Since the web first ushered in a new era of e-commerce, marketplaces, payment services, and massive scaling of shipping and distribution networks have made e-commerce successful. This reading considers how e-commerce might change over the next decade.
Future trends for e-commerce
No one can say for sure which innovations today will be used tomorrow. However, a few e-commerce trends stand out:
Specialization of smaller retailers
Immersive customer experiences
Distribution and delivery innovations
Specialization of smaller retailers
Large online marketplaces and retailers will still probably account for most online purchases. Smaller retailers may increasingly become more specialized by offering highly customizable products, niche product categories not offered by larger retailers, and more personalized service.
Immersive customer experiences
Today, many customers still like to go to a physical store because they want to handle or try on an item before they buy it. Virtual and augmented reality can provide immersive experiences online so customers feel like they’ve handled an object or tried on a garment without actually making a trip to the store.
Virtual reality (VR) is fully immersive. By putting on a VR headset, users are able to view a simulated physical world with audio-visual feedback. Imagine putting on your headset and going to the virtual dressing room to try on clothing items before buying them. That is an example of a VR experience.
Augmented reality (AR) is semi-immersive. Users may not need to enter a simulated physical world. AR adds audio-visual feedback to your existing world. What if you could automatically view sunglasses in your shopping cart overlaid on a virtual image of yourself on your phone? What if it saved items from any e-commerce store so you could “try them on” again? This would be an AR solution to shopping at different stores in person.
Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversation with human users. They can ask you if everything is fine and if you need help. This would be an online version of a sales associate asking you the same questions in a physical store. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning by chatbots using data from actual conversations may improve the overall experience for shoppers.
Distribution and delivery innovations
You might have heard or read about the possibility of drones or self-driving vehicles making the last-mile trip between a warehouse and a residential home or office. These methods of distribution and delivery may be commonplace in the next ten years.
Key takeaway
No matter which technologies end up being adopted over the next ten years, e-commerce will continue to grow, and our daily lives and habits will change, too.
Bonus
Want to experience AR? Google has added 3D animals to its AR search results.
If you have an Android smartphone or Apple iPhone, complete these steps:
1. Open your browser app (preferably Chrome).
2. Enter “Bengal tiger” for a search. You can also enter a dog breed like “Yorkshire terrier” or “German shepherd.” Note: You may need to scroll down in your search results for the 3D animal.
3. Click View in 3D.
4. After clicking View in 3D, if you want to view a true-to-size version of the animal in your physical space, click View in your space.
Note: This step requires you to give the app access to your device’s camera, microphone, and device storage.
A marketing funnel is a powerful way for businesses to focus and coordinate their marketing efforts. To get the most out of a marketing funnel, businesses must optimize their work at each stage of the funnel to reach desired outcomes.
The marketing funnel video in this course introduced you to a simple and generalized funnel design with four stages:
Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Loyalty
You also learned that there are multiple versions of marketing funnels. Marketing funnels have been revised over time to reflect changes in business, technology, and even customer behavior. This reading provides a brief history of the funnel’s evolution.
How is tofu related to a marketing funnel? Actually, ToFU (not the bean curd product) is an acronym for Top of Funnel. There are also MoFU and BoFU which stand for Middle of Funnel and Bottom of Funnel, respectively. When using any funnel, the aim is to get the most desirable outcomes for ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU. As you read about different funnel designs, you can also think about how the desired ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU outcomes for each are similar or different.
Traditional sales funnel
Funnels probably took shape first as sales funnels. A simple sales funnel has awareness, interest, decision, and action stages as depicted in the following graphic.
Desirable outcomes for a sales funnel, like the one shown in the graphic, might be:
Awareness (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your brand, product, or service.
Interest (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice when the customer researches, comparison shops, or thinks about options.
Decision (MoFU): The customer chooses your brand, product, or service over your competitor’s.
Action (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service.
Combined marketing and sales funnel
Most likely, combined funnels for marketing and sales grew out of sales funnels. One example is shown below.
Desirable outcomes for a combined sales and marketing funnel, like the one shown in the graphic, might be:
Awareness (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your brand, product, or service.
Interest (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice when the customer researches, comparison shops, or thinks about options.
Desire (MoFU): The customer has motivation or an incentive to purchase your brand, product, or service.
Action (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service for the first time.
Conversion (BoFU): The customer makes regular purchases and a customer relationship is established.
Digital marketing funnel
As business and technology evolved, more specialized funnels were then developed, as in the case of a funnel entirely dedicated to digital marketing. An example of a specialized digital marketing funnel is shown below. Note that the Remarketing stage of the funnel is only for customers who engaged with your brand, product, or service at least once before and didn’t previously convert. New customers can proceed directly from the Consideration stage to the Conversion stage.
Desirable outcomes for a digital marketing funnel, like the one shown in the graphic, might be:
Awareness and engagement (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your brand, product, or service, and engages in online activity to learn more.
