The Top 20 Search Engine Optimisation Tips for Webstores
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•1,557 views
SEO for e-commerce & Retail
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
More from Jonny Ross
More from Jonny Ross (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The Top 20 Search Engine Optimisation Tips for Webstores
- 1. How to use SEO to build a successful webstore by Jonny Ross w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 2. PRODUCT FINANCE SALES w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 3. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 4. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 5. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 6. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 7. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 8. Search Engine Optimisation • Create great content • Ensure this content is accessible to search engines. • Make pages unique and relevant • Make the content popular w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 9. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 10. On Site • • • • Keywords Content Technical Aspect Usability w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 11. Off site • • • • Relevancy Links Reviews Reputation w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 12. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 13. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 14. SEO Audit • • • • • • Onsite coding Usability audit (usertesting.com) Site Speeds and performance Keywords Offsite Work Ranks and Reporting & Traffic analysis w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 15. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 16. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 17. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 18. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 19. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 20. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 21. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 22. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 23. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 24. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 25. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 26. http://www.asos.com/H-O-U-S-E-of-H-A-C-K-N-E-Y/HOUSE-OF-HACKNEY-VelvetDungarees-In-PoppyPrint/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2935881&cid=13525&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=36& sort=-1&clr=Medium+black w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 27. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 28. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 29. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 30. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 31. Offsite SEO / Link building • • • • • • • • • • • Directories Articles RSS feed submissions Guest Blogging Press Releases Social Bookmarking Social Sharing Local Engagement Suppliers Video Blog / Forum commenting • Create Link bait! w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 32. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 33. Top SEO Tips for Webstores • Use SEO friendly URL’s – http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753029 – Should be – http://www.petsmart.com/tetra-whisper-air-pump • Ensure that there is only one version of your website (try http://amazon.com) • Use Xenu or Screaming Frog to check for errors w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 34. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 35. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 36. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 37. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 38. Schema / Rich Snippets w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 39. Canonical Tags w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 40. • Image file names don’t use img123.jpg • Affiliate schemes? – Have a policy – Offer unique content • W3C Check your sites code http://validator.w3.org/ • Don’t use the same IP/Domain name to email from • Discontinued Products • Ensure you are signed up to WMT • Use e-commerce tracking on Google Analytics w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 41. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 42. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 43. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 44. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 45. w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 46. “This year, 15% of online retail sales will take place via mobile devices, according to eMarketer, up from 11% in 2012. By 2017, the percentage will rise to 25%. “ w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
- 47. Question Time Does anyone want to challenge me, does anyone think this is all a load of nonsense? It’s time to ask questions! • For Tips, Tricks and more free advice Subscribe to my blog at JonnyRoss.com • Carry on the conversation with me on twitter @jrconsultancy w: JonnyRoss.com e:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancy LinkedIn: /jonnyross
Editor's Notes
- Good morning everyone, Just to give you a bit of background I set up an ecommerce store back in 1999 selling sunglasses, and for the first 6 years we where the biggest sunglasses e-tailer in the UK, based on volume and turnover with a decent profit too.However in 2004 Google decided they didn’t like us, we suffered a Google penalty, now Google penalities are talked about and most people have heard about them, or certainly penguins and pandas, but back then no one knew what they where,Overnight we went from top of Google for all our keywords to page 7 and 8!It took us a month to realise too!! Google didn’t tell us they had given us a penalty and in 2004 you didn’t check you ranks on a regular basis!We went through 2 SEO agencies and over an 18 month period neither of them could solve the problem, we lost 40% of our turnover, I then found a guy in newyork on a ridiculous hourly rate and within 2 weeks he solved the problem and got us back!Cutting a long story short, I became passionate about SEO and decided to change my career into helping others understand it and avoid the pitfalls of Google! This webinar is the first in a new three-part webinar series from tricity :"Finding, converting and keeping ecommerce customers: SEO, blogging and social media for webstores" In this webinar series, I will talk you through:Using SEO to build a successful webstore - This is about making sure customers can find your webstore online and setting your webstore up so search engines will rank you highly for your products and services. The next webinar is about blogging and how to introduce your company and your product