Author Archives: krcmic.com

Assessing Googlebot's JavaScript Crawl Capabilities: Our Findings - featured image

Assessing Googlebot’s JavaScript Crawl Capabilities: Our Findings

Leave a reply

Do not assume that Google cannot manage JavaScript – the results of a series of tests conducted by Merkle | RKG prove otherwise. The tests aimed to investigate the extent to which different JavaScript functions are crawled and indexed by Google.

Google’s ability to execute JavaScript and read the document object model (DOM)

The capability of Google to crawl JavaScript dates back to 2008, although it may have been limited at that time.

Today, it is evident that Google has advanced not just in terms of the types of JavaScript they crawl and index, but also in terms of producing fully functional websites.

The technical SEO team at Merkle was interested in learning more about the kinds of JavaScript events that Googlebot might crawl and index. We discovered some unexpected findings and established that Google not only processes various JavaScript event types but also indexes dynamically created content. How? Google is analysing the DOM.

The DOM: what is it?

Not many SEOs are familiar with the DOM or the Document Object Model.

The illustration below demonstrates what happens when a browser requests a web page, and how the DOM is involved.

What happens when a browser requests a web page, and how the DOM is involved.

The DOM, as it is used in web browsers, can be defined as API (application programming interface) for markup and structured data such as XML or HTML.

The DOM also specifies how that structure may be accessed and modified. The Document Object Model is an API that is independent of any particular programming language, but it is mostly used in web applications with JavaScript and dynamic content.

The DOM is the interface, or the “bridge,” between programming languages and web pages. The DOM is the content of a web page, not (only) source code. This makes it crucial.

Below you can see how JavaScript works with the DOM interface.

How JavaScript works with the DOM interface.

We were excited to learn that Google could read DOM documents, and understand signals, and content that was dynamically added, including title tags, page text, header tags, and meta-annotations like rel=canonical. Keep reading for more details.

The tests and their outcomes

To investigate how various JavaScript functions would be indexed and crawled by Googlebot, we developed several tests. Controls were established to guarantee that activity to the URLs would be recognised independently. Let us review a couple of the test findings that caught our attention in greater detail below. They are separated into five groups:

  1. JavaScript redirects
  2. JavaScript links
  3. Dynamically inserted content
  4. Dynamically inserted metadata and page elements
  5. An essential example with rel=“nofollow”

JavaScript redirects

To assess common JavaScript redirection, we first changed the way the URL was displayed. We agreed on using the window.location function. There were two tests run: The window.location method in Test A used the absolute URL property. And in Test B we used Relative URL.

The result: Google immediately followed the redirects. From an indexing perspective, these were read as 301s — the end-state URLs replaced the redirected URLs in Google’s index.

In a second test, we used an authoritative page and established a JavaScript redirect to a new page on the website with the exact same information. For popular key phrases, the original URL ranked on Google’s front page.

The result: As predicted, Google followed the redirect and removed the old page from its index. The updated URL was promptly indexed and given the same search engine ranking for identical queries. This caught us off guard and appears to show that JavaScript redirects can function just like permanent 301 redirects in terms of rankings.

JavaScript redirects for site moves may no longer be a cause for concern, as our findings suggest the transfer of ranking signals in this scenario. This is supported by Google’s guidelines, which state:

The usage of JavaScript to redirect users is a legitimate practice. For example, you may use JavaScript to redirect users to an internal page once they have logged in. Consider the intent while reviewing JavaScript or other redirect mechanisms to verify your site complies with our guidelines. When relocating your site, 301 redirects are preferred, however, if you do not have access to your website’s server, you might use a JavaScript redirect.

JavaScript links

We evaluated numerous different JavaScript links that were coded in various ways.

Dropdown menu links were examined. These connections have always been difficult for search engines to consistently follow. We conducted a test to see if the onchange event handler would be executed. It is significant that this is a particular kind of execution point since, unlike the JavaScript redirection above, we are asking for interaction to change something.

The result: The links were fully indexed and followed.

We also tried typical JavaScript links. These are the most frequent forms of JavaScript links that SEOs have typically advised should be converted to plain text. These tests involved JavaScript URLs created with:

  • Functions outside of the a tag but called within the href AVP (“javascript:openlink()”)
  • Functions outside of the href Attribute-Value Pair (AVP) but within the a tag (“onClick”)
  • Functions inside the href AVP (“javascript:window.location“)
  • And so on.

The result: The links were thoroughly crawled and followed.

The following test, similar to the onchange test before, looked at other event handlers. In particular, we were considering the concept of using mouse movements as the event handler and then disguising the URL using variables that are only activated during the event handler’s (in this example, onmousedown and onmouseout) firing.

The result: The links were crawled and followed.

Concatenated links: we needed to make sure Google was reading the variables in the code even though we knew they could execute JavaScript. In this test, we combined a series of characters that, when put together, formed a URL.

The result: The link was crawled and followed.

Dynamically inserted content

Dynamically added text, graphics, links, and navigation are undoubtedly significant. To fully comprehend the theme and content of a website, a search engine needs high-quality text content. The importance of SEOs staying on top of this has increased in the age of dynamic websites.

These tests were made to look for dynamically added text in two distinct scenarios:

  • Check the search engine’s capacity to take into account text that has been dynamically added and is included in the page’s HTML code.
  • Examine the search engine’s capability to take into account text that is dynamically introduced but not contained inside the page’s HTML code.

The result: The text was crawled, indexed, and the page was ranked for the content in both instances.

For additional information, we examined a client’s JavaScript-coded global navigation, with all links inserted with a document.writeIn method, and ensured they were completely crawled and followed. It should be highlighted that Google’s feature describes how webpages developed with the AngularJS framework and the HTML5 History API (pushState) may be generated and indexed by Google, ranking alongside traditional static HTML pages. This is why external files and JavaScript assets mustn’t be blocked from Googlebot access. Google is also probably moving away from supporting Ajax for SEO guidelines. Who needs HTML snapshots when you can just render the whole page?

Regardless of the content type, our testing showed the same outcome. For instance, when photos were loaded in the DOM, they were crawled and indexed. We even made a test where we dynamically produced breadcrumb markup for data-vocabulary.org and placed it into the DOM. Result? Successful rich snippets with breadcrumbs in Google’s SERP.

It should be noted that Google now advises JSON-LD markup for some structured data.

Dynamically inserted metadata and page elements

Several tags that are essential for SEO were dynamically inserted into the DOM:

  1. Meta descriptions
  2. Canonical tags
  3. Meta descriptions
  4. Title elements

The result: In every instance, the tags were crawled respected and behaved as HTML source code components should.

We will learn more about precedence through an intriguing follow-up test. Which signal prevails when there are contradictory ones? What happens if there is a noindex,follow in the DOM and a noindex,nofollow in the source code? This will be covered in the next thorough testing. Our studies, however, revealed that Google can ignore the source code tag in favour of the DOM.

An essential example with rel=“nofollow”

A particular instance was extremely helpful. When link-level nofollow properties were added to the source code and the DOM, we wanted to see how Google would respond. We also built a control that had nofollow completely disabled.

The link was ignored thanks to the nofollow directive in the original code. Nofollow in the DOM did not function (the link was followed, and the page was indexed). Why? Because Google has crawled the link and queued the URL before it performed the JavaScript method that inserts the rel=”nofollow” tag – the a href element in the DOM was modified too late. However, if the full a href element with nofollow is added to the DOM, the nofollow is recognised together with the link (and its URL) and is therefore respected.

