How Has eCommerce Transformed Marketing? Time For New PPC Strategies! (Updated)
Dec 26, 2019
Dec 26, 2019
10 min read
10 min read
Table of contents
- 1. PPC In eCommerce Is Ineffective Without Product Page Optimization!
- 2. Try branded & Non-Branded keyword segmentation.
- 3. Keyword Segmentation Is Vital When It Comes To PPC In eCommerce
- 4. Google Showcase Ads: For eCommerce And Digital marketing.
- 5. Do you have an offline store? Utilize Local Inventory ads!
- 6. Are you updating your product pages?
- 7. Invest in good shopping cart solutions.
- 8. Invest in Google shopping ads.
- 9. Focus On Unique Audience Targeting
- 10. Effective PPC ads on Instagram and Facebook
- Conclusion
Ever since the internet came into existence, it has become an integral part of our lives. It has transformed the consumer's shopping experience. eCommerce has grown tremendously, such that it has changed the way of marketing. How has eCommerce transformed marketing? Many businesses have now shifted their focus from offline retail to online retail; they have quickly adopted the eCommerce business model. Hence, we see a dramatic shift in the methods of retail marketing.
Today, the internet has shaped marketing and the strategies through which online sellers target their customers. Online shopping is one of the significant internet activities around the globe. As per Statista, in 2020, e-commerce sales grew up to $4.28 trillion! By 2022, we can expect it to reach a whopping $5.4 trillion market.
Alt IMG tag - Forecast for global eCommerce sales
Various search engines and marketplaces provide the convenience of running targeted PPC ads; these ads are known for quick exposure and drive instant results. PPC ads have become a crucial element in eCommerce and digital marketing. There are numerous benefits of PPC ads over Search Engine Optimization. A famous example of a PPC ads platform is "Google Ads."
The popularity of Google Ads among eCommerce websites has increased significantly; in fact, Google's Ad revenue in 2020 was around $146.92 billion. The internet giant generates a high amount of income via Google Ads Platform that helps marketers display ads, product listings, etc.
It is very critical for eCommerce stores to optimize PPC strategies that fetch them the best results. PPC in eCommerce, if implemented correctly, can allow an eCommerce website to gain more traffic, sales, and revenues. The increasing competition makes it essential to use advanced or latest strategies to stand out from your competitors.
The ever-increasing business competition in the eCommerce space has made it necessary for online businesses to use the latest PPC strategies. PPC in eCommerce is pretty standard; you might be struggling to make your PPC campaign a success. There are several reasons why your PPC strategies aren’t converting; however, multiple advanced PPC tactics can help marketers perform better in online sales and customer acquisition.
Source: Unsplash
1. PPC In eCommerce Is Ineffective Without Product Page Optimization!
One of the most common ways to align your product pages with the latest SEO trends is by optimizing them. Many PPC marketers spend ample time optimizing product pages; it includes optimizing product titles, keyword stuffing, etc. You must consider highly relevant keywords to your products and avoid those that can negatively impact your website. Make sure to add those keywords in your description.
All in all, you must recognize inconsistencies in your PPC strategies that can lead to wastage of your PPC spend. Your content team should produce unique, relevant, and engaging product descriptions. It is always fruitful to hire a professional SEO team or expert with the prerequisite knowledge of the latest PPC strategies for product page optimization.
2. Try branded & Non-Branded keyword segmentation.
Keyword-based text ads enable retailers to analyze the intent of their customers. Hence, it helps them to optimize ads accordingly. Although the shopping ads were developed on a product-based bidding model, Google's auction chooses products displayed for a particular search result. Due to this model, crucial elements like optimization and bid control aren't in the retailer's hands. Why? Because they can't bid separately on a customer throughout their buyer journey. As a solution, you can utilize keyword segmentation.
3. Keyword Segmentation Is Vital When It Comes To PPC In eCommerce
You can then use shopping settings and campaign priority to manage how much you want to bid. With campaign priorities, you can include the same product in many other campaigns. You can evaluate which campaign should take part in the auction for a specific product with a campaign priority that can be low, medium, or high.
