For our second installment of our SEO Myth Series, we’re going to address page extensions - as in what your filenames end in for your website. With the variety of programming technologies available for web development, a number of different file extensions exist on the web. The most basic being .html or .htm, typically from static html written pages. As website technology advanced, so did the use of other programming languages to create dynamically driven websites - ASP (.asp), PHP (.php), Cold Fusions (.cfm), Java (.jsp), .NET (.aspx), are all examples of commonly used technologies and their corresponding extensions.

Many people hold the belief that the naming of your pages will affect your search rankings. And not to pick on the same person two weeks in a row, but again, the OnTheAvenues.com blog in their Forgotten Fundamentals of SEO post states:

“As a general rule, search engines will not properly index documents that:

• contain a “?” or “&”
• End in the following document types: .cfm, .asp, .shtml, .php, .stm, .jsp, .cgi, .pl
• Could potentially generate a large number of URLs.

To avoid complications, consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly.”

And Bonnie isn’t the only person perpetuating this myth. Just recently, I had a conversation with Noah at Resposio, who is a self-proclaimed SEO expert. We have a website hosted with them, and in the setup of this website we were requesting to setup IIS to handle extensionless URLs (like so: http://www.mysite.com/category/product). During this conversation, Noah disputed that these URLs would not be properly indexed by the search engines, and furthermore, the search engines preferred certain extensions over others. In particular, .aspx and .php because it “indicates to them pages that are dynamic and thus update more often”. And he wasn’t just casually mentioning it might be a factor, he was arguing it in a “matter of fact” type attitude. Exactly the opposite of what Bonnie contends.

So, who’s right? Well, neither. While at some point, a long time ago, search engines may have had trouble with dynamic URLs with querystrings, but this logic does not apply today. Just think about this concept, search engines can’t afford to give preference to one or the other - their preference is based on what website is going to provide the best results to the searcher, regardless of how the website is written (even though Microsoft does have a vested interest in the success of .NET).

Because I’m actively involved in the SEO community, I tend to hear a lot of misconceptions about the practice of SEO. Not only from people I know personally, but just from the vast information on the Internet from people branding themselves as Search Engine Optimizers that really don’t qualify, there’s even more incorrect information out there. What makes it worse, is that people continually spread false information about the practice all the time. What makes me so special as to know better than these people perpetuating these myths? I’m not going to pretend I know everything about SEO, but my knowledge is extensive and based on numerous industry recognized sources and years of experience and proven success - my favorite place for SEO newbies? SEOmoz’ Top Ranking Factors

So I’m dedicating an article series featuring myths I see and hear constantly - or at least often enough for me to remember. Granted, SEO is not an exact science, there’s no real definitive fact behind what works and what doesn’t, there are guidelines, best practices, and knowledge gained from experience that can tell us generally what has an impact on search engine placement and what doesn’t. So to kick things off, I give you this week’s SEO Myth - straight from LinkedIn’s Q&A.

The question is simply: “Does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Really work? If so, what are the best tools?”

Many of the replies were helpful and accurate to a point. But one response caught my attention from Bonnie Burns at OnTheAvenues.com:

“As an SEO expert, I know of all the tools available… For example, it is known that having a Google xml site map is needed, as is having a sitemap for your site. as is a robots.txt. If you did not know that, there is no diagnostic tool that would tell you so…. ”

While having a Google XML sitemap is valuable for sites that aren’t being properly indexed, for new sites, or to ensure all of your pages get indexed, it is by no means necessary for SEO as long as your site is spidered correctly. The same holds true for a sitemap (as in an HTML sitemap I assume), and a robots.txt. Sitemaps and Robots.txt can be very valuable in SEO efforts, don’t get me wrong. However, they are only required in specific scenarios to ensure the correct indexing of your site if it is not already. You won’t be penalized if you don’t have them, and Google (nor the others) will not rank your site higher if you add them (although people have found creative ways to using an HTML sitemap’s structure to assist in their internal linking hierarchy). Everyone’s entitled to one mistake so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. But taking a look at her at her website and blog, I saw other inaccuracies abound. But today’s not a two for one special, so you’ll have to wait until next week for more.

It’s something that practically all eCommerce merchants have to deal with - returns. We all dread them, but it’s a necessary evil. When handled correctly however, it will not only provide a service to your customers, but also encourage repeat business by establishing trust with the customer. Most retailers approach this procedure as a sale lost, but in actuality it presents you an opportunity - an opportunity to gain a long-term customer. How, might you ask?

