If you still plan to go shopping on Black Friday this year, here are some tips:

Call ahead to make sure the store you want to shop at is going to be open and what their Covid policies are. The following stores began Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving last year, but have already announced that in 2020 they will be closed on the holiday:

•         Walmart
•         Target
•         Kohl’s
•         Bed Bath & Beyond
•         Best Buy
•         Ulta

If you still feel the urge to brave the stores…

Give other shoppers (and yourself) plenty of space, bring hand sanitizer, and remember to wear your mask.

Take it easy on essential workers who are doing their best to make your shopping experience a good one.

Stores have been relatively tight-lipped about the hours they will be open on Black Friday this year since many wonder about the effects of the predicted second-wave of the novel coronavirus. Good Housekeeping’s website has a list of store hours that they keep updated as information comes in.

Business Owners

Are you a business owner who is concerned about making your bottom line this holiday season? Online sales are where it’s at! People feel safer and more comfortable shopping on their laptop in their pajamas. Start preparing now. Ensure that your e-commerce site is in top shape for Black Friday 2020.

•         Is your site intuitive and easy for customers to use? It is common for customers to leave a site altogether if the experience trying to use it is frustrating.
•         Do you have high-quality, optimized images that consumers can zoom in on?
•         Take your e-commerce site as seriously as you did when you opened your brick and mortar retail store.
•         Consider how you will get products to your customers. There are countless ways to ship your products, which will be the right one for your customers. The cheapest way isn’t always the best way (but it might be).
•         Make sure that your site is mobile responsive. Many people are using smartphones and tablets for their online shopping. Half of all, online transactions are completed on a mobile device. If your site doesn’t resize itself so that it is still easy for the customer to use, it is time for a redesign.
•         Protect your online store from cyber threats with PCI compliance and stringent security. Have an SSL certificate, a strong firewall, two-factor authentication, and a privacy policy in your website’s footer.
•         Keep the checkout process simple. Often people abandon their carts because of surprise shipping costs and time-consuming checkout.
•         Consider the importance of reviews that sell your products for you. Iceberg’s Reputation Management Services are perfect for anyone who wants to use their website to sell or advertise to customers. Call 612-440-8762 today for a free demonstration of how this service can revolutionize the way your customers see your business.

Is all this a little overwhelming?

Black Friday and the holidays will look different in 2020, but it can still be as profitable as ever. If you are a business owner whose website could use some updating, contact Iceberg Web Design today to see how easy we can make the process.

The post Black Friday 2020 Will Be Different appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

SEO for Website Content: What You’re Doing Wrong & How to Fix It

If your website is failing to rank in search, you might be surprised to learn that your website content could be to blame. Don’t worry—each mistake has a simple fix you can use to improve your content.

Mistake #1: Emphasizing Quantity Over Quality

Although having content on your website is a requirement, it’s never a good idea to create content just to create it. Content created haphazardly and lacking quality can do more damage than good. Quality content that is valuable to your audience generates loyalty, which increases your traffic. Content generated without your audience in mind will drive them away.

Plus, high-quality content is a priority for Google. In fact, Google states,

“Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site’s reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.”

The Fix

Change your focus. Remember that your website’s purpose is to serve your customer, not you. Use your content to answer their questions, their concerns and to educate. Spend time getting to know what your customer wants and even more time creating quality content they’ll want to read. It’s worth it.

Mistake #2: Using the Wrong Keywords

Keywords describe the content on your website pages. When someone searches for your keyword online, your website should be displayed in search results. But using the wrong keywords that are irrelevant to your content does the opposite, hiding your website from view.

The Fix

Conduct some basic keyword research to find the best keywords for your website. Make sure that the keywords you choose describe what you do, what your content is about and what your target audience would use to find you online.

Mistake #3: Forgetting Meta Descriptions & Title Tags

Meta descriptions and title tags appear in search engine results and help in getting clicks from searchers. They are also used as part of the overarching algorithm for search engines when they crawl your website and decide where you fall in the rankings. To optimize your content in the best way, each page needs a properly optimized meta description and title tag.

