seo for e-commerce by adam audette

SEO for Ecommerce Adam Audette

@audette

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A Performance Marketing Agency

Data Driven, Tech Enabled Performance Marketing

Consulting | Analytics | Technology | Data | Creative | Media

CRM | Loyalty | Digital

Our heritage in data, technology and analytics gives us unique consumer insights, combined with our strength in performance media, fuels our ability to develop and execute addressable customer experiences that drive marketing

performance

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Customer Strategy

Channel Activation

Measurement

Orchestration

Content •  Creative Development •  Content Development •  User Experience

•  Search •  Display •  Paid Social •  Email •  Direct Mail

•  Website •  Mobile •  Native App •  Social •  Call Center •  In Store

•  Audience Plan •  Experience Plan •  Media Plan •  Test Plan

•  Market Sizing •  Segmentation •  Portfolio Strategy •  Journey Mapping •  Change Management

•  Measurement Strategy •  Attribution •  Marketing Mix •  Forecasting & Simulation

•  Audience Management •  Campaign Management •  Decision Management

Audience Planning

Media Activation

Database ID Management

Analytics CMS DMP

Campaign Loyalty

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Customer Strategy

Channel Activation

Measurement

Orchestration

Content •  Creative Development •  Content Development •  User Experience

•  Search •  Display •  Paid Social •  Email •  Direct Mail

•  Website •  Mobile •  Native App •  Social •  Call Center •  In Store

•  Audience Plan •  Experience Plan •  Media Plan •  Test Plan

•  Market Sizing •  Segmentation •  Portfolio Strategy •  Journey Mapping •  Change Management

•  Measurement Strategy •  Attribution •  Marketing Mix •  Forecasting & Simulation

•  Audience Management •  Campaign Management •  Decision Management

Audience Planning

Media Activation

Database ID Management

Analytics CMS DMP

Campaign Loyalty

SEO

Our Clients Selection of our clients

Key Inputs in the SEO Approach Research

• Competitive Analysis

• Benchmarks, KPIs, Goals

• Opportunity Forecast

• Business Justification

Topical Content Relevance • Topic discovery

• Personas & demographics

• Keyword Research

• Query Mapping

• Content Optimization

Technical Site Arch • Crawl Space

• Duplication

•  Internal Linking

•  International

• Site Architecture

Content Strategy •  Content Inventory

•  Workflow & Conversion Path

•  Execution of Topics

•  External Engagement

Results & Measurement • Reporting

• Analytics

SEO Touches Everything

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SEO UX / Frontend

PR

Social Media

Creative / Brand

Engineering

C-suite

Two Pillars of SEO: Technical & Audience

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Technical Audience

Two Pillars of SEO: Technical & Audience

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Technical Audience Search Engines Audience

Crawl space Search behavior

Duplication Workflows

Dynamic content Content topics

Site migrations KW research

Mobile serving Engagement

Int’l sites Conversion paths

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Today’s Talk

•  Technical SEO

•  On-page & Content

•  Other Stuff

AG

END

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Today’s Talk

•  Technical SEO

•  On-page & Content

•  Other Stuff

AG

END

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Technical SEO is Dependable

Brand creative

Technical

Higher cost, lower dependability

Lower cost, higher dependability

Technical Hits Several Areas Research

• Competitive Analysis

• Benchmarks, KPIs, Goals

• Opportunity Forecast

• Business Justification

Topical Content Relevance • Topic discovery

• Personas & demographics

• Keyword Research

• Query Mapping

• Content Optimization

Technical Site Arch • Crawl Space

• Duplication

•  Internal Linking

•  International

• Site Architecture

Content Strategy •  Content Inventory

•  Workflow & Conversion Path

•  Execution of Topics

•  External Engagement

Results & Measurement • Reporting

• Analytics

Tech

*it always depends

These are typically* the highest priority areas

Technical SEO for Ecommerce

•  Duplication •  Faceted Navigation •  Pagination •  Speed •  Site Search •  Mobile

Canonical Crawl Paths – simple power

Technical SEO for Ecommerce

Home Category Sub-cat Product

Navigation & internal links, external backlinks, canonical tags, XML files all point to the same definitive URLs.