Consideration (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice after the customer has engaged.
Remarketing (MoFU): The customer who didn’t convert is re-engaged to consider your brand, product, or service again.
Conversion (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service for the first time.
Retention (BoFU): The customer makes regular purchases and a customer relationship is established.
Other marketing funnel variations
Today, specific funnels exist for many individual areas of marketing. Examples include an e-commerce marketing funnel, a social media marketing funnel, and even a content marketing funnel.
E-commerce marketing funnel
An e-commerce marketing funnel can include the following stages that focus on attracting and retaining customers:
Awareness: Build awareness of your e-commerce business.
Consideration: Build the brand.
Differentiation: Stand out in the business category.
Purchase: Reach shoppers most likely to purchase.
Brand readiness: Increase the potential for shoppers to make return purchases.
Social media marketing funnel
A social media marketing funnel can include these stages that turn a customer with brand awareness into a customer who is an advocate:
Awareness: Attract potential customers unaware of your brand, product, or service.
Consideration: Stand out among your competitors so potential customers have a good impression of your brand, product, or service.
Action: Convince potential customers to act and make a purchase.
Engagement: Keep customers engaged after they make a purchase so your brand, product, or service remains top-of-mind and in the spotlight.
Advocacy: Build trust with customers so they recommend your brand, product, or service to others.
Content marketing funnel
A content marketing funnel can include these stages to help marketers organize and focus their content:
Awareness: Build web pages, blogs, social media posts, infographics, and podcasts.
Evaluation: Focus on surveys, email, webinars, and educational events.
Conversion: Provide customer success stories, webinars, specifications, and demos.
Key takeaways
The key takeaways for funnels are:
There isn’t a single funnel that fits all needs.
Funnels are created for general sales and marketing needs.
Funnels are also created for specialized areas of marketing.
Effective marketing efforts incorporate funnels to optimize desired outcomes.
Finally, as a reminder, although this reading introduced a variety of funnels, the marketing funnel that you will refer to often in this program is the one shown below.
You may have heard about the customer journey, now before a purchase happens, each interaction with a brand during a customer journey is called a touchpoint.
Customer Touchpoints are important to monitor because they reveal the kinds of decisions customers are making during their customer journey to purchase your product or service. Touchpoints occur when a customer engages with your website or mobile app. But they also include customer interactions on all media channels before a customer discovers your website.
This reading explains how to classify touchpoints for media channels, and how to use these touchpoints to learn more about your customers.
Touchpoints relate to a specific context or need
When you identify touchpoints, you may be tempted to list social media or display ads. These channels may be the mediums in which touchpoints occur, but actual touchpoints provide much more information. When you identify a touchpoint, think about how the interaction might satisfy a customer’s need.
For example, instead of classifying social media as a touchpoint, classify a customer’s response to a flash sale announcement on Twitter as a touchpoint. When they click the link, they are interested in knowing what they can purchase at a discounted price.
From the example, notice how much contextual information is lost if you simply lump every social media interaction under a single touchpoint called social media.
Touchpoints have context and reflect customer needs. In the example, the context was curiosity, and the need was saving money.
Touchpoints are customer-centric
Touchpoints should also be customer-centric. Going back to the previous example, imagine if you viewed touchpoints from the perspective of the business instead of from the customer experience. If increasing sales is a business goal, touchpoints can easily become part of a rolling calculation, like a ratio of touchpoints to purchases.
While a ratio of touchpoints to purchases is still informative, notice how a customer-centric versus a business-centric analysis can provide more insights about buyer motivations.
Key takeaways
Use touchpoints to your advantage. To get the most from touchpoints, carefully define them for all media channels. Touchpoints that are customer-centric and relate back to their needs will yield the most useful data about customer motivations, preferences, and behaviors
As a digital marketer, being inclusive is an essential part of making deeper connections with your customers. Inclusive marketing is the practice of improving representation and belonging within the marketing and advertising materials that an organization creates.
In this reading, you’ll discover why inclusive marketing is important and how a company can make inclusion part of their marketing and advertising strategies.
Why inclusive marketing matters
In digital marketing, the creative choices a company makes can impact how people view themselves and how they view other people. Sometimes marketing campaigns (especially those that are older or more traditional) can reinforce stereotypes and leave out the perspectives of underrepresented groups of people. Inclusive marketing, on the other hand, seeks to represent a variety of perspectives, particularly those that have been marginalized in the past.
If a company focuses its marketing exclusively on a specific age group, gender, ethnicity, or other identity traits, they’re likely missing out on reaching potential customers. By approaching marketing decisions with a focus on inclusion, a company can positively and authentically market to the diversity that exists in their audience, and the world.
Making inclusive choices and avoiding stereotypes
Digital marketing requires getting to know your audience in a deeper way. With inclusive marketing, you can take this a step further by seeking to understand how parts of your target audience have been excluded, stereotyped, or misrepresented in the past.
