The weakest point of most online accounts are their passwords. This potential security threat can become just that much worse if your password is stolen and you happen to use the same password for a lot of different services.
It is hard to memorize good strong passwords which is why they are seldom used.
Ask yourself if your passwords have the following:
- 12 or more characters
- Lowercase
- Uppercase
- Numbers
- Symbols
If the answer was no for most of the above you need to dramatically improve the strength of your passwords, thus making it much harder to be guessed or hacked.
Luckily there is free software to make this easier on you, such as LastPass.com and PassPack.com among many others.
These allow you to securely store your passwords, and you only need a single master password to decrypt and access your information. Make sure it is a good one though or you will defeat the purpose.
Once you have software like LastPass in place you can start using very secure passwords for all of your accounts.
How do you remember quality passwords:
Step 1: color: yellow
Step 2: symbol: *
Step 3: noun: horse
Step 4: number: 138
Step 5: capitalize one letter: H
Final Password: yellow*Horse138
By doing the password this way you will find you can actually remember it and it is very secure.
How often do you change passwords?
It is highly recommended that you change passwords of importance, atleast once every 3 months, consider making it even more frequently if the data related to the account is of any value to anyone.
Own a website? Ask your server admin when the last time your key server passwords were changed? You may be surprised. You really should make a list of important passwords to change and set an email reminder to change them every few months. Quickbooks, Email, Bank, Server, Paypal, Credit Cards..you get the idea.
Most people do not start thinking about password security until it is too late. Nothing shuts down business like your company bank account or server being compromised. So act now and save yourself the trouble.
Bonus Tip:
The best password in the world is no good if the security questions (for password recovery) is way too easy. In what city were you born? Anyone can find that out! Make sure to write a custom security question whenever possible or at least pick the one hardest to guess.
On January 12, 2009 Google Inc. posted a very important blog post about reviewing their business operations in China. In 2006 Google.cn went live in attempt to increase access of information for people in China. However, the Chinese Government censored a large amount of information on Google.cn. Until now, Google allowed this type of censorship.
In December of 2009 a highly sophisticated cyber attack on Google had originated from China. Google launched an investigation for these cyber attacks. During the investigation, they found evidence that suggested the goal of the attacks were to access control over Gmail accounts owned by Chinese human rights activists. After further review, only two Gmail accounts were accessed by third parties. Only the accounts profile information and subject line were read, the content of the actual emails were left untouched. Because of this problem, Google has decided they will no longer censor the results for Google.cn.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has come out strong in defense of Google’s threat to pull out of China unless Beijing permitted it to “operate an unfiltered search engine”.
However, a new report from Fox News has suggested that Google is in “delicate” talks with the Chinese Government about trying to keep business open in China. The main business would be the new Google phones, advertising sales team, and its research center.
After Google’s decisions, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmar has announced they will continue censoring information for the Chinese Government. In an interview with ABC Bill Gates stated that China’s censorship is“very limited”. A large number of the Chinese media supported Mr. Gates statements.
It will be very interesting to see how this situation will play out in the next few months.
Back to Basics
As we face a blank slate and think about what we want this year to look like, we like to make ambitious, complex New Year’s resolutions. But one thing I’ve learned through the years is that in order for complex to work, the basics have to be firmly in place. So today I am going to go back to basics when it comes to having an SEO friendly website. Yes, I know this is SEO 101 and for those of you who are old-time SEO’s, please forgive me. But sometimes it pays to go back to basics and even I will sometimes forget basic elements that can contribute to the success of a website. Without further ado, here is what I always look at when building or evaluating a site:
SEO friendly URL’s.
It is not always possible to include a keyword in the domain name, but if it is possible, it is very beneficial. Ever wonder why a site that has the keywords in the URL ranks above sites that have more and better links? If it is possible and makes sense and creates a brandable domain, try to include your keywords. If you are more interested in having a brandable domain or the keyword domain is not available, do your best to use keywords when naming the pages of your site. If you have a category page about Buttons, and the product pages is about Blue Buttons, then the URL’s should read /buttons/blue-buttons.php or something similar.
