SEO Checklist for E-Commerce Sites
Answering a question on Wickedfire here.
If you own an Ecommerce site and don’t know where to begin on the SEO go through this check list. In total, it’ll cost less than $500.
1. Signup with all related forums. Put your site in the footer links and go through answering product related questions on a weekly basis.
2. Create a free OSCommerce and Zencart template related to your parent niche (if you sell CDs make a music template), insert your link on it and distribute it on template
directories and their repositories.
3. Create an articles section on your site and put in a form allowing people to submit articles. Email hobby blogs in your niche asking to use some of their particularly good posts in exchange for a link back in the article. This will make them aware of your site and they might even link to you in future posts when talking about a particular product.
4. Steal your competitors articles and product reviews and do article distribution.
5. Create a blog on the site and give out manufacturer coupon codes regularly. This will sometimes help with getting negative results. Post those coupons on item #1.
6. Put all your products in Google Products (froogle/base). This will sometimes help with getting negative results.
7. Browse Google Products for small ecom sites with no reviews and similar products and link exchange on a separate automated link exchange script on a separate page.
8. Make sure you optimize your onsite seo. I assume you know how to do this.
9. Download, convert to html, and attach all the product manuals to each individual product. Link back to the product on each manual. This will give you more pages for indexing and catch a lot more longtail keywords.
10. Spam the fuck out of Yahoo answers and similar.
11. Directory submit! It may not work well for other sites of yours but ecommerce sites are almost always welcome in directories.
12. Customize a nifty and unique toy style item with your logo on it and mail it to the most popular bloggers in your niche. Shirts and hats also work well.
13. If you have access to the products get a webcam and pretend to be a vlogger. Review the products and post them on all the major video sites.
14. Create autoblogs and link wheels.
There’s more but I think that’ll keep you busy enough for now
EDIT:
There was some confusion in the comments on what I meant by “Negative Results”
“negative results” or “negative rankings” are the results inside of the regular results that Google puts in.
Such as:
Video Results
Image Results
News Results
Product Results
Blog Results
They used to always appear above the regular results so we call them negative rankings because they’re less than #1. Now they tend to go between random positions. This term may change the older this article gets.
While your at it, look at the top converting retailers online and yank some of their images/designs/checkout process wording etc.
Thanks for sharing these insights Eli!
There’s some real gems in there, I will try them asap.
Yeah, same here. Those are all awesome suggestions. Don’t know why I didn’t think of some of them. Thanks.
Yeah, for sure.
“Spam the fuck out of Yahoo answers and similar.”
Does that seriously help?!
Spamming Yahoo answers (and similar!) may not affect SE results but definitely can make more sales.
“If you own an Ecommerce site and don’t know where to begin on the SEO go through this check list. In total, it’ll cost less than $500″
The total procedure is in the post.It a nice post. Thanks bose…
It is so good to read your article.Thank you for sharing!
The thing is, #1 can become very time consuming for big companies and sometimes it becomes necessary to hire someone to manage social networking customer service. The point is that many companies just cannot be bothered.
I love #4
Eli, thanks for another article, that’s two articles in a month, record breaker!
Just one question, point number 6, I don’t quite understand that, is it phrased incorrectly?
yeah point no 6 is bit strange help in getting negative results..can you please brief me on this.
Excellent article. Great idea for sharing with us.
I didn´t understend the “negative results” in points #5 and #6.
Sorry “negative results” or “negative rankings” are the results inside of the regular results that Google puts in.
Such as:
Video Results
Image Results
News Results
Product Results
Blog Results
I’ll edit the post.
I like #2, never thought of it.
Glad to have you posting again Eli
I find a good tactic is to find all the backlinks to your competitors that are in common and grab a link from the source as well. There are tools out there that you can input a few competitors URL’s into and it will show you what backlinks they have in common, as well as the popularity of each link. I’ve found this very valuable in my marketing efforts at least.
Which tools do you use Aaron?
Quite the awesome checklist… I really like the idea of the free templates and doing the mailer gift, thanks for sharing yo.
This post almost sounded whitehat.
i write whitehat sometimes
I also work for work . I build a lot of backlinks and post.
