Archive for September, 2011

Bounce Your Way To A Better Conversion Rate!

Friday, September 30th, 2011

At Little Big Voice, Search Engine Marketing goes beyond better rankings on the major search engines.  In fact, we spend a good deal of our time with our ears to the ground in wait of the developments and changes that happen online.

One of the main areas we like to focus on is the analysing of information.  We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we are geeks to the core but that ain’t a bad thing at all because it means we eat numbers for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and we’re not talking spaghetti either).

So, what’s a bounce rate?

Well it has nothing to do with trampolines or walking in to things by accident, but a term that is used by us Internet geeks in the SEO field to work out how relevant your actual site and its content is to visitors. At Little Big Voice we use Google Analytics to track our client’s bounce rates.

How do I work out if my bounce rate is good or bad?

This is a little trickier to work out because while there is no perfect or indeed imperfect bounce rate, on balance you’ll find that the higher the bounce rate the less effective your website is (probably).

Essentially you need to think of a bounce rate like this…

When a visitor comes to your site, do they leave on the page they entered without looking at the other pages or do they spend time on there and have a bit of a mooch around?

The more people who enter and leave at the same point produces your bounce rate figure but there are a lot of elements which affect this such as a website that has a lot of information on the main page, or indeed only has a main page (it does happen).

Confused?

Don’t be as we can help you out!

What difference does a bounce rate make anyway?

Well if your website visitors are leaving your site too quickly then you need to consider it might be you (or your website).  No offence intended of course!

Your content needs to be relevant to their search and interesting.  Ever wondered why someone with a monotone voice inspires sleep, while someone who has intonation in their sentences, smiles and has a bit of energy keeps you interested?  It’s no different with site content, so try to think about this when you’re looking at your site and what you’re saying to your visitors.

I am bouncin’ high – does that mean my site’s a failure?

Actually no not necessarily because a high bounce rate can be created by a number of factors!

Here are just some things that can affect the length of time someone spends on your website:

  • Design – is your site laid out well?
  • Amount of traffic – Do you have lots of visitors?
  • Page load time – How long does your site take to load?  Too long and you’ll get an increased bounce rate as people get bored waiting.
  • Content – Is it interesting?  If you’re not a talented writer then may want to consider getting a copy writer in to assist you.  While you think what you’re saying is engaging – this sadly may not actually be the case.
  • Navigation – Can your visitors find what they were searching for on your landing page.

These are just some of the things that can affect bounce rates for your website so they’re always worth reviewing if you’ve got lots of traffic but no one is staying long enough to have a cup of tea.

I’ve been bouncing and I still don’t know if the figures are good, bad or indifferent!

It’s difficult to be precise on a bounce rate that is acceptable for your website but as a general rule we feel that a bounce rate higher than 35% is a potential issue and therefore does need to be resolved.

Google advises that most websites have a bounce rate of between 40% and 60%.  What this means is that if you’re closer to 40% then you’re doing okay and possible good in comparison to any competitors with a bounce rate of 60% or above.

However, if you have a bounce rate of 60% or higher and people are leaving your website quicker than you can say ‘Come back!’ then you need to do something more than twiddling your thumbs and wondering why!

Can I get any other information on my bounce?

Yes you can!  Kiss Metrics has some great information on industry bounce rates – which may assist you in seeing how your own ‘bounce’ fairs but it also gives you a bit of help in ways you can improve your websites bounce rate too.

I’m no writer and my site doesn’t look all that great to be honest!

Don’t panic.  The fact that you’re seeing what’s wrong is a good thing and means you can resolve it with a bit of work.

Try and liaise with your SEO provider and get some input on what you can do to improve your site on all levels.

They will be able to advise you on your content, improving your page layouts and of course will be able to give you lots of their experience and advice on how to improve your actual search engine marketing success as well.

A seasoned approach

Best look at setting your own ‘ideal’ bounce rate and then working out how you can achieve it.  As the rate goes down you’ll know you’re doing better and if it goes up you know you’ve got more work to do.

For more information on Search Engine Marketing and of course bounce rates, you can always drop us a line for a bit of help.

