Mr Site Learning Academy

The New Law on Cookies

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:15:06 GMT

The new law on cookies

We’ve had a few questions about how websites built with Mr Site will be affected by the new law coming in on the 26^th of May regarding cookies. We just wanted to reassure everyone that all Mr Site websites using Mr Site software are compatible with this law and give you a few more details.

Please note that if you have pasted your own code from a third party into the system you will need to check with the third party as to whether their cookies are compliant.

What are cookies?

Cookies are pieces of information that can be placed on a website visitor’s hard drive, in order to remember something about the user later. They are very commonplace and are used by websites for many different reasons. These are the most common:

Session cookies: These allow websites to link the actions of a visitor during a browser session; for example they help a website remember what a visitor has placed in their shopping basket as they browse through a site. They expire after a session so they’re not stored longer-term. They are generally considered not to be intruisive of privacy.

Persistent cookies: Stored on a visitor’s hard-drive in between visits, these allow the preferences or actions of a web visitor on a site – or even across different sites – be remembered. So for example these might remember that a visitor prefers prices on an online shop to be shown in a particular currency, or help a website target their banner advertising.

First and third party cookies: First party cookies are cookies placed on a visitors’s computer by a website. Third party cookies are cookies placed on a visitors’s computer by a domain other than the one the user is visiting. If you’ve ever gone to an online shoe-shop and then the next day seen adverts on another website for exactly the products you were looking at, that’s because of third-party cookies.

What is the new law?

In 26^th May 2011, a new set of rules were introduced by the EU regulating the use of cookies on websites. The British authority in charge of this area, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), gave all UK website owners a year to comply with these regulations.

The regulations state that cookies which are necessary for the running of a site – like those which allow a website to remember what is in a shopper’s basket or let a user login to an online account – are permissible.

However, for all other cookies, websites that use them will need to get the express permission of their visitors to do so.

What Mr Site is doing to comply with the new law:

Our websites don’t use third-party cookies that pass on your visitors’ data to other sites, and generally we don’t use persistent cookies either. By and large, we only use cookies that are deemed strictly necessary for the running of the site – like cookies for online shops. However, to make sure that our systems and your website comply with the new regulations, we will be implementing the following by the 26^thMay 2012:

Takeaway Website: We have gone through the system to see where cookies are used and will be turning off any cookies which are not deemed ‘strictly necessary.’

Storefront: We will be taking out some cookies, but since Storefront offers lots of third-party add-ons, we are also creating a widget that you can add to your online shop which will ask your visitors for permission to use cookies.

Third-party add-ons

While Mr Site will be ensuring the Takeaway Website system complies with the new law, some third-party add-ons – particularly Google Analytics – may not.

If you do use Google Analytics, this is still a bit of a grey area. Ed Vaizey, the Culture Minister, has said that he believes that tracking cookies used by businesses and organisations for web analytics purposes should be considered as ‘strictly necessary’ and therefore exempt from the law. The ICO has been asked for clarification on whether websites which get information about visitors for analytical purposes will be penalised unless they ask all website users for express permission to do so.

So far, they have released a statement saying, “Although the Information Commissioner cannot completely exclude the possibility of formal action in any area, it is highly unlikely that priority for any formal action would be given to focusing on uses of cookies where there is a low level of intrusiveness and risk of harm to individuals. Provided clear information is given about their activities we are highly unlikely to prioritise first party cookies used only for analytical purposes in any consideration of regulatory action. The ICO will also be issuing further guidance shortly which will provide further details on analytics cookies reiterating that they are covered by the new changes. We will also give our view on the applicability of implied consent for these and other cookies.’

We’ll update you when the ICO release their final standpoint on this issue and gives some clearer guidance on what action needs to be taken if you do use Google Analytics.

In the meantime, quite a few websites that use Analytics have added a page or mentioned in their 'About us' page or their terms and conditions that they are using this tool and explaining how Google Analytics uses cookies, which might be something you'd want to consider.

Ultimately, if you do use third-party add-ons on your website you will need to speak to that third party provider about whether they are compliant with the law.

Is my Takeaway Website package included in the KickStart price?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:18:31 GMT

You will need to purchase a Takeaway Website package separately - this can either be done before you contact our team about KickStart or they can arrange it for you. Costs as follows:

Takeaway Website Beginner - £27
Takeaway Website Standard - £43
Takeaway Website Pro - £105

What is a domain name?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:18:06 GMT

A domain name is your website name – a unique name that identifies an internet site (e.g. www.yourname.com). You can buy (or register) your domain name with Mr Site or another provider, but if you buy it with Mr Site it will be included as part of your Takeaway Website package price (Beginner: £27, Standard: £43 or Pro: £105).

If you buy your domain name with another provider, you will have to pay them a domain name registration fee on top of your package price. It’s possible to move your domain name to Mr Site for us to look after and it will then be included in your annual renewal fee.

What do I get with Takeaway Website?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:15:56 GMT

Mr Site’s award-winning website creation tool, Takeaway Website, allows you to easily build your own professional dot com website, with secure online shop.

Your Takeaway Website package is an all-in-one solution; including your domain name, hosting, unlimited use of our website creation tool, email, online shop and free email support from the Mr Site Customer Services.

It doesn't matter if it's a website for a business, a hobby, a local club or even for a personal online profile...anyone can create a website with Takeaway Website. It's all in the box - jargon free and seriously easy to use, with the Mr Site team there to help every step of the way.

