Are You Caught Up on Google My Business?

Google My Business is a Google service launched about five years ago that allows businesses to make public profiles, and become more readily seen in Google Local Search and Google Maps. With over 150 million businesses registered and 3 billion consumer-merchant interactions, the platform is constantly growing, not just in user count, but also in its new features. Google My Business has launched two new features—florists, are you using these?

Florist Special Offers

Last year, Google launched the “For you” tab in the mobile Maps applications. With this update, they have allowed customers to follow businesses like yours.

Now, Google is helping businesses give incentives to people who follow them on the platform in the form of special offers. Businesses can give these special offers to people who follow them the first time around, and these people can simply show these offers to redeem them in your store.

This is a great opportunity for you to strengthen your flower shop’s online presence by encouraging customers to follow you via Google.

By introducing offers like discount and coupons for example, Google users will be more likely to start following you. Through the platform, you can then interact with them through actively posting in Google My Business about events and updates about your business, since these posts can be seen not only in Search, but also in Maps.

Image via Shutterstock

Florist Short Name URLs

Google has also improved the merchant side of Google My Business by enabling businesses to have short name URLs.

Working much like Twitter handles, these short name URLs are unique and are distributed on a first come-first serve basis, so you need to be fast on your fingers here. Since the name is short, it is making them easier to share among customers and for customers to share among their circle of friends and family.

As a quality-of-life improvement, this allows people to have quick access to your Google profile. This gives emphasis to your business GMB listing, and it is almost mandatory to constantly update it, as it now becomes a hub for your potential and current customers to get news from you.

Additionally, this also makes your Google profile stand equal with your social media accounts and website, as they can now be easily accessed with short names and easy-to-remember handles.

Note: Only verified businesses can get this feature and the short name is unique across the globe, so you might want to get your hands moving fast before someone gets your desired short name first.

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Other than the two features mentioned above, Google is also making it easier for you to give quick access from any part of the online world to your Google profile with window stickers like “Follow” and “Review.” All these new features make Google My Business an even more attractive place to improve your local SEO.

As it stands, it has become a quick equivalent to a social media account for your business, and you should really treat it as such; it’s going to be the virtual face of your business and as with any face, you should keep it looking fresh and good, as the tools are also getting better and better.

Florists, have you been using these new Google My Business features? Please feel free to share thoughts and comments below!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Customers search online about the things they want to buy, even if it’s a simple local purchase.

Google is not only helpful for consumers, but it’s also good for businesses. As long as you can use that to your advantage by strengthening your business’s online presence, your floral e-commerce website can succeed. 

Florist Quick Guide to Google My Business

Google My Business is Google’s one-stop shop for all things online for your business. It is an online platform that contains tools where you can manage how your business will look like in Google and Google Search.

Google My Business (GMB) improves your local SEO by:

* Giving you the options to add your business and the relevant details to Search and Maps

* Viewing and replying to customer reviews

* Adding photos

What are Google My Business local Guides?

Google My Business’s Local guides allow people to contribute to the following:

*Adding information to Maps

*Adding photos

*Updating information on businesses they are familiar with or local to them

*Adding new places to the platform.

The program differentiates individuals into tiers, depending on how much they have contributed to Maps. The goal for them is to keep Maps updated and help other people be fully informed about the businesses and places around them. 

Aside from adding data, Local Guides can also add reviews to business listings. However, they are considered to be more reliable users, thus their reviews appear more frequently and on top of the reviews list. 

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How Can I Improve My Local Pages?

Customers who come across your business, those who make a purchase or require service can be a Local Guide. It can be hard to tell Local Guides apart from normal customers. Local Guides reviews are trusted more by people just with the sheer fact that their reviews are given priority when displaying reviews on your listing.

You cannot just pick out Local Guides from your customers and give them the best service you can. The key here is to treat all your customers the same and give the best service as much as you can to everyone. 

Encourage customers to leave reviews for your business listing in Google Maps.

