The opening day of our Spring show is off to a strong start, and to kick of the JA Education Sessions, Shane O’Neill, VP of Fruchtman Marketing, shared with the audience tips for competing online. To keep up with today’s tough business competition, retailers must evolve their online presence and keep up with advancing technology if they want to stay competitive. O’Neill explained how to build an online presence and how e-commerce will impact business in the years to come.
Objectives are to Education and Overwhelm. “If you want to be successful online, just start,” explains O’Neill. Remember a few things:
- Becoming successful online costs money
- Better website equals better business
- Your website is the most powerful marketing sales tool you have
- Your website is the cornerstone of business
However, it’s not enough to build a great website:
You have to MAINTAIN and ACTIVELY UPDATE content and inventory (Search Engine Content Management) SECM and get your business seen. A GREAT WEBSITE IS THE SINGLE BEST INVESTMENT YOU CAN MAKE.
O’Neill went on to explain some of the nuances SECM. SECM is a number of things that all help to get your site ranked and noticed such as connecting your social assets including your Google business page, using Google webmaster tools for indexing, sitemap submission, and more writing content to reinforce page specific keywords.
Paid ads get top search results as opposed to seven years ago. Starting in January 2017, Google started to penalize sites with pop-up banners in search rankings. Unless you are Google certified, you’re probably losing money.
In Summation:
- Google changes its search algorithm 500-600 times each year, so stay current
- Start with a well-built site
- Create original and quality content
- Claim and connect your Google business page
- Utilize Google Analytics and Webmaster tools
- Mobile optimization is key
The education program continues throughout today and tomorrow. For a complete list of sessions, which are free to attendees of JA New York, please visit the full program schedule here.
JA New York is open until Tuesday, March 14, 2017. To register to attend, click here.
