Many people decide to operate in the area of e-commerce, and the number of online stores is growing. However, you must be aware that strong competition also means that only the best will survive on the market. Although a good idea for a business in the virtual world is the foundation, you also need to know how to set up an e-store and how to run it. This is a serious challenge and it means a lot of work. However, if you put in enough effort (and invest your energy the right way), you’ll find a way to generate long-term and stable income.

What do you need to run an online store?

The online store is unequal to the online store. You have to be aware of this. What does this mean in practice? It’s just that the functioning mechanisms of this business are largely dependent on this:

– what do you sell,
– on what scale do you operate,
– how do you advertise?
– what is the UX of your website like,
– whether you sell only in your country or on the international market,
– do you store the offered goods yourself or do you use the dropshipping model.

However, no matter how your online store works, you need a few basic components. It will not work without them. What exactly are we talking about?

Domain

It is the name of your store, and at the same time the address that customers must reach to be able to use your services. Choose it wisely – so that it is unique, easy to remember, and at the same time related to the industry in which you operate. Contrary to appearances … it’s not as easy as it seems. This is because in almost every market niche there are a large number of online stores. Therefore, you cannot afford to follow the “obvious” path, because there are already others on it.

How to solve this problem? For example, you might think about starting your store on a non-standard domain. Alternative and unusual endings can become a characteristic part of your brand name, but they can also slightly reduce the credibility of the domain in the eyes of the recipient. You can also reach for an expressive and “flashy” word that may not seem related to the area in which you operate, but at the same time will allow you to create a strong brand.

E-commerce software

Every online store works on the basis of it. It is a kind of “machine”, which is responsible both for presenting goods on the website and for handling the ordering process. Thanks to the use of an appropriate e-commerce platform, your customers can:

– adding a product to the basket,
– placing and confirming an order,
– making the payment and selecting the form of sending the goods.

All this information reaches you in real time, and you can react efficiently and set the logistics process in motion.

Here, too, you have a choice of several solutions. The two most popular are open-source platforms and SaaS software. The first one is suitable for intermediate users who want to have full control over the functioning of the store, and at the same time are not afraid of investments related to the configuration and implementation of the system.

The second model, based on SaaS platforms, is a good solution for beginners. Following this path, you don’t have to worry about complicated configuration or the need to invest in hosting. You will get everything in the subscription package. However, such a system is less flexible – you will not adjust it perfectly to your business model, and when you stop paying for services, you will lose access to the e-store.

Which solution to choose? Both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you have no experience at all, SaaS platforms seem to be a better course of action, as they reduce the number of implementation tasks to a minimum. However, if you want to run a larger store and need a more advanced system – take a closer look at the possibilities offered by advanced software.

Products

The obvious obviousness? Apparently so, but you have to choose the model of running a warehouse for goods. Modern e-shops usually operate in two ways.

The first is to run your own product warehouse. This is a solution that you will reach for, for example, when the e-shop is an extension of your stationary activity. It also works well if you are the manufacturer of the items you offer and sell them in small quantities. In such cases, a small home warehouse that you can handle yourself is usually enough.

But what when the number of processed orders begins to increase? Then you can either hire a larger team to handle parcel shipping, or think about the fulfillment model, i.e. renting a warehouse with service that will take care of the logistics of shipping goods. You deliver products to it and supervise their flow, but the rest of the tasks rests with your contractor from the logistics industry.

The second, typically outsourcing solution is becoming more and more popular. However, you need to carefully select the subcontractor – so as not to lose control over the efficiency of sending parcels. Remember: today, the time when the shipment will be made is one of the main competitive advantages. The sooner the better!

The second solution is to run a shop in the dropshipping model. This solution is chosen by beginners in the world of e-commerce, as well as those who want to treat the e-shop as an additional source of income. How it’s working? You take care of the technical facilities of the e-shop (the page where you can order products), as well as activities related to marketing and customer service. On the other hand, you transfer orders to a wholesaler, which fulfills them with its own resources. So you de facto act like a “sales department”, but you are not physically involved in sourcing, storing or shipping products. It is a faster, cheaper and easier to implement solution. However, it should be remembered that in this business model you can count on a lower percentage of the revenues generated than when using your own warehouse.

Staff to handle

For starters, if you run a small online store in the dropshipping model, and this activity is the most important element of your professional work, you can handle the service yourself. Especially in the first few months, when you take your first steps in the world of e-commerce, this may be enough. And over time, when your website begins to gain popularity, you will be able to think about expanding your team.

However, it must be remembered that the appropriate number of employees is a guarantee of efficient customer service. You will need them, e.g. to handle customer inquiries about specific products, order fulfillment status, as well as accept any returns and complaints. Remember: some of these tasks will help a well-planned IT system that uses artificial intelligence. For example, chatbots can be a support, as well as the automation of e-mail messages sent to customers (the latter solution is provided by most e-commerce platforms).

With your own warehouse, you will also need a team for picking, packing, shipping and shipping. So measure your intentions and hire as many people as you really need. Efficient customer service at all stages is extremely important. Mistakes when sending orders or long delays in their implementation will be a clear signal to the customer that a high standard of service should be sought … from others.

Payment acceptance system

In theory, it would be enough to provide the customer with the account number to which he would make a transfer for the ordered goods. Exactly, in theory. While about 10 years ago such a solution would have “passed”, today – not necessarily. It is simply not very comfortable, and at the same time slows down the payment accounting process.

Think for yourself: how do you pay for goods ordered online? You probably prefer simple and quick methods, such as Pay Pala or Google Pay. Your customers too!

But be careful! Fast electronic payments are not all payment methods that should be implemented in your e-store. Remember that:

– there is a large group of customers who are skeptical about online shopping. They may only want to pay for the goods upon receipt, and therefore in the “cash on delivery” option. It should also be made available, in agreement with the courier company or postal operator,
– if your e-shop sells quite expensive products, it is worth giving buyers the option to purchase them in installments or by using the deferred payment option.

How to choose the best payment system for your e-shop? Take a closer look at all available options and check both the scope of service and the commissions charged by transaction websites. The lower they are, the more favorable prices you can offer your customers.

Ensuring efficient shipment of products

As with the payment method, your customers will expect flexibility when it comes to shipping method. The modern market gives it, and you, as a seller, can cooperate not only with courier companies, but also with those that deliver goods to collection points. The latter solution becomes more popular from year to year – it is often cheaper for the customer, and at the same time more convenient. By using it, you do not have to wait at home for the courier, and the package can be picked up at any time.

For you, as a seller, this will mean establishing business relationships with several suppliers. When executing large quantities of orders, you can negotiate its terms and get more favorable rates. This is another way to make your offer more attractive to buyers, for example by offering them free shipping.

How does the online store work in the dropshipping model?

The elements described above are key for a store that operates in a traditional model with its own warehouse. But what if you decide to operate in dropshipping mode? Then the functioning of the e-shop looks a bit different.

Your duties as an e-shop operator focus on:
– customer acquisition,
– providing them with a platform on which they can make a purchase,
– order handling in terms of communication with the customer and the warehouse of the warehouse.

On the part of the wholesaler, there are obligations related to the handling of the entire logistics process – i.e. with completing the order, packing it, addressing it and sending it to the buyer.

If the customer returns the products, you are again responsible for direct contact with the buyer and for sending information to the warehouse about the returned products and further steps in customer service.

In this model, the scope of your duties focuses mainly on sales.

What to do to make the e-shop work well and be popular?

The very opening of an e-shop is only the first step in a long process. You should be fully aware of this. Your store will be one of tens, hundreds or even thousands in the industry. Therefore, you need to provide it with adequate visibility and build customer trust. What elements to pay attention to in this context?

Service quality is essential
The features that influence positive opinions about your store are, first of all, the efficiency of communication with the customer and the speed of delivery. The more effectively you inform buyers about the status of their order, the greater the chance for full satisfaction with the established cooperation.

That is why it is so important to use solutions that automate the process of basic communication with the client. E-stores that opt for transparent messages tend to be perceived as more credible and customers are more likely to trust them again.

