How to improve a website today to generate sales is not always easy. A website should generate traffic and sales once it’s up and running, right? That question has come to me several times over the years on how to make sales online.
I will admit – that it has gotten harder to make sales online. Yes, you would think the older your website is, the easier it would be, right?
Not so anymore. Google has made so many changes over the past decade that what once worked well for generating visits and making sales from a website no longer works today.
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Greater Competition
Not only that but the competition is much greater than it used to be.
Most people are online these days and are looking for answers to their questions and information about companies over the Internet before taking action or making a purchase.
Therefore, learn different ways to improve your company’s website so that you can rest assured it’s easy for users to find, navigate, and provides all the right information they are searching for.
You’ll be glad you took the time to do so once you notice that you’re able to increase leads and conversions.
Improve Your Website by Reviewing For Errors
You should take the time to review your website for errors and mistakes if you want to improve it. It is a simple yet very important task to complete if you want to enhance your company website and your website’s credibility.
You want to build trust with visitors and show that you’re the expert in your industry and a professional and reputable company. Therefore, you can’t have a lot of technical and grammatical errors on your site.
It will not only make the user experience better but it is vital to maintaining and improving your SEO standing as well.
Freshen Up The Website’s Content
Another way to improve your company’s website is to freshen up the content regularly. You can do so by not allowing old content to stay up for too long.
If you wish to keep some important pieces around then at least take the time to update them according to current times and information. Also, remember to update not only the content throughout your website but also the home page.
This is what users will see first and they may click out of your site if it’s old and outdated content.
Enhance Page Speed
Page speed is another critical factor as it relates to your company’s website and the user experience. One way to ensure page speed optimization is to work with one of the fastest WordPress provider options out there.
You’ll be able to quickly optimize your site’s speed and improve core web vital metrics automatically. The support you’ll receive and the automatic updates that will occur will help to keep your website running smoothly and fast.
You will begin to see lower bounce rates and a higher average time spent on a page this way.
Improve Your Website Sales by Including a Call to Action
What’s most vital as you work on improving your website is that you make sure it has a clear call to action. The whole point of driving traffic to your site is to inform them and get consumers to sign up for your email list, shop at your eCommerce store, or fill out a lead form.
Ask yourself what your top action is that you want visitors to take and then make sure you design your website in a way that encourages them to do so.
You should also add contact information prominently (and on every page) so they don’t have to guess and spend time figuring out how to reach you.
People want to know who they are buying from. Finally, they want to be able to trust you before they put in their credit card or Paypal info on your website.
How to Be Found With a Website?
Whether a website is new or old there are always things to be done to be found online. A new site is easier in some ways to get visibility but at other times you must remember Google favors websites that have been around for some time too.
That doesn’t mean all old websites rank well. It’s just one of the 200+ plus factors Google takes into consideration in ranking a website.
Having an older website, however, shows your website is credible and reliable.
So whether your website is new or old there is always something you can do to help generate sales from the website. It takes time and effort every day! If you want to remake your site be sure to use a website builder to make it better.
Bonus Tip – Be sure to have a Google My Places (business) set up for your website. This helps people find you when they are searching and it can improve your SEO over time.
Keywords To Generate Sales From Your Website
Use Google Keyword Planner known as Google Keyword Tool – These tools are free from Google. Before you start a website you need to know which keywords to focus on.
When I started my first website, I didn’t realize you needed different keywords for different pages and products. Not only that but related keywords too.
Whoops, what a mess that was fixing up later on. It’s better to spend time researching before you launch your new website or update an older site.
Some of the keywords happened naturally but others did not. So get organized first with your keywords. Look for at least a dozen. And long-tail keywords are important more than ever before.
Domain Name For Your Website
A website should have a name that is simple, fairly short, and easy to remember. It should make people know what a website is about when they see the name. It should not be a mystery.
Be sure to register your domain name for several years. (Minimum 3 years if not 10 years) If you do it for just one year Google will not like it and think you are a fly-by-night operation.
The longer you register your domain, the more it will help your SEO juice.
Website Builder To Improve A Website With Ease
Which type of website will you use? There are so many website builders to choose from today. It depends on how technical you want to get and how much time you want to spend on your website. You can choose from websites like:
WordPress – You will need to get a self-hosted site if you are selling online. You will need to pay for hosting, an original theme (for the best SEO and site), and some plugins.
