When formulating any business plan the cost implications are one of the most important factors and this holds true for PPC marketing.
It’s ok throwing money at Google Ads campaigns, but ultimately you want something to show for your investment, and you want a clear idea of how much you are going to spend per month or quarter on PPC. Having a clear PPC budget allows you to manage your finances effectively and also measure the success of your marketing.
In the below guide, I give a simple 5-step process for how to calculate a PPC budget, how to monitor it, and how to make sure your budget is being met.
Before you do any mathematical calculations or attempt to create a budget you need definitive goals. Having a definable goal for your PPC campaign gives you something to work towards and it gives you parameters to work within and use to estimate your budget.
Examples of potential PPC goals include:
For example, you may simply want to increase sales and meet a specific sales volume per month through your PPC campaigns. Alternatively, you may want to make specific profit margins from your PPC conversions.
The goals for your PPC campaigns should align closely with your overall business strategy and objectives so you can keep everything cohesive and everyone working on the same page.
With a steadfast goal, you can now look to calculate a budget. Essentially, you are calculating the minimum spend on PPC required to meet the goal. This will vary depending on the goal you set but the basics remain true.
Regardless of the goal, your budget will depend on different factors like your expected average order value, cost per acquisition, and CPC for your PPC ads.
I can’t give specifics but you need to estimate using averages and looking at industry benchmarks. Initially, the budget will be just that – an estimate. But as your campaigns progress you can start to gather data and gain a clearer idea of the reality of your PPC costs and how much it will actually cost to get the results you want.
With an estimated budget established, you can start creating your PPC campaigns. There are numerous steps to this including detailed keyword research, creating high-quality Ad copy, choosing the right Ad layouts, and sorting the targeting settings so your Ads are displayed to the right people.
Other important factors to consider include negative keywords to make sure your ads are more streamlined and targeted, and competitor keywords. An SEO and PPC agency can help create and manage your ads but this would obviously incur and additional cost which you would need to factor into your budget.
At this point, you technically haven’t spent anything still as the ad won’t start costing until you get positive actions such as clicks.
Once your PPC campaign is live you now get a chance to see if your budget is realistic or if it needs adjusting. To start, your ads will probably need some tweaking and adjustments so I advise you to schedule regular PPC reviews.
This should be done weekly to monitor progress carefully and check how much you are spending. Google Ads has a host of analytical tools available and costing info and you can also get more info by linking your Google Analytics account to Google Ads.
Monitoring is essential to keep track of your spending and to make fine-tune adjustments to your PPC budget.
Once the PPC ads are live and you start to get data you can see if your budget was realistic and if it yielded the expected results. It may transpire that your averages were underestimated and you have exceeded your goals with less expense.
Alternatively, it could transpire that the estimated budget fell drastically short and that you didn’t get the expected conversions.
With a clear idea of the accuracy of your budget, you have two tasks. Firstly, you can choose to increase your budget based on the actual data to get the desired results.
However, before doing this, it could be a better idea to look at improving your PPC ads and assessing areas where they need improvement. For example, you could be using the wrong keywords, or your ad copy may not be engaging or targeted enough.
Fine-tuning your ads is preferable to simply increasing your budget as just throwing more money at a problem rarely yields positive results. Hopefully, if you are not meeting your goals with your budget, you can make improvements and stick within your desired expenditure.
If you want to use PPC marketing, you MUST establish a strict budget. Without a budget, your costs could soon spiral out of control and this will ultimately diminish the effectiveness of your Google Ads.
The process is simple – set a clear goal for your PPC marketing and from that establish a realistic budget. With a budget in place, you can then create your ads, monitor their progress, and keep a tight reign on your expenditure with analysis and reviews.
Shopify is my top recommended ecommerce platform and one of its standout features is the themes. There is a superb range of both paid and premium themes that you can use to customize the appearance of your online store and turn your ecommerce dreams into a reality.
Sadly, not all Shopify themes are created equal though and some are better than others – particularly when it comes to SEO. In this guide, I take you on a tour of the best Shopify themes currently available and explain why this matters, and what you can look for.
I’ve started this article and realized you may not even know what a Shopify theme is so let’s discuss. To make things easier for business owners and so that you don’t need to spend time designing every website element from scratch, Shopify has “themes”.
Themes are essentially the underlying template of your online store. This includes elements like a header, footer, product pages, landing pages, and more. You can use the theme to create the backbone of your online store and the individual pages.
Typically, Shopify themes are customizable and you can change multiple elements like color schemes, fonts, images, and maybe even the positioning of items.
The point is, is that a theme is the starting point that allows you to create your online store. Think of a theme as the blueprint to a building or the instructions for a piece of furniture.
Now we know what a Shopify theme is, we can look at how it affects your SEO. As we know, Google is incredibly fussy and certain things irritate it including:
These are three important SEO aspects that a Shopify theme can affect and are an important part of SEO and PPC services. Ideally, the theme must be optimized for fast loading times as Google hates waiting around and your customers won’t like it either.
