28 replies to this topic

[netman]

I spent nearly one month developing this game accessories site. Below is a breakdown of my efforts:

10% on layout and graphics
30% on extra modules
30% on hacking codes and bug fixing
30% on entering products.

Where do you thing I can save some time? This is my first prestashop shop. I came from Virtuemart background. It took me a few weeks to learn about the prestashop. My main experience gained from developing this sites are:

1. Learn the Prestashop structure first
2. Get to know the file structure. Find out what each file does.
3. Search this forum to learn how to hack the codes to achieve your result
4. Find addon modules to add extra features.

My site is hosted on a shared hosting account. How do you think of the speed? Is it necessory to move it to a dedicated server?

[Sarahd]

if traffic is low no need.

[venutelli]

I suggest to use SSL on the registration page.

[netman]

HI Venutelli,

What is the advantage of using ssl for registration?

[venutelli]

all serius eshops use SSL on pages with users data, have a look to amazon.com, or web email like gmail... the cost is about 80€ per year.

[netman]

Hi Sarahd,

I agree. If a site has little traffic, there is not much point making too much an effort. However, how can you know how much traffic you may have before launching a site? My belief is that a good site will generate more traffic than a bad one. I am just hoping my effort will be awarded proportionately with good traffic.

This is my first online shop. I am on a learning curve to get some customers. I am sure a lot of beginners are in the same situation. Can the experienced online shop owners provide some tips?

http://gameaccess.co.uk

[netman]

OK, shop is up and running but no sales. What can I do to get sales? How long does it take you guys to get your first sale? Or shopping sites are completely waste of time? Check my shop to see if there is anything wrong?

http://gameaccess.co.uk

[mooshi]

Hi! Netman

I few things and I agree with the other..firstly SSL is important. Customers want to know that their info is safe. Content is king! eg: for your product descriptions .On your contact form, it is good to have at least a contact address or phone.

(Yslow extension for firefox) , if you don't have it already it is a great tool to have.

Submitting Your Site to Major Search Engines & Directories

Google - http://www.google.co...ontinue=/addurl
Yahoo - http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
(Regarding Yahoo, it works differently. It require you to "Suggest your site")

http://dmoz.org/add.html - DMOZ Directory

It does take time and it won't happen over night! but you will get there ;)

[netman]

Hi amikka,

Thanks for your advice. They will put me in the right direction. May I ask you What the Etags do?
I have another question regarding sitemap submission. Is it necessory to submit it on daily basis? Have you seen the effect of daily submission. I submited the sitemap to Google a week ago. It has 1200 URLs but only 30 are indexed. How can I increase the indexed pages?

My game accessories shop has about 600 products but the sitemap created by Prestashop has 1200 URLs. Can you explain the difference?

Thanks for your help.

[mooshi]

Hi!

I'm no expert and I learn as I go, but I hope it helps.

I'm not sure about why the 600/1200 ratio, but make sure you Redirect sitename.com to www.sitename.com (or vice versa) for SEO in your htaccess.

I should explain myself about the sitemap, when ever I add new content or products I regenerate it.

Here are a couple of links to help explain about the http headers

http://developer.yah...ance/rules.html

Google webmasters tools

https://www.google.c...rs/tools/&hl=en

http://www.xml-sitem...ml-sitemap.html

Hope this helps you a bit! :)

[tomerg3]

I'm personally not a fan of google ad words, and they take a big chunk of your right column...

I would also add a filter module to the site, you have categories with over 100 products, I don't think too many people will scroll through 10 pages.

[netman]

tomerg3, thanks for your comment. What does a filter module do? Will it help improve page layout and searchability?

[enigma32]

uh... why do you even have adwords? no offense but it seems to me you have no idea what you're doing.

you're an ecommerce site. your business model is suppsoed to be based on making sales, not advertising.

let me explain:

situation 1: Someone runs a blog or review site that reviews one of the products you sell. They do not sell anything, but have a decent user base that trusts their reviews. So they put adwords ads on their site as their revenue source. adwords displays a link to said product on your site. user clicks it and buys the product, having read the great review. they make a small kickback from google, you get a sale. hooray.

situation 2: you run an ecommerce site. you list adwords ads. customer is viewing a product on your site and sees an adwords link on your same site linking to the product on another site. they click it and buy it there instead. you just gave up a sale for adwords income instead. Um.... right...

[enigma32]

which in a kinder and more blunt way, adwords is a great marketing tool for small merchants which is the key to google's success.

remove adwords. spend money on it instead.

[netman]

Enigima32, thanks for you advice. I placed the ads there purely for Google ranking. It is a new site and will take a long time to rank well. I heard that Adsense helps with ranking. I am not sure it is true or not.

[Lee]

Hi Netman,

your site looks good! It's quick loading too considering your on shared hosting, and i wouldn't say you've wasted your time on it as it doesn't look that much like a prestashop site, unlike our sites.. If you're still not getting sales or indexed as yet, I'd probably try a couple of things:

- get rid of the adsense banner like a couple other people have said, it's just losing you custom to competitors and you'll not earn much from it being there anyway, and replace it with rotating wii controller skins images or something that'll look ok sat in that space and stand out aswell, your products.

- a couple of your product images don't load at times so you might want to reupload them or check the paths, just click round the site until you see missing images and try to tidy them up.

- try £30 on adwords and see how it goes for you, it's the fastest and cheapest way to get traffic and you'll be able to see if people are comfortable buying from your site. Also if adwords works for you, you won't need to have anything to help you improve your ranking in the short term 'cos you'll be paying to be seen on the front page, assuming your keywords aren't too expensive.

all the best

[steve189]

Definitely get SSL enabled as soon as you can, it is worth a lot certainly with regards to reassuring hesitant customers.

I did have some struggles enabling SSL to work correctly on my installation of Prestashop (Version 1.2.5.0) but got there in the end... There's my thread here regarding my findings: SSL giving warnings

With regard to using AdSense ads (not AdWords which is the opposite side of the AdSense coin for using to create your own ads) I've never come across any ranking benefit at all but before you remove them, experiment with blending the colours to match into your site layout better, the default colour scheme screams ADVERT!!!

I would also disagree with those who say AdSense will drive your customers away, if your shop content is good then interested parties will not simply exit the second they see an advert. If they're not all that interested in the first place they will exit regardless and so it's better they leave via a link that'll make you a few bucks than just click their browser back button.

[netman]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your comment. I am still uncerntain about any benefits AsSense may bring. I have not seen any evidence yet. I agree with your point on leaving the AdSense on the site as long as it does not do any harm. You can see most of major online retailers display ads on their sites like Amozon and Ebay. They must do it for a reason.

I am wondering if I can replace the text "Ads by Google" with something like "our sponsors", which will make it better integrated with my site. Any idea?

My Game Accessories site

[steve189]

Hi Netman,

You can't alter the Ads by Google text in fact any alteration to their provided code is a breach of their terms and conditions of use.

Aside from the webshop I have set up using prestashop I run a website for advertising rental property in France and I have found the AdSense (due to careful optimization of the site and contents) to also be useful to my site visitors.

The site gets between 25,000 and 60,000 views per month (average time on site per visitor 8 minutes) and many, many enquiries are sent to property owners who have listings on it. For the visitors who can't find the property they're looking for the AdSense gives them an immediate obvious place to click and go. I certainly haven't found that my site visitors leave instantly because of the ads.

[J. Fernandes PT]

I don´t like the way the categories are setup in your site.

As a gamer with an Xbox 360, the easy way to navigate was something like this, IMHO:

All Platforms - Xbox 360 - Type of accessory - list of accessories of that type


Cheers