Paul

Posted in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) | No Comments »

Little Big Voice and the Fulfillment Factory

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Little Big Voice is a Search Engine Marketing and SEO company which specialises in putting a whopping-great virtual megaphone to the mouth of a wide array of innovative start-ups and independent businesses. That means we constantly get to hear about dynamic new online business ideas and futuristic solutions from the like-minded and lively individuals who run these companies.

Unfortunately, it also means we have to hear them moaning about the less than enthralling aspects of selling online, like the dull, dull business of fulfillment services. Sadly, as mind numbing as these outsourced services might be, they are also vital to the success of many companies. So because we’re a hard-working, martyr-like business always willing to go the extra mile, or perhaps just an office full of masochists, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to write up a blog article explaining the ins and outs of fulfillment services in order to help out our clients.

Of course as a Search Engine Marketing company, we can’t help but make everything we do stand out from the crowd. That’s why instead of a yawn-inducing run-of-the-mill description, we’re going to explain fulfillment services through an elaborate metaphor drawing parallels with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and those rather cute, orange Oompa Loompas.  Makes sense?

Don’t worry, it will soon…hopefully.

Essentially, fulfillment services are a way for businesses to hand over the complicated and immensely boring logistical nightmare of storing, sending out and delivering their goods to someone else. We’ve never actually set foot inside a factory with orange coloured fulfillment professionals, but we can imagine it’s a magical land of chocolate waterfalls and lickable wallpaper manned by fluffy squirrels.

These unusual workers are split into two feuding teams known as pickers and packers. The bushy tailed pickers are skilled in sorting, storing and keeping inventory – and know just where in the mystical factory your company’s products have been stored. This means they can pop into their glass elevator and fetch them for delivery within moments of your client placing their order, but you won’t physically have to do it yourself and in fact, the factory could be two hundred miles away from your business.

Impish tangoed packers on the other hand will use their tiny orange hands to delicately wrap up your company’s products for transit and send them out to the client along the bubbling chocolate river in a pink Viking longboat constructed from sugar. Inexplicably, this bizarre method of transport does manage to reach clients all over the world, even those who don’t live on the banks of a chocolate waterway and is a very cost effective solution to businesses who may have large products such as car parts to store and deliver.

The services of these unique fulfillment companies are invaluably useful in allowing you to focus on the more meaty and lucrative aspects of your business. You’ll also save a pretty penny, as these large scale fantastical storage and delivery facilities have mastered some form of dazzling sorcery which allows them to benefit from economies of scale.

So what do you need to consider when choosing your fulfillment company to make sure you end up with a golden ticket to business success, and not up chocolate creek without a paddle?

When you meet with the mysterious top-hat wearing CEO of the fulfillment company, make sure to ask about fees, what’s included in a contract and whether payment will be due before or after order completion. Do your homework on the company’s performance regarding turnaround times and whether their particular pink sugar longboats are equipped for international shipping. Make sure their factory can cope with the specific demands of your product too; there’s no point asking to store frozen fish fingers behind a steamy melted chocolate waterfall after all.

If all else fails, make sure you’re insured in case of the ludicrously unlikely scenario that entrusting your company’s storage and delivery logistics to small rodents, mythical dwarfs and edible transport systems doesn’t work out.

Now that’s done and dusted, we’re off to the shops to gorge ourselves on a certain brand of chocolate bar to gain access to one of these incredible fulfillment factories, as by the end of this extensive metaphor, even we’ve begun to believe that fulfillment services can be fun.

Paul

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Are Your Facebook Ads Going To Make You ‘Masters Of The Universe?’

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

If you’ve got a business Facebook page you may have wondered many times how to gain more followers and how to turn those followers in to paying customers.

The facets of Facebook can seem like a mystery to many businesses, who are still trying to get to grips with the basics but it does not necessarily stop them from asking; “What are Facebook Ads?” and “Do I need them?”.

In short, the answer is ‘maybe’ depending on the type of business you have and what you want to achieve and in this blog we aim to give you a few ‘truths’ along the way.

So He-Man what do I need to know?

First thing to do is to know what Facebook Ads actually are.  You can get information from the Facebook Ads Page to start.  The case studies section is a little thin on the ground, but by logging in to your own Facebook account and going to your home page, you should be able to see Facebook Ads in action on the right hand side of the page.