Incorporate Keywords into your Pages
The following are the areas where you always want to have keywords:
- Meta title
- Outbound anchor text
- At least once or twice in the body of text
- H1 and/or H2
- Page name (used in the navigation menu)
Having your keywords in these areas of the source code of each of your pages will tell Google what you want to rank for and will increase the density of that page for the particular keyword. I like to assign a Primary and a secondary keyword for each page that is used in the areas mentioned above. The primary keyword is the main phrase that I’m trying to rank for, and the secondary keyword is a semantically relevant phrase that supports the primary phrase. I like to create a site map in excel where I write out the URL of all of my pages, and then I assign a primary keyword, with that primary keyword I write the title of the page. In this way I can keep track of what words I’m using throughout the site and how often. Obviously this is only viable with a small site.
You also want to consider density. For example, if your primary keyword for a page is Blue Buttons, and your title is: BlueButtons.com is your premier source for blue buttons! The density for the keyword “blue buttons” will be close to 50%. In some cases where the keyword is competitive this may be perfect, in other cases it may be too high. Compare the density for your competitors and try to get your density to fall within the same range as your top ranking competitors. Each area has its own density, so you’re not looking for overall page density, you’re looking for meta title density, body text density, h1 density, bold density, etc. of a single keyword.
Dynamic site map & Google site map
Using some of the tools offered by Google or online, create an xml site map according to Google’s standards and upload it to your webmaster account. This will help get your site spidered and all of your pages indexed.
Additionally, create a dynamic site map with links to every page of your site using keywords in the link text. As new pages are created, the site map should update dynamically. Most large editorial sites using this protocol use the title of the page as the link text, which ideally will have been written with keywords in mind. If possible, the site map should be broken down so there are no more than 30 links per page. Then, all of the site map pages should interlink with each other. You may be wondering why you’d need a site map if you already have a Google site map uploaded to your Google Webmasters account? Creating an on-site site map creates another opportunity to support internal pages with links and to use keywords in anchor text for your internal pages, so it adds a little bit of extra punch to your SEO.
Anchor Text
This is one of the important areas where Google looks for keywords. Whenever possible, take the primary keyword for a page and link it to another page. For example, if your page is about the benefits of blue buttons, you should have the keyword “blue buttons” linked to another page on your site. Sometimes this gets tricky because the page you are on may be the only page on your site about blue buttons. In that case, you may want to link that keyword to the same page, although it may not be terribly usable. My workaround for this is to create a breadcrumb and then link the last link on the breadcrumb to itself. In any case, the key is to find something that makes sense, and it’s well worth it as this is something that Google really likes.
Pyramid Interlinkage
Determine your main categories and what pages go within each category, and try to interlink categories to categories and subpagese to subpages and categories. This way, every page is supported by links from internal pages relevant to the same topic. Based on the size of your site, if possible all main categories should link to each other in the template. This is a very complex topic and is very site-specific so I won’t waste a lot of time trying to explain; what I will stress is the important of not leaving “orphan pages” on your site – pages that have no inbound links from any other pages within or outside of your site. My rule of thumb is to make sure every single page of any site I work with has at least 2-3 inbound links from other pages within the site (including the site map).
301 redirects
If at any time you are switching domain names or changing a page’s URL, use 301 redirects to tell the engines where the new page is located. You can read more about this here: http://www.authoritydomains.com/blogs/seo/how-to-change-your-domain-without-the-pain.php
Also, check to see how Google has indexed your domain name, and if they have indexed both your www and non www version of you domain, do a redirect for the one that has the most pages indexed.
Footer
I’ll often use a footer as a way of including the primary keyword phrase in anchor text. Footers tend to be out of the way of the flow of the page so it’s a great way to add something that has SEO benefit but doesn’t disturb the user. If my site is about Blue Buttons, my footer will say: BlueButtons.com – where you can find blue buttons at affordable prices! It may also work as a way of having an additional set of text links, which is especially useful if you are using images for links as your main navigation.