Outcomes

In the past, ‘plain text’ content has been the main focus of SEO suggestions. AJAX, JavaScript links, and dynamically generated content have all harmed SEO for the major search engines. Clearly, Google is no longer in that position. Although we do not know what is going on in the algorithms behind the scenes, JavaScript links function similarly to ordinary HTML links.

  • JavaScript redirects are treated similarly to 301 redirects.
  • The processing of dynamically added material, including meta signals like rel canonical annotations, is the same whether it is fired in the HTML source code or after the initial HTML has been parsed with JavaScript in the DOM.
  • Google now seems to render the page completely and recognises the DOM rather than simply the raw code. Absolutely amazing! (Remember to provide Googlebot access to those JavaScript resources and external files.)

Google has grown at an incredible rate, leaving the competition in the dust. If other engines want to remain competitive and relevant in the future web development environment, which only means more HTML5, more JavaScript, and more dynamic websites, we expect to see the same sort of innovation from them.

It would be wise for SEOs who have not kept up with the underlying ideas and capabilities of Google to research them and update their consulting to take into account modern technology. You can be overlooking half of the picture if the DOM is not taken into consideration.

How can an IT person avoid losing money due to currency fluctuations?

Leave a reply

With the onset of the war, IT personnel working as single proprietors for overseas customers found themselves in a difficult situation. Payments for services sent to an entrepreneur’s account in dollars or euros cannot be paid out without incurring considerable losses. In such cases, the question of how to avoid losing money on the exchange rate difference emerges.

Why should IT professionals register an account in another country?

If an entrepreneur is involved in the export or import of commodities, payments must be received on a Ukrainian bank account. The statute establishes time constraints for this reason. Furthermore, by Decree of the National Bank No. 18 on February 24, 2022, these terms were lowered to 90 days for the time of martial law (in the pre-war period it was 365 days). This regulation does not apply if the transaction amount is less than UAH 400,000.

However, Resolution of the Board of Directors of the National Bank No. 67, dated May 14, 2019, specifies a list of services and items that are not covered by the settlement deadlines. This approach, in particular, does not apply to the export of computer programming services. Here is an extract from the Resolution’s paragraph 5: “the deadlines do not apply to services, works (excluding transportation and insurance), intellectual property rights, and/or other non-property exporting rights.”

As a general rule, IT professionals should not be concerned with currency regulation since it concerns the export of services and/or moral rights. However, the tax office may decide that services are included in the definition of “goods” in specific instances.

Therefore, payment for these services must arrive on a Ukrainian bank account. In the absence of sanctions, the single owner may be held liable under Article 162-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and fined between UAH 17,000 and 51,000 for infractions in foreign exchange transactions. Therefore, it is advised to speak with a lawyer if there is even a remote chance that such unfavorable effects might result. As an illustration, a lawyer will review the service agreement and, if necessary, reformulate its clauses.

 

Keeping your Ukrainian tax residency

If a sole proprietor IT professional continues to be a tax resident of Ukraine, it makes sense to create a foreign account for him. If not, you must already pay taxes at the rates in effect in the nation where the bank account was created.

Consider the circumstances. Due to the conflict, the Ukrainian IT expert had to be moved overseas, leaving his single proprietorship behind. He has a bank account there, established residency there, and works for foreign contractors. In such cases, profits may be subject to taxes that are higher than the Ukrainian tax rate (2%, for example, during the conflict). And it’s very obvious what this is. Even so, there are some exceptions. For instance, the Baltic nations do not regard Ukrainian sole owners who are temporarily protected by them as tax residents.

However, if the businessman continues in Ukraine, the situation would be unclear. Many nations tax income where it is received. However, the center of the taxpayer’s critical interests will take center stage when selecting the state in which the Ukrainian sole owner must maintain records and pay taxes. Obviously, the center of important interests is in Ukraine if an IT professional resides and works there.

Characteristics of creating a foreign bank account for a single proprietor

You should consider the choice of jurisdiction, the regulations of a certain bank, and some other details when opening an account as an entrepreneur overseas, for instance. Opening a personal account rather than an entrepreneurial one is permitted by the bank, but doing so may result in claims from Ukraine’s tax service because the income will be viewed as non-entrepreneurial. Each jurisdiction has its own methods for determining tax residency and the center of vital interests, as was previously mentioned. Some banks impose restrictions on things like the maximum amount per transaction.

You must first determine how much it will cost to maintain the account before starting one. The following expenses are frequently included in the cost of keeping an account:

Fixed monthly payment; fees for incoming and outgoing payments, currency conversion, ATM cash withdrawals, and other services; SMS alerts and Internet banking; hiring services for client payment acceptance.

At the same time, an IT expert can create an account outside of a traditional bank to transfer salaries from a foreign company. A other option is to create a currency business account with one of the global payment processors, such Payoneer, Wise etc.

It is expressly forbidden to withdraw money from the sole proprietor account. Regulation of the Board of the National Bank No. 5, dated 02.01.2019, imposed this ban. “Transfer of money in foreign currency from the current account of a single proprietor resident to the current account of this individual in foreign currency, created for his own use, is banned,” reads paragraph 113 of this normative act.

A businessperson must do two things before using their earnings for personal expenses – exchange them into hryvnia  and deposit them to their credit card. You may only freely dispose of money after that.

So-called “convertible deposits” were first made available by Ukrainian banks at the end of July of this year. The diagram that follows is this. The business owner transfers money from his single proprietor account to the bank, sells it, and then deposits it right away for a limited time, like three months, at the same rate. After these three months, you can make a preliminary request to cash out the currency at the bank’s cash desk. The initial deposit opening threshold was UAH 50,000; however, starting on October 1 it was raised to UAH 100,000 each month. By employing such a plan, it may be possible to prevent losses on the sale of currency to the bank and the subsequent purchase of cash at the going rate. However, there is a chance that issues would occur if foreign currency is withdrawn through the bank’s cash desk after three months. For instance, the requested funds might not be released for several weeks after being requested.

Other Techniques

1. Establishing a foreign business

A lone owner may use their own overseas firm to collect payments from their customers (or, in reality, employers). Both sole proprietors who run small businesses and business owners who make more than 80,000 euros in profit per year should consider this alternative.

2. Deferred Pay

The so-called delayed salary is one of the methods used to conserve the money received from the employer (customer). We are referring to the situation where an IT worker who is employed by a foreign employer under a contract and who is registered as a Ukrainian single proprietorship requests to leave a portion of his fees (compensation) on the accounts of the foreign employer. Deferred salaries have been a common practice since the beginning of the conflict, but not particularly frequently.

3. A travel expense card

Opening a foreign currency card in a Ukrainian bank for “travel costs” is another quite common choice. Such cards were first made available by several banks in June 2022. In addition to being able to withdraw money straight from the single proprietor account at a greater rate than when selling to a bank, cardholders may pay for products and services using Apple and Google Pay. However, there are certain limitations and this plan only applies to those who are traveling. In particular, a 100 euro withdrawal cap can be established.

 

Resources: photobank

Who is an IT lawyer?

Leave a reply

The Internet has shown to be a conducive setting for conducting crimes such as theft of intellectual property, money laundering, and fraud. Do not do online business without the professional legal assistance of an IT lawyer. There are two ways to get this support, employing an in-house attorney or signing an outsourcing contract with a law firm.

What abilities should a lawyer in IT possess?

