#even if you watch like two thirds of the whitelist like I’ve been

[theminecraftbee]

hermitcraft knowledge for new fans that I feel like needs to be stated more often: the hermitcraft recap exists, is very good, and you should watch it!

the recap is a show run by zloyxp and pixlriffs on this channel. episodes are between 10 and 20 minutes and come out on sunday. they cover the previous week, from saturday to friday (they take the day before the episode comes out to write and then come out on sunday, so those days get covered in the next week). and they cover every hermit. just… all of them! not sure what someone’s done this week? don’t worry! the recap’s got you covered. the one thing they don’t cover is livestreams, but hermits don’t do important things on stream. if they do, it ends up in someone’s video. (plus, as much as the recap doesn’t cover livestreams, I have seen them mention the events of an hhh or similar if it drastically changes the hermitcraft landscape in some way, so you don’t actually miss important stuff.)

thanks to the recap there is literally no good reason to try to watch everyone. yes all the hermits are good, but zloy and pixlriffs already watch everyone for you and that’s like, their whole thing. most people don’t have time for that during the day, there are 26 hermits putting out episodes! instead you can watch your favorites, not burn out, and enjoy the recap. you’ll know what’s going on in enough detail to follow anything that happens.

BUT WAIT. there are more benefits to watching the recap than that! for one, it’s very funny. zloyxp, the writer, is a very funny person who writes very funny jokes into the script. it’s a funny enough show that even if I’ve had a week where I’ve watched too much hermitcraft and basically already know everything, I watch the recap, because I genuinely enjoy their sense of humor.

in addition, they’re really good at explaining things that may have gotten confusing in a concise way. for example, putting together the prank war timeline before the civil war in season 6, a thing that they were vital for! or, just this past week, neatly summarizing the explosion of megacorps on the server, a thing that definitely isn’t getting out of hand! with their help following big, multi-person events is much easier, because, as they watch everything, they put the timeline together clearer than you probably can on your own.

also also! the recap talks about how they hope you can find a new favorite hermit through them, and it works. new hermitcraft viewer, intimidated by the whitelist and unsure of where to start? watch the recap! you’ll get a good sense of what everyone’s build style is, who they tend to interact with, and what shenanigans they’re up to. from there, you can find a hermit you want to watch. it’s how I found cubfan, and cubfan is now definitely one of my favorite hermits! if just watching the recap alone isn’t enough, though, they did a quiz last season on their channel that you could follow to find their recommended hermit. it doesn’t include the two new to season 8, gem and pearl, but it’s a great place to go as well.

even more: they have an official subtitler as a part of the team now! that’s right: manual subtitles for every episode of the recap! as I don’t personally use subtitles, I don’t know exactly when they come out (with the video or afterwards by a little bit). however, I do know that manually written english subtitles are a lot of work and are very useful! you can catch up on hermitcraft accessibly with the help of the subtitles, and personally I think that’s fantastic!

finally, pixlriffs is very voice. that’s my final point; he is very voice.

in conclusion: we stan the recap. there are many benefits to watching them and you should know they exist. appreciate them or die by my blade.

[meltingheartsandcores]

This is a wangxian Yoi au, or it was going to be, I wrote the first chapter. Then realized I don’t know how to write skating, I don’t know anything about figure skating, and I feel like I should not be flying blind in this. Also, creativity got fried. Which sucks.

But, I figured you might enjoy reading the first chapter, and idk if it's because i wrote it but I find it's fine to read on it's own.

Story under the cut, I do hope you enjoy. 

“Huaisang, why are you calling me at midnight?”

“Excuse you, it’s one am. And you didn’t respond to my text. Check your messages and watch the link I sent you.”

“Fuck no.” Despite Wei Wuxian’s words, he grabs his computer off his bedside table and sits up, “What’s the video called?” Wei Wuxian asks as he pulls up youtube.

”Uhhh,” there was some tapping, ”okay, english is Lan Wangji attempts Wei Wuxian’s Confusion.”

The name made Wei Wuxian perk up as he quickly types and searchs for the video. “Why didn’t you just tell me it was Lan Zhan?” He wouldn’t have grumbled.

”Just watch!” Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes at Nie Huaisang’s excitement but plays the video, muted because Jiang Cheng will kill him for waking him up at midnight. Wei Wei Wuxian was pleasantly surprised throughout the whole video, and also curious as to when Lan Zhan learnt it so completely. It had been his freestyle at Worlds two nights before, the one that earned him gold, again. He had changed it to work with his current condition and still earn him gold, but that just meant it was more complicated stepping he had perfected and a bunch of quads- not nearly as much as he normally did but, enough. Lan Zhan had changed his quads to triples.

Wei Wuxian could only point out one mistake. He rewatches it to see if there are any others. They’re aren’t.

“He fucked up one of the salchows.” Wei Wuxian states, watching the video for a third time. That was generous, he wobbled a bit too much on the landing. Madam Yu would’ve called it a complete fuckup and made him redo the entire program. For a practice it wasn’t bad, especially since Lan Zhan seemed distracted still.

Nie Huaisang groans on the phone, ”That’s all you have to say?”

“Hey. He’s the one who didn’t call me.”

”And now he’s dancing your stupid love letter!”

“It was not-“ Wei Wuxian is stopped by a pillow hitting his face, falling back onto his bed. “I have to go, I woke Jiang Cheng.”

Nie Huaisang giggles and hangs up with a singsong, “Good Luck!”

