Is responsive web design enough? (Hint: No)

As mobile-first indexing nears, the need to optimize for mobile has never felt so pressing.

Even in its current iteration, mobile search is incredibly important for advertisers and businesses of all sizes. Consider these statistics:

• A majority of Google searches occur on a smartphone or tablet.
• 50 percent of local mobile searches are for local business contact information, says Hubspot:

• According to BrightEdge, 69 percent of mobile searchers stated they were more likely to buy from a brand with a mobile site that addressed their concerns.

Now, with mobile web design, speed takes precedence over almost any other ranking factor. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if half of the web is seriously optimized for mobile search.

According to Think with Google, 70 percent of mobile web pages take 7 seconds to load visual content above and below the fold.

Common mobile site errors include:

• Blocked JavaScript and cascading style sheets (CSS) files.
• Failed redirects.
• Poor graphical interfaces (e.g., tiny text and poor image pixelation).
• Clunky search functions.
• Obtrusive interstitials.

Fixing many of these issues requires investing in a responsive content management system (CMS) and the right configuration for your mobile site.

Yet many questions remain as to what configuration truly works best for your website. Responsive web design has dominated the industry as the preferred configuration, but as the mobile web becomes more competitive, should the industry move on?

Is responsive web design enough?

via GIPHY

Now, creating a standalone mobile website is good from the end-user perspective, but it severely diminishes your website’s equity from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective.

Beyond this, mobile domains can be a costly investment and even more costly to maintain.

My digital marketing firm uses responsive web design (RWD), as well as accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to create a truly mobile-friendly website for our clients. But we must remember that responsive web design was not designed for speed, it was designed for designers.

Chances are your CMS has a responsive web design plug-in.

RWD web pages take advantage of fluid grids to render images and on-page elements in proportion to their device. For technical teams, this presents clear advantages to mobile design, including:

• Responsive handling of on-page layout for different devices.
• Retaining all content on a single uniform resource locator (URL), as opposed to an m. domain.
• More cost-effective than creating a standalone mobile site.
• Sites can be accessed offline using hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5).

While RWD does have its advantages, it was mostly created as a low-cost way to optimize websites for mobile search devices. It was also a way to complete this with little effort as possible.

Problems with RWD websites still persist:

• Slow loading speeds: above 10 seconds without proper onsite optimization
• Designers still need to optimize for touch, as opposed to scroll-and-click interfaces
• Data visualizations need to be optimized for small screens (i.e., charts and graphs)

So, why is this important? While RWD is an effective solution for small businesses and publishers on a budget, many established businesses are already making the switch to higher-speed configurations, such as accelerated mobile pages and progressive web applications (PWA).

Is AMP the answer or a red herring?

AMP represents Google’s big push to speed up the internet, but is it only on its terms?

As a quick primer, AMP is essentially an HTML framework that works the same as a content delivery network, serving stripped-down versions of web pages to increase page speeds. AMP is ideal for publishers who serve news articles and blog posts. It’s very similar to Facebook’s Instant Articles format.

AMP is currently being employed by multiple search engines, and even AdWords ads. Using the “Fast Fetch” tag, AMP continues to become faster and easier to implement.

According to Google, over 900,000 domains have already adopted AMP, and that number continues to grow.

In fact, numerous publishers have reported astounding success after switching to AMP:

Google has also made it no secret that it prioritizes AMP web pages for its mobile news carousels.

Mobile web speed obviously has a huge impact on the user experience and your conversion rate.

Using Google’s cache, web pages with AMP load 2x faster at one-tenth the latency of traditional web pages. But herein lies the issue with AMP.

While we’d consider faster loading speeds as contributing to more valued user experience, it’s the sacrifice that AMP needs to undergo that has severely limited its digital marketing value and adoption.

Since AMP is loaded using Google’s cache and served as a different version of the original document, clicks are hard to track since they technically don’t occur on the publisher’s website. This has a significant effect on engagement. By serving a watered-down version of a web page, AMP is great for serving informative blog posts, but there’s an obvious disconnect between the initial click and further engagement with the site.

This means that publishers and e-commerce stores must theoretically offer two different versions of their offerings. AMP is essentially search-result ad copy.

As a side note, another thing affecting AMP’s adoption is Google’s failure to communicate with its customers.

Ask the average web user what an AMP article is or if they could recognize one, and you’ll probably receive a blank stare. Ironically, Google is doing a disservice to its own user experience by not properly communicating the importance and advantages of AMP to individual users. Instead, it’s relied on publishers to make the switch of their own volition.