Some of the biggest concerns that consumers have when shopping online is not only trusting the website at which their shopping, but also not being able to physically see, touch, and evaluate the products they’re about to buy. What if they don’t like it? What if it doesn’t fit? These are some of the risks consumers face when shopping online. One weapon in an online retailer’s arsenal for combating these fears is to have a consumer friendly return policy. And if you do - make sure you let your customers know about it while they’re shopping.

So what constitutes a consumer friendly return policy? This obviously varies by the type of product sold, but in general it involves constructing a pain-free returns process for your customers. Pre-printed return labels, online RMA requests, free returns (as in no restock fees), paid return shipping; these are all examples of methods employed by a number of the top online retailers. For those customers that have to make a return, this experience will be the biggest deciding factor in whether or not that consumer will shop at your site again.

We’ll use a recent shopping experience as an example of how online retailers should handle returns, and more importantly, how they use this process to gain valuable feedback from their customers. For this particular retailer, I’m able to complete the return process without having to pick up the phone, and in a matter of minutes.  From my account on their website, I’m able to pull up past orders and initiate the returns process directly from that screen.  With a few clicks, I was able to print pre-paid return labels, with my choice of USPS or UPS for the return.  I had my return label slapped on the box in no time, with my only inconvenience being driving to the nearest UPS store to drop it off. But as a consumer, I couldn’t have asked for an easier process (except if UPS had come to my door to pick it up) and that has instilled a sense of loyalty - I can trust these guys to shop there again without having to worry about something not fitting, or not meeting my expectations.  They’ve already received another order from me.

But besides the loyalty this retailer has now generated, they’ve also asked me a few (optional) questions to answer during the process. These questions cover why I was returning the product, would I shop there again, how did the product fit, is there anything they could have done to prevented the return, and what they can do to improve the shopping experience/return process. These few questions give them very valuable information about the shopping experience for their customers, as well as identify areas for improvement. What I found particularly nice, was that the feedback given about how “true to size” the product is, is actually gathered and displayed on the product details page as a % of people who thought it fit too small, too big, or just right. A great example of how consumer feedback can then be turned around to help other consumers - beyond the typical 5 star rating and reviews typically employed by retailers.

The importance placed in the return policy for most online retailers is oft overlooked. But, many savvy eCommerce merchants have properly identified how critical this return process can be, and have created an experience centered around the consumer. What return policy is best for you? A simple cost analysis can help you determine if what kind of policy makes most sense for you. But we’ll cover that in a later feature.

A few weeks back, I decided I needed a new pair of brown shoes - my existing pair were starting to look a bit dilapidated. I’ll give you fair warning, maybe it’s the metro-sexual part of me, but I was very particular in the type of brown shoes I was looking for. A square toed, dressy but not too dressy, wooden soled (ideally), comfortable, chocolate brown shoe. Something I could wear with khakis, jeans, or even a casual suit. I know, most guys probably aren’t this particular about what they’re walking on.

With my wife by my side, I ventured into the mystical world of underground shoe shopping… not really, but that sounded like a good way to start the paragraph - we went to the mall. Shoe shopping, store after store, to my wife’s delight. Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, DSW, Aldo, you name it - if they sold men’s shoes, we were there. To my surprise, we left the mall empty handed. I was stifled - I could not find that perfect pair of brown shoes. The biggest obstacle believe it or not was finding the right color brown - I found orange-brown, red-brown, light brown, but not a deep, rich chocolate brown in sight.

I was on a mission that day, and determined to find that perfect pair of brown shoes. So, off to the biggest shoe marketplace in the world - online! Mind you - I’ve never bought shoes online before because not only am I particular in how it looks, I also like to know how it feels and fits before purchasing. Regardless, I figured with a good return policy, I wouldn’t have to worry about choosing something that did not fit right - at this point I just wanted something that looked right. So, doing a Google search for “Shoes” returned a number of quality results, one of which that caught my attention was Zappos.com. While not familiar with the website myself, it looked as if it had garnished a lot of attention in Del.Icio.Us and Technorati - which instantly upped my level of trust in the site (talk about the power of social marketing). You may be asking yourself why was I looking that information up? Well, I wasn’t, you see, I have this handy-dandy little Firefox Extension known as Seoquake which for every webpage I visit, displays a variety of statistics about that site right in my Firefox toolbar.

