For e-commerce websites, SEO is a low-hanging fruit opportunity. Although SEO provides one of the best returns on investment (ROI) of any e-commerce marketing effort, search engines are often given little to no thought when building online storefronts.
Many people instead rely on social media or sponsored advertisements, which can be excellent for businesses but frequently demand a constant effort and source of cash. Companies spend billions of dollars on advertising each year, and this expense is only rising.
On the other hand, SEO mainly demands effort upfront; but, if you rank, you can effectively generate sales without any ongoing costs.
Understanding SEO best practices can help your ecommerce firm change and grow in light of this.
On-Page SEO Strategy
Making sure your keywords are in the appropriate places is the main goal of on-page SEO for e-commerce platforms. It helps to ensure that Google understands exactly what your page is about.
Because it aids in your appearance in additional Search Engine Results Page (SERP) elements, on-page SEO is crucial.
The following are some of the elements that affect SERP ranking:
E-commerce keyword research.
The very first stage in any e-commerce SEO effort is keyword research.
One of two things will occur if you make a mistake in this section:
You won’t reach page one since you’ll target keywords that are too challenging to rank for.
You’ll be ranked for keywords that don’t drive traffic or result in sales.
Both of these scenarios are undesirable, which is why conducting e-commerce keyword research is crucial. By doing so, you may choose to target phrases that are simple to rank for, have a respectable amount of search traffic, and have high conversion rates.
But choosing keywords involves more than just considering how hard they are to rank for or how many people use them. You can undertake e-commerce keyword research using the four approaches listed below to determine keyword difficulty (KD), search volume, and discover buyer intent:
1. Check to see if you are selecting the appropriate keywords.
You most likely won’t have keyword information for the terms you chose unless you utilize a service like Ahrefs. To choose which keywords to utilize, you must consider keyword difficulty, search volume, and buyer intent.
You can acquire an approximate estimate of search volume and CPC using Google Keyword Planner to ascertain buyer intent. It does not, however, provide you with spread or keyword difficulty (KD).
Consider developing a keyword matrix if you’re serious about improving your SEO and maximizing the spread of your keywords.
To rapidly select the ideal keywords to utilize on each of your pages, organize your spreadsheet and search through relevant phrases using a keyword matrix. Based on search volume, search purpose, and KD.
2. Use Amazon to find keywords.
Given that most searches on Amazon are made with the intention of making a purchase, Amazon is a gold mine for high buyer intent keywords.
Start putting your seed term into Amazon to find keywords. As a result, Amazon will spit out ideas for autofill. Put all of these keyword suggestions in a Google spreadsheet for subsequent use.
As you may expect, this could take a while if you have hundreds or thousands of products. The Amazon Keyword Tool can help with that.
For each keyword you enter, this program automatically scrapes Amazon’s autofill choices. Check all the keywords off as you search, add them to your list, and then use the “Get Selected Keywords” button to download that list as a CSV file.
3. Research competitors to find keywords.
You can leverage the websites of your rivals if they appear higher in search results than you do to get keyword suggestions. Enter your keyword into Google first, then select a rival and look through their category and product pages for potential keywords.
Remember that there are additional things to consider, such as domain authority, before using the same keyword as your rivals just because they outrank you.
Breadcrumbs, a sophisticated navigation feature that aids Google in crawling and indexing your site, should also be taken into account. By entering your site into Google, you can determine whether your breadcrumbs are set up appropriately. You have breadcrumbs set up if you see “yoursite.com -> category -> subcategory.”
4. To find keyword opportunities, use Ahrefs.
Ahrefs is a superb SEO tool all around. It is useful for many things, including keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink development, and more.
You may view built-out reports of keyword rankings on your site and those of your competitors using its simple methodology, enabling you to evaluate how you compare and where you can improve.
E-commerce product pages.
Possibly the most crucial sites to rank our product and category pages. They get immediate access to all of your products in that category if someone sees them on Google.
The following areas need to have your target keyword in order to successfully optimize these pages:
In the URL.
A straightforward method to raise your search rank is to include your main keyword in the URL. This is especially important for websites operating in more cutthroat markets because optimized URLs are another opportunity to outperform your rivals and increase visitors.
Additionally, you can alter them to use the keywords that will help your category pages rank better.
In the title tag (H).
The keyword should be as close to the beginning of the page title tag, or H1 tag, as feasible. This helps you rank naturally for the title tag and promotes the page’s main ideas.
In body copy.
Where things become a little tricky is in the body copy. The majority of category pages skip the preamble and jump right to the products, which isn’t ideal for Google.
It would be preferable to aim for an intro of at least 300 words, with your keyword appearing at least twice.
In image alt text.
