7 Ways Small Businesses Can Use SEO To Boost Customer Service And Growth

The user experience a website provides is a crucial ranking factor for search engines like Google’s, which is why there’s such a close association between search engine optimization (SEO) and customer service. In today's corporate world, the right SEO marketing strategies can give you a powerful leg up in expanding a small business.SEO refers to the use of specific strategies to boost a website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), and the main reason for adopting SEO-based marketing tactics — particularly as a small business — is to attract organic (non-paid) traffic.

1. Produce relevant content

Rather than generating material around keywords only, concentrate on creating content that’s truly useful. In other words, give prospective customers information that they are looking for. Relevant content is what makes you visible in search engines and turns potential clients into paying clients.

This content, whether it's a blog article or a social post, must be created with a specific purpose in mind, and with a primary focus on client demands. Users visit your site for a reason, and addressing that reason can help you improve search visibility and conversion rates.

2. Make navigation easy

Website navigation, particularly the navigation bar (aka menu bar), must be user-friendly and easy to understand. Visitors must be able to effortlessly find their way through a site, as it’s been repeatedly shown that they’ll quickly abandon ones that have complex navigation structures.

The goal of a menu bar is to make it as simple as possible for users to search for and discover the information they need. It should have links to those pages you consider the most important. Also, ensure that all pages in a navigation menu can be indexed easily by search engines.

Related: 11 Ways to Get Visitors to Spend More Time on Your Website

3. Make content easy to read

Nobody enjoys reading something that’s difficult or boring. A good first step in avoiding both is eliminating the use of the passive voice wherever possible. Your sentences should be short and easy to understand, and grouped into small paragraphs and sections. Use bullets to structure wherever possible, and use bold and italics when applicable. Readable posts will result in more repeat visitors and a greater conversion rate.

4. Use videos and images

While written material allows you to include relevant keywords that help boost search engine ranking, visual media is another vital tool, as it can help to enhance searchable content even more. Visually-engaging media is both interesting for users and has a significant impact on marketing efforts. Any image or video used, however, must be relevant to the page content.

5. Keep content fresh

Regular posting (at least once a month, preferably more) and maintaining quality content will help you stay competitive. Besides new posts, you can also update existing material regularly, which means frequent indexing, as this increases the chances of search engines such as Bing and Google visiting your site.

Related: Will Today's Influencer Content Still Be Around in 20 Years? The Answer Lies With Syndication.

6. Improve website speed

One of the most crucial ranking factors for Google is site speed, so faster loading helps with SEO, as well as with client engagement. Hosting your website on trusted servers, compressing images and removing bloated and/or unessential code will all help to speed things up.

7. Make sure your connection is secure

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a set of rules and standards that regulates how data is transferred online, and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is its more advanced form. Essentially, HTTP is risky, while HTTPS is secure, and is often required because it allows customers to submit credit card information. Google will not send users to vulnerable sites, so it's vital to ensure that your connection is secure. HTTPS websites are preferred by its ranking algorithm, so those that are safer will inevitably outrank those that are not.

Related: Learn How to Protect your Business and Others From Cyber Attacks

Incorporating the right small business SEO marketing tactics is important if you want users to find the information they need. A site should be easy to find, provide value to visitors and offer relevant content that addresses their needs. And improving your search engine efforts doesn’t have to be difficult; you simply need to know how to go about it.

Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.Com Inc., All rights reserved

This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.Com

7 Easy Ways To Fight The Data Sprawl

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Data. It’s the foundation for decision-making at many of the world’s most successful companies, and one of the most valuable assets a business can hold. So far, so familiar.

However, not all data — nor data collection strategies — are created equally. In today’s digital economy, businesses must know the difference between good data and bad data. Just as importantly, they must also know how to manage and use it effectively to bring about amazing customer experiences.  

For companies that aren’t armed with this knowledge, this opportunity is still left largely untapped. 

