Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Guy. In terms of no-follow for page rank sculpting purposes, I've read the pros and cons of both and for me I've concluded I'd rather direct the juice where I want it to go rather than to block or prevent it from flowing where I don't want it to flow. No-follow can have unintended results, so I prefer the alternative.

Volume of categories and how to structure them is a challenge for a lot of ecommerce folks (me included). I've recently started flattening my site. While development of useful and intuitive sub-categories helps people find what they want on the 3rd or 4th click, crawl penetration suffers due to the depth. By flattening my site I mean reducing the number of sub-categories that can only be reached by other sub-categories - which is basically moving 3rd or 4th level categories up to the second level or top level (left nav).

A large and top ranking Toy Store I visit often to see how they structure their links has a top nav with categories, a left nav with categories and a sitemap in the footer. Each navigation entry has either different links in it or some different anchor text linking to the same pages. After much reading and apparent consensus among veteran users in this forum, I nixed the sitemap as unnecessary if I use good linking practice throughout the site. One Guru even suggested a sitemap can hurt your rankings if every page is linked to every other page with juice diminishing returns.

In my case, I created a left nav link to additional categories and put categories or sub-categories in them that were either: 1. Removed from the left nav because they were not important enough to be on the left nav 2. Removed from the left nav because on-page analytics suggested they didn't warrant being on the homepage. 3. Were a 3rd or 4th level category that on-page analytics showed there was enough demand to move its link to a second level or top level.

I hope this works for me and could of some help to you. Good luck.

Hi Cody. I just got in on the tail end of this. I'd also put keywords in the file name. Check out a previous thread on this.

Hi Angie. There's a lot being said about social influence and SERPs right now. Although I can't answer your question specifically, I can wonder logically why Google would flirt with +, likes, shares etc as an indicator of relevance, trustworthiness or reliability etc.

Facebook likes are already abused by outfits offering incentives for "liking". Curious to watch this evolve.

Hi Luke,

As you can tell, it touched a nerve. I was looking for the moz link to a thread regarding this same issue and Alan (one of the Gurus) said multiple H1's can affect engines differently and if I remember correctly he made reference to a negative response from Bing.

Until H1's achieve the lofty status of meta keywords, I will continue to treat them with some importance and approach them with best practice.

I'll listen for the rumbling coming from your direction.

Good luck.

It's early in my observation/research of Google Product optimization, but it seems to me that Google leans to branded keyword optimization.

You'll appear in Google products for both branded and non branded keywords but results suggest to me (without enough hard data) that branded terms are favored (perhaps because branded terms tend to be long tail).

Hopefully, we get some more comments here that have more data-backed experiences.

Once you drill down to keywords, pages, time-on page and %exit, I think you'll probably see pretty quickly where you can address some things that will help.

I think you're right on the money with keeping your content fresh.

Good luck.

Not a dumb question.  I had a lot of issues trying to find my way around this site when it first opened.

To some extent, still do.

I was doing real well until I read this: "Ive noticed the developer's used about 18 per page" Multiple H1's are one thing, but excessive, spammy, abusive, irrelevant H1's are another.

Why in the world is he even bothering with an H1 tag if he's got 18 of them? Ask him, "What are you telling the bots with your H1's - 18 different things or the same thing 18 different times?" No wonder the value of the tag has declined so much since its inception. That volume of H1's is what Cutt's is referring to in his 2009 video.

Our CMS site auto-generates a header H1 tag when enabling optimization for mCommerce. So, when I put an H1 on the page for categories and products, the page has multiple H1's. I'd like to have one but will live with 2.

I think GWT explains it very well.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/158587?hl=en

I typically use it to submit new pages to the index although its probably not necessary if you have an xml sitemap. Not certain on that one.

More tech savvy folks probably use it to also check the crawlability and "health" of pages.

We have a retail store and ecommerce performance is judged by the month, quarter year etc.

I focus on local long tail first followed by the short tail with goals of winning the 1-3 spot (lots of 1's) for both.

Then I want to win long tail national followed by short tail national (national meaning nationwide outside of our state).

Shorter tail (category) type keywords are difficult for us to rank for but we are gaining on it over time as our domain authority improves.

Link building is high on our agenda for 2013.

I wish something showed on hover.

Indeed. I'll keep you on my short list.

