Online selling - your own website or better to use Shopify, Wix or similar ?

[Russ Michaels]

We have a half decent website which was designed 3 or 4 years ago and which performed well up to and through covid but which has seen declining sales since 2020. Google Ads spend has not tapered off proportionally but we get advice on this side of things.

Our competitors have all raised their prices (average sale £200-£300) by between 10% to 15% and we have not which should make us more attractive on price. No competitor has introduced new products and no-one has a new, massively fantastic website. In fact, our website still looks better than the competition in many ways.

However, I am considering whether we should move to a simpler sales channel using an online shop from Shopify, Wix or similar and just piggy back o their technology and remove that constant problem of updating. It would also allow me the option to make changes to the website as and when I chose rather than having to ask for IT help to do so.

So what are the pros and cons of using one of these Shopify type sites over designing your own as from the outside, they look far easier.

From a marketing perspective and using Google Ads, does it make any difference ?

have you done any SEO on your website? if not, then likely you are not ranking for any organic searches. If your competitors are regularly doing SEO, then that is why they are beating you. A nicer looking website doesn't do you any good if nobody is finding it or looking at it.

I see it has been mentioned that you have a WordPress site, which means you can already do everything yourself, edit content, even add a shop using woocommerce.... you just need to ask for admin access.
But if you don't know how to use WordPress, you are likely to break it unless controls are put in place.

The advantage with WordPress is that you have full control over the whole site and can edit every aspect of it and have full control over SEO.
With shopify etc, its not as flexible and requires more customisation and coding/CSS skills to make it look how you want.
But as with any of these solutions, you can use WordPress your website and something else for the shop, its not mutually exclusive.
I personally like using ECWID either stand alone or together with WordPress, but it depends on your requirements.

 

[AlanJ1]

The advantage with WordPress is that you have full control over the whole site and can edit every aspect of it and have full control over SEO.

There's very little on Wordpress on an SEO side that you can't do on Shopify. To be honest I can't think of anything you can't do on the top of my head.

 

[Russ Michaels]

have you done any SEO on your website? if not, then likely you are not ranking for any organic searches. If your competitors are regularly doing SEO, then that is why they are beating you. A nicer looking website doesn't do you any good if nobody is finding it or looking at it.

I see it has been mentioned that you have a WordPress site, which means you can already do everything yourself, edit content, even add a shop using woocommerce.... you just need to ask for admin access.
But if you don't know how to use WordPress, you are likely to break it unless controls are put in place.

The advantage with WordPress is that you have full control over the whole site and can edit every aspect of it and have full control over SEO.
With shopify etc, its not as flexible and requires more customisation and coding/CSS skills to make it look how you want.
But as with any of these solutions, you can use WordPress your website and something else for the shop, its not mutually exclusive.
I personally like using ECWID either stand alone or together with WordPress, but it depends on your requirements.

for some bizzare reason, the moderator has decided that the above comments is somehow offensive, and has sent me a warning.
Perhaps someone can explain to me what is offensive exactly?

 

[Russ Michaels]

There's very little on Wordpress on an SEO side that you can't do on Shopify. To be honest I can't think of anything you can't do on the top of my head.

ok, I haven't done anything with Shopify for years, so maybe it has improved. But I bet you still have to do it all manually and it doesn't have anything like Rankmath?

 

[Shopclicks]

There's very little on Wordpress on an SEO side that you can't do on Shopify. To be honest I can't think of anything you can't do on the top of my head.

Core Web Vitals are an issue.

 

[thetiger2015]

ok, I haven't done anything with Shopify for years, so maybe it has improved. But I bet you still have to do it all manually and it doesn't have anything like Rankmath?

That's an app/plugin? Shopify has lots of SEO apps but there are a few things that you just have no access to:

htaccess file and root files/hosting platform etc. That's all handled by Shopify.

Here's a link from SEMRush: semrush.com/blog/shopify-vs-wordpress/ <<< I disagree with a couple of things but it's mostly right.