The underlying HTML and CSS code and any scripts should also be compliant with the latest standards too. This is a harder aspect to identify but you can generally see from reviews about the quality of the code.
Lastly, the Shopify theme must have a mobile-responsive theme which means it seamlessly fits on any screen size and is suitable for smartphone viewing.
So, you know what a Shopify theme is, and you understand how they affect SEO. Now comes the best bit – answering the question, what is the best Shopify theme for SEO?
I love the modern landing page design of Star where you can incorporate an impressive background image or product imagery. It’s very chic and looks superb and there are two theme variations included in this premium package – Polaris, and Sirius.
Aside from looking the part, this Shopify theme has an abundance of SEO features including the ability to create a Google Rich Snippet for your business, mobile-optimized design, social media sharing tools, and image optimization.
If you are a first-time Shopify user you will also appreciate the simple interface and user-friendly tools.
If you want to keep it simple and let your products do the work, the Simple theme by Shopify could be a good option. This free theme is arguably the best one available and it integrates seamlessly with Shopify including fast loading times and excellent mobile optimization.
If you are creating your first Shopify store and don’t have the funds to buy a premium theme, I recommend Simple as a starting point. It’s easy to work with and the mobile-responsiveness can’t be ignored.
Flow is another excellent Shopify theme that features a minimalistic design. Instead of lots of different page elements and huge navigation, Flow keeps things simple. This simple design also greatly improves page loading times which Google loves.
There are three core designs to choose from within the Flow theme and they all offer excellent customization. I like the quick-buy feature too that you can add where customers always have access to their shopping cart at the click of a button.
All media content loads quickly too including videos, quotes, and images, so you can add intrigue to your online store and make it a visual feast.
There is something about a simplistic theme that is appealing – I think it is the fact that the attention is placed on your products and not just on the site which is a main feature of the Motion premium theme by Archetype.
It has a simple navigation with a landing page that allows you to showcase large, optimized product images. The catalogs and product pages are also similarly modernistic and uncluttered and really easy to navigate.
Motion is jam-packed with SEO features like meta fields, product collection templates, fast loading times, smooth animations for menus, and the ability to add product sale points.
I chose Negan simply because he was one of my favorite characters in The Walking Dead. Joking obviously! Cool name aside, this flexible Shopify theme has a clean and uncluttered style that I find modern and minimalistic.
It looks great and it includes 15 different demo versions that you can tweak. For SEO, it has incredibly fast loading times, integration for social media like Instagram, and a fully responsive design for a smooth smartphone display.
This theme is great for fashion businesses but it can easily be tailored to suit any industry and is available for a one-off purchase price.
Choosing the right theme is highly important and you should think carefully before jumping into a theme and developing your site. Take time to assess your SEO strategy, your business schema, and your industry.
This should allow you to select an appropriate theme that looks great, fits in with the type of products or services you sell, but is also optimized for SEO.
Do you know what I love most about digital marketing? The jargon and acronyms. I love nothing more than trying to decipher emails, messages, and text packed full of complex words and phrases! Is my sarcasm apparent yet?
Seriously though – understanding terminology can be a nightmare, but it’s also important so that you understand what people are saying and to avoid confusion. In the world of paid advertising, I see two terms used interchangeably when they shouldn’t – PPC and CPC.
When you look at these two phrases – pay per click and cost per click, they seem incredibly similar. However, they are two completely different things within the same umbrella of paid advertising and I aim to explain the difference below.
PPC is a TYPE of paid advertising. It stands for Pay Per Click and as you have probably guessed, it represents a pricing model in which you only pay for the clicks your ads receive.
This differs from other pricing models such as one-off payments and monthly subscriptions in that you are only paying for positive results. Google Ads is an example of PPC marketing and it is proven to yield fantastic results and is something an SEO and PPC agency can help you perfect.
With a PPC platform like Google Ads, you create adverts utilizing keywords and specific ad copy to target your ideal customers. Your ads are then displayed on different mediums like search results, videos, and social media when they search for those keywords.
PPC ads from Google are displayed on their vast display network but we can easily look at a real-life example. Open Google and type in something like “gardening supplies X” with X being the location you live.
The top results of your Google search will most likely show the word “Sponsored” at the top. These are PPC campaigns using search ads. The company has created a PPC ad including some iterations of the keywords you type in on Google.
If you clicked on the link, that would count as an impression for the company and they would have an associated cost, if we didn’t click then no cost is incurred for displaying the ad.
CPC is a METRIC associated with paid advertising. It stands for Cost Per Click and is one of the main metrics used to calculate the effectiveness of your Google Ads. It essentially shows how much your company is spending to gain impressions or clicks and this is a necessity for running a successful PPC campaign.
