How to Choose an Ecommerce Platform

E-commerce Shop Comparing Most Popular Ecommerce Software

These days you have plenty of options when it comes to choosing the best ecommerce platform for your online shop.   Just a few years ago the options were limited to WordPress’ WooCommerce, Magento or Prestashop.  Today more people are choosing WordPress or Shopify.  In fact we are often asked to migrate websites from other platforms to WordPress or Shopify.  Magento is still very popular with very large online shops but Shopify is gaining market share among that niche too.

Here is a brief overview of WordPress’ WooCommerce vs Magento vs Shopify.   Our team are always happy to discuss the best ecommerce platform for your online shop so please get in touch.

WooCommerce – Perfect for Smaller Online Shops

Powered by WordPress, WooCommerce is free and easy to use.   Many small businesses love its simplicity.  The easy to navigate interface makes it simple to carry out the day to day tasks of running your business.  While having the ability to integrate a vast array of plugins, ensuring your site can evolve as your business does.  With WordPress you have the peace of mind of knowing that you own your website as opposed to Shopify where you are effectively renting the website.

WordPress offers the opportunity to custom the code running your site so you have full control over the look and performance of the site.   The downside is that you are responsible for the software updates and backups.  But these are easy to perform and many web designers will carry out these tasks on a regular basis for a small fee.  We offer WordPress maintenance services.

Shopify – Great for Online Shops of All Sizes

Shopify is growing massively in popularity.  Its one of our favourite ecommerce platforms.  It’s easy to use and there are no concerns about updating software or taking backups.  As your shop grows in size and popularity, you can upgrade to Shopify Plus.   We design and upgrade Shopify websites as an approved Shopify Partner.

The only downside is that you are ‘renting’ the website but this only becomes an actual problem if Shopify were to cease trading.  This is extremely unlikely as the platform is extremely popular and growing massively from year to year.  Shopify isn’t going anywhere!

Magento – Great for Large E-Commerce Business

When it comes to choosing an e-commerce provider for your large business, Magento is the most popular choice.  There’s really no other platform that provides the scale and efficiency as Magento. As a result it’s chosen by many of the world leading brands as their e-commerce platform of choice.

The downside to Magento is that it requires a greater degree of technical ability to set up and manage ongoing. Making it better suited to larger scale businesses with greater budgets and a team skilled to manage the website. For business with the budget to invest in Magento development the investment is no doubt worthwhile and pays out dividends in the long term.

If you are looking for a specialist team to build your online shop please get in touch.  We’re always happy to show examples of our work and provide a quote.

Google’s Latest SEO Tips for Online Shops

6 Top SEO Tips for Selling Products

Google has shared 6 top SEO tips to help online shops to improve their presence in the search results. These tips are an essential part of an SEO strategy for ecommerce websites.  These tips aren’t new to those of us in the SEO industry but if you are learning how to use SEO to attract visitors to your shop then its important to understand and utilise these tips.

The main key is to use Google’s Merchant Center effectively. We work with online shops around the world to help their products appear in Google’s search results and so many clients are unaware of the importance of Google’s Merchant Center.  The Merchant Center allows ecommerce shop owners to upload product feeds straight to Google.

Here are their top 6 SEO tips:-

    1. Ensure your products are indexed

In other words, are your products actually appearing in Google? Google visit your website on a regular basis and tries to find all the products using links from other pages. But it often struggles to find every single product. So make life easier for Google and use an up to date sitemap.

2. Are your prices correct on Google?

It can be disastrous  if Google is showing an old price.  Luckily its straightforward to ensure this does not happen. Google recommended that we add structured data to all the product pages and provide Google Merchant Center with structured feeds of your product data.  If you are unsure how to do this please get in touch.

3. Minimize Price & Availability Lag

Again the best way to avoid this is to provide Google Merchant Center with your product feed.  Don’t wait for Google to visit your site.

