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SEO for narrow-focus e-commerce company

by ContentDan
22 replies
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Hi Guys -
I'm really hoping you can help me. I've recently joined an e-commerce company as a content writer and am to write product descriptions, landing page content, long-form blog posts, etc. All is good there. BUT... I think there are HUGE flaws in what they are doing with URLs, Product Names, Title Tags, etc.

To protect the company's reputation, I'm going to use a made up company to explain what's going on and hope some of the experts here can provide guidance.

Company Pseudo Name: WallyWatches.com
Sells wrist watches. Assume that 90% of people use search term "wrist watch" rather than just "watch."

Company sells 10,000 different styles of watches.

PRODUCT NAMES
In order to avoid duplicate content and to not be seen to be keyword stuffing, the product names do NOT contain the words "wrist watch." Instead, they are named according to the image on the watch face, e.g. "Bright Sun," or "Red Barn."

PRODUCT URLS
The Product Names are incorporated into the URL, so URLs for every single product take the form of:
WallyWatches.com/red-barn.html
Note that neither "watch," nor "wrist watch," appear in the URL.

TITLE TAGS
For the product pages, title tags take the form of "Red Barn - Rustic - Shop by Category"

H1
The product names also serve as the H1, so no mention of "wrist watch," or "watch," there.
<><><><>
The company's SEO expert has been with the company for a very long time and has a very close relationship with the owner. The SEO guy is adamant that we not include "wrist watch" in the product names or in the URLS (not even for new products going up that would have no external links pointing at them).

He has agreed to change the title tags, but some will include "watch," some will include "wrist watch," and others will include "time piece," depending upon how many characters, when added to the product name, will equal 70.

As for the H1, he's agreed to add the term "watch," to each of 10,000 SKUs, but not "wrist watch," (which is 90% of searches).

The SEO guy tells me that it is unimportant to have "wrist watch" in our product names, might even be detrimental to have the term in there as it could be seen as keyword stuffing, and an absolute no-no to have them in the URLs (even for new products).

He says that we have plenty of content in each product page that identifies the product as a wrist watch. That our poor search results will improve as I contribute unique descriptions for each watch. That we have "category pages," for different product groupings and those pages have great content and rank well in search results. Note: We do... but far fewer people search for "Rustic Wrist Watches" than do "Wrist Watches."

Currently, for the search term "wrist watch," we show up on page 3 or 4. All of our competitors, including newer businesses, businesses with fewer products, companies just not as good as us are kicking our butts. They all use the term "wrist watch" in their URLs, Product Names, Title Tags, H1s, etc.

Most of them have worse descriptions than ours (one uses the exact same description for every product). Many of them do have more links than we do... but not all. SEO guy tells me our poor results are mostly due to not enough links... so I have to write content that other sites will link to.
<><><><>
Your thoughts? Please!
Thanks,
#company #ecommerce #narrowfocus #seo
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    In some respects you are right and in some, you are wrong.

    The URL of a page has nothing at all to do with SEO, so stop worrying about that.

    Mixing up watch, wristwatch and timepiece in title tags is probably a good idea.

    H1 tags really have no major influence over SEO, so I wouldn't sweat that either. However, it is ridiculous for him to make the claim that adding "wristwatch" to the name of a product will be keyword stuffing. They are wristwatches, after all, and unless there are many other times the term is used on the page, it will not be regarded by an algorithm as "stuffing".

    Now, if they are advertising on Google Shopping, it is imperative to get as much information as possible in the product name - at least for the feed file. Google uses that and only that to determine what terms to show a product for so it is imperative that as much information as possible is in the feed file's product name.

    In the end, though, you were hired to write content. Just do your job and let the chips fall where they may. You can at least take control over what you are supposed to do by making sure the targeted phrase and words Google thinks are related are in that content.
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    • Profile picture of the author ContentDan
      Hey Dave -

      Thanks for the input (even for the "just do your job," bit). My concern was that we had serious structural problems that no amount of content could overcome.

