Source: pulpmedia.at

At the Magento Imagine eCommerce Conference 2012, Exceed Online was honoured with the prestigious Magento Partner Excellence Award.

The Partner Excellence Award recognises the top 10 Global Magento partners (of almost 400 in total) who have had the greatest success in their respective market – defined as both selling Magento Enterprise, and delivering quality implementations to customers. Evaluations for the awards are based on client satisfaction surveys performed by Magento on all of their partners.

“We are extremely honoured to be recognised by Magento,” says Kyle Aspinall, Managing Director and founder of Exceed Online. “2011 was a busy year of growth for us and an award like this confirms the hard work, effort and innovation that our employees bring to work every day.”

Other news highlighted by Magento was the momentum gained since its last conference in helping customers spur business results. Over the past year, the Magento community has doubled in size to 808,000 registered members and with X.commerce, there are a total of 1.1 million members in its developer community. Magento is sustaining growth through continued investment across its full product suite, from its Enterprise Edition and open-ecosystem solutions, to its cloud-based Magento Go offering.

The growth of the Magento community has also driven the growth of Magento Connect, one of the world’s largest eCommerce application marketplaces. With more than 5,600 extensions now offered in Magento Connect – a growth of 73 percent – any merchant can now customise, enhance and extend almost any area of their Magento store. Additionally, Magento saw 71 percent growth in its Solution Partner network to reach almost 400 solution partners around the world.

Exceed Online estimates 6,000 merchants are operating their online business on Magento throughout Australia and New Zealand. Recognised retailers such as Harvey Norman, Office Max, Bing Lee, and many more recognise the flexibility and cost effectiveness of Magento.

“Digital commerce has changed global consumption patterns, making it essential for companies to deliver the most relevant information to consumers at the right time and through the channel most convenient to them,” said Aspinall. “Our recognition as a strong performer in the global commerce space is due largely to our deep understanding of how consumers behave in the digital marketplace. This knowledge, combined with our technical expertise, enables us to create powerful user experiences which re-inforce the merchants’ brand personality, and that is what sets us apart in the global eCommerce space.”

Forrester Research reports that eCommerce is growing at a double-digit rate year-over-year in North America and Western Europe; growth is even faster in the Asian Pacific market, which now accounts for more than 40% of the total global online population.

This explosive growth in digital commerce has contributed to an explosion in demand for Exceed Online’s core expertise. “We build our methodology around what we call ‘Agile Commerce Framework’” says Aspinall. “Rather than seeing their online offering as an adjunct to the brand, we take a comprehensive “whole of customer” view of our clients.

This involves a complete examination and recommendation of how the brand behaves, a full analysis of the customers digital marketing goals and their internal resources, and a comprehensive and full support suite of managed commerce services. “This combination enables clients to communicate and deliver consistently and confidently on brand promise across a multitude of new digital channels.” says Aspinall. “The future in this space is very exciting”.

About Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a consulting-centred eCommerce Agency engineered to transform marketing for the connected world. Their differentiated capabilities and structure have enabled them to become a market leader, operating as an independent company.

Exceed Online has deep industry expertise in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). Exceed Online’s clients include P&G, Nestle, AvisBudget Group, Contact Energy, Sky TV, Brightstar Corp, Singapore Airlines, Dermalogica and Warner Music.

http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au

About Magento

Magento is the fastest growing e-commerce platform with over 100,000 merchants and brands worldwide and a host of Industry Partners that create applications and extensions for the Magento platform. Magento is a feature-rich, professional Open Source eCommerce platform solution that offers merchants complete flexibility and control over the presentation, content, and functionality of their online channel. Based in Los Angeles, Magento is a fast-paced, entrepreneurial organisation dedicated to the mission of enabling the eCommerce ecosystem.

http://www.magentocommerce.com

To stay up to date with Exceed Online, including blogs, ExceedTV, news, and events, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube.

I have always been a big fan of change. Innovation I call it. Unlike many others, I relish at the opportunity for frequent change (I even like to move apartment and swap cars almost yearly). Which is why when Facebook Timeline came out for personal profiles I jumped at the chance to upgrade. Immediately however I found myself thinking “How will this affect brand pages?”.

