Ecommerce has become an indivisible part of the internet today. Around 24 million eCommerce websites from different parts of the world contribute to the SERPs. That means, if we consider the recent Netcraft survey of September 2020, eCommerce websites cover 2% of all the websites on the internet. And, this number will increase exceptionally in the future. The internet is consistently reaching different corners of the world providing a better shopping experience for users. Consequently, there’s going to be tough competition for online retailers in the future.
Have you got an eCommerce website building plan? Do you know what’s SEO & how crucial it could be for your business development goals? If not, this article could help you build knowledge and clear your doubts associated with an important aspect of website development. Digital marketing principles form a crucial part of website creation and SEO is an important component of it. After all, you can’t sell your product without a promotion strategy if new on the field.
Even WordPress developers have started creating world-class eCommerce websites that are quite an easy thing. Following this, you can estimate the number of eCommerce websites the internet is going to attain within a few years. Through this article, we’ll discuss the following points:
- About eCommerce Business
- How to Create An eCommerce Website?
- How Crucial is SEO For Your eCommerce Business These Days?
- Final Thoughts on eCommerce
If you’ve got a revolutionary product to serve consumer welfare, don’t conceal it. Products and items are made for consumption. Create a website & reach your target audience right away. At WSAI Technologies we consistently bring you innovative ideas so that you could create powerful web addresses for emerging internet users & online buyers out there. Let’s begin with this topic!!
About eCommerce Business
eCommerce is an amazing new way you could establish your shop online. Whether you have one item or varieties of items, perishable goods or durable goods, traditional or innovative goods, you can sell anything on an eCommerce platform. The concept of eCommerce dates back to the late 1960s when electronic data transactions were growing explicitly and email & internet connectivity was there in its earliest stage. Following that the first online retail transaction took place in 1994 and the very next year Amazon emerged as an eCommerce platform for books.
Since then, eCommerce has motivated many other aspiring entrepreneurs & startups to provide for online consumers across the world. Consequently, it inspired many online payment programs to improve consumer convenience. PayPal launched a reliable online payment system in the late 1990s and became complimentary support for different eCommerce platforms.
There are ample reasons why the eCommerce business framework is so popular among users. The functionality of an eCommerce platform keeps changing over time. The user interface of notable eCommerce websites that you make use of today wasn’t like that years ago. It has changed only for user comfort. And it will keep modifying as such. Here are some essential reasons why people love shopping online:
- eCommerce provides more varieties to the users
- eCommerce saves time for product research & information
- Provides easy access to price comparison
- Easy, fast & reliable payment options
- Top brands & trustworthy sales options
- eCommerce provides them unparalleled discounts & cashback offers
- Easy & remote accessibility for comfortable shopping and more
Now, don’t you think you can achieve improved output by establishing your product line on an eCommerce site? Of course, you can. The proceeding segments of the post will guide you through various techniques of eCommerce website development & would entail the significance of SEO in eCommerce development. Stay exploring!
How to Create An eCommerce Website?
Of course, you can’t manage with talks and knowledge merely. You have to imply whatever you learn to be successful. eCommerce development is a long way to engage. A website doesn’t have a specified lifecycle. As long as someone’s there to supervise, your website lives. Before creating an eCommerce website you need to review the following factors:
- The products & items you’re planning to sell
- The theme of your website & online store
- UI & UX of the website for consumer satisfaction
- Terms of use you want to imply on your website visitors
- Cancellation & return policy related to the products sold
- Arrangement of contact details to listen to the consumer problems
- A team of designing & development professionals
- A website building tool & strategy
A website building tool & strategy is your foremost step to perfection. The best tool we could recommend is none other than WordPress. A simple, fast & easy to operate open source website building program. WordPress is an amazing content management system that’s available to every website development enthusiast on the internet including eCommerce absolutely free. You just have to pay a few bucks for your domain address & hosting source and that’s it.
