WHY ARE SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY SHOPPING CARTS NEEDED?

The objective of any shopping cart or e-commerce system is to 
allow visitors to shop on a business site for products they 
want.  Unfortunately, not all shopping carts are created equal 
and not all search engines are created with equal capabilities. 
Some search engines are able to navigate through dynamic sites 
while others are not.  Sometimes the search engines that are 
able to navigate through dynamic sites have problems indexing 
and navigating through the entire site.

These factors eliminate many e-commerce sites from the search 
engine result pages or hamper their advancement to the top.  
For a business to be competitive on the World Wide Web, all 
of its pages need to be indexed and developed correctly.

For the past 10 years programmers have been developing 
e-commerce systems that required the sites to compete at the 
site level.  This required many site owners to find a company 
that could optimize their sites and create doorway or landing 
pages that focused upon a product or category, or use any 
number of other means to elevate the e-commerce site in the 
search engines.  These tactics have worked successfully, but 
the search engines want pages that are of unique value to 
present to their clients.  Dynamic sites hamper the model 
search engines desire.

In order to meet the demands of the search engines and be 
indexed by all search engines new techniques must be employed.  
These new techniques can make an e-commerce system more search 
engine friendly, if they are developed correctly.  Some systems 
will never be search engine friendly and result in less than 
adequate placement in the search engine result pages.


WHY ARE SOME E-COMMERCE SOLUTIONS NOT SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY?

There are many factors that come into play when attempting to 
determine if an e-commerce system is not search engine friendly. 
 These factors are important to understand and can help you 
determine if the system is right for you.


CGI-BIN and Scripting Languages

Shopping Carts or e-commerce systems using the CGI-BIN format 
typically utilize the PERL scripting language.  When a search 
engine finds /cgi-bin/ in a URL it typically ignores it. There 
are however some search engines that can index beyond the 
/cgi-bin/ element of the URL.  However, there are many that 
cannot and do not index beyond the /cgi-bin/ element.

Then we have the database driven shopping cart or e-commerce 
system that operates on one of the more advanced Object Oriented 
Event Driven (OOED) languages such as PHP, ASP, .NET, .JSP, or 
Cold Fusion (just to name a few).  These advanced languages 
utilize the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) in the URL to 
identify the variables required to pull the information out of 
the database and into the dynamically generated page.  Not all 
search engines are able to index beyond the question mark (?) 
or the ampersand (&) making it difficult to be indexed by all 
search engines.


Meta Data

Shopping carts or e-commerce systems typically re-use the same 
set of Meta keywords and Meta descriptions throughout the 
dynamically generated pages.  This simply means that an orange 
would have the same Meta keywords and Meta description as an 
apple.  Obviously this does not work very well for search 
engines that utilize the Meta keywords and Meta descriptions. 
The Meta keywords and Meta descriptions should be based upon 
the product or the category.


Page Titles

Page titles are one of the most important elements in search 
engine optimization.  Page titles inform the purchaser that 
your page offers exactly what they are looking for.  Since 
many e-commerce solutions re-use the same page title which is 
typically the company name or the site URL, it can prevent your 
site from moving to the top of the search engine results.  Each 
page should stand on its own.


URL Rewrites

Many programmers use URL rewrite technologies to make the URL's 
friendly to the search engines.  However, not all rewritten 
URL's are created equal.  Some people rewrite URL's to simply 
remove the question mark (?) and ampersand (&) from the 
resulting URL.  Nevertheless, this does not provide the best 
form of rewritten URL.  


Hidden Session ID's

Hidden session id's are session id's that are placed in the 
link, but not in the resulting URL.  Because session id's use 
the question mark (?) or ampersand (&) in the link, this causes 
many search engines to cease attempting to index the site.  

Session id's are used to keep track of the visitor as they add 
items to their cart for purchase.  Not all shopping carts 
utilize session id's, but those that do can cause problems if 
not properly programmed to keep the session id's out of the 
links.  Some programmers use cookies, but those can also be 
problematic if the shopper turns cookies off like so many 
people do.


Heading Tags

Heading tags are those tags that identify the importance of a 
piece of content and elevate it above the remaining content.  
For example, an <h1> heading tag is the most important of all 
heading tags.  When a page uses the <h1> tag it announces to 
the search engines that the enclosed text is of vital importance 
and it is usually the topic of the page.

