The Importance of Web Push Notifications in SEO

seo and web push notifications

Search engine optimization is one of the most important methods in making sure your audience sees your messages by helping to increase your rank. An increased rank means more people are likely to see your website come up in relevant search results.

But even after a visitor does find your site due to your ranking, it’s no guarantee they will return again to look at new content. It doesn’t even have to be because they don’t like you. They could just forget. With so much information out there, it’s easy to forget just where that one site was. And who has time to sort through bookmarks anymore?

What if there was a tool that could help with both helping people find your site while also telling returning visitors that there is new content for them to explore? There is! It’s called web push notifications.

What are Web Push Notifications?

A web push notification is similar to receiving a push notification on your mobile device from a trusted app. Customers can opt-in to receive timely notifications from a website through a push notification. When you send a push notification, customers who opted-in will immediately get your alert. Even when your company’s website is not open on a customer’s browser, they will still receive your messaging.

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How are Web Push Notifications Aiding SEO?

The most vital piece of information to remember is that web push notifications do not directly impact your search engine optimization. Instead, they can help continually re-direct prospective customers back to your website. This re-direct is what can help your SEO by increasing your traffic without requiring the user go through a search engine to return.

If a push notification is particularly interesting, helpful, or enticing, visitors are more likely to share it through social media and other means. These links back to your website will also help your SEO.

Web Push Notification Benefits

Here are just some of the many benefits you can expect when you successfully implement web push notifications.

Reaches a Wide Audience

Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all support push notifications. Combining their respective market shares puts them at a combined 77.54 percent market share (as of October 2017). That’s close to every 8 out of 10 people being able to receive push notifications.  

Appears Directly on Device

Communicating and marketing to customers in real-time is essential. And with push notifications, a user is alerted as soon as you send it. You can avoid customers missing sales because they opened their email two days too late—or never got the email at all. You can ensure prompt and actual delivery each time.

Higher Opt-in Rate

Studies have shown that web push notifications have a higher opt-in rate than other marketing mediums like mail and e-mail. And the opt-out rate is lower, with less than 10 percent of subscribers opting out within a year.

Higher Conversion Rate

Web push notifications have a higher conversion rate as well. They’re great for re-targeting prospects, such as letting them know they left items in their cart. And you can also send flash sales or limited time offers that will make users more inclined to shop. Web push notifications have a 30 times higher conversion rate.

Business website Trak.in sees about 30-40 percent repeat traffic due to web push notifications alone. India-based food ordering website FreshMenu.com analyzes user behavior data within the web to send customized push notifications. Around 12 percent of their sales are generated from this method.

How to Implement Web Push Notifications

Implementing web push notifications will take some basic knowledge of languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Your on-staff programmer can easily set this up for you using setup information provided by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. If your company is small or you don’t have a programmer on your payroll, you can always hire a freelancer or contract out the work. 

When implementing web push notifications to your website, consider the following:

  • Subscription Request Timing: When a user visits your website, how soon will they be prompted to subscribe? You don’t want to request a subscription immediately, especially if it’s the first time they have ever visited your website. Give them enough time to determine your website’s value to them prior to asking, but don’t wait too long and have them leave prior to asking. Around two to three minutes should suffice.
  • Brand Your Notifications: Branding your notifications is especially important if a customer receives push notifications from multiple businesses. Include your brand’s logo and colors to make it clear that a push notification is from you.
  • Segment Your Notifications: As with all marketing, you need to segment your audiences for push notifications. Doing so will push the right information to the right audience, helping your conversion rates and reducing the chance of unsubscribes.
  • Consider Frequency: How often are you going to send push notifications? You don’t want to send them too often and seem “pushy,” but you do want to use them most effectively. Consider what is vital information that just can’t wait, like flash sales or breaking news. If it’s something that could still be read a few hours or days later, you may want to hold off. The best way to know is by developing a content plan and analyzing data to see how it is performing.

Implement Web Push Notifications

Now that you have a better sense of how web push notifications can help you, it’s time to get to work. Start by implementing the web push notifications for your site. Next, develop a plan for when to push these notifications out to your target audience. As always, keep an eye on your data. They will let you know if your plan is working and indicate whether you need to make adjustments.  

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