This is part of a series designed to help businesses discover the best content management system (CMS) for their website’s needs and goals. We will break down broad CMS concepts as well as review specific CMS platforms over the course of this blog series.

Last month we jumped into the open-source versus proprietary content management system (CMS) debate. For this second installment of our investigation we are going to be diving right into the weeds of an individual CMS: Magento. Magento happens to be one of the most popular and most robust eCommerce platforms available on the market today. Part of that popularity comes from the flexibility it offers by existing in two different versions—Magento Community and Magento Enterprise.

Magento Community is the every man’s version of the software. Community is an open source platform that can be downloaded for free—three cheers for free! There is a large network of developers that can build and expand upon its free code base. Community is considered robust because it has a wide range of application extensions that can simplify everything from inventory management and shipping options to customer registration and account creation.

Magento Enterprise is the “high end” solution. Enterprise is more secure and reliable with more add-on features than can be found in the Community edition. Many large eCommerce companies would require the added stability and support that comes along with Magento Enterprise. That said a Magento Enterprise license comes with an annual price tag of just over $15,000—which is significantly more than free.

Magento Enterprise edition is a great piece of software and an easy to use, dynamic, CMS designed for companies that are managing tens of thousands of products online. Since we find the majority of eCommerce websites don’t require all of the features and functionalities that come with that price tag this post will focus primarily on the Community edition.

How is Magento used online currently?

According to BuiltWith, as of June 22, 2015, Magento is the CMS for a total of over 23% of the top 100,000 eCommerce sites they track. This goes to show what a huge player Magento is in the digital marketplace today but how did we get here?

Magento was a product produced by Varien, a company that came onto the map in the early 2000’s as an eCommerce company and consulting agency. Magento became a stand alone in 2010 when eBay invested heavily in the software. In 2011 eBay acquired Magento for upwards of $180 million and has been pushing the platform ever since. This dedication to Magento is why it continues to be one of the most rapidly adopted content management systems for eCommerce with no reason to expect that growth to slow.

Growth and popularity is great for Magento, but does that mean this platform work for well you? If you don’t have an online storefront for eCommerce, then probably not. You can stop reading now. But, if you’re looking for a CMS that will make it easier for your users to buy online let’s continue on and examine some of the reasons for and against this highly revered piece of software.

Why Magento Might be the CMS For You

Magento as a CMS was developed with eCommerce in mind. Not only that, but it touts itself as having been developed by marketers and business owners. They believe this separates Magento from the majority of open-source platforms that were designed primarily by developers. Magento was designed with user experience, marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and reporting as the primary objectives instead of a sleek beautiful code.

Does this come through in the final product? In my opinion it definitely does.

Pros of the Magento CMS for Ecommerce

• Magento has more options for SEO and reporting – No competitor I know of on the marketplace has more out of the box eCommerce features. Not only does Magento Community come with loads of tools out of the box but it is extremely scalable with a large community of developers working to build out and expand the reach of their websites every day.
• Magento is Open-Source – The community edition is FREE. Have I not said that yet? Everyone loves free. The other major benefit to open-source is the strong development community keeping it up to date and expanding every day. You won’t have to look far to find support for your Magento website.
• Simple integrations – When running an eCommerce store you will need to be integrated to more systems than you can shake a stick at. Luckily Magento has you covered. With prebuilt interfaces to a multitude of ERP systems, payment portals, shipping and tracking options, inventory databases and much more. Magento easily has the most out of the box integrations to make running your digital storefront as easy as possible.
• Multiple storefront management – This is a big one for some companies. Magento can run multiple online storefronts from one single dashboard. If your company has more than one online store you should heavily consider using Magento. Your webmaster will thank you for not putting them in an early grave on this one. The amount of time and energy saved by having one central dashboard for multiple sites cannot be fully appreciated until you have done it yourself.

Why Magento Might Not be Right For You

I may have used the words free and simple a few too many times in this blog post. While Magento Community is free to download and has a large community of developers available it can be an expensive backend to develop with an agency.

Magento being designed by marketers is great for user experience but calling the code base robust is an understatement. With the high number of features and built in functionalities behemoth may be a more apt term. This leads to a few potential issues.