Does this mean that AMP is a red herring that should be ignored? Not exactly, and it all depends on your website. Unfortunately, there’s another configuration that threatens RWDs hegemony and AMP’s burgeoning adoption.

What about progressive web apps?

You may be familiar with PWAs, although very few sites actually leverage this genius technology.

PWAs are websites that act like an app in every way but don’t require a download.

PWAs are accessed through the web browser and utilize Javascript or CSS, along with HTML, to create nearly instantaneous load speeds. Leveraging their universal resource identifiers (URI), PWAs are linkable when bookmarked or shared by a web user.

The main advantages of PWAs include:

• Ability to work offline.
• Universal access on all devices and web browsers.
• Comparable load speeds with AMP.
•  Faster transitions between web pages and navigation than traditional mobile domains.
•  Native app-like interfaces.
•  Indexable and linkable.
• Ability to send push notifications.

Primarily, PWAs are used by e-commerce stores to create faster checkout times and a better end-user experience. PWAs can increase engagement on your site and increase conversions through their ability to leverage offline resources and push notifications to continually communicate with users.

But there are also drawbacks to PWAs. It’s a rather costly investment and incredibly difficult to implement, meaning you’ll probably have to hire a professional web designer to do so.

A larger concern would be: why not just invest in an app? Users visit hundreds of websites weekly and have numerous apps stored on their phone. Their primary demand, above all else, is fast loading speeds, which AMP provides.

With this in mind, which mobile configuration is best for your website, as we embark on the mobile-first era?

Which mobile configuration is best?

AMP is ideal for publishers who only seek to drive more traffic to their blog or publication. Many website owners have struggled to implement AMP because many CMS’s still don’t have a plug-in available. Even still, with Google’s new mobile “AMP Stories,” WordPress and many notable CMS’s struggled to properly implement AMP.

On the other hand, PWAs work across all browsers, and progressive enhancements have made them secure from viruses and unwanted content.

In terms of speed, PWAs and AMPs both have nearly instantaneous load times. The biggest difference here is the speed of navigation that comes from PWAs, as all web pages will be hosted in this format, unlike AMP.

From a ranking perspective, AMP may be a ranking signal (no one knows yet), but if PWAs host nearly identical loading speeds, I don’t see AMP as possessing a clear advantage over PWAs.

From a web design perspective, AMP is a nightmare, as it strips away many of the graphical and user interface elements of the native design. On other hand, PWAs are able to render and serve all of your design elements in an app-like display, which makes them more user-friendly.

After switching a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) PWA, AliExpress improved its conversion rate by 104 percent across all browsers.

Finally, PWAs are responsive to different browsers and can react to user permissions to create a smooth checkout experience.

In the end, the best solution is to combine both for a truly fast, homogenous experience. Major brands, such as The Washington Post, have already done this. With the greater search visibility and speed of AMP articles and the app-like interface of PWAs, combining both could significantly increase your user signals and offer a better experience for users.

Conclusion

The need to go mobile cannot be overstated, although we’re already past beating the dead horse. Responsive web design is a great first step, but I don’t believe it goes far enough for businesses competing in a competitive niche. This is especially true for publishers.

For e-commerce platforms, combining AMP with a PWA design truly offers the best mobile configuration available today. All I can say is, make the switch to a mobile-friendly website before it’s too late.

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SearchCap: Google mobile-first indexing notices, job posting guidelines & podcasting

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• First batch of Google mobile-first indexing notifications goes out today
  Apr 30, 2018 by Barry Schwartz

  Achievement unlocked! Google has begun sending out mobile-first indexing notifications to webmasters.

• Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß Google doodle honors mathematician known as the ‘Prince of Mathematicians’
  Apr 30, 2018 by Amy Gesenhues

  The celebrated mathematician made contributions across several mathematical fields.

• How to use a podcast to create smart and usable content
  Apr 30, 2018 by Sherry Bonelli

  In the last of this three-part series, Contributor Sherry Bonelli says a podcast might be an audio file, but you can create unique written content from it to help with your branding and SEO efforts. Here’s how.

• Google announces new job posting guidelines & requirements
  Apr 27, 2018 by Barry Schwartz

  Google has officially updated its job posting guidelines and says if you violate those guidelines, your site can receive a manual action.

