Changes in SEO strategies – the natural sequence of things

When you think about an SEO strategy, first of all, you have to accept the fact that it is impossible to create a long-term action plan that will work without corrections. Google’s environment is very volatile – new updates of the search engine algorithm are constantly coming out, which often significantly change the rules of the game. Additionally, what worked on 100 similar pages may not necessarily work on page 101 as well. Therefore, changes in the strategy of activities are completely natural and even advisable if the chosen path does not bring results. Positioning is about constantly monitoring the effects, modifying, correcting and re-measuring the results. A properly selected strategy is therefore flexible and may change over time if changes in the algorithm or simply the specificity of a given website require it.

Clearly set priorities are essential

Most websites require many changes in various fields at the beginning of positioning – some of the corrections are purely technical, others require modifying and expanding the content or taking care of external linking. Such modifications cannot be made entirely in a week, month or even six months. Hence, SEO strategies should prioritize tasks to be performed, identifying those that are most urgent and those that can be introduced next.

The best strategies are divided into stages, thanks to which the client knows what to expect from a positioning agency. Not all changes are visible to the naked eye to someone who is not a specialist in a given topic. On the surface, it may seem that the positioner is doing nothing, while he is doing a lot of work necessary to improve the visibility of the website. Such changes take time, especially if the website is extensive, has many tabs, and has been modified frequently.

White hat SEO only!

Properly constructed SEO strategies focus only on good positioning practices, without assuming any prohibited actions or those resulting from the so-called the gray area. Attempts to take shortcuts and trick Google’s algorithm may result in the filter being imposed – either automatically or manually by an employee – and this causes the page to stop showing up in search results. Of course, you can try to remove the filter, but even if it is successful, the page drops in the search results, and restoring its good opinion in the assessment of the algorithm is extremely difficult.

What activities do you need to watch out for? For example, Google does not recognize the automatic mass generation of links to a page on unrelated websites, forums or blogs. Attempts to deceive search engine robots by presenting them with a version of the page other than users, or trying to “hide” texts on the page (eg creating white text on a white background) are badly seen. These types of naming activities are Black Hat SEO and should be avoided entirely.

SEO strategy – the role of cooperation

All changes introduced by the positioner must be accepted by the client, and the sooner the acceptance takes place, the earlier the website begins to achieve results. In addition, there are also such activities that the client must carry out on his own according to the recommendations of the positioning company. For example, the loading speed is very important for the visibility of the website, while some customers use slow and emergency hosting, which limits SEO possibilities. Then it is on the customer’s side to change the service provider, because without it, other activities become much less effective.

Sometimes the system on which the website was created is also a problem. If the client uses a proprietary solution or a less popular CMS, it may turn out that it lacks the functionalities necessary to improve the visibility of the website. In such cases, it is necessary to transfer the website to another system, which the client also has to do with his own resources. At this point, however, it is worth mentioning that such action must take place in cooperation with an SEO specialist who prepares recommendations on how to carry out the change so as not to lose the power of the website.

Cooperation must be based on trust

A mistake of many clients is blocking some of the changes recommended by the positioner. Most often it concerns interference with the content on the website, adding new content or changes in structural data. Lack of consent to some activities does not completely eliminate efforts to increase the visibility of the website, but it does not allow the website to use its full potential and achieve optimal results. Therefore, when deciding on services in the field of positioning, it is worth choosing a proven agency that you can trust. Then the client can be sure that all changes recommended by the positioner are necessary and work to the benefit of the website. Agreeing only some of the actions listed in the SEO strategy generally does not bring any satisfaction or measurable benefits to any of the parties.

However, it is important not only that the client can trust the SEO specialist, but also that the positioner can trust his client. SEO strategies cannot be fully implemented if the client makes changes to the website on his own without informing the SEO company about it. Such actions can destroy months of SEO work and cause an immediate drop in the visibility of your website. What activities are we talking about? Most often it concerns changing the CMS without prior information, changing the URLs of subpages, deleting subpages or deleting content on the website.

