SiteBeat: July 2019

The HEROweb Marketing and Design Newsletter
HEROweb.com · MightyMerchant.com July 2019

Hello from HEROweb! Thank you for reading our monthly newsletter. We are always excited to roll out new features. One feature we introduced a few years ago is PayPal Express Checkout. We notice that some site owners have yet to make the switch. We have instructions for this free and easy upgrade. We also look at two ways to enhance your website with content such as adding videos along with a marketing tip on understanding and choosing good page titles for your SEO efforts. Content and the way that page titles reflect that content is an important topic for website success. We hope you find the information useful this month.

​Feature Update: PayPal Express Checkout

MightyMerchant has always offered a way for shoppers to pay with PayPal. Two years ago we rolled out a much better way to handle PayPal payments called PayPal Express Checkout. 

If you have not already upgraded to using PayPal Express Checkout, we suggest you switch as soon as possible. There is no cost and it is a much better integration than the previous method. 

If you are not sure if you are using PayPal Express Checkout, feel free to contact us and we'll let you know. Our MightyMerchant Support Page has detailed instructions on integrating PayPal Express Checkout that our customers can follow on their own, or we can help you set it up.

​Power Tip: Embedding a Video on Your Site

Embedding a video on any page of your website takes less than a minute and is as simple as sharing a link. In order to get the link for the video, you just need to first load the video to a video streaming service such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Our MightyMerchant Support Page has instructions on embedding videos to your website from YouTube.

Here are the basic steps, but click through to the instructions page for a more detailed explanation:

1. Create an account with the streaming service, such as Youtube, where you will be hosting the video. This should be free.

2. Prepare the video based on the recommendations of the portal site. Typically, you should be able to create a .mp4, .mov (quicktime) or a .wmv (Windows Media Viewer) file.

3. Upload the video. Sometimes there is a required approval process for uploaded video, so it will not be immediately available.

4. Copy the embed code and paste it into the MightyMerchant Text Editor where you want your video to display.

Embedding videos from Vimeo is similar process to Youtube, but it is slightly different because they have different features for whether you are a free, Basic member or a paid Plus, Pro, Business, or Premium member. Here's what you can do:

Basic members can:

  • Choose what gets displayed after a video finishes playing
  • Choose which specific sites the video can appear on

Premium, Business, Pro, and Plus members have more control over embed settings.

Understanding Email Delivery from MightyMerchant

Successful email delivery from your website to both you and your customers is of critical importance. It is also presents challenges as all mail providers are continually refining their practices to protect against junk email reaching their customers' inboxes.

Since emails generated from the MightyMerchant application (such as the order confirmation emails you receive when your customers place an order) are not coming from an actual person, they have more potential to be flagged as spam.

MightyMerchant has several practices in place to help ensure the delivery of mail. One important aspect of our automated messages is that messaging coming from our system are sent from the address noreply@mightymerchant.com. 

When a confirmation of an order goes to you customer, the "From" address is "noreply@mightymerchant.com" and the "Reply-To" address is your customer's email address. If you want to reply back to the customer from your email application, virtually every application correctly uses the Reply-To address.

Occasionally, we see email programs that ignore the Reply-To address and send messages back to the noreply@mightymerchant.com address. This is a rare occurrence, but we will notify you if we see this situation occurring.

​Marketing Tip: Page Title Optimization Review

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an important concept for website owners. We understand that it does take a significant time commitment to manage your search engine marketing and it's not a one-and-done thing. Maintaining SEO does require continual upkeep. 

One simple and quick step you can take to improve your SEO is to go into your site and review the page titles for your top-level categories and main product categories. Page titles are important because Google considers the title tag as an important indicator about the focus of the page and title tags are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) as the clickable headline. It's often the first thing people look for to be sure that the results are relevant to what they're searching for. 

Make your title tag an accurate and concise description of a page's content, and keep it within 50 to 60 characters. That's how many characters Google typically displays. 

Here's how to check and change your page titles:

  • Go to your Site Content, and click the Optimize button at the top
  • In the Optimized Info column you will see fields for Page Title, Keywords, and Web Page Address
  • In the Page Title field, enter in a new page title or change the existing page title
  • Don't forget to click the Save Changes button after making your changes

Our Support Site has instructions on optimizing your website. In that resource you will find some good information on why to optimize your site along with how to utilize the MightyMerchant system to do it. No only does this resource discuss optimizing page titles, but it will help you determine an appropriate list of keywords to use, how to optimize your products, and more.

​Recent Projects

http://www.coosbayyachtclub.org - A new site for a family-oriented yacht club in Coos Bay, Oregon, for yachters who are competitive or just enjoy being on the water.

http://www.ute1stop.org - We redesigned this site for a non-profit organization focused on creating employment opportunities and training initiatives for the local workforce in Douglas County, Oregon

https://www.mckenzie-pediatrics.com - We kept the fun colors and approachable personality of this independent medical practice in Springfield, Oregon, but our complete site redesign gave it a more modern layout. Navigating to resources on the new site is more straight-forward, and it's easier for site visitors to see and recognize each physician.

Take Your Website From Zero to Hero!
Let Us Know
How We Can Help!
MightyMerchant