Shopify – One of the top website builders today that comes with a lot of tools to make it easier for you to start your online business. According to Gorgias, 4.2 million websites run on the Shopify platform as of July 2023.
Blogger – Free and owned by Google. You will have to add a shopping cart. Beware, Google does own Blogger and your website when you use them. The best shopping blogger site I know is ToothyGrinsStore where Dave has done a wonderful job with that Blogger storefront.
Weebly – Free and paid versions are available. Many items to add to this web builder will cost you. $3.29 to $6.63 per month. You will get a $100 Google credit for an ad campaign too. It appears you can only use Paypal with this builder.
Wix – Free to start. Several different premium packages offer more than the basic FREE version.
Hosting to Help Your Sales From a Website
Once you choose your store builder how will a website be hosted? Some store builders provide one for you but if you go with WordPress, you will have to choose one.
We all have seen what happens with hosting a website when things go wrong. Your website may go down. Now, you know you can’t make sales when your website is offline.
I was happy with Hostgator until my site outgrew it. Now I am using SiteGround here on Inspire To Thrive.
Most hosting will cost you anywhere between $5 and $30 per month. Do remember, you get what you pay for.
Go with a hosting provider that can give you the best service and uptime.
Links to Improve a Website
Now, links play an important role in your website to improve your website and generate sales. Many webmasters don’t realize the importance of internal linking on your website. This is a high-ranking factor by Google for your SEO efforts.
If you use Yoast Premium as a plugin for a WordPress site, it will show you which blog posts are orphan content so you can link to them on your website.
Images To Help Your Website Sales
Images are now so important with Pinterest generating a lot of traffic for a website. They must be jpeg (png images do not work well on Pinterest or some websites.)
Be sure to optimize your images before using them on your website. Having oversized images may hurt your generating sales on a website. Images that are too big can slow down your website speed.
Speed is another HUGE ranking factor with Google for your website.
Create Videos for Products
Another great way to showcase a product is to have a video for it. Therefore, making a YouTube channel for videos will help your website’s SEO along the way.
It’s a great way for shoppers to learn more about a product and see it in action.
Products For Sale
What will you sell? How will you write about the products? What makes them different? You must-have products in mind before you start any website.
Do some research on sales and keywords for them before starting a website. It took me months to come up with medical scrubs years ago when I had a retail website.
Also, consider – will you stock inventory or use a drop shipper. Be sure to think about shipping costs and time. Customers don’t like to wait too long for shipments anymore.
Payments – Shopping Cart
PayPal is widely accepted but many people like to use their Credit Cards. We started without American Express and lost some orders until we got American Express.
You can pay anywhere from $5-$30 a month for these services. Remember that you will have a percentage of total sales in fees too.
Be sure to read what payment processors can save you money as they all offer different rates and fees. There are many more to choose from today than there have been before.
A Blog To Improve Website’s Content
A blog will keep your content fresh with a blog for your e-commerce website. Blogging should be fun and informative for your customers and new readers.
You should also be passionate about it to update it frequently. Moreover, your blog should answer questions about your products or services that other customers have asked.
Answer questions from customers completely in a blog post on your website.
Sign Up Forms For Lead Generation For Your Website
Furthermore, be sure to have a sign-up form for users to sign up for emails. Emails are not dead today and are one of the best ways to generate sales from your website today!
When people leave your shopping cart before purchasing, you can send them an email.
The email can remind them what was in their shopping cart and maybe even offer a discount for them to come back and purchase from your website.
Add A Buy Again Feature
If you have ever shopped on Chewy.com you may have noticed they offer a buy again feature. This buy again feature makes it easier for customers when they return to your site to make repeat purchases.
Chewy also offers an Auto-Ship feature where you can set up how often you want orders to be sent to you. I’ve seen other retail websites do the same.
That makes your sales easier to generate from a website and keeps your customers coming back for ease of purchase.
Make Reviews Easy To Increase Sales From A Website
Reviews on websites also make it easier for new website visitors to see what others liked or disliked about a product. Many users love reading reviews to learn more about a product. Of course, with email marketing, you can ask for reviews from your clients.
