Bill Belko — RTI

Merchant Metrix performed search engine optimization for RTI in 2009.

A recent study by Internet Retailer shows that 2/3 of Ecommerce retail shops have plans to redesign their shop’s sites at some point this year. The number one reason for doing so would seem to be to increase their optimization.

Search engine optimization it the key to success in the Ecommerce world. With so much competition out there, if you’re not on page one and maybe two you are not likely to see much traffic from the search engines.

Most of these Ecommerce business owners said that completing a website redesign would generate a higher sales conversion and attract new customers. While a redesign will usually attract more customers to staying on your site once they have reached it, search engine optimization is not guaranteed to increase sales because the goal of SEO is to increase traffic. I’ve seen sites with website traffic at 300+ visitors per day and zero sales.

When considering a website redesign, make sure that you’re also getting someone to look at conversion optimization as well as search engine optimization. Your redesign should make your site attractive, but it should also streamline the sales process, funneling visitors through their shopping cart to checkout.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization focuses upon organic (free) search engine results. These are the ten results you see on each results page. I don’t know how many times I’m asked, “How much does Google charge to be in the first spot of their search results,” and each time I’m as dumbfounded as the first time I heard this. Search engine optimization is the process of in-site, on-page, and off-site techniques being properly placed and developed. The only person you might have to pay for this is your search engine optimization specialist.

Pay Per Click

Pay per click is exactly what the name says, each time someone clicks on your ad you have to pay Google, Yahoo or whomever your buying ad space from. With pay per click you create campaigns and within each campaign you create ads. Each ad will be different and will be selected to displayed when people search for certain keywords. You bid on the different keywords by selecting how much you will pay-per-click. Pay per click, when done correctly can increase your ROI by 40% or more and when done incorrectly you can see very significant losses.

I’m not trying to discourage your from choosing to do a pay per click campaign, you should just be aware that you should do thorough research before selecting a pay per click manager. A good conversion optimization and ppc company that we recommend is Bach Marketing Group, www.bachmarketinggroup.com.

The Cleveland County Business and Industry Council’s March webinar topic is “How to Calculate True Return on Investment” presented by Lee Roberts, CEO of Merchant Metrix Inc.

The webinar, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 10, 2010 will provide participants information on the best practices in evaluating and calculating return on investment, as it pertains to customer lifetime value, relational customers, transitional customers, customer acquisition costs and customer retention costs. In addition, participants will garner information on determining a break-even point as well as the associative relationship of products and cost of delivery.

Roberts has owned and operated Merchant Metrix for 14 years. During that time he has successfully increased ROI and decreased spending for several clients of his returning fantastic results and testimonials.

Roberts says, “Business owners should always be examining their return on investment to ensure they get the highest return possible. My goal is to reach out and help as many businesses as possible get the most they can out of their business.” Lee Roberts

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 8 AM central standard time.

The Best of Business awards are voted on yearly by the readers of the OKC Biz magazine in a wide array of categories. This marks the second year in a row that Merchant Metrix, Inc. has won for the IT, Web Design, and Hosting Company category.

“It’s been another wonderful year for Merchant Metrix and the residents of the Oklahoma City area are fantastic and a pleasure to do business with. We take pride in our ability to successfully place our clients on the first page of the search results with every site that we build. There’s no point in giving someone a site that’s not going to bring them search engine traffic and increase their business and sales,” said Sheridan Broderick, Creative Director at Merchant Metrix, Inc.

Merchant Metrix, Inc. is an Internet Marketing company that focuses on getting their clients to the first page in the organic search results in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, by designing and developing search engine friendly Websites and Ecommerce retail shops.

Visit the OKC Biz Magazine online to read the whole story.

This study also validates the idea that people are not just using a single keyword to search for something, but may use upwards of 6 keywords.

This study also validates the already widely known fact that the search engine giant, Google, is the public’s primary used search engine, and when comparing the big three (Google, Yahoo!, Bing) Google brought in 59% of the traffic while Bing carried 23.8% and Yahoo! with only 19.3%.

So, page one really is the key!

CSS3 Borders

background-color: #ccc; -moz-border-radius: 20px; -webkit-border-radius: 20px; border: 1px solid #000; padding: 10px;

You will also be able to show borders using images! You will do this with the following tags and attributes:

• border-image:
  • border-top-image
  • border-right-image
  • border-bottom-image
  • border-left-image
• border-corner-image:
  • border-top-left-image
  • border-top-right-image
  • border-bottom-left-image
  • border-bottom-right-image

CSS3 Text Effects

Mozilla/Firefox users should see this text with a nice gray drop-shadow

text-shadow: 2px 2px 2px #666; font-size:13px;

Mozilla/Firefox and Safari users should see fiery hot text!

This might be my favorite because clients seem to all love drop shadows but browser can only read text in HTML, not in images, and since we focus our business on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) this is just not a worth while solution. Now the browsers will be able to read and the clients will their drop shadows and everyone is happy!

We have modified our SEO friendly shopping cart and have just launched this new SEO friendly Real Estate CMS system to allow Realtors to create, edit and easily maintain their listings. They can even be modified from any smartphone with an internet connection (i.e. iPhone, Android phones…). *Data charges may apply

You can optimize the pages within this Realtor CMS website for the following areas;

1. Listing City
2. Listing Addition / Neighborhood
3. Listing School District
4. Listing Property Address

Now Realtors can show up on the search results too! Rather than just their brokers who house several associates or sites such as Craigslists and Realtor.com.

Patrice Branum is an Oklahoma City Realtor and has been helping people buy and sell homes for over 15 years. She has the experience that’s needed to make the process an easy and enjoyable one for you, not something you should dread.

Before	After
Before	After
Before	After
Before	After

Thank you Staged by Susan for bringing our dull, bland, office back to life! Call Susan today for a consultation for office interior design in your office or place of business.