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SEO For Ecommerce
Beginning SEO for ecommerce can make you really sad.
SAD SEO BABY
Image: Island Spice
IntroductionWe’ll talk about:
• Easy on-page essentials
• Product pages
• Keyword research & search volume
• Internal link structure
• Categorisation, URLs & duplicate content
• Increasing content
On-Page Essentials• Page titles
• H tags
• Unique product description
• Optimised images with ALT tag
• Unique meta description
• Correct keyword research
• DON’T use ‘more info’ etc. to link to products
Search Volume Changes
Worldwide trend: kid’s clothes
Worldwide:
- Kid’s clothes
- Children’s clothes
Search Volume ChangesUK Searches:
2004-mid 2007: children’s clothes has higher search volume
2007 onwards: kid’s clothes has higher search volume
Search volume changes, so keywords should be regularly reviewed – and think about your geotargeting
Singular keywords?
Q: Do your customers search for “laptop” or
“laptops”?
A:
Page Title Solution: Laptops: Buy a laptop from mysite.com
“Laptop”
“Laptops”
Don’t Forget Long-tail
High volume, LOW CONVERSION
Low volume, HIGH CONVERSION
Don’t forget to optimise product pages for long-tail, specific searches
Visitors from long-tail searches are later in the buying cycle – and carry much higher conversion rates
Don’t bury key product information in the page – use it in your on-page basic optimisation
Brand Landing Pages
• Allows for optimisation dedicated to one brand
• Improves usability for visitors with specific desires
• Increases chances of multiple pages in search results
• Ideal area for promotions
Product Descriptions
• Don’t use standard, manufacturer descriptions
• Don’t use second hand descriptions
= duplicate content
• User reviews provide fresh content and buyer reassurance
First Link
When several links to one product appear on the same page, Google only considers the first.
Displaying text such as ‘more info’ first, or at the top of the product box makes Google count the ‘more info’ link, rather than the keyword-rich textual link.
Multiple Categorisation
Use top levels for product pages:
www.bedwebsite.com/big-brown-bed
Enabling multiple categories to include the product without creating duplicate pages at (eg.):
www.bedwebsite.com/new/big-brown-bed
www.bedwebsite.com/bestsellers/big-brown-bed
Fatal Pagination • Go to a product category
• Arrive on www.mysite.com/category
• Go to page two: www.mysite.com/category/p2
• Hit ‘previous’
• Arrive on www.mysite.com/category/p1
= duplicate content
Solution: Use canonical element to tell Google that your page one is the same as the original, www.mysite.com/category
Session IDs...are bad for SEO because:
• They create unique urls for each visit (including search engines)
• Resulting in huge amounts of duplicated content, which search engines hate
•Dillutes inbound link building efforts
Solution: Don’t use them! Consider using cookies as an alternative
Ugly URLsURLs with category codes, product numbers, dynamic content etc. are not search engine friendly. And they’re ugly.
Rewrite/301 redirect URLs to search engine friendly version – with keywords: www.bedwebsite.com/big-brown-bed
You could also use the canonical element – but this won’t change the physical appearance from a usability point view
Affiliates• Don’t let it create duplicate content!
Eg. www.mysite.com/product/?affid68
• TEST OUT: • Canonical element: rel="canonical“• 301 redirect to original page?
NEVER provide identical product descriptions to third parties. Produce two data feeds – internal and external.
TALK!
Solutions:
• Blog, blog, and more blog.
• Social elements
• Reviews
• Advice
• Category write ups/summaries (at top of page one)
• Competitions (also great for linkbuilding)
The biggest challenge in ecommerce SEO is creating enough content – content that isn’t made up of images and price tags
Tom Coxwww.oxfordonlinemarketing.com [email protected]: @oxonlinemktg
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