I have continually stressed the importance of links in regards to optimizing your storefront to ensure that your site is ranked high in search engines, Alexa and Google Page Rank. While there are three types of links: inbound, outbound and reciprocal, it is important to understand to which sites to link your URL. In the world of the Internet, linking sites is a form of association. You are saying “think of me when you are on this site, we are friends, etc.” Therefore, a rule of thumb and suggestions to link by:

1.    Content must be related!
As I stated before, links are considered association not only to customers, but search engines as well. Before adding an outbound link, make sure supporting context exists. With inbound links, you don’t want to risk putting your website in a negative light. Check the Page Rank of the sites you are associated with—yes, it is a popularity contest…but hopefully without all of the drama! This is especially useful when determining whether or not to pay to be listed in a directory. Even if the site is popular, content still must be related! Have a purpose for the link or you will be penalized when the spiders crawl.

2.    AllinURL
Searching for sites that use the same keywords you do is a great way to find new sites to which to link your site. You don’t want to link to competitors, but you should respond to blogs and forums. This will help expand industry discussion and you can sneak in your URL for contact information or as a hyperlink. For instance, if you are responding to a blog to which you disagree, include a hyperlink to the page on your site which helps prove your point. This is also a great chance to add more links to deeper pages on your site. (Yes, I do encourage comments to my blogs…I get lonely!)

3.    Blogs
We all love blogs, or we wouldn’t be here…and they are a great way to encourage customer-generated content and outbound links. For instance, I have written many blogs in response to an article. Adding the link to the article helps both sites because search engines perceive this as credibility, social interaction and related content. Truly, I do it for the sole purpose of educating my readers and avoiding plagiarism…

Blog rolls are another great way to expand your blog. Add an RSS feed of another blog on a topic that your readers might find interesting. Again, this increases credibility, association and outbound links. Additionally, with greater information on your site, you are likely to gain repeat visitors.

4.    Quality, not Quantity! 
To sum it all up, it is important to remember that when you create links on a daily basis it is QUALITY not quantity! This includes the factor on content, page ranking and credibility. The Internet is a great place to create loyal customers and gain brand awareness, but you are constantly molding your brand image. Be sure this is done with careful consideration… not everyone’s brand can be strengthened through the help of a tree frog. 

Now, go link crazy!

Webster

     

Busted!

While there is, and probably always will be, a battle between creative and design, ShopVisible is a happy medium where it is possible to have a site at the top of the search engine results that still beams with creativity and innovation. Most people will argue and say that copy, tags and links are needed to optimize a website. Creatives want to use flashy images, videos and pop-ups that Google ignores in its search algorithm.

But why not have the best of both worlds? Check out some of our clients’ sites. While all are designed from the inside out for maximum optimization, they are all customizable and unique with unlimited room for creativity and design.
When designing a new site or even refreshing an old site our programmers work closely with the designers on developing an eye catching site that is easily spidered by Google. We have many proprietary techniques that we use to optimize our site, many of which revolve around the way our Site Manager handles inventory.

(Warning: This might get a bit technical)

We love Div tags and Style sheets because the code is clean and easily read by search engines. When rendering a page we don’t include strange symbols in the URL, instead we try to make the URL as descriptive as possible using plain text. This helps both search engines as well as customers browsing our site. We tag and name everything, although Google may not weigh tags and names heavily when ranking a site, because it does help Google figure out what kind of content is on our page and why it would be relevant to a customer.

And after all of that, you can still have a beautiful site displaying all of your flare that will draw in customers.

Check it out.

Webster

     

Have you heard of the “Google Sandbox?” I hadn’t. The article “The Mythical Google Sandbox and How To Excape It” is pretty interesting and helps explain the theory. I suggest you read it first.

Done? Okay, now for my thoughts…


The idea makes sense. Search for the latest news and articles will come up explaining what you just heard on the radio or saw on the television. But if you try to search for something that happened a few months ago, the results vary and the article won’t be as easy to find. Bill Platt is saying the same thing happens with a new web page. “If the page has not generated any link popularity of its own,” it will disappear into the vast space we call the World Wide Web.

