With most businesses going online, people are taking a plunge into the world of eCommerce stores. Over 59 percent of the world population has been penetrated by the internet and the number continues to rise. With such a vast online network, setting up an online eCommerce store and reaching out to people has become much easier.
WooCommerce proves to be a great platform to manage online eCommerce stores. 42 percent of all online stores are powered by it. By integrating it with a WordPress website, administering all the aspects of the business at just one place becomes feasible.
That being said, it’s a fact that the number of sales or conversions directly affects the businesses. Since, sales are the ultimate goal of any eCommerce business, setting up a store online is just one side of the coin. Marketing and promoting the store and products to boost sales define the other side. Thus, almost every online business needs to have a WooCommerce marketing strategy for their store.
Based on substantial research and years of experience we have penned down an effective guide for you to build a successful online store,
- Ecommerce Store Infrastructure
Often “first impression is the last impression”, and it is true for WooCommerce stores. People visiting your website will expect to quickly find the products they are looking for. Thus, it is advisable to keep every aspect of the store customer-centric. For amazing user experience, here are some tips to create and optimize an eCommerce store.
- Website theme
How your website looks at first glance to the visitors is an important feature of the overall store. Depending on the aesthetics, visitors will explore more or could bounce off. You can choose from a wide variety of website themes available online. Though free themes offer less functionality, affordable premium themes can be fully functional. The font, look and feel of the website is subjective. So, it is advisable to select a theme best suited for your business.
- Store design
From the trends and behavior of the users over the years, a user-friendly experience is the key to the store popularity and ultimately increased sales. For the visitors on your online store to feel at ease, seamless and smooth navigation plays a huge role. Any visitor needs to know; the page they were on, the page they are on and the page they would likely want to visit next. Thus, keeping the store design simplistic and functional should be your main focus while designing the online store.
- Website optimization
Website optimization implies providing optimum speed of browsing and reliability to offer to the prospective customers. Lack of speed will cause the visitors to bounce off. To ensure speed and reliability, it is important to choose the right hosting services. Also, you should look for reliable and persistent plugins and website themes which would result in a faster website.
- Search Engine Optimization ( SEO )
The next step after setting up the online store is Search engine optimization. To start with SEO, it is important to perform keyword research. Keywords are those terms that people will search online to find information and seek answers. Now let’s dive deeper into how to go about researching keywords and subsequently how to perform WooCommerce SEO for online store.
- Keyword Research
If you have a few keywords in mind that best suits your business and you want to rank for, that’s great! These could be the type of products you offer and also specific products. To further broaden your keywords, try to think about these factors,
- What are people searching for?
- How many people are searching for it?
- What type of information they are seeking?
Once you have answers to these questions, proceed by analyzing your competitors so that you have a grip in the competition. After gathering all the data, segment it into transactional keywords and informational keywords (long-tail keywords). Transactional keywords are those that have high buying intent whereas long-tail keywords have more informational intent for people still in the research phase.
- Title Tags
Title tags specify the title of the webpage and should be 50-60 characters long. They are the first thing that the users see on the search engine. So, it should convey what the webpage contains. It is advisable to use the keywords that best describe the webpage at the start of the title tags.
- Meta Descriptions
It is a description that summarizes the title of the webpage and plays a very important part in the SEO. A search engine will show 150-160 characters of the Meta description. Thus it is an opportunity to write a good description which will increases the chances of the user clicking on the link and visiting your store. This will result in a higher CTR (click-through rate) and subsequently higher conversions.
Also, include the target keywords in the Meta description to give it more value from users’ and search engines’ perspective.
- Alt Text
It is an HTML element that allows you to describe images present on the webpage. Since web crawlers are not able to crawl the images, providing text to the images impacts the way the search engine perceives the webpage. It is also helpful in increasing the traffic from image searches on the search engines. Providing alt text to the images helps visually impaired people to understand what an image represents through the screen readers.
It should be noted that alt text should simply convey what the image is about. Stuffing the alt text with keywords will hamper the relevance of the image for search engines.
- URL Structure
Every webpage on a website has a unique address known as a uniform resource locator (URL). Along with title and Meta description, URL is also shown in the search results and is the most direct way for someone to visit a particular webpage.
Providing a correct URL path to a webpage is helpful for the users as well as the search engines. For example, a store sells sports shoes and party shoes online. In this case, the best URL structure would be “store-name/shoes/sports-shoes” and “store-name/shoes/party-shoes”. Thus if someone is looking to buy sports shoes, the user is in a better position to click the related URL.
