1. Page Titles

It sounds basic, and it is. The problem is, many people get so caught up in the serious SEO (link building, blogging, paid directories), that they forget to look right in their back yard at their page titles. Your page title is good from an SEO perspective as it helps Google see what the page is about. More importantly it’s good from a users perspective. A page title is the first thing a potential customer is greeted with when they perform a search on Google. If your page title is lacking crucial information about your business, how will the customer know that your site is the right one for them? Think about your own browsing habits. What makes you click a particular result over another one? Some people just click the first result assuming that it is number one for a reason. If, however, you are like me, you typically read the first few results, scanning for the details for what is most relevant to you. For example if you were searching for ‘Office Chairs’ and the first result looked like this:

Office Supplies – Office Supply Shop

and the third result looked like this:

Office Chairs & Accessories | Buy Office Supplies Online from Maxi-Office

Which one would you pick? Easy. Work on creating compelling page titles using important details about your business (eg Buy Online, Office Supplies, Office Chairs).

2. Meta Description

Rated equally as important as page titles is the meta description. After reading the page title, people will typically skim the meta description to confirm that is the page they want to click through to (bare in mind this all happens in seconds). A well-thought out, detailed meta description is so often forgot when performing any search engine optimisation. Just like the page title, the description can determine whether a potential customer clicks through to your site or clicks on a competitors. Google appreciate it if you put some thought into your meta description, and have relevant copy in there about that specific page. So next time you are adding products, categories, or content pages, put some thought into what goes into that small box. It can potentially drive traffic to your site, or scare them into going elsewhere.

3. Unique Page Content

This is a buzz-word in the SEO industry. You’ll hear phrases like “Content is King”, and “Fresh is Best” over and over again on your pursuit of SEO excellence. Sadly many people don’t heed these very sayings. The Internet is packed full of content that has just been stolen and rehashed over and over again. Which is why when Google says “We want fresh content”, they mean it. When you regularly post unique content that is not available anywhere else on the web, Google typically favours your site over others that may have either stale out of date content, or content available on hundreds of websites around the world. Give Google what they want. Post something new everyday if you can. Blogs. Articles. Reviews. Anything that makes sense for your business. Now there is a piece of advice you can take straight to the bank.

4. Anchor Text

Although this is slightly more advanced that the other three elements, it is appropriate to discuss the importance of link anchor text. This is often out of your control, but a basic understanding can never go astray. When someone links to your site (eg Exceed Online) the anchor text is the text the link is attached to, in this case it is Exceed Online. Anchor text helps Google define what the linked page is about, and typically helps you rank for those particular keywords. That is why having descriptive, relevant anchor text is very important when creating links both within your site, and soliciting links externally. A perfect example to illustrate the power of anchor text is the term “Click Here”. So often people use this as their anchor text for a link, which passes on no information to Google about the pages content. If you search “Click Here” in Google you will notice that the first result is for Adobe Reader. The anchor text for Adobe Reader is always “Click Here to Download Adobe Reader”. This shows the power of anchor text, as the term click here has nothing to do with Adobe.

5. Other Bits and Pieces

Page Titles, Meta Descriptions, Unique Content & Anchor Text are the main elements of any basic SEO that should be completed before moving on to anything else. There are other things that used to be as crucial as those, but as Google becomes smarter and smarter they are allocating less value to the following (that’s not to say you shouldn’t do them).
Image Alt Tags, URL Strings, H1 & H2 Tags, & Sitemaps (and Google Webmaster Tools) are still important, but are typically ranked second compared with the above points. Once you have the first 4 things on the list above ticked off, and fully optimised, work on ensuring that ALT image tags are a fair representation of what the images are (remember Google can’t see images, so it can only go off image name, and ALT tag). URLs, H1 and H2 tags need to contain appropriate keywords for each page, and a sitemap should be created and placed on the root domain, and loaded into Google Webmaster Tools.

By completing all these steps your site will pass an SEO 101 test, and can move up to the likes of link building, directories, & blogging. Like we always say to our clients, it’s always best to pick the low hanging fruit before moving any further. Why waste time with link building when your site is not even following the most basic of SEO rules?

Written by Lance O’Grady – Exceed Online’s PPC, SEO and Social Media specialist

This is where Exceed can and are helping. Throughout the engagement process we have sought to understand how the client’s industry has changed and how they are planning to adapt to survive in this evolving environment.