Ecommerce sites commonly have dupe issues at the product level

•  Use forensics to delve into the issue (just a few tools, keep it simple)

•  Normally what’s indexed is what matters (if it’s a dupe but isn’t crawled, de-prioritize)

•  Always crawl the site yourself

•  Keep it actionable! Don’t get caught in the maze

Duplication

Duplication

Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.

My favorite site searches for dupe content:

•  site:mydomain.com and variations •  Exclude subdomains with: –site:blog.mydomain.com •  Find duplicate domains with –site:mydomain.com intitle:exact title tag

Duplication

Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.

My favorite site searches for dupe content:

•  site:mydomain.com and variations •  site:mydomain.com with: intitle:”product or category title tag”

Duplication

Easy Wins! mm smells like buttery popcorn

Duplication

Search modifiers are the tl;dr of SEO forensics.

My favorite site searches for dupe content:

•  inurl:prodID=121212 •  Use with site:mydomain.com •  Experiment with using category or folders, too, like: site:mydomain.com inurl:/category/ •  Knock off successive folders •  Use with intitle, such as: site:mydomain.com inurl:prodID=121212 intitle:”we’ve got all the stuff

here : brand”

Faceted navigations pose crawling challenges.

Keep it focused on user behavior.

•  What facets represent search queries best? •  What types of content do you want crawled and indexed?

Faceted Navigation Faceted Navigation

Faceted Navigation

Important facets for SEO

Faceted Navigation

NOT important facets for SEO

Be discriminating with what gets crawled.

Examples to crawl: •  category, brand, item, type

Examples to not crawl: •  size, price, session ID, review rating/count Consider: •  color, size, various attributes (uses, materials, etc)

Faceted Navigation Faceted Navigation

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Ensure URLs are constructed only one way. •  No creation of different URLs based on selection order

Ensure rel canonical signals are on URLs that have tracking parameters appended. Don’t be afraid to use parameters within URLs.

•  key=value&pair constructed URLs allow easier crawling and management in GWT •  Never use folders for session IDs or params that don’t change page content

Faceted Navigation

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Faceted Navigation

“Using non-standard encoding is just asking for trouble.”

– Mehmet Aktuna

Google Crawling Team

“Using non-standard encoding is just asking for trouble.”

– Mehmet Aktuna

Google Crawling Team

Non-standard encoding means using characters in URLs like : , [ ] …

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Faceted Navigation

Use rel=nofollow on non-essential facets. •  Links can still be crawled, but this will decrease discovery

Have non-essential facets rel canonical to a superset page: http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100

<link rel=“canonical” href=“http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&view=all” />

Faceted Navigation

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Faceted Navigation

Option: place all unnecessary facets in a unique directory. Robots.txt exclude this directory.

http://www.mydomain.com/cat/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100

http://www.mydomain.com/filters/shoes?brand=nike&color=green&price=100

User-agent: * Disallow: /filters/

Faceted Navigation

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Faceted Navigation

Issues with robots.txt

•  It’s a sledgehammer approach •  Nothing will be crawled •  No link equity will flow •  You’ll get ‘suppressed listings’ in the index like this…

Faceted Navigation

Links are crawled but URLs are blocked.

Faceted Navigation

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Tools to use for crawling controls on facets.

Faceted Navigation

Parameter Handling

•  Powerful and configurable •  Need key=value&pair structured URLs •  Requires you to truly understand your site

Faceted Navigation

Faceted Navigation

Faceted Navigation

Ah meta noindex…yes very interesting

What about meta noindex?

Faceted Navigation

Meta noindex is strangely absent from Google’s advice.

•  I’m less confident in meta noindex, follow really doing what we want it to: keeping content out of the index but still crawled.

•  meta noindex, follow + rel canonical are conflicting signals.

•  There are signs that Google is choosing to treat meta noindex differently than before.

Meta Noindex

Sorts/views shouldn’t be crawled.

Pages should be consolidated.

Sorts shouldn’t be crawled.

Sorts & Pages

Sorts are different views of the same data set.

•  Use rel=nofollow on sort links •  Use rel=canonical on sort URLs to a superset page (normally the view all)

Sorts & Pages

Sorts shouldn’t be crawled.

Sorts & Pages

Sorts are different views of the same data set.

