On Page SEO for eCommerce Websites
Putting up an ecommerce website with the descriptions from the manufacture is bad for SEO. Putting up any content on your website that is not unique is not good for SEO. The excuse that “everybody does it” is not valid. Sure there are some people out there that rank well using manufacture descriptions but your not them. When you get the same kinds of links that they do you will outrank them because you have unique content. When Google spiders the web they notice that there are a lot of people selling the same item with the same description. If you want Google to notice you you’re going to have to be different. A very good example of a website doing this right is www.jpeterman.com.
If your serious about getting more sales through organic search traffic your going to have to spend the time or hire somebody to do it for you. Somebody is going to have to go in and rewrite your descriptions. When you rewrite the description you need to make sure you include keywords you want to rank for. Also add alt tags to your images. Another thing I recommend is to consider how Wikipedia is set up. In your description talk about other items that go with this item and link to them with anchor text. Notice in Wikipedia articles there are lots of links to other pages in Wikipedia. That is one of the reasons they rank so well. Internal linking can help you rank above your competitors. On page SEO is hard work and has to be done on large ecommerce websites.
Don’t forget that an ecommerce website is also a website. It should not just be a cart. You need to include articles. The more interesting your site is the more links you will get. Talk about your products. Talk about how they can be used in different ways. Talk about ways to augment them. Write stories about somebody using your product. Spend time on your template and try to keep the code down so that Google mostly finds text instead of tons of junk. Don’t forget that people will leave your website if your page is not loading very fast.
Nice article! I don’t know if I agree about having product pages link to other product pages, but I could see the reasoning behind it. It does help with increasing revenue so I’m all for it, but I usually recommend the links are implemented via JavaScript so that the site structure remains more specific to the flow from main category, to sub category, and to product. I try to keep the funnel structure.
My reason for linking between products is to improve internal linking. Wikipedia does so well in part because all of the keyword rich anchor text internal linking between articles. I have done a lot of testing and internal linking can make a big improvement in search ranking.
I recommend is to consider how Wikipedia is set up. In your description talk about other items that go with this item and link to them with anchor text. Notice in Wikipedia articles there are lots of links to other pages in Wikipedia. That is one of the reasons they rank so well. Internal linking can help you rank above your competitors.
I love this article. I am so tired of hearing the new break through secret on SEO. SEO is not break through it is not automated, and can not be tricked. Play the hard way and Google could cut you play the right way it will take some work but it will have a longer award.
Thanks for the honest report
Megan
You’re absolutely right ogletree. Internal linking is as important as external links. This my successful sites, not only wikepedia but other news and article sites use internal linking to boost their serps for many many keywords.
Sometimes I have found that some of the sites I have built through different open source cms has had trouble with seo and indexing with google. Some plugins I would be careful off as they can cause problems when the search engines are crawling
Nice reiteration that content is king! And it can’t be duplicate to anything else out there. Google (and readers) really hate repetitive content.
There just is no quick way to optimize a page. It takes work building unique, optimized content, building links and maintaining the page. Nothing good happens very quickly unless it is a completely unique situation.
Article writing can be a great ticket to more traffic and links, but it takes work!
Great Blog. BTW!
Difference in the internet world is key. I have visited many websites that focus on pushing the same points or topics and the only different is the rewording. The internet is like the real world and should be used in the same fashion. People should look for new and alternative ways to market their products or services.
Thanks for the very helpful information about SEO.Putting up an ecommerce website with the descriptions from the manufacture is bad for SEO…It is true.When Google spiders the web they notice that there are a lot of people selling the same item with the same description.