Google Display Ads vs Search Ads

Posted on May 28, 2024February 25, 2025 by spectrum-admin

Google Search Ads vs Display Ads

It can be intimidating when it comes to choosing what kinds of ads to run for your business. Many questions may arise, like, “What is the difference between the Google Ad types?”, “Which one is best for my business?”, and “When should I use which ad type?”

First, lets start by understanding the difference between the two types of Google Ads.

There are two different types of Google Ads, Display Ads and Search Ads.

The main difference between Display Ads and Search Ads is that the Search Ads are only shown to people who are looking for, or have already searched for, you or your products.

Display ads are a bit different, as they focus more on push advertising. These ads are placed on a website to try and pull people in based on different user parameters.

Before we get deeper into the differences, let’s take a little time to focus on what a Google display ad is and what a Google search ad is.

What Is a Google Display Ad

A Google display ad is a form of asset-based ad, meaning that they are made up of different assets like a headline, image, logo, or a description. Once you have made your ad, Google will take all of the assets portions you created and their AI will rearrange them and put them all over the web, constantly making changes to the design and order for optimal performance.

Display ads are the different advertising that you see on websites, specifically like the side banners ads. These are display ads, but not all of them are Google display ads.

What Are Google Search Ads?

Google Search Ads are a little different than Google display ads. Google search ads don’t show up on different web pages, they only show up in the SERPs. These look almost exactly like the search results that organically show up.

The way to get higher up the page with your ads is by participating in PPC bidding. PPC bidding is a virtual auction where you can bid on keywords and phrases that will make you appear higher in the SERP. This means that the more you spend per click the more likely you are to get your ads higher on the SERPs page. Now this isn’t always the case. For example, if you just made a company called Joe’s Shoe Depot and you are competing with Nike for the search term best running shoes it is going to be much harder for you to outbid Nike.

This isn’t because Nike will outbid you. It is because Google knows that Nike is a much larger brand and people are more likely to click on there link over yours, so they will let Nike win the top spot with a lower bid because they will make Google more money because even at the lower bid they have a higher gross spend.

Search ads can be a tremendous value to your marketing strategy. You can bid on targeted keywords, so you know that you are only showing yourself to others who are interested in what you have to offer. Let’s not forget the other benefit that you are only spending money when people click on your link.

Which Ad Type Should I Use?

Now that we all have a firm grasp on what the different ad types are, we should talk about when you should use one ad over the other.

When Should I Use Display Ads?

We would recommend that you use Google display ads over trying to do your own display ads. This is because Google makes it easier to set up, and you don’t have to directly deal with websites.

The best time to use display ads is in a situation where you are trying to find people who aren’t looking for you.

A great example of this would be you if you sold laundry soap and you are advertising on a news website. Laundry soap is a well needed product, by being on a news website, you may remind people of their need for laundry soap, leading them to possibly purchase from you.

When Should I Use Search Ads

As we talked about, search ads show up in the SERPs right alongside the organic search results. But when should we use search ads?

We would recommend that you use search ads when you are looking to market to a specific group of people. For example, when you are looking to sell your shoes to runners, you should bid on keywords like “best shoes for runners”.

Just because you know you are looking to sell to runners doesn’t mean that display ads are out of the picture. If you are looking to draw runners in, you could still un a google display ad because Google will put your ad on webpages where you are likely to convert.

To Consider,

Now after everything, lets do a quick overview of when you should use what ad.

If you are trying to pull people onto your site you should use display ads, because Google will find people who might be interested in you even if they aren’t looking.

If you want to show yourself to people who are already looking and interested in your product or service you should use Google search ads, because that will allow you to show up right along side the organic answers.

Google Ads can be tricky. There is a lot more that goes into each ad than what we just talked about. Our marketing team can help!

If you want to make sure your ads are done right, give us a call today!

Ready to Run Ads with Facebook? Here’s Where to Start!

Posted on November 30, 2023February 7, 2025 by spectrum-admin

Need Help With Facebook Ads Get Expert Guidance

Are you looking to expand the reach of your company? Do you want to start showing your ads to potential customers, but have no idea where to start? Facebook, now Meta, is a great place to begin your advertising journey. Read more about Facebook’s Name Change To Meta.