Main Navigation
Ideally, your main navigation links should be spiderable. If you are using drop down menus, try to use div tags so the search engines can easily read your anchor text and links. Google is now spidering and indexing javascript so this is less important these days, but it is generally still simpler to use div tags.
Link Equity
The more links you have the less value each has, so be conscious of not adding too many outbound links while supporting the most important pages of the site. If you add links that have no SEO benefit, you may want to consider using rel=nofollow as part of the link.
Code
Keep your code clean! Use external JS and CSS - link to the file – not within the header. Also, keep the code to content ratio low – as much spiderable content as possible
Content Update Ratio
Try to add content often and on a regular rhythm. Don’t add 20 pages one day, and none for a month. It’s best to add a page a day. Establish a realistic content update ratio and try to maintain it. To find your ideal ratio, find out how often your top ranking competitors add content, and try to mimic their update ratio.
Optimize your Home Page!
This page has the most potential for rankings, so use it as much as possible with keyword friendly information and optimization. Of course it needs to be usable so you can’t just keyword stuff it, but try to add links to your most important pages from the home pages, as well as you rmost important keywords within the pages. Some suggestions that can help maximize the benefit of you rhome page:
a. Add a box with changeable content so has fresh spiderable content
b. Add as many keywords in anchor text as possible
c. Link to popular pages as well as pages that need a boost
Page Titles
Every page should have a unique page title. This is essential. Keywords in the meta title of the page is still one of the most important aspects of SEO. Never repeat the same title on more than one page of your site!!!
Conclusion
If you follow these basic principles, you will have a greater chance of establishing good search engine rankings. Of course all of this is worth nothing without quality inbound links. But having quality inbound links without good on-page SEO elements is also counterproductive. Very large authoritative sites may be able to get away with it, but if you are in smaller competitive niches, you need to cross all your T’s and dot all your I’s and following these simple elements will give you an advantage over other sites in your niche.
Once you’ve covered your bases, you will be free to work on other more important aspects of the development of your business.
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SEO has come a long way since its early days in the 90’s. Back then website owners woke up to the idea that having highly visible sites in the search engines brought valuable business results. Today we continue to see that importance and SEO continues to expand past its horizon. New tools are driven from the demands it creates and it continues to deliver the results. SEO has an endless ground for expansion and growth. Here are some possibilities of what we may expect for SEO in 2010…
Google’s Real-Time Search will disappear. It’s still too buggy and distracting, not to mention cannon fodder for spammers. We’ll be seeing less of it in 2010.
The value of links from status updates is increasing. Influencing factors will likely include relevance and reputation of the link source(s).
Personalized Search is the new reality. Get used to it. Branding is more important, it’s harder to gain (and lose) rank, and there is no such thing as “normal ranking” anymore.
It’s a two-engine war in 2010: Google and Bing. (The battle begins!)
SEO tools from Yahoo! (such as Site Explorer) will disappear. When the Microsoft-Yahoo! agreement goes full throttle, these handy tools are unlikely to stick around.
Spending on search marketing and SEO will go up. As businesses become more aware of the importance of SEO — in terms of Strategy, Engagement and Optimization, rather than just old-school link building and on-site optimization — we’ll continue to see a trend of them turning to agencies and consultants for help.
There’ll be more focus on conversion.
Many queries won’t result in traffic driven to your site. Google and Bing are doing a fair job of including referential content in the search results directly. Weather, flight times, sports scores… questions that were previously answered on individual sites will now be answered within the search engine itself.
You know you should be doing usability testing on your websites. But how often do you? My guess is that an overwhelming majority of people fall into the never/rarely camp (myself included). So why are so many of us neglecting something we KNOW we should be doing? Because in the past, it has been an expensive, royal pain in the butt!
I wanted to share with you some fast, simple and cheap (yes cheap) ways for you to dive into usability testing. Each review you read are actual case results for this modern crib bedding site.
Paid Results:
Site: http://www.UserTesting.com/
Cost: $29
Verdict: Fan-Flipping-Tastic!
