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Since Twitch launched in 2011, the live-streaming platform has evolved beyond its gamer origins into a viable social media marketing tool. That said, Twitch is no Instagram or Twitter. While some brands may find it incredibly valuable and lucrative to leverage Twitch as a means of building brand awareness and generating leads, others won’t. In this post, we’ll learn the platform’s ins and outs—plus how Twitch works for business and whether or not it fits your brand. Starting a business with Twitch? Make sure to create a website for your brand and direct Twitch audiences back to your owned-and-operated channel. What is Twitch? Twitch is an Amazon-owned, live video-streaming platform. While the most popular content created on Twitch falls into the video game category, creators stream out other genres of content as well. The main categories of content include: Games IRL (In Real Life) Music Esports Creative However, individuals and brands alike can live stream content related to topics like music, web design, product unboxing, DIY, animals and fitness. How does Twitch work? The Twitch.tv platform works as follows: Account page Twitch streamers create branded account pages. At the very top of the page, users can see if the streamer is currently online or offline. While offline, the streamer can choose to embed a recent stream for users. For example, the Netflix Twitch account page looks like this: Users can peruse information about the streamer, view recent broadcasts, watch select videos and look at the upcoming streaming schedule. They can also follow the streamer from this page. Some channels also allow followers to subscribe for a fee. In return, the subscriber gets special benefits such as ad-free streams, exclusive chats and special badges. Live broadcast Twitch creators can stream videos that last anywhere from one minute to eight hours. When streamers go live, the video broadcast takes up the majority of the user’s screen. For example, a broadcast from TheStockGuy looks like this: In many of these broadcasts, the streamer appears in a small box in the video’s corner so that users can watch them as they talk. This format is common in gaming and other visual-forward content. Other broadcasts look more like YouTube or Instagram’s video streams. Here’s a good example from the tominboston account: If users want to focus on the broadcast, they can minimize the two sidebars. The one on the left shows recommended streamers and the one on the right contains the stream’s chat. Chat box Like other live streaming services, Twitch creators can engage with anyone watching their live streams via the chat box. Users can also interact with other users—replying to and sending emoticons. However, Twitch allows streamers to enable and create custom Emotes (i.e. emoji) for their audience. You can catch a glimpse of one of these Emotes in the chat box beside Maya’s live stream : When you click on an Emote a user shares, more details appear about the Emote: You can see that these Emotes are unique to Maya’s channel and that only Tier 1 subscribers can access it. Calls-to-action for following and subscribing appear as well. Who uses Twitch? Back in 2018, Business Insider reported that, on average, about 1 million people tune into Twitch at any given moment. That put Twitch on the same level as major cable platforms like Fox News, ESPN and MSNBC. According to Twitch Sales in 2022, roughly 2.5 million concurrent viewers and about 31 million pass through the platform every day. This is likely because Twitch streams to many devices, including: Desktop computers Laptops Tablets Smartphones Streaming devices (like Roku and the Fire stick) Smart TVs Game consoles According to TwitchTracker , Twitch users have watched 841 billion minutes of streams in the first eight months of 2022. In terms of Twitch users, the audience breakdown looks like: 75% of Twitch users are between 16 and 34. 65% of users are male . Users stream Twitch content in 35 languages. English is the most commonly spoken language. Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Korean are other popular languages. In sum, Twitch tends to attract a young, multicultural and heavily male audience that use the platform for building and engaging in community. How to use Twitch for business The massive number of highly-engaged number users make Twitch one of the best marketing strategies for businesses. Twitch Sales reports that its users have a special relationship with advertising: They believe that ads enable streamers to continue creating free content. They tend to buy from brands they’ve seen advertised on Twitch. They’ll buy products or services to feel a greater connection with a community. If you can use Twitch for your brand, you’ll market to an audience that’s receptive to marketing and advertising. In return, you’ll boost brand awareness, enhance your lead generation efforts and increase sales. Pro tip: You can generate traffic and exposure towards your Twitch channel along with all of your online assets with the help of a link in bio tool such as Hopp by Wix. Businesses use Twitch in three ways: 01. Become a streamer Brands, both large and small, have their own streaming channels on Twitch that lead back to their website via captions. GameStop , for instance, streams a video every Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.: GameStop has extended its in-store brand experience online. Some videos give previews and highlights from video games while others show content like unpacking videos or how to build a custom PC gaming system. Smaller brands and entrepreneurs become Twitch streamers, too. For example, Jeff, a personal trainer, runs the FitForPurpose account: Monday through Thursday, Jeff livestreams new videos on the channel. His goal isn’t to push his personal training services on anyone but to instruct and inspire his community. To succeed as a streamer, you must have something valuable, entertaining or educational to share with your audience—and not ask for anything in return. 02. Run ads Streaming isn’t a viable marketing option for many brands. Creating content, engaging with the audience in real time and building a community around a channel can prove to be too time-consuming. If streaming isn’t for you, you can boost your brand’s presence through paid media. Similar to YouTube’s advertising model, you can run video or display ads on Twitch. Both Twitch creators and their followers understand the necessity of mid-stream ads—especially when the content is free. With all parties receptive to advertising, consider this avenue if you have the money for it. Twitch doesn’t actively publish its ad rates on the site, but there is a contact form that asks for your budget. The smallest budget range is Less than $50,000. The highest budget range is Greater than $1,000,000. This high cost can explain why companies like McDonald’s can afford to run ads on top Twitch channels like VALORANT ’s: Granted, brands can walk away with huge benefits. VALORANT has over 3 million followers and streams for hours every day. That means huge boosts in brand awareness (and sales) for brands whose ads appear during the broadcast. 03. Partner with streamers Your last option for using Twitch for business is influencer marketing . By partnering with an established creator or sponsoring their content, you can get your brand in front of a large audience. Depending on how actively the streamer promotes your brand, it could bring you major leads and revenue. That said, a popular streamer doesn’t need to name-drop a brand to influence their followers. A visual brand placement can effectively reach viewers as well. For instance, Monster Energy sponsored a cristijAn stream, and placed their logo atop the streamer’s window: Pro tip: You can explore your options and create a similar logo for yourself with a Gaming Logo Maker or Twitch Logo Maker. Learn how to make a Twitch logo for your channel. Twitch influencer marketing costs often depends on the following: What category they create content for How many followers they have How many views their videos get How frequently they will promote your brand What type of partnership or sponsorship they run Whether they want payment, free products or free services in exchange for promotion Just as with other types of influencer marketing, if you want to get the greatest ROI, your Twitch partner should relate to your brand. For example, CristijAn’s channel centers around gaming; energy drinks are popular with gamers, so the partnership works. Note: Entrepreneur reported in 2022 that Twitch had plans to cut streamer earnings from subscriptions. Estimates put the earnings reduction between 50% and 70%. While streamers who depend on user subscriptions are furious about this decision, this opens up a massive opportunity for brands. For starters, you likely don’t care about subscriber revenue as you’re using Twitch to build brand awareness and gain leads. So if streamers start abandoning the platform, that’ll make room for brands like yours to revolutionize the content that gets noticed there. Also, if streamers don’t make as much money from subscriptions, they might take on more advertisers, partners and sponsors. This could mean partnering with smaller, unknown brands they might not have previously considered. Is Twitch right for your brand? When brainstorming types of marketing , you may want to consider if Twitch fits your brand. Consider the following: 01. Is your target audience there? Twitch tends to skew younger, male and international. If your brand targets a broad range of users, then you might be okay using Twitch. However, if your brand happens to attract older users or operates in a more traditional or conservative space, then you may not find Twitch to be a worthwhile investment. 02. Does your brand fit with Twitch's vibe? You don’t need to be a gamer or influencer to fit in with the Twitch crowd. All that matters is if you can naturally convey your message in a live video. For instance, have you ever considered starting a vlog or podcast for your brand? Think about how you’ve used video or audio in your business and see if you can translate it for a Twitch audience. Dr. Drew , for instance, has a channel on Twitch where he airs hour-long "Ask Dr. Drew" episodes: 03. Will your content be entertaining enough? Back in 2014, Slate contributor Seth Stevenson asked why anyone would want to watch others play video games on Twitch. After spending some time watching various streams on the platform, Stevenson came to an interesting conclusion: “What about those low-key channels where it’s just one dude gaming, and shooting the breeze with his thousands of viewers? Well, those viewers are finding a community of like-minded souls, they’re engaging over a shared interest, and they’re getting tips from superior gamers on how to win at the games. How is this different from watching a cooking show that mesmerizes you while also teaching you how to make a soufflé? Or, for heaven’s sake, watching a show about remodeling nondescript houses in suburban neighborhoods?” Unlike reality TV programming or YouTube channels, Twitch allows users to engage with creators and other users in real time over their shared interests. Does your brand (or even just you as the face of the company) have something entertaining or edifying to share? TheCrossFitGames is a good example: CrossFit, in general, is known for its community. It can also produce content around its Games for others to watch and enjoy. 04. Do you have the time to devote to it? If you choose advertising or influencer marketing, you’ll devote minimal time designing Twitch ads or promoting your live stream. However, if you want to create, you must invest a significant amount of time. First, you’ll need to design your channel’s artwork, come up with content for the About page and maybe even customize Emotes for your subscribers. Second, you’ll have to produce your content, create a schedule, promote it on other channels, film the live streams and engage with viewers. Your broadcasts must not only be super engaging, but also well-managed. Planning and organizing has allowed Twitch brands like NASA to amass over a million followers: 05. How much money can you realistically invest in Twitch marketing? Streaming is an affordable venture. By Entrepreneur ’s estimates , it could cost about $100 to buy a bundle of live streaming gear. That includes things like a tripod, an extender and lighting. Advertising, on the other hand, will likely cost your brand thousands of dollars a month. You may cut costs through influencer marketing—especially if you exchange product for exposure—but it’ll still cost your brand money.

