SEO Secrets for Online Retailers Webinar

Slide 1: SEO Se cre ts fo r Online Re taile rs Fo r live audio , ple ase dial in: Visit the co mpanio n blo g to ask North A merica (605) 772-3434 que stio ns, United Kingdom 0870 352 0482 share e xpe rie nce s o r co mme nt: A ccess code 671-709-038 www.getelastic.com/seo-secrets/ S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 2: Today’s Panelists Jaso n Billingsle y Co-founder & V P M arketing Elastic Path S oftware www.elasticpath.com Ste phan Spe nce r Founder & President Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 3: Google L istings – Y our V irtual S ales Force •S avvy retailers making 6-7 figures a month from natural listings •S avvy M FA (M ade for A dS ense) site owners making 5-6 figures per month •M ost sites are not S E -friendly •Google friendliness = friendly to other engines •First calculate your missed opportunities S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 5: Not doing S E O (or doing it poorly)? Y ou are leaving money on the table! Calculate the misse d o ppo rtunity co st o f no t ranking w e ll fo r pro ducts yo u o ffe r? # of people Engine share: Expected click- A verage A verage order searching for Google = 60% through rate conversion rate value your keywords 10,000/day x 60% x 10% x 5% x $100 = $3,000/day S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 6: K ey Research Findings • A verage merchant profile: – 73,000 unique pages (210,000 indexed in Google) – 14% yield search traffic – Each page produced 2.4 keywords which yielded 1.9 visits/ month – 189,000 brand searches per month – Total potential for unbranded keyword traffic exceeds 7,000,000 • Nearly 40 unbranded searches for every brand search • For large dynamic sites, nearly 100 searches for every unique page Re se arch Fro m Ne tco nce pts study: The Long Tail of Natural S earch Do w nlo ad it FREE fro m : www.netconcepts.com/long-tail-of-natural-search/ S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 7: E stimating Y our Tail • M ultiply brand searches by a factor of 40 Eg. 100,000 brand x 40 = 4,000,000 unbranded searches • M ultiply pages of site by 100 searches per page/mo Eg. 100,000 pages x 100 = 10,000,000 unbranded searches S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 8: Freeloaders are on Y our Payroll • M ost merchants have 80%+ of their pages driving no search traffic • M ost don't even know this, or why it is a problem (no javascript based analytics package will tell them this either) • It’s a red light that they lack a Long Tail of unbranded keyword traffic • The # of searches for unbranded keywords is nearly 40x as great as searches for the brand name (put another way, 97x the # of pages onsite) S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 9: Se cre t #1: Improve Y our K eyword Portfolio To o ls to che ck po pularity o f ke yw o rd se arche s • Overture’s Keyword S elector Tool http:/ inventory.overture.com / • WordTracker.com • Trellian’s KeywordDiscovery.com • Google’s Keyword Tool https:/ adwords.google.com/ / select/KeywordToolExternal • Google Trends www.google.com/trends • Google S uggest www.google.com/webhp? complete=1& hl=en S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 16: Se cre t #1: Improve Y our K eyword Portfolio Co mpe titio n fo r that ke yw o rd sho uld also be co nside re d • Calculate KEI S core (Keyword Effectiveness Indicator) = ratio of searches over number of pages in search results • The higher the KEI S core, the more attractive the keyword is to target (assuming it’s relevant to your business) S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 17: S ecret #2: How to M ake Y our Pages “ S ing” • E ach web page should have a unique keyword focus (i.e. every page has a “ song” ) • The higher up in the HTM L on the page, the more weight the keyword is given – Reorder the content above the nav using CS S • Have at least 200-250 words per page • Title tag is most important element on the page • Home page is the most important page S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 18: S ecret #2: How to M ake Y our Pages “ S ing” • Heading tags (H1, H2) • Contextual links • Text links much better than graphic links • A lt tags may be mildly helpful, for images that are links • M eta tags don’t improve rankings • M eta description can influence what’s displayed in the search results S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 19: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • Inbound links play a key role in determining rankings • It’s not just about quantity (“ link popularity” ); it’s about quality (importance of the page, topically relevant/ authoritative) • PageRank™ – Google’s algorithm for measuring a page’s importance; Y ahoo & L ive S earch (M S N) have similar measures • E ach web page (not site) has its own PageRank score • PageRank scores from 0 to 10; logarithmic scale S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 20: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • Use Y ahoo S ite E xplorer to check link popularity siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com • Check your PageRank with Google Webmaster Central… www.google.com/webmasters • …and/ Google Toolbar… or toolbar.google.com • …and/ S E OChat.com PageRank S earch or www.seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-search/ • …and/ S E O for Firefox plugin or tools.seobook.com S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 22: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • Find link targets – Review links of competitive sites, sites in your keyword market • A gain, use the Link Checker tool at www.netconcepts.com/ linkcheck • Y ahoo’s linkdomain: query operator & Y ahoo S ite Explorer tool • Run a link: query on www.seochat.com/ seo-tools/pagerank-search/ – Check sites with high rankings for relevant keywords – The fewer the number of links on their page, the better • Offer link-worthy content. K eep it fresh. • Consider providing an RS S feed S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 23: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • Try