Janet Driscoll Miller presented the basics of SEO on an IDEA e-solutions webinar. Learn about what affects ecommerce rankings and the opportunities that ecommerce sites might be missing in SEO.

1. SEO FOR ECOMMERCE TODAY
JANET DRISCOLL MILLER
MAY 22, 2012

2. ABOUT SEARCH MOJO
• Search engine marketing firm founded
in 2005
• Specialize in:
– Search engine optimization
– Search engine advertising
– Social media advertising
– Online reputation management
– Analytics
• Located in Charlottesville, Va.
– Charleston, SC office opening
Summer 2012 SEARCH-MOJO.COM

3. OUR CLIENTS
SEARCHMOJO.COM

4. WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
(SEM)?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
– Act of improving “natural” result rankings on search engines via
tactics that adjust elements that are important to search
engine algorithms
• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
– Also known as “sponsored results”, advertising that appears to
the top, bottom, or side of search engine natural results
– Typically cost is generated on a “pay-per-click” model, where
advertiser pays for each click a searcher makes on an ad, vs.
the traditional online marketing method of “cost per
impression”.
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

5. ANATOMY OF SEARCH RESULTS
GOOGLE
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

6. HOW SEARCH ENGINES
ORGANIC RANKINGS WORK
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

7. HOW A BOT INDEXES A WEBSITE
• Follows links through the website
• May index several pages at a time and come back often
• Sometimes bots visit several times per day
Website B
Website A Website C
Page 1 Page 2
Page 2a
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

8. HOW THE SEARCH ALGORITHMS WORK
• Complex mathematical equation
• Used to rank websites around a search term in the
search engine
• Key factors include:
– How often keyword appears in page content
– Quantity and quality of links pointing to site
– Age of the website or page
• Result is a position in the search engine result page
(SERP)
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

9. WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

10. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SEO?
• Answer: It depends!
– Marketing
– IT
• Both play a pivotal role in the success
of SEO
• Marketing must make SEO part of its plan
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

11. THE 4 BASIC COMPONENTS OF SEO
• Keyword Research
– Select good keywords
– Not too broad (“shoes”), not too specific
(“Asics Gel 2010 running shoes”)
• Content Editing
– Include the keywords in the text of the
website
– Keyword Density: percentage of times
that a keyword appears in page text
– Site structure
• Certain technologies can
“block” search engine bots
• Inbound links
– Serves as a measure of site “popularity”
on a subject
• Social Media Monitoring
– Tweets count as inbound links
– Find new sites to link from
– Social profiles and Google Plus SEARCH-MOJO.COM

12. INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SEO
• Google Search Plus Your World
– Shows personal results by default
– Based on your “social circle”
• New thoughts on what constitutes
“popularity” or “expertise”
– We used to share things through links on
blogs/websites
– Now we share info via social media
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

13. WHAT ABOUT THIS INDUSTRY?
• Recent Updates:
– Panda and Penguin
• Penalize sites for duplicate content
– Watch your site rankings closely
• To fix:
– Edit content
– Claim ownership
– Differ it somewhat in verbiage from
site to site SEARCH-MOJO.COM

14. WHAT ABOUT THIS INDUSTRY?
• Rich Snippets
– GREAT to enhance click through and visibility
– Does NOT improve rankings
– Add code around current page content
to enable
• Shopping Results
– Create FREE Google Merchant account
to enable
www.google.com/merchants
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

15. WHAT CAN YOU DO TODAY?
• Create a Google Plus profile
– Create other social profiles
– Link them up on your Google Plus profile
• Get in the Google Shopping Results!
• Use Rich Snippets
• Monitor your results closely
• Google Webmaster Tools
www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
SEARCH-MOJO.COM

16. CONTACT
Janet Driscoll Miller
jmiller@search-mojo.com
800-939-5938 x101
Google+: +Janet Driscoll Miller
(and +Search Mojo)
Twitter: @janetdmiller
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/SearchMojo
SEARCH-MOJO.COM