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Recent Articles
Why some websites succeed when other’s don’t
Over the years I’ve helped hundreds of companies with their online sales. Some websites struggle to get one sale per month, while others receive multiple orders every hour of every day. What’s the difference? Marketing. Specifically, marketing that drives traffic to your website, followed up by marketing that converts visitors into customers.
According to Neil Patel, less than 25% of ALL websites ever receive ANY traffic. I’m not sure where he got those numbers, but I recently reviewed a website for a potential client and what I discovered was true of about 75% of all the websites that I look at, so I suspect his numbers are accurate. Because I see these same issues in so many websites, I decided to post my reply to this company in this article. Here is my response:
At first glance, your website appears to be clean and professional looking. It is using a modern and robust content management system. You have Google Analytics installed, which is recommended. Technically, there is nothing wrong with your site. So why isn’t it performing? Let me explain.
It appears as if there are 38 products listed on your site. All products have good quality, high resolution photos that looks like they were professional shot. They are all consistent and all have white cutout backgrounds so the product appears to float on the page. These photos are great for the primary product photos, however you would probably get more sales conversions if you added some secondary photos and videos of the product “in-context” – that is action shots of how the product is actually used. Multiple images of your product, and even videos of your product being used should be considered the norm.
You need testimonials and reviews on your website. This is huge. Social proof is one of the main selling points for anyone buying online and you can greatly ease their mind by having testimonials and reviews on each and every page of your website.
Make it easy for someone to do business with you. Your phone number is on the contact page, but we recommend adding it to the header and/or footer of every page.
The single biggest problem you have with your website is that no one can find it (your site is not listed on alexa.com, which means it gets very little traffic). An Alexa rank by itself may not indicate sales volume, but it does show relative traffic volume over time. For example, the number one site on the internet (Alexa rank of 1) is Google. The number 2 site (Alexa rank of 2) is YouTube. Facebook is number 3. Alexa ranks approximately 28 million websites. For reference purposes, WebStoresLtd.com sits at 132,259 (21,303 in the United States). Your site does not make it into the top 28,000,000 meaning you do not get enough traffic to show up.
The BIG SECRET to SEO
I did not write this. It came in an email from TheHOTH. But the message is so strong and on target that I have to share it on this blog. a very savvy marketer asked an Inc 5000 recipient on how to grow his business:
My #1 piece of SEO advice to double your business
“If I hired you and paid you $2 million dollars to come into my business and run marketing, what would you do?”
I told him the first thing that I would do is take an inventory of all the questions, misconceptions, doubts, & fears that customers have before they buy.
All the stuff they need answers to before they buy.
All the stuff that is preventing them from buying.
All the stuff they ask you on the phone before they sign up.
Then take all those answers that you have in your head, write them down and put them…
…ON YOUR BLOG.
Take all those answers that you have in your head, write them down and put them......ON YOUR BLOG. Click To TweetNow, instead of you explaining these things every single time, your potential buyers can find them when they search online.
They’ll find your articles, get answers, start trusting you as the authority and click over to your sales page.
This is inbound marketing & SEO at it’s finest…
…and that is the core of how you can become one of the fastest-growing companies in the US.
As an Inc. 500 myself (not just the 5000) I could not agree more. Its why I write a new blog post every single week. And its why Read more about The BIG SECRET to SEO
How to Create A Form with Payment Options [5 Easy Steps]
There are a number of reasons why you might want to accept payments when a site visitor fills out a form. Service businesses charging for an appointment, reservations or tickets to an event such as a conference, or donations (even recurring donations!). For example, as you may know, I run a scout related website (CyberbaseTradingPost.com) where one of the main features is the ability to create and print custom certificates. After the certificate is created, I give people the opportunity to make a donation if they found it useful. Another site that one of my customers runs provides week-long retreats, complete with accomodations. When they make their reservations to attend one of these retreats, they must make a deposit to insure they are going to show up. Collecting payments along with the reservation is required. And of course if you have any type of subscription program, collecting recurring payments is a must. All of this can be done using a plugin called WPForms.
Here then are the steps necessary to create a form with payment options using WPForms.
Step 1: Create a Simple Order Form in WordPress
The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin.
Next, go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form.
On the setup screen, name your form and select the Billing/Order form template.
Next, you’ll want to modify what items are available to order.
To do this, scroll down to the “Available Items” section in the preview screen on the right and click on it.