Linking strategy – an integral part of your SEO strategy

A very important part of the SEO strategy is the so-called off-site SEO, i.e. acquiring external links to the website. These types of links can be obtained from various sources, including online forums, product catalogs, back-end sites or through platforms selling sponsored articles. Less common methods of getting links are also possible, such as exchanging guest posts with bloggers or linking to a page on social media. However, it is important to remember that only good quality links give the website power – from thematically related websites, highly rated by algorithms. Therefore, the selection of linking sources is one of the most important elements of an SEO strategy. It is also important to schedule the publication of links – too many links that appear at the same time can alert the algorithm that starts suspecting us of unfair practices.

The strategy of building a link profile must be closely tailored to the industry, and even the specificity of the positioned page. It should also be preceded by an in-depth analysis of the competition’s link profile – on the basis of such information, we can decide what can be done better and how to expand the collection of links to gain a competitive advantage thanks to them.

What does an SEO strategy consist of?

The SEO strategy should include all the activities that will be carried out to position a given website on Google – both on the website itself and outside it (external linking). Its main elements are:
– a list of keywordsfor which the website will be positioned – it should contain all the keywords whose positions will be monitored by the positioner. Such a list is prepared by the agency in cooperation with the client, who can determine which areas of activity are the most important for him and which subpages, product categories or the products themselves are crucial for him from a business point of view.
– website architecture optimization plan – this means building a category tree, layout of website navigation, organizing tags, etc.,
– technical optimization plan for the website – that is, all those activities that are to increase the loading speed of the website, improve its responsiveness and user-friendliness. The purely technical changes include such activities as: code minification, graphics compression, implementation of browser caching, entering structured data, creating sitemap.xml, setting redirects, implementing canonical tags and many others,
– content development strategy on the website – at the planning stage, it is necessary to determine which page tabs should be enriched with new content, whether it is worth introducing space for additional content (e.g. blog or news), at what stages of work individual content will be added, etc.
– the concept of building a profile of external links – this means selecting sites for linking, determining how many links should be obtained and when to publish them,
– a plan for building a network of internal links – that is, creating links on the website to other subpages of the positioned website. A well-developed internal linking strategy makes it easier for the user to navigate the site and find the information they need.

Do you have a mug at home with a dedication from a friend or a calendar with family photos? And can you imagine looking for a new car without configuring it on the manufacturer’s website, if only to check what are the options or what will be the price in the highest version? Exactly! In many industries, configurators are already standard, and they are just reaching others. And very good, because both sides can benefit from them – both the customers and the producers themselves.

Product customization is money

The relationship between personalization and money is best illustrated by these 3 simple equations:

MONEY = TIME
TIME = AUTOMATION
AUTOMATION = PERSONALIZATION

The most valuable currency today, both in life and in business, is time. We convert time into money and vice versa. Every opportunity to save time is a benefit for your company. One of the ways to introduce time savings is to automate processes in the enterprise. Automation in e-commerce is a set of various practices, from production itself, through shipping or handling. One of the possibilities is also the personalization of the product offer and sales, and thus we come to product configurators that provide both.

Think – too many options to choose from in the online store mean chaos in the customer’s mind and the time that he has to spend on browsing the entire product category, reading all descriptions. Nobody likes wasting time, and for many people, shopping is stressful in itself. This may result in lower conversions.

What if you could replace the difficult choice of many options with the configuration of a product tailored to your needs? Maybe it is worth having a tool in your business that will match the order items for the customer, will not make a mistake in calculations and will also tell you what is the inventory of the products?

This is a win-win situation and no one has to compromise.

What is the product configurator?

The configurator is an e-commerce tool that helps to sell non-standard products, i.e. those that the manufacturer prepares to order for a specific customer. It can be a personalized product, such as engraved jewelry or a printed cap, or a product consisting of many elements, such as a piece of furniture.