There’s no need to install dedicated servers & heavy web designer applications. With WordPress, you can create your eCommerce website using an entry-level system, as simple as that. WordPress has its own dedicated servers & configurations. You just need to access the internet through a web browser. To get started with a WordPress eCommerce site you can follow enlisted 8 simple steps:
1. Get A Perfect Domain Name
Whether you’re creating an eCommerce website or a blog you’ll always have to register a domain name. A domain name is your website’s name that displays in the URL bar of the search engine and browser. It is usually accompanied by a domain extension- .com, .com.au, .org, etc, and a security prefix, either HTTP or HTTPS. You can register your domain name from an online service provider like BigRock, GoDaddy, Namecheap.com, Bluehost.com, etc.
2. Get Space For Your Data
The next step helps you arrange a specified database for your website content. Whether it’s a product or blog, images or videos, links or comments, everything on your website needs a specified storage. Web servers are the space in which information associated with different websites & applications software are stored. Companies like BigRock & GoDaddy have their server farms dedicated to millions of domains on the internet. You can approach them to get your website data space at any time.
3. Install WordPress On Your Server
The first thing you’ll pour into your database would be your WordPress account. If you don’t merge your hosting account with your WordPress account you won’t be able to store whatever adds to your website. Either you can go for a “One-Click Installation” or a manual installation. One-Click Installation is easier & faster, however, you have to make sure if your hosting provider provides such features. Or else, you have to download & upload your WordPress account separately on your hosting server.
4. Decide Your Theme & Install WooCommerce
To decide on your website theme, you can simply approach your WordPress admin dashboard. There are many astonishing starters & child themes on the WordPress dashboard. Alternatively, you can also visit external sources to grab your free or paid WordPress theme. Moving ahead, don’t forget to install WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress library. WooCommerce plugin helps to add an online store to your website & offers varieties of themes & features. You’ll have to undergo the following steps as such:
- Have to add details of your business & product
- Decide on the payment options you’re comfortable with
- You can set your shipping options as per locations to serve
- You can choose a complimentary plugging or theme thereafter
5. Start Adding Products
You can either add your products through the WordPress dashboard or using the WooCommerce plugin. You will be required to give the following details as such-
- Product Name
- Product Price
- Product Images & Slides
- Description & Specifications of Product
- Category of Product, etc.
There are usually 6 categories of products for you to choose from- Simple, Variable, Affiliate, Grouped, Virtual & Downloadable products. You must decide which product to put in a specific category.
6. Install SEO Plugin
Don’t forget you have to run an effective SEO strategy concurrently. As such, you can’t overlook the famous Yoast SEO plugin. Yoast SEO specifies the content credibility of your website. We suggest you must not proceed without a dedicated blog section in your website. According to a study, 85% of Americans like to conduct online research before buying an online product. Yoast SEO also defines the readability of your website content so that you could improve your website’s UX.
7. Produce Engaging Content
Coming back to SEO, remember that your website content is your weapon to generate leads. If you’re content is not engaging enough you can’t convert prospective visitors to potential buyers. You have to create a buyer’s journey your visitors couldn’t refuse to finish. They must reach the purchasing page after going through the information you’ve provided.
8. Make Your Website & Posts Public
Ultimately, you need to make your website content & UI public. Make sure that everything runs perfectly. An unsound first impression could ruin your entire website building strategy. eCommerce websites are usually recognized for their perfection. If your visitor finds it annoying to even open a web page you get screwed. Moreover, you need to take care of the security parameters of your eCommerce website. Keep your website URL locked.
How Crucial is SEO For Your eCommerce Business These Days?
When we talk about SEO we don’t address an individual subject following an individual principle. SEO is a vast concept that aims toward one goal, search engine results. No matter what website category you choose, what WordPress plugins you go with, what website themes you like the most, if you don’t aim for the SERPs, you’re directionless. Given below are leading essentials that make SEO an indivisible part of your eCommerce development goals. Let’s check out:
1. You Can Evaluate
Though Search Engine Optimization comprise numerous aspects of your digital marketing strategy it is quite easy to evaluate. There are many online tools & google extensions like Ahrefs, SimilarWeb & Uber Suggest through which you can evaluate the SEO performance of your website. Even if you haven’t conducted any SEO measures for your website conditioning before, you can analyze your drawbacks & take appropriate action for the future. Based on these conclusions you can also assess leading flaws in your eCommerce strategy instantly.