This will open up the “Field Options” in the left panel. Here you can rename the field, add or remove order items, and change the prices.
If you want to give people images to choose from when filling out your online order form, click on the Use image choices checkbox in the Form Editor.
When you do this, you’ll be able to upload images to go alongside your items, giving people a visual look at what they’re ordering.
Lastly, you can add additional fields to your order form by dragging them from the left hand side to the right hand side.
Click Save when you’re done.
Step 2: Configure Your Order Form Notifications
There are two settings to configure in your simple order form. The first is the Notifications setting. Notifications are a great way to send an email when your form is submitted.
You can send an email notification to yourself, which WPForms does automatically unless you disable form notifications. You can also send a notification to a member of your team by adding their email to the Send to Email Address field.
In addition, if you use smart tags, you can even send a form notification to a customer to let them know their order has been received.
Let’s take a look at how to set up one form notification that will be sent out to a customer after they submit an order form on your website.
Start by clicking on Read more about How to Create A Form with Payment Options [5 Easy Steps]
Choosing Keywords Wisely
For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about ranking on Google using YouTube videos. This is critical for your business because, according to Neil Patel, less than 25% of ALL websites are ever visited by ANYONE! Getting found for your chosen keywords is vital to your ability to do business online. One of the things I’ve talked about is to use your keywords in the title, description, tags, and even in your audio script. But how exactly do you select the keywords that you wish to rank for? That is the topic of today’s post.
Less than 25% of ALL websites are ever visited by ANYONE! -Neil Patel Click To TweetKeywords are simply those words that are entered into a search engine. One of the best descriptions about how to use keywords that I’ve seen is by the Yoast SEO plugin, which you can read here.
For example, if you are looking for light bulbs, you would enter “light bulbs” into the search engine. Of course, that isn’t very descriptive, and you are going to get millions of results for something that generic. Ranking for a generic term like light bulbs is not only difficult, but expensive. and worse, the probability of someone buying a light bulb from you after searching on those words is highly unlikely. If we get a little more specific, like “LED light bulbs”, we are still going to get thousands of web sites returned to us, and again, it would be both difficult and expensive to rank for these words. The more descriptive you can be with your keywords, the more likely it is that someone will find your site and actually do business with you.
The more descriptive you can be with your keywords, the more likely it is that someone will find your site and actually do business with you. Click To TweetThis is what is termed as long tail keywords. The good news is that long tail keywords comprise 70% of all searches performed online. So, if someone is searching for “Where can I buy long-lasting dimmable LED light bulbs for my kitchen in Parker, Colorado?” and you have a page on your website that specifically is optimized for long-lasting dimmable LED light bulbs for your kitchen, and you are located in Parker, CO, well, you will probably get found when that search is created, and that person will probably buy from you. When you create a YouTube video addressing those same keywords, and link that video back to that page on your website, you simply become the best answer on the internet for that person’s needs.
Of course, there are far fewer people asking that specific question, but for the ones that are, you are the solution. Long tail keywords contain a keyphrase (generally three or four words) highly specific to what you are selling. This helps you to find highly targeted customers looking to buy exactly what you’re selling. This makes long tail keywords immensely useful for PPC and SEO and they always outperform generic keywords in terms of conversion rates. In fact, long tail keywords convert 2.5 times more frequently than short tail keywords. Back to the question, how do you determine the best keywords to use? It used to be fairly simple to do this, as Read more about Choosing Keywords Wisely
How To Write a Thrilling Script for a 90 Second Product Video
Last week’s blog post talked about how to rank on Google in 30 seconds using YouTube videos and utilizing the title, description, and tag fields to include your keywords. but what about actually making the video to upload in the first place? What are some of the best practices, especially if you are selling a product online? This week I’m going to layout for you exactly how to craft your script for maximum views and better yet, conversions (sales).
It used to be that the video itself didn’t really matter for SEO purposes, the only thing that mattered was the title, description, and tags being used. That is no longer the case. YouTube uses voice to text recognition software and cannot only determine if you are using copyrighted music illegally, but can also determine what you are saying. In fact, it uses this technology to close captioning, so your script is highly important. Yes, you will want to use your keywords correctly in your script too. YouTube can also determine what images/video clips are in your video, much like Google’s image search can determine similar images to what you are searching for (remember, YouTube is owned by Google), so again, don’t use copyrighted images or your video could be banned (or worse).
