Growing Your Online Business

Have You Checked Your Rankings Lately?

Not too long ago, Infopia began making some nonvisible, mainly technical changes to our clients’ websites to help their search engine rankings. One of these changes was to force 301 redirects for URL changes, which focuses the search engine cataloguing instead of diffusing it. One client in particular, www.hifisoundconnection.com, noticed a huge jump in rankings after this change took place. Hifisound Connection’s owner, Chris Rush, is already very SEO savvy and constantly works at monitoring and improving his rankings. But even he was surprised by the impact such a change had on his SEO performance.

So, have you noticed a change in your rankings in the past couple of months? Are you monitoring your rankings enough to know when your rankings have been impacted and what has impacted them? Do you even know when you were last crawled by the search engines? Why is it so important for you to know how often you get crawled?

The more often you get crawled, the more quickly your search engine optimization changes to your website take effect and the more often your rankings fluctuate. So if you are crawled once a month, you can't expect your rankings to fluctuate more often than that.

Knowing when your changes will be noticed by the search engines and when you can expect to see some results helps you plan your website changes and monitor rankings. You can even set up a calendar to remind yourself when to check if your changes have helped your rankings or not. If they helped, leave them and perpetuate a similar concept on other parts of your site. If they hurt your rankings, change the site back and try something else. Don’t make random changes to the SEO components of your website; only make changes that help your bottom line. And try not to make more than one significant change at a time or you won’t be able to determine which change influenced the rankings.

A simple way to find out when you were last crawled is to go to the search engine site and search for your URL (for example, www.yourwebsite.com), then click on the cached link under your result. The cached link will show you when you were last crawled by the site’s spiders, or cataloguers. Keep checking this area for at least a couple of months to see how often you get crawled. Because of his ongoing SEO efforts, Rush’s website, www.hifisoundconnection.com, is crawled weekly by Google. That’s excellent!

If you aren’t monitoring your rankings, you don’t know when you were crawled last, and consequently, you won’t be able to measure the effects of your SEO efforts. If you’re monitoring and regularly making search engine friendly updates to your site, it can increase your crawl rate and accelerate your SEO results. Crawling = Love. Be conscious of how often the search engines are giving you the love!

Jason

Easter Sale!!! ........ Are you having one?

This is your friendly reminder that it is that time of the year again.  Spring, Easter, Sunshine, Flowers,....you get the idea.  Easter Sunday is on April 8th.  Capitalize on the emotion, momentum, and positive vibes of spring to communicate with your customers and offer new deals.

Some Marketing suggestions for next week:

1.  Begin your Easter Sale (if this is something you do) on your website

2.  Send out an email campaign for Easter Specials

3.  Plan/Begin your Summer (yes, I said Summer) PPC Campaign for your summer merchandise

4.  Speaking of emails, send an entertaining 'April Fools' email to your customers and prospects on Sunday April 1st

Ralf

Protect Yourself & Your Customers

Even the best of us can fall victim to some of the extravagant scams out there. Scams work because people fall for them.  But, these scams not only cost you directly, indirectly they cost you by making internet shopper more hesitant to buy.

Protect yourself, and help your customers from these scams and make sure that you reinforce your trustworthiness in your listings, your site, and throughout the buying process.  Your customers will thank you by trusting you, and returning for repeat purchases.

Two very common methods are:

• Phishing (pronounced “fishing”): Fraudulent emails that request or initiate a scam to get sensitive personal information.
• Spoof Site: Fraudulent sites – usually linked from a phishing email – that look like well-known websites.

The scam in short:

You receive an alarming email saying your bank account is about to be closed. You're urged to respond quickly to verify your identity by clicking on a link to a website. Follow the instructions and you'll be delivering your personal data directly into the hands of identity thieves who are "phishing" for information. If successful, they can run up huge bills for purchases you didn't make.

What to remember:

• Don’t click on links within emails asking for your personal or financial information.
• Contact the organization using a phone number you know to be genuine, or open a new browser and type in the company's URL.
• Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date

Paypal has an excellent summary of how to spot these Phishing Scams and Spoof Sites:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/general/RecognizePhishing-outside

Safe Selling & Buying!!

