Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce - Digital Marketing Europe 2021

Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce
How to successfully master the biggest technical SEO
challenges in e-commerce
Bastian Grimm, Peak Ace AG | @basgr

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Why dedicate a whole session
to online shopping?

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3
No two shops are the same…
Differences in industry and size require customised SEO strategies
* Brand = e.g. Uber (not a priority to sell on the site) vs. eComm = e.g. Nike (online shop) or Emirates (ticket shop)
Type of domain Number of URLs (scope)
eCommerce
Publishing
Classifieds
Lead-gen
Brand
Other
<1,000 <10,000 <100,000 <1,000,000 1,000,000+
Which quadrant are you in?

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No two shops are the same…
Online retailers with limited product ranges (<1,000 products) face different challenges
than multi-range retailers - or even publishers or lead gen sites.
* Brand = e.g. Uber (not a priority to sell on the site) vs. eComm = e.g. Nike (online shop) or Emirates (ticket shop)
Type of domain Number of URLs (scope)
eCommerce
Single retailer
Multi retailer
…
Publishing
Special interest (e.g. health)
Daily newspaper
…
Classifieds
Lead-gen
Brand
Other
<1,000 <10,000 <100,000 <1,000,000 1,000,000+
Which quadrant are you in?

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Focus: Category and product detail pages
10 tips. Let‘s go!

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#1
Indexing strategy:
categories,
sub-categories,
pagination, etc.
Caused by/refers to:
All types of overview/listing pages
Issue brief:
Categories that compete with subcategories or super deep
paginations that cause crawl and indexing problems
Issue categories:
Crawling inefficiencies, website quality
Suggested change/fix:
Crawl/indexing strategy dependent on size/page types
Comment:
Loads of variables to consider; the larger the site gets,
the more complex to get right

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No crawling and/or indexing strategy
Depending on the age, scope and volume, there can be lots of URLs to deal with;
carefully consider what you want to give to Googlebot:

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Google released it‘s own guide to managing crawl budget
Opposite to what Google is saying, this is very well worth a read for everyone – even
though its specifically tailored to “large” as well as “very rapidly changing sites”:
Source: https://pa.ag/35MqZHX

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Getting Google to crawl those important URLs
Significantly cuts to the crawlable URL inventory led to an intended shift; Google started
crawling previously uncrawled URLs after eliminating 15m+ unnecessary URLs
Source: Peak Ace AG
0
5.000.000
10.000.000
15.000.000
20.000.000
25.000.000
30.000.000
35.000.000
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
crawled URLs un-crawled URLs total URLs

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Keyword targeting: main categories vs sub-categories
Which (sub)category should be found for the term “fresh fruit"? Pay close attention to
clear terminology and differentiation:

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Tons of unnecessary/unused sorting and/or filtering
If you have sorting options, ensure they're being used (analytics is your friend) –
otherwise remove them and prevent them from being crawled (robots.txt / PRG)

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The “articles per page” filter/selection: don’t bother
For each category listing, three times the number of URLs are generated – this is a
crawling disaster. And often, if left unchecked, this leads to duplicate content:
Client-side, JavaScript would
at least solve crawling and
indexing problems - but it is
questionable whether this
feature is actually being used.

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Pagination (for large websites) is essential!
Recommendation for the "correct" pagination (for each objective) from audisto:
Source: https://pa.ag/3cjlgev
For lists with equally important items,
choose the logarithmic or the
Ghostblock pagination (equal PR
across all pagination and item pages).
For lists with a small number of
important items use the “Link first
Pages”, “Neighbors”, “Fixed Block”
pagination (most PR goes to the first
pagination and item pages).

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This just got very, very interesting…
So, what about pagination?

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pa.ag
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Hang on - what about "noindex=nofollow"?
Noindexing pages should lead to nofollow - at least over time - as well
Source: https://pa.ag/2EssNeV
Google's John Mueller says that
long term, noindex follow will
eventually equate to a noindex,
nofollow directive as well […]
eventually Google will stop going
to the page because of the
noindex, remove it from the index,
and thus not be able to follow the
links on that page.

