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Why You Need Flexibility in Your CMS
E-commerce catalog pages can provide search spiders with rich SEO content. However, if one’s cart isn’t well integrated within their CMS, it can block spiders’ access. You can probably guess the result: only some of your site is SEO optimized. Not good for online storefronts looking for new customers.
Pixelsilk’s flexible architecture gives customers seamless integration with BV software. Pixelsilk web developers have ensured that the CMS communicates with e-commerce cart via the API, allowing page layout consistency for branding—and page SEO rendering for spiders.
Through its tight integration, CMS and product information are under one roof. Bet you can guess the result: your catalog pages rank better and your prospective customers find you. Not bad, I’d say.
I’m Susan Sano Berado. Thanks for listening.
Powerful Rendering Platform
Hi, I’m Susan Sano Berado. Technology and what you can do with it excites me. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Silicon Valley where I had the advantage of seeing amazing technology companies’ blossom as plentiful as the Valley’s former orchards.
Technology makes things better—just look at the semiconductor, computer and mobile device industries. The underlying technology platform of Pixelsilk also makes things better. It uses the most popular and functional programming languages to enhance the user experience. Basically, anything a browser can render is available to layout in Pixelsilk—thanks to how easily it can work with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Most people know that HTML defines the objects of a web page, but not everyone knows what CSS and JavaScript do. CSS is a style sheet language that displays the look and formatting of a web page. Its name to fame is being able to separate document content from document presentation including elements such as layout, colors, and fonts.
And JavaScript is a scripting language that allows manipulation of all types of HTML objects. All three languages are powerful, which makes Pixelsilk a powerful rendering platform.
SEO Friendly CMS Questions Interviewed with Pixelsilk,Mark Knowles and Bruce Clay on WebmasterRadio.fm
SEO Friendly CMS Questions Interviewed
Yesterday, SEO Friendly CMS Questions were answered by the CEO of Pixelsilk, Mark Knowles, plus Search Engine Marketing veteran Bruce Clay – offering his expertise on the operation of a CMS like the one from Pixelsilk.
Below is a question/answer summary of the of questions received during the interview. To hear first hand, download or listen to the full interview on WebmasterRadio.fm.
(Daron) Q: Where did Pixelsilk begin and how does it scale to meet the needs of SEO?
(Mark) A: Pixelsilk was built from 13 years of CMS experience in the world of SEO. It started about 3 ½ years ago with the idea of bringing SEO advice right to the page – Bruce Clay’s advice from his SEOToolSet. In order to succeed online, Pixelsilk was developed from scratch – offering full HTML control for SEO. From a clean database structure – beginning with the http calls, Pixelsilk was architected and designed for optimal control for SEO.
Q: Talk to me about source code control?
(Mark) A: There’s no legacy, no prior system. Anywhere from up to 12 people daily have been involved in development and code was checked in daily. You break the build, you fix it.
Q: What are some of the most common hurdles moving to Pixelsilk?
(Mark) A: Moving a site can be quick. Best practice would have you fix some of your crawling issues as you migrate.
Q: How do you teach people the need to recognize the use of a system like Pixelsilk?
(Bruce) A: It’s easier to build SEO in as the content is created rather than bolting on SEO after the fact. So for larger companies, this is typically a difficult challenge. With Pixelsilk, you can SEO content as you build.
Q: Is there support for porting over a large site to Pixelsilk?
(Mark) A: With a one-day orientation, and a knowledge of HTML and CSS you are on your way. Our partner channel can also aid in the service delivery of moving sites if you need some help.
Q: How much does Pixelsilk cost?
(Mark) A: Shared hosting per site license starts at $149/per month; enterprise level license is available. The database can be scaled to a virtual environment and databases are transportable upon the need for growth.
Q: Is there a developer license?
(Mark) A: A full API is available; however, we’re working on a place for developers to play. For more details, signup for the Pixelsilk community online.
Q: How does SEO Advice work?
(Bruce) A: Through our new SEOToolSet (which is still in progress) and calls to our API, Pixelsilk brings information through to Pixelsilk based off of a footprint of the top ranking sites in the engines. There’s a big difference between data and wisdom of course, but this is the first step to get closer to target.
Q: What about off-page SEO?
(Mark) A: We will have some exciting announcements for off-page SEO factors available at SMX West 2010. Stay tuned…
Q: What about analytics?
