Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category
Friday, April 6th, 2007
It is believed that Google has been making adjustments to their algorithms targeting duplicate content. This has resulted in some clients having part of their sites designated “supplemental” in Google’s results. We suggest you regularly review your site content both for internal duplication (e.g., a “printer-friendly” version of the same text) and external duplication (i.e., someone plagiarizing your content on their site).
Google has provided recommendations for identifying and dealing with duplicate content at http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/deftly-dealing-with-duplicate-content.html. This primarily addresses unintentional duplication within your own site.
A good tool for identifying where on the web your content appears is www.copyscape.com. This free service allows up to 20 searches each month. They also offer Premium and Copysentry services at different rates. You simply type in the url of the page you want checked and it will return a list of all sites that have the same content. We suggest you schedule a regular search for sites that have duplicated your content.
If you find that someone has lifted entire pages or chunks of your site, you can file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint with Google at http://www.google.com/dmca.html. We have found that sending a warning letter to the site asking them to remove duplicated content under threat of a DMCA complaint usually achieved the desired response. If that fails, then you can always file an actual complaint.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
If you are finding that the www.sitename.com and sitename.com version of your site are both being indexed by the search engines you could hit an issue with the search engines seeing duplicate content – after all most sites have both site names resolving to the same underlying file structure. This can also be an issue for people with parked domains – if you’ve brought multiple domains with the common misspellings of your company name (for example), if the search engines index the parked domain you could have a duplicate content issue. Another issue is having links pointing to the various site names dilutes their value, but pointing them all at just one domain name you’ve got a better chance of higher rankings.
One of the best ways around this issue is to redirect all traffic destined for the domains you don’t want to get indexed to the site name you do want to get indexed. By using a 301 redirect the value of the links will also be redirected to the main site name.
JSP 301 Code
Place the following code into the header of any JSP document and it will redirect the page access to the correct site name. while preserving the script name and the query arguments. If anyone has the code to detect domain name and redirect keeping the script and URL intact , email me and I’ll load it here and assign appropriate credit.
Related
PHP 301 Redirect
ASP 301 Redirect
CFM Coldfusion 301 Redirect
JSP Java Server Pages 301 Redirect
404 Redirect one file at a time
404 Redirect one directory at a time
404 Redirect multiple pages easily
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Thursday, November 30th, 2006
As we go into the fourth week of our in-depth look of Web 2.0, it is easy to see how instrumental the new era of the Internet is to individuals and businesses alike. How the Internet is viewed and used is transforming before our very eyes. It is exciting to be part of the transformation and be part of something so revolutionary.
One site that encapsulates all that Web 2.0 is and how it is defined is Squidoo.com. It is the latest site by Internet Marketing guru Seth Godin and it is revolutionizing the way people search or “poke” the net. In today’s newsletter, we’ll explore who Seth Godin is and why you should care, what squidoo is, and how all of this will benefit you individually or as a business.
Who is Seth Godin and Why Should I Care?
If anyone could be referred to as the “Father of Modern Marketing Practices,” it is Seth Godin. He founded one of the first online marketing companies, Yoyodyne, in 1995. By the time he sold the company to Yahoo! in 1998, it had become the #1 creator of direct mail and promotions on the Web. Companies as diverse as AT&T and Skechers Shoes retained Yoyodyne to create campaigns that went far beyond websites. As a part of the sale to Yahoo!, Godin became Vice-President of Permission Marketing. Since resigning from Yahoo! in 2000, Godin has written countless books, blogs, and columns on marketing.
Godin has changed the way marketing is done in this new age. According to Wikipedia, his new theory on marketing centers around three aspects. First, the end of the TV-Industrial complex means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose, whenever they choose. Second, in a marketplace in which consumers have more power, marketers must show more respect. Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable.
This brings me to his latest venture, and the main reason you should care about who Godin is. Godin is the writer of the free ebook, Everyone’s An Expert (About Something), that launched the site Squidoo.com. Squidoo is a site guaranteed to change how you surf the web, as well as how you do business.
