Has bubble burst for online trading?

Nov 5 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

WITH Christmas looming and the Royal Mail crisis showing no signs of abating, Andrew Mernin checks the pulse of the online retail sector to find out what the festive period looks likely to bring for e-traders.

Tips to help your business flourish at Christmas

ALTHOUGH Christmas is looming, there is still time for businesses to boost their online performance and cash in on the festive sales rush.

Improving your firm’s standing on search engines such as Google could help you tap into the projected £15bn to £20bn expected to be spent online this year over the festive period.

Here Brett Jacobson, managing director of Newcastle-based Mediaworks Online Marketing, uncovers a few pointers, terms and tactics to help you win the Christmas gold rush:

1. Register for Google Maps – this is a sure-fire way of gaining some first-page exposure should someone in your area search for products or services related to your business via Google.

2. Use Google Analytics – tailor your website through analysing current traffic trends allowing you to channel visitors to specific pages, such as your most popular products, and increase conversions on your website as a result.

3. Run a seasonal pay-per-click campaign based around Christmas gifts or related products. It is a very simple and effective way of ‘buying’ traffic to your website over the festive period and, with Google offering free £50 vouchers, you can even try for free.

4. Google keyword tool – before you embark on any kind of online marketing you should use the Google keyword tool to research your market place and the demand which lies within. This will effectively tell you what your potential customers are searching for when using Google, as well as a numerical value on the number of searches per keyword.

5. Website ‘on-page’ optimisation – tagging titles, content optimisation and unique content are just some of the basic onsite changes you can make to aid Google in referencing your site.

6. Google ‘merchant centre’ – submission to this service will allow Google to display your products within the shopping results section of its search results. Generally implemented by your web designer but a great quick win for first-page exposure.

7. Utilise your ‘long tail’ – FAQs, blogs, news sections, industry articles and content-rich landing pages all contribute to your ‘long tail’ traffic.

8. DMOZ and Yahoo directories – submitting your site to DMOZ and Yahoo Business Directory, both highly-respected sources of information by Google, will invariably add more weight to your website and ‘authority’ from Google when considering its search results.

9. Structure your site effectively – ensure that all important pages can be found and accessed easily from your home page to give them the most weight and authority and best chance of ranking.

10. Submitting an XML Sitemap – it is imperative that you create an XML sitemap (lots of free tools online do this for you) and submit this to Google, this is essentially a road map of your website for Google and allow site to access every page ensuring there are no missed opportunities for ranking.

Mr Jacobson also believes it is important to understand the consumer demands during the festive period.

He says: "Utilising the services of your online marketing company or working in-house to discuss which aspects of your business are most profitable AND most highly searched in the run-up to Christmas.

"Don’t forget the January sales. While Christmas is your peak trading time it is just as important to ensure that your website is well equipped to cope with those looking for bargains in the New Year.

"It is also a good time to promote products which have high stock quantities remaining and can be pushed out via the various online marketing resources at a much lower cost than via other retail channels."