The Fix

Both the title tag and meta description should include relevant keywords about the content found on the page. The meta description should be a short summary of the content found on the page. Remember, your title tags and meta descriptions will appear in the search engine, so make sure they’re compelling.

Mistake #4: Adding in the Wrong Internal Links

Internal links are a great way to boost your website’s visibility. But, placing the wrong internal links in your copy can be seen as “stuffing”. Stuffing internal links is not only frowned upon by your target customer but is viewed negatively by search engines.

The Fix

Only place internal links into your copy that are relevant to the content. For example, if you’re writing an educational blog post, feel free to link out to a page that will give them even more information for added quality. If you link to your top performing pages, make sure they’re not off topic.

Proper Optimization Is Important for Website Visibility

For your target audience to find you online, proper optimization is super important. Your website content is the perfect place to start. To learn more about optimizing your copy, send us a message.

The post Website Content Optimization: What You’re Doing Wrong appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

As more and more of our daily activities shift to being online, it makes sense that most shopping happens online as well. Almost every company sells their products online and it’s a mystery as to how they stay competitive, especially during the busiest shopping time of the year… Well, let’s clear things up with

Go Mobile

We are living in the age of smartphones where people use their iPhone more than they would use a laptop, desktop, or tablet. While most businesses have taken advantage of this opportunity and created mobile-friendly sites that are easy to navigate, many still have yet to board the mobile train. Creating an online store that works flawlessly on mobile browsers will allow for easy click through and provide less interference during the search process.

Include All the Holidays

People love to shop, especially when they have a good reason to. Most forget, or don’t even know, but the holiday season is made up of much more than just Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. For instance, there is Singles Day, which reached a record high of $30.8 Billion in sales this year across Chinese e-commerce shopping platforms. There’s also Small Business Saturday, which reached a record high of $3.02 Billion in online sales. Make sure to engage beyond traditional holidays and reach into other markets!

Here is a list from Brightpearl of key dates to be aware of during the holiday season for your business.

Quick and Painless Shipping

It’s already difficult getting people to actually buy the items that are in their cart… Why make it more difficult by charging them a shipping fee once they decide to go through with the purchase? It is highly beneficial to offer free and fast shipping at checkout, especially during the holiday season because most people procrastinate buying gifts or they are tight on money. Offering free and fast shipping will make all the difference.  

Looking to Sell Online? Call Us!

We have worked with numerous businesses to create e-commerce websites that are user-friendly and help increase conversions. Feel free to check out our portfolio to explore some of our e-commerce websites and make sure to call today for a free consultation!

The post E-Commerce Holiday Shopping Trends appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Enhanced mobile responsive design

What is mobile responsive design? This method of web design helps optimize the customer experience by adapting the layout and content to the user’s device (e.g. desktop, laptop, phone, etc.).  Although mobile responsive design is not new, there is a steady increase of using mobile devices for browsing and shopping.  It is highly recommended if not mandatory that your site be built with responsive design in mind.  As this demand continues to increase, it will be important to consider developing websites for mobile platforms first, with other devices made responsive and adaptive second.

Semi-flat design

Flat design uses stylistic elements like typography and flat colors in a minimal way to provide a two-dimensional illusion. In 2016, flat design was popular, but the trend is moving toward semi-flat design. This design style enhances the functionality and simplicity of a flat design, with a more attractive and engaging user experience. Semi-flat design in conductive to responsive design and can aid in speeding up loading times, an important consideration for customer ease of use and Google ranking alike.

Material design

This is a design language that was developed by Google for Android devices in 2014.  Material design quickly caught on with the masses because the design is so simple and clean, and the trend continues to grow. From an eCommerce standpoint, online stores are embracing this card-like layout and incorporating responsive animations and transitions, and lighting and shadows to create an enriching experience for their shoppers.

