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Introduction
Choosing shopping cart software can turn into a tough job due to the large number of e-commerce solutions available on the market. Overall, it's almost impossible to say which product is the best one since their feature richness, pricing, flexibility and the range of extra services vary to a great extent.
Therefore, buying the right product which fits into your goals can save a lot of time and effort, while a mistake may turn into extra costs, additional months of work or even cause starting the whole project from scratch.
There are several key factors which should be considered while picking the right solution. In this article, I'll try to outline the most important steps that definitely should not be missed. The tactics described below may be varied according to your goals, however, following this advice will be useful in the decision-making process as a whole.
Key groups of factors
Who you are
In my opinion, the first thing you should ask is the role he's going to play in the online store functioning process. The key factor of this role (at least for small and medium businesses) is the level of a person's technical knowledge.
In most cases, technology is an issue for store owners , managers and administrators . Since each store needs its own unique design, functionality and storefront design along with the initial setup and server administration, you should clearly understand how these services could be purchased and what the manufacturer has to offer. Another important issue for this target group is the ease of administration and usage of basic functions.
Another group of users are web developers and designers who are technically skilled and usually maintain the store by themselves or develop e-commerce solutions for their clients (which usually involves complex code changes and development of extra functionality). For these people, the most important factors are: the quality of code, the ease of customization and add-ons implementation and flexibility of storefront design.
Types of shopping carts
All shopping cart solutions can be divided into two large groups: hosted and distributed.
Hosted carts are usually provided in the same manner as hosting services, which means that a customer has several predefined plans/packages (varying in number of products, monthly bandwidth, number of features, etc) to choose from. The pricing structure is also based on regular (monthly or yearly) fees. A hosting platform is provided directly from the manufacturer and the cart is usually activated without any actions needed from a client.
Hosted shopping carts are managed through the administration area which provides the interface to manage product catalog (add, remove items and edit their properties), define and change prices and so on. The storefront design can usually be altered by modifying templates, however, the access to the source code for hosted solutions is usually limited and it's not always possible to modify the functionality.
Distributed solutions are sold at a fixed price (one-time fee for a lifetime license) as a software package which should installed on any compatible server chosen by a customer. After the initial setup, the store can also be managed using the administration area.
Usually such products come with source code and thus can be modified or extended to suit your needs. However, such modifications require good technical and programming knowledge (or working with those that have those skills).
Overall, hosted carts are often preferable for store owners as more easy to use and administer while web programmers, designers and developers mostly choose distributed solutions due to their flexibility.
Additional services
While most shopping cart features can often be used right out of the box, it's important to note that in most cases online stores require some additional professional services.
For example, e-commerce software may come with a number of pre-installed design templates, but a serious store owner would usually have its own unique store look or integrating it's existing design into the storefront. Also, since it's impossible for an ecommerce product containing each and every possible feature or working the way which is totally suitable for everyone, a shopping cart manufacturer providing custom programming service is a good option in case you're planning to implement some extended functionality.
Another option worth checking is whether it's possible to get a fully-compatible hosting solution (since shopping carts usually have significant server-side requirements due to their complexity) and technical support (in case you need consultations or assistance in problem resolution).
Integration with external systems
Ecommerce software should not be treated as a standalone product, but rather as a solid ground for interaction between various components.
Not all operations are performed within the shopping cart engine. Most often, external services are used for payment processing, real-time shipping rates calculation, order processing systems, affiliate and statistics software, product directories and so on.
Thus, the richness of integration allows store owners to have a wider choice of services for their online business.
Technical support, forum & third-party solutions
Responsive technical support is another key factor which ensures that you're not left alone with your problems and, in case the assistance is needed, you can be sure to receive a thoughtful response or a solution in a reasonable amount of time.
Support schemes from different companies may vary in type and costs. For shopping cart vendors, technical support is often on a pay-per-incident basis, or yearly/monthly flat-fee contract. Free technical support for ecommerce solutions is quite rare and may not always be effective or timely.
Forum activity is also a good indicator since it can be a good, free source of knowledge and assistance from experience software users.
In addition, it is advisable to check if third-party vendors offer modules or services related to a chosen e-commerce product to ensure that you will have a decent choice of extra solutions.
Tips and advice for research
Requirements
First of all, before proceeding with the actual product research, I'd advise that you collect the list of key features which are necessary for your upcoming online store. Such a checklist will allow you to ensure that all (or most) of them are present while examining features lists for chosen candidates.
Looking in search engines using relevant queries
Next, you may proceed with picking products for comparison. To find the most popular solutions, start searching in Google/Yahoo/MSN using relevant search phrases characterizing the product, like “shopping cart software”, “ecommerce solution”, “online store builder” etc.
For each query, pick products from top ten or top twenty search results. Visit their websites, compare product features and services presented there, pricing and any other information that you may consider relevant.
Looking for reviews and comments on forums and directories
For each product in your list, you would surely be interested to know what others have to say. In this case, independent sources provide valuable additions to official information from software vendors.
Most likely, product profiles along with customer reviews can be found on large script and software libraries like HotScripts, Freshmeat and Download. Also, check out some comparison sites, for example, Epinions and Shopping Cart Reviews. Also, you may search through archives or start a new thread with your questions at popular IT forums, like SitePoint or WebmasterWorld.
Contacting sales department with your questions
Finally, I'm sure that for your short list of solutions, some questions may still remain. This is a good reason to contact a vendor's sales team to find out their responses. Do not hesitate to do it, since the quality of feedback and attention to you as a potential client is worth checking before you actually proceed with the purchase.
Conclusion
Choosing shopping cart software may not seem easy since it involves significant effort from a serious customer. However, the rewards for the effort is obvious: you get a product which fits into your goals and allows you to concentrate on sales and marketing without worrying about the technical side. Moreover, as a client, you get to know the software vendor before buying a product and ensure that the technical side can be handled without a problem. Good luck in your research!