When receiving Positive Reviews:

*Reply to reviews in your listing

*Make sure to thank the reviewer

*Offer them to return 

*Try out a new service that you might have started on your business.

When receiving Negative Reviews:

*Be polite and courteous

*State the status of the concern or issue the review was having problems with.

*Apologize for the issue or concern

*Offer to replace or fix the issue

Doing this will give people the impression that you are very mindful of the concerns that your business has and responsive to your customer base.

Image via Shutterstock

The tools that GMB provides are beneficial in boosting your online presence, and most especially in the local setting. Taking advantage of these tools is thus invaluable in helping out your business grow.

Florists, have you been using Google my Business: Local Guides? Please share your thoughts and comments below!

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Delivering Flowers Faster. Easier.

Floranext’s New Florist Delivery Manager is the new solution to let your floral delivery blossom! 

Try Floranext’s New Delivery Manager Today!

Route With Map – Speed up Florist Route Creation

 Easily re-route delivery stops by choosing which stops should come first before any others.

Click here to learn more >>

Delivery Driver App – For Faster Floral Deliveries

Your flower shop’s delivery drivers can use a smartphone to use the benefits of the delivery routing features like live status updates, turn by turn directions, and more. 

Click here to learn more >>

Instant-Address Search – Faster Floral Order Taking

Enter in the business/home address and the field will begin to populate with information.

Click here to learn more >>

Try Floranext’s New Delivery Manager Today!

Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Top 8 Social Media Sites For Florists

In this blog, we want to narrow it down to the top 8 social media sites for florists and explain the Ins and Outs of their operations and why they are crucial and matter in the floral industry.

Check out our infographic for quick and easy reference to the Top 8 Social Media Sites For Florists!

#8 – LinkedIn

It’s the leading social networking site for professionals, with about 467 million members, it’s a solid venue for connecting with other local businesses.

Why LinkedIn Matters to Florists

• Easy to stay in touch with other local businesses
• Provides a valuable backlink for your SEO
• Customers can recommend your services on Linkedin

How to get started

• Connect with local businesses in your area
• Use the Facebook-like feed to post articles, remind local partners of your brand
• Write a compelling summary of your flower shop business. (be conceded about your beautiful work and experience)
• Have a gravitating cover image.
• Add your products and services.
• Ask for reviews.

#7 – YouTube 

Creating polished YouTube videos is harder than on many other networks.  Upload videos of your floral wedding work or even how-to videos.  Most folks won’t discover you via YouTube, but you can host your video there and embed in your florist website.

Why YouTube Matters to Florists

• Show off wedding videos, link off of your website
• Great way to increase wedding sales, providing ways to promote on other social platforms by posting your video.
• Valuable backlink for SEO.

How to get started

• Make sure to have a Google account when signing up for Youtube.
• Use your business name as your username on YouTube.
• A clear description on what your video is about – “industry-specific”.
• Make video headline compelling.
• Make sure your video is public.

#6 – Twitter

Twitter is less a way to get new customers and more a way to build your brand value overall and catch the attention of search engines. Tweet about newsworthy floral related items during holiday times and you may find yourself re-tweeted by media.

Why Twitter Matters to Florists

• Participating with this social media real-time giant and show your customers you’re “With The Times”.
• Keep in touch with customers – instantly alert your shoppers of specials, news, and events.
• Engage with your shoppers, Twitter allows you to find out their likes and dislikes and have them give you feedback on your business.
• Twitter can boost your Google ranking back to good old SEO.

How to get started

• Use your business username.
• Profile image is a must.
• Descriptive industry-specific About Us.
• Keep an important Tweet at the top of your timeline by pinning it there. Use this feature to make sure visitors to your profile can’t miss your latest news, products, offerings, or events.
• Don’t forget your hashtags, like florist, flowers, flower design, etc (a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic)

#5 – Instagram

More than any other social platform, Instagram is a great way to keep in touch with your existing customers through beautiful, artful photographs. Buyers of wedding/event work will often check out Instagram to see examples of your work.