Cons of the Magento CMS for eCommerce

• Magento build costs and time– As I briefly mentioned, development of a Magento site can be very costly. First, an experienced developer for Magento is far harder to find than a good WordPress or Drupal developer. The codebase is huge with over 200,000 files and the developer you hire should be able to manipulate the flexible framework in a lot of ways customizing it for you. As wonderful as that is, your site is going to take more time in development than a more streamlined platform would, no matter how good your developer. More time in development means more money out of pocket up front.
• Hosting and pageload speed– I’ve heard many people say that Magento is too large and clunky. Your load speeds will be terrible. This is only partially true. Yes Magento is huge but it can still have some of the fastest page load speeds on the web. To accomplish this a Magento site should (almost) always be hosted on a dedicated server with an environment configured for Magento. Don’t be scared, Magento has great caching options and can be very fast when in the right environment. Your consumers will love it. With dedicated servers and Magento hosting environments come higher hosting cost however. The long term hosting costs for Magento will be higher than almost any other open-source platform. Many small businesses shy away from Magento for this, and only this, reason.
• Magento has too many options – Have I said Magento is big yet? This makes it extremely complex to customize. Unless you are a developer, or have one on speed dial, expanding your site can be treacherous. Magento is not a platform I would recommend to a friend starting their first website. Magento is not forgiving. If you want new customizations it will have to be done by a developer and remember, you can’t expect quick turnaround times when developing in Magento so you need to plan accordingly.

In Conclusion

Magento would be a fantastic content management system for the majority of medium to large businesses with an online store front. I would recommend it highly to most companies that have the time and capital to spend on making sure their storefront is user friendly, secure and integrated. With the wide range of out of the box tools and the seemingly infinite customization options Magento is an eCommerce platform to believe in.

The post Choosing a Content Management System for your Business: Magento for eCommerce appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

This week’s picks are in! Check back each week for news on all things digital and tweet us @Spyder_Trap to share what you’re excited about in the world of digital marketing and technology.

1) Announcing the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors Results

This week Moz announced the seventh annual local search ranking factors results- David Mihm shares his key takeaways including behavioral signals increasing in importance, domain authority on its way up, consistent citations from quality sources, location detection, and more.

2) The Internet of Things: Qualcomm Buys CSR For $2.5 Billion

It’s been a big year for Bluetooth. iBeacon, Bluetooth speakers and a slew of home automation products have hit the market, allowing consumers to remain connected and tap into the Internet of Things. Wireless technology giant Qualcomm purchased CSR this week. To learn what this means for the future of the smart home technology, click here.

3) Google Adds New Features in Tag Manager

Google has enhanced Tag Manager’s capabilities by adding new APIs, more third-party templates, and a new intuitive interface.  According to Google, the new Google Tag Manager API will enable users to customize the infrastructure of their websites based on their individual needs. The new API makes it easy to manage user access in bulk and can set permissions for many users at once, or set up role-based permissions and let the API give the right level of access to the right people accordingly. More on Search Engine Watch here.

4) Seth Godin On Content

Whether you’re hunkering down to write site copy, a blog post, pitch materials, a press release, script, or anything else for that matter, there’s no way to avoid the most difficult part: The words. Read more from Seth on the subject of writing here.

5) Facebook Changes Up Ad Campaign Structure

What does this mean for advertisers? Now, you can choose targeting, placement and bid settings at the ad set level- which will help with A/B testing. Drilling down deeper to the ad set level will allow advertisers to test different creative against the same budget, audience, and placement. Companies can also create multiple ads to optimize their creative and make sure that the content is what their specific audience wants to see. Inside Facebook has more.

The post Weekly Web Picks- Vol. 30 appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

Spyder Trap brings you the latest and greatest digital marketing and tech news in this week’s roundup of Weekly Web Picks.

Check back for weekly news on all things digital, and by all means tweet us @Spyder_Trap to share what you’re excited about in the world of digital marketing and technology. Enjoy!

1) iPhone 6 Release Delayed Until October

If you were getting ready to stand in line to buy the iPhone 6 on September 9th, it looks like you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Unfortunately, Apple pushed the launch back to October 14th. This week, Forbes highlighted pros of the 6; These include a larger screen, which is why tech enthusiasts have dubbed it, “a phablet.” In this article, Mashable speculates on why Apple has delayed the launch.

2) Google Rolls Out Custom Shipping Rates

Google launched new features this week to help merchants customize shipping rates in Google Shopping. The updates were spurred by complaints from customers who reported finding higher shipping costs on a company’s website versus in Google Shopping. The new features will not only make sure shipping costs are more accurate but also offer more tailored shipping options – read on here.

