Online business is incredibly complex. In a digital age that has ecommerce sales slowly taking over retail, just about every brand needs an online presence to maximize their potential. This is especially true for ecommerce websites that don’t have the luxury of a physical location – simply a web address in a sea of billions of addresses!

Whether you’re a new online business owner or just want to ensure you’re doing everything right, focusing on the right aspects of online sales can help you to make your business work in the long term. Below are the two most important metrics to focus on at the base of your business to give yourself the best chance at success.

Web Traffic

You can’t make profit without sales, and you can’t make sales without customers!

Separated into two main categories – returning and unique visitors – your total web traffic tells you how popular your online store is. A higher total web traffic means that your business is getting exposure, allowing you the opportunity to turn visitors into customers with your website.

Unique visitors is the preferred metric of the two, as new customers means more people are being introduced to your website, causing you to grow your brand. These are most likely coming from your marketing strategy, and are a great way to measure if your current marketing campaign is working.

Returning visitors are also useful, as returning customers are worth more over their lifetime because you don’t need to pay for the acquisition of their subsequent orders . It also means you have brand loyalty, which will allow you to be successful even once your unique visitors slow from an existing campaign winding down.

To make sure where your visitors are coming from, you should implement Google Analytics onto your website. Here you’ll be able to see the referral links that people are clicking to get to your site, which will tell you where your marketing dollars should go.

Conversion Rate

Once you’ve spent all that money on marketing, you still need to close the deal. No matter how much traffic you have, if you don’t get them to complete the purchase, you’re not going to make money. You could even lose money on each customer if you’re not converting well.

Conversion rate is the ratio of buyers to visitors on your site. If you have 100 unique visitors and 5 make a purchase, that’s a 5% conversion rate – and not too bad! However, that may be too much to expect for some websites.

If your website isn’t responsive, your checkout is complicated, or your site is overall hard to use, you’re not going to gain the trust of your customers – trust that gets them to enter their payment info at checkout.

To improve your conversion rate, consider implementing conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies on your site. These include shortening your checkout form to only necessary information, creating effective calls to action, ensuring your website is fast and response, and providing live support to answer questions.

While the design of a website is of very high importance, often the content – and specifically the verbiage – is neglected, which is a big mistake. You can create one of the most dazzling, well-designed websites in the world, but if you fail to keep people interested and explain your business, then you will be unable to market effectively. To get yourself noticed and ensure your clients and customers keep coming back for more, avoid the following common mistakes when creating your website’s copy.

Whether you want to sell products online or are just looking to attract more customers, a quality website is crucial to your success. A website acts as your virtual storefront – explaining what you offer, displaying products, providing contact information, and even processing orders.

With every new Apple or Samsung release, smart devices are getting more & more popular. These handheld computers can do just about everything a PC can do, but with a much smaller screen. Because of this, unresponsive websites look a little wonky when loaded up on various devices, making them much harder to use effectively. This is where responsive web design comes in.

Responsive web design involves building a website that responds to the environment it is being accessed in. Different devices have their own screen sizes and orientations, making it important that your website fits all of them while still looking great & working correctly. An estimated 80% of internet users own a smartphone (Smart Insights), and an estimated 51% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista), so if your website isn’t responsive, you risk losing more than 50% of potential users. Continue reading →

When the time comes to build a new website or redesign an existing one, you’re going to have to make some big decisions. Your website is your primary selling point, your storefront, and your identity all in one, so you want to make sure you’re doing everything right to see the best results.

One of the biggest decisions – one that will affect the entirety of the website – is the decision between building around a single landing page or creating a full-fledged site with interior pages. Some believe that a single page will look better, simplify the user experience, and cut down on development time and costs. However, it also comes with some pretty significant disadvantages! Continue reading →

Businesses spend a significant amount of money getting people to their websites. After all, customers can’t learn more about products or make a purchase if they can’t find the site! However, once they reach the website, the real challenge begins.

When you try to sell something to a customer, you are trying to convince them that they need your offer. This is where a call to action (CTA) comes in. With a call to action, you can tell the visitor what you want them to do in the form of text or a button (click here, call now, download) as well as what they get out of it (find out more, get a consultation, get a free trial). The more information, the better. Continue reading →

Your medical website is your opportunity to make a first, and lasting, impression on potential patients, while also connecting with current patients. It’s a vital component of growing your practice. When prospects view your medical website, they are considering the following:

• Protocol for ease of scheduling a visit, including payment options
• To learn about your staff
• To determine if they can trust you

With that in mind, let’s consider the essentials of an effective medical website. Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered why when surfing the internet, you come across some websites that begin with “http://” and others that begin with “https://”? That “s” stands for “secure,” and it specifies that the site you’re viewing is protected.  This protection comes from an SSL Certificate.

Don’t have an SSL for your website?  It’s time to get one…and not just for security reasons. In July, Google Chrome will initiate marking all HTTP sites as “not secure.” As more users are moving toward HTTPS, or “secure” sites, Google has determined that it is time to initiate this program.   In fact, Google is already giving a slight boost to HTTPS sites. Furthermore, the security provided by an SSL is well worth any additional charges associated with acquiring an SSL certificate. Continue reading →

Do you own or manage a restaurant?  If you do, chances are you are constantly seeking new ways to market your establishment. With today’s advanced technology, restaurants need appealing websites that provide potential customers with the information needed to get them through the front door. Creating a website for your restaurant is an important step in effectively marketing your business. Below are 7 essential features every restaurant website should have.

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It’s that time again…time to examine your digital marketing strategies to determine what’s working, what isn’t…and what’s new! A good digital strategy includes your business objectives, targeted audience, and cost-effective means for facilitating your time and resources while applying the latest trends and techniques.

Continue reading →