Regular website maintenance is non-negotiable and should be an ongoing affair. Over and above adding new pages, your website maintenance should also link to the performance of your website; it’s imperative that you continuously maintain your site to ensure it’s performing at its optimum.

The infographic below was created by Smartbear, a company that specialises in software testing. The infographic shows how small things like enhancing the page load speed can improve the revenue you can generate from your website.

1. Site loading speed is paramount
Do you know how long your site takes to load? You may have initially factored in loading times when your website was first designed, but through your regular website maintenance you could have changed something that adversely affects your loading speed, a huge factor in loss of visitors.

Factors that influence the speed of your site include: your server, content on your site and widgets used on your site that are hosted by a third party. A massive 57% of people will leave a site within the first three seconds if the site is perceived to be too slow. Shockingly, most major retail sites take ten or more seconds to load – a whole seven seconds too long.

2. One second is a long time

Let’s look at what a mere one second added to your loading time will do:

• 11% fewer page views
• 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
• 7% loss in conversion

  In monetary terms, if you use Amazon as an example, a one second decrease would result in the loss of $1.6 billion annually. If you want to make sure you aren’t losing revenue due to slow page loading time, regular website maintenance based on page speed optimisation cannot be ignored.

  3. More money is moving online
  The research company Forrester recently predicted that by 2016, 9% off all global retail sales will be conducted online. Retailers spend a huge amount of money optimising the flow of their stores in malls, increasingly though if you want to secure business through your online engagement with customers, regular website maintenance is the first step in making their user experience as enjoyable as possible.

  4. Don’t ignore your conversion forms
  Most people are familiar with the generic HTML contact form employed on numerous websites. These forms fulfil the important task of letting your audience make contact, enquire about your product or services or request a quote. While these forms are useful, they’re often also a source of irritation and therefore loss of revenue. These are the most common things that’ll put people off using your HTML contact form.

  Too many fields: Make filling in the form as quick and easy as possible by minimising the number of required fields.

  Form validation is too strict: Don’t make people jump through hoops in order to make contact. Again, simplicity and ease of use is key.

  The much hated re-typing of some obscure word or phrase: Find another way to ward off spam – this is probably one of the most annoying things encountered on the web today.

  Making someone re-type information: Don’t put people off by making this a laborious task. If they’ve already entered certain information such as their address or shirt size, have a system in place that’ll automatically repeat it when necessary.

  Regularly analysing and maintaining all of the forms on your site will keep your user’s experience pleasant. This goes a long way towards converting them into clients. Remember that these forms are the lifeline of your online business. The cost of not maintaining your online forms is potentially massive – even more so than your loading speed.

  Website maintenance impacts your communication
  A large portion of your communication will entail the building of landing pages for specific campaigns, competitions or a destination they’re directed to upon replying to one of your emails. If you don’t have a marketing automation system or an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) to do this for you, you’ll have to go through the costly exercise of hiring a designer and programmer every single time you need a new page.

  An automated marketing system will not only allow you to easily to maintain your website but should also do things such as automatically personalising each email you send, or personalising a website based on an individual’s preference
  By Gareth Slaven
  
  

One of the most effective ads in social media right now are native-social ads, ads that are incorporated within the social stream, like the ads that appear in Facebook’s News Feed.

In fact, native ads are gettings lots of shares and clicks and, in next to no time at all, it is expected that more than fifty percent of the social media ad spending will focus on native ads. A study conducted by BI Intelligence shows that among all social media sites, the ones that will find natural ads most valuable are the ones that focus on photo sharing, like Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram.

These three photo-sharing social media sites are indeed benefiting from their native ad strategies. Snapchat’s Stories, or snaps that last for a day, is not yet an advertising unit, but brands will soon be using it as a native marketing tool. Instagram already has a native ad unit, while Pinterest has Promoted Pins, or paid placements from selected retailers and businesses that would appear within Pinterest’s category feeds and search results.

Native in-stream ads are the most successful type of ads in social media sites,, and will continue to find success according to a study. (Image: thalo-mag (CC) via Flickr)

The reason why photo-sharing social media sites benefit a lot from native ads is because photos are the most commonly shared form of media in the Internet.

How the Social Media report was conducted

The BI Intelligence report was conducted through interviews with experts in native advertising, comprising of specialists in social media analytics, social media networking investors, and chief advertising buyers.

It investigated the major advertisers and brands, making comparisons regarding their use of native ads and identifying their level of commitment with regards to using these types of ads. In addition, it also gives details as to why research firms were generally wrong in their estimation of the impact of native social ads.