Long scroll pages

Look for this to be a huge trend in 2017, as customers now prefer to scroll through the entire product category rather than paging through subsets of content. For mobile devices, this design style is critical as it provides a more elegant and simple user experience. With laptops getting lighter and smaller and mobile devices like the Apple Watch depending on scrolling users have to come to expect long pages.

Typography

Typography is how typefaces, font size, tracking, kerning, color and other elements affect the design type. This trend continues to evolve toward the use of large and flexible typography, as using the right message with this tactic has a huge impact on customers. This aids in steering customers towards your products and services while developing a strong brand identity.

Imagery and Bright Colors

Buyers are visual, and that’s no secret. However, research indicates 92.6% of consumers use visuals as a major influencer in their purchasing decision. It only take two seconds to make a good impression, so clear, crisp, and interesting images that tell a story about your brand, products and services is important. Additionally, you want to consider how these design elements connect to your audience and their demographic.  You’ll want to choose these elements wisely.

Animations and cinemagraphs

Customer like to be engaged and entertained, and the use of animations, cinemagraphs, and GIFs are becoming an integral part of eCommerce websites. What, exactly, is a cinemagraph? Cinemagraphs are still photographs of repeated movements used to form a video clip. They can be an animated GIF or some other video format that mirrors animation. User interest and engagement are key, and using these elements on homepage banners, within product images and other areas of the website usually gain a lot of traction.

We feel that these are important trends to embrace with your eCommerce website design.  If you’re looking to launch a new site or enhance your existing web presence, please give us a call.  Iceberg Web Design is ready and able to assist at one of our locations in the Minneapolis, Chicago, and Toronto areas. Contact us today!

The post 2017 Trends in eCommerce Website Design appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Let’s start with the basic technology. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) refers to the protocol used to transfer information back and forth from your web browser to the server where the website, and all of it’s associated files, lives. A normal visit to a website includes hundreds of transmissions back and forth as you click links to request pages and your browser receives the information requested and arranges it on your screen. For a website using HTTP, your browser really doesn’t care how the information gets transferred back and forth.

In contrast, HTTPS implements an additional, secure protocol called SSL to transfer information back and forth (hence the “S” on the end). All the data transferred is encrypted with a security code uniquely established between your browser and the web server, so no other parties can intercept and access the information. An SSL certificate is implemented by the web host and validates the identity of the website.

If your website is transferring sensitive information, such as credit card numbers for online purchases or personal information for banking or medical purposes, then you clearly need to have a valid SSL certificate and ensure all traffic uses HTTPS. But what about small business websites? Does it make sense to just encrypt everything all the time? Here are a few factors to consider if you are thinking of making the move to HTTPS.

1. The cost of the SSL certificate

Depending where your website is hosted, there may be an annual cost for an SSL certificate, and it could be in the form of a dedicated certificate and IP address, or a shared SSL certificate in a shared hosting environment. At Iceberg Web Design, most of our custom web development projects come with a free shared SSL certificate. Many existing Iceberg customers can add on an SSL certificate to their hosting plan at no additional charge.

2. Time required for updating internal links

Your website likely contains many links that lead to other pages within your website. Any links that contain the full url of your site will need to be updated to the https:// url. Depending on the size of your website and number of links, it may take up to several hours of development time to fully check the site, update the links, and add any necessary re-directs.

3. Embedded content

If you restrict your website to a secure protocol, that protocol also requires any embedded content in your website to also be served over a secure connection. For example, if you have a page on your website that uses an iframe to pull in content from an external source, that source also needs to use the HTTPS protocol.

4. Security

A commonly held misconception is that HTTPS will improve the overall security of your website. While HTTPS transmits data more securely between a web browser and web server, it does not provide protection against brute force attacks against your database. A better way to protect your website from hackers is to use complex passwords that change frequently, lock-down login if multiple frequent login attempts are detected, and if necessary, providing an additional layer of protection with htaccess passwords.