Not only can Facebook help you get in front of such a large group of people, but it can get you in front of those people who need your exact product or service. Showing your ads to the right people will not only streamline your audience, but it will also help you get the most bang for your advertising buck.

So, What's the First Step?

The first step in starting to advertise on Facebook is to Set Up A Meta Ads Account.

Once you have an account created, you will need to install a Pixel into your website, so Facebook can accurately monitor stats and help point people to your site via ads!

What is a Pixel and Why Do You Need It

A Meta Pixel is a piece of code that you can install on your website, very similar to the process of Google Analytics. This piece of code will then allow you to monitor what people do on your site, as well as retarget people who have already visited a specific page on your site with more ads.

A Pixel is very important, as it essentially helps Meta create a specific audience for you to continue to have effective and successful ad campaigns.

How to Install A Pixel

There are two different ways to install a Pixel on your website. First, you can install it through a partnering platform such as WordPress, Square Space, Shopify, or WooCommerce. Meta has a full tutorial to help you with this process.

Second, if you do not operate your site with any of the above platforms, then you must install it manually. This process involves copying the code and inserting it in a specific part of your website’s code, usually the header code. Meta also has a tutorial for this process.

Have more questions or need help Troubleshooting Your Meta Pixel?

How Do Ads Work? Explaining the Ad Auction

Essentially, what Meta does is allow your ad to compete to be shown every time there is an instance that an ad can be shown across their websites/platforms. They are trying to get your ad in front of the eyes of the people most likely to be your true audience, those who will interact with your ad.

Meta states that there are five things that they take into consideration when it comes to picking when and where your ad will be shown. These five things are Objective, Targeting, Budget, Duration, and Creativity.

Objective

There are 6 objectives you can choose from when it comes to creating your ad. Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, and Sales. Depending on which one you choose, you are effectively telling Meta what the goal of your ad campaign is. You will select an objective based on what you are trying to generate for your business.

· Awareness: This is the goal of wanting to get your ad viewed by as many people in your location as possible.

· Traffic: This objective aims to get people to visit your website.

· Engagement: Like Traffic, this goal wants an increase in interactions from people to your posts or website.

· Leads: Leads are the objective that has the goal of getting real contact information of real people for you to utilize.

· App Promotion: This goal is great if you have an app and can be used to generate downloads.

· Sales: The objective is to encourage sales within your page.

Targeting

This is the portion of your ad that is focused on reaching your target audience. If you are a landscaping business, then you would want to target people with homes, or businesses, that have yards or landscaping plots that need taking care of, therefore you may want to target married couples of homeowning age, or older ages in certain neighborhoods that you know are a lot of business, or even certain areas that have a lot of residential homes with yards, etc.

Budget

Your budget has a lot to do with how your ad functions on the ad auction. How much money you set for each ad will directly correlate to how many people will see your ad.

You can set either a daily budget or a lifetime budget.

A daily budget is exactly what it sounds like, a budget that is set for either your campaign or your ad that runs over a day. It will be how much you want to spend on a day-to-day basis for your advertising.

A lifetime budget is how much you will spend over the whole duration of your ad or campaign. This is great for those who don’t want to go over a certain amount of money overall.

Duration

This is the date range for your ad that you get to set. The longer your ad runs, the better it will do, as more people will see it. Scheduling your ad is very important, and factors like the time and date should be taken into effect. Will you show your ad more on days people are less likely to be working? Will you not run ads on holidays? Knowing these things is important for the overall ad process.

Creativity

Is your ad original and eye-catching? Ads with similar theme colors to their landing pages, as well as remaining visually interesting and clean will always do well compared to cluttered, spammy ads.

What Makes a Quality Ad?

It is a great idea to have your ad always remain relevant to the landing page you will be sending people to. Doing the opposite can give your ads a spam-like feel. Keeping a uniform color scheme and neat text and fonts also encourages clicks.

Ad quality is important because the more your ads get recognized as quality, rule following, and safe ads, the more Meta will learn that they are the best kind of ads to be promoted. Otherwise, they will get suppressed.

