Google’s Over-Optimization Penalty an Evolution, Not Revolution

Google’s much discussed over-optimization penalty turned out to be a moderate evolutionary step in Google’s site quality crusade. Launched April 24, Google wrote in a blog post of its update, “The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.” I addressed the over-optimization penalty here last month, at "Google Plans SEO Over-Optimization Penalty."
According to the Google blog post, an estimated 3.1 percent of U.S. search results will be affected by the algorithm update, while sites in countries like Poland that are more prone to produce webspam could see as high as 5 percent change in rankings. The algorithm will more aggressively penalize webspam tactics like keyword stuffing and irrelevant linking from sites that “spin” content with barely readable content. "Spinning" refers to the practice of scraping content from other sites and then manually or mechanically rearranging the words to create a “new” piece of content.

Is All SEO Webspam?

In its announcement, Google's head webspam cop Matt Cutts also addressed the difference between search engine optimization and webspam. The first three paragraphs of the announcement details the difference between ethical or “white hat” SEO practices and manipulative “black hat” webspam under the guise of SEO. As an ethical SEO practitioner, I appreciate the vote of confidence for the SEO industry, but Google’s Cutts must really have felt under fire after his over-optimization comments last month to write such a missive. Cutts’ best advice is to focus on creating “amazing, compelling web sites.” That, to be sure, is not a newsflash to most ecommerce brands.

Doesn’t Google Already Punish Webspam?

Yes, Google does punish webspam when it detects it reliably. That’s what makes this more of an evolutionary step in the quality crusade than a truly new algorithmic attack on over-optimization. Unfortunately, the line between webspam and legitimate content and linking can be difficult for a software program to detect despite its obviousness to humans. This update releases new and hopefully better ways to algorithmically detect webspam so that higher quality sites can rise up in the rankings as the spammy sites sink down.
With only a few days in the wild, data on the types of sites affected by the update is scarce. To complicate matters, Google also released a previously unannounced Panda 3.5 algorithm update on April 19 —Search Engine Land describes it here — according to Cutts. Both updates attempt to improve the quality of sites being ranked well and demote sites that send low-quality signals. So sites that recently gained or lost traction did so based on Panda 3.5 or the webspam update. The latest Panda update was actually the 13th Panda update, with updates released roughly monthly since the first update in February 2011.

Was Your Site Affected by Google’s Updates?

Regardless, the performance of the site that matters most to marketers is their own. To determine whether a site has been affected by either update, check the site’s analytics before and after April 19 for the Panda 3.5 update, and before and after April 24 for the webspam update. If traffic from organic search fell dramatically on either day, the site may have been affected by the update that came out on that particular day.
Another data source to check is Google Webmaster Tools’ search queries report for keyword impressions, visits and ranking data. Scale the timeframe to a single day and save the data for April 11, 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20 to check the before and after data the week before the Panda 3.5 update and the days before, on, and after the update. Then do the same for April 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 for the webspam update. Sadly, Google Webmaster Tools’ reports aren’t as robust as a true analytics package. So you can’t see a daily trending chart unless you create it yourself in Excel. In addition, Google Webmaster Tools only displays data for a rolling 30-day period. Be sure to grab this data in the next two weeks if you’re interested in analyzing it.

Summary

All told, the webspam update seems to be less revolutionary than I had hoped and more evolutionary in Google’s long-running battle with webspam. Hopefully when the dust settles we’ll have a better idea which sites were impacted by which update, thereby deducing which specific webspam tactics were hit hardest. Until then, focus on creating quality content and avoid the temptation to look for loopholes and shortcuts to faster SEO success. Long-term organic search performance depends on ethical SEO creating crawlable, quality content and encouraging relevant links and social mentions.


source:practicalecommerce.com

Managing Your Company’s Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are valuable assets that can be owned. Ecommerce businesses can create many types of trade secrets, including marketing techniques, supplier lists, business practices, and unique software processes. What may constitute a trade secret extends beyond what may be patentable, and includes anything that is used in a business and that gives the business an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know it or use it. If the owner of a trade secret attempts to keep confidential valuable and secret business information, the owner will have legal rights against others who use improper methods to obtain that information.

