How to optimising osCommerce Page Content for SEO

[carlos hank rhon]

Optimising osCommerce Page Content for SEO

 

(Otherwise known as “Content is King”…..)

 

Now I’m giving my brain a rest from further development of supertracker for a few minutes, I thought it would be a good time to write a few notes regarding page content in the context of osCommerce Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

 

Just this morning I was aimlessly surfing the internet and stumbled across an osCommerce shop that caught my attention. The reason was simple – the front page main content consisted simply of the standard text “Welcome Guest, would you like to log in or create an account…” and a relatively large graphic underneath. Not the first time I have seen such a thing, but a real waste of perhaps the most crucial part of a site. This site, as it turns out, must be paying top-dollar in order to be placed at the top of Google adwords results for their chosen keyword(s) – no doubt because of poor regular search engine performance. This poor front page layout does make me wonder how many of those expensive Adwords click-throughs they actually convert though.

 

So, I guess you get the idea behind the first point I want to make. Make good use of the main content area on your front page of your osCommerce store (index.php). It’s the first thing that most of your visitors see, so use it to introduce the store, it’s policies and why it’s a good idea to buy from you. Also, highlight any products you think will be of particular interest and any special offers you have running as a way to engage their attention quickly. More importantly, this area also gives you an opportunity to throw in more of the search keywords you want to optimise for. Don’t go completely mad with keywords though, as there is a fine balance between keyword spamming (putting in the keywords over and over, and out of context) and good keyword density.

 

What I try and do when working on such page content is to write something which both reads well for the customer and hits a desirable level of keyword density for the search engines. You might want to try using tools such as that at keyworddensity.com to help you with this.

 

Another area where people sometimes pay too little attention is that of product descriptions. Descriptions that are too short may give customers the impression that you know little about your products, or that you simply couldn’t be bothered to write something meaningful. Equally, the search engines will find little meaningful to index – rumour has it that they like keywords to be mixed in with lots of other words (i.e. like proper sentences), so in putting together well written descriptions you are putting yourself in a win-win situation.

 

Another good way to increase the visitors to your site is to create some meaningful content outside of the products you have for sale. Typical examples would be pages giving hints and tips, detailed reviews of products or general advice about a related subject. Also, forums or blogs can be a good way of doing this. Search engines like fresh content which is updated regularly and customers may well return often if there is always likely to be something new to read (hopefully buying something whilst they’re about it!).

 

Another great side effect is that if you have lots of content worth reading on your site, people will want to link their sites to your site, which helps to push up your sites page rank and bring more visitors in general.

 

This blog is a typical example of such a concept. Whilst I do enjoy sharing my knowledge of all thing osCommerce related with the general public when I have time, this is also a useful marketing tool. How else could I write the term “osCommerce” in so many different ways and contexts on a website? The fact is that in just writing about osCommerce, I get lots of hits from search engines from people who have typed in all sorts of specific search keyphrases relating to the use of osCommerce. No way I could ever optimise a site to target all of those, so I don’t worry about it – I just know that as I write more and more about different the different aspects of osCommerce I will get gradually more and more hits from people looking for a gradually wider range of information regarding osCommerce. What’s more, as I offer services related to osCommerce, so of them may even be tempted to offer me work :o)

 

The above hopefully has given you some thought about how you might improve upon your site in order to get more targeted hits from people who want to buy your products. At the end of the day, the level of success you get is largely determined by the amount of effort you put in. Good content doesn’t just write itself, you have to work hard to create it, but it really does pay off in the long run.

:rolleyes:

[Jan Zonjee]

This blog is a typical example of such a concept.

And spamming the forums using at least five different user names is another part of your SEO optimization scheme? Just banned the ones I found, for your information.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Guest]

I don't know the whole story but it seems odd that you would ban someone who just spent the time to write out this SEO guide.