WebFX

AI doesn't read your website the way a person does. To AI, every word, every page, and every mention of your brand across the web is a datapoint it processes mathematically. Why that matters: AI is increasingly deciding which brands get surfaced in search. It draws on the full picture it's built of you across every source it can find. If that picture is clear, you get recommended. If not, you get overlooked. More on how to optimize your brand for AI on our blog. buff.ly/Bu4u3FK

Apple Maps may look a bit different starting this summer. 🍎 Apple is planning to introduce sponsored placements within Apple Maps, starting in the U.S. and Canada. Businesses will be able to show up as promoted results when people search for things like home services, hotels, auto repair, or healthcare providers inside the app. Ads will likely appear in two places: in the search results and within a "Suggested Places" feature that recommends businesses based on what's trending nearby and a user's recent searches. So, what should your business do right now? The biggest step you can take before Maps ads are live is to make sure your company information is complete up to date. Apple Business, a new all-in-one management platform, can help you keep track of your company details and ensure that the people who reach you are getting the right information. Claim your locations, update your hours and categories, upload photos, and make sure your listing is accurate. Apple uses this information to power how your business appears across Maps, Siri, and other Apple services. Beyond that, it's a good time to audit local SEO fundamentals like NAP consistency, local citations, reviews, and location schema. We broke down everything we know so far on our website. buff.ly/Uj8Fxs9

"Which of these channels is actually making us money?" If your team is drowning in data but still can't confidently answer that question, marketing mix modeling (MMM) might be the missing piece. MMM gives you the big-picture view of your marketing performance, using historical data to understand how every channel — plus external factors like seasonality — works together to impact your bottom line over time. Learn more about MMM on our blog! buff.ly/5lvu0FQ

Revenue is the north star for our clients' strategies. Whether we're crafting a GEO plan, managing social media ads, or updating your local presence, we put your revenue growth at the heart of what we do. Want to learn more about how our team can positively impact your bottom line? Get in touch with us! buff.ly/tRpK50Z

Hey you. Yeah, you. Would you like to level up your digital marketing knowledge? We know of a ✨ really cool ✨ newsletter that's powered by a team of digital marketing pros. Subscribe to Revenue Weekly for digital marketing expertise delivered right to your inbox. buff.ly/pYf1SUg Pass it on!

It's not just our technology that keeps us ahead of the curve. It's the passion that our team has for helping businesses grow.

We analyzed 2.3 billion website sessions to better understand how AI has shaped information discovery over the past two years. The data tells a story with some surprising twists. As you may expect, traffic from generative AI has increased nearly 800%. But it's not just traffic that's shifting with AI adoption. We found that people who landed on a website from a generative AI source converted at a rate about 1.2x higher than those who arrived from organic search. This does NOT mean that organic search is dead. We repeat: organic search is NOT dead. It's very much alive and remains an important piece of your strategy. Why? Well, despite the accelerated AI growth, organic search is still one of the leading website traffic drivers. Direct and organic search traffic actually make up a combined 63% of market share. That's quite significant. In addition, traditional SEO signals impact how AI finds information to cite. If you're wondering what this means for your business, we lay everything out in our blog. You'll find even more details on how users engage with brands online, plus what you can do to adapt. buff.ly/alzlEFa

AI affects basically every area of marketing in some way, and lead generation is no exception. As buyer journeys continue to fragment and become more complex, it’s more important than ever for your lead generation process to be fast, precise, and relevant. By automating routine tasks and providing deeper insights, AI helps your business meet that need. If you’re unsure whether AI lead generation is right for your business, ask yourself: 🤔 Is my lead volume high enough for me to need automation? 🤔 Do I have a hard time following up with leads in a timely manner? 🤔 Am I willing to provide human oversight for AI? If you answer “yes” to those questions, you can likely benefit from AI in your lead generation strategy. But how can you actually use it? Some of the top use cases for AI lead generation include: ✅ Scoring and prioritizing leads based on how likely they are to close ✅ Hyper-personalizing lead generation email outreach campaigns ✅ Analyzing user behavior to identify buying intent before competitors ✅ Optimizing paid advertising campaigns in real time ✅ Predicting future pipeline performance and buyer intent Of course, for AI to truly benefit your lead generation strategy, that strategy needs to be well-optimized. You can’t fix bad lead generation just by throwing AI at it. For that reason, be sure to clearly define your goals and audit your existing processes before adding AI into the mix. And even after you do introduce it, be careful not to rely too heavily on it. Letting the AI handle everything without human oversight won’t turn out well for you — it may result in misinterpreted signals and poorly timed messaging. That means you should keep human judgement at the center of your lead generation strategy. When you combine AI automation with human-made decisions, you get a killer lead generation strategy that decreases the length of your sales cycles while boosting your revenue. buff.ly/eJdpU4f

Change happens fast in the digital marketing world. And our goal is to move faster. Looking for a team of digital marketing experts that stays on the cutting edge of the industry? Look no further than WebFX. We're ready to help your business navigate the AI boom, engage your audience, and grow your revenue.