For example, a page about Mandarin Oranges using an <h1> tag 
enclosing the words Mandarin Oranges identifies to the search 
engine that the main topic of the page is, in fact, Mandarin 
Oranges.  This can elevate your page above all others that talk 
about Mandarin Oranges if they do not utilize the <h1> tag.

Over use of the <h1> tag on a single page can be considered 
"spam" by the search engines.  This can get the page banned 
and may even get the site banned for "spamming".


ALT Attributes

ALT attributes are typically ignored in the majority of CGI-BIN 
and scripting language e-commerce solutions for various reasons. 
These reasons could be as simple as the belief that the site 
owner or webmaster doesn't understand the value of these fine 
attributes to the programmers didn't understand their value and 
thought the exercise of adding extraneous information was not 
worth the effort.  However, they are just as important as the 
other content describing the item or product.  


Flash Navigation

Some programmers feel it is important to utilize Flash to 
enhance the site presentation.  Improperly using Flash actually 
causes problems for many sites.  If the search engines can't 
see the links, the search engines can't navigate the site.


JavaScript Navigation

JavaScript is an executable script operating on either the 
client-side or the server-side.  This technology allows for the 
use of "eye candy" and it does not allow navigation through the 
entire site by some search engines because they cannot execute 
or parse the codes to perform the navigation required to reach 
the other pages.


Frames

Frames provide an easy way to manage navigation in one window 
while providing the content in another window. While this may 
sound good, search engines only understand that a page is a page 
and doesn't take into account supporting pages required by the 
frameset. That means if a person finds that page, they can't 
navigate to the other sections of the site.


Coding to Standards

Many times when a site is developed the programmer writes codes 
that are not standards compliant.  This can create problems in 
many of the browsers available and means that the visitor isn't 
able to utilize the site.  If the visitor isn't able to use the 
site, the visitor isn't able to shop.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS

CGI-BIN Directories

CGI-BIN directories have been ignored for the most part by more 
search engines than I would care to count.  Typically search 
engines ignore CGI-BIN directories because the URL created by 
the CGI scripting language includes the question mark (?) and 
ampersand (&).

Until a few years ago, search engine wouldn't even dare approach 
a CGI-BIN directory.  Google™ can index those pages, but their 
success is not always 100 percent.  Other search engines do not 
have the capability to index within the CGI-BIN directory which 
limits the site owner's ability to be found.

This single fact led many e-commerce site owners to find search 
engine optimization companies to optimize their web sites and 
build doorway pages linking to the items within the CGI-BIN 
directory.

There are two types of set up for the CGI-BIN e-commerce system.

Situation #1:

The e-commerce system is dynamic and uses a flat-file or 
database that presents the items and categories in a dynamic 
fashion.  Sites using this type of system provide pages based 
upon some template that then pulls the information from the 
database into the final page.  Because site owners may not be 
trained on search engine optimization they would end up hiring 
a search engine optimization company to build these pages which 
are called doorway pages.

Situation #2:

The second situation calls for external pages that connect 
directly to the cart page which shows the items ready for 
purchase.  This is distinctly different from the above situation 
because the system relies upon external pages that have "add to 
cart" buttons or links.  When the link or button is clicked the 
link informs the shopping system that an item has been added to 
the cart.

This situation requires the site owner to add the items to a 
flat-file or database for the shopping system to know the price. 
It also requires the site owner to maintain the external pages 
with the correct information.  If the programmer or site owner 
ignores either side of the equation the system would fail and 
items could not be added to the cart for purchase.


Scripting Languages

Scripting languages are similar to CGI-BIN situations due to 
the fact that they rely upon database queries which then result 
in question marks (?) and the ampersands (&) in the URL.  These 
two elements prevent many search engines from navigating the 
site properly.  If the search engines cannot navigate the site, 
the search engines cannot index the pages on the site.

This has left many e-commerce site owners having to employ the 
skills of search engine optimization companies to build doorway 
pages.  These doorway pages promote the products and then add 
links to the item in the e-commerce system where the item can 
be added to the shopping cart.  Depending upon the set up of 
the e-commerce system a link may be added that adds the item 
directly to the cart where the quantity may be adjusted.

This requires the inventory and prices be maintained in two 
places.  First, the database the scripting languages accesses 
and second the external pages.