Wei Wuxian sits back up, chucking the pillow back onto Jiang Cheng’s bed. The lump that is his brother doesn’t move. Just an angry grumbled, “Get the fuck out of the room if you’re going to be awake.”

Wei Wuxian could go back to sleep, but he’s more interested in Lan Zhan right now. So he shuts his laptop, pulls on a jacket, and leaves the room with his phone in his pocket and his laptop under his arm in his fluffy bunny slippers. He goes down to the airport and sits at his gate, opening hs laptop back up to watch the video again. They were flying out to Italy in five hours. Well. wei Wuxian and Uncle Jiang were, Jiejie and Jiang Cheng were flying back to Canada in ten. Jiang Cheng had made their room decisions because if Wei Wuxian and Uncle Jiang shared they would’ve left without saying goodbye. In Wei Wuxian’s opinion, it’d be better to say goodbye before they went to sleep instead of waking everyone up at six in the morning, but he was promptly told to shut up.

Wei Wuxian calls Nie Huaisang back as the video plays, it’s impressive. And Wei Wuxian has always loved Lan Zhan’s skating. It made the Grand Prix all the more odd.

”It’s a love letter.” Nie Huaisang says in lieu of a greeting.

“It was not a love letter.” Nie Huaisang made a doubtful sound. “It was a letter of why the fuck did you never call me? I gave you my personal number and whitelisted you. Why did you never contact me?”

“So… an unrequited loveletter.”

“Why am I friends with you?”

”Because I helped you shave off Lan Qiren’s awful goatee.”

Wei Wuxian chuckles at the memory, Teacher Lan had been so pissed. “Hey… do you think he has any relation to Lan Zhan?”

”I do blackmail, not familial relations. If I did, you wouldn’t have spent five years calling Xiao Xingchen Jiujiu as a joke only to find out it was very appropriate.”

Ah, yes, the most awkward celebratory dinner in Wei Wuxian’s life with his uncle and grandmother.

“You and I both know I called him Jiujiu because I forgot his name and it was the first thing that came to mind.” Nie Huaisang cackles, fully aware that when Wei Wuxian forgot peoples names, if he didn’t hate them, he immediately went to familial relations.

It’s how Nie Huaisang’s older brother is forever Da-ge to Wei Wuxian. And how half his competitors are variations of cousin and uncle. Those that don’t speak chinese are typically confused but assume it’s a nickname until someone (Jiang Cheng typically) tells them they are now the son of Wei Wuxian’s father’s brother. Or something of the like. Those that speak chinese typically return the favour. For example, Xingchen called him Wai Sheng as often as Wei Wuxian would call him Jiujiu.

”Yup. And then you finally met your grandmother. Hands down, best World Champions I’ve ever been to.”

“Oh fuck you. Are you going to Italy?”

”Already here. I convinced Da Ge to fly me out right after the World Champs. I have been shopping for days. I love Italy.”

“You love that you can logic your way into drinking wine with every meal.”

”Mmhmm. You don’t normally participate in the Egna Spring Trophy. Why are you coming this year?”

“I like to shock people.” ’I don’t want my season to be over just yet. I don’t want to stop skating.’ “Can you keep a secret?”

”Of course. Did you put shaving cream in Jiang Cheng’s suitcase again?”

“No. He doesn’t let me anywhere near it anymore. I…”Wei Wuxian chickens out. He can’t say it. Not now. “Actually it might be better to say in person. Do you think the video’s a message?”

”What? Oh! Lan Wangji’s? Maybe? What message might he be sending?”

“That he still wants me to coach him next season?”

”You can’t coach someone and participate.” Nie Huaisang remarks. Wei Wuxian stays silent, normally his response would be ‘watch me’, but he can’t. Nie Huaisang gasps at Wei Wuxian’s extended silence. ”You can’t”.

“I’ll talk to you about it in Italy.”

”Have you told Coach Jiang?”

“No. Not Jiang Cheng or Shijie either. Don’t say anything. I’m still…”

”Yup. Got it. Lips are sealed.” Wei Wuxian sighs in relief, he’s not sure what he was worried about, but he’s grateful Nie Huaisang isn’t telling anyone. Not until Wei Wuxian says it himself. ”And, I guess the video could be a message. Maybe he lost your number? And it’s not like you told him you whitelisted him. Maybe he thought you were joking and didn’t want to risk rejection? I’ve asked Da ge but he told me to shut up and not bother him so…”

Oh right. Wei Wuxian forgot Da Ge was friends with Lan Zhan’s brother. “Meanie. But you know where he is right?”

“Yup. But Da Ge told me not to tell you. Didn’t want you bothering the Lan brothers or something.”

Wei Wuxian hums, “What a shame.” Nie Huaisang couldn’t tell him where Lan Zhan was. But, he could tell Wei Wuxian about Lan Zhan’s home.

”Mmhmm. There’s a wonderful hot spring in Gusu. As well as a cold spring that’s supposed to promote healing. I always find that afterwards, I’m too busy warming up to really care about any injuries.”

Wei Wuxian chuckles, Gusu huh? “Never heard of it.”

“No? It’s a rather small city. Not very well known. The hot spring I go to is called Hanshi.”

“...Frost Room?” Odd name for a hot spring.

”Mmhmm. I think it’s ironic or something? You know, a hot spring frost room? Who knows? We both know I didn’t ask.”

Wei Wuxian nods, “Mm. Maybe after Triglav I’ll pop over.”

”Making this season count I see.”

“I just want as many gold medals as possible. I’ll let you get some sleep. I am going to get started on coaching notes.”