To reiterate, PPC is a type of advertising, and CPC is a way to measure the success of PPC. There are other metrics to show the success of your PPC campaigns such as landing page traffic, the number of impressions, and conversions, but CPC is a simple and effective measure of cost-effectiveness.
CPC has a simple formula:
Total Expenditure / Total Measured Clicks = CPC
It’s that easy really. Let’s say that your company spent $453 last week on PPC ads and this generated 212 measured clicks. That means your CPC is $2.13 per click.
The aim over time is to lower that metric. You always want to reduce your cost per click and pay less for greater returns. Therefore, perhaps you measure CPC again the following week and find that you have spent $521 for 273 clicks. This is a CPC of $1.90 which is a slight improvement – excellent.
The lower your CPC is, the better theoretical ROI you should get on your PPC campaigns.
To summarize, PPC (Pay Per Click) is a type of paid advertising model in which you only pay based on the number of clicks or impressions you get for your ads. This is a common paid advertising strategy with Google Ads being the most prominent option.
To evaluate your budget and ad effectiveness, you can then calculate the CPC (Cost Per Click) with the ultimate aim of lowering it for better results and ROI.
These are two core terms used in Google Ads and it’s vital that you understand how the PPC pricing structure works, and how to calculate CPC for long-term success and financial viability.
Creating a successful PPC campaign requires a multi-leveled approach which great attention to detail and planning. It’s not something I advise jumping into quickly without any forethought.
You can’t simply hop on Google Ads, create an advert in a few minutes and expect it to be amazing. Sure, the ad will be live, but I can guarantee that without this PPC optimization checklist, it isn’t getting good results!
For your PPC campaign to shine, you need a plan and something to focus on, and this is where a checklist helps. You have steps to follow, and you have a constant reminder of the different daily and weekly tasks you need to complete, and this is what I have created below.
The first part of your checklist involves the ad setup and creation. I like that you can use these initial 5 steps time and time again for every new PPC campaign you create!
Keyword research is the first checklist item and it’s the most important. Keywords form the backbone of your PPC campaigns and they are the words and phrases that people will search for so that your ads are displayed. The end goal is to have a list of short-term and long-tail keywords to incorporate into your ad copy.
You can’t just create an ad and not have it point to something. The thing it points to (i.e. the link the person clicks) is known as a landing page. These landing pages must be optimized too including keyword usage and other SEO techniques.
It’s OK to have multiple landing pages and indeed they can be things like product pages or even your website homepage. The main point is that the content must be optimized for your PPC ads and align with its SEO strategy.
Did you know that you can target specific customers or demographics with your Google Ads? This is done via the targeting settings and it’s a simple but effective part of your checklist.
To get the right targeting settings you should ideally have a clear understanding of your target audience and their habits. This allows you to change parameters like age, gender, and geographical location, for example. Targeting should be set before any ad campaign goes live.
With the targeting settings and landing pages sorted, you need to sort your tracking. Tracking is a vital component of a successful PPC campaign so you can look at a wide range of analytical data. This includes things like conversions, CTR, and impressions. You can easily get a tracking code to link your Google Ads with your Google Analytics account.
Negative keywords are an essential part of SEO and PPC management as they help control spending and dictate how your ads are found. A negative keyword is something you DON’T want your ad appearing in relation to. By adding negative keywords, you can hopefully improve your conversions and make sure you are only targeting customers who actually need your products or services.
After creating your ads the hard work doesn’t end! There are numerous tasks you must complete on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis such as reviews, improvements, and monitoring.
To check on the effectiveness of your PPC ads you must continually review the available metric data. Google Ads has a great set of analytical data but you can also link your Google Analytics account for more stats. Analysis should be done on a weekly basis and you must look at key indicators like conversions, clickthrough rates, and impressions.
It’s not enough to merely analyze the data – you have to act on it and make changes if appropriate. You must look at which ads are performing better than others and you can then alter the poor-performing ones. For example, you could look at what is working in your successful ads and then use similar copy, layouts, and keywords in your other ads.
Search query reports outline which keywords people are searching for that trigger your Google ads. This is incredibly useful as it allows you to see exactly how people are accessing your ads and viewing your content.
Search query reports can help identify potential negative keywords that are resulting in low ad conversions. It also shows you which keywords are doing their job so you can potentially incorporate them more effectively.
Obviously, your ads link to a landing page and you should have already optimized this landing page at the start of your PPC optimization checklist. That doesn’t mean that it can simply be left alone! Over time, things could change and I advise checking your landing pages monthly for errors and broken links. If the landing pages aren’t working as intended then your ads are going to fail.
Lastly, I recommend doing monthly competitor analysis so you can see how you are shaping up. Google Ads has a range of competitor keyword tools and there are other SEO platforms that allow you to do in-depth competitor analysis. Aside from performance, you can potentially gain insight for your ads and improve them based on what the competition is doing.