Sometimes you might unintentionally overlook certain aspects of diversity, even if you remember to consider others. Here is a list of some identity traits that are helpful to keep in mind when you’re creating marketing or advertising materials for the people you’re trying to reach:
Race
Socioeconomic status
Age
Ability
Gender
Sexual orientation
Religion
Geographic location
Culture
Political perspective
Military status
Languages spoken
Gathering information about your audience’s demographics can help you broaden your perspective. It’s also important to consider the demographics of people who are not currently customers. These people may not use or even know about the products or services your company provides because the company’s marketing efforts haven’t reached them. By understanding their needs and desires, you can find a way to reach this group of people in a way that matters to them.
As an example, at least one billion people in the world live with a disability. If your product or service isn’t accessible to these people, they likely don’t use or even know about your product or service. And if your company’s marketing efforts don’t feature people with disabilities or address their needs, they may not view your company’s products or services as relevant to them.
That’s why it’s important to think deeply about your audience and their needs and to make sure their perspectives and stories are brought to life through the company’s marketing and advertising materials.
Key takeaways
Whether you’re developing marketing goals, researching your target audience, planning a marketing campaign, or analyzing data, keep in mind the principles of inclusive marketing. Maintaining a broader perspective of your audience will help you establish a deeper connection with your customers.
Resources for more information
You can learn more by reading the inclusive marketing guidelines and principles provided by Google.
Traditional marketing is marketing that isn’t online. Marketers reach potential customers through printed media, television, radio, direct mail, phone calls, or billboards. Digital marketing is marketing that is exclusively online. Digital marketers focus on potential customers who engage with online content, including search engine results, email, video, blogs, or social media.
This reading describes the advantages digital marketing has over traditional marketing and some definite challenges, too.
Digital marketing uses content in a variety of formats that can be easily converted from one format to another, making spending more cost-effective. Digital marketing also reduces wasteful spending. For example, television or billboard ads are equally seen by those who have an interest in your company or product and those who don’t. Traditional marketing always wastes some budget on people who will never buy a product or service. In contrast, digital ads can be selectively shown to people who are more likely to have an interest in that product or service. Digital marketing that is more strategically focused on the right people yields a better return on spending.
Technology
Various technologies enable organizations to engage and interact with customers more effectively, which is a big part of digital marketing. Developing a good online relationship with customers makes them more likely to find your business, become loyal customers, and even share their recommendations with others.
Digital marketing tools also enable companies to collect data and measure the results of their marketing efforts more effectively. When marketers receive data faster, they’re able to change direction easily if a marketing effort isn’t producing the results expected. Measuring the success of digital marketing campaigns is key to ensuring that you get the results you want.
Digital marketing adapts to new technologies. There are always new opportunities to reach customers in different ways, especially compared to traditional marketing.
Target audiences
Digital marketing tools and data enable you to expand your customer reach well beyond that of traditional marketing. Ad visibility and audience coverage can be tailored to meet your specific business needs and goals. When you reach the right audiences, you’re more likely to increase sales and develop sustainable customer loyalty programs.
Digital marketing challenges
Digital marketing also has certain challenges that are associated with spending, technology, and target audiences. For each advantage previously identified, there are also associated challenges.
Spending
Advantage: Digital content is easier to create.
Challenge: Organizations engage in omnichannel marketing—the integration or synchronization of content on multiple channels—so customers can have a consistent brand experience. This increases the amount of content required, so even if it’s easier to create digital content, much more content needs to be created overall. Furthermore, it’s not just about the amount of content created, but its quality. Advertising is a crowded space. Content must be distinctive to positively impact customer awareness and change their behavior.
Advantage: Digital marketing is more cost effective than traditional marketing.
Challenge: If an organization is working towards an omnichannel presence, the cost of marketing on all channels adds up quickly. Getting support or buy-in for extra or additional budget to cover the cost can be difficult.
TechnologyAdvantage: Digital marketing adapts to new technologies.
Challenge: As a marketer, learning and keeping up with new technologies and tools is a constant requirement. Marketers must also stay up-to-date with and follow all user privacy and data sharing regulations worldwide. Omnichannel marketing also makes it more difficult to track where sales come from. Marketers must rely more heavily on analytics tools to help them do that.
Target audiencesAdvantage: Digital marketing tools expand customer reach using specific audiences.
Challenge: The digital space is a crowded field that’s getting even more crowded. It’s harder for marketers to stand out with their advertising, even when they are targeting the right audiences.
Key takeaways
Various technologies make digital marketing more cost-effective and adaptable than traditional marketing. Digital marketing tools also enable more advanced and targeted audience selection for marketing campaigns. However, these benefits come with some challenges. In a digital space that’s both crowded and noisy, it’s harder for a company’s brand and advertising to stand out. Marketing professionals must keep up with technological advances and customer behaviours that change rapidly.