”I’ll send you whatever videos I have of Lan Wangji. See you soon.”

“Mm.” Wei Wuxian hangs up and pulls up his note-app to start taking notes as he watches Lan Zhan’s video again. Noting places where Lan Zhan could do with improvement. There weren’t many, but Lan Zhan hadn’t focused his training in the same areas Wei Wuxian did. In some areas he was actually better at Wei Wuxian’s program than he was. Particularly with the stepping. More precise and fine-tuned than Wei Wuxian’s own. If Wei Wuxian had given Confusion to Lan Zhan he probably would’ve netted a higher score than Wei Wuxian. If he could land the quads at least.

_-3 weeks later-_

“Gusu is so nice. So warm. So not Canada.” Wuxan says to Nie Huaisang over the phone as he waits for the cab he arranged to pick him up from the airport.

Nie Huaisang’s laugh titters over the phone, “You’re not in Gusu yet. Gusu is a mountain city.”

“Ah, so the temperature will be back to normal. Good.”

”Tell Xichen-ge hi. I did not warn them you were coming, so, have a fun surprise!”

Wei Wuxian laughs, “I will. How’s Da ge?”

”Very annoyed that I told you where they live. And not accepting the fact that I didn’t tell you where they lived. I told you of a wonderful hot spring in Gusu and upon research you found it was owned by Lan Wangji’s brother. How can I be blamed?” Nie Huaisang actually seemed offended.

Wei Wuxian laughs at his friend. “Well, at least he’s not making you do hockey.” Nie Huaisang screeches, making Wei Wuxian laugh harder.

”He would never.”

“Didn’t he initially put you in hockey? Who’s to say he won’t put you back in?” It’s a joke, but Nie Huaisang is silent on the other end. And then Wei Wuxian can hear him running through his house.

”DAGE!” Wei Wuxian pulls his phone away at the yell, but puts it back once the yell is over to hear whatever else Nie Huaisang says. There’s some muttering that Wei Wuxian assumes belongs to Da ge.”You wouldn’t put me in hockey, right? Even if I fail Ice Dance?” There’s complete silence on the other end. But Da ge must’ve said something, or made a certain expression because Nie Huaisang screeches, offended and scared, “Da Ge!” Wei Wuxian laughs at his friends' misery and offence. He always feels a little bad for Da ge at events since he’s typically the only hockey player there and very few figure skaters bother to hide their dislike of hockey players. Typically it’s vice versa too, but when Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang go to Da ge’s games they tend to keep away from that subject. As much as possible. Except that one year one of Da ge’s teammates called Figure Skater’s prissy princesses and Wei Wuxian attacked him and had to be pulled off by Da ge.

He was fourteen. Nie Huaisang took a video.

Wei Wuxian stops laughing enough to notice his cab and met the driver, putting his phone in his pocket to drown out Nie Huaisang’s crying. After a quick chat, his luggage was put in the trunk and got in. He pulls out his phone and puts it back to his ear just as Nie Huaisang starts calling Da ge mean.

”How could you scare me like that?” Da ge was laughing in the background.

“Older brothers. It’s what we do best.”

”Meanie.” Was hissed at Wei Wuxian. More mumbling Wei Wuxian couldn’t make heads or tails of before Nie Huaisang speaks again, ” Da Ge wants to talk to you.”

“He’s not putting me in hockey is he?”

”Uhhh, da ge? Are you putting Wei-xiong in hockey?”

Da Ge was close enough to the phone Wei Wuxian could hear his reply, “Can I? He’d do damn good.”

“Don’t joke! I’m too fragile for hockey!” Wei Wuxian protests with a pout. “What did Da ge want to talk about?”

”Don’t harass Xichen and Wangji. If they tell you to go. Go. I don’t care what Wangji said at the Prix banquet, leave him alone if he wants to be left alone.” Da ge orders.

“Roger roger.”

“Wuxian.”

“I got it. I won’t bother them if they don’t want to be bothered. If he says no I’ll book a flight tomorrow and head home. Or to your place. Or to Xingchen’s. Bottom line I’ll leave if they want me to.” He won’t overstay his welcome.

”Good. Good luck.” With that, Da ge hangs up.

_-Gusu-_

“How was lessons?” Lan Xichen asks as Lan Wangji returns from the rink with Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi in tow. The five year olds loved skating. So when Lan Wangji returned from his complete failure at the Grand Prix, he had taken over their skating lessons at Cloud Recess at their insistence.

“They improved. How was business?” Lan Wangji asks as both kids run upstairs.

“Adequate. We have one guest currently. Actually, he asked for you by name.”

Oh. Great. “Did he say why?”

Lan Xichen shakes his head, he probably didn’t ask. “Just said to tell you. He also said if you don’t want to talk to him he’ll leave.”

Lan Wangji shakes his head, “No. I’ll talk to him.” He hopes it’s not a fan. Or one of Coach Zhong’s students come to ask him back in place of Coach. Lan  Wangji just wanted to take care of his rabbits and ignore the world until his failure is forgotten. Lan Xichen smiles, probably remembering that just last month Lan Wangji told him he didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Good. I’m going to make sure the tykes are not causing havoc upstairs, watch the front for me?” Lan Wangji nods at Lan Xichen’s request, allowing his brother to rush up the stairs.

Lan Wangji had just sat down at one of the tables, intent to get some work done. He was working with the library in Cloud Recess with translations, it didn’t pay well, but he enjoyed it and could do it in between helping Lan Xichen out at the Hanshi.