The thing is, in reality, we've had no need to worry about things like root files, htaccess, hosting etc. ourselves, since moving to Shopify.

 

[Shopclicks]

Here's a link from SEMRush: semrush.com/blog/shopify-vs-wordpress/ <<< I disagree with a couple of things but it's mostly right.

It's always interesting to see reviewers saying 'Are comfortable with code or have the budget to hire someone'.

This is absolute rubbish. You don't need to be able to code to create a Wordpress/Woocommerce site.

 

[japancool]

for some bizzare reason, the moderator has decided that the above comments is somehow offensive, and has sent me a warning.
Perhaps someone can explain to me what is offensive exactly?

I imagine it's because of the link to ECWID. The mods probably don't like links to commercial software as it's unpaid advertising for them.

 

[AlanJ1]

ok, I haven't done anything with Shopify for years, so maybe it has improved. But I bet you still have to do it all manually and it doesn't have anything like Rankmath?

I have absolutely no idea what rankmath is but you don't need to do things manually. Can bulk import almost everything.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

The website could be a major reason why sales are dropping, be it optimisation, basic design, navigation etc.

What too many forget or ignore are the basics of product, pricing, presentation, market and competition!

Our competitors have all raised their prices (average sale £200-£300) by between 10% to 15% and we have not

Well, you are missing out on 'free' profit!

 

[fisicx]

Comparing Shopify to WordPress doesn't really work. They aren't the same thing.

Use whichever one you feel comfortable with.

 

[Shopclicks]

Comparing Shopify to WordPress doesn't really work. They aren't the same thing.

You're right in that they aren't the same thing but when it comes to selling online (Shopify vs Woo), they both try to achieve the same thing. A website with traffic.

If you don't need to maintain or better your search performance, then Shopify may be ok. Even though their marketing hype tells you otherwise.

Whichever you feel comfortable with, doesn't achieve the same results.

 

[Byzantium]

Two separate sentences. You got stitched up. You got what you asked for.

And by 'got what you asked for', I mean you got the level of control you thought you needed at the time.

If you asked for Administrator access, would you get it?

Yes, I would get any level of access.

I saw initial improvements all round and thought they knew what they were doing.

That has not only not been ongoing but we have gone backwards.

 

[Byzantium]

So why don't you ask for access to the admin side?

Because that isn't my job.

Same as I don't drive a taxi, I call a taxi.

I order food in a restaurant, I don't cook it.

I run the businesses, not spend all day playing with code and websites.

Perhaps I should

 

[Shopclicks]

I saw initial improvements all round and thought they knew what they were doing.

That has not only not been ongoing but we have gone backwards.

Well I hope you're not paying them too much.

It pays to know something about what you're paying for.

Never eat in an empty restaurant.

And never trust a taxi driver as a tourist.

 

[MOIC]

Never eat in an empty restaurant.

And never trust a taxi driver as a tourist.

Touché

 

[japancool]

Because that isn't my job.

Maybe not, but you should know how to access it, in case you need to pass it on to someone else to do.

 

[fisicx]

I run the businesses, not spend all day playing with code and websites.

Managing the website is part of running the business. Not the code, but you need to monitor what others are doing. You need to check what they are doing is adding value. That they aren’t burning your cash on pointless activities.

If I was losing sales I’d be all over the site finding out what was going wrong.

 

[wayzgoose]

Because that isn't my job.

Same as I don't drive a taxi, I call a taxi.

I order food in a restaurant, I don't cook it.

I run the businesses, not spend all day playing with code and websites.

Perhaps I should

But that's not what you said in your opening post:

"It would also allow me the option to make changes to the website as and when I chose rather than having to ask for IT help to do so."

 

[campbeji]

We have a half decent website which was designed 3 or 4 years ago and which performed well up to and through covid but which has seen declining sales since 2020. Google Ads spend has not tapered off proportionally but we get advice on this side of things.

