Top 20 SEO requirements for eCommerce platform

Having spent the last 6 years Client side as Head of eCommerce and agency side managing digital marketing teams, one constant has been confusion in new platform builds over what a “search engine friendly” website actually is.

eCommerce solution providers advertise optimised platforms and Clients demand search engine friendly sites; do both mean the same thing? Rarely. Client side eCommerce managers can confuse technical and content optimisation, leading to miss-matches between expectation and delivery. A technically optimised web platform does not necessarily mean that keyword planning and meta content optimisation have been carried out.

This blog provides a tick list of the core elements that you should specify in any RFP or ITT when scoping a new eCommerce platform. They act as a starting point for SEO dialogue, enabling you to push vendors on specific areas of optimisation expertise. Please note the list is not in any order of priority.

1. 301 redirects to preserve search engine rankings

2. Avoiding duplicate content and use of the canonical tag where relevant

3. Dynamically generate search engine friendly URLs for product and content pages e.g.

www.yoursite.com/category-name/product-name instead of www.yoursite.com/productdetails.aspx?pid=037012&cid=144&language=en-GB

4. Ability to specify / edit URLs for individual pages via CMS – important for campaign landing pages and microsites

5. Support for linking of product pages and content pages to improve internal linking – should be delivered via the Catalogue Management tool or CMS

6. CSS absolute positioning for text links on product list pages to ensure the first link for each product is keyword rich

7. Dynamic XML sitemap that is submitted on a regular basis

8. HTML sitemap that is auto generated based on your catalogue and site structure

9. Support for rich snippets within platform – encoding of data in RDF format e.g. customer ratings & reviews

10. Custom 404 error page and automated report to flag error pages so your internal team can take action (you can achieve this through a separate monitoring tool such as Indiabook)

11. Robots.txt file is provided and you can access and edit when required

12. Core provision for meta content (title, description, keywords) that is auto generated when you load new products and content pages and can also be edited easily from within the CMS

13. Text links in navigation not images; if coders are using sIFR (flash replacements) push them for clarification on how this is being done to ensure it complies with accessibility standards

14. Keyword optimised H tags within html for headings – structure for use of H1 to H6 to provide a relevant hierarchy of content

15. Ensuring flash objects are search engine friendly

16. Ensuring pdf content is readable e.g. captions for images, document meta data

17. Graceful degradation – when elements like JavaScript are disabled in the browser, key content is still visible to search engine spiders/bots as well as to visitors

18. RSS feeds to support product and news announcements e.g. deal of the day

19. Page load time to meet agreed threshold but make sure you define how load speed is measured e.g. after all page elements have loaded – this factor will be included in Google’s algorithm in 2010

20. Social media content such as blogs are hosted on your primary website domain using an SEO friendly blog engine (e.g. WordPress is better than Blogger) – blogs usually sit on a sub-domain such as blog.yoursite.com to ensure you benefit from the search engine juice.

It is essential that your site specific SEO requirements are accurately documented during your project scoping phase to ensure you evaluate the relative optimisation strengths of potential vendors.

Please note that this checklist does not attempt to tackle bespoke areas of website optimisation that relate to business specific commercial goals. You may have more detailed needs for elements such as Google Sitemap (e.g. separate news sitemap) that will need thorough mapping. My recommendation is to make sure you have the essentials covered and then work with an SEO specialist (in-house or outsourced) to overlay the detail.

Source : econsultancy.com

 

5 SEO Wins & Sins Questions With Joe Laratro

Effective search engine optimization is equal parts art, science, and EXPERIENCE, so I sat down with industry veteran Joe Laratro to get the dish on what matters most in SEO. Joe is a recognized and leading expert in the Search Engine Marketing industry, and regularly speaks at industry events like Webmaster World, SMX, and Search Engine Strategies. He sits on the advisory board and is the lead moderator and speaker for PubCon.

1. What are the most common mistakes newbie SEOs make?

Search Engine Optimization has changed over the years. I would say there are three distinct generations of SEOers: the meta taggers, the link builders, and the social media marketers. I have seen newbie SEOs try to choose one path for optimization. For long term success all areas and disciplines of Search Engine Optimization need to be addressed and made part of the ongoing strategy.

Another newbie mistake involves trying old and dated spam tactics. I do quite a bit of teaching for the Industry. I am always surprised when someone hints at cloaking, or using white on white text. When I think about it, where is the history book on SEO? Newbie’s need a resource of what not to do and how to learn from the mistakes of Webmasters / Marketers / SEOers of the past.

