April 14, 2008
Assume for a moment, you are like the thousands of others (including myself) who launched BANS sites with a minimum of change. You probably:
Essentially, what you have a mini version of an eBay category! Nothing at all different than what eBay already offers and nothing different than hundreds or thousands of other BANS users in the same category. That is exactly how this next store was done and the video below walks through a few simple methods to take it to the next level, without FULL optimization.
The domain name of this site was established more than 1 year ago, March 18, 2007. The site itself has more than 220 pages already indexed in Google, which is the first place I look for opportunity! Click this link and look at the pages listed in the Google index. Almost EVERY page of this site has the same title… need I say more?!
Using the method in the video - you can make your store unique in less than 1 hour each week!
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7 Responses to “Established Build a Niche Store Optimization”
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This is just what I was wondering…why weren’t my titles changing with BANS 3.0? My store page titles changed with BANS 2.0 without any futzing around like you did with your BANS 3.0 example.
But, the question I have is this…my other BANS 3.0 store has all “search” categories and not ebay categories. How do I change the title for search categories? There is no Edit button on my admin site for my search category links.
Seems this only works for eBay categories only. Do you know of a workaround?
Thanks!
Chris
Good to know I can go back to some of my out-of-the-box sites (before I knew any better and found this blog) and still be able to improve them with some customization. Your videos are always so helpful.
Say I made a mistake and changed one of the page names, urls (again, before I knew any better) that were already indexed and now would bring back a 404 error. Should I/could I put a redirect from the old page to the new renamed page? Where do you recommend doing it? Header or htaccess or somewhere else?
Thanks,
Sonia
Mark,
A great overview of optimizing the categories. This stuff really
works as several of my sites are getting much better page rankings just by making these few recommended changes.
Would it be beneficial to add any content while working through these pages or is it better to wait? Like when you’ve taken the time to pull out the category list and copy and page it into your description, is there a reason you wouldn’t go ahead and paste that into the content section and build a nice little category content?
With much appreciation,
Jamie
Chris,
Mark’s example was for a category store but there’s no reason why you can’t do exactly as he has shown on a search store. Most of my stores are also built around search terms instead of eBay categories but everything else is the same.
All you need to do is log in to your site’s Admin and go to any store page you’ve already created, then change the wording in the three meta areas (title, keywords, and description). Make sure you save your changes before going on to the next page.
I don’t totally understand your question about not having an edit button. Please clarify this.
Rochelle
Once again thanks very much for a great video Mark.
Before I looked in here yesterday, I was deliberating about whether to totally give up on my sites and start again with much tighter niches. I thought that mine were too broad. Now I see more clearly that while the niches may be wide, I have done hardly anything to make my sites unique.
I will be following your advice and changing things.
This is a good reminder that a bans store should, if done correctly, bring income for a long time.
I have had BANS since November, but I class the 1st April as my official start day, as that is the date I discovered this blog.
Could I ask for a bit of advice?
Would I be best spending my time on my 3 existing sites? 2 are indexed and one is fairly new, or would I be best starting several more and working on them all gradually. I notice you say in your videos to leave sites alone for 1 or 2 weeks after a little optimisation. Does this mean I should have enough sites to keep me occupied for those intervening 2 weeks?
Thanks very much for all your fantastic help.
Paul
Rochelle….
After futzing with BANS 3.0, I now see how to make Search Category Links.
I have been using the OLD way of doing things as outlined here: http://buildanichestore.com/members/search-pages.php
I realized that now I don’t have to do this with BANS 3.0 and can do it all within the Admin interface.
So now I just need to go back in and tweak my site.
This is great news…glad I was able to figure it out.
Thanks!
Chris
Spot on Chris.
Use a page for a search. The “old way” sends a short meta tag warning to Google webmaster tools. Change your stores, but NEVER change the URL after indexing. Check if a page is indexed by typing site:domain.com into Google search.
Ive made that mistake more than once