According to big commerce:
In today’s web-based world, virtually everyone is reading online reviews. In fact, 91% of people read them and 84% trust them as much as they would a personal recommendation. The effects of reviews are measurable, too.
They go on further to explain that customers spend more when they see excellent reviews on a website.
Even if they see negative reviews, those negative ones also increase your sales. Not only that but they spend more time on your site reading the reviews.
The longer they spend time on your site, which helps your SEO juice overall.
Be sure to add a review button on all your product pages of your website!
Keeping A Clean Website Format
Do not make your website cluttered! If people have too many decisions to make, what will they do? They will go away and do nothing. When people feel overwhelmed they cannot make a purchase.
Ever go down an aisle in a store and feel so overwhelmed you can’t shop? The same thing happens online.
Offer just a few choices and make it easy for anyone to shop and make a purchase on your website.
Do not have special offers all over your homepage or pop-ups coming at them one after another. A simple and fast website is best for generating sales from a website.
Social Shares For Your Website
You will need to have the basics, Twitter, and Facebook to start. You can then branch out to Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and other social networks including an alternative social network.
However, be sure to have the profiles filled out completely on each of the social networks you sign up for. And lastly, don’t forget to show up regularly on these social networks. Consistency makes a huge difference in social media marketing.
On your website, be sure to have your social share buttons on every product page and blog post. These buttons should also include your handle so you can thank people for their shares on social media. (Don’t overdo it as they may slow your website down.)
Hence, you will be able to engage with them on their favorite social media network as well to generate more sales from a website.
Your Turn – How to Improve a Website
Do you make sales on your website? What other suggestions would you add to the list to improve a website? I’d love to know more in the comments below!
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 12 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
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Hi Lisa,
I found you by way of Ryan Biddulph’s “Blogging in Paradise” site. I am a new blogger with nothing to sell at this stage. Right now, I’m trying to build the blog and generate traffic. I appreciate the information you outlined here. I recognize that work done now will ensure smoother sailing later. I love writing, but certainly was not expecting all of the work in starting and maintaining the blog. I am happy that I believe I have my domain for 3 years and that was just me believing that I would be successful more than anything. What a nice surprise to see that it shows faith to the Google God’s as well. I look forward to reading more from you as I continue this journey.
~ Cassie | letsgrowmom.com
Hi Cassie, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. I was in your place for several years before I began making any money from the blog. LOL, I used to say if I knew how much work it was I may have not gotten started but I love it still, so glad I did! Providing services was my best way of making money but as time goes on I would love to do more of the passive income streams as I’m working on. SEO has made the biggest impact for me but it took years of work and I think I finally understand it now. Good luck with yours and I’ll have to come by and check it out. Have a great day Cassie!
Checking back in Lisa. I added my email opt-in form again and also ask readers to sign up for my list via Twitter and Facebook daily. Social media is in my rear view window now. I keep accounts open and use it for a few moments daily but these sites stay in business by keeping users onsite, NOT by sending them to Blogging From Paradise LOL. I made that crystal clear realization last week. Now it is blogging, guest blogging and genuine blog commenting, along with a renewed list building campaign.
Ryan
Hi Ryan, you are on the same wavelength as me in this one now. I see it in my stats as well. Visits from social media have been going down for the past 2 years. I think it’s great for a brand new blog but once established – no. SEO and networking with on there on their blogs are best. Thanks for coming by on this one Ryan and have a great weekend.
Hello Lisa,
It’s been awhile since I stopped by.
Thanks for this amazing piece.
I never knew that registering my domain name for longer years has a way of helping my ranking. I never knew.
Thanks for calling my attention to that.
Although I’ve been making money from blogging but I still think that there’s still room for growth.
Keep it up with the great work you are doing here.
– Emmanuel
Thanks Emmanuel, nice to see you back here. Yes, that is one of the 200+ ranking factors, can you believe it? How long did you register your domain for? Appreciate your coming by and make it a great day!
Test different headlines at the top of your traffic-heavy landing pages. I’ve had pages leap from a one percent conversion rate to a 4.5 percent conversion rate just by testing out different headlines.
Hi Edward, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. That’s a great tip, thank you. What a nice conversion rate with a headline change! Thanks for coming by and have a great day ahead.
