WordPress is the go-to option for most looking to launch a website. The number of WordPress websites in 2022 was a staggering 835 million (a number we extracted by comparing user percentage and the total number of websites). 

14.7% of the world’s top sites are powered by WordPress, counting the NFL, NBC, and CNN as just a few among the Fortune 500 companies that use WordPress as their preferred CMS.

Now, let’s see what other impressive WordPress statistics our most-loved CMS has achieved during the years.

How Did It All Start?

The history of WordPress begins with what is known as WordPress 0.5, or at the time, B2/Cafelog in 2001. After a couple of years, in 2003, Matt Mullenweg took over the platform as lead programmer and launches WordPress 0.7 the same year.

As of July 2011, WordPress went on to surpass 50 million blogs, and in 2013 with a 59% CMS market share, it becomes the most popular and used CMS in the world.

How Big is WordPress?

In 2023, WordPress powers 43.2% of the web.

Its popularity is at a steady year-over-year rise, which explains why there are 661 new WordPress sites popping up daily on average.

• 30%of the world’s top 10 million websites are powered by WordPress.
• 14.73%of the world’s top 100 sites are WordPress sites.
• The estimated number of plugins on WordPress Plugins is 60k.

In 2023, WordPress has a market share of 63.5% considering the websites whose CMS we know

This number has grown by more than 10% over the years. In 2010, WordPress was known to be used by  51% of the websites, which is still over half.

We can also see that back in 2016, usage had a significant drop, during which Joomla was their biggest competitor with a 3.3% market share.

WordPress Usage Statistics

WordPress growth has come from no/custom CMS decline

While other CMS usage has changed in low percentages, WordPress’s accessibility and user-friendliness have steadily helped it become the number one choice for those looking to build a website.

Part of WordPress’s popularity is that it’s affordable, You can host a WordPress site for as little as $60 per year, and get a domain name for $10 in total. Of course, for a more professional site, these numbers would increase significantly.

WordPress is translated into 208 languages.

WordPress.org has been translated into 208 languages so far, 52 of them being more than 50% translated, meanwhile the others are still in the early stages of translation.

What About WordPress.com?

• 409 million people visit more than 20 billion WordPress.com pages monthly
• 70 million new posts are posted on WordPress.com monthly
• 77 million new comments per month on WordPress.com posts

WordPress & SEO

WordPress is the best CMS for SEO. Here’s why:

• Focus on user experience
• The opportunity to create custom permalinks
• Easy metadata management
• Easy image optimization
• Fast load time
• It’s optimized for mobile users – 58.99% of web traffic came from mobile users in 2022
• Plugins made specifically for SEO
• Easy to integrate with software tools
• SEO-friendly themes
• Easy social media integration

WordPress Versions

WordPress 6.1 has been downloaded over 69 million times

This number continues to increase daily. Naturally, new versions will always be the most used ones. Due to this, a huge gap between the percentages of usage of earlier versions and newer ones is expected and usual.

Fun Fact: WordPress is known for codenaming their new versions after Jazz musicians starting from version 1.0, named Davis after Miles Davis.

Some other names include Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, James Smith, and Nathaniel Adderley among others. The latest WordPress 6.1 is codenamed Misha after Mikhail “Misha” Alperin.

Version	Usage
Version 6	62.30%
Version 5	30.50%
Version 4	6.70%
Version 3	0.40%
Version 2	Less than 0.1%

WordPress Plugins

There are more than 60k plugins on WordPress Plugins, and their downloads reach one billion and counting

Plugin usage has seen significant increase in usage over the years, due to both the rise of technology, as well as sheer number of plugins on the market today.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is considered to be the most popular plugin on the internet due to its 68% distribution.

There are at least 6.9 million websites that are using the WooCommerce plugin and it has been downloaded over 229 million times, a number that grows day by day.

WooCommerce supports 67 languages, twice more than Magento with 30 and thrice more than Shopify with 20.

WooCommerce powers around 28% of all online stores, and 93.7% of WordPress eCommerce sites.

Gutenberg

Gutenberg is a close second to WooCommerce when it comes to popularity.

It has over 79.6 million active installations.

Additionally, there are at least 284.2 million Gutenberg posts, accounting only for posts that use Jetpack and report whether the post was written using Gutenberg.

Akismet

Akismet is another widely popular and useful WordPress plugin.

This plugin, designed to block spam comments, has over 133 million downloads.

The amount of pieces of spam Akismet has blocked is well over 500 billion, averaging around 7 and a half million per hour.

Most popular WordPress plugins by active installations

SEO plugins

Plugin	Installations
Yoast SEO	5+ million
All In One SEO Pack	2+ million
RankMath	800,000+

Speed plugins

Plugin	Installations
JetPack	5+ million
WP-Optimize	1+ million
NitroPack	60,000+

Page builders

Plugin	Installations
Elementor	5+ million
SiteOrigin Builder	1+ million
Beaver Builder	300,000+

Contact form plugins

Plugin	Installations
Contact Form 7	3+ million
WP Forms	4+ million
Sucuri Security	1+ million

Security plugins

Plugin	Installations
Wordfence Security	5+ million
iThemes Security	700,000+
Ninja Forms	60,000+

Backup plugins

Plugin	Installations
UpdraftPlus	3+ million
BackWPup	700,000+
VaultPress (Jetpack Backup)	60,000+

WordPress Themes

WordPress themes are incredibly popular among WordPress sites.

There are 8k+ free WordPress themes on WordPress alone. Meanwhile, one of the largest WordPress theme repositories, Themeforest, has 51k+ themes for sale.

One of the most popular WordPress themes is Choices, followed closely by Divi, Popper, Astra Theme, and Avada which has sold over 675k copies for $60 per piece.

WordPress Security

When it comes to WordPress sites, often the biggest concern is security.

There are at least 90k attacks on WordPress sites every minute, with the biggest threat with over 50% of hack entry points is plugins. The best way to fight against these kinds of attacks is to download plugins from reputable sites only, stay away from abandoned plugins, and always contact the provider in case of attacks.

Other ways a WordPress site could be compromised include brute force at 16.1%, followed by core, themes, and hosting with less than 10%.

How Much Do People Make with WordPress?

WordPress developer and designer jobs are not hard to come by and they offer decent salaries.

When it comes to freelancing WordPress jobs in the US, 32% charge an hourly rate of $10-$19, and 28% charge $20-$29.

Shopify is a popular platform for building online stores, but like any website, the speed of a Shopify site is critical for providing a positive user experience and driving sales. In today’s fast-paced digital world, users expect sites to load quickly; if a site is too slow, they will move on to another one. To ensure that a Shopify site is fast and responsive, site owners need to optimize their site’s speed. This involves combining techniques, such as reducing image sizes, limiting third-party apps, and preloading web fonts. 

This ultimate guide will provide a comprehensive overview of Shopify speed optimization, including best practices, tips, and techniques to help Shopify site owners improve their site’s speed and performance. Whether you are just starting out or looking to optimize an existing site, this guide will provide you with everything you need to know to optimize your Shopify site’s speed and drive more sales.

How Speed Affects the User Experience of a Shopify Site

Speed is a critical factor that significantly impacts the user experience of a Shopify site. A fast-loading website enhances user satisfaction, improves conversion rates, and boosts sales. On the other hand, slow-loading pages can frustrate users and drive them away, resulting in lost revenue and a negative impact on the site’s search engine ranking. 

Additionally, users may abandon the site altogether when pages take too long to load, leading to a high bounce rate. Shopify site owners can improve page speed by optimizing images and videos, minimizing HTTP requests, and utilizing content delivery networks (CDNs) to reduce server response time. Ultimately, the faster a Shopify site loads, the better the user experience, leading to increased engagement, better retention rates, and improved revenue for the site owner.

Reasons That Can Slow Down Your Shopify Site

Several factors can slow down a Shopify site, resulting in a poor user experience. One of the most common factors are large, uncompressed images that take a long time to load. Images should be optimized for web use, with a resolution of 72 dpi and file sizes that are as small as possible without sacrificing quality. 

Another reason for slow site speed is the excessive use of apps and third-party integrations. Every app added to a Shopify store adds extra code and increases the number of HTTP requests, which can slow down a page. Poorly optimized code, large CSS and JavaScript files, and server-side issues, such as overloaded servers, can also contribute to slow website loading. To optimize site speed, Shopify site owners should regularly audit their site for issues that could slow it down and address them promptly.

How To Optimize Shopify Site Speed

Optimizing Shopify site speed can significantly enhance the user experience and boost sales. Below you will find some strategies for optimizing your Shopify site speed. By implementing these strategies, Shopify site owners can fix a slow-loading website, reduce bounce rates, and increase sales:

1. Choose a lightweight Shopify theme 

Choosing a lightweight Shopify theme can help improve the speed of a Shopify site. Lightweight themes have fewer features, less complex coding, and simpler designs, translating to faster loading times. They also tend to have fewer HTTP requests, resulting in fewer data to transfer to the user’s browser. 

By choosing a lightweight theme, Shopify site owners can reduce the time it takes for the site to load, improving the user experience and decreasing bounce rates. Additionally, lightweight themes often have a cleaner and more modern design, making them more visually appealing and easier to navigate. Ultimately, selecting a lightweight Shopify theme is a simple yet effective way to improve a Shopify site’s speed and overall performance.

2. Reduce large image sizes

Reducing large image sizes can also help optimize the speed of a Shopify site. Large, high-resolution images can take a long time to load, slowing down the page and negatively impacting the user experience. 

To reduce image sizes, Shopify site owners can use image compression tools or optimize images manually. Compressed images have smaller file sizes, which reduces the time it takes to transfer data to the user’s browser. 

Additionally, site owners should consider the format of their images. JPEGs are an excellent choice for photographs, while PNGs are better suited for graphics and illustrations with transparent backgrounds. By reducing image sizes, Shopify site owners can improve page load times, enhance the user experience, and ultimately increase sales

4. Replace GIFs with static images

Replacing GIFs with static images is a simple yet effective way to optimize site speed and drive more sales on a Shopify site. Replacing GIFs with static images can significantly help optimize the speed of a Shopify site. 

Animated GIFs can be large in file size and take a long time to load, leading to slower page load times and a poor user experience. By replacing GIFs with static images, Shopify site owners can reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred to the user’s browser, resulting in faster load times and improved site performance. 

To replace GIFs with static images, site owners can use photo editing software to convert the GIF to a static image or source a new static image altogether. By doing so, they can also enhance the visual appeal of their site and improve the overall user experience.

5. Lazy load images

Implementing lazy loading is a powerful way to optimize the speed of a Shopify site. Lazy loading defers the loading of images until they are needed, meaning that only the images visible to the user are loaded initially. As the user scrolls down the page, additional images are loaded, resulting in faster page load times and improved site performance. This technique reduces the initial load time of a page and allows users to start engaging with the site’s content quickly.

Shopify site owners can implement lazy loading images using third-party apps or manually add lazy loading scripts to their site’s code. 

6. Limit third-party JavaScript & Shopify apps

Limiting third-party JavaScript and Shopify apps can also help optimize the speed of a Shopify site. Third-party scripts and apps can add a significant amount of code to a site, slowing down page load times and negatively impacting the user experience. By limiting the number of third-party scripts and apps, Shopify site owners can reduce the amount of code that needs to be loaded and improve site performance. 

Site owners should regularly audit their sites for unnecessary apps and scripts and remove any that are not essential. Additionally, site owners should consider the impact each new app or script will have on the site’s speed before installing it. By being selective and only using necessary scripts and apps, Shopify site owners can improve the user experience, reduce bounce rates, and drive more sales on their site in the long run.

7. Migrate tracking codes to Google Tag Manager

Another way to optimize the speed of your Shopify site is by migrating tracking codes to Google Tag Manager. Google Tag Manager is a free tool that allows site owners to manage and deploy tracking codes from various sources, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and AdWords, in a single location. 

