5 SEO Tips for eCommerce Sites

http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/101110-5%20SEO-Tips-eCommerce-Sites

by Danielle Sharpe
November 10, 2010

The sites which are sales-based or eCommerce sites really see Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into action in terms of Return on Investment (ROI). Even a little tweak can increase the sales tremendously:

1. Multiple Categorizations

Most of the eCommerce sites follow 'filing cabinet' approach; that means that every product is ascribed to only one category. However, in actuality one product can also fall into more than one category. For example, lingerie is a product that can fall into different categories like 'Baby doll nightgown', 'Basque', and 'Bustier'.

Most probably, you have been using 'sort by' choices to sort your products. What is recommended is to do these categories from their own landing pages. You have to see that each of those categories is linked to, using a clear HTML anchor text link.

2. The First Link

Several tests conducted by SEO professionals have proven that even if you link one page two or more times from any page, Google and many of the other major search engines would count only the first link.

Generally we see in a website that first there is the image of the product with the link to the product or sub-categories, and then description of that product with the same link placed again. For Search Engine it would be the only first link (which is usually in image) that really counts.

If your website has the same problem, you can fix it by placing the description and link, before the image. Alternatively, you can remove the link from the image, and let it be only with the description.

3. Keywords- Singular or plural

Logically the title for a page should be plural. However unfortunately, people tend to enter the singular version of the keyword, when they search it through search engines. Now if your website is optimized for the title which is plural, you will lose much of the traffic. The work around for this problem is to design the title of a phrase (which would be keyword optimized) using both singular and plural form of the keyword. For example, you can do something like this:

"Navigation gadgets: Buy your Navigation Gadget at mywebsite.com"

Changing a single line can double the traffic to your website.

4. Regularly freshening up of your pages

If you don't update your pages regularly, search engines might take that page to be dead. Therefore, keep updating your page(s) regularly to tell search engines that the pages are alive. This should not be taken lightly. With Real Time Search becoming the latest trend, and Google algorithms continually change to incorporate a system to check for freshness of pages as well; it becomes crucial, that you regularly freshen up your pages.

Question may arise, how you can keep updating your pages regularly for your eCommerce sites. You can follow these simple tips to do that:

•Include user reviews for your products in your pages.

•If you haven't done already, include a blog on your site. Categorize the posts nicely, and feed them into category pages to include some lines from the most new posts. It might take some time to implement but the efforts would be worth it; you would have your pages updated and fresh every time you write a relevant post.

•To set yourself apart from your competitors, regularly review and change the copy on the category and product pages. It is not only keeping your pages fresh, but would result in ranking boost.

5. Links to Deeper Pages

Continuing SEO campaigns can turn into never-ending battles in no time trying to govern those 'keywords' which brings more traffic. Most of the time companies spend so much time and resource for competitive keywords, that they almost ignore tail phrases, for instance, product names. To make it more clear we take an example; You are selling a LCD TV of myBrand company, and its product name, for instance is "myBrand RFG--40x3500 LCD TV".

You obviously would get more traffic to your site from the keyword "myBrand LCD TV", but as a matter of fact, but traffic which comes with "myBrand RFG--40x3500 LCD TV" has higher conversion rates. They can be ranked much easily with only a few inbound links.

TO gain an edge over your competitors, don't only compete for those glamorous keywords, but also invest considerable resources for link building of some deeper pages on the website. You will see your sale increasing a lot with this small change of focusing on deeper pages and links.

We hope that above 5 SEO tips for eCommerce sites would bring a little value to your efforts for SEO.A small change goes a long way; so try incorporating these small changes and see how they help you in not just attracting more traffic, but also making more profit..

3 Free Personal Finance Apps You Can Take to the Bank

http://www.linuxinsider.com/alert/71199.html

By Jack M. Germain
LinuxInsider
11/10/10 5:00 AM PT

Whether you need to manage the accounts of a small business or those of your own household, open source applications have you covered multiple times over. GnuCash is an app serious book-keepers will appreciate; HomeBank is a comprehensive personal account manager; and Skrooge presents an attractive and inviting user interface.

The Linux platform has several really good financial applications that are more than capable of handling both personal and small-business accounting operations.

GnuCash, HomeBank and Skrooge are among the best financial apps I've found for Linux. In terns of features and performance, all three are as good as or better than the well-known Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows equivalents -- MSMoney and Quicken.

But features and performance aside, these three Linux apps have a striking advantage over their proprietary kindred. The Linux programs, being open source, are free. That means I can run them on my various desktop and laptop computers all for the same great price -- $0.

Good Option

For my money -- if open source was not free, that is -- any one of these Linux financial apps fits my needs better than their Windows counterparts. Nothing I did using Windows wares escapes me in Linux.

