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The pandemic has resulted in a marked increase in the number of people shopping online. With stay-at-home orders in place and many brick-and-mortar businesses closed, consumers have turned to the internet for their shopping needs.
While this trend is likely to continue even after the pandemic ends, businesses need to keep up with this shift if they want to stay competitive. For e-commerce businesses, this means that it is more important than ever to have a strong online presence. By keeping up with the latest trends in e-commerce, businesses can ensure that they remain competitive in the marketplace.
Below are five of the most important updates you need to make to your website this year, and or, to consider with your new web design.
- Optimize keywords to improve your website.
Your website is your digital storefront, and just like any physical store, it needs to be optimally designed to attract customers. One of the most important aspects of website design is the use of keywords. Keywords are words and phrases that people use when searching for products or services on the internet. By including relevant keywords in your website content, you can ensure that your site appears at the top of search engine results pages, making it more likely to be seen by potential customers.
In addition to helping you attract more visitors, using keywords correctly can also help to improve your conversion rate by providing users with the information they need to make a purchase. With so many businesses competing for attention online, keyword optimization is critical for success.
Here are some more pointers to help you with your keyword research:
- Conduct a competitive analysis. By understanding how your competitors rank for key terms, you can guide your keyword research and identify opportunities to improve your SEO efforts. In addition, looking at where your competitors rank can also give you an idea of the level of competition for certain keywords. If you’re not ranking in the top spot, you’re missing out on potential conversions. As a result, monitoring your competition is essential for driving success in your SEO campaigns.
- Consider the competition for each keyword. If there are already a lot of websites competing for a particular keyword, it may be difficult to rank highly for that term. However, if you can find a less competitive keyword that still has a high search volume, you may have a better chance of ranking well.
- Make a list of all the relevant keywords for your business. Think about the products or services you offer and the terms that potential customers might use when searching for them. This will help you prioritize the most popular keywords and ensure that you’re targeting terms that people are searching for.
- Know where to place your keywords for maximum effect. When you are planning your SEO strategy, you need to think about which pages on your website will be the most relevant for your chosen keywords.
By taking the time to carefully select and place keywords throughout your website, you can improve your chances of ranking high in the search results and drawing more traffic to your site.
- System Upgrades for Payment and Security
As e-commerce platforms become more expansive, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to update their security and payment systems regularly. By updating these systems, businesses can help ensure that their customer’s information is protected from theft and that their transactions are processed securely.
While updating security and payment systems can be costly, the consequences of not doing so can be even more expensive. In the event of a data breach, businesses can lose customer trust, incur significant financial losses, and damage their reputation. As such, it is essential for businesses to invest in the latest security and payment technologies and to keep their systems up-to-date.
Here are some crucial actions you should do to strengthen the security of your e-commerce website:
- Make sure to use HTTPS for the whole website so that your visitors are protected from snooping.
- Never keep a record of a customer’s credit card information or other payment details.
- To help clients protect themselves, you can require a password from them when they access your system.
- Whenever possible, use security plug-ins.
- Aside from being good practice in general, backing up your site data regularly will help you avoid losing any of it should something happen.
- You can never be too careful when it comes to personal safety, so stay on the lookout for any suspicious activity that may occur.
- Educate yourself and your team on best practices for security and privacy. By staying up to date on the latest threats and trends, you can help keep your e-commerce site safe and secure.
- Conduct a UX Audit and Fix Any Issues
When conducting a UX audit, starting with analytics is a good place to start. Analytics can show you where users are leaving your site and which pages have a high bounce rate. This data can be used to pinpoint where UX issues need to be addressed.
Once you know where the problems are, you can start running tests to figure out how to fix them. For example, you could test different call-to-action buttons on a landing page to see which one generates the most conversions. By taking the time to conduct a UX audit and address any issues, you can improve the overall experience of your website and increase the likelihood that visitors will take the desired action.
Having a strong strategy is essential with any new Web Design project or the upgrade of any existing Website. Here are some key areas to look for in your UX audit to help you:
- Keep your page load time below two seconds.
- Make sure your website is responsive and adapts easily to different devices such as smartphones.
- Make it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for and get the most out of their experience.
- The site’s products are well-represented by clear photos and detailed descriptions.
- Make sure your site is easy to navigate.
- The checkout process should be optimized to reduce the amount of time spent waiting for customers and increase their engagement.
- Track Your Metrics and Make Necessary Improvement
Tracking your e-commerce metrics is key to understanding how your online store is performing. By understanding how your users interact with your site, you can make informed decisions about how to improve the overall experience.
Fortunately, there are many free tools available that can help you track relevant KPIs. One of the most popular options is Google Analytics. This tool allows you to track a variety of KPIs, including pageviews, bounce rate, and conversion rate. By understanding these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions about how to improve your UX and boost sales.
Here are some crucial metrics that e-commerce websites should generally monitor:
- Data on transactions and purchases
- Site visitors and organic traffic
- The lifetime value of a customer
- Impressions, reach, and interest
- Number of views and time spent per page
- A series of pages that users view
- Rate of conversion
- Rate of cart abandonment
- Rate of customer retention
- Rate of return and refund
By regularly auditing these critical areas of your UX, you can help ensure that your visitors have a positive experience on your site and keep coming back for more.
- Shifting to First- and Zero-Party Data Collection
As the world of marketing and advertising continues to evolve, so too must the way that companies collect and use data. In recent years, there has been a shift away from third-party data collection, as concerns about privacy and security have grown. Now, many companies are moving towards first-party and zero-party data collection instead.
First-party data is data that is collected by a company directly from its customers. This can be done through things like website cookies, sign-up forms, and customer surveys. Zero-party data is even more valuable, as it is voluntarily provided by the customer and can include detailed information about their preferences, behaviors, and demographics.
This shift has major implications for website design and development. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you must start planning now. That means collecting first-party and zero-party data on your website and using it to better understand your customers. It’s an essential part of remaining competitive in today’s market.
To make it easier for you, we’ve compiled a list of ways that will help collect data without disrupting the user experience:
- Sign Up. Asking consumers a few questions about their interests or concerns when they create an account will help you curate the first things you display them.
- Surveys and interactive quizzes. By asking users questions about their interests, you can better understand what they like and don’t like. This information can then be used to provide tailored recommendations for content or products.
- Social Media. Social media engagement tools like polls, sliders, and stickers may seem like simple ways to interact with your audience. However, they can be quite valuable in uncovering consumer behaviour and preferences.
- Discussion Popups or Conversational Popups. Conversational popups can be a great way to gather feedback from customers, but it’s important to choose the right time and place to use them. You don’t want to disrupt the customer experience by interrupting them while they’re in the middle of completing a task.
As technology evolves, so too must our websites. What was once cutting-edge can quickly become outdated, which is why it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and make sure your website is always up-to-date. By implementing the five updates discussed above, you’ll be in a much better position to draw in more customers, maximize online visibility, and increase your competitive edge.