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Another SEO classic: p=1 for the first page in the pager
Tausendkind internally links all page 1 pagers with ?p=1 - but this page is on "noindex",
because the correct page 1 actually works without URL parameters:
A duplicate of your “page
1” (in a pager) not only
wastes valuable crawl
volume, but it also breaks
internal linking.

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#2
Content quality:
thin & duplicate
product pages
Product Detail Pages
Issue brief:
Automatically delivered product data or products with
hardly any (differentiation) features quickly create (near)
duplicate content.
Issue categories:
Website quality, duplicate content, thin content
Monitor content quality carefully, e.g. define noindex rules
accordingly

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Common causes of duplicate content #1
For Google, these examples are each two different URLs:
Dealing with duplication issues
▪ 301 redirect: e.g. non-www vs. www, HTTP vs. HTTPs, casing
(upper/lower), trailing slashes, Index pages (index.php)
▪ noindex: e.g. white labelling, internal search result pages,
work-in-progress content, PPC- and other landing pages
▪ (self-referencing) canonicals: e.g. for parameters used for
tracking, session IDs, printer friendly version, PDF to HTML, etc.
▪ 403 password protect: e.g. staging-/development servers
▪ 404/410 gone: e.g. feeded content that needs to go fast,
other outdated/irrelevant or low-quality content
i
https://pa.ag
https://www.pa.ag
non-www vs www
http://pa.ag
https://pa.ag
HTTP vs HTTPS
https://www.pa.ag/cars?colour=black&type=racing
https://www.pa.ag/cars?type=racing&colour=black
URL GET-parameter order

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Common causes of duplicate content #2
For Google, these examples are each two different URLs:
Taxonomy issues
Production server
vs.
https://pa.ag/url-a/
https://pa.ag/url-A/
Case sensitivity
https://pa.ag/url-b
https://pa.ag/url-b/
Trailing Slashes
Category A
Category B
Category C
Staging / testing server

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Content quality is still important in ecommerce!
Keep a close eye on the indexing of articles that are "very similar" in content:
About 2.410 results (0,37 seconds)

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Prevent inferior content from being indexed
In particular: automatically generated URLs like "no ratings for X" or "no comments
for Y" often lead to lower quality content!
Other kinds of bad or thin content:
▪ Content from (external) feeds (e.g. through white label
solutions / partnerships, affiliate feeds etc.)
▪ Various "no results" pages (no comments for product A,
no ratings for product B, no comments for article C etc.)
▪ Badly written content (e.g. grammatical errors)
▪ General: same content on different domains

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#3
Handling multiple
versions of a
product
(colour/size)
Product detail pages
Issue brief:
Demand is too low for the PDPs being indexed (in all
their combinations). Link equity/ranking potential is lost.
Issue categories:
Duplicate content, crawl inefficiency, ranking issues
Consolidate a default product whenever possible
(e.g. strongest selling colour/size)
Comment:
Client-side JS or, at a minimum, canonical tags are needed

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Exactly the same GEL-NIMBUS 22 in a different colour
Asics uses individual URLs for each of their available colour/size variations
Not enough people search for “asics Gel Nimbus 22 black” and “grey” respectively. Demand is too low for the PDPs
being indexed (in all their combinations). Link equity/ranking potential is lost/split.
i
gel-nimbus-22/p/1011A680-002.html gel-nimbus-22/p/1011A680-022.html
022.html

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One solution could be to canonicalise to a root product:
A canonical tag is only a hint, not a directive. Google can choose to ignore it
entirely. When using canonical tags, please be extra careful:
▪ There may only be one rel-canonical annotation
per URL - only ONE!
▪ Use absolute URLs with protocols and subdomains
▪ Rel-canonical targets must actually work
(no 4XX targets) – they need to serve a HTTP 200
▪ No canonical tag chaining, Google will ignore this!
▪ Maintain consistency: only one protocol (HTTP vs.
HTTPS), either www or non-www and consistent
use of trailing slashes
▪ Etc.

