What is Google PR and why should I care?

In a nutshell PageRank, often referred to as Google PR, is Google’s way of determining the “importance” of a web page by looking at what pages are linking to it, or the quantity of backlinks.  PageRank is defined by a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the highest possible score. Google PageRank determines the position of your eCommerce website on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). PageRank is based on a complicated algorithm, with importance weighted on backlinks.  

From Google “in general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”

Building links with high quality, relevant websites is where you should concentrate. Yes, this is time consuming but so is updating your fantasy football league and you find plenty of time to do that!

Be sure to stick to best practice guidelines when partaking in link building activities. Just like all things you do online, make them genuine and sincere or they aren’t best practices. If the line begins to blur, or Google thinks that you are asking for links, you may be penalized. Think of it as building relationships versus just simply building backlinks. Here is a roundup of some of our favorite ways to build relevant backlinks online:

Directories & Bookmarking

You shouldn’t have to pay for your friends and you don’t need to pay to be added to directories either. There are many great directories and bookmarking sites out there which will be happy to include your url and company listing. Take some time to search for industry specific directories that may not be listed here.

Business Listing Directories

List your website in all the business or search directories like Google’s Places, Yahoo!, Bing, Yellowpages.com, Yelp, and Hot Frog. Be sure to add as much pertinent information as possible to these listing for both potential customers and search engines.

Encourage customers to leave reviews on directories for word of mouth marketing, and content value. In addition to fantastic content, these reviews can be used for keyword research.  Remember, it is what your customers would think to query, not what you, industry leader would use.

Search Directories

Add your listing to search directories where topics are organized by categories, a few of which include; DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, Squidoo, and Google Directory.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social Bookmarking sites encourage linking to articles and websites that their users find interesting. Typically they are given tags and descriptions.

Establish a profile, with a link to your eCommerce website, and then encourage your faithful flock to bookmark your posts to find later on, and of course give you another link. Some popular Social Bookmarking sites include digg, delicious, and StumbleUpon. Each one of those Book Marking sites may be more or less popular for use in your industry. Ask your colleagues where they keep their bookmarks, or search for your peer group within the bookmarking sites to see which is the most widely used.

Social Media

Develop profiles on social networking sites like; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Providing valuable content is the most effective way to get the attention of readers and grow the amount of traffic to your eCommerce site. Use these profiles to promote blog posts, eCommerce products, and site pages. The larger the following the greater the chances for the buzz to generate incoming links for your eCommerce website.

Article Syndication Sites

Google Feedburner, ezinearticles and other blog syndication sites work like a syndicated TV show and will help you get exposure for all your hard work. Leverage a larger network than you would have with your own mailing list for instance. Once you have done the dutiful deed of writing fabulous content make sure to maximize your reach.  These submission sites will provide a link back to your eCommerce website in addition to helping grow your readership.

Online Reference Sites/ Industry Specific Sites

Each industry will have its own industry specific sites which may link to interesting content. Submit your work for consideration, and add your url to online reference sites like Wikipedia.

Write Content Worth Linking To

Writing content of value for your target audience is ultimately the trump card in link building. Interesting, helpful blog posts, and content pages that answer common questions, review products, and examine industry issues will become invaluable to your potential clientele. From within this content actively look for ways to link to other areas of your own eCommerce site using keywords or phrases as the “anchor text” (text used for the hyperlink) to help build relevancy within your own site. Well researched, thoughtful content may be used as reference material for other websites and will only further your relevancy and status as an industry leader.

Fresh and Re-Fresh Content

Update content often. Review stats and figures and what was the 2009 industry outlook can easily become the 2011 industry snapshot. Staying relevant with current trends will draw the attraction of potential customers and search engines alike.

Add URL to Collateral

If your url is not recognizable and everywhere, you will not get noticed. Add your url wherever you might add your phone number, or email address. Your well designed, easy to navigate eCommerce website is a reflection of the level of service your company will provide, so put your best foot forward on everything you do.  Get in front of people, over and over again. The more they see your website the likely hood that they will link to it will increase.

Give Away Information

Want your content to spread faster than a wildfire? Give it away for free. Ask only for a mention in exchange for the use of photos, content, stats and figures.