3) Content Creation: Just Like Brewing a Good Beer?

It’s beer o’clock on a Friday, so let’s talk beer! No matter what channel you choose, content is the heart of your brand. That’s why the content creation process is so critical. Check out this infographic that compares content creation process to brewing a whole bunch of delicious beer!

4) 7 Essential WordPress Plugins For Content Marketing

An effective content marketing strategy is key. So too is a great content marketing plugin. Search Engine Journal compiled a nice little list of  WordPress plugins that help improve conversions and enhance site functionality. Check out the full list here.

5) Why You Shouldn’t Google Yourself

We’ve all done it. Unfortunately, Googling your business or brand will not provide a holistic snapshot of your SEO performance. Search engines continue to customize search results based on browser history, caching, previous queries and much more. Google, for example, uses over 80 factors to determine what gets served to a specific person. Steve Slater’s got more details on his blog.

And yeah, I googled myself. Unfortunately, I’m not a bestselling author.

The post Weekly Web Picks – Vol. 26 appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

Within a matter of two years, every person who had ever valued Google organic traffic had no choice but to deal with what was happening. As search marketers, we receive so many questions about this topic. Let’s explore!

The History of Not Provided

It’s not that the traffic just stopped — not that at all — what happened was organic traffic continued to show up in analytical programs with no reference as to how they found the site on Google search.

In the Beginning

Google announces Secure Search, as a byproduct: (not provided) surfaces.

October 2011

To make search more secure, users logged into Google services will use search with a secure (httpS) connection.

With the change, website owners will no longer get “referrer” data from SSL users. Instead, Google  passes referral data through a custom token called “Not Provided.” Of course, Advertisers are still going to receive keyword referral data as before from the same set of users.

• Official Google announcement published.
• Keyword referral data usage and value becomes a main talking point in industry circles
• Estimated Not Provided: 1%-2%

November 2011

Keyword referral loss becomes a concern for many in the search industry. The initial Google estimate was site owners would see percentage loss in the single digits. Within two weeks though, Google Not Provided jumped up for many to nearly 10%.

• Heavier SSL adoption spreads across more users
• Privacy debate ramps up
• Optify releases study showing the Not Provided number to be much higher than perceived
• Estimated Google Not Provided: 8%-14%

March 2012

Several months after the announcement, the number grew beyond 20%. The backlash was extensive at this point, heated debates were happening all over the place.

• Publishers outside of Search and Tech industries begin voicing concerns
• With millions of users, and an estimated 25% of overall searches, Firefox becomes the first major browser to begin using secure search by default
• Estimated Google Not Provided: 16%-17%

November 2012

A drastic increase in Google Not Provided data happened in September of 2013, when Google announced all searches would go to httpS. BrightEdge released a study showing the average Google Not Provided percentage was around 50% of all keyword referrals. With the announcement, most realize, it’s just a matter of time (most likely a matter of months) until all of Google organic keyword referral data is masked.

• Months earlier, Moz & Distilled disclose they are now seeing 50% not provided
• One month prior, Apple defaults Safari users to secure search for current iOS catching Google off guard.
• Estimated Google Not Provided: 40%
• Keyword Referral Data Goes Dark

Notable Dates:

• Jan 18th, 2013 – Chrome moves to secure search.
• August 28th, 2013: Report reveals not provided averages to be nearly 50%
• September??: Google quietly flips the switch. All search activity is now encrypted, except for ads.

Assessing the Not Provided Damage

When Not Provided first crept into our data set, the actual value of keyword targeting came into question.

Frequent questions surfaced, “Why should we pay you to optimize pages when we can’t even see if that keyword traffic is converting?” and “Why shouldn’t we just buy the keywords with PPC to see if they are of value?”.

Why would Google take something away that businesses came to rely on? Although it’s a very valid question, the purpose of this post is not to get into the politics, just know, soon, other search engines will follow suit and the majority of organic keyword data will be masked. Now it’s time to prepare.

What matters now is.. how do we get those numbers back, what can we do to show value and how can we adapt?

How Can I Get Not Provided Data Back?

You can’t.

Your organic search referrals in Google Analytics are now in a generic search bucket. Many bloggers try to lure us in with fun alliteration like “How to Unlock Not Provided” and “10 Steps to Find Not Provided,” but it’s not so simple.

You can’t “unlock it” and you can’t “find it,” it’s gone. What we can do is press harder to find data that supports organic keyword value.

