Samuel Edwards

Getting a top Google ranking for critical keywords isn’t easy. But some SEO companies advertise ‘guaranteed SEO rankings.’ For example, they may promise you will rank #1 for certain keywords or you get a full refund for the month. On first glance, guaranteed SEO rankings might sound like a no-lose proposition. But if you see an SEO guarantee, your best bet is to look for SEO services elsewhere. Guaranteed SEO Services Overview A company that guarantees a #1 Google rank will usually promise to give your money back or offer free services for a specific period. They also may provide a guarantee of how long it will take to rank for a keyword. When this article refers to guaranteed SEO results, what we mean is guaranteeing an outcome, such as a #1 or top 5 ranking. What is a Money-Back Guarantee? A money-back guarantee is a company policy that gives clients the option of canceling their service and getting all of their money back. Companies do this to ensure customer satisfaction so they can keep their reputation intact. Why Do SEO Services Offer Money-Back Guarantees? Some SEO agencies offer a money-back guaranteed SEO services because it’s profitable for them, not you; if someone cancels with no penalty after 30 days, then those are 30 days where your campaign will be running without any sort of results or improvement in search engine rankings. For many businesses, there is an understanding that customers should have some type of protection against shady practices from companies that prey on unsuspecting consumers. This proposition sounds reasonable enough: If you’re unhappy with our services and request cancellation, you can get all of your money back. Can Most Agencies Afford Money-Back Guaranteed SEO Services? The short answer is no. A money-back guarantee on SEO services, in this case, means that the company will provide you with any type of service and honor your opportunity to cancel at any time for a full refund – even if they haven’t delivered what was promised or done anything yet! A quality SEO agency can afford to offer such an expensive policy because they know it’s unlikely someone will ever ask for their money back (plus all those months of work). If there were too many people asking for refunds after 30 days, then the cost would be prohibitively high. But, there is a caveat here. Some customers are bound to be dissatisfied with any service, regardless of the quality. Therefore, these costs can add up quickly over the year. For this reason, you should take a second look at any time an agency offers this type of guaranteed SEO . What Happens to the Money to Pay Employees? A money-back guarantee is an expensive policy for a company to take on. If they offer it, then there must be some other reason why – and that’s usually profit margins. When you hire a full-service SEO agency, you are doing so because of the work they will do in order to make your site rank higher. This means hiring people who can research keywords, build links and submit content across the web, as well as write blog posts and optimize social media platforms for success. It also costs money to keep these employees around; if their campaigns aren’t bringing in any revenue or improved rankings after 30 days (or even 60), then those funds have been wasted by paying them during this time period without achieving results. As you can see, there is no feasible way for any SEO agency to offer this service, especially if they have a large team. Should You Trust a Money-Back Guarantee? The answer is no. If you’re looking for guaranteed SEO services, do not trust any company that offers a money-back guarantee! You will likely only come across this type of offer from companies who want to maximize their profit margins and are willing to take on the risk associated with it. These agencies should be avoided at all costs or else they may just steal your money. If someone tells you about an agency that can offer a guaranteed refund within 30 days, then proceed with caution. There’s no such thing as perfection when it comes to search engine optimization, even if SEOs won’t always admit it. As a result, those people who ask for refunds after 30 days have probably seen some improvement in rankings but are still dissatisfied. What Should You Do Instead? SEO agencies provide an outstanding, long-term service. Money-back guarantees are usually only applicable to short-term services, such as when you visit a fast-food restaurant. Long-term guaranteed SEO services involve paying people over time and covering profit margins. This makes it nearly impossible to offer numerous money-back guarantees. As such, you should focus on hiring an SEO agency you trust. Here are some tips you can follow to make sure you’ll always choose the right SEO agency: Research the agency’s website to see how long they’ve been in business and what type of reviews they have from customers. Look at their pricing structure: is it reasonable or expensive? Ask for referrals from people who have hired them before and find out why those clients were happy with the service. Browse the online reviews and testimonials of any SEO agency you come into contact with. With that said, make sure you ask about an initial consultation when selecting an SEO agency. How Much Do SEO Services Cost? This is a very important question to ask. SEO agencies provide outstanding, long-term service with high-profit margins but no money-back guarantee. That’s why they can afford to offer the best digital marketing services available without charging outrageous prices for SEO. As such, you should be looking for affordable pricing that doesn’t break your budget and also delivers results in 30 days or less, not just results after 30 days! If there were too many people asking for refunds after 30 days (and debunking this myth), then companies would have to charge customers more

