7 Quick tips for eCommerce SEO

The importance of the website ranking is quite known. Every website wants to rank higher in the Google search rankings. It provides a better coverage to the website and at the same time, the chances of getting explored by the users are also improved. According to a survey, the top 3 ranked sites of the Google search extract a total of 70% of the traffic. Hence, the importance of getting high in the search results is quite important. To get close to that mark most of the website try various methods and opt for outside help.

The SEO are the first thing that the website look out for. Whether the website is in its initial phase or has been put up for improvement, the SEO provides takes care of every aspect of the website to optimize it for better output. The optimization done by using the eCommerce SEO services helps the store to get better output and at the same time make the web store look better. The customers are also benefited from the optimization process and the interaction between the customers and the online store is well maintained.

Let us study the various areas where the eCommerce website SEO helps to make better conversions.

1. Keywords research

The search for any product by a customer is made on the basis of keywords. It is important for the web stores to earn the importance of keywords. In order to become, the top priority of the customers, the online stores need to be at the first page of the Google search which is only possible by making use of the relevant keywords. The eCommerce store must try to highly figure out what keywords best relate to their products. The web store must prevent the usage of the keywords that are not related to the products on the web store as it gives a rise to bounce rates.

2. Competitor keywords

Another thing to look out when selecting keywords would be the competitor keywords. In case the competitor is a well-established brand than the eCommerce store must refrain themselves from using the same keywords as their competitor is using. It will result in diversion of a larger traffic to that store. Thus, choosing the keywords which has a better impact to direct the customers to your web store must be given the priority.

3. Website structure

Another aspect of gaining better traffic to the web store would be by providing the website with better structure. In order to make sure how to get a better site structure, the eCommerce store can refer to some of the well-established websites and look at their way of presenting the products to the customers. It would be an advised thing to categorize your products depending upon multiple factors. The better understanding of the products by the customers proves to be an effective tool in making better sales. Therefore, the website must try to present a better insight of the services provided in simple way.

4. Site errors

The website might be facing a difficult time due to the errors that existed in the website. In order to make sure that the customers are always provided with results and should not face any difficulty. Moreover, the small errors in the website also give a tough time to the customers. These errors lead to the lost interest of the customers and the customers prefer to move on to other sites for purchase. The top errors you will want to correct quickly include redirecting any 404 pages to actual content, changing 302 redirects to 301 redirects, updating duplicate content pages, meta titles, and meta descriptions.

5. Website performance

It has been estimated that with a delay of 1s in website response the conversion rate are lowered by 7%. Thus, it becomes an important area of concern for the online store owners. Visitors doesn’t like to hang around the website waiting for the response. If it takes more than 3 seconds for your website to load, you can increase the speed by buying more server space, using a different CMS. The fast response from the website ensures the customers that they can deal with their purchase instantly and exit the web store easily.

6. Mobile response

The usage of mobile has considerably increased in the past few years. It has been analyzed that almost more than half of the customers use their mobile phones to browse the sites. 31% of mobile Internet users “mostly” go online using their phones (Pew, 2012), 61% of customers who visit a mobile unfriendly site are likely to go to a competitor’s site (IAB), 58% of mobile users expect mobile sites to load as quickly or faster than desktop sites (Google, 2011). Therefore, it is highly recommended for the web store owners to optimize their mobile website as the website mostly use the duplicate content for their mobile website which creates a SEO problem in rankings.

7. Customer reviews

The usage of placing the customer reviews on the product page has seen to be an effective way of attracting better traffic. The conversion rate can be improved by 14-77% by just adding the reviews. In addition to increasing conversions, customer reviews also positively impact your SEO because more reviews result in more content and frequent reviews produces fresh content, which Google loves to see. Thus, the reviews not only makes the customer’s decision of making a purchase on the product but at the same time also helps in ranking up the website in Google rankings.

Over to You

The small details that are made use by the SEO for optimizing the web store are helpful can drive the much-needed traffic. The proper implementation of these SEO techniques will surely help the online store to grow and make better conversions.

How to drive mobile app engagement along the customer’s life cycle?

Thousands of mobile apps are added to the various App stores every day. However, considering the limited space on the phones of the user, customer engagement is one of the major aspects that contribute to the success of your app. Keeping the online customers engaged in a mobile app is an ongoing process. 

In general marketing concept, there are 6 phases in a customer’s life cycle. Same goes true with the users of mobile app. The online customers of the eCommerce mobile app have 5 phases in their life cycle. These phases are mentioned below:

App Discovery – This is when your prospect customers come to know about your mobile app. The engagement technique in this phase should include the ways he/she will first hear about your app.

App Download – This is when the prospect downloads and installs the app. However, just being aware of the app is not enough. The person needs to have a motivation to download the app and keep it on the phone?

Onboarding and exploration – This phase of the life cycle is crucial. It involves the reasons that tick them off to explore your services or just leave it without even using the app properly.