Our competitors have all raised their prices (average sale £200-£300) by between 10% to 15% and we have not which should make us more attractive on price. No competitor has introduced new products and no-one has a new, massively fantastic website. In fact, our website still looks better than the competition in many ways.

However, I am considering whether we should move to a simpler sales channel using an online shop from Shopify, Wix or similar and just piggy back o their technology and remove that constant problem of updating. It would also allow me the option to make changes to the website as and when I chose rather than having to ask for IT help to do so.

So what are the pros and cons of using one of these Shopify type sites over designing your own as from the outside, they look far easier.

From a marketing perspective and using Google Ads, does it make any difference ?

Hi Byzantium,

I have read through the replies you have received and I think it is going to be pretty difficult, based on them, to decide what to do.

The problem I think, is that you have two distinct problems, but they have been mashed together in this thread and it is making it difficult to work out an answer.

As I see it you have two separate questions, which may or may not be related, I think they are basically
1/ Your website is not getting as much business as it used to
2/ Should you move your website to make it easier for you to manage

I think you need to treat these as two completely different questions and work out the answer to them independently, unless of course, something has gone wrong in the website to cause a loss of business.

I also understand that you do not want to have the new job of 'IT support', who has time for that. No matter what the IT developers etc. try to tell you, it is not easy, it takes more time than you want, and when something goes wrong you are left floundering because you really don't have the breadth and depth of knowledge to do it properly. So what you need to do is decide what you are willing to do and pay someone to do the rest whether that is a shopify/Woocommerce expert or an outsourced person from India who needs a bit more management.

For the drop off in business you need to work out what is happening and why, historically you need to know where your business came from, did it come from the ads or the listings or both, or maybe even from a referral link someplace that is no longer working. If you don't know this info then you will never be able to work it out.

I suspect, and with no disrespect, that you have seen the business dropping and assumed that it is because the website doesn't work very well.

For the problem with the website, I would do two things, first, have a sit down with the company that is looking after the site and have a serious discussion. Tell them what you need them to do and when you need it. At the moment they just see you as a revenue stream and they will do the least that can to keep it flowing.

If you are then not happy with them just pull the plug on it and move someplace else. I would either move to a template type site, Shopify would be my preference, get set up with as little customisation as possible and let them look after all of the hosting and basic website upgrades etc. My second option would be to hire an expert to do it all for you, either inhouse or local or from India etc.

This has been a quick reply and it doesn't half cover it, but these are my thoughts on your issues.

Good Luck
Jim

 

[Byzantium]

Maybe not, but you should know how to access it, in case you need to pass it on to someone else to do.

You're right of course. It is just something that will take up more time than I have available.

 

[Byzantium]

Managing the website is part of running the business. Not the code, but you need to monitor what others are doing. You need to check what they are doing is adding value. That they aren’t burning your cash on pointless activities.

If I was losing sales I’d be all over the site finding out what was going wrong.

Agreed wholeheartedly and I point the finger at no-one other than myself.

The lack of reporting and clarity of changes made and the responses in sales to those changes made has been a failing on their part but also on mine for not insisting and being more proactive.

Hearing it from people hear makes it clearer.

 

[Byzantium]

But that's not what you said in your opening post:

"It would also allow me the option to make changes to the website as and when I chose rather than having to ask for IT help to do so."

Desperation I think. If I wanted to do something I could do it myself in minutes rather than having to propose it to the IT folks and then get their kickback before getting a timeline to implementation but still no reporting on the outcome.

Talking it through via this thread makes it so much clearer that whilst they have been fiddling while Rome burns, I have somewhat been asleep at the wheel !

 

[Byzantium]

Hi Byzantium,

I have read through the replies you have received and I think it is going to be pretty difficult, based on them, to decide what to do.

The problem I think, is that you have two distinct problems, but they have been mashed together in this thread and it is making it difficult to work out an answer.