According to a recent Stompernet study, the industry average for shopping cart abandonment is 59.6%. Shopping cart abandonment” means that someone goes to a website, reads the sales letter, and clicks on the buy link to go to the secure order form, but they don't finish filling out the form. So, this means that for every 10 people who click on a “buy” or “order” link to go to a shopping cart, only four (4) actually complete the transaction.
And that's in an OPTIMAL environment, assuming the overall site traffic is high-quality and targeted, and the order process is crystal clear and caveman-easy.
Pretty sobering, eh?
Where do they all go?
We usually have our clients start by checking on their shipping rates. The Stompernet study also reveals that one of the top causes for shopping cart abandonment is that shipping is too high, or numerous options make it too confusing.
There are some fast adjustments you can make WITHOUT having to get into programming or custom software if you use a solution like MyEasyOnlineStore.com or Infusionsoft.com,
3 Easy Ways to Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment Resulting From High Shipping Prices:
1) Avoid real-time shipping tables that offer too many shipping choices.
Here's something we actually encountered.
To buy a $14.95 CD, the “real time shipping” on a shopping cart gave them prices anywhere from $6.82 to $68.44 for various air, ground, and rush options for shipping. Of course customers would leave.
It's just too much to think about. And seeing the option to pay $70 to get a $15 CD the next day really jumped out at the customer. They left, saying “shipping's too expensive.” Even many customers who bought said “wow, that's a lot to pay to have it shipped.”
2) Have only one or two shipping options
Replace that long shipping table with statements like:
“It's $2.50 shipping, and you should get it in the mail in 2-3 business days.”
“Price includes all shipping and handling. Orders are typically shipped the same day we receive them.”
See the difference?
We recently had a client end their real-time shipping calculations, end rush-shipping options, and simply offer two rates (one domestic and one international.)
Their shopping cart abandonment rates dropped and their conversion rates went up a consistent 5% with just that one change. And, the fulfillment house said that the client is having far few instances of collecting “too little” shipping than they did when it was real-time.
3) Don't do rush shipping - offer instant downloads
If there's any reason why a customer would “need it right now,” instead of rush shipping, how about adding an instant download option?
This way, not only can your prospects have it RIGHT NOW (instead of “tomorrow”) but then you're also spared the headache of making sure “rush” orders, indeed were “rushed.”
Bottom line:
When it comes to shipping, get to the bottom line and make it easy. When interested customers have to stop and think about shipping, they hesitate. It gets right in the way of the sales momentum.
Give prospects too much to think about and they'll think about buying somewhere else. This means you lost customers for life!
So, keep it simple - and you will reduce shopping cart abandonment fast.
Now of course, there are many other factors that will affect your website sales conversion and shopping cart abandonment rates. And, that's why I, now invite you to get a website review “live” on screen capture video that will reveal right in front of your eyes easy, understandable and proven shortcut secrets to plug your specific profit draining leaks. We'll give you our NEW, FREE e-Book: “Top 10 Deadly Mistakes That Will Cost You Traffic & Sales.”
Here's to decreased shopping cart abandonment rates and increased website sales conversion rates!
The reason so many people fail online so quickly is because they don't get traffic, at least not enough of it.
The problem is, people end up spending money on advertising without making much (if any) profit back, or they simply spend too much time trying to get free traffic and burn themselves out.
Of course, once you're successful you can pay someone to get you the traffic, but how do we get out of the never ending cycle of trying to get traffic without wasting time and money?
Well, I am going to start with the fundamental tasks that you should focus on first, then we'll take it from there…
1. Directory submissions.
This can be achieved using automated submission software or can be done by hand. It's a little dull but will result in lots of back links to your website for better visibility in the search engines. This is pay off as you add more content and back links to your site.
2. Social bookmarking.
This is about submitting links to the major Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Propeller and Reddit (to name just a few). The great thing is you can use software such as socialmarker.com to make the process far easier. You can also buy inexpensive software to automate the whole process.
The benefit of social bookmarking your content is so that you gain back links from these authority sites (which is essential for being found in the search engines) but also, if you content is worthwhile and interesting, you increase the chances of your submission being passed around other readers really quickly, which can of course result in a lot of traffic to your website.
3. Back links.
Back links are the backbone of getting your pages listed high in the search engines. The more people link to your site naturally (i.e. without being paid or listing your site in some sort of link farm where the site linking to you is junk), then the better your rankings will be in the search engines. Not to mention the direct traffic that will come from the actual links from other sites too.
4. Collaboration.
Most people want to be the “one person wonder” or the sole entrepreneur in their business, which is fine. However, don't underestimate the sheer power of teaming up with other well established websites directly and offering your content, help or other services in exchange for some exposure to your own website.
The classic “I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine” effect comes into play here and trust me, it works like a charm providing you genuinely approach people to help them first.
There are of course, many other ways to start getting traffic to your site such as writing articles like this one, or getting involved with many of the Web 2.0 properties out there online today. The more social you become with your website at other people's parties, the more people will come to your party when you come to tell them about it…just like real life isn't it?
You can easily increase you website profit online if you have the right marketing content and use good online SEO to promote it. The benefit of good online search engine optimization is that it can earn you an avalanche of free traffic through high search engine listings, while at the same time pointing prospects to some good online content.
The question is what is that content, and what online SEO should you be using? The answer to the first part of that question is obvious: the content you use must relate to the topic of your web page, and each web page must be optimized for one keyword, and one keyword only. Where most people fail with their online marketing is that they try to be all things to all people, and are not specific enough in targeting prospects to the right website pages.