Hi Lisa. You should add “The Big Checklist” to your title. That’s what this post is all about.
Hi David, I really like that idea and saw your tweet with that headline on it. Thank you! Awesome idea. Enjoy the rest of your day.
I agree with you, David.
It’s indeed, “The Big Checklist.”
Hi Lisa,
These are excellent pointers, and if implemented correctly, there’s no limit to the sales you can make. But I also want to add that enhancing the user onboarding experience is vital to making sales from your site. User onboarding is a critical aspect of the buyer journey because it helps visitors (first-time users) experiment with your product or service and feel the value of your offering. So improving the user onboarding system is essential as it speaks directly to users of your product and guides them to pinpoint the worth and significance of the material. The positive experiences they have will provoke them to switch products and make purchases.
Hi Moss, I love your onboarding experience addition here. I know I see a few sites that do that quite well today when I visit for the first time. You have given me something to think about on this one. Thank you Moss! Make it a great day and weekend ahead.
Hi Lisa! First of all, great post! I have a very small business that I run through a website using wordpress. I read a lot of guides but I think I am failing on the most basic things, mainly images. I used to upload huge png files and I ended up hurting the user experience. At least on my end my website runs very slow. Any tips of wordpress plugins to help the performance (speed) of the images?
Thank you.
Hi Diogo, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. I used to use Smush for image optimization but I believe my theme or another plugin takes care of it now. I’ve asked my techie for you. How many plugins do you have? I try to keep them under 20 at all times. The less the better for site speed! I will get back to you on your question.
I still don’t know what to think about the new keyword planner google released. Know of any good alternatives other than something like ubersuggest?
Tyler, how about Google Trends? That is another great place to check on keywords too for FREE. Or are you looking for paid versions?
Lisa, I use google trends to typically double check keywords I might use in the keyword planner or even to just see what is “breaking out”. But I don’t like the fact that you are limited to what, 4 keywords at a time in trends.
I looked at some of the paid tools, like market samurai but I’m still undecided.
Have you tried Screaming Frog Tyler? I did the FEEE TRIAL and it was really neat!
I did try out screaming frog, isn’t that just for checking to see if your site is crawlable and or for errors?
Or is there some keyword tools I have missed in it?
Yes your are right Tyler. I was confusing it with WebMeUp, you can get a 30 day FREE trail there.
It has really got far hard to get sales now and google really has changed so much.So i am TargettinG Amazon these days and they seem working for me.
Good to know about Amazon, we just get pitched to be there for the retail website, haven’t made up mind yet. Do you pay to be on there Gautam?
I need to show up on my social networks a lot more. I am a gabber on twitter. But facebook I just use on my own personal account. Google + I love! I just have to do more than promote my stuff, I need to get people talking. – Scott Craighead
Hi Scott, me too gabbing away on Twitter and not so much on some of the other networks. Do you use Pinterest? It is really good for the retail side. Thanks for coming by Craig and have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
Maybe this sounds overly obvious, but you must also attract the right kind of visits and you must focus on what makes those visits convert. Unfortunately, visits aren’t everything and, depending on what you are selling on your website, you can quickly discover that bringing in lots of visitors, if they are the wrong kind and have no interest in your product or service, doesn’t translate into huge sales. Thanks for sharing with the BizSugar community.
Heather, yes, great point. That used to happen with StumbleUpon, a lot of visits but useless ones. Not worth it especially if your bounce rate goes way up. Thanks for coming by Heather!
Hi Lisa,
This articles gives all the very basic, very good tips that people need to get people to the website. Sales are so hard to get, much less getting on the first page of Google. Everyone told me get on the first page of Google, get sales.
Well…haven’t seen that yet. Been on Goggle…no sales directly from there. But what I realize is that everything you mention all helps so your post is spot on!
I think you’ve pretty much pegged the combination of things we must do to get sales from our website, except maybe to mention including our social media so that people could get in touch with us as we develop relationships with them. The relationships are what generates (eventually) the sales. That is the only one I would add.
Great list, great advice.
Thanks,
Barbara
Hi Barbara, yes, you are right, it is SO HARD. Oh yes, good point – I have had many customers reach me via Twitter. That’s one alert I keep active on my smartphone. Thanks for your input Barbara and have yourself a really nice weekend!