Created by leading web designers, you simply select a professional website designfrom the hundreds available and easily customise it to make it unique.Change colour schemes, menu styles, drop in pictures, text, logos,music and you’re done. Choose from three different packages to suityour needs; Beginner, Standard or Pro.

Takeaway Website Beginner

Takeaway Website Beginner includes: your own dot com, 75 Mb web space, 5 web pages, a secure online shop page, 5 email addresses (eg. you@yourname.com, jim@yourname.com), contact forms, blogging tools, a music player, photo galleries, password protection, 2GB bandwidth and much more

Beginner costs just £27. Renew in a year if you want to with no hidden costs.

Takeaway Website Standard

Takeaway Website Standard includes: your own dot com, 150mb web space, 50 web pages, a secure online shop, 20 email addresses (eg. you@yourname.com, jim@yourname.com), contact forms, blogging tools, a music player, photo galleries, password protection, 2GB bandwidth and much more

Standard costs just £43. Renew in a year if you want to with no hidden costs

Takeaway Website Pro

Pro includes all the features of the Takeaway Website Standard, plus a whole host of extras. These include: 600Mb web space, 99 web pages, an advanced secure online shop with stock control, 50 email addresses (eg. you@yourname.com, jim@yourname.com), unlimited bandwidth, essential SiteBoost tools to help boost a website’s position in Google search pages, the ability to track a website’s visitors with advanced statistics, a business stationary creation tool and much more.

Pro costs just £105. Renew in a year if you want to with no hidden costs

If you'd like more information, please visit www.mrsite.com

Is Takeaway Website renewal annual or monthly?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:02:31 GMT

Just like your original purchase cost, renewals are also paid annually. Current renewal fees are as follows:

£27 for Beginner

£43 for Standard

£105 for Pro

What happens after I've had my Takeaway Website for a year?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:01:43 GMT

A reminder to renew your Mr Site account will appear on your screen once you have logged in, 30 days before the expiration date. We'll also send you an email reminder.

The cost of this is:

£27 for Beginner

£43 for Standard

£105 for Pro

If any extras purchase have been made, such as an additional domain name or web space, this will be added to the cost of renewal if they were bought at the same time you activated your Mr Site account. If the date of your extra purchase is different, then you can renew on the relevant date.

To renew, you just need to log into your Mr Site account and go to 'My payments', where you will see any outstanding or upcoming payments to be made. You can then pay securely online or you can also give us a call on 0845 004 8664.

Renewal costs for your Takeaway Website

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:01:07 GMT

On completion of the first year (and each subsequent year), you need to renew your Mr Site account.

The current cost of this is:

£27 for Takeaway Website Beginner

£43 for Takeaway Website Standard

£105 for Takeaway Website Pro

Please note: These fees apply to ALL Mr Site packages – including both box and email versions of Takeaway Website. It is not necessary to purchase a new Mr Site package every year – we’ll send you helpful reminder before your account is due for renewal with instructions about how to pay your fee.

Setting up WorldPay on your Storefront shop

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:43:57 GMT

Before you can start accepting payments through your WorldPay account, you need to set up a merchant account with them. Mr Site customers get a great offer – get a £25 discount on the usual £75 set-up cost for a Business Gateway Plus account.

To register your account please go here.

When you’ve submitted your application, then it will be reviewed by the Acceptance Team and they’ll get in touch via email with some key information you need to set up Worldpay on Storefront.

Linking WorldPay to Storefront

When you receive that email, go to www.worldpay.com. Click on ‘Account login’ at the top right of your screen.

From the drop-down menu that appears, select ‘Business Gateway – New WorldPay Login’.

You’ll now see two options – select ‘Production Merchant Interface’ if you’re ready to start selling live, or ‘Test Merchant Interface’ if you want to test your payment process. Choose the one that’s right for you – but it’s always a good idea to test payments when you’re starting out!

For test payments:

Click on ‘Installations’ on the left-hand menu and then click the wrench image underneath ‘Integration Setup:Test’.

This will take you through to a page with a series of fields that you will need to fill in:

Instillation ID: This is your WorldPay Instance ID, which was sent to you in an email from the WorldPay Acceptance team

Administration code, company name, environment: Will already be completed

Description: Your own reference – useful if you have a few different payment gateways and want to tell how the payment was made

Customer Description: What customers will see on the payment pages, for example ‘Jane’s Shoe Shop’

Store builder used: Select ‘Other– please specify below’ from the drop-down list

Store builder: Fill in as ‘Mr Site Storefront’

For live payments:

Click on ‘Installations’ on the left-hand menu and then click the wrench image underneath ‘Integration Setup:Production’.

This will take you through to a page with a series of fields that you will need to fill in:

Instillation ID: WorldPay Instance ID, which was sent to you in an email from the WorldPay Acceptance team after you applied for a merchant account

Administration code, company name, environment: Will already be completed

Description: Your own reference – useful if you have a few different payment gateways and want to tell how the payment was made

Customer Description: What customers will see on the payment pages, for example ‘Jane’s Shoe Shop’

Store builder used: Select ‘Other– please specify below’ from the drop-down list

Store builder: Fill in as ‘Mr Site Storefront’

Payment Response URL: The website address of your online shop

Payment response enabled?: Check this box

Enable recurring payment response: Check this box

Payment response failure email address: This is the email address you want any notifications of payment failures to be sent to

Attach HTTP(s) payment message to the failure message: Check this box

Payment response password: Choose a password

When you have filled these fields in, then click ‘Save changes’ and log out of WorldPay.