There are several essential soft entrepreneurship skills sets that you can develop to increase your entrepreneurial success if you are an entrepreneur or considering becoming one. Soft entrepreneur skills can ensure you grow your brand and get clients choosing you over your competitors. In this article, we will explore soft entrepreneurial skills are and how to develop them effectively to outgrow your competitors.
What are soft entrepreneurship skills?
Entrepreneurship is an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. Soft entrepreneurial skills encompass a broad range of various skill sets like customer service, leadership skills and creative thinking. It includes creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects. It is seen as vital to promoting innovation, competitiveness and economic growth. For instance, to be a successful business owner, you may need to develop your communication and listening skills. To build successful project teams, you might need to improve your leadership and teamwork skills.
Examples of soft entrepreneurship skills
Developing your soft entrepreneurial skills can increase the growth of your business and brand. Here are some examples of soft entrepreneurship skills you need to excel:
Business management skills
Teamwork and leadership skills
Communication and listening
Customer service skills
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Critical thinking skills
Strategic thinking and planning skills
Time management and organizational skills
Branding, marketing and networking skills
Business management skills
Successful entrepreneurs will most often rely on their business skills to manage and run a business or brand. Developing your business management skills can mean building up your ability to multitask, and make decisions regarding the health and profitability of your business.
Teamwork and leadership skills
Becoming a successful entrepreneur can also mean taking on leadership roles and working as part of a team. Being a business owner means you will most likely act as both a supervisor and as part of a team. You will need to rely on effective leadership skills to help motivate your team.
Communication and listening
Business owners and entrepreneurs should also develop effective communication skills. From active listening to clients, being able to communicate effectively can help you work with others. Likewise, effective communication can also translate to how you promote awareness of your brand. For instance, effective messages through content marketing, social media and other advertising methods can positively influence how you reach your target market.
Customer service skills
No matter the industry you venture into as an entrepreneur, you may still need to develop effective customer service skills. From talking with potential clients to discussing opening partnerships, effective customer service skills can help you connect with your customer base. Good customer relations can also ensure your brand is providing the products or services your market needs.
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Successful entrepreneurs may also have exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills. This is because there can be many aspects of building a brand or business that can require difficult decisions, finding solutions to obstacles. Using creative thinking to develop plans and strategies that will also help you achieve your business goals.
Critical thinking skills
Critical thinking skills can be necessary for developing your overall entrepreneurial skills. Being able to look at problems, and operations from different perspectives can help in decision-making. Critical thinking skills can also be necessary for strategic planning and evaluating the approaches you’re using to improve your business strategies.
Strategic thinking and planning skills
Critical thinking skills can also translate into strategic thinking skills. Entrepreneurs who have built brands and businesses most likely applied their strategic planning skills to develop strategies for growth. To be successful as an entrepreneur, it takes planning and being able to think strategically. This will allow you to find ways to beat out your competition, and implement effective strategies to reach your goals.
Time management and organizational skills
Time management and organization are also important skills for entrepreneurs to have. Strategies that can help develop these skill sets include to-do lists, and setting achievable objectives for yourself and for your team. Additionally, you might implement technology to help keep business files organized. You can also employ an office assistant to help you keep paperwork, business records and customer files organized.
Branding, marketing and networking skills
Entrepreneurs may spend the majority of their time marketing and networking with other professionals to promote and grow their brands. Being able to implement successful branding and marketing strategies can be an essential aspect of becoming an entrepreneur. You might take a free online course to get started with branding and marketing basics, and you can also meet with other entrepreneurs to help grow your network.
As you develop these skill sets, you can increase the successes you see as an entrepreneur. Get in touch to know more!
In order to achieve success on your Facebook business page, you need an engaged community. Without it, no one will see or read your content, making it difficult to build brand awareness and deliver ROI. New social networks crop up all the time, generating buzz and excitement among businesses and tech media, but Facebook remains the giant, with has 2.80 billion monthly active users. To keep up with changing needs and trends, Facebook continues to evolve, introducing new features and functionality for users and advertisers. If you are unable to keep up, you could miss out on potential customers.
However, it’s not just about the quantity of Facebook Likes, it’s about the quality. You need to attract the right audience and engage them in ways that align with your business goals. Here is the latest checklist to ensure you have enough quality likes and following on your Facebook business page.
Optimize your Facebook Page Information
First things first! Most of the time, the only thing people see from your company’s Facebook Page is the profile picture, cover image, and short description. Make sure your brand’s images and description are engaging, encapsulate what your company does, and encourages people to like your page.
Don’t stop there, make sure you fill out as much of your Page Info as you can. Select the categories and subcategories that best describe your company, include your website URL, list your address, phone number, and hours of operation (if applicable). All of this information will help your page appear in Facebook & Google searches when people are looking for companies like yours, which can increase your Facebook likes even more!