Who do you love?

Customers!!!!

Valentines Day is only a few weeks away, and now is the time to get your customers thinking about making those purchases for the ones they love.

Make the most of the occasion - play it up, be festive, get them 'in the mood' (careful on that one).

Communicate proactively - use email campaigns and newsletters to reach out.

Promotions - be creative and offer specials, such as discounts to your loyal customers as a Valentine's Day gift to them.

Website & Listings theme - update some graphics, text, and layout to show your loving mood.

Love your customers and they will love you back.  XOXOXO

2006 Holidays - 5 Tips to Share

The 2006 Holidays are over, the ball has dropped in New York, and snow is no longer a romantic seasonal highlight but something to be shoveled.  Now is the time to do a postmortem on your 2006 and apply what you have learned for your 2007.  In that spirit – here are five quick tips based on what we have seen and heard from our Infopia community:

1.      Always Plan Early:  Six and even nine months in advance is a great time to start if you are planning to do the appropriate research and testing to maximize your campaigns.

2.      Flexible in Your PPC & SEM:  Be aware of seasonal shifts in the number of bids and the amount bid on certain keywords.  Just because it worked in June, does not mean it works in December.

3.      Promotions:  Even though early promotions were successful, the effect of extending the 'last day for on-time Christmas shipping' was an even more powerful promotion for some. Be creative, know your audience, and target their needs.

4.      Email Marketing – Important:  Ensure you have the right list and you have segmented them appropriately to be able to create meaningful offers for the recipients.

5.      Measure Your Success:  Visibility into what is and is not working is critical to allow you to adjust your strategy.  Set up a system to monitor your progress and act upon the information.

Smaller Retailers Hit Hardest by Fraud

According to Jeff Grau from eMarketer, small retailers are much more likely to be hit by fraud.  Following are excerpts from his article about online fraud:

Big dollars:  in 2006 Web merchants in the US and Canada will lose $3.0 billion to online payment fraud. While the volume of online fraud is increasing, its percentage of online retail sales is decreasing annually. In 2006 the value of online fraud will be 1.4% of total online sales, down from 1.6% in 2005 and 3.6% in 2000.

Fraudulent orders can be presented to merchants in two ways: as a chargeback from the merchant bank or as a direct request from a consumer for credit. In 2006, 65% of fraud claims were from customer credits, compared with 35% from chargebacks. By dealing directly with customers, retailers avoid penalty fees levied by the credit card issuers and show losses that understate the real amount of fraud.

CyberSource found that the median amount Web merchants spend on fraud management is 0.3% of annual online revenues, with 16% of e-tailers spending as much as 4% or more of online revenues to manage fraud, up from 12% in 2005. The bulk of fraud management spending (46%) is for staff to review orders manually. This percentage increases to an average of 59% for merchants with greater than $25 million in online revenues. The remainder of fraud management is allocated to third-party tools (28%) and internal tools and systems (26%).

CyberSource found that for every 100 orders received in 2006, Web merchants rejected four of them due to suspicion of fraud. Web merchants try to strike a balance between accepting fraudulent orders and rejecting valid ones that will maximize their sales and profits. Overall, online retailers have decreased their order-rejection rate from 5.9% in 2004 to 4.1% in 2006, even though this is a slight rise above the 3.9% rate reported in 2005.

Read the full article from Jeff Grau from eMarketer at:  http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004390&src=article1_newsltr

Feng Shui for Your Website

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space which is claimed to achieve harmony with the environment.

Skeptic or not, I believe that similar principles can be applied to your website. The proper arrangement of content, images and links can create harmony for your visitors and harmony for your bottom line!

Let’s talk about Alignment, Affinity, Focus, Credibility, and Flow.

Alignment- Make sure that the message on your ad or keyword phrase that pulls the visitor in is the same on the page that they land on. Anything different is jarring and uncomfortable to the visitor.

Affinity- Most visitors decide in 8 seconds whether to stay or go. Make sure you use language and images that let the visitor know they are in the right place. If you sell ski equipment, don’t put up pictures of your favorite kind of dog. Instant death! (I’ve seen this done more than you can believe.)