The degree or even the amount of courses done in the subject are irrelevant if you know who is a lawyer in the information technology industry. A significant competency in the work of an IT lawyer is the capacity to integrate existing laws with novel company procedures and technology advancements. Legislation cannot keep up with technology, but technology must make it a point to always uphold the law. You must at least be familiar with the fundamentals of programming, as well as the process of software development and execution, in order to work in IT law. Knowledge of smart contracts and blockchain technologies as of today is required.

Benefits of hiring an IT lawyer

Finding a trustworthy IT attorney is not simple for a business. If this work is completed, the following issues should be resolved:

  • construction of new business models’ legal frameworks; implementation of risk management and agreement structuring – identification of risks and creation of strategies for avoiding these “pitfalls”
  • IT contract negotiations
  • reducing taxes as much as possible, especially by forming a corporation in the appropriate jurisdiction

In disputes involving information technology, claims and mediation are effective.

Supporting the process of getting funding in a business, particularly venture capitalists, is one of an IT lawyer’s strongest suit. We are discussing the creation of an investment agreement as well as the creation of a business plan based on this agreement for the company’s future formation.

The drawbacks of hiring an IT lawyer

It is important to remember that an IT lawyer is someone who is actively involved in the client’s business when determining who qualifies as an IT lawyer. Such a worker is knowledgeable with the particulars of the business, including information that is a trade secret. If the attorney lacks the necessary authority and reputation, they may utilize this information against the client. Privacy invasion is a concern that needs to be considered at all times.

Confidentiality, however, is given first attention by a respected attorney or legal company that appreciates its standing in the industry. Because of this, no information taken from the client’s lips is ever leaked. Therefore, this drawback (risk) is not present while dealing with dependable staff.

How frequently should an IT lawyer sharpen their skills?

Based on the aforementioned, IT attorneys continue to get training and retraining every day. Additionally, many university grads are unprepared for this. In spite of the excellent employment possibilities in the subject of IT law and the high costs for these professionals’ services, this profession is understaffed in our nation.

An ongoing issue for IT organizations is a lack of skilled lawyers. Even major firms that are prepared to make a competitive offer may struggle to resolve the problem with such a worker. Small businesses might accept entrants at their own risk.

Or, as a substitute, you might sign an outsourcing contract with a reputable legal company. You may offer knowledgeable legal assistance in the area of information technology for a fair price. A team of attorneys that has been contracted out is interested in a long-term, and in the best case scenario, a permanent, partnership with the client, thus these services come with a promise of quality, secrecy, and work for the outcome.

 

An specialist who works at the nexus of several legal, as well as other domains, is an IT lawyer. Since information technology and legal requirements in this field change daily, it is hard to receive a complete education as an IT lawyer in a university setting. You must continue to advance professionally in order to be successful in this career. Along with having the necessary qualifications, an excellent IT lawyer must also have the commitment to deal with clients in strictest confidence.

Resources: photobank

Is Google AdSense a factor in search engine rankings?

Leave a reply

Why do some think AdSense affects Google Search rankings? You must believe that ads have no impact on organic ranking. By placing targeted advertising on their website, publishers may make money off of their content via Google’s AdSense program. When readers view or click on these adverts, publishers get compensated.

Why then do some think AdSense affects rankings? You must believe that ads have no impact on organic ranking. The idea is that driving traffic to websites that display Google advertisements also benefits Google as a business. A website becomes another platform for Google’s marketers to place advertisements on when it is monetized using AdSense. Regardless of ethics, Google has a reason to direct visitors to websites hosting AdSense adverts. As a result of increased traffic and ad clicks and views, Google’s advertisers are willing to purchase more advertising.

But would Google permit its corporate objectives to interfere with providing fair organic search results? That is the common belief among people who are skeptical about the inclusion of AdSense as a ranking component. In contrast, there are worries that AdSense advertising can have a detrimental influence on rankings given that Google has particular requirements for appropriate ad placement. Let’s explore these ideas in more detail before examining what the data indicates regarding the effects of AdSense.

AdSense is a Good Indicator

According to one idea, the placement of AdSense advertising on a website boosts ranks by bringing in revenue for Google and its advertiser partners. There is certain to be conjecture that Google’s multiple services, including organic search, Google Ads, and AdSense, communicate signals with one another.

Google isn’t trusted enough?

Mistrust of Google seems to be a common theme throughout all these arguments. Due to a lack of trust in Google to maintain impartial and fair search results, people accept these accusations. Lawsuits and inquiries into suspected anticompetitive business practices have hurt Google’s standing as a reliable corporation. Government representatives have charged Google for favoring its own items in search results and its own apps on Android. In the past, Google has been accused of violating antitrust laws in both Europe and the US. The U.S. Department of Justice frequently investigates Google for allegations of engaging in anti-competitive activities. Google claims that despite being penalized, it did nothing to hinder competition. The reputation of Google as a reliable corporation suffers significantly from ongoing probes into its activities. AdSense keeps coming up in conversations regarding ranking criteria because of this.

According to another report, website owners should exercise caution while using AdSense. It is believed that employing too much advertising or placing them in the incorrect locations has a detrimental effect on rankings. This idea is based on the observation that Google is progressively giving more weight to websites that provide a positive user experience. A page’s user experience is negatively impacted by having too many adverts on it in a variety of ways that Google values highly. The primary information may be difficult to locate, the website may load slowly, and the page may wander about while loading if there is too much advertising. The page experience score of a site might be lowered by each of these. Because of this, AdSense may appear as a derogatory ranking element.

Google covers the often-asked subject of whether AdSense has an impact on a website’s search rankings in the official AdSense Help manual. Google affirms that the position of a site in the SERPs is unaffected by AdSense: „The ranking of your website in Google search results and the search results we provide are unaffected by your participation in Google AdSense. Google firmly supports the right to free speech and as a result, provides widespread access to online material. Due to our connections with remunerated advertisers and publications, our search results are objective. We’ll keep displaying search results based on PageRank technology.“

AdSense has no good or negative influence on rankings. However, Google’s perception of the user experience might be negatively impacted by advertisements in general and result in worse ranks.

  • The presence of advertisements on a website is not automatically bad. However, how they’re employed might be problematic for SEO.
  • Google requests that website owners abide by the Better Ads Standards, which outline acceptable and inappropriate ad placements on desktop and mobile. Additionally, site owners are urged to abide by the best practices for ad placement portion of the AdSense Help Center.
  • Finally, Google’s page experience upgrade takes into account a website’s ad use.

Google notes in a message to website owners about the updated page experience:

  • A website must not employ advertising strategies that are disruptive, intrusive, or otherwise bad for the user experience.
  • Although not limited to AdSense, there are other methods that websites can utilize for advertisements that have a detrimental influence on rankings.
  • To that end, Google has publicly stated that AdSense is not immune from the potentially negative signals that advertising might provide.
  • AdSense advertisements that are too intrusive are handled the same as other invasive advertising.

According to Google, AdSense has no impact on rankings. Lower rankings may result from the placement of AdSense advertising on a page, but that is true of all adverts. Therefore, it is also inaccurate to state that AdSense might have a detrimental impact on rankings.

High-Performance Computing: Everything You Need To Know

High-Performance Computing: Everything You Need To Know

Leave a reply

The ability to analyse data and carry out complex operations quickly is known as high-performance computing (HPC). For comparison, a laptop or desktop with a 3 GHz CPU can do about 3 billion computations in a second. Even while that is significantly quicker than anything a person could manage, HPC systems that are capable of performing quadrillions of calculations per second overshadow it.

The supercomputer is one of the most well-known forms of HPC systems. Thousands of computing nodes are found in a supercomputer, and they collaborate to finish one or more tasks. We refer to this as parallel processing. It is comparable to having thousands of PCs networked together to combine compute power and speed up task completion.

