March is a wonderful time of year: the snow finally begins the melt off, the birds and squirrels start making their way into the foreground again and the blue skies give us hope that something new is just around the corner.

In e-commerce the feeling about this time of year is much the same. Most of us are finally over the residue and left over ’stuff’ from the holidays, we’re starting to notice there are issues to address and realize it’s time to start thinking forward again. In this vein I say “out with the old, in with the Yahoo!”

March is a super time of year to clean up your store – analyze what worked this past season and what really needs to be improved for the seasons ahead. In your analysis consider the following items: your Yahoo! Store Design, overall aesthetic, general usability and functionality. After all we’re looking for conversion – right? Think about the customers you have serviced this past year and the obstacles you ran into along the way. Consider any feedback you received from your them – what were their experiences and how could you improve upon those.

Yahoo! Stores offer an unlimited number of e-commerce solutions and SEOwhat provides all those with a spin most other companies cannot. We have the added advantage of having not only a stellar in-house design team especially training to build Yahoo! Store Designs but we design your store with the power of Search Engine Optimization that’s not out of the box. Our methods are tried and true and tailored specifically for your application.

So, don’t waste another moment stuck in the snow, pick up your spring cleaning gear and utilize the power of now to improve your Yahoo! Store.

Today I’d like to talk to you about the importance of breadcrumbs.  Not the kind that linger around the toaster when you make your breakfast but the kind that reside on your website!  :)  Meaning, breadcrumbs – a set of backlinks that show your visitor their current location in your Store.  It’s really helpful because it leaves a trail of links, to that exact page.  Take a look at the screenshot and you’ll see what I mean.  Breadcrumbs are also helpful for SEO reasons.

If you don’t have breadcrumbs on your site but would see the necessity and want to add them, purchase our Breadcrumbs Enhancement.

Yahoo! Store is a very SEO friendly platform.  One of the things that you can do for your Store to clean up the code for Google is to remove the alt tag “pad” from the spacer images.  If you’re noticing that some of your organic listings have the word “pad” in them – this is item that you’ll need to fix that! :)

This is specifically for Stores that are still using Store Editor v2. v3 stores won’t need this.

via Remove PAD Alt Tag.

Follow-through is one of the highest ranking expectations of online shoppers today and your website speaks volumes about the type of experience your customers should expect. Websites that are current speak volumes about a company’s attention to detail and service – loose ends on your website unfortunately make potential customers feel as though they may be loose ends in your service as well.

Many websites make the mistakes of not valuing the customer experience from start to finish. Lots of time and effort generally is invested into the homepage and front ends of a website, while it is essential to present your most valuable commodities and assets up front, don’t let the visitor down by a less-than or confusing purchasing experience. The truth is that many conversions are lost simply because customers are either frustrated or simply turned off by a websites checkout process. It is important that you gather all the required information you need to complete the sale but it doesn’t have to be difficult or boring.

Consider having a non-basis third party walk through your website’s entire process from start to finish and give you some feedback about what their experience was: where pieces were missing, confusing, frustrating, etc. Then consider implementing some of their valid ideas into your website. Maybe some small, but important details might just help your user experience increase and result in a boost in your sales.