to get good keywords in the hyperlink text • Types of links that are likely to get discounted: – Reciprocal links – A ffiliated sites (on the same IP range or hostname) – Footer links (at the bottom of the page) – S ite-wide links • Don’t participate in “ link farms” or FFA (“ Free For A ll” ) sites – Hallmarks of a link farm = more urls per page & less organization • Don’t link to “ bad neighborhoods” S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 24: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • S ites with higher PageRank get crawled earlier, faster, and deeper by Googlebot • “ Google B ombing” – Inbound contextual links alone can drive a site to the top of Google (e.g. “ click here” ) – A lso works on Y ahoo, Live S earch, etc. S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 25: S ecret #3: B uild L inks, S trengthen PageRank • Create link bait campaigns • Use social media e.g. get dugg and then change your links on the landing page after the Digg traffic dies down • When issuing press releases, embed keyword-rich links in copy • B uy links? If you do, LinkExperts is a reputable broker. • Participate in the blogosphere – Have a blog and deep link to your ecommerce site – Let your employees blog. Train them first. – Comment on other blogs. S ome blogs don't have “ nofollow” comments. – PR efforts focused on bloggers: send free products/samples/access to influential bloggers FREE w hite pape r fro m Elastic Path: B logging for Retailers www.elasticpath.com/blogging-for-retailers/(no registration required) S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 26: S ecret #4: Rejig Y our Internal L inking S tructure • It’s not just about inbound links; internal links matter too • Y our home page’s PageRank gets distributed to your deep pages by virtue of your internal linking structure • Links are the currency of the Web as far as search engines are concerned; spend it wisely within your site – S ite hierarchy (tree structure) – B readcrumb navigation – S ite map? – Within article copy – Related products, Related articles, and Related searches – Tag clouds and Tag pages – Guided navigation S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 29: S ecret #5: M ake Y our URL s Optimal • S E’s are wary of dynamic URLs for fear of “ spider traps” • Complex URLs (multiple parameters, & , =, ? ) can decrease indexation and weaken your internal PageRank “ flow” • S ession IDs are death to search visibility • Options – Recode your site to not pass “ query strings” – URL rewriting (using a server module/ plug-in) – Remote-hosted “ proxy serving” (e.g. GravityS tream) • catalogagemag.com/mag/marketing_right_page_web/ S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 31: S ecret #5: M ake Y our URL s Optimal • Canonical URLs & duplicate content issues – M ultiple homes for your content – M ultiple domains registered and resolving to your site – www vs. non-www (e.g. boston.com/ cars/vs. www.boston.com/cars/) – https:/ version of your site / – S ession IDs or User IDs or superfluous flags in the URL – 301 redirect them all to the definitive version of the page • Removed pages – 301 redirect rather than 404 S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 32: S ecret #6: Influence the Click Decision • Zipf’s Law applies - you need to be at the top of page 1 of the search results. It’s an implied endorsement. • S ynergistic effect of being at the top of the natural results & paid results • Entice the user with a compelling call-to-action and value proposition in your descriptions • Y our title tag is critical • S nippet gets built automatically, but you CA N influence what’s displayed here S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 35: S ecret #6: Influence the Click Decision • Y ou may be #1 for some but not others… S earch results are tailored to the user – Google S earch History, geolocation, etc. • V ertical search results offers multiple paths to visibility – Google B ase, Google Co-Op, Google B log S earch, Google M aps (Local),… – This also has translated into visibility in the “ onebox” – Google’s new “ Universal S earch” results S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 37: S ecret #7: Check Y our Pulse and B enchmark • Number of pages indexed (netconcepts.com/ urlcheck) • Google PageRank • L ink popularity • A lexa (alexa.com) • Positions in the search results for important keywords • What keywords are they targeting? (check their metatags) S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 38: S ecret #7: Check Y our Pulse and B enchmark • M easure what’s important to your bottom line – Not “ hits” or even unique visitors – Number of orders delivered by search engines – S ales volume delivered by search engines – Profit delivered by search engines – Conversion rate – Cost per conversion, Cost per lead – ROI S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 39: S ecret #7: Check Y our Pulse and B enchmark • A dvanced metrics that most analytics packages don’t measure: – Page yield – Keyword yield (keywords per page) – S pidering behavior – M ore metrics at multichannelmerchant.com/webchannel/ beneath_surface_search_012007 seo/ S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

Slide 41: Have Questions? Blo g www.getelastic.com Jaso n Billingsle y V P Marketing www.linkedin.com/ jasonbillingsley in/ Elastic Path S oftware (Feel free to add me; mention S EO webinar) www.elasticpath.com jason.billingsley@elasticpath.com Ste phan Spe nce r Blo g www.stephanspencer.com Founder & President For an ebook on Google power searching, S EO Netconcepts checklists & worksheets, and audio recording of an www.netconcepts.com S EO thought leaders teleconference, email stephan@netconcepts.com seo@netconcepts.com Ne xt Eco mme rce We binar A ugust 16 th @ 9am PT/12pm ET Pro duct Re vie w s fo r O nline Re taile rs: The Po w e r o f So cial Co m m e rce Guest Panellist: A ndy Chen, Founder & CEO, PowerReviews Sign up to day! www.elasticpath.com/ user-reviews/webinar/ S EO S ecrets for Online Retailers © 2007 Netconcepts

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