Attractive terms of cooperation
Offer your customers more than your competition. What? For example, free shipping when placing an order for a certain amount. If you develop good cooperation rules, e.g. with a courier broker, you will not incur high costs for it, and the client will perceive your offer as more attractive. You can also extend the statutory time limit for returning products – provided the product range you trade allows it.

Skillful advertising and SEO activities
Without a good advertising campaign, your offer will disappear among hundreds of others. Therefore, it is worth taking care of optimizing the e-store itself for the purposes of positioning (e.g. website responsiveness, speed of its response to online inquiries, as well as the quality of content present in the e-store), as well as the use of advertising tools are important. Which and how? There are many possibilities. However, well-targeted Google Ads are the most effective, as well as campaigns on social media.

To this should be added activities related to inbound marketing, e.g. obtaining leads, running a newsletter related to a company blog or a fanpage on FB or Instagram. There are plenty of possibilities. However, it is important that the campaign is conducted consistently and that it is aimed at achieving specific business goals.

Remember: promotional activities are an indispensable and PERMANENT element of running an online store. Marketing tools are your foundation in communicating with customers – current, past and potential. The more you invest in well-run ad campaigns, the higher ROI you can expect. However, you have to remember that you have to wait for really good results – this is understandable, because a potential customer has to go through the entire marketing funnel to make the final purchase decision.

The Internet is the most promising sales channel – there is no doubt about it. Regardless of the field in which you operate, the ability to reach the customer without location restrictions gives you a huge competitive advantage. It is worth using it – especially since setting up an e-shop today is simpler than a few years ago.

But be careful! If you think it will become like the snap of a finger… well. It’s not that good. To move from idea to implementation and then successfully build your market position, you need to know how to do it step by step. So see what you need to open a well-functioning online store.

Step 1: refine the business concept

Before getting into the technical details of your own e-shop, you need to go through some basic business tasks. They are the foundation of your investment. Remember: when setting up an e-shop, you invest in the long term. Therefore, you have to be prepared that the development of your business will not happen from month to month, and you will have to wait for the results.

So the question is: how to start? It depends on several factors. Consider: should an online store be a way to develop a stationary business or is it the first step you take on the market? If you already deal with the production and distribution of certain goods via stationary channels, you probably already have appropriate mechanisms developed, including with transport and storage of products, as well as marketing facilities. You already have a customer base and you know who your solutions are addressed to.

However, if you start completely from scratch – the first step is to find an industry. Start with in-depth research. Check what is the economic situation at the moment and consider in what area you are an expert or you can quickly become one. There are two approaches to this topic: either targeting a niche or building an exclusive brand, or vice versa – relying on proven and common material goods.

Also, remember that you have to decide whether you will sell goods under your logo (e.g. by cooperating with the manufacturer to create your own brand) or redistribute it.

It is equally important to ensure a suitable place for running an e-shop. While at the beginning, with small orders, you can manage by storing products, e.g. in a home garage, over time you will need professional storage space.

You can also decide to work in the dropshipping model, which means that you will work with the supplier of products, and you will only deal with the entire sales process until the order is finalized. This solution is good for completely novice entrepreneurs, but of course it also has its downsides, such as limited impact on the shipping process or checking the quality of products.

So, as you can see, if you are a complete beginner, you need to start by developing the business foundation. When they are ready and you know:
– What do you sell,
– to whom your products should go,
– what are your “processing capacities”,
– what budget do you have to start with,

you can start setting up an online store from the technical side.

Step 2: branding

If you already run a stationary business and have developed a brand recognizable by customers, the best solution is to promote it also as part of e-commerce activities. Remember, however, that if your market niche is highly competitive, an expressive, easy-to-associate brand may be one of the factors that will affect your business success. So developing a good branding strategy right from the start is the best you can do. Changing the name later can be time-consuming, costly and, above all, risky.

How to create a good brand? Before you start:
– precisely define the group of customers to which your products will go – assess their needs, expectations, problems, challenges,
– indicate the key values with which your store (and products) is to be associated – which will be more important: prestige and very high quality of products, or maybe their designer character?

Once you know how you want to communicate with the market, you can go to the next step: choose the brand name and its visual identification system.

Especially in the latter aspect, it is worth using the help of professional graphic designers and web designers – they can perform this order on their own or as part of cooperation in designing the e-store layout. It all depends on how you want to “put it up”.

At this stage – when you develop a store brand – it is also worth buying a website domain. Remember that you have at your disposal not only com domains, but also .eu or .co.uk, but also many unusual ones. Nevertheless – these 3 mentioned just now give you more credibility. If you have the option, choosing a domain:
– buy a few “endings” of the address at once – you can then redirect them to the correct store (yours!),
– avoid dashes and other elements in the domain name that may make it difficult for the user to enter the address “by finger”,
– remember that the domain name itself has no impact on positioning – it should be easy to remember and of course be associated with a given business.

Step 3: choosing a platform

At this stage, a very important decision awaits you – which technology will be used in your e-shop. You can go several ways.

A. Commissioning experts to develop your store “from scratch” – it is the safest solution, which at the same time can be fully adjusted to your business needs. However, you must remember that the costs of creating a dedicated platform can be high (and unnecessary), and the time to prepare the website can be very long. That is why this solution is chosen by investors who can afford a one-off spend from several dozen or even several hundred thousand dollars.
B. Take advantage of the e-commerce platform.

When choosing an online store platform, be guided primarily by how large-scale you plan to operate – also in the perspective of many years. Also consider your budget.

When it comes to e-commerce platforms, you have two basic types of services: subscription platforms and open source platforms. How are they different?

Open Source Platforms
This is software that you must install on your own server. They are suitable for people who care about high independence, the ability to adjust the e-store to specific expectations, and above all for medium and large-scale stores. Running them may require previous e-commerce experience or technical support (especially at the beginning).

Usually the platform itself is available for download free of charge, but its operation and extension of the store’s functionality may require investment in paid plugins. It must also be remembered that it will be necessary to implement it on the server and integrate the selected graphic layout with it (own or selected from the available ready-made templates).

Open-source platforms:
– provide the possibility of a very wide “customization”,
– they are friendly for the positioning of online stores,
– they have enormous technical support – especially the users themselves, who are constantly developing this technology

When you choose one of them, you will experience additional costs of implementation, hosting, administration, as well as challenges related to adapting the platform to legal requirements (including developing store regulations).

If you choose an open source platform, you will also need to purchase hosting at this stage. The hosting server should:
– be well secured – so that it is not vulnerable to attacks, and that your clients’ data is safe,
– be adapted to the requirements of the e-commerce platform that you have chosen,
– provide you with sufficiently fast data transfer.

You can choose from shared, inexpensive and suitable for small stores, and dedicated servers – more expensive, but also easier to configure individually. They are suitable for larger and more advanced e-shops.

When choosing an open source platform, you also have a greater impact on the appearance of your e-store. So you can implement it on a template prepared by a computer graphic – so that it fits best into your brand’s visual identity system. You can also take a look at the ready-made templates that are already available.

Subscription platforms (SaaS)
Subscription platforms usually operate in the SaaS model, i.e. Software as a Service. This includes such platforms as Shoper, Shopify or Shoplo. On them you get access to the software in the form of an accessible panel – and this is what your e-shop is based on. In their case, there is no need to “upload” the store to your own server – you use a ready-made system. Fees for using the platform in the SaaS model are charged in the form of a subscription – e.g. monthly or annual, and you, depending on your needs, can choose a specific scope of services and possibilities offered by the website. The costs of such a solution range from several hundred to several thousand dollars per year.

Who are the subscription platforms for? Primarily for beginners who want to run a small-scale online store, especially in the dropshipping model. The use of this solution is the simplest, but it poses many limitations – related to e.g. with limited functionality or the need to choose one of the ready-made graphic templates. Some SaaS platforms are also not perfect in terms of positioning online stores and are burdened with various barriers.

If you are in doubt as to which e-commerce platform to choose, get advice from experts. Analyze your business model with them so as not to make a mistake. Changing the platform later can be costly and time consuming.

Note: Your online store should be responsive. This means that it should be displayed in a fully functional way on various devices – both on computers as well as on tablets and smartphones. Sales via mobile channels are also growing very dynamically, so you cannot afford to lose customers from this source!

