Today’s post is a long and exciting guest post from BowTiedFawn. She details how her and BowTied Gator DDS started biöm with their flagship product NoBS.
If you have an idea for a product should you get it trademarked or patented before creating the product or will the manufacturer help you with that process?
This is highly dependent on the product. If you're patenting a technology you've invented (unlikely), do it as soon as you can. If it's just another run of the mill product and you're looking at a trademark of the brand, do it after you've created and started selling.
And no. The manufacturer won't help you. You have to hire a lawyer that specializes in the field.
I have an eCom site that is about a year old, but I did not start learning and implementing SEO for it until last fall. I have about 100 content posts on the site now, but made the mistake of including the date in the URL because wordpress default. Ive read that you should not have it in the URL. I can change the default URL setup sitewide for all the posts, and 301 redirect to the new URL that does not have the date in it.
As a side note: the last 3 months only have 15k impressions and 152 clicks.
What do the more experienced people think? I dont know how much of an impact that will have at this stage?
Generally, you never want to change the URL as Google views it as a new page. Given that you're not ranking anyways... I'd figure out why, rewrite the posts, change the URL, and 301 the pages.
How did you decide what review software to use in the background? We are currently using a built in one for WooCommerce, but ive read different opinions on this subject. Does the type of customer review software affect SEO?
Yes because some will implement schema on your website and some won't. You should be looking at the functionality you need when deciding a product. For review software, some of functionality would be:
- Schema implementation
- Review placement functionality
- Review request emails (asking for reviews)
- Does the software play nice (pass data) with other implementations of your martech stack?
This is great, thanks! Woo seems to be decent if you do the settings right, i checked the google rich snippets for products and looks like the reviews and stars get picked up. It also has the auto email for post purchase option, although I am implementing Klavyio right now.
Great work! I will be interested to see how the new customer acquisition process works for you all. You may want to try the travel segment (travel vlogs) with your tablet product. The angle would be minimizing liquids going through TSA while having enough toothpaste for extended travel. Travel size toothpaste sucks and this would get around both of those issues. A benefit of marketing to travelers is they are already primed for making purchases outside their normal habits and are willing to spend extra $$$ for convenience. You will also be able to hit them with a subscription based discount code through email marketing after they get back from their travel because they will already love your product then. I am pulling for you all to keep building on your success!
Great read. Tips for anyone looking for manufacturers: most industries have some sort of large multinational convention. The supplier list is available on the website, and usually categorizes it reasonably well. Then use a VA to dig through company websites for what you’re looking for. Can find some gems this way, and it’s a more affordable version of what large companies do (to en extent) for procurement in supply chain.
I’m sure you can find answers/lists online, but the more important thing is vetting. Her point on communication is key. How are you alerted to inventory levels, do you have a single contact or multiple escalation points, what’s the markup structure, how are damages handled, insurance requirements on their end, can you scale with them or will you out grow them eventually...I typically approach it as “what can the supplier do that can screw me, and how do they prevent that” Also, a lawyer reviews any contract signed, whether yours or theirs.
Don’t worry, the metaphor made sense to me haha. Fantastic read. Would love to eventually hear more about how you’re scaling out those other channels like Pinterest, Insta, and ofc tik tok. After some time passes to talk about results / tweaks that’d be great. Keep up the incredible work guys!
If you have an idea for a product should you get it trademarked or patented before creating the product or will the manufacturer help you with that process?
This is highly dependent on the product. If you're patenting a technology you've invented (unlikely), do it as soon as you can. If it's just another run of the mill product and you're looking at a trademark of the brand, do it after you've created and started selling.
And no. The manufacturer won't help you. You have to hire a lawyer that specializes in the field.
Thanks - I will look into patenting it
I have printed this quote of your and it now sits prominetly on the wall by my computer:
“Whether that’s ecom or something else,
you need to be digging your tunnel out of
Shawshank every single day.”
I'll be back in 6 months with a tunnel dug and hopefully a hand punched thru the topsoil outside the walls!
I'm so honored! Thank you. Report back in 6 months, we'll be waiting.
I have an eCom site that is about a year old, but I did not start learning and implementing SEO for it until last fall. I have about 100 content posts on the site now, but made the mistake of including the date in the URL because wordpress default. Ive read that you should not have it in the URL. I can change the default URL setup sitewide for all the posts, and 301 redirect to the new URL that does not have the date in it.
As a side note: the last 3 months only have 15k impressions and 152 clicks.
What do the more experienced people think? I dont know how much of an impact that will have at this stage?
Generally, you never want to change the URL as Google views it as a new page. Given that you're not ranking anyways... I'd figure out why, rewrite the posts, change the URL, and 301 the pages.
Thanks, will do.
Yea hoping my recently fixed internal linking was the reason.
Very nice to have such a good planning
How did you decide what review software to use in the background? We are currently using a built in one for WooCommerce, but ive read different opinions on this subject. Does the type of customer review software affect SEO?
Yes because some will implement schema on your website and some won't. You should be looking at the functionality you need when deciding a product. For review software, some of functionality would be:
- Schema implementation
- Review placement functionality
- Review request emails (asking for reviews)
- Does the software play nice (pass data) with other implementations of your martech stack?
This is great, thanks! Woo seems to be decent if you do the settings right, i checked the google rich snippets for products and looks like the reviews and stars get picked up. It also has the auto email for post purchase option, although I am implementing Klavyio right now.
Great work! I will be interested to see how the new customer acquisition process works for you all. You may want to try the travel segment (travel vlogs) with your tablet product. The angle would be minimizing liquids going through TSA while having enough toothpaste for extended travel. Travel size toothpaste sucks and this would get around both of those issues. A benefit of marketing to travelers is they are already primed for making purchases outside their normal habits and are willing to spend extra $$$ for convenience. You will also be able to hit them with a subscription based discount code through email marketing after they get back from their travel because they will already love your product then. I am pulling for you all to keep building on your success!
Great read. Tips for anyone looking for manufacturers: most industries have some sort of large multinational convention. The supplier list is available on the website, and usually categorizes it reasonably well. Then use a VA to dig through company websites for what you’re looking for. Can find some gems this way, and it’s a more affordable version of what large companies do (to en extent) for procurement in supply chain.
thank you Malt!
Hey Fawn, is there a good list of 3PLs somewhere? Or did you just Google. Currently at this part myself. Thanks.
I’m sure you can find answers/lists online, but the more important thing is vetting. Her point on communication is key. How are you alerted to inventory levels, do you have a single contact or multiple escalation points, what’s the markup structure, how are damages handled, insurance requirements on their end, can you scale with them or will you out grow them eventually...I typically approach it as “what can the supplier do that can screw me, and how do they prevent that” Also, a lawyer reviews any contract signed, whether yours or theirs.
Thanks Malt, yes it's my first time screening 3PL companies so appreciate the pointers!
If you have any good articles on 3PL, would you mind sharing? I am just Googling and reading.
Don’t worry, the metaphor made sense to me haha. Fantastic read. Would love to eventually hear more about how you’re scaling out those other channels like Pinterest, Insta, and ofc tik tok. After some time passes to talk about results / tweaks that’d be great. Keep up the incredible work guys!
Thank you!