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10 Defects in the Online shop – and How to Fix Them

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10 Defects in the Online shop – and How to Fix Them

Good online shops are a rare breed – they’re convenient, they’re accessible and they offer a wide variety of products. But there are always problems in paradise, and these 10 shopping problems highlight them. These defects will not only make your life harder – the lack of an adequate response might also cause you to take your business elsewhere. But with our advice and guide to business registration in the USA, you can learn how to keep your customers satisfied. So, which of these 10 problems do you have?

✖1. You’re not clear about the shipping charges.

It’s the most common problem with online shopping portals and it often has a simple solution: communication. If you declare your shipping costs, at the beginning of the purchase process, you are less likely to lose customers before they’ve even completed their order. Make sure that your homepage is as easy to navigate as possible and that you have no problem communicating with customers on social media.

  • Develop a transparent pricing system that clearly shows all price components: product price, shipping price (including all eventual costs), and VAT (or other applicable tax). You can make it even more convenient for customers by including a calculator that enables them to estimate the final overall cost of their order.

✖2. Customer service doesn’t respond promptly.

Just like any other online shop, online stores need to provide customer service, and your customer service team has many people to answer the phone, solve problems and help customers from all over the world. If you don’t respond quickly to messages or don’t give customers sufficient information about the status of their orders you risk losing them as customers – and once again as potential return buyers.

  • Make your customer service as efficient and accessible as possible, not just via e-mail but also through social networks. In addition to providing immediate help, you can be proactive in predicting trouble and anticipating problems. This will help you respond more efficiently to customer needs and improve your service.

✖3. You don’t show the shipment status online.

In the most recent years, online shipping companies have improved considerably, making it easier for customers to track their packages in real-time using web portals and mobile apps. But while they provide tracking services, online shops often fail to communicate the status of the order online.

  • Don’t just leave things up to your shipping provider. Make it as easy as possible for your customer to track their order. Add a tracking number or link to your homepage, your delivery confirmation email, or any other communication with them. If possible, provide a localized response, so you can specify costs for different parts of the world and provide an accurate estimate of delivery costs in advance.

✖4. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly.

Almost 80% of internet users use a mobile device to browse websites. For online stores it means that you need to view your website from the perspective of a mobile user – otherwise, you endanger your customer’s shopping experience.

  • Test your website on multiple devices and make sure that it works on all modern web browsers (mobile and desktop). You can do that with free tools like the Google Chrome Frame plug-in for Internet Explorer or phone emulators like Opera Mini, which allows you to see how your site looks on different phones.

✖5. You ask them to register before they buy.

More and more people browse online stores on their mobile devices and expect these stores to be fully responsive. According to a recent report, this is quite an important issue because most online shoppers will abandon websites that don’t work well on their smartphones. It’s unfortunate, but as soon as a customer receives a message like “You need to register to make purchases”, it’s very likely that they will abandon your store and look for another one.

  • Have a clear call-to-action on your homepage, which guides customers through the entire process of purchasing and gives them access, regardless of the device they use. In addition, you should ask them to register only if it is necessary to complete the purchase or access special offers or offers that cannot be completed otherwise (eg. free delivery).

✖6. You don’t use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free service that provides a lot of valuable information about your website in real-time, allowing you to understand how users interact with your site and what content works best for them. You can use these statistics to improve your website and increase its efficiency.

  • Write down your website’s URL in the analytics section of Google and install a tracking code on every page of your site. If you’re using any other analytics service you can use a Google Analytics plugin for that.

✖7. You don’t use simple and convenient payment methods.

Most online shoppers are more comfortable when they can complete a purchase without having to enter their credit card data multiple times or create an account. That’s why payment with PayPal is becoming even more popular.

  • Select the most convenient payment method (eg. PayPal, iDEAL, Sofortüberweisung) according to your market and provide easy access with no unnecessary links or redirects (eg. PayPal login button).

✖8. You don’t respect their data.

Online stores often collect information about their customers, such as an email address, a password, and a phone number for which they should be given more control over how it is used. But sometimes this information is revealed without an obvious “opt-in” when customers have no idea that it is being collected and when they don’t get to choose whether to share this information with you or not.