To increase web profit online, it is essential that your marketing content is highly focused to the topic or product in hand, and that your online SEO is spot on, missing none of the elementary aspects of SEO, while taking advantage of the more advanced search engine optimization techniques that the vast majority either ignore or are unaware of. You can't do much about other people's ignorance, but you can sure take advantage of it!
Doing so, however, might take some specialized information on online SEO techniques and how to apply them to your advantage. You will no doubt be aware of the simple Meta tag rules, and how to use heading tags in your body content, but how are you with internal linking strategies, or being able to lead spiders by the nose around your whole website exactly as you want them to visit each page? No? Then you have a lot to learn.
Intimate knowledge and understanding of search engine optimization techniques such as the correct use of the ‘nofollow' and ‘noindex' tags can be critical to your success. The same is true of an understanding of latent semantic analysis and how Google is applying it to the Bigdaddy algorithm. How about the correct use of images, video and Flash? Are you fully conversant of how Google looks upon these? Probably not, because it might surprise you to know that Flash is not what is used to be in the eyes of Google spiders, and that the vast majority still does not know how to properly use images to their maximum benefit.
Marketing content is also very important, and writing articles is an excellent way to generate content both for your web pages and to use on article directories to advertise them. You will sell nothing if your web pages get no visitors, and two of the best ways to achieve that are to get a good listing on search engines for your main keyword and to publish articles that contain an advert for the relevant web pages in the author's resource.
Marketing content can also be in the form of well written and SEO optimized articles, and in order to increase web profit online you must have good search engine optimized marketing content. Without that you are dead in the water, because your web pages will never be listed on Google, which is the most important of the search engines.
So, focus on your online SEO and your marketing content and you will increase your web profit online as a result of that. It is not as simple as you might have been led to believe, but if you can find the right mentor then you should find it a fairly simple task as long as you have a reasonable product and know how to market it online.
I've been reviewing articles for newsletters and sites for over 10 years and about 7 years ago I launched GoArticles.com, now one of the largest free article content directories on the Web. In that time, the volume of article content being pumped out has mushroomed, but the overall quality has seriously declined. One of the main reasons for this decline has been the growing realization by webmasters and marketers that articles are an effective and free means for acquiring back links and traffic.
Article writing has become a red flag drawing would be writers from every walk of life and every area of real or imagined expertise. Just like web sites spawned search engines and a host of secondary support services (SEO, site submission, etc.), article writing has given birth to article directories, article submission services, ghost writing, and article SEO. Article directories and article search engines are now struggling with the same problem that web search engines have grappled with for years - crap content.
Here are some of the most common article submission problems I've seen:
1. Blatant copyright violation and plagiarism.
2. Short advertorials trying to pass as articles.
3. Articles that have a catchy title and absolutely no worthwhile content. Generally, the publication guidelines for these articles are longer than the article.
4. Recycled article content. The topic and the content has been written about ad nauseum.
5. Software generated articles. Read like the author was on drugs.
Winnowing through the mountains of useless published content has become a full time endeavor for article directories, newsletter publishers and anyone looking for useful information. The demand for quality article content hasn't waned but the challenges for the article content industry continue to grow.
Your web site should be easy to read
The most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colors very carefully. You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colors that are hard to read. Dark-colored text on a light-colored background is easier to read than light-colored text on a dark-colored background.
You also don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalized letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.
Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not centered. Center-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and most text (in the West) is left aligned.
Read details on how to make your web site and web graphic images easy to read.
Your web site should be easy to navigate
All of your hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic images, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly labeled and easy to read. Your web graphic designer should select the colors, backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics very carefully. It is more important that your navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand than to have "flashy" effects.
Link colors in your text should be familiar to your visitor (blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link), if possible. If you elect not to use the default colors, your text links should be emphasized in some other way (boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of these). Text links should be unique -- they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.
Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly as they clicked on.
Your web site should be easy to find
How are your visitors finding you online? The myth, "If I build a web site, they will come," is still a commonly held belief among companies and organizations new to the Internet. People will not come to your web site unless you promote your site both online and offline.
Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories, award sites, banner advertising, electronic magazines (e-zines) and links from other web sites. If you are not familiar with any of these online terms, then it is best that you have your site promoted by an online marketing professional. (See our section, What to Look for in an Online Marketing Company, for some general guidelines.)
Web sites are promoted offline via the conventional advertising methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once you have created a web site, all of your company's printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc. should have your URL printed on them.
Not only should your web site be easy to find, but your contact information should be easy to find. People like to know that there is a person at the other end of a web site who can help them in the event that:
1. they need answers to questions which are not readily available on your web site;
2. some element on your site is not working and end users need to be able to tell you about it, and
3. Directory editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that your site is placed in the most relevant category.
By giving all relevant contact information (physical address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email address), you are also creating a sense of security for your end users. They can contact you in the way that makes them feel the most comfortable.
Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
Just as in any document formatted on a word processor or as in any brochure, newsletter, or newspaper formatted in a desktop publishing program, all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should remain consistent throughout your web site. Consistency and coherence in any document, whether it be a report or a set of web pages, project a professional image.
For example, if you use a drop shadow as a special effect in your bullet points, you should use drop shadows in all of your bullets. Link-colors should be consistent throughout your web pages. Typefaces and background colors, too, should remain the same throughout your site.
Color-coded web pages, in particular, need this consistency. Typefaces, alignment in the main text and the headings, background effects, and the special effects on graphics should remain the same. Only the colors should change.
Your web site should be quick to download
Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists' pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times. Sometimes, getting to web site such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems is so difficult and time consuming that visitors will often try to access the sites during non-working hours from their homes. If your business does not have good brand name recognition, it is best to keep your download time as short as possible.
A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, animation looks "cool" and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.
Finally, before you consider the personal preferences of your web page design, you should consider all of the above rules FIRST and adapt your personal preferences accordingly. The attitude "I don't like how it looks" should always be secondary to your web site's function. Which is more important: creative expression/corporate image or running a successful business?
Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.
Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.
Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?
Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.
First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page.
Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?
Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)
Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.
Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, “Gumbo Pudding Pop” occasionally, “Get gumbo pudding pops” as well, “Gumbo-flavored pudding pops” some other times, etc.
Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?
As an owner of your own ecommerce website, how do you know when is it right time to revamp and tweak things? How do you find things are not working the way it supposed to?
Website owners are aware of the time and stress involved to go through the entire process of building a website that works for their business. The feeling of relief when the site goes ‘live' is immense. The result being that entrepreneurs are so darn glad when the job is finally over, that they just don't want to even think about changes or God forbid a new website design anytime in future! Unfortunately, in this age of rapid technological changes and virtual access to just about anything the customer wants, ignoring your website would be a disaster.
Just as there are indications before a natural disaster strikes similarly there are indications that your website might be headed towards disaster, if you do not upgrade it when required.
Be alert to the following signals that indicate when your ecommerce site needs to be tweaked, upgraded or redesigned to continue serving your business in the best possible manner:
1) Difficulties with various browser platforms:
Your e-commerce website is the heart and soul of your online business. Imagine if it looks disfigured on different browsers (IE, Fox, Netscape, etc). Such cross browser issues might not surface immediately, but when the browser's upgrade their own software, the results can be quite damaging for your website. Problems could be as minor as graphic design defects to major issues like functional problems, shopping cart problems, problems with online payment etc. Such problems will virtually push your visitors away from your site to a faster, quicker and sleeker competitor out there, who can make life easier for the average online shopper.
Point to remember : Always ask the web designer to test your website on various platforms and to personally test this to ensure the website coding is compatible on all the major web browsers.
2) Business Model has changed or diversified:
No business owner can afford to work with a static and stagnant business model, if they plan to grow and succeed. Innovation, research and development are part and parcel of every business, ensuring products/services stays in line with the current needs and requirements are in alignment with your industry, competitor and clients. Changes could be minor ones in the product/services or major ones like offering brand new products or services, or broadcasting changes when your firm expands and enters diverse industry verticals.
Point to remember : It becomes very imperative to reconsider the changes to your business and make sure the same is reflected factually, accurately, lucidly in a timely manner in the structure, design and strategy behind your website.
3) The site looks dull and old:
Online visitors are bombarded with creative visual stimulants and images with latest technological aids from all the sides. If your website in comparison looks like it was made in 1990s, the race is over before it began. Your website is definitely outdated if it's chunky, has slow loading graphics, and has an old table layout and frame, if the various table design panels loads separately and irritatingly slowly, if there are very few eye catching graphics, flash, animations to attract and retain attention throughout the site or if it's too overloaded with text. An e-commerce site cannot survive, if it's so behind the times. Besides creating a poor impression that you don't care enough about your business it also shows your complete lack of awareness when it comes to technological innovations.
Point to remember : Never lose touch with technological changes occurring in your particular industry. Check out the competitor's site, other relevant industry sites, ask customers their preferences, and encourage them to complain (if necessary) about problems faced while shopping online on your site. This will give you precious nuggets of intelligence to keep your site modern, user friendly and credible.
4) Your site is annoying your customer:
Yes, website can annoy online visitors. According to a recent online survey the following were major pet peeves of online visitors:
a. 93% of consumer said POP-UP ADS extremely annoyed them
b. 89% were annoyed by REQUESTS TO INSTALL EXTRA SOFTWARE
c. 83% noted LOG-IN / REGISTRATION PROMPTS (to access content).
The result was: 75% of customers said they'd never return, 74% of customers said they would unsubscribe from the company's messages, 71% said they viewed the company in a negative way and 55% said they bad mouthed the firm to friends or associates. (That's dangerous!)
Other extreme irritations include:
a. Dead links (86%)
b. Confusing navigation (84%)
c. Slow-loading pages (83%)
d. Ineffective site-search tools (80%)
e. Moving text (59%)
f. Poor color, fonts and format (55%)
Point to remember: It is good to make use of various online marketing tools and technology available at your disposal. But don't go overboard and clutter your site with unnecessary features to such an extent that it annoys your customer and makes them view your ecommerce site negatively. Keep the site as clean, simple and as user friendly as possible. The goal is to make them shop and not run away.
5) Textual Content on your site is a turn off:
Have you ever sat down and read the content (site text) aloud? Try it. Does it make you cringe? Do you sound phony? Are your claims too tall, to be believable? If you yourself feel the content sounds insincere and information is not up to date/ wrong/misguided, imagine the plight of your online visitors.
Point to remember : Seek professional content writer's help, if you are not good at business communication and especially online content writing. Although it might cost initially, it is truly worth every penny you spend.
6) You are not proud of your site:
If you find yourself feeling apologetic when referring your ecommerce site or handing out your business card, then it's obviously time to tweak your site. Your website should be a source of pride for you and your employees. If you find yourself apologizing for outdated information, broken images, poor design, difficult navigation or anything else on your site, then you need to redesign the site without delay. Your website offers your clients and prospects an easy access to information on your business and it is very important to have a site that is top in shape and looks impressive and makes your client believe that your business is in good shape.
Point to remember : View your online website as an investment that needs regular inputs in terms of resources, time, energy and funding to help it grow strong and turn into a profit centre for your business.
7) The Navigation Has Become Confusing
As websites grow, so does the visual hierarchy of links. Your site may have started with only a few web pages and now you realize you have so many links that it's hard for visitors to navigate through all your content. An overgrown or scattered link structure is a good reason to redesign your existing site. Below are some solutions to interface design:
• Drop Down Menus
• Collapsible Navigation
• Dynamic Flash Menus
• Good Hierarchy Layout
• Site Map
Point to remember : Redesigning your site “just for looks” is definitely not the best move. There could be existing elements that are working with your current website that you may wish to consider incorporating into the new design. Thinking about your visitors and search engine friendly web pages is also crucial. You should analyze your web statistics to find out which pages are most popular, helpful to visitors, and required so that you can include them into your website redesign.