By migrating tracking codes to Google Tag Manager, Shopify site owners can reduce the number of tracking codes on their site, speeding up page load times and improving site performance. Additionally, Google Tag Manager allows site owners to control when and where tracking codes are fired, enhancing the accuracy of tracking data and providing more insight into user behavior on the site. 

8. Reduce the number of requests

Shopify site owners can also optimize their site’s speed by reducing the number of requests. Each element on a web page, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, requires a separate HTTP request to load. The more requests a page has to make, the longer it will take to load, leading to slower page load times and a poor user experience. 

Shopify site owners can reduce the number of requests by combining multiple CSS and JavaScript files into one, reducing the number of images on a page, and minimizing the use of external resources. Additionally, site owners should regularly audit their sites for unnecessary elements and remove any that are optional. 

9. Preload web fonts

Lastly, preloading web fonts is a great way to optimize the speed of a Shopify site. Web fonts are essential for providing a consistent and engaging user experience on a site. However, they can also slow down page load times and negatively impact site performance. 

By preloading web fonts, Shopify site owners can ensure that they are loaded before the user requests them, reducing the time it takes for the user to see the site’s content. Preloading web fonts involves adding a preload link to the site’s code, which tells the browser to start downloading the font as soon as possible. 

Additionally, site owners should consider using a limited number of web fonts and optimizing their file size to reduce the impact on page load times. 

Additional Resources

In addition to the techniques discussed in this guide, there are various tools and resources available to help Shopify site owners improve their site’s performance. Page speed testing tools, such as Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights, can help identify areas for improvement and provide actionable recommendations to optimize site speed. 

Image optimization tools, such as Optimizilla, can help reduce image file sizes without sacrificing quality, which can improve page load times. By leveraging these additional resources, Shopify site owners can gain a deeper understanding of their site’s performance and make informed decisions to improve site speed and ultimately drive more sales. Below you can find a list of page speed testing and image optimization tools you can use as additional resources to optimize your Shopify site’s speed:

Page speed testing tools:

1. Pingdom
2. Google Pagespeed Insights
3. WebPageTest.org
4. Chrome DevTools
5. Google Lighthouse
6. Think With Google

Image Optimization:

• Optimizilla
• Crush.pics

As one of the most highly acclaimed e-commerce platforms, Shopify is home to more than four million websites where you can create and customize a store to your liking, with many SEO features available and over 8,000 apps. One of the tried-and-true SEO features of optimizing your store is creating a Shopify blog. 

By creating a blog for your store, you’ll be able to engage users, keep them interested, and make the shopping experience enjoyable for them. Shopify has made the process of creating a blog fairly simple and accessible, thus allowing you to get started as soon as possible. 

In this article, we’ll give an overview of how you can create a Shopify blog and how you can optimize these features to increase your profits.

Why Should You Be Blogging on Shopify?

There are many benefits to blogging on Shopify. These are some of the advantages:

• Sharing your brand story: writing blogs allows you to show what makes your store unique and give a behind-the-scenes look. You can use the blog to answer the most frequently asked questions about your store.
• Connecting with your customers: when customers read blog posts, they’ll feel more connected to your store and more likely to become lifelong customers.
• Building trust and credibility: blogging gives you the opportunity to showcase your expertise and authority on the subject, thus building trust and credibility, which is likely to result in more business.
• Generating traffic to your store: by publishing new content, people have new ways to find your site and learn more about your store, especially if you optimize your store by using SEO practices.
• Ranking for more niche keywords: blogging allows you to include relevant keywords that are less searched and improve your ranking while not over-stuffing your product page with keywords.

How To Start a Blog on Shopify

Firstly, you should activate the blog on Shopify by clicking the Online Store on the menu bar, then go to Blog Posts >> Manage Blogs >> Add Blog. At this point, you can name your blog and add it to the site’s navigation menu. 

At a strategic level, before you create content for your blog, you should consider a few elements, such as:

1. Analyzing the different ways you can make a profit, monetization being the main one.
2. Identifying your target audience and creating content in line with their interests.
3. Distributing by laying the groundwork.
4. Planning the details surrounding the publishing of a blog.

Shopify Blog Infrastructure

One of the most significant advantages of Shopify is its user-friendly infrastructure containing many features, such as:

• Adding and editing content/media,
• managing/disabling content,
• creating blog categories,
• assigning posts,
• adding tags,
• creating and managing posts,
• managing SEO fields for posts, and
• setting a publishing date/time.

You can also take advantage of the many plugins and apps to make your store unique and personalized. 

SEO Fields and Setup for Blog Posts

While Shopify delivers the basics for SEO for your site, to ensure maximum optimization, you should utilize the following:

• Post Title: As an important component of SEO, you can use this field by including the main keyword and keeping it up to max. 70 characters.
• Feature Image: You should add the feature image at the very top of your content and edit it to 16:9 dimension, but also do a 1:1 square image for social media. To optimize your images for SEO, make sure to include alt text, as it helps you drive traffic.
• Post Visibility: This element allows you to hide or display a post or set a publication date.
• Tags: They allow you to avoid the limitation of categories and organize your blog posts as you wish.
• Post Excerpt: This feature allows you to show an excerpt of a post on the blog’s page. You can do so by clicking “Add Excerpt” on one of your blog posts.
• Link Building: if you get other websites to link to your sites or products, you ensure that customers spend more time on your site and increase your chances of sales. Link building also proves your reliability and authority, thus driving organic traffic.
• Meta Description: It’s a great feature that allows you to tease what your post is about on the search engine’s page results. Remember that Google shows 160 characters max., so you should keep the descriptions short and to the point.
• URL & Handle: Through this field, you can set the URL for your blog post, which we suggest to be short and relevant.

Shopify Blog Taxonomies

While Shopify’s infrastructure is great for SEO essentials, one drawback is the limitation in the taxonomy components, such as tagging, categorizing, and organizing your posts.  

Organizing content by Shopify blog

Because it is limited to creating categories, Shopify can create different “Blogs” and add posts to them; they work just as categories do, and based on your post categories, the system will create a blog feed that includes an indexable URL. This method is a great way to solve the problem of not having a category feature at the individual post level. By going to Online Store > Blog Posts > Manage Blogs, you’ll be able to create, delete and manage the SEO data for each category.

Organizing blogs by Shopify tag

Another way to organize your blog is by creating tags for each post. Creating a well-organized tagging system will allow you to display posts. 

However, keep in mind that while you may want to include all the tags that you think might help with traffic, this can make your site look spammy. 

To avoid this, you should stick to one or two overarching tags that can be used as you need them, and make sure your tags have one or two words. 

Shopify will create a feed page of all posts containing that tag, with each tag having a unique URL on each blog. Due to this, things can get messy, which in turn can hurt your authority in your niche.

Organizing blogs by publication date

Due to the limits of setting an archival taxonomy for blogs, you’ll have to use tags to work around this issue. However, use tags by creating an archival dating, such as “MONTH YYYY”. This will be handy when you need to access archival posts.

Additional Shopify Blog Functionality

You can extend the functionality of the Shopify blog features by:

• Adding content to blog category pages,
• monetizing blog posts,
• adding categories, tags, and archives in the sidebar.

Another way to optimize your Shopify blog is to use SEO apps and tools, such as:

• SEO Optimizer,
• SEO Booster – SEO Marketing by Secomapp,
• SEO King by Engage Apps, etc. 

Shopify Blog vs. WordPress Blog SEO

Both Shopify and WordPress offer a wide range of features that make them reliable platforms for building a top-notch site. 

WordPress is primarily used as a blogging platform; therefore, its content-driven architecture will make it easier for blog posting. It also offers WooCommerce, an e-commerce platform.

While Shopify doesn’t offer all the blogging features as WordPress, it provides the essential features to help people without prior experience build a strong blog. 

If you find it hard to choose between them, you can explore the three options below:

1. Use Shopify for blogging and selling.
2. Use Shopify for selling and WordPress for blogging.
3. Use WordPress for blogging and WooCommerce for selling. 

Keep in mind that by choosing the second option, you’ll have to add a WordPress subdomain, which can negatively affect traffic as Google sees subdomains as different websites.

Conclusion

As we’ve established so far, blogging can be very beneficial for your Shopify Store. If you invest enough time and resources, you’ll be able to reap many rewards, which can be a higher ranking, more sales, or more organic traffic. Do not linger on the idea; if you haven’t started blogging, this is the time. We leave you here with some tips as you begin creating content: 

• Be consistent: make sure that you follow a blog posting schedule, be that once a week or a month, to remain consistent.
• Prioritize quality over quantity: through blogging, you’ll want to introduce your store and build a connection with customers; keep your blog concise and establish your expertise. 
• Write simple sentences: you’ll want to avoid “keyword stuffing” as it can make your posts difficult to read. Ensure writing according to your target audience. 
• Don’t hard sell: while you should promote your products, you can use your blog to educate, entertain, and provide high-quality content that enriches your customers and your store. 

And most importantly, set a clear goal so you can develop a strong strategy on how you want your blog to function. After this, all is left to say is to be patient. To see results takes time sometimes, but they always come. 

Over the last few years, technology and the internet have become even more prevalent in higher education, thus highlighting the importance of effective digital marketing strategies for these institutions. By building a strong online presence, higher education institutions will be able to reach and engage with their target audience. 

By having an active digital presence, your school will be able to:

• provide 24/7 information access to audiences,
• tell their story virtually, and
• use data to make informed decisions.

The focus this year will be on the existing digital marketing strategies and finding ways to best optimize your content in the ever-changing industry. 

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the digital marketing strategies, trends, and tactics to look out for in 2023.

1. Transition to Google Analytics 4

One of the key pieces of making informed decisions about your marketing strategy is collecting and analyzing data. When utilizing Google Analytics 4 (GA4), you’ll be able to track the traffic and performance of your website, thus developing effective digital marketing strategies to increase enrollment. 

Google will transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 on July 1, 2023. It would be best to plan the transition and get acquainted with the new changes before then. Some of the most significant changes on the platform are:

• Data collection: with an entirely different data model, any interaction in any device is organized under Events, which belongs to a User. This way, GA4 can link all interactions and enables you to organize them as need come, 
• AI + Machine learning: through Machine learning, Google is able to fill data gaps and make forecasts that predict future behavior. By using conversion rate data from past activities, you’ll be able to make predictions on enrollment numbers and potential students. 
• Cross-device tracking: with this feature at the heart of GA4, the new data model allows it to store data from multiple sources and send them for further analysis. The cross-device tracking mechanism is based on “Identity spaces”, which identify a user using multiple data points. This is done through three types of identifiers: User ID, Google Signals, and Device ID.

You can read more about Google Analytics 4 here. 

2. Reevaluate Your Higher Education Social Media Marketing Strategy

With 2022 being a challenging year for social media platforms, 2023 becomes the year to reevaluate what’s working and what’s not and how to relocate sources in SEO.

Let’s take a look at the four areas of high ed. digital marketing you can reevaluate and focus on in 2023.

1. Increasing brand awareness: You can use brand strategy to show what makes your institution unique and stand out.  
2. Boosting social media presence: Considering 54% of Gen Zers use social media for more than four hours a day, boosting your social media presence will increase engagement.
3. Promoting purpose-driven campaigns: As an academic institute, you want to be inclusive and encourage diversity in all its forms; promoting purpose-driven campaigns can be an initiative towards showing leadership in this area. 
4. Involving current students and alumni: By sharing stories or interviews of students or alumni, you can reach and influence more people.

3. Explore AI-Generated Content

Last year we saw a lot of progress with AI content generators, progress estimated only to grow. And while the content is still stilted, it can be a helpful tool in higher ed. digital marketing.

