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The greatness of The Aenied lies in its ability to envelope the listener in an aura of spiritual longing, an effect that hitherto had never been accomplished in ancient literature. This was one of the reasons why The Aeneid remained so popular throughout the Middle Ages. Early Christians were greatly impressed by the pious, noble quality of the hero Aeneas, and to them Virgil was an accessible bridge between the pagan world and their own. And his work remained the model for epic poetry right through the Renaissance and beyond. Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton owe a debt of gratitude to Virgil and The Aeneid which can never be repaid.
The Aeneid is organized into 12 books. This recording includes a brief synopsis of the story prior to the beginning of each book in order to help the listener understand the action of the verse.
© and (P)2004 Audio Connoisseur
Translated by Patric Dickenson.
"An epic in every sense of the word"
Now I know why you are supposed to like this poem. It really does have a strong aura of spirituality about it. I thought the entire production was beautifully done. There is a nice introduction about Virgil and The Aeneid to get you oriented. Then, at the beginning of each section there is a short synopsis of the action to give you a heads up on what is coming. I never got lost or bewildered by the story. This is a breathtaking performance on the part of the reader, too. If you like The Iliad or The Odessey, you're going to love this one. I recommend it without hesitation.
"An incredible experience not to be missed"
I am nearing the end of The Aeneid, and I cannot say enough about the richness of experience this audio book has brought into my life. And believe me, I am hard to please :-) Virgil himself is unquestionably a master of myth, history, human nature and poetry with few peers in the history of humanity. The translator seems to have done a very credible job at transforming a vibrant work into modern and compelling English. And Charlton Griffin has done an absolutely unbelievable job of bringing this work to life. His ability to make the words of gods or men seem terrifying, heroic, pathetic or amusing as the case may be, should not be missed. I shall never forget his interpretation of the gods in their arguments and precious sarcasms, the hissing intensity of oracles, the forthright heroic speeches of Aeneas, and many others.
Thanks to all involved in this production, it is a masterpiece.
As a professor of literature, I usually eschew audio versions of books for the printed text. However, I have to confess that I found this version and reading to be absolutely captivating. Many nuances in the text are evoked, and a vividness in the tale persists long after the audio is over. Highly recommended!
"A masterpiece indeed"
I have now listened to the Aeneid for a second time and only recently realized the captivating poetry and power of this masterpiece.
Virgil writes line by line that paints a vivid picture of his story.
This story honored Rome and Romans of his day and I wonder if we have a Virgil for our day.
The reader Charlton Griffin is simply wonderful and makes the book "go".
"Extraordinary Great Book, Superb Narrator"
Wow! I love old great books and the Aeneid is a cornerstone of literature. Griffen is stupendous in his inflection and cadence. If you like this kind of literature, get this version. There is another version of the Aeneid narrated by another that is not nearly as well intoned. It is clear, but not as enjoyable.
"enchanting and addicting"
I'm listening to it for the second/third time now, reading along with traditional verse and doing google searches on the names i don't know. What a fabulous story. I totally give this a thumbs up!
Tolkein took a lot from the Aeneid. Listen for Camilla and think about Eowyn and many more examples.
The story of the Trojan Horse is here, not in the Illiad. This is a GREAT work.
I love reading and listening to books, especially fantasy, science fiction, children's, historical, and classics.
"An Excellent Audio Epic!"
"Of arms I sing and the hero, destiny's exile," begins Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid, which I just finished enjoying in the Audio Connoisseur version. Though I am no expert, the 1961 verse translation, by Patric Dickinson, feels natural, clear, and pleasurable. The forty-something-minute introduction is illuminating about the strong points as well as the limitations of Virgil's epic. The Aeneid is not The Iliad (but then what is?), for Virgil has almost no sense of humor and too great a belief in Augustan Rome as the acme of world empires. But he also has a rich, noble, and dramatic imagination.
And Charlton Griffin does as wonderful job here as he does reading The Iliad, varying his pitch and pace to evoke the different emotions and moods of Virgil's many characters and scenes, bringing the poem to life with conviction. Among the highlights are Aeneas recounting the fall of and escape from Troy, Dido despairing, Aeneas finding the ghost of an assassinated Trojan in a mound pierced by spears that have grown into myrtle shoots, Aeneas visiting the underworld, the Trojans trapping the Latin hero Turnus inside their fortifications only to discover they have bitten off more than they can chew, baby Camilla's father tying her to a spear and throwing it over a river, and Turnus asking a last boon of Aeneas. Such scenes are beautiful, terrible, exciting, moving, fantastic, and heroic.
The production is fine, with good sound quality and ancient Mediterranean-type music introducing and concluding the books. But if you wish to hear the story freshly, you should fast forward past the suspense-killing and superfluous five-minute summaries that introduce each book.
I recommend this audio book because it is an influential and good story well read that reveals a lot about how ancient Rome saw itself and its origins and about the weakness and heroism in human nature.
"Good, not great, translation"
The narrarator is very good. The musical interludes are quite a nice touch as well. However, the translation itself seems somewhat cumbersome in many places.
Overall: Very good
"Excellent narration added to the experience."
This was VERY well acted, narrated which added immensely to my understanding. I found myself looking forward to a flight so I could listen to a few hours uninterrupted.
Glad I first listened to The Teaching Company "Aeneid" course by Elizabeth Vandiver, else I wouldn't have followed the action. Suspect I would have been lost without that preparation.
Very high body count in books 7-12. I'm still stunned at the variety of ways to describe splattered brains.
Expected this would be a chore, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.
"Not for casual reader/listeners"
I'm not sure I'd change anything. For the time it was written, the perspective is probably great. I just got bored with the constant donations of animal intestines and other sacrifices to the gods, the constant pouring of wine... like gallons and gallons of wine to every little thing, the melodramatic prayers... Very mythology driven. If you're into mythology, this will probably be great. If you're not, then you may want to skip over this one.
the perspective
not really
Has anyone bothered to count exactly how many animals were sacrificed and how many gallons of wine were poured out to their homies?


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"Ancient Asian Secret II" soy candle Kim Ferlazzo(see more by this artist)
This "Ancient Asian Secret II" soy candle was handcrafted and is a one of a kind piece. The scent is sage & pomegranate- which is a light, sweet scent. The design is Japanese writing on imported Japanese rice paper. The paper was decoupaged onto the glass. The trim is a bright metallic gold. The soy wax color is blue. Once the wax is gone, you can make it into a luminary simply by using a tea-light. Soy wax is clean burning and last much longer than regular candles. This candle is very unique and would make a nice gift. It measures: 2 5/8"w x 3 1/2"h It weighs 14.4 oz. Please note this candle is TAX FREE if you are outside California. I ship to the Continental US only. If you are in Los Angeles County, the tax is 8.75%. If you are outside Los Angeles but still in CA. The tax is 7.25%.