What makes HPC so crucial?

Data is the fuel for game-changing inventions, the source of ground-breaking scientific discoveries, and the improvement of billions of people’s quality of life worldwide. Advancements in science, industry, and society all rely on HPC.

The number and volume of data that enterprises must work with are expanding due to the impact of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and 3-D imaging. The capacity to analyse data in real time is essential for many tasks, like streaming a live athletic event, monitoring a storm’s progression, testing new goods, and examining market trends.

Organizations require fast, very reliable IT infrastructure to process, store, and analyse vast volumes of data in order to stay one step ahead of the competition.

How does HPC operate?

The three main components of HPC are computing, storage, and network.

Compute servers are networked together to create a cluster in order to develop a high-performance computing architecture. On the cluster’s servers, software applications and algorithms execute simultaneously. To collect the output, the cluster is networked to the data storage. These components work in tandem to execute a wide range of tasks.

But what is an HPC cluster? An HPC cluster is composed of hundreds or thousands of computing machines that are linked together over a network. Each server is known as a node. Each cluster’s nodes operate in parallel with each other, increasing processing speed and delivering high-performance computing.

To function at peak efficiency, each component must keep up with the others. The storage component, for example, must be able to feed and ingest data to and from compute servers as rapidly as it is processed. Similarly, the networking components must be capable of supporting high-speed data transit between compute servers and data storage. When one component cannot keep up with the others, the overall performance of the HPC infrastructure suffers.

Where is HPC used?

HPC systems are utilised for a variety of purposes across multiple industries and can be deployed on-premises, at the edge, or in the cloud. Below we provide examples of HPC use in different fields:

  • Machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence). HPC is employed to identify credit card fraud, offer self-directed technical help, teach self-driving cars, and improve cancer detection methods.
  • Media and entertainment. HPC is used to edit films, produce special effects, and stream live events all over the world.
  • Research laboratories. HPC is used by scientists to discover new sources of renewable energy, comprehend the history of the universe, forecast and monitor storms, and develop innovative materials.
  • Financial Services. HPC is used to watch stock changes in real-time and to automate trading.
  • Gas and oil. HPC is used to more correctly determine where new wells should be drilled and to help increase productivity from existing wells.
  • HPC is used to assist in the creation of treatments for diseases such as diabetes and cancer, as well as to enable faster and more accurate patient diagnostics.
  • HPC is used to develop new products, simulate test situations, and ensure that parts are kept in stock in order to keep manufacturing lines running smoothly.

HPC and NetApp

The NetApp HPC solution includes a whole line of high-performance, high-density E-Series storage systems. A modular design with an industry-leading price/performance ratio provides a pay-as-you-grow solution to satisfy storage requirements for multi-petabyte datasets. To manage the performance and reliability needs of the world’s greatest computer infrastructures, the system is integrated with prominent HPC file systems such as Lustre, IBM Spectrum Scale, BeeGFS, and others.

E-Series systems deliver the performance, reliability, scalability, simplicity, and lower TCO required to meet the challenges of handling extreme workloads:

  • Performance. Up to 1 million random read IOPS and 13GB/sec, sustained write bandwidth per scalable building block are enabled. The NetApp HPC solution, which is optimised for both flash and spinning media, features built-in technology that monitors workloads and automatically modifies settings to optimise performance.
  • Reliability. The fault-tolerant design provides more than 99.9999% availability, as shown by over 1 million deployed systems. Data Assurance elements built into the software help ensure that data is correct, with no failures, corruption, or missing bits.
  • Easy to implement and manage. Modular design, on-the-fly replication of storage blocks (“cut and paste”), proactive monitoring, and automation scripts all contribute to simple, rapid, and flexible management.
  • Lower TCO. Price/performance optimised building blocks and the industry’s greatest density per provide minimal power, cooling, and support costs, as well as four times lower failure rates than commodity HDD and SSD devices.
  • Scalability. A granular, building-block approach to scaling that allows for smooth scalability from terabytes to petabytes by adding capacity in any increment—one or several drives at a time.
The-Benefits-of-Better-Ads-Standards-for-Publishers

The Benefits of Better Ads Standards for Publishers

Leave a reply

Advertising is the currency of the Internet. Users may obtain valuable information for free through advertisements. However, over time, users are starting to express their dissatisfaction with intrusive and irritating adverts. Nearly 91% of users find advertisements to be more obtrusive now than they were two to three years ago, according to statistics. 79% of people believe retargeting advertisements are tracking them. Additionally, 15% of consumers claim that some advertisements deceived them into clicking.

Reputable worldwide trade organisations and online media companies founded the Coalition for Better Ads to counter this; moreover, they also introduced the Better Ads Standards. Understanding customer preferences and meeting their expectations in the digital age of advertising are at the core of the idea.

Better Ads Standards: what is this?

The Coalition for Better Ads developed and launched a framework called the Better Ads Standards. The framework attempts to improve consumers’ interactions with adverts on both desktop and mobile platforms.

How does it operate? The coalition identifies the ads with the lowest perceived value that drive internet users to instal ad blockers. For this, their study finds the least favoured ad formats that cause issues with surfing speed, interrupt content, and disrupt the user experience.

The guidelines then establish which ad formats are acceptable for consumers and which ones are not by evaluating all desktop and mobile-based ad kinds. Publishers and webmasters advise the removal of the lowest-ad types once they have been identified.

Better Ads Standards were first implemented in March 2017 and are most successful in North America and Europe. Since their introduction, numerous publications have embraced the standards and included them in their ad policies.

A call for better advertising

Based on the research they carried out to understand user preferences about online advertisements, the coalition conceptualised the Better Ads Standards.

They interviewed more than 25,000 internet users across North America and Europe throughout the initial phase. The consumers were asked about their problems and preferences towards various kinds of internet advertisements. In this stage, 49 mobile-based ad experiences and 55 desktop-based ad experiences were examined.

To learn about the problems and needs of clients in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, a similar study was carried out in phase two. As a result, identical consumer preferences were discovered in both researches on the most- and least-preferred ad formats and experiences, necessitating the development of a framework like the Better Ads Standards.

Additionally, customer choices have always come first according to Better Ads Standards. As a result, a user-centric approach was used to reach a conclusion. To rate advertising experiences from best to worst, the researchers combined all the replies and developed a “ranking system.”

The research found the following desktop-based ads as the most disruptive ones:

  1. Pop-up ads
  2. Prestitial ads with a countdown
  3. Large sticky ads and
  4. Auto-playing videos with sound

According to the study, the most disruptive mobile-based ads include:

  1. Prestitial ads
  2. Pop-up ads
  3. Flashing animations
  4. Mobile pages with more than 30% ad density
  5. Large sticky ads
  6. Fullscreen scroll-over ads and
  7. Auto-playing videos with sound

These ads are the first to be changed or eliminated according to the rating. The most despised of all advertisements were pop-ups and audio autoplay videos. Depending on how they were used, some ad kinds, such as sticky advertisements, were seen to not be “all bad.”

Better Ads Standards: who will find them useful?

Publishers, advertisers, and ad tech platforms are the target audience for the Better Ads Standards. The coalition encourages them to evaluate their current ad practices and improve the ad experience for their customers by adapting to the standards.

