As you walk down the streets, take a look around you and you will see many staring or tapping away on their smartphones as they mill around. 93% of American adults use the internet today, a steady climb from approximately just half the population in the early 2000s. People are using the internet for almost anything you can think of: getting directions to a destination, connecting with people who have similar interests, or looking for a part-time job.
Omnipresent technology has influenced the way we think, interact, and communicate. As more of our lives have shifted online, traditional methods of advertising are no longer as effective as they were before. Businesses instead have to vie for our consumers’ attention in a competitive digital space. Especially when it comes to search.
One tried-and-tested method to enhance online visibility is via guest blogging. Posting your content on someone else’s blog can help you generate more traffic volume and boost search engine results. It also increases the brand awareness and reputation of your business through frequent mentions on the web. The process is effective as long as you post on high-quality blogs that are relevant to your business. If you have trouble finding blogs that fit your purpose, you may wish to consider a guest posting service to help you increase your visibility.
The Paradox of Choice
People fare badly when presented with too many choices. When faced with an array of options, people become cripppled with indecisiveness and are more likely to regret their choice. This may seem counterintuitive. Surely if you present someone with 50 pairs of shoes, the possibility of them finding a pair of shoes that fits exactly what they are looking for is much higher than if you were to only present them with 3 pairs.
Research suggests that having too many choices can cause an information overload. People are unable to process the vast amount of options cognitively. They are also more likely to regret their decisions as they believe that they might have missed out on a better choice in the sea of available options. Despite faring badly at making decisions, people like having options. The trick then is to give people a sufficient number of options that will satisfy them but not cripple their ability to make decisions. What does this mean for your digital marketing strategy?
Emphasising Key Product Information
A key component of a business’s marketing strategy is its website. Your website is where people interact with your business, such as getting information about your products and services, making purchases, and getting your contact information. Reducing your list of products and services to just three options is probably not plausible. Instead, you can make it easier for your customer to make decisions by limiting and highlighting key features of your products.
You may, for example, use a product comparison tool to help customers narrow down and display a few product options. The number of key features for each product should not be overwhelming, but peppered with sufficient key information to aid decision-making. Perhaps you found out through customer feedback that your customers choose between different washing machines based on the amount of noise it generates and its energy efficiency rating. Including these key features in the product comparison tool can reduce the amount of information your customers have to process and guide them in choosing the product that best suits their needs.
Increasing Visibility in Search Engine Results
More than 90% of adults online use search engines to look up information on the internet, and an increasing amount of web traffic is generated through search engines. Google limits search results to 10 entries per page, and a large percentage of people do not go on to click on the second page of search results. Limiting the number of results per page visually reduces the number of options presented to people, allowing them to process information and choose which links to click more efficiently. You cannot change the number of search results that are returned, but you can help your business appear on the first page of search returns to generate a higher volume of web traffic.
One important factor to increase the ranking of your website in search engine results is the use of keywords. The more your web content fits with people’s search terms (keywords), the higher your website will rank in search results. It is important to understand the relevance of your business with regard to what people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, and the type of content they wish to consume.
You can achieve this through customer feedback, visiting forums and community groups, and doing your own keyword research. You can then utilise relevant keywords in your web content to increase your business’s visibility in search results. You want to appear in the top position, rather than fall victim to choice fatigue on the third page of results.
It is common to bombard consumers with choices, as we think it helps them make better decisions. People do like having choices, but often find it difficult to make decisions when they have too many options. This has implications for your digital marketing strategy, and what you can do to engage your customers.