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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop: free, open source software ran ed number ! among solutions for creating and managing e-commerce sites, offering more t"an #$% features and installed on more t"an &',''' sites worldwide. Free download at www.prestas"op.com
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop and Blog-Ecommerce.com offer technological expertise and specialist kno ledge acc!m!lated o"er #ears of experience in nat!ral search engine optimi$ation% a inning com&ination that ill help #o! gro #o!r online &!siness.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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%a&le o 2ontents
.! "our ,roduct ,ages: *elp 1oogle and "our 2isitors at the Same Time3
.!%%e't content on your product pages .!) 8on,t parrot the content provided &y your suppliers .!- 2reate uni(ue content that is interesting to internet users .!. .im or around ten lines o te't in each description
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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4!)0oogle .nalytics
&.2.1 /egularly trac0ing changes in your natural tra,,ic with 1oogle &.2.2 2on,iguring a goal ,or your e3commerce site &.2.3 4 use,ul ,unction "(hich o, your pages sell the most%" &.2.4 -eatures o, the 1oogle (ebmaster )ools
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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*ere are the / golden rules: )!% 8raw up an initial list o the main products you sell
This initial list of keywords can be e=tremely general@ it should include all the products you sell! %ry to make the list relatively speci ic so that the keywords are e ectively descri&ing your products. 6eywords like /computer!/ / urniture!/ /dress!/ and /ta&le/ are not speci ic enough! even i they do descri&e your products. .lthough there is plenty o tra ic or each o these words! search engines will have no chance o putting you at the top o the list or keywords o that type. %ry to ollow a simple rule o thum&! e'cept in special cases# almost all keywords @93CA should contain at least $ words.
TA,:
Opening an AdWords account will give you easy access to features for identifying the search terms entered by internet users. You can enter the name of the search you'd like to analyze ( !trollers" for e#ample$ and the %oogle !uggest function will display all &ueries that are similar to that keyword" along with the number of searches per month for each of them.
)!) 9e ine your initial list o keywords &y identi ying keywords relevant to making a sale
The goal of this second step is to analyze the behavior of internet users and distinguish between those who are looking for information and those who are looking to buy! -e,re interested in the second category. %o illustrate what we mean! we,ll use the e'ample o an e-commerce site selling &a&y gear: you will easily &e a&le to e'trapolate or your own ield o &usiness.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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chicco stroller
8o you sell the /2hicco/ &rand o strollers and regularly o er the &rand,s latest products on your siteE %hen this keyword should also appear on your list. .gain! don,t orget to include any variants. %hat means not only the singular and plural! &ut also /chicco &a&y stroller!/ /chicco stroller or &a&ies!/ etc.
buy stroller
%his might seem surprising! &ut many internet users add a search term like /&uy/ or /sales o / into their (uery. Even &etter! these (ueries clearly represent an upcoming purchase. So! you should add them to your list o keywords as well. .nd don,t orget to com&ine the words with your &rands! too @ or e'ample! /&uy chicco stroller/A. .nother thing you,ll notice a&out internet user &ehavior is that! very o ten! they add words like /cheap/ to searches. *nternet users trust 0oogle &lindly and &elieve that &y adding /cheap/ to their search (uery! 0oogle will show them the most a orda&le products that correspond to their search! which is never the case. %ake advantage o this (uirk to position yoursel or these (ueries! &y including words like /cheap/ in your list o keywords.
double stroller
*t,s very help ul to go even urther and look or even more targeted keywords. %he dou&le stroller is a particularly interesting e'ample. 8on,t think or a minute that an internet user looking or a stroller or his twins is going to type /stroller/ into 0oogle. *n reality! he,ll search or what comes to mind! which means things like /dou&le stroller!/ /chicco dou&le stroller!/ /cheap dou&le stroller!/ etc. %his is another way to add relevant items to your list o keywords.
The facts show that internet users very often type in e=tremely specific internet searches: they want to be sure that the results they get really match what they;re looking for!
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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At;s tempting to target the e=tremely general keywords that are most often entered by internet users and theoretically represent the most visitor traffic! 5ou might &e thinking that it,s easier to get 4C o the tra ic or a keyword that,s searched or 133!333 times! than $3C o the tra ic or a keyword with 1!333 searches. But that,s not a good strategy or 4 reasons#
7irst reason:
0enerali"ed keywords only very rarely lead to sales. *n act! internet users in the purchasing phase only rarely use general keywords. +or e'ample! an internet user looking or a stroller or her &a&y will type in the word /stroller/ or /&a&y stroller/ rather than /&a&y./ *n this particular case! the keyword /&a&y/ is unhelp ul &ecause it,s too general. Similarly! the keyword /&ike/ isn,t appropriate or a site that sells motorcycle helmets.
