With over 40% of traffic to e-commerce websites coming from organic search, it is imperative to take the necessary steps to preserve your SEO when embarking on a redesign. Learn current, reliable SEO best practices to deploy all along the web design process, to maintain (and increase) your SEO. It’s generally accepted that traffic loss is inherent to any website relaunch, but with proper planning and preparation, you can mitigate nearly any hiccup to your keyword rankings and traffic. Conducting an SEO audit prior to embarking on the redesign process will enable you to deeply understand which elements of your website are driving traffic in the first place—before you make any design, architecture, or content decisions. This is especially important for e-commerce websites which traditionally are much larger, more complex, and more prone to simple oversights which could have dire consequences. Learn how to preserve (and enhance) your e-commerce SEO by understanding how search engines and users interact with your unique website and set yourself up for a successful website relaunch!

1. Pure Visibility
How to Enhance Your SEO When
Redesigning an Ecommerce Website
#WordCampAnnArbor PureVisibility.com

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Who is Tarun Gehani?
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● Started building in WordPress in 2008
● Learned SEO ~same time by experimentation, testing theories
● Built & managed a web design/marketing consultancy for ~7 years
● Worked w/ GM, Mr. Clean, Delta Faucet, U of M, StudioCDN
Tarun Gehani
SEO Director @PureVisibility
linkedin.com/in/tarungehani

3. Nice to meet you!
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Why does SEO matter (for ecommerce)?
81% of people perform online research before
making a large purchase.
44% of people start their online shopping
journey with a Google search.
37.5% of all traffic to ecommerce sites comes
from search engines.
23.6% of ecommerce orders are directly tied to
organic visitors.
Sources: SEMRush.com, Smart Insights, Business Insider

5. How search works
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Search engine basics
In simple terms, there are two main functions, or duties, of Google Search:
Store. Crawl information* on the web, store it in its index.
Retrieve. User inputs a search query, apply the algorithm and retrieve the most
relevant page** of results.
*I purposefully do not say “web pages” here. Google now uses RankBrain, adding to the Knowledge Graph.
**I purposefully say “results page” here. Not only does Google’s algorithm order web pages based on ranking factors, but they ideally will have the
user remain on google.com and so therefore includes related content, media, etc. to match the user’s intent behind the searched key phrase.

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How Google stores content in its index
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Web Crawler:
● Follows links from webpage to
webpage
● Scans the HTML
● Reviews the content to see if it has
changed since last time it crawled
● Updates the page in its Index
Index:
● Trillions of webpages
● Has different patents to
calculate “term frequency”,
evaluate content coverage,
determine relevance, site
authority, trustworthiness, etc.

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How Google retrieves content for search
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When a search is performed:
● Google interprets the words and phrases
● Applies the algorithm and scans the database
● Returns the most relevant page of results
Google determines the highest quality results based on over 200 ranking factors.
To return the most appropriate answer for the user’s perceived situation, Google considers
additional inputs such as user location, device, past searches and content consumed.

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The fundamental principle of search:
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Google must always serve
the best search results page.

10. Ranking factors
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11. Top 3 Ranking
Factors
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According to Google themselves.
Content
Long-form: Google Panda
Links
Real-time: Google Penguin
RankBrain
ML + LSI: Google Hummingbird

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Content
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● Content length
● Topic coverage
● On-page signals
● User experience signals
Source: Backlinko.com

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Links
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● Backlinks from other websites pointing to yours
● Seen as a “vote of confidence” or trust signal
● Links from high authority domains pass along
stronger signals
● Topical relevance matters

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RankBrain
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Google’s machine learning algorithm,
in use since 2015.
● Understanding search queries (keywords)
● Measuring how people interact with the
results (user satisfaction)
Source: Backlinko.com

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Before RankBrain, Google would scan
pages to see if they contained the exact
keyword someone searched for.
Today, RankBrain actually understands what
you’re asking (and provides accurate results).
RankBrain

16. The ever-changing
search landscape
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New anatomy of the SERP
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vs.

