SEO. The holy grail of eCommerce. If you can crack the code on SEO, you’re guaranteed a spot at the top of Google’s search results and a never-ending stream of traffic to your e-commerce website.
In 2021 Global retail e-commerce sales reached $4.9 trillion and are estimated to rise to $7.4 trillion in the next 4 years.
If you’re among the many e-commerce entrepreneurs who want a piece of that pie, your first step is optimizing your e-commerce website for search engines.
But today’s SEO can be a tough nut to crack, especially for eCommerce websites. There’s just so much to consider! Where do you even begin?
This blog post will outline some simple ecommerce SEO tips that will help optimize your online store and boost your rankings and conversions.
So without further ado, let’s get started!
What are the best SEO tips for eCommerce?
Here are the best e-commerce SEO tips to get you started on your journey to the top of the search rankings:
1. Keyword research
Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high-return activities in search marketing.
Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your eCommerce SEO strategy.
Before starting keyword research, you need to understand the different types of keywords to know the ones you want to target.
Related: 5 best free keyword research tools
What are the different types of keywords?
Keywords can be classified in several ways. The most common classification is by keyword type, which includes:
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Informational Keywords
Informational keywords are typically longer, more detailed phrases visitors use when they’re further along in the buyer’s journey.
For example, “What is a community platform?” or “SEO tips for eCommerce” are informational keywords.
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Navigational Keywords
Navigational keywords are shorter, more specific phrases that visitors use when they know exactly what they want to buy.
For example, “Nike running shoes” and “E-commerce SEO company” are both navigational keywords.
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Transactional Keywords
Transactional keywords are the ones that indicate an intent to purchase. For example, “buy SEO services” or “hire eCommerce SEO experts” are transactional keywords.
Identifying the different types of keywords is just the first step in SEO keyword research. The next step is to determine how to use them in your content for the best results.
Read also: How to start an e-commerce business
How to Use Keywords in Your Content?
Once you have a list of targeted SEO keywords, it’s time to start using them in your content. There are a few different ways you can do this:
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Use keyword-rich titles and meta-descriptions
Want to ensure your eCommerce site is visible to potential customers? Then you need to make sure you’re using keyword-rich titles and descriptions. When people search for those terms, it helps your content appear in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
You can attract more visitors to your online store by including relevant keywords and boosting sales. So don’t forget to use SEO-friendly titles and descriptions – it’s essential for eCommerce success.
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Use keyword-rich H1 tags
H1 tags are like titles for individual sections of your content. By including relevant keywords here, you can help Google understand what each section is about and match it with relevant searches.
Of course, simply stuffing your H1 tags full of keywords is not enough – the key is to strike a balance between optimization and readability.
But if you can target the right mix of keyword-rich H1 tags, you’ll be well on improving your website’s SEO.
In addition to including keywords, your H1 tags should be clear and concise, making it easy for readers to understand what each section is about.
While there’s no magic formula for writing the perfect H1 tag, following these tips will help you create effective and stylish tags.
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Use keywords throughout your product descriptions
There’s no need to be shy about using keywords on your product pages.
In fact, a little healthy keyword usage can go a long way toward helping your site rank higher in search engine results. Remember not to overdo it, or you could get penalized for keywording.
The goal is to use keywords thoughtfully and sparingly to give your website the best chance of being discovered by people looking for what you have to offer.
So go ahead and sprinkle those keywords throughout your text.
2. On-page optimization
On-page optimization is a vital SEO tip for ecommerce businesses of all sizes.
After all, if your pages can’t be easily found and indexed by search engines, potential customers will never even know your store exists. Fortunately, you can take various baby steps to optimize your eCommerce site for search engines.
Optimize product pages
If you’re not already, you should start including optimized title tags and meta descriptions on your product pages. Here is how:
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Title tags
The title tag is one of the top on-page optimization factors. Titles appear in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) when your website comes up as a result of a given search.
Ensure your title tags are clear and concise and include relevant keywords for potential customers’ best chance of being seen.
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Meta descriptions
The meta description is a content brief under your title tag in SERPs. It is your chance to attract potential visitors to your e-commerce store with a compelling and keyword-rich description of what you have to offer.
Ensure your meta descriptions are well written (under 150 characters) and include relevant keywords for the best results.
