Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping And Information Architecture
It’s more fun than it sounds, I promise…
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About iCrossing• We are a unit of Hearst Corporation• Full-service digital agency• 750 professionals world-wide • 40+ Fortune 500 clients
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MANAGING THOUSANDS OF PRODUCT PAGES IS TOUGH; MAKING THEM UNIQUE ISN’T
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First: Why Bother?
Query Deserves Freshness (QDF): stale product descriptions won’t cut it
Query Deserves Diversity (QDD): be different or be invisible
Beating the Competition: You can’t beat the competition by publishing the exact same content
The Fresh Prince of the SERPs
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Ideal Solution: Write Your OWN Content
• Using boilerplate language is lazy• Your website is one of, if not the most important piece of
written content you own• Writing your own content can pay huge dividends in rankings &
traffic• It’s also an opportunity to express your brand (think of
Groupon, Woot.com, etc)
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If that’s not possible, then drown out boilerplate text with unique content
NOT BOILERPLATE
NOT BOILERPLATE
BOILERPLATE
NOT BOILERPLATE
SOME BOILERPLATE
** Example Pictured: http://www.amazon.com/Plex-Google-Thinks-Works-Shapes/dp/1416596585
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Reviews
• Reviews are a no-brainer to expand upon boilerplate content• Make sure they are displayed on the product page itself, and not in
an iFrame or on a subdomain (especially if you use Bazaarvoice)• Highlight select ones in static text boxes (particularly if from
notable users/internet celebrities) as testimonials
** Example Pictured: http://www.zagg.com/audio/smart-buds.php
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Go Social
• Recent Tweets (Twitter search)• RSS of blog posts with related Category/Tag• Facebook Comments plug-in• Social sharing buttons• Forum or Q&A discussion
** Example Pictured: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/17/avalanche-danger-in-color_n_1285495.html
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Related Products
• Customers Also Bought…• Accessories That Fit This Device Include…• Things You Might Also Be Interested In…• Other Products from This Brand…• Most Popular…
** Example Pictured: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Mesh-Gray-15.6-Aspire-AS5349-2635-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Celeron-B815-Processor-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/19714381
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Trust Builders
• Return policies• Why you should buy from us• About this brand• Coupons, discounts & bundles• Pricing policy (price-matching, etc.)• Nearest stores (if in-store pickup is available)• Email notifications (for discounts, in stock, etc.)
** Example Pictured: http://www.zappos.com/sperry-top-sider-authentic-original-ice?zlfid=111&recoName=zap_alp_pt_g
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Photos, Videos & Other Assets
• Images – high quality & unique– Crowd-source or out-source them if you
can’t take your own…
• Videos – huge potential for incremental traffic
– Crowd-source or out-source them if you can’t shoot your own…
• PDFs – owners manuals & other related documents
– Technical documents – safety information, ingredients, performance stats, CAD drawings, etc.
** Example Pictured: http://www.goapr.com/products/stage3_b7_rs4.html
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Template (Dynamic) Optimization
• Unique(!) page titles:– Product Name |
Category | YourName.com
• H1, H2, H3 headers with product name in headings
– iPhone Earbuds Product Details
• Descriptive URLs• Images with file name
& alt text = product name
** Example Pictured: http://electronics.hsn.com/beats-solo-hd-product-red-special-edition-headphones_p-6594459_xp.aspx
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AVOIDING DUPLICATE URLS FOR PRODUCT PAGES
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Advice #1: Don’t Do It
• One product = One URL– Different colors, sizes, etc. displayed on same URL– Dynamically refresh content to display different pricing info and images– Use drop downs & buttons to customize on page by size, color, etc.
** Example Pictured: http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/hart-schaffner-marx-madras-plaid-trousers/3271739?origin=category&resultback=1800
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Advice #2: But If You Have To Do It…
• Use consistent parameters (or better yet, subfolders) so you can block via robots.txt & Webmaster Tools if desired
– Example: Disallow &autoMake=*
• Use the canonical tag• Add an HTML link to the canonical version of the page from the
duplicate page
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brakes.jsp?make=StopTech&model=Street+Performance+Pads&group=Street+Performance+Pads&autoMake=Audi&autoModel=S4+Sedan&autoYear=2006&autoModClar=With+TPMS
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Advice #3: Watch for Pagination
• If you have too many products to list on one page, use rel=“next” and rel=“previous”
• Also offer option “View All on One Page” if reasonable. Make this the default view for search engines.
• Can be used in conjunction with rel=canonical
Hey Girl,
I could look at your pages forever.
** More Info: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html
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GOING GLOBAL…
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Don’t Do This
“Site Selector” splash pages are a waste of homepage link equity and create a poor user experience…especially on mobile.
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Global Best Practices For Search Engines
• Use a ccTLD, sub-folder, or sub-domain per country/language• Set Geo-targeting in Bing & Google Webmaster Tools • Do localized link building
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Global SEO - Continued
Use the “hreflang” tag to specify alternate versions of content
Example:
<link rel=“alternate” hreflang=“es” href=“canonicalversion.com” />
Can be used in tandom with rel=canonical but be careful & follow Google guidelines
** More Info: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077
Hey Girl,
Your website speaks all the
right languages.
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Global SEO & UX
• Put the country name in your Page Title– Example: Product Name | Category Name | iCrossing Spain
• Include the country name in the header or footer of your site’s template
– Bonus Points: country-specific phone number & address in site template
• Spell things “incorrectly” for the Brits and Canucks (e.g. product catalogue)
** Example Pictured: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/
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thank you.
Nick RoshonSEO Strategist, [email protected]@nickroshon+Nick RoshonNickRoshon.comiCrossing.com
Special thanks to @dananotman for the Ryan Gosling infographics