4. Google Showcase Ads: For eCommerce And Digital marketing.
Showcase Shopping ads came in 2016. It is a better solution for online retailers, eCommerce, and advertisers; Google Showcase ads can be a dedicated digital storefront. For customers, it acts as a window-shopping feature. You can easily group multiple eCommerce products and showcase them using high-quality pictures. You can even group your major products with various smaller products to form a "me-too" product combination and provide customers with a significant discount offer.
The Google Showcase ads are often used to target non-brand queries that show up on mobile search results. On search engine result pages, the ad showcases brand-specific product images relevant to the search queries. Users can click on them to see the custom description that portrays the brand and ten other products. Showcase ads also deliver the maximum cost per engagement. Hence, marketers can set a high amount after which they'll be charged when a user expands the ad for ten seconds. Google Showcase ads are best for developing an upper-funnel tactic.
5. Do you have an offline store? Utilize Local Inventory ads!
As per Google, 80% of the purchasers will quickly visit a store if a retailer sells the exact item they want to buy. When we talk about online searchers, utilizing local inventory ads is best to meet buyer expectations. It is one of the most effective ways to drive visitors to the store, capture, and engage them by featuring products they can buy from nearby stores. These ads feature on mobile queries too! They usually have a local search intent (e.g., “Blazers near me”) and influence purchase decisions within a radius of a physical store.
The moment your potential customer clicks on the ad, they are redirected to the Google-hosted storefront page. You can customize your storefront page’s product description with images and links to your website. Ensure to add your contact number, hours of operation with a map that helps your customer with the directions to the store.
Your customers can also purchase the product directly from your website. If you have a physical store, then you must update your inventories and in-store availability. Once a marketer sets up a local inventory campaign, they can use Google Analytics to monitor these metrics to optimize your campaigns further.
Source: Unsplash
6. Are you updating your product pages?
As discussed in the first section, your product page should be updated at regular intervals. Imagine a user visiting a product page on a holiday or a weekend. If they find your page not updated, you might lose a chance of converting them into your customer. Hence, you must invest time in revamping your product pages with the perfect sales pitch. The first section discussed how keywords and content play a massive part in optimizing product pages.
However, pictures or images have a significant influence on product page optimization. You must ensure that you have clean, precise, and engaging photos of your products. If you can add a product video, that can help increase your sales by adding visual information to the product page. Adding a video of your product adds value to your webpage, which increases the chances of sales!
Apart from that, you must optimize the key benefits of your shopping website like free shipping, quick delivery, no contact delivery, cash on delivery, etc. You must also get reviews of your product under the review sections because having reviews on your PPC ads can increase the conversion rate of your pages.
7. Invest in good shopping cart solutions.
According to a study, in 2020, cart abandonment rates were severely high! Did you know that almost 88.05% of the online shopping carts go abandoned as they don't convert into an actual purchase? One of the key reasons behind a high cart abandonment rate is poor shopping cart software. A shopping cart is like one software on the website that allows the customer to purchase a product. Shopify, Woo-commerce, and big commerce are the most common shopping carts that are great for SEO and paid search. If there are any issues with your shopping cart, you can approach the support team for quick fixes or optimization.
8. Invest in Google shopping ads.
When you Google Search “Floral Shirts,” the results pop up under the “shopping tab” are Google Shopping Ads. If you are already running Google shopping ads, you must optimize them based on the results you fetch from your analysis. You can utilize eCommerce tracking setups to see your revenue generation or ROI on each product. In this way, you’ll be able to spot ads that aren’t doing well.
9. Focus On Unique Audience Targeting
Google and Bing offer great tools like demographics, retargeting, customer match, etc. Advertisers can also utilize features like custom messaging, bid scaling that can be used whenever they want to. Google can evaluate a category of people who are searching for a particular product. You can use these tactics to target a less obvious audience. As a jewelry brand, your competitors would be targeting the same chunk of the population. However, you can target a unique audience; you can target men trying to buy gifts for anniversaries, weddings, or birthdays. As a result, you’ll be able to target an audience in a low-competition zone.
10. Effective PPC ads on Instagram and Facebook
Social media advertising provides a wide range of channels through which marketers can run their PPC ads. If you can target users on Facebook and Instagram, you can find the right kind of sales. Facebook ad targeting offers some powerful features like:
- Marketers can see the recent buying behavior of Facebook users.
- Marketers can leverage Life Events Targeting.
- ?Marketers can nurture leads with Facebook Custom Audiences.