Reuse and Purchase – While some users may engage with the app others may just uninstall it. This aspect of the life cycle includes the ways in which you keep the customers loyal.

App advocacy – This is when the reviews of your customer and the word-of-mouth entice others to download and use your  app.

Having a sustainable personalized mobile app engagement in every phase of the life cycle is the key. The question arises, how can it be done? Well, listed below are some of questions that need to be answered in order to keep the customers engaged in each stage of the life cycle.

How make your app visible to your prospect?

It is not just the mobile app development that matters in order to allure the user to install it. You need to make the app visible to them. The very first step to towards achieving this goal is to have a clear app's description. The first few sentence of the description should compel the visitor to click on the 'more' button. Work on the UX of the app and invest in the stellar graphics of the app. Pitch the customers with enticing ads and generate buzz on the right media. As per Kissmetrics, the engagement rate for photos is 37% higher than that for text. App users are generally internet-savvy, so, you can use social media platforms to reach to the core audience.

How to compel the customers to download the app once they have discovered it?

There is a thin gap between promotion and influence. Making the app visible to the customers doesn't ensure whether it be downloaded or not. You need to influence the visitors in order to boost your downloads. The more positive reviews an app has, the higher its rating will be which naturally improves downloads. Include popular keywords in the title of the app and description. Use clever promotion tactics to engage the customer. Experiment with Promo codes, discounts and cash backs on downloads.

What can tick the customers off to leave your app without even using it properly?

Just like the eCommerce sights, even mobile apps face the risk of uninstalls without even being used properly. In the case of m-Commerce, tedious sign ups and too many permissions is a major concern that can turn off the customers. Make sure that app can surpass the installation process smoothly. Simplify the sign-up process by using social login modules. Asking for too many information is one the biggest mistakes in the registration form. Irrelevant notifications and pop-ups can annoy the user. Along with this, if your app is guilty of eating up too much data then the chances of uninstallation are much higher than otherwise. Moreover,  if your app happens to be the cause of this battery drain, chances of it being uninstalled are pretty high.

How to keep the users engaged with the app after installation and first use?

Users tend to uninstall the app if it is not used for some time. So, keeping the customers engaged after the use is quite a task. According to a recent survey, the percentage of users who abandon an app after one use is 23%. App messages can help trigger your target audience in a compelling and targeted way. Reach out to the right demographics with customized and rich content. No one likes to receive irrelevant information and waste their time. More than half the users download apps to receive discounts and special offers. Thus, app rewards is a handy way to delight users and boost user retention.The event-based triggers is an apt way to interact with the app audience. Sending additional information regarding the products and discounts for a particular event or promoting further activity will reap better benefits and create better user engagement.

How to spread word-of-mouth of your mobile app?

The idea of a successful business is to retain the customer base and add more prospects to it. Word-of-mouth is one of the handiest ways to trigger the interest of others. One of the stats shows that 25% of search results for the world’s 20 greatest brands are links to user generated content. Convince the user to share their success story and experience related to your app, in form of video, pictures or even comments. Make the users share the app on the various social media platform. Engage your users through the main characteristics of your app and assure them an easy way to tell their friends about your app. Carefully choose the platform that provides services to boost campaigns.  Do not go with fraudulent activities and scammers. Moreover, do not make false promises to the existing and new users. Always claim the things that you can do.

Final words

The transition of an eCommerce business to a mobile app is a must to optimize your business fortunes among your rivals. The unprecedented growth in app usage makes it an apt time to develop your own app. Comprehend an outreach strategy along each stage of your customer’s lifecycle and avail our mobile app development services at Velsof that can help foster your future goals.

Internet of Things: Transforming the world at a click of a button

“The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the internet did. Maybe even more so.” ~ Kevin Ashton

With the aim of computerizing the everyday objects and devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) is all set to give yet another Eureka moment to the world. The in-home automated and eco-friendly devices are expected to harness the everyday life of the Internet-driven age by saving time, energy consumption and even money.

What exactly is Internet of things?

Talking in a layman language and from the prospect of a consumer, an IoT development project is an advanced technology and ecosystem that allow the physical objects to communicate with each other, collect and exchange data. The entire network of objects such as vehicles, buildings and other items are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity.

The whole concept can be summed up by saying, "The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems. ‘Things’ in IoT may refer to a wide range of devices like wearables, connected home devices, circuit design, GPS programming, 3D design, and even the humans."

History of IoT

As per Wikipedia, the vision of IoT was first discussed in the year 1982 with a modified Coke machine at Carnegie Mellon University that become the first Internet-connected appliance. The very concept of integration and automation of the home appliance has seen a lot of innovation since then. However, the Internet of Things gained popularity in the year 1999.  With the introduction of Auto-ID Center at MIT and related market-analysis publications, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) was seen as a prerequisite for the Internet of things by Kevin Ashton. 

