Facebook, with 5 billion users, is one of the oldest and all-time favorite social networking sites on the planet – and has led millions of creators towards success. Getting started with a Facebook Page may be easy, but it takes a lot of effort to gain a good amount of organic reach and engagement. Facebook wants users to stay on the platform, so if you’re looking to drive people to your website, make sure that you’re still sharing valuable content that gets engagement either on the post itself or in previous and subsequent posts.
So how can one successfully increase Facebook Page Engagement? Here we have shortlisted some tried & tested methods to drive Facebook engagement.
Focus On Quality Posts Instead Of Quantity
Facebook is all about being creative, interactive, and telling a true subtle story well. For optimal engagement, try to be original with your work and choose quality over quantity. You probably have heard the slogan “content is king” and it fits perfectly with Facebook. With people moving through content quickly, there’s no time for sub-par graphics, videos or text. If you’re running out of original content to post, content curation can be a great way to share quality, informative content that gets your audience excited.
Make Your Posts Timely & Relevant
How much content do you post on Facebook per day? Finding great content takes time, and you don’t always have the time to do that. Once you know the best time to publish Facebook posts, you’ll be able to connect with your followers when they are highly active and can engage with more people. Bear in mind, the newsfeed algorithm on Facebook emphasizes “recency” as a major ranking aspect. Though there is no prescribed standard, you just have to do a little bit of research via analytics reports and find the most suitable time to post on social media. Facebook itself says that you’re more likely to see engagement if you post when your fans are online.
Comments & Reply
Facebook engagement isn’t only about publishing content. Engagement is a two-way street. If someone takes the time to comment on one of your posts, make sure to reply. Many users overwhelmingly want to interact with their favorite brands or influencers. Sometimes a simple comment back is all that’s needed. By making yourself available, you get to score more on interaction and engagement. Today replies have become a necessity for brand credibility.
Try to posts images or videos
Images and videos tend to perform better on Facebook compared to text and links. They are enticing and can get you a 10x increase in engagements. Some self-explanatory photos and videos immediately draw the spectator’s attention and seem to perform outstandingly on the news feed. 60% of Facebook users like a page with creative images and videos.
Facebook engagement is vital to building a following of people that are interested in your brand. Engagement offers many benefits, such as helping your brand to stand out from others. When people begin liking & sharing your posts, you will reach a broader audience and will start attracting new followers.
Every day, millions of potential customers search for and research online before coming to any purchase decision. Your website is your online storefront, where visitors can learn more about your offerings, build trust in your brand, and eventually become leads and customers. Getting more website traffic is a shared goal among many business owners and marketers.
Whatever your business goals are, driving visitors to your site is key to growing and succeeding. The difficulty can be knowing which strategy will suit your business and your budget. In this guide, we are going to shed some light on some of the best traffic-boosting methods.
#1 SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization is a field that is constantly changing and evolving. It is based on increasing website traffic through search engine results. A key element of SEO is understanding what people search for online and what terms they use. These terms should be easily available within your content. A second major element revolves around the search engines themselves. Search engines discover and catalog all of the content on the internet. You need to make sure your content is easily found by search engines. Optimizing your site will help deliver better information to search engines so that your content can be properly indexed and displayed within search results.
#2 Google My Business (GMB)
Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is a great place to focus your early site traffic driving efforts. GMB is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. An optimized Google business listing allows you to supply useful business information to local searchers such as business hours, where you’re located, driving directions, and a lot more to increase your overall online presence.
#3 Write & Promote Quality Content
Quality content is how you engage and inform your audience. Blogs, infographics, and articles that provide advice, education, and useful insights without a sales pitch build trust with your potential users and generate inbound leads. Well-optimized content demonstrates your expertise, addresses users, & solves their problems. As your content gets promoted, one can utilize that opportunity to be positioned as an expert.
#4 Connect with Micro-Influencers
Who is a micro-influencer? Micro-influencers are individuals that have between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers. They are considered to be experts in their particular niche, and as such, are able to generate greater engagement. Think about doing outreach to local bloggers who fall within your niche market. Chances are they have a good following on social media and would be open to working with you in putting together an influencer marketing campaign.
Have you tried any of these? We hope this article has given you some insights to get the right visitors coming to your site, increase engagement, and convert into customers.
