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Not all web traffic is equal and understanding the value of direct traffic can help online retailers hone their marketing. “Direct traffic” is web traffic you get from people who already know about your website or store. They either click a bookmark to come to your site or type your site’s URL directly into their browser’s address bar. By comparison, “search engine traffic” comes from people that probably don’t know about your site. They were looking for a keyword or phrase and your site just showed up in the results on Google, Yahoo!, or MSN’s Live Search. Finally, “referrer traffic” describes web visitors that follow a web link or online ad to your website. Direct Traffic Potency Of these three traffic sources direct traffic is the ...

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council recently released a new version of its Data Security Standard (DSS), making minor but important changes and clarifications to the PCI compliance standard that responsible online merchants follow to protect their customers and avoid fines. On November 25 and December 17, 2008, the PCI Security Standards Council will host a series of complimentary webinars to explain the changes to the PCI standards. Many of the changes were clarifications or expansions, but there are also new more detailed testing standards for some network situations. Leading credit card brands (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc.) formed th...

I like parties, and Social Couture is a high-end party supply website. On its corresponding MySpace site (always a good thing to have, but especially important if your gig is party supplies) Social Couture says, “whether your style is traditional or modern or whether your guests are young or old, our products and services will simplify the way you entertain.” Unfortunately, a descriptive statement like that doesn’t appear on the SocialCouture.com homepage or on any sort of high-level “about us” page. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The site is good-looking with nice graphics throughout. So let’s take it one step at a time and see what’s really under the tablecloth for this installment of “SEO Report Card.” Home Page Content As menti...

Preliminary results from a new Practical eCommerce survey showed that at least 63 percent of respondents thought traffic generation was a big challenge, and more than 31 percent saw it as their biggest challenge. Practical eCommerce launched the first of a series of reader surveys on November 3, 2008. The survey was designed to give readers a voice in Practical eCommerce's editorial, focusing us on the issues that matter most to ecommerce merchants. Although the survey will run through November 25, there has been a significant response. And thus far, traffic generation has been the largest concern. These initial results should not be that surprising since stores—whether brick-and-mortar, catalog, or online—must have customers to succee...

Preliminary results from a new Practical eCommerce survey showed that at least 63 percent of respondents thought traffic generation was a big challenge, and more than 31 percent saw it as their biggest challenge. Practical eCommerce launched the first of a series of reader surveys on November 3, 2008. The survey was designed to give readers a voice in Practical eCommerce's editorial, focusing us on the issues that matter most to ecommerce merchants. Although the survey will run through November 25, there has been a significant response. And thus far, traffic generation has been the largest concern. These initial results should not be that surprising since stores—whether brick-and-mortar, catalog, or online—must have customers to succee...

The old-school approach to order fulfillment doesn’t fly for many Internet retailers. Warehousing, packing, shipping, and return-order processing are labor-intensive and time-consuming. This has led to a trend among online sellers to outsource its fulfillment operations. This isn’t drop shipping or outsourcing to a traditional warehouse. I’m talking about ecommerce fulfillment providers (EFPs). They take the “friction” out of order fulfillment. In a typical scenario, a consumer will buy merchandise from a company’s website. This purchase triggers an order that is sent electronically to an EFP who processes the order. A shipper such as FedEx or UPS is then automatically notified. Upon shipment of the order, an automated notification is ...

Nate Moller talks about Time Management and recording success…

I arrive Wednesday afternoon for the 2008 Pubcon conference, and I’ll be staying until after the networking event on the last day, which is the heart of the event. It’s the heart because the networking event is held at a pub, and the original idea of Pubcon was that some of the best parts of a conference take place at the pub after the official conference is done.

If you see me, please come up and say hello! Tell me how you’re doing, or what you like or dislike about Google. I’ll be participating in the Search Engine Super Session that traditionally wraps up the formal part of the conference.

What are you likely to see if you head to Las Vegas? Well, here are some pictures that I’ve been meaning to post for a year. No joke, I’m that behind on things I want to blog. First off, you’ll meet lots of search engine optimizers (SEOs) and webmasters:

As you can see, they’re a very fun and friendly bunch of folks. And if you’re lucky, you might run across a celebrity. Last year, we saw David Caruso:

The rumor was that Caruso was there to record some promotional material for Microsoft, but I never saw anything. If anyone knows of a David Caruso/Microsoft commercial, please send me a pointer.

WebmasterWorld is also a nice place to get a glimpse of what other smart people are doing. Last year was the first time I saw an Asus EEE:

Nowadays this is known as a “netbook” and they’re getting pretty popular with the kids these days. It looked so cool that right after the conference I went right to Amazon and ordered one. Unfortunately, my order got delayed and delayed until I finally canceled it, so I never ended up getting a netbook. Maybe I’ll try again at some point.

What else do I like about Pubcon? It’s a great chance to connect with people and just talk. For example, remember when I did this post about how triple-tap power adapters should be branded as schwag? Well, at the conference last year both Topix and CareerBuilder surprised me by actually doing exactly that:

and

It’s pretty cool to see someone take your idea and just run with it. But the best reason to head to Pubcon is that lots of fun, smart people go, and it’s a chance to catch up with what’s happening in the world of search. Again, if you see me there, please say hello!

The Maxthon web browser brings several great features to the same platform as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and lets users pretend to be from other counties so they can access otherwise restricted sites. For the past several weeks, Practical eCommerce has been reviewing the leading web browsers, pointing out each one’s strengths and weaknesses. Our reviews have been in response to what we believe is a new, more heated battle for browser supremacy. Google fired the shot of this renewed browser war when it launched the beta version of its Chrome browser in September. These browser battles can and will have an effect on how everyone accesses the Internet and what they expect from the websites or online stores they visit. The Skinny o...