Search Engine Friendly Website Design Blog » Success

Ecommerce Know-How: Selecting a Web Designer or Developer

Dan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:31:54 +0000

Consumers often judge how professional and how trustworthy an online store is by nothing more than its aesthetics. While many online retailers are experts in their field, they are not normally experts in graphic design or website development.

In this “eCommerce Know-How” blog post and video on the Practical Ecommerce blog, Armando Roggio (1) explains the difference between a web designer and a web developer, (2) provides five tips for selecting a professional web designer and/or developer, (3) offers opinions about situations you should watch out for when hiring one of these professionals, and (4) set some expectations about price and quality.
We couldn’t agree with him more.

Read the full Ecommerce Know-How: Selecting a Web Designer or Developer post and watch the video on the Practical Ecommerce Blog.

17 SEO Tools & Resources for Optimizing Your Store

Dan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:28:03 +0000

Discover what words your customers use when searching for your products using keyword research. Mark Simon from Miva Merchant has listed some tools that will help you build a solid keyword framework.

Read the blog post on the Miva Merchant website

New Miva Merchant SEO Ecommerce Store Spotlight: FleetFilter.com

Dan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:16:01 +0000

Brenham Auto began nearly thirty years ago, selling Wix & Napa filters & accessories from their brick and mortar store in Brenham, Texas. In 2005, the original FleetFilter.com online store was created to take the company’s sales philosophy to a national level.

The FleetFilter philosophy is simple: keep the small auto parts store feel with no call centers, outsourced customer service departments, or complicated shipping techniques while retaining the original aggressive pricing structure.

Brenham Napa / FleetFilter.com owner, Brian Schneider originally contacted us out of frustration because of an array of problems with the original FleetFilter Ecommerce store. Issues ranging from the original Windows Web server based store had been hacked, client data had been stolen and no store data or files was ever accessible because the original host “owned” everything.

Other problematic areas included the “Quick Add” feature (add multiple products to the cart simultaneously) never worked, the store didn’t have any product descriptions, the dynamic URLs were useless as far as SEO (and visitors) went and a lot more.

After the launch of the new Search Engine Optimized Miva Merchant Fleet Filter store, Brian had this to say about Webwest Internet / LA Servers:

“Your customers say the greatest things about you and I’m happy to be one of those customers now. I’d gladly do the website with you again. The site looks great, it functions great, and starting next week we’re going to get onto a marketing campaign to let our customers know that we’ve got a new-and-improved site. Thanks for all you’ve done – it’s been a pleasure getting the new site up and running with you.”

FleetFilter.com carries a full range of Wix Oil Filters, Wix Fuel Filters and a wide array of Wix & Napa Filters and Accessories and much more.

It’s said that everything is bigger in Texas and FleetFilter.com sustains this adage by being one of the largest discount Wix & Napa filter houses on the Web while maintaining the small auto parts store experience.

Installing Google Analytics In Miva Merchant 5.5

Dan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:06:06 +0000

Excellent instructions on implementing Google Analytics into Miva Merchant 5.5 for important data tracking including sales, site search and a funnel of the standard checkout steps.

Read the full article on the official Miva Merchant blog.

Social Media Trends That Indicate the Future

Dan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:19:42 +0000

One trend that businesses need to grasp is that “real-time is not fast enough.”
Customers are quick and companies, no matter how big the staff, just cannot keep up.

Watch the video on Web Pro News.

Miva Merchant Store Search Engine Optimization Spotlight: Glastore.com

Dan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:51:26 +0000

Scot Miller, owner of Great Lakes Amusement, has been building and selling quality Cherry Master 8 Liner Video Games since 1993. Glastore.com was created using Miva Merchant to add online purchasing to his already established brick and mortar store, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

You’ll find a full assortment of Cherry Master and 8 Liner games, individual game boards, plug & play Cherry Master game cabinets, bill acceptors, a full line of eight liner parts and a lot more on the Great Lakes Amusement website.

Scot originally contacted us out of frustration from a of lack of timely support on his Miva Merchant store, designed months earlier but still had technical problems and was never completed.

He was pleased with the actual site design but was concerned about how well the new store had been optimized for search engines as well as its slow response time.

After remedying the store of several detrimental "success" issues including shoddy usability, nonexistent search engine optimization and slow store speed (and more) Scot had this to say about Webwest Internet / LA Servers:

"I’m very impressed with everything including your fantastic customer service. It’s a relief to know I have a host that I can call or email and actually get a response from. My business is building and selling games, not chasing down people who I’m paying to handle things I don’t have time for. Time is money as you very well know. Keep up the great work! I look forward to doing business together for years to come."