subset: commoncrawl


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I have a lovely wife of 22 years, 3 teenage boys, my oldest turned 18 in Feb. 2010. I celebrated my 50th birthday in April 2010...about 9 days later my Neurologist told me my leg and hand weakness were ALS. October 2009 was my last 1/2 marathon, August 2011 I could no longer take steps. My left leg fatigued and became numb during the race. It took me 30 minutes longer. I could only walk or jog slowly as I flung my left leg forward for each step. I finished the 13.1 miles.
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Back in 2009 (was it really that long ago?!) Rand wrote a post titled Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization, which is one of the most popular blog posts on SEOmoz. It is still referenced as much today as it was back in 2009. The core principles haven't changed that much, but there are some new additions to an SEO's toolkit when it comes to on-page optimization. Today I want to focus on what these new additions are in relation to eCommerce websites.
I made the following mockup to try and visualise clearly all the elements of an eCommerce product page that are important for on-page optimization.
Let's get into more detail on each of these elements and see what we can do to take advantage and optimise for them, starting with the new additions since Rand's post in 2009. I've related the numbers in the mockups to the sections below; some sections do not have numbers because they are not visible on the page, for example META description.
If you run an eCommerce website and are not collecting customer reviews, you are seriously missing out. Not only is this great feedback that you need to have to improve your business, but it is also an amazing source of unique content. Better yet, it is very scalable across large websites, which means you can get lots of content onto lots of pages.
Quick tips for collecting and using customer reviews:
Also, if you are worried about things like this having a negative effect on conversion rates:
See if you can customise your review system to not show this message on products that do not have reviews. Set a threshold so that when a couple of reviews are received, reviews are shown on the product page.
Added benefit: microdata
You also need to make sure you are marking up these reviews with relevant microdata. This will give Google more context about your content, as well as giving you the chance to improve click-through-rates from search results like what we see in this example:
The use of review microformats is increasing all the time so there is an argument that you are not standing out anymore if all the other results have the same type of markup. You could even argue that to stand out you should take them away :)
I'll admit that this is a tough one to execute, but it is one that I feel is very worthwhile for eCommerce sites. There are many websites already adding videos to their product pages, but they are not always doing it in the most optimal way. A great example of the right way to do this is Zappos who now have over 50,000 product videos.
There are a few benefits to having videos on a product page. One of which is helping make your product pages more link worthy and rich in content. Good quality videos demonstrating use cases of products could also help conversion rates (particularly for high-end, technical products) but I can't provide evidence for that unfortunately.
Another added benefit as you'll see from the screenshot above is how your search results for product pages can stand out from competitors. I've seen loads of eCommerce stores who have videos on the page but are not embedding or marking them up in the correct way.
By far the best system I know to embed and optimise your videos properly is Wistia, which SEOmoz use for Whiteboard Fridays. These guys have a great system and are always improving how things work and adding new features. We've used them on a test site or two at Distilled and got video snippets showing very quickly.
I could talk more about using videos to aid SEO but Phil did a great post that covers pretty much everything you need to know here. He also did a presentation on video SEO and you can see the slides over on Slideshare.
One of the problems that always crops up on large eCommerce sites is how to efficiently deal with pagination. You can have product categories that contain thousands of products that span many pages. You want to make sure that all of these products are indexed and regularly crawled, but at the same time you don't care too much about the paginated pages ranking or having too much link equity.
Since Rand's post of 2009, we've been given an additional way of handling pagination. Namely the rel="next", rel="prev" and "view all" attributes. This markup can help Google better understand pagination and pass link equity to key pages. Google gave some good instructions on how to implement these attributes here and here which you can take a look at.
There are a few other ways to handle pagination, which Adam Audette explains very well in this post on Search Engine Land.
Another new tool that is available to us now is the use of microdata and the support of the Schema.org vocabulary by the major search engines. That announcement back in June 2011 was quite exciting but didn't really live up to expectations and Google seemed pretty slow in showing this support in their search results. However this seems to have changed and we are seeing more and more examples of Google using this data now.
Bringing this back to eCommerce, there are a few types of markup you can use on a product page which you can see documentation on here. This page also contains details of review markup that I talked about above. Not all of the properties on this page will be applicable to you, but here are some tips on how to use this:
Another big opportunity for eCommerce websites is the integration of question and answer content focused on products. As mentioned above, eCommerce websites have always had the problem of getting unique content onto product pages on scale. Question and answer content can help solve this problem and gives you great scope to get user generated content onto lots of your product pages.
There are a few benefits to integrating this type of system:
Here is a live example from Jessops:
I personally feel like there is an opportunity for Quora here if they wanted to explore this space. Many retailers will be looking for this type of system and Quora may be able to offer something that helps them reach the critical mass of content they'd need.
I'm a little skeptical about whether social sharing buttons on product pages are a good idea. The goal of a product page is to get someone to buy, not to get them to tweet or like the page. Sure these social signals can help, but personally I'd rather not distract people from buying my product. For me, social sharing should be encouraged at different points in the buying process:
There is an alternative use of social buttons, which I haven't seen or been able to test on a client site yet. But I wanted to share it anyway. It builds upon the code that Tom Anthony talked about here which allows you to detect if a user is logged into Twitter, Facebook or Google+ whilst they are viewing your website.
If you can use the code that Tom created to detect if a user is logged into Facebook for example, you could show that user a custom message. This could be anything you want but it could be something as simple as encouraging them to like your page in exchange for a discount. This not only gets you the like but also increases the chances of the user converting after giving them a discount.
Tom quickly tested this theory on a test site which you can see a screenshot from here:
You can put whatever message you want in here, this is to demonstrate what could be done if you think a little out of the box and not just put social share buttons on a page because that is what everyone else does.
Again, this is something that has become more of a focus since Rand's blog post. Speed has always been important but SEOs sat up and took a lot more notice when Google confirmed it was a factor in the algorithm, albeit a small one.
For me, an eCommerce site should care about site speed because of its effect on conversion rate rather than rankings. A user is not going to hang around waiting for your product pages to load and there have been some good studies that show the positive effect a fast loading page has on conversion rates.
Bottom line is that you should care about site speed for your users rather than SEO. Here is a good guide for improving site speed written by Craig at Distilled.
Another new addition that you can add to your eCommerce pages is the open graph tags. These tags allow you to be much more specific with how your content is shared on Facebook. As Facebook is such a huge platform with a lot of potential for traffic, you need to make sure that you are doing all you can to optimise for it and specify how your content should be shared.
They are also pretty easy for you or a developer to setup and put live. The tags sit inside your header so you will need a flexible CMS or a good developer to make these additions for you. On an eCommerce site with lots of products you'll probably need a developer to setup the tags so they scale across all of your products and use the correct elements of the page.
Here are some more articles that help with the use and optimisation of the open graph tags:
Ideally, a user should never need to use a search box on your website because they will be able to find their way around using your navigation. But there are going to be times when this doesn't happen and there are users who will just prefer to search. I think that a search box on an eCommerce website is essential and you should use the data that it gives you to improve your website and customer experience.
Here are some tips for using a search box:
Essential for any eCommerce website. Your ultimate goal is to sell a product so you need to make the call to action as clear as possible. Make sure you are running experiments on your product pages to test and improve conversion rates. Many eCommerce stores focus a bit too much on getting more traffic via SEO and PPC, whilst a quicker way to get more revenue is to get more out of the traffic you already have by improving conversion rates.
Even if you are not actively doing conversion rate optimisation, you should at least be measuring as much data as you can from your site, in particular your product pages which are ultimately the most important pages for an eCommerce website.
Tools you can use to measure and improve calls to action:
Just get one or two of these tools setup and start gathering the data, once you start gathering the data, you are in a much better position to start caring about it and setting targets against it.
You are asking people to enter their credit card details on your website. They need to be able to trust that you are a genuine company and that their personal details are secure. You can do this on the product page and enforce it again throughout the checkout process. These are the types of trust signals you should be trying to incorporate into your product pages:
Also make sure these link to secure certificates where possible so that users can go and verify what you are saying. Be sure to check regularly that these links still work - the last thing you want is this link being broken or expired!
These are underestimated in my opinion, both in terms of customer experience and with SEO. They can be a great way of helping the customer navigate around your website and really help your internal linking.
On an eCommerce site, breadcrumbs can be a bit complicated because there are often multiple ways of getting to the same product page. So the potential breadcrumb trail on a product page could look different depending on which categories and sub-categories you navigate through. For me, the benefits of doing anything too fancy are not big enough to warrant the time. So I'd recommend using one breadcrumb trail and sticking to it. If you are concerned about user experience, you could make the users breadcrumb trail cookie based. But this isn't always worth the development time so you should assess how valuable it is for your customer experience.
Crisp, clean, high quality images are necessary for any eCommerce website. The users engage with what they can see and will often be put off if the images are very bad. Here is a great post from Kissmetrics that gives some examples of how to optimise images for conversion.
Something I'd highly recommend for an eCommerce website is showing use cases of the product within the images and not just the product itself against a plan background. As much as I like IKEA, I don't like the plainness of their images sometimes:
I'd much prefer to see products like this shown how I may use them if I buy them and in the setting of a living room for example.
From a pure SEO perspective, you'll want to make sure you are doing basic image optimization to capture traffic from Google image search where possible. Here are a few tips for this:
I shouldn't have to go into much detail here as to the importance of this. Something to bear in mind for eCommerce websites is that you are generating META titles for potentially thousands of product pages. It just isn't feasible to customise each and every one of these, so you should have these auto-generated by your developers based on a template that you give them. For product pages, this is probably just going to be the product name followed by a small call to action or USP. For example including something like "Free Delivery" could work well for improving click-throughs from search. The key really is to try and avoid masses of duplicate META data.
Top tip - an eCommerce website is usually driven by some kind of database which will have various attributes (fields) for each product. A good developer will be able to use these fields to populate other parts of the page dynamically, for example a META title or description. Bear this in mind when writing your META data templates and use these fields if they are available to you.
