By Robert Lockard

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but according to one blogger, the key to getting more website traffic from your Twitter account is to tweet less frequently. Of course, Dan Zarrella is not just any blogger – he’s a self-proclaimed social media and viral marketing scientist. That’s a pretty cool title.

In his blog entry, “Want More Clicks? Tweet Less,” Zarrella made the bold statement, “If you want your Tweet to get noticed and ReTweeted, you should slow down your posting rate.” Twitter is all about speed, though. It’s an instant message service. Why would a smart blogger suggest you slow down your tweeting?

According to this study, Twitter users who only tweet one link an hour have a much higher rate of getting that link retweeted than those who post two, three or 13 links an hour. The same is true for days. One link a day gets a better click-through rate and more retweets than multiple links a day.

What does all this mean? I’ll try to interpret. I think it means Twitter users can tell the difference between people sharing genuinely interesting news, ideas or offers and robots or marketers who are just trying to sell their products through Twitter. Twitter users like people who listen as well as share. That’s called a conversation, and it’s what customers expect more and more from ecommerce companies in our current marketplace.

What does this mean for your Internet-marketing strategies? I think it means you should be just as eager to talk about your company as you are to talk about your customers’ needs, industry trends and other things outside of your company. Twitter may not be easy to navigate when you first start out, but as you learn what you’re doing you should try not to focus too much on yourself. Sharing one link or one promotion a day can be more effective than sending a barrage of offers in a short period of time.

Think about your audience. Think about how you respond to tweets. Sometimes it seems like there are way too many to ever keep track of, just from the people you follow. Keep that in mind as you formulate your Twitter strategy. Keep the line of communication open, and try not to jam the line with too many messages.

This blog entry is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post, “Successful Twitter strategy: Tweet less.” The photo of the birds on a fence is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Sister72.

By Robert Lockard

I read an article on Entrepreneur.com a while back, entitled, “Rev up the Search Engines.” It gives a helpful rundown of solid SEO principles for small businesses, which don’t have a whole lot of money to spare but need to start generating results from ecommerce.

This article gives six tips for a small business to get the most bang for its buck, when it comes to search engine optimization. They are attributed to Steve Wiideman, a fairly renowned SEO expert. I already talked about most of these in my SEO series in the eHarbor Blog, back in February and March of 2009. But I think a refresher is healthy.

Here are some of the highlights I took from these tips:

- Search engines are getting smarter. Don’t expect Google, Bing or Yahoo to fall for the same old SEO tricks. Bloggers and other content generators used to focus on their keyword-to-content ratio, but now search engines recognize when you use the same keyword too many times in the same post. Use relevant keywords prudently. If you use keyword-stuffing tactics, don’t expect much success.

- Google should be the focus of your SEO strategy. I thought this one was interesting because, while Google is certainly the king of search engines at the moment, things can change fairly quickly in the digital age. Of course, Google is constantly changing its algorithm for search results and it’s even changing its search engine completely with new products like Google Wave, Google Caffeine and a focus on social media, images and music. But that’s the topic of a whole other blog entry.

- If an SEO consulting company guarantees No. 1 placement on Google or any other search engine, don’t believe them. Google is the only that can absolutely guarantee top placement on its results pages, and every other company has to do its best to influence Google, but none can absolutely guarantee success. Keep that in mind when you come across SEO companies’ marketing messages.

Having said that, I’ll note Submit Solution is a good SEO resource for you. Submit Solution has more than 13 years of experience working on Internet marketing, which includes search engine optimization. It’s a great resource because it has helped many companies like yours reach customers online through its efforts. Like I said, they can’t guarantee No. 1 placement for competitive search terms, but you can expect dramatic improvements in your search-engine rankings for specific keywords in the months after they start implementing their SEO strategies on your behalf.

Keep coming back to the Submit Solution SEO Blog for the latest updates on major search-engine trends. This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog entry, “Top SEO tactics for small businesses.” The photo of the flying bicyclist is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Grundy Photo.

By Robert Lockard

That’s right. Google Chrome is the best Web browser by far, according to a study by Jacob Gube, the founder and chief editor of Six Revisions. Chrome v. 3 beat Firefox v. 3.5, Safari v. 4, Opera v.10 and Microsoft Explorer v. 8. Take a look at the results below.

You should definitely check out the whole chart by clicking on this link to the blog entry, “Performance Comparison of Major Web Browsers.” Fascinating stuff. I’ll discuss some of the highlights and their impact on ecommerce and Internet marketing.

