Google AMP has gained a lot of attention from business owners, website builders, and everyday people who have a lot to say about its potential.

Google AMP and its Application

One of the biggest questions that people have is “How can AMP be used?” Currently, it only works for static (non-changing) pages. This makes it ideal for news and company websites. However, it is not compatible with pages that change. For example, if a blog site updates their homepage with new posts, it would not be compatible. This certainly limits its use in some areas, but it will be interesting to see how Google AMP will be used in the future.

Its Use on Mobile Devices

The term “mobile devices” does include smartphones, but is inclusive of devices like tablets. Most of the time when people are looking for a product or service, they are doing so from a mobile platform. In this instance, using Google AMP with your web page allows it to load more quickly than it would with more traditional programs.

Whether or Not AMP Will Reduce App Usage

People are also talking about the impact that Google AMP may or may not have on app usage. When searching for pages on mobile devices, it is not uncommon for people to browse through apps rather than a basic browser. For example, someone might prefer using Google Chrome over the browser that was included on their phone or tablet. It is not believed that AMP is going to reduce app usage, however, because people will most likely still have preferences for a specific app for browsing.

Google AMP and Ecommerce Webpages

With the right programming tweaks, even e-commerce pages could load faster using AMP. E-commerce pages tend to have needs far more complex than AMP would allow. In order for it to run effectively, it is highly like that a business would have to give up some of their features. For smaller businesses, it may be possible to trim e-commerce needs down by that much. Unfortunately, even small e-commerce pages would have to make sacrifices. Basically,  AMP would only work for an e-commerce page if you are willing to give up some features.

How Google AMP Stacks Up Against Facebook News Articles and Apple News

Apple News and Facebook News Articles are among Google’s competition. As for Google, it eliminates the need for JavaScript codes, and every user that uses Google News is able to see AMP’s stories. Facebook Instant Articles is only visible to users that use Facebook’s mobile app, which is a downside, but it is able to provide a faster load time and better page design. Apple News is a preinstalled application that can be found on any iPhone but falls short in terms of appearance and loading speed.

Now that you have an idea of what people are saying, what questions do you have left? Google AMP is definitely something worth looking into if you own a website.

The post Google AMP: What You Need to Know appeared first on Rank Executives.

• 60% of internet traffic came from mobile devices as of July 8, 2014 (Small Business Trends).
• 65% of all internet searches start on a smartphone (Google Multi-screen Behavior Study).
• 78% of local mobile searches leads to an offline purchase (Search Engine Land).

In short, if your website is not optimized for mobile, not only are you missing out on an enormous business opportunity, now Google will make sure that a mobile search will result in other sites being shown before your unfriendly site. So what does this mean for your web traffic? How do you know if you are ready? If you are not ready, what can you do about it?

Mobile Search Traffic Impact

Review the data above: 65% of all internet searches begin on a smartphone. Note, this means that many of those searches (approximately 60% according to the same study) will move from the smartphone to the laptop. If your site is not mobile friendly, this is likely how you’ve managed to get away with not updating. Say, for instance, you find you are getting much mobile search traffic, but few of those searches lead to conversion. However, at the same time, you get much direct traffic on PC (people typing in your URL) and those tend to convert incredibly well. This should be taken as a sign that people are likely finding your website on their phone, and finishing business on their desktop.

Now, in this scenario you may have long thought that you don’t need to update for mobile: after all, it is not as if mobile is converting for you and people are willing to move to their PCs, so why bother? Well, disregarding those who use mobile exclusively for search (46% of users according to Search Engine Watch in an article published in 2013, so it is likely that number is higher), and aren’t switching over to their PC, you must consider the impact on those who do start the search on smartphone. Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario:

Approximately 1000 of your visits per month come from mobile search, and 1200 of your visits are on PC. Now, given the data from above, it is probable that half of your PC traffic started on mobile. Now, let’s say that mobile gets you a 2% conversion rate (so 20 out of 1000), but PC gets you a 15% conversion rate (180 out of 1200). Google mobile search update goes live, and your site is not mobile friendly. As a consequence, you get pushed to the 2^nd, 3^rd, or later pages in Google’s mobile search results. Suddenly those 1000 mobile visits per month become zero, and with them the PC visits that started from a mobile device. Assuming your conversion rates remain the same, this means you’ve lost the 20 conversions a month from mobile search, 90 conversions a month from PC, for a total of 110 out of 200 conversions. Your numbers may vary, but keep the percentages above in mind. Remember that marketing does not concern itself only with the conversion, it concerns itself with every part of the funnel from that first impression to the final sale. You can see here how neglecting the top of the funnel can cost you half your business.

This would be the part where most articles would say that we are not trying to scare you, but that would be a lie. We ARE trying to scare you, because we have seen it happen time and time again: an update is coming, a website needs to make an upgrade to not lose favor in Google rankings but doesn’t, and the owner’s business tanks as a consequence. We see it happen, and don’t like to see it happen, and if fear is needed to motivate action then fear is what we will deploy (and Machiavelli we shall read). Now more than ever, mobile friendliness is crucial. Without that critical piece, you may find yourself bumped off the hard-won first page of mobile search results. True: PC search results are not impacted, so whether becoming mobile friendly or not is worth it depends on what percentage of your traffic is from mobile search. However, if you are interested in getting mobile traffic, or if your business depends on it (again, remembering that many of your PC conversions started on mobile), then read on.

Am I Ready?

Now that you are probably better informed and maybe a little scared, your next question is: am I ready for the mobile search update? There are a number of very easy ways to check. The first place to go is direct to the source. Google has set up a mobile friendliness test to help webmasters determine if their sites are considered mobile optimized and if they would be penalized in a mobile search. You can find the test at this website: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/. If your website shows up as green through this search tool, then you do not have to worry about the mobile search update.

Just as a general precautionary measure though: we have encountered cases where the tool will clear a site that has display issues on mobile. As such, it is recommended that you take the time to review your site on a mobile device just to be certain you are ready for the update. This is a good practice in general due to the popularity of mobile search. Remember that the future of SEO is not just in appeasing search engines, it is about appealing to the end user as well.

Note for Rank Executives clients: we have already contacted those whose websites will be negatively impacted by this update. If we have not contacted you and told you your site needs to be optimized for mobile, then you are covered.

What if I am not Ready?

After running the test above, it may be revealed that your website is not mobile-friendly. This means you have two and a half weeks before the mobile search algorithm goes live. However, all is not lost even then: it takes time for Google to index all the websites on the internet, and fluctuation will occur for both friendly and unfriendly websites for several weeks after the rollout. That does not mean you can afford to delay, it just means that you have time to act.