•  Have sort links coded as page anchors that don’t create unique URLs (e.g. mydomain.com/cat#sort100)

•  Use javascript links that are less likely to be crawled (Googlebot will probably still

crawl them, so put them in a disallowed js script)

Sorts & Pages

There are two main ways to consolidate pages.

Sorts & Pages

Use either rel next/prev or rel canonical.

•  Rel prev/next creates a series of pages •  Should still use rel canonical on duplicative URLs (such as tracking IDs)

Sorts & Pages

There are two main ways to consolidate pages.

Sorts & Pages

Use either rel next/prev or rel canonical.

•  Rel canonical, if used for pagination, should reference the view all page •  The view all page needs to provide a good user experience (fast loading)

Sorts & Pages

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Google crawls dynamic content

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Google crawls dynamic content

Dynamically inserted images and content

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Google crawls dynamic content

JavaScript links and redirects

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Google crawls dynamic content

Dynamically inserted meta data

<head>                  <(tle>NBA  LIVE  15  -­‐  Features  -­‐  EA  SPORTS  -­‐  Official  Site</(tle>                                            <meta  name="descrip(on"  content="NBA  LIVE  features  the  best  visuals  in  franchise  history  and  500+  gameplay  improvements  delivering  a  fluid,  fun  and  authenQc  basketball  experience.">      <link  rel="canonical"  href=“hWps://www.easports.com/nba-­‐live/features"  >  

The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO

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The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO

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JS redirects

The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO

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JS links

The Era of Dynamic Sites and SEO

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Dynamic content

Here’s What You Need To Know

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1. JavaScript can be okay for Google

(including redirects)

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2. Other search engines are behind

(and so are Twitter and Facebook)

Here’s What You Need To Know

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3. Google reads the DOM

(html source = 50% or less of the picture)

Here’s What You Need To Know

#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG

Ramifications

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#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG

Ramifications

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#MRKGsummit15 @MerkleRKG

Ramifications

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Let’s talk speed …

Site speed is crucial.

Speed

•  40% of your visitors will abandon a site if loading takes longer than 3 seconds (Gomez)

•  Half of your visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less (Gomez)

•  1 second in loading time decreases conversion by 7% (Strange Loop)

Site Speed

Site speed is crucial.

Speed

If an ecommerce site makes $100k in revenue per day, a 1 second load delay equates to $2.5M in lost revenue annually.

(Strange Loop)

Site Speed

Speed

Study up

Google’s Guide to Web Performance

https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/best-practices/rules_intro

Speed

Study up

Yahoo!’s Guide to Page Speed

http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

Speed

•  Google Page Speed •  Yslow •  Pingdom •  WebpageTest.org •  Load Impact

Site Speed

Speed

Site Speed

Speed

Site Speed

“Search results in our search results.”

There’s a best practice, and a reality.

Site Search & SEO

Best Practice •  Site search pages should be fast. •  They should offer a valuable experience. •  They should lead to conversion. •  They should have high engagement.

Site Search & SEO

There’s a best practice, and a reality.

Site Search & SEO

Unfortunate Reality •  Lots of site search pages are really basic •  They can still rank well •  Site search pages convert well

Site Search & SEO

Site Speed

There’s a best practice, and a reality.

Site Search & SEO

Site Search & SEO

Site Search & SEO

…and there’s this…

Site Search & SEO

Fortune 10 ecommerce brand

Pages Displayed in Non-Branded SERPs

Heavily reliant on site search.

Site Search & SEO

Answer these questions before doing anything. 1.  How much organic traffic are search pages responsible for?

2.  How are engagement metrics looking? High or low bounce rate, high or low

conversion?

Site Search & SEO

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Site Search & SEO

Site Search & SEO

Answer these questions before doing anything. 2.  Balanced with above, are these pages causing issues with our crawl space?

Are there duplicative issues at play? (For example, can anything become a search?)

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Site Search & SEO

Hmm….

Here’s what we recommend.

Mobile

Get the sites accessible on mobile devices.

All major implementations are supported, and work. •  Responsive (same URL) •  Subdomain or folder (mobile switchboard tags) •  Same URL with dynamic content (Vary: User-agent response header)

Mobile SEO

Here’s what we recommend.

