Bill Sebald

Articles by: Bill Sebald

Bill Sebald

Bill Sebald is a managing partner of Greenlane, a digital marketing agency near Philadelphia. He has worked in SEO and online retail since 1996. In 2006, he started the SEO channel at GSI Commerce (later acquired by eBay).

He is a speaker and blogger and an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson University. Email Bill.

SEO Tools
The SEO Benefits of Web Scraping

April 6, 2021 • Bill Sebald

In "SEO for Google Shopping," I addressed the need to optimize product feeds. I stated that including keyword product descriptions and titles in the feeds was scalable with "scraping." But I didn't describe it further. In this post, I’ll explain scraping.
SEO
SEO for Google Shopping

February 1, 2021 • Bill Sebald

Google has a storied history with services for ecommerce products. The first was Froogle. Then Google Base absorbed Froogle. Both provided a method for merchants to inform Google about their products to improve visibility in organic search results.
SEO
A Day in the Life of an SEO

November 22, 2020 • Bill Sebald

Search engine optimizers are like black sheep in a family. Our work is often misunderstood. Colleagues wonder what we are doing or how we make money for the company. Why do we read blog posts all day, they sometimes ask? Success in organic search can be elusive.
SEO
FAQ Snippets Expand Organic Search Visibility

September 22, 2020 • Bill Sebald

There is one rich snippet that has become increasingly popular: frequently asked questions. An FAQ snippet expands a listing's real estate in organic search results. It's based on implementing FAQ Schema in the code.
Technical SEO
Understanding Core Web Vitals for SEO

July 8, 2020 • Bill Sebald

On rare occasions Google provides expectations of upcoming algorithm changes. For example, Google alerted us to the mobile-first index change and, also, the inclusion of SSL signals. Once again, Google has given us a heads-up with Core Web Vitals.
SEO Tools
SEO: Search Console Is an Untapped Source of Keyword Data

June 5, 2020 • Bill Sebald

Search Console now has more than enough data to return us to the glory days of natural search keyword data. But many businesses are not aware. I’ll explain the Search Console data in this article.
Technical SEO
The Role of Accessibility in SEO

April 14, 2020 • Bill Sebald

In the early years, search-engine optimizers typically equated accessibility with rankings. We focused on algorithms. A website that's accessible to users with disabilities would also be accessible to Google. Or so we thought. Things are different today.
SEO
SEO: When to Scale (or Not)

February 17, 2020 • Bill Sebald

Most ecommerce platforms have improved their SEO functionality to enable easy, sitewide changes. But it's impossible to scale SEO entirely.
SEO
Lessons from 20 Years of Google Algorithm Updates

January 23, 2020 • Bill Sebald

I have been optimizing sites for over 20 years. Still, I sometimes fail to reach the improvements I expected. A strategy may look good on paper but not align to Google’s latest (and secret) algorithm.
Technical SEO
Are SEO Audits Worth the Money?

December 17, 2019 • Bill Sebald

An SEO audit can cover any number of components — technical, content, competitive, backlinks, mobile, and analytics. Or it can be even more detailed. The risk of a generic SEO audit is that it scratches the surface, with little benefit.
Cross-border Selling
Hreflang Explained

November 12, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that allows Google and other search engines to recognize localized versions of web pages. If you have sections of your site for a French audience, for example, an hreflang tag helps Google understand that the section should appear in search results on Google.fr, not Google.com.
Link Building
SEO Link-building for Ecommerce

October 29, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Link-building is tough. It's especially tough for ecommerce sites. Long gone are the days when consumers linked to products. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be seeking links. It may be even more necessary.
Technical SEO
Is Google’s Nofollow Change a Peek into SEO’s Future?

September 25, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Once again, we are faced with a change from Google. In a Sept. 10 post on its Webmaster Central Blog, Google stated that the nofollow attribute is now a hint instead of a directive. Here's the backstory.
SEO
Using Google Trends for Ecommerce

July 23, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Google Trends reports the relative popularity of search terms across languages and regions. It's helpful for identifying when consumers start thinking about a product.
SEO
The 4 SEO Priorities for Ecommerce Sites

June 28, 2019 • Bill Sebald

I can't calculate clear-cut ROI from SEO. But I can address the activities that, in my experience, typically lead to higher rankings for ecommerce merchants. It's not a stretch to suggest that 80 percent of your daily SEO activities should be connected to the four items below.
SEO
SEO: How to Quickly Find Internal Linking Opportunities

April 23, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Optimizing internal links can be helpful for search engine optimization. The larger the website, the more that the optimization can help Google identify important pages. But how can we identify all of the pages to link from?
SEO
How Query Intent Impacts Ecommerce SEO

February 21, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Google attempts to understand the intent of a searcher's query. The company recognizes the burden of providing the best results, even if the query is vague. For example, if someone types in “jaguar,” Google has to figure out what that searcher wants.
Link Building
SEO: Reclaiming Lost Links from Site Migrations

January 21, 2019 • Bill Sebald

There is a little-used opportunity for longtime retailers to gain links. If your ecommerce site has changed platforms in its lifetime, you might have editorial links — legitimate, not spam — waiting for you to reclaim.
SEO
Improve SEO with ‘Audience Insights’ in Google Ads

January 3, 2019 • Bill Sebald

What if you could use information about your existing customers to obtain new ones? That’s the purpose of Audience Insights in Google Ads. It helps businesses find new prospects based on current customer data.