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What E-commerce Companies Need to Do to Generate Online Sales

/ marketing

It's easy to get inundated with SEO and Internet marketing technology. That's why we try very hard to translate everything into plain English.Sales conversions are vital to the survival of any business. Thanks to the array of digital marketing tools available, e-commerce businesses can easily advertise their products and services online to customers internationally with a few clicks of a button.

Have a Good, Well-Designed Website That’s Easy for Customers to Use

Customers will have to visit your company website and look through your product pages to make orders online. The website must be written in simple language that’s easy for customers to understand (translated into foreign languages if you are selling products or services online internationally). The pages must be easy to navigate, and the homepage needs to be particularly engaging, so customers stay on your website.

A vital metric that affects the number of sales on your website is the bounce rate. A good bounce rate across the pages on your company website increases the likelihood of online customers sticking around and deciding to purchase your products or services.

Develop a Strong Presence Across Social Media Channels

Some of the more popular social media sites.Engaging, interesting social media channels are a great digital marketing strategy that can attract customers and increase your conversion rate. You can also use social media to get an idea of customer opinion on your company by looking at customer feedback and engagements on comments, the results of social media surveys such as Twitter polls, likes, shares and re-posts.

Your social media channels should directly link back to your company website. In general, digital marketing and advertising products and services online is indispensable for e-commerce businesses in 2022.

Apply SEO Best Practices To Your Site

SEO really does improve small buisiness visibility.Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key part of managing any website, and this is particularly true for e-commerce companies. That’s because your whole business revolves around your ability to reach your target market, and the best way to do that is by being at the top of relevant searches.

SEO encompasses a range of different strategies and practices, including improving your social media presence and website usability. It also includes identifying relevant keywords and phrases, including them in well-written content, earning high-quality, relevant backlinks on authority websites and more. Explore a range of ways to optimize your e-commerce site for SEO to find the best strategy for your organization.

Have a Responsive Customer Support Team

Having a fast-responding customer support team in place is another way e-commerce companies can facilitate online sales. Companies may need to have employees who work night shifts to provide customer support through things like online live customer webchats, social media, telephone services, and so on 24/7.

What You Need to Do to Generate Online Sales

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Listen Properly to Customer Feedback

Online reviews and your responses to them can drive more sales.An e-commerce business will not be able to grow its customer base, make lots of online sales, and thrive if it fails to listen properly to its customers. For example, are your customers consistently telling you across online platforms and in conversations with your support staff that your company website is confusing and difficult to navigate? In that case, you should take in this feedback and look into ways you can resolve these issues with your website.

Set Goals and Assess Performance Regularly

Your e-commerce business must have goals, and these can include sales goals, customer satisfaction goals, marketing campaign goals and so on. To measure your company’s success, you should regularly review your performance against these goals. Consistently increasing your sales over time is a crucial indicator that your e-commerce business is healthy and should be able to survive and prosper.

Unfortunately, all businesses have to be aware that unexpected things can happen which may have a considerable impact on business and sales rates, such as pandemics, recessions, and a rise in unemployment levels. Assess employee performance quarterly (every three months) or even monthly. Annual employee reviews are a bit of a thing of the past as they lag behind events and involve looking over things that happened a long time ago.

 

About the Author

Drawing on her experience collaborating with small businesses and helping them to use content to boost their rankings, Grace Murphy writes informative articles about SEO and digital marketing. Her work is designed with small business leaders in mind, so her audience can make the most of her expertise.

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Should You Pay for Citation Management?

/ local search

Local business search rankings

Before exploring citation management, let’s see how it fits in to showing up on Google.

Where you show up in local search when someone searches locally for what you do or sell is a function of three main factors:

  1. Your overall SEO
  2. Proximity to the searcher
  3. Prominence

Much of the rest of my web site deals with overall SEO factors. And of course you have no control over where anyone is when they search. But prominence is something you can control by managing your online citations.

What are citations?

A citation is an online listing of your business on a platform, like directories, that publishes information on businesses and this is Bill Treloar. Here’s an example of a citation on Yelp, showing basic contact information plus other valuable material like business hours, reviews, images, and a call to action.

 

An online citation on Yelp.
Our own online citation on Yelp

The value of citations for establishing and growing your prominence is clearly explained by Google:

Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web, like links, articles, and directories.

How much do citations really matter?

The folks at Moz conducted a study of 115,000 businesses to answer the question: Does listings management still matter for local SEO?

They tracked the results of maintaining listings on just the “big 4” platforms (Google, Apple, Facebook and Bing) compared to managing citations on these sources plus 10 or more directories. You can download the full white paper at the above link, but here are a few of the answers that question.

