Anyone who says that 2020 has been easy is probably not into digital marketing or doing any business online. This being said, we’re happy to report that somehow, the digital economy is somewhat recovering. As always, we have to stay abreast of the latest development in lead-gen, particularly for Web design leads.

Patching leaks in your Web design lead strategy can only be done well if you know what’s happening in the industry in general. And whatever developments there are in the world’s biggest search engine forever affects all businesses that benefit from a 24/7 Web presence.

Web design companies are probably one of the most affected businesses because of the global pandemic. With everything in contraction, only a few industries are bouncing back immediately. Below are some of the latest developments in search, marketing, and Web design leads that have an impact on any business that relies heavily on digital marketing to survive in any situation.

Google’s Years-Long Hunt for Webspam

It’s easy to say that webspam is not an issue that affects everyone in the digital marketing community. However, this isn’t true.

Google may look static in many ways, but it’s always made a point to change things up to keep the quality of its search results up. According to the Google Webmaster Blog, Google continues to be committed to fighting webspam wherever it may be lurking on the web.

Google has always been straightforward with saying that if your content is spammy, you are not going to benefit from trying to attract better search rankings because Google is going to penalize your website quickly. And Google penalizes efficiently. Your website will disappear for months, or even for good if you don’t fix your content.

Last year, Google claimed that they have been able to cut the glut of webspam by as much as 80%. For the most part, we think they’ve been able to do this because digital property owners and webmasters are voluntarily stopping webspam practices and improving the content they put out there.

Of particular importance in this dialogue is the concept of “scraped content,” which is also the number one reason why websites get strikes when they apply for Google AdSense. Here’s the deal: Google AdSense no longer accepts applications without a thorough scan of the website’s content and pages.

This is where quality content comes in. If you have been investing in quality content that is engaging and relevant to your target audience for years, then you don’t have to worry about anything. However, if you have been using an automated system to “spin” content or reword it to avoid spam filters, you’re in for a rough day.

Commercial spin systems for content don’t work, and they are going to cause your website harm because Google detects when content has only been minimally dressed up to look like the unique content. Using synonyms, for one, doesn’t fool Google’s webspam filters. So no matter what those plagiarism checkers tell you, Google has the final say.

What you should do:

• Have a content strategy that revolves around a customer avatar that’s been analyzed and proven effective.
• Avoid scraped or rewritten content.
• Invest in quality writing if you can’t write for your business.
• Post content as regularly as possible to stay on the radar.

Prioritize Giving Your Audience a Great Page Experience

As we have said many times before, 2020 and beyond in the era of the customized user experience. People want tailor-fit experiences when they surf online.

They want to see relevant content, and they don’t want to waste time scrolling through content that doesn’t matter to them. It’s a good thing that the Chrome Team has released the Web Vitals or the definitive rundown of the criteria for an excellent page experience.

The Web Vitals metrics is an initiative by Google to help website owners and webmasters make sense of what makes a genuinely positive experience when surfing websites.

According to the Chromium blog, investing in Web Vitals invests in long-term gains and higher returns on your digital marketing efforts. There is a need to quantify your website experience and turn those metrics into actionable opportunities so your website can improve as time goes by. The center of this initiative is called the Core Web Vitals.

What are the Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals refer to various subsets that apply to everything on your website, not just your homepage or your campaign pages. The theory is that if you measure specific aspects of on-page experience, you can focus on creating specific user-centric outputs that mainly benefit your audience.

Take note that Core Web Vitals, just like any other metrics system by Google, will evolve as time goes by. This is fine – Google in 2020 looks nothing like the search engine in 2009. Here are some subsets that you should be looking at:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – This measures the loading speed performance of a page. For a “good” rating, a page must load within 2.5 seconds. Anything over 2.5 seconds needs improvement. If a page on your website loads after more than four seconds, the rating is “poor.”
2. First Input Delay (FID) – This subset measures the interactivity of a page. If the FID is 100 milliseconds or less, the FID is scored as “good.” If the FID is above 100 milliseconds but below 300 milliseconds, it “needs improvement,” while anything above 300 milliseconds is ranked poor.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – The Cumulative Layout Shift measures the visual stability of a page. The ideal CLS rating is 0.1, while a score of 0.25 is already marked with “needs improvement.” If the CLS score of a page is above 0.25, then it is scored as inferior.

What you can do:

According to the Chrome dev team, a page has to be within the 75^th percentile to be on safe ground. This score is segmented across multiple platforms, from desktop page loads to mobile page loads.