3 Steps for Managing Trade Secrets

Once you have identified your company’s trade secrets, the following three steps will help you manage them.

1. Non-Disclosure and Assignments. Use non-disclosure and assignment agreements when help is sought for major processes of the business, such as development of new technologies or processes, implementing software, marketing plans, and financial analysis of your company. The proper use of non-disclosure agreements requires the person or company to hold all of your information in confidence, which helps create and secure your company’s information as a trade secret. In addition, any rights in a work product that is created by an outside company or an employee should be assigned to the company so that all such rights to information and creative endeavors are owned by the company.
2. Manage Employee Access. A company may have many people doing very specific tasks in the operation of the ecommerce company. The software developer will be working on the specific functions of the website or inventory management system. Others may work on packaging orders or other functional duties in the business. The office staff may be working on filing requirements, paying bills, and other office duties. The point is that not everyone needs to have access or should have access to trade secrets. It is much easier to manage and control your trade secrets if there are a limited number of people who have access to such information. Use passwords on computers and other procedures to limit access. Your payroll person probably does not need to know what code the software developer used to make the website function in a particular way or be able to access it whenever they like. General knowledge of such things is fine, but the details should be limited to those who really need to know them. With the ease of transfer of information over the Internet, it is very important to limit access.
3. Policies and Procedures. Written policies and procedures for handling your trade secrets — and following those policies and procedures — will help you enforce your rights if you have to go to court to protect them. Your company should include such policies and procedures in your employee handbook and talk about how to handle sensitive information. Examples should be used in the handbook to help employees understand what needs to be protected and how to protect such information. Assign one individual to be in charge of enforcing policies regarding trade secrets. If responsibilities are divided, it may become no one’s responsibility.

Summary

Trade secrets can last forever if you manage them correctly. However, they are vulnerable to a misstep in management, which could result in the loss of a valuable asset. Any public disclosure that is not limited effectively releases your trade secret to the world and you lose all rights to protect such information. It may seem difficult to manage your information with the access of many people within the company. But following a solid system for protecting your information will help protect your rights and simplify management of your trade secrets.

 source:practicalecommerce.com

Who Needs an Ecommerce Strategy, Anyway?

Ten years ago, it was easier to succeed in ecommerce than today. If you had a product to sell, built a website, opened a merchant account, figured out how to get Google to see your website, and could ship the product, you could likely prosper. It was more of a "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to a business strategy. If what you were doing worked, you kept doing it. If not, you made an adjustment or simply failed.
But in 2012, you must take a more logical approach to your business strategy. I call this "Think, Plan, Act." There is virtually no such thing as a unique product in the market. There is a substitute product for everything and consumers can buy it from many different stores. There are likely many competitors in your market — including Amazon.com — with websites just as good as yours. Even if you hire smart marketing gurus, it’s difficult to influence your search rankings to get more traffic. Your shipping and inventory costs likely increase frequently, your employees want raises, you need to constantly reinvent your website and so forth. You need manage growth, profits, and keep customers, investors, and employees happy. In short, running an ecommerce business in 2012 is a complex endeavor.
Successful ecommerce business owners today understand their customers, how to reach them, and why they buy. These business owners know their value propositions, understand their financial and funding issues, develop and grow a strong infrastructure, and build an organization that is sustainable. The owners of the top businesses are also planning strategically to optimize their current operations and plan for future change and growth.
The really important part of developing a strategy is not necessarily the output. It's the thinking that occurs as part of the process. Good thinking and planning will accelerate your growth, reduce risk, and build a more sustainable business.

