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If OZ sends you a pm with these unique descriptions, would you please blog about it in 90 days?

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.

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 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.

I think the feedback form is a great idea because what folks want in a dashboard is subjective.

I bypass the dashboard and go straight to the order page.

When I want to look at stats and trends I go to those respective pages.

If I could make a styling suggestion, allow the users to decide the default page (go to page upon opening) if possible.

One of us is having a senior moment.

You wrote: "If this was my site we would get rid of the product pages and display all of the color choices on one page."

You sent a link to a product page. I was expecting a link to a psychedelic category page saturated with pictures, colors, content and "buy now" buttons with no links to products.

The Target bread crumbs show a hierarchy and presentation as proposed by Allen.

I get it. And agree. With both of you.

I'd like to see this in action.  Can you share a link EGOL?

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.

Hi Perdana,

We have a pretty good sized Volusion site.  I recommend you join the unofficial Volusion forum at Convergent 7 and then contact them for your SEO services as well.

They are seasoned with everything Volusion.

I thought you might say you'll get back to us in 6-12/18 months.

If you can acquire quality backlinks via white hat methods that bounce my DA 20 points in a few weeks without a Google penalty, I'll hire you.

Hi Dylan.

Love the question and unfortunately, my answer might be a bit premature since we haven't hired out the link building.

Having said that, we're in a similar position and we have accepted the fact that in order to turn the next "corner" in our evolution we must increase our domain authority and to do that are leaning strongly to hiring someone for our link building efforts.  So you might find some of our story reinforces your own plans or perhaps gives you some things to consider moving forward.

The Backstory:

1. We have grown to the point that we need to revamp our site structure. I can hardly find my way around our site and I built the thing!  So, I've made the decision to move to a new platform, implement a robust keyword suggest feature along with left navigation filtering.  We'll also build out a top navigation with a hover flyout display for categories, subcategories and products.

2. Conversion optimization before link building?  Yes.  Ideally, all of this is happening concurrently but depending on staffing levels, staff capabilities, finances, etc. this may not be feasible. Before we invest in link building efforts we want to make sure we are converting more people with what we've got. I feel there is quite a bit we can do as shown in item one that will improve our conversion rate prior to investing in link building.

3. Anything to reduce reliance on Adwords is a good thing in my book.  We've done PPC in house and hired it out with two different outfits. Right now, its just not a viable option for us and don't know if it ever will be.

4. Social. We don't engage it. There are various reasons for this and most if not all of them are out of my control. We're not dying on the vine because of it.  There are a lot of things outside of social we are doing and will be doing to continue our growth.

5. In short - our link profile sucks. So hiring a company to help in that regard and should prove to be a good move for us in terms of building our domain authority. Once we get our conversion rate optimization under control, I'm looking forward to hearing what strategies different SEO's have in mind for us.

I hope there are some helpful/thoughtful nuggets in there that are worthwhile for you.

Good luck!

You're welcome Energy Earth and good luck.

Here is another name I'll add to your list (sorry to make your research even harder):

Doug Roberts - SEO & Web Designer at Bristol Web Design

Like anything else, I imagine your budget will greatly influence your decisions.  Some of the suggestions I offered are in the list of recommendations Keri suggested and some are not.

I would check my recommendations against their list and see what size companies they typically do business with.

You probably be able to narrow the list and focus your research based on that information.

And that was a good call. Implemented well too.

Okay. I thought maybe it was a system refresh.

My inbox is filling up with posts from this and other threads right now.

I got one a few minutes ago from a different thread.

We'll see if I get your post.

One of the staffers must have logged me out because after I logged back in is when I received the email from the other thread.

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.

As the poster, I should be getting emails (yes there is a check).

This is the first time I've not gotten emails on a post I generated and since the staff edited the title for clarity, I was wondering if anything else was tweaked.

Heh, heh. Does ring a bell doesn't it Robert?

I'd de-link stat before Google banishes my site and ignores my reconsideration requests.

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?

I posted a link to Rand's recent Moz Blog in another forum.

One of the users posted a link to this article as a counter point.

Thoughts?

[title edited by staff for clarity]

Sorry Miki but I think it flunks on both counts.

My first impression was (and I suppose still is) that this is a directory of shortcuts to humans (0,0,0).

It was my understanding that if Google is going to give a directory any leniency, it must be discriminatory to some extent.

I don't see anything in terms of discriminating factors.

You're either direct to a person or not. If you've got to press 0 a bunch of times its of no help.

Sorry, but I'll pass on this one.

Here's some more disgruntled users in a thread a few posts ahead of yours: http://moz.com/community/q/anyone-else-frustrated-with-the-new-keyword-planner

One of the users mentions Jaxxy and Bing. Options look scarce.

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!

Sorry Brandon. I've not run a scan such as this.

Can you post a url that is overly dynamic?  Or pm me one?

Hi Brandon.

We have a Volusion site and I've used moz tools on it.  What scan did you run?

I'm not familiar with the "overly dynamic URL" warning.  Can you post or pm a url getting this error?

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.

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.