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Most efficient: minimising URL overhead
Improve crawl budget (and link equity) by consolidating to one URL. Salmon PDPs are
rewarded with strong rankings:
#848=15694
#848=15692

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#4
One product, but
reachable via
multiple categories
Issue brief:
Product detail pages should be reachable via multiple URLs
(due to the category name being part of the PDP URL)
Issue categories:
Duplicate content, crawl inefficiencies, ranking issues
Category-independent product URLs
Comment:
Alternatively, define a default category to be used in the
URL slug

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Two different URLs serving the exact same product
This minimises the chances of it ranking well; also from a crawling perspective, this isn‘t
a good solution at all – both URLs would be crawled individually.
international-gins most-popular

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Solution: only ever use one URL per product!
A dedicated product directory - regardless of the category - is the best solution in most
cases; it also often makes analysis easier:
Alternative:
Consolidate all products
within the document root
Watch out:
Using canonical tags or
noindex for products with
multiple results is
possible - but inefficient
in terms of crawling.
reduction > noindex >
canonical tag.
!

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#5
Brand filter vs.
branded category:
/watches/breitling
vs. /breitling/all
Category pages and their filters
Issue brief:
A brand category that targets the exact same keyword set vs
a category that allows filtering for a brand name
Issue categories:
Keyword cannibalisation, crawl inefficiency
Canonicalise, prevent indexation of one URL variant
Comment:
PRG pattern for large-scale scenarios (e.g. preventing an
entire block of filtering from being crawled/indexed)

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Another classic: brand filter vs brand (category) page
If you index both, which one is supposed to rank for the generic branded term?
One keyword, one URL: try to minimise internal competition as much as you can. Two (or more)
pages targeting "Breitling watches" make it unnecessarily hard for Google to select the best result!
i

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#6
Expired/(temp.) out
of stock product
management
Issue brief:
PDPs for products that are (temporarily) out of stock can
cause bad engagement metrics (e.g. high bounce rates, etc.)
Issue categories:
Engagement metrics, website quality, inefficient URLs
Implement OOS strategy (redirects, info layer, disable ((410)
entirely, etc.)
Comment:
Hugely complex topic depending on the size, the volatility of
the inventory, and much more

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Deal with your out of stock items - but not like M&S does!
Are they just temporarily unavailable (and for how long) or will they never come back?
Also, what alternative versions are available?
About 233.000 results (0,23 seconds)
M&S keeps all of their out of stock pages indexed:

i

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How to deal with OOS situations?
For non-deliverable products, there is not only one solution. Often, it comes down to a
combination. Tip: use dynamic infolayer to inform users.
OOS-Handling
REDIRECT
(internal search)
REDIRECT
(successor)
REDIRECT
(similar products in
other colours, sizes, etc.)
410 ERROR
(only if you really
want to delete!)
REDIRECT
(same product but e.g.
in a different colour)
NOINDEX
(newsletter/lead gen)

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No exit strategy for paginated categories?
Categories with high churn need to deal with paginated pages coming and going (e.g.
what happens when there's not enough products to display a 2nd page?)
About 3,065 results (0,28 seconds)

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pa.ag
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#7
Facetted
navigation, sorting
& filtering (e.g. in
categories)
Category pages that allow for filtering and/or sorting
Issue brief:
Various sorting/filtering/facets time categories and sub-
categories can lead to millions of (worthless) URLs
Issue categories:
Keyword cannibalisation, crawl inefficiency, thin content
Individual indexing strategy (based on demand) per filter and
facet, prevent crawling/indexing for sorting
Comment:
Very difficult to get right, usually requires individual solutions

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Issue: facetted navigation poorly controlled/implemented
“A facetted search is a restriction of the selection according to different properties,
characteristics and/or values.”
If Zalando would
allow for all these
options to become
crawlable URLs, this
would lead to
millions and millions
of useless URLs.
Only allow crawling and indexing of URLs that have target keywords and keyword combinations
with actual search demand. Pay special attention to internal keyword cannibalisation.
i

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Solution: Boots handles this excellently using client-side JS
Also, from a user's perspective, using JavaScript for features such as filtering feels much
faster, since the perceived load time decreases
#facet:-100271105108108101116116101,-1046543&product

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#8
Structured Data:
schema.org
Issue brief:
Google needs machine-readable data in a structured form
(basis: schema.org) to display some information directly in
the search results, for example price and product availability.
If this information is not available, the result preview is
smaller (= one line is missing).
Issue categories:
SERP snippet preview, SERP CTR
Implement schema.org markup on product detail pages (min.
prices, availability etc.); and ideally ratings too, if available.