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Search engine results page, evolved.
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Why ranking #1 is no longer enough:
● Knowledge Graph
● Shopping Results/Product Listing Ads
● Ratings, Reviews
● Featured Snippets
● People Also Ask
● Local Maps Pack
● Image/Video Carousels
● Medical/Vertical Cards
● Weather, Flights, Events, Jobs

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Shopping SERP
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● Product Listing Ads
● Google Text Ads
● Featured Snippet

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Shopping SERP (continued)
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● Organic listings
● Top stories
● People also ask
● Local pack
● Related searches

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As the machine grows, feed it new data.
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Structured data helps search engines understand
the information on web pages and provide richer
search results.
Tools:
● Search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool
● Google.com/webmasters/markup-helper
● SchemaApp.com (WP Plugin)

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Common e-commerce SEO mistakes
● Duplicate Content Issues
● Poor Speed Performance
● Unoptimized On-Page Elements
● Complex URL Structure
● Thin Content / Weak Product Descriptions
● Lack of Internal Linking

23. How to enhance your
SEO when redesigning
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Mitigate traffic & rankings loss
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● Perform an audit/analysis of where you are today
● Maintain pages that are working well, based on:
○ keyword rankings
○ organic traffic
○ backlinks
○ conversions
● Don’t change URLs if you can avoid it
○ if you do, make sure to set up 301 redirects
● Add more content!

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How to perform a “visibility audit”
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Review Google Analytics
● Entrances, pageviews, bounce rate
● Time on site, conversions
Review Google Search Console
● Performance report, search queries, CTR
● Indexation, crawl errors
● Enhancements (schema markup)
Perform a website crawl
● Use Screaming Frog or Deepcrawl
● Site hierarchy, info architecture
● Internal linking, orphans
● On-page SEO elements
Analyze keyword rankings
● Pages ranking, search volume, intent
● Opportunities to combine, expand, or
create new content
Analyze backlinks data
● Where are most powerful links pointing to?
● Where are greatest number of links
(popular content)
● Broken backlinks, 301s

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To get results, focus on three main areas
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27. Building the
pillars of support
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Technical
● Crawling
● Indexing
● Rendering
Content
● Keyword Targeting
● Meta Tags & On-Page Elements
● Content Depth & Topic Coverage
Links
● Internal Linking
● Referring Domains

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Technical SEO Influences
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Crawling:
● How can I make my website quick and efficient for crawlers?
● What people or processes do I need in place for continual optimization?
Indexing:
● Be aware of changes to your webpages’ indexation status.
● Ping googlebot when you update or publish new content.
● Periodically review technical aspects of your website.
● Use structured data to give more visibility to your content.
Rendering:
● Make sure your site loads quickly and efficiently for its visitors (both human and machine).
● Review the many device/OS combinations and how your site displays/functions.

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Technical SEO Review
Review technical elements influencing Google’s ability to efficiently crawl and
accurately index your site’s pages.
● Site Audit (manual checklist/review, SEMrush, Screaming Frog)
● Page Speed (Google PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix.com)
● Google Search Console Indexation and Performance Report

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Check site:example.com in Google’s index
● Perform a site search to see roughly how many of
your pages are in Google’s index (this should be close
to number of pages in your CMS/ecomm platform).
● If too few results, identify which pages are not
showing up in Analytics and look for patterns -
(pages not in Sitemap, lack of internal links,
unintentional noindexing or canonicalization).
● If too many results, run a site crawl with Screaming
Frog or DeepCrawl to identify pages with duplicate
titles (since these typically have duplicate content),
and then work to fix.

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Problem: Duplicate Content Issues
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URL Parameters are the most common cause of
duplicate content, which limits crawl budget and
can dilute ranking signals.
These are variables to the URL structure that
instruct the server to:
● Sort or filter items
● Return search results
● Customize page appearance
● Track ad campaigns or signal information
to Google Analytics
In Screaming Frog, you can identify URL parameters in the URI
tab by selecting “Parameters” from the “Filter” drop-down menu.
The following URLs all return the same content but
Google will treat them as separate pages:
https://www.example.com/widgets
https://www.example.com/widgets?sessionID-12345
https://www.example.com/widgets?sort=newest
https://www.example.com/?category=widgets
https://www.example.com/products?search=widgets

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How to Fix Duplicate Content
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For URL parameters that don’t significantly impact
the content (i.e. ad campaign tags, sorting product
results by price or popularity, filtering, etc.) use the
“noindex” tag or canonicalize to the main page.
Otherwise, Google recommends:
● Use standard URL encoding in the “?key=value&” format
(do not use brackets or commas).
● Do not generate parameters for filters that produce
no results (we don’t want empty pages being indexed
or slowing down web crawlers).
● Do not allow links to be clicked (i.e. followed by crawlers)
for categories or filters that feature no products.
noindex tag
rel=canonical tag

