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Does anyone know if the lack of sitemaps on ECWID built sites is a negative for SEO? Does Google somehow index these sites and do they penalize because sites can't include the urls in sitemaps?

Also, any idea how to build a sitemap to include ECWID shopping carts?

Lesley, could you elaborate with regards to the time and marketing money that would have to be used to train people? What would they have to train them on? I may be missing something here completely

There have been several new domain extensions recently. .discount .care .attorney and even .wtf (I find that humorous).  What are the extensions that you feel will have value at least secondary to .com? I have been running different url valuators and noticed that the .discount extensions when preceded by a strong keyword for example: roof.discount are showing pretty high values. Also any city with .attorney after it...

What are your thoughts on these domain extensions?

Thanks Sachin

So basically on sites that use ECWID for their ecommerce, only the main pages on the actual website (not the product pages that ECWID generates which is the part from the hashtag on) get indexed?

Essentially Google is NOT indexing any products because ECWID uses an existing page on a website and shows products there.

Is that correct? For example if you look at an XML sitemap for the running boards site that we used as an example you will see there are only 10 pages on it. However there are over a 1000 different types of running boards sold on the site which have their own pages populate after a #tag in the url: http://www.runningboards4less.com/index.php?option=com_xmap&view=xml&tmpl=component&id=1

How long has the site been in the "submitted" status?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Also if anyone knows how to modify Ecwid urls so that they are "clean", please chime in...

Thank you for your response. I am not implying that it is indexing a "separate" url.  I am referring to the SEO value of a proper "clean" url for the specific page.  ECWID doesn't allow for it's users to create custom urls.

If I were creating a url for the page I listed above, I would have it something like **** .com/chevy-van NOT _.com/#!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891  _

My question regards the low or lack of any value at all using a url like the long one above and if the statement made by the ECWID rep is factual.

An ECWID rep stated in regards to an inquiry about how the ECWID url's are not customizable, that "an important thing is that it doesn't matter what these URLs look like, because search engines don't read anything after that # in URLs. " Example http://www.runningboards4less.com/general-motors#!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891

Basically all of this: #!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891

That is a snippet out of a conversation where ECWID said that dirty urls don't matter beyond a hashtag...

Is that true? I haven't found any rule that Google or other search engines (Google is really the most important) don't index, read, or place value on the part of the url after a # tag.

This is how I see it after some enlightenment.. Google doesn't really come right out and say this (if you do see that they do, please share). The actual term for the change from http to https is a rewrite.  We are instructing the rewrite via a 301 redirect. Once the 301 redirect is in place, we set the canonical to https://www.xxxx.com (or non www if you prefer)  Google then awards all kinds of SEO juice for the use of https... Right lol...

Hey Alan,

You said that you made these changes in late August. Could it be that Google hasn't updated this number for you in the one week ish amount of time it has been since you made the changes? It seems odd that the number would stay exactly the same.

Thanks for your response Chris.

The point you made is exactly what I told our lead web developer. Why redirect more than necessary? It seems like it would be just another opportunity to have something go wrong, lose something in the switches, not pass as much of the link juice. If you lose 20% redirecting it seems like it could risk doubling that loss.. (I am just picking 20% randomly for an example.)

Does the site "forcing from http to https" count as a redirect? I know it is a change in protocol... hmmm

When migrating a site to a new url and one where the old url had no https and the new url will be full https does it matter if the 301 redirect points at http://thisisthenewsite.com ?

Meaning, should the new site have the ssl / https up prior to redirecting the old site?

Does it matter if you redirect the old site to http://thisisthenewsite.com or https://thisisthenewsite.com? Since the site will force to https anyway?

Google likes fast and clean pages. Pages load better when they are optimized for each platform. With the new Ultra HD resolutions and ultra phones, what is the optimal number of breakpoints for web page with images on them?

If we "mask" file names for our website but they are left their original name on the server, will Google notice this? Client wants to mask them in order to name them with keywords but not change on the actual server.

What would you suggest as an alternative to ECWID? One of the web design companies we partner with uses them. I am seeking alternatives to recommend.

Thank you for taking a moment to answer my question. I gave you a thumbs up and "Good Answer".  Why do people use ECWID with such a disadvantage? You would think that ECWID would change that. Oh well. I guess I will just have to go on being frustrated.  It would also be nice if you could have descriptions under items for ECWID pages.  "Short" descriptions on the multi product pages. But with ECWID it only allows a link and Sku....

Is there any way possible to be able to name product urls in website that use ECWID for their ecommerce? They have long and "dirty" urls. For example this running boards site: http://www.runningboards4less.com/general-motors#!/~/product/category=6593890&id=28043027

Isn't this hurting the overall SEO of the site?  Especially product pages?

I would keep it in Drupal no matter what.  I have found that my Drupal sites have consistently outperformed my Wordpress sites for SEO and speed.  Also Wordpress is associated with DIY and it cheapens the image or brand of the company the website represents.

Hope this helps...

I am going to use the new Moz Local. When going into my Google places to try to export the list of businesses and location info I can't seem to figure out how to export it.  I click download but it won't download any of the properties.  It downloads a spreadsheet and says -0- locations downloaded.  Frustrated.  Any advice?

I am setting up an ecommerce website that will sell batteries and like most e-commerce sites we will be taking credit cards.  I was exploring the different SSL certificates and providers and I was shocked at the difference in pricing.  Anywhere from free to over $1000!  What is really necessary and what is nice to have? Any suggestions on SSL providers?

Thanks