ecommerce pitfalls, tackled - state of search 2016

How Google is Reading and Ranking Content in 2016

I’m currently accepting new followers - @billsebald

Ten Years Later

It’s like we hit a wall…

“I don’t have any bandwidth.”

Can’t See #*!% In The Weeds

“There are high ROI demands.”

19

I’ll give you $5, how much will you make

me?

Don’t Let This Scare You!

(Yes, that means SEO takes longer these days!)

(Yes, that means SEO takes longer these days!)

“Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of

success with your hands

in your pockets.”

(Yes, that means SEO takes longer these days!)

(Yes, that means SEO takes longer these days!)

“You must set targets that are 10 times what you think you want, and then do 10 times what you think it will take to accomplish those targets.” – Grant Cardone

Massive thoughts must be followed by massive actions.

Be 10x better than your competitors best.

10b4uSENDIt’s worth it

Statistics

Online sales will reach $523 billion by 2020 in the U.S. - Forrester, 2016. (Not

Duane)

StatisticsMore than two thirds of eComm website traffic comes from Google, with 43% coming from organic and 26% coming from PPC

- https://www.wolfgangdigital.com/blog/ecommerce-kpi-benchmarks-2016/)

StatisticsMobile devices influenced more than $1 trillion in total purchases in 2015 between online and offline transactions.

https://www.internetretailer.com/2016/01/29/online-sales-will-reach-523-billion-2020-us/

“There’s something to be said for familiarity…” - UX Expert

Best Practices tend to grow old. Don’t Blindly

Follow.

StatisticsOmni-channel shoppers are channel-agnostic. The channel that offers the greatest combo of convenience, value and reassurance wins their business.

http://searchengineland.com/seo-voice-search-proof-shopping-campaigns-holiday-season-win-omni-channel-shopper-255412/ by Purna Virji

StatisticsRetail websites averaged 1.4% conversion. Online only at 2%.- https://www.wolfgangdigital.com/blog/ecommerce-kpi-benchmarks-

2016/

Internet has changed how we decide what to buy.

Traditional Product Marketing

ZMOT is the RESEARCH

Who sayswe can’tprovide moreinformation on category pages?

StatisticsIn most cases, category pages get the most organic traffic. Google friggin’ loves them.

- Bill Sebald (again, I’m now accepting followers @billsebald)

Remember when Google gave us the bird?

In order to find and display the most relevant results, Google looks for help from search entities. In short, it is a process by which searches performed by users establish a set relationship that help identify the importance of the various documents and, therefore, influence the information displayed.

Best Case, You See This

Or This

What’s this page about?

Not sure, I guess clothes? I don’t really understand the context. I’m not really sure I know what I’m supposed to do on this page. Gotta go, I have video games to play!

What’s this page about?

Not sure, I guess clothes? I don’t really understand the context. I’m not really sure I know what I’m supposed to do on this page. Gotta go, I have more trusted and clearly important pages to see!

Statistics

• Fake Ecommerce Category Page

• Created 2 Variations – With, and

Without Text

• Asked the audience of 100: “which do you prefer?”

• Followed up with: “Does the content on the right help you make a purchase? Would you read it?”

Results

Majority liked having the content, and would be more likely to click through if it's there versus not.

No evidence that it deterred from the buying process.

Common sentiment: “I would read the content if I were interested in the product.”

So, About Those Best Practices…

Don’t overdo usability. Don’t disregard usability.

Balance it.

Don’t disregard or overdo usabilty.

Balance it.

“I’m in a silo.”

Break Down SilosTalk to brand marketing

Talk to merchandisers

Talk to designers/UX

Talk to salespeople

Talk to PR teams

Protip: Buying beers can help.

“I don’t know where to focus my time.”

64

“Where do I start with technical SEO?”

Crawl EverythingLike Googlebot:• Follow all “followable” links • Respect noindex • Respect canonical• Respect robots.txt

Then Start With Indexation

Run XML Sitemaps Through Screaming Frog;Compare with Google-Emulated crawl.

Meta robotsRobots.txt

- blocking- noindex

Canonical TagsGSC Parameters301 Redirectsrel=“nofollow”404/410

Know Your Tools!

bit.ly/indexation-tester

Classify Crawl Waste

- Duplicate / Parameter Pages

- Noindex / Robots.txt Pages- 404’s and Redirects- Backend Directories

Basically, hide every trace of all files Google doesn’t need to see.

The smallest “speedups” can add a boost https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

“Link building for Ecommerce is really

hard.”

80

The Algorithm Loves Links

10 Ways to Use the Wayback Machine to Improve Your SEO

http://www.greenlaneseo.com/blog/2016/09/10-ways-use-wayback-machine/

83Fight For Your Experiments

84Push Back. Create

Space.

85

Be The Marketer That Moves Your Brand

Further

86Develop An Experience

87Don’t Be Afraid To Take

Hits

88Challenge “Best

Practices”

89

Do Better At Being A Source For Customer

Needs

90Break Down Silos

91Focus On The Bots

Break it.

Break it.

Bill Sebaldbill@greenlaneseo.comhttp://www.twitter.com/billsebald