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AnalyticsPro is a really good app using your Google Analytics data. Unlike alot of analytics apps it really offers quite a wide range of reporting.

I agree mostly with those above stating dont build a new web site.

Just to be different though - another option is a local sub domain. e.g. chicago.yourwebsite.com. This has advantages such as keyword in the domain name, it receives some link juice from the root domain and depending on your keywords you could get your root domain and sub domain in the same search results.

That said I have actually advised against this in the past as a sub folder on the root domain still has more chance of ranking well than the sub domain for lots of reasons I wont go into now.

Magento is a nightmare for duplicate content.

Yoast has some really good solutions http://yoast.com/articles/magento-seo/#advanced

Try some AB or multi variate testing. It neednt cost the earth, or anything.

You can use content experiments via Analytics.

A few comments on current home page:

• The images on the home page look like ads rather than navigation. I dont think that works.
• What is it you want people to do when they get to the home page? Do a wine search? If so make the wine form search facility more prominent.
• I would include 'any' in your dropdowns. Its feasible people get to your site and dont know what winery name they want.
• Get rid of 'start over' you dont need it until they've done a a search.
• Look at your in-page analytics and see where people navigate to from the home page. That will tell you alot about what you should be featuring more on that page.

Andy

If its an established ecommerce site id value the same way a bricks and mortar business is valued i.e. x3-4 annual revenue/profit.

If the site has good authority/PR I wouldnt worry about it although I would look at in-page analytics to see whether people actually click the links. If its setup like this to pass link juice the above is more applicable, if not look at whether people are actually clicking the links and if they arent id suggest an alternative navigation.

"Content is king" is the old saying in SEO and whilst content 'may' actually only be a prince or duke nowadays it is still very important unless your site is especially high authority.

If you dont include the keywords or variations of them that you wish to rank for you're going to struggle to rank for them. Logically if you dont have the word 'red widget' on the page you're unlikely to rank for it. If a page is about red widgets why would it not include the keyword 'red widget'? Again if your site is high authority then this isnt so applicable - www.cadbury.co.uk used to rank 1st for 'chocolate' and it didnt even have the word on the home page. How did they do it? Lots of links creating high authority and using chocolate anchor text.

There is however a not so fine line between including keywords in the content (including meta info, link text etc) and keyword stuffing. As Des in this thread mentions and as I just referred to 'meta info' under the umbrella of 'content' - if you dont have the keywords in your page title or meta description you're much less likely to get users to click on your search result as (most of the time) your page title & meta description is what is returned as your search result.

Hi,

Thanks for your response, I actually agree with you on G+ growth. I said "possible Google pull away from non G+ social signals (in favour of rel author)".

If its a new web site best practise is not to no follow any pages you want indexed. That said internal no follows are ignored anyway nowadays. Internal link juice manipulation, like external is not a great idea.

I think radical new search result snippets, move away from anchor text, possible Google pull away from non G+ social signals (in favour of rel author) could be highlights in 2013. What are your predictions?

• Be savvy enough to re-optimize for different keywords if the originals just couldnt get to page 1
• Focus on the long tail and variations of the 'big' keywords
• Study analytics and identify opportunities
• Introduce a new directory rather than try to optimise one set of category pages for too many keywords
• Add rich snippets for considerable CTR increase in SERPS

See Matt Cutts explanation here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NlJiLDn9-38

Personally im seeing titles change in a number of instances:

• Title might be too long (doesnt fit in SERP snippet)
• The same keyword/s used multiple times

Ive also noticed that the replacement titles, which appear to be fairly random do seem to have patterns:

• The replacement title usually appends the domain to the end i.e. Red Widgets - Widgets.com
• The replacement title seems to use a word/phrase from one of the following: breadcrumb, h1, url

Its interesting to note that a) the original title will still help rankings as normal for the keyword in the title b) theres no real explanation of what a 'better' title is i.e. do the revised titles inc CTR?

Consider this, a huge chunk of the websites out there use off the shelf templates (think Wordpress). Even Matt cuts blog is an off the shelf (if edited) template.

If you want to see ALL the page titles and meta descriptions on a competitors website Screaming Frogs SEO Spider is awesome. It can downloaded free here http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Note for large sites you may need the paid version.

Why dont you look to hire an in-house SEO? May not be as cheap as option 'A' but if they are good will be cheaper than option 'B' plus they can add value in a wider sense - a good SEO will help improve wider inbound marketing efforts.

Dont know about theme but you NEED the Yoast SEO plugin for wordpress - it really is awesome.

Do you rely on branded keywords for which you arent the brand owner? Ive seen alot of movement for these kinds of terms recenty.