Why Instagram  Matters to Florists

• Keep in touch with existing customers
• Easy to maintain
• Adds credibility for wedding/event purchases
• Great for SEO

How to get started

• Determine your goals for signing up for Instagram, increasing customer traffic, selling more products, creating awareness of your flower business
• Link your eCommerce website to your bio in order to direct shoppers to your page

#4 – Pinterest 

Pinterest is a great way to showcase image galleries of your wedding/event work – collections of images at local event halls, churches, and other venues will rank highly on Google – and new brides and event managers can find you that way.

Why Pinterest Matters to Florists

• Pinterest readers use Pinterest to decide to buy and most of all book wedding floral services
• Collections rank highly on Google – local content can help floral event/wedding buyers find your business
• Pins last a lifetime – creating high quality, relevant pins that don’t disappear overnight
• Great way to provide a catalog of your work – you can even embed Pinterest boards on your florist website
• Great backlink for images and organic searches on search engines

How to get started

• Complete your business profile (not personal account) and take your time with adding beautiful images of your work
• Add content to your bio and include keywords for the floral industry
• Add your location and your business website to your Pinterest profile

#3 – Yelp

Yelp’s business ratings are some of the most used by consumers to evaluate your business. Bing and Google use Yelp ratings in their search results, so it can drive lots of business if you have great ratings and reviews.

Why Yelp Matters to Florists

• The website used most often by consumers who are looking to purchase floral products and services.
• Provides spectacular SEO for your floral business! (We cannot express enough, this is vital for your ranking on search engines)
• Leading customer review social platform which is proven to drive traffic to your business resulting in increased sales.
• Integrated with Apple Maps so users could locate businesses. Making it most valuable in bringing customers to you.
• Bing local pages showcase Yelp reviews, they have formed a relationship, these reviews are super important for your SEO.
• Google shows Yelp reviews as organic search results.

How to get started

• Fill out your business profile completely
• Confirm your business through a phone call to get listed immediately (may not be necessary for all shops)
• Respond to reviews
• Offer (nominal) discount to customers to post reviews while they are in your store

#2 – Google My Business

Formally known as Google Places, Google My Business will increase traffic to both your eCommerce online store and your physical location. This is a close #1 for Top Social media platforms – Google My Business is a must for any business owner.

Why Google My Business Matters to Florists

• Google My Business offers a variety of benefits to a business, especially if people are searching in your specific location for your flower shop.
• Allowing shoppers quick and easy access to your phone number, address or hours of operation.
• Google My Business integrates directly with Google Maps.
• Google My Business showcases your customer reviews in Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and Google map. High star reviews help you stand apart from your competitors.
• One of the best backlinks for maximizing your SEO.

How to get started

• First thing is to claim your page, if you have no page,  sign up with your google account at google.com/business . Your account must be verified before it will start to show on google local pages.

#1 – Facebook 

With 2.23 billion users worldwide, no surprise why Facebook wins the number one spot in our blog. Facebook is vital in helping business owners manage their communications and retain their customers.

Why Facebook Matters to Florists

• Increased exposure to your business.
• Shows off your business portfolio and personality.
• You can reach your targeted audience.
• Search Engines love, love, love – did we say, love? Facebook Business pages URL’s are public, making these instantly rank on search engines.
• Get likes to increase your ranking on search engines. The more likes you receive, the higher you can rank. It’s all about popularity Florists!
• Allows for customer reviews.
• Increases website traffic with link posts.

How to get started

• Haven’t you signed up with Facebook? What are you waiting for? We suggest you read this while you are signing up for Facebook!
• You must have a personal Facebook page in order to start a Facebook business page.
• Your Facebook personal page and the business page will share the same login. (Top right corner of your personal page  select to Create Page)

There you have it our fellow florists, Top 8 Social Media Sites that matter to florists. Whether you agree or not, we highly recommend signing up with these social media sites today! Please use our infographic for quick and easy reference. Please feel free to post any questions or comments on these Top 8 Social Media Sites below.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

We all know how significant reviews are for our floral businesses—over 85% of customers base their purchases on reviews they see online.

