eCommerce and

On PlumberSurplus.com we sell an awful lot of Delta Faucets and from time to time we need to gather images or research product data to make sure that our information is correct and up to date.  This means that we occasionally have to resort to using the manufacturer's website, if one is available, and that's where this story begins.

My Database Team Leader was telling me about an issue he was having in using the Delta Faucet Company website and I offered my assistance to see if I might be able to help figure out the problem. While using their search, I ran into the same issue he did, a screen full of gibberish with no search results or useful information in sight.

Recently a fellow coworker sent me a blog about multi channel selling which was basically a "pro niche" piece.

"A highly effective strategy in ecommerce is multiple channel selling. This involves having several niche websites targeting different demographics, displaying specific product ranges. This allows you to create completely focused websites with a high sales conversion rate."

While I understand the niche v. mega site argument (and I also may have my mind set on which I like best both from a customer and retailer perspective) I thought this was an interesting article which highlighted all of the great things about niche websites and none of the bad. I know people say they are great because of the niche SEO value, the ability to really hone in on your marketing campaigns and the ability to focus on a particular product niche. And I agree, those are some great reasons to sell via niche websites. However, I see even more reasons to avoid buying or selling via a niche website. Developing niche SEO campaigns and polishing marketing strategies can be done on a large scale, in a similar fashion to that of niche retailers, by focusing on categories and product types.

I would even go so far as to say that I think that SEO, in particular, can go much further for larger sites.  I say this because a larger site can draw more links, have more authority within an industry and create a community built around an entire market instead of a niche. My next step in the conversation or thought process then usually turns to the ability to cross sell, up sell and convert repeat buyers which is much harder and far less effective on a niche website.  Think about it, how much harder would it be to convince a consumer to buy just one more barstool on a website that only sells barstools, as opposed to a website that sells outdoor furniture who can then up sell on the matching tables, chairs, accessories, and more?

The next thing that goes through my mind, or the next thing I would bring up in a conversation regarding niche v. vertical is operating costs.  Depending on the retailer's level of technological prowess, I also like to bring up the level of overhead with operating several websites v. one. Don't let me convince you, though; several retailers are moving away from niche websites. The Gap recently combined their web properties so that shoppers can simply visit the gap website and shop at all of their stores by means of one shopping cart. There are also several mega sites like, Amazon, QVC, etc. which continue to do well. So, while I lean on the anti-niche selling side of the fence, I believe it can be done in a scalable and profitable fashion. However, both as a buyer and seller, I prefer the larger non-niche sites.

This also brings up a nomenclature issue. I would consider "multi-channel selling" to be either selling through different means (i.e. as a physical store, catalog and online) or through different marketing channels such as shopping engines, marketplaces, and search engine marketing. So the verbiage of the article is also confusing in and of itself. I might consider the means through which products are listed and categorized on a site a "selling channel", but I would probably classify niche websites as a "selling strategy" based upon how the business has decided to sell online.

I was pleasantly surprised today during my morning order audit process to see an order with http://www.google.com/shoppinglist as its referer information. I did not remember Google Product Search having a shopping list feature so I poked around to see if I could find a post on the Google Base Blog or someone else explaining when this feature appeared and how it worked. Disappointingly enough, I could find neither so decided to write a post of my own discussing this neat little feature.

As you can see by the screen shot below, all Google product Search listings now have the "Add to Shopping List" text underneath them which by clicking on it (assuming you have a Google account) lets you save it to a list of products which Google keeps track of for you.

On the upper right when using Google product search it now says "My Shopping List" which by clicking on it will take you to the list of products you saved to your list. At this point Shared Wish Lists can also be created and shared with friends or family, another neat, friendly, shopping feature.

All in all, this is a smart feature and one that I appreciate.  In an effort to keep my shopping list organized, keep a running tally of the great deals I find and a list of the products I might be interested in for the future, having the functionality via Google will save time and enable me to keep my list in one place rather than among multiple retail venues. At this point one of the only gripes I have is not being able to save non Google Product Search products to these lists (but Google Notebook is an alternative for that).  Another option would be to build a feature that allowed retailers who posted products on Google Product Search to let their users add products to the Shopping List directly from the retailer's site.

