Lack of content — one of the items I listed on my recent retail SEO post, 6 Common Retail SEO Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them) - has never been a problem for Amazon.com. Just today, in fact, Amazon made itself much stronger content-wise with the purchase of DPReview.com, a wonderful site for all things related to digital cameras.

The purchase should come as no surprise because Amazon is one of the most forward-thinking online retailers when it comes to SEO. For years they’ve been practicing great SEO by:

• allowing user reviews on all their product pages
• posting full product descriptions (scroll down) from manufacturers
• inviting authors & artists to add content to the site via Amazon Connect
• inviting shoppers to create themed product lists
• creating linkbait, like the current Harry-est Town in America list
• allowing shoppers to upload their own product images
• managing the Amazon Daily blog
• making their URLs much more SEO-friendly than in the “old days”
• etc., etc.

It goes without saying that Amazon has enormous resources — financial, human, infrastructure, etc. — to make all of this happen. But I would also hope that small business retailers can look at what they’re doing and say, Can we do some of this, too? and What can we learn from them? I’ve seen a fair amount of small retailers doing a bang-up job of on-page SEO and covering the basics quite well, but what Amazon is doing is very impressive and, in many ways, a good example.

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