Ross Simons SEO Project - Day 3

Sunday had me evaluating my current Ross Simons strengths and weaknesses. Monday was an exercise in keyword research and setting up a tracking system. Tuesday was devoted to external, although related concerns, like strengthening the value of my pages offering backlinks. The Ross Simons Shopping Online page at Centsible is indexed and performing well on Google and Yahoo but is not targeted to the right keywords. I've started work already on the Centsible gift, tableware and jewelry pages.

Keyword Research

I did some keyword research, but lost all my notes when my computer restarted automatically. Today I'll redo that task, already having a general idea of what to do. That shouldn't take long to replicate.

Jewelry Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The Next Step

The Centisble jewelry pages have had their overall designs updated coinciding with new Centsible look. I've also started on a custom icon to draw people in to the jewelry pages and get impulse shoppers. The next thing to be done is the actual content and products on the jewelry pages (and finishing that custom graphic.)

Tableware Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The Next Step After Jewelry

I'm looking to update the overall look of the dining room furnishings and serveware pages at Centsible today. Existing title tags and keywords for these pages have been set up to be tracked.

Gifts Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The last hurdle

The gifts pages at Centsible are ready for their title tags and keywords to be tracked. I might be able to pull these into the overall design, but definitely won't have time update any products today.

Why Am I Even Talking About Things Like Products and Design On An SEO Blog?

Things like click-through rates and time that your visitors spend on each page DO go into the algorithm for whether or not your page is useful. If you can increase visitor satisfaction with your page, it will increase the page ranking. And anyways, what's the point of getting more visitors if your page doesn't get them to do what you want them to do?

Squidoo Pages Leading to Ross Simons Sales

Although I can tell when a Squidoo Page sends traffic to another one of my sites, I currently have no way of tracking conversions on affiliate links directly placed on Squidoo pages. The url-shortening site, bit.ly will be my solution here. When I run and customize all my affiliate links through bitly (you need to have a bitly profile to do this) it will track all impressions and click.

There's that problem solved!

My to-do list for today includes: finalize keyword research and update title and keyword tags accordingly, update products and content on the jewelry pages, finish the custom graphic for the jewelry pages, upload the design template for the dinnerware and gifts pages and finally shorten Squidoo affiliate links with bit.ly to accurately track those conversions.

Running Summary For Ross Simons Page Popularity

• Indexed? - Google:Yes, Yahoo:Yes
• Title Tag Ranking (exact, in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (exact) - Google:#1 , Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (general search) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Yahoo Keywords & Phrases in August 2010:
• Google Keywords & Phrases in August 2010: ross-simons gift & home (#4)
• Ross Simons Page Visits MTD - 4
• Ross Simons Clicks MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Transactions MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Sales MTD - $0

Ross Simons SEO Project - Day 2

Yesterday had me looking at where I currently stand with my Ross Simons promotions. The Ross Simons Shopping Online page at Centsible is already indexed and performing well on Google and Yahoo. The Squidoo pages I'll be using to promote Ross Simons jewelry are not indexed though. The Centsible gift, tableware and jewelry pages have been neglected, so those need to be brought into the new design and navigational scheme too.

Since I know my Ross Simons page is indexed and performing, but not converting sales, I need to rethink my keyword strategy as well. In fact, keyword research is my project for today. I'm doing good for searches based on Ross Simons tableware, so I'll be sure to play up that focus to the page. I also might want to play up the shipping information presented, and finally, the jewelry offered.

Keyword Ideas For The Ross Simons Page

Unfortunately I spent about 2 hours researching keywords this afternoon and lost all my data in a computer crash. I've got the general ideas still though and will revisit things tomorrow.

Jewelry Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The Next Step

The jewelry page will serve as an initial gateway for jewelry shoppers. This page has a title tag of "Buying Engagement Rings, Costume Jewelry, Fine Jewelry and More" and lands the #1 spot on both Google and Yahoo. The landing area when someone selects Ross Simons as a jeweler from the dropdown menu and the jewelry page containing Ross Simons are not indexed at all. I'm going to start by working on the jewelry pages before venturing on to tableware and gifts.

Tableware Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The Next Step After Jewelry

I determined yesterday my page's are doing well with people looking for dinnerware, serveware and fine housewares from Ross Simons. The dining room furnishings and serveware pages at Centsible have the entry pages holding the #1 spot at both Yahoo and Google, but the following pages aren't indexed at all. Some work is required here.

Gifts Pages For Selling Ross Simons - The last hurdle

I'm leaving gifts until last for Centsible pages SEO'ing as I want to conquer some of the Ross Simons jewelry market and already have potential for dinnerware. Gifts would be a great category, but its a big one and it requires the most work. None of the gifts pages are indexed at all yet.

Squidoo Pages Leading to Ross Simons Sales

I'm going to sharpen up and promote my relevant Squidoo pages on a daily basis - doing just a little bit at a time. I'm not really applying a keyword strategy to them just yet, rather polishing them off and getting them ready to be the viral hits they have the potential to be.

My external and untouched pages are a last priority on the totem pole - but its nice to know they're there.