5. Google Rankings

With Google including site encryption as a ranking signal in its ever evolving algorithm, many companies are anxious to make the switch in order to boost their SEO ranking. It should be worth noting, however, that this is a very small component of the Google’s ranking system, and companies who do not have HTTPS will likely see no negative impact on their rankings over this one issue alone. Frequent updates to content, utilizing social media and having accurate business listings, as well as off-site SEO efforts, are far more important in seeing improved ranking results.

Just like anything other business decision, you will need to decide for yourself whether the benefit will outweigh the time and cost required to switch to HTTPS. Contact Iceberg with any questions you have about switching your website to HTTPS. We’re always happy to help!

The post The Nitty Gritty on HTTP vs HTTPS appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

TRUST TRUST TRUST!

It’s no secret that it is difficult to convert new visitors into a paying customer.  There are a lot ways that your information can get taken by the wrong people out there in cyber land.  How can we overcome this?

Build trust, Duh!

There are a number of ways to build trust, but none are more powerful than online reviews.  Using 3^rd party trusted review sources allows you to give your web visitors the confidence that other people regular purchase from and trust your company.  There are a number of review funnels that help get good feedback from your customers and promote more conversions.

Another way to instill confidence in your visitors that they are making the correct decision in choosing you is an SSL Certificate and the proper security badges.  Having an SSL Certificate is key as you are protecting your customer’s private information, but it also gives your customer a comfortable feeling that they can rest assured they are protected.   Upon checkout security seals like McAfee Secure and Verified Authorized.net can give your customers that warm and fuzzy feeling that they are safe purchasing from your website.

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PRODUCT PAGE

There is one place where your customer actually clicks on your products and starts down the path of purchase.  Making sure your product page has a clean user-friendly look is of the utmost importance.  High resolution and high quality images of your products will help increase conversions as it is more clear for your customers to make a decision.

Make sure that there that it is easy for your customers to navigate and answer any frequently asked questions.  They aren’t speaking with a customer service rep, but still often times have questions that need to be answered.   Software Ad ons like Snap Engage can even give you the option to chat with a live person if you are able to dedicate staff time to help with online inquiries.

IMPRESS THEM WITH THE DETAILS

Taking the extra time to create engaging discussion of your products is what drives customers to want or need your products.  Make sure that you appeal to emotions and use descriptive language that speaks directly to your customers.   Most customers are looking for products that will either solve a problem or serve to make them happy.

Product specifications are another important aspect for the analytical shopper out there.   Don’t skimp on the features and benefits when painting the products picture.  More often then note companies will entail the help of a professional content writer to get their point across.

DRAW THEM IN WITH SPECIALS AND COUPONS

Have a huge stock of a particular product you are looking to move?  Make a special highlighting this product.  Email drip campaigns with specials, advertisement on the homepage; there are a myriad of ways to entice your customers that now is the perfect time to pull the trigger on that product they have had their eye on.

Free shipping is always a great feeling at check out time.  Offering free shipping on certain products or all products will really help move the needle when it comes time to break out the credit card.

CREATE URGENCY

What happens if I don’t buy now?  If your customers can see that your stock of a certain item is getting low they will often times not want to risk losing the opportunity.  Making it clear what products you have, what products are sold out and the quantity you have them can help be transparent with the opportunity that is presented to them.  Act now or you may lose the opportunity may seem cheesy, but works.

Want to learn more?  Reach out to Shane Bader with Iceberg Web Design.

The post How to Increase E-Commerce Conversions appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Everyone is always talking about blogging, this article is a blog, blogging, blog, blog…You get the point, it’s a big deal.

Did you know that a blog on your e-commerce website can increase brand exposure while showcasing your products, customer support, knowledge, and expertise.

