tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:46:33 +0000Y-Times Bloghttp://www.ytimes.blog/noreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)Blogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-662457263655517702Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:21:00 +00002019-10-22T09:21:46.950-07:00With the holiday shopping season fast approaching it's a good idea to do a general checkup on your store to be sure it's ready for prime time. Below are a few things you would want to check, along with a few add-ons that are not too major in scope, but which are often neglected and give you an edge over your competition. Can you Search and Order? Every time we do anything major in a store we http://www.ytimes.blog/2019/10/pre-season-checkup.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-5418198117240167369Sat, 17 Nov 2018 02:06:00 +00002018-11-20T11:34:54.671-08:00At Y-Times we roll out new designs, redesigns and other major upgrades to Yahoo stores on a fairly regular basis. Some of the main questions our clients ask are how to prepare for a roll-out and what to expect in terms of SEO and conversions when the changes go live? For any functional Yahoo store how well the site ranks and how well it converts are probably the two most important metrics. Sincehttp://www.ytimes.blog/2018/11/what-to-expect-when-your-redesign-goes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-8711995325374132764Sat, 27 Oct 2018 18:54:00 +00002018-10-27T11:54:59.995-07:00Google announced in March of 2018 that they would start migrating sites for mobile-first indexing. By now, presumably this process has been complete and mobile-first indexing is the standard for Google's crawlers. You most likely have received an email from Google that mobile-first indexing has been enabled for your site. What does this mean? Historically, Googlebot (Google's web crawler) http://www.ytimes.blog/2018/10/googles-mobile-first-indexing-what-does.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-1433143110942739131Sun, 14 Oct 2018 19:12:00 +00002018-10-15T20:26:40.304-07:00I was introduced to "bookmarklets" by my friend, Rob Snell, many years ago at one of the Yahoo Store conferences and they are indispensable tools in my daily work on Yahoo stores. What are "bookmarklets"? As the name suggests, bookmarklets are kind of like bookmarks in your browser, except instead of leading to a web page, they execute a small piece of JavaScript code on the current page. This http://www.ytimes.blog/2018/10/bookmarklets-for-yahoo-store.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-5222194362223817477Wed, 18 Apr 2018 01:52:00 +00002018-04-17T18:52:54.056-07:00This is one of those minor, recurring questions I'm always asked (each year): to update the copyright year in sites. Whether this is the "right thing" to do or not I don't know, but here is how you can make it automatic: First, go to the Variables page (these instructions are for Yahoo! Stores), and do a search for the word "copyright" or the year that's currently displayed next to your http://www.ytimes.blog/2018/04/auto-update-copyright-year.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7744394710729060035Sat, 24 Feb 2018 04:17:00 +00002018-02-24T12:01:34.503-08:00With Google getting more and more aggressive about wanting web sites to be quick to load (particularly on mobile), we often find ourselves trying to find even the smallest of tweaks to nudge up that page speed score even if by a tiny bit. Here is a quick trick you can do completely on your own, without having to ask a developer, that will probably bump up your Google PageSpeed score by a couple http://www.ytimes.blog/2018/02/really-quick-trick-to-improve-page-load.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7169408076627864873Fri, 10 Nov 2017 01:57:00 +00002017-11-09T18:02:03.913-08:00Now that hopefully most of you you have your stores secured (if not and need help, we offer a Secure Storefront Preparation Service here), you may have been faced with the question of how to reference files (images, CSS, JavaScript, src) if those files are stored on your Yahoo! store's web hosting account. Obviously using the old HTTP: method won't work, so something like this < img src="httphttp://www.ytimes.blog/2017/11/referencing-files-from-yahoo-web.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-6506566998431357203Tue, 29 Aug 2017 19:28:00 +00002018-01-19T12:29:26.824-08:00You probably received an email from Google announcing that starting in October of 2017, sites that cannot be accessed via HTTPS will be flagged in Chrome as not secure. This is part of Google's push to make the entire Internet secure. To answer this call, Yahoo is working hard on making HTTPS available to all stores and it should be available shortly; definitely well before the deadline set by http://www.ytimes.blog/2017/08/get-your-store-ready-for-https.