Post engaging content
It’s important to post engaging, entertaining, and compelling content on your business Page. Facebook constantly updates its Edgerank algorithm and rewards posts that receive engagement (likes, comments, shares) with increased reach. Facebook will reward your content by letting your engaged users’ friends know on their newsfeed that they’ve engaged with your content. Recently Facebook announced that it will update its algorithm to track how long users spend reading posts. Videos are the best type of content to post on Facebook for capturing attention and driving engagement. But make sure the videos are at an optimal length to grab your followers’ attention and keep it long enough to digest the content.
Page URL
Take a quick look at your Facebook business page now – what does the URL in the browser bar look like? If it’s something like this:
https://www.facebook.com/kente-house-ghana -162166373456878/
(see all the numbers at the end?) then you’re missing an opportunity. In less than a minute you can easily change the web address of your Facebook page to something a bit more memorable, like www.facebook.com/kente-house-ghana. Click the ‘About’ tab below your Facebook cover photo, then click the Facebook Web Address option and type whatever you’d like to appear after the Facebook.com URL.
Make your Facebook business page easy to find
People looking for your brand on Facebook will be searching for your brand name. Keep things simple and make it easy for them to find you by using your brand name as your Page name. Don’t add unnecessary keywords—these will just make your Page look spammy rather than like a legitimate business presence for your brand. Your username should be consistent with your handle on other social channels will make it easier for people who already follow you elsewhere to track you down on Facebook. Like your Page name, your username should be closely related to the name of your business.
Someone who has just discovered a valuable tip or strategy on your website or blog is primed to want to hear more from you. Make it easy for them to connect with you on Facebook by adding Facebook follow and Like buttons to your site.
Know when to post content on your Facebook page
Think about how often you post on Facebook. Is it once per day? Once a week? Only once a month? You also need to analyze the time of day you’re posting on Facebook. All of this matters when it comes to increasing engagement and getting more likes. Research shows that higher engagements happen later in the week and on the weekends. If you think about it, this makes sense. People have jobs and are usually busier during the week. But as the weekend nears, they may be getting a little bit antsy and slack off if they are ahead of schedule. So they can spend more time on Facebook. People are also happier on the weekends so they are more inclined to like, share, and comment on your posts.
You also need to consider who likes your Facebook page. For example, if 90% of your followers are from Ghanaian, posting at 3 AM EST isn’t going to yield high engagement rates. Use automation tools to schedule your Facebook posts at the most optimal times so you won’t have to do it manually each day. Your posting schedule also needs to remain consistent. Stick to your strategy. Don’t post regularly for a month or so and then go silent. But you don’t want to spam your followers and post too frequently either.
Posts on your Facebook page should be kept short and concise
Nobody is going to read massive blocks of text on social media. There is just too much for them to see from their friends and family. Reading long posts from brand pages won’t be at the top of their priority lists. Social media platforms such as Facebook are designed for users to scroll through content quickly. You also need to consider how many Facebook users are accessing content from their mobile devices: Paragraphs on your computer screen will appear even longer on mobile devices. Plus, long blocks of text are difficult to read.
If you’re currently posting long content, it may be the reason why you’re not getting enough likes. A good rule of thumb is that shorter is always better. If people see your posts aren’t long, they will be less hesitant to like your page.
Invite your existing community
You have a community that’s easily within reach: employees, friends, current customers, business & industry partners. They are likely to be your first advocates and find your content interesting and shareable. Why not send a friendly personal invitation to ask them to like your company’s Facebook Page if they haven’t already?
One way to do this is by simply adding a call-to-action in a personal e-mail (i.e. “P.S. Like us on Facebook”). Add a slide at the end of your presentations or webinars to encourage customers and business partners to remind them to like your Facebook Page, if they haven’t already.
As for your industry ‘buddies,’ find their Facebook Pages and Like them as your brand. To do this log into Business Manager > click the Use Page button > click the Use Facebook As Your Page link (top right, in a skinny grey bar). It’s a great way to Like your industry partners, colleagues, & other influencer brands. Plus you’ll be able to view your News Feed as your brand and keep watch on what’s happening in your industry on Facebook.
Use Facebook Ads to reach more people
Facebook offers very detailed ad targeting, so you can laser-focus your advertising efforts and make the most of your ad spend. Putting your brand in front of your ideal audience is a great way to pick up more Facebook Likes. By boosting a post, you can extend the audience beyond people who already like your Page. This can be a great option for a post that’s already proved to be compelling. It can bring in a large number of Facebook likes from people who already follow your Page.
Facebook also offers campaign objectives relevant to every type of business. Since this post is about how to get Facebook Likes, we’ll focus on the Engagement objective, which is designed to expose your ad to a wide audience to increase the number of posts or Page Likes. Go to your business manager page for options on running a campaign or boosting posts.