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Problem: Slow Page Speed Performance
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It matters for SEO:
Site speed is one of the few signals that Google has publicly stated they use
as part of their algorithm.
It matters for visitors:
● Slow load times can increase shopping cart abandonment by 29.8%
● A page delay of just 1 second would cost Amazon $1.6 billion in sales each year
● 40% of users will abandon a webpage if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
● 79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to
buy from that same site again.
● For every 1 second of improvement, Walmart experienced a 2% conversion
increase.
Source: https://medium.com/@vikigreen/impact-of-slow-page-load-time-on-website-performance-40d5c9ce568a

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PageSpeed Insights
https://developers.google.com/speed/
● Check how your site performs on
both mobile and desktop
● Get a list of specific areas to improve
● Main areas of influence:
○ Product Images
○ Scripts (Plugins, 3rd Party Tools)
○ Server (Shared Hosting)

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GTMetrix.com
● Use multiple tools or sources in
your analysis
● Many variables in page load time
○ User location
○ Device type
○ Network speed
● Reduce Total Page Size and
number of Requests
● Use Caching and Compression

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Analytics
● Review Avg. Page Load
Time to see page by page
where you can improve
● See if certain page-types or
design elements slow down
the page and make
adjustments as needed

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Improve Page Speed: Optimize Images
The most significant culprit to slow page load speed is usually large images.
● Crop and resize images before uploading them to your site
● Use plugins or tools to compress image file size
○ Gtmetrix.com
○ Smush.it or EWWW Image Optimizer for WordPress
● Enable Lazy Loading to only display images once the user scrolls
● Delete old or unused images from the Media Library

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Improve Page Speed: Minify/Combine
Minify your code by removing extra lines
of space to speed up rendering.
Reduce the number of “calls” between the server
and browser by combining multiple scripts into
one file.
Free tools:
● Autoptimize (WP plugin)
● https://closure-compiler.appspot.com
● Minifycode.com
● JScompress.com, CSSminifier.com

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Improve Page Speed: Caching
Set up browser caching:
● Reduces page load time for repeat visitors
● Particularly effective on ecommerce sites since
users regularly visit the same areas of the site
WordPress plugins:
● Autoptimize
● W3 Total Cache
Consider upgrading your hosting and using a CDN.

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Problem: Issues With Thin Content
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Ecommerce sites usually have a large number of products, so it’s quite common for product
descriptions to be short, automated or word-for-word provided by the manufacturer.
This is a major problem for SEO:
● Short descriptions give Google little to work with.
● Automated descriptions (even those that swap a few
words into a template) can create duplicate content.
● Descriptions provided by the manufacturer usually exist on other sites
○ you’re not creating anything unique for search engines to index
○ giving them no reason to rank you above competitors.

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How to Fix Thin Content
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It’s not always possible to manually update product
descriptions for every page on your site.
Focus on a few of the highest-value product pages,
based on:
● Number of sales
● Highest profit margins
● Most inventory
Expand product descriptions:
● Write about the benefits, not just the features
● Use action-oriented language
● Talk about origins, differentiators, use cases
● Use conversion-focused copy

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How to Expand Content
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Maintaining a blog enables you to continually write
new content to expand your keyword profile
● Target long-tail keywords
● Create resource or buyer’s guides
● Use rich media
● Entice visitors to dive deeper into the site
● Internally link to category and product pages
Source: socialtriggers.com

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Problem: Complex URL Structure
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● Keep URLs simple and scalable
● Try to keep each page < 4 clicks
from your homepage
● Don’t make drastic changes with-
out a proper plan in place

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Takeaways
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● You don’t need complex analysis to start on SEO:
○ Talk with people about your products and their challenges
○ Create content around how to solve those challenges
○ You’ll be well-ahead of most of your competition!
● Remember: Search engine algorithms are tweaked to reward new, trustworthy,
reputable content that people read and share.
○ Focus on creating value for your users versus on ways to “optimize” for each
new algorithm update
● Don’t just guess or blindly follow best practices…
○ experiment, review the data, make adjustments and continue to improve!

45. Pure Visibility
Thank You!
purevisibility.com | @PureVisibility
Pure Visibility
Tarun Gehani
linkedin.com/in/tarungehani