Have you ever wanted your eCommerce site to be on the top search system ranking? That said you might have heard about such things as UX/UI design, link building, mobile friendliness, etc. The combination of these things leads businesses to appear high on Google and boost customer traffic.
E-commerce SEO combines all these things and is a leading instrument for reaching a wide audience.
In this article, we want to delve into it and share some SEO tips for eCommerce. Using them will help you keep your eCommerce growth and be a leader in your business field.
What is eCommerce SEO?
In simple words eCommerce SEO optimization is the process of getting organic traffic by using search engine algorithms.
The thing is, Google strives for delivering the most relevant search results. That's why it constantly updates its search. Without keeping an eye on it, your site is likely to be lost in dozens of similar links.
Search engines never reveal information about their algorithms, so sticking to them isn't an easy task to do. However, several things have already proven to be vital for browsers and SEO. They include:
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Keywords
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Content
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Metadata
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URLs
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Backlinks
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Mobile-friendliness
Consider these things if you want your eCommerce to be shown in the top search results, which grab 63% of potential clients.
If you are thinking about how to start an eCommerce business online, at the very beginning it is better to create SEO strategy for eCommerce.
Its implementation will become the most profitable marketing strategy. Even though it needs investments and can hardly be done by a business owner, the money will come back to you in no time. If you are still wondering why SEO is important for eCommerce, take a look at the benefits that it provides.
Advantages of sticking to SEO
1. Organic search
Organic flow is complicated to reach but it provides you with long-term results. When you have a profound SEO tactic, your eCommerce will adapt to constant changes and respond to customers' desires. Moreover, thanks to SEO eCommerce won't just attract people but will focus on a specific target audience. That leads to engaging those clients who are potentially interested in your services.
2. Trustworthiness
People get used to covering their needs using the first few links on the search system. Clients might have noticed that the higher the site's link, the more convenient and user-friendly it is. The importance of this benefit is not only the fact that customers decide to click on your link, but also that people will trust the information given on the eCommerce page. We are accustomed to the fact that first-ranking pages go through a deep web analysis and simply can't lie to their customers.
3. User experience
eCommerce SEO reminds businesses that they should serve people and focus on their needs. Since 2021 Google has been prioritizing user experience, which means that staying afloat is difficult without applying user-friendly shopping tools. SEO for retail websites focuses on making customers' shopping journey as fast and as pleasurable as possible. Therefore SEO strategy will keep you informed on the latest tools that will reach better conversions.
4. Brand awareness
Besides attracting more customers, getting closer and closer to the ranking spot provides your business with higher recognition. In other words, even if a potential client doesn't click on your web page, still this person will remember your brand name or logo and will associate you with the place that has a needed solution.
5. Trackability
Unlike many other marketing solutions that are difficult to be tracked SEO for eCommerce brings you an organic flow that is easier to track. For example, you can use such tools as Google Search Console. With its help, you will have a more vivid idea of how people find you. Analyzing this data you will discover some things for improvements and testing new optimization tools.
And one of the biggest benefits an eCommerce gets from SEO is that from investing quite a small amount of money, it gets great results. Considering other marketing tools SEO for eCommerce websites is quite an on-budget solution. For sure, you can hire a qualified person who will write you an in-depth strategy. However, you can save money by implementing this tool yourself.
Best SEO Strategies for E-commerce Website
There are several basic rules that you need to know. We want to share with you our beginner's guide to SEO on how to do SEO for an eCommerce website.
1. Perform Keyword Research the Right Way
These are the fixed words and phrases that people use to find what they need. Basic knowledge of keyword usage is important for ranking high.
One of the key factors here is finding the right ones. For this, you need to make an in-depth search for high-quality keywords. Considering this, there are some steps you need to follow in your examination.
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Create a list of the topics relevant to yours.
Being quite an underestimated step, it's still advisable to do it as it will supply you with a deeper understanding of your potential client. Here you need to start by analyzing the general categories.
For example, you are looking for the right keywords to add to your product page with trainers. That's why you need to start by making a list of keywords relevant to such topics as sports, sports clothes, comfortable training shoes, etc. This step will help you to be in your client's shoes and understand their search purposes.