Next, log into your Storefront account. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab and then click on ‘Payment methods’. Click the yellow ‘Add new’ button, tick ‘WorldPay’ and click ‘Save details’. WorldPay will now appear on your list of payment methods.

Click ‘Edit’ next to WorldPay and then select ‘Settings’ on the left-hand column and fill in the following fields:

WorldPay Installation ID: This was sent to you in an email from WorldPay after you applied for your merchant account

Callback password: Your WorldPay login password

Additional fee: If you want to charge customers an additional fee when they pay with WorldPay

Use Sandbox: Keep this box ticked if you are testing your payment system

Those are all the details you need to complete – you’re ready to either test your payment systems or start selling live!

Tips for revitalising your website

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:37:46 GMT

Have you been looking at your website and thinking that it could do with a little bit of a makeover? No problem – let us help you make sure that even if your New Year resolutions are looking a bit worse for wear, your website will look totally refreshed!

In this article, we’ll be discussing ways to ensure your homepage encourages visitors to do what you want them to – whether that’s buy something, sign up to a newsletter or look at examples of your work. We’ll introduce you to a bit of the theory behind website design and you’ll find out how you can easily use it to improve your site.

What’s your call to action?

The greatest change you can make to your website is to ensure that it’s got a purpose; that you know what you want visitors to do when they find it. So, think about what your goal for your website is. Whatever you promote on your site – whether you run a community football club, are showcasing your acting CV or want to sell products – ask yourself, what action do you want visitors to take? Do they call you to make an appointment? Do they sign-up to receive more information about your events?

Once you know what you want people to do, then you can make the ‘call to action’ central to your site.

Making that call…

You need to place your call to action in the space that people automatically look at most. So where is that?

Well, a few years ago, a chap named Jakob Nielsen – one of the biggest names in ‘web usability’ – did a study to see how people consume web content. He discovered that when people look at a webpage, they read in an’F’ shape, from left to right, spending most time at the top of the page. Here you can see two examples, one of a product page and one of a more editorial-focused page.

What that means for you is that you need to position your ‘call to action’ where it’s going to receive the most attention – at the top of the ‘F’.

Designing a call-to-action

Our big tip with the ‘call to action’ is to keep it simple – don’t make people think too much! Get a snappy image and add a few words of powerful text; make it clear what you are offering.

We recommend trying out Adobe Photoshop – you can upload an image and then add text over the top, for example like this:

The F-shape and categories

The Nielsen research also is relevant to how you arrange categories on your webpage. We see lots of websites where the home page navigation menu is crammed with category after category– this is just confusing for visitors and actually makes it harder for them to find what they need.

People’s eyes trail off as they move down the page – so especially if you have your navigation bar on the left, then it’s pointless to have tons of categories. We say, have no more than 6 categories in your main navigation menu – and then break these down further into sub-categories when people click through. Have a look at www.petitefeve.com, who’ve done this very well.

Make your message powerful

Nielsen did another study in 2008 that suggested online surfers tend to ‘skim’ through pages – at most, he suggests they read a palty 28% of text, with the percentage decreasing the more text there is on a page.

This means that what you want the call to action at the top of your homepage, with smaller sections beneath directing people to other areas of interest – in a few lines, you are taking control of the journey users take when they arrive on your site. The images you choose can really help make your homepage compelling; charities or clubs might use glossy pictures of recent events, builders may choose a good photo of recent work, shops an image of a new product range. Even if you already have a gallery, don’t make that the only place you use pictures; aim to have text and images working together.

In conclusion…

Basically, you’re tryng to hit people with a strong, clear message when they arrive on your pages and then to make it as easy as possible for visitors to get the information they require. With a bit of a strategic thinking and a ruthless editorial approach – 2012 can be the year your website helps you achieve success!

Taking Payments with PayPal Standard on Storefront

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:17:18 GMT

If you want to use PayPal Standard to accept payments on Storefront, first of all you need to have a merchant account with them. If you don't have one already, please go here to apply.

Once you have a merchant account, you will need to log into your PayPal account and follow these steps:

1. Hover over 'Profile' and select 'My selling preferences' from the drop-down menu.

2. Click on the 'Update' button next to 'Website preferences'.

3. Turn 'Auto return' on and enter your URL in the 'Return URL' text box. The URL should be http://yourdomainname.com/PaypalPDTHandler.aspx.

4. Set "Payment Data Transfer' to 'On'. Click 'Save' when you've filled in these details

5. Click again on 'Website preferences' and scroll down to 'Payment Data Transfer' - there you will see that you've now been given an Identity Token. Note it down as you'll need it a bit later.

6. Go back to 'My profile' and click on 'Instant payment notifications'.

7. Click 'Update' beside 'Instant payment notifications'

8. In the Notification URL field,enter 'http://www.yourdomainname.com/PaypalIPNhandler.aspx'.

9. Select 'Receive IPN messages (Enabled)''. Click save to save these settings.

You're now almost ready to go! Log into your Storefront account and click 'Settings'. Select 'Payment methods' and click 'Add new'. Select 'PayPal Standard' and click 'Save details'.

Click 'Edit' beside PayPal Standard and go to 'Settings' on the left-hand side.

'Business email'- enter the email address you used to set up your PayPal account.

PTI token - enter the token you generated earlier (see step 5)

Additional fee - if you want to charge customers an additional fee when they pay with PayPal, you can set this here.