Google relies on the alt text to understand what the image is and what it contains because it cannot read images.
Your keyword can be used again in the image alt text, which increases your chances of appearing in Google image search results.
In the metadata.
Although it hasn’t been demonstrated that putting your keyword in your metadata directly affects results, it can increase click-through rate (CTR), which has been demonstrated to enhance ranks.
This is so that Google will bold your primary term in the search results when you include it in the meta description and description tags:
Repeat the process for each of your category pages, then repeat it for each of your product pages.
Content marketing.
An increasingly significant component of contemporary marketing strategies is content. In fact, Oberlo’s research found that:
Content marketing has been successful for their brand, according to 96% of marketing decision-makers.
Organic traffic is used by more than half of marketers to gauge the effectiveness of their content.
Active content marketing investment is made by 70% of marketers.
One of the simplest strategies for your e-commerce company to rank for more keywords and develop backlinks is to produce quality content. Think about how few keywords product and category pages may rank for. You are unable to cover any more search real estate once you have used them all up.
These holes can be filled in with content. Long-tail and short-tail keywords related to your industry can now be ranked. It can be simpler to develop links to your site to raise its domain authority and increase traffic, which will ultimately lead to more sales.
Technical SEO Clean-Up
Not only are keywords important in the SEO process. Another aspect is technical, which is concerned with the minute particulars of a website.
The following elements of your website must be carefully examined and comprehended while executing SEO clean-up or e-commerce SEO audits:
Website architecture.
Your navigation, category pages, and product pages are all set up according to the architecture, or structure, of your e-commerce website. In essence, it’s about minimizing the number of clicks required for potential buyers to locate the greatest, most relevant content.
For a superb website structure, there are two “golden rules”:
Make it scalable and easy to use.
There should only be three clicks between any two pages.
Create page URLs and subdirectories that are extremely relevant by using keyword research.
Bad Site Architecture Example For E-commerce.
An illustration of poor site architecture is this picture. A category page requires four clicks to access, and if you wish to add a product or category page, you must bury it deep within your website.
This not only makes it difficult to navigate, but since your home page is the most important page on your website, it lowers your search engine rankings. Internal links within your website’s pages transfer authority from one page to another.
Good Site Architecture Example for E-commerce.
A good website’s architecture is demonstrated by this picture. All of your main category pages and, maybe, some of your top product pages, should be linked from your home page.
These pages can receive the most authority from your main page and hence have a better chance of ranking highly in search by using appropriate navigation and internal linking.
Page speed.
The user experience and ability of your site to rank both depend on site performance. A Radware study found that 51% of American internet buyers said they would abandon a transaction if a site was too slow.
Enter your URL into Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to see what you can do to make your site faster. Google will grade your site on desktop and mobile devices from 1 to 100 and provide tips for accelerating load speeds.
Redirects.
Users and search engines can be sent to a different URL from the one they initially requested by using redirects.
Redirects will impact your SEO, but whether this is for the better or worse depends on a variety of circumstances. Unique URLs are frequently used by search engines to identify them. When Google evaluates the page and the redirect, it will make an effort to determine how relevant the new page is to the keyword on the original page.
Make sure the old URL and the one being redirected are related, or else you risk losing SEO rankings.
Internal linking.
One of the most underutilized aspects of an SEO strategy is internal linking within product category pages, which can help consumers and searchers navigate from one page to another on your website.
By adding internal links to your pages, you create a website ecosystem that keeps visitors on your website longer and increases the possibility that they will engage or convert.
HTTPs.
Make sure that the keywords are considered while creating each of your URLs.
Automatically generated URLs are frequently used, and many marketers accept them before moving on to another page. That is a mistake and the passing up of a chance. You may improve your rankings and SEO abilities by designing each URL as an extension of the page itself.
Mobile responsive.
More than 60% of Google searches would be made on a mobile device by the end of 2021.
In light of this, it is clear that your SEO approach will be more successful if your website is mobile responsive as well as mobile friendly.
Duplicate content.
Duplicate material is aggressively disliked by Google, and it will penalize websites with an excessive number of such pages.
When creating content or category pages, make sure they stand out from the rest of your website and are distinctive.
Hreflang.
An HTML feature called Hreflang is used to specify the language and location of a webpage.
If you have many translations of the same page in different languages, using Hreflang might be beneficial for your SEO strategy because it can assist Google to distinguish between them. You don’t want to face consequences for attempting to engage with global audiences.
Canonicals.
By informing Google which version of a URL you wish to see in search results, canonical URLs or tags benefit your website.
Keywords may appear in many URLs within related themes or pages. Your SEO results may suffer if the master page isn’t tagged, as Google may punish you for using repetitive search phrases.
Sitemap.