Whilst the META description has minimal effect on rankings, you should be optimising this for improving click-throughs from search results. Ecommerce sites are in the perfect position to include lots of information, calls to actions and USPs into the META description. As mentioned above, the META description could be auto-generated based on a template that you provide to a developer. This could include database fields such as categories and sub-categories.
In a post-Panda world, it is very important to make your product descriptions unique. Taking descriptions straight from manufacturers or product feeds does not differentiate you at all from the hundreds of other retailers who sell the same product. Spend the time and resource making these unique and engaging and make sure you include the USPs of your offering - such as free delivery or lowest prices.
Again, this is pretty basic SEO but there is one key thing to remember with eCommerce sites. You should not include categories or sub-categories in product URLs, especially if there is more than one way to find a product, for example if it is in more than one category. This can lead to duplicate product pages. You can fix this with rel="canonical" tags but it isn't really ideal.
Best practice is to just use product name and a code as the URL, for example - www.example.com/product-name-12345. The reason for the addition of a number in the URL is to cover yourself against similar product names - not usually a problem but worth trying to prevent.
It is debatable how much H1 tags matter anymore and some studies from SEOmoz have shown that they do not have a lot of impact on rankings. However I feel that for the time it takes to optimise this, it is worth doing and certainly isn't going to hurt you. It is also good to have clean markup of the page so that if for some reason someone browses a page with CSS turned off, the page still has a logical structure.
For an eCommerce product page, I'd recommend coding your page template so that the product name automatically becomes the default H1 tag for a page. This should help to eliminate duplicate H1 tags across the website and will automatically optimise each page you publish.
If you can provide a phone number, do it. Not only to help in terms of customer support, but also as another trust signal. If we think back to what Panda was trying to achieve, one of the questions was "would you trust this website with your credit card?" and one factor that certainly helps inspire trust is a phone number.
A pro tip here for eCommerce websites - if you have a customer support team. Keep track of your abandoned baskets in the checkout process and if you have captured the customer's phone number, take some time to get your support team to phone and see if they can see what went wrong. This not only gives you a chance to get the sale, but you can also get feedback on your checkout process and see what barriers to conversion there may be.
Particularly relevant for companies who target local markets, giving Google more signals of your location can help rankings for those types of keywords. You can also use a few bits of Schema.org markup to give some extra context to the content. It is also another trust signal for Google and users to look at.
Well that is about it, I hope that has given you enough to work on to try and improve your eCommerce product pages. To wrap up, here are some more great articles on eCommerce SEO, many of which are from this curated list of eCommerce resources by Everett Sizemore:
As always, I'd love to hear your comments and feedback or ping me on Twitter to ask more questions.
Paddy this is simple detailed and interesting! This actually shows how on-page optimization or SEO in general can have a direct impact on sales and conversions.
I really like how detailed you talked about adding the UGC on the product pages like Reviews and QnA's This not only will encourage user to engage with the website but also help adding unique content to each and every product page on the website.
Videos are great but this IMO is not ideal in all scenarios because it contains a good amount of budget involved with can be a problem for small online store owners.
Thing that that twist my mind is the idea of not adding social sharing buttons on the product pages… I am not sure about it but social sharing buttons like 'I just bought this from abc.com' after the purchase has been made sounds more actionable to me.
Thanks for the comment and feedback. I'm still a bit unsure about the social sharing on product pages myself, I can see there being pros and cons of doing it and certain products may be better than others.
I believe the Social sharing is a key part to products. Yes I agree that we don't want to distract from the overall goal of the purchase, but a +1 allows (even if they don't buy) allows others to see that you like (or recommend) a product. Which will help lead to more overall sales.
And displaying numbers of likes or tweets on a page could help the decision process.
Or maybe even setup the Social buttons so that they help assist in the sale with a call to action.
Great Post!
Very good article, thank you for sharing! I would like to highlight how product videos can make the difference in the conversion rate (online sales): yes, it's hard to execute but it's definitely worthy!!
Thanks Paddy for the great article, I would like to add one thing that I feel every eCommerce site owner and SEO should incorporate into their marketing efforts - the use of shopping comparison sites such as Google Product Search, Bing Shopping and The Find. Shopping comparison sites hold lots of tangible benefits including helping domain trust, helping generate quality links and the ability to reach more targeted customers.
Before adding your products to a shopping site like Google Product Search, the on-page optimization factors in this article are crucial to seeing positive results. I also would like to add that offering Free Shipping, and various check out methods including Google Checkout is another good practice that can help in giving your products the ability to come up under multiple searches. Ex: Google Product Search's option to search by free shipping or sites that offer Google Checkout. Thanks again for the great post.
Thanks Sal!
I did consider adding something on Google Product search but decided not to. You're definitely right that it is important for eCommerce sites to bear in mind and to implement if they can.
Really good post Paddy!
One small addition to this would be a reminder to try and split test everything you do. It's usually fairly simple to split two page layouts, the colour and size of the checkout button, the use of social widgets, etc. and then track which one converts the best :)Matt
Thanks for the comment Matt!
Agree about the importance of split testing, particularly on product pages where there are lots of elements that can affect whether someone pulls their credit card out or not.
Fantastic post Paddy,
and the mockup is just perfect and über useful (Balsamiq, isn't it?).
Said that, let me make a note about Rel Prev, Rel Next and view all.
The first two are attributes, as you correctly says, but "view all" not. It is an URL Id parameter corresponding to a facet, so not really another kind of rel attribute. Just making this notice in order to be clear with the less SEO savvy readers here.
Said that, I just miss one thing in this post related to categories: faceted navigation. In fact, it is always present and, if not well configured it can be a duplicated content generator nightmare. Personally, it is in this case that I especially like to use the "rel canonical" (maybe to the "view all" facet). A good post about this classic issue is this one by Barry Adams
Thanks for the comment Gianluca - yes it is Balsamiq, I love it.
Agree with you about the wording and that View All isn't a link attribute, I always group those together in conversations so it is easy to forget the subtle difference.
I did consider also doing a mockup page for eCommerce category pages to cover the scenario you mention, but the post was getting too long and time was tight so I had to leave it out. Perhaps something I can cover in a follow up post :)
Really Liked the post and I was looking for this type of post for a long time. Ecommerce is always complicated in terms of SEO. I mean we can't just backlinked each product so these 15 points are actually the best stuff to get looks as a well optimized Ecommerce website.
This is nice article to optimize an online store. Inperticular Image and search related advices are new for me. As of now so any websites put images of whole area where it used and hence we can't get the clear picture of the actual thing which I also don't like. I want to know any good post for robustness of the search in e-Commerce website. If you know any good post on that.
Great Add in On Page Optimization. Something really diferent usually found on Net. Thanks for share..
Nice comprehensive post. I'd argue that social sharing buttons on product pages are a great idea for certain types of products. You can worry about distracting the visitor away from a purchase but the reality is that if they're not at that stage in their buying journey yet, it's a moot point. Canvassing the opinion of friends/family or other professionals might be an important step in the decision making process.
I had a couple of questions to pose:
1. Should large scale ecommerce companies selling thousands of products try to 'spin' their product descriptions to make them unique using automated software or is it better instead to do this manually one small chunk at a time?
2. Videos on a product page are a great idea but where should these be hosted? On or off-site? And if off-site, is it best to go with one of the big providers (i.e. YouTube or Vimeo) or a smaller niche provider?
2. he mentioned wistia in the article.. I use to use vimeo but will give them a try..
Thanks for the comment and questions.
1. Definitely not. I'd advise staying away from any kind of automated spinning software. Some of them are quite advanced but there are always mistakes and you'd still have to manually check all of the output. I'd rather take the hit and invest in getting these written manually
2. As Victor pointed out, I recommend Wistia in the blog post. Takes care of your hosting too and is easy to use.
I 100% agree with this advice. Don't try and take a short cut it will only bite you in the ass in the loong run. I know it's expensive but hire a great copywriter and create the product desciptions. As the search engines get more advance this will come in handy. Already has in the last year with panda.
One thought with not using categories inside the actual URL... have to admit I would prefer to see them, quickly tells me as a user where I am within the website's hierarchical structure (especially without a crumble path in view) though accept your point that it would help prevent duplicate issues with the product in another category from cropping up (though we use the canonical tag to sort).
Great article though, thanks!
Thanks for the comment. Agree with you about knowing where you are on the website, it is useful to have. However if you have breadcrumbs then hopefully that will help somewhat. I guess it is a balance between usability and avoiding SEO issues - it is a hard balance to strike
Thanks Kyle.
I think I'd still stick with /product-name in the URL to be honest as I mentioned in the article. It is a lot cleaner and I'd rather have that than 301s / rel=canonical etc tidying things up. It also helps if you ever do a migration or change category structure, in which case the URLs do not have to change or be 301'd etc.
Hello Paddy, Thanks for sharing the detailed UI flow for a Ecommerce webpage. The categorization and placement of stuffs most of the time depends on the types of the E-com products you are targeting. As the page illustrated above is the last page before a payment gateway, so it's recommended to minimize the customer interaction columns, rather this may be placed on the "Thank-You" page of the website. Cusomer interaction changes depending upon the cost and nature of the products so it is advised to judge this at the base level of UI
Since September 2011: I'm following each and every point on my eCommerce website which you have recommend over here! But, I'm still focusing to improve more visits on my website. I'm not getting that much visits which I have expect... I'm quite happy with my product feed level performance but product level organic performance is quite bad compare to category level organic performance.
Can any one suggest me best improvement area?
I had a quick look over your website and have some feedback:
1. You have lots of duplicate content on your product descriptions (see point 11 in my post above) here are some examples - http://dis.tl/JXiD2r and http://dis.tl/JXjdgG
2. You also have loads of pages with no reviews so I'd focus on trying to populate these by adding incentives for your customers - http://dis.tl/JXjznn (see point 1 above)
3. On a related note, I struggled to find any products which had Q&A content on them, again I'd try and work on this as it will help improve the content massively
4. You need more diverse links. Looking at this -http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.vistastores.com it looks like many of your links are blog comments (albeit not spammy ones) so I'd be focusing on higher quality links if you can
Hope that helps!
Great post, detailed.. the more complete the better. I completly agree with the customer rating is important. Google is already agregating reviews from all over the web to display on your google map profile.
Great job Paddy - I think you've pretty much covered everything here. It is good to see that the considerations are not purely about SEO, in fact they are probably as much about CRO as anything else. A lot of the recommendations cross over very well to my field, which is B2B lead-gen.
Another neat thing you can do with the search feature, is if someone searches for something generic that actually has a category or sub-category, make the search redirect to that category landing page rather than the normal search results page. Zappos do this (try a search for 'shoes') and it allows them to cross-sell/up-sell as they normally would on their optimised category pages.
Great idea about the search re-direction ... just like when returning a single product result it seems cleaner to just redirect straight away.
