SEO for Ecommerce - Adam Audette

#MozCon

by @audette

The State of Ecommerce SEO

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First a little history

3

The first SEO

4

The first SEOSEO: optimizing for search engines and cashin’ checks

5

The first SEO

SEO holdover mindsetRANK #1!BUILD LINKS!

TotallyKEYWORDS ALL DAY!

FullyOBSESS ON ALGOS!

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SEO is full of crapCRAP

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It worked. It was profitable.

BRANDS FOUND SEO

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The Internet hates SEO

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The Internet hates CRAP SEO

Which site should I torch next…

I will kill your business model

17SUSTAINABILITY

THEN:

CHASE ALGOS

NOW:

CHASE PEOPLE

THEN:

KEYWORDS W/ MOST TRAFFIC

NOW:

KEYWORDS w/ MOST RELEVANCE

THEN:

OBSESS ON LINKS

NOW:

CREATING EXPERIENCES WORTH SHARING

NOW:

OBSESS ON CREATING EXPERIENCES WORTH SHARING

THEN:

MORE LINKS MORE PAGESMORE EVERYTHING

NOW:

LESS IS MORE

THEN:

FOCUS ON RANKINGS

NOW:

FOCUS ON BOTTOM LINE METRICS

(for example)

NON-BRAND REVENUECONVERSION RATENEW CUSTOMERS

(and)

STAND BEHIND YOUR WORK

This change will create $164,160 in newmonthly revenue.

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Is pleased32

RECS NOT IMPLEMENTEDARE WORTHLESS

PART 2CONTENT STRATEGY

PART 2CONTENT STRATEGY

KEYWORDS GET YOU HALFWAY

TIP #1KNOW CONTENT STRATEGY

PART 2SEO CONTENT STRATEGY

SEARCH RANK & DISPLAY

PAGE CONTENT

(AUDIENCE NEED)

CONVERSION

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PART 3STAY TECHNICAL

TECHNICAL SEO IS MOREIMPORTANT, NOT LESS

Impact vs. reliability

Technical SEO is Dependable

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Off-page

Content

On-page

High Impact, Lower Dependability

High Dependability, Lower Impact

PART 3MOBILE 25% OF ORGANIC

MOBILE TRENDS

1. Tablets used more than smartphones to visit ecommerce sites.

MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS

2. Tablet users look at more pages.

TIP #3MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS

Adobe:http://plotin.us/12QMH7dResponsive: http://plotin.us/18GrTn2

MOBILE TRENDS

The Vary header fix

MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS

This breaks Akamai caching

MOBILE TRENDS

1. Configure Akamai to ignore Vary: User-Agent

MOBILE TRENDS

2. Configure Akamai to cache with “is mobile” flag

Vary: User-Agent Solution

Explanation:http://plotin.us/18GtXLEFix:http://plotin.us/16YgXx9

TECHNICAL SEO IS MOREIMPORTANT, NOT LESS

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Every site has finite crawl resources

TIP #2GET TECHNICAL

PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Fix server errors (when large)

PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Speed truly rules

Read these

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Web performance optimizationhttp://plotin.us/183sKv2

SEO site speedhttp://plotin.us/12gKxOy

PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Parameter handling is good

PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Monitor indexation with XML feeds

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PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Use 304 not modified

PART 4CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM

Use log files

TIP #2GET TECHNICAL

TIP #2GET TECHNICAL

PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

Top technical gotchas

PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

1: Inconsistent Signals

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/51909?page=double-l-chinos-natural-

fit-hidden-comfort-plain-front

Canonical tags not part of the internal link profile

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/32865?page=double-l-jeans-natural-

fit&catalogId=18

Self-referencing canonical tag points to non-canonical

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Canonical crawl path

Home Category Sub-cat Product

Navigation & internal links, external backlinks, canonical tags, XML files all point to the same definitive URLs.

PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

2: Pagination (always)

Self-referencing canonical tags

pp. 2-N

Annotations:

• Pages 2-N annotated with rel prev, next

• pages 2-N self-referencing rel canonical

No self-referencing canonical with rel prev/next

pp. 2-N

~/pg3?src=nav1&sessID=9

Actual canonical: ~/pg3

PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

4: Product Variations

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PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

5: Faceted Navigation

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-parts/brembo/brake-calipers-and-kits

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-parts/brembo/brake-calipers-and-kits?

N=36371+28004518

PART 5LIGHTNING ROUND!

6: Product Inventory

@rimmkaufman #techseo92

@rimmkaufman #techseo93

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Handling Expiring Products

Generate a “product not here” message

Recommend related products

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Handling Expiring Products

301 to a related product or up a level

OR just 404 the page (it’s OK)

PART 6KEY CHALLENGES

PART 6Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

PART 6Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

PART 6Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

PART 6Hidden SEO Data: (not provided)

TIP #4PLAs Taking Clickshare

PART 6PLAs Taking Clickshare

PART 6PLAs: 33% of Non-branded PPC

PART 6Image Search for Ecommerce

PART 6Image Search for Ecommerce

PART 6Image Search for Ecommerce

PART 6Challenges

1. ~13% of all Google organic traffic is hidden.

2. (Not provided) is ~35%

3. PLAs are taking organic CTR

4. Image search traffic loss

PART 6Challenges

1. Know realities, set expectations

2. Craft titles for max CTR

3. Use schema & authorship

4. Estimate lost data

PART 6Challenges

Estimating hidden iOS6 traffichttp://plotin.us/12ViOjo

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

TIP #5Social for Ecommerce

Google+ Followers

• June: 200• July: 120,000• Sep.: 280,000• Nov.: 300,000

Being here is good

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

Authorship: great for product reviews and guesting

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

Google’s weighting of results can negate benefits

PART 7Social for Ecommerce

Content ownership can be complicated

3 Takeaways

3 Takeaways

Understand your target audience

3 Takeaways

Stay in front of technical problems

3 Takeaways

Understand data trends

Thank you!