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-8733289336141557645Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:47:00 +00002017-08-10T09:47:12.710-07:00Way back when - I'm not sure if this is still true today - when you signed up for a new Yahoo! Store account, before you could do anything in your new store, there was a brief tutorial on how to use the editor. Part of this tutorial showed you how to create sections (category pages), sub-sections (sub-category pages), and items (product pages), thereby introducing to the new store owner or user http://www.ytimes.blog/2017/08/yahoo-store-contents-tree-optimization.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-5698663761201741287Tue, 08 Mar 2016 02:24:00 +00002016-03-10T12:44:32.507-08:00We're continuing to get tons of questions to explain the difference between responsive, adaptive and dedicated mobile.  This tells me there's still quite a lot of confusion on what these all are and which one might be best for you to choose. What are the differences? Dedicated Mobile: a dedicated mobile site is entirely separate from the desktop site with a separate URL, most http://www.ytimes.blog/2016/03/responsive-adaptive-dedicated-mobile.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-1777684862646219797Mon, 30 Nov 2015 16:00:00 +00002015-11-30T08:00:09.785-08:00Spice up your Yahoo! Store for the holiday season with these three great but underused features. Rollover Thumbnails Category pages typically show a smaller (thumbnail) version of the product (or sub-category) in some kind of a grid-like arrangement. These thumbnails, by definition, are rather small so you have to make sure those images are detailed and interesting enough to entice the http://www.ytimes.blog/2015/11/rollover-thumbnail-and-lazyload.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-3447623238817298927Tue, 13 Oct 2015 21:39:00 +00002015-10-13T14:39:53.659-07:00No doubt most of you know by know about the impending spin-off of Yahoo Small Business as a new company called Luminate. Today, Yahoo sent out a Questions and Answers document (https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-small-business/SLN26667.html) which has quite a bit of useful info, but we did receive a number of inquiries from our clients because, understandably, they are anxious about these http://www.ytimes.blog/2015/10/no-doubt-most-of-you-know-by-know-about.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-6022184881115116282Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:38:00 +00002015-10-13T11:38:51.728-07:00It’s a humbling privilege to be the voice of this week’s YTimes newsletter.  My name is Julia Fowler and I’ve enjoyed numerous opportunities over the past decade to exchange personally with many of you in Yahoo’s Small Business community, but it’s been an especial privilege to have partnered with Istvan for the past several years as his Chief Creative Officer and Lead Designer.   http://www.ytimes.blog/2015/10/8-advantageous-predictions-for-website.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-977844604189964430Fri, 13 Mar 2015 16:59:00 +00002015-03-13T10:10:01.879-07:00Ytimes' owner, Istvan Siposs, has graciously invited me to craft our company's email newsletter for this week. For those of you who I have yet to exchange with, I am Drea Solan (pronounced “Dray”), and have worked with Istvan for several years, serving in a blended role of E-Commerce Consultant/Partner and Project Manager for YTimes.  Over the years I have spoken to several hundred http://www.ytimes.blog/2015/03/rush-to-responsive-revisited.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-1907116268477924813Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:57:00 +00002015-02-09T10:57:03.098-08:00Mobile traffic/e-commerce is here to stay. Three to five years ago mobile e-commerce was a small blip on analytics screens. Back then analysts predicted the trend to grow, and early adapters jumped the gun and either went for a dedicated mobile solution (in addition to their main site,) or a mobile app. Responsive design was really not part of the every day conversation among online http://www.ytimes.blog/2015/02/you-cant-afford-not-to-have-mobile.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-5645061740121416818Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:28:00 +00002015-01-05T17:38:13.539-08:00If you have a customized Yahoo! Store, chances are you are at least somewhat familiar with the “files library” in the store editor. The “files library” (“lib” for short) is an area where you can store files; all kinds of files such as images, css files, JavaScript files, videos, etc. You can access this area from your editor by clicking the “Files” button in your editor toolbar. Storing files inhttp://www.ytimes.blog/2015/01/quick-way-to-give-your-yahoo-store.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7637546331995122811Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:31:00 +00002013-09-26T11:31:29.642-07:00Does the time it takes to publish your store seem like an eternity? While a long publish time is usually caused by inefficiently written templates or very large number of pages in the store (or the combination of both), if you notice that the publish process seems to spend a lot of time at “Writing Library Files” or “Sending files to servers”, it may be time to do a “spring cleaning” in your http://www.ytimes.blog/2013/09/clean-out-your-files-library.