Step 4: e-shop integration with ERP

Although this is not a necessary requirement, it is worth considering integrating the online store software with the one that controls warehouse resources. Why? The reason is very simple: if it turns out that a customer orders a product that you do not have in stock, you will face trouble. This single situation can happen. However, if such problems become widespread, you will quickly lose your reputation, and with it – your customers.

That is why the best solution is to use the option of integrating the online store with the ERP system. The immediate flow of information will eliminate the possibility of a mistake and make your task easier.

Step 5: selection of payment methods and their integration with the e-shop

In order for customers to be willing to shop in your e-shop, you need to give them the ability to conveniently pay for goods. Of course, a standard bank transfer is not enough. That is why you must decide on a convenient, yet safe and easy-to-use payment method. There are many trading platforms to choose from. When choosing, consider both available payment methods, as well as commissions and other fees, and flexibility in accessing funds.

Step 6: choosing the delivery methods for the products

This is a matter that you need to take care of primarily in the model in which you handle the shipping of goods yourself. If you have decided to dropshipping, your contractor has probably specified the shipping methods.

However, if not, make sure your customers receive convenient forms of receiving products – apart from courier services, pay attention to the increasingly popular options for delivering goods to points, e.g. shops or parcel machines. On the other hand, however, remember that the more options there are for a customer, the greater the logistical challenge. Therefore, it is worth keeping the golden mean.

Step 7: Add Products

Many e-commerce platforms allow integration with wholesalers and automatic updating of product data. However, if you sell your own assortment, you have to describe it “by hand” in the store. When adding products to ready-made subpage templates, it is worth taking care of two key issues: on the one hand, the attractiveness of the presentation of the product range for the client, and on the other – the fulfillment of SEO requirements.

Therefore, both a good and unique description as well as attractive product photos count. If you sell an assortment of other manufacturers, you can usually get ready-made materials. If you distribute your own products, have professional product photos taken.

In the content area, make sure that:
– were written in the language of benefits – so that they presented not only the advantages of the products, but their translation into the customer’s needs,
– were written in a style adapted to the characteristics of the potential client,
– are in line with SEO requirements – care should be taken, inter alia, o the use of appropriate keywords, headings and bullets. You should also take care of entering metadata and generating friendly URLs.

Step 8: Marketing

Once your store is up and running and you start serving customers, it’s time to increase its visibility to customers, and thus – its popularity. In order to promote your e-store, you can take a number of activities – from paid links, PPC advertising, through social media activities, to positioning your online store and using inbound marketing tools.

It is also good to think about a blog in an online store, which will strengthen the potential of positioning and the image of the website. As you can see, the recipe for setting up your own online store is a methodical step-by-step operation based on a well-thought-out strategy. This is the best way to achieve long-term business success.

What to look for when choosing shared hosting?

Shared hosting is the most popular form of using a server that allows you to create your website at low cost. In this case, the resources we use are shared with other users within one very efficient server. This keeps prices affordable. The server is fully administered by the hosting company, and users can conveniently use all functions via an easy-to-use panel.

If you are creating your own website for the first time, shared hosting will probably be the most suitable for you – it allows you to create a corporate website, portfolio, blog or medium-sized online store. Unless you develop complex solutions that require custom solutions, or host sites visited by hundreds of thousands of users a day, most likely shared hosting will be right for you.

When analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of individual hosting services, it is worth noting that there is no one best solution for everyone. For a photographer who wants to put all his photos and videos online, the most important aspect may be the available disk space, while an entrepreneur who runs a small business and just wants to create his “business card” online does not want to pay for unused gigabytes, while would like to use more e-mail accounts. A solution recommended by your friend may not work for you. For this reason, I cannot answer the question of which hosting is the best. Instead, we indicate issues that should always be checked before choosing.

Uptime – time trouble-free operation

This term stands for uptime, which is simply the reliability of hosting. When you set up a website, you want it to be always available. Imagine that you are starting a long-planned promotion in your online store or providing potential customers with links to your portfolio … and due to server failure the website is currently unavailable. There is no doubt that even if the breakdown is short, it can mean very serious financial losses for the entrepreneur.

Until a few years ago, interruptions in the operation of servers were commonplace, which is why the best providers introduced the concept of uptime to stand out from the competition. This value is expressed as a percentage and is often referred to as SLA. For example, an uptime / SLA of 99% means that servers are running smoothly 99% of the time. Currently, reputable hosting companies already offer uptime / SLA usually at the level of 99.7 – 99.9%. However, we do not always find this information at all – in some cases, hosting service providers are confident in the reliability of the technologies offered and prepared to pay compensation in rare emergencies.

Disk space available

One of the most important factors that we should pay attention to when choosing hosting is also the available disk space – the amount of space on the server that we will have to store all kinds of files necessary for the functioning of the website.

In case you already have your website and just want to transfer it to another server, you can easily see how much disk space you used. There should be no problem accessing historical data. However, it will be more difficult to assess your needs if you are just setting up your first website.

Remember that the place is taken by:
– website template files and software – PHP, HTML, JavaScript scripts – WordPress installation without template and plugins is 50-60 MB, PrestaShop software for creating online stores – 70-80 MB;
– graphic files, photos, videos. – a typical photo from a smartphone is 1.5 – 6 MB – due to the thumbnails, this number should be multiplied by two, a 10-minute video in the quality of 480 pixels may take up to 150 MB.
– databases – they will contain all the content that you publish on your website in text form, for example blog entries, as well as data on the configuration of themes or plugins.
– e-mail accounts – remember that each message takes up space on your server. This applies to both sent and received messages as well as unsolicited correspondence from the SPAM folder. Especially in a situation where you massively send and receive large amounts of e-mails from customers or you have many mailboxes, this can translate into a large consumption of disk space.
– logs and own backups – can also take up additional disk space.

Data transfer

In addition to the space for your files on disks, also pay attention to the available transfer. This is information from which we will find out what amounts of data we can download and send to the server each month. This number includes all page views by both users and bots.

In this case, too, it may be difficult to estimate future needs if we cannot rely on past information. However, there are sites that allow you to ‘weigh’ existing websites in this respect, such as tools.pingdom.com. For example, you can check a competitor’s page and try to estimate your needs by multiplying the page’s “weight” by the number of views per month.

Some hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth with no limit. However, remember that such unlimited hosting applies only to websites and materials that are on these websites. Usually, in the regulations, you will find provisions that prohibit the abuse of unlimited transfer.

Hosting speed

The vast majority of users leave the website if it fails to load within a few seconds. Only the most determined wait longer. For this reason, loading speed is fundamental when choosing your hosting.

Slow page loading or problems with displaying some elements will discourage potential elements. For this reason, it is worth paying attention, among others on the type of disks used.

As part of the hosting service, you can meet the following types of disks:
– standard HDD drives – Hard Disc Drive – classic disc drives,
– fast SSD drives – Solid State Drive – semiconductor drives,
– super-fast NVMe SSDs – state-of-the-art drives up to 10 times faster than SDD drives.

And you probably already know which one will be the best choice, right? Yes. It is worth to bet on SSD or SSD NVMe.

In addition, it is worth paying attention to IOPS – this abbreviation stands for the number of operations performed per second. Some hosting plans, despite using SSD (or SSD NVMe) disks, limit the speed of reading and writing to the disk (given in MB / s) or IOPS. It’s worth being careful about that. The same as avoiding companies that have SSDs, but only for some data (e.g. for MySQL databases, while all the rest is on plate, slow HDDs).

When comparing the hosting speed, you cannot forget about parameters such as the number of PHP processes that can be run simultaneously and the available CPU and RAM power. A simple rule applies here – the more, the better. A good minimum is 10 processes, 1 CPU core (1 GHz) and min. 1 GB RAM.

When looking for fast hosting, it is also worth checking what software it is running on (LiteSpeed is faster than nginx, and this one is faster than Apache). It is also worth making sure that your hosting supports the latest available PHP version and the HTTP / 2 protocol – both of these factors affect the speed of your website.

