After hosting our very popular webinar, SEO Tips Every Site Owner Should Know, last week, we wanted to answer a few extra questions we didn’t have time to address during our time slot. Read on to learn even more tricks to climb search engine rankings.
Last Thursday we hosted our webinar, SEO Tips Every Site Owner […]
Original post by Matt
When writing content for your ecommerce website, the challenge is to craft copy that is usable, search engine friendly, persuasive, that will build trust and communicate your brand promise. How can you satisfy all of these objectives? It begins with an understanding of the 4 pillars of ecommerce copywriting.
As many usability gurus have said, your visitor decides in 3 seconds or less whether he or she is going to abandon your site. “Bounce rate” in Web analytics tells you how many visitors “came, puked and left” (the famous words of Avinash Kaushik). If your bounce rate is high, you need to investigate reasons why that might be.
While there are many ways to gag your customers with a spoon, formatting issues such as tiny type, white text on black backgrounds, loooooong sentences and long paragraphs are common culprits.
Example: grey text, run-on paragraph
Visitors need only to eyeball your site to figure out if the copy is “readable,” so use headings, subheadings and bullet points liberally, and pictures and icons where appropriate. It is recommended that you keep sentences and paragraphs as short and sweet as possible. Always define your jargon, and keep in mind that the average American adult reads at an 8th or 9th grade level – so shoot for 6th-7th grade difficulty. (This is especially important for international customers and English-as-second-language).
However, bullets can’t save you if you don’t use them wisely.
Example: bullets to the head
Example: Walmart bullets
Altrec.com puts headings, short paragraphs and bullets to work:
Unique value propositions
One important piece of text that is often missing from ecommerce sites is the UVP (unique value proposition, sometimes called unique selling proposition). This is a statement that clearly communicates the one thing that you do better than any of your competitors. This statement is not “free shipping” or even “free shipping both ways!” These are value propositions, but not unique if any of your competitors also offer them.
With the ease of comparison shopping the Internet provides, it’s crucial to make this statement very clear and easy to find (tagline, headlines, all throughout your body copy and marketing messaging).
Make sure you have watched Marketing Experiments’ Web clinic In Search of a Value Proposition and read its companion blog post. Many folks *think* they have a value proposition when it’s really a tagline, slogan or unsubstantiated marketing fluff.
Unique value propositions are not a walk in the park to write. In fact, you may simply have no advantages over your competition. In that case, you have to work all the more on persuasive copywriting in other areas.
Persuasive product descriptions
Products also have their own value propositions (features and benefits), and some may even be unique over every other product on the market. Make sure you are romancing your products’ features and including the benefits each feature delivers. For example, I don’t have a clue why 18.5 micron Merino wool is such a big deal unless you tell me the benefit is “zero itch.”
Beyond features/benefits, persuasive copywriting aims to match customer motivation at each stage of the selling cycle. The Eisenberg Brothers‘ book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark is a great primer on developing personas and writing copy that appeals to the 4 different buyer modalities: Competitive, Humanistic, Spontaneous and Methodical.
Armed with this information, you can then get busy on “Persuasion Architecture.” You may write 4 versions of your copy and deliver persona-specific content based on the behavioral cues your visitor gives you, for example, how a customer sorts category results. You can also apply persuasive techniques to email subject lines and email creative.
Showing some personality in your copy can also be persuasive, as it humanizes your website and creates positive vibes about your brand which can make people feel better about doing business with you.
Online shoppers have to put a lot of faith into their purchase. They not only have to trust their personal information is secure, but also that the product they purchase “blindly” will really satisfy. So your copy should address both FUDs (fears, uncertainties and doubts) about your company and about the product.
Building trust for your company
Providing testimonials can be very powerful. Though it’s not copy you compose yourself, it’s a good idea to reach out to customers and ask for them. Again, Marketing Experiments offers great guidance for using testimonials effectively.
Don’t forget to write your privacy policy with care and make it easy to find in your navigation menu and at every point on your site a customer might feel anxious about submitting information (email signup, account registration, checkout process, etc). Equally important is your customer service information, including shipping and returns.
