 |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
28 Feb This post is from from my other blog here In a few recent conversations I’ve had with potential clients, I’ve discovered that a few of them have done quite a bit to optimize their ecommerce websites for search traffic, from creating relevant content in the form of informative articles, maximizing the number of indexable pages, and including keywords in appropriate ways. These clients have tried to learn the basics of SEO by researching it and have learned a lot. Still, there’s no way anyone can learn everything. The Long Tail Concept One topic that sometimes escapes people is the ‘Long Tail’ approach to SEO. It’s an important concept in search optimization and one that really forms the basis of a successful natural search optimization effort. Let’s look at what this means.
*Image source: Wikipedia, ‘Long Tail’ The above graph is an example of the concept, with the y-axis being revenue and the x-axis being keyword. The green part of the graph represents the majority of general search terms which comprise the bulk of your revenue. As you trail off into the yellow part of the graph, you see more narrow, focused and specific search terms which also relate to less revenue. In this yellow area, traffic starts to fall off but people are searching for specific items. Get those specific items in front of them, and they’re likely to buy. Long Tail SEO Example For example, a seller of backpacks might compose their top list of keywords thusly: backpacks, black backpacks, brown backpacks, rolling backpacks, kids backpacks, and leather backpacks. These are fine, sensible keywords and it makes sense that these might be the most popular search phrases related to backpacks. Optimizing your site for these terms is nothing but smart. Looking at that Long Tail graph, these would be the keywords in the green part, the ones which will probably make up the bulk of your site’s revenue and searches. But these are also going to be the most competitive words that you’ll have a harder time ranking organically for. A quick look at the free Google AdWords Tool reveals 140 more related keywords, revealing many more potential keywords to optimize for. These keywords would be in the yellow ‘tail’ of the graph, and while each keywords is associated with less revenue, there are many more search terms in the tail, so that revenue piles up. The Long Tail Keywords For backpacks, ‘black mesh and leather water bottle backpack’ is a less popular search term but at the same time is more specific. If someone searches for this term and finds it on your site, they will be much more likely to buy it than someone searching for simply ‘backpacks.’ Another example of a Long Tail search term might be something like ‘rolling camera backpack cell phone pocket.’ A customer searching for this knows what he wants! These are made-up terms, and nothing I made-up could substitute for actual keyword research, but you get the idea. Applying Long Tail to PPC Looking at that graph, keywords in the green part are more expensive because ...
25 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Let’s take a look at what RSS is, and the ways it can be used to spread your content and bring visitors to your site. First of all, just what is RSS? RSS defined Well, not to make the topic more complicated than it needs to be . . . but there is a little debate over just what RSS stands for. Initially, when it was first introduced in 1999, it stood for ‘Rich Site Summary.’ Now there are a few different ‘flavors’ or versions of RSS, and one stands for ‘RDF Site Summary.’ It is widely accepted that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and that name pretty well explains what RSS does. RSS is a format using ‘feeds’ to easily share (’syndicate’) content that is frequently updated, such as blogs, news sites, or other media such as podcasts. RSS automatically checks websites for new content, and provides them to the user in the form of excerpts or the full text. This makes it easy for users of RSS to monitor their favorite sites which update often without having to manually check for new content. Examples of RSS feeds RSS feeds are so common, there’s a good chance you already use them but just aren’t aware of it. If you have created a personalized home page on Google or Yahoo and automatically receive news, weather reports, or stock quotes, you are receiving those in RSS format. If you use the Firefox browser, you may have created a Live Bookmark to follow a Craigslist category (hello, free stuff!) or a blog. In that case, the bookmark will update with a number in parentheses to let you there is a new post. This automatic notification is also an RSS feed. RSS feeds can be set up on a website to pull information from other sites to the first site automatically. Check out MightyMerchant’s Squidoo lens as an example. I have a module set up that automatically displays the title and a short excerpt from the three most recent MightyMerchant eCommerce Blog posts . . . which leads me into a great way to use RSS on your own site. Uses of RSS John Jantsch at the Duct Tape Marketing blog wrote about a method of automatically adding content through bookmarking. His video explains it well, but in essence you surf the web finding content that you want to add to your site–something in the news, or mentions of a certain topic, business info, whatever. Tag it using del.icio.us, create a feed, and then take that feed to FeedBurner to publish the content to your site. This pretty simple technique allows you to repurpose info from other sites onto your own site with just a little effort. The potential for other uses is only limited by your imagination. Anything that can be published in headline or title format is a prime candidate for an RSS feed. Depending on the type of site you have, you could create and publish feeds for any number of things, such as a feed ...
