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Keys to a Search Engine Friendly Shopping Cart
by Lee Roberts
Why Are Search Engine Shopping Carts Needed?
The objective of any shopping cart
or e-commerce system is to allow visitors to
shop on a business site for products they want. Unfortunately, not
all shopping carts are created equal and not all search engines are
created with equal
capabilities. Some search engines are able to navigate through dynamic
sites
while others are not. Sometimes the search engines that are able
to navigate
through dynamic sites have problems indexing and navigating through
the entire
site.
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These factors eliminate many e-commerce
sites from the search engine result
pages or hamper their advancement to the top. For a business to be
competitive
on the World Wide Web, all of its pages need to be indexed and developed
correctly.
For the past 10 years programmers
have been developing e-commerce systems
that required the sites to compete at the site level. This required
many site
owners to find a company that could optimize their sites and create
doorway or
landing pages that focused upon a product or category, or use any
number of
other means to elevate the e-commerce site in the search engines.
These tactics
have worked successfully, but the search engines want pages that
are of unique
value to present to their clients. Dynamic sites hamper the model
search engines
desire.
In order to meet the demands of the
search engines and be indexed by all search
engines new techniques must be employed. These new techniques can
make an
e-commerce system more search engine friendly, if they are developed
correctly.
Some systems will never be search engine friendly and result in less
than
adequate placement in the search engine result pages.
Why Are Some E-Commerce Solutions Not Search Engine Friendly?
There are many factors that come
into play when attempting to determine if an
e-commerce system is not search engine friendly. These factors are
important
to understand and can help you determine if the system is right for
you.
CGI-BIN and Scripting Languages
Shopping Carts or e-commerce systems
using the CGI-BIN format typically utilize the PERL scripting language.
When a search engine finds /cgi-bin/ in a
URL it typically ignores it. There are however some search engines
that can
index beyond the /cgi-bin/element of the URL. However, there are
many that
cannot and do not index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element.
Then we have the database driven
shopping cart or e-commerce system that
operates on one of the more advanced Object Oriented Event Driven
(OOED)
languages such as PHP, ASP, .NET, .JSP, or Cold Fusion (just to name
a
few). These advanced languages utilize the question mark (?) and
ampersand
(&) in the URL to identify the variables required to pull the
information out of
the database and into the dynamically generated page. Not all search
engines
are able to index beyond the question mark (?) or the ampersand (&)
making it
difficult to be indexed by all search engines.
Meta Data
Shopping carts or e-commerce systems
typically re-use the same set of Meta
keywords and Meta descriptions throughout the dynamically generated
pages.
This simply means that an orange would have the same Meta keywords
and
Meta description as an apple. Obviously this does not work very well
for search
engines that utilize the Meta keywords and Meta descriptions. Meta
keywords
and Meta descriptions should be based upon the product or the category.
Page Titles
Page titles are one of the most important
elements in search engine optimization.
Page titles inform the purchaser that your page offers exactly what
they are
looking for. Since many e-commerce solutions re-use the same page
title which
is typically the company name or the site URL, it can prevent your
site from
moving to the top of the search engine results. Each page should
stand on its
own.
When someone does a search in the
search engines, they first look at the titles
provided. If your page comes up first in the search engines and is
among a series
of results that list off names of companies and your Page Title is
reflected as
Mandarin Oranges the searcher will more than likely click on your
link. Page
Titles allow for advertising the topic of your page and should be
programmed to
correspond with the topic of your page.
When optimizing a page for a web
site the Page Title is considered one of the
most important elements available to the SEO professional. Page Titles
play
an extremely important role in proper optimization and should not
be used
haphazardly.
URL Rewrites
URL rewrites are programming techniques
that allow the returned URL to be more
search engine friendly by removing the question mark (?) and ampersand
(&) from
the returned URL found in the location or address bar. This enables
the search
engines to index the page without having variables or session id's
interlaced into
the URL.
There are two types of URL rewrites.
Each meet the same purpose, but the
advanced URL rewrite is more search engine friendly. The following
examples
will give you an idea of the important factors.
Non-URL Rewrite URL
http://www.yourdomain.com/shop.php?cat_id=1&item_id=2
The above URL indicates to the database
that the returned information should be
from the category with id equal to 1 and the item id equal to 2.
This works fine for
the system because it understands the variables. Many search engines
however
do not understand this form of URL.
Simple URL Rewrite
http://www.yourdomain.com/shop/1/2.html
The simple URL rewrite will take
the URL and modify it so that it appears without
the question mark (?) and ampersand (&). This enables all search
engines to
index your all of your pages, but still lacks in some important areas.
Advanced URL Rewrite
http://www.yourdomain.com/oranges/mandarin_oranges.html
The advanced URL rewrite enables
your URLs to include your keywords. This is
another location search engines look for important information about
your pages.
Being able to include keywords in your URL helps elevate your page
to the top of
the search engine result pages.
Hidden Session ID's
Hidden session id's are not exactly
hidden, but they are typically hidden from
view of the visitor and not placed in the returned URL. The links
with session id's
include the question mark (?) and therefore can prevent many search
engines
from navigating and indexing your site.
