• Posted by Melanie
• 08 November 2011
• E-Commerce Design, Ecommerce SEO

The very nature of the term actionable implies the creation or motivation of your content's ability to convert. However, since the Google Rater Handbook leak, we also know that Google uses words (content) to determine, rank and display search results based on the users intent to buy. When a searcher queries something like "Buy US Flag", this searcher's intent is to shop.

According to Google, search queries can be classified into action queries ("do"), information queries ("know") and navigation queries ("go").

So the very content we use on our pages to drive conversions can also help Google deliver you more "doers" than"knowers". The challenge, as it has always been, is to create content which:

• Answers all of the shoppers questions
• Engages him
• Causes him to make a purchase (add to cart)

Some of these things we are inherently going to be quite good at, based on our own personality and experiences.... However, I rarely see shop owners who hit all 3. Lets have a look at some examples:

This example is your basic "Information Overachiever". There is so much information here that as a shopper I am perhaps even overwhelmed. The lack of natural content coupled with the very direct add to cart area may make this page uncomfortable for many shoppers. Kind of like that guys who follows you around the store from the door and won't leave you alone.

Here we have a much softer sell, but it lacks the "wow" of the informational listing. This format creates trust better and delivers a more comfortable feel to the decision to make a purchase. Keep in mind that many times your needs will be specific to your products or niche as well.

This is a nice product page layout. Easy to read, scan and understand. It is a significantly "softer" sell, but instills confidence to make the purchase. Visually the images are large enough and plenty, while the information is both natural and detailed.

So we can see that different layouts have different strengths, but what about the actual words?

The words that you use to describe your content should be presented naturally in the same manner as you would attempt to sell the product on the phone. Using alternate names, slang and layman terminology will help Google deliver your products for the natural language people search with. There is not point in ranking number 1 for a roro widget, when everyone refers to it as a rooo for example.

Lastly, to help the search engines understand the actionable nature of your product pages you should includes words such as "buy", "purchase", "shop online" etc. When including these types of action phrases it will be most effective to string them along a keyword for the product. something such as "When buying a roo online, you have several options for color, size and delivery". It's way too easy to get spammy when trying to create actionable content... so pay close attention to the perceived intent of the words you chose.

• Posted by Melanie
• 11 October 2009
• Ecommerce SEO

In our everyday dealings with our own customers, we instruct, get asked and generally can talk all day about proper content for one's online store. This has always been a tough thing to properly execute on the part of the shop owner.

We spend our days telling shop owners to write natural language describing their products to their customers, just as they would for example on the phone with a shopper. To this end, we get endless questions about keywords, density, traffic and more..... End result, most shop owners write spam. Why do you suppose that is?

Simple really, its quite hard not to grab a cookie while your hand is in the jar. Shop owners as a whole have a very challenging time being objective in their pursuit for great search rank. Honestly, shop owners who know little or nothing about SEO inevitably write better rankable content. Why?

Simple, shop owner's who are not trying to learn SEO... cannot be lured to the dark side and when they write, they write for their customers. Fact is, these shop owners are on a whole more successful with their content as well. Their shoppers are more engaged, they trust the store.... and most importantly, they convert better.

We have said to many a client after finishing up an SEO My Zen Cart package, that they needed only to create great content regularly and build links going forward to be successful. You see, once duplication issues and other foundation optimization values are handled.... It's really just that. Keep up with regular content (Google likes to know the lights are on AND someone is home) and build new inbound links.

If shop owners can manage these 2 things faithfully... Even if many foundation optimization issues exist, they can in fact be more successful.

Let's theorize for a moment, my desk phone rings... One the other end is a shop owner getting about 100 unique visits a day and converting at say 1.2%. This shop owner hardly ever tends to his content and has probably NEVER even been all the way through his own checkout.

What would your first steps be?

Many will say... Build links, write articles, you need a press release... No you need pay per click.

None of the above is the answer, for those who were playing along. While all of those things in themselves can bring traffic and rank (more traffic), not a damn one of those things will help you make the sale.

So we have this shop, making 1 or 2 sales a day... willing to spend a wad of cash to bring in say another 100 visits so they can then do 3 or 4 sales a day! Isn't that kinda like putting the cart before the horse?

My answer would be to do a proper usability study of the website, optimize the checkout and trust factors on site and segment their Analytics data to troubleshoot bottlenecks and troublesome areas. Cost, maybe $400... Reward, now you can take those same 100 original unique visitors a day and instead make 4 to 5 sales a day to fund your then convertible traffic campaign! So, small investment, return immediate... and 75% more sales!

Sometimes, we just have to pull our heads out of our little web bubble and use them for the greater good =-)