Blog Search Engines

Have a blog? Include your blog in blog search engines including; Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Ask.com Bloglines.

Cross Promote Collaborate with colleagues on co-authored blog posts in order to leverage both networks. Encourage respected “guest bloggers” to write blog post on your site about topics they are experts on.  Your audience will benefit from their knowledge, and the “guest bloggers” network is more likely to become familiar with your website. Similarly, you may suggest to a complimentary website, or blog that you would like to write a blog post for them regarding a specific topic that you are an expert on, hyperlinking your signature back to your website. 

Shopping Data Feeds

Find targeted leads for your eCommerce sites as well as increasing the number of backlinks. There are many comparison shopping sites, some work like PPC advertising, while there are several free sites that you should be aware of; Google Product Search, bing Shopping, and thefind.

Leave Comments

Well written blog posts are begging for a comment. Many blog posts have a field for your url when you sign in to leave a comment. Leave a url for future generations and a backlink to your website!

Use SEO Keywords and Phrases Whenever Possible

Use keywords and phrases selected to correlate with your target market to create titles, and content. Leave no opportunity for powerful keyword phrases unturned!

If you enjoyed these tips to increasing your Google PR, please be sure to sign up for the WSM RSS feed. We don’t want you to miss a thing!

Looking for an eCommerce design company that wants you to succeed and make money as much as you do?  Look no further than WSM for all your online hosting, web development, and website design needs.  Contact WSM today to see how we can help your eCommerce company thrive online.

Product Options with Inventory Management

Web Shop Manager™ (WSM) is introducing a new Inventory Management system that works in conjunction with Product Options that our eCommerce clients are already familiar with. Product Options with Inventory can be used for Inventory Management when there are 10 red-small t-shirts, and 12 red-mediums. Assigning inventory levels to these configurations will ensure that your customer will not be able to order more than you have on hand.  In addition, you can use this system to assign specific SKUs to configurations.  For instance if red-small has its own SKU you can assign that only to that particular configuration, in a sense creating a brand new item.

Process for Activating Inventory Management with Option Sets

Please notify a WSM team member if this seems like something your eCommerce website could benefit from. This feature will need to be enabled for you. Once this has been enabled the steps to proceed are as follows.

Create Global or Local Option Sets

The procedure to create Option Sets with Inventory is very similar to creating Option Sets in general.  The procedure and more details can be found on the Product Options page.  Remember to use Global Options wherever possible to help save time and to help keep your eCommerce Product Options organized. For instance, if small – medium – large are used for more than one item it makes sense to add that as a global option. 

On Option Sets that are to be used in conjunction with Inventory Management, check Yes next to Inventory. Please see the image below for an example:

Assign Options Sets with Inventory to Products

The next step is to assign the corresponding Option Sets to the product.

Navigate to the product you wish to assign Option Sets with Inventory too and follow the steps below:

1. Scroll to the Options & Attributes section of the Product Page
2. Add a Local Option Set if applicable, and/or select the Global Option sets that correspond to this product
3. Save Changes

Edit the product with Option Sets assigned, and follow these steps:

1. Scroll to the Inventory section of the Product Page
2. Click Open Inventory Config, where you will see the following screen with numbered items discussed below:

1. Availability – Availability can be changed to a number of settings including Available, Out of Stock, Sold. Each selection will modify the way the product appears on the frontend of your eCommerce site. Leaving the setting to Available is the recommended selection if using Option Sets with Inventory.
2. Remaining Inventory – Should be used in conjunction with the Inventory availability setting. This number indicates the number of products available and site visitors will not be able to purchase more than this number.
3. Availability Remarks – This field gives a description about the main products availability. Good for letting customers know any special instructions about the availability such as, lead times.
4. Condition – Identifies whether a product is newly manufactured, used, or used with refurbishing.
5. Option Sets with Inventory – Each Option Set with Inventory that has been assigned to this product will display here as a drop down. You must choose one item from each drop down and then click:
6. Create Configuration – Click Create Configuration once your selection is finished from each of the Option Sets dropdowns.
7. Create All Configurations – Clicking this button will automatically generate each combination possible. Ie white – small, white – medium, white – large etc.

