View your Website as a High Street Shop

More people walk by shop windows in the main thoroughfare than pass outlets in obscure sidestreets Similarly, successful retailers go to great lengths to create stylish window displays to entice customers in while others simply clutter up their shop fronts without giving much thought to presentation.

Despite such obvious characteristics of the competitive High Street retailing environment, most online businesses think that all they have to do to join the internet retailing boom is to get a website built and then sit back and wait for the orders to start rolling in.

Although it is true that online business is growing at a far faster pace than anything that is happening at street level, it is no good thinking that all you have to do is establish your web presence and leave the power of the worldwide web to do the rest.That may have worked for the early movers like Lastminute.com and Amazon who were operating largely unopposed but the web is so much more mature these days that there are now tens of thousands of operators in every sector all jostling for the same business.

In today’s much more mature environment, it is essential that web-based businesses get back to basics and learn the simple lessons of how the High Street has evolved ; why is a prime site so vital and, secondly, why is presentation so important ?

First and foremost, you have to have as many shoppers walking by as possible and, secondly, you have to entice as many of them as possible to come into your store and buy something.  Exactly the same ground rules apply in the online environment.

Therefore your website first needs to be seen and then it needs to be as attractive and interesting as possible while still being functional. If your site suffers from poor presentation, unnecessary clutter and difficult navigation, it is odds on that your prospective customers will either get bored or confused and walk out before they even see your product and the price.

It is amazing how many budding new web businesses still think they can establish a serious presence in the marketplace without investing anything upfront. You wouldn’t dream of opening a physical shop without investing something on basic design and fixtures and fittings. Even a simple sandwich business needs a counter or a van and yet people somehow pretend that the Internet is different and that different rules apply i.e. you don’t need to invest anything in infrastructure and you certainly don’t need to have an advertising budget.

People tend to get so bedazzled by the potential of the Web that they often get deluded into assuming that they can get an awful lot in exchange for very little.
Of course there are examples of Internet tycoons starting off on their kitchen table with no more than an off- the- peg website and a great idea but regrettably these are the exceptions rather than the rule.

This is not to say that you need to spend thousands on developing and promoting your website. While it is still possible to buy internet success by investing millions in site development and advertising ( like the price comparison portals ), smaller businesses can achieve rapid growth in online generated turnover by investing a bit more upfront when they build their site and by setting aside a modest amount for regular web-based advertising.

Simply put, a commercial website put together for under a thousand pounds is likely to look like a bargain basement job. Furthermore, even if you have the most exciting looking site on the Internet, it is not going to earn you a penny if nobody sees it. You therefore have to allow a certain amount even if it is only £50 or
£ 500 a month to get yourself a “ prime “ position on the Internet highway where your site will be seen.

Most new entrants into e-commerce don’t even know that their marketing / advertising effort starts with the first few lines of their first webpage. This is because the most powerful drivers of prospective customers to a website are the search engines, particularly Google. Shoppers looking for a particular item or service will almost certainly use a search engine to find what they are looking for and, if they cant see your website, they cant find you !

Search engines like Google employ all sorts of highly sophisticated algorithms to guide web users to the pages that are most likely to fill their search request. A basic knowledge of how these engines work is imperative before you even begin typing the title of your website, let alone the first few paragraphs of your content. This is because Google will automatically prioritise your website according to the number of keywords and key phrases that appear towards the top of your site.

An experienced Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ) writer will be able to sprinkle such keywords and phrases around your website’s narrative so that it appears natural to both your readers and Google. In simple terms, if you sell pies, it is no use repeating the word “ Pies “ on its own every few lines. It risks boring readers and alerting Google to obvious keyword repetition or “ stuffing”.

Compare these two examples of opening paragraphs :

 “ You’ve come to the right place if you have a penchant for pies.  Here at Polly’s Pies, we have been handcrafting pies according to traditional pie recipes ever since Polly Perkins first baked her famous blackberry and apple pies here in Devon way back in 1922.  We use only organic, locally sourced ingredients in our pies to give you the authentic taste of country - made pies in your own home wherever you happen to live “

or :

“ Welcome to Polly’s Pies where we faithfully reproduce traditional recipes created by Polly Perkins herself in 1922. Our delicious sweet and savoury pies can be delivered to you from Devon overnight while they are still nearly warm ! Using only organic, locally sourced ingredients, we can offer you a wide variety of traditional favourites such as :
• Steak & Kidney Pies
• Chicken and Ham Pies
• Pork Pies
• Blackberry & Apple Pies
• Gooseberry Pies

Notice how both paragraphs contain the word “Pies “  7 times which is more than ample. The difference is that the former has clearly been written with Google and the keyword “ Pies “ in mind first and the customer second. It is a clumsy attempt at SEO which ends up as waffle. The second paragraph, by contrast, is much more user friendly telling the reader right away that they can have overnight delivery and giving clear examples of the type of fare on offer. The use of the word “ Pies” in the bullet point format constitute key phrases that are both logical and inconspicuous. Finally, the second version will stand a much better chance of also attracting more definitive searches for items such as Steak & Kidney Pies, Pork Pies etc.

If you have the time and inclination to study SEO content writing yourself, you can clearly write your website on your own. Alternatively, you could use a professional content writer. Just remember the old adage “ Buy cheap, buy twice”. We know of one client who finally came to us having tried 2 SEO writing services advertised on the net at silly prices. One was based in India, the other in the USA and both scripts were useless. You should be able to get more local SEO copy by someone who is more familiar with your market for about £    per 250 words.

Once you have had your site written or re-written with the right density of keywords and phrases in your page titles, tags and content, the next stage in your quest to climb the Google rankings and attract more visitors to your site is to consider your ongoing internet marketing budget and strategy. There are some obvious things you can do which are free. For instance, in our example above, you could locate someone who supplies clotted cream by post and suggest you carry a link to their site if they carry one to yours.

Not only do links serve to attract suitable customers to websites but they carry significant weight with Google. The more links to your site from other relevant sites the better, even if you have to pay for them. Finally, allow the rest of your budget for pay per click adwords or even banners on other appropriate sites related to organic food etc.

Always remember that, at the end of the day, your website is essentially still only a shop. It may not have physical premises but it still needs an attractive shop window and it still needs customers to come in. Professional internet marketing and SEO services usually cost less than traditional non – digital advertising and should form the core of your promotional budget.