Optimizing eCommerce Websites for SEO, longtail KWDs and broad match searching Options

[1dmf]

Reading Karon's article on ecommerce optimisation, she mentions 'Breadcrumb Trail'...

This is a very important SEO and usability feature to add to your site. Breadcrumb trails look like this: home > women's shoes > designer shoes > black > pumps.

It helps visitors see where they've been. But do you notice what else it's doing? It's creating long-tail keyphrases of sorts. If you look on our imaginary keyword list, you'll see that [women's designer black pumps] is another viable keyphrase.

As customers click through the navigation, they are following a trail of keywords. The Googlebot can follow that same trail.

So is it true that G! builds up kwd matching based on all the possible combinations you could have all the words?

So with that example does it also see it as 'black designer shoes' or 'designer black womens pumps' etc..

[adibranch]

i think what that mid sentence is saying is that it matches based on text flow, not random combinations. However, in most ecommerce sites, you'll have random variations anyway on bestsellers boxes, other items, dt and dd tables etc etc.. so matching will occur anyway to a degree... but you;ll never really see it as much as the phrase in sequenc, as i'm sure you know. So, all those competirors with a page for 'black designer shoes' will be ahead, in an even world.

[Randy]

They do see all of the words and recognize that they're on the same page in close proximity to each other 1dmf. But the phrases you mentioned have the word order mixed up, so it's not quite as close as possible to an exact match.

Not in Karon's example how the order is staying the same, with just a single word being dropped. Twice. And a very generic word at that.

Given her example phrase and your example phrases, all else being equal her phrase should normally perform a bit better with the breadcrumb trail she has set up. Yours will still work to some degree, and you may well end up ranking quite well if the phrases aren't very competitive where other pages out there get closer to an exact match. But when you can't get an exact match it's usually a good idea to get as close to it as possible, keeping the keywords in the order you're targeting if possible.

We're really splitting hairs here though.

[mal4mac]

Notice how easy it is to reorder the breadcrumb trail and still make sense. If I find myself on page 2 for "black women's shoes" and a trail:

home > women's shoes > designer shoes > black > pumps

Then I would definitely try the following experiment:

home > black > women's shoes > designer shoes > pumps

If I try this and still on page 2, it's mallet time:

women's shoes > black women's shoes

I love breadcrumb trails! I was turned on to them by Jacob Nielsen, who's always worth reading.

[1dmf]

thanks guys, but that was what i was wondering so adibranch

but you;ll never really see it as much as the phrase in sequenc, as i'm sure you know.

no i didn't hence the post (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)

I was wondering whether there needed to be a one way directional flow to the keyword 'variations', and both you and Randy imply that there is.

This has been very useful to understand how you can target various keyphrases and the order in which you must put the words to gain maximum benefit.

I thank you both for clearing this up.

We're really splitting hairs here though.

And when have you known me not to? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol.gif) , But this is something that goes through my head alot when ever I create my title tags, and understanding the flow of the words will help considerably.


I used to think the SE's did do a 'combination' analysis , but not as much as i originally thought judging by your comments and Karons article.

Again many thanks