Mail and e-mail accounts

Each hosting service also offers the option of creating company mailboxes with an address in your own domain. It will be a good idea to create a separate mailbox and e-mail address for each of your colleagues / department in the company. For this reason, it is worth checking how many e-mail accounts can be set up as part of the hosting service. It is always worth being able to create additional ones in the future when the company grows and new people are hired.

It will also be a good idea to check what types of spam and phishing protection are in place in your mail service. These should be solutions such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. It is best if they have already been implemented automatically, otherwise you should do it yourself.

Data security – backups and SSL certificate

One final point worth discussing is security issues. Of course, you will have to keep your data safe by taking care of a backup – it can save your site in the event of a breakdown or hack. Most hosting companies provide automatic data backups, but you will need to check how often it is backed up and how long your site backups are kept. Ideally, copies are made at least once a day (every 24 hours) and stored for at least 7 days.

Undoubtedly, an SSL certificate should also be implemented, which enables data encryption by users. This is an absolute must, especially when it comes to online stores. If you do not have it, the user will see a message that the site is unsecured – it will definitely scare potential customers away.

For this reason, it is worth choosing a hosting service that supports a free SSL certificate (e.g. Let’s Encrypt), which in practice is no different from paid certificates offered by many hosting companies and domain providers.

How much does it cost to make a website and business needs

A website is a source of knowledge about our business. Its task is to inform about services or products, communicate transaction rules and provide contact details to the company. Just a few years ago, all goals would be met by a simple website consisting of several tabs. Today, however, the requirements associated with it are much higher – you should take into account trends in the industry and the network, and if you want to reach as many customers as possible – also the requirements of search engines.

How much it costs to make a website depends largely on its expected size and the technologies used. So let’s start by answering a few questions:

A. Size of the website – if you are planning a website for a small, very local business, all you have to do is build a simple website that will provide basic information for your customers – it will tell you about the business, who is behind it and where and at what times you can use the services. What does “simple site” mean?
These are several tabs – subpages.

These types of sites are intended for a small number of recipients. By placing the object on the map and adjusting the search to the location of its user – those interested will easily find a website and gain access to the necessary information.

The site can be based on pure HTML and CSS, without a content management system. However, if you plan to frequently add entries to the news section and be able to change your course offer, for example, it is worth meeting people who are unfamiliar with the code and invest in one of the popular CMS. The simplest solution here is WordPress – popular, intuitive, with the ability to create users with different levels of access to the administration panel. The installation of CMS is, however, associated with higher costs and in the extended time of completion of the website design.

For this type of page, however, you can use alternative solutions – page builders. Google also provides this type of solution. Sites created using these solutions are usually cheap (costs are the subscription of the selected tool and the price of domain maintenance and hosting) and can be done on your own. Website builders have their limitations and creating large websites that have ambitions to storm the first positions in search results may not be very effective.

Websites that are to contain more tabs – e.g. the offer category is to be developed for various types of services, and the site will allow customers to contact the company directly or book visits – it is worth building based on CMS. More subpages require agile administration, and this will definitely be facilitated by the installation of a content management system.

B. Technology – the bigger side is usually the need for more individual solutions. The simplest and cheapest solution is to put a static page, using HTML, CSS and simple JavaScript. How much does it cost to make a simple website? An efficient developer will code and – colloquially speaking – will “put” this type of website within a few days. The cost should also be increased by the work of the graphic designer responsible for creating the website layout and time related to making corrections to the project.

More complicated pages, extended with functionalities allowing for greater interaction with the page – e.g. using forms, creating accounts and logging in, require more advanced solutions. In these cases, the page is most often based on one of the CMS. Again, the most popular solution for medium-sized sites is WordPress, which thanks to the plug-in system can extend a regular website with almost any functionality.

The advantage of popular CMS are easily available documentation and forums, where you can find solutions for virtually any problem. Their definite downside – susceptibility to burglary. Lack of the current version of the system, unchecked plugins and add-ons may be the reason for slamming or hijacking. Therefore, if you choose this type of solution, their additional cost may be updating the version (which does not always go smoothly), and in the worst case … removing the effects of hacking.

Online stores also have a separate price list. Here, several solutions are involved – installing the engine on a server or using software in the Saas model.

Placing the store on your own server is associated with the need to take care not only of its appearance, but above all about security. It is not only about meeting security requirements, but also about the stability of servers, the security of your data and customers and the elimination of errors related to installed extensions. This solution, however, allows full access to the code of the website and full modification in accordance with your own vision.

The online store can also be opened using the offers of companies operating in the SaaS model – Software as a service. By choosing this solution, we sub-rent a cloud fragment and store software in exchange for a monthly fee. There are many companies operating in this system on the market. Each of the brands offers several subscription versions. Its amount depends on, among others on the number of accounts in the administrative panel, integration with other sales channels and wholesalers, the number of products and so on.

The costs associated with placing the store at the start may be smaller – the smallest subscription is around $ 10 / month. This, of course, brings limitations, e.g. the inability to match the appearance of the store’s vision or pasting the codes necessary to run a Google Ads campaign. Fees must be paid monthly, which can be quite painful for the entrepreneur in the event of a worse period.

How much does it cost to create a small page?

As mentioned above, making a website takes a few hours of work and graphics. The list of points in the cost estimate will look like this:
– domain cost,
– hosting cost,
– the cost of creating the page layout (graphics time),
– cost of coding the website (web developer time).

The total should be close to about $ 200-300.

These costs can be reduced by using, for example, one of the programs that allows you to create a page yourself. In this case, the main effort will be our time – necessary to choose the program, familiarize yourself with it and build a working website. The cost of domain and hosting will remain the same, you should also add a subscription to them resulting from the use of the wizard – the cheapest start from around $ 5 / month. Note – the use of wizards has its limitations – e.g. a smaller subscription requires you to agree to display ads on our site.

The small site is ideal for businesses that do not have the ambition to dominate search results.

How much does it cost to make a website for a medium-sized business?

A website, which is to be a tool for acquiring new customers, should meet a whole range of requirements – it should be fast, mobile and accessible to recipients.

Building this type of site will be more complicated – the number of bookmarks increases and additional functions need to be added. Points that should be included in the cost estimate of such a project are similar to those of a small site, but their height will increase significantly. Depending on the planned functions and the expected traffic on the site, it may be necessary to choose a more expensive option or a dedicated server.

The cost of creating a medium-sized business website also has a CMS chosen. Installing it usually increases the price by around $ 150-300. Added to this are the costs of some solutions that need to be installed into the basic system.

Additional costs worth paying

CMS support requires familiarity with its limitations and capabilities. Unless it is planned to employ a separate employee to operate the website, it is worth considering the issue and, for example, adding a point related to the system training in the website contract. It is worth keeping this in mind – simple corrections that you can do yourself in a few minutes, the company will cost you a lot. Self-service of the system also saves time – delegating tasks in this case can postpone their execution for several days.

Note – submission of the page by the web developer is not synonymous with its full preparation for active activities on the Internet. If you start positioning or Google Ads, you may need to make corrections. This does not mean, however, that the “site was bad”, but only not fully adapted to Google’s guidelines. Optimization, however, may involve the need for additional changes, especially if the site is managed by a proprietary CMS system that does not have full documentation on the Internet.

Store – virtual store shelves, salesman and cash register

One of the more complex types of websites are certainly online stores. This translates directly into how much it costs to make them. What should be considered?

In addition to basic costs – domain and hosting, there is the cost of the engine. As I mentioned above – its issue can be solved in two ways – by installing open source options or choosing a SaaS solution.

Store prices start at around $ 2-3 thousand and increase depending on the solutions and integration used.

SaaS for those who like “fast”

At first glance, it may seem that how much it costs to make a website and store on open source engines is incomparably greater than using the store options in the SaaS model. Subscription allows us to set up a fully functional store, but depending on the height limits the possibility of customizing its appearance and optimization. These types of solutions will not work for large e-commers trading thousands of products. This solution will be appreciated by small companies that do not have financial expenses to build their own sales platform.

(Not) Perfect solution

The biggest drawback of this type of solutions is the inability to modify the code and make changes, including those that would be required during optimization for running an advertising campaign. Of course, many of them have the option of more advanced customization, but this is an additional cost that the company must take on. Many suppliers of ready stores emphasize the possibility of giving websites a unique look, unfortunately, most projects – especially in lower subscription plans – do not differ much.