Building trust for the product
Though pundits have also proclaimed “nobody reads on the Web,” a 2007 survey by the E-Tailing Group suggests a good chunk of customers do, and they demand satisfaction when it comes to product descriptions.
Why do consumers crave content? They want to reduce their risk of being disappointed and wasting their money. They have FUDs about products, and it’s your job to answer their questions and ease their minds.
One of the best ways to get into your customers’ heads is to read reviews, lots of them, and use customer reviews to improve product descriptions. Don’t just read reviews submitted to your site, look at Amazon and others that have attracted a lot of reviews and allow customers to tag reviews, vote for most helpful or rate on individual product attributes.
You should look for answers to these questions:
More tips on this technique here.
Don’t stuff it
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The above is a contrived example of copy written to achieve a high “keyword density” in effort to rank higher. It was once believed that search engines favored pages that contained a certain keyword density of 2-5% (for every 100 words on the page, use the targeted keyword phrase 2 to 5 times). So many sites’ copy was written for search engines rather than real people. Search engines might have used keyword density at one time as an indicator of a page’s relevance to a query, but today’s search engines are much more advanced at detecting semantic relevance and don’t need to see so much repetition.
Search engines also consider factors like incoming links from other sites, and keyword-stuffed sites don’t attract as many links. It’s also possible that search engines flag site copy like this as potential spam – which can actually hurt your ranking. Not to mention, customers do not find keyword-stuffed descriptions persuasive at all, rather an insult to one’s intelligence!
By all means, use keywords in your copy – it’s especially helpful to research synonyms and variations of keywords to incorporate in your writing, including long tail queries. (Remember, keywords must appear on your page if you want your site to have a chance at ranking for them.) And there’s nothing wrong with using the keyword phrases multiple times on the same page, either. Just don’t obsess over keyword frequency at the expense of readability and persuasion. Incorporate keywords naturally into your copy and you’ll be fine.
Synonyms and variations are not only important for the big search engines, but also for your internal site search. You don’t want “0 results found” for “blue Nike sneakers” because your product page calls them “Ultramarine Nike Cross-Trainers.”
Don’t stock it
Another SEO faux-pas is using stock manufacturer descriptions. When search engines find multiple copies of the same text across web sites, it applies a duplicate content filter so SERPs (search result pages) aren’t filled with the same document. The more sites that use the manufacturer’s description, the higher your chance of being filtered out – especially if the manufacturer is deemed the most relevant or authoritative site by the search engine.
Always craft unique product descriptions, and if you run international sites, you may want to write unique descriptions for each based on cultural keyword preferences, as well as to avoid duplicate content issues across your own domains.
Karon Thackston has just completed an ebook on Ecommerce Copywriting for which I contributed an article about cross-selling and upselling. Karon and Wordtracker are offering Get Elastic readers a 50% discount if you pre-order by Friday, July 9!
Original post by Linda Bustos
If you run multiple stores for different English-speaking countries (geo-targeted with subdomains, subfolders or top-level domains like .co.uk, .co.au, .ca etc), it’s important to pay attention to the keywords in your category names and product page titles. The terms that your countrymen (and women) use to describe your products may not be the same as the lingo abroad. And the keywords you choose to describe your categories and products have a huge impact on SEO in your international markets.
Example: “flash drive” vs. “USB drive” vs. “memory stick”
According to Google Trends, the term “USB drive” is most popular in US and Canada, and “memory stick” most popular in the UK.
Example 2: “slow cooker” vs. “crock pot” vs. “crockpot”
Americans love the branded term “crock pot” and are most likely to use the 2-word rather than “crockpot.” The rest of the English speaking world is more likely to call it a “slow cooker.”
Ideally your category labels and product page titles will be optimized to reflect the most popular search for each respective region. (Make sure you’ve geo-targeted your domains using webmaster tools). Synonyms should be included in your meta data so customers who use them can still find your products in your on-site search, and in product descriptions so you can still be found in search engines for any of the synonyms.