range, adding value and converting your website visitors into customers. The final webinar is using social media to build long term engagement with your customers, getting to know them and building valuable, lasting relationships with them so they act as ambassadors for your brand. So Let’s begin! w:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com twitter: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- Three main components of any business.Product this is something you’ve trained forYour familiar with, you have a passion forSimilarly finance. You either have it or you don’t. And if you don’t you can seek help from financial institutions.Now when we consider sales, we enter the world of marketing which is huge and worldly.And that’s when our problems really begin.w:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- So how do we go about marketing?Everyone is marketing, we are all trying to do lots of different thingsWe are busy bees trying to StunShockStartleSurpriseDumfoundStaggerAstonishFlabbergastAstoundAmazew:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- In fact is that not all we create… A MazeThere are 1000’s of similar websitesEveryone is marketing in the same way trying to amaze and stun people into buying their products/servicesWe’re all at it, trying to compete, trying to be better.But all we are doing is creating A Mazew:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- There is a Critical Element to Marketing successIt’s a simple 5 letter word, that word is TRUST.When it comes to the decision process, what ever the sales and marketing process at some point we place trust into the equationw:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- So how do you build trust? The answer is EDUCATIONLook at Apple's marketing strategy They are straightforward and honestApple educate you to understand why the product was created, what the features areand how it will benefit you.educating us, developing a relationship and developing Trust w:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- The complete oppotite to the SEO industry!So as I said in this webinar we are going to focus on SEO, but the key to remember is educating user and gaining trust through out all of these webinarsWhen you mention word SEO, a lot of people instantly think of this Dark art, most SEO agencies say yes we can getYou high in Google, give us a load of money and leave it with usWell what I want to do it make SEO far more transparent, I think you need to have an understanding of SEO before you ever dream of outsourcing it.I also want to give you techniques you can do some of it yourself.I believe good search engine optimisation or SEO techniques are the building blocks of a successful website, i.e. one that has a lot of visitors and a high conversion rate. SEO is all about getting search engines to rank your website highly in search engine results when customers type in search terms that relate to your products or services.w:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- So for me SEO iscommon sense itsnothing more thanCreate great contentEnsure this content is accessible to search engines.Make pages unique and relevantMake the content popular
- For me there are two distinct sides to SEO, onsite and offsiteOnsite being your own website and offsite being everything else online that has something to do with youw:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- KeywordsContentTechnical AspectUsability
- RelevancyLinksReviewsReputation
- So lets just talk about the general SEO processFirstly, research and anaylisis, understanding keywords and competitors and auditing the siteIdentifying keyword opportunituesChecking onsite coding and ensuring that the site is structually sound, Google has around 200 ranking factors and what we need to do it try to tick as many of these boxes as possibleThe next step is copywriting and esuring we use these keywords, if we want to be found for keyword x do we talk about itSpeed of site is now a factor so it’s the next thing that should be looked atNext step is marketing and offsite linkbuildingAnd lastly you should be analysing and tracking on a monthly basis to check for issues, gains, losses, general health check and most importantly ROI – return on investement
- The SEO audit An SEO audit analyses your website in great depth, identifying all of the different factors which could be affecting your search listing. By investigating your website in extensive detail, with search engine algorithms in mind, an SEO audit can provide you with all the information you need to boost your online presence and increase your page rank. A full audit looks at up to around 200 different factors, but to give you a good understanding of how well your site performs, you can do a very basic SEO audit yourself. Im going to give you some of the tools to do this today, but feel freeGoogle “moz 15 minute seo audit”
- The SEO audit will look at:Onsite codingUsability audit - usertesting – great to get real people views of your website (as with any website you as the website owner/admin will know it inside out, its really important we understand how other people use it though)This tool allows that to happen and you can give “testers” tasks to do on your site and literally watch and listen to them as they do it, I would be amazed if this doesn’t open your eyes as to how users use you siteSite speeds and performanceKeywordsOffsite workRanks reporting and traffic analysis
- Keyword research Alongside your SEO audit, you should also undertake keyword analysis. This looks at the keywords and phrases that people are currently finding your website with (are they the ones you want/expect?), and also the keywords that your competitors are ranking highly on. From this, you can come up with a list of relevant keywords for your website that you would like people to be finding you on. This list of keywords should inform how you write all your website content, from product descriptions to page titles and meta descriptions.
- Login to Google webmaster tools, If you havent already open an account and verifiy your websiteOnce logged in go to Optimization, Content KeywordsHere is a list of keywords that your website appears in Google forWhat I want you to do is download these keywords, put them into an excel sheet and then move onto the next tool!
- So Google anaylitics, if you don’t have this installed, I really suggest you should, its simply a snippet of code your webdeveloper needs to add to your website and it can give you some amazing insights into your website and customers.Once setup and logged in to Google Analytics go to traffic sources, search, organicThis is a list of keywords currently driving traffic to your siteAgain download these, add them to your excel sheet and move on!
