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B2C directory website adding B2B ecommerce sub-domain
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Hey fellow Mozzers,
Just got back from Mozcon and enjoyed getting to know a handful of you. I do in house SEO for a B2B wholesaler. We have a B2C website directory for homeowners to locate contractors to work on their home. On the site we have a products section which includes tech specs but not pricing. Our contractors have been asking us to add the ability to purchase their items online, so we are wanting to add a B2B sub-domain (store.domain.com) to our website for the contractors to purchase products online. We do not want consumers to be able to purchase the items and will have pricing behind a log in. I have a few questions that I'm hoping you might be able to answer:
1. What would be the best practice to not have duplicate content errors with products that are listed on both sites? Should we rel-canonical items shown on both domains or do something else?
2. We are not against having the new site be crawled, but will Google be upset/ding rankings because pricing is behind a log-in? Are there certain best-practices for B2B ecommerce sites?
3. Do you know of any other sites that have done this/do you have any recommendations on how to best implement this? -
1. What would be the best practice to not have duplicate content errors with products that are listed on both sites? Should we rel-canonical items shown on both domains or do something else?
This depends largely on what type of website you currently have. Are you using a content management system? Is it all HTML? What do plan to build the letter? There are quite a few things you can use to prevent duplicate content errors
Yoast WordPress SEO
Plug-in comes to mind is something that get you through a lot of duplicate contact every day however I don't know what you say the site is made of so I can't really tell you for certain what's very effective on yours.
I would say start off with a good developer that will not create duplicate content issues the first place.
Your recommendation would be Greg
2. We are not against having the new site be crawled, but will Google be upset/ding rankings because pricing is behind a log-in? Are there certain best-practices for B2B e-commerce sites?
The login page is just one page. You will not block the website's pages that are of value that come after the pages been logged in. For instance you can have a indexable website page with a
Login right there on the site itself it will then go through a process where it will not be accessed by anyone but members but you can indexes but I assure you
Using
or
http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/
Will serve your needs very well if you're using WordPress I love her I don't know you site.
3. Do you know of any other sites that have done this/do you have any recommendations on how to best implement this?
Very many sites of done this you are simply adding a members only site for your B2B customers you do not want the average Joe off the street trying to get it is a more closely knit group that probably pays a lot more money to you. You could do this with both woo commerce or getpremise.com
Both of them are WordPress plug-ins. I believe that a use of the premise plug-in along with your members being added and given a registration name will not cause an issue whatsoever.
I would build this out of WordPress however it is something I am very comfortable with and the site architecture I prefer.
When using WordPress I always suggest using to manage WordPress hosting company may I suggest WP Engine, ZippyKid, web synthesis, Pagely & Presslabs.
Those are all manage WordPress hosting companies if you want something for hosting that does not do 100% word press I would strongly suggest using FireHost
I hope this is better talk to you
Sincerely,
Thomas
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