Some of the ways you can use AI in higher education digital marketing are:

• Content optimization: AI tools can help analyze your website’s content and suggest ways to optimize it for search engines. In this area, Frase or MarketMuse can help you out.
• Chatbots: with ChatGPT taking off by the storm, it can be a valuable tool for creating content, providing 24/7 service, answering frequently asked questions, and making content recommendations. 
• Email marketing: AI can also be useful in optimizing email marketing, thus resulting in higher open and click-through rates. For this purpose, you can use tools like Persado or Phrasee. 
• Ad targeting: AI can help target specific demographics and reach a wider audience. An AI tool you can use is Google’s Smart Bidding; after analyzing your previous campaigns, it will automatically find the optimal bid to drive higher conversion volume. 
• Predictive analytics: You can also use AI tools (Lattice and C3 IoT) to address potential issues and find new opportunities.  

4. Incorporate Short-Form Video Into Your Higher Ed. Marketing Strategy

According to Video Marketing Statistics, video use in marketing in 2022 was 86%, and with Gen Zers preferring social media platforms with short video features (60% of them use TikTok), video use in marketing is projected to grow. Therefore, incorporating short videos into your school’s digital marketing strategies will help you be ahead of the game. 

You can include short videos (preferably under 90 seconds) on your homepage or other high-converting pages; you can try the following:

• Campus and facilities tours
• Student takeover
• Sports and event highlights
• Student interviews
• Insight from professors and academic leaders

Because many students won’t be able to take in-person tours, they can take virtual tours; they’ll be able to get familiar with the campus and staff, thus increasing enrollment chances. 

By using sharable short videos, you’ll be able to drive organic traffic and make your site more homely, interactive, visually appealing, and convincing.

5. Include Responsive Ads in Your Higher Education Advertising Strategy

Another higher ed. digital marketing strategy to look out for is the use of responsive ads. As flexible adverts that can adjust their shape, appearance, and size to fit in a website or app, they are highly visible and don’t disturb the user experience. According to Google, when using multiple headlines, descriptions, and images with responsive ads, advertisers see 10% more conversions with a similar CPA.

Some other benefits of using responsive ads are:

• Optimizing your ads: When uploading different assets into Google Ads, thus creating a responsive ad, Google’s machine learning model will determine the optimal combination of assets based on your performance history.
• Reaching broader: because of the flexibility in shape, size, format, and appearance, you’ll be able to upload multiple assets per asset type.
• Using videos: To maximize your reach on the Display Network, you can also add videos to your responsive ads.
• Using with feeds: Because responsive ads show personalized content from a feed you add and control, you’ll find your ads in dynamic and static formats by adding a feed to your campaign.
• Saving time: By using responsive ads, you’ll be able to focus more on performance improvement rather than managing ad portfolios within campaigns. 

6. Increase Search Engine Visibility via SEO

As the primary goal of digital marketing for your school’s website is to attract more students, you have to ensure that your school is easily found online. By adopting SEO practices and thorough keyword research, you’ll be able to improve your rank and appear higher on search engines.  

Some of the ways you can make your website more visible on Google are:

• Creating quality content
• Making it sharable
• Getting verified by Google
• Creating more pages
• Targeting your pages for keywords 
• Using Google Ads
• Using compelling page titles
• Composing better meta tags 
• Building a backlink strategy

Another way to increase site visibility is to win a Google’s snippet box. This box describes a page before linking that page; this is a way of helping people find the information they need more easily. Google chooses these snippets based on whether a page can fulfill a specific search request. Through the snippet box, you’ll be able to drive more organic traffic and prove your authority in the subject matter.

Conclusion

By understanding and adopting the trends of digital marketing strategies for higher ed., you’ll be able to increase enrollment figures and conversion rates. Your school will also be able to connect better with the target audience and give insight into what makes you stand out. 

The points above indicate that the latest trends focus on identifying prospective students, admission inquiries, conversion rates, and click-through rates. The process of identifying prospective customers is called lead generation, which can also be applied to higher ed. You can learn more about lead generation strategies here.

So, what’s next? If you want to stay up-to-date with current trends and increase your student base, you can book a free consultation and learn more about what digital strategies you can adopt for optimal results. You can also check out case studies on how digital marketing for higher ed. can make a difference.

Data visualization is the representation of information and data in a graphical or pictorial format. It enables businesses to communicate complex ideas and data sets effectively, making it easier to understand, retain, and communicate information to a wider audience.

In today’s world, where people are inundated with information from multiple sources, data visualization has become an essential tool for content marketers to engage their audience and make a lasting impression.

But which is its role in Content Marketing and why is it essential you use them in your content pieces? Let’s roll.

Why do we use data visualization?

Before we go on and explain the what & how, it’s first essential we get the why. Imagine traffic lights. You’re driving in your car, come near an intersection, and see the following sign.

On average, it takes people 12 seconds to read the above statement. Imagine the chaos and risk that would cause in that time. Now, take a look at the next sign.

The average driver reaction time is 0.75 seconds. Now, you know this sign means stop, without having to analyze it for eternity. This, in a nutshell, is exactly why we use data visualization in content marketing. Our brain constantly accumulates information from the environment and filters what is important. Through data visualization, we aim to immediately convey the main information to the reader as fast and concise as possible. Here’s how it works. 

Improved Understanding

Data visualization makes it easier for people to understand complex data sets and ideas. It helps to clarify the relationships between data points, and to highlight patterns and trends that may not be immediately apparent from raw data.

Increased Engagement

Data visualization can help to engage your audience, making them more likely to pay attention to your message and to remember it. With interactive and visually appealing visualizations, you can grab the attention of your audience and keep them engaged.

Better Decision-Making

Data visualization can help decision-makers to make informed decisions by presenting data in a way that is easy to understand and interpret. It can help to identify key trends, patterns, and insights that are relevant to decision-making, and to present this information in a clear and concise way.

Better Communication

Data visualization can help to improve communication by making it easier to share complex data sets and ideas with others. Whether you’re communicating with stakeholders, customers, or team members, data visualization can help to simplify and clarify your message.

The role of Data Visualization in Content Marketing

Data visualization is a valuable tool for content marketers who are looking to improve their search engine rankings and attract more links to their content. Here are some ways that data visualization can help.

Increased Shareability

Data visualizations are often more visually appealing and memorable than plain text or tables. This makes them more likely to be shared on social media, increasing the visibility and reach of your content. The more shares your content gets, the more likely it is to be seen by a wider audience and to attract new links.

Better User Experience

Data visualizations can help to make your content more engaging and interactive, improving the overall user experience. This is important for search engines like Google, which prioritize user experience when ranking content. By using data visualization, you can make your content more engaging, keep your audience on your page for longer, and improve your search engine rankings.

Improved Linkability

Data visualizations can help to create a more linkable asset. For example, if you create a unique and compelling visualization that is useful and relevant to your audience, others may want to link to it from their own websites. This can help to build your authority and improve your search engine rankings over time.

Increased credibility

Data visualizations can also make your content look more trustworthy and authoritative. By presenting data in a clear and visually appealing way, you demonstrate that you have a good understanding of the topic and that you have taken the time to research and analyze the data. This can help to establish your credibility and make your content more appealing to other websites that are looking to link to authoritative sources. 

By using data visualization, you can differentiate your content from plain text articles and make it more attractive to other websites that are looking to link to credible and informative content. This can increase the chances of your content getting picked up and linked to by others, boosting your search engine rankings and visibility.

Data visualization vs. Data storytelling

Data visualization and data storytelling are two very similar terms; still, they do have some notable differences. 

Data Visualization refers to the process of creating visual representations of data to help make sense of the information. This can involve using graphs, charts, maps, or other types of visual elements to present data in a clear and concise manner. The main goal of data visualization is to help the audience understand and analyze the data.

Data Storytelling, on the other hand, goes beyond just presenting data. It involves taking data and turning it into a narrative that is engaging, memorable, and easy to understand. Data storytelling uses data visualization, but also incorporates other elements such as images, text, and multimedia to create a complete story. The main goal of data storytelling is to communicate the story behind the data in a way that is impactful and memorable.

In content marketing, you need both to make your case.

Best Practices for Data Visualization in Content Marketing

Data visualization can be a powerful tool for content marketing, but it’s important to use it effectively. Here are some best practices to follow:

Rule of thumb

If there’s something we want you to remember from this article, it’s this: Can a naive user understand what the visualization is trying to convey based only on the visualization itself? We can’t stress this enough. If you’re not able to convey the information immediately to the user and make them read additional information to understand it, you’ve lost them. 

Choose the Right Type of Visualization

This is one of the most important practices. Choose the right type of visualization to suit the data you have and the story you want to tell. For example, if you want to compare data across categories, use a bar chart. If you want to track changes over time, use a line graph.

Use a Storytelling Approach

Use data visualization to tell a story. Use it to highlight important trends, patterns, or insights, and to make complex data sets easier to understand.

Keep it Simple

Avoid overcomplicating your data visualization. Keep it simple and easy to understand. Use clear labels, and choose colors that are easy on the eye.

SEE LARGE

Use Color Effectively

Color is a powerful tool for grabbing attention and conveying information. Choose colors that are easy to distinguish, and use color to highlight important data points or trends. Always remember to use colors that match the brand. 

Let’s take as an example the Top 10 languages WordPress is most used in. Considering the dataset, this is best represented through a bar chart. 

This is a bad example on how to visualize a bar chart. There are many colors, and the user doesn’t know where to focus. Let’s fix it.

Here, we can immediately notice that English is way more popular than other languages, and that’s the information we want to convey. That’s why we used a different color to highlight it. The other languages, however, do not have different colors. Instead, they’re represented with the same one. 

Another common mistake many people make when visualizing data is using wrong colors in maps. 

The above map visualizes the top states for plastics employment, and uses different colors to highlight different states. This, more often than not, will confuse the user. There are many colors used, sometimes red means lower than green, and the reader just doesn’t know where to focus. Let’s fix this. 

Notice how the colors are ranked from colder to hotter. The darker the green, the higher the employment number.

Label Data Properly

Label your data visualization clearly and accurately. Use clear, concise labels that explain what each data point represents. You don’t want to have a dataset that tells one thing and a data visualization that tells another. 

How to choose the right data visualization?

SEE ENLARGED 

As previously mentioned, choosing the right data visualization is critical for conveying the correct information to your audience. But with tens of different visualization types, how do you choose the right one? Trust us, it’s not rocket science. The trick is to answer these four main questions.

1. What message do you want to convey with the data?
2. What is the main purpose of your data visualization?
3. Who is the audience?
4. What’s the type of dataset you’re working with?

Let’s go through each one of them.

What message do you want to convey with the data?

Do you want to show a simple statistic of which country had the highest air pollution level last year? Or do you want to convey a more complex message that shows correlation between different variables and might want to motivate your audience to take action? 

Let’s take the first example. We want to show which countries had the highest deaths due to air pollution in the world and rank them from highest to lowest. This dataset was randomly chosen from Kaggle.

This dataset is shown as a table. In one column, we have a categorical variable (Country) and in the other a quantitative variable (Deaths). The categories are sorted by number of deaths rather than alphabetically by genre. This makes it easy to glance at the table and get an idea of which countries had the highest number of deaths. 

Adding to this, the table takes up relatively little space. If the purpose of the data visualization is to communicate simple information about the number of air pollution deaths in specific countries, this table is a good choice. But what if the information is more complex?

Next, we have a table created with the same dataset but showing slightly different information. Instead of total air pollution deaths, this table presents the deaths for two different scenarios: indoor air pollution deaths and outdoor air pollution deaths. 

Comparing air pollution deaths between several countries was very straightforward. However, comparing different forms of air pollution deaths between said countries is a bit more complicated. As a result, our message isn’t communicated effectively. 

By changing the type of data visualization here, we can effectively communicate more information. The following displays the same data and the table previously used, but in the form of a grouped column chart.

Now, it’s evident that the majority of air pollution deaths are caused by indoor air pollution rather than outdoor particulate matter.

What is the main purpose of your data visualization?

