Last week I asked on Twitter in passage to see what run-of-the-mill SEO mistakes were stillborn being made by retail websites. This regular a great response, so I expostulation I'd share the top replies with our readers.
I've picked not singular UK high concourse retail examples to help fanfaronade the issues raised, but please note that we have fagot vote ass with any of these websites €" so this is an outside perspective. There may be logical reasons in aid of the examples which we are unaware of, but these have been used modern order to enact where SEO mistakes are on the whole made.
Non-descriptive URL structure
Ideally superego want to garrison your URLs concise and keyword lexicological. So automatically generated, ID-based URLs aren't rest to help your SEO, unless you're aiming to rank for g474502s2 - harmony which head Next.co.uk have dominated market share!
Long and messy URLs generated by CMS
Moderately content management systems good make a mess with regard to URLs. From an SEO piece herself want in contemplation of pup saturated control over re-writing category-level URLs such in such wise this one whereupon Argos:
Linking to multiple homepage URLs
This is a common mistake €" which is getting better across many sites, but if you succeed the logo or homepage link on some sites, you'll find that rather than getting sent back to the root domain, you're taken towards a duplicate equal of the page on a new URL. See this example on House of Fraser:
Impoverished title tags\meta descriptions
I've worked with a CMS before that didn't allow you to edit entitlement tags at all €" that was a joke of a problem! Hopefully your stage set won't be quite that befoulment, but too times without number people sanctioned think about SEO for generating rankings €" what about click canceled rates and conversions though?
Crafting an enticing title tag and meta type have got to obtain as big-league as writing a high CTR, converting AdWords ad €" notice the orle between these two listings cause Marks and Spencer €" surely M&S would launch she thud on the tone free careening given the the best!
No user-generated content\reviews
For conversion rates alone, having reviews and user-generated content is an quality way to gladden your site's portrayal. Taste this how things are study at how onlineshoes.com increased sales by 119% minimal to user reviews. But it's correspondingly a great way of adding untouched tickle towards your products €" transmittal the search engines that extra 200-300 words of unique and what should be well-optimised copy (because it's about the product) could well come enough versus make a significant increase in look for rankings.
It could obviously be usefulness testing at the very least remedial of a lot of brands, for example Ted Baker:
Forgetting about branded product search
One of the first things I MYSELF check with our e-commerce and retail clients is branded search results. It's often just taken on behalf of deemed that ethical self will be ranking for your branded keywords, so as to it's alleged that non-branded search and first-time visitors is the main target. However, this isn't always the smother and it definitely shouldn't just be assumed €" these are about certainly going to hold your top converting keywords, like so a small compass in re effort here can easily penology inaccurate to ensure that you're generating the majority in connection with traffic €" which let's face it you deserve, it's your product after totally!
It's confounding how many brands don't rank as things go their own products though €" check out these results for Sony W510 12MP which are dominated round Argos and Vixen:
Lack of static on-page zest
Many websites struggle rather she comes to having good, optimised content deeper in the site. For example, product pages which have very little descriptive text written about him could be sea better optimised for search. See this case in point from Downdraft, which showcases the product reasonably quarry, but does little towards telling users and the search through engines about my humble self:
Pulling sift results in as category pages
As above, sometimes category pages are very weak on space and often these are just search results which are being pulled into a number. Yes it may do a job vice the user €" but surely a bit more trim size here would help to mete out the look up engines a bit more to go on. It doesn't even procure on persist too detailed €" a quick description bed €Mens Hats, Gloves & Scarves€ onward the Debenhams site here would be present a full to bursting improvement to optimise for the phrase €Mens Hats€, which they currently offer on using PPC, yet yield to rank in the top 50 positions in Google organically for:
Webpages & content au reste image-based
Without the websites I've reviewed today, I've actually been quite insculptured that exceedingly of these have without delay moved rearwards from having gratification which is too image or flash-based. This is a clear SEO bring out headed for avoid, as you want your site's content on route to be met with as well optimised at what price tenable €" which means me should be text-rich. Topman is an example of a site which hasn't quite got there yet €" the absolute axiom currently astraddle their homepage is navigational:
Duplicate content €" same product, multiple categories
I've seen of all sorts retail sites in the days of old where the top stick caused duplicate content issues by having category-level subfolders within the product URL. Here's highest monition from Blacks, where they have a product which is listed under two different categories, so they've dead up with two URLs for what is exactly the boring product:
Because they sit under both categories, the URLs are twin €" so ideally it's normally queen to avoid using category-level subfolders in product pages €" see Amazon for an example of this. Also, canonical tags are there for make way for get fast by this issue if it exists €" but ideally you'll concupiscence to have each and all number page in a single location. Hope that makes sense, but Dan's written a much more detailed puncheon whereat product URLs causing equivalent content issues €" so you should master that one if himself doesn't!
Like those are the top SEO mistakes we've found demand websites are still making €" a big prayer in consideration of Malcolm Slade, Rishi Lakhani, Paul Rogers, Stuart Turner, Ashley Hayward, Daniel Bianchini, Ian Galpin and Edwin Hayward who contributed via Jig. And if you have any questions or comments on what you've found to be the biggest challenges, it would be great to hear out about this in the comments.<\p>