#MozCon by @audette The State
of Ecommerce SEO

2
First a little history

3
The first SEO

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

5
The first SEO

SEO holdover mindset RANK #1!
BUILD LINKS!

Totally
KEYWORDS ALL DAY!

Fully
OBSESS ON ALGOS!

9 SEO is full of
crapCRAP

10 It worked. It was
profitable.

BRANDS FOUND SEO

12
The Internet hates SEO

13 The Internet hates CRAP
SEO

Which site should I torch
next…

I will kill your business
model

17
SUSTAINABILITY

THEN:
CHASE ALGOS

NOW:
CHASE PEOPLE

THEN:
KEYWORDS W/ MOST
TRAFFIC

NOW:
KEYWORDS w/ MOST
RELEVANCE

THEN:
OBSESS ON LINKS

NOW:
CREATING EXPERIENCES
WORTH SHARING

NOW: OBSESS ON CREATING EXPERIENCES
WORTH SHARING

THEN: MORE LINKS MORE PAGES
MORE EVERYTHING

NOW:
LESS IS MORE

THEN:
FOCUS ON RANKINGS

NOW: FOCUS ON BOTTOM LINE
METRICS

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

(and)
STAND BEHIND YOUR
WORK

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

Is pleased 32

RECS NOT IMPLEMENTED
ARE WORTHLESS

PART 2
CONTENT STRATEGY

PART 2 CONTENT STRATEGY KEYWORDS
GET YOU HALFWAY

TIP #1
KNOW CONTENT STRATEGY

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

42

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

Impact vs. reliability

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

PART 3 MOBILE 25% OF
ORGANIC

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

MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS 2. Tablet users
look at more pages.

TIP #3
MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS

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

MOBILE TRENDS The Vary header
fix

MOBILE TRENDS

MOBILE TRENDS This breaks Akamai
caching

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

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

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

TECHNICAL SEO IS MORE IMPORTANT,
NOT LESS

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

TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

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

PART 4 CRAWLING TIPS FOR
ECOMM Speed truly rules

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

PART 4 CRAWLING TIPS FOR
ECOMM Parameter handling is good

PART 4 CRAWLING TIPS FOR
ECOMM Monitor indexation with XML feeds

69

70

PART 4 CRAWLING TIPS FOR
ECOMM Use 304 not modified

PART 4 CRAWLING TIPS FOR
ECOMM Use log files

TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

TIP #2
GET TECHNICAL

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! Top
technical gotchas

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! 1:
Inconsistent Signals

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

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

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.

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! 2:
Pagination (always)

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

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

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! 4:
Product Variations

84

85

86

87

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! 5:
Faceted Navigation

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

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

PART 5 LIGHTNING ROUND! 6:
Product Inventory

@rimmkaufman #techseo92

@rimmkaufman #techseo93

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

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

PART 6
KEY CHALLENGES

PART 6 Hidden SEO Data:
iOS6

PART 6 Hidden SEO Data:
iOS6

PART 6 Hidden SEO Data:
iOS6

PART 6 Hidden SEO Data:
(not provided)

TIP #4
PLAs Taking Clickshare

PART 6
PLAs Taking Clickshare

PART 6 PLAs: 33% of
Non-branded PPC

PART 6 Image Search for
Ecommerce

PART 6 Image Search for
Ecommerce

PART 6 Image Search for
Ecommerce

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

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

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

PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

TIP #5
Social for Ecommerce

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

Being here is good

PART 7
Social for Ecommerce

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

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

PART 7 Social for Ecommerce
Content ownership can be complicated

3 Takeaways

3 Takeaways Understand your target
audience

3 Takeaways Stay in front
of technical problems

3 Takeaways
Understand data trends

Thank you!