Some people attempt to defeat this
problem with cookies, but cookies present
a different problem. Since some people are concerned with privacy
issues they
block cookies and therefore are unable to shop if the cart requires
cookies.
Session id's keep a temporary record on the visiting computer while
keeping a
corresponding session number in memory or in a database.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are identified
with the following HTML tags: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>,
<h4>, <h5>, and <h6>. The <h1> tag is the
most important heading tag while the<h6> tag is the least important.
When a page uses the <h1> tag
it informs the search engines that the page is about a specific
topic and elevates that piece of content above the remainder of
the content. The remainder of the content is then considered supporting
informa- tion and should include the same words in more than one
instance for best results.
ALT Attributes
ALT attributes provide a two-fold function. The first function is
to allow the site to become accessible to the blind user. Because
blind users cannot see the picture the ALT attribute allows for a
description of the image. This aids the blind user in understanding
the information available on the page.
The ALT attribute also allows for adding keywords or the product
name in a text element for the product picture. This adds relevance
to the content and is used by the search engines to elevate the positioning
of the page in the search engine
results.
Flash Navigation
Flash is an interesting tool used for presenting information in
an interesting and interactive manner. Many designers use Flash to
create web sites because they can control the environment. Flash
requires plug-ins for the browsers to navigate and use the site.
If a navigation element is created in Flash the links are hidden
from the source codes for the page and therefore inhibits search
engines from navigating through the site. This single fact blocks
the site from becoming completely indexed by the search engines.
JavaScript Navigation
JavaScript navigation brings to the
table several issues that need to be understood. First, the codes
are executable on either the server-side or the client-side and require
the ability to utilize JavaScript. The majority of search engine
spiders or robots are not programmed to parse the information in
the JavaScript to reach the subsequent pages.
Second, if the visitor is unable to use or has turned off JavaScript
support they are unable to navigate the site. This creates problems
for these users when they attempt to utilize the site.
The only work around when including JavaScript navigation elements
is to provide a link set some where on the page that the visitor
or search engine spider can navigate through.
Frames
When frames came out the reason for
them were simple; browsers did not have great caching capabilities.
Because of this the browser would continually have
to download the navigation buttons, logos, and other images. This
slowed down the performance of web sites since broadband was not
available at that time. Browsers have improved their caching capabilities
and therefore this technique is no longer needed.
Search engines index each page on its own without the concerns of
supporting pages or pages required for the site to function correctly.
Therefore, if a page has no links on it or only links to a limited
set of other pages, the visitor may not be able to find the remaining
pages. Additionally, the average Internet user may not understand
how to get to the main page of the site or as is typical, they'll
leave and find another site to use.
Coding to Standards
Some people will debate this issue and continue to utilize their
same coding techniques and utilities.
Coding to Standards means that the pages are programmed to be valid
and comply with the standards established by the World Wide Consortium
or the International Standards Organization. The World Wide Web Consortium
has several different levels of HTML programming available. These
programming languages are HTML and XHTML, just to name a couple.
Search engines can index the pages
even if they are not standards compliant,
but being standards compliant ensures that the broadest array of
browsers can
use the pages.
Coding to standards also means that
there are ways to increase the relevance of
the pages by using techniques not available to non-standard compliant
pages.
ADVANTAGES OF A SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY SHOPPING CART
Search engine friendly shopping carts
are developed in such a way as to
promote the items and categories above the remainder of the site.
However, to
be a search engine friendly shopping cart the system must first comply
with the search engine guidelines for quality. One element that is
truly not search engine
friendly is the ability to post duplicate content across many domains.
Typically when an e-commerce system
is developed it promotes the site above
the categories and items. To this means, the items and categories
rely upon
how well the site performs in the search engine result pages. The
site may not
perform as well as items or categories can perform.
When a person performs a search for
an item they are looking for an item. If they
have to perform a search on a site they are then doubling their efforts
and may
leave the site faster due to frustration and the inability to locate
the item they
want in a timely fashion.
Some business owners think this is
a model idea because the shopper may find
something else they want or need. This is a truth, but it is also
a burden on the
shopper.
If that same shopper landed on the
exact page that had the item they were
looking for with the ability to add it directly to their cart for
purchase, the likelihood of their purchase increases. Not necessarily
out of a pricing issue, but out
of a time savings issue.
This allows the shopper to add the
item and then go back and find additional
items they may want or need. There are other tools available to help
a shopper
find other interesting or corresponding items. The site features
can be as
complex as desired to meet the marketing needs of the business.
The true objective of any shopping
cart is to allow easy use and ability to find
desires products. Without this capability the site performs poorly.
Think of a
food store and understand why they have items grouped and ordered
the way
they do. Your online store should operate in this same fashion, but
with the
enhanced ability to cross-reference products.
About the Author:
Lee Roberts developed and owns the Apple Pie Shopping Cart the only
search engine friendly shopping cart that follows the search engine
guidelines.
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