What Could Get Your Ad Rejected?

Any form of profanity or promotion of harmful and obscene content will most definitely be a recipe for disaster. Other things, like misinformation, reactionary content, hate speech, and promoting illegal things are bound to get your ads suppressed or rejected. Use common sense and keep your ads straight to the point and you’ll be just fine!

Meta ads are a huge component of the world of online advertising, and hopefully this blog helped explain it a bit more!

If you need more information, HubSpot has a great Facebook Ads Checklist!

Looking to get your Facebook Ads up and running? Contact the Spectrum Net Designs Marketing team for all your marketing and advertising needs!

What are Conversion Rates and What Do They Mean?

Posted on October 31, 2019December 27, 2024 by spectrum-admin

How You Can Properly Use Conversion Rates In Marketing

In the world of marketing, many professionals throw around loads of technical terms that might not mean a whole lot to the rest of the world. Click-through rate, impressions, organic distribution, conversion rates, and more…Maybe we will have time another day to write down some information for you on the rest of those terms, but for today, let’s focus on conversion rates, what are conversion rates? How do they affect your sales? What makes a high conversion rate good? Where do they connect to your marketing?

These might be a few questions that you are asking as you assess your business’s marketing efforts as well as try to find ways to improve your “conversion rates”. Conversion rates can be broken down into various types of conversion rates including page-level conversion rate, campaign conversion rate, keyword conversion rate, and more. But on a very general overall side of it, the conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that take a specific action (that you choose). For example, if your goal is that your visitors fill out a contact form to receive more information, then, the percentage of visitors to your website that fill out your contact form is your contact form conversion rate. You can have unlimited amounts of conversion rates, all based on the goals that you have set for your website! Any action that a visitor can take on your site, can be converted into a conversion rate. Examples include, clicking on a certain button, filling out a contact form, reaching a certain website page, and engaging with an interactive portion of your site, the possibilities are truly endless. Likely, you will not want to track ALL of your conversion rates, because that would just be too much data to keep track of. As a business, you will want to set specific goals as far as conversions go. Determine what conversions you want to track, and which ones you would like to see increase (most likely all of them!). Start by tracking and calculating the few conversion rates that you want to see increase.

How Do You Calculate Conversion Rate?

Calculating your conversion rate is fairly simple, you will have to establish the time frame that you are calculating, this could be anywhere from a few days up to a few years or more. We suggest calculating your conversion rate at least for 2 weeks to ensure that you are getting a wide variety of data. You will take the number of conversions from your time frame and divide that number by the total number of website visitors that you had for that time frame. Once you have that number, you will multiply it by 100%. This will be your new conversion rate for said action on your website. Yay! You just calculated your very first conversion rate! Now you can go ahead and calculate all of the various conversions that you’ve been tracking, and then start figuring out how you can increase each conversion rate!

How Are Conversion Rate, Marketing, & Sales Related?

Now you know what a conversion rate is, you know how to calculate it, and you know what conversion rates you want to track for your specific company and goals. But how does your conversion rate relate to your marketing efforts, that relate to your sales? Although bringing it to completion might be more challenging, the idea is quite simple really…better marketing = higher conversions = more sales. When you go through and begin to start tracking some of your conversions, you can start implementing different, better marketing tactics. This will likely take some time, and trial and error to find what works for your audience, what they respond to, and what encourages them in the best way to take that specific action that you want them to. This in turn will tend to lead to more sales, more connections, and more opportunities to reach out and connect with your audience.
Higher conversion rates are often a sign of a successful business, but what is normal? According to research done by our friends over at Wordstream, When considering landing pages, the goal is to achieve a conversion rate of 11.45% or higher. This would put your landing page in the top 10%

How To Increase Your Conversion Rate Today!

