Which Hat of SEO (Black/White) Goes with this Green Lace Dress?
-
Doing some research (honestly) I came across this page: http://www.modcloth.com/th/green-lace-dress
That page ranks very well for the phrase "green lace dress" - #2 in Google for me. I'm sure there's a good amount of links coming into it, but on the surface there's only 1 mention of green on the page and 2 mentions of lace.
Looking at the code, you can see ModCloth is using the Quick View links below the products to display a more detailed description of the product - wherein lies many more instances of green and lace.
So I ask: Which color of SEO hat goes with this green lace dress - Black or White? Is it good SEO to only show the product descriptions when the user initiates the Quick View? Or is it shady SEO to hide so much text from the immediate view of the user? Please select one and explain why.
-
Thanks for the ideas and input, Christina!
*Disclaimer: SEOmoz discussions are not responsible for a drop in productivity due to commenters finding the examples used to be awesome.
-
Darn you, Nate, I almost wasted the rest of my afternoon poking around ModCloth!
They are just using the main description and cutting it off, which I think is a missed opportunity. I'd do a one to two-line intro to the piece, the same way you would preface a link to an article on Twitter. I'd either take a line or two from the original description and stop there, or draft up one based on the most salient features of the item.
-
Thanks for the response, Tom! Good point about the similarity to FAQ pages.
Some retailers don't take the time to write their own product descriptions. What would you propose be different about the content on a product's page vs. that product's preview on a category page?
-
Hah! Touché Nate, lol - You are most welcome
-
Ha! Duly noted with your last name being Tan!
Those were pretty much my initial thoughts as well, just wanted to get confirmation of my thought process.
I guess I'd have to see an example of a "ridiculously spammy" Quick View link to fully understand your point on that, but the end remains the same: Do what's best for the user and all is well.
Thanks for the reply!
-
Can't see anything wrong with this at all.
It's a page designed with the user at heart. The first view keeps this concise and lets the user select the style they want, after which they can click for more information if necessary, rather than having an information overload.
Just because text is being hidden to begin with doesn't make it a bad thing. I find this very similar to the FAQ pages that you get with the sort of accordion style (click the + sign, expand for more information). I think it works well for a product page and I'm surprised it hasn't been done more.
Completely "white-hat" in my view - the only grey area would be if those descriptions are being lifted from the original page, might be a weeny bit of duplicate content in that case.
-
First let me say that I thought it was kind of funny that you posted a question about black hat/white hat regarding the color green and your last name is "White."
I don't think there's anything wrong at all by putting a more complete description in a product "Quick View...." as long as users seem to be engaged with the page. From that standpoint, my take on it is that it's totally white hat. Now, could that "Quick View" text be written in a way that's ridiculously spammy? Sure. But still, in my view it's not really "black hat" for this reason: The page wasn't constructed to deliberately hide anything from the end user. It was constructed to perhaps be more aesthetically pleasing by using the "Quick View" to make the text available to visitors without having to clog up the page with loads and loads of text visually. If the "Quick View" text was completely invisible to end users, and only visible to a bot....then I believe you'd have a black hat scenario.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does adding ecommerce to a site affect SEO? What are the negative and what are the positives?
We are thinking of adding ecommerce to our website as a service to our customers. We generate most of our leads through online quote requests but heard that it may be beneficial to our SEO if we add ecommerce for a few products. Is this true? Does anyone have tips on best and worst SEO ecommerce practices?
Web Design | | TeguarMarketing0 -
Does anyone know if the YOAST SEO plugin works 100% on a responsive wordpress template?
Hi, Does anyone know if the YOAST SEO plugin works 100% on responsive wordpress template? In other words, when you configure the custom title and metadescription is it also configured for the tablet and cellphone views as well? Thanks Carla
Web Design | | Carla_Dawson0 -
We believe we accomplished an SEO Parallax site with a nice balance. Can the MOZ community critique this site from an SEO perspective?
Our goal was to accomplish a site that has parallax scrolling and great onsite optimization. We noticed that most Awwward winning sites www.awwwards.com have great parallax scrolling but no SEO. Can the MOZ community critique this site from an SEO perspective? (Note this site was optimized for Chrome or Firefox. If you are using IE, you will be redirected to the old site.) www.posicionamientowebenbuscadores.com Note the site is in BETA still. It has the following technologies CSS3 HTML5 REsponsive Wordpress Parallax Scrolling Onsite Optimization (SEO) No mobile (ran out of funds...)
Web Design | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Need help to implement microdata/microformat for ecommerce site
**Can somebody please help me to implement microdata/microformats codes for our ecommerce product pages? **
Web Design | | EastEssence22
Please guide me if you have some CSS example for the same. Thanks.0 -
Ecommerce SEO - product sort order
Hi, I've been trying to find the answer to this in google but having no luck. In the current era, is it damaging to have products ordered randomly in an ecommerce website? Also, how long would you suggest is a good length of time to establish your natural rank? Ive launched and still work on several succesful ecommerce sites, but have recently launched a completely new venture - brand new url, brand new site and it has been live for around 5 weeks now, and although it is being found in search, it isnt doing as well as i'd like using the moz pro tools ive picked up some issues and have in the last few days tweaked page titles, added 'nofollow' to all my filters, added content etc, so I feel as though ive reset the clock. the site (it's an adult site by the way) is www.lovesauce.co.uk - would appreciate some feedback from the pro's
Web Design | | tom.dollar0 -
E Commerce Product URL SEO
Hi, first question here. In response to Paddy's wonderful article and Rand's related article from 09 I've found myself asking this question. "www.home.co.uk/product" or "www.home.co.uk/category/product" As I'm currently reviewing the structure for so many of our e com sites the article comes at a great time. I'm going for home/category/product so I can optimise for a category, as category based searches are quite high and competitive. Yes some products can appear in 2 categories but I'm combating it with 301's or image based links. What are your thoughts.
Web Design | | PASSLtd0 -
Wordpress/ Insert Tables/ SEO
I'm using Wordpress to create websites and blogs. I have limited (non-existent) HTML Coding knowledge. I'm looking to insert tables within my pages with information. Inside of these tables I want certain names to link to another page with more specific information about that name. I'm using a plugin called "WP Tables Reloaded" it simple helps you to create aesthetically pleasing tables without needing to know HTML Code or CSS. The issue is... when you create this table and insert it to the post, the only thing that shows on the sites back-end page is the table I.D. and the only thing that shows in the HTML is the tables I.D. It looks like this... [table id=2 /] I don't think search engines will be able to crawl this table, thus I won't be receiving any credit for the links being used within the table. Am I right about this?
Web Design | | AndySolo0 -
Local SEO - Title Tag?
For www.bluedotlandscaping.com/fencing.htm in which we mostly only care about Greenvile and Spartanburg counties in SC. Is <title>Patio designs - Water features - Brick patio by Blue Dot Landscaping</title>
Web Design | | SCyardman
good... or or do you prefer... <title>Patio designs - Water features - Brick patio - Greenville, Spartanburg, Simpsonville</title> Thanks for your help, Rich0