Focus- Keep it simple. Don’t use all the white space on your page to cram it full of products and links and content. This can be discombobulating to your visitors (I just wanted to use that wordJ). Focus on the main thing. Don’t distract them from the main goal with other links and content that is not important.

Credibility- A clean-cut, professionally designed site can build instant credibility. A poorly designed site can ruin it faster than a celebrity marriage. People want to know they are dealing with professionals. Quality pictures also help, as do 1-800 numbers and addresses to let people know you are a genuine entity.

Flow- Drive your visitors through a flow. Make it intuitive and easy. People don’t mind being led down a path if they think it’s taking them to what they came looking for. Make it easy to find. Especially for guys--we don’t like to ask for directions.

Next time we can talk about Kung Fu for your website. I just don’t know what that is yet.

Endurance.....not 1-hit wonders like PS3 Mania

Ok, who did not make a killing with stocks in the .com boom?  Who lost their shirt in the .com bust?

Who made a killing reselling their PS3?  Who got stuck with a bunch of Walmart closeout alarm clocks?  (you know, if Walmart is unable to sell something - well, that is a hint right there.)

My point is that success in online retailing is about a sustainable strategy.  It is not about finding that 1-hit wonder and making your fortune.

Find your niche, your expertise.  Develop relationships with suppliers and partners that are win-win.

If you are looking to expand or supplement your business strategy, there are many options out there.  One option is to look at drop-ship suppliers such as the following:

http://www.doba.com/

http://www.mahibay.com/

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/product_sourcing_popup.asp

Be creative.  Do your homework.  Have fun.

But, stay true to your business strategy and goal.  Do not get distracted by a quick buck and the excitement of the moment, even if it is as exciting as PS3.

Just Like in Politics, Information Is King in Selling

Election Day is upon us.  Just like politics (which I will not address with anyone but my agreeable dog), retailing online keeps changing.  eBay – once a goldmine for individuals and one-off’s - now is a battleground of large sellers and brands. 

So how do you stay ahead of the competition in pricing & selling strategies?  Information, information, information.  Start by knowing your business, customers, and competition.

An essential piece to the puzzle is to know what is happening in the market.  Just like our adored politicians watch the polls and adjust to their environment, you must watch the market and adjust to the environment.  That means have the research and visibility at your fingertips at all times on what your product lines are doing in the market.  What is hot, how much are items selling for, how long are they on the shelf, etc.

One tool to give you that information is Hammertap Power Web, now integrated into Infopia’s Marketplace Manager. This powerful research tool allows you to compare your business to your competitors on eBay. Hammertap will give you valuable information on pricing, listing format, listing features, listing duration, successful keyword selection, and competitive category selection.

...And Remember, GET OUT AND VOTE!!

You will find detailed instructions on how to use Infopia’s Hammertap Power Web solution here:  http://www.infopia.com/infopia/Upgrade_6.4.pdf

Web Analytics: A Must For Ecommerce

MEASURE, TEST AND THEN MEASURE AGAIN

 Your ecommerce site performance comes down to one simple thing, your conversion rate. This is simply the number of visitors you have on a monthly basis divided by the number of sales you made that month.

Don’t be discouraged if your numbers are low, a typical ecommerce site does about a 1-2% conversion rate.

The nice thing is that once you use web analytics and you start capturing this data you can start tweaking  your website for better conversion. Two very important places to watch are your home page and your shopping cart. Your home page abandonment rate is important. You may be failing to engage potential business because your home page is not inviting them further into the site. Measure the total number of visitors per month who entered into your site from your home page and check that against the total number of people who exited your site from the home page. If the number is high, you may be losing potential business before they even give you a chance.

The same for your shopping cart, how many people started the purchasing process only to leave in the middle of it? If the number is high, you have a problem. Exactly what those problems are is not clear right off the bat, but now that you know you can start revising for improvement.

Once you get the hang of it, there is so much you can track and measure. Trust me, the more you measure the performance of your site, even your auctions, email campaigns, etc. the better chance you have of improving it. Knowledge is power!

If you do not have any form of tracking in your site here is a free one (thanks Google) http://www.google.com/analytics/