Your examples suggest you're considering microsites with the intent to game Google keywords which will get you penalized.

If you're in the pool building business there's no problem at all with having the word keyword "pool" in your domain name and in my opinion it could help - especially when your domain authority is in its infancy.

There are dozens of "pool" related terms such as pool table, office pool, pool parties and cesspool (which could be an argument as to why a pool keyword in your title would not matter any more than the term "gizmo.")

What will determine your success will be your qualifiers ahead of and behind your keyword and the content you build for it: cost of building a pool, above ground pool installation, inground pool care, swimming pool maintenance, salt water pool benefits etc.

The examples you give could easily be pages on your site with geo targeted titles.

Is the keyword necessary to have in your domain name? No. Would it help? Yes it can. Will you still have to do the work to rank? Yes you will.

Sorry to interrupt Adam (hope I don't hijack) since I'm of absolutely NO help to you in this situation.

I have to comment - Chris's "organic visibility strategist" title is CLASSIC! Is that original content Chris or scraped?  Ubersuggest for "today's SEO" perhaps?

Brand Labs does excellent work but you may suffer some sticker shock.

I recommend contacting Convergent 7.  They are right around the corner from you, are very experienced with Volusion sites, they know development and SEO.

Then, I'd also suggest joining their Volusion forum where you'll find a lot of seasoned expert Volusion merchants.

Are you looking to hire someone in-house or contract for work on your site?

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.

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.

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

It seems the security engineer shouldn't be paid.

No idea.

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

I hope Google is reading and adjusting social algo indicators accordingly.

There are a lot of talented people and reputable companies who participate in this forum and I hate to leave anyone out.

If you participate for a while you will identify people/companies you'd like to research.

The short list is a few I could find/think of if I were to look for help in the eCommerce arena.

Good luck.

As far as recommendations for eCommerce goes, here's what my short list looks like (minus about 3 others I can't find in the forums):

Everett Sizemore - seOverflow
Chris Menke - Metapilot
SEO 5 Consulting
Erik Ellsworth - Convergent 7
Thomas Zickell - Blueprint Marketing
Tom Roberts - So What Media
Robert Fisher - drumBeat Marketing

Agreed. I've checked out Site Tuners and the others the Moz community recommended in an earlier thread.

Thank you for expanding on your experience with them - they're in the hunt for sure.

Still wish I knew of reasonable/acceptable monetary cut-lines for small, medium and large on-line websites.

While researching conversion rate optimization services, I checked out Conversion Rate Experts because Moz used them a while ago and the experience was profiled recently in a Moz top 10 (if I recall correctly).

I double checked the fees for service in case there was a typo.  Their site says they don't just service the big boys but small and mid-sized companies.

We're a mid-sized outfit (at least I thought) and this is way out of our budget.  Can small or mid-sized companies swing this? Their site says $250,000-1 million in online sales are eligible.

Anyone know what a reasonable monetary definition of today's small to mid-sized online companies?

"Most companies engage us for either :

(i) Managed-service conversion rate optimization,

(ii) Full-service conversion rate optimization,

(iii) Full-service with walk thru conversion rate optimization

or

(iv) Full-service plus implementation conversion rate optimization.

We work on minimum 6-month engagements, starting from $26,000/month. We give all our clients a 3-month money-back guarantee."

I take a - to mean zilch...at least not enough to show up on Googles radar.  If the results are low you'll typically get a "less than" sign with the number 10.

Remember you can specify when entering the keywords if you want broad, phrase or exact match results.

I much prefer the old keyword tool that suggested keyword ideas with the match type already showing.

It's like Google decided to curb how much free stuff they give us and are shoving us in the direction of PPC.

Have you tried using ubersuggest: http://ubersuggest.org/.

The keyword "barbados villa" produced a lot of possibilities. Save all the relevant results in a txt file and check them out in the Keyword Planner.

Thanks for the input everyone.

I don't know that I have the time or the wherewithal for more do-it-yourself work. I might put some conversion rate gurus out of business.

I'd like to hire this out.  As an example, Moz has used Conversion Rate Experts and I'm getting their emails.

Any other 3rd party providers?

Who do you recommend for Conversion Rate Optimization services?

Yes.

It's the first thing I read on the page that tells me what they do.

I could have gone to an "About Us" page, "Our Mission" or "Our Guarantee" page and got the same/similar or something less informative.

In the process, they're also sending their homepage authority to pages they value.

The link to the sitemap is the least helpful link in that paragraph.

How does Google process a product page with description tabs?  For example, lets say the product page has a tab for Overview, Specifications, What's In the Box and so on.

Wouldn't that content be better served in one main product description tab with the tab names used as (htags) or highlighted paragraph separators?

Or, does all that content get crawled as a single page regardless of the tabs?

Hi Rachel,

The "Did You Know" paragraph does not appear to be in the footer.

I clicked on a category and a couple of products and the content is not there, so it is not run-of-site.

The footer will appear on every page of a site.

I don't have a problem at all with the "Did You Know" paragraph on the homepage.

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

I wish something showed on hover.