Promoting an Online Store for Dummies: A 20-Step Guide (Part 2)
So, the first month of promotion
4. Enable analytics, tools for checking positions
First, we connect Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, Yandex.Metrika and Yandex.Webmaster. This will help you track the progress and dynamics of your project.
5. Development of the semantic core
Having connected the tools for analytics, you need to attract potential buyers to the pages of your store. One of the most popular methods, as you might have guessed, is promotion in Google and Yandex search engines. It begins with the compilation of the semantic core. The semantic core of the site (SN) is a complex of search words and phrases that characterize the activity, goods or services offered as accurately as possible. There are a number of services for selecting search words. They will help you easily determine the frequency of words in suitable regions. At the stage of selecting the core, you need to be patient, since the maximum number of requests is collected from all potential sources (competitors, search engine tools, key databases, price list, generation of phrases from starting words). After that, all selected keys must be checked manually, removing requests that are not related to your business. In addition, we advise you to check the frequency of these phrases to remove dummy requests. The main thing is that the wider the core, the better, because in this way there are more opportunities to attract targeted traffic.
6. Top 10 competitor analysis
We decided on a niche, made a website, created a semantic core. Now it's time to study the competitors. What is important to you at this stage?
- the cost of goods in the competitor's online store;
- the project promotion strategy he chose;
- key density on the pages of a competitor's online store, the length of texts and their nausea.
Keep in mind that it takes 3-5 hours to analyze one competitor if a specialist does it. For a beginner, this will take much more time. And not the fact that you will take into account all the important aspects. Therefore, we advise you to entrust this matter to a specialist who will perform a competent and efficient analysis.
7. Comprehensive Audit
It may seem paradoxical, but after a thorough acquaintance with competitors, it's time to get to know your own site better. That is, conduct a detailed audit. Firstly, this applies to those online stores that were created without taking into account the recommendations for SEO optimization. A comprehensive audit of the resource should show all its strengths and weaknesses from the technical side. And it will also demonstrate how search engines treat the site - whether it is being indexed, whether there are filters, external links to the site, etc. But since we are actually at the initial stage of promotion, do not expect any special results. Prior to this step, a lot of preparatory work has been done, which will be an excellent foundation for future progress.
8. Content strategy for website promotion
Without high-quality relevant content, your online store will not get a large audience. Currently, useful and unique content is gaining more and more weight in promoting projects and attracting visitors. So what do users want? A content strategy should take into account two important aspects:
- content plan for basic optimization of all pages;
- regular publications in the "News" section and/or in your blog on the site.
When developing a content plan, do not forget about the need to use the semantic core: the keys must be present in the required amount in texts, headings and meta tags.
Content strategy − engine of your business. It is made once and for a long time, so it is extremely important to pay close attention to it.
9. Content creation and website content
We start creating materials in accordance with the content plan. With a limited budget, it is better to divide the process of writing texts into several months. First, deal with the main sections (main, catalog, product cards, section about the company), then the secondary ones (cart, checkout page, delivery, payment, contacts).
You can order articles optimized for the semantic core on the copywriting exchange, where the price for text ranges from $1 to $15 per thousand characters without spaces. But remember that the quality of such materials is not always satisfactory - few freelancers are responsible. Here there is a risk of receiving the ordered article later than the deadline or not receiving it at all (this is also not uncommon). You can also write articles yourself or entrust this work to specialists.
10. Internal linking for main queries
Relinking is the linking of pages of a website with links. At the same time, the links contain a key by which the page is promoted. In the online store that was created, you can set up automatic product linking via the related products widget. The presence of such tools − this is an important detail in the further promotion of the online store.
11. Buying perpetual links or publishing articles on satellites
Gone are the days when you could improve your position in the search results simply by buying a lot of links on various exchange sites. Today, for such actions, sites are sent under the filter. Buying quality links will bring many users to the site. Let's see how it works:
- a link to a site on popular Internet sites attracts a new audience;
- the presence of eternal links increases the trust of the search engine to the resource;
- Permanent links can have a positive effect on conversion by increasing its rate.
Please note that a competent link-building strategy is the most difficult stage of online store promotion, which determines the speed of achieving results and growing popularity. But this process is complicated by the fact that there are difficulties in finding recommendations from search engines because they do not allow you to directly influence search results by increasing the link mass. It is wiser to order the link-building strategy itself from specialists. Sometimes it is advisable to order professional link budget management in order to avoid a ban from search engines. If you manage to master the plan for the first month of promotion, you can easily breathe out, because all the difficulties are already behind you. Now you should start the plan for the next month, following all the points.
The results of the first 30 days of promotion should look like this:
- semantic core formed;
- all CL queries are properly placed on the pages;
- formed content plan for the publication of articles;
- First errors identified, changes to be made indicated;
- all web pages are well-optimized and well-linked (that is, in fact, there is already a link);
- First links purchased.
In the next blog post, I will talk about the second month of the promotion.