By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-10-08 16:06:18 | Word Count: 664
Learning how to increase visibility through optimization, understanding the impact of search engines (most notably Google) and back-end maintenance is an essential part of doing business online. The impact that eCommerce tools can have on conversion rates, search engine rankings and back-end operations cannot be overlooked. Many are turning to a relatively new concept in the world of eCommerce: OSCommerce. Understanding what makes OSCommerce different from other eCommerce tools and the importance of doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Oscommerce can help you determine how to integrate these tools into your current web store structure.
OSCommerce is a basic shopping cart and isOpen Source (Free). Like an OS (Open Source) project, OSCommerce tools have been reviewed, tweaked and adjusted by users and programmers. These tools are not always free of bugs but typically offer users a greater degree of flexibility. While there are plenty of out-of-the-box options available, many of them are not 100% free and are constraining in features or customization abilities. While Oscommerce provides more flexibility from a programmer’s standpoint, we should keep in mind that the more we edit the code of an open source solution, the more unstable it will get. So, we do not suggest Oscommerce for businesses who do or plan on doing over 20 orders a day.
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Integrating these tools into an existing structure is another issue. It isn’t enough to select helpful tools; those tools must be integrated and optimized for SEO. All SEO elements must be carefully optimized. The large number of elements search engines review during the indexing and crawling process makes working with an professional SEO company a practical necessity. Of course, optimization by itself is not sufficient to generate great visibility. We understand the need for the execution of a custom SEO Strategy. You should keep in mind that the following has to be completed for any successful SEO strategy aside from the functionalities of a shopping cart solution;
Keyword Research: This is a must for SEO. Without identifying the right terms to target, it’s impossible to reach success in terms of traffic and conversions. This step should be completed by a professional internet marketing company.
On-site Optimization: Oscommerce gives you the functionality of adding custom titles and meta tags but being able to add them correctly and efficiently is a different story. This must be done correctly and you must select the right format for your URLs for the most effective SEO results.
Off-site Optimization: Oscommerce does not provide this service out of the box. Building an attractive ecommerce site with a lot of functionalities and products is not sufficient. You will need to market it and increase the popularity of your ecommerce store. This can only be done by increasing the number of relevant backlinks as well as other marketing mediums. (Shopping comparison, affiliate marketing etc.)
Conversion Optimization: How profitable are you? Which marketing mediums are generating the most amount of dollars? Could you do better? How’s your checkout process functioning? The answers to all these questions rely on data, research, analysis and optimization.
If you are concerned about visibility, it is critical to add SEO to your marketing plan. A well-designed web site simply isn’t enough to generate increased traffic and improve your search engine results. By including steps to optimize OSCommerce, a trained SEO professional will ensure that tools you have selected for their usefulness will also work to increase the visibility of your website.
Contact us if you need help with your SEO strategy with the Oscommerce Shopping Cart. We are a professional SEO company that understands sales, profit margins and visibility. We can help. You can call us at 1-800-736-9618.
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