We receive a fair number of inquiries from prospects about NetSuite's SEO capabilities. For those who want to sell online, 'Search Engine Optimization' is a very important topic. A lot of people concentrate on the software when they think about SEO, but we would maintain that this is not the right approach. NetSuite, and any other shopping cart that you can name, do not by themselves provide SEO, though they can help. NetSuite now offers Descriptive URLs and Page Titles to assist with SEO. If you are using NetCommerce you should certainly be using these also. When we implement NetSuite's NetCommerce at SightLines, we start with a lot of grunt work to help a site's seo. We detail what's required below: Before you get started with NetSuite you should have a clear SEO strategy laid out. First, create a brainstorming list of search keywords that you think might be likely in your market. Then find synonyms. For example, equipment and gear are often used interchangeably, as are antique and vintage. Then test your list using several of the popular search engines and see where you might fit in, from both the general search and adword cost perspectives. This becomes the keyword hitlist. Finally, once you pare down the list, make sure that you include the most important keywords in your Tab, Category and Item descriptions. The thing that we often see is NetCommerce clients who complain that they are not getting the hits they expected, is that they have not implemented a keyword strategy on their sites. SEO is finally what one machine thinks about another machine, but the human element cannot be underestimated. You can favorably impact your SEO by implementing a SEO strategy. There is no magic, just a lot of hard work.
Writing is not an easy task for a lot of NetCommerce users. But this is perhaps the most important part of the site. After the look and feel are refined, a lot of business owners think the job is done: Great Looking Store, we'll clean up. Well, not exactly. As a rule of thumb you should spend three times as much effort writing the content of the site as refining the look and feel. Why so much effort? Because you need to creatively and cleverly describe, in words, what you are selling and how the buyer is going to love it, all the while using the SEO optimization keyword hitlist. It's not as easy as it sounds. But take a look at the sites in your industry with the best organic search results and you will see that they do exactly this. |
