SEO For E-Commerce Sites

vegasbound said:
KUDOS AGAIN ON THIS GREAT THREAD

Fed up EX-eBay seller here who is looking for a saner alternative. I'm a complete newb when it comes to SEO or any sort of technical side of creating a website, however I'm great with creating original content.

Just last night I signed up for 3dcart but was letdown when I started seeing that many segments of are not SEO friendly (from what I've gathered on this thread ;)). Are there any SEO friendly turnkey carts that you fine folks would recommend?

Thanks in advanced
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Big commerce is pretty easy to use and is SEO friendly. Good for a first site. Backend is pretty easy to figure out as well
 
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Great tips here.

From my reading (and particularly from my own experience), I understand big G actually views e-Commerce sites quite favourably. If someone is searching "Buy Laptops" then the most relevant result is an actual seller, not middle men affiliates with information and links to laptop sellers. This also clarifies the distinction of why big G can look quite UNfavourably towards affiliates, because typically they will simply be promoting the product they get paid the high commission for, rather than the best product for the visitor. When you combine this with Black Hat/Grey Hat SEO to game the rankings, then you can understand why big G may frown upon thin sites.

^ A great example of this is e-cigarettes. Do some related searches and the SERPs are dominated by the highest, on-going commission paying products. Now they MAY be the best e-cigs, I don't know, but I can assure you they are not there because they have the best reviews or quality, but because they pay out the highest.

So going back to big G liking actual sellers, I think it is perhaps unwise the approach some here are taking and hiding their cart and signs of e-Commerce. I think if anything these will be positive signals to the algorithm, not negative.
 
Something not addressed yet: The most White Hat Backling Method for e-Commerce Sites?

I do SEO consulting and have multiple e-Commerce clients. My biggest issue is often clients will have 10's/100's of organic rankings across all their products, bringing in traffic, and ultimately sales. Any change of these rankings brings an immediate disruption of sales, so a dance around the SERPs is much more serious than for affiliate sites where you just lose some commissions for a week or two. Not just for (temporary) lost revenue, but also for how bad it looks on yourself with a new client who typically doesn't understand SEO.

What are the most Google Dance Resistant backlinks for e-Commerce websites?
 
Emergent,

From my experience appearing to be "naturally popular" is the key. Slow but steady increases in link volume and diversity will minimize the dance. If you insist on blasting links, after all this is BHW, do it consistently for months. Start a PPC Campaign to minimize fluctuations. Find other traffic sources. I.E make sure they are in Google and Bing Shopping. Set expectations with the client prior to engagement, then when it happens you can say "See I told you this would happen". If it doesn't nothing lost. Make micro sites for their top products that drive traffic to the main site. This helps diversify the traffic when there is a dance or algorithm update.
 
Do not forget the long tails!! All the big boys rarely go after the low hanging fruit, leaving it wide open for us :)
 
Canuck said:
Linkbait is key to your success. Our 2 biggest pieces of linkbait were a product 'quiz' that would help you identify the best product for your needs, and a celebrity linkbait section - basically "what X does <celebrity Y> use?"
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How do you turn these two into link baits?
You mean you just place the surveys on your site and other sites would then just link to them?
 
One of the things that I would like to add over here is this:

I sell hats that are low priced around $15 to $35 each. For about a week, I decided to keep the price of the hat high and offer free shipping. I was always told that free shipping attracts a lot of customers. But, I noticed low sales for the whole week. So, I switched back to keeping the cost a bit low and charging the shipping fee. ( please note in both cases, the cost to the customer turns out to be the same)

So, I think, customers are more inclined to buy your product if you offer low price as opposed to free shipping ( at least in my case with these low priced hats)
 
gz_cp said:
How do you turn these two into link baits?
You mean you just place the surveys on your site and other sites would then just link to them?
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Link bait does not work unless you sell a product that no one else is selling. If I sell the same exact product that ten other retailers are selling, who the hell is going to link to me?
 
I think link bait works many ways. For example, I could write an article titled "Justin Bieber offers reward for lost hat". The article could be about a silly cheap hat that everyone sells. In the article, there would be links to where I sell my hat. The article is the bait. If it gets copied and spread around i get links.
 
The stronger the existing backlinks profile of a site, the smaller the fluctuations at the start of a campaign. If a site is new and has no links, it will yoyo pretty widely. If its established, make sure to educate the client, but you can get a little more aggressive.


Emergent said:
Something not addressed yet: The most White Hat Backling Method for e-Commerce Sites?

I do SEO consulting and have multiple e-Commerce clients. My biggest issue is often clients will have 10's/100's of organic rankings across all their products, bringing in traffic, and ultimately sales. Any change of these rankings brings an immediate disruption of sales, so a dance around the SERPs is much more serious than for affiliate sites where you just lose some commissions for a week or two. Not just for (temporary) lost revenue, but also for how bad it looks on yourself with a new client who typically doesn't understand SEO.

What are the most Google Dance Resistant backlinks for e-Commerce websites?
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Taktical said:
The stronger the existing backlinks profile of a site, the smaller the fluctuations at the start of a campaign. If a site is new and has no links, it will yoyo pretty widely. If its established, make sure to educate the client, but you can get a little more aggressive.
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Completely agree. You have to be more careful in the beginning. I wouldn't SB my site straight off the bat. And with e comm sites, these sites are more long term residual income so it is best to think long term as well
 
Chrisss said:
But remember to use java-links for those footer links and don't make the mistake and use the no-f0llow tag. Never use that for onsite links!
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what is the problem with using no-follow tag? Not saying you are wrong, just never heard about bad effects of it... why java-links are superior?
 
I want to thank all that have placed input into this tread, helping us folks new at this get our bearing in this new world.
 
People fail because they have ugly ass sites, with poor organization, and no extra features to keep customers looking. Why do people think they can spend $500 and buy a website that will be able to make big money lol? Would you buy a $500 race car and take it on the track and expect to win? Would you buy a abandoned bulding in the ghetto and open a bakery? Hell no... but people think it's a-ok to do so on the web and then wonder why NOBODY is shopping with them.

Pro sites cost pro money...
 
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ThopHayt said:
People fail because they have ugly ass sites, with poor organization, and no extra features to keep customers looking. Why do people think they can spend $500 and buy a website that will be able to make big money lol? Would you buy a $500 race car and take it on the track and expect to win? Would you buy a abandoned bulding in the ghetto and open a bakery? Hell no... but people think it's a-ok to do so on the web and then wonder why NOBODY is shopping with them.

Pro sites cost pro money...
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Yes and no. I mean the site has to be done very well and have lots of features, but systems like shopify and magento can offer that at a cheap price. Get a basic package and a decent indian engineer and you can get a site up for under a thousand.

however if you want a real custom site with a backend that plugs into your inventory system and all that, yes that will be a 10k project...
 
Taktical said:
Yes and no. I mean the site has to be done very well and have lots of features, but systems like shopify and magento can offer that at a cheap price. Get a basic package and a decent indian engineer and you can get a site up for under a thousand.

however if you want a real custom site with a backend that plugs into your inventory system and all that, yes that will be a 10k project...
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Yup. Guys in India can make you a pretty dope looking site for very cheap. And with Magento, there is no real need for anything else
 
Dan Da Man said:
Yup. Guys in India can make you a pretty dope looking site for very cheap. And with Magento, there is no real need for anything else
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I'd say that they usually don't. Indian sense of design is very different from Western. They're great engineers but if you want a great design its best if you give them one to work from...
 
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