My Mozcon 2013 presentation on ecommerce SEO.

1. #MozCon
by @audette
The State of Ecommerce SEO

2. 2
First a little history

3. 3
The first SEO

4. 4
The first SEOSEO: optimizing for search
engines and cashin’ checks

5. 5
The first SEO

6. SEO holdover mindset
RANK #1!
BUILD LINKS!

7. Totally
KEYWORDS ALL DAY!

8. Fully
OBSESS ON ALGOS!

9. 9
SEO is full of crapCRAP

10. 10
It worked. It was
profitable.

11. BRANDS FOUND SEO

12. 12
The Internet hates SEO

13. 13
The Internet hates CRAP SEO

14. Which site should I torch
next…

15. I will kill your business
model

17. 17
SUSTAINABILITY

18. THEN:
CHASE ALGOS

19. NOW:
CHASE PEOPLE

20. THEN:
KEYWORDS W/ MOST
TRAFFIC

21. NOW:
KEYWORDS w/ MOST
RELEVANCE

22. THEN:
OBSESS ON LINKS

23. NOW:
CREATING EXPERIENCES
WORTH SHARING

24. NOW:
OBSESS ON CREATING
EXPERIENCES WORTH
SHARING

25. THEN:
MORE LINKS
MORE PAGES
MORE EVERYTHING

26. NOW:
LESS IS MORE

27. THEN:
FOCUS ON RANKINGS

28. NOW:
FOCUS ON BOTTOM LINE
METRICS

29. (for example)
NON-BRAND REVENUE
CONVERSION RATE
NEW CUSTOMERS

30. (and)
STAND BEHIND YOUR
WORK

31. This change will create
$164,160 in new
monthly revenue.
31

32. Is pleased 32

33. RECS NOT IMPLEMENTED
ARE WORTHLESS

35. PART 2
CONTENT STRATEGY

36. PART 2
CONTENT STRATEGY
KEYWORDS GET YOU
HALFWAY

40. TIP #1
KNOW CONTENT STRATEGY

41. PART 2
SEO CONTENT STRATEGY
SEARCH
RANK &
DISPLAY
PAGE
CONTENT
(AUDIENCE
NEED)
CONVERSION

42. 42

43. PART 3
STAY TECHNICAL
TECHNICAL SEO IS MORE
IMPORTANT, NOT LESS

44. Impact vs. reliability

45. Technical SEO is Dependable
45
Off-page
Content
On-page
High Impact, Lower
Dependability
High Dependability, Lower
Impact

46. PART 3
MOBILE 25% OF ORGANIC

48. MOBILE TRENDS
1. Tablets used more than
smartphones to visit
ecommerce sites.

49. MOBILE TRENDS

50. MOBILE TRENDS
2. Tablet users look at
more pages.

51. TIP #3
MOBILE TRENDS

52. MOBILE TRENDS

53. MOBILE TRENDS
Adobe:
http://plotin.us/12QMH7d
Responsive:
http://plotin.us/18GrTn2

54. MOBILE TRENDS
The Vary header fix

55. MOBILE TRENDS

56. MOBILE TRENDS
This breaks Akamai
caching

57. MOBILE TRENDS
1. Configure Akamai to
ignore Vary: User-Agent

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

59. Vary: User-Agent Solution
Explanation:
http://plotin.us/18GtXLE
Fix:
http://plotin.us/16YgXx9

60. TECHNICAL SEO IS MORE
IMPORTANT, NOT LESS

62. 62
Good pages crawled
Good pages not crawled
Dupes/overhead/junk
Every site has finite crawl
resources

63. TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

64. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Fix server errors (when
large)

65. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Speed truly rules

66. Read these
66
Web performance optimization
http://plotin.us/183sKv2
SEO site speed
http://plotin.us/12gKxOy

67. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Parameter handling is
good

68. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Monitor indexation with
XML feeds

69. 69

70. 70

71. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Use 304 not modified

72. PART 4
CRAWLING TIPS FOR ECOMM
Use log files

73. TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

74. TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

75. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
Top technical gotchas

76. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
1: Inconsistent Signals

77. 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

78. http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/32865
?page=double-l-jeans-natural-
fit&catalogId=18
Self-referencing canonical tag points
to non-canonical

79. 79
Canonical crawl path
Home Category Sub-cat Product
Navigation & internal links, external backlinks, canonical
tags, XML files all point to the same definitive URLs.

80. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
2: Pagination (always)

81. Self-referencing canonical
tags
pp. 2-N
Annotations:
• Pages 2-N annotated with rel prev,
next
• pages 2-N self-referencing rel
canonical

82. No self-referencing canonical
with rel prev/next
pp. 2-N
~/pg3?src=nav1&se
ssID=9
Actual canonical: ~/pg3

83. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
4: Product Variations

84. 84

85. 85

86. 86

87. 87

88. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
5: Faceted Navigation

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

90. http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-
parts/brembo/brake-calipers-and-
kits?N=36371+28004518

91. PART 5
LIGHTNING ROUND!
6: Product Inventory

92. @rimmkaufman #techseo92

93. @rimmkaufman #techseo93

94. 94
Handling Expiring Products
 Generate a “product not
here” message
 Recommend related products

95. 95
Handling Expiring Products
 301 to a related product or up
a level
 OR just 404 the page (it’s OK)

96. PART 6
KEY CHALLENGES

97. PART 6
Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

98. PART 6
Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

99. PART 6
Hidden SEO Data: iOS6

100. PART 6
Hidden SEO Data: (not provided)

101. TIP #4
PLAs Taking Clickshare

102. PART 6
PLAs Taking Clickshare

103. PART 6
PLAs: 33% of Non-branded PPC

104. PART 6
Image Search for Ecommerce

105. PART 6
Image Search for Ecommerce

106. PART 6
Image Search for Ecommerce

107. PART 6
Challenges
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

108. PART 6
Challenges
1. Know realities, set expectations
2. Craft titles for max CTR
3. Use schema & authorship
4. Estimate lost data

109. PART 6
Challenges
Estimating hidden iOS6 traffic
http://plotin.us/12ViOjo

110. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

111. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

112. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

113. TIP #5
Social for Ecommerce

116. Google+ Followers
• June: 200
• July: 120,000
• Sep.: 280,000
• Nov.: 300,000

117. Being here is good

118. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

121. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce
Authorship: great for product
reviews and guesting

122. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce
Google’s weighting of results can
negate benefits

123. PART 7
Social for Ecommerce
Content ownership can be
complicated

124. 3 Takeaways

125. 3 Takeaways
Understand your target audience

126. 3 Takeaways
Stay in front of technical problems

127. 3 Takeaways
Understand data trends

129. Thank you!