Google reiterates that it’s not a penalty unless they believe you’re doing it deliberately.

It’s not uncommon that businesses publish their web content to more than one domain. ecommerce sites especially often have a US, UK and Canadian version. The first pages is different but the backend shopping cart products and descriptions are generated from the same database. It seems perfectly logical to customize and personalize for those respective audiences. Regardless, Google wants to force web site owners to stick with one site.

ecommerce and large information site owners have found their sites losing traffic. The keyword tailing traffic is what has fallen off. Keyword tailings is a term used to describe the thousands of odd phrases that searchers use (e.g., digital cameras). Not the most popular phrases but ones that have lots of keywords in them (e.g., sony digital camera 100 x digital zoom). The dropoff in traffic really hurts small ecommerce sites that live on these unusual phrases and even big ecommerce sites that previously had huge traffic.

Google has a filtering method that clusters similar pages together. It counts the keywords in them ,along with title tags, text links, and headings to determine whether that content was redundant. It’s had this filtering for a long time, but only lately have they ramped it up. After the filter is run, the pagerank distribution in the site is changed and pages that once brought in traffic don’t rank as well. Their pagerank has been stripped. Google picks and chooses which pages will be shown in the results and often that is not the page you want to have ranking.

The benefit for Google is that companies who getting free organic traffic now may have to begin doing adwords advertising to gain visibility on those phrases again. That would be a huge boost in Adwords revenue if applied to hundreds of thousands of ecommerce sites.

To get over your duplicate content issue, you need to make your content unique in every respect. So the art of SEO copywriting is needed to make your content look unique to Google. And it is an automated algorithm that judges its uniquness and relevancy. It can be frustrating when Google really doesn’t tell you what factors are involved. They just spout the usual “Create unique, valuable content and everyone will enjoy your site”, advice, but their way of assessing content still isn’t compatible with how most content is devised and and written.

There are ways to maintain each of your domain’s rankings, but one thing for sure is that you’ll need to rewrite your content so it is unique and relevant at the same time. Not an easy task. The issue of managing a network of websites is suddenly not so easy anymore.

Read more on Google’s duplicate content issue. Google’s advice is not easy to implement.

One of the reasons I use wordpress blogs is due to wordpress’s handling of duplicate content issues which is a big problem with blog content categorization.

Contact me about content development and SEO.

What’s important to know about how Google indexes keyword phrases is that it uses a lot of filters to deal with repetition and tone that down, and it uses semantic analysis too. That means it looks for words that are related to or associated with, or synonymous with a keyword phrase. If you type in ~loans for instance, you’ll see words that Google believes are similar to loans. Yahoo and MSN use similar semantic processing.

By looking for related words or even modifiers, they’re hoping that they will better target the real meaning searchers have in mind when they search. Google has a lot of search tools people can use to search, but sadly few people have the time to learn them. Most searchers want the search engine to do the hard work for them. People simply add extra words in their search query to hopefully get the sites they’re interested in.

Google Search Tools give clues for SEO Professionals

The Google wheel is another indicator of semantic relevance. In this graphic above, other terms are offered up by Google. These can be clicked on for even further related phrases. This type of search tool can be very useful when you’re investigating a topic you know very little about. It can help you ask the right questions or make the right queries.

Keyword usage in your copy and links is a more complex matter than you’d imagine. With billions of pages available on a particular topic, Google, Yahoo and Bing have to filter in the most relevant ones. It does that by trying to read between the lines so to speak to get a deeper understanding of what the page is about and whether it is a valuable resource. By optimizing your site at a deeper level, your pages will be considered richer, deeper and more relevant for thousands of keyword phrases. There’s no telling what words people will add to their basic searches. In SEO and high rankings, it’s all about building relevance.

Optimization is about reducing aimless spidering of your site, and fashioning the routes through the site. It is complex to optimize links and content for this purpose but well worth it. If your SEO or webmaster is relying on rel=”nofollow” code to shape pagerank on the site, it doesn’t work well enough. Google knows everyone is doing it and will disregard some nofollows. Obviously telling Google not to visit the pages that visitors are visiting is a little deceptive and Google may indeed absorb the pagerank on those particular links.

Need help with link optimization on your site? Why not have Bay Street SEO help you improve your rankings and build traffic the right way? Call us for a review of your company or ecommerce web site.

