Published on February 03, 2012 Social Networking tips to build links for your shopping cart website
Social Networking links have been considered the poor cousin to “real” website links to your site, but as social networking sites grow and develop, these types of links are being taken more seriously by the search engines.
In particular, Google+1 links should be considered for your store following the introduction of their new Google Search feature called “Search plus your World“. This new Google search feature adds searches of people and websites you have had an interaction with in the past to the list of possible results that you will receive when you do a search. This means that even if you are on page one of the listings for your particular search terms, other factors may still drive searchers to your competitors if you aren’t aware of these potential interactions and be prepared for them. And how do you prepare? You get in too!
According to Google, Search results in Google will now include:
- Google’s normal results, which you have always seen
- Personal search results, which is content you have previously accessed
- Profile search results, which are people you have interacted with (via your Google account)
- People and Pages, which are businesses, people and Google+1 pages that you have interacted with.
Obviously there are no Facebook or Twitter links in the “personalised” search results (these could only appear in the “normal” search results if those pages were indexed) because Google does not have access to these companies’ systems. But there are millions of Google+1 users on the planet, and if you are not using this system to help promote your website and your competitors are, you are potentially missing out on free exposure. This is even more true if you are marketing and selling your products outside of Australia to “big” Google user countries like the US.
What does this mean for your online shop?
- Use Google+1 in your shopping cart software website. Google+1 click support is now included as standard in Ozcart, and existing customers who do not have this feature can have it installed for you (a nominal administration fee may apply).
- Do more than just support Google+1 links and make them prominent in your product pages. Set up your own Google+1 account, monitor what is being said about you via this channel and use it yourself. It’s another marketing channel you can use. You may not use a Gmail address for your mail business email address, but it might be good to have one set up for your business, linked in to your Google Webmaster Tools and Google+1 account.
- Don’t forget other social networking sites. The importance of Google+1 cannot be underestimated, but this does not mean that you shouldn’t continue to promote links via Twitter and Facebook. Facebook provides real referrals to your site, and using hashtags, Twitter can get you in front of many new people you never even knew would find you.
- Use social bookmarking services. These are links to your site and even if they are not weighted highly by the search engines, they most probably are taken into account. Especially if you have a large number of link “votes” from a reputable, high-traffic bookmarking site like del.icio.us
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Ozcart has been in business since 2006 and is an online, hosted shopping cart that you can use for your current or new online store. We offer so many features for the same low price. In fact, we are addicted to adding new ones to ensure that we remain one of the best choices for a shopping cart.
https://ozcart.com
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