- Tap into lookalike audiences.
- Get Granular and layered targeting options.
Conclusion
How has eCommerce transformed marketing? We hope you got the answer! However, it is very important for eCommerce stores to optimize their PPC strategies if they want to get the best outcomes. Mastering your PPC strategies can help you accomplish your desired business goals. With above mentioned powerful PPC strategies, your eCommerce website can tap into high-purchase intent audiences. If you have been searching for proven PPC tactics to outshine your competitors and generate more leads, then you can consult Saffron Edge's Paid Marketing experts. We curate successful paid marketing solutions that can increase your eCommerce website's visibility and conversion.
Snapchat: The Game Changer Of Marketing World
Every now and then, a new Social Media platform is introduced in the online/digital world. At present, Snapchat is the trending Social Media platform used by every user. Snapchat is creating a buzz in Social Media platform as most of the marketers are using it for their marketing strategies. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat has diverse features and approaches to promote the business. Businesses who have already switched to Snapchat are witnessing the effective results. Besides, they are able to acquire new customers in a consistent manner. If the business is not familiar with the utility of Snapchat, it must come across several queries. They can relate with these questions such as how to use it with an authentic approach, who are the users and most important, “how to connect with the audience”. This blog will help you in understanding all the aspects of Snapchat in order to gain maximum profit. Let’s take a look at the following facts to create an effective Snapchat marketing campaign: Why should a business market on Snapchat? No doubt, Snapchat is the new Social Media platform and almost everybody is getting attracted towards it. In fact, Snapchat has acquired a massive amount of users in a short period of time, especially millennials. It’s time to check out these facts about snapchat to understand its merits and mechanism: It’s not competitive: Since, Snapchat is the new Social Media platform, most of the businesses are not aware of Snapchat marketing. Hence, it is a better opportunity for you, if you are well-acquainted with this platform aptly. It’s authentic: Marketing the business on Snapchat becomes authentic due to its unique features. It gives an insight of the trends in the market to help a business in boosting its profit and growth. It offers videos and photos that convey message in simplified, effective and efficient way as compared to simple informative articles. Everyday brings in new audience: If a business has products which are meant for youngsters, then, Snapchat is the best Social Media platform to reach out to prospective users as millennials are actively using Snapchat. Over the past few years, Snapchat has become a popular platform which serves the marketing goals of business owners. When it comes to attain a rapid growth of a business, increasing business visibility on Snapchat should be focused on initially. Features available on Snapchat` Snapchat offers various features, varied posts and settings that you can efficiently use in order to connect with audience. Using these features will be impactful for the success of your Snapchat Campaign.These include image editing options, the settings which can be customized for your profile and additional features that can help you interact and engage with your audience. Types of content you can share: Images Videos Snaps Stories Snapchat enables you to use edit options in order to modify all your posts and share them according to your preferences. Snapchat: Millennials’ Choice If you are promoting your business on any online platform, you must know that the youngsters are actively using these platforms. If a business is producing goods or services which target millennials, then, Snapchat will be an excellent platform to promote your brand. Most businesses are actively using Social Media in order to connect with the target audience for a rapid growth and popularity of their brand. Snapchat is a new and promising trend in the digital marketing world and businesses are embracing it to a great extent. Conclusion: People use online platforms and are dependent on them for basic utility or to accomplish the marketing objectives. Snapchat is an emerging Social Media platform which is beneficial for all business types. In case, you want to connect with the new and target audience, then, online presence has become a prerequisite which is being used by many organizations. Are you curious to use Snapchat, then, Contact us to explore more about the utility of this platform. ...