2. On the flipside, are there common mistakes that experienced SEOs still make?

I think to some extent experienced SEOs can make the same mistakes as my first point in question one. We cannot pigeonhole ourselves into only doing one type of SEO. Site architecture, optimized growing content, and natural link building are essential for success. I have seen SEOs that just focus on one area. If we look at link building, it is possible to rank for keywords without ever optimizing the main site. But will that cover the hundreds if not thousands of keyword variations that might drive traffic to that Web site? No.

Benchmarking, analytics, and tracking SEO changes are more common problems. Clients come back and ask what SEO accomplished for the Web site? The numbers should be easy to prove – increasing search referrals and increased number of keywords driving those referrals. This has become even more important since Google’s announcement in December of 2009 of full time personalized search results.

The last mistake that is fairly common does not happen because of the SEO professional. This problem lies in communication and tracking between marketing departments and technical departments. Unfortunately SEO work gets overwritten without anyone’s knowledge. It can be days, weeks, or even months until the issues are identified. Each department claims the other speaks Greek. Finger pointing flies, but the real loser is the Web site. SEO’s have to monitor their implementations.

3. What are 3 things marketers can do RIGHT now to improve their organic rankings?

• Have a solid technical infrastructure that is search friendly
• Have an ongoing content development plan to add new and useful content to the Web site
• Have a link building plan in place: target directories, social media sites, and related Web sites

4. What are the 5 most important elements of an effective search optimization practice?

• Write great subject based content – optimize the basics: title, meta description, alt tags, H tags, and links (anchor text)
• Make a link building plan, stick to it, and monitor it’s growth (hint – social media sites should be a large part of this strategy)
• Consider the value of internal linking when it comes to keywords and anchor text (navigation and in content links)
• Make sure the Web site is registered with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Central. Regularly review for issues and new insights.
• Monitor Analytics for keyword performance and trends

5. After implementing an effective search optimization practice, how soon can marketers expect to see changes in the SERPs?

Search Engines have become very adept at listing fresh content. The Search Engine Marketing community used to say wait 90 days to see the results. Some changes can occur much more quickly now. Personalized search also throws a large monkey wrench into seeing changes in the SERPs. I suggest monitoring Analytics for natural search growth and occasionally spot checking positions.

Source : searchenginejournal.com

 

Merging Of SEO And Flash

2008 was a bright year for Flash as Google and Adobe teamed up to provide flash indexing techniques for better search results. However, two years later and SEOs are still struggling to rank Flash sites high in search engines. Granted, we have lots of proof that search engines do index Flash text, images, and links. But unfortunately, many limitations still make it difficult to get the kind of rankings we enjoy with plain, old HTML. Indeed, SEO and Flash are like water and oil — mixing the two has been nearly impossible.

Why Flash is Bad for SEO

While Flash is indexable by Google’s virtual user spider, we have yet to see a great deal of quality rankings from completely Flash websites — especially Flash sites for small, local businesses.

Unique URLs

With most Flash websites, many pages are contained, dynamically, in one .swf file. Most Flash sites use a ‘#’ to distinguish between pages. Sadly, Google doesn’t treat different ‘#’ URLS as separate pages. Consequently, Flash sites lose the extra SEO boost that comes from a multi-page website. Flex can fix the URL problem, yet many flash sites still don’t utilize Flex.

Smart Phone Dilemma

Smart phone users increase rapidly, expecting to reach 1 billion this year. Flash websites without an HTML alternative will be missing out on a growing chunk of their market (Restaurant websites really need to catch on here).

Poor User Experience

This heading is debatable as many would argue that Flash allows for a richer, more interactive experience. While this is true, many inexperienced designers aren’t in touch with contemporary Web usability. Flash adds a considerable load time that most users don’t have the patience for. While long intros, blaring music, and hidden buttons may seem like a thing of the Internet past, many websites still employ these revolting techniques.

Less Content

Flash websites typically have less indexable content. Let’s face it; a long page of keyword-rich text has more SEO sway.
When to Use Flash?

In most of the cases, only two situations allow for a flash website:

1. Big Brand: Because big brands already have a truckload of links and a lot of search credibility, search engine optimization isn’t such a big concern. Pepsi’s principal revenue isn’t generated through their website. Rather, the website acts as a branding tool — much like an interactive television commercial. And, because Pepsi is such a big company and it has “pepsi.com,” we are safe to assume that SEO is not among their priorities (although the website should at least rival Coca-Cola and appear somewhere on the 1st page for “soft drinks.”)

