Which is the best shopping cart for SEO
Ajay Kumar Singh on June 28th, 2009While choosing the best eCommerce shopping cart for online business website people often ignore the SEO while focusing more on the features being offered by the shopping cart. When they have completed the shopping cart installation, configuration and try to promote the online shop then only they will realize that they are in trouble waters as shopping carts are notoriously bad for the SEO.
So what one should look into the shopping cart Search Engine Optimization? This article investigates some of the most popular shopping carts and their SEO capabilities.
There are plenty of online shopping carts some are free some are shareware and others are commercial "out of Box" and their number is increasing day by day which makes it difficult to narrow down on the most suitable shopping cart.
I will describe the most popular shopping carts and their capabilities with the SEO, all of these are based on php/mySQL.
osCommerce
osCommerce remains my favorite and the best shopping cart to work with not only in terms of setting it up, configuring but also for the SEO. osCommerce is, undoubtedly the best shopping cart for the SEO.
The osCommerce SEO contribution – osCommerce: Ultimate SEO URLs, freely and publicly available, is not well capable of providing the full features for SEO. It requires tweaking to make it a perfect tool to utilize the full potential of SEO.
CRE Loaded
CRE Loaded, the offspring of osCommerce and free (well almost) script, also offers SEO capabilities but it is limited and tweaking to make it works is little difficult, if not impossible, than that for osCommerce SEO. Since CRE Loaded is more or less becoming a commercial script the free contributions are becoming rare which makes it further difficult to customize for SEO.
Zen Cart
Zen Cart, another popular free shopping cart and similar to osCommerce, also offers the SEO friendly URLs capability however customizing it further is a difficult task as it is based on Smarty.
X-cart
X-Cart is a licensed shopping cart. It provides the full SEO capabilities and options to change the Metatags and description for each product.
digiShop
digiShop, the commercial shopping cart, offers to enable mod_rewrite in the new version (version 5.3.0) however making it work fully for SEO is not easy task and requires digiShop expert to handle it. If not configured properly digishop SEO module can harm your website for SEO. digiShop SEO mod_rewrite module rebuilds the shopping cart in HTML while keeping the php version of it intact and it requires further tweaking to make it work fully.
CubeCart
CubeCart is an “out of box” commercial shopping cart, the latest version of CubeCart offers SEO capabilities.
Avactis
Avactis is a commercial php/mySQL based shopping cart, it does offer some SEO capabilities.
Effective Online Marketing to Build Traffic
Ajay Kumar Singh on January 19th, 2009Creating an online marketing plan is similar to developing a marketing plan for your brick and mortar business. Every good internet marketing plan has a dedicated online marketing road map. Site owners should carefully develop their internet marketing plan, analyze the plan and then chart their online road map. The goals of this online marketing plan and road map are to create hits, sustain a readership and thus increase the site’s inherent value.
Site marketers can develop an online marketing plan at virtually no cost. Costs may be incurred when the road map is implemented, but site owners should not be caught unprepared. Establish an online marketing budget and be determined to stay within the reasonable guidelines. When building traffic to your site, spending money is not necessarily the top priority. Many people spend money and lack an effective internet marketing plan, and for that matter, a good marketable site. When site owners spend money, they should know what services they need and should receive a written proposal detailing the services and projecting results that are consistent with the online marketing plan goals.
Web Design
A good internet marketing plan begins with proper web design. Today’s technology allows for many options. Developers need to know their market and connect the site’s appearance to that market.
Sites must be easy to reach, easy to navigate and should contain well scripted SEO content that establishes the site as a valuable resource. Sites that take positions, even contrary positions, generate traffic. Traffic is the measure that increases the site’s value.
Poor web design can alienate readers just as a dynamic web design can add viewers. As the site’s home page is the most viewed site, the internet marketing plan should outline the most important criteria that will grab and hold the reader’s attention. Web sites are like business acquaintances. The site has one chance to create a first impression and there is no disputing that first impressions last a long time. A web design that creates a memorable home page, will spark interest and get traffic right away.
Link and Build with SEO
Internet marketing plans and good web designs acknowledge the value of feeds and links to enhance the site’s network. Encourage other feeds and make your site easy to locate by encouraging links. Of course, your online marketing plan calls for continuous and consistent promotion through the use of regularly posted SEO content.
Online marketing uses material that has substance. Search Engine Optimization keywords and frequency can not overwhelm the content but must be utilized. All SEO articles must be reader-oriented and avoid self-promotion. There is no quicker way to turn off your readership than to self-promote. Generate interest and keep the readers coming back and telling other readers about your site.
The more links and RSS feeds that connect to the site, the more of a resource the site becomes. To keep the site in the mainstream, stay ahead of trends and provide opportunities for reader’s comments. All material should be current and relevant to your market.