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7 Ways to Ace Your SEO in 2019
The way search engines like Google rank websites changes everyday. Yes, you heard that right! Apart from the big algorithm changes that Google announces once in a while, certain little tweaks and optimizations are made to their algorithms everyday to provide better results to searchers which you don’t even know about. And 2019 is going to be no different! With a few new algorithms introduced this year, Google will give more importance to those websites that adhere to those algorithms for sure in some time to come. Also, Google is focusing more on providing the best search experience to their searchers and if your website doesn’t, you will lose a few rankings on the SERPs for sure in the year to come. So, what should you do exactly to stay in the good books of Google and ace your Search Engine Optimization in 2019? This post is all about that and a lot more. So, let’s dive right in - Rankbrain is going to be more prominent than ever Rankbrain is one of the most prominent algorithms Google has released in recent years. But what exactly is it? It is a Google indexing algorithm backed up with AI which promotes/demotes websites on SERPs based on a certain set of factors. It is designed in a way to make sure that the best results come first for searchers searching for a specific query. Since it’s a machine learning algorithm, it automatically adjusts websites on the SERPs and doesn’t require human intervention at all and can make changes to SERP almost instantly. But what’s it based on? The algorithm was implemented to make sure users get the best search engine experience and the websites that they click on do that as well. So, websites that focused more on providing the best UX to visitors were rewarded by gaining Google’s top real estate, which gets the most clicks. Doing all of that is handled by Rankbrain now. So, you’ll have to keep Rankbrain in mind and optimize the UX of your entire website to provide a better experience to the people who stumble on your website after searching on Google. Doing this is going to be extremely important in 2019! But to ace Rankbrain, you need to know the exact factors on the basis of which it grades websites on the SERPs, which are - 1. Dwell Time Dwell time is the time a visitor spends on your website. Obviously, a visitor won’t stay on your web page or blog if the content is irrelevant to them or is of bad quality. So, providing quality content that aligns with searchers intent is of utmost importance to excel in the Rankbrain era. 2. Click-Through-Rate Rankbrain is designed to look closely at the CTR of each and every web page on the internet to give an appropriate ranking to them. For example, if a search engine result on the 6th position is getting a higher number of clicks than a result on the 3rd position for the same query, Rankbrain would notice and bump up the rankings of the result on the 6th position. But since dwell time is a factor as well, just getting a higher number of clicks on your web pages will not be enough, you will have to provide the kind of content that makes users stay as well to improve your search engine rankings. Take care of these two factors for all your webpages & blogs and Rankbrain would do the rest. Go Mobile or go obsolete Google cares about their searchers. And apparently, a majority of them search for queries from their mobile devices. Mobile searchers have long surpassed desktop searchers and Google wants to provide them with the best user experience. For the same, Google rolled out the Mobile-first indexing algorithm in March this year which changed how the algorithm accessed websites forever. Under this new algorithm, Google crawlers would prefer a mobile website first for indexation and ranking to primarily provide better results to their mobile searchers. So, having a mobile website that properly supports your desktop website is not something you can procrastinate anymore, it has become an absolute necessity under this new algorithm. Google prefers having a mobile responsive website over other methods of going mobile because of its ease. But having a mobile website is not enough, you’ll have to provide a great user experience on your mobile website as well (remember, Rankbrain) to make an impact in 2019. Focus on working on the speed of your website According to a study performed by Google themselves, a website’s speed is the greatest factor that determines if a website’s UX is satisfactory or not. And since, Google has been lately focusing so much on providing a great user experience to all their users, they rolled out an update that ranked websites based on this sole factor. They called it the ‘Speed Update’. While the factor is not the heaviest, focusing on optimizing the speed of your website will certainly give you a advantage and it would greatly improve the UX of your website, which is always a nice thing to do under the watch of Rankbrain. To make your site load faster, you can get rid of heavy elements on your website or minify or combine scripts. Or else, you can use Google’s own tool to check and optimize the speed on your desktop and mobile website - PageSpeed Insights. This tool will tell you everything there is you can do to make your website load faster and perform better in SERPs. The increasing relevance of unlinked Brand mentions Google has long been solely dependant on backlinks for determining the authority of websites over the web. The general idea is, the more backlinks a website has, higher will be it’s authority in the eyes of Google, and higher it will be placed in SERPs. And it has been like this since the inception of Google. But all of this is going to change. The way your brand is mentioned over the web on social media conversations, blog posts, forums and any other