AaramShop PRO: SOGs 2016: Top 15 Categories selling online at Aar...

AaramShop PRO: SOGs 2016: Top 15 Categories selling online at Aar...: As promised in our previous post , here is the 1st of the series of interesting data points & insights emerging from our analysis at A...

5 Trends to Watch in the Mobile-First Search Era

New figures from eMarketer reflect the growing mobile momentum with estimates that mobile advertising spend will be double that of desktop by 2017, and by 2019, mobile will account for 72 percent of total digital ad spend.

This should come as no surprise as mobile is topping list of where consumers are spending their time. Late last year, comScore reported that 60 percent of time online is spent on mobile, the majority of activity happening within apps.

Shifting audience behavior is dictating a refocusing of search strategy. Early this year, I wrote that 2015 should be considered "the year of the consumer," and as it stands, the modern consumer demands a mobile-first strategy.

In this forward-thinking mobile world, let’s look ahead to the five key mobile trends to watch.

1. Google’s Emphasis on Mobile Friendliness

Mobile search rankings are about to get a bit friendlier. On April 21, Google will be expanding its ranking signals to account for mobile friendliness. While there’s been no indication of responsive design being valued over mobile-specific sites, it’s clear that for marketers who have neither, the time is nigh to make a move. Weigh the pros and cons of your mobile-friendliness approach – and play nice, as Google says this change will have a "significant impact" on search results.

2. Bing’s Mobile Moves

Starting March 23, Bing ads rolled out an upgrade to Unified Device Targeting. Just like Google’s shift to Enhanced Campaigns, this Bing update will mean campaigns will target all devices by default. If there’s any lesson we learned the first time around it’s to stay active in monitoring and optimizing your bid adjustments accordingly.

Beyond device targeting, Bing has also indicated the forthcoming introduction of mobile app extensions to help marketers drive further discovery and installs in the vast app marketplace.

3. The App Explosion

Speaking of apps, discovery is only one part of the game. To really benefit, you must have the tools in place to measure and track beyond the install. This is how you’ll be able to grow customer lifetime value in the mobile era.

The sheer number of available apps is creating fragmentation in the market, even when it comes to search activity. Today’s mobile consumer seeks speed and convenience and specialty apps that cater to specific needs (think Yelp) are the thing to watch. Yahoo is also trying to capitalize off in-app activity by offering its own SDK to integrate Yahoo Search within apps.

4. The Native Play

The mobile format, with its infinite scroll, is highly conducive for a seamless integration of in-stream advertising. Not only does native represent a contextually friendly and engaging experience but it also seems to sparkle with inventory possibilities in an otherwise limited mobile search-scape.

As mobile and native merge, look no further than Yahoo Gemini, a one-stop shop for mobile search and native advertising.

5. The Intrinsic Connection of Mobile and Local

We can’t talk about mobile-first without mentioning the implication for local search as well. Recent research from the Local Search Association found that the majority of U.S. adults turn to mobile when searching for locally focused information.

When thinking local-mobile, of course there are the relevant extensions – location and click to call – but it’s more than just that. There are designated call-only campaigns, local inventory on Google Shopping, and opportunities with apps. These capabilities and opportunities are growing and strengthening.

Having a mobile presence can no longer be seen as a competitive advantage for an advertiser but rather serve as a marketing staple. Now more than ever, it pays to be an agile marketer who can embrace the mobile mindset.

(via)

5 Ways of Rethinking Your Referral Traffic

So you have a site, now what? Well, one of the first things you need to do is drive traffic to it, but how? What if you have a site with traffic, what can you do to better drive users to your pages?

In the past we could rely on Google organic and paid to generate most of our site traffic, but not anymore. While organic is still your highest-quality traffic, what if it goes away overnight? And while paid is helpful in generating specific conversions around keyword searches, in the end you are often just renting those visitors. So if you want to stay relevant today, we need to rethink our concepts of referral traffic as it looks much different today than it did even one or two years ago.

Here are five tips on creating a more perfect referral traffic profile and avoiding mistakes that could cause you pain.

1. Reliance on Social Media

Often we see sites that get a lot of their traffic from social media. If your site is one of those sites, congratulations - that is not the easiest code to crack. You have done good things.

Social traffic is a positive signal. It means your site is being shared and talked about. It means your site has relevancy to your user base. However, it is imperfect traffic and a strategy that is unsustainable on its own. Why is this?

First, if you are relying too heavily on your social media presence for traffic and the site you are getting that traffic from decides to change a factor that takes away that traffic, you have little recourse. There is really nothing you can do. Well, you can pay, but that requires more money and time, which following a loss of large amounts of traffic, you might now have to invest.

Second, unlike organic visitors, social media users are typically "one and done." They see something they like, they head in, they read, they head out.

While this can be an excellent method for long-term brand building, it is not your best traffic source for in-depth or lengthy visitor engagement. Some will like what they see and come back, but not as many when they find you by other efforts.

So while there is nothing wrong with this as a part of your comprehensive plan, you want to be careful of relying on social media at the expense of more relevant and engaged traffic such as organic search. In addition, if these sources suffer declines, you can more readily address the issues on other channels than you can with social.

Mostly, just make sure you are not ignoring other avenues for bringing users in to the site.

2. Reliance on Google Organic

Just as you can be overly reliant on social media, you can also be too reliant on Google organic. While organic search is your best traffic referrer in terms of engagement, site stickiness, and returning visits, if you accidentally trigger an algorithm negatively and it takes a slap at your site, well you might wake up with a cliff dive on your analytics and a sunken feeling in your stomach.

While it is very important to spend a lot of your time cultivating your organic visits, it is not a safe bet to rely on Google for that traffic alone. The most important thing you can do is diversify your traffic and find multiple generative and reliable sources.

3. Reliance on Google and Facebook

Many sites rely on these two sources are their primary traffic-drivers. Be careful if these are the only two. Don’t rely so much on Facebook or organic SEO that you forget to continue to diversify your traffic profile. Your traffic referrals are a delicate balance of visits from paid, organic, social, syndication, etc.

The most important thing you can do in this day of Google is to make sure you have built up as many positive traffic sources as make sense for your business. This way if you lose in Google or Facebook today, you can start cranking up the traffic in other areas tomorrow.

4. Organic Is Still King

Organic traffic is not just Google, though we typically think of that first. It can also be Bing, Duck Duck Go, and Yahoo, or even a contest or event. Whatever your organic source, the users are likely to be more engaged and user intent is typically going to be more aligned with your site content. While Google organic should and will be the largest organic referrer, building up your alternative referral sources will help protect you from getting hit in one area or another.

5. Watch Out for the Bots

Semalt, Buttons-For-Websites, and other bots visit your site and show up in your analytics. These referrals are not real humans, but bots meant to send traffic back to its owner by you clicking on the referrals in your analytics. There is no reason to support this traffic and there is no reason to not get rid of it. There are several methods for doing this, however Jon Henshaw of Raven Tools has the most comprehensive post explaining the issue and how to get rid of it.

(via)