Once you’ve taken a look around then you’ll need to focus your attention to your own campaign and how it might work.

Do you want people to buy more from you?

If you want people to do this, then you may be better off putting more budget in to your Search Engine Marketing efforts and getting people to go to your website.  If you think Facebook is about selling directly then the truth is you may have a tough time and while some people have found success, many others haven’t.

While big brands and niche products or services tend to do well, you’ll suffer if you’re B2B.  If you are business centric and sell to other businesses, then it will be much better for you to use things like Twitter and LinkedIn to do this.

If you are dead set on having some kind of campaign then consider some kind of promotion if you can or at the very least make sure the link in your Ad goes to a page that is full of resources rather than a simple retelling of your latest offers.  Remember, support of your page needs to have a social edge so simply telling people what you do won’t really illicit the kind of interest you imagine.

Do you want to raise brand awareness?

Facebook is much better for those who want to do this and you can get away with B2C and B2B in this area.

However, remember not to simply ‘sell’ all the time when it comes to updates as this won’t really do you any favours.

Your Ads can be highlighting promotions, offers and perhaps even things like Facebook games.  Remember you’re always looking for a ‘social’ edge so try and think of ways you can find people to like you and stay with you because they like you.  Equally, if you consider Facebook another way, it could be a great opportunity for people to ask questions and find out about your services.  This has worked well in our experience with people that sell specific interest products, such as gardening equipment or ski-holidays.

Do you simply want to gain more followers on your business page?

If you understand that you may not have an easy time selling through Facebook then you can always consider your Facebook Ads a way of getting people to follow your page.

If you are opting for this then you may want to ensure that there plenty going on within the page as well as an iframe or landing page of some kind to inspire people to ‘like it’.

These tactics work well for branded businesses and usually fair pretty well for ecommerce based businesses that want to make Facebook an avenue and tool to ‘remind’ people that they’re around.

Links back to the website have to be approached with caution though as technically Facebook does not condone the use of ‘website’ promotion, so remember if you’re going to do this you must make it ‘social’.

This could be something simple like; “What do you think of our latest product?” or could involve a ‘review’ of the product.

Skeletor’s only around the corner dead set on crushing your plans!

If you’re a B2B type of outfit then you may be disappointed to learn that Facebook is probably not your best choice in terms of marketing yourself.  It’s a sad fact, but it is also true!

While some people see success with Facebook, there are a number of businesses who are unrealistic when it comes to their expectations of Facebook and what they can actually achieve with it – so make sure you are a cautious before running in on full throttle!

Paul

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Social Media Strategy: The Hard Facts

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

There are so many strands when it comes to social media, that it can be difficult for businesses to grasp the facts.  After all, social media is still relatively new for many and while having a page on Facebook or Twitter seems like a great idea, it can be very difficult to work out HOW these pages can be used effectively to market your business.

In reality, social media comprises everything from SEO through to PR and to harness it well, you need to be aware of how best to your daily business efforts to your social media presence to get what you want!

So this is a very basic but helpful blog for you on how to create a proper social media strategy for your business, while identifying what is truly relevant and what you can ignore!

  • The very first step is to identify what you want to achieve as a business.  This is usually before you do anything else and certainly before you set anything up!  So, take the time to think this through.

While it’s also obvious that for most businesses, gaining more business is top of the list, for social media you need to be much more creative in your thinking, so think about brand awareness, launching of new products or services, gaining customer feedback and opinion and so on.

  • The next step in creating your social media strategy is working out what social media platforms will integrate well with your business needs and that list you have created

Now this bit can be a little more challenging.  Basically you’re not just promoting yourself on Facebook for example you have to assume that you’ll be marketing, selling, communicating and a whole host of other things through your social media platforms and thus, you need to work out which social media platform will work best for your activities.

So, the best advice here is to keep it simple and build upon it in stages.   Consider that Facebook is a good business to consumer tool, but is not necessarily going to sell products for you on an individual basis and that Twitter can drive traffic to your website and find you new business leads.

This is of course very simplified for you and for a top notch social media strategy you may be wise to consult a professional but if you’re a smaller business it’s a good place to start!