The vision of IoT witnessed major evolution in the year 2016 with the convergence of technologies such as wireless communication, real-time analytics, machine learning, commodity sensors, and embedded systems. In short, the fields of embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control systems, automation have the major contribution in enabling the Internet of things (IoT).

Why is IoT development the future?

The entire concept of IoT development is not just aimed at making the lives of people easier. It can make the entire issue with access control, vulnerability management, patching, monitoring, etc. a cinch. 

An article published by Kevin Ashton in the RFID Journal in 1999 said, "If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things - using data they gathered without any help from us - we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. We need to empower computers with their own means of gathering information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for themselves, in all its random glory."

IoT Development Platform

These devices basically hinge on embedded programming that includes both software and hardware angles. You need to have a platform in order to launch the product. The Arduino platform is one of the most used platforms for creating interactive IoT devices. It offers an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes physical board processor, shields with individual libraries of C code for compilation and uploading codes.

The future scope of IoT

The technology features the “always-on” concept whose growth is expected to span across business and consumers. Listed below are some of the moderate expectation of the scope of IoT. 

• As per an extensive forecast by Cisco Systems, the IoT market is expected to project by 50 billion units by the year 2020.
• Even the revenue is expected to grow to $7.1 trillion in 2020.
• The businesses are expected to show the strongest gains. While consumer growth and adoption will be lower initially. 
• The Internet of Things marketplace is expected to see increased adoption and revenue growth through the year 2020. 

Final words

Just like any innovation, IoT is expected to bring both beneficial and destructive elements. Such technologies will require a change in the mindset of the consumers, in particular. However, with the flamboyance of "smart world", the dust of Internet of Things that started a few years back is now showing a specific pattern of development. This will continue to foster the vision of having a technology-driven lifestyle in the future. For IoT services and updates, stay tuned with Velsof.com.

What does it Take to be a Successful Web Developer? The Must Knows

What does it take to be a successful web developer, according to you? Skill set, knowledge of the platform and coding language! Is it all? Not really! Being a truly successful web developer requires a set of characteristics and personality trait. Rather than considering it a knowledge that can be mugged up, it should be considered a skill that should be developed with time. Other than the technical experience, there are a lot of things that you need to learn with time. Are you a website builder? Do you aspire to be a trail blazer in this field? The blog has complied some of the skills and traits that are a must for becoming a successful web developer. Have a look.

Analyze the customer requirement

　

The entire designing and development phase depends on the requirement of the user. In fact, the web development starts and ends with the user requirement. So, a developer who understands the needs of the end user will turn out to be a good developer. Analyzing the user need doesn't mean that you need to observe what attracts the user more. The visitors may initially be attracted to the visual graphics, but they may exit from the site if they don't find any value. Get an insight of what actually the users are looking for instead of what they are using.

Plan before you code

　　

No matter how good a coder you are, an efficient strategy is a must. Gone are the days when every department of the website building right from graphic designing to the marketing worked separately. In the competitive scenario, you need to plan everything ahead of time. Nothing should be kept as a reserve for the future. A developer should have be a good strategist as well. Planning ahead of designing is the first aspect of the same otherwise everything can get messy. The idea is to create a solution for the client and not just a website. Things like optimizing the load time, and creating a friendly interface should be considered first.

Keep yourself updated with the latest technology

Having the basic knowledge of the HTML, Javascript and CSS is the building blocks of all web development. However, the technology keeps changing and you need to keep yourself updated accordingly. A single person just can't master each and everything, but being aware of the progression of the industry is important. For instance, if you are looking to build an eCommerce store, you need to have an idea about the various platforms and factors such as responsive website and others. Whether you are a builder yourself or you are planning to hire an eCommerce web development company, this basic information will help you get the heart's desire.

Be a market researcher

The market research is a must, regardless of the purpose. Whether you are designing your own site or that of your client, doing an in-depth study of the market forces is essentials. Along with a high-quality code, an efficient user interface and user experience are essential. So, once you take the requirement of your client, check out the competitor's site. Analyze the good and the bad reviews of the users of the similar type of websites. Take the Heatmap analysis of these sites. This will give you an idea of the items on the site that are getting more attention from the visitors and the things that are being ignored.

Work as a team 

As mentioned above, the entire process of web development should be planned and executed simultaneously. An ideal developer should work as a team along with the designers, testers as well as the marketing personnel. The designers should be aware of the functionality of the pages that they are designing. The marketing team should be aware of each and every function of the site. The testers should know the goal you are working for. This will help them find the gap between what was required and what has been developed. A good team player means understanding the role on a larger scale. Haste brings waste, so instead of going ahead of others, try to take every aspect together and move steadily. 

Have a business sense

The design and development in the real world are all about a good business sense. Regardless of the fact that you are a freelancer or a salaried employee, you need to take the charge. Right from taking the note of the requirement of the client to balancing cost, everything needs to be considered efficiently.  As mentioned above, it is not just about designing the site for the client, it is all about creating a business solution.

