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An online retailer’s first steps towards success – search engine optimization

Guest writer Written by Guest writer - Feb 11, 2013

A well-written product description helps your customer in making a purchase decision. However if you ignore search engine optimization while creating content, it is difficult for a customer to find your shop. Content is an important factor in search engine visibility. With the help of the following tips, you can make sure that your content shows in search results correctly and that it encourages people to enter your web shop.

First three topics are the most important since they define how your web shop is shown in the search results.

1. Title tag

The title tag is the blue text of the search result shown.

Tatu Patronen - search engine optimization in a web shop 3

Previously Google measured the title according to the number of characters. This has changed and now the title is measured according to the pixels. For this reason the 70 character limit is not correct anymore. The main rule with titles is that if the title is too short or too long, Google will change it and your keyword might disappear.

Here are some tips for writing a good title tag:

  • Keep the length between 50-65 characters.
  • Use a unique title tag for each page. Frontpage as a title is not good.
  • Remember to use your keyword in the title, preferably in the beginning of the tag.
  • If your company is not well known, drop the company name off of the title tag.
  • If needed, use a location. (e.g. Helsinki, Stockholm)

2. Clean URLs

A clean URL means that instead of a cryptic query strings you can read and understand the URL and it tells you what the page is all about.

Tips for creating a clean URL:

  • Avoid using dynamic URLs (e.g. verkkobisnes.fi/?p=100+1&a=etusivu). The URL should contain only numbers, letters and hyphens.
  • The shorter the URL the better. Try to keep under 100 characters.
  • If you need to use several words in the URL, remember to use hyphen in between the words. This enables Google to understand that the words are separate.

If you intend to change the URLs of your existing web shop, make sure that you redirect (301 redirect) the old pages to the new ones. This way you won’t loose the traffic coming to your old page.

3. Meta description

Meta description is the black text in the search result below.

Tatu Patronen - search engine optimization in a web shop 2

The more inviting your meta description is, the more people will click to your web shop. The meta description does not have a strong impact on visibility but it does affect how people view your shop in the search results and whether or not they choose to click.

Tips for writing a good meta description:

  • Use a unique and relevant description of each page. In the product page meta description, talk about the product and not the web shop.
  • Use descriptive ad text where you encourage clicking the search result.
  • Keep the length under 160 characters but over 51 characters (ideal is between 140-150 characters) to avoid Google’s own version of description.
  • If possible, use one or two whole sentences in the description.
  • Remember to use a keyword in the beginning of the description.
  • If needed, use a location (e.g. Helsinki, Stockholm).

4. Meta keyword

Many years ago Google used keyword meta tag to decode the topic of the web site. Due to abuse of this, Google does not react to meta keyword tagging anymore.

Do not use the keywords tag: it does not work and in worst case, you will reveal your keywords to your competitors.

5. Names of image files and alt- text

Search engines have difficulties in reading images for this reason you should always name them with care and add an alternative text to them.

Alternative –text describes what the image is about. You should use relevant keywords that describe not only the image but also your web page.

When naming image files, you should use meaningful words instead of numbers or series of characters. If possible, add a keyword into the file name.

6. Duplicate content

Due to a large number of pages, duplicate content is easily created in web shops. This is problematic for search engines that then see two similar pages and don’t know which should be indexed.

The main reasons for duplicates:

  • Several domains (verkkobisnes.fi, verkkobisnes.com, verkkobisnes.net). Use only one domain and 301 redirect to it.
  • With or without www? Make a decision. Use either only www.domain.fi or http://domain.fi. Redirect the other to the one you want to use.
  • Pages with not much content. Write a unique text (about 300-400 characters) to each page.
  • Web shop structure can cause duplicates if one product is in several categories. Then the same page can be found in category1/product1 and category2/product1.

You can get rid of duplicates by informing search engines the primary URL, in other words, by defining Canonical URL for each page. A simple way to do the defining looks like this:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://verkkobisnes.fi/”>

7. Validating the code

Also the technical quality of your web shop affects the search engine visibility. Search engines decode your page by using the source code. The higher the quality of the code, the easier it is for search engines to decode it.

Koodin validiointi

You can check the technical quality of your web shop by using W3C validator.

8. Loading speed of a web shop

Google recommends that loading a web site should take 1.4 seconds or less. The longer it takes for the page loads, the worse the user experience.

This is why search engines evaluate the loading speed of your web site. You can find different tests for loading speed in the Internet. I recommend the one offered by Google because in addition to testing the loading speed, it also gives you tips for how to speed up you web site.

9. Submitting site map

In a web shop, there can be thousands and tens of thousands of pages and you of course want your pages to be visible in the search results.

Search engines are able to go through your web shop, however, they cannot necessarily find every page at once. This process can be made easier for search engines by submitting them a list of pages in your web shop. For submitting the list, you need a site map of your web shop (in XML format).

When you sign in to the webmaster pages of Google or Bing, you can submit the site map. After submitting it, you can see how many pages the search engine has already indexed and how many haven’t been indexed. Next the search engine will index your page within a couple of days. If this doesn’t happen, there might be a problem related to the issues listed above or there might be content missing on some of the pages.

Conclusion

There are at least 200 factors which effect search engine visibility. The topics mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg. However, managing these basic methods can help you forward. The deeper we go with search engine optimization, the bigger the role of external links.

If you have any questions about search engine optimization, leave a comment. I’ll be happy to answer.

The writer

Tatu PatronenTatu Patronen is the CEO of Verkkobisnes Finland Oy, a company that concentrates on search engine optimization.

With help of search engine marketing and inbound marketing, Tatu develops and optimizes web sites and web shops so that they would generate leads and sales.

Read also

An online retailer’s first steps towards success -online presence

An online retailer’s first steps towards success - content

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