Do SEO techniques actually work for e-commerce websites? SEO is a marketing strategy that many businesses are employing to generate more revenue. It’s especially important for online stores because SEO can help drive traffic to the site, which in turn will increase sales.
The key is understanding how SEO works and what you need to do in order to optimize your website. This blog post walks you through some of the basics of SEO optimization so that you can get started with it today!
What Is SEO for E-Commerce?
SEO for e-commerce is a method that can help e-commerce websites rank higher in search engine results. A well-designed and optimized website with excellent content will rank higher in search engines like Google, such as improving your store’s visibility and generating traffic.
In other words, e-commerce SEO entails optimizing your website to make it easier to attract leads and turn them into customers.
However, optimizing an e-commerce website is more than simply adding keywords, creating blog articles, and obtaining links, as SEO for content-focused websites is. You must be aware of how search engines function and what they appreciate in order to optimize an e-commerce site.
This implies knowing SEO for e-commerce, considering Google’s standards, understanding consumer intent, and putting it into practice effectively.
E-Commerce SEO Best Practices
E-commerce for SEO is a difficult subject, and with millions of online retail platforms in existence, it’s not always simple to make your site stand out.
Although SEO rankings may seem difficult to boost, you can make a good start by utilizing some best practices. This improves your chances of being discovered and obtaining more organic referrals and clients over time.
What are the most important aspects of an e-commerce SEO strategy for novices? Begin by focusing on fundamentals like:
- navigation
- internal links
- avoiding clutter
- creating unique content
- including alt text for images
1. Perform Keyword Research the Right Way
There are several various methods to improve your e-commerce site, and every one is suitable for a certain sort of product. Some criteria apply to every internet merchant, and one of them is conducting keyword research effectively.
Yes, you want the most relevant and popular keywords in your industry, but buyer intent must be considered.
The purpose behind a search inquiry is known as keyword intent. You may identify it by studying the precise terms and phrases that people use to look for an item online.
2. Optimize Product Pages to Improve Ranking
Look at your on-page user optimization if you want to attract and acquire new consumers. It’s crucial since it improves your site’s position, which means more fresh organic traffic and conversions.
Not every portion of your e-commerce site should be optimized, therefore only concentrate on the ones that are most essential to online retailers in this part: product descriptions, photos, and reviews.
3. Make Sure Your Site Is User Friendly
UX stands for user experience. You may improve UX by offering a beautiful aesthetic.
UX, on the other hand, focuses on how a website functions rather than simply looking good. It includes everything from site navigation to simplicity of use to the whole “feel” of the website.
UX is about making sure that users can discover what they’re searching for, keep them interested as they browse, and provide them with the best possible experience.
Although you may not believe that UX has an impact on SEO, it began some time ago, and user experience is also crucial for discoverability. Furthermore, recent changes indicate that user experience will soon be a Google ranking element.
To help you determine whether or not your Google My Business listing is worthy of an “Excellent” ranking, remember that the company calls it a “rare occasion.” So what does this mean for your business? According to Search Engine Land, it implies that if Google believes your website provides consumers with a poor experience, it may rank lower.
- Ads shouldn’t interfere with the user’s view of content.
- Your site should load quickly and be mobile-friendly.
- Any website should be clutter-free and easy to navigate.
- You should include CTAs, so customers know what to do next.
- You need consistent styling throughout and make it accessible
4. Don’t Forget Long-Tail Keywords
You’ll notice long-tail keywords on the right side of a search engine results page (SERP).
A long-tail keyword is a term that has little search volume on its own, yet it fulfills your company’s relevance requirements. They also convert well since they’re a better match for what the searcher is looking for and generally bring more traffic.
For all of these reasons, you shouldn’t be afraid to rank for long-tail keywords since they are a tremendous source of visitors.
Long-tail keywords are great for:
- competitive niches
- increased conversion rates
- ranking new sites more easily
Long-tail keywords can be discovered using Google’s “People also ask,” or you may use a free keyword tool like Ubersuggest. There are several more options available.
5. Use a Simple URL Structure
This section covers the most fundamental aspects of URL construction, including addressing systems and path structures. There are additional in-depth manuals on URL structure, but they are beyond the scope of this book.
A basic URL structure not only improves the user experience, but it also helps your e-commerce efforts a little.
It’s also worth noting that a simple URL structure makes it simpler to share items on social media and other websites, and it improves e-commerce SEO.
URLs should be as readable and comprehensible as possible for the greatest effects.
Here’s an example of what NOT to do: https://www.example.com/article-about-hiking/. It would be far better to utilize this URL pattern structure: https://www.example.com/hiking-articles Google also has some recommendations on improving URL structures.
6. Avoid Duplicate Pages and Content
Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve read a website’s content previously, after reading it? This is all too frequent with production descriptions and category descriptions in online stores employing duplicate product catalogs and photos.
It’s easy to comprehend why e-commerce sellers simply republish the same descriptions. Typically, it’s because they don’t have the resources to generate new material on their own.
However, even if you don’t have time to rewrite everything, you may still cut down on the amount of duplication on your site in product descriptions and other sections.
For example, using a CMS with site-wide 301 redirects and canonical tags on all pages that may have duplicates (pages with similar titles, pages sharing the same URL, etc.)
To help with this you could:
- add a suffix to the URL
- using different product images
- adding unique keywords on other pages
Content: Does Matter for E-Commerce
What makes a high-performing website? In addition to pictures and keywords, it’s also about content. Your SEO for e-commerce should incorporate written material as well.
Regular postings not only attract natural traffic, but they can also earn your consumers’ trust, improve your website rankings, and strengthen your reputation as a specialist in your field.
There are many types of content you can focus on:
- sharing how-to pieces and answering FAQs
- new product launches and anything newsworthy
- a glossary page
- including user-generated content (UGC)
- testimonials and launches
- video demonstrations and Q and As
- webinars
Take it a step further and get to know your target audience so you understand their main issues and concerns. This allows you to create content that addresses their prevalent concerns and suggests items that can help them.
You’ve now got some content ideas. However, without a strategy, the material is meaningless. Let’s look at it in more detail:
Understand what they enjoy. You should be able to determine what types of content get the most views if you’re keeping track of your data. You may also ask consumers and prospects through questionnaires or communities.
- Establish a content calendar and create the content.
- Use A/B testing in key areas like titles.
- Measure the results and tweak.
Conduct Competitor Research
If you’ve got no idea where to begin with on-site optimization for your e-commerce site, the best source of information is your competitors. Larger businesses, in particular, have most likely already invested the time and effort into optimizing their websites, and you may learn many of their secrets by reading through them.
It’s all about the keywords. You must concentrate on these keywords in particular. Key phrases are particularly important to evaluate, as well as the ones on their website’s homepages and top product pages.
How can you tell if a website is optimized for a certain phrase? You may start by using the Moz browser plugin to examine your competitors’ SEO titles and descriptions in their title tags.
You may examine what keywords your competitors are ranking for on both organic and paid searches to figure out which ones you should target.
Don’t stop your research with one keyword. Look at your rivals’ landing pages to see how they utilize the specified keywords to improve them.
Make the most of SEO for your e-commerce site
SEO for e-commerce websites is a complex process that can be difficult to understand. SEO for E-Commerce Websites are important because they help with rankings and conversions, but without SEO you may never even make it to the first page of search results!