Summing up

Wrapping it up in few words, I would say that web development is a fun-filled, but challenging field. It is all about coping up with the ever-changing market scenario and brushing up the skill set with the technological advancements. So, whether you are hiring a PHP developer or aspiring to become one, keep yourself in sync with the changes and be an ideal developer.

4 Types Of Seo Specialists Who Can Work On Your Website

SEO is broad, a single person cannot perform all the SEO tasks that are needed to be done. Most probably you might have already encountered a person claiming as an all in one expert though. Trust me, he is either a rookie or does not know about SEO at all.  

If you even casually divide the work done in a typical SEO, it splits into four different areas and each area can be mastered only if someone works delicately in it. Over the past few years of my experience as a developer and working with the website SEO, I have identified that there are typically four types of SEO specialists. It’s not a formal classification, but my views, you are free to disagree with me.  

In this article, I have tried to explain four major SEO tasks and how they are headed by respective experts. So, let just dive in.  

1. The data Analysts

Data analysis is certainly the most crucial part of the website SEO in every sphere. Whether it's an eCommerce store or a blogging site, understanding of large sets of data and the ways to parse them into useful information is an art, and it requires an analytical mindset.

An SEO specialist with the proficiency in the data sciences, statistics, can work best as an Analytics SEO. Such SEO practitioners have significant experience with data interpretation and can transform a raw data into useful SEO insights.  

For example, it's not that easy to understand most of the data that is shown to you by the Google Analytics. It requires a great mindset to read those data and utilize them to make an interpretation that would guide the teams to make the further strategies for the SEO improvement.  

So, I think it requires the skill sets of both the SEO and analyst to own a task of correlating data, building dashboards, and making audit reports that can be trusted by all.    

2. The Technical SEO 

Technical SEO may come from the development and design backgrounds. These professionals are either former web developers, Web designers, or software engineers. The motive for getting into the SEO task is simply to ensure that SEO is intact right from the development phase of a website. Moreover, due to their technical background, web development experience, and now working for SEO, they can be a useful asset for your website SEO as well as optimization. 

You would hardly find a developer considering the minute SEO aspects in the development phase. With a technical SEO in the team, the same can be made sure, and further more, other aspects like W3C compliance, JavaScript Usage, Image compression, CDN implementation can be well monitored by him.  

You can also expect these SEO professionals to work on On-page SEO, UX, and UI optimization as well. For example, a technical SEO would know the best practices to design the Web forms for optimized UI and UX.  

You might want to give more than just the admin panel access to a technical SEO to thrive and enact the code changes as well.   

3. The content SEO

The content SEOs are well aware of the on the page SEO techniques and their constant focus lay on almost all the aspects that determine the improvement in the search ranking organically and inorganically. From on-page content optimization, keywords research, back-links earning, to Guest blogging, a content SEO can handle every aspect that comes on the page.  

It is mostly due to the previous careers as writers, branding experts, corporate communications, PR, and Social media management, content SEO have a better understanding of how things can be written so that the search engines can rank them well in the SERPs.  

They play an effective part in the content marketing strategy preparation and implementation. They are also well equipped with the analytics skills to discover the content performance issues and prepare a road map to fix them.  

The major aim of the content SEO specialist is always finding the new ways to route website traffic to their sites and earn new backlinks in collaboration with the content developers. This field is not limited as the soul of the on page SEO lies in the content optimization for improved ranking.   

4. All rounders or Novice  

These are the learners class of SEO professionals who often rely on SEO plugins and tools. With lesser experience and willingness to learn new things they are not meant to be discouraged or ignored. I have come across various rookies who with their simple approaches and with the help of popular tools, have succeeded many times.   

Most often these SEO plugins and tools claim to provide an all in one SEO for the less experienced practitioners. And due to the extreme success of some of these tools, they might come to you with one-size fits all approach. Eventually, the learners do become the experts as the time passes and they find that there is nothing like one tool can fix all issues.   

So, if you ever encounter any such SEO- be encouraging with them! In fact, if your SEO budget allows you to hire just a single person to run the SEO marketing, this novice class of SEO practitioners would work the hardest and cover most of the things. 

Everyone starts as a novice, every SEO learns through the wining history and SEO mistakes as well. Eventually, the learning curve increases and with the experience the novice becomes an expert. So never under estimate them. They are enthusiastic and always ready to fly higher without fear.

Are You Optimizing For Google Image Search Results?

We have been making enormous efforts in improving the SEO for web search results on Google search engine. We have also been applying the same intensity of efforts on Google Voice search results. But, there is really a lesser segment that really cares about the Google Image search results. 

It has been so underutilized without knowing that Google image search is the second most used search platform after the Google web search or so called Google.com. That say’s an article on Moz.com. 

Are you really taking images seriously?

The image searches on Google Image is more than that of the search queries that are performed on any of the top websites like YouTube, Google Maps, Amazon, and also the Facebook. This information clearly means that Google image search shares a huge proportion of overall searches on the internet. However, knowingly or unknowingly, we often make mistakes with the images that we use and thus lose the visibility on this massive search platform.