But before he could pull his laptop out, a guest came into the main room. Lan Wangji looks up to greet them but the words die on his tongue, eyes widening a fraction as he took in Wei Wuxian, half naked, with his hair in a towel. Well, he had a jacket on that wasn’t shut, so he wasn’t technically breaking the rule about being undressed outside the springs, but his incredibly toned chest was still on full display. Lan Wangji could feel his ears burning, and was very thankful he rarely blushes on his face.

A smile split across Wei Wuxian’s lips, “Lan Zhan.” ’What?’ “I wanted to talk to you.” Wei Wuxian falls to his knees on the opposite side of the table than Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji nods, although he was still stuck on ’Why is Wei Wuxian calling me by my given name? How does he even know it?’ Somehow Wei Wuxian’s smile got brighter. Which Lan Wangji felt was just unfair and rude. He’s trying not to panic here. “I want to coach you for next season.”

What.

Fuck trying not to panic.

What?

“Why?”

“I saw your video. Your stepping is very impressive. But you need to work on your jumps. Although you seem to learn quickly since you were able to learn Confusion in just a few days.” Lan Wangji would like this conversation to stop and rewind. What video?! He only danced Confusion once! And- oh fuck. Lan Jingyi is corrupting his perfect child. Wei Wuxian was still talking. Lan Wangji missed a portion. “-so I figured I’d come down to offer my services as coach.”

“Are you not competing next season?”

Wei Wuxian looks surprised, “Ah, I guess you don’t get much news out here.” Lan Wangji has been avoiding most skating news. He only watched the Worlds because Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui demanded it. “I’m taking a break. I’m twenty-three and have won every single competition I’ve been in for five years, got bored. And then I saw your video and decided I wanted to help you win the Grand Prix.”

What.

“What’s your current work out regime? I have some ideas but I don’t want to overwork you. Also, where’s the rink and can we schedule private time to practice?”

“Wei Wuxian-“

He cuts Lan Wangji off, waving his hand, “Call me Wei Ying.”

Okay.

“Wei Ying. You cannot take a break just to coach me.”

“Yes I can. But I didn’t. I was going to be taking a break this season anyways. If I hadn’t seen your video I might’ve let Da ge talk me into hockey.” Wei Ying shudders theatrically, “I’m too delicate for hockey.” Lan Wangji would disagree. Lan Xichen showed him the video of Wei Ying beating up a hockey player nearly twice his size. “If you don’t want me to coach you, I’ll leave. But if you do… I already have plans for your programs. And areas to improve.”

It was tempting. To accept the offer. Last year's Grand Prix had been Lan Wangji’s first venture into international competitions. He was used to national and local competitions. But after the complete failure of last years Grand Prix he wasn’t sure about returning to the international stage. However, Wei Ying had a lot of experience in the international stage. He’d been competing in International Competitions since he was thirteen. An entire decade.

Lan Wangji nods, “I accept.”

Wei Ying’s smile gets impossible bright. “Perfect.”

[riichardwilson]

How to Strategically Generate Search Engine Traffic

Learn the differences between the search engines and the various ways you can promote yourself to help maximize your ROI.

March 13, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s easy for a newcomer to the world of search engine marketing agency to assume that the search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft) are all the same and that clicks from them all behave in the same ways. In order to optimize your efforts, you need to know the differences between Google and Microsoft, their search engines and shopping engines, mobile vs. desktop and much more. Learn about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. 

Google vs. Microsoft

The biggest difference between Google and Microsoft is reach: Google is larger than Microsoft, which includes Bing, Yahoo and AOL traffic in its network. According to Statista, that difference is around 63 percent market share for Google and 25 percent market share for Microsoft in the United States, so Google is around 2.5 times the size of Microsoft. You would think that suggests you should focus your initial efforts on Google to get in front of more users, right? Perhaps, but everyone else is also thinking that. There is less competition on Microsoft, and you might be able to acquire the same amount clicks at a lower cost per click and improve your ROI in the process.

There’s also a material difference in demographics between the two networks. Google tends to attract a younger, more college-educated, higher-income, and a generally more tech-savvy audience that Microsoft, and more Microsoft users are parents. Depending on your product offering, that could mean nothing to you (e.g., either audience watches movies). But maybe that demographic difference presents and opportunity for you (e.g., selling a product targeting older Baby Boomers may perform better on Microsoft).

Those looking to attract users from outside the United States should know that Google’s international reach is also bigger than Microsoft’s.

Search vs. shopping

Just so we are clear, search ads are the sponsored listings that appear at the top of search engine results when you enter in a keyword (mostly text links). Shopping ads are the product listings that appear in the “shopping” sections of those same search engines (mostly visual product images). The shopping ads are typically a direct feed of your products from your website created using a management tool like Feedonomics or DataFeedWatch. If you’re in ecommerce, the natural instinct is to advertise in both sections. That may work fine for you, or it may not, as we learned at my business, Restaurant Furniture Plus. 

We learned the shopping section mostly attracts consumers, not commercial buyers. There was a significant difference in our average order size between the two sections, let’s say $500 from shopping and $5,000 from search. And based on the differences in cost of customer acquisition, let’s say $100 from shopping and $200 from search, it was easier for us to maximize our revenues, profitability and return on ad spend by focusing on search and not struggle to break even on our shopping spend. Figure out what balance is best for your business. 

