Internet Marketing Blog

Columbia Maryland – 4 January 2010. Allergy Grocer, an online grocer that provides specialty allergen free foods relaunched their Magento shopping cart on InteractOne Ecommerce servers. Initially launched in December 2009 Allergy Grocer was experiencing slow load times and issues with their “Shop By Allergen” attributes. InteractOne was able to migrate the site from the previous host and do a database level rewrite of the “Shop By Allergen” attributes – all with less than 6 hrs of total downtime (most of which occurred after business hours EST). InteractOne has also been able to assist Allergy Grocer with custom shipping options, enhanced order fulfillment, email marketing, email auto-response and promotion development. With month over month increases in website traffic, lightning fast load times, higher conversion rates and increased sales Allergy Grocer looks to continue it’s partnership with InteractOne in providing the ultimate online shopping destination for allergy free foods. Visit: AllergyGrocer.com

Website loading speed is one of the most important features of your website. To much load time and you can lose a potential customer entirely. A study released by Akamai Technologies, Inc. in September showed that “2 seconds is the new threshold in terms of an average online shopper’s expectation for a web page to load and 40 percent of shoppers will wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site.” This threshhold is only going to continue to be pushed as customers speed expectations grow.

Search engines are also adding speed to their page ranking requirements, this is evident with Googles upcoming Caffeine update. In a recent interview Matt Cutts, the man in charge of Google’s Webspam Team, said “speed hasn’t played a role in rankings in the past, but that may very well change.”

So how do you speed up your website? The best fastest and easiest way to speed up your websites performance is to look at the websites design. Are there large bulky images, tons of java & flash script? These need to be eliminated and at the very least optimized for performance.

Another variable to look at is your Websites hosting company. Are the severs they provide made for the type of site you have?

Many times the performance issue has to do with age. Code builds up and is outdated, the website platform hasn’t been updated and is vulnerable to bugs and hacks, and like most things the newest version is just plain better. Instead of updating these issues one by one, many times a complete website redesign would be the better and cheaper alternative.

For eCommerce sites a high performance option would be Magento. The Magento platform combines performance, ease of use, and awesome looks into a seamless package. This platform is used by many major retailers for these many reasons and can be parred down or expanded depending on your needs.

For websites that require good looks, speed, and the ability to be updated from any PC WordPress is an excellent platform. With almost endless styleing possibilities, lightweight code, and a host of free plug-ins that can boost performance and functionality this platform has set the standard in Content Management Systems (CMS).

Whether you need to go through your sites code line by line to streamline its performance or your going to opt for a complete redesign one thing is for certain, speed will effect the success of your website and its importance will only continue to grow.

Released to the public March 31, 2008 Magento has revolutionized the way business is conducted online. The front-end (what the customer sees) is user friendly, eye-appealing, fast, & secure. The back-end (the seller admin panel) is easy to use, has built in intuitive functions (taxes, product quantity, shipping, payments,  ect), is secure, and is  easily upgraded & configured to the needs of the business. See Magento Features.

Today you are more than likely using Mageno if you shop on the internet. Many large retailers and businesses using Magento for their Internet presence such as 3M, The North Face, Stussy, Samsung, & homemedics just to name a few. The reason for this is simple, it is a versatile complete package that is a true asset to any online business.  You can see this flexibility when visiting different sites that use the Magento platform.  Some don’t look anything alike! The only thing in common are their functionality and ease of use.

Here at InteractOne we realized the magnitude of what such a system could have on the e-commerce world and adopted Magento shortly after its release.  We have many custom Magento Designs under our belts and even a few Magento fixes from clients who unfortunately got taken advantage by an adolescent developer.

If you have any experience with Magento based eCommerce sites please feel free to link to them in the comments section and tell us your experience with the system. If you are interested in how Magento can successfully be integrated into your business model please fill out the contact form on the right and a InteractOne representative will contact you shortly.