So while I was there, I decided to read some of the comments people had mentioned about Zappos, with an overwhelmingly majority of them praising the Zappos.com website for competitive pricing, felexible return policies, and excellent customer service. This kind of information at my fingertips helped cure any qualms I had previously about buying shoes online. And sure enough, their website addressed these concerns up front and proud - free overnight shipping, free shipping both ways, these themes were consistently in my face throughout my entire visit. A shining example of how an eCommerce site is addressing consumer’s issues about shopping online - especially when it comes to shoes! I no longer had any concerns about buying a pair of shoes online, between others having positive customer service experiences, and the fact that I could easily (and freely) return something, I had basically no risk in trying something from the site.

At this point in time, Zappos.com has already received a lot of recognition in the online community about it’s customer service practices - which are excellent. But despite this excellence in customer service, I ran into a lot of issues with the website itself. Let’s start with the homepage:

Can you say clutter? It took me 30 seconds just to absorb everything on this page. With sites trying to accomodate so much at once, sometimes you need to simplify the equation. Think of walking into a shoe store, what is the very first thing you do? Well, if you’re a guy, you look for the men’s section, if you’re a woman, the woman’s section, etc. There’s no need for me to waste time in looking at women’s shoes when all I’m interested in men’s, so why not define your consumer the very first thing you do? What would be more effective on this homepage would be to identify your customer, male, female, or children. The next step would be to identify what this visitor is looking for, running shoes, dress shoes, sandals, etc. This type of arrangement allows for a more comfortable flow for the consumer, and a less confusing homepage - I honestly almost got a headache looking at that page.

After a few eyedrops, I finally figured out how to get to the men’s section, through the link on the header. But boy, just when I thought I had seen the worst of it, I encounter this page of seemingly endless text links. Could they make it any more difficult to find my shoes? At this point I’m about to just leave the site, but I muster up the courage to venture further. From here on out is where Zappos.com redeems itself, once I’ve found the section I’m interested in, the features available to shoppers are great. From a browsing perspective, they have filtering by size, color, toe style, width, price, etc. This type of functionality made it very easy for me to find the style of shoe I was looking for. On the product details page there existed multi-angle high quality photographs of every pair of shoes, customer reviews and ratings, and even a “fit survey” so customers can share how true to size the shoes actually are - because as we all know, not every 10.5 size shoe fits the same.

So at the end of the day, our overall experience from a UI side was not good, it was even bad enough to make me want to spare my eyes the agony. On the otherhand, strong customer service, browsing features, and their commitment to ease consumers’ fears of purchasing shoes online allow this company to excel in the marketplace. With a UI overhaul, we’re confidant this site would benefit from a decrease in bounce rates, an increase in user retention, and overall an increase in revenue.

I did find the shoes I was looking for - they ran big and thus did not fit right, but I will be exchanging them for a size smaller thanks to their lenient return policies.

Read more about our Website Reviews Policy

Major Players

I’ll go through what I consider a few of the major players in the shopping cart software world. There are way too many to list here individually, so I’ve done my best to narrow it down to a few. I’ve also organized this by technology, with the three major areas being PHP, .NET, and managed solutions - there are more options out there (ColdFusion, Java, etc.) but again, these are the more widely used among small to mid sized businesses. Something to think about when choosing any platform - if you’re the type of person that needs to ask a lot of questions and need the security of having some responsible for supporting the application (it is after all your most business critical application), then you may want to concentrate your efforts on some of the paid applications with a support option.

PHP

• osCommerce: osCommerce is one of the most powerful free open source shopping cart platforms and the most widely used of its kind. In the 7+ years its been around, they’ve built up a strong developer community and a bevy of plugins are available for the platform. On the downside, you need to be a little more on the technical side to implement these plugins and managing them can be a pain (you have to use a file comparison tool and manually copy-paste PHP code in some cases). If you have the technical expertise, it’s a flexible platform with a strong following and a lot of online help. However, if you’re not familiar with PHP - I wouldn’t recommend it.
• ZenCart: Another free Open Source platform and is actually based on the osCommerce platform, the team at ZenCart have actually created a simplified version of the osCommerce platform in an attempt to appeal to more store owners that don’t have a technical background. How do they succeed? Ok, you still need to have some knowledge of PHP to apply any plugins, but it isn’t as daunting a task as with osCommerce. The code seems a bit cleaner, but the admin interface a bit clunkier. In an osCommerce alternative the effort is there, but the end result is just another osCommerce version.
• Pinnacle Cart: For $597, this eCommerce platform is geared towards merchants who want to get up and running without a lot of tweaking and customizing. If you’re in the market for a product without the need to go much beyond the norm this is a viable option. Offered in both a hosted version and a stand-alone version - although the hosted option seems a bit expensive when you look at how long it would take to recoup the $597, you’re better off getting your own hosting and buying the license.