What is Squidoo.com?
Squidoo was founded by Godin on the premise that you don’t go to Google to search or find something, but rather to understand or find meaning. He feels that people do not want a quick right answer, but instead the type of dialog or information you would only find through word-of-mouth conversations. The idea is that a computer generated search isn’t good enough. You want personal experience or an expert in the field. Thus, Squidoo was created.
Why do a search on the process of making crème brulee when you can talk to an actual expert such as a French chef at a local restaurant? Squidoo provides that opportunity. Experts create what Godin refers to as “lenses” of websites. An online lens is a page, a single page, which highlights one person’s view of the Web—not the whole Web, just one tiny part of it.
So How Does Squidoo Benefit Me?
According to Godin, a lens has many benefits:
- Lenses are free to build and maintain.
- Royalties are earned from all the keyword clicks, affiliate income and referral fees the lenses generate.
- More traffic is directed to your blog and your Web sites.
- You can build credibility for yourself and your organization by serving as a trusted guide.
- Increased search engine rank for you and the pages you point to.
Of course, if Godin’s theory is right, you won’t just take my word on this new phenomenon of the Internet. Go check it out for yourself. Download the free ebook. Create your first lens. Revolutionize the future of your business.
Author Bio
Fionn Downhill is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Elixir Systems. She is responsible for corporate direction, corporate branding, and business development.
For more information on search engine optimization contact Elixir Systems at 602.494.6326 or at http://www.elixirsystems.com.One site that encapsulates all that Web 2.0 is and how it is defined is squidoo.com. It is the latest site by Internet Marketing guru Seth Godin and it is revolutionizing the way people search the net. In today’s newsletter, we’ll explore who Seth Godin is and why you should care, what squidoo is, and how all of this will benefit you individually or as a business.
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Thursday, November 9th, 2006
This week we will dive in-depth into one of my favorite areas of Web 2.0: Blogs.
Blogs have revolutionized the business world as well as the communications of individual businesses. Blogs are becoming essential on the local and national level. They also benefit the everyday individual looking to further their career, share their personal life, network with others in the same field, or just learn more about the web community.
As the third installment of a five article series, you are well on your way to becoming an expert in Web 2.0. For the purposes of this series, Web 2.0 is defined as websites that build on community or offer a service. Web 2.0 allows for interactive viewing of the net. (Refer to the last two weeks for more information.)
To continue to move you forward as an expert in Web 2.0, we will look at what blogs are, how blogs began, and the advantages of blogs for businesses and individuals.
What Are Blogs?
According to Wikipedia, the term “blog” is a contraction of “Web log.” A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
How did Blogs begin?
Blogs could be found in their earliest forms when individuals began keeping online personal diaries in the 1990s. Early weblogs were simple, manually updated components of common websites. Corporations and businesses jumped on the bandwagon by creating sections such as “In the News” and “What’s New.” With the creation of software that even the most non-techie individual could understand, blogs became increasingly popular and morphed into what we see today on the web.
What Are The Advantages Of A Blog?
The advantages of blogs are numerous, so I encourage you to do your own research as well. As someone who has a blog and spends 90 percent of online time reading on blogs, I am a big proponent of how essential a blog can be. Here are just five of the advantages of a blog – there simply is not enough space to list them all.
- Networking: Blogs provide a forum to network with other people in an area of shared interest. Most small business owners rely on blogs to exchange ideas with others in their field. Large businesses use blogs as a way for employees to communicate with one another.
- Self-Promotion: Blogs are a great way to market yourself as an employer, employee, writer, cartoonist, photographer, etc. They allow people to see your work as well as get to know you on a more personal level.
- Marketing: Blogs are a fabulous tool to market your business. A blog allows consumers to see the personal side of your company and/or employees. People are more likely to buy a product from someone they know than someone they never met. A blog allows consumers to know that person.