Strategic Planning

Many small business owners associate business strategies with larger corporations. Many do not know what a business model is or why they would want to develop strategies around it. Other business owners build business models without even realizing it.
I view the strategic planning process as developing a blueprint for success. If you are building a new house, for example, you have a vision, get a design, build a model, develop a blueprint from that model, and then hire a contractor to build it. If you are building or expanding a business, you need to have a vision of what you want to do, build a model, develop the strategies and plans, and then execute the plan. The business model and strategies are the blueprint for success.

Business Models

A business model describes how a business makes money. The model shows, in detail, the core elements of the business, including its purpose, customers, channels, products and services, infrastructure, organization, and profit model. It allows for modeling by changing variables. It is a powerful business tool.
Generating a business model is usually part of a strategic planning process. This process does not have to takes weeks and months. It can be done on a napkin over lunch, though there are many web tools and apps that help. The business model is a tool for you to use to develop good business strategies and plans.
There are many ways to describe a business model and almost as many books, but here is a simple conceptual diagram to help, courtesy of Vision to Action Management Consulting, a Colorado-based advisory firm.
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A well-planned strategy should address all aspects of a business, as shown in this diagram. Courtesy Vision to Action Management Consulting.

Business Strategy

At the core of the business model are the strategies. They tie the elements of the model together and identify key initiatives, resources, and actions needed to support it.
Strategies may also include plans for growth, product launches, funding, and exit — i.e., selling the business — plans. Strategies are developed for the day-to-day functions, such as marketing to target customers, hiring employees, and outsourcing functions to other firms.

More to Come

I’ll be exploring many aspects of ecommerce business strategies over the coming weeks. I'll break down core areas of an ecommerce business and identify the questions you should be asking and answering. Then, I'll look closely at how different strategies affect various situations. For example, if you decide on a “lowest price guarantee” strategy for your products, you better make sure you are also the “low cost producer” in the marketplace. Otherwise your profit model will be affected. If you decide to offer the widest selection of widgets in the marketplace, you will need money to buy the inventory and hire staff to support that strategy.
In the meantime, check out Business Model Canvas, a tool from Business Model Foundry, in Switzerland. It's a handy template for creating your own ecommerce model.
You may also want to read "What's a Startup? First Principals," a blog post by Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur and now an author and consultant, about business models, value propositions and their importance for startups.

source:practicalecommerce.com

6 Ways to Increase Prices on Your Ecommerce Site

Pricing management is one of the most ignored processes for an ecommerce site. Most sites set the prices once and then largely forget about them. Though, the fact is that effective management of pricing can result in significant increase in profits. One way to do that is to increase prices by using one or more of the following techniques.

1. Review and Refine Prices Periodically

Prices need to be reviewed periodically based on a variety of factors, such as cost of manufacturing or procuring the product, comparison with what your competitors charge for the same or similar product, and cost of packaging the product. If the review leads to a price change, be transparent about it with your customers. The increase should never be explained as merely increasing margins for your business. Be prepared to lose some customers. But you should be able to win them back by continuing to sell quality products without sacrificing customer service. If price increases are not a common occurrence for your business, train your team to handle questions related to the price increase. Everyone needs to understand why this is being done and how to handle customer queries. Some retailers also run surveys to determine customer preferences before making the price change.
The periodic price reviews will also help verify that you are not losing money on a subset of your products by keeping the price static.

2. Sell Upgraded Versions of Products

Sometimes it is not possible to increase prices without alienating customers. An option is to offer an upgraded version of the product at a higher price. The upgrade can be a small change (e.g., bigger packaging or different color) or a significant change (e.g., better material) depending on your product set. As an example, Amazon frequently sells GelPro floor mats with different colors at different prices.
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A customer is often willing to pay more for a perceived upgrade than for a simple price increase.
The important thing is to create the perception that the customer is getting something better than the previous version of the product. If you can do that, this is an easy way to increase prices for your products.
If you sell one-of-a-kind niche products, you can likely increase prices with little resistance from your customers as your products are not available elsewhere. Though, the price increase still needs to be transparent to the customers to avoid losing credibility.

