Getting your products on to google shopping

If you sell products through your website then you should consider getting them listed on Google Shopping. When search for a product n Google, often at the top of the page are the Google shopping results. These allow people to compare prices for products either across the web or near to them in stores.

Because there is often limited information on the shopping page, it is vital that you use really high-quality good images to sell your products. You need to make them as appealing as possible.

When creating your product images, Google has some guidelines that you need to adhere to such as the images must be over 32 x 32 pixels, ideally 250 x 250, not upscaled, not have a watermark or logo/text overlaid on the image and do not include more than one product in the image unless being sold as a set.

You will need to have a Google Merchant account to list through Google shopping, but this account is free to set up and is very user-friendly. From here you can upload your products in a number of ways and once approved, they will start to show on the Google shopping results. You will need to optimise your products in a certain way to get the best visibility for them, but all of this is covered in the setting up process that you can follow through Google merchant centre.

Ways in which you can improve your website

If you have a website it is important to be constantly maintaining it. This may be by adding more content, changing the design or layout or simply testing that it is all working as it should. When it comes to redesigning your site there are a few things to bear in mind which may help you understand what it is you need to do.

Before making any changes ensure you have a plan of how you want it to look and function at the end. Take a full back up and ideally always work on a copy of your site  (test site) rather than on the live site that may be visited by customers.

Social media is such a huge part of many people’s lives now that it makes sense to include it on your website. Be sure you have active profiles that are updates and then put links on your website to your social media profiles. You may want to add share buttons on articles to allow them to be easily shared between the reader and their friends.

Don’t be afraid of white space. Some people think that they need to ensure that every bit of white space is used up but actually sometimes having the space can give your website a cleaner feel and make it easily to navigate through.

 

Promoting your USP

All businesses should have some sort of USP (Unique Selling Point). This may be a product that you offer that is patented meaning no one else has the rights to copy and sell it, or you may be the UK’s only authorised seller. For some businesses, their USP can be something like all their products are handmade or made locally. This may not be 100% unique but is often a reason to push their brand over their competition, if this is something they do not do.

When looking at your website you need to ensure that it confidently states your USP in a number of different ways. People need to be given a reason to buy from you over and above other competitors on the market.

It may be that you show the process of how your product is made or have clear testimonials and reviews which state the quality and time that have gone into the product to make it special. If you offer personalised gifts then you should make a point of saying why it is nice to give personalised gifts.

Always review your site from time to time to ensure that your USP is still obvious and not become hidden in with other elements of the website.

Adding calls to action to your website

A website can be a great selling platform for your website. It can be a way to sell products or service or as a brochure to attract people to make an enquiry or come and visit a showroom or shop. Calls to action can be a simple “Buy Now” link or a graphic containing images and text with a “Click Here” or “Enquire” button on.

There are a huge number of ways to interact with your audience through a call to action. Ideally, you will want to use a designer to create a few different call to action banners that you may want to use throughout the site. A designer will have the expertise to know what wording and graphics to use to entice people to click. You can often set up goals in your analytical tracking software to see how many people have clicked on your banner or completed an enquiry form etc. This will allow you to see which banners are working most effectively.

Some of the best call to actions are ones that people can relate to. You may decide to show or write about a common problem and then advertise your product or service that can rectify the problem. If you need to get sign ups then you may have a banner which shows the benefits of signing up such as entered in to a prize draw, receive monthly offers etc.

 

 

 

Adding functionality to a website

Over time websites can become stale and outdated and it is important to regularly update not only the content but also the design and functionality.  You may have had a website designed a few years ago and at the time it did exactly what you and your customers needed it to but over time, as technology advances and customers become more aware of exactly what they want to buy, you need to ensure that you update your own website to reflect this.

It may be that you need to add a login area for your visitors to view past orders, or a tracking facility so they can see when an item should arrive. All of this can improve your conversions on your website and increase sales.

Adding functionality can be tricky on a live site, so it is advisable to create a copy of the website and work on that first. This will allow you to test it thoroughly before you swap it over to the live site. Even if you have tested your work, always ensure you have taken a back up of the current site in case anything goes wrong and you need to revert back to it.

 

 

Are you thinking about redesigning your website?

As with all marketing and technology, over time things advance and it may become apparent that you need to do some major changes to your website in order to stay on top of your game. The first thing to do is have a look through your website and work out what works and what you need to keep and then other sections that you feel need to be removed or change. Using your analytics data is a good way to check what pages your visitors are viewing and how long they are spending on them.

Next, have a look round at other websites from within your industry and also some that are not in your industry but authority sites such as the BBC or large retailers if you are looking to have an e-commerce website. Make notes of sections you like that you could incorporate into your site but be careful not to copy a website exactly as this may be protected and you could find yourself in trouble.

Make a framework to show how you want your website to look and the functionality that need to be included and then speak to a designer to see what ideas they can come up with to incorporate it all.

 

 

How to make your adverts appealing to the right people

If you have a website are looking to sell products on there then you may want to create some banner type adverts to splash across your site. Getting advertising right is key to the success of an e-commerce website and can really make a huge difference to sales figures.

When creating an advert it is often worth investing in a designer rather than trying to make them yourself. You will need to ensure that the images used are of a high quality and fit the space where you will need your banner to go.

It’s not only images that are important on a banner but the wording can often be the difference between someone clicking on your add or not. If you have too much content on there then people may not have time to read through it and therefore not click or if you have too little people may be put off clicking as they may not know exactly where they are going to be taken. Often words like “Click Here” or “take a look inside” are used on banners to show people exactly what they need to do. Your banner ad should contain a brief description of the product they are going to see and the action they need to take.

 

 

Making products to sell

If you have a fare for crafts and are able to make your own jewellery or stitch beautiful dresses then you may consider selling them online. There are many places where you can sell items online such as eBay or Esty. These sites will allow you to list items for sale and for them to be shown on their website and possibly on others as adverts. You will need to consider how much each one costs to make in terms of materials and also your time. You need to be sure that you are selling them to make a profit and are not going to end up losing money.

You should also set up a business with HMRC as you will have to do a tax declaration, although this is not normally due for approximately 18 months (depending on when the business started). You need to make sure that you keep good business records of all your sales and your expenses and have receipts and invoices to back this up.

You may also need to take out insurance to cover you in a situation where someone gets hurt or becomes ill from using your product for example.