Download - SEO for E-Commerce By Adam Audette
SEO for Ecommerce Adam Audette
@audette
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A Performance Marketing Agency
Data Driven, Tech Enabled Performance Marketing
Consulting | Analytics | Technology | Data | Creative | Media
CRM | Loyalty | Digital
Our heritage in data, technology and analytics gives us unique consumer insights, combined with our strength in performance media, fuels our ability to develop and execute addressable customer experiences that drive marketing
performance
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Customer Strategy
Channel Activation
Measurement
Orchestration
Content • Creative Development • Content Development • User Experience
• Search • Display • Paid Social • Email • Direct Mail
• Website • Mobile • Native App • Social • Call Center • In Store
• Audience Plan • Experience Plan • Media Plan • Test Plan
• Market Sizing • Segmentation • Portfolio Strategy • Journey Mapping • Change Management
• Measurement Strategy • Attribution • Marketing Mix • Forecasting & Simulation
• Audience Management • Campaign Management • Decision Management
Audience Planning
Media Activation
Database ID Management
Analytics CMS DMP
Campaign Loyalty
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Customer Strategy
Channel Activation
Measurement
Orchestration
Content • Creative Development • Content Development • User Experience
• Search • Display • Paid Social • Email • Direct Mail
• Website • Mobile • Native App • Social • Call Center • In Store
• Audience Plan • Experience Plan • Media Plan • Test Plan
• Market Sizing • Segmentation • Portfolio Strategy • Journey Mapping • Change Management
• Measurement Strategy • Attribution • Marketing Mix • Forecasting & Simulation
• Audience Management • Campaign Management • Decision Management
Audience Planning
Media Activation
Database ID Management
Analytics CMS DMP
Campaign Loyalty
SEO
Our Clients Selection of our clients
Key Inputs in the SEO Approach Research
• Competitive Analysis
• Benchmarks, KPIs, Goals
• Opportunity Forecast
• Business Justification
Topical Content Relevance • Topic discovery
• Personas & demographics
• Keyword Research
• Query Mapping
• Content Optimization
Technical Site Arch • Crawl Space
• Duplication
• Internal Linking
• International
• Site Architecture
Content Strategy • Content Inventory
• Workflow & Conversion Path
• Execution of Topics
• External Engagement
Results & Measurement • Reporting
• Analytics
SEO Touches Everything
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SEO UX / Frontend
PR
Social Media
Creative / Brand
Engineering
C-suite
Two Pillars of SEO: Technical & Audience
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Technical Audience
Two Pillars of SEO: Technical & Audience
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Technical Audience Search Engines Audience
Crawl space Search behavior
Duplication Workflows
Dynamic content Content topics
Site migrations KW research
Mobile serving Engagement
Int’l sites Conversion paths
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Today’s Talk
• Technical SEO
• On-page & Content
• Other Stuff
AG
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Today’s Talk
• Technical SEO
• On-page & Content
• Other Stuff
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Technical SEO is Dependable
Brand creative
Technical
Higher cost, lower dependability
Lower cost, higher dependability
Technical Hits Several Areas Research
• Competitive Analysis
• Benchmarks, KPIs, Goals
• Opportunity Forecast
• Business Justification
Topical Content Relevance • Topic discovery
• Personas & demographics
• Keyword Research
• Query Mapping
• Content Optimization
Technical Site Arch • Crawl Space
• Duplication
• Internal Linking
• International
• Site Architecture
Content Strategy • Content Inventory
• Workflow & Conversion Path
• Execution of Topics
• External Engagement
Results & Measurement • Reporting
• Analytics
Tech
*it always depends
These are typically* the highest priority areas
Technical SEO for Ecommerce
• Duplication • Faceted Navigation • Pagination • Speed • Site Search • Mobile
Canonical Crawl Paths – simple power
Technical SEO for Ecommerce
Home Category Sub-cat Product
Navigation & internal links, external backlinks, canonical tags, XML files all point to the same definitive URLs.
