Plugins And Apps Won’t Save Your Website

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I wanted to put out this PSA, because I see this on a near-weekly basis – both in the blogging space, and the eCommerce space.

Many bloggers have been sold the lie that if they put out “great content” and work hard, people will magically find it, they will amass an audience of raving fans, and you’ll be able to retire to a life of luxury.

The same thing happens in eCommerce. Launch a Shopify store, put some products up, and the sales will roll in.

Of course, it doesn’t take very long to discover that things aren’t so simple.

So, you may find yourself asking, what gives? Where is everybody? Where’s the money?

Here’s The Real Problem

9 out of 10 times if the product (content) is good, the answer comes down to marketing strategy.

Marketing is hard. You are competing with thousands of other brands for the attention of your target consumer.

Some of these people have an exceptional set of skills, a lot of money, or both.

The issue that I see, especially with beginners, is they fail to understand this. They don’t realize that the issue isn’t with their website or their product, but the fact that they do not have a complete marketing strategy in place that can effectively move people through your funnel, eventually resulting in revenue.

Instead, they focus on things that for the most part, won’t do a whole lot for them. Things like plugins, themes, or software.

The truth is this. While some of these can help out in various ways and make a little bit of a difference, they only matter if you have people coming to your website in the first place.

There is no plugin or theme that will magically bring people to your website. There is no theme that will take a site that is nowhere to be found in Google, and bring it to the top of search results. There are no plugins that will force non-interested visitors to purchase your product.

This simply doesn’t happen, and will never happen – regardless of what gurus will tell you, or how much you spend on the product.

Are there plugins that help with on-page SEO, increasing social shares, conversions improving bounce rate, etc?

Of course. But these are marginal.

If you are pulling in 100 sales a day, 5% more conversions is significant. That’s an extra 5 sales a day, or 150 sales a month. It’s worth paying a good price for a plugin that can bring in 150 extra sales a month.

However, if you’re making 0 sales, that same plugin will not magically start selling products for you.

Change Your Focus

Plugins, apps, themes, software – these are not where entrepreneurs should be focusing their time.

Expensive plugins or equipment are not worth it until your revenue justifies the cost.

Instead, focus on bringing more people to your website. Unless your product or content is absolutely abysmal, somebody will convert at some point.

Then, you can use the data from all of your visitors to pinpoint problems, and find out what’s working.

You’ll be able to optimize, and learn what problems actually need addressing – as well as what types of people become buyers or leads.

Searching for plugins gives you a false sense of belief that if you just find the right one, all of your problems will be solved and you can ignore the fundamental problems plaguing your business.

It just doesn’t work.

Conclusion

Are plugins and themes important? Absolutely.

However, you’ll do much better if you install the fundamentals, tweak a design to your liking, and get moving forward on actually promoting your business.

When you stop focusing on things that don’t matter and throw your energy into what actually brings the bulk of your business results, your business will grow much more quickly.

You’ll thank me later!

To your success,

– James McAllister