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Andy Bernstein

Furniture Google that Won’t Make You Giggle, How search engines can help (and hurt) your business

Have you ever wondered how furniture shoppers use the Internet?  I’ve been conducting a lot of search engine keyword analysis lately and wanted to share some of my findings. 

WHAT DO ONLINE FURNITURE SHOPPERS SEARCH FOR?
At a high level, furniture shoppers use the Internet to search for answers, solutions, ideas and bargains.  The most searched for keyword phrases are types of products, brand names, retailers, and bargains. Below is a list of some frequently searched for home furnishings keywords.

* Send me an email at FTBlog@FurnitureDealer.net if you would like to receive more detailed info about furniture and home furnishings related keyword searches.

DOES YOUR WEBSITE HELP ONLINE SHOPPERS FIND YOU?
Do those people in your market who search for home furnishings find you?  Have you ever tried to type your company name into Google?  How about searching for a furniture store (or a leather sofa) in your city?  Most furniture retailers don’t fare very well, and many don’t even know how their sites (or their competitor’s sites) perform.

A HORROR STORY
Yesterday, I searched for a particular Furniture|Today Top 100 retailer, and found a scary problem.  This is a true story about a company that has a fairly extensive website and is one of the 50 most searched for furniture retailers online.  About 70,000 people searched for this company’s name last month. 

COULDN’T FIND COMPANY WEBSITE
When I typed the company’s name into Google, their website did not appear in the first few results pages.  But, that is only the beginning of their problems. 

UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS
The number listing that Google found was a consumer feedback site that features a long dialogue from several people who were either complaining about or defending this company’s services.  I found three other complaint sites on the first pages of Google and Yahoo.  Two of them were talking about the company's “annoying commercials.”

COMPETITORS
The number two listing on Google was a “furniture store directory” by state.  When I clicked this page, it featured advertisements for six competing retailers with links to their websites. 

INCORRECT SPELLINGS
About one third of all the searches for this company are incorrect spellings of its name.  This is a common problem for companies with hard to spell names.  For example, three out of four searches for La-Z-Boy are misspellings.

CYBER-SQUATTERS
Unable to find the company on Google, I typed thiscompanysname.com into my browser, and found it.  If I had typed two of the most common misspellings, I would have found sneaky websites that sell low priced furniture direct from North Carolina!

WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU?
If your site is not getting found by Internet shoppers in your market, or even worse, if your company name is being used by others online, then there are two things that you can do: (1) spend money, and/or (2) fix your website.  If you are forced to “play defense,” there are three quick fix possibilities:  search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and registering domain names of your misspellings. 

The best defense is a good offense.  A well designed furniture website can cost-effectively attract customers and generate incremental business.  The www.schneidermans.com site attracts over 100,000 visits per month on a $400 online advertising budget. 

CUSTOM INTERNET ASSESSMENT FOR YOUR COMPANY
If you would like to gain a better understanding of your website and your online marketplace, I created a very useful 14 point assessment tool that will tell you:
· How frequently people search online for your company and for your competitors
· How well your site performs on Google and Yahoo
· Who is marketing furniture online in your market
· How you can make your site more useful and achieve better visibility

This assessment is absolutely free and confidential for Outside the Retail Box bloggers.  I will personally follow up with the first 25 companies who fill out the form at http://www.furnituredealer.net/FTBlogAssess. 

HIGH POINT MARKET
FurnitureDealer.net will be exhibiting for the first time ever at the April High Point market (Retailer Resource Center Space 59).  We would love to meet you in person.

NEW TOPICS
Please let me know if there are subjects that you would like to discuss.  I plan to submit new postings every two weeks and the next topic will be about creating a useful website.