Sunshine Coast Award-Winning Digital Agency
Five Things to Consider Before Your Ecommerce Site Goes Live
One: Work out your niche then make it even smaller
Of course you’ve got a great idea for your vintage toy store, but so does everyone else. Everyone and their dog has an online store now, so you need to think about your place in the market and then “niche down”. In this way you focus on one type of product – for example out-of-production plushies – and make a name for yourself in this sector. As out-of-production plushies are all you do, your website will rank highly for anyone looking for them.
Two: Your SEO is crucial
You want people to look for you and so you need to spend time – and money – on getting the right keywords. Even then that’s not enough. Using good keywords in blogs is enough to get the ball rolling, but for an ecommerce site you need to up your game even more. We’re talking guest posts on industry or sector blogs, as well as high-quality content on your own blog. You also need to become active in forums, again, with decent content.
Three: Choose your platform and then stick to it
These days thankfully there’s not as much need to pay developers to make your checkout platform for you. You can choose from loads of great pre-fab ones like WooCommerce or Magento, or even use a plug-in for your WordPress site. Whatever you choose, make sure your platform has all the right functions for you, like different payment methods and the ability to change prices and so on. Migrating to a new platform can be time-consuming if you’re doing it yourself and expensive if you hire someone else to do it. Also vital is offering lots of different ways to pay so that international customers have lots of safe options. I can’t recommend WooCommerce enough!
Four: Make sure you have social media links
Around 20% of ecommerce sales come though links and recommendations on social network sites. If people need to check you out, they won’t necessarily take your word at face value, they’ll go straight to the streets (as it were) to find out what previous customers say. Link up your site to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and then actually use them. Offer discounts for likes, make sure you reply to as much feedback as possible and own up to any mistakes!
Five: Use visible trustmarks
One thing that the bigger, national or international stores don’t need as much as you is a trustmark, as they’ve already earned their good reputations over many years of in-store trading. If you’re just starting out you need to display a logo that tells potential customers that their money is safe with you. Try Verisign, BBB or GeoTrust.
Do you have an eCommerce website that isn’t selling? Give me a call directly on 0475 045 034 or send me an email.
About the author
PAUL SMITH - For over 20 years I have worked with businesses, enterprises and brands in Australia, NZ, UK and US to drive digital marketing growth using organic and paid traffic strategies. No fluff or BS, just straight-forward return on investment.
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