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Due to the immense competition in the online world it’s no longer viable to simply create a website and forget about it. Those wanting success must be proactive and be willing to make continual adjustments and changes with things like SEO and site content.
Luckily this job is made easier due to the amazing range of analytical tools you have at your disposal. You can use these tools to look at website activity, search engine rankings, customer data and more. With this wealth of information you can then make improvements and ensure your website is operating at its fullest potential.
But which tools are worthwhile you might ask? Surely you can’t install every analytical tool and make them work? Of course not – instead we have made the decision easier for you and listed six fantastic website analysis tools below.
Page loading times serve two major purposes for a website in usability and SEO. If your website has slow page loading speeds your customers will get frustrated and this will reduce their user experience. This can lead to a loss of custom as what’s stopping someone from just opening Google and finding a competitor with a better website?
Loading times are also beneficial for SEO as these are one of the things Google factors in when ranking pages. If Google crawls your website and sees that loading times are slow or there are multiple errors it could negatively impact your rankings.
Because Google is such a helpful company they have a dedicated PageSpeed Insights service. It’s incredibly simple to just and all you have to do is open the website, enter your URL and click “Analyze”. You then get a detailed report showing the performance of your pages together with diagnostics and areas of improvement.
Yes we know – another Google product! This is the last one we promise and it is one of the most useful website analysis tools. Google Analytics has both free and paid versions and gives website owners a wealth of analytical data they can use to better understand their site SEO and customers.
Examples of data it provides include session duration, the number of pages a person visited, bounce rate, and traffic statistics. The dashboard is user-friendly and is a great way to identify areas of your website that need improvement such as pages that get little traffic.
Next to Google, Bing is the second most popular search engine. We can’t deny that Google is the preferred option but it can be beneficial to utilize the Bing Webmaster Tools to improve your standing on this search engine.
As it is often overlooked there is the potential to compete for keywords that you might not be able to on Google. You could consider looking for different niches and untapped markets on Bing instead of picking up the scraps from Google.
The Bing Webmaster tools are free to use and have some great features like keyword research, detailed SEO reports and a complete site scan tool. The dashboard is quite easy to understand and this could be a great starting point for those with minimum SEO experience.
Auditing your website at set intervals is a brilliant want to assess its effectiveness and to see if things like SEO campaigns and marketing strategies are working.
Ahrefs is one of the best-known SEO companies and provides a wealth of tools including its site audit system.
All you need to do to use the SEO auditing services is verify that you are the owner of the website. With that step completed the audit analyses your website and provides data relating to 100+ potential SEO issues. These include things like page loading times, missing tags, duplicate content, and broken links.
These are just some of the analysis tools at your disposal but we advise keeping it simple to start with and only using a few. It can soon become overwhelming trying to use multiple analytical tools simultaneously.
You could start by learning the simpler free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console. Once you are accustomed to these and use them effectively, consider adding more in-depth options like Ahrefs Site Audit to your arsenal.
Social media is everywhere and we can guarantee that most people you know use at least one platform. It has transformed the way we live but more importantly for your carpet cleaning business, it has changed the way businesses market themselves and increase their brand awareness.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have huge potential and due to the sheer volume of people who use them daily, they can be amazing marketing tools for your carpet cleaning company. We take a look at some basic social media concepts and how you can boost your brand awareness using them below.
Before we look at ways to increase your brand awareness let’s take a crash course in social media. For your carpet cleaner SEO and online marketing it’s probably best to concentrate on Facebook and Instagram.
These are generally the best platforms for marketing this type of business whereas sites like Twitter and Pinterest may not be as useful. With that in mind, the following are some important things to remember concerning your social media marketing:
– Be consistent: We’ve seen this time and time again when a company starts a social media profile, makes a few posts, and then never logs onto the account again. This doesn’t work. You need to post regular content and create a consistent schedule to keep people interested but also for SEO purposes.
– Make your content engaging: Don’t make the mistake of just posting links to your website and service pages and expecting it to work either! People want interesting content that they can benefit from. You should therefore mix in things like self-help posts and tips for customers relating to your services as well as direct promotion.
– Always interact: If people take the time to like, share and comment on your content, the least you can do is reply and show them your appreciation! This can be time-consuming but make sure you reply to every comment, like posts, and just show your customers that you are present and care.