Use Sandbox - this is for Storefront owners who want to test the payment process before selling live to customers, so if you want to start taking payments immediately. If you want to test your payment process, you can do this by keeping 'Use Sandbox' ticked. You will need to set up a Sandbox account with PayPal - go here

Using PayPal Express Checkout with Storefront

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:16:44 GMT

If you want to use PayPal Express Checkout to accept payments on Storefront, first of all you need to have a merchant account with them. If you don't have one already, please go here to apply.

Once you have a merchant account, you will need to log into your PayPal account and follow these steps:

1. Hover over 'Profile' and select 'My selling preferences' from the drop-down menu.

2. Click on the 'Update' button next to 'API access'.

3. Click on the 'Enable PayPal Express Checkout' link

4. Select 'Accept PayPal payments' and click 'Submit'.

5. On the next screen,you'll be shown a confirmation message acnowledging the changes you've made.

6. Now you'll need to go back to the 'API access' screen - see step 2.

7. Click 'Request API credentials'

8. Tick 'Request API signature' and click 'Agree and submit'.

9. In the next screen, you will see a series of codes - copy these down safely, as you will be asked for them in the next step.

You're now almost ready to go! Log into your Storefront account and click 'Settings'. Select 'Payment methods' and click 'Add new'. Select 'PayPal Express' and click 'Save details'.

Click 'Edit' beside PayPal Express and go to 'Settings' on the left-hand side.

Now just fill in the details you generated in step 9.

Testing this payment system

If you want to test PayPal Express before you start selling live, you can do this by keeping the 'Use Sandbox' box ticked. Instead of filling in live 'Production' codes, you'll need to create a Sandbox account specially for testing - you can do this here.

Submitting your website to search engines

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:51:10 GMT

The first step to getting your website listed on results page is to submit your website’s address (e.g. www.yourbusiness.com) to the various search engines. There are less than 20 search engines and directories that produce 99% of all traffic generated by searches on the internet. If you have Takeaway Website Pro, SiteBoost will inform you of all of the most important search engines, then guide you, step-by-step, through how you to submit your website to them.

Why submit your website to search engines?
It normally takes around 6 to 8 weeks for any new website to appear on most of the search engines. Submitting your website manually to search engines may speed this process up. On rare occasions some search engines may not list you automatically, therefore submitting your website manually means you can be sure that you will appear.

How often should I submit my website?
You only need to submit your website once to each major search engine. You do not need to submit your website multiple times to the same search engine as this will not boost your position in search results.

Which search engines should I submit my website to?
Submitting your website to the top 3 search engines will often be enough. However, Mr Site recommends that you submit your website to between 4 and 6 major search engines. The major 3 search engines on the internet make up between 95% and 98% of all search results, so there is little point submitting your website to hundreds of search engines.

Here are some of the most popular search engines you should add your website to:

Google
Submit your website by visiting: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Bing (Microsoft)
Submit your website by visiting: http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

Yahoo!
Yahoo now uses Bing's system to help sites get found by their search engine - you can get more details here: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/index.php

Some other smaller search engines that you can submit your website to are:

Exact Seek - www.exactseek.com/add.html

Scrub The Web - www.scrubtheweb.com

Many search engines have now teamed up with the larger ones like Google so adding your website to Google will mean that it will automatically appear on the aol.com search engine results as well as many other smaller search engines like dogpile.com and excite.com automatically. We therefore recommend adding your website to the first four main search engines as a priority.

Google also loves website directories, so submitting your website to the directories below may help boost your search position:

Open Directory Project - www.dmoz.org/add.html

Vie Search - www.viesearch.com

Web World Index - www.webworldindex.com

Jayde - www.jayde.com

Turn Pike - www.turnpike.net/directory.html

Little Web Directory - www.littlewebdirectory.com

To add your link to a directory simply select the category that best describes your website and an ‘Add link / submit link’ button will appear allowing you to add your website to the category.

Setting the price for your products

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:20:48 GMT

If you want to set the prices for your products, go to ‘Edit my store’ and in the ‘Products’ drop-down tab, select ‘My Products’. Click ‘Edit’ next to the product whose price you want to set and then in ‘Advanced Info’ click on ‘Price settings’. Next, fill in the following form:

Price: Add the current price for this product
Pre-sale price: If this product is on sale and you would like to display the pre-sale price on your product page, enter it here
Product cost: If you want to keep track of how much this product costs for you to purchase or make, type it in here. It may be more or less than the price you are selling it to your customers for, but don’t worry – the product cost will be not be seen by your customers and only acts as a administrative
tool for your personal use
Disable buy button: Tick this box if you want disable the ‘Buy’ button for this item on your product page so customers cannot buy it
Customer enters price: Tick this box if you want to allow your customers to choose a price for this product
Price on application: Tick this box if you offer a product or service which doesn't have a set price - for example, a bespoke piece of jewellery or a very expensive item. Customers can add this item and 'checkout', and then you can contact them to discuss the item or service further
Minimum amount: This option will only appear if you have ticked the ‘Customer enter price’ box. Enter here the minimum amount you will accept for this product
Maximum amount: This option will only appear if you have ticked the ‘Customer enter price’ box. Enter here themaximum amount you will accept for this product
Available from: If your product is only available for a limited time or is being introduced at a later date, enter the date it will be available from here
Until: If your product is only available for a limited time, enter the date it will be available until here

When you are happy with your settings, click ‘Save details’.