      Regards,
      Dan
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post


      The URL of a page has nothing at all to do with SEO
      Thats absolutely false. I am not even going to argue about it. Anyone that has been doing SEO for more than a few years knows thats false. Url structure of a site can be a very important part of a sites SEO

      https://www.searchenginejournal.com/...ture-2/202790/

      https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-pra...ructuring-urls

      https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/1...uide-for-urls/
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

        Thats absolutely false. I am not even going to argue about it. Anyone that has been doing SEO for more than a few years knows thats false. Url structure of a site can be a very important part of a sites SEO

        https://www.searchenginejournal.com/...ture-2/202790/

        https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-pra...ructuring-urls

        https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/1...uide-for-urls/
        For some reason, you always like to twist things out of context as you have done every single time this subject has come up, likely out of some self-worth issues you need to work out in your desire to be ever the contrarian. Nowhere in my comment did I mention the file structure of the URL but once again, you insert words that were never used.

        Apparently I need to say things much more specifically so that you can understand what I have said here and several other places on this forum where you object over and over again.

        The URL of a particular product is absolutely insignificant. The file structure does play a role but that has nothing to do with the URL you choose to display for a particular product. "/my-wonderful-product" is going to rank exactly the same, for the same thing as "/my-wonderful-green-product". The file structure is pretty much set in stone and applies for every single product after it is set.

        All products that exist in a "widget" category are going to have the same file structure - mywebsite.com/widgets/my-product-name, for example. My point, once again, is that nothing after that final "widgets" folder, in this case, is going to have an iota of influence on SEO.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

          All products that exist in a "widget" category are going to have the same file structure - mywebsite.com/widgets/my-product-name, for example. My point, once again, is that nothing after that final "widgets" folder, in this case, is going to have an iota of influence on SEO.
          Sigh....Done?

          Again even with your several paragraph clarification you are just dead wrong. So you have only demonstrated that I wasn't putting words in your mouth or any of the other things you were claiming I was doing.

          Note: Kindly keep the personal garbage out of a discussion on SEO. its inappropriate and off topic. People are free to disagree with you when you are wrong without it having anything to do with your personal accusations against them (likely because of your own ego being bruised). Theres no forum rule that once you correct something once you can't correct it again if you see it. Until there is I will continue.

          When people talk about url structure THEY ARE talking about the entire url not just category folders like your widgets example. it refers to how the whole url is structured not folder structure. You REFUSE to learn whats involved despite being given links that would instruct you

          A) in the most dominant modern CMS and Ecommerce apps the Url IS THE TITLE OF THE PAGE (like wordpress - sheesh the simplest facts you have to explain in this forum nowadays).

          One follows the other so what you are claiming on that basis is just gibberrish. No one who knows an ounce of SEO would say that the url which is linked to the title would have no effect on SEO. You are confusing category pages with specific product urls.

          B) Though there has been some discussion to the extent that Keywords in urls matter, GOOGLE has NEVER denied they are a ranking factor. They have actually CONFIRMED that it is a small factor. So the claim of yours

          My point, once again, is that nothing after that final "widgets" folder, in this case, is going to have an iota of influence on SEO.
          IS WRONG
          Obviously Wrong
          repeatedly wrong.

          Please go do some reading and stop spreading this false statement repeatedly on this forum

          https://moz.com/learn/seo/url
          https://us.searchlaboratory.com/2016...gs-experiment/
          https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/0...ur-domain-url/

          C) There is some good evidence that keywords in naked url link building still have some weight. We saw this years ago with exact match domains even without links. In the absence of anchor text naked urls seems to convey some relevance. Links which a referring webmaster often uses without anchor text can therefore give a boost particularly if the keyword s in the url.

          If you actually do some research I might not have to correct it again.

          So it is CLEARLY wrong to say the url will not be affected by words in a url's structure. However as I stated it is not such a powerful factor that you would bother going through 10,000 product pages to change.