Unfortunately, many satisfied customers will not leave a review, but you’ll always hear from the naysayers. This is why florists pull their hair out over negative reviews. Our goal is to encourage you to proactively seek customer reviews, not wait for them.

Online reviews are here to stay, and good or bad reviews are overwhelmingly important for the success of your flower business, the only way to grow your flower business is with reviews, and the best way to combat negative online reviews is with positive reviews.

With some florists now entering their slower months of the year, now is a great time to start building a strategy for garnering more online customers reviews.

Image via Shutterstock

1. Offer Discounts for Floral Reviews

The power of a discount, don’t believe me, try it for your self. The task can be as simple as adding a notice on your counter or florist website. The sign can say something along the lines of, “Google & Yelp On-the-Spot Reviews get $5 off.” If you really need the reviews, offer a $10 discount. Remember, this is all part of marketing and can be written off.

Good to Know: While at a big box home store, at the end of the sale I was invited to leave my cashier an online review for a chance to win $500 gift card. Although the chances I would win this gift card were slim, it did encourage me to leave a review and the store only foots the bill for a single gift card.

Image via Shutterstock

2. Be Direct—Request a Review!

While we’re thankful for the customers that give us positive online reviews without asking, let’s face it—most of the time customers are not privy to online reviews or aware of the impact they have, therefore we must be direct and simply ask.

• Ask customers after a sale, either by phone or in person
• Be sure to ask customers on your floral website
• Email customers with a link to review your flower shop with website order confirmation
• Be blunt and post links on social media to your review pages asking for reviews

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3. Make Leaving a Floral Review Easy and Accessible

We all think customers know how to leave reviews online, the fact is that some do and most don’t or rather not take so much effort. Make the process for reviewing your floral business easy and we mean as easy as ultimately possible.

• Have a direct link on your website to your review page; the home page is great, however using this link on multiple pages improves visibility
• Have an iPad or another device at your counter with your review page open and ready for action
• Send monthly or quarterly emails to your customers to review you with a direct link to your review page
• Add your social media address to your business cards—make sure your social media has all the appropriate links to your review pages

Image via Shutterstock

4. Be Responsive When You Get a Floral Review

When getting reviews—good or bad—you must respond either with a grateful “thank you,” or with your version of the story. Nothing entices customers to leave a review more than when they see the business is acknowledging your interactions. Feeling they got the owner’s attention and feedback can be very gratifying to customers.

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Some Ways Reviews Help Your Floral Business Thrive

• High SEO impact, making your brand stand out from competitors on search engines
• Reviews can show on online search engines lists raising your placement
• Influences consumers into making a purchase
• Offers business credibility

Getting a Bad Review

This all said, we don’t want you to dwell on the occasional negative review. Yes, they can be annoying and even flat-out untrue, however having a good balance actually ranks your brand best. The key is a few poor reviews, with appropriate non-defensive response with good reviews, makes your business look legitimate, and also shows you care enough to respond and ultimately that is what customers want to see. Click here to learn more about the ways bad reviews can be helpful.

 

For florists who would never think of asking for reviews, it good to start building reviews into your everyday business tactics, just like asking a customer if they would like an add-on or upgrade. We cannot emphasize enough how important these are in building your online reputation and brand.

Florists, do you have any advice or questions regarding online customer reviews? Please share your feedback, tips, or questions in the comment section below.

Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

“Help, someone left me a bad review online!”

So what do you do? First, remember that any business on Yelp, Facebook, or Google may get an occasional bad review. It’s unreasonable for a florist to expect a perfect 5-star review every time. And sometimes a less-than-perfect review can actually be helpful to your floral business!

But even so, there are a few important steps you should take whenever you receive a poor review online.

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Bad Reviews Can Be Helpful!

Let’s touch on this briefly—unless all your business reviews are bad, a couple bad reviews can actually make your good reviews stand out and look better. It also shows customers that your reviews are real and creates a sense of authenticity.

