@jennyhalasz

SEO & Analytics for eCommerceIN A MOBILE FIRST WORLD

@jennyhalasz

About JennyIn SEO since 2000 – 17 years!Speaker at Pubcon, SMX, SES, StateofSearch, InternetSummit, Conversion Conference…Writer for Search Engine Land & Search Engine JournalContributing Author “SEO Now” and “SEO Like I’m 5”

@jennyhalasz

About Jenny

@jennyhalasz

Google is moving to a mobile first index any day now. They will index based on the mobile site, so you need to get it ready. If you only have an app or a desktop site with AMP, you are behind.

Mobile First – What does it mean?• “More than 50 percent of search queries globally

now come from mobile devices.” – Google, August 2016

@jennyhalasz

This is a great example of a responsive website – the main desktop site has multiple columns, tables, and a dynamic experience. The mobile site is single column, and the clickable links are much larger – to match a finger size rather than a mouse click.

Types of Mobile Sites – Responsive

@jennyhalasz

This dynamic serving site is also a great example – the desktop site is completely different than the mobile site, but just like with responsive, they’re still on the same URL.

Types of Mobile Sites – Dynamic Serving

@jennyhalasz

Dedicated mobile is the least common now. The desktop site is on www.sephora.com, whereas the mobile site is m.sephora.com. The experiences are completely different.

Types of Mobile Sites – Dedicated Mobile

@jennyhalasz

Notice how there is no (or very little top navigation here for BGR. That’s important.

AMP is tricky; there’s a lot to see here. First, on the left is the AMP carousel. This is a featured area of Google’s search results that is only for AMP pages. But as you can see on the right, when the user clicks through the carousel, there’s a swipe navigation that takes them to the next page in the carousel. So even though you’re on bgr’s page, swiping will take you to the next page in the carousel, which is from The Verge.

AMP = Accelerated Mobile Pages

@jennyhalasz

Important clues, like top nav, are missing. Apps are nice to have, but they target loyalists, not the occasional searcher. And having a good app but a bad mobile experience is no longer an option (not that it ever was).

The old style was desktop first. But Google is now going to index mobile first. That means that whatever you have on your mobile site is what will determine how you rank. AMP is nice to have, but it can’t be used to determine ranking because many

The Pecking Order

• Nice to have

AMP

• Maybe

Application

• Important

Mobile

• Critical

Desktop

• Nice to have

Application

• Need

AMP

• Important

Desktop

• Critical

Mobile

@jennyhalasz

Key SEO ConsiderationsFor eCommerce Sites

@jennyhalasz

Duplicate content is bad because it means you’re competing against yourself. See this great slideshare on duplicate content if you need more info on this. https://www.slideshare.net/ericenge/duplicate-content-slide-deck-from-ses-san-francisco-august-15-2012/25-San_Francisco_August_1317_2012

In this particular case, the page is identical – the only thing that’s different is the order in which the products are filtered.

Duplicate Content – Sort/Filter Function• http://www.website.com/shop-furniture/dining-kitchen/dining-room-

collections?buy_online=13&dir=asc&manufacturer=4833&order=price

• http://www.website.com/shop-furniture/dining-kitchen/dining-room-collections?buy_online=13&dir=asc&order=price&manufacturer=4833

@jennyhalasz

Believe it or not, Google sucks at filtering out their own tracking parameters. So whatever parameters you’re using, you need to take steps (like canonical or noindex) to make sure multiple copies of URLs don’t get indexed.

Duplicate Content – UTM Tracking• http://www.website.com/product/1234&utmsrc=facebook

• http://www.website.com/product/1234&utmsrc=pinterest

@jennyhalasz

Session IDs are the next most common issue. If you assign a new session ID to each user in the URL, Google will index as many of those variations as they find. How do they find them? By following links.

Duplicate Content – Session IDs• http://www.website.com/product/1234

• http://www.website.com/product/1234&SSID=295038720

@jennyhalasz

Screamingfrog and DeepCrawl are great tools for diagnosing issues. You’ll still need an SEO to help interpret them, but just do a crawl of your site and see if some of these common issues pop up. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have a problem, just that you might, and that it’s worth it to hire an SEO to check it out.

Screamingfrog is inexpensive – 149 pounds per year, but limited. If you have more than 100K URLs, you should look at buying DeepCrawl instead.

Duplicate Content – Audit & Fix

@jennyhalasz

Speed

• Look for:• Third Party tags• Large product images

@jennyhalasz

Speed – Google Page Speed Insights Example• Breaks out Mobile and Desktop

• Shows items important to Google

• Explains how to fix

BUT…

• Doesn’t give detailed info like TTFB

• Grades based on compliance, not actual speed

• Isn’t directly tied to SEO

@jennyhalasz

Speed – GT Metrix Example

@jennyhalasz

GTMetrix gives you so much more detailed data – like what specific tags are keeping your site from loading quickly, or whether the root cause of slow speed is at the server level or the page level.