          All things being equal though if two pages are dead tied in relevance on page, links etc - and the keywords are in or out of the URl then despite your claims - the one with the keywords in the url will rank as even google confirms (and rebuts you)

          People writing things so emphatically who haven't done any research to know the ranking factors in SEo are what junk this part of the section up. Its not just new people.
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          • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
            Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

            Sigh....Done?

            Again even with your several paragraph clarification you are just dead wrong. So you have only demonstrated that I wasn't putting words in your mouth or any of the other things you were claiming I was doing.

            Note: Kindly keep the personal garbage out of a discussion on SEO. its inappropriate and off topic. People are free to disagree with you when you are wrong without it having anything to do with your personal accusations against them (likely because of your own ego being bruised). Theres no forum rule that once you correct something once you can't correct it again if you see it. Until there is I will continue.

            When people talk about url structure THEY ARE talking about the entire url not just category folders like your widgets example. it refers to how the whole url is structured not folder structure. You REFUSE to learn whats involved despite being given links that would instruct you

            A) in the most dominant modern CMS and Ecommerce apps the Url IS THE TITLE OF THE PAGE (like wordpress - sheesh the simplest facts you have to explain in this forum nowadays).

            One follows the other so what you are claiming on that basis is just gibberrish. No one who knows an ounce of SEO would say that the url which is linked to the title would have no effect on SEO. You are confusing category pages with specific product urls.

            B) Though there has been some discussion to the extent that Keywords in urls matter, GOOGLE has NEVER denied they are a ranking factor. They have actually CONFIRMED that it is a small factor. So the claim of yours

            IS WRONG
            Obviously Wrong
            repeatedly wrong.

            Please go do some reading and stop spreading this false statement repeatedly on this forum

            https://moz.com/learn/seo/url
            https://us.searchlaboratory.com/2016...gs-experiment/
            https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/0...ur-domain-url/

            C) There is some good evidence that keywords in naked url link building still have some weight. We saw this years ago with exact match domains even without links. In the absence of anchor text naked urls seems to convey some relevance. Links which a referring webmaster often uses without anchor text can therefore give a boost particularly if the keyword s in the url.

            If you actually do some research I might not have to correct it again.

            So it is CLEARLY wrong to say the url will not be affected by words in a url's structure. However as I stated it is not such a powerful factor that you would bother going through 10,000 product pages to change.

            All things being equal though if two pages are dead tied in relevance on page, links etc - and the keywords are in or out of the URl then despite your claims - the one with the keywords in the url will rank as even google confirms (and rebuts you)

            People writing things so emphatically who haven't done any research to know the ranking factors in SEo are what junk this part of the section up. Its not just new people.
            Again, you are making assumptions on the amount of research I have done. You have no idea what research I have done.

            I'm sure you can point to tons of URLS that have URLs that contain keywords that rank very high for those words. I'm also sure that I can point to tons that rank very high that don't have anything resembling the phrase in the URL. Two pages are never equal, so pointing out an extremely minor ranking factor and making a big deal out of it is ridiculous. I know and so do you that there are far bigger fish to fry.

            You just like to jump on people for very minor things that you know are very minor things and make a big deal of them. As you stated, you would never go in and change 10,000 URLs to make them more SEO friendly in the one in a trillion chance that, "all other things being equal", it would make a difference. Yet, you are essentially advising the OP to do just that by your rant about the importance of keywords in a URL.

            I'll let you stipulate that it may be a very minor ranking signal, which is what Mueller said two years ago. He also said in March of 2017, "Keywords in URLs are overrated for Google SEO. Make URLs for users. Also, on mobile you usually don't even see them."
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            • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
              Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

              Again, you are making assumptions on the amount of research I have done. You have no idea what research I have done.
              Of course I do -When you make statements that are wrong and obviously wrong. Your level of knowledge always exposes the level of research you have done. Fact of life.