B2C vs. B2B

Related to the search vs. shopping topic are the implications for B2C vs. B2B businesses. Continuing with my business’ example, let’s say we were advertising for chairs. Yes, chairs are needed for restaurants, but they’re also needed by consumers in their homes. When we were simply advertising chairs, we were up against a lot of big consumer brands selling chairs (e.g., Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Wayfair) trying to tap into the same keywords. And those big brands have a lot more marketing agency muscle and repeat buying potential (as those consumers will most likely buy other products for their homes over time.) All this meant the big brands were willing to pay a lot more for those leads than we were. It wasn’t until we shut off our shopping feed and changed all our generic chairs keywords to more specific ones such as restaurant chairs, commercial chairs and foodservice chairs that we started optimizing for our B2B needs.

Desktop vs. mobile

When I first started digital marketing agency in 2000, there was no such thing as a smart phone, so all the traffic was coming from desktop PCs. But over the last 20 years — thanks to the innovations of Apple, Android, Samsung and others — searches from mobile phones have surpassed searches from desktop PCs for many companies. The problem is that most businesses have optimized their user experience for desktop, not mobile, and search engine algorithms produce results differently depending on the perceived user experience and site speed of those different desktop and mobile channels.

For example, check out this Google tool that lets you check your site speed on desktop and mobile. If Google thinks your mobile site is too slow compared to your desktop site, it will not publish your mobile advertising with the same frequency as your desktop advertising. It will also publish it less frequently than advertising for competitors whose sites are better optimized for mobile. Companies need to live in a mobile-first way of thinking even if it goes against what they’ve been taught. 

Text (prospecting) vs. display (retargeting)

When you buy text ads on search engines, you can also buy display ads that retarget users who are visiting other websites within their advertising networks. There are a few ways display ads differ from text ads: What you can say and show in a few lines of text is very different from what you can say and show in an image. Not to mention that image is now being displayed to a user who has already seen your brand once, so they will be much more likely to engage with a brand they recognize. If you’re going to run a search campaign, you’re leaving a lot of potential success off the table if you’re not concurrently running display retargeting ads.

With reviews vs. without

Over the years, Google has emphasized social media data in determining how it publishes ads and ranks sites for organic traffic. One of the biggest drivers of that is customer review data. The reviews must come from their list of trusted review vendors to give the review credibility and ensure businesses don’t make them up. 

The benefit of working with one of these trusted third-party review vendors is that if you have over 100 reviews, Google will add your summary five-star score next to each of your paid search ads and your organic search result links. This does two things: It gives you higher credibility than other links on the page (increasing the odds the customer clicks on your links), and it can decrease your cost of customer acquisition by as much as 15 percent, on average, with a higher likelihood of converting into sales. 

General vs. custom audiences

Until now, you mostly had to rely on search engines to identify the target audience and hope they got it right. In the newest iterations of search marketing agency, the searches engines are giving you more input on who they’re targeting. For example, if you’re a “whitelisted” email marketer, you can give them your list of email targets and they’ll match it to their users and target advertising only to them. This is great if you’re targeting old customer email accounts or have a list of prospects’ emails. Another tactic is to give them a list of competitor or industry websites where your customers are likely looking, and they’ll target advertising to any users that visit those sites. This is the first thing I’ve seen — other than customizing keywords from chairs to restaurant chairs — that will help B2B marketers go after such targeted traffic. Be sure to take advantage of custom audiences in your campaigns. 

As you can  see, a lot has changed in the world of search marketing agency in the past decade, and I’m guessing that change will continue. Please don’t set up your campaigns once and forget about them. You need to keep up with new best practices and reset your campaigns to have a maximum return on your search engine marketing agency investment.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-strategically-generate-search-engine-traffic/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/612494807678533632

[douglassmiith]

How to Strategically Generate Search Engine Traffic

Learn the differences between the search engines and the various ways you can promote yourself to help maximize your ROI.

March 13, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s easy for a newcomer to the world of search engine marketing agency to assume that the search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft) are all the same and that clicks from them all behave in the same ways. In order to optimize your efforts, you need to know the differences between Google and Microsoft, their search engines and shopping engines, mobile vs. desktop and much more. Learn about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. 

Google vs. Microsoft

The biggest difference between Google and Microsoft is reach: Google is larger than Microsoft, which includes Bing, Yahoo and AOL traffic in its network. According to Statista, that difference is around 63 percent market share for Google and 25 percent market share for Microsoft in the United States, so Google is around 2.5 times the size of Microsoft. You would think that suggests you should focus your initial efforts on Google to get in front of more users, right? Perhaps, but everyone else is also thinking that. There is less competition on Microsoft, and you might be able to acquire the same amount clicks at a lower cost per click and improve your ROI in the process.

There’s also a material difference in demographics between the two networks. Google tends to attract a younger, more college-educated, higher-income, and a generally more tech-savvy audience that Microsoft, and more Microsoft users are parents. Depending on your product offering, that could mean nothing to you (e.g., either audience watches movies). But maybe that demographic difference presents and opportunity for you (e.g., selling a product targeting older Baby Boomers may perform better on Microsoft).

Those looking to attract users from outside the United States should know that Google’s international reach is also bigger than Microsoft’s.

Search vs. shopping

Just so we are clear, search ads are the sponsored listings that appear at the top of search engine results when you enter in a keyword (mostly text links). Shopping ads are the product listings that appear in the “shopping” sections of those same search engines (mostly visual product images). The shopping ads are typically a direct feed of your products from your website created using a management tool like Feedonomics or DataFeedWatch. If you’re in ecommerce, the natural instinct is to advertise in both sections. That may work fine for you, or it may not, as we learned at my business, Restaurant Furniture Plus. 