This PPC checklist is an amazing starting point so I urge you to take notes or just copy the different steps onto a notepad or Word doc! With proper organization and a step-by-step approach, you should be able to improve your PPC optimization and get the best possible return on your investment.
What if I told you that you could install a range of plugins for your Shopify store to improve its functionality and boost customer engagement? Yes – Shopify has its own app store much like WordPress plugins.
The store contains thousands of third-party plugins that fit into different categories like SEO, inventory management, upselling, customer management, and more. For the first-time Shopify developer, entering the app store and knowing where to start can be daunting so to help I have created a Shopify plugins list to get you started!
One sure-fire thing that makes me click off of an online store is having to create a customer account. I don’t want to! I’m sure other people have had this experience too and this is why the One Click Social Login plugin is a brilliant tool to utilize.
Instead of having to go through the annoyance of creating a customer account, this plugin allows customers to log in using 10 different social media networks including Google, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
This greatly speeds up the order process and stops people from potentially leaving your store due to frustration – it just makes your Shopify store accessible.
Did you know that online stores experience a greater number of returns compared to physical stores? This can be for many reasons like products not matching their description, deceptive images, or ordering the wrong size of clothing without trying it on for example.
As a result, a Shopify plugin like Returnly can be invaluable. This plugin allows you to largely automate the return and exchange process to take the burden from your staff and keep your customers happy. You can also make a range of different return options such as QR codes, gift returns, or product exchanges.
Upselling can be hugely effective as it is much easier to sell to existing customers compared to trying to attract new business. This is the technique of trying to get a customer who is making a purchase to make additional purchases!
A plugin like ReConvert Upsell & Cross Sell helps you do this and allows you to effectively target your existing customers to bring in more sales revenue. You can create upsell funnels, add one-click upsell offers and essentially give your customers a heap more products and potential items to look at during their shopping experience.
Many people don’t make a purchase with a new online store due to a lack of trust and transparency. They are hesitant to make a purchase when they don’t know the quality of the products or service and this is where product review plugins are a brilliant tool.
There are many Shopify extensions like these but Judge.me Product Reviews is consistently ranked among the best and has over 15k reviews. Using this plugin you can easily collect and collate real customer reviews and add vital social proof to your products to boost confidence and sales.
This includes a variety of review systems like star ratings, trust badges, review carousels, and individual product reviews. A product review plugin is certainly one of the best Shopify plugins and I recommend you invest in one ASAP.
We have covered this before but I have to reiterate the importance of fast loading times for your Shopify store. No one wants to spend ages waiting for product pages and product images to load. We want our information fast and we want to be able to make a purchase instantly with no hassle.
This is why a plugin like SEO, Image Optimizer & Speed is a great choice. This highly-rated plugin allows you to optimize various aspects of your Shopify store including the sitemap, images, and loading times.
It also has some decent SEO tools but the image compression, broken link detection, and auto page speed optimizer are the best features.
Optimizing your Shopify store for search engines like Google is one of the most important things you can do and is something a Shopify SEO consultant can help with. By optimizing your store you can appear higher in search results and thus drive more traffic to your site.
YOAST SEO is one of the best Shopify plugins for this category and it is incredibly easy to use. When the plugin is installed you get handy advice and checklists for on-page SEO so you can make sure your basic store SEO is perfect.
This includes things like content readability, META tags, alt tags, and keyword usage.
Having the means to interact with your customers is incredibly important and can help drive sales. I’ve often had experiences where I am stuck, can’t find what I am looking for, or could use some help.
This is where a Shopify plugin like Shopify Inbox is ideal. This is a free plugin which is an immediate bonus that provides an instant messaging system for your Shopify store. It goes beyond a simple chat interface and allows you to easily send things like photos, discounts, and product recommendations too.
All of this can help with upselling and making sure you get those conversions. It has a CAPTCHA feature too to prevent spam and bots from trying to scam your store.
Shopify extensions are vital to the success of your ecommerce store and although it’s important to develop a sound theme and optimized site first, make sure you give attention to the Shopify App store.
Plugins greatly enhance the quality and features of your website – not just from a customer utility perspective, but they can also improve your workflow and make the “behind the scenes” features run smoothly.
If you want to sell your products or services online then you need a quality online store and Shopify is one of the best platforms available. It has a ton of features, and great store functionality, and allows you to showcase your business creatively and with great SEO optimization.
Before you get to the juicy bits like SEO and product pages, you have to design the basic layout, theme, and structure of your website. This can be daunting and to give you a headstart I have created a list of eight essential Shopify website design tips below – enjoy!
The backbone of designing a Shopify store is your theme. The theme is basically the underlying layout and structure of your website. This includes color schemes, page layouts, navigation, and a header and footer for example.
Shopify has a wide range of free and premium themes and when looking at how to design a Shopify website you must spend time researching the best theme. Look at things like loading times, responsiveness, style, and user experience.