medium is closely looked over by Google. It takes into account the tone, intent and context of each brand mention over the web to ascertain if it’s positive or negative and the way people talk about you over the web will certainly affect your ranking in 2019. ‘Unlinked brand mentions’ over the web are gaining relevance each day and it calls for social listening. You’ll have to jump on each and every conversation happening about your brand over the web and make sure it’s in positive light to maintain your brand reputation in the eyes of Google. Google’s Gary Illyes mentioned it himself. So, if you’re not actively monitoring your brand mentions over the web and making sure they add to the overall reputation of your brand, you will struggle to increase your search engine rankings is some time to come. To monitor your brand mentions over the web, you can make use of tools like ‘Awario’ and ‘Brand Mentions’ that would help you do just that with ease! Searchers are consuming more video content than ever People preferring to consume video content over any other type of content is nothing new and has long been a trend that’s still going strong. If you are looking to gain a lot of engagement from your audience on your website, social media or blogs, then video is certainly your best bet because people simply prefer video over anything else. Obviously, quickly watching a video about something is always easier than reading a ton of content and that’s why video is still so popular. In this world, where every brand is throwing up a lot of content on the web and is seeking attention from their audience, people have found a better way to consume content on a daily basis that quickly gives them the facts and is engaging to consume. So, if you’re not making use of Video, you're definitely missing out on a lot of engagement and additional SEO benefits. I would suggest you quickly start creating some video content for your brand and publish it on Youtube. Since, Youtube is owned by Google, you can also enjoy some obvious search engine benefits in the time to come. Target people searching for answers on Google Assistant Optimizing your content for voice searchers is currently a hot topic. And it has all the reasons to be. Voice searches globally are on a tremendous rise and you’ll be missing out if you don’t write content that targets those users head-on. But how do you target them? Here are 3 ways that would help Google Assistant pick your content over others when it comes to answering voice search queries put up by searchers - You need to be on the top 3 results for Google Assistant to even consider picking up your content. If your content appears in the featured snippet, your chances to get picked up by the Google Assistant increases by folds. Here’s how you can get featured in the featured snippet. Answer your own questions in your content. Usually, most of the voice queries start with a question and to answer that question, Google Assistant usually picks up the content that revolves around that exact question. So, try answering the most basic questions people might have around your focused keyword. To know more about what else you can do to target those voice searchers, Forbes compiled a list of best advices from 15 members of the Forbes Communications Council… do have a look at it. Quality content and backlinks are still important While the above suggested ways are vital to ace your SEO in 2019, don’t forget that content and backlinks are still the top ranking factors that matter the most to Google. With Google placing more importance on the user experience that each search engine result provides to users (Rankbrain), I think creating quality content should be your top priority for acing SEO In 2019. If your content provides real value to your target audience, they will be inclined more to read it all. And when they dwell more on your content, Google will notice via Rankbrain that you have a knack of providing quality content to all your users. Which I think is the point of SEO in general. Link building and providing quality content goes hand-in-hand as only when people love your content, they’ll want to share that content on their own blogs and within their own social circles, expanding the reach of your content and building some valuable backlinks along the way. If you continue to provide awesome content to your audience, the biggies in your industry will notice and would want to link to you too. That’s the essence of natural link building right there, and it’s not going to lose value in 2019 and beyond! If you are looking to approach your SEO in 2019 with a bang, the above mentioned ways are the perfect way to do it. But before you start implementing them, keep this in mind, Rankbrain ranks website keeping in mind the response of your audience to your content. If they bounce even before your site loads completely, Rankbrain would not even let you reach the first page of Google, let alone acing it. It’s a machine learning algorithm that does it all for Google and looks at the UX signals of your website really closely to award rankings. And it’s not easy to game Rankbrain because of it’s self-learning mechanism. You’ll have to provide quality content to your audience to get your SEO ball rolling in 2019 and there’s no escaping it now! Having said that, I hope the above mentioned ways will help you greatly in improving your website’s overall SEO potential! Being a SEO agency ourselves, we’ll rely greatly on these tactics as well to provide the best services to all our clients. If you think there are other ways (I know there are) that have helped you greatly in achieving SEO success lately and you're confident that they’ll be of equal importance in 2019 when it comes to increasing a website’s search engine rankings, do let us know about them in the comments. ...