Both the CGI-BIN and scripting languages can increase the cost 
of doing business online because of the increase in hours spent 
maintaining the web site.


Meta Data

Both CGI-BIN and scripting language versions of e-commerce 
typically re-use the same Meta keywords and Meta descriptions 
throughout the entire e-commerce site.  The categories and 
items then have the same keywords used on the front page and 
the secondary pages of the site.  This creates problems when 
we review the situation with oranges and apples.  Certainly 
fruit would apply, but it wouldn't be a good keyword if we 
were attempting to sell Mandarin Oranges or Delicious Red 
Apples.  We would want keywords and descriptions that meet 
the needs of the individual products for the pages that 
present the individual items.  Categories could be as broad 
as Fruit, but could be as concise as Apples.

For the Mandarin Oranges, the optimum Meta keywords would be:

<meta name="keywords" content="mandarin oranges, oranges 
mandarin, oranges, mandarin">

The Meta description would be best as follows:

<meta name="description" content="Mandarin oranges provide a 
sweet flavor and are easy to peel.">

However, as mentioned above these systems typically do not 
allow for individual Meta keywords and Meta descriptions.  The 
nature of these systems actually holds your item and category 
pages down in the search engine results.


Page Titles

Page Titles announce the topic of the page.  In the majority of 
e-commerce solutions available the Page Title simply reflects 
the name of the site or the name of the company.  This does not 
help in optimizing a page about Mandarin Oranges unless the 
name of the company is The Mandarin Orange Company.

When a person does a search in the search engines they look at 
the titles provided.  If your page comes up first in the search 
engines and is among a series of results that list off names of 
companies and your Page Title is reflected as Mandarin Oranges 
the searcher will more than likely click on your link.  Page 
Titles allow for advertising the topic of your page and should 
be programmed to correspond with the topic of your page.

When optimizing a page for a web site the Page Title is 
considered one of the most important elements available to the 
SEO professional.  Page Titles play an extremely important role 
in proper optimization and should not be used haphazardly.


URL Rewrites

URL rewrites are programming techniques that allow the returned 
URL to be more search engine friendly by removing the question 
mark (?) and ampersand (&) from the returned URL found in the 
location or address bar.  This enables the search engines to 
index the page without having variables or session id's 
interlaced into the URL.

There are two types of URL rewrites.  Each meet the same purpose,
but the advanced URL rewrite is more search engine friendly.  
The following examples will give you an idea of the important 
factors.

Non-URL Rewrite URL

http://www.yourdomain.com/shop.php?cat_id=1&item_id=2

The above URL indicates to the database that the returned 
information should be from the category with id equal to 1 and 
the item id equal to 2.  This works fine for the system because 
it understands the variables.  Many search engines however do 
not understand this form of URL.

Simple URL Rewrite

http://www.yourdomain.com/shop/1/2.html

The simple URL rewrite will take the URL and modify it so that 
it appears without the question mark (?) and ampersand (&).  
This enables all search engines to index your all of your pages, 
but still lacks in some important areas.


Advanced URL Rewrite

http://www.yourdomain.com/oranges/mandarin_oranges.html

The advanced URL rewrite enables your URLs to include your 
keywords.  This is another location search engines look for 
important information about your pages.   Being able to 
include keywords in your URL helps elevate your page to the 
top of the search engine result pages.


Hidden Session ID's

Hidden session id's are not exactly hidden, but they are 
typically hidden from view of the visitor and not placed in the 
returned URL.  The links with session id's include the question 
mark (?) and therefore can prevent many search engines from 
navigating and indexing your site.  

Some people attempt to defeat this problem with cookies, but 
cookies present a different problem.  Since some people are 
concerned with privacy issues they block cookies and therefore 
are unable to shop if the cart requires cookies.  Session id's 
keep a temporary record on the visiting computer while keeping 
a corresponding session number in memory or in a database.


Heading Tags

Heading tags are identified with the following HTML tags: <h1>, 
<h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>.  The <h1> tag is the most 
important heading tag while the <h6> tag is the least important.

When a page uses the <h1> tag it informs the search engines 
that the page is about a specific topic and elevates that piece 
of content above the remainder of the content.  The remainder of 
the content is then considered supporting information and should 
include the same words in more than one instance for best 
results.