Choosing and personalising your Storefront design

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:51:26 GMT

Storefront has many different design themes for you to choose from – all of which have been created with e-commerce specifically in mind. Storefront automatically arranges all your content and products in the most efficient layout for online shopping, which not only saves you time but also ensures that your shop remains consistently professional.

As our design themes are based on the trends used by some of the most popular online retailers, you can be assured that customers will be able to navigate their way round your site with ease.

Select ‘Themes’, on the right of the top menu bar. This will take you to a section called ‘My themes’.

Browsing themes and adding to your Themes Library

To browse through available themes, click ‘Find more themes’at the top right of your screen. Page 9

This takes you to the Themes Marketplace, where you can see all available themes. If you wish to find themes that the designer thinks are especially suitable for your industry, there is a ‘categories’ bar on the left. Tick the categories relevant to your business to see the themes which are best suited to your needs.

When you find a theme you like, you can see how your site will look if you use it by clicking ‘test drive’. You can then add

the theme to your library by clicking ‘Get theme’ on the top right.

Your theme library is a way for you to keep your favourite themes together. Building a themes library means that you can easily access your favourite themes, keep a record of the themes you have used on your site and create a bank of themes that you use for different occasions (for example, seasonal themes).

Setting a theme live

My current theme: This is the theme that is live and published on your site.

Version: Developers may update their theme designs from time to time. Here, you can see which version of a particular theme you are using and whether there are any updates available.

To make a theme live on your site:

• Click the ‘More options’ button beside the one you want to use

• A drop-down menu will appear – select ‘Make this my current theme’.

It will now appear as ‘My current theme’ and the layout of your online shop will change.

Customising themes

You can customise themes in your library, or themes that are live on your site, to suit you.

• Click the ‘More options’ button and select‘Customise’. The theme will now appear as it would

look were it applied to your site.

• Select ‘Customise (theme name)’. A drop-down menu will appear which allows you to change the background colour and the main colours of the theme.

Renaming or deleting themes

You can rename any themes in your library by selecting ‘More options’ and then clicking ‘rename’. You can delete themes from your library by selecting ‘delete’.

Using the Google Merchants widget with Storefront

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:16:46 GMT

Getting started:

Once you’ve added the Google Merchant widget in the Marketplace, click ‘Go to library’ and you’ll see the widget has been added to your ‘Admin widgets library’. Click ‘More options’ beside it and you’ll be taken to your ‘Widget settings’ area.

Scroll down until you come to ‘Google Merchant’ and tick ‘enable’.

Selecting which Storefront products you want to sell on Google:

When youadd products through Storefront to Google Merchant, the system automatically pulls out certain attributes and details about your products:

ProductI D

Product name

Description

Link to the product page on your website

Image

Price

Weight

Availability

Product type

Condition

Brand

Manufacturer part number

There are two ways you can add products to Google; Method 1 will publish just this basic information about your product to Google, and Method 2 will allow you to edit the attributes above, add different attributes such as category, sale prices or add ‘Global trade identifiers’ to your product.

Go to ‘Edit my store’ and in the ‘Products’ drop-down menu :

Method 1)

Select‘Quick editor’

Click the ‘G’icon to add your products to Google Merchant. Products that you are selling on Google Merchant will show a blue ‘G’ icon; otherwise the ‘G’ icon will be grey.The Storefront system will automatically post the details above about your product into the Google Merchant data feed.

Method 2)

Click on ‘My products.

Click ‘Edit’ beside the product you want to add. Select the ‘Google Merchant settings’ tab. Here you can add further details about your product. Select from the drop-down category menu and choose which category your product belongs to.

Below this you can see drop-down menus where you can fill in details about the product. Most of these are completed by Storefront but you can override any of these details or create your own attributes if you want to (in ‘Add new attribute’).

Of particular interest is the section of attributes called ‘Unique product identifiers.’ Google uses these codes to tell which other products yours is similar to. While you can add products without these GTI code, Google does prefer it if you do so. If you’re not sure what the right code for your product is, or if you make unique hand-made items, you can find more information here.

Signing up with Google Merchants

Before you can start selling with Google Merchant, you need to sign up for an account with them; it’s free. You can do this here.

You will also need to ensure your Storefront website has been verified by Google; there’s more information about how to do this here.

Shipping methods

You need to let Google know what shipping methods you offer.

In your Google Merchant account, click ‘Settings’ and select ‘Tax and shipping’. Click ‘Create new method’ and fill in the details of this delivery method, such as the time it takes for products to reach the customer and how much this method costs. You can add as many methods as you like; one must be the default method, which is the ones customers are offered automatically.

Data feeds

You now need to submit your data feed – this is a file where your products are listed and you can give Google further information about them, such as the product ID, images, and description. As described above, Storefront will generate most of this information for you automatically.

If you go to your Google Merchant homepage, in the dashboard on the right you will see an option to go to ‘Data feeds’. Click here.

You now have two options; you can start selling live on Google by selecting ‘New Data Feed’, or you can test the Google Merchant system by selecting ‘New Test Data Feed’. Fill in the following fields:

‘Target country’ – this is the country where you want your product listings to be displayed. For example, if your customers are primarily based in the UK, you will select ‘United Kingdom from the drop-down list.

Data feed file name: this is just for you, so you can call the file whatever you want – it just needs to end .txt. For example, my_products.txt.

Click ‘Save changes’.

