Launching a business can be incredibly tedious, and you’re nervous about missing an element of your website. Trust me; I have been there, and that’s why it’s important to do a website audit every 90-days. Time and time again, I have seen new business owners glance over these little things, but in customers eyes they build trust. Remember, customers buy from people they trust and want to support.
It’s that time of year where everyone is excited to shop, eat, travel, and experience life. As a business owner, this is one of the busiest seasons of the year for you. Last year, my digital products from ICB Consults brought in thousands of dollars between November and December. I’m getting my business ready to triple sales numbers from last year. That means optimizing my website for the holiday season.
Last month I wrote about, establishing a better contact form and it was received very well. Honestly, I think those little details regarding about pages and contact forms matter. My about page is always in the top ten views on my analytical for the website. People want to know about who they are supporting, sites they are reading and more. Personally, I feel uneasy when I go to website and they are missing an about page. Scam, fraud and more start flashing in my mind. I know that seems like a lot for a missing about page but I think why do they not have one. What are they trying to hide from me as a consumer.
Too many times as small business owners, we overlook things like the contact page. We brush it off as just a form. That’s it, there’s nothing else special about it. No need to make sure things work after it has been established. Once our sites are live and the contact page is good, we leave it at that for the remainder of the time our website is up. Well today, I want to discuss why the contact page is one the most important pages after your “product/service” page and your About page.
I am social media snooper, there I said it. When people follow me on social media, I click their profile to see if I want to follow them. On Instagram, it is mainly women business owners (or future business owners) who follow me. One of the most recurring aspects of their pages was, that their bio said “comingsoon.com” for the url. This is a huge problem. My first issue is, someone already owns this domain, but you can buy it. I thought about buying it. Second off, this doesn’t help you capitalize on building a community.
Millions of dollars are lost yearly because of abandon carts. Think about how many abandon carts you have left over the years when shopping online. Probably hundreds or thousands. I legit do this five to six times a week. There are several reasons for this, but that is another article for another time. However, there are ways you can utilize the abandon cart feature to your business’ advantage.
If a service based business reached out to me today, about launching on Bigcommerce, with a limited budget and knowledge of eCommerce platforms, I would advise them not to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the company and what they’re doing for physical product based companies with big budgets, but mom & pop shops are losing. I wrote a few lovely pieces on Bigcommerce, WordPress, and Squarespace about a month ago…so there’s no malice or hate. The company has a singular focus, in my opinion, that needs to be fixed.
As small business owners we get caught up in so many elements of running our business, that we tend to forget to fine tune our websites after they have been launched. This is a common mistake that millions of people make. They launch and obliviously neglect regularly updating their website. We aren’t talking about re-branding but simply improving the conversion rate and search engine optimization.
You’ve launched, so now what? Are you waiting for customers to flock to your site in droves? Guess what? It doesn’t really happen like that. In addition, there is a huge chance that you’re probably missing several key elements to your website. Always remember that your company’s website is how you communicate and build trust with your customers.
Everyone wants a beautiful website to compliment their amazing business that they are currently running or planning on launching. Most people are not going to spend the hours that it takes to build a site on WordPress by themselves. They are going to hire an expert to help them on this entrepreneurial journey.
Etsy has become the eBay for the handicraft and creative small business owner community. When it launched almost five years ago it was a small world and it was easy to shine on the platform. Etsy has changed its stance on the small business owner, now letting more and more wholesale companies use their platforms to sell cheaply made pieces.
They have done great things introducing their wholesale practice so you can become a vendor in big stores, but that has its downside too.