Great idea, thanks Patrick!
One thing to note, on large sites this can sometimes put strain on site performance in the backend. But it is perfectly possible to solve.
Great post. E-Commerce merchants who sell popular brands and products are generally quite surprised with the quality of traffic they receive to product pages that are optimized. These are great tips and helpful to try out when performing A/B tests.
I love posts like this ---> a step-by-step 'how to' guide with great internal/external links to elaborate. It's a good idea to go over this type of post everytime one optimizes a site. Thanks Paddy (& Rand) :-)
There are thousands of E-commerce portals to buy stuffs online but only few are succesful. Apart from On Page Optimization for bots, it is imparative for us to make it more user friendly so that to keep the visitor engaged on the website.
User profiling is another aspect of holding a visitor engaged on the website.
This is a super detailed article, that can give e-commerce sites good ideas and thing they might need to work on with their on page optimization. This is also a great article to bookmark and share.
Really nice post, Paddy. I think you may have the makings of a killer infographic on your hands as well.
Excellent Post. I will be sharing with the team. Keep them coming.
If you're dealing with 1000s upon 1000s of pages, I always tell my clients to optimize the top performing pages first. Which products produce the most revenue for your company and which ones produce the greatest profit. If you wait until all the pages are optimized before rolling out the changes it could be well over a year!
Agree with you Nick. With very large websites you often have to prioritise. I also like to recommend finding the pages that already rank well but not in the top three results, then focus on those for quick wins.
Love all the suggestions except the calling people who abandoned their shopping cart. I think I might be a little freaked out if Amazon called wondering why I didn't complete my case of pop-tarts order.
Ha yes good point! Surprisingly, the majority of people who one of my previous clients called didn't mind at all and actually liked it. I guess you do need to be careful and not freak people out though.
Nice job on the write up. I think all of the information is right on.
Thanks for your marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.
I want to encourage that you continue your great job, have a nice day!
Can you suggest me some Changes for my web site that is WWW.WEBIHAWKS.COM ?
Hey paddy you share such a important factor which is really neccessary for on page optimization for an e-commerce site... I think product title is very imporant to get your product in on site search and even on google search.. LIke you can see on e-bay people use seo friedly title to get there products on search..
Awesome post! This is a fantastic detailed article about make the perfect of ecommerce sites and this article give e-commerce sites good ideas and thing they might require to work on with their on page optimization. I want to share a thing that many E-commerce portals to buy job online but a little are successful. It is very important for us to make it more users friendly so that to stay the visitor busy on the website. Please keep it continue ….
I think your suggestion about H1 tags is most important and prominent fact about doing it through CSS sheets so it will not become a burden for the developer or optimizer to do manual tagging for that. Specially in the case of ecommerce website the urls should be unique in the case of categories having same product in both.
Mr Moogan - an exellent article - many interesting tips - I will focus on this Q&A things more now because it's something I probably mess out on. Lot of these things are not strictly SEO tricks but I find them very usefull.
When I do the SEO to my sites I always focus on the keywords - proper keywords in the content , in the meta description code brings a lot SEO fuel to my ratings and therefore also profits. Then I monitor the efficiency with tools like Colibri Tool - apart from this functionality it also gives me an opportunity to compare with my competitors.
And it brings good results cuz I have an eya on all the keyword strategy - and I think that the keywords are the most valuable fuel for SEO in ecommerce and everything about the online business.
I think your suggestion about H1 tags is most important and prominent fact about doing it through CSS sheets so it will not become a burden for the developer or optimizer to do manual tagging for that. Specially in the case of ecommerce website the urls should be unique in the case of categories having same product in both.So great stuff for new comers in this field.
Great stuff Paddy
There's some very interesting points here. I'm just about to begin redesigning the templates for my e-commerce website, so this will prove to be an invaluable checklist during this process. Some of the points are already on my TODO list, others have gems of information I've either over looked or not even thought about.interesting reading your thoughts about the reviews. Our system currently has reviews on separate page(s), so including the reviews on the same page in the redesign is a must. Like the idea of basically only showing the reviews (if there are any). I guess by not having the "be the first to write a review" where there are no reviews, does eliminate an issue of people spamming product reviews, if they're basically on an invitation only basis. Plus you can offer incentives for product reviews and keep that offer between you and your customer (plus may want to offer different discounts depending on the age of the product - more important to get reviews of newer products?). Don't want a situation where you're offering a 10% discount off next purchase with any review and have unreviewed products being reviewed by first time customers who then go one to make a purchase.
If you cannot disable the "be the first to write a review" section, would you recommend some form of security check on submission, such as the order id, to ensure it's a review by one of your customers? (Obviously customers with an account can log in and wouldn't need to do this.)
Hi Lasse,
Sorry not sure what you mean, Page Title and META title are the same thing, to me anyway. If you want to clarify your question a bit, maybe I can explain more.
Hi Paddy,
As Lasse implied, Meta Title and Title are not the same thing. Surprised only one person picked up on this here. See the difference:-
It is not advisable to use Meta Title. These articles explain it pretty well.
Thank your very much for this excelent post.
Just only a question. Where would you put the article price? .
I think the best place must be near the call to action button.
Thanks for the question. I guess it depends but either way you want to make it very clear and I'd most likely do some split testing. The one mistake I often see if the price being the same size as discount amounts which can confuse the user a bit.
Another wonderful article. I will add one additional type of content that can be included to the product page - PDF documentation. The PDF itself may bring additional visitors to the product page. Of course this would apply for a limited types of e-commerce websites depending on the products offered.
What a post! We don't usually see posts based around "on-page" tactics as much these days so it was quite refreshing! Thank you Paddy!
P.S. - Balsamic is THE best tool for mockups. Glad to see others such as yourself using it!
it is very simple and interesting info for e-commerce site owener. i hope every e-commerce site owner accept these chenges on their site as discibe above, for much better optimization and user traffic.
i specially thanks to blogger, who wrote this useful and impactive artical.
thanks once again
awaiting for another one !
waris qureshi
Well done. I have a suggestion to add to the list. I think it's important to have more then one "buy now" CTA button (one example). As we've all seen, e-commerce pages continue to get longer and longer (amazon is a perfect example of a long page.) It's hard to know exactlly when a customer is going to convert, so I like to put more then one CTA button on long webpages. For a page of this size (about 1000 pixles) I would start out by testing 2 buy now buttons.
Interesting post and helpful, thanks. I have to say that in point 3) about Q&A it probably isn't the easiest and it probably won't be the most succesful and useful part of a retailers website as usually customers want to have a look at price, delivery options and things like that. They go to other kind of websites for reviews and opinions.
I do have to agree with you that this might be a great place fo Quora to explore!
Great post! I especially liked the section about product URLs. We use formulas to populate meta titles and descriptions, and have used the same kind of functionality for our URLs to make them as clean and friendly as possible. However, we had been using categories in our product URLs (i.e. www.mysite.com/pajamas/product-12345).
If a product was merchandised in two categories, we would use a canonical tag based on precedence of the term (i.e. pajamas is more important to our site than sweatpants, but the pants may be merchandised in both).
Now knowing it's better to use the product only (mysite.com/product-12345) is it better to keep our URLs the same as they have been building juice for a while, or to update them to the preferred structure? We don't currently have a great way to redirect all the URLs at once...
Nice post Paddy.
In terms of point 2 regarding product videos - I recently attended a SEO conference in Sydney, and a little tip I picked up there regarding product videos is that the thumbnail is more important than the SERP. Optimise your thumbnails for a much higher click through rate. Just another on-page factor to consider :)
The whole post is really nice. However, i am confused that once you said that e-commerce websites really don't need likes and social sharing. Then, how will ever that Open-graph Protocol for facebook is going to work. I would rather add Open-Graph to my site only when i have a reason for it.
Please reply, i will be waiting for the answer. Thanks
Great post on on-page SEO for ecommerce websites! We are thinking of implenting the Q&A section on one of our projects.
Great post and great comments above.
If I can add something it's to emphasize images optimization. I do SEO for Ecommerce websites only and what i see is that images on product pages obtain more than 30% of clicks.
We have also noticed recently an increase on visits from Google images search after we sent an images sitemap to google. So work on that guys
I suppose the only thing missing from your mockup is the category menu in case someone want to move into a completely different area of the website and the BASKET! :D
Or what about the "My Account" link?
Or the "Help" link? :D
BTW the article is excellent.
Not sure I agree with not having category names in the URL.
I have built many eCommerce sites and I have always kept the category/sub-category names as part of the URL's. I simply ensure that the route to the product page is only ever accessed via one single URL.
The reason why I keep the categories in the URL's is because (for example) if I do a search for "Spare Tent Pegs" in Google and I find one my my pages in the results, the URL (amongst other things) in the SERPS has my keywords highlighted in bold e.g:
Now I don't know exactly how much weight having the keywords in my URL carries but the fact that they are emboldened would suggest to me that they have some weighting and therefore having the words there is better than not having the words there?
Thoughts/suggestions would be welcome!
Thanks for sharing nice information regarding web crawling :)
Being a development team member I want to share my opinion for a web crawling tool called Minalyzer.
Point Minalyzer to ANY website, Crawl (Spider) all of its Content & Create Full Text Index on it.
Minalyzer provide you interface to perform search engine optimization tasks.
Supported OS - Windows, Linux and Mac OS X http://www.minalyzer.com/minalyzer-download.html
Cool article, however I have to disagree with point 12) about the product URL.
If you put all your products under the root ("/") the hierarchy within you webshop is quite unclear.
For instance if you have a category page: http://webshop.com/category-x the search engines will not understand the weight that category should have because there's no products under it. Essentially you have a webshop with a very limited structure. And the category pages are siblings of the product pages. Which is bad practice imho. If you're a good webstore keeper you should be able to avoid duplicate content as much as possible. The canonical tag may be a "band aid" but it will enable you to keep a decent webshop hierarchy. This hierarchy is good for both users and search engines.
I hope Paddy will still keep track fo this article to respond to comments :)
SEOmoz doesn't provide consulting, but our friends at Distilled still do. Rock on!
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Tagged With: HIV
How to Live in New York City Without Health Insurance
Photo: Ende Does this guy look like you feel? Even before the economic crisis, plenty of New Yorkers lacked health insurance. Now, with the increasing number of layoffs, the ranks of the uninsured are swelling. I've been among them since I quit my cube farm job with full benefits in 2004. I had no plan … Continue reading
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Juneissue outnow
Out now
Design the bedroom of your dreams with these inspirational new ideas »
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From Chanel No. 5 to the KitchenAid mixer, objects we couldn't live without »
Kitchen confidential: Cool design ideas for the heart of your home »
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Addicted to Vietnamese? Crazy about Japanese cuisine? 39 recipes to try »
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Fancy going for the chop? Your ultimate inspiration guide for short styles »
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40 gorgeous recipe ideas for gluten-free gourmands »