• First look! Here’s what you can expect at SMX Advanced
  Apr 30, 2018 by Chris Sherman

  SMX Advanced is unique in so many ways. It’s the premier experts-only conference programmed by the team at Search Engine Land, the publication of record for search marketers. It attracts the biggest group of the world’s most sophisticated marketers for three days of learning and sharing. And it celebrates search marketers with the largest and […]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• First look! Here’s what you can expect at SMX Advanced
• Forrester’s first report on media tech/services spending shows customer experience and AI are driving budgets
• YouTube announces more moves to chip away at TV ad budgets
• You vs. data: Where people fit in modern retail marketing strategy

Search News From Around The Web:

• Content Silo – Value for SEO, BrightEdge Blog
• Google AMP: 4 Myths that Need to Die, Stone Temple
• Criteria for Google Mobile First Indexing is Matching Content Not Mobile Friendliness, The SEM Post
• Google Image Search Bug Where Only Some Images Are Loading?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Old AdWords vs New AdWords: A review, Branded3

The post SearchCap: Google mobile-first indexing notices, job posting guidelines & podcasting appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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First look! Here’s what you can expect at SMX Advanced

SMX Advanced is unique in so many ways. It’s the premier experts-only conference programmed by the team at Search Engine Land, the publication of record for search marketers. It attracts the biggest group of the world’s most sophisticated marketers for three days of learning and sharing. And it celebrates search marketers with the largest and most prestigious search marketing awards program in the world.

Won’t you join us June 11-13 in Seattle? Register here.

Need to know more? Buckle up! Here’s my 10,000+ word description of everything SMX Advanced has to offer. Then, register before all of the tickets are sold, as they have every year since SMX Advanced redefined the search marketing conference experience in 2007.

2018: Emerging opportunities and new challenges

Change is constant in search marketing. Opportunities emerge quickly — sometimes quicker than they can be absorbed. New channels. New technologies like machine learning. New ad options and formats. Even veterans struggle to keep pace.

SMX Advanced delivers cutting-edge marketing tips and tactics you’ll put to work immediately to drive more revenue, leads and traffic. It’s your survival guide to the dynamic and tumultuous world of search marketing.

SEO in the age of machine learning

For SEOs, we’ll dive deep into algorithm changes driven by “black box” machine learning techniques, the impact of the mobile-first index and an ever-increasing number of competitive websites appearing each day. Need to demonstrate the value of your efforts to management? We’ll show you how to document your accomplishments and get more resources from your boss or clients.

Sessions focused on organic search include:

• SEO Ranking Factors In 2018: What’s Important, What’s Not.
• Mobile-First & AMP For The Advanced SEO.
• Advanced Technical SEO: Page Speed, Site Migrations, Crawling.
• Advanced Technical SEO: Schema & Structured Data, JavaScript.
• Solving Complex SEO Problems When Standard Fixes Don’t Apply.

View the SEO track.

Maximizing ROI with SEM

Keeping up with all of the enhancements Google makes to AdWords is a full-time job. You’ll learn their capabilities and the tactics that will deliver ROI from these new options.

SMX Advanced features SEM tracks running on both days of the show, leading off the first day with the perennial favorite Mad Scientists Of Paid Search session. Other SEM sessions include:

• Turning Your Data Into Compelling Stories.
• Machines & Humans: A SWOT Analysis.
• The Latest & Greatest In Online Ads.
• Conversion Optimization: Turning Quick Wins Into Winning Streaks.
• Audience Targeting In A Privacy-Centric World.
• Storytelling With Social Ads That Sell.

View the SEM track.

Uncle! I’m ready to register.

Your SEO needs a voice

Voice search is now the fastest-growing way users interact with Google, Bing, Apple and Amazon. If you’re not optimizing content to take advantage of these channels, you’re missing out on a lot of valuable traffic. Is getting the most from voice-enabled devices your responsibility? You’ll want to participate in:

• Optimizing For Voice Search & Virtual Assistants.
• A Discussion with Cortana and Google Assistant, in Their Own Voices.

Advanced tactics for e-tailers

Calling all e-tailers out there! We get that you face unique SEM challenges. That’s why SMX Advanced features sessions focused on tactics for getting the most from paid search campaigns. Don’t miss:

• Taking Shopping Campaigns to the Next Level.
• Amazon: How to Optimize, Compete & Win On The World’s Biggest Marketplace.

Broaden your vertical horizons

We’ll be putting the spotlight on a number of important types of online marketing that don’t fit neatly into an SEO or SEM “bucket” but nonetheless are areas that are crucial for success. Sessions on our Vertical and Spotlight Tracks include:

• Maximizing The Impact Of Online Video Ads.
• Local Search: Significant Changes On The Horizon.
• Deep Dive: Google’s New Search Console.
• Making Your Analytics Work Harder & Smarter.

