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I've never heard of displaying javascript analytics code via CSS.  You need to either edit header.php, index.php, or footer.php and paste the code directly into one of those template files.  I recommend header but I've seen it at the beginning or end of index.php and I've seen it in the footer.

The best place to insert the analytics code is in the header.php file so it loads when the header loads.  Some people recommend putting it in the footer but if you are using the asynchronous version of the analytics code then you don't need to put it in the footer.

If you find the directory useful as a user then it's safe to get a link there.  If you wouldn't use the directory yourself it's best to just steer clear of it.  I can't imagine many situations in which you would want more than 10 niche directory links because there just aren't that many quality directories any more.

Shopping cart recovery services I've heard good things about is UpSellIt.  You can also run retargeting ads to serve display banners with offers like "Come Back & Save 20% Use Coupon Code XYZZZ."  I've found retargeting to produce positive ROI consistently.

I'm not sure I understand the question about the best ecommerce converting sites?  Conversion rates vary drastically by vertical/niche so if you are having conversion issues you should probably have someone help with a usability analysis and some conversion rate optimization tips.  I highly recommend using Visual Website Optimizer to A/B test your changes before pushing forward any new variations of your site.

I agree with both of the earlier responses.  Commenting to build relationships is valuable and doesn't carry much risk.  Commenting with anchor text or with bullshit responses is spammy and will not help you build relationships which should be your primary objective when commenting.

I wouldn't take this risk unless the much-better-brand-name-url.com is an exact match domain of a high volume keyword.  The only other time I would recommend making this change is if you foresee significant investment in brand building, ie. PR or other activities that will actually create a memorable brand.  If you aren't investing in the brand heavily and are more reliant on keyword based traffic then I would not recommend 301ing.

Although its not typical to lose a lot of value when 301ing you do stand the chance that something could go wrong and not to mention it's usually quite a bit of work to map out all the redirects.

In my honest opinion the return on effort here is not worth the risk.

You shouldn't have more than 50% of your links anchor text optimized.  By and large your top anchor text should be your brand/compnay name, website url, or brand + keyword.

I wouldn't recommend continuing to "over" optimize your anchor text because you do risk getting a penalty with that strategy.  If I were you I would use opensiteexplorer and run a link profile of the top ranking sites for your keywords and get a feel for how many anchor text optimized links they have for the targeted keyword and also look at the % of brand/company anchor links vs total links to get an idea of a good mix to help you rank.

Hope this helps!

I wouldn't recommend rel=canonical because these pages aren't the same content.  One is just the image while the main page is the entire article.  If you rel=canonical all of your image urls you could end up hurting yourself in Google image search to some degree.

Thanks for the response.  Our internal linking structure is fine and I'm of the belief that we shouldn't mess with the URL's because there is more potential risk regarding the 301 than potential gain from a better folder structure.

Thanks for the response!

Do you think this will actually improve rankings for our product pages?

Can you provide a few example URL's of this error.  I will take a closer look and give you a better response.

I agree with Irving.  Over optimization of sitewide anchor text links is a big no no and there is definitive documentation about the penguin update.

Here is a great article on the topic:  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/recovering-from-the-penguin-update-a-true-story

Does your client actually think that visitors to the site won't understand that About Us actually means About the Blue Widget Company?

Perhaps a quote from Google Webmaster Guidelines is in order:

"Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit."

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769&topic=2370419&ctx=topic

I would consider asking yourself what the value of those extra product pages are to the user?  If your primary, properly optimized page provides the best user experience then I would definitely 301 redirect the old URL's.

It's very likely that although those extra product pages are in the index they don't actually get traffic b/c they never turn up in the SERPs unless you are performing an advanced site: search.

Redirect the traffic via 301, don't worry about telling Google anything, they will remove the old URL's once they read the 301.  If you have any external followed links to the old pages you may want to reach out to the webmasters to request they link to the new page before you do the 301.

I highly doubt these old pages are dragging down your results for your properly optimized page but if they aren't providing any value or getting traffic then your time is better spent optimizing elsewhere.

Best!

I'm evaluating a request to restructure our existing folder structure for Ties.com and I would like some input.  I typically recommend proper folder structure for ecommerce sites either when doing a new build or when doing an information architecture overhaul because of duplicate content or canonicalization issues.  Ties.com doesn't have duplicate content or canonicalization issues so I'm really trying to get feedback about the SEO impact of a folder structure change versus the amount of time required on our side to do the work.  Please share your experiences.

Current URL structure example:

http://www.ties.com/v/a/the-american-necktie-co-navy-and-gold-stripe-navy-blue-skinny-tie

Potential New Structure:

http://www.ties.com**/skinny-ties**/the-american-necktie-co-navy-and-gold-stripe-navy-blue-skinny-tie

OR

http://www.ties.com/skinny-ties/brand/product-title

I'm well aware that as a BEST PRACTICE we should be using the category/subcategory folder structure, but since we aren't really suffering from any technical SEO issues then I don't know if this will be worth our time to remap all of these URL's via 301 and canonicalize everything.  I anticipate it will be a lot of work and if the Return on Effort is low I can't prioritize this project.

I need 2nd and 3rd opinions from experienced ecommerce retail SEO's.

Thank you

Hi,

Currently we have a div that drops down our super menu which has subcategories, ie. under Shop by Color (super menu) Black Ties, Blue Ties, Brown Ties, et, al. (see Ties.com Anchor Text image attached)

If we were to remove these subcategories from the div (in other words, they do not get crawled from homepage, will we loose ranking for those keywords?

We are trying to reduce link count on homepage.

Thoughts?

UBHu8.png

1. We’re looking for some clarification in regards to our URL structure. Currently, at our product level we have http://www.ties.com/v/a/elite-solid-black-black-tie however the parent URL is http://www.ties.com/black-ties.

a. So here are the question. How much is this hurting because semantically the naming convention of this URL and weird and doesn’t follow logical patterns. In other words. Should the product page for this be http://ties.com/black-ties/elite-solid-black-tie. How bad is this hurting us?

b. If we were to change the ULR structure, should we do it in phases or all at once? We don’t want to get penalized. We have well over 3,000 product pages.