- You then need to make a list of alll your products and services, adding to it keywords you would expect to be found for, but aren’t, Or ones you would like to be found for.You can then take some of these keywords and have a play with Google search.This then helps identify more keywords that users search and shows you opportunities that you may not have thought about and considered. Giving you suggestions that could be good for your webstore.Keep adding more words to excel and then go to the next tool semrush
- SemRush.com is a fabulous tool, There is a free and a paid version of the toolThis tool allows you to find out what keywords your competitors rank for, it even shows you what keywords your competitors are paying to rank for!!The free version is more than fine as it gives you up to 10 keywords for each competitor, imagine 10 competitors, each with 10 keywords, that 100 straight away!Ok add them to excel! And move on!
- Ok so you have got all these keywords, you then need to take them all to Google keyword tool here you can enter them all and find even more!I suggest working on hundreds of keywords, not just 5 or 10… if you want to be top for “Gifts” the only way you will ever be top for a keyword as competitive as this is by being present in Google search for all keywords surrounding gift ideas….You want to generate as many keywords as possible
- This is a great tool because it gives you an idea how many people are searching this term, and if I take the term retirement gift ideas for women we can see that only 1000 people are searching this term per month, In fact in a lot of examples I show only 10 or 20 searches per monthThis may make you think what’s the point on working for this keyword, whilst being high for this term may not bring you masses of traffic, however I bet the ROI on this term will be significantly higher than someone searching “gifts”Its really important that we work on long tail keywords, as generally these can give you a significantly better ROI, don’t get me wrong competitve keywords are important, but ultimately if we want to appear top for a competitive keyword we need to appear high for lots of long tail keyword surrounding that keyword.
- So now we have the long list of keywords we need to work out which ones are going to be important for us, again I suggest keeping hundreds not just 10 or 20. One of the ways is to decide on competitiveness and search volumnes in the Google keyword tool, but another way is to Google the keyterm and see who else is out there, are they any opportunities, is anyone serving this keyword well or is there an opportunity to capture the audience searching this keyword?OK so we have identified our keywords, We need to ensure we use them in our website content, but never at the expense of readability, content relevance or content quality for the reader. SEO used to be about packing and stuffing keywords in, but search engines are much more wise to this now. Readers will soon be turned off if the content is not engaging.
- So we have discussed keywords, the next thing I believe e-commerce stores need to focus on is userability and more so photo and video contentFrom a user point of view, websites with lots of images are much more visually appealing.For ecommerce websites, high quality product photos are essential – people want to see what they are buying. Use images that show products from a variety of angles and include a zoom option.This is a UK site, you can see the product is shown from different angles
- You can hover over the image to get an enlarged viewReemclothing do this to help the buyer get closer to the product
- And changing the image to a different angle and zooming in againCustomers should also be offered concise, clear product information. And anin depth description, where they can find a full technical specification.Product information should be presented in a very easy to read format, with a short summary using bullet points, and the option to click through to more detailed information.The product description or “product copy” should not just be a list of information about the product, but should be written with the customer’s needs in mind – it should solve a problem for them.Product copy should be written with a focus on:FeaturesAdvantagesand BenefitsAsk yourself:“What is the feature?” i.e. this knitted jumper is made of lambs wool“What does the feature do?” i.e. the knitted lambs wool traps the warm air from your body and holds it in a layer next to your skin (that’s the advantage)and“What’s in it for me (the customer)?” i.e. this extra layer keeps you warm and dry in the cold winter weatherAlways turn a feature into a benefit wherever possible, and give as many as possible to increase your conversion rate.Finally, product content should not be a cut and paste of the manufacturers information, as (a) this can get you into trouble with Google, and(b) you won’t stand out from every other retailer selling the same itemYou should use your product information to engage with your audience: write it FOR them, TO them directly, and with personal recommendations and links to reviews if possible.
- Video is now also becoming increasingly important both in terms of popularity and (as a result) for SEO. YouTube is now the second largest search engine behind Google. Every minute, more than 48 hours of new video content is uploaded. Videos are 50 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google results.Use videos on your website to show how products can be used, as offsite as sharable (viral) content to increase your brand profile.Don’t forget to use appropriate titles, descriptions and tags on all your videos for SEO purposes.This is ASOS, I would highly recommend you visit ASOS and go to a product page and view a catwalk video, it really helps break down the barrier of trying an item of clothing on before buying!Don’t get me wrong video can be expensive, but why not consider doing it for your top 5 or 10 products?
