The Web Uncovered

Online sales are up from last year through most of the holiday season. But it’s the largest Internet retailers that have been the big winners. One reason: Customers are more satisfied with their experiences with big e-commerce companies than with smaller services.
The 40 largest online-retail Web sites achieved their highest level of customer satisfaction during the 2009 holiday season, according to a survey by ForeSee Results, an e-commerce consulting firm. These companies averaged a satisfaction score of 79 on ForeSee’s index compared with a score of 74 in both 2008 and 2007.
But a similar survey of the 110 online retailers that ForeSee works with–which range from large to small–found that overall satisfaction dropped to a 73, compared with a 75 in 2008 and a 77 in 2007. The smallest companies took the biggest hits.
“The strong are getting stronger and the rest of the pack is getting weaker,” says Larry Freed, ForeSee’s chief executive.
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Holiday Cheer Spreads for E-Commerce Giants
December 30, 2009
by Ben Worthen
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

While online marketing speaks a lot about online location, if your business has a physical location, they you should consider your target audience as those in your community.  While targeting by location can range from mildly difficult to damn near impossible, there are some tools and tactics that should be implemented.

Firstly, age old outlets like a local business associations and Better Business Bureau have made the transition into the digital world.  Getting placement on their websites could do more for your business any many of the large-scale social networks that don’t have a locality focus.

Even bigger for your business could be map placement.  Googlemaps had become the standard by which people find businesses they need around them.  Luckily for you, Google offers free listings for local businesses on their maps.  You can register for this at Google’s Local Business Center.  Beyond giving local businesses free listings, they also update you on your listing, and even offer analytical insight on how often your listing is viewed and clicked.

If it seems like I am writing a lot about Google products, it is because I am.  Lately it seems like Google has become a factory of clever ideas trying to one-up and out maneuver their competition.  Whether it be Google Squared, (I’ll write about this when its up), set to take on Wolfram-Alpha, or Google Wave, which could end up revolutionizing group projects online, Google is always up to something.

This time it’s Google’s Web Elements.  For those of you who read my blog article on Google Friend Connect Social Bar, this is very closely related.  Simply put, rather than having to reinvent the wheel when you want to add basic functions to your website, you can get them pre-fabricated by Google.  This includes:  Calendar, Conversation, Maps, Custom Search, Video, Presentations, News, and Spreadsheets.  So This is how easy it is:  You want to add a calendar?  click on the calendar on the Web Elements page, type in the the size, links to content, whatever they ask.  Then Google prepares a custom javascript snippet that you can cut and paste into your code.  Couldn’t be any easier!  Check it out for yourself.

While creating duplicate content intentionally as a means to bolster search engine rankings has long been punished by google, some people are being penalized for duplicate content would did not know they were commiting the offense.  This happens when you use the same web  content on multiple or sub-domains.   If this doesn’t make sense, essentially, if you have www.website.com, www.subdomain.website.com, and subdomain.website.com, you could (not always) unknowingly be penalized in google, and other search engine, ranking.  

Google has come up with a nifty way to avoid this.  In their webmaster tools, you can submit a preferred URL by which your site will be indexed.  This means that rather than going through all your (repeated) content, they will index your preferred version, which will keep search results consistent, and save you from getting penalized.  Google spells this out and more details on their Webmaster Blog.

If you look to the right of this post you may notice a little box standing out.  This is the Google Friend Connect Social Bar.  While Google Connect thus far hasn’t proven to be much a useful tool, the Social Bar is an interesting concept.  Essentially this box allows you to see which of your contacts are visiting the same sites as you.  Also, it can reveal people who visit the same sites as you.  Essentially it can help you build a social network around the websites you use, which has a definite value added that other social networks have yet to address.  

Want to add the Social Bar to your website?  Google makes it rediculously easy.  You simply go to their Friend Connect page and edit the look of your Social Bar.  When you are done they give you custom javascript code, which you simply input in your website code, according to where you want it placed.  It doesn’t get much easier than that!  This is a great tool for those also working to build community around their website.  While it may not be the most useful tool at this point, the underlying technology is definitely something we will be seeing more of.