1. Paid Advertising
Have you ever scrolled through your Instagram or Facebook feed and noticed those small adverts at the side of or beneath posts? These are paid advertisements and it’s something you can do for your carpet cleaning company. The exact model, pricing, and how they function will differ for each platform but the underlying theme of exposure and increased business remains the same. You can create targeted adverts that are seen by potentially thousands of customers and each time they even see your ad, your business is sticking in their minds, thus increasing your brand awareness.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing takes many forms but the basic principle is to generate interesting and useful online content that your customers can benefit from. This could be blog posts, email newsletters, or in this instance, helpful social media posts. The idea is that the content will help your customers and show your business in a positive light. The bond of trust is then improved and the more people take the time to read your social media posts, the greater your brand awareness increases.
3. Positive Customer
Engagements As mentioned above an important part of social media usage is to be active and engage with your customers. You should always take the time to reply to any comments left, like them, and have positive interactions with people. Every time you do something positive like this it has a two-fold consequence. Firstly the person you engage with should have an improved perception of your carpet cleaning company as will anyone who sees the interaction. Positivity in social media is just a great way to build your reputation and get people thinking about your company in the right way.
4. Tap Into Local Communities
Typically as a cleaning company you will service a specific area such as a county or city. You can use social media to tap into the regions you want to target and thus make your marketing more effective as well as increasing brand awareness. Many cities and towns have local Facebook groups for example where people post news and updates. These groups also often allow businesses to market their services and they can be a fantastic source of customers.
Why would you not want to use social media to your advantage after seeing the amazing reasons how it can help your carpet cleaning business?
All of the major platforms that you would consider using are free so you can still keep working and attending to customers while doing social media marketing in your spare time or even for 30 minutes before you go to bed!
In years past marketing your dentist practice was pretty simple and you could list your business in things like the Yellow pages or local business directories. Word of mouth would also really help maintain your clientele – families would typically stick with the same dentist and they would then recommend your services to others.
This still works to a certain extent but the increase in competition and transformation to a largely digital world has meant dentists must rely even more on their websites to attract new patients. The simplest way to make a viable dentist website is to implement SEO and in the below guide, we explain what it is, and four basic tools you can use to get started.
You should now be itching to implement SEO for your dentist website, but how do you do this, and where do you start? SEO is an entire industry in its own right so eventually, it could be beneficial to enlist the help of professional dental SEO services. To start, however, these four tools will help give you an SEO boost and for the most part, they are easy to use.
1. Google Keyword Planner
To have effective SEO you need to optimize your web content around keywords and phrases. These are the things people will search for on Google like “dentist surgery in XXX”. Google Keyword Planner is an excellent and free tool that helps you research appropriate keywords for your dental surgery.
2. Google Business Profile
You have probably searched on Google for a business and noticed that some have a special box on the right-hand side that shows things like their location, star rating, and opening times. Wouldn’t that be fantastic to have for your dental practice? Of course, and it is possible if you use Google Business Profile. By signing up for this free service and listing your business you can naturally improve your SEO but also look more professional when people find your surgery online.
3. SEO Site Audit by Ahrefs
How can you expect to implement SEO improvements if you don’t even know what’s wrong with your website to start with? Well, there is a simple tool you can use to remedy this – Ahrefs SEO Site Audit. This free tool analyses your website and checks for common SEO weaknesses like missing HTML tags, slow loading speeds, duplicate content, and issues with JavaScript and images. By using this free auditing tool you immediately have a starting point for your dentist SEO.
4. Google PageSpeed Insights
How irritating is it when you open a website only to be waiting for minutes as the images slowly load? This is incredibly frustrating but it is also detrimental to SEO. Google doesn’t like slow loading times! Because they are such a nice company though, they provide a free analysis service in Google PageSpeed Insights. This is a simple tool that assesses your page loading times and shows areas for improvement.
These tools are all free to use and are a fantastic starting point for your practice’s Dental SEO so why not give them a try today and start boosting your online presence? With a list of local keywords to target the region your surgery covers and optimized web content, you should be able to increase website traffic and keep a steady flow of new patients registering at your practice.
Although a major part of a photography business is your skill with a camera and eye for detail, there are many other skills and practices you need to master. You need excellent confidence and the ability to communicate with clients for example.
In the digital world, a vital tool to boost the visibility of your photography business is SEO. As you will see below this is a process that hopefully allows you to rank highly on Google and make your photography services easier to find.