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Name: Calliope Cherub
Age: 16
Color of blood: Indigo ((Startin it off rare!))
Power: Creating entity's using imagination!
Bio: She was discovered when she was talking to a person who looked exactly like the Mona Lisa. The people witnessing the event say that she just evaporated. She ran off, but eventually was caught talking to a animate tree, who gave her apples. She was sent to the research center, and has not made any attempts to escape. She spawns entity's often and they don't really serve any purpose other than a friend, sometimes giving food, or toys. These entity's disappear eventually, to be replaced by a new one regularly.


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We see it all the time with highly mobile heroes. Villain to the left of her. Villain to the right of her. Villain to the left of her fires his Firing Thing. And creams the Villain to the right of her as our heroine ducks nimbly out of the way.
This came up in our game last night, and the concern was, we were pretty sure there's a rule that if you're rolling a successful reaction and buy an effect die, you can only apply stress or a complication to your attacker, not directly to a third party. Which seems entirely reasonable, but deprives one class of heroes of a signature move.
So how to handle it? Give the third party a free reaction roll? In the comics, the power of "No, You Idiot!" is that the Villain to the right is often caught flat-footed. But a free reaction roll seems like a reasonable compromise. Then, a reaction roll against whom? Presumably a "chain reaction" against the hero - hero lets her roll stand; the third party rolls to beat it. (Which opens up one further baroque possibility: the third party winning and buying an effect die against the hero . . . )
Is there an Official View? Are there ideas? (Meaning, except for ideas like, "This usually only works with mobs in the stories" - not true - or "This is really an action roll on the hero's turn and it's all in how you narrate it because This Is Not a Simulative Game" - boring. )
In the session, the situation involved Magnitude, The Incredible Hulc ("NOT THAT HULK"), Zzzaxxx, an octogenarian Electro, some power lines and (Business Master Resource) THE FINEST PORTABLE CAPACITOR MONEY CAN BUY D8. You know, the usual. Electro's walker wasn't worth any dice that scene, I note for posterity.


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The Role Model Issue is available to buy from i-D online here and is on newsstands now.
i-D 321, The #RoleModelIssue, comes in sixteen stunning covers. What makes a Role Model? – Throughout history we've always admired strong women who have followed their own paths and been unafraid to grab hold of life with both hands. Inspired by the Hollywood glamour of Marilyn Monroe and the individuality of Frida Kahlo, Daniele Duella + Iango Henzi, Patti Wilson and Luigi Murenu explore the notion of role models in fashion, with an epic 94 page story starring the world's most iconic supermodels, and even hotter clothes. Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymour, Guinevere van Seenus, Kristen McMenamy, Karen Elson, Isabeli Fontana, Natasha Poly, Amber Valletta and Gisele Bündchen all make an all-star appearance. Get your hands on a copy of the issue now here to see the mesmerizing story in full.
Text: Holly Shackleton
Photography: Daniele + Iango
Concept: Luigi Murenu
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From left. Natasha Poly wears dress, scarf and gloves Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci. Veil Jennifer Behr. Isabeli Fontana wears bodysuit Versus. Neckpiece Katarzyna Konieczka. Stephanie Seymour wears dress Versace. Guinevere van Seenus wears blouse No.21. Corset vintage Aris. Kristen McMenamy wears jacket and brooch Chanel. Bra Stella McCartney. Gisele Bündchen wears dress Gareth Pugh. Linda Evangelista wears jacket Alexander Wang. Corset Kunza. Karen Elson wears dress Lanvin. Amber Valetta wears dress Jil Sander.
See all of The Role Model Issue covers here.


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Editor's note:
This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.
Dirk Davidek is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys paddling canoes and kayaks, hiking and camping in the wilderness, mountain biking, snowboarding, and just about any other outdoor recreational adventure. He is Owner and President of AdventureClubSA.com for which he frequently leads trips, conducts meetings and acts as host to numerous group events.
Tag Archives: little blanco
Kayaking the Little Blanco River
The Little Blanco River is yet another local drainage that rarely has enough water in it to paddle. There is not even a USGS gauge on it, you just have to drive to it and take a look. However, you can check the gauge on the Blanco at Wimberley, it should be flowing about 3,000 [...]
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Tagged blanco, kayak, kayaking, little blanco, paddling, river, whitewater
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When traveling in the arctic, you need to be prepared to make some changes to your regular lifestyle. Mary Ann's is a good place to start as it is definitely different from your average hotel. The first oddity is the way it is layed out. From reception, you turn right to reach one set of guest rooms or left and... More
- Also Known As:
- Mary-Ann`s Polarrigg Hotel Longyearbyen
- Mary-Ann`s Polarrigg Hotel
- Mary-Ann's Polarrigg Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Come join us up north at Mary-Ann`s Polarrigg, a somewhat different Hotel/Rig in Longyearbyen. Here at Mary-Ann`s we have a relaxed and homey environment that will suite everybody.Stay as the miners did back in the days in our authentic Miners Rig, or if you prefer Hotel standard you can try our Luxury Rig instead.In the day time we can assist in booking of trips from our local tour operators or if you just want a day of relaxation in our onsite spa that is also possible. For groups we can also offer a fully equipped conference room.In the evening you can try food from our delicious menu in our Vinterhagen Restaurant where we serve both Thai food and traditional Norwegian and Arctic food.Come join us for an experience of a lifetime here at Mary-Ann's Polarrigg. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Priceline and HotelsClick so you can book your Mary-Ann's Polarrigg reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.


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More Stories by Mary Beth Breckenrige
- Readers offer strategies for deterring deer
- Nature's ways improve backyard gardening
- Book helps house hunters think logically
- Curved shower rod is tension-mounted
- Tell the 'Does It Work?' team what you think about products
- Home and garden happenings — week of May 18
- Ask Mary Beth: Ridding ornamental grass of weeds
- Vegetable and fruit plant families
- School garden will teach healthy eating from the ground up
- Steal this idea! Decorating inspiration from Designer ShowHouse 2013
- Garden featured on Bath home tour
- Bag clip closes large sacks
- Book covers upholstery basics
- Home and garden happenings — week of May 11
- Tour details
Close to home with Mary Beth Breckenridge
Clever tips for holiday decorating
Putting up your holiday decorations this weekend? Here are some clever tips from The Family Handyman magazine:
To read more or comment...
Close to home with Mary Beth Breckenridge Archives


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I think I'll most remember her as the voice of the Enterprise.
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Oh. That's too bad. She was pretty much the most familiar voice in Trek, bar none. And I enjoyed her Lwaxana performances, at least once the writers gave her more than one dimension in which to act.
Good-bye, Number One/Nurse Chapel/Computer Voice/Lwaxana. Say hi to Gene for us.
Trekkies around the quadrant are weeping. And many are popping pen bottles of Romulan ale in trubute.
Sad news, indeed.
See you on the other side, Majel. Keep the Big Chair warm for me.
Also the few Earth:Final Conflict fans.
For the ones who have not heard of the series he is wiki article about.
You will be missed by all, for all time.
I have her saying "Transfer of data is complete" every time I receive a text message on my mobile.
She will be sadly missed.
All Federation flags are ordered to half staff for the duration.
That's a very pretty flag.
One can only wonder at its origens...
"Program Complete. Enter When Ready."
Goodbye Mrs. Roddenberry. A twenty-one phaser salute in your honour.
The UN flag is very pretty, too. I like the UN.