During the pandemic, online channels became essential to the survival of millions of businesses. Many had to pivot rapidly towards a digital-first strategy, with huge waves of first-party customer data — that is, data about their own interactions with their own customers — starting to wash up on their shores. With no idea how to manage this onslaught, a resource that could completely transform the customer experience and turbo-charge sales was left unused and unloved.

Many businesses are still unprepared for the sheer volume of first-party data that heads their way as soon as a new customer channel is switched on. Unprocessed, uncleaned and unorganized, the data delivers no value to the organization and begins to sprawl. Not only is this a huge opportunity lost, but the problem can become even more costly if it’s left to fester. 

Sorting it out can feel like a time-consuming task. So where should companies start? 

1. Understand what makes good data 

Good data is the backbone of every positive customer experience. Therefore, before undertaking any sort of data initiative within your organization, it is important to understand: what exactly is good data?

Good data is first-party data. First-party data is the data that you collect directly from your own customers, with their consent, about how they use your products and services. Unlike third-party data, it is clean, accurate, and trustworthy. It is the secret behind the success of the most customer-first companies. It allows you to provide highly personalized, valuable experiences for your customers.

There are other considerations in regards to good data too. You have to ensure that your data isn’t fragmented – i.E., that you’re getting a unified view of your customers rather than having disparate data in different forms for different parts of the customer journey. So, make sure you’re connecting all the dots as a first step.

Another consideration is standardization — for data to be useful, you don’t want to be comparing apples to oranges. So, make sure that whatever form you’re collecting data in, you’re consistent across the whole stack, so that you can properly measure and analyze it.

Segmenting your data by various criteria once it’s in a usable state is also a good idea so that you’re able to reveal patterns in the statistics. Cutting it up by demographic, previous spend and loyalty, as examples, can reveal interesting trends that you might not find otherwise. For example, you might want to look at the attributes of customers who stop doing business with the company to reveal the common underlying elements of their journeys. Or equally, segment out your highest spending customers to understand commonalities across their profiles.

2. Make a plan to fight data sprawl

Simply collecting the data is not enough — you need to understand what your data signifies and have an end goal in mind for those insights, so the first step needs to be making a plan with a clear direction of travel. For instance, is the goal to identify the most valuable customers? Is it to measure and then improve the customer experience across different stages of the customer journey? Is it to use the information you have about your customers to better personalize your communications? Or indeed, is it a combination of several goals? 

There’s also the question of your audience, which will play a big part in what your data goals should be – is it the CMO and the marketing team? Sales? Customer service leaders?

Once you know what you want from your data and who you’re using it for, you can map out all the technical requirements and think about where you can source this information from (whether customer service interaction history, marketing campaign open rates or something else). When you’re building out your plan you can then also bear in mind all the areas of your business that you’ll want to access and extract value from it. 

This planning stage also gives you a solid basis for robust data governance policies and processes – a way to bring order to the chaos of unmanaged data, and to avoid getting caught out in the future.

3. Think beyond big

You’ll do well to forecast more than you expect when estimating the equipment, data warehousing storage space, and processes your business will need in the future. After all, if you’re concerned about the volume of data coming in the door today, just think how much more you’ll be dealing with in two years’ time once your customer base has grown.

A tip for the wise: pay attention to data inconsistencies as you scale – these usually increase as you add more data sources and tools. 

4. Tend to your foundations

A strong backbone is essential to a successful data architecture. It’s also here, at the very foundation of your stack, that you can solve a lot of the basic problems that might otherwise snowball into bigger headaches.

A central infrastructure like a Customer Data Platform (CDP) can help you establish a single source of truth for your first-party data. This gets rid of silos – with all the potential for chaos that they entail – and ensures all the data you hold is accurate, up to date, and stored in the same format. 

If you get this step right, your data can be used more broadly within your organization across different departments. And because you’ll have a clear picture of what data you hold and how it’s collected, it will be far easier for you to maintain compliance with data privacy regulations.