  • Once you’ve deduced what platforms you’re going to start with – we would usually suggest Facebook, Twitter and possibly You Tube (but do speak to us about micro-blogging sites for SEO purposes).

So once you’ve worked out what you want and which platforms you’re going to use, you now need to apply all the other activities that need to be considered when it comes to social media for business.

These include:

  • Include your Social Media links on your website
  • Include your Social Media links at the bottom of your emails
  • Contact of your current customer base to tell them where they can find you.  Maybe consider an email to your database!
  • Set yourself a ‘review’ date for your activities. This is usually around three months from the date you started.
  • Start looking for your current or past client base if you’re a business.  If they’re on Twitter follow them and say hello.  If they’re on Facebook do the same!
  • Make sure that whenever you produce new marketing or PR materials that you consider the impact they will have on your social media.  Don’t forget.  Social media is not a ‘bolt on’ to what you already do.  It’s part of what you already do so you need to integrate it.
  • Don’t forget your current clients or customers.   Most people assume that with social media you are simply gaining more followers to buy or promote you.  Remember in traditional marketing your biggest advocates will be the people who have used or purchased from you before so don’t forget them!

There are of course a multitude of other things to consider when creating a social media strategy, but this blog should give you a few pointers to get you started.

Always evaluate and review your activities regularly and once you think you’re doing okay, it’ll be time to create another strategy to take you forward another three months!

If you would like any help or advice on creating a professional social media strategy you can contact us anytime or do read our other social media blogs for top tips and tricks!

Paul

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Let’s Write Some Rubbish! The Truth About Article Scams And Your SEO Rankings

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Despite the Google Panda update and our advice on using ‘fluff’ articles on certain sites to gain back links being a pointless exercise, there are still people out there selling Search Engine Marketing services that suggest this is a good idea!

Aside from being really, really annoying (double use of the word ‘really’ must show how irritating I find this) it is also a total and utter scam and waste of time and money.

To say that it is annoying (just in case I haven’t made that clear) is a total understatement and I’m here to say right now that what people deem as ‘articles’ for the purpose of links is a scam and should really not be allowed to litter the Internet with rubbish.

Imagine the scene of a nice, clean street.  You can see all the shop windows clearly and know that you want to head for the coffee shop, its red sign shining brightly in the sunshine.  It has caught your eye and you want to go there.

You go through the door, get your coffee and to all intents and purposes have found it an easy process.

Now rewind that scene and start again, but this time that same street is covered in paper and rubbish and is full of sales people handing out leaflets.  Someone thrusts one in to your hands, offering a buy one get one free on coffee.  You’re thirsty and really fancy one so you follow the map on that leaflet and head in to the shop, only to find the shop is selling coffee machines!   If you buy a coffee machine then you’ll get a voucher for a free coffee another day.  Would you not be slightly annoyed?  Feel mislead?  Think that it’s a scam perhaps?

This is essentially what bad articles placed on ‘article farming sites’ is all about.

It does work at times but it’s not sustainable because after the millionth person has had the same experience you did, you can imagine the street owner (in this case Google) isn’t going to put up with it for long.

So what are these articles like?

Rubbish articles or content that is crammed with key words relevant to your website, with back links in there, drawing you to a website somewhere else.

A bad, uncreative and potentially idiotic writer creates a pretty useless article.

How it works

Essentially a bad, uncreative and potentially idiotic writer creates a pretty useless article.  In fact, let’s not even call him or her a writer!  Now, let’s say they have a site that sells sportswear and that their ‘fluff’ article is about why sports are good for your health.

Within the sports article, that writer will put links back in to the main website based on applicable keywords and use the better rankings gained from the ‘article site’ itself to get placed higher in Google’s search results.

This then means that when you find that particular article you are taken to the article site and within the article you will find links that go back to that sportswear site.

But that’s not the end of the story because that one article on occasion can also be ‘spun’ in different ways and then (perhaps even worse) is submitted to numerous article directories and article marketing websites.

Once the article is published on these sites, then when someone puts a search in to Google there will hopefully be a whole page of articles (all by the writer) that come up, with links back to the original website.   However, they’re all similar or virtually the same and contain exactly the same amount of information – which isn’t really much use.