Sure, Google Webmaster Tools has search query reports and Adwords still provides keyword referral data, both have their faults.

SEO’s simply want to cross-reference keywords with performance metrics.

Workarounds to Google Not Provided Data Loss

As we always do, the search industry thrives in a collaborative environment. So, we also reached out to Will Scott, Josh Braaten and Luke Alley for additional suggestions and workarounds.

1) Adwords Not Provided Options

Luke Alley explores the Paid & Organic Report in Google Adwords.

“I work in PPC, aka 100% provided, and there is a rarely mentioned feature in Adwords called the Paid & Organic Report that provides some insights on organic terms. 

After connecting WMT it allows you to see data when only PPC ads were displayed, when only organic listings were displayed, or if both channels were displayed. While not ideal there is opportunity to gain some insights on organic performance of specific terms. The catch? It’s within Adwords, which means you’re spending money with Google. Also, it just happened to be released in August 2013. Coincidence? Probably not.” ~ Luke Alley, AvalaunchMedia.com

Luke raises another interesting point, you have to pay to play to see what’s going on. Adwords will require ad spend and to replicate organic keywords will cost you money. Moreover, the traffic is not truly the same as your those users on the same query. It’s a valuable way to analyze the quality of search terms, but ad performance is not necessarily going to speak on behalf of your organic rankings sharing the SERP.

2) Google Webmaster Tools 

Will Scott uncovers some pain-points and tips for using search queries within Google Webmaster Tools.

“Google Webmaster Tools is clunky to use; it’s not terribly easy to look at keyword data and metrics using WMT. 

Two of the most disappointing non-features in WMT is you are limited to 90 days of data, so every day that passes you lose valuable reference material. And, date comparison capability is non-existent. There are ways to catalog the Webmaster Tools data. WMT is a great resource, however, to discover how your site is ranking and what people are seeing and clicking on.  

Impressions vs. Click Through Rate has never been available in Analytics. Also, Google Webmaster Tools does give you a much bigger set of keywords for which you might be ranking that you would ever want to track in a traditional rank-tracking tool. In some cases this may include tens of thousands of Queries.

There is tremendous data available in Search Queries, and spending the time to dig it out can be a great use for a business’ engagement online. Valuable information is there for those with patience to pull it and sort it into spreadsheets for discovery.”  Will Scott, CEO,  Search Influence

Recently, data loss from Webmaster Tools has been established , and Dr. Pete (from Moz) has studied the accuracy of the data as well.

3) Landing-Page Query Associations

Look at filters and dashboards to show which landing pages Not Provided hit. Both Kissmetrics and Search Engine Land have covered this strategy in depth. Though, now with 100% Not Provided, you may as well reconstruct the filter. Although these filters may now be out of date, the overall strategy still lends insights into well performing pages. Josh Braaten said it well,

“Measure organic traffic in segments that correspond to specific keyword themes of interest and monitor both the traffic and conversions from those segments,” says Josh Braaten, Director of Inbound Marketing at Collegis Education. “Bonus points go to those who can tie in indirect metrics such as social media engagement and assisted conversions.”

Spot on. At this time, this strategy lends the most credibility to providing insights on organic search value by watching keyword groups ranking for the individual page where conversions are captured.

4) Branded vs. Non-branded Percentages

This metric is often used in the search industry. Utilizing Google Analytics for branded versus non-branded estimations are now extremely inaccurate. Webmaster Tools search queries can be used as a suitable workaround.

Non-branded versus branded was a great way to gauge what kind of footprint any particular site has built up across the web. It also helped understand the offline footprint as well. For example, a site with a large link profile, optimized site and a low branded-to-non-branded ratio would lend questions to offline ad spend and overall brand awarness offline.If able, utilize older data sets in Google Analytics.

5) Utilize Site Search Data 

Often thought of one of the most underutilized data sources, this search box within a site can show what users are searching for on a specific page, overall queries, how  different visitors use the site and more. Both free and paid versions are available for custom search options. As #3 noted, patters of searches from  a landing page may lend enough insights to change focus to accommodate that user group’s initial expectations of the page.

Moving Forward: Watch it Closer & Adapt Process

The feeling of having anything taken away sucks.

Don’t give up.

There is still value in ranking organically, stay focused on valuable keywords. Adhere to best practices, watch page performance closely in Google Analytics and ALWAYS dig deeper when page performance drops due to Google / Organic.