Hello Lisa
So much information that we need. Thank you for this post. Great checklist.
I like so many, did not realize that google looks at the amount of years we pay for our domain.
Trust is essential and when a blogger is starting out, it takes time to build relationships which then builds trust.
Thank You Lisa
Gladys recently posted..Seven Ways To Help You Succeed In What You do
You are welcome Gladys. Yes, you were not alone on that one. I do mine for a minimum of 2 years but I may do longer on the next renewals. Google wants to know you will stay around and not just disappear as so many blogs and websites do before their first year anniversary. Have a great weekend Gladys.
Wow Lisa, this is a very comprehensive post. Great job touching all the essential items on the blogging checklist. The info portion is very important. One of the most visited pages on any blog or website is the “About” page. Readers want to know the person behind the site and feel like they can relate. Providing a way to get in touch with you is a key to building great relationships. It should be prominently featured.
Thank you Brian. Excellent point and making it available from any page of a website is key, just as the phone number and contact info. So many websites make you search. Many will leave the site if they can’t find it quickly. Patience is a virtue but not many have it online anymore. Thanks for your input and have a wonderful weekend Brian. How’s the little one doing?
Oh he’s growing fast, just got his second tooth and is the drooling king LOL. So far being a daddy is pretty amazing, I’m one lucky guy
Hi Lisa,
I’m not actively trying to get sales from my website at the moment – I set it up originally with the intention of using it as a base for affiliate sales, but I’ve decided that’s not the road I want to go down.
You’ve offered some great tips – I think providing unbiased, detailed reviews must be quite important – people are always looking for information they feel they can trust and ways to compare different products.
Sue
Hi Susan, the same would apply for affiliate sales too. Yes, reviews are awesome and getting them from buyers is really good. Google now stars some of the sites with the most reviews. Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend Susan.
Thanks for the information Lisa, It needs a lot of hard work to still be able to attract traffic into your website even after working on it for so many years. Newbies need a bit more but that is justified. You can find a lot of helpful tools now on internet to make your work easy & effective. Only bad news for today is the end of Google’s Keyword Tool as it was quite useful in finding out the right keyword which we should in our website. Other than that Internet is now full of alternatives, May we find an alternative of Google’s keyword tool, so that things can be easy for us.
Hi Raj, the new Google keyword tool is the Keyword Planner – it’s very good too! It is actually a little easier to use. You got that right- it’s a lot of hard work indeed and I’ve see many come and go over the past 3+ years now. Thanks for your input and have a great weekend Raj.
Hi Lisa,
Almost you have covered all the topics. There is no doubt for me to ask you. Keyword Research is one of the important thing for doing online sales. By doing this, we can point out, which was the product, searched by others in the market. For keyword research, we can use both google and bing webmasters…
Thanks M Nirmal. I really like using Bing too and many people I bet only use Google, would you agree? Thanks for coming by and welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
You sure got it all covered in this post. I have been doing keyword research, and building websites for clients to attract potential clients from search engines. But, what I have found to be more important for myself and for my clients, is to focus on building relationships instead. It takes a while to see the money from doing relationship marketing, and that’s why many businesses don’t want to be part of this. They want fast results.
Great topic and awesome tips.
Hi Jens, excellent point. Everyone expects results immediately when they put up a website, don’t they? It surely does take time. I see many ebbs and flows now too with the Google updates coming quickly. I try not to get too sidetracked from it. Thanks for coming by Jens and good luck on your new venture, I can’t wait to read more on it!
Great info, Lisa! These are all great tips. I couldn’t agree more about optimizing photos and knowing in advance which keywords to use. Something I’d add is to avoid creating a site that requires Flash player. That can limit the number of people who can view your site, especially a mobile version.
Hi Lisa, yes, excellent point. Funny I took a class in Flash thinking I was going to add some and then learned NO, it’s not good. Slows the sites down and not a good SEO move to make for most websites. Welcome to Inspire to Thrive and hope to see you again. Thanks for your input on this one Lisa.
Hey Lisa,
I’ve learned so much about this over the years. I would hate to start from scratch today though and have to build a new site that I depended on to just make sales. Man oh man, it just seems to get harder and harder doesn’t it! I remember the days you just threw it up, wrote a few articles and the traffic just started coming.