Here's an oh-by-the-way.

One of our manufacturer's came out with a product via slow roll literally within the last 5 days.  They have not announced the release of it to the retailers.  I happened to stumble on it visiting their site while updating products.

I did a search of the term and found I wasn't the only one unaware of it so I scrambled to add the product to the site, promote it and submit it to the index late Tuesday.

It's Thursday and its showing in SERPs.

Would it have appeared that quickly if I didn't submit it via fetch?  I don't know for sure but I'm inclined to think not. Call me superstitious.

Someone debunk the myth if you can. One less thing for me to do.

Why do about half of the business directories on getlisted.org want a personal profile when creating/claiming a business listing?

Why would a medium to large business need personal profile content on the listing?

Relevant or not, its the first time I've heard of putting an H1 tag in the footer. Perhaps calling it an F1 tag would be more appropriate. Seriously, some would argue the H1 tag has little to no relevance (Rand would probably fall into this category) and therefore some do not use it at all. Todd Malicoat would suggest the H1 tag has some relevance and is a good practice for page structure and keyword instance.

A recent thread among these posts and one I ascribe to is that failing to use an H1 tag is probably not going to hurt you, but using one is certainly not going to hurt you. If it is going to be of benefit to the user in terms of readability and navigation (with an arguable smidgeon of G benefit) go ahead and use it.

That being said, strong keyword copy in the lower block level is good block level distribution. Putting an H1 tag would be irrelevant in my opinion and unorthodox as H1 tags historically have been in the top block.

No idea.

Incentivizing social is easier than incentivizing backlinks and there's a quite a bit of gray area in acquiring backlinks.

We compete against those box stores and do really well in the local serps for long and some head terms.

I don't know if local applies, but there are battles in that space to win.

The best feature IMO of the keyword tool was the keyword suggestion element.

I guess Google doesn't want to give up too much for free.

I'd also like any good ideas!

We embed the videos right on the product and category pages of our ecommerce site. We like keeping them on the page so the customer stays on the page. If they want to pause or stop the video they can and they don't have to close a window.

Can you believe the security head telling the guy he won't get paid?

It seems the security engineer shouldn't be paid.

Your eCommerce software may automatically update your sitemap with new product url's.

In Volusion for instance, you just add the products and the sitemap is updated and crawled by Google.

We've got 15,000+ skus and don't add large volumes of products on a regular basis.

When I add new products I typically add them in GWT and submit them.  Generally, they appear in 2-3 days and more quickly than site crawls - especially if its a deep product.

Hi Jen,

I've not been receiving any email updates for responses submitted. Was that feature turned off for this post or is something amiss in my settings?

Wow, Shara. WAY TOO MANY keywords for any page. I'm concerned for you as it violates the most basic principles of SEO. You might consider this:

1. Spend time in Google Webmaster tools and glean all you can from its SEO instruction.

2. Spend time in the learning center here at SEOmoz.

3. Narrow optimization to the most relevent keywords by user intent, traffic volume and cost/benefit.

4. Understand principle of keyword cannabilization.

5. Understand principle of duplicate content.

6. Title tags are limited to 60-70 characters. Its a challenge for all of us to use that space as wisely as possible in conjunction with our on-page optimization. You've only got space in the title tag to optimize for 1-2 maybe three keywords depending on how long the phrase.

7. Typically, organic search results for an ecommerce site will land on category and product pages.

8. Category pages are typically made up of shorter tail 1-2 keyword phrases (preppy gifts or monogrammed preppy gifts).

9. Product pages are typically longer tail 3-4 (personalized dry erase board).

10. Good luck!

Know your margins and keep an eye on your cost/conversion (assuming you have something to convert).

You don't need the word "patches" on all those links. Users will know those are patch categories and don't need to read it. Having "patches" in those links is not what is going to bolster your homepage optimization for keywords such as "custom patches" or "custom embroidery patches" etc. A good homepage title and homepage content will do that for you.

I'm guessing your site is relatively new and may not have much domain authority (I may be wrong). If that is the case, pare down the volume (10-15) of links on the homepage to the categories that generate the most business for you: ie "sports patches" "business patches" etc. You'll get better juice distribution to those important pages if there are fewer homepage links.

Once you pare it down, create a left nav link to the rest of your patches - basically a landing page with the rest of the links to the other pages.

