E-Commerce for All

At PRO-Webs we complete a great deal of site reports, and this gives us a unique advantage for research, testing and identifying common mistakes. Today, we are going to let shop owners in on the biggest cause of content duplication we have seen to date… But first lets get in to some background and information about the less than stellar results of content duplication.

What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Most of the time when we see this, it’s unintentional or at least not malicious in origin: forums that generate both regular and stripped-down mobile-targeted pages, store items shown (and — worse yet — linked) via multiple distinct URLs, and so on. In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.

So duplicate content very simply put, is any content which is too similar to another page’s (any page’s) content indexed in Google. Duplicate content can cause a host of headaches and is certainly not a concrete foundation for a top performing online store. Why should shop owners care about duplicate content?… Simple Google and other search engines care a great deal.

This is really one of those times when you as a business owner needs to walk a mile in Google’s shoes. Google aims to deliver the best UNIQUE content for every search… This is what Google, the business, does for their customers. As I am sure you as a shop owner want the best for your customers, you can clearly understand why Google would not want the same content in 5 different results to deliver their users. So if there is duplicate content… What does Google do about it?

In theory, when Google is presented to 2 pages which are not unique enough to rank independently, they make a decision as to which page to rank for the terms. There is very certainly a very complicated algorithmic computation Google does to determine which page to rank… But that really matters little. Generally speaking, the site which has the greatest authority for the content will rank and the other is shunned from the main search-able index. There is likely a ton of metrics used to determine authority for this purpose, but the largest factors are likely to be PageRank, relevant links, traffic and the age of the page. Seriously though… The simple truth is if you stole it and published it, you are not going to be able to rank it properly.

So back to the purpose of this post…

What is the #1 cause of content duplication in shopping carts?

Many shop owners are distributing or drop shipping the product base from their online store. The drop shipper or main distribution source will nearly always provide product information and descriptions for the products they wish you to sell. In our hast and waste to launch our new store or new product, many shop owners will use all or some large blocks of the distributors or manufacturers product information… UHOH

There are really only 2 factors of concern with regard to this type of content duplication.

We review commerce sites all the time for shop owners, and I am really very surprised that so many of the stores we review have no idea about Google’s guidelines regarding links. I really HATE the fact that shop owners can make use of a links directory in Zen Cart! Is this your business or a directory? Today we will take a few minutes to go over the pitfalls of such link pages and the guidelines Google has in place to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Google says this very clearly…

Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

So what parts of this affect these stores with their link directories?

1. Links intended to manipulate PageRank
2. Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
3. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Lets cover #1 “Links intended to manipulate PageRank”. This can be very hard to understand for many shop owners as they have no intention of trying to game Google’s PageRank system. Mostly these shop owners are trying to build relevant links in and out, as many “gurus” from various forums have instructed them. Honestly speaking, most are making the actions completely innocently and just lack the understanding of proper linking. For example…

• Linking out to 500 sites, related or not, will not help you if they are too many and do not provide usefulness to the shoppers on your site.
• If shoppers do find and browse you link directory, they are likely to leave for another site. Is the “value” of this link worth the loss of a potential sale?
• Additionally, these links in MOST cases would be perceived as advertising and need to be “nofollowed”

So in a nutshell to make this Google Guideline regarding the manipulation of PageRank perfectly clear…

Any link that you do not personally endorse (vote for) or is advertising in any way, must not be allowed to pass PageRank. Simple, add a “nofollow” tag to the individual links or link directory pages.

#2 “Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)”. This one is the one I see most. People with the link building bug swapping links. The pitfalls here are mostly hidden from the shop owner and they don’t even realize they are creating an issue for their store’s link profile.

• When a link is exchanged and neither is “nofollowed”, the link(s) are devalued. This very simply means Google knows you swapped links and considers them less valuable or accountable than organic/natural links.
• Nothing stirs my fire like a shop owner with a link directory who is flagrantly begging for reciprocal links. First of all, why don’t you just send and email to Google and beg them to devalue your links? Secondly, how do you think this looks to your shoppers? Yep, you look like a scammer.
• Lastly, and perhaps most importantly…

Very often as we complete store reports and consult we find online stores that have made modifications and other development tasks which clearly inhibit the ability to gain the shoppers trust. You can pay thousands of dollars to develop an online store and get the very best SEO, but if your store does not enlist the shopper’s trust you are dead in the water.

Overall Internet users have become more sensitive and aware of the factors which are considered “trust” violations. Surfers are quite skilled in identifying a “bad site” and are reacting accordingly. No longer do droves of Internet users mindlessly click ads or provide personal information, those days are gone. We are in the dawn of a far more savvy Internet user.

Some mistakes we see are in fact very common and very out of date, others are just plain lack of foresight. Today we will cover some of the most common trust reducing metrics we have found in the stores we have analyzed. You may well know that we develop and optimize Zen Cart, so some factors will be directly related to the Zen Cart software, but most of these store trust issues are very common in other e-commerce platforms.

• If you are using a shared SSL or none at all, you are sending a message of distrust to your shoppers. Even full PayPal or other off site processing accounts should make use of a private SSL. Customers don’t even want to provide their email address without one. Honestly for the cost involved there is no valid reason not to use a proper secured protocol for your users.
• If you are using a private SSL, the battle does not stop there. Many times we visit a site and the secured pages include outside non-secure links or elements. Shoppers have no idea that these links or elements are generally just part of your template, and they don’t care either. They only know the lock is showing broken and they feel unprotected.
• Let shoppers know you have installed an SSL to protect their transaction and what to look for to assure it is working. This is really not necessary as most know already, but it sends the message that you personally have taken steps to protect them.
• Collect as little information as possible on checkout. Shoppers do not want to answer unrelated personal information questions. Questions of this nature only lead them to believe you are somehow hording and using their information for other means.
• Enhance your checkout with helpful tips and notes to let shoppers know where they are in the checkout process and that they are on track. This includes a clear shipping policy for rates and delivery. They should know their shipping choices in the very beginning of checkout, as sites like eBay and such have burned shoppers with inflated shipping charges and they are very wary if they do not know the shipping cost before the begin to checkout
• Send ALL customers a receipt from YOUR store’s domain email address and provide tracking or an update of shipment to EVERY customer without fail.