OFBiz Tutorials - Google Instant Effects on eCommerce

OFBiz tutorials blog reviewing the implications of Google's latest web browsing platform, Google Instant. So far this new search protocol is up and running in America, Russia and Western Europe. With this platform, Google has taken their search tips to another level. Basically, any keystrokes placed into the search bar are updated in real time, with new results popping up with each additional character entered. Clicking search or enter is no longer necessary as the results are already displayed. Another factor in this type of search is geography. Depending on where you are located, you will receive whatever Google has deemed the most relevant search results for your area under any given search.

This new protocol has been analyzed By Tom Krazit in a CNET review as follows:

“Instead of search as an outcome, Google is trying to get people to think of search as a process in which you constantly refine your query without actually ’searching,’ or hitting the button to produce a concrete result.”

Google claims that this has not altered the search ranking process and in fact states that this will increase user searches based on Google Instant's ease of use. This however brings up many questions to the SEO community and ultimately enterprise eCommerce companies that depend on targeted searches for reaching new customers.

Google instant has the potential to distract customers into clicking a link after just a few key strokes. Say for instance that your company dominates the keyword "Medical Supplies" and receives the bulk of it's business from this specific search. Now with Google Instant, a company can come in and try to dominate a keyword such as "Med", "Medic" or even just "M" to have their medical supply store pop up earlier in the search query. The more complicated the search phrase, the more potential for distraction.

Google Instant has the potential to cause severe competition for single letter searches or partial word searches. This takes web search to a dynamic level, introducing a time component into what up until now has been competition for vertical positioning.

Enterprise eCommerce companies would be wise at this juncture to closely monitor their web site's metrics, noting any trend that could indicate a degradation in site performance. New methods will need to be tested and Google's auto-complete keywords should be optimized for. Work closely with your SEO advisers to ensure that you don't fall behind at this critical juncture.

As always, high ranking isn't the only factor that comes into play when attracting new customers. Equally important is having a professional, enjoyable and user friendly website for potential customers to land on. This is where HotWax Media can help with our top of the line enterprise eCommerce sites using Apache OFBiz.

OFBiz Tutorial - Verified Agile Expanded

OFBiz Tutorial from HotWax Media further detailing our Verified Agile Process. This is a project management process that can efficiently bring any task to fruition. At HotWax, we are striving to enhance this process in order to make useful to a broader spectrum of clients.

Our Verified Agile workflows are similar to the standard workflows found in Agile implementations. However, we have improved on this standard Agile process by utilizing technology in order to bring projects to a global team. By not restricting projects to geographic proximity a team can be made up of the most qualified individuals from anywhere on the globe. Traditionally, meeting face to face is the most effective but in our day and age it is no longer feasible. With the internet, we have entered an age of globalization where people choose to live in one area and work on projects in another. This trend is only going to continue which is why management processes like Verified Agile are so necessary.

Enterprise eCommerce projects using Agile's processes will take your projects to the next level and Agile's processes are too valuable to be wasted because the project team cannot meet in the same location. Thankfully, technical innovation is giving us the ability to utilize Agile on a global scale without losing productivity. In order to ensure that projects are staying on track, we've added additional processes and tools to Agile workflows in order stay firmly on track.

In subsequent posts I will expand on details of the process methodology behind Verified Agile. This new technology will open up the door for better and more successful projects.

OFBiz Tutorial - Getting Started with OFBiz

OFBiz tutorial offering a brief overview of why OFBiz is the best option for enterprise eCommerce and ERP and how you can get started.

OFBiz is a community driven open source software project from the Apache Software Foundation. The nature of OFBiz is that it is not run or developed by a commercial entity or dependent on intellectual property. Due to this open source nature, OFBiz is able to be exactly what the users who support and contribute to the project want. OFBiz is created and modified based on user wants and needs. It conforms to the user rather than the user conforming to the software.
Users can contribute to the OFBiz project in a number of ways. Total involvement includes contributing as a developer. This means becoming involved in design, code, testing and collaboration. This helps a user to create their OFBiz experience in-house without having to depend on outside developers.

Partial involvement keeps users aware of the new developments in the OFBiz community and involved in testing but not responsible for development. This is a less involved user experience offering more time to focus on other aspects of their company.

Low involvement means that an OFBiz developer designs and implements a users system based on their needs. This creates a scenario where the user can focus all of their attention on the business end of things while professional developers handle the software infrastructure.

Enterprise eCommerce powered by Apache OFBiz is a powerful and valuable tool for any organization that wishes to do business on the web. HotWax Media is a trusted OFBiz developer that can assist companies with whatever level of involvement desired. Call us today to find out how you can get started 888-405-2667.

OFBiz Tutorials - Page Rank

OFBiz Tutorials article where we will take a moment to discuss the importance of SEO and page ranking for your enterprise eCommerce system. HotWax Media designs eCommerce platforms for a variety of businesses who sell goods and services on the internet. These systems include everything a user would ever need for a fully functional and viable enterprise eCommerce platform. This however is only part of the battle, the second is the ability for your potential customers to easily find you when shopping on the web.

Marketing strategy and site design go hand in hand. One won't work without the other. For instance, you have a highly functional enterprise eCommerce site, a quality product line with competitive pricing, great shipping options and everything else your target consumer is looking for but sales are flat. This is where SEO comes in and makes your product visible to the market place.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is the tool that companies across the web are using to ensure that their efforts are profitable. The field of SEO has many intelligent and ambitious professionals, but just like any industry, there are also those that will take your money for little or no work. Having an awareness of the various nuances of online business marketing will help a company to successfully navigate these waters.

The basics, page content, file names, title tags, meta tags, user friendly navigation and so on will get your site a good start. Now the trick is to monitor site performance without it distracting all of your efforts.

An obvious indicator of success is profits. However, SEO takes time and a campaign may need to run for several moths before project results are realized. By beginning with Google PageRank, you will be able to monitor effects of your SEO campaign and see that you are moving toward your marketing goal.

Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page describe PageRank as "a model of user behavior" in their article, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine". They go on to state, "We assume there is a "random surfer" who is given a web page at random and keeps clicking on links, never hitting "back" but eventually gets bored and starts on another random page. The probability that the random surfer visits a page is it's PageRank... a page can (also) have a high Page Rank if there are many pages that point to it, or if there are some pages that to it and have a high PageRank. Intuitively, pages that are well cited from many places around the web are worth looking at."

So now, how does one raise the PageRank of their site? Basically by coming up with a targeted campaign of building links that compliment the content of your site. The strategies employed are varied in their execution. The main thing is when going into an SEO campaign, you have a specific goal in mind and a well structured plan to get there. If the person running your campaign cannot provide you with this then you may want to look for someone else. There are no absolutes in page visibility, but ensuring that a plan is well constructed and understood by everyone involved will help get you the best possible results. It must also be noted that any SEO work is not finite. Keeping your site placed high in the search engine takes constant attention. You can be guaranteed that the competition is working just as hard as you to corner the market.

You can measure PageRank by visiting websites such as http://www.prchecker.info/.

Enterprise eCommerce is a highly competitive marketplace. The web has a limitless potential for customers and creating growth for a company. HotWax Media creates top of the line eCommerce web sites and marketing packages. Contact us today for more information!