If you’re trying to figure out how to start a business , you would do well to look to Jason Feifer for inspiration. In addition to being the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur, Feifer produces a podcast, writes a newsletter, and advises people interested in becoming an entrepreneur . If that weren’t enough, he recently wrote a book , Build For Tomorrow , about preparing for change and building a more resilient, fulfilling career. We spoke to him to learn more about his journey and the lessons he learned along the way. Already building your business? Set up your business website to drum up interest. Wix: In "Build for Tomorrow," you say that entrepreneurship is more of a state of mind than a description of your work. Can you tell us a little bit more about that thinking? Jason Feifer: [Entrepreneur] used to be an uncommon word that denoted a founder at a very specific stage in their journey. Now, so many different kinds of people identify with this word. People are looking for ways to be and think self-sufficiently, even if they’re an employee. Obviously, there's a big difference between what a founder does and what an employee does, but the emotional journey of trying to get somewhere by yourself is relatable across so many fields. Horizontal thinking is—I make a thing, I put it out in the world, I move along, and I just keep doing that. But entrepreneurs have trained themselves in what I call "vertical thinking." They do something because they think it’s the foundation upon which to build the next thing. I think the more anybody in any position thinks that way—what they do now will drive toward opportunity later—the more growth they can unlock for themselves. Related: Entrepreneurs and Thought Leadership: Why the Two Go Hand in Hand You talk about “redefining failure” in your book, and I wondered if we also need to redefine what success looks like: How do you define success for yourself if there is no finish line? It's an unbelievably valuable thing if you can think about failure as data. We need to define success for ourselves in realistic and meaningful ways. It's not like you get this thing you were working toward, then there's cake and you get to go home. It just opens the next door. You've got to figure out how to get to the next one. We can step back and set goals for ourselves that aren’t about succeeding but about achieving momentum. I often think back to this guy named Ryan Holiday who has written a lot of best-selling books. He wrote this piece about what it's like to be successful, and how it weirdly doesn't feel like anything. Success and failure don't necessarily transform you. So, we have to set our expectations differently. It sounds like your definition of success is always growing, looking toward the next step of your journey, exploring something different, trying something new. The goal that I set for myself is basically, “How can I figure out what the next transformation is?” This is why I have constantly upgraded the thing that I do and the way I do it. I don't know that it can get any more specific than that, and I'm not sure that it should. That connects to your idea that we shouldn’t identify ourselves by the job we have but by the thing that drives us. One thing that drives all types of entrepreneurs is having a sense of ownership over the thing they're doing. When I was a magazine editor, I used to think that I wanted to be the owner of the thing we were making. I wanted it to be my vision. This is not out of a sense of wanting to control; rather, it’s because the work is a product of my own abilities. When I got to that place with Entrepreneur , I realized that the next step was ownership of myself. I had an opportunity to build things outside of the magazine that were just mine. So, every time I achieve something that moves me further in that direction, I feel like that is a marker of success. It's abstract, but it's scalable—and it means that there are lots of little wins along the way. I really loved all of your examples of moral panics that seem really ridiculous from our vantage point. My favorite was the anecdote in which the musician suggested mothers would stop singing lullabies to their children because of the radio. Do you see entrepreneurs panicking about some sort of change that you think is going to seem ridiculous in 20 years? This is an oversimplification, but you can divide the world into people who feel like they are being acted on and people who feel like they are the actors. I think the fear of new things is often driven by people who feel like they are being acted upon and don't have control over the things that are coming into their world. It's new, so their instinct is to push back on them. Entrepreneurs feel like they produce new things. They have their own set of problems—they are often too optimistic, so they might be blind to how new things might not be as impactful as they think. You can think about those Lime and Bird scooters. I think it's a great technology, and I'm really happy it exists. But when they first came out, the talk was like, “This is going to revolutionize urban transportation.” But they didn't revolutionize transportation. They just added one more good option. We have to understand that the new things that come along aren't going to destroy, but they're also probably not going to transform. Occasionally, you make Google and it literally transforms everything. But most of the time, you don't. Most of the time, what you make is something that's useful and has value. And sometimes it takes us a while to understand the value and how to refine it to be useful for the most people. Do you ever worry that this mindset could be weaponized in order to shut down or dismiss real issues and valid feelings? That’s a very realistic concern about a totally optimistic, unquestioning approach to saying every new thing is good. I agree that problems need to be engaged with. The thing that we should not do is say, “Is this perfect?” Because nothing is going to be perfect. Oftentimes, we focus so much on the problems that we say the problem is the whole thing. We might say, “Oh, these scooters are blocking bike lanes, and the solution is to get these things out of my city.” I don't think that's the realistic or smart way to think about it. I think the better way to think about it is, “Is our new problem better than our old problem?” Because that allows for problems, and you evaluate whether we're on the right path to address this new problem and make things even better.

After deciding to create a website , determining how social media fits into your marketing strategy should be your next step. It may seem like a can that you can kick down the road, but social media offers one of the quickest ways to build your online presence. In particular, TikTok presents an opportunity to get in front of more than 1 billion active users each month. With its addictive infotainment-style videos, TikTok gives brands large and small a platform for engaging consumers in a fresh, exciting way. That said, if you’re looking to get started on TikTok, it pays to analyze user behaviors and understand when consumers are most engaged. Audiences differ from market to market and business to business, so you’ll want to take the time to study your specific audience and identify the best times for your business to engage with them on TikTok. Why does posting time matter on TikTok? Going viral on TikTok requires high-quality content and a bit of luck. But understanding what the TikTok algorithm looks at—especially as it pertains to timing—can help you improve your luck. In addition to factors like user interactions, user information and video information, the TikTok algorithm takes timeliness into consideration. It values fresh and recent content. In other words, newer videos have a higher chance of being recommended, especially if they relate to current trends or events. Therefore, posting your content when users are most likely to see it means you'll have a better chance at grabbing their attention and encouraging engagement. More specifically, your posting time on TikTok can have the following effects: Your video may get more engagement: Newly posted videos are initially shown to a relatively small group of users that TikTok's algorithm selects based on past interests and behavior. If they engage with your video, then the algorithm will share it with more people with similar interests. This is the main reason why posting when your target audience is most active increases your chances of reaching more people. Your video is more likely to show up on TikTok's “For You” page: TikTok displays a personalized stream of videos on each user’s “For You” page. The TikTok algorithm recommends videos to users based on their interests and past behavior. So, if you’re able to catch users’ attention early and often, you may have a higher chance of getting seen on their “For You” pages later down the road. You can get an extra boost depending on the context: Trends, seasons and current events all influence what content appears on the “For You” page. Similarly, timing your content based on certain periods of the day could influence engagement. For example, if you’re posting about a current event, it helps to be one of the first covering the breaking news. Alternatively, if you’re posting a dance video, you might have better engagement in the afternoon when students are back from school. You may stand out more when posting during slower periods: It might seem counterintuitive, but posting during times when TikTok is less busy could help your video stand out. With fewer videos vying for attention, your posts may have a better opportunity to stand out and gain traction among the TikTok community. Timing is an essential part of what should be a more robust TikTok marketing strategy that incorporates things like hashtags, influencer partnerships and high-quality video production. All these elements work together to give your videos the best chances of being seen. When is the best time to post on TikTok? Sprout Social’s study of 400,000 social profiles suggests that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in your time zone are the best times to post on TikTok. Engagement is at its highest on those days because “users are looking to fill their afternoon entertainment boost.” Meanwhile, the same study suggests that Sundays are the worst days to post, especially if you’re working in consumer goods, tourism or education. That said, other studies point to different optimal times, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the above question. For this reason, it’s important to consider other factors that are specific to your audience when deciding the best time to post on TikTok. 5 factors for determining the best time to post on TikTok Knowing the most popular engagement times on TikTok is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to maximizing post visibility. There are other elements that come into play, and each will impact your ability to reach users on the platform. 01. Audience time zone The key to figuring out the best time to post on TikTok is figuring out when your target audience is most likely to be active online. Whether you have followers from around the corner or across the globe, adjusting your posting schedule to match their local time can make a big difference. By aligning your posting schedule with your audience’s time zone, you can increase the chances of getting more engagement and interactions. Pro tip: Take advantage of your website data for insight into your audience’s demographics. For instance, Wix Analytics ’ Traffic Overview report can show you the countries and regions that most site visitors hail from. This can help you to identify the best markets to target on TikTok, and inform your posting schedule and content. 02. Audience age Different age groups have distinct online habits and peak activity periods. For example, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, your audience might be more active during after-school hours or in the evenings. On the other hand, if your target audience is more of a nine-to-five crowd, they may be more active before work or during their lunch break. 03. Follower activity TikTok's analytics tool offers valuable insights into when your actual followers are most active. Once you earn more than 100 followers, you can access this info directly from your profile. But if you want even more detailed analytics, you might want to think about upgrading to TikTok for Business . With upgraded analytics, you'll get deeper insights into your followers' activity patterns, how engaged they are and how well your content is performing. Here are some tips for using your TikTok Analytics dashboard to help you plan the timing of your posts: Review follower activity: TikTok provides information about when (by day and time) your followers are most active and where they're located. For example, TikTok Analytics may tell you that your U.S.-based followers are most active at 10 p.m. on Thursdays, whereas your Australian followers are much more engaged at 11 a.m. on Saturdays. Review post engagement trends: Analyze reactions, comments, shares and reach of all your posts to understand when certain types of content resonate most with your followers. Review which posts performed best: This will help you develop a feel for the best days and times to post for your existing followers. It’s also a good way to begin testing a broader time/day posting strategy for TikTok. Review your "follower by the hour" numbers: This helpful stat provides an hour-by-hour chart illustrating when your followers are most likely to be online. Look at both overall and specific metrics: It's important to examine overall audience trends and dive into more detailed insights, such as specific video performance numbers. Doing such a comprehensive analysis will give you the most accurate sense of when and how frequently to post. Pay attention to content metrics: Content metrics like watch time, views by region, full video watches and total shares are important because they help you understand what content is working. Adjust your posting strategy based on these insights to effectively create a posting timeline that resonates with your audience. Pro tip: Compare your TikTok findings with your Wix Analytics to understand which of your posts yield sales. Reports such as Wix’s Top Traffic Sources report can help you track the number of visitors that enter your site through TikTok, as well as the products or services that these buyers gravitate towards. 04. Trends, events and occasions Occasions, seasons and trends are all great opportunities for posting timely content. Look out for what’s trending on TikTok and plan to capitalize on special occasions like holidays, movie releases or occasions like “National Sibling Day" or "Women's History Month." Additionally, staying up-to-date about current events can help you create social media marketing content that resonates with your audience. 05. Competitor activity Doing competitor research on TikTok can provide valuable insights when determining what time to post on the platform. Take the time to explore your competitors' business profiles and identify the videos that have garnered the most engagement. If there are any patterns in the timing of those posts, it’s worth testing to see if those posting times increase the engagement around your content. How to find the best time to post on TikTok for you Ultimately, the best time to post on TikTok depends on your business goals, target audience and the type of content you produce. While there are some basic guidelines to keep in mind—like posting when your audience is most active and testing different timing strategies—you'll need to experiment with a range of different approaches to find the right combination that works for you. Start with your existing followers and content by monitoring post activity, engagement trends and demographics to set the stage for building a wider audience on TikTok. Also, pay attention to content metrics like watch time, views by region, full video watches and total shares. These data points shed light on what your audience finds interesting (or not). Finally, make sure to experiment with different posting strategies. Try posting at different times, on different weekdays and with varying frequency. Since TikTok is a global platform, your audience may be larger than you realize. Post with time zones in mind, then monitor where viewers are coming from and when they respond. Give yourself time to learn and gain data. You may not immediately find a strategy that works, but it's okay if you don't get it right away. Adjust your approach as needed and eventually you'll find the perfect time to post on TikTok for your brand.

