SEO
Our huge library of search engine optimization articles addresses strategies and tactics for ecommerce businesses. Our 12-part “How-to” series explains the basics. Advanced topics include faceted navigation, crawling and indexing, cross-border optimization, and much more.
Keyword Research | Link Building | On-page SEO | SEO Tools | Technical SEO-
Technical SEO
301 Redirects May Save Your SEO
May 4, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
A search engine professional’s lucky number is 301. That’s the server header status code for a type of redirect that performs many critical functions for natural search performance. What Is a ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Managing Modern Algorithm Updates
April 27, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Google launched a broad core algorithm update last week that impacted web search appearance and rankings. Algorithm changes typically center on rankings improvements tied to determining the quality of a site’s ...
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SEO
How to Implement SEO Tactics in Large Companies
April 22, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
There’s a perception that search engine optimization requires no resources. Executives sometimes think that SEO is simply a matter of editing existing content. As a result, they don't fund or staff SEO adequately to see real organic search performance gain. In reality, SEO isn’t about changing keywords here and there. It’s about optimizing a digital marketing presence to meet the needs of the business and its customers.
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Technical 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.
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Technical SEO
13 Ways to Kill Organic Search Traffic
April 15, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Skill and effort influence organic search success. But any number of actions can harm search engine optimization efforts. In this post, I’ll describe 13 SEO blunders that I’ve seen over ...
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SEO
6 Spring Cleaning Tips for SEO
March 30, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
It’s spring, and that means it’s time to peer into your site to find the often-overlooked items that drag down natural search performance. In our homes, we tend to put off cleaning the closets, dusting the baseboards, and clearing the spider webs out of the hard-to-reach places. Similarly, some aspects of search engine optimization we tend to put off for another day. Today is the day for SEO spring cleaning! These six steps will make your site shine, and boost its natural search performance in the process.
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Keyword Research
SEO: 8 Reasons to Stop the Addiction to Keyword Demand
March 16, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search marketing is all about experimentation — testing and learning. Slavish obsession with the average number of searches per month as a sole metric for optimization or a forecasting revenue will only hurt a natural search program. It’s time to end our addiction to search demand.
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Technical SEO
Gzip Compression Could Make Your Site 90-percent Faster
March 16, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Not using gzip on your web server? Your company should be. Enabling gzip compression could improve initial page load times by as much as 90 percent. Your business's faster web pages may even lead to better search engine rankings, an increase in site traffic, and more sales.
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Technical 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.
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SEO
5 Ecommerce SEO Tactics to Try Today
March 9, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Search engine optimization seeks to help search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo understand a page's purpose and content in the hope the search engine will serve up a highly-ranked link in search results. An ecommerce business could spend months or even years optimizing search engine traffic. Some SEO techniques require wholesale changes in site structure, a nearly constant flow of new content, or days of keyword research.
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SEO
SEO: How to Rank against the Heavyweights
March 8, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Merchants want to rank number one in Google for search terms that are seemingly important to their business, such as “dog food.” Or “office supplies.” Or whatever popular term describes their products. The problem, however, is that not every company can rank for high-demand keywords. The workaround is to be realistic about ranking potential and develop search engine optimization strategies accordingly.
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Content Marketing
Content Marketing Can Drive Long-tail SEO
March 5, 2018 • Armando Roggio
A robust content marketing campaign may attract shoppers searching on long-tail keyword phrases, which could generate additional sales. The term “long tail” describes statistical distributions where there are many points, if ...
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Technical SEO
4 SEO Requirements for International Ecommerce Sites
March 2, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Multinational ecommerce businesses with country-specific websites have distinct search engine optimization requirements. A searcher in Australia, say, must end up on the site containing Australian English, currency, and content. A searcher in Germany must land on that website. And so on.
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Technical SEO
SEO Tips for New Ecommerce Sites (and Redesigns)
February 26, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
The battle for organic search performance can be won or lost before a site launches. Choices made in the design and implementation stages impact the ability of an ecommerce business to change critical elements for search engine optimization, handcuffing what is typically one of the largest drivers of traffic and revenue.
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SEO
What, Exactly, Is Barebones SEO?
February 22, 2018 • Kerry Murdock
Organic traffic from Google and other search engines remains critical to many merchants. It generates a steady stream of prospects. And it insulates merchants from over-relying on Amazon for sales. There is no greater authority on search engine optimization than Stephan Spencer. He's the co-author of The Art of SEO and the sole author of leading digital marketing books. I recently spoke with him on bare-minimum SEO tactics for ecommerce.