As I see it you have two separate questions, which may or may not be related, I think they are basically
1/ Your website is not getting as much business as it used to
2/ Should you move your website to make it easier for you to manage

I think you need to treat these as two completely different questions and work out the answer to them independently, unless of course, something has gone wrong in the website to cause a loss of business.

I also understand that you do not want to have the new job of 'IT support', who has time for that. No matter what the IT developers etc. try to tell you, it is not easy, it takes more time than you want, and when something goes wrong you are left floundering because you really don't have the breadth and depth of knowledge to do it properly. So what you need to do is decide what you are willing to do and pay someone to do the rest whether that is a shopify/Woocommerce expert or an outsourced person from India who needs a bit more management.

For the drop off in business you need to work out what is happening and why, historically you need to know where your business came from, did it come from the ads or the listings or both, or maybe even from a referral link someplace that is no longer working. If you don't know this info then you will never be able to work it out.

I suspect, and with no disrespect, that you have seen the business dropping and assumed that it is because the website doesn't work very well.

For the problem with the website, I would do two things, first, have a sit down with the company that is looking after the site and have a serious discussion. Tell them what you need them to do and when you need it. At the moment they just see you as a revenue stream and they will do the least that can to keep it flowing.

If you are then not happy with them just pull the plug on it and move someplace else. I would either move to a template type site, Shopify would be my preference, get set up with as little customisation as possible and let them look after all of the hosting and basic website upgrades etc. My second option would be to hire an expert to do it all for you, either inhouse or local or from India etc.

This has been a quick reply and it doesn't half cover it, but these are my thoughts on your issues.

Good Luck
Jim

Your analysis is pretty spot on I think.

However, as revenue is heavily driven from paid search via Google Ads, which is managed by the same people, moving the website is not even half the problem.

Day one, we would be at risk of all advertising going down and on a daily basis, what advertising we have would degrade through lack of management and that assumes the website as it is could even be moved elsewhere and still be functional. There are plugins and I believe other add on items which are bought by me though them which would not be migrated over the wherever and that leads me to consider that the website would simply cease to function.

If we moved to a Shopify scenario, then yes, we could have a functional website of some sorts operational but there would be zero Google Ads working and thus sales would drop to zero.

I don't have the time to become a semi expert in that field and certainly not in the timeline we are talking about. I think we'd need to have all this set up first before migration and that means I'd need help.

So where to find that help ? Every turn of the page is an expert who looks at what you already have and says it is shit and their version is so much better but in reality, you are mostly swapping one turd for another. Your comment that the incumbents see me only as a revenue stream is more so with their potential replacement.

I don't want anyone who outsources it to a random foreigner half a world away and neither do I want to try to find such a person. I also don't want a one man band as if they get sick, die or pissed, there is no plan B. Ideally I want someone near enough to sit down with the old fashioned way.

 

[fisicx]

You need to step back and analyse the problem. Or get independent help to do the analysis with you. Once you know the areas of concern to can set up a plan of action.

Moving the site to a new host is a simple process. Those paid for plugins will still work on the new hosting. If you want to completely cut ties it’s just a matter of planning.

There is no need to rely on Google ads. A bit of creative work on the site could easily have you ranking for a whole range of keywords and a change in marketing strategy pull in a lot of new business.

The status quo is killing your business. You need to bite the bullet and accept change is necessary.

Stop being defensive and accept there are many who know what they are talking about.

Please excuse the bluntness but you need help. And you need it very quickly to prevent the hemorrhaging of cash from the business.

 

[campbeji]

Your analysis is pretty spot on I think.

However, as revenue is heavily driven from paid search via Google Ads, which is managed by the same people, moving the website is not even half the problem.

Day one, we would be at risk of all advertising going down and on a daily basis, what advertising we have would degrade through lack of management and that assumes the website as it is could even be moved elsewhere and still be functional. There are plugins and I believe other add on items which are bought by me though them which would not be migrated over the wherever and that leads me to consider that the website would simply cease to function.

If we moved to a Shopify scenario, then yes, we could have a functional website of some sorts operational but there would be zero Google Ads working and thus sales would drop to zero.