So your going to take the plunge! One of the first steps to building an online presence is picking and registering a domain name. Should it be the name of your business? The name of your main product or service? Or should it be a acronym of both?

The answer lies with your customers and future customers. What would they prefer? Is it easy to remember? Is it related to what your business offers? Also you should consider how search engines will perceive the name.   Think of  search engines as a really picky customer (after all they are there shopping for info).

Sometimes you aren’t able to get the exact domain name you want. Don’t worry this is not the end of the world. Search engine optimization or customer satisfaction does not solely rest on the domain name. We have many clients with unique domain names that we have implemented successful internet strategies for.

Another thing to keep in mind is buying different variations of your domain name. You can point these domain names at your homepage or different product/service pages that they relate to.

A good idea is to sit down and brainstorm a list of of potentials. A good site that will aid in the process is Network Solutions . There you can search for potential domain names and find related domain names if the one you want is taken. You can also find contact info on domain name owners if you are willing to bargain for a domain name.

Once you pick a domain name you can register at any of the major internet registrars such as Tucows, GoDaddy, Network Solution, or many others.

Remember if this process is intimidating or you need an experienced professional on your side for negotiating a domain name buy contact us and we will be glad to be of assistance.

The answer to this question is Yes if not a resounding YES! Today there is very little that cannot be found on the internet. Most people today;especially the younger generation, reach for the mouse and keyboard when looking up a phone number rather then the phone book. Go ahead do a search for the product your business sells, there is more than a big chance that someone is online selling it. If you are a local business do a local search (ie. Cincinnati coffee shops) and see how many local competitors have already made the jump into internet marketing.

OK now its starting to sink in: your business needs on online presence. How do you do it without breaking the bank? Here at InteractOne we build complex, interactive, and media rich websites; however, we also have solutions for clients who can’t invest a huge amount of money into a website. These solutions include professional looking websites that are true asset to your business. They are search engine friendly and can be expanded upon in the future. Call or contact the Cincinnati Web Design Professionals at InteractOne today to get your business started in the online world.

A big frustration many organizations have is managing content for their websites. Often Word Docs are passed along a chain of 3 to 4 people before the content actually gets posted to the website and by the time the content goes live it may already need to be revised.

“Why can’t we just update our site whenever we want” seems to be the million dollar question. We’ll I’m happy to announce that there is a solution for this question. Enter the age of Content Management Systems (CMS).

CMS come in many different sizes, shapes and colors but in the end they all serve to help organizations directly edit the content on their websites without having to get a tech person (IT) involved.

Some of the most popular CMS softwares are:

* Xoops – www.xoops.org
* Drupal – www.drupal.org
* Light-N-Easy – www.lightneasy.org
* Adobe Contribute – www.adobe.com

No matter which CMS solution you choose you will need the help of a competent web design firm to install/configure the software and train your staff on how to use it. Once the software is installed and running your organization can benefit from the increased speed and efficiency of managing it’s website content without calling IT.

Complete Printer Source is a print toner dealer and printer repair shop. They specialize in providing recycled print cartridges and printer service/repair for companies and colleges in the greater Cincinnati area.

Complete Printer Source came to us in 2008 with a request to take their extensive inventory of printer cartridges, printers and office supplies online.

We undertook the extensive task of importing CPS’s extensive inventory from ERP to shopping cart and linking the print cartridges to compatibility data so website users can shop CPS’s printer cartridge inventory by their printer make and model.

CPS4Service.com also contains extensive custom controls for administering the promotional contentment, including coupon admin, price discounts, homepage features and banner ads.

Based on the OSCommerce open source shopping cart solution, CPS4Service.com continues to perform flawlessly with fast load times and a very high conversion rate.

Traffic to CPS4Service.com has been aided by our Search Engine Optimization service. After implementing our SEO, cps4service.com experienced a significant increase in website traffic.

Visit Site: CPS4Service.com