Assisting Entrepreneurs with E- Commerce Strategies Alan Barefield University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service Agricultural Extension Service The University of Tennessee
Jan 01, 2016
Assisting Entrepreneurs with E-Commerce Strategies
Alan Barefield
University of Tennessee
Agricultural Extension ServiceAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Steps for getting online
Planning Your Web Site Finding a Web Hosting Provider Registering your Domain Name Selling On-line Creating your Site Attracting Customers to Your Site
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Planning your site
What do you want to do? What kind of site do you need? How much do you have to spend? Look at your competition Storyboarding DIY or contract it out
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Finding a web hosting provider
Types of providers Internet Service Provider (ISP)Free Web Hosting ServicesVirtual ServerDedicated/Co-located
Locating a provider
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Considerations for finding a provider
Cost Access Speed Types of Servers Used Redundant Connections Bandwidth Allocation Customer Support Access to Web Files Features Experience
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Registering a domain name
Domain Name as Business NameEasy to RememberShort but MeaningfulName Variations
Name Types (.com, .net, .org, .biz) Whois Search
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Selling online
Affiliate Programs Payment Processing Services On-line Auctions eShops/Malls Merchant Accounts Shopping Carts
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Creating your site
Tools
Templates
Style Manuals
Usability/AccessibilityAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Attracting customers to your site
Advertise Everywhere E-Mail Marketing
Search Engine Submission Refine Meta Tags, Title, Descriptions & Home Page Tools to help you
How do you maintain your site? Is Your Content Fresh? Reviewing Your Site
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Why use e-commerce?
An e-commerce strategy can have many goals Increased market share Increased market size Increased market potential & feasibility Increased market perception Increased company profits
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
E-commerce strategies
Consumer education Product information Technical specifications Product support Customer assistance Purchase facillitation
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
E-commerce Components
Part IIvisibility
Part Isearch engines
Part IVeverything else
Part IIIemail
marketing
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
What clients need to knowabout search engines There are only nine search engines that
really matter Understand search engines and how they
are used This enables you to understand how
people use search engines Carefully prepare your website before
search engine submission
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
What clients need to knowabout search engines Submitting pages to the various search
engines takes very little time, usually only about ten minutes
The only person that can effectively submit a website to the search engine is the person that best understands the company
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Search engines that really matter
AltaVista Google
Inktomi Fast
Excite Hotbot
Lycos Northern Light
Direct Hit
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How do search engines work?
database
search resultskeyword
user
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How do search engines work?
database
submit URLcompany
ownerAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How do search engines work?
database
search resultskeyword
submit URL
user
companyownerAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search engine example
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Directories that really matter
Yahoo! If you are a business, you must pay a submission fee
to be reviewed A one-time fee of $299 is required It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to revise a
Yahoo! Directory listing https://ecom.yahoo.com/fast/add
Looksmart Open Directory
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How directories work
database
search resultskeyword
user
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How directories work
database
submit URL
$$$$
reviewer
companyownerAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How directories work
database
search resultskeyword
submit URL
$$$$
user
reviewer
companyownerAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Directory example
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
How do users search the web? They typically start with broad, general
terms When 10,000,000 websites are returned,
they use additional terms to narrow the search
They typically don’t search for a company name
They almost never search for the term “Welcome To”
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Preparing your site to get found(this is the hardest part)
Choose ten words that describe your business, product(s), and/or service(s)
Take your time and plan carefully
Above all, think like a searcher
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Using html codes wisely
There are three types of html codes to be concerned withhtml titlehtml descriptionhtml keywords
These codes are the key to the effectiveness of a website marketing strategy
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
html title
The html title is the words seen at the top of the browser window when you access a web page
This is not necessarily the banner in the website content
It is displayed as the link for a listing on the search engine
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Ole Smoky General Store
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search engine example
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Source code<head><title>Ole Smoky General Store Brand Tennessee Ham</title><meta NAME="Keywords"CONTENT="country hams, ham, bacon, country, kitchen, christmas, gifts, cookbooks, Christmas Presents, gifts"><meta NAME="DESCRIPTION"CONTENT="Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies for Your Country Table"></head>
<body BACKGROUND="graphics/pale3.gif">
<table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td><a HREF="default.htm"><img SRC="graphics/oslogo.gif" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="75" BORDER="0" alt="Return to Ole Smoky Front Porch"></a></td> <td><strong><font SIZE="-2">Even more bargains galore <br> at the <a HREF="Default.htm">Ole Smoky General Store</a>!</font><br> Order on-line or call us: <font COLOR="#FF0000">1-800-453-8788</font></strong></td> </tr></table>
<h2 align="center"><font color="#800000">Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies forYour Country Table, Camping Trip, Holiday Celebrations</font></h2>
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
html title
Keep the title under 75 characters. Make each title relevant to its page. Spend the most time writing the title for
your home page. Write a title for the beginning page of each
major website section For all other pages, use the beginning
page title(s) or use breadcrumbsAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search engine example
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
meta description
The meta description details the content of a web page.
