A major commitment to improving various aspects of its search program is helping PC Universe Inc. reduce its marketing expenses and gain more visibility on the major search engines, particularly Google.
PC Universe, No. 289 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, recently replaced an internally developed and maintained site search program with a new application from SLI Systems. The new application now lets PC Universe return search results to a query with more pictures, graphics, links and alternative product suggestions.
The company, which carries more than 150,000 products on its web site, needed improved site search to help customers more quickly and easily find the merchandise, says co-founder and chief operating officer Tom Livia. With better site search, customers can now submit a query and get back results that include product numbers and available inventory. Customers can also search by ascending and descending price ranges.
With better site search, PC Universe is getting shoppers more quickly to merchandise and product pages. But PC Universe is also using an outside search engine marketing company to optimize its natural search listings. Prior to using a third party, PC Universe was only indexed on about 8,000 Google pages, a figure that has since grown to about 172,000 pages. “Now we are feeding the spiders that crawl across the site which is something we were not doing before,” Livia says. With better internal and external search programs, PC Universe has reduced its marketing costs by 30% in 2005 and expects to increase total sales by about 20%, he says.
“Better search in multiple forms is helping us make the site more personal and productive for shoppers,” Livia says.
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