SEO - What is it?

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is one of the ways in which website owners can drive traffic. It is defined as:

"The term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a website to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimising a website, including the content and structure of the website's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process." (www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/glossary.htm)

Some aspects are design-related i.e. when building a site they should be included from the beginning. Other as pects are things that are done once the site is complete or can be added to continually e.g. when a site is first completed it needs submitting to search engines etc. and also regular updates can help the site look well maintained.

The whole art is very unpredictable. Hours of optimising might do nothing at all whereas just hitting lucky with a particular technique that is picked up on can have a massive effect.

Basically, the optimiser is looking to make sure that when bots (also known as spiders) index the site for inclusion in web search results, the best impression of the site is presented to the search engines so that the rank and frequency of appearances improves.

Whitelabel E-Commerce Sites

Recently I have learnt of a fairly new phenomenon - the so-called "white label" e-commerce site.

Basically, many companies are finding it increasingly expensive to drive sales to their sites themselves e.g. via SEO and PPC. This led to the massive growth in affiliate partnerships and networks.

As each affiliate required banners, creative, links etc. this became a massive management task for the companies themselves. So, the white label concept came around. Rather than have someone taking some of your content and using it on their site - why not just provide all the content?

Take E2Save for example, the white label version of Carphone Warehouse. All you do is sign up and they give you a fully managed site with "yourname.e2save.com" as the URL e.g. http://store.e2save.com is one white label firm.

Similarly, Mobileshop do a managed white label service, Fonetastic Mobile e.g. http://orange.fonetasticmobile.com is one firm.

Any sales through the site earn commission in exactly the same way as if they were through an affiliate programme, just without the annoying network override percentage that has to be paid.

The level of the white label service can vary - some firms give you a better more integrated site the more that you drive higher levels of traffic.

Bonuses

- Whitelabel sites are often free - no hosting, domain name or other associated set up costs
- No updating - all the products are updated by the parent company and automatically feed through with no work at all
- Branding - if you have a strong brand they often let you customise the site with your own brand. If you don't have one, stick with the host brand as it gives people confidence!

First Post (sort of)

Hi readers!

This post is aimed to help spread a bit of the stuff I've learned about e-commerce.

If there are any questions, just go to the latest post and add your question as a comment and I will respond if I can. Blogger e-mails me alerts when I get comments so I should be able to reply quite quick.

Chris