Assign Inventory to Configurations

Each Configuration can be edited in the fields that are numbered and explained below:

1. Delete – Clicking this button will instantly remove the configuration. Once deleted, it will no longer be visible on the backend or frontend of your eCommerce site.
2. Name – The Name is generated from the Option Set Name field. However, this can be edited on this screen if you prefer that the combination of the (2) Option Sets have a unique identifier.
3. SKU – This is automatically generated from the WSM Item number and portions of the Option Set Name fields. However, this can be edited to a unique SKU if you wish.
4. Inventory – This number dictates the amount of products available for each configuration. In this example there is (1) item available in each configuration. If a customer tries to select more than the available amount on the frontend they will receive an error message.

Save your Configurations once you are satisfied.

Customer View of Options with Inventory Management

Your eCommerce customers will see something that appears like all other Option Sets on your site blending seamlessly.

Best Inventory Management Software

Managing eCommerce Products and Inventory has never been easier. Our customers can take something that was already familiar to them and now use it for Product Inventory Management.  Our modular eCommerce Content Management System (eCommerce CMS) makes it easy to take existing eCommerce features and use them in new ways.  We are thrilled to offer this new eCommerce enhancement to our existing clients, and hope this may alleviate pain for those that have yet to discover how WSM can help them.

Contact WSM today to find out how we have helped 100s of others and how we can help your eCommerce aspirations become a reality.  Just one warning: if you are looking to pull a number and get a cookie cutter experience, we are not the right fit for you. However, if you are looking for personalized attention and a devoted team of web designers, website developers, and eCommerce support staff, you may have just found your new home.

The Best eCommerce Catalog & Product Pages

Web Shop Manager™ (WSM) has released version 3.3.3 with some exciting changes to the Catalog and Product page views. You may have already noticed some subtle differences around your eCommerce website. The recent enhancements include:

Enhanced Catalog Layout

A new option has been added to the System>Configuration>Catalog tab. When “Enhanced Catalog Layout” is enabled, additional information regarding Categories and Products will be displayed. This additional information may include product descriptions, product availability, product condition and an “Add to Cart” button for each product listed. Here is an example of Enhanced Catalog Layout being enabled:

On Category and Brand pages where products are listed, you will notice that customers have the ability to sort products, and to toggle between list and grid view. These view preferences will be remembered as they continue to shop your eCommerce website. This has been implemented on all eCommerce sites and requires no further action to take advantage of this.  When Enhanced Catalog Layout is disabled (default setting) only Category and Product names are displayed.  Same example as above but with the default setting:

A New Look for Product Pages

 You may also notice some subtle differences on Product Pages. Option Set boxes (when applicable) have a slightly new look.  The remainder of the product listing including the extra details should look very familiar to you.

While the new look of Option Sets will affect all of our eCommerce clients, the addition of Product Page Views found on the dashboard under System>Configuration>Catalog will not.  Product Page View allows you to select different display options for your product pages. “Tabbed” will format the additional information in a horizontal view; this is not the default view (see the image above for an example of the default). NOTE: This setting may conflict with your eCommerce website’s Style Sheet. A consultation with a WSM employee is recommended before use of this setting.  The default view will not look any different than what you are used to. The Tabbed view however will look similar to this:

Additional Features of Web Shop Manager – v 3.3.3

Connect with external programs with Custom Order Exports chose from (4) different order exports; (1) XML, (3) CSV. Click to learn more about custom order exports.

From the order administration screen take a look at the new Sales Tax Feature. Use the calculator tool to add sales tax on products and/or shipping.

Free shipping can be specified for individual products rather than eCommerce site wide. Find it in the Shipping & Handling portion of the Product pages.

Specifying warehouses for each product is available for Dealers. If you’re a Dealer you can add Warehouses under the System tab and assign products to them. For products assigned to each warehouse, shipping will be calculated from the Warehouse address versus the address given in the configuration tab.

Increase or decrease the UPS and FedEx rates given to your customers by amount or percentage. This affects both negotiated and non-negotiated rates. These changes can be set under Configuration – Shipping & Handling tab.

Best eCommerce Content Management System. Period.