We learned the shopping section mostly attracts consumers, not commercial buyers. There was a significant difference in our average order size between the two sections, let’s say $500 from shopping and $5,000 from search. And based on the differences in cost of customer acquisition, let’s say $100 from shopping and $200 from search, it was easier for us to maximize our revenues, profitability and return on ad spend by focusing on search and not struggle to break even on our shopping spend. Figure out what balance is best for your business. 

B2C vs. B2B

Related to the search vs. shopping topic are the implications for B2C vs. B2B businesses. Continuing with my business’ example, let’s say we were advertising for chairs. Yes, chairs are needed for restaurants, but they’re also needed by consumers in their homes. When we were simply advertising chairs, we were up against a lot of big consumer brands selling chairs (e.g., Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Wayfair) trying to tap into the same keywords. And those big brands have a lot more marketing agency muscle and repeat buying potential (as those consumers will most likely buy other products for their homes over time.) All this meant the big brands were willing to pay a lot more for those leads than we were. It wasn’t until we shut off our shopping feed and changed all our generic chairs keywords to more specific ones such as restaurant chairs, commercial chairs and foodservice chairs that we started optimizing for our B2B needs.

Desktop vs. mobile

When I first started digital marketing agency in 2000, there was no such thing as a smart phone, so all the traffic was coming from desktop PCs. But over the last 20 years — thanks to the innovations of Apple, Android, Samsung and others — searches from mobile phones have surpassed searches from desktop PCs for many companies. The problem is that most businesses have optimized their user experience for desktop, not mobile, and search engine algorithms produce results differently depending on the perceived user experience and site speed of those different desktop and mobile channels.

For example, check out this Google tool that lets you check your site speed on desktop and mobile. If Google thinks your mobile site is too slow compared to your desktop site, it will not publish your mobile advertising with the same frequency as your desktop advertising. It will also publish it less frequently than advertising for competitors whose sites are better optimized for mobile. Companies need to live in a mobile-first way of thinking even if it goes against what they’ve been taught. 

Text (prospecting) vs. display (retargeting)

When you buy text ads on search engines, you can also buy display ads that retarget users who are visiting other websites within their advertising networks. There are a few ways display ads differ from text ads: What you can say and show in a few lines of text is very different from what you can say and show in an image. Not to mention that image is now being displayed to a user who has already seen your brand once, so they will be much more likely to engage with a brand they recognize. If you’re going to run a search campaign, you’re leaving a lot of potential success off the table if you’re not concurrently running display retargeting ads.

With reviews vs. without

Over the years, Google has emphasized social media data in determining how it publishes ads and ranks sites for organic traffic. One of the biggest drivers of that is customer review data. The reviews must come from their list of trusted review vendors to give the review credibility and ensure businesses don’t make them up. 

The benefit of working with one of these trusted third-party review vendors is that if you have over 100 reviews, Google will add your summary five-star score next to each of your paid search ads and your organic search result links. This does two things: It gives you higher credibility than other links on the page (increasing the odds the customer clicks on your links), and it can decrease your cost of customer acquisition by as much as 15 percent, on average, with a higher likelihood of converting into sales. 

General vs. custom audiences

Until now, you mostly had to rely on search engines to identify the target audience and hope they got it right. In the newest iterations of search marketing agency, the searches engines are giving you more input on who they’re targeting. For example, if you’re a “whitelisted” email marketer, you can give them your list of email targets and they’ll match it to their users and target advertising only to them. This is great if you’re targeting old customer email accounts or have a list of prospects’ emails. Another tactic is to give them a list of competitor or industry websites where your customers are likely looking, and they’ll target advertising to any users that visit those sites. This is the first thing I’ve seen — other than customizing keywords from chairs to restaurant chairs — that will help B2B marketers go after such targeted traffic. Be sure to take advantage of custom audiences in your campaigns. 

As you can  see, a lot has changed in the world of search marketing agency in the past decade, and I’m guessing that change will continue. Please don’t set up your campaigns once and forget about them. You need to keep up with new best practices and reset your campaigns to have a maximum return on your search engine marketing agency investment.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/how-to-strategically-generate-search-engine-traffic/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/how-to-strategically-generate-search-engine-traffic

[scpie]

How to Strategically Generate Search Engine Traffic

Learn the differences between the search engines and the various ways you can promote yourself to help maximize your ROI.

March 13, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s easy for a newcomer to the world of search engine marketing agency to assume that the search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft) are all the same and that clicks from them all behave in the same ways. In order to optimize your efforts, you need to know the differences between Google and Microsoft, their search engines and shopping engines, mobile vs. desktop and much more. Learn about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. 

Google vs. Microsoft

The biggest difference between Google and Microsoft is reach: Google is larger than Microsoft, which includes Bing, Yahoo and AOL traffic in its network. According to Statista, that difference is around 63 percent market share for Google and 25 percent market share for Microsoft in the United States, so Google is around 2.5 times the size of Microsoft. You would think that suggests you should focus your initial efforts on Google to get in front of more users, right? Perhaps, but everyone else is also thinking that. There is less competition on Microsoft, and you might be able to acquire the same amount clicks at a lower cost per click and improve your ROI in the process.

There’s also a material difference in demographics between the two networks. Google tends to attract a younger, more college-educated, higher-income, and a generally more tech-savvy audience that Microsoft, and more Microsoft users are parents. Depending on your product offering, that could mean nothing to you (e.g., either audience watches movies). But maybe that demographic difference presents and opportunity for you (e.g., selling a product targeting older Baby Boomers may perform better on Microsoft).