The majority of businesses underestimate the power of Google My Business, which happens to be one of the best ways to improve local search traffic and to grow your online presence. Most consumers use Google Maps to locate nearby businesses. Google My Business is specifically designed to help budding entrepreneurs be more visible at times when users are searching online, particularly about your products or services. The results are optimized and ranked based on the user search query, interest, and locations.
By listing your business on Google maps, you can put your business right in front of the interested customers. Think about the service or product your business is offering. The next time someone in your area is in need of it, local search will benefit your business. Google My Business is the first step in allowing you to be found by potential customers.
Why You Need To Be Using Google My Business
Keeps your business in the spotlight. The biggest advantage of Google My Business is its local search result via GEO-Targeting. For example, if you were to search ‘Italian Restaurant in Weslaco’, you would find a list of relevant restaurants available within that location. This is often termed as GEO-Targeting. In short, you’ll get relevant, local traffic to your site which has a greater chance of converting. For the best possible results, fill out every section and ensure all the information describes your business accurately.
It’s free, simple, and straightforward. Unlike SEO and PPC, Google My Business is very easy to launch. You just have to verify the address of the business location and voila – you’re in. Even the dashboard is user-friendly and provides you with the ability to list your business details (& location) precisely and become available on Google Maps. You can display key information about your business such as opening/closing time, contact details, website, add photos/videos, write compelling business descriptions, add products/services menu.
GMB Benefits Your Brand Think of Google My Business from a “branding” standpoint. It costs nothing to create, claim, and verify your listing. Take the time to write a good description to add to your listing and make it as local as possible. The reviews and ratings give your business a credibility boost, influence the users buying decisions, and level the playing field against paid ads. This saves you from expensive paid marketing and portrays your business as more relevant than other players in the market.
Increases Conversion Rate and ROI. Customers prefer to buy from a trusted platform. Since listings on Google My Business are already verified by Google, users have more reason to trust them. Online ratings & reviews give the added assurance of quality business standards and their ethics. Amid positive reviews, more users are likely to trust your brand name – increasing your conversions and improving your company’s ROI. You will also see results more quickly than with building up your organic search results through website pages over time.
You can promote too. Google My Business takes care of entrepreneurs (and start-ups) better than anyone else. Having a GMB listing can help in maintaining quality site traffic. Just by having a listing and showing up in local searches, you will be more likely to drive traffic and increase sales. If organic tactics aren’t working for you, you can reach more customers with paid promotion too. Smart campaigns instantly seize the attention of spectators searching for your product, service, or business category. One option is using Google Posts to announce new products, services, and events. You can use them to offer exclusive discount codes.
Are you missing out on the benefits of Google My Business?
80 percent of online inquiries on Google are local searches. This gives you a gigantic opportunity to build interest in your target area. Not to mention, Google my business is one of the best free ways to gain visibility on Google search results. All it takes is a little time, effort, and dedication to optimizing your page precisely.
Online reviews are a very important aspect of any business’s online presence today. Your potential customers have become adept at searching and researching products and services before making any purchase decision. Again and again, we find that consumers trust online reviews, as much as personal recommendations from real people. More than half of consumers will only use a business if it has positive online reviews. Online reviews are also critical for your business’s online visibility, for lead generation, and to achieve sales.
Your business needs to make online reviews a priority. Consumers value what other people have to say about businesses, products, and other people. 90 percent of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. They are a very influential factor, where a positive review can truly set your business apart from your competitors. In essence, online reviews are the modern equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing. And as such, it is imperative that you engage in the conversation.
WHY REVIEWS MATTER
Online Reviews Build Trust – A review says a lot about your business ethics, service quality, and reliability. By helping customers learn more about your business, reviews build up a level of comfort in their shopping decision. Another reason consumers trust online reviews, as opposed to ads, is that the reviewer is seen as a peer that has shared the same shopping experience. Reviewing is a way of helping others.
Increase Conversion Rates – Online reviews can increase your business conversion rate. When consumers have trust in your reviews, they take action. They can be your gateway to generate new and repeat customers. Reviews are a way of taking a crowdsourced approach to decision-making, which allows the consumer to gather data, learn of potential problems, learn from other people’s experiences and spend their money accordingly.
Local Ranking Factor – Reviews (along with an owner’s response) show that consumers trust a business, and trust is a foundational factor in ranking. When you reply to reviews, it shows that you value your customers and their feedback. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your business visibility and increase the likelihood that a shopper will visit your location.