When creating a product video, you do not just want to hold up a product and talk about what it does. Rather, you want to tell a story that engages your viewer. Click To TweetWhen creating a product video, you do not just want to hold up a product and talk about what it does. Rather, you want to tell a story that engages your viewer. You may want to show the product in action – by demonstrating how it is actually used. But remember, this is essentially a commercial that we are talking about, not a training video or tech support tutorial (that’s a different, but equally valuable type of video for a different purpose). What we want to create for this blog is a 1 to 2 minute product video for the primary purpose of search engine placement and driving traffic to your site so the viewer can buy the product. That means that you will want to also embed the finished video on the product page.
Okay, so here is Read more about How To Write a Thrilling Script for a 90 Second Product Video
How to Rank on Page 1 of Google in less than 30 Seconds
The number one question that any web designer gets asked is “How can I get listed on page 1 of Google?” While there are no 100% guarantees, the method I’m going to describe in this post will likely land you in that coveted spot, especially for geographically based searches. We have proven this method over and over again and it works, without paying huge sums of money or waiting months to get ranked. Doing this involves the use of YouTube (a Google owned property). Here’s why this works:
80% of all internet content consumed today is Video. People spend 88% more time on a website with video, and 72% of visitors prefer video. Companies that create video content earn 41% more traffic from search engines results than those who don’t. Adding a video to a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%.
Only 9% of all businesses actually are using YouTube. Click To TweetYet, only 9% of all businesses actually are using YouTube. Did you hear what I just said? Only 9% of businesses are actually using YouTube! YouTube is the number 2 search engine and the 3rd most popular website in the world. If you utilize YouTube properly, you can get to the top of Google. These are the steps to follow… Read more about How to Rank on Page 1 of Google in less than 30 Seconds
2019 Influencer Marketing Trends You Shouldn’t Ignore
Guest post by Andriana Moskovska
Modern consumers demand transparency and authenticity, which has paved the way for the growth of influencer marketing as an industry. According to statistics compiled by the team at SmallBizGenius, 2018 saw businesses receiving a 520% return on investment after implementing a strategic influencer marketing campaign.
As evidenced by the 49% of consumers who rely on influencers’ recommendations before deciding to buy a product, it’s no longer a question of whether this tactic is effective or not; it’s a question of how you can incorporate influencer marketing into your current strategy and yield the desired results.
Before you launch your influencer campaign, take a quick look at some of this year’s trends to keep your marketing efforts up-to-date.
More Marketers Are Choosing To Collaborate with Micro- & Nano-influencers
Micro-influencers have 1,000 to 100,000 followers, while nano-influencers have between 1,000 and 10,000. These types of influencers have a fewer follower count than celebrities and macro-influencers but generate higher engagement rate.
The genuine interaction between these influencers and their network of followers increases their authenticity and trustworthiness factor, which is why many brands looking to generate organic reach and engagement are placing their bets on these types of influencers.
Instagram is Still the Preferred Platform for Influencers
Marketers around the globe spent over $5 billion on influencer campaigns on this platform. With over 1 billion active users, Instagram’s popularity as an influencer marketing channel isn’t going to die down anytime soon.
In addition to the massive number of users, the communities on Instagram, which are mostly made up of members of the younger demographic, make it easy for influencers to interact, share their skills and expertise, and grow their network.
Influencer Marketers’ Primary Challenge is Spotting Fake Followers
Fraudulent accounts with fake followers posing as influencers are deceiving marketers into collaborating with them. Although various methods to combat this type of fraud have been released, they remain prevalent across many digital platforms.
Make it a priority to check the authenticity of the potential influencer before reaching out for a collaboration. There are plenty of tools readily available which allow marketers to check if the account is using bots or purchasing followers or fake engagement.
The Use of ROI Metrics
The end goals of influencer marketers are mostly focused on increasing brand awareness and customer loyalty. Although influencer marketing is effective in helping brands drive high levels of engagement and expand their reach, calculating the return on investment is still a daunting task for many marketers.
Some of the ways to track the effectiveness of a campaign are Read more about 2019 Influencer Marketing Trends You Shouldn’t Ignore
Is Magic Real?
Every person, and certainly every entrepreneur, should read “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne (you can also listen to it as an audiobook or watch the movie). In this book, we are told that the Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction. The law of attraction can also be called the law of creation. In other words, life is not happening to you, you are creating it. The Secret shows us how we can manifest anything in our lives – money, people, fame – whatever we truly believe in. The Universe will then conspire to work it’s magic and make it come true in our lives.