Obviously, the first step is to find a developer. I will shamelessly plug our services in web development (every single website we make is mobile friendly), but I will not say we are the only service out there. Beyond technical firms, a number of freelance developers can be found on websites like Elance, and tech schools have been cropping up training web developers in languages like HTML + CSS, Java, PHP, and more.

While some articles will mention how you can do separate domain hosting for mobile sites, I will recommend a mobile responsive design. This saves the user time from redirects or a glitch that causes them to get caught on the wrong site. These other options are available, but mobile responsiveness loads up the full site and adapts to the size of the screen, allowing it to work for smartphones of various sizes, tablets, AND computers.

Web development projects can take several weeks to see fruition, but it varies according to your site and how it is coded, along with any CMS you may be using. After the project details have been hammered out, give your developer a chance to look at your website as it is now today. Once the developer has a chance to go over the code, he will be able to give you an estimate of how long it will take. There is nothing wrong with getting multiple estimates, but I recommend starting now. Remember: the mobile search update begins on April 21, and every day after that is a potential loss in revenue. Do not delay, don’t procrastinate, get started today. You can spend the weekend compiling a list of candidates and start making calls on Monday. Don’t let the mobile search update ruin your business.

If you want more information about the mobile search, and have an hour of time, you can watch this Q+A session Google held to address common concerns about the update.

The post Google Mobile Search Update and How it Affects You appeared first on Rank Executives.

How Likely am I to be Targeted?

The first question to ask yourself is “How likely am I to become a target for negative SEO?” Businesses who have found a market that isn’t especially competitive or where there isn’t much money changing hands do not need to be as concerned. Positive SEO efforts on your site are usually more cost-effective than attempting to run a negative SEO campaign on a competitor, and thus your competition would rather invest in that than an attack. Rank Executives provides SEO services to dozens of domains, and thus far only two have suffered attacks – one a negative SEO attack after starting with us and another that we discovered was hacked before they signed on. Given that we deal with a wide variety of industries ranging from health and safety regulation to automotive, including highly competitive fields such as civil law, most of whom rank on the front page for their keywords, it should be comforting that only one has suffered an attack.

Part of the reason for the rarity of attacks is that most negative SEO campaigns are not effective. We’ll go into more details about some of the tactics employed and how effective they are later, but the major take-away from this is “be not afraid”. That being said, just as some people learn martial arts for defense, even though the odds of them needing it are low, it is important to know how to defend yourself just in case.

Defense Tactics

Recognizing the Attack

The first step in defending yourself against a negative SEO campaign is to recognize when you are actually under assault. This is one of the major reasons why SEO is a full-time job, it requires regular monitoring of Google Analytics to spot any fluctuations that may be damaging to your site. However, even these fluctuations might not be your competitors. There is a great article on Moz that was published six months ago that provides a fantastic breakdown of how to recognize an SEO attack.

A good way to tell what is going on is by figuring out where the links are coming from. A site-wide link from a domain, for example, could show up as tens-of-thousands of links, something that will look like an attack but is, in fact, perfectly natural and won’t result in a Google penalty. Some red flags to look for are things like exact-match anchor text (that is: keywords showing up in the anchor text of the links being built to your site), tens of thousands of new links showing up per week from multiple domains, and low quality, indecipherable content surrounding the link (like a website whose top post was discussing “the scud missile from Mt. Rushmore selling parkas”).

Disavow, Disavow, Disavow

This is a time-intensive tactic, but ultimately it is your best defense against links you do not want affiliated with your website. Among the webmaster tools that Google provides is the disavow tool, which allows you to let Google know that you did not authorize the link and could not get it taken down. The big problem with disavowing links is the amount of time it can take. When thousands of spammy links are being built to your website per month, the disavow process alone can take away time that would be dedicated towards other SEO efforts.

Keep Your Nose Clean

Google has repeatedly claimed that most negative SEO attacks are ineffective, and there is a reason for that. Their algorithm and web spam team do not consider solely the way things are, but also look at history. Thousands upon thousands of new backlinks showing up in a vacuum will not damage your site. However, if you have a history of spam or employing other black-hat tactics, you are more likely to suffer from a negative SEO campaign. This is because if you did it before and it happens again, what else would a third-party observer think except that you are up to your old tricks? That is the key to any SEO campaign, positive or negative, remembering that Google is merely an observer who tells users about the things they ask about. If string of robberies were happening on your block, for example, who would you be more likely to suspect? The man who admits he used to be a burglar but turned his life around, or your friendly but klutzy neighbor?

Vigilance

Ultimately, the best defense against negative SEO is constant vigilance. Even if your website probably won’t fall victim to an attack, it pays to do regular audits of your link profile. If you have already hired an SEO agency (like us), keep an eye on the links that they are building to your site to know whether the new links popping up are a result of their efforts or an attack by a competitor. Obviously though, a good SEO company will let you know if they believe an attack is taking place on your site, and like any other reputable service provider will endeavor to be transparent about what they’re doing.

Negative SEO Tactics

Ultimately, the best defense against any attack is knowing what form the attack would take. While I loathe providing possible tips to black-hat search engine marketers, the fact is that dozens of blogs have already given the information out. Furthermore, the benefits of people knowing what to expect far outweigh the costs of possibly arming the enemy. I’ll also go into strategies for defending against these specific tactics, note that in some cases I’ll repeat some of the points above since those general strategies do work against most of these tactics.

Spammy Link Building

This is one of the most common, easily recognized, and least effective negative SEO tactics. It involves hiring a company that engages in black-hat tactics and asking them to build thousands of links to a competitor’s website. Over a long span of time, it may result in a negative impact on rankings, but this is where judicious use of the disavow tool comes into play. As mentioned above, it will take time to disavow all of those links, particularly when they come at you in the thousands to tens of thousands, but ultimately that is usually the most damaging effect.

There are exceptions of course: some websites might find themselves decimated by this sort of attack. Websites that deal with high volumes of money (payday loan sites are a perfect example) are especially vulnerable to the link spam attack. Domains with a history of black-hat SEO tactics are also vulnerable.

Earned Link Removal

This one is a little more insidious. It requires a bit of social engineering on the part of your competitor and involves emailing webmasters and asking them to take down links to your site, pretending to be you. This exploits the paranoia over Google algorithms and the fact that many firms do not build close relationships with the webmasters who promote their content. Furthermore, in an industry that is driven by results and velocity, it is easy to forget links already built. However, SEO is like war: the only secure ground is the ground you are standing on.

