SEO and Push Notifications: Do Push Notifications Affect SEO?
When you want to get more engagement from visitors to your site, you will consider using push notifications. It is the most popular method used by websites to engage with visitors and to get them to return to their sites. However, you might be wondering whether they affect SEO in any way and what Google has to say about them. Find out what push notifications are, how they are related to SEO, and how to optimize them.
What are Push Notifications?
Push notifications are messaging alerts that pop up on the screen when a person loads a website. They can appear anywhere on the screen, whether at the top, bottom, or cover the entire screen. These notifications are messages sent by the website to ask the reader to opt-in to receive information.
The notification will pop up now and then without the reader being on your website once they have opted in to receive them. They are also applicable to desktop and mobile.
Types of Notifications
You will come across different types of notifications. See the below:
- Web Notifications – these notifications don’t require an opt-in and only pop up when the reader is on the website.
- Web Push Notifications – readers will opt-in to receive these notifications with information on their desktop or mobile. They will pop up in real-time without the need to download any apps.
- Mobile Push Notifications – these notifications will come from the mobile app you have downloaded on your device. They will be sent as notifications on your status bar or lock screen. The reader will still need to opt-in to receive these notifications for them to pop up.
- In-app Push Notifications – while the reader uses the app, these notifications will pop up to improve their experience.
How Push Notifications Affect SEO
Push notifications do not influence SEO, and Google has never commented on whether they negatively or positively impact SEO. However, they affect other things that can improve the website or page position.
Users who opt-in to the push notification are interested in receiving information and news about your offering. This means that you have the attention of people interested in your services and the kind of content you have on your website. In this case, you give them a reason to keep coming back to your website, which gives it relevance to Google.
The more the people who opted-in for the push notifications visit your site, the more Google will think that your content and website appeals to your target audience. This will, in turn, increase the authority of your website. So, you can use push notifications to bring in conversions for your website, which will contribute to your SEO.
How to Optimize Push Notifications
It is a great idea to get engagement using push notifications. However, it is even a better idea to optimize them to ensure that they provide the right information and experience for users. So, it is important to have a strategy of using push notifications and their purpose.
Here is how you can optimize your push notification to reach your objectives:
Send Them at the Right Time
You will have to know where your users are located to send the notifications at the right time. IF they are sent at the wrong time, you will have low click-through rates, and they will not achieve their objective.
You will also have to choose a time when they will be using their devices the most so you can have conversions. Another thing to consider is how many times you will be sending the notifications. Never-ending notifications and opt-out will turn some users off. So, aim for once a day.
However, this can also depend on the kind of website you have. Some can do with more than one notification a day, such as a news website, to send breaking news notifications. You will also find that some are only applicable when you send them at specific times of the day.
Have Content that Will Be Interesting to the Reader
There is a possibility that your notification will not be the only one that the users receive, which means that you need to offer something interesting. The users will not have the time to read all the notifications; hence it is important to prepare content that will grab their attention and open your notification instead of the others.
However, do not forget about your target audience. So, be sure that you create clear content that does not include jargon and is concise. The message should indicate what it is about and the benefits that the reader will get from it.
When the users opted in for the notification, it means you explained what they would get from them and stuck to that. They would have opted to know what to expect, but obviously, you will present it in an interesting way for them to enjoy.
Personalize the Messages
If you want to build loyalty with your users, it is important to go the personalized route. The messages need to be relevant to the reader; they will feel special and want to engage. This kind of push notification has a higher conversion rate than the general ones. They have 1.5x to 2x higher results, making them worth the effort.
Create Messages with a Call to Action
You will likely turn the push notifications into conversions when your messages include a call to action. What’s more, you should create urgency to get the users to act instantly without reconsidering. You can achieve this by giving them a limited time to take action. Call to action is more likely to get the users to act compared to messages that only have information.
Avoid Sending the Notifications Continuously
Avoid your messages being considered spam because this will lead to the users unsubscribing. Researchers have revealed that 73.47% of users who receive notification messages too often will consider them spam. The frequency of sending the messages will depend on the kind of services you offer and the kind of audience you are targeting. However, this does not mean that you can bombard them with notifications. So, you will need to understand your target audience for your messages to be effective without being too much.
Consider Rich Push Notifications
Rich push notifications are messages that include images, audio, video, Gifs, or emojis. These have proven to get the users’ attention and get them to engage. However, emojis should be used with caution because they may not be effective because of the kind of industry that you are in. So, this goes back to understanding your target audience and knowing what will work for them. Research has shown that certain industries will get a high percentage of engagement because of rich push notifications.
