Retail ecommerce design/development/technology tips:
1. Ensure that the site's html code meets web standards.
2. Minimize graphics like flash, scripts, etc.
3. Graphical links are of no use. Make sure that your links are text based.
4. Ensure that your site loads quickly.
5. Use secure server include (ssi) files.
6. Be creative with your 404 page. You can merchandise it, add site search functionality or link it to another section of your website.
Retail ecommerce SEO tips:
7. Conduct SEO competition analysis.
8. Conduct keyword research.
9. Use about two keywords per page.
10. Focus on long tail keywords (e.g. canon power shot 4x digital camera).
11. Don't use the manufacturer's product description. Use your own instead.
12. Use keyword rich titles and meta tags, headings, etc. However, make sure you don't spam. If you do it right, you get it right.
13. Use keywords in your product descriptions.
14. Get quality back links to your product pages steadily, but not suddenly.
15. Recommend products and accessories on your product page. Smart and sophisticated interlinking helps in SEO (a good example is shopping.com).
16. Ask customers to review products that they have purchased from your site. Unique content helps in SEO.
17. Allow customers to tag the product.
18. Use keywords in interior links.
19. Don't have more than 100 outgoing links.
20. Optimize images for fast loading and for search engines
21. Create a sitemap - it ensures that none of your webpages are orphaned.
22. Create search engine friendly (SEF) URLs that are easy for both users and crawlers. Opt for URL optimization like mod_rewrite to static URLs.
23. Write blog posts about the products you sell.