If you’re wondering how to increase conversion rate on your e-commerce website, social media campaign, or newsletter sign-up you’re not alone. So many businesses wonder where to first begin! You can go about increasing your conversion rate in many different ways. Try to set specific goals as far as raising your rates according to where you are currently, setting realistic goals as well as brainstorming various ways to get there is a good place to start. Some of the ways that you can increase your conversion rates are through paid advertising such as Google Ads, Facebook ads, or other various paid social media advertising. Another way that you can work on increasing your conversion rate is through organic marketing such as Search Engine Optimization. When your site is optimized for Google properly, more visitors will find your site as well as take action on your pages.

We hope that this little bit of information is helpful for you to understand conversion rates and what they tell you about your website. If you have questions regarding conversion rates or what marketing approaches you can take in order to increase yours, please contact us today! Our team of marketing professionals is happy to help you!

Need help starting up your social media marketing?

Interesting E-Commerce Shopping Cart Facts

Posted on June 27, 2017June 24, 2025 by spectrum-admin

Add. Leave. Repeat.

The majority of people in today’s economy have window shopped online at one time or another. Whether for price comparison or something specific, they can’t find it locally. But, have you ever placed items in your cart and then left, and did that over and over again – and never go back to purchase the item?

E-commerce Companies Call This Shopping Cart Abandonment

E-Commerce Shopping Cart Facts

This is a common problem with E-commerce websites all over the world. Many systems will hold the product for a specific time frame, others won’t, and if they are sold out when you come back, you are out of luck. When you refresh that page, the price will refresh, as will the availability. It is said by 10 various companies that shopping cart abandonment can range from 50% -73%…That is a huge percentage of customers leaving their goods behind. Why?

The reason behind it? They want to save it for later, so they don’t have to search the site when they come back – if they come back. But I am guilty of this practice as well. Who wants to go through and find the product when you’ve already done all of the research? It is easy just to add it to the cart and come back when it is convenient. Either way, this can affect statistics and stock management for companies that have that option.

For anyone who has ordered concert tickets and wants to get the perfect seat, you are given a timer because they only hold tickets for a very limited time, normally under 10 minutes or less.

Other Common Reasons that Carts get Abandoned

Complex Checkout Process
- If the process takes too long to make the purchase, most people will abandon the cart due to it being too time consuming. Always make sure that your e-commerce site has a simple checkout without too many hoops to jump through to avoid this.
The item or Shipping Cost is too High.
- If users get to the checkout and get hit with more fees than they were expecting, they tend to abandon the cart. They might be waiting for a coupon or a sale, but that’s not always something that you remember to get back to, or they may just get it from another online store. You can send out coupons or offer deals if this seems to be a common occurrence, or take a look at your competitor’s pricing.
Technical Issues
- It could be something small, like a long load time, or it could be that there is a bug and the checkout doesn’t work as it should. These issues will make people jump ship and find another platform to buy from. Be sure to keep an eye on that if you notice that shopping carts are getting abandoned more than usual.

If you start seeing that a lot of people have been abandoning their carts go through your site with an outside perspective to see what the issue could be. You don’t want your site to have an issue that you are unaware of for too long.

If you are looking for a new e-commerce website and would like to know more about how to avoid these issues. Contact us!

Using Local Resources for E-Commerce Not The Big Boxes

Posted on December 28, 2016July 26, 2021 by spectrum-admin

E-Commerce Resources At Your Fingertips

By Shannan DuShane | December 2016 | Spectrum Net Designs, Inc

If you have been wondering whether the commotion over conducting your business online is something that you want to jump into, then read on. Online shopping is nothing new these days. Everyone has purchased something online at one time or another. This is much larger than it seems and it isn’t going anywhere, so it’s better to jump on the wagon than being left behind. We will explore the benefits and more to utilizing a local resource for your e-commerce needs and not going overseas or to a big box company like Go Daddy or Network Solutions.

Whether you are a consumer or a business-to-business resource, some of the most efficient marketing and selling tools are available via the Internet, and the potential of reaching a vast audience is open to you through the World Wide Web. Consider these facts: Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that 47.3 million North American households have online access and 43.9 percent have browsed online. Of the 43.9 percent, 65 percent have made purchases. By 2014, the research firm estimates that U.S. online retail sales will grow to $250 billion, up from $155 billion in 2009. (https://www.sba.gov)

Some shoppers still like that old fashioned in person service, but a positive aspect to e-commerce is that your customers will never have to wait to get your products, they can shop anytime and do it without wasting gas to get there and then standing in lines. This method is positively outdated and can be quite frustrating to customers. If you don’t stock all of your products at the store and customers drive around all day to find that one gift, that can be a huge turn off to your brand. Plus you have the ability to reach a larger audience and grow your business.

