Notes on building smarter websites for actual humans.
How To Set Up a Privacy Policy & Terms of Service On Your Website
There are options available for setting up the legal things required on your website (like a privacy policy and terms of service) at a range of price points. Here are my recommendations from free to high cost so that you can decide which is best for you.
Breaking Down the Options from Free to High Cost
Terms & Conditions and a Privacy Policy are some of those non-glamorous things about a website that no one ever really needs or refers to… until they need them. It’s like having a contract between two parties IRL; the purpose is just to set expectations of who is responsible for what, outlining the parameters of the relationship, and explaining what will happen in the event that your contract is breached.
When it comes to these things, I typically say there are 4 options to consider. There are low/no-cost routes that come with a little bit more risk/exposure. There are higher-paid options that are more iron-clad. You’ll need to decide which is best for you based on where your business is at now. You can always update later on as your business changes or grows.
Also, just as a reminder: I am not a lawyer and so all of the information I provide here is just based on my own experience in building hundreds of websites for clients in a wide range of industries. It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure that your site is legal and compliant with all pertinent laws. If you have any questions about privacy, GDPR, or other legal things, I am happy to give you my opinion but it should not be considered a substitute for the actual guidance of a legal professional.
Now that I’ve provided the legal fine print, here are my recommendations:
Free
Do a quick Google of “free website privacy policy” or something like that and you’ll get a bunch of results. Most of them look pretty spammy or come with a catch, naturally.
If you are using Shopify, I recommend checking out their free policy templates. If you want to check these out before signing up, just be sure to click the box to opt-out of the 14-free trial and you can have some pretty rock-solid templates sent to your inbox in seconds.
Check this box to opt out of the free trial of Shopify.
<a href="https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator/terms-and-conditions" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-block-button-element" rel="sponsored" target="_blank" data-initialized="true" >Shopify Terms & Conditions Generator</a>
The biggest thing to really note on these is that they are free because they are as generic as humanly possible. They are meant to be one-size-fits-all which, just like clothing, may not actually fit you. So, caveat emptor.
Low Cost
Terms & policies are often seen as a set-it-and-forget-it type thing but laws change (often!) and when they do, you should make sure you’re up to date with the latest. My recommended low-cost option to create semi-custom policies is Termageddon. (Hint: this is where I get my own privacy policy & terms of service from.)
At just $10/mo or $99 for the year, Termageddon will make sure that you’re always legal and in compliance with all the latest security and GDPR laws. A license includes a privacy policy, terms & conditions, disclaimer, and EULA. (Note that all but the privacy polilcy are good for the US only.) You just answer some simple questions and a small snippet of code is generated that you can share with me to embed on your site. Once that’s done, you really can forget about this!
AFFILIATE BONUS: You can use my code KRISTINE for 10% off your first year!
Medium Cost
Right at the sweet spot of affordable + prepared by an actual lawyer are the templates provided by The Creative Law Shop. For the record, this is where I source all of my own contracts, agreements, and other legal templates from. I feel good knowing that a real lawyer has prepared all of the documents and that I have lifetime access to any future template updates. Although some of the templates on the site do cater to those in creative/service fields such as mine, the privacy policy and terms & conditions templates are perfect for any business. I highly recommend these if you’re looking to save money versus hiring an attorney.
AFFILIATE BONUS: You can use my code KRISTINENEIL10 for 10% off any purchase!
Website Basics Bundle (This combines both of the templates below into one bundle and saves $25 versus buying them separately.)
High Cost
Of course, there’s no substitute for the real thing so if you have a very unique business, do some really out-of-the-ordinary things with user data, or just want to make sure you’re 100% covered, hire a lawyer. Preferably one that is familiar with your business, your industry, and (most importantly) eCommerce / websites. This is obviously the highest cost option but worth talking to your attorney about especially if they are working on other contracts or agreements for you. If you get lucky, you may even find a lawyer who is willing to just review the documents you generated yourself using one of the options above which would help keep costs down. It never hurts to ask!
Website Tips From an eCommerce Pro
Part actionable list, part pep talk - this post has 7 tips on eCommerce, web design and websites in general from me, an eCommerce pro! These are the things that I think would make every website more engaging, more successful and just more fun to use!
If you sometimes wonder what advice an eCommerce pro would give about your website, you’re in the right place! I got to thinking the other day about the biggest things I would suggest to people about eCommerce, web design, and websites in general and I came up with this list. It’s certainly not comprehensive but I would say if you paid attention to just these 7 things you could take your site from novice to pro-level! Some are simple fixes, others are a little more abstract but I think all are totally doable!
When In Doubt, Cut It Out
I talk about this idea a bit more in this post about 3 Mistakes New Online Sellers Make but I think it bears repeating. And the good news is that it lightens your load as well! Overall, I think one of the things that really sets beginner websites apart from more professional ones is editing.
Over-explaining and providing too much information can be just as harmful as not providing enough so the key is to trim down copy and cut out the clutter. You want to inform but you also want people to be able to skim. (If you feel like you have a lot to say or tons of technical details you want to include, just make sure you have a great FAQ page to put all that info on so you can keep your main pages lean and mean.)
Keep Categories & Tags in Check
I talk about tags and categories as they pertain to shops in this post but this could also apply to your blog as well! Remember back in the day when blogs all had a ginormous sidebar with a crazy tag cloud that looked like this:
Hahahaha. Those were the days. To me, all this says is that this person had too many tags/categories! Take my blog, for example. I have only 5 major blog categories: eCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, Web Design, and Marketing. I have one bonus category called “Kristine Neil Studio” that I use sparingly for posts that are more personal or “behind-the-scenes” type posts. I have just over a dozen tags. That’s it. Keeping things minimal has a couple of benefits: 1) it keeps me focused on creating just the content that I know works and 2) it makes it easy for readers like you 👋 to find what they are looking for!