And of course, a few poor reviews next to many positive ones are not going to deter customers—many shoppers are perfectly comfortable viewing a couple negative reviews as outliers.

Image via pexels.com

How Should You Respond if Your Flower Shop Gets a Bad Review?

No one is perfect or can be perfect all the time, especially in business when sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. There may have been miscommunication with the customer, late delivery, etc.

One course of action you should avoid is reaching out to the site itself (Google, Yelp, etc.) to ask that they remove a bad review. The ethics of this are questionable and it is almost always unsuccessful. Unless you know the review to be fraudulent or meant for another shop, we do not recommend this approach.

1. Respond to the Review

Regardless if the bad review is authentic you need to respond ASAP. Customers and readers (potential customers) want to see that a negative review did not go unaddressed.

2. Weigh Your Response

It is important to formulate your responses appropriately. You don’t need to offer a full refund in the poor review response, but be sure to read the review and determine the reason for the bad review—is the customer incorrect? Was there miscommunication between you? Was it simply an error on your part?

When communicating with the reviewing customer, consider the points below:

• Don’t be defensive
• Acknowledge the issue
• Protect your brand
• Highlight the positive aspects of your business in your response

If there was poor communication before, this could be an opportunity to make things right.

3. Offer a Resolution Offline

Always offer a resolution offline. There are many possible resolutions to a customer’s issue that can win them back for the long term. In your response, be sure to list contact information to continue the discussion privately. Below is a quick example:

Hi-

I’m the manager/owner of XYZ Flower Shop. We pride ourselves on maintaining the highest quality standards for our customers. We hope you will give us an opportunity to discuss this further. You can reach us at (235)867-5309 or email us at info@xyzflowershop. We hope to resolve this to your benefit and earn you back as a customer.

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4. Don’t Beat Yourself Up

No business owner is invulnerable to bad reviews. The most important thing is to learn something from a bad review and move forward. Florists often take a bad review very personally and should not. Use a bad review to improve your business.

And remember that the online review game isn’t just about waiting for good reviews and fending off bad ones: always encourage satisfied customers to review you. For better or for worse, reviews are often read by online shoppers, so they aren’t going away.

Florists, how have bad reviews affected your floral business? How have you resolved a bad review? Please share your feedback and questions in the comment section below.

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Search History/Google Accounts

Google will harvest as much information as it can. Any content you view in-browser will be cached and may inform your first results, which means sites you visit frequently will show up on top of your SERP.

Any Google accounts you’re logged into—Gmail, Google+, Youtube, etc.—may also affect your SERPs as Google will use this data to bring up search results.

Geographic Location

Did you know all websites you visit can tell where you are located, thanks to your IP address? Search results consistent with your location will most likely be given top priority. Your location information is stored in a cookie in your browser, and this information will factor into all your Google searches. (Cookies are little files stored on your computer that hold information specific to you, like saved passwords.)

Keyword Search

When searching on Google it is important to be consistent with your keywords, however there can still be some slight variation considering the number of search options on Google from content, video, and images. Any minor change in search terms could change your SERP completely.

Google Ads

We all have seen the Google Ads in SERPs, these are pay-per-click ads that can appear on the upper, side or lower page of Google search page. As the position of these ads changes on different devices, it could also affect your SERP results.

Google Data Centers

Every time users do a search on Google, there are data centers across the nation working to process the search result. Google search will gather results from the Google data center that is nearest to the user’s location. Although Google data centers do not affect your floral website search results that often, there may at times be differences in SERP depending on location in between updates.

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So What Are We to Make of All This?

With so many moving pieces, is it even possible to get accurate search engines results? The answer is mostly yes, but sometimes no. Your floral website results should not vary that much from device to device, though fluctuating between a few stops is perfectly normal.

Checking your search engine results daily is not recommended for the many reasons explained above. Google will rank you according to the quality of your website, so make sure you update regularly and work on getting your results organically high on SERPs regardless of the minor fluctuations.

• Engage with social media
• Use backlinks
• Encourage your customers to leave reviews
• Consistently write blog posts
• Update products and content on your website

Image via Shutterstock

How do I see Accurate Results?