After deciding to create a website , determining how social media fits into your marketing strategy should be your next step. It may seem like a can that you can kick down the road, but social media offers one of the quickest ways to build your online presence. In particular, TikTok presents an opportunity to get in front of more than 1 billion active users each month. With its addictive infotainment-style videos, TikTok gives brands large and small a platform for engaging consumers in a fresh, exciting way. That said, if you’re looking to get started on TikTok, it pays to analyze user behaviors and understand when consumers are most engaged. Audiences differ from market to market and business to business, so you’ll want to take the time to study your specific audience and identify the best times for your business to engage with them on TikTok. Why does posting time matter on TikTok? Going viral on TikTok requires high-quality content and a bit of luck. But understanding what the TikTok algorithm looks at—especially as it pertains to timing—can help you improve your luck. In addition to factors like user interactions, user information and video information, the TikTok algorithm takes timeliness into consideration. It values fresh and recent content. In other words, newer videos have a higher chance of being recommended, especially if they relate to current trends or events. Therefore, posting your content when users are most likely to see it means you'll have a better chance at grabbing their attention and encouraging engagement. More specifically, your posting time on TikTok can have the following effects: Your video may get more engagement: Newly posted videos are initially shown to a relatively small group of users that TikTok's algorithm selects based on past interests and behavior. If they engage with your video, then the algorithm will share it with more people with similar interests. This is the main reason why posting when your target audience is most active increases your chances of reaching more people. Your video is more likely to show up on TikTok's “For You” page: TikTok displays a personalized stream of videos on each user’s “For You” page. The TikTok algorithm recommends videos to users based on their interests and past behavior. So, if you’re able to catch users’ attention early and often, you may have a higher chance of getting seen on their “For You” pages later down the road. You can get an extra boost depending on the context: Trends, seasons and current events all influence what content appears on the “For You” page. Similarly, timing your content based on certain periods of the day could influence engagement. For example, if you’re posting about a current event, it helps to be one of the first covering the breaking news. Alternatively, if you’re posting a dance video, you might have better engagement in the afternoon when students are back from school. You may stand out more when posting during slower periods: It might seem counterintuitive, but posting during times when TikTok is less busy could help your video stand out. With fewer videos vying for attention, your posts may have a better opportunity to stand out and gain traction among the TikTok community. Timing is an essential part of what should be a more robust TikTok marketing strategy that incorporates things like hashtags, influencer partnerships and high-quality video production. All these elements work together to give your videos the best chances of being seen. When is the best time to post on TikTok? Sprout Social’s study of 400,000 social profiles suggests that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in your time zone are the best times to post on TikTok. Engagement is at its highest on those days because “users are looking to fill their afternoon entertainment boost.” Meanwhile, the same study suggests that Sundays are the worst days to post, especially if you’re working in consumer goods, tourism or education. That said, other studies point to different optimal times, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the above question. For this reason, it’s important to consider other factors that are specific to your audience when deciding the best time to post on TikTok. 5 factors for determining the best time to post on TikTok Knowing the most popular engagement times on TikTok is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to maximizing post visibility. There are other elements that come into play, and each will impact your ability to reach users on the platform. 01. Audience time zone The key to figuring out the best time to post on TikTok is figuring out when your target audience is most likely to be active online. Whether you have followers from around the corner or across the globe, adjusting your posting schedule to match their local time can make a big difference. By aligning your posting schedule with your audience’s time zone, you can increase the chances of getting more engagement and interactions. Pro tip: Take advantage of your website data for insight into your audience’s demographics. For instance, Wix Analytics ’ Traffic Overview report can show you the countries and regions that most site visitors hail from. This can help you to identify the best markets to target on TikTok, and inform your posting schedule and content. 02. Audience age Different age groups have distinct online habits and peak activity periods. For example, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, your audience might be more active during after-school hours or in the evenings. On the other hand, if your target audience is more of a nine-to-five crowd, they may be more active before work or during their lunch break. 03. Follower activity TikTok's analytics tool offers valuable insights into when your actual followers are most active. Once you earn more than 100 followers, you can access this info directly from your profile. But if you want even more detailed analytics, you might want to think about upgrading to TikTok for Business . With upgraded analytics, you'll get deeper insights into your followers' activity patterns, how engaged they are and how well your content is performing. Here are some tips for using your TikTok Analytics dashboard to help you plan the timing of your posts: Review follower activity: TikTok provides information about when (by day and time) your followers are most active and where they're located. For example, TikTok Analytics may tell you that your U.S.-based followers are most active at 10 p.m. on Thursdays, whereas your Australian followers are much more engaged at 11 a.m. on Saturdays. Review post engagement trends: Analyze reactions, comments, shares and reach of all your posts to understand when certain types of content resonate most with your followers. Review which posts performed best: This will help you develop a feel for the best days and times to post for your existing followers. It’s also a good way to begin testing a broader time/day posting strategy for TikTok. Review your "follower by the hour" numbers: This helpful stat provides an hour-by-hour chart illustrating when your followers are most likely to be online. Look at both overall and specific metrics: It's important to examine overall audience trends and dive into more detailed insights, such as specific video performance numbers. Doing such a comprehensive analysis will give you the most accurate sense of when and how frequently to post. Pay attention to content metrics: Content metrics like watch time, views by region, full video watches and total shares are important because they help you understand what content is working. Adjust your posting strategy based on these insights to effectively create a posting timeline that resonates with your audience. Pro tip: Compare your TikTok findings with your Wix Analytics to understand which of your posts yield sales. Reports such as Wix’s Top Traffic Sources report can help you track the number of visitors that enter your site through TikTok, as well as the products or services that these buyers gravitate towards. 04. Trends, events and occasions Occasions, seasons and trends are all great opportunities for posting timely content. Look out for what’s trending on TikTok and plan to capitalize on special occasions like holidays, movie releases or occasions like “National Sibling Day" or "Women's History Month." Additionally, staying up-to-date about current events can help you create social media marketing content that resonates with your audience. 05. Competitor activity Doing competitor research on TikTok can provide valuable insights when determining what time to post on the platform. Take the time to explore your competitors' business profiles and identify the videos that have garnered the most engagement. If there are any patterns in the timing of those posts, it’s worth testing to see if those posting times increase the engagement around your content. How to find the best time to post on TikTok for you Ultimately, the best time to post on TikTok depends on your business goals, target audience and the type of content you produce. While there are some basic guidelines to keep in mind—like posting when your audience is most active and testing different timing strategies—you'll need to experiment with a range of different approaches to find the right combination that works for you. Start with your existing followers and content by monitoring post activity, engagement trends and demographics to set the stage for building a wider audience on TikTok. Also, pay attention to content metrics like watch time, views by region, full video watches and total shares. These data points shed light on what your audience finds interesting (or not). Finally, make sure to experiment with different posting strategies. Try posting at different times, on different weekdays and with varying frequency. Since TikTok is a global platform, your audience may be larger than you realize. Post with time zones in mind, then monitor where viewers are coming from and when they respond. Give yourself time to learn and gain data. You may not immediately find a strategy that works, but it's okay if you don't get it right away. Adjust your approach as needed and eventually you'll find the perfect time to post on TikTok for your brand.