The same principle applies to shops as blogs - in fact, it’s probably even more important there. I sometimes see shops where some products have been tagged “blue” and others “Blue”. Well, that’s not helpful (tags are case sensitive) because if I’m looking for some blue suede shoes I may miss what I’m looking for because you’ve called them Blue suede shoes. So, just keep a really refined list, don’t add tags/categories at every whim, and make sure you’re not making a ginormous tag cloud mess of things by paying attention to spelling and case.
Learn to Love (or at Least Not Loathe) a Spreadsheet
If you have a store on Squarespace (and if you’re reading this, I’m betting you do!) the fact that you can view, edit, import, and export your products via CSV file is ✨magic✨. Want to update the prices of all the products in one particular category in bulk? Spreadsheet. Need to hide everything with a certain tag? Spreadsheet. Want to adjust inventory levels without needing to open every.single.product? Spreadsheet. Check out this post for more info on CSV product imports on Squarespace.
While you’re playing with spreadsheets you can also export customer profiles and order info to a sheet which is great for creating reports or extracting data to help in your marketing or advertising efforts.
Enable & Customize Your Abandoned Cart Emails
Cart abandonment causes eCommerce businesses to lose up to $18 Billion annually so it just makes sense to enable this built-in feature of your Squarespace website and yet so many people aren’t using it! This is such a simple way to bring back some lost revenue and even if a small percentage re-convert, it can still be a nice little boost to the bottom line.
You can check out this post for more about customizing your store’s email notifications, which includes everything you need to know about how to style and update all the emails your site sends (which includes cart abandonment emails).
If you’re looking for where to turn to enable Abandoned Cart Recovery on your own Squarespace website, it’s super easy! From your home screen just go to COMMERCE > CHECKOUT > enable ABANDONED CART EMAILS > hit save! That’s it! You’re in business!
Keep Your Header Navigation Simple
Your header navigation is the links that appear at the top of your site and contrary to popular belief, it’s not actually helpful to include links to everything there. You know that saying that says “if everything is important, nothing is”... well, it definitely applies here! If you have lots of important content, it’s better to organize it strategically into folders or by linking to it from your home page or other landing pages instead of trying to include links to everything in your header.
A popular trend that I am really liking these days is a mega footer instead! People are now used to seeing just the most important links at the top of the page but love being able to scroll to the bottom of a site to see more info. This is helpful because when you first land on a site a minimalist header allows you to quickly get an understanding of where to start or how to dig deeper. Keeping your header navigation simple is also much more mobile-friendly and is just another way you can make your small business look big.
White Space is Your Friend
A couple of items above refer to keeping things minimalistic in terms of content but some of the same principles should apply to the design of your site itself. In design terms, white space is the negative space where nothing is really happening (it doesn’t have to be white) and it’s an important tool you can use to help people take in and digest the information you’re presenting in a meaningful way.
Fun fact: did you know that when I was an undergrad I spent a couple of years teaching public speaking? I found it so rewarding and it’s funny: even though a lot of people say they have a fear of public speaking, I think the more frustrating thing is feeling like you’re just not being understood. The goal was always really to help students learn to better express themselves or communicate their ideas more clearly and effectively. Some of the techniques are just learning how to breathe when speaking and using pauses to create buffers around certain content to help it stand out or make a point.
White space in design is the visual representation of the same thing. It’s the design equivalent of not speaking in onelongrunonsentence and nevertakingabreath and makingeverythingruntogether. White space is just creating room for each point to live on its own and giving some things more prominence than others with hierarchy. It’s just slowing things down a bit so it doesn’t feel frantic. Something I love about Squarespace is that it’s just naturally going to help you create sections that have nice, even borders but don’t be afraid to use things like spacer blocks or padding to give things the space they deserve. (Looking for more on this topic? Check out my Minimalist’s Guide to Branding!)
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Real!
One of the last website tips I have for you regardless of which industry you’re in or what you sell or what your website goals are: don’t be afraid to be yourself! Even if you’re a big company, letting a little personality show through is way more alluring than being too poised and polished. Of course, you’ll need to determine what level of “raw” fits with your brand voice but with so many brands online competing for limited attention, the last thing you want to do is blend into the background.
I’ve mentioned this before but I used to be a perfectionist when it came to writing blog content. I would spend DAYS writing, re-writing, and scrutinizing every post. And while I certainly don’t advocate for any deliberate typos or misspelled words, once I stopped worrying about being perfect and just writing, blogging became one of my favorite things to do. It was great that it was no longer the log jam in my business but the unintended side effect: I realized that people liked my voice. If there are some mistakes here or there, it’s a reminder that a real human is on the other side of the screen. So, just being real helped me be able to create more content but also to create content that people actually liked. Win-win!
For you, being real may be using an appropriate dash of humor or writing some really witty copy. Maybe being real is telling people what you honestly think of one product over another or not being afraid to show your face every now and again. Letting people see what’s happening behind the scenes can also help you create a more empathetic brand. Whatever it is, the most engaging brands are the ones where we can see and feel the humans behind them.
15 Things to Update on Your eCommerce Website
This post features 15 actionable tips and tools to make sure you’re getting the most out of your eCommerce website. Updated from my previous series with tools & strategies to help small businesses cope with COVID, these are strategies you can use now and in the future.