There are many benefits offered by configurators, but from the entrepreneur’s point of view, two are particularly important – saving and earning, and here we come back to the 3 equations above.

How do product configurators automate sales?

Sales automation through personalization is based on 3 pillars. If you only take care of one, the effects will not be big, but if you approach the matter as a whole – you will quickly feel an increase in work efficiency and a higher conversion.

A. pillar – Automation of communication
It takes place both at the stage preceding the purchase of the product and during the ordering process. Its task is to speed up the exchange of information and lead the customer to a purchase, and not tire him or you as a seller along the way. What does automation of communication give?

– 24h availability – The customer has access to the configurator as well as to the entire online store without interruption – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
– Help with ordering specialized goods, e.g. construction goods – the configurator automatically indicates the necessary components, asks about their dimensions, and also suggests what else is necessary to place a given order. In the case of technical or construction industries, the configurator replaces a qualified advisor and assists the customer during purchases.
– Less human errors – this benefit is especially visible in B2B businesses, e.g. in the construction or furniture industry, where the product consists of many elements and orders are placed by contractors on a regular basis. Until now, in these businesses there was no question of sales automation, and orders were accepted by traders. And as it happens very often, the so-called the human factor was doing its job – there were many very costly mistakes. The implementation of configurators in such companies saves a lot of money, thanks to the fact that the configurator “asks” customers for all the information needed to complete the order. This eliminates understatement, wrong measurements or mistakes. The human factor is also present in B2C online stores – there, thanks to the configuration, we avoid the stage of a long e-mail exchange between the customer and the service, and between the Service Department and, for example, a graphic designer. The configurator allows you to “click” the order yourself.
– Excluding mismatched elements – it is not easy to order an item that consists of many components. Remember to add them all to your basket and make sure they match. The configurator does this for the customer and does not allow you to order incompatible items. No more disappointment and no replacement costs.
– Visualization of the final product in real time – the configurator shows on an ongoing basis how the product changes as a result of adding new parameters. The customer knows exactly what they are ordering and what the goods will ultimately look like.

B. pillar – Automation of the offer and orders
Automating the offer and order allows you to exit the “we always did it manually and it worked” mode. In the past, people only traveled on foot and somehow lived. And although we know the advantages of walking, cars make our lives much easier in everyday life. There are many examples of this type, and the conclusion is one – it is worth using technology that improves life and work. How do configurators accelerate the work of enterprises?

– Wholesale offer updates (photos, descriptions, parameters, price lists) – anyone who has ever had to manually update an offer with thousands of products knows what it entails. It’s a waste of time for the work that the algorithm can do.
– Taking care of availability – in large production companies it is impossible to track the inventory of all products without technology. The real-time configurators “communicate” with the warehouse and update the availability of components and goods. As a result, both the seller and the customer can be sure that the offer only shows available products, and the unavailable ones disappear from the page.
– Product price calculation – configurators calculate the individual product price on an ongoing basis based on component prices or more complex algorithms (e.g. counting volume, length, weight). In the case of B2B, it is also possible to calculate based on individual price lists per customer.

C. pillar – Automation of production and delivery
For the seller, this pillar is as important as the two previous ones, while for the customer it is the most visible part. Therefore, make sure that the customer’s contact with your store is pleasant, convenient and responsive to the needs. On the configurator side, automation means completing the elements needed to complete the order placed by the customer, and these are:

– Components of the configuration and their locations in the warehouse – especially important for large production companies, e.g. furniture or construction.
– Generating previews / vectors and files, e.g. PDF for use in production – incredibly useful, but not so obvious functionality. Configurators allow you to generate and then send to the production department a file with the specification of the goods immediately after placing the order. This greatly speeds up the implementation of the entire process.
– Courier service and optimization of delivery costs – configurators also allow you to optimize transport costs, both for customers and for sellers. This is especially true for stores selling large or undersized products that are difficult to transport and therefore expensive.

In which industries is it worth personalizing products?

