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-
Keyword Research
Test: Mobile Search Results For Popular Retail-Shopping Keywords
March 25, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons
The number of mobile users is increasing at a far greater rate, it seems, than the number of mobile sites. But some merchants have already begun reacting to the mobile web by optimizing their sites for these devices. In order to get a feel for the current status of the mobile ecommerc...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: Hybrid-racing.com Combines WordPress, Magento
March 23, 2010 • Stephan Spencer
The co-owner of Hybrid-racing.com, Will Davidson, requested a search-engine-optimization site review. I'm happy to oblige. The first thing that struck me was that WordPress was the main "wrapper" for the site, powering the home page, tech articles, gallery, blog, and product informatio...
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SEO Tools
Google Product Search: Creating a Data Feed
March 17, 2010 • Bill Hartzer
Editor's Note: This is our monthly installment of "Everything Google," a feature on products and services from Google that can help ecommerce merchants. The author is Bill Hartzer, the owner of BillHartzer.com, a SEO, pay-per-click and ecommerce consulting firm in Dallas. Google Produ...
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Link Building
SEO: Link Bait Can Increase Rankings
February 17, 2010 • Jill Kocher Brown
Link bait is the practice of creating useful or compelling content that will lure links naturally to a website. It’s fun, it’s trendy, and it can produce very big search-engine-optimization results. Contrary to most interactive marketing goals, link bait’s primary goal is increasing t...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: Juggle.com “Not a Traditional eCommerce Site”
February 11, 2010 • Stephan Spencer
I'm proud to say that this is my first report card as a vice president of Covario. The company I founded in 1995, Netconcepts, was acquired last month by Covario, a search-engine-marketing and search-engine-optimization software and services company for large online retailers. This mon...
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Keyword Research
Ask an Expert: How to Get Better Search Rankings for Major Keywords
February 8, 2010 • PEC Staff
"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about ranking on search engines for major keywords. It comes from Jeramie Westbay, owner operator for Crazy Ed's Roadkill, an online store...
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Technical SEO
Ask An Expert: How to Redirect URLs Without Losing Link Juice
January 21, 2010 • PEC Staff
"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about redirecting users from old URLs to new ones. It comes from Brian Rogers, web merchandising manager for 511 Tactical, an online (and ...
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SEO
Stalking Competitors’ SEO Tactics
January 20, 2010 • Jill Kocher Brown
Despite my contention that Internet marketers need to stop obsessing about rankings, an examination of the SEO tactics of competitors that outrank your site can be extremely enlightening. Stalking a competitor's SEO tactics can uncover content optimization and link building opportunitie...
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Link Building
SEO: Remember LinkedIn for Inbound Links
December 23, 2009 • Bill Hartzer
Editor’s Note: Bill Hartzer is a contributor to Practical eCommerce and manager of search engine optimization and social media marketing with VizionInteractive, a Dallas-based online marketing firm. Hartzer wrote the article, below, which first appeared in that company’s blog. Inbound...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: BabyGiftIdea.com
December 17, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
For this month, I am reviewing BabyGiftIdea.com, at co-owner Pat Laws' request. Pat and her husband bought the business from the original owner in May 2008. The site has been online for about nine years, so it definitely has some history and credibility in the eyes of Google. Pat shar...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Capture More Search Traffic with Rich Snippets
December 16, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
The difference between a snippet and a rich snippet is the difference between just showing up at a party and showing up in style. Showing up in style can ensure you get the attention you want. For an ecommerce merchant, "the party" is a search engine's results page. A snippet is your U...
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Link Building
SEO: Link-building Opportunities
December 3, 2009 • Jeff Muendel
Link building is an ever-changing landscape. This is because the search engines make changes to their algorithms to thwart artificial link building, and because link building as a practice continues to morph. As time goes on, more webmasters will become aware of the importance that inbo...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Forgotten Content Can Damage Search Performance
November 17, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
Sometimes a site’s own past dampens its bright SEO future. The forgotten designs, old campaigns, and abandoned domains that accumulate unnoticed in a web server can have a negative impact on a site’s ability to rank and drive natural search-referred traffic and sales. Search engines ret...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: WisconsinMade.com Needs Quick Tweaks for the Holidays
November 10, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
As we enter into the holiday shopping season, it's all hands on deck for merchants selling gift baskets. The Wisconsin specialist e-tailer Wisconsin Made is no exception. The challenge is to make an impact in what little time is left in the year. Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't i...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: Moodswingsonthenet.com Offers Retro Fashion, Retro SEO
October 21, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
Our "SEO Report Card" for this month is Moodswingsonthenet.com. The CEO of Moodswings, Elizabeth Bighorse, requested this review, and she told us that the company has just finished a re-launch of its "multiple sales channel" site. Moodswings focuses on urban, rockabilly, tattoo and alt...