I’m a Firefox user, myself, so some of this study’s results came as a surprise to me. I’m not sure if they will change my mind about which browser I use right now, but it’s definitely helped me think more about why I prefer one over the others. Here are some of the highlights of the study’s findings:

JavaScript Speed

Chrome won this competition with an average download time of JavaScripts in just 542.3 milliseconds. Safari was No. 2 with 863.9 milliseconds and Firefox was No. 3 with 1,230.6 milliseconds. Explorer was last with a comparatively long download time of 6,305.5 milliseconds.

JavaScripts are important because they are heavily used on websites like Digg, as well as in Gmail. It’s no surprise Google is the leader in this category because it definitely wants people to be able to quickly use its own applications.

Page Load Time

This study measured how long it takes each Web browser to download Yahoo’s main page. The trouble with these results is that they might be affected by how many other people were using the site at the time the study was conducted. Bearing that in mind, it’s interesting to see how close all of the Web browsers are to each other.

Firefox was the fastest with a download time of 1.34 seconds. The slowest time was 1.61 seconds and it was shared by Explorer and Safari. The difference between those two times is so small that it hardly matters which browser you use to download a website like Yahoo.

Browser Cache Performance

The same is true for both Page Load Times and Browser Cache Performance. Browsers often save a cached version of a Web page you have already visited so it can quickly bring it up again when you return to it. The download times of a cached page ranged from 0.72 seconds to 0.89 seconds, which statisticians would say is probably not a “significant” difference. Chrome had the fastest speed, while Safari had the slowest.

Other categories in the study had a wider variety of results, but I thought these ones were the most interesting.

This is all fascinating information, but what does it all mean? Why are fast download times important? If online users have to wait several seconds for one of your Web pages to download, they might just give up after a while and decide your site isn’t worth the wait.

We want our ecommerce websites to be fast enough for people, no matter which browser they use. But we should definitely focus on the most popular ones. That’s the subject of a whole other blog entry, though.

Keep coming back to the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog for great discussions on topics like this.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post: “Which Web browser is the best?” The graph of the results of this study is the copyright of Jacob Gube and Six Revisions.

By Robert Lockard

In the Wall Street Journal article, “Why Email No Longer Rules,” I found a fascinating argument against email and for social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. Email is on its way out as the primary means of sending online messages.

For a dozen years or so email was the freshest, easiest way to keep in touch with people over long distances without having to pay big phone bills. Now it’s old hat. Basically, the paradigm of online communication has changed and we’re all going to have to change with the times.

What do you think? Is it a good thing that email is being replaced by instant communications? I think it’s great for ecommerce. With the aid of instant messaging, tweets and wall posts, online marketers can serve their customers much better and faster than ever before.

Response times for online communication have shrunk from hours to minutes, to now just seconds. By responding to our customers’ needs at a rapid pace, we can increase our customer-retention rates and make sure the people we do business with feel valued and respected. We can also quickly identify and assist potential customers and other leads who visit our ecommerce websites.

I don’t think email will go away anytime soon, though. It’s still a great tool for holding somewhat private conversations away from the peering eyes of other Internet users. There is definitely something to be said for privacy and discretion online. We don’t want to reveal confidential information in public forums, but we want to have a positive presence on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a fine line we have to walk.

As search engines keep working harder to add social-media sites to their search results, the value of tweets and Facebook updates could increase. Just make sure your social-media communication points people to your website where people can actually make purchases and build your online rankings.

If you would like help getting a great website design, I recommend you contact Submit Solution’s professionals. They are extremely effective at delivering captivating website designs that help increase your conversion rate of visitors into customers.

This blog entry is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post, “Is email finished?” Keep coming back to the Submit Solution Social Media Blog for more exciting updates like this.

By Robert Lockard

Google could soon change the rules of keyword Internet marketing with the debut of its new Google Caffeine search engine. Right now, Google is not doing a good job of searching through social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. So the company is working on a new version of its popular search engine that will add them to the mix and shake up other sites’ rankings for certain keywords.

The online marketing firm 360i released a study a little while back in a blog entry on Digital Connections, entitled, “6 Things to Expect if Google Decaf Gets a ‘Caffeine’ Boost.” In the post, SEO Group Director Mike Dobbs and SEO Analyst Martha Mukangara noted some pretty surprising findings.

They included 40 retail keywords in their study of the differences between the first three pages of regular Google search results and Google Caffeine search results. The 40 keywords are made up of 10 major brand names (keywords), 10 retail head terms (single keywords), 10 retail torso terms (two-word phrases), and 10 retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases).

They pointed out six ways the new search engine will dramatically affect online marketers’ strategies. For instance, 15 percent of all first-page rankings were different for the 40 keywords used in the study. Amazingly, the single keywords and two-word phrases saw 50 percent of their first-page results change with the new search engine.