  • Advertisers. Better Ads Standards provide them with the tools they need to create and carry out effective marketing campaigns. Since the guidelines are primarily aimed at publishers, marketers have a better understanding of which publishers are compliant, which publishers stick to best practices, and which publishers to engage with.
  • Publishers. The guidelines help them follow excellent advertising practices and provide a better user experience to their audience. The group also runs a project called the Better Ads Experience Program, in which publishers are invited to participate and get certification from the Better Ads Standards for sticking to the best practices.
  • Ad tech platforms. Publishers that wish to display advertisements on their websites should cooperate with ad networks and ad exchanges. And Better Ads Standards assist these platforms in creating fresh, improved ad options for publishers, and therefore users.

Why should you implement Better Ads Standards?

Defeating ad blockers is one never-ending battle publishers face. TheNextWeb claims that in 2015, ad-blocking software cost publishers roughly $22 billion in revenue. Ad blocker usage increased to 615 million people by 2017 from 198 million in 2015. Additionally, 83% of respondents stated that they would want an ad-blocking option on mobile devices.

It is obvious that publishers that rely only on ad revenue have suffered greatly as a result of ad blockers. Additionally, the usage of ad blockers is rising, which is a symptom that something is really wrong with advertisements as they are right now.

Google is known for its commitment to quality user experience. Bad ad types can reduce a publisher’s ad income, according to Google analysts. Google favours publishers’ well-planned, non-intrusive ad placements, just like the coalition does.

On the bright side, as a result of the Better Ads Standards research, publishers now have access to information on which ad types are the least successful among users. The standards may eventually help publishers in their struggle with ad blockers.

How do Better Ads Standards work for publishers?

Publishers, advertisers, and ad tech firms have been encouraged by the coalition to analyse their adverts. Participating publishers have 30 days to update every area of their website as part of the Better Ads Experience program.

The coalition has no impact on the non-participating publications, on the other hand. But in that situation, Google may check these publishers’ websites to make sure they comply. Since receiving the initial warning notice, Chrome, the dominant online browser in the industry, has been evaluating and taking action on advertising that does not follow the guidelines.

However, Google also provides publishers with a tool to help them identify the parts of their website that could require revision in order to help them stay compliant. One straightforward method for doing this is the Ad Experience report provided in Google Search Console. To assist publishers in identifying questionable ad practices and determining the extent of improvement, the tool examines a small sample of the website’s pages.

When testing is complete, publishers can submit their website for approval and receive notifications via reports.

The last word

The coalition views customer preferences as their most important piece of information. Over 66,000 internet users from various regions have taken part in their research. The program has also been certifying publishers who comply with the guidelines since it was put in place.

Additionally, the coalition has been promoting the advantages of adopting Better Ads Standards to publishers that are not members. It also has plans to use webinars and other forms of marketing to keep publishers interested.

Surprisingly, some statistics illustrate the positive side of disruptive advertising in addition to all the negative ones. 77% of people said they would prefer to use ad filters on websites rather than ad blockers. This shows that people may be willing to reconsider their use of ad blockers to some extent. Of course, in return for a decent experience.

B2B Marketing Cloud Journey Builder: 3 Examples of Successful Designs

Leave a reply

Marketing is in a lot of ways like love. First, you are excited. Following that, you are attempting to determine what the other person is interested in and how you may win their heart. After they go to bed with you (pardon the bold metaphor), it does not end there. Successful marketers are aware that “what got you here, won’t get you there.” Getting them to marry you and become a repeat client demands imagination and flair. And after you have established a stable relationship, you must maintain trust and interest in order to live happily ever after.

You have the tools to accomplish that thanks to the “Journey Builder” feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Intent data, email, advertising, and much more are integrated by a strong group of “Studios” to create well-orchestrated, intelligent customer experiences. The studios offer excellent functionality at their core, and there are many strong add-ons available, including lead scoring for Salesforce Marketing Cloud by SalesWings or Litmus to guarantee email compatibility with more than 90 email clients.

But a tool is only a means to a goal, which is why we have included 3 different customer journeys that all B2B marketers should have in their toolbox.

Customer journey No.1: The ‘getting acquainted’ welcome journey

Use case: Newly acquired leads or prospects

The objective of the journey: Determine the interests of potential customers to provide a more customised experience for them (segmentation)

The relationship is still in its early stages. Imagine a new customer signing up for “General Company Updates” using a basic “Newsletter Sign-up Form.” If they are completely new to you, you will not know much about them:

  1. First and last name
  2. Email address
  3. The fact that they are generally interested in your content and business
  4. (Additional: Data on customer journey tracking)
    • (Lead scoring)
    • Segmentation data based on behavioural patterns

The objective of this phase is to get to know the consumer so that you can understand their interests and further tailor their customer experience (segmentation/audience building).

Suppose your company offers lead scoring, as shown in the simplified journey below (created using Marketing Cloud Journey Builder). In that case, you may want to directly create a new “lead” in Salesforce and assign a “follow-up” task to your sales team if the lead is “sales-ready” (in the example below, with a lead score of 50 points or higher).

You should send a first welcome email (“Segmentation Split”) to the remaining prospects with content that helps your team to divide the leads into specific groups. Imagine that you are marketing to three distinct personas, each identified by the department they are employed in.

As an example, if you are a financial services company with customers in three different branches (corporate, asset management, and private banking), you could provide content tailored to each of these fields.

Strategic welcome journey scheme

Here, you send an email containing three topics that are distinct from one another and links to further content. It is crucial to include teases of the material within the email to encourage them to click through:

  • The link to the first topic (which serves the interests of Persona #1)
  • The link to the second topic (which serves the interests of Persona #2)
  • The link to the third topic (which serves the interests of Persona #3)

You should implement a tracking solution (AMP Script or a third-party solution) on the three landing pages where these links land in order to track these clicks and visits. Therefore, you update the Marketing Cloud subscriber data within the data extension with an attribute “Topic 1” if a prospect clicks on the “Topic 1 link,” for instance, and reaches this landing page.

You keep delivering high-level content emails to those who do not click until you can determine their interests from these prospects.

This is an excellent method to learn more about how to develop a unique client experience for each new prospect.

Customer journey No.2: The “360-degree seduction” journey

Use case: A potential customer expresses significant interest in Service or Product X

The objective of the journey: The lead must be pushed or nurtured from the MQL (marketing qualified) stage to the SQL (sales qualified) stage and a demo

In this case, we are assuming that you were able to identify a lot of interest in a certain Product X. Now is the moment to speed up the process and put in a lot of effort to get them to a point where they are prepared to interact with a salesperson.

There are numerous different methods to start this journey, including:

  • A lead acts on the website in a way that signals a high interest in Product X (multiple lead scoring/behavioural segmentation).
  • At an event, a sales representative meets the potential customer. The representative determines that the lead is not yet sales-qualified, but the prospect expresses interest in Product X inside Salesforce CRM.
  • The prospect submits a necessary form.

In the following example, we’ll assume that a lead fills out a web form to request a white paper on an issue that “Product X” of yours is addressing. Because the lead has expressed an explicit interest in your product, we want to generate the lead in Salesforce CRM so that a representative may have a look at them as well. You might use Salesforce’s “web-to-lead” form for this purpose, or if you need more power, consider Formassembly, which provides configurable forms for Salesforce or Marketing Cloud.

It is important to note that for this journey, we should preferably collect the following data from the lead:

  • Mobile number – used to send SMS messages with Mobile Studio. (Note that you might request mobile number verification.)
  • Industry or similar information in order to use dynamic content in emails

We use “Salesforce data” as an entry event. Either use “Salesforce data” to search for lead/contact fields (includes, for example, clicking a checkbox for that journey) or use a “Salesforce campaign” to add all contacts. With Salesforce Flows, this can be used to automatically add all of the leads that submit a form to a Salesforce campaign.