22 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
Actually, when your ecommerce site is new, a cautious approach to filling orders and shipping is a good idea. For new ecommerce sites considering whether or not to ship internationally, there are a few things to keep in mind which could cause you to avoid shipping internationally or at least delay it until you have more experience and your site is more established. The two major issues involved in the decision of whether to sell your products internationally are order/credit card fraud, and shipping costs. If your business is based in the United States and you decide to sell internationally, it is likely only a matter of time before you are faced with a fraudulent order. That’s not to say that fraudulent orders don’t originate in the United States, because of course they do, but there are a few reasons why overseas orders are particularly problematic. Price One of our new sites, LearningServicesUS.com, sells educational software for teachers. As the site owners were preparing to get their site ready to go live, they were investigating international shipping options and discovered that the shipping to Brazil for one item would be over a thousand dollars! Probably not realistic to consider shipping at that rate. After discussing the options with LearningServicesUS, the verdict was that after they build up clients and sales that they would revisit the international shipping issues and reconsider later. In general, we wouldn’t advise new ecommerce sites to offer international sales, partly for this reason of exorbitant costs, and also because order fraud is much more rampant overseas. Lack of enforcement Many developing and Third-World countries don’t and can’t allocate the resources necessary to properly monitor fraud, track fraudulent activity online, and pursue and prosecute thieves. There’s just no money for these tasks. Additionally, the market for stolen credit-card numbers is most active outside of the United States. If you do offer overseas shipping, you may want to consider avoiding orders from certain high-risk countries where fraud is known to be a major problem. Countries such as Romania, Latvia, Belarus and other Eastern European countries have high fraud risks, as does Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana, countries in southern Asia (Phillipines, Thailand, Malaysia) and Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya). * What you can do to avoid fraud It’s wise to have some internal checks in place on your ordering system. These suggestions for protecting yourself from fraudulent orders hold true even for domestic orders, but are especially important if you do decided to offer international shipping. Avoid shipping to post office boxes. United States Postal Service (USPS) shipping rates are more affordable for overseas shipping when compared to UPS or FedEx, for instance, ...
18 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
Present a professional appearance - This is probably the hardest to define but perhaps the most important. Often a site just “doesn’t look right,” possibly due to a clashing color scheme, too many flashing and whirling animations, misspellings and poor grammar, or just a tone that is “too commercial.” Use clear language and a familiar navigation. You only have a few seconds in which to impress upon a potential customer that you are trustworthy, and if your site doesn’t meet expectations it’s only too easy to click away and go to the next one. Display your guarantee - Guarantees give customers peace of mind. There’s no doubt in your mind that you are a legitimate business that sells quality products you stand behind, right? Give your customers that same confidence with a guarantee. Place the guarantee on your home page for all to see, as well as include it on the order now, view cart and check out pages. It makes sense to display guarantees and credibility indicators near the actions that they are most closely related to. Credibility indicators are affiliations with or endorsements by trusted companies or trade association such as Better Business Bureau Online, TRUSTe, and Hacker Safe. These should be displayed on your check out pages as well as home page. Testimonials - Include positive customer testimonials throughout your site. If the testimonial is from a customer with a website, link to them so people can click through. I have been amazed in the past to look at sites offering search engine optimization and marketing services, promising incredible results and providing testimonials that don’t link to the customer’s sites! That makes their claims really hard to believe. If you have a testimonial that mentions the ease of ordering, responsive customer service, or the ease with which a return or exchange was made, consider adding that to the order page for some extra reassurance. [MightyMerchant’s article Gathering and Using Testimonials has more info about this topic.] Contact info– Prominently link to your contact information, official company address, and customer support phone number and other support information. Include your support telephone number on the check-out page. I’m a big fan of About ...
15 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
To those of you who have never utilized the services of Google Video or YouTube, the process might seem intimidating. I’m here to tell you that it’s actually quite easy, so if you have ever had the idea to add some video content to your website or blog, there should be nothing holding you back. Let’s take a look at how the process works and why you might want to use video. Adding Streaming Media Streaming video or audio files are sent in compressed form over the Internet. The file is played as it arrives, in almost real time. With the advent in recent years of large web content providers such as YouTube and Google Video, the equipment and infrastructure necessary to serve huge quantities of video and audio at little or no cost is in place and provided free for the general public to use in almost any way they like. [Note-As I write this, I just learned via TechCrunch today that Yahoo has relaunched Yahoo Video with some changes to the service. Instead of offering only user-generated content, Yahoo Video is now displaying videos from other Yahoo properties music, movies, TV, news and sports.] Here is how the process works:
One of our clients, DenLorsTools.com, sells automotive tools and supplies and mechanics equipment. They created a series of videos which are viewable on YouTube and on their site. Over the past 6 months, their video “Bench Bleeding a Master Cylinder” ...