3. Sell Product Bundles

If selling product upgrades is not a viable option, then combine one or more products and sell them as a single unit in a product bundle. This option works best if you introduce a new product as part of the bundle. But it can also be used with an existing product set. The best way to merchandise this bundle is to show it as an up-sell option on the related product pages.
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Selling products together can convince a customer to spend more than they would on a single item.

4. Offer Value Added Services

Offering a new service — such as gift wrapping, warranty, and subscription-based scheduled delivery — is another way to increase prices by adding a markup on the new service. The price of the product can stay the same and customers who opt for this service only pay the additional dollars. This will minimize resistance from customers as you are not increasing the product price. The value-added services could prove to be a welcome addition and act as a differentiator for your site, resulting in increase in traffic and profits.

Offering an additional service such as gift wrapping can both increase income and impress customers.

5. Use Pricing Software

Larger sites use pricing software from companies like Vendavo and PROS to manage product pricing. These software solutions enable automated change in prices based on a variety of factors like competitor’s price, type of product, and minimum margin. There are several smaller software companies like PriceIntelligently and DataLizards that offer similar functionality to automate the management and optimization of prices based on defined criteria. These solutions are important if price changes frequently or if you sell thousands of products that makes manually managing prices cumbersome. If you can afford these software solutions, I recommend using them.

6. Segment Customers

Segmentation allows you to manage multiple price points for a single product. An increase in price can be limited to a single segment without impacting all the customers. This can be a good strategy to gather customer feedback related to the price increase before rolling out the increase across all customers. The segmentation can be done using criteria like shipping distance from the warehouse (especially if you offer free shipping), A/B testing to find the right price point for the product or any other criteria. If you mostly sell to other businesses then you can setup business-specific price lists that reflect their contracted price.


source:practicalecommerce.com 

SEO: Avoid Link Building Shortcuts

There are no safe link building shortcuts. Instead I want to warn marketers about deceptive search marketers and the dangers of using “easy” link building tactics. In the latest instance, the search engine optimization community is abuzz with news that Home Depot’s SEO team has attempted to increase its link portfolio by potentially shady means. Last year, J.C. Penney and even Google’s own Chrome browser marketing site were reportedly penalized by Google Search for violating linking guidelines.
The temptation to manipulate rankings by acquiring links through unethical means is easy to understand: Links are the lifeblood of the Internet and a major factor in every major search engine’s ranking algorithms. In theory, more links means better rankings. In reality, the engines compile data across hundreds of factors algorithmically to determine rankings, and links are just one part. We’ll look at some link building tactics as examples of what not to do.

Know the Linking Guidelines

The first and easiest way to run afoul of linking guidelines is ignorance. Google in particular publishes its webmaster guidelines as a way to communicate what it considers ethical and unethical in its search algorithms. Google’s guidelines for links are very clear:
“Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (‘Link to me and I'll link to you.’)
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank”

The guidelines are fairly broad. In practice, I use this check: If a linking opportunity seems too easy it’s probably in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. For example, many companies will offer to sell you 100 links for the low price of $50. Yes, these companies will sell you the links and they may even produce the links. However, the tactics they use will involve activities like comment spam, link exchanges, and carbon copy posts that link back to your site from across a network of self-owned blogs. Emails that include link building and price without a strategic content or relationship aspect should be deleted immediately.

Home Depot's Example

In the Home Depot example, its SEO team took an ethical link building tactic — requesting that vendors or partners link to a relevant page on your site — and twisted it to make it potentially unethical and certainly misleading. The request for links stated two things:

• “Linking to The Home Depot website will benefit our business partners by increasing the page authority of your website.” This statement is absolutely untrue. Home Depot will benefit from the link, but the business partners will not. The link won’t hurt business partners’ SEO efforts, but it won’t help them either.
• “Please note that the hyperlink does not have to be visually indicated.” Some SEO professionals have interpreted this to mean that hidden links are fine with Home Depot, such as a displaying the text of the link in white on a white background. However, I think it’s more likely that the requestor is stating that the link does not have to be blue and underlined. It could, for instance, not be underlined at all and be displayed in the same color as regular body text. There’s nothing unethical about that, many sites change the color and style of their hyperlinks.