A few months on and I no longer need to wonder. Facebook Timeline for Brands is here, well, sort of. Although its official release is 31 March, Facebook have been kind enough to give you a 1 month window to check out the new layout, and make sure your page is up to scratch before they flick the switch. I haven’t upgraded the Exceed Online Facebook Page yet. I recommend you don’t do it either. Facebook are using this month to iron out the kinks, so things may not behave as they should. The last thing anyone wants is things not displaying correctly on your page. So, I haven’t upgraded, but I have had a look around, updated content and have it all poised for activation. What are my initial thoughts? Well let me tell you.

1. The Cover Photo

I like the cover photo feature of the personal profiles page. I think if allows you to be a bit more creative with what people are greeted with when they browse your profile. I especially like the cover photo feature on brand pages. Although there are many restrictions on what you can and cannot put in that space, it allows brands to place an eye catching, compelling image that illustrates their brand. So far, so good.

2. Featured Apps

Instead of having your page tabs nestled over on the left hand site, barely noticeable with very little emphasis, you can feature 3 of your tabs at the very top of your page. For example you can have a promo there. Perhaps a blog? It allows you to highlight what is important to your brand. So far the new Facebook is two for two.

3. Welcome Page

Now we are getting to some of the more disappointing features. Or in this case a feature that has been removed completely. Gone were the days of the welcome page. The new approach no longer allows a brand to select what page they want to land first time users on. It’s the Timeline page or nothing. You can still run like gating campaigns, and show different content to people who have liked your page vs. people who haven’t, but they will have to manually seek said pages out. What a pity.

4. Updates

So far I have been underwhelmed with how a brands page is showing content. It was never much of an issue on my personal page because I didn’t really check. Now that it is important to my brand, and other brands we deal with I am wondering if it will be changed soon. It seems that it is putting a lot more power into Facebook’s hands about how things are laid out. As a brand we always want a mixture of our content and fan content on the page. The new Facebook defaults to all page content, and limits fan posts to a small box on the right. It would great to have it default to a mixture of both. Customer posts are very valuable for a brand!

There is, however, a positive angle to the new way posts are displayed. Highlighting and pinning. Now a brand can highlight a post, which extends its width and size across both sides of the Timeline. As users scroll down the page these items will stand out. The second is pinning. You can pin content to the top of your page that you want people to see. This could be a current promotion, maybe a brand video. The options are endless. So updates aren’t all bad, but there is certainly room for improvement.

5. Admin Panel

Not a lot to say about this, as we tend to use external tools for insights and page performance, although from what I have seen it is a little more confusing to use. I may just be nitpicking with this one, but I did find the old admin panel a lot easier to navigate and use. Only a small thing, but they do all add up.

There you have it.

These are my initial thoughts about the new Facebook for Brands pages. Obviously Facebook are going to continue to develop personal and brand pages and we will see many changes over the coming year. The Timeline for brands is definitely a step in the right direction. Let’s just hope they fix these few small issues before March 31st.

What are your thoughts of the Timeline? Love it? Hate It? Let us know!

So you are currently using Google Analytics (GA), Google AdWords (AW), Google Search, Google Keyword Tool, Google Website Optimizer (GWO), Google Sites, Google Documents (Docs), Google Maps and many other Google tools and properties.

But what about Google Webmaster Tools? This is an often overlooked free tool from Google that allows you to see what Google thinks of your site, allowing you to correct site errors and other functions that any Webmaster worth their salt should be responsible for. Google Webmaster Tools focus primarily on the operational aspects of your web site. In this article, we cover the Top 5 Reasons to Use Google Webmaster Tools (GWT).

1. It’s Easy to Set Up

GWT is dead easy to set up and it does not require you to be running any other Google service (like Google Analytics for example). To set up GWT, simply go to the login page and use an existing Google account to login. This will usually be your Gmail email address or an email address linked to a Google account.

Once you are logged in you will be presented with a screen displaying all of your domain names registered with GWT under your Google account. On the top right hand side of the page will be a large, red button labeled ‘Add A Site’.

Once you click that you will be asked to enter your site URL. Once you state the URL then you will be asked to verify site ownership in one of several ways. You can either verify by uploading a Google provided file to your web server via FTP

or 3 alternate methods such as adding a meta tag to your site.

Once you verify site ownership, that’s it, set up is complete. Google will advise on the screen when the verification has been successful and then take you to the dashboard (home screen) for that site in GWT.

