TIP: Maintain your focus.
While you should create a list of at least a dozen keywords, maintain your edge by concentrating on just one keyword per webpage. Each page of your website should focus on one specific area of the overall topic of your website. Focusing on keyword phrases that are more specific (example: "squirrel cat toy" instead of "cat toy") may help improve your search engine rankings, because there may be less competition than there would be for the more general phrase.

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APPLY YOUR KEYWORDS TO YOUR MODULAR MERCHANT SHOPPING CART
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The next step is to start applying your list of keywords to your store's page content.

2. Update the long and short product descriptions with keyword-rich text.
Long descriptions are displayed on the "Product Details" pages in your online store. The short descriptions are displayed on the "Search Results", "Products in a Selected Category", and other similar pages in your storefront.

To edit a product's long and short descriptions, open the Product Editor screen, located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Products > Search Products]. Select a product to open the Product Editor screen. In the Product Editor, click the brown "Display Options" tab at the top of the editor screen. The short and long descriptions are options 7 and 8 on that screen.

The long and short product descriptions may contain HTML code.

For best SEO results, a product's long description should be at least 250 words long. Search engines are more likely to exclude pages with fewer words. (Of course, content, not page length, is still king!)

TIP: Be all things to all people... and robots.
As you write your keyword-rich product descriptions, remember that you are writing for two audiences: your customers and Google's spiders. Be sure to maintain a balance; your descriptions should contain enough phrases that Google will find your content to be relevant to the keywords you are targeting, while still being legible to your human customers. Don't inappropriately "stuff" keywords into your page content. It will irritate your customers and will dissuade Google from spidering the page.

3. Update the product's "Meta Tags" field.
There are many Meta Tags that can be used to assist in SEO. However, not all Meta Tags are used by all search engines. Nevertheless, including a complete list of Meta Tags on each of your pages is a good habit to get into. It's just one more edge you can give your website's pages.

To edit a product's Meta Tags, open the Product Editor screen, located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Products > Search Products]. Select a product to open the Product Editor screen. In the Product Editor, click the brown "Advanced Tags" tab at the top of the editor screen. The Meta Tag field is option 2 on that screen.

Wondering what Meta Tags to use? A list of applicable Meta Tags are listed in our companion article at:
http://www.modularmerchantforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=32

4. Apply keywords to your Skins.
And while you're adding Meta Tags and keywords to your store pages, don't neglect to do the same to your store's Skins. The Skins are the HTML templates that are used on every page of your storefront. Any SEO tactic you can use on a page of your website, you can also use in your store's Skins. The Skin Editor is located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Design > Skin Editor]. The "Designer's Guide", which provides an overview of using the Skin Editor, is available on the Modular Merchant website at:
http://www.modularmerchant.com/docs/MM_Designers_Guide.pdf

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ANALYZE, UPDATE, REPEAT...
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After you have added keyword content and Meta Tags to your pages, its a good idea to pause and analyze your progress. There are many "keyword density analyzer" tools available on the internet. These tools will review the content of your site's pages, and report back with information on how search engine spiders may view your site, and, more importantly, if you've overdone it with your keywords to the point of being seen as "spamming" your site with keywords.

A nice little free keyword density analyzer is available at:
http://developers.evrsoft.com/seotool/

Many other free and proprietary analyzer tools are available. Google for the phrase "keyword density analysis" for more examples.

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A GAGGLE OF GOOGLE TOOLS
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As you may know, Google runs automated scripts, known as "spiders", that will find your website, analyze the content of each page it can find, and report back to Google with its findings. Google will then add pages it has found to its search engine. However, what you may not know is that you don't need to wait for Google to come to you! There are several tools you can use to tell Google about your website, and possibly speed up the spidering process.

5. Give Google your website address.
Google has a tool specifically for submitting your website address (URL) to it. The tool is located at:
http://www.google.com/addurl/

Google's "Add a URL" page states, "We add and update new sites to our index each time we crawl the web, and we invite you to submit your URL here. We do not add all submitted URLs to our index, and we cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when or if they will appear."

Using this tool won't guarantee your inclusion in Google's search engine, but at least it will get your website on their radar!

TIP: Learn to play by the rules.
Google supplies a list of the guidelines they use when evaluating a website's authenticity. The closer you adhere to these guidelines, the better the chance you'll be included in Google's search results. Google's web development guidelines can be found on their website at:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

6. Give Google a list of all of the pages in your website.
It is possible to create a sitemap containing a list of all of the pages in your website. Google will regularly check this sitemap, and will reference it when updating your site's listings in its search engine.

