Month: January 2015

Los Angeles has long been the center of trends, from fashion and art to business and cuisine, the West Coast is truly the best coast. So it should come as no surprise that Los Angeles SEO trends are reflected across the industry.

Coalition Technologies is located in Los Angeles for this very reason: to be on the vanguard of the SEO industry. Of course, the year round sunshine, beaches, and laid back culture are pretty nice, too. Keep reading to see how trends in Los Angeles will impact SEO throughout the industry.

This Is a Man’s World (But Not for Long)

One of the strongest Los Angeles SEO trends that is reflected across industry patterns is the shrinking gender gap. While the majority of those in the industry happen to be male, women are beginning to make their presence known. This continued increase is great for the industry. The female voice must be present for SEO to be effective, balanced, and successful.

The Tool Box

Understanding website performance is vital for the SEO industry. Google consistently ranks as the top visited search engine. Therefore it should come as no surprise that Google Webmaster Tools reigns supreme when it comes to Los Angeles SEO trends.

It’s What We Do

The SEO industry isn’t just about higher rankings. It’s also about all the research, marketing, and strategy that go into successful campaigns. The top five activities are analytics, content marketing, keyword research, social media marketing, and brand strategy. It just goes to show how important it is to identify and find meaning in the patterns we see in data.

All About Metrics

SEO marketers use metrics for so much of their work. That’s because they help researchers understand what visitors want and how to convert browsers into loyal customers. The most important metrics are conversions, revenue, leads, unique visits, and rankings.

Get Social

Social platforms are incredibly important tools for any SEO marketing campaign. As you might imagine, Facebook and Twitter still reign supreme for social Los Angeles SEO trends. YouTube is starting to lose ground as a social outlet for SEO. While its reach is shrinking, it still remains a viable resource for your campaign. What will be interesting to watch is the meteoric rise of Instagram use. As its use becomes more ubiquitous, it will only continue to act as an effective tool for SEO use.

Coalition Technologies

If there’s one thing the web has taught us, it’s that there is no such thing as an isolated location. That’s just one of the reasons that Los Angeles SEO trends impact and reflect trends throughout the industry.

Coalition Technologies is located in the heart of Los Angeles. This thriving metropolis offers vibrant diversity and inspiration at every intersection. Our location and staff puts us at the cutting edge of SEO trends. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you.

 One of the best ways to increase your site’s exposure is through the creation and use of rich snippets. But just what in the world are snippets? Snippets are those brief lines of text that are under every search result listed by search engines. They are designed to give users an idea of what is on the page, why it’s relevant to their search, and ultimately help users determine whether or not they should click on the site or move on to the next one.

At Coalition Technologies, we are experts in Los Angeles SEO snippets and digital marketing. My years of experience will help you create rich snippets for your website listings. Keep reading to find out more about snippets and how to create them.

Microdata

Microdata might sound like really small numbers, but it’s actually a semantic markup used to describe elements on a web page. Basically, microdata is a method used to explain specific information to search engines. Microdata utilizes HTML tags to assign succinct descriptive words to items and properties. This is the language you will use to create rich Los Angeles SEO snippets.

Schema.Org

Schema.org is a collaboration between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! intended to improve the web by creating a universally supported language to describe digital data. This is where you will mark up your content using microdata.

Make Your Mark

Now that you have a language to create your Los Angeles SEO snippets you need to mark up your content. This content could be reviews, people, businesses, events, even music or videos, but most often it’s product. Marking up your content enhances search results and creates more attention for your product or listing.

What to Say

Once you have a language to mark up your content or product, what should you say? This is where you can offer a star rating, show that this item has customer reviews, or even list a price or price range. This information gives your product authenticity and lets your customer know they can trust your listing.

What’s the Point

Snippets have the distinct shortcoming of being mired in code speak. You need to understand HTML and have an interest in writing complex code. While that might not seem exciting to everyone, creating rich Los Angeles SEO snippets for your site and content should be. That’s because snippets help draw attention to your listing by offering brief, enticing descriptions of your pages and products. This can mean the difference between gaining those desired clicks or losing them to the competition.

We Can Help

Creating snippets for your website, products, or content adds another layer to your SEO strategy. By offering your customers snippets of pertinent info you give them the peace of mind to know they can trust your site and use your services. Creating and implementing snippets isn’t easy. You need to have a basic knowledge of HTML and other coding resources.

Coalition Technologies will help you create rich Lo

Amazon is probably the most well known eCommerce site out there. In fact, it’s the largest online store around. That means it’s also the best place to advertise your product. That also means there’s a lot of competition, too. Keep reading for a few pro tips on how you can more effectively advertise on Amazon.