I love this quote by the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland: “Everyone wants some magical solution for their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic!”
Everyone wants some magical solution for their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic! - The Mad Hatter Click To TweetI believe that is really the point that The Secret is trying to make. Every religion requires us to believe in something that we cannot see. This has been true throughout history. We have to have faith. We have to believe in magic. And when we do, that magic actually shows up in our lives.
Now you might have to be a bit mad (like the Mad Hatter) to believe in something you can’t see. Whether you call that force the universe, God, wizards, ghosts, astrology, tarot, or whatever, it is difficult to believe in something you cannot prove. J. Nochole Smith says, “We humans like to be sure, and how can you be sure of something you can’t quite explain or prove? In life, and in business, looking at data and facts is an absolutely essential element in smart decision making and planning… but it’s not the complete picture.” You can read her complete post here.
In the legend of alchemy, the practitioner is spoken of as having the “magic” power of transmuting lead into gold. But what if we can take whatever we are given and make something incredible out of it. I believe we each have the power to do this. So is magic real? The only way to find out is to experience it for yourself.
Certainly, Read more about Is Magic Real?
Ecommerce Trends That Affect You
Strong Customer Authentication
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is a new regulation taking effect on September 14, 2019 that requires merchants to use multiple methods of verifying customers’ identities. While this is a European compliance issue, it will impact US merchants as well. To help you comply with the new requirements — and make sure your sales don’t have declined payments, here is what you need to know.
Starting in September, merchants accepting online payments will need to use two independent authentication methods to verify that a customer is who they say they are.
What kinds of authentication are acceptable?
SCA allows for three different authentication methods — something the customer knows, something the customer has, and something the customer is. To succeed, a transaction has to use two of the three.
What does that mean in practice?
-
- Asking for a piece of information only the customer knows, like their password or the answer to a security question.
- Sending verifying information to something the customer controls, like a hardware token or a push notification sent to their phone.
- Using a physical identifier unique to the customer, like a fingerprint or Face ID.
What do I need to do to prepare?
Most payment gateways will use 3D Secure 2 – an update to the 3D Secure system – as their main method of complying with SCA. During checkout, the payment gateway will prompt the customer to provide the additional authentication elements, and the order will only be completed once they do that successfully.
If you are using WooCommerce with Stripe and or PayPal as your Payment Gateway, these are already SCA ready, so you will not have to do anything.
Marketplaces Versus Your Own Ecommerce Website
Amazon is of course the largest eommerce site, and many businesses use this platform as their primary method of selling online. eBay is a distant second to Amazon. But as third-party sellers become more prominent on Amazon’s marketplace, many want to expand to other platforms, and eBay is the most popular secondary option, 56% per Feedvisor (April 2019). In fact, this far outshines personal sites (12%), Walmart, brick-and-mortar stores and smaller online marketplaces.
If you are already selling online via your own website and using WooCommerce as your shopping cart platform, there is good news – you can integrate your online store by listing your product catalog on both Amazon and eBay’s global network of 40+ online marketplaces and reach millions of potential customers in minutes. You can sync inventory, orders, pricing, and product details in real-time. Here’s how. Read more about Ecommerce Trends That Affect You
How chatbots Can Help the Ecommerce Industry
Guest Post by Hassan Khan
Image source: https://www.yo-kart.com
Often thought of as the unique selling proposition of the world of e-commerce and marketing, chatbots are short for chat robot technology which has the ability to simulate human interactions, in this case sales assistant and consumer interactions, through artificial intelligence. This software can interact with consumers, answer their queries as well as their concerns in the format of a regular conversation which uses text and sometimes even voice and images.
The realm of telegenic marketing is fast evolving with innovative ideas and strategies being introduced. It is considered that chatbots are an asset to e-commerce stores due to their ability to cultivate a shopping experience that resembles real life commerce. To what extent can chatbots assist the e commerce business? That is something that must be discussed in detail before a company chooses to adopt this novel strategy.
Improving Consumer Interaction
A research conducted by Sprout Social came to the conclusion that 5 out of 6 messages that require a reply go completely unanswered by most companies with a waiting time of around 10 hours being the average for those which do get a reply eventually. It is frustrating for customers to Read more about How chatbots Can Help the Ecommerce Industry