OuterBox’s eCommerce Blog
To Pay or Not To Pay (Per Click)
These days we all need to find ways to market our business and website in a more effective way. We could all use a few thousand more visitors a month and not paying for each of those would be great! As you may or may not know, the sponsored listing on Google and Yahoo are “pay-per-click” ads. This means each time someone visits your website from your sponsored listing, you’ll pay for it. The price can range form .10 cents to $5.00 plus. So, let’s say you’re paying$1.00 a click, you’ll spend around $1,000 a month for 1,000 visits. Yep, that can get expensive.
So, what’s an alternative? Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is a good place to start. The goal of SEO is to bring your site to the top of the search engines for the keywords that most relate to your business and will sell your product or service. Whether a sale is the end goal or generating a lead, driving traffic to your website through the search engines is probably the best method of advertising.
Another advantage of SEO over PPC (pay-per-click) is the long term value. When SEO is performed on your website you’ll grow your traffic and continue to on-going. Also, the company performing your SEO should be making updates to your website that will also improve the visitors experience. The goal is SEO is to evaluate your website not only from a search engines perspective, but from a users. Remember, traffic is great, but converting the traffic is even better.
Now, don’t take this the wrong way. PPC is still value and is a great way to advertise! If the budget is low, SEO may be a better way to go and you should get more traffic for the price, depending on your industry. To get an idea of how much you may pay for each click, visit https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox . This tool will allow you to get a better idea of the traffic you may be able to receive for certain keywords as well.
Link Popularity Importance for Search Engine Rankings
As our company begins working with new clients on search engine optimization (SEO), many clients often wonder what strategies are used in optimization of a website and how link popularity comes into play. Many different tasks and strategies are used, while developing link popularity for the site is a major step in the process. Below we go over the basics and offer a few suggestions on how to begin link building.
How link popularity works – When another website links to your site, this gives you “link popularity”. Think of it as homecoming and you just got a vote (congrats!). The more votes you get, the more popular you are and one day you just might end up as homecoming king or queen, or in this case #1 in Google.
The thought process behind link popularity, is that someone would like to your website because you have valuable content or a quality product. The search engines look at this as a vote for your website. The more votes you have, the better your rankings should be.
All votes are not equal – The better the website that links to you, the more valuable this is to your website. Deciding whether or not a website will be a valuable link is not always easy. Websites with that deal with the same subject, or a subject that is similar, are usually best.
Trading links – It can be difficult to find websites that will link back to your website without you linking to them. Trading links can be beneficial, but making sure the website you’re trading with has a quality site is very important. Linking back to a website that Google has banned or does not give a good quality rating to can actually hurt your websites search engine rankings.
Blogging – Writing your own content, and content people actually WANT to read, will be a great help in receiving links to your website. Creating a blog and talking about topics in your industry is very powerful. You’ll find people reading and in-turn linking to your website.
Press Releases – Submitting your press release to a website such was www.prweb.com is a great way to build links and also “get the word out”. When writing a press release, be sure that the topic is one that is interesting. If you’re lucky, it may get picked up by a major news source. Also, be sure to optimize your press release and link to your website within it. This will give you the link boost you’re looking for. To add links within your press release usually costs more than a free press release. On PR Web the cost is $200 for a “Search Engine Optimized” Press Release.
eCommerce Website Development – Where to Start (Part 1)
When it comes to eCommerce website design, many businesses are at a loss for where to start. Questions such as, “How do we manage our inventory?”, “Where do we find product images?” and “How do I choose a company?” always seem to arise. OuterBox Solutions eCommerce Website Development offers its suggestion below to help you better understand eCommerce and moving forward in developing your new website.
When it comes to choosing your eCommerce web design company, there are a lot of options. Many companies claim to be experts, so how do you know which is for real and which company may be a 15 year-old in their basement. The first area to explore is the company’s portfolio and client list. Be sure they have experience in website development and especially eCommerce website design. There is a big difference in a standard informational websited opposed to eCommerce websites. Next, be sure the company has a location and is easily accessible. If you need to sit down with them and go over ideas, you want that availability. Or, if you’re not in the region of the company you’re interested in, be sure they are readily available via phone and email. Also, check into how long the company has been in business, and you can always ask for references! Remember, any questions or concerns you have, be sure to ask. The more informed you are, the better the development process will be.
Managing your product inventory, or getting it online into your store, can often seem to be a daunting task. There are a few ways you can go about this. Your first option is to compile a database of all of your products in an Excel (or Excel type) format. This will allow your web design company to import all of your products into your website. Remember, images must be attached to your products as well, so be sure to create a column for the product image filename, or name of all of your images by SKU number. Your other option is to put in all products by hand. Any eCommerce website should come with an administration that will allow you to add products. Using this administration to add products is usually fairly easy, but it can be time consuming if you have hundreds of items!
Your product images are the key to success when selling your products online. As we all know, a photo is worth a thousand words, and customers want to know exactly what your product looks like before they make a purchase. Showing the details, whether it be a zipper or button, can be the difference between a sale or losing a customer. If your manufacturer provides product images, they will be often be high quality and will save you much time. If not, you can take photos yourself or hire a professional photographer. If you do opt to take photos yourself, be sure they come out well. Your photos are all you have to offer in order to sell your product.
For more information regarding eCommerce website development call us at 1-866-647-9218.
