SEO helpful hints for OC users
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:44 pm
Having hacked through a good deal of the issues regarding SEO that have been covered in numerous topics on this forum, I thought I would post this in case it is of any help to other users.
Firstly, the Admin tag SEO keyword field is somewhat confusing I guess and its primary use is for search engine friendly URLs. To be honest, most of the search engines have now adjusted to take account of the fact that e-commerce sites have unreadable URLs, but in my view it is worth doing because it is kinder to your visitor.
This tag field should be used to enter how you want this product (category/manufacturer etc) to appear in the URL. I recommend that you use hyphens "-" instead of spaces and instead of underscores, so that your URLs read like: http:// www. myocshop.com/tvs/sony/SONY-40-inch-BRAVIA-LCD-TV-KDL-40V5810. Search engines slightly favour hyphens to underscores, and both are preferred to spaces, which gets returned as an "%20" and is not helpful to visitors.
The keyword meta tag is not used by any search engine. Well actually Inktomi use it for some random ratings for the engines they support and Yahoo use it if there is nothing else to go on. Google don't use it. I actually place the here so at least it picks up the page heading title and therefore my product name.
I also use this tag in the document Title: along with a strapline hardcoded in the layout.tpl
Do not under estimate the importance of the browser title bar! If you are not paying shed loads for AdWords or placement, then this is the second most important bit of SEO for your page after quality inbound links. In real terms you can almost forget all the other stuff (providing you have well written page content). Make sure your product descriptions are comprehensive e.g. SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810. So they can be read in the browser title bar and therefore appear as the highlighted bold text returned by Google and others who look to match search phrases with the document <title>. If you are including the site name tag or another site name descriptor in the <title> tag, please ensure you place it at the end so it reads : SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com rather than Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 . Why?
Well otherwise the searcher may not actually see what they are looking for in the search return as only about 60 characters get displayed.
So this >> SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 Shop online at New Vi....
is better than
this >> Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com SON...
The description meta tag is important and is used by all search engines in slightly different ways. The important thing to remember is to ensure it contains a well written sentence or two about the page content, containing your important 'keywords' (not to be confused with keyword meta tag) and that you do not just put in a list of features or benefits seperated by a comma.
So to round things up - if you can use the SEO URLs do so, remembering that the SEO keyword field feeds this. Do not worry too much about the keyword meta tag, simply stick the title code in here.
Make sure your description meta tag is well written, not just a list.
Finally and most important - make sure your product names are complete and descriptive so that they are shown in the browser title bar and reflect what your customers are going to be looking for.
Firstly, the Admin tag SEO keyword field is somewhat confusing I guess and its primary use is for search engine friendly URLs. To be honest, most of the search engines have now adjusted to take account of the fact that e-commerce sites have unreadable URLs, but in my view it is worth doing because it is kinder to your visitor.
This tag field should be used to enter how you want this product (category/manufacturer etc) to appear in the URL. I recommend that you use hyphens "-" instead of spaces and instead of underscores, so that your URLs read like: http:// www. myocshop.com/tvs/sony/SONY-40-inch-BRAVIA-LCD-TV-KDL-40V5810. Search engines slightly favour hyphens to underscores, and both are preferred to spaces, which gets returned as an "%20" and is not helpful to visitors.
The keyword meta tag is not used by any search engine. Well actually Inktomi use it for some random ratings for the engines they support and Yahoo use it if there is nothing else to go on. Google don't use it. I actually place the
Code: Select all
<?php echo $title; ?>I also use this tag in the document Title:
Code: Select all
<title><?php echo $title; ?> | my site strapline</title>Do not under estimate the importance of the browser title bar! If you are not paying shed loads for AdWords or placement, then this is the second most important bit of SEO for your page after quality inbound links. In real terms you can almost forget all the other stuff (providing you have well written page content). Make sure your product descriptions are comprehensive e.g. SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810. So they can be read in the browser title bar and therefore appear as the highlighted bold text returned by Google and others who look to match search phrases with the document <title>. If you are including the site name tag or another site name descriptor in the <title> tag, please ensure you place it at the end so it reads : SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com rather than Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 . Why?
Well otherwise the searcher may not actually see what they are looking for in the search return as only about 60 characters get displayed.
So this >> SONY 40 inch BRAVIA LCD TV KDL 40V5810 Shop online at New Vi....
is better than
this >> Shop online at New Vision Audio Visual Equipment dot com SON...
The description meta tag is important and is used by all search engines in slightly different ways. The important thing to remember is to ensure it contains a well written sentence or two about the page content, containing your important 'keywords' (not to be confused with keyword meta tag) and that you do not just put in a list of features or benefits seperated by a comma.
So to round things up - if you can use the SEO URLs do so, remembering that the SEO keyword field feeds this. Do not worry too much about the keyword meta tag, simply stick the title code in here.
Make sure your description meta tag is well written, not just a list.
Finally and most important - make sure your product names are complete and descriptive so that they are shown in the browser title bar and reflect what your customers are going to be looking for.