IT Laboratory » Blog http://www.it-laboratory.com Websites | Web design | eCommerce | SEO Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:13:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Software Veterans Michel Goossens and Jary Carter join Magento to Spearhead Global Expansion http://www.it-laboratory.com/software-veterans-michel-goossens-and-jary-carter-join-magento-to-spearhead-global-expansion.html http://www.it-laboratory.com/software-veterans-michel-goossens-and-jary-carter-join-magento-to-spearhead-global-expansion.html#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:13:58 +0000 IT Laboratory http://www.it-laboratory.com/software-veterans-michel-goossens-and-jary-carter-join-magento-to-spearhead-global-expansion.html


I must start this post with a sincere thank-you to the entire Magento community – customers, partners, developers and employees. You have all played an instrumental role in the remarkable growth we have experienced over the past year. We forecast a 300 percent growth in sales in 2010 with over 60,000 live Magento sites around the world built for the world’s best brands, the largest retailers and ecommerce innovators. To support this explosive growth we now have over 180 employees worldwide dedicated to supporting this growth trajectory.

Today, we are very proud to announce the appointment of Michel Goossens as vice president and general manager of Magento’s EMEA operations and Jary Carter as vice president of N. America sales operations. Michel and Jary bring extensive industry experience and knowledge to Magento and both are strong and innovative leaders.

Michel joins us from Red Hat, where he was vice president EMEA of the organization’s JBoss division and Jary comes to us from Alfresco (open source enterprise content management software) where he was the Americas director of channels. You can seem more details in the press release below.

All of us here are very excited about Magento’s growth and are focused on our mission of ‘enabling the ecommerce ecosystem’ and driving your success with Magento.

Read the official press release

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]]> http://www.it-laboratory.com/software-veterans-michel-goossens-and-jary-carter-join-magento-to-spearhead-global-expansion.html/feed 0 How To Silo Your Website:The Sidebar http://www.it-laboratory.com/how-to-silo-your-websitethe-sidebar.html http://www.it-laboratory.com/how-to-silo-your-websitethe-sidebar.html#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:44:08 +0000 IT Laboratory http://www.it-laboratory.com/how-to-silo-your-websitethe-sidebar.html


Post image for How To Silo Your Website:The Sidebar

The following post is part of a series on How to Silo Your Website. You should review, How to Silo Your Website the Masthead, How to Silo Your Website the Breadcrumb, How to Silo Your Website the Content. For this part, we’ll be taking a look at the sidebar.

You want to keep the sidebar content dynamic …

IMHO the sidebar is the second most abused and misused part of a website (the footer is the most abused which we’ll talk about in a later article). The sidebar is so abused because people stick too much third party content, widgets, social blocks, and simply too many links. In the past year I have worked on 5 client sites with between 300-500 links in the sidebar. No, that’s not a typo. That’s over 300 links in just the sidebar.

My first bit of advice: do some click tracking to see what people are clicking on. I like to use crazyegg (full disclosure: they are an advertiser, but I used them before they became one) or similar service that actually tracks X/Y coordinates on a page. See what people are clicking on and remove the elements that people don’t use.

Next make sure links to your most popular pages/content/products are there. Resist the temptation to go overboard. 10 is a good number; 15 is as much as I would recommend. If you are in a shopping environment, links to the main departments or categories is also a good idea. If you use faceted navigation (ie product/category links that change based on where you are or your last click), be careful. If the links are straight with no URL parameters, you have nothing to worry about. If the links change and pass parameters you are better off using no-follow. This isn’t to conserve page rank: it’s to prevent creating an infinite site from a search engine perspective. Using the rel=canonical tag is a good back up, but bandaid solutions are no substitute for bad architecture. You never want to leave thinking or decision making to chance with an algo.

Remove links to your service pages (privacy, contact, tos, etc) unless you need them for visual aesthetic (to balance out the content section). In fact, you want to reduce and remove as many links as you possibly can. We aren’t trying to conserve link equity but to control where it goes. It’s a slight but subtle difference.

If you are selling advertising, have affiliate links, or other banner-type content, this is probably where it is. If it’s what pays the bills and keeps the site running, keep it; if doesn’t convert then remove it.

If you have the ability to add in featured content THAT CHANGES daily, weekly, or (at the bare minimum) monthly, then do it. Also if you can add in related content links that change on a per page basis, then do it. You want to keep the sidebar content dynamic, with static and non parametric url’s. Bonus points if you can change the order based on templates or randomization.

So what are the takeaways here:

  • Reduce the number of links to a minimum.
  • Remove non essential elements, especially third party content, based on user testing.
  • Include links to related or featured content, especially if it changes.
  • Looks for ways to change or randomize content.

Next in the series: How to Silo Your Website: The Footer
Creative Commons License photo credit: Eyeshotpictures

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis WordPress Theme review.