What you end up with…

Once that’s been done the most distressing part of this whole exercise is that it can actually work and will end up with relatively good rankings – but only for a very short space of time and eventually those articles will disappear back down the rankings again.

What are the biggest problems with bad article writing and submissions?

Where do I start?

Firstly the content really is absolutely rubbish and has absolutely no value.  If you are worried about your heart and find that article on why sport is good for you, will you honestly at that second want to run out and buy a pair of trainers because there happens to be a link going to some within it?  NO!  Of course you won’t!

The second issue is duplicate content.  There are various stories around that suggest how Google detects duplicate content and the biggest lesson here is DON’T DO IT!  Ignore the ‘advice’ of changing the first and last paragraph of an article to get the better of the search engines as it’s simply not worth the risk.

You WILL be penalised for it, it WILL affect your rankings and it WILL NOT be easy to fix!

Google will not realistically count those links – in fact since Google Panda a lot of those types of sites have dropped in the rankings because Google ain’t stupid!  It knows when you’re trying to manipulate the system!

So how do I avoid this?

By creating good quality content that is original, interesting and relevant.

What you want to understand is that Search Engine Marketing is a long-term goal and you constantly need to improve what you’re doing.

You can obtain guest articles for example and rather than throwing them around – just post them on your site, as you’ll find if you get a good guest writer, they’ll bring an audience with them right to you.

If you think you can manipulate the search engines then you are not very smart at all because that approach is out dated and not how the search engines are working in the long-term.

Isn’t it so much better to get ten people to your site that buy than 10,000 that don’t?

You decide but please don’t consider calling us if you are looking for this kind of SEO as we will have to say no, absolutely not, sorry and goodbye!

Get a blog

If you want to make a good, long-term difference then get yourself a blog attached to your site.  Create some fabulous articles and resources  (a bit like the ones on here) and you’ll have something that’s worth indexing in Google’s eyes.

Paul

Posted in Paul's World | 1 Comment »

I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This Client!

Monday, September 12th, 2011

In business there are two types of people.  The first is the service provider that will take money from anyone that wants to spend it and who frankly will let their clients tell them what they should be doing, while the second is more rational and knows that what someone wants is not necessarily what they will actually benefit from.

Thankfully we’re the latter in the above examples and enjoy offering a service only to those that really need it and who won’t end up being a nightmare client.

Despite what’s out there on the SEO landscape, there is no easy way of getting a website ranked.  It takes experience, knowledge and a lot of work – that no amount of automation or ‘cheap deals’ can make up for.

So here’s what we define as a nightmare client:

I know more than you

This client falls in to the category of ‘instinctive business owner’ who despite having no actual knowledge of SEO at all, has read a few books and Googled a few times.  They usually also take note of the new ‘technologies’ on sale everywhere that will enable you to do your job better.

In truth, they may have some good things to say, but they’re not SEO professionals and essentially don’t necessarily appreciate that Search Engine Marketing is a fluid medium.  Books get out of date, blogs change like the wind and the systems they speak of are bad practice.

We want a really cool website

This is one of the hardest areas to deal with.  Recently I heard from a web designer of a very high end brand who were looking for a website.  Their current site had less than ten sales per week and frankly looked terrible.  So they enlisted the help of said web designer for a rebrand and new user experience.  Well after a lot of ‘advice giving’ on the web designer’s part and some really fabulous designs more akin to an ecommerce experience the brand came back and said; “Do we need all the navigation on the front page?  We feel it’s better to not say anything”.  In other words, they were happier with pretentious and impractical – which in web terms really isn’t going to help them sell anything.

Badly designed websites that don’t consider navigation and Search Engine Marketing essentials are a nightmare!

We want to get to number one by tomorrow

This is another problem.  Despite all the promises out there, the genuine Search Engine Marketing professional knows that it cannot be done.

If you get anywhere, within a week you’ll fall back down the rankings again through bad SEO practice.

Competitive keywords will cost money and they will need to be sustained.  This is a fact but unfortunately SEO clients do not always understand this.