5. Prioritize security and compliance

If you’re sitting on a data sprawl, the likelihood is that you haven’t got any protection in place for threats, security incidents and other unexpected attacks. There are increasing numbers of regulations that businesses need to comply with when it comes to data (think GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA). So actually, taking the steps above to understand, unify and make the most of your data will not only provide measurable ROI when it comes to marketing and sales results, it’ll also help you in the longer term when it comes to compliance. 

For example, GDPR mandates that European customers’ data must only be collected for specified and legitimate purposes, so you really need to ensure that consent is built into your data collection. Equally, having a solid data infrastructure in place also helps to ensure the accuracy and relevance of that consensually collected customer data, again another tenet of GDPR.

Above all it is important to take security seriously and ensure that you, your partners, and suppliers all have comprehensive data security practices and compliance certifications in place. This really needs to underpin any data strategy that you’re working at.

While you’re at it, remember that technology and processes are just two key components of an effective security program. The third is your team. Security is everyone’s responsibility, so make sure you bake it into your company culture through regular training. 

6. Build for flexibility

The number of solutions that exist to store, manage, and analyze your data almost rivals the volume of data you’re trying to deal with. The truth is, it’s always hard to assess which tools you’ll outgrow in the next two months versus the ones which will grow with you for years.

Don’t let that overwhelm you. The key thing to avoid is buying into a closed software suite that locks you into a specific set of tools, as this will limit your ability to adjust as your needs evolve.

Most companies switch tools in and out as their priorities evolve. By planning for this kind of flexibility, you won’t get stuck with legacy technology that limits your future data potential.

7. Audit, audit, audit

Regular data audits ensure your reality matches the standards and policies you’ve laid out as part of your data governance strategy. 

If there’s no clear use for the data your teams are storing, make sure you’re either deleting it or moving it to a data lake, to make it easier to store and sort. Even better, don’t capture it in the first place – a radical move that can make a huge difference in fighting the data sprawl.

Take control of data sprawl

A sprawling mess of raw data is at best a useless resource, and at worst a genuine hindrance to your company’s success.

Although daunting at first sight, its true potential can be unlocked with thought and structure, helping you understand your customers and dramatically improve the performance of critical aspects of your business.

In today’s competitive, digital-first environment, embracing and taking control of your first-party data is something you can’t do without.

Katrina Wong is VP of Product Marketing at Twilio Segment.

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Patient Influencers On Social Media Are Marketing Medicine, Devices

There's virtually no research into the patient influencer phenomenon on social media, and very little regulation. File Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE

Disability activist Gem Hubbard regularly shares her insights about life in a wheelchair with more than 75,000 Instagram followers, under the handle @wheelsnoheels_, and her YouTube videos boast more than 3.7 million hits.

Hubbard, who hails from the U.K., is "increasingly known internationally for her work in furthering the horizons of people with and without disabilities," her website says.

It goes on to say that Hubbard also "works hard to bring brands to life," promoting Grippoz silicone covers for wheelchair rims, wheelchair bags from Pickepacke, and the ADAPTS Disabled Passenger Transfer Sling.

"With a niche following of ninety thousand, she is sure to bring awareness to your brand with a high standard," Hubbard's website says. "Gem views all products and services as potentially life-enhancing for wheelchair users and all of her followers and contacts."

Patient influencers like Hubbard fill social media these days, and a new report says pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers view them as an increasingly popular direct-to-consumer marketing tool.

These patient influencers share their stories in online health forums and on social media, using their personal experiences to help inform and educate others.

Because they openly discuss sensitive and personal health problems -- which run the gamut from chronic pain to cancer to psoriasis to multiple sclerosis -- patient influencers come across as more sincere and potentially hold much more sway over their followers than social media influencers hawking handbags, shoes or energy drinks, the report said.

But relationships that some influencers have established with drug companies and medical firms raise ethical questions that need to be considered, said report co-author Erin Willis, an associate professor of advertising, public relations and media design at the University of Colorado Boulder who is conducting research into patient influencers.

