If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

It may not be the fanciest page of your website, but it’s an essential one. Sitemap is considered to be the directory of your online store. A text-based site map provides both users and search engines with a structured list of all of the sub-pages contained within the main domain of your site, along with links to each page. When incorporated correctly, sitemap can provide online businesses with a range of revenue-boosting advantages:

• Increases the visibility of all pages of your website (for users and search engines)
• Provides a straightforward navigation structures and helps customers find the product, service, or information they’re looking for.
• Allows you the opportunity to embed targeted search keywords and phrases within each page link, helping to boost your site’s organic search rankings for those terms
• Makes it easier for search engines to follow all of your site’s links, ensuring that all inner pages of your website are spidered.
• Helps in the monitoring and correcting of broken links

Be consistent in designing your sitemap with the other pages of the site. This electronic search spider is actually a bot which collects data and copies content to be stored in the search engine’s database when keywords are fed into the search dialogue box. It is not merely a random listing of links, but organized in such a way that it gives the web user an idea of how all the information that can be found in the site fits into an outline or framework.

What purpose does a sitemap serve? What are the benefits of having a sitemap for my website? This is to make sure that the spider starts searching from your homepage down to all the pages listed in your sitemap. You would probably think that there must be something wrong with the search engine that it generated irrelevant results. Use a recurring design and the same HTML template for all pages to establish identity and build character to your website.

Based on the results of a 1999 SURL study on sitemap designs, the full categorical format is most preferred by users since it is easier to search for topics within the site and it allows easier comparison between and among categories. In this way, no page would be left unvisited by the spider.

Chargebacks are frustrating and it’s what online merchants despise the most. It is not only the loss of your product or service, but also the risk of expensive fines, account closures, and even blacklisting. Definitely this is a major threat to your online business. Chargebacks are an unfortunate part of ecommerce but practical and smart merchants can learn from some their chargebacks experiences.

When a consumer asks his or her credit card company for a refund, a merchant can suffer a chargeback. The credit card company will reach into a merchant’s bank account and take the total amount of the transaction that’s being charged back. Then, any one of three or more different types of organizations could charge the merchant a fee for its trouble. Throughout this process, no one bothers to inform or ask the merchant. Avoiding chargeback is all about communicating and setting expectations.

Set Product Expectations. Make sure that the customer could correctly understand what he is ordering. He may decide to return the purchase or, worse, call his card-issuing bank and initiate a chargeback if conflicts happen. To set this right, use clear product description. Include product dimensions, weight and all applicable measurements. And don’t to forget to describe materials and special handling.

Set Shipping Expectations. Clearly mention when their product is likely to be shipped, how many business days? Consider adding an “About Shipping” section to your site, describing how you pack orders and why it can take several days for a package to arrive

Set Policy Expectations. If good fences make good neighbors, then good policies make good online retail transactions. To set these expectations explain step by step how a customer can return or exchange an item. Require customers to accept store policies as they check out and if refunds are required, pay promptly.

Set Customer Service Expectations. When a customer has a problem, he or she expects you to be there. Acknowledge customer service emails automatically, setting the customer’s expectations about when they’ll get a response .

It’s important to understand that the way the chargeback system works is in favor of the customer and the process is sometimes abused. You need to do everything you can to ensure that if you do have to issue a challenge or your account comes under scrutiny, you’ve taken all the appropriate steps.