(Mark) A: Pixelsilk utilizes a token system, so that integration with your analytics package of choice is very easy.
Q: What about design control?
(Mark) A: There’s full HTML and URL control. So, anything a browser can render is available for you to layout. You simply use HTML, CSS or JavaScript to get what you need done. There’s FULL design control without the need to know any server-side languages such as PHP, .NET or ColdFusion.
Q: What about HTML5?
(Mark) A: After verification – Pixelsilk fully supports HTML5.
Q: Can you deploy a social strategy in Pixelsilk – can you “Tweet” in Pixelsilk
(Mark) A: That’s correct, Pixelsilk allows such control so that ‘tweeting’ or even ‘reverse tweeting’ is easy. Pixelsilk was designed to integrate seamlessly with popular 3rd party social applications like Facebook and Twitter.
Bruce Clay, Inc. SEOToolSet® Search Advice Inside Pixelsilk CMS at SES San Jose 2009
BEND, Oregon – August 6, 2009 – Pixelsilk, an SEO-friendly content management system (CMS), announces the launch of Search Advice, which integrates SEO expertise from the Bruce Clay, Inc. SEOToolSet® into Pixelsilk. The new feature will be unveiled during this year’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in San Jose.
The SEOToolSet integration provides search engine optimization (SEO) advice and monitoring real-time, while users edit content within a Pixelsilk Web site. With an SEOToolSet subscription, keywords can be assigned to specific pages and recommendations will be delivered straight on the page while editing (View Video Demo of Pixelsilk Search Advice).
Pixelsilk Search Advice, patent pending, is designed to put SEO advice into the hands of the editor at the time of content creation or modification on a real-time basis. Drawing from the on-going expertise of Bruce Clay, Inc., Search Advice allows Pixelsilk clients a new way of incorporating SEO into everything on their Web site and prepares the on-page content for spidering by Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay, Inc., stated, “The real problem that SEO has had is that it is always bolted on after somebody has written the content in a CMS. The Pixelsilk-SEOToolSet integration provides a way to correct SEO issues at the point of content creation, and to have it be done by the original author. That will revolutionize SEO.”
Initially, advice drawn from the SEOToolSet will offer on-going recommendations on attributes such as the Title tag, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, body, Heading tags and on-page links. Search Advice is designed to update the recommendations as the editor makes changes to content. Moreover, if the content edits fall outside of the recommendations, on-screen alerts and follow-up e-mails may be utilized to notify authors, marketers, SEOs, compliance managers and concerned production staff of the changes.
“This approach will provide content authors with preemptive advice during the creation process from the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet. This approach reduces and/or eliminates certain steps that our clients currently make to publish content to the Web,” said Mark Knowles, president and CEO of Pixelsilk.
Pixelsilk is a scalable, Web-based CMS that provides SEO, marketing and Web development partners with the features they need to maximize their online initiatives and gain a competitive edge in their organic search engine rankings. Cutting-edge tools that allow full control of the HTML code and URL, the ability to interact with business and social media applications, open framework structure, real-time SEO feedback — all while being easy and intuitive to content editors — are among the features that set Pixelsilk apart from any other production-level CMS available today.
Through the advice drawn from the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet inside Pixelsilk CMS and the Partner Portal (allowing single management across multiple sites) launched and demonstrated at this year’s SES San Jose, Pixelsilk is poised to set the standard for the content management industry.
The Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2009 conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center from August 11-13. To register for the SES San Jose conference, visitors may use coupon code 20Pixel for a 20% discount. Or, visitors may register for the expo pass and see the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet in action by visiting the Pixelsilk booth (#106 next to Bruce Clay) for a demo.
About Pixelsilk
Pixelsilk is the first proven world-class SEO/CMS solution provider designed to meet SEO Best Practices requirements. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon (sometimes referred to as the “hub” of the Search Engine Optimization industry), the company has been integral in the fields of content management and software development for nearly 15 years. Its memberships and professional affiliations include: SEMpdx, SMX, SES and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The creators of Pixelsilk are SEOToolSet Certified, and the company is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.
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Media Contacts:
Wendy Roe
Pixelsilk
2525 NE Twin Knolls Drive
Bend, Oregon 97701, Suite 1
Ph: (877) 749-7455
E-mail: wendy.roe@pixelsilk.com
SEO and E-Commerce: The Pixelsilk Difference
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.