When suggested that the homepage copy he’d written "could be much better" Scot replied:

"Most guys would just take my money and say ‘Scot, it looks great, keep up the good work.’ I hate it when people tell me what I want to hear and not what they really believe. I know you’re doing your job to make my site successful and the best it can be – I appreciate all of your input."

Glastore.com is a great site offering an excellent customer experience both online and to the local community of Green Bay for Cherry Master Video Games. Check it out!

There Is More To Optimization Than SEO!

Dan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:28:01 +0000

A Web designer who is more interested in winning awards than ensuring your pages do what they are intended may make a page pretty but many times, pretty doesn’t result in a desired action.

Read the article on SEOBook

SEOmoz’s Biennial Ranking Factors 2009 Released

Dan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:34:07 +0000

Every two years, SEOmoz surveys 100 of the industry’s top SEO minds. In 2009, 72 SEOs participated in the data gathering process, answering survey questions that consumed hours of time. Read the whole post »

Backlink Building for Small e-Commerce websites

Dan — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:55:11 +0000

Check out this Link Building for Small eCommerce Sites SEOmoz blog post for information regarding the acquisition of quality backlinks.

Be in control of your website, aka the keys to your car

Dan — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:10:17 +0000

In our 14 years of operating a full service Internet Solutions company, we’ve provided client support on a wide range of website related topics.

We’ve compiled a list of some technical points that often confuse new and inexperienced website owners. Not understanding or paying attention to these topics regularly cause websites (and Email) to become unreachable. Don’t let this happen to you!

We refer to these as “the keys to your car.” You can let anyone you choose drive it but ultimately, you’re responsible for everything about it, since it is your car.

No matter if you already have a website or are thinking about getting one, these points are important to know and understand.

Don’t let your domain name or Web hosting expire because of negligence!

Domain Names

Know the domain name(s) you’ve registered
(All of them if you have more than 1)
Know your domain name registrar(s)
(LA Servers, Network Solutions, Godaddy, etc)
Know what contact email addresses are listed in your domain NIC record
(for renewal notices. Click here to see your domain’s NIC record)

Make sure the Email address listed in all your accounts is one YOU check, not an employee that may leave the company sometime.

Creating a unique email alias like “domainadmin@yourdomainname.com” to use on all domain names works well in this situation.

Make extra sure that YOU own your domain name and not a former shady Web designer or the like. Check up on your domain name using our Whois Tool.

NOTE: If your domain name expires, your Email and website will cease to work even though your Web hosting account is still active. If your domain can’t resolve to your host’s network, everything fails.
Know your Domain Manager login
(the URL, login and password)
Understand that domain names and Web hosting accounts are 2 separate entities
(and thus are normally billed separately)

If your domain name has an outdated email address associated with it, you won’t receive renewal notifications and expiration will occur.

If you don’t want to keep a domain name, login to your domain manager, turn off automatic renewal and let it expire.

Web Hosting Accounts

Know what company hosts your website
Know your Web hosting control panel login
(URL, login and password)
Know your FTP login
(host, login and password)
Know your Webmail login
(URL, login and password)
Email whitelist your registrar and Web host’s contact email addresses
(to insure you receive renewal notices etc from them)
ALWAYS use an email address @ YOUR domain name, not your ISP email address
(AOL, Earthlink, Roadrunner etc) You’ll always have and check your domain name email even if you change ISPs.

NOTE: You ~~may~~ will receive fake domain name renewals from shady registrars via Email as well as snail mail. Many people get tricked into transferring their domain name to a different registrar because they don’t know who their domain registrar is. Don’t fall for this!

Understand that Web hosting is a Service
(register to receive, cancel to discontinue)

Similar to home utilities, Web hosting is a Service.

If you move to a new house and don’t cancel the power at your old house, you get charged for it anyway. The service was provided even if you didn’t use it since there was no cancellation.

Understand that switching Web hosting companies does not cancel your previous hosting account

If you switch Web hosts, login to your old host’s control panel and cancel your account. This action ONLY will let them know not to bill you any longer.

Summary and Reminders

Add your domain registrar and Web host to your list of services that automatically renew.

Email whitelist your domain registrar and Web host’s contact email addresses

Keep your credit card and contact information up to date so no services expire. Just like your utilities.

Use your domain manager and Web hosting control panel! These are provided to you as a convenience and control every aspect of your account(s).

Use our Whois Tool to view your domain’s owner, registrar, contacts, renewal date and more.

All this information may sound confusing to a new or inexperienced website owner. But understanding these concepts will insure that your website will never vanish because of negligence!