Posts Tagged ‘learn SEO’

How E-Commerce Stores Can Benefit Greatly from Organic SEO

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Many owners of e-commerce Web sites do not bother with any type of search engine optimization, simply because they don’t think it works for online stores. However, the truth is that organic SEO can greatly help online stores gain Web site traffic which will in turn boost more sales. Here are some organic SEO tips from Helium.com especially for e-commerce sites.

Domain Name: Make sure your domain name is something that’s easy to remember and describes exactly what your store is.

Page META Tags: Each page of your Web site should have a specific META title, description and keywords. Search engines use the META information to index the pages of your site. Make sure to give a name or a title to each category and product. Make sure the titles are very descriptive and under 70 characters long. The META description should include keywords and be less than 200 characters long. The keywords need to be phrases you think someone would use when trying to search for a product or specific item in your store.

Page Content: Make sure to write a description about each product. One of the biggest mistakes e-commerce sites make is forgetting to put text on the product pages. This is very important for the search engines to index the page. The text should include the name of the product, the brand and specific features that make it different from other products.

Images: Make sure to add tags and descriptions to all images. This gives search engines more content to index. Image tags need to tell what the photo is about using keywords. Include the type or product, the brand and the product’s uses.

Customer Reviews: Having user-generated content on your site allows the content on your site to charge often, which lures search engines back to index more pages. Also user-generated content encourages company-client interaction, allows customers to interact with the company and each other and give feedback on the products they’ve purchased. Customer feedback also works to improve your online credibility because people will be more likely to buy from your store if they read notes from other satisfied customers.

Using organic SEO on an online store site is very similar to optimizing any Web site. Regular updates show your customers as well as the search engines that you care and once you begin to add SEO to your e-commerce Website you’ll start noticing more traffic which will turn into more profits. For more infomation, read the full article on Helium.com.

International #SEO Help – Reaching Multi-lingual Audiences

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Anyone involved in SEO knows the important of keyword research. However, what do you do when you’re trying to reach a foreign market, especially if you’re dealing with an unfamiliar language?

Some people might suggest using a translating tool like Google Translate, and simply type in the keywords you would use for your English-speaking audience. However, it’s not as simple as all that. Different cultures have different ways of expressing and phrasing things, and a direct translation may be missing the mark. A direct translation is also not going to give you any colloquialisms or slang terms that people might be searching for.

So, if direct translation isn’t effective, what can you do? The first step is to consult a professional translator who lives in the country you wish to reach. This way, you’ll be getting keywords from someone who is immersed in the common language and culture of your targeted audience. Also, that translator can brainstorm with you on what synonyms and other terms would be popular searches.

Once you have your new list of keywords, it’s time to do some further research. Perform a detailed data analysis of search trends in the market you’re trying to reach. Make sure to analyze keywords that your competitors use. What keywords are successful, and which are not? Also, make sure to use both general keywords (the words most commonly searched for), and more specific keywords that aren’t as competitive.

For further SEO help, contact Search Circus, and read the full article from Search Engine Watch about international SEO tips.

5 Alternatives for Outdated SEO Tactics

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

In the past, some SEO tactics used were rather questionable, and unfortunately, some of those practices are still used today. However, times are changing and more legitimate SEO practices are becoming popular. Here are 5 outdated practices and their alternatives, as posted on Website Magazine.

Outdated SEO Tactic 1: Keyword stuffing. In the ’90’s, the more a keyword appeared on a page, the higher it ranked.
The Fix: Using keywords only in prominent areas (headers, title tags), and making sure the keyword appears high on the page.
Outdated SEO Tactic 2: Blog Comment Spamming. This is where links are dropped in blog comments, simply to generate links.
The Fix: Create well-written content to attract readers and generate links.
Outdated SEO Tactic 3: Search Engine Submission: Google can discover and index new content on its own, therefore making search engine submission obsolete.
The Fix: Getting links is a good way to get your site discovered quickly. Twitter is a good place to drop a link to your site, as well as other social media platforms.
Outdated SEO Tactic 4: Meta Tag Optimization. Unfortunately, some site owners and SEOs have abused this tactic by adding misleading terms to a meta tag that are unrelated to their content. Because of this, Google no longer pays any attention to meta keyword tags.
The Fix: Use category and tag systems to label and organize your content. Actively tagging your posts will make your site more searchable.
Outdated SEO Tactic 5: Link Exchanges. Exchanging a few links here and there isn’t really an issue, except when Website owners abuse the system to intentionally influence search rankings.
The Fix: Offer testimonials to vendors you work with. This provides a legitimate way to include your link on another site.
Read the full article here.