Running Summary For Ross Simons Page Popularity

• Indexed? - Google:Yes, Yahoo:Yes
• Title Tag Ranking (exact, in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (exact) - Google:#1 , Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (general search) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Yahoo Keywords & Phrases in August 2010:
• Google Keywords & Phrases in August 2010:
• Ross Simons Page Visits MTD - 2
• Ross Simons Clicks MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Transactions MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Sales MTD - $0

Ross Simons SEO Project - Day 1

OK, I wrote a little about yesterday about why I chose Ross Simons for my SEO project this month. I recounted the original email from them. I described how I would be making my plan. I thought about what different elements would go into the creation of a realistic goal. I gave myself a few things to look at before creating that goal.

Here's my Ross Simons page that I'm optimizing - http://www.centsible.net/stores/ross-simons.shtml. Other key areas in Centsible that might convert to Ross Simons sales are the in two main subcategories: jewelry, dining room furnishings and gifts.

Jewelry Pages For Selling Ross Simons

The jewelry page will serve as an initial gateway for jewelry shoppers, the landing area when someone selects Ross Simons as a jeweler from the dropdown menu and the jewelry page containing Ross Simons overall all have possibilities for generating Ross Simons jewelry sales.

Gifts Pages For Selling Ross Simons

The gifts page will serve as an initial gateway for gift shoppers, the landing area when someone selects Ross Simons as a gift shop from the dropdown menu and the gift page containing Ross Simons overall have possibilities for generating Ross Simons gift sales.

Tableware Pages For Selling Ross Simons

The Dining Room page will serve as an initial gateway for tableware and dining room furnishings shoppers, the landing area when someone selects Ross Simons as a table settings shop from the dropdown menu and the Dining Room furnishings page containing Ross Simons overall have possibilities for generating Ross Simons table settings and serveware sales.

External Pages Leading to Ross Simons Sales

Of course my promotion of Ross Simons will not be exclusive to Centsible. I have an extensive library of Squidoo pages and will be using some of these either to link back to my Ross Simons page or to place advertisements on directly. Going over my existing titles, I see the following candidates for Ross Simons promotions.

• African Jewelry - (not indexed)
• Estate Jewelry - (not indexed)
• Rhodium - (not indexed)
• Chateauneuf Du Pape - (not indexed)
• How To Buy Conflict Free Diamonds - (not indexed)
• Top 10 Romantic Gift Ideas - (not indexed)
• Valentines Day Gift Ideas - (not indexed)

I also have two domains I've done nothing with that might be able to play into all this: Luscious Weddings and Thanksgiving Dinner. I might be able to sneak something in for Labor Day Sales as well (that page is currently nothing but an empty, green field of grass).

• Title Tag - Shop Online For Gifts, Jewelry and Fine Housewares at Ross Simons
• Keywords - fine housewares online, buy fine gifts online, fine housewarming gifts online, personalized jewelry online, buy fine jewelry online
• Backlinks on Yahoo - 0
• Backlinks on Google - 0

Running Summary For Ross Simons Page Popularity

• Indexed? - Google:Yes, Yahoo:Yes
• Title Tag Ranking (exact, in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (in title) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (exact) - Google:#1 , Yahoo:#1
• Title Tag Ranking (general search) - Google:#1, Yahoo:#1
• Yahoo Top 10 Keywords & Phrases: Ross Simons housewares - #1, ross-simons gift and home collection - #5, ross simons sales tax - #2, ross simons return policy - #4, ross simons jewelry - #22, ross simons ship to Canada custom charges - #1, ross and simons europe - #2, fine housewares - #2, ross simons pandora online - #4
• Google Top 10 Keywords & Phrases: Ross Simons housewares - #1, ross-simons gift and home collection - #3, andrea candela online shop - #9, ross simons sales tax - #3, ross simons return policy - #6, ross simons online - #10, ross simons store dinnerware merchandise - #1, ross simons ship to Canada custom charges - #1, ross and simons europe - #7, fine housewares - #1, ross simons sterling gifts - #3, ross simons pandora online - #2, jewelry designers that ross and simons buy from - #5, ross-simons order is there tax - #2, buy pandora at ross simons online - #3
• Ross Simons Page Visits MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Clicks MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Transactions MTD - 0
• Ross Simons Sales MTD - $0

August 2010 - Ross Simons SEO Project

On July 30, 2010, I got an email from my contact at Ross Simons. Ross Simons sales through Centsible.net have fallen from $858.75 between January to June 2009 down to $42.94 during that same time period in 2010. The Ross Simons affiliate team was wondering what changes there have been in my marketing efforts and if there was anything they can do to increase sales.

I'll be careful not to set my goal until after I've looked into a few things.

I want to be able to accomplish it, so it has to be realistic. I need to know where I currently figure. Whether or not my Ross-Simons pages are already indexed are not with the search engines is important. Competition on keywords is important. I want to have a goal by tomorrow, including a sales figure, a keyword ranking and page visitors.

Raising sales above $1,000 is not a tough hurdle to cross

Considering my high point for Ross Simons sales was under $1,000 in 2009, this won't be a difficult sales figure to beat. To improve sales overall, I'll look at a couple of things

• Datafeed Products Available
• Deep-Linking
• Relevant banner creative in requested sizes

Those things will only factor in after I'm sure I've got eyes on my pages in the first place. Of course the first step with this project will be to identify some good key words I want to be found on for Ross Simons sales and then to SEO my relevant pages for those keywords.

What am I going to do today about Ross Simons?

Keyword research. Page design. Looking at current Ross Simons conversion rates. That sort of stuff. I'm forming a game plan.