Those looking to attract users from outside the United States should know that Google’s international reach is also bigger than Microsoft’s.

Search vs. shopping

Just so we are clear, search ads are the sponsored listings that appear at the top of search engine results when you enter in a keyword (mostly text links). Shopping ads are the product listings that appear in the “shopping” sections of those same search engines (mostly visual product images). The shopping ads are typically a direct feed of your products from your website created using a management tool like Feedonomics or DataFeedWatch. If you’re in ecommerce, the natural instinct is to advertise in both sections. That may work fine for you, or it may not, as we learned at my business, Restaurant Furniture Plus. 

We learned the shopping section mostly attracts consumers, not commercial buyers. There was a significant difference in our average order size between the two sections, let’s say $500 from shopping and $5,000 from search. And based on the differences in cost of customer acquisition, let’s say $100 from shopping and $200 from search, it was easier for us to maximize our revenues, profitability and return on ad spend by focusing on search and not struggle to break even on our shopping spend. Figure out what balance is best for your business. 

B2C vs. B2B

Related to the search vs. shopping topic are the implications for B2C vs. B2B businesses. Continuing with my business’ example, let’s say we were advertising for chairs. Yes, chairs are needed for restaurants, but they’re also needed by consumers in their homes. When we were simply advertising chairs, we were up against a lot of big consumer brands selling chairs (e.g., Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Wayfair) trying to tap into the same keywords. And those big brands have a lot more marketing agency muscle and repeat buying potential (as those consumers will most likely buy other products for their homes over time.) All this meant the big brands were willing to pay a lot more for those leads than we were. It wasn’t until we shut off our shopping feed and changed all our generic chairs keywords to more specific ones such as restaurant chairs, commercial chairs and foodservice chairs that we started optimizing for our B2B needs.

Desktop vs. mobile

When I first started digital marketing agency in 2000, there was no such thing as a smart phone, so all the traffic was coming from desktop PCs. But over the last 20 years — thanks to the innovations of Apple, Android, Samsung and others — searches from mobile phones have surpassed searches from desktop PCs for many companies. The problem is that most businesses have optimized their user experience for desktop, not mobile, and search engine algorithms produce results differently depending on the perceived user experience and site speed of those different desktop and mobile channels.

For example, check out this Google tool that lets you check your site speed on desktop and mobile. If Google thinks your mobile site is too slow compared to your desktop site, it will not publish your mobile advertising with the same frequency as your desktop advertising. It will also publish it less frequently than advertising for competitors whose sites are better optimized for mobile. Companies need to live in a mobile-first way of thinking even if it goes against what they’ve been taught. 

Text (prospecting) vs. display (retargeting)

When you buy text ads on search engines, you can also buy display ads that retarget users who are visiting other websites within their advertising networks. There are a few ways display ads differ from text ads: What you can say and show in a few lines of text is very different from what you can say and show in an image. Not to mention that image is now being displayed to a user who has already seen your brand once, so they will be much more likely to engage with a brand they recognize. If you’re going to run a search campaign, you’re leaving a lot of potential success off the table if you’re not concurrently running display retargeting ads.

With reviews vs. without

Over the years, Google has emphasized social media data in determining how it publishes ads and ranks sites for organic traffic. One of the biggest drivers of that is customer review data. The reviews must come from their list of trusted review vendors to give the review credibility and ensure businesses don’t make them up. 

The benefit of working with one of these trusted third-party review vendors is that if you have over 100 reviews, Google will add your summary five-star score next to each of your paid search ads and your organic search result links. This does two things: It gives you higher credibility than other links on the page (increasing the odds the customer clicks on your links), and it can decrease your cost of customer acquisition by as much as 15 percent, on average, with a higher likelihood of converting into sales. 

General vs. custom audiences

Until now, you mostly had to rely on search engines to identify the target audience and hope they got it right. In the newest iterations of search marketing agency, the searches engines are giving you more input on who they’re targeting. For example, if you’re a “whitelisted” email marketer, you can give them your list of email targets and they’ll match it to their users and target advertising only to them. This is great if you’re targeting old customer email accounts or have a list of prospects’ emails. Another tactic is to give them a list of competitor or industry websites where your customers are likely looking, and they’ll target advertising to any users that visit those sites. This is the first thing I’ve seen — other than customizing keywords from chairs to restaurant chairs — that will help B2B marketers go after such targeted traffic. Be sure to take advantage of custom audiences in your campaigns. 

As you can  see, a lot has changed in the world of search marketing agency in the past decade, and I’m guessing that change will continue. Please don’t set up your campaigns once and forget about them. You need to keep up with new best practices and reset your campaigns to have a maximum return on your search engine marketing agency investment.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-strategically-generate-search-engine-traffic/

[laurelkrugerr]

How to Strategically Generate Search Engine Traffic

Learn the differences between the search engines and the various ways you can promote yourself to help maximize your ROI.

March 13, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s easy for a newcomer to the world of search engine marketing agency to assume that the search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft) are all the same and that clicks from them all behave in the same ways. In order to optimize your efforts, you need to know the differences between Google and Microsoft, their search engines and shopping engines, mobile vs. desktop and much more. Learn about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. 