Another reason to use the more common term in navigation menus is users tend to scan menus with a “trigger keyword” in mind. They’re thinking “memory stick” and if they don’t find that quickly in your menu, often it’s off to the search box or off to another site.
Not only can you apply this research to on-site optimization, but also pay-per-click and email campaigns (hint, geo-segment your PPC and email campaigns).
Even if you don’t target geographic regions, you can still benefit from using Google Trends data — find out if the keywords you’re using are really the most popular of its synonyms in your region. Can’t think of synonyms? Google’s Keyword Tool can help you out. I suggest you start with your most profitable category.
Original post by Linda Bustos
JavaScript enabled, dynamic menus allow you to pack a lot of information in a tight space and make it easier for shoppers to find what their looking for. But for years, SEO professionals have advised against using JavaScript menus, warning that search engines can’t read JavaScript. In times past, that was true. But search engines have come along way since. Unfortunately, old information still exists on forums and in blogs, and many are confused about JavaScript and SEO, and how to do things right.
Examples of fly-out or mega menus
The most common form of JavaScript enabled menu is what designers call a “fly-out” or “mega” menu. Fly-outs can be seen on hundreds or even thousands of online retail sites.
The key features of this sort of menu are that:
Mega menus may also be used for “navandising” – including images or graphics that cross-sell or up-sell related products, services, or offers.
Benefits for shoppers
Some online retailers have a significant number of product offerings or variations across many product lines. While that variety is often a boon for shoppers and merchants alike, it can make finding specifically what you’re looking for something of a challenge. Fly-out menus make it easier to sort through available products.
SEO-friendly mega menus: it’s all in the code
It is true that JavaScript can be written in a way that hides anchor tags from some search engines. For example, if we built a mega menu that was added to the document object model by the JavaScript, some search engine bots might not be able to “see” the menu.
But most mega menus include all of the links and tags in the actual HTML markup, typically in the form of an unordered list. These lists are then hidden from view with a cascading style sheet (CSS), JavaScript, or a combination thereof.
For example, Aldo Shoes’ mega menu sub-categories are coded directly into the HTML, creating several rich, text-based links for search engine bots to spider and index:
In fact, the HTML for a mega menu can look surprisingly similar to the HTML for a site map, which most SEO pundits praise.
Too many links?
If there is any SEO concern with JavaScript-driven mega menus it is not that search engine bots cannot “see” the anchor links, rather it is that there are too many links that effectively dilute or at least don’t focus Page Rank.
Page Rank is one of several elements that search engines like Google evaluate when deciding which pages to display for a given query. It is a sort of voting system that assumes that pages only link to other pages when there is value in doing so. Each individual page has a certain amount of clout that it can share with the pages it links to. If it links to five pages, each receives 20 percent of the first page’s clout or Page Rank. With ten links, each link gets 10 percent, and so on.
In fly-out or mega menu navigation, we are adding a significant number of links to every page, so that if anything we may want to limit which links get a percentage of the Page Rank.
Again, if there is any concern with mega menus it is not that they won’t get crawled by search engines.
The Take Away
JavaScript mega menus are generally very SEO-friendly, and are likely to help search engine bots index your site. If you are using an internal linking structure, you may wish to limit some mega menu tags with “rel=’nofollow’” attributes which will inform search bots not to use a link for the purpose of Page Rank. But otherwise use mega menus without fear of any SEO problems.
For more information on how to build an SEO-friendly JavaScript menu, check out my previous Get Elastic post, Build SEO-Friendly JavaScript Menus.
This post was contributed by our guest columnist Armando Roggio. Armando is a journalist, web designer, technologist and the site director for Ecommerce Developer.
Original post by Armando Roggio
A while back I posted about the opportunity most retailers miss out on – optimizing their own websites for their store names plus “free shipping.”
Related searches in Google indicate the suggestions are highly searched, and therefore valuable to optimize for.
