Twitter: @GillianMeier

SEO FOR ECOMMERCE THE ESSENTIALSSTEVEN JONKER- 1 SEPTEMBER 2014

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Ecommerce SEO: Overview

• Why you need SEO

• On-page Optimisation

• Off-page Signals

• Secure HTTPS

• Last thoughts

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Why you need SEO?

• It’s highly effective.

• It’s easy.

• You can take on the big players.

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On-Page Optimisation: Research

• Research

• Find the Right Keywords

• Competition vs Search Volume

• Start small

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On-Page Optimisation: Get to it!

• Home Page

• Category Pages

• Product Pages

What do you focus on?

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On-Page Optimisation: What is Important?

Jackets Home Page

Jeans T-shirts

Buy Clothes online

Buy t-shirts onlineBuy Jackets online Buy jeans online

Buy red leather jacket online

Buy navy blue blazer online

Buy sports jacket online

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Category Pages: Make Yours Better!

Everyone’s Category Pages Your Category Pages

• Boring• Bland• Offers nothing new

• Unique• Better chance to Rank• Offers Value

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Product Pages: Make Yours Better!

The Essentials:

• Big Beautiful Images• Social Sharing Buttons• Unique Descriptions• Include Benefits/Features• Massive ADD TO CART Button• Related Products• Reviews

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Schema Mark-up

Marking up for the wrong thing can negatively impact CTR.

Schema.org Markup

• 30% increase in traffic with rich snippets• Indicates the health of a site• Takes up more space on search

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Speed

…unless you building websites. Then Speed is EVERYTHING!

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Speed

“For every 100ms increase in load time of Amazon.com sales decreased by 1%” (Kohavi and Longbotham 2007)

Pingdom Speed Test

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Duplicate Content: Canonicalization

<link rel="canonical" href=“www.myshop.com/category/product" />

• Tells Google that the page is a duplicate version of another page.• Passes Authority to the original page

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Mobile Friendly: You have no choice!

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Off-Page Signals

Just get people talking about you on RELEVANT platforms.

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Secure HTTPS

“we encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.” - Google

“we're starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.” - Google

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Final Thoughts

• Start Small.• Keep at it!• Always focus on your Users first.• Make sure your website is better than the rest.• Never Stop – SEO is an on-going process.• Test, test, test!• Keep tabs on the latest trends.• Enlist the help of Professionals.

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Gillian Meier

CEO | Blue Magnet Digital Solutions

Email: Gillian@bluemagnet.co.za

Switchboard: 011 064 5694

LinkedIn: http://za.linkedin.com/in/gillianmeier

Twitter: @GillianMeier

Thank you