Improved visibility

Visibility as a function of increased number of local citations
Visibility as a function of increased number of citations

In this chart, Direct Search represents people who searched for a business by its name or address. Indirect Search represents searches for a product or service rather than for a specific business. Maps View represents searches on Google’s maps. And Search View represents the number of times a listing was encountered in the normal Google search.

A 91% increase in search views is certainly worth paying attention to.

Improved conversions

The impact of more citations on conversions
The impact of more citations on conversions

In this chart, were looking at not just the number of people who see a listing, but how many take an action moving them closer to buying. Clicking to initiate a phone call to a business didn’t increase by very much, only 13%. But clicking over to the company’s website to learn more nearly doubled. And clicking for directions to get to your business even more than doubled.

Should you pay for online citation management? Find out!

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How many local citations do I need?

Small business visibility as a function of the number of online citations
Small business visibility as a function of the number of online citations

This chart represents an attempt to identify the “sweet spot” in terms of how many local citations are best to have. I think it fails by not including more than 40 citations. That’s because we don’t know if the increase in visibility would improve even more with additional citations beyond 40. But certainly getting into the 31-40 range adds significant value compared to having fewer citations.

Why do you need citation management?

Isn’t it just enough to go out and get yourself listed in the top citation platforms?

Maybe not.

The folks at BrightLocal found that 85% of consumers found incorrect or incomplete information on business listings this year. Perhaps the worst example of that is that more than 80% went to a business only to find that it was closed despite their online citations indicating it was open. A full 63% said that incorrect listing information would prevent them from doing business with a store.

Online citations can change without your knowledge. Information about your business can change and you may neglect to reflect that in your citations. So is it enough to set up your citations and not worry about them moving forward? I don’t hink so.

Fair disclosure: I offer citation management services to small businesses, so it would be self-serving for me to insist that you need to hire someone (like, maybe, me) to do that for you. So instead, here’s how Moz answered that question.

How do your citations look?

With that said, if you’d like to check the status of your own online citations, there’s an easy way to do that right here. Just run a scan from the button below, enter your NAP data (name, address, phone) and see where you’re listed, where you’re not, and where your listings may be inconsistent.

Run a free scan

If you think your local citations need help, reach out to me for a quick conversation.

What are your thoughts about citation management? Do you agree? Disagree? Have questions? Let us know in the Comments section below.
If you think others can benefit from this information, please share it with the buttons on the left or the Click To Tweet above.

 

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7 Reasons Citation Management Is Important for Small Businesses

/ directories, local search, SEO practices

Citation management is an important part of the local SEO services we offer to small businesses. There are several reasons every small business needs to pay attention to this.

7 benefits of good citation management

Broad Exposure

Online business listings
How widely are you known across the Internet?

You need to make sure you’re listed and easy to find across the web at dozens of local search engines, directories, maps, mobile apps, and voice assistants like Alexa. This also helps Google, Yahoo & Bing to have more trust in who you are, what you do, and where you are.

Accuracy and Consistency

It can make sure your NAP (name address, phone) is consistent across all of those listings. Before working with us, a recent client was missing from more than a third of the top citation listings. Even worse, two listings had an incorrect address and 14 had their old company name. When this happens, Google has very low confidence in who or where you are. And that’s devastating to your chances of showing up in local searches.

Visible Reviews

Make it easy for delighted customers to review you.
Having reviews on multiple sites builds your reputation.

Having review stars show up in multiple places enhances your reputation. When you get a word-of-mouth referral, odds are that person will look you up by name before they call, just to check you out. When they do, your website should show up — but so will many of your citations, at places like Google My Business, Yelp, MerchantCircle, Facebook, and more. Some may show up that you’ve never heard of, like Clutch or TrustPilot. If all of those have review stars displaying in the search results, that increases the likelihood that person will want to do business with you.

Review Monitoring

We send our clients an email every time someone posts a new review for them. Responding to reviews promptly has been found to increase conversions and closed business. So it’s important to know about new reviews as they happen.

Suppressing duplicate listings helps search engines trust which is correct.
Suppressing duplicate listings helps search engines trust which is correct.

Duplicate Listing Monitoring

Duplicate and near-duplicate listings can confuse search engines, and that’s never a good thing. We alert our clients whenever we find a possible duplicate so they can check it out and suppress it if necessary.