For a while after I made the leap from Windows to Linux, I relied on AceMoney, a personal finance product that has a fairly full feature set. I even gave in and paid the upgrade fee to add the ability to maintain multiple bank accounts. AceMoney is not open source.

It also is not a real Linux app. I had to run it under WINE, an open source implementation of the Windows API.

MSMoney and Quicken do not run under WINE. But they do, as does AceMoney, export their data to a form that GnuCash, Homebank and Skrooge can use. So if you're already using those programs and you want to make a switch, you do not have to start from scratch to begin using them.

Cash In With GNU

GnuCash is probably the top of app a real accountant would relish. It is a powerhouse personal and small-business finance manager. But it comes with the steepest learning curve of the three packages.

GnuCash

It is a double-entry accounting system. If all you want is an app to ride herd on your bank accounts, using GnuCash could be overkill.

Still, it will do that and a whole lot more. GnuCash tracks budgets and maintains various accounts in numerous category types. It has a full suite of standard and customizable reports.

It is an ideal crossover app, licensed under the GNU GPL. It has versions for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Content Driven

GnuCash has the look and feel of a check-book register. Its GUI (graphical user interface) is designed for easy entry and tracking of bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.

That said, if you do not have an appreciation for formal accounting principles, make sure you spend considerable time boning up on the documentation. GnuCash is designed to be simple and easy to use but is based on formal accounting principles.

When the counting gets beyond my fingers and toes, my eyes gloss over. The program got easier to use once I imported the files and finished the account setup. But double-entry accounting is not my comfort zone.

Feature Highlights

Here is the short version of what a double-entry system entails. All transactions must debit one account and credit others by an equal amount.

This process ensures that the books balance, according to GnuCash's documentation. Making sure that the difference between income and outflow exactly equals the sum of all assets and equity is a standard that exceeds my needs.

For business finances, though, GnuCash offers key features. For instance, it handles reports and graphs as well as scheduled transactions and financial calculations. If you run a small business, this app will track your customers, vendors, jobs, invoices and more.

Feeling at Home

Compared to GnuCash, HomeBank is a much easier personal accounting system to use. Its roots go back to the 1995 Amiga computers. It is available in 50 languages on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

HomeBank

Unlike other financial software, HomeBank does not connect to your bank's computer to carry out transactions. This means it cannot update banking records in real time.

For me, that is not an issue. I disabled that feature in other financial software I used. I much prefer to pay bills and make money transfers through a secure browser connection manually.

The several banks I use only update daily records after midnight. So even if I use the banks' online banking direct connections, I will not see real-time account status.

Other Tasks

I want a banking app that lets me track deposits and transfers and helps me spot where I spend my money. HomeBank's pie charts and graphs do that and more with ease.

HomeBank is much more than a simple ledger program. It uses categories and tags to organize transactions. Plus, this app handles multiple checking and savings accounts.

It also makes it simple to schedule recurring transactions. Banks and credit bureaus are now much less forgiving on late payments. One sure way to avoid last-minute payment anxiety is to let HomeBank remind you when to pay a bill.

Uncle Skrooge

Skrooge reminds me of Quicken with its dashboard-style GUI. Perhaps it is its appearance that makes this app my favorite.

Skrooge

It looks less like a banking ledger. The design is much more user-friendly. I find it much less intimidating.

This app is powered by the KDE4 desktop environment. I generally do not like the screen changes KDE4 brought about; thus I now favor the Gnome desktop. But Skrooge runs seamlessly under Gnome because the needed KDE libraries are installed as part of the Skrooge package.

Better View

For example, the app window is divided into banking components that make more sense than a traditional ledger view. I can see the bank's name, account and transaction details in clearly discernible windows.

Other details such as reports and filters appear in view as I click different windows and icons around the viewing screen. The size of the app window expands or collapses to reflect the real estate needed by the selected features.

The KDE underpinning lets Skrooge run on various Linux distros, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X. Skrooge is part of KDE Extragear and is released under the GPLv3 license

Novel Interface

I particularly like Skrooge's interface. Its colorful panels and icons take the dreariness out of banking chores.

Even better is the tab structure. Each task -- such as filtered reports, ledger entry and dashboard -- remains open as a tab line up along the top of the viewing windows under the menu and tool bar rows.

So at any given time in a banking work session, I can click an open tab to again look at the Dashboard, Income vs. Expenditure report, various pie categories, etc.

The dashboard itself is an unusual aspect of financial apps. Most do not have one. The dashboard component in this app shows the account balance per bank.

More Cool Stuff

Skrooge has the expected features and more. For instance, it can import/export files in formats for QIF, CSV, KMYMONEY, OFX, QFX, GnuCash, Grisbi and HomeBank. It has an easy-to-use scheduling tool.

But it also goes where the other financial apps don't. For example, Skrooge has infinite category levels and multiple update of operations. It also has infinite undo/redo options which are still active after the file closes.