Ecommerce sites commonly have dupe issues at the product level
• Use forensics to delve into the issue (just a few tools, keep it simple)
• Normally what’s indexed is what matters (if it’s a dupe but isn’t crawled, de-prioritize)
• Always crawl the site yourself
• Keep it actionable! Don’t get caught in the maze
Duplication
Duplication
Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.
My favorite site searches for dupe content:
• site:mydomain.com and variations • Exclude subdomains with: –site:blog.mydomain.com • Find duplicate domains with –site:mydomain.com intitle:exact title tag
Duplication
Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.
My favorite site searches for dupe content:
• site:mydomain.com and variations • site:mydomain.com with: intitle:”product or category title tag”
Duplication
Easy Wins! mm smells like buttery popcorn
Duplication
Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.
My favorite site searches for dupe content:
• inurl:prodID=121212 • Use with site:mydomain.com • Experiment with using category or folders, too, like: site:mydomain.com inurl:/category/ • Knock off successive folders • Use with intitle, such as: site:mydomain.com inurl:prodID=121212 intitle:”we’ve got all the stuff
here : brand”
Faceted navigations pose crawling challenges.
Keep it focused on user behavior.
• What facets represent search queries best? • What types of content do you want crawled and indexed?
Faceted Navigation Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation
Important facets for SEO
Faceted Navigation
NOT important facets for SEO
Be discriminating with what gets crawled.
Examples to crawl: • category, brand, item, type
Examples to not crawl: • size, price, session ID, review rating/count Consider: • color, size, various attributes (uses, materials, etc)
Faceted Navigation Faceted Navigation
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Ensure URLs are constructed only one way. • No creation of different URLs based on selection order
Ensure rel canonical signals are on URLs that have tracking parameters appended. Don’t be afraid to use parameters within URLs.
• key=value&pair constructed URLs allow easier crawling and management in GWT • Never use folders for session IDs or params that don’t change page content
Faceted Navigation
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Faceted Navigation
“Using non-standard encoding is just asking for trouble.”
– Mehmet Aktuna
Google Crawling Team
“Using non-standard encoding is just asking for trouble.”
– Mehmet Aktuna
Google Crawling Team
Non-standard encoding means using characters in URLs like : , [ ] …
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Faceted Navigation
Use rel=nofollow on non-essential facets. • Links can still be crawled, but this will decrease discovery
Have non-essential facets rel canonical to a superset page: http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100
<link rel=“canonical” href=“http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&view=all” />
Faceted Navigation
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Faceted Navigation
Option: place all unnecessary facets in a unique directory. Robots.txt exclude this directory.
http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100
http://www.mydomain.com/filters/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100
User-agent: * Disallow: /filters/
Faceted Navigation
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Faceted Navigation
Issues with robots.txt
• It’s a sledgehammer approach • Nothing will be crawled • No link equity will flow • You’ll get ‘suppressed listings’ in the index like this…
Faceted Navigation
Links are crawled but URLs are blocked.
Faceted Navigation
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.
Faceted Navigation
Parameter Handling
• Powerful and configurable • Need key=value&pair structured URLs • Requires you to truly understand your site
Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation
Ah meta noindex…yes very interesting
What about meta noindex?
Faceted Navigation
Meta noindex is strangely absent from Google’s advice.
• I’m less confident in meta noindex, follow really doing what we want it to: keeping content out of the index but still crawled.
• meta noindex, follow + rel canonical are conflicting signals.
• There are signs that Google is choosing to treat meta noindex differently than before.
Meta Noindex
Sorts/views shouldn’t be crawled.
Pages should be consolidated.
Sorts shouldn’t be crawled.
Sorts & Pages
Sorts are different views of the same data set.
• Use rel=nofollow on sort links • Use rel=canonical on sort URLs to a superset page (normally the view all)
Sorts & Pages
Sorts shouldn’t be crawled.
Sorts & Pages
Sorts are different views of the same data set.