At this point there's virtually no research into the patient influencer phenomenon, and very little regulation, Willis said in the report, recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

"I don't want to come out of the gate really hot and say that this is an unethical practice because we don't know yet what it is," Willis said. "It could be good, right? Patients sharing information could be a positive thing. But then also, of course, there could be some risks involved."

This situation makes it difficult for people seeking information about their medical conditions to know whom to trust, since popular influencers might be compensated on the side by companies with an interest in the messages they're promoting, said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"Patient stories and patient perspective can be important, but the perspectives that are being highlighted are the ones that back marketing goals," she said. "They might just be out there telling their story, but they are being selected because what they're saying supports marketing goals."

Patients now part of marketing to the consumer

Patient influencers are far from a new phenomenon.

"Pharma has been using patient advocacy groups for many years and individual influencers at this point also for years," Fugh-Berman said. "This isn't like some possibility in the future."

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing, which enables drug companies to target consumers directly, tends to be controversial and is legal only in the United States and New Zealand, Willis noted.

DTC ads fill TV and print, prompting patients to ask their doctors about specific drugs. It's an effective marketing tool -- about 44% of patients who ask their doctor about a drug receive a prescription for it, Willis said.

But as trust in pharmaceutical companies, doctors and traditional media has declined, drugmakers now are turning to patients themselves as messengers, the new report said.

Patient influencers first drew the attention of federal regulators in 2015, when celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian sang the praises of a "#morningsickness" drug to tens of millions of Instagram followers, according to Willis' report.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration swiftly flagged the post for omitting the medication's risks and sent the drugmaker a warning letter. Kardashian, who was paid by the drug company, had to remove the post.

Kim isn't the only Kardashian to run afoul of the FDA. Her sister Khloe received her own warning letter from the agency this week, based on an appearance on "The View" talk show last July where she touted a migraine drug as a "game changer."

In a letter sent Tuesday, the FDA told the manufacturer, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, that Khloe Kardashian's appearance made "false or misleading claims and representations about the risks associated with and the efficacy of" the migraine medication.

Experts are concerned because even patient influencers without the cachet of a Kardashian can hold powerful sway over their followers, because they're viewed as more sincere and less self-promotional.

"These patient influencers are simply sharing their lives. It just happens that their lives include health information and pharmaceutical drugs," Willis said. "Whereas a pop culture influencer, they're curating content in a different way because they're trying to actively gain those sponsorships or work with brands. That's not quite the case with these patients. The motives are very different. They want to help other patients live better lives."

Patient influencers tend to carry a lot more weight with followers than social media influencers who focus on lifestyle, according to WEGO Health, a marketing firm that recruits patient leaders and influencers to work with pharmaceutical companies.

About 51% of social media users mostly or completely trust information shared by patient influencers, versus just 14% for lifestyle influencers, according to survey results cited by WEGO Health in a 2020 report, "Pharma Influencer Marketing: Making the Case."

That survey also found that 64% of people were mostly or very likely to research or ask their doctors about health information communicated or promoted by another patient suffering from their same ailment.

"Overall, the takeaways from our landscape research indicate that patients as influencers for brands will help build trust more so than lifestyle influencers, are more likely to increase target patient audience action, and that patients are receptive to branded marketing and ready to partner with pharma to make it happen," the WEGO Health report concluded.

Gray areas in what influencers can say and do

Influencers who work with WEGO Health are provided training so that they'll know the FDA and U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules with which they need to comply, said Amrita Bhowmick, chief community officer for Health Union, owner of WEGO Health.

Under FTC rules, patient influencers who are paid to tout specific products must note their compensation in posts about those products. If they're writing about a medical conference they attended, they should disclose the fact that a pharmaceutical company paid for their trip, Bhowmick said.

"We veer on the side of being extremely cautious because without credibility, our entire business falls apart, right?" she said. "We are very aggressive about marking things as sponsored. For instance, we'll use #ad -- no stealth language. It's very explicit."

Influencers also are warned against offering medical advice, and urged to keep track of what's being said in the comments section of their posts.

