America is enthralled with social media tools — 79% of Americans use the internet and 47% use at least one social media site. But what do we talk about on social media and sections of American's represent that 47%?

Social media strategy firm Hasai researched the topic and made a fantastic infographic that draws several insights about the the average American.

Check out the infographic below.
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The mobile revolution is here. Shoppers prefer to use their mobile phone to take care of simple tasks while in-store and often times prefer their mobile device over a store associate. Consumers are going to their smart phone in and out of stores to look for the best deals and advice on the products they are interested in. Make sure your website and online stores have mobile designs to be ready to convert the mobile traffic that may come your way.

Mobile Commerce Revolution Infographic via Microsoft:



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The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) has been coined by Google and roughly translates to the thought and decision process that a consumer goes through when researching, thinking or learning about a product or service.  In the words of Jim Lecinski, author of The Zero Moment of Truth, "consumers learn from search results, user reviews, four-star ratings, text ads, image ads, news headlines, videos and even good old-fashioned official brand websites.  They learn and decide, in short, at the Zero Moment of Truth."

Conversion optimization for eCommerce is essentially a term used to describe optimizing an online store around conversions, attracting consumers to your website and maximizing their likelihood to purchase once there.  Conversion optimization takes into consideration both SEO and UX design across all channels a brand represents.  Optimizing the SEO structure of a website (and all channels - social media, PPC, ect.) while aligning site design and click-through campaigns around highly converting keywords is the essence of conversion optimization.

3 Conversion Optimization Tips for Winning ZMOT

1.  Organic Search - Consistently publish remarkable content with conversion focused keywords in the page title to optimize for organic search.  This way the content that gets indexed in the search engines and shared through social media will be conversion focused.

2.  Paid Search - Focus only on the keywords that lead to conversions.  Stop paying for keywords that do not convert into paying customers.  Remove those non-converting keywords from your campaigns immediately and focus on the keywords that bring in the cash.

3.  Site Design - Optimize your home page for conversion SEO by highlighting call to actions linking to the top performing pages while linking in the navigation menu to other converting pages utilizing conversion focused anchor text.  Don't make visitors think on your site, instead give them a clear path forward with call to actions and converting language.

Conversion optimization is crucial to success with the Zero Moment of Truth because it attracts consumers that are researching, thinking or learning about a product or service.  Conversion optimization attracts consumers in the Zero Moment of Truth and will ultimately win you many, many customers. Read More

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

- Thomas Jefferson

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Time is the currency of our lives.  The supply is limited and everyone needs more of it.  Each of us is given an identical 24 hours each day, and our success is largely determined by how we use these hours.  Treat your website like you do your life, make every second count -- because they do.

Visitors will decide whether they have any interest in your store within 7 seconds of entering.  Make a good first impression and you will likely keep visitors around long enough to purchase.  The homepage of your store is a good place to start as most visitors will likely go to your homepage even if landing first on another.

Separate the important from the trivial.  Make a list of  desired changes and updates to your store homepage and prioritize which are most important.  The use of event-based marketing analytics, which will track visitor behavior from first visit to purchase (or lack of purchase), will paint a clear picture of  the areas that need to be focused on first.  Allowing you to separate the important from the trivial.

Get things done quickly.  Use data to quickly decide what to do to your store homepage and then get it done.  Focus on conversion SEO and design your homepage to be optimally profitable.  It's all about saving time and money -- don't let either slip away.  Utilize your in-house team of developers to implement the store changes or hire freelancers to do it for you.  These changes are important and will effect your bottom line.  Don't let these changes pile and burn on the backburner.  This is 2011 and we all have terribly short attention spans.  You're website built just two years ago will need a lot of work done to it if you haven't been maintaining design and conversion seo best practices.  Become an inbound marketing rockstar and get things done!

Remember, getting people's money is easy once you have persuaded them to give you their time.  Win the time of your visitors and their money will follow.

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The necessity of consistently creating educational and  remarkable content for  search engine optimization success has made blogs a cornerstone of many  businesses.  Small businesses eCommerce store owners can now go online and express their passion and knowledge for their industry through a blog while helping their search rankings improve.  Every article published helps to boost the credibility and extend the reach of long tail keywords, improving organic search traffic if the blog is properly optimized for both design and SEO.

