If you're a small business with a goal of
doing between $500,000 and $15 million in annual e-commerce
sales, you need to learn more about Yahoo Merchant
Solutions. And to answer your first question? no, Exclusive
Concepts, Inc is not in anyway affiliated with Yahoo. I've
simply been persuaded over the past 6 years that Yahoo
provides the most powerful and scaleable e-commerce solution
for the small business that cares about search engine
placement. Why should you care about search engine
placement? Search engines are the single most powerful and
cost-effective mechanism for driving qualified traffic to
your site. What good is a great online store if customers
can't find you?
First things first - What is Yahoo Merchant Solutions
(a.k.a. "Yahoo Store")
It's a complete platform for building an e-commerce website
for your company. It has a easy to use forms based interface
(for a low cost entry-level solution), but it also has very
advanced capabilities that allow third-party Yahoo Store
specialists to customize the design and features of your
site (for companies that need greater functionality and
customization and are willing to make a larger investment).
What makes the Yahoo Store so outstanding?
If you visited the Yahoo Merchant Solutions website, you
would find a number of valuable features that make Yahoo
Store appealing. Instead of repeating that list, I'll focus
instead on what I believe to be the most important feature
of a Yahoo Store from a search engine ranking perspective.
Static Pages - The Search Engines Eat These Things Up
Before you glaze over from this obscure technical phrase,
take into consideration that this single Yahoo Store
benefit, if properly taken advantage of, can be the
difference between having a wildly profitable e-commerce
store, and just an average online presence. I'm sure I have
your attention now, so let me explain.
"Static Pages" means that when you publish your Yahoo
Store (to make the store available to the public), the
program actually regenerates every single "database" page
and turns it into an ".html" page. The search engines have
an easier time indexing ".html" pages, and as a result, you
can expect better and more consistent rankings. I'm sure
that for many of you this will sound confusing, so let me
give you an example:
- Most dynamic e-commerce sites have interior pages
that are "dynamic," meaning that they are pulled from a
database as you browse the site. The "URL" for one of
these pages might look like this:
http://www.somesitelink.com/prodcat=24?id=2?s=1352556232252535
- A Yahoo Store interior page is "static," meaning
that the pages are not pulled from a database as you
browse the site. They might look like this:
http://www.youryahoostorelink.com/books.html
This is important because it is easier for search engines
(like Google) to index a website that has static pages, as
compared to dynamic sites with many parameters. Google says
so on their website.
Bottom line: I'm convinced that Yahoo Store
platform is the most conducive for garnering high search
engine placement primarily because of this feature but also
because of additional complimentary optimizations you can
make to your Yahoo Store.
Other Important Features/Benefits Include:
Make a change once in a user-friendly
environment, and have it take effect throughout your
entire site
- A large and experienced public company (Yahoo)
hosting your site
1 in 8 e-commerce websites are hosted on the Yahoo
Store / Yahoo Merchant Solutions platform.
Presumably, hundreds of millions of dollars in
online sales are transacted on the Yahoo platform
each year. Yahoo has too much to lose to approach
the hosting of e-commerce stores lightly. As a
result, I'm confident they have the resources and
commitment to ensure the highest possible uptime for
your site. In 6 years, I can't remember a client's
store going offline.
This speaks for itself. Many small e-commerce
platforms (especially custom e-commerce solutions)
don't come with free 24x7 support.
- A large selection of independent professionals to
support you
Many companies throughout the country specialize
in customizing Yahoo Stores for their clients
(better designs, better features, etc). The fact
that the Yahoo Store solution is so well supported
makes it a truly compelling.
What's the biggest downside to a Yahoo Store?
You don't have access to the source code. While you can
customize 99% of a Yahoo Store, you can't customize all of
it. This rarely becomes a problem, even for larger stores,
but you should be aware that there are some things you might
like to do with your Yahoo Store that you simply won't be
able to do.
How can I take advantage of Yahoo Store?
Assemble the right team of professionals to help you.
You'll need:
1. An online marketing specialist (like Exclusive
Concepts)
At Exclusive Concepts, we focus specifically on
helping you market your store and generate sales. We
want to do one thing right, which is why we leave
development up to the experts who specialize in that.
Within the realm of online marketing, there is nothing
we don't do. We integrate ourselves into your business
and become your outsourced marketing department.
2. A Yahoo Store Developer/Designer
3. A Good Travel Agent
With all the business you and your company are about
to do, you'll be able to afford (and maybe need) to take
more frequent vacations.
Alternatives
I've evaluated dozens of alternatives, but I've found
nothing that can hold a candle to Yahoo Store. That said, I
remember years ago, before I had understood the power of the
Yahoo platform, a prospective client asked me about the
Yahoo solution. No offense to the folks at Yahoo, but I
figured it was a Mickey Mouse, template-based, mass-market
solution that was not worth considering. It's a good thing
that I'm an open-minded person, because once I took the time
to properly evaluate the software, I recognized its true
potential.
Bottom line: There is no better alternative to
achieve your sales objectives then combining the robustness
of the Yahoo Store solution with the power of search engines
to drive qualified prospects to your site.
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