Q & A

Welcome to our Question & Answer section. Here you will find responses to some very real questions posed in the past by other store owners like yourself. I hope you enjoy this section. From time to time, you may want to come back to this page as I will try to update it occassionally. 

Okay,... so let's begin!

I'm listening to the calls, but I still don't understand SEO...

First of all, please don't be shy on our training calls. I need your help! PLEASE do ask questions. Questions really help me out. I have found that if one person has a question, then often someone else has that exact same question, but they too are too shy to ask. So when someone does ask, it helps everyone. Besides, some of the best questions are the simple clarification questions. After you've been doing this for a while, it's easy to take for granted that everyone know what you're talking about (example: the terminology, lingo, or even keyboard things like how to copy and paste).

Here is an idea... go to StudyBibles.net and dissect all the things that makes that site different from the replicated site. Some are minor others more obvious. Each change can possibly help... like customizing a car. Two red Mustangs, same year make and model... what sets the two apart? Okay, so someone may customize their rims, or tires, or add a header, or maybe even add a sticker tot he back window or a customize license plate or license plate frame. Who would have a better chance of making it to the top of Googles organic search as the best Mustang,.. the stock car or the customized car? I hope that analogy helps.

As for SEO (search engine optimization ~ which is very different from PPC)... If you want to focus on SEO you may want to change your website template, menu tabs, your item buttons (view item, buy now, out of stock, large buy now button), ect.... Anything to make your site different from the other sites. SEO is is a marketing method which is a long time, daily, weekly, or monthly process (depending how quickly you want to see results).  It is not instnt, nor does it provide instant results. However, good SEO can result in your site being listed in long time first page search results. See StudyBibles.net as an example to see what I mean. This site now is listed in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.com on the first page search results for the phrase Study Bibles. Please see all the things which make this example site TELL the search engines that it is about Study Bibles. It's everything from the store name/domain name, to menu tags, to the first words in the header. So, think what your main keyword phrase is and use that in all your descriptions as much as possible, in your content, etc.

"I am confused about keywords....are we looking for keywords with high or low traffic volume? Or are we looking for something in the middle....High traffic means that there is a lot of competition but these words are also very popular searches...if we go with a low traffic word, then we set ourselves up for failure by becoming too narrow...and only a few people search those terms. What is the best way to choose keywords? I was on Monday's call and I listened to Joe's recorded call, but I still am confused as to which way to go... Any advice?"

Great question! I personally look for keywords which I feel that I would have a chance getting into. For example, Christian Books may have a lot of people searching it, however, there are a ton of competing sites trying to get in there. So, let's take a phrase with lower competition,... yes, it may have less people looking for it, however I have a chance of getting to the top of the search engines for it. So, now I find that specific keyword phrase which people are looking for. Let's say,

mp3 nkjv bible ---  difficulty level is: Low Advertiser Competition... 1,600  ---  1.900

or....

bible read aloud ---   difficulty level is: Low Advertiser Competition... 2,900  ---  2,400  (now I may need to consider what this phrase actually means, who would be searching for this term?? Someone looking to buy something or??)

Let's say that I spent a day or maybe even a week, drawing traffic to my site for these keyword phrases. The following week I move on to another phrase. Would I be happy getting a portion of these hits on a monthly basis,... Remember, that would be for only ONE of my 100k + products. Let's say I optimize for these phrases and I bring in 2,000 to 3,000 ongoing hits a month for these two phrases only. That would be 24k - 36,000 hits a year for this phrase alone. I still have well over 100k+ products left to optimize for. Do you understand? Does that make sense? :)

Then, after that, I would consider HELPING the search engines to FIND my customized content... This is where link building can come into play,... It can take a while for the search engines to find your page which you now have customized. (If you are on the Silver or above plan:  let's say you have spent time adding unique content and/or customizing your meta tags for your key word phrases.) So, what to do now? You can help the search engines along in finding your newly customized page by building links. Link to your customized page in blogs, etc. Let the search engines know your product exists. If you are not on the Silver (or above) plan,... what you will be wanting to do is building links to your product pages using the keyword phrases you wish to target. You won't be able to customize your individual product pages or category pages, however,... you could use one of your 500 available customizable pages to make keyword relevant pages to link to! :) See StudyBibles.net, and you'll see that I like to create new links to the customized pages via adding menu tabs or or using the Left Block area. By the way, in case you don't know what the Left Block section is,... our training page links on Webinue are in the "Left Block" section.