Uncle! I’m ready to register.

Keynotes for you… really

We share the love equally between SEO and SEM at SMX Advanced. And the keynotes are no exception.

SEOs have issues they’re just itching to discuss with Google. And the Google Webmaster Outreach team is up for the challenge. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to help shape the future of search at our SEO keynote, led by Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Michelle Robbins.

Bing and Google will share the stage for our SEM keynote, hosted by Search Engine Land’s Ginny Marvin. Ginny will be joined by Google Head of Product, Shopping Surojit Chatterjee and Microsoft General Manager, Global Search Ads Business Steve Sirich.

Ask the experts

SMX Advanced wraps up with two perpetual favorites: Ask The SEOs and Ask The SEMs. Both sessions are open-ended forums where you can ask panelists anything — about the conference, about specific tactics or techniques, about industry trends — it’s entirely up to you.

Pre-conference workshops & training

Looking for even more advice in a smaller group setting? Come a day early and enjoy your choice of six in-depth workshops:

• Advanced SEO Training with Bruce Clay
• Certified Knowledge Advanced AdWords Training with Brad Geddes
• Mastering Social Media Advertising with Ginny Marvin
• Maximizing Mobile Potential with Cindy Krum
• Hardcore Technical SEO Tactics & Techniques with Eric Enge
• Advanced Conversion Rate Optimization & A/B Testing with Ayat Shukairy

You can save big by registering for both the SMX Advanced pre-conference workshops and All Access pass combo.

An SMX hallmark: Quality programming & speakers

All the SMX sessions I’ve described above are what we call “editorial sessions.” Each editorial session is developed by a session coordinator who reviews speaking pitches and reaches out to recognized industry experts to assemble a panel. The session coordinator works with the speakers to create a session where presentations support each other, rather than overlap. In most cases, the session coordinator is also the session moderator.

Formats also vary. Sometimes we have panels with multiple people. Sometimes we have only one or two speakers. Some panels are all Q&A. Some feature formal presentations. We don’t lock ourselves into one particular format because different topics require different approaches. Instead, we focus on creating an exceptional overall experience.

People are invited to speak at these sessions because we feel they have useful information to share with our audience. No one pays to participate on an editorial panel. View the complete agenda.

The Expo Hall, Learn With Google, Excel With Bing, & Solutions Track

Vendors and exhibitors also have stories to tell. We give them the opportunity and you the option to engage with them.

Connect with nearly 40 leading vendors in the Expo Hall for demonstrations of new products and services that will make your company more profitable and you more productive. Swing by during session breaks or spend some focused hours combing through all it has to offer. See all of the companies exhibiting.

Want to go deep on AdWords and Bing Ads? This is your chance! Both brands will present full days of educational sessions focused on their advertising platforms. Step inside for best practices around search, display and analytics, one-on-one support and a chance to meet the teams.

And there’s more: Solutions Track sessions are full-length presentations from participating companies. These sessions compete with high-quality editorial sessions, so the presenting brands make sure that plenty of great information is offered.

At SMX Advanced, Quora will reveal the Secret Weapon To Unlocking Mid-Funnel ROI, and the one and only Bruce Clay will share his team’s tips for Mastering SEO Silos. We’re also looking forward to presentations from Perform Media, Invoca, Brightedge and more. Stay tuned for finalized Solution Track sessions! Get the complete agenda here.

Uncle! I’m ready to register.

Invaluable, organized networking

SMX Advanced brings together the most accomplished search marketers in the world, and we provide plenty of thoughtfully sequenced networking opportunities for you to engage with your peers.

Once you’re registered, request an invitation to our private SMX Facebook Group. This will allow you to connect with other attendees and speakers before, during and after the show.

As always, we kick off the conference Monday, June 11, with the SMX Meet & Greet Reception, sponsored by Bruce Clay, Inc. This informal gathering is held on top of the Bell Harbor Conference Center and offers spectacular views of both downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay. Join us for complimentary drinks and appetizers, plus plenty of engaging conversations with your fellow attendees and speakers.

The SMX Expo Hall Reception takes place on Tuesday, June 12. This event offers another chance to mingle with attendees and check out the best-of-breed marketing solutions from our exhibitors and sponsors.

Each day during lunch, we offer unique “Obsessed with…” networking tables, where attendees enjoy a delicious lunch and topic-driven conversations. Being grouped with people who share a common interest is a great way to break the ice and forge meaningful connections.