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Header tags
Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) structure your content and make it easier to read. They also provide an opportunity to include relevant keywords that can help improve your SEO.
Make sure you use header tags thoughtfully and sparingly and include relevant keywords where appropriate.
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Product descriptions
Your product descriptions are essential both for potential customers and for search engines. Ensure your descriptions are well-written and informative, and include relevant keywords.
Include images and videos
Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, an image can also be worth a thousand clicks. Images are often overlooked in SEO, but they can be a powerful tool for improving your site’s SEO.
Here are a few ecommerce SEO tips for using images to boost your site’s visibility:
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Use descriptive ALT tags
ALT tags describe images on your website. Alt texts are essential for accessibility and SEO – including keyword-rich ALT tags can help improve your website’s ranking in image searches.
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Optimize file sizes
Large image files slow down your website, hurting your ranking in search results.
Make sure to optimize your images for the web by saving them in the correct file format and reducing their file size.
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Include keywords in your filenames
Another way to improve your image SEO is to include relevant keywords in your filenames. Doing so helps search engines understand your image and index it properly.
Add internal links to other pages
As any SEO expert knows, internal linking is key to a solid on-page optimization strategy. By linking to relevant pages on your website, you help search engines understand the structure of your site and find all your content more easily.
You can also use internal links to improve the user experience by helping visitors navigate from one page to another.
When adding internal links, use relevant keywords as the anchor text to help improve your website’s ranking in search results.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO is optimizing your website for the crawling and indexing phase of the search engine optimization process. The process involves ensuring your website is accessible and easy for search engines to crawl and index your content.
It also involves optimizing your website’s code and structure to ensure that it is as efficient and effective as possible. Some common technical SEO tasks include:
Optimizing the robots.txt file
The robots.txt file notifies search engines which pages on your website should and should not crawl.
Optimizing this file can help improve your website’s SEO by ensuring that search engines can effectively crawl and index your content.
The easiest way to optimize your robots.txt file is to include all of the pages on your site that you want to be indexed and exclude any that you don’t. You can also use wildcards to exclude entire site sections, such as images or videos.
If you’re unsure how to edit your robots.txt file, plenty of resources online can help. Just be sure to triple-check your work before you publish it, as a mistake could result in search engines being unable to index your site correctly.
Creating an XML sitemap
Your e-commerce site is like a house. And like every good house, it needs a map. That’s where XML sitemaps come in. XML sitemaps are files listing all the pages on your website and providing information about each page.
The file helps search engines understand the structure of your website and find all of your content more easily. Creating an XML sitemap can be a helpful technical SEO task that can improve your website’s ranking in search results.
Setting up redirects
Redirects are like detours. You might be driving along, minding your own business when you suddenly see a flashing sign that says “ROAD CLOSED AHEAD.”
But instead of turning around and returning the way you came, you follow the detour and eventually end up at your destination.
Redirects work in much the same way. When you type a URL into your browser and hit enter, your computer sends a request to the server where that website is hosted.
The server then looks up the IP address associated with that URL and sends it back to your computer.
But what if the server can’t find the IP address associated with the URL you’ve typed in?
That’s where redirects come in. A redirect is like a detour for your browser. It tells your computer to look for the content it’s trying to find at a different address.
Setting up redirects helps users find the content they’re looking for, even if the URL has changed.
Fixing broken links
Nobody likes a broken link. You click on a promise-looking link, eager to learn more about the topic, only to be met with a 404 page.
It’s the internet equivalent of being stood up on a date. And just like getting ghosted, broken links can leave a bad taste in your mouth. But while a broken link may not be a pleasant experience for your website’s visitors, it can also harm your SEO.
Search engines crawl and index websites by following links, so they may have difficulty understanding your site’s structure and content if they encounter a broken link leading to lower rankings in search results.
Fortunately, fixing broken links is relatively simple. Using a broken link checker tool, you can quickly find and fix any broken links on your website.
So don’t let broken links bring your SEO down- take care of them and watch your site’s ranking improve.
Improving site speed
A website’s speed is critical for many reasons. First, faster-loading pages can improve your website’s SEO by providing a better user experience. Second, quicker loading of pages can result in higher conversion rates.
And finally, faster-loading pages just look better – who wants to wait around for a slow website to load?
