Search engine optimization

Bigger textSmaller text

GoogleToday most consumers use a search engine to find what they are looking for. In most cases that search engine will be Google, so we mainly focus on this. If your shop appears on the first page, you receive free visitors and, if all goes well, also free customers.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.

SEA

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO for your online shop

EasyWebshopEasyWebshop already has optimized your online shop automatically for the best results in search engines.

  • Automatic and editable titles and META tags on each page
  • Personalized SEO-friendly URLs for all pages
  • Automatically generated XML Sitemaps (www.[yourdomain].com/sitemap.xml)
  • Internal SEO program
  • Inclusion in the directory for fast search engine indexing
  • Standard HTML5 pages for better indexing
  • Product photos receive the names of your products and categories
  • Always completed ALT texts on all photos
  • Standard responsive designs with focus on user friendliness
  • Super fast load times and optimized scripting

This may all sound very technical for the starting merchant. However, you only have to worry about filling your website with keywords and texts. We take care of the technical part.

Tips for good search results

To be indexed in search engines the search engines first need to find your website. They do this by following links on other websites. It is important that other websites place a link to your website, otherwise your website will never be indexed.

We place a link for you in our directory. To be indexed in our directory, make sure the internal categories are set correctly. You can find these at Settings > Shop settings. Look for Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3.

Do's

  • Provide adequate information. Enter full product descriptions and place information on the category pages. Create additional pages with text. If your shop is multilingual, complete all fields in every language. Do not copy texts.

  • Select 6 to 8 keywords and use them in the titles, descriptions and content of your web pages, and in the product descriptions.

  • Always fill in the page Title and META description in CMS. Make sure they relate to the web page. Do not copy texts. Write a separate targeted text on each page. META descriptions are automatically set for you on your products according to the product description.

  • Connect a domain name to your shop. Preferably a domain name with your main keywords in it. The shorter the domain name, the better.

  • Linkbuilding: get links from other websites to your website. Several dozen links to your website on major websites provide more results on Google than 1000 links from insignificant websites.

  • Be active on forums and social networks.

  • Submit your XML sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools. (verify your website)

  • You can check your pagerank at CheckPageRank.net.

  • Search engines prefer older websites that have build trust. A domain name that is 3 years old will do better than a new domain name.

Dont's

  • Do not copy texts, write your own. Search engines like unique content. If you copy text and change it a bit, search engines will also notice.

  • Merchants sometimes get emails from companies that promise excellent results in search engines. Do not respond. The promised "backlinks" usually contain no value.

  • META keywords are not important. Google even ignores them completely.

  • Do not exaggerate. Do not use keywords that do not apply to your website.

  • Search engines add websites automatically in their index. Manually submitting your website has virtually no impact. Most search engines ignore this.

  • Exchanging links with other websites has no benefits.

  • How your position in Google is determined, depends on many parameters. You can not pay Google for being number one. SEM has no positive or negative impact on your organic search results.

  • Duplicate content is not penalized. It's not a problem to have multiple domain names. The default domain name will be indexed.

Search Engine Optimization

Always enter the Title and META description in Management > CMS.

SEO-optimization test

SEO optimizationIs your shop optimized and what can be done better? The search engine optimization program is an internal application that will check all the settings of your online shop to generate maximum traffic from search engines.

Search engine optimization can be started at Marketing > Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization



OK ICONNot OK ICONThe search engine optimization program works as a wizard, with 10 checks to see whether your shop is optimized. If there are errors or problems in the configuration, you will receive a message. You do not need to solve the problem immediately, you can go to the next step and ignore the error.

If you get a green sign at each step, your shop is optimized. You can start the search engine optimization wizard again as much as you want.

Pages with noindex tag

Some pages on your website are excluded form being indexed in search engines because they do not provide useful information.

  • /account - the account page for your customers is only visible when logged in
  • /cart - from the perspective of a search engine, the shopping cart is empty
  • /recover - customer account recovery page
  • /signup - customer account signup page

The motivation behind excluding pages is to not feed search engines with low quality content. Search engines rank websites with useful content better. Quality is more important than quantity. Also, these pages are not good entry pages for your visitors.

www and non-www URLs

Your website consistently uses the non-www URL (or web address). This means that the www. part that comes after https:// and before your domain name is optional. This is the default behavior and cannot be changed. The www version redirects to the non-www version.

The argument to opt for non-www URLs is to make the URLs shorter. It saves 4 characters, which preserves more space for personalized web addresses.

Canonical URLs

When a page has a duplicate URL a Canonical tag will be added in the head section. This is the case when the language of the page is specified in the URL but is the same as the default language of the website.

Canonical URLs are generated automatically. It is not possible to create them yourself.

301 redirects

Some pages will redirect to the most appropriate URL. This happens when a page obtains or loses a personalized web address.

Redirects are generated automatically. It is not possible to create them yourself.

Possible problems

When will my website appear on Google?
Getting indexed in search engines usually goes pretty fast, sometimes it's just a few hours. To generate a good position is a process that needs more time and effort. Make sure at first that your shop is optimized, create sufficient content and take care of inbound links from related websites, start pages, forums and social networking.
How do I remove a page from Google?
Remove the page or the product from your shop. Google will automatically adjust its index after some time.

Next page: Comparison sites

Starter Wiki



Frequently Asked Questions Contact