I don't have the time to become a semi expert in that field and certainly not in the timeline we are talking about. I think we'd need to have all this set up first before migration and that means I'd need help.

So where to find that help ? Every turn of the page is an expert who looks at what you already have and says it is **** and their version is so much better but in reality, you are mostly swapping one turd for another. Your comment that the incumbents see me only as a revenue stream is more so with their potential replacement.

I don't want anyone who outsources it to a random foreigner half a world away and neither do I want to try to find such a person. I also don't want a one man band as if they get sick, die or pissed, there is no plan B. Ideally I want someone near enough to sit down with the old fashioned way.

Hi, You say that your revenue is heavily driven from paid search via Google Ads. There are two things that jump to mind, the first is that all you need to do is make a slight change in your Google Ads campaign and that traffic is now going to the new website, so shouldn't cause much of a drop off in revenue.

The second thing, and I mean no disrespect here, but how do you know that your revenue is driven by via your paid advertising, perhaps it is coming from another source and you just think that it is driven by paid advertising. I had a consultant look at one of my websites years ago and I thought my business came from organic search, but in fact most of the stuff that converted actually came from a couple of sources, kinda like referalls, I had signed up to them and never gave them any thought. At that time I spent a fair bit of time on SEO but didn't really know how to measure it.

That actually gives me another though, the consultant I used at that time was paid for by a programme operated by my local council, they have some great things going on. We might be lucky with our council, but you should check out what sort of help is available. For example we are in the process of starting to sell a product on Amazon, but I needed to know how to CE mark it, the council arranged for me to talk to an expert, and paid for it to. They had until recently had a programme running to help people with e-commerce. Check out the council website and see if they have anything of use.

Good Luck
Jim

 

[Byzantium]

You need to step back and analyse the problem. Or get independent help to do the analysis with you. Once you know the areas of concern to can set up a plan of action.

Moving the site to a new host is a simple process. Those paid for plugins will still work on the new hosting. If you want to completely cut ties it’s just a matter of planning.

There is no need to rely on Google ads. A bit of creative work on the site could easily have you ranking for a whole range of keywords and a change in marketing strategy pull in a lot of new business.

The status quo is killing your business. You need to bite the bullet and accept change is necessary.

Stop being defensive and accept there are many who know what they are talking about.

Please excuse the bluntness but you need help. And you need it very quickly to prevent the hemorrhaging of cash from the business.

I'm cool with bluntness and no need to be apologetic. I am the one asking for advice and willing to receive it.

However, here is the problem "accept there are many who know what they are talking about" .......

Everyone does. The original guys from years back did. Then so did the next set of guys. Then the incumbents. As well as everyone else we've talked to.

The common denominator is that everyone and I mean everyone I've spoken to trash talks the other guys and effectively says you can spend less and get more if you do what I say.

Then you jump ship and you know what, you find out that it was all bull5hit.

The truth is, that if you don't know enough, then you're not qualified enough to choose someone new.

 

[Byzantium]

Hi, You say that your revenue is heavily driven from paid search via Google Ads. There are two things that jump to mind, the first is that all you need to do is make a slight change in your Google Ads campaign and that traffic is now going to the new website, so shouldn't cause much of a drop off in revenue.

The second thing, and I mean no disrespect here, but how do you know that your revenue is driven by via your paid advertising, perhaps it is coming from another source and you just think that it is driven by paid advertising. I had a consultant look at one of my websites years ago and I thought my business came from organic search, but in fact most of the stuff that converted actually came from a couple of sources, kinda like referalls, I had signed up to them and never gave them any thought. At that time I spent a fair bit of time on SEO but didn't really know how to measure it.

That actually gives me another though, the consultant I used at that time was paid for by a programme operated by my local council, they have some great things going on. We might be lucky with our council, but you should check out what sort of help is available. For example we are in the process of starting to sell a product on Amazon, but I needed to know how to CE mark it, the council arranged for me to talk to an expert, and paid for it to. They had until recently had a programme running to help people with e-commerce. Check out the council website and see if they have anything of use.

