eCommerce SEO Tips

By Brent Sweet

According to Nielsen net ratings, every month, about half of all search engine queries are unique. This statistic, although vague and seemingly insignificant, is actually the greatest factor behind why eCommerce Soltuions fare so well in search. We interpret the statistic like this: Half of all searches cannot be predicted, the other half can be. Great. So what does that have to do with eCommerce?

The reason why eCommerce and SEO are better for each other than Forrest was for Jenny is due to the massive amount of content contained within the average eCommerce solution and that content's ability to target both predictable and unpredictable (long-tail) search phrases. eCommerce solutions have a major advantage over any other database driven site for a number of reasons.

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Abundant Content: Unlike a blog, article directory or content managed site, thousands of search engine friendly pages can be literally uploed and indexed by the search engines.

Easy Unique Content: A product or category page needs a few tech specs and a brief description. As long as that content is unique to the site, a webmaster can litter the search engines with products and categories. The time it would take for a blog or content managed site to reach that same level using unique content is staggering.

Targeting the Predictable & Unpredictable: Category pages can be targeted for predictable searches like "red widgets." Product pages can capture the unpredictable ones like "red widgets with tassels"(provided they contain keyword-rich descriptions). So how can you make the most of your eCommerce solution in the search engines? As promised here is a list of 25 general tips. Most Importantly:

Pick the right solution: Get an eCommerce provider that allows you to do everything we mention in this list. And hey, what do you know? Bridgeline's eCommerce Solution lets you do all of this... Crazy how that works out, no?

Onsite eCommerce Optimization Tips

Unique title tags: The content contained within should not be repeated verbatim within the site.

Put your site name after the product or category name in the title tag: Use your site to Brand, use your search engine listing to get clicks.

Unique meta data: Take the time to make your meta data (description & keywords) unique for each page. Obviously, that can be tricky if you have 10,000 skus, so try and get your developer to populate that area with the product description.

Use H1 tags: And put your keywords in them. Go to your source. Search for '

Use more than manufacturer data: If your product pages only contain the specs and descriptions that your manufacturer provides, the search engines will lump that product page together with the hundreds of other ones out there with the same specs and descriptions, meaning it won't find its way into the search engine result pages (SERPS).

Take the time to add unique copy to your product and category pages

Link to other products and categories from that copy

Use alt tags: I know. I heard too. They're useless. Use them anyway. SEO is about a conglomeration of variables, not a single supreme one.

Have a clear category tree: Search engines like that.

Use a search engine friendly navigation: Text links are best. Don't like text and want to use images? Make sure you use alt tags. Using flash or doing postbacks? Stop that!

Create an XML based sitemap and put it in Google webmaster tools

Offsite eCommerce Optimization (Link Building) Tips

Link building is incredibly difficult for eCommerce sites because no one wants to link to your drop shipping site when they can link to the real thing or Target.com. Here is what you need to know:

Build domain authority: Domain authority is basically a measure of the number of high quality sites linking to yours. The more the better. So how do you get those?

Buy them: The quickest, easiest way to get Domain authority is to buy it at Text-Link-Ads.com. Unfortunately, it ain't cheap.

Take your nique products and promote them in the online community: Get out into the online community, target some top bloggers in or around your industry and try to get them talking about your unique product. Again, this doesn't really work for drop shippers because no one is going to link to your site when there are more reputable ones out there to link to so...

Put Something On Your site worth linking to: Compile a great list of resources, make how-to videos, develop a calculator, or other custom tool. If your products aren't unique and link-friendly, you'll need some site content that is.

Submit to directories: If you go to the forums they'll tell you to submit to hundreds or thousands of directories. Don't. Those are not high quality links, they don't transmit domain authority, and they'll only waste your time... What you need to do is find lists that bloggers or independent webmasters have made. If you must, submit to the directories, but be certain they are specific to your industry.

Submit articles: Again, the forums will tell you to submit as many articles as humanly possible. What I'm telling you is this:

o Write 3-5 quality articles on topics that people are talking about in your industry (like what I'm doing here).

o Submit the articles to a bunch of article directories.

o Link to those articles from your homepage.

o Link to your homepage from those articles

o Link Sculpt: Place a nofollow tag on any link that doesn't point back to your homepage.

o Go to relevant blogs and forums where topics pertaining to those articles are being discussed, and drop links back to them.

Link exchanges: Despite popular opinion, still work... just don't go overboard.

Deep link: Meaning, repeat 1-6 for your major categories.

Buy blog reviews: Go to sponsoredreviews.com or payperpost.com and buy some reviews from RELEVANT bloggers and point them back at your category or product pages. You'll see a boost. It won't last forever, but it will leave you in better standing than you were in to begin.

Answer questions on forums: And link back to your site in the signature

Outsource to India: There are plenty of Indians looking to make a buck on forums like Digital Point. They'll generally do everything that I just mentioned from 1-10 and they'll do it for cheap

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Get Massive Back Links To Your Site (Part II)

By Hass67

In one of my earlier articles, I had talked about the importance of getting lots of back links to your site in order to rank well in the search engines. Building links is also known as Off Page Optimization.

