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Free Search Information and Tracking Tools

I recently tried Searchmetrics for SEO tracking and keyword analysis.

At around £60 per month their paid for accounts are not for small businesses or single websites but aimed more at SEO companies and larger businesses who need to track multiple sites, including competitors.

However for us smaller businesses and sole traders there is a free option that allows an in depth analysis of a single domain.

According to Searchmetrics: you can look up the SEO Visibility and Social Visibility of one domain at a time plus limited views of KPIs such as organic, paid and universal keyword results and competitors.

What I found handy was to have these all in one place, rather than using different tools from around the web

The free account is probably all a sole trader really needs to start off: Searchmetrics Essentials – try for free!

How to add Google Plus One to Magento in 5 Easy Steps

Google plus1 and Magento

Google +1 and Magento

At present it is not clear what effect Google’s Plus 1 will have on search engine positions for your Magento store. As Google move towards more on-site content driven SERP’s, I believe it will become more important in the future so we may as well start now.

      1. add google plus1Log in to Google webmaster tools and get the +1 code (its where you would manage your sitemaps) as pictured.
      2. Design your +1 button then grab the java-script code that generates the button.
      3. Paste the code into your Magento store: System> Configuration> Design> HTML Head> Miscellaneous Scripts
      4. Insert the snippet where you want the button to display in your store. I position it in an unused space on the menu bar, or you could move it up into the header.
        If you wish to do the same the file to edit is: app/design/frontend/default/YOURtempleNAME/template/page/html/header.phtml
        The code I use is:
        <span id=”plusone”> optional text <g:plusone annotation=”none”></g:plusone></span>
      5. I give it an ID so i can use CSS to position the button. In my stylesheet i have:

        #plusone { float:right; position: relative; top:-25px;}

 Magento Extension

There is a free magento extension which you can get through magento connect but in my opinon it is poorly designed. While it does work, the +1 button is placed right next to the shopping cart. This may confuse people who do not know about +1 and think that +1 will add one item to the shopping cart. Anything that distracts the customer and complicates checkout should be avoided.

It is not difficult to do yourself, please ensure it is placed in a distinctive area of your store so it is clear that it is an optional extra rather than part of the magento checkout process.

Multiple Pages and Website Optimiser In ZenCart Part2

Google Optimiser gives  a piece of code to insert at the beginning and end of the original ez-page and another piece of code at the end of the 2nd alternative ez-page. This can be easily copy and pasted using the ZenCart admin.

Now for the tricky part.

Having selected the add to shopping cart stage as the ‘measurement of success’ page i placed the tracking code in /includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/template/tpl_shopping_cart_default.php. This file will need to be copied from the template default and uploaded to the server in YOUR TEMPLATE folder.

This file has 2 functions: display the cart when an item is added and display the cart when it is empty. So, to measure page success when something is added to the cart, the Google code needs to go in the middle of the file before the ‘cart is empty’ function.

I inserted the code around line 174  in tpl_shopping_cart_default.php just after the shipping estimator section as shown below.

Once edited upload the file to your server and save an additional temporary copy to your desktop.

Validating the file.

Google will not be able to validate the performance success page so this needs to be done manually with the saved copy of tpl_shopping_cart_default.php as illustrated below.

Verify all the information in the optimiser and let your experiment begin.

It may need some tweaking but now the pages are in place I can edit the ez-page easily through ZenCart admin section as long as I don’t disturb the Google script allowing experimentation with the page content.

Multiple Pages and Website Optimiser in ZenCart Part1

Having braved google analytics, the bounce rate of an ez-page is high and I want to change it. But what to?

Well, by looking at how and why people visit a page and, from the overlay, where they click I can make assumptions at why there are there and now i want to meet their expectations.

But hold on. How will I know my new content will be an improvement? Why not offer multiple variations of the same ZenCart page and see which one is more successful?

Once you have a Google analytics account you can go directly to Google Website Optimiser and set up testing. I am using a simple A/B page to begin with.

One page is made in EZ pages and consists of the normal, but revamped, page. The other is again an ez-page but one that google will redirect to rather than publicly linked and clickable.

Having created two pages and selected a ‘results’ page (i used adding an item to the shopping cart as a result to measure page performance http://allgiftsdirect.co.uk/index.php?main_page=shopping_cart) it is time to add the tracking code. That stage is a little more tricky so I’ll cover it in part 2.

Get Serious About SEO: 3 Meta Descriptions in ZenCart

Previously I briefly covered the basics of meta descriptions. Here I focus specifically on Zen Cart and how it can help you.

I haven’t manually assigned meta descriptions and keywords for each product, that is too time consuming, but I have for product categories. Google picked up those changes very quickly so it it absolutely worth doing.

In your categories menu you will see, on the right hand side, something like this:

The orange symbol shows the tag has been manually configured, the black shows it is on automatic. Doing it manually is so much better and from the example above there is one category to configure so lets do that now.

There are 3 boxes to complete: the first is a customised title for the page which should reflect its content. The second is for keywords which should reflect the products within that category (or subcategories if you use them). The third box is for the meta description.

This is what could be displayed when people search for a particular key word. If your keywords and content match up to a users search term then the meta description may be shown in the search engine results, otherwise only the page title will show.

Maximum characters displayed (by Google) in a meta description is 150 so don’t go over this.

My previous post offers ideas on what makes a good meta description.

It is too important to leave to Zencart to auto display. Ensure for each category and sub category you manually configure your (meta) title, keywords and description. It is so worthwhile.

Update: Don’t forget /includes/languages/english/YOUR TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

and then add a line for each of your EZ-pages

  • define(‘META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_EZPAGE_2′,’your description here’);
  • define(‘META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_EZPAGE_3′,’your description here’);

and so forth for the title, description and keywords for each EZ-page you are using. Google loves it.

NB: When editing meta titles, descriptions and keywords for your categories or pages all 3 fields must be filled in otherwise the meta fields are not complete and will be ignored.

Get Serious About SEO: 2 Word Length and Relevancy

Again it is basic but have you checked the length of your descriptions, meta descriptions, key words and their relevancy to your content?

Try this meta tag analyser and have a look at your own website.

In my own example, before working on it, word length is fine but word relevancy needs some work.

Get serious about SEO and do it.

In the next article I will talk meta descriptions in Zen Cart. I changed mine manually and Google noticed the improvement.

Get Serious About SEO: 1 The Meta Description

Its time to get serious about SEO.

This is basic but has been on hold for too long so lets get down to it.

  • Set up your meta description

While of only little use to search engine placement or result, the meta description appears beneath your web site title on the results page.

Image shows google result with meta description (before work begins)

It can therefore be used to:

  1. explain in a nutshell what your site is about
  2. persuade potential visitors to click through to you
  3. give potential customers confidence about your business
  4. stand out from competitors
  5. build a brand

Check out this article for  more in-depth examples of branding using the meta description.

Meta Tag Analyser Tool for SEO

Meta tags are important for SEO and page ranking.

If you need to analyse the tags for your own website this is a good tool.

The usual meta tags for description, title, author and so on are included plus a lot more information too. A very useful tool and free to use.

Meta Tag Analyzer

Check your meta tags!

example: http://www.host.com.


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Online Meta Tag Analyzer
provide by SEOCentro.