• Select ‘Create a schedule’. This schedule is how frequently Google will return to your store to see if you’ve selected new products to be sold through them, or whether you’ve updated your existing products.

• Fill in details of when you would like Google check on your store to see if your product listings have changed. Under ‘Feed URL’ enter ‘http://www.yourdomainname.com/google.merchantfeed.ashx

• Click ‘Schedule and fetch now’.

Once Google has collected details about the product you’ve chosen to sell, you may see some messages about missing information – you can still publish your products, but if you want to add this extra information you can do so using Method 1 (above).

To find out more about what these messages mean, please go here.

Verify your site with Google

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:08:43 GMT

Before you submit your website to Google, they will need to know that the website actually belong to you. If you have Takeaway Website Pro you can verify with Google in a few simple steps using the SiteBoost tools (click on 'Extras' from the Main Options, then 'SiteBoost', followed by 'Search Engines' and 'Verify with Google') or click here for further instructions.

If, however, you have Beginner or Standard you will need to follow the instructions below:

You will need to verify your site with Google by uploading a HTML file using the following steps:

1. Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account - if you don't have one it's free to set up

2. Click 'Verify' next to the relevant site

3. In the 'Choose verification method' list, select 'Upload a HTML file' and follow the steps on your screen

4. Using any text editor, create the file that Google request and make sure to save it with the exact name they ask for; for example, google11e5844324b7354e.html. The filename is case-sensitive and must have an '.html' extension. The file itself can be empty - Google doesn't read the content of the file, but only check to see that it exists in the specified location. Upload the file to your Takeaway Website account in the wwwroot folder

5. When using FTP we recommend that you use Filezilla, which is available to download for free from www.sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla.

Enter the FTP details as follows:

FTP SERVER: www.yourdomain.com (replace 'yourdomain.com' with your website name)
USER NAME: yourdomain.com (replace 'yourdomain.com' with your website name) PASSWORD: your original Takeaway Website activation code in UPPER case
PORT: 21

PLEASE NOTE: If you have a 'Passive Transfer' setting in your FTP software, make sure it is set to 'disabled'. To do this, take the following steps:

- Open Filezilla
- Click 'Edit', then 'Settings'
- Under 'Connection' click 'FTP'
- Change the transfer mode to 'Active' and click 'OK'

When FTPing, you must save the Google file in the “WWWROOT” folder.

PLEASE NOTE: Any pages uploaded through FTP are not manageable through the Takeaway Website members login.

Once you have uploaded the file, go to back to your Webmaster Tools account in Google and click the 'Verify' button. Google will verify that the file exists in the specified location - if they can't access it, they will give you information about the error encountered. Once this problem is resolved, try to verify your site again.

Taking payments on Storefront with PayPal Website Payments Pro

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:26:13 GMT

Setting up Website Payments Pro on your Storefront

To accept payments with this payment method, you first need an account with PayPal. To apply for Payments Pro, please go here.

Getting information from Storefront

Log into your PayPal account and select ‘Profile’.

Under ‘Account information’ click ‘Request API credentials’.

In ‘Option 1 – PayPal API’ select ‘Set up PayPal API credentials’.

Select ‘Option 2 – View API Signature’.

This will bring up the IDs and API codes you need to fill in on your Storefront pages.

Adding your payment details to Storefront

After you've downloaded the Website Payments Pro widget from the Marketplace, go to 'Settings' and select 'Payment methods'. Click 'Add new' and select 'Website Payments Pro'.

You will now see the payment method in your list of available payment providers; 'Edit' beside 'Paypal Website Payments Pro'.

Copy and paste your API Username and password into where Storefront asks for your Website Payments Pro Settings.

Storefront also asks for your Merchant Account ID – you can find this at the top of your PayPal ‘Profile’ page.

Click ‘Save details’.

Use Sandbox

You’ll also see an option to ‘use sandbox’ – a ‘sandbox’ account is one you can use to test the payment process before you start selling live. You need to create a separate testing account, which you can do by going here https://developer.paypal.com/.

Log into to the testing account and click 'Create a preconfigured account'.

Select 'Website payments pro' and click 'Create account.'

Now if you go to 'Test accounts' you see this account is available. Select 'Enter Sandbox Test Site'.

A new screen will appear; follow the instructions in the earlier steps to set up your Storefront with your test payments account.

Verifying your Storefront site with Google

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:51:01 GMT

Why should you verify your website with Google?

By verifying your site, you can see extra data about your website, add and manage site owners, tell Google if the URL of your site changes and specify the geographic area you want to target. It also allows you to request for Google to visit (crawl) your website, which affects how high your website appears on the search engines.

How do I verify my Storefront?

To verify your Storefront with Google, you need to have a Google Webmaster account – if you don’t have one already, go here to sign up.

Log into your Webmaster account and go to ‘Webmaster tools’. If you’ve already registered and verified your domain name with Google (for example if you have a Takeaway website) then:

• Click ‘Manage site’ and select ‘Add or remove users’ from the drop-down menu.

• Click ‘Manage site owners’.

• You want to verify your site using the ‘metatag’ method. If you previously used a different method, then click ‘verify using a different method’. Select ‘Add a meta tag to your site’s home page’ and then copy and paste the relevant tag (see image below).

• If you used the meta-tag method originally, then click ‘details’ to see the full meta tag.

If you are adding a new site, click ‘add a site’ and enter the URL of your Storefront. Select the ‘Alternate methods’ tab in the screen that appears and then select ‘add a meta tag to your site’s home page’.