Mobile

Other good things: •  Minimize redirects, each adds 0.6 second delay (source: Google). •  Serve tablet users the desktop site. •  For separate URLs, place alternate tags on desktop pages (to

mobile), and canonical tags on mobile (to desktop).

Mobile SEO

~69% of searches show different results

Mobile

Mobile SEO

Rendering the full page: for mobile, too

Mobile Mobile SEO

Mobile Search Traffic > Desktop

Mobile Mobile SEO

Mobile

Mobile SEO

Elegance of Responsive

Mobile Mobile SEO

Technical Issues Prevail

Mobile Mobile SEO

Holy Grail of Mobile

Mobile Mobile SEO

Holy Grail of Mobile

Mobile Mobile SEO

Holy Grail of Mobile

Mobile Mobile SEO

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•  Technical SEO

•  Content Strategy

•  Other Stuff

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For ecommerce, ‘native’ content is limited.

Content & On-Page

•  Category pages •  Product pages •  Buyer’s guides •  Reviews •  Blog content

Content & On-Page

Really about the Shopping Experience

Content & On-Page Content & On-Page

Content & On-Page Content & On-Page

Look to Amazon for industry leading experiences.

Content & On-Page

This is valuable.

Content & On-Page

Making it easy for me, thanks Amazon.

Content Strategy Starts at the SERP

Content & On-Page Content & On-Page

The SERP display is where it all begins

Content & On-Page

First Choices

Secondary Choices

The SERP display is where it all begins

Content & On-Page

Ignored

Structured Data

Content & On-Page Content & On-Page

Useful Example on Organic CTR What happens when video

thumbnails appear for product pages?

Content & On-Page

Content & On-Page

Not actually a video.

Video thumbnails on product pages plummet CTR

Content & On-Page

Whoops! Product pages are listed in the video sitemap (videos are on the

pages).

Content & On-Page

But what did this do to CTR?

Queries with Video Thumbnail Queries without Video Thumbnail

THIS. AVERAGE QUERY CLICK-THROUGH RATE

2% 17%

Queries with Video Thumbnail Queries without Video Thumbnail

THIS. AVERAGE QUERY CLICK-THROUGH RATE

2% 17% Users didn’t want a video,

they wanted a product.

Content & On-Page

Product Inventory, product flux

Try to make this less sucky.

When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 1

Content & On-Page

301 the URL to a newer replacement product

(This is rarely how product inventory works)

When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 2

Content & On-Page

404 the URL if no newer product exists

(This is hard core)

When Permanently Out of Stock, Option 3

Content & On-Page

Continue serving the page with messaging and good recommendations

(This is best, but harder to do)

Content & On-Page

Don’t do it like this…

Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/

Content & On-Page

Don’t do it like this…

Doubly sucky.

More helpful

Here’s a good out of stock message.

Content & On-Page

Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/

Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/

Content & On-Page

Content & On-Page

Great Alternatives Here

Tad Chef http://blog.ahrefs.com/ecommerce-out-of-stock-products/

What if products are coming back in?

Content & On-Page

Continue serving the page with messaging and recommendations (same approach as before)

Category pages are the ‘hubs’

Content & On-Page

Category pages are the ‘hubs’

Content & On-Page

category

subcat product

product

subcat product

product

Content & On-Page

category

subcat product

product

subcat product

product

Constant, Equity full,

Heavily linked

Content & On-Page

category

subcat product

product

subcat product

product

Constant, Equity full,

Heavily linked

Lot of flux here. Inventory change Less equity flow

Less linked

Content & On-Page

Seasonal pages and ‘themes’

Content & On-Page

Resources

Resources

Resources

Your inventory is your content.

Content & On-Page

•  Tons of content opportunities with inventory •  Buyers guides, reviews are always useful •  Retailers don’t need to be publishers

It’s STILL all about keywords!

Content & On-Page

Content & On-Page

My Little Pony Topics Average Monthly Search Volume

260,000

185,000

110,000 100,000

80,000

56,000 45,000

Content & On-Page

My Little Pony Topics Average Monthly Search Volume

260,000

185,000

110,000 100,000

80,000

56,000 45,000

Each topic category

represents many queries

Comparison Calvin

Content & On-Page

“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”

Sample Search Queries What can we provide to help him accomplish his task? What else can we provide of interest? Conversion Goal Why He’ll Do It Success Metrics

Task 1: I want to find a resource for Greek apparel and merchandise.