Good Luck
Jim

Google Ads strategy, how many campaigns and how many ads within each ? How many ad goups ?

The complexity is overwhelming.

What if we have 300 ads ? Is that 500 too few or 270 too many ? Who knows ?

Budgets ? how to ascribe ?

Or just let Google "do its thing" and automate it ? Sure, it might cost more but if you offset the lack of having someone tinkering with it all the time and producing near zero results ?

I'd love a critique but not by people who are looking to get me to write them a cheque because as I've found, they simply trash everyone else's ideas and work.

It isn't a budget thing, it is where to go and who to talk to.

 

[campbeji]

Google Ads strategy, how many campaigns and how many ads within each ? How many ad goups ?

The complexity is overwhelming.

What if we have 300 ads ? Is that 500 too few or 270 too many ? Who knows ?

Budgets ? how to ascribe ?

Or just let Google "do its thing" and automate it ? Sure, it might cost more but if you offset the lack of having someone tinkering with it all the time and producing near zero results ?

I'd love a critique but not by people who are looking to get me to write them a cheque because as I've found, they simply trash everyone else's ideas and work.

It isn't a budget thing, it is where to go and who to talk to.

I'd suggest a couple of things;

1/ The makeup of the ad campaign isn't the important thing as such it is the returns you get from it, and all of the other traffic streams, you need to know what is bringing in the money, what is your ROI on each traffic source.
2/ Managing your advertising, whether it is via Google, Facebook, SEO, Paid adverts etc etc is critical to the business, you need to understand it and be able to control it or pay someone to understand it and control it. If you are going to pay someone, they must not be someone who gets paid to also run the websites, this is a conflict in my opinion.

If I was you I would go to a site like Upwork and put up a job for a person, or more than one person, who is a SEO/Google ads/Facebook ads expert to do an analysis on your traffic. Get them to tell you where your business is coming from and how much it is costing you. Also, ask them for recommendations on how best to improve things. Obviously, be careful, there are a lot of scammers and incompetents, but there are also a lot of good workers. It will cost a little bit but should be money well spent.

If you are going to do this then there are a few things I'd recommend. When you post a job you will get loads of applicants, possibly 100's. Straight away delete all the ones who are out of your budget. Delete any that have given you a basic cut-and-paste answer. In the job post always ask a question towards the end of the job description, i.e. say something like 'Please give me the answer to 2+3 in the first line of your reply to prove you have read the job posting', delete any that don't. Delete anyone that gives you a sob story (unless otherwise, they seem good.) You will need to be brutal.

I normally get it down to a shortlist of 3 to 5 and give them a test job, with a payment of course, but something simple that you know the answer to and then employ the one you like most that gets the right answer.

If you are lucky and get someone really good then you might want to get them to run your campaigns, with your supervision of course.

Good Luck
Jim

 

[Shopclicks]

If you are going to do this then there are a few things I'd recommend. When you post a job you will get loads of applicants, possibly 100's. Straight away delete all the ones who are out of your budget. Delete any that have given you a basic cut-and-paste answer. In the job post always ask a question towards the end of the job description, i.e. say something like 'Please give me the answer to 2+3 in the first line of your reply to prove you have read the job posting', delete any that don't. Delete anyone that gives you a sob story (unless otherwise, they seem good.) You will need to be brutal.

I normally get it down to a shortlist of 3 to 5 and give them a test job, with a payment of course, but something simple that you know the answer to and then employ the one you like most that gets the right answer.

If you are lucky and get someone really good then you might want to get them to run your campaigns, with your supervision of course.

It's no wonder there are so many failing websites around with advice like that.

Best case scenario .... 'if you're lucky and get someone good' Wow!

 

[fisicx]

The common denominator is that everyone and I mean everyone I've spoken to trash talks the other guys and effectively says you can spend less and get more if you do what I say.

