BrightonSEO October 2022 - Dan Taylor SEO - Indexing Ecommerce Websites

Generating better
indexing signals for
eCommerce websites
Slideshare.Net/DanTaylor29
@taylordanrw
Dan Taylor
SALT.agency

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# Hello! ‘I’m Dan’;
* Head of Technical SEO at SALT.agency
* 2018 TechSEO Boost Innovation Prize Winner #EdgeSEO
* TechSEO Podcast
* https://sloth.cloud + https://hreflangchecker.com
* https://mirador.solutions
* https://salt.agency
* https://dantaylor.online
eCommerceIndexing
brightonseo.html dan_taylor.css

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# Why do we care
about indexing in
eCommerce?

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# Are we on the verge of an
indexing shift?
Google, in their own docs, outlines that the web is expanding at a pace
far outstretching its own capability and means to crawl (and index) every
URL.
Crawling is expensive. Indexing and storing data is expensive. Refreshing
that data is expensive.
Search engines are getting smarter, and we are seeing new technology like
IndexNow.
It makes financial and environmental sense to reduce crawling, indexing,
and storage for a large % of the internet, and rely on Webmaster
input/effort values for the remaining %.
Conspiracy Theory Alert

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< 100% indexed?
Possible?! >
01 {
[Indexing issues]
}
eCommerceIndexing

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# Why do websites
have indexing
issues?

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* Technical
Canonical and other indexing directive
issues
Server caused errors (e.g. GEO IP
redirects)
HTTP headers
<head> breaks
eCommerceIndexing

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* “Quality”
Quality threshold
“Fit for query”
“Undesirable characteristics”
Unsatisfactory main content
TTR (time to result)
eCommerceIndexing

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* Content issues
Internal content conflicts
Value proposition and beneficial purpose
issues
eCommerceIndexing

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01.1 {
[eCom Indexing
Problems]
< TECHNICAL PROBLEMS >
}

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# Technical Problems
Technical indexing problems typically boil down to issues with (x) robots,
(x) canonicals, and interesting server behaviours (such as GEO IP
redirects).
HTML and X robots tags are pretty clean cut, they’re either there or
they’re not. They get more complicated if you’re canonicalizing another
page to your target, and also have a noindex on the source page - but this
is relatively simple to troubleshoot.
Canonicals on the other hand can be technical, or content/quality…
eCommerceIndexing

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# Canonical Errors
Alternate page with proper canonical tag
You’ve canonicalized page A to page B, and Google is respecting it.
Duplicate without user-selected canonical
Google has found duplicate pages, can’t work out the canonical situation
so has made a judgement call (parameters are a likely culprit).
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user
Google thinks another URL has the same, if not better, value proposition
than the one you’ve marked as a canonical, so it’s ignored you.
Canonicals are fun

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# Variable products & canonicals
Variable products can sometimes pose a problem when it comes to SEO - and
indexing.
Typically a CMS will use parameters for single product variations, and
others where the SKU is different, you’ll just get different URIs.
But what if the product name is technically the same...
eCommerceIndexing

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Worldwake Double Masters Masters 25 From The
Vault: 20
Eternal
Masters

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All of these have unique URLs, as they all are unique products with unique
SKUs.
All of them are valid, and collectible, and competitive, and desired by
users, so no-indexing them isn’t an option.
In this instance, the value proposition and content needs to be updated at
a PIM level for each product to give enough reason for Google to look at
these six (effectively the same) legendary planeswalkers and index them
all so they’re all discoverable.
But what if someone searches for [jace the mind sculptor] without
specifying a release set? We need a champion version.

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To create a “champion version” we used revenue, sales, inbound traffic,
and internal search data to identify which version was best for the
business and added helpful content to the page in the form of “expert”
advice, in how to play with the card.
Google then had a solid USP/differentiation factor between the versions
for a single version for generic queries, and enough information and
signals to surface the other Jace Beleren variations if a user’s search
query specified them.