Add to free shipping searches for “promo code(s),” “voucher code(s),” “coupon code(s),” “discount code(s)” et cetera. Customers are actively Googling these terms, and guess who’s cherry-picking the traffic? Affiliates, and collecting a nice commission along with it.
I suggested that retailers create dedicated landing pages optimized for their own coupon codes because there’s a good chance the store’s domain will outrank the affiliate sites. Have I ever seen it in practice? No. I got excited when I spotted Macy’s linking to a list of codes off its shopping cart review page…
…which links to:
But, because the coupon codes are in JavaScript, Macy’s special page is not crawled or indexed in search engines. It misses all the organic traffic it could capture from the searches on “macys coupon,” “macys promo codes” etc.
I’m still keeping my eyes peeled for a major brand to take advantage of this low-hanging fruit. In the mean time, why don’t you use this trick for your own online store and create an optimized landing page for your coupons and free shipping offers? Hint: Make sure your title tag includes the keywords “free shipping” and “coupon codes” at a minimum.
Original post by Linda Bustos
Did you know we (at Elastic Path Software post an “Ecommerce Tip of the Week” video on our home page? Here’s a sample:
Search engine optimization for your product pages
Email and RSS subscribers, can’t see video? View this post on Get Elastic.
Want to catch up on tip videos you’ve missed and receive new ones? Check out or subscribe to our channels on Youtube and Vimeo.
Original post by Linda Bustos
Keyword research is the practice of finding the best keywords for searchers to find your site, which is crucial to SEO. Keyword research includes identifying, organizing and determining the importance of your keywords.
We’re now into week three of our quest to learn SEO. At this point we should have a pretty good grasp on the […]
Original post by Matt
Keyword research is the practice of finding the best keywords for searchers to find your site, which is crucial to SEO. Keyword research includes identifying, organizing and determining the importance of your keywords.
We’re now into week three of our quest to learn SEO. At this point we should have a pretty good grasp on the […]
Original post by Matt
On the heels of the Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto, I caught up with one of SES’ expert speakers, Michael Bonfils, to pick his brain on international SEO issues.
Michael is the International Managing Director for SEM International, where he provides expert multilingual search engine marketing and management for global advertising agencies, search engine marketing companies and Fortune 100 firms.
Linda: Every online business wants to know what’s better, one domain that serves all countries, or country-specific domains (top level domains like .co.uk, .ca, .it etc). How does a business decide which approach is best for them?
Michael: Having a country-specific domain the best choice. Country-specific domains allow for a “localization trust factor,” (searchers perceive localized domains as more relevant to them), they can attract links from the target country, and are therefore your best bet for organic SEO in the target country. However, if having international top level domains are not feasible, sub-directories can work too, but not as well. Sub-domains are better than sub-folders, which should be your last option. Also, pay attention to create sub-directories country by country, not language by language, or else you’ll face the duplicate content problem.
Linda: Duplicate content is a major concern for site owners running multiple geographic stores in the same language. Is the fear warranted? How can this risk be minimized?
Michael: Yes, duplicate content is a big problem. It’s not a “penalty” from Google’s standpoint, however when you find your US pages ranking better than your UK pages in Google.co.uk…you’ve got a problem. A separate site with a separate country-specific domain along with unique re-written content will help reduce the duplicate content issue. Also, have your in-country address on the site, and make sure your Google Webmaster Tools also reflect your intentions by telling Google what sites (subdirectories/folders) belong where. Once all the localized content pieces are fixed, make sure you have a matching link building strategy with in-country links from relevant sites and in country directories linking to them.
Linda: It’s great that search engines support geo-targeting of domains in Google Webmaster Tools, it’s such a quick win for webmasters.
Linda: Many large brands have splash pages with country selectors, which force the user to choose their country before entering the store. What is your opinion of this practice? Does this hurt search ranking (or usability) more than help?
