E-Commerce Systems and Natural Search
Duplication within E-Commerce systems is undeniably affected by the constant and regular recycling of identical product information, reproduced from other websites or fed into a back end system. Recycling copy word for word that is already existent on other websites competing to sell the same products, will negatively result in website rankings being penalised. Many e-commerce sites will have little unique product information displayed for the products they are selling. With so many websites selling such a vast number of products, creating individual copy for each product would require more time than is often available. As a result companies are being forced to duplicate what already exists, without realising the knock-on effect this will create.
Also acting as a barrier to natural search is the common assumption that the only way forward is through paid search, as a way of creating measurable results. However the fact that paid search could in fact be non sustainable in the long run and end up costing more than anticipated, apparently fail to be acknowledged. With random click abuse ever present the lack of clarity for the statistics and of course the fact that many of these sites have never had good natural search results, it becomes challenging to argue that paid search is a better strategy as opposed to organic search.
E-Commerce Management Teams Need To Gain A Better Understanding Of SEO
Over the years, through our extensive work within the industry, we have discovered that many corporate companies do not always understand the work that is being done on their behalf by their agency. Regular reports and regular meetings are not sufficient for achieving the full service that is required. While regular company feedback is essential for keeping abreast with developments, it is also essential that Large E-commerce companies have an in-depth level of knowledge of SEM, including natural and paid search. Requesting regular independent evaluations on all your reports and results from natural search strategies will also ensure you get the most from your SEM.
Upon examination of High Street E-Commerce brand websites, it's visible that these are heavily reliant on Pay Per Click (PPC) with little product profile in natural search. This can be due to the web construction used for their E-Commerce facility or because the SEO functionality available on their systems has not been maximised to its true potential. There is no reason why product pages cannot be well placed in search. Many internet led businesses have made a great success from this however this doesn't tend to trickle down to the High Street Bands. The retail sectors are perhaps the worst culprits, even among many well established retail businesses.
Despite this, there seems little competition to search for positions outside of paid search because legacy CMS/ E-Commerce platforms are proving too arduous to improve with SEO functionality. However on closer inspection, we can identify that many are using modern systems that are simply not delivering. For example, we've seen many of the high profile retail websites being re-launched over the past two years, which sadly, have clearly been ill-advised and as a result, have been signing up to systems that simply cannot deliver what they need.