Last but not the least, poor customer service:
Ecommerce sites are tricky since there are still many barriers and prejudices plaguing the mind of the customers when they go online to shop. The only way to remove this and help them give the assurance they need to take that plunge and ordering online, is offering them superb customer service.
Since they cannot, see, touch, feel the product or service before buying, it is all the more important to make your firm as humanized as possible. If your ecommerce site fails to address issues sent on inquiry form or contact us form, if customer do not receive confirmation with shipment details, if your customer feels cheated/fooled/scammed after buying from your site, then your business will not be successful for long.
As an ecommerce site owner, ensure to go step ahead of the normal website to provide instantaneous support and help to your customers. If it's possible to offer live help service, it would be great. If not, display your customer care contact information very prominently on all pages and encourage your customers to call on your toll free numbers to sort their problems. Read and re-read FAQ section to make sure you have covered all the doubts and fears faced during online shopping, no matter how ridiculous or stupid it might sound to you.
Point to remember : Reassure your customer and never make them feel they were a fool to buy from your site. The feeling of being ripped/cheated/scammed online, will lead to severe loss of reputation, trust and ultimately erode your survival.
When is it preferable to use a logo in a web banner? While displaying your logo may be essential for print and related media promotions, a logo on a banner deserves serious reconsideration.
People react to ads differently on the web than other types of media. A logo in a banner usually screams "advertisement" to the audience, and web pages are already oversaturated with banner ads. Visitors usually don't want to see ads when they come to a web site. Visitors are expecting to find information or entertainment.
One of the most ineffective banners is one that contains a logo and a company slogan. How does that banner ad benefit your audience? What reason does the viewer have to click on to your site? None! You've just said in your banner "look how good I am" rather than thinking "look what good I can do for you."
There are some instances when a logo in a banner ad can be helpful: one is for "branding" purposes, that is, getting your company name out in public so people are more likely to remember your company, product, or service. Some companies purposely create branding banners when their logo or name is already well known with the public, such as Coke or Microsoft. Other companies using banner ads just to tell the public that their business' services will be available soon.
Companies who use banner advertising for branding are companies which
(a) are already well known to the public, and
(b) have a large advertising budget to feature their name in many places. And that means for the majority of businesses, using a company name and/or a slogan in a banner ad is an ineffective way of obtaining high CTRs (click-through-ratios).
So if your company is not a big, well-known company, then how do you get people to click on to your site through your banner ad? Design your banner with the appearance that it will provide information or solve a problem if you click on it. If you have to include your logo on the banner, then make sure the logo is not the main focus of the banner. Make your logo small and place most of the emphasis on the call-to-action.
Logos in banner ads can generate better results if they are part of a keyword search. Say for instance, you have purchased keywords from a portal site, such as Yahoo, where anyone who enters keywords in a search query will come to a web page on the portal's site that has your banner displayed. Because you have already narrowed down your target audience, and people who have come to the particular web page are more likely to be looking for what you provide. A logo that says what your company let the visitor may is more likely to click on your banner and go to your site.
In conclusion, we rarely recommend that companies use logos in banner ads because those banners tend to have the lowest CTRs. The only times we recommend using logos in banner ads is for branding purposes, but expect low CTRs.
You should be paying very close attention to which keywords are driving traffic to your site. If someone at your company isn't digging into your keyword referral reports in your analytics tool, you are leaving money on the table. Here's a list of seven ways to effectively leverage your keyword analytics (for both organic and paid search traffic).
1. Peek inside the minds of searchers
Often we as marketers think we know a lot about how people search. The truth is, there are a lot of different ways to search and it varies by industry and from one individual to another. By analyzing the keywords and phrases that are driving traffic and sales to your website, you can find out how your customers search to find your site. What adjectives or other modifiers do potential customers search on? What order do they search.
2. See which keywords are working for organic search
If your site is showing up on the first page for some of those keywords, how much traffic are you getting from those organic listings? More importantly, how many leads or sales are you getting from those keywords? You will sometimes be surprised at which keywords drive the most traffic. Often it's not the keywords you think will be best, and that's why you have to watch your keyword referral reports to see which keywords are working.
3. Determine which keywords are not driving traffic
If you're on the first page of Google and you get zero clicks, it's time to find some new keywords. Stick with the keywords that drive sales and ditch the keywords that don't work. There is a huge difference in click through rates depending on the position your site is listed in, but if your site is anywhere on the first page of Google, you should expect some level of traffic, or you're not targeting the right keyword.
4. Find keywords that work in PPC that can be used for SE
The nice thing about PPC search advertising is that you can choose exactly which keywords your ad shows up for. The thing that sucks about PPC is that you have to pay for every click. So why not take what you've learned from your PPC campaign and make sure you're focusing your SEO efforts on the right keywords? You'll usually find that a first page organic listing for the same keyword will send a lot more traffic than a paid listing for the same phrase, and the price per click is way better.
5. Find keywords that work for SEO that can be used for PPC campaigns
The same idea for taking PPC keywords into your SEO campaign works the other way, too. Organic search listings will bring people to your site for all kinds of different keywords–including tons of keyword combinations that you never would have thought to include in your PPC campaign. If you notice a particular phrase that drives a lot of sales from a unique organic search keyword, you should try it out in your PPC ads. You'll usually see a similar conversion rate, or maybe even better conversion from PPC on the same keyword!