When it comes to their purpose, data visualization can serve for various purposes. We can sum the up in four:

• Comparison

Example: Comparing the sales of two different drinks in the same restaurant

• Composition

Example: Showing the breakdown of a kindergartener’s favorite fairy tales

• Distribution

Example: The number of Covid-19 deaths in each state

• Relationship  

Example: Showing how higher salaries are correlated to better employee performance

Types of Data Visualization

There are several types of data visualization techniques, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a data visualization method, consider the type of data you have, the story you want to tell, and the audience you are trying to reach. 

When it comes to their purpose, data visualization can serve for various purposes. We can sum the up in four:

• Comparison

Example: Comparing the sales of two different drinks in the same restaurant

• Composition

Example: Showing the breakdown of a kindergartener’s favorite fairy tales

• Distribution

Example: The number of Covid-19 deaths in each state

• Relationship  

Example: Showing how higher salaries are correlated to better employee performance

Comparison

Bar Chart

The bar chart is best used when comparing individual data points. When you only have 2 data

points, then you may use 2 different colors for each bar. However, when several data points are to be shown, then it is best to use a single color for all bars, and only highlight one (when needed with a different color).

So in general:

• Accent colors are ideal if you want to highlight a significant data point.
• Bars should be wider than the white space between bars.
• Write labels horizontally (not vertically) for better readability.
• When possible, order items by value to ensure consistency and readability.

Column Chart

Column charts are used to compare values across different categories or groups. The height of the columns represents the size of each category, making it easy to identify which category is the largest or smallest. Column charts are particularly useful for displaying data that changes over time or for comparing data across different categories.

Some tips for creating effective column charts include:

• Use contrasting colors to highlight important data points or trends.
• Use consistent widths for columns to maintain the visual integrity of the chart.
• Label the y-axis clearly to ensure accurate interpretation of the chart.
• Use descriptive labels for the x-axis to make the chart easy to read.
• Avoid clutter by limiting the number of data categories or groups.

Circular Area Chart

Circular area charts, also known as polar area charts or rose charts, are used to display data in a circular format. They are particularly useful for displaying data that has a cyclical or radial pattern, such as wind direction or radiation intensity. Circular area charts are similar to pie charts, but instead of using slices, they use sectors of different sizes to represent the data.

Here are some best practices for creating effective circular area charts:

• Use contrasting colors to highlight important data points or trends.
• Order the data in a logical sequence, such as clockwise from the top or in decreasing size.
• Use a legend to explain the data categories or groups.
• Ensure that the chart has a clear title and that the axes are labeled accurately.
• Avoid clutter by limiting the number of data categories or groups.

Table

Tables are an effective way to present data in a structured format, making it easy to compare different data points. Tables are particularly useful for displaying large amounts of data that can be sorted and filtered, such as financial data or demographic information.

Here are some best practices for creating effective tables:

• Use contrasting colors or shading to highlight important data points or trends.
• Ensure that the table has a clear title and that the columns and rows are labeled accurately.
• Avoid clutter by limiting the number of data categories or groups.
• Use appropriate formatting for the data, such as numerical values or percentages.
• Consider using filters or pivot tables to make the data more interactive and easier to analyze.

Line Chart

Line charts, by contrast, are primarily used to only show one data-set over time. So when you are trying to show how something has changed over time (an increase or decrease of sorts), this type of graph usually does the trick. Now, you may still use this when comparing several data sources, but usually, anything more than 3-5 lines will be overwhelming.

A couple of points here:

• Use solid lines only because dotted or dashed lines are distracting.
• Ensure that points are ordered consistently
• Label lines directly and avoid using legends.
• Don’t chart more than four lines to avoid visual distractions.
• Zero baseline is not required, but it is recommended.

Relationship

Scatter Chart

Scatter charts, also known as scatter plots, are used to display the relationship between two variables. They are particularly useful for identifying trends or patterns in data that may not be immediately apparent. Scatter charts use a series of points that are plotted along the x and y axes, with each point representing a unique data point.

Here are some best practices for creating effective scatter charts:

• Use contrasting colors or shapes to highlight important data points or trends.
• Label the x and y axes clearly to ensure accurate interpretation of the chart.
• Use descriptive labels for the data points to make the chart easy to read.
• Consider using regression lines or trend lines to highlight trends in the data.
• Avoid clutter by limiting the number of data categories or groups.

Bubble Chart

Bubble charts are a variation of the scatter chart that adds a third dimension to the data. The size of each bubble represents the value of a third variable, in addition to the x and y variables. Bubble charts are particularly useful for displaying data that has multiple dimensions or for comparing data across different categories.

Here are some best practices for creating effective bubble charts:

• Use contrasting colors or shading to highlight important data points or trends.
• Label the x and y axes clearly to ensure accurate interpretation of the chart.
• Use descriptive labels for the data points to make the chart easy to read.
• Ensure that the size of the bubbles is proportional to the value of the third variable.
• Avoid clutter by limiting the number of data categories or groups.

Composition

Pie Chart

This one is super common, and I’d expect you’ll need to use one of these very often in your work. Pie charts are used when comparing percentages of the same source. The cool thing about them is that they can easily be stylized: whether in 2d colors, or fully 3d and interactive.

Points to follow:

• Limit categories to up to 7 to ensure differentiation with the slices.
• Double-check if the total value of the slices is equal to 100 percent.
• Group similar slices together in one bigger slice to reduce clutter (rename
• accordingly).
• Make your most important slice stand out with color. Use shades of that specific color to highlight the rest of the slices.
• Order slices thoughtfully. For example, you can place the largest section at the 12 o’clock position and go clockwise from there. Or place the second largest section at the 12 o’clock position and go counterclockwise from there.

Waterfall Chart

Waterfall charts are commonly used to illustrate how an initial value is affected by a series of positive or negative values. It is particularly useful when trying to show the contribution of different factors to a total value.

Some tips to follow:

• Color code the rising and falling segments differently for better contrast and ease of understanding.
• Label each section of the chart to provide a clear explanation of the change it represents.
• Use a baseline that starts at zero for better accuracy and easy comparison.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to read by avoiding too much detail or too many segments.

Stacked Area Chart

Stacked area charts are used to show how different categories contribute to the total value of a dataset over time. They are useful when trying to show trends and patterns in data over a specific period.

Some key points to remember:

• Ensure that the chart is easy to read by using a limited number of categories.
• Color code each category for better contrast and ease of understanding.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to understand by adding clear labels and a legend.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to interpret by using consistent scales on the x and y-axes.

Stacked Column Chart

Stacked column charts are similar to stacked area charts but instead of using an area to represent the data, they use columns. They are useful when trying to show how different categories contribute to a total value.

Some tips to follow:

• Ensure that the chart is easy to read by using a limited number of categories.
• Color code each category for better contrast and ease of understanding.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to understand by adding clear labels and a legend.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to interpret by using consistent scales on the x and y-axes.

Distribution

Column Histogram

Column histograms are used to show the distribution of a continuous variable. They are particularly useful when trying to identify the most common values in a dataset.

Some key points to remember:

• Choose an appropriate number of bins to ensure that the chart is easy to read and interpret.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to understand by adding clear labels and a legend.
• Use consistent scales on the x and y-axes to make the chart easy to interpret.
• Color code the columns for better contrast and ease of understanding.

Line Histogram

Line histograms are similar to column histograms but instead of using columns, they use lines to connect the frequency of each value. They are useful when trying to show the distribution of a continuous variable.

Some tips to follow:

• Choose an appropriate number of bins to ensure that the chart is easy to read and interpret.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to understand by adding clear labels and a legend.
• Use consistent scales on the x and y-axes to make the chart easy to interpret.
• Color code the lines for better contrast and ease of understanding.

3D Area Chart

3D area charts are used to show how different categories contribute to the total value of a dataset over time, with the added dimension of depth. They are useful when trying to show trends and patterns in data over a specific period.

Some tips to follow:

• Ensure that the chart is easy to read by using a limited number of categories.
• Color code each category for better contrast and ease of understanding.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to understand by adding clear labels and a legend.
• Ensure that the chart is easy to interpret

Map

Maps are a powerful tool for visualizing data on a geographical scale. They can help to show the distribution of data across a region, and can highlight patterns and trends in data that are specific to a particular location.

Always keep in mind to:

• ​​Choose the right map type. Choose the right map type for your data and story. Different types of data may require different map types.
• Simplify the map. Simplify the map as much as possible to make it more accessible and understandable.
• Use color effectively. Choose colors that are easy to distinguish and that make sense in the context of your data.

• Show context. When possible, provide context for the map by including relevant information such as location names, political boundaries, and other relevant landmarks.
• Make it interactive. Consider making your map interactive, allowing your audience to zoom in, pan around, and explore the data in more detail.
• Consider mobile. Make sure your maps are responsive and display well on different screen sizes and devices.

Content marketing data visualization tools

There are several tools available for data visualization, ranging from simple online tools to complex data analysis platforms. Here are some of the most popular and easy-to-use tools for data visualization:

Flourish

Flourish is a web-based platform for creating interactive data visualizations and storytelling. It provides a user-friendly interface and a variety of templates and customization options for creating engaging and informative graphics. With Flourish, users can import data from a variety of sources and transform it into visually appealing and interactive visualizations, including charts, maps, and animations. Datawrapper

Datawrapper

Similar to Flourish, Datawrapper is a data visualization tool designed for creating clear and effective data-driven graphics for content marketing. It is a cloud-based platform that allows users to upload data and choose from a range of customizable chart types to create visually appealing graphics. The platform provides a user-friendly interface and a range of templates, making it accessible for users with little to no prior design experience. 

Datawrapper also offers a variety of customization options, allowing users to modify the design and appearance of their visualizations to match their brand’s style and aesthetic. In addition, Datawrapper provides a simple and secure way to embed the visualizations into websites and presentations, making it a valuable tool for content marketers looking to communicate complex data and insights to their target audience in a clear and engaging way.

HTML

While not as straightforward as Flourish and Datawrapper, HTML can be used for data visualization by creating dynamic and interactive graphics using a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These visualizations can be created using various libraries and frameworks, such as D3.js, Chart.js, or Highcharts. 

These libraries provide a set of pre-built functionalities that allow developers to create custom visualizations based on specific data sets, such as bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and more. By leveraging HTML, content marketers can create dynamic and interactive visualizations that can be easily embedded into web pages, making it a valuable tool for effectively communicating complex data and insights to their target audience.

Additionally, HTML visualizations can be optimized for mobile and other devices, providing a responsive and accessible way to engage with data on the web.

Proof that it works

As an award-winning SEO agency, we understand the importance of Data Visualization in SEO and link building. Over the years, we’ve manually built thousands of high-quality links for our clients through personalized data-driven content. Here are some of our examples that have taken coverage in some of the most famous sites.

Student Loan Debt Statistics

Small Business Statistics

Vegan Statistics

E-Learning Statistics

Deforestation Statistics

Like what you’re seeing? Schedule a free consultation and let’s grow your brand!

As a business owner in the digital realm, you’re probably well aware of the crucial role that search engine optimization (SEO) plays in achieving success. However, keeping up with the ever-changing search algorithms and optimizing your website can be a daunting task. This is where Software as a Service (SaaS) SEO tools come in to assist you. 

SaaS SEO tools provide you with valuable insights into your website’s SEO performance, track your progress over time, and offer actionable recommendations to boost your rankings.

In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into the world of SaaS SEO tools and how they can help you achieve your online goals.

What Do SaaS SEO Tools Do?

Getting your website to appear high in search engine results is crucial and is a common goal for many businesses. But with so much to keep track of, it can take time to figure out where to begin. Luckily we have SaaS SEO tools. 

SaaS SEO tools make SEO accessible to everyone. They allow you to analyze your website’s SEO performance, track your progress, and give you insights to improve your rankings. With these tools, you can better understand your website’s visibility, optimize your content and identify areas where you need to improve. 