When our eCommerce customers give us feedback on how we can help to make their lives easier, or make them more money we listen. If you are currently a WSM customer please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the recent changes and their affects on your site. And please keep the suggestions and feedback coming.

On the other hand, if you have yet to experience WSM and the incredible eCommerce features that are available right out of the box, we suggest taking a moment to contact WSM today to figure out how you can get all of your eCommerce needs (web hosting, website design, and web development) taken care of under one roof.

eCommerce Product Management just got Easier

Managing 10s, 100s, or 1000s of products from one intuitive dashboard has always been what Web Shop Manager™ (WSM) has offered to our clients.  From that simple idea, we continue to improve WSM (eCommerce CMS) based on client, and staff feedback and suggestions. Listening to those recent suggestions we have added a simpler product update feature that will save time, and just makes good sense.

The new eCommerce CMS enhancements come in the form of quick product edits. Previously to edit any portion of a product listing you would navigate to the product, click edit, change the appropriate data field, and save your changes. Well this works great if you want to change the cross-sell/up sell feature or modify product options. Although, if you simply want to change a product name, or update the sale price, you can do that right from the product list!

Easily Manage eCommerce Product Listings

In order to make it easier for our eCommerce clients to make more money instead of spending their free time updating products, our product listing screen has been enhanced for our existing eCommerce clients. This should look familiar:

However, you may notice that fields can be edited right from the Product listing page! Here is the scoop on what can be edited from this page:

1. Name- This is the product name displayed to the customers in the eCommerce product catalog.

2. Tax- If the item is subject to tax, the tax check must appear.

3. Price- The normal price of the item.

4. Sale- If set; this will override the price field when a customer purchases this item. The sale price will be displayed in addition to the normal price in product listings.

5. Stock ID- This is a custom stock identification number displayed to the customer.

6. Dealer ID- This is the identification number given to the product by the manufacturer.

7. Avail.- If the availability is set to Sold or Out of Stock, customers will not be able to purchase this item or add it to their cart. If the availability is set to Inventory, the display of the add to cart button is calculated based on the remaining inventory (8.). If the remaining inventory is (0), then customers will not be able to purchase this item.

8. Inv.- Current number of items in stock.

9. Hide- Toggle between hidden and unhidden. Hidden items are not displayed in the E-Commerce catalog.

Simply hover over the item you wish to change, click, and make your edits!  There is no need to save from this screen. WSM will automatically save those product updates for you and they will be reflected automatically on the frontend for your customers.

In addition, from the Category List you can click on Priority to type in the desired value:

Did you ever think organizing your eCommerce product catalog could be this fun?

Product Management Tools

When you need the right tools to get the job done, make sure you talk to eCommerce industry experts, WSM. We have you covered from tiered pricing levels, custom eCommerce Web Design, and Website Development!  Whether you are looking to break into eCommerce or are already established we’re confident we can find a solution to match your needs with WSM.  Contact WSM to speak with one of our eCommerce expert staff, or click to get a free web design quote, and begin exploring your options. We would be thrilled to provide your company with the same level of service & support that so many of our existing clients have enjoyed for years. Then you can start planning what you will do with all your free time!

Easy to Update Website Slideshow

Creating a slideshow for your eCommerce site pages, or home page is incredibly simple using Web Shop Manager™ (WSM) as your content management system (eCommerce CMS). Photo slideshows can be used in a variety of ways to get the attention of site visitors and emphasize special features of the eCommerce site.

For instance, a photo slide show can be used to showcase a new product, or a popular one.  A slideshow located above the fold (shown without a site visitor having to scroll down on the page) is a great way to help people quickly identify what makes your products or services unique.

In addition, contests or special promotions including a coupon code could be highlighted in a slide and then hyperlinked to a site page or eCommerce blog post for more information and details.

Furthermore, if you offer free shipping, or quantity discounts be sure to mention them in the slideshow in order to increase adoption from your customers. Slides could also be made for the seasons and simply hidden when not in use.