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01.2 {
[eCom Indexing
Problems]
< QUALITY PROBLEMS >
}

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# Quality
The decision on whether the page (the individual HTML document) is good
enough to index comes down to the notion of a quality threshold. Search
engines need to have a quality threshold, as indexing the entire web is
impossible.
In ecommerce, the quality threshold bar will differ between industries
(e.g., the threshold will be lower for fast fashion than for home medical
equipment).
Google also isn’t linear in how it presents SERPs.
This matters because Google is clearly catering to multiple common
interpretations and intents for the query - intents, source-types,
perspectives, result types...
eCommerceIndexing

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# Quality
The purpose of a page is the reason or reasons why the page was created.
Every page on the Internet is created for a purpose, or for multiple
purposes.
Most pages are created to be helpful for users, thus having a beneficial
purpose.
Some pages are created merely to make money, with little or no effort to
help users.
Most pages are created to be helpful for users, thus having a beneficial
purpose.
Some pages are created merely to make money, with little or no effort to
help users. (Helpful Content Update...This has been in the QRGs for
years).
eCommerceIndexing

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If a page lacks a beneficial
purpose, it should always be rated
Lowest Page Quality regardless of
the page's Needs Met rating or how
well-designed the page may be.
Google Quality Rater Guidelines

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Websites and pages should be
created to help users. Websites
and pages that are created with
intent to harm users, deceive
users, or make money with no
attempt to help users, should
receive the Lowest PQ rating.
Google Quality Rater Guidelines

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Page Components (Quality)
Main Content (MC) is any part of the page that directly helps the page
achieve its purpose. MC is the reason the page exists.
The quality of the MC plays a very large role in the Page Quality rating
of a webpage.
Supplementary Content (SC) is also important. SC can help a page better
achieve its purpose or it can detract from the overall experience.
Many pages have advertisements/monetization (Ads). The presence or absence
of Ads is not by itself a reason for a High or Low quality rating.

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# Value propositions & SERPS
Every* non-branded SERP is a diversification of value propositions to meet
a multitude of user intents.
This SERP diversification and augmentation leads to non-linear ranking.
Why would a search engine return results past page X if the data shows no-
one goes that far?
Principles of post-retrieval modification in information retrieval, Recall
& Precision.
eCommerceIndexing

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01.3 {
[eCom Indexing
Problems]
< CONTENT PROBLEMS >
}

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A lot of ecommerce websites don’t invest enough in their product pages.
In competitive markets, most of these PDPs don’t offer unique value
propositions and fall below the quality threshold for indexing.
There are several ways to enhance your product pages and leverage the
business and brand’s unique selling proposition (USP).
***
It _could_ be argued that a PDP only needs basic information to have a
high value proposition and be helpful - but if everyone takes that
approach, where is the added value, and the differentiation factor for
your PDPs over the competition?

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# Dynamic meta on PLPs & PDPs
If your brand’s USP focuses on offering quality products at lower prices,
and search terms gravitate around “budget” and “cheap.”
To enforce the lower price in the page content and boost click-through
from the SERPs, you can include dynamic elements in the PDP title tag, H2,
and body copy to pull through the current price.
On PLPs you can also pull through the number of products in the category
(to helpfully communicate choice and variety), price ranges, and depending
on the time of day - delivery expectations.
Whilst Google may choose to overwrite this information for some queries,
consistent static values and inclusion can help provide consistency in
determining the page quality.
eCommerceIndexing

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<script>
$(window).on(“load”, function (){
document.title=”Best Price X “ +
document.getElementByClassName
(“price”)[0].innerText +”
| Brand Name”
});
</script>
#edgeSEO

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# Content for SEO on PLPs
When it comes to category pages/PLPs the standard has always been to add a
paragraph (or two) or content, sometimes split between the top and bottom
with fragment jumplinks, or all stuffed at the bottom.
Although this has been covered by Google in February 2019:
@johnmu
Instead of stuffing content at the bottom of ecommerce category pages,
make sure the pages are well-integrated w/the rest of the site (for
context), add text for each product listing, alt text for images,
captions, & a tight visible description
eCommerceIndexing

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# Soft 404s - Dynamic
Interstitials/Out of Stock
A soft 404 error is when a URL that returns a page telling the user that
the page does not exist and also a 200 (success) status code. In some
cases, it might be a page with no main content or empty page.
Implementing a rule for product pages (and category pages if applicable)
were you can present an interstitial/non-intrusive pop-up based on stock
availability, and time of the day (next day delivery cut off times) can
really help you with conversion and improving user experience.
eCommerceIndexing

Thank you!
https://salt.agency
https://dantaylor.online

BrightonSEO October 2022 - Dan Taylor SEO - Indexing Ecommerce Websites

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