If you need a solution for your customers to quickly and easily find stores or dealers that carry your products, check out Geosprawl. Integrates easily into any website. www.geosprawl.com
Jun 302010
Big Commerce online stores offer the best opportunity for high Search Engine Position of any e-commerce shopping cart software on the market.
This article discusses 10 ways 20 ways that YOU can increase traffic to your BigCommerce online store. High search engine position, means more traffic which in turn means higher sales. If you want to get first page Google results, take full advantage of all Big Commerce SEO tools and incorporate some external Search Engine Optimization and marketing strategies to boost your web store’s rankings.
-
- FIRST, research what keywords or keyword phrases people are searching to find similar products. Go to the Google Keyword Tool to see the exact phrases people are using to find products in your market. The tool can be found here – https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Make a list. These will be your target keyword phrases.
- On each product page in your BigCommerce store, click on Other Details tab, and enter keyword phrases into both the Search Keywords and Meta Keywords fields
- Enter descriptive product tags in the Product Tags field, such as: “dog leashes” or “guitar strings”
- Enter the product’s name along with a few keyword phrases in the Page Title field – do not exceed 70 characters for your page title. Make sure the title is readable and makes people want to click on the link.
- Enter a description, starting with your targeted keyword phrase in the Meta Description field – use no more 160 characters in your meta description as Google cuts it off beyond this. Make sure your description is readable and would entice a person to click on your link.
- Use keyword phrases within the first sentence of your product descriptions. Make some of your keywords in the product description bold. Don’t repeat, repeat, repeat your keywords. That’s a spammy technique that is looked down upon by the search engines.
- Enter Page Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Description, and Search Keywords on each of your BigCommerce store’s Web page and Category page
- Fill out image titles and image descriptions where appropriate on category pages, product pages and web pages
- VERY POWERFUL – Start a WordPress blog. This blog can be hosted on a subdomain, such as www.blog.mywebsite.com. Make posts often.
- Write articles and use your keyword phrases near or at the front of the article headline. Pay for premium placement that includes at least one link to your site. I like www.free-press-release.com for immediate results
- Start a facebook page for your Big Commerce store. Add a link to your facebook page on your store sidebar or footer
- Start a Twitter account for your business. Add a link to your twitter account on your store sidebar or footer
- Save time by linking your blog to your facebook page by using NetworkedBlogs or a similar facebook app
- Save time by linking your blog to your Twitter account by using a tool like www.twitterfeed.com
- Use the SocialShop application in BigCommerce to add products to your facebook page
- Set up your Google Base Product Feed to feed products into Google Product Search
- Start a Youtube.com account and begin uploading videos about your products or services. Use keywords in video titles and descriptions. Link some of these videos into your Big Commerce product pages
- Get as many quality website links coming to your site as possible
- Promote, promote, promote – online AND offline! Don’t forget the value of marketing your business through any creative means possible. Run ads, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your friends to tell their colleagues. Be a cheerleader for your brand, for your business.
Also, make sure that your Search Engine Optimization settings are correct in your Store Settings. Next to Search Engine Friendly URLs, select “Enable if Available” and enter a page title, keywords, and meta description in the appropriate fields.
When starting your online business, there is no magic wand that creates instant traffic to your store. You must market, you must sell, you must promote your business to be successful.
Redhead Web Development is a Certified Design Partner for Big Commerce. If you need help with this or any other Big Commerce customization, BigCommerce SEO, or consulting, contact Redhead for more information.
Check out the WordPress 3.0 Video Right here.
Jun 162010
We’ve all heard the question, “are you’re comparing apples to apples?”
The services of service-oriented businesses like web developers are difficult to compare exactly. It’s not like comparing identical iPhones with identical features from two different stores. Service offerings are different. Service providers have different levels of expertise, education, creativity, social skills, technical skills, business aptitude, foresight. Even if you are comparing apples to apples…show me two apples, and I’ll show you one bruised, small, mushy apple from Walmart and one big, shiny, round, crunchy apple from the local farmer’s market.
Sometimes we say, “please don’t compare apples to oranges.” The web design industry is filled with both apples and oranges of all shapes and sizes, and there is one common thread that goes through the entire lot of them…each one of them can put together a website. Beyond that commonality, their paths diverge.
The services from Redhead Web Development are neither apples nor oranges. What we provide is more like a big bowl full of chocolate covered strawberries.
We are professional web developers. We are artists. We are detailed, finicky, perfectionists when it comes to content and copy. We constantly study, we learn and refine the craft. We don’t cut corners. We are e-commerce experts. We are marketing minds who freely share ideas beyond web design. Some of these ideas have earned thousands of $$ for our clients. Our skills are broad, and our minds are focused. We are in the business of building business.
When you are considering the services of a professional web development company who will define your image online, for better or worse; or will be your partner to build the engine that runs your online store or training website, it will serve you well to know what kind of fruit you are dealing with. A little extra investment on the front-end could mean a big payout on the backend when your potential client is impressed enough to buy from you.
Forget about apples and oranges, and go for the good stuff. Your business will be better off for it.
Big Commerce category pages automatically display the following message if you have no products in a certain category, “There are no products in this category.”
This message can be a hassle if you want to create category pages in your Big Commerce web store that are used as web pages without including any products in those categories. For instance, we often use the WYSIWYG in Big Commerce’s category pages to create regular web pages for wholesale websites.
Using categories allows us to display private pages to wholesale distributors or wholesale dealers by assigning certain categories to the wholesale customer groups within Big Commerce. This is our workaround, as we can’t currently assign regular web pages to private categories viewable only by wholesale clients.
But with this method, after you’ve created a nice page, who wants that pesky “no products” phrase at the bottom.
How to Remove the Message “There are no products in this category.”
- Login to your Big Commerce store admin area
- Click on… Store Design > Design Mode tab > Open My Store in Design Mode
- After your store is open, navigate to one of the category pages that includes the message
- In the upper left hand corner, you will see the Design Mode window
- Click on “Toggle”
- Then put your mouse on the “There are no products in this category.” message and click
- This will highlight message (if it is not entirely highlighted, select it)
- Hit your space bar one time, then click the “Save” button directly below
- Click “Save” on the Design Mode window
That’s it the message should be gone.
By the way, while you have the Toggle selected, you can click around pages and on other messages or headers in your store and change them. Just keep in mind that when you change a header or piece of text, it will change it on all other related pages.
Redhead Web Development is a Certified Design Partner for Big Commerce. If you need help with this or any other Big Commerce customization, contact Redhead for more information.
