Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search

Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to search. Our goal is to offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful information, tips, and news of the latest developments on Site Search, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any feedback or questions please direct them to newsletter@sli-systems.com.

In this issue:

Online Channel May Be Bright Spot in Tough Holiday Season
Partner Spotlight: Impaqt
SLI Systems Now on Twitter!
SLI Systems & Customers in the News
Upcoming Events

Online Channel May Be Bright Spot in Tough Holiday Season

Shaun Ryan
CEO, SLI Systems

The big question on every retailer’s mind this holiday season is, will my online storefront succeed in attracting a healthy number of holiday shoppers – and turning browsers into buyers? Predictions are all over the map as to whether more shoppers will flock to the Internet to make their purchases this year, or if the expected cuts in consumer spending will occur with online as well as in-store shopping.

In our recent Ecommerce Podcast, Forrester Senior Analyst Brian Walker explains that retailers with an online presence are likely to show healthier holiday sales, even if this season doesn’t promise to set records. “Companies relying on traditional retail distributional channels are turning to the Web as one of their few bright spots,” said Walker. “E-commerce is picking up steam, even as the economy turns sour.”

Walker also explained that in this tough economic climate, he’s seeing online retailers shift their focus from customer acquisition to customer retention – and they’re taking a harder look at technologies and best practices that keep existing customers coming back, like product reviews and alternative payment methods. Naturally, search also plays a big part in boosting customer satisfaction online.

We invite you to listen to this podcast, and learn more about the best practices that smart online retailers are using to keep their customers loyal in competitive times.

And if you’re looking for new strategies for boosting holiday sales, our partner Impaqt has created a list of helpful tips on drawing traffic to your site via search marketing. (Read more below about our partnership with Impaqt.)

Partner Spotlight: Impaqt

This month, we’d like to tell you more about our partner Impaqt, a privately held Search Engine Marketing agency that helps Fortune 1000 marketers gain revenue, branding awareness and top Internet rankings through search-based paid placement campaigns and natural Web site optimization. This partnership is a natural fit for SLI and its customers: As Impaqt Vice President of Sales Dan Gbur explains, the data and analysis provided by SLI can be a key element of a successful search campaign.

“When we work with SLI on a joint customer, we actively monitor for those search terms that site visitors use to look for certain products,” said Gbur. “We’re especially looking for search terms that may be different from the actual name or brand or a product or service – these are the keywords we will buy to ensure success of a campaign.”

Impaqt and SLI Systems recently worked with joint customer Spirit Halloween on a paid search campaign, taking advantage of SLI’s Ad Champion service, which analyzes search term data from SLI’s site search product Learning Search. If you’d like to learn more about how SLI and Impaqt can help you create successful SEO and SEM campaigns, please contact us.

SLI Systems Now on Twitter!

In keeping up with the ever-increasing shift to social media for communications and idea exchanges, SLI recently started using Twitter to share our ideas and thoughts on the happenings of the search and ecommerce industries, as well as post links to our blog, newsletter, podcasts and other newsworthy items. If you’re on Twitter, follow us at www.twitter.com/slisystems. (And if you’re not on Twitter, you should be – your customers are likely already there!)