- Increase Traffic: Blogs can bring in a ton of local Internet traffic for sites. Search Engines love blogs and just incorporating a blog into your website can send you skyrocketing in the rankings, which could turn into many new customers. On a local level, people are beginning to use web searches instead of the yellow pages, so a blog can bring them to your service or product faster.
- Repeat Visitors: Blogs are updated frequently (most likely the reason search engines are fond of them). People will come back daily to read reviews, see what is new, etc. Reading the latest post becomes an addiction. Add to that the capability to sign up for RSS feeds (which alerts readers of new postings) and repeat traffic climbs in numbers. All this repeat traffic can translate to more sales.
Next week, we will continue with our series with a discussion on Squidoo—what is it and how it can benefit your business.
Author Bio
Fionn Downhill is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Elixir Systems. She is responsible for corporate direction, corporate branding, and business development.
For more information on search engine optimization contact Elixir Systems at 602.494.6326 or at http://www.elixirsystems.com.Blogs have revolutionized the business world as well as the communications of individual businesses. Blogs are becoming essential on the local and national level. They also benefit the everyday individual looking to further their career, share their personal life, network with others in the same field, or just learn more about the web community.
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Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
Gone are the days of door-to-door Encyclopedia salesmen. Gone are the days where parents have to save and buy individual books of an encyclopedia with the hopes of one day being able to purchase a complete set before the information becomes outdated. Our society has transformed into a place where Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, has become a household name. How did this happen?
Today, kids and adults alike have a wealth of research and information available at the touch of a button. This evolution is thanks to some new software, a concept known as Wiki, and its role as part of the Web 2.0 culture.
Continuing with the in-depth look of Web 2.0, this week’s focus will be on Wikis: what they are, how they work, and how they can benefit businesses.
Let’s Review: What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is the new conventional wisdom of the Internet. Web 2.0 is defined as websites that build on community or offer a service. Rather than offering simply static information, Web 2.0 allows for interactive viewing of the net. The function of Web 2.0 sites is to use community to maintain content.
What is Wiki and how does it work?
A Wiki is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. It can also be referred to as server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. This ease of interaction and operation makes a Wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. Wikipedia is the most popular example of one such site.
Who invented it and how was it named?
Wikis were invented by Ward Cunningham. He started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy firm. Wiki Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick or fast. Wiki became the shortened word.
What makes Wikis unique?
Wikis allow everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site. Wikis promote content composition by non-technical users. Wikis do not require users to know html. What makes the wiki technology unique is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Most Wikis are open to the general public without the need to register any user account.
How can Wikis benefit businesses?
By removing barriers, Wikis allow people to work as a group and produce innovative information. Communities on the web are able to come together and collaborate on proposals, projects, tasks, etc. It allows web business owners to have their content contributed by experts in the field and edit content live. It reduces time in research and work by categorizing current information in an easy to find method.
Are there any negative uses with Wikis?
With the ability for any web user to edit or add text, sites need to have some way of approving additions or at least monitoring entries. This can be done by making your Wiki private, just for your business, or by hiring someone to perform this task.
Next week we will continue our in-depth look at Web 2.0, focusing on Blogs: what they are, how they work, and how they can benefit businesses.
Author Bio
Elixir Systems is a full service search engine marketing company specializing in organic search engine optimization services, online public relations management and paid search or PPC management. For more information visit Elixir Systems Gone are the days of door-to-door Encyclopedia salesmen. Gone are the days where parents have to save and buy individual books of an encyclopedia with the hopes of one day being able to purchase a complete set before the information becomes outdated. Our society has transformed into a place where Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, has become a household name. How did this happen?
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Thursday, October 26th, 2006
Web 2.0 should be at the center of every business owners plan to survive in the Internet world. It is the latest rage sporting the covers of several magazines as well as the biggest topic on the web. It is speculated to be the resurgence of the dot com boom. For the next five weeks, we will look at Web 2.0, specifically social bookmarking, wikis, blogs, Squidoo and Video, and how they affect business owners.
So What Is Web 2.0?