Ideally, you want a theme that reflects your business, and gives the utility you want for your store, but is also optimized for SEO. The free themes are OK, but it is often better to invest in a premium theme so you get the customization and features to take your store to the next level.
Slow loading times can be the death of an online store and they also have a negative impact on SEO. It is important that your Shopify store design has fast loading times and you can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to look for potential loading problems.
One of the first things you can do is to optimize your images and make sure they are not unnecessarily oversized or have a huge file size. There are websites like Tinypng that can optimize images for web use to greatly boost loading times.
Today, the way we shop has changed and approximately 60% of online shopping is now done via smartphones. As a result, you MUST look at the design and functionality of your Shopify store for both desktop and mobile devices.
Luckily, Shopify has a range of responsive themes that will automatically resize and morph to fit perfectly on smartphone screens. However, I still urge you to preview your store on both desktop and mobile devices to make sure it is working as intended.
Did you know that Shopify has an app store? This is essentially the counterpart to WordPress plugins and the apps are developed by third-party companies to enhance the functionality and management of your store.
I implore you to check out the app store and look at the different apps that could make managing your site easier. Also, there is a host of useful apps that add additional features to your site like SEO tools, upselling tools, and discount tools.
No one wants to read a wall of text and one of the first website design rules is that visuals are important. It is a fact that visual elements on your website help drive traffic, engagement, and conversions and perform better than text-only versions.
Visuals include static images, image galleries, scrolling backgrounds, video backgrounds, and embedded videos for example. Make use of these elements to add style and substance to your Shopify store and break up the text.
The aim of your website is to get sales right? So it stands to reason that you need elements on your site that result in sales and these are known as conversions.
Actually, there are multiple types of conversions and they can be other interactions like making an inquiry, signing up for a newsletter, or sharing a page on social media.
The main point is, is that your Shopify store must have conversion opportunities and CTAs (Call to Action) so that your customers have multiple opportunities to do what you want!
There is a tendency with first-time Shopify website designers to overdo it – I get that you have seen all these fantastic features and apps that you can include, but any Shopify SEO expert knows that more is less and that clutter can make your site look messy.
It’s important to strike a balance and give your Shopify store a streamlined and cohesive look while still providing excellent features and functionality. This can take refinement but if you can retain a simplistic look with an un-cluttered layout then your site should perform better.
Customer engagement can drive traffic to your website and improve your organic SEO. This is because Google looks kindly at activity and customer interactions like comments and ratings.
To drive those interactions and to improve the visibility of your website you should look to add things like social media sharing icons, product comment feeds, and product rating plugins.
Social sharing icons help drive backlinks to your store but can also improve your visibility on social media platforms. Similarly, interactive product elements like comments and ratings can help boost the credibility of your products and drive sales.
You may have the best products in the world with competitive pricing but without a well-designed Shopify website that is easy to use, you simply won’t get those conversions and sales. By using these Shopify design tips you can immediately improve the design, usability, and style of your site with minimum effort.
As with any new business venture, it’s vital that you understand the cost implications of running a Shopify store. There are numerous Shopify fees including flat monthly service rates, transaction fees, and one-off payments for things like themes.
To effectively assess the ROI of your Shopify store, control your business budget, and make sure it’s financially viable, I detail the different Shopify price plans and other important costs below so you can plan ahead.
I like how simplistic the Shopify price plans are and this makes understanding the cost easy. They have three price plans suited for different business sizes.
Basic is aimed at small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, Shopify is a mid-tier package aimed at businesses that want to push growth, and the Advanced package is best suited for medium to large businesses.
The basic plan is aimed at small businesses and individuals and if you pay yearly, the equivalent monthly cost drops to £19.00. For this you get 24/7 support, 2 staff accounts, unlimited products, and up to 1000 inventory locations.
Compare to the other Shopify price plans you only get basic reporting and no automation tools. Things like duties and import taxes are also not calculated automatically so this is something else to consider when looking at how much does Shopify cost.
You don’t really miss out on any other features and this basic plan is pretty reasonable compared to other similar options.
The “Shopify” plan is the mid-range option aimed at businesses that are expanding and want to push to the next level. You get the benefit of 5 staff accounts which allows you to assign a team to manage your store, and a variety of workflow and ecommerce automation to make your store run more effectively.
Again, there is a sizable discount for paying annually, and the monthly cost drops to £49.00. Possibly the most notable difference is also the reduced Shopify fees per sale which drop to 1.7% for credit cards.
This may not seem like much initially compared to 2% for the basic plan, but it can make a large difference for a higher sales volume and the number of transactions you expect with business growth. You also get the Shopify POS Lite tool which allows you to have a point of sale in your storefront if needed.
The Advanced plan is aimed at larger companies who are really pushing their sales volumes and dealing with a large number of customers and products.
The Shopify fees per sale are again reduced to 1.5% for credit cards and in-person sales, and you get discounts on other payment items such as iDEAL and international transactions.