Websites that link back to your site and the page rank of those websites are important. Linking with irrelevant websites dont count with the search engines and is a wasted effort. How do search engines decide about the relevance of the website linking back to your website?

Search engines consider the keywords used in the anchor text in linking back to your site. If your website is about money making than the anchor text: money making tips may be given more importance than the anchor text: recommended website.

Search engines also take into account the page title of the website linking to you. The website should be considered to be an authority site by a search engine like Google for the back link to get more importance.

In short, you should try to get quality back links from those websites that are related to your sites niche. Those websites should be considered as authority sites by the search engines. The anchor text used to link back to your site should contain your site niche related keyword.

So, getting lots of back links from authority sites is what counts with the search engines. How to go about getting lots of back links from authority sites?

You must have heard about social book marking sites. Social book marking sites like del.icio.us, digg, furl, propeller, stumble upon etc are very popular with Google. Most of them have a page rank of 6+.

Bookmarking your site on these social bookmark sites can get you tons of quality one way links. Many people visit these social bookmarking sites, so you can get many visitors in addition to back links as well.

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Should You Buy Text Links?

By Brent Sweet

Many Webmasters buy text links because they need results as quickly as possible. Building the popularity of your website can be a time-consuming and demanding job. You start by building up your content - you buy (or create) some quality articles or information to post to your website. You make sure your web pages look professional and appealing. Then for months no one wants to link to your website and you see no growth in your site's popularity. Without links your page rank remains stagnant and you don't see your web site gaining a top spot in search engine results.

Well, now is the time to build relationships with other sites. It's time to work on link exchanges and on link popularity. The truth is that this can be even more time-consuming than building content...

Buy Text Links

Yes you can buy text links as an alternative to the other, slow growth linking strategies. The process of building links through trading and asking for one way links can be long and frustrating. That's why many webmasters try an easier way - they buy text links.

Well, not any text link of course - purchased text links should be on sites that have themes that are complimentary to yours. Google and other search engines tend to compare content when calculate a site's page rank. Placing a link to your site from so-called Link Farms usually leads to a disaster.

Link Farms specialize in linking anyone to anyone. Most search engines either ignore those links or penalize you if you have many from link farms.

If you buy carefully chosen text links from a specialized company you often can quickly increase your site's page rank, this can give your site the edge you need. Almost every company that offer text links for sale has an expert that will help you to choose the best text link to buy,

Buy Text Links Carefully

The choice isn't easy. Most web and marketing experts will say that faster popularity is better even if you have to buy it, and usually they are right. The quick boost to your site's ranking on search engines is a good thing, but remember - do not build your page rank based solely on purchased text links.

Spend time each month on conventional link build strategies and buy text links only additional support. The search engines are learning how to distinguish purchased text from natural links. If you have too many purchased links your pages could disappear one day.

Having good, honest links from content-connected sites can be the best way to build your site's traffic, even if it won't raise your page rank as quickly as purchased text links.

If you are developing a web site for long term profits start with a practical link building program like article submission. Then carefully add a few well chosen paid links. It's better to be safe than sorry.

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3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

By John Savage

Affiliate marketing has now become big business and as it gives everybody, big and small the opportunity to make money, so more and more people are jumping on board, and getting a piece of the action.

But there is a danger here. Because it is so easy to get started, many people just jump straight in to the action only to discover further down the line that they have made some costly errors. If you are aware of these potential problems to begin with so much the better.

The first mistake people make is to choose the wrong affiliate program.

This is easily done. You see a program which everybody is talking about and think to yourself that this must be a winner. But that is not a good criteria to base your choice and decision upon.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try to choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.

The second mistake that people make is in joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

And what will probably happen is that all the programs you promote will have mediocre results. Really, it is best to focus on one program at a time, get that one going well, and then move on to another.

And take your time over it, there really is no need to rush. Affiliate marketing is here to stay, so you can afford to take your time.

Mistake number 3: Not buying the product or using the service.

As a silly example, if you were selling ice cream and somebody asked you which ice cream you recommended, it would not look too good if you replied that you did not know as you had never tried any! The same applies with your particular product or service.

So please do make sure that you have bought the product, and tried it out yourself, before you ever think about recommending it to others.

I have listed these common mistakes in order to ensure that you do not make them yourself. Just be aware of them, and this way you can avoid them.

Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if you are in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.

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A Traffic Secret

By Hass67

Success in making money online depends on learning how to generate a lot of traffic to your site. Without a lot of traffic, you wont make any money online.

Traffic is the lifeblood of making money online. There are numerous ways to generate traffic to your site.

One way is to pay for it. If you have heavy pockets, you can always pay to get traffic. But day by day, online marketing is getting competitive. There are big players involved in it. You cant compete against them.

Paying for traffic that does not convert well is a sure recipe for failure. You will start looking for ways to get free traffic. You will think how to get a lot of targeted traffic for free? Only a page one position for your site on the search engine can give you that.

You will want to learn search engine optimization (SEO). But here again you are competing with big players with lots of experience and deep pockets.