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Technical SEO
SEO: There Is No Duplicate Content Penalty
October 15, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
There is a long held belief that search engines – namely Google – penalize websites that duplicate content or produce material that is largely the same as other sites on the Internet. But, I’m here to tell you, The Duplicate Content Penalty is a myth. Think about it this way. If a page...
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SEO Tools
Ecommerce Know-How: Optimizing Your Site for Microsoft Bing
September 22, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The Microsoft, Yahoo! search deal announced in July still faces legal hurdles, but as more details have become available, it is clear that the companies' combined search share has—for the first time in perhaps a decade—created some real competition for Google. Depending on which poll o...
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SEO
SEO: Search Engine Rankings Vary Among Searchers
September 16, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
Rankings have long been a valued metric in search marketing. After all, it's easy to monitor and seems like a really important measure. However, if you really want to measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaign, stop obsessing about rankings. Proactively changing the focus of your c...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: PhotoWeights.com
September 11, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
This month’s site up for review is PhotoWeights.com. Owned by Susan Eaton, PhotoWeights.com sells personalized, do-it-yourself paperweight kits from family photos and other artwork. Eaton requested this "SEO Report Card" review. Home Page First things first, the home page has some maj...
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Keyword Research
Ecommerce Know-How: Understanding Brand-Influenced Search Queries
August 25, 2009 • Armando Roggio
When shoppers navigate to a search engine and begin their queries, they usually have some idea of what they are looking for. In many cases, that initial idea is the result of brand-influence. In very general terms, search engine queries fall on a specificity scale. On one end of this s...
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Technical SEO
Ecommerce Know-How: Adobe Flash vs. Search Engine Optimization
July 27, 2009 • Armando Roggio
New technology, user demand, and search-engine-optimized design are making it possible for search engines to index, rank and display sites developed completely with the Adobe Flash platform. To be sure, rich Internet applications (RIAs), like those created with Flash and Flex, are a ch...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: OnlyHangers.com Has a Good Home Page, Bad Product Pages
July 23, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
This month fortune smiles on OnlyHangers.com for a free site review. We received the request from the company's owner, Ron Maier. In a way, OnlyHangers.com is in an enviable position because it is in such a niche market; so the known universe of relevant search terms is relatively small...
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Technical SEO
PeC Traffic Report: Searches for “Saving” Words Slowing in 2009
July 20, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Google search queries for "saving" words like "coupon" and "discount" were relatively flat in the first half of 2009. This is in spite of a U.S. national unemployment rate that has risen 69.6 percent in a year and the remaining effects of widespread recession. Relative data from Google...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: SimpleFamilyLiving.com a “Train Wreck”
June 23, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
This month's "SEO Report Card" victim, er, volunteer, SimpleFamilyLiving.com, is quite simply, an SEO train wreck. The mission of the online business (to provide eco-friendly products that reduce landfill waste) is laudable, but its execution is seriously flawed. Putting aside the fac...
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SEO Tools
SEO: Where Is Blended Search for Ecommerce Queries?
June 17, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
When the concept of blended search was introduced, the search engine optimization (SEO) industry and ecommerce retailers got very excited. By optimizing the images and video content that many sites already produce, search engines were adding visually appealing content to the standard 10...
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SEO Tools
SEO: “Speak” to the Search Engine Spiders
May 19, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engines are like translators. With no more than a couple of words entered into the search box, they attempt to translate a word or phrase into the searcher’s meaning or intent and compare it to the millions of potential matches in their indices. But the less understood and even...
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SEO
Blended Search: Four Ways to Optimize Content for Better Search Rankings
May 15, 2009 • Lisa Wehr
Gone are the days when a search is performed and only a list of pertinent websites appears in the search engine results page. Instead, what can be found now is a blend of websites, videos, images, social media profiles, blogs, news stories, press releases, podcasts and maps. With blende...
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Technical SEO
PeC Traffic Report: Does Google’s “Vince Update” Favor Big Brands?
May 12, 2009 • Armando Roggio
A recent change to the Google algorithm apparently favors established, well-known brands in some categories, potentially making it harder for small online sellers to compete with large retailers for search engine rankings. The so-called "Vince Update" seems to have taken effect on Janu...
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SEO
SEO Report Card: eHobbies.com “Uncommonly Sophisticated”
May 11, 2009 • Stephan Spencer
This month eHobbies.com is up for review. Ken Kikkawa, CEO of eHobbies, submitted the site for grading. I have to say I was impressed. Chief executive officers of companies that large - #364 on the Internet Retailer 500 list for eHobbies - are usually too high level to concern themselve...
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SEO Tools
SEO: Try Surfing Like a Search Engine Spider
April 15, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
I’m a visual learner. I need to see and interact with things to understand them. It therefore helps me to mimic the behavior of search engine spiders when I’m digging into a site for the first time to review its search engine optimization issues. I like to think of it as “being the bot....
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