Making the most of the internet | FOCUS


‘Infrastructure, control and ownership are paramount’


Chris Norton, digital director at online retailer Bathroom Takeaway, has a track record as an SEO consultant for some of the world’s top blue-chip companies. Here he takes us through the basics of setting up a website and how to keep it relevant and effective as a tool to grow your business


Q & A


Q: What advice would you give to a retailer starting out to build their fi rst website? A: There is always the temptation to spend as little as possible in order to establish a basic web presence that allows customers to transact and purchase your products online. This is understandable, if the short-term future of the business is uncertain and you are working with limited funds. However, building a website on the cheap almost always surrenders a lot of freedom to optimise for search engines and user experience, so can present a glass ceiling for performance in the future. It’s like building a skyscraper. If you economise on the foundations, it doesn’t matter what your aspirations are, because there will always be a limit to how many fl oors the foundations can support. Infrastructure, control and ownership are paramount. This is why you should always buy your own domain name and involve an SEO or e-commerce expert before deciding on your website structure and e-commerce platform. Many ‘one-click’ website providers are simple to use because they provide you with a presence on their brand domain, meaning any back-links you acquire infl ate and grow their web presence. The templates offered as designs are also used by countless other businesses, making it incredibly diffi cult to differentiate your website from what Google views as thousands of clones. Also, consider whether a transactional website is the best investment at this stage, or whether an initial presence on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay aren’t a better starting point to drive sales until you can afford to build a website properly.


Q: What are the dos and don’ts? A: Don’t copy another website’s content. Create all the content from scratch yourself or by using a copywriter with knowledge of your products, service and industry. Do share your story, tell customers what makes you different and why they should buy from you instead of anyone else. Do ensure your website looks and performs as intended on mobile devices – page load speed is of the essence. Do spend time researching how search engine users refer to your products, so you know which terminology to use – industry jargon that’s alien to consumers won’t help at all. A former SEO client of mine (a global luxury automotive brand) insisted on referring to their second-hand vehicles as ‘approved pre-owned’ instead of ‘used’ in their website content. The latter is what users actually search for and represents more than 100,000 monthly searches, while the former carried fewer than 100 searches in Google UK per month at the time. The perfect example of this in the bathroom world is that what the industry calls a ‘bathroom basin’, but consumers call a ‘bathroom sink’. ‘Bathroom basin’ is typed into Google 6,600 times a month yet ‘bathroom sink’ is searched for 33,100 times, according to Google’s Keyword planner tool. Food for thought.


December 2019 · kbbreview


Analytics help


produce accurate reporting


and business


intelligence, and a good CRM will give you the platform to action those


insights and grow your business


Q: How can we make our websites more visible. What basics of SEO can be addressed without using an outside agency? A: Useful and original content, building a social media audience and posting regularly, engaging in PR to keep the public and industry aware of your brand and what you are doing, all the while accumulating back-links and chasing up customer service reviews to build your reputation. Ensure your website content solves a problem, answers a question or fulfi ls a need. This type of content resonates the most with consumers and is often the most shareable on social media, attracting more visitors to your site and increasing your reach.


Q: Do you think a retailer can take it on themselves, or is that a mistake? A: If you are technically minded, read a lot, seek advice from others who have done it themselves, and give it a go. For those not of a technical disposition, always reach out to professionals.


Q: Should they go for social media at the same time. If so, what works best? A: Absolutely. For home interiors, I’d recommend Facebook and Instagram fi rst. Instagram is essential when building an audience and showcasing your products. Women are often the instigators of refurbishing the home and Instagram is their social platform of choice when seeking inspiration. Plus, Facebook and Instagram paid advertising is often cheaper than Google advertising.


Q: What are the essential elements of a website? Content or functionality? A: URL structure, fast-loading pages from entrance to payment confi rmation, especially on mobile,


useful and informative original content that adds to the customer experience, breadth of product offering and the ability to pay or fi nance a purchase using the most popular methods available in each target country.


Once all the above is done, primary focus should be in gaining high-quality back-links, which remain one of the most dominant SEO success factors. If content is poor, or plagiarised, links will not help you. It’s the same if your website loads too slowly. Having customer relationship management (CRM) software and correctly confi gured analytics that can connect to your other systems will help you understand the big picture. Especially when looking at how traffi c from one source may end up generating sales elsewhere. Analytics help produce accurate reporting and business intelligence, and a good CRM will give you the platform to action those insights and grow your business. It’s important to understand how consumers discover your products or services and how, over time, you can answer their questions from the research and consideration stage to choosing a retailer and making that big purchase.


Q: How time-consuming is it to keep it all running and up-to-date? A: Digital marketing can require full-time teams of agencies in each country for global brands or can be an hour a day for a single owner-operator. If you’re starting out, keep your marketing local and controllable, then learn from each campaign. Constantly improve and strive to attract higher- quality, more relevant traffi c and concentrate on growing that. This will ensure that, as your business grows and is ready to take the next step, you have the technology and data to reach that next level.


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