The word accurate is used loosely here—remember, the goal is to have a website rich with quality keywords, links, and content. Although search results can be the same for most, they will be slightly different for some. If you want to check your floral website results you can do the following:

• Use a different browser besides the one you use daily
• Go “incognito” on Google Chrome (hold Ctrl + Shift + N)
  • Note: Incognito mode may still draw on location information
• Log out of all your Google accounts, clear your browser cache, cookies, and history
  • Note: This will delete any stored passwords you may have!

In conclusion, there is no magic wand to prevent Googles algorithms from affecting your floral website results, but the most important thing is to be vigilant and give Google what it wants to see. There is no way any of us can control what cookies and history are stored on other users’ devices, however keeping a quality website is more important to raise your organic rankings.

 An easy way to get the most out of your eCommerce sales.

No question that in this day and age every florist who offers everyday retail must have an eCommerce (commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet) website.

In this blog, let’s talk about floral websites best practices, ways of improving SEO (search engine optimization), content, user friendliness, and some other vital information on maximizing your eCommerce website.

image via pexels.com

Domain Name 

If you already have a domain name that has been on the internet or continues to be, please DO NOT change it! Domain names carry valuable SEO, so changing your domain name will have you starting from scratch in building up your SEO.

For those of you who do not yet have a domain name here are important tips on selecting the right domain.

• Use proper keywords in your domain, if you are a flower business, then without a doubt, you must use a keyword specific to your business. For example, flowers, floral, and florist.

• Once you have picked your domain name (flowershop.com) please make sure this is a vital domain name which was never linked to any unpromising business practices in the past. You may check this on domainhistory.net.
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Floral Website Appearance

We understand the sensitivity of this topic, however, it is a very important to go over your florist website appearance.  Regardless if your SEO is top ranking, if your floral website is not appealing to a multitude of customers you will lose valuable sales.

• Design: Be very careful when selecting colors and backgrounds, especially trendy backgrounds with patterns. These can turn off potential customers from shopping on your eCommerce.

• Products: Pay special attention to your product images, they should all look consistent, not overly large, or mismatched.

• Logo: Your logo should be big enough to read but not so big it takes half your home page. A clean simple logo always works best than a specific style that may not be appealing to a large demographic of visitors.

Best Practices for Floral Website Appearance

• Neutral background –  (white or black) Check out some other eCommerce websites and you will see a trend in white backgrounds with some black. These companies can spend millions on the appearance of their eCommerce websites and still choose to keep it simple with a neutral background.

• Fonts – All fonts should all be consistent and not overly mismatched. Fonts should also be large enough to read and understand.

• Mobile Friendly website –  A responsive website will allow customers who are on any other devices (tablet, iPad or mobile) a better shopping experience.  Besides this very important reason, Google search engines as of April 2015, is using websites who are mobile friendly as a ranking signal.

• Specific florist content – Having lots of specific content on your website allows for more keywords.  Keywords are high for indexing and ranking your florist website by increasing your SEO. Write a hefty “About Us” and wording for each page.

• Contact information – Your address should be clear and visible on the homepage, we like to see it listed on top (header) of the home page and also below (footer). You should still have a “Contact Us ” page with your address, business phone number, map, and email options.

• No rotating images or videos on your homepage – Reframe from using quick rotating banners, images or videos on your home page. This can be really confusing to your shopper and actually altogether make them click out of your floral website. While researching floral eCommerce, we found out that the websites who had no moving images, banners or videos on the home page had a tremendously better bounce rate and higher sales.
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Floral Website Content, SEO & Tags

If you are working with a floral website hosting company then most of these important functions should be already implemented on your eCommerce website.  In the chance that they are not, we want you to be super informed on these floral websites must haves for SEO.

• Add-Ons & Upgrades: All products should offer customers upgrading options and add-ons. Adding these two simple elements to your floral website can have a huge impact on your profits.