There is still controversy surrounding what exactly the term Web 2.0 entails. Some view it as a marketing buzzword while others view it as the new wisdom of the Internet. For the purpose of this newsletter we are looking at Web 2.0 as the new conventional wisdom of the Internet. Web 2.0 is defined as websites that build on community or offer a service. Rather than offering simply static information, Web 2.0 allows for interactive viewing of the net. There are several sites that have already mastered the Web 2.0 phenomenon such as Flickr, MySpace, Squidoo, YouTube and the social bookmarking site del.icio.us.
The function of these sites is to use community to maintain content. Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, says, “The central idea is harnessing collective intelligence.” Every one of these sites has no content on its own. They all rely on users to fill them with content. It comes down to the art of creating community. The notion is that if you get enough people in a room together, or in this case on the same site, the content created can be more knowledgeable than even the most seasoned journalists could provide.
With Web 2.0 Comes An Attitude Or Culture
Web 2.0 has completely revolutionized the Internet industry by making it a giant community. Everything is live and instant. It has taken down the barriers of the old thinking that only professionals can run a website. Now anyone can do it, and they can do it cheaply while adding money to their bank accounts.
How Does Social Bookmarking Fit Into Web 2.0?
Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public website and tagging them with keywords. To create a collection of social bookmarks, you register with a social bookmarking site, which lets you store bookmarks, add tags of your choice, and designate individual bookmarks as public or private.
How Can Your Business Benefit From Social Bookmarking?
First social bookmarking sites allow you to get to your bookmarks from anywhere there is a computer. So if you are out of town on business, you still have access to your bookmarks without the added headaches of extra research. Second, it allows you to share your site with others, whether they are potential customers, friends, employees, etc. Other people can view your site for reference, entertainment, collaboration, etc. Third, it allows you to access the links that everyone wants to remember. You can see whether two people have chosen to remember a link, or whether it was useful enough for a thousand people to remember — which may help you find things that are useful for you, too. Finally, it is one more way for you to market your site by registering yourself and adding your site as your bookmark.
Next week we will look into Wikis; what they are, how they work and how they can benefit businesses.
Author Bio
Elixir Systems is a full service search engine marketing company specializing in organic search engine optimization services, online public relations management and paid search or PPC management. For more information visit Elixir Systems
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
This guide has been written to help you get started in Google Adwords and save you time and effort on initial research.
You may already be familiar with the ins and outs of Google search results. However, just in case you aren’t familiar where ads appear, Google’s paid ads appear separately in the search results on the right hand side of the screen and in some instances at the top of the screen. For example let’s use one of the most competitive terms for paid ads, “search engine optimization”. As you can see below, the #1 ad pays the most for your click and #2 second most and so on to the last paid ad paying the least.
Google AdWords can provide an inexpensive advertising venue for you to increase your leads. However, you need to do your research to ensure you achieve a positive ROI – Return on Investment. There are some simple guidelines to follow to save you landing in some pitfalls and wasting a lot of money.
Benefits to AdWords
As mentioned earlier in brief, advertisers bid on keywords, the more an advertiser is willing to pay the higher the likelihood the ad will appear higher in position in the list of ads served. Google, invariably wanting to make the most from advertisers, determines placement based on a combination of click through rate, bid amount and budget. Of course, in order to maximize revenue and please searchers Google does have editorial-guidelines for ads served and all ads must receive a minimum percentage click through or they are removed.
AdWords Guidelines
Clearly and accurately describe the website; this is to the advertiser and searchers benefit. Ultimately, the more qualified the visitor who clicks the ad, the higher the likelihood the clicker will convert into a lead. By providing clear and accurate information, searchers who click the ad are qualified leads, which tend to convert more consistently than unqualified leads. The most effective advertising communicates a clear message to a targeted audience. Avoid excessive capitalization, superlatives and lavish exclamation marks in the ad. By doing this you are not only serving the visitor you are filtering unwanted clicks from non-buyers. Due to space limitations your ad message will need to be concise. Select keywords that are relevant to your product, service or content. Call to action phrases are not allowed (i.e. you cannot use phrases like “click here” in your ad copy.) There are also no pop-ups.