Second reason:
*n order to &e e ective! your SE) strategy needs to ocus on giving a ew essential keywords as much visi&ility @and there ore strengthA as possi&le. +rom this perspective! emphasi"ing a generali"ed keyword will inevita&ly detract rom one or more keywords that are more speci ic and likely to generate sales. Feanwhile! speci ic keywords won,t necessarily &ring you more tra ic! &ut they will &oost your sales.
Third reason:
Gatural page rank re(uires an almost daily e ort o tracking search engine results! improving content! generating links and monitoring the organi"ation o pages. Since your time is limited and valua&le! we don,t recommend using general keywords that will demand a great deal o e ort rom you without producing concrete results.
Let;s take a concrete e=ample: don;t try to highlight the <Levi;s< brand of $eans if you don;t sell it! ) course! the &rand is e'tremely well known and generates high tra ic! &ut internet users will &e disappointed not to ind the &rand on your site and you won,t generate any sales.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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+&5+LUSA&5:
8s we e=plained above, there is a rigorous and pragmatic method to follow in selecting your list of keywords for natural S0&! *n general! you should ask yoursel whether an internet user who types the search terms into 0oogle will &e happy to end up at your e-commerce site and will make a purchase. * the answer is yes! that keyword is important or you and should &e included on your list. * the answer is no! then please don,t waste your time highlighting that keyword! and don,t add it to your list o keywords. .s or how many keywords you should include on your list! there is a simple way to estimate how many keywords you should &e managing#
(0"#&B' ,&T05TA8L C HGum&er o products I num&er o &rands I num&er o product categoriesJ = %!/
@9estrict your list o potential keywords to the )>> or ->> most fre uently re uested keywordsA
If #o! ha"e applied the ad"ice in this chapter% #o! no ha"e a list of effecti"e and rele"ant ke# ords. 'o!(re read# to start the second step of #o!r SEO strateg#) highlighting those ke# ords &# optimi$ing #o!r e-commerce site itself*
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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-!%%e't content# make sure you have more than 1ust images
8ll too often, e-commerce sites have home pages full of advertising banners, images, 7lash, news about the latest releases, etc! %hese eatures make the site visually appealing! &ut &eware# unlike content in the orm o raw te't! 0oogle can,t read or interpret imagesK %hat means that any content you have included in the orm o images is lost in terms o SE). By overemphasi"ing images! you,re depriving yoursel o a ma1or advantage or natural page rank and losing customers. %his applies e(ually to +lash! which is incomprehensi&le to search engines. %hat,s why we don,t recommend &uilding e-commerce sites using +lash.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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3.1.1 Highlight your top sellers everywhere, including the home page
%he &est strategy or meeting 0oogle,s re(uirements @te't contentA and your visitors, e'pectations at the same time is to highlight your top sellers everywhere! including the home page. 5our home page should include descriptive te'ts that make your products sound good and use the keywords you,ve already chosen.
=ere,s an e'ample o a home page that uses this method e ectively. The products are highlighted right on the home page! %he product titles are included in te't ormat! and 1ust &y looking at the home page! 0oogle will &e a&le to take the site,s o&1ective into account in its page rank algorithms.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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3.1.4 Updating your home page "#o $ need to regularly updatemy home page%"
,eople often say that regularly changing and updating the te=t on a home page improves a site;s page rank by encouraging 1oogle to consider it more relevant!!! *n practice! nothing could &e urther rom the truth! and regularly updating your home page will not improve your natural page rank in the slightest. )n the contrary! even outside your product pages! you should have some permanence in the content you want 0oogle to take into account. .s a rule o thum&! it,s &etter not to change the te't content on your home page more than three or our times a year. 5ou should apply that same rule when choosing &rands to highlight# don,t change them around too o ten! or else 0oogle might decide that they,re not really important to your &usiness and choose not to take them into account.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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+ltho!gh the editorial text on this page might seem like a good idea to reass!re internet !sers a&o!t the ,!alit# of the prod!cts on offer% in practice it(s not a "er# effecti"e strateg# in terms of SEO for an e-commerce site)
+&5+LUSA&5:
An this second chapter, we have e=plained the importance of your home page and the main factors that will earn it a high page rank in the search engines! "ou need to combine e=cellent graphical uality with content in te=t format that emphasizes the keywords you have selected!
