Posted April 14th, 2012
by Rafael Solorzano
Q: How long will it take for search engines to list our ecommerce website once we set everything up and go live with our domain online?
A:  There’s two ways to look at this question as there may be two insinuations from most people who ask this very question.
As far as Google or any search engine actually listing your domain once it goes live it can take a few hours to maybe 1-2 days. This really depends on what you do yourself for the search engine to find your website, crawl it and list it.
HOW TO GET IT LISTED FAST:
Links are everything. If you add a link to a website that Google crawls, then Google will follow that link into your website, crawl it and index it. So, for example, let’s say you decide to launch right now and your website is live but it’s brand new. What can you do? One thing you can do immediately is go to Twitter and tweet about your website and add a link.
Another thing you can do is create a Google Webmaster Tools account and there is a feature there that allows you to send the Google bot to fetch your website thus indexing it. Visit the Google webmaster tools here: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
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Tags: index website, search engine optimization, seo Posted in Q&A
Posted February 10th, 2012
by Pablo
Q: We’ve launched our website about 10 months ago and started with heavy PPC advertising to drive traffic. Over the last few months our SEO has improved but not enough to let PPC go. What are some ways we can attract more customers to our website? We care more about conversions than traffic.
A: That’s a great question and one that every internet retailer that launches has. How to drive more traffic, right? That seems to be the holy grail to success and sales, of course.
You have the right focus and mentality when it comes to making sure it’s mostly about conversions and not just traffic.
Pay-per-click is a great way to generate traffic and launch an ecommerce business. After a few months, you really need to analyze the data and make sure you’re getting the best possible ROI. Analyze what keywords are converting best and what ads are getting the best click through rate. This all comes into account with how much you’ll be paying per click.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted February 2nd, 2012
by Roger McGershen
Q: I received a call from a company called ‘Ecommerce Positioning,’ about getting better search engine placement for my website and said they work with Fortune3 and their customers. Is Fortune3 affiliated with this company? Is Fortune3 affiliated with any other SEO companies to help the SEO of their clients?
A: Fortune3 DOES NOT work with any other third party or affiliated with any SEO companies to serve its customers for search engine optimization. At Fortune3, we have our own search marketing and search engine optimization team to help our customers with their online marketing needs.
Fortune3 highly recommends that you perform searches and due diligence before engaging in business with any 3rd party, particularly with “marketing” companies that contact you, as these are known to be largely fraudulent or scams, charging excessive amounts of money for unnecessary and worthless changes, and no results produced. Performing a Google search for Ecommerce Positioning will provide you with their BBB ranking of D- for having a large number of complaints and several horror-like stories on sites like ripoffreports where customers have been ripped off to the sums of tens of thousands of dollars.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted October 28th, 2011
by Pablo
Q: We’ve had our ecommerce website for a little over two years and have had the same design for some time now. When is it the right time to change the design on the website or when should you consider a website redesign?
A: Website redesigns are something to strongly consider and I believe to be different for many industries across the board. In general, it’s important to always keep changing the look of your website as you do not want to look like a ‘stagnant’ website or business to consumers that may be coming back to visit your website and see the same ‘ol.
Changing your websites design lets consumers know you are an active company. Also, as it goes for any ecommerce business, certain products, not all, have seasonalities. Sometimes you have new products you want to really showcase, sometimes you may have sales that you really need to showcase.
A redesign should be implemented as your business demands it. Always keep an eye on your competitors and see how they are changing things up. That is to say, look at the biggest players in your niche, not the small websites that you are competing against.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted September 16th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
Q: I own an ecommerce website and we understand that shipping is a vital part of our business. We’d like to get better rates on our shipping but we haven’t had much luck contacting these companies and speak to the right person? Are there specific departments to talk to?
