Ecommerce Marketing Checklist for 2013

As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important for digital marketers to take note of, and capitalize on, emerging marketing trends. The web is changing more quickly than anyone could have expected, and it can be increasingly difficult to stay on top of the latest and greatest industry opportunities. Here are five of newest and most effective ways ecommerce websites can increase their bottom line.

Schema.org. One of the biggest pitfalls most marketers experience is only focusing on the number of visitors without taking into consideration the number of search impressions. “Click-Through Rate” is the combination of these two elements and is one of the most overlooked metrics when it comes to SEO. Luckily, Google and other major search engines have introduced various protocols and technologies to improve the click-through rate of listings. One of which is theSchema.org initiative which was launched in mid-2011. You might not recognize the name but chances are you’ve seen it in action. When searching for a product, a Schema.org enhanced result will look something like the image below. This new protocol allows search engines to improve their results pages, but more importantly, it gives marketers a powerful tool to improve their click-through rate and capture more traffic. For ecommerce websites, this is a must for all product pages.
Google Authorship. Another useful way to improve organic search visits is with Google’s Authorship initiative. Similar to Schema.org, Google authorship enhances the appearances of blog posts within search results and can drastically improve your click-through rate. When properly implemented, your blog posts will look something like this… This simple addition to your blog is an easy but effective way to capture more traffic than your competitors – even if they outrank you.
Responsive Design. Mobile is the new hot topic, and for good reason. Every year more and more queries are being searched on mobile devices. We looked under the hood of an ecommerce website, Beer Pong Stadium, and according to Google Analytics over 57% of the visitors are using a mobile device. Having a mobile friendly website is no longer just important, it’s critical. The best way to make sure your website is mobile friendly is by utilizing responsive design. Responsive design is a fancy way of saying that the website can adapt to various screen sizes. One ecommerce website that does this very well is the snowboard company Burton. The website will “respond” and appear differently to users depending on their device and screen size. Responsive design is a highly effective way to take advantage of your mobile traffic and increase conversions.
Content Marketing. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, “you need a blog.” But interestingly enough, the vast majority of businesses aren’t leveraging their blog properly. This is where content marketing comes in. Content marketing is about providing value to your audience of customers and potential customers. When done properly, content marketing can increase referral traffic, social media sharing, and backlinks that can increase organic rankings. To succeed at content marketing, having a blog with mediocre content isn’t enough. Every blog post needs to be interesting, entertaining, unique, and engaging. This is where the “quality over quantity” mantra rings true. It’s much better to have one awesome post every week than an average blog post every day. The general rule of thumb is that if your content isn’t worth sharing, it’s not worth publishing.
Site Performance. Far too often ecommerce marketers and IT staff overlook the load time of their website. Site performance is important for 2 reasons: (1) fast websites convert better; and (2) slow websites don’t rank well in search engines. In 2006, Amazon announced that for every 100ms in load time there was a 1% decrease in sales. In regards to rankings, in 2010 Google began using site speed as a ranking factor in their search algorithm. Not only can a fast website increase your conversion rate, it can potentially bring you more traffic as well. Now comes the real question, how do I speed up my website? One tool that is great when it comes to analyzing website performance is WebPageTest.org. Once you enter your URL you can quickly see how long it takes your website to load, and more importantly, what you can do to decrease that load time. We recommend aiming for a page load time of 2 seconds, but anything under 2.5 seconds is reasonable.