For $29 UserTesting.com will match you up with a video & audio recording detailing user experience as well as written summary.
Information provided for the test:
Demographics: Female, 18-34, United States, $40, 000 to $100, 000
You are a parent, expecting a child and you are shopping for items to furniture the new nursery.
-Look for a crib bedding set that you like. Review the features to ensure it has a fitted sheet, bumper, blanket, & skirt.
-You already have the Two Wide Changing table, and you would like to submit a product review on this product. you like and give it 5 stars.
-Look for a changing table. You want to send the link to your friend of two changing tables that you like. use the “send to a friend” link to do so.
-Look for a crib that you like. Before you add this item to you cart you have a quick question about the return policy. Review the return policy, and determine if you can return this product. (please note in response if you found this information).
-Add the Crib to your cart.
-Look for a rocking chair that you like and add this product to you cart.
-Once you have added all of these items to you cart, you decided you do not need a rocking chair, and remove this product from your cart.
-Complete the online checkout, using random (fake) information for the billing, shipping, and credit card details. The order will not fully process, as the site is in testing mode
What we got back:
Usability Testing – UserTesting.com Review from aj ghergich on Vimeo.
UserTesting.com matched us with an actual expectant mother who shops at similar sites! She provided a 20 minute video review and completed all tasks required and then some. I was personally floored by the quality!
Site: http://www.EasyUsability.com/
Cost: $15 per review
Verdict: Worth The Money
For $15 EasyUsability.com will provide you with a detailed written summary of your user testing questions.
What we got back:
http://www.easyusability.com/usability_tests/363/final_report
You can actually see all qualification questions and answers by clicking on the link. For $15 a user we got some pretty detailed feedback to our questions. I was not as blown away by the feedback, but did I get my money’s worth? Easily!
Site: http://www.FeedbackArmy.com/
Cost: $10 for 10 reviews
Verdict: Worth The Money
For $10 FeedbackArmy.com will provide you with 10 answers to a list of questions you create.
Information provided for the test:
1. Can you return crib bedding sheets that have been washed once and you have had them for 30 days?
2. Can the Nurseryworks Two-Wide Changing Table be returned 15 days after it has been received?
3. Try to find the Lulu crib bedding set made by Glenna Jean (brand). Did you feel it was difficult to locate on the website.
4. Is there free shipping for the Studio Crib by Nurseryworks (brand)?
5. You need to contact BabyAuthority. Did you find it easy to locate the phone number, email or another method to contact BabyAuthority?
6. If you order a Central Park Crib Bedding Set by Glenna Jean (brand) today, when would this order ship out?
What we got back:
http://www.feedbackarmy.com/get_feedback.slp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.babyauthority.com&code=ed11171d63b5afe2fd1a507a01762d5c
You can see the 10 unique sets of answers to our 6 questions by following the link. Again, nothing earth shattering but I think this was a really great value. 10 different people saw the site and gave us (for the most part) detailed answers to each question. This is very valuable feedback for $10.
Free Results:
I have tried a bunch of free usability sites in the past and mostly got back what I paid for..nothing! I do not want to slam anyone for providing a free service so I will just direct you here.
http://www.conceptfeedback.com/ – I have found this site to be a good place to get a review from “graphic design” types. It is free of charge and a good place to post screenshots of a site before it is live.
The only negative is that they force you to review 5 sites before you get a review. I understand why of course but this leads to comments left by others that “feel” forced. All in all it is one of the best free sources out there. Use it!
http://fivesecondtest.com/- This site is great but I use it more for banners & graphics on sites or actual posters vs an entire site.
Summary:
Ok, no more excuses. These sites will provide you with a low cost of entry and fast turnaround (most of these test were done same day). If you are not doing, or rarely doing usability testing now is the time to start. It is addicting and will provide some of the best ROI you have ever seen.
If you enjoyed this post please RT, Sphinn or Comment. Thx!