After talking with a Product Search Rep from Google I found out that these features previously existed in the Froogle search interface and were removed during the transition to Google Product Search. It has been slightly revamped and was relaunched late last week.

Keeping a handle on who is talking about your business or linking to your website can be an awfully large task. Blog search engines are available to help in some big ways though.  Blog search engines aggregate blogs and web pages with rss feeds to index and make their content searchable in an organized fashion. For instance if I am looking for for information on search engine marketing, I can use Google as a resource to find my information or I can turn to a blog search engine to focus my search on only blogs.  I can use their refinements such as the time frame the information was published in.  I can also look for a particular post or an entire website about a certain topic. This can help the marketer or search engine optimizer keep tabs on what people are saying about a website.  This can also help them keep up on who might be linking to a particular website by using blog search engines to search for that company, or other information. Blog search engines have become more and more sophisticated, and nowadays you can do a blog search on a variety of topics.

My favorite blog search engines are Technorati, Bloglines and Google Blog Search; each of these blog search engines let me search for a website name or use a refinement to track what people are saying and who is linking to our websites. All of them also let me bookmark those searches making it easy to check out the latest buzz on each of our websites or a particular topic I am interested in.

For example you can go to Technorati, type PlumberSurplus.com into their search box and see what posts or blogs have the word PlumberSurplus.com in them. This gives me quick, up to date information on what is going on in the blogosphere for whatever I might be searching for. More blog search engines are available in this list of blog search engines.

As you can tell I have been on a Google Webmaster Central kick lately. The Google Webmaster Central blog has collected some of their best and most informational posts and created the 7 must-read Webmaster Central blog posts. Seeing this collection has reminded me of some of the search engine optimization and search engine marketing hot issues, some of my favorites being...

Flash Best Practices 

While many were glad to see Google address this, flash has been something that many SEO's stay away from like the plague. While there are several acceptable methods for optimizing a flash website none are particularly easy and sometimes results are hard to glean. There were always questions as to whether the search engines would accept these optimization techniques or whether they would learn to read flash, both seem to have been addressed over time.

The Supplemental Index 

I remember several tools which could be used to see how many pages a website had in the Google supplemental index and I remember even more posts and discussions as to the use of the supplemental index and getting web pages out of it. I think many released a sigh of relief when Google disbanded its use so that website owners had one less thing to worry about. 

Duplicate Content 

The mention of duplicate content and penalties associated with it used to be a huge issue for many, especially those with larges websites which may have several overlapping pages. I was more than relieved when I learned that no penalties were actually associated with duplicate content but simply Google selecting which page to show for related searches. After many have spread the word about duplicate content this is still an issue that comes up and needs clarification. Many SEO's are still addressing duplicated content in that removing it or fixing the problem is great but getting Google to select the right version to show in searches may be more important. 

One of the more interesting adventures I have had at work recently has been setting up and managing our six (yes count them six) new interns. While we have had internship programs at our company in the past, it has never been at this scale.  Previous programs were simply for benefit of the students who wanted to learn and gain experience, and to support local universities.  This is by far the most interns we have had at one time. I am a big fan of internships, having completed two of them myself when I was in college.  I think they can provide a great deal of real world experience and they look good on a resume, not to mention they provide inexpensive labor to the company.

The first issue that will arise in putting together an internship program is actually getting interns. Sometimes posters around a college campus or a spot at the local job board is simply not enough. Lucky for us we have Tim, one of our managing partners, who happens to teach part time for a local University. This provides our company with a great avenue to spread the word and wrangle interns for our company.

The second issue is making sure potential interns understand the value proposition and what kind of internship your company offers. This starts with the company itself and the development of the program. It's important for interns to gain something besides a note on their resume. Interns can be integrated into many aspects of a businesses and provide cheap or free labor in return for real world experience, industry knowledge and sometimes college credit. All of which can be leveraged as great value propositions when trying to attract interns.