6. Identify keywords to add as negative matches
Negative matching with PPC campaigns is when you tell the search engines to not show your ad when certain words are included in the search query. This can come in handy when you're doing broad matching on keywords that have multiple meanings or connotations. They can also help you eliminate keywords that are driving a lot of traffic without resulting in sales. By watching your conversion metrics on a keyword level, you can identify keywords that drive traffic without sales and add those keywords to your campaigns as negative matches. You can even save yourself some money by looking at irrelevant, under-performing keywords from your organic search that should be excluded from your PPC campaigns before you even spend a penny on PPC ads.
7. Get ideas for new content and products
You'll start to notice that people find your site for all kinds of different, sometimes strange, keywords. Watch the keyword list for new ideas for topics you can write about on your blog or even a new product you can add to meet the needs of your customers. If you're getting significant traffic on keywords that you don't have content about, it's a good indicator that traffic would flow to your site if you create content to match what people are looking for.
I find it very interesting to review the keyword referral data in website analytics reports. As you dig in you'll find all kinds of hidden gems that you can apply to make your website better and more profitable!
Any other ideas of ways you're using keyword analytics to grow your business?
In a world where more and more households are connected to the internet, bandwidth is becoming an issue and brownouts have been predicted to occur in the next few years. With the strain on the infrastructure of the internet this makes having an efficient, fast loading website all that much more important.
The bottom line for most site owners though, is not the efficiency of the internet as a whole, but rather the financial sustainability of their websites. While there are many ways to make a site perform better in terms of converting visitors, one of the simplest, and probably most important aspects is simply to reduce the load time of your website.
If your site suffers from poor performance you could be missing out not only on sales and average visitor time on site, but also search rankings. Below I will discuss some of the negative impacts a slow loading site may experience, as well as a few ways you can correct the issue. In some cases, correcting the problem will cost you only some time, although it has the potential to really pay off in the long run.
Negative Impacts of Long Load Times
If your site takes too long to load this can have a number of negative effects including loss of sales, loss or rankings, and increased pay per click cost. It can even increase your hosting costs depending on the cause.
Loss of Sales
Let's pretend for a moment that search engines just didn't exist and rankings didn't matter. People are impatient - if your site takes too long to load, many potential customers will simply give up and go elsewhere.
Broadband connections are growing incredibly fast in the US; however, according to a study posted at FoxNews this past July, approximately 10% of Americans still have dial-up internet access. If your site loads slowly, you may be alienating 10% of your potential customers.
The last thing you want to do is frustrate your visitors. If you do this, you may drive them away, never to return. If you can provide a fast loading efficient website, you will increase the likelihood that your visitors will make a purchase, and return again in the future.
Increased Pay per Click Costs
Only a few short months ago a post by Heather Lane at the Inside AdWords blog announced that landing page load times will affect a keyword's quality score. The reason for this is quite simple: a fast loading website improves the end user experience. As a result, ads directing to a slow loading page will be given a lower quality score. This in turn will cause your keyword bids to be higher, costing you significantly on a per click basis.
Loss of Organic Rankings
We know two things for a fact. Google factors in load times with AdWords, and Google focuses on an improved end user experience. As a result, I for one am convinced that a site's load time does impact overall organic search rankings. While this is likely only a small piece of the very large algorithmic puzzle, it does play a part, and if you can speed up your site, you just may be able to move your rankings up a notch or two.
Speeding up your site is unlikely to move your site from page 8 all the way to page 1, but it may be enough to move up a few positions.
Increased Hosting Costs
Assuming your load times are due to file size issues and not other server constraints, your hosting costs may be more than they need to be. This factor will vary a great deal based on the hosting company and the package you have chosen.
Many hosts now offer packages where a significant amount of bandwidth usage is included, resulting in a single flat monthly or annual rate. ( LunarPages for example, has a $4.95 monthly plan with unlimited bandwidth per month.) If your hosting provider does put a limit on usage and you are using beyond the allocated max, you could be paying a fair bit in overage charges. If you fall into this category, optimizing your files to reduce bandwidth usages could save you a considerable amount of cash.
Issues and Fixes
There are a number of issues that can cause a site to load slowly. Below I have noted a few items that are fairly common and can be relatively easily corrected.
Issue: Un-Optimized Images
This is probably one of the biggest culprits out there impacting load time today. I have seen countless websites where image optimization is simply not done, resulting in significantly increased page load times. One of the biggest problems is when images are scaled down to fit the application.
Quite often webmasters will take a large image, and scale it down using the height and width attributes rather than physically resizing the image. What this does is then require the browser to load the full high resolution image, when it really only needs a fraction.
Let's take this real world example. A client recently had a photo on their home page; the photo was 600 x 403 pixels, weighed in at 124.68 KB, and visually they had scaled the image to fit 473 x 317 pixels.
By resizing the original image to the desired dimensions, and then reducing the quality of the jpg to 70%, the end result was an image that looked identical on his website but weighed in at only 23 KB - that's 101.68 KB smaller than the original. Using a simple filesize download calculator I found online, 101.68 KB would take 14 seconds to download using a 56 Kb modem, or about 2 seconds on your run of the mill broadband connection.
For broadband users 2 seconds may not seem like much, but remember, this is only for a single image. When you add up all other images and on-site components, the time can significantly add up.
Issue: Un-Optimized files
Another way you can speed up your sites load time is to have clean HTML, CSS, and other included files. Remove extraneous code from your files, and use CSS wherever possible. Every piece of old html code adds up in size, even if it doesn't impact the visual site itself. I have seen many cases where links have been removed but the code remains accidently .
Audio and video can also be compressed. If your site uses a fair bit of multimedia, see if you can compress these files a bit more than you have already. You may be able to save some load time here as well without impacting user experience.
Issue: Hosting Server
It is possible that your site is perfect in every way, but the culprit is simply your web host. It does not necessarily mean that your host is slow, but if you are paying for an account on an old archaic computer with limited system resources servicing 1000 websites, this could seriously impact your site's load time. If you have worked to ensure that the site is well optimized for efficiency and the load times are still extreme, you may need to upgrade your hosting account to one more suited for your business needs.
