One of the strongest pieces of advice I have for small business ecommerce siteowners is to make sure they have given their website the human element.

Doing business online is about building trust. There are many tactics for building trust on an Ecommerce website, including security call-outs, customer reviews, and visible contact information. But at the top of the list is giving your website the human element.

People respond positively to seeing other people who they can connect with. You can build a human connection on your website in a variety of ways:

• Include your own photo.
• Include an audio or video introduction.
• Weave your story into your website which, hopefully, will convey your passion for your business.
• Include photos of other people using your product and possibly talking about your product. (I don’t recommend using generic stock photos.)
• Create characters (people or animals) and weave them throughout your site. Clever characters will help make your site standout and create an image that visitors will want to come back to later.

If your goal is to build a loyal following of customers, the place to start is to meet them with a warm, personal greeting when they first come to your site. The rectangular browser window is not an inherently personal place, but with a little creativity, you can bring the browser window to life for your customers and help them feel great about doing business with you.

Surely you have been bombarded with the conventional wisdom that you need  to be blogging. And the conventional wisdom makes sense: there are a lot of reasons that you should be building your expertise and authority via the blogosphere.

A key question is whether you should make your blog part of your website or set up a separate blog at a different url. There are pros and cons to both approaches. We will run through some of the key decision points.

Ease of Management

If you already manage your website through a  Content Management System (CMS) that gives you the ability to post articles, as well as allowing users to comment, it might be easiest to start blogging, or posting articles, through your  current website. Get your feet wet and make sure you are committed to posting on a regular basis.

But if you don’t have a solid CMS, or want to use a tool specifically made for blogging, you will likely want to go with one of the web-based tools like http://wordpress.com or http://tumblr.com. These tools are awesome for managing a blog. But keep in mind they are yet another place you need to go to manage your web content. Having lots of different logins can be overwhelming.

Assuming you, or someone on your team, has some technical expertise, a good option could be to install WordPress or other blogging software on your own server. Then you can harness all the power of Wordpress and have your blog posts woven into the fabric of your main website. This is a great approach, but you better be ready to install the necessary ongoing security patches. Blogging software is a prime target for those trying to hack into websites.

Tools/Functionality

I am a strong advocate of starting simple. If you have never blogged, you might want to start by adding an articles section to your site as you develop your voice. But if you have visions of being a power blogger, you really want to consider using a tool like Wordpress, which has an unending number of add-on functions that are easy to install and will allow you to add functionality to your blog over time.

SEO and Overall Exposure

As far as search engine exposure is concerned, you will find two differing opinions of whether you should make your blog part of your website. One school of thought is that the more content-rich pages you add to your website, the better. You will be giving Google more pages and content to index. The other school of thought is that there is benefit to developing a network of website domains that are utilized for different purposes. Interlinked websites can help you broaden your reach.

If you currently have very little content on your site, other than products, then adding the blog to your site is an excellent idea for SEO purposes. But if your site is already brimming over with articles and information, a blog at a separate domain, with a focused message, can be an excellent approach. Just be sure you are driving traffic back to your main site.

Personal Branding

Part of your business strategy might be to develop a blog that is a little on the personal side – more of an effort to build your personal brand and assert your expertise. Having a separate domain for your blog can help creative a bit of a buffer. This can be a good thing, if you are planning to push the envelope a bit and don’t want your personal views front and center for all your customers, but only a certain segment.

Cost

Services like wordpress.com and tumblr.com are free/low-cost and super-easy to get going with. These can be a great place to jump in. Your hosting company might offer blogging add-ons at a low cost or you might be able to add open source software that will effectively cost you nothing but the time to install it and maintain it. You likely shouldn’t have to pay more than $10/mo. for a full-featured blogging platform. If it is in your budget, it could pay to work with a designer who specializes in developing blogs and can take care of all the details.

Conclusion

Blogging successfully requires that you develop a routine. There is nothing worse than a blog that is not getting updated. As a first step into blogging, I would choose the option that you feel makes ongoing management the easiest for you. Once you develop your voice, consider whether an on-site blog will give you an added boost with SEO and overall exposure or if you can utilize a managed service elsewhere that has all the bells and whistles you need.

If you have an Ecommerce website it is likely that a significant percentage of your customers/traffic come from the search engines. I bet you know that already.

Without listings on the first page of the SERPs (search engine results pages) you are likely to get a marginal amount of traffic. Again, no surprises.

So, as you strive to get those premium listings here is a key point to consider:

If you have the exact same product names and descriptions as 40 other sites, the odds of your site getting top placement goes down dramatically. The most common cause of this problem is when you get your product data from an upstream distributor. Guess what? You and every other retailer is getting the exact same data. If you just plunk it on your website – you are going to have the same content as everyone else. That is not a good path to search engine success.

Furthermore, with the increasing importance of Comparison Shopping Engines and other search tools, you really need to consider your product skus and product images. Sure it is easy to grab your vendors images. But if a shopper identifies that you have the same item as every other retailer out there and you are not competing on price, your odds of getting the first crack at the sale are going to drop.

