Information Technology & Social Media News

Scenttrail Note Responsive Design
I wanted a post to explain Responsive Design's SEO implications in easy clear language and this ex.no post does that beautifully. I wanted an easy explanation of WHY RESPONSIVE so I could blow your mind a little.

Responsive impacts SEO because Google wants to be relevant to mobile search. The Ez.no post explains that dimension well, but there's another dimension rarely considered - Responsive Design's impact on data architecture.

Data architecture seems a lost science. Having spent most of the December tunneling into a friend's website (http://www.Moon-Audio.com) I can tell you there is NOTHING more important than how you classify information on your site.

The tug-of-war between search spiders and people has a new dimension now - mobile people. Mobile people need FLAT design, fewer options and smaller more visual presentation. Bless WordPress for making it so easy to Accordion a site's design, but if you don't think about HOW your information will be displayed on smartphone you are nuts.

Mobile people need different kinds of presentation and design than even laptopers. Mobile people need flatter, louder and more engaging User Interfaces.They need simple connection (to friends and social nets) and swiipe-y "waterfall" content.

You can't create "waterfall content" because your blog has rsponsive design built in. You get a site that doesn't sit well in its mobile coat. Better to STOP and RESTART with MOBILE FIRST as your content marketing guide and that means:

1. Visuals tease snippets.

2. Snippets tease deeper exploration (outside to social nets or inside to Snippet Plus content).

We don't READ on mobile devices we scan, swipe and send. Look at your GPlus or Facebook timelines. What gets all the engagement?

1. Pictures.
2. Questions
3. Videos

Some content such as contests and games combine those elements with deadlines, prizes and competition (always good for mobile). Are you thinking MOBILE FIRST? Share HOW and we will write a http://www.curagami.com post about how to THINK Mobile First.

Thanks & Happy New Year. Marty

How do you build a website and marketplace to sell your products and services? Here are the 5 Best Companies for creating an eCommerce platform and marketplace.

Scenttrail Ratings
We've built stores with three of these five recommendations. Each has its good points and bad. Each is perfect for some and not so good for others. Here are our ratings:

ShopLocket
They don't mention this option, but we love the idea of being able to add a shopping cart to any piece of content without paying a big hosting operation like the 5 mentioned. If your ecommerce needs are small and located in social take a look at https://www.shoplocket.com/ .

Caveat
When you are camped on someone's ground THEY will always gain more benefit than you. The chance of a Shopify store outranking Shopify.com is zero. This issue is only a big deal for stores greater than 50,000 Stock Keeping Units and/or greater than $10M in sales. If you think you will eventually sell $10M+ you may want to create your own store / site. If you think it will take 10 years to reach $10M Shopify may be your best bet for ROI and speed. The PAIN comes when you transfer OFF of their platform, but we can discuss that at another time.

Shopify
Would be our first choice for most small to medium sized ecommerce implementations. The UI is clean and easy to understand. You can be up and running on Shopify in a matter of days. Inventory load is always the biggest pain and they have some ways around that.

Big Commerce
Sounds like Big Commerce fills the promotional hole we felt with Shopify. Most websites aren't very sophisticated in their coupons and promotions. If you are you will find Shopify limiting. Sounds like Big Commerce stepped in to fix the issue. And it can be a big issue since cross talk between offers and coupons can cause a train wreck. If you are sophisticated enough to make free shipping, % off and BOGO offers you may want to use Big Commerce.

Volusion
I wasn't wild about Volusion, but can't remember why. The security stuff the review mentions is marginally important. If you need highly secure ecommerce maybe they are better, but their inner-workings didn't seem as friendly as Shopify or as promotional savvy as Big Commerce.

Magento GO
I built our Story of Cancer store (now down) on Go and was impressed with the powerful business rules they include. Less than 10% of ecommerce sites need such power, but if you do Magento Go is probably your best bet. This is the power to say on a rainy Wednesday you want the price on yellow tops to be down10% when pared with shoes A, B or C. The cross-sale and up-sale wigets are powerful. The promotion, free shipping and coupons are powerful (once you figure out the convoluted logic and that problem is endemic).

Presta Shop
I don't know this option and am suspicious of FREE. Free is a risk because things go BUMP in the night on ecom sites. If you aren't a techie or don't have a techie working for you its good to have someone to call or email in an emergency like if you are bleeding personal information all over the web (say for an example lol). My concern here would be can the code keep up with needed changes (since how do they make money) and is it secure since security thanks to crazed hackers can be a real moveable feast (and I only meant "crazed hackers" in the nicest of ways so to do or say otherwise risks a "just because" attack, you know the attacks they launch just because they can).