• Header Tags: Headers tags (H1 ) highest level of tags are valuable in SEO, as it sums up what your website is about. Writing a correct H1 tag is essential and should be done by your website provider.  H1 tags greatly improve your search engine rankings.

• Wedding /Event Gallery: If you do wedding and event flowers, it is a great idea to showcase your beautiful work in an image gallery on your website. These are very successful with customers, spending loads of time admiring your selections, which also increases your SEO.
  • Make sure customers can clearly see an option to contact you for a consolation.
  • Write a short bio on your Wedding/Event flowers page. It is perfectly OK to be conceded.(be sure to include specific keywords such as wedding, event, locations and so on)

• Website Footer: Your floral website footer is very important! The footer contains loads of information and valuable keywords which rank really well for your overall SEO. Make sure your floral eCommerce has a footer with a clear title descriptions and locations where services are provided.  Below are footer website must haves.
  • Terms of Service, Privacy Policy
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us
  • Business Address
  • Local Pages

• Local Pages: Offering great placement for SEO, local pages allows you to add multiple locations and businesses you provide services to on a designated page on your website. Rather than just placing high for your location, you may add various locations to also rank for those areas. You can also add hospitals, funeral homes, venues, schools, and many more to rank for these business keywords.
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Floral Website Marketing

There are countless ways of marketing for your florist website, below we will explore some options that have proven successful getting customers to purchase on your eCommerce site.

• Offer Promotions & Coupons:  Shoppers love deals, offer coupon codes periodically on your floral website for percentages off a total shopping cart. Set an amount that customers must spend in order to get the percentage off, free delivery is also a great selling option. Promotions are great to offer on specific items, for instances a percentage off on roses.

• Give It For Free: If you are new to the eCommerce website a great way to have customers buzzing about your floral website is to offer something for Free. We understand you cannot give it all for free, how about a raffle or the first customers who email you from your website can get a free arrangement.
  • This keeps customers clicking on your website, building your SEO.
  • You can post the winner on your social media, which creates conversations and likes, which also increases your visibility.

These are some easy ways to get the most out of your eCommerce site. Florists,  let’s hear your feedback! Do you have any important website design functions that have been successful? Please share all your feedback, tips or any floral website related questions you would like addressed below.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Your florist website is a big part of your flower business. WHERE are people coming from, HOW did they find you and WHAT they are looking at.  It’s easy to see when you use Google’s free tool, Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the free resource from Google that lets you analyze who, what and where potential customers are coming from to your florist website and how you can better market to them by using this information.

WHERE are the people coming from to your florist website?

Acquisition is the section to find out WHERE are the people coming from and HOW they found your florist website.

Here are the different sections under that tab…

The Overview section is a great place to get a birds-eye view of where the potential customer is finding your floral website.  You will find different sections that will let you see how you are being found.

• Organic search is how many potential customers type in a search word in one of the search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo and find you.

• Direct is when the customer types in your website directly.

• Referral is how many times a different site referred you to the customer.  This is why building links with other sites like other businesses are important.

• Social is how many people arrive via social media.

• Email is a direct link from your email campaigns so you can see how many click-thru to your site

Next go under Acquisition to the Channel tab. Here is where you can see a bit more information into each of the groupings in the Overview. You will be able to see the percentage of new visits to the site and how many pages were visited for each of the different sections. You will also be able to see the bounce rate which is the percentage of people who only looked at the page they landed on and didn’t click further.  Which section is higher for any of these columns?  Which one needs works?  If you get a large bounce rate, do you need a better landing page so viewers want to look further?  How many pages did visitors look at?  Which section looked at the most or the least?

An example of your Channel report might look like this…

As you click on more of the tabs under Acquisition you will be able to find out which social media avenues worked the best under the Social Media tab. Have you been promoting on Facebook heavily? It should show. How is the new Pinterest page doing for click-thru to your florist website?  They will all show.

Check under the keywords tab to see what keywords your visitors are finding you by.  Are those what you thought  your potential customers are using to search with.  Also where is your traffic originating…is it with Google? Bing? Facebook?  If you are advertising on Google or Facebook, are you getting your money’s worth in traffic?  Are these people staying on your site and clicking on more than one page or are they leaving quickly?

