There is a list of do and don’t when it comes to building a website or redoing an existing one. But have you ever thought about how these decisions can affect your online marketing? This post is intended for the decision makers of businesses, those who might have so many things on their plate that sometimes the obvious questions get skipped over.

One specific I’d like to bring up is the process of picking a shopping cart. In the past couple of months, we have come across shopping carts that do not host 3^rd party analytics or at least the shopping cart customer service says this. Meaning the shopping cart will not support the analytics to track your online marketing efforts such as PPC, Organic Search, and Email Blasts.

But if your website is dependent upon ppc marketing, email blasts, organic rankings, banner ads, etc it is even more imperative to keep track of these channels. The great advantage to online marketing is the ability to track your leads or sales.

Okay, I know most of you already know this and the importance of tracking so I’ll get to the point. For those in the position to make the final decisions…you may want to ask the shopping cart vendor if they’ll support 3^rd party tracking from the get go. Below is a quick check off list to help you on your way.

1.       Do you support 3^rd party tracking?

2.       Who will or is allowed to implement the tracking?

3.       Is there additional cost if the shopping cart vendor installs the tracking?

Analytics, Shopping Cart, tracking