Learn About Your Customers – Actively generating and interacting with your online reviews is a great way to analyze your market and make improvements to your business. Online reviews allow you to see your business from the outside and get to know what is working and what needs to be improved. When problems do arise, monitoring reviews will allow you to quickly rectify the situation and prove to customers that they are your top priority.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH ONLINE REVIEWS
Before people can start aggregating reviews, you need to take control of your review pages and social profiles. You can request a customer to post a review on your Google My Business page, Facebook, Amazon, Yelp, or Trustpilot. These platforms are broadly trusted and can significantly improve your online presence.
Studies have shown that asking for reviews will result in higher ratings than not asking, so make sure to be specific and personalize the request. Go through the review process and make sure it is as easy as possible for the customer. Make sure to monitor the reviews and respond to their comments, both positive and negative. Use the positive reviews to nurture new brand ambassadors and the negative reviews as opportunities to remedy the situation and improve your business.
Consumers will judge your business based on online reviews, whether you like it or not. So take the initiative and cultivate positive reviews. They are a valuable asset that will serve as organic marketing campaigns and help make your business better. It will take some time and effort, but it’s worth it to grow your business.
Have you ever heard of SEO for images? Search is not just about words anymore. Over 20% of all U.S. web searches happen on Google images. Besides good information, users are looking for good visuals too – and Google knows this.
Image SEO is an area you must not neglect, especially if you’re running an e-commerce platform. Some users search for your product’s images on the internet, and optimizing them with relevant keywords can capitalize on online impressions and traffic. Image optimization creates a better user experience, faster page load times, and additional ranking opportunities. In this write-up, we will highlight tips for optimizing images for visual search.
No. 1 – Choose the right format.
Before you start adding lots of images to your website, you need to choose the right format for your image. The most common formats are PNG, JPEG, and WebP. Choosing the right format will help with smaller file sizes, faster downloads, and crisper graphics. PNG is broadly chosen for better quality images, especially creative graphics. JPEG is best for photography, and it allows you to adjust the quality level. WebP is a modern image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web.
No. 2 -Avoid Heavy HD Photos
It is a best practice to compress your images before publishing. Large file images on your website add extra weight to pages and affect the loading speed. According to HTTP Archive, images make up on average 21% of a total webpage’s weight. This added load degrades the performance of a website and affects its rankings on Google SERP pages. Using Photoshop or a dedicated plug-in for compressing your images will not only reduce the size of a file but will also improve SEO and page load time.
No. 3 – Find related keywords.
Image SEO starts with the file name. Keyword research is important to make your image meaningful and allows it to be found more easily by search engines. A descriptive file name would be much more useful than DSC73635.jpg. Along with the file name, every image has a keyword and an alt tag. These keywords are used by search engines and help index and rank your file better. The best alt tag descriptions are short and include relevant keywords.
Bear in mind that when you select keywords, you need to analyze the key traits of images as well. For example – let’s say you sell “shirts.” Now the key traits would be – material (i.e., cotton or woolen), full-sleeves or half-sleeves, plain or printed, etc. On the basis of key traits, you can choose keywords accordingly. From what we have observed, long-tail keywords work best for image SEO. They extend your focus keyword and bring in more traffic.
No. 4 – Optimize titles and descriptions.
Search engines rely on relevant, descriptive titles and descriptions to deliver quality search results. When thinking of a good, descriptive title, a good place to start is to think of the 5 w’s- who, what, where, when, & why. Once you have shortlisted the relevant keywords, it’s time to implement them into the image title and meta description. Keywords in the title & description describe the graphic and are important in ensuring that your content is more accessible to all users. Try to keep titles concise and literal while descriptions can include broader concepts and ideas.
No. 5 Create a dedicated sitemap for images.
Google gives emphasis to the sitemap for crawling and ranking purposes. A sitemap contains a map of your entire content. Adding images to a sitemap gives Google image extensions to discover images that it might not be able to find. In other words, it enables the search engine to crawl all the pages of your site. This allows Google to crawl & index all your images for better image SEO.
Eye-catching visuals make the content more interesting and play a crucial role in user engagement. Optimized images contribute to good user experience, SEO, and higher conversions. By combining high-quality content and properly optimizing it, you will benefit from search working for you.