SaaS also has its advantages – the responsibility for maintaining the continuity of the correct operation of the site and ensuring data and transaction security, falls on the service provider. In the case of multi-person activities, the delegation of these tasks allows you to focus on creating the product and running the brand.

The cost of placing a store in a SaaS model starts at around $ 15 / month. Prices for more advanced packages start from around $ 70.

When should you position the page yourself?

Website positioning is not an easy task. It requires constant monitoring and analysis of conducted activities, as well as adaptation to changing Google algorithms. The difficulty of this task means that many companies (even those micro) decide to cooperate with SEO agencies. However, there are also some daredevils who want to position their website on their own. This can be tempted when:

– you have a lot of free time – positioning requires not only knowledge but also large resources of free time; this is often a full-time job, so if you want to combine it with acquiring and servicing clients, marketing and accounting, then you have to focus on failure;
– you have a limited SEO budget – the salary of a good SEO specialist may be too high for many companies (especially those entering the market); so if you don’t have the right budget, you can implement the first SEO activities yourself; this will reduce the cost of doing business while not losing visibility in the search engine;
– you are passionate about SEO and want to develop your knowledge and test in practice; in this situation, working on SEO of your own site is a great idea;
– you can afford to use the trial and error method – without extensive knowledge of SEO, and yet wanting to position the site yourself, you need to prepare for mishaps (including financial); often part of the budget is lost on independent positioning; errors can also lead to a decrease in the position of the page in the search engine, a decrease in website traffic, and thus a decrease in sales.

Where to start positioning the page?

Positioning is a complex process. That is why you should do an SEO audit of your site before you join it. Its task is to check which activities are carried out correctly and which ones should be improved or implemented additionally. The SEO audit is also intended to show whether the technical background allows smooth implementation of optimization changes.

It is worth remembering that when auditing the page, pay attention not only to technical issues, but also to the functionality of the site, visual attractiveness and other factors that can reduce the conversion rate. What should definitely be checked during the audit is:

– Website indexing – positioning cannot be discussed if the website will not be displayed in the search engine; the first step is to verify your site’s indexing; this can be done by typing in the search engine: site: domain name.com – all subpages and pages indexed in Google will appear in the results; if your site is not appearing, please send a request to have it crawled by Google Search Console; it is worth returning the indexing request if something has changed on the page;
– Metadata on the page – they determine the content of a given subpage; they are important to both Google robots and users; metadata should be on every page of the site; you should ensure that they are prepared in accordance with the guidelines, i.e. have the appropriate length and content of keywords.
– Headlines in published content – they are of key importance in positioning; headlines H1 and H2 have the greatest weight, but it is recommended to use these H3-H6.
– Page loading speed – this parameter affects not only SEO, but also the convenience of using the website; a page that is loading too long will cause the Internet user to leave it before it opens; the loading speed of the website can be checked using the free Page Speed ​​Insights tool provided by Google; if the loading speed is not satisfactory, then corrective actions, e.g. image compression, will be necessary.
– Adaptation to mobile devices – website responsiveness is one of the basic factors affecting SEO; whether the website is responsive can be checked by performing mobile optimization tests;
– Optimized URL – links to individual subpages should be friendly to Google’s algorithm and users; it must be unique, legible and provide information about what is actually on the site.
– Website structure – it is important that it is legible and intuitive; it should have a simple navigation system; this will help in positioning and avoid high bounce rate.
– SSL certificate – it ensures that all data sent by the website is protected; lack of encryption protocol will mean low security, worse conversions, as well as poor website credibility; certificate ownership can be checked using SSL verification tools.
– Inbound links – high quality inbound links currently count in SEO; they should not be placed on suspicious sites that may be negatively evaluated by Google’s algorithms; the quality of incoming links can be checked through free tools available on the Internet.

What after the audit?

The next step after the audit is to prepare an SEO strategy. It is extremely important when positioning yourself. It will allow you to implement subsequent optimization changes in turn. The SEO strategy should cover the most important issues such as: keyword list, website content, link building. It’s a good idea to check how competitors that find high positions in the search engine, present their content, products, services, competition.

5 tasks that you need to do when positioning on-site

Independent positioning of the site, it is worth starting with the activities carried out on the site, i.e. on-site. Internal positioning is based on several important issues.

Keywords in positioning

The first is keywords. A lot depends on their proper selection. When choosing them, check among others do they really match the website theme, are they useful, what is their competitiveness. The selected keywords should be grouped so that they coincide with subsequent stages of the sales funnel. Thanks to this it will be possible to reach customers at every stage of purchase.

Many people positioning the site independently, choose keywords based on experience in the industry. This is a good solution if you want to create a wide list of phrases. Searching for keywords is good if you pay attention to long-tail phrases, those related to keywords (creating the so-called thematic contexts), informational key phrases (answering the users question), commercial key phrases (containing the brand name).

Content in positioning

The content posted on the site is very important. When preparing those to help in SEO, you should pay attention to both their attractiveness, as well as editing and appearance. The texts published on the website must be interesting, practical, written in a simple and friendly language, and above all unique – Google does not like duplication of content. The whole should be divided into logical paragraphs separated by headings H1-H6 and also have at least 3000 characters including spaces. A good recommendation is also putting on content in the material, without ornaments, not saturated with adjectives and keywords.

Graphics in positioning

The properly used multimedia will also help in positioning the website. Graphics or video are a natural complement to the texts. They visualize the described issue, they can present a product or service. However, for photos / videos to improve SEO, they need to be properly optimized. Most important is the alt attribute read by Google.

Internal linking – a must have for every website

When running a small website with services, internal linking must be carried out. To this end, while building a blog, we construct content to include keywords for which particular services are positioned. Under these keywords on the blog we put internal (intertext) links that direct to services. As a result, Google “raises” internally linked landing page positions.

Readability and intuitiveness of website in positioning

The readability and intuitiveness of the site is UX – user experience. This concept conceals the impressions and feelings of users who reach the site. The more friendly the navigation and layout are, the higher the conversions. If you want to take care of UX, positioning the page yourself, you should take care of: the structure of the website, usability, adaptation to mobile devices, valuable content, voice search. Friendly UX, however, consists of many more factors: appearance, feelings, usability, website goals, content transparency, language used, color used.

2 tasks that you need to perform when off-site positioning

When positioning the website yourself, you cannot neglect external activities. They mainly focus on obtaining links from valuable websites and eliminating those on low-rank websites. Link building, however, is not the only task in off-side positioning.

Link Building in positioning

Link Building is one of the most important positioning pillars. The lack of incoming links is the main reason for the lack of high position in Google. Link Building in positioning is a very broad topic. The most important thing in independent positioning, however, is to place links to valuable websites. These are primarily considered to be those related to some degree to a positioned website, as well as those of high authority. It is also desirable to get dofollow links.

Linking is also important for SEO. There are several possibilities here. A link to positioning the page can be placed by linking the key phrase (exact mach) or its altered version, or a semantic keyword (partial mach). Often, zero macht linking is used, i.e. the key phrase is linked, but the word here is. You can also link the company name or paste the exact URL into the text.

Google My Business

This is a business card that largely translates into improved SEO. You have to create your business card yourself. The entire process of establishing it is 5 steps and includes providing the most important information about the company. The business card is created after data verification by Google. It is worth focusing to provide accurate data on working hours, address, products, type of business, website address. It is also advisable to place photos and opinions, i.e. social evidence.

Summary

Independent positioning of the website is a time-consuming process, difficult for many people, but possible. Using the check list above, you will perform the most important actions that will allow your website or online store to achieve a high position in Google. It is worth remembering, however, to look at each of these steps thoroughly and deepen knowledge in the field of individual elements affecting positioning. It should be realized that there is no universal recipe for website positioning. Different activities work in every situation. This is why, in many cases, achieving high positions in search engines is the result of a combination of creative approach, knowledge of the industry and experience in SEO.

Who chooses keywords for positioning?

