Increasing traffic to your eCommerce business is one of the most effective strategies to attract new consumers. You could use Digital Ads for the same, but with PPC Ads becoming more expensive by the day, it’s simply impossible to compete with larger eCommerce firms in keyword bidding wars. Here’s where eCommerce SEO may help.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to reduce your reliance on sponsored channels, improve your Google search rankings, and increase organic traffic to your website. If you buy affordable ecommerce hosting, you will get high-quality results.
If people can’t find you when they search online, it is futile to have a well-designed website with the best products at great rates.
This is where all of your SEO work will pay off. People are more likely to find you if you rank higher in search results. And the more visitors you attract, the more sales you’re going to make.
Here are some tried and tested SEO tips to optimize and grow your eCommerce website.
1. Use Effective Keywords
Keywords are the terms that people use to find information on the internet. You must focus on these keywords to appear to potential clients seeking your products.
You can have as many keywords as you want, but it’s crucial to share the prime information. Your goal is to inform Google about the content of each page on your site so that it can appear in relevant searches. Don’t waste time focusing on multiple keywords for each page; this will only muddy the waters! Instead choose a few terms to focus on for each product, page, or category.
However, how does one choose the best keywords to use? Here are some suggestions:
- Begin with what you already know. Make a list of what you have to offer, as well as terms that are related. If you sell pet supplies, that list can include items like “ID tags,” “toy mice,” and “dog food.” These terms might have a lot of different meanings.
- Look at the numbers. Also, look at any existing analytics and data to see what keywords people are already using to discover you. Google Analytics and Moz Keyword Explorer, for example, can be extremely useful in this situation.
- Consider the user’s intent. When someone searches the internet, they have a goal in mind. A user’s main purpose behind visiting an eCommerce store would be to make a purchase. Keywords can help you figure out what each searcher is looking for. A person looking up “typical digital marketing agency revenue,” for example, could be looking for advice on how to establish their own business. Someone looking for “digital marketing agencies near me” is most likely looking to make a purchase or use the services instantly.
2. Make Your Product Page Enjoyable
Now that you’ve incorporated keyword research into your strategy, it’s time to examine your product pages to improve the client buying experience.
Is this an actual eCommerce SEO aspect, you might be wondering? That’s correct. In recent years, Google has improved its search to highlight the highest-quality content near the top of its results, and eCommerce is no different.
Related: How to Choose the Best Hosting Plan for Your eCommerce Business?
When it comes to publishing, it is vital to concentrate on quality. Provide the most accurate and up-to-date information to your target audience. It raises the bar for all brands, particularly those in the eCommerce industry.
But, how do you make your product page experience more delightful? The following are some of the components of a successful product page:
- Product images in various colors and sizes.
- Descriptions of the models in each image that show the product in use.
- Descriptions of the fabric of the product, its sustainability, and where the materials are from.
- Quotes, ratings, and reviews from real users.
In your product descriptions, be comprehensive and detailed. Include the keywords you picked for each product page, if relevant. But don’t just stuff them in as many times as possible. Instead, include them into your existing material in a natural way.
3. Use Metadata Wherever Possible
Each page on your website has a place between the tags where you can include metadata or information about the page’s contents. If you have a CMS site built by the web team, this data will be pre-populated for you. However, as your site evolves, you must analyze and update metadata.
Title Metadata
The page titles that appear at the top of a browser window and as the headline inside search engine results are called title metadata. It’s the most crucial piece of metadata on your page.
The web team has developed an automatic technique for constructing the meta title for each web page based on your page title for individuals who have a CMS website. It emphasizes the value of well-crafted page titles that include keyword terms.
Description Metadata
The textual description that a browser may utilize in your page search return is known as descriptive metadata. Consider it your website’s window display—a detailed and enticing explanation of what’s inside to get people to come in. An excellent meta description usually consists of two whole sentences. Although search engines may not always use your meta description, it is critical to provide them with the choice.
Keyword Metadata
Search engine rankings are rarely, if ever, based on keyword metadata. However, since you should already be familiar with your keyword phrases, it isn’t necessary to provide them in your keyword metadata. You’ll want to use a wide range of phrases. As a general rule, limit yourself to 3-7 phrases, each of which should have 1-4 words. “Computer science degree” is an excellent example.
4. Enhance Website Navigation
While each eCommerce site is unique, the average time a user spends on a website before leaving is 10-20 seconds. Users will look elsewhere if your site is difficult to navigate, if your categories are jumbled, and if they aren’t drawn to your brand within that time limit. This is why optimizing your site’s navigation and structure is vital for SEO as well as the overall user experience.