Between Google Webmaster Tools and third party rank tracking, it shouldn’t be difficult to isolate changes. Vendors like Conductor and Search Metrics will monitor their own search indices and connect to Analytics. In fact, Conductor has had a Not Provided product in place since September.

Key Takeawys

Watch Not Provided traffic closer

• Tie Not Provided traffic to individual pages and cross-reference against rankings from Webmaster Tools and third-party rank trackers
• Segment Not Provided traffic by landing page titles

Download GA templates for Not Provided

• Six Not Provided dashboards from NotProvidedKit.com
• Not Provided – Landing Page dashboard from State of Search

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket

• Google Site Search
• Google Keyword Planner
• Bing & Yandex Webmaster Tools
• Google Adwords
• Third party rank trackers (AWR & Positionly)
• SearchMetrics / Conductor / SEMRush
  • Sorry Ahrefs.com!

Conclusion

The damage of 100% Not Provided is substantial. It touched hundreds of thousands of businesses from the self-employed,  to small biz and enterprise in B2B and B2C. Data that businesses relied on to help generate revenue is simply no longer available in the same capacity. Every solution is a workaround rather than a fix.

There is a reason to freak out, especially if your job is riding on proving the CPA from the organic keyword level. For the rest of us, we adapt and rebuild process. Plenty of substitutes are available with adequate data to offer up. Just remember, there is no substitute for your best judgement!

References:

• SSL Search Announcement: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/173733?hl=en
• Conductor Not Provided Study: http://www.conductor.com/blog/2012/03/51-million-visits-analyzed-not-provided-16-of-google-organic-traffic/
• Optify Not Provided Study: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/optify-study-googles-not-provided-rises-almost-40-organic-traffic-b2b-sites-1725242.htm
• BrightEdge Not Provided Report: http://www.brightedge.com/secure-search-report-august-2013
• Comparing Rank-Tracking Methods: Browser vs. Crawler vs. Webmaster Tools: http://moz.com/blog/comparing-ranktracking-methods-browser-vs-crawler-vs-webmaster-tools

Note from the author: we will continue to update this resource as new techniques surface on how to better isolate organic keyword performance. Please help us by sharing any missed strategies below! 

The post The Ultimate Guide to Google’s Keyword ‘(Not Provided)’ appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

1) The World’s Coolest Tiny Offices

Check out this collection of cubicles and small workspaces across the world. Is your office this awesome? Click here to view.

2) Leaked Pitch Deck Reveals Facebook’s Plans To Steal YouTube and TV Ad Dollars

A deck was recently leaked outlining Facebook’s goals surrounding video ads. The deck was sent to Preferred Marketing Developer partners and explained how best to sell Facebook video ads to their clients. The deck outlined how Facebook can offer superior reach and specific targeting. It’s interesting to see Facebook wade so deeply into the video ad space. Read more here.

3) Google Currently Testing Ads in Knowledge Graph

Google’s been testing and optimizing ads within Knowledge Graph. If you are unaware, Knowledge Graph is the box populated with topic-based content that shows up to the right of the search query field. It’ll be interesting to see how this gets rolled out. Check out the post for more details.

4) Microsoft & Apple Using “Ancient” Patents To Sue Time Warner & Cisco

The patent war continues! As you might already know,  the Supreme Court is soon to rule on whether specific types of software and code are, or aren’t legally patentable. It appears Microsoft and Apple are trying to squeeze as much money out of the patent wars as possible, before this happens. Read more here.

5) New Data Reveals Majority Of Retweets Happening After Work Hours

Social media marketers know all too well that Twitter activity is highest at midday during the week. A recent report has turned this fact on its head, revealing that most re-tweets happen after work hours and on Sundays. How will this impact your social strategy? Read more here.

6) A Smartphone Game You Can Smell

Pop Secret has released a game that emits the scent of buttered popcorn as users play the game. Useful? No. Is there a potential market in scented smartphone applications? Definitely. I sense a travel app that offers destination smells on the horizon. Read more about the Pop Secret game here.  

7) Top 5 Health Innovations of the Week

At Spyder Trap, we have great respect for innovation in the healthcare industry (we might just have a few clients in this space). Check out the following link for some awesome stuff: Glasses that allow nurses to see veins through the skin, fitness apparel that tracks health, personality-responsive rooms at work, bracelets that turn sign language into spoken work and bees that can smell cancer. Pretty amazing stuff.  Read more.