As we indicated in the introduction to this article, despite the growing strength of the website positioning trend focused on increasing overall visibility, without focusing on specific keywords, positioning on specific phrases, combined with their regular, daily monitoring is still important. That is why the selection of keywords stored in the positioning contract is so important. We know from experience that the results and presence of keywords in the top 10 are one of the bases for assessing customer satisfaction with positioning services, along with increased visibility and website traffic.

Our clients have unique knowledge about what part of the range is crucial for their business, what people interested in their offer ask, what phrases they use, etc. This information is very useful in the context of creating a set of keywords. That is why in-depth customer interview regarding keyword expectations is so important.

A good set of keywords is the result of knowledge of the client and the account manager. The first one is the person who knows his business best, knows what brings him the most money, which is an important and profitable niche worth promoting, which products will soon disappear from the offer and as such are not worth advertising, etc. Paraphrase-Online customer care specialist is a specialist who has an overview through search engine trends, has access to tools dedicated to keyword selection, knows from practice what works in promotion, observes changes in Google search engine (e.g. the issue of local positioning).

Due to this, it is worth cooperating with each other in the selection of keywords – for the common good, it is not worth underestimating the knowledge of both the client and the account manager.

What characterizes a good set of keywords?

Despite the specifics of each positioned website and the uniqueness of the set of keywords matched to the promotion, one can distinguish a pool of common features that characterize well-chosen keywords. We will present them at this point:

A. Matching keywords to the offer visible on the website – this is related to the construction of the Google search engine itself, which in matching pages to the results displayed in the search engine is based on the content of websites. In short: if something does not appear on the website literally (this applies primarily to the content and appropriate meta tags), then Google’s web robots are not able to match such a page to the query – keyword. Therefore, it is not possible to effectively position yourself for phrases absent from the site or “on stock” (unless a sub-page announcing the appearance of a new product or service in the offer is available – such a pre-premiere presentation). For the same reason, it is also not possible to effectively position yourself on competition-related phrases (apart from the ethical overtones of such a situation).

An interesting case related to the selection of phrases is the situation in which some customers searching for a given product or service uses the incorrect term – colloquial, not professional, with a spelling mistake, etc. In the ancient past SEO in the positioning of keyword sets appeared keywords with popular spelling mistakes, but today Google is good at understanding the intentions of the user and correcting spelling mistakes. It looks a little different in the case of synonyms, colloquial names, etc., which are often considered incorrect from an industry point of view, and the customers themselves do not want to have them because of the “unprofessionality” used on their website (although they also want to promote them) efficiently). Their Google robots are not so good at matching terminology yet. In such a situation, a compromise solution is e.g. the use of these colloquial phrases in the texts in the blog part, and not on the product category subpages. The blog entry formula allows for greater freedom and clarification in the entry of the relationship between colloquial and professional naming. This is a compromise, although not perfect solution. However, it allows a meaningful link between the website and the desired keywords.

B. Keyword diversity in length – general, specific and long tails. We have already described the topic of phrases with long tails on our blog. In this post, we also want to present in more detail the trend regarding the length of typed phrases in the search engine. The relationship between shorter and longer phrases definitely indicates the reverse of the “one-word” trend.

C. Matching phrases to business location – this is particularly important for local service businesses. The place names appearing in the keywords must correspond to the real seat of the company (head office, branch, store, stationary point etc. – what has its stationary address). Positioning on a “uncomfortable” town will not be effective. Due to Google’s preferences in matching the displayed results to their location, it is definitely worth placing your stationary address on the website, even if the service is largely provided away or at the company’s clients.

D. Linking phrases with each other – if you decide to position your website on related passwords (forming a kind of family) then you can count on a better effect than in the case of several unrelated terms. It is good to bet even on several groups of terms referring to different elements of the offer than on unrelated passwords. When planning a set of keywords, it is worth consulting a mentor who, based on his experience, will advise on the right set of keywords, supporting the positioning process and properly presenting the offer of the promoted company.

E. Competitiveness of phrases and pace of entry to the top 10 search engine results – it is worth focusing on such a set of keywords that will ensure website visibility at the first stage of the positioning process. For this reason, it’s also good to have less competitive terms in the set, which will quickly enter the top 10 search results and ensure visibility and traffic on the site at an earlier stage of the positioning process. For this reason, it is not worth betting on the very highly competitive phrases, in which we will have to wait for the results, and thus the benefits associated with them.

Selection of keywords – what do people enter in the search engine?

Contrary to popular belief, general passwords are not the most popular and are not the most frequently entered. Research indicates that as much as over 80% of keywords entered in a search engine consists of 2 or more keywords. It should be noted that these more elaborate expressions with long tails are less often described as separate queries (which is a logical consequence of their greater diversity), but in general they constitute the majority of phrases that are typed in the search engine. Therefore, it is important to properly interpret the results for keywords after which potential customers reach the given website. Phrases with long tails will not be at the forefront of such results, but this does not mean that you should give them up.

There is also the question of readiness to buy from a potential customer – the person who enters a more precise password is closer to throwing the product into the basket than the one who searches for approximate general terms.

General or specific keywords?

In this case, a lot may depend on what budget allocated to the positioning service we have. The budget largely determines the planned and feasible actions. That is why it is so important to determine at the outset the amount that can be spent on SEO per month.

It happens that our clients suggest that they find the most general phrases among their keywords, considering that such phrases catch the largest number of their potential customers. General and very varied (unrelated) phrases are best in small quantities, because it will be cheaper – a set of terms such as “windows”, “doors”, “gates”, “drives”, “blinds” – this is the recipe for ineffective positioning .

In the case of a small budget, it is better to bet on varied phrases, among which there will be ones that will bring the effect and visibility faster, and thus more quickly reveal their potential in attracting customers. We write about a small budget because it places the biggest restrictions on positioning and choosing phrases. It is also worth realizing that the concept of “small budget” is relative and something else will be a small amount for a local business from a small town, and something else for an online store. That is why it is sometimes necessary to realize that some amount may be too small to be able to carry out effective positioning activities. In this situation, we inform our potential customers about it, not wanting to expose them to unnecessary and unprofitable expenses. The same way we inform our clients before signing the contract about the fact that a given page is extremely unadapted for positioning and before the SEO specialist starts working with it, it should be looking forward to its new version.

The demand for IT services and the relatively easy threshold for entering a semi-professional position (e.g. creating simple websites) creates a lot of competition. The Software House branch seems to be particularly crowded, with websites building websites and other solutions necessary for conducting online business such as b2b and b2c applications as well as integrations and modules for popular storage platforms or those related to relationship management, like sparrows on the roof. with clients. High competition means the need to invest more funds – financial and time – in working on standing out and reaching new potential customers more effectively than competitors in the industry.

SEO for Software House – a starting point for online business

Brand recognition and presence – regardless of the industry – is built using a whole set of tools. Depending on who our potential client is, the dominant channel will be social media (Facebook, Instagram, and for a younger recipient – also TikTok) or search engines. In the article below, we will focus on expanding your visibility in Google search engine and SEO for software house.

In the case of Software House, the website is not only a business card of the company, but for many potential recipients – the first project implementation in the company’s portfolio. If the site is unrepresentative, resistant and not adapted to modern standards. It’s not just about the look of the page, but more about how the page behaves in the browser, how web robots see it and, above all, whether it can be found in the search engine.

Does the position of the page matter – a handful of statistics

Why is presence in SERPs so important? Just look at the statistics – over 93% of online experience starts with a search engine. However, just finding yourself in search results for a topic thematically related to the industry is unfortunately not everything – the position of our website is also important. As the article indicated above – 95% of users decide to click on one of the first results, and the further from the first position, the chance of clicking decreases.

Achieving a high position requires not only adapting to trends in website design, but adapting your site to the rules of the game imposed by Google, which are to facilitate the use of the Internet to end users – men and women who may not always boast of the fastest internet connection on market.

A good position requires appropriate actions – technical optimization in accordance with Google guidelines, optimization for keywords. This is where space for seo appears – the basis for building position in the search engine.