Out of the Shopify price plans, this gives the most in terms of features and reporting and you get advanced functionality so you can really analyze the performance of your store and see where improvements can be made. Duties and import taxes are also automatically estimated at checkout.
While the monthly plans and Shopify fees per sale are mandatory, there are potential extra costs too. These come in the form of premium themes, plugins, and hiring the services of a Shopify SEO company.
Shopify has a decent range of free themes included in all three plans however you may want to pay for a premium theme. These premium themes are generally better designed, have improved layouts and features, and can often match your business style or schema closer.
Premium themes generally start at £100+ and this is a one-off payment. I recommend at least looking at the premium themes so you can start your Shopify store in the right way. Over time, the sales and revenue should more than pay for this initial outlay.
Once you have your store established, you can look at the vast library of Shopify plugins. These are developed by third-party companies and aim to extend the functionality of your store.
Examples include SEO plugins, customer service tools, inventory management, chatbots, upselling tools, and social sharing icons. There is a range of free plugins, but the best ones usually have a monthly subscription fee which is another potential cost you must account for.
Lastly, depending on the size of your company you may want to hire the services of a Shopify SEO company to manage your online store and improve its SEO.
This can be an incredibly effective option, especially if you do not have the time or knowledge to dedicate to the store in order to maximize sales. By hiring a Shopify expert, you can let them take the reigns and concentrate on other business aspects such as product development, marketing, and growth.
There should be no other hidden costs relating to your Shopify store unless you choose to hire a web developer to design your store, or if you opt to use a third-party payment provider. If you do not want to utilize the payment getaway provided by Shopify, there is an additional 2% charge per transaction.
With this clear understanding of how much does Shopify cost, you should be able to budget the expense and assess properly if you think the monthly costs and payment fees are worth the investment.
I recommend Shopify as an online store and it is one of the more reasonable options, plus the range of features and plugins allow you to create a fantastic online store and engaging shopping experience for your customers.
Did you know that ecommerces sales are expected to grow by 10%+ in 2023, and experts estimate total global ecommerce sales will exceed $6 trillion by the end of the year? This kind of revenue and exposure are difficult to ignore and there has never been a better time for your business to start selling online.
If you are contemplating this and want to make a shift to an ecommerce business, there are some basic elements you must understand beforehand. One of the simplest but most important details is the types of ecommerce businesses and ecommerce business models and I explain these below.
Ecommerce can be categorized into four different business models and these relate to the relationship between buyer and seller. The two potential involved parties are the business and consumer and we can see the four models below:
B2B is when a company is selling to another business, and not to the end consumer. Examples of B2B include food manufacturers selling products to supermarkets, and raw material companies selling items to car manufacturers.
B2C is when a company sells directly to the end consumer. There are hundreds of examples of B2C and you probably use them daily such as supermarkets, car retailers, online sports stores, and clothes retailers.
C2C is where the end customer is selling something to another customer. These are things like social media marketplaces and eBay where the ecommerce platform is merely a facilitator between the two consumers.
Lastly, we have a newer brand of ecommerce model in C2B and this is where a consumer is delivering value to a business. Examples include referral programs, affiliate websites, paid testimonials, and data sharing.
With the above information, we can go one step further and define four different types of e-commerce business and you probably have experience with each one at some point:
Affiliate websites are incredibly popular and can generate consistent income without the need to actually produce or sell your own products.
The premise of an affiliate site is simple – a business provides a unique affiliate link to the affiliate site, and the company puts this link on its website. When a customer visits their website, clicks the link, and makes a positive action like making a purchase via the link, the affiliate website gets a commission.
These terms are pre-determined as part of the affiliate program such as commission percentages and advertising guidelines.
Amazon affiliate websites are perhaps the most common variant and it is a mutually beneficial partnership. The affiliate website just has to have excellent SEO to drive traffic and in return, they get income from affiliate sales. The company giving the affiliate links benefits from increased sales, but also someone else marketing their products for them!
Single-brand websites are currently the most common ecommerce platform and something that an ecommerce SEO consultant can help build and optimize.
This is a website from a single business that sells its products or services. A great example is the Nike online store. If you visit the Nike online store you can only find sports gear, clothing, and equipment from Nike.
Single-brand websites can fall under different ecommerce business models though and they are not exclusively B2C. The main point is that you can only find products or services from one brand on that website.
The main advantage of a single-brand website is that you have complete control over every aspect including site design, prices, marketing, and personalization. You don’t have to report to any third parties, nor are your profits watered down.
Online retailers are incredibly popular and you have probably used at least one at some point! I use one every week to order my groceries! Yes – online supermarkets and superstores like Walmart and Tesco are prime examples of online retailers.
These are usually larger ecommerce platforms that sell a wide variety of third-party products from other manufacturers and usually some home-brand items too.