How we post images and what mistakes we make?

Wrong Names:  People posting the images often overlook to optimize the images to show on the Image search results. They give some really unique names to their images which no searcher will use in the query. They give the names like "IMG_000023", "Image_1", "IMG_Edited_0012" etc. The probability of any user searching on the internet or Google image search with these strings is nearly zero. This means the image will never show up in the search result at least for the keywords wasted in naming it wrongly. And even if the image comes up in any random search result, it is due to the extra information feed (If given) like Caption, description etc. in Image SEO.

Unrealistic image file names can put you at a disadvantage in image SEO.

Wrong Keywords:  Some uploaders use the wrong names or random phrases in the image name, not even relevant to the image. Putting keywords not relevant to the image will push your image to show in the irrelevant search results. So, despite your image get listed on the top, it will hardly get a click.  Below is an example of an image labeled with the wrong keyword that made it appear in a search query for Smart-watches. Would a person searching for a Smartphone image click on it?

Irrelevant keywords can make your images end up in an irrelevant search result.

Stock photos:  Stock photos can be used in various events. However, overuse will make your search image listing unauthentic and unrealistic. Especially in the cases where you put an image to say something about you or your business. For example, the below image screen shot was taken for a search made for "Lawyers in Delhi". The circled images are stock photos which you might have seen many a time on different websites. They do not appeal you to click on them. Hence, Google will eventually lower the ranking of these images. 

Stock images don’t provide the kind of authenticity and authority your image needs to have.

Overly sized:  Large sized images take a longer time to load. You can't expect the users to wait for more than 2-3 seconds. Reducing the file size will considerably reduce the page loading time, but that does not mean you need to compromise with the image quality. There are various free online programs that can be used to cut short the unnecessary data and reduce the file size without losing the image quality. Use these tools to compress the file size and reduce the page loading time. 

Wrong image ratios:  It's important to post the images in a standard expected ratio such as 16:9, 4:3. Google in the search results view, uses the thumbnail views reduced to a small size. In the case of using the images in the non-standard ratios, Google will automatically resize the image to fit the standard ratio frame. Due to this resizing, the image thumbnail might loose the focus and valuable details might get omitted.

What should you do for better indexing and ranking with images?

Google doesn't see the images as it reads the textual contents. So the meta-data, labels, and descriptions provided with the images become crucial for indexing by the Google image search. Google uses this data to identify the images and their context of usage. 

The more easily and deeply the images are indexed, the more is the chances for better ranking in the search results. The following listed details are the main content that you should provide while uploading the images:

File name

As explained above, the file name is a fundamental and crucial entry that can give a context to your image. Never use irrelevant and unrealistic (IMG_00023) file names for your images. You should leverage this entry and provide a more appropriate file name that defines the image and its context. You can use your main keyword relevant to the image in the file name. 

ALT tags

ALT tags or Alternate Texts are the HTML tags that are used with the images to show up in case the image does not load or rendered properly. For example, in a browser where images have been disabled, the ALT tag will show up in place of the images. Also, if your image takes a longer time to load, till the image gets loaded, the ALT text will show up. 

This makes sure the search engines do not feel fishy about your images even if they are not rendered properly. Moreover, it will also give the user an idea of the image till it gets loaded completely on the browser. 

Captions

Captions are simply the text that appears with the image on the browser. Captions will always show up. They are generally shown just below the image. You must provide the captions to describe the context of the image to the users.

Captions provide the contextual meaning to the images.

Description

Descriptions allow you to put an explanation of the image by providing additional details like links, keywords, and context. They are generally used by the search engines to read the context of the image. They show up in the search results when an image is listed in the SERPs.

Descriptions help the search engines to read your images and their context more easily.

Contextual information

In addition to the meta information, keywords, and description, Google utilize various other supporting contents and information to rank the images. The contextual information can be the page content, Page URL, other images around it, the image site map, Page title etc. You should keep these optimized to render a unified, relevant, consistent and related context of the image. 

Summing up

Images have always been an important element on the web. Though Google cannot index the images like the textual contents, it still uses the supporting texts to identify and judge the context of the images. It's really important to understand the role of images in SEO and do not overlook them as something less important. 

Optimize your images everywhere you use them; Articles, product pages, landing pages etc. A proper SEO of images will also ensure the better performance of the contents related to them. Moreover, they can promote your brand, store, products or services in the search results as well. It's time to invest the deserving time on images and unlock the uncharted potentials that you overlook now.

Http Status Codes To Know From SEO And Development Perspective

HTTP status code or call them HTTP response status codes, they are returned to the browser to inform it about a web page or resource it requested from the server. When a browser or a search engine makes a request to the server, it responds to the request with a status code. Now the code it returns depends on the status of the resource or request.

If the request is served successfully by the server, the response status code will return 200. Similarly, there are other response codes as well. All these codes play a great role in both the website design & development and SEO of your website.