              I'm sure you can point to tons of URLS that have URLs that contain keywords that rank very high for those words. I'm also sure that I can point to tons that rank very high that don't have anything resembling the phrase in the URL.
              This is a rookie mistake. The algo has hundreds of factors so of course a site with a lot of good factors doesn't have to have all factors in the algo. Thats a looooong way from saying that its not a factor at all.

              What's truly ridiculous is leading people astray by saying things that are false like denying "an iota of influence on SEO" for something that DOES and can have influence and make real difference to traffic and so someone's success. At this point all you are doing is spinning so as not to admit being wrong. Thats another fact thats obvious.

              Yet, you are essentially advising the OP to do just that by your rant about the importance of keywords in a URL.
              Now you are just straight up and undeniably lying (which is far worse than being wrong about SEO). Anyone can read my earlier posts and see that I said I would NOT recommend changing all of them. The proof you are fibbing is right there in my post #10. Your "essentially' is just code word for "here I am going to try and change what was said to try not to lose face"

              I'll let you stipulate that it may be a very minor ranking signal, which is what Mueller said two years ago. He also said in March of 2017, "Keywords in URLs are overrated for Google SEO. Make URLs for users. Also, on mobile you usually don't even see them."
              Nope. You won't let me stipulate anything. Facts are not up you to "let". In English when someone says something is overrated it does NOT mean it is not a factor which you already let slip you have said multiple times on this forum incorrectly. It means people sometimes put a higher value than they should. The end. Just about ever real thing and factor can be overrated in SEO or in life.

              In general its always better for humans to show character and admit when we are wrong about something than trying to wiggle out of having said something that was wrong. We'll all be wrong about many things in our life time but not admitting it is a more serious stain on our humanity. You might consider that going forward .
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              • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
                Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

                Of course I do -When you make statements that are wrong and obviously wrong. Your level of knowledge always exposes the level of research you have done. Fact of life.

                This is a rookie mistake. The algo has hundreds of factors so of course a site with a lot of good factors doesn't have to have all factors in the algo. Thats a looooong way from saying that its not a factor at all.

                What's truly ridiculous is leading people astray by saying things that are false like denying "an iota of influence on SEO" for something that DOES and can have influence and make real difference to traffic and so someone's success. At this point all you are doing is spinning so as not to admit being wrong. Thats another fact thats obvious.

                Now you are just straight up and undeniably lying (which is far worse than being wrong about SEO). Anyone can read my earlier posts and see that I said I would NOT recommend changing all of them. The proof you are fibbing is right there in my post #10. Your "essentially' is just code word for "here I am going to try and change what was said to try not to lose face"

                Nope. You won't let me stipulate anything. Facts are not up you to "let". In English when someone says something is overrated it does NOT mean it is not a factor which you already let slip you have said multiple times on this forum incorrectly. It means people sometimes put a higher value than they should. The end. Just about ever real thing and factor can be overrated in SEO or in life.

                In general its always better for humans to show character and admit when we are wrong about something than trying to wiggle out of having said something that was wrong. We'll all be wrong about many things in our life time but not admitting it is a more serious stain on our humanity. You might consider that going forward .
                Actually, my "essentially" was pointing out the hypocrisy of the fact that you say that in one place but decide to go out on an all-out attack against me for saying the same thing, perhaps not as eloquently as I should have. (maybe you, too, did not read every single post here where I re-worded it as "insignificant").

                My main point was that this guy was hired to write, not make SEO recommendations, and walking into a company and rocking the boat about minor SEO issues is not a recipe for a good workplace environment.

                I have to remember to word things much better because you are always lurking, waiting to pounce on the slightest misstatement. Let me rephrase the original reply as it should have been written. I don't have as much time to troll and write dissertations here as you do and certainly don't have the vitriol teeming from my every utterance that you do. I can't imagine what kind of childhood you must have had that made you this way but it is truly sad.

                Here is the re-write. Whether or not it meets with your approval is definitely irrelevant ...

                In some respects you are right and in some, you are wrong.

