SEO and Ecommerce 1: The Basics
What's the Big Deal?
You can't get anywhere near ecommerce (or really the net in general) today without hearing about search engine optimization, often referred to as simply "SEO." Sometimes people talk about it like it is a magical money maker that will drive millions of consumers directly to your website, eager to give you their money. Other times it is referred to as an inscrutable djinn of the Internet, unknowable and unpredictable.
The bottom line is that SEO is how people find you and get to your site. There are many SEO tactics out there designed to increase your visibility and bring in customers. The best policy is just to be good at what you do, develop a strong network, and work that network consistently. When choosing ecommerce software for your site and how to construct the various pages, there are several things that you can keep in mind to make sure that the software you choose and the setup you use for your site lends itself to your SEO efforts.
Title Tags
Title tags will not make or break your SEO, but they are important. Title tags tell search engine (SE) spiders what your page is about. They also pop up on search engine result pages (SERPS) before people click on links to your page. The text you enter for the title tag also becomes the top banner for the browser. Make sure that your ecommerce software lets you pick the title tags that you want, and that the title tags you pick describe the page content effectively. Also: no duplicate title tags. SEs don't like that.
URLs
There are two types of URLs: dynamic and static. Dynamic URLs change every time you load a page. This makes it hard for human users and search engine spiders to find, catalog, and return to the page. You want humans to easily remember and return to the page. To do this, you set up a static URL. A good e-store or shopping cart will have this capability. Try to keep the URL in line with the title tag (they don't have to be identical) and accurate with what's on the page. Just like the title tags, make sure that you don't have any duplicate URLs.
Images
If you are selling products, then you want to show the public what they are buying. The more pictures you have, the better your chances of convincing someone to buy. Lots of pictures also make sure that consumers have a better idea of what they are getting. You don't want to deal with a disatisfied customer just because he or she didn't know what they were ordering. Add appropriate tags, descriptions, and captions. This also optimizes the image for things like Google Image Search.
Rich Text
Search engines like rich text. The higher up on your page you put the rich text, the better your page will rank for the search terms you want. Avoid things like JavaScript and Flash. If you are using shopping cart software to power your e-store, you might want to avoid platforms that use these utilities too heavily. If you absolutely need them on a page, then make sure that your rich text is as close to the top as possible. Also, having your images surrounded by appropriate rich text helps them rank better too.