A new online store - Kythese Adair
We've been working with Kythese for a little while now. Kythese Adair is a company that is "synonymous with style, elegance and innovative fashion charm".
Looking at a new online store to present their wares to Fashion and Jewellery boutique's throughout Australia and New Zealand, Efront was able to help Kythese Adair not only update their look and feel but deliver an entire new administration and workflow with their site. The new site allows the team at Kythese Adair to update their products on the fly, adding new images, pricing, weight and freight all from the comfort of their web browser.
Kythese Adair is unique in that it presents the same products to retailers and wholesalers. Once a wholesaler logs into the site, their able to access information specific to them, the entire site though remaining accessible to both types of customers.
It's always great working with people who are passionate about their business and Kythese and her team are absolutely no exception. They love what they do and it's been a pleasure putting together the website, online store and blog for them.
It's been a big couple of weeks and we've got more on the way....have an excellent weekend peoples :)
Mark
Labels: Online-Stores, web-design, website
Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008
Sankofa Online Store
We're happy to announce that our newest online store has gone live!
www.sankofa.com.au
Sankofa is an on-line store for quality, handmade ethically traded products. Here you will find traditional and contemporary textiles, beautifully handcrafted baskets, homewares and accessories, jewellery, children’s clothing, toys and beads, as well as delicious fair trade coffee and chocolate.
We had a great time working with Kym from Sankofa over the last couple of months. As the products have come in, Kym has been getting images, working them through Photoshop and adding great copy on all her products. The store is hooked up directly Westpac and their Web Advantage system, assuring secure, trouble free transactions. Kym is supporting the launch of her store at various markets, you can currently catch her at the Suzuki Night Market, Wednesday nights in December!
We wish her all the best with Sankofa and will continue to support her online!
6 sleeps to go!
Mark,
Labels: African, Fair-trade, Online-Stores, shopping-online, Web-Design-Melbourne, westpac
Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Cliffhanger Online Store Revamp
We're pleased to announce the launch this week of the new Cliffhanger Climbing Gym Online store. After 4 years on the old store model, the revamped store gives Tim from Cliffhanger more flexibility and control of his products, discounts and orders. If you get a second why not drop by and check it out
Labels: Online-Stores, web-design, web-development
Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2007
Web Design Melbourne - Page 1 in Google!
We're pleased to say that we've finally achieved our goal of a first page ranking in Google for "Web Design Melbourne" within Australia.
We've focussed on these 3 keyword variations for quite some time now. Here's an approximate progress timeline.
June 06 - Beyond the first 100 pages of results for Web Design Melbourne
Nov 06 - Within first 15 pages
Jan 07 - Within first 3 pages
March 07 - Second page of results
The job is not complete by any means. Rankings change, and it takes work to maintain a position. Sometimes your position may slip because of changes other people make to their websites.
Our Google ranking strategy takes time, patience and focus. Our online stores are built with search engine optimisation in mind. The online store system takes care of the critical elements such as page titles, urls and meta data automatically. Website content is just as critical - so we set up a process for owners to add their content and news without having to know the technical stuff.
Either way, we're chuffed.
David
Labels: a-better-google-ranking, design, Online-Stores, SEO, web-development
Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2007
Web statistics, myths and mysteries : beyond hits and page views
In the past, it was easy to get confused about web stats. You could find websites that would talk of having 250,000 "hits" a month, hits being a wildly inaccurate way to monitor traffic....why? Because if I have a page with some text and five images, when you load that page in your browser it counts as six hits, one for the page and five for the images.
Nielsen NetRatings' (a global marketing company that records large site traffic) then moved to looking at page views. This moved away from hits and took into consideration how many pages were viewed by a visitor. Unique visitors (my page views as opposed to yours) then started to be termed as your sites 'Reach' and would separate unique visitors and their page views, using these two as the main statistical measurement out there.
It helped large sites understand how many people were visiting. Whilst reach and page views gave advertisers an ability to sell online, underpinning the first dot-com boom and still being a massive resource today. In Australia alone, online advertising spend topped $1 billion in 2007.
With the arrival of new web technologies like Ajax, the page itself doesn't reload but the content still changes. Thus making page views obsolete (see example here - click on any of the tabs across the top of the page, same page, new content). A visitor can look at dozens of new content sections, but the page they're visiting remains the same! To help combat this, Nielsen has just released 'Total Time' counts, which account for how long a visitor spends on a page and has removed or killed off page views. Total Time is better than anything before, but still....how many times do you browse to a page, get distracted, go to a meeting or lunch and and leave the browser open?
I don't know if there is a fair way to monitor web traffic perfectly but I think it's getting better. Regardless of some of the failings, people should be looking at their statistics. It's really important to look at your site past the date of launch. At Efront, we try and work with our clients past the launch of their store, site or blog to make sure they are getting the best return they can from it. This includes making sure that the content is updated regularly, utilising marketing tools like email subscription services and checking back on their statistics. All of the hosting services we offer include comprehensive statistical information that make this easier and let our clients tailor their content and their message to suit their audience.
My rant for the day is over :) Get in touch if you've got any questions or if you'd like to see how we can help you get more out of your online presence...
All the best,
Mark
Labels: Online-Stores, statistics, Web-Hosting, Web-statistics
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Online Store Launch
A quick note to welcome our newest online store Jewelry Zoo!
Jewelry Zoo has an amazing collection of unique jewellery. Now you can buy that perfect piece of tribal or unique jewellery without having to travel across the world!
The original Jewelry Zoo store was a template based model which we've completely redesigned from the ground up. One of the challenges is not losing valuable links already in Google. With a little bit of creative thinking we developed a work around that would allow for the existing active Google links to redirect to the new URL. This has helped make for a smooth transition.
