The holiday season is right around the corner – and with it, shopping galore. Are you ready for Christmas? Is your E-commerce site optimized for maximum sales? People will certainly be looking up holiday items and ideas on the Internet, and – to help you gain greater visibility and maximize search traffic – we’ve come up with a list of 7 SEO tips for your retail website. 1. Refresh your content. Don’t just copy and paste from your manufacturer’s website. Be creative. Yes, it takes a lot of effort, but it is worth it to have unique product descriptions, catalog and category descriptions, case studies, industry news, and shopping tips that not only make your E-commerce site a lot more interesting for visitors, but also improve your sales through better search engine visibility. 2. Create a blog. Why not? The fact that holiday season is forthcoming should give you enough things to write about. A blog not only enhances the – Read the full article
Ecommerce is evolving. It’s certainly growing. By the year 2012, ecommerce sales in the US alone are projected to reach $335 billion. As the online customer base continues to grow, so will the number of online stores. Needless to say, it’s an increasingly fierce competition. In order to keep up and ahead of the pace, it is critical that businesses serious about growth in the ecommerce industry should find the best ecommerce solution for their companies. Enter Magento. Called the “platform for growth”, Magento is an open-source enterprise-level content management system whose flexibility, scalability, and robust feature set have been acclaimed by experts in the ecommerce industry. It’s the fastest-growing ecommerce solution in the market today, and with 750,000 downloads, the platform is bound to only grow bigger. Magento’s usable interface, analytics and reporting capabilities, SEO-friendliness, and catalog management tools have been praised by businesses, retailers, wholesalers, marketers, developers, and design firms. But what makes the ecommerce platform truly special – Read the full article
LinkedIn is not Facebook. It’s not Twitter, either. You don’t use LinkedIn to post 140-character statuses about your business or to officially like someone’s new online video. What you can do, however, is use LinkedIn to grow your small business and make it more profitable. And isn’t that your priority? As a business-oriented social networking site with more than 50 million registered users spanning 170 industries, LinkedIn is an online real estate for professionals big and small. It is truly a business networking site with the average user having $109K in income and 41 years old. If you’re unsure how to use your LinkedIn profile to gain a business advantage, you can follow these tips below: Brand your profile: As a small business professional, you want to be easily found by the people who matter – as well as by the most frequently used search engines. Make sure that you customize your LinkedIn profile by changing the default link into – Read the full article
Reputation management is becoming a big part of our small startup. Many of our Chicago clients are finding that monitoring their online reputation is more important than ever. Reviews are viewed as a trusted source of information, in fact 70 percent said they trusted consumer opinions posted online. This ranks above newspaper editorials, tv and radio- according to Nelson Research. Recently an old friend reached out to me to let me know that their company, Alterian, recently acquired Techrigy. Techrigy is a social media monitoring tool that complies links, mentions, information about particular keywords or companies. I know that there are several social media monitoring tools out there, but for some reason this one caught my attention. The team here knows that it takes a lot to impress me, but I was pleasantly surprised with this web based tool. Within the first few minutes I began to see the depth and capabilities of the reporting and I am only in – Read the full article
“Chris is a brilliant and innovative marketer. He understands the industry on a strategic level and yet has the acumen to grasp technical tactics. Chris has developed key relationships in the industry and has an impressive network. He has the business savvy to identify new market opportunities and the discipline to deliver results. I highly recommend Chris without reservation.” – Ryan Evans, President, Rand Media Group “Chris Campbell has generously volunteered his marketing expertise for our not-for-profit organization for the last four years. He has been willing to share his skill in online marketing with both our organization and with the high school students we serve as a workshop presenter and as a consultant to new businesses. I am always impressed with his willingness to share his knowledge with our state wide organization and with other businesses. He is energetic, creative, fast on his feet, thoughtful, a great net worker and he follows through on his commitments. We love having – Read the full article
Champaign Online Marketing Company The Internet has shifted plenty of businesses to higher gear. But if the intricacies of web and web design development remain a mystery to you, Lakeshore Branding can come to the rescue. Our web designers, SEO consultants, and Internet marketing experts take pride in building websites that aren’t just pretty; they’re also strategic and hard-working. Lakeshore Branding provides complete web design and development solutions that consistently deliver real results and real business value. We work hard not only at aesthetics, but also at launching efforts that will drive traffic to your website and turn leads from the Internet into sales and revenue. Looking to shift into higher gear? Lakeshore Branding can make it happen. Reach us by filling in the form below. (Please complete all the fields marked *) Your name please. * Your Company / Organization Name What’s your phone number? * What’s your e-mail address? * What’s your website address? – Read the full article
As websites get more and more complex, the length of URL’s (web addresses) seems to get longer and longer. This can cause problems when emailing URLs, using Twitter and other web services, or trying to recite URLs to others. TinyURL.com and other services have stepped in to fix this problem with the innovative new web 2.0 service of shortening URLs. These services provide a redirect from a shorter web address to the long and cumbersome address you need to reach. The website you want to email to a friend: http://digitalprinter.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-to-enlarge-low-resolution-images.html Once entered into TinyURL.com you receive: http://tinyurl.com/6dmz75 They also allow custom short URLs: http://elevateprinting.com Becomes: http://tinyurl.com/elevatep Another added effect of this services is that you can hide the true domain and web address you are sending people to. This can unfortunately be used for some less ethical purposes. Other Similar Websites & Services: bit.ly is.gd Tweetburner (Twurl) urlShort
I was first introduced to ZipCar about a year ago. It was a novel idea, rent cars by the hour for an affordable rate. Most cars start at $9 an hour (ie a Honda element, Toyota matrix etc.) The hourly fee covers insurance, gas and the parking spot you found it in. The cars are conveniently located around Chicago and tons of other cities around the globe. They actually just merged with Flexcar to offer the service in even more cities. If you do not drive much this is the perfect solution. I sold my car this summer and have used ZipCar ever since. I save hundreds a month, before I had a truck that was $275 note, $100 Insurance, $200-350 in gas a month. Compared to ZipCar I rent a car a few time a month, usually not more than $150 a month. The thing that I like the most is the different cars you can choose from. If – Read the full article