Understand Your Options

Knowing what types of advertising on Amazon is available will help you create a strategy for your own campaign. Product Ads advertises your external website right from Amazon. This gives customers the peace of mind that comes with a large and established company. It also puts your site in front of a large customer base that is loyal to Amazon.

Amazon Local is similar to companies like Groupon. This offering puts deals in front of Amazon customers that can be redeemed at your brick and mortar storefront. These deals are purchased through Amazon which lets you gain traction through cooperative promotion with a highly trusted company.

Amazon Display Ads places your advertising in front of Amazon’s customers across a wide range of formats including Kindles, the Amazon website, and other Amazon owned sites like IMDB.

Image is Everything

A picture is truly worth a thousand words when advertising on Amazon. It seems like the first obvious step to increase your advertisements effectiveness, but if you’ve spent any time looking at product on Amazon you’ve probably noticed an alarming rate of poor quality or generic stock images. If you’re anything like me, you move on to the next option with a better quality image before you buy, because you want to know what you’re getting.

Your customers are the same, they want to zoom in and see the details of the product they’re going to buy. When you use high definition, high quality images you all but eliminate a major shortcoming of buying online; not seeing the product in person.

PPC

Pay-per-click search engine services is one of the best methods for increasing your site’s traffic. This advertising option allows you to bid on the keywords that users are most likely to use when searching for the product you offer. The highest bidder gets the highest listing and pays a fee every time someone uses their link.

PPC on Amazon works the same way. You can bid on key phrases and words associated with your product to ensure your site is listed near or at the top of customers searches. Of course, this option includes some risk. After all, paying for a higher listing doesn’t guarantee more sales, just more eyes.

Navigate the Amazon

Amazon has an incredibly large and loyal customer base, which makes it a great place to advertise your product, your brick and mortar offerings, or even your own external eCommerce site. Take your business to the next level with Coalition Technologies. We can help you craft a well-designed campaign for successful advertising on Amazon.

As another year comes to an end, it’s good to take stock of what has come and consider what comes next. In 2015, SEO for eCommerce stores will build on the strengths of the past and look ahead to bigger yet smaller opportunities.

Where We’re Going

If there is one trend in technology, eCommerce, and SEO, it’s the continued growth of mobile platforms. People are using their phones for so much more than texts and phone calls. They surf the web, watch videos, and, especially, shop from their phones. What’s more is that people search from their mobile devices like never before.

To Grow Big You Need to Get Small

Ensuring that your eCommerce site is mobile friendly is more important than ever. First, it helps your eCommerce site finalize sales. If you’ve ever visited a website on your phone that isn’t optimized for mobile viewing, you know how frustrating it can be to navigate the site. In fact, most consumers will seek out a mobile friendly option before they attempt to peruse a desktop only site from their phone or tablet.

From an SEO perspective, search engines like Google already favor online retailers that offer mobile friendly sites. So, in order to truly get the most from your search engine optimization, you need to ensure that you offer mobile friendly platforms. As search engines continue to privilege mobile friendly sites, there will come a time when searches conducted on phones or tablets will only reveal mobile friendly sites. In 2015, desktop only websites will continue to be left out of mobile searches—in fact, they might not show up at all.

Spoken Word

Hand in hand with the increase in mobile as a central component of SEO for eCommerce stores is the rise of spoken search queries. Mobile devices’ native AI options, like Apple’s Siri, use different search patterns than traditional typed searches. That means that search engines will use different algorithms to crawl and display results. Spoken word interfaces will continue to impact search results and SEO in 2015.

It’s all About Content (And Links)

Just as in 2014, content matters in 2015. High quality content and earned links on relevant websites will continue to be the center of a successful SEO for eCommerce store campaign. Building links on low quality blogs or irrelevant websites won’t earn your eCommerce site higher SEO, in fact these kinds of links and content can even hurt your listing optimization.

Let’s Get Social

Social media integration with SEO for eCommerce stores will only continue to grow in 2015. When you envision and enact a strong social media presence, customers will find and share your content for you. This kind of organic growth strengthens your brand and increases your trustability with consumers. What’s more is that this kind of social media sharing only helps your SEO campaign.

Let’s Work Together

To understand where SEO is going, you need to understand where it’s been. I founded Coalition Technologies to stay on the cutting edge of SEO for eCommerce. Contact us today to discuss your SEO strategies for 2015.

Analytics reports are so much more than a few numbers and charts on a page. They provide rich insight into how effective your site is and demonstrate how users interact with your site. This information can transform your business strategy and increase your conversion optimization. I work with analytics reports everyday, keep reading to discover my top 10 reports for conversion analysis.

