Maximising your internal linking structure really does make a huge difference to your “On Page SEO” efforts. Each page on your site passes a certain amount of PageRank through to every page that is linked to from that particular page.

Theory goes that the more often a page is linked to the more important it must be.

Taking this theory into account means we must hand out “link equity” fairly conservatively when putting our pages together, making sure you only link to pages that you have to, or are of utmost importance ie categories and products pages.

Now taking “link equity” into account, one thing that continues to bug me (and some may think that I am a bit pedantic) is the way that Interspire/BigCommerce have set up their templates to handle all these “Add to Cart” and “Choose Options” links that are scattered throughout the site (see image below).

Add to Cart Links

Unfortunately each of these links will pass a little bit of PageRank through to the Shopping Cart Page, which is really not a page that is likely to bring in a lot of search engine traffic. So it makes sense that we really don’t want to link to this page unless it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. the product page).
[click to continue…]

{ 22 comments }

It’s no secret that using heading tags (<h1>… <h6>) is one of many tactics used to successfully optimise a webpage for search engines. While the overall impact using heading tags has on your rankings is somewhat debatable (mostly due to terrible misuse), it is certainly a best practice and you should be using heading tags where appropriate.
Example of Page Heading
[click to continue…]

{ 9 comments }

BigCommerce SEO Training

Good-quality SEO knowledge is without doubt one of the most highly sought after skill sets of anybody that is looking to promote their online store.

Understanding the basics of SEO can save you a ton of cash, whether it be via performing the tasks yourself, or by having the ability to sort through and find an SEO consultant that knows what they’re talking about.

Unfortunately over the years there has been a lot of terrible SEO information dished out by a bunch of self-proclaimed experts, a lot of which I am sad to say has been aimed at leading newcomers up the garden path and into their greedy mits.

Now don’t get me wrong not everything you read about SEO is unreliable, once you start understanding the process you soon realise who knows what they’re talking about and who doesn’t. The misinformation problem will generally only affect you if you are a SEO newbie and still not sure who and what information to trust.

Fortunately if you are reading this and find yourself in the SEO newbie category you might be in luck. Starting mid-January I will be accepting applicants to a beta version BigCommerce SEO Training Course which will be aimed at:

  • helping you better understand the SEO process, and
  • give you confidence to perform the basic SEO tasks on your BigCommerce store yourself.

This course will cover the bare basics of BigCommerce SEO and will be delivered online via an as yet to be released members portal.

As a totally new course it will initially be made available to a limited number of people totally free of charge, all you need to do is get on the waiting list with a valid e-mail address to be notified to sign up when the first few lessons are ready.

If you are at all interested in learning more about how to optimise your BigCommerce store please click here to add your e-mail address to the waiting list.

{ 6 comments }

SEO Strategy: The Early Mover Advantage

by Dave Beck January 6, 2011
Thumbnail image for SEO Strategy: The Early Mover Advantage

SEO Savvy Store Owner: Hi [Supplier Name], I am just doing some planning for this upcoming year and was wondering what exciting new products you have on the horizon? Friendly Supplier: I’m glad you asked, because we have a couple of really exciting products that will be available to you in around three months time. [...]

Read the full article →

BigCommerce SEO Basics: Block everything before doing anything!

by Dave Beck December 15, 2010
Thumbnail image for BigCommerce SEO Basics: Block everything before doing anything!

To start off a series of articles on implementing some basic BigCommerce SEO techniques I’m going to recommend something that may seem a little counter intuitive. The very first thing you MUST do after signing up for a BigCommerce account is block your entire site from the search engines. Why the hell would you want to [...]

Read the full article →

Interspire SEO Module 1.3 Upgrade

by Dave Beck December 6, 2010
Thumbnail image for Interspire SEO Module 1.3 Upgrade

At long last I’m pleased to release the latest update to my Interspire SEO Module. Version 1.3 is now available to download and has a number of changes as well as a couple of minor new features. How Best to Handle Pagination? The use of the canonical URL element on paginated results has sparked a [...]

Read the full article →

Beware the SEO Sharks are Circling!

by Dave Beck November 12, 2010
Thumbnail image for Beware the SEO Sharks are Circling!

I feel really really sorry for small business owners these days. They have every so-called expert (think business coach) telling them “you need a website and make sure it can be found on Google”. It  sounds soooo easy…. a magic bullet that will solve all their problems. Having been involved in the Web development/search engine [...]

Read the full article →

CS Cart Review – My First Impressions

by Dave Beck October 11, 2010
Thumbnail image for CS Cart Review – My First Impressions

Choosing a shopping cart is not easy! I’ve spent well over 10 years looking at shopping cart software and I can promise you no solution is perfect. Like many of you, I initially had high hopes for Interspire Shopping Cart (and still do) but over the past year the Interspire management has really dropped the [...]

Read the full article →

My E-Commerce Challenge – Sometimes you just need a push!

by Dave Beck September 24, 2010
Thumbnail image for My E-Commerce Challenge – Sometimes you just need a push!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what direction I want my business to head next and have come to the assumption that I really need to clear my head and start concentrating on one thing at a time. This all came to me during one of many recent sleepless nights when I decided it’s [...]

Read the full article →

Blog Monetisation With an Online Store

by Dave Beck September 6, 2010
Thumbnail image for Blog Monetisation With an Online Store

Most bloggers realise pretty quickly that in order to maintain their enthusiasm and writing quality they need to start generating an income from the traffic they are working so hard to generate. You’ll find that most bloggers will settle on a mixture of advertising and promoting affiliate products as their main revenue source. Others will [...]

Read the full article →