.NET (& traditional ASP)

• Storefront: Despite being one of the most prominent platforms in the industry, StoreFront has been riddled with poor customer satisfaction. It is setup as a design time eCommerce solution which means it integrates into Dreamweaver and Frontpage (which also means you need to own one of those products). With it’s hefty price tag, and knowing what else is out there we’d recommend to look elsewhere.
• ASPdotNetStorefront: Another popular option on the .NET platform, ASPdotNetStorefront is a strong solution with a lot of features, plugins, and a large customer base - that’s a good sign. They use a pretty unique XML Packages framework which is technically is an innovative solution, however, most traditional developers haven’t been exposed to this type of setup and makes for modifying the templates a bit of a challenge. Lots of features, lots of options, with competitive pricing make this a strong candidate. One of my gripes, no flexibility in the URL rewrite, URLs still look ugly.
• BV Commerce: Our personal favorite, and while it doesn’t come with the popularity as some of the other solutions, but we feel it’s one of the strongest. With a powerful featureset, lots of flexibility, and the ability for a pure (well, the purest of all these options) CSS based design we don’t feel bad pimpin’ this product. Some of the reasons we prefer BVCommerce over ASPdotNetStorefront, the flexibility on the design sode, cleaner leaner framework, plug and play add-ons, and best of all, customizable URL rewriting - you know what that means - you define the URL!

Managed Solutions

• Yahoo! Store: The Yahoo! Store is the most widely adopted managed shopping cart solution available. Starting at around $40 per month with a low 1.5% transaction fee, many newbies to Internet retailing find this solution to be the easiest method to selling onlne. This is typically followed shortly thereafter by outgrowing the solution. If you’re looking to get serious with online retailing, you may find it’s limited functionality and lack of flexibility an impediment to growth.
• Monster Commerce: We’ve seen some websites with great success running on the Monster Commerce platform. Like other managed providers you are limited in functionality and flexibility, but we’ve found Monster Commerce to be feature rich with helpful support. While it’s subscription costs are substantially higher than Yahoo!, we do feel this is a better product. Our biggest gripe is it utilizes an outdated platform of ASP (traditional), and SQL 2000 - not sure if they plan on updating their software but they are well behind current technologies available.
• Netsuite: Netsuite is its own brand of a managed solution. It is an all-in-one business system, combining eCommerce, ERP, accounting, and CRM information altogether in a hosted environment. We’re big advocates of having backend systems integrated together, and Netsuite is a pioneer in this arena, as well as SaaS (software as a service). We applaud their efforts, and they have a quality product to back it up. While I’m not here to do an entire review of the software, I’ll focus on the eCommerce piece alone. There are some great websites currently running on this platform, despite being one of the most limiting as far as out of the box features. We’ll be on the lookout for big things to come with Netsuite, but at this point, limited functionality, steep learning curve, and the lack of hosting flexibility (your eCommerce site must be hosted on their servers - and we’ve noticed slow performance on numerous sites) keep this product in the waiting for more category.

Honorable Mention

• Shopify: I had to mention a newcomer to the market in this post: Shopify. While it really doesn’t fit into the traditional categories above, Shopify entered the market one year ago as a hosted, free (as in no setup and no monthly fees) eCommerce platform dedicated to making selling online easy. And easy it is, we setup a sample site on there in literally one hour, used Paypal and Google checkout accounts, and all they ask for is a 3% rake. We love the CSS based designs, which is ideal for skinning your site with a custom template. In its current state, the functionality is quite limited, but for a reason. The product is intended to be eCommerce in its purest, simplest form, and is the first major step in making it beyond easy for anyone to sell online. Can I buy stock you guys?

Well, that about covers it for me, feel free to share your experiences with these platforms or any others.