page rank
or an e-commerce site#
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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7. 5our Product Pages# Fake %hem E ective to =elp 0oogle and 5our Lisitors at the Same %imeK
Gaturally! a product catalogue is what sets an online store apart rom a content-driven site. 5our SE) strategy must take this di erence into account and even take advantage o it to make the most o your product o ering in 0oogle. The page rank techni ues used are specific to the field of e-commerce! 8n effective strategy will need: %he page rank eatures o ered &y PrestaShop E'pertise rom specialists like Blog-Ecommerce.com! who draw on their in-depth e'perience in the ield and help you take advantage o the &est practices. 6elow, we will review the 4 key factors in page rank for a product catalogue! 8lthough the process is meticulous and e=acting, it is vitally important in securing a good page rank! 5ou must spend whatever time is re(uired to ensure that each o your products earns the position it deserves on 0oogle. 9eviewing and optimi"ing your product catalogue may re(uire several days! i not months! o work. *t can &e done &y your in-house sta or &y e'ternal service providers! depending on your in-house resources and the si"e o your catalogue. %his is one o the most important components to getting a good ranking in 0oogle! and it,s where Blog-Ecommerce.com employees devote much o their e ort. E-commerce so tware like PrestaShop o ers all the tools you need to do the 1o& very e iciently.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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7irst:
At is not effective for natural S0&! %he terms used &y suppliers rarely contain the same keywords entered &y internet users. 0enerally! this te't is intended or product retailers or resellers. This is why you must modify the content, making sure never to $ust copy and paste it onto your product page! .s you are dra ting this content! keep the list o keywords entered &y internet users in mind! and remem&er to include them as relevantly as possi&le. %he list o keywords you selected during phase 1 o your SE) plan will serve as a re erence or you in this process.
Second:
This content is dangerous because it isn;t uni ue! * you copy your supplier,s content! it,s very likely that your content will &e identical to the content on other sites. %his has &ecome an e'tremely important consideration! especially since 0oogle updated its search algorithms in .ugust $311 @with a new Page9ank algorithm called PandaA. 0oogle no longer wants to display duplicate content and will penali"e you sharply i you use it.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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By applying these rules! you will &e a&le to write uni(ue content (uickly or each o your products. Eventually! you,ll develop your own style and &egin to show o your particular e'pertise. E'perience shows that internet users in the purchasing phase are always interested in reading detailed content! so this approach will help you improve your natural page rank and also &oost your chance o making a sale. *n any event! it,s clear that product pages with too little content cause you to lose page rank on 0oogle.
+lso check that none of #o!r prod!cts share the same title.
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+&5+LUSA&5:
This chapter e=plained the vital importance of your product catalogue, which must contain as much 9relevant and uni ue3: te=t as possible! ,roduct titles should also be chosen carefully to help 1oogle identify them effectively! 5ou should always keep your list o keywords in mind when authoring and creating content. *t is important to re er &ack to it to make sure that 0oogle sends you the right type o visitors. 6eep the list o keywords you compiled in 2hapter 1 o this white paper close at hand as you continue to optimi"e your site. %his is e'actly how our own sta works. -e,ve discussed the content o product pages on your site that visitors can view. %his is the /visi&le/ part o your work. But it,s e(ually important or you to understand and ollow 0oogle,s technical rules or putting together pages on your site. %hese rules or organi"ing pages are designed to let 0oogle (uickly scan the content and identi y key paragraphs! and ollowing the rules will determine the e ectiveness o your SE) and give you the &est possi&le chance o &eing assigned a good page rank in 0oogle.
-e still haven,t discussed tags! &ut they are an essential component o your SE) strategy.
In the next chapter% e(ll teach #o! ho to ork effecti"el# ith tags so that #o! ha"e the &est possi&le chance% or at least a &etter chance than #o!r competitors% of impro"ing #o!r page rank on -oogle.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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8ou may have noticed that we 0eep stressing the importance o, this list o, 0eywords in each new chapter.
+inally! keep in mind that a %itle tag can,t contain more than B3 characters! including spaces.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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./aption) the 0itle tag is in &l!e% the 1escription tag is in gre#% and the 234 of the corresponding page is in green5
/!-=1 tags
The *% tags are part of a set of tags, or mark-up, that makes up the structure of *TDL pages and defines their main titles and paragraphs! *n &rie ! tags that include the letter = ollowed &y a num&er! rom 1 to ; or e'ample! re er to content headings organi"ed rom most to least important. %he =1 tag corresponds to the main page header! or title. %he =$ tag represents a less important su&-title! and so on down to the =; tag. Each =%F> page is structured somewhat like a newspaper. %he =1 tag corresponds to the main headline o the newspaper! allowing readers to instantly grasp the topic o the page! its importance! and how well it matches their interests. %he =$ tag corresponds to a su&-title introducing a paragraph o lesser importance. These tags play a very important role in natural S0&, because they are used in the 1oogle algorithm to analyze a page;s content and determine its main sub$ect! 0oogle pays close attention to these tags! their organi"ation! and their content! which allows it to very (uickly identi y the main topics on a page in order o importance.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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=1 tags are ormatted like this# 5h16'eyword57h16 =1 tags must &e placed within a te't area. Speci ically! in order or 0oogle to read the tag! it must &e positioned to re er to te't content @as is always the case or 0oogleA. Each =1 tag must &e uni(ue# too re(uently! e-commerce sites insert their =1 tag around their logo! making them completely useless or SE) purposes. %his positioning means that they are pointing to an image @see previous pointA and are also identical on all the pages o the site! since the logo is always the same.
