How should sites plan their SEO strategies for seasonal events, which tend to be very competitive? The obvious example is Christmas, but recurring events like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and sporting occasions like the Grand National all provide spikes in traffic and interest which brands should look to take advantage of. Using examples for Christmas-related search […]
It’s a long time since a tweet meant just 140 characters and a little metadata for location.
It’s time to start asking what happens when Twitter Cards become little units of web in their own right.
With the launch of Audio Cards, we’re seeing one of the most distinct demonstrations of this potential so far.
While previous Cards could include sign-ups for email newsletters or allow you to play content directly in your stream, the new Audio Card has added a whole new function, and hints at a whole new dynamic.
Pinterest marketing for retailers has gotten a whole lot more interesting.
Quite simply, Rich Pins offer more details than your standard Pinterest pins, therefore making them more useful.
If you’re a retailer you can include product information such as real-time pricing, stock availability and direct links to the product page.
Rich Pins are a very similar concept to ‘rich snippets’. If you’re already aware of ‘rich snippets’ then you’re half way to understanding Rich Pins.
There are major differences between the results that search engines deliver on phones and computers.
How can marketers structure their search strategy to maximise results?
Figures from 2013 found that nearly 20% of the average adult American’s daily media consumption was on mobile devices, a trend that is only accelerating.
Echoing this, search queries on mobile devices grew five-fold in the last two years, according to Google.
I’ve kept this list simple and it’s a fairly accurate idea of what I use day-to-day.
I didn’t use any of these tools when I started working on the Econsultancy blog. I’m still not an advanced content creator but I do have some small tricks up my sleeve.
Take a look at this list of tools to aid you in your image, video and text travails.
Enjoy!
Sports and fitness are innately social activities, so health brands have reaped huge rewards from the rise of social media.
Two great examples of this can be found in the massive popularity of Tough Mudder and Cross Fit, which emphasise team building and camaraderie alongside physical exercise.
Another business built around a fitness community is Sweaty Betty. It sells sports gear for women online and in more than 30 stores across the UK.
These boutiques offer a drastically different shopping experience to the giant soulless warehouses from the likes of Sports Direct. In fact Sweaty Betty even hosts regular yoga classes and other fitness events.
With so much emphasis on building a community, I thought it would be useful to take a closer look at some of Sweaty Betty’s social activity.
Read on for a whirlwind tour of its various social profiles, or for more on this topic read our post on how Nike uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.
In July the China Internet Information Network Center (CNNIC) published its bi-annual report into the state of the internet in China (report in Chinese).
The report is a good guide into the browsing behaviour of netizens, the common phrase used to describe Chinese internet users.
The report is based on surveys sampling 30,000 Chinese residents older than six, from all of China’s administrative regions.
In this article, I’m going to examine the implications of the report and use the findings to help guide B2B marketers to understand the search engine market in China.
Lace up your sneakers, put your sweat bands through the washing machine, make a pitiful attempt at a couple of lunges and let’s go for a run.
Don’t worry, I’ll catch you up later. I just have some work to finish around… this… uh… hot-dog.
Nike is the world’s most valuable sports brand according to Forbes. It has a market value of $71bn, $19bn of which is estimated to be pure brand value. Nike also commands 62% of the US athletic footwear market.
Impressive stuff, but what of its nearest sporting rival Adidas? Has it been left puffing and wheezing, meters behind its striding opponent as it desperately rummages around its kit bag looking for an inhaler?
A new study underlines the importance of organic search rankings, and the value of a page one ranking.
Put simply, If you’re not on page one of Google’s search results, you’re almost nowhere, with pages two and three picking up just 5.59% of the clicks.
The study also has some interesting insights into the effect of ads on CTR, and differences between mobile and desktop search.
Back in the distant past of 2012, our illustrious editor shared his 14 best practice tips for how ecommerce sites should handle online returns.
Upon reading the above linked article you’ll notice that very little in terms of best practice has changed in the intervening years.
The benefits of nailing customer returns are also still the same. Customer satisfaction leads to better retention and higher CLV.
However in the intervening two years since the above publication, how well have some of the top UK ecommerce sites presented their returns information? Let’s take a look…
Anyone who is familiar with the Econsultancy blog will know that we’ve always been big fans of ASOS.
However its crown has begun to slip in recent months and in September the retailer was forced to issue a third profit warning due to difficult sales conditions and higher investment in technology and infrastructure.
Personally I’m still a semi-regular ASOS customer, but I have started to become a bit tired of its email marketing messages that constantly promote some kind of sale or discount.
Since July 27 I have received 35 emails from ASOS, which roughly averages out at one email every 2-3 days.
19 of those emails advertised a sale or discount, which ultimately chips away at ASOS’s ability to sell anything at full price.
Ecommerce continues to grow, increasing by around 10%, 2013 to 2014.
Part of this growth is due to the continuing emergence of APAC, specifically China. This has created what PayPal calls ‘new spice routes’ with countries trading cross-border when it comes to ecommerce.
I’ve done a bit of a literature review to bring myself up to speed on how international ecommerce is changing. I hope you find it informative.