- Social media is now hugely important for SEO. The social media evolution for me is Google PlusThis is Googles 3rd attempt at social mediaIt’s currently full of techiesIt’s a bit like the gym, we all join but no one goesIt has great features like hangouts for free video conferencing, but the best bit is Google authorship and this can now be done for brand too, i.e. you can tie back your brand content to a brand on G+ and also your blog content to a person on G+.What this basically means is that Google can now be told who owns and wrote the content and Google now uses this information to resolve any duplicate conten issues, but also has now started ranking authors, content writers and brands. You need to be part of the program to be included in the algorithm and its really simple to do, no cost, just join G+ create a personal account and a company page (company pages are now the new Google local pages) and then add a snippet of code to your site to link them all together.w:JonnyRoss.come:jonny.ross@jonnyross.com tw: @jrconsultancyt: 0113 320 21 21
- One company taking this further and using Google plus, doing it really well is H&M. H&M posts regular updates focusing on inspirational fashion content such as videos and images, and invites followers to share their experiences and opinionsIt then responds to and shares post from it followers to build a dialogue and keep people engaged.
- H&M achieves an average of 72 +1s per post (+1’s are like Facebook likes), 11 reshares and 22 comments. The most popular posts are those that involve the brand’s top collections with Victoria Beckham, Versace and Marni. But more importantly, Google says that H&M’s AdWords campaigns achieved a 22% increase in CTR thanks to its G+ social extensions. These are the extenstions that are found here…When signed into Google they show people you know who have plus’1d the brand. Adding that social proof and showing friends of yours that like the brand.
- So we have talked about onsite, we need to talk offsite!Offsite SEO refers to online activity that is posted somewhere other than your own website. So ultimately the more websites that are relevant and link to you the betterNote the word relevant, Google wants to see lots of other web properties linking to you, but is only interested in extremely relevant and non spammy ones!The reason I have chosen a spiders web is because you need to think of it likes this, we need to create lots of different sites linking to use, but also linking to each other and more so lots of different layers of different types of links.
- So a link profile can be built using some of the following There is a list on the screen, but I am just going to highlight some of them.Posting to directoriesThese can be divided into three groups – General, Niche & Local. General would be directories such as White or yellow pages and so on. Niche obviously refers to directories relating specifically to your area of business, and local is anything based in your own area. All three can be useful, and while they may not attract so many visitors as other methods mentioned, they can be very useful in terms of mapping your location and influencing your ranking on Google Maps.Link DirectoriesThere are two basic varieties here – General Link Directories, which accept basically anything and everything, and Niche Link Directories, which are industry specific. The former, are really not worth investing time in – the sheer volume of links is immense and consequently the links are not terribly credible and these sited generally have a poor page rank. By all means, submit to one or two each month for the sake of link diversity, but do not consider these sites a priority.Niche directories on the other hand, can be very worthwhile as they specifically target people interested in your field. For example, if you run a Party Goods Website, directories focusing on Event Management, Entertainments and the like, are more likely to be accessed by people that your site will be of use to. The more selective choice of links published also contributes to the directory site having a better page rank, giving your own link more credibility.Guest bloggingMany blogs are happy to accept relevant, well written guest posts, and will link back to your site in exchange for quality content. A link to your site on a relevant blog, can attract a huge amount of new traffic and do wonders for your Google rank – especially if the site you’re posting on already has a high rank of its own. Articles & Press releasesSubmitting an article, or press release to sites such as Article Dashboard or 24-7 Press Release can be a great way to expose your link to a new and wider audience. Don’t allow your standards to slip though – only submit content you would be happy to have on your own site, as it is still a direct representation of you. Also, don’t be tempted to submit the same content to a dozen different sites – it will be noticed, and do your site more harm than good. Keep your content unique and useful and this can be a worthwhile exercise. Social bookmarkingMuch like Social Networking, Social Bookmarking when it is social bookmarking sites done well, can be a very valuable tool. As with Facebook & Twitter, StumbleUpon & Digg buttons are an almost essential part of any great web design. Again, there are a huge number of platforms to choose from, so do a little research and decide which are a good fit for your project.Social sharingFacebook, Twitter, Pinterest… love them or hate them, social networking is here to stay. In an age of smart phones and a need for constant, current information, any website not giving it’s readers the option to follow them on their favourite network, is taking a big risk. Social Networks allow you to build a community around your brand, encourage users to share your content, and ultimately, widens your potential audience.Initially setting up the pages can be time consuming, but it really is worth it in the long run. If you’re overwhelmed by the variety available, pick perhaps three of the most popular networks and concentrate your efforts on those. Personally, I’d recommend Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest is a good third as a current rising star of the online world.Local engagement, with local shops and communitiesIf you have a bricks and mortar retail unit, speak to local shops and local communities to see if you can guest blog, link to each other, offer each other resources online.Do something for charityThis tends to get the charity or a online article linking to youSuppliersSpeak to suppliers and see if they will link to youBlog CommentingA quick search for ‘[your niche] blog’ will return countless results of blogs you can get commenting on, and this can be a great way to build new links. Be selective though – choose blogs that are relevant to your business, and make your comments useful and relevant too – avoid just a ‘great post!’ or ‘I agree!’ – These just look spammy and won’t encourage people to visit your site. forum commenting (babycentre, mothering.com, for baby related products, charity forums for particular audiences.. Maybe animal trust for pet related etc) Create Link BaitLink Bait is any content or feature, within a site, designed to catch people’s attention and interest. A funny photo, a great info graphic, a must have app… Anything that people are drawn to and feel compelled to share with their network. Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive. There are many other ways of successfully building links, but if you’re just starting out, these ideas can help build a solid foundation to build on.Remember too, that linkbuilding is not just about getting your name out there. It’s about networking, building relationships and trust to grow a solid, diverse and ever expanding profile of back links to your site.Use the ideas above and challenge yourself to create ten new backlinks today. Do the same tomorrow, and then again everyday for a week. As your traffic grows, you’ll see for yourself how worthwhile the process is. Good Luck!Trying to utilise all of these different web properties to create a solid spiders web around your site
- Whilst talking about this I wanted to mention Online Reputation Management.While ORM and SEO activities are much the same, the purpose is slightly different. Online reputation management is the term used to describe SEO activities that help “repair” your online reputation following bad PR, or build up a high volume of “good news” about your brand, products or services to minimise the chances of any “bad news” about you ranking highly on search engines. This involves setting up offsite profiles and content to give Google lots for “brand” search Ensuring lots of positive reviews offsite And pushing any negative ones down the page Now we’ve covered the basics, I’m going to go through my top tips on SEO for ecommerce/webstores. These are practical things you can check and begin implement on your website today.
- Seo friendly urls, this tends to be one of the most common issues I find when auditing webstores. All too often urls use id's and numbers instead of very simply describing the page to google. This isn't an opportunity to be spammy mind, it's a way to help google understand the relevancy of the page. It also vastly helps the user when they come to share the page. Www and non www versions of your site are next. Try visiting amazon.com and watch your browser change it to www.amazon.com. It doesn't matter which you use (non www or www) but if your site works for both without the browser converting it you are in effect serving two versions of your site to google. Giving duplicate content and diluting all your hard work! It's a simple fix for a developer. The next issue tends to be broken and dead links. Tools like xenu and screeming frog, spider your website crawling around all of your links. Tools like this then list all the links found and make you aware of any broken ones. Broken links cause google to get stuck and stop flowing across your site. The more broken links the less google trusts you (remember what I said at the beginning, this is all about gaining trust with users and google)
- Meta titles and descriptions, I know there will be different levels of expertise listening and watching here but I think it's really important to make this very clear. Your meta titles and descriptions in most cases are used by google for content on its search pages. This is your chance to write your own advert. Ensure it's written well, it engages, offers a call to action and most importantly has relevant keywords. Meta titles and descriptions must be unique on every single page, and tools like Google webmaster tool will identify where any are dulplicated.
- Talking of relevancy this slide is to show you the places to include your relevant keywords for the page. 1234I want to go a bit deeper into the heading tag, heading tags are a bit of code that developers use to tell the browser what font and size to show a piece of content. You can have h1,2,3,4 etc. h1 being the main title h2 being a sub heading etc. this is another opportunity to tell google what is the most important content on the page. If relevant a heading and sub heading really help google understand that page. And its really important we use markup to show what content is a H1, H2 etc
- You can see how this works for ASOS coming top for skater dress and you can see how the keyword is included in the title and description.
- Schema is next on the list. Schema is one of the very few things bing yahoo and google have all signed up to. It's a way of tagging content to say what each property ofYour content means. The best example of this is google recipe search. Here I have searched for a chicken pasta, google then give me the option to select the ingredients, the cooking time and the calories, the only way they can do this is because the sites in the search are all using schema to tag their different bits of content on the page. Schema is being used more and more especially for products and reviews. The more google understand the more it can show to the user on the search page.