SEO isn’t something you can implement overnight and it can be incredibly complex but there are some simple steps you can take to give you the best SEO for photographers.
The starting point is keywords and you can’t implement any photography SEO strategy without them.
You must first create a list of suitable keywords that customers are likely to search for on Google. This can seem daunting but just put yourself in their shoes and think about what they may type.
To make this easier think about what niche of photography you cover and your local areas. Perhaps you are a wedding photographer in South London? Maybe you take portraits and do events photography in Essex?
By thinking like this you immediately have some key phrases! You can then use tools like Google Keyword Planner to do further research and find keywords that don’t have as much competition.
You now have a fantastic list of keywords that customers are likely to search for to find your photography business.
From here you must optimize your web content to reflect those keywords. This includes your website pages, blog articles and more. Some basic optimization tips include:
– Include the keyword in the META title and description tags of each web page
– Use keywords at several points throughout written content like blog articles
– Try and use keywords in headings and subheadings
There are entire guides on website SEO and you could also benefit from some tools and plugins like YOAST SEO, Rank Math, and SEM Rush. An SEO agency like ClickSlice can also help optimize your content professionally.
As a car dealership your business needs to be visible to get people in your showroom and aware of your services. Sure people may drive past your premises and word of mouth always helps, but can these really keep your dealership afloat?
To really shine and attract the maximum number of customers you need a diverse marketing strategy and this should include SEO. SEO is the process of optimizing your web content for specific keywords that customers might search for when trying to find your car dealership.
But why does this matter and what exactly do SEO services entail? Using our expert knowledge we share wit
Building on the above point the ultimate end goal is to increase your visibility, web traffic, and clicks. SEO does this simply by making your website rank higher on search engines like Google.
Just think of the millions of people in the UK who use Google daily to search for things. If your website is appearing on the first page of search results you have a much greater chance of people clicking on your site and using your dealership!
Of course one of the best aspects of SEO is the tangible increase in traffic but there is also the intangible benefit of a boost to your brand awareness.
Successful businesses and car dealers are well-known and their name is everywhere. This is not by chance – it’s because the company has worked hard to craft its online presence and increase brand awareness.
SEO helps do this as it greatly improves the visibility of your company – the more visible you are, the more you stick in people’s minds, and the more trust is gained.
It can be difficult to find new customer bases and know where the right people are who would buy vehicles from your dealership or use your services.
SEO can help with this and show you potentially untapped markets or new avenues of business. This is primarily achieved by keyword research. During the initial SEO phase you need to research keywords to then optimize your content around.
Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Moz Keyword Explorer have some incredible tools that allow you to find phrases that are not highly contested. You can also find local keywords which could enable you to target previously unknown local markets.
Yes SEO can really be that impactful so using a business like an automotive SEO agency is a great benefit especially if you are struggling to get new customers into your showroom. But what exactly can you expect from car dealer SEO services? It all sounds fantastic but how does this work in practice? Some of the main processes involved in SEO include:
– Keyword research
– Web page optimization
– Content marketing
– Site audits
Keyword research is typically the starting point as this is what search engines like Google are based on. These are words that customers will type into searches to find your business like “car dealer in XXX”, where XXX might be your region. Extensive research is done to find the best keywords for your business.
With these keywords drafted, optimization of your website and content marketing can then begin. This includes incorporating keywords into your web pages and making sure they are optimized so that Google can index and rank everything smoothly.
Things like blogs and information articles might also be written to boost keyword use and provide valuable information to your customers. This is complemented by complete site audits that show potential weaknesses like slow loading times, poor mobile optimization, or a lack of META tags.
SEO for your car dealer website is one of the best ways to increase traffic and get more people to your showroom. As more and more businesses go digital and implement online marketing strategies, it’s essential that you try and keep ahead of the curve to make sure your car dealership shines and outperforms the competition.
If you have been delving into the world of dental SEO and trying to boost the performance of your dental website you have undoubtedly heard the dreaded term keywords pop up. Keywords are what make Google happy and they are the cornerstone of SEO implementation.
These are the words and phrases that your patients will search for on Google and other engines to find dental services. For example, if I want to find a new dentist I might type on Google “Dental surgery in XXX”, where XXX is where I live (I’m not telling you that!). Google would then give me a list of websites based on which ones have the best SEO (search engine optimization) for that phrase!