                The URL of a page has very little influence over the ranking of a page, so I would not waste time on changing those.

                Mixing up watch, wristwatch and timepiece in title tags is probably a good idea.

                H1 tags really have no major influence over SEO, so I wouldn't sweat that either.

                However, it is ridiculous for him to make the claim that adding "wristwatch" to the name of a product will be keyword stuffing. They are wristwatches, after all, and unless there are many other times the term is used on the page, it will not be regarded by an algorithm as "stuffing".

                Now, if they are advertising on Google Shopping, it is imperative to get as much information as possible in the product name - at least for the feed file. Google uses that and only that to determine what terms to show a product for so it is imperative that as much information as possible is in the feed file's product name.

                In the end, though, you were hired to write content. Just do your job and let the chips fall where they may. You can at least take control over what you are supposed to do by making sure the targeted phrase and words Google thinks are related are in that content.
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                • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
                  Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

                  Actually, my "essentially" was pointing out the hypocrisy of the fact that you say that in one place but decide to go out on an all-out attack against me for saying the same thing,
                  Thats ridiculous dishonesty. I at no point said

                  nothing after that final "widgets" folder, in this case, is going to have an iota of influence on SEO.
                  The URL of a page has nothing at all to do with SEO
                  That was you and ONLY you so at no point did we say the same thing and your desperate attempt to accuse of hypocrisy just shows even more dishonesty. Claiming you mispoke blah blah blah makes no honest sense either. You've already admitted the subject has come up multiple times while complaining I corrected it each time. You misspoke all those times too eh?

                  So We are done here. the absolute minimum baseline for an adult conversation or a rebuttal is a little bit of honesty (something my apparently better childhood you tried to hand wave to taught me). If you can't muster that then its not worth my time.

                  In closing We are distinctly apart and any claim of you saying the same thing is just dishonest spin. I would in fact ad keywords in the url here and there for new products but I wouldn't go back and add them in 10,000. Thats the practical difference between saying keywords in the Url don't matter at all and they are a ranking factor (big or small).

                  Your position stated several times and in other threads was wrong and you can't bear to admit it. its even worse because in many modern CMS the title IS the URL. So thats a double whammy against good SEO because thats two ranking factors - keyword in title and keyword in URl connected

                  Spin some more. Enough time on my part has been spent. The only one that made personal attacks about childhood and self esteem issues was you when you couldn't make your point stand.
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                  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
                    Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

                    Thats ridiculous dishonesty. I at no point said

                    That was you and ONLY you so at no point did we say the same thing and your desperate attempt to accuse of hypocrisy just shows even more dishonesty. Claiming you mispoke blah blah blah makes no honest sense either. You've already admitted the subject has come up multiple times while complaining I corrected it each time. You misspoke all those times too eh?

                    So We are done here. the absolute minimum baseline for an adult conversation or a rebuttal is a little bit of honesty (something my apparently better childhood you tried to hand wave to taught me). If you can't muster that then its not worth my time.

                    In closing We are distinctly apart and any claim of you saying the same thing is just dishonest spin. I would in fact ad keywords in the url here and there for new products but I wouldn't go back and add them in 10,000. Thats the practical difference between saying keywords in the Url don't matter at all and they are a ranking factor (big or small).

                    Your position stated several times and in other threads was wrong and you can't bear to admit it. its even worse because in many modern CMS the title IS the URL. So thats a double whammy against good SEO because thats two ranking factors - keyword in title and keyword in URl connected

                    Spin some more. Enough time on my part has been spent. The only one that made personal attacks about childhood and self esteem issues was you when you couldn't make your point stand.
                    And yet, I'm not the one in this forum who has been warned four times about being belligerent to other forum members.
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                    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
                      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

                      And yet, I'm not the one in this forum who has been warned four times about being belligerent to other forum members.
                      and yet you are also not the one that has been thanked over 4500 times because you know what you are talking about and have helped more people on this same forum.