2. It’s Easy to Use

Unlike some other Google tools, GWT is amazingly easy to use. Google Analytics has it’s own training system, Google AdWords also has a Learning Center – in fact many Google tools and services have a training portal and certification program for users to reference and qualify through.

Although GWT has it’s own support page, it is unlikely you would ever need to use it. The side navigation links in GWT are self explanatory and take you into key areas of the tool using sub menus. If you know how to navigate a website, then you’ll feel right at home within GWT.

3. It Makes Monitoring Your Site Easy

Remember, GWT provides you with Google’s opinion of your site. Let’s face it, since Google still generates a massive % of website traffic, it is important that Google is able to crawl and index your site with a minimum of fuss or errors being identified in the process.

Yes, GWT is an automated system and sometimes you might choose to overlook some of the alerts it presents but at least you know what Google has found on your site and what its opinion of what it found is. GWT is like the canary in the coal mine – it can alert you to site errors and issues before they have a chance to negatively impact your site visitors.

Crawl errors are displayed prominently right on the dashboard screen.

All crawl errors presented to you are clickable links and following them will take you to a detail page with more information about the errors in questions.

Some of the other items GWT can alert you to are:

• Malware located on your site
• Meta Tag Errors (such as duplicate title tags etc)
• An inaccessible or faulty site map
• An incorrect robots.txt file
• Key SEO statistics (like backlinks, keywords used to find your site etc)

4. It Makes Advising Google of Site Changes Easy

Want to advise Google when your site content or site map has changed? Want to demote a page so that it is not eligible for listing as a supplementary site link under your search results? Want to set certain areas of your site as ‘off limits’ to the Googlebot? To manage all of this and more, use GWT, it’s all there right at your fingertips – and did we mention, it’s free?

5. It Integrates with Google Analytics

To many users, especially agencies, number 5 on our list would have to rate as one of the most valued benefits of using GWT. Linking GWT to a Google Analytics (GA) Account is easy and can be done from within GWT or GA.

From within GWT, on your account home page, linking to GA will be an option under the ‘Manage site’ drop down menu.

Once you click ‘Google Analytics Property’ you will be presented with a screen full of domain names to select from to link GWT to. If you do not have a GA account already, you can create one at the bottom of this screen as well.

If you want to link your site to GWT from GA, you will still need to create the account in GWT first and then link to it from within GA. Once the GWT account is created, then from within GA, simply click the gear icon on the top right of the page. That will take you to the profile settings page. From there, click on the ‘property settings’ tab and you will then have the opportunity to link to a GWT account.

Once your GWT and GA accounts have been linked, then some of the GWT data will be automatically pulled into GA for some of the standard reports. These reports are found under the Search Engine Optimization tab located under the Traffic Sources section.

That includes reports for queries (impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily queries, Landing Pages (impressions, clicks, position and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily landing pages) and Geographical Summary (impressions, clicks and CTR by country).

As you will note, this integration brings some new organic search data into GA that was previously only available for AdWords PPC traffic. This brings some big benefits in terms of the ability to access key search data from within GA without having to log into GWT at all – saving time and having a way to pull this data into GA’s automated reporting capabilities.

So there you have it, our Top 5 Reasons to Use Google Webmaster Tools. Hopefully you can see how great this free Google resource is and how it can benefit your site and your business.

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

SEO is a very long, laborious exercise, which can sometimes take months for any noticeable results. It continues to get harder as Google update their algorithm to look for sites that are genuinely good, vs. sites that have been ‘SEO’ed’ poorly (we’re talking black hat SEO here). Trouble is, people often forget the SEO Basics, and move straight into the ‘heavy lifting’. I’ve decided to prepare a SEO 101 article that contains often-overlooked SEO activity that should be completed before turning anywhere else.

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

We have been working closely with a client in the fitness equipment industry in NZ. We built their websites and have been doing some PPC management work for them. This client has been a major player in their industry for over 30 years, offers exceptional service, a high end range and competitive prices. This sounds like a recipe for success doesn’t it? Unfortunately it is not working as well as it once was.

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.

What is it about businesses and growing? Forever pushing to expand, to spread, to grow. Why is it that most of the time expansion is the goal? Is it just egoic state of mind or something we have been conditioned to think is the “natural” progression?

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.