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Expand these topics with the phrases customers use during the search
On this point, you need to have a small brainstorm and broaden those topics with the phrases clients can use during the search.
For example, if we take the topic 'comfortable training shoes', you can expand it by using the next keywords: best running shoes, comfy trainers, boots for exercising, etc.
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Use keyword research tools for analyzing their strength
After getting an approximate keyword list you need to get to know their strength. Doing that won't require much effort as it is done by such search tools as Ahrefs, Wordtacker, and Ubersuggest. Some of them also have free versions to encourage your easy start.
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Take advantage of long-tail keywords
Once you have a list of appropriate words you should also check them among your competitors, especially if they have a high Google ranking. Look at the SERP of the words you want to apply. If you see that much bigger brands actively use those words, stick to long-tail ones.
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Verify search intent
Whenever someone needs to buy something, the person writes a question on Google. You need to understand the core purpose of every request and how your eCommerce can cover someone's needs.
For example, if the customer writes a specific word combination and has the intent of getting additional information on a product but instead of giving it you sell this thing, they will leave quickly.
That's why at the end of keyword research you ought to ensure one more time that you use the right words.
2. Optimize Product Pages to Improve Ranking
Product page plays a vital role in your eCommerce SEO. A great part of businesses have the same mistake here – they think that people mainly come through the homepage. However, statics of many online shop conversions shows that they still get a lot of traffic from their product pages.
When you optimize a product page a principal thing here is to keep your sight on the overall site performance and how your product page works together with the rest pages. Once you have decided to edit it, keep the following things in mind to reach the full product page potential.
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Target your item name with keywords
When you are writing a product name include your brand name, product name, and additional characteristics such as color, size, etc. Here it is also important not to confuse the item page with your brand or brand category page. That means that here you need to focus specifically on your product.
For example, if we take a look at the Nike product page, we will notice the next item name: Nike Invincible 3, men's road running shoes.
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Consider your meta information
Always keep in mind that before clicking on your item page, the person sees the title tag and meta description first. They should be easy to read, short, unique, and contain high-volume keywords. It might be a complicated task if you sell a big amount of items. That's why it's advisable to work with automatically generated ones.
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Have a review spot
It has already been proven that reviews have a major influence on people. Humans believe humans. That's how you will show your reputation. Thanks to having a few reviews you will improve your search ranking and brand trust.
3. Make Sure Your Site Is User Friendly
If you are a constant web user, you might have been in a situation when you wanted to know more information about the needed item but were confused with the navigation menu. What did you do in that case? There is no doubt that when someone can't get the desired answer he or she just closes the site. Such a poor user experience has a great impact on your site ranking performance.
Therefore you should create the best user experience that is possible and provide them with pleasurable shopping. That means keeping an eye on the latest updates on web design and refusing from cluttering it. Talking about on-page SEO eCommerce there are two main things you need to do first.
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Simplify navigation
When someone clicks on your web link, he is automatically transferred to the main page, where he will use the navigation to find the desired item. It's a well-known fact that it should be clean and as simple as possible. However, nowadays it isn't enough. You need to make your navigation in such a way as to slightly direct potential buyers to product pages.
Always keep this in mind and create a web road for your client. Consider how many actions and clicks it will take to get from the main page to check out.
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Stick to common elements and tools
For sure, there is always tempting to be unique and have distinctive site elements. But here we should also stick to the rule ' the simpler, the better '. Your online store isn't made to impress customers, but it serves for covering their needs and making their life easier.
4. Don’t Forget Long-Tail Keywords
Talking about the keywords you need to apply, you should always consider long-tailed ones. These kinds of words are more specific than general terms and allow you to attract the right audience. Their advantage over short keywords is that they are more competitive and targeted. Using them you can better specify the things that you offer. Such tools as Data Cube might be helpful for you to identify the needed phrases that you can use.
5. Use a Simple URL Structure
During your Google search URL remains a visible and essential part of your webpage. Some people click directly on it to open the web page.
URLs matter for your SEO strategy as in simple words they create a straight link between your content and a potential client. If you take a quick look at the URLs of different web pages, you will notice that all of them use different strategies.
There is no one perfect template to use for a win-win solution. However, you can always keep in mind some basic rules that will help you to create a suitable URL.
