Don’t Get Lost in the Redirect Maze: Understanding 3xx Codes
Ever clicked a link and landed on a different page than expected? That’s the magic (or sometimes mystery) of 3xx redirects in action. For website owners and SEO enthusiasts, understanding these redirects is crucial. They can be your secret weapon for a smooth user experience and maintaining top search engine rankings, or a confusing detour if not implemented correctly. What are 3xx Redirects? Imagine your website as a bustling city. Streets (URLs) lead visitors to specific shops (webpages). Sometimes, shops move locations. To avoid frustrated customers, you put up signs (redirects) directing them to the new address. Similarly, 3xx redirects are instructions from a website server, telling users (and search engines) that a webpage has permanently (301) or temporarily (302) moved to a different URL. This ensures visitors find the intended content, even if the old address lingers in bookmarks or search results. Why are 3xx Redirects Important for SEO? Search engines like Google value a user-friendly experience. Redirects, when used strategically, can: Not all redirects are created equal. Here’s a breakdown of the most common ones, including their functionalities and SEO impact: Code Description Use Cases Impact on SEO 301 (Moved Permanently) Informs search engines and users that the webpage has permanently moved to a new location. Use this when content has permanently moved to a different URL (e.g., page rebranding, domain migration). Crucial: Transfers link juice (SEO value) to the new URL. Maintains ranking potential. 302 (Found) This is a temporary redirect, informing users and search engines that the requested page is temporarily located at a different URL. Use this for short-term situations like website maintenance or A/B testing. Minimal: Does not transfer link juice. May impact SEO slightly if used excessively. 303 (See Other) This code instructs the user agent (browser or search engine crawler) to access the resource from a different URL using the GET method. Less common, often used for redirects that involve forms or authentication. Varies: May or may not transfer link juice depending on server configuration. 307 (Temporary Redirect) Similar to 302, but specifically for HTTP methods that don’t allow the body to be resent (e.g., POST). Use for temporary redirects involving forms or data submissions. Minimal: Does not transfer link juice. May impact SEO slightly if used excessively. Table 1 showcase the type of the common 3xx redirections How to Check and Fix Redirect Issues Properly managing redirects is crucial for maintaining a seamless user experience and preserving your site’s SEO value. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to check and fix redirect issues: Step 1: Identify Redirect Issues Step 2: Analyze the Redirect Path Step 3: Fix Redirect Issues Step 4: Test the Fixes Step 5: Monitor Regularly By following these steps, you can ensure that your redirects are working effectively, providing a seamless experience for users and maintaining the SEO integrity of your site. Best Practices for Using 3xx Redirects Here are some of the practices that you can follow for your website: In conclusion, 3xx redirects are a powerful tool for website owners and SEOs alike. By understanding their purpose and using them strategically, you can ensure a smooth user experience, maintain SEO value, and keep your website running like a well-oiled machine. So, the next time you encounter a redirect, remember – it’s not a dead end, but a signpost guiding you to the right destination. Curious About SEO? Contact Us Now for a Free Website Audit!
Apple Mail is wasting your email marketing spend (and how Ematic fixes it)
If you’re an email marketer, you may have noticed a much higher open rate since the iOS 15 update back in late 2021. Unfortunately, it’s not that your hooks and one-liners are suddenly capturing a higher number of customers–it’s because of a change in Apple Mail functionality that Apple pushed two years ago. As of September 2021, Apple Mail is automatically reading and opening all emails received as part of a privacy protocol. This means open metrics are no longer accurate–it’s possible that a number of your open metrics are just Apple Mail users whose Apple Mail apps automatically read the emails. The users themselves probably haven’t even seen the emails! The use of Apple Mail has thrown a wrench in the works of email marketers everywhere. Due to the open metrics receiving false positives, Apple Mail users are being advanced to the next phase of email marketers’ email journeys without ever having interacted with the email, leading to them receiving more and more followup emails and traveling further down the email journey. It’s frustrating for both sides, because: For email marketers, they’re investing resources and time emailing and following up on false leads, and; For users, who are now being bombarded with emails and follow-up emails, because now there’s no way to tell whether a user is genuinely interested, or it’s just Apple Mail’s new protocol at work. It’s not possible to tell if a user is using Apple Mail, because the app leaves no data footprint. The email is simply being marked as read, and the user isn’t interacting with the emails at all. This leads to a host of issues for the email marketer: There’s no way to accurately measure the success of an email marketing campaign. With inflated data, an email marketing campaign may look like it’s succeeding when it’s not. Segmenting mailing lists also becomes difficult. Open events used to be a reliable way to separate interested from uninterested users. Without it, it becomes harder to prune mailing lists (by removing uninterested users). With mailing list hygiene now requiring more maintenance, more resources are needed in maintaining an accurate list of interested and