Lastly, you won’t want to miss the 4th annual Search Engine Land Awards on Tuesday, June 12, sponsored by Google. Join us from 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at Seattle’s famed Museum of Pop Culture for a fabulous evening celebrating the power of search. Enjoy cocktails and hors-d’oeuvres while you honor the finalists and winners in this year’s competition, then dance the night away with the largest gathering of your search marketing community! You won’t want to miss this unique celebration!

All of these options can be found on our SMX Advanced networking page. We keep SMX Advanced intentionally intimate, so you are guaranteed to meet plenty of amazing people!

You’ve read, now register!

I hope you’ve found this preview useful and that you’ll be joining us in Seattle this June! Register by May 12 to take advantage of Early Bird rates. Pay only $1,895 for an All Access pass, a $400 savings compared to on-site rates. We guarantee that your time and investment at SMX will be worth every penny. And remember… SMX Advanced has sold out every year for the past 11 years, so don’t delay!

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Is Twitter Worth Your Time? Here’s What New 2018 Data Says About Twitter for Marketing

Misinformation is spreading like wildfire.

On Twitter, it’s no different.

Numerous spam accounts and bots plague Twitter. They share false and misleading information, which has negatively impacted user experience.

The network is now working to correct some of these problems, but only time will tell with how the network will fare.

But if new 2018 data is accurate, then the future looks dim.

Researchers at MIT recently released a comprehensive study about “the spread of true and false news online,” which examined over a decade’s worth of data.

They discovered that misinformation reached 1,500 people six times faster than valid information.

This has marketers asking the question, “How do we counteract that?”

Some are even wondering, “Is Twitter worth using?”

To effectively use Twitter and see a return on your efforts, you need to understand how to best use the network for your long-term gain.

Twitter is much different now than it was when it first debuted in 2006. It is important for marketers to understand the network’s evolution as well as its current user ecosystem.

Despite these new revelations and the current state of misinformation, I’m going to show you how to get the most out of your Twitter marketing strategy in 2018.

But before deploying your 2018 strategy, you need to understand how Twitter has changed in recent months, so you don’t make the same mistakes you’ve likely made in the past.

How understanding Twitter’s current state can strengthen your business’s marketing strategy

I’m going to guess that Twitter plays some sort of role in your marketing strategy.

A recent study asked respondents, “Which social media platforms do you use to market your business?”

Not surprisingly, Twitter emerged as one of the top platforms.

But should it be?

Lately, Twitter has had its fair share of problems.

To start, there are bots.

A Twitter bot is “a software program that sends out automated posts on Twitter.”

Often, these automated posts are tweets. Other times, the bots will automatically respond to user messages that include specific phrases.

But is this really a problem? It certainly can be.

Although some bots can be helpful for your business objectives, there has been an influx of bots permeating through Twitter’s user base.

Now, there are a lot of them.

In fact, there are an estimated 48 million bots on Twitter, accounting for 15% of Twitter’s total users.

So how many people are actually on Twitter?

Well, at the time of publication, Twitter had 336 total monthly active users.

Compared to other social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, Twitter isn’t leading when it comes to monthly active users.

And if 15% of these users are actually bots, then that decreases the potential number of people you can market to even further.

Bots have started to impact Twitter’s user experience negatively, too.

Bots recently came under scrutiny for playing a part in spreading misinformation in the 2016 election.

Those who create bots can also program them to share spam.

A study from the Pew Research Center found that bots shared links directing traffic to sites across a variety of industries.

They also found that “an estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular sites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.”

How’s that for making your brand feel more “human?”

While Twitter is cracking down on bots, many are skeptical that this will help with the increase of misinformation plaguing the platform.

After all, bots aren’t the only reason for a poor Twitter user experience.

In the MIT study I mentioned earlier, they found that humans are more susceptible to spreading fake news than bots.

Twitter might be able to lower the influence of bots, but trying to prevent real people from spreading false information is much harder.

In another recent study, 51% of respondents felt that “the information environment will not be improved by changes designed to reduce the spread of lies and other misinformation online.”

So with the influx of bots, spread of misinformation, and stifled user growth, how should marketers approach their Twitter strategy?

Your strategy needs to evolve with the platform and take advantage of Twitter’s strengths while keeping in mind its weaknesses.

Here are five ways to tailor your Twitter strategy for results in 2018.

Use Twitter for quick, direct customer service interactions and resolutions

We’ve all been there.

You need a piece of information that you can’t find on a business’ website and don’t really want to call them.