The best native advertising formats were explored, like those of Facebook, and the researchers tried to determine how effectual native ads are on each social networking site. Native ads are so effective that, according to Jan Rezab, chief executive of Socialbakers, a social media analytics firm, “in the future, all advertising on social media will be native in-stream ads. The right rail and banners will disappear altogether.”

Why are Native Ads Effective?

There are several reasons why experts are so optimistic about native ads. In fact, according to Jed Williams, author of a forecast by BIA/Kelsey, forty percent of the 11 billion dollars on social ad spending by 2017 will go to native social ads.

Also, as previously mentioned, social media sites that are primarily focused on sharing photos benefit the most because photos are the most shared media online. In fact, a study shows that 43 percent of Internet users around the world have shared a photo in the past month. Online photo sharing enjoyed a boost with the advent of smart phones, as these devices, along with photo-sharing apps, have practically made sharing pictures online just a few clicks away.

One reason for the effectiveness of native in-streams is the way they look, feel and operate, and how these three perform so smoothly across desktop computers and mobile devices. This is exactly what brands are looking for because they want to deliver ads that work across all kinds of devices.

Promoted Tweets, a twitter native ad which has was already operating since 2010, is evidence that native social ads really work. As proof, Twitter is showing, more than any other social networking site that digital and television ad spending can work in close association. LinkedIn is now creating huge investments to come up with its own native ads strategy and Pinterest is also just beginning to use native in-stream ads with Promoted Pins.

By Aaron Elliott
Founder, Socialbarrel.com

As a marketer, you carefully craft pieces of content for the web. You research your target audience, include what’s trending, topical keywords and a distribution plan across your social networks and web properties. You’ve even found the optimal time of day to post for each.

But when you click “Publish”…nothing happens.

Native advertising, otherwise known as paid media in the format of news content nestled among other similar stories, has risen as one of the more effective ways to reach consumers in 2014. Though not new, certain questions arise: are consumers really clicking on native advertising vs. traditional advertisements or organic posts on the web? Do they actually trust these ads and are they worth your money? The answer may surprise you.

According to a study done by David Franklyn, law professor at the University of San Francisco, when it comes to what people recognize about labels, people often just skip over them. Respondents to his study “didn’t remember seeing ‘sponsored by’ posts when asked to read a web page and the majority (over 50 percent) also didn’t know what the word ‘sponsored’ actually meant.”

These results augment more preliminary findings from the study which stated that sometimes people don’t understand what the word ”ad” means, and even with disclosure, as much as 35 percent of people when asked to identify the type of content they were viewing, said that it was not an ad.

What this study sheds light on is that we do not have a homogenous group of consumers in terms of knowledge and expectations. People struggle with differentiating paid from unpaid ads. The bottom line? Context matters more than labels.

Furthermore, in terms of wanting to know whether a piece of content was paid media or not, out of the 10,000 surveyed, only 40 percent of consumers wanted more clear and conspicuous differentiation between paid and unpaid content. Sixty percent stated that they don’t care. Said Franklyn, “a growing number of consumers don’t care, and enjoy it. They enjoy the hyper-stimulation that marketers do the work to do – they just want to sift through and enjoy it like People Magazine.”

Other than consumers just plain not caring, why do native ads work so well? According to Jamie Cole, creative director at Red Barn Media Group, in research covering audience reception to native advertising, the material that appeared the least commercial was rated as most credible by readers, and attitude toward the brand and purchase intent increased towards content that mirrored and appeared as news content.

But don’t confuse the word “mirror” with “trick.” According to Dan Greenberg, the CEO of Sharethrough, ”it’s not about tricking people, it’s about delivering content that has value. We believe in the power of meaningful content.” (Besides, tricking people couldland you in hot water.)

Preliminary data from a study his company conducted showed that the language used to disclose native ads has an impact on whether or not a consumer perceives a story as being paid for by a brand. “Disclosure language impacts perception. The words ‘sponsored’ vs. ‘featured’ vs. ‘promoted’ vs. ‘advertisement’ vs. ‘placed by’ vs. ‘in partnership’ vs. ‘suggested’ vs. ‘around the web’ all have different perceptions. Context has a major impact on perception.”

Do you trust native advertising or other paid media content? Why or why not?

BY STACEY MILLER

 

Want to build trust and brand with native ads? Register for our free on-demand webinar with Steve Rubel now!

Information adapted from the FTC’s Workshop on Native Advertising.

Image: Pardot (Creative Commons)