Run competitions, or promotions on your Facebook page
Your business can run competitions or promotions on its Facebook to build an audience and get more likes. Even better, liking a post is a popular form of contest entry and one that’s allowed under Facebook’s contest rules If you decide to do so, make sure your competition follows Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines. Also ensure your competition is fun, easy, relevant to your audience, and encourages users to share their participation with friends. Don’t forget to utilize Facebook Ads to promote your contest. And If you use an app to run your contest, make sure it’s mobile-optimized.
Use social media monitoring to measure, analyze, and learn
Use Facebook Insights or other automated apps to find useful metrics on your Page performance. You can view metrics like reach, the number of engaged users, engagement rate, and new Page likes. These metrics will help you understand what’s driving your likes and engagement so that you can adjust your posts accordingly.
Did I forget anything? Have a question about any of the suggestions above? Please add a comment and, if you like the post, feel free to share it with your friends. Now that you know how to get more likes for your Facebook Page, it’s time to increase your Facebook reach content. Contact us today! Please Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook if you haven’t already.
Protecting your privacy online is a critical area of concern for many individuals, especially when using a credit card. If you are worried about how much of your private information is online and vulnerable to theft, you’re not alone. Online has become an extensive playground for cyber hackers and security threats because users are increasingly sharing their private information online. Protecting your privacy online an important issue. How can you know that your private information is safe online? Knowing how to protect your website and yourself while online will ensure that your private data is kept private.
All e-commerce websites require you to put in your credit card information, which potentially compromises data and allows hackers to get your information. How sure are you that your information is safe with the domain that you are using?
There are ways to protect your personal information while still enjoying much of what the web has to offer. In this article, we shall consider basic things you need to know so that your financial and personal information is protected while you visit your favorite sites. Get to know the main goals of hacking and tips on how to evaluate website security.
There are various goals when hacking websites, but the main ones are:
Exploiting site visitors.
Stealing information stored on the server.
Tricking bots and crawlers (black-hat SEO).
Abusing server resources.
Pure hooliganism (defacement).
Protecting your privacy online means not sharing everything about yourself on social media
A smart way to protecting your privacy online is by not sharing everything about you on social media. Providing too much information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram could make it easier for cybercriminals to obtain identifying information. This could allow them to steal your identity or to access your financial information.
For example, could an identity thief determine your date of birth, spouse’s name, information of your children, your location, travel plans, or your mother’s maiden name from your Facebook account? This information is sometimes used as security questions to change passwords on financial accounts.
Unfortunately, many people don’t take this advice. In a 2018 study, the Identity Theft Resource Centre found that approximately 52 percent of respondents shared personal information through social media sites. To protect your online privacy, ignore the “About Me” fields in your social media profiles. You don’t have to let people know what year or where your hometown is located— which could make you an easier target for identity theft. You might want to limit who can view your posts to those you’ve personally invited.
Create strong passwords, too, for your social media profiles to help prevent others from logging into them in your name. This means using a combination of at least 12 numbers, special characters, and upper- and lower-case letters. And never use personal, easy-to-guess information — such as your birthdate as your password.
Look out for legitimate Domain
One of the most basic steps in checking the security of the website you’re visiting is taking a look at the URL. Many people fail to look up the URL of the website, especially if they’re already reading the content on the page. Others may give it only a basic glance–and if it looks right, they’re convinced. However, one of the most common scams simply mimics the existing content. The scam site copies the content exactly as it appears on the original page—aside from a few key details.
In many cases, phishing sites use a very similar URL to the original. For example, instead of http://www.ebay.com, it may appear as http[:]//www.ebay.com. The simple addition allows scammers to convince gullible individuals that they’re visiting the site they thought they should be on. As a result, they simply hand over their credit card information without hesitation. It’s important, therefore, that you take the time to carefully check over the URL before making a purchase.
The “S” in HTTPS stands for “secured.” Websites with this simple logo indicate that they’re transferring information through an encrypted network. Not every site offers the secure technology of an HTTPS lock. If you don’t see the lock icon on the site you’re looking at, it means that HTTPS security isn’t working or that the site doesn’t offer that secure connection. And you most likely should take your shopping elsewhere.
Browse in incognito or private mode
If you don’t want your computer to save your browsing history, temporary internet files, or cookies, do your web surfing in private mode.
Web browsers today offer their own versions of this form of privacy protection. In Chrome, it’s called Incognito Mode. Firefox calls its setting Private Browsing, and Internet Explorer uses the name InPrivate Browsing for its privacy feature. When you search with these modes turned on, others won’t be able to trace your browsing history from your computer.
But these private modes aren’t completely private. When you’re searching in incognito or private mode, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can still see your browsing activity. If you are searching on a company computer, so can your employer. The websites you visit can also track you.
