Colorado Web Solutions

When should you Redesign your Yahoo Store?

Posted on September 26th, 2012 by Brent Carey

When should you redesign your Yahoo store? It is a question all Yahoo store owners will be confronted with at some point. Change to any site shouldn’t be made just for the sake of change but in today’s market it is important to stay ahead of the competition. It may be that a redesign is what takes your store to that next level. Many marketing companies will tell you a redesign should be undertaken every one to three years just to keep things fresh.While this notion may be true in a generalized sense, each store is unique and the decision to overhaul the look and functionality of a site can’t be made in a vacuum. That said, chances are that if your Yahoo store is going to continue to be successful or if you want to take your sales beyond their current levels, you might need to consider revamping. Prior to beginning your research into whether a redesign is in your best interest, there are a few questions that may help in your initial decision making process:

Does your site accurately reflect the buying patterns of your key customer base?

Many Yahoo store owners open their store without intimate knowledge of who their target customer really is. They have a product or products they want to sell with little insight into the eventual buying behaviors of their customer base. Over time the store will attract a certain segment of customers which will have distinct buying patterns. At that point you’ll have to ask yourself if the site you started out with still effectively caters to the core crowd? Often times, a redesign may be needed to better position the content and/or functionality of the site with the 20% of your customers making up your main buying group.

Is your website conveying your product and branding message as well as it should be?

Over time you will get to know your products better than most. As you get a good feel for what your customers are like, the question needs to be asked, “Is my site accurately portraying the product and branding message I should be conveying?” It’s a legitimate question and one that far too many owners fail to ask themselves. The best stores have a consistent brand message which is in sync with the products being sold. Successful stores create a community, and have a clear message that directly relates to the product line. Are you doing this with your store? If not, it may be time to consider a new design.

Was SEO a consideration in your first site design?

Often stores are first created on a shoe-string budget or without considering best practices when it comes to optimizing the coding structure for search engines. Fast forward a couple of years and if your store is now making a little money, a redesign may increase the exposure it is currently receiving from the engines. Proper coding can go a long way toward improving a sites indexing potential. Rather than dumping money into Adwords, a redesign can greatly enhance SEO.

Does your site have a fresh and attractive look?

If your site has experienced a dip in traffic or if your store is doing ok but you feel the look is antiquated, it might be time to consider a redesign. Today’s well performing sites are unique in appearance, clean – and flow well using a clear navigational structure. The cream of the crop have a contemporary look and feel to match the products being offered. If your store looks old, out of date or simply doesn’t have the most attractive look, it might be time for a redesign.

If a redesign sounds like something you might be interested in, please fill out a quote request. Mention FALLREDESIGN in your inquiry to receive a 10% discount on your project total*. For a case study of a previous redesign Colorado Web Solutions did with very successful results, please see: coffeecakes.

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Writing Product Descriptions for your Yahoo Store

Posted on September 13th, 2012 by Brent Carey

Writing a good product description is an often overlooked step in promoting rich search engine indexing. As we like to say here at Colorado Web Solutions, content is king. While many Yahoo store owners will focus their new content initiatives on homepage text, category headers or associated articles, many overlook or undervalue the words within the product description. Some clients, pushed for time or having a large product line, will opt to take their product descriptions directly from vendors. While this is a short term solution – it is imperative at some point to enhance vendor descriptions with your own unique text. Search engines love fresh and distinctive copy. More and more engines are devaluing duplicate content, even if that content appears on unrelated sites. We advise all clients to take the time to write their own content, it will pay off!

There are some key points to consider before you start the laborious process of writing your own descriptions:

The copy should be original, persuasive and informative

You are the salesmen and you have one chance to explain to your customer why they want to purchase the product from your store. The product description should reflect that. In your own words, tell your customer the reasons this particular product stands above other options available. If written correctly, the description should sound like a sales pitch from your top salesman! It will make leaving that page that much harder.

Make sure your descriptions are written in a concise and professional manner

The better you’re able to articulate to your customer what the product is intended for, what benefit it has and why it’s the product for them – the more likely they’ll purchase. The best way to accomplish this is to write with correct sentence structure and do it in as few words as possible. Long descriptions which don’t get to the point will end up losing the customer’s interest. The same can be said for poorly written content. People will be turned off if they can’t understand what you’re trying to convey.

Your descriptions should contain keywords that directly relate to the product in question

Most product descriptions will be in the range of 50-70 words. When you think about it, that’s not a lot of room to adequately get your point across, let alone fit in product specific keywords. However, it’s your job to find a way to incorporate at least a couple of pertinent keywords into the copy. Ideally those keywords should be repeated within the description at least twice.

Know your Audience

This may sound silly – but far too many store owners don’t take the time to really know who they’re speaking to. This of course will depend on the products you sell, the markets your products reach, the type of store you’re running, etc. Your product description should directly speak to the persuasions of your intended customer. For example, if you’re marketing to teens, be sure to use their language – if you’re writing to techies, use good technical terms – if you’re speaking to stay at home moms, write in a way they will relate to, etc. Once the customer has read your description, they should feel as though a friend just told them why they need the product. Your description should connect with the buyer on as many levels as possible.

 

Associated Links:

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-product-detail-tabs.html

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-product-feature-tables.html

 

 

 

 

 

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Sale on Yahoo Customer Registration

Posted on September 7th, 2012 by Brent Carey

Two years ago Yahoo launched their much anticipated Customer Registration module. It was a long overdue addition to Yahoo’s web store platform. Initially their registration module was viewed with mild skepticism as the account creation procedure was somewhat unique in that it used pre-existing social media or email login’s to create a user’s profile. At the time, many customer registration modules forced users to create unique user-names/passwords. Realizing that there was a growing consumer trend in which customers were being turned away by having to create unique registration logins, Yahoo took a different route. The Yahoo development team launched a registration module with some forward thinking giving customers the ability to checkout as a guest or – use their preexisting login details from Yahoo, AOL, Google or Facebook to create their account.

The response to the new Customer Registration module has been nothing short of stellar. Not only is the module solid in the back end functions it presents, customers are not being turned away at the point of registration. While Yahoo allows store owners to manually turn on their registration modules; if the store is designed using custom templates an authorized Yahoo developer like Colorado Web Solutions will be needed in order to give the feature a professional and integrated look. As much as possible, the registration should mimic the overall look and feel of the store and checkout.

The vast majority of Colorado Web Solutions client sites using the Registration module, have been delighted with their own customer’s response to this feature. While there are a lot of Yahoo stores already using this – there are still many in need of a developer integration. With that in mind, we’ve decided to offer a 20% discount on our Premier Customer Registration install for a limited time. For more detailed information on our various integration levels, please have a look at:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-my-account.html

If you’re interested in the advantages gained by installing Customer Registration in your Yahoo store, please fill out the following form and we’ll be in touch shortly.

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