Online sports retailers are a great example too – platforms like Sports Direct have hundreds of items from different manufacturers like tennis racquets, sports clothing, and sneakers that they merely sell on the manufacturer’s behalf.
The manufacturer benefits from the reputation, exposure, and huge customer base the online retailer has, while the retailer benefits from being able to sell an incredibly diverse range of products without the associated costs.
Lastly, we have the ecommerce marketplace. I can guarantee that you have probably used at least one of these three marketplaces in your lifetime – eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.
Marketplaces act as the middleman between buyer and seller and take a little commission for providing the central meeting place!
Consider Amazon – I bought some racquet tape for my badminton racquet this week. Although I bought it on Amazon, I actually bought it from a third-party company simply advertising their products on the platform and they took care of the shipping.
Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay can fall under different ecommerce models too. In fact, eBay for example can be considered both B2C and C2C as you have a mix of people selling to people, and businesses selling to people!
I hope you now have a clear understanding of the different types of ecommerce businesses and their business models. It’s imperative to know which category your business fits into so that you can tailor your website and appeal to the correct audience.
Before even contemplating website design, SEO, and marketing, asses your company and leave no doubts as to which ecommerce model you should follow.
Launching an ecommerce website is no small task and for first-timers, it can be daunting. I get this – there is so much to think about, so to make the job easier, why not create an ecommerce checklist?
This is a simple online store checklist that details the steps you need to take to successfully create, launch, and market your ecommerce store. It flows in a logical order starting from choosing the right platform through to post-launch analytics.
With a step-by-step ecommerce checklist, you can work effectively, schedule your time, and ensure your site starts with a bang.
The first thing you must do is choose an ecommerce platform. There are many options available and I recommend Shopify or WordPress with WooCommerce. These are two reputable platforms that give excellent flexibility, store features, and control.
Shopify is a brilliant option for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses, while WooCommerce can provide more features for larger companies with more products.
Spend time researching what each platform has to offer, the associated cost, and the usability of the design tools – if possible, take a free trial too so you can have hands-on experience.
With a platform chosen, you need a unique domain name. This is your ecommerce store website address and it is really important for branding, SEO, and accessibility.
Ideally, the name should be short and snappy and not too difficult to type. If possible, it should also contain a primary keyword or at least point to what your business does/sells.
Make sure you are aware of the domain name cost too and when you have to renew it as with some domain name providers you essentially lease the URL as opposed to owning it outright.
Before creating product pages and other website pages, you need an underlying website layout. On platforms like Shopify, these are known as themes or templates.
It’s the barebones frame of your site including things like a header, footer, primary navigation, and logo. As part of your ecommerce launch checklist you need to select a theme and customize it to reflect your business schema and colors.
Every website has a selection of core pages which should be implemented after you have created the basic layout and theme.
These are generally simply info pages like a landing page or homepage, contact page, company history/about page, and maybe a testimonial or review page.
These are great to build a picture of your company, give customers a means to contact you, and for SEO purposes.
The individual product pages are one of the main aspects of your online store and you must give great attention to them. Elements to consider for your product pages include:
In short, your product pages must be easy to reach, look fantastic, and leave customers in no doubt about the functionality and quality of what you are selling.
While your online store is the primary sales channel, you can set up other channels that complement your store and utilize your product pages, etc.
There is a wide range of sales channels that can connect with other ecommerce platforms like Shopify including eBay, Amazon, Facebook Shopping, Pinterest, TikTok, Google Shopping, and Instagram Shopping.
The more channels you have, the greater your potential audience, visibility, and sales. This also reflects the way that we stop today as most people don’t stick to one platform for their online purchases. I, for example, regularly use Amazon, online supermarkets, eBay, and Google.
At this stage, you hopefully have an excellent online store that is ready to launch. You can launch at this stage, but you need to consider your SEO strategy.
An ecommerce SEO expert can help with this but it’s vital you make sure your store content is optimized for search engines. This is an entirely separate subject but it involves keyword research, content optimization, and potentially things like Google Ads.
If your ecommerce store has excellent SEO then it should have greater visibility on search engines and thus generate more traffic and sales.
SEO should be a main component of your ecommerce marketing but there are other channels too. Consider other options like email marketing, social media marketing, and PPC advertisement which are all viable options for online stores.
The more marketing channels you have, the wider reach you can get. If you do take on multiple channels though, you must be thorough with each one and be willing to dedicate enough time and resources to make them worthwhile.
By now, your ecommerce checklist is almost done! You now have an ongoing process of analyzing, reviewing, and improving.
You must think of an online store as a continually evolving thing. You can’t simply look at how to launch your Shopify store, get it running, and then forget about it.
To be effective you need to regularly review the store and look at the metrics. This is important so you can improve your customer’s experience, boost the SEO, and ultimately get more sales.
I find that creating a simple checklist like this helps me keep focused and make sure that all aspects of the project are taken care of. An ecommerce launch checklist can do the same and allow you to get off to a fantastic start and hopefully improve your visibility, gain customers, and make a positive ROI.