How many backlinks does your website need to rank on page one? We analyzed nearly 1500 websites across 15 industries to find out. Yes, there are many things that impact a website's ranking in search results, but backlinks remain a key factor. And according to our analysis, it's not just the number of backlinks. It's the velocity of new domains pointing to your website each month. Something to keep in mind here, as well: the type of backlinks you get matters. We elaborate more in the full study on our website. webfx.com/blog/seo/how-m…

If you want to invest in AI SEO, but you're having trouble getting the green light, we have five steps for you to follow so you can build a strong business case and get the approval you need. Get a quick preview of the steps right here. 👇 Maybe there's still some confusion about the difference between traditional and AI SEO. If you're already investing in traditional SEO, shouldn't that work for AI? The answer is yes and no. It's true that a solid traditional SEO foundation can help your AI visibility. But while there's overlap, AI results often differ from what you're used to seeing in search engines. With AI SEO, you're not optimizing for rankings in the hope that someone sees your website and clicks. You're working to get your brand mentioned in AI responses and citations, knowing that the person interacting with AI may get everything they need to know without ever leaving their chosen platform. Your AI SEO content is created to be synthesized and extracted by LLMs, while traditional SEO content is structured for crawlers and meant to be read on your website. Those are just some of the differences, and we explain more on our website. buff.ly/sVhs0A1

If you feel lost at sea with your SEO strategy, don’t worry — our top SEOfarers have drawn up a map to guide you on your way. 🗺️ That map is our free SEO checker. Just put in your site URL, name, and email address to get a full SEO report sent straight to your inbox. That report will include the following: 💯 SEO score: An overall numerical score out of 100 🏃‍♂️ Site speed analysis: An evaluation of your page load times and how to improve them 📱 Mobile-friendly check: An assessment of your site’s mobile optimization 🔗 URL optimization check: An analysis of your URL format and length 🔒 Site security score: An evaluation of your site security’s strengths and weaknesses And those are only a few of the things you’ll find in your SEO report. Ready to see how your SEO is performing? Then hoist the topsails, batten down the hatches, and follow the link to get your SEO back on course! ⛵ Sail on over to our SEO Checker: buff.ly/m5r8BtF p.s. We hoped you enjoyed the nautical puns.

You're not seeing the full picture of your marketing if you're only relying on GA4 to measure success. Here's why. Roughly 34% of browser market share goes to platforms that block Google Tag Manager and GA4 by default. When you add in the portion of people who use ad blockers and custom browser settings, that 34% grows. So, at minimum, you may be missing out a third of the interactions people have with your brand. And then there's the issue of tracking AI and social media interactions that don't end with a click. But that's a whole other conversation. We'll save that for later. ➡️➡️ Despite the challenges of measuring performance with GA4, you don't need to throw in the towel. You can do a number of things to fill in the data gaps. That's what our blog post is all about, featuring insights from our very own Head of Innovation, Nolan. Learn more about our ✨ eight ✨ data-focused strategies by visiting our website. buff.ly/AE0cXCY

If your business often has a long sales cycle, you know that it can be challenging from time to time. After all, the longer it takes to convert each client, the fewer new clients you can gain in a given time. The good news is, there are plenty of ways to speed things up. Here are three tips for shortening that seemingly endless sales cycle: 1. Automate routine sales tasks. 🤖 Sending emails. Scheduling meetings. Transcribing calls. All of these sales tasks can take up a lot of your time if you handle them manually — but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can use different tools to automate those tasks, freeing you up to spend more time on other parts of the sales process and helping it to move along more quickly. 2. Talk to multiple decision-makers. 👨‍💼👩‍💼 Businesses rarely have only one decision-maker. Often, there are multiple stakeholders within a given organization who need to sign off on a purchase decision. So, when marketing to B2B clients, consider getting in touch with multiple people at that organization. And if it’s not possible to meet with everyone at the same time, take advantage of asynchronous communication — documents that summarize your meetings, videos highlighting the benefits of partnering with your business, and anything else you can pass along to decision makers. That will help reduce bottlenecks and move the sales process along more quickly. 3. Reoptimize based on data. 📈 The most successful campaigns are data-driven. When you look at insights from your existing customers and past sales, it tells you what works well (and what you should maybe stop doing). That allows you to upgrade your sales process over time to become more and more effective at driving sales in a short period. Of course, while all of these tips are important, none of them will help you if you aren’t targeting the right audience with the right strategies in the first place. That’s why some companies find it useful to partner with a professional marketing agency to get help from the experts.

Optimizing your website isn't the ONLY way for your brand to appear in AI responses. Let's talk social media. Specifically, YouTube.👇 More details on our blog! buff.ly/BdumWgz

Saint Patrick’s Day might be just around the corner, but you can’t rely on the luck of the Irish when it comes to your website. 🍀 You need genuine web design expertise, which you can get by investing in professional web design services. But how much do those services cost? It depends on the size of your business — which we’ve just so happened to outline in the graphic below. 🔽 So, what are you getting for your web design investment? Some of the most common deliverables included in web design services are: 🧑‍💻 Page creation 🖌️ Custom design style 📱 Mobile optimization 🏃‍♂️‍➡️ Page speed optimization ✍️ Content writing So, you can get quite a lot from your web design services. That makes it well worth the investment for most businesses. For more detailed info on the cost of web design, check out our website! buff.ly/3E5EpMy

Have you watched your organic traffic dip over the last few months (or longer)? Don't panic. It's not just you. Kelsey explains some of the factors impacting organic traffic across the board. 👇

Did you know you're reading a post written by a Reddit Gold Certified Sales Partner? Yes, you read that right. We've been named a Reddit Gold Certified Sales Partner. 🥳🥳🥳 This honor recognizes our team's success in driving results through Reddit's advertising solutions. Many props to the Reddit experts on our team who are always looking for impactful ways to connect our clients with their target audiences.

We seriously can't stress ENOUGH how important it is to have data flowing between your marketing team and your sales team. In this age of the complex customer journey, you need your teams to be on the same page. Everyone driving leads and closing sales for your business needs to know who your target customer is, which growth efforts are working, and how each team contributes to overall revenue. When you connect the dots across teams, you lay the foundation for a high-performance B2B revenue system. A revenue system sounds great, right? You need 5 core components for this system to work, which is what our blog post outlines. buff.ly/32D7Uit