So, what do you think about this? (software, company, advertising)

Okay, here is what I always do when a system or software program catches my attention. The first thing I do is some Internet searches....

1.)  I do a search for the company name or company domain name with the word Review behind it... example: ABC Company review to see what others are saying.
2.)  Then, I do the same thing but this time I put the word Scam behind it... for example: ABC Company scam to see what people are saying. Now, I understand that all businesses can have fans and foes, I'm looking for a pattern here. It there a common thread of complaint? Is it a legitimate complaint. For example: go to the Better Business Bureau's website and look up Toys R Us or any major store,... you will find a ton of complaints,... but I have never had a problem with Toys R Us, and I will still shop Toys R Us. Sometimes a customer complaint can be legitimate, other times customers can be in a bad mood, etc.
3.) Then I evaluate what people are saying,...  How long has the company been in business (see how old the reviews are, or how old the domain name is). Are the complains (if any) old,... have they revamped their software or program since and stopped getting complaints? What type of complaints are they... about credit card charges, that the system doesn't work, etc.? Are people saying that they switched to a similar system which they like better (after switching)? Do the comments look like the company themselves wrote them, or does it look like real people wrote them?

I hope this helps you to evaluate which advertising companies, methods, and services you use. It's exactly what I would be doing to figure out if I would download or invest in a program.  :)

I'm having a problem with my store. I have plenty of traffic and shoppers, but EVERYONE abandons their carts. What is going on?

Yes,... I do have an idea about this... I believe that this may actually be search engine robots spidering your site. So the bad news would be that they probably aren't actual customer orders. The good news would be that your site is being spidered by the search engines. You may want to implement SEO to tell the search engines what keywords you want to be listed for. (See our Webinue.com training section ~ Recorded Training Calls or join our Monday training calls). I hope this helps.

What about PPC advertising like Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing? Any advice, or what about hiring a PPC campaign manager.

You can definitely do your own PPC campaigns. Your ads could go live as early as today! But, if you need counsel or just don't want to do it yourself, here are some ideas to check out...

1.)  There are companies out there who may be able to help you with your PPC campaign. They are professionals at getting your click through rates up. To find a company you like, maybe do a search for PPC Management.  Here is a video demonstration from one company....  http://video.clickable.com/   ~ I have never used them, I believe they are for larger campaigns, but the video seems informative. You may want to do some additional searching.

2.)  Here is a video from Yahoo... http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/tu/ols_demo.php?chapter=1

3.)  Re:  Google Adwords... this person gives some tips...  http://www.roirevolution.com/promos/adwords-tips/free-guide.php

4.)  Here is a person I found online. He has an A rating and zero complaints with the BBB... his focus is 100% on PPC campaigns. His site is... http://search2sales.com

5.)  Do a search for do a search for "PPC Management" or similar keywords.

6.)  You may want to do more searching or use this tool to find keywords which you would like to target...    http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal . Just start by putting in an idea you have, like Bible Commentary and see what happens. You're looking for keywords with low advertiser competition (look at the green and white bar after you push "Get Keyword Ideas") that get some hits.

Should I hire an SEO or try and do it myself?

What Google has to say on the topic. (click here)

Consider reading our other training pages on SEO, Submitting to Directories, etc.

Utilize the search engines... do some searching of your own.

Try this free trial download. Okay, I don't normally recommend something which I haven't tried myself, however,... this is a free trial version. See what you think. I would download this and try it myself, if could! (note: It's not MAC compatible.)... iBusinessPromoter

How do I create alt tags?

This is not an easy answer. You can copy and tweak the coding below to yur liking.  w3schools.com is a great resource in learning html coding... the simplified answer is that it's a coding thing.

EXAMPLE: This is a dissection of the StudyBibles.net right banner and alt tags...

    Alt Tag Coding... 

    Dissecting What the Code Means...
1.)  "imc src" tells where the Internet WHERE it can find the image on the Internet (The image has been uploaded in the store admin section under Content, in the Add Graphics section. Then I "previewed" the picture's page and noted the page url. I input everything AFTER the domain name, from the "/" on to the end).
2.)  "/imagelib..." tells the exact page, within the store, which it can be found on.
3.)  Then, there is the alt tag description (what you want it to say if the picture doesn't display. Example:  alt="bible study books, curriculum, bible workbook, strongs concordance, bible dictionary, bible commentary, study bible, kjv, king james bible")
4.)  Lastly, there is the width, boarder, and height of the banner/image.