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Rich snippets based on structured data
A valuable additional line in the SERP Snippet for more attention:
schema.org/Rating +
AggregateRating
schema.org/Product +
schema.org/Offers +
schema.org/InStock

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Label products and offers with schema.org
Schema.org markup for product details as well as price, stock & reviews

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Google discontinued the SDTT … yeah, I know – right?
Attention: The Rich Results Test does not show all kinds / types of structured data, but
only those that Google supports.
Source: https://pa.ag/2DSKpzO
▪ Bing Webmaster Markup Validator
https://www.bing.com/toolbox/markup-validator
▪ Yandex Structured Data Validator
https://webmaster.yandex.com/tools/microtest/
▪ ClassySchema Structured Data Viewer:
https://classyschema.org/Visualisation
▪ https://schemamarkup.net/
▪ https://www.schemaapp.com/tools/schema-paths/
▪ https://json-ld.org/playground/
▪ https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/

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Tip: Free Structured Data Helper from RYTE
Highlights syntax errors and missing required properties. All nested elements in one
place for convenient in-line validation:
Source: https://pa.ag/3b9CkU5

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To avoid confusion: no schema mark-up!
Schema.org mark-up is not being used to show/generate this extended SERP snippet:
So-called featured snippets are usually
shown for non-transactional search queries;
schema.org mark-up is not mandatory.
Also no schema.org mark-up, Google
extracts this information (“monthly leasing
rate”) directly from the HTML mark-up.

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#9
Discovery: XML
sitemaps, etc.
Better/faster article indexing
Issue brief:
Sitemaps and crawl hubs for better internal linking,
discovery and additional canonicalisation signals
Issue categories:
Crawl efficiency, internal linking
Establish a proper XML sitemap (creation) process,
find the URLs that Google hits heavily and use them to
link internally
Comment:
Poorly maintained XML sitemaps, e.g. containing broken /
irrelevant URLs, can lead to significant crawl budget waste

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Poorly maintained XML sitemaps
No redirects, no URLs that are blocked via robots.txt or meta robots, no URLs with a
different canonical tag!
▪ Screaming Frog
▪ Mode > List
▪ Download XML Sitemap

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Pages not in sitemaps – using DeepCrawl’s source gap
Comparing (and overlaying various crawl sources) to identify hidden issues/potentials

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#10
Web performance:
maximum loading
speed
Loading speed (entire website)
Issue brief:
Often mobile services in particular are still extremely slow,
but this is not the only area where there is a need for
optimisation. Most online shops are not fully optimised:
Pictures, external fonts, JavaScripts and much more offer
opportunities for performance gains.
Issue categories:
Loading speed, engagement metrics
Multifaceted topic with a significant number of individual
optimisation possibilities, which depend to a large extent on
the infrastructure, shop system etc. - can only be solved
successfully together with the IT team.

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Fast loading time plays an important role
in overall user experience!
Performance is about user experience!

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Revisited: page speed already is a ranking factor
Source: http://pa.ag/2iAmA4Y | http://pa.ag/2ERTPYY

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User experience to become a Google ranking factor
The current Core Web Vitals set focuses on three aspects of user experience -
loading, interactivity, and visual stability - and includes the following metrics:
Source: https://pa.ag/3irantb
Google announced a new ranking algorithm designed to judge web pages based on how users perceive
the experience of interacting with a web page. That means if Google thinks your website users will have a
poor experience on your pages, Google may not rank those pages as highly as they are now.
i

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Highlighting great user experiences on the mobile web
Fast page labelling is now available in Chrome 85 (currently only Chrome for Android)
Source: https://pa.ag/31CChgi
Fast page labelling may badge a
link as fast if the URL (or URLs like
it) have been historically fast for
other users. When labelling,
historical data from a site’s URLs with
similar structure are aggregated
together. Historical data is evaluated
on a host-by-host basis when the URL
data is insufficient to assess speed or
is unavailable, for example, when the
URL is new or less popular.