Knowing these status codes is very important for the website developers and designers. Skills to read these code will help them identify an error on the page and do the needful to fix it. Moreover, even the SEO professionals should also be familiar with the response code, as some of these are really crucial from the SEO point of view.

So, it’s undoubtedly an important thing to know about your website. So, let just understand them and improve the knowledge base. At least, next time when you see any such code, you can easily identify that error and ask the website development team to look into it.

HTTP Response Status Code Groups

The HTTP status codes are formally divided into 5 groups

100s: Progress- Request received and in process

200s: Successful- Request received and processed successfully.

300s: Redirects- Request received but a redirection required to serve the resource.

400s: Browser errors- Also referred as client errors. The request made by the client, but the page is not valid.

500s: Server errors- Server failed to complete the request

HTTP Response Status Codes- SEO perspective

While there are many more codes in these groups, there are abundant that are important from the SEO point of view. Let’s understand these codes in detail.

200 OK response code

This HTTP response code means the request has been served successfully by the server. Generally, it means no error in the request or from the server side.

301 Moved Permanently

This HTTP response status code is often used by the webmasters from the SEO perspective. It means that the requested resource is not available on current URL. The user must use one of the returned URLs to get the desired resource. In Simple terms, the page your are visiting have been permanently shifted to a new URL, Please use this new URL to visit the particular page from now onwards.

PS: When you move to a new URL and apply 302 redirects on it, It carries forward the SEO of your old URL to the new URL. That is, it does not kill your SEO. 301 redirect is often used in the creation of SEO-friendly URLs.

Read: How To Enable Seo Friendly URLs On Opencart 2.x?

302 Found/ Moved Temporarily

 

This response status code is returned in a similar condition as of 301 but on a temporary basis. It means the page you are requesting for has been moved to a different URL, but you need not use the new URL for future requests as this is just a temporary redirection.

PS: 302 redirection is not a recommended approach. Unlike 301 redirects, it does not carry forward your SEO to the new URL. Pages redirected with 302 codes are not ranked well on the search engines.

404 File Not Found

This is an error code which means that the requested resource was not found on the server. This can happen anytime when the server fails to find a requested page on the site.

A site with too many 404 errors is always seen by the search engines with that doubtful look. This affects the SEO as well. To handle this, webmasters often create a separate page with text written 404 error on it and redirect all the 404 pages to this particular page. In this way, the actual response code received will be now 200 OK but it will show as 404 on the page.

There are some nice solutions given here on this stack overflow discussion thread for Redirecting 404 error with .htaccess via 301 for SEO.

410 Gone

This HTTP response status code means that the requested resource in no longer there on the URL you are looking at and there is no redirection to any new URL to find the resource.

This code is a bit similar to 404. When server knows that the resource is no more available and it's not going to be available in the future as well on this URL, then it gives the 410 Gone response code.

However, when the server does not know if the missing resource will ever be available on this requested URL, then it gives the 404 response.

500 Internal Server Error

When something goes wrong on the server. It's a server side error that has to be fixed on the server. This could be temporary or even permanent till it is fixed.

502 Bad Gateway

When a server communicates with another server, and if the other server fails to respond successfully, then the first server sends this 502 error code to the client/browser.

503 Service Unavailable

When this response code shows on your browser, it means that the server is currently unable to serve the request due to a temporary failure. Generally due to overloading. It generally means that server has gone unresponsive for a temporary period of time.  For example, when the server has to be put down for a short time for maintenance purposes, it's a 503 condition.

Over to you

So, these are some HTTP response status codes which you generally see while browsing the internet or diagnosing your website. Now that you have an understanding of what these error codes mean, you should run the HTTP Response Status Codes Check for your website and find out if there are any error codes. If there is any, ask your web developer to look into it. You should also ask your SEO service provider to keep a track of such error codes, and also check if the redirection has been used correctly.

Looking for OpenCart Development Company? Things to Know

In eCommerce business, nothing matters as much as always staying ahead of the rival sites. This becomes even more important when you are using an eCommerce platform like OpenCart which already possess a huge base of eCommerce websites- 651,533 to be exact. So, unless your OpenCart store has an edge over the other competitors, it won’t be possible to grow up to the fullest potential. 

How to acquire that edge?  

For a competitive business, it is always a wise choice to have an professional development company by your side. Through the efforts and experience of OpenCart experts by your side, it becomes smoother to run the website and your business without any hassle. Here are five important reasons for why it is important to have a professional OpenCart development company holding your back:  

1. An eCommerce website maintenance is not a one man job- 

A professional development company in-houses a team of experienced developers, designers, content writers, and SEO experts who work collectively to develop an eCommerce site. With the combined efforts and expertise, the OpenCart development company can make sure that nothing goes wrong and website remains functional in any condition.