As an eCommerce merchant it is your job to explain to your customers as quickly and clearly as possible what makes you different from the competition and why they should chose to work with you. Photo slideshows can help creatively and graphically explain the differentiating facts and put you one step in front of the competition. While helping your customers gain insight into why they should buy from you, slideshow titles can also be SEO optimized to help get found in search engines and bring even more relevant traffic to your eCommerce website.

Creating Slideshows for your eCommerce Site

In order to help our clients be as successful as possible with their eCommerce endeavors WSM is committed to providing tools that are simple, easy, and effective.  Time is finite and the learning process should be short and sweet.  Putting you in complete control of your eCommerce website is something that we take pride in, and make a high priority.  Adding slideshows to your eCommerce website can be a fun, interactive way to engage site visitors and help lead them toward conversion.

Utilizing WSM to its full extent is empowering and once you start to get a feel for how to create slideshows there will be no stopping you!

Creating your Photo Album & Preparing Graphics for your Photo Slideshow

The Photo Gallery Module included with WSM allows you to create photo albums that can be displayed on dedicated site pages, or embedded within content or on the homepage in the form of a slideshow.

To begin to create your slideshow highlight Modules, Click Photo Gallery from your WSM dashboard.

To add a new album, click the Add Album button.

The Add Album screen is discussed in detail below. After you create your album you can return, make changes, and add photos. It is not necessary to have all of your photos ready to upload before you create your album.

Each numbered item is discussed below.

1.Title – This is the name for your album. This name should describe where your album is used and

for what purpose i.e. Home Page Slide Show. Optimize the title for search engines to help get found in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

2. Description – Use the description for additional information about the album. Use this field for reference notes for coworkers.

3. Priority – Priority sets the order the album is displayed in the gallery. Higher priority albums are

placed before items with a lower priority.

4. Parent –This is similar to creating folders and sub folders on your computer. This is useful if have several slide shows such as holiday, or special promotions. If this is the case, you may want to create an album named Slide Shows and add sub albums for each individual show.

5. Template – Several site page templates may have been created for you by the WSM web design team.  If so, you can specify which template is to be used with this drop down.

6. Hidden – Slide shows are special albums used in conjunction with a program on your site (which

the WSM staff will setup for you). If you do not plan to use this album for any other purpose than

Slide Shows with Web Shop Manager, you should select Yes.

7. Add Album – Once you have provided the required information click the Add Album button to

create and save your album. You can always edit the album later if you need to make changes.

Organizing Graphics in your Photo Album

There are many great photo editing tools available to you.  If budget is a concern, try using free tools such as, Sumo Paint, or gimp.  Sumo Paint, and gimp are intuitive and can help you to easily crop, resize, or enhance photos to include in your slide show.  It is important to have slides that share the same dimensions to eliminate skewing, or distortion.  The easiest way to find out what size of graphic you need is to look at an existing slide created by WSM.  If you are using Mozilla Firefox, simply right click, and click on ‘view image info’.  Pixel dimensions will be displayed in a dialogue screen.  If you are in Internet Explorer, right click, and click on ‘properties’ to view pixel dimensions.

Custom photography would be fantastic to include in your slideshow, however if this is not an option for you, take a look at royalty free photo sites like istockphoto.com. Professional looking photos can help differentiate your site from your competitors and will help convey your message graphically. In some cases this can mean the difference in reaching your target market, or missing them completely. 

Adding Photos to your Homepage Slideshow

Once you have made the appropriate changes to your photos, upload them to the slideshow album already created. Here is a brief overview of the buttons available in the Photo Gallery. They are located to the left of each album name.

This icon will allow you to edit the information you entered when you first created the album.

This icon will display sub-albums, if any, that are assigned to this album.

Use this icon to access the photos you have already uploaded to the album and to add photos.

This icon will display the album as a web page. You will not display the album to your viewers in this format.

You can add photos two different ways, individually or multiple files at the same time. Both are available from the same Add Photo screen.

To add photos, as mentioned above, click the   icon.

Adding the Slideshow to your Homepage

In addition to preparing your photos, and then your photo albums for the slideshow there is one more item that needs to be in place for the photo slideshow to be completely functional. This component is called a Widget. The Widget will include parameters that control how the slide show is displayed to your customers.

After reviewing this section if you need assistance with setting up the widget, please contact the WSM support staff.