You really covered a lot of information here girl and thanks for sharing my post on hosting. While I was offline most of last week I later learned about all the nightmares people were having. I eventually received an email from Bluehost apologizing to me too but little do they know I moved all my sites. My blog didn’t skip a beat.
You do get what you pay for so just tread lightly no matter what it is you’re investing in. Sometimes cheap isn’t the way to go and when you’re replying on an entire site to function properly you just never want to run into any major problems.
~Adrienne
I bet you have Adrienne. You are right, it’s not getting any easier. Maybe if you have thousands to spend on ads but otherwise it’s not easy. Glad to hear your blog situation got fixed and will be watching how your new hosting goes. It sounds like a wonderful decision you made there. Thinking of you this week too Adrienne.
Hi Lisa!
This is all just fabulous information that I’ve gladly shared along. Although I don’t sell from either of my sites and don’t intend to, this is still great info that if I ever decided to, I’d reflect back on. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Bren. I could see you with a dog supply site some day and services for adoptions. Have a great day and thanks for coming by and commenting.
Oh Lisa, don’t give me anymore ideas!
LOL – I think they will evolve on their own Bren.
Nice post Lisa !
Choosing the right keywords is very essential for any webmaster as the main objective of a blogger is to get exposure and earn money …If we market a product through a blog (Selling a product) then we can surely get success by choosing low competition keywords for that product from the Google’s Keyword Tool and Getting payments for online sales isn’t a difficult task these days with the availability of services like PayPal .
-Pramod
Thank you Pramod. It is still tough with a lot of competition out there unless you have a really unusual product. I do love that tool by Google. It is very helpful. Paypal makes it easy to set and go too. Have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
1. There are many things you need to do online but the most important one is to increase exposure. After many, many months of thinking this is my conclusion, too. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how useful is your product. What matters is to be in many, many places on the internet. So, what you need to do is to find as many sites as possible and put your name or your bog’s / site’s name there. This will give you the exposure, backlinks and traffic you need. It is more important even than the quality of your articles. Thank you for the list I will copy it and see what I can do.
2. Google says they will remove Google Adwords keyword tool in just a few months and replace it with Keyword planner. However, Keyword Planner seems a lot more simple and with less options than the old tool. I wasn’t able to find the type of search there (broad, phrase etc.). How easy is for you to use Keyword Planner?
3. Images. Raise a lot of problems even if you buy them. It is better to try to make it your own images. My problem is how to protect it. I have tried 3-4 plugins by now and none of them works well. What do you use to protect your images?
Have a nice day
Hi Silviu, 1. True but you also need targeted traffic, what good is it if you get 1000 visits but no one makes a purchase on a retail site? That’s what happened when I began using StumbleUpon. I’d rather have 100 visits with 2 sales than 1000 visits with no sales. One interesting thing though, sometimes the more traffic you have Google may move you up in rank but be careful of bounce rates like with Stumble Upon.
2. I like it a lot! it gives me different ideas than the old keyword tool. It’s easy to use and shows you pricing if you purchase adwords too.
3. I only use images from authorized dealers for retail site. Otherwise I use free images – free digital net or the ones from microsoft clip art and then I use photoshop and put watermarks or text on most of them.
Thanks for coming by and I hope I answered your questions Silviu. Ask more if you need. Have a great day.
Hi Lisa
A great post with a lot of information. I had no idea about the length of owning Domain name. Surely a decision to pay annually or every two years should not matter. i do not understand that logic.
I love the video you have here it says it all in a cute way.
It is very much about relationships in any business. As Donna said offline as well, It takes time and we need to build a reputation and have people know like and trust us.
A great post Lisa.
Sue
Thank you Sue, yes many do not seem to be aware of that one. Google wants to make sure you are here to stay and not just a fly by night operation online. Trust factor, right? Yes, time is sure does take Sue. Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful day ahead.
Hey Lisa,
The post itself reflect how interested you are on this subject dear.I can see it!
If I go with my personal experience, I have never ever landed on a shopping website intending to buy a product via search engines Lisa. I just use search engines to find reviews about a product or service. All I do is go to the websites I have known and trust, then purchase the product from there.