The issues:

• A continued weak global economy
• A changing business competitive landscape
• Revenue from the Dealer channel (B2B) drying up as dealers are now buying direct from the manufacturers (primarily in China) or going out of business completely (mainly the smaller non chain stores)
• The requirement for the online channel (B2C) to pick up the revenue slack from the diminished Dealer channel
• Our client fears alienating their remaining Dealer base by competing with them directly online

Our client was very smart. They have seen most of these changes coming for some time and have amassed a decent cash buffer to use to leverage themselves into new markets before their traditional revenue streams dry up. Clever.

Our client has made the strategic decision to re-allocate the majority of their advertising spend from traditional advertising to online marketing. As such, we will be providing additional SEO/SEM services to the client moving forward. We believe this is a very smart move (the obvious benefit to us not withstanding) that will pay huge dividends to the client over time.

Here’s why we feel this way:

• We have done Keyword and competitor analysis for the client and the online search demand is there for their products
• The client has exclusivity on many products and has regional exclusivity to a new product that they believe will be a true game changer in their industry worldwide
• Our client offers superior products at superior prices with their product held in stock and products shipped within 24 hours
• Our client offers a superior service level with a unique in the market offering which provides free upgrades to the next highest level of product if a product ordered happens to be out of stock at the time of ordering

To allay the concerns of the existing Dealer base our client has offered some exclusive lines to Dealers and is also not undercutting them online with the non-exclusive lines. Our client has also retained some lines as exclusive to them – these are products that show the most promise moving forward. In terms of online pricing our client is abiding by the same RRP issued to Dealers, however they retain the wholesale and retail margin for themselves of course. To supplement their online revenue stream, the client has also reached out to new potential customers in the institutional and governmental spaces. These engagements are already bearing fruit for our client.

By being smart, experienced, business savvy and through good anticipation and planning, our client has set themselves up for the best possible chance of online success.

To be continued…

Well the word continues to spread about eBay’s acquisition of Magento. I thought it would be well worth the time and effort in communicating our opinion as a Magento Gold Partner what this means for the Magento community at large.

Most people haven’t been aware that Magento already had a very close partnership with eBay with their continued effort to have Paypal deeply integrated into Magento pretty much from day one. Although not huge back then (3 years ago) here in Australia and New Zealand Paypal has grown to be a significant player in the eCommerce market. (Hop tip, if you’re not using Paypal already I suggest you look into it immediately).

eBays plans to combine Magento with other solutions to form a unit within eBay called X.Commerce. eBay purchased approximately $2.4 billion for GSI — which came with a controlling stake in Intershop — as well as a raft of other mobile commerce solutions such as Milo and RedLaser.

What this means for Magento store owners

This is fantastic news and after 3 years of operating at such a fast pace eBay allows Magento to mature as a business and most importantly as a platform. We know first-hand that Magento has been juggling too many balls with their launch of the MagentoGo Saas product, Magento University, aggressive customer and partner acquisition and other diverse product initiatives.

It’s now time for Magento to slow down and focus on their core business. Their business philosophy and approach to product development was one that would never allow them to scale the way they need to when innovating, and supporting such a diverse range of client needs and products.

eBay will be able to help solidify the vision moving forward, polish the product range and ultimately invest the money needed to continue the product development and grow the partner and customer base.

eBay’s marketplace is shrinking, which requires eBay to diversify into services. Big retailers and even well-established brands have never flocked to eBay, (Or Trademe for our kiwi readers) for many reasons including the customer experience, lack of control over their brands and products, and the awareness that eBay is still seen as the Web’s digital garage sale. We’re also seeing a marketplace heating up with additional threats of private sale and other social commerce trends opening up avenues for sales of distressed inventory that offer more control over the customer experience and that are targeted at specific segments of customers.

We at Exceed Online will remain focused on advising our clients on the changes and what this means for your current Magento Solutions and how the solution market is changing moving forward. For existing clients of Exceed Online, I encourage you to contact your account director to discuss further. For new enquiries, please contact us here.

Tell me, what’s so wrong with exceeding all expectations at your given smaller size and staying there?

“Economies of scale” is not end all and be all of answers here. If it is, in your mind, then you have obviously not tasted the freedom of being a one man army on a tropical beach with a laptop, a cellphone and cocktail.

Many companies prematurely tie a noose around their neck with premature hiring instead of growing slowly and seeing what feels right.

You don’t tend to see a tree going from a germinated seedling to 9 meter behemoth in 2 days. Now why do you think that is?

Small is not just a starting point. It can be what will save your company from going bankrupt.