The Acquisition tab is an excellent resource for pinpointing where and how your customers have gotten to your floral website.  It will help you see where your marketing is working in bringing in visitors and where you need additional help.

WHAT pages are your customers looking at on your flower shop’s website?

The Behavior tab or WHAT did your flower customers look at is next.  Here is where you get the low-down on what pages were viewed the most, which pages were the landing page – or the first page the visitor came to from their search.  It is an excellent section to see which of your florist website pages are working and which ones aren’t.

Here is a list of what sections are under the tab…

One tab that I just love is the In-Page Analytics. This shows you how your visitors interact with the content on your florist website. With Google In-Page Analytics, Google will add the percentage to each link on your page and display how many visitors are clicking through. It will help answer the questions…Is one menu item more popular than others? Does anyone actually scroll down and read below the fold? Which designs do more people click on? Are they interested in my wedding tab or seasonal designs? You will be able to find out a lot of pertinent information here and it is really interesting to see what potential customers are clicking on.

After looking at the Acquisition and Behavior tabs, if you do not have Google Analytics, you know you have to sign up now!  It is the best, free informative way to find out the WHO, WHAT, WHERE  and HOW of the relationship of your visitors and your florist website. And THIS is just the tip of the iceberg on what you can find on Google Analytics!

Get started today, start earning more from your flower shop website!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Google Ads are one of the keys to building your florist website business. No one should be running an online flower shop without a Google Adwords campaign. But how to get started?

First what are Google Adwords. Simply put, Google lets you bid on search terms like “florist” or “florist in San Francisco.” You can choose to put a text ad alongside these terms. Google lets advertisers bid on ads, and puts the most-clicked and best content sites at the top.

Here are some pointers for how to build a successful advertising campaign. Make sure to approach this as a trial and error exercise at the beginning. It will take some time to get the formula just right!

1. Location Specific Keywords – Choose your domain names carefully. Don’t waste your time on the keyword “florist”. You’re competing against the big guys who can outspend you. Instead, go for “Akron Florist” or “Akron best florist”. Make sure to use whatever keywords you choose in your ad!

2. Track your conversions using Google Analytics – know if your advertising is generating profits for you. Google Analytics enables you to see which of your orders came directly from a Google ad.

3. Deep Linking – Link some of your ads to specific sub pages rather than your front page. For example, link a ad for funeral flowers to your funeral page, link your weddings ad to a wedding page, etc.

4. Domain Names – Google will give your ad a quality score based on the content on your page and the domain name. Your ad will do better if your keywords are in your domain name. For exmaple, if your keywords are “Akron florist” and your website is www.johnsflorist.com, it will do less well (and you will get fewer clicks) than if your website is www.akronflorist.com.

Have a bad domain name? Don’t worry! You can buy additional domains and set up domain forwarding to your primary website. Examples of good keywords/domain name pairs are: Akron funeral florist/akronfuneralflorist.com, Akron best florist/akronbestflorist.com, Akron gift baskets/akrongiftbaskets.com, Akron cheap florist/akroncheapflorist.com, Akron best flower shop/akronbestflowershop.com — these domain names will only help your organic search a bit, but they will give a boost to your google adwords conversion.

Ultimately, Google strategy will only get you so far – customers are shopping around online and are very choosey. Average flower purchases online are under $40. So if your front page is filled with $100 arrangements, you may turn off the majority of customers that are looking for value. Make sure your front page has $30, $35, $40 arrangements right on the front page.

In sum, adwords are the key to making money online. Don’t think of it as a nice to have — adwords are an essential part of making money through your florist website. The great thing is that Google makes it easy for a small florist to compete with big companies with big budgets.

Limited time offer – sign up for Floranext website or POS and get $75 in free Google Adwords. Contact us for a free demo! 

Want $75 in free Google Adwords. Get it when you sign up for one of florist website or point of sale packages