Hamlet Batista

Articles by: Hamlet Batista

Hamlet Batista

Hamlet Batista was CEO and founder of RankSense Inc., an SEO revenue reclamation platform for retailers. He passed away on January 26, 2021. We published our tribute shortly after his death.

He was the inventor and U.S. patent holder of "SEO Suite" and its components. He was also technical review editor of "The Art of SEO" and "Search Engine Marketing Inc.," both leading instructional books.

He was previously owner of Hamlet Batista Group LLC, a marketing consultancy.

Hamlet co-invented Altruik’s Page Priority®, an enterprise-level SEO software that pioneered automated resolution of site architecture issues. Using the software, clients experienced, on average, a double-digit increase in sales from organic search — a patent was filed for this invention.

SEO
Google Lighthouse SEO Scores of Every Shopify Theme

August 12, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

This post addresses the SEO capabilities of every Shopify theme, using Lighthouse, across various page types — home, products, collections, blogs — for desktop and mobile.
SEO
Assessing Google’s ‘Core Web Vitals’ on Shopify Themes

June 23, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

Google recently announced "Core Web Vitals," which are new performance metrics that will become a search ranking signal next year. Google displays the new metrics in Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and the Chrome User Experience Report. “Page Speed Scores of Every Shopify Theme,” my article in April, included a table of those speeds at that time.
On-page SEO
Page Speed Scores of Every Shopify Theme

April 7, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

I recently worked with a developer to help a merchant speed up its Shopify store. We improved the page speed for mobile and desktop. But the biggest takeaway was how a Shopify theme impacts the page speed. This post lists page speeds of all 72 Shopify themes.
SEO
Analyze Competitors’ Breadcrumbs for Categories, Products

February 25, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

Knowing the breadcrumb navigation of your ecommerce competitors can be helpful. It could identify missing categories on your own site, navigation ideas, and even competitors' best-selling products.
Technical SEO
Speed Up Your Slowest Pages with Prefetching

January 3, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

In previous articles I’ve addressed ideas to improve page speed, such as with HTML caching and isolating slow loading resources. In this post, I'll explain how to determine your slowest pages and apply a simple fix to speed them up.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Using Machine Learning to Predict Amazon Search Rankings

November 4, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Ninety percent of Amazon's product views come from the company's organic site search and not from advertising or external channels. Thus given the importance to merchants of optimizing for Amazon's search engine, A9, it's worth understanding the ranking factors.
Design & Development
Chrome’s ‘Mixed Content’ Updates Could Impact Ecommerce Sites

October 7, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Google Chrome just announced important changes that could impact ecommerce. The changes address "mixed content" — sites with HTTP and HTTPS resources. In this post, I'll review steps to ensure the changes do not affect your ecommerce site come January.
SEO
SEO: Catchall Redirects Are a Bad Practice

September 11, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

At first glance a catchall redirect page seems like a good solution. Instead of fixing thousands or tens of thousands of redirect errors, set up a simple catchall rule and send all users (and bots) to a single page. But it’s a bad idea.
SEO
SEO: Analyzing Googlebot Crawls for Problems, Inefficiencies

July 28, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Crawl budget inefficiencies can affect organic search performance if new or updated content is not getting crawled and indexed. In this post, I will explain how to generate reports to help determine if your site has a Googlebot crawl budget problem.
SEO
The High Cost of Ignoring SEO

July 9, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Ignoring organic search traffic can be costly. I addressed the topic last year at Edgenet Academy (now Syndigo), which helps manufacturers and retailers manage product content. I shared the story of two competitors that sell equipment for printed products.
Link Building
Can Ecommerce Sites Generate Organic Search Traffic without Backlinks?

May 30, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Can an ecommerce site launch in 2019 and receive organic search traffic without backlinks? Most search optimizers believe it's not possible. I used to think the same. But I keep seeing evidence of the contrary.
SEO
How to Expedite Product Changes in Google Organic Listings

April 30, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

In this post, I will cover a technique of updating organic listings using the Google Shopping API. The goal is to accelerate the impact of the Shopping feed on natural search.
SEO
Measuring Traffic from Google Shopping’s New Organic Listings

March 27, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

In my previous article, I explained how Google Shopping is expanding to include free organic search listings. The next step is to explore an easy way to measure the performance of organic traffic coming from Shopping feeds.
SEO
Real-time SEO: Create a Google Product Feed from an XML Sitemap

February 26, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

It is now possible to update product listings in organic search results in real time via a product feed. In this article, I’ll explain how to create a feed from an XML sitemap.
SEO
SEO: Monitoring Traffic from Domain Mergers, with Google Data Studio

