December 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Operations

Happy Holidays from StoresOnline Customer Support. This season can be an exciting time for you as an online entrepreneur. As shoppers search frantically for the perfect gift, your store can be a source of holiday cheer. This month we will be discussing the importance of Meta tags and how to implement them in your site.

What are Meta Tags?

“What are meta tags?” is one of the most frequently asked questions regarding search engine optimization (SEO). Simply put, Meta tags provide information about a given webpage, most often to help search engines categorize it correctly. To better understand what Meta tags are, consider the meaning of the word "Meta.” The definition of Meta is something that refers to itself. An example of this meaning would be a movie-within-a-movie. Also consider the following description contained within Merchant Services. In public speaking, the speaker may get up in front of the audience and say, "Today I am going to speak to you about…" This would be considered Meta discourse, or in other words, dialogue specifying to the listeners what the speaker will be telling them.

Similarly, the development and implementation of Meta tags in your website can be tremendously beneficial in communicating to your audience. In the case of your website, your audience is search engines. The purpose of the tags is to inform the search engines the information that a given page contains. How well Meta information is written and presented will affect your search engine ranking.

Keep in mind that Meta tags are decreasing in importance. However, contrary to some recent reports, it is still crucial that meta tags be in place, correct, and complete for your site to be successfully ranked by search engines.

Which types of Meta Tags are important to include in my Website?

There are three main kinds of Meta tags that you will want to include in your site. Each Tag is described below:

1. Title Tag - This is the most important tag when it comes to the search engines. Your Title meta tag should be between 8-12 words and contain keywords throughout. In the search engine results, these Title tags will appear in the “blue” heading above a result.


2. Description Tag – This tag allows you to establish the description of a page for search engines. Your description should be between 20-30 words in length and should contain keywords throughout. In a search engine inquiry, the description tag will appear in black writing just below the title.


3. Keywords Tag - The Meta Keywords tag provides search engines with additional keywords to which a given page may be relevant. The Meta Keywords tag should be no more than 10-12 different keywords or keyword phrases relevant to that given page. Each keyword should be separated by a comma and a space. The Meta Keywords tag is sometimes useful as a means to reinforce the keywords that relate to a page. Remember that not all search engines use this tag in elevating a page’s listing. However, it is still important to include this tag, as some search engines still use the Meta Keywords tag as a determining factor in a page’s placement in their rankings.

• Remember, meta tags will not be visible by your customers or those using your site (except for the Meta title which is visible in the browser’s title bar).

How do I create Meta Tags for my website?

Once you understand the purpose of meta tags, implementing them is relatively easy. Follow the steps below to ensure that your Meta tags are implemented correctly.

1. Title Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Meta Title Tag, and then click the Edit button at the bottom of the page. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Meta Title tag for every page).


3. Type your Meta Title tag definition in the Meta Title textbox (the information you add here will be visible to everyone that comes to your website, and will be shown above in the blue bar in the Window Browser at the top of your screen).


2. Description Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Description Meta Tag. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Description Meta Tag for every page).


3. Click on the Meta submenu on the right side. This action will open the Page Meta page.


4. If there is not a value for description, click Add in the bottom left corner of the page. If there is a value for Description, click on it once and click Edit to proceed to step “F” (make sure the drop-down menu reads Name).


5. Enter "Description" in the Name field.


6. Enter your actual description (20-30 words in length) in the Value field. The text that defines your description is entered in the Value field.


3. Keywords Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Meta Keywords tag, and then click the Edit button at the bottom of the page. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Meta Keywords tag for every page).


3. Click on the Meta submenu on the right side. This action will open the Page Meta page.


4. If there is not a value named Keywords, Click Add in the bottom left corner of the page. If there is a name for Keywords, click on it once and click Edit to proceed to step “F” (make sure the drop-down menu reads Name).


5. Enter "Keywords" in the Name field.


6. Enter your actual keywords (10-12 words in length) in the Value field.
   
   

Customer Support Holiday Schedule

Chat Support
Christmas
Closing midnight MST Dec. 23rd
Re-opening 6am MST Dec. 26th

New Years
Closing midnight MST Dec. 30th
Re-opening 6am MST Jan. 1st

Phone Support
Christmas
No phone support Dec 24-26

New Years
No phone support Jan 1

StoresOnline University Training Set

StoresOnline’s most comprehensive DVD training set, StoresOnline University, is more than 14 hours of detailed training to assist you with each part of the process to establish your eCommerce websites. Our experienced and successful trainers and support staff walk you through 7 stages of development to make the most of your websites as you research your ideas.

Call 1-800-491-1408 or visit www.storesonlinespecialtraining.com/university for more information

New StoresOnline Pro Features

Product and Product List Message Elements: You now have the option of adding product or product list elements to your customer email messages. This feature gives you the ability to link to your products directly in your customer emails.

Coming Soon: New video tutorials on Relevancy Search Engine Optimization, Finding a Drop-Shipper, and The Reverse Search Tool.

Storesonline Marketing Webinar Series

Starting with an Introductory Webinar, StoresOnline has created a structured timeline of testing and marketing strategies to streamline your efforts with your websites.

These training Webinars are designed to continue and expand your knowledge base in order to optimize the time and effort you spend with your website package investment. StoresOnline is confident that this will help to increase your marketing success.

Call 1-800-716-9332 or visit www.storesonlinemarketing.com for more information

Featured Testimonial

"I love this business I'm running now, because I have flexibility and I'm in control, and I don't have to go out looking for jobs and I don't have to stick to 9:00 to 5:00 and I could have more time with my daughter."

Lilly Gery
www.easyfuntoys.com
Click Here to read Lilly's story

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at www.myquickresponse.com for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow
VP of Customer Operations
StoresOnline, Inc.