It's important to also give some thought as to what jobs or projects might be best suited for interns in your business. Some jobs might require too much experience, knowledge or training and others might be to simple or mundane. In our latest internship program, we are training our interns in several aspects of search, marketing, data, content creation and management. We then let them create content for our websites learning centers while teaching them why content creation is important.  Finally, we are tracking their progress. They will also be helping with other SEO, marketing and product data related projects as the need arises and as they express interest in different areas of our business. They have already begun some of their work on both the PlumberSurplus.com Learning Center and the OutdoorPros.com Learning Center with work on our Knife Buying Guide and BlackHawk Videos.  They have also started on manufacturer descriptions such as Gerber Knives and Moen and they will continue to fill out both of those content rich areas of our websites.

A couple of areas to be mindful of for an internship program is management and se tup. If possible it can be a good idea to spread out your interns throughout multiple departments making it so that one person does not bear the brunt of the management or organization. If that is not something that you want to do, getting them to come in at the same time or on the same days can also help. Getting everything setup for the interns ahead of time, such as the list of projects, any paperwork, training and computers can be key so that time is not wasted and your interns can start off on a good foot at your business.

While the interns still have several weeks to go, everything seems to be going well and they are expressing interest and getting excited about many aspects of our business. In closing, remember to never forget that an internship program can also be a great recruiting tool, not only are they great for all of the items mentioned above but they go far beyond the standard interview so that the company gets a better idea of a persons work ethic and personality for potential future hire.

For as long as sitelinks have been used in Google SERPS I have been asked by others, and wondered myself, what they are and how to get them. Sitelinks are extra links that appear below some search results in Google. They serve as shortcuts to help users quickly navigate to the important pages on your site. There is obviously some value in having them, and many have started quests to get sitelinks for their own websites. Sitelinks have been, however, shrouded in mystery and justly so because of how Google describes them...

"How does Google compile the list of links shown below some search results?  The links shown below some sites in our search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for. We only show sitelinks for results when we think they'll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn't allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don't think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user's query, we won't show them. At the moment, sitelinks are completely automated. We're always working to improve our sitelinks algorithms, and we may incorporate webmaster input in the future."

So while I have read a lot about sitelinks and heard many theories and questions about sitelinks, I am happy to say that PlumberSurplus.com now has them. All can rejoice that I have now caught my proverbial Moby Dick and added another notch to my SEO belt!

In the world of eCommerce we interact daily via the blogosphere, forums, etc.  Every now and then it is nice to get involved in the community and interact with those outside of the eCommerce circle.  Everyone at PlumberSurplus.com loves to go out, get dressed up and attend industry events. Recently we were nominated for the 2007 Emerging Entrepreneur award by the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards program, so many of us got suited up and headed to the awards banquet. Some background on the Spirit of the Entrepreneur: In 2003, the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at California State University San Bernardino, The Press-Enterprise Co., and The Business Press launched the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards program to honor the top entrepreneurs in the Inland Empire. The inaugural event, with over 600 attendees, was a resounding success, and 2004, 2005, and 2006 have followed with highly successful programs.

A good time was had by all with a huge silent auction, some great food, an engaging student fast pitch competition and of course the awards presentation. Although the silent auction did have some pretty awesome motorcycles up for grabs my favorite part of the event was the student fast pitch competition. As a part of the Spirit Awards program, select students from Cal State San Bernardino's annual Student Fast Pitch Competition are invited to make a 90 second pitch of their promising business venture idea to the audience. During the evening, the audience heard a pitch from five students and voted on the most promising idea. At the end of the evening, just prior to the presentation of the final Spirit Award, the top three student pitches where recognized with the top student pitch receiving a $2,000 prize.

While everyone from PlumberSurplus.com enjoyed the awards banquet and we where hopeful of winning the award, CornerTurn, LLC - of Corona won the award for Emerging Entrepreneur. Our hopes are high though that we will be nominated again next year and bring home a win.

Below are some photographs of our night at the event.

Several of our companies managers and team leaders with their guests.

Our company table.

Our Executives Tim and Brian having a good old time.

