Welcome to the debut issue of EcommerceBytes Insider, a monthly newsletter that brings you articles about successful online selling - directly from industry insiders who share their firsthand observations of what works and doesn't work for the merchants they work with every day. EcommerceBytes Insider picks their brains and brings you advice to help you succeed in your online retail business.
In today's issue, two experts offer advice on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to help accomplish your goal of driving shoppers to your listings. Google's Jessica Ng explains how to submit your listings to Google Product Search in order to reach shoppers when they're searching on Google (see "Five Things Every Merchant Should Know about Google Product Search").
Volusion's Chief Operating Officer Clay Olivier joins us to tell merchants what to consider when crafting the code and content of their web pages to increase their chances of appearing in the results pages of Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines (see "How to Optimize Your Ecommerce Store for Search Engines"). I especially liked his advice about avoiding unscrupulous SEO techniques.
In a nod to Halloween, columnist Greg Holden has fun with today's case study, which profiles entrepreneur Dave Wachtendonk. Dave uses Volusion's web-hosting service to let clients order his very unique offering - murder-mystery packages.
In reading today's issue, it should become clear to you that, as in other areas of ecommerce, SEO is hard work and common sense, not magic. We'll be covering other topics in future issues, including ecommerce web-hosting, website design, email marketing, product-sourcing and more.
We'll be sharing resources with our sister publications from AuctionBytes.com, which has been publishing information for online sellers since 1999. Please feel free to post in the discussion forums (manual registration is required to prevent spammers) and on the AuctionBytes Blog. You can also find the Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes podcast on this page and on iTunes.
And be sure to take advantage of our merchant directory at EveryPlaceISell.com by setting up a free listing for your business. We have 1,000 merchants in the directory, which launched last month, and last week we launched an ad campaign designed to drive shoppers to the directory.
Welcome to EcommerceBytes Insider - strategies for ecommerce success!