Special thanks to @babyauthority
Yesterday I posted two videos on my Facebook wall and realized that they both are great examples of how Social Media is allowing even the smallest business or individual stand eye to eye with large organizations or celebrities. Both are a true David versus the Goliath story. Or is it?
Case 1: AARP posted this video:
What I love about this video is how viral it has become with a positive message attached to a brand. But the beauty is any one person could create a video like this and help build their own personal brand that rivals the likes of AARP. Dollars are no longer needed to market effectively.
Case 2: Ask for what you want & come across capable:
A former client of mine recently became a free agent. She is a bright lady that knows how to use Social Media to market not only a corporate community- but her own brand as well. Case in point above! What is beautiful is she can use this video as the spine of her job finding campaign. Point to it with external
links and use the keywords she wants to rank for in her job search. She also shared the video with her peers who..well….shared it again. Case in point here! I will share this post in all the usual DoFollow channels and she will receive the very same link juice and viral exposure that we will. My point? 10 years ago the brand of an individual had no chance of being seen in the very same channels as Google and Microsoft – for free no less. This is affecting the News Media- the many is reporting news better then the major new agencies. Read Craig Newmark’s article- “A Nerds Take On The Future Of News Media”. Today, the gap between the bigs and the smalls, the corporations and the individuals has shrunk. The playing field has been leveled. Corporate responsibility is prevalent (a plus in my eyes) while their weight is decreasing, while the individual has more opportunity to be seen and thrive! Another plus! Before long there will no longer be a goliath, just a whole lot of David’s – some with a greater commitment to their brand! Which begs the question, what are you doing to grow your personal brand or your companies brand? Opportunity is ripe for the taking! Have you thought about your brand when watching the AARP and Naomi Marr videos?
As advances in technology move forward, the needs of online users change, the methods of advertising also experience an evolution over time. One of these more recent advertising methods has been link building. There are a lot of varieties of link building. Moreover, there are new rules that have to be followed to ensure the success of this method. But the benefits hardly ever change.
Link Building has great benefits and that is the reason why more and more number of website owners want to get it incorporated in their SEO process. The practice of link building is simply getting other websites to link back to yours. Despite how very important it is though, most webmasters don’t have a genuine link building campaign because it’s typically a very lengthy task to perform. But don’t let this be a reason you don’t do at least some link building for your website. You’d be doing your company a huge disservice by overlooking this vital Search Engine Optimization step.
1. It puts you in search engines.
Unless you’re found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, your online business is non-existent. It also doesn’t help if you’re found a lot of pages away in search results. Your main goal should be at least among the top 10 on the targeted keywords you’re using. Research says that online users click the first website in the list, believing it’s the most relevant answer to their query.
2. Links make your site – and the internet – more usable, and useful.
Links provide simple site navigation between documents and other website’s. In addition to surfing through sites, links substantially increase the usability of site information since words within an article, website, blog, etc… can be linked – or extended out in a tree-like manner.
3. Links Create Direct Traffic. More links = more traffic.
Clicking a link from a trusted source is one of the most popular ways for people to find a new website. If a user is on a website they trust, they are likely to follow links that it recommends or that a user finds interesting – or at the least, users will follow links that make the destination site appear to provide some valuable information.
4.Links Build User Trust in You – Word-of-mouth is the best advertising there is.
If users see a link to you on a popular or respected site, their level of trust in what you say or what you offer is likely to be higher.
5. Cheap One-way linking
Cheap Linking can come from many methods and provide many benefits. Writing articles and submitting to article directories can be one method. Posting your own blog with a link back to yours, link directories and social networking sites are all great places to link onto with no or very little costs involved, from which all highly benefit your site traffic.
6.Links Build higher page ranks
PageRank is still a major factor, the major search engines consider when determining where websites are ranked. The reasoning is simple: if you have many links pointing to your site from other unique sites, your content probably is quality, important information. Every webpage is given its own PageRank. Your PageRank will be determined by the PR of the pages that link to you.