2. Time is a crucial factor in eCommerce business-

Today competition in eCommerce market is touching the skies. A right implementation at a right time can gain you the fortunes, while a right decision after a right time would gain nothing. So, it becomes very important to stay updated with the latest requirements and trends, and implement the profitable features whenever required. The OpenCart development company by your side is always ready for the same and they can complete the task in a very quick time as compared to the situation when you are only one managing your site. 

3. Continuous service- 

As explained in the previous point, time is important. If your website goes down even for a short time, you might loose some real big sales and a negative effect on your reputation is inevitable. So, it’s important that the OpenCart site remains live and never goes down by itself. The OpenCart experts by your side would be the one who can look for the same and keep your website error free and ready.  

4. Latest updates and security patches- 

Internet is extremely volatile and it keeps changing everyday. Only a professional team of web developers would know the changing trends and technologies. They know how to add a new feature, which feature has become outdated, which plugin needs an update, which OpenCart plugin would be useful for the business, and much more. They have the idea to make your website user-friendly and they can implement those ideas on the website. So, you can trust your hired OpenCart development services for keeping your website updated and regularly applying the required patches.

5. Search engine visibility-

The SEO experts can look after the search engine optimization of your OpenCart store and make sure it is visible to the users on the search engines. We already know how important is the SEO for surviving the competition and generating sales. An OpenCart development company leverages its team of OpenCart developers and SEO experts to prepare and implement latest SEO tactics to keep your website and products among visible listings in different SERPs.  

Investment in a good OpenCart development company never let you back-down from the competition. The support from the experts makes you feel relaxed that nothing bad would happen as they have an eye on the site. The ROI from an OpenCart development company is always better than what you invest-in.

5 Reasons why should you hire a Professional eCommerce Website Development Company

An eCommerce Website Development Company is all you need for a solution to various problems.

An eCommerce business that seeks success in the online shopping world must be a professional website in all the aspects. The Internet has become so accessible that anyone with a decent idea can launch his own website and showcase what he is offering to the market. However, to become a successful eCommerce website you need a professional approach right from the phase of the eCommerce website development.

An eCommerce website that does not have a professional eCommerce website development company by its side is vulnerable to various risks and challenges. These risks and challenges will ultimately result in losing customers ion the storefront. Consumers today have gone very smart and they will never trust an eCommerce website that does not seem to be professional and secure to them. As a result, you will often loose the customers and your rivals will win them with their professional presentations.

The following five explanations will help you to understand the importance of a professional eCommerce website development company for your online business:

1. Customized Website Designing- 

Wen you hire a professional eCommerce website development company you have the liberty to ask them to create a website design that suits your online business. The look and feel of an eCommerce website play a great role in the usability of the website for the visitors. The eCommerce website development company deploys is website designers to work on the design of the website strictly according to your goal with the online business.

Which kind of products do you intend to sell? How many products will be there? How you want your home page to look? How many landing pages you want to create? After answering the question like these, the website designer will analyze the requirements and prepare a customized website design to suit your business needs.

2. Visual presentation of the site- 

After the website structure next, comes the look and feel of the site. As explained earlier, look and feel of the eCommerce website is very important and it should suit the kind of products you want to sell. The conversion optimization is another important factor that should be always in mind while designing the look and feel. Website template and theme design is the process we are talking about here.

You will find millions of themes and templates available for purchase and download on various websites. However, it is not essential that all of them will suit your business activity. For that reason, an eCommerce website development company can be handy here. The company's webs designers will design personalized theme for your website which will fulfill your business requirement and will be strictly according to the CRO standards for better conversion rates with the eCommerce site.

3. Updated technologies- 

The internet is extremely volatile, it is changing on daily basis. What is in trend today, will become outdated tomorrow. In addition to this eCommerce, segment is the most volatile part of the internet. As an eCommerce website owner, you will always need to stay updated with the latest technologies that you can leverage to improve your conversion and sales. However, as an eCommerce website owner do not have just these duties, yo have several other aspects that you need to handle so that your business can grow. So, it might be a real tough job to look on all these aspects just by yourself.

It is where the eCommerce website development company comes to the picture. It will take over the tension of keeping your website always updated with the latest happenings. You will not have to worry about any technical aspect, the eCommerce website development company will keep all intact by updating your website with the latest techs and optimizations.

4. SEO aspects of development-  

SEO is a technique used by webmasters to make your website visible among the SERPs of different search engines. An eCommerce website with no visibility on search engines is no different than not having a website at all. The benefit of hiring a professional eCommerce website development company here is that it will take care of the SEO aspects right from the development phase and will provide everything that needs to be done to develop an SEO friendly website.

5. SEO and webmaster services- 

Some of the professional eCommerce website development companies like Velocity provide SEO services too. The SEO services are used by the website owners to make their website visible among the top search results in the SERPs. An SEO service is a different segment of service which is not part of the website development. However, it can be provided by stand-alone SEO companies or even the professional eCommerce website development companies.

The webmaster services can also be provided the same website development company which will take care of the maintenance of your website and will make sure that the website never goes down. In case if any issue is the, the company will work them out and fix them as soon as possible.