If your site is a fairly basic, such as a static 8 page html site, then a slow server may have little to no impact, but if your site requires extensive database queries and the help of an intensive content management system, and serves up tens of thousands of visitors a day, then you may need to switch to a higher end dedicated server. If you have found that your server is the only problem in your slow load times, contact your host to see what they can do for you.
Issue: HTTP Requests
According to a post at the Yahoo Developer Blog , “80% of the end-user response time is spent on the front-end. Most of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the page: images, style sheets, scripts, Flash, etc. Reducing the number of components in turn reduces the number of HTTP requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster pages.”
The article discusses combining files in order to reduce the number of HTTP requests, largely by the use of CSS Sprites. They also discuss using image maps to combine multiple images, however, from an SEO perspective, this is not something that I would recommend as my experience has shown image-mapped links are not always followed by search engine spiders.
They go on to explain a vast number of rather technical aspects to speeding up a page. If you are a technical person capable of implementing advanced techniques, the Yahoo Developer Network is definitely something you should check out.
Load Time Tools
Before you undergo any changes to your site to resolve the slow load times, I suggest first finding a tool and benchmarking your progress. Record how long your site takes to load, and then try again after you have made an effort to correct the problem.
There are a number of tools out there that can help you calculate your load times. One such tool is WebSiteOptimization.com. This site specializes in optimizing the performance of your site in order to decrease bandwidth and load times. They have created a very simple tool which will give you the load times for the individual components of your site, which can give you a good idea where to start.
Summary
If you take a bit of time to speed up the load time for your website by optimizing your existing content and cleaning up your code, you may just find yourself making more sales. As an added bonus you may also find improved search engine rankings, which will then in turn increase your sales further. Depending on your hosting provider, you may even have a reduced monthly hosting bill. Decreasing the load time of your site is really win-win for everyone.
As the internet becomes more and more bandwidth intensive with an ever increasing stream of users and higher use applications, doing whatever we can do reduce the strain on the system will make for a faster internet for everyone. If every webpage on the internet could be reduced be even just 100 kb, the web would be a much faster place.
You've just launched your website, marking the end of a huge effort and the beginning of a whole new way of doing business. Now, all you have to do is sit back and wait for visitors to flood in, right?
But, wait, people have to know your site there in order to visit. So you go over to Google and search on your field to find your business. You don't see anything on the first few pages. Disappointing, but that's o.k. After all, your site's pretty new. Then you do a search on your company name, expecting to see your new site in the first position.
That's when the panic sets in…
Uh oh. Not only is your site not in the first slot, it's not even on the first page! For your own name! What's going on here? Did your designer do a bad job? Is your web host to blame? Why isn't it there yet???
Calm down!
Before you have to start breathing into a paper bag, realize that getting listed takes time. There are millions of websites out there with more uploaded every day. The search engines browse all these sites, adding them to their data banks, and updating their listings if the site already exists. But they can only get through so many sites in a day. It may take a while to locate and scan your new site.
So how can you shorten the time it takes to be listed in Google's results?
Unless you make it easier for search engines to find you, it may take time, even years for this to happen naturally. To speed the process, take the following actions. They're simple and well worth the effort.
1. Submit your site
Tell Google and the other search engines that you're there! Look for the “Submit Your Site” links on their sites and follow the instructions. Go to dmoz.org and list your site there. Though these aren't guaranteed ways to get listed, they're free, they only take a few minutes and every little bit helps.
2. Make sure your site's not an island
Search engines follow links to navigate around the Internet. If your site is not linked to other sites, you've greatly reduced the chance that a search engine will find it naturally. Make sure that other sites, business directories, article libraries, your clients, link to yours and you'll get found more quickly.
3. Break down and pay
Some engines, such as Yahoo, also have paid inclusion plans. For a fee, they'll visit your site immediately and list you promptly. If your business is a storefront, for example, depends on attracting visitors, you'll want to pay for a listing.
4. Establish your presence with a blog
The search engines love, love, love blogs. Blogs give them exactly what they want, which is new text-based information. If you start a blog that also links to your site, you'll be more likely to lead the search engines right to you.
If you take even 2 or 3 of these actions, you'll decrease the time it takes for the search engines to find you. And visitors will rush to your site, just like you wanted!
When it comes to setting up your Blog, there are many options and it's enough to drive you crazy.
Here is some information for each option…
Blogger Versus WordPress
• WordPress offers a lot more customization and has more marketing and SEO power.
• Some people think since Google owns Blogger it gives you a boost - that is not true.
• Blogger has more rules you must follow and it could potentially limit a marketing technique or tactic.
My experience and personal opinion is that any Blog is better than no Blog but if you want to get the most out of your Blog - go WordPress.
There are other Blog platforms as well, but I consider the two main contenders to be WordPress and Blogger so that is all I have commented on.
Once you've decided on your Blog platform, you then have to decide on your Blog structure.
There has been a lot of debate about a Sub-Domain versus a Sub-Directory versus setting up a new domain.
• A sub-domain would be: blog . yoursite . com
• A sub-directory would be: yoursite . com/blog
• A whole new domain would be: newdomain .com
If you go with a whole new domain, then you have no “trust” and history built up and it may take longer for the Blog to get picked up.
It used to be that a sub-domain was treated as its own separate site with a root directory so you got the benefit of link juice and you potentially got more listings in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Since December 2007, Google states this is no longer the case. So you aren't really getting any extra link juice from this structure.
Matt Cutts, the public face of Google had this to say about sub-domains versus sub-directory (as related to the December 2007 change):
“Note that this is a pretty subtle change, and it doesn't affect a majority of our queries. In fact, this change has been live for a couple weeks or so now and no one noticed. The only reason I talked about the subject at PubCon at all was because someone asked for my advice on subdomains vs. subdirectories.”