I think trust plays a major role in this scenario and if you can get someone to make their first purchase via your store, they will keep coming back if they had a good feedback. Even when I deal with some client websites, they are asking me of targeting their website via search engines. But most of the sales and requests they have got are from recommendations / word of mouth.
Social Media Marketing campaigns are much more effective than Search Engine Marketing Lisa. It’s about their hard earned money and they wanna make sure they are investing, not wasting ’em. So they prefer recommendation of people rather than what Google recommends. It’s been proved online and offline too.
BTW it seems that Toothy Grins Store is no longer on Blogger platform too.
You have a successful week with more sales Lisa.
Cheers…
Hi Mayura, yes, you are right Mayura I’m very interested. Interesting on your take – I still land on a site via search but read reviews or the about us section and the return policies. Shipping too, which is a huge factor if expensive or not or if FREE. I think he still is, I will see if he will answer us on that one. I’m not sure yet if I agree with you on social vs. search. It may be getting closer to a tie and I bet there are debates on it still. Have a wonderful week there Mayura. Thanks for your input on this one.
Hi Lisa,
Very good points, Once you start receiving relevant traffic as per your niche then you should focus on monetizing and the process starts with choosing right and valuable product from which audience get satisfaction. Choosing right affiliate product is generally time consuming but once you get right one, you’ll start making some earning.
Hi Rocky, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Thanks. Yes, affiliate products is another great way to generate some sales too. I use some affiliates along with my dropshipping retail website. Thanks for coming by and for your input, have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
There’s lot of information on this post. Well, I had no idea until I read it now that Google even looks at the the amount of years that we payed for our domain. Darn it! That’s crazy. I think I did two years last time around, but before I did it year by year, which was a good thing, since I got rid of 4 blogs two years ago.
That cake site is gorgeous. I know of Weebly, and it really looks so professional.
Thanks for sharing all these.
Hi Sylviane, yes, they do. I try to renew mine for at least 3-5 years. Glad you checked out the cake site too. I’m always fascinated by the different type of website builders out there. Have a wonderful day Sylviane.
I don’t have plans to use a storefront but if I ever do, your article is a great place to start. Thanks for the great info. I bookmarked the article on “how to be found online.” Adrienne’s article was a real wakeup call. Ironically, the same day that I read the article BlueHost decided to make a change on the server and my site was down on Monday for an hour. Weird coincidence.
Hi Lauren, you are welcome. I heard over 50 million sites were down over Friday-Saturday and that they had some hiccups since. I’m not moving mine yet, I think it happens to any server on occasion unless you pay a lot of money for your hosting on a dedicated server. We can wish right Lauren? Have a wonderful Tuesday there, looks like another cool summer day around here.
Thanks for another informative post. I now have an additional info that I can put in my notes as reference. I just started a new website few months ago. Now im on the move to optimize and monetize it.
Lisa,
This is one Epoch post! You have given folks the proper information about what to do. I, like other comments on this post also believe that we need to build trust with our clients/customers.
That is the backbone of any business. I had an offline business for years and it was all word of mouth because of the “know, like and trust you” theory. It really does work, so those social share buttons are so important to have AND to use!!!
It’s great to have an opt-in on your blog to build a good trusted list. These are the people who find you interesting and want to know more about you. Then comes building relationships on your list. That one is golden.
-Donna
Hi Lisa,
I think you’ve answered most people’s questions in the post. I do agree with the other comments as in we need to build trust with our customers. Without it we’re going to struggle.
I’ve got a couple of products on stand alone sites but I’ll be using WordPress in future. I’ve also got a couple of websites with eBooks but they don’t do much I’m afraid.
Keyword research for every page is a must as well as choosing a relevant domain name. I’m with you all the way on those long hard to remember ones, I’ve normally forgotten them as soon as i leave and that is not what people want.
I didn’t realise that we should be buying the domains for a longer period of time, I have some of mine on a 2yr cycle others on one year. I’ll go and correct that.
Thanks Lisa, enjoy your week.
Barry
Hi Barry, have you used other type of websites as well? I’m always curious how they compare to WordPress. Yes, the longer the better. I do between 3-5 with most of my websites now when they come up for renewals. You are welcome Barry and you too – enjoy the rest of your week and give your grandson a hug for me, he’s so cute! Love the pics on Twitter of him.
