Ecommerce-Specific SEO Strategies - with Scott Walldren - Episode 272
INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT WALLDREN
DESCRIPTION
In today’s podcast, we are speaking with Scott Walldren, the Director of SEO in Acadia. Kiri and Scott discuss E-commerce specific SEO strategies, what we should focus in 2023, and more!
Make sure you tune in!
Scott Walldren is the Director of SEO for Acadia since October 2022. Previously, he spent 8 years developing and eventually heading up the SEO practice at 360i for Dentsu international. In addition to SEO, Scott has managed millions in paid search spend for national brands at Digitas and Razorfish and as a consultant inside and outside of startups. He lives in the far north Atlanta suburbs (close to Lake Lanier) with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 cats.
Incidentally, he has some hands-on experience (albeit about 10 years old) setting up a store, product feeds and running ads on Amazon when he was at Case-Mate.
This is his first podcast interview.
“Just as you don’t want to waste your users’ precious time with a confusing interface making it challenging to buy, you don’t want to confuse the search engine bot with a chaotic structure.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In today’s episode, Kiri and Scott discuss:
E-commerce-specific SEO strategies - What's different about ranking content for ecommerce vs other types of sites - It’s blessed and cursed by the nature of its templates and functions and as a result, you need to think through both your indexation strategy and how your content will be syndicated.
What has changed in this area / what should be the focus in 2023 - Reputation matters more than ever. Who you are as an ecommerce business extends beyond your website and should include how you take ownership of your whole discoverable presence. I’m not just talking making sure you’ve claimed and utilized social media profiles but am speaking more about claiming and maintaining your Google Business Profile, and if applicable your knowledge panel.
Biggest mistakes - What are ecomm brands usually doing wrong with SEO?
#1 mistake: Launching without consulting with a competent SEO or developer with proven SEO chops. It’s easier to let the cat out of the bag than to put it back in the bag.
Who’s getting it right? Scott is a huge fan of REI. Unlike many ecommerce sites, they have a strong brick and mortar presence which contributes significantly to their success. But strictly looking at their ecommerce approach they have put in the work to understand keyword strategy and how people search for product categories, products, and how-to guides.
To learn more, listen to the full episode, and stay tuned for part two!
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Connect with Kiri Masters
Learn more about Bobsled Marketing, an Acadia Company
Connect with Scott Walldren
Learn more about Acadia