To counter, keep track of every link you’ve built. Furthermore, establish ties with webmasters, make it so they know you. This way, if they receive a sudden e-mail asking them to take down a link, they can alert you. Ultimately, vigilance is your best defense against this strategy.

Good bye links!

Direct Site Hack

Yes, a website hack can also be used to hamper your SEO efforts and ruin your site’s positioning. More overt signs of a hack include altering your robots.txt to block your site, effectively de-indexing your homepage from google. Another possible option is a code injection on your site that attaches your site to a spammy webpage. In either event, your best defense is security. Make sure your CMS is fully up-to-date, and don’t use any plugins that are vulnerable to an attack.

If your best efforts at securing your site fail, there are a number of signs and symptoms that warn you that something has happened. The first alert should be if your web site begins ranking for keywords that are irrelevant to your site such as “Viagra” or “short-term lending” (unless your website provides Viagra or short-term lending). Also, be sure to check your robots.txt to make sure there were no unauthorized alterations.

CTR Attack

This is another method of manipulating Google’s algorithm that is relatively new exploits the end-game of all major search engines: giving the user what they want. Click-Through-Rate (or CTR) is a signal used to indicate what people are looking for. If most people searching for a given term click on a specific site, then it is natural to think that the site has what those people are looking for and increase its rankings. However, what if, instead, nobody clicked on their links? What if a competitor created a bot that clicked on every single link except yours? This CTR Attack can cripple your rankings, and the only hint is a sudden, sharp decline on your Analytics.

This is a more difficult tactic to counter, as the only way to counter to draw more clicks to your website. You can try to compensate with a click bot of your own, but this is a dangerous tactic and NOT recommended as if you are pushed too far down in SERPs, or worse onto the second page, then using your click-bot will look unnatural and may result in a penalty to your site.

In Conclusion…

Ultimately, most people don’t have to worry about negative SEO attacks, but it’s just like any other rare event: you do not assume it will never happen, but simply prepare just in case it does happen. Your website was a massive investment, and your position in search engine results in factors into your livelihood, so you cannot take any chances. Ultimately, the trick is to stay vigilant, and check your analytics on a regular basis. Look for unusual trends and, when they appear, learn how to adapt. It is something we do here for all of our clients, and a practice I highly recommend you adopt.

The post How Concerned Should You Be About Negative SEO? appeared first on Rank Executives.

No, that line is not something inserted by a hacker, I wrote that. To be fair, it might not apply to some of you (can’t say I know everybody who is reading this post), but I’m sure some of you might have thought to yourself “I know”. Others, and these are the ones who are likely the best writers, immediately identified that first sentence as an easy, somewhat hackneyed attempt to grab attention and this sentence you’re reading now an obvious attempt to hold that attention, mixed with some self-deprecation to not appear arrogant. Regardless of how you interpreted the first line, you are not here to be analyzed: you want to know how to write great content. That content may be for a website, a case-study, a guest post, or any number of other purposes. Hopefully, the following points will help you understand how great content is created.

Note that writing goes beyond a simple list of ingredients, and if that is all you want I can refer you to a number of other websites. This post will explore how the creative process works and how certain people can transform a blank page into written gold. Anybody can throw text on a page and call it content; it takes talent and hard work to create something people want to read.

Inspiration

To understand writing, you must first acquaint yourself with the writer’s greatest foe. This foe has stalked wordsmiths for centuries, living only to hear their cries of anguish and the lamentations of their women. That foe is the blank page. After assaulting humanity’s best authors for centuries, it partnered up with an abomination born of the digital age – the blinking cursor. Writers will often stare at a blank screen for hours trying to figure out what to write before finally breaking through.

Inspiration is the only defense against a blank page, but inspiration does not come when it is wanted or even needed. It seems to come by its own will, often when you stop seeking it out. However, inspiration is how a writer, even a copywriter, can craft something great. That is the first step to writing: accepting that until you are inspired, you are not going to churn out something great. If you are talented, you might be able to write something GOOD, but you need inspiration to do better.

However, if you are writing content then you have a deadline, you are part of a business and businesses want results and will not wait around for inspiration to deign grace you with her presence. Fortunately, there are ways to bait inspiration. A great infographic by CopyBlogger highlights some great ways to gain that inspiration. Once you grasp it, set all else aside and work. Inspiration is fleeting, and it is far easier to edit than it is to create.

Inject Your Personality…

…or your company’s personality. While proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation are all important, great content would give clues as to the writer’s personality. Much of what was written previously was based on my personality, so you know a little bit about me, the writer. The fact that I am comfortable with projecting such an image also speaks to who our company is: we work hard, we strive to be informative, but we still have a little fun.

One good practice for injecting personality into your writing is to write how you talk for your first draft. You can make it look clean and professional after your first draft is written (and let’s be honest – you are not going to be using the first copy you create, more on that later). Using colloquialisms and limited slang is a fantastic way to show personality in your work. Don’t imagine this as just words you are throwing out there, imagine you are writing this for somebody else: because that is exactly what you are doing.

Even if the content is being written for SEO purposes, on your first copy the best advice I can offer is to ignore the search engines. On that first draft forget Google, Bing, and Yahoo even exist and just assume you are writing the content for another person – because you are. Sure, lots of content created on a web page is done for the benefit of a search algorithm, but somebody is going to take the time to read that content, and you want them to understand what kind of company they are dealing with.

Speaking of people reading your content…

Know Your Audience

Every reader is different, and when considering the personality you project you need to make sure the readers you are targeting like whoever wrote the content and like what is being said. Note that algorithms are not an audience: while it is important to make sure they are considered for SEO purposes, you should never write content for the search engine at the expense of the end user. When writing, have a clear image of the kind of person who will be reading it in mind. For example, I’m guessing that you (the reader) own or manage a website, and you know the content you’re writing for the site itself or the content you are marketing elsewhere could be far better than it is. You are wondering how to make it better, and are reading this article because you plan to write it yourself, or you are trying to figure out how to help your writing staff do better.

If I did my job right, I probably hit close to the mark. If I am completely wrong, then I have written this article for the wrong audience. Ultimately, content creation for a website carries with it a business objective, and if your writing fails to draw in potential customers then the time and money invested in creating that content is wasted.

Remember that writing, speaking, and any other form of communication are purely social acts. There is a reason “you just like to hear yourself talk” is considered an insult. When you communicate, your objective is to convey meaning to a particular group, thus you must ALWAYS put yourself in the mindset of your audience and ask yourself how they interpret your messages, and how to craft your message in such a way that they interpret it in the manner you desire. Your pride in your work is irrelevant in any creative endeavor: only the way the audience receives it counts.