Use the below infographic on "How to Design a Blog For Killer SEO" released by SEOmoz to properly optimize and design a blog for success.
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SEO keyword research and implementation should be conversion focused for all eCommerce stores.  Analytical tools make it entirely possible to track the lifecycle of a paying customer every step of the way, including the keywords used to find the store for the first time.  This means that eCommerce stores are able to identify and focus on implementing SEO for those keywords which produce both traffic and revenue. This data can be used to identify conversion keyword phrases that produce the highest quantity and quality of revenue.  Conversion focused SEO is essential for success in the highly competitive field of eCommerce.

8 Steps to Conversion SEO for Ecommerce

 

1. Collect and identify converting keyword phrases using an analytics platform.  A converting keyword phrase is one that was used by a visitor to find your website for the first visit (first touch) and then made a purchase to become a customer.  Converting keyword phrases produce revenue.  HubSpot provides robust first/last touch data where as Google Analytics will provide reports based on keywords that generated revenue from a last touch only.


2. Classify high quantity and high quality conversion keyword phrases.  High quantity conversion keyword phrases would generate the most revenue over a quarter where as high quality conversion phrases would generate high revenue per order.


3. Implement conversion focused keyword phrases.  Focus on updating on-page SEO elements for the 2 most relevant pages for each of the high quantity and quality converting keyword phrases.  On-page SEO elements to optimize for are title tags, url, meta description, and unique keyword rich content.


4. Optimize homepage links to the top converting pages with keyword rich anchor text.  A store’s homepage will likely have the highest value of an internal link and should be used to promote the most successful pages with conversion keyword phrases.


5. Maximize internal links to conversion rich keyword pages.  Link to those pages recently optimized for on-page SEO based on top conversion phrases.  Some immediately obvious places on your website to utilize internal linking include: navigational links, breadcrumbs, and embedded links with keyword rich anchor text on relevant pages.


6. Build inbound links through the creation of remarkable content focused on conversion keyword phrases.  Blogging for eCommerce is an exceptional avenue for creating unique and remarkable content chockfull of keyword rich conversion phrases.


7. Optimize product feeds to comparison shopping engines and marketplaces to include conversion rich keyword phrases.  Although marketplaces like eBay and Amazon will not drive much traffic to your primary store, they will drive conversions (and revenue).  Update these feeds as well as your comparison shopping engine feeds to Google Products, TheFind.com, ect.


8. Build paid search campaigns around conversion keyword phrases.  Immediately remove any keywords from your campaigns that are not revenue generating and focus solely on those that are bringing in money.  Experiment with funding high conversion keywords which produce little traffic.  These keywords could be a gold mine to be unearthed with unique and remarkable content built to generate organic search traffic.

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Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, recently explained the vision of Google Wallet with an example of buying pants. Eric's example describes a man in need of pants walking into a pants store and purchasing pants using his mobile phone and Google Wallet. In addition to the ability to purchase with a few clicks on the phone, Google Wallet will also connect with Google Offers and alert consumers to stores with deals nearby. This would allow a pants store rep (from Eric's example) to know exactly what type and size of pants the consumer is looking to purchase without ever speaking to them! Google Wallet is poised to transform the way we shop. Buying pants will never be the same.




All merchants should immediately prepare for Google Wallet and the evolution of commerce. Read More

ZippyCart.com, a solution for selecting eCommerce shopping carts and services, recently released the excellent info graph below  detailing "The Age of the Ecommerce Geek".  As you can see, it is pretty awesome.  Thanks Zippy Cart!!!

 

Brought to you by ZippyCart: Shopping Cart Reviews and Designed by Killer Infographics

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A landing page is a website page with a form that visitors can fill out to receive an offer.   Landing pages are used for lead generation and can be effectively utilized by online stores when promoting eCommerce lead generation offers.  eCommerce offers can be coupons, discounts, guides, kits, free samples and more.  There are several best practices that your landing page should follow for proper optimization:

Step #1: Be Clear and Direct in Your Headline.  The headline is the most important component of a landing page because it will be the first piece of content a visitor will read.  This will be your first and only shoot at clearly explaining your offer in words the visitor will understand and act upon.  A perfect headline will include (1) an action oriented verb followed  by (2) the offer and (3) the value of the offer.  See the image below for a great example.



 

Share your favorite landing page examples in the comments below! Read More