Volusion's SEO Boot Camp

Confidential and Proprietary Information

SEO Boot Camp


Confidential and Proprietary Information 2

SEO Boot CampA quick-start guide to an effective SEO foundation for long-term success



Your Host and Boot Camp InstructorAlison Garrison, SEO Manager



Topics We’ll Cover Today

4

An Introduction to SEO

Website Architecture Workshop

1

2

Title Tags & Meta Descriptions3

5

4 Basic SEO Features & Settings

Closing Tips



An Introduction to SEOBecause understanding how SEO works leads to better SEO


What is SEO?

6

Search engine optimization

• A collection of marketing strategies aimed at building organic search visibility

• SEO is about earning a spot in the organic results for relevant search queries

Organic traffic• Makes up roughly 50% of website traffic

• Is often perceived as most trustworthy

• Fabulous medium for website and brand “discovery”


The SEO Trinity

7


SEO Friendly Does Not Mean Optimized

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You can’t just “turn on” SEO

• Software can be programmed to be search engine friendly, but an optimized website requires human intellect and creativity

• Truly great optimization requires SEO expertise and marketing know-how


The Human Element

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What are People Searching?

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Website Architecture Workshop How you categorize your products will profoundly influence SEO


Website Architecture Matters

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Strategic website categorization

• Empowers customers to find what they are looking for quickly and with less effort

• Allows for specific keyword targeting for each landing page

• Brings in targeted, highly-relevant traffic to specific landing pages, increasing conversions

• Provides search engines with context


Categories Should Be Logical & Useful

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And Reflect Search Behavior

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A Strong Primary Navigation

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Can Be Enhanced by More Nuanced Sorting

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Which Also Allows for Keyword Targeting

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Optimize your Architecture

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4 Easy Steps to Thoughtful Categorization

Brainstorm different ways to categorize products.

Decide on a primary navigation.

Consider secondary navigation opportunities and determine where these best fit within the context of the website design and/or navigation structure.

For each landing page and level of architecture, use different keyword themes. As you go deeper into the site, use more specific keywords and adjectives.

1

2

3

4


Optimize your Architecture

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Helpful Tips

• Create an appropriate amount of categories and subcategories

• Too few or too many products in a category impacts searchability

• Within categories, set products to sort so that the most important products display first


Tall vs. Flat Architecture

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• Generally, it is better to have a flat website architecture rather than a tall one

• Tall website architecture features excessive subcategories between the home page and the products, requiring more clicks

Tall Navigation is Too Deep


Tall vs. Flat Architecture

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• Flat architecture brings products closer to the home page so that they are only a few clicks away

Flat Navigation is Best for Humans & Search Engines


Last but not least…

• Whether your navigation is structured with JavaScript or HTML & CSS, it is important to ensure the search engines have a clear map to the website

• A sitemap will ensure each important

landing page is accounted for, crawled and indexed

• Your sitemap is located at www.URL.com/sitemap.xml

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Submit a sitemap to Google and Bing



Title Tags & Meta DescriptionsHow the search engines use these critical tags


Title Tag & Meta Description

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Unique, optimized tags are critical• Title tag

• Approximately 70 characters• Most important HTML real estate• Communicates the main theme of the

page • Should naturally contain targeted

keywords

• Meta description• Approximately 156 characters• A page’s marketing pitch• Influences click-through and user

expectation

• Meta keyword tag• Largely ignored by search engines


The Google Search Snippet

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Well-Written Tags Attract Clicks



Basic SEO Features & SettingsPart 1 – Website SEO settings


Website SEO Settings

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Marketing > SEO

• Scroll down to “Search Engine Friendly URLs” and expand

• Check the boxes next to:• Enable Search Engine Friendly

URLs (recommended)• Use Hyphens (-) instead of

Underscores(_)• Enable Canonical Links

(recommended)• Do NOT enable full URL unless

that is a specific part of your strategy



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Under “Search Engine Friendly URLs”

• Check the following boxes:• Enable Search Engine Friendly URLs (recommended)• Use Hyphens (-) instead of Underscores(_)• Enable Canonical Links (recommended)• Do NOT enable full URL unless that is a specific part of your strategy

• Don’t forget to click “Save”


Home Page Title Tag & Meta Description

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Basic SEO Features & SettingsPart 2 – Category Page SEO


Category Page SEO

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Category Page SEO

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Volusion Blog: How to Increase SEO by Adding Content on Category Pages

http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/how-to-increase-seo-by-adding-content-on-category-pages/





Category Page SEO

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Basic SEO Features & SettingsPart 3 – Product Page SEO


Product Page SEO

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Product Page SEO

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Happy Optimizing!

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A few final words…• Install Google Analytics

• It’s free! • It will allow you to monitor your SEO performance over time and make informed

decision regarding your online marketing strategy• Instructions in the Volusion Knowledge Base• Volusion also offers an Ecommerce Analytics Installation service

• No marketing strategy is an island!• PPC• Shopping Feeds• Social Media• Well-behaved traffic will positively influence your SEO

• If you need some assistance or simply want to outsource your online marketing to experts, Volusion’s Marketing Services team is available to you and can be reached at 888-750-3996.

http://support.volusion.com/article/setting-google-analytics-volusion

http://www.volusion.com/ecommerce-analytics

http://www.volusion.com/ecommerce-marketing-services





Thank you!