8) Cart Abandonment: How Much Money Did Retailers Lose Out On in 2013?

$1.79 Trillion dollars – This is the estimated dollar amount lost due to shopping cart abandonment this year alone. 67% of total user abandonments come from all devices, including desktops. The number of abandonment for mobile is estimated to be much higher, at 97%. Look for tips, tricks and best practices for closing the gap on total number of cart abandonments in this handy-dandy infograph.

The post Weekly Web Picks – Vol. 5 appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

The problem is most companies jump into making large changes to elements of their website, this can be risky along with a hefty price tag. They also have the mentality that their customers are still linear in the purchasing process.

In other words, most campaigns have the goal of driving a person from point A to B. In turn, they still develop campaigns that try to drive people through a carefully scripted process.

However, with the advent of social media and interactive content, the landscape has changed and as digital marketers and designers we need to look beyond the linear selling process and look to the customer buying experience.

No Longer A Golden Path

Below is an example of one of the many routes a customer can take in the e-commerce process and even this example could be altered in dozens of ways.

The point is that through out the online buying process there are many influencers, starts and stops that will affect the customer’s behavior. Of course all sales reach the same goal, but no two paths are the same. The same can be said when it comes to any engagement conversion, e.g. joining a mailing list, a follow on Twitter, etc.

We have to begin to be observers of how customers are now interacting with the content and how all the touch points can affect the sale. Is your core brand message consistent across all touch points? Is there a clear and concise call to action at each touch point? Or are your users finding dead ends in the experience?

To take a completely holistic view, the e-commerce process can even involve content outside of your own website as our example graphic shows.  A user might add an item to your shopping cart and then pop open a new browser tab to read reviews on other websites about your product or search for a promo code.

User Experience Design To Guide The Journey

For your next e-commerce project, define the business problem at hand then develop the user personas that you’re targeting. Understand at what touch point your users will be entering the conversation and map out their journey. Find the right methodology that will work for you and continue to iterate that process.

Test, Test, Test

We’ve touched upon this before, the importance of testing. With the change of technology comes the change in human behavior. What may have worked yesterday, may not work today. Even the best designers generally don’t get it right the first time, you have to learn behaviors early and quickly and make the needed adjustments so that you can continue to optimize your conversion rate.

The post Understanding Your Customer’s
E-commerce Journey appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

This blog post deals with adding a Google Shopping reporting feature that can be implemented to track and report analytic data related to traffic and purchases via your Google merchant feed, Google search and the Google Product search.

Separating Shopping Traffic From Organic

Google Analytics will help you track your major buckets (medium) of traffic including: direct, organic, CPC, and referral.  CPC (Cost Per Click) traffic could be referencing traffic from Google, just from the sponsored section of the SERP and not from the organic section we’re so familiar with.

In an unaltered format, your Analytics data is reporting all of the Google Shopping customers as coming from organic traffic. With the right customizations to your feed and Google Analytics, you can separate these sources.

This level of reporting is made possible by augmenting the Google Merchant feed to include UTM tags which instructs Google Analytics how to report the data.  This level of information is extremely helpful with making strategic online marketing decisions.  It now provides visits, revenue, transactions, average value, conversion rate and per visit value from Google Shopping visits.

In addition to this reporting, UTM tags can be used with many other sources such as display advertising and email marketing.

If your analytics are not set up for this feature, or even if you need assistance setting up your e-commerce site for the Google Merchant feed, feel free to contact us for help.

The post Tracking Google Shopping Traffic In Google Analytics appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.

Combining the use of Google Merchant Center (Shopping for users) with Google’s Product Extension can help your paid search campaign garner some serious attention.

The screenshot above shows how the use of these two Google search services together can help you dominate the search result page.  In our example, our client’s ad displays photos and information on four different products, above all other shopping sites and the manufacturer.

Google Product Extensions Increase Clicks

Some advertisers have claimed a 10% or greater improvement in click-through-rate when using the Google Product Extension feature.  Again, even the slightest advantage can make all the difference in this competitive search marketing environment.

Adding visual elements to the search results pages is an attention getter and also bleeds into the user’s trust level.  Both of these are needed elements for a successful e-commerce search marketing campaign.

If you’d like to learn more about how Google Shopping or AdWords Product Extensions can improve your e-commerce website, give us a shout.

The post Maximize Your Search Marketing Exposure With Google AdWords Product Extensions appeared first on Spyder Trap Digital Marketing Blog.