A sitemap is a document that lists the pages, videos, and other assets on your website. In essence, the sitemap helps Google better crawl your website by informing it which pages are the most important ones.
Sitemaps are a little-appreciated but essential component of your SEO plan. You can try to direct potential readers and viewers to particular sites by instructing search engines where to look. This will improve those pages’ rankings and provide you with more control over site traffic.
Link Building Strategies
Google is more concerned with the following two ranking factors:
Content.
Links.
More than almost any other ranking factor, backlinks from other websites with strong domain authority to your website can raise its rankings.
It’s a little more difficult and time-consuming than simply making a change to your website because they are regarded as off-page SEO. To obtain those links, you’ll need to work together with other bloggers and merchants.
The five distinct link-building options listed below are among the most efficient and simple to understand:
1. Resource page link building.
Without a better term, resource pages are pages that are packed with resources related to your sector.
They can take on several shapes, frequently as a blog post or simply as a straightforward, static page. Even while they might not have the same authority as blogs, static pages are often simpler to create and can help you rank better. Despite the fact that the latter may not give you authority because of the page’s massive quantity of links, they are considerably simpler to obtain and will help your rankings.
Just Google ” inurl: resources + X” to get resource pages (X being your product, topic, or industry). When you locate a page that appears promising, enter the URL and the site’s contact information into a spreadsheet.
Sending them an email is the next step once you have a solid list of leads. Make sure to personalize each email to avoid sounding impersonal.
2. Partnering with influencers.
Influencers are persons in your business or area that don’t directly compete with you but have a sizable following and/or a highly-ranked website.
Influencer marketing is definitely something you’ve heard about. But working together with influencers for SEO is a little different.
The objective is to have a link back to your website from their website rather than paying an influencer to promote your goods on social media. This might be a link to an existing page on their website or a blog post with product details.
3. Broken link building.
One of the best and simplest link-building strategies is broken link construction, sometimes known as “creating links by fixing the internet.”
It works by checking websites in your field for broken links using a browser plugin like Check My Link. For a double-whammy, you can search resource sites or blog entries about your subject.
This type of add-on makes it simple to identify broken links because they are highlighted in red. If you see one on a website, you can email the owner to try and get the problem resolved.
4. Stealing competitor’s links.
How about raising your rankings and eliminating the opposition at the same time?
You may view your competitors’ keywords, discover where all of their links are coming from, and try to steal them for yourself by using a service like Ahrefs.
This is how:
Enter their URL in the site navigator.
Select the “backlinks” tab from the menu on the left.
Filter results based on “One link per domain” and “Dofollow” links (Dofollow links tell Google to follow them, no follow links tell Google not to follow them).
With this, you can identify the particular websites and pages from which your rivals are linking.
5. Guest posting.
Link building is made easier by utilizing guest posting on sites and in articles. It can assist your website in developing connections with industry leaders and websites, leveraging their knowledge and audience to broaden the exposure of your own website.
You can improve your SEO keyword rankings by gaining high-quality links to and from your site through guest posting.
Measuring SEO Success
Pay-per-click (PPC) is more straightforward than SEO because you can measure ROI right away after spending money on ads for a day. The signals instead rely on minor improvements in rankings and are more subtle and take longer.
There are two things you need to do in order to monitor your rankings:
Use Ahrefs to track search rankings.
You can utilize Ahrefs’ built-in rank tracking feature to receive notifications anytime your rankings rise or fall.
They improved this function to provide even more useful data, such as comparing your advancement to that of your competitors and viewing your overall search visibility. You can use it to get a broad idea of whether or not your rankings are improving or declining.
A long-term overall improvement in your ranks for your targeted keywords, no matter how slight, is an excellent outcome.
Use Google Analytics to measure organic traffic and engagement metrics.
Install this free SEO dashboard on your analytics if you want a way to see gains in your search ranking for free or if you want more structured data.
With Webris, you should be searching for more subtle hints rather than quick ranking gains, such as:
an increase in search activity
the destination page for search traffic
Which keywords you’re ranking for can be determined by these two pieces of information. Then, you can run a Google incognito search to find out where you are.
How to Increase Ecommerce Sales
Discover our free resources in our library to scale more effectively and hasten your online business growth from $1 million to $100 million.
The Final Word
From social media to paid advertisements to email, there are many ways to increase visitors. However, only search traffic is dependable, cost-free, self-sufficient, and quite simple to obtain.
Learning the ins and outs of e-commerce SEO methods can alter your business if you want your site to get a lot of traffic and attract the visitors you want.
Sales can increase tremendously as a result of a straightforward SEO effort. What’s best? You don’t need to wait years to accomplish it. It won’t take you long to get there if you follow this advice.
