Shop content
Something which has a large effect and is under your control is the content of your web site. Search engines appreciate change and frequency of updates. Shops which remain the same for 6 months will be ignored by the search engines. In particular, the home page and the pages linked from it should be updated regularly. Search engines reward this with more frequent visits and in-depth indexing.
Page optimisation
Individual pages (not the entire web page or shop) should be optimised for two or three search terms at the most. The search terms should constitute two to three percent of the entire text. Although there is no maximum value, a long list of search terms looks like spam. Check which keywords your competitors that are listed before you in Google use.
Product number, name, descriptions, attributes, and keywords
Either the product number is used in the URL (see http://www.demosite.co.uk/epages/Demosite.sf/?ObjectPath=Products/ProductXYZ) or (better!) you can use the short URL. There is another entry field for every language that contains a suggestion based upon the product name. Note that when you change this suggestion, it cannot contain any spaces, underscores, or umlauts. (The short URL is only available if your shop uses its own domain).
Make sure that the URL does not become unnecessarily long through the short URL. The total length should not be longer than 100 characters, with a maximum of 200 characters. So, if you already have a very long domain name, you must rein yourself in with the short URL.
Of course, the product name is very important as well. As mentioned above, the application automatically places the product name in the H1 tag, the TITLE tag, as well as in the ALT tag if there is an image of the product. Because Google indexes a maximum of 65 characters from the TITLE tag, you should not use too many words in product names. However, associating the product manufacturer with the product name is recommended (for example "Canon EOS 300D"). Pay attention to legal issues such as restricted trademarks, however, when using them.
Two good solutions for the combination of key words and brand names are:
Primary key word – secondary key word | brand name
Brand name | primary key word – secondary key word
It is optimal if the title tag does not only contain the product name, but instead a complete search phrase.
A search phrase connects the product name with a "money term" such as "order", "buy", "cheap", etc.
Customers often use these search phrases and do not search simply according to product names. If the product name is only entered for the search, in addition to shops, general informational pages are shown as well. This makes it difficult for the customer to find where to buy the item. Therefore, customers use money terms such as "Buy Canon Camera" or "Order Canon Camera". Then they are shown pages to purchase the product as well. One tip: finish the search phrase with an exclamation point or a question mark. For example: "Buy Canon camera with free shipping!"
Add to this the fact that the title tag is shown as a link in the search results, which means that it is the first thing that catches the user's eye. If the customer sees "Buy Canon EOS 300D cheap!" he is more likely to click than if only "Canon EOS 300D" is shown.
The content for the title tag can be edited on the general product details page in the "Page title" field. The product and shop name are entered automatically.
The product description will appear in your shop for the search engines at least twice. Once will be a text on the category page which contains the product, and also on the product page itself in the META description tag. Search engines allow a maximum of 255 characters for this tag. However, fewer are definitely better. About 13 words has been shown to be the optimal number. However, do not only enter keywords here. This looks like spam and can discourage potential customers. Note that you have a Description field as well as a Long description field (the long description is shown as text on the product detail page). Both of these texts can and should be different, but both should be optimised for the correct search terms. Optimize your texts a maximum of 2-3 keywords per page. At the moment, Google users are looking for an average of 2.2 words per search.
In particular, when using numbers, question marks and exclamation marks (e.g. “available within 24 hours” or “Do you need cheap pencils?” or “Don’t miss these pencils!”) - special characters (e.g. ticks or arrows) also help to attract attention here – add them using the WYSIWYG Editor (Edit text).
Don't copy the texts from your competition or your vendors. If this content is older than yours in Google, then Google will recognize the duplicate content and will not index it. Also small changes are not enough. 60% is enough to be marked by Google as duplicate content. Create original content.
As mentioned above, the product attributes you assign to a product are displayed in an H2 tag. Use the ability to organise product attributes into product types (for example the "Pack size" attribute in the "Tent" product type in the demo content).
Although the Keywords for search engines are not evaluated at the moment (see previous), you can still add alternative search terms here which you do not want to use in the description. You can use misspelled or variant versions of the product's name. For the example of an umbrella: Umbrella, umbrela, parasol, umbrala. Note that the search function in ePages 6 will also inspect these keywords to help your customer to find the product he is looking for.
Remember that your customer may use the plural, alternative terms, or even misspell (for the example of a mobile phone "cellphone, cell phone, mobile fon"). You can also enter the search terms in a different order, for example: "mobile phone, phone mobile". Mark specific keywords bold in the page text. This will help search engines and customers to find them more easily.
You can use the search statistics (in the Products menu) to analyse the search behaviour of your customers in the shop. There you can see which search terms were used and how many hits were generated. If search terms occur very often without results, you should revise your descriptions.
Another tip: Yahoo! Search, Google AdWords, and several fee-based services have keyword databases. There you can get an overview of how often specific keywords are used. Another good service is:
http://www.keywordspy.com.
Delete products?
A URL which has been indexed by Google should never disappear! If this is a product that you can no longer deliver, label it as "Not available". To do so, set the attribute For sale on the General tab on the product detail page of the product in the Description section to no. This will remove the link Add to shopping basket. Because you will surely have alternative or next-generation products, note and link to that product in the product description.
Do not forget the category entries
The examples of the previous chapter apply to products, but the same is true for categories.
Every category has an ID (Alias), a name, a description, and a long description. You can also provide keywords for categories. Always upload an image for each category. Not only does it look better, it also provides search engines with an additional ALT tag.
Do not use abbreviations for category names. Avoid abbreviations such as "Heavy Mach. and Equip.". Use the full name instead ("Heavy Machinery and Equipment").
Category depth
You have surely thought about the structure of your pages. Make it easy for your users and the search engines by not using many sublevels. No search engine will go deeper than six levels.
The higher in the hierarchy the indexed pages are, the better.
Videos
Product videos are becoming more and more common for marketing. In order for Google to "see" this video, you can create a site map for it. Place it in your Google webmaster area. Google video search will then find your product videos under the key words provided. Repeat this with other portals such as AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.
Include informational pages
Remember that a shop should include more than categories and products. Inform your customers by using a blog (it would be best if the boss blogs himself) and use freely-designable pages and content pages to inform your customers about news in your sector, attract interest with product usage information, and provide handbooks, past newsletters, and press releases as well. A "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) section should contain useful tips about your services and shop usage. For everything on your site: Update regularly, at least three times a week! And remember: Even PDF, Word, and PowerPoint documents are recognised and indexed by Google and other search engines. So use the function which allows you to upload file attachments for your products. Note, however, that Google often ranks PDF documents higher. Since you would like your product pages at the front, not every PDF must appear in the index.
The copyright trick
A copyright notice is usually displayed at the foot of the web page. The system includes defined page elements which you can place in the footer. You can add a search term for the entire shop as the contents of a navigation element next to the copyright notice. The search engine will always see this at the foot of the page. For example:
Copyright Demo Site Ltd—We have everything you need
To create additional internal links, you can also link the copyright notice to the shop home page or to a prominent content page (see the next chapter).