[fraternity apparel] Broad selection of quality gear

Popular brands

Great service

Speedy turnaround

Newsletter

Explore options

He needs shirts for the pledges.

He needs a reliable resource

going forward.

Subscribe for 10% off.

Sign up for newsletter

Purchase shirts

Social share/like

Task 2: I want to find a resource for Greek apparel and merchandise.

[embroidered polo shirts] Wide selection of name brands – high quality

Great prices

Great Service

Speedy turnaround

Newsletter

Find the best option for shirts

Great prices.

10% discount.

Minimum order works.

Easy to order.

Can get a quote and a sample.

Purchase

Sign up for newsletter

Social share/like

Comparison Calvin

Content & On-Page

“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”

Ideal Workflow

Search Rank & Display Page Content Conversion & Motivation

[embroidered polo shirts] Custom Embroidered Polo & Golf Shirts – Buy Wholesale & Save! | InkHead Top Quality and great prices on golf and polo shirts from your favorite brands, including Nike and Adidas.

Images and details of product offerings. Calvin can filter and sort by a range of criteria, including price, brand, color, sub-category and style.

Carl sees what he needs and he sees lots of choices. He knows the brands, the prices are reasonable and the ordering process looks simple. Clicks to buy.

Comparison Calvin

Content & On-Page

“The pledges need quality embroidered shirts for a golf tournament they’re playing in.”

Ideal Workflow

Search Rank & Display Page Content Conversion & Motivation

[embroidered polo shirts] Custom Embroidered Polo & Golf Shirts – Buy Wholesale & Save! | InkHead Top Quality and great prices on golf and polo shirts from your favorite brands, including Nike and Adidas.

Images and details of product offerings. Calvin can filter and sort by a range of criteria, including price, brand, color, sub-category and style.

Carl sees what he needs and he sees lots of choices. He knows the brands, the prices are reasonable and the ordering process looks simple. Clicks to buy.

User exp. begins here

Content creates the conversion

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•  Technical SEO

•  Content Strategy

•  Other Stuff

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Thinking about reporting on SEO

It IS about keywords. 1

Focus on bottom-line metrics that matter. 2

Engagement metrics are important. 3

You’ll need more than a single analytics package. 4

It’s still all about keywords

Analytics & Reporting

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Organize keywords and contextualize them by topic, page types, by persona, demographic, etc

1

Track bottom line metrics.

Analytics & Reporting

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•  Revenue from organic

•  Organic traffic by search engine

•  Organic conversion rate

2

•  Use content groupings in GA •  Hit level only •  Useful for ecommerce page types

Engagement metrics

Analytics & Reporting

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•  Time on page, avg. pages/visit, time on site •  Very useful to spot poor experiences

•  Bounce rate is a useful metric for today’s SEO •  Group high bounce rate pages to analyze •  Segment alongside conversion rate

•  Report on these only when they lead to ACTION

You’ll need multiple tools.

Analytics & Reporting

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•  Best in class: •  Brightedge •  Linkdex •  SEO Clarity •  Search Metrics •  Conductor

•  SEO analytics are essential.

Analytics & Reporting

Brightedge keyword groups

Analytics & Reporting

SearchMetrics keyword groups

You’ll need multiple tools.

Analytics & Reporting

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4

Inexpensive / free:

•  SEMRush •  Google Search Console

GAME CHANGER

Analytics & Reporting

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GSC API DATA

•  Desktop, Mobile, Tablet •  Landing Page and Query •  Very close to comprehensive

Use top publisher sites

Other: Top Publisher Sites

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Feed to teams for

•  GDN campaigns •  Partnerships •  Editorials

Evolution of http protocol

Other: http2

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Advantages

•  Early adopter advantage •  Multiplexing •  Compressed Headers •  Faster

SEO as Bridge Builder

Other: Advocacy

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@merklerkg

Thanks for your time!

merklerkg.com | rkgblog.com

Adam Audette aaudette@merkleinc.com

Follow me on Twitter: @audette