Pace Yourself

Great content does not come all at once: ultimately you have to set a manageable pace for yourself. Admittedly this is something where producing quality and business objectives may conflict, but trying to produce high-end content at your tested typing speed is just going to result in substandard work. Plan out your content creation, and work at a pace that is comfortable for you. This is creative work, and creative work tends to drain mental energy rapidly. If you do not give yourself time to recharge by either stepping away from your computer or diving into other, less taxing tasks, then the quality of your work will suffer.

This also ties into what I mentioned above about needing inspiration in order to write: when that burst of creativity runs dry you need to give it time to recharge before you can dive back into your work. It is understandable that you might be tempted to rush: we all have deadlines to meet. However, unless you are the sort of person who is more creative under pressure, it is best to forget about the deadline (within reason) and just write. Again: do not try to force creativity, let it flow naturally. Otherwise, you will never produce quality.

Edit Edit Edit!

All of the above will get you through your first draft, but when you get that first draft written, your work is only half done. Okay, not half: maybe a quarter done. The most essential part of producing great content is editing, lots of editing. Many writers, both the novices and the most experienced, neglect their editing, but just ignoring the editing is like eating a double-chocolate cake. You know it is bad for you, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself, requiring much willpower to overcome temptation. Your first draft might be passable, it might even be good, but to make your content great you must go through and fix all the mistakes you missed on the first run through.

It is also highly recommended that you find a colleague to go through your work as well before submitting the final version. Having another person go through helps to identify errors you may have overlooked, and is much better at identifying awkward wordings and phrasings. You may know what you meant by a certain expression, but remember what I said about communication being a social exercise? You are not writing this content for you, but for your audience, and a third party is a fantastic way to make sure the message you intend gets through.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the production of great content comes down to time and effort. While it is understandable that you may desire the fast solution to producing great content: you DO have deadlines to meet after all, the reality is great content does NOT come quickly. It is a careful and considered effort requiring utmost dedication to quality. Many businesses like ours have come to acknowledge this reality, which is why we use a dedicated team of writers whose only task is to create content. This allows the time to create fantastic content. While this does make the content expensive to produce, we feel the quality will speak for itself.

The post How to Create Great Content appeared first on Rank Executives.

My name is Jesse Leimgruber, I am studying at Stanford University and co-founder of Rank Executives.

Rank Executives is a full-service internet marketing company based in Orlando, but at the end of September, we’re opening an office in San Francisco. Unlike our Orlando office, our San Francisco office is solely devoted to developing startups, brainstorming cool ideas, and working together on interesting projects.

Our top developers and marketing professionals are moving to San Francisco with us to facilitate the growth of any startup project that requires their help. (Including your startup)

If you’re reading this, you probably have a startup, or are thinking about making one.

Joining this project will provide you with:

• A Marketing Budget
• Use of Our Office Space
• Free Access to Professional Developers & Designers
• Free PR & Marketing Consulting
• A Place to Brainstorm & Work With Other Like-Minded Students
• And In Some Cases: A Small Amount of Funding From Rank Executives

We do not require equity or payment. Instead, we require teamwork and support. However, we do hope to create an environment that allows everyone to be rewarded for their contributions. (i.e., It is up to you to distribute equity to the people you feel earned it.)

What’s in it for us? Networking, meeting talented people, the opportunity to partner with early-stage startups.

What’s in it for you? Assistance with development & marketing, office usage, networking, meeting talented people, the opportunity to partner with early-stage startups.

You DO NOT need an idea to join the project.

Since coming to Stanford, I’ve come in contact with tons of awesome, brilliant people. The Stanford Design School created an open concept, shared work environment. My dream is to create a similar environment for startups, allowing students to work together in a way that is beneficial to everyone. We were a startup not long ago. Since then, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with some awesome clients which has afforded us the opportunity to fund a project like this. Now, we want to share our resources and everything we’ve learned with new startup groups.

This is not an incubator, an accelerator, or a corporate endeavor. I am not trying to create the next Y-combinator, nor do I plan on directly profiting from this venture.

I want to find a few like-minded people that want to pool resources and help each other. In addition to helping everyone, the goal is to create the next BIG project. We are planning on working with no more than 25 students, half of those spots are already filled.

Please comment below if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or suggestions. We LOVE input!

How To Join:

Again, this is not intended to be an extremely exclusive application. To apply, fill out the form below or reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’ll be back at Stanford in September if you would rather chat in person. Note: This is open to anyone, not just Stanford Students.

Feel free to call our office: 407-878-6667 if you want to talk to me more about your ideas.

Some Facts About Us:

1. In August 2013, Rank Executives was ranked the #2 Enterprise SEO Agency in the United States by TopSEO’s.

2. We’ve worked on projects for a number of major companies including: Philips, Bain & Company, Salesforce, Rue & Ziffra, Kid Rock, David Guetta, Glenn Miller Orchestra & Kayak.

3. We recently acquired Boston SEO Experts, one of the leading SEO companies in Boston. We’re also taking over their internet marketing bootcamp conference this year.

4. Our free SEO grader has been used by over 2000 companies.

5. P.J. and Jesse Leimgruber also created Rage Hats Inc, one of the leading distributors of Neon Hats. Rage Hats operates NeonHats.com, MericaHats.com, and RageHats.com. The company earned a number of celebrity endorsements and sponsors some of the biggest music festivals across the United States, including Ultra, Identity, and Northcoast.

Other Ways You Can Help:

Obviously, joining the program is the easiest way you can help. That being said, we are also looking for more developers and designers to join the team as paid employees. We are hiring both full-time and part-time developers. If you know any developers looking for a job, send them our way.

It’s worth noting that this project is entirely self-funded. I’ve created profitable businesses, but the open startup project is costing all of our profit, and much of our savings. While we don’t “need” an investor, it would be nice to have some financial support.

Please share this with anyone that has a startup or might be interested in joining. They have no way of knowing about this opportunity unless you tell them.

The post Stanford: Are You Ready For The Open Startup Project? appeared first on Rank Executives.

1. Building Links is Free When You Outreach

Links are one of the most important ranking factors. Google counts the number of links to your site to determine how authoritative your website is. The more high quality links you have, the higher your website will rank. At Rank Executives, we simply find webmasters and blogs in our client’s niche, then message the site owner. Once you are communicating directly with the webmaster, negotiating a link is easy.

To get free links: Find the contact form on a relevant blog and ask them this question: “What can I do to get a link from your website?” The blogger will often ask you to write free blog post, give them a Facebook shout out, or better yet, just link to you for free.

