IRCE Recap: E-Commerce and SEO

It was great seeing everybody at the IRCE 2013 in Chicago! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth; we feel the event was extremely useful and it was a great success.

The speed at which e-commerce is developing and fueling the fire of the global economy is incredible. It's amazing how the Internet makes it possible to overcome nearly any obstacle an entrepreneur might encounter – businesses can now expand their clientele outside their locale, have an organized space to put products on display, and provide service 24/7. E-commerce is really revolutionizing the world of retail, and that's what we focused on at the IRCE. Conferring about the changed landscape of retail in social, mobile, global, personal, and interactive aspects brought many new ideas to the table and created some interesting discussions. We were also lucky enough to be in the presence of some really great and knowledgeable speakers who shared some valuable insights.

When you think about what makes an e-commerce website successful, SEO and web development are important tools. With the popularity of e-commerce comes competition, and in order to rise above the competition, you've got to have a well-developed and well-optimized e-commerce website. That's why choosing the right e-commerce platform is so important:

• A good platform gives you control of head and meta content. When you can customize your meta description, H1, title tag, and image alt attributes, your page is better optimized for Google.
• A good platform allows for URL rewriting. This makes for a well-optimized page. Similarly, a platform that let you control your redirects and 404 pages is more user-friendly.
• A good platform provides control of image handling. Some platforms will create new image URLs, which is a big don't in the SEO world.
• A good platform is a speedy platform. As you may have seen in our whitepaper, site speed and performance is related to conversion. You don't want customers navigating away from their shopping cart because of a slow-loading page or page error.
• Are you mobile? Of course, your e-commerce site should always have a mobile-formatted option so users can easily shop from their phones.

Don't forget – it's important to combine your solid platform with good social media, as it is becoming increasingly important in the online retail revolution. Social media makes it easy to target your ideal demographic – not to mention, 86% of American adults use social media daily, and 46% consult social media prior to making an online shopping decision.

Of course, these are just a few of many reasons why choosing the right platform is crucial to your e-commerce convers