360-degree seduction journey scheme

The Journey includes the following components and steps:

  1. Sending the White Paper to them via mass email, along with a follow-up reminder
    As a rule of thumb, we prefer embedding material on websites rather than sending links to PDFs in emails for three reasons.
    Firstly, this improves the SEO of your website and allows you to include additional content that may be of interest to the lead, such as price information or case studies. Second, being on a landing page encourages a lead to continue researching your website rather than simply closing the PDF. Finally, if you employ customer journey tracking technology, a PDF also cannot execute tracking javascript.
    For instance, we created a single decision split that will guarantee that leads who don’t click on the emails still receive reminders. If the individual doesn’t click to acquire the whitepaper during two months, you could send up to five or six reminders, although we haven’t completely implemented this here.
  1. Including them in an advertising campaign on LinkedIn using the Advertising Studio
    Remember, our goal on this journey is to attract them from all sides. We will thus show them Product X on the internet. One fantastic feature of Advertising Studio is the ability to quickly add a certain group of leads to an advertising campaign and retarget them while sending emails to them. In fact, Salesforce’s primary advantage is omnichannel marketing. While they are on their journey, these advertisements will continue to track them.
  1. Sending them an email including a client story for Product X from Industry Y
    We will attempt to move the leads down the funnel by giving them more information that will aid them in determining if your product or service is a good fit for them, given that we are aware of their interest in Product X.
    Remember that in order to make this customer story as effective as possible, we will select a customer story based on the industry (or other appropriate information) that the lead provided in the form. Basically, you want to create a dynamic content block, and then display them a Customer Story that speaks directly to their requirements by searching up the Salesforce CRM field “industry,” which has been prefilled once the lead has submitted the form.
    In fact, Salesforce Marketing Cloud gives you a variety of options to integrate dynamic content. There are straightforward choices or if you want, you can get pretty creative with dynamic content.
  1. Using lead scoring (SQL) to determine if the lead is ready to talk to a sales representative
    The sales and marketing teams may align on the most important leads by using lead scoring. Many marketers encounter difficulties in timely delivering the proper leads to the sales team, which irritates and annoys the sales representatives. You may use a third-party lead scoring tool for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, such as SalesWings, or you can write code and rules yourself to implement lead scoring in Marketing Cloud in a variety of methods.
    In Marketing Cloud or Salesforce CRM, you can look up the lead scoring field using a “Decision Split,” which will then convert the lead into a contact, account, and opportunity.
  1. Integrating mobile channels into the journey strategy by utilizing the Mobile Studio tool
    SMS is a necessary component of 360-degree seduction. As you may recall, we requested the cellphone number when the user signed up. Checking to see if you already have a cellphone number on file would allow you to preserve this field’s optionality.
    You have a few choices here. Since you are striving to prepare the lead for sales, why not offer a demo with a few slots and introduce the specific account manager? Or as another example, you could invite them to a forthcoming event or online seminar related to Product X.
  1. Completing the process (SQL)
    Based on lead scoring, you may send them an email asking for comments on the downloaded paper or suggesting a demo if you haven’t been able to make contact or move them into a sales-ready position. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive, after all. When addressing a problem or a solution, leads who are seriously considering a product or service may be seeking validation.
    Here, sending an email as plain text with the appearance of one-on-one correspondence will make it more personalised and increase the likelihood that you’ll receive a response.

Customer journey No.3: The “Unpredicted Stingray Surprise” loyalty journey

Use case: A short yet imaginative anniversary or birthday journey

The objective of the journey: Create a better bond and relationship with your leads by surprising them with a memorable experience

Shorter journeys bring instant results and are easier to initiate and sustain. Consider a few shorter journeys to accompany the general approach.

Professor Werbach of the University of Pennsylvania State University discovered in his Gamification study that surprise and unexpected benefits had a greater impact than expected ones.

This journey can be started at any time. For example, it is your lead’s birthday. Or it is his first anniversary of being a customer.

Now, let’s take a look at what this journey could look like.

Because this is a time-sensitive event, you should use Salesforce CRM or a specific data extension as an input data source and select a specific time field. Birthdays, first purchases, subscription start dates, and so on.

The "Unpredicted Stingray Surprise" loyalty journey scheme

This journey should include the following steps:

  1. Sending an initial message, either via email or SMS, which includes up-to-date content
    Making people feel as though they are just an “income source” does not inspire loyalty since people have an inner need to be respected as human beings.
    You could start with something like “It is your birthday today! Find out 3 best ways to celebrate such a special day “.
    Data is key, as always, and you could tailor this journey to your customer’s gender, age, location, or other characteristics by gathering information about them. For example:
    “Spend exciting holidays in a luxury ski resort – it’s on us!” – You might be able to provide a coupon or a simplified reimbursement if you collaborate with a large hotel chain. Alternatively, you could just give a list of wonderful spas and massage locations, ranging from the all-inclusive Turkish Hammam to the traditional “mud massage”.
    “Take a break from technologies – turn off your phone and disconnect from the internet!” – Another brilliant suggestion could be a digital detox. Nowadays people are so absorbed in their devices that switching off would undoubtedly make them feel better.
    A coupon or voucher for a small gift. – Many people also favour making their own decisions. Why not offer them a little voucher for their favourite items from Amazon, iTunes, or the movie industry? You may also use the fantastic “Coupon” function that is already included in Marketing Cloud.
  1. Creating a follow-up task for the account manager
    In terms of customer experience and automation, customers are well aware that many things are automated, which devalues them.
    To add a human touch, consider encouraging the account manager to follow up or send a personal letter. It is more expensive to get timely communication from a person, but since business is conducted between individuals rather than businesses, this time is wisely spent.

It’s done now!

The Marketing Cloud Journey Builder is a wonderful tool that gives you all the tools you need to design unique, effective, and successful customer journeys. You can align sales and marketing efforts and make sure that your team is fully prepared by using third-party tools like SalesWings for Salesforce lead scoring or comprehensive forms like Formassembly.

Quality Assurance in Web Integration

Quality Assurance in Web Integration

Leave a reply

In today’s article, let’s look at the concept of quality assurance in the context of web integration. In what ways can quality assurance be tested?

Today’s information technology is evolving so quickly that there are more demands than ever on web (software) applications’ functioning and, therefore, on the calibre of their software. Quality control must thus be a key component of the process of creating online solutions.

Definition of Quality Assurance

The broad definition of quality assurance is as follows: “Quality assurance (QA) usually addresses everything from product creation to design, development, implementation, and maintenance. This activity aims to ensure that each component’s output satisfies the predetermined quality requirements.

The following actions go into ensuring quality assurance, sometimes known as “software quality assurance”:

  • confirming the fulfillment of client criteria and making sure they are consistent with the requirements of the project and the assignment
  • checking developer outputs for compliance with established standards and guidelines
  • testing to find potential flaws in systems, logic, content, and other areas

    • Naturally, the core component of testing also applies to web solutions in these processes. It is important to consider that new web pages are being tested in this area and to allow for a variety of appropriate tests, including those for web application security, the capacity to handle high visitor volumes (performance testing), browser compatibility, operational systems, and accessibility for both regular users and users with handicaps.

    Testing

    Testing is a methodical procedure that involves seeing a system operate under predetermined conditions that mimic real-world circumstances. Additionally, it focuses on the detection of mistakes, faults, and deviations from client requirements as well as on how to operate in uncertain circumstances from the standpoints of output data, stress, and security. Individual results are similarly reviewed and documented.

