The role of imagery in ecommerce is most apparent when considering its use in relation to product display. The nature of conducting transactions across the internet distances the user from the physical product – so they have none of the sensory information usually available when physically present such as touching, feeling, examining, seeing the product from any angle they wish, trying it on, etc.

Online retailing distances the user from the physical product - imagery plays a vital role in filling this sensory gap

Imagery therefore plays a vital role in filling this sensory gap – and as technology advances, the extent

In part 1 we discussed a rudimentary appraisal of your website’s information architecture so you could gauge whether it met some basic commercial requirements. In this part we will discuss issues relating to navigation and website structure.

What is so important about navigation and structure?

How do I get around?

Navigation - determines how easily people can find things and retrieve data from the website - a vital component of successful task completion activities that drives bottom line. Taking a user perspective - when they hit a page, will they

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Natural /Organic Search

What is it?

This online marketing technique optimises websites to adhere to the relevancy algorithm criteria of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN). The aim is to get your web pages to appear in the top positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for search queries. This mechanism is designed to drive targeted and qualified traffic to your website using relevant content that is attractive and useful to the consumer…

Blogging has become almost “de rigueur” in the online marketing industry, with seemingly every company website hosting a blog designed to connect with their audience, improve their search engine listings and drive traffic to the website.

But as with every mass-uptake of an online technology there are varying degrees of success and competency: there are those examples which are executed well and produce impressive results, and those implemented poorly which inevitably fail.

While blog copywriting is a huge topic, far beyond the scope of a single article, there are some basic principles and techniques which can vastly improve the chances of success when followed…

We’ve been playing around with Google’s new SearchWiki feature that allows logged-in users to customise their search results by promoting or deleting results, by adding comments to a search result and by allowing users to see other users comments and voting (promotions and deletions) .

Many commentators are up in arms - some say the lack of an opt out is invasive, some that the search results are now cluttered which goes against the clean and clear characteristics they associate with Google’s SERPs, others that users will not get what it is all about.

Each of these comments has some validity, but the underlying point is if you don’t like it you can log out, so no biggy…

We want to do a series of posts that outline the pros and cons of various types of online marketing; these posts will help explain when and how to best use the right online marketing channel to meet you specific needs.

We thought we’d start with the bedrock - search engine optimisation (SEO) and give you a quick run through of the advantages and the disadvantages an SEO strategy has for your online business.