It's been great working with the Jewelry Zoo team and integrating a number of new features into the online store model. The Jewelry Zoo online store works with the St George integrated payments gateway - so credit cards are processed automatically on checkout.
All up, we're really proud with the result!
If you'd like to talk to us about a new online shop you're planning, or would like to see the options for migrating your current store - give us a call on 1300 EFRONT.
All the best,
David
Labels: AJAX, Online-Stores
Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Welcome to Sankofa
It's the end of a busy week and it's nice to welcome our newest online store client Sankofa.
Sankofa is a mythical West African bird symbolising the importance of learning from the past in moving to the future. It's a great on-line shop selling ethically traded textiles and handcrafts and handicrafts that respect traditional techniques in creating designs for the future.
We're looking forward to working with Kym on producing a fantastic online presence.
David
Labels: Online-Stores, Web-Hosting
Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007
Online Store Tour
Making things really simple and elegant takes time and effort.
We've spent the last 4 years evolving our online store product so that it has all the features you and your customers need without getting in their way.
We've learned a lot about the process and know how to integrate marketing and search engine optimsation into the core of your store.
Let's face it, if it's to hard - you're going to frustrate customers.
Why not take a quick 3 minute guided tour of our some of our recent stores and see or yourself.
Labels: Online-Stores, Search-Engine-Optimisation, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007
Pure Destiny Online Store Opens!
Pure Destiny have been an Efront client for almost 8 years and was one of our first clients to use our first online store product. A lot of things have changed over this time in terms of web technology and search engine optimisation.
We're pleased to announce that Pure Destiny have just consolidated their web site into a brand new online store. This online shop has really nice features from a customer and owner perspective. Using the latest AJAX technology, this store makes online shopping a real pleasure.
The built in search engine optimisation means that over time, Pure Destiny's products will rank higher in Google than they ever have before. Each page, is stacked with relevant keywords in meta tags, page titles, and urls to give it the best chance of success in Google.
A dynamic sitemap registered directly with Google means that as soon as a new product is created it's ready for Google to pickup through it regular crawl.
While they are still stacking the virtual shelves - why not visit Pure Destiny Aromatics and see for yourself.
This latest store offering has received a great response. We have a few more stores coming on line in the next 8 weeks - if you'd like to find out more, or get a demo, just drop us a line.
All the best,
David
Labels: AJAX, Online-Stores, Search-Engine-Optimisation
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007
Nan & Pop Records
It's always ace when you get to blog about a new client, especially when you're excited about the concept and the company. Nan and Pop Records are all this and more. They've got some great acts coming and we're especially excited to be helping the old fellas get their gear online.
Efront is looking forward to working with Saskia and Justin on their new site. Watch this space!
All the best,
Mark
Labels: Online-Stores, Web-Design-Melbourne, Web-Hosting
Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2007
A new online store in Melbourne!
Ok, so we've been talking about it for a while - but it's finally here!
Our newest online store offering has just been completed and we're really pleased with the result. The first store launched under the new design is Crimson Home and Giftware.
This store uses AJAX technology to make the online shopping experience not only fast, but extremely simple. Minimising page reloads and giving the site a streamlined feel. The site also incorporates a postage calculator that's seemlessly linked up with Australia Post.
Search engine optimisation has been built in from the beginning with this site. Page titles, urls, Google sitemaps, keywords, descriptions, and image names are all dynamically generated from the product information entered by the store owner. This means as Google indexes the site over the next few months it will have the best chance of a good ranking.
We've also incorporated a Google Blog into the site. You wouldn't know it by looking at it as we've reskinned the default design templates so they have the same look and feel as the rest of the site. This allows the owners to add news and updates to the site and build up content (including RSS) to help further improve their rankings.
If you get a chance, try out the search function on the site - it's pretty addictive...
We're also pleased to announce that the store has received a Platinum Award from the Web Designers Network of Australia for design, usability and functionality.
Labels: AJAX, Crimson-Home-Giftware, Online-Stores, RSS, Search-Engine-Optimisation
Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Top Google Ranking
It takes time, focus and patience but a great Google ranking is possible.
Kerry Smolarek was selling her chocolate making supplies on eBay 12 months ago. While things were going ok, the amount of time it took to list items, handle sales not to mention the increasing fees, highlighted the need to find a better way to do business online. Another important aspect of moving from eBay is the intellectual property. Owning your own online store means you are not handcuffed to Ebay's pricing or sales policies - and you have a tangible piece of online real estate - hey, let's call it efront-age... :)
Ok enough about all that, I could go on about eBay but....
The Chocart online store has been built from scratch with search engines in mind. Any time Kerry adds a product or category, a number of things happen in the background to make life easier for the search engines, giving her the best chance of a better and broader ranking. Kerry has been diligent in adding recipies and news to the general area of her site - demonstrating to search engines that Chocart is an authority in the area of chocolate making.
Chocart now commands a number 1 ranking for "Chocolate making supplies" on Google.com.au - See for yourself!
While we're happy with this result, we've been busy improving our store model and we're just taking the bubble wrap off version 3. This online store not only looks stunning, but in terms of usability from a customer and owner point of view is a major step forward - all things going well, we should be able to give you a look in the next week.
Our online store design philosophy is simple - keep the focus on the products and make shopping easy. This means don't clutter the space, avoiding animated objects that distract attention and confuse - guide the visitor, don't make them have to work. It's amazing to see how many online shops make you register with them before you can even add something to your shopping cart....
Congratulations Kerry!
David
Labels: Chocart, Google, Online-Stores, Search-Engine-Optimisation, SEO, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007