Why seeing 'Add Order Note' at checkout gets me fired up

Can we chat for a minute about barriers to entry on eCommerce website? Website design often adds are a number of barriers that stop potential customers in their tracks and one in particular gets me all fired up. Does your site use ‘Add Order Note’ at the shopping cart? Read on

Everything someone has to ‘think’ and make a decision, it opens the door to ‘I don’t know’ and the customer can leave.

Have you ever been asked to answer a survey and the answer you want to select is not there? You face either making an unhappy choice or giving up entirely. The same can happen on an eCommerce website.

There are a number of questions your customers are answering during the process of shopping on your site. We’re not going to review all of them here, rather I want to focus on one that gets my goat the most - the ‘Add a Note’.

I’m sure you’ve seen it before right at the check out stage. Just by asking that unassuming question your asking your customer to make a choice. Leave a note or not.

By seeing the note section they could be thinking is this the place that I add delivery information such as ‘please leave near the back door ‘. If the customer chooses to leave it blank they can be questioning t if they have provided all the clear and accurate information that is required.

If you are using an order note feature that is available as a standard feature in all Shopify stores - please change the wording so that it informs the customer exactly what information should be left in this space. If you don’t have anything that they should add, then turn it off.

SEO Acronymns - A beginners guide

Please note: this entire article has been written by ChatGPT as a test for its capabilities

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. It involves making changes to your website and content to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your site. With SEO, you want to ensure that your website is easily discoverable by your target audience. However, the world of SEO is filled with acronyms and technical terms that can be overwhelming for beginners.

Here are some of the most common SEO acronyms and what they mean:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. The process of optimising your website and content to improve your search engine rankings.

• SERP: Search Engine Results Page. The page that displays the results of a search query on a search engine.

• PPC: Pay-Per-Click. A type of online advertising where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on one of your ads.

• CPC: Cost Per Click. The amount you pay each time someone clicks on one of your ads.

• CTA: Call to Action. A button or link on your website that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

• CTR: Click-Through Rate. The percentage of people who click on one of your ads out of the total number of people who see it.

• CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization. The process of improving the percentage of visitors to your website who take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

• KPI: Key Performance Indicator. A metric used to measure the performance of your website and digital marketing efforts.

• HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. The code used to create the structure and layout of a website.

• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. The code used to control the design and layout of a website.

• JS: JavaScript. A programming language that is used to create interactive elements on a website.

• API: Application Programming Interface. A set of rules and protocols that allow different software programs to communicate with each other.

• GTM: Google Tag Manager

• GA: Google Analytics

• GMC: Google Merchant Centre

• GBP: Google Business Profile

Understanding these acronyms and terms is important as they are commonly used in the SEO industry. If you want to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website, it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest SEO best practices and trends. This includes understanding the acronyms and terms that are commonly used in the industry.

In conclusion, SEO can seem intimidating at first but with time, effort and patience, one can master the art of optimising their website to drive more traffic and improve their search engine rankings. Understanding the acronyms and terms that are commonly used in the SEO industry is a good first step to getting started with SEO.

Why drag and drop website builders can be the best client solution

This article is a response to an article we read last year on avoiding drop and drag builder websites. In this article we explore why you should embrace drag and drop website builders and be cautious around web developers who won’t even consider them for your website project.

Last year I read an article describing  how business owners should avoid drop and drag websites. As an agency that builds many websites on a range of platforms including some drop and drag websites like Shopify and Squarespace, I read the argument with interest.

Whilst I understand there can be certain drawbacks to using drop and drag builder websites, there are also some very important advantages

So to balance the argument, lets list some of the positives of drop and drag websites.

Support. When you build with a drop and drag website, you get access to their support channels. Shopify offer 24/7 online chat support and Squarespace offer live chat support and email support. 

Built in hosting. The drop and drag websites we work with including Shopify and Squarespace have built in hosting, so as a business that's one less thing you need to worry about.

Free from tech jargon. For the most part, drop and drag builder websites are targeted to non-developers therefore the language they use when an update is required or something needs attention, isn't filled with unfamiliar jargon but rather regular language that is easy to understand.

Designed for purpose. Shopify is specifically designed for eCommerce. The company invests heavily in continuous research in the  eCommerce landscape and regularly roll out new and improved functionality.

SEO. It was mentioned in the article that drop and drag website are poor for SEO, however this is not correct. Drop and drag websites provide full access to optimise on page elements, Shopify now allows access to the robots.txt file, provides URL redirection options and both Squarespace and Shopify provide full xmll sitemaps. Keyword research and backlink building, both of which are imperative to SEO have nothing to do with the platform a website runs off.

Budget. Drop and drag websites can leverage advantage from prebuilt themes, helping start ups and small businesses to create a highly professional and effective website without the budget requirements of a custom build, hand coded website.

Huge user base. The popularity of Shopify in recent years means that the user base is large and therefore resources to assist and support are easy to find. 

Easier to use. Lets face it, as a business owner you’re busy enough. The last thing you need is to spend a crazy amount of time and stress just to add that blog post or update that phone number on your website. The admin panel on Shopify and Squarespace is user intuitive and the learning curve to using it is much shorter than on something that has been build by a developer who feels very comfortable in surrounded by jargon and code.

A website that is rarely updated, overwhelming to use and causes endless frustration is a not good website solution for any business. It's my belief that clients should be allowed and encouraged to explore the pros and cons of numerous types of website build options.

I take it as my responsibility during client discovery to determine the needs of the client, not just the immediate need of building a website but also the understanding of how that website will be ongoingly managed and used within the organisation.

If that results in a custom build website on an open source platform, then so be it. But if the best solution for the client comes in the form of a drop and drag builder website, you can bet that I’m going to confidently and strongly recommend that option to my client along with the reasoning behind that recommendation.

So to those developers who turn their nose up at drop and drag websites - I’d ask, who are you really serving by being so linear in thinking that custom coded websites are the only solution?

Shopify Website Renovation & SEO: Edwards Providore Bendigo

Edwards Providore approached us to help with a renovation to their Shopify store and assistance with SEO implementation to help them increase their presence locally for hampers and take home meals .

They had a talented graphic designer onboard in Petite Pixel Design, some stunning photography and a well established physical store in Bendigo but their online presence was a lacking a little.

We focussed first on the site renovation, in particular migrating to a theme that better powered the usability and functionality they required. The involved shuffling the navigation and organising much of the content to create better flow for the user. We also created pages and collections that would facilitate the SEO objectives.

Once the Shopify website makeover design was complete, we undertook keyword research and optimised on page elements including headings, alt text, image file names and titles and meta descriptions for each product and collection. We ensured they we established with Google My Business, Google Search Console and that Google Analytics was correctly configured.

Edwards Providore now attracts significant traffic to the site from organic sources and ranks in top positions in the search and image results for ‘Bendigo Hampers’, ‘Gifts Bendigo’ and ‘Hamper Delivery Bendigo’ along with 298 other commercially focussed keyword phrases.

Theme: Turbo
Tasks: Onsite SEO, Local SEO, Shopify Renovation

SEO Optimisation growth chart