2019 Top 25: Our Most Popular Posts of the Year

We’ve published roughly 500 articles in 2019. What follows is our annual list of the 25 most popular based on the number of page views.

Articles related to search engine optimization remain, collectively, the most read. Other leading topics include Google Ads, social media, content marketing, analytics and data, Amazon, and platform and infrastructure issues.

It’s worth noting that many of our articles identify early trends or practices that eventually gain wider traction. Those pieces may not be popular initially. But come 2020 or 2021 they could be.

Remember, too, that articles published earlier in the year are more likely to be on the list than later ones.

None of the articles are possible without our talented contributors, all seasoned ecommerce pros. Heading into our 15th year, we are honored to publish their work.

Top 25 in 2019

175 Free Responsive Email Templates

Whether it’s publishing a newsletter or following up on transactions, your company’s email communications should render well on all devices. There are many responsive email templates that can help. Read more…

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12 Apps for Creating Instagram Stories

Using Instagram Stories, businesses can attract followers with dynamic product and brand content. There are a variety of tools to help. Here is a list of tools for creating Instagram Stories. Read more…

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10 Impressive Social Media Campaigns from Brands in 2019

Social media campaigns from established brands can generate ideas and strategies for your own marketing efforts. Here is a list of recent social media campaigns from large brands. Read more…

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13 Instagram Accounts for UX, UI Design

Instagram is a good place to find inspiration and insight on web design. The visual platform is full of user-experience and user-interface designers sharing their work, design process, resources, questions and answers, and endless inspirational images. Read more…

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13 Free Open-source Content Management Systems

Here is a list of open-source content management systems. Many have large developer communities that provide platform updates and thousands of themes and extensions. All of the systems are free… Read more…

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SEO: Google Launches Algorithm Update to Little Notice

Once or twice a year Google releases a broad core algorithm update. The March 12 update, called Florida 2, was typical: unannounced. Google acknowledged it only after industry leaders reached out with questions… Read articles…

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Using Excel to Forecast Sales, Expenses, More

Forecasting sales is useful for many reasons, such as inventory management, investor relations, and setting expense and marketing budgets. In this post, I’ll explain how to generate forecasts using Microsoft Excel. Read more…

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Amazon Posts Stellar 2018 Financial Results; 2019 Not as Bright

Amazon reported its 2018 fiscal year and fourth-quarter financial results on January 31. As expected, the company surpassed last year’s results. Amazon is cautious in its 2019 guidance, however. Read more…

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6 Leading Ecommerce Business Models Explained

C2C ecommerce can and does look an awful lot like regular business-to-consumer ecommerce or even B2C sales generally. In this article, I will briefly explain six ecommerce business models, including B2C and C2C. Read more…

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Sales Report: 2019 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday

Adverse weather conditions in many regions and the ease of ordering via mobile devices contributed to record-setting U.S. digital sales for the 2019 Thanksgiving weekend. This is my fifth annual “Sales Report” for Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. Read more…

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7 SEO ‘Rules’ to Ignore for Ecommerce

Search engine optimization tools have evolved into measuring hundreds of variables. But not all of them impact performance in my experience. What follows are seven common SEO metrics to ignore or relegate to a glance. Read more…

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SEO: Free Keyword Research in 3 Steps

There are many expensive tools that claim to simplify and speed up the keyword research process. If you don’t have thousands of dollars in your budget, however, there’s always the old-school, free method. Read more…

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3 Predictions for the 2019 Holiday Shopping Season

Many trends will emerge from the 2019 Christmas shopping season, but I believe three will be prominent. First, click-and-collect may encourage shoppers to wait for last-minute deals and convenience. Read more…

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The Growing Problem of Customer Returns

The rate of customer returns for goods bought online is swelling to a worrisome level as more consumers switch from physical stores to online. The cost to online retailers is substantial. According to research firm Statista… Read more…

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7 Reasons to Consider a Headless CMS

There are many reasons for a business to consider a headless content management system. Among them are a need to use content in multiple channels, a desire for improved customization, and relief from a cluttered, conventional platform. Read more…

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Say Goodbye to ‘Average Position’ Metric in Google Ads

Last year Google Ads finally transitioned all advertisers to its new interface. There were many changes. One was that “Average Position” no longer appeared in a column by default. It was an annoyance… Read more…

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Online Marijuana Sales a Burgeoning Market in North America

The North American ecommerce market for marijuana products is gaining momentum. However, a number of obstacles will impede online sales of cannabis products at least for the next few years. Read more…

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SEO: Google’s BERT Update Helps Ecommerce Product Pages

Google’s BERT algorithm, released last week, is the company’s latest effort to understand the intent of search queries. For ecommerce sites, the unique details on product pages could now drive more organic search traffic… Read more…

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7 Coding Barriers to SEO Success

It’s natural to assume that everything humans see on a website is accessible to search engines. But that’s not the case. What follows are seven items that block Googlebot and other search engine bots from crawling (and indexing)… Read more…

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Amazon Business Is Winning. Here’s Why

After only four years, Amazon Business hit $10 billion in sales in 2018. In this article, I will address what B2B sellers can learn from Amazon Business — and how Amazon Business impacts them. Read more…

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5 Content Marketing Ideas for February 2019

Want to increase site traffic and engage potential customers in February 2019? Consider creating articles, videos, and podcasts that entertain, inform, and just plain help out. Read more…

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7 Gaps in Google Analytics That Require Additional Tools

Google Analytics is a powerful, free web analytics platform. However, it has gaps that are better served by other tools. I’ll address those gaps and tools in this post. Read more…

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SEO: 9 Tips for Writing Great Content

If creating articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and other textual content strikes fear into your heart, try some of these tips to make writing easier, more engaging, and more optimal for natural search performance. Read more…

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Use HTML Caching to Increase Page Speed

Heavy traffic to a website can result in performance problems, slower page speed, and fewer conversions. In this article, I’ll share a simple process to speed up page loads. The idea is to cache not just images and scripts… Read more…

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6 Types of Content That Help SEO (and Shoppers)

Modern search engine optimization relies on providing valuable content that improves a site’s customer experience. The six sites below prove that any ecommerce site can create valuable content that appeals both to shoppers… Read more…