Site Administration

Metatags

Meta tags are metadata of a HTML page which supply additional information for search engines. The most important tags in SEO practices are description and title.

  • Description: describes what your page is about.
  • Title: help search engines to categorize the content on your site.

NOTE: The Metatag modules will be enabled on IC sites upon request. If you do not see that path, please email us to request the module be enabled.

MailMunch

MailMunch provides tools to assist in converting visitors into email subscribers and customers by offering several types of opt-in forms: Popup, Embedded, Topbar, and Scrollbox. MailMunch also integrates easily with Constant Contact, MailChimp, and other major email marketing platforms.

MailChimp

This documentation was modified on 01/18/2018, to comply with the latest changes by MailChimp.

This provides an integration with MailChimp (an email delivery service) and makes it possible to create and send MailChimp emails directly from your website.

PREPARE TO USE THE MAILCHIMP MODULE

  1. Sign up for a MailChimp.com account
  2. Create your list through MailChimp

Website Best Practices

Creating a leading website takes thought and planning, a site is typically considered successful if it is well designed, useful and in e-commerce aspects, lucrative. While different stores each have different website needs, there are some best practices that are global to all sites. In this guide, we explain those best practices and have broken them down into 4 categories:

 

Help Page

There is no default help page in Drupal 7. However, there is a link included in the order confirmation email your customer receives pointing them to a help page on your website. That link will direct visitors back to your front page unless there is a custom help page created and configured on the site.

The section of the order confirmation email with the link to the help page:

Where can I get help with reviewing my order?
To learn more about managing your orders on YOUR SITE NAME, please visit our help page.

Error Page

You may create custom error pages for a 403 error (access denied) or a 404 error (page not found).

By default, the pages for each of those messages state:

Access Denied
You are not authorized to access this page.

Page Not Found
The requested page "/cake" could not be found.

Front Page

For a website, the ‘Front Page’ is what site visitors land on when they go to www.yoursitename.com. Any published content ‘promoted to the front page’ will be the default content on the front page. You may, however, create a custom front page and set that to display by default instead.

A Beginner's Guide

If you are new to IndieCommerce and not sure where to begin or if you consider yourself a beginner, this is for you! In this webinar we cover, the IndieCommerce team will provide step by step instructions on:

  • How to configure your new IndieCommerce site
  • Share some website best practices to get the most out of your site

Themes

This webinar covered topics related to site themes and included the following:

  • Responsive Drupal themes offered by IndieCommerce
  • Theme features
  • Switching themes using Theme Key
  • Administration theme
  • List of popular themes
  • Tips and tricks for testing and selecting a theme

 

Taxonomy

While you can organize your content based on content types and content authors, you may also want to organize or view content based on what the content is about or what it pertains to.

For example, let's say you have 3 locations and events happening in all those 3 locations. Visitors to your site may not want to look through your entire calendar at events across all of those locations; they may want to see only the ones happening close to them. What you want is a way to categorize your events by location, and allow your visitors to filter the events by location.

Taxonomy Filters

You can use “Taxonomy” to filter your content. For example, let's say you have 3 locations and events happening in all those 3 locations. Visitors to your site may not want to look through your entire calendar at events across all of those locations; they may want to see only the ones happening close to them. What you want is a way to categorize your events by location, and allow your visitors to filter the events by location.

In the example below, we add taxonomy to the ‘Event’ content type and place a filter on the calendar.

IndieCommerce Overview

In this webinar we will discuss:

  • Message Center
  • IndieCommunication newsletter
  • Store preferences
  • Custom content... and more.

Adding Books

It is important to keep in mind that the vast majority of titles listed on IndieBound.org, and on our IndieCommerce member websites come from Ingram Book Company's iPage database. Generally speaking, if a title is listed with them (even if they don't actually carry it), it is listed with us. If you are a publisher, you'll want to contact Ingram to inquire about listing your catalog with them. You can find publisher-specific contact info here:

Local Store Inventory

This documentation was modified on 10/1/2021 to include details on the LSI Price Comparison Export feature.

When a visitor to your site searches for a title, they generally see books listed with one of these availability statuses:

Menus

A website navigation menu is a collection of links grouped together in a horizontal or vertical block. Menus are usually at the top of a website; menus can be added to the footer and side navigational bars as well.

Organized and easy-to-follow navigation for a website is very important for the overall user experience. When planning your menu, it’s important to keep in mind the information your users need to access quickly and frequently, and make those items clearly identifiable and accessible. 

Pages

About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

Contact

PRESS INQUIRIES: [email protected]

INDIECOMMERCE: [email protected]

ALL OTHER INQUIRIES: [email protected]

 

 

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