    Testing seeks to identify flaws as soon as feasible, at the earliest stage of solution creation, so that they may be fixed.

    Testing is sometimes confused with the notions of quality assurance, but as we saw in the previous section, testing is only one step in the quality management process.

    Testing Methods

    Numerous testing techniques are highlighted in literature and in practice, depending on the angle from which we see them.

    We may categorize the procedure according to the technique of implementation as follows:

  • Manual testing: testing done manually by the tester (user). This method’s slowness and ineffectiveness are drawbacks. However, certain tests can only be completed manually due to the human element.
  • Automated testing: Large amounts of varied testing data may be tested quickly. Using automated testing tools, we can quickly check the accuracy of pages, the operation of specific links, stress resistance, and other features in online applications.

    • Depending on the type and purpose of the testing, we can distinguish between:

  • Functional testing: This type of testing confirms that the software functionalities fulfil the needs of the client and examines how well the program/solution works across a range of SW and HW platforms.
  • Non-functional testing: This type of testing involves evaluating a system’s characteristics that are unrelated to its main goal, such as its efficiency, security, and stress levels.

    • From the standpoint of the source code, this entails:

  • Static testing involves examining the source codes directly.
  • Dynamic testing involves evaluating system properties while a program is running.

    • Depending on how information is approached, a test could be characterized as:

  • Black box: The tester solely examines the system’s exterior reaction while logging the input and output parameters. The internal workings of the system are not tested, nevertheless, in the black box test. On the other hand, it might provide distorted results because even if the given input produces the desired outcome, the system may manage the process wrong (for example, by erroneously storing the data structures, etc.).
  • White box: This method presupposes that the tester has a thorough understanding of the underlying workings of the codes and can thus “look inside the system.” The tester checks the source code concurrently as part of the test.
  • Combining the black and white box tests is the grey box test. Although the tester does not pay attention to the specifics of the source code, they are familiar with the system’s general architecture. The creation of more suitable testing scenarios has made the structure more approachable.

    • We may categorize testing into the following categories based on the amount of software development inspection that occurs:

  • Developer testing, which places a focus on functional accuracy and validity, is testing done at the lowest level, often just after developing the integrated portion of the program code.
  • Unit testing: Testing the efficiency of the smallest system units and ensuring compliance with established standards and norms are both examples of unit testing. The tests can easily be fully automated at this level.
  • Integrity testing: confirming proper communication between various system parts. Linking all components of the suggested solution is a crucial testing phase for web systems.
  • System testing involves evaluating the application as a whole. The functionality, dependability, security, and efficiency of the system are tested.

    • Let’s stop with system testing for a moment. As part of system testing, we can take a closer look at the following:

  • Performance test: evaluates how quickly input requests are responded to. examining the effectiveness of the web application in multi-user settings, as well as how they respond to a rapid rise in the volume of input data and the number of active users.
  • Security test: determining how well the system guards against unwanted access to data or source codes.
  • Usability testing: determines how user-friendly and intuitive websites are, as well as how simple it is to navigate through them.
  • Testing colour contrast and ensuring that web pages are “barrier-free,” or accessible to people with impairments (such as poor vision or hearing).
  • Stress test: a system test that focuses on identifying system faults caused by inadequate HW capacity (CPU, memory, disk, etc.).
  • After maintenance (changes to the HW or SW environments, migration, and system update), a maintenance test is performed to ensure that the system is operating properly.

    • After finishing all the aforementioned tests, it’s time for the final one – the acceptance test. This is performed following thorough system tuning and after the elimination of any faults found during earlier tests. This checks the system’s readiness for real-world use.

    Which testing technique is the best and most effective cannot be determined. Numerous variables, including project size, goals, and focus, as well as the customer’s and the testing team’s capacity, influence the choice of testing technique. However, developing the proper testing strategy from the very beginning helps us to significantly save costs while simultaneously improving the overall quality of the system.

    Experience has taught us that it is much more efficient to avoid mistakes upfront than to correct them after the fact. This is even more crucial when it comes to web integration since integrated systems depend on it and because a mistake made at one point in the chain might have serious consequences elsewhere. Therefore, it is a very excellent idea to conduct quality checks at each stage of the software life cycle, starting with the client’s unique needs and finishing with the deployment of the finished program.

    It is very useful to carry out quality tests as early as the analysis and design phase of the solution because an error in the architecture design, an incorrect functional specification, or a poorly chosen graphic design can later cause many tests to fail. As a consequence, going live is significantly delayed.

    Understanding The Basics of Always-On Marketing

    Understanding The Basics of Always-On Marketing

    Leave a reply

    To begin, we believe there is room for both: seasonal campaigns, as well as establishing activities that are always on and always available when your audience is seeking them. To us, this means generating an opportunity and material for always-on activities to have an influence on your business or brand daily.

    Most significantly, if you currently have a content marketing plan or follow inbound marketing ideas, this is unlikely to be a dramatic move for you. Always-on activities are simply another method to use your data and insights to prioritise your customers and services.

    Always-on marketing: what is it?

    The term “always-on marketing” refers to a methodical strategy of planning, organising, and optimising ongoing marketing initiatives that support client acquisition and retention throughout the client lifecycle. To make it clear, take a look at the following comparison:

    • Campaign – short-term, intense sales and promotion
    • Always-on – continuously running marketing campaign.

    In reality, you probably already do some always-on marketing, such as sponsored social media advertising that is constantly running.

    Always-on activities frequently contain content or are a component of your content marketing strategy. In addition to traditional content such as written articles, advertisements, and social media, we are seeing an increasing number of companies include gamification in their marketing.

    While some organisations employ gamification as part of timed marketing efforts (campaigns with an end date), we are witnessing an increase in the number of organizations who keep their game campaigns going permanently or for at least a year. This allows them to communicate with their audience and acquire critical data when the moment is optimal for them.

    According to recent Think With Google research, 75% of smartphone users expect to receive instant information when using their smartphone. When combined with the fact that 51% of customers feel they should be able to contact a business at all times, this demonstrates that we (consumers) demand rapid responses, whether through our smartphones or a company’s customer service.

    How does always-on marketing work?

    The objective is to be as visible and persuasive as possible for each consumer by being present at any time.

    Consider sponsored search, SEO, or social media; these channels do not require your marketing staff to be online at the same moment a client discovers you, and the chance for a new client to discover your brand is always present.

    With the help of your internet advertisements or SEO efforts, you may advance a consumer into the relationship nurturing stage once they have achieved the height of the awareness stage.

    All of this can and should be automated, so to succeed, you will need a lot of data.

    Because always-on marketing is focused on the unique client experience, dynamic customization of marketing materials is essential and should always be analysed and improved upon.

    There is no “one size fits all” solution to always-on marketing, and it often includes every element of your strategy, both in-store and online. It’s important to always be available to your consumers and to be able to reach them no matter where they are.

    Is it only for B2C businesses?

    It’s tempting to believe that some strategies, such as always-on marketing, are only for B2C (business-to-consumer) and not for B2B (business-to-business) (business-to-business). However, this is a mistake since, even in a B2B setting, your clients still want their demands met when seeking something particular.

    We like how MarTech Advisor explains it: “The ‘always-on’ aspect of B2B marketing has become essential to reach and maintain your message in front of target prospects throughout the purchase process. If your message isn’t presented to them before they’re prepared to interact, you’ve probably lost the chance to enter their consideration set. ”

    What does this imply? You may interact with prospects when they are in the consideration or search phases if you have always-on content or activities.

