Search Engine Friendly E-Commerce Catalogs - Homepage Content Area
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For most new e-commerce sites, having content on the homepage will have an impact on your search engine rankings. After all, it is the content that the search engines look for when determining what your page is all about. Of course, links to your site play a huge role; but in our case, we are talking about a search engine friendly e-commerce site and not the "off-page factors". For search engine friendly design, content is a very important factor. As you can see on the homepage, I have added an area for content on the page. The content should read well and contain your targeted keywords. Keep in mind that when your homepage ranks for a specific keyword, Google will normally use the content on the page for your description in the results page. Keep this content clean, easy to read and catchy.
The content I used for my Search Engine Friendly Web Shop's homepage reads as follows:
Search Engine Friendly Web Shop. Buy custom widgets to help your e-commerce catalog leverage the organic search engine market. Ensure that all your pages are indexed and have optimal search engine visibility.
Now, tell me, wouldn't that copy encourage you to click on my e-commerce site?
Remainder of the Homepage
You can see that I have replicated the left hand navigation in the middle of the page but oriented the listings differently. I am not a usability expert, but I tend to like sites that repeat the site navigation on the homepage in this fashion.
On the right hand side of the page, I have placed weekly specials and featured products. It is smart to put new items in this area because most sites have their index pages indexed more often than their internal pages. Any new page you add that has a link off the index page will get indexed sooner than if they were found deeper into a page. In addition to the search engine benefits, placing the products and specials on the right portion of the side will help increase the visibility of those products to your customers. Many eye-tracking studies show that people normally look towards the right portion of the page, especially if there are images.
At the bottom of the homepage and on every page throughout the site is the site's footer. A "footer" is an important final touch to the site. I recommend that the company name in the footer link back to the homepage.
That covers the basics for building a search engine friendly e-commerce homepage. To recap, the header, left hand side navigation and middle area components of the homepage are all important for building a e-commerce site which has a good internal linking structure. Remember the search engines have to click on links in order to find your pages. The right hand side products and specials are there to increase those products' visibility for search engines and your customer. For more information on dynamic URLs and the problematic areas they pose, visit my article named Dynamic URLs in the Eyes of a Search Engine.
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