Ask most small businesses and they’ll say they want to be bigger. Ask most big businesses and they will tell you that they wish they still had the agility of when there just the two founders in a garage. Shrinking a business is not as easy as growing it. Cutting back and letting go of people is not as fun as it sounds.

Big business does not mean it is more profitable and that you see more of a return. The end game here is being sustainable and profitable. So is you have achieved this be proud, big or small.

In order to ensure the successful implementation and ongoing management of your eCommerce website the right structure must be in place, whether you’re replacing an existing platform or developing the channel from the ground up.

Kyle put this article together to send to a new client who asked for his guidance on the matter.  I thought it was so good, I wanted more people to benefit from his advice.

Best practice recommendations:

1. Appoint a Director of eCommerce. Make it a board level role and appoint someone who has an appropriate breadth of skills and depth of experience. Otherwise, you won’t have the level of insight required to make the right decisions on the strategic vision, the roadmap, the benchmark for the scope of opportunity and the level of investment required to deliver a ROI.

2. Collaboration counts. It’s advisable to have an experienced eCommerce practitioner managing the development and implementation of the project within your business. It’s also good practice to engage with your IT team (in particular the head of IT should be heavily involved in the project from its inception). If you don’t do this, it invariably leads to a lack of willingness to support the project when problems occur (during the implementation phase or alternatively post go-live). Collaboration with IT is key to the success of your project.

3. Involve the head of IT in the supplier selection process. Ask for their assistance with the requirements gathering process and with creation of the functional specification. After all, they will be responsible for all system integration requirements.

4. Plan ahead. Talk through what support is required after launch with the head of IT.
This confers some ownership of the project and prepares them for post-launch issues.

5. Focus on day-to-day trading of the website and develop a structure that enables you to optimise the site and maximise that opportunity. Multichannel businesses should normally have a merchandising resource dedicated to the web channel, and a marketing resource with the appropriate level of digital marketing experience. Both these departments can help collate content for the new site.

6. Don’t treat eCommerce like a silo business unit. While you require functional specialists to trade the business day-in day-out, wherever possible integrate it with other operational functions, and develop support functions to serve all channels of the business.

Kyle and the Exceed team worked together to write this article to assist in clarifying what a true multi channel business should look like in the years to come.

Consumers are very much empowered by technology. It has never been easier to shop. They can also choose where to buy and who to buy from. It has also never been easier to lose a customer. Competitors are never more than a couple of clicks away.

It’s no longer enough to just be aware of your customer… you need to understand them and to accommodate their needs and behaviour. Make it easy for consumers to find and interact with your brand (online, offline, kiosks, stores, mobile, catalogues, telephone…).

Nowadays consumers demand a good experience and won’t tolerate a bad one. You must seamlessly deliver a fantastic experience across all touch points. If you don’t, your competitors will have the chance to impress.

Best practice recommendations:

1. Joined-up thinking. eCommerce is all too often considered a silo, and is therefore thought of in isolation. Whether you’re developing an eCommerce solution for your business for the first time or moving on to the next site iteration, it is the optimum time to think about integrating all your channels.

2. Engage your call centres. Will you provide your contact centre with the ability to take sales from customers over the phone? What happens if the sites go down or if they need additional assistance to ensure they buy the right product? It’s a great idea to enable operator supported orders.

3. Assist shoppers in real time. Live chat will enable your customer contact center to help guide your customer’s choices. This can be both reactive, through a click to chat option, or proactive through rules-based live chat. In the latter case you prompt a customer with the offer of chatting to a CSR (customer service representative) when they behave in a certain way (such as adding multiple items to their basket but not checking out).

4. Visibility. Develop the capability for the customer and the CSR to view the same cart concurrently.

5. Collect information. In order to deliver the optimum customer service experience, funnel all customer communication into a customer contact database.

6. Provision for self-service. Provide a knowledge base/dynamic FAQs that will serve the needs of self service customers who prefer not to interact with CSRs.

7. Provide a store locator showing store product ranges available at each store. We recommend leveraging Google Maps to provide all contact information.

8. Multichannel returns policy. Provide the ability to buy products online and return in-
store. Make sure offline budgets reflect this to avoid staff resentment at extra work, and don’t subtract these offline refunds from offline sales! Give the store a credit for multichannel refunds (but manage it to avoid abuse).

9. Is it in stock? Allow customers to check product inventory levels at nearby stores. Save them a wasted journey. This has not been specified as part of the scope, however we believe this should definitely be looked at for phase two.