There are more and more businesses that have decided to introduce product configurators to their e-commerce. They are usually invested by retail stores (B2C) that hear and respond to their customers’ needs. Also, more and more B2B businesses are starting to notice both the demand for product personalization and the availability of technology.

Product configurators support especially those industries that produce goods to order, in accordance with his requirements, tastes or needs, e.g .:
– car,
– home & decor (e.g. blinds and shutters),
– food (e.g. chocolate, muesli),
– digital printing, gadgets,
– fashion (e.g. clothing, jewelry, watches, fashion accessories – handbags, phones cases),
– construction (e.g. gates and garage shelters, modular houses, windows and doors),
– furniture – furniture and interior design elements,
– photovoltaic.

Examples of earning / saving thanks to personalization in e-commerce

Fashion – shoes

Client
Creates a unique shoe pattern that it can identify with. The process of creating itself provides positive emotions – the client becomes a designer. He can see how the shoes change with the addition of new parameters. WOW effect guaranteed.

Producer
Thanks to the implementation of the configurator in its e-commerce, the manufacturer can communicate to customers the uniqueness of its offer (after all, not every shoe brand can boast the option of ordering shoes according to the customer’s design), and thus it is possible to increase prices. Customers are ready to pay more for brand emotions and a unique product.

Fashion – watch

Client
He expresses his individualism and designs a unique watch himself. Customers love personalized fashion accessories. This is one way to express your style and personality, and a higher price is often not an obstacle to buying.

Producer
There is no need to hire a graphic designer to visualize the client’s idea. Thanks to the configurator, the customer independently visualizes his project and then places an order. No unnecessary e-mail exchange, fast and in line with production possibilities.

Gifts – Chocolate Telegram

Client
The configurator manages the availability and stock of letters. The customer can see which letters he can use to create a chocolate message, so that there is no situation in which the customer places an order for an element that is not there. In addition, the configurator visualizes on an ongoing basis what the chocolate telegram looks like after each change.

Producer
Receives from the configurator a summary of all elements of the placed order at the current prices. The configurator also gives you the opportunity to “increase” sales, thanks to additional options, such as:
– offers customers personalization of the packaging by adding their own photo,
– suggests the content of telegrams for selected occasions, which can be ordered immediately or loaded and even modified – for many buyers such predefined content is a great facilitation and acceleration of placing an order.

Printing, prints, advertising gadgets

Client
He evalsuates the final product on the visualization in real time and makes an informed purchase. Using the configurator eliminates the unnecessary disappointment of the customer after opening the package (“I did not know it would look like this …”)

Configurator
Automatically generates PDF files and sends them to be printed on the machine. Every minute you save on production is your profit.

Would you like to earn more with personalization?

The answer is obvious – everyone wants to earn more, and everyone who sells wants to develop it. Therefore, at the end, I propose a small test that will allow you to assess whether the product configurators will work for your company:
A. Have your customers ever asked about modifying your products? Maybe they wanted to change their dimensions a bit or add some element?
B. Or maybe you have always made products to order, but you accept them by phones or e-mail and thus waste a lot of time agreeing on details? Are there mistakes and customer dissatisfaction?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it is a clear signal that either your customers expect personalized products or your business requires automation through configurators.

Permission Marketing – What Is It?

Both newsletters and PUSH notifications are forms of the so-called consent marketing. What is this? Associate requests for permission to send notifications that are displayed to you on various websites? Until you confirm that you want the information … the website cannot send it to you. The same applies to the newsletter – to receive it, you must enter your e-mail address and confirm that you are interested in receiving messages from a given brand.

This “consent” factor ensures the sender is confident that it is reaching initially interested audiences. They may be at different stages of the marketing funnel, but contact with each of them is valuable and may sooner or later bring benefits.

There is one more important advantage, the psychological one. Since the recipient himself agreed to receive the message – he performed some action. Consequently, he is to some extent involved in the communication process. Such a peculiar “foot in the door” also increases the probability that the established relationship will result in a purchase.