  • Make sure that the information you collect is essential and relevant to your customers (eg. email address for password recovery). Never collect a customer’s address or phone number, because of the risk of being a fraud (according to legislation in different countries).

✖9. You are not serious about operating as an online store.

In most cases, online stores are simply websites on which they sell products. But many online stores do more than just sell products by taking orders, writing and delivering them directly, or reselling them from other retailers – they operate according to business rules that differ from those that apply in brick-and-mortar shops.

  • If you want to sell a product that’s in high demand, you need enough stock to satisfy all your customers. If you have any special offers or sale items, list them on your website and make sure that you have the appropriate amount of stock.

✖10. You don’t use any marketing tools.

Marketing tools help you promote your online store and reach new customers while monitoring your online presence through Google Analytics and creating valuable customer profiles through Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Marketing tools are developed for a wide range of resources – from time-poor bloggers and small business owners to large companies with a budget for comprehensive marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

  • Keep an eye on your website stats for free with Google Analytics. Set up a free account with HubSpot, which allows you to set up tracking links and learn about your users, or start with a free trial of MailChimp, which enhances your online store by providing the opportunity to send marketing emails at low cost.

Conclusion

As you can see, many pitfalls can negatively affect the success of your online store. It’s not easy to stay on track and avoid these mistakes, but with the right knowledge, it is possible to avoid them. This article will help you learn what things might go wrong – so take a look at it every time you’re launching a new site or updating your current one. If you know other reasons why sites fail, please share them in the comments below.

 

company SEO

SEO Marketing Strategies for Logistics and Transportation Companies

Getting your transportation website to the top of Google search results is difficult. However, it is essential to ensure that your company gets more customers. SEO helps manage your content to attract the awareness of web crawlers.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of operations designed to increase your company’s visibility on search engine results pages. Keywords and other SEO methods for logistics help search engines recognize the website as a credible source, thus maintaining its position at the top of search results.

A solid online presence and high Google organic search ranking can create a thousand differences, particularly in logistics and transportation.

In this blog, let’s find out why SEO is important for logistics and transportation companies. Let us also understand a few strategies for your company’s SEO to start getting more customers and increasing revenue.

What is SEO?

SEO is a crucial part of digital marketing. It increases the quality and quantity of website traffic by raising its visibility to online search engine users. SEO also improves unpaid results and removes sponsored traffic and advertising placement.

SEO is based on how search engine’s function, or their algorithms, which determine the ranking of web pages on the SERP. The major goal is to evaluate the data collected to determine the target audience’s chosen search engines and popular keywords and then build the website to acquire a higher ranking in SERPs since a higher rank means more quality and quantity of visitors.

Why Is SEO Important for Transportation and Logistics Companies?

Since no one has the time to examine every one of these companies, they have to limit their choices to the most significant ones in the industry. Since search is increasingly changing into the most effective element for researching companies, the websites that rank higher receive the most attention.

Here are the following significant factors for your organization:

 Increase the visibility of your business

The company website’s organic rating on every search engine is due to SEO. Using a user-friendly approach can help you attract leads. There is a strong correlation between your website’s search engine ranking and its potential to generate significant traffic volumes.

Credibility

A well-managed SEO allows you to establish credibility with prospective customers. To keep your site visitors focused, you should provide them with a good user experience and high-quality presentations of your products and services.

When a visitor has a positive experience while browsing your website, there is a possible chance that they will come back to see your website in the future.

The generation of traffic to your website

By increasing your site’s organic search engine ranks based on its high-quality, engaging content, an efficient SEO helps to bring in targeted visitors. To turn these qualified leads into paying customers, you must ensure they have a positive experience while on your website.

How Do SEO Help Transportation and Logistics Companies?

Most people use Google or other search engines to find a transportation and logistics provider.

Increasing competition in the industry increases the importance of attracting visitors to your website. Or else potential customers will go with your competitors.

Hence, this makes it more challenging to separate yourself from the competition. It might appear not easy to reach a high-ranking spot-on Google’s first page, mainly if you are a start-up.

Here are the best strategies to benefit your company and how SEO can help logistics and transportation companies. 

SEO Strategies for Transportation and Logistics Companies

Websites are ranked by search engines based on various variables, and it may take several weeks for your plan to start having a result. 

Therefore, plan development will take time, but if you are committed to your strategy, your rankings and company performance may benefit.