There is an entry barrier for newbies in internet marketing. Nobody will tell you this fact that it is almost impossible to get your new site ranked high in the search engines especially on Google. Google takes the age of a site into account before giving it importance.

Google does not like a few page sites. Google like authority sites! Your website should have many many optimized pages and thousands and thousands of backlinks before Google will position it on its search pages.

Again stuck! Dont know what to do? Cant compete with big players who have years of experience doing this! How about using these same authority sites to get traffic for your site?

I give you an example to make my point clear, EzineArticles is considered to be an authority site by Google. You can submit articles on it. These articles can get targeted traffic to your site as well as quality backlinks that counts with Google.

Use these authority sites by piggy backing on them. There are many article directories, forums, blogs and social bookmarking sites that can get traffic for your site and quality backlinks.

As long as you dont learn how to generate free traffic to yours site, you wont succeed at internet marketing.

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What is Local Internet Marketing

By Tyler Durden

Now you may ask yourself what is internet marketing. It is a valid question and the answer is that it is different from normal internet marketing because you are targeting a specific geographic region. If you are trying to sell desks in Tampa, Florida then you probably don't care too much about some dude over in Milan, Italy as desks cost a lot to ship. No, your ideal customer lives in northern Florida. Targeting your local region is the idea behind local internet marketing.

So now you may want to know what to do if you have businesses in a larger region. Say for instance that you have a chain of stores on the east coast. Well the idea is the same but now you are expanding your keyword list to effectively target your whole market.

Unfortunately most people are under the impression that it takes months of work and years of accumulated knowledge to rank for any keywords. Lucky for you the truth is that anyone that is familiar with the internet can totally rank for most local search terms and in many cases can rank number one in a matter of weeks for their keywords.

The truth is that the more specific the search phrase the easier it is to rank for them. If you want to rank for "Joe Smith custom super computers for scientists Madison, Wisconsin then you will have very little trouble ranking for it and may even get ranked the same day you work on it. Keyword work is hard when you are only going for broad terms like cars, phones, banks, etc.

There is no unsaid secret to targeting keywords. It just takes some time and homework to learn how to do it effectively and take your business to the next level. Thanks to the internet there are several good online blogs that can teach you about keyword research and targeting. Heck there are even a bunch on regular marketing strategies. So the next time someone calls you on the phone tell them to take a hike because you will do it on your own and likely do a better job.

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Toolbar Sponsorships with Unique Placement: Avoid SEM Scams

By John Welkinson

Everyone and their brother is a Search Engine Marketing Expert nowadays. My brother in law read a book about SEO last week and all of a sudden he's telling me how to market my web site (at a substantial discount of course) and I've been studying and implementing SEO campaigns for years. Yep, so many experts are popping up everywhere trying to show me things I already know. My competition knows it too. In an environment where more and more people are studying and implementing SEO, how do you get a unique market advantage when the space is limited on the first page of Google?

If all the claims by the search engine gurus promising top placement were true, would there ever be any hope outside of them and their services? And even if we employ them, we're still going to be at the mercy of flying blind to some degree - Google isn't going to publish there ranking formula any time soon and there's only so much room at the top.

What about Pay Per Click? You can pay top dollar with PPC but, from the experience of many, its like a crap-shoot . Sometimes it works and then other times it fails to provide good ROI. All the while your credit card is getting dinged.

Here's a big PPC expense that you may already be aware of: Did you know that all one of your competitors has to do is just sit there and click away on your ad - or ever more dastardly, pay some to do it for them - and your cost will go through the roof? PPC is Pay Per Click not Pay Per Visit. You think this doesn't happen? Think again

So what's a good alternative? One emerging alternative is to use Unique Placement toolbar networks to guarantee your position and traffic at a fixed cost.

Unique Placement markets sponsorships on various toolbar networks that enable advertisers to dominate fractions of the marketplace by inserting their company below the toolbar but above the Google, Yahoo, and MSN top search results - essentially creating a visual number one position - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The sponsorships, by design, are limited to toolbar users who enjoy enhanced search features and appealing tools not available on most standard Yahoo and Google toolbars, however, these toolbars are able to provide top positions on Google, Yahoo, and MSN (as well as others) at a fraction of the higher paid sponsorships.

In one recent case study, a Realtor who was paying an average of $2.50 per click to acquire a site visitor, found a far better cost for visitors to their web site using toolbar sponsorships. By leveraging Unique Placements toolbar network, they were able to lower CPV (cost per visitor) substantially.

Leveraging toolbar networks is one way that you can get featured on Google, MSN, Yahoo and the other search engines without breaking the bank. It's a sound concept that employs the original search engine marketing concept - give away great free technology, and the advertising model is born.

What's in it for you? Why allocate some advertising and marketing dollars to toolbar sponsorships? By doing so, it allows you to not only get a guaranteed traffic and position on Google, but focus on what you do best and growing your business. You can follow up on leads instead of trying to generate them.

Don't fall victim to all the so called SEO/PPC gurus that promise the world but rather cost you a fortune. There is an easier and more affordable way. Of course, most SEO's are professionals who can help, but there are also the others who read a book last week and became an SEO expert.

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