First off, thank you members for your input. Since the dust appears to be settling I want to share my thoughts since I solicited yours.

1. Why the post: Because I believe it matters. We should always be improving our filters to see through the smoke and fog. Consider the audience. People are developing their knowledge and sharpening their skills at something that is difficult to learn and lends itself to shortcuts and gaming. Here's an example this morning of a member trying to tune the quality of his filter.

2. Why the headline: To get eyes on post (see above). In my opinion Rand's credibility was attacked as well as the principles he promotes. Add Edit - it is the first time I've ever seen Rand countered, called out of touch an considered irrelevant. I thought he was a Unicorn.

3. My allegiances: I have none. I don't know VC and I don't know Rand. Aside from his freshness post, I've never read VC's work. My only brush with Rand was a Moz forum smack-down for being unkind to jennita regarding the use of H1's.

4. Regarding VC's post: It lacked focus (it tore down without building up), wreaked of anti-establishment sentiment, smacked of an-axe-to-grind and winked at gaming the system.

5. Regarding best practices: I try to use and promote them and will always lean-in to those who do the same.

Thanks again.

Hi Joshua,

I would second the preceding replies and offer this: before you implement your page titles I would recommend three things:

1. Develop a better understanding of keyword research and the difference between broad, phrase and exact match as they relate to long vs short tail keywords.

2. Develop a better understanding of structuring your title with keywords. For example,"<title>Wood Countertops - Butcher Block Counters | by J. Aaron</title>" looks to me more like a breadcrumb than a homepage title. At face value, I would think that title would link to a page about Butcher Block Counters (which is a specific type of wood counter that would have its own page).

3. Wood countertops is a very broad short-tail term - probably very early in the buying cycle and very difficult to hit page 1. If you're a local wood countertop shop, I would optimize locally for immediate results while you build your domain authority so you can rank for these shorter tail terms.

I will always defer to Egol. Proceed with carpet bombing for 6-8 months, then conduct In-Page Analytics and re-consider aforementioned approach.

Sorry to burst your bubble Bob, but EGOL is a hobbit.

He drums up his ideas for best of the web content while riding his unicorn across the shire.

A sighting of this hobbit is more rare than reports of run-ins with a sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster and ET in area 51.

It doesn't help that his avatar is actually a photoshopped headshot of George Will.

To make matters worse, the only footprints he leaves are pages of kickass content across the web.

Hi Josh,

Keeping in mind I don't know anything about wood counters and kitchen islands, I would make this observation about your title:

<title>walnut kitchen island with undermount sink and tung-oil wood seal(65)er | J. Aaron</title>

1. Too long. You've only got about 65 spaces for a title, then Google clips off the rest. I limit titles to 60 spaces or less.

2. You've got what appears to be 2 related keywords (which you could probably rank for on one page) and a 3rd unrelated keyword in "tung oil wood seal."

3. "Walnut Kitchen Island" looks like a good long tail keyword to me (kitchen island would be short while adding the walnut is a longer tail qualifier).

4. The longer the tail, the more you qualify the buyer.

5. I tighter title would be: "Walnut Kitchen Island with Undermount Sink by J. Aaron"

6. Depending on your site structure you might have a page with a variety of Walnut Kitchen Islands on it with a link to a separate page with an undermount sink (which is what this revised title would suggest).

6. "Tongue Oil Wood Seal" seems like it should be on a page about how to protect and maintain your countertops.

7. Putting your store's name or your name on the page title is fine and standard practice when brand building. Some put it on the back as you do, some on the front and some not at all. If there is room, I put our store's name on the title, if not I leave it off.

8. If you're optimizing for local business, its fine to put your city, state or combination in the title.

9. I've got our store name and street address in the footer so it shows on every page. For pages I really want to kick butt locally on, I put the city, state in the title, otherwise I leave it off and let the footer do the work.

You've got some social channels working now...but Pinterest is a missing element and is taking off like lightning.

I wouldn't spend my time deleting them as its a waste of time since Google ignores them.

If I'm working on SEO or other page elements and want to do some housecleaning I get rid of them.

On all current SEO practices, meta keywords are completely off the to-do list.

Like most retail there are gonna be about 20-30% of your products doing 80% of your business. Attack those.

This strategy has made us money and I would not dismiss it.