2. Link-Thirsty Content: Link-thirsty Flash is not simply a “cool” animation well-liked by the marketing committee. Link-thirsty content clearly has the ability to go social and thus it attracts links like a porch light attracts moths. Mono put a lot of creative effort into their monoface application and consequently, I’ve seen that link passed around quite a bit.
Games and applications might also be considered link-thirsty. Grooveshark’s slick interface and its vast music database gives it the ability to focus more on link-bait and social media rather than SEO.

How to Build an SEO-Friendly Flash website

Here are your options:

1. Use SWFObject: SWFObject allows you to place HTML code behind the Flash. It also keeps code cleaner by removing nasty object tags.

2. Don’t Call External Files with Flash: Google will treat external files such as XML files as separate pages. Make sure all of your text and links are embedded in the swf.

3. Use Minimal Flash: Adobe uses a Flash banner near the top of its website while still including the bulk of the textual content in HTML. This Web development technique is a common among corporate websites.

4. Don’t Use Flash: Wollzelle, has an attitude against Flash. The innovative agency in Vienna has developed a surprisingly fresh alternative to using Flash, with JavaScript code that can impress visitors just as well. Unfortunately, there are more visually creative Flash developers than there are JavaScript coders.

While I’ve given Flash a good lashing, I don’t mean to pooh-pooh it altogether. Flash is a powerful branding tool and also provides a good framework for application development.

Source : seo.com

 

Help Google For Transcriptions

Although spell checkers have been around for about 30 years, they still miss or incorrectly flag a whole lot of stuff (try “eye wonder weather this is write” and “monetize”).  Google wants its transcription software to become better more quickly, and so is asking for users for a hand.

On the Google Voice Blog, Vincent Paquet, a senior product manager, recently wrote, “Until now, the only feedback you could give was to let us know if the quality of the transcript was good enough to be useful or not, by checking the corresponding box next to the message.  You can now go one step further by letting us figure out why it was good or bad.  When you rate a transcript, you will be asked whether you would like to donate the message.”

Paquet then explained the meaning behind that phrase by continuing, “The messages you donate may be listened to, manually transcribed by us and/or used to gauge transcription improvements over time, but they will never be made public or used for any other purpose than improving the transcription quality.”

For every Margaret who’s tired of being called “maggot rot” and Taylor who doesn’t make clothes for a living, this is a nice option.  Even people who don’t opt to donate messages may appreciate it, since it reinforces the idea that Google doesn’t eavesdrop on conversations by default.

One other important note: this may represent a step towards launching Google Voice in the U.K. and Australia.

Source 

Help Google For Transcriptions

 

SEO Survive In Future Or Not ??????

Article By : Jeremy Schoemaker

I did a interview last night and was asked some really really good questions. One of which was what is the future of SEO? My honest answer is there is no future in SEO. From my experiences I am seeing Google SERPS results strongly influenced by Google Toolbar data, Google User history, and Google Analytics data. Googles combination of SEO and social voting via toolbar/history/analytics will continue to sway more in the realm of social voting. I feel this technology will only get better. I don’t think anyone can argue that core SEO has gotten less valuable over the years and I see that trend continuing. After all if you read the spam as defined by Matt Cutts (Google Lead Spam Engineer) he says:

“Web spam is when somebody tries to cheat or take shortcuts

so that their Web site shows up higher

[in search results rankings] than it deserves to show up,” – Matt Cutts

That is most SEO at its core. Sure you add title tags and meta descriptions but then you have to incentivize people to link to it. You are now seeing lots sites rank for stuff that have the goofiest URL structure, unoptimized title tags, and bad description tags. Some of the best examples of how the Google algorithm is more favoring social voting (via above methods) are seen with the Google Sitelinks. I have had things show up on sitelinks that were completely noindex/nofollow and had no meta description or even on page content yet were the first item listed in my sitelinks… coincidently they were also the most trafficked item on my site. So in my opinion there just is no future in current SEO for Google anyway. Its not going to happen overnight but it is happening. Please keep in mind I am not a professional SEO and have never claimed to be. My opinions above are purely based on my experiences.

Article Source

 

SearchWiki : Make Your Own Search

Have you ever wanted to mark up Google search results? Maybe you’re an avid hiker and the trail map site you always go to is in the 4th or 5th position and you want to move it to the top. Or perhaps it’s not there at all and you’d like to add it. Or maybe you’d like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. Starting today you can do all this and tailor Google search results to best meet your needs.

Today we’re launching SearchWiki, a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page.

The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the “See all notes for this SearchWiki” link.

This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic, giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives. We have been testing bits and pieces of SearchWiki for some time through live experiments, and we incorporated much of our learnings into this release. We are constantly striving to improve our users’ search experience, and this is yet another step along the way.

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