Step by step – specify the purpose of the SEO actions taken

Determining the measurable goal of marketing activities makes it much easier to analyze them – determining whether the goal has been met, which actions and solutions have worked, and in the case of less spectacular effects than intended, specifying what did not work as expected or which work should be deepened. Objectives will vary depending on the organization, while those that the Software House brand can achieve with the help of positioning certainly include:

A. Generating more website traffic – the increased number of search engine visits usually translates directly into a larger number of people interested in the offer and using the services offered.
B. Building brand and expert position – Internet users usually have a better opinion about companies that appear higher in search results, especially if their pages find answers to their questions.
C. Obtaining interest of a specific group of recipients.

Defining the goal will help you choose the means that will help you meet it. Drawing a destination is especially useful when creating a basic list of phrases that will be considered in the seo process. Determining the more or less defined “finish line” of positioning activities will also allow for the selection of appropriate solutions. This is also important because of the budget that the positioner will have during cooperation. More about this in the next steps.

Step by step – keywords for the software house

With a set goal, you can pre-define a group of phrases to focus on during SEO.

Most people who decide to position with an SEO agency would like to see their site in Top3 for phrases from the so-called “Short tail,” i.e. one or two word constructions. These short phrases usually generate the most searches, which also makes them highly competitive. In many industries, despite a large number of searches, these types of terms do not convert very well. Short terms are usually too general and ambiguous to match the user’s search goal.

By generating results for the query “website” Google matches the responses related to the phrase, but each is from a “different fairy tale” and can differently meet the user’s need:

1st position – Wikipedia, definition;
2nd position – wizard;
3rd position – website price;
4th position – wizard;
5th position – guide on how to set up;
6th position – definition;
7th position – wizard;
8th position – creating pages;
9th position – creating pages;
10th position – creating pages;

By adapting to the specific needs of the user who is looking for information and addressing these needs in the title and description of the page, we increase the chances of getting to the top5 results and clicking the searcher. For this purpose, keywords from the so-called “Long tail” – phrases, consisting of several words, referring to more specific issues. These types of phrases can usually not boast a dizzying number of searches, but unlike phrases from a short tail – they usually convert much better.

By entering a more detailed query in the search engine, the customer can be immediately directed to the appropriate part of our offer – in this case, information on the costs of placing a website based on the WordPress system. The search results for this query also contain advisory content, e.g. blog entries dealing with price formation.

Long-Tail, or how to effectively reach the seekers?

Product pages – with specific product specifications or longer content – usually have blog entries that address specific issues.

When choosing keywords for website positioning, it’s worth focusing on what makes your business stand out from the competition’s offer and use this knowledge. When working with a positioner, it is also worth referring to your experience and base phrases on what customers have asked about, e.g. prices of additional services, issues of removing faults on the site, or installing additional solutions.

It is worth remembering that the actual number of keywords that are positioned throughout the process is much higher. They include, among others phrases with a similar set of words but with a different arrangement. The scope of phrases during the contract can be changed – expanded to include words that will allow you to expand the visibility of the new offer or remove words that do not satisfactorily meet the objectives set at the beginning of SEO activities.

Step by step – Website analysis and optimization activities

Determining the goal of selected marketing activities and determining keywords is just the beginning of the path to achieving results in the form of website traffic and new customers. The next stage is adapting the website to Google search engine guidelines.

Google provides several documents in which it indicates which elements should be noted. There are, among others, guidelines on how to share the site with web robots. Google also places great emphasis on adapting the site to the needs of the user – starting from the speed of the site, through navigation, to the intuitiveness of use. Among the elements important for the search engine are:

– blocking some content in robots.txt;
– creating valid title and meta description;
– creating headers according to the hierarchy;
– structured data tags;
– intuitive navigation;
– content;
– speed optimization

and other. At the beginning of the guide, Google calls these changes “minor modifications”, but this is not always true. Proper preparation of optimization, implementation and control of its effects is a task extended to the entire period in which seo-related activities are carried out.

SEO – a mix of knowledge and experience

Introducing guidelines only according to Google manuals is not always effective. The person who implements the optimization must also take into account the trends in the search engine and changes in the algorithm, which the Google guide has not yet been completed. Experience in this type of work also helps to gain high positions and increase visibility. The developer, whose task is primarily to build a website and give it appropriate functionality, devotes his time primarily to training in his field – searching for new CSC hacks or testing new libraries. The developer and positioner view the site from a different perspective. The task of one is to provide an aesthetic and functional website, the task of the other – to adapt it to display in high positions in search results. Working out optimal solutions satisfying both sides will certainly increase the reach of the site, i.e. achieve one of the intended goals.

During the seo process, it is important for software house parties to learn about the competition – the above-mentioned keywords, the technical solutions they use, e.g. the schema tags they use, to help expand search results.

However, watching the industry is not everything – it is also important to take care of your own site – first of all the speed and the way it is seen by network robots. The positioner, analyzing the data collected by a number of tools, will indicate solutions that allow you to speed up the website, without changing its functionality or appearance.

However, the introduction of optimization is just the beginning of the process of positioning your IT services. Control, analysis of introduced changes, their modification – “keeping an eye on the pulse” in accordance with the adopted strategy is the best way to gain and maintain high positions in Google in the IT industry.

Step by step – Blog and offside activities

One of the goals of positioning may be building an image of a software house company and placing it in the position of an expert. To this end, it is necessary to place a blog within the domain. Regular publication of expert content – written in a specialist language, but explaining the complexities of the IT world in a way accessible to a potential customer, is also a good way to update the site and “invite” robots. The entries may include descriptions of projects that the company has faced, creative problem solutions, reports from industry events and guide content on common problems with websites or applications.

Professional and interesting content readers are happy to pass on – through social media or by placing links to our site on their sites. This also creates a natural link profile that Google values. Content that is linked to more good quality links is rated higher by web robots and helps the site move to higher positions.

Building a valuable link profile is also taking care of the appropriate diversification of inbound links are another of the challenges that should be entrusted to seo specialists. Obtaining the appropriate links to the site from trusted and proven sources will allow you to complete the next steps on the way to achieving the goal set at the beginning.

Seo – it’s time to appear on the Internet for good!

Preparation of a positioning strategy requires delving into the industry and learning customer expectations. It is worth basing the selection of measures that are to help you to break above other Software Houses on the experience of search engine visibility specialists – which will allow you to achieve the intended effects faster.

Are you planning to take your Software House above the competition? On our blog you will find effective tactics and what changes to make that will convince web robots to highly evaluate your website. Fight for high positions and successfully position with Paraphrase-Online.com!

General Definition

The general definition defines plagiarism as “The process of copying data from the Internet or using someone’s idea and appropriating it as one’s own.“

This is a highly inadvisable act, which is treated as a fraud, immoral in nature, containing elements of theft and lies. Applying these practices has led to a multitude of anti-plagiarism programs. The main purpose of using this type of practice is scanning text for copied content. The duplicate web content detector not only checks if the text contains stolen fragments, but also reveals the sources they come from.

How to avoid plagiarism?

If you are a student, writer or author of articles for a magazine, you certainly want your work to be unique and one of a kind. Some of the anti-plagiarism systems simply check your text once and give the overall result for the whole. There are also free online plagiarism detection programs that check every sentence of your work in a very intelligent way, focusing on every word. For photos, use the image feedback search tool to check that the image or photo has not been copied from somewhere, and add appropriate sources to prevent image-related plagiarism.

Check every article you publish for plagiarism

Some bloggers believe that a site with unique content mixed with copied content will gain high positioning. Nothing could be more wrong. New algorithms used by Google approach each site individually. In practice, the page containing the copied content will not pass positive verification for plagiarism, which means that it will not be able to advance among search results. Creating unique content for your website or blog is not easy for you?

We encourage you to use our text paraphrase tool, and in the blink of an eye you will generate the right material.

Types of Anti-Plagiarism Scanners

To a large extent, this type of anti-plagiarism programs consists of a window into which fragments of text or entire paragraphs are pasted to check for plagiarism. Parts of the content that have been copied are underlined in red and their frequency is expressed as a percentage. Such software is most often used by students who, in order to preserve the originality of their content, remove repeated parts of the text. Teachers checking works do the same. SEO managers, expecting 100% uniqueness from their employees, commonly use this kind of tools. Publishing copied content is a serious offense, and thus, most websites check their content before posting it on their own sites.