• Have sort links coded as page anchors that don’t create unique URLs (e.g. mydomain.com/cat#sort100)
• Use javascript links that are less likely to be crawled (Googlebot will probably still
crawl them, so put them in a disallowed js script)
Sorts & Pages
There are two main ways to consolidate pages.
Sorts & Pages
Use either rel next/prev or rel canonical.
• Rel prev/next creates a series of pages • Should still use rel canonical on duplicative URLs (such as tracking IDs)
Sorts & Pages
There are two main ways to consolidate pages.
Sorts & Pages
Use either rel next/prev or rel canonical.
• Rel canonical, if used for pagination, should reference the view all page • The view all page needs to provide a good user experience (fast loading)
Sorts & Pages
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Google crawls dynamic content
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Google crawls dynamic content
Dynamically inserted images and content
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Google crawls dynamic content
JavaScript links and redirects
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Google crawls dynamic content
Dynamically inserted meta data
<head> <(tle>NBA LIVE 15 -‐ Features -‐ EA SPORTS -‐ Official Site</(tle> <meta name="descrip(on" content="NBA LIVE features the best visuals in franchise history and 500+ gameplay improvements delivering a fluid, fun and authenQc basketball experience."> <link rel="canonical" href=“hWps://www.easports.com/nba-‐live/features" >
The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO
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The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO
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JS redirects
The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO
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JS links
The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO
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Dynamic content
Here’s What You Need To Know
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1. JavaScript can be okay for Google
(including redirects)
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2. Other search engines are behind
(and so are Twitter and Facebook)
Here’s What You Need To Know
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3. Google reads the DOM
(html source = 50% or less of the picture)
Here’s What You Need To Know
#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG
Ramifications
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#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG
Ramifications
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#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG
Ramifications
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Let’s talk speed …
Site speed is crucial.
Speed
• 40% of your visitors will abandon a site if loading takes longer than 3 seconds (Gomez)
• Half of your visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less (Gomez)
• 1 second in loading time decreases conversion by 7% (Strange Loop)
Site Speed
Site speed is crucial.
Speed
If an ecommerce site makes $100k in revenue per day, a 1 second load delay equates to $2.5M in lost revenue annually.
(Strange Loop)
Site Speed
Speed
Study up
Google’s Guide to Web Performance
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/best-practices/rules_intro
Speed
Study up
Yahoo!’s Guide to Page Speed
http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/
Speed
• Google Page Speed • Yslow • Pingdom • WebpageTest.org • Load Impact
Site Speed
Speed
Site Speed
Speed
Site Speed
“Search results in our search results.”
There’s a best practice, and a reality.
Site Search & SEO
Best Practice • Site search pages should be fast. • They should offer a valuable experience. • They should lead to conversion. • They should have high engagement.
Site Search & SEO
There’s a best practice, and a reality.
Site Search & SEO
Unfortunate Reality • Lots of site search pages are really basic • They can still rank well • Site search pages convert well
Site Search & SEO
Site Speed
There’s a best practice, and a reality.
Site Search & SEO
Site Search & SEO
Site Search & SEO
…and there’s this…
Site Search & SEO
Fortune 10 ecommerce brand
Pages Displayed in Non-Branded SERPs
Heavily reliant on site search.
Site Search & SEO
Answer these questions before doing anything. 1. How much organic traffic are search pages responsible for?
2. How are engagement metrics looking? High or low bounce rate, high or low
conversion?
Site Search & SEO
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Site Search & SEO
Site Search & SEO
Answer these questions before doing anything. 2. Balanced with above, are these pages causing issues with our crawl space?
Are there duplicative issues at play? (For example, can anything become a search?)
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Site Search & SEO
Hmm….
Here’s what we recommend.
Mobile
Get the sites accessible on mobile devices.
All major implementations are supported, and work. • Responsive (same URL) • Subdomain or folder (mobile switchboard tags) • Same URL with dynamic content (Vary: User-agent response header)
Mobile SEO
Here’s what we recommend.
