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URL Clarity: ShopVisible making Life Easier for the Online Customer
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| By JVM |
10/22/2008 10:48:00 AM |
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Have you ever sought out an item online, successfully located it, planned on purchasing it, and then forgotten where you originally found it?
The other day my mother had a birthday. She had recently finished renovating her living room so I thought that it would be a great idea to buy her a new lounge chair. I checked out Rooms To Go online. This furniture purveyor had a lot to offer...including URL confusion.
I browsed the website and found a Beachside Khaki Chair. I liked the look but was unsure if my mom would approve of the color scheme's matching coordination with her new paint job. I jotted down the URL to pass along to her:
www.roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showitem&ipac_id=12738
(Please keep in my mind that my 60 year old mother is no Bill Gates when it comes to web navigation...)
Since there is a Rooms To Go present here in Atlanta, I decided that maybe mom would be able to visit the store to view the chair. I then thought: "What if I want to save her a trip to the brick and mortar store? Wouldn't it be easier for her to remain home and browse selections?"
After giving her the above confusing URL and waiting on the phone while she slowly yet gracefully sojourned to her destination site, she said: "you know, I cannot find this chair you speak of... Some 404 error page keeps popping up. I hate computers!"
"Mom. Don't blame the computer; blame the URL. Blame Rooms to Go," I replied. I then rehtought the birthday gift buying process which I was attempting to enable my mother with. I recalled seeing another site on the web while I looked for "Atlanta teak (one of ma's favorites types) furniture." AuthenTeak, a ShopVisible powered Atlanta furniture provider, utilized clean and simple URLs. This online storefront popped up at the top on Google's listing.
For a chair similar to that from Rooms To Go, AuthenTeak showed a listing for a "Gloster Plantation Deep Seating Spring Rocker." The neat and tidy URL was:
http://www.authenteak.com/swivel-rocking-and-spring-rocking-chairs/gloster-plantation-deep-seating-spring-rocker.asp
As both you and my mother can see, the URL states the name, style, and brand all in one place. Let us again try and see what Rooms To Go offered up:
www.roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showitem&ipac_id=12738
The latter URL was complicated and jumbled, filled with caps, letters and numbers. When I sent my mother the AuthenTeak link, she almost already knew what she was looking for going off the URL alone. She exclaimed, "I love it already. Deep seating, swivel rocking, and located here in Atlanta. How easy!"
Shopvisible's seamless integration and user-friendly SEO content construction made for an overall agreeable shopping venture. For a glimpse into SEO powered retailers, look at all of the ShopVisible merchants.
They have been making URLs and mothers seeking easy web navigation happy for years.
ShopVisible is an Atlanta based ecommerce solution provider. Equipped with Google Checkout Integration and more, ShopVisible utilizes ecommerce state of the line technology, SEO tactics and SEM in order to incorporate efficiently fluid ecommerce processes.
For more ShopVisible blog entries:
www.shopvisible.blogspot.com
www.shopvisible.wordpress.com
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Strategy of Links
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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
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Tags: e-commerce solution, link, search ranking, page rank, alexa, hyperlink, outbound, inbound, reciprocal, site optimization, SEO |
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Categories: SEO, RSS, User Generated Content |
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Myth: You Have to Choose Between Creative and Site Optimization
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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
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Tags: seo, google, ranking, form, function, design, creativity, spidering, e-commerce, search optimizatoin, search rankings, URL |
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Categories: SEO, RSS |
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The Breakdown of SEO
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Welcome back from a wonderful holiday weekend!
As an easy intro to my morning, I came across and article that succinctly summarized Search Engine Optimization, one of the backbones to ShopVisible’s e-commerce solution. “Top 20 Contributing Factors For Google SEO” not only talks about the key elements in increasing your search engine rankings such as inbound links, tags, keywords and copy (which are also discussed in my previous blogs), but it also mentions a few things from which to steer clear.
While I do suggest that you take the time to read the article, I’ll highlight the main points:
• Google is smart and will know when you are using the same keywords for every tag/title
• Keep your content original, informative and non-repetitive
• Ensure that your external links are on reputable sites (consider it your reputation)
It is easy to follow this advice. Just make sure to do your homework and know your consumers and competitors. With the right information, you can be the team to beat. So, read the article, talk to my friends at ShopVisible and start increasing your search engine ranking today.
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Currently rated 5 by 1 person
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The Untapped Potential of Coupons
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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
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Currently rated 5 by 2 people
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How Off-Site Optimization Can Help Your Website
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Hello, friends of ShopVisible! Today has been quite hectic… One of my first e-mails was the SiteProNews Newsletter which featured the article "Why Bother With Linked-in or Facebook". This article resulted in four hours of joining social networks and creating pages. Why, you might ask? Well not only did I already have insight on off-site optimization from hanging around the individuals at ShopVisible, the article definitely gave me additional perspective on the importance!
Basically, the author, John Clark, realizes the importance of off-site factors. With off-site optimization, your natural search ranking is enhanced more than if you had solely used on-site optimization. Through sites such as Linked-in and Facebook, you can post links to your company website and list the company as your employer. This creates more search results and off-site links—which Google really likes! The optimization of your search rankings will ultimately increase traffic and hopefully sales as well.
Additionally, social networks provide credibility for your company. Linked-in’s feature of Recommendations not only creates more links, it highlights your skills and accomplishments. In our previous blogs you have read about customer generated information and how it positively influences shoppers. Connections on Linked-in will read your recommendations and eventually feel more comfortable about conducting business with you.
It’s a good thing ShopVisible understands this and ensures that affiliate tools, in-site search and channel management are easily accessible through the platform. But if I still haven’t convinced you of the importance of off-site optimization, read the article for yourself!
Don’t forget that you can now find me on MySpace and Facebook! Also, be sure to write recommendations for the people who work at ShopVisible. Client support is a great way to help businesses grow (plus, you might get a recommendation in return).
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Currently rated 5 by 3 people
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