Posted January 10th, 2012
by Rafael Solorzano
In 2011 we’ve touched on mobile a whole lot. Fortune3 made great strides in mobile offering its customers not only a mobile version of their backend to be on top of their ecommerce store on the go but the ability to turn their ecommerce storefront to a mobile storefront for mobile optimization at the click of a button.
Why? We know how important mobile is. You don’t have to be an industry analyst to realize that mobile is where people are flocking to get tasks done including their shopping needs. We’ve seen great growth in mobile for ecommerce and continue to do so.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted January 9th, 2012
by Pablo
Google has announced some changes made to the algorithm. These changes in the search algorithm are toward search quality, of course. One thing to keep in mind is if you are doing the SEO (search engine optimization) for your website, do not just follow what changes are being made or “follow” the algorithm as changes happen almost daily at Google.
It’s important to keep at it with the basics which include, but not limited to:
-Good clean on page optimization
-Authoritative link building
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Posted in SEO for eCommerce
Posted January 5th, 2012
by Pablo
build ecommerce website 2012
It’s 2012 and you may be asking yourself, “What business can I start this new year?” Well, we know one thing. The internet is every growing and if you want to start a business TODAY, the internet is a great place to start and launch a business. There are endless opportunities online and with the ever expanding world of the web, there are so many channels to get exposure to your website today more than ever.
At Fortune3, we get hundreds of calls every day and speak to individuals or companies are launching a website or about to.  Well, here, we’re putting a quick guide as to what are some of the elements you need to launch your ecommerce business today in 2012. Things have significantly changed from a few years ago. The internet is more competitive than ever but that’s also because there is still room for individuals and companies to come up and compete with the largest retailers out there.
The first thing you should do before launching any business is really having some sort of business plan. At the very least know what product you’re going to sell, what the cost will be and what your margins can be. Flock online and see what the top competitors (all those who rank in the first page including those who have paid search advertising on the very top and right hand side of the search engine) and look at what their pricing is for the products you are wanting to compete with them against. At the end of the day, remember, those are your competitors.
You may also want to look at competitors who are doing business on Amazon and Ebay which you can possibly supplement your ecommerce business with. BUT, I hope you take my advice and understand to have an established business on the internet, you need YOUR OWN website and not have to depend on a company which can shut you down anytime to do business.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted January 4th, 2012
by Pablo
A new year is upon us and in the ever changing world of the internet and ecommerce, it’s always a good time to plan what we can do different in this new year or where we can place heavier focus to really boost our business and make it more successful.
If you’re an internet retailer, I believe there is almost nothing more important than really positioning yourself ahead of the competition online in your niche. In order to achieve this, you must really have a solid online marketing strategy to take your online business to the next level.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted January 1st, 2012
by Pablo
Happy 2012 Ecommerce New Year! What a year 2011 was, right? We really continued to see much of what happened in 2010 in terms of what really drove and made the internet what it has become today with universal search and social media.
Will the landscape of ecommerce change in 2012? To put it simply, no. What 2012 will bring is more of the same as you’ve seen in 2011. Your focus should remain the same. If you still have to lay out a strategy or try to figure out what you need to do to get better exposure and drive traffic to your website, focus on the following:
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: SEO is still dominant in the minds of all online marketers. As almost every action begins with a human SEARCH, you want to strive for a well optimized website that does well in the search engines. In order for your website to do well in the search engines, it has to meet criteria, which takes time to get it right.
In 2011, Google rolled out Panda which caused many websites to lose its rankings and many website owners and online marketers to really change their focus on SEO. With Panda rolling out, Google made significant changes to the search algorithm to try and eliminate the following:
-Canonical Issues on Websites
-Thin Content
-Duplicate Content
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted December 27th, 2011
by Pablo
Search engine optimization (SEO) is something all ecommerce / online retailers place heavy focus on. The one thing about SEO is that sometimes we try to do too much. Why? We want as much traffic as possible to our website. Well, guess what? If you look at your business, it’s almost guaranteed that 10-15 of your products are the ones that most likely make 90% of your business.
