As an owner of an eCommerce store, we all have our priorities, but when it comes to the online store performance, every one appears to be on the same wavelength. That’s because the very survival of an eCommerce site depends on how it performs instead of what it delivers. Even the best-designed website offering the most in-demand products will not amount to much if it’s not able to attract qualified visitors to the site.
The success of an eCommerce store is strongly tied to the online traffic and its conversion rates. The greater the online traffic, higher will be the conversion rates resulting in increased revenues and profits. The opposite is the case with reduced online traffic resulting in lacklustre online store performance. Below you will learn 10 ways to optimize the online store performance for increased online revenues and profits.
1. Pick the Right Domain Name
The importance of choosing the right domain name cannot be emphasized enough to improve your online store performance. The domain name you choose should be related to what you are offering to the customers. For instance, if you are selling shoes and sandals, you must ensure that the domain name contains one or more products that you are offering on the site such as www.bestshoes.com, or www.shoeshop.com.
Remember the shorter the domain name, the easier it will be for your customers to recall the name. So, when planning to buy the product or services consider using “best-shoes.com” or “affordable-sandles.com” instead of “best-affordable-shoes-sandles.com”
2. Include High Impression Relevant Keywords
In order to boost online store performance, you must include high impression and relevant keywords in your website content. The keywords should be included in the website title, headings, body, and product, and meta description of the every page.
Including relevant keywords will ensure that your site attracts qualified targeted customers, while using high impression keywords will increase the chance of obtaining maximum number of online visitors. You can get detailed information on high impression and relevant keywords by using Google’s Keyword Planner tool.
Just keep in mind that you should avoid overstuffing the keywords in your site’s content, otherwise Google will penalize your website. You must try to keep the keyword density to 1% on a single page to stay safe.
3. Make Contact Information Visible for the Visitors
Another way you can optimize your online sale performance is by displaying the contact information prominently on every page of the website. It’s recommended that you place the contact information in the website header. This will make it easier for online visitors to contact you to get more information about the product or service, and eventually make a purchase.
4. Display Products on the Main Page
Shoppers prefer to have the product displayed on the front page of the website. This is regarded as an influential factor in making a purchase from the online store. You should consider displaying your most popular products (in terms of sales) on the front page of the website. This will have a positive effect on your online store performance.
5. Focus on Link Building
Link building is among the most important tasks for boosting search engine rankings and online traffic. Search engine determines the popularity of your website by the quantity of high quality links that point to your website. The more popular your website in terms of inbound links, the greater will be its ranking in SERPs.
6. Optimize Page Load Time
Page load time refers to the time it takes for the website to display its content on the screen. A faster loading time will create more pleasant user experience. This will provide benefit to your online store in two ways:
· It will decrease the bounce rate that refers to people exiting the site immediately due to slow load time
· It will improve the search engine rankings as Google places sites with faster page loading speed higher in the search results
The end result will be improved online store performance due to the increased online traffic and conversion rates.
7. Submit Site Map to Improve Search Engine Visibility
You must submit a site map to improve search engine visibility. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing use site maps to determine which content to include in their search engines. Submitting site maps will ensure that the search engines properly index all your WebPages resulting in increased store performance.
8. The 10-Seconds Tests
Most online visitors leave a site in about 10 seconds if it doesn’t offer a clear proposition. In order to properly evaluate the site, you must put yourself in the shoes of the customers and ask the following two questions:
· Do I want to stay on the site for more than 10 seconds?
· Does the site offer clear value proposition i.e. why I should buy from this site?
If you cannot answers the above questions, it’s time that you consider revamping the site. You must get in touch with a professional website design firm to determine the areas that you need to improve your online store performance.
9. Address Potential Problems
As a website owner, you should be empathetic to the feelings of the customers. In other words, you must proactively address potential problems and objections regarding the product to boost your online store performance. A generous returns and replacement policy will provide assurance to the customers that the company would compensate them in case of defect in the product resulting in improved online performance.
10. Promotional Offers and Discounts
Customers are always on the lookout for special deals to save cost on purchase. You can significantly boost your online store performance by offering promotional offers and discounts to the customers during special occasions like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
So, the next time you get down to designing your ecommerce site, make sure that you incorporate all the tips and advices listed above to outshine, outpace and outsmart your digital competitors.
James E. Hein is a web developer with 10 years of experience. He has immense interest and knowledge in the technology area. He is also working as a strategist in projects related to business and technology – further enriching his writing contributions.