“Oh, I’ll just tweet at them, because they’ll probably reply,” you think to yourself.

This is more common than you probably think.

Investing time and resources in your Twitter customer service strategy is important for the long-term growth of your business.

Sometimes, your customers need a bit of TLC. And this is where Twitter can shine.

In fact, 85% of Twitter users said that it’s important that businesses provide customer support on Twitter.

By being responsive on Twitter, you add a level of transparency to your business’ brand. Your business will seem more helpful and approachable.

And, Dove proves it.

In 2017, Dove focused on responding to more tweets which, in turn, resulted in an increase in positive sentiment from customers.

Dove’s net positive sentiment was 41% in the last three months of 2016, and three months later, that sentiment score rose to 43%.

That’s a lot to gain with minimal effort.

You may be wondering, “But how do you provide optimal service through Twitter?”

It’s different for each company, but there are some specific strategies to maximize your responses.

Most companies direct public inquiries to their DMs if any sensitive information needs to be transferred.

And, now since Twitter’s launch of the new Direct Message features, we’re seeing brands build a more personalized, one-on-one experiences for customers.

Like Patrón Tequila.

Patrón built the “Bot-Tender” — a chatbot “bartender” — that uses Patrón’s Direct Messages that serves up cocktail recommendations based on the consumer’s preferences.

The “Bot-Tender” resulted in 39% of click-through rate to the website and 2.6% click-through rate using the direct message card.

In some instances, it might even make sense to gather additional information about your customers to better manage the issue. This could help you:

• Look up their order number to better understand the circumstances.

• 

• Let customers place an order directly like TGIFridays.

• 

In some instances, you can even set up a chatbot to accept orders with a hashtag.

For example, Wingstop uses a bot to accept orders from people who Tweet ‘@Wingstop #Order’:

Now, that’s an example of optimal customer experience that doesn’t rely on a wing and a prayer.

Also, depending on the size of their business or the number of customer inquiries a company receives, some even have specific accounts solely focused on helping customers.

For example, LinkedIn owns both the handles @LinkedIn and @LinkedInHelp.

Both channels exist for different objectives. @LinkedIn provides general updates, company news and announcements of features, while @LinkedInHelp focuses on customer support.

Both accounts are valuable for LinkedIn’s overarching Twitter strategy.

Private messages have become a popular way to resolve issues, so the platform has included a feature that enables you to include a “Send a private message” link on a tweet.

To do so, make sure your account is accepting direct messages from anyone. Begin by accessing your Settings tab.

Click the “Privacy and Safety” tab on the left side.

Check the box to “Receive Direct Messages from Anyone.”

Find your TwitterID using TweeterID and add it to the end of this link in place of YourTwitterID:

https://twitter.com/messages/compose?recipient_id=YourTwitterID

Now, you can add that URL with your own TwitterID inserted into any tweet, and the “Send a private message” button will appear directing your customers into a private conversation.

Focus on sharing video content for higher engagement with your followers

Sharing video content on Twitter isn’t exactly new.

But over the past few years, Twitter has continuously worked to evolve how your video can be shared and the impact it can generate. (They’re even teasing a Snapchat sharing tool!)

The result? Users are eating it up.

Will you deliver?

If you don’t, it’ll be costly. The stats don’t lie; video views on Twitter have grown 220x what they were 12 months ago.

But can video cut through the clutter of misinformation on the platform?

Well compared to other forms of content, the answer is yes.

Buffer tested different post types across platforms and found a worthwhile revelation about to Twitter video reach.

Upon evaluating 200+ posts, Buffer found that Twitter video performs the best in terms of reach compared to posts with links, images, and GIFs.

And video on Twitter outperforms Facebook video reach by nearly 38%.

But how can you be sure the video is factual?

Well, there hasn’t been a full solution introduced yet, but to provide more transparency, Twitter is adding a view count to the corner of each video.

While not a major fix, it will still provide users with an understanding of how many have watched and how far it spread. This can help viewers assess the validity of the source.

But what constitutes as a view?

According to AdAge, “Twitter is holding to Media Rating Council standards […] —one view equals 2 seconds of play time with at least 50% of the video on the screen.”

There’s a lot of video content on Twitter. Here’s how to make sure what you produce will be worthwhile:

• Keep it short. Twitter users are used to quick, succinct thoughts, and your videos should do the same. Research shows that 45 seconds or less is an optimal length.

• Like UK retail brand, Boden. They created short 30-second video cuts to showcase their influencer’s unique story on Twitter.

