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.

Starting an online store has become the very trendy thing to do recently, however, most new shop owners are misguided, make rash decisions and lack the understanding and research necessary to be successful in their online business. This series of 5 posts will hopefully serve as a guide to developing your own online store as painlessly and successfully as possible.

So you want to be a Shop Owner Part 3

Today we will cover some options you have for the development of your shopping cart and the hosting resources you will need to run your business properly.

With most e commerce platforms you can do the initial shopping cart configuration and set up yourself.  However, unless you are using a hosted e-commerce solution I would highly recommend you at least get a consult from an e-commerce developer who specializes in the software/platform you have chosen.  A developer who knows the online shopping business and the software you are using can make your store successful with their experience and knowledge.  Its okay to do this “in house” so to speak, but there will be a great deal of research and learning involved to do an adequate job.

Not all shopping cart software is created equal… Remember back in Part 2 of this series we covered the different types of platforms.  Hopefully now, since you have decided on a shopping cart platform you have made certain your choice of software “can” do everything you need. This is where that e commerce developer comes in… They have a much greater understanding of the software’s capabilities and e-commerce trends.

Here are some questions you might ask a shopping cart developer BEFORE you choose them.

• What are your greatest strengths as an ecommerce shop developer?
• What other shopping cart platforms do you develop?
• Do you have some examples of stores you have developed for me to view?
• Do you have a few business references I can contact?
• How long have you been in business and have you always specialized in e-commerce?
• Do I “HAVE TO” host my website with you?
• What don’t you do in the development process (what will we “have to” do ourselves”)?
• Do you provide ongoing support and what is the cost?

Working with an e-commerce expert will help you avoid some of the pitfalls and ensure that your new store has everything it needs to succeed.  Many times in business we absorb a cost up front and expect the investment returned to us in sales/success. Retaining a ecommerce development firm is a better choice if you will require extensive integration or customization.

Web stores, like any other website rely heavily on their ability to rank organically in the search engines.  You can make mistakes with your website, which not only hinder organic results, but can be very costly down the line to repair your organic standing.  I would suggest you do a deep read in to the “help” section or forum of your shopping cart software and look for things like content duplication, url structure, load speed, title tags and other website anomalies related to your specific ecommerce software.

If you have qualified technical person on staff with relative experience in ecommerce development, you can save some money by doing some or all of the shop development in house.