Ecommerce Tips

If you are looking to set up an Ecommerce store, you are going to want to get it right the first time. There are many directions that you can go with an Ecommerce store, but you generally do not want to have to revert back and redo your site’s set up. This could especially cause issues if you have some kind of auto blog system set up. A change in your site’s design may throw a wrench in the entire system. In this article, we will talk about that as well as give you some other tips on how to set up an Ecommerce store.

Link Structure

You will want our links to be keyword rich, much like the ones we use here. You don’t want the URL of a page on your site to end in a string of random numbers and letters. Usually, using the article title is a good way to structure your site’s URL format. It will take the title of the article, like this one, and add it to the end of the URL. This helps a lot with SEO since Google will be use that as a clue as their spiders try and figure out what your site is about.

Canonicalization

Canonicalization is a big word, I know. I would like to tell you that it has a simple meaning but unfortunately, I can’t. Canonicalization is a way for visitors to sort through the products on your Ecommerce site by using a specific set of filters that are set by you. If you ever shopped on Amazon, you may have noticed how you can sort by a select amount of filters and if you look above, you will see that each filtered combination will have it’s own URL.

An example below:

• /category/bluewidgets.php?view=thumbnails
• /category/bluewidgets.php?sort=price&order=desc

That is an easy way to imagine Canonicalization. It is just a way to give your visitors a better way to sort through your products.

Easy Navigation

This is very important. If you have a large Ecommerce store, it is even more important. You want your visitors t be able to easily find what they are looking for. If they cannot find what they are looking for, they are going to buy it somewhere else. Keep the navigation on your site clean and simple for them. Don’t clutter the page with too many “related product” widgets. 1-2 are okay bu that will only distract the visitor from doing what they and you want them to do, which is to buy that thing that they are looking for.

XML Sitemap

This has been coming up a lot lately. XML sitemaps are a great way to help Google along as it tries to get your site figured you. If you are constantly adding products, this will be very important to do because you will want Google coming back often to index your new pages. Creating XML sitemaps often will help accomplish that.

There are many factors when you are trying to come up with the best Ecommerce store. As long as you stick to these steps, you should have the groundwork set to create a successful Ecommerce store of your own.