Of course, there are many ways to compete successfully besides price, but you’ve got to get people to your site so you can make the case for the sale.

The more you can shape your data and make it your own, the better off you will be on many levels. When you have thousands of products – and limited time – you need to take a pragmatic approach to managing your data. Perhaps you can start by focusing on your top sellers and see if the effort to develop compelling and unique product data leads to an increased return in sales.

A good way to gauge how many sites are out there with identical products is to pick an arbitrary product on your site and copy and paste a string of text from the description, with quotes around it, into the Google search box. You might be surprised to find out who else is selling your products.

Data. Data. Data. The Internet  is one giant database. To the extent you can make some of that data your own, you will be able to stick out above the crowd. When vying for Ecommerce sales, that is a good thing.

Greetings at 1:03 in the morning on November 1, 2009. We are upping the ante with the MightyMerchant Ecommerce Blog by jumping on the NaBloPoMo express.

What the heck is that, you ask? NaBloPoMo is short for National Blog Posting Month. It is, among other things, a commitment to do one blog post a day for the entire month.

Our ground rules are simple:

1. We will post at least once every day in November.

2. Each post will be LONGER than 140 characters. If not, then why the heck not just tweet it.

3. All posts will be somehow related to Ecommerce and web marketing for small business.

Blogging is a regular habit that needs to be cultivated and it is also a key piece of a successful social media strategy that many small ecommerce businesses should consider. A significant percentage of the businesses we work with often get stuck and frustrated right out of the gate and end up in the pile of dead and discarded blogs. (Ooh, that is a disturbing image.)

Of course, there are also the superstars who stick with it and learn to post great content on a regular basis and develop a loyal following.

Big talk ain’t worth much in the web business. We see a lot of so-called social media experts regurgitating all the bullet points about what you should be doing to be successful. Well, we are putting our money where our mouth is by getting in the daily blogging habit ourselves. And, hey, if NaBlogPoMo is inspirational to you, please join us and let us know.

Game on!

I am working on a longer article right now about the successful characteristics of an ecommerce micro-business. I am talking about businesses with 1-3 employees that are deriving their entire income from their website.

In the past year – which will go down as an ugly one – we have seen some of these micro-businesses in our customer base flourish and some stagnate or fail. What separates the success stories from the horror stories?

Without giving away the whole article, one of the big factors is a simple one. Take a look at your site – from the perspective of a new user – and ask this question: Do I see anything useful?

If all you have on your website is your products, your odds of being successful start to plummet. At the point, you have articles, seasonal tips, instructions, product reviews, suggestions, and easily accessible help, your site has a chance of standing out.

It takes work to create good content. But as the level of sophistication and expectation of the average Internet shopper rises, your site also needs to rise to the occasion.

Even if you are not ready to take the full social media plunge, it is crucial that you use your site to build a relationship with your customers. By providing useful and interesting information, related to your product line, you stand a good chance of beginning that relationship in a positive way.

Web shoppers are getting smarter all the time. A website that you created five years ago might have passed muster for the typical shopper, but with increased competition from other small merchants as well as the big players you need to make sure you are covering every aspect of putting forth a professional and trustworthy presence.

How are you doing in these areas:

1. Providing relevant third-party certifications.

2. Developing on-site and off-site reviews of your products and services.

3. Keeping your website up-to-date and filled with relevant information.

4. Building your personal identity and credibility.

5. Creating a professional-looking web presence.

We have just posted a detailed article on our HERO-web.com website discussing a range of areas you want to consider to build your credibility.

View the full article:  Establishing Your Credibility

No, I’m not talking about the newest bestseller or what you have on your Kindle 2. I’m asking about how you read web pages.

What do you look at first when you visit a website? How much time do you spend on a page?

How you answer these questions will give you insight into how much text you should have on your homepage or how much text you should include with your product descriptions.

The truth is that website visitors rarely read web pages, they scan. Typically, they scan the text first and then look for the navigation.

Why do website visitors scan text?

• In our modern busy life is we don’t have the time or energy to work for the information
• We have been conditioned to click on links… immediately!
• There are so many pages to see and not enough time to see them
• Reading on the computer for long periods of time is tiring to the eyes

Become a Scan Master

There are several key things you can do to increase the “scan-ability” of your website content:

• Use bulleted lists
• Draw attention to keywords by using links, color or bold text
• Limit each paragraph to one idea
• Cut out the fluff  -  visitors tend to tune-out “marketing speak”
• Reduce the word count – about half as much as conventional writing
• Use subheadings

If you can master these techniques, you will capture your visitor’s attention and keep them coming back.

Anyone who has read my Web Development Team bio knows that when I’m not busy keeping hundreds of websites running smoothly behind the scenes, I’m on the quest for rock stardom. This endeavor recently led me to research purchasing a microphone for my makeshift home studio. Of course, this meant some sleuthing on the Internet to find what was right for my needs.