This is where start-up companies need to pay attention. If you are just starting a website, you should be more concerned on the product as opposed to constantly updating content, writing blogs (even if they are entertaining) and creating inbound links to optimize your search results (although it is extremely important). Therefore, instead of having a month of fame and then getting sucked into the “Google Sandbox,” consider purchasing a retired domain name.
Retired domains will give you some sort of error as the page no longer exists, but still show up in search results depending on the number of inbound links and how old the site is. Try the search tools explained in my previous post (link:URL) and research to see how popular the site used to be. If someone who obviously understood SEO used to operate under the name, it would definitely be worth the extra cost for the affiliation as opposed to starting from scratch.

If you still aren’t convinced, consider contacting my buddy Josh here at ShopVisible. I’m sure he’d love to talk to you about your new website!


Webster



Technorati Profile

     

As many of my postings have mentioned, inbound links dramatically improve your location on the web (i.e. Google really likes them because it helps legitimize your site). To see if you are maximizing this part of the “natural search engine ranking equation,” try searching “link:www.shopvisible.com.” Yes, actually use your own URL… 

The results displayed show every website that has a link to your site. Cool, huh? Some companies have close to a million results linking them to their site and it is somewhat intimidating when you think of them as competition. But look at your actual competitors. See if you have more inbound links than they do. Now, it’s game on!

Another useful search tool is “allinurl:keyword.” No, don’t type “keyword.” Try something for which you want your company to be listed, like “ecommerce.” This shows your competition with this keyword in their URL. It can also help determine which keywords should be purchased (lots of competition) and which can be accomplished through natural search tactics (vast space).  

Good luck searching!

Webster   

     

For consumers, online shopping has benefits such as convenience and comparison. For companies, it gives the advantage of a national reach, builds loyalty and credibility and increases revenue. But how do companies maximize that revenue when it is easy to get lost on the web under the vast number of companies? Well, the easy answer is to become a client of ShopVisible and use our technology to optimize your location on the web, streamline the navigation of your website, effectively promote your products and simplify the check out process. But if you don’t have time for such a large commitment (you should reconsider), you might consider posting coupon codes.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain a bit more about online coupons. Recall the last time you purchased something online. Remember at checkout that box that read “Gift card/Coupon code,” or something along those lines? Did you know that you could search for these codes and get discounts such as free shipping or 20% off your order? Well, you can! And for me, that makes online shopping better because then I don’t worry about the extra cost of shipping.

Now, to the point…Companies should willingly post coupons codes on the Internet. Not only will this increase the number of in-bound links (which helps your search ranking), it will amplify the amount of traffic to your site and the number of orders. If you received 20% off, wouldn’t you buy more? Plus, people already try to Google search for coupons and are sometimes successful. If customers were aware of your, albeit temporary, competitive advantage it might even increase loyalty.

My friends at ShopVisible understand the success with coupon codes and have designed the e-commerce platform to easily allow coupon codes and other discounts at checkout. But if you still aren’t ready for a major commitment, try posting a coupon code and see if it increases your traffic and sales.

Be sure to let me know your results!

Webster J Frogg   

     

One of the keys to gaining success in the natural positions of the search engines is content, and what better way to get content, but have your customers do the legwork for you. 

     

RSS has a major impact on the SEO performance of your E-Commece store.  Though less than 20% of internet users really understand what RSS is, the spiders definitely do.

There are several ways in which RSS can have a positive impact on your search engine optimization and more imporantly make your content available to blogging communities, other product channels, and anyone really interested in reading about what you have to say.  As a retailer, you generally have a lot to say when it comes to the quality of your products, and how to differentiate between different brands and so many options, so why not do this in a way that can get that content out to so many people, and allow the search engines to find this in a meaningful way.