I originally wrote a variation of this post as a series around the beginning of COVID. I was feeling somewhat hopeless and didn’t know what else to do but try to come up with all the ideas I could to help businesses that were struggling and just trying to find their footing online. As we settle into a new normal (one where eCommerce reigns supreme) I thought it was time to run through those old posts and pick out my favorite tips - plus a few new ones!
These are all actionable things that you can do yourself on your eCommerce website. Some of these tips are improvements that will just take you a few minutes to set up (#11 Display Limited Availability Labels), others are a little more long-form (#4 Work on Your Website’s SEO)... but all of these are things that will help you make sure you’re getting the most out of your eCommerce site on Squarespace.
1. Keep Customers in the Loop with Email Newsletters
Email Marketing Use email newsletters to directly inform customers and drive sales. With Squarespace Email Campaigns, beautifully designed and personalized emails are made simple.
Best practices include:
Send a monthly newsletter with promotions and new product highlights
Make signup frictionless with opt-in forms across your site
Customize coupon codes and product recommendations using customer data
Craft compelling subject lines that get opened
Test layouts, content types and timing to see what best resonates
Set up automated post-purchase and win-back flows
Email is your owned digital real estate. Use it to build relationships and boost repeat business from current customers.
2. Set Up Pinterest Rich Pins
Pinterest is pretty much the only “social media” platform I actively participate in as a business and that’s because it’s not really a social media platform at all - it’s a search engine! People are on Pinterest every day to find new things to try and research purchases so you should definitely make sure that this is part of your marketing strategy.
Taking just a little time to make sure your domain is verified will make sure that all pins from your domain are Rich Pins - making them full of data like price and links right to your shop, blog, or site!
3. Add an Announcement Bar
This is that little blurb or strip at the top of your site that can be used to communicate news, sales, discounts, or even just changes in business operations - like if your business hours are variable right now or you’re closed for a holiday. I would keep whatever you put in your announcement bar short and sweet! If you have a lot to say, link the announcement bar to a full page instead of trying to cram a fat note in a little space (Tommy Boy reference for the win)!
4. Work on your site’s SEO
SEO is definitely a long game situation and not something that you’re going to be able to see the results of tomorrow or even next week. But, if you keep working at it I promise your efforts will pay off - no special plugins or hacks required! If you want to learn more about eCommerce SEO, check out this post on my site all about it. Otherwise, the link below from Squarespace support has a pretty awesome checklist of all the things that you can be working on to make sure your site is getting noticed by search engines and humans alike!
5. Create Trackable Links
If you’re setting up ads on platforms like Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube, etc. there’s a tool from Squarespace that you probably didn’t know would make it so much easier to track your efforts! Using the Squarespace URL builder you can create unique tracking links so that in your analytics you can see cool stuff like how many visitors came from each ad and how much revenue was generated. This can really help you plan your advertising more strategically since you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about what’s resonating with your audience and performing well.
6. Create a Promotional Pop-Up
Love ‘em or hate ‘em - pop-ups can be effective when done right! The key is to switch it up often so that people don’t get fatigued by seeing the same thing all the time. You also don’t want to have a pop-up just for pop-up’s sake. Make sure the content you’re showing really needs to be in your face. It can also pay off to be more strategic about using a pop-up only when you have super cool stuff - like a sale or promo. Those links are much more clickable than repeated requests to sign up for your mailing list 😊
7. Sell Online Gift Cards
This is such an easy way to allow people to buy from you and lots of people are still in the habit of buying gift cards to use for themselves as a way to show support for their favorite small businesses. Gift cards are easy to set up on Squarespace and redeeming them is as simple as entering a coupon code!
8. Add Product Waitlists
If you have a product that isn’t quite ready for sale -- or one that’s been sold old that you want to allow people to be notified of when it’s back in stock -- product waitlists on Squarespace are for you! This system is pretty cool and automatic and it’s just based on the inventory count levels you set up - another reason to make sure your inventory counts are accurate in Squarespace. The one confusion that I see people often have with this is that it’s confused as a backorder system but this doesn’t actually process an order from the customer, just allows them to sign up to be notified when a product becomes available or is back in stock. They then have to visit the site again to make the actual purchase.
9. Mark a Product as Sold Out
This can go hand-in-hand with the tip above but the reason why I mention it separately is that it’s worth noting that you can modify that “sold out” label to say anything you want! So, if that wording doesn’t really vibe with what you’re selling or how your site works you can change it. For example, if you sell unique items that only have one quantity available for each changing the label so it just says “Sold” makes more sense than “sold out”. You could also make it say something like “Workshop Full” or “Coming Soon!” - whatever works for you!
10. Have a Sale
When you’re looking to drum up some fresh eyes on your brand, go with one of the oldest tricks in the book - have a sale! The best sales are planned strategically well in advance and the Squarespace help article linked below does a great job at laying out all the built-in tools at your disposal. You can also check out this post all about coupons, offers, discounts, and promos if you’re wanting to really dig into some of the deeper pricing strategy and buyer psychology behind sales and discounts.
11. Display Limited Availability Labels
Effectively merchandising your online store is an ongoing process but using tools like limited availability labels is a great quick win! These call outs can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to not put off purchases. If you’re looking for another way to highlight products, check out this plugin created by yours truly over on Ghost Plugins! It involves a little bit of cut-and-paste code so that you can highlight any products you’ve tagged as featured.