Not comes the aspect where you need to dive in and find a company to develop your online store, and believe me when I say there are 1000’s out there that are capable of building an e-commerce presence for you, but the kicker is can they do it properly and the way you want. The benefit of working with a local website developer is that you can be more hands on with the process and follow along more efficiently. You will need a developer that can understand your needs and have been in their industry for years. Experience here is crucial, if you hire an intern in college or an independent developer you won’t have the experience. If you hire a large big box third party company such as Go Daddy, you lack the personal touch and a lot of their product is drag and drop or plug in build where there is no customization involved. Your website will look like hundreds of other template sites. Your local website design firm and developers will know how to make you stand out and customize your customers experience with online shopping. Remember it’s not always about location, it is about availability and fast shipping options these days.

When you start with your chosen developer there are several questions you will need to answer. Some of those will be involved with:

1. Shipping provider and shipping options
2. Merchant account which is your payment gateway
3. Type of payments accepted – Paypal, MC, VISA, Discover, ect.
4. State by state sales tax and other fees associated with online shopping
5. SSL Certificate which is essential and required for secure account information and credit cards
6. Any specialty features you would like to incorporate such as search box, featured products, zoom, related products, newsletter sign up,

And many more that will come up as you continue the path to completion.

The point is to do your research and know what you want before you jump in with a company. Make sure you have the communication you require. Know their process and how the process advances and a list of objectives and goals for the project. It is always nice to have a visible timeline laid out so that everyone knows their part and what to expect. Don’t be left out in the cold when your customers shop online, be on the forefront of their shopping lists and pair your e-commerce website with a killer marketing plan and you will have the whole package.

How do Colors Affect E-Commerce Purchases with Online Shoppers

Posted on December 8, 2016August 7, 2025 by spectrum-admin

Do you know how colors affect your purchases?

Colors are everywhere, and the colors you choose for your brand will either make or break your image. For retailers, selling is the art of persuasion. Online shoppers are there to buy and be done, not run from store to store looking around. They know what they want and are determined to buy now. Many factors influence how and what consumers buy online. A large part of every decision is based on visual cues, and the strongest and most persuasive is color.

Color and North American Consumers

Color is one of the most powerful methods of design. However, it is not entirely universal. The colors that entice in North America are different from those that entice in India.

Other Influences

Color is not the only item that influences consumer behavior. For online shoppers, design, buzzwords, and convenience affect their need to shop.

Overall Design

For many online shoppers, poor website navigability and poor overall design are the reasons they choose not to purchase from a particular website.

Element of Time

Speed, efficiency, and convenience are some of the many reasons shoppers are turning to the internet retailers. Having a website that runs even five seconds slower than your competitors could mean a huge economic loss.

E-Commerce 101: What is a SSL Certificate and Why Do I Need One?

Posted on December 6, 2016August 7, 2025 by spectrum-admin

SSL Certificate or Secure Socket Layer Certificate Protects Your Company & Your Customers!

Shannan K. DuShane | December 6, 2016 | Spectrum Net Designs, Inc.

Running a business can get expensive, and choosing to move up to online sales through an e-commerce website can increase that cost. There are a lot of things you need to know and be aware of when you open a shop online. If you’ve been told that e-commerce websites are cheap, then you’ve been given some wrong information. It isn’t expensive, but there are more costs than a regular website and more security and legalities needed than a normal website.