+inally! note that &y de ault! version 1.7 o PrestaShop comes with e ectively positioned =1! =$ and =4 tags. .ll you have to do is optimi"e their content.
+&5+LUSA&5:
An this chapter, we emphasized the importance of structure for the pages in your e-commerce site, specifically the position of the *TDL tags! %his is an essential component o any SE) strategy! and as you,ve seen! each o these tags should &e used and optimi"ed di erently. %here are several use ul tools to help you apply the tags correctly! and they are especially crucial or ecommerce sites that can include hundreds o pages. <nderstanding these tools will help you implement a consistent and e ective SE) strategy! which is why we will present the main options in the ne't chapter.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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&.1.2 SearchStatus
%his add-on allows you to view all the tags on a we& page with a single click.
&.1.2 'gen
This 7irefo= module is very helpful for viewing the most fre uently used keywords on a page! At shows the keywords as a tag cloud! 2onsider the page &elow as an e'ample: it was optimi"ed to highlight the keyword /silk./ <sing 6gen! you can very (uickly visuali"e how the word /silk/ is used and check that it is optimal. %he screen capture &elow shows that it is &eing used optimally here#
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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-e,ve 1ust reviewed the &est add-ons to install or e ectively tracking your natural page rank.
=ow, let>s loo0 at tools that you need to install on or connect to your e3commerce site.
4!)0oogle .nalytics
At;s very important to have access to traffic statistics for your site to track your audience and measure the uality of your page rank! The most often used and least e=pensive 9free, actually: tool is offered by 1oogle and called 1oogle 8nalytics!
%he price tag &y no means indicates that this so tware is incomplete or ine ective! in act 0oogle .nalytics is e'tremely power ul. E'perience shows that this tool is one o the most e ective on the market. Below! we summari"e the unctions you will pro&a&ly use most re(uently.
1. 2lick on /.nalytics .ccount Settings/ in the upper le t $. 2lick /Edit/ on the right o the screen ne't to the name o your online store 4. <nder /0oals!/ click /.dd a 0oal/ @under the irst set o 0oals or another one! it doesn,t matterA
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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This is a perfect illustration of 1oogle;s powerful tools, which can generate immense uantities of data and help you take advantage of them! 8gain, we very strongly recommend that you make sure there are no duplicate tags on your e-commerce site!
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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+&5+LUSA&5:
5ow you;re familiar with the main tools used to achieve a good natural page rank, and you;ve learned the most important ways to use them! &f course, this is not intended to be an e=haustive list! *t is important or you to amiliari"e yoursel with using these tools in your day-to-day work! which will help you master your strategy and per ormance in natural SE). #e;re going to move on to another crucial component of S0&, which is link building!%he techni(ues we,ve &een discussing up to now re er to the internal structure and organi"ation o your e-commerce site. %he techni(ues we,re a&out to descri&e have to do with e'ternal links. *n the ne't chapter! we,ll look at link &uilding! which could &e considered a orm o e'ternal /optimi"ation./
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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"ou should also realize that S0& is constantly changing, both because there are always new techni ues and because other companies, specifically your competitors, regularly adopt new practices!
%he e'perts at Blog-Ecommerce.com are completely ocused on natural SE)! and they can support and guide you to achieve the results you want. %hat,s why more and more companies trust Blog-Ecommerce.com to provide them with itsuni(ue e'pertise! constant assistance! and organi"ed! rigorous! long-term approach. -ith a power ul tool like PrestaShop! you,re supporting your strategy with a success ul tool that has esta&lished itsel as a leader in Europe. )nline competition is ierce. 5ou need to do everything you can to get luck on your side! which means a good method! good e'pertise and good tools. )nce you,ve done that! your products and sales a&ility will make your company a successK
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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www!prestashop!com
ArestaShop, the leading open source e3commerce solution in *urope, and @log3 *commerce.com, a S*+ agency specializing in e3commerce, have ?oined ,orces to o,,er this white paper on S*+ ,or 8our *32ommerce Site.
PrestaShop Blog-Ecommerce.com - SEO White Paper (Creative Commons by-nc-nd .!" Sept#$$%
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