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The Ed Show | January 24, 2013
>>> show." liberals in this country should be outraged tonight. you are looking live at the senate floor, where they just adopted the new rules by a vote of 78-16. senate majority leader harry reid caved to republicans on meaningful filibuster reform. reid reached a watered-down deal with minority leader mitch mcconnell keeping the filibuster alive and ready to be abused by republicans again. now, i was going to tell you what's in the deal, but it really doesn't matter. because democrats still need 60 votes to break a filibuster and republicans can still filibuster without speaking on the senate floor. so what are we here for? republican senator johnny isakson of georgia told tpm this afternoon, "the rules change doesn't really do a lot." well, how about that? harry reid knows that. and he tried to explain away his failure earlier today by telling the " washington post " wonkblog, "i'm not personally at this stage ready to get rid of the 60-vote fleshhold. with the history of the senate , we have to understand that the senate isn't and shouldn't be like the house." well, it's obvious that reid is more interested in protecting the senate tradition than moving the country forward. that's my read on it. he went on to say this -- "the only way we'll get rid of the filibuster is if it continues to be abused." hello. with over 380 filibusters in recent years it's shocking that reid would come back and trust republicans not to abuse the filibuster. he knows better. what's going on here?
>> back in may harry reid apologized to senators jeff mercury and tom udall for blocking their original filibuster reform bill in twtd.
>> if there were ever a time where tom udall and jeff americaly were prophetic it's tonight. these two fine young senators said it was time to change the rules in the senate and we didn't. they were right. the rest of us were wrong. if there were anything that ever needed changing in this body, it's the filibuster rule. because it's been abused, abused, and abused.
>> so we can get something done in this country. this is a massive failure for the leader of the democrats. and the democrats who are walking in lock-step with him, what's wrong with you guys? what's going on here? what about all those people who fought voter suppression and waited in lines for hours to make sure that president obama would get elected and would go down the road of a progressive agenda? what about all the ground troops who went door to door? the get out the vote effort that worked really hard to re-elect this president. this was a romney vote. that's what this was tonight. they didn't do it to face the same obstruction from republicans . all those workers out there. that's not why they did it. harry reid is leth the minority party run the country. he's giving the republicans all the ammunition they need to block president obama 's second-term agenda. and you know what? he's going to regret it. so what does this mean? this means that activist groups are the only ones that can save the country when it comes to legislation because the activist groups are going to have to go out and get in these districts and in these states where senators are who are not doing the right thing and primary them. and let them know that they're not going to win the next election. do the unions of this country deserve what just happened tonight after as hard as they worked to get president obama and the democrats in the senate ? give me a break. for more let's turn to larry cohen , president of the communication workers of america . larry, i'm stunned. your thoughts. your initial reaction to this vote tonight on the filibuster.
>> initial reaction is one of incredible disappointment and anger, as you expressed it. but also as you just said, that 2 million of us, way beyond labor, the 2 million of us who have worked on this, have to keep working. we have to connect it to every issue of the day. what's going to happen now to social security and other budget issues? what's going to happen to immigration reform ? they get away with this because they don't connect the dots. they make this a separate issue that puts people to sleep, although you've been waking them up. and we have to continue that fight. we also have to hold up. merkel, udall, harkin and the others who signed on to senate resolution 4 and 25 more who are ready for change. so we don't give up. we have to keep standing up and fighting back. apparently, senator reid said if the senate is not functioning we will go back to this. well, let's see. it won't be more than a few days till we see how the senate functions for the majority on these critical issues of the day or, as you said, led by senator mcconnell as we were on fiscal cliff.
>> mitch mcconnell 's going to go into caucus next tuesday, and they're basically going to say how the heck did you pull that off? i mean, we filibustered these guys 380 times and they gave us the same damn rules? i mean, folks, climate change ? forget it. immigration reform , you probably won't get that. taxation and more revenue to the treasury? you're not going to be able to tax wall street now. minimum wage, that's out the door, raising that. workers' rights. and you know what this is all about in my opinion? this is about guns. harry reid knows that 51 votes would be available for the assault weapons ban but he knows damn well there won't be 60 and he doesn't want to hang this on the democratic party at all to all these rural senators. that's who he's protecting in this. but he is not standing up for the people at all. i just -- i don't know what kind of message can we send at this point?
>> i think we send a message of total determination that as every issue is discussed and if mitch mcconnell has to sign off to put it on the floor, which is where we believe this lies, then on every issue we have to link this up and say you said if it wasn't functioning you would change it? 51 can change it. we're fighting to change it. and not let up for a minute. and the broader democracy initiative that we're a part of has got to go on on all the issues.
>> this is another comment that struck me today. tpm asked senator dick durbin today if the deal would make it easier to pass bills. durbin said "it requires goodwill and good faith." are you kidding me? you're telling me we're going to get a new mitch mcconnell and a whole new group of republicans that just can't wait to help barack obama move this country 235 forward, especially on jobs? they have said no to everything. larry cohen , we'll have you back. this is a story that's going to go on. and the democrats are going to pay for this. i don't -- you know, i don't want to fight with the democrats. but my lord, what was this election all about? coming up, days after a pbs "frontline" special, someone in the justice department is stepping down. we will get to more on the filibuster in just a moment. we're right back on "the ed show." stay with us.


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Several visitors of note for Tuesday's practice on the Nitschke turf. The NFL Network set up a camera on the west sideline and showed much of the workout on the network with reporter Stacy Dales on hand. Mike Mayock of the Network also spent a second day watching practice. Also on hand for the workout were several members of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association. Several current and former High School coaches watched practice including Bill Collar, Phil Morgan, Dick Heiptas and Jim Allen.
A few new injuries of note, Ryan Pickett suffered a knee bruise, Mike Daniels had his left knee iced and complained of a tight groin. Free agent running back Marc Tyler had a shoulder injury. On the positive side, Jermichael Finley worked out in pads for the first time and Greg Jennings should return Wednesday from a bruised elbow. PUP list players like Desmond Bishop and John Kuhn might be on the field by the end of the week.
The purpose of the early camp practices is to install the game book. Mike McCarthy figures it will take another week before it's in. The focus on Tuesday was on special situations like no huddle offense, the two minute drill and red zone work. During the no huddle period, Finley made a tumbling catch to announce his return to the field but Jarius Wynn swiped an Aaron Rodgers screen pass for an interception. Morgan Burnett also had a pick during the team blitz period, a favorite of the defensive side. Rodgers got even so to speak during the red zone drill, with an impressive touchdown pass to Donald Driver with Jarrett Bush providing tight coverage. Driver, at 37, is playing as enthusiastically as a rookie and there is no doubt he's the favorite of the rail birds. If he even makes a catch in individual route drills, the cheers are loud. That's what a fancy rhumba will do for the popularity of the Dancing With the Stars champ. In goal line work, Rodgers and Finley connected against M.D. Jennings for a score but two running plays, from Brandon Saine and fullback Nic Cooper were stuffed from inside the five. Wednesday brings the final early morning practice of camp, the team works under the lights on Thursday night in advance of the Family Night Scrimmage at Lambeau which the team announced is a sellout.
On the link below, a collection of quotes from Tuesday's activity at camp.


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I chose chikorita as my starter, and I have seen cyndaquil from red, but I can't find totodile.
Have you reached that place in Pewter City yet? You can challenge a random opponent there who will have a Typhlosion, Meganium and Feraligator.
Edit:Sorry its not Pewter City but Viridian City is where the trainer is located, but you still need to get to Pewter City first.
Yes, Your Rival can have Totodile if you Chose Cyndaquil.
Or you could trade for one on GTS.
Or you could battle someone in Viridian City with Feraligatr, Meganium, and Typhlosion.
Hope this helps! XD
How to change your username How to add a user avatar Why was my post hidden? The points system Question etiquette Flags vs Downvotes Anime FAQ
Type a Pokemon name, type, move or ability to see instant results.