TIP: Create a Google Account.
Google's sitemap tool (and other useful tools) require you to create a free Google Account. You can create a Google Account on their website at:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

After you have established a Google Account, you will be able to start submitting content to their sitemaps service. Complete details about the Google Sitemap service can be found on their website at:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

So, now that you've started a Google Account, how do you create a sitemap to submit? If you're a bit anxious about generating these "sitemap" things, don't fret! Modular Merchant has developed a script that automatically compile sitemap containing a list of all your site & store pages. The sitemap is updated on a daily basis, and placed on your website in a location that Google can locate it.

Modular Merchant's sitemap script is currently being beta tested by selected clients. It will be released as a standard shopping cart software feature in a future update. In the meantime, if you're interested in taking the sitemap script for a test drive, contact our Tech Support department for more info!

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BEYOND GOOGLE: WORKING WITH EVERYBODY ELSE...
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7. Increase the number of links pointing to your website on other websites.
Among the most important, yet most difficult, SEO tactics you can employ is to increase the number of "inbound links"; links on other websites that point to yours. In addition to a large number of inbound links, the quality of those links is also important. For example, inbound links from a webpage that is nothing more than a huge list of billions of links will be far less beneficial than an inbound link on a page from a website in an industry related to your own.

Obtaining quality inbound links is hard, tedious work. (Is it any wonder that an entire SEO industry has developed, focusing, in part, on the task of link acquisition?) Unfortunately, many online business owners fail to budget the time and resources necessary to build and maintain quality inbound links.

A SEO article from the ezinedesigner.com website advises, "You're in business on the internet so you should treat traffic acquisition through link building as a business necessity. For the long term success, you must try to develop a link-building strategy which is completely integrated into your business process to keep those links building over time." Read the complete article at: http://ezinedesigner.com/ecommerce-seo-checklist.html

TIP: Develop consistent inbound links.
Search engines will reference the text of inbound links when evaluating what your website is about. Make sure that other websites use relevant phrases in their inbound links. For example: Links to my cat toy website with the text "Click here" will not be nearly as beneficial to my site's SEO as links with the text "Cat Toys & Accessories".

Make a plan and take the time to increase the number of inbound links for your site. It is worth the investment. Inbound links carry great weight in search engine rankings.

8. Spread the word to internet directories.
There are other various internet directories, and search engines other than Google, that you can submit your website to for inclusion. One of the most highly recommended internet directories is http://www.dmoz.org. The DMOZ directory's website states, "The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors." Real people maintain the DMOZ directory, and review every website submitted for inclusion. Since human eyes evaluate every website added to the directory, its listings carry a bit more weight with some search engines.

There are many other internet directories floating around out there. Do a bit of hunting to find quality directories related to your industry, and submit your website information to them.

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MORE TACTICS YOU CAN PUT INTO PRACTICE TODAY
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9. Create a catalog of "flat" webpages.
Database-driven websites, such as your Modular Merchant store, will include "variables" in the URL of their website pages. (For example: A URL of a database-driven webpage may look something like: www.website.com/page.php?id=123) The debate rages on as to whether or not URLs containing variables are spidered as well as non-database-driven (or "flat") URLs. Use the keyword in your page's file name; delimit with dashes (eg. keyword-marketing-ladder.html) Google's own webmaster guidelines state, "If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few."

Even with a database-driven website, there are steps you can take to provide flat versions of your pages as well. For example, Modular Merchant has developed a script that automatically generates a catalog containing a flat version of your store's category and product pages. More information on this script is available in the related forum article at:
http://www.modularmerchantforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=244

10. Continually communicate with your customers; as a "partner," not a "peddler".
Once your potential customers finally find your website, keep the buzz going! Some ideas for building and maintaining communication with your website visitors include:
* Start an email mailing list & regular newsletters to subscribers.
* Write articles for websites related to your industry.
* Post on forums of sites related to your industry.
* Offer incentives. Use Modular Merchant's Coupon module to mail discount codes to your customers.
* Launch companion websites for each product category.
* Distributing press releases to online and print media.
* Add outbound RSS feeds to distribute site content.
* Add inbound RSS feeds to add fresh content on related topics to the website.
* Add a contact form, knowledge base and/or message board to solicit communication from customers.
* Advertise in web, print and video media.
* Partner with related companies to cross-sell related services on each other's websites.
* Add relevant text and other content to all website, product and category pages.
* Regularly add articles, hints and tips to the site. Add these as new, separate web pages. A steadily growing website is important
for SEO.
* Add podcasts to the site on topics relevant to your products or industry.
* Establish a website SEO maintenance contract with a web development firm that knows their stuff.

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CONGRATULATIONS, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY ONLY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE...
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I hope this information is helpful in your ongoing, never ending quest to improve your search engine rankings. If you have additional suggestions, add them to this forum article! There are many more beneficial (and many detrimental) SEO strategies that are worthy of discussion!