So, yes, incognito browsing does have certain benefits. But it’s far from the only tool available to help you maintain your privacy while online.
Browse with other search engines
If you’re like many web surfers, you rely heavily on Google as your search engine. But you don’t have to. Protecting your privacy online is one reason people prefer to use anonymous search engines. This type of search engine doesn’t collect or share your search history or clicks. Anonymous search engines can also block ad trackers on the websites you visit.
Switch to a virtual private network
A virtual private network (VPN) protects your privacy online by creating a private network from a public internet connection. VPNs mask your Internet Protocol (IP) address so your online actions are virtually untraceable.
Using a VPN is especially important when you’re on public Wi-Fi at a library, coffee shop, or other public location. A VPN will make it more difficult for cybercriminals to breach your online privacy and access your personal information.
You can find many free VPN solutions, but if you want maximum privacy, pay for the service from a trusted security provider.
Don’t click on just anything
One of the ways in which hackers compromise your online privacy is through phishing attempts. In phishing, scammers try to trick you into providing valuable financial or personal information. They’ll often do this by sending fake emails that appear to be from banks or credit card providers. Often, these emails say you must click on a link to verify your financial information otherwise you risk your account getting frozen or closed.
Don’t fall for these scams. If you click on a phishing link, you could be taken to a spoofed webpage that looks like the homepage of your bank. But when you enter your account information, you’ll be sending it to the scammers behind the phishing attempt. Before clicking on suspicious links, hover your cursor over the link to view the destination URL. If it doesn’t match the financial website you use, don’t click. If you receive such an email, immediately log a complaint to your bank.
Security Seals
Most eCommerce websites understand the critical importance of securing traffic to make their visitors safer. As a result, they frequently work with security providers to ensure they’re providing the highest possible level of website security. Each website security provider offers a scan seal or security seal option that can be viewed by users. Usually, this is in the form of an Iframe that can be placed on the protected website, letting visitors know that the website is credible. Any time you visit a new website for your shopping needs, take the time to check out its security seal.
Use strong passwords for your mobile phones
Many of us spend more time surfing the web, and watching videos on our smartphones than we do on our laptops. It’s important, then, to put as much effort into protecting our online privacy on our phones as on our computers.
To start, make sure to use passwords to lock your phone. It might seem like a hassle to enter a code every time you want to access your phone’s home screen. But this password could offer an extra layer of protection if your phone is lost or stolen. Make sure your password is complex. Don’t use your birthdate, your house number, or any other code that thieves might be able to guess.
Use caution when downloading apps. Some games and productivity tools could come embedded with dangerous viruses. Only buy games from legitimate sources. Don’t ignore software updates, either. These updates often include important protections against the latest viruses. If you continue to ignore them, you could be leaving your smartphone’s operating system and programs vulnerable to attack.
Use quality antivirus software
Finally, always install antivirus software on all your devices. This software can keep hackers from remotely accessing your personal and financial information, and tracking your location. And once you install this software, frequently update your antivirus protection.
Do you want to know more about protecting your privacy online whiles having fun on your favourite sites? Do you want to have your website thoroughly checked for malware, suspicious activity, or want to know more about the threats we check for and how that information can benefit you, your website–or the websites that you’re visiting–contact us here.
An alt tag or “alt attribute” is an HTML attribute applied to an image tag that describes the function of an image on a page. Applying images to an alt tag such as a product photo can positively impact an eCommerce store’s search engine rankings.
What role do alt tags play?
Its primary purpose is to describe images to visitors who are unable to see them using screen readers and browsers that block images.
Visually impaired users using screen readers read alt attributes to better understand an on-page image. Including alt text with your images ensures all users, regardless of visual ability, can appreciate the content on your site.
Alt text will be displayed in place of an image if an image file cannot be loaded.
Alt text provides better image context/descriptions to search engine crawlers, contributing to how the page is indexed and where it ranks.
With on-page keyword usage still pulling weight as a search engine ranking factor, it’s in your best interest to create alt text that both describes the image.
Optimal Alt Text Format
The best format for alt text is sufficiently descriptive but doesn’t contain any spammy attempts at keyword stuffing. If you can close your eyes, have someone read the alt text to you, and imagine a reasonably accurate version of the image, you’re on the right track. Let’s look at this example of alt text for this image of a delicious bowl of jollof rice:Okay:<img src=”rice.png” alt=”Jollof”> This alt text is only “okay” because it’s not very descriptive. Yes, this is an image of a plate of Jollof. But, there’s more to be said about this image.Good: <img src=”rice.png” alt=”A plate of delicious jollof rice with loaded meat and salad”>This alt text is a better alternative because it is far more descriptive of what’s in the image. This isn’t just a rice plate of “Jollof” (as the first alt text example demonstrated); it’s a plate of delicious jollof rice with loaded meat and salad.
Where is an alt tag located?