When Lindy Alexander left her full-time job to give freelancing a try, she gave herself one year to make it work. In her first 11 months of freelancing, she made $100,000. Seven years later, she is an award-winning travel writer with an expansive portfolio on her business website , a steady stream of assignments and a six-figure income. On top of that, she runs her own online business , The Freelancer’s Year . What started as a career advice blog for other freelancers (across many types of businesses ) has expanded to include a newsletter, courses, and private coaching. When I first started freelancing , I knew nothing about how to start a business or how to create a freelance website . Lindy’s course put me on the right track. Although she primarily works with writers, her strategies are applicable to all sorts of freelancers and digital nomads . So, I sat down with her to learn more about the secrets to her success and how you can use them to make it big. Wix: You made $100,000 in the first 11 months of freelancing, which is wildly impressive. What was your plan for your transition to freelance work? Lindy Alexander: My passion was in feature writing, but I didn't feel like I would earn the bulk of my money that way. I decided to get into content marketing . So, I zhuzhed up my LinkedIn profile and reached out to people I had written for before. I leveraged my health writing experience and asked health organizations if they needed a freelance writer . I sent out letters of introduction to everyone. Did you dip your toe into freelance writing while you were working full time, or did you just jump right in? It started as a side hustle . I took a feature writing course and published an article by the time it ended. I just kept pitching, getting gigs and writing articles. Eventually, editors started to come to me with assignments. Suddenly, my desire to be a social worker diminished. I started focusing on freelancing [and hit a] point when I wondered if I could sustain an income as a full-time freelancer. I was thrilled when people started paying me to write. But when I started doing it full-time, I had to look at it from a business perspective. I looked at all the work I had done over the previous 18 months and thought, “I can't spend six hours on an article that pays me $120 unless it’s a passion project.” I focused on getting work that would bring in the bulk of my income. The freelance path is so unpredictable. It’s either drizzling or pouring. How do you manage the flow of your business? I think those feast or famine times come from insecurity. A lot of freelancers don’t feel confident that they can charge what they want, say no to assignments, or push timelines back. Clients often hire freelancers with the perspective that it’s an emergency and we absorb that. I’m much better now at remembering that their emergency is not mine. Holding those boundaries is so difficult, but so important. This is my business, and I need it to work for me. What other factors do you think would make freelancers’ lives easier? Consistency. Freelancers come to me and say, “I’m not getting any traction with these letters of introduction.” But when I talk to them about it, they’ve only done it for a week or so. It’s a numbers game, so you need to keep putting yourself out there. Having a long-term view is really important. When freelancers are busy, they think, “I cannot possibly take on anything else.” But when things are quiet, the vehicle has totally stopped. It takes a while to get those wheels turning again, and people panic. You don’t have to be in full acceleration mode [all the time]. Just stay in touch and people will come back to you. I kept in touch with an editor over the last four years and never worked for him. But he called me last week with work. Some connections pay off quickly, but others take years to germinate. Many freelancers get anxious about quoting or negotiating rates. How do you navigate that conversation? An internal hourly rate makes it easier. Have an income target each month and each week. You need to know how many hours you want to work and how much you want to earn for each hour. Track your hours so you know how long it takes you to write a 600-word blog post or a 12,000-word white paper. You’re not just pulling out a number. You know exactly what works for you. If they don’t accept it, you can move on and pursue other opportunities. When do you forgo the high-paying jobs for passion projects? Usually, it’s travel or food writing. Next month, I’m going overseas for 10 days. I won’t get paid very much, but I’m going to have incredible opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have. I just have to [plan to] have enough work to carry me through. I just had an editor [reach out with] 10 stories to assign. I told her I could only take on two, but I could help find other writers. It comes back to that confidence piece. I’m much better at saying to editors, “I can’t take this on,” or “I’m away, but I could take this on next month.” How do you manage the stuff like networking and blogging that doesn’t make money? For me, I work out how many actual hours of writing work I do a week [and base my rates on that]. When people want to make $100K per year, that is $8,333 a month, $400 per weekday. But you’re not working eight hours a day for 52 weeks. You have to give yourself breaks. And at least 30% of my time goes to bookkeeping, researching, pitching and blogging. It’s really about planning and keeping control of your time. It’s not sexy, but it makes everything so much easier. You’ve stayed in freelance for 11 years at this point. What makes the hard work worthwhile? If you have a salaried position, you have a cap on what you can earn (see how to start a service business ). I’m not particularly money-motivated, but I can see the direct correlation between the [freelance] work I do and the amount I get paid. I love the flexibility, freedom and variation of freelance. I’ve written about parenting, health, business and education. Now, I’m in travel writing. There are so many opportunities to pursue what you love and to meet interesting people. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Turn your ideas into income with Wix. Secure your domain name →  In the ever-expanding world of personal development and mentorship, coaching has emerged as a lucrative field for individuals seeking to guide others toward their goals and aspirations while generating income. Coaches are drawn to the profession for its potential to blend expertise with empathy, work with diverse clients and make a positive impact on individuals' lives. Whether you're looking to supplement your income, start a coaching business  or pursue a full-time career in coaching, understanding how to make money as a coach is the first step toward transforming your passion for helping others into a profitable venture. Using a free website builder  makes it easy to showcase your services and make money. Ready to build your website?  Sign up for Wix for free . Secure your brand’s domain and start earning online. With Wix, you can grab it fast and set up email, hosting, SSL and privacy all in one place. It’s simple, beginner-friendly and backed by 24/7 support. Tips for making money as a coach Thriving as a coach requires a combination of coaching proficiency, effective communication and adaptability to diverse client needs. Time management, self-discipline and building a robust professional network are also crucial for success in the coaching industry. To promote your coaching career effectively, create an online portfolio  showcasing your past successes and coaching philosophy. Establishing an online presence by showcasing your work on dedicated platforms or through a coaching portfolio is vital for attracting potential clients and collaborators. Specializing in a specific coaching niche can enhance your career, allowing you to focus on a particular coaching style or area while making money as a freelancer . This specialization not only establishes your expertise but also increases the likelihood of attracting clients aligned with your skills and commanding higher fees. Identifying a niche that aligns with market demand and your coaching passions is key for success in the freelance coaching landscape. Need help thinking of other money-making opportunities? Use the Wix Business Launcher to discover more ideas based on your skills and hobbies. Chat with AI and get set up with a full market analysis, earning strategies and launch kit right out of the gate. It’s everything you need to transform your ideas into reality—quickly and easily. 12 ways to make money as a coach Life coaching Career coaching Executive coaching Health and wellness coaching Relationship coaching Financial coaching Mindfulness coaching Performance coaching Team building coaching Entrepreneurship coaching Communication coaching Creativity coaching 01. Life coaching Life coaches focus on guiding individuals to achieve personal and professional goals, providing support and motivation for overall life improvement. Whether it's navigating career choices, personal relationships or finding purpose, life coaching aims to empower individuals to make positive changes and reach their fullest potential.  02. Career coaching Career coaches specialize in helping individuals navigate their professional paths, providing guidance on career choices and development. This can range from helping you resolve toxic workplace conflict  to transitioning to a different career. From identifying suitable career paths to enhancing workplace skills, career coaching assists individuals in achieving their professional aspirations and building fulfilling careers. 03. Executive coaching Executive coaches work with high-level professionals and leaders, providing guidance on leadership skills, strategic thinking and organizational success. Tailored for individuals in executive roles, this form of coaching helps enhance decision-making, communication and overall effectiveness in leadership positions. 04. Health and wellness coaching Health and wellness coaches assist clients in achieving physical and mental well-being goals, including fitness, nutrition and stress management. This coaching focuses on fostering a holistic approach to health, helping individuals create sustainable and positive lifestyle changes. 05. Relationship coaching Relationship coaches help individuals and couples navigate and improve their relationships, providing guidance on communication, conflict resolution and overall relationship dynamics. Whether addressing romantic relationships, family dynamics or friendships, relationship coaching aims to enhance the quality of interpersonal connections. 06. Financial coaching Financial coaches assist clients in managing their finances, budgeting effectively and achieving financial goals for personal and business success. This form of coaching addresses topics such as wealth-building, debt reduction and creating a sustainable financial future. 07. Mindfulness coaching Mindfulness coaches guide individuals in developing mindfulness practices, promoting mental clarity, stress reduction and overall well-being. Mindfulness coaching often involves meditation techniques and strategies to cultivate present-moment awareness and resilience. 08. Performance coaching Performance coaches work with individuals or teams to enhance their skills and achieve peak performance in various areas, such as sports, business or the arts. This coaching focuses on unlocking potential, setting and achieving goals, and maintaining a high level of performance. 09. Team building coaching Team building coaches focus on improving collaboration, communication and overall effectiveness within teams and organizations. By fostering a positive team culture and addressing challenges, team building coaching contributes to enhanced teamwork and productivity. 10. Entrepreneurship coaching Entrepreneurship coaches assist aspiring and established entrepreneurs in navigating the challenges of starting and growing a business. From business planning to marketing strategies , entrepreneurship coaching aims to support individuals in building successful and sustainable ventures. Explore Wix user Mastery  as an example of how to springboard your career in entrepreneurship coaching. 11. Communication coaching Communication coaches help individuals improve their interpersonal and public speaking skills, fostering effective communication in various settings. This coaching is valuable for enhancing professional communication, leadership communication and personal expression. It can also be a great way to make money online . 12. Creativity coaching Creativity coaches guide individuals in unlocking and enhancing their creative potential, whether in artistic endeavors or problem-solving. This coaching encourages individuals to overcome creative blocks, explore innovative ideas and express their unique talents. How to get started making money as a coach Begin by assessing your coaching skills and identifying your niche. Coach Randall Osche , who specializes in personal coaching, emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and staying informed about industry trends. Learn how to make a website  or a coaching portfolio showcasing your success stories and coaching approach. Use your portfolio to highlight client testimonials and articulate your coaching philosophy. Be inspired by these coaching website examples . Set up a professional profile on coaching platforms and social media to connect with potential clients, collaborators and industry professionals. “Identify the social media platforms your audience is active on the most and get an in-depth understanding of what it takes to rank in them. For example, converting your Instagram carousel posts into a Reel can capture attention more effectively and boost your content's impact, ultimately leading people to visit your site.” Lilach Goldis, Social Media Manager at Wix Learn more: How to make money on Instagram How to make money on TikTok How to make money on Youtube Pro tip: Before jumping in, make sure you understand the basics of how to start a business , including setting your rates, creating coaching packages and managing client relationships. How to make money as a coach FAQ How do I find clients as a freelance coach? Create profiles on popular freelance platforms like Upwork, Freelancer and Coach.me. Networking on social media, particularly platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, can also help you discover opportunities. Additionally, offering free workshops or webinars can attract potential clients. You can also use your website to promote your services. What should I charge for my freelance coaching services? Research industry standards and consider factors such as your experience, coaching credentials and the complexity of the coaching engagement when determining your rates. How do I identify profitable coaching niches? Identify niches aligned with your skills, market demand and personal interests. Specializing in areas such as executive coaching or health and wellness coaching can lead to higher-paying opportunities, especially if you become recognized as an expert in that niche. Can I make a full-time income from freelance coaching? Yes, many coaches successfully make a full-time income by securing consistent clients, building a strong client base and establishing long-term coaching relationships.