Speed – GT Metrix Example

@jennyhalasz

Image size is such a common problem for ecommerce. It’s tempting to take the same images we use in print and put them on the website. But they need to be compressed. Most browsers can’t handle the level of image detail print needs, so it’s essentially wasted. Go ahead and compress them; it won’t sacrifice quality to the end user.

Speed - Images

@jennyhalasz

Not ecommerce, but I love this example. It’s analysis paralysis. What if my child was in a bicycle accident where he hurt his head? What if I think that accident was due to a defective brake? Do I choose head injury, defective products, or child injuries? Would I really think to look under vehicle accidents for bicycles?

Think about how your users will access your site. Try to make things easy for them.

Architecture

@jennyhalasz

Architecture – Topic Focused, Not Keyword Focused

Old Way• iPhone Cases

• Cool iPhone Cases• Fun iPhone Cases• iPhone Cases for Gifts• Purple iPhone Cases• Red iPhone Cases

• iPhone Covers• Cool iPhone Covers• Fun iPhone Covers• iPhone Covers for Gifts• Purple iPhone Covers…

New Way• iPhone Cases and Covers• By Color• By Price• As Gifts• By Style

• iPhone Protectors• Glass• Plastic

@jennyhalasz

Architecture - Fixes•Canonical

Image courtesy of www.hallaminternet.com

@jennyhalasz

Architecture - Fixes•Rel Next/Prev

Image courtesy of webmasters.googleblog.com

@jennyhalasz

HTTPS – A Secure Site is Critical“Enabling HTTPS on your whole site is important, but if your site collects passwords, payment info, or any other personal information, it’s critical to use HTTPS.”-Google

Image courtesy of Let’s Encrypt

@jennyhalasz

HTTPS – A Secure Site is Critical

Image courtesy of Let’s Encrypt

@jennyhalasz

HTTPS – Not Ready Yet?

Hire an SEO –Don’t DIY

@jennyhalasz

Analytics & TrackingEspecially for mobile

@jennyhalasz

Setting Up a Mobile Segment

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Setting Up a Mobile Segment

@jennyhalasz

Sample Dashboard

bit.ly/ga-dashboard-JLHTo use:1. Login to Google Analytics2. Paste in the browser3. Select the account to apply it to

@jennyhalasz

Metrics: Things you want to measure

Dimensions: Containers you want to use

Filters: Things to include or not include

Metrics & Dimensions

@jennyhalasz

Metrics: Things you want to measure

Dimensions: Containers you want to use

Filters: Things to include or not include

Metrics & Dimensions

@jennyhalasz

How Did People Get to

Your Site?

What Did They Do

While They Were There?

How and Why Did They Leave?

Where to Start?

@jennyhalasz

How Did People Get Here?

@jennyhalasz

What Did They Do?

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Why Did They Leave?

@jennyhalasz

Edit the Title, instead of “Pages/Session”

Choose a Layout

Even Customize Your URL!

Add Filters

@jennyhalasz

Pro tip: If you edit out the date specifics in the URL, then you can use that URL anytime and it will default to the dates you selected in the interface. So you can paste an edited URL into a dashboard and it will save that specific configuration in the dashboard link so you don’t have to do it manually each time. It even works with regular expressions!

@jennyhalasz

Changing Display Options

Choose different Dimensions or Metrics

Change row display

@jennyhalasz

Using Filters - Simple

“Only show” or “Don’t show”

Selection criteria

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Using Filters – Regular Expressions (Regex)

Selection criteria

Use | to separate items – creates “OR” Use .* as a wildcard

.*/category means match anything before /categorycategory/.* means match anything that comes after category

Test your expressions on the actual report

http://bit.ly/regex-for-marketers

@jennyhalasz

Now Let’s Make it Mobile!Hint: It’s super easy

@jennyhalasz

@jennyhalasz

@jennyhalasz

Other Mobile Reports to Look at…•Geographic and “near me” queries•Device types, Android vs. iPhone•Average load time•Bounce/Exit rates•Cart funnels

@jennyhalasz

Key Takeaways• Mobile first• Design, optimize, and report for mobile• Watch for eCommerce issues like:• Duplication• Speed• Architecture

• GO SECURE!

@jennyhalasz

Thank You!

Jenny Halasz@jennyhalasz

jlh-marketing.com

Download Links:

Regular Expressions for Marketers:http://bit.ly/regex-for-marketers

Google Analytics Dashboard:bit.ly/ga-dashboard-JLH