- Content
A good content ensures the authority and trustworthiness of your store online. It comprises of the product descriptions and other text that goes on to the website. SEO optimized content will further be useful to rank your store high on the search engines. A well-researched content will not mislead the prospects and help you to retain the customers. It is observed that a bad experience will cause the customers to purchase from your competitors hampering your business.
Thus, it is advisable to use a good SEO optimized content on a website. This implies using the keywords appropriately in the content to reap maximum benefits from users and the search engines.
- Backlinks
Also known as inbound links, backlinks are HTML hyperlinks that direct from one website to another. Consider a scenario where you visit a town and ask a person which is the best museum in the town. If multiple people point out a specific museum you are confident that it indeed the best place to visit. This is exactly what backlinks do to your website. If many websites link back to your website, the search engines know that the website is authoritative. This helps to increase your rank on the search engines.
To build backlinks:
- Research the audience in your niche
- Find websites that provides information and products similar to yours
- Curate appropriate content which is well-researched.
- Reach out to these websites
- Product And Store Promotion
Now that you have set up your store and optimized it for search engines, the next step is to put your store and products in front of people out there and increase sales of the products you offer.
- Social Media
Earlier social media was nothing more than liking your friends’ photos and posting interesting activities about your life. But today, social media is much more than that. It has become one of the most influential tools on the internet with a vast network and reach. It plays a huge role in how people shop and shift towards online shopping.
To devise a social media strategy, start with the basics. Research about your target audience and the type of content that interests them. Design the strategy around your prospects which will make them feel that it benefits them. Make a content calendar including all the important days that are celebratory and curate well-researched content that is both informational and influential.
Next up, decide the format in which you want to present the content to the users. It could be anything from articles, videos, infographics, etc. It is not necessary to be present on all the social media platforms. Each business has some of the platforms that work well for them. Choose the platform that suits your business that best and go forward with implementing the strategy. You can even start with your social media strategy before setting up the store for brand awareness.
- Keyword Research
Since you already have a list of keywords, segregate them into broad match and ultra-specific keywords. Broad match keywords are used to push users down the funnel who have not yet made a buying decision. This will help them conclude and showing your ads at that specific time increases the chances of them purchasing from your store. Specific keywords will automatically show your ads to those who are sure of what they want and are looking for the best place to buy.
It is also advisable to target competitors’ keywords to influence users to buy from your store. However, care should be taken not to completely depend on the competitor’s branded terms since you could be penalized in certain situations.
- Audience Targeting
When you go for sponsored ads, targeting relevant audience is in your control. You can decide where and who will be able to see your ads for the keywords you targeted. This way you can be sure that the ads are delivered to those who are exactly looking for the products you offer.
- Set a Daily Budget
After you decide the keywords and the audience to target, set a budget. For beginners, it is advisable to make use of the automatic option. If you have experience in sponsored ads, set a daily budget that will help you reach your goals.
- Ad Design
There are different types of ads that you could use depending on your needs. For example, you could choose from text only, video, shopping ads, etc. Design the ads that capture the users’ attention by mentioning what products you offer, any discounts or any other added benefit. It should be noted that there is a character limit depending on the type of ads you choose.
After all the above-mentioned parameters are decided you are ready to make the campaign live and analyze its progress.
- Email Marketing
Email marketing is often the most underrated technique. But implementing this has huge benefits. Email marketing for WooCommerce stores helps you in the following ways,
- By making use of the popup feature gather email addresses of the users. This way you will have a list of the customers or prospects that can be used for further communication.
- Send follow up emails to the customers after a purchase and ask for their feedback.
- Make use of emails to reach users who have abandoned their carts after adding and item in it.
- Emails can also be used to offer surprise giveaways, weekly newsletters or information about offers and discounts.
- Some Extra Tips & Tricks
- Live Chat
It is a functionality that is used for prospective customers to help them with their buying decision and for customers who need help with their product they have already bought.
- Social signals
Social signals help websites to develop credibility among website users. Social signals collectively show shares, likes and overall social media engagement as perceived by search engines.
- Blog
Blog is a good medium to offer informational content to the website users and increase website traffic. It helps you to pull audience who needs answers to clear their doubts.
- Customer Reviews
Authentic customer review on the website will benefit you by building brand loyalty, boost sales and ultimately strengthen your company’s position in the market.
Now you have learned how to set up a store online and all that goes into promoting and making good sales. The last piece of advice is to identify and analyze your strong points by prioritizing the tasks and using the budget optimally. After all, the final goal of any business is to make profits and create a brand name in the market. All the best!