The first dilemma you have however is finding the right keywords to use in the first place. We understand this can be a minefield but to help, we have listed three simple steps below that you can take to research keywords for your dental practice effectively.
SEO for dentists is no different from other companies – you just have a different set of keyword considerations to make. The best starting point is to really dissect your dental business and understand what you do, where you do it, and how you do it.
Spend time looking at the following aspects of your dental clinic and make detailed notes:
– Location
– Services provided
– Areas covered
– NHS / Private
These four things are paramount to your keyword selection and in some cases simply by listing these things, you can see some potential keywords immediately.
Let’s say that your surgery is located in Barnet for example in London. From this, you instantly have some potential keywords such as “dentist in Barnet”, “dental surgery in Barnet”, and “dental treatment in Barnet”.
With the core information and services of your dental clinic listed, you can break your keyword selection into specific themes. Using keyword themes is a brilliant way to segment your research and make the process easier to complete.
By themes, we mean an underlying aspect of your business that someone may search for. For dental clinics, the best themes include location, services, reviews, and problems.
Location
Most people do not want to travel out of the area they live to go to the dentist. They want convenience and they want a short walk or drive to have their checkups and treatment.
Keywords based on the physical location of your dental surgery and the areas you cover are therefore incredibly important.
Primarily you want to base your keywords on the town, city, or village where your practice is located. But you could also look on Google Maps and include neighboring areas where patients might still travel from.
Services
Next you should look at keywords relating to the services you provide as people will often search on Google for specific things they require.
I might need a tooth extraction for example and don’t know which dentists provide this process so I may hop on Google and type in “tooth extraction dentists in XXX”.
This won’t apply to all your services though because some are taken for granted with a dentist. You wouldn’t expect many people to search for dentists that provide checkups for example – this is a standard practice that all surgeries provide.
Reviews
Did you know that a high percentage of people actually search for terms that include some form of review phrase? We don’t just want a “dentist in Barnet”, instead we want the “best rated dentist in Barnet”.
Review-based keywords for dental practices can be incredibly popular due to the nature of the service and the fact that many people are nervous about using a dentist they don’t trust or that hasn’t been reviewed.
Problems
You now have detailed business info and a list of keyword themes and hopefully, you have already spotted some suitable options.
It’s now time to make use of some of the incredible keyword research tools available online. There are some fantastic tools that help you find the right keywords for your dental practice that you can realistically compete for, and the top services include:
– Google Keyword Planner
– Semrush
– Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Google Keyword Planner is a great starting point as it integrates with other Google services and is free to use. Semrush and Ahrefs Keyword Explorer are also superb tools but these require a monthly subscription so might be more beneficial once you have got the basics sorted.
Keyword research tools are what bring everything together and help you refine your choices. You can use them to filter out keywords that are rarely searched for, and maybe find niche keywords that don’t have much competition.
Without the right keywords, you can’t hope to implement effective dental SEO and in today’s online-orientated world, this is something your practice really needs to have. SEO is the mortar that holds the bricks of your website together and it’s what gets you noticed on Google.
Joshua George is the founder of ClickSlice, an SEO Agency based in London, UK.
He has eight years of experience as an SEO Consultant and was recently hired by the UK government for SEO training. Joshua also owns the best-selling SEO course on Udemy, and has taught SEO to over 100,000 students.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, AgencyAnalytics, Wix and lots more other reputable publications.
SEO is a huge industry and within this broad category there are sub-divisions of SEO services that cater to specific types of businesses. If you have a large company with multiple departments and want to maximize your online presence an enterprise SEO service could be the way forward.
Enterprise SEO targets the largest companies that want to compete for the top spots on SERPs for various keywords but it offers much more than that. As you will see below, an enterprise SEO service can greatly boost your brand reputation, and improve your online presence, but also give you access to key market data that can help your company grow.
If you feel that your business has the potential but isn’t quite hitting the mark, we discuss seven fantastic benefits of an enterprise SEO service below.
It’s quite easy to get caught up in ranking at the top of Google search result pages but you should also consider your brand awareness.
Every time someone sees your website on Google whether it’s the first or fifth result your brand recognition is bolstered. They will become accustomed to your brand and start to think “hmm, I keep seeing that company, they seem to have a good reputation, let’s check them out”.
By using an enterprise SEO service you can significantly raise your brand awareness across multiple channels like Google searches and social media. This will ultimately push our business forward and only add to the success of your SEO campaigns.
