Ecommerce

Weekly Links Roundup – Product Descriptions, Button Design, Accessibility, Low-cost Marketing Ideas

June 19, 2020 by Debbie Campbell

The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Selling online? Check out this detailed post on how to write a good product description. A persuasive product description might be the very last chance you have to convince a potential customer to buy – just like high-quality photos are critical for ecommerce sites, so are well-written product descriptions.

Here’s an interesting post about button design that I found when working on a new theme this week. Have you ever thought about the differences between rounded vs. sharp-angled buttons – especially if you use a plugin for creating lots of different types of buttons? There’s more to it than you might think – the shape of a button can send a subtle message to your user. Learn how to have more control over your messaging.

While there are some plugins and overlays that claim to make websites ADA-accessible, think twice before relying on them. Lawsuits are being filed against some sites using these quick-fix tools. Learn why there is no silver bullet for making a website accessible.

Looking for low-cost marketing ideas for your business? Here are 14 small business marketing ideas you can execute online today.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Site Speed, Product Pages, Contact Pages, WordPress Security Myths

February 22, 2019 by Debbie Campbell

The top website and online marketing links of the week.

You know your website is slow. It’s always been like that. But do you really understand what that slow site could be costing you in terms of customers and conversions? A recent report shows that 70% of buyers are influence by a site’s page loading time. The average site loads in about 15 seconds – but a number of studies show that the majority of online shoppers will leave a site if they have to wait more than 3 seconds. If you need help making your site faster, check out our Performance Optimization service or get in touch with questions.

Learn how to take your product pages to the next level with this great post on design elements to make product pages soar. Start with inviting, high-quality photography – this is really critical – and then polish your text descriptions to make your product seem irresistable. Be sure to have a clear call-to-action (Add to Cart) and don’t pack the page with too much information. Never get in the customer’s way!

Here are tips for making an effective contact page – including having a contact form (form submissions are something you can measure in Analytics). But don’t make your form too long – studies show that the more questions you ask, the less likely people will fill it out (that’s really true for general contact forms, and doesn’t necessarily apply to all types of forms).

Finally… it’s always fun to debunk WordPress security risks, and here are the top 5 for this week. WordPress is no more or less secure than other online platforms. The biggest security problem for a WordPress site is the negligent site owner who fails to keep plugins, themes and WordPress updated, making their site a prime target for hackers. Don’t be that person! Be better and keep your site safe.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Product Photos, Current Content, Google My Business, Blogging Lessons

February 8, 2019 by Debbie Campbell

The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Sometimes, convincing clients (especially new ecommerce site owners) that they need to invest in high-quality photography for their site falls on deaf ears. And that’s a shame, because great photos are critical for ecommerce sites; the quality of your images reflects the quality of your products. And displaying poor-quality images speaks volumes about your business; if you don’t care about the photos, do you actually care about the products themselves? Learn more about why it’s so important to have high-quality imagery.

New research on customer satisfaction with websites shows that 39% of users will think twice about using an outdated website. Do you update your site content on a regular basis? Does your site look fresh and provide the latest info about your business? If not, you may want to take a look at this.

If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store but instead run a service-area business (like a web design studio!) this is just for you: Google My Business is rolling out a new setup process that’s more friendly to us service-area companies.

If you’re a veteran blogger, trying to be a better blogger, or even just getting started in blogging, this post might be helpful. It’s the result of a survey of 1,000 other bloggers and might teach you some new tricks to make your own efforts more effective and efficient. Check out 5 lessons you can learn from 1,000 bloggers.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Testimonials, Product Reviews, GDPR, Analytics Alternatives

June 1, 2018 by Debbie Campbell

The top website and marketing links of the week.

I always encourage clients to display testimonials on their site, if their industry allows them. Testimonials are a great way to influence prospective customers toward purchasing your products or services. And reviews let your customers speak – even if they are not always positive, how you handle negative reviews is important, too. Letting prospects see how you take care of problems is at least as important as the glowing testimonials! Learn more about why you should add testimonials and reviews to your site.

…And along that vein here’s a great guide to adding product reviews to your WordPress site. This is a comprehensive overview with a good selection of recommended plugins, and why you might want to use one of them even if you’re running an ecommerce site with WooCommerce which already has built-in reviews.

If you were in a tizzy trying to get your site into compliance with GDPR last week, you were far from alone. Read this opinion post on GDPR from the New York Times – it might make you feel better.

Finally… if you collect traffic data for your website, did you know that Google Analytics is not the only option? That’s what I said. Learn about Kissmetrics, Matomo (formerly Piwik) and AFS Analytics. All except Kissmetrics offer a free plan as well as commercial pricing.

Weekly Links Roundup – Ecommerce, GDPR, Instagram, Blogging, Facebook PYMK

April 20, 2018 by Debbie Campbell

The top website and marketing links of the week.

If you run an ecommerce site, you’re probably interested in increasing conversions, right? Here is a post about the 13 things your ecommerce pages need to do just that – get more sales.

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is coming up quickly. Learn how to prepare your site, even if you’re not selling or targeting EU customers directly.

Generally, it’s recommended that a business start with only one or two social media networks to start off. If Instagram is one of your go-to social media locales, or you’re thinking about using it, check out this post on how using Instagram can help your branding efforts.

Getting ready to jump into the big world of blogging? Need some help getting started? Here’s a short but fairly detailed guide to writing great content for your blog.

And finally… Still on Facebook? Here’s some scary stuff: learn how far-reaching FB’s People You May Know (PYMK) algorithm really is.