Which leads us on to cost

For good results and excellent keyword rankings it costs money to do.  Yes there are ‘DIY’ options available but that’s all they are.  It’s not different to Uncle Frank having a bash at putting in the new bathroom.  He can follow instructions but if they’re printed in another language then he will be second guessing most of it and you could end up with water all over the place.

Costs from the best in the field are there because of a good track record and in all things in life, you only ever get what you pay for.

We think you’ve got it wrong

This is by far the very worst scenario when it comes to clients and their Search Engine Marketing.  You do all the research on their keywords, you define a solid plan based on years of experience, you can be fairly positive about the outcome but then when you tell the client, they tell you that they think they should be ranking for something else.

Again, not to put too fine a point on this, if you know better then, aren’t you in the wrong business?

Of course this approach is not necessarily exclusive to Search Engine Marketing,  Website design and builds are full of the same issues and despite what you advise based on what you know, people are very attached to their businesses.

It’s all a matter of control.

A good film director will understand that his crew are all specialists within their industry.  There’s a cinematographer who is an expert with a camera, there’s the actors, there’s the set designer, there’s the production crew to name a few and while a result can be gained from a tyrannical approach, you’ll find the best way to get what you want is to use that crew as tools and work to their strengths.

SEO is absolutely no different but sadly it does not detract from the fact that on occasion you will get a bad SEO client who despite your advice will continue to make the wrong decisions within a medium they just don’t fully understand.

Paul

Posted in Paul's World | 2 Comments »

How To Make Your Ecommerce Business Thrive

Friday, September 9th, 2011

With more and more companies seeing the benefit of having a website that really ‘sells’ rather than ‘sits still’ we thought we would write a blog that offers updated information on the ecommerce side of things.

A large proportion of our Search Engine Marketing clients are ecommerce based and we’ve successfully helped them grow their initial ideas into thriving businesses, so it seems to be worth offering some useful insights and an idea of the kind of thing we hear from new SEO clients.

“My ecommerce site doesn’t make any sales”

Or

“My ecommerce site has a high bounce rate”

Or

“My ecommerce site gets visitors but they never buy”

Now while there are a hundred and one reasons that these things could be happening to you, there are also a hundred and one ways to resolve the problems.

First of all, your SEO or Search Engine Marketing should be bringing traffic to your site – and not just for the easy, localised key words either.  If you sell hats and are based in London but you ship to the whole of the UK then you need to make sure that your SEO company is getting your site at the top of the search engines for the term ‘hats’ and not necessarily ‘hats in London’.

There are a lot of people living in the UK who buy online and many of them live outside of London, so your SEO needs to reflect this.

Remember, if you have a great website but no traffic you may need some Search Engine Marketing help and if you have lots of traffic but no sales you may need SEO and some serious amendments to your website.

If you have the traffic however, the next thing to consider is the website itself.  Chances are, if you’re getting 300 hits a day but only making one sale then there’s something seriously wrong with the site.  It’s a hard fact, but let’s assume you’re paying each month for a top level Search Engine Marketing package that is bringing in leads through good key words and relevance but you’re not making any sales – you will probably think it’s the SEO itself somehow not doing its job.

Unfortunately what many business owners make the mistake of doing is having a site built that THEY like.  They’ve perhaps been in their business for five years or more and are very close to it.  They love the bright yellow against the black background or the dark black and red writing reminds them of their bedroom when they were young!  These are all very nice reasons but they will not sell you much these days!

The truth is while they may be excellent at business they’re not necessarily a genius when it comes to websites and don’t think about the implications of having a site that is hard to navigate.

Recently through a colleague we heard a story of a designer who wanted a new site.  They wanted to reach more of a mass audience.  They wanted to sell quantity.  But when faced with the reality of  ‘retail’ online they decided that THEY didn’t want it.  Even though an experienced ecommerce site designer told them they needed a different layout they wouldn’t listen.  Needless to say they have a lovely looking site but it will not bring in the mass sales that they wanted!

