It is amazing how somebody’s opinion can change due to the smallest factor. In online business, that would be customer service through a virtual assistant. Customer service can literally make or break an online business venture. It can set you apart from other businesses of a similar nature, and make you really stand out from the crowd, in a positive or negative light. It has the potential to really build a trust-based relationship with your readers, customers and those who are ‘on the fence.’

What is Customer Service?

Think about these points, carefully for a second. Let’s say that the reader signs up to join your affiliate program or to receive a newsletter. A number of days pass and they haven’t received any notification, information or confirmation. That reader decides to withdraw their request because you have become “persona non grata.”

It is important, to say the least, to follow through on the offers you make to readers and customers alike. This is why they came to you first. You have to follow through and this will help to formulate their decision to stay, so it goes without saying that this action is very important, if you are to succeed.

Imagine if you were in a store, you wouldn’t want to wait aimlessly without somebody helping you. The moment that you have to ask for help, the point has been passed. It is the primary function of the business owner to be available, in case help is needed.

How Good Customer Service is Provided

Now, of course it would be totally unrealistic to think that you will sit at your computer 24/7 waiting for a reader to ask a random question. What you can do however is put processes in place so that someone, such as a virtual assistant, or something automatic for that matter, is there 24/7 to be available for any eventuality.

Here are some suggestions:

• Messages sent via autoresponder
• Scheduled delivery of newsletters
• FAQ page that is always updated
• User-friendly tabs, site map and links to get around the website with ease
• An answering service
• Virtual assistant

It’s important that when you aren’t available personally, your customers and readers are catered for. As an example, when you have an affiliate program, the information or links should be sufficient to educate the readers and to tell them how they can go about signing up. The sign-up form should only include a request for the information that you really need, so they are as easy as possible to fill in.

When you have time, go through your email messages for those whose questions didn’t fit one of the recorded categories on your “Contact Us” page. The auto-responder message for them gives you an additional 24 to get back to the reader with the information requested.

Any expert virtual assistant will tell you that prompt service tells people that you are seriously concerned about their business. You value their input and want to keep them very happy. In business, customer service is such an important part of creating a lengthy relationship with your readers and you should make sure that you attend to it at all times, as you could be sacrificing a potentially great online investment otherwise.

Your online business is not all about content. While content is still king when it comes to providing useful information, it’s just one aspect that can be optimised on your site. Everyone talks about keyword optimisation within your content and therefore some believe it is the only important part of optimisation.

That is what we are really talking about here – website development optimisation. Don’t just focus on the content. The search engine robots will be looking for keywords throughout the page, not just within the content. Let’s take a look at other options for tricking out that website and making it sell itself.

A website can be more than just your window into the cyber world. It’s your base of operations and can also be a source of rich information about your business. Use site stats to help you improve how you run your business.

What To Look For:

A number of different statistics can help you improve the way that search engines look at your site. Each one can tell you something useful about how your business is currently doing.

1. Page views – Do you know many people look at each individual page? You can check page views on a monthly basis to see what portion of your website development is the most popular. You might find that certain pages are more popular during certain months due to seasonal offers. Find out which items you should drop and which you should focus on.

2. Unique visitors – You need to find out whether the visitors you get each day are brand-new visitors or repeats. Unique visitors are visiting for the first time. The more unique visits you get the more potential customers you are coming in contact with.

3. Links – For example, outbound links. If you have the right software setup, you can check to see if, for example, somebody clicks on your Stumbleupon icon to bookmark one of your best blog posts. Any ads you post can also be tracked to see who clicks them. Programs like Google AdWords will track those stats for you so you can get paid.

4. Sales – You can track how well your shopping cart does each month. See when sales go down or up and see how many people used the shopping cart but didn’t make the sale. Compare statistics to track product buying trends to predict future sales.

5. Keyword analysis – Analyse one or two keywords per page. By looking at page views you can analyse how well your keywords are working. By using a different page for individual keywords, you can deduce which ones are not working for you, and which are, and change tactics accordingly.

