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.