The reason for this big change is the fact that Google Caffeine is focusing more on keyword relevance and it’s steering away from blogs and wikis in favor of social media, video, music, photo and other sites previously outside of its search capability.

Since single keywords are so general, they will face more competition from these new sites being allowed to vie for top ranking. Longer phrases, with four or more keywords, will benefit from the new system because they will be drawn from a smaller pool with a focus on how relevant they are to the searcher’s needs.

All of these changes could have serious consequences for ecommerce marketers. At the end of the article, the study’s authors give the following advice to them:

Marketers will need to keep a close eye on their own set of keywords and determine how results change if a switch-over does takes place… [I]f your keywords shift in rank, you will need to refresh your strategy and focus in on any results drop-offs, or take advantage of subsequent wins.

What an interesting topic. Be sure to keep coming back to the Submit Solution SEO Blog for the latest updates on Google and Bing, as well as other major search-engine trends.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog entry, “Internet marketers brace for Google Caffeine changes.” The photo of the upside-down YouTube page is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of engineroomblog.

By Robert Lockard

In Internet marketing, your website can be your first and best defense against lawsuits or it can be a huge liability. It depends on how strong your disclaimers are and how carefully you check to make sure your statements are all factual and ethical.

I bring this up because I just read an eye-opening article on InfoWeek’s website, entitled “Website disclaimers – yes, they do work.” In that piece, author Guy Burgess describes a recent case in New Zealand where an ecommerce website had given customers the wrong impression about the soundness of some of the companies it advertised.

A customer sued the website owners when he received the short end of the stick on a deal with one of the companies the website advertised. But a judge ruled in favor of the owners because they had included a provision on their website to protect themselves. The judge found the owners to be both negligent in their faulty information and protected by their admission that their site didn’t have all the information customers would want to make a final decision.

We all make mistakes, and it’s unfortunate when others are negatively affected by our errors. If we want strong relationships with our customers, we have to make sure our ecommerce websites are accurate and that our products or services are as good as we say they are.

The InfoWeek article suggests three things every website owner should do:

1. Publish a disclaimer on your website. It can be brief and it should simply suggest customers not just look at your site for credible information on whatever topic is the focus of your business.

2. Be honest. This seems like a no-brainer, but you should try to include the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on your website. Try to make sure you information is as complete as possible and you’re leaving out important details people need to know.

3. Carefully review your website and update it when necessary. It’s hard to catch every mistake, especially as laws change and you introduce new products or services. Make an honest effort and your customers will appreciate your diligence.

This is a complete version of the post on the eHarbor Blog: “Protect yourself with a strong website disclaimer.” The photo of the zombie warning sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of rchurch74.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Just like any emerging online trend, Twitter has been infiltrated by spammers, many of them making claims like the one you see below:  “Make money with Twitter!”, etc.  While the spammers themselves are incredibly annoying (and their claims  baseless) there is some truth to that statement: Make money with Twitter.  Obviously, this is not to be done the way the bots are suggesting you do it.  Rather, Twitter can be a great tool for e-commerce businesses looking to gain exposure.

The great thing about e-commerce businesses is that they all have the common ability of being social.  That is, social media strategies can be implemented into their business structure.  Having trouble seeing this?  Here are some ideas to making your business more social and using that connection to generate interest, traffic and, ultimately, profits:

1. Publish new items to your Twitter account
2. Announce new blog posts
3. Connect with other professionals
4. Create “Twitter Specials”: coupons that can be used on your site
5. Generate interest with contests and competitions
6. Connect with customers to build a great customer support reputation
7. Announce sales, promotions, holiday specials, etc.
8. Give away free samples
9. Get more first-time buyers and keep them with Twitter support
10. Have exclusive one-day sales

This list of Twitter ideas is purposefully vague.  No matter what category or niche your online business is in, you can apply some or all of these ideas to fit you specifically.

If you’re still having trouble coming up with ways you can apply this to your business, try searching for companies in your niche.  See how they are using Twitter to generate traffic and leads.  This could be a great way to come up with affective social media tactics for your online business!  Remember, the worst mistake you can make here is to do nothing.  No matter what you’re selling, Twitter can work for you!

By Robert Lockard

In honor of Submit Solution’s newly redesigned website, I will talk about four Web-design strategies you can use to make your website look more pleasing and hold viewers’ attention longer. These strategies come from a blog post on the Think Vitamin Blog, entitled, “How to Make Your Web Design Stand out from the Crowd.”

The first strategy is not to be afraid of empty space in your Web design. On news sites, like CNN, you won’t find a bit of open space; all of it is taken up with headlines, graphics and numbers. That is useful for people looking to cram as much useful information as possible into a confined space. But it can feel cluttered and overwhelming on ecommerce websites that are selling products and services.