As a digital marketing agency, your job is to get a client results. You work hard, getting a better understanding of your client’s competitive position and needs, and engaging in a multilayered strategy to earn them more traffic, visibility, and engagements. You might be doing an extraordinary job, but there’s one last hurdle to overcome if you want to retain your clients (and trust me, you do): you have to prove that you’re doing an extraordinary job. There are a handful of obstacles when it comes to SEO reporting. We live in a glorious, data-driven digital age where we can track pretty much any kind of user behavior, but we’re not in the market for data—we’re in the market for insights. Before I dig into the specific metrics you’ll want to use in your regular reporting, I need to address a few factors, complications, and principles you need to bear in mind when reporting. Don’t just send these metrics off and hope your client knows what to make of them. Consider yourself a guide, and err on the side of over-communicating. Schedule phone calls, or in person meetings if you have to. Your metric analysis should be a conversation, not a monologue, so be prepared to answer questions. Device agnosticism. Your clients’ visitors will be accessing them in many different ways, including both desktop and mobile devices. Your reporting should be as agnostic as possible, digging into one realm or another only to illustrate trends specific to that realm. The whys. This goes along with the communication angle, but don’t just report the “what’s—you have to report the “why”s as well. Yes, organic traffic is up 50 percent and that’s great, but what does it really mean for the client? Apples to apples. When reporting, you need to be as consistent as possible and only compare metrics to comparable metrics. For example, if you measure referral traffic on mobile devices one month, you have to compare it to referral traffic on mobile devices in past months. Long-term vision. It’s good to show growth month-over-month, and immediate returns of a client’s investment, but remember that your ultimate goal is long-term growth and value accretion to your digital marketing agency. Compare your results to the distant past, and look to the distant future when framing your results. Transparency and proactivity. Your results aren’t always going to be phenomenal; you’ll experience outliers, setbacks, and strange quirks in your data. Don’t try to hide these. Instead, be as proactive and transparent as possible in your reporting. This demonstrates trust, and shows that you’re giving your clients the full story, and not just an idealized view. With those considerations in mind, I can tell you the 11 most important metrics your agency will have to report. 1. Keyword Rankings. Keywords have fallen out of style over the years, mostly thanks to various Google updates which have changed the game and made keyword-centric SEO virtually obsolete. Why virtually? Before various Google updates, keywords were cut-and-dry. Google evaluated user queries based on their keyword content, then found “matching” websites that featured identical keyword phrases. With the Hummingbird update, it added a semantic and linguistic capacity to evaluate the “intent” behind a user’s query, and then come up with webpages that fit or address that intention. Keywords are still taken into consideration—after all, if a user is looking for “bookshelves,” the site they wind up on better talk about “bookshelves”—but they’re not at the same level of importance as they once were. Thanks to Hummingbird, most modern businesses find that the majority of their traffic comes from long-tail phrases—conversational queries and extended searches that come naturally to the user and draw on the power of semantic search. Long-tail phrases are messy and unpredictable, making them hard to track, but you can still target and track a number of specific keyword phrases for your client. Since Google doesn’t explicitly publish this information anymore, you’ll have to either check these ranks manually (compensating for factors like geographic location and device), or rely on a third party tool like SERPs.com. (Image Source: SERPs) Don’t report keyword ranks as a be-all, end-all metric; it used to be one of the most important elements of a campaign, but these days, it’s a secondary consideration (mostly thanks to Hummingbird). What you’re looking for here is growth—what keywords are you ranking for that you didn’t rank for previously? How fast are your ranks climbing? These are indications of campaign momentum, and illustrate the pace and direction of your growth over time. It’s also a satisfying metric from a client perspective, as long as you explain that it isn’t the only factor worth considering. 2. Total Traffic Volume. Even more important than keyword rankings is the total volume of traffic your client’s website is receiving. Assuming a consistent conversion rate, each new visitor to your client’s site has a value, and more visitors means more total value. It isn’t hard to equate higher traffic with more revenue, and it’s one of the most effective bottom lines you can illustrate. Higher keyword ranks don’t necessarily mean higher value, but higher traffic generally does. However, reporting traffic gets complicated in two ways. First, you aren’t directly influencing traffic in all areas. There will be repeat visitors, direct visitors, and other forms of traffic you have no control over in addition to visitors who never would have come to the site if it weren’t for your efforts. It’s hard to filter this down exactly, but one of the best ways is through Google Analytics. Head to the Acquisition tab and you’ll find a convenient breakdown of all the traffic headed to your client’s site. There are a few main categories here, but the four you’ll want to focus on are: Direct traffic. This accounts for users who type in the web address directly or access it from bookmarks. Organic traffic. This accounts for any users who found the site through search engines. Social traffic. This accounts for traffic