The lesson to learn from Home Depot’s story is that emailed link requests are very easily forwarded to SEO professionals or media who are likely to make a story of it. If you do email a request for links, be absolutely certain that the request is factually correct and follows webmaster guidelines for linking to the letter. Anything that can be misconstrued probably will be.

Buying Links Is Very Risky

Finally, let’s talk about J.C. Penney’s snafu. Last year The New York Times ran an exposé on J.C. Penney’s strangely high rankings across a wide variety of highly competitive terms and uncovered paid links in the site’s link portfolio. As a result, Google issued a penalty after a human review. J.C. Penney disappeared from Google’s search rankings for three months while they cleaned up their paid link activity.
Google has stated clearly that buying and selling links for financial gain or in exchange for products constitutes an attempt to manipulate rankings and can be punished by lowering the site’s rankings or removing them entirely. In a Webmaster Tools post, Google stated, “Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such as excessive link exchanges and purchased links that pass PageRank.” Google takes paid links so seriously that it even has a form set up for citizens of the web to report sites they suspect of buying or selling links.
These are just a few ways to run afoul for search engines’ linking guidelines for webmasters. When in doubt, ask a seasoned SEO professional or head to the Google Webmaster Forums to ask if an offer you’ve received is legitimate and ethical.




source:practicalecommerce.com

5 Unique and Effective Email Offers

The offer in an ecommerce email campaign is key. Coming up with offers that stand out from the competition and get your subscribers' attention, however, can be difficult.

A straight dollar-off discount gets boring over time, and email recipients will eventually ignore the same types of offers coming to their inboxes. However, there are unique and creative offers you can do that will freshen up your email program and get your subscribers excited again. Below, I’ll discuss five such offers.

Offer 1: Exclusive Invitation
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Offer 2: 'Oops' Offers
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Offer 3: Launch a 'Create Your Own Sale'
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People who are subscribed to your email program did so for a reason: exclusive offers, news, or content that is unique to them. It’s important to deliver on your opt-in promises. Make your recipients feel as though they are part of an exclusive club, and it will give them a reason to stay subscribed to your emails. Highlighting an "Exclusive Invitation" to a sale or other type of event only for your subscribers is an effective way to deliver on this promise, and get recipients reengaged. Make sure that the offer or sale is indeed unique, and not offered to other website visitors.

Shoplet.com extends exclusive invitations to email subscribers.

"Oops" emails are sent typically because a mistake occurred either on the site or a previous email. Subject lines that address mistakes tend to receive some of the highest open rates. This is presumably because the recipients were curious what the mistake was. They open the email to find out. You don’t need to wait for a mistake to use an "Oops" subject one, however. Some of the most effective subject lines I’ve developed were versions of oops-related headlines that state, “Oops, we accidently extended our sale by three more days!” or “Oops, we accidently ordered too much, and now have extra inventory marked down!” Use this approach rarely. When you do, it can help increase opens and reengage dormant subscribers.

Bargain Catalog Outlet sent an "oops" email when it realized customers may have had trouble placing an order.

Consumers love to be in control of the shopping process. Creating a sale or offer whereby subscribers can choose the best option for them can be very effective. Many times consumers become frustrated with the small print on an offer, and may spend a considerable amount of time shopping and filling their carts, only to find that the offer or promotion code doesn’t apply to the items they selected. This is a quick way to increase abandoned shopping carts. Offering up a flexible sale is an effective way to give consumers what they are looking for, and change the monotony of the typical offers or sales.