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Optimising for Core Web Vitals such as LCP, FID and CLS?
An overview of the most common issues and respective fixes:
LCP is primarily affected by:
▪ Slow server response time
▪ Render blocking JS/CSS
▪ Resource load times
▪ Client-side rendering
FID is primarily affected by:
▪ Third-party code
▪ JS execution time
▪ Main thread work/business
▪ Request count & transfer size
CLS is primarily affected by:
▪ Images without dimensions
▪ Ads, embeds and iframes without
dimensions
▪ Web fonts (FOIT/FOUT)
Optimizing for LCP:
▪ Server response times & routing
▪ CDNs, caching & compression
▪ Optimise critical rendering path
▪ Reduce blocking times (CSS, JS, fonts)
▪ Images (format, compression, etc.)
▪ Preloading & pre-rendering
▪ Instant loading based on PRPL
Optimising for FID:
▪ Reduce JS execution (defer/async)
▪ Code-split large JS bundles
▪ Break up JS long tasks (>50ms)
▪ Minimise unused polyfills
▪ Use web workers to run JS on a
non-critical background thread
Optimising for CLS:
▪ Always include size attributes on
images, video, iframes, etc.
▪ Reserve required spaces in advance
▪ Reduce dynamic injections

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Client-side/front-end optimisation tasks
Use my checklist on SlideShare to double check:
All slides on SlideShare: http://pa.ag/iss18speed
▪ Establish a content-first approach: progressive enhancement,
also prioritise visible, above the fold content: 14kB (compressed).
▪ Reduce size: implement effective caching and compression.
▪ Whenever possible, use asynchronous requests.
▪ Decrease the size of CSS and JavaScript files (minify).
▪ Lean mark-up: no comments, use inline CSS/JS only where
necessary or useful.
▪ Optimise images: reduce overhead for JPGs & PNGs (metadata,
etc.), request properly sized images and try new formats.
▪ Minimise browser reflow & repaint.

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Increasing crawled URLs due to faster load times
Slashing website load times (Lighthouse score ~36 to 70) led to >25% more URLs being
crawled by Googlebot:
Source: Peak Ace AG
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0
50.000
100.000
150.000
200.000
250.000
300.000
350.000
400.000
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
crawled URLs Lighthouse perf. score (avg.)

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Possible answers to some
“what if…?“ questions
Want some more?

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What if I need to
rename/delete categories?

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60
Don‘t forget 301s when changing your structure
If the category name is "automatically" connected to the URL slug, redirect to the "new"
name; when deleting a category, always have a redirect in place.
The following applies: if an (old)
URL was linked externally at some
point (and that link still exists),
the internal redirect (e.g. old
category name > new category
name) is now required forever.

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Bulk test these things: redirects & other headers
HTTP status codes (errors, redirects, etc.) at scale, for free: httpstatus.io
Check it out: https://httpstatus.io/

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Fix those redirect chains, especially on large sites…
…as multiple requests waste valuable performance and crawl budget!

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Don‘t be lazy: ensure code hygiene!
Remove internally linked redirects from templates and adjust them to “direct“ linking:

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Also fix (internally) linked error pages (e.g. 404)!
Adjust internal links in the code and check alternative references (canonical, sitemap,
etc.); for traffic, ext. links and rankings => redirect.
Quality signal!?

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What if I have no time to write my
own titles (or descriptions)?

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At least try to use simple templates!
Google usually autogenerates the worst snippets; the same standard fallback page title
directly qualifies the affected URLs as duplicates:

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What if I need to use URL
parameters for tracking?

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For tracking, whenever possible use # instead of ?
Run GA Tracking with fragments instead of GET parameters; or automatically remove
parameters with hitCallback parameters (after page view measurement):
Source: https://pa.ag/2TuJMk5
If - for whatever reason – you
need to use URL parameters,
don't forget implementing
canonical tags and always test
using GSC to ensure that
Google actually uses them.

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Never use parameterised tracking URLs for internal linking

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Also: do not use your own parameters for tracking!
Did I mention that parameters actually cause all sorts of problems, constantly?

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Keep your URL GET parameters organised
For Google, these are two different URLs, so ensure that your GET parameters are kept
in proper order and use the same sorting method for them at all times!
https://www.peakace.de/?year=2021&month=04
vs
https://www.peakace.de/?month=04&year=2021
▪ The same applies to URLs that can be called up with and without a slash (“/”) at the end.
▪ The same applies to parameters and their values which can be upper/lower case.
i

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URL parameter settings in Google Search Console
GSC also allows you to manually configure URL parameters and their effects; please
note that this is "only" available for Google.

