"The Banter" A Quarterly Newsletter: Vol. 3, 1st Quarter :: January 2007

Why Should You Care About Search Engine Friendly eCommerce Stores? A Case Study: OneStepAtATime.Com Newly Upgraded xSellit Storefronts Our Clients in the Spotlight: RemodelOhio Show Tech Tips: What Are All These Viruses & How Do I Protect Myself From Them? CONTINUED... Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted Why Should You Care About Search Engine Friendly eCommerce Stores? By: Jessica Sudo Most business owners who want to utilize the Internet as another outlet to sell their products or services look to web designers or "Do-It-Yourself" shopping cart software to create their online storefront. This is usually the best place to start, however, it may be the most frustrating. Trying to decide who or what software to use can be both time consuming and confusing. With so many different programming languages, databases and features available, how does one know the best value for their dollar? As technology advances and more consumers are utilizing the Internet to search and compare products and services, business owners must keep another vital piece of technology in mind. This piece of technology is often what separates the online moneymaking eCommerce stores from those that will not succeed. This piece of technology called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is marketing for the web. When looking for an eCommerce store, search engine friendly eCommerce software is a feature that any business owner should keep at the top of their list because of its ability to direct consumer traffic to their online store. No matter how visually attractive or easy to navigate a web site is, if prospective customers cannot find the store, the site's quality does not matter. As a consumer, when you log online to find a product or service where do you usually start? Most consumers begin by utilizing search engines like Google and Yahoo. Have you ever wondered how these search engines get all of those links to different web sites to show you after you've entered in your keywords? Well, it's a very long and detailed algorithmic procedure, but basically search engines have a program called a "Robot" or "Spider". This program "crawls" web pages looking for unique and updated content to add to the search result listings that the search engines show you. In order for these "Robots" to crawl your site they need good links. Most links look something like: www.yourdomain.com/About_Our_Unique_Product.html. This is a high quality link because it is both descriptive and easy for the "Robots" to follow. Most eCommerce stores have links like: www.yourdomain.com/product.php?id=4. This is because eCommerce stores have an updateable dynamic catalog. What this means is that the catalog of products is stored in a database. There is not an actual physical page that houses this information. So, when you go to the above link, the program then pulls the data that matches id=4 out of the database and display's it on the product.php page. You could not go to www.yourdomain.com/product.php and view the product unless you add "?id=4" to the end. This is a bad link because the "Robots" do not recognize question marks or equal signs very well, so the search engines cannot find the catalog of the eCommerce store. The result is that the search engines eliminate your store's entire catalog from the search engine's index, meaning prospective customers will not find you. It would be analogous to opening a brick & mortar store in the middle of some deserted island where no one lives and people can only reach your store by helicopter. Search engines also like relevant content, so with a link like the example above you are not telling the search engine what your product is, but rather its identification number in the database, which the prospective consumer will obviously not know. Let's say this product #4 is a toothbrush. When a consumer searches online for a toothbrush you can bet that the search engines will not return a link to your toothbrush, at least not on the top 20 pages because id=4 is definitely not a toothbrush! With a good search engine friendly eCommerce store, a link would actually look like: www.yourdomain.com/products/toothbrush.html. This would definitely let those "Robots" know that your site contains information about toothbrushes. A great search engine friendly eCommerce store would let you get even more descriptive with your links such as: www.yourdomain.com/products/oral_b_sensitive_toothbrush.html. Now that's a great link because it is so descriptive. On top of displaying descriptive links without the use of punctuation such as questions marks and equal signs, there are many more features that make up a search engine friendly shopping cart. These features are unique and descriptive product & category Page Titles, Meta Tags (for those search engines that require them), Image Alt tags, H1 tags, and more. Also, don't forget navigational links (instead of images), Sitemaps and RSS Feeds. Search engines like constantly changing content. To sum it all up, search engine friendly shopping carts can actually help increase your online sales as well as decrease your businesses online advertising costs. This of course can improve the ROI for many site owners. Some search engine friendly ecommerce stores may be a little more expensive than their counter-parts but they are well worth the cost to direct online customer traffic to your store. What business owner does not want a crowded store? Back to Top A Case Study: OneStepAtATime.Com Gene Benedetto is a licensed Psychologist and founder of OneStepAtATime.com. He has been in private practice for thirty-two years and is dedicated in helping those who suffer from severe anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors as well as self-esteem issues. He is licensed by the State Board of Psychology for Ohio, and is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Ohio Psychological Association. Challenge: Gene first came to Intersoft with his idea of an online community that would allow him to stay in touch and provide support to his clients that he saw in his private practice. Once he realized the success of his vision, he