Search Engine Optimization can boost the sites rankings on various search engines. Effective keywords and effective use of those keywords generate traffic to the site. Even archived articles with proper keyword usage get hits long after the articles have moved from page one. Every article should be edited to perfection and written with lasting content. Remember that every SEO article may be a reader’s first impression of your internet presence.
For effective SEO content, the keyword should be utilized in the title, the first sentence of the article, in the last sentence of the article and throughout the content. Keyword usage of 3% of word count has potential to boost rankings.
While SEO content is helpful to the site, it can also adversely impact the site. Blatant attempts to boost rankings through SEO keyword usage will be recognized by the readership who visits the site for insightful content. These readers are not simply passing time. A site’s readers want substantive resource material. Work the SEO keywords into articles but do not compromise your site by diluting the material with forced keyword usage.
Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Most internet marketing plans incorporate the use of social media. Social media optimization (SMO) implements proven methods of generating publicity for the site. Think of SMO as an online publicity campaign that creates buzz through various online communities, community websites, web logs, RSS feeds and news sites.
The difference between SMO and SEO is that SMO focuses on efforts to create traffic through the use of other sources rather than from Search Engines. Imaging and the use of videos are helpful tactics to boost SMO rankings. Again, it is imperative that content be viewer-oriented. Self promotion is an online marketing mistake.
Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM)
A new age internet marketing term is important in developing your online marketing strategy. Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is a scant used term, but a very viable internet marketing concept. Basically, site owners who are committed to SERM employ vigilant site management strategies that include the web design, content definition and sound marketing plans.
Building traffic to a site can be accomplished. Like all marketing plans, online marketing requires reasonable short and long term goals. These goals are defined in the internet marketing plan. The application of the strategy is called the online marketing road map. A site’s marketing road map charts the course for generating traffic and assures that the web design, SEO, SMO and SERM interact through in cohesive content.
Site managers must consistently perform their timely responsibilities to assure a maximum return on the site’s investment. Sites must remain true to the marketing plan. This internet marketing plan should be reviewed periodically. Adjustments should be made to reflect the site’s statistical data which is accumulated over a period of time. Online marketing managers need to be aware of what site items are creating traffic. Effective internet marketing always has an eye to the future and tracks new technology and strategies to maintain high rankings and constant traffic.
How to get into Google Top 10
Ajay Kumar Singh on January 18th, 2009Nothing’s more fulfilling than having your website in the top spot on Google Top 10 because of your chosen keywords. This can bring you massive customers faster than you can handle and you are rolling in the money. If only this could be an easy task right? True that there’s much to be done but everything can go smoothly if you know the techniques.
There is really no secret but by just knowing what to do like doing SEO; you could be way up to the top. At first, you can commit mistakes but from these mistakes, you’ll eventually learn from them thus, little by little, you’ll later on know what to do to get your site on top. If only you could instantly get ranked for your site in Google, certainly, all you have to do now is to just get some links to your site.
True there are various factors involved to get your site in the top spot. It is not just about having links pointing to your site but you need to create your own keyword “anchor linked” to your site. Anchor linking is when you employ your keyword phrase as a clickable text for a link. This means that, instead of saying “click here”, you would employ “widgets” as the link text. Smart isn’t it?
Another important thing that you should take into consideration to achieve successful Internet Marketing is creating keyword phrases that you want to use to make your site easily found. Oftentimes, people recklessly choose one word keywords or phrases. While this can be a good way to bring traffic to your site, would it attract targeted traffic, with customers looking specifically for your services or products? Usually, when people input a one-letter key phrase in the search engine, they are actually at the start of their search.
They may type in “shoes”, but are really searching for “running shoes”. So if you have a top ranking site for shoes, have you answered the user’s needs? Maybe, but they may also be searching for other items like dresses, casual, children’s, women’s, etc. This is the reason that when you start to optimize your site, you should concentrate on the more specific keywords or phrases. Also, it is a must to link to a page that has relevant content otherwise Google will view this link as possible spam or an irrelevant content.
Once you have created your list of keywords, you need to test which one is more searched on the most. This can be done using Word Tracker or there are various free tools available online which you can use. When you have already run through your list of keywords, of course you should pick the one with the highest searches. Your next step is to start the process of link campaigning. The most ideal method in Search Engine Optimization is to engage in a more strategic linking not in a reciprocal link exchange.
Strategic linking is linking to your site without having to return the favor. So how can you do this? Well, write like an article like this one. If I get one website to use this article and have it point to my site, instantly I have just created another link to my site.
Because you now have engaged in a linking campaign, expect to see results in Google in as little as 4 days and as far as 6 months. The next step you should work out is to get as many links as possible that will point to your site using the keyword phrase anchor linked to your site. This is one of the most effective online marketing strategies you can do.
True enough that there are many other factors that will improve your rankings in Google. But the implementation of link building is the strongest Website Promotion technique to get your site on top rank.