Google ranks sites by following or spidering clickable links on your pages. Google considers the links to be a voice or recommendation, a sort of chatter in the community that might indicate where good, relevant content is. The link says something about the page it is pointing to. If each link on the page is a voice, Gooble listens to certain links more than others.

Many website owners believe there is no difference in which links Googlebot will follow and respect on their pages. In this Matt Cutts video, Matt explains how Google treats links differently. Links in the footer such as a text link navigation menu help with optimization, yet the weight they carry in the algorithm is lower than links found in the body copy. Nav links are often repeated from page to page, and these links use keywords that are not relevant to the main topic of the page. That’s another reason why footer links are minimized in their ranking effect. The key to optimizing links and text content is in strategic variety. This is how I get Google to take notice of and respect a particular set of links.

If your corporate site uses standard navigation schemes without variety, it can seriously lower your search engine visibility. One SEO technique is to use no follow code and insert a few text links near the main body copy, but Google is aware of these common tricks and others. They delete their effect, and your corporate or ecommerce site is again left with the lame standard nav menus to let Googlebot spider the site. That’s not the experience or route you want Googlebot to take into your site. It’s important to know which links Googlebot follows and how to optimize its spidering of your site.

Optimizing your site navigation or page to page linking is very important. It’s just as important as your text in your pages. Get a professional SEO consultant to optimize your site. The performance improvement is more than worth it. Enjoy the ROI improvements our clients have achieved.

Find out more about SEO Services and inquire about revenue sharing as an alternative to traditional fee based SEO remuneration. There are different creative approaches to revenue sharing and all cut the risk and lessen the cost of SEO. If cost is an issue for your business, then this is a great solution.

During the past few years, a lot of attention has been focused on improving sales conversion. With traffic diminishing during the recession, business owners had to get the best performance possible. Unfortunately, many are at a loss about what needs to be optimized.

Sales Conversion Improvement – What Makes Customers Buy?

Sales conversion is the process of creating a customer out of a visitor. In years past, traffic was the key imperative. The belief was that more traffic was sufficient to ensure greater sales. Not much was known about visitor’s psychological or shopping profiles therefore an appropriate web site content and site navigation strategy couldn’t be devised. ecommerce store owners and corporate webmasters simply crossed their fingers and hoped for the best.

When the recent recession hit hard, even websites with a lot of daily traffic found their sales conversion rates were dropping. In some cases, traffic from search engines dropped by 50% from the levels seen in 2005/2006. With fewer visitors searching for products and searching for different benefits (lower price) most ecommerce site owners needed to learn more about shopper’s new motivations and purchase triggers. Some turned to their Google analytics stats to help gain a better understanding of how people were entering the site and what content attracted them and which turned them off. Google analytics services have improved allowing us to drill down to more actionable information. Google website optimizer also offers an opportunity to test different types or styles of content to see which generates improved sales.

Conducting testing on an ecommerce site is something most ecommerce managers don’t like to do. Often the websites weren’t designed for such experimentation. Testing is important and has to be done in a fashion where variables are controlled. Otherwise the reliability of the results might be questionable. Still, every ecommerce web site can be tested to improve sales conversion. In the process of swithing items and product descriptions, you’ll learn more about what your visitors are thinking and their likes and dislikes. In the long run, this could mean the difference between succes and failure.

SEO Improves Conversion Rates

Often, through the process of optmizing a website, conversion rates increase. This is due to the fact that most visitors come from search engines, and when the site is keyword relevant, it is more useful and comfortable for them. Keywords are easy to see and undertand. The keyword focus keeps these visitors in their comfort zone. Keywords that are hyperlinked or at least have a different color, are more credible navigation cues. People trust plain text links to click on more than they do graphic buttons. A graphic is often considered a sales-oriented cue, not an information source. Graphics are used for the call to action. People believe buttons have to do with a purchase commitment, and often they’re not ready for that when they arrive. However, when consumers want to purchase something, a graphic “buy now” button is the best way to go.

Efficient and Helpful Customer Experiences

Time is money even to a shopper. That’s why some product details have to be included with product pictures. But which details and how do you describe them? Optimization of the product details and how they’re organized is important to search engine rankings (Google Shopping Results) and to the customer.