Google AdWords Getting Started – The Basics
While Google AdWords should not be your only advertising campaign, managed correctly it can be a significant part of your campaign. Google AdWords can certainly help send those important targeted searchers to your website.
Author Bio
Elixir Systems is a full service search engine marketing company specializing in organic search engine optimization services, online public relations management and paid search or PPC management. For more information visit Elixir Systems
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Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
SEO tools are useful and can help you to develop and refine your campaign. We offer a variety of free tools that can help you keep your SEO on track.
Link Popularity Checker and Link Quality Assessment
This is a great tool to help you analyze the links to your site. Links play a vital role in good organic search engine rankings. Not only is link popularity important, the quality of those links is also very important. Use the free Link Popularity Checker and Link Quality Checker tool to find out the necessary statistics on your links and your competitor’s links.
The tool includes information on inbound links, deep links, directory links, and your search engine indexing statistics.
Add a link to this useful tool from your own site by adding the following code:
<a href=”http://www.elixirsystems.com/tools/linkpopularity.php”>Link Popularity Checker and Link Quality Assessment Tool</a>
Use the tool to look at your current statistics and the statistics of your competitors now.
Social Tagging Tool
Social tagging is creating a buzz as a way to create publicity for your sites content and increase your inbound links. However submitting your information to these sites can be time consuming and hard work. We have made it easier for you! Use this tool to automatically submit your content.
Add a link to this useful tool from your own site by adding the following code:
<a href=”http://www.elixirsystems.com/tools/sociable/”>Social Tagging Tool</a>
Or even use the tool to allow users to tag your site:
<a href=”http://www.elixirsystems.com/tools/sociable/?URL=www.yoursitename.com”>Tag This Page</a>
Use the tool to submit your site to social tagging sites.
WhoIs Lookup and Monitor
Check on the current whois information for other sites. This will give you the owner of the domain name and contact information. It can also be used to compare current information with previous records.
Add a link to this useful tool from your own site by adding the following code:
<a href=”http://www.elixirsystems.com/tools/whois.php”>WhoIs Lookup and Monitor Tool</a>
Use the tool to look at whois information of your company and your competitors now.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
What are they and how do you use them on your website?
By Dylan Downhill
Originally authored: 10 May 2004
Update: 13 July 2006
Below is a collection of the most useful tags found in a document <HEAD> section. It was inspired by an article I read that mentioned some of these tags but didn’t say why you included them, what they did and what options were available for the tag.
As background, meta tags were originally included to aid early search engines to summarize and categorize web pages correctly. Unfortunately everyone figured out that by optimizing their meta tags they could receive better rankings. As more sites started using over-optimized (spammed) meta tags, their usefulness for categorizing web pages diminished and most of the major search engines now treat them with little importance in their rankings.
This might seem the death of meta tags, however they have been extended and expanded through HTML 4.0 and still serve a purpose, though most are not for ranking in the SERPs.
TITLE Tag
This tag tells the search engines what your page is all about. It is probably the most important tag in the <head> section of your document. This field is often displayed in search engines results so should provide a good overview of the page (and of course have your main keyword in it).
<TITLE>Red Widgets for Sale</TITLE>
HTTP-EQUIV Tags
META tags with an HTTP-EQUIV attribute are equivalent to HTTP headers. Typically, they control the action of browsers, and may be used to refine the information provided by the actual headers. Tags using this form should have an equivalent effect when specified as an HTTP header, and in some servers may be translated to actual HTTP headers automatically or by a pre-processing tool.
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html;charset=iso-8859-1″>
This describes the language and format the document is in. Type indicates the type of content within the document (i.e. HTML, XML, etc). The charset indicates the character set. This meta tag is meant to override the content type preconfigured in both the server and the browser, however this does not always work as expected.