As a small business owner , you know how important your online brand is to your business. A positive customer perception of your brand can lead to conversion, sales and bookings. But what do you do when a provocative comment makes its way to your website or social media feeds? Do you delete the comment? Argue back? Turn off comments altogether? Or block them? You’ve just been trolled—and you shouldn’t wait to see what will happen next, as it can lead to the internet becoming an unwelcoming and unsafe place. Thankfully Talya Adler, Wix’s online brand management expert, is here to help you develop a plan for dealing with online haters. Learn how to start a business and create a business website with Wix and grow your brand on a platform that protects against cyber threats—DDoS attacks and malware—and offers around-the-clock monitoring. Wix’s website security is fully managed by experts, so you can run your business with peace of mind. What are internet trolls? Before we dive in, let’s get on the same page about what we’re calling a troll. A “troll,” in internet slang, is someone who posts intentionally inflammatory and upsetting statements in online communities, such as social media, comments sections on a website, forums and chat rooms, to provoke unwary victims and delight in their anguish. They borrow their name from the original trolls of Scandinavian folklore. According to Jennifer Beckett , a lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, trolling is “a specific act: throwing bait into the internet water in the form of deliberately provocative statements (not personal attacks, that’s ‘flaming’ ) and waiting for someone to bite.” Why are there internet trolls (and what impact do they have)? Trolling exploded after the advent of the social internet. While the internet doesn’t create trolls, it does give people predisposed to aggressive and unpleasant behavior a place to amplify and make visible their hostility, found an Aarhus University study published in the American Political Science Review . One of the study’s authors, Alexander Bor, tweeted: “...The people hateful on Twitter offend others in face-to-face conversation too.” The researchers, who polled over 8,000 American and Danish people, also identified being a status seeker as another strong characteristic among trolls. Businesses are often plagued with trolls on their social media feeds. For example, in 2019, Coconut-water brand Vita Coco playfully threatened to send urine to a man who trolled them on Twitter for their product's divisive taste. Vita Coco “won” the battle, according to the critic Tony Posnanski. And what started as individuals annoying people and businesses on the internet has turned into a strategic form of digital warfare over the past decade. Coordinated troll armies have played a large role in high-profile harassment cases, ranging from 2014's Gamergate , the 2016 American presidential election , and 2022's Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial. The Philippines even has a government-sponsored troll army. How to deal with internet trolls While you hopefully never have to deal with a troll problem, it's a small business myth that there's nothing you can do about it. There is a strategic response that can help minimize how it affects your business. In the words of Wix: “Don’t panic. Don’t answer impulsively. Don’t apologize.” While every internet troll case is unique, this workflow can help you figure out your next steps: Reread Research Respond 01. Reread Online communication comes without body language, facial expressions and a tone of voice. Make sure you fully understand what is being said to avoid any misinterpretation. It may be helpful to ask someone else to read the content for a gut check before moving forward. It’s good to check the timing of the posts—especially for small and medium-sized businesses . Perhaps you’re launching a new product/service or hosting a conference. While these seem like normal processes in business, they could become an open call for status-seeking trolls to attack your brand. For example if you’re streaming a live event, you’ll want to monitor in real time the comments coming in. An internet troll could also be fishing you into a spat about a topic far bigger than your business alone, whether it’s for political, cultural or religious reasons. Adler recommends avoiding these types of engagement altogether. Inform yourself about what’s going on in the world and be in tune with discourses taking place around you. “You don’t want to become the next internet meme,” says Adler. 02. Research After rereading the content, investigate the account and their history. You may find that your internet troll’s account has roped in other customer care accounts into online battles. If that’s the case, Adler says to keep your distance and don’t feed the troll. You could also discover that it’s a bot that simply needs to be blocked and reported. However, if a cursory check seems like there’s more to the story, use social network analysis to investigate further into the internet troll. Search their social media accounts to find how big their following is and how extensive it goes across platforms. Are they getting shared or retweeted? Do their posts get commented on and by who? Your next step will depend on how “influential” your troll is and how much damage they can bring to your business. Mega-influencers. These are celebrities with hundreds of millions of followers across the biggest platforms. Macro-influencers. These are influencers that have garnered between 100,000 and 1 million followers. Micro-influencers. These are influencers with a following between 1,000 and 100,000 people. Despite their size, Adler says, these micro influencers are among the most engaged with their audience. Thus their potential impact is higher than a macro-influencer, she adds. Nano-influencers. These are influencers who have fewer than 1,000 followers, but are highly trusted by their audience. Non-influencers. These are regular people who have fewer than 1,000 followers, but don’t have any regular engagement or trust built with their audience. 03. Respond If you’re dealing with a legitimate customer, Adler recommends taking the conversation privately. Ask them for additional information (proof like screenshots) to better understand their case. You’ll want to better understand their grievances in order to solve their issues. If you’re dealing with an influencer trolling you, it may make sense to consult with a PR or brand expert to help you get your response messaging right. And if your business is being accused of misdealings, you may need to go on the defensive. Depending on the severity of the case, you might want to bring in a lawyer to sue . Preventing trolls in the first place At the center of troll prevention is a thorough content moderation strategy. While you could hire someone to monitor content and delete comments as they arise, you can also just choose a website platform that lets you manage which site visitors can comment on your posts in the first place.

There are a lot of ways businesses and teams measure success. You can take a look at your profits month over month, or examine how your business has grown over a set period of time. However, if you want to get a well-rounded overview of how your company is performing in specific areas, then you need to look at KPIs. KPIs, or key performance indicators, can be used by any type of business, from self-employed freelancers to small business owners and companies with dozens of employees. There are many different types of KPIs that can be used across multiple departments and teams. For example, you might create a website and then measure the success of clicks or conversions using KPIs. Alternatively, your HR team can apply them to your onboarding process to see how many employees you’re retaining. Since there are dozens of different KPIs out there, it can be tough to know which ones to focus on if you’re just getting started. Here, we’ve gathered some of the most important KPI examples that you can use for your business. What are KPIs? A key performance indicator is a metric that measures the performance of a business, team, individual, or project. They’re one of the main ways of assessing whether or not you’re meeting your goals or target objectives. KPIs need to be measurable so that you can monitor change over time. In addition, they need to have a distinct goal as well as a clear source of data that can be relied upon for important decisions. This data needs to be looked at often so that you can continuously track your KPIs to see how close you are to your goals. While there are hundreds of different KPIs out there, there’s no need to implement all of them for your business. When looking at the overall performance of your business, stick with around five different KPIs to measure your progress (see business strategy examples to learn more). Then, you can also track more specific KPIs for each department, such as marketing, sales, HR, customer service and development. This will help each department work together towards a more clearly defined goal, while still working towards the overall company targets. KPI examples and definitions These are some of the most common KPIs broken down into industry or department. If you’re starting a business , understanding the types of KPIs available to you is crucial for assessing future success (see business strategy examples ). You might want to use a few of them for each one of your teams, or just select a few important KPIs for your entire business. Sales KPI examples 01. Total Sales Volume: Measures the total volume, in dollars, of sales each month. Create a monthly or quarterly target so that your sales team has a goal, and be sure to adjust it regularly for dips or increases in sales which might occur around seasonal events or holidays. 02. Sales Cycle Length: Taking too long to complete a sale can negatively impact your bottom line and prevent you from reaching your quarterly goals. This KPI helps you measure how long it takes for a sale to be completed from start to finish. 03. Sales By [Metric]: You can break down where your sales are coming from by different metrics, such as region, age, sex, demographic, interests, etc. This helps you see which clients are bringing in the most revenue and which are underperforming. 04. Sales Cost to Volume Ratio: Making a sale is almost never free. A good chunk of your budget is probably going into each sale, with costs like salary or commissions, marketing costs, etc. That’s why it’s important to measure your sales expenditures vs. what your sales team is generating. This will help you see if your sales team is operating efficiently or not. Financial KPI examples 05. Revenue: In and of itself, revenue isn’t a KPI, but depending on your business, there are a few ways to measure this in terms of performance. Calculating your profit minus your costs is one of the main ways companies determine if they’re generating revenue. You should be measuring this KPI regularly by year, quarter and by month. Create a yearly revenue plan where you map out your expectations, then track your revenue over each quarter and month. Next, compare it to your yearly plan to see if you’re meeting your goals or if your initial yearly plan needs to be adjusted to meet more realistic expectations. 06. Free Cash Flow: This metric measures how much you can generate compared to your company’s operation costs. In order to calculate your free cash flow, you need to subtract your capital expenditures from your operating cash flow. This KPI is often used by investors to see if a business is profitable or not. 07. Gross Profit Margin: Get a percentage value of your total sales revenue. This KPI doesn’t look at expenses, but instead focuses mainly on profits. It’s a good yardstick to use when comparing your profits to that of your competitors. 08. Net Profit Margin: This KPI looks at the total percentage of your revenue after you deduct all your expenses, like operating costs, taxes and interest. Net Profit Margin is more helpful for internal comparison of your profits. Marketing KPI examples 09. Traffic: This is a pretty common KPI example. Here, you’re looking at the total number of visitors to your business, whether it’s traffic to your website or visitors in a physical location. You can measure the differences of this KPI over any amount of time, such as by hour of the day, day of the week, or month after month to see when you’re getting the most visitors. 10. Cost Per Lead: Once your traffic is converting into leads, you’ll probably want to know what each lead is costing. You might look at your cost of bringing in traffic or running your campaigns. This is a common KPI in online marketing and it usually measures how many people express interest in your business vs how many people see your ad or campaign. Many popular web analytics tools will allow you to set up this KPI to easily keep track of your progress. 11. Cost Per Phone Call: Sometimes the goal of your advertising campaign is to bring in calls. Calls can either directly be the source of sales or, if not, can be the start of a relationship between a potential customer and a business. When someone calls a business, they are likely very interested in what they have to offer, making cost per phone call a good metric. The complication, however, is that it may be difficult to track which advertisement brought in the call. Consider using a call tracking service to help you determine whether your ad spend was worthwhile. 12. Conversion Rate: A conversion rate takes things a step further than the cost per lead. This KPI measures how many conversions, or sales, you get compared to traffic. For example, if your website sees 1,000 visitors a month and you make 50 sales, your conversion rate is 5%. 