If this is done correctly, it can enhance search engine rankings and rankings in Google shopping results. Google and other search engines like it when your clickable pictures offer clues as to what the product is about, so visitors know whether that product page is worth visiting. A short, precise keyword-laden feature and benefit is the best way to give Google what it needs to know. Google looks at words near the clickable picture. Its ranking algorithm assesses and analyzes them.

When keywords (and product details that are important ) are used, you increase the visitor’s desire to click through and investigate that specific product further. Rather than being too simple, you’ll want to provide specific details at this point in the customer’s visit. Many ecommerce sites provide non-customized information, or information provided by the manufacturer on product descriptions. It’s a standard text branding promotional blurb that’s often the same for all their product lines. That kind of duplication hurts many ways. Everything needs to be unique to the degree possible.

ecommerce product listing optimizationis an art that helps products get listed higher in Google shopping results. Google shopping is an increasingly important source of sales for ecommerce web sites. And the competition for rankings grows daily.

Below is an example of a typical product introduction. This one is for golf clubs. The graphic only shows major golf brands, many of which are unknown to the visitor. And a search engine cannot read graphics nor extract any information about the specific product page being linked to. The result is poor search engine rankings and confusion for the shopper. Most golfers are looking for a particular feature or benefit. They believe buying a new driver will improve some ailing aspect of their golf game.

Unhelpful Listing of Golf Brands

Some retailers believe the buy now button is all the navigation clues a visitor needs. In fact, a visitor wants to see product pictures, details, and shipping info readily. Making a visitor click around to get the info is one way to lose that customer. You’ve got their attention, give the right information that builds interest and gives them a reason to buy – your call to action.

Golf Driver page now gives clues as to where they might find the right club for them.

This revised graphic provides information about each brand of golf drivers. Not much info added, but it provides the type of benefits/features golf shoppers have on their minds. The difference between one golf club driver brand and another is negligible. On this site, the owner believes the brands are the only sales tool he needs. I don’t believe brands can do it, simply because the visitor will be visiting many other sites with the same golf brands. He needs to provide differentiation for both search engines and his visitors.

The point is to facilitate better navigation and make the shopper confident that they can achieve the satisfaction they want. Never let the shopper flounder. And this is a frequent problem on large websites where there are many types of visitors and thousands of products. The visitor loses focus and gets confused and discouraged. That’s when they try to leave and the website launches a pop up with a big discount. You don’t need the big discount loss if you do it right the first time.

By giving a shopper a distinct mission, they might find a driver they like and buy it. If some golf brands offer better profit margins, then they can be subtly featured or emphasized. The whole point to improving sales and search engine rankings is to provide trustworthy clues to better site navigation. It keeps visitors comfortable and moving toward purchase. It also gives search engines the word clues they need to be able to index and rank your product pages.

I’ve seen this sales conversion process work wonders on a hotel site, bath and beauty site, sports apparel site, and many others. With the first puchase in the bag so to speak, the ecommerce software can offer additional purchase ideas and it won’t annoy the shopper. Their primary mission has been satisfied, so now they’re relaxed and won’t be averse to buying something else like a box of golf balls or a new hat. Even if the keyword optimization reduces brand visibility, keyword variety, and lowers total search engine traffic, the resulting sales improvement was worth it.

Learn more about SEO and what’s wrong with your ecommerce site from an experienced, proven SEO Company.

Google Toolbar Ranks Each Page in Green

Many clients are aware of Pagerank ratings of their pages while others are not. Two of my clients had their homepage jump to a Pagerank 6 from 3 and while that sounds very impressive, Pagerank is just one factor Google uses in determining search rankings. Having a lowly Pagerank 3 isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however it can signify that an insufficient effort in link building has been carried out.

Other factors can weaken your Google rankings despite having high pagerank. To estimate Pagerank (on a scale of one to ten) Google adds up the number of links pointing to your site along with the portion of pagerank coming from each of those pages. If you have plenty of links coming from other high pagerank web pages to your website, it means your pagerank will grow. Think of it as a currency being deposited into your bank account. Yes, withdrawals can happen. Sometimes pagerank from a particular site can be blocked. It’s a tough process to determine whether a link from someone else’s site is helping your rankings or not.