Website optimization

When you plan for SEO, you need to make sure that your site is set up to support the SEO keywords or research you have. It might indicate a few modifications to how things are set up, or it could mean a complete redesign of your site to make the most of what you have. 

Long-form web pages with well-informed, relevant material and search term content that visitors will refer to based on their searches. They’re broad and handle significant topics in depth. It also enables hyper-specific blog entries that connect back to the pillar page. 

Establishing a web on your site improves SEO keywords; instead of producing regular posts with keywords packed into the body. 

Keywords optimization

Use the selected keywords and phrases in the site’s title and header. It’s also a good idea to create a list of your services, with a different page for each.

With this feature, users of search engines can skip over unnecessary content and get directly to the page that contains the data they need. Using more narrowly focused keywords increases the likelihood of attracting qualified leads.

Select your keywords by first establishing your objective and your business strategy. Create further ideas by:

  • Google’s autocompleting feature
  • Searching through the list of similar queries
  • Checking your competitors’ websites and analyzing the keywords on various pages
  • Using an SEO tool to create keywords

Being active on social media 

Social media is an external ranking component. An active social media profile may increase site rankings and allow you to reach new audiences. Therefore, your business should develop and maintain accounts on sites where prospective consumers hang out.

Keep your readers updated with daily posts that provide relevant links to new content and news updates. If you follow your customers and promote their content, they might follow you and share yours in return. 

Joining in debates on industry-related groups is another excellent way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and boost your online reputation, which bring more visitors to your website.

Increase links

High-quality links (or backlinks) are also another critical factor in ranking higher in search results. Compelling a logistics site may take some time, but your results may increase significantly with good keyword implementation.

The worst thing that might happen is that website owners decline your request to add a link. Therefore, start by looking for current references. Contact business associates who might provide a connection and nearby companies and websites. It is crucial to look at these sites’ domain authority and traffic to ensure they are high quality and will significantly boost your site.

Creating high-quality content

Producing high-quality content helps search engines like Google and Bing recognize your website as a credible resource. Maintaining a high ranking in search results needs regular updates of quality content to a blog. Every word on your website is “read” by search engines.

Writing blog entries improves the number of keywords on your site while keeping its quality.

Blogging is an excellent method to regularly bring new content to your site, but you should also explore content in other forms such as infographics, videos, and white papers. This material can be developed about nearly anything in your sector, such as typical transportation concerns or difficulties.

Identifying your competitors

Keep your business and keyword competitors in mind when developing an SEO marketing plan for your logistics and transportation company. Business competitors are other transportation businesses constantly on your radar, and you need to keep an eye on them. Keyword competitors might exist in the SEO field as well. 

Businesses seeking the exact keywords as you are considered “keyword competitors,” even though they don’t necessarily compete with you for customers.

With the help of a good marketing agency and SEO software, you can find out which keywords drive the most traffic to your competitor’s websites. If the keyword fits your business, you can also try to rank for it. Therefore, you will steal their website traffic and suddenly get more leads. 

Build relationships

Relationships are crucial to the success of any logistics plan. Therefore, getting out into the community should be a must. Use LinkedIn and Facebook groups dedicated to the transportation, supply chain, and logistics sectors to interact with other businesses. Build these connections by posting regularly.

Another marketing possibility is trade events. Anyone can network with other logistics service providers, exchange business cards, and meet potential customers. With these in-person interactions, visitors can see your personality and get a more profound sense of your business. 

However, trade events are not always accessible, so you must have a few additional techniques.

Promote your content on search engines and directories

Creating blog articles and content with SEO may increase your search engine rating. Your website will rank better in search results when particular keywords are entered. You may purc½hase advertising on Google and Bing to boost your exposure. 

By applying to logistics directories, you can improve the number of visitors to your website. Using these tools may increase the number of backlinks pointing to your website from lawful businesses. Logistics List and Nolo are two large-scale indexes.

Final Thoughts

Developing a strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) may initially seem intimidating, but it’s another tool you can use to promote awareness of your business.

Search engines have transitioned from being a customer resource to a robust marketing tool, and they can be an incredibly effective way to connect with new customers. However, for your business to profit, it must be in the top results, and the only way to do this is through SEO.