                      Frankly I could have justifiably dropped two infractions on you in this thread alone for personal insults about childhood and self esteem that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this thread. I am not the sort to do so but also didn't do so in this thread because its pretty obvious to any intelligent person that all your attacks are just to TRY and save face for having been proven wrong about your assertions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Triple 888 SEO
    Hi Dan,

    Have you looked at your competitors and what they are doing? If they are ranking higher then it could be worth analyzing their SEO.

    Nick
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    • Profile picture of the author ContentDan
      Hi Nick -

      I did a thorough analysis of all 30 better ranking competitors. 95% of them use the term "wrist watch" in their URLs, in their Title Tags and in the H1s/Product Names.

      Most of them have no better (or substantially worse) on-page descriptions and category page content, blog content, etc. than do we. Seems that we've suffered as a result of the March 7th update as well.

      We're a little short on external links compared to some of them, but better than many too.

      That's the reason I've "strayed from my lane," so to speak. Our SEO guy is really great, but he's very conservative when it comes to change... so the owner asked me to dig in a bit. Our SEO guy maintains that our competitors are gonna get hit hard by Google at some point in the future for overly aggressive practices... but, so far, it seems to be working for all of them.

      Your input is much appreciated.

      Thanks,
      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Triple 888 SEO
    Hi Dan,

    No problem, I agree with you and would include "Wrist Watch" in the URL & title tag. I expect someone will disagree with me but looking at other sites it seems to be working well. Basic SEO practice still gets results and always will.
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  • Profile picture of the author animatedmonkey
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author ContentDan
      Thanks Bryan --

      All very helpful. I've been through our competitors so deeply they can probably feel it :-)

      Y'all are very helpful on this forum. At some point I hope to be able to contribute and return the favor.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Hi ContentDan,

    As far as links in dude, he has a point.

    Onsite wise, the factors you note play a role. But I pay little attention to onsite stuff and SEO deets yet drive search traffic to my blog. Good old fashioned guest posting on respected blogs from the blogging tips niche helped me boost my SEO game. Aka, links in from reputable sites.

    Google places a greater premium on good links in these days. Brings the world together. I am for it. Creators who build bonds to place guesties on top sites are rewarded. Totally up my alley.

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by ContentDan View Post


    Company sells 10,000 different styles of watches....... That we have "category pages," for different product groupings and those pages have great content and rank well in search results. Note: We do
    Then I agree with him for the most part. changing 10.000 pages to add wrist is tedious and as he indicated in most cases unnecessary. its covered as you indicated on many pages. Yes specific "rustic wrist watches" MAY help but so will the content you were hired to add. Though URL structure can be important its not the be and end all. You often will do just fine on longtail terms (because they are lower competition)

    No offense to you but this underlies why being a professional SEO can be a frustraing job at times in today's "everyone is a SEO world because they read about it on a blog". You were hired to write content. He was hired to do the SEO (and even you identify him as an SEO guy).

    If you were confident in your own SEO skills then you wouldn't need to ask it on a forum
    (especially one where 80+% of the people posting answers don't know SEO) so isn't it best to respect the SEO guy as a SEO guy and likewise have him respect you as the content guy?
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    • Profile picture of the author ContentDan
      Hey Mike -

      I do respect him and I believe he respects me too.

      Nevertheless, I am analytical by nature and when I look at 30 better performing competitors (who have no better, and often worse, content), yet all have similar URL structures, H1/Product Names and Title Tags (and ours are the only "one of these things is not like the other")... I'd be remiss if I didn't investigate.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        No you are just being arrogant. You were hired as a content writer (unless you were lying) and don't know much about SEO from what I have read.

        I'd be remiss if I didn't investigate
        He's being remiss not to put you in your place especially since you are equating better ranking of competitors with leaving out "wrist" in an URL.

        Hint - most of the time a site is outranked its due to links not on page factors.
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  • Profile picture of the author ebloglink
    very helpful information
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  • Profile picture of the author animatedmonkey
    Dan,

    I regrettably lost my post. Haha. Since I haven't contributed in many years and I didn't follow the rules.