A feature that I find very useful is the ability to track refunds of my expenses. It also has one that I wish I could put to more use: It handles multiple currencies. 

How to mount Google Docs as an external drive in nautilus

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-mount-google-docs-as-an-external-drive-in-nautilus.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-mount-google-docs-as-an-external-drive-in-nautilus

This tutorial will explain different ways to mount Google Docs as an external drive in nautilus

Using Google Doc Mount

Install Google Doc Mount in ubuntu

Open the terminal and run the following commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:doctormo/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdocs-mount-gtk

Using Google Doc Mount

Once installed head over the Applications > Accessories > Google Docs Connection menu entry.

Now enter your Google Account credentials and, once done, the drive will auto-magically mount in Nautilus allowing you access to all of your Google Documents.

中国电信推免费WiFi

http://www.williamlong.info/blog/archives/596.html-月光微博客

　　刚看到的中国电信ADSL弹窗广告：中国电信特推出"WiFi上网，全城免费"亚运惠民服务，全城全民免费上网，随时随地尽享亚运精彩！中国电信目前在广东省内已超过一万个WiFi热点，覆盖体育馆、宾馆、酒店、机场、商场、咖啡厅等公众主要休闲、娱乐、购物场所。

　　适用范围：

　　时间：2010年11月1日至2010年12月31日

　　地点：广东省内超万个电信WiFi热点

　　使用方法：

　　（1）活动时间内通过手机或固定电话拨打4008999189即可获得天翼WiFi免费体验账号和密码；

　　（2）请您在天翼WiFi热点覆盖区域，打开电脑或其他设备的WiFi功能，查找ChinaNet信号并成功连接后，通过浏览器登陆wlan.ct10000.com，输入WiFi体验账号和密码，即可在活动时间内享受天翼WiFi不限时免费上网；（注：如果您确定不使用免费体验账号和密码，将按照您已有账号的资费标准收费）

　　（3）中国电信全国天翼WiFi热点已超十万个，广东省内天翼WiFi热点已超万个，覆盖机场、酒店、会展、校园等重要场所，天翼WiFi热点地址查询请登陆wlan.vnet.cn，详细使用方法查询请登陆wlan.ct10000.com。

Create A Bootable Windows 7 USB Drive From Linux (Ubuntu)

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/create-bootable-windows-7-usb-drive.html

(I followed this and everything OK, HL 20101105)

I recently had to create a Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive for my girlfriend because she doesn't have a DVD-ROM, and I had to do it from Ubuntu as I don't have Windows (neither at work or at home).

What I ended up on using is the good old (just a figure of speech) UNetbootin which is available for both Windows and Linux. It's in the Ubuntu repositories so to install it, search for it in the Ubuntu Software Center. For Windows and other Linux distributions, get it from HERE.

At first I didn't think it'll work since you can't choose Windows from the UNetbooting options, but it actually works and I've successfully installed Windows 7 on my girlfriend's computer using UNetbootin. Here's what I did:

Firstly, make sure you have a Windows 7 .ISO file (you can create it from the DVD) and a 4GB USB flash drive (or larger).


1. Install Gparted and format the USB drive to NTFS. In Ubuntu, use the following command to install Gparted:

 sudo apt-get install gparted

To format the USB drive as NTFS, open Gparted via the System > Administration > GParted Partition Editor. Then select your USB drive from the top right drop-down. If you only have one hard disk, your USB drive should be "sdb". Now right click your USB drive in GParted and select "Unmount" and you'll then be able to select Partition > Format > ntfs. The drive will be formatted to NTFS in a few seconds.

I'm not sure if UNetbootin will mark the drive as bootable as my USB drive already had the "boot" flag enabled from Gparted, so you may want to enable it too: right click the USB drive and select "Manage flags", then check the "boot" flag.

Then you'll have to mount the USB drive back. You can do it from the command line or Disk Utility (System > Administration > Disk Utility) but to keep things simple, you can just unplug the USB flash drive and plug it back in to the computer.

2. Open UNetbootin, select "Diskimage" and then browse for your Windows 7 ISO file.

Now at the bottom, check the "Show all Drives" box and then select your USB drive. For me, that's "/dev/sdb1" but it might be different for you (you should know this from Gparted which you've used to format the USB drive under step 1. Important: if your USB drive is "dev/sdb", then you'll have to select "/dev/sdb1" in UNetbootin!). Do not select / check anything else!

Now simply click the "OK" button and wait for the files to be copied to the USB drive.

New Linux Software Targets Schools

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/209767/new_linux_software_targets_schools.html
Nov 4, 2010 9:32 am
By Maxwell Cooter, techworld.com

A Canadian company called Userful claims that it has open source alternative for education establishments faced by the high cost of Windows Multipoint servers: Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011.