12. Display Related Products
This tool offers two different opportunities to win. The first is obvious: helping people to discover more products that you offer that they might want to purchase. The second: keeping people clicking and on your site increases the length of time people spend on your site which is great for your SEO, even if they don’t end up buying anything. Something I like about this feature in Squarespace is that you can set up the related products for each product independently, so if it makes sense for one product to only show more products that are in the same category but another to show products in a related category - go wild!
13. Add a Scheduler to Your Site
I recently wrote a post all about how Squarespace Scheduling is the secret eCommerce tool you’re probably not using yet. (Check it out here!) The hidden power of this feature is that it is nearly infinitely customizable to fit any business type; you don’t need to use it to just set up Zoom meetings 😂 You can use Scheduling to set up in-store shopping appointments, sell tickets to workshops, create packages of services and more.
14. Train a Chatbot
A chatbot powered by LiveChat enables you to simulate real conversations to provide customer support, product info, and promotional offers around the clock. Rather than staffing live chat yourself, you can create conversational chatbot flows to engage site visitors.
For example, your chatbot can answer frequently asked questions about shipping, sizing, returns and more. It can also proactively reach out to start discussions, send coupon codes, get feedback through surveys, and capture email signups, leading to more sales. With predefined responses andredirects to human agents when needed, your customers get quick answers and you recoup hours previously spent managing live chat.
Key benefits of investing time in chatbot training include reduced strain on your customer service team, the ability to capture leads and promote 24/7 regardless of your real-life availability, and hyper personalized 1-on-1 conversations. LiveChat seamlessly integrates with Squarespace too, making setup a breeze.
Don't let your store go silent when you walk away. Implement a chatbot to keep quality conversations with customers going around the clock and drive more conversions.
15. Set Up Curbside or In-Store Pickup
I go into complete detail on how to set up in-store and curbside pickup on either Squarespace or Shopify in this post and also give some tips and caveats to keep in mind. Adding this as a “shipping” option can help your customers see your website and your physical location as related parts of the same business - which is a great thing! Traffic online can lead to traffic in-store and vice versa. Also, offering free local pickup can be a great way for your business to compete since it means people can get their hands on your products faster and cheaper than buying from someone else online.
UX Lessons From a Former Sign Designer
Trying to figure out how to communicate with your website visitors in the simplest way possible, minimizing confusion and boosting sales along the way? Take some lessons from real world wayfinding sign design and apply them to your website!
Fun fact: in a previous life before working in eCommerce web design full time, I owned a design studio and also a print shop. One of the things we did a lot of was wayfinding signage or signs that are used to provide direction. To me, a successful wayfinding design was always about finding a way to communicate in the simplest way possible, using the fewest number of words and without any complicated elements that needed more than about 0.3 seconds to understand. So, basically, it was the analog version of a great website! 😂
Finding your way online can be just as confusing as rolling up to a major intersection or trying to find your way into a big building you’re visiting for the first time. And in many instances, it can actually be even harder without the built world to lean on to guide the way. Below, three UX web design tips that I’ve gleaned from the world of sign design:
Assume Everyone is Lost
If everyone already knew their way around we wouldn’t have signs with street names or directories in building lobbies. We put those things there because it’s best practice to just assume that everyone is lost and provide direction accordingly. This is just standard practice in the real world but often missing online.
This is because when it comes to web design we don’t always treat our users the way we should: basically, like lost tourists. We’re familiar with our business/website content and the context so we assume it’s going to be immediately apparent to everyone else, too. Ever land on a website and wonder… “Wait? What are they trying to tell/sell me here?” You were a victim of someone else’s inability to show you the way. To prevent doing the same to your visitors, solicit feedback from people unfamiliar with your business/industry/website and see if they can accurately relay your mission. Can they identify the #1 call to action? Can they find their way to do whatever it is you’re asking them to do?
You can also help lost visitors by creating clear navigation areas and providing plenty of opportunities to get help if they need it. Keep menus simple and add hierarchy when it helps prioritize content instead of just adding unnecessary clicks. Add product tags & categories to all your products and incorporate links to them in your navigation and shop. Incorporate clear contact info or add a live chat bubble to the lower right corner so when in doubt people can just get in touch.
Understand That People Just Want To Be Reassured
I often told my clients that even in situations where they thought a sign would be too obvious that they couldn’t go wrong by putting one up. Sure, it may seem redundant or a little like overkill… but people want to feel reassured. They want to know that they are in the right place and doing the right things. They don’t want to worry or feel uncertain and confused.
Online, we need to provide even more reassurance than IRL and there are lots of subtle ways that you can build trust and boost confidence on your eCommerce website. (Check out this post for my top recommendations!) More than anything, I think it’s important to use clear language and provide clarity about what’s going to happen with each action you’re asking users to take. For example, if clicking on a button opens up a form make the button say… wait for it... Open Form. Call your blog a “blog” and your shop a “shop.” It’s not time to be cutesy and rename those things your “diary” and the “boutique.” People want to know what’s going to happen when they click on something and being opaque about the outcome does nothing but sink conversion rates.
Be Empathetic
This may encompass everything above but it’s such an important point that it’s worth standing on its own. When it comes to building a more empathetic online brand, there are several lessons we can learn from real-world wayfinding. Physical signage tends to take into account things like how far away a sign will be viewed and what external factors might affect comprehension. For example, when designing a billboard for the side of a busy freeway, we take into account the speeds drivers are moving at and try to account for how to communicate effectively to them while still allowing them to safely operate a moving vehicle.
