As digital transactions become more common in your clients’ daily lives, your online business must gain a competitive advantage and grab top spots in search engine results pages.
Ecommerce marketing becomes even more vital as part of your internet business’ digital marketing strategy at times like these.
In this blog, we’ll look at ecommerce SEO marketing and how it may help you develop your business online. We’ve put together this ecommerce SEO checklist based on our knowledge and experience managing ecommerce campaigns over the years so you may repeat the procedure for your online store’s digital marketing strategy.
What Is Ecommerce SEO Marketing and How Does It Work?
The practice of optimizing your ecommerce website to rank high in search results is known as ecommerce SEO marketing.
The purpose of ecommerce SEO is to make your product pages more searchable by:
- Using targeted keywords
- Improving your page’s Meta titles and descriptions
- Refining the architecture of your ecommerce site
- Creating a network of relevant product pages.
- Calls to action and contact forms are being tested.
- Improving the customer’s purchasing experience
- Putting in place a fail-safe content marketing strategy
- Using quality link building to increase the authority of your ecommerce site.
You’ll see that ecommerce SEO appears to be the same as “regular” SEO. The (very) thin line that distinguishes it is the increased focus on transactional intent optimization.
So, how can you make ecommerce SEO work for your online store in order to increase revenue?
Choose the Right Keywords
Ecommerce SEO marketing, like any other SEO approach, starts with having the correct keywords for your website.
Let’s imagine you own an online furniture company and want to drive more visitors to a home furniture landing page. What keywords will you employ?
If you go to Google and search for “furniture for sale,” you’ll see a few household furniture brands near the top of the results. It appears to be stiff competition for a furniture-selling ecommerce business, right?
The trick is to concentrate on a single root term and develop long-tail variations for a certain page.
When looking for keywords, there are a few aspects to keep in mind:
- Intention of the user: It’s pointless to rank for a broad keyword if the majority of visitors to your ecommerce site are looking for information rather to making a purchase.
- You want to target keywords that your clients are searching for. When it comes to the amount of search volume, there is no proper answer because it differs by industry. There are also other businesses where seasonal searches have a large volume.
- Relevance: This is pretty self-explanatory—focus on keywords that are relevant to your product offerings.
- Returning to the previous example, “furniture for sale” might be used as the root keyword for a page dedicated to home furnishings.
- Look for long-tail phrase match keywords in your keyword research tool (Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, KWFinder, etc.).
You can also seek for searches that are relevant to your target term to increase your keyword list.
Select ecommerce SEO keywords that are relevant to your business and enter them into your tool to find opportunities.
/Scout The Ecommerce Landscape’s Competition
In the Philippines, ecommerce is a developing business, and where there’s growth, do you know what comes next? Competition.
But instead of fearing the competition, use it to fuel your SEO and ecommerce marketing strategies. This, if anything, makes it easier to see how you may improve the performance of your ecommerce website.
When it comes to ranking your ecommerce website, doing a competition study is half the battle. This gives you information on the following:
- Keywords they’re targeting
- Their website’s credibility
- Their website’s best-performing pages
- Their website has external links leading to it.
- Their navigation and site structure are excellent.
You may construct a more concrete ecommerce SEO strategy, build your value propositions, and separate your online business from the competition by keeping all of these in mind.
Develop a Site Architecture Improvement Plan
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Customers will be in the same boat as you if you’re having problems navigating product pages and finding the things you want to add to your shopping cart.
Your ecommerce website’s structure has a significant impact on its performance and overall customer experience.
When it comes to the architecture of your ecommerce site, simplicity is key.
Make sure visitors don’t have to click more than three times to go to their desired destination on your website from the homepage, according to a key ecommerce SEO advice.
How can you improve the site architecture of your online store?
- Organize your pages into categories: Customers will find it easy to switch from one product to another as a result of this. This aids in the improvement of relevant and connected pages in SEO. Collections on Shopify websites, for example, allow you to organise products together.
- Make use of breadcrumbs: Consider this the journey clients travel when they explore your ecommerce site more. Breadcrumbs help to make particular product pages more discoverable.
- Include a search feature: Customers’ attention spans are getting shorter. To keep them on your site, provide a search option that allows them to quickly find the product they’re looking for.
Don’t just move pages around if your present site architecture needs a lot of work. To design a more optimised ecommerce website architecture, discuss it with your SEO consultant (that’s us!). Conduct an in-depth content audit of your ecommerce site.
Do you know what the most prevalent issue with ecommerce website is?
Duplicate, thin content.
When your website has several pages with the same material and very little information that offers value to your customers, this happens. A website content audit of your pages is one approach to detect this.
With a content audit, you may look at the content on your website’s product, category, and important pages to see which ones need to be updated and which ones should be removed. However, that isn’t all. A content audit can assist you in identifying chances to increase the conversion rate of your ecommerce website.
A content audit may appear to be a daunting task, especially if you have hundreds of pages to review. But don’t worry: SEO site crawlers, such as Screaming Frog’s, can assist you find duplicate titles and descriptions on separate pages.
So, what should you do if your ecommerce website’s content is thin and duplicate?
When it comes to content optimization, SEO professionals recommend the following ecommerce SEO tips:
On the page with thin content, add a noindex tag: This will inform Google that that page should not be included in their indexing database.
Add the following tag to the page: rel=canonical This will assist Google in determining which pages have the original material and which pages should be ignored.
Give detailed product descriptions: Begin with your featured products and create detailed descriptions for each one. Don’t forget to include your keywords – but don’t overdo it. Add a blog page to your ecommerce site as a pro suggestion. This enables you to target more informational keywords and link them to the appropriate product page. This not only aids in internal linking, but it also adds value to your clients by educating them about your items through efficient content marketing. Examine the performance of your website’s on-page elements.
Because so many transactions take place on your website, it only makes sense to optimise on-page performance. This means no dead ends on product pages, delayed site loading times, random inner page linking, and so on.
Consider on-page SEO a quick win in ecommerce marketing because it’s something you can do right away.
Here are some on-page SEO suggestions for ecommerce:
Organize and Prioritize Your Pages
You must pick and choose your battles, prioritising which pages to optimise first.
You don’t optimise all of your pages at once if you have hundreds. The weight of each page varies. You must pick and choose your battles, prioritising which pages to optimise first.
You can have your ecommerce SEO professional analyse your Google Analytics for the top performing pages — in this example, the pages that are generating the most conversions and visitors.
Make Use Of Your Target Keywords
With the information from your keyword study, begin optimising your priority pages. It’s great practise in ecommerce SEO to incorporate your target keywords in the following important areas:
- Descriptions and titles in the meta tags
- Body material and product descriptions are separated by header tags.
- alt tags for images
- URL of the page
Refresh Your Metadata
The clickthrough rate on your ecommerce site is heavily influenced by the Meta titles and descriptions. These are the first things your clients will notice when they come across your website in the search results.
However, for an ecommerce approach, