Stay Up to Date with Infopia this November – Best Practices to improve SEO and Conversions Nov 2009
Quick, No Cost & Easy to Implement Best Practices to Improve SEO and Conversions
1. Verify with Google WebMaster Tools!
2. Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages
3. Submit your Site Map & Yahoo URL List
4. Turn on the Traveling Mini-Cart to improve conversions
1. Time to become Google WebMaster Verified!
On Page 5 of the training guide, you will find information on how to have your site Google WebMaster verified. Simply follow the brief instructions: http://app.infopia.com/training/Advanced/GoogleAnalyticsSetup.pdf
Then, place your verification key in the appropriate field in Settings >> Storefront >> Manage your Home Page and Body HTML content.
2. Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages
Google WebMaster Tools has added new advanced settings that include the ability to add custom parameters:
Dynamic parameters (for example, session IDs, source, or language) in your URLs can result in many different URLs all pointing to essentially the same content. For example, http://www.example.com/dresses?sid=12395923 might point to the same content as http://www.example.com/dresses. You can specify whether you want Google to ignore up to 15 specific parameters in your URL. This can result in more efficient crawling and fewer duplicate URLs, while helping to ensure that the information you need is preserved. (Note: While Google takes suggestions into account, they don’t guarantee that they’ll follow them in every case.)
In two instances, we found that setting the following parameters (set to Ignore) and duplicate page titles and duplicate meta info pages were significantly lessened. Dupe page titles decreased 60%. Specific “How To” details at the bottom.
3. Submit your Site Map & Yahoo URL List
If you haven’t already created a Site Map/Yahoo URL List, here is a straight forward way to do it. When you have the content, submit to Tech Support and they will work with our Hosted Operations Team to upload for your site.
What to do:
Download and install GSiteCrawler
Add the following filters:
changeDisplayMode
checkForLanding
checkforlanding
displayMainOnly
page_num
seo/1
Shop/Control
vpid
Let it run… It will take about an hour. It will create a Google Sitemap and a Yahoo URL LIst
4. Turn on the Hovering Mini-Cart to improve conversions
Our release of perpetual cart (traveling mini-cart) occurred in July. If you haven’t turned it on for your storefront, now is a great time to do so.
Go To Settings>> Storefront>> Cart & Checkout>> Set “Hovering Mini Cart on Cart Link” to Display
Why turn it on? Marketing Sherpa 2009 eCommerce Benchmark Guide says: “Perpetual Shopping Cart” – these come in a variety of ‘flavors and not all are created equal. The data is limited, but it appears that carts which ‘ride along’ with the shopper as they move through the site have a significant impact on conversion. This varies by the type of perpetual cart. Some simply show a dollar total that change dynamically with purchases, while others may show some or all of the following: product details, thumbnail images, estimated shipping costs and recommended accessories/related products. While 38% of their sample employ some version of the perpetual cart, the vast majority fall into the simpler category, which has a positive but lesser effect than the enhanced versions. Perpetual carts keep the purchase in the mind of the consumer, and at their best, can increase shopping cart size while decreasing attrition.
Our perpetual cart is higher end and shows the consumer total number of items in the cart, total $, thumbnails of all items, price for each product and the product name. This is premium mid/enterprise market functionality, all to drive conversions and increase cart size. It is a standard part of our offering (enterprise sites desiring custom styling work can engage with Infopia Professional Services).
The How To for #2:
Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages -
Once the site is Google WebMaster Verified click on Site Configuration>Settings
Under Parameter Handling click on Adjust parameter settings
Click Add Parameter (leave the dropdown on “Ignore”) and add these fields:
-1-2.html
viewcart
changeDisplayMode
displayMode
checkForLanding
viewCart
displayMainOnly
More Rich Functionality from Infopia
eBay Product Catalogue Support via standard product identifiers
Infopia allows you to be able to directly link items to the eBay product catalog using only the UPC, or other standard identifier. Use of the eBay Product Catalogue improves rankings for those products which are in the catalogue.
From the Edit Product Page you may:
Turn on the eBay Product Catalogue at a global level, or specify at a product level
We will use your Gallery image, however if you don’t have an image, it will use eBay’s stock photo.
List and include additional eBay-provided information about the product
eBay recommends you list with product details whenever they are available.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/prefilled-information.html
Of course, you will automatically continue to list when products are not found in eBay’s catalogue
Here’s an example of how a product in the catalogue will be presented on eBay.
Click Here to view the example