Michael: I would say that its not that great for usability and can hurt search ranking. Splash pages with country selectors are common with big brands. Quite often they are sensitive to having a splash page for analytic and usability reasons. Since splash pages with country selectors typically come from well known brands, they’re brand names – and brand products will likely always rank well (even if they had a blank page). On the other hand, I have rarely seen a non-brand with country selectors rank, so what I would suggest is to use an IP redirect to the correct site with options on the page to change languages.
Linda: Good advice. We have an article on IP geolocation that provides a few more reasons, besides SEO, why IP redirection is helpful.
Linda: How useful is site translation software? Is there a tool/service you recommend, or is manual translation by a native speaker always the best solution?
Michael: Site translation software is a big no-no in my opinion. There are some great translation agencies that have very good machine based translation systems. However, it is far, far better to have a native localization expert do the translation. Keep in mind, i’ts not about translating (even though most of the time machine based translation gives bad results), its about “localization.” What that means is the content needs to “culturally” touch the users of the target country as well as translation. For example, if you just translated your site word-for-word and launched it in the German market, you may be in for a rude awakening when you find out that your site didn’t understand how quality is more important than cost to the Germans. Yet your US to German translated site did nothing but talk about price.
Linda: Sounds like the costs to your brand and credibility of translation bloopers may be greater than the costs of a native translator!
Linda: Do you have any tips on international keyword research? Or a favorite tool?
Michael: International keyword research works similar to localization. I have often found that many words that are translated from your English keywords end up not at all being what the users in that country look for. Translate “car insurance” in France and you will find it’s not the translated term but another term that they use. Even using the Google suggestion tool may not find the related words in that country. Providing your localization expert with your seed list is the best way for them to do research and come up with a list of keywords. You will also soon find out that most languages are not as rich in vocabulary as English, so don’t be disappointed if the keyword lists aren’t as vast.
Linda: I guess there’s no getting around using a native speaker at this time. Perhaps there’s room in the competitive SEM software space for internationalized keyword research tools…perhaps it won’t be long before Google offers it to Adwords advertisers.
Thanks again to Michael Bonflis, you can catch Michael’s panel Managing a Global SEO Campaign on Day 1 of SES Toronto (June 9-11, 2010), or follow him on Twitter @michaelbonflis or contact him by email at michael.bonflis @ seminternational.com.
Original post by Linda Bustos
Knowing how search engines rank pages is important to learning SEO. Pages are primarily ranked on domain trust and authority, link quality, anchor text and keywords.
I’m now in week two of my quest to conquer SEO. The further I dive, the deeper I swim through a muck of conflicting opinions and theories. One of the […]
Original post by Matt
Knowing how search engines rank pages is important to learning SEO. Pages are primarily ranked on domain trust and authority, link quality, anchor text and keywords.
I’m now in week two of my quest to conquer SEO. The further I dive, the deeper I swim through a muck of conflicting opinions and theories. One of the […]
Original post by Matt
Knowing how search engines rank pages is important to learning SEO. Pages are primarily ranked on domain trust and authority, link quality, anchor text and keywords.
I’m now in week two of my quest to conquer SEO. The further I dive, the deeper I swim through a muck of conflicting opinions and theories. One of the […]
Original post by Matt
The first step in learning SEO is to understand how search engines work. Search engines return results in a process that includes crawling, indexing and relevancy ranking.
My journey in learning SEO hath begun. After conducting extensive online research, I’ve quickly discovered that there are thousands upon thousands of articles, resources and discussions revolving around one […]
Original post by Matt
The first step in learning SEO is to understand how search engines work. Search engines return results in a process that includes crawling, indexing and relevancy ranking.
My journey in learning SEO hath begun. After conducting extensive online research, I’ve quickly discovered that there are thousands upon thousands of articles, resources and discussions revolving around one […]
Original post by Matt
The first step in learning SEO is to understand how search engines work. Search engines return results in a process that includes crawling, indexing and relevancy ranking.
My journey in learning SEO hath begun. After conducting extensive online research, I’ve quickly discovered that there are thousands upon thousands of articles, resources and discussions revolving around one […]
Original post by Matt
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