One major problem that is present across many, many e-commerce sites is the issue of being able to open a page within the site with multiple URLs.
Why is this not SEO friendly?
When search spiders visit the site, they index most of the pages within the site. This is good. But not for long!
What normally occurs is the webmaster/developer makes a minor change in the site structure and this results in a very minor change in the URLs across the site (such as something as minor as an extra “0″ in the URL).
Google then comes to visit the site again and notices that there are many new links (although they lead to the same pages) and Google caches these. Now each page within the site is cached twice. Thereafter this process continues and the site starts to lose rankings and when the rank loss is noticed, an SEO professional is consulted.
So, how is this fixed?
Simple, implement 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. Yes, this may not be possible as the e-commerce site may have thousands of pages. So the best course of actions would be to contact a developer who can write a script which would automatically perform the 301 redirects.
Ahmed Bhula
Natural SEO Programmer
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation | No Comments »
We know that content is hugely important in improving rankings. We also know that writing regular content that is informative is better than duplicated or pointless content. Keeping this in mind, most people might think that a blog or news feed is the only way to achieve this kind of consistent and unique information flow.
This is not a fact. There are several other significant means of keeping your content fresh. One such way is through developing software tools for people to use. These can be any kind of software. For instance you might notice how the Just Search website features an SEO Tools section. These tools are all developed in a way to aid the SEO of websites.
Creating software that is openly accessible, easy to use and free is very useful. The free element in particular increases the chances of success for that particular tool. When software is used, it is likely to get discussed and potentially linked to. This can help generate “free” links (excluding development time and costs) and also create an extra source of advertising.
Developing a tool that will be useful can be difficult. Below are some tips to help ensure the success of a new software development:
- Try to be unique
There’s no point in creating a tool that searches the internet for matching the text a user inputs because it has already been done. So unless you can beat the likes of Google, think of something new.
- Use your expertise
Use your talents and knowledge. The tools offered on the Just Search website tend to be built for search engine optimisation purposes. Do what you’re good at.
- Balance cost and benefits
You need to plan your ideas and development. Try to predict the potential benefits and costs then compare the two to decide if the project is viable. There is no point spending £1000 on developing a tool that will reap £100 worth of reward.
- Research
Just because this is my final tip doesn’t mean you should do it last. On the contrary, you should definitely do this before anything else. You should do this at same time as coming up with the unique idea. Proper and effective research will save time and ensure a much better product.
The “alternative content” approach can definitely be very rewarding, especially in the long term. Given time it can pay for itself simply through the internet marketing it can do for your website.
Stefan Crowe
Creative Developer
Posted in Content Writing | No Comments »
