Seo, forwarding and complications..

[pendipidy]

Hello!

I am hoping someone knows the answer to this question/problem.

I am setting up a cafepress shop and therefore the current domain name is www.cafepress/myshopname. I want this to be changed to my own shop name. Cafepress say that:

"we do not support masking domains or framing. While you can set up an easy redirecting of your URL to your CaféPress.com shop, by not allowing a shopper to enter the CaféPress.com domain you can lose sales. When arranging a redirect with your web host you have two options: Masked Forwarding or Unmasked Forwarding.

With unmasked forwarding your customer enters your personal URL into the address bar and is then redirected to your CaféPress.com shop, with the address changing into your CaféPress.com URL.

With masked forwarding, you are disguising the CaféPress.com URL with your own. Essentially this is a form of framing which will affect your customer’s ability to add products in their shopping cart."



I understand that if you use masked frames, you are stopping the secure checkout and obviously i don't want to do that. However , i am trying to get my shop indexed quickly on google, and i tried to submit a sitemap, but i can only access cafepress' sitemap, not mine on its own (because of the way it is set up, i imagine) . My question is though, if i redirect a domain name to this shop, will google see it as MYSHOPNAME or will it see it as www.cafepress/myshopname but redirecting to myshopname?

Are you following me?! If i point my domain name to this shop, is this what will show in serps? my new domain name? And will the SEO i have on this site be relevant to my own domain name rather than the cafepress/myshopname? Will it be easier/quicker to get indexed if i have my own name, or will google "see through" it, to the real shop name, after the redirect?

Oh, and it will be better for seo if i have my own domain name?

Hopefully someone knows out there?

Thanks ,

Jill

 

[fisicx]

The best and easiest solution is to stop using cafepress.

I know that's probably not what you want to hear but the longer you stick with these site buiders/host the most long term trouble you are storing up for yourself.

The redirection will tell google that your website is cafepress.com/yourwebshop not yourwebshop.com.

If you want google to love you long time, get your own hosting and install your own website.

You cannot do what you want while cafepress are hosting your website. In fact it's not even your website, it's theirs.

 

[pendipidy]

The best and easiest solution is to stop using cafepress.

I know that's probably not what you want to hear but the longer you stick with these site buiders/host the most long term trouble you are storing up for yourself.

The redirection will tell google that your website is cafepress.com/yourwebshop not yourwebshop.com.

If you want google to love you long time, get your own hosting and install your own website.

You cannot do what you want while cafepress are hosting your website. In fact it's not even your website, it's theirs.

Hi, thanks for that. I realise it is theirs, but maybe it will work for me in that regard as their SEO is so good? The problem is their customisation software means customers can personalised a product and see if with their personalisation there and then which is a major plus, i think. Hmmm

 

[fisicx]

Well yes, you do get all the benefits of their shop but you get none of the SEO benefits. You will just be one of the zillions of other t-shirt sellers.

This means people searching for t-shirt and associated keywords will land on cafepress not your shop.

There are some very good ecommerce packages that will do what you want but they aren't cheap. You dilemma is decided which way you want your business to go: something you own and can develop or something thrown in with everybody else.

The other thing to consider is, suppose you do build up a following and get some good referrals form other websites. If you decide at a later date to set up your own website all of those referrals will melt away leaving you to start all over again.

 

[pendipidy]

Yes, i realise that. But it isn't T shirts

I do have another store that i own and i am selling them there too, but it is the personalisation on line that is persuading me. The graphics are built in and short of paying a developer thousands of pounds, which i don't have, its a tricky one.

But with regard to the seo, if my site is fully optimised and has good seo, will it get lost in the serps as just part of cafepress, is what i am wondering. if so, i won't bother...but if it didn't and would show in its own right with my domain name, then it would be worth it.

So say my product page is one page one of google, it would then show my domain name, but what i am saying is, would it ever get there because the keyword density and content from all the other cafepress shops, would they be lumped in one lot together, is what i am trying to say, so would an individual shop never rate well?

 

[fisicx]

Unlikly unless you had lots of really good inbound links pointing to your shop.

But your domain would never be #1, it is the cafe press shop that google would rank.

I understand about the shop builder thing. But the price you pay for this functionality is a loss of identity. As you say, you just get lumped in together with everybody else.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Build a site, optimise it, then send them to cafepress to handle the actual viewing/customising/buying process.

This really is your only option other than laying out big bucks

 

[pendipidy]

Yes, oldwelshguy, this is what I am going to do. A wordpress blog, set up looking like a shop, with products clicking through to product pages of cafepress site.

Thanks to you both for advise

 

[webgeek]

Dunno, there's people on here who advertise ecommerce shops for 300 quid and up (and they look good / work well).

You can sell directly off Wordpress (ecwid), get your own site, sell off Facebook (payvment), or many other options, none of which will break the bank.

 

[fisicx]

Yes, oldwelshguy, this is what I am going to do. A wordpress blog, set up looking like a shop, with products clicking through to product pages of cafepress site.

The big problem with this idea is that once they are on the cafepress site they can't get back to the WP site.

As webgeek suggests, why not just set up a wordpress ecommerce theme. All the product display features are includes as are the payment options. You need to do is take pictures of your products and write the blurb but the rest is just a matter of configuring the theme.

 

[Ali-v-8]

£300 setup for an opencart as webgeek said.
Ad feature to your budget, but most a simple to activate within the CMS system.
The quicker you breakaway the quicker you build your "OWN" business instead of someone elses.
Just so you are aware I would advise against linking from one site to another for SEO.