4. Ensure Products Are Eligible For Rich Product Results

This is really important and an aspect that many online shops overlook.  To be eligible for rich product results you must use of product structured data.

5. Make sure customers who search ‘near me’ can find you

A lot of potential customers prefer to find local suppliers and will select the ‘near me’ option.   There are two easy steps to making sure that you appear for these customers.   Firstly register with Google My Business/Maps for your location pin.  Secondly prepare and send a local inventory feed to Merchant Center.

6. Sign up for Google’s Shopping Tab

Many of our clients complain that their products appear in Google’s search results but not in the coveted Shopping tab.  We help them by providing  product data feeds via Merchant Center and making sure the correct settings are selected.

For more information watch this video from Google

 

 

Latest SEO news shows Google is under threat from Tiktok

If you have ever used Tiktok then you many not be surprised to learn that many people use it as a source of information. The short video clip app is growing massively in popularity and is particularly popular with the under 25 years olds. Although most people still use Google as their number one search engine, Tiktok is starting to threaten that position. 40% of users aged 25 years and under say that they use Tiktok instead of Google.

A big advantage of Tiktok is that the video clips are short so people can find the information for what they need quickly. Younger generations tend to have a lower attention span. They don’t want to spend ages searching to find the info that they need. Tiktok is ideal as most video are less than a minute. There are issues with the search facility but many people find the For You selection to be really useful too.

So what does this mean for SEO and digital marketing in general? Clearly Tiktok is becoming an important platform for reaching potential customers. For companies who are targeting a younger demographic, it is essential to understand how Tiktok works before considering if it would be suitable for their products/services. We recommend that our clients install and use the app for a while first.

Google are recognising the power of Tiktok and are going to include Tiktok videos (and Instagram) in it’s search results. It seems highly likely that videos across different platforms will start to appear higher in Google’s search results in near the future. This is an important when planning your SEO content for the future. Videos on Youtube already appear on first page of Google for many search results. Look out for other video platforms to start appearing soon too. So creating targeted content via video is becoming even more important in achieving high Google rankings.

If you are interested in using Tiktok to promote your company please get in touch. We are avid Tiktok users and we are always happy to explain how to use it to reach more customers. Drop us a line at hello@casemarketing.co.uk

Why is Wix so popular with small business owners?

Wix’s Popularity is Rising Fast

In recent years Wix has grown massively in popularity. It is now the sixth most popular CMS (content management system) in the world for building websites. Although it has a long way to go before it rivals WordPress, it’s growth is astonishing. It’s popularity grew over 220% from 2019 and 2020.

Wix is better described as a website builder platform. It is great for start ups and small businesses who want to design and built their own websites. It has low running costs and there are no worries about software updates or taking backups. It’s a no-hassle way of running a blog, website or online shop.

Wix offers a simple drag-and-drop editor which is easy to use. In terms of design, there are over 800 free templates available that can be customized. One drawback is that once you have chosen your template design it cannot be changed so choose carefully! The additonal functions like galleries, online shops, etc. there is the App Market.

In recent years we have been asked by many clients to design and build Wix websites. Typically these are clients are busy people who haven’t got the time to sit and learn how to build a website. They also don’t know how SEO works and need assistance with ensuring their website looks great, performs well and achieves high ranking in Google’s search results. We also get asked to upgrade and modify existing Wix websites. Once their Wix website is completed, it is easy for them to manage it themselves. Their only running cost is their Wix monthly subscription which starts at about £7 depending on their requirements.

About Our Wix Design Service

Our team of Wix experts are available to help with any aspect of your Wix website. We can design and create your Wix website from scratch or we can work on an existing website. If you have started to work on your own Wix website but it isn’t looking or performing as you wish then give us a call or drop us an email. We’re always happy to discuss your project and provide a quote.

We are based near Cardiff in South Wales but we work for clients across Wales and England. We also have overseas clients. Drop us a line if you would like a quote.