  We’re on a mission to reclaim what mum style REALLY means. Click here to meet the mums behind the campaign › https://t.co/OyTHPAbiet pic.twitter.com/0sGpJ1Bii4

  — Boden (@Bodenclothing) October 2, 2017

  Meet @AmandaOwen8, shepherdess, author, mum of nine and next in our series celebrating what mum style really means › https://t.co/yV0giuhNIK pic.twitter.com/PfoMLZP1mF

  — Boden (@Bodenclothing) October 17, 2017

• Use “content pillars.” Consider what message you are trying to convey and how the video fills that “bucket.” Two example of pillars would be education or inspiration.

• Just look at how Airbnb uses Periscope 360 to immerse viewers in a live video house tour on Twitter.

  Live on #Periscope360: a house tour of an amazing Airbnb in Kauai. Move your phone to look around. https://t.co/b47KHblfhV

  — Airbnb (@Airbnb) January 7, 2017

• Hook them early. Consider the first 1-4 seconds users will see as they scroll through their timeline. Make sure it pops (often through shock or awe) and lures them in.

• Drift did that with their explainer videos on Twitter. They feature a team member to capture audience’s attention and making the video feel more approachable.

  Meet Drift Email. Finally a tool that connects your outbound prospecting to your website. https://t.co/jIzaK3DbTP pic.twitter.com/240bygZVHz

  — Drift (@Drift) October 3, 2017

And if you decide to use video content in the form of an ad, Twitter introduced Video Website Card a few months ago to help make your video ads more effective.

Twitter Video Website Card ads get results, too. They have a 2x higher click-through rate and “an average 60% increase in user retention” when compared to standard video ads.

Below is a comparison between a standard mobile ad on Twitter and one using the new video website card option. This is a standard mobile ad HP Business promoted:

You can see that the video looks like a normal post. Upon clicking the video, it opens up in full-screen with the tweet copy underneath it.

Now, look at Credit Karma’s ad using the new video card feature.

The promoted post includes a “tag” at the bottom of the video with a header and the website. And when the user clicks on the video to play full-screen, they get a new experience.

The video shifts up, and a web or landing page appears. The video will continue playing, allowing the user to interact with content on the page.

Network with influencers, leads, and potential partners to forge connections

Twitter is still a place for brands and users alike to reach influencers, celebrities, journalists, and thought-leaders directly.

But only if you can find who you are looking for.

In 2018, this has become a bit more challenging for two reasons: bots and the confusion surrounding verified accounts.

How to spot the bots

Let’s face it: your follower count is a vanity metric these days. Through the use of bots, you can add thousands of fake followers to your account.

President Trump and a countless number of other celebrities were even accused of using bots.

If actual celebrities use these bots to amplify their influence, couldn’t ordinary people as well? The answer is yes.

A study exposed what was referred to as “the Star Wars botnet, which contains more than 350k bots that are centrally controlled by the same botmaster.”

Even worse, there is a whole industry behind the buying and selling of fake followers.

So where to go from here?

Well, there is TwitterAudit, a free service that allows you to input any Twitter handle. The tool will share a quality score and whether or not they see the account as real or fake.

You should also pay close attention to the frequency of tweets on certain accounts.

The team at BuzzFeed News did an analysis of its own human editors’ Twitter data and the data of several bot-like accounts.

According to the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRL), tweeting 72 times a day is suspicious, and more than 144 tweets per day seems very suspicious.

The BuzzFeed News team discovered one bot was hitting 584 tweets in one day.

While their editor’s tweets looked more like this:

Twitter bots are created to influence user behavior and perception. It’s important your brand is authentic, trustworthy, and human when engaging with users on Twitter.

Verified? The rise and fall of the blue checkmark

Originally, Twitter would add a blue checkmark to verify your account as a response to numerous impersonation attempts. Here is an example:

Twitter’s help page states that the badge is there to ensure the “account of public interest is authentic.”

Simple, right?

This is still the case, but the process is more open and now under scrutiny. In 2016, they announced an application process. In 2017, they suspended verification altogether.

Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. We have paused all general verifications while we work and will report back soon

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 9, 2017

With an application process, there still is much work to be done to ensure that the wrong accounts don’t get verified.

Twitter continues to monitor verified accounts, but not at a quick enough rate.

But what is incredibly important here is that the meaning of the blue checkmark is changing.

Twitter even teased that they want an open verification process, which could help combat misinformation on the platform.

If accounts — not just influencers and celebrities — were verified, you could be more confident that the information you were reading was from a person, rather than a bot.