Internal links represent some of the lowest hanging fruit in your SEO arsenal. Links are a big part of search engine optimization (SEO). They’re tracked and followed by the search engine crawlers responsible for creating and maintaining Google’s web index, and are also used as an indicator of trustworthiness. Google determines the credibility of a website in part based on the quality and quantity of internal and external links pointing to it. For this reason, building links on external domains has understandably become the most popular and most effective SEO strategy. But these external links aren’t the only links that matter in the SEO world. You should also be considering to add internal links—the hyperlinks in your own web pages—as part of your strategy. Internal links remain one of the most neglected elements of SEO, but the biggest opportunity for you to implement quickly!  With this guide, you should be able to better understand how internal links work, and incorporate them into your existing SEO approach. How Internal Links Work We’ll start with a briefer to add internal links, and how they differ from external links. All hyperlinks are designed to take users from one webpage to another, usually with a single click. The link itself includes a URL, which will direct a user to the new destination. If the link points to an entirely different domain, it can be considered an external link for that domain. External links generally pass “authority” to the destination domain, based on the authority of the referring domain (and several other factors), unless otherwise specified with a “nofollow” tag. The higher your site’s domain authority, and the higher your page’s page-level authority, the more likely you’ll be to rank for searches relevant to the content topic at hand. If the link points to a different page within the same domain, it’s considered an internal link. For example, this article is a page at SEO.co. If we link to another page on SEO.co, it’s considered an internal link. If we link to Wikipedia, it’s considered an external link; we’d be passing authority to Wikipedia (not that it needs it), but not passing authority to our own domain. Internal links serve a handful of practical purposes for users: Citations Sometimes, you’ll make reference to a statistic or piece of original research that’s explained somewhere else on your site. A quick link will point users in the direction of this information, and serve to back up your claims without completing reposting your research. Further reading If users are interested in a topic on your site, they may also be interested in related topics. For example, our introduction in this article notes the differences between external links and add internal links; this article is focused more on internal link building, so we included a link to a post on external link building for anyone who wants to learn more. Easy navigation Sometimes,Number of internal links exist simply to make it easier for people to jump from page to page on a site. This is especially important if you want users to spend as much time as possible on your site. Calls to action You can also use it to creating internal links to guide users to a specific page, or a specific action; for example, you might link users to a product on your store, or encourage them to contact you for more information, linking them to a contact page. As we’ll see, Multiple internal links have additional benefits because of how they’re interpreted by search engine crawlers. The Benefits of Internal Link Building for SEO Internal linking building is all about creating better links between the pages of your domain. This practice, when executed correctly, comes with three main benefits: Indexing and context Google bases its search rankings on a constantly-updated index that it maintains, keeping tabs on every public site on the web. You can think of it as a gigantic library of information. To find and update this information, it employs the use of bots known as “crawlers,” or “spiders,” which constantly browse new content, like seeking books to add to the library’s shelves. It’s vital to get your content indexed, and get it indexed as quickly as possible, if you want to maximize your chances of being featured in searches and hasten your SEO results. Bots will discover your content eventually, but if there’s a tight network of links that make it easy for automated bots to discover your content, you could get it indexed faster. Additionally, the types of pages you link and the anchor text you use for those links can help Google “understand” the context of your content. Authority and search rankings Second, internal links may play a role in increasing your page rankings for specific keywords in search engines. It’s easy to get tunnel vision in SEO, thinking external links are the only factor that influences your authority and search engines rankings. However, there are literally hundreds of ranking factors to consider—and internal links are one of them. Google’s own John Mueller has stated, “The context we pick up from internal linking structure is really important to us… with that kind of anchor text, that text around the links. That’s really important to us.” Additionally, Google has stated: “The number of internal links pointing to a page is a signal to search engines about the relative importance of that page” (though this phrasing has since been updated). Choosing the right anchor text for your internal links, in combination with other strategies, can help you support a page’s rankings for that specific keyword phrase (and semantically related phrases). And if you’re in a competitive niche, like SEO for law firms, internal linking can help bolster your authority to the pages that matter most to gaining conversions. It’s one of the reasons we advocate for law firms to do internal and external link building. Time on page, content discovery, and revenue Internal links have a variety of positive influencing effects on your