Online shoppers and website users require similar levels of empathy; they may be viewing our sites while also keeping an eye on the kids or searching for solutions to a distracting problem. Let’s just hope they’re not also trying to drive down the freeway at 70mph though! 😨 In all seriousness, remember at minimum that people don’t read the internet, they skim it. Help visitors who are busy and probably multitasking to find what they need without having to filter through a bunch of fluff. Simple isn’t just a design aesthetic, it’s a specific design choice; one that’s made to improve user experience with the added benefit of optimizing conversion rates. Win-win!
Final Thoughts
If you’re getting feedback that your site is confusing or people aren’t clear on what you’re offering, listen to them! You would never have a brick-and-mortar store and not put up signs letting people know where to enter or how to order. It seems obvious in real life to provide direction and guidance to visitors. Treating your website with the same level of detail will make for happier customers and higher sales. Assume that everyone is new, knows nothing and that you have literal seconds to help reassure them. Adding some digital “wayfinding” signage to your eCommerce website will go a long way to help get everyone pointed in the right direction in style.
How to Boost Your eCommerce SEO
Guest blogger, Alex from HeySugar SEO, gives us a crash course in all things SEO for eCommerce sites. From keyword research to schema, here’s everything you need to know to boost your eCommerce SEO!
I was cruising through Instagram, as one does, not too long ago and I came across a post from HeySugarSEO and immediately thought to myself that Alex, Founder and Creator of HeySugar SEO, would make for an awesome guest blogger here. I’m all about knowing what your niche is and seeking out experts who know their niche way better than you ever could and if there’s one topic that really takes an expert’s touch let me tell you, it’s SEO. Not that things need to be complicated (but sometimes they are)… really just that there’s so much information out there that it can sometimes know where to start. I asked Alex if she wouldn’t mind sharing with us all some of her advice on all things eCommerce + SEO and boy did she deliver! There’s a ton of great info in this post, I just know you’re going to bookmark it and come back often :) - Kristine
Search engines are our digital shopping guide, taking the random things we search and returning a strategic list of the best match, but not necessarily the best products. While you may sell the best version of a particular good, Google and other search engines may not give it the rank visibility it deserves. That's where SEO can make or break an ecommerce site. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the tactics and strategies behind most (if not all) of the leading ecommerce sites' digital strategies.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is essentially a chess game between your site and Google. Google makes the rules and generally speaking, they're clear. But as with most things, the more technical it is, the more difficult the solution is to find. And e-commerce SEO is no exception to this rule.
SEO is a mix of research, writing, tech, and strategy that all combine to help your site rank better.
SEO can supplement or completely create traffic for sites. It's best used in tandem with branding, social, and paid campaigns, but - in my biased opinion - SEO can easily sustain a business with minimal branding and social content on the side.
93% of all searchers stop looking at links past the first page of search results. That means if you're beyond page one, only 7% of people MAY take a look at your site (and click-through rates on page two and beyond are crazy low) so SEO is of the utmost importance when it comes to getting online traffic.
Key Factors in Ecommerce SEO
SEO strategies require different mixes of tactics depending on the industry, client goals and the functionality of a site. Ecommerce is a beast of its own, with many tactics exclusive to online shopping. The categories below cover the standard and critical components of SEO on an ecommerce site.
Keyword Research
On-Page Optimization
Site Functionality and UX
Technical SEO
Keyword Research for Ecommerce Sites
Understanding what your potential clients are searching online is an ideal start to creating an online store. If you have a store already - no worries! Keyword research, along with your own experience in selling online, will help you further hone your best keyword targets.
When doing your research for the ideal keywords, it's important to understand that data doesn't lie. Here's a prime example:
Let's say you own an online candle company. You want to show up in search so you can make more sales, so you start finding your ideal keywords. Your best-selling candle is called "Peach Blossoms on a Shady Hillside" and you are determined to rank for that exact term. You probably will, which is good. But do you know how many people online search for the exact term: Peach Blossoms on a Shady Hillside? You. Only you. Well, maybe your husband when you made him search for it on his phone.
But that's it. Just because a keyword fits your brand or product name or specialty idea perfectly, doesn't mean it is the right target for your SEO.
BTW, the ideal keyword term here would be something as simple as "handmade candles" or "fruity candles," both of which have several hundred to thousands of searches per month.
In order to get the most out of your keyword research, you'll need to take a step back from the peach candle fumes and think: does this keyword have the breadth and depth I need to focus on it?
How to do keyword research
Keyword research tools are a dime a dozen, but there's a few that are worth using to get useful and actionable data from, including:
Moz offers free keyword reports (up to 5 a day on a free account) that give you clear data on search volume, competition and click-through rates. Just put in a term you're interested in and Moz will give you a look at 1,000 related keywords and their data. You can export these into csv or Excel docs to sort, filter, and clean your data. More on cleaning below!
I use this Chrome extension to see related terms on anything I search. Just install the extension and capture fresh search data on anything you search online.
This is a great tool for creating content. You can put in a search and see all variables on that term, plus any long-term keywords it may be associated with. It's a great starting point for crafting data-driven written content for your site. This site allows two reports per day on a free account.
This is probably the most "advanced" of the tools I'm mentioning here, but it does offer the most robust data. A report from GKP will include monthly keyword volume for terms you choose, plus the minimum and maximum Adwords costs, all with the added feature of zeroing in on specific geographic areas for your keywords. They can go as deep as a zip code! This is great data to use if you plan to target a specific city or state with your content.