Mobile
Other good things: • Minimize redirects, each adds 0.6 second delay (source: Google). • Serve tablet users the desktop site. • For separate URLs, place alternate tags on desktop pages (to
mobile), and canonical tags on mobile (to desktop).
Mobile SEO
~69% of searches show different results
Mobile
Mobile SEO
Rendering the full page: for mobile, too
Mobile Mobile SEO
Mobile Search Traffic > Desktop
Mobile Mobile SEO
Mobile
Mobile SEO
Elegance of Responsive
Mobile Mobile SEO
Technical Issues Prevail
Mobile Mobile SEO
Holy Grail of Mobile
Mobile Mobile SEO
Holy Grail of Mobile
Mobile Mobile SEO
Holy Grail of Mobile
Mobile Mobile SEO
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• Technical SEO
• Content Strategy
• Other Stuff
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For ecommerce, ‘native’ content is limited.
Content & On-Page
• Category pages • Product pages • Buyer’s guides • Reviews • Blog content
Content & On-Page
Really about the Shopping Experience
Content & On-Page Content & On-Page
Content & On-Page Content & On-Page
Look to Amazon for industry leading experiences.
Content & On-Page
This is valuable.
Content & On-Page
Making it easy for me, thanks Amazon.
Content Strategy Starts at the SERP
Content & On-Page Content & On-Page
The SERP display is where it all begins
Content & On-Page
First Choices
Secondary Choices
The SERP display is where it all begins
Content & On-Page
Ignored
Structured Data
Content & On-Page Content & On-Page
Useful Example on Organic CTR What happens when video
thumbnails appear for product pages?
Content & On-Page
Content & On-Page
Not actually a video.
Video thumbnails on product pages plummet CTR
Content & On-Page
Whoops! Product pages are listed in the video sitemap (videos are on the
pages).
Content & On-Page
But what did this do to CTR?
Queries with Video Thumbnail Queries without Video Thumbnail
THIS. AVERAGE QUERY CLICK-THROUGH RATE
2% 17%
Queries with Video Thumbnail Queries without Video Thumbnail
THIS. AVERAGE QUERY CLICK-THROUGH RATE
2% 17% Users didn’t want a video,
they wanted a product.
Content & On-Page
Product Inventory, product flux
Try to make this less sucky.
When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 1
Content & On-Page
301 the URL to a newer replacement product
(This is rarely how product inventory works)
When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 2
Content & On-Page
404 the URL if no newer product exists
(This is hard core)
When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 3
Content & On-Page
Continue serving the page with messaging and good recommendations
(This is best, but harder to do)
Content & On-Page
Don’t do it like this…
Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/
Content & On-Page
Don’t do it like this…
Doubly sucky.
More helpful
Here’s a good out of stock message.
Content & On-Page
Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/
Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/
Content & On-Page
Content & On-Page
Great Alternatives Here
Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/
What if products are coming back in?
Content & On-Page
Continue serving the page with messaging and recommendations (same approach as before)
Category pages are the ‘hubs’
Content & On-Page
Category pages are the ‘hubs’
Content & On-Page
category
subcat product
product
subcat product
product
Content & On-Page
category
subcat product
product
subcat product
product
Constant, Equity full,
Heavily linked
Content & On-Page
category
subcat product
product
subcat product
product
Constant, Equity full,
Heavily linked
Lot of flux here. Inventory change Less equity flow
Less linked
Content & On-Page
Seasonal pages and ‘themes’
Content & On-Page
Resources
Resources
Resources
Your inventory is your content.
Content & On-Page
• Tons of content opportunities with inventory • Buyers guides, reviews are always useful • Retailers don’t need to be publishers
It’s STILL all about keywords!
Content & On-Page
Content & On-Page
My Little Pony Topics Average Monthly Search Volume
260,000
185,000
110,000 100,000
80,000
56,000 45,000
Content & On-Page
My Little Pony Topics Average Monthly Search Volume
260,000
185,000
110,000 100,000
80,000
56,000 45,000
Each topic category
represents many queries
Comparison Calvin
Content & On-Page
“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”
Sample Search Queries What can we provide to help him accomplish his task? What else can we provide of interest? Conversion Goal Why He’ll Do It Success Metrics
Task 1: I want to find a resource for Greek apparel and merchandise.