So, what is the best SEO strategy to better rankings? We can go into hours of writing to really create a best SEO strategy for your business as search engine optimization is as complex as it’s ever been. There are hundreds of signals that Google uses and they literally change almost every day! YES! That is a fact.
Don’t concern yourself so much trying to follow the algorithm, as again, as stated above, it changes daily so it’s like fighting an ever changing tide.
The best SEO strategy is a well, diverse strategy on the PAGES THAT ACTUALLY MATTER. This begins with the following below.
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Posted in SEO for eCommerce
Posted December 23rd, 2011
by Pablo
We can keep talking about the same subject for days but its true, social is truly connected to SEO (search engine optimization.) The web as a whole is now connected and Google uses hundreds if not thousands of signals to rank website and you better believe social signals are strong within the Google algorithm and Bing as well (which powers the Yahoo search index.)
SearchEngineLand put out a great post about the types of social content you can create that can boost your websites SEO.
Let’s take a look at some of the content your company can be putting out to not only gain traffic but valuable social engagement that can lead to very good SEO (Links..yum yum)
1. MANIFESTO: A great example used here was the “Why I’m a Vegetarian, Dammit,” story which picked up about 14k shares on stumbleupon alone. Now you also have to be willing to bet vegetarian bloggers probably linked to this post.
2. CONTROVERSY: This will always pick up steam but it has to be a story of value. Present a good argument or position to a topic in your niche. The example used for this one was Warren Buffets op-ed in the New York Times titled, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.”
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted December 22nd, 2011
by Rafael Solorzano
If you’re starting to grow a Twitter following, good for you! As one of the fastest growing and largest social network, Twitter can really benefit your brand and help drive traffic and sales to your ecommerce business. The question many online retailers have is, “how do we actually use Twitter and why?”
Let’s list some of the ways you can use Twitter and what you can do on your Twitter account to keep gaining traction and actually make it useful for your ecommerce business.
Deals and Sales Tweets: Consumers are online and shop online for one main reason, because most likely the product they saw in a store or down the street can be and should most likely be found for a better price on the internet. If you have a consumer following you on Twitter, that consumer is most likely interested in other things you carry if not the same product they purchased. Sales and deals Tweets helps the consumer keep updated with specials you have on your website.
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Posted in Social Media For eCommerce
Posted December 21st, 2011
by Roger McGershen
If you don’t have an ecommerce store or not in internet retail, here is a great reason why you should want to get into ecommerce now!
While the market may be saturated with almost companies selling everything under the sun, you can still find great niches with relatively little competition. Yes…that still exists. As you know, the internet is relatively young and ever expanding to provide more space for newer competitors.
This past week, the week ending December 18, sales past the $6.28 billion mark, according to ComScore.
As Forbes reports, “The final online shopping weekend before Christmas, where shipping was guaranteed, reached $1.04 billion to rank as the second heaviest weekend of online spending on record.”
Internet retailers such as Target and Zappos are still offering pre Christmas offers as guaranteed shipping before Christmas and so forth. With these types of offers, it is crucial to see and understand why having inventory is such a big part of an internet retailer’s success.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted December 20th, 2011
by Pablo
We hope internet retailers know and understand the importance and impact a blog can have for your business. A blog can build serious presence, build a brand and get you the traffic you need to your website. A blog, as you may already know, is also a key component for search engine optimization.
SEO STRATEGIES for your ECOMMERCE BLOG
1. Keyword Research: This is the most important or one of the most important aspects of building your blog. Keywords are everything when it comes to search engine optimization. If you’re not optimizing for the right keywords, you won’t be driving the right traffic or the targeted traffic you want to land on your website. Keyword research is something you have to know how to do and of course, a crucial part of SEO and its success. The best keyword research tool, still, is Googles Keyword Tool.
Related Article: How Competitive Are Your Keywords?
2. Link Building: If content is king, than linking is queen. With the right links, the search engines know your page, that specific page, is worth something. Think of links as votes. Now, if you have votes from authority sites (links) than you have a very important signal to your website which search engines will like, a lot!
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Posted in Blogging for Ecommerce
