SEO for Ecommerce Website- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important on every website. But on an ecommerce website, SEO may make the difference between sales and no sales. This article introduces basics of SEO for your ecommerce website. SEO!

Basics of Ecommerce SEO

For ecommerce websites, Google search results are often a significant lifeline. But it’s so easy and inexpensive to set up an ecommerce site these days that many people may get into the business without realizing that there are rules to be followed as well as guidelines to help you succeed. That is, there are both positive things you can do to encourage search engine ranking, plus things you can avoid doing because if you did them, your search engine ranking would drop. For example, it might seem perfectly natural to a newbie etailer who just set up an ecommerce business to email everyone whose email address he or she has to share the good news. But by doing so, the excited etailer may just have unwittingly become a spammer, resulting in Google lowering the site’s ranking and even legal action.

Some people think Spam is just Viagra ads and real estate scams, but that’s not correct, and clearly to avoid creating SPAM, you have to know exactly what it is.

In particular, when you have a commercial enterprise, you need to avoid sending bulk email with identical or nearly identical content to users who did not solicit it. This is referred to as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE).

UCE violates most ISP (Internet Service Provider) Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs). UCE is also obligated to follow the guidelines provided in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which include the following:

• Keep your headers honest. All the information in the To, From, and Reply-To slots, as well as the routing information and originating domain name must be accurate.

• Keep subject lines on-task. Subject lines must represent the true nature of the content.

• Own up to advertising. The contents must be clearly acknowledged as advertising.

• Provide your location. You need to give the physical postal address of the business.

• Provide opt-out options. You must tell recipients how to avoid receiving future emails, and this message must be conspicuous and easy to understand. The opt-out should be email based, either through a return email or a click-through to your website. When you receive an opt-out request, you must honor it promptly.

• Keep an eye on all email marketing done for your website. Even if you did not personally send the email, you may be responsible for a contractor’s spam.

• Follow these other guidelines:

��"Don’t harvest web addresses, i.e., gather them from websites where they

are exposed, but using them is forbidden.

��"Don’t create email addresses by permutation, aka dictionary attacks.

��"Don’t relay email without permission.

��"Read the CAN-SPAM act guidelines from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission)��"URL below��"to avoid other problems.

Besides avoiding spam, SEO for ecommerce sites should avoid what’s known as "black hat" SEO techniques��"methods of trying to gain search engine ranking by tricking the search engine rather than by providing a great and useful website.

On the positive side, there are a number of things you can do to increase your page rank with search engines.

• Make Tags work for you. HTML meta tags are shortcuts to tell a search engine what a particular web page’s content is about. Tags can be used in determining search engine results.

• Submit your site to directories. Not only do directories��"such as DMOZ (aka Open Directory Project or ODP)��"give user a categorized list, making your site appear among its peers, but they are also relied on by search engines. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL all use the information in DMOZ, and submission is recommended by the Google Webmaster help guidelines.

• Use Keywords to advantage. By paying attention to keyword density, prominence, and proximity, and using natural language, you can "convince" search engines that your pages are on topic and provide useful content. Beware of keyword stuffing, which means forcing the keyword and using it to excess.

• Link, but don’t use Linkbait. While links to your site make it attractive to search engine, misusing links can have the opposite effect. The best way to encourage incoming links? Great content.

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