Userful claims that the Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011 has been specifically designed for schools enabling them to deploy large number of computer stations at low cost.

Based on Ubuntu, Userful MultiSeat offers the ability to turn one Linux computer into 11 independent computer stations, while providing users with the same set of features as Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010.

According to a Userful spokesman, the Multiseat can scale to more than 11 machines but to do so an organisation needs to use "fancy computer hardware which negates much of the cost benefit".

The company claimed that the Multiseat software reduced energy costs by up to 90 percent, enabling schools to recover the cost of their computers through electricity cost savings alone. On average, Userful said, its customers report saving 60 percent in up-front costs, and 80 percent in annual power savings as compared to their previous PC-per-station solutions. The software also comes with a variety of tools, including specialist education software.

The Userful spokesman said the product could be downloaded from the company website and was easy to install but any school that required additional hand-holding would be advised to use the Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011 bundle install DVD. "Users can simply put it in their DVD drive, and it will automatically install Userful MultiSeat, Edubuntu 10.04 operating system, and classroom management software all in a single seamless install," he said.

Google Soups Up Apache With New Speed Module

http://www.linuxinsider.com/alert/71177.html?wlc=1288976235

By Richard Adhikari
LinuxInsider
11/05/10 5:00 AM PT

Apache HTTP Server users can make use of Google's latest tool, mod_pagespeed, to automatically optimize their websites' speed. The module automates optimizations that are usually somewhat troublesome to do manually, like making changes to pages built by CMS, recompressing images when its HTML context changes, and extending cache lifetime.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) on Wednesday released mod_pagespeed, a module for the Apache HTTP Server that will automatically perform various website speed optimization tasks.

This includes 15 or so on-the-fly optimizations.

Google claims mod_pagespeed reduces average page load times by up to 50 percent.

However, mod_pagespeed works only on Apache servers and is complex to deploy, according to Omri Iluz, strategic partnerships manager at Cotendo, which provides site acceleration services to website owners.

The Mod Squad

Google has released the mod_pagespeed module as open source for Apache for many Linux distributions. The module automates optimizations that are troublesome to do manually.

These optimizations include making changes to the pages built by content management systems (CMS); recompressing an image when its HTML context changes so only the bytes required are served; and extending the cache lifetime of the logos and images of users' websites to a year.

The mod-pagespeed module changes CMS pages without having to make changes to the CMS itself. While it extends the cache lifetime of a website's logos and images, users can update these at any time. The module is an addition to Google's Page Speed tool, which gives website developers suggestions on how to speed up Web pages.

"In recent years, as the browser market has evolved and new browsers have emerged, website creators and developers haven't kept up to speed in modifying their sites to work well with the new browsers," Cotendo's Iluz told LinuxInsider.

"YSlow and Page Speed check your website and come up with a list of actions you need to apply to your website to improve its performance," Iluz added. "The technology Google released Wednesday is a layer on top of your code that, in addition to telling you what's wrong with your website, fixes the problem."

YSlow is a tool from Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) that checks websites to see where they can be optimized.

Google did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Nothing's Easy

The mod-pagespeed module will make life easier for website owners because they won't need to perform advanced configuration tasks on their Web servers, Ronni Zehavi, CEO of Cotendo, told LinuxInsider.

However, it's complex and works only on Apache servers, Cotendo's Iluz pointed out.

Cotendo worked with Google to enhance the module to handle massively scaled content delivery environments and deployment to multiple customers and in various configurations as a service.

"Your traffic goes through our global network, our service applies optimization in the cloud and we send the traffic back to you," Iluz said. "You as the website owner don't have to do anything."

Cotendo on Wednesday announced the deployment of Page Speed Automatic, a new website code optimization service that uses the mod_pagespeed optimization engine.

This service automatically optimizes the code of HTML pages as they enter a content delivery network. It will optimize caching, reduce the number of data requests, and reduce the payload size of pages, among other features. These code modifications, when rendered within Cotendo's network, can reduce image size by 20 percent to 30 percent and page load time by as much as 50 percent on top of the acceleration already achieved by Cotendo's existing site acceleration services, including its Dynamic Site Acceleration Service, the company claims.

Go Daddy, Go, Jack up the Speed

Website host Go Daddy plans to implement mod_pagespeed for its 8.5 million customers.

"We know through interaction with our customers that high performance is a top priority," Brian Krouse, senior director for platform R&D at Go Daddy, told LinuxInsider.

"A faster, snappier website is better for a customer's online presence," Krouse added. "That's why Go Daddy is keenly interested in doing whatever we can to make it as easy as possible for customers to build high-performance websites."

Go Daddy will offer mod_pagespeed through its Linux Shared Hosting platform to its customers worldwide.

However, the website hosting company has not yet fixed a date when the service will be rolled out, Krouse said.