SEO for Ecommerce

Ecommerce Websites Have Duplicate Content; Copied From Vendor Description

"Too many pages too little original content."

That has been my opening line in all my SEO-related presentations to ecommerce businesses. Isn't it is surprising that an amateur blog with 50 articles can have more original content on it than an ecommerce website with 100,000 product pages. This is because the information on product pages is either:

• irrelevant to the targeted search keyphrase (e.g. shipping charges, out-of-stock notice)
  
  
• or a regurgitation of the content provided by the manufacturer; a copy of which is available on every other website that sells the same goods.

The former prevents search engines from deciphering the theme of the page, while the latter makes it difficult for search engines to be able to rate one page as better than another page with identical information.

Take Away: You need to have original content on each page of your ecommerce website.

Ecommerce Websites Have Duplicate Content Across Several Pages

As if the SEO disadvantage arising from content that is available all over the Internet was not enough, many ecommerce websites also repeat the content on multiple pages of their own website.

Here is an example: You have information about the XFC-10 green home widget on its product page. But you also have it on the category page for "widgets." You also have it on the page that carries all items tagged "household widgets." To top that, if your content management system creates (CMS) pages such as "recently purchased widgets," "top selling widgets," and the like, the XFC-10 green home widget could be mentioned there too.

Take Away: Use technology such as JavaScript, AJAX, CSS, and iframes to hide duplicate content, or use the canonical tag in your html.

Affiliate Websites Copy Content From Ecommerce Websites

Several ecommerce merchants use affiliates to help them get new customers. Properly executed, that may be a good idea.

But affiliate websites will often copy the content on your website. And some of them may be better than you at SEO. This might lead search engines to believe that the affiliates are the creators of the content, while you have merely copied it. In this way, even content originally developed by you may not help your SEO effort.

Take Away: Proceed with your affiliate strategy, but make sure that you are a well-optimized website before you take on affiliates.

Ecommerce Software May Not Be Search Engine Friendly

The software may create filenames and URLs by joining all components of the product description. In addition they store a lot of other tagging and categorization information. For example, here is a URL from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC-600A-SpeedCharge-Frequency-Battery/dp/B000H94F6E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317318150&sr=8-3

Unless you are an Amazon.com, you will not find favor with search engines if you have such unfriendly URLs. A better URL for the same product would be:

http://www.YourEcommerceSite.com/Schumacher-SC-600A-SpeedCharge-Frequency-Battery

This is easier said than done with most commonly available ecommerce software. The only way to implement this would be through manual intervention. Nothing wrong with manual intervention, except that ecommerce businesses often do not consider SEO to be a high priority task.

Take Away: Before selecting your ecommerce software, make sure that it is search engine friendly.

Auto-Generated Page Titles Are Usually Not Optimal

Ecommerce software usually copies the complete product name into the title of the page. The page title is the single most important element of on-page SEO, and hence cannot be taken lightly. How many people are really going to visit a search engine and type:

10k White Gold Princess Square Mystic Topaz Gemstone Earring Studs (8mm, 6.10 cttw)?

Something like:

White Gold Princess Earring Studs

might make more sense. But just like in the case of URLs, implementing this will take manual intervention. And that can be expensive and time consuming.

Take Away: Do not take your page titles lightly.

All Things Being Equal Big Ecommerce Brands Dominate Search

Since most ecommerce websites ignore the invaluable pointers in this article, it will naturally be the bigger brands that will bubble up in search results. This is because they gain from the large number of organic links their visitors will naturally create for them.

Take Away: The Internet creates a level playing field. A small player can fight the big brands. But you must create points of differentiation. SEO could be a major differentiator for a small ecommerce business.

SEO for Ecommerce Is Often a Low Priority

In my experience, most ecommerce businesses pay scant attention to SEO at the planning stage. They consider SEO only when it is too late; thereby trying quick-fix solutions. There is no such thing as a quick-fix SEO. Hence paying for traffic erodes into their profit margins. That coupled with ever-intensifying price wars makes survival difficult.

Take Away: Start your SEO journey on day one. If you are already beyond that, start optimizing your ecommerce website at the earliest.

Unmoderated User Generated Content Can Lower Search Rankings

Some ecommerce merchants consider user generated content to be the no-cost solution for relevant original content. That is why they enable user reviews, wish lists, discussion forums, comments, and the like.

While this is good in principle, you can be sure that these tools will be abused by spammers. In the absence of high quality moderation, user generated content can actually lower your rankings. How do you expect a search engine to react when it finds links to Viagra websites or porn websites in the comments on your baby-products ecommerce website?

Take Away: User generated content is a great source of free content, but only if moderated.