Google itself
This is the easiest one to use with the least quantifiable data to gain. Sounds grim, but it's not! You can gather loads of information on your site, your competition, and the way your ideal customers search just by performing the search yourself. I always suggest clients search for their ideal keywords as well as their brand name as if they're a customer to really understand how and why their SEO goals matter.
Once you have some keyword data, you'll need to analyze and clean it. For instance, remember the fictitious candle brand we had? We would probably want to remove any keyword data for Yankee Candle from our reports. We don't really care how many searches a different brand name gets - we care about the nonbranded terms that can bring clients to you! Here's a quick checklist to refer to when cleaning your keyword reports:
Does this keyword reference a brand other than mine?
Could this keyword bring a client to me?
Does this keyword have enough volume (searches) to warrant my attention?
Can I create enough content to make this keyword valuable for my site?
Could this keyword be a supporting role to my main keywords?
Here's a run-through on these questions for another example brand. Let's say we're a dropshipper for tech accessories. Here's how I would evaluate their keywords if I was their SEO:
Keyword: iphone charger walmart with 1,500 searches per month
Answers:
Yes, Walmart has enough domain authority in search to outrank my site
Probably not.
Yes, 1,500 people a month is plenty!
No, creating content around this keyword would be difficult and probably turn out spammy
No, you'd just add to Walmart's keyword value
Keyword: portable charger for iphone with 750 searches per month
Nope!
Yes, and probably a good one
Yes, half of the one above, but still enough to make it worthwhile
Yes, I could wax poetic on my need for a portable charger all day long!
Absolutely. It could easily be the "lead role" in a keyword map as well.
If your keyword can't get past question one, I would strongly recommend not using it. The amount of time you would put into ranking for another brand's keyword is typically not worth the potential payoff. You can spend your SEO efforts better elsewhere.
Once you've cleaned your keywords through this system, you've got a good start on your list of keyword targets for your site!
On-Page SEO
Now that you have your best keywords, you can start plugging them into your site, most specifically your product pages and category listings. You'll hear the term on-page SEO a lot in SEO blogs, podcasts and the like. All it refers to is optimizing the visual and experiential parts of a site that a consumer could interact with, including the meta title, meta description, header tags, images and alt tags.
Meta Data on Ecommerce Sites
Every single page of your site has meta data. Whether you've set your meta data parameters or plugged them in yourself, meta data is there, waiting for some juicy SEO content to be added to it.
Meta data is sort of like a label for each page of your site. It not only tells consumers, but also Google, what content is on the page and what to expect when you see it. When you search for "summer sandals" you'll see what the SEO world refers to as blue links. The blue, larger text of each result is the meta title. The text below in smaller print is your meta description.
There's two big reasons these matter: it's one of the first things Google "sees" on your page. Google bots crawl pages from the top down and meta data is always at the very top of your page. It sets the expectation of what the bot can expect when it reads your whole page. The second reason is this is usually the very first touchpoint you get with a customer. What they read in search results can inspire them to click or prompt them to look elsewhere.
Basically, creating good meta data is a balancing game between keyword data and copy that converts.
The formula I typically stick to when writing ecommerce meta data is this: Shop [Keyword 1] and [Keyword 2] | [Brand Name]
Here's a couple of examples:
Shop Women's Flat and Heeled Sandals | Sassy Shoes
Shop Affordable Lamps and Lighting | Bright Ideas
Shop Keto and Gluten-Free Snacks | Yum Foods
I like using action terms like shop at the beginning of meta data because it's a subtle but clear call to action, especially when we can easily assume that someone searching for "affordable home decor" is most likely looking to shop.
Meta descriptions tend to get less read time from consumers, but still get plenty of attention from Google. Meta descriptions, in my opinion, are simpler to write. Just create two sentences about what's on the page and make sure you include at least one of your target keywords.
Here's a checklist to keep in mind as you create meta data:
Use your target keyword in both title and description.
Include an action word - or call-to-action - in your meta title.
Include your brand name when you can, but cut it if you need space.
Character limits: meta data should be between 40-60 characters and meta descriptions should be about 150 characters.
When you publish your meta data, go look at it from a consumer perspective. Think about what they would want to see while shopping and tweak as you see fit.
Image SEO on Ecommerce Sites
Photos are a key ingredient in online sales. If you can't touch, taste, or hear the product in person, you need all the visual cues to be able to make a purchase decision. The downfall of having several great photos of each product is the load time it forces on your site.
Site speed is a critical algorithm measurement for all search engines. The quicker and more efficiently a site loads, the better a consumer's experience is on the site, which means Google is more likely to rank that site.
Loading dozens or even hundreds of images on a single page of your site can slow your pages down dramatically. A site load lag of just half a second can move a page from the top rank spots to page 5 or more.
Thankfully, many online shopping template sites try to minimize this issue by offering pagination. Pagination is what happens when you have more products than one page of your site can handle, so it gives the user multiple pages of products to scroll through.
If you have the option, I would highly recommend limiting your single page product capacity to 10-15 products. This way, your site can load a smaller set of products per page and have an easier job loading the page quickly.
Limiting the number of images on a page isn't the only tactic. You can compress your images to smaller files, making it less of a burden on the page to load.
Here are the two image compressor programs I use all the time: Compressor.io and Web Planet Compressors. Both are free tools that let you drag an image file in and download a compressed file out. 99% of the time, this compression process will not affect the image quality. If it does, you may need to manually compress images incrementally to test the quality.
Alt Tags on Images
Alt tags, or alternative tags, are the names behind the pictures. Google bots can't see pictures and interpret them the way humans can (at least not right now - Google is up to some crazy innovative things!) But bots can read alt tags. It's essentially a text description of what's in the image.