13. Time on Site: This is one of those KPI examples that often stumps marketers since it can be tricky to optimize. You want to see how much time visitors are spending on your site before exiting or converting. If they’re leaving your site after only a few seconds, it’s likely that something is wrong with your website performance, usability, relevance, or content. Customer KPI examples 14. Customer Lifetime Value: Customer relationships are important, but it’s necessary to know how much value each client brings to your business. Customer lifetime value calculates how much monetary value you get from a client’s entire history with your company. To calculate this, you need to look at metrics like total purchase values and the number of purchases over time. 15. Customer Acquisition Cost: If you want to measure the effectiveness of your marketing, you need to look at how many clients it’s bringing you and whether it fits into the cost of your campaign. To arrive at this KPI, divide the total number of new clients you have by your acquisition expenditures. 16. Abandon Rate: This is an important metric for a customer support team since it can help you mitigate the number of unsatisfied clients. If clients are calling or chatting and then hanging up or getting disconnected before speaking to a representative, it’s important to understand why. Is your wait time too long? Did they find answers elsewhere? Abandon rates will help you understand your clients better and also optimize your customer support resources. 17: First Contact Resolution: Another important KPI for your customer support team is the rate of first contact resolution. Measure the number of clients who need to reach out to customer support multiple times for the same issue. This will help you understand where your team needs extra training to learn to resolve issues quicker, or where your process needs to be improved to avoid repeat contacts for the same issue. HR KPI examples 18. Employee Turnover Rate: The overall success of your business depends heavily on your employees, so it’s crucial to know how often your team is changing. Calculate the number of employees who have left in a period of time by your total employees. A high rate might mean it’s time to reexamine your onboarding process, employee expectations, or company culture. 19. Revenue Per Employee: This is another common KPI that helps measure efficiency. You want to see how profitable each employee is, so start by calculating your total revenue by your total number of employees. Many investors will ask for this KPI as well since it’s a good indicator of how a company manages costs. 20. Employee Satisfaction: Send out regular surveys or quizzes to understand how satisfied your employees are with your company and their jobs. This can be a challenging KPI to measure accurately, but it will help the health of your business by showing you which employees or teams need attention before they’re unhappy enough to quit and leave you with gaps in your operation. 21. Training Costs: You should be looking at how much you’re investing in each employee’s training. New hires will usually cost more, but there’s also the cost of ongoing training and education. A high rate of training costs isn’t always a bad thing. Investing in your employees can often lead to higher employee satisfaction and more productive workers. Tips for choosing the right KPIs for your business While it’s important to be aware of the many KPI examples, it’s even more important to assess which KPIs will help your business succeed. Not all KPIs will be relevant to every type of business , so take your industry, goal, and your company’s needs into consideration. For starters, ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve with your business. You can break this down by year or quarter to focus on different aspects of your company and use different KPIs. Maybe one quarter you want to pay closer attention to generating more leads, in which case you’d use more marketing KPIs, and then the following quarter you want to turn those leads into sales. Your KPIs should follow your general goals, not the other way around. Here are a few things to keep in mind to help you select the right KPIs to use for your business: Make sure your KPIs directly relate to your goal. If your goal is to boost sales, look at things like site traffic and conversion rates. Focus on a few key metrics. Instead of measuring anything that can be measured just for the sake of it, focus on a handful of KPIs at a time. Only once they’re optimized, move on to a different set of KPIs. Consider what stage your company is in. Are you just starting out? Going to market? Rebranding? Each stage will have a different set of goals and metrics to measure. Stay away from vanity metrics. Some KPIs help your business look good, but don’t really mean much in terms of reaching your goals. Metrics like “likes,” views, or clicks might seem impressive, but don’t mean much in terms of whether or not you’re moving closer to your goal. Choose KPIs that help you move your business forward over ones that only look good on paper. Look at your competitors. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing a set of KPIs from your competitors. If you have a similar business model, products, or services, it can be really helpful to know how you’re performing comparatively.

You can be a seasoned company with an established business plan, or be starting out and create a website for your new venture. Either way, identifying and understanding your competitors at each step of the process can lead to building a better business strategy. This is where a SWOT analysis comes into play. It is a useful tool for making improvements and keeping your marketing goals on track. In this guide, we’ll explain what this method is all about and how to do a SWOT analysis of your own. What is a SWOT analysis? SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a strategy used by businesses for measuring and evaluating their overall performance, and that of competitors, in an objective manner. All these factors help business owners make smarter decisions for their company, such as if a venture should grow into a new field or rebrand itself. The first two parameters, strengths and weaknesses, involve internal factors such as your reputation, team, location and intellectual property. These considerations are not necessarily permanent, and can fluctuate over time. It’s within an organization's own control to keep or change them (which can happen for the better or the worse). So, assuming you want to make a positive change, you’re going to need to put forth the effort and time to see that happen. Opportunities and threats are related to external influences such as competitors, market trends, and prices of materials. Unfortunately, these are not within an organization’s control, and therefore you are not able to change them. That said, successful businesses and corporations learn how to work with these factors to their advantage, and also adapt their strategies accordingly in order to compete with others in the field. Why do a SWOT analysis As mentioned earlier, SWOT analysis is a lengthy process that can help different types of businesses draw conclusions by enabling them to see the bigger picture clearly. Once they have obtained valuable data and insight, only then can businesses formulate a clever and strategic plan accordingly. Furthermore, a SWOT analysis forces you to examine your business in new and interesting ways vis-à-vis your strengths and weaknesses. This preparedness enables you to not only be ready for any challenges that might impact your business, but also offers a deeper understanding of potential opportunities or threats within your target market . How to do a SWOT analysis SWOT analysis should be a collaborative and inclusive process, so before you can really dive in, be sure to assemble your partners, stakeholders and any other decision-makers who will bring their ideas to the table. This way you’ll ensure you hear multiple opinions and diverse outlooks that’ll enrich your overall SWOT discussion ahead. Below, we’ll walk through the stages of how to do a SWOT analysis for reviewing both your own company and competitors. For each one, grab a white board, sheet of paper, or another note-taking device. On this, create four sections for each company you’ll analyze. Label the sections with these parts: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And remember that when it comes to this type of analysis, leave out the bias. The more honest you are, the better and more useful your results will be. Steps on how to do a SWOT analysis: In order to get a better sense of what a complete SWOT analysis might look like, we’ve taken the example of a hypothetical massage therapist who is starting a service business. Identify your company strengths Be aware of your weaknesses Recognize business opportunities Understand potential threats Make a business plan 01. Identify your strengths Strengths are the big things that a particular company is doing well, which gives them a competitive advantage in their industry and benefits their customers. For your own business, identifying your strengths can help you leverage these by making them stronger. For competitors, consider their strengths a goal to aim for. Ask yourself, How can I do what they do, but better? or, How can I create my own twist on this idea that outsmarts theirs? Here are a few questions to consider as you begin your SWOT analysis: What are this company’s competitive advantages in the industry? What features do they offer that are unique and valuable? What processes are they excelling in? What draws customers in? Are they a market leader? If so, how did they get here? Is the organization expanding and hiring new employees? What strong assets does the company have, i.e., intellectual property, stakeholders, buildings, etc.? 02. Be aware of your weaknesses These are the aspects of an organization that could use some improvement. During this stage of a SWOT analysis, it’s especially important to be honest with yourself. It might be a bit uncomfortable at first, but if you don’t draw attention to a weakness, there won’t be room for you to make it better. Note that many of the points you analyzed from the strengths above can be addressed in this section as well, but with a reverse meaning. For example, a strength might be “expanding their business and hiring new people,” while a weakness could be “losing employees to competition.” So think about those as options in addition to these kinds of questions: What could this company do better? What processes could be improved? Is this company lacking an established reputation? What is this company struggling with compared to others in the industry? What do customers often complain about? Is the organization losing employees? What assets is the company lacking, from patents to funding to employee positions and more? 03. Recognize business opportunities Owning a business is all about seizing the moment. Opportunities are probably the same for yourself and your competition, if not very similar. Recognizing them is the first step, and taking advantage of them before your competition does is the second. Likewise, you should do so at the determined time that makes the most sense for your business, depending on what stage of development you’re in. Here are more questions for doing a SWOT analysis the right way: What is the latest trend, such as a green initiative to use recycled packaging or working with social media influencers for promotion? What are some upcoming events to take advantage of, such as a trade show, holiday or recent news release? Is there a loophole in your market, such as a cheaper supplier or opportunity to eliminate the middleman? Is there an opportunity to expand to a larger building or better location? Could the business be sold soon? Or on the other hand, could this business buy smaller, local businesses to expand? 04. Understand potential threats These are external factors which can put a business in a negative light. And just like opportunities, threats are often similar for both you and your competitors. However, some threats can be individual to an organization, such as a particularly bad PR scandal from an unhappy customer. It’s extremely important to learn how to mitigate these, and prevent them from turning into larger issues in the future. Although threats come last in the SWOT analysis, it might be a good idea to address them first off paper. Like a small fire, if you don’t act quickly, threats can sometimes cause irreplaceable damage. Here are examples of potential threats: Is a customer expressly unhappy with a particular product or service? Is the market fluctuating, i.e., are prices rising, are consumers purchasing alternatives, etc.? Are there new government regulations to watch out for? What is it that they are doing better? Do some market research to find out. Will new technology become available in the near future that could make this business’s products or services obsolete? Are consumers no longer expressing interest in these services? 05. Make a business plan Now that you’ve laid out the most important components affecting the success of your organization and your competition, you have the tools you need to develop a strategy. This plan will guide you to make improvements in your company, and compete on a level playground with your competition. Consider these five steps in working through your plan: Get feedback on your own SWOT analysis from your employees and other relevant stakeholders. Draw out a plan, which involves using your strengths to counteract your weaknesses, as well as finding opportunities through your threats. If you’re just starting a business , write out these components as a part of your business plan , too. Communicate your ideas to your team members, making sure that everyone is on board and held accountable. Prioritize your action items, starting with the most important factors first. (Perhaps these are your threats if they are urgent matters.) Execute your plan with a business proposal . Introduce the plan in the format of listed action items for your team, making sure to assign a designated person for each topic. As your business continues to grow and evolve, know that this is just a snapshot of a moment in time. Many of these factors are subject to change at a later date. It’s a good idea to come back to this exercise in the future so that you can properly assess where your business stands in your industry and how far along you came.