SaaS SEO tools can be a valuable asset for businesses of any size, whether you’re just starting or have been around for years. They provide an affordable and efficient way to optimize your website and stay on top of the ever-changing SEO landscape. So, if you’re looking to boost your website’s rankings and attract more traffic, SaaS SEO tools might be just what you need.

The 19 Best SaaS SEO Tools

If you’re looking to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO), there are various tools available to help you. However, with such a wide range of options to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide which ones are the most effective for your needs. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of the best SaaS SEO tools. This guide provides you with an overview of their best features, pricing, and other relevant information to make your SEO journey as smooth as possible.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular and comprehensive SEO toolset that provides a range of features to help website owners and digital marketers improve their online visibility and search engine rankings. The platform offers a suite of tools such as keyword research, site audits, content analysis, backlink analysis, and much more. 

By utilizing Ahrefs, users can closely monitor their website’s ranking performance, track their competitors’ SEO strategies, and discover new opportunities to improve their search visibility. Its robust features and data-driven insights make Ahrefs a top choice for businesses of all sizes looking to excel in their online marketing efforts. 

Key features

• It monitors the performance of your website by keeping track of keyword rankings, organic search traffic, and other essential metrics to enhance your SEO strategy. 
• It assists in discovering profitable keywords and optimizing content to increase search result rankings. 
• It conducts a comprehensive site audit to identify broken links or duplicate pages. 
• The rank tracker allows you to monitor your website’s ranking for specific keywords, while the ability to analyze traffic from different countries aids in creating an effective content strategy.
• Ahrefs webmaster tool provides detailed insights into your or your competitors’ websites, including top organic search keywords and referring domains.

Price

Does it offer a free version?

If you own a website, you can register for Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to receive free restricted admission to Site Explorer and Site Audit.

2. SEMrush

SEMrush is used by digital marketers, SEO professionals, content creators, and business owners to improve their online presence and stay ahead of the competition. With its comprehensive features and easy-to-use interface, SEMrush has become a popular tool in the digital marketing industry.

Key features

• SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that empowers website owners with a suite of features to enhance their website’s visibility in search engines. Some of the key features that SEMrush offers are:
• Site Audit Tool: SEMrush comes with a powerful site audit tool that scans your website for technical issues and provides customized suggestions to improve SEO. The tool also allows users to generate comprehensive reports and export data for further analysis.
• Paid Advertising Analysis: With SEMrush, users can analyze their paid advertising campaigns, including ad copy, to understand their performance and optimize their ad strategy for better results.
• Competitor Analysis and Keyword Research: SEMrush helps users stay ahead of the competition by providing them with valuable insights on their competitors’ SEO strategies. The platform also offers advanced keyword research tools that help users identify high-value keywords and opportunities to improve their search rankings.
• Social Media Management: SEMrush provides users with tools to manage their social media accounts and track their social media performance. The platform also offers social media advertising features that help users optimize their social media ads for better engagement and conversions.
• Link Building and Content Optimization: SEMrush offers a suite of tools to help users optimize their website’s content and build high-quality backlinks. These features can help improve a website’s search engine ranking and drive more traffic to the site.

Price

Plan	Yearly Price	Monthly Price
Pro	$99.95	$119.95
Guru	$191.62	$229.95
Business	$374.95	$449.95

Does it offer a free version?

You can use Semrush for free, but it offers limited access.

3. Moz

With Moz, you can access a wide range of services, including keyword recommendations and site crawls, making it a comprehensive tool for all your SEO needs. It also provides valuable insights into your website’s performance and offers suggestions for improving it. Additionally, you can download a free MozBar toolbar, which allows you to view your website’s metrics while browsing any page.

Key features

• Moz crawls your website upon request, identifies technical SEO issues, and suggests ways to improve and fix them.
• You can monitor the performance of hundreds or thousands of keywords that drive traffic to your website across more than 170 search engines.
• Moz’s link index is top-notch, providing detailed metrics for any website in seconds, such as anchor text and Domain Authority.
• Moz can help you discover thousands of potential keywords to target, along with their keyword difficulty scores, competitor analysis, and SERP analysis.

Price

Does it offer a free version?

You can start a free 30-day trial.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics allows website owners and marketers to track and analyze website traffic and user behavior. It provides valuable insights into website performance and user engagement by collecting visitor data, including demographics, behavior, interests, and preferences.

Key features

Google Analytics has several features that make it a powerful tool for analyzing website performance.

• It allows you to understand your audience better by providing insights into their demographics and interests, making it easier to target them effectively.
• It enables you to track user behavior on your site, such as visited pages, time spent, and bounce rates. 
• Its mobile app lets you monitor your website’s performance from anywhere. 
• It helps you measure the number and sources of visitors to your site, including search engines, social media, and referral sites. 
• It enables you to measure the effectiveness of various digital marketing campaigns, such as email marketing, social media, and pay-per-click advertising.

Price

Free to use.

5. Google Search Console (GSC)

GSC is a free web service offered by Google that provides website owners with tools and data to monitor and optimize their site’s visibility in Google search results. GSC allows website owners to see how Google crawls and indexes their site and provides information about any errors or issues affecting their site’s performance in search results.

Key features

• Google Search Console offers valuable features, such as identifying issues affecting a particular URL’s appearance in search results. 
• It checks whether a website is mobile-friendly and detects any usability issues. 
• It allows website owners to submit a sitemap to help Google discover new pages.
•  It provides insights into a website’s performance regarding clicks, impressions, and click-through rates.
• It helps website owners check the eligibility of their website for Rich Results and see how many pages from their website are indexed by Google.

Price

Google Search Console is free to use.

6. Google Trends

Google Trends allows users to track the popularity of search terms and topics on Google Search. It enables users to gain insights into people’s search behavior worldwide, such as the relative popularity of a search term over a specific time frame, its geographic distribution, and related topics.

Key features

• Google Trends displays recently popular search queries.
• It allows the comparison of search volumes for multiple terms over a specific time frame.
• Users can view data for different regions and languages, enabling users to compare search trends across different geographical areas.
• The platform provides historical data, showing how search queries have changed.
• By enabling the comparison of search term popularity, it facilitates keyword research and enhances SEO efforts
• The data is updated in real-time, informing users of the latest search trends.

Price

Google Trends is free to use.

7. SEranking

SEranking provides tools for website owners and digital marketers to improve their website’s search engine rankings and online visibility. It offers keyword research, rank tracking, backlink analysis, website audit, competitor analysis, and more. With its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing plans, SEranking is popular among small and medium-sized businesses and digital marketing agencies.

Key features

• It provides accurate keyword position data for your website and clients’ websites across major search engines.
• It identifies reasons your web pages may not rank high and offers solutions.
• It offers a website scoring tool that can evaluate your website’s performance.
• It analyzes competitors’ websites to provide valuable business insights.
• It analyzes anchor texts to measure the health of your backlink profile and develop a strategy for building it.

Price

Plan	Monthly Price	Yearly Price
Essential	$39.00	$31.20
Pro	$89.00	$71.20
Business	$189.00	$151.20

Does it offer a free version?

 A free trial of SE Ranking is also available.

8. SEO Minion 

SEO Minion is a free browser extension that provides SEO tools designed to help website owners and digital marketers with their search engine optimization efforts. SEO Minion is a lightweight and easy-to-use tool that can help users quickly analyze and optimize their website’s on-page SEO.

Key features

• Analyzes on-page SEO issues, including meta tags, headings, open graphs, etc.
• Identifies all redirects a URL has taken, including Server, MetaRefresh, and Javascript.
• Checks for broken links on a page and categorizes them based on status codes.
• Improves clickthrough rate (CTR) by previewing your website on top of the Google Search Result Page for a chosen keyword.
• Checks Google rankings for a website across multiple locations without personalization.
• Checks Hreflang tags on the page, as well as on all pages linked through the tags.

Price

Free to use.

9. Yoast

Yoast is a popular SEO plugin for WordPress websites. The plugin helps website owners optimize their content for search engines by providing various tools and features. Yoast is known for its user-friendly interface and is suitable for beginners and advanced users. It has become a go-to tool for website owners looking to improve their search engine rankings and drive more site traffic.

Key features

• Yoast helps optimize your content for specific keywords by analyzing the content and making suggestions for improvements.
• It provides a readability score for your content and suggests improvements to make it more readable.
• Allows you to easily add and optimize meta tags such as title tags and meta descriptions.
• Creates an XML sitemap of your website, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages.
• It provides a redirect manager to help you manage and create redirects for broken links on your site.
• Yoast suggests internal links within your content to help improve the structure of your website.
• It provides insights into the content you publish and offers suggestions for improvement.

Price

Plan	Annual Price
Yoast SEO Premium Plugin	$99
Plugin subscription	$229

Does it offer a free version?

Yes, Yoast SEO also has a free version.

10. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a popular tool used for website crawling and analysis. It scans a website’s pages, links, images, and other elements and comprehensively reports its SEO performance. With Screaming Frog, users can identify technical SEO issues, such as broken links and duplicate content. Additionally, the tool offers features such as page title and meta description analysis, XML sitemap generation, and website visualization.

Key features

• Screaming Frog allows you to schedule regular website crawling.
• It provides comprehensive information about all URLs, links, images, and other elements on a website.
• The tool gives detailed data about each page, including page title, meta description, and headers.
• You can customize the crawling process by specifying sections to crawl or excluding certain pages or content. Customization options include setting user agents, applying custom filters, and limiting the number of URLs crawled.
• The tool generates customizable reports that you can export in different formats.

Price

Paid Version – $259 Per Year

Does it offer a free version?

Yes, with limited functions. 

11. Content Harmony

Content Harmony is a marketing tool that helps businesses create compelling content strategies. The platform allows businesses of all sizes to produce high-quality content that resonates with their target audience, driving traffic and increasing conversions. With Content Harmony, users can quickly identify relevant topics, track their progress, and analyze the performance of their content.

Key features

• Content Harmony helps fetch hundreds of data points for the most in-depth SERP analysis.
• Creates detailed content briefs that outline the purpose, target audience, structure, and keywords for each piece of content.
• Analyzes your existing content to identify areas for improvement and provide actionable suggestions for optimization.
• Allows you to manage your content creation process from start to finish, including assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and collaborating with team members.
• It grades the performance of your content across various metrics, including traffic, engagement, and conversions.

Price

Plan	Monthly Price
Standard	$99
Pro	$299
Enterprise	Starting from $1,000 (Custom Pricing)

Does it offer a free version?

No.

12. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO gives users data-driven recommendations for optimizing their website’s content. It uses a proprietary algorithm that considers hundreds of on-page factors and provides users with actionable insights to improve their website’s SEO performance. Overall, Surfer SEO can help users increase their website’s visibility in search results and attract more organic traffic.

Key features

• It conducts an in-depth analysis of top-ranking pages for a given keyword, assessing their domain authority, page authority, and backlinks.
• It performs a comprehensive site audit to identify common technical SEO issues, such as missing alt tags, duplicate content, and broken links.
• It enables users to monitor and track their website’s search engine ranking.
• It offers a keyword research tool that delivers comprehensive information on search volume.
• It provides detailed insights into a website’s on-page and off-page SEO.

Price

Plan	Yearly Price	Monthly Price
Basic	$49/month	$59
Pro	$99/month	$119
Business	$199/month	$239
Enterprise	Custom Price	Custom Price

Does it offer a free version?

Surfer SEO offers a 7-day free trial.

13. GTmetrix

GTmetrix is a website performance analysis tool that provides insights into how well a website performs and offers suggestions on improving its speed and overall user experience. It generates a detailed report highlighting key metrics such as page load time, page size, and the number of requests made by the website. GTmetrix also provides a performance score and grades the website on various factors such as page load optimization, content optimization, and browser caching.

Key features

• GTmetrix can analyze the speed and performance of any webpage by running it through a series of tests.
• Measures how long it takes for a page to load, including all resources like images, scripts, and stylesheets.
• Provides detailed recommendations for improving a page’s performance, including suggestions for optimizing images, reducing the size of resources, and improving caching.