11 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
Now the MightyMerchant blog has a “Subscribe By Email” feature. Simply go to the blog, and on the right side enter in your email address. You will then receive excerpts of every blog post, right in your inbox. If you choose to register, you will have access to an options screen allowing you to select whether you want to receive excerpts or the full blog post, and whether you prefer it in html or just plain text. You also have the option of subscribing to only receive posts contained within certain categories of your choosing, like link building or SEO and Site Optimization. Thanks for reading the MightyMerchant eCommerce Blog, now delivered right to your inbox. (If you don’t receive the confirmation email that you have registered, check your spam folder.) Got a topic you think would make a great blog post? Let me know. Your email: Subscribe Unsub
07 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
07 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
Normally, striving to give a potential customer personal attention would be considered a good thing, but I came across a site yesterday that took that goal a little too far, and sacrificed their website usability and the customer experience in the process. One of our clients, InnocraftDesigns.com, is a full-service home remodeling company that specializes in CAPS certified “Aging In Place” home accessibility remodeling. This means that they work with aging seniors to remodel their home with walk-in showers, safety bars in the bathroom, doorway widening for wheelchair access, and things like that to allow them to continue living in their own home as they age. Inno-Craft Designs is a local dealer for EZ Access ramps (www.homecareproducts.com). Installing wheelchair ramps is a big part of the company’s accessibility remodeling. As I was making an effort to build some incoming links for this client, I checked out the EZ Access website. As a dealer for their products, I wanted to make sure that EZ Access was linking to my client. On the home page there is a “Find A Dealer” search button, which of course I clicked on. Instead of taking me to a page of “locate by State” or “enter your ZIP code” or something like that which I was expecting, I am taken to a form entitled “Information Request,” with first name, last name, phone number, email address, city, state and ZIP code as required fields. This surprised me for a number of reasons, one of which is that their primary target buyers are the disabled and the elderly. Many elderly people are going to be reluctant to provide this type of personal info just to locate a store. Not to mention the fact that they may not have an email address. Secondly, there was nothing on the page to indicate what would happen next. Would someone call me? Should I check my email? Would clicking submit give me what I wanted? I fill out the information and click submit, hoping that the next page will provide me some useful info. But it doesn’t. It merely says, “Thank you for your submission” and a close window button. Huh? Now what happens? What about that dealer info I wanted? I close the window and poof! It disappears, along with my personal information and their opportunity to keep me happy. At this point, I start making myself some lunch, totally confused about what would happen next. To their credit, a friendly sales rep called about 5 minutes later. When I explained what my intentions were, the lady said the website was previously set up to locate dealers by ZIP code but the owners wanted to provide a more “personal experience,” because people sometimes don’t understand the type and length of ramp that they actually need for their situation. Got it, but there’s a big gap here between the good intentions and the implementation. EZ Access is a great vendor with high-quality, useful ...
04 Feb This post is from from my other blog here ut. get your message across with eye-catching pink and white, hearts and flowers. Template Examples: With just ten days left until the holiday, it’s not too late to prepare an email and send it using these or 8 other easy-to-use templates. Email promotions can definitely help drive traffic to your site on this important gift-giving holiday. Digital Point keyword tool and found the following list of holiday-related phrases: Hits Per Day Gift Valentine 2,676 Valentine’s Day 1,277 Craft Valentine 1,217 Valentine Hearts 725 Valentine Poems 560 Gift Idea Valentine 436 Valentine Graphics 426 Gift Man Valentine 556 (see, it’s not only men who have a hard time deciding on gifts!) Candy Valentine 187 Chocolate Valentine 152 Gift Romantic Valentine 134 Unique Valentine 126 (now there’s a good term to optimize one of your gift pages for!) For the greatest impact, work any of these terms into your page titles, product descriptions and other on-the-page content. But, I would think twice before optimizing that power tool set or vacuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day. My local newspaper insists on running an ad each February for a store advertising specials on vacuum cleaners with the headline, “Give her what she really wants!” Guys, I’m here to tell ya, don’t fall for it! Let me know, do you intend to send a Valentine’s Day promotional email? Special Note-The MightyMerchant eCommerce Blog now has a subscribe by email option–the easiest way to keep up with these blog posts. Simply enter your address, and choose if you want to subscribe only to certain categories of content or to all categories. Click on the ‘profile’ link below, set your preference, and these blog posts will then be delivered right to your inbox. Thanks for reading! Your email: Subscribe Unsub
31 Jan This post is from from my other blog here
Netscape Navigator, the iconic browser which brought the web to the majority of Internet users, will not be updated anymore. Ah, Netscape, you were my guide when I first set out to explore this brave new world of the Internet. Its introduction as an easy-to-use way to navigate ushered in the new era of the age of commercial Internet, and the white N rising above the Earth became so familiar. When it first launched in 1994, Netscape was designed to be user-friendly and became the most used Internet browser through the 90s. When Microsoft wanted a share of the popularity, they licensed the source code from Netscape’s developer and created Internet Explorer. Netscape continued to rise in popularity until Microsoft began offering Internet Explorer free with Windows 95 and later versions. Users switched wholesale, and Netscape’s profits and popularity continued to dwindle. It fared no better when it was bought by AOL in 1999. AOL recently announced it would no longer issue updates for Netscape as of February 1, 2008, effectively killing the once-great browser. But, in an ironic twist, Netscape’s original developers created a new, better, more flexible browser the world knows today as Mozilla Firefox. Like the ashes from the phoenix, Firefox is now my browser of choice, and the one which makes my work easier thanks to its open source code and customizability. Kinda poetic isn’t it? Read Netscape’s official announcement.
Archives | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
by 