SEO is a major aspect of running a successful ecommerce store so you need a platform that can give you the tools and features to implement your strategies effectively.
Without SEO, your store may struggle to gain visibility on search engines and have limited traffic. This, in turn, could impact your ROI and make the initial investment not worthwhile.
To avoid this, I have selected five excellent ecommerce platforms that all have fantastic SEO features for you to use. This includes platforms suitable for anything from solo entrepreneurs to enterprise-level businesses.
Shopify is an incredibly popular ecommerce platform and has some brilliant ecommerce SEO services. This is undoubtedly the easiest platform to use and I recommend it for first-time shop builders who may not have great experience with web development.
The basic plan is reasonable and you can easily integrate Google Analytics to take your SEO strategies to the next level. Shopify also benefits from a wide range of plugins to improve SEO such as customer ratings, social share buttons, and SEO tools like YOAST SEO.
You can easily create a blog for your store too which can include optimized content, and Shopify can work with multiple sales channels like Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shopping.
Pros
Cons
WooCommerce is a cost-effective option and suitable for any size of business. The first thing to note is that it is a WordPress plugin so ideally you need familiarity with this platform too.
This plugin is extensive and gives you great control and flexibility to implement your SEO. To start, the site design and pages are SEO-friendly and it’s easy to use other plugins like YOAST SEO to optimize your on-page content.
You can quickly make changes to things like META tags and URLs, and WooCommerce has a decent blogging tool too, so you can implement SEO content marketing strategies. There is a free version of WooCommerce available with limitations and the premium subscription is reasonable too.
Pros
Cons
BigCommerce excels at customer experience and it has some brilliant features so users can easily find what they need and navigate your products quickly.
This is a standalone platform that doesn’t require anything like WordPress, and it has several plans ranging from the Standard package for smaller businesses to the Pro package for enterprise-level companies.
I like the SEO tool that is built-in to BigCommerce and this means you don’t need a host of separate tools to improve basic SEO. However, if you want more, BigCommerce does have a large library of third-party plugins too.
You can easily optimize your web pages and product pages too, and the interface is relatively user-friendly.
Pros
Cons
Squarespace is another top option for beginners like Shopify and smaller businesses due to its graphical interface and (for the most part) simple tools.
While the builder can seem a little basic, it has some brilliant social media integration options which can help with SEO, and you can use the YOAST SEO plugin too for on-page content optimization.
Squarespace is also possibly the best in terms of sleek and stylish website design and you can easily make a store that looks fantastic and works seamlessly on mobile devices which Google loves. An optimized blog can also be added to your Squarespace online store too.
Pros
Cons
Adobe Commerce or Magento as it was once known is my last pick and this solution is aimed at larger businesses that have more funds but ultimately want to create a fully customized online store. This platform requires coding knowledge and it is definitely not for first-time store owners.
If you want the ultimate in control so you can manage every aspect of your store’s SEO optimization then this is the best option. You essentially have a barebones site that you then develop on using the detailed API and versatile underlying architecture.
Pros
Cons
Competitors can be a trove of information and you can look at what they are doing to see what is and isn’t working in your industry. You can never plagiarise and rip their ads, but you can use various tools to analyze competitor keywords for example.
Knowing what your competitors are doing can help improve your own ads but also show you niches that they have missed where you could gain more customers or build new audiences.
Google Ads has a split testing feature where you can quickly test multiple iterations of the same ad. You could change aspects of the ads like headlines, titles, text, and images and then run split tests.
This is another core component of PPC management and it allows you to see which versions of your ads are the most effective.
So now you understand what PPC management involves, why should you care? There are many benefits to managed PPC and using a Google Ads marketing agency and I have listed them below:
Ultimately, managed PPC affects your bottom line. If you can manage your paid advertising and create better ads, you will hopefully get better end results with more conversions.
It means that the money you invest in PPC marketing is worthwhile and you can use the profits to grow your business further.
If you create Google Ads without any knowledge and research, your money will be uncontrolled and potentially wasted.
In contrast, managed PPC means everything is ultra-focused and targeted. This should mean that every dollar spent is worthwhile and your marketing budget is being used effectively.
Part of PPC management involves keyword research and utilizing customer data. This data can be used in other areas of your business like website SEO and email marketing. As a result, you can improve your business focus as all your different marketing strategies will be working in tandem and using the same data.
Without effective PPC management, your online marketing strategies will likely be ineffective and you will not get the best ROI. You need to control and monitor your PPC campaigns closely to make sure they are targeting the right customers, maximizing the potential of your keywords, and achieving your marketing goals.
While it is possible to perform PPC management in-house, it could be beneficial to look at the services of a PPC manager from a third-party company. Working with a PPC manager allows you to let them take the reigns and maximize your marketing while you concentrate your business efforts elsewhere.
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