Occassionally, Google will recalculate Pagerank (about every 3 months) for all web pages in its index. If the pages that link to yours lose some of their Pagerank, less will be coming into your site. The result may be a drop in your rankings. Google can block other types of data collected too including trustrank and keyword reputation. When or if your rankings have dropped it requires some study of your links to determine what happened. If your pages have no pagerank, it means they’re either new or Google doesn’t know what to think about them. It can’t collect enough information about the page so it refuses to apply a Pagerank to it. This is corrected through improved search engine optimization.

Pagerank still is a vital component of their ranking algorithm, however it’s important to acquire other types of ranking power from other websites. It’s also important to have expert level optimization applied to your own website. Enjoy your new high pagerank. Sometime in the near future, you may see its power come fully into effect. It’s important to be calm and patient in this game of SEO. A good SEO Company will give you the ranking power, trustrank and keyword reputation you need, and ensure your site is all it can be.

Do you need someone to take a look at your site? Contact me at 416-605-7026 for a private, no obligation review of your site and situation. Your business is important and it’s wise to get it performing at its best. I’ve been a full time SEO consultant specialist since 1998 and should be able to help you maximize your search engine presence.

It’s hard to say what Google’s reasoning is adopting Site Speed. Most slow loading content isn’t spiderable anyway, and as long as Googlebot picks up the main text portion of the page, it should move on. It could be that Googlebot is having trouble spidering quickly. Google recently tried to respond to real time indexing by adopting the new Google file system which allows them to spider faster and collect more information. By collecting more, these slow loading pages can present a problem. They have to spider, so they’ve done some Public relations to encourage webmasters to clean up their coding. Web 2.0 coding is very distributed with content coming from all sorts of other sources. That can slow things down. If you read some forums, you’ll see many people blaming Google’s adsense scripts for much of the slow load times. Their solution – get rid of Adsense. I don’t Google considers Adsense a factor in slow load times, but really it is the predominant form of web advertising on millions of sites.

With respect to SEO, it’s important to consider how clean your web design is, how much content you’re putting in each page, and whether your web servers are too busy to give Googlebot the material it is asking for. If you’re hosting with a company that has tens of thousands of sites on the same server and IP address, it could mean Google thinks your Site Speed is poor. Better review your hosting quality.

In this presentation, Matt Cutts, Google lead search engineer describes the need for Site Speed:

Has your site’s performance flat lined and you’re wondering whether the big successes will happen in 2010? If you’re still reading right now, it’s pretty certain you’re not confident. Bay Street SEO company has served clients in numerous industries from around the world. From million dollar hotel successes to online casinos, banks, financial services companies, marketing firms, and small ecommerce shops, we’ve helped our clients get close to ther potential. And SEO offers a far better return on investment than any other form of online marketing. Take a look at some of our client’s and client’s clients, companies that have had great success using SEO.

Over the years, keyword usage by public searchers has changed. Certainly the core popular words are used, but now searchers are supplementing basic searches with additional words to drill down to find specific information. The recesssion too has temporarily limited searches for some products or services that were highly sought. Laser Eye Surgery for instance is an expensive cosmetic medical procedure and of course searches related to that procedure have fallen. Real estate related searches have fallen dramatically too and are only now recovering. It’s hard to find a keyword phrase that hasn’t diminished over the past 4 years. There are exceptions however. The iPhone continues to grow.

Finding popular keyword phrases and building optimized content and social media presence for them can pay off well. Building a strong wide “keyword reputation” makes your site more relevant to more searchers.

Google Trends Search Volume for iphone

Google trends is a good tool for identifying trends on major, high volume keyword searches, but not so good in identifying the long tail phrases that are important to most businesses. These are the many varieties of keyword phrases that are less used and often more specific. People will add words to a basic search (e.g., laptop accessories, long beach ca). Long tail phrases are less competitive. Formerly, it was easy to rank well for long tail phrases. Then Google changed its algorithm and made it more difficult to create relevance and pagerank for endless numbers of keyword phrases. Now, it takes skill to make a site rank for hundreds or thousands of keywords. It’s not enough to have very high trustrank or pagerank. The algorithm is complex and subtle in analyzing both on-page content and inbound links. Believe me, this is a challenge.

In this video, Christine Churchill discusses keyword research with Web Pro News:

Looking to rank higher and improve conversion? Call me now at 416-605-7026 to discuss your challenges. Never settle for mediocre performance in SEO. Hire an accomplished and dedicated SEO company.