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SEO Tools
Indispensable SEO Tools, from Free to Expensive
February 16, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization is rooted in data: technical data, analytical data, and contextual data. The tools you use to access that data fuel your ability to make smart SEO decisions, to keep your performance moving in the right direction. In this post, I'll recommend SEO tools in eight categories. Some of the tools are free or low cost. Others are more expensive, with many more features
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On-page 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.
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Technical SEO
HTTPS Is Important for More Reasons Than SEO
February 9, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
A website’s use of the secure protocol — as evidenced by the HTTPS designation and the presence of a security certificate — is a priority for search engines. But recent changes to Google Chrome make it important for web browsers, too. Google is tackling the security challenge across the web via its Chrome browser. Google is tackling the security challenge across the web via its Chrome browser. This week, the Chrome team announced that all web pages without an HTTPS certificate will display a “Not Secure” label in Chrome 68, scheduled to be launched in July 2018.
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Technical SEO
6 Ways Web Developers Can Improve SEO
February 2, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
The relationship between web developers and search-engine-optimization teams is sometimes contentious. Seemingly unrelated technical decisions by developers can impact organic search traffic. But there are enormous SEO benefits in working with development teams and their release planning and testing cycles. In 13 years, I’ve encountered just one developer who refused to consider SEO recommendations.
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Keyword Research
How to Identify Keywords That Signal Shoppers’ Intent
January 23, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Keyword phrases are the fuel that drives many online marketing efforts, including search engine optimization, paid search advertising, and even content ideas. If marketers do a better job in selecting keyword phrases, they may do a better job promoting their products and content.
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Technical SEO
SEO: Google to Make Mobile Speed a Ranking Factor
January 19, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
If you weren’t already focused on your mobile site’s performance, Google is giving you a reason. In July of 2018, Google will use a new ranking signal focused purely on mobile site speed: the “Speed Update.” Google will dampen rankings for slower mobile sites to help mobile searchers find sites that deliver what Google considers to be a better mobile experience. Desktop site speed has been a Google ranking factor for almost eight years — its obsession with speed isn’t anything new. What is new is that Google will now include mobile sites in the site speed ranking equation.
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Technical 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.
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SEO
7 Ways to Integrate Natural and Paid Search
January 12, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
It’s not a matter of organic search traffic being more important than paid, or vice versa. What matters is integrating the two — paid and natural search — so that the whole is larger than the individual parts. The goal of integrated search is to use the data available from both organic and paid search programs for strategies that maximize visits and revenue.
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Keyword Research
How to Build an Ecommerce Keyword List
January 9, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Keywords are an important building block for ecommerce marketing. Developing and maintaining a keyword list may help an ecommerce business understand shoppers and do a better job of marketing to them. In the context of search engine optimization, searchers' words or phrases summarize their thoughts, questions, or needs. Those keywords represent the language people use to ask for help finding resources online.
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SEO Tools
Optimizing Google Search Options for Android Apps
January 7, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Apps for iOS and Android mobile devices represent a chance to sell to captive prospects — if they can find your app to download in the first place. The first place to start is the Google Play Store, where Android users install apps. Google web search is another opportunity for app search, but most of the optimization focus should be on the Play Store itself.
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Technical 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 ...
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SEO
How to Create Your 2018 SEO Strategy
December 22, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
If you don’t have a search engine optimization strategy for 2018, it’s high time to create it. Writing an SEO strategy can be intimidating. It sounds like such a lofty document,
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SEO
Voice SEO: What Marketers Know Now
December 20, 2017 • Armando Roggio
How should your business optimize for voice search? The answer may be that the search engine optimization community doesn’t really know yet. In fact, perhaps the best thing your marketing department ...
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SEO
How SEO Impacts the Ecommerce Sales Funnel
December 17, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Ecommerce marketers spend a lot of time thinking about the sales funnel. Search engine optimization plays a major role in filling that funnel at the various stages. In aggregate, we can ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: For Redesigns and Migrations, Prepare for the Worst
December 1, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
You spend months preparing for your ecommerce redesign or migration. You take search engine optimization into consideration and anticipate an increase in organic search traffic after launch. But what happens ...
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SEO for AI, Low Traffic, No Clicks