Natural Search Blog - Standard Natural Search Checklist

Standard Natural Search Checklist

1. If an URL is changed and a redirect is necessary, verify that http 301 redirects, http 302 redirects, or html meta redirects are used instead of JavaScript redirects. 301 redirects are ideal since they allow follow & full page-rank transfer. 302 redirects are acceptable since they allow follow & diluted page-rank transfer. Html Meta redirects are allowable since they allow follow but not page-rank transfer. JavaScript redirects are unacceptable since they do not allow follow or page-rank transfers. This should be captured during development cycles. QA is not responsible for checking this.

2. Ensure additional JavaScript is externalized. JavaScript should be externalized by putting JavaScript in .js files. This should be captured during development cycles. QA is not responsible for checking this.

3. Ensure the same page does not exist in multiple places (different URLs with duplicate content)> For example, the following URLs all display same page
http://pages.ebay.com/motors
http://motors.ebay.com
http://www.ebaymotors.com
http://www.stores.ebay.com
http://stores.ebay.com
For each page, one URL must be chosen, and http 301 redirects placed on the other URLs pointing to the chosen URL.

4. Avoid using parameters in the URL> Search robots have trouble crawling URLs with many dynamic characters, such as ?, & and =, and rank these pages lower than like pages with static URLs. This is particularly important if you are adding parameters to the URL, which are separated in the URL with these dynamic characters. Although this occurs frequently across eBay, please go ahead and notify Natural Search team anyways. For example, existing URLs like:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=the+matrix+reloaded
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=the+matrix+reloaded&sacategory=617

would become search engine friendly URLs

http://search.ebay.com/the-matrix-reloaded
http://search.ebay.com/the-matrix-reloaded_dvd_W0QQsacategoryZ617

5. Verify that there are fewer than 200 links on a page. Search robots will only follow the first 200 links on each page. Please understand that this is only a consideration that PM needs to review when designing features. If your feature is impacted by Natural Search, please estimate the number of links. Please account for all links on the page, including the header and footer links.

6. Are you using text links for navigation vs. drop-down menus? Search boxes, radial buttons, drop-down menus and other forms of navigation prevent search robots from accessing many of our pages. That is because search robots cannot perform searches, fill in forms, select from drop-down menus, etc. They can only follow links. That is why it is important to use text links for navigation, or at least keep text links as an alternative method for navigation. QA talk to PM.

7. Are you using keywords in hyperlinks as opposed to "click here"? Search robots consider the anchor text in links in their ranking algorithm. Thus you should use relevant keywords in hyperlinks as opposed to "click here".

8. Ensure appropriate title tags, Meta tags and ALT tags are implemented on static pages.