Key Digital Marketing Statistics to Take From 2018
2018 was a big year for SEO. Google’s constantly-changing search algorithm evaluates over 200 ranking factors, and SEO is an increasingly complex science. We’ve compiled a list of statistics that stood out in 2018 to adapt to your marketing efforts in 2019.
Better content can increase traffic by up to 2,000%
Content should be your number one priority.
Last year, we witnessed just how big an impact content has on your overall digital marketing and SEO efforts. Informative, high-quality content is the pillar of a successful SEO strategy. The better the content, the more traffic it will drive to your site.
Strategically creating website content around a keyword or set of keywords is the first step in attracting traffic to your site. Blogs are an important piece of content that can work magic for increasing traffic. There are roughly 250 million blogs online right now!
Google is responsible for 96% of all smartphone search traffic and 94% of the total organic traffic
Yes, you read that right. 96%. Only 4% of all smartphone search traffic happens on alternative search engines.
Thus, it’s of utmost importance to have a mobile-friendly and Google-friendly website to ensure users have a seamless experience. As far as we can tell, this statistic will only increase in the years to come. If your website isn’t mobile of Google-friendly, you’ll be left in the dust.
Search Engines drive 93% of website traffic
Think about this for a moment. Almost 93% of web traffic comes through search engines, and just about 75% of all searchers click a link on the first page of their search results, never bothering to move on to page two.
So, how can you get your business to rank on the search engine’s first page? You’ll need three things:
- Time
- Patience
- A solid search engine optimization strategy
SEO is the leading driver of organic search ranking performance on a search engine results page. Before digital marketing took off, most marketing firms would create a brochure, meet with prospective clients and expect reasonable growth throughout their business. These days, that’s just not effective.
Today’s fastest-growing businesses are capitalizing on the digital marketing environment, and SEO plays an integral role. This will definitely be the case as we move into 2019.
WordPress accounts for 27% of websites around the world, but less than half of WordPress sites are up to date
What does this tell us? That it’s important to optimize your website for maximum performance. So, how do we do this?
- SEO-friendly URLs:
- Google gives more weight to the first 3-5 words in your URL. Be sure to choose wisely!
- Titles optimized for SEO:
- Title tags are one of the most important factors of on-page SEO. For best results, start your title with your keyword, or place it in the beginning.
- Add modifiers to your titles
- Descriptive words like ‘best’ and ‘review’ are examples.
- Optimize your meta descriptions
- Your description should complement your title. It should contain your main keyword as well.
- Eliminate thin content
- When we talk about thin content, we usually think of its effect on search engine ranking, but you should also be mindful of how it impacts your clients or customers. Here’s how to fix it.
- When we talk about thin content, we usually think of its effect on search engine ranking, but you should also be mindful of how it impacts your clients or customers. Here’s how to fix it.
SEO has a 14.6% conversion rate compared to 1.7% for traditional outbound methods.
Cold-calling and direct mail are things of the past.
In 2018, we saw a 14.6% rate of conversion in SEO marketing.
That’s high.
SEO is such an effective method, in comparison to mail or cold-calling because it’s a direct response to the things people are searching for. SEO strategies can be tailored to your specific target demographic, much more so than marketing techniques of the past.
The average attention span in 2018 is 8 seconds
8 seconds. That’s how long you have to attract a potential customer.
Each year, that time is getting shorter and shorter as a result of the brain’s ‘digitized lifestyle,’ For example, the average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds.
This means that your website, SEO strategy and social media efforts must grab the attention of the user instantly.
Looking to learn more about SEO and how it can impact your business? Contact us today to chat about your online strategy.
Lost in SEO? Local SEO vs. Organic SEO
Different types of SEO work for different people. Some businesses flourish with Organic SEO, while others benefit more from geographically-targeted Local SEO. Search engines are constantly evolving. If you want to keep traffic flowing, your website has to keep up with them.
Google’s search algorithm aims to get users the best results for their searches. Search engine optimization harnesses that algorithm to increase your traffic, provide the best user experience, and make you money. This is a bit of a breakdown to help you figure out which kind of SEO can work best for you.