First, what is a Widget?

Widgets are small programs that make an application or service perform in a specific way. They allow users to access applications without  in-depth knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes. You will need to place a small piece of widget Code for your album to function as a slide show. The slide show can function with a few basic settings. The only code you need to change is the ID and the height of your images, see example below. The ID identifies which photo album you want to use for this slide show. You also need the parameter for slideshow. The parameter is what tells the widget to display the album as a slide show.

To determine the ID for the photo album from within your eCommerce dashboard, highlight Modules and click Photo Gallery. Look in the ID column for the album you created and note the ID number.

To add the widget code to your Site Page, highlight the code below, press Ctrl C to copy, while editing the predetermined Site Page, place your cursor where you would like the slideshow to appear on the front end, then press Ctrl V to paste. Delete the 123 ID and type the ID number for the photo album you have created for the slideshow.

{{ widget name='widget_cycle' gallery='true' id='123' show_prev='false' show_next='false' cycle_controls_top='true' instance='_1' imgsize='F' width='737' height='279' cycle_timeout='8000' cycle_speed='200' cycle_fx='fade' }}

Additional Modifications to your Website Slideshow

You can add additional parameters to your code to change the way your slide show functions and appears. Each setting is described below.

Required Parameters:

gallery: determines that the gallery module is to be used for this widget.
Required value: gallery='true'

instance: recommended to use only if there are one or more instances of the widget that need to be styled differently. It adds a unique div id value to the <ul> tag
Values: numeric or alpha
Example: instance='_myslideshow'

limit: must set a limit on the number of images that get loaded to the slideshow. Max recommended is 5
Values: numeric
Default: unlimited
Example: limit=5

Control the animation and pagination of the slideshow:

cycle_fx: this controls the transition animation between slides. Most of the effects listed here will work: http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/browser.html for list of effects
Default: fade
Example: fx='slideX'

cycle_timeout: Time between the fades in milliseconds
values: milliseconds
Default Value: 3000 - which equates to 3 seconds
Example timeout = '2000'

cycle_speed:  Fadingspeed
Values: in milliseconds
Default Value: 1000
Example: speed = 2500 - which equates to 2.5 seconds

height: Height of the containing element
Values: Any css-height-value such as px, em, % - recommend doing px value
Default Value:120px - which equals the default thumbnail height
Example: height = '315px'

Pagination Controls:

cycle_pager: determines to show pagination controls
Default: true
Example: cycle_pager='false' - will remove pagination controls

show_prev - used to hide previous button
Default Value: True
Example show_prev='false'

show_next - used to hide previous button
Default Value: True
Example: show_next='false'

cycle_controls_top: move pagination controls to the top. Controls are defaulted to show under the slideshow of images.
Default Value: false
Example: cycle_controls_top='true'

cycle_pager_thumb: pagination links can be the thumbnails of the images
Default Value: false
Example: cycle_pager_thumb='true'
Related parameter:
img_thumb - size of the thumbnail.
Values: T=thumbnail, M=medium, F=fulsize
Default=T
Example: img_thumb='M'

cycle_pager_name: pagination links can be the Name of the image
Default Value: false
Example: cycle_pager_name='true'

cycle_skin_overlay: pagination controls are overlayed on top of theslideshow. Only the Prev and Next links are present.
Default: false
Example: cycle_skin_overlay='true'

Control Link of the images:

The default setting is to use the URL places in the URL field when creating the album image. But you have other options as needed.

link_image: link to the photo view in the album
Default: false
Example: link_image='true'

lytebox: open up the image in a lytebox popup
Default: false
Example: lytebox='true'

Other Parameters:

show_info: show the description of the image
Default: false
Example: show_info='true'

Increase Conversions with Photo Slideshows

Photo Slideshows have been used by eCommerce industry leaders to effectively promote products, and increase sales. Create your own professional looking website slideshow in a matter of minutes with WSM!

If you are looking for a Content Management System & eCommerce Web Design Company to take your business concept and help transform it into a selling machine, contact Web Shop Manager today. We take care of the details so you can concentrate on your e-business.

Have you seen WSM in action yet?  Take a moment to sign up for your own LIVE demonstration.