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By Erin Harris, Associate Editor

Our July issue included a Q&A with Sean Cook, CEO at ShopVisible, an on-demand e-commerce solution provider. Cook answered my questions about why many retailers find SEO (search engine optimization) so puzzling. He explains that content, architecture, and inbound links are SEO's three most important factors. Think about it: Google has made a healthy living at making search the most relevant way for customers to find products. Therefore, it pays for retailers to focus on a true search strategy. If you aren't thinking about SEO as you build a site or select an e-commerce solution, you are making your work harder and more expensive than it should be. Here's the extended version of that Q&A, which also provides actionable data to help retailers tackle SEO. To read the original article that ran in our July issue, visit http://bit.ly/bZEwL1.

How do retailers make sure that they don't throw good money after bad chasing elusive SEO?

Cook: Retailers need to ensure they have a technology and strategic partner that works with them. Sure, some things can be automated. But, some of it comes down to hard work. Pay-per-click advertising can be powerful and profitable. But, as soon as you turn it off, it is done, and there is no residual benefit. By deploying good, solid search-optimized technology and employing best practices in SEO, retailers can establish and maintain strong natural search positions. These positions drive higher traffic, convert at a much higher rate, and come at a dramatically lower price tag — if you have the right tools and techniques in place. With the right tools and some hard work, your SEO efforts will pay off.

What should retailers know about SEO at the development stage of a website project?

Cook: This may be the most important question of all. Too many sites are built without SEO in mind, and business owners end up tackling SEO as an afterthought. It is comparative to building or buying a house. If you buy in the right place, and you build with the right infrastructure in place, the value and the ability to maintain will be much easier and cost effective. To boost your SEO efforts, choose a partner that has the technology that supports strong SEO. If you build a website and then go find a third-party and ask them to "optimize your site," most of the infrastructure is already set.

Make sure that your site has frequently updated appropriate content, an underlying technology built to help search engines see and read the content and inbound links to optimize exposure. Your e-commerce solution provider should enable you to feed to major online channels. This includes marketplaces like Amazon, Buy, eBay, and Overstock. They also include social networks like Facebook and Twitter and comparison shopping engines. Not only do these sites connect you to your customers, they give the search engines many ways to find your site.