With the number of customers purchasing products/ services online continuing to increase, more and more companies are recognising the importance of investing both time and money into a company website. Whilst this is a sensible business move, the landscape has become increasingly competitive and as a result, more difficult to generate sales. Thankfully, our experts at Lambourn Digital have your back and have provided some useful tips and tricks to get your website generating sales for your business.
1. SEO
The best way to start increasing sales is to first start driving traffic to your website. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is the process of organically getting your website to the top of the search engine results page. Given that 90% of people do not scroll past the first page, no matter how good your products/services are, if your website does not make the first page it won’t be reached and few sales will be made. It is therefore important to invest time into SEO so that your website is easily reached. Here are a few ways to help you achieve this.
Technical SEO
Essentially, technical SEO refers to all areas of SEO excluding content. Whilst the list is long, here are a few of the most important factors:
- Internal and external links- fixing broken links and adding extra ones makes your website easier to navigate and increases its credibility to the search engine.
- Website speed- Google deems website speed an important factor in website usability and user experience therefore websites with faster loading speeds are more likely to rank higher.
- HTTPS- this signposts to Google that your website is secure and has been a ranking factor since 2014.
- Meta description- With an e-commerce website it is common to have duplicate meta descriptions. Google will only pick up this meta description once, so other pages with the same description are unlikely to rank. It is therefore important to conduct an audit and alter the descriptions accordingly.
- Optimised XML sitemap- An XML sitemap will inform the search engine about your site structure. It should include any new content and up to 50,000 URLs.
Keywords
Another important SEO practice relating to all written content is keywords. Keywords are specific words or phrases that signal to the search engine the topic of the website and is often what is typed into Google. Adding keywords to the meta title tags, meta description and website content, allows Google to deem your website relevant to specific queries and post it in the search results. Selecting the correct keywords however, can prove challenging as it is highly competitive and several websites use the same keywords and consequently, ranking top of Google’s organic search is difficult to achieve. It is therefore important to conduct keyword research and find words with high search volume that have not been as frequently targeted by competitors.
2. Use Paid Ads
Another effective way to generate website traffic is through paid ads, which predominantly refers to Google ads. This runs on a pay-per-click (PPC) model where marketers select certain keywords to bid on and the successful company will appear at the very top of Google when a search query containing a particular keyword is used. Each time the ad is clicked, the company will pay a small fee.
Ranking
Google ranks all Google ad campaigns out of 10 (10 being the highest) analysing factors such as ad relevance, position on Google, click-through rate (CTR) and targeted keywords. The successful campaigns will gain a lower cost per action enabling a company to get a higher return on investment. It is therefore important to spend time optimising the quality of your campaign to obtain a high-quality score and a low cost per action.
Negative Keywords
One way of increasing the relevance of your Google ad is through using negative keywords which act as a filter tool preventing your ad from being shown when an irrelevant search query containing your keyword is entered into Google. For example, a tech company selling brand new iPhones may want to include ‘refurbished’ in their list of negative keywords so people looking for refurbished iPhones do not view their ads and the company is not charged for clicks that are unlikely to generate sales. This targeted approach filters out any unwanted traffic lowering the price and increasing the return on investment.
PPC is deemed 50% more effective than organic search results and executed correctly, can generate a huge amount of website traffic resulting in increased sales.
3. Ensure your website is both accessible and easy to use (UX Design)
UX design refers to the usability of a website. On average, potential customers decide within the first 15 seconds whether or not to remain on the website or look elsewhere. It is therefore essential to immediately capture interest and convey to the consumer your website will quickly provide their desired solution. For example, a customer looking to purchase solar panels will want to easily find and view products, add them to the cart and insert payment details without any complications. Any difficulties with the process and the consumer is likely to shop elsewhere. In fact, 90% of users claim to leave a website due to poor design alone. It is therefore essential to prioritise website design and ensure it caters to user needs.
Here are some tips to help you achieve this:
- Understand your customer needs
Gain an understanding of how your target audience wants to use your website and adapt the design accordingly. This information can be obtained by creating a survey or making informed decisions based on the analytics. - Keep it simple
Do not try to create a busy website and jampack all pages with loads of graphics and information. This is likely to confuse the customer and increase website loading speed. Instead, keep it simple. Ensure each page is easy to navigate with noticeable action buttons and a specific purpose. It is also important to maintain a consistent theme throughout and avoid dead-end pages that don’t lead anywhere. - Ensure the website works on all devices
Around 60% of customers use mobile devices when online shopping. To significantly increase the possibility of generating sales from these users it is important to make sure your website works seamlessly on all devices and screen sizes.
4. Create high-quality content
Creating high-quality content not only engages your audience but establishes brand credibility, conveying your expertise to potential customers which should in turn help to increase sales. When determining the best kind of content to produce, it is important to consider your target audience and the types of content you would like to consume and whether that be in the form of a video, blog post, web page etc. Regardless of the type of content here are some useful tips to gain optimal engagement.
- Address any pain points your customer may have and convince them that your products are the solution
- Always include a call to action (CTA) at the end of each content piece
- Share blog posts and videos on social media to generate leads
5. Use the data
Another effective way to get your website generating sales is to use analytics tools to make informed decisions based on the data provided. In fact, companies that use data-driven strategies are up to 8 times more likely to see an ROI than companies who don’t. So, looking at the data is important, but what sort of data should you be analysing? Well, the truth is, this differs depending on your website’s performance and desired outcome. A company looking to increase website traffic may want to focus on their target audience, where they’re from, their age group and adopt a strategy aimed at attracting this demographic based on this data. A company with high website traffic but low sales however, may place more emphasis on bounce rate, session duration and click-through rate. From this data, they may find that the majority of customers are getting to a certain webpage but not progressing further to complete the order. Analysis of this webpage may determine that it’s difficult to use and necessary amendments can be made. Once these alterations have been implemented, analytics can track the success of these changes and provide concrete proof of the success of a marketing strategy.
Analytics can provide useful information throughout the development and completion of a marketing strategy, helping marketers to establish a correlation between certain factors and make informed decisions based on them.
Here at Lambourn, we understand that developing and maintaining an effective digital marketing strategy can be both difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, we have experts in all aforementioned areas who will work closely with each client to develop a strategy specifically tailored to your company. With Lambourn’s help, your website will be generating sales in no time.
In 2022, the need to go digital is greater than ever. If you have not yet taken the steps to become digital now is the best time to do so!