Fashion retailer Avenue allowed its subscribers to decide what's on sale.

source:practicalecommerce.com 

Facebook Photo Albums: Maximize the Marketing Value

In last week's article, "Using Facebook's New App Icons to Promote Your Business," I discussed how to modify Facebook Page app icons, which are located just beneath the cover image.

The first icon that appears in the row of four is "Photos." It cannot be moved from this first position, even if merchants want to replace it with a custom app icon, such as a welcome tab or special offers tab.

Due to the location, it's likely the Photos icon, which links to the "Photo Albums" section of the page, will receive many clicks. It's best, therefore, to maximize the use of Photo Albums to drive website traffic and encourage sales.

This article discusses how to use the Photo Albums component and presents six ideas for increasing their marketing effectiveness.

How to Use Photo Albums

When clicked, the Photos icon links to the Photo Albums section of the Facebook page. Three albums are included by default: "Profile Photos," "Cover Photos" and "Wall Photos." Beyond that, you can add as many albums as you wish. Here's how the process works.

• Click the photos icon, which takes you to the Photos Albums page.
• Page administrators see — in the upper right-hand corner of the page — two buttons: "Add Photos" and "Add Videos." Click Add Photos. This opens a window revealing the folders on your computer's hard-drive.

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Click the "Add Photos" button to create a photo album.

• Go to the folder that contains your photos and select those you wish to add. Facebook allows multiple images to be uploaded at one time. Use the Control key on a PC or the Command key on a Mac to select multiple images.
• Once the desired images have been selected, click the "Open" button located in the lower right-hand corner of the window. The upload process will begin. You will notice that, once uploaded, Facebook automatically creates a new photo album containing the images.
• Give your album a title and description.
• If desired, you can also add a location where the images were taken, along with the date they were taken. There is also an option to upload the images in "High Quality," which allows for high-resolution images to be uploaded. My experience has been that slows down the upload process, but you can test that for yourself.

Another way to create photo albums is by posting photos directly through the status update interface located on Timeline. You can see from the screen shot below that Facebook gives you the ability to upload both individual photos or create photo albums. Using either approach, the process as described above remains the same.

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Create photo albums directly from Timeline.

Keep in mind that, once published, photo albums appear on Timeline. The image that has been selected as the "cover" for the album is showcased as the largest, accompanied by thumbnails of three other images.

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Photo album as it appears in Timeline.

Now that your new album is set up, it's time to edit the individual photos. This can be done in one of two ways: from the album view or on photos individually.

Editing Photo Information in Album View

Facebook provides several options for adding information to each photo while still in the album view.

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Photo as it appears in the album view.

• Beneath each image in the album is an option to add a description of the photo. "Say something about this photo…" is the phrase you will see.
• There are also options to include tags, set the date and time when the photo was taken, and to add location information.
• Lastly, via the drop-down arrow that appears in the upper right-hand corner of each photo when it is moused-over, select one to use as the cover image for the album. There is also an option to remove photos if desired.
• Once information has been added to each image, click the "Post Photos" button located in the lower right-hand corner of the album to publish it.

Editing Information on Individual Photos

Once the album has been created, you can now click on each photo to add information if you had not already done so in the album view.

Click on one of the photos in the album. This will open a "lightbox" viewer that reveals a larger version of the photo, along with a sidebar column that allows you to add a description, tag the photo, and add date and location information.

You will also notice that each photo carries with it the ability for users to "Like," "Comment" and "Share" the image. Other options include the ability to download the image, delete it and show a full-screen version.