ALT Attributes

ALT attributes provide a two-fold function.  The first function 
is to allow the site to become accessible to the blind user.  
Because blind users cannot see the picture the ALT attribute 
allows for a description of the image. This aids the blind 
user in understanding the information available on the page.

The ALT attribute also allows for adding keywords or the product 
name in a text element for the product picture.  This adds 
relevance to the content and is used by the search engines 
to elevate the positioning of the page in the search engine 
results. 


Flash Navigation

Flash is an interesting tool used for presenting information in 
an interesting and interactive manner.  Many designers use Flash 
to create web sites because they can control the environment.  
Flash requires plug-ins for the browsers to navigate and use 
the site.

If a navigation element is created in Flash the links are hidden 
from the source codes for the page and therefore inhibits search 
engines from navigating through the site.  This single fact 
blocks the site from becoming completely indexed by the search 
engines.


JavaScript Navigation

JavaScript navigation brings to the table several issues that 
need to be understood.  First, the codes are executable on 
either the server-side or the client-side and require the 
ability to utilize JavaScript.  The majority of search engine 
spiders or robots are not programmed to parse the information 
in the JavaScript to reach the subsequent pages.

Second, if the visitor is unable to use or has turned off 
JavaScript support they are unable to navigate the site.  This 
creates problems for these users when they attempt to utilize 
the site.

The only work around when including JavaScript navigation 
elements is to provide a link set some where on the page that 
the visitor or search engine spider can navigate through.


Frames

When frames came out the reason for them were simple; browsers 
did not have great caching capabilities. Because of this the 
browser would continually have to download the navigation 
buttons, logos, and other images. This slowed down the 
performance of web sites since broadband was not available 
at that time. Browsers have improved their caching capabilities 
and therefore this technique is no longer needed.

Search engines index each page on its own without the concerns 
of supporting pages or pages required for the site to function 
correctly. Therefore, if a page has no links on it or only links 
to a limited set of other pages, the visitor may not be able to 
find the remaining pages. Additionally, the average Internet 
user may not understand how to get to the main page of the site 
or as is typical, they'll leave and find another site to use.


Coding to Standards

Some people will debate this issue and continue to utilize 
their same coding techniques and utilities.

Coding to Standards means that the pages are programmed to be 
valid and comply with the standards established by the World 
Wide Consortium or the International Standards Organization.  
The World Wide Web Consortium has several different levels of 
HTML programming available.  These programming languages are 
HTML and XHTML, just to name a couple.  Search engines can 
index the pages even if they are not standards compliant, but 
being standards compliant ensures that the broadest array of 
browsers can use the pages.  

Coding to standards also means that there are ways to increase 
the relevance of the pages by using techniques not available to 
non-standard compliant pages.


ADVANTAGES OF A SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY SHOPPING CART

Search engine friendly shopping carts are developed in such a 
way as to promote the items and categories above the remainder 
of the site.  However, to be a search engine friendly shopping 
cart the system must first comply with the search engine 
guidelines for quality.  One element this truly not search 
engine friendly is the ability to post duplicate content across 
many domains.

Typically when an e-commerce system is developed it promotes 
the site above the categories and items.  To this means, the 
items and categories rely upon how well the site performs in 
the search engine result pages.  The site may not perform as 
well as items or categories can perform.

When a person performs a search for an item they are looking 
for an item.  If they have to perform a search on a site they 
are then doubling their efforts and may leave the site faster 
due to frustration and the inability to locate the item they 
want in a timely fashion.

Some business owners think this is a model idea because the 
shopper may find something else they want or need.  This is a 
truth, but it is also a burden on the shopper.

If that same shopper landed on the exact page that had the item 
they were looking for with the ability to add it directly to 
their cart for purchase, the likelihood of their purchase 
increases.  Not necessarily out of a pricing issue, but out of 
a time savings issue.

This allows the shopper to add the item and then go back and 
find additional items they may want or need.  There are other 
tools available to help a shopper find other interesting or 
corresponding items.  The site features can be as complex as 
desired to meet the marketing needs of the business.

The true objective of any shopping cart is to allow easy use 
and ability to find desires products.  Without this capability 
the site performs poorly.  Think of a food store and understand 
why they have items grouped and ordered the way they do.  Your 
online store should operate in this same fashion, but with the 
enhanced ability to cross-reference products.