Google vs. Microsoft

The biggest difference between Google and Microsoft is reach: Google is larger than Microsoft, which includes Bing, Yahoo and AOL traffic in its network. According to Statista, that difference is around 63 percent market share for Google and 25 percent market share for Microsoft in the United States, so Google is around 2.5 times the size of Microsoft. You would think that suggests you should focus your initial efforts on Google to get in front of more users, right? Perhaps, but everyone else is also thinking that. There is less competition on Microsoft, and you might be able to acquire the same amount clicks at a lower cost per click and improve your ROI in the process.

There’s also a material difference in demographics between the two networks. Google tends to attract a younger, more college-educated, higher-income, and a generally more tech-savvy audience that Microsoft, and more Microsoft users are parents. Depending on your product offering, that could mean nothing to you (e.g., either audience watches movies). But maybe that demographic difference presents and opportunity for you (e.g., selling a product targeting older Baby Boomers may perform better on Microsoft).

Those looking to attract users from outside the United States should know that Google’s international reach is also bigger than Microsoft’s.

Search vs. shopping

Just so we are clear, search ads are the sponsored listings that appear at the top of search engine results when you enter in a keyword (mostly text links). Shopping ads are the product listings that appear in the “shopping” sections of those same search engines (mostly visual product images). The shopping ads are typically a direct feed of your products from your website created using a management tool like Feedonomics or DataFeedWatch. If you’re in ecommerce, the natural instinct is to advertise in both sections. That may work fine for you, or it may not, as we learned at my business, Restaurant Furniture Plus. 

We learned the shopping section mostly attracts consumers, not commercial buyers. There was a significant difference in our average order size between the two sections, let’s say $500 from shopping and $5,000 from search. And based on the differences in cost of customer acquisition, let’s say $100 from shopping and $200 from search, it was easier for us to maximize our revenues, profitability and return on ad spend by focusing on search and not struggle to break even on our shopping spend. Figure out what balance is best for your business. 

B2C vs. B2B

Related to the search vs. shopping topic are the implications for B2C vs. B2B businesses. Continuing with my business’ example, let’s say we were advertising for chairs. Yes, chairs are needed for restaurants, but they’re also needed by consumers in their homes. When we were simply advertising chairs, we were up against a lot of big consumer brands selling chairs (e.g., Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Wayfair) trying to tap into the same keywords. And those big brands have a lot more marketing agency muscle and repeat buying potential (as those consumers will most likely buy other products for their homes over time.) All this meant the big brands were willing to pay a lot more for those leads than we were. It wasn’t until we shut off our shopping feed and changed all our generic chairs keywords to more specific ones such as restaurant chairs, commercial chairs and foodservice chairs that we started optimizing for our B2B needs.

Desktop vs. mobile

When I first started digital marketing agency in 2000, there was no such thing as a smart phone, so all the traffic was coming from desktop PCs. But over the last 20 years — thanks to the innovations of Apple, Android, Samsung and others — searches from mobile phones have surpassed searches from desktop PCs for many companies. The problem is that most businesses have optimized their user experience for desktop, not mobile, and search engine algorithms produce results differently depending on the perceived user experience and site speed of those different desktop and mobile channels.

For example, check out this Google tool that lets you check your site speed on desktop and mobile. If Google thinks your mobile site is too slow compared to your desktop site, it will not publish your mobile advertising with the same frequency as your desktop advertising. It will also publish it less frequently than advertising for competitors whose sites are better optimized for mobile. Companies need to live in a mobile-first way of thinking even if it goes against what they’ve been taught. 

Text (prospecting) vs. display (retargeting)

When you buy text ads on search engines, you can also buy display ads that retarget users who are visiting other websites within their advertising networks. There are a few ways display ads differ from text ads: What you can say and show in a few lines of text is very different from what you can say and show in an image. Not to mention that image is now being displayed to a user who has already seen your brand once, so they will be much more likely to engage with a brand they recognize. If you’re going to run a search campaign, you’re leaving a lot of potential success off the table if you’re not concurrently running display retargeting ads.

With reviews vs. without

Over the years, Google has emphasized social media data in determining how it publishes ads and ranks sites for organic traffic. One of the biggest drivers of that is customer review data. The reviews must come from their list of trusted review vendors to give the review credibility and ensure businesses don’t make them up. 

The benefit of working with one of these trusted third-party review vendors is that if you have over 100 reviews, Google will add your summary five-star score next to each of your paid search ads and your organic search result links. This does two things: It gives you higher credibility than other links on the page (increasing the odds the customer clicks on your links), and it can decrease your cost of customer acquisition by as much as 15 percent, on average, with a higher likelihood of converting into sales. 

General vs. custom audiences

Until now, you mostly had to rely on search engines to identify the target audience and hope they got it right. In the newest iterations of search marketing agency, the searches engines are giving you more input on who they’re targeting. For example, if you’re a “whitelisted” email marketer, you can give them your list of email targets and they’ll match it to their users and target advertising only to them. This is great if you’re targeting old customer email accounts or have a list of prospects’ emails. Another tactic is to give them a list of competitor or industry websites where your customers are likely looking, and they’ll target advertising to any users that visit those sites. This is the first thing I’ve seen — other than customizing keywords from chairs to restaurant chairs — that will help B2B marketers go after such targeted traffic. Be sure to take advantage of custom audiences in your campaigns. 

As you can  see, a lot has changed in the world of search marketing agency in the past decade, and I’m guessing that change will continue. Please don’t set up your campaigns once and forget about them. You need to keep up with new best practices and reset your campaigns to have a maximum return on your search engine marketing agency investment.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-strategically-generate-search-engine-traffic/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-to-strategically-generate-search.html