Traffic. Something we all hate when we're on the way to work, but something we're desperate for if your work involves a website. But the same rules don't apply to traffic on the road and traffic on the internet. On the road, pretty much all traffic is bad, annoying and something you don't want. But the opposite isn't exactly true on the internet. Sure, we all want a lot of traffic to our website, but if it isn't converting then its almost as useless as the traffic jam on the way to work. What all of us are after is a high conversion rate.
So what can be done to increase conversions?
Well what we specialise in is competitor price monitoring. Whilst having the most competitive prices is the most important factor in competitive ecommerce sectors, there are still other aspects that need to be in check so as to further enhance the effects of monitoring your competitors prices.
What do shoppers do when they want something? They hunt around, run searches for the best prices, and then go from there. Well even if you are competitively priced, your site may not show up high enough in the search results to get spotted by potential customers. So you need to make sure you rank well for your specific keywords. This means you have to treat SEO as part of your routine unless you are outsourcing it. Its no good building a few links and hoping you stay in the position you are in. SEO, like competitor price monitoring, is an ongoing activity. So put yourself out there, write blog posts, interact on forums and social media, and publish press releases. Anything that can build good quality links to your site is going to help you move up the rankings so that you show up when someone searches for your product or service.
So you're using a competitor price monitoring service. You've ramped up the SEO efforts for your ecommerce website. There's still one more thing which can be done to ensure you are doing the very best you can to win customers, and that is conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This, like the SEO and competitor price monitoring, is a large topic and you should spend time researching how to optimise your website. It may be that the layout simply doesn't appeal to customers, or it may be its hard to navigate. Whatever it is, there are sophisticated tools available to help you get to the bottom of why visitors aren't converting (or if they are, how to get even more!). You can know how people interact on each page of your website, you can use heat maps to see where people click, and once you've got this knowledge, you can try doing some tests to enhance your ecommerce store even further. Maybe try various headings, images, layouts or calls to action until you are getting the conversions you want.
One essential tool to help with CRO is Google Analytics, a free service used to track bounce rates and navigation paths. Used in conjunction with a tool like Click Tale and you have all the information you need.
So to recap, the 3 steps we advise ecommerce businesses to take in order to stay ahead of their competitors are
1. Competitor Price Monitoring
2. Search engine optimisation
3. Conversion rate optimisation
Hopefully this has given you an insight into what is required in order to stay competitive in today's ecommerce arena. Leave a comment if you want to discuss any of the steps covered in the post. For more information on how we can monitor your competitors prices, take a tour.
So what can be done to increase conversions?
Well what we specialise in is competitor price monitoring. Whilst having the most competitive prices is the most important factor in competitive ecommerce sectors, there are still other aspects that need to be in check so as to further enhance the effects of monitoring your competitors prices.
What do shoppers do when they want something? They hunt around, run searches for the best prices, and then go from there. Well even if you are competitively priced, your site may not show up high enough in the search results to get spotted by potential customers. So you need to make sure you rank well for your specific keywords. This means you have to treat SEO as part of your routine unless you are outsourcing it. Its no good building a few links and hoping you stay in the position you are in. SEO, like competitor price monitoring, is an ongoing activity. So put yourself out there, write blog posts, interact on forums and social media, and publish press releases. Anything that can build good quality links to your site is going to help you move up the rankings so that you show up when someone searches for your product or service.
So you're using a competitor price monitoring service. You've ramped up the SEO efforts for your ecommerce website. There's still one more thing which can be done to ensure you are doing the very best you can to win customers, and that is conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This, like the SEO and competitor price monitoring, is a large topic and you should spend time researching how to optimise your website. It may be that the layout simply doesn't appeal to customers, or it may be its hard to navigate. Whatever it is, there are sophisticated tools available to help you get to the bottom of why visitors aren't converting (or if they are, how to get even more!). You can know how people interact on each page of your website, you can use heat maps to see where people click, and once you've got this knowledge, you can try doing some tests to enhance your ecommerce store even further. Maybe try various headings, images, layouts or calls to action until you are getting the conversions you want.
One essential tool to help with CRO is Google Analytics, a free service used to track bounce rates and navigation paths. Used in conjunction with a tool like Click Tale and you have all the information you need.
So to recap, the 3 steps we advise ecommerce businesses to take in order to stay ahead of their competitors are
1. Competitor Price Monitoring
2. Search engine optimisation
3. Conversion rate optimisation
Hopefully this has given you an insight into what is required in order to stay competitive in today's ecommerce arena. Leave a comment if you want to discuss any of the steps covered in the post. For more information on how we can monitor your competitors prices, take a tour.