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I can’t / don’t want to show
all my content immediately;
can I open / close it?

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Changing content visibility with CSS annotations
Various ways to hide/show content, e.g. through opacity, position, display & overflow:
.read-more-target { opacity: 0; max-height: 0;
font-size: 0; transition: .25s ease; }

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Whether it is visible or not, the content will be found
Content that’s invisible during loading doesn‘t get highlighted in the snippet:
Content with opacity:0 = only visible
after interaction: no highlighting!
Content that’s visible straight away
will be highlighted in the SERP.

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Snippet highlighting seems to have changed!
Now, hidden content gets highlighted in the snippet too:
This is the test phrase from the hidden content section.
It’s only visible after interacting with it. Google never
used to show this in bold in their search results preview:

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Results are the same for all test cases
Google returned results (which means every test URL could be found, even for the
“hidden“ content) for all types of “pure” CSS content visibility switches
Google returns hidden content using:
▪ opacity:0
▪ display:none
▪ position:absolute & top:-9999px
▪ overflow: hidden
▪ visibility:hidden
▪ width:1px & height:1px
Preserved SERP highlighting:
This is the test phrase from the hidden content section.
In 2021, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore which type of
CSS visibility switch you use, they will all preserve
highlighting!

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How do I make
my (listing) pages faster?

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Off-load your images using the “lazySizes” loader
The high-performance lazy loader for images, iFrames and more, detects any visibility
changes (e.g. through user interaction, CSS or JS) without configuration.
More on GitHub: https://pa.ag/2VOywil
Especially important for mobile
since you only want to load
images that are actually visible!
You can even lazy load
responsive images (with
automatic sizes calculation)

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
80
Things are getting much easier now: loading = lazy
Performance benefits paired with SEO friendliness (and no JS) simultaneously
Tip: This now also works for :
Most recent versions of Chrome, Firefox and Edge
do support this already:

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How should I manage my
(internal) search?

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
82
Prevent crawling & indexing: POST-Req. & noindex
Prevent crawling and indexing of search results. SERP in SERP usually leads to a bad
user experience / bad signals - Google sees it the same way:
About 663,000 results (0,92 seconds)

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How do I deal with
personalisation in relation
to the Googlebot?

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
84
Personalisation: good or bad - and what to consider?
Consider variable internal linking, such as "last viewed" or "you might also like this
article" in the link graph:
Use the non-personalised
standard view for the
Googlebot; personalisation
as "layer on top" is
unproblematic from an SEO
point of view.

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How do I prevent legal notices or
shipping info from being
evaluated as boilerplate and
possibly having negative effects?

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
86
What are CSS selectors and how do they work?
::before creates a pseudo element that is the first child of the matched element
Source: https://pa.ag/2QRr9aH

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
87
Content that lives in
the HTML mark-up
Content that lives in a CSS
selector such as ::before

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
88
Again, the GSC preview shows what it would look like:
Googlebot seems to treat this identically to Chrome on desktop/smartphone, the
rendered DOM remains unchanged (to be expected since it’s a pseudo class):
HTML
CSS

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pa.ag
@peakaceag
89
Content from within CSS selectors won’t be indexed
Whether Googlebot renders the URL or not, the content will not be found
Content that lives in the HTML mark-up
will be found and indexed, as expected
Content that lives in a CSS selector
such as ::before won’t be indexed.

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Care for the slides? www.pa.ag
twitter.com/peakaceag
facebook.com/peakaceag
Take your career to the next level: jobs.pa.ag
[email protected]
Bastian Grimm
[email protected]

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Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce - Digital Marketing Europe 2021

Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce - Digital Marketing Europe 2021

Bastian Grimm
PRO

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Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce - Digital Marketing Europe 2021

Supercharging SEO for E-Commerce - Digital Marketing Europe 2021

Bastian Grimm PRO

More Decks by Bastian Grimm

Other Decks in Technology

Featured

Transcript

Bastian Grimm
PRO