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SEO: Description texts for category pages – according to Google – eCommerce / online stores / online shopping / e-commerce

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Thomas Hawk - Latte Google Style

A very good article on the topic: Optimizing Content in Category Pages while Keeping its Commercial Nature – Aleyda Solis:

There’s an on-going struggle with e-commerce categories pages content. They tend to:

  • Target transactional oriented queries that many times have a non-trivial search competition.
  • Prioritize the products offering visibility due to its commercial nature.
  • Not feature content at all and if they do it, include the content at the bottom of the page, as a tactic to make it relevant to the targeted queries without “messing” with the featured products conversions. However, this content in many cases is also not really aligned with the nature of the page nor formatted in a way to make it easily consumed by the user. It’s just text meant to improve the page relevance.

Also see: How to do SEO for a category page for a small parenting e-commerce website? (2023.10.21) – Blog de Olivian Breda.

A quote from John Mueller: “Another thing to consider is the purpose of your page; what’s the user-intent you’re trying to cover? If you’re adding random information to a category page, is it still an ecommerce page for users with “shopping” intents? Make up your mind, focus, don’t blindly stuff text.”

Another one, John Mueller: The one thing that I notice in talking with the mobile indexing folks is that when the ecommerce category pages don’t have any other content at all other than links to the products then it’s really hard for us to rank those pages. So I’m not saying all of that text at the bottom of your page is bad but maybe 90%, 95% of that text is unnecessary but some amount of text is useful to have on a page so that we can understand what this page is about. And at that point you are probably with the amount of text that a user will probably be able to read as well, be able to understand as well. So that’s kind of where I would head in that regard. The other thing where I could imagine that our algorithms sometimes get confused is when they have a list of products on top and essentially a giant article on the bottom when our algorithms have to figure out the intent of this page. Is this something that is meant for commercial intent or is this an informational page? What is kind of the primary reason for this page to exist and I could imagine that our algorithms sometimes get confused by this big chunk of text where’d we say oh, this is an informational page about shoes but I can tell that users are trying to buy shoes so I wouldn’t send them to this informational page.

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Negative thoughts

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Thomas Hawk - Positive Negative

I don’t consider negative thoughts to be something nice.

Ruminating about the past, overthinking things, keeping things in memory – these all can make for a hard life.

Yet, I think there’s something positive about thinking negatively – you tend to solve some problems.

You can become better.

There’s room for improvement.

Casually skipping the negative parts will bring some good solutions.

It’s not easy to take in, but it’s necessary.

It’s like listening to an aggressive song for a while – it makes you immune to hardships.

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Never grow old

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rpphotos - Old instrument

I like these three songs:

I remember one person from a Western country, I think it was Germany, once told me at an event on coaching (around 2009) – „Make sure you don’t give up your shyness.”

I was younger and behaved differently.

I don’t think I followed that advice pretty well – Gala Galaction used to say this, also.

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Treating children as adults

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Jan Vlugt - Fun

„Gulliver’s travels” was not meant for children:

Despite the depth and subtlety of the book, as well as frequent off-colour and black humour, it is often classified as a children’s story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section (frequently bowdlerised) as a book for children.

Gulliver’s Travels – Wikipedia.

Also: Gulliver’s Travels Wasn’t Meant to Be a Children’s Book And More Things You Didn’t Know About the Literary Classic | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine.

The trouble is, in today’s world, even texts meant to be read by adults need to be made so that children can read them.

The culture in the world is vast. One cannot simply know a lot of things, so if you go into a lot of details, or present something deeply, you might not be understood by everyone.

Even a reference like „Star wars” or „Lord of the rings” or „Harry Potter” or „Game of Thrones” might not be understood by some people.

Also, people tend not to think that deeply when they are bombarded with information. If you present something with a deep logic, that is fine, some people might get it, but don’t be surprised if not everyone is on the same page.

For reasons like these, if I were to do a Presentation, I would assume that I’m talking with a beginner audience in my field, not an advanced one.

If I’m sure I can present something interesting, special, or funny, or if I’m talking to an advanced audience, I can go more advanced/deep/specific in my presentation but not make this a general rule.

It’s a dance, and you need to know how to be elegant and fun.

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How to do self-improvement in business?

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Klaus Wessel - Business as usual ...,

I see a lot of people doing self-improvement in business by doing a combination of:

  • Read self-development books.
  • Take public speaking classes.
  • Going to school.
  • Work more.

I have a different approach:

  • Read general books, but quality ones.
  • Take acting classes.
  • Go to conferences, read news and blogs, and listen to podcasts/webinars.
  • Be involved in NGOs.

Also, you should live healthy.

In my opinion, you need diverse experiences.

Emotional intelligence is key.

Sure, the message is important, but don’t forget to also focus on how you deliver the message.

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Current situation in Romania

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Sean X Liu - Inquiring mind

Corruption matters firstly in Romania, and education comes second.

Fix these two issues, and Romania will fly.

Unfortunately, a corrupt Government is incentivized to have an uneducated country, so it’s hard to get out of the vicious cycle.

Fortunately, people change, and there is hope that in the long run, both issues will be solved by themselves – corruption and education.

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Skin in the game

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Workshop Olivian Breda - Casa Activistului

I like the „Skin in the Game” concept by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

How to apply this to the job market (an idea which, partially, I got from the author)?

  • It’s OK to be in a company (multinational, small business, etc.), as long as you want to grow from there – client-side.
  • Even better – work in an agency that exposes you to lots of situations. Or a job with lots of different projects.
  • Even better – be a freelancer.
  • Better – have your own digital agency.

There is a very large company in Romania doing eCommerce. Is it good to work for them? Yes. Are there better options? There sure are! It’s better, in my opinion, for a lot of career options to be a freelancer or work in an agency. At eMAG, you’ll likely be facing similar issues after a while; on the other hand, in an agency, you’ll meet lots of projects.

Also, should you work in an agency? Yes, that’s fine, but if you can, it’s even better to be a freelancer or start your own agency.

On the other hand, in my opinion, you should start within a system. So, don’t jump directly to start an agency, but work for someone else at first.

So, if you’re just getting started, work for eMAG, work for an agency. Do something like this in the beginning.

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Managing Partner vs. CEO

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Irina Pencea este noul General Manager al eMAG România

A lot of people add „CEO” to their title.

But what’s a CEO?

A chief executive officer (CEO)[1] (also known as a central executive officer, or just chief executive (CE), or as managing director (MD) in the UK) is the highest officer charged with the management of an organization – especially a company or nonprofit institution.

Source »

Are there differences?

A managing partner and a chief executive officer (CEO) are both senior executives who play a leadership role. Usually they are the highest-ranking person in the business. But there are some differences between the two. 

More details »

In conclusion, a Managing Partner is not a CEO, and quite often, people say „CEO” when they actually mean „Managing Partner”.

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Complex vs. Simple audit

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Atelier Dragomirna - Homepage

When I make a typical „Simple” audit, I look at the most important things on a website.

When I go into „Complex” mode, I look at the same issue again and again.

You tend to be able to notice a lot more small things when you look deep, again and again.

Paradoxically, you can also discover important things by looking again and again.

By really pushing and insisting on things.

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Loving Opera

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The Phantom of The Opera

When I was in secondary school, sometimes in the 6th / 7th grade, I think I went to Opera in Constanza.

To my surprise, I saw a teacher  there. She was with her daughter, I think.

Sometimes, when I went to the Opera, I kept associating Opera with my Physics teacher.

Just seeing her in there made an association in my mind.

She was a very elegant teacher, very nice and well-prepared.

I regret she’s not with us anymore; I respect her a lot.

She always smiled.

I think she would be happy to see I like Opera and musicals, too.

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