Have you ever looked through your website files to find random pages that seemingly have no purpose or connection with anything else? This can be a nightmare and as websites grow it’s especially easy to lose track of the content.
Having an HTML sitemap gives you a focal point where you can keep track of the overall structure of your website. If you map every page you can simply refer back to it when you need to add more content, monitor ad campaigns and look for linking opportunities.
As your company grows it can be difficult to keep consistency and cohesiveness across departments. It’s quite easy for things to become fragmented and for different teams to output different content that is at odds with your overall SEO plan and business strategy.
Enterprise SEO services typically allow communication between departments and allow you to easily send information to multiple parties. You could make sure your marketing, sales, and social media teams for example are using the same keywords in their content.
Instead of focusing on one area of your business, this type of SEO service allows you to seemingly manage everything as a whole which is far more effective.
Without the right data it can be incredibly difficult for an enterprise business to expand into new markets.
It’s simply too costly and potentially dangerous to try and tap into a new customer base without that info – imagine spending thousands on a marketing campaign and SEO strategy only to realize halfway in that your products simply won’t sell well.
With an enterprise SEO service you have access to that all-important customer data and you can easily find new potential business opportunities. This enables you to consider expansion and target untapped markets with much less risk.
Enterprise companies are expected to have a certain level of authority – you’re a big company, so you should be responsible and have excellent business connections right?
In practice that can be difficult to achieve but an enterprise SEO service can bolster your authority and turn your company into something that people respect and rely on. One of the main processes is via the link-building opportunities it presets and you can easily create a high-authority link strategy that gives you influence with other respected enterprise-level companies.
Today enterprise businesses have to carefully craft their social messaging and how they present themselves to the outside world.
This can be difficult to achieve and it’s tricky to maintain consistency across departments and all online channels. Enterprise SEO provides your business with a wealth of information allowing you to look at current social trends and the sentiments of your customers.
This information can then be given to your various departments such as marketing and social media with the aim of creating a cohesive social message and online presence that reflects current trends and social moods.
As your company grows you can often get tunnel vision for national and global markets. This can come at the expense of local markets and while having a vast network of customers is beneficial, so is tailoring your content to appeal to local communities.
Oftentimes you can compete easier for localized keywords and search terms than you can more generic phrases.
An enterprise SEO service will allow you to tap into the gold mines that are local markets including making separate keyword campaigns for different regions within a country for example. You can still maintain a fantastic national presence, but start to reap the benefits of targeted strategies to appeal to lucrative local regions.
If you are a solo entrepreneur or own a small business there is no point in paying for an enterprise SEO service as many of the tools and options simply won’t be beneficial. Enterprise SEO really starts to pay dividends when you want to upscale and grow your business or already have a large customer base that you want to develop.
There are many different marketing strategies that car dealerships can use but one of the most effective is potentially Google Ads. Google Ads is a PPC system that allows you to create targeted adverts for your dealership that can be seen by thousands of people. If you are looking to give your dealership a boost and stimulate sales we have created a simple guide on Google Ads below.
The potential of Google Ads is immense but it does take a little time and effort to make your adverts successful. You can’t simply go in blind and start creating adverts for your vehicles for sale without any planning and forethought.
We give you a crash course in Google Ads below and what to consider to utilize the platform for your car dealership.
We have seen many businesses create their Google Ads and expect fantastic results without any follow up. This isn’t how it works! You need to monitor the adverts to see which ones are successful and if you are actually getting any business from them.
Google Ads has some excellent tracking data so you can see how your ads are performing but by default most of these are disabled. You, therefore, need to enable conversion tracking which is an advanced category of analytics that shows actual actions customers have taken after clicking on one of your adverts.
Did you know that approximately 74% of people use search engines to find car dealerships and buy cars? This shows the potential power Google Ads have but you need to use the right keywords to tap into your potential customers.
Keywords are what people search for to find your business and adverts so they need to be targeted. For example, you may want to concentrate on local keywords to bring in customers from the region your dealership is in. You can use companion tools like Google Keywords Planner to find suitable keywords for your adverts.
Google Ads are displayed on many platforms and this means there is a variety of advert types. You need to be aware of these and think about which are the most suitable for your car dealership.
Examples include Gmail (adverts that show in someone’s Gmail account), Shopping (Adverts that show specific products your company provides), YouTube (Shown as videos play or in-between videos), Display (Text and image adverts shown on the huge Google Display Network).