Back in 2013, Gary Vaynerchuk declared that every business is a media company: If you’re not putting out stories, you basically don’t exist. In this article, we’ll explain what this prediction means and how it’s come true more and more. First, let’s start with some basic observations of our current media landscape: The creation and distribution of media and content is becoming increasingly democratized. Anyone can start a blog with their computer or become a reporter with their smartphone. Humans are consuming record amounts of content. American adults spend over 11 hours per day listening to, watching, reading or generally interacting with media. And media consumption is rising among adolescents and children, too. At the same time, we live in an attention-scarce economy. People only have so much time, so they can only consume so much. Consumer attention is a high commodity. For brands, this means producing and distributing high-quality content on a regular basis is the only way to stay relevant. If you don’t, you’ll get beat out by those who do. This is what is happening to media in a nutshell. As businesses adjust to the new attention economy, they find that they need to become media companies in addition to whatever product or service they sell. This is a massive transformation affecting the entire globe. If businesses want to survive, they’ll need to adapt. Successful brands already think of themselves as media companies. And you should, too. The Fall of Traditional Media In the past, major news and media outlets were the gatekeepers to getting your message out. If you wanted to advertise your brand, you had to go through them. Not anymore. These days, the barriers to entry have been destroyed. With free publishing platforms like WordPress and Medium, anyone can start a blog. And with free distribution platforms like YouTube and social media, anybody can post a picture or video that goes viral. And it all takes literally zero money. As a result, people care more about the quality of content and less about who wrote it or where it was published. This means the only real cost of being relevant in today’s society is the content itself. Unique content that adds value is the only way to set yourself apart. So brands need to tell compelling stories. It’s not enough to just be on social media. Your media strategy needs to be integral to your entire business strategy. If senior leaders don’t adapt, they’ll be left behind. They’ll be the next Kodak or Blockbuster, who failed to see the technological changes ahead of them. Time spent per day with digital versus traditional media in the United States from 2011 to 2022 (in minutes) Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/565628/time-spent-digital-traditional-media-usa/ Modern Forms of Content and Media So, which forms of media should you create and which platforms should you distribute them on? Well, there’s a lot of options to choose from. Let’s break them down: Video This is a popular medium because it’s easy for customers to digest, especially younger generations. Young Americans watch online videos for nearly an hour a day. Plus, videos are becoming increasingly easy to create and publish on platforms like YouTube. Though many are wont to say content is king, in a lot of ways, video is king. Written Content Though writing is the most rudimentary form of content, it’s still massively powerful. As the adage goes, the pen is mightier than the sword. For example, you can use platforms like WordPress and Medium to blog alongside over 600 million others. Or you can share infographics and longform content like case studies, white papers, and ebooks. Newsletters are also a popular form of content writing — made easy through platforms like Substack and Ghost. Podcasts Podcasting is a rapidly growing phenomenon. Right now, there are over 120 million podcast listeners in the US. Part of the reason for the dramatic rise of podcasts in recent years is how convenient they are. You can listen to them while doing other things, like driving or working out. You can even speed them up to consume them faster. For brands, this is a huge opportunity. Talk to customers about your product or to other experts about the industry. The beauty of podcasts is that they require minimal set up and they can immediately be pushed to an active audience. It’s just an added side benefit that podcasts are great for link building. Just start recording natural conversations and you could be on your way to a profitable podcast in no time. Social Media Social Media is a goldmine for brand exposure. Over 70% of American adults use it. But with the endless array of social media platforms, it can be hard to know where to start. From Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to TikTok, you can quickly have your hands full trying to create content for each one. So start small. The most important thing is to connect with your target audience like a real person would. The fast food chain Wendy’s does a phenomenal job at this. They consistently put out funny content and reply to comments. Source: https://twitter.com/wendys/status/934104301210828806 How to Conquer the Modern Content and Media Landscape Once you know what content options are out there, you need to invest in a strategy. We’re not talking about simply setting up a social media account or writing an occasional blog post. To be successful, you need a serious and dedicated team. Your brand’s content efforts need to be a core part of your business strategy. Here are 5 steps to a successful media and content campaign: 1. Target Your Audience Narrow down your audience as much as possible. As media becomes increasingly fragmented among different platforms and user bases, you can segment your customers into smaller and more specific groups. Take advantage of targeted advertising or partner with influencers in your niche. Just know that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has rules for branded content. That means your content shouldn’t hide its marketing agenda. The