That's because you are starting in the wrong place.

Begin with market research to identify the ideal customer. Then investigate where they look for products and services. Then set up the marketing plan. Then build the website.

I'd put money on the people you need to target being on social media more than Google. Which means your advertising spend is in the wrong place.

Things change quickly. What worked a year ago many not work this year. Google ads may have been great when you started but then facebook came along and now tiktok. You need to adapt your marketing. Which means constant monitoring and adjustment.

Upgrade your membership here and get a website review. You will get objective feedback from people who know how marketing works.

 

[campbeji]

It's no wonder there are so many failing websites around with advice like that.

Best case scenario .... 'if you're lucky and get someone good' Wow!

Hi Shopclicks,

It didn't take long for you to jump in with your normal personal attacks. Mind you as normal you grasp for straws to try to insult.

I very much doubt that my advice has had the ability to cause "so many failing websites", maybe one or two but hardly many.

I'm kinda curious about why saying that the best case scenario is that you find 'Someone Good', is it the term good you find offensive? perhaps I should have said brilliant, or Great, would that have made it better for you? It might have been the fact that I had a little bit of uncertainty about finding someone good, I don't know if you have ever employed someone before, either virtually or in real life, but it is hard to find someone good, that's not poor advice, just the way it is. It's kinda like employing a web designer, sometimes you get someone good, and other times you get a grumpy, whiney, little know it all who likes nothing better than criticising other people.

Jim

 

[Shopclicks]

It didn't take long for you to jump in with your normal personal attacks. Mind you as normal you grasp for straws to try to insult.

I'll always call out bad advice when I see it. It's not personal. I have very strong opinions based on experience. I live in this space every day and I see the mistakes people make.

It's kinda like employing a web designer, sometimes you get someone good, and other times you get a grumpy, whiney, little know it all who likes nothing better than criticising other people.

I do enjoy our little chats

If you need a web designer/developer, there is no better way to find a 'good' one than through personal recommendation and evidence of results.

 

[campbeji]

I'll always call out bad advice when I see it. It's not personal. I have very strong opinions based on experience. I live in this space every day and I see the mistakes people make.


I do enjoy our little chats

If you need a web designer/developer, there is no better way to find a 'good' one than through personal recommendation and evidence of results.

So what specifically, in your opinion, was bad about my advice?

No doubt, personal recommendation to a certain extent, as long as the person doing the recommendation knows what they are doing. Also evidence of results, yes that is also good, as long as you check it out, I was once trying to employ a web designer, a few years ago now, and he had a very impressive portfolio with lots of good websites on it. I emailed and phoned a few of the companies and it turns out he didn't work on any of them.

So saying recommendations and evidence of results is good as far as it goes, but you need to check it out.

The other thing of course, as the op mentioned, anyone you go to will try to tell you that they will do a much better job than the previous people.

The other thing I should point out is, if you had bothered to read it, that my advice was not about how to get a web designer/developer at all, so your comments are a little off base, but that is the sort of thing I have come to expect from you.

Jim

 

[fisicx]

So what specifically, in your opinion, was bad about my advice?

I think it was the comment that you might be lucky and find a good freelancer. For something like adwords you could lose thousands before discovering they aren't very good.

The problem with most overseas adwords freelancers is they only ever want to focus on the adverts. They rarely want to work on the most important component: the landing page.

 

[Shopclicks]

So what specifically, in your opinion, was bad about my advice?

It's not a personal recommendation from someone who uses an SEO or Google Ads practitioner. Or for a web designer/developer to take advice from for that matter. Which is what this thread is about.

If you are going to pay someone, they must not be someone who gets paid to also run the websites, this is a conflict in my opinion.

I'd like to know how that's a conflict?

I normally get it down to a shortlist of 3 to 5 and give them a test job, with a payment of course, but something simple that you know the answer to and then employ the one you like most that gets the right answer.

This hasn't worked for you in the past. Why recommend it to someone else?