uninterested users, resulting in more overhead. The bottom line: marketers are wasting huge sums of money sending email to “engaged users” who aren’t in fact engaged at all, OR they’re losing opportunities by suppressing suspected Apple Mail users entirely, when there are still plenty of active, engaged users in that audience. Hi-iQ: Our Solution to the Apple Mail Issue What is Hi-iQ and How Does It Work? Hi-iQ is our flagship AI product. It is a robust, self-learning algorithm designed to seamlessly integrate with your email database through a simple integration. It operates daily, automatically by retrieving the latest subscriber behaviour towards your past Email campaigns and suggests the most updated targeting whenever you’re scheduling a campaign. By understanding each subscriber’s behaviour, Hi-iQ not only distinguishes between various levels of engagement but also effectively identifies those influenced by Apple Mail’s privacy policy—commonly known as “fake openers.” This ensures that your marketing efforts are far from blind shots in the dark. Moreover, Hi-iQ doesn’t simply flag Apple Mail users and remove them from your list. Instead, it continuously monitors these users, regulating them back into your campaigns at a lower frequency. The aim? To capture those moments when a flagged user eventually shows real engagement. If this occurs, Hi-iQ immediately adjusts its data, recognizing this as a genuine interaction. How Does This Help Me as an Email Marketer? With Hi-iQ, you’re unburdening your team from the cumbersome task of sifting through possibly misleading data. You’re also no longer operating in a data fog; instead, you have precise insights into who is genuinely interacting with your emails. But the real magic happens when you consider long-term impact. It not only helps you identify genuine engagement but also adapts continually based on user behavior. This ensures that you always stay connected to users who truly care and have great potential for your business. By streamlining your list and targeting genuinely interested users, you’re likely to see reduced email costs and a higher ROI, all without having to compromise on your email performance metrics. A Case Study Leflair, an ecommerce platform, sends out email marketing campaign blasts to their user base on a daily basis. Since the Apple change in late 2021, Leflair has posted an average monthly send volume of 4 to 4.5 million emails. This would suggest a high cost of maintaining their email services. In August 2023, Ematic Solutions tested the new Hi-iQ feature on the client’s account. In late August, Hi-iQ was applied; by September, it was up and running. When comparing August 2023 to September 2023, Leflair sent a little under 3 million emails, or a 38% reduction in total send volume, and a corresponding 59% reduction in open rate. This would later lead to savings of 35.29% and an increase in click rate due to a smaller, more accurate target audience. We know the Hi-iQ plugin works because the number of unique clicks remained flat at the average baseline despite the reduction in send volume. Overall, due to maintaining results while reducing inputs, this translates into a stable revenue for Leflair’s email marketing channels. Effectively, the brand’s ROI can be said to have improved due to lower costs. Get Hi-iQ today With the growing number of Apple Mail users, it’s crucial for email marketers to respond to Apple Mail’s privacy protocol. Otherwise, open events cannot be accurately tracked, which in turn can affect the numbers and statistics of email marketers. With that said, we’re happy to announce that our Hi-iQ email solution is available today, featuring wide-reaching viability and compatibility with multiple email platforms, including Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor, Iterable, Mailjet, and more!
Mastering SEO in Malaysia: A Comprehensive Guide
Unlock the secrets to SEO success in Malaysia! Dive into our comprehensive guide on ‘Mastering SEO in Malaysia’ and discover the strategies that will propel your website to the top of the search rankings.
New Design Services On The Way
We’re excited to announce that we’ve recently expanded our capabilities to offer a wide range of design services to complement our existing data-driven optimization disciplines. Many people recognize us for our strong, data-driven, tech-enabled approach to digital marketing. We take pride in holding our ground. However, we understand that in today’s competitive digital world, it’s not enough to rely solely on data-driven optimization to achieve success. Without effective creative designs, your digital performance will only go so far. That’s why we’re now offering a full suite of design services to help you create visually appealing and persuasive websites, marketing materials, logos, and more. Our talented designers work hand-in-hand with our consulting team and development team to create the most effective marketing communication and UI/UX solutions for web, iOS, and Android. We take pride in following modern trends and applying proven approaches to design, prototyping, and product validation to provide you with the best possible design solutions for your brand. By complementing our data-driven optimization with creativity, we’re confident that we can help you achieve real impact and stand out from the competition. Whether you need a flexible expansion when your designers are busy or professional help to provide a design solution for your brand, we’ve got you covered. So why wait? Let’s work together to take your digital performance to the next level. We’ll share more details on each of them in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out!
10-year Anniversary Brings a New-Look Ematic Solutions
The rebrand is a promising evolution that not only pays homage to our heritage and our progress but also propels us to a brighter future.
