Creating a Foundation for

Ecommerce SEOMarch 13, 2018

We started #SEOWeek four years ago as an ode to our unofficial mascot, Albert Einstein.

Eintstein’s birthday falls on Pi Day, or March 14 each year.

We celebrate Einstein’s never-ending search for answers with our own week dedicated to search.

Enjoy and welcome to #SEOWeek 4.0!

ABOUT #SEOWEEK

AGENDA SPEAKERSTHE SEO LANDSCAPESITE ARCHITECTURE

AI + RANKBRAINMOBILE FIRST

USER EXPERIENCECONTENT

Q&A

STEVE MURPHYDIRECTOR OF MARKETING

DECODING WHAT MAKES PEOPLE CLICK

PAID SEARCH | SEO | DISPLAY PAID SOCIAL | AMAZON | MARTECH

ABOUT NETELIXIROUR TEAM: 120+ fanatically analytical search marketers, operating in three countries.

OUR PARTNERSHIPS: Google Premier Partner, Bing Select Agency, & UPS Exclusive Partner.

OUR VALUE: We help you own the search bar with our high touch, high tech approach to online customer acquisition.

• Mobile-first Gets Beefed Up Big Time• Changes to the SERP Affect Users • The Algorithm Is Getting Smarter at

Understanding User Intent• Structured Data is Becoming More Engrained• Rich Snippets are Answering Questions on the

SERP• Voice Adoption is Reaching Mainstream• Old School Tactics Don’t Differentiate – They’re

Required!

THE STATE OF ECOMMERCE

SEO: CHANGES IN RECENT YEARS

IF YOU’RE NOT LEADING, YOU’RE FALLING BEHIND!

GREAT SEO STARTS WITH GREAT SITE ARCHITECTURE

Web Architecture: Solving for Customers & Crawlers

What Users Want• Answers to their questions• Fast experience• Less clicking around• Easy to understand• The right format for

consumption• To trust your brand

What Search Engines Want• Easy access to your content• Clear connections• Clean code• Context of content and

taxonomy• Minimize dead-ends

THE BEST APPROACH?OPTIMIZE FOR BOTH!

Planning out a proper taxonomy of your site is crucial to its future success

Four Common Types of Pages:

1. Homepage: Most important page. Introduces users to your brand!

2. Category Pages: Make it easy to navigate, explore and organize!

3. Product Detail Pages: Inform purchase decisions and let us buy!

4. Information Pages (Resource / Blog Type Pages): Build trust and amplify brand.

KEY COMPONENTS OF AN ECOMMERCE

WEBSITE

• Avoid moving and flashy content such as sliders or carousels. Optimized static images are recommended.

• Incorporate strong calls to action.• Highlight Critical USPs (Such as Free Shipping,

Special Promotions). Make them easier for the user to immediately see.

• Make your navigation easy to find and understand.

• Include a search box.• Make your contact information easily visible

HOME PAGE

GOOD HOME PAGE EXAMPLE

• Add content that describes the category.• Don’t neglect the basics – use custom titles,

descriptions and heading structures.• Use filters to simplify taxonomy (but don’t forget

to block these parameters in GSC!)• Strive for a balance: Only create categories

when they make the most sense for users. • Always keep an eye on your competitors for

taxonomy ideas (new jargon?) • Never forget the customer journey!

CATEGORY PAGE

GOOD CATEGORY PAGE

EXAMPLE

Not all filters need a category page. This creates clutter and upsets crawl budget.

For Example: • Shop By Size • Shop By Color• Shop Brand

Make sure to block these parameters from the index using noindex or robots.txt as needed, along with canonical tags on the main category page.

A NOTE ON FACETED

NAVIGATION

• Customize all content for “money pages”, and create scalable templates for all others.

• Engage with multimedia – think about video, images, user guides, size charts, etc.

• Include product specs or Q&A to optimize for longtail (Amazon does great here.)

• Mark them up! Schema for pricing, reviews, etc.• Keep inventory up to date – don’t display

products that no longer exist.

