6 tips for small online stores

Web Design

No matter how good your product is, if the design of your website doesn’t represent this, it won’t lead to the planned orders. Studies show that 93% of buyers consider visual appearance as one of the most important factors when it comes to making a purchase. This includes having a consistent professional design, high-res images, and suitable colours. Keep in mind that the appearance of your website is a stand-in for a physical shop. Therefore, prioritise a user-friendly website to ensure visitors can get a good overview from the get-go and find what they are looking for. The best way of finding out if your website is user-friendly is by getting feedback from someone unfamiliar with digital marketing who only sporadically shops online. It can be all too easy to get caught up while working on a page and forget about the bigger picture.

Your Story 

Tell your visitors your unique story. Especially if you’re a small shop, make sure your customers know who you are and why you’re different from other big retailers. You can add your story to your ‘About us’ page and make it as personal as possible. Ensure that visitors can contact you by adding a contact email, an address – and don’t forget your social media channels!

Brand Awareness

It’s not easy to get your name out there, especially if you’re a small business. There are different ways of drawing attention to yourself, such as partnerships with other brands. This, however, might not be easy if you are new to the market. On the other hand, a collaboration with social media influencers and bloggers can be very effective. A collaboration like this kills two birds with one stone, as it improves your SEO visibility through backlinks and gets your name out across social media at the same time. If you’re interested in increasing your brand awareness this way, check out our article about the best practices of blogger outreach.

Research

Whether you’re writing your metadata or creating on-page copy, research is the key to good quality content. Check out competitor websites, but most importantly carry out detailed keyword research with the help of free research tools such as Keyword planner or Ubersuggest. It is important to use the right keywords in your metas, but don’t be fooled by high search volume keywords. Keep in mind that the bigger the search volume, the bigger the competition. Sometimes it’s worth concentrating on mid-level keywords to find expressions that don’t get targeted by other competitors.

Know Your Audience

Content marketing should take place not according to your product, but according to your customer. Put together a broad description of your target group, including elements such as demographics and interests. It’s essential to know your audience to prevent false investments when deciding which marketing channels to invest in the most. A glossary and a style guide assure that your content is consistent, and that you are using the right tone of voice for your visitors. Here again, research is key.

Track Your Improvements

Do this using Google Analytics and Search Console. If you’re trying to improve your content and carry out new investments, it’s essential to track what’s going on with your website to find out what works for you. Both Google Analytics and Search Console are free and provide valuable insights. Google Analytics collects data, shows what visitors do on your page, how long they stay, and which pages they are most interested in. Google Search Console is a ‘control panel for directing and monitoring how Google sees your website’, which means it can show you if you have any error pages and how to fix them. You can also check out the rankings for specific keywords, your organic search traffic, internal links, and much more. As one of the most popular tools, it is easily combined with other resources and is very user-friendly.