Here's Tim....

And here's Brian!

I have been asked several times over the past few months what the different parts of a Google search engine results page are and how everything is put together by Google. While the whole process of using Google is pretty straight forward, there are certain things to look for, and an understanding of where the data comes from that can lead to improved searching and overall use of a search engine. I have put together a quick screen shot of a Google search engine results page to explain its main parts and where Google is getting that data.

Pictured is a search using Google for the term "Access Doors". With this search engine results page or SERP, I will illustrate the different pieces of this page and how it’s put together.

SERPS are typically made up of three core elements: (1) the search box, (2) paid results and (3) organic results.

1. The Search Box

The search box is where users enter their keyword(s) for what they are searching for in order to find related websites. Make no mistake though; the search box is a powerful tool in helping find the data and or websites you are looking for. Here are a few tips when using the search box: more general words or terms will typically always yield more results while more specific or particular words or terms will typically yield less results. This strategy of keyword choice and number of keywords can help refine or broaden a search. Most search engines also allow the use of modifiers or have an advanced search form, which can better define or change what data is returned for the keywords. In this Better Searches, Better Results document from Google they explain some of the modifiers which can be used in the Google search box to refine searches and get better results. Always remember though that the search box holds the power, what is put into the search box drives all of the results that will show up on the page below.

2. Paid Results

Paid results are advertisements from advertisers that typically pay Google on a per click basis (pay per click / PPC) to show ads for a particular or related keyword based upon what was searched. All of the information in the listing is supplied by the advertiser to Google and the rank of the listing (where it will show on the SERP page) is based upon several factors including how much the advertiser is willing to pay relative to what other advertisers are paying for the same keyword (if you are willing to pay the most, your ad will show up at the top of the page such as ours and the rest of the advertisers are displayed accordingly). Paid results are made up of the following data, ad title (dark blue text), display URL (green text), ad copy (black text), landing page (where the user is taken to when the ad is clicked) and any badges such as the Google Checkout badge.  The Google Checkout badge shows because we offer Google Checkout as a payment option. All of this is sometimes referred to as the creative of the ppc ad.

3. Organic Results

Organic results are a set of results put together by Google based upon the keyword(s) searched and their algorithm which ranks sites based upon relevancy, website importance or popularity along with numerous other criterion (their goal is to give you the best set of websites as related to the keyword(s) searched that they possibly can). This listing is made of the following components: the blue text is the title of the page which is typically defined by the webmaster or website owner via the Title Tag. The Black text is a description of that web page which can also be specified by the webmaster or website owner via Meta Tags but can also be pulled from other sources such as the Open Directory Project or put together by Google based from the content that resides on the page. The green text is the website URL or the page on the website which you will be taken if you click on the listing. The Cached link in gray will take users to a snapshot of that web page which Google saved the last time they crawled that web page. And lastly, the Similar pages link in gray will execute a search for web page URL the with the related: modifier (exp related:www.plumbersurplus.com/Cat/Access-Doors/606) which will use that modifier in the search box which shows other web pages that are related to that particular listing.

Optimizing Searching

These three main elements make up the Google SERP page and while there are many more features and ways to search for websites, these three elements make up most of that experience. The Google SERP page is also similar to other search engines results pages so when using another search engine look for these elements, which can help lead to better searching and overall use of a search engine.

Google has just updated their Conversion University help section.  ConversionUniversity.com is now available in all 25 Google Analytics supported languages. From help on optimizing your AdWords ROI to Google Website Optimizer testing strategies, Conversion University's mission is to offer tips and best practices designed to help you improve your online results. One of my biggest frustrations with Google Analytics has been its limited amount of documentation and support, just try to add some of the advanced Google analytics code for Google checkout, Live Person or switch tracking code versions, and you'll soon realize that it is a much harder task then you would have at first realized.  It is certainly good to see new documentation and resources getting some attention. If someone is looking for a fully supported analytics solution Google does still offer Urchin Web Analytics Software for purchase which is available through their partners. I did run through most of the topics present and found the Google Conversion University YouTube playlist especially helpful and interesting.