Alt tags tend to be a place people stuff keywords, so Google is paying close attention to them. If it feels spammy, they won't like it. So keep it simple. I find that writing alt tags for ecommerce sites are easier than others because most photos are pretty obvious. You have photos of the product, photos of people using the product, different shots of the product with specs and measurements and whatnot. On many other sites, it's just stock photos of people smiling. Those are the complicated pictures to write alt tags for.
Long story short: be clear, concise, and conservative on your keyword usage in alt tags.
Site Functionality and UX for Ecommerce SEO
In case you didn't know, Google is smart. So smart in fact, that they have developed ways to quantify a user's experience on your site. User experience is CRITICAL to Google's algorithm. Their ultimate goal is to make sure they rank the pages with the best match for your search and best experience for a customer at the top of search results.
The functionality of your site plays a large role in how Google grades your site. They use Google Analytics to measure these factors.
BTW - if you don't have Google Analytics on your site, go put it in there now!
There are millions of data points in GA that measure user behavior, but these are the big ones Google pays attention to:
Session Length - does a user stay on your site for a significant time?
You want this to be a significant length! 30 seconds is a good, healthy starting point, but of course longer is typically better.
Pages/Session - how many pages does someone look at when they visit your site?
You want to see 2+ pages per session
Bounce Rate - do users see one page and immediately back out or leave your site?
Ideally, this is low. Below 25%
Conversion Rate - do consumers click, call, submit forms, add to their shopping cart, and make purchases on your site?
We all want these! The rate and importance will depend on your site and goals.
So what are things you can do to make the above numbers as Google-friendly as possible?
Make your site navigation clean and clear
Put obvious CTAs in the header, footer, and throughout the body of your site
Make sure your folder structure of products or services is logical
Keep your menu options to minimal tabs - don't clutter your nav bar!
Make your CTAs a clear contrast from the site - bold font, contrasting color, clear language
Give your pages enough good content to make them worth reading
Site Architecture and SEO
Anyone running an online shop has probably made use of the categories and tags on the backend of your site. If you need a refresher on these, Kristine has a great article on how to use both categories and tags in your ecommerce shop. The SEO magic she mentions? It's real! And it's crazy simple to implement if you know what to do.
I'll use Kristine's example here. Let's say I'm running an online t-shirt shop. To rank for the term t-shirt would be a feat - that term averages about 50,000 searches a month with some decent competition. For the amount of time, effort, and money it would take to rank at the top of that search, it's not worth it in my opinion.
So let's go one layer deeper. My most general categories are men, women, and children’s shirts. What kind of keyword volume and competition is there for men's shirts, women's shirts, and children's shirts?
I pulled this keyword data from Moz.
men's shirts - 30k/month with a 52 difficulty score
women's shirts - 3,100/month with a 46 difficulty score
children's shirts - 14/month with a 42 difficulty score
From an SEO perspective, what am I taking away from this?
Men's shirts are still too broad to tackle - I need to find a more descriptive, lower volume and higher converting keyword to name my men's categories with.
Women's shirts - it's in the ideal range of keyword volume, but probably not descriptive enough to catch high converting traffic. We gotta dig a little deeper there.
The monthly volume here isn't worth the time! But people obviously search for kid's clothes online - we need to find a better keyword to use when naming this category.
For the sake of brevity, I'll just dig into the kid's category here. After combing through my keyword data, here are the better keywords I think we could use to further sort and rank our kid's line of t-shirts:
girls shirts - 1,700/month
shirts for girls - 1,650/month
clothes for boys - 750/month
boys shirts - 750/month
boys long sleeve shirts - 700/month
kids tshirts - 625/month
While this data may push you to make more category pages, it clearly defines and targets your keyword goals, making ranking (AND SELLING) much more possible.
As for content on these pages, I highly recommend adding a couple of paragraphs of written content, a few small and fast-rendering pictures of your products with the right alt tags, and of course, meta data to match your category parameters. Be sure that your content is clearly defined on each category page so that you don't create duplicate content. That's a big no-no for Google.
The long and short of it is: take advantage of categories. If you target them correctly, they will most likely become your cash cows in terms of bringing in organic traffic. You can measure all this with the organic traffic reports in Google Analytics.
Technical SEO for Ecommerce Sites
The tech side of SEO is a harder one to define. The best way I've heard it put is that it's everything that shapes the way bots interact and experience your site. SEO is catering to two big groups: users and bots. Tech SEO is the tactics you need to make sure you're taking care of the bots.
Sitemaps
As the name explains, a sitemap is a map of your site, showing the bots around and letting them know which pages to pay attention to. If you are using Squarespace or Shopify, you're in luck! Both these tools create sitemaps automatically on your behalf. If you're using a CMS like Wordpress, I would recommend finding a plugin to make sure your sitemap is properly built.
A sitemap, in the simplest terms, is a list of all the URLs on your site with a few key details on each URL:
Is this URL crawlable? This detail requires a follow/nofollow tag.
Is this URL indexable? This detail involves an index/noindex tag.
Does this URL have a canonical source? This detail uses a canonical tag.
For the most part, you will only ever need to use an index/noindex tags. These are best used for landing pages built specifically for paid campaigns that you don't want competing with your main, organic content. Otherwise, I doubt you'll need to use follow or canonical tags.
Once you have your sitemap, you'll need to submit it to Google and other search engines for indexing. This means that instead of waiting around for Google to find your site and crawl it, you give Google a formal nudge to say, "Hey! My site is ready for you to see it!"