2. A Free Instant SEO Audit Can Reveal Powerful Data

Using the above tool, at the top of this page, you can generate a custom list of changes that will improve your website. It takes less than 60 seconds and will provide dramatic increases in traffic. The tool will also reveal keywords that you are already ranking for, and tell you how you can improve the rankings on those keywords. If you have not yet generated a free SEO report, that should be high-priority.

To get a free instant SEO audit: Type in your website in the above orange box. Wait approximately 60 seconds and the report will generate your current rankings and a list of on-page suggestions.

3. Use Better Page Titles

Adding good titles to your pages is the first and simplest thing you will need to do to improve your rankings. Every SEO expert will tell you that prior to starting an SEO campaign, they will need to find the relevant keywords for your site and optimize the page titles. While an expert can easily do this, edit page titles is something you can also do yourself. If your industry is very specific, you might be able to do it better than a consultant. Use the above tool to generate a list of keywords that you are already ranking for. This is a great place to start. If these keywords are not set as your page title, that should be done as soon as possible. The tool will also tell you if you are using header and title tags appropriately.

4. Adjust Your URL’s Based on Keyword Research Data

Google’s free keyword tool will tell you the search volume for any keyword. Once you find high-volume keywords that you want to rank for, adjust your URL’s accordingly. That is, put the keyword in the URL. Don’t arbitrarily change the URL though, this may result in a 404 error on the old page. Instead, change the URL and 301 redirect the old page to the new page. This will ensure that all previous link juice and traffic will remain with the improved page.

5. Split Test to Improve Conversion Rate

User metrics refer to things like click through rate and time on site. Google tracks these metrics. The better user metrics you have, the better your rankings will be. The only way to improve user metrics is through split testing and conversion rate optimization. We suggest using a tool like Optimizely to figure out the best ways to reduce bounce rate, improve time on site, and increase click through rate.

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The Overview:

• Step 1: Collect E-mail Addresses (Opt-In newsletters and past customers are great place to start)
• Step 2: Sign up with an E-mail Marketing provider. (Constant Contact, Vertical Response, iContact, MailChimp)
• Step 3: Create a good promotion.
• Step 4: Design an HTML E-mail that clearly displays the promotion.
• Step 5: Install Google Analytics URL tracking on all the links to see which links are most effective.
• Step 6: Add social sharing buttons to your E-mail.
• Step 7: Write 3 great headlines.
• Step 8: Split test to determine which headline has the best open-rate.
• Step 9: Once you find the best headline, send to the rest of your list.
• Step 10: Repeat the campaign a few times per month.

Remember The Legal Boundaries

One of the most recognized Laws for E-mail marketing is the CANSpam Laws. CANSpam regulates email marketing in a fundamental way by requiring things such as recipient consent being a must before sending any commercial emails. This also helps the company by making the consumer feel as if they are actually listened to instead of simply steamrolled by marketing. The CANSpam law goes on to require advertisers to provide an opt out option for recipients of commercial email. Advertisers that send commercial email will not be allowed to mislead those they target regarding the nature or source of the email. Finally it requires those seeking to send commercial email go through proper channels when it comes to obtaining recipients email addresses. Remember it’s pertinent to brush up on any legal knowledge needed before pursuing any goal when it comes to business.

What you need to know:

• Don’t use rented, harvested, or paid lists.
• Make sure to honor every opt-out request.
• Only send E-mails to people who opted to receive them.
• Display your physical address at the bottom of every E-mail.
• Don’t send spam.

You Have 5 Seconds To Grab Their Attention

Email marketing is essentially dead on arrival when sent as a simple blob of text. Images and clickable links are elementary staples of good design. It’s important to remember that images do not always show up unless the consumer allows them too. Structure your design to function when images are showing as well as when they are not. For instance, if you solely use an image/link to promote a sale or special offer then those consumers that do not allow images to show will immediately miss out. On the other hand if you format your design as such that both text and image are equally a part of the promotion you lose none of the visibility you desire. Don’t overcrowd your design and keep the layout mostly simple. It’s important not to lose consumers with a myriad of images and graphics.

Make sure that your sale or offer is clearly visible within seconds of opening the E-mail.

Split Test and Track Some Data-Driven Metrics

Sending out hundreds if not thousands of emails a day is great for informing your consumers but can also be great at informing you of who those consumers are and where they spend their money. Combining that with a website using a service such as Google Analytics is a key step in understanding what’s going on with your campaign. Don’t forget to create a custom link using the Google Analytics URL builder, which is how you will tell just how effective your E-mail marketing campaign was.

Split test your E-mail headline to a small piece of your E-mail list. Wait a few hours to see which version has the highest open rate. When you have a winner, send that E-mail to the rest of your list.

Collect Better Data

Every single aspect of your email will affect the possible open rate percentage for your campaign. This might sound like a harsh view to take but the reality is that one single word in your subject line might have the possible impact of a ten percent open rate versus twenty percent. Advertisers who run E-mail marketing campaigns understand that tests such as the Split Test are required to keep you informed about what consumers respond well too. The split test works simply by testing samples of your whole collective E-mail database. For example let’s say you had 50,000 subscribers to your E-mail marketing newsletter. All you need to do is create various versions of marketing material and send them off to 500 recipients each. Whichever version had the highest open rate is the version you use on the rest of your consumers. This is a true fundamental for any good E-mail marketing campaign.

Be Social & Let them Share!

By now social media in advertising seems like a no-brainer. This equally applies to E-mail marketing campaigns. Give your recipients the chance to share any promotion you may be offering. Discounts could be given to those recipients that share your promotion with a set amount of other people. Get creative with how you use Social media and never forget to integrate it into your E-mails.

Refresh Rate

An important piece of the puzzle to nail down before sending out multiple emails is figuring out how often you should be sending new emails out. Consumers want constant promotions but they also don’t want to get five to six emails a day clogging their inbox. If your business finds that multiple emails per day is required for optimal effectiveness then try to keep it down to no more than three emails per day. For other companies you may find that that something as simple as once a day emails or even once a week will work for you.

Pulling them in

The Subject Line is the first step in capturing your consumer’s attention. Remember that most E-mail inboxes cut off anything after a mere sixty characters. Make sure that whatever you have in your title is attention grabbing and fewer than fifty characters. It’s important to avoid any words that could trigger the spam filters.