Price

Plan	Monthly Price	Yearly Price
Individual	From $13 to 50$	From $10 to $42
Business	From $75 to $530	From $63 to $450
Custom	—	—

Does it offer a free version?

Yes, with limited functions. 

14. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that provides valuable keyword research data to users. It offers search volume, cost per click, and competition data for keywords on various platforms. This tool helps optimize content by providing insights into what people are searching for and how competitive those keywords are. 

Key features

• Keywords Everywhere is a tool that offers search volume, competition, and CPC data for various keywords on different websites.
• It suggests related keywords to help with keyword research and enables users to create and save lists of keywords for future reference.
• Users can customize settings, such as the number of results displayed and the currency used for CPC data.
• The tool is used for organic and paid searches.

Price

1 Credit = 1 Keyword.  Credits expire after one year.

$10 – 100,000 credits

$50 – 500,000 credits

$100 – 1,000,000 credits

15. Answer the Public

Answer the Public provides insights into the questions and phrases people are searching for on search engines. It utilizes search data to visualize the most common search queries related to a specific topic. Answer the Public is commonly used by content creators, marketers, and SEO professionals to identify trending topics and to develop content that meets the needs and interests of their target audience. 

Key features

• It generates location-specific questions and keywords for targeted local SEO.
• It identifies popular inquiries about a specific topic or keyword.
• It offers related keywords and phrases for SEO, content creation, and keyword research.
• It presents data in question, preposition, and comparison formats. 
• It supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch.
• It provides the option to download data in CSV or Excel format.

Price

Plan	Lifetime/Annual Price	Monthly Price
Individual	$99/Lifetime	$9
Pro	$79/Annual	$99
Expert	$149/Annual	$199

Does it offer a free version?

It offers a Zero Risk-Free Trial | Pay Nothing for 7 Days | Cancel Anytime

16. Sitebulb

Sitebulb is a website auditing tool that analyzes websites and identifies any technical issues that may impact their performance in search engine rankings. With Sitebulb, users can gain insights into their website’s performance and receive recommendations for improving their website’s SEO, user experience, and overall online presence.

Key features

• Sitebulb offers audit scores to provide context and create executive summaries for clients and management.
• It can customize PDFs for different use cases, such as sales prospecting and client or C-level reporting.
• It allows the user to review the change history for any metric to show improvements graphically.
• It utilizes visualizations to identify patterns and embeds graphs to express complex ideas quickly.
• It enables the user to create custom reports with specific data columns, filters, and sorting options.
• It has the ability to crawl large websites and unlimited domains.
• It performs complete audits for all clients, regardless of size or quantity.

Price

Desktop Plans	Monthly Price	Yearly Price
Lite	$13.50	$135
Pro	$35	$378

Does it offer a free version?

Sitebulb offers a 14-day free trial. 

17. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a powerful keyword research tool that can help website owners, content creators, and marketers find high-performing keywords and phrases to boost their search engine rankings and drive more website traffic. With its user-friendly interface and extensive database of keywords and phrases, Ubersuggest is a must-have tool for anyone looking to optimize their online presence and grow their audience.

Key features

• Ubersuggest generates ideas for blog posts and articles based on user-provided keywords.
• It analyzes website backlinks, organic search traffic, and top organic keywords.
• The tool measures website performance and offers suggestions for improvement.
• You can generate a list of keywords based on what works for the competitors.

Price

Plan	Lifetime Price	Monthly Price
Individual	$12	$12
Business	$200	$20
Enterprise	$400	$40

Does it offer a free version?

For monthly payments, it offers a 7-day free trial. 

18. Clearscope

Clearscope is a content optimization platform to help creators improve their online content. It analyzes text and provides recommendations for keywords, related phrases, and another language to help optimize content for search engines and increase website traffic. Clearscope allows businesses and individuals to create high-quality, readable, and searchable content, making it a valuable tool for anyone looking to improve their online presence.

Key features

• Clearscope allows you to organize your content optimization efforts into campaigns for better tracking and reporting.
• You can easily group related keywords and content topics for more efficient optimization and analysis.
• The content management feature allows you to easily manage and track your content optimization efforts, including optimizing existing content and creating new content.
• Clearscope optimizes your content to increase conversions and achieve your business goals.

Price

Plan            Price

Essentials    $170

Business     Custom pricing

Enterprise   Custom pricing

Does it offer a free version?

No, it does not.

19. Botify

Botify is a website optimization platform that provides marketers comprehensive insights into how search engine crawlers access and interpret their website content. It allows marketers to identify and fix technical SEO issues, optimize website structure and content, and monitor website performance. With Botify, marketers can improve website visibility and search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic and revenue.

Key features

• With Botify’s rank-tracking feature, you can monitor the performance of your website’s pages in SERPs for various keywords and phrases.
• It allows you to see the evolution of a page with Historical HTML
• It spots trending data and regression with metrics tables.
• Botify enables users to adjust the speed of website crawling, with a maximum capability of verifying and indexing up to 250 pages per second.

Conclusion

SaaS SEO tools are effective solutions for managing and optimizing SEO efforts in a scalable and cost-effective manner. They provide many features and functionalities to help businesses analyze their website’s performance, identify issues, and optimize their content and keywords for better search engine rankings. 

Are you interested in enhancing your website’s visibility and getting more traffic? Contact us for a free SEO analysis to learn more about your website’s potential. 

Podcasts have become the favorite format of information consumption as they have a broad reach and are accessible, with 116 million Americans reporting that they’ve listened to a podcast in the last month. 

There are podcasts on almost any topic you can think of, with SaaS podcasts becoming a favorite in the industry due to podcasting being a way of proving your position as an industry leader. These podcasts are a great way to get insight into the experiences of entrepreneurs and business leaders and grow your skills and strategies. 

Following SaaS podcasts can be advantageous because of the following:

• Highly accessible: You can listen to podcasts on any device, listen to them online, or download them for later. Another point is that almost all podcasts are free.
• Connect with the host: You’ll be able to connect with the host and guests mentally, thus understanding the subject matter better.
• Ability to multitask: All you need to follow a SaaS podcast is listening; therefore, you can do so by doing any activity, such as walking, doing house chores, driving, etc.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the 17 best SaaS podcasts for you to learn and benefit from.

1. The SaaS Podcast

The SaaS podcast, hosted by Omer Khan, is one of the best podcasts for SaaS, loaded with valuable information covering various topics in the SaaS industry. With more than 300 episodes still running, you’ll find in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and founders who share their stories of success, failure, struggle, and growth. This way, you’ll get insight to help you build, launch and grow your SaaS business. 

Some of the most recent episodes cover SaaS lessons on finding your ideal customer profile, turning rejection into success for your SaaS startup, and more.

Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 48 Minutes

Podcast upload: Every Monday

2. Confessions Of A B2B Marketer

Hosted by Tim Hunt, this podcast aims to solve the challenges of growing and expanding his successful B2B SaaS (bCast.fm) business and agency (Fame.so). You’ll get to follow him as he explores B2B marketing, meeting friends, business associates, and family en voyage. 

Additionally, you’ll find answers to what makes some B2B businesses grow seamlessly while others struggle, what they do differently to attract customers, and many more.

Their most recent episodes include “The Truth About Cold Email with Raul Kaevand,” “Bootstrapping to $60k MRR with Arvid Kahl,” “The Truth About B2B Communities with Jared Robin,” etc.

Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SaaS Marketer

Average episode time: 30 Minutes

Podcast upload: Every Wednesday

3. SaaS Growth Stacking

Hosted by Dan Martell, this podcast is great for business leaders and entrepreneurs in the SaaS industry who want to grow their businesses. You’ll get first-hand insight from Dan on effectively implementing the SaaS Growth Stacking framework. You’ll also find discussions on various topics, such as customer acquisition, activation, monetization, optimization of metrics, etc.

Some of their recent SaaS episodes focus on high-demand SaaS ideas, pricing strategies that will boost revenue, mistakes SaaS companies make when choosing a lawyer, etc.

Available on: Google Podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Average episode time: 16 minutes

Podcast upload: Once a week

4. Growth Hub Podcast

Brought by Advance B2B, this podcast will help you advance your B2B marketing skills and level up your knowledge. You’ll also get to learn website development, and customer research, with a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and first-hand experiences from the leaders of the SaaS industry. 

This podcast includes a variety of topics, such as the future of demand generation, how to gather the perfect SaaS team, building a billion-dollar SaaS company, etc.

Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 40 minutes

Podcast upload: Once a month

5. SaaS Sessions

Based in India, this podcast features informative sessions by prominent SaaS leaders in India and across the globe, with their experiences, struggles, and lessons being at the center of each episode.

This podcast, alongside the Saas industry, also delves into topics such as marketing, remote working, customer service, SaaS technologies (virtual phone numbers), etc.

Their most recent episodes include “Security & Compliances 101 for SaaS Startups,” “Product Led Growth,” “SaaS Ops 101,” and others.

Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 30-40 Minutes

Podcast upload: Once a month

6. The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

As one of the top SaaS podcasts with a large following, SaaStr hosts Jason Lemkin and Harry Stebbings interview some of the most prominent operators and investors to get insight into their strategies for attaining and maintaining success in the SaaS industry. You’ll get the chance to learn from operators how to get from $0 to $100m ARR faster, what are the elements of hiring, etc., and from the investors, you’ll learn what SaaS metrics they focus on, what they look for in SaaS founders, etc.

Their recent episodes focus on the impact of generative AI on software, top mistakes founders make, scaling a SaaS sales team while building culture, etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

Average episode time: 25 minutes

Podcast upload: 3 times a week

7. The Top with Nathan Latka

With the host, Nathan Latka being one of the most well-informed entrepreneurs in the industry, this podcast offers in-depth insight into the mind of the world’s top SaaS entrepreneurs. Nathan spends 15 minutes interviewing SaaS founders. You’ll find episodes on various topics, such as user testing, UX research, ARR, etc. You’ll also learn how SaaS founders launched, built, and grew their businesses.

Some of the most recent episodes include “Restaurant SaaS Grows from $8k MRR to $35k MRR in 12 months,” “How He Grew Nutisense From $12m to $45m ARR Last 12 Months for Health SaaS,” etc.

Available on: Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts

Average episode time: 18 minutes

Podcast upload: 6 times per week

8. Build Your SaaS by Transistor.fm

Led by the founders of transistor.fm, Jon Buda and Justin Jackson, who have in-depth discussions about mindful technology, bootstrapping, and software and coding; this podcast gives insight on what’s necessary to build an efficient company. They also discuss the condition of the prosumer SaaS market, bootstrapping in France, how to have a calm company, etc. 

The hosts take a unique approach to their topics, such as recent episodes delving into “Super Fun Saas Tax,” “Nobody in SaaS Wants to Talk About This,” “What Does My Daughter Think of The Podcast Industry,” and more.

Available on: Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcast

Average episode time: 45-60 Minutes

Podcast upload: 3-4 Episodes per month

9. The SaaS Revolution Show

Brought to the public with the help of SaaStock media and hosted by Alex Theuma, this podcast allows you to pick up tactics and ideas from some of the most prominent and famous European SaaS leaders. You’ll get first-hand insight into SaaS struggles, attracting and keeping customers, how to build and grow a SaaS business, and many more. It’s also a beneficial podcast for getting acquainted with the industry.

Their most recent episodes include “The Top Growth Pitfalls That You Aren’t Expecting,” “Why SaaS Companies/ CEOs Need to Figure Out Owned Media,” “How ClickUp Grew to Over 6M Users in 5 Years,” etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, PlayerFM, and Spotify

Average episode time: 36 minutes

Podcast upload: Weekly

10. The SaaS Venture

As one of the leading SaaS podcasts in 2022, The Saas Venture Podcast, led by Aaron Weiche and Darren Shaw, provides insight into the experiences, journeys, and challenges of bootstrapped SaaS businesses. This podcast primarily focuses on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship development. 