Giving viewers space to breathe can create a relaxed atmosphere on your website. We’re already bombarded with information, so it is refreshing to find a website with some elbowroom.

This goes along with the second strategy, which is to try something new. If you always follow current trends, you will wind up looking like everyone else. Try something different, flex your HTML muscles and show off your creativity. It’s your Web design – have fun with it!

The third strategy is to carefully choose your site’s colors and images. These have a big effect on the overall look and feel of your website. Make sure they are interesting to look at and that they show your clients what to expect from your company. Creativity comes into play in this one, as well.

The fourth strategy is to pay attention to the little details that can turn a good website into a great one. Give visitors a reason to come back often and reward them with a bit of wit and style they won’t find anywhere else. Make sure your site is free of grammatical errors as best as you can, and be sure to put your best foot forward at all times.

Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to making something special out of your website. Remember that having a great website doesn’t mean customers will be able to find it. You’ll have to invest in search engine optimization, paid-search campaigns and more to help that happen. You can find SEO and PPC strategies in Submit Solution’s SEO and PPC blogs.

This is the full version of a blog entry on the eHarbor Blog, entitled, “Simple is better in Web design.” The photo of the spider web is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of dann solo.

By Britnee Nguyen

The layout of your website plays a vital role for those who visit it. If it’s cluttered, hard to navigate, or just isn’t pleasing to look at, then your viewers will not bother to look around the rest of your website to see what it offers.

There are some quick, easy guidelines you can follow when designing your website. Many free wordpress themes follow these guidelines, and if you’re making your own design, you can follow them too.

Don’t Be Scared of White Space: Look through any magazine and you’ll see how things are laid out nicely and the use of white space is apparent. White space makes for a cleaner look. White space is good, there’s no need to cram all of your information, pictures, graphics into one area.

Make it Easy to Navigate: Navigation should be consistent throughout your website. If your navigation bar is at the top on your homepage, make sure it’s the same on all your other pages so your users know where to look to find what they’re looking for. Consider adding in a search box to make it even easier to find stuff for users.

Don’t Use Large Files or Graphics: When you put large files or graphics on your site, it can take some users forever to upload the images. This increases download time, and frankly, internet users are not patient and will not wait. Be sure you use average-­­­­­sized files that will work for all your visitors.

Use a Normal Font; it’s Hard to Read Fancy Ones: Use a simple font so it is easy to read on a computer screen; also, use a simple color like black. Keep the same font through out your website to maintain consistency.

Don’t Go Crazy With The Colors: Come up with a color scheme to use through out your website. It should convey your brand and is pleasing to the eye on the computer. Don’t use too many colors, or else that will create a chaos look on your website.

Follow the above guidelines for simple website designing. If you want a professional web designer to do more amazing things to it, visit Submit Solution where website design is one of our specialties.

Flickr Photo Credit: yellowbrother

By Robert Lockard

I read a provocative post from the Blog Bloke a while ago that I’d like to comment on. The post is entitled, “8 Twitter tips to promote your blog.” In it, the author responds to the argument that Twitter and other social media are replacing blogs and that we should drive traffic to Twitter instead of to our blogs and ecommerce websites.

He points out the many flaws with that idea in his blog entry. I would like to focus on two of his most persuasive points.

The first point is, as the Blog Bloke puts it, “If you are a marketer trying to make money, you will want your Twitter followers to visit your blog and click on your ads.”

To quote Lex Luthor, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Companies often post links to deals and special offers on their Twitter accounts, but those links always go to one of their corporate websites or landing pages. Nothing is bought or sold on Twitter, itself. Social media is an excellent part of Internet marketing, but it is not a replacement for the many other available tools, such as paid search, SEO and blogging.

The second important point is, “Ultimately, your blog is where you want the action to be. You want your readers to follow you over to your real blog on your own domain and a site that belongs to YOU.”

As I’ve discussed before, Twitter and other social-media sites do not technically help with SEO. The only way they do is if other Twitter users find links to your blog and link to them on their own blogs. Twitter and Facebook have no-follow tags, which tell search engines to pay no attention to them, but most blogs welcome search engines to pay attention to their links and include them in their ranking algorithms. You can read more about this in my eHarbor Blog entry, “Experts are wrong: Twitter and Facebook help SEO.”

What an interesting discussion. I’ve had a lot of fun writing about this topic. What are your thoughts on this important ecommerce topic?

This blog entry is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post, “Social media can’t replace blogs.” The comic of the history of blogging is from Flickr, and it is courtesy of stefan2904.