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7920869090286690271Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:18:00 +00002012-11-30T17:18:25.116-08:00As you may know, you can easily put HTML tags in your editor fields, such as the caption field, or the message field on the home page, or even in the head-tags variable, etc. I always encourage my clients to feel free to use some minimal formatting they may want to include in these fields, because doing so is relatively easy and really shouldn't require hiring a professional to do so. I always http://www.ytimes.blog/2012/11/avoid-bad-html.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-2062425944249593921Sun, 19 Aug 2012 00:08:00 +00002012-08-18T17:08:29.874-07:00I'm helping a friend getting up and running with her brand new Yahoo Store, and we have a ton of high definition, high res product images. Besides the fact that images that are over 3 or 4,000 pixels tall or wide are really not very practical on screen, they are also way over the maximum parameters allowed by the Yahoo Store editor (parameters are: no more than 2,000 pixels in width or height, nohttp://www.ytimes.blog/2012/08/batch-converting-images.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-3343232632458395068Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:46:00 +00002015-08-28T09:19:32.557-07:00I get these questions from time to time about upgrading from legacy store to Merchant Solutions, vs upgrading a V2 template set to V3, so apparently this is still a confusing topic. The two are two completely separate issues/topics. First of all, how can you tell if you have a legacy store? This is pretty easy, when you log into your store manager, it will say "Store" next to your store's namehttp://www.ytimes.blog/2012/08/upgrading-to-merchant-solutions-vs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7550088921471636285Sat, 19 May 2012 18:10:00 +00002012-05-19T11:10:54.831-07:00Catalog Manager (for non-legacy Yahoo Stores) provides a nicer, easier to use interface to update your products. You can sort and page through your items, look for items using simple and advanced searches, or edit or delete multiple items at once, tasks that are not very easily done in the store editor. If you ever work in Catalog Manager, you may also have noticed the "Publish" button there. http://www.ytimes.blog/2012/05/dont-publish-your-catalog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-2363524939223111085Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:57:00 +00002011-09-05T10:57:07.309-07:00As indicated in Yahoo Small Business's recent blog post of upcoming features, the long-awaited "incremental publish" feature is being rolled out this month. They are going server by server, so some merchants will see the change sooner then others. What is incremental publish? Incremental publish keeps track of what pages you edited and changed since the last time you published the store. http://www.ytimes.blog/2011/09/yahoo-store-incremental-publish-being.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7260394737514470652Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:24:00 +00002011-06-27T14:07:46.209-07:00Although the Yahoo! Floating Cart is considered pretty much bug free by Yahoo (you can look at the official open issues list here http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/floatingcart/floatingcart-09.html) , there are some pretty "interesting" issues still, so since I keep running into them, I decided to post them here along with the work-arounds. The following issues all occur with http://www.ytimes.blog/2011/06/multi-add-and-yahoo-floating-cart-blues.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-7937428417705977000Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:11:00 +00002011-06-08T13:22:09.072-07:00I get this question often. Or variations of it such as "is it safe to expand my site to 1200px now?"According to W3Scools, as of January of this year, about 13% of all internet users are still on 1024x768, which is a high enough proportion to make me play it safe and set the max width at 980px so that these folks can see the site OK. If you go any higher, these people will have to scroll sidewayshttp://www.ytimes.blog/2011/06/what-screen-resolution-should-i-use.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674040521740580677.post-8107141916000378412Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:37:00 +00002009-10-23T11:29:41.630-07:00In a non-legacy Yahoo Store, there are two ways to add custom fields: through Catalog Manager under "Manage my Tables" and through the Store Editor, under "Types" (the Store Editor's "Types" are essentially the same as Catalog Manager's "Tables".) Whether you add custom fields from Catalog Manager or from the Store Editor does make a difference as each has its advantages as well as http://www.ytimes.blog/2009/10/adding-custom-yahoo-store-fields.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs)2