<meta http-equiv=”expires” content=”0″>
The date and time after which the document should be considered expired. The date field should read ‘Mon, 10 Apr 2004 14:32:39 GMT”. An invalid value (such as ‘0′) will be taken as meaning expire immediately and is useful to stop a browser caching a document.
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Style-Type” content=”text/css”>
Specifies the default style sheet language for a document.
NAME Tags
Intended for the search engines to read and index, the following tags should always be included
<meta name=”distribution” content=”global”>
Ensure any page you want seen by the searching public is global.
| Value |
Description |
| Global |
Appropriate for web access. |
| Local |
Web servers will not service a “local” document to the web. |
| IU |
Internal use – Intranets. |
<meta name=”author” content=”name”>
Who owns the site, or who designed the site. Set “name” to the name of the author of the document. Separate multiple authors with commas.
<meta name=”copyright” content=”Copyright 2004 www.ElixirSystems.com”>
Copyright information.
<meta name=”description” content=”text”>
Include your description of the site or page in the “text” field. To maximize your search engine ranking, be sure to use keywords within your description, but do not overstuff.
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords, another keyword, 2->4 keywords “>
For more information on keywords see the articles in March and April 2004.
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow, noodp “>
Tell the search engine robot to index and follow your document, this doesn’t mean that it will, it just gives the spiders permission.
| Value |
Description |
| follow |
Follow all links on the page (default) |
| nofollow |
Use this for pages which you want indexed, but you don’t want the linked to pages indexed. |
| index |
Index this page (default) |
| noindex |
Do not index this page. |
| noodp |
Do not show the DMOZ.org title for this page. See notes below. |
One source the search engines use to generate titles and descriptions they show in the search engine results is DMOZ – the Open Directory Project, or ODP. Sometimes this results in less than enticing results being displayed. By adding the ‘noodp’ robots tag to the top of your files the search engines that support this tag will not use the DMOZ title and descriptions.
<meta name=”revisit-after” content=”30 days”>
This tag is not used by any search engine and should be avoided. Most of the major search engine spiders will index a page depending on the frequency of update – if you want a page indexed more often then update it more often.
<meta name=”rating” content=”text”>
Use “text” to indicate the rating of the site.
| Value |
Description |
| 14 Years |
PG-13 |
| General |
PG |
| Mature |
R rated |
| Restricted |
X rated |
| Safe For Kids |
G |
Useful Template
To save you cutting and pasting the above individually, below is everything together with the most useful options set and in their suggested order:
<title>Red Widgets for Sale</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Description”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords”>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Style-Type” content=”text/css”>
<meta http-equiv=”expires” content=”30 days”>
<meta name=”author” content=”Dylan Downhill”>
<meta name=”copyright” content=”Copyright 2006 www.elixirsystems.com”>
<meta name=”distribution” content=”global”>
<meta name=”rating” content=”Safe For Kids”>
<meta name=”robots” content=”noodp”>Introduction to the most common HTML meta tags, their uses and their common attributes. Extended to include the new noodp tag.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 27th, 2006
The Opportunity
It has been well documented that consumers use search engines to research and buy products online. They read reviews and descriptions, analyze ratings, and research pricing as they compare products and vendors. A successful e-commerce site must offer a positive customer experience and build trust. However, in the nitty-gritty world of online retail sales, probably the most important success factors are the accessibility of the product and price.
It follows then that high rankings in the search engines are essential to the success of an e-commerce site, because high rankings make the products more accessible to the online shoppers. The site should rank highly not just for the general keywords that describe the business, but, ideally, all of the words that describe the products sold on the site.
The Challenge
There are two primary methods to achieve high rankings in search engines. One is to optimize your website naturally, i.e. organically, so that search engines rank it highly for your important terms on their search results pages. The second way to achieve high rankings is to buy Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads that appear on search results pages. .
Which method drives the best traffic for online retailers? According to a recent study conducted by Jupiter Research and presented at the Search Engine Strategies New York Conference in March, 2005, “6 out of 7 clicks from the organic listings as opposed to Pay-Per-Click listings.” .
