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Google may be known for search exposure but there’s much more that Google can help your business with. There’s a huge array of info that can help you gain exposure and just help make your business better.

Gmail

Now you can sign up for a Standard account which allows you to use your domain name as your email address. It comes with Google Tools such as Google Docs, Calendar, Chat, Sites, and much more. Here’s some directions to help you get started

Google Alerts

Want to use keywords to help you keep in touch with your industry or products or even watch your own business and how its trending. Google Alerts have so many great uses and applications, it’s truly endless!

Earlier this year, I highlighted some great way to use Google Alerts: http://www.bluedeerblog.com/2010/01/how-to-use-google-alerts-to-track-your-business/

Google Checkout

A great way to process credit cards and allow customers to make purchases. It’s perfect if you are a small business and aren’t selling a lot of items right away.

Google Products

Once knows as Froogle – Google Products is now under the Google Merchant Center. Google has made shopping results more prominent on its search pages. If you have an online store – you should have a Google Product Feed so your products will show up in Google Products Search. Here’s some directions to help you get started!

Google Analytics/Google Webmaster Tools

An awesome free service that provides valuable stats about how Google views and looks over your website. You can see common keywords Google associates with pages or text linked to your site.

Need more tools, checkout this guide to the Top To Google Services for Ecommerce: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1696-Ten-Google-Services-to-Help-Your-Ecommerce-Business

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Here’s Part 2 of my 10 Common E-commerce Mistakes You Can Avoid! I posted last week….

#6 Displaying out of stock products

Don’t disappoint your customers, get them all excited and list a product that you no longer have in stock. Have your inventory set up so it’s synced with your online store. Manage expectations of your customers, it makes all the difference

#7 POP-UPs Annoy

Lots of websites try and lure customers in with pop-ups, but they cause the opposite effect. It’s intrusive,
usually looks ugly, and slows down page load time. Don’t make your customers want to hit the back button or run away
from your site. Unobtrusive, easy-to-use, and friendly is a much better tactic.

#8 Asking for too much or unnecessary info

Sure, sometimes you are tempted to gather info from your customer for marketing purposes when they
are registering, but if you attempt to ask too much, they may abandon the whole process.

Just stick to the necessary details to complete the purchase which are-

Delivery Address
Contact Number
Card Details

#9 Poor Customer Service

Treat your customers with the golden rule. Listen to them and be there for them which
includes answering emails, helping with returns, returning/answering phone calls. Providing a FAQ and and a return policy on your website that’s easy to find can go a long way as well.

#10 Plan for Growth

Before you begin selling anything online, talk to your web firm and web hosting about
how to prepare for:

-high traffic on your website
-high sales

You might consider what the costs are to upgrade your current web hosting plan and know at what point in your business’ growth that you will have special needs. Plan for peak sales around holidays and sales and know how to avoid traffic and bandwidth problems. vLearning what your options are early on will help your business grow faster.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more mistakes to avoid. Let me know if I need to mention others mistakes that are just important to avoid.

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