what changes will result in better results. It can be attractive to test two completely different landing pages or to make a ton of small tweaks, but the best way to improve your landing page conversion rates is to change one thing at a time. While it might be a slower process, in the end you will have a better understanding of... [...]

Mark Gadala-Maria says, “While the concept of relevance has always driven successful marketing efforts, it is a core requirement for effective marketing in today’s cluttered and hypercompetitive marketplace. In fact, the entire premise of all search engines is determining the relevance of any one website to a submitted search query, and matching it with the searcher. Crowdsourcing has served as a premier method for gathering relevant content for centuries, although the actual term for this process wasn’t coined until 2006 by Jeff Howe in a Wired magazine article. The British used an... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “The features you need to add to product pages will vary according to the type ofecommerce site. Some of the things on this list are essentials for any online retailer, while others are dependent on the sector and target market. This checklist contains some of the more common elements that customers are looking for on ecommerce product pages, as well as some more advanced features that can enhance the experience. Your product pages should contain the essentials listed below, and most of the others. I haven’t listed product reviews as essential, but I’d say... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Marketers say creating relevant content is the most effective search engine optimization tactic they employ, according to a recent report from Ascend2. The report was based on data from a survey of 286 marketing, sales, and business professionals from around the world (71%, B2B-focused; 29%, B2C). Some 72% of respondents say content creation is one of the most effective SEO tactics they employ; other top tactics are keyword/phrase research (48% cite), frequent website updating (34%), and relevant link building (33%)“. Marketers’ Favorite SEO Tactics and Metrics MarketingProfs  [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, researchers from Columbia University and Harvard Business School claim Google is delivering a “degraded version of its search engine,” outranking its own services over more relevant results for local searches on restaurants and hotels. In a study sponsored by Yelp – one of the companies listed as a complainant in the EU antitrust case against Google, former FTC advisor Tim Wu from Columbia Law School and Harvard Business School’s Michael Luca found, when given the option, users were more likely to click on results... [...]

Brandon Olson says, “We’ve got a fantastic lineup of speakers at our upcoming ASCEND Digital Marketing Summit in October. To introduce you to these incredible speakers, we’ve organized three special#AWeberHour Twitter chats. Our first chat will be Wednesday, July 1, from 2-3 p.m. ET. We’ll be chatting with three conversion optimization experts who will be sharing ways you can get higher conversions by optimizing your marketing efforts. The top chat contributor will receive some AWeber goodies, so be sure to participate!”. How to Optimize Your Marketing for Higher Conversions Aweber... [...]

Richard Lazazzera says, “As an online store owner, you’re always on the lookout for new ways to drive traffic, but how many times have you invested time, energy and money into a new method of driving traffic only to receive low conversions or maybe even none at all? Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, SEO, blogging, social media and guest posting are all great methods to drive traffic, unfortunately, most of the time they don’t work as expected. There are lots of possible reasons for this, however, many times it’s because you have a leaky bucket. A website that leaks visitors as fast... [...]