This result is not satisfied with me
Don’t you mean vertical / universial? Or you just making up new words for in
BLUE HAT? wow. nice website. and Great Post! Hope you can share more strategies. Thanks for this.
Very very great post. That´s what we are looking for at Multiweb! But there are some obscure items!
“. Steal your competitors articles and product reviews and do article distribution.”
Anyway, thank you for the post!
This shows that Digital Marketing is not only WEB DESIGN!
It is Web design, E-mail marketing, Search Engine Marketing, PR, etc.
Thank you for your suggestions!
I like #3, it is also a way to build relationships with other bloggers.
It’s great to read you, thanks !
that look great way to promote my blog too, thanks for sharing
“4. Steal your competitors articles and product reviews and do article distribution.”
You recommend STEALING articles from competitors as an advanced SEO tactic?! Seriously?!
How about recommending that users create their own unique content in order to increase their site traffic and ranking.
Suggesting that people steal competitors work really says a lot about you- and your company.
Good luck.
Along with 12, if you have cheap products on your site, allow bloggers to host giveaways. Require entrants to follow you on twitter, facebook, sign up for your email list, etc. A good way to build followers and bloggers are usually open to putting in links with whatever anchor text you want into the post.
The long wait is over.. Nice to see you post something fresh and new Eli! Everything is good except no.4 lol!
Thanks for clearing up the thing about “negative results” I was quite confused at that particular point as well.
Welcome back from hiatus Eli!
For under $500? Are you for hire?
Great post, why do you suggest spamming Yahoo Answers? For direct traffic or does it allow for dofollow links?
Also, what do you think of having comments on products so that you capture searches for mis-spelled versions of a word that people will write when talking about a product?
Can you elaborate on #7?
Thanks for this tipss!! Design templates are the best!
I’ve been applying tips #3 and #14 in optimizing my site and I have found them very effective, Eli. I’m just quite confused of “negative results” you’ve mentioned in tips #6.But, anyway thanks for the useful tips its just great and I’m looking forward for the next post.
Eli - Love your site. But why don’t you have add an email opt in then sell us stuff with it?
I have a hard time believing creating you would create this content exclusively out of the goodness of your heart.
Spam the fuck out of Yahoo answers and similar… I like this..
that look great way to promote my blog too, thanks for sharing
Thanks, most I know already but its nice for the reminder sometimes.
Hey good post……. Your suggestions are really helpful…….
Great post. #9 about converting the products manuals to html is a great idea!
Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Keep it up
Your article is excellent. Thanks for sharing. I think it is very useful to me.Design templates are the best!
Definitely some original and unique methods of link generation.
I have been looking for this kind of tips since my ecommerce sites have been struggling with traffic. I can’t do much the usual SEO for ecommerce. You gave a set of doable tips on how to go about SEO for ecommerce websites.
great post.
i will b back
Welcome back sorry you got screwed but glad to see your return. What about e commerce consulting services can they be put into Froogle search results?
All’s fair in love and war…. and in SEO. The response you got where the person is bashing you for stealing competitor articles is ridiculous haha.
Thank you for your checklist. Intresting that you call the Google Blended Search Results “Negative Results” because they’re less than number one.
I found this blog very good i will tell all my friends about it
Rick
Abrir Correo Hotmail
Nice Post,
Thanks for mentioning such useful points and also sharing information with me.
Thanks Again!
Hi….
Nice post.
It is so good to read your article.
Thank you for sharing!
This was really a knowledgeable post…Expecting more posts like this.
Excellent information on marketing, thanks a lot for providing us.
It is a good check list
that was really cool post up there which is really full of information, complete and comprehensive and if you really follow these all steps as it is given you will be successfull…
Thanks, most I know already but its nice for the reminder sometimes.
It is a good check list
“There’s more but I think that’ll keep you busy enough for now”
OK that kept me busy, let’s hear the others
Awesome blog! I have gradually become fan of your blog and would like to suggest putting some new updates to make it more effective.
I have try to join with many forum to get my website linked. But until now no improvement for my SEO. I do not know what is wrong. But let me try all step by step of your info above. Thanks
Thanks for sharing .
