Search Engine Friendly E-Commerce Catalogs - The Brand Landing Pages and the Product Page
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The brand landing pages work much like the category landing pages. They provide an extra level of product navigation that is useful for your consumer and great for your keyword rankings. With a brand landing page you can target keyword phrases that are searched for daily. For example, I am looking for Apple products, and I might search on "apple computers". Your goal is to rank somewhere under the official apple computers site. But you can target phrases even deeper than that, such as apple hardware or apple laptops and or apple 15" laptops. The on page construction works exactly the same way as the category or sub-category pages but you should substitute the proper keywords in the relevant places. I have provided a mock-up of a brand page that is targeting a specific sub-category of a brand below.
The Product Page
Product pages are the easiest pages to rank well because they target the most specific keywords. It is thus important to properly name the product by keeping your Web visitors and the search engines in mind. Your product pages are constructed similarly to the category or brand pages but they are focused around the keyword phrases that match that specific product. Let's start from the top of the product page and discuss what elements are important to include.
TITLE & META INFORMATION: The title of the product page should match the product name. The meta description should be formatted in a way that entices the searcher to click from the search results page to your product page. The meta description can be written in the following fashion; "Save $XX.XX on [product name] if you order [product name] with [store name] today!" Of course, fashion this product description based on what is most meaningful and attractive to your target audience. Your meta description can match or be similar to the content at the very top of the page (in the screen image, this content begins with "In the [sub...]"). The meta keywords should contain the product name, product misspellings, product synonyms and other keywords that you might think would attract people to this page.
HEADER TAG and TOP of PAGE: The header tag (h1) should contain the product name. The top of the page should also include a short description of the product, possibly the one used on the category pages or used in the meta description. One should also add on to the breadcrumb trail, the product name at the tail end of the breadcrumb. So in our example above; "home -> computer hardware -> computer desktop", we would add on "product name". The breadcrumb will now be in the format of "home -> computer hardware -> computer desktop -> product name".
The side navigation remains constant on the left of the page, as discussed above.
MIDDLE OF PAGE: In the middle of the page is the detail of the product. A nice thing to have is a large image that, if clicked on, brings up an even larger image in a small window. The image should contain an alternative text tag with the product name. The product name should be listed on the page as well in a header font or bold tag. The long description should follow and if possible include features or specification or details that are useful to the consumer. At the top and bottom right corners of the page, I like to include links to the previous and next products in the category selected. In addition, under the fold, I like to include additional links to products within the same brand and products that are similar to this product. These links are not only helpful to the Web visitor, but they make it easier for search engines to find your pages. Anchor text link popularity is improved slightly.
That covers the search engine friendly e-commerce site guide. This document is meant to be brief and easy to understand. Many of the deeply technical areas of how to build such a site are left out. URL rewriting, dynamic page generation, cascading style sheet usage and database development are omitted. You can take this document and give it to your Web developer and ask them to implement these guidelines. Then you are on your way to a search engine friendly e-commerce store. Of course, make sure to review the document and make specific suggestions based on your product and target audience. If you need custom e-commerce solutions, you can contact my company, RustyBrick, at 866-GO-RUSTY or via the Web at http://www.rustybrick.com/.
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