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For Centuries great food and wine have brought people together and in more modern times this is still the case.
Garfield's Restaurant partnered with VINO LAS VEGAS , The Cuisineist Culinary Magazine and Broman Cellars from Napa Valley for a wine dinner taking in the relaxing views of Lake Jacqueline at the Desert Shores while sipping on great wines and enjoying dishes created by Executive Chef Jean-David Groff-Daudet especially for the event.
We know the Central Coast very well and now join us and everyone who is as interested in eating great food as we are in meeting the farmers and artisans who produce it. Sunset presents "Savor the
From September 30 to October 3, 2010 at Santa Margarita Ranch, San Luis Obispo and surrounding communities, attendees will have the opportunity to sample delights prepared by 35 talented chefs, using the region's freshest bounty—from organic produce and herbs to locally raised lamb and sustainably farmed seafood. Recipes presented will include:
Abalone Carpaccio with Sake Mignonette, Grapefruit, Avocado, Sesame" by The Lido/Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa Chef Evan Treadwell
· Roast Rack of Lamb with Braised Lamb Shank Arancine, Lamb Confit, Lavender Roasted San Marzano Tomato and Garlic Crumbs" by Post Ranch Inn Chef Craig Von Foerster
"Sustainable Seafood" prepared by The Sidecar Chef Tim Kilcoyne in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Seafood Watch Program
"Far Western Certified Angus Beef Cheeseburger" by Far Western Tavern Chef Barbara Abernethy
"Roasted Figs, Crème Fraiche Ice Cream, Toasted Hazelnut Brittle" by Thomas Hill Organics Chef Julie Simon.
On October 1, the weekend's "edu-tainment" focus rolls into high gear as Sunset editors and other experts lead exclusive guided tours around
On October 2-3, the SAVOR "edu-tainment" continues at Santa Margarita Ranch with presentations in the demonstration kitchen by The Food Network's Tyler Florence and seminars with Sunset editors on such topics as "Fresh from the Fields-California Breakfast," "Preserving the Harvest," "Cheese Making 101," "Beyond the Chop: How to Cook with Different Cuts of Lamb," and "Sunset's One Block Feast – The Grand Experiment." Wine-themed seminars will include "Distinct. Different. – Paso Robles," "The Perfect Cuvee" and "Why We
For more information regarding "SUNSET – Savor the
We have attended all of the annual O-Vino events to benefit people with disabilities. We could not think of a better way to give back to the Las Vegas community.
Over 40 wine vendors , a silent auction , great food prepared by the Chefs and students of Le Cordon Bleu , original artwork from Opportunity Village's talented artists and live entertainment provided the guests, families and people of Opportunity Village a great way to spend an afternoon.
Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization that serves people in the Las Vegas community with intellectual disabilities, to enhance their lives and the lives of the families who love them. Opportunity Village is dedicated to helping people with severe intellectual and related disabilities become the very best they can be.
Through vocational training, community employment, day services, advocacy, arts and social recreation, people with severe disabilities are able to find new friends, realize future career paths, seek independence and community integration and unleash creative passions.
Opportunity Village was founded in 1954 by a small group of local families seeking to improve the lives of their children with intellectual disabilities. Since then, Opportunity Village has grown to become Nevada's largest private, not-for-profit community habilitation program, serving more than 3,000 people annually through vocational training, community job placement, art & life skill enrichment, advocacy, and social recreation programs.
Opportunity Village gives back to the business's in Las Vegas by stimulating the economy . The majority of programs offered by Opportunity Village to people with severe intellectual disabilities are funded by the work-related activities of those individuals and by the charitable donations of local individuals and organizations.
In the absence of Opportunity Village, state and local governments would be required to provide similar services that would increase public cost by more than $17 million annually.
Opportunity Village helps the people it serves in a variety of ways.
Unlike many short-term job placements that are here today and gone tomorrow, the procurement of commodities and services with local businesses provides long-term, stable employment for people with severe disabilities.Through the vocational training and employment programs, people with severe disabilities have a chance to develop job skills that offer opportunities for individual advancement.
By expanding their scope of experience, and enhancing their abilities, some workers with disabilities are able to tackle new assignments at increasingly higher levels of difficulty. This experience prepares them for a wider variety of jobs, either within Opportunity Village Work Centers or at a variety of jobs throughout the community.
Many of the people served by Opportunity Village live either with their families or in supported living arrangements in the community. Most of the income received from disability insurance goes for basic room and board costs, meaning the income earned while working on contracts at Opportunity Village is often their only source of disposable income. People with severe disabilities are human beings, just like you and me, and they want to live as normal a life as possible. Most adults usually go to work, but the unemployment rate for people with disabilities continuously exceeds 60 percent.
This years O-Vino was held at The Ralph and Betty Engelstad campus Opportunity Village's newest . This state-of-the-art campus houses the Kitty Rodman Multi-purpose Center for Arts & Life Skill Enrichment and the Thomas & Mack Employment Training Center and was a great venue for the event.
We look forward to the 5 O-Vino and having the chance to help people with disabilities help the community. With Opportunity Village everyone in the community benefits. To find out more about Opportunity Village please visit http://www.opportunityvillage.org/
See you next year !
Las Vegas has taken its place as a home to some of the world's most prestigious restaurants, and on Thursday, September 9, many of the best will be poolside at The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino for the Las Vegas Epicurean Affair.
This wonderful event is hosted by Nevada Restaurant Association (NvRA) and The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino, the Las Vegas Epicurean Affair promises a tantalizing evening of culinary delight. Guests can stroll along the Palazzo's luxurious pool and savor cuisine and cocktails from nearly 75 renowned restaurants and beverage purveyors in a for the palate pleasing event that shows off Las Vegas .
"The Pools at The Palazzo is the perfect venue to host this prestigious event," said Food & Beverage vice president Sebastien Silvestri. "We are pleased to collaborate with the NvRA, because we know this is an evening that guests won't soon forget."
"It's no secret that Las Vegas is on the cutting edge when it comes to hospitality and our amazing restaurants are a big part of that," says NvRA President and CEO Katherine Jacobi. "Nevada Restaurant Association is pleased to offer this unique experience at The Palazzo. We couldn't be more excited to have such a beautiful venue to showcase why Las Vegas is the culinary destination."
NvRA would like to thank the sponsors who made this event possible: 702west, Aramark, CBS Radio, Dine Out Magazine, KNPR, Mission Industries, Patrice & Associates Hospitality Recruiting, Sierra Ice, Southern Wine & Spirits, Sysco Food Services of Las Vegas and Wirtz Beverage Nevada.' Proceeds from the event benefit NvRA's educational and scholarship programs.
The Las Vegas Epicurean Affair is open to the public and will be held Thursday, September 9, 2010 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at The Pools at The Palazzo.
General admission tickets are $100 each. VIP tickets are available at $150 per person for early admission at 6:00 p.m. To purchase tickets please visit any Venetian or Palazzo box office, call (702) 414-9000, or go online to www.palazzolasvegas.com or www.epicureanaffairlasvegas.com
see you there !
The annual Celebration of Harvest is held in October of each year, when the whole county is in the thick of the winegrape harvest and winery staff take a needed break to showcase their latest wines, many newly bottled! This year's Celebration of Harvest will be held on October 9th from 1 to 4pm, and once again on the beautiful grounds of Rancho Sisquoc Winery in the Santa Maria Valley.
Local restaurants, caterers and specialty food purveyors will showcase their talents and the bounty of Santa Barbara County, while live and lively bands will fill the air with music. Add to that the silent auction, filled with specialty wines and large format bottles from members of the Vintners' Association to benefit local food banks, and we definitely have a reason to Celebrate Harvest!
Be sure to take in the sights, sounds, smells and excitement of harvest by extending your stay for a few days. The Vintners' Visa is a four-day pass to 12 participating wineries, each of whom are pulling out all the stops just for Vintners' Visa holders. The Vintners' Visa can be used at participating wineries from can be used Friday through Monday so make it a long weekend! And for the full celebratory mode, (and for a great deal!), order a "combo ticket" which gives you access to the Festival at Rancho Sisquoc and a Vintners' Visa!
Join us and stay the weekend to enjoy one of the best wine regions in the country !
For more information please visit The Santa Barbara County Vintners Association
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Wine bloggers reach new audiences and readers find new
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Dec 29, 2004 | 10:56 AM |
The Peruvian government published a legal decree Wednesday that will give Doe Run Co. more time to reduce toxic emissions from its La Oroya Metallurgical Complex.Doe Run Peru, the Peruvian unit of St. Louis-based Doe Run, had threatened to shut its operations in the central Andean district if the government didn't extend the deadline. Executives said the company didn't have enough funds to build a $100-million sulfuric acid plant by 2007, and lobbied for a five-year extension.....
The Peruvian government published a legal decree Wednesday that will give Doe Run Co. more time to reduce toxic emissions from its La Oroya Metallurgical Complex.
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Do you think steel mills will succeed in their efforts to stop selling at a discount to the CRU index?
June 20-21, 2013 New York
This whole thing is becoming a game of smoke.
Midwest service center


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Southwest DeKalb High School Principal Carolyn Williams cites state budget cuts as one reason some parents will have to pay for the tests next year.
WSB-TV reports that Williams informed parents that the Georgia Department of Education's budget will fund only one exam for students from low-income families during the coming year, a change from previous years.
She said the state agency is unable to fund any exams for students who are not in the school system's free or reduced-price lunch program.
That means families must pick up the cost of the exams at $89 each, or $53 for students from low-income families.


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@Eldredge: In most product cycles, the system design needs to be modified for local market needs in terms of features, cost and performance. The system design mostly requires changes to Hardware (Board & Mechanicals), Embedded Software and Applications. There is a need to select alternate chips rather than re-designing the silicon. Hence based on market segments, we see more customization required for consumer electronics devices (e.g. Mobile devices, TVs, Set-Top Box etc.), limited use-cases in specific consumer health devices, automotive electronics and Telecom CPE (customer premise equipment).
In most cases, the regional aspect within the country is addressed by an Application layer. Hardware is customized for a country or emerging markets mainly due to address price point differentials. Another case requiring customization for local needs is differences in standards. Usually standard differentials are taken care off at the software level. However, at times hardware customization may be needed.
@ FlyingScot: The strategy of localization (rather than total re-engineering) works well if the cost and feature dimensioning of the problem are not very drastic. For instance, an ultra low cost car (an equivalent to Tata Nano) would require total re-engineering rather than localization of an existing platform.
The telecom players are able to work with very low customization on Hardware but with different sets of applications to monetize the requirement.