After a bit of research, I narrowed my possible options and began looking for people’s opinions on what would end up being my final decision. Like any good consumer, I popped over to my favorite search engine and started searching for reviews of this mic.

I clicked on one of the first results that popped up, and began reading the reviews. I read at least one before I realized something: This wasn’t just a site for music gear enthusiasts, it was an online store selling the mic I was researching! Well played, music gear website.

This website was successfully using what is becoming ever more necessary in an increasingly crowded marketplace: useful, relevant content! What’s more, they didn’t even have to expend the time and energy to produce it themselves. Passionate consumers were willing to take their time to express their experiences with the product, and share it for free with this company, which was then kind enough to share it with me. Providing a mechanism for submitting reviews got them content, which in turn got their site near the top of Google, without any cost or effort beyond the initial setup!

There are steps you can take to achieve the same goals. Think about what you offer, and what your target audience would likely be interested to read about. If you sell art supplies, provide some craft ideas (or elicit your visitors to send some in!). Sell Kitchen supplies? Why not ask customers to submit their favorite seasonal recipes?

Some of our most successful sites are those that are actively providing content. Mechanic equipment supplier DenLors Tools posts articles on automotive repair. Dog treat retailer Best Bully Sticks provides Dog Care Tips, as well as asks customers to submit photos of dogs using their products. Search engines are much bigger fans of sites that continue to gradually add content as opposed to being completely static.

You could also try what started this topic off in the first place: Add the ability for customers to submit product reviews (This feature is now available for MightyMerchant sites).

Using Google Analytics, you can then track what is drawing people to your site. The Content section will allow you to view what landing pages people are entering your site from, as well as what keywords led people to those pages, showing you what content might be good to focus on. You can even discover what other sites are linking to your content, which can give you a better idea of how traffic is finding it’s way to your site. This is just scratching the surface of how Google Analytics can help you determine what works and what doesn’t.

Any way you dice it, appropriate content is one of the most crucial components to draw traffic to your site. It’s beneficial to you as a site owner, and gives your visitors more reasons to find and stay on your pages.

Partially due to those reviews, I ended up buying that microphone. Although keeping a big chunk of the World Wide Web ticking along is a bigger priority these days than rock stardom, I don’t regret my purchase one bit.

Few topics lend themselves to as much theorizing and postulating as Search Engine Optimization. And it makes perfect sense. Google’s secret sauce is – well, in a word – secret.

It is high-level sport (and a big business) to put forth ideas about exactly how Google is ranking web pages at any given moment. We have a list of about 45 key factors that we look at. I would be happy to send that list to anyone who is interested.

The core factors are pretty much agreed upon: page titles, on-page content, and incoming links. And then you get into all the stuff that falls under the category of “esoteric hotly-debated SEO factors”.

For example – shared ip addresses. (The practice of putting more than one domain on an ip address.) Some search engine marketers will be sure that using a shared ip is the nail in the SEO coffin or will at least cause grave penalty. Others have a more rational approach on the matter.

Here is an interesting post from the folks at Google weighing in on some of the hot-button seo questions. At this point the post is a little dated, but, taken at face value, it shows that Google intent is to provide and continue to strive for flexibility and intelligence in how it crawls  content.

Although your latest theory about whether you should have 14 or 15 characters in your domain name might have a tad of validity, you would probably be better off putting your time into reviewing Google’s webmaster guidelines and then focusing on providing useful and engaging content for your users.

Tags: seo, factors,, search, engine, optimization

Ok. Ok. I know the calendar has not yet flipped over to October, but if you have not yet started contemplating your holiday ecommerce strategy, it is time to get going.

With all the funkiness in the financial markets and the presidential race leaving many in suspended animation, there is no question this year brings with it a few added complexities. But business is business, and now is the time to plan out your course for online success. Here are a few areas to consider:

1. Have you started preparing your website messaging to reflect the upcoming holidays? Letting your customers know that you are welcoming them for their holiday shopping is key. This can be accomplished with good copywriting and some accompanying holiday-themed images.

2. Have you thought about which products will be your best sellers? You want to be pushing those on your home page? If you have relevant holiday related products, be sure those are also front and center, and not buried somewhere on your site. Any great gift ideas should be featured on the home page.

3. Have you considered what kind of specials might work well for you at this time of year and how you can promote those either via email marketing, search engine exposure, or other promotions on your site? If there is anything you can do to specifically cater to holiday shoppers (perhaps with gift wrapping or special shipping arrangements), take a few minutes to create a well-optimized page explaining what you are doing.

4. And how about email marketing?  Now is the time to start crafting your campaigns for the next few months to drive holiday traffic to your web site. A well-timed email blast will work wonders. You don’t want to overdo it, but think about a schedule for holiday email blasts and start preparing your copy.

If you do your preparation now you will be ready to roll out your marketing when the time is right and might even have a little time left over to do a little of your own stress-free holiday shopping!

Tags: ecommerce,, shopping,, marketing,, strategy