Increase Exposure

Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. Source: Hubspot

It is easy to understand why linking a NEW blog post on your social media site is going to be more exciting than sharing a link to your newest products page.  But the goal isn’t just to make an exciting post, you want your customer to engage in your brand and share that post with their social circle.  The more content you have available to the public the more likely it will be that you connect to and expose potential customer. Not to mention having shareable content that is readily available is automatically going to increase the amount your brand is shared on traditional and nontraditional platforms.  If you don’t have a blog, you most defiantly are not getting any of that exposure.  According to Hubspot, “Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.”

Showcase your products and customer service

81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs. Source: BlogHer

Your blog can be used to showcase your product specifically or focus in a customer review of the product, or even a frequently asked question about the product.  These types of blogs are going to build trust and be more interesting to share on a social networking pages than a traditional product page with a price tag.  Not to mention by linking blogs like this in your products pages you can allow your customer more exposure to your brand. Because millennials in particular are 44% more likely to trust experts over traditional advertising (Hubspot) your blog can connect this customer base to your brand.

Not only can Iceberg Web Design help you with all your tricky E-commerce website issues; we can also help you with your exposure through proven local search engine results, reputation management, and lead generation.  

The post Why Every E-Commerce Web Site Should Have A Blog appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

If you decide to sell a product online, you have many options to choose from when looking for software to power your online store.

The most popular website publishing platform today is WordPress. In fact, more than 25% of all websites today are powered by WordPress, with the closest competitors not even coming close. WordPress is popular for a number of reasons. Our website development firm uses WordPress as our primary publishing platform for quite a few reasons:

• WordPress is Open Source, meaning that the software is, ultimately, free and the license allows you to modify it as you need.
• Because it is Open Source, WordPress is consistently being updated for features and security.
• WordPress is fully expandable, with thousands of free and premium add-ons readily available.
• WordPress is, by far, the most user-friendly website publishing platform for our customers, who don’t need to know HTML to update their website.

Given the global popularity of WordPress, it isn’t surprising that WooCommerce, a popular e-commerce add-on for WordPress, is the leading global e-commerce platform today.

What is WooCommerce?

WoocCommerce is a free e-commerce add-on (plugin) that embeds directly into any WordPress website. This cool open source plugin is capable of selling any product straight from your website. When you install WooCommerce on your website, the entire basic online purchasing process is set up for you: product management, adjustable price points, shopping cart, and checkout process.

To add WooCommerce to your WordPress site, simply go to the Plugin section, perform a search for WooCommerce, and download and install. Once WooCommerce is activated, you will be able to edit all of the settings to configure your unique online store and begin selling.

WooCommerce: The Good

Many businesses turn to this popular plugin to implement what complicated coding would take several hours and heaps of money to create.

There are a lot of delightful features to the WooCommerce plugin, and it is difficult to create an exhaustive list of all of the great features WooCommerce includes out-of-the-box. Let’s take a look at some highlights:

• Free: WooCommerce in its basic form doesn’t cost you a dime; many of its add-ons are also free.

• Lots of Add-ons Available: A variety of free/paid add-ons means WooCommerce leaves no stone unturned. With multiple ways to pay and different types of orders, your customers can have the ability to shop online, create online bookings, or personalize their orders.

• Easy to Use: This is a plug and play add-on. One installed you can simply enter your product information, add your PayPal account, and let it do its thing. It comes with every page template you need for checkout, so you don’t miss any steps in the buyer’s journey. WooCommerce even has an onboarding guide that walks you through the entire process.

From the customer’s vantage point, buying from a WooCommerce-powered website is incredibly smooth. Like any other online store you select your products, shipping, and payment methods. No need to contact the business directly, or go through any hoops – the entire online purchasing experience is streamlined.

• Adjustable Shipping Rates and Taxes: WooCommerce allows adjustable shipping and tax costs. You enter a flat rate based on the location of your customers and chose if you want to include taxes. You can make some items ship for free and others cost or even base the shipping fee on how ‘bulky’ the item is.
• Coupon Integration: Got a special? Easily set up online coupons for your customers!