A person just has to understand that stronger sites will push them down in rankings as competitors add their content and show up in the serps.

A merchant may or may not know how strong the competition will be for a particular product or how quickly the competition will start showing up - or how many of them. These unkowns are windows of opportunity to get the sales while the getting is good.

I like your sense of urgency and "first in line" attitude.  Couple that with some improved on and off-site SEO and you'll be pushed around a lot less.

Exactly!

I wonder if Volusion called and asked if they could piggy-back?

If they had a partner page with Moz would the rel-canonical go to Rand?

The site is built around the major city (that can be the largest or the one that is most important to the client, etc.).

Got it.  But If my single biz is located in a suburb of the main city, will my biz address in the footer of a WP site diminish my ability to rank for the main city for which the rest of the page is optimized?

For every other city we use subdirectories. Assuming one service in general, we will have two pages for each "subdirectory city": typically one that explains the business with content containing info re that city....Then we have a contact page with same and with Google maps API.

I'm not very knowledgeable about sub-directories since I've not needed to use them (yet).

Since the page is in a sub-directory, is the footer info removed?  Sounds like it is in lieu of the contact us page.

I'd add that those longer tail keywords are also less likely to have large amounts of the stronger competition.

From my experience the strong domains go after the shorter tail keywords.

Two primary areas of focus for Hummingbird:

1. Better results for longer tail keyword inquiries

2. Voice command results

The public is becoming more seasoned at search as the years go by so they are comfortable adding more terms to their search.

IMO, social has also helped educate internet users for specificity:  @xyz or .com/xyz etc.  We're actually telling people what to enter after a hash-tag. Unthinkable a few years ago.

I'm curious if/how this will affect how many keywords to put in the title tag (for ecommerce - catetories and product names/titles).

Link to it from the homepage well above the fold.

I've not suspected low prices.

I have suspected stock status though.

Edit Add - I would think either of those factors though would be relatively unreliable.  The cheapest prices may not always be in-stock. Conversely, it may say in-stock and come to find out once you place the order you find it's out of stock because the merchant doesn't have live stock status.

Related to conversational search. Good to know.

Thanks David.

Does the mark say, "EGOL?"

Here's another thought...

Stock and prices can fluctuate dramatically throughout a day. Considering how often Google cache's a page the snippets would be even less reliable.

I've set up a filter to remove bot traffic from Analytics. I relied on regular expressions posted in an article that eliminates what appears to be most of them.

However, there are other bots I would like to filter but I'm having a hard time determining the regular expressions for them.

How do I determine what the regular expression is for additional bots so I can apply them to the filter?

I read an Analytics "how to" but its over my head and I'm hoping for some "dumbed down" guidance.

Relatively speaking, your main site doesn't sell a bunch of different stuff.

Our site sells a bunch of different stuff.

I sense you're frustrated that page 1 for "plastic storage bins" is taken over by the biggies like Rubbermaid, Lowes, Walmart, Target, OfficeMax and lesser names with moz rank domain authorities over 50 when yours is at 27.

I think the microsite/doorway strategy was ill conceived.  The time would have been better spent on your main site creating new and improved content and perhaps an on-site blog linking to your products.

True.

I probably change prices on 5-20 products a day - relatively small compared to our volume of products.

For sale prices we leave the main product price static and put a lower value in the sale price section so the software can calculate the "you save" amount.

The sale price is not cached because the main price is pulled in the snippet.

There are so many variables that if it were a factor in the algo I would think it would be very, very small.

Good article. Thanks for posting

I need to read some more on it.

I wondered how the refinement might influence the Title content.

I don't typically include "buy" in the title but I've got to look at our serps and re-think this.

I'd put all the link building efforts into the main site and scrap the microsites.

As a customer, I don't like clicking on something and being redirected to another site.

As someone who links to stuff, I don't link to something that redirects people to something else.

Google not only knows your backlink profile and perhaps in your case, your motives.

**Anybody who is lazy enough to harvest that info is lazier than smart.  Not a threat.   And, I believe in the theory that imitators come in second. **

Bravo.  A competitor is gonna look at those 5-20 meta keywords and do what?

Wait a minute...I'm interested in this.

How did you ninjas find the website?  Must've been posted prior to the answers and removed later.

Luke, would you mind pm'ing me with the pages?  I think I could benefit from a look at it.