If you run an online store and your products are the kinds of things people wouldn’t mind sharing info about, then you really have to consider adding a little widget or button to your order confirmation page that integrates with the customer’s twitter page which tweets such information.

A classic example would be something like: “I just bought a Google Nexus One from MobiCity.com.au – http://short.url – it’s awesome!”

People like to show off a bit, esp. with gadgets and you can customise what it says and try different ones. Of course it’s totally optional but it’s handy for getting the word out to people.

Try it!

Right now, I’m using OpenCart to setup an online store for a friend of mine. It’s an open source e-commerce shopping cart solution (yay for buzz words) and it’s actually quite nifty.

I prefer it to osCommerce and it’s not a bad alternative to some of the paid shopping carts out there.

Setup has been easy and it’s decent to manage from the back end.

But it’s got me thinking about the success of online stores and how many people look for the system that will be the easiest to use and the one that will make them the most money.

Truth it, you can work with just about any shopping cart – you just need to put in the hard yards. Right now, I’m adding in categories and sub categories to my friend’s online store. I’m then going in and modifying the About Us, Privacy Statement, T&C and Shipping pages. Next up is ensuring the tax rates are all correct and that contact info is accurate and easy to find.

Over the coming week I’ll be adding in photos and more info about the various products he has on offer. I’ve also gotta look into social media integration, shipping modules as well as specials. OpenCart has a nice feature where you can select when a product goes on special so you can pretty much set it up and forget about it.

It’s a lot of work and I’m just the web dev/designer!

To be successful with e-commerce, you have to be patient and hard working. Patient because sales won’t start pouring in from day 1. It takes time to build up a rep as well as increase your rank in SERPs. It’s an ongoing process and your site will change over time.  There’s always lots to think about, like integrating Twitter and Facebook with your page. Setting up a Facebook page is also a good idea. And so on.

Be patient. Keep at it. Make money.

Easy

Yes, it should.

But don’t go expecting dramatic improvements once your site does get approved.

Some things to note about DMOZ:

1. It doesn’t matter where you get listed, as far as ‘distance’ from the root – all listings in DMOZ have the same weight.

2. DMOZ isn’t exactly a great source of PageRank, so don’t expect PageRank to improve merely because of this.

3. DMOZ is a trusted entity and a listing in DMOZ merely adds an extra element to the trust factor of your website.

DMOZ is a heavily guarded fortress and sometimes it may seem like a worthless cause due to the length of time it takes to get listed. Don’t lose heart – just keep trying. DMOZ is beneficial to your online presence, but just don’t rely on it too much.

Place greater emphasis on building content on your website and then the linkjuice will flow*

*all things being equal.

A lot of web developers and web designers try to venture out of their comfort zone by tackling a bit of SEO. Unfortunately, many start learning and get a bit too excited and start over optimising their sites or they try and be cute by using techniques that either scream ‘google penalty’ or ‘desperate’ or ‘lame’.

Here’s a few examples of when some have been a bit too cute with SEO:

1. Premier Tint (premierwindowtint.com.au)
Every URL on this site ends with .tint (http://www.premierwindowtint.com.au/car-window/car-window.tint) because obviously, “tint” is a keyword. Not sure if the web dev here thought this would fool Google or would help them get one up above their competitors but let’s just say it smacks of desperation and has no effect on rankings, at all.

Solution: ignore the file extensions and focus on better URLs for maximum SEO effect. Hyphens are good (a la WordPress stylii). Be specific! yourdomain.com/page123.html is not good. yourdomain.com/webdesign.html is good.

2. Keyword saturation overload super max!
The culprits have fixed their site now but some time ago, they managed to glean some SEO advice from me and tried their own keyword saturation techniques. Well, they got the saturation part right but I guess they weren’t listening when I said it had to be blended in nicely and had to read well for humans as well as Google! Case in point: their keyword was ‘home loans brisbane’ and this is how some of their copy read:

“at home loans brisbane, we offer home loans in brisbane. our home loans are the best in brisbane and we guarantee to give you the best home loan you will ever find in brisbane. home loans brisbane is your #1 home loans specialist, in brisbane.”

Again, smacks of desperation and is just a tad too much. As Matt Cutts said in a video about this sort of thing, ‘we get the point!’

Solution: ignore keyword saturation and focus on writing good clean copy that will read well to a human being. Make sure your formatting is spot on and your keywords are relevant for each page.

3.Meta keyword stuffing

This happens all too often and it just gets worse and worse. Meta keywords have had no affect on rank for a very long time. If an SEO tells you otherwise, run away from them. Meta description also has no effect on rankings but it is important for conversions.

Eg. of meta keyword stuffing: <meta name=”keywords” content=”real estate, real estate brisbane, real, estate, homes, houses, buy homes brisbane, buy houses brisbane, sell house brisbane, brisbane, real estate agents, best real estate agents, homes for sale, houses for sale”>

Don’t do this, please. Not only does your page not have all of those keywords (so relevancy is next to nothing) but it’s also just dodgy and wrong.

Solution: focus on a good relevant page title (has an effect on rankings) and a good meta description that is accurate, relevant and has a call to action (no effect on rankings but helps with conversions)

Moral of the story: just try and stay within the guidelines set out by Google, as a starting point. Network with SEO folks and perhaps get their advice before trying to be cute with your own version of SEO. You don’t want Google to get the wrong idea but you also don’t want to look like an amateur in front of your peers. If you’re an awesome web dev or web designer, stick to what you know and go for gold. There’s no shame in saying “SEO isn’t my thing, so let someone else take care of it”.

ABITE is the Australian Business and IT Expo and has been going for a few years now. It’s always been held in Melbourne but this year marked the first time ABITE ventured into Sydney territory.

I was surprised when I heard about this as I figured that all major business/IT expos would always be held in Sydney (as a priority) given that Sydney is the economic hub of the nation.

Anyway, we had no idea what to expect with our exhibition there. We were initially told there would be just over 100 exhibitors and 1000s of people coming through the door.

Let’s just say the number of exhibitors was less than 50 and if I counted about 200 people coming in through the doors in those 2 days, then I might have been seeing double.

I really don’t know why ABITE fell short but it wasn’t the best use of our time or money. Sure, we made a few new connections, ate some mints and got a few pens but for the money involved in exhibition fees, flights, car hire and hotels, it wasn’t worth it.

I hope ABITE in Melbourne is much better though I was told by some major exhibitors at ABITE Sydney that Melbourne last year was very ordinary..with every 2nd/3rd booth vacant.

We are going to CeBIT in a few weeks and that promises to be amazing. Can’t wait for that. It’s certainly worth the money we’ve already spent on it and I know we’ll come away with some great leads that will help us move forward.