Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation for your online shop requires an understanding of the technology, the words customers use, the content and the links pointing to you. You do not need to know everything from the start, but you need to know enough to take the subject seriously and work on it.

The video is from April 2009 and introduces the SEO material in e-pusher. The references to books, prices and working with links describe my experiences and advice at that time.

Search engine optimisation for your online shop requires a basic understanding

I am proud to say that Mikkel deMib has written around 400 pages about search engine optimisation for e-pusher. He is a good friend of mine, and I consider him one of the world’s best in the field.

He has brought together the parts most relevant to you as an online retailer. I have been able to include them in the book.

In the video, I also mention his own book, which I expect to cost around 1,500 kroner and run to around 900 pages. That is the information I have at that point in 2009.

Read the 400 pages. I know it is a lot, but gaining a basic understanding matters. You need to know what is happening and why it matters to your shop.

First, get the technology right

The first thing is to make sure your shop does not shut search engines out. Put very simply, they need to be able to get in and find the relevant pages.

You need to guide them around the site as well as possible. That is why search engine optimisation is also connected to the shop’s technical structure.

Use the words customers use

Next comes language. The words you use internally in your company are not necessarily the words customers search for.

If you are a plumber, you might call a product a mixer tap. The customer calls it a tap.

That is the kind of thing you need to consider. Are you describing the product in a way customers recognise, or are you only using your own technical jargon?

The technology and the customers’ words are two very important parts of the work.

There needs to be content to find

I also emphasise that you need plenty of content and need to keep updating it.

That gives search engines more material to find and customers more opportunities to find you through a search.

It should not just be a shop you have set up and then forgotten. Content is part of the work of making your business visible.

My work with links in 2009

Finally, I talk about links to the shop. I put a lot of emphasis on them in the video and suggest setting aside half an hour every morning for that work.

My approach back then is to investigate who links to competitors. I refer to tools in the book’s resources that can help find them.

You can then collect the names in a spreadsheet and contact some of them. I use an example of around 1,000 potential contacts and at least ten emails a day.

In the email, I explain that I have a shop and can see that they link to a competitor. I explain why I also think my shop could be relevant and ask whether they would link to me.

I also say in the video that I do not know whether an approach like that could be spam. I am unsure myself, but explain that I use the method. This describes my practice and views in 2009, rather than clarifying the rules.

My experience, as I describe it at that time, is that around 40–50 per cent of the people I write to say yes. That is my own result, not a guarantee for anyone else’s approaches.

Read the material and get started

The key is to learn about the subject. Understand the technology, use your customers’ words, work on your content and understand the importance of links.

That is why I have made so much SEO material available in e-pusher. Spend time on it and get started on making your shop easier to find.