Ask the experts: Tips for marketing channel optimization
The quest to effective marketing is a never-ending journey. Marketing tactics may vary depending on the company and industry, but one thing that all marketers have in common though, is the desire to improve ROI from their marketing efforts.
Achieving cross-channel marketing synergy
Perfect parts don’t make a perfect whole. By breaking down marketing silos and creating cross-channel synergy, companies can build a stronger brand identity, create a more cohesive and consistent brand experience for customers, avoid duplication of effort and, as a result, achieve a higher return on investment for their marketing efforts.
Why choose Ematic as your Martech buying agent
The rapid change of new marketing technology puts businesses in need of reviewing and updating marketing stack more often. In the latest Martech Replacement Survey, 83% of marketers swapped out at least one marketing tool in the past year.
Letter from CEO – An Elixus x Ematic Update
Dear Elixus Clients, For those who don’t know me, I’m Paul Tenney the Founder and CEO of Ematic Solutions, the parent company of Elixus. Elixus was originally formed as part of Ematic Solutions back in May of 2019, but with its exceptional growth and the rapidly growing demand in digital marketing we made the decision to spin it out back in late 2019 as its own company and brand. For several years, this model worked very well as it allowed both Ematic and Elixus to focus on what each did best, and operate fairly independently. That said, as digital marketing and the broader digital ecosystem has continued to evolve, I continued to see an increasing interconnectedness between all things digital, and grew to believe that you simply can’t operate any aspect of digital marketing in isolation anymore. In light of this, over the past year we’ve been working to integrate Ematic Solutions and Elixus into one business, one operation, and going forward in 2023 we will officially operate as one brand, Ematic Solutions. We, like many of you, are quite fond of the Elixus brand, and while it’s a bit of a shame to leave it behind, consolidating it into Ematic Solutions allows us to bring Elixus’ value to a much broader reach and presence. Ematic has been in operation since 2013 with its headquarters in Singapore, over 200 employees across the region, offices in 9 markets across Asia with strong local teams spread across all of those markets. We are one of the very few independent agencies able to bring such a strong regional presence to our clients. Everything you enjoy about Elixus remains the same except the name- our team is still here, the offering remains the same, and our dedication to ensuring the success of your digital marketing remains our driving focus. With the addition of the Ematic Solutions team though, we will bring a whole new set of capabilities and offerings that can only improve what we’re working on with you today. For those who don’t know Ematic, our company grew up as a CRM-focused business, bringing the deepest arsenal of partnerships in all of Asia, the foremost expertise in the CRM space, and our own technology which has been backed by investors such as Wavemaker, 500 Startups, TNB Aura, Enterprise Singapore and MDI Telkom Indonesia. Ematic and Elixus have been collaborating over the past year to bring even more technology partnerships and service offerings to the market, and we hope the new combined offering can address your challenges and needs in an even more fundamental way than before, and that the impact we’re able to bring for your business is stronger than ever. A few key highlights of the kinds of things Ematic Solutions can do that are new to you: Radically restructure your Marketing Technology spend: between our 80+ marketing technology partners and massive aggregate buying power, Ematic can help companies improve both the quality of their marketing technology investment while significantly reducing the overall costs. Engineering and data capabilities: Ematic Solutions has nearly 50 in-house engineers that help our clients build the fully-integrated digital ecosystem of their dreams. New verticals including CRM, CRO, SEO, Ecommerce and Analytics to complement the Social Media, Performance Marketing, Design, Creative and UI/UX offerings of Elixus. We have been developing and improving the service in this combined fashion for most of 2022, though we’ve maintained separate brands until now, and we do expect that this brand transition should be seamless for our clients. Through this initiative, we hope to open up more ways of collaboration to you. We can now complement and augment your teams and capabilities aside from only outsourcing.Our goal with the new combined team is to be able to help your business with whatever you need in terms of your digital initiatives, and we’re aware that those priorities can change as things evolve. Particularly heading into 2023, we know a lot of our clients are being asked to do more with less, and that often means there are gaps in your manpower and budgets to do the things you’re being asked to deliver. This is precisely where a partner like Ematic can be the ultimate help, as we can plug nearly any gap you have whether that’s right now or longer term. We hope this update doesn’t come as too much of a shock to you, and please rest assured that what you love about Elixus isn’t going to change, and we hope that this initiative can help every one of our clients achieve greater success in 2023. I’d also love to hear from you – if you have any questions or feedback, you’re welcome to contact me directly at paul.tenney@ematicsolutions.com. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all more in 2023, so in the meantime Happy New Year from all of us at Ematic and Elixus and we look forward to a prosperous year ahead. Paul
Is your Martech under-utilized
MarTech investments account for around 25% to total marketing budget on average, but marketers report that they utilize only 42% of the capabilities available in their MarTech stack.
