How to Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for an E-Commerce Site – with Rob Snell

In this video interview e-commerce expert Rob Snell explains how to prioritize the limited time you have to spend on search engine optimization (SEO) for an online store. The key, he says, is to identify your top converting keywords and pages and focus there. Instead of just looking at only traffic, Snell says, it’s important to identify the keywords and phrases that actually result in traffic AND conversions, that is, sales. Then identify which webpages are driving conversions from search engine traffic. You can determine which of your product pages are in the Google index by typing into the Google search box “site:yourdomainname.com” and Google will list all of your pages in their index. We found that of about 15000 products, our top 200 webpages were driving 80-90% of the revenue. So the focus needs to be on the pages that are driving your revenue. Analytics for a Yahoo! show you the revenue for your entry pages. Google Analytics can be configured to track revenue as well. Then on your homepage, use the top converting keywords to link to your top converting webpages. Rob Snell is author of Starting a Yahoo! Business for Dummies (2006) and can be reached at www.RobSnell.com. This interview was recorded at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in Chicago in October 2010.