Expand your network

Now that you’re able to evaluate the validity of your potential partners, all you need to do to find them. The best place to start is with Twitter’s Advanced Search.

To begin, start at https://twitter.com/search-advanced. You should arrive at a page that looks like this:

There are a few Advanced Search Strategies I’d like for you to consider when looking for partners or influencers. Let’s take a look at each category:

• Words. Notice the difference between “all” and “any” of these words and use it to your advantage. “All” will limit the search, while “any” casts a wider net.
• People. If you know who you are looking for but need to source a specific tweet from them, you can enter their account and the keyword you are looking for.
• Places. This can be useful if your business is local, and you wanted to get a pulse on what people are saying about your product or industry in a specific city or community.
• Dates. This helps you narrow the search if you want to perform social listening in a certain span of time. This is great for events or seasonal products/companies.

The results automatically default to Twitter’s “Top” option, but if you’re searching for a current pulse on a topic or looking to make connections, consider clicking the “Latest” or “People” option.

Share updates and business information with your audience in real-time

Twitter has always been a viable platform to share breaking news stories.

And even with the influx of misinformation, it still is. Why?

Abhinav Sharma, a Product Designer at Quora, attributes it to the following factors:

• A critical mass of active users that can contribute content.
• Low barrier-to-entry (you can very easily send a tweet and participate).
• Retweets are streamlined and an easy way to share content.
• Stories are succinct and easy-to-comprehend with the character limit.
• Twitter supports popular, breaking stories with “trending topics.”

Twitter’s May 2017 update showcases the popularity of each tweet in real time, providing another transparent metric to help users evaluate the validity of the Tweet.

In other words, the replies, retweets, and likes will no longer be static; you’ll see them increasing in real time.

You can also share more (280 characters to be exact) in a single tweet than ever before.

In a recent study, Twitter discovered that 9% accounts were hitting the maximum with 140 character tweets, while only 1% were hitting the limit with 280 characters.

But should you pack all those characters into a single tweet?

Research says yes.

Social Media Today reports that longer tweets actually lead to increased levels of engagement from your followers.

Now you can tell your story, share your updates, and still provide engaging content.

And if an expanded character count wasn’t enough for you, Twitter recently released a thread feature to allow for a longer narrative and more in-depth story.

Threads are useful for events with a series of updates, a how-to with a series of steps, an interview with multiple questions, and a wide variety of other scenarios.

These new features will equip your brand to present valid and engaging information to your users in Twitter’s current ecosystem.

Conclusion

Let’s face it.

Twitter has had a rough few months.

Slowed growth. Bots. Fake news.

It seems everyone is the first to criticize the network.

As a marketer, you might be wondering, “Does it still play an integral of a role in my marketing strategy as it once did?”

Our answer: yes…but only if you know how to use it correctly and exploit the network’s key strengths.

By understanding Twitter’s strengths (and weaknesses), you can still use the network to drive long-term growth for your business.

After all, your customers are still on there. You should be too.

Twitter serves as a powerful medium to provide real-time updates and immediate customer service resolutions for your customers.
They are seeking direct and transparent information, which you can easily provide on Twitter.

They type of content you share can also affect your success. Video has emerged as a leading form of content on Twitter, and consumers are eating it up.

And remember, your customers aren’t the only ones on Twitter either.

Brands are using the platform to source leads, find partners, and network with influencers like never before.

The network has evolved, too.

With the right plan in place, you can make your Twitter marketing strategy an impactful part of your business’ marketing strategy.

What tactics will you use to evolve your Twitter strategy in 2018?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

First batch of Google mobile-first indexing notifications goes out today

For the first time since Google announced the rollout of the mobile-first indexing process just over a month ago, SEOs and webmasters are now getting notifications via Google Search Console of their sites being “enabled” for mobile-first indexing.

The notification reads “mobile-first indexing enabled for” and specifies the domain name of the site it was enabled for. Ari Finkelstein shared a screen shot of the notification with us.

It reads:

This means that you may see more traffic in your logs from Googlebot Smartphone. You may also see that snippets in Google Search results are now generated from the mobile version of your content.

Background: Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, to better help our (primarily mobile) users find what they’re looking for. Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have historically used the desktop version of your site’s content, which can cause issues for mobile searchers when the desktop version differs from the mobile version. Our analysis indicates that the mobile and desktop versions of your site are comparable.

This is a big milestone since Google originally announced the mobile-first indexing experiment in November 2016.

The post First batch of Google mobile-first indexing notifications goes out today appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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