Google Analytics is a great program that does not cost anything and can help you measure many website statistics. With so much information, you can dominate your niche if you’re willing to invest the time and effort.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an accomplished Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps companies of all sizes reach their commercial targets. Want to get more information about online business building success strategies that really work? Contact VMF today!

To improve your website development and its ranking, you must focus on linking, but it’s not easy to achieve. When people get to know you and your business, hopefully they will want to link to your website. To help these people along, give them some really great content they just can’t resist.

Inbound Links.

Your website is your home in cyberspace. When people find out how great you and your products are, they will let others know about you too. The act of linking to your website development is one way for them to do this. It is also called a back link. This back link is a link to your site on their website or blog.

You will find two different kinds of inbound links – reciprocal and organic. Reciprocal links are those that you get when you agree to swap links with another site. Example, this could be an agreement you have with your friend. While this type of link is all well and good, it will not help you much in the search rankings.

Always look at the quality of the site that you are considering. They may offer to swap links with you, but if the site is not optimised, reputable and/or well-presented, it can backfire. In the worst case, the search engines can give you poor marks and it’s not advisable to pay for links, either. After you have worked so hard on your website, day in and day out, you don’t want it to go to waste by trying to take a short cut, when you know better to begin with.

Organic links come from those who are not asked to link to you. This could be through your first-class marketing campaign for example and may signify that they want others to know about your existence. These links are rated higher by search engines. In the beginning, this is difficult to achieve but through perseverance and good efforts with your online marketing, you may be quite surprised at what will eventually happen to your online business!

Obtaining Links.

How do you get the desired links?

* Use content. Writing content that’s optimised for keywords in your niche can rank high. Others will click on you first. Sites within your niche that are trying for those higher spots will check you out to see why they can’t knock you off the top.

* Establish expert status. Post content to article directories. Guest on other blogs. If you are found in other places it will markedly increase your credibility. People like to be associated with experts.

* Look for blogs in your target market and make sure you comment within them. Be seen where your potential customers are. Give sound advice and add a link to your website. Pretty soon these people may become loyal readers who will link from their blogs to your website.

Use your content to help build quality links. The combination can lead to increased traffic and subsequently more sales.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a highly-qualified Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps businesses and individuals accomplish every detail of their professional aspirations. Want to discover more about these insightful online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Today!

Your online business is not all about content. While content is still king when it comes to providing useful information, it’s just one aspect that can be optimised on your site. So much has been written about keyword optimisation in content that some might wrongly believe it is the only important part of website optimisation.

Remember we are talking about complete website development optimisation. Don’t just focus on the content. Search engine bots will crawl the entire page for keywords, not just your content. Let’s take a look at other options for tricking out that website and making it sell itself.

A website can be more than just your window into the cyber world. It is your operational base and should give a lot of data about your organisation. Use site stats to help you improve how you run your business.

What You Should Look For:

A number of different statistics can help you improve the way that search engines look at your site. Each one can tell you something useful about how your business is currently doing.

1. Page views – How many people look at each page of your website? You can check page views on a monthly basis to see what portion of your website development is the most popular. Maybe certain pages are more popular at different times of the year due to seasonal product offerings. Find out which items you should drop and which you should focus on.

2. Unique visitors – Your site may get many visitors each day, but they could be the same person coming back more than once. Unique visitors are visiting for the first time. The more unique visits you get the more potential customers you are coming in contact with.

3. Links – These can be outgoing links. If you have the right software setup, you can check to see if, for example, somebody clicks on your Stumbleupon icon to bookmark one of your best blog posts. Posted ads can also be analysed to see who clicks them. If you use Google AdWords, your stats can be tracked enabling you to receive money.

4. Sales – You can track how well your shopping cart does each month. See when sales go down or up and see how many people used the shopping cart but didn’t make the sale. To help you predict the future of your business, compare statistics appropriately and identify buying trends.

5. Keyword analysis – Each page can be dedicated to one or two keywords. By looking at page views you can analyse how well your keywords are working. By using a different page for individual keywords, you can deduce which ones are not working for you, and which are, and change tactics accordingly.

Google Analytics is a free program that you can use to measure these and other website stats. With so much information, you can dominate your niche if you’re willing to invest the time and effort.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting-edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!