There are several tools that you may use now to measure how your website and pages stack up to Google’s standards for a most positive page experience: Chrome User Experience Report, PageSpeed Insights, and the Core Web Vitals Report. If you are interested in testing your website in a lab environment, there’s Chrome DevTools and Lighthouse. In a lab environment, measure Total Blocking Time instead of FID. To keep any eye on the standards of Core Web Vitals, we recommend monitoring this page.

The Era of Webinars

With people still practicing social distancing and working remotely from home, it’s not surprising that webinars are booming. If cloud-based computing has expanded so much in mere months because of the global pandemic, you can expect webinars to generate more interest than physical conferences, at least for this year.

Recent statistics show that people are spending more on webinars than any other period in digital marketing history. This is huge news, and there are some key takeaways from what we have been observing about lead-gen.

1. 34% of all webinars are held for B2B lead-gen. This is the foremost reason, and it’s understandable because webinars offer a bit more elbow room to build your branding and convince people to commit to your business. Also, it’s common knowledge that the easiest way to establish authority in most niches is by holding events (whether digital or not).
2. 59% of organizations surveyed are now investing in webinars and related tech to grow their brands. There has been a double-digit increase in expenditure for webinars in recent months.
3. 72% of organizations hold at least six webinars per year. This is 33% more than what was observed in the last year alone.
4. 62% of businesses had a particular goal in mind: to create a highly interactive webinar. They did this by inviting guests and hosts that were masters of the webinar and by adding interactive features to the digital event.

Among these top interactive features are contests, instant polls, and Q&A portions. Be creative when hosting your webinar – if the audience is barely interacting with the guests and the host, there is something wrong with the event. Webinars are not pre-recorded videos, nor should they appear that way at any point during the event. Of course, you have the option of playing the pre-recorded video if a guest can’t make it or simply spice things up with a surprising perspective.

• The best webinars are set up professionally. Guests and participants who are part of the main program should consider the space where they are streaming. Consider the background, noise level, lighting, and how the camera, laptop, or phone is positioned.

For one, the camera should be positioned at eye level to avoid any awkward angles during the broadcast. The quality of the Internet connection and the connection speed should also be tested before the broadcast. Audio quality is paramount: external microphones are highly recommended.

You can invest either in a webcam with mic installed already, or a separate mic and webcam. To ensure the quality of the broadcast, we recommend that you get a camera designed for HD broadcast (web conferences). These cost more, but the quality will be that much better.

• Transitions are unavoidable when holding live digital events. Unlike live events where there is a physical stage with a curtain, transitions are much more challenging with webinars. It is a good thing that streaming services like Streamyard with more refined control centers allow the central controller of the event to add and remove guests at will.

The ability to flash images, background videos, and audio is also a plus. To accomplish smooth transitions, you have to inform and train your guests, and you need to invest in good Web software to improve your control of the overall event. Otherwise, you will get average results and some awkward pauses here and there during the event. These won’t kill your webinar, but it is always best to avoid blocking and transition errors.

Dive Into Demand Generation

Demand generation is building interest or demand for your Web design services. If you haven’t been exerting effort with demand generation, you are missing out this year. Luckily, we have some examples of current demand generation campaigns to cap off our Rankleads blog today.

1. The simplest way to increase demand and interest in guest blogging. Mind you, and this isn’t easy if you haven’t been communicating with other players in your sandbox. However, it is never too later, and you must have a more friendly relationship with competitors. Guest blogging helps us all.
2. How are your social media campaigns and paid search campaigns? While organic search and content marketing is top-notch, it is undeniable that if you want to get faster results with a campaign you have, you need to run paid search and similar campaigns. Social media campaigns are not foolproof, and you need to be careful about how you mold your campaign on Facebook or Linkedin. Furthermore, we recommend that you add additional details to ensure that potential customers self-select themselves when they sign up for any offer in any campaign.
3. Create content that is keyword-optimized and audience-optimized. Using the right keywords can generate a ton of generally good traffic, but the rest of your content structuring will ensure that you get warm leads. Optimize your content to land the right people so you don’t waste time with overly broad searches that may not give you the right people.
4. Offer something free – like a digital tool. Digital tools are hot right now. These tools don’t even have to be overly complicated or advanced. For example, an SEO website can offer a meta-description checker with a preview pane. All that tool will ever do is measure the number of words and characters in the input field, which word processors already do anyway. Once a digital tool catches on, your page and tool can even go viral, and the massive boost to your traffic can cement your website’s relevance for specific keywords organically.