How To Silo Your Website:The Sidebar

tla starter kit

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  3. How to Silo Your Website: The Content The following is part of the series How To Silo…
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College Football is back tonight with Utah vs. Pittsburgh. Other local games this weekend include BYU vs. Washington and Utah State vs. Oklahoma. Everything is right in the world again.

In honor of college football’s return, here are the position-by-position starters if Internet marketing strategies made up a football team:

Head Coach – Analytics and A/B Testing

The head coach analyzes everything and makes changes to improve. Analytics and testing gives you the stats, tells you what is working, where people are coming from, how long they’ve been on the site, what is bringing traffic and what converts best. Through analytics and testing, you can tweak strategies to be more successful.


Assistant Coach – Competitive Analysis

The assistant coach often scouts out the competition to know how to beat the bad guys. A detailed competitive analysis will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors so you can know how and where to strike.


Offensive Starters – Building the Brand, Getting Exposure and Outbound Marketing

Quarterback – SEO

Arguably, the quarterback position is the most important position on the field. Top quarterbacks win games despite weaknesses in other areas of the team. If you get top rankings for the right keywords, you will get more website traffic and sales. All-Pro SEO services will almost instantly make you a major player in your industry. Quarterbacks are also the face of a team. Similarly, organic natural results act as the face of your company


Running Back – Conversion Optimization

There are crucial times in any football game where a team needs 1 yard for a first down or a few inches to score a touchdown. A dependable running back will get that extra yardage almost every time. Conversion optimization plays that role for your website. Once you get that extra website traffic, you need dependable website conversion principles to take that visitor into the end zone.


Fullback – Web Design

Fullbacks are often the lead blocker that clears the way for the running back to get that extra yard. Good SEO Web design clears the way for everything else to work right.


Wide Receiver — Social Media Marketing

Fast wide receivers can change the game with one quick-striking score. Good social media marketing using viral video, infographics, blog posts, etc., can quickly send a lot of traffic and create a ton of exposure in a short period of time. Social media can be a game changer just like a flashy wide receiver that blows past the defense.


Tight End – Online Public Relations

Tight ends are instrumental in blocking for the quarterback and running backs. But they also consistently score touchdowns and get first downs in tight situations. Tight ends are critical in clutch moments whether it’s a run or pass play. Online public relations have the same dependability. Online PR doesn’t always results in a home run, but it does consistently bring good traffic quality links. And sometimes online PR scores a touchdown by getting the attention of big blogs and publications. Online PR is the go-to weapon in tight situations when you need good links, and more traffic and exposure.


Offensive Line – Keyword Research

The offensive line is the foundation of every football team. They give the quarterback time to throw and open holes for the running backs. Games are won and lost in the trenches, and they are similar won and lost with the right or wrong keyword research. Every search strategy revolves around picking the right keywords to target. Targeting the right keywords will make you a lot of money. The wrong keywords will keep you guessing and will lose you money.


Defensive Starters, Protecting Your Online Brand

Defensive Line – Reputation Management

The defensive line is the literally first line of defense. Any offense will roll over a team with a pansy D-line. For online marketing, this is similar to reputation management. It’s the foundation to defending your brand online.


Line Backer – Link Building

I chose this mostly because linebackers and link building have the same abbreviation: LB. So, you can come up with your own analogy on this one.


Corner Back – Social Media Profiles

Corner backs protect the pass and are sometimes the secret weapon on a corner blitz to reach the quarterback. I compare this to social media profiles. An active profile that provides valuable information and brings in fans, is a big part of protecting your brand and company. Social profiles are usually found high in the search engines for a company’s name. Plus, social media is all the buzz right now. In the sports world, corner backs are usually the guys with all the hype.


Safety – PPC

The Safety position is self-explanatory. The Safety has a lot of roles, but is there to basically defend wherever things break down. That’s what PPC is for. A good mix of PPC with your SEO will make sure you get the right exposure and traffic while you work on getting your SEO rankings where you want them.


Kicker/Punter – Local Search and Maps Optimization

A good kicker can nail a field goal in clutch situations or pin a team near the end zone on a good punt. Local Internet marketing places your website in the right spot for local shoppers to find your business and buy your products.


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Material Image [span]Editor’s Pick in Photoshop Tutorials[/span][br]
Create an amazing Surreal Environment Inspired by the â??Inceptionâ?? Movie in Photoshop using layer mask, image adjustments, cloud rendering and various tools.
Type: Photoshop Tutorials
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Material Image Using the color range tool in Photoshop to make accurate, local changes in your images

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Material Image If you’re hesitating to browse this article, you will surely miss some important data about domain name registration. Many articles on this subject could be found on the net however the advantage of this write-up is that it’s straightforward and simple to understand…
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Material Image In this tutorial, youâ??ll learn how introduce light streaks around your artworkâ??s subject using brushes, layer styles and line blends created in illustrator.
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Material Image This tutorial shows you how to create 3D text in Xara 3D and render it in Adobe Photoshop.
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Material Image In Part 2 of this 4-part series, Tom Green explores motion guides and motion paths in Flash CS4.

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