So, if you’re site isn’t selling – sorry to say but it’s probably one of these things:

  • Key information is beneath the fold (that’s the area of your site an end-user sees when they land on the page
  • It’s too difficult to search for items or items are not categorised well
  • The shopping experience is okay but the checkout is hidden right at the bottom of the checkout process.  This means when customers get to the checkout page, they can’t find out how to pay!  We’ve seen this – it does happen so never assume anything!
  • It takes countless clicks to buy things!  The general rule is that a sale should be easily obtained in three clicks by the end user
  • Too much text puts people off
  • There are no calls to action
  • The site looks cheap
  • The site doesn’t have an SSL certificate and therefore appears unsafe to the end user
  • A contact number and email is not on every single page of the website
  • Delivery information is not clear – people often use websites to buy presents that are time sensitive for example so if they can’t see how quickly things will arrive.  Take a look at www.amazon.com for very clever ‘delivery’ options placed throughout the shopping process

Okay there are other elements which we’ve not even covered, but if you’ve not considered at least two of the things on the list then you will never have an ecommerce website that will work as well as it should.

Tips and Tricks you can use now!

If you aren’t sure what’s going on with your ecommerce sites, but want some fixes that might help – here’s our top ten tips for making your ecommerce site sell more!

  • Offer free shipping or a set price.  No one wants to muck around with weights and measures.  If they order something and it costs £5 to deliver they’re much happier than spending another ten minutes trying to figure out your delivery system to save a few pence!  Free shipping is often the very best option because it means you can simply add a small cost on to your products and it will appeal to a lot of buyers.
  • Make sure your phone number and email are on EVERY PAGE of your website.  When people buy on line they have questions and want them answered.  Don’t put them off answering them by making it difficult to contact you.
  • Put a shipping banner at the top of your site.  It needs to be clearly visible when a viewer visits your site.  Again, look at Amazon for some key ecommerce tricks
  • Make special offers visible and don’t cut so much that items seem too good to be true!  Big retailers can get away with it but a smaller ecommerce site will seem ‘dodgy’ if you’re selling something so cheap it seems too good to be true
  • Offer a gift wrapping service and gift tags!  Many people buy presents on the net for family members or friends who are far away.  Make it easy for them to turn one of our products in to a gift in a few clicks!
  • Be very clear with your returns policy – this is again something that online buyers will want to know about you as it instils trust – especially for buyers who feel buying online is a gamble
  • Create a ‘popular products’ page as this will lead people to products that you know sell well!  Very often people who browse buy on impulse and this is where this tactic can work well
  • Try and offer price bands to fit lots of budgets.  Remember – clear navigation means making it easy for customers to find what they want.
  • Consider getting someone to professionally audit the site.  This is particularly useful if you’ve been looking at it for too long.
  • Make sure your product list is added to Google Shopping for excellent search results.  You can read our previous blog about it here.

As always there’s a lot to digest here, but if you’re spending money on your Search Engine Marketing or you’re looking for someone to SEO your site, then make sure you get the very best advice across the spectrum of options, because they will all be relevant in your quest to make your ecommerce site thrive!

Paul

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How To Choose A Good Courier Company

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Like many smaller businesses that have ecommerce concerns, finding the right courier can be a real challenge – especially if you need someone to handle the Fulfilment side of things as well.  We will discuss the potential benefits from using a Fulfilment company in our next blog so do come back to read more but for now, we’ve been doing some ‘courier’ homework on your behalf!

We offer a number of our Search Engine Marketing clients advice on how best to navigate delivery of their goods (especially ecommerce clients) and how to approach your delivery options in a cost effective, yet practical way.

Let’s start with the basics

In an ecommerce situation or indeed any situation where you have items that need to be posted there are so many concerns to think about:

How shall I pack it?

What insurance do I need?

What if it gets lost?

How much do I charge?

These are all things that may seem simple at first glance but that actually pose quite a few challenges to say the least.

Yes but what do I focus on?

The main thing about finding the right courier company is to ensure that you are clear about what you want.

Are your items small and perhaps low value in terms of insurance or are they enormous and high value?

Obviously lower value parcels can be sent in a variety of ways.  If you want some security with your parcels, but know that should one get lost it wouldn’t be the end of the world, then you might want to try Royal Mail.  They offer reasonably rates to businesses that are generally very reliable.

