Tom from Oxford Online Marketing talks about some of the key areas of search marketing for ecommerce.

1. SEO For
Ecommerce

2. Beginning SEO for ecommerce
can make you really sad.
SAD SEO
BABY
Image: Island Spice

3. ...but once you get going:
SEO stream roller
Image: net_efekt

4. Resulting in:
Search Traffic!
Image: Lingaraj G J

5. Introduction
We’ll talk about:
• Easy on-page essentials
• Product pages
• Keyword research & search volume
• Internal link structure
• Categorisation, URLs & duplicate content
• Increasing content

6. On-Page Essentials
• Page titles
• H tags
• Unique product description
• Optimised images with ALT tag
• Unique meta description
• Correct keyword research
• DON’T use ‘more info’ etc. to link to products

7. Search Volume Changes
Worldwide:
- Kid’s clothes
- Children’s clothes
Worldwide trend: kid’s clothes

8. Search Volume Changes
UK Searches:
2004-mid 2007: children’s clothes has higher search volume
2007 onwards: kid’s clothes has higher search volume
Search volume changes, so keywords should be regularly reviewed
– and think about your geotargeting

9. Singular keywords?
Q: Do your customers search for “laptop” or
“laptops”?
A: “Laptop”
“Laptops”
Page Title Solution:
Laptops: Buy a laptop from mysite.com

10. Don’t Forget Long-tail
High volume, LOW CONVERSION
Low volume, HIGH CONVERSION
Don’t forget to optimise product pages for long-tail, specific searches
Visitors from long-tail searches are later in the buying cycle – and
carry much higher conversion rates
Don’t bury key product information in the page – use it in your on-
page basic optimisation

11. Brand Landing Pages
• Allows for optimisation
dedicated to one brand
• Improves usability for visitors
with specific desires
• Increases chances of multiple
pages in search results
• Ideal area for promotions

12. Product Descriptions
• Don’t use standard, manufacturer descriptions
• Don’t use second hand descriptions
= duplicate content
• User reviews provide fresh content and
buyer reassurance

13. First Link
When several links to one product
appear on the same page, Google
only considers the first.
Displaying text such as ‘more info’
first, or at the top of the product box
makes Google count the ‘more info’
link, rather than the keyword-rich
textual link.

14. Multiple Categorisation
Use top levels for product pages:
www.bedwebsite.com/big-brown-bed
Enabling multiple categories to include the product without
creating duplicate pages at (eg.):
www.bedwebsite.com/new/big-brown-bed
www.bedwebsite.com/bestsellers/big-brown-bed

15. Fatal Pagination
• Go to a product category
• Arrive on www.mysite.com/category
• Go to page two: www.mysite.com/category/p2
• Hit ‘previous’
• Arrive on www.mysite.com/category/p1
= duplicate content
Solution:
Use canonical element to tell Google that your page one is the same as
the original, www.mysite.com/category

16. Session IDs
...are bad for SEO because:
• They create unique urls for each visit
(including search engines)
• Resulting in huge amounts of duplicated
content, which search engines hate
•Dillutes inbound link building efforts
Solution: Don’t use them! Consider using cookies as an alternative

17. Ugly URLs
URLs with category codes, product numbers,
dynamic content etc. are not search engine
friendly. And they’re ugly.
Rewrite/301 redirect URLs to search engine friendly
version – with keywords: www.bedwebsite.com/big-
brown-bed
You could also use the canonical element – but this won’t
change the physical appearance from a usability point
view

18. Affiliates
• Don’t let it create duplicate content!
Eg. www.mysite.com/product/?affid68
• TEST OUT: • Canonical element: rel="canonical“
• 301 redirect to original page?
NEVER provide identical product
descriptions to third parties. Produce two
data feeds – internal and external.

19. TALK!
The biggest challenge in ecommerce SEO is creating
enough content – content that isn’t made up of images
and price tags
Solutions:
• Blog, blog, and more blog.
• Social elements
• Reviews
• Advice
• Category write ups/summaries (at top of page one)
• Competitions (also great for linkbuilding)

20. Tom Cox
www.oxfordonlinemarketing.com
info@oxfordonlinemarketing.com
Twitter: @oxonlinemktg