Identifying keywords for organic search rankings is easier now than a decade ago owing to advanced tools. A key factor in choosing a keyword is competition — the number and quality of sites already ranking for that term. How can we know if a keyword is worth the effort? I’ll address that question in this post. Keyword Difficulty All leading search-engine-optimization … [Read more...] about SEO: How to Assess Keyword Difficulty
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SEO: Using Wayback Machine, Google Cache
Search engine optimization tools come and go. But two have been around for decades and remain essential and free: Wayback Machine and Google cache. Both take recurring snapshots of billions of web pages and allow anyone to view the images. Those images are handy for general research, but they are invaluable for SEO, helping understand a page’s history and what may have caused … [Read more...] about SEO: Using Wayback Machine, Google Cache
SEO: Keyword Research for Product Content
Content on an ecommerce site’s product detail pages, category pages, and blog can attract visitors and lead to sales and profit. For many commerce businesses — omnichannel retailers, ecommerce-only merchants, wholesalers — attracting a steady flow of site visitors from organic search results is vital for success. But achieving high rankings in those results requires … [Read more...] about SEO: Keyword Research for Product Content
SEO: Google’s Product Knowledge Panels Drive Impressions (but Not for Amazon)
Every merchant wants to beat Amazon in Google’s organic search listings. The easiest way? Upload data for placement in Google’s product knowledge panel. Product knowledge panels contain information you’d typically find on a product detail page, such as a product description, images, and reviews. Most importantly for ecommerce sites, these knowledge panels contain an … [Read more...] about SEO: Google’s Product Knowledge Panels Drive Impressions (but Not for Amazon)
SEO: What Google’s New Passage Indexing Means for Ecommerce
In its never-ending quest to improve search results, Google is extending natural language processing to “passage indexing,” ranking individual sentences or phrases within a page. Google addressed this latest update in an October 15 blog post. The update will impact an estimated 7 percent of its search queries worldwide. It centers around Google’s ability to surface answers … [Read more...] about SEO: What Google’s New Passage Indexing Means for Ecommerce
SEO: 5 Tips to Convert Visitors to Buyers
Search engine optimization focuses on driving consumers to your site. But traffic alone doesn’t pay the bills. Success depends on converting those visitors to customers. Organic search traffic converts to revenue, on average, roughly 3 percent of the time, according to the studies I’ve seen, although the top converting sites reach 10 percent or more. Remember that … [Read more...] about SEO: 5 Tips to Convert Visitors to Buyers
SEO: How to Target High-demand Keywords (or Not)
Search engine optimization often has lofty goals, such as ranking on page one for a high-demand phrase. How can you reach a seemingly impossible objective? The sites that rank on the first page of the search results are Google’s assessment of the best options. Meeting your goal means pushing one of those sites off of the first page and taking its place. That means … [Read more...] about SEO: How to Target High-demand Keywords (or Not)
SEO: 7 Ways to Optimize Category Pages
Category pages target the keywords that consumers search for most frequently. But optimizing category pages for organic search rankings can be difficult, as default category templates on ecommerce platforms tend to hold less text than other pages. What follows are seven category page elements that improve rankings on highly competitive keywords. 1. Start with … [Read more...] about SEO: 7 Ways to Optimize Category Pages
Amazon SEO: A guide to improving your rankings on Amazon
Did you know that 55% of online shoppers turn to Amazon to begin product searches? “Amazon has become the reference point for shoppers,” Jason Seeba, head of marketing for BloomReach told Bloomberg Tech. “Shoppers will go to Amazon first to find a product and check prices.” If you are looking for a launching pad for your products that your target audience likes and finds … [Read more...] about Amazon SEO: A guide to improving your rankings on Amazon
SEO: Preparing for Google’s Mobile-first Index
Google is switching to a mobile-first index in 2018, wherein rankings for desktop and mobile devices will be based on a site’s mobile experience. Google’s “Mobile-Friendly Test” will identify if a site is mobile optimized and can, also, suggest performance improvements. Most searches on Google are from mobile devices. In 2018, Google will judge your desktop and mobile sites’ … [Read more...] about SEO: Preparing for Google’s Mobile-first Index