Most online shoppers are very careful and want to know that their information is safe. Using an SSL certificate provides two important things:

Encryption of sensitive data like credit card numbers and personal information
Some assurance to your customers that you are trustworthy (the process of getting an SSL certificate can’t guarantee this, but it can make it more likely, which is part of the reason why visitors have this perception) (SSLShopper.com)

SSL Options

SSL certificate, or secure socket layers, have many different options; there are different types of certificates, including shared certificates and multi-domain certificates. Online security is essential to conducting business online — and it’s foremost in the minds of your customers. Check out Network Solutions; they have 5 types of SSL certificates, and each one is specific to the customers’ needs. If you have more questions, it is a good idea to get on the phone with the company and let them explain each one before making an uneducated choice.

Why SSL is a Must for Online Businesses

Today, running a successful business online requires that you make Internet security a top priority. Customers need to feel confident that their personal information and credit card numbers are safe from hackers. Network Solutions® offers a wide variety of SSL Certificates to meet your online business needs. The right SSL Certificate is available to give both you and your customers peace of mind. Learn more about which SSL Certificate may be best for you.

You can also invest in a site seal, which gives your business instant credibility and shows your customers that your identity has been verified. This is an extra step, but when you think about it, ANYONE, yes, even scammers, can get an SSL Certificate, so why wouldn’t you want to show your customers credibility?

Do your research and know what can happen if you aren’t protected. It could take down your business, which you worked so hard to build.

When you have a website, you have a certain responsibility to your customers to ensure their safety, if you have a website form or a login form on your website that logs them into an account that stores sensitive information such as names, address, username and passwords, credit card information, ect, that login page needs to have security as well. If they use their username and password on an unprotected, unsecured page, then hackers can see their login and use it on the site to purchase stuff, but also possibly on other websites, since many times customers use the same password on other sites. That is why it is important to have different passwords and change them every few months to ensure your accounts stay secure.

Having A Secure Website is Worth the Investment

In the long run, you will be happy you invested the time and money in developing your e-commerce website correctly and securely. Without the certificate and other security measures, you are vulnerable to fraud, being sued, and legal costs, which can outweigh the cost of initial and ongoing costs for your SSL certificate and other safety measures.

Happy Marketing!

What to Know Before You Choose a Developer for Your E-Commerce Website

Posted on December 2, 2016August 7, 2025 by spectrum-admin

What to know before you choose a developer for your E-Commerce Website

What You Don’t Know Might Hurt You?

Shannan K. DuShane | December 2, 2016 | Spectrum Net Designs, Inc

So, you’ve been in business for a while now, but now you are ready to take your business to the next level and start selling your products and services online. You need to find a developer that you can work with to build an E-commerce website that you can trust and know what they are doing and doing it properly. If you aren’t technical and haven’t built a website before, this task can be difficult; to be able to hire a qualified developer and ask questions.

Here are some tips to remember before you decide on who to use!

Never go with the first developer you interview or talk to. Setup appointments with 3-4 companies that you’ve called and feel comfortable with over the phone, you can get a great first impression by a simple phone call. You can gauge how helpful they are and if they are vested in developing a business relationship.
Please don’t use an independent or college developer that hasn’t had real world experience or if they do anything on the side, buyer beware, there are scammers everywhere and because they are an individual they can disappear as fast as they appear- there is nothing holding them to your arrangements or a company to back them.
If you are technically challenged or never have setup a website or e-commerce website, ask around to those who have and ask them what you should know. You can also Google it and come up with a good list of questions to ask, the developer should be able to answer all your questions without a problem, if they can’t, that is a red flag in my book.
Make sure you have a written contract with terms so that you have a paper trail of your arrangements, that way you have your company’s best interest in order.
Never pay your developer the entire project up front, they might ask for a deposit and that is fine, but buyer beware if they require the entire project up front. You will lose your ability to be in the driver seat for the development or if something goes wrong you have leverage.

So now you are ready to interview the developers you’ve chosen to meet with for your e-commerce website.

Do you know what you are going to talk about or ask them? Are you bringing a qualified or technical co-worker or friend with you who knows the business? If you aren’t, you should! You want to maximize the meeting by digging into the site from the start, so everyone knows the direction you want out of this project. Bring a spreadsheet with your ideas and features that you’ve seen on other websites that you want. I always let clients know to find features and graphics on other websites and print them off so their vision is clear.