Today business is no longer simply a single brick and mortar entity located in your friendly neighborhood shopping plaza or mall. Every manor of advertisement has been examined and worked exhaustively into a fine tuned genuine marketing strategy. One area with the largest growth for marketing has been online. The surge in growth can be directly contributed to the costs savings. While savings are important for any business it’s arguable that understanding the needs of your customers is more important. Online marketing gives a channel in which you can both survey customers as well as introducing them to new deals, goods, or services. One crucial area of the online marketing dynamic is operating your own email marketing campaign. Email campaigns, when in concert with a function website, can drive sales and brand awareness up. Keep in mind that a general understanding of the inner workings of these campaigns will greatly benefit anyone with the motivation to undertake the task.

Special thanks to Eduardo Dieguez for drafting an initial version of this post.

The post E-mail Marketing: How to Start a Killer E-mail Marketing Campaign appeared first on Rank Executives.

Presentation is just as important as content when it comes to making good web content. What’s on the screen is often the first thing that makes an impression of the reader, and utilizing good font can convince the viewer to read more. Whether consciously or subconsciously, fonts and typography can give off different impressions of your site, which is why it’s key to make sure that the font is a good representation of your message.

Adding spacing between your lines improves readability

Ideal Text Formatting for Blogs

Most web designers don’t put much thought into formatting their blog. A readable blog can greatly improve time on size, reduce bounce rate, increase the number of shares and links, and skyrocket your blog’s online presence.

Ideal Font’s for Blogs:

• Georgia
• Open Sans
• Gill Sans
• Helvetica Neue

Ideal spacing for blogs with sidebars:

• Font Size: 16
• Line Height: 26
• Content Width: 680
• Approx. CPL: 96

Ideal spacing for blogs with no sidebars:

• Font Size: 19
• Line Height: 30
• Content Width: 900
• Approx. CPL: 108

Mathematical Proportion

Finely intertwined with the art of typography is the mathematical symmetry that defines all that we see. The artistic letter forms have mathematical proportion that can make them more or less pleasing to the eye, a marriage of form and function in this sense. When you have good proportions, a harmonious balance is established and the text becomes immensely easier to read. But when the arches and curves aren’t aligned, font can come significantly harder to read and turn your user off your site. The mathematical form of your content is incredibly important in how your readers see your site.

Primary Dimensions

Typography has three primary dimensions: font size, line height, and line width. Font size is the physical size of your letters; line height is essentially the spacing between your lines, and line width is the distance between the beginning and ending of each line on the page. The three dimensions are the backbone to how your typography is perceived.

The three dimensions can be changed in many ways to provide different feels, but it’s important to remember proportion when adjusting each dimensions. If line width and line height remain the same while font size changes, the font can appear to be squished and compressed as it gets bigger and destroy readability. A general rule of thumb is that line heights should increase with your font to main the geometric proportion of the paragraph.

Line Width & Line Height

Line width is perhaps one of the biggest changes you can do to readability. Larger line widths allow for longer lines of text while smaller line widths are idea for columns of text. While longer lines are necessary in some situations, it is better to keep the line width small due to the difficulty it is to perform the return sweep (essentially the movement of the eyes between the end of a line and the start of the next line). When thinking about the return sweep, it is also important to think about the line height. Larger line heights allow for longer line widths due to proportion, and in turn it is a good idea to keep the line heights and line widths directly proportional.

The Golden Ratio

In terms of keeping the proportions in balance, nature has already handed us the answer. The golden ratio is a beautiful blueprint that is incredibly effective in establishing proportionality. Remarkably pervasive, the golden ratio can be found in plants, animals, and even in your DNA.

In terms of typography, the two equations used are:

• L = f(golden ratio)
• W = L^2

It’s important to remember that these two equations are general and should be used to establish a basis for your font. Another hurdle, especially in web development, is the fact that many designers are constrained to using integer values for font size, line height, and line width. Creative liberty can also be taken to use fonts that are more ‘non-traditional’. Nevertheless, the golden ratio is incredibly useful in creating the backbone for user friendly typography. For more information, refer to the site: Golden Ratio Line Height Calculator

The site comes equipped with a golden ratio typography calculator that can easily optimize your typography for your site so it can be readable across multiple mobile devices.

The post The Guide to Flawless Web Typography appeared first on Rank Executives.

Facebook marketing has been a somewhat controversial aspect for marketers. Last year, AdAge reported that blank ads get a higher CTR than actual ads, leading many advertisers to believe that Facebook is an ineffective spend of their budget. To combat this sentiment, Facebook introduced promoted posts, launched timelines for brands, and adjusted the layout of their ads to increase user interaction… Still, only 37% of marketers felt that their Facebook marketing efforts were effective.

Unprecedentedly low click through rates and low ROI’s are common complaints from Facebook advertisers. Many speculate that the cause of these low metrics is not due to an ineffective platform, but due to ineffective targeting. AdRoll combined their Facebook Exchange partnership with their retargeting platform to help offset this targeting issue, allowing advertisers to target users that previously visited their site. While this sharply improved results, these retargeted ads are still located in the sidebar, surrounded by half a dozen non-relevant ads.

But the game is changing.

Aside from the occasional promoted post, users do not expect to see ads in their Facebook news feed. When ads do appear, they pay attention. Previously, you could only advertise promoted posts to people that like your page and their friends. But since many of these users already like your page, paying Facebook to “promote” your post is almost like giving Facebook your money for free. In May 2013, AdRoll launched a DIY platform that allows you to retarget your visitors through the Facebook news feed, even if those users are not following your company on Facebook.

News Feed Ad vs Standard Sidebar Ad (Courtesy of Adroll.com)

Five Game-Changing Uses for Internet Marketers:

Promote Facebook only discounts. It’s no secret that Facebook promotions perform exceptionally well for brands that already have a large following on Facebook. However, if you don’t have any fans following your page, it can be very difficult to launch a Facebook campaign. News feed retargeting changes this.

Split test promotions before launching them on your brand page.  Detailed analytics allow you to get explicit analytical data on click through rate, share rate, and conversion rate. Try out multiple images, different text options, and promotion variations to see which combination performs best. Then, use this framework for future promotions.

Seed your viral content (infographics, videos, case studies, etc). Viral content is a great way to boost your social presence, but you need a starting set of people. People need to see your content before they can spread it. News feed retargeting is a great way to do this. People seeing your content are familiar with your brand and more likely to share it. Once it’s shared, those clicks are free.

Increase your social branding. A user landed on your page once, imagine what they will think if they continue to see your ads throughout Facebook. Your brand presence will skyrocket, thereby increasing the likelihood that they share your content on the social-sphere.

Interact with clients to gain feedback and perform market research. The opinion of your potential customers matters. Ask a question, find out what your users want. If you are launching a new product, ask your Facebook audience what product they would like to see. News feed retargeting makes market research incredibly affordable and rapid.