Clearly, high natural listings in the search engines are key for a successful e-commerce site. .
In spite of this fact, many online retailers still focus exclusively on PPC advertising to drive traffic to their sites. The explosion in the popularity of PPC advertising for e-commerce sites is likely due to a variety of factors, including the ease of setting up campaigns, competitive peer-pressure, and the ease of budget approvals based on the lure of quicker returns on ad spend. The rewards of organic site optimization, although greater than PPC, appear over a longer period of time. .
For an e-commerce business, a PPC-only strategy is a short-sighted solution that has known pitfalls, too. As competition increases, PPC ad prices also increase, which erodes profit margins and forces the e-commerce business owner to increase their PPC budgets just to keep up. .
Many experienced SEO practitioners have problems optimizing for online retail sites because they lack the necessary programming skills to optimize dynamic pages from shopping cart software. Un-optimized dynamic pages are often invisible to search engines. To compound the problem there are hundreds of different types of shopping cart software, each of which has different optimization requirements. .
The Solution
To successfully optimize an E-Commerce site for search engines requires specialized techniques and processes that are above and beyond regular optimizations performed for non-commerce sites. .
These include: .
- Development of web server output filters that enable Title and Meta tag reconfiguration even if the shopping cart application doesn?t allow it. These filters can be applied to PHP and IIS with amazing results.
- Implementing sitemaps that allow search engines to index the entire site, even when cookies are required to access certain parts of the site.
- Optimizing product and page titles and descriptions to match the phrases that consumers actually search on. For example an online store in Thailand was selling Kaw Kwy statues. After research it was found this phrase was not a popular search term. Further investigation found a more common search term for Kaw Kwy – ?Fake Ivory?. After changing the product names, titles, and descriptions, the client started being found for his products and selling them.
- Develop product feeds to the major shopping engines such as Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, and BizRate to ensure maximum exposure for the products at prices far below current PPC ad prices.
- Undertake usability research and analysis so you know how people are really using the site and where they are abandoning the site or your shopping cart.
- Implement analytics to understand traffic, reporting and visitor conversion patterns.
- Implementation of other SEO tools such as paid inclusion (including Yahoo?s SiteMatch) to increase the frequency of spidering if there is a constant stream of new products to your E-Commerce site.
The Results
Natural optimization for an E-Commerce site can have a truly profound impact on the performance of the website and profitability of the business.
A major supplier of car and truck accessories reduced PPC increased visitors, and profits while reducing their PPC ad spending by $6000 per month. They achieved these results in less than three months by applying web and eCommerce analytics to an existing paid placement campaign, and then applying what they learned from the analytics in their e-commerce search engine optimization strategy. After 6 months their PPC sourced revenue and their organic sourced revenue were equal and their overall advertising spend was decreased by 30%.
A distributor of rugs and carpets, who had previously worked with two other “regular” SEO firms with only minimal success, implemented these e-commerce optimization techniques, and increased revenues 200% — after only three months!
Conclusion
As PPC ad prices continue to rise, savvy online retailers E-Commerce site owners providers need to take a fresh look at how much true success they actually gain from their PPC campaigns, and evaluate (or re-evaluate) possible gains from integrating organic search optimization, too.
Optimizing an E-commerce website is different than optimizing a content-only site. While there are many SEO consulting firms all over the world who can work wonders with regular sites, there are only a few SEO practitioners who have expertise in e-Commerce optimization. Be aware of the difference when selecting a firm to work on your e-commerce site. .
Taking steps now to optimize your E-commerce correctly for natural search engine rankings can increase your profits, and help you gain a competitive advantage over most online retailers who are still using only PPC campaigns.
Copyright © Dylan Downhill and James Peggie.
Dylan Downhill is the CIO and Technical Director and James Peggie is the Director of Marketing for Elixir Systems ? a search marketing agency located in Scottsdale, Arizona. www.ElixirSystems.com
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