Voice search is the future of internet browsing & SEO. With voice search, people can dictate what they want to find on the internet and get results without typing anything into a search engine or clicking links. This type of interaction has been predicted for years but it is finally here with Google Home and Amazon Echo devices becoming increasingly popular. Voice searches are expected to surpass text-based searches by 2020 so now is the time to optimize your website for voice searchers! If you’re interested in attracting more voice search users to your website, you can learn all there is to model your website after this trend in this ultimate guide. What is Voice Search? Voice search is an internet-based way to find information. Instead of typing into a search engine or clicking links, voice searchers simply say what they want and get results without the need for traditional input methods. Voice search isn’t all too complicated. In fact, you’ve likely conducted a voice search before. If you’ve used a smart speaker or your iPhone to find something online, then you’ve engaged in a voice search. How Does Voice Search Work? Search engines like Google Home use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand natural speech patterns and respond accordingly using algorithms that analyze words, grammar, syntax, topic/domain knowledge, and so on. AI has been used in computers since its inception but this new wave of voice searches relies heavily on it because people can be rather unclear when speaking aloud. Voice search is carried out by smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Alexa. Google Home, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon Echo devices are all voice search enabled. What Differences Does Voice Search Present? Voice searches present many differences from text-based searching that can be advantageous for those looking to optimize their website. Here is an overview of some of the key changes: Voice Search is Highly Personalized – People may ask a question in one way but have different questions or answers when using voice search so it needs to be personalized for each person. Voice Search Provides Better Understanding – Interactive voice searches rely on AI and natural speech levels which means they will understand what people say better than other search engines like Google where you need to type out words precisely to get accurate results. In other words, voice search and AI is able to disambiguate keywords that a text search might not pick up. This makes them more efficient! Voice Search More Accessible & Convenient – Text-based searches are often more difficult to use and take longer whereas voice search is easier because people can simply say what they want without worrying about typing anything. What Are the Top Concerns in Voice Search? While the technology for voice search continues to improve, not all is sunshine and rainbows. Many consumers still have misgivings about privacy and other issues associated with voice search. What Segments in Voice Search Are Growing Fastest? Voice search is impacting everything we do, but there are a few segments that are growing much faster than others. What Are the Top Reasons for Using Voice Search or Voice Assistants Voice search and voice assistance are having an impact in many areas of search. Here are the top areas. How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search The good news is that optimizing your website for voice search isn’t too difficult. It’s actually all about adapting to the way people are using smart speakers to conduct these searches. Below are some helpful tips that will show you how to properly optimize your website for voice search. Prioritize Long-Tail Keywords During a voice search, people use the longest and most conversational keywords to find what they’re looking for. It’s easier to search for long tail keywords when you can just speak and don’t have to type. Unlike traditional SEO, your time and energy will be spent locating these types of keywords and embedding them on your website. The cost of hiring an SEO to optimize for long-tail will also be less expensive. Create Interactive Content The best websites for voice search have interactive content that is easy to understand and engaging. Don’t neglect this when optimizing your website for voice searchers! Leverage Repetitive Phrases Hiding repetitive phrases in the body of your text will make it easier for those who are searching by speaking aloud to find what they’re looking for. This also makes your work more efficient because you don’t need as much unique content on the page if some of it can be repeated or hidden within other sentences. Your goal should always be a balance between useful information and repetition so people get what they want quicker with less effort from them! Remember, time is money when it comes to optimization! Create Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) FAQs are another great way to create more interactive content on your website. This is especially important when it comes to voice search because people will have questions and you need a place for them all! This is also a great place to store long-tail keywords. For example, if you run a restaurant and post the question “what are your opening hours” on your website, you can lead more website visitors to your store to convert. Keep Content Up-to-Date It’s also essential that the content you publish be up-to-date so people can get accurate information about what they’re looking for quickly. When updating old or outdated posts, replace links with new ones as well as use updated terms in order to make sure everything stays relevant at all times. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly Voice search will soon be the most popular way for people to find information on their phones, so you need mobile-optimized design and content that is easy for them to read and navigate. This means your website needs a responsive design as well as text size options for better scrolling. Optimize for Featured Snippets on Google If you want your content to