It is not necessary that every eCommerce website development company will provide all these services in a single package, but is a fact that you need a company by your side always. Each company has its own way of providing these services, you must always clarify all the aspects before hiring them. Having an eCommerce website development company by your side will make sure your website is professional right from the beginning and provides an uninterrupted service to the customers.

Things to ponder regarding Online Reputation Management of your Business

ORM is one thing you cannot shy away from.

Reputation is one thing which takes years to build and seconds to get destroyed. Same goes true for your business. It takes the combo of some real hard and smart work to deliver results for you. In today’s world where most of the business has shifted to online mode, reputation management too has shifted its base. Now online reputation management is as crucial as it is for the offline audience. However, most of the business firms miss out on certain general aspects while framing out their online reputation management (ORM) strategy. Here, we will take a look at those aspects which affect the online reputation management of your company.

Things that you should take care regarding ORM 

Reputation management and business go hand in hand.

Now, we will see those aspects which have some real effects on online reputation management.

1. Consolidate SERPs: The first and foremost sign of your business’s reputation in the digital arena is higher SERP ranking. You should make sure that your website complies with the webmasters guidelines and should not attract its penalization. A well designed and user-centric website is a key to climb high in the ranking charts.

2. Clear the negativity: The negative reviews of the customers/visitors in regards to your products and services should be looked upon immediately. A negative publicity online is a severe blow to your business. This can be substantiated by the fact that 90% of the online customers prefer to analyze reviews before making a move. So, you should take care that those negative reviews are wiped out and the reasons for their generation shall be curtailed.

3. Develop social presence: In today’s digital market to be successful you need to be visible. Highlighting your presence is a first move towards building a reputation. Social media is one such place which will surely bring you loads of visibility. You should focus on creating a firm social presence so as to connect with target audience effectively.  

4. Blogging to the effect: Having blogs written on your web page related to your functional area is a master tool to grab some attention. A blog helps you to market and define your products in an effective manner. They develop a visitor connect and aim at providing a certain solution to a problem. This will provide you the space to sneak in the utility of your products and services. Moreover, they also attract and retain audience who are looking for some solution and are searching for some genuine response.

Final say

By now you might have realized the importance of ORM and the area where your ORM strategy falls short. In case you are not having enough time or online marketing skill, then, you can opt for the services of an online reputation management company who are providing these services full time. 

Things to look before deciding a PrestaShop developer for your eCommerce website

PrestaShop developer plays a key role in determining the face of your website.

Running an eCommerce website is a challenging task. You need to keep yourself updated with the various developments going on in the digital arena. In order to keep you abreast with the latest advancement going on in the technological world, you need to take the services of an efficient eCommerce developer. A developer who can optimize the viewing experience of your website using his/her skill set.

In this regards, you need to analyze his/her capabilities on various fronts before hiring him/her to take charge of the designing and development aspect of your website. Here, we will discuss the various things that you should look for before finalizing a PrestaShop developer for your website.

Things to ponder before Hiring a PrestaShop developer 

You must test the person’s suitability before hiring.

Here is the set of question you should ask to test the credibility of the developer for your website.  

1. Experience: The first and foremost thing you shall look for is how much experience does he/she carries when it comes to building an eCommerce website? Also, you can analyze user experience and feature of the website they have worked on so as to get an idea of their working style. The more the experience with the live projects, the more developer will know about the ups and downs of a PrestaShop development project.  

2. Comfort with simple fonts: The next thing you must look is the effectiveness of the developer with simple fonts. It is a well-known fact that simple and attractive fonts act as a driver of traffic for your website. So, if the comfort of the developer is optimum in regards to the simple fonts than you can consider him for the job.

3. Compatible with different themes: A good PrestaShop developer is one who is competent enough to work on different themes. There are themes developed by third party developers. A good PrestaShop developer can handle the designs of these themes and develop a module that do not conflicts with the theme design. Thus a person with skills to craft and design different themes for your eCommerce website is the one you should look for.

4. Will he make your website mobile friendly?: This is another major question you should ask for before finalizing him/her as your website developer. Since most of the conversions nowadays are driven by mobile and tablet traffic, having a responsive and mobile friendly website is a critical element that determines the optimization of your conversion rates. Having a responsive web design helps in converting the mobile customers plus puts a strong impression in Google SEO too. Google has made this clear through its mobile first indexing. 

5. How you will track performance indicators: Ask him/her that how he/she will help you to track various key performance indicators of your website. Proper tracking of the indicator is a key factor to analyze the deterrents in the path of your conversion optimization.

Conclusion 

While taking decisions for enhancement of your eCommerce web store you must analyze the various facets associated with the same. Making a choice for the eCommerce developer is one such crucial decision where you should look for the various aspects associated as this crucial decision can prove to be maker or breaker for your eCommerce website. Testing the person on above mentioned criteria will give you an effective insight about the suitability of the person for the desired role.