Implementing a search engine optimization strategy typically requires tools that can be dangerous when mishandled. Knowing those tools — when to use them and how — can make all the difference. This is the 12th installment in my “SEO How-to” seri...
The risk to organic search performance from altering a website usually comes from changes to content, linking structures, and underlying technology. With careful planning and execution, however, you can mitigate the risk from those changes and i...
Changes in content, linking, and URL structure can dramatically impact organic search performance. Thus it’s critical to understand the search engine risks and rewards from a new design before you start developing it. This is the 10th installmen...
The structure of your ecommerce site — categories, subcategories, attributes — heavily impacts search engine optimization. This is the eighth installment in my “SEO How-to” series. Previous installments are: Optimized content will struggle to ra...
Keyword research is the process of identifying the words that consumers use to search for your products on Google and other search engines. Keyword mapping assigns those terms to pages on your site. This is the seventh installment in my “SEO How...
Keyword research can help improve your organic search performance. Search engines attempt to sync the words and intent of consumers’ queries with web pages. Ecommerce merchants should therefore align their pages using the right keywords to conve...
Keyword research is a search engine optimization tactic to identify the words and phrases of consumers who are looking for the types of products and services that your company sells. This post is the fourth installment in my “SEO How-to” series,...
Keyword research is the process of analyzing the words used by real people on search engines. That data — a window into the desires of searchers — is a gold mine for search engine optimization. This post is the fourth installment in my “SEO How-...
The planning phase of search engine optimization involves identifying a strategy and roadmap to reach your goals. The process can be daunting. As a framework, consider these six steps: Goal setting. What do you want to accomplish? Measurement. H...
The best backlinks are the ones search engines know about. Four reports in Google Search Console help analyze the strength of your backlink portfolio. Search engines use backlinks — the links from other sites to yours — in their algorithms as mea...
Canonical tags are an essential tool to prevent duplicate content in organic search results. “Canonical” in search engine parlance means the one true page out of potentially many duplicates.
Canonical tags are single lines of code in the HTML
I’ve never worked with an ecommerce platform that was entirely free of duplicate content. Some platforms are better at containing the sprawl. But one change in the settings or the code could accidentally produce duplicates — i.e., different page...
Product detail pages on Amazon rank for roughly 34 million keywords in Google in the U.S. In this post, I’ll address three tips for optimizing the product pages on your own ecommerce site using lessons from Amazon. 1. Product Names The name of a ...
The filters and facets utilized by ecommerce sites allow shoppers to quickly narrow a product set by color, style, or other attributes. It’s called faceted navigation. It’s ideal for targeting keywords with midsized demand. And it can seriously...
On March 1, Google will no longer consider nofollow attributes as commands. Instead, they will be hints, much like canonical tags. Until now, nofollow attributes have been a protective barrier between your site’s authority and the potentially qu...