I have a e-commerce for a long time .About seo, I really don’t know how to begin. Your blog will help me..
Definitely some original and unique methods of link generation
You mention auto blogs. What are these and how does one begin to use them? Would they work well with my carpet cleaning site? Thanks
great info been using it on my site
About SEO, it contains a very wide, from the website design, website promotion to the process, its purpose is to improve Google search rate and the site of PR value
Great tip. Thanks for sharing them!
Yes as seo is concern every one is looking forward t its as the organic search can give you the best results to the following .and can be the best part to work on.We do offer a good range of services to our customer so get in touch with us asap.
Nice tips. I use wordpress a lot for small shops, as I find it indexs a lot quicker than other most ecommerce platforms. Usually with 2-3 hours of publishing the products they start ranking in search engines. So a keyword rich URL is perfect for flogging those products. I wouldn’t recommend wordpress for larger shops, maybe Magento is the best around for SEO that I know of.
Thank you for giving the tips.
I’ll definitely try while promoting my site)
Actually Yahoo! Answers can be yield some pretty good results if you do it right
On #1, most of the big organisations started recruiting social networking experts to make their fan pages live! There are many tools like TweetTwain to help them organize and manage multiple social media accounts, monitor customer complaints, queries, and give instant reply. Social media is emerging as an open customer support platform!
Can you talk more about how to create link laundering sites. Can you point to some specific site examples that do this very well? Give us some more tips on how to do this.
Thanks!
Was looking for something similar on point #7 though could someone explain this more for me? At point #11 I didn’t know directory’s were more friendly to e commerce sites. Thanks for the Info!!!
Thank you for this fantastic article! I just finished an e-commerce website for a client called K&A Printing and I’ll make sure to forward this article to her!
Thanks for another one Eli
Any more ideas for topic #1 ???
What would be the quickest way to find the relevant forums with the highest PR?
Thank you!
This article is good.
Thanks for sharing.
well Eli,
i have been a big fan of yours. This is a very good article.
Infact, u have given out a $200 product in just few lines, if someone is ingenious he can just elaborate it, cookup some videos and sell it to noobs or heck even advanced SEOers
I have another question for you. If I have a thin affiliate site instead of ecommerce one how do i save it from google penalty and pass it on as a genuine site?
Won’t spamming yahoo answers be considered a black hat SE0 tactic that could potentially hurt your ranking
Very Nice! This helps me a lot. All tips are useful and important.
Excellent article. Nice ideas
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Thank you mentioned that the useful information, share with me.
The thing is, #1 can become very time consuming for big companies and sometimes it becomes necessary to hire someone to manage social networking customer service. The point is that many companies just cannot be bothered.
Signup with all related forums - it maybe difficult but thanks.
Great bit of information and it is sure to keep any new SEO person busy for at least a month!
Beer Glasses
Thank you very much for your advice. I like this tips and I will try to use them.
like this tips and I will try to use them.
Thank you very much, Madam
Excellent post, thanks for sharing this with us!
this is an interesting articles. thanks for posting. a good stuff in the sites very interesting articles in the site
Great post, thanks for sharing this with us
really funny post! I was lying on the floor laughing
thanks!
thanks for sharing this with us
Thank you very much
Thumbs up on the post! I’ve enjoyed reading through this site.
we will always love you Jacko!!!
:/
Nice post! I enjoyed it!
The information you provided was very useful. Because of your help, thank you
Thanking you very much! I have recently started a couple of e commerce sites and drop shipping etc, hoping to make a go of it!
Cheers ^_^
very good post. this is post that i am looking for , i will search any related post on this blog. thanks for sharing this
Thanx 4 this Check list
i think you have a good writing skill , your english is good . and almost all your post are very usefull .
i have bookmark your site for any update . i am very interesting with this topic , please post more.
Thank you for sharing. This will be very useful!
I like the part where you say you are doing this to give back but I would assume by all the comments that this is working for you as well.
biuro kredytowe
What is the point of the last tip? Do autoblogs work? Did they ever work? Link wheels are also a waste of time..