What is Organic SEO?
You’ve got a great website. Now, you need to get noticed.
That’s where Organic SEO comes in.
Organic SEO boosts your site’s ranking in the organic search engine results. This is done by making it clear to Google what your site is about. When you search for something, you get results based on quality and relevance. The algorithm picks out the highest-quality content relevant to your search terms. Only sites that have valuable, trusted content rank in organic search results.
In other words, to improve your site’s ranking, you have to show Google that your site:
- Is relevant to the keyword.
- Has good content.
Organic SEO optimization makes your site search engine-friendly. Trusted content, high quality links, and on and off-page optimization strategies work together to climb the rankings. When Google knows you’re the real deal, your rank improves. This opens the floodgates for traffic to flow onto your site. And as you build trust with your users, your ranking will last longer.
What is Local SEO?
You know your customers – it’s time for them to get to know you.
Local SEO helps you rise above the local competition.
Local SEO boosts your site’s ranking for geographically-related keywords. A geo-targeted search term is one that includes a location. When someone searches for a geo-targeted term, the results favor sites with trusted locations. In service industries many potential customers will include a location with their search. For example, someone might search “car repair in Toronto.” If you’re in Toronto and Google knows that, you’ll rank higher than a repair shop in Ottawa, and will even rank higher than other Toronto repair shops that Google can’t pin on a map.
To be a trusted location, you have to show Google that your business:
- Is relevant to the keyword.
- Exists at a specific geographical location.
As a trusted location, your site will organically rise to the top and stand out in local search results. Local SEO can make you the number one result for relevant searches in your area, bringing more traffic your site. And more traffic means more business.
Which One Is Right for Me?
Local and Organic SEO techniques both bolster your rank in organic search results so you can reach as many customers as possible. The best choice for you depends on your business and your target customers.
Local SEO gets you ranked in a specific location. It works best for small or local businesses. If you’re targeting customers in a specific area, Local SEO will get you top results.
Organic SEO is all about your website. You don’t need a physical, brick-and-mortar location to use Organic SEO. If getting traffic to your site is your primary goal, Organic SEO is the way to go. And for Internet-only businesses, Organic SEO is essential.
Are you ready to achieve your traffic goals? Drop us a line and start growing your customer base today.
Top 5 reasons that SEO alone might not be right for you
Wait, what?
Yes, you heard correctly. We’re in the business of helping clients with their SEO, gaining organic website traffic, but the reality is that SEO is not always the right answer for every client in every situation. Let me explain.
1. Sometimes your SEO budget is not enough
This is usually the most common reason. SEO projects have a lot of variables to consider including the difficulty of ranking for search terms and other competitive issues.
For some clients, the work required to achieve their goals within a fixed time is simply not realistic inside a tight marketing budget. Unfortunately, some SEO companies will promise results using tactics outside Google’s guidelines, which ultimately causes more harm than good.
2. The timeframe for your objective is too short
The changing nature of SEO rules, as well as the moving marketing strategy of your competition, means that setting a precise timeframe to achieve results is nearly impossible. SEO success is inherently not an overnight strategy and if your objective is to get to page one from page three immediately, you would likely be better served to leverage other methods.
3. Ad competition is too stiff
Recent changes to the way Google displays ads is not making organic SEO any easier. There are now up to four ads displayed at the top of a page and the length of these ads are now even longer. The result? Even if you do rank on the first page it might be “below the fold” meaning users will have to scroll down to see it.
4. You have a new product or service
Sort of like “if a tree falls in the forest…”, you might be offering something totally new and awesome but no one is searching for it. You need to focus on an educational and awareness strategy that might be better served through ads and content.
5. You’re a new business
Similarly, if you are a new business, organic search can take some time to show results. As a result, if you’re looking for immediate results, you should consider a different tactic initially and use SEO to build organic traffic over time.
Summary
Today’s competitive marketplace demands patience and a variety of tactics. Marketers need to have realistic expectations about what can be achieved in a given time frame and within a given budget. An integrated marketing approach consisting of SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing, is usually the best recipe for long-lasting results.