SERPing for profits
In our personal lives, ego searching is the term for checking your name in Google or other search engines. It can be productive fun. Looking yourself up gives you an idea what friends or business associates will see when they search your name (and gives you time to come up with plausible stories for any other items they may unearth!) It is like looking in the mirror to make sure you look presentable.
When we shift to our business lives, ego searching becomes the much more useful and professional sounding SERP – search engine results position. The idea is the same: find out what people see when they search for you. More importantly, SERP lets you see where your business ranks when buyers search for what you are selling.
Hot pie and more business
When it comes to good business ideas, simple and elegant beats complicated every time.
Take this great post from Bob Phibbs. I am very fond of vivid examples and how they get into your head. I guarantee when you are done reading this post, you will be thinking of pie.
Fresh ideas to build eCommerce traffic
From the fine minds at Practical eCommerce come some great ideas on how to use New-Media (it’s okay to call it social media and drop the hyphen – really!) to boost your eCommerce business. You can find the article here.
We’ve seen several of these ideas before, but I haven’t seen the idea of turning your site into a game before. That could be a lot of fun.
What it comes down to is making your site a worthwhile repeat destination. Continue reading
Video makes an impression – of some sort
Good article find at E-Commerce Junkie about the value of video snippets in online ads. You can find the article here.
According to the benchmark study from Unicast, online ads with video components continue to make a lasting impression with viewers. What is notable in the article – which says the same thing has been going on for four quarters now – is an unusual turn of phrase: “the best chance of leaving an impression.” Video in online ads certainly can make an impression, but is it always positive?
Cheat sheet for ecommerce transaction costs
I often find myself creating cheat sheets – quick reference information that I can put aside for the next time I need it. Recently I was digging into ecommerce transaction fees and the various charges that you can run into when processing transactions online. Sometimes the fees are not very clear and often times they are avoidable, but you have to know what they are to make any headway.
Since it took a little digging to pull the list together, I thought it might save some folks a few minutes as well. So here you go. Continue reading
The hard work of Search Engine Marketing
The Globe and Mail is running a four-part series on online advertising ideas for small business. As part of the series, Ivor Tossell writes about search engine marketing (SEM) and the ongoing work of refining keywords and copy. You can find the article “Find your search ad sweet spot” here.
The key message: getting started in SEM is smart, but continuing to refine the targeting and messaging is critical.
Always keep designing
There was a very good blog post by Jack Love on Internet Retailer two weeks ago (you can find it here) about the need to keep your eCommerce site fresh. While the catalyst for his post was changing ways that customers user to access eCommerce sites, other factors should also drive a fresh set of eyes.
Runaway carts – 10 strategies to stop cart abandonment
As business owners, we spend a lot of time figuring out what those shoppers want to buy and how to get them to come to our site. Once in the storefront, they spend time looking for just the right items. They click around, browse our fine selection, and put a few items in their shopping cart.
And then, maddeningly, some people just stop. They leave their cart sitting in the middle of the virtual aisle, filled with items we would love to sell them. It’s called cart abandonment. Here are ten tips to reduce cart abandonment.
Driving traffic to your eCommerce site
One challenge that all site owners face is getting potential buyers to the website. Here are a five ideas to boost traffic to your site, including tips on natural search, paid search, social networking, blogs and email marketing.
Natural Search: A good first step to increasing free traffic from search engines, which is called natural search, is creating pages with good title tags and product descriptions. Title tags should contain specific keywords or a phrase that describes your product. When creating product descriptions, avoid simply copying the manufacturer’s description. Having unique content will help you stand apart from other ecommerce sites and perhaps give you an edge.
Top 10 merchandising tips for the holidays
The holidays are a busy time for everyone, including your customers. Use our list of 10 merchandising tips to make it easy for customers to navigate your site, view your best products and deals, and find all the information they need to make confident purchasing decisions.
1. Make a Good First Impression: Focus merchandising efforts on your home page, key category pages, and other popular landing pages. Remember that slow page loads may drive customers away, so avoid heavy merchandising that slows these pages down.
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