SEO Landing Page

A landing page is the first page a user lands on when they visit your website. This report lets you see which pages are getting the most landings. Obviously, your homepage will get the lion’s share of landings, but by paying attention to which pages are getting a lot of landings, you’ll be able to determine what aspects of your content marketing program are working effectively and which ones aren’t.

Site Speed

If there’s one constant in people’s online habits, it’s that they hate waiting for pages to load. The site speed report gives you access to real user performance on how long pages actually took to load. This report gives you info on everything from how long users waited before they could navigate your page to how long it took for the entire page to finish loading.

Site Search

This report gives you information on search queries within your site. This report helps you determine where customer searches are originating. When searches are simplified and helpful it can only increase your conversion optimization. This also gives you insight as to what information may be missing.

New vs. Returning

There’s no real surprise to what this report does. It gives you a comparison on how first time visitors behave on your site to the behaviors of return visitors. This gives you insight as to how new users navigate, find, or even get stuck compared to the habits of users who are more familiar with your site. This is a highly useful way to understand the usage habits of your visitors.

Top Conversion Paths

The goal of so many of these analytics reports is to increase your conversion optimization. This report helps you visualize how customers find your site, how they navigate, and what paths they take before they convert. By understanding the steps your customers take before conversion, you can focus your time and energy improving those avenues.

Funnel Visualization

This report builds on your conversion rate. Funnel visualization lets you know at what point customers are dropping out of your conversion path. This can be highly effective if you notice a step that loses a high volume of users, and lets you know that some changes can be implemented to increase your conversion rate.

Behavior Flow

This report does just what you think, it shows you the most common paths users follow when they’re on your site. This report shows you which paths and steps give you the highest conversion rates and also displays which paths and steps lead to the most drop offs. A highly useful report to help you understand your visitors habits.

Reverse Goal Path

This analytic report works well if you can’t predict which steps lead to a desired goal. This report will help you determine and predict which steps will lead to the desired goal by, you guessed it, working in reverse. A richer understanding of your sites goals will help you strengthen your conversion optimization.

Events

This aspect of Google Analytics allows you to measure a range of various types of interactions on your site, such as video views, button clicking, and getting to the bottom of a page. This report lets you get a richer and fuller concept of how users are engaging with your site.

Mobile Overview

This last one is a highly useful report, especially considering the mobile direction that web traffic is moving in. This report lets you know how much of your traffic comes from desktop, tablet, and mobile. The mobile overview can help you determine how mobile users interact on your site compared to those who access via desktop.

Choose Coalition Technologies

Google Analytics offers so many reports it can almost be overwhelming. These reports are incredibly useful to determine how users access your site, what their behavior is when they’re there, and what your conversion paths and rates are.

I founded Coalition Technologies to help eCommerce sites increase their conversion optimization and find success. Contact us today to find out how to optimize your website.

Choosing an eCommerce platform is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business. But with so many choices available, how do you know which one is right for you and your enterprise? As the founder of a leading eCommerce SEO company, I know the needs of your business. Keep reading for tips on how to choose the right eCommerce platform. Cost Perhaps the most fundamental question you should ask when comparing eCommerce platform options is “can I afford this?” Every platform available offers varying package options at different prices. Some even charge transaction fees that can add considerable “hidden” costs to your operating budget. When choosing an eCommerce platform you want to consider what options you need, which ones you don’t, and how they fit in your budget. This will immediately narrow which platforms are right for your business. Growth Once you’ve determined your operating budget, you’ll want to consider how your eCommerce platform will help your business grow. The platform you choose should not only help you market your product and drive customers to your site, but it will also need to handle the added traffic and demands your clients will place on your site. As your business grows and changes, will your eCommerce platform be able to sustain the growth and added pressures of your successful business? Storefront You want your site to function well, but you also want it to look great too. When you’re choosing an eCommerce platform you’ll need to take into account the appearance of your site. You want your site to transmit the image and feel of your brand. A good eCommerce platform will give you a wide range of templates to play around with so that your site truly represents your business. Tools One of the best features of eCommerce software are the various tools and features they provide your business. When you’re selecting an eCommerce software you’ll want to bear in mind how the tools provided help you track and grow your business. What analytics does the platform provide? Do they offer marketing and SEO options? Is it mobile optimized? These tools aren’t just fancy bells and whistles. They help you determine trends, track and analyze visitors, maintain your books, and so much more. These tools will help you grow your business and find more success. Customer Experience Customers today expect a simplified and seamless online shopping experience. If your storefront and platform feel clunky or complicated, you will lose customers. When you’re choosing an eCommerce platform you want to ensure that your clients have a great experience. A platform that makes shopping and purchasing easy and secure will help you keep customers and keep them coming back for more. So Many Choices Ultimately, there are so many choices for eCommerce platforms that it can seem a little overwhelming. You want to ensure your platform helps your business grow and I can help. Coalition Technologies has helped so many others find success in eCommerce because we understand the platforms. Our dedicated staff will work with you to determine your specific needs. Contact us today to find out which eCommerce platform is right for you.