A: I know the simple answer is to call them, right? Even if that works, the best way to get the best rates from these companies is really to NEGOTIATE. If you don’t have negotiating skills, let someone who does in your staff deal with them. In reality, if you’re involved in ecommerce, every aspect of the purchase process, from choosing service providers to product providers take negotiation skills to get the best possible deals so you can have the lowest overhead and rates.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted September 9th, 2011
by Pablo
Q: We are almost done with our ecommerce website and understand that in order to rank in the search engines for optimization, we need to build incoming links. What is the best way to establish and get incoming links to our website?
A: If content is king in search engine optimization, then links are queen, or maybe they are the second king in the kingdom of the search engines. I have seen websites that are very thin in content rank very well due to their incoming links. HOWEVER, as Panda recently rolled out a few months back, that has changed a bit.
Nevertheless, links are an essential part of good search engine optimization and without them, don’t count too much on ranking well for any competitive keywords.
Building links is no easy task and if you are a beginner, this may be a tough task as some of the steps required to build links requires advanced strategies.
Here are some quick tips to build and establish incoming links to your ecommerce website:
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Posted in Q&A, SEO for eCommerce
Posted August 26th, 2011
by Pablo
Q: We keep seeing articles and blog post about the Google + (plus) button but not sure if we want to keep adding more social buttons to our website. Should we add this button? Does the Google + button have any real impact on search rankings?
A: The Google Plus 1 button (+1) is gaining popularity throughout the web and has caught fire among webmaster and web designers as a prominent button. As social sharing already has an impact and influence on search, there is no reason why you should not add the +1 throughout your website and to go a step further, you should add this button on every product page so that individual product can be shared by users.
Though Google Plus (Googles social network – its version of Facebook) is not as big as Facebook YET, it already has millions of users and Google will keep developing this network, you can bet on that. Users can share content at the click of a button. This functionality acts the same as the Facebook Like button.
DOES THE GOOGLE +1 BUTTON INFLUENCE SEARCH RANKINGS?
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Posted in Q&A, SEO for eCommerce
Posted August 9th, 2011
by Rafael Solorzano
Q: I am looking to start an ecommerce website and wondering what the most important features are for a shopping cart software?
A: The fact is that depending on what your needs are for your ecommerce business, different types of niches may have different wants and needs in their shopping cart. That being said, there are basic important features that you must have in order to have success and facilitate your ecommerce business.
Here are some of the features that you’ll want to look for:
1. CUSTOMIZATION: When you choose a shopping cart software, you’ll want to make sure that the shopping cart you choose is easily customizable. While you may have templates to choose from, it’ll be important for you to know that when you’d like to change the design of your store, you’ll have the availability to do so.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips, Q&A
Posted July 29th, 2011
by Pablo
Q: I am starting an affiliate website that will sell products of a large ecommerce website, do I need shopping cart software for this project?
A: You can do ecommerce affiliate marketing in two different ways. One would require you to have shopping cart software and one wouldn’t require shopping cart software.
To start with the type of ecommerce affiliate marketing that you do not need shopping cart software on your website is if you choose to do direct affiliate marketing with the company. In this scenario, you would basically build out a website, design of your choice; it can even be created from a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress.
Large ecommerce websites run their affiliate program in one of two ways. They either run their affiliate program in house with their own software or they go through a third party company such as Commission Junction. In any case, codes are provided (or links) and they provide you with any type of creative (what they call in the affiliate world banners) or links with tracking to place on your website.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted July 15th, 2011
by Pablo
A: We are trying to drive traffic to our ecommerce website using Facebook. What is the best way or how can we drive traffic to the site via Facebook?
Q: Facebook can be a great traffic channel for any website. Whether it be a blog or an ecommerce website, looking at Facebook as a channel for marketing, it is one of the largest online. In fact, not long ago, Facebook passed Google in traffic.
Many use Facebook as a form of getting information and finding opinions on brands, products, etc.
To get to the question, how to drive traffic from Facebook to your website, here are some tips for you.
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Posted in Q&A, Social Media For eCommerce