- Here is an example of how reviews have been tagged and google is using them to show in the search results. I would recommend using schema for all your products, reviews and contact information. Visit Schema.org to find out more
- Canonical Tags help search engines like Google to deal with products that have variations. So typically on an ecommerce site, a beach towel will have a page for the red version, a page for the blue version, and a page for the green version. If the pages all have almost the same information, this can confuse Google and lead to all 3 pages not being ranked at all (or “listed” in Google search results).In most circumstances, we would be much better using a canonical tag to tell Google that the page we want to show in the search results is the main beach towel page, OR if, for example, the red beach towel is the best seller, then you would use canonical tags to point to this page first.Canonical tags therefore help with relevancy and reduce the dilution that often takes place with almost-duplicate pages.
- Image file names, another opportunity to help google! You have an image called 123.jpg of a product. Change the file name so google understands it to the exact name of the product. For example red-Gucci-t-shirt.jpgDo you run an affiliate scheme, do you know that google can penalise you forother sites using your content badly. You must put an affiliate policy in place and include a link to it on your site. My advice when it comes to affiliates is to offer unique content just for them, don't increase the chances of affiliates appearing higher than you in search, this can happen when Google thinkgs your affiliate wrote the content not you!Ensure your site has different content to your affiliates so to be clear don't give your affiliates your product descriptions. But instead give them a unique one you won't use onsite. Check your sites code using the w3c validator. Google Isn't going to trust a website that's full of errors and will give it top marks for sites that are error free. Do you email from the same ip and domain name as your website. Do you email market. Think about it, a user receives an email from you, marks it spam in their gmail account. If you where Google what you would you do with the data? If enough people mark something spam surely google will start thinking this ip and domain name is spammy, lets lower it in search too!How does your site handle discontinued products, there is a lot of talk and opinion on this one! My opinion is simple. The page should no longer be linked to from anywhere on the site, however it should be kept live with the product with a nice message saying sorry this is no longer available check out our related products here. Use it as an oppoportunity to sell other products.You would be silly to remove the page as its a wasted opportunity in google and sites with a high turn over of product ranges will be continually giving google errors. One of the things you cant do with Google is pick up the phone and talk to them about your natural search positions, if only!! You can certainly ppick up the phone to talk to them about spendign money on ad campaigns!So what we need to do is open as many communication channels with them as possible, we need to let Google in on how good our website is, how we engage, what people like and don’t like, we also need to listen to Google.There are two ways of doing this and I mentioned them earlier, ensure you sign up to Google webmaster tools and verifty your account, GWT is a place Google speaks to you, and tells you what it thinks of your site, and you should listen to all it says in there, Google tends to give some good tips!And Google Anaylitics not only gives you insights into your customers, this also helps us show Google whats going on, the more ecommerce transactions Google sees, the more social sharing Google can see, and the more Google believes people are engaging with you, some might say could that have a negative effect, I don’t believe so, I believe that the more you can show Google the better your chances.
- Talking of sharing, How easy is it to share products on your site, ensure that you use social buttons to encourage social sharing on product pages, use pin it buttons for Pinterest (especially if your products are visually strong)Ensure you have a Google plus button on all pages, this will help Google show other people that have “plus 1’d” your site in Google search results.
- cross pollinate and cross sell by showing relevant and related products or “customers also bought” sections – this not only increase the chance of a customer buying multiple products but it also helps with your site ARCHITECTURE
- Site architecture I hear you ask!! Ok so Just to quickly explain site architeture, we need to keep Google spidering round, this type of site where pages are 6 clicks away from the homepage, suggest to Google that the pages are not very important,
- Compared to This structure where all pages are only 3 clicks away, bear this model in mind all the times as this shows Google all the pages are relevant and easy to get to.
- Ok so we have gone through a lot here and of course this will be available to download and there will be time for questions, this brings me nicely to what are the new ranking factors for GoogleThere has been a major swing from traditional link building to an acronym SOLOMOSocial – Social Engagement, sharing and metricsLocal – being found, and having local reviewsMobile- mobile and tablet optimised websites
- In fact eMarketer say that 15% of online retail sales take place via mobile devices, and by 2017 that will rise to 25%, Google have openly said that if you are not mobile optimised you will suffer in their Google mobile search.So there we have it, SEO is common sense, creating good content, that is easily accessible on all devices and ensuring that we facilitate making it as popular as possible.
- Feel free to carry on the conversation with me on twitterSubscribe to my blog for more tips, tricks and inspiration