Some of their most recent episodes revolved around the benefits of user feedback, the power of momentum, mining for growth opportunities, etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 45-50 minutes

Podcast upload: Once or twice a month

11. Better Done Than Perfect Podcast

This podcast is for a wide range of professionals, such as marketing managers, customer success managers, and product managers. There, SaaS professionals share their stories on customer retention, customer success, content marketing in SaaS, etc.

The podcast is divided into seasons; the first season was focused on user onboarding (challenges, successes, and ultimate advice). The latest season focuses on SaaS content marketing with topics such as editing content, SaaS content strategy, producing technical content, web copies for SaaS, etc. 

Available on: Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts

Average episode time: 41 minutes

Podcast upload: Twice a month

12. The Startup Chat

This podcast, led by Steli Efti and Hiten Shah, two very successful entrepreneurs, provides first-hand insights from the hands-on of startup and business life. You’ll be able to discover more about the latest news on startup technologies and tips on turning your startup into a real success and growing your SaaS business.

Some of the most recent episodes delve into “How to Acquire and Cross-Promo SaaS Apps,” “Is There Too Much Saas,” and more managerial tips for business leaders.

Available on: Google Podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Average episode time: 20 Minutes

Podcast upload: Tuesdays and Fridays (inactive)

13. SaaS Open Mic by ChartMogul

The Saas Open Mic podcast has an interview style, where the people behind highly successful businesses give insight into the factors that contributed to their success. This podcast aims to help SaaS businesses better understand their customers and achieve long-term goals.

Some of their most recent episodes focus on SaaS metrics that matter to investors, pricing migration, from service to SaaS, the future of product-led sales, etc.

Available on: Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple podcasts

Average episode time: 25-30 Minutes

Podcast upload: Twice a month

14. This Week In Startups

Led by Jason Calacanis, this podcast will help you stay up to date with the most recent business events and news in the SaaS industry. Their podcast also covers a wide range of topics, such as strategies for investing in an overheated market, U.S. chip industry updates, and many others.

Some of the most recent episodes include “Stephen Wolfram on AI’s rapid progress & the Post-Knowledge Work Era,” “ANGEL: Threshold VC’s Emily Melton on Market Distortion, Healthcare Investing & Culture,” etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 1 hour

Podcast upload: Daily

15. SaaS Breakthrough

Hosted by David Abrams, this podcast is the insider’s guide to SaaS marketing, where you can dive into real-life case studies. You’ll be able to learn more about how other SaaS businesses implement marketing and growth strategies and discover what works and what doesn’t for your business. 

Some of the best episodes include “Top 10 SaaS Insights,” “2019 SaaS Insights from 50 Incredible Marketing Experts,” “Top Lessons from SaaStock 2018,” etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher

Average episode time: 45 minutes

Podcast upload: Twice a month

16. SaaS Insider Podcast

The host, Shira Abel of Hunter and Bard, interviews a new SaaS insider in each episode and offers insight on how to grow your SaaS business, tackle challenges, and which mistakes business owners need to avoid. 

With 93 episodes uploaded and the podcast being inactive for now, you’ll still be able to get practical insight and advice. Some of the best episodes are “Josh Haynam on Affiliate Marketing and Growing a SaaS Business,” “Adam Stein on Product Marketing and Satisfying Your Sales Team,” and “Whitney Sales on Growing and Selling in New Markets.”

Available on:  Apple Podcasts and  Google Podcasts

Average episode time: 45-50 minutes

Podcast upload: 3-4 times per month (inactive)

17. SaaS Half Full

Inspired by the conversations that take place in a bar after events and conferences, this podcast aims to provide insight from the top marketing leaders on how they craft unique strategies for success. 

Some of their most recent episodes include “What You Can Learn From a B2B Mystery Shopper,” “The Subjectivity of SaaS M&A,” “What Marketers Can Learn From Netflix,” etc.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify

Average episode time: 30 minutes

Podcast upload: Once a month

The Bottom Line

Podcasts have become a necessary tool to stay ahead in the ever-growing industry of SaaS. By tuning in to the podcasts mentioned above, you’ll have access to a massive wealth of information, advice, and insights from industry experts and leaders.

If you’re new to SaaS content marketing and want to thrive in the industry and grow a successful business, contact us for a free consultation!

We also suggest you read the following:

• The Ultimate SaaS SEO Guide
• The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Keyword Research
• SaaS Content Marketing: 5 Strategies to Help You Reach Your Goals

Higher education conferences are a golden opportunity for leaders to develop. The conference will help you stay updated on the latest trends and challenges in the field as well as offer the chance to interact and network with other professionals.

We’ve compiled a list of 10 higher education conferences we’re particularly excited about in 2023. Each one is worth investing in.

10 Must-Attend Conferences for Higher Education in 2023

From events starting in March to ones you have to wait for until the end of the year, here are ten higher-ed conferences you should add to your calendar.

1. ACE2023—The American Council on Education’s Annual Meeting

Date: April 13–15, 2023

Location: Washington, DC

The American Council on Education’s Annual Meeting offers the opportunity to meet and network with leaders from various sectors of higher education. The interactions you have will help provide insights into the future of education and innovative solutions for today’s challenges.

Some major speakers that have been announced for this year’s panel include:

• Lawrence S. Bacow – President, Harvard University
• Jonathan R. Alger – President, James Madison University
• Laura Helmuth – Editor in Chief, Scientific American
• Clint Smith Staff – Writer, The Atlantic, and Number One New York Times Best-Selling Author

Click here to register for ACE2023

2. InsightsEDU 2023 – Marketing and Enrollment Management for Adult and Online Education

Date: March 7-9, 2023

Location: Denver, CO

The InsightsEDU 2023 conference is an excellent opportunity for you to meet and learn from peers in higher education. It focuses exclusively on adult learner enrollment in post-traditional online education programs. The conference includes several sessions designed to help leaders like you gain valuable insight into higher education marketing and enrollment management.

This year’s speaker lineup includes names such as:

• Don Batsford – Head of Industry, Google
• Iris Shalev – Client Solutions Manager, TikTok
• Tarah Hackman – Team Lead, Sr. Strategic Value Advisor, Adobe
• Benjamin Kennedy – CEO and Founder, Kennedy and Company

Click here to register for InsightsEDU 2023

3. NACAC National Conference

Date: September 21-23, 2023

Location: Baltimore, MD

Another conference you should not miss is the NACAC National Conference—bringing over 6,000 attendees and 200 exhibitors together. Join the thousands of college admission counseling professionals at the conference for face-to-face meetings, where you can learn more about industry relationships and discover new business opportunities.

More information regarding education sessions, speaker lineup, and other programming will be available soon as organizers are still working to finalize the conference schedule for 2023.

Click here to register for NACAC National Conference

4. EAIE Conference 2023

Date: September 26-29, 2023

Location: Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The EAIE is an annual conference that serves as a forum for professionals to network and exchange ideas with their peers. This year’s theme is “Connecting currents,” celebrating Rotterdam’s maritime history and emphasizing the importance of water to the city for providing economic opportunities. Similarly to how water helps Rotterdam connect with other areas, international education serves as the body of water that connects disciplines and cultures across the globe.

The conference aims to help professionals make sense of the complex world of higher education—virtual learning, climate action, geopolitics, multilingualism, and much more. Although the call for conference proposals is now closed, registrations for attendees will open in May 2023.

Click here to register for EAIE Conference 2023

5. Slate Summit 2023

Date: June 1-2, 2023

Location: Nashville, TN

The Slate Summit is part of the Slate Innovation Festival—a multi-event celebration consisting of a webinar series, new releases, and resources. The summit is led by members of the Slate community, and it features opening keynotes, Slate-centric sessions, and group discussions. 

The summit also includes pre-conference presentations by Technosolutions staff regarding their work with students, as well as various events for networking and entertainment, such as a dance party at the end.

Click here to register for Slate Summit 2023

6. NAFSA 2023 Annual Conference & Expo

Date: May 30 – June 2, 2023

Location: Washington, DC

The 2023 NAFSA will be the 75th annual conference and exhibition hosted by one of the world’s largest associations dedicated to international education and exchange. The conference will showcase bold ideas related to international education, social, economic, and environmental justice, advocacy for community engagement and its impact, learning models and programs, the role of international education leaders, the use of technology, and much more.

Showcase your organization or institution among the other thousands of professionals attending to discuss strategies, innovations, and other higher education practices. By attending the sessions planned for the conference and interacting with international education leaders and changemakers, you can establish and build upon your institution’s brand and partnerships.

Click here to register for NAFSA 2023

7. UPCEA Annual

Date: March 22-24, 2023

Location: Washington, DC

The themes emphasized for this year’s UPCEA conference are related to building partnerships, resilience, inclusion, and access. The conference brings together leaders from all over the world to discuss innovative global collaborations, local partnerships, and interdisciplinary programs. Furthermore, considering the continuously evolving state of technology, the conference will also dive into technology trends and their impact on higher education, talent development retention, and development needs.

The conference aims to address student needs and create a conversation between leaders about the issues of sustainability and access.

Click here to register for UPCEA 2023

8. NAGAP Graduate Enrollment Management Summit

Date: April 12-15, 2023

Location: New York, NY

The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management is one of the best-known non-profit professional organizations working in the graduate enrollment management environment. Their three-day National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals Summit brings together vendor exhibitors, sponsors, and regular attendees to discuss graduate enrollment management.

The 2023 annual NAGAP will include speakers such as:

• April Hernandez – Actor, Author, Speaker
• Seth Gummere – Senior Vice President Study Portals
• Nitin Agrawal – Co-founder & CEO, Interstride
• Julie Deland – Director of Administration, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Click here to register for NAGAP 2023

9. AMA Higher Ed Symposium

Date: November 12-15, 2023

Location: Chicago, IL.

The American Marketing Association has a 30+ year history of hosting symposiums for the marketing of higher education institutions. This year’s conference incorporates various events to help leaders connect with their peers and discuss solutions for today’s higher education challenges. 

One of the highlights of this conference is the interactive workshops where attendees can discuss topics like marketing communications, analytics, project management, design thinking, brand impact, and talent development.

The call for proposals is open until Monday, April 10, 2023, whereas decisions are sent on the week of June 26, 2023. Registrations for the conference will be open soon.

Click here to submit your proposal for AMA 2023

10. UPCEA MEMS

Date: November 29 – December 1, 2023

Location: Portland, OR

Although little information is available regarding this year’s UPCEA MEMS conference because it has not yet been finalized, based on the success of previous years, it is a conference you do not want to miss. The MEMS Planning Committee is working hard on designing a creative and engaging program that offers networking opportunities to the attendees and valuable lessons about marketing and enrollment management.

Just like they have done in previous years, the 32nd Annual MEMS aims to address higher education challenges and advise attendees on growing college enrollment through data-driven strategies and tactics.

Click here to see more UPCEA upcoming events

Conclusion

Conference season has begun, and it is time for you to decide which ones you want to experience. Though many conferences are scheduled for 2023, the ten conferences listed in this article are a must-attend for higher education leaders.

Events such as the American Council on Education (ACE) Annual Meeting, the UPCEA conference, and the NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education cover a range of topics that can help you learn more about current challenges, trends, and innovations in the field of education. Furthermore, they act as a forum where you can meet and network with peers and industry leaders.

Consider the scheduled time, location, cost, and focus of the conferences to find one or more that best fits your interests. Each event in this article will present you with new ideas, network opportunities, and hours of fun. So, don’t miss out on the chance to learn, grow, and connect with other education professionals.

Content marketing has proven beneficial in several aspects, especially for eCommerce businesses. With an ever-increasing number of online businesses competing for attention, creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content is essential to attracting and retaining customers. Effective content marketing can help eCommerce businesses establish themselves as industry leaders, increase online visibility, and generate more leads and sales.