However, if time constraints are important to you (for instance if you have clients that request for items to arrive more quickly) then you may want to consider something like Recorded Delivery.  This option offers some insurance and requires a signature upon delivery.  Usually delivery times in the UK mainland are two to three working days (but Royal Mail does suggest you allow for up to 5 working days for a parcel to arrive).

However, if you want guaranteed delivery, then you could try Royal Mail’s Special Delivery which offers guaranteed next working day delivery by 1pm or if it’s really urgent by 9am.  Obviously there is additional cost involved for these kinds of services – but that said they are actually very reliable and offer a relatively good tracking service with them.

This kind of option can be particularly useful for your customers who will order say on a Monday and can see where their parcel is within the delivery system.

The key is to research and go with the best service available. It shouldn’t always be an issue of price. The main focus should be on the attitude of the courier company and their service options.

What variables do I have to take into account?

Whether you’re using a big courier service firm or Royal Mail there are particular things to look out for and to ask to find the best solution:

  • Time

Depending on the service you use and the time of week and year, the collection/delivery times can vary tremendously. If you’re using a consumer delivery service keep in mind that busy periods such as Christmas or even weekends might delay the progress of your package(s) where as professional business delivery services will have a better system of dealing with a high volume of loads. You will also have to double check cut-off times for deliveries, which, again, will vary depending on postcode, distance and timing.

  • Expense

Size, shape, weight can all affect price if using the Post Office/Royal Mail but larger parcels and packages sent through a courier service is not necessarily going to cost that much more. The major expense is when an item is “fast-tracked.” Average delivery time is within two to three days; the only element that makes the cost go up is when you want a package delivered within a certain time. End-of-business-day delivery is generally more cheaper than a specified time. Watch out for hidden charges or costs. Some delivery companies charge additional fees that you may not be aware of unless you ask them a lot of questions about their delivery policy.

What’s wrong with using Royal Mail?

There’s nothing wrong with using Royal Mail and in fact, a number of our Search Engine Marketing clients use Royal Mail every single day, for both express and traditional deliveries so we have it on relatively good authority that the services you’ll get are actually extremely good and very reliable.

The Royal Mail service can guarantee next day delivery (with an additional charge of course) and they generally receive positive reviews. The simplicities of using Royal Mail are one of their major benefits. The options are all relatively self-explanatory and they cover a broad range of delivery and collection options including:

  • First/second class mail options
  • Signed for/recorded delivery options
  • Special Delivery (specified time and day)
  • Collection from your business
  • Provision of ‘mail sacks’ for high numbers of parcels
  • Insurance
  • Dedicated client account managers

However, courier companies also offer mail services to customers. These services can often undercut Royal Mail at a cheaper price to send bulk mail. Many businesses prefer to send large amounts of post through a courier service – but do bear in mind that the flexibility on offer may not be quite as simple as it is with Royal Mail.

When you’re running a business and when it comes to finding a courier service all you need to be sure of is that they are reliable and can get products, documents and packages to all your customers, partners and associates on time without any problems.

Are there any others worth looking at?

Absolutely – when you’re looking for the right service you want to make sure you’ve checked out a number of options.

For larger parcels that have value – whether time sensitive or not, then Parcel Force can be a good option.

They also offer a number of overseas options (although you may not always find these to be the cheapest).

However that said, their website at www.parcelforce.com does allow you to get an approximate costing so it’s worth checking it out.

Also, www.ups.com  offers a number of delivery options for things like documents right through to larger items.  The great thing here is that with UPS you can get deals on deliveries – especially if you generally have the same weight on a number of parcels.  You can often barter a little on price for the work and obviously there is a great tracking service.

However, bear in mind that unlike Royal Mail where a sorting office is usually relatively close to most people in the UK, with a larger courier company you may need to consider those clients who might have to travel ten or fifteen miles to collect a parcel if they’re out.

This is most likely not going to make people very happy so be sure to check this out BEFORE signing up for anything.

If you want to check out a number of delivery options then Parcel Monkey is definitely worth a look.  Often used by Ebayers it offers a great selection of delivery options and items for collection and delivery are very reliable.  The service also includes International deliveries as well as ‘same day’ with some options offering you the lowest delivery costs in the UK.  You can find the website here:  www.parcelmonkey.com

Paul

 

 

 

 

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