    Questions to ask before introducing always-on marketing

    1. Are we ready to experiment, make changes, and try again?
      As marketers, we must understand that our job includes testing, evaluating, and modifying. This is applicable for brand positioning, gamification initiatives, social media posts, and always-on activities. To be successful, you must be open to adjustment in order to deliver the kind of experience your clients demand.
    2. Is first-party data available to us?
      Being closer to the client and collecting information directly from them has always been the aim. We also know that the method many advertisers obtain data via third-party cookies will shortly and permanently change.
      So how do you plan to get consumer or audience information? Gamifying your marketing initiatives is one approach to engage your audience more deeply (and collect first-party data). We have seen that when an experience is engaging and enjoyable, customers are eager to provide personal information since there is a significant value exchange taking place. The capacity to personalise while improving relevance for your audience is one of the main advantages of using first-party data.
    3. Are we creating value from the very beginning?
      Customers decide when they connect with us and (obviously) when they are ready to make a purchase. If they only discover your company or brand during the acquisition phase, it is doubtful that you will succeed in getting the sale or the client.
      The answer is best explained by the following blog post from LinkedIn: “Ideally, you should be generating value for customers long before they are ready to make a purchase, while they are merely studying, investigating, and educating themselves. You need to be prepared anywhere they may be, not only on your own website and channels. All of it is a component of a marketing strategy that is focused on the consumer. ”
      Designing a customer experience with continuous, always-on activities or content can be an effective solution. By carefully crafting this experience, marketers can ensure that it aligns with their customers’ needs.

    The significance of always-on for marketers

    Always-on means being prepared to interact with your audience. Instead of beginning campaigns in the conventional sense when your company is prepared to announce something new, it implies having your campaigns and strategies in place beforehand. Our main conclusion from this is that it does not matter when we are prepared to promote a campaign; instead, it matters when our audience is seeking that particular good or service.

    We believe that always-on activities are a wonderful business strategy because they enable you to create what your clients need or desire and make it available to them whenever it is convenient for them. Consider it to be similar to always-on lead generation initiatives. The activities can therefore be done in person, online, or a combination of both.

    Being relevant while your audience is searching for the good or service your company provides is the secret to always-on activity. However, be sure to follow the data as a guide.

    Affiliate Ad Hijacking: A Comprehensive Guide

    Affiliate Ad Hijacking: A Comprehensive Guide

    Leave a reply

    Have you observed any odd alterations in the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing programme? Are your PPC stats or impression shares worse than you initially expected?

    These are all potentially suspicious behaviours known as affiliate hijacking, direct linking, brand poaching/bidding, or URL jacking and can occur even when there isn’t an increase in competition.

    Unfortunately, there are a lot of dishonest affiliates out there that would rather take advantage of you, steal your clicks, and mistreat your brand than act ethically by bringing in money for your company and earning eligible rewards.

    Let’s talk about what ad hijacking is and what to do if you become a target of it because it can be quite damaging to a company and its bottom line.

    Ad-hijacking: what is it?

    Ad hijacking occurs when an affiliate tries to pass as the brand by running advertisements that resemble the company’s ads. These affiliate hijackers raise the likelihood that your customers would click on their advertisements rather than the brand’s own ads by using the same URL, identical headlines, and ad content. When these clicks result in purchases, the affiliate is paid a commission. In short, these affiliates are stealing money from under your nose in the form of unearned commissions.

    What does ad hijacking look like?

    Ad hijacking looks just like ordinary advertisements to someone browsing the Search Engine Results Page while conducting an online search.

    These instances take place when a dishonest affiliate makes a paid search advertisement that is a replica of the brand’s own advertisement. Customers do not realise they’ve clicked on an affiliate link, and the affiliate receives a commission for conversions the brand would have gotten regardless.

    Affiliates employ evasive tactics to escape detection and steal commissions from sales in addition to raising the cost-per-click on branded chosen keywords. It is extremely difficult to spot without the aid of a paid search monitoring service.

    What are the negative effects of ad hijacking?

    Ad Hijacking has several harmful consequences, including:

    • Giving the wrong message. Affiliate advertising frequently contains out-of-date deals, exaggerated discounts, and wording that does not accurately represent the business. Affiliate hijackers sometimes switch out brand advertising with their own since search engines only let an advertiser’s domain appear once on a specific SERP, robbing the brand of control over their own message.
    • Causing channel rivalry. In such a situation, a client may see a variety of offers from affiliates competing with a brand’s own advertisement on the Search Engine Results Page. Therefore, channel conflict occurs when a brand and an affiliate are both advertising on the same terms. Because of ad hijacking, search engines will only display one ad at a time using the same display URL. As a result, the brand’s CPCs are rising as the affiliate and brand compete with one another to appear on the SERP. Instead of diverting already-existing traffic, the affiliate should be bringing in new clients.
    • Ad hijackers reduce brand revenue by stealing clicks, eating into profit margins, and gaining unearned commissions. It becomes hard to properly know where your income is coming from, sometimes presenting a misleading picture of channel success. You lose money, and metrics like impression share and ROI are also negatively impacted.
    • Damaging brand reputation. Hijackers can harm a brand’s reputation by redirecting users to low-quality alternative destinations rather than the brand’s original high-quality website.

    What are the signs of being hijacked?

    Due to the numerous sophisticated techniques used in this illegal business (e.g., dynamic redirecting, geotargeting or domain cloaking), it can be quite challenging to identify when you have become a target of ad hijacking.

    The best you can do at first is to employ search monitoring and web analytics tools to seek odd trends or indications of ad hijacking. Some warning signals of possible criminal activity include the following:

    • Conversion rates for branded paid search and affiliate are very close.
    • Ad impressions and clicks are decreasing.
    • Unusual increases in referral traffic or conversions from one or more affiliates with no strong reputation or who are not trusted by your brand.

    What can you do to prevent ad hijacking?

    The first and most straightforward measure a PPC manager can take to reduce the risk of affiliate fraud is to select the finest affiliate programme that is aware of fraudulent activity, has limits in its affiliate agreement, and employs a search monitoring tool for monitoring.

    Make your brand-bidding procedures explicit, and make sure there are repercussions for breaking affiliate agreements. Look for affiliate partnerships that allow you to restrict your brand.

    Apart from that, it will be very hard to identify and prevent fraudulent behaviour without the assistance of specialised technology or security professionals. Manual research takes time and is prone to error if you don’t know what to search for.

    Browser extensions such as Live HTTP Headers will display every redirect path after a click, allowing you to check for an affiliate tracker after clicking on a questionable ad. If you suspect suspicious activity, you can withdraw an affiliate’s commissions.

    Professional monitoring services detect hijackers by scanning for indicators such as improper tracking URLs, affiliate links inside redirect pathways, misspellings, and geo-targeting tactics.

    This service offers detection 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can detect fraudsters who are attempting to hide their traces by locating temporally limited ad campaigns across the country. They also scan minor search engines for affiliates who could be misusing your brand and check internal affiliate databases for fraud history.

    Conclusion

    No one is 100% protected from brand bidders and ad hijackers constantly, even though it’s often big, profitable businesses that have to deal with it regularly.

    The goal of affiliate marketing is to increase sales. Because it results in expenses like unauthorised commissions, stolen clicks, and damages to a brand’s reputation, ad hijacking damages a company’s financial line.

    Make sure you are dealing with a reliable affiliate network that provides you with comprehensive tracking analytics and other helpful tools to track activity.