Copy this section of the meta tag:

Log into your Storefront and go to the ‘SEO/Display’ section in ‘Global settings’, which you can find by going to the ‘Settings’ tab. Scroll down to ‘Google Webmaster Tools’.

Paste the meta tag you got in the previous steps into the ‘Google site verification’ field in your Storefront screen.

Click ‘Save details’.

Verify your site using Takeaway Website Pro

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:53:28 GMT

Before you can submit your site map to Google, Google will need to verify that you are the owner of your website. In addition, verifying with Google gives you instant access to Google’s verification tools, which should allow you to analyse and hence boost your website even further.

If your have Takeaway Website Pro, SiteBoost’s built-in verification tool can make this normally complicated process simple, quick and easy. Just go to 'Extras' from the Main Options, followed by 'SiteBoost', then 'Search Engines' and finally 'Verify with Google'. Follow Mr Site’s onscreen instructions on how to fill in the forms.

Google will ask you to add a file to your website which will be used by Google to verify you when you want to add your site map or check out your website statistics.

If you are a Standard or Beginner customer, you will not have SiteBoost tools so please click here for instructions on how to do this yourself.

Tracking your Storefront's performance with Google Analytics

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:44:11 GMT

Tracking the performance of your Storefront shop with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a very powerful tool that allows you to see who is visiting your website and helps you understand better what works on your website, what’s not performing and how you can market better to potential customers.

The program shows you how people find your site, how they navigate through and at what point they buy. You can look at clickable heat-maps to see where your customers live by country, region and city; see graphs showing when people come to your site; and see at what times people buy. You can also set goals to see whether you’re achieving your target sales conversions and monitor how long people spend on your site – amongst other things!

Setting up Google Analytics on your Storefront

To set up Google Analytics to track the performance of your Storefront, log into your account and go to the ‘Settings’ tab.

If you click on the ‘SEO/Display’ option on the left-hand menu and scroll down to the bottom of the page, then you’ll see a section called ‘Google Analytics.’ If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, click ‘Sign up for Analytics’. Click ‘Sign up; Google will then ask you to fill in details about your Storefront website.

Google will then give you a tracking code, which starts with ‘UA’. Keep a note of it!

When you go back into the SEO/Display section in your Storefront settings, you now need to go to 'Analytics tracking code' and enter your website's unique tracking code - which Google just gave you - into the code that has already been filled in. Then ensure the 'enabled' box is checked and click 'Save details'.

To check your Google Analytics is working properly, log into your Analytics account, click on 'Home' in the top menu and go to 'Real-time' monitoring; this shows you what is happening live on your website. Go to 'Overview'. Then in a separate window, go to your website. In Google Analytics, it should show you that you have at least one visitor on your website.

Adding images to your Storefront pages

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:13:32 GMT

Adding images to your Storefront pages

As well as adding multiple images to your product and category pages, you can add images to your content pages - for example your ‘About us’ page.

With Storefront you can create an image library which will let you store and save all your images in one place, accessing them from wherever you are.

To start adding images to your content, log into your Storefront account and click on ‘My content’. Click ‘Build page’ beside the page you want to work on.

Drop a content widget into your page and click on the widget to bring up your different options. Click ‘Edit settings’.

Click on the ‘ insert/edit image’ option, which is an icon that looks like a computer screen, in the content menu at the top.

Click the red square on the right and your image library will appear.

To select the image you want to add to your content, click the image and then click ‘Insert image’ at the bottom right.

Adding images to your Image Library

To add an image to your library, select ‘Click here to upload a file’. Then select the image you want to add from your computer and click ‘Open’.

If you want to crop your image, go to the image library and hover over the image you want to edit. Click ‘crop’. Hold your mouse down and drag to create a rectangle over the image. The size of the rectangle you create around the image will be the size the image is cropped to. The newly-cropped image will be saved to your computer, as well as the original image.

Download or import a list of your products

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:51:00 GMT

With Storefront, you can import or export lists of the products you sell using PDF, XML or Excel. To do this, go to ‘Edit my store’ and from the ‘Products’ drop-down menu, select ‘My products’.

Click on 'More options' and you will see this button:

Export your product list to XML
The ‘Export to XML’ button can be used if you want to convert your products into an XML file. This is a type of code that you can send to others (such as affiliate sellers), who may want to display your category list on their shop.

What is XML?

XML is a computer language that was created to allow people to easily transport their data from one format to another. In this case, we need to use it to turn information about a Storefront customers orders or products held in the Storefront system into an Excel document.

XML codes are a bit like HTML codes, except HTML is all about how data looks and XML is about the data is itself and how it is stored.

Creating your XML document

Log into Storefront and click ‘Edit my store’. Click ‘More options’ and select ‘Export to XML’. Save the document.

How do you convert an XML sheet into Excel?

Open Excel 2010 and click ‘File’. Select ‘Open’ from the drop-down menu.

You will now be asked to choose the document you wish to open. Select the XML document you created before and click ‘Open’.Now you will be asked how you want to open the document. Select ‘Use the XML Source task pane’.

You’ll see a message saying that the source doesn’t refer to ‘schema’ – schema describe the structure of an XML document. Click OK.

Your XML document will now open in Excel

Adding PayPal Express Checkout and granting API access

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:37:19 GMT

To begin using your PayPal 'Express Checkout' shop click on 'Extras' in the Main Options, then click on 'Add features', then on 'Add/edit a shop'. Choose your shop page.

