SEO for Ecommerce. For more information on this presentations visit The Internet Show ME 2011: http://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/internet-show-middle-east/

1. SEO for Ecommerce
Kurt Wilson
CEO

2. Introduction
• Who are Advansys & SEO Junkies?
– Ecommerce and SEO Specialists
– Proven track record at page 1 rankings
– Solid Knowledge of International SEO
• Our clients include

3. Where does SEO fit in?
• SEO is part of a wider topic known as
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM
SEO PPC
On-Page Off-Page

4. Feeding the Machine
“search engines want to deliver relevant
results to the user based upon their search
query”
• Key focus for optimisers is “relevancy”
• You can outrank sites with higher Google
PageRank than yours simply by being
more relevant

5. Target the Right Keywords
• This site gets ZERO natural traffic
Words we use on our site Words our customers use
sms messaging text messaging
SMPP CIMD2 sms provider
bulk sms gateway send bulk text
MMS message picture message
premium sms sms shortcodes

6. Why Keywords Matter
• This site gets SOME natural traffic
Words we use on our site Words our customers use
sms messaging
text messaging
Search
SMPP CIMD2 text
messaging sms provider
Engine
send bulk text
Traffic sms gateway
MMS message picture message
premium sms sms shortcodes

7. Why Keywords Matter
• This site gets LOTS of natural traffic
Words we use on our site Words our customers use
text messaging
Search
sms provider
Engine
send bulk text
Traffic
picture messaging
sms shortcodes

8. Finding the Right Keywords
• Use software e.g. WordTracker
(but they cost money and maybe biased)
• We recommend the Free Google Keyword
suggestion tools which can be localised
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://www.google.com/sktool/

9. Evaluating Keywords
• Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) is the the
number of estimated searches, divided by
the level of competition i.e. results pages.
No. Searches / No Competing Websites = KEI
• We should be targeting high KEIs
aka “low hanging fruit”

10. Keyword Density
• A measure for the amount of times a
keyword phrase appears as a percentage
of the total number of keywords used on
that page
• There is no magic number but 3-7% is
recommended.

11. Keyword Psychology
• Consider where the user is within the
buying cycle:
A = Awareness
I = Intention
D = Desire
A = Action
• Are they at the researching or buying
stage?

12. Keywords for eCommerce
• Ideally we want to target those users who
are ready to buy and give them a call to
action
• Target specific product keyword phrases
which may include make/model etc..
• e.g. Manufacturer > Technology > Model
• “buy apple iphone 3GS” or “iphone 4
deals”

13. Build Authority with Modifiers
• Modifiers are additional keywords that can
be added to the beginning or end of a
keyword phrase
• They help with ranking for long tail
phrases and are natural in copywriting
For example:
iphone, apple iphone, iphone cases
In the above “apple iphone” and “iphone cases” help build
authority for “iphone” and are easier to attain

14. Tips for On Page factors
• On page factors are directly controllable
“on the page”
• Essential Tips:
– Make your site compliant – W3C, WAI
– Evocative Titles, Meta Data – “sell the click”
– Use Semantic HTML
– Externalisation of CSS and JS
– Unique hierarchical keyword rich URLs

15. Important HTML Tags
• Keyword phrases should always appear in
TITLE, H1, H2, P and A tags
• H1 is by far the most important within the
body of the page (use it only once!)
• Use H2 and H3 as sub headings of H1
and H2 respectively – think in “themes and
topics”

16. SEO Problems in Ecommerce
• Lack of content – each page looks similar

17. Effective use of Copywriting
• Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
• LSI is a process compares words,
“concepts”, and “structure” of your
website with those used on high trust
websites.
• Use the right “related” keywords and you
be deemed more relevant
• Use the ~ symbol to find these

18. Using LSI in SEO
• We want to optimise a site for “pasta”
• Wrong way
“If you’ve come to find information about
pasta you’ve come to the right place.. Our
pasta is the best pasta on the planet...”

19. Using LSI in SEO
• Find lexical (related) words using ~pasta
• Correct Way!
“I love pasta. Nothing makes me happier
than eating spaghetti bolognese with
garlic bread. Though I’m sensitive to
carbohydrates I use a low-carb pasta
with an italian tomato pasta sauce”

20. Ongoing SEO Activities
• Content is King, links are Queen
– Blogs
– Product reviews (use Googles tags)
– RSS feeds
– XML & Google Shopping Feeds
– Social Networking (increase traffic)

21. Final SEO Tips & Notes
• Install Google Analytics to assist in SEO
• Monitor traffic levels not just rankings
• Set up goals and funnelling to find any
problems in your site and fix them
• Most importantly remember:
“Rankings mean nothing without Conversions”

22. Thank you
• Final questions?