decided to continue his relationship with Intersoft and expand his site to attract members from around the world who wanted and needed support that they were not receiving elsewhere. Solution: Intersoft has worked continuously with Gene Benedetto for over six years. Starting out small, Intersoft designed a web site with a Membership Component where members (who were kept anonymous) logged in to participate in chat room & discussion forums, download his newsletter, fill out a personal assessment online form and sign up to have pen pals. Over the years and with much success, OneStepAtATime grew 200,000 members strong. At this time, Intersoft was asked to add features such as additional Support Groups, Chat Rooms available 24 hours a day, an expanded Discussion Forum, Online Seminars, and Private E-Therapy. When membership hit 300,000, Intersoft took on the task of revamping the web site and incorporating a new membership model. The goal of the redesign was to produce a calming, safe haven for his visitors and this was accomplished by using soft colors and soothing images. Using ASP, Intersoft developers tackled the new membership model giving access to different site features based on a free or paid membership. The Feel-Good Store was developed which allowed Gene to sell his products, seminars and therapy. It also gave a twist to the visitors shopping experience by giving them the ability to "shop" outside products and add them to their "Wish List". OneStep clients were able to submit questions to Benedetto based on their membership type. The Membership Component would track how many times the member had submitted a question and would restrict them from asking more than they were allowed. The system also tracked discounts that the paid members received and reflected the discounts upon check out. Intersoft has been very committed to understanding the goals that Gene has envisioned and bringing them to reality. Back to Top Newly Upgraded xSellit Storefronts Our xSellit Storefronts have just received a makeover! With great new features it's definitely worth checking out if you are in the market for an eCommerce store. Our new upgraded xSellit Storefronts are now search engine friendly, utilizing updateable META tags for each specific category & product page, proper H1 heading tags, updateable Image ALT tags and specific category & product URL links. Also some other new features include Product Options, Updateable Navigational Menu, Content Pages a WYSIWYG editor and more! Also check out why search engine friendly eCommerce stores are just as important as selling online in our article titled "Why Should You Care About Search Engine Friendly eCommerce Stores?" in this newsletter! www.goxsellit.com Back to Top Our Clients in the Spotlight: The Remodel Ohio Show Website: www.remodelohio.org The NARI Home Improvement Show has been remodeled to deliver more of what homeowners and attendees want. More often than not the average homeowner doesn't always have the time or expertise to do it themselves, yet they want to be connected with professionals that they can trust to do the job. That is the new focus of the home improvement show, now known as RemodelOhio show. Back to Top Tech Tips: What Are All These Viruses & How Do I Protect Myself From Them? CONTINUED... How do I protect myself from these vulnerabilities? Continued Tech Tips from "The Banter" Quarterly Newsletter Volume 2, 4th Quarter October 2006. To recap...in the last issue of, The Banter's Tech Tips, we had discussed Viruses, Worms, Trojans & Rootkit's. We discussed what they were and the opposing threat they could have to your computers and networks. In this issue of Tech Tips we will discuss some steps you can take to protect yourself from such malware programs. Some of these threats travel by email so take the following precautions when downloading and viewing your email messages: Purchase an Anti-Virus program and set it to scan all incoming emails. Keep your Anti-Virus program up-to-date by running Live Updates regularly. Never open a file attached to an email from a sender you do not know or from an untrustworthy source. Never open a file attached to an email UNLESS you are expecting to receive it, even if such a file comes from a friend or someone you know. Run Microsoft Windows Updates on a regular basis. Run Microsoft Office Updates (especially if you use Microsoft Outlook as an email client). Some threats also are downloaded through your browser or even installed from a program or music CD. Follow the below precautions to protect your computer and networks: Purchase an Anti-Virus program and set it to scan all installed files or downloaded files. Keep your Anti-Virus program up-to-date by running Live Updates regularly. Run Microsoft Windows Updates on a regular basis. Carefully read all End User License Agreements. Sometime the company will inform you that there is some type of Rootkit being installed by the program. Avoid installing P2P software. Have your browsers security settings set appropriately. Have your browser prompt you if a website wants to install software or an ActiveX Control. Use common sense when surfing the Internet. Don't go to websites that are not a trustworthy source. Try to avoid downloading freeware, shareware, screensavers, games and executable programs from untrustworthy sources. If you must download and install such software scan the files with your Anti-Virus software before installing them. Install a Firewall or if running Windows XP, enable Microsoft's built in firewall. Download and run Rootkit Finder programs monthly like F-Secure's Blacklight Rootkit Finder. These programs will search your computer for any hidden Rootkits. If you have tech question that you would like us to write about email us at techtips@intersoftgroup.com. Back to Top Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted Intersoft is looking for qualified Sales Applicants to join our Group! If you know of anyone looking for a Sales position that you feel would be a good fit with our company please have them check out our job description at: http://www.intersoftgroup.com/jobs/jobs.aspx All qualified sales applicants can email their resume to: jobs@intersoftgroup.com Back to Top