Now, select the 'Advanced' tab and you will see the 'Express Checkout' option. You MUST tick the check box here so you can use all the PayPal 'Express Checkout' features on your website.

You will now need to grant Mr Site access to your PayPal account - this means you will be able to view all the orders made on your website in your ‘Payment Centre’.

Granting API access

Mr Site gains access to your PayPal account through something called 'API', which stands for 'Application Programming Interface'. An API acts as an interface between two different software programs and facilitates their interaction.

To enable API access, log in to your PayPal account, click the 'Profile' tab and click 'My Selling Preferences' then click the 'API Access' link.

Next, click on the 'Grant API Permission' link

In the 'API Partner Username' box enter: paypal_api1.mrsite.co.uk

Then tick at least the five tick boxes below, preferably all of them, and finally click 'Add' button:

PLEASE NOTE: Every time you update your shop, always test it right up to the 'Pay Now' point to make sure that is correctly set up.

Checking if the domain name you want to register (buy) is free

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:42:01 GMT

Go to www.whois-search.com and type your chosen website name (otherwise known as a domain name) into the box.

Please note: you do not need to type the ‘www.’ part in.

What widgets can I add to my pages?

miriam.mcgrath@mrsite.co.uk — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:59:24 GMT

There are variety of different widgets that you can add to your product pages, and using the easy page-builder it’s simple to do so – just go to ‘My content’ and click ‘Build my page’ next to the page you want to work on.

Below, we've described the widgets that come automatically with your Storefront package - you can also visit the Widgets Marketplace, where new widgets are regularly added. Find out more about using the Marketplace here.

Products

‘My products’ – this allows you display specially selected items from your product list. Once you have dropped this widget into any drop zone, click the ‘Edit’ button’. You will have the choice between three different options from the ‘Pick your products’ drop down list:

• Recently added – this will display the products you have recently added to your store. It will display in a grid format

• Recently viewed – this will display any products your customer has recently viewed on your store. It will display in a grid format

• Featured – when you are creating products in ‘My products’, you have the option to make them a

‘Featured product’. This widget will display any products you have selected as a ‘Featured product’ in a grid format

You can also use the slider at the top of this pop-up box to decide how many products you want this widget to display, from one to 50.

Category

Featured categories – when you are creating categories in the ‘Categories’ section, you have the option to make them a ‘Featured category’. This widget will display any products you have selected as a ‘Featured product’ in a grid format

Social

User poll – here you can add a user poll which that you may have already set up in ‘My polls’. If you haven’t created one yet, please see page 174 for more information. If you have created more than one user poll, Storefront will automatically add the latest poll you have created. (not available in Seller)

News list – if you have enabled new pages on your store here you can add a widget which will display a list of your latest new headlines. Click the ‘Edit’ widget button to select how many news headlines you would like to display. (Pro-seller Plus only)

Links

Category list – this widget will display a list of your categories

Popular tags – when you are creating products in ‘My products’, you have the option to add product tags to them. This widget will display a list of the most popular product tags on your store and can

help your customers find products even quicker

Manufacturers – this widget will display a list of your manufacturers (Not available in Seller)

Mini links – this widget will display the quick links to the following pages:

• What’s new

• Compare products list

• Shipping & returns

• Privacy notice

• Conditions of use

HTML

HTML – With this widget you can add text, images or extra HTML code to your store pages. Click the ‘Edit’ button and complete the following form:

Title: If you want to display a title, enter one here

Content: Any text you’d like to display in this widget, type in this box – you can also add your own HTML code by clicking the ‘HTML’ button. To upload a picture, use the ‘Insert/Edit image button’ and complete the following form:

General

Image URL: Here you can here enter a web address to link to an image online or click the small box symbol next to ‘Image URL’ and you will be able to select an image that might already be on your store or click ‘Add new’ to choose another image from your computer. Click on the image you want to select, then the ‘Save details’ button. You will now see a preview of your image below

Image description: Give your image a description – this will help with your store’s SEO but is not seen by customers

Title: Give your image a title – this will pop-up when a customer hovers over the image

Appearance

Alignment: Select from the options in the drop down list how you would like to align this picture in the widget box. You will be able to see a preview of how the image will look in the small box to the right of the pop-up

Dimensions: If you want to change the size of your picture, here you can specify the size you’d like iit to be

Constrain proportions: If you are changing the size of your image but want to keep the original proportions, tick this box

Vertical space: If you’d like to add space to the top of this image, enter a number in here

Horizontal space: If you’d like to add space to the side of this image, enter a number in here

Border: To add a border to this image, add a number in here to reflect the thickness of the border (1 being the thinnest)

Style: This will display the HTML code for the option you have selected above – you do not need to enter anything in this box

Advanced:

Alternative image: Tick here if you would like to an alternative picture to display for either of the actions below

For mouse over: Click the small symbol to add an alternative picture for when customers hover over the original picture with their mouse

For mouse out: Click the small symbol to add an alternative picture for when customers hover off the original picture with their mouse

You don’t have to complete all of these options, but when you are happy with your settings click the ‘Insert’ button in the ‘General’ tab to add your picture to this widget.

Once you have added all content, click the ‘Save details’ button. If you ever need to change any of your HTML content, simply click the ‘Edit’ button again in the relevant widget.

Mr Site is always adding new widgets to Storefront – so keep an eye out for new additions! You can always check the Learning Academy at www.mrsite.co.uk/support for help and instructions on any new widgets that aren’t featured in this manual.