Robust Business Information

Good citation management doesn’t just start with getting your NAP widely disseminated. All of those citation sources gather and reflect lots of information about your business:

  • Website and email links
  • Description of your business and services
  • Social media links
  • Business hours including special holiday hours
  • Accessibility information
  • Your logo and photos
  • much more
7 Reasons Citation Management is Important for Your Small Business

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Inclusion in Verticals

Google is getting better and better at responding to what’s called vertical search. Proper citation management will promulgate information that can help you show up when people search for specific things like

  • Wheelchair accessible dentist near me
  • Local restaurant with lasagna
  • Woman-led wellness coach
  • Veteran-led SEO company
  • etc.
Focus your info for search engines with structured data markup.
Structured data markup focuses Google on your essential information.

A Bonus

An added bonus to our citation management here at Rank Magic is schema code. That’s structured data markup in accordance with schema.org and it’s very helpful in terms of ranking highly in Google, Yahoo & Bing. We collect and maintain a lot of information about your business for your citations. That allows us to provide a simple script to add structured code to your website with a simple copy & paste.

How good is your citation management?

It’s easy to check! Just run a free scan to see whether your show up in about five dozen places across the web. And where you do show up, the scan will show your NAP and highlight any errors or inconsistencies. It will either give you peace of mind or demonstrate how badly you need citation management.

Run a free scan

Reach out if you’d like us to help put this into perspective for you.

Agree? Disagree? Have questions? Let us know in the Comments section below.

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Are Your Business Listings Sabotaging You?

/ directories, links

Many small business owners pay little or no attention to their business listings across the web. That can be a big mistake.

BrightLocal Conducted an in-depth look at the impact of business listings

Among their conclusions are some startling ones:

94% of consumers have used a business information site ro find information about a local business in the last 12 months.

Online business listings

The most commonly used sources of business information are

  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Yelp
  • Instagram
  • Apple Siri

BrightLocal found that finding incorrect information on a business listing would stop 63% of consumers from using that business.

Incorrect business listing information causes customers to lose trust in the business to different degrees:

  • phone number – 66%
  • address – 60%
  • business name – 49%
  • opening hours – 40%
  • email address – 46%
  • photos – 45%

85% of consumers found incorrect or incomplete information on a business listing in the last year.

77% found conflicting information for the same business on different business listing sites.

In the last 12 months, 81% of consumers visited a business that said online it was open, but that was actually closed due to the pandemic.

Find the full report on business listings here.

Are your business listings sabotaging you?

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Business listings can hurt you several ways

Here are some of the more common ways your business listings can hurt you.

You’re missing

If someone is looking for what you do or sell in a search engine, directory, map, or mobile app and you’re not there – clearly they can’t find you.

You’re a local business and your address is wrong

Nothing is more frustrating for customers than showing up at a business and finding that it’s not there.

Your phone number is wrong

Equally frustrating is when there’s a wrong phone number in your listing and customers can’t get through to place an order or ask a question.

Your listing got changed

You may have carefully corrected your online listing only to find that it’s since changed and now is incorrect. Listings can be changed without your knowledge or approval and those changes can sometimes hurt.

Your business hours are listed incorrectly

You don’t want someone showing up at your business or calling you only to find that you’re not open when the listings said you were. If your hours are changed due to the pandemic or holidays — or for any other reason — you need to make sure they’re listed properly across all of your listings.

Vigilance!

You need to pay at least a modicum of attention to this, reviewing your business listings occasionally.

There are citation management products like Yext PowerListings that can solve a number of these problems, including blocking your listings so that you’re the only one who can change them. These products typically come with a monthly fee but are often worth it by saving you manually managing all of your listings on an ongoing basis.

Business listing management products don’t typically cover niche directories, though. There are a number of different directories for attorneys, for example, or for people in the building trades, and typically you need to manage those manually.

COVIS - make sure people know your coronavirus practices.COVID

As long as the pandemic continues, some customers will be looking for reassurance that you have appropriate pandemic protocols in place.

BrightLocal found that 74% of consumers searched for a business listing to see what COVID-19 measures were in place. Make sure you identify that in any of your business listings that allow it.

The most important of these places is Google My Business.

  • Log into your Google My Business dashboard.
  • In the left-hand column, scroll down to the section headed From the business. In this section you can add attributes of your business in five categories: from the business, accessibility, amenities, health & safety, and service options.
  • The first section is where you can identify whether your company is black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-led, or women-led. Be sure to check of any that apply.
  • And in the following section on Amenities you can indicate whether you have a gender-neutral restroom.
  • Health and safety is where you can indicate what COVID-related protocols are in place. This is particularly important right now as many customers are sensitive to possible exposure and if you haven’t updated your Google My Business information since before the pandemic, these were not available the last time you were here.
  • The last section is Service options where you can indicate whether you offer on-site services and/or online appointments.
  • In the next section, accessibility, you can indicate whether your premises are wheelchair friendly.