He then goes on to say: “My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content.
A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news .google. com or maps . google . com, for example.
If you're a newer webmaster or SEO, I'd recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you'll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site.”
Although his feedback wasn't directly related to setting up Blogs, it still applies. So, based on that feedback, and my own personal success and experience I too vote for a sub-directory.
Don't forget, you may as well make it as search engine friendly as possible and rather than just call the sub-directory Blog (ex: yoursite . com/Blog) you could use a keyword or short keyword phrase (ex: yoursite . com/keyword-Blog or yoursite . com/keyword-phrase-Blog)
So in summary - any Blog is better than no Blog, but to get the most power from your Blog, go with a WordPress Blog in a sub-directory named with a keyword on your own server. Make sure you learn about all the necessary plugins and configure them properly to get the most out of your Blog. Hey - that sounds like a great article topic. Stay tuned!
The most ambitious Internet retailers, hoping to emulate the style and online influence of Amazon.com and other recognized brands, tend to aim for sprawling electronic retail websites that may look pretty but accomplish little else. If all the push is towards what appears on the front end instead of a concerted effort in choosing a reliable e-commerce solution from the get go, these decisions can ultimately impact the long-term success of any SEO campaign.
Most Internet retailers opt to use an out of the box e-commerce solution, eliminating the need to build something more suitable from the ground up. Out of the box software, however, may lack some of the flexibility that is required to implement a robust SEO campaign. On the other hand, building a fully customized e-commerce platform can be outright expensive. In an ideal situation, you will want to look for something that is somewhere in between. To help you bridge the gap, we've identified four major requirements when shopping for a suitable e-commerce solution that's compatible with your SEO campaign.
The Proof's in the Code
Ideally, we would always like to have the code available for us to modify if needed. This constant accessibility allows us to set up server behavior recommendations as well as change the way that things work or function in order to ensure that they are more effective for your SEO campaign. Many vendors will not give out their codes unless you pay them a premium, sometimes upwards of $10,000 per site using that code only, and many vendors may be reluctant to allow even that option.
Search engines only care about resulting code, meaning the HTML is sent to the browser post-parse. So, for an e-commerce website to have an effective SEO campaign, the SEO company you've enlisted may need the ability to modify how the software displays the code while the page is being dynamically built. This usually includes any category pages, product pages, or even some of the more “static” pages, such as the privacy policy, site map, and home page.
Customizable Product Administration
Sometimes we run across platforms that allow us to customize certain attributes of pages from the back-end administration, including Title tags, Meta tags, and body content. This is a great advantage when working with an e-commerce solution that does not provide any sort of code access, as that provides the only way for us to “individualize” the hundreds of dynamic pages that may be present on your website when working on your SEO campaign.
Occasionally, however, the administration sections for your e-commerce solution are not all that robust, and once we have proper access to the underlying code, we have to develop code “hacks” in order to get the recommendations for your SEO campaign onto the website. For instance, when adding these “hacks” to client websites, they often take the form of what appears to be a small configuration file with our recommendations attached to variables. And depending on the page, our configuration file will spit out the proper recommendations for that page, manually adding them where they need to go. Unfortunately, this is usually only accomplished with direct access to underlying code in your e-commerce solution. Furthermore, if direct access is not given, we're often stuck between a rock and a hard place.
A Linux-Based OS
Until IIS can handle .htaccess files (tiny files allowing a wide range of flexibility for your website), an e-commerce solution that runs under Linux is highly desirable for myriad of tasks, such as flattening URLs. Some Windows applications have found ways around this, but they are usually not very aesthetically appealing and don't function as well as a simple rewrite would. Linux, our operating system of choice, is able to run more applications, and the operating system and associated software are much cheaper than their Windows counterparts.
“flatten URLs” - for example, it takes http://www.example.com/products.php?id=437 and changes it into something more friendly, like http://www.example.com/products/Yellow-School-Bus/437/ . By flattening the URL, we make it easier for search engine spiders to crawl the website - ridding ourselves of dynamic querystrings, which, oftentimes, the spiders have difficulty crawling. Furthermore, flattening URLs allows us to add keyphrases from your SEO campaign into the URL to make them even more attractive to the search engines. And even though the URL may appear to be different, because of the .htaccess file, it will work exactly as it did prior to the flattening process.
http://example.com to http://www.example.com - which can be completed entirely on Linux in just two lines that are added to an .htacess file. Implementing this on IIS (Windows) turns out to be an arduous task that involves having root access to the server, which is not often granted by hosting companies.
Flexibility is Key
Often, an SEO company will need to change how a page is displayed or what is displayed and when, perhaps in order to boost rankings and traffic for your SEO campaign. This is where the flexibility of the software comes into play for any effective e-commerce solution. For instance, there is an e-commerce solution that can provide header, footer, and page templates directly through the backend administration.
However, there are some vendors that prefer to lock away the templates by hard-coding them into the site code. The real paradox is when they won't give you access to the code to modify these things for yourself. This kind of inflexibility can spell disaster for any SEO campaign.
Avoiding Long-Term Hassles
At this point in time, there aren't any specific recommendations to give on a top performing e-commerce solution as nothing we've come across thus far is anywhere near perfect. Unless your company has an in-house SEO technician, you'd be wise to engage a knowledgeable SEO company to avoid the headaches that come with finding out that you've spent a significant amount of time and money on an e-commerce solution that does not offer the flexibility needed for a successful SEO campaign.
If you end up choosing an e-commerce solution that doesn't meet the requirements outlined above, you may just end up with a half optimized site that fails to achieve the rankings and traffic you've been hoping for at the outset of your SEO campaign.
