Google WebMaster Tools adds 404 pages

Everybody knows about the importance of Error 404 Pages for SEO. Google added a widget that you can use for your 404 pages that makes you compliant with Google's crawling guidelines.

Read More here

To add a 404 page to NetSuite, create a hosted HTML Page and then add it under Setup Domain to the 404 Page field.

Hope it helps!

Good SEO starts On Site

I am always asked by our customers how to start optimizing for SEO.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t even start link building (which I consider the second phase of a good SEO strategy) until you:

1. Build Several Internal Contextual Links: Search engines care immensely how webmasters categorize and label their own content. The best way to do this is with one time occurring links within a body of content. In my opinion, 1 relevant contextual link from your own site can be worth more than 10 good external links. Some people recommends having at least 5 internal links to every landing page.

2. Mold Your PageRank Flow: SEO Fast Start has a great explanation of using the no-follow tag to sculpt your PageRank. Basically, the idea is to cap off the flow of PageRank using the no-follow tag to pages that are unimportant from a search point of view like Cart, Customer Center Checkout, Customer Service, Policies, etc. For example, while your Privacy policy page may be important to customers already on the site, it’s probably getting little to no action from the SERPs. By capping off PageRank to pages like this, you will increase the relative importance of your product pages and product category pages.

3. Do On Page Optimization of your Landing Pages: Title tags, H1 tags, keyword rich content, alt tags, and even Meta tags should be optimized before worrying about external links.

This is a great start, but there are details here and there. 97% of Web Development companies, dont get and dont know how to build a site with SEO in mind so its easy to work on it in the future, so you have to be very careful when choosing a vendor.

Customer Service is the new Marketing Department?

I ve been reading a lot about this lately, and we are working for NetSuite customers to improve their communications with customers and make them happier!

NetSuite is an integrated systems, so we have to be working on every area that affects the store. Setting up a Case form is not only about uploading a template and assinging the fields, BUT about understanding the the store's rules and flow.

All this interactions are implemented by SuiteCommerce employees with CRM background.

amazon is the best example, and I am reading their book. More to come on this one.

Thanks,

Diego

Questions to ask before redesigning your WebSite

At SuiteCommerce, we do have a team that understands analytics and we provide the full integration of Google Analtyics on every project, so we can show the improvements of the redesign to our customers, and it is VERY valuable, because green numbers speak for themselves. After 1 month of releasing the new site live, we compare the analytics data, to show the customer instant ROI. And this is True ROI, not a sales pitch. Its Numbers vs Numbers.

98% of new customers had Google Analytics in their old platforms, and we do the full integration of Google Analytics to NetSuite so, its good to compare apples to apples. :-)

Some evidence suggests most internet retailers are eager to frequently redesign their website’s, but not so eager to perform optimization and testing. It’s easy to understand why management loves redesigning websites. It’s tangible, it’s exciting, and it often comes with a load of lofty promises of future ROI. Website usability on the other hand, is not quite so tangible and easy to grasp. It’s not drastic, but rather slow and steady.

In a perfect world, a website redesign might never be necessary. After all, a redesign implies someone wasn’t monitoring the performance, and tweaking and optimizing as needed. However, inevitably the topic of a redesign will come up. Here’s 8 questions to ask yourself before embarking on a website overhaul project.

1. What are the problems with the current site? - Why are you thinking about a redesign in the first place? Make sure you answer this question with fact rather than feeling based reasons. You may be tired of the look and feel of your website, but what do your customers think?
2. What do your customers say about your current site? - What feedback are you getting from your current customers? Your customers may not be professional web designers, but even a novice can point out a bad website. In order to get feedback, try taking some surveys or polls from your site visitors.
3. What is the purpose of this redesign? - Try to avoid vague objectives such as “the site needs to be updated” or “because we do it every year.” Is your goal to improve conversion rates? Reduce bounces rates? Increase search traffic? Ideally, your redesign goal should be inline with the overall purpose of your website. Be sure to set measurable goals that you can easily revisit after the launch.
4. Can these problems be fixed with optimization rather than a full redesign? - Just because your search engine rankings need improvement doesn’t mean you must redesign your site. Maybe it can simply be fixed for a fraction of the cost. It’s easy to over react to a problem and assume everything needs to be scrapped, when it can be optimized instead.
5. How will the redesign affect my search engine rankings? - Too often, SEO is an afterthought of a website redesign. While SEO is certainly not the only consideration when considering a website overhaul, there are many search related ramifications of a site redesign. Make sure you understand how these changes can impact your search traffic before you begin a project.
6. Have you considered the opportunity cost as well as the financial cost? - Depending on the complexity of your website, site redesigns can take a significant amount of time. During this development time, will the current site be neglected? In my experience, its very difficult to focus on maintaining and optimizing an old website at the same time you’re building a new one.
7. Will it be hard for my customers to relearn my new site? - Nobody loves change. Will customers be confused by the new layout? If the changes are drastic, expect the learning curve phenomenon. In other words, things may get worse before they get better.
8. How will I judge if the new website has succeeded? - This is perhaps the most important question of all. If it’s not asked and answered properly, you may get stuck in an endless cycle of website revisions, never reaching a goal because the goal wasn’t defined in the first place. Be sure to answer this question before you launch the new site. Are you prepared to switch back to the previous design if the site is a failure?

As you can probably tell by now, I’m a big fan of website optimization vs drastic, sometimes unnecessary website overhauls. Don’t get me wrong though, there are certainly times when a situation warrants a complete redesign..

What has been your experience with optimization vs. redesigns? Under what conditions would you justify scrapping a design and starting over?