How to become SEO Friendly

Here at Volusion, we want to make sure your on-line business is a success! We have many great SEO tools built into our software and want to make sure you are taking full advantage of them. Now is the perfect time to make sure your website is optimized for search engines. With the latest Volusion e-Commerce Software, you have the tools.

TIP #1: Enable the SEO Friendly feature

Navigate to Marketing —> SEO, in the admin area and follow the steps on that page to enable this feature. If you have any questions on how to implement this, please contact technical support at 1-800-646-3517.

TIP #2: Fill in the Meta Tags

Fill in all the following fields in your database in order to maximize your potential of being listed high in the rankings:

Fill in the three MetaTags fields on this page. These MetaTags will be used on all of the pages in which you have not yet specified MetaTags and are used on the home page. Examples can be found on the SEO Optimization page right next to the text boxes.

When entering Meta tags, there are two modes that can be used. The default is the Easy Mode which contains the fields below:

For individuals or companies with more advanced SEO knowledge, there is an Advanced Mode where individual meta tags can be inputted.

Robots.txt File

If you need to upload a Robots.TXT file, you can do so by clicking the link at the bottom of the SEO page that says Need to upload a robots.txt file?. This will open the Robots.txt file where you can then edit the file. Once you are done, click the Save Changes button to upload your changes.

Products Table:

To add meta tags to your products, go to Inventory Products and then click on a product code to go into the edit mode. Then go to the section that says Search Engine Optimization click on it to expand out the following fields:

1. Product Name Short — This field should contain the product name, however a shorter version than your Product Name field. This field is displayed on the home page of your website in the 3 right hand side Super Deal, Top Sellers, New Products sections. More importantly, it is displayed in the URL of your product pages if you have the SEO Friendly feature enabled as described in TIP #1.
2. Photo_AltText — A maximum of 2 to 3 words recommended.
3. Meta Tag Title — This could be the same thing as your Product Name or main keyword or keyword phrase. 6 words or less is recommended here.
4. Meta Tag Description — Short paragraph. A maximum of 2 or 3 sentences.
5. Meta Tag Keywords — List of keywords separated by commas. There is no need for more than 15 to 20 words here.

Clicking on the Instant Help Icon next to each field will give additional information including the maximum number of characters that are allowed to be filled into that field.

Categories Table:

1. Link Title Tag - 2 to 3 words max recommended. This is also displayed in the URL of your category pages if you have the SEO Friendly feature enabled as described in TIP #1.
2. Meta Tag Title — This could be the same thing as your Category Name.
3. Meta Tag Description — Short paragraph. 2 to 3 sentences.
4. Meta Tag Keywords — List of keywords separated by commas.

Articles Table:

1. Meta Tag Title — This could be the same thing as your Article Title.
2. Meta Tag Description — Short paragraph. 2 to 3 sentences.
3. Meta Tag Keywords — List of keywords separated by commas.

You can also create SEO links for your articles. This is done by simply adding either _a/###.htm or -a/###.htm where the ### represents the article ID you are linking to. So for example, say you are linking to a company information article and the article ID is 123, then an example for a SEO URL would look like this:

/company_information_a/123.htm or /company_information-a/123.htm

The part that says company_information can actually be anything you want as long as the URL ends with either -a/###.htm or _a/###.htm and replacing ### with the actual article ID. See further examples below:

/faq_a/123.htm
/faq-a/123.htm
/about-us_a/123.htm
/about_us-a/123.htm

TIP #3: Link to Category & Product Indexes

Make sure you have a link in your footer to 'cindex.asp and /pindex.asp, which are the two files in your store that list all of your categories and products. This makes it easy for search engines to find all of the pages in your site. If you do not already have links in your footer to these files, here's some sample code which you can paste in your footer:

<a href="/cindex.asp">Category Index</a>

<a href="/pindex.asp">Product Index</a>

TIP #4: Write good content

Content is king.

The more relevant content you have on your site the better. For example, if you can have many paragraphs for your Product Description that is one of the best things. Same for your categories, if you can type up at least a few paragraphs for your categories, you will have MUCH better success with the search engines. They have always liked lots of text paragraphs. And of course try to include your keywords as much as possible in them.

Do I have to submit my website to the search engines?

If you have not done so already, yes. Search engines will find you eventually on their own if other sites link to you, but it does not hurt to give them a hand. Here are the two major search engines to submit to: Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/ Google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

So how long does it take to see results?

The major search engines are crawling the web, and re-crawling websites non-stop. Once you are listed in the search engines, even if you are not ranked very high, the search engines will automatically re-crawl your website every so often. You may get lucky and have them visit your site the day after you make all your changes, or it may take 1-3 months. All of us webmasters simply have to be patient.

How do I choose good keywords?

If you are trying to optimize your website text with good keywords, it is good to try and find out what the most commonly search phrases are. The following link will provide great tips for choosing good keywords: http://websearch.about.com/od/quicktipsandtricks/ht/keyword.htm

How do I learn more about SEO?

There are many great resources out there to learn about search engine optimization. Two sites where you can learn a great deal about the subject and ask questions are: http://www.seochat.com and http://www.searchenginewatch.com

Google Page Rank

This has become one of the important aspects in getting high rankings in Google. Basically, the ranking system has to do with how many high quality and relevant sites link to your site. We recommend downloading the tool bar from Google, so you can see your ranking. In addition, by visiting the above mentioned sites you will be able to read more information on page ranking.

Remember, things are always changing in the land of search engines, so you have to constantly educate yourself to stay ahead. Patience is also a good virtue to keep in mind, because getting high rankings can take time. Finally, be safe and err to the side of caution on any questionable strategies to get you to the top.

Good Luck!