PRODUCT DETAIL PAGE

GOOD PRODUCT PAGE EXAMPLE

GOOD PRODUCT PAGE EXAMPLE

• Answer questions your users have! Help them make the best decisions.

• Position your brand as an authority on a topic.• Format and optimize for snippets / voice search

using schema and proper HTML markup.• Create powerful internal navigation by always

linking back to key products and category pages.

INFORMATION PAGE

GOOD INFORMATION PAGE EXAMPLE

GOOD INFORMATION PAGE EXAMPLE

LET’S TALK RANKBRAIN!

RankBrain helps Google process and match queries to the best possible results. It does this by selecting and prioritizing the right signals to rank with based on search intent.

The more complex the query, the more heavily RankBrain is involved.

This means that keywords are not the end-all, be-all when writing content – especially for high-purchase intent.

WHAT IS RANKBRAIN?

WHY RANKBRAIN?

GOOGLE PROCESSES 450,000,000 BRAND NEW QUERIES DAILY.

Image courtesy www.link-assistant.com

RANKBRAINEXAMPLE

• Clear Taxonomy: The more thought out your taxonomy is, the easier it is for Google to crawl and understand your site and what you offer.

• Use the Proper Tagging: Clearly mark your content with the appropriate HTML, structured data and format.

• Be Human & Helpful: Use natural language.• Keep Intent in Mind: What type of user are

you trying to attract? Make sure your content matches their intent (i.e. purchase vs. research vs. evaluation).

OPTIMIZING WITH RANKBRAIN IN

MIND

MOBILE-FIRST IS A PRIORITY

WHY MOBILE-FIRST MATTERS

You need to optimize your site assuming the first touch point is mobile – for both real visitors and crawlers.

Soon, mobile pages will be treated as the canonical version, with the desktop getting rel=“alternate” treatment. Treat your content production, design, and optimization strategy with this in mind.

The change is happening and will officially launch this summer!

MOBILE-FIRST IS NOT MOBILE

FRIENDLY

MOBILE-FIRST IS NOT MOBILE

FRIENDLY

BOTH ARE MOBILE FRIENDLY BUT ONLY ONE IS MOBILE FIRST

Bad. Good!

• A responsive experience is preferred over a dedicated mobile domain (m.site.com)

• When planning content, core functionality and experience should work on mobile. Use desktop features to enhance.

• Keep important information above the fold.• Always be testing – use Chrome’s Dev Tools to

preview your site with popular device screens and sizes.

• Scale resources for a lightning fast experience.

MOBILE-FIRST GUIDELINES

SPEAKING OF SPEED…

Ecommerce sites in particular struggle with page speed because of:

• Highly visual web experiences with large, sprawling imagery.

• Fast turnover of product pages and large index sizes.

• Volume of tracking pixels needed for 3rd party technology.

• Many platforms with different specs and ways of handling content delivery.

WHY ECOMMERCE

STRUGGLES WITH SITE SPEED

• Compress images to the minimum required for clear viewing on screen.

• Condense HTML, CSS and JS when possible.• Audit scripts regularly and remove unnecessary

assets. • Use a CDN to serve assets like images, video.• Render “below the fold” assets on scroll.• Aggressively cache static content that doesn’t

change often.• Do more with CSS & HTML5!

TIPS TO BALANCE PERFORMANCE WITH AESTHETICS

• Everything begins with a strong architecture. • Optimize your site for users AND crawlers. • Be aware of your key page types and optimize

each to match intent.• Consider the uses AI / Machine Learning and

use this to your advantage.• Be mobile-first, not just mobile-friendly.• Obsess over speed and prioritize assets.• Use your noggin! Replicate great experiences

you find online.

RECAP: CREATING AN

SEO FOUNDATION FOR YOUR

ECOMMERCE SITE

THREE MORE SESSIONS:

WednesdayMarch 14 – 1:00PM EDT

Performing a Technical SEO Audit

ThursdayMarch 15 – 1:00PM EDT

Using Amazon to Fuel Organic Growth

FridayMarch 16 – 1:00PM EDT

Advanced Tactics for Omnichannel Growth

Invite Your Colleagues: www.netelixir.com/webinar/

QUESTIONS?