7. Links Tell Search Engines and Users What Your Pages Are About
To determine what a web page is about search engines look at a few critical elements on a web page, but just as important is the text used in links that point to your page – from within your site and from outside sites. If you could describe yourself in two words, what would they be?
8.Links Are Trackable and Provide Market Intelligence – Find out who, what, where, when, why, how – and use it.
There are a few methods of determining who links to you, and this information can be very valuable in providing market intelligence such as;
- competitor strengths/weaknesses (find out who links to them, request a link)
- consumer/user opinion (what people are saying about you/competitors on blogs/forums)
- potential suppliers (industry insiders who liked/linked to your site)
- source of testimonials
- reveals potential PR hazards (negative posts/links)
To determine who links to you, you can first check your traffic logs for ‘referrers’. Once seeing who has generated some traffic for you, you can find out whom the search engines have listed that link to you.
9.Links Reveal Strategic Partnerships
Upon reviewing your traffic logs or doing a simple link check on any of the major search engines (as mentioned above) you may encounter some sites that link to you that can reveal sources of mutual benefit, such as;
- marketing partnerships (develop reciprocal ad campaign)
- service or product suppliers
- potential employees
- potential contractors
- or for support/education/help
10.Links Are Assets – They Add Value to Your Property
Your website is your internet property, and it has value. What gives your website saleable value is the amount of traffic the site can generate. As we’ve shown, links are one of the most important factors in generating substantial website traffic, search engine rankings, trust, publicity, market intelligence and more. A substantial link network offers significant value to the overall package when determining a website’s value.
A client recently asked me to put together a cheat sheet to show to Social Media naysayers. As I was doing the research I started asking myself, why would any brand NOT engage? Have a gander at these 10 data points:
- According to a global Nielsen survey of 26,486 Internet users in 47 markets, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising
- There were nearly 116 million US user-generated content consumers in 2008, along with 82.5 million content creators. Both numbers are set to climb significantly by 2013 (eMarketer, February 2009)
- 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
- 81% of online holiday shoppers read online customer reviews (Nielson Online, December 2008)
- 74% agree-including 14% who strongly agree-that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences, the survey shows. (Society for New Communications Research, May 2008)
- Mobile user-generated content will generate $5.7 billion worldwide in 2012, up from $576 million in 2007. (“Mobile Social Networking: Opportunities & Forecasts 2008-2013,” Juniper Research, October 2008)
- By 2020, 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing’s primary objective, and 82% agree that collaboration with customers will prevail over marketing. (1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April 2008)
- Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information. (Allurent, January 2008)
- In a study of online UK retailers, 59% reported that the consumer-generated activity leads to better search engine optimization. (eMarketer, 2008)
- 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. (Yankelovich)
among 78% of the study’s respondents. (Nielsen, “Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool”, October 2007)
With this compelling data in mind, think about Social Media in regards helping your business fill these business objectives:
1. Market research and business intelligence
2. Customer/partner education
3. User groups
4. Product innovation
5. Competitive analysis
6. Peer‐based support, education and innovation/evolution
7. Company‐wide collaboration/learning solution
8. Thought leadership/leads
9. Workplace alignment, communication & training
10. Organic/White Hat SEO Link Building
Now think about the data points above and these 10 business drivers above. Is there any business that is lacking in at least one of those areas? Is your business lacking? Now think about this:
“Social Networking & Social Media Ad Spending to Rise 13.2% in 2010 to 1.3 Billion!”
-eMarketer
I came away from my task yesterday convinced, now more than ever, that all companies should be utilizing Social Media to some degree. I am not saying go full bore if you haven’t engaged yet, but if anything it is time to dip the toes in to the Social Media waters to see how warm it is. The data is saying now is the time, especially with the Wall Street Journal and CNN claiming the recession is at an end.
After successfully working through the setup of a couple e-stores, I would like to share our top criteria for finding the best manufacturers to work with. There are an overwhelming number of manufacturers that will work with companies that are starting an e-store. During the setup of our first store, I stumbled my way through finding the information I needed to know from the manufacturers. Below is a list of the top three criteria that you should look for when adding a new manufacturer to your e-store.