This suggestion has two key components. The first step is to improve navigation, which can be accomplished by using breadcrumbs. Breadcrumb navigation is a type of site navigation that allows users to see where they are in a site’s structure without having to look up the URL.
The alternate way to enhance your website is to improve its structure. You should strive for as clean a URL structure as feasible. Clean URLs are meant to increase usability and accessibility for both your visitors and Google by being intuitive and meaningful.
5. Ensure There Is No Duplicate Content
Text that appears in several locations online, whether on your own or someone else’s, is known as duplicate content. Google and other search engines despise duplicate content since it’s confusing. They have no notion which version is the most accurate and correct, so they don’t know how to rank them.
So, how can you keep your online store from having duplicate content?
- Don’t merely copy and paste descriptions from manufacturers. Make sure you’re not adding the supplier’s default descriptions if you drop-ship things. After all, it’s likely that everyone else selling the same things is doing the same thing. Instead, stand out by putting your stamp on things.
- Make each product’s description distinctive. It’s tempting to copy and paste the same description many times if you have similar products. However, this may cause both product pages’ rankings to be diluted. Spend some time pondering what makes each one unique and concentrate on it.
- Double-check the structure of your URLs. Session IDs, tracking links, and pagination difficulties are all things to keep an eye out for. Yoast goes through these types of technical issues in further depth.
- Examine your subcategories. Narrowing down your categories can be challenging in the early stages of your eCommerce business, and as you grow, you’ll most likely extend into new ones. However, avoid duplicating your categories. Stick to a primary keyword for your category if you’re a new eCommerce business. You can start by using the keyword research example from earlier to find a keyword to target. Run a website audit if you’re an established eCommerce brand to discover if you have any duplicate categories.
6. Enhance Page Speed
For a long time, it has been known that Google prioritizes page speed as one of its ranking elements. Page speed is beneficial in terms of connecting shoppers to the things they’re seeking as quickly as possible.
Remember how, according to the previous statistic in this post, people spend 10-20 seconds on websites before leaving? A slow website loading experience would undoubtedly harm your traffic and SEO.
Creating a fast-loading eCommerce website is easier said than done, so I’ve compiled a list of quick wins that you can adopt right away to improve your page speed.
Reduce File Sizes
This can be done in a variety of ways. If you have the funds, a Content Management System (CMS) can be used to host your photographs, audio, and videos. It should alleviate some of the tension on your website.
Integrating with a file optimization program is a cost-effective option. If you have a Shopify store, you have a lot of options for apps, which range from free to paid.
Minimize CSS and JavaScript
Reduce the size of your page by removing useless code and utilizing shorter variables and functions. Fewer the bytes of data required to load your website, the better.
Lazy Loading
Instead of loading everything at once, lazy loading means that your photos, videos, and music don’t load until a user scrolls past them on your page. This is a terrific approach to enhance your SEO and performance right away because eCommerce websites frequently feature a lot of product images and videos.
Lazy loading options are included by default in several eCommerce site builders. You might be able to integrate a sluggish loading app on other sites.
7. Add Internal Links To Your Store
While backlinks are more difficult to obtain on your own or organically, you can perform a connecting exercise that will have a more immediate influence on your eCommerce SEO. Internal connecting is the term for this method.
When you link to your items, categories, and blog pages from within your site, you give that page link equity. The more internal links referring to certain products or sites, the more evidence Google has that this page should be prioritized.
Aside from SEO, linking to your products within your “Top 10” or “How-to” blogs will assist customers in finding new things you offer. This generates a win-win situation for your brand when they click through and increase your referral traffic.
Wrapping Up
As we come towards the end of this blog, you must have probably noticed all of these tips have one thing in common: They focus on the audience that matters.
Search engines seek to give their users the optimal results available. You’ll be well on your way to outstanding search engine optimization if you focus on your audience and provide them with a wonderful experience.
It’s never been easy to get organic traffic, and it’s even more challenging for eCommerce businesses these days. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility. You’ll almost certainly enhance your organic traffic if you adopt at least a few eCommerce SEO best practices suggested in this post.
Will you get immediate results as you did with your PPC campaigns? Almost certainly not. SEO has always been a long-term strategy that requires constant attention. With enough patience and hard work, SEO can be a lever that drives consistent sales for your company and reduces your dependency on paid marketing for years to come.