[fraternity apparel] Broad selection of quality gear
Popular brands
Great service
Speedy turnaround
Newsletter
Explore options
He needs shirts for the pledges.
He needs a reliable resource
going forward.
Subscribe for 10% off.
Sign up for newsletter
Purchase shirts
Social share/like
Task 2: I want to find a resource for Greek apparel and merchandise.
[embroidered polo shirts] Wide selection of name brands – high quality
Great prices
Great Service
Speedy turnaround
Newsletter
Find the best option for shirts
Great prices.
10% discount.
Minimum order works.
Easy to order.
Can get a quote and a sample.
Purchase
Sign up for newsletter
Social share/like
Comparison Calvin
Content & On-Page
“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”
Ideal Workflow
Search Rank & Display Page Content Conversion & Motivation
[embroidered polo shirts] Custom Embroidered Polo & Golf Shirts – Buy Wholesale & Save! | InkHead Top Quality and great prices on golf and polo shirts from your favorite brands, including Nike and Adidas.
Images and details of product offerings. Calvin can filter and sort by a range of criteria, including price, brand, color, sub-category and style.
Carl sees what he needs and he sees lots of choices. He knows the brands, the prices are reasonable and the ordering process looks simple. Clicks to buy.
Comparison Calvin
Content & On-Page
“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”
Ideal Workflow
Search Rank & Display Page Content Conversion & Motivation
[embroidered polo shirts] Custom Embroidered Polo & Golf Shirts – Buy Wholesale & Save! | InkHead Top Quality and great prices on golf and polo shirts from your favorite brands, including Nike and Adidas.
Images and details of product offerings. Calvin can filter and sort by a range of criteria, including price, brand, color, sub-category and style.
Carl sees what he needs and he sees lots of choices. He knows the brands, the prices are reasonable and the ordering process looks simple. Clicks to buy.
User exp. begins here
Content creates the conversion
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• Technical SEO
• Content Strategy
• Other Stuff
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Thinking about reporting on SEO
It IS about keywords. 1
Focus on bottom-line metrics that matter. 2
Engagement metrics are important. 3
You’ll need more than a single analytics package. 4
It’s still all about keywords
Analytics & Reporting
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Organize keywords and contextualize them by topic, page types, by persona, demographic, etc
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Track bottom line metrics.
Analytics & Reporting
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• Revenue from organic
• Organic traffic by search engine
• Organic conversion rate
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• Use content groupings in GA • Hit level only • Useful for ecommerce page types
Engagement metrics
Analytics & Reporting
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• Time on page, avg. pages/visit, time on site • Very useful to spot poor experiences
• Bounce rate is a useful metric for today’s SEO • Group high bounce rate pages to analyze • Segment alongside conversion rate
• Report on these only when they lead to ACTION
You’ll need multiple tools.
Analytics & Reporting
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• Best in class: • Brightedge • Linkdex • SEO Clarity • Search Metrics • Conductor
• SEO analytics are essential.
Analytics & Reporting
Brightedge keyword groups
Analytics & Reporting
SearchMetrics keyword groups
You’ll need multiple tools.
Analytics & Reporting
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Inexpensive / free:
• SEMRush • Google Search Console
GAME CHANGER
Analytics & Reporting
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GSC API DATA
• Desktop, Mobile, Tablet • Landing Page and Query • Very close to comprehensive
Use top publisher sites
Other: Top Publisher Sites
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Feed to teams for
• GDN campaigns • Partnerships • Editorials
Evolution of http protocol
Other: http2
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Advantages
• Early adopter advantage • Multiplexing • Compressed Headers • Faster
SEO as Bridge Builder
Other: Advocacy
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@merklerkg
Thanks for your time!
merklerkg.com | rkgblog.com
Adam Audette [email protected]
Follow me on Twitter: @audette