There are many SEO tips you can do to speed up your website. One is to optimize your images to reduce their file size without reducing their quality.
Another tip is to use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN stores your website’s static files – like images, CSS, and JavaScript – on servers worldwide.
When someone visits your site, they’ll pull the files they need from the server closest to them, resulting in a faster loading time.
4. Link building
Link building is our last SEO tip for ecommerce. And in case you forgot, link building is creating links to your website from other websites.
It’s done by adding your website’s URL to your signature when you post on forums or by guest posting on other blogs.
Link building is vital because it is one if not the best Google ranking factors. Search engines crawl and index websites by following links, so the more links pointing to your site, the higher your chances of ranking in search results.
The different types of backlinks
There are two main types of backlinks: editorial or do-follow links and nofollow links.
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Dofollow
A do-follow link is a link that will pass SEO credit to your website. Your website’s SEO will improve if you have many do-follow links pointing to it.
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Nofollow
A nofollow link is a link that will not pass SEO credit to your website. Your website’s SEO will not improve regardless of the number of nofollow links pointing to it.
How to get high-quality backlinks
Getting high-quality backlinks is essential for any website that wants to rank higher in search engine results pages, but many SEOs don’t know how to get them. Here are a few ways to get you started:
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Guest posting
Guest posting is an excellent way to get high-quality backlinks to your website. When you publish a guest post, you can include a link back to your site in your author bio.
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Broken link building
Broken link building is when you find broken links on other websites and then contact the site owner to let them know. You can then suggest that they replace the broken link with a link to your website.
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Infographic submission
Infographics are excellent for getting people to notice your website. When you submit an infographic to a website or directory, you can include a link to your site.
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Roundups
Roundups are blog posts that curate the best content on a particular topic. When you contribute to a roundup, you can include a link back to your website.
5. Measuring results and refining strategy
After you’ve implemented all of the above ecommerce SEO tips, it’s important to measure the results of your efforts.
If you’ve embarked on a new diet or workout regimen, you know that the key to success is tracking your progress. The same is true of any business endeavor. Without measuring results, it’s impossible to know what’s working and what’s not. Here are the steps to follow.
Define what success looks like – short-term and long-term
SEO for ecommerce sites is a long-term strategy, so you shouldn’t expect to see results overnight.
That being said, setting both short-term and long-term SEO goals is important. Short-term SEO goals could be increasing your website’s traffic by 10% or improving your organic search ranking by 3 positions.
Long-term SEO goals might be increasing your website’s traffic by 100% or improving your organic search ranking by 10 positions.
Set up tracking parameters
You need to use the right tools to track your SEO progress. Several SEO tracking tools are available, but the most popular ones are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Both of these tools are free to use and will give you a wealth of data that you can use to track your SEO progress.
Analyze data
Once your tracking parameters are set up, it’s time to start analyzing the data to see what is working, what needs improvement, and what should be scrapped.
Look at your website’s traffic, organic search ranking, and conversion rate. If you see that your SEO efforts are paying off, then you know you’re on the right track.
Adjust strategy based on findings
You may need to adjust your SEO strategy based on your data analysis. If you see that certain SEO tactics are working well, you can double down on them and use them more often.
If you see that other SEO tactics are not working, then you can eliminate them from your strategy altogether.
Rinse and repeat
The final step is to rinse and repeat the process. SEO is an ongoing strategy, so you’ll need to continue tracking your progress and adjusting your strategy over time.
SEO tips for ecommerce final thought
Your business (small, medium, and enterprises) can benefit from following these simple SEO tips for ecommerce.
You’ll enjoy increased visibility and conversions by optimizing your e-commerce website and content for search.
And don’t forget to measure ranking results and refine your strategy as needed; SEO is an ever-evolving field, so it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve.
Are you ready for more visibility and conversions from your eCommerce efforts? Implement these five simple ecommerce SEO tips today.
Arthur Bio:
- Website: techgumb.com
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OnlineM13
Isaac is an online marketer, writer, and blogger whose mission in life is to help people find their way by painting images through words that inspire them on this journey called “life.” He loves using his wit and humor to make people laugh and feel good because he believes that if we can all lighten up a little bit and enjoy the ride, we’ll be better.
