September 19 2024

Boost Your Brand’s Digital Presence with Google Web Stories: Tips and Tricks

We all post stories on Instagram and Facebook. We also check our friends’ stories and swipe through them to see what’s happening in their lives—whether it’s a new adventure, a delicious meal, a travelogue, or a cute pet. But have you ever heard of Web Stories?

Web Stories

Web stories are stories for your website. They’re full-screen visual narratives that are swipeable and fun, just like Instagram or Facebook stories. With a tap, the audience can navigate between pages, pause, or watch a new story.

What sets Web Stories apart from the rest?

What makes them different from other platforms is that they are visible in Google images, searches, and the Google Discover app, which is available on Apple and Android devices. Through tappable interactions, web stories help attract the audience’s attention to your website. Publishing video/image/audio content helps boost your brand identity. It’s a great way to engage your audience and make your website more dynamic.

Example: 1 Ford’s Mustang Mach-E 1400 Prototype
This web story by Ford showcases their high-performance electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E 1400. The story uses a combination of videos, images, and Text to highlight the car’s features and performance capabilities.

Example 2: Website Indianexpress.com
Here’s an example of another web story from the news website. This web story uses a combination of images to attract the audience. Its heading is ‘Six wardrobe essentials to up your fashion game this winter,’ a link is provided to an article on their website.

How do you create a web story on a WordPress Website?

To create a web story on a WordPress website, you must install and activate the Google Web Stories plugin. This plugin will help you quickly create and publish your Web Stories. Many templates are available for designing your story, or the plugin’s drag-and-drop features allow you to design the story from scratch and upload an existing or new image, video, or business logo from the WordPress Media Library. You can publish stories directly on your Website and Publish the links through Social Media Platforms.

Create your own Web story

Here is how you can do it

Step 1: Install New Plugin-‘Web Stories’ and Activate it.
Step 2: Click stories From the WordPress Dashboard.
Step 3: Choose Explore Template. Choose a template and edit it.
Step 4: Click the Preview button and check
Step 5: Publish.

What are the best practices for creating Web Stories?

Video is more engaging than images. Try to use videos in your web story, but you can also use images and audio.
You can Include Text, too, approximately 40 to 70 words/page.
Include at least 4 Pages in your story.
Include CTAs on the last page. This will help to drive traffic to your website.
Use your brand element, such as your Logo, in your web story pages so your audience can quickly identify it.
Ensure the web stories are AMP valid.

SEO For Google Web Stories

Ensure the SEO best practices you use on your web pages also apply to your web stories. This will allow search engines to find and index them, too.

Provide high-quality content: Provide high-quality content that is engaging and attractive to your viewers. Include a complete narrative and follow the storytelling best practices to keep your readers engaged.

Keep the title shorter than 70 Characters
Include an index attribute in your story page. This attribute helps Google to index the page and prevents it from appearing on Google.

Add your Web Stories to Sitemap.
All Web Stories must be canonical. Ensure each Web Story has a link

rel= “canonical” to itself.

example: <link rel=”canonical”

href=”https://www.example.com/url/to/webstory.html”>

Attach metadata: Include markup that you would typically include on a web page, such as:

Title and description meta tags
Structured data
OG and Twitter card

Advantages of Google Web Stories over Other Social Media Platforms

1: Ownership and Control:

Social media stories, like Instagram or Facebook stories, are confined to a specific platform.
Google Web Stories are hosted on our website, so we have more control over the content presentation.

2: SEO Benefit

SEO Benefits: Google can index web stories, making them discoverable through search results.
Drives organic traffic to your website

3: Cross-Platform Accessibility

Web Stories can be viewed on mobile, tablet, and desktop browsers.

4: Integration with other digital assets

Web stories can be integrated into emails, social media posts, blog posts, and other digital assets to enhance your digital marketing strategy.

5: Integration with Google Analytics

Use the Google Analytics tool to measure and analyze your Web Stories’ performance.
Web stories can be monetized.

Conclusion

Stories capture our attention, developing an emotional connection between the audience and the storyteller and making the information more memorable.
A beautiful Web Story grabs the audience’s attention, increases organic traffic to your website, leads to conversions, enhances brand awareness, and improves user experience, giving you a competitive edge in the digital landscape. Ready to make your website more dynamic and engaging? Start creating web stories today and see the difference they can make.

Author Info

AFSHIN ABINAVAS, A Digital marketing expert in Kuwait.

Learner CDA Digital Marketing Course in Kerala.

August 13 2024

How to Choose Offline Digital Marketing Courses

Dilshad Mirsha Digital Marketing

The world has changed, people changed, and everything around us has changed. Ten years ago, marketing was purely traditional, through hardcopies like newspapers and notices and other means such as television and radio. But now, marketing is a blend of digital and traditional marketing efforts. Everyone must learn and possess essential digital skills to thrive in today’s world.

Here comes another challenge – choosing the best digital marketing course from the institutions around us. As we have already said, the changes around us have revolutionized our educational aspects as well as access. Let’s say you have chosen a digital marketing academy, but what about choosing the right mode of learning for you? And how will you choose between online an offline modes?

There are certain factors to consider while choosing between online and offline digital marketing courses. We have already discussed the benefits of choosing online digital marketing courses in our previous blog. Before settling for that, let’s have a look at the benefits of offline digital marketing courses. Walking through certain factors, you can land on the best digital marketing program that suits your preferences and schedules.

How to Choose Offline Digital Marketing Courses

Features of Offline Digital Marketing Course

Offline digital marketing courses are greatly beneficial if you are looking for an interactive education with timely doubt clearance and one-on-one mentoring sessions. If you are a person who can dedicate your time to acquiring the skills for a particular period, offline digital marketing programs are the best choice.

Structured Learning

Continuous learning matters in digital marketing. And a structured learning atmosphere is a must. Offline classes, with their live assignments and deadlines, provide a structured learning mode to students.

Real-time Expert Trainers

Offline courses offer classroom sessions with expert trainers of the industry. Institutes hire industry experts to increase their credibility and maintain high standards of education. The interactive atmosphere of the classroom is a game-changer when it comes to learning.

Live Project

Offline classes are the best to gain hands-on learning and work experience. Institutes provide opportunities to work on live projects and practical approaches like group activities and case studies help them enhance their skill set during the learning period. Also, offline classrooms are the best to develop interpersonal and communication skills.

International Certifications

Try acquiring internationally recognized certificates! Digital marketing is expanding its wings in every corner of the world. And, being certified with an international qualification opens your doors to your native and to abroad countries. Imagine having a global career in your hands after completing the program.

Internship

Completing a digital marketing program is not enough. You must acquire practical work experience from a proper workspace. You might have completed your projects, but that won’t help you with work. Internships can lay your foundation for work with their ability to make you familiar with the workspace and an introduction to your work life.

Placement Assistance

People learn digital marketing to get placed. Am I wrong? The ultimate aim of a graduate to pursue digital marketing is to land a job. And what if the institute you choose doesn’t provide you with placement assistance? That can be a big tip-off. The interviews we get as part of the placement programs are our opportunities to improve ourselves. And getting placed is the result of our constant hard work.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is a plus of digital marketing. It can help learners to create strong connections with peers and build professional networks within the field. Interactive classes are the best for learning digital marketing as communication has a major role in the job roles.