This document discusses advanced SEO strategies for ecommerce sites. It addresses common ecommerce SEO challenges like content strategy, user generated content, and return visits from search. The goal of SEO is to create a better user experience for searchers by developing authority and improving landing pages. The document provides a content audit framework and recommends strategies like reviews, questions and answers, and future-proofing by cleaning up links and penalties. It emphasizes the importance of SEO being integrated with overall marketing efforts.

1. Advanced SEO for
Ecommerce Sites
By Patrick Altoft, Director of Search
@patrickaltoft

2. The current
CITATIONS
BUILD
CONVERSATIONS
NEWS
Sentiment
SOCIAL
Authority
Relevance
Freshness
is listening to…
DESIGN
CONTENT
BLOG
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure
Quality

3. Ecommerce SEO challenges
• Content strategy
• Adding value
• User generated content
• Return to search
• Design, usability and making users love you
• Link clean-up & penalties
• Link strategy
• Reporting ROI with 100% of your keyword data “not provided”

4. What Google wants
“The goal of many of our ranking changes is to help searchers find sites that provide a
great user experience and fulfil their information needs. ”
Matt Cutts
Our strategy therefore is to create a better search result for our clients than their
competitors.
This can be split into two simple to understand factors:
• Creating more authority and being a better/more reputable company
• Making better landing pages, specifically your primary pages

6. Content Audit
Document
• Typography
• Readability
• Spelling/grammar
• Shareability
• Keyword use
• Copyscape report on
stolen content
• Social media shares
Shareable Content
• Brainstorming
• Competitor Analysis
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors
Informative
Content
• Research Q&A on
Yahoo Answers,
Quora, Facebook,
Twitter
• Search for questions
in Analytics data &
keyword tool data
• Gap Analysis of
current content
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors etc
User Generated
Content
• Reviews –
implementation,
incentivisation etc
• Q&A section or Q&A
on product pages etc
• Forums, blog
comments, guest
blog posts, in-depth
content reviews
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors etc
Site Structure
• Where does content
need to go (blog or
Q&A etc)
• How should the
sections be
structured
• Design & UI
• Interlinking between
sections
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors
Content Roadmap
Document
• Monthly or weekly
content plan
• Special events &
calendar
• Blog calendar
• PR calendar
Content strategy framework

7. http://b3.io/TBXFpw

8. http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing/

9. Reviews
If you don’t have a user review
strategy – why not?

10. Questions & Answers
Why wouldn’t you do this?

12. The Future (& present) of SEO

13. Return to Search
You have a few seconds to get
the visitor’s attention and
persuade them that they have
arrived at a site that will answer
their query.
If they go back to Google, that’s
a negative signal.

16. Manual Penalties

17. Penguin 2.0

19. Clean-up is Future-proofing

21. Doing real stuff
Would you do this if it didn’t help with
SEO?
When you release a new page or piece
of content would your MD or PR
department tweet about it? Would they
tweet a link built by your SEO team?
If not then you probably shouldn’t be
doing it.
SEO has to be integral to marketing.

23. Data Sources
Not provided will be 100% soon, attribution modelling becomes largely useless
• Total organic visits to top landing pages
• Total search visits minus brand clicks from WMT data
• Estimated visits per keyword via rankings, CTR & search volumes
• Click share for product categories

24. Thank you!
Please email any questions to
patrick@branded3.com or get in touch on
Twitter: @patrickaltoft