SEO for Printfection Stores

[PF_Gavin]

Hi All,

I have posted a first draft of an article that I have written that outlines some of the important areas of Search Engine Optimization that impact where your store will rank for your chosen keywords.

The article is here: http://teeplates.australele.com/search-engine-optimisation/seo-guide-for-printfection/

Hopefully it makes sense and some of you find it useful.

Feedback greatfully received,

Cheers,

Gavin

[rossnroller]

Hi Gavin

First, thanks a lot for your article. It couldn't have come at a better time for me, since I've almost finished uploading designs into my store and am about to go 'public'. SEO was my next task of priority, and voila - along you come with your article!

I found the article clear and user-friendly. Great, too, that we can go through your uke site to check out examples of you practising what you're preaching here. That always makes things so much clearer for the uninitiated.

I do have a few queries in relation to your article content and topic.

Re: "set up a banner exchange / link exchange with other sites". How does one go about this, please? Just through having seen them on various sites, I know what banner and link exchanges are, but have no idea how to go about setting such exchanges up with other sites. Is there an instructional site you can point us towards that will explain this in detail?
What do you think about affiliate programs? How does one go about setting these up, pls?
I noted on another SEO thread mention of Cafetools. I googled this and did come across another BB in which the creaor of Cafetools was discussing a beta version, which various PF members were testing. I couldn't figure out, though, exactly what Cafetools actually does. Do you know about it, and is it worthwhile in your opinion?
What would you suggest for someone who does not have a clear single theme of designs on their site? Many of mine, for example, are broadly political, perhaps a bit subversive, but cover a wide range of topics and areas. It seems a big task to find multiple blogs and forums on multiple areas of interest, to get known by contributing on a regular basis, and to hope some folk watching on end up checking out your store. Any suggestions for streamlining this strategy a little?
As a blogger on a wide range of issues, from sport to politics to popular culture to travel to food, I have found it very time-consuming and taxing blogging regularly and maintaining a high standard of writing, and in the last month have dropped off with my posts, which prior to that I tried to maintain on a twice per week basis. The problem is, there are now so many blogs around, most of them virtually unread, and the time and work involved in building up a decent audience is daunting to say the least...certainly this is a long-term project. So, I'm not sure how valuable blogging is these days, in such a crowded blogsphere. I'd like your take on this, pls.
Again, thanks so much for all your effort, both with this excellent SEO article and as everyone's HTML and CSS guru. VERY much appreciated.

Cheers
Ross

[PF_Gavin]

Ross,

Thanks for the feedback and great questions.

A link exchange can be as simple as emailing someone with a related site and saying "Hey I really like your site and I would like to link to it from my store, perhaps you would like to link to me too". There are other more formal link exchange program. Google for one that suits.

Affiliate programs can be a good source of income if you have the traffic. Without an affiliate program at Printfection, there is not really much you can do for now.

Cafetools is a website that creates a list of all your products in a text based form that can then be uploaded into google base and froogle's shopping directory. I used early on, but did not see much value.

Most stores can have a theme that covers much of the store, not necessarily everything, but most. For you, it could be "Political Activism Shirts", "Anti Establishment", "Angry Shirts", etc. Try some out against the difficulty tool and try to find something that is around 50 - 60 %.

Blogging yourself may not be that valuable to SEO, except for generating links and reputation, however getting noticed by relevant popular blogs will lift you dramatically. Even posting acomment in a popular blog can do wonders.

Cheers,

Gavin

[rossnroller]

Thanks kindly, Gavin. That's cleared things up well.

Cheers!
Ross
PS: Funny, I never saw my designs as "angry" - more confrontational (although the two are bed partners). It's interesting to get someone else's take like this.

[rossnroller]

Gavin, another brief query if you don't mind.

I recall on another thread, you mentioned that even if the teasers were hidden, they would still be picked up by the search engines.

What's your view - and that of other experienced and successful store owners generally, if any happen by - on the pros and cons of having teasers visible?

I note that you don't have any on your uke site, and the end result is a nice, uncluttered look for your design presentation.

In my case, I've been seeking to invest my teasers with a bit of wit, with my priority being on this and setting the tone and attitude of the store and designs, rather than using keywords (although I am mindful of the importance of keywords). Do you think visible teasers do have a place, or overall would you consider it more important to dispense with the wit and entertainment/tone component, focus on keywords, and hide the teasers to highlight the designs and keep the presentation clean and uncluttered?

Cheers
Ross

[PF_Gavin]

Ross,

I don't see your designs a particulalrly angry either, just using is as an example of a target that you could tune up for.

Visible Teasers are entirely a personal preference thing. Visually I prefer not to have them, opting instead for large clear thumbnails. My new store at http://www.printfection.com/sideshow also does not have a teaser, but does have the title. My next store may have both, who knows.

At the end of the day, the teaser is there for just that reason, to get the visitor to want to see more, so as long as you feel that is doing its job, then keep it visible.

Making the teaser look good though is more of a typography question.

Cheers,

Gavin

[Pussycat]

Again, thanks for your efforts Gavin (how do you ever find the time to make your wonderful designs ?? :D)

I will definitely have to spend some time to fine-tune the shops, there´s more hits from people searching for images (although most of them look through a few pages) than searching for products.

I do agree that Froogle doesn´t do a lot for you - I´ve stopped uploading, I think I only ever had one hit from there.

Now back to work - and thanks again!

[Pussycat]

Just a PS:

I just checked for a couple of keywords on Google, and on the first five pages four of my Kaboodle entries were found - so having lists on there is helping people find you, too. Although the links go to my Kaboodle profile, the shopper can find the shop(s) or buy the product directly from there. Plus the added benefit of inbound links from a relevant site.

[originalme]

Just wanted to add, that when it comes to SEO, not all strategies are equal.

For example, external links are far more important than pretty much anything else.

And those links need to have "anchor text" (aka the words that you click on to go to the page that is linked) that consists of the keyword you're targeting.

Then, yes, the page does need to have that keyword on it, preferably a few times and "peppered" throughout the copy.

While everything that Gavin wrote in the SEO guide is useful, there is sort of a "hierarchy" of importance when it comes to what the search engine spiders are looking for.

[gp1628]

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[thomascarlson]

I too didnt think much of using the google feed tool and adding all my products to google base(froogle). But i strongly want to encourage you to do so. Because recently a friend of mine did my feeds and every since I have been recieving a good amount of traffic and sales from google base. I have all my products from my other stores in google base but was unaware that I could use the same tool to do my printfection stores as well. So I am going to get busy and get my products from here added.
Do remember that you have to do your feeds once a month or whenever you add new designs. But it only takes a little amount of time and the sales potential is there if you give it the time to work for you, and dont let it expire after a month.
Thomas

[StarvingArtist]

That's a great article Gavin! Thank you.

I want to know, how do you hide the teasers? I thought it was tied in with the section discription. It's probably staring me in the face and I'm not getting it.

Polly