If you’re anything like me, spending even a few minutes away from your cellphone can feel like you’re missing a limb. With almost 2 billion smart-phone owners worldwide, a strong web presence no longer means having a great looking website alone, but one that functions as well on smaller screens as it does on your desktop. With mobile internet browsing about to surpass time spent on desktop view, smart business owners know that they need to make their website’s mobile view a strong priority. If you’ve got a Wix website, you’re already one step ahead of the game! Thanks to the Wix Mobile Editor , you’ll be able to customize all of the important aspects of your website to ensure that it looks and runs smoothly both on handheld devices and on desktops. Alternatively, you could even transform your website into a mobile app for an even smoother user experience. Here are the steps that you need to take to ensure that your website looks great no matter what type of screen you view it on. Consider the Mobile Mindset Looking to create one of the best mobile websites out there? The first thing to consider is user experience . While you may be building your website with the help of a mouse or trackpad, keep in mind that a large portion of your audience will likely be accessing your pages from a smaller touchscreen. Thankfully, the tech geeks at Wix have taken this into consideration when building the Mobile Editor. By adjusting your Editor’s view to a smaller screen size, complete with a true to scale mobile boarder parameters, the Mobile Editor gives you an accurate idea of what your site will look like in the palm of your site viewer’s hands. When considering responsive vs adaptive design debate, this adaptive solution is a great option for beginners. Mobile-Friendly Menus Your header menu may look great on your desktop site, but shrunk down, that same menu may be hard to grasp onto on-the-go. To make moving along your site easier on a touch screen, the navigation menu on the mobile version of your Wix site has been changed to a more thumb-friendly drop-down menu. Traditional navigation menus aren’t your only option, especially when you’ve got your mobile view in mind. One of the biggest trends in web design right now is using hamburger menus . Another option is to base your page menu on an image grid. The focus on large icons and dramatic buttons look great across all platforms and make moving along both your mobile & desktop pages a breeze. Check out this  Tour Operator template , as well as these additional mobile templates , for some inspiration. Smartphone, Smarter Shopping: A new statistic shows that about 42% of smartphone owners compare item prices on their mobiles while they’re shopping in store. All that information at the tip of your customer’s fingers, means that if your business has a physical location, updating your website often with current pricing and promotions has never been more important. With mobile phones tagging along on shopping trips, you also might want to consider giving your customers a little extra love from your mobile marketing. Consider offering coupons via a QR code that can be easily redeemed right from your customer’s smartphone. You can also offer special email offers on-the-go thanks to Wix's great looking mobile viewing capabilities. eCommerce Business owners are not exempt from investing in mobile-first design . Purchases made by tablets and smartphones are consistently on the rise, meaning that the mobile version of your online store needs to rock! Make sure that all of the important information needed to sink your sale like strong call to action buttons, payment methods and contact forms look crystal clear and are easy to access on the mobile version of your site. Smart Social: Whether you like it or not, odds are that your customers already have their smartphone in the palm of their hands by the time they walk into your business. Take advantage of that mobile access by offering special discounts to customers who help promote your business online. Get your business noticed by giving your fans an incentive to check-in to your location on Foursquare or offer a special discount when they give you a review from Yelp . If your clients are known to take pictures of your great looking goods, let them know that you’ll be happy to share their pics on Instagram. Take advantage of those great looking photos by syncing your Instagram feed onto your website. The constant flow of new image content will look great both on mobile and on your desktop by way of this fully integrated social feed. Learn more about turning your website into an app for even greater functionality.

Search engine marketing, or SEM, has become a crucial part of marketing. As we search online for answers to all kinds of questions and queries, it’s become increasingly important for brands to know how to position their webpages above those of their competitors. If you’re looking to start a business or get found online, the ideal starting point is to create a website . Once you’ve done that you can pursue various avenues for site promotion. Some of the most important tactics to consider are SEO and SEM. While both SEM and SEO have similar goals and seem the same on the surface, they’re actually quite different. Here, we’ll take a deep dive into search engine marketing and look at how it differs from SEO as well as all the different elements that go into it. If you're looking for more advertisement examples, check out our guide. SEM acronyms you should know Before we dive into the topic, we wanted to help make sure that our terminology is clear and understandable. Adding another acronym to your marketing lexicon can seem daunting, so here’s a refresher of a few acronyms you should know in order to get a good grasp on this topic: SEM - search engine marketing SEO - search engine optimization SERP - search engine results page PPC - pay-per-click ROI - return on investment CTR - click-through rate What is SEM? The basics Search engine marketing is the act of using paid ads to increase a webpage’s visibility on SERPs. SEM can also be used as more of an umbrella term that often encompasses other types of digital marketing strategies , such as PPC and SEO. In general though, when we talk about SEM, we’re referring to advertisements and SERP optimization strategies that are paid rather than organic. Since Google is the most popular search engine, a lot of marketers work with Google Ads to create paid ads, but there are some other platforms you can use as well, which we’ll cover below. When you search for a topic on a search engine like Google, you often see text or product ads at the top of the page that is related to your search terms, and then below that, the organic results which are webpages that match your query. The ads at the top are what advertisers pay for. These are the first results a user will see on their SERP, making it a good way for brands to get their products, ads, blog, or promotions in front of an audience. PPC ads help drive conversions by directing traffic from motivated users directly to your website or dedicated landing page, so using SEM is often a preferred way for businesses to advertise online. While you are spending more money on ad clicks as compared with a more organic method of gaining traffic, like SEO, marketers often see a high ROI when using this type of paid online advertising . SEO vs. SEM: What’s the difference? So, if SEM is all about placing ads at the top of a SERP, isn’t SEO the same thing? Well, not exactly. SEO focuses mainly on organic search results, in other words, getting to the top of a SERP without paying for a click. With SEO, websites rank well on search engines by being the most relevant webpage for the user’s query, without spending a penny on the placement. That being said, there’s no reason why you can’t use both SEM and SEO strategies together. In fact, you might get better results by using the two techniques side-by-side instead of focusing all your marketing efforts on only one avenue of traffic. 9 SEM components to get familiar with There are a lot of different parts that make up search engine marketing. In order to ensure that your SEM strategy is most optimized, it’s crucial to have a good understanding of each one. 01. Keyword research The first thing to familiarize yourself with when it comes to working with search engines, whether you’re focused on SEM or SEO, is getting used to keyword research. Keyword research is the process of discovering the terms that online searchers are using that are relevant to your product or business. A keyword isn’t necessarily just one word, but usually, a short phrase that a user would use as their search query. The purpose of keyword research is to discover terms that are related to your business and that users typically use when searching online. If you do your research well, you can match the terms that someone searches for with targeted campaigns and ads and in so doing, gain a better shot of your website appearing on their results page. There are a lot of different tools you can use to conduct keyword research. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner or Wordstream’s Keyword Tool , or opt for paid programs like Ahrefs or SEMRush . If you’re just starting out, play around with the free tools until you’re comfortable, and once you want more specific data, opt for a paid research tool. 02. PPC marketing Pay-per-click marketing is when an advertiser pays every time someone clicks on their ad. PPC marketing can cover a number of different advertising directions including some banner ads and, of course, search engine marketing. This type of marketing differs from more static advertising with which you might pay a flat rate for your ad to appear for a specific amount of time, regardless of how many people interact with it. However, PPC is a little more involved than just paying for clicks. If it were that straightforward, brands with higher budgets would dominate by simply dedicating more money to their ads. Instead, PPC platforms like Google Ads, subject ads to an auction where they are vetted before being displayed on a SERP. In this way, more advertisers have a chance of getting their product in front of an audience. 03. Ad structure Depending on the search engine advertising platform you are using, there might be slightly different rules regarding your ad structure. However, generally speaking, SEM ads are composed of headlines, which are bold and easily visible to the searcher, and descriptions which sit beneath the headlines and provide more detailed information. Ads also usually contain a URL to let the searcher understand more about where they will land when they click. There is usually a character limit to all ad components. It is therefore essential that you utilize the limited space allotted to you wisely. Choose actionable words that clearly describe your product or service. Make it clear to the searcher why they should choose your business over the competition. We suggest utilizing CTA s to help get searchers clicking on your ads. 04. Ad auction and set up The auction an ad goes through is an automated process that begins every time a user searches for a query on a search engine. Essentially, the search engine considers numerous factors regarding the available ads for each query, and decides which ads best answer the searcher’s needs. In an auction, the search engine will determine which ads get displayed on the SERP based on a few different factors. For example, Google will pick winners of ad auctions based on the ads’ relevance, maximum bid and what they refer to as an ad’s quality score, or in other words how relevant and clear your ad content is. These factors together determine the chances of your ads showing up on SERPs. In order for advertisers to participate in ad auctions, they have to set up a few parameters. We touch below on setting up your Google Ads account, but generally speaking here are the essentials for getting your ads up and running. First, provide a list of keywords that you would like to generally compete for. Then, you must provide at least one ad that matches those selected keywords as well as set a budget that you are willing to spend for clicks on these specific ads. When making these selections, refer back to your keyword research. You want to ensure that you’re spending your ad budget well and your ads participate in fruitful auctions. Choose keywords that your intended audience is actually searching for so that you don’t bid on clicks that are irrelevant to your brand. This way, searchers that end up clicking on your ads, will be relevant customers or leads for your business. 