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Keep it short
Oftentimes Google automatically uses the page's title for its URL. Even though in some cases it can be a solution, however, it is preferable to create another one, that will be shorter and more specific.
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Use targeted keywords
It's also vital to include the keywords in your URL. This option will help both the search system and potential clients understand what your page is about.
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Be ready for constant URLs changes
It's okay to change your URLs in time if they don't work. You have always the option of customizing and making them more relevant.
6. Use Schema Markups to Help Google and Users Understand Content
They serve as little browser helpers that provide them with understanding your content and showing it to the right audience. Easy to say markups are used to tell search systems the meaning of your data.
When you understand scheme markups, you can boost your search engine optimization eCommerce and convert more organic traffic. According to one web analysis, if the site has a markup, its position in the search system is at least 4 times higher than the position of those that haven't.
This tool won't tell much of your time to set up and can be done in a few steps.
1. Go to Google's Structured Data Markup Helper and select the type of your data.
2. Click on "Start Tagging" and add the URL alongside the items.
3. Choose the web page element to mark up.
4. As soon as you have finished adding the needed data, create HTML.
5. Add schema markup using Google guide.
6. Take advantage of the Structured Data Testing Tool to examine the way your page works with the markup.
As you can see this tool is both fast and easy to implement. Just take it and you will see flourishing results.
7. Avoid Duplicate Pages and Content
It can be surely said that the number one thing that search engine optimization for eCommerce is duplicate content. Why is it so? The thing is when any browser sees identical information it doesn't know which to include. Moreover, Google values unique content and strives to provide people with it. That's why duplicate content can be one of the major problems when it comes to ranking. So whenever you add any type of information it is advisable to do the next things.
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Provide people with unique content
One of the main pieces of advice here is simply a unique product description. So you need to write your texts and check every content page on whether it has been copied from another website.
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Use 301 redirect
Thanks to this tool the chosen data can be moved to another URL. This redirection technique is used when you create a new URL. Sites oftentimes take this method to direct people to another page.
Once you focus on creating quality content and keep an eye on minimizing duplicate ones, people will choose your web over another more often.
8. Don’t Let Page Speed Kill Your Ranking
One more direct ranking factor is page speed. The perfect site speed is 3 seconds.
When you follow our previous advice, your site speed automatically becomes higher. If you want the site to reach its maximum potential you can also consider the next things.
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Choose average-sized images
For sure, optimized images enhance user experience as they are more appealing. But they also boost your loading time. Therefore one of the fastest ways to increase page loading speed is to check all your image formats and compress them.
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Minimize redirects
The thing is when you have additional links, they will prolong the HTTP request and respond slower. That's why it is better to avoid creating unnecessary links to your web pages and identify the redirects that aren't working for your benefit.
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Reduce unused plugins
It's a controversial idea that the more plugins you have, the better. Not all plugins are necessary. Moreover, some of them only slow down your web and can be unsecured in case of being outdated.
So as you can see enhancing your site loading speed isn't good only for SEO but also keeps your web security.
9. Content Does Matter for E-Commerce
According to analysis based on people's behavior, a great part of them consider only the product picture and basic characteristics during the decision-making process. Taking different businesses the number of clients that decide on item photos varies. However, when you are supplied with eCommerce on-page SEO the created strategy will keep an eye on different content types to follow the latest trends.
Depending on your eCommerce type and goals you can consider what additional content you can apply. For instance, nowadays more and more customers enjoy video reviews or the goods shown in 3-D pictures.
10. Link Building for E-Commerce
Link building is quite a complicated tool with which you should have a smart and careful approach. That is because links can decrease your eCommerce performance.
However, when you understand how to use it, link-building will become your handy tool that increases search engine ranking. For this, you should follow link-building techniques such as product feedback technique or being listed on ‘where to buy pages’.
As was said before, you can apply those SEO tips for eCommerce during your strategy-crafting. Using our eCommerce SEO guide, you will be able to have an on-budget solution. However, if you need a faster and 100% precise compound you can use the help of our team.
SolidBrain has been providing prime eCommerce compounds for more than 9 years. Take a look at our B2B eCommerce software solutions and use the whole potential of your webpage!