1) MAP (Minimum Advertising Policy)
- Finding a manufacturer that offers a MAP is going to be key for a new etailer. Some manufacturers will require that you do not list the sale price of their products below a MAP. The manufacturer will list out what their MAP is for each product. Most manufacturers will require an etailer to sign a MAP agreement, that will simply state that you will not advertise their products below the MAP price.
- This is a great help for new etailers that are just starting to sell new products. It provides a fairly level playing field to everyone who is offering these products online.
- If a MAP is not provided by the Manufacturer, the larger companies can (and will) list the product at their lowest price. These larger companies order products in the highest volume, creating a very low cost of good, and ultimately offering a lower price to the consumer. New etailers in the market will never be able to compete with a larger company who orders product in high volume. I found that some companies were able to sell their products to customers at a lower price than we were purchasing from the manufacturer.
- Having a MAP is only as good as the manufacturer enforcing it. We encountered a manufacturer who offered a MAP, but was trying to gain control over how to enforce their MAP. A small price war broke out between a few e-stores, who were under cutting the discount amount by lowering their prices on a daily basis. Taking the time to change pricing on a daily basis can be a huge time consumer. Not to mention, customers were confused by the ever changing price.
- It is important to ask the manufacturer if they have one or two MAPs. One would be for products offered with free shipping and another would be for items that have a shipping charge. This could make a big difference in how you set up your products from this manufacturer.
2) Images
- Ask the manufacturer if they have High Resolution images of their products. Great images will definitely help you sell your products. The more product images you have on your site, the better. Provide an image of each color, size or with available options of the product.
3) Internet-Friendly
- Every time I mention this to people they, and I, laugh a little. Saying “Internet Friendly” is really my way of saying, “do you they want to work with you?” I have found that a few manufacturers are still in the school of thought that e-stores are not real stores and can ‘burn’ them at a moment’s notice. They may have had a bad experience, or do not wish to provide drop shipping to etailers. For the most part, if you do not have a good feeling about your initial conversations with a manufacturer, they will probably be difficult to deal with in the future.
- Try to work with manufacturers who realize your value as an etailer and want you to succeed.
If you can find a manufacturer that meets the above listed criteria, you will most likely have a very successful relationship. Having a great relationship with the manufacturer will help you provide better customer service, sell more products and ultimately maintain a profitable e-store.
Share This is a tool that any company concerned about their SEO should implement today! Share This is a widget that can be easily installed into every indexing page of your website. If there is content or information that you would want shared to the external world, then this tool is the means to share in Social Media channels. It is a must have for your white hat SEO projects.
Consider the Alexa ranks (lower the better) for these Social Media Hot Spots:
Twitter: 21
Facebook: 4
LinkedIn: 85
Digg: 134
StumbleUpon: 388
FriendFeed: 911
It is a well known best practice to post comments in popular blogs and websites with the URL of your website pointing back to your site. Google looks at this very favorably and helps push up your number of Inlinks. (InLinks or Backlinks are an important measure of the ‘popularity’ of your site – the greater the number of other sites that link to you, the more likely it is that you will have a high Pagerank in Google and Bing) Now, we all know Alexa is not spot-on! But the rankings above are enough proof that Social Media is here to stay. Within each Social media channel there is a niche area for most areas of business. If that area doesn’t currently exist, then it is easy to create it and dominate that niche with your unique brand, message and content. There is a massive opportunity to drive your rankings within all Social Media channels. The Share This tool allows you and your readers to submit your web content as backlinks within the Social Media channels above, as well as 35 other high ranking social media entities.
So what are you waiting for? Add the tool today. We did it on our new website and you will even see it at the bottom of every blog post. It works! Every day we see new backlinks showing up that none of the Authority Domains employees did. Talk about having your customers and partners doing the work for you!
If you need help, our Social Media consultants can help you use Social Media channels to drive your companies white hat link building presence. This is one of many tips and tricks we can help you with by using Social Media to drive toward your SEO goals.