However, it should be remembered that consent marketing also brings challenges: first of all, it requires building a database of people who have decided to subscribe to messages on their own. Nevertheless, the results are worth the effort, and skillfully planned and targeted campaigns bring good results. Therefore, it is definitely worth going in this direction.

PUSH newsletter and notifications: how do they work?

Before we answer the question about the advantages of individual consent marketing tools, it is worth taking a closer look at exactly what each form of communication looks like.

PUSH notifications

PUSH notifications are short pieces of information that appear on the screen of the user’s device with his prior consent. They can be generated, among others through applications installed on the phones, however, the most important role is played by sms and web-PUSH messages, i.e. those displayed by web browsers.

These notifications:
– are small – contain literally 1-2 sentences of text and small graphics,
– they appear spontaneously at the moment selected by the advertiser,
– are enriched with a CTA element, which most often refers to a website with more information.

Newsletter

A newsletter is a form of communication via e-mail. It is about sending new messages to the interested group – be it with information about new products and current promotions in the store, or with interesting entries on the company’s blog.

Newsletter:
– it can take various graphic and text forms – it can be very simple and minimalist, and it can contain a long message,
– also most often includes CTAs pointing to a website.

What are the similarities between these tools?

Apart from the similarity discussed earlier, in which in both cases messages are sent after receiving consent from the recipient, other similarities can also be indicated.

Both forms of communication:
– they can be used at every stage of the marketing funnel – to build brand visibility, arouse interest in products or the desire to buy immediately,
– they must be attractive for the recipient to be willing to interact,
– can be used in conjunction with marketing automation tools, which in turn improves the entire communication process and reduces service costs in this area.

The cost of sending both types of messages may also be similar, especially when you calculate the cost per click.

Newsletter vs PUSH notifications: the most important differences

Despite significant similarities between the discussed forms of communication, there are also many differences. Here are the most important ones.

A. The time it takes to plan your campaign
PUSH notifications work a bit like Google ads – they contain little content with a very high CTA saturation. As they are displayed by the browser, there is no need to design their graphic layout or make other tedious preparations. All you need to get started is a catchy, short text that will encourage action and small graphics.

In the case of a newsletter, you may need a much broader strategy – think about the layout, content, communication pattern and much more. Therefore, the preparation of an email campaign may be more time consuming.

B. Shipping time
Even automated mail sending to a large subscriber base can take a long time, with gusts of up to several hours. Such delays can cause the mail to be delivered to the inbox late and… ignored. PUSH notifications are displayed in real time.

C. Ease of Delivery to Addressee
PUSH messages in the browser are not blocked neither by AdBlock nor by other systems. The only limitation is whether the given user has the browser enabled when the message is sent.

In the case of a newsletter, it is not always so rosy – overly sensitive spam filters can intercept such an email. It can also get stuck in the less visited “offers” tab or remain invisible among dozens of other e-mails.

D. The speed of growth of the recipient base
In the case of PUSH notifications, 2 clicks are enough to start receiving messages. What’s more, the recipient does not have to provide any personal data or register anywhere. Subscribing to the newsletter requires at least an e-mail address and confirmation of willingness to receive the message by clicking on the activation link received.

These features translate into the effectiveness of acquiring new customers. As you can guess, the number of PUSH notifications subscribers arrives much faster than those subscribed to the newsletter.

E. Read / convert probability
PUSH messages usually assume an immediate response and require quick action. It could be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the user, for example, if he is overwhelmed with too many such messages, can reject them without looking. On the other hand, it may click instinctively, e.g. if it finds out that a quick sale in the store ends in 30 minutes.

E-mails are most often viewed at most a few times a day, but if the recipient decides to look at the newsletter message, they usually look at it more closely than quick notification. Something for something.

Does this mean that the newsletter should be replaced with PUSH messages? Not necessarily. The newsletter is part of any good inbound marketing strategy, and the effects of its conduct can bring long-term effects. Web-PUSH works more in the short term. So these tools are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary – they can complement each other.