Ask to see a portfolio of websites and e-commerce websites.
How long have they been building e-commerce websites?
Do they have a list of references you can see or call?
What other services can they provide? Graphic design, logo design, merchant services, email, hosting services, search engine optimization services, ect…
What is their process for the design and development, is there a development site to watch?
What are their terms and conditions of a project? What are the payment terms, use of project for portfolio, rights to website, hosting terms, are their maintenance terms or fees, monthly seo fees, ect…?
What are a list of other fees for everything I need for my e-commerce site? Merchant fees, SSL certificate fees (annually), domain name fee (annually), hosting fees (monthly or annually), ect…?
Do they have a specific platform they use or are they building it custom, is it licensed to them or your company?
Do they release the files or coding to your company, or is it owned by them? Can you move the site to other hosting service companies?
Will your new e-commerce site be mobile friendly and responsive to those who live on their phones?
Will you be able to manage (add, edit, delete) products, and is training included in the cost?

Building an e-commerce website is a lot of work, and there are a lot of options out there. Do your research, ask questions, and take your time with the process; your website will be ready to launch in no time with minimal issues arising.

Happy Marketing!

As Holiday Season and Online Shopping Surges

Posted on November 14, 2016May 27, 2025 by spectrum-admin

Security Features to Be On Lookout For This Season with Online Shopping

Shannan DuShane | November 14, 2016 | Spectrum Net Designs, Inc.

Millions of people use e-commerce sites daily to purchase everything online from aspirin to vehicles, and yet many consumers really do not care about the personal experience anymore. It is all about being convenient and working around busy lives, but what we don’t see when shopping online is there are two types of sites to be on the lookout for; you have the safe e-commerce sites and the unsafe websites all over the web and around the world. Here are a few things to watch out for while you are browsing.

People lead busy lives, much more than 10 years ago, and we dread the job of dodging salespeople or driving to the store to shop; humans seek the convenience of online shopping. Some of the benefits are ye,s you guessed it #1 Convenience of shopping; when you want, where you want, and how you want. Yes, that means if you want to buy a cake at 2 am in your pajamas, then you go right ahead! And the biggest benefit everyone enjoys is the instant download access and streaming features we can utilize now with e-books, videos, and more.

Online shopping has many other benefits, too. From sending gifts, no crowds to fight off, and more variety with price comparisons on nearly every website, we have it easy these days, plus bonus rewards, we save money and earn points on gas, so we can spend more online, and most places will have free shipping with minimum orders.

The disadvantages of online shopping do not outweigh the benefits, but there are a few details to be aware of while shopping. Keep your guard up about trustworthy sites is #1. The waiting for the product to arrive is a disadvantage, but not a huge one, when you think about how secure the transaction is and if you are protected from identity theft. What you are looking for is the security certificate or SSL (secure socket layer), a small lock icon or badge in the website address, and the possible changing of color of the address bar with the web address switching from http://www.yoursite.com to the secure site that you are protected on https://www.yoursecure.com. This is when you can trust the site you are purchasing from; if you don’t see these features, leave the site immediately.

The same precautions go with online banking, filling out credit card offers online and any site that you have to input your social security number or billing information into, be cautious, don’t assume that every site is trustworthy or secure. The 2 minutes it takes to look for these items might save your bank account information from being in jeopardy one day.

Here are three examples of security features that you can make sure your transaction is secure and your browsing is also secure.

Google. You can see below in the url address bar the https:// is green, this is telling you that you are on a secure site and you are protected. Not all sites and search engines do this but those who do take your business seriously.

Sears. You can see from this website’s domain that there is no security here for browsing on the site. But when you look below, you will see a change.

As I enter into the cart checkout of my order it goes to https:// from http:// and it tells you that are you on a secure site for your transaction. This is the protection that you want!

So, as consumers become more dependent on online shopping here are a few things to watch out for.

Be perceptive when giving out your personal information, social security number or credit card information.
Keep your password private and secure by making it hard to guess, use symbols, capitals and numbers to help in this.
Change your passwords every 3-6 months
Observe signs of security such as https:// (secure gateways)
Email is never secure unless it is encrypted on both the sender and receivers side

Happy Shopping!