10. Multichannel commissions for staff. Make sure staff are incentivised to promote the sale of products through all your channels. Otherwise, why should they bother?

Don’t let this article scare you. With the right eCommerce Agency behind you, working through the recommendations above isn’t complicated, but it takes pre planning and support from other departments. Taking the time to develop a multi channel approach will positively affect your bottom line, both online and off.

When projects fail it’s usually the result of a multitude of issues. Typically these issues occur on both the client and the supplier-side. Rarely are they only caused by one party.

From a client-side perspective, one of the key issues is business leader’s failure to recognise an organisation’s culture and how the internal team can significantly impact the success or failure of eCommerce implementation. Many issues arise from the absence of a seasoned eCommerce practitioner on the board.

We have seen many examples (too many) in which projects fall short of expectations, fail altogether, or cost much more than anticipated.

The key client side issues which tend to arise and cause eCommerce projects to fail are:

• No presence of an eCommerce advocate internally within the organisation.
• Setting unrealistic expectations. Forecasts are too high and unsubstantiated.
• Timescale estimates can be incredibly optimistic.
• An insufficient level of investment in the development of the channel.
• Ineffective structure.
• The eCommerce channel is developed as a silo and not integrated with key business functions.
• A lack of cross-functional teamwork internally (it takes more than a head of eCommerce to deliver a successful web channel). For the best results, collaboration must take place between multiple operational units: buying and merchandising, marketing, supply chain and fulfilment, customer service, in-store personnel, and – of course – the eCommerce agency.
• Inadequate team skills (the speed and level of growth of eCommerce has meant there’s a shortage of skills).
• Overall resistance to change and/or the inadequate planning around Change Management.

What can you do about it?

Proactive and forward-thinking businesses can prevent many of these pitfalls and in doing so, save time and money while creating a smoother transition and implementation of eCommerce.

For the best results Exceed Online recommends:

• Enrol key stakeholders in the planning phase, including executives who will input into the vision, and operational stakeholders who will be involved day-to-day with supporting the eCommerce operation.

• Setting SMART objectives: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time lined.

• Communicate the benefits of the channel to all affected operating units ensuring everyone sees the benefit to them and to the business.

• Run stakeholder workshops and interviews assessing the impact eCommerce will have on job tasks, functions and processes, and employee roles in the execution phase.

• Ensure the overall business strategy takes into account the impact eCommerce has on all other channels of the organisation.

The article is written from Kyle to the eCommerce Manager:

Exceed Online considers you to be a very visible retailer in New Zealand. It’s commonplace to witness commercials each night on television for your brand which consequently drive peaks of traffic at any one time to the website.

The site currently falls well short of a best in class web offering with very few pages visible by Google (under 200).  For example, The Warehouse website has 174,000 visible pages.

Exceed Online assumed with the appointment of an eCommerce Manager and a focus on replatforming there would also be focus on appointing a digital marketing partner. This would effectively take the current site performance and traffic from where it is now and most likely increasing overall traffic and consumption considerably.

This assumption comes from our experience of, Running large online campaigns to drive traffic. You currently do very little in the area of SEM / SEO / Email Marketing and other forms of acquisition of new customers, or stimulating existing customers to return to purchase due to targeted offers. If we look at the Google demand for the core products which you supply, it averages around 360,000 searches per month.

This demand does not include the brands that are carried in store. We believe if you build a best practice site with the correct marketing strategy woven into the build of the site, it will dramatically increase its potential to be visible for the relevant demand.  This also does not take into consideration the “average lifetime value” of a customer and their potential; transactions per month, year, lifetime. Not to mention their use of the site to purchase in store.

Our numbers show the average page views per visitor is currently 3 to 4 pages on your site. Moving to a fully transactional site with added functionality and an improved customer experience will increase the average pages per visit to approximately 5 to 8 page views.

The functionality required to build an improved customer experience (layered navigation, filtering of products, dynamic merchandising) all add to the experience but also require hardware to power the software. There is a direct correlation between speed of front end to sales and is well documented by Google and Amazon. Bottom line is the faster the site the more sales.

In conclusion, to ensure performance of the new site is to a very high standard 24/7 it is critical to take into consideration:

• Heavy growth in future traffic volumes
• The heavy spikes which will result from both off and online campaigns
• The growth in visitor engagement with a full eCommerce offering
• The ability to drive new functionality which will enhance the visitor experience i.e. improved usability, improved merchandising, improved customer retention.

Exceed now challenges its competitors to justify their pricing with the above considerations.