    But looks like you got the point. I won't re-type it. I'll just try to keep contributing

    Bryan
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  • Profile picture of the author skybridgedomains
    Originally Posted by ContentDan View Post

    Hi Guys -
    I'm really hoping you can help me. I've recently joined an e-commerce company as a content writer and am to write product descriptions, landing page content, long-form blog posts, etc. All is good there. BUT... I think there are HUGE flaws in what they are doing with URLs, Product Names, Title Tags, etc.

    To protect the company's reputation, I'm going to use a made up company to explain what's going on and hope some of the experts here can provide guidance.

    Company Pseudo Name: WallyWatches.com
    Sells wrist watches. Assume that 90% of people use search term "wrist watch" rather than just "watch."

    Company sells 10,000 different styles of watches.

    PRODUCT NAMES
    In order to avoid duplicate content and to not be seen to be keyword stuffing, the product names do NOT contain the words "wrist watch." Instead, they are named according to the image on the watch face, e.g. "Bright Sun," or "Red Barn."

    PRODUCT URLS
    The Product Names are incorporated into the URL, so URLs for every single product take the form of:
    WallyWatches.com/red-barn.html
    Note that neither "watch," nor "wrist watch," appear in the URL.

    TITLE TAGS
    For the product pages, title tags take the form of "Red Barn - Rustic - Shop by Category"

    H1
    The product names also serve as the H1, so no mention of "wrist watch," or "watch," there.
    <><><><>
    The company's SEO expert has been with the company for a very long time and has a very close relationship with the owner. The SEO guy is adamant that we not include "wrist watch" in the product names or in the URLS (not even for new products going up that would have no external links pointing at them).

    He has agreed to change the title tags, but some will include "watch," some will include "wrist watch," and others will include "time piece," depending upon how many characters, when added to the product name, will equal 70.

    As for the H1, he's agreed to add the term "watch," to each of 10,000 SKUs, but not "wrist watch," (which is 90% of searches).

    The SEO guy tells me that it is unimportant to have "wrist watch" in our product names, might even be detrimental to have the term in there as it could be seen as keyword stuffing, and an absolute no-no to have them in the URLs (even for new products).

    He says that we have plenty of content in each product page that identifies the product as a wrist watch. That our poor search results will improve as I contribute unique descriptions for each watch. That we have "category pages," for different product groupings and those pages have great content and rank well in search results. Note: We do... but far fewer people search for "Rustic Wrist Watches" than do "Wrist Watches."

    Currently, for the search term "wrist watch," we show up on page 3 or 4. All of our competitors, including newer businesses, businesses with fewer products, companies just not as good as us are kicking our butts. They all use the term "wrist watch" in their URLs, Product Names, Title Tags, H1s, etc.

    Most of them have worse descriptions than ours (one uses the exact same description for every product). Many of them do have more links than we do... but not all. SEO guy tells me our poor results are mostly due to not enough links... so I have to write content that other sites will link to.
    <><><><>
    Your thoughts? Please!
    Thanks,
    Meet SEO Programming Standards. Use Meta tags like descriptions, author, title, etc.

    A good way to get peoples attention. "Best Brand Watches Worldwide", Buy Your Next Watch Online, World's Best Watch Sale in 2018, "Even, some person (with their permission), [famous persons name(you could even use the owner of the company, etc), exclusive watches worldwide to buy online here] etc, etc.

    It's one thing knowing the technicals and programming for SEO. Quite another marketing.

    learn the different between SEO Programming, etc and marketing The internet is all about change and adapting to what is popular for the moment. If one is not willing to change and follow what is trending then this is a problem, because you need to change and happily adapt to what is trending.

    If Rustic Watches is not working then perhaps "smart watches". Watches International, etc, etc.

    google SEO works if done correctly just that many people do not know how to achieve results in money form.
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