Archive for May, 2009

As content management systems and search engine optimization (SEO) have had their challenges, e-commerce and SEO have a significant divide.  Typically, e-commerce carts say they are SEO friendly with a check of a checkbox.  E-commerce solutions have a large amount of functionality and oftentimes the amount of code needed to complete that functionality may get in the way of a search strategy.  Enter, Pixelsilk – a content management system that connects to an e-commerce cart and handles what a search engine spider needs, namely product and category information.

You continue to manage your products via your store and Pixelsilk automatically updates your product and category pages when new ones are added, moved or deleted.  Pixelsilk offers the advantage of full HTML control for those pages, allowing full implementation of your search strategy.  Full URL (web address) control allows you to tie your CMS and product information under one main domain to leverage the power of links directed to your products.

Pixelsilk communicates with your e-commerce cart via the API, bringing products and categories into Pixelsilk, allowing full control over layout and SEO rendering.  In competitive online marketplaces, many factors needed to rank successfully are hindered by the HTML to content ratio needed for a spider to understand your products.  Many carts, by default, do not offer the opportunity to simplify the code behind product pages.

Pixelsilk For E-commerce SEO Best Practices Include:
• Product Specific Page Title (Browser Window)
• Meta Description
• Meta Keywords
• Keyword-rich URLs (Web Address)
• Product Heading Tag <H1>
• Streamlined Internal/External Linking
• Alt Attributes for Images, Links
• Content Editor is XHTML compliant
• Automatic HTML/XML Sitemaps
• Site and Store on Same Domain
• Full HTML Control
• Store and Site Ongoing Connectivity

One example is an e-commerce site that had 100 product pages indexed as a baseline and after site completion in Pixelsilk, went from 100 to over 10,000 (all of their products) being indexed in Google.

If you have questions about how to get your e-commerce site additional visibility and search ranking, contact us to show you a demo of how Pixelsilk helps e-commerce.

What makes Pixelsilk a perfect fit for your business organization?  Because we understand the multiple roles that need to be involved in the website, from the editor to the IT team.  In order to start a conversation around the way roles inside of Pixelsilk work together, we’ve created characters to help the process along.

Let us introduce you properly:

Meet Ed, “The Editor”
Ed, “The Editor” handles adding, editing and deleting pages, content and page properties.  Ed typically does not know HTML and primarily works inside of the WYSIWYG interface.  He understands basic Word Processing (MS Word).

With proper training, Ed is savvy enough to understand how to add links, documents, media and content to grow content on the site and add frequently updated information.

Meet Sadie, “The Site Manager”
Sadie “The Site Manager” assigns permissions/security roles and users.  Sadie would guide access to various areas of the site and assign editing tasks to those working within the system.

Sadie can easily add roles and create/define users assigned to those roles. She also is known for review and monitoring of web analytics.

Meet Webster, “The Web Developer”
Webster “The Web Developer” has a solid knowledge base using HTML, JavaScript and CSS and is typically responsible for theme/skin development.  Webster’s domain and access is under the ‘Design’ area where full theme editing takes place. Webster utilizes controls and subsequent [[tokens]] to setup the theme templates, forms, navigation and easy third-party plug-ins.

Meet Oscar, “The Optimizer”
Oscar “The Optimizer” is the SEO guru.  He enjoys the ability of full HTML/URL control implement his SEO strategy.  Oscar typically sets up proper URL structures, meta data, robots.txt and other SEO items.  He works with Webster to deliver optimized, clean (non-bloated) code.

Oscar may also use the ‘Search Advice’ interface to put his advice into the system and make it available for Ed while editing.

Meet Devon, “The Developer”
Devon “The Developer” has a wide-spread knowledge base of server-side languages, such as: PHP, .NET, Cold Fusion, etc.  Although not needed to theme and deploy a site, Devon is useful when third-party integration is needed.  He enjoys access to both the server and client APIs to accomplish more complex integration between Pixelsilk and a third-party application.

Meet Netti, “The Network Admin”
Netti “The Network Admin” is the keeper of Domain, DNS and E-mail management for individual sites.  The Pixelsilk ‘Control Panel’ is where Netti accomplishes Domain registration, renewal and domain properties as well as DNS name server information.  Netti also manages   e-mail accounts associated with the client and is the technical contact, coordinating hosting related issues.

These roles help everything from the sales process, training and overall communication.  Although other roles exist outside that mingle with those mentioned above, Ed, Sadie, Webster, Oscar, Devon and Netti are directly involved in working within Pixelsilk.

Which role are you?