We recently made some updates to the way our website presents itself to search engines and social media platforms. Now that our revised goals include reaching an audience outside steem for sales and for on-boarding new steemians, search engine optimization has become an important priority.

This post is an update to our fundition project

Search and Social Fodder for Onboarding

The following excerpt is taken from our Fundition proposal:

Homesteaders Co-op is fast becoming a perfect venue to on-board new steem members that care about sustainability, homesteading, gardening, self-reliance and personal freedom. There are many opportunities for our website to foster on-boarding in a natural way.

Being that our vendors are uploading unique content to Hometeaders Co-op in the form of products and personal/professional stories about their products and their efforts to be sustainable, we are collectively accumulating an assortment of content.

The excellent thing about our Co-op being curated is that our standard is quality over quantity. Our content is also unique in that much of it is tailored to a niche audience. Some of our vendors do not even sell their products anywhere else.

And so our content is very precious to us because it is representative of the quality that we put into our work. It is also an asset to us in acquiring new customers. As well, our content has the potential to attract people that will show an interest in joining STEEM. The content has the potential to build new connections and build stronger community. These are all things we are working towards with our Homesteaders Co-op.

And yet, something almost trivial, such as considering someone's first impression of Homesteaders Co-op, before even reaching our website, is an important first step in becoming a friendly venue not only for customers but also for on-boarding new steemians.

Social Previews

I have made some updates to display nice social previews whenever someone shares a link to a product or vendor in social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is what a preview now looks like when you share a Homesteaders Co-op product on Facebook:

And here is a vendor from Homesteaders Co-op being shared on Facebook:

Vendors, you now can share your products and online stores with your friends, family and peers via all social media venues. The effort you put into displaying your products will now be highlighted when you share your links.

Search Queries

Our young Homesteaders Co-op (https://homesteaderscoop.com) marketplace is already starting to be picked up by search engines. As you can see from this partial list of keywords that are being displayed to searchers on Google, our vendors products and services have good keyword value for online shoppers.

I am tagging vendors whose products most likely received the search query so that you can start learning impact of seo on our marketplace with us and get inspired to write clear and informative product descriptions.

Search Query	Vendor
custom made notebooks	@frejafri
black soldier fly starter kit	@quochuy
crescent moon wreath	@sagescrub
gourd seeds edible	@papa-pepper
handmade paper tags	@bghandmade, @bobydimitrov
medicine card reading	@eaglespirit
milky oat tincture	@mountainjewel
pressed honey	@drapis
sea glass necklace	@celestialcow
toothache plant seeds	@papa-pepper

I don't believe we have yet made any sales as a result from search engine visitors. We don't have that many searches yet. But this is a great sign of what we can expect more of in the future. For the vendors that are reading this: product descriptions that are carefully crafted, descriptive, unique and thoughtful will attract more customers than those that are not.

Search Engine Optimizations

Recently I have made some SEO optimizations in Homesteaders Co-op website HTML. Search engines will now clearly display product titles, product descriptions, and prices to searchers, such as the following product search results:

More to come

This is one piece of the larger plan to build a successful marketplace. With our vendors and contributors help, with the help of our loyal customers and with the help of our friends we will continue to grow. In parallel we will continue to improve our website in ways that will showcase our communities and facilitate on-boarding.

‐ @sagescrub

This is an update to our fundition project: Free Community Marketplace for Handmade Goods in STEEM/SBD

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We Have Free Instant Steem Accounts to Share!

We have free steem invites for anyone in the #homesteading, #gardening, @ghscollective, @naturalmedicine, @tribesteemup, @ecotrain, @earthtribe communities that have any friends or family members that are interested in joining steem and joining our communities.

With our invites they won't need to wait 1-2 weeks or pay ~4 steem to get an account. If we have enough free SP at the time of sharing an invite it will come along with a small delegation so that they have some RC to start out with. Direct message @sagescrub in discord for an invite to share with your friend or family member.

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A Free Marketplace for Steem

We provide a FREE marketplace for you to transact in STEEM, SBD and USD. Our vendors are committed to sustainability, ethics and quality in their lives and work.

Unlike other marketplaces our vendors are not charged listing fees, subscription fees or transaction fees. This service is 100% free.

Support Your Alternative Economy:

1. Purchase handmade products with STEEM, SBD or USD at homesteaderscoop.com
2. Join the conversation in our Discord Group
3. Follow our Curation Trail on SteemAuto to automatically upvote our contributors and vendors
4. Delegate SP to @homesteaderscoop
5. Donate to our ongoing Fundition project

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Why Delegate to Homesteaders Co-op?

Your delegations will help us grow our community and reward our members for their ethical choices and actions.

In our modern world it is not always easy to choose to live sustainably. To do so often means forgoing income potential and the status quo. Our Steem Power is used to up-vote community contributors and vendors in thanks for their efforts.

10 SP | 25 SP | 50 SP | 75 SP | 100 SP | 200 SP | 500 SP | 750 SP | 1000 SP

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Who is Homesteaders Co-op?

Get to know our mission in our introduction post

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Want to Become a Vendor?

Learn more and apply here

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https://homesteaderscoop.com

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A Dollar A Day - Charitable giving project

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