This lightbox interface also acts as sort of a slideshow, enabling viewers to scroll back and forth from one photo to another without being required to go back to the photo album.

source:practicalecommerce.com

SEO Benefits of Responsive Web Design

Site owners have many competing needs when developing mobile sites. Different devices, different capabilities, different screen sizes and resolutions, all have an impact on designing and developing mobile sites today.
According to Mongoose Metrics, a tracking and analysis firm, only 9 percent of sites are ready for mobile in 2012. The primary consideration with mobile tends to be enabling better usability and — for ecommece sites — conversion. Another study by Compuware, a software and services provider, shows that 57 percent of users will not recommend a company with a bad mobile site and 40 percent of users will visit a competitor's site rather than using a poorly optimized mobile site. The case for usability and conversion as primary concerns in the drive to take ecommerce sites mobile is easy to make. Fortunately, responsive web design — the leading solution to the mobile usability challenge — is also beneficial to search engine optimization.
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Improper mobile site design can seriously impact user behavior. Source: Compuware.

What Is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design is a concept that blends CSS, CSS3 and JavaScript to create fluid site designs that can expand, contract, rearrange or remove content based upon the user's screen size. Instead of developing different sites for devices with different screen sizes and capabilities, one site with one set of pages reacts flexibly to display optimally on everything from a 27-inch desktop monitor to a three and a half-inch iPhone display. The usability benefits are obvious: Customers can interact with a site regardless of the device they're using instead of having to choose between viewing the whole page illegibly or one small part of it that's disorienting. Where usability improves, decrease bounce rates and increased conversions are usually not far behind.
True, there are cases where the function and content of the mobile site needs to be different than the desktop site. Responsive design can handle those instances also via CSS by removing or reducing the visibility of content that's less relevant to mobile users. In some cases only a mobile app will really meet the needs of mobile users. But this article is about neither mobile apps nor the technical details of implementing responsive web design. For an excellent technical overview and references to other resources, see Smashing Magazine's "Responsive Web Design: What It Is and How to Use It."

Responsive Web Design Benefits SEO

Fortunately, search engine optimization offers another great reason to consider responsive web design: links. The alternative to developing a single responsive site that meets all device needs is to develop multiple sites to meet individual device needs. One site for desktop browsers, one for smartphone browsers, one for tablets, and each has to be maintained separately after the expense of designing and developing them separately. From a search engine perspective, each needs links and/or user agent-specific redirects to get customers to the right version of the site. One site means one set of links to build, and no annoying redirects to add to server load, site speed and maintenance hassles.
Think of it this way, Groupon has developed Touch.groupon.com for smartphones, Ipad.groupon.com for the iPad, and www.groupon.com for desktop computers. The search engines don't have much interest in figuring out which sites should receive searches on which devices, though they easily could with their ability to crawl sites as different browser types. The point is that the onus is on the site to redirect the customers to the site that meet their device's needs. For more on this, see "How to Benefit from Googlebot Mobile's New Smarts," my recent article on that topic.
Most ecommerce sites I've visited do a terrible job of redirecting customers to a mobile version of a site — if they even have a mobile site in the first place. Even my poster child for mobile success, Amazon.com, uses different sites for different devices and redirects, instead of responsive design. In their case, however, it's hard to argue for a change when they're running on all cylinders with their current solution.

Do Links Matter for Mobile Sites?

So back to links. If a site has to physically redirect mobile users from its desktop site to its mobile site, and if smartphone and tablet sites rarely if ever rank in the search results, what do links matter for mobile sites? Excellent question. It's not about getting more links to the mobile version so it can rank. It's the fact that some mobile users may create links to or share pages from the mobile site, which essentially steals link equity from the desktop site.
Say a mobile version of a product page has links to it from two blogs, two Tweets, two Facebook Likes and two Google +1s. But the desktop version of that same page has links to it from 20 blogs, 20 Tweets, 20 Facebook Likes and 20 Google +1s. The mobile version of that page is almost certainly not going to rank, and it's stealing those links and shares from the stronger desktop version of the site. If the site had been built using responsive design, the single product page would have 22 of each type of link and share instead of 20 and two to separate pages. In summary, the benefit is consolidation is link equity to a single page, enabling that single page to send stronger signals and rank better than the two separate pages could have alone.


source:practicalecommerce.com