Using on screen pop-ups is a controversial lead generation tactic. On one hand, many people find pop-ups annoying. However, the research shows pop-ups are highly effective and have a high conversion rate. For instance, the average pop-up converts at 3%, while a large number convert at around 10%. Some pop-ups convert as high as 50-60%. This apparent discrepancy is why pop-ups are so controversial – they’re annoying and effective at the same time. How can this be? The answer lies in the type of pop-up and how it’s presented. Many people find most pop-ups annoying, but not all. Some users just ignore pop-ups, while others see them as relevant and helpful. For example, when a pop-up offer is interesting, visitors don’t experience the pop-up as annoying. And if a pop-up isn’t too obnoxious, many users who aren’t interested have no problem closing the pop-up. So, what makes some pop-ups annoying? It all comes down to the way a pop-up is served and how easy it can (or can’t) be closed. What makes pop-ups effective? Let’s discuss! 1. What makes a pop-up annoying? Since not all pop-ups are annoying, it’s important to identify the specific elements that make a pop-up annoying to website visitors. Once you identify these elements, you can avoid incorporating them into your pop-ups. The following elements can make pop-ups annoying: Videos that play automatically. Most visitors don’t like videos to play automatically, but videos in a pop-up are worse because they’re entirely unexpected. If someone is at work, on a bus, or in a public place, a video that plays automatically can be embarrassing or a disruption to others. Obnoxious or startling sounds that play automatically. Sound effects aren’t a good match for pop-ups. Just like videos that play automatically, sounds that play automatically – even a quick pop or whistle sound – can startle and/or annoy visitors. This is especially true for neurodivergent visitors who are highly sensitive to unexpected sounds. Flashing animations. Turning your pop-ups into a disco party isn’t a good idea. Flashing images can be extremely irritating to visitors, and can be dangerous for visitors prone to seizures. The “X” to close the pop-up is hard to find or non-existent. Some visitors aren’t annoyed by pop-ups they’re not interested in – they just close them out. However, when your pop-up is hard to close out, people will become annoyed fast. Nobody wants to be presented with an advertisement they can’t ignore. It takes multiple clicks to close the pop-up. If you’re using software that requires a visitor to click multiple times to close your pop-up, you’re annoying your visitors. Yes, you can get software that intentionally makes it hard for people to close a pop-up in hopes that they’ll give in and sign up for your email list, but it’s not worth annoying people. You’ll lose more people than you’ll gain. The pop-up can’t be closed without entering an email address. People don’t like being required to enter their email address to view a website. Don’t use pop-ups as a barrier for accessing your content. You’ll lose traffic and you won’t get many sign-ups. This is similar to how people don’t want to create an account just to check out. Every sign-up requirement is a barrier to your content. Content barriers kill conversions. The pop-up takes up the entire screen. Visitors like to see your website underneath your pop-up. Even though they can’t access your site until they close the pop-up, seeing your content makes them feel better about visiting your site. When a pop-up takes up the entire screen, visitors start to wonder if they’re in the right place. Full-screen pop-ups are seen as a barrier to your content rather than an option to get more content. Full-screen pop-ups are also perceived as spammy. The typography and/or color scheme is hard on the eyes. When a pop-up isn’t aesthetically-pleasing, visitors will start looking for the “X” to close it out before reading the headline. However, the handful of visitors who would read an obnoxious pop-up might close the pop-up if the typography is hard on their eyes. The pop-up appears immediately, before the visitor can see your website. A pop-up that appears immediately before your webpage loads is almost guaranteed to annoy your visitors. People want to know they’ve landed in the right place before being hit with advertisements. Even the most well-intentioned pop-up designed to help visitors will be seen as an annoying advertisement when served intrusively. The content delivered in the pop-up appears to be spammy. You can put anything in a pop-up, but that doesn’t mean you should. When pop-up content appears spammy, visitors will close it out and probably never return. The pop-up gets delivered to every visitor on every visit. Serving a pop-up to every visitor is acceptable. However, once a visitor closes your pop-up or signs up for your email list, you don’t want to deliver a pop-up to that visitor on subsequent visits. Visitors will be annoyed if they need to close a pop-up each time they visit your site. 2. What elements make a pop-up successful? Pop-ups aren’t inherently successful – you have to make them work. Once you identify the elements that support conversions, you can incorporate them into your pop-ups. The following elements make pop-ups successful: Your pop-up presents a relevant, irresistible offer. Every successful pop-up begins with a relevant, irresistible offer. To create this kind of offer, you can’t just use any offer that comes to mind. You have to create an offer centered on what your target audience prefers – and then you have to make sure your SEO campaign targets the right visitors. A relevant, irresistible offer shown to the wrong market will fail. For example, if your offer is solid, but you’re targeting the wrong demographics, you won’t get many sign-ups. On the other hand, when your offer is solid and you’re targeting the right demographics, your conversion rate will soar. Your pop-up is easy to close