eCommerce Platforms for Your Business

Looking for an eCommerce shopping cart that will meet the needs of your business and stay within your budget can seem overwhelming at first. Shopping around to find the right solution can be a daunting task.   Wading through the seemingly endless varieties of shopping cart packages can take many hours and can be very frustrating!   Each company boasts that their system is the right one for you so determining which platform to run your eCommerce business requires time and patience.  Here are some points to keep in mind when purchasing an eCommerce shopping cart system.

Easy To Use Interface
The interface should be easy to use and understand for both you and the customer. Any eCommerce system worth its salt should be able to import products from an excel sheet, organize them into categories and track inventory.  Writing descriptions and modifying products should not be a difficult task.
On the consumer end, your eCommerce shopping cart should be easy to navigate and the checkout process must be simple and secure. Your products should also be categorized and displayed in a logical and intuitive way.

Search Engine Friendly
If people can’t find your eCommerce site then you’re not going to make any sales. Clean code and the ability modify URLs and header tags should be standard.  Your website’s loading speed must be fast and without any lag.  Lag is any noticeable delay that the user experiences when accessing your website.

Analytics and Reporting
A good eCommerce system will have the ability to track traffic, search queries, shopping cart abandonment, most viewed items and have automated sale reports. Knowing who is coming to your site, what they’re buying, their likes and dislikes, and how they are finding you can go a long way in shaping your marketing strategy.

Marketing Promotions and Tools
Promoting products, offering an email or newsletter sign-up, free shipping options and up-sells are a few features a shopping cart are the features of a superior shopping cart. Getting the customer to the site is only half the battle!  Encouraging them to purchase items is a lot easier if your eCommerce system is equipped with the ability to promote your products.

These are just a few pointers and suggestions when looking for an eCommerce system.  Here at InteractOne, we offer Magento eCommerce and osCommerce shopping cart solutions. If you are interested in either system for your business please contact us to learn more!

You have decided to implement a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign to drive traffic to your website, increase conversions and tap into the millions of consumers shopping for what you offer on the internet.  Which keywords or key-phrases should you target? While instinct might tell you to go after the keywords and phrases that best describe your business, it is best to research your competition using those same keywords, variations on keywords, and a cost analysis of the effort and time required to implement your keywords versus the amount of traffic they may generate.

First to give credit where it’s due, your instinct is right - make sure your SEO keywords specifically fit your business.  The key word here is “specific.” If you are a car window repair shop, choosing the keyword “windows” will get you nowhere fast. If you are a local New Holland tractor dealer, trying to rank with the phrase ”New Holland” might put you into unwanted and unprofitable competition with several large cities around the world. If you are a coffee shop, tempting as it might be, you have little chance with the keyword “coffee” alone.

Do you see the trend? Make sure your keywords are on-target, ownable, realistic and not easily mistaken for another subject entirely.

Once you’ve built your list of keywords it is time to analyze how many people are searching the web using those keywords. Two free tools that do a good job of this are Google’s Keyword Traffic Tool and Wordtrackers GTrends Tool. Follow this rule of thumb: if a keyword generates a ton of searches, it will be harder to rank organically through an SEO campaign.  If you find that your keywords have too much competition, try adding the town, city or state name. Also, try longer-tailed keywords; for example instead of  “windshield repair” try “windshield repair Cincinnati” or “window repair shop in Cincinnati.”

Your current rank for a keyword or phrase, the amount of competition for the same keyword and the current state of your website are all important factors in estimating SEO campaign costs. Writing articles and submitting them, optimizing website code, text, images, creating and monitoring social media to support your site, and the creation of new website content all must be taken into account.

Determining the proper keywords for your SEO campaign is an ongoing process. Setting and forgetting just isn’t possible. Constant traffic analysis, keyword position reports, and frequent website updates optimally tune your website for SEO.  Like most things, experience and first-hand knowledge are paramount. Start your SEO campaign on the right track with the proper keywords and you’ll gain the experience to make your website highly competitive by constantly refining your SEO strategy.

Inbound links from credible websites carry considerable weight in Google’s search algorithm and are a critical element for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For businesses entering the Internet; especially small to medium-sized businesses, getting quality links can prove to be a challenge. Here are some tips to get started on your linking campaign and improve your overall internet marketing efforts.

A great place to find links is simply to reach out to your business networking contacts. These can be clients (use discretion here), distributors, neighborhood businesses, charities or events your business takes part in, and related businesses. Just remember, do not be afraid to ask. The worst thing they can say is no and the benefit of obtaining quality links is well worth it.

Another great way to garner links is to go out and be part of the online community of blogs and forums. Make sure your comments are meaningful and on topic. Avoid spamming techniques like putting keywords where your name should be and filling the comments field with meaningless keyphrase babble. If you have content on your website that is relevant to the discussion make sure you offer a link back to that page of your website.

While searching for links, consider what I call “off the web links.” These links are your business’ URL printed on traditional media such as stationary, billing, business cards, and any form of advertising. To leave your URL off any form of media your business uses is simply giving yourself an unnecessary handicap.

Obtaining links can be challenging; however, it is a must when building your credibility with the major search engines and potential customers.

When potential customers search for your business online what are the results? The best case scenario would be a link to your website at the top of the first results page with links to positive reviews and content you control on the rest of the page. Worst case scenario is your competitor’s website or negative reviews at the top of the first results page with a link to your website nowhere to be found.

No matter where you are in the above scenario there are steps you can take to ensure that the results for a search of your of your business’ name are positive and bring customers to you instead of scaring them away.

