Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics

• Descriptive File Names - File names should include the basic keyword(s) for a page. Don't include all your page keywords, just the main keyword(s). This will help search engines decipher what your page is about.
• Dashes Between Words - Separate all words in the file name with dashes (not underscores). If you have a file name called "jean-pants.html", search engines will read that file name as "jean pants" replacing dashes with spaces. However if you use another character, such as underscores, "jean_pants.html", those will be removed and search engines will read the file name as "jeanpants."
• Keep It Simple - Only include the main keyword or keyword phrase. Do not include all keywords from the page.
• Short. Short. Short - The longer and more dashes that you include in a page file name, the lower the value. Use the least possible words while still getting the jist of the page across in the file name.

Image File Names

Your images can be indexed by search engines the same way your pages can be indexed by search engines, so the file naming structure and rules on images should follow the same guidelines that your page and product file names have.

• Descriptive File Names - Like your webpages, image file names should be descriptive, to both the product they advertise and the image itself. For example, if you are selling clothing and have a front view of a t-shirt and a back view of a t-shirt, don't just label them shirt-1.jpg and shirt-2.jpg, instead, be more descriptive such as blue-shirt-front.jpg, and blue-shirt-back.jpg.
• Dashes Between Words - Separate all words in the file name with dashes (not underscores or spaces).
• Briefly Describe The Image - Customers will be searching in search engines for images a little different than how they search for a product, so instead of including mostly product keywords, include keywords for the image itself. For example, I may have a product called "Puppy Shirt In Blue", so I could call my image "puppy-shirt-blue-front.jpg." To be a slight over-achiever here would be beneficial, so I might instead have my image file name be "brown-puppy-on-blue-shirt.jpg."

Image Alt Tags

The difference between the image file name and the image alt tag is that the image alt tag uses spaces and has a few more descriptive words than the product file name. With that in mind, the alt tag for my image "brown-puppy-on-blue-shirt.jpg" might be something like "Brown Puppy Face Printed On Blue T-Shirt."

Images To Create Interest

Images should be visually appealing or visually descriptive to your readers. You want your readers to want to share your webpage with their friends, and pictures can help. Not only that, but with social media links, often times an image is included. For example, if you share a link on facebook, facebook may display the relevant images from that page with the link, so make sure the images fit with the theme of the page, and draw customer's attention.

If an image is too large, it may take too long to load and will cause customers to give up waiting and leave, so make sure your pictures load quick, and are optimized at the size that you would like to have them displayed at. One other thing to keep in mind with images, images should not contain text. Any text on your page should be regular text that is readable by users and search engines.

Page Titles

• Unique Page Titles - Every page and every product more information page should have its own unique page title. Duplicate page titles are worse than one-word page titles.
• Less Than 65 Characters - Keeping your page title within 65 characters ensures that you keep your page title concise, as well as ensures that the page name does not get cutoff in search engine results. Search engines don't 'ding' you if your page title is too long, but from a shopper standpoint, it looks better if the title in the search results is complete and not cutoff.
• Main Keyword First - The first word in the page title should be your main keyword that summarizes your entire page. This is the first word a customer sees in the search results. Having the main keyword first also tells search engines that it is an important word for that page. Some companies like to include their store name in the page title. If you do this, include it at the end of the page title.

Page Meta Descriptions

• Less Than 160 Characters - Keeping your page meta descriptions within 160 characters ensures that the link description in search results does not get cutoff. This follows the same reasoning as the page title, it looks better to potential customers to have a complete description when viewing links in search results.
• Call-To-Action Word First - The first word in the page meta description should be a call-to-action word such as "Shop" or "Browse." This indicates to customers what your page is about, and evokes an action.

• Make People Want To Share - In the recent years, search engines have been 'learning' what makes a site enjoyable for the viewer and have been taking that 'enjoyable' factor into account. In all areas of your website and whenever you are adding content, ask yourself a few questions.
  • What is my single-sentence goal of this page?
  • Does this page convey that message immediately?
  • Is this page enjoyable to read and view?
  • If I were a customer, would I want to share this page with friends or on social media sites?
• Unique Content - The content on your website should be written for your website, and not duplicated on your site or another site.
• Readable Content - Your customers should be able to easily read your content. No one wants to read a paragraph that has keywords stuffed in, like "Our pink cotton shirt is made of cotton and comes in a pink dyed cotton color. The pink cotton shirt is the perfect pink shirt for any day, and because our pink cotton shirt is made of 100% dyed pink cotton, the pink cotton shirt is breathable and the pink cotton shirt won't make you too hot." That isn't a fun paragraph for your customers to read, and search engines will be able to recognize that as keyword stuffing.
• Use Headings and Sub-headings - Format pages so that they have headings, sub headings and sub sub headings. ShopSite will start your pages off with all your page names and product names in H1 heading tags. As you write content down the page, use H2 headings for sub headings, H3 headings for sub sub headings, and so on.

• Does your website look good? - Is your website current? Is it pleasing to look at? Does it have colors and images that flow?
• Is your website clear from ads above the fold? - Ads are both a good and bad thing for a website. Ads can help bring in revenue or can link to similar products your customers may be interested in, but ads are also a distraction and will take away from the overall feel of your website if they are placed in locations that are in your customers' faces.
• Is your website easy to navigate? - Is your main menu user friendly on both desktop and mobile devices? Does your navigation menu take a lot to read, or do you have quick, clear, methods for a customer to drill down and find what they are looking for?
• Is your website building an entertaining image for your company? - This is my favorite one. Build excitement about your company and your industry, then show that excitement in the text, images, and feel of your website.
• If you were a visitor to your website, would you be excited enough to share the website with your friends? - Along with this idea, does your website have a way of sharing the information on it? You can include social media sharing options, or include comment fields for customers to have their own discussion about your website or webpage.