Your adverts won’t be successful if you just create one variation and expect it to work. What happens if the advert you create uses a poor keyword or simply isn’t appealing? Your entire advert campaign is essentially null!
Instead, you should always try and create several variations of your adverts with slightly different wording, images, and keywords. You can then compare them to see which ones work the best!
Competitor bidding is the process of using competitor-based keywords in your adverts with the aim of presenting your own car dealership as a viable alternative to theirs.
This is a well-known practice and it can yield excellent results and also help improve your brand awareness. We advise concentrating on branded keywords first for your own business, but competitor bidding gives you an alternative strategy once your adverts are established.
Google Ads is a proven marketing method and it could be instrumental in the development of your car dealership. Obviously, other things should be in place too like car dealer SEO for your website or online store but PPC ads can help take your dealership to the next level. When creating your adverts always remember to consider the different ad types, localized keywords, and special features like competitor bidding to maximize their effectiveness.
Joshua George is the founder of ClickSlice, an SEO Agency based in London, UK.
He has eight years of experience as an SEO Consultant and was recently hired by the UK government for SEO training. Joshua also owns the best-selling SEO course on Udemy, and has taught SEO to over 100,000 students.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, AgencyAnalytics, Wix and lots more other reputable publications.
A website is like a book with the binding being the server that holds everything together, the front cover as the landing page, and the different chapters as the individual pages or product categories. Within this analogy a sitemap is the chapter index and it shows a complete hierarchy of your website so users can “skip” to a particular section.
But why is this important and how do you create one? This is a vital skill to understand and we discuss the benefits of sitemaps and how to produce them below – enjoy!
Both XML and HTML sitemaps are incredibly important for the success of your website and give the following benefits:
There are two different types of sitemap – XML and HTML and it’s a great idea to maintain both for your website.
The actual creation process depends on the web development software or platform you are using but we will give a general overview below. If you are struggling with anything or aren’t 100% sure you have the right tools consider contacting an eCommerce SEO agency that can generate sitemaps on your behalf.
Before you create an XML or HTML sitemap we advise drafting a mock sitemap for your personal use or as a template to discuss with your team.
You could handwrite this on paper or use software like Microsoft Word and use simple lines and text boxes to represent the different pages and links.
The first step is to write down all the pages on your website – just make a simple list with the page title and URL. You could also jot down a basic description of the page’s purpose. With every page listed you can then try to order them into a logical hierarchy. The top page might be the homepage or landing page for example and underneath this, main pages like “About Us”, and “Contact”.
Creating a hierarchy like this makes the process of developing your sitemap much easier but it also shows you how different pages link together and the relationships they have. This can be useful for SEO and link-building in the future.
XML sitemaps are the most important as they allow search engines like Google to index your website quickly and efficiently. With your website indexed and a sound SEO strategy in place, your site has a much greater chance of ranking higher on SERPs when customers are trying to find your products and/or services.
The data contained in XML sitemaps goes beyond a simple list of page links and they also include info that explains to search engine crawlers how to index and navigate your website.
You may have an English and Spanish version of your website for example and without the correct instructions, a crawler might misunderstand this as duplicate content and negatively rank your pages.
XML sitemaps are quite complex to produce but most web development and eCommerce platforms have some type of automated tool. WooCommerce and Shopify for example both produce XML sitemaps automatically that you can then submit to Google.
You must check if you can edit the XML sitemap content however as some platforms like Shopify only provide locked versions that you can’t alter.
HTML sitemaps are more for user experience and for use in SEO campaigns but they are still vital. If for whatever reason a customer is struggling to find a page they could use the HTML sitemap to easily locate it.
These sitemaps are just basic HTML files that contains a list of all the pages on your website with hyperlinks. You can produce an HTML sitemap in the same way that you would add a new page to your website and they should still follow the same formatting and use the same site template or theme.
Make sure that every page is included and that the links are structured in a logical and easy-to-understand way. There is nothing worse than trying to use an HTML sitemap only to spend 15 minutes finding the link you want due to poor formatting!
Once you have created the basic structure and pages of your website a sitemap is the next step and we advise producing both XML and HTML versions. But don’t just produce your sitemap and forget about it – it must be kept up-to-date anytime you make a change to your website hierarchy or add new content.