Integrating Retargeting with Your Current Marketing Efforts

News feed retargeting is powerful, but it is only truly effective if your website already has a pool of visitors to retarget. This is where traditional online marketing comes in. It is important that you target qualified visitors. Buying 1000 visitors from a low cost traffic source is not ideal for retargeting, since these users had no reason to see your site in the first place.

Step 1: Driving initial set of traffic.

Pay Per Click – Depending on your niche, this is the quickest way to drive traffic to your site. It is costly, however, and not typically regarded as a long term solution. The visitors you buy from PPC tend to be fairly qualified and work well for retargeting.

Search Engine Optimization – If your site ranks well, you can see a huge supply of targeted traffic through SEO. This is the ideal source of traffic for retargeting. That being said, it is a significant time investment and involves quite a bit of effort to produce content and build links.

Facebook Ads – Buying traffic from Facebook Ad’s isn’t a bad strategy since these visitors actively use Facebook. Even so, traditional sidebar Facebook ads are not generally regarded as a great traffic source.

Press Releases – For a relatively low up-front cost, you can get a fairly large amount of visitors to your site. Keep in mind that visitors reading your press release may not necessarily be as targeted as users that found you on the search engines.

Display Advertisements – These involve negotiating banner ads on other websites. If your niche is large enough, we suggest messaging bloggers or webmasters in extremely similar audience’s. This way, you know that your traffic source is targeted.

Step 2: Increase Your Branding (This is where retargeting helps)

Social Media Marketing – It is crucial that you grow your social media presence. Facebook retargeting is excellent for doing so. You can convert your current visitors into followers on Facebook, allowing you to directly market new products and services to them without having to pay for new visitors.

Standard Retargeting – “I see your ads EVERYWHERE” is quite common to hear if you use retargeting. Integrating FBX News Feed retargeting with your existing AdRoll ad’s creates an unprecedented level of branding.

Create Viral Content – Infographics, viral blog posts, videos, and giveaways are a great way to improve branding. While you can seed these in any way you are able to, it makes sense to promote them on Facebook. If your budget allows, news feed retargeting can help boost the presence of your viral content.

Build An E-mail List – Most companies understand the value of having an opt-in E-mail list. If you’re not already pushing users to join your E-mail newsletter… now is a good time to start. More often than not, users do not sign up for newsletters on their first visit, which is why retargeting visitors helps.

Step 3: Conversion Rate Optimization & Market Research (Retargeting also helps here)

Split Testing Ads – High click through rates and an optimized advertisement can work wonders for your brand. Since AdRoll’s platform provides detailed analytics, you can split test advertisements. If you find one that works, you can extend the ad to other platforms.

Determining New Products – Interact with your followers, ask them questions. People are responsive to news feed posts. Ask your visitors what they want, offer a chance to win a prize for responding. You will be surprised at the response rate.

Improving your Brand – Boosting social media followers, increasing the visibility of your logo, interacting with your brand. Retargeting is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it can definitely help get you closer to becoming a fully branded company.

Implement your Findings on Social Media – When you figure out exactly what slogans and promotions increase click through rate, and you’ve figured out the next product or service that you are going to offer, you should implement your findings on social media. That is, post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts in a much more optimized manner.

Repeat.

Final Thoughts.

Retargeting is powerful and changing the game. In my opinion, it is just as important as social media marketing or search engine optimization. AdRoll’s news feed retargeting is adding an additional dynamic to Internet marketing, and perhaps saving Facebook from becoming an advertising black hole. Since you are reading this article and on our website, you will likely be seeing our ads in your news feed, we are firm believers.

The post Facebook News Feed Retargeting: A Game Changer appeared first on Rank Executives.

Not too long ago, conversion rate optimization rarely crossed the minds of web designers and marketers. But the last few years brought an array of changes to the world of web design, conversion rate optimization is now crucial to the success of your website.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies reports that over 14,000 advertising companies are actively accepting clients. Faced with growing competition, AdRoll developed an innovate retargeting platform for online advertising. Despite creating new technology, they were still a startup, they had no branding, credibility or users. By implementing incredible conversion rate optimization techniques, they launched themselves to the top of the online advertising industry.

Some of the key components of AdRoll’s Conversion Rate Optimization:

• They establish credibility by showcasing awards and repeating that they are “#1”.
• “Free Trial” is highlighted in the menu bar.
• A video explains their service in a casual manner while giving an inside look of the company.
• Their phone number is in the header of every page.
• Social media icons are always visible.
• An omnipresent chat bar stays at the bottom of the screen.
• They feature their top brands from a variety of niches.
• Press coverage is highlighted on the homepage.
• Numerous case studies & testimonials are available.
• They have a “Meet the Team” Page.
• The bandwagon effect is introduced by saying: “5000 brands choose AdRoll”
• They appeal to viewers emotions with a visual connection to Silicon Valley.
• Pages are organized nicely in their footer.

Building Credibility

Modern design tools allow practically anyone to launch a website. Since websites are all created on an even playing field, businesses must place significant focus on establishing credibility to set themselves apart from dubious competition. AdRoll makes a clear effort to demonstrate their trust and authority by drawing attention to an abundance of awards, case studies, a strong client base, and press coverage.

Use of “#1” Above the Fold

AdRoll uses “#1” three times, before users even scroll down.

Before even scrolling down, three instances of “#1” appear. A banner at the top of the page proudly showcases themselves as the “#1 Advertising Company by Inc. Magazine”; the largest text on the homepage defines themselves as the “#1 Retargeting Platform”; a box beneath that proudly describes why they are “#1 on FBX”. The visual redundancy of “#1” clearly serves as an indirect approach to condition users into believing that they are actually the best platform to use. While their claim of being the “#1 advertising company” is backed by Inc. Magazine, the other two claims are not backed with any support; yet, seeing “#1” combined with additional ethos building strategies serves as a powerful method to convince visitors of their credibility.

Reassurance Through the Bandwagon Effect

AdRoll builds their credibility by making it clear that established brands already use their service.

AdRoll showcases the fact that over 5000 brands use their service. They not only present this as a way to reassure visitors that the service is well established, but it also initiates the psychological concept of the bandwagon effect. Users will have a larger tendency to use AdRoll because individuals generally prefer to conform to social norms. Additionally, in the business world, the term “brand” typically correlates with successful companies. AdRoll understands that they are primarily targeting business owners, CMO’s, and marketing directors; in an effort to flatter this audience, they replace “companies” with “brands” to make potential users feel as though using their service classifies their company as a “brand”.

Inclusion of Recognized Brand Logos

AdRoll carefully picks a select few companies to represent their service.