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5 Top Zero Low-Cost Cutting Marketing Tips Every Marketing Agency Should Use
Every business now engages with Digital Marketing Services to get noticed, bring in leads and turn those prospective leads into business sales and ultimately generate revenues. These sales-generating activities are accomplished via online channels such as social media handles, attractive business websites, blog content, and email targeting and putting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into productive action. There are a variety of online channels and marketing leads that help businesses reach out to their target audience . Often researchers conclude that a tailored marketing approach lets you acquire the relevant consumer base that you could have otherwise missed, by appointing redundant marketing tricks that almost every business use. Having that said, if a business is seeking assistance over marketing services from a marketing agency, there are a number of requests that need to be fulfilled by the latter party. Having a Digital marketing agency work for your business allows you to focus on your core departments and withdraw yourself from taking marketing decisions. Taking it into account, the marketing agency you’d hire would strive for better marketing solutions and increase the product sales via their years of experience and market knowledge. The function of a Digital Marketing agency is to lower the advertisement cost, campaign evaluation and get efficient, performance-driven results in lesser time. A business will only invest in an ad campaign given that it is generating trade for them and the marketing agency plays an important role here to forecast the outcomes and strategize beforehand. Low-Cost Cutting Marketing Tips Well, it is obvious that a business would do anything possible to cut down costs, and if there’s a way with adopting highly effective marketing strategies, then it would be first in their objective list. Here are a few marketing tips a marketing agency can use - Study and Analysing The Market: The primary part of a marketing agency is to know the business trade market and key demographics to come up with a relevant and customer’s desire-driven marketing campaign. Such surveys are important to realize the market potential and requirements so you can provide your business client a filtered customer base and guarantee ample leads. Use The Most Of The Internet: It is not new for marketing agencies to associate their functions with internet tools, mostly, they are the ones that make use of social media platforms, search engine tools, organize webinars for reaching prospective customers, and engaging them to let everyone know about the business. Focus On Local SEO: As a marketing agency, it is helpful for your business client to acquire the local customer base in and around the business premises, to gain trust, and improve brand credibility via word of mouth. Use local addresses as search words to get an edge on the search query scores. Work On Catchy and Improved Infographics: What customers also like is a detailed piece of information that describes the business product/service and are significantly pleasing to the eye. Therefore, a marketing agency could adapt alluring elements in its campaign infographic, depending upon the relevance of the customer base. The simplest and advanced traffic leads could be generated in no time. Encourage Better Content: If your business client’s onsite content isn’t worthy enough to seek customer leads, it is your responsibility, as a digital marketing agency, to take requires measures to bring forward their best food via the information they’ll display. Publishing good product/service content not only allows a business to seek credible traffic but also provides an easy medium for the customers to better understand themselves. Benefits Of Digital Marketing Services The traditional approach of marketing proves to be less effective in the era of advanced technology, and when people can be successfully engaged via online channels, it is better to tap those opportunities and gear up sales. Speaking of online channels, the digital modes of acquiring consumers revolves around connecting distinct people with similar interests under one umbrella of business trade. The aim is to reach out to a customer whose presence is universal and its needs could be catered via the internet, at the right time and right place. The following are a few major benefits that businesses get from Digital Marketing Agencies: Cost-saving Gone were the times when business enterprises used to reach out to their target audience via flyers, physical copies of their ad campaigns, and render a significant cost on the printing and outreach process. However, with the introduction of advanced technology, all kinds of businesses have come on a single playfield, which means a big MNC or a mid-size trading business have equal opportunities to attract interested customers and drive sales conveniently. A Well-monitored Technique The actual failure of the traditional approach of marketing was when businesses weren’t able to track the effectiveness of their marketing methods implemented at that time. But, when you want to know where your marketing cost is getting utilized, it is imperative to use digitally-backed methodologies whose effectiveness and target performance are measurable. Since you cannot give a visit to every customer when you target them via the old traditional marketing approach, you can surprisingly monitor the origin of your sales and it is only possible with the help of Digital Marketing. Know Your Target Audience Base Digital marketing enables you to only knock on the doors of those people who will be interested in your business product or services rendered. Having that said, it will only be niche-specific and only the key interested consumers will buy your idea. It also eliminates the cost of reaching out to the masses, without filtering out those who wouldn’t be captivated with your trading units, thus reducing the overall marketing cost. Altered Campaigns It is obviously not possible to edit the information on the flyers and physical copies of the ad campaigns, once they are sent out. This reduces the authority of the business enterprise to alter the relevant details and puts them in a position to incur significant printing costs all over again. However, an ad campaign that is digitally broadcasted can be edited by the enterprise, the content put can be changed subject to the marketing strategies adopted, with time. The social media tags can be altered, SEO links could be optimized, etc. ...
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