If you just want to update your COVID protocols, you can do that right in the Home section of your Google My Business dashboard:

Stay Connected on Google My Business during COVID-19

Help Your Customers

A good rule of thumb is to always make it easy for customers to buy from you. You need to also make it easy for them to learn what they need to know about you to help them get to the point of buying. Make sure you’re listed widely and consistently across the web, but perhaps most important is thoroughly and accurately.

Your experience and perspective is valuable. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Power Up Your Link Profile With Niche Directories

/ directories, links

Improve your link profile

Niche directories are a great source of traffic and links.
There’s good value in niche directories.

The number and quality of inbound links in your site’s link profile is a critical factor in showing up near the top in Google. The quality of an inbound link is a function of the link authority of the page that links to you, as well as the relevance of that page to your business.

For example, a link from a page with a very high reputation (from having many inbound links itself) is more valuable than a link from a website that has very low link authority.

And a link from a website that’s related to your business counts more than a link from a website that’s completely unrelated. Your link profile should have a variety of inbound link types including from directories.

Get listed in niche directories

An excellent source of high quality inbound links is a niche directory, especially if they offer “follow” links. Directories typically have many inbound links themselves, which gives them high link authority. But they also, by dint of being niche, relate very closely to your business.

For example, if you are an elder law attorney, what could be more relevant that a link from the elder law attorney directory at FindLaw  or Lawyers.com. As highly regarded websites, FindLaw and Lawyers.com have very high authority, and they are highly related to the niche of elder law attorneys— or any law firm for that matter.

Home services companies have niche directories like Houzz  and Home Advisor and almost any business can find at least one directory focused on their niche. Directories in your niche can be excellent sources of link authority for you.

Many large niche directories like those just mentioned are willing to link to your website, but at a price. If you’re a website owner working on a tight budget, paying for every link is not only expensive, but likely not in your budget.

But don’t despair; there are lots of quality, free and inexpensive niche directories out there. The biggest challenge is finding them. You may need to look through each directory to find out if they offer free listings or how expensive their premium listings are.

Power Up Your Link Profile With Niche Directories

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How to Find Your Niche Directories

Method 1: Generic Search

Search for niche directories to add to your link profileGo to your favorite search engine and type in general keywords related to your site. For example, if you’re a wedding caterer you might type in wedding. Usually, well-ranking niche directories will place in the Top 10 results.

In this case Wedding Wire, Brides.com and The Knot all show up on the first page. Click through to the site and look for something like an “Add a Link” or “Join Vendor Directory” button or link somewhere in the navigation.

Method 2: Focused Directory Search

Narrow your search by your niche and the word directory. You may find a directory that offers both free and paid listings like CPAdirectory.com or MyZipPlumbers.com. This may be the quickest way to find good niche directories for your business.

 

Method 3: Unfocused Niche Directory Search

Here, you can find lists of hundreds of niche directories which are likely to include at least one directory for your niche. Simply search for niche directories. This can detect lists like Niche Listings.org and others. You should expect to have to scan through lots of directories, and don’t be discouraged if some of them are defunct; these lists usually aren’t closely maintained or pruned.

Method 4: Competitors’ Links

This allows you to take a shortcut and profit from your competitors’ previous linking efforts. Do a search with a Google search operator for links. Specifically, search for link:example.com, where you replace example.com with your competitor’s website. Then click on each link to find directories that your competitor is listed in.

Method 5: Remember your blog

Yes, you need a blog.We almost always recommend our clients maintain an active blog. If you do, you can enhance your link profile with links to your blog from blog directories that are a good match for your business. Just do a search for blog directories and look for directories that list businesses like yours.

 

Another tip

Expand your thinking when searching for a niche directory. When looking for a directory, try to think of all markets that relate to your web site. You may be surprised at what can count as a related directory.

For example, while working for an elder law firm that does guardianship as one of their sub-practice areas, I found the Special Needs Alliance website which lists many Certified Elder Law Attorneys. Keep an open mind about related topics that might be perfect for you.

Persistence pays off

What is Search Engine OptimizationYou may need to search through several directories before you find some quality, free or affordable niche directories that are right for you; however, persistence pays off.

You may need to explore some directories to find their pricing plans, many of which offer a free option. There are very likely to be some great directories that can enhance your link profile, improve your domain authority and even bring in some high quality, targeted traffic as well.

Your persistence will be worth it.

How’s your experience been with finding niche directories? Start a discussion below.

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If you’re struggling with your link profile, odds are good that Rank Magic can fix that. Reach out to us.