Alt text is contained within the image tag: <img src=”myimage.png” alt=”nike_air_zoom” />.
Best practices
Keep product image optimised for site speed and use the same keyword as the product page itself.
Keep it (relatively) short. The most popular screen readers cut off alt text at around 125 characters, so it’s advisable to keep it to that character count or less.
Refrain from keyword stuffing. You’ll be in trouble with Google if you use your alt text as an opportunity to stuff as many relevant keywords as you can think of into it. Find the best keywords to use here.
Don’t prioritize alt tags over SEO deliverables such as titles, inter-linking, and meta descriptions. Alt tags should only be prioritized for image-heavy pages that are very light on text.
Describe the image as specifically as possible. If an image truly doesn’t convey any value, it should live within the CSS, not HTML.
Alt text provides you with another opportunity to include your target keyword on a page. Thus, an opportunity to signal to search engines that your page is highly relevant to a particular search query. While your first priority should be describing and providing context to the image, include your keyword in the alt text of at least one image.
Don’t include “image of,” “picture of,” etc. in your alt text. It’s already assumed your alt text is referring to an image, so there’s no need to specify it.
Don’t neglect form buttons. If a form on your website uses an image as its “submit” button, give it an alt attribute.
A favicon (pronounced “fave-icon”) is a small iconic image that represents a website in web browsers. If you take a look at the address bar of your browser right now, I’m sure you’ll see several favicons. Well-designed ones are styled to feature a logo, the first letter of the company name or simply an image that reflects the specifics of the website it represents. In the small chance that a website doesn’t have a favicon, the browser will display a generic browser symbol.Here are examples from famous brands:Which of these favicons do you recognise?While favicons may seem small and insignificant, having one can make a huge difference in terms of user experience and online branding. In this post, we’ll figure out where favicons come from, what kinds are used in modern browsers, and how to create one for your website.
Why is a favicon important for your brand?
Favicons attract user attention and boost brand awareness. If users visit a website with a memorable favicon a couple of times, they will then easily distinguish it from others in the future. Think about a famous brand you interact with daily—like Facebook or Instagram—you should be able to easily picture its favicon with your eyes closed. Again, If you‘re like me and tend to keep dozens of tabs open simultaneously—ultimately being unable to read their names—favicons are your best friends that make finding the website you need much easier.The favicons for Facebook and Twitter have look exactly like their respective logos. So, does it mean that all you need is to minimize your logo image and upload it onto your website? Let’s dive deep into all the technical details and talk about what it takes to create a favicon.
What type of image is a favicon?
Although most modern browsers will recognize PNG, GIF, and JPG formats for favicons, Internet Explorer currently does not. It is recommended to use the Microsoft ICO format, which works in all browsers.
What size should your favicon be?
Another good reason to use the ICO format is that it can contain multiple favicons of different sizes in one ICO file. It is best to have, at minimum, a 16×16 pixel version. I usually include 32×32 and 48×48 versions as well. That way, if users drag the bookmark to their desktop they will see a nicely scaled version of the icon instead of the 16×16 version stretched out. Google recommends going with the largest possible resolution of 192×192. At the moment, Google simply stretches existing low-resolution favicons when a bigger size is required. As a result, all of the images look blurry and take away from the user experience.
General tips to consider
So, if you don’t want to lose out on clicks, consider “upgrading” your site’s favicon. And here are some general guidelines you should stick to:
Use a square icon.
A favicon should represent only your brand and not contain inappropriate symbols (like swastikas) — otherwise, Google will not show it and will use the generic symbol instead.
Favicon file should be accessible to Google crawlers.
How to create a favicon
Although there are many ways to create favicons, the easiest is to use an online tool. Use an existing image of, for example, your logo and upload it to an online generator like a site heaalth checker. Once you download the generated favicon, all that’s left is to add it to your site.
How to link to your favicon
Now that you’ve created a nice little favicon, you need to tell web browsers and other applications where to find it. Adding this line to the <head> section of your HTML will ensure that your favicon will be found:The location of the favicon isn’t really important, as long as the href attribute is accurate. Most are, however, placed in the root directory (the directory that contains the homepage). Keep in mind that it is not necessary to have multiple instances of the same favicon on one website.If you add a favicon without linking to it within your HTML, you may notice that some browsers will still find and display it. This only occurs if the favicon is in the root directory. It isn’t good to rely on this method, so if you want to make sure that applications will see your favicon, <link> to it!
Conclusion
Favicons help websites stay afloat in the vast ocean of online resources, plus make them more attractive and professional in the eyes of the visitors.If you need any help with yours, turn to our website audit for help. Among other things, it can run a full technical check-up for your website that includes finding your favicon. Well, your favicon is a very small detail that can affect the public perception of your site and brand, their recognition and even the volume of traffic it gets from search, so don’t underestimate it. It’s worth every second that you invest in it.
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