Question for those that do SEO for ecommerce websites

When doing SEO for a brand new ecommerce site do you typically:
(a) make review sites/pages targeting kw's such as "red widget reviews, best red widgets, etc" and direct traffic from these to the products you're promoting,
(b) rank obvious product keywords like "red widgets, red widgets for sale, buy red widgets, etc" or
(c) do both (a) and (b)
(d) some other kw strategy

I'm noticing that almost always, kw's such as "red widgets" and "red widgets for sale" are dominated by big sites like Amazon, Ebay, etc. in the SERPS. This is also true, but to a slightly lesser extent, when talking about kw's such as "red widget reviews" and "best red widgets".

I'd like to know other's opinions on how a smaller ecommerce site should go about avoiding these big sites when trying to promote itself in the search engines.

You can always choose option A and that links back to your site. You would get some great SEO juice if you had many reviews for different products within the same niche then build back links to the review pages.

depending on your product you can switch it from Colored widgets to Widget USES changing the keyword just enough that it may escape some the ecommerce strong holds.


I do this once in awhile when I'm bored.

Make:

1. Review site,
2. Review video
3. Uses site (Top ten uses of Product, things you can use it for other then intended purpose)
4. Uses video (How to use this product directly as it's intended)

Thanks for the response. Never thought of targeting the uses.