Owning your own profitable piece of internet real estate may not be as difficult or expensive as you think. If you’re like the majority of people online, chances are that you have at least thought about building your own ecommerce website. The reason most people don’t get past the “thinking” stage is that they believe it takes too much technical expertise, or that building an ecommerce website costs too much. The truth is, the only real costs involved are reliable web hosting, a domain name, a keyword research tool and the time and effort you decide to commit.
Let’s go through the steps involved in building a successful ecommerce website.
First and foremost is your site concept or theme. Think of a hobby or passion you know a lot about, or would be interested in learning more about. It could be gardening, cycling, fishing, comic books, fitness, shopping or anything else you’re interested in. Become an expert on your chosen theme. If you are passionate about your concept, you probably know more about it than most people. Combining your own knowledge with research online will make you an expert in no time! Then think about how you can make money from your site’s theme. It could be through related affiliate programs, Google AdSense, selling your own products or ebooks, or any number of other models.
To rank well in the search engines, you need to find the best keywords for your site concept. These are the bread and butter of your ecommerce website. To find them (the ones with high demand and low competition), type your main keyword into a keyword tool such as Google Keyword Planner or Wordtracker. You will get a list of related keyword phrases, with data on how often each is searched. Pick out the best ones and use them as your site blueprint, creating pages of content around them. Use one main keyword phrase for each page, and work it naturally into the page’s title, headings and text. Don’t stuff in keywords: search engines reward pages that answer the searcher’s question well. Creating the content for your site may seem a little overwhelming at first, but if you think of it as talking to a friend about your passion or hobby, it will become much easier over time.
Register a domain name related to your site concept. There are hundreds of domain registrars, and most charge around $10 to $20 a year for a .com domain. Many web hosts also include a free domain for the first year. Make a list of possible names and try them at your chosen registrar until you find one that is available.
Avoid using free web hosting for your ecommerce website. Not only will it lower your credibility, but you usually won’t be able to use your own domain name. Reliable web hosting costs just a few dollars a month.
Once your site is live, submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. You don’t need to keep resubmitting your pages: the search engines will find new pages through your sitemap and the links on your site.
You can check whether a page has been indexed with the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, and a free analytics tool such as Google Analytics will show you the traffic you are receiving. It will take some time, patience and persistence on your part, but once the traffic and profits start rolling in, it will make the effort worthwhile.