• Mobile Friendly: Everyone is browsing and buying via their phones these days, which is why it’s important your site is mobile friendly. Of course, your main website needs to be mobile-friendly as well, but WooCommerce is built to perform exceptionally well on mobile devices.

• Order History, Order Status, Customer Accounts: Shoppers appreciate a website where they can fully manage their orders. WooCommerce makes this easy, with an integrated account section for your customers, and customizable e-mail templates to keep your customers updated about the status of their orders.

WooCommerce: The Bad

No plug-in is perfect; WooCommerce is no exception and has drawbacks you should weigh carefully against your business plan. Long term advantages of using WooCommerce should be as important as the short term—you want this add-on to grow with you, not hinder you. With that being said, there are some things that are not too attractive about WooCommerce.

• Doesn’t come with themes: WooCommerce’s look and feel is based on your current WordPress theme. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if your theme integrates with WooCommerce, and you enjoy tweaking and personalizing your site. However, it will take some time to set the store to your exact tastes. We set up the vast majority of our websites in WordPress and can help customize your WooCommerce installation to match the rest of your website.

• It’s a Resource Hog: Generally, website hosting plans include specific upload space and resources. WooCommerce can eat up a lot of it so you may have to budget for a better hosting plan.

• Plugins Slow Down Performance: Incorporating lot of WordPress plugins can slow down the performance of your site. WooCommerce is no different, especially as it takes up a lot of space and memory.

• Prices Can Add Up: While WooCommerce includes a lot of features out-of-the-box, many store owners will find that they need to purchase premium plugins in order to achieve the e-commerce website their business needs. WooCommerce has released a number of premium (paid) extensions to improve store performance, and there are hundreds of other online market places and authors with premium WooCommerce extensions available.  E-commerce features such as allowing customers to book services, sign up for subscription products, or personalize their products with images or text fields will require the purchase of a premium plugin license. These licenses often run on a per-year subscription basis, and can cost anywhere from $29-$500 per year depending on the feature you need.

WooCommerce: The Ugly 

If you are trying to put together a website without support from a professional development company, WooCommerce may not be the best fit for you. There are many downsides to WooCommerce that are down right ugly – and may be a deal breaker for the average DIY business owner. If you are the type of person who prefers to build your own website, consider these downfalls to WooCommerce before you sink hundreds of hours into building your store.

• Coding and Scripting Conflicts: While one of the great features of WooCommerce is the ability to customize it with plugins, more often than not two independent plugins written by different authors may clash, and create chaos on your website. This is because most premium WordPress plugins use script libraries to function, which may conflict with the script libraries other plugins are using.We have worked with customers who, for example, have a great website add-on (let’s say a Wish List) on their WooCommerce website, and later wished to add an AJAX sorting plugin. The two plugins conflicted with one another and the site had a host of issues, from PHP and jQuery warnings, to broken page layouts. Unless you are familiar with the languages that WordPress and WooCommerce plugins are written in (PHP, jQuery, Javascript, and MySQL), you won’t be able to troubleshoot scripting conflects. You can always hire a professional to assist, but this will come with a high price tag. It’s best to know what you’re getting into before you hit download.

• Vulnerable to Hacking: WordPress is particularly subject to hacking, as is WooCommerce because they are open source (coding is easily available to everyone). If you use WordPress/WooCommerce we advice you have a reliable developer and hosting provider who can keep your website updated and is clued in to new security releases.

Is WooCommerce Right For Your Business?

WooCommerce is wonderfully user friendly, and great for online stores. But you must ensure you have the support and help of professionals alongside it if you want peace of mind.

At Iceberg Web Design, our experienced developers can create your WooCommerce store, while making sure that you don’t experience any of the bad or ugly features outlined above. We also offer secure, managed WooCommerce hosting, full support, and we guarantee security updates and virus mitigation should any issues arise.

The post WooCommerce: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.