"We keep an eye on the momentum of posts," Bhowmick said. "If it ever feels like something is gaining traction and is going to the point where the patient leader or our moderators can't keep an eye on all the comments, you need to shut it down. You can't just let it spiral in a way where you can't monitor the comments responsibly."

The pharmaceutical industry group PhRMA has set forth a "robust set of principles for direct-to-consumer marketing" to which its members have voluntarily agreed, spokeswoman Sarah Sutton said.

"Direct-to-consumer communications can provide important opportunities to help patients have informed discussions about their health with their physicians, as well as further public awareness of disease and available treatment options," Sutton said. "The biopharmaceutical industry takes seriously its responsibility to following all applicable legal requirements surrounding direct-to-consumer communications, including FDA regulations that help ensure communications are accurate and backed by appropriate evidence."

But Bhowmick acknowledges that this new field of social media influence continues to have gray areas and blurred lines, and that other marketing companies might not be as conservative as hers in following a set of standards.

In fact, WEGO Health is assisting Willis with her research, helping her connect with patient influencers for in-depth interviews.

"I think having people like Dr. Willis creating more precise guidelines around what's considered best practice can really only up the game in this space," Bhowmick said.

Willis thinks patient influencers can serve a valuable purpose, helping to disseminate information about health problems among people who may not have easy access to a doctor.

"I think patients go to the internet because they trust other patients," she said. "And so I almost wonder if maybe these patient influencers are good, and could be useful in health promotion or health education."

But it can be very easy for freewheeling influencers to cross the line, particularly if they are average Joes and Jills primarily motivated by the need to help others, experts said.

"When patients start answering other patients' questions about medications or advising them, that's questionable," Willis said. "When patients share information, you don't know their health literacy."

While it's known to be happening, how it's happening or what it looks like isn't known, she said.

"What kinds of information are being shared? Does it have any effect on patients asking for a certain prescription?" Willis said. "We need to know that."

Texts, direct messages raise ethical concerns

The situation gets even murkier when you consider that patient influencers sometimes chat with followers in ways that aren't public, through direct messages or on closed social media forums where a person needs to ask permission to join the conversation, Willis said.

"Some of those conversations might happen under the radar, in direct messages or on posts that disappear in 24 hours. That's where questions are being raised," she said.

"It shares some of the same ethical concerns of traditional direct-to-consumer marketing, except that this is kind of like an interactive form of direct-to-consumer marketing," Willis added.

Fugh-Berman's concerns extend beyond the social influence patient influencers have on individuals.

"Patients who are involved with pharmaceutical companies are testifying to the Food and Drug Administration," Fugh-Berman said. "They are affecting drug approval. They are affecting legislation. They're affecting public opinion in a way that benefits pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, and they may not even know that what they're doing has that effect."

In recent years, the FDA has regularly buckled under public pressure to approve controversial drugs, Fugh-Berman said -- Addyi for female sexual dysfunction, Aduhelm for Alzheimer's disease, Exondys 51 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy -- and it's not clear how much of that pressure has been bought by pharmaceutical companies.

"We want objective people evaluating new drugs and new devices, who are actually looking at the science and determining whether the risks outweigh the benefits," Fugh-Berman said. "These are not decisions that should be made on emotional appeals, but the emotional appeals work really well."

Further, patients who testify before the FDA or Congress don't have to disclose that their way has been paid by a pharmaceutical company, Fugh-Berman said.

"The FDA asks, but does not require them to disclose conflicts," she said. "So what they generally say is 'I have no financial interest in the outcome of this meeting.'"

Fugh-Berman thinks patient influencers should be required to publicly identify companies that are paying them, the names of products being endorsed, and how much they're being paid to hawk the products.

"Patient relationships with industry, their intermediaries, or their vendors should be disclosed publicly as well as privately," she said in written comments on the subject. "This is particularly important with media and in testimony, comments on regulations, communications with policymakers or the public, and any other efforts to influence public policy. It is only when commercial relationships are disclosed that others can come to their own conclusions about conflicts of interest."