How are plagiarism checked on websites?

This is usually a few steps:
A. If the sentence that is currently being checked is already somewhere on the Internet, a red warning will appear and the content will be marked as plagiarism.
B. However, if your content is unique, a green notification will be displayed. After a full scan, an overall result will appear, displaying the extent to which the article is original.
C. Thickness of Key Phrases: Counts the number of keywords contained in your content and gives the result for One, Two and Three words.

What determines the price at the copywriter?

The rate for the texts depends mainly on three factors:
– Type of texts – the more difficult the topic and the more demanding the query, the higher the price;
– Order volumes – wholesale orders are cheaper;
– Cooperation time – copywriters usually offer more favorable terms to regular contractors.

To the above variables, there are issues of competence, individual financial expectations and scope of responsibilities (some copywriters offer to put content on a blog or graphic design). The valuation is further complicated by the number of possible corrections and even the possibility of issuing an invoice. This thicket of information makes the copywriter’s price list unique and adapted to each writer-bidder.

Contemporary trends on the copywriting market

Until recently it was said that due to the increase in competition the amount converter for 1000 characters will be consistently falling. Meanwhile, the market has not reacted by falling prices to an increasingly large group of SEO copywriters – contrary to expectations, the range of rates increases, and the financial expectations of copywriters have a wide range.

The reason for this gap is that the creation of substantive content is undoubtedly a difficult task. The work of experts never loses value. Some companies do not want to save on their image, so they can afford more expensive copywriters who create fully professional texts.

What rates are we talking about? How are the “price ranges” currently shaped and how much does good content cost?

Copywriting rates

Below are the average rates that you can most often encounter when browsing cooperation offers.
– Blogging articles: from $ 10 to $ 50 for 1000 characters.
– Back-up texts: from $ 3 to $ 18 for 1000 characters.
– Product and category descriptions: from $ 8 to $ 30 for 1000 characters.
– Content per page: from $ 200 to $ 1000 counted as a whole for the project.
– Leaflet texts: from $ 30 to $ 200.
– Naming and advertising slogans: from $ 100 to $ 5000 per project.

As you can see, the amounts vary and it is impossible to define a universal solution that will prove to be profitable. Each company has different needs, which is why the choice of copywriting prices will always depend on financial possibilities and expectations regarding the quality of texts.

Billing for signs or for the whole project?

There is also no ready answer to the question of how to settle accounts with the copywriter. The predetermined cost of the project is convenient and transparent, although it is not easy to get a fixed length of the text – most often it is referred to the target value around which the volume of content oscillates.

As for the characters with spaces, this converter accurately reflects the price due for copywriting, but it can lead to some misunderstandings depending on which fragments are counted (it is not always known whether tags, meta-descriptions, alternative texts are subject to it). For this reason, when establishing cooperation with a copywriter, it is worth making sure that the settlement rules have been established clearly.

Price for copywriting – summary

Talking about money is never easy and comfortable, so it’s even more important to clearly define what elements make up the final price of copywriting.

The range of amounts is wide, so specify your expectations and budget before you set out to find the perfect copywriter. Remember to clearly specify the requirements for the quality of the texts, as well as the scope of responsibilities and the number of possible corrections.

Whisper marketing – definition

The key concept associated with the definition of whisper marketing is recommendation. What is the point To understand, think about how often you talk to family, friends or colleagues about different types of products. Do you ever share your opinion about the fridge you bought or how the new TV works? You recommend your friends proven repair companies or shops with friendly service. This is what a whisper is based on.

The goals of whisper marketing are:
– arousing interest in a given product or brand, encouraging consumers to discuss it,
– creating trends – building “fashion” for specific products or brands,
– strengthening the brand image through positive recommendations,
– spreading information about current promotions, and thus – increasing the likelihood that the customer will opt for the product.

What forms can whisper marketing take?

“Whispering” can be run both online and offline. The second category includes actions led by brand ambassadors. But online whisper marketing is the most prevalent. This happens because:

– campaigns are easy to carry out – they can even be partially automated,
– you can gain wide ranges in various communication channels – some time ago the “whispering” on the forums was the most popular, today this role is taken over by social media,
– You can engage audiences in discussions about the brand in many ways.

But the divisions are not over yet. Because online whisper marketing alone can also be implemented by various methods – less and more ethical.

Whisper marketing – it’s not just paid posts on forums / social media. The first association many people have with whisper marketing are paid posts placed on internet forums or on Facebook by hired people. I must admit that just a few years ago this was the form most often taken by the whisper. They paid for the mass insertion of positive opinions and whispered ads on various forums, as well as in the form of comments on social media. Today, there are still brands that use this way of promoting themselves on the market – this is common, for example, during political campaigns. Nevertheless, it is worth considering:

– how unethical whisper marketing will translate into the brand image in the long term?
– how soon will customers realize that this is an “artificial” campaign and not authentic opinions published by users?

You may think that an efficiently implemented “whisper” will keep the impression of naturalness. Remember, however, that consumers are becoming more aware and able to better detect intrusive ads. And in the modern marketing model there is no place for them. That is why whisper marketing in this form is slowly becoming a thing of the past. However, this does not mean that the strategy based on recommendations is bad. On the contrary. All you have to do is focus on more ethical and effective in the long run.

Authentic reviews are at a premium

Did you know that as many as 88% of users trust authentic, verified online reviews, as do recommendations obtained through personal contact? Exactly. The term “AUTHENTIC” plays a key role here. That is, not those commissioned by copywriters, but prepared by people who really bought the product / used the service.

You may find it difficult to obtain them. But look at the success of Google Maps, which encourages users to post reviews of places they’ve visited. In fact, Internet users do not receive any material benefits from this. Despite this, they willingly share their views with others, building a community of “local guides”. Also think about a rating system that works, for example, on eBay and similar sales portals. How often do you check if the seller has good reviews when buying?

Similar mechanisms can be used to build whisper marketing campaigns. It is about engaging consumers to express opinions and share information about the brand. This is what modern word-of-mouth marketing is all about!

How to get them? Useful will be e.g.:
– enriching the after-sales service of the customer with an e-mail asking for leaving an opinion, e.g. on the website of your e-store or portal that serves this purpose,
– affiliate program that encourages the sharing of opinions about the brand and provides the customer with “remuneration”, e.g. in the form of a discount for subsequent purchases,
– running a campaign based on brand ambassadors – but those who honestly say they represent it, and engage them in discussions with community members.

In this form, you can carry out word-of-mouth marketing, among others in social media. You can use, among others, the very popular groups on Facebook. They will allow you step by step to build a community related to your brand.

It is also worth engaging users for discussion in social media. So allow them to review your services / products and respond to both positive and negative voices in the discussion. Open, honest conversation, confessing and honesty will do more than artificial opinions!

Strength of social proof

Remaining in the circle of marketing strategy based on recommendations, it is also worth mentioning proof of social equity. The point is that if the customer recognizes that other consumers have chosen the product and express positive opinions about it – they are more likely to make a transaction.

And how to use it in the context of word of mouth marketing? Tools that automate messages related to the so-called social proof that you can use, among others in your online store. It is worth informally informing people who are currently in the e-store about:
– positive opinions about a given product – this is possible thanks to the introduction of a rating system and quoting the most positive in small pop-ups,
– that someone is watching a product that interests them, as well as how many people have already bought it, the number of transactions made that day.

These are, of course, only sample data that can be included in such messages. Their content and frequency should be adapted to the specifics of your e-store. Data related to social proof should also be used in remarketing campaigns.

Word of mouth marketing – is it worth it?

Word-of-mouth marketing (whisper marketing) can have very positive effects on the results your business achieves. Remember, however, that if you want them to be long-term and improve your brand image – you should only focus on the ethical forms of this way of communicating with customers. In this way you will use the power hidden in real gossip. It spreads at lightning speed, not artificially prepared messages. Are you wondering how to translate these assumptions from theory into practice? Do you want to create a coherent marketing strategy, whose element will be communication focused on obtaining opinions and recommendations? We will help you plan and execute a campaign that will inspire your clients’ trust and increase reach.