Hi Lisa, yes I have a couple of multi page websites for ebook sales and stand alone mini sites for products (x2). In future I’m thinking of using WordPress for the added features and security.
I’ll be heading over to 1&1 shortly to ask about long term purchases.
He’ll be around soon Lisa so I’ll give him that hug. He has me smiling every time I open my phone as he’s on my screen with one of those big smiles he reserves for his ol’ pops
What format are those sites Barry? Now I can’t wait to have grandchildren.
Hi Lisa, the early ebook site and the mini sites are HTML pages but the newer ebook one, that I bought, is a series of php pages with an admin page for editing.
Hence going to WordPress next time.
He’s in the next room crying his little lungs out, not taking his bottle today…. poor little fella.
Thanks Barry for coming back to let me know. Poor little fella is right.
Wow Lisa,
You presented a complete guide on how to get started with your website.
To make sales from a website, a targeted traffic is required, not high traffic. Even if your site gets 100 targeted visits daily that rather than 1000 untargeted visitors, then your chances of making sales are higher.
You have covered most of the things in this post on how one can get targeted visitors.
Thanks for the post.
Cheers.
Thanks Arbaz, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Excellent point about TARGETED traffic, that is key also. Thank you. I hope to see you again – have a great week ahead.
These are great tips Lisa and I hope folks checked out your Slideshare otherwise they’re missing out on a huge list of sites we should all be posting our links on! I know I’ve got my notes.
I was checking out the other comments and I agree with Carlie. We have to establish trust so folks will feel comfortable buying from us. I also think we have to be genuine and willing to help others, even after the sale. If we come across as self-serving that won’t fly and we won’t get any results like that either.
Hope you had a great weekend Lisa! Happy Monday!
Thanks Corina, love to see those notes someday (I can see a post on them soon). Yes, trust is key. We don’t want to purchase from a fly by night operation either. Thanks for coming by and for your input Corina, I hope you have a wonderful week ahead and see you back on the social channels my friend.
Hi Lisa,
I think you did a great job here. What I like most is the hosting part. You get what you pay. That is so damn right!
With all the challenges nowadays, if you want to make sales online, you got to think out of the box. Usually, what makes the most money is when you offer a solution for others.
That works nearly most of the time for most cases.
Have a blessed Monday!
Reginald
Thanks Reginald. I had the question asked the other day and it inspired me to write this one. Solution and the why. You too Reginald have a blessed Monday and rest of the week.
Trust, I believe, is another way to get sales from your website. You have to provide trust. You can do this by having a professional looking website, creating a blog that lets people know who you are, and even posting photos of yourself help build trust.
By building trust, you can also build a rapport with people. I know that there are some people out there that I would probably purchase anything that they do – because I like them and I like what they do. I trust that what ever they put out there for sale will be top quality and worth more than what I paid for it.
Yes Carlie, trust is a good one. They do have many of those trust buttons some recommend using on retail sites. Some use Better Business Bureau seal, etc. It’s harder for retail sites to get to know their customer but they can via social media and blogging. Thanks for that one Carlie!
First, trying to increase visibility without improving reputation is a waste. That’s why space advertising and many sponsorships don’t produce great results.
That’s a good point Evan, reputation is key too. Thanks for coming by with that point today Evan. Enjoy the rest of your week!
Hey Lisa,
I think you’ve got the essentials covered in this post. Like you mentioned, doing proper keyword research is the main thing to get sales from a website. That’s the top way to get targeted traffic to your product. Social media product is great but doesn’t convert as well as search engine traffic.
You know I prefer WordPress to any other CMS (though it has the biggest security issues too) It’s very simple to manage and has the widest surface to get help and expand. I have not tried any of the rest you mentioned though.
Yes, Paypal is the widest and simplest payment processor today. 2checkout too is making it quite easy for others in non paypal countries.
Now, I think the question is well answered Lisa.
Have a wonderful week ahead
Thanks Enstine. I always wonder about the the various website formats, I’ve used WordPress, Blogger and StoresOnline. Hard to compare since once is really a retail site and the others are not. Looking to turn that corner at some point. Have a great week ahead too Enstine, thanks for coming by and your input.