If you’re running an eCommerce store, you’ll probably already know how difficult it can be to get your products and your store visible online, especially when you’re just starting out.
When you haven’t got an unlimited marketing or advertising budget, it might seem impossible to get your products or services seen – but with so many new avenues for marketing online, it’s actually easier than ever.
In this guide, we’re going to go over 7 ways you can promote your eCommerce website, including several options that cost absolutely nothing! Let’s take a look.
One of the easiest ways to promote your eCommerce website is by having a strong social media presence – and even better, it’s free! You don’t necessarily need to always cater your social media content to promote your eCommerce store – you can simply gain traction on social media by talking about global events, responding to customers, or simply sharing high-value content that your followers or readers will find useful. By increasing your following on social media with relevant posts, you’ll be able to increase your reach within your target market.
Having a strong social media presence also helps build your brand identity and brand authority, while allowing you to build a loyal customer base for free.
Aside from having a positive, active social media presence, you can also use social media to actually sell your products directly to your followers or subscribers. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Tik Tok now have in-app purchase options available for business accounts, allowing customers to make a purchase directly from their news feed.
With almost every study conducted on the subject concluding that social media is one of the most powerful forms of advertising, you should incorporate this strategy into your marketing model.
If you aren’t already using SEO strategies on your website, you’re missing out on potentially thousands of site visitors and easy sales. SEO marketing (search engine optimisation marketing) refers to how well your site ranks on search engines such as Google. Having a poor ranking means that it will probably be difficult for you to get organic traffic from web searches, which can mean missing out on an easy way to gain new customers.
What’s great about SEO is that with the right strategy, you’re able to promote your business to customers searching for your exact products or services. For example, if your eCommerce store is the first Google search result when a user types in the phrase “vegan hot chocolate”, you’re exposing your business to new customers who may never have found your services otherwise.
A good SEO strategy also offers long-term benefits for your eCommerce store; unlike PPC advertising, your SEO ranking doesn’t disappear as soon as you stop paying for your advertising budget. A website that has been skillfully optimised by an eCommerce SEO agency can remain at the top of Google’s search results for years.
PPC advertising is another way you can promote and market your eCommerce store – but it is probably the most costly option on this list. PPC advertising (pay-per-click advertising) involves paying advertisers (such as Google or Twitter) to promote your products on their platform, and you pay the platform every time someone clicks on your advertisement.
While this can be a useful marketing strategy if you’re a new company looking to make quick gains, it’s a bad idea if your website isn’t yet optimised for user experience (UX). If you end up having a poor conversion rate, all that ad money will have been money down the drain. Before opting for an expensive PPC ad campaign, it might be a good idea to run an SEO audit on your site to test for any UX problems.
If you’re selling a physical or digitally-downloadable product, there’s no need to stick to one eCommerce platform. There are no rules in place to stop you from creating a multi-channel business and selling your products everywhere; from eBay to Amazon, Etsy to Instagram – and don’t forget your own eCommerce website! In fact, the more channels the better; when you have several streams of income, you’re protected in the event where one platform shuts down or goes out of business.
Companies understand the power of word-of-mouth online, and this is why so many social networks have recently been transformed into reliable advertising platforms. By partnering up with influencers, you’ll be able to target your target market more easily than a traditional campaign. You’re also more likely to build trust with new customers, as influencer features and reviews tend to fare better than traditional advertising campaigns. However, like PPC, partnering with influencers can be a costly enterprise, with some high-profile influencers demanding four to five figures for just one or two Instagram posts.
If you’re going to partner with an influencer, make sure that their current audience corresponds with your target market, and make sure that they have enough followers and online engagement to make the investment worth your time (and money!)
Building an email list is a great way to retain existing customers, and customer retention is much cheaper than searching for new leads. The main difficulty when it comes to creating an email list is actually being able to obtain your customer’s email address in the first place. Many customers are tired of unsubscribing to spammy marketing emails, and now systematically ask not to be sent promotional email marketing when they sign up for an account with an eCommerce business.
To get around this, it’s a good idea to offer something exclusive that will motivate your customers to opt-in and subscribe. In the marketing world, this is referred to as a ‘lead magnet’, and can be anything from a generous discount code to exclusive offers.
Once you’ve secured your email list, don’t overdo it and start spamming daily emails. You should only email your subscribers when you have something interesting to offer, such as a promotional sale, a new product, or an update to your services or policies.
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