Schema for Ecommerce Websites
Schema! My favorite! I doubt you came here for a history lesson, but I think a brief backstory on schema may make it easier to understand its significance.
Years ago, when the internet's total amount of content was just a drop in the bucket compared to today, the crawling that search bots did was simple. There was a reasonable amount of content to crawl and few features of pages that needed to be acknowledged. Ranking was pretty simple! But then the internet grew and that made categorizing, sorting, and understanding all these pages and sites much harder.
Imagine a map with a couple of roads on it. It's pretty easy to understand. Now throw several thousand other roads, bodies of water, parks, monuments, and the like on the map without a key. Are the red lines roads? Are the dotted blue lines walking paths? Nobody knows!
Schema is the map key for this. It made an insane amount of content not only more efficient from a crawling standpoint, but also understandable.
Schema is the key to your "map" of a site. Instead of making Google bots do all the work to understand what the name of your business, logo, phone number, and products are, schema rolls out the red carpet for bots and gives them a concise digital tour of your content.
It's not just about making life on the bots easier, either! It plays a giant role in the consumer experience in search results. If you went to Google and searched for "smart home speakers," you'd get results like this:
The photo cards of products there? Those are powered by schema. The sites those products are hosted on have schema behind each product listing to make sure they can show in search results in the cleanest (and easiest for consumers to understand and click) way possible.
Using schema correctly and strategically can get your products ranking in search the same way those Google Homes and Alexas are doing right now.
If you mosey on over to Schema.org, you'll see there are thousands of types of schema. Don't overwhelm yourself by reading through them all. The main types of schema you need in ecommerce are:
Organization Schema - this schema allows your business to show up in search professionally, with content and links you control. It also validates your business for more SEO brownie points to Google
Reviews or Ratings Schema - this schema allows reviews or ratings to show up in search results for your products to make a richer SERP (search engine results page) and a better user experience for your potential customers
Product Schema - this one positions your content to rank for product cards in search, making conversions and engagement higher
There are sites to help you build and test your schema before uploading it into your site. You can also find help in building the correct schema at heysugarseo.com.
Ultimately, SEO is about user experience. If you get stuck making decisions about your site's SEO, think about what would be simplest, cleanest and most beneficial for a user to experience and purchase from your site. That will most likely be the right answer.
Simple Guide to Comparing Web Platform Costs
What should you look at when comparing website platforms? Discover what's important when it comes to hosting, security and features so that you can make the best decision for your small business.
People sometimes object to investing in Squarespace, or a website in general. “Why do I have to pay for Squarespace when WordPress is free” is the question I hear the most among that crowd. The truth is that when you break down the cost of Squarespace and other platforms, including WordPress, no website platform is free. Squarespace, however, provides consistent, comprehensive services essential to maintaining a live website at a cost that makes it super accessible for small to medium businesses.
When it comes to choosing a platform for your business website, you want to look into a few key features by asking the following questions:
Does the cost include web hosting? If so, what are the storage and bandwidth limits?
Does the cost include SSL certification (security/encryption)?
Does the platform have enough native features to let you avoid dragging in third-party products or plugins?
Is the platform usable in a way that is easy for you to manage on a day-to-day basis?
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is the service that allows your website to be accessed online. It’s different from domain hosting, which is the service that provides you with the unique URL with which your site is pulled up. With Squarespace, web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth is included in the cost of each plan. Storage is important because it determines how much content you can have on your website and bandwidth is important because it facilitates how many users can visit your website. Unlimited storage and bandwidth mean you can build an enormous blog, online store, image gallery, or whatever your business needs and as many people as possible can visit it. If you had to hire a stand-alone web hosting service, this could cost you as much as a Squarespace plan alone in annual costs - without any of the other features.
Security & Why It’s Important
The web is a crazy place, quite frankly. If you’re going to have any kind of exchange of information between your website and users, you’ll need to have an SSL certificate. This provides the necessary encryption to protect the user's information, whether they’re filling out a form or purchasing a product. The value of an SSL certificate is typically around $99 per year with the additional task of installing it onto your site. With Squarespace, you’re automatically provided an SSL certificate. The cost is built into your plan without any additional work needed.
Ask About Native Features
Platforms such as WordPress are “free,” but they’re also limited in what they can provide for you. If you want to have a form on your WordPress site, you’ll need a third-party product to do that. If you're going to build a store, you’ll need another third-party product. These additional items are known as plugins, and they come with technical and security risks that can destabilize your website and put your customer’s data at risk. They also all come with their own costs so you’ll need to ask about those, too.
Squarespace, on the other hand, has a robust lineup of native features that allow you to embed limitless custom forms for lead generation, build a robust (or simple) online store, host a blog, create image galleries, add video and podcasts, and more. Because they’re all developed by Squarespace, they don’t require any additional cost or work. Moreover, they’re stable and safe because they’re built into the system. In short, native features save you money, time, and a lot of headaches.
Platform Usability Should Factor Into Your Decision
Unless you know that you will never take on the task of managing your website, it’s important to look at how usable the platform is. Squarespace offers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor that removes the technical challenges from building a webpage, updating content, and making changes to your site navigation, and so on. Businesses often choose Squarespace because they feel that after the initial development they can handle making small changes on their own. That’s a time and money saver in itself!
Why Platform Choice Matters
Ultimately the goal is to have a stable, functional website that can represent your brand online, help visitors learn what they need to know, and possibly have them convert right there on the site. Compromising any of the features above can put those goals at risk and lead to visitors having some negative brand interactions.