SEO – Tips for success

SEO tools can be found and managed in your Content Management System (CMS)

• You will need to optimise each website page using headings and sub-headings
• Your page title should clearly show who you are and what you do in less than 80 characters, (now even 50 are preferred by Google)
• Your meta description (max. 160 characters) should contain more about your subject and eventual mission
• Place one to two keywords in the title tag and others in the meta description
• Publish unique, distinctive and quality content on a regular basis
• Understand your target audience and what they are looking for (keywords)
• Mix broad and more specific keywords
• Name your images so Google crawlers can recognise and take the content into account
• Take advantage of free keyword generation tools eg Google Adwords keyword planner, Wordtracker, Keyword discovery and SEO Scout, as well as metatag proposed improvement tool Widexl.com
• Leverge SEO plug-ins e.g. Google Toolbar and Alexa toolbar
• Use keywords also in the local language of your target market
• Arrange for backlinks where appropriate from other reputable sites to your own website to increase your ‘credibility’
• Test, monitor and continue to optimise on an ongoing basis. You may want to use SEO tools such as Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, SemRush, Moz.com.

Tips for a successful e-commerce site:

• Make it easy for customers to buy from you
• Clean simple design matching your website brand and with a clear call to action
• Easy to navigate with a simple check out process
• Excellent product photos and detailed description
• Offer various payment options including major credit cards, payment solutions eg. Paypal, Applepay,  and the possibility to pay by bank card or bank transfer
• Include search and filter functionality
• Optimise for use on mobile
• Show related items
• List in the language (and currency) of your key markets. While English is fine for the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, local language is preferable for the larger markets in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
• Also consider localisation for specific countries or regions e.g. Asia, South America
• Send ‘basket abandonment’ emails to encourage visitors to purchase
• Offer a great customer experience
• Encourage evaluations and feedback to build credibility. Include a photo if possible
• Generate shipping confirmation email and tracking
• Set up special offers and promotions from time to time and/or loyalty incentives
• Give clear contact information and support. Consider adding chat functionality during business hours to enhance customer satisfaction
• Include social media buttons
• For repeat purchases, no requirement to fill in customer details again
• Pricing automation software allows you to lower or raise prices based on interest or repeat product page reviews – tweak to customer expectations
• Ensure the site is very secure (more details under the Cybersecurity section) and publish your security policy to reassure customers
• Add an FAQ section. If you receive a large amount of queries, you might be able to answer some of them automatically thanks to a bot via your chat

User experience is key

• Put emphasis on mobile usage
• Ensure easy navigation (use breadcrumbs)
• Monitor and optimise site speed (ensure your loading speed is under 7 seconds, even better is 3)
• Promote your website on social media and other online channels to drive traffic
• While cookies enable a better user experience, since 2018 they are subject to strict GDPR rules. Ensure usage and consent is clear to maximise opt-ins and use a consent management tool if possible, especially for third party cookies used for analytics, retargeting and live chat.

Content is king

• Create a strong brand identity
• Minimise text, add attractive images, visuals and videos. Use bullet points
• Include a clear call to action on all pages
• Build storytelling with emotional impact
• A/B test to see which pages work best
• Measure regularly and optimise. Use heatmaps to detect where users go and spend time (Tools like Hotjar can help)
• Implement SEO best practices

1. Updates lie at the heart of your website security. Most attacks occur as a result of vulnerabilities in some parts of your website when not patched in a timely manner.
2. Backup is also very important because it is what will make the difference between a serious incident and a nightmare. The backup will allow you to restart your website quickly after a crash. Without backup, months of work can be lost in a few seconds. You should organise a regular backup of your website and check if your hosting provider can also take care of doing the backup for you.
3. If you collect Personal Data on your website (even through a simple contact form), you need to protect the data extremely well. Any leak or incident involving your visitor’s data can have a very negative impact on your reputation, not to mention legal consequences. The data collected should be protected by encryption and stored in a secure place.
   • Access to the data (with a user account for instance) must be secured at the highest level.
   • If you are using a third-party platform to collect and/or store the data, you should check the provider’s conditions and protection measures in place

4. The Settings of your CMS, components and web server can make malicious attempts relatively easy for cybercriminals.

• You will need to review all of them to ensure you do not leave any doors open
• You can also restrict the back office access to people who really need it (whitelisting) or change the default connexion address, and ban IP addresses of users that make suspicious connexion attempts (example below).
• You can also set up a double authentication procedure and strong password policy for access to the CMS to prevent brute force attacks.

Advice available from SECURITYMADEIN.LU. Visit our website www.securitymadein.lu for more information and to contact us.

The different website metrics you track can be linked to the different stages of the buyer journey as follows:

• Awareness and Prospection (Need and discovery)
• Website traffic – including the total number of visits to your website
• Sources of traffic including geography, demography, paid ads or SEO
• Bounce rate, the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page
• Top pages viewed
• Sales funnel development – from prospect to customer. (Consideration and decision)
• Conversion rate (how many visitors respond to a call to action)
• Conversion by traffic source – great indicator of which channel to focus on
• Cost of conversion
• Time spent on site
• Interactions per visit
• Customer retention
• Returning visitors
• Customer’s lifetime value
• NPS (Net Promoting Score): This is not a variable that you can track via Google Analytics, but it is important as it indicates your customer satisfaction levels. You can collect it via email or via a feedback form on your website by asking the famous question “On a scale to 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or a colleague?”