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Viking VIRB530LSS 30" Professional Series Integrated Quiet Cool?¢Äû¬¢ All Refrigerator - Stainless Steel
Manufacturer | Viking |
Series | Professional Series (View Professional Series Product Line) |
Item # | VIRB530LSS |
Condition | Brand New Item - We are an Authorized Online Viking Dealer |
- Storage Capacity
- 18.2 Cu. Ft. Total
- Available at Designer Appliances
- www.designerappliances.com
- ProChill Temperature Management System
- Variable Speed DC Overdrive Compressor is one of the quietest, most technologically advanced compressors available.
- Electronic controls maintain temperature within 1°F (.83°C).
- Multi-channel airflow system and Odor Eliminator Evaporator remove odors and excess humidity.
- Professional Features
- Adjustable Cold Zone Drawer with precision ball-bearing glides can be set for either produce or long-term fresh meat storage with its separate temperature control.
- Quick chill option chills food and beverages in minutes.
- Two Adjustable Humidity Zone drawers with precision ball-bearing glides for large-item storage.
- Moisture can be adjusted for fresh, leafy vegetables or crisp fruits and vegetables.
- Easy access - even with door at 90 degree opening.
- Two conveniently located deli drawers with precision ball-bearing glides store meats and cheeses.
- Four adjustable full-width tempered glass shelves allow customized shelf placement.
- Two in-the-door magnetically sealed dairy compartments with see-through, lift-up covers.
- Additional storage in four full-width, patented adjustable aluminum door bins with tempered-glass fronts.
- Easy Maintenance and Cleanup
- Super Clog-Resistant condenser is maintenance-free under normal use.
- Top-mounted and front venting sealed refrigeration system works quietly and efficiently.
- Spillproof tempered glass shelves contain spills and leaks, preventing leakage to lower shelves and drawers.
- Removable for take-to-the-sink cleanup.
- 24" depth keeps items in back within easy reach.
- Power interruption switch behind consumer-removable top grille completely turns off power to unit for safe cleaning, light bulb replacement, or servicing.
- Adjustable-height lower kickplate removes to provide easy access to evaporator pan.
- Professional-Style Construction
- Tru-Flush Design allows refrigerator to fit flush into 24" deep installation cutout.
- Design and basic dimensions provide built-in appearance with standard cabinetry.
- Automatic energy saving exterior moisture control system prevents condensation.
- Dual-magnet door seal system with spring-loaded self-closing feature.
- Door stops factory set at 110 degree swing; easily adjust to 90 or 120 degree swing.
- Black lower kickplate.
- Removable, stainless-steel upper grille.
- Open door alarm sounds and glows to warn that door has been ajar for three minutes.
- Thin wall and door construction, coupled with high-density insulation, provides maximum interior space.
- Four independent, front-adjustable levelers make installation quick and easy.
- Standard Accessories
- See-through egg container with carrier holds up to 24 eggs.
- Glass butter tray with cover.
- Optional Accessories
- Stainless steel side panels (DSSPL2, DSSPR2).
- Stainless steel top kits (TOP-30).
- Installation Accessories
- Grille kits in 60" and 66" widths.
- Exclusive Finishes
- Available in Stainless Steel (SS), Black (BK), White (WH), Metallic Silver (MS), Graphite Gray (GG), Stone Gray (SG), Taupe (TP), Biscuit (BT), Cotton White (CW), Oyster Gray (OG), Golden Mist (GM), Lemonade (LE),
- Sage (SA), Mint Julep (MJ), Sea Glass (SE), Iridescent Blue (IB), Viking Blue (VB), Pumpkin (PM), Racing Red (RR), Apple Red (AR), Burgundy (BU), Plum (PL), Chocolate (CH), Cobalt Blue (CB)
- May be ordered with Brass Trim Option (BR) for nameplate, door handles/brackets, and side trim.
- All brass components have a durable, protective coating for maintenance-free normal use.
- Warranty Highlights
- Two year full warranty - complete unit.
- Six-year full warranty - sealed system and ice maker.
- Lifetime limited - stainless steel exterior.
- Twelve-year limited - sealed system.
- Ninety-day limited - cosmetic parts such as glass, painted items and decorative items.
- Warranty valid on Viking products shipped within the United States and Canada.
Viking introduced professional cooking to the home when their first range shipped in 1987. Now that same exceptional performance extends into every corner of the kitchen - even the backyard. Refrigerators. Wine Cellars. Dishwashers. Grills. Cookware. Cutlery. Small appliances. It's enough to turn any cook into a chef. Available at Designer Appliances.
When people think of Viking, the bold, commercial look of the Professional Series range is the image that most likely pops into their heads. Ultra-premium features like high-performance burners, convection baking, and infrared broiling easily handle everything from crème brûlée to rack of lamb. The legendary Viking range is available in gas and electric models, as well as an array of sizes and finishes to fit any kitchen.
And for those who want professional performance without the professional look, there is the Designer Series. Clean lines and contours meld gracefully into cabinets with style, offering a striking new look for Viking. Fully equipped with outstanding features and power, this complete line of built-in products doesn't sacrifice any of the world-renowned Viking performance for fashion's sake. Haute couture meets haute cuisine.
Viking doesn't see the kitchen as a collection of products, but a complete cooking environment. Cooking isn't a chore - it's an art form. Everything must work together in form and function. Both the Professional and Designer lines deliver the ultimate in performance with a cohesive look for the kitchen. Each line offers a full range of products, so you don't have to resort to mixing and matching brands and styles. Viking offers the truly consistent ultra-premium kitchen. The complete Viking kitchen is complete perfection.
All-refrigerator and all-professional, this model delivers the ultimate in refrigeration. A variety of easy access drawers with temperature and moisture controls allow for custom storage. And the increased drawer capacity even leaves room for an entire deli tray.


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One Shots
Doctor Who: Autopia
$3.99An All-American creative team tackles the celebrated Doctor in this special standalone tale. John Ostrander (Star Wars: Legacy) writes and Kelly Yates (Doctor Who: The Forgotten) illustrates an adventure where the Doctor and his companion Donna arrive on a utopian planet where robots do all the manual labor. But things aren't quite what they seem... ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN NORTH AMERICA Learn More -
Doctor Who: Through Time and Space TPB
$19.99Out of stock
Collecting six original Doctor Who, all featuring the Tenth Doctor, as portrayed by David Tennant. Includes the one-shots The Whispering Gallery, The Time Machination, Autopia, Cold-Blooded Cold War, Room With A Deja View, and Black Death White Life, by a bevy of talented creators, including Ben Templesmith and John Ostrander. Learn More -
Doctor Who Annual 2010
$7.99Out of stock
IDW's final Tenth Doctor story starts here! The TARDIS takes center stage in this oversized issue with stories by screenwriter Jonathan Davis and artist Kelly Yates, and writer/artists Al Davison and Matthew Dow Smith. Also included is a prelude to Final Sacrifice by series writer Tony Lee and artist Smith, continued in Doctor Who #13! ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN NORTH AMERICA. Learn More


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With a population of more than 900,000, Turin became the largest city ever to host the Olympic Winter Games. A record 2,508 athletes from 80 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed and 26 NOCs took home medals, another record.
For the first time, live video coverage of the Games was available on mobile phones. Video coverage was available in 18 countries on five continents. In another first, television viewers in Mongolia and Azerbaijan were also able to watch all the action. Surfing the internet for results proved popular too, with torino2006.org registering approximately 700 million page views.
Albania, Madagascar and Ethiopia were all represented for the first time. Claudia Pechstein of Germany became the first speed skater to earn nine career medals, and with his victory in the Super G, Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway became the first Alpine skier to earn four medals in the same event and the first to win four gold medals in total.
When Sara Renner of Canada broke one of her poles in the cross-country skiing team sprint, Norwegian head coach Bjørnar Håkensmoen lent her one of his (albeit 12cm too long). This act of fair play and sportsmanship allowed Renner to help her team win silver, and dropped Norway out of the medals.
NOCs 80Athletes 2,508 (960 women, 1,548 men)Events 84 Volunteers 18,000Media 9,408 (2,688 written press + 6,720 broadcasters)
The exciting sport of snowboard cross was included in the Olympic program for the first time in 2006. Competitors race against each other in groups of four on a course that includes banked turns, jumps and difficult terrain. The first gold medals were won by Seth Wescott of the United States and Tanja Frieden of Switzerland.
10 February 2006, Opening Ceremony of the XXth Olympic Winter Games. Stefania Belmondo prepares to light the Olympic cauldron.
Official opening of the Games by: The President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azaglio CIAMPI
Lighting the Olympic Flame by: Stefania BELMONDO (Cross country Skiing)
Olympic Oath by: Giorgio ROCCA (Alpine Skiing)
Official Oath by: Fabio BIANCHETTI (Skating)


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If Israel strikes Iran, it'll be because Obama didn
You should read the whole article but here are a few excerpts I found interesting
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dealt primarily with three things over the past three years: Iran, Iran, and Iran.
He hasn't forgotten for a moment that two leaders he happens to admire, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, didn't lift a finger to save European Jewry during the Holocaust. He is convinced that U.S. President Barack Obama won't lift a finger to save Israeli Jewry. Thus he believes solely in the Israeli sword, seeing it as a deep expression and the last defense of the Zionist revolution.
As of now, the military option is proving to be a diplomatic success. It managed to shake the international community out of its apathy and made a definitive contribution to the tightening of the diplomatic and economic siege on Iran.
But the time for playing diplomatic games with the military option is drawing to a close. There's a limit to how many times one can cry wolf. There's a point at which a "hold-me-back" policy exhausts itself. And that's a very dangerous point, because suddenly the military option turns into a real option.
The Netanyahu-Obama meeting in two weeks will be definitive. If the U.S. president wants to prevent a disaster, he must give Netanyahu iron-clad guarantees that the United States will stop Iran in any way necessary and at any price, after the 2012 elections. If Obama doesn't do this, he will obligate Netanyahu to act before the 2012 elections.
The moral responsibility for what may happen does not lie with the heirs of Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion. The moral responsibility will be borne by the man sitting in the chair that was once Franklin Roosevelt's.