1) Create a Static Website or Blog for your Business. This is not as intimidating as it sounds. Today you can set up a simple website or blog that will provide your business with an online presence for less than $20.oo a month. Keep in mind that this type of website won’t be winning any awards in design but will provide search engines with content on your business that you control. Blogging platforms such as WordPress are edging out static websites in popularity because of its ease of of use, functionality, and the ability to update text and design with little or no coding skills.

2) Get involved in Social Media. The great thing about social media is that it is free! The three top social media sites I recommend are Twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn. Facebook and Twitter are great internet marketing tool that allow you to engage your target market. You can use these platforms to update customers on your products and services, changes in hours, industry news and any other sources of information that might appeal to them.

3) Set up Local Listing Accounts. This also a great way to put your business on the web for free. Yahoo, Bing, and Google all have local listings/maps that allow you to post a summary, images, video, contact info and hours of your business.

4) Be Pro-Active. Search the internet for blogs, websites, forums, online news outlets and any other type of website that is related to your business or industry. On many of these sites you can make a profile for your business and leave comments and respond to questions.  If you see any negative reviews or postings about your business make sure you reach out immediately to resolve these issues.

Creating an online presence for your business that attracts customers instead of repels them only takes a few hours to setup and a few hours a week to manage. As more and more people log-on to the internet to find a business or to learn more about a business they plan on working with, you can bet your online reputation is going to play an ever more important role.

Website loading speed is a major factor when it comes to search engine rankings, retaining viewer interest and turning viewers into customers.   Although Magento is a fast loading Ecommerce website out of the box but there are many ways to tweak it for more speed. Increased speed can easily translate into more sales and better rankings in the  search engine result pages (SERPS).

One of the easiest ways to improve Magento’s speed is to add the Fooman Speedster extension. This extension is free and can be found here.  Load time after this extension is installed is vastly improved and is a must for streamlining your online store.

Another easy way to speed up Magento is to take out this line of code php_value memory_limit 128M which is found in the root .htaccess file. Eliminating this line of code gives magento more memory to work with which will improve page load times greatly.

Enabling Gzip on your server is another great way to speed up your Magento eCommerce site.  You can do this by updateing your .htacess file. First find “enable apache served files” in the file. Next change that code to the following:

############################################
## enable apache served files compression
## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#gzip

# Insert filter
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE

# Netscape 4.x has some problems…
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html

# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip

# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
# Don’t compress images
SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary

# Make sure proxies don’t deliver the wrong content
Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary

Hold on to your hats!! Off you go! These  modifications and updates are sure to improve the performance of your Magento eCommerce website, convert into better standings in the SERPS, and result in happier customers and more visitors.

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.

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.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is defined by Wikipedia as “the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion”. That type of definition; although correct, leaves a lot of questions in its wake. How does it work? Does SEO focus on the customer or the search engine? Or my all-time favorite what is the secret to getting the top listing in Google for this keyword?
The best way to answer these questions is not to think of SEO as a simple one-time fix problem. SEO is a multi-faceted spoke in your overall marketing plan. SEO is not a simple fix and forget solution. It is an endless process of proving to search engines and customers both that your business is the one to go to for a particular product or service.
When implementing SEO for a web site you must break down every page into content, links, & structure. Site navigation must be simple and easy to use, structure should be eye appealing and logical, links to and from the site must be relevant, and page content must be fresh, relevant, unique and cleanly structured. By doing this search engines and customers can discern what your website is about and the increase of web site traffic should soon follow.

When planning an online marketing strategy it is good practice to simplify what you offer into no more than twelve keywords. List these keywords/phrases out and determine the order of importance.  The first keyword/keyphrase on that list should always be on your mind when making search engine optimization changes or modifications to your websites homepage. The other keywords should be used on the homepage; however, should be focused on the other pages of your site.

The three biggest mistakes I see when doing Search Engine Optimization for websites is way to many images, poor use of alt tags, and poor keyword density and placement. When trying to optimize an already created site these mistakes require creative solutions.  Remember if your search engine ranking is not where you want it to be the only way you can change it is trying new things! Now trying to move from a SERPs ranking of 5 to 3 it’s best to be cautious when making changes. If you are on page 5 or greater no amount of changes could make things any worse.

If you are making a new website for your business now is the time to incorporate SEO best practices into your design.  A web design centered around a focused message will garner the attention of both your customers and search engine spiders alike & is a best practice that is guaranteed to yield results!

Links are very important when it comes to traffic & page rank. They can help boost your site to the top of the search engine results and a re a necessary part of SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

When it comes to links not any link is exactly alike. Each carries with it a unique set of variables that can either make it more valuable to your website or actually cause it to hurt your rankings. While web design, keyword placement, and the informational architecture is important to your site links can be the difference between ranking at the bottom of the first page of search results or at the top. And believe me, that bit of difference can cause your traffic number to go up significantly.

Finding quality links will take some time, communication skills, and research. When first looking for for websites start by looking for the the ones closest and easiest to to your business. You can start at free listings (Just make sure they are respectable) and from there you can move on to your own customers, friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. To keep the links you gather from sapping your index page rank make sure you set up a links page. It is also important to get rid of any one way links that are not reciprocal ( linking back to your site). If it is paramount to have that link you can always use the “no-follow” link attribute to discourage search engine spiders from following it. The best links are non-reciprocal and are usually the hardest to get; however with persistence and patience you will yeild results and the payoff will be worth it.

If you need assistance with creating a link campaign please do not hesitate to call InteractOne to talk with a Internet Marketing specialist who can get you started today.