E-Commerce Blog

Keyword research is one of the pillars of both natural and paid search campaigns. By following the keyword choices used by consumers in the search engines, websites can focus on those terms to capture traffic. This tenet of online marketing and search engine optimization is fairly well established, but the tools used in keyword research are ever changing.

Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery Are Helpful

There have been, to date, two prominent tools for keyword research: Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. Both of these have free versions that offer good, basic information, and both also have paid versions that offer much more functionality and insight. The shortcoming of these (and most other) keyword tools is that their numbers are somewh…

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Google’s AdWords Tool Helps with Both Pay-per-click and SEO

“Ask an Expert” is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about ranking on search engines for major keywords. It comes from Jeramie Westbay, owner operator for Crazy Ed’s Roadkill, an online store that sells beef jerky.

For the answer, we turn to Andrew Hazen, the founder and CEO of Prime Visibility, a Long Island, New York-based Internet marketing firm that specializes in search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and return on investment analysis.

If you’d like to submit a question, email Kate Monteith, staff writer, at kate@practicalecomme…

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Ask an Expert: How to Get Better Search Rankings for Major Keywords

There will be 50 million tablet computers on the market by 2014, according to a new In-Stat report — and if Apple plays its cards right, a significant portion of them could be iPads. In-Stat took several factors into account as it made its calculations, said Jim McGregor, analyst and report author. “Right now, Apple can build these devices for $400 and still make a profit off of them. But the cost will eventually come down — and so will the price for consumers.”

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Report: iPad Will Propel Tablets Into Mainstream Use

Two Monday technology stories, both involving China: Call them the yin and yang of that country’s attempts to repair its image following Google’s recent hacking allegations and the search giant’s subsequent threats to end its business dealings in the country. Chinese police are trumpeting their shutdown of a major hacker training Web site and three related arrests. However, on the same day, Google claimed that the logo of a copycat Web site based in China looks a little too much like its now-familiar brand and wants something done about it.

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China Plays Up Hacker Crackdown

Compelling product photography is a must for online merchants. Without a good visual representation of the products a store is selling, customers probably won’t buy.

Generally speaking, online stores have two basic ways to get product images: (1) take the photos, or (2) use the stock images that many manufacturers or distributors provide. While using your own, professional quality product photography can be a competitive advantage, the reality is that most online stores depend on manufacturer photography for the majority of product images.

In spite of this dependence on the manufacturers, no standardized or centralized means of exchanging images has emerged, until now. Shotfarm is a free asset-exchange service for the retail industry. …

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The PeC Review: Shotfarm Streamlines Use of Manufacturers’ Photography