Any business that does client work should be sure to include the logos of their biggest clients, this is crucially important to increase conversion rate optimization.

Out of their 5000 customers, AdRoll displays only a select few, choosing clients from an assortment of niches to make it clear that the service is effective across all markets. Silicon Valley tech startups are placed at the top as a means to introduce the concept of status leaks – business owners are more likely to use AdRoll if they respect the marketing decision of these companies.

In order to not isolate traditional business owners, national brands such as Nestle and America Apparel are featured as well.

They proudly display press, select particular quotes, and only show news from business outlets.

Carefully selected Press Coverage

Further down the page is a separate area featuring news snippets from Forbes, Business Times, Bloomberg, and an array of news other press outlets. They choose to only feature the business related news outlets to better appeal to their target audience since business owners will respect these sources more than non-business sources. The fact that AdRoll demonstrates their credibility with such a broad set of authoritative sources sets them apart from their competition, creating an extremely successful homepage. By virtually saturating their website with press, big brands, testimonials and awards, they leave no room for viewers to speculate that they are anything but the most authoritative advertising company.

Appealing to Users Sense of Logic

They Make it Clear that Support is Standing By

AdRoll Keeps their phone number in the header, a live chat box is always present at the bottom of the screen, and all their contact information is in the footer.

Coupling their awards and authoritative sources with an appeal to the viewers sense of logic reinforces AdRoll’s credibility and creates an extremely powerful argument. As users scroll down the site, a live chat box stays omnipresent at the bottom of the screen, comforting customers that helpful support is always present. Unlike most companies, their customer service department is called the “customer delight team.” This euphemism serves as a subtle indicator to help potential users feel that they will be “delighted” with support, given the poor quality of traditional customer service.

AdRoll Uses Warm Sounding Words

Positive sounding words replace any harsh terminology. “Contact us” replaces “connect with us,” implying a personal connection with customer support. “Pricing packages” replaces “pricing made simple,” followed by a subtitle stating, “You have complete control.” Generally, potential users become apprehensive around pricing; they make multiple references to the fact that they work with any budget and that there is no minimum monthly spend. This directly appeals to low budget companies and small businesses, however, large companies will feel that AdRoll is not solely focused on making money.

AdRoll makes a clear effort to display subtle indicators of comfort, conveying the fact that there are humans behind their product by placing their toll free support line at the header of every page.

They Associate Themselves with Recognized Companies

Page space is limited above the fold, but AdRoll still makes an effort to associate themselves with major partners. Their video still rests on an image with the logos of Facebook, Google, and Microsoft; AdRoll builds logical appeal from the fact they work with these authoritative companies, supporting their claims of credibility. As users scroll down, we see an array of case studies and testimonials. In this instance, AdRoll relies on the testimonies and opinions of expert opinions to support their claims of being the best company. They create an authoritative group of businesses to show that the general public, and their current clients, support the service.

AdRoll Makes a clear emphasis on displaying their social media presence

Their Social Media Presence is Proudly Displayed

Further scrolling down reveals a strong social media presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Twitter – all of which are paired with a numerical value that indicates a wide following of everyday people, not large brands.

AdRoll includes these to appeal to the average, non-executive, consumer.

They knows that some users can connect with their social media presence better than they can connect with a list of large brands. AdRoll effectively appeals to logic by presenting the testimony of their clients, changing verbiage to sound helpful, accentuating the presence of customer service and connecting with users through social media; all of which serve as a direct support to the claim that they are the “#1” advertising platform.

Incorporate the Viewers Emotions

AdRoll makes a straightforward appeal to the emotional side of the viewers, directly displaying the success and relaxed environment that many business owners aspire to create. This appeal to pathos plays a crucial role in the development of their homepage.

They Show an Inside Look of Their Office

AdRoll Shows an Inside Look at their office, support team, programmers… and still places a conversion button near the video.

The speaker in the video is shown wearing a t-shirt, the traditional laid back attire of the Silicon Valley atmosphere. When viewers click the video, they see the young speaker in an office that is quite different from that of traditional East coast companies. A young front man is not unlike other Silicon Valley companies, but is certainly unique to the advertising market. The AdRoll staff does not wear uniforms, they are not working at cubicles, people are chatting in the background – it simply looks like everyone enjoys their job. The fact that AdRoll can afford such a relaxed work environment reflects upon their success as a company.

Visual Connection to Silicon Valley

AdRoll appeals to the readers design emotions by keeping the golden gate bridge image present in their footer

The footer shows a distant illustration of the golden gate bridge, allowing visitors to clearly see that AdRoll is not only based in San Francisco, but also that they embody all the principles and business practices of Silicon Valley. Even the meet the team page helps bring the staff down to a friendly level. The president is described as an “avid surfer,” while the COO is described as someone that enjoys “tennis on the foggy courts.” By dropping the formal outward appearance of traditional advertising companies and displaying their company in a welcoming manner, AdRoll convincingly appeals to the viewers emotions, perfectly supporting their appeals to logic and credibility.

Conversion Rate Optimization: Take Home Points

Rather than displaying the advantages of their service, AdRoll appeals to users judgment of credibility by displaying their awards, press coverage, testimonials, client base, social presence, and client base. Their primary focus rests with increasing credibility, setting them apart from the other 14,000 advertising companies; but this seamlessly couples with direct appeals to logic and emotion, creating a compelling homepage that effectively convinces business owners to use their service.

Traditional marketing companies tend to characterize themselves with formal outward appearances – but this does not apply to AdRoll. The homepage of AdRoll is dependent on the full spectrum of conversion rate optimization techniques, all of which are based on the conventional rhetorical appeals. They display their association with big brands; provide a wide selection of press coverage, and present lengthy testimonials to build credibility. They accentuate this with an appeal to logic, showcasing their awards, social media presence and an array of support options. While subtle, their friendly tech voice, casual visual connections to Silicon Valley and inconspicuous graphic design details build emotional appeal.

AdRoll’s immense success in the advertising market privies them to take a powerful approach when marketing their product; rather than simply showcasing their service, they overwhelm users with awards, press coverage, testimonials, and an array of large clients, all in a “friendly” voice that epitomizes the Silicon Valley vibe. Combining these factors dramatically improves their overall conversion rate optimization.

Personal Note: We use AdRoll’s service for our own website, our E-commerce sites, and for some of our client’s websites. They are an excellent company and we would highly recommend their service. I’ve never had a problem with their customer support, their user interface is second to none, and the results are unmatched for online ads.

The post Conversion Rate Optimization: AdRoll Case Study appeared first on Rank Executives.