If there is one obvious trend in commerce for 2015, it’s that eCommerce will only continue to grow. That’s because people want to conduct product research and look for good deals from their phones, computers, and tablets. They want to buy when they’re at home, work—just about anywhere. Keep reading to discover some eCommerce trends for 2015.

Smaller is Bigger

One of the biggest eCommerce trends for 2015 will be the continued growth of mobile commerce. The modern shopping experience includes a mix of digital and physical research, price comparison, and ultimately purchasing. That’s because consumers want the freedom to explore and buy products wherever and whenever they want.

This trend means that more and more sales will be conducted via tablet and smartphone. ECommerce sites that maintain and operate smooth mobile experiences will find more success in the new year. When eCommerce sites aren’t optimized for mobile viewing, mobile customers will quickly tire of a jumbled or complicated format and move on to the next site that is friendly for phone and tablet shopping.

Get Social

One of the biggest trends in eCommerce advertising is the increase in social sharing and sponsored content. When marketing and advertising are embedded within interesting and  relevant content, the advertisement feels more like a recommendation from a friend and less like slick copy produced by men in smoky rooms on 5th Avenue.

What’s more, this is the kind of advertisement that travels. In other words, content advertising tends to be shared (and re-shared) on social media platforms. This gives your eCommerce site better online exposure with a more authentic feel.

Can I Get That Now?

One of the great benefits of eCommerce is that you can find just about anything you want online. One of the biggest drawbacks is how long you have to wait to get your product. That’s why another big eCommerce trend for 2015 will be same day shipping.

The primary advantage that brick and mortar shops have over eCommerce sites is the immediate gratification of a purchase. You find something you like and you take it home with you. eCommerce sites have to ship product to consumers. That wait time can definitely impact sales. Same day shipping will become a major trend for eCommerce sites. In fact, Amazon already offers same day shipping for some of its products. Expect this trend to continue to grow.

Online sales and eCommerce will only continue to grow in 2015. The trends of next year are similar to the trends in computing; faster and smaller. Consumers want information quickly and socially. They want the shopping experience to feel seamless across multiple platforms and to receive their product as quickly as possible.

Stay Ahead of the Trends

Ultimately, the eCommerce trends for 2015 will build on what was successful in 2014. Coalition Technologies is a leading eCommerce company that can help your business find success in 2015 and beyond. Contact us now to learn more about what you can expect in the new year.

Let’s face it, the last thing you want to think about when launching a new eCommerce enterprise is coding. With so many small business eCommerce options available, you don’t need to spend precious time and resources on web development. These eCommerce platforms deliver customizable storefronts, product display pages, and checkout options so you can launch the site you want without spending countless hours on web design.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the best platforms for eCommerce. That’s because it’s very user-friendly. It offers over 100 themes to build your site around. With so many options for site appearance, you’re sure to find the right look for your storefront and product. These themes aren’t just some static frame you need to force your product into. In fact, each template comes with intuitive settings that let you quickly customize your storefront. If you like to get your hands dirty with a little HTML and CSS modification, Shopify gives you full access so you can further customize every aspect of your site.

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is another top small business eCommerce platform. Bigcommerce lets you customize your storefront and also helps you with marketing and promotion. With so many eCommerce options available, Bigcommerce helps you cut through the competition and reach your customer base. Marketing, search engine optimization, social media integration, and multi channel marketing will help you reach your clients, drive more traffic to your site, and ultimately increase your sales.

Bigcommerce offers promotion and coupon tools, gift certificates, discounts, and a number of other promotional options. With Bigcommerce you can set up email marketing and social media integration. Multi channel marketing lets you sell across a spectrum of platforms. That means customers will be able to find your product on Google shopping, Shopzilla, eBay, and more.

3dcart

One of the easiest to use eCommerce platforms for small business is 3dcart. They give you all the tools you need to create and launch your online store. They offer customizable templates, marketing and SEO tools to grow your business and drive traffic to your site, and even full integration with QuickBooks software for seamless bookkeeping.

With 3dcart you don’t need to download any software, that means you can access your account online. This gives you the freedom to check in with your site wherever you have web access, from your office, your home, even from your phone. This lets you stay connected and on top of your business.

Contact Coalition Technologies

While none of the platforms for eCommerce are perfect, there are great options for your business needs. Each one has its particular strengths and weaknesses. We will work with you so you can find the right eCommerce platform for your small business. Contact Coalition Technologies today to discuss the goals and needs of your eCommerce site.