January 27, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

A common practice among retailers is creating microsites to target different audiences. The strategy can produce strong conversions because the user experience is simpler and more relevant. Unfortunately, it is not usually helpful for organic search rankings.
Technical SEO
Use HTML Caching to Increase Page Speed

December 9, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Heavy traffic to a website can result in performance problems, slower page speed, and fewer conversions. In this article, I'll share a simple process to speed up page loads. The idea is to cache not just images and scripts, but also the HTML content.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Compete with Amazon

November 9, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

It is almost impossible to sell something online and not compete with Amazon. But how can you attract more direct buyers to your site? Through superior service and expertise. Observe the behavior of actual users in Google Analytics. Try to find areas of friction where the path-to-purchase can be improved.
SEO
Change Organic Search Snippets to Drive Motivated Buyers

September 28, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

In “How to Increase Click-throughs on Organic Search Listings,” I addressed the importance of compelling messages in organic snippets. In this article, I will dig deeper. I will explore how ...
On-page SEO
Analyzing Page Speed for Visitors with Slow Connections

August 28, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Even if you have a fast loading site as measured by a high-speed internet connection, a good portion of your potential customers could be on slow connections. Your site could load slowly for them.
SEO
SEO: How to Drive Traffic to a New Ecommerce Site

July 3, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Larger companies can typically hire or retain competent assistance to help with search engine optimization. But smaller businesses often have to do it themselves, especially when those businesses are new. In ...
SEO
SEO: How to Win against Giant Competitors

June 26, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Why is it so difficult to rank for highly competitive keywords? I'm often asked about this topic. Can a small company with a limited budget compete on such popular search terms as "fashion," "shoes," and "jewelry"? I'll address that question in this article.
SEO
How to Optimize Mobile Search for Voice, Barcodes, and Images

April 18, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

The traditional behavior of typing keyword phrases in a Google’s search box is being replaced by searches for voice, barcodes, and images. It is impractical to type long-tail searches on mobile devices. But this difficulty also presents opportunities. In this post, I'll address how to optimize mobile searches for voice, barcodes, and images.
SEO
How to Quickly Drop Seconds from a Site’s Load Time

March 13, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

There are good reasons to improve your online store’s page speed, especially for mobile. However, I’ve found that improving speed can require a lot of expensive developer work. usually following standard best practices over many months. In this article, I will share simple tricks to eliminate seconds of page load time, in just a few hours.
SEO
4 Ways to Increase Revenue from Organic Search Traffic

February 13, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

If you have been working for months trying to get higher search rankings with little to show for it, you are not alone. Chasing high rankings typically falls flat. You can easily spend six months or more — and a lot of money and effort — and have nothing to show for it at the end. In this article, I will share four ways to increase sales from organic search traffic that don’t require high rankings.
SEO
SEO: How to Identify High Rankings That Produce No Clicks

January 14, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Google's AdWords Keyword Planner is helpful for keyword research, as are many third-party tools. But Google Search Console can also identify keyword optimization opportunities. I'll explain in this post. Many search engine optimizers believe that a web page can rank organically for just a few keywords, perhaps three to five.
SEO
How to Increase Click-throughs on Organic Search Listings

January 4, 2018 • Hamlet Batista

Finding new keywords to target and developing content around them is a common practice for search engine optimization. But optimizing for a keyword does not necessarily mean a searcher will ...
SEO
SEO: How to Perform a Flash Audit, to Restore Traffic

November 14, 2017 • Hamlet Batista

I’m often asked to help reverse drops in traffic from organic search. It usually occurs from major site developments, such as redesigns and ecommerce platform changes. Traffic drops can be ...
SEO
SEO: How to Improve Site-specific Ranking Factors

October 10, 2017 • Hamlet Batista

A client recently attended a webinar where a presenter provided a list of the top search engine ranking factors. The client wanted me to confirm the list, or provide my ...
SEO
How to Incrementally Move an Ecommerce Site to HTTPS

August 27, 2017 • Hamlet Batista

In October, Google Chrome will release version 62, which will warn website visitors with a “Not Secure” message when they type in data — such as site searches and newsletter ...
SEO
3 SEO Wins (Often Overlooked) for Ecommerce Sites

July 16, 2017 • Hamlet Batista

There is more to search engine optimization than keywords, titles, meta descriptions, and H1s. In this post, I’ll address three valuable, and often overlooked, SEO opportunities for ecommerce sites: PDFs,