05. Quality score for ads Your ad’s quality score, or essentially how on target your ad is, is a crucial metric that can be the determining factor of how often your ad gets displayed to the right users. Google takes both quality score and bid into consideration when placing an ad, so even if your bid is significantly higher than your competitors’, if your ad isn’t well written and relevant to the searchers query it might not get displayed as often. This also impacts how much an advertiser ends up paying per click as the stronger their quality score, the lower their bid may need to be in order to rank. A quality score is a rank given out of 10, and of course, the higher your score the better. It is based on three main factors: the expected CTR of a given ad, the relevance of that ad to the query's intent, and landing page experience, or how relevant your landing page is when people click on your ad. Therefore, to improve your quality score, focus on using keywords that are relevant and specific to the page you’re linking to, writing ads that relate to those keywords, and providing informative and pertinent landing pages. To create landing pages that display information clearly and help drive visitors towards conversion, we suggest using a landing page builder . 06. Ad account structure When opening an account on a platform like Google Ads, you’ll need to invest time into setting up your campaigns so that they’re organized and strategized. With Google Ads you have the opportunity to build a structure that ensures that your ads are placed in a thoughtful manner and helps keep your strategy well organized. You can create campaigns that are centered around a certain goal or alternatively a geographic region of your customers. Within your campaigns you’ll be able to set up ad groups which can revolve around a certain theme or type of keyword that you would like to target. Finally, within each ad group sit multiple keywords that you are targeting, as well as ads. These ads will be in line with the goals and keywords selected for your campaign and ad group. You can write individualized ads per ad group, or you can create a general structure for your ad and then substitute in certain themes or keywords to fit the specific ad group in which they are located. In this way you can create targeted ad copy to match specific goals. We also suggest trying multiple ads within each ad group. This can help you match more than one keyword that is placed in that ad group, as well as enable you to test different ad variations. For example, if you own a shoe store, you might want to focus one campaign on winter boots, and then an entirely different one on sandals for summer. The keywords, landing pages, and text you would use for each would be very different. You may also be willing to bid more money on one than the other, making it wise to split these campaigns up. It might seem time-consuming, but by getting your ads organized, you’ll have an easier time managing them. 07. Targeted ads A good strategy when it comes to creating relevant ads is to target them based on the audience you’re trying to reach. If we continue with the shoe store example, it is likely more lucrative to advertise stiletto heels to women than men, so when setting up your ad campaign, you can opt to not show that specific ad to men in order to make the most of your ad budget. There are a number of ways you can target your ads so that they’re seen by the right people, such as: By age: set age ranges to show your ad only to a certain age group. By gender: opt to display your ad only to men or women. By location: if you have a promo in a specific location, you can set your ad to be displayed to people in the same region only. By device: your product might only be relevant to a certain device, like a mobile app download, so set ads to be displayed to users browsing on specific devices. By schedule: set ads to only be displayed between certain hours so you don’t waste ad clicks during hours when you’re not available or the ad isn’t relevant. At first, you might think that you want your ads to be visible to as many people as possible, but the more constraints and targets you set on each ad, the more relevant they’ll become to the users who actually see them, in turn giving you a better ROI. 08. SEM platforms We already mentioned Google a few times here as a popular SEM platform, but there are others you can consider using as well. Here are some of the main SEM platforms you can use: Google Ads: as the largest search engine, it’s a no-brainer that running ads on Google will put you in front of the widest audience and generate a good ROI. Microsoft Advertising: formerly known as Bing Ads, Microsoft Advertising is Google’s main runner-up, and it’s worth investing time and budget into this platform alongside your Google ads. Verizon Media Native: what used to be Yahoo! Gemini, Verizon Media Native is now Yahoo!’s PPC platform and is a great alternative to Microsoft Advertising if you’re looking for a secondary SEM platform aside from Google. 09. Campaign and ad optimization Even after you’ve started to run your ads, you should be constantly monitoring and updating them. Take a look at your campaigns regularly to see how they’re performing and adjust your ad spend, keywords or ad copy accordingly. After some time, you’ll be able to see which keywords and ads are strong performers and which aren’t yielding the results you expected. The ones that are generating more clicks are the ones you should be paying more attention to, both because they’re gaining you more traffic and because you’re spending more on those ads. Once you’re comfortable analyzing your ad metrics and you can pinpoint where you’re succeeding, you can then set negative keywords. These are keywords you’re telling a search engine you don’t want to rank for because they’re irrelevant to your brand and eating up your ad spend budget. You can also narrow down your targets such as demographic or location once you get a better overview of who your audience is and where they’re coming from. How SEM is evolving While search engine marketing has allowed advertisers to create their own ads and optimize their campaigns as they see fit for years, they are now shifting towards a more automatic, AI marketing approach. For example, you can set Google Ads to only display your best performing ads, so you don’t waste your budget on ads that have lower ROIs. Google also provides the option for you to feed the system multiple ad headlines and descriptions and it will automatically combine them for the most ideal ad in any given auction. Another automated option is to give Google the landing page that you would like to lead searchers to, and allow Google to create the ad headlines for you. This is referred to as DSA, or Dynamic Search Ads. With this format, the search engine scans your pages, determines what they are discussing and then automatically creates related headlines to give searchers a true taste of what they are about to experience. These new options can free up time for search engine marketers and have the potential to shift the business going forward.

As someone who has chosen to create a website , you already know how crucial SEO is for your online success. By influencing how Google perceives and ranks your website in search results, you’re more likely to drive more traffic to your pages. It also helps to attract visitors with the right intention, meaning that they are actively looking for a business, product or service like yours. This results in higher chances of visitors converting. There are different levels of optimization techniques and features you can opt for when creating a website. For example, if you’re a business owner just starting out, you can take advantage of the Wix SEO checklist, which creates a personalized checklist of all the SEO elements you need to cover - on top of enabling instant indexing of your homepage by Google. However, if you’ve been in the game for longer, or simply want to take control of exactly how your pages are displayed in search results and on social networks, then keep reading. In an effort to continuously improve its offering and cater to professional users, Wix has several SEO tools designed to help you work more efficiently. From canonical URLs to structured data, let’s discover how to use these features to the fullest: How to use Wix SEO to optimize your site: Meta tags for social media share Structured data Canonical URL Image optimization Indexing 01. Meta tags for social media share You know the important role that social media plays in the success of your business. Ensuring that your brand remains consistent throughout all social channels is imperative to your image and reputation. So, where does this come into play? We’ve all experienced that moment when scrolling through Facebook only to see a shared link that looks a little ‘off’ - a cropped image or some automatically extracted text that makes no sense. It’s definitely not something you wish your followers (or potential clients) to see. With the Social Share panel in your Wix editor, you can control exactly how each page of your site looks, from the text to the image, when shared on the major social media platforms. Here are some helpful formatting guidelines: Image size : The recommended size is at least 1200 x 630 pixels. Title : The length should be 55-70 characters (including spaces). Description : The length should be 100 - 300 characters (again, including spaces). How to customize the social media meta tags of your Wix pages: 1. Open your Wix editor. 2. Click ‘Pages’ (on the left hand side of the editor). 3. Choose the page you wish to customize. 4. Select the ‘Social Share’ tab. 5. Upload an image and update the text that will show when your site is shared to any social network. 02. Structured data Adding structured data to your pages is highly advantageous for your website architecture and helps Google contextualize your content. For example, if you have a physical location, adding a schema markup on your contact page will help the bots understand that “123-456-789” is not just a series of numbers - it’s actually your phone number, and should be used to provide better and richer results to searchers. The same goes for your restaurant menu, postal address, opening hours, ratings and more. Structured data language was harmonized by Schema.org in 2011, which explains why we also refer to this as “schema markup”. Start using it as an excellent way to grab the attention of potential clients amongst an endless sea of competitors. How to add schema.org structured data to your Wix website: 1. Prepare your schema. You can generate the structured data using a tool like Schema Markup Generator . 2. Open your Wix editor. 4. On your panel, select the ‘Advanced SEO’ tab. 5. Under ‘Structured Data Markup’, select ‘Add New Markup’ and paste your schema in JSON-LD format. 6. After you’ve added your schema, use the ‘Validate Your Markup on Google’ button to check that there are no errors. Wix also validates the schema within the structured data field. It's important to note that you only get access to this tool if you have a Wix Premium Plan . 03. Canonical URL In the event that you create two pages that show identical or similar information you have to explain to Google which URL should be treated as the main version and therefore appear in search results. For example, if you write a blog article called, "Answering All Your Questions: What is SEO and how does it affect your ranking in 2019?" you will use the same keywords, structure and, for some parts, content as you did for your 2018 version. Although the original post is still valuable, you’ll want people to be directed to the newest one, every time they look for “web design trends” in their search engine. Implementing a canonical URL solves this issue. It’s important to note that Wix automatically adds a self-referential canonical tag to your site. Unless there is a good reason (like the example above) to change the canonical tag you should keep it as is. Additionally, you can customize your default canonical if you need to. 04. Image optimization Image optimization is an important part of optimizing your website’s performance . Good site performance is crucial for a great user experience on your site and anything that is good for the user is likely to improve your SEO as well. First of all, all images uploaded to your Wix site are optimized to fit the relevant screen, without sacrificing quality. Images can also be converted to WebP by Wix, which aids faster downloads. On top of this Wix websites use lazy loading and temporary placeholders - these make sure users get priority content first, while the rest of it loads. Along with automatic caching, which serves return users a saved version of your site and improves page load speed, by avoiding a long sever request, there are several ways in which your images are optimized for your sites performance. 05. Indexing Wix has a number of SEO features that help you control how your site is crawled and indexed by Google. The first is the auto create and submit sitemap feature - it creates and submits your site to Google, so it knows what to crawl. The editable robots.txt file allows you to choose which of your pages Google sees and crawls, and which it doesn’t. And, the Google Search Console integration gives you not only access to this popular Google tool and all of its data on your organic traffic, it also helps Google index your site or identify issues to fix that might be preventing your pages from being indexed. This is crucial to getting your business found on Google .