 

[campbeji]

I think it was the comment that you might be lucky and find a good freelancer. For something like adwords you could lose thousands before discovering they aren't very good.

The problem with most overseas adwords freelancers is they only ever want to focus on the adverts. They rarely want to work on the most important component: the landing page.

Maybe I didn't communicate my intention very well, or maybe you just skimmed it.

I was talking about finding someone to do an analysis of the current situation, so where the traffic is coming from and how much it is making. I advised this as the op does not appear to have the time or desire to work out how to do this himself, I'm in the exact same situation. I could do it, but there are like 16,000 other things I also need to do.

The comment about being luck and finding a good one, was aimed at continuing on from the original task, to maybe employing someone longer term.

Lets not beat about the bush, most people who are web designers, ad revenue experts etc etc are pretty much useless, most will pay lip service to what you want and then go off and do what they think is right. The good ones, who know what they are doing, know how to do it and can communicate all of that to the client, are, as far as I can tell, all costing an arm and a leg.

In my experience this is true whether the people are local or overseas. Yes, employing free lancers from overseas via the likes of Upwork can be a challenge, but it can be very rewarding. If you do make a mistake the costs can be an order of magnitude less than if you make the same mistake with a local company. I once hired a guy from India to do a job for me, he did it perfectly, and it cost less than £7.00 per hour, somewhere in the range of £200 in total. Locally I was quoted between £500 and £1200 ish for the same job. I currently use a person from the Phillipines to do my bookkeeping, she can dot it faster and more accurately than me, but does need a bit of supervision, I pay her £3.00 per hour.

Good people are available, it just takes a bit of work and luck.

Jim

 

[campbeji]

It's not a personal recommendation from someone who uses an SEO or Google Ads practitioner. Or for a web designer/developer to take advice from for that matter. Which is what this thread is about.


I'd like to know how that's a conflict?


This hasn't worked for you in the past. Why recommend it to someone else?

It's not a personal recommendation from someone who uses an SEO or Google Ads practitioner. Or for a web designer/developer to take advice from for that matter. Which is what this thread is about.

Sorry, this sentence does not make sense to me. The thread is about someone who is having issues with falling revenue, who thinks it might be because of mismanaged Google Ads or website.

I'd like to know how that's a conflict?

If someone is running your website and you then pay them to tell you where the problems are they are not going to blame themselves, even if they are the problem.

This hasn't worked for you in the past. Why recommend it to someone else?

Curious to know where you got this idea from? I have used this process many times in the past, usually, but not always, very successfully. I will continue to use this process in the future although I will probably improve on it as I go.

Jim

 

[fisicx]

This is where I think the problem lies. @Byzantium is throwing money at AdWords without any sort of analysis as to if it’s the right option, if it’s effective or if the landings pages are converting.

 

[EcomAlistair]

Hey @Byzantium - this thread has been a fascinating read. It seems like your primary need is for agility and the power to make changes yourself, quickly, to your website as one of the primary assets in your business.

One of the primary arguments made in this thread by those from the technical (web developer) community is about the potential weaknesses of Shopify from an SEO stance point. This is a fair position to hold, since, for one Shopify do not allow static content to sit outside of the /pages/ subdirectory - which is nowhere near as powerful as the content publishing prowess as Wordpress for example (have /whatever-you-want-here/)

But given SEO is not your primary concern, Shopify would simplify your life from a store management perspective. Plenty of Co's run off-the-shelf templates and do fine. It all boils down to your knowledge of your customers and what ultimately matters to them.

However, given that you have a low SKU count, one option I'd like to suggest you could explore is Webflow Ecommerce.

Webflow is a visual-design and CMS powered platform, which would cover many of the failings of Shopify in the SEO area whilst bringing sufficient (I believe without speaking to you first) ecommerce powers to help you present and sell your wares. Moreover, it solves another need you have expressed which is around not being on the hook to developers.

I would be interested to hear what you think if you have time to check it out.