2. Competition is Rising
Competition is consistently rising as the number of internet users across the world is also increasing. eCommerce could be your best chance to generate a monopoly around a specified product or item you want to offer. However, it is not possible forever. You’ll surely have to face competition someday for whatever product you offer. Therefore, for a good start, you must prepare a firm SEO strategy ahead of time. Make sure that you work according to the leading search engine protocols. Frequently spread awareness among your digital marketing team.
3. Draw Benefits Out Of Scarcity
Let’s get back to the monopoly. You can enjoy it following other factors like scarcity & accidental shortage of products at your competitor’s online shop. In this time frame, you could become the hero of your SERPs. But there’s a catch. You can’t do this without a proper SEO strategy. If your website has a great SEO performance record Google will automatically place you in the top search engine results following your chance to surpass your competitors. Therefore, we suggest you keep your SEO efforts on track. This will surely help you establish a strong consumer network in the long run.
4. Traffic Generation Goal
The more user traffic you acquire the more sales output you’re going to generate in the future. Therefore, SEO could be your greatest companion on the journey. Considering the rising eCommerce competition on the internet you have to work hard on your traffic generation strategies. Which indirectly means you have to improve your SEO efforts. You have to draw more engagement through your writing sections. Additionally, you have to manage your video linking & video content techniques. Videos are becoming a great medium of traffic generation these days.
5. Ensure Security & Reliability
The requirement of online security usually triggers eCommerce platforms a lot. The visitors often take more actions on eCommerce sites as compared to blogs and online courses. On eCommerce websites, they have:
- Payment credentials to put
- Create consumer accounts
- Create seller accounts
- Frequent signing in & out
- Selecting product colors, shapes, sizes & varieties
- Raise queries & share issues with specified products
- Place reviews & ratings and more
To provide for all these prerequisites you have to ensure full security and trust on part of your website. Fixing mixed content & promoting secured website URL could be a notable SEO strategy you can achieve in this context. Keep improving!!
6. There’s No Way Out
At Least for the current era, it is either digital marketing or nothing you could expect. Though paid traffic & social media marketing can be considered as good alternatives for SEO, you can’t overlook the Search Engine Ads. Searching for a specific item on the SERP, the user comes across various Google Ads even before the organic results. Don’t you think SEO triggers you again? Even ordinary local retailers want to place themselves top of the Google My Business & Advanced Google Map Ads section. You’re a digital marketer, why not you?
7. SEO Controls Your Expenses
Why spending unnecessarily when you’ve got SEO? If it happens often. Many eCommerce website developers who’ve got the potential to conduct SEO strategies separately, leave it to paid promotions entirely. That’s not fair. If you think you don’t have time to organize everything apart, build a team. No famous eCommerce website is run by a single person. You can build your individual SEO team or agency to execute your eCommerce business before the users. After all, you also have to organize a shipping, transportation & warehousing department in the future.
8. SEO Relates to UX
The aim of Search Engine Optimization is to place your website in the top SERPs. This could be done by traffic generation and traffic generation is all about user experience upgrade. It could not be done overnight. You have to undergo various SEO techniques to achieve that. Make use of WordPress plugins to modify the user interface, themes, eCommerce components & navigation structure of your website. You can also call it an advance on-page SEO strategy and start working on it from today onward. Remember that fine user experience leads to fine website traffic.
Final Thoughts On eCommerce
SEO further provides for your eCommerce development goals in different ways. You can analyse your eCommerce performance by simply placing your shopping URLs on potential SEO tools like Ahrefs & UberSuggest. You can adjust your product information & target keywords accordingly. eCommerce development is quite fun & filled with different web development and digital marketing lessons out there. WordPress helps you manage complicated things but demands dedication & patience on your part. People often consider WordPress as an inefficient & unsuitable way of eCommerce development, however, don’t focus on information & knowledge.
The argument isn’t about WordPress or some other CMS on the internet. Through this post we just wanted you to strengthen your eCommerce development goal. We discussed how a good SEO strategy helps you intensify your eCommerce business model. We also discussed how you can establish your first eCommerce website through WordPress, without undergoing any complications. We’ve experienced website developers & internet marketing professionals from WSAI Technologies and we want to support you throughout your web development journey. Keep visiting for more interesting stuff!!