10 Areas to Check Before Launching Your New Online Store

Launching your new online store is an exciting step forward. It is, however, critical that you do a comprehensive check to make sure you meet all the requirements for a successful launch. Failure to do so can result in low traffic, poor lead conversion and low sales. These performance indicators can pick up again in the future, so it’s not the end of the world, but it is avoidable. Let’s take a look at 10 things you should check before launching your new online store.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is an integral part of your SEO strategy. Use an online tool such as Google AdWords to find keywords that you can target with your content marketing, product listings and website copy. Make sure the keywords are terms which searchers will use when it is their intention to find products like yours. Also, make sure you identified one primary keyword that you can target.

Content Marketing

Create a blog that you can use for your content marketing strategies. By writing blogs, you can set yourself apart as an authority in your niche. Blogs also incentivize your target audience to visit your site and stick around for a while. Write a few blog articles before you launch so new visitors can start reading your content and get new information.

Build lists

When you’ve created a few articles, start engaging in some list building tactics by getting links to your blogs on high-ranking websites. You can do this by creating infographics which you publish or by asking authors of complementary blogs to contribute to one of your content pieces. Guest blogging is another way to build out your brand and boost your website’s search ranking.

Open Your Social Media Accounts

Open accounts on all the relevant social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Make sure you use the same username for all these platforms. Share the content which you have already created on these platforms and start promoting your new launch to people who start following you. Add social share buttons to the content you created on the blog to make it easier for your visitors to share.

Build a Funnel

Start building out a sales funnel that you can use to introduce people to your various online platforms. Create lead magnets which are congruent with your products, for example, coupon codes or eBooks and use them to get people to start committing to your brand. You can also use paid ads to get cold traffic to your landing page while you are waiting to launch. Use your landing page to create excitement about your new launch.

Start Building Your Email List

By using a welcome mat on your blog or your landing page, and a lead magnet, you can incentivize people to give you their email addresses. Create a newsletter that you can send them to tell them about special offers they may be interested in when you launch.

Do an SEO Audit on Your Website

Make sure your website meets all the requirements of SEO. If your store is fully optimized in terms of content, local SEO, global SEO, search terms, user experience and backlinks, chances are you can expect to see consistent traffic from the get-go. If you have never done an SEO audit before, check out this SEO audit guide from Stellar SEO.

Product Listing Optimization

The product listings on your store should all be optimized for search engines. Product photographs should contain alt text and title tags to help search bots with indexing. Take some time to ensure that your product descriptions are complete, keyword-rich and compelling.

Shipping

Revise your shipping plan and make sure that you will be able to ship your products nationwide without any difficulty or issues. Revise logistics between you and your supplier as well to ensure that you won’t have to wait unnecessarily for stock.

Follow-up Sequence

Type follow-up emails which your customer will receive at intervals after checkout, for example, right after checkout, before shipping, after delivery, and a week after delivery to ask for feedback. An automated follow-up sequence is one of the best ways to ensure customer retention.