It is displayed below the web page title in the search engine listing.
Keep it under 150 characters to ensure it doesn’t get truncated (especially important with directories).
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Ole Smoky General Store
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
meta description
Make each description relevant to the page that it is on.
Entice potential visitors with clever copy so they will be prone to click
It’s not about ranking; it’s about marketing Not all search engines use the meta
description
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Source code<head><title>Ole Smoky General Store Brand Tennessee Ham</title><meta NAME="Keywords"CONTENT="country hams, ham, bacon, country, kitchen, christmas, gifts, cookbooks, Christmas Presents, gifts"><meta NAME="DESCRIPTION"CONTENT="Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies for Your Country Table"></head>
<body BACKGROUND="graphics/pale3.gif">
<table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td><a HREF="default.htm"><img SRC="graphics/oslogo.gif" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="75" BORDER="0" alt="Return to Ole Smoky Front Porch"></a></td> <td><strong><font SIZE="-2">Even more bargains galore <br> at the <a HREF="Default.htm">Ole Smoky General Store</a>!</font><br> Order on-line or call us: <font COLOR="#FF0000">1-800-453-8788</font></strong></td> </tr></table>
<h2 align="center"><font color="#800000">Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies forYour Country Table, Camping Trip, Holiday Celebrations</font></h2>
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search engine example
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Ole Smoky General Store
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
meta keywords
The meta keywords tag can be the same for all pages in the website complex
Not all search engines take these tags into consideration when sites are ranked
Use a list of words and phrases with no commas (search engine spiders are pro-grammed to read only a certain number of char-acters in the keyword tag if they read it at all)
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Use your keywords
Work your keywords into the text copy of every page as many times as you can without making it sound ridiculous
This may sound obvious, but many company owners don’t follow this advice
Focusing on keywords when writing the web page copy can help reduce jargon
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
DON’T
Use irrelevant keywords in meta tags Repeat keywords several times in a row Hide text by making it the same color as the
background Use a string of keywords for the html title Submit exact copies of pages with different file
names Use abbreviations in the keywords unless
abbreviations are commonly used Send e-mail to search engines
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Source code<head><title>Ole Smoky General Store Brand Tennessee Ham</title><meta NAME="Keywords"CONTENT="country hams, ham, bacon, country, kitchen, christmas, gifts, cookbooks, Christmas Presents, gifts"><meta NAME="DESCRIPTION"CONTENT="Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies for Your Country Table"></head>
<body BACKGROUND="graphics/pale3.gif">
<table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td><a HREF="default.htm"><img SRC="graphics/oslogo.gif" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="75" BORDER="0" alt="Return to Ole Smoky Front Porch"></a></td> <td><strong><font SIZE="-2">Even more bargains galore <br> at the <a HREF="Default.htm">Ole Smoky General Store</a>!</font><br> Order on-line or call us: <font COLOR="#FF0000">1-800-453-8788</font></strong></td> </tr></table>
<h2 align="center"><font color="#800000">Country Hams, Slab Bacon, and Other Goodies forYour Country Table, Camping Trip, Holiday Celebrations</font></h2>
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search term suggestions
Go to www.overture.com
Click on Advertiser Login at the bottom of the page
Click on Search Term Suggestion Tool
Enter a search term in the appropriate fieldAgricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Overture search term suggestions
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search term suggestions
Go to www.spellweb.com
Enter the words or phrases you wish to compare
Choose either the Webcrawler or FAST search engine
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search term suggestions
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search term suggestions
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
ALT tags
Every image on your website should have an ALT tag associated with it
The ALT text is what visitors see if they move their mouse cursor over the image
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Search engine submission
Bookmark the pages of the search engine submission pages or see http://members.attcanada.ca/ ~lillyb/search_engine_submission.html
Enter the site URL in each submission page
If the site is relatively small, submit all pages
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Then you wait…
It may take from two to four weeks for your site to be included in a search engine database.
It can take weeks after that before you see your site appear in the search results.
Every time the database is re-indexed, your ranking will change
Re-submit every month and monitor your results
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Don’t pay someone else to submit your website for you No one else understands a business as
well as the owner/operator understands it. It would take longer for to explain a
business to a stranger than it would for the owner/operator to submit the site.
Most submission businesses will submit the site one time only; you can develop a site submission program for the cost of your time
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee
Paid inclusion and placement
Paid inclusion Yahoo It’s well worth the investment
Paid inclusion LookSmart If you can afford it, pay to be included
Paid placement GoToDon’t waste your money; do you use GoTo?
Agricultural Extension ServiceThe University of Tennessee