In addition to improving brand reputation, content marketing can help eCommerce brands boost their SEO visibility. By incorporating relevant keywords and providing valuable information, eCommerce sites can attract more organic traffic to their website, increasing visibility and higher conversion rates. With effective content marketing, eCommerce businesses can create a comprehensive online presence that attracts new customers and retains existing ones.

Lastly, content marketing can help eCommerce businesses create a loyal customer base by providing value-packed services like tutorials, guides, and product reviews. E-commerce businesses can establish long-lasting relationships with their audience by providing high-quality content that adds value to their customers’ lives, resulting in repeat sales and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

In this comprehensive guide, you will find a five-step strategy for using content marketing for your eCommerce business. Let’s get started!

1. Know Your Audience

In today’s digital age, identifying your target audience is critical for the success of any eCommerce business. This is because understanding the needs and preferences of your customers helps you tailor your product offerings, messaging, and marketing strategies to resonate with them better. 

One of the best ways to do this is by creating buyer personas, i.e., a fictional representation of your ideal customers based on research and data about existing and potential customers. This approach allows you to visualize and understand your audience on a deeper level, including their motivations, pain points, buying behavior, and interests. 

By clearly understanding your buyer personas, you can fashion more relevant and personalized marketing messages and product recommendations that are more likely to convert into sales.

You start the process of creating a buyer persona by conducting some research on your current and potential customers and analyzing your findings. Afterward, you create a profile based on your gathered data and try to determine their challenges and pain points. Lastly, you can create a profile of a fictional person, the ideal customer, with a name, age, gender, and other demographic information. 

An example of a buyer persona could be a 24-year-old female who is fashion-conscious, enjoys shopping online, and follows the latest trends. She appreciates affordability and fast shipping. 

2. Develop Your Content Marketing Strategy

Developing a content marketing strategy for eCommerce businesses includes several crucial steps that can help you create engaging, relevant, and valuable content that resonates with your audience. 

Firstly, it is essential to set clear and measurable content marketing goals that align with your business objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating new leads, or boosting sales.

Secondly, content marketing requires resources. This is why determining your content marketing budget is crucial to ensure you have enough resources to produce high-quality content consistently.

Thirdly, defining your brand voice and message has several essential benefits. For example, a tone of voice specific to your brand helps you:

• Stand out from the crowd, i.e., competition;
• Build your brand and authority;
• Mimic face-to-face communication with your customers.

Choose a tone of voice that best represents your brand, be it formal, informal, humorous, optimistic, assertive, etc. 

Another crucial aspect of your content marketing strategy is choosing the right content types for your eCommerce business. Different types of content include blog posts, product videos, social media posts, infographics, email newsletters, etc. Choosing the correct content types is vital to ensure you provide the right content at the right stage of the customer journey.

Last but not least, make sure to stay organized during the whole process of implementing your content marketing strategy. You can do this by creating a content calendar to help you plan and organize your content creation and distribution—thus ensuring you deliver content throughout the year in a consistent manner.

3. Create Engaging and Valuable Content

The next step in implementing your content marketing strategy is actually creating content. Engaging and valuable content is a critical factor in the success of eCommerce businesses. When it comes to online shopping, customers rely heavily on the information and visuals provided to make informed purchase decisions. There are a few ways to ensure the content you create is engaging, attractive, and valuable, including:

• Crafting effective headlines: Such headlines help catch potential customers’ attention and encourage them to learn more about a particular product. Headlines should be clear and concise and emphasize the product’s unique selling proposition. 
• Writing product descriptions that sell: These descriptions should be detailed and informative, highlighting the benefits and features of the product in a way that appeals to the target audience. You should write product descriptions in a style and tone that aligns with the brand’s values and tone of voice.
• Using visual content: Because eCommerce is essentially online shopping, this content plays a critical role in eCommerce businesses as it allows customers to visualize the product and see how it works in real life. Compelling product images, infographics, and videos help customers quickly understand the product’s features and benefits.
• Producing video content: Videos provide an opportunity to showcase the product in action, demonstrate how it works, and answer common questions that customers may have about it.

4. Distribute and Promote Your Content

Nowadays, eCommerce is highly competitive, so it’s no longer enough just to create high-quality content for your online store; you must also distribute and promote that content effectively to reach your target audience. Content distribution and promotion are essential for eCommerce success, as they can help drive traffic to your site, increase brand awareness, and ultimately boost sales.

When choosing the proper content distribution channels for eCommerce, it’s essential to consider your target audience and their preferred channels. For example, social media channels like Instagram and TikTok may be more effective if you sell products targeted toward a younger audience. On the other hand, email marketing campaigns are preferable for an older demographic.

An effective way to distribute and promote eCommerce content is by creating an email marketing campaign, allowing you to reach customers directly in their inboxes. When creating an email campaign, it’s essential to consider your audience, personalize your messaging, and include a clear call-to-action that encourages customers to visit your site.

Leveraging social media for eCommerce content marketing is another powerful strategy. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer a range of tools and features that can help you reach your target audience, including paid advertising, influencer partnerships, and user-generated content. It’s important to tailor your content to each social media channel and engage with your audience to build a solid online community.

By choosing the proper content distribution channels, creating effective email marketing campaigns, and leveraging social media, you can drive traffic to your site and increase brand awareness which will, in turn, boost your sales.

5. Measure and Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

Once you have completed all the previous steps to your content marketing strategy, it is time to keep an eye on it. Measuring and optimizing your eCommerce content marketing strategy is pivotal for the success of your online business. By setting eCommerce content marketing KPIs, you can track the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts and make decisions to improve your strategy based on the data you have collected. 

Without measurable goals, it’s difficult to know whether your content marketing strategy delivers the desired results. By analyzing your eCommerce content marketing performance, you can identify the areas where you need to improve and optimize your strategy accordingly. This can lead to better engagement with your target audience, increased traffic, higher conversions, and greater revenue. Furthermore, such an analysis can help you understand your customers better, their preferences, and their behavior on your website. With this information, you can create more relevant and targeted content for your audience, which drives better results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, content marketing is an essential part of any successful eCommerce business strategy. By developing a content marketing strategy, creating engaging and valuable content, distributing and promoting said content, and measuring and optimizing the results, businesses can effectively reach and engage their target audience, build brand awareness, establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry, and ultimately drive more traffic, leads, and sales.

By investing in content marketing, businesses can build long-term customer relationships and position themselves for sustained growth and success in a highly competitive online marketplace.

In higher education and many other fields, staying on top of the industry news and trends is crucial to gaining a competitive advantage. You can benefit significantly from using a strong higher education marketing strategy that aids you in identifying opportunities for growth, generating leads, and retaining students.

Read on to learn more about the current higher education marketing trends, how to adapt to digital transformation within the industry, and how to use cutting-edge technologies to succeed.

4 Higher Education Marketing Trends for 2023

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education can be noticed in the visible shift in marketing strategies toward digital reinforcement and virtual events. In comparison to before, the path to reaching prospective students has changed. The immense use of digital platforms has necessitated a similar approach to marketing strategies.

The key to higher education success is not only accepting these marketing trends but fully embracing them. So, read on and learn more about higher education marketing strategies you can use to stand out from the crowd in 2023.

1. Student-centered content has the potential to drive significant results in higher education marketing

Considering the rising cost of education and the heavy burden of student loans, today’s prospective students are facing new challenges in deciding what higher education they should enroll in or if they should do so. As a result, higher education marketing must shift towards a more student-centered approach to drive results. Before, higher education institutes’ marketing concentrated on “this is why we are great” messages. Now, it focuses more on “this is why we are great for you.”

There are many ways you can reach prospective students by developing your brand identity, including content marketing. Quality content naturally helps boost engagement and helps build credibility. You can reach audiences on various platforms ranging from written content to audio and image.

Firstly, a common communication channel between higher education institutions and their audiences is blogs—spaces where the school can share relevant content, introduce various topics and programs, and create a community. Blogging is a highly effective tool for content marketing associated with many benefits on top of educating and engaging students. According to a study conducted by HubSpot Marketing, on average, companies that blog have:

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

To attract even more prospective students, you can utilize guest blogging to share content on a third-party blog. This way, you can create hyperlinks that direct visitors to your site and thus improve your visibility and web traffic.

Another format you can utilize for content marketing is podcasts. The popularity of such a tool has been at an all-time high in recent years. Statistics show that in the U.S., around 41% of the population listens to podcasts every month, with 28% doing it weekly. Because podcasts are naturally conversational, often featuring guest speakers that introduce content in a more personal way, there is plenty of room to create student-centered content. 

Video content is also gaining popularity in higher education content marketing. Both long-form and short-form videos are helpful, depending on the content you are presenting. For example, in higher education, you can utilize long-form videos for personalized campus tours, explanations of the application process, financial aid explainers, tutor introductions, and much more.

Your strategy should be to create high-quality content and incorporate it within your social media posts to reach customers. Link your blogs, podcasts, videos, and more on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more—provide your audience with a glimpse of the content they can access by visiting your site.

2. Use short-form videos to promote your higher ed institute

Short-form videos provide viewers with a timely snapshot of important events and programs within your school. You can accompany them with a clickable link, sticker, message option, hashtag, and more to increase engagement and stay connected with your audience.

A popular destination for such videos is TikTok which has quickly grown in popularity, with over  80 million monthly active users in the United States. An interesting statistic to keep in mind is that 60% of TikTok users are Gen Zers—a prime demographic for higher education institutions. Therefore, TikTok is an excellent platform for your university or college to connect and engage with Gen Zers as prospective students in an entertaining and relatable way.

Though you can create videos that provide students with scholarly content that gives them an idea of what your university can provide academically, it is best to mix such videos with non-academic ones. Videos focused on student experience, athletics, your university’s student services, the campus, and much more are where the real engagement opportunities lie. We advise you to involve your student body in order to present the most authentic representation of what life would be like for students at your university.

3. Consider shifting your PR strategies online in order to improve your higher education marketing efforts

You can also improve your higher education marketing by shifting your PR strategies online and collaborating with other professionals. Consider shifting your focus from school-produced content to student-focused and student-made content in order to better connect with your target audience. Furthermore, place ads on content websites typically frequented by prospective students and increase the chances of them interacting with your site.

Another element you should add to your marketing efforts is establishing ties with professionals that can help you create content as well as have an established presence on social media platforms with a dedicated following, such as:

• Editors
• Professors
• Reporters
• Student ambassadors 

Leverage such tactics by embracing these influencers with the ability to reach your prospective students more effectively through their content.

4. The importance of local SEO for higher education marketing is expected to increase in the future

It is no surprise that SEO has considerable control over today’s marketing strategies, and rightfully so. It is the marketing channel that helps your site rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) and consequently receive more traffic. However, a more recent marketing trend you should consider using is local SEO to optimize local searches. According to statistics, about 46% of all searches have local intent. Therefore, implementing basic local SEO strategies will help your site’s ranking in the local market, reaching many prospective students for recruitment. 

You should work with SEO experts and devise a strong content strategy that focuses on producing content answering questions from searches near your area and containing relevant keywords so as to improve local visibility. All improvements made in your online presence within your region will help recruit local students.

Conclusion

It is clear that one must always stay updated with higher education marketing trends as the field is constantly evolving. To stay ahead of the curve, keep generating leads, attract students and retain them, you should keep up with the trends and implement the necessary practices in your strategy. Recently, for example, higher education marketing trends include the increased importance of digital marketing, especially through student-centered content, short-form videos on popular platforms, and local search engine optimization. 

A well-chosen digital marketing strategy is crucial to expanding your institute’s student base. Our digital agency can help you stay on top of the current trends and be one step ahead of all that is to come. We’ll devise and implement a successful digital marketing strategy that encompasses all the above trends and much more. So, schedule a free consultation, and let us help you grow your education institution!