If you Googled “Enter your site title here”, what do you think you would find in the search results? Surprisingly, you get a lot of legitimate e-commerce sites, most of them using AspDotNetStorefront, that just haven’t figured out how to set their site’s meta title. By not making good use of this tag, a lot of store owners are missing out on an opportunity to make it easier for shoppers to find their site.

AspDotNetStorefront makes it very easy to optimize your site for search engines at almost every level. Site-wide meta tags are used on your homepage and when meta tags are not set at the individual page level. They are easily managed through the AppConfigParameters. The three config names are:

• SE_MetaDescription
• SE_MetaKeywords
• SE_MetaTitle

The AppConfig Parameters are located in your sites’s admin backend under Configuration/Advanced. Once there, enter “meta” into the Config Search field in the left column. You’ll then see four editable meta tag values:

(Need help understanding AppConfig Parameters? Watch our video tutorial)

Meta Description
This is a brief explanation of your entire store’s contents and is displayed in search engine results under the clickable page title. The description is important because it is often what visitors read before deciding whether to click on the link. This tag can certainly have an impact on traffic and bounce rates. It should be less than 160 characters and be a concise, keyword-rich and benefit-oriented description.

Meta Keywords
While the meta keyword tag is no longer considered by the search engines when it comes to page ranking, it can be recognized in conjunction with other page elements in determining your site’s relevance to search terms. Misuse of this meta tag is easily detectable by the search engine crawlers and your site can be penalized for keyword stuffing and using keywords that aren’t relevant to your site’s content. In general, keywords should be an accurate reflection of your page’s content, used intelligently throughout the site and not just in meta tags.

The meta keyword tag is useful for alternate spellings, misspellings, and synonyms.

Meta Title
The meta title is displayed in the top of the browser window and the browser tab. It’s also the link text that appears in the search engine results. Each page should have its own keyword-rich and informative meta title.

AspDotNetStorefront has smartly set it up so that the product title, category title, or topic page title defaults as the meta page title when that has not been specifically configured. The homepage, however, uses the site-wide meta title defined in the AppConfigs as its page title.

Are you making the most of your meta tags? Are you using the most effective keywords you can be? If you’re not sure, you should give us a call and let us help.

In future posts I’ll talk about how to create SEO tags for individual products, images, categories, and topics.

                          

Duplicate content can negatively impact your search engine performance. Some search engines consider it a form of keyword stuffing; others have difficulty prioritizing multiple pages with the same content. Either way, both results lower your position in search results.

By designating one piece of content canonical you tell search engines to ignore other versions of the same content.

How Can I Test for Canonical Issues?

Check your website at the following URLs:

http://www.YOURSITE.com

http://YOURSITE.com

http://www.YOURSITE.com/default.aspx

http://YOURSITE.com/Default.aspx

If you can view your homepage from each of these URLs, you are hurting your search engine ranking. In the eyes of a search engine you are splitting up the value of your homepage. You’re competing against yourself!

Having a ‘www’ and ‘non-www’ version of a site is the most common way duplicate content is created. But that’s just one way. Sometimes it’s blatant, like the copy and paste of one page’s content to a new page. Some times it’s more subtle, like having a page with the same content but different querystring values in the URL.

The Fixes:

• Canonical Element Link – This is great for fixing a single canonical issue, like a homepage. Just add:

  <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/page.html"/>

  to the head of a page. Learn more about this tag from Google’s Matt Cutts.

• Setup 301 Redirects via .htaccess – This is a better solution for fixing multiple pages at the same time.

Free, but only for Google:

• Google Webmaster Tools – Set up an account and select if you prefer the “www” or “non-www” URL.
• Google Sitemaps – Google will give a link that is in a Google sitemap preferences over pages that are not.

Managing duplicate content is an important part of a site’s SEO efforts.  Learn more about how Vortx can help you improve your site with search engine optimization.

                          

Determining the specific key words and phrases that are most likely to bring profitable traffic to your site ensures that the time and financial resources invested in search engine optimization efforts will pay off.

When developing a keyword list, it is important to pay attention to the following:

• Search Volume – how often are people actually searching for the word or phrase?
• Competition – how many competitors will be fighting over the same search term?
• Relevance – will the search term bring profitable traffic to your site?

You should include “long tail” keywords on your list as well. Long tail keywords are very specific search phrases, usually consisting of 3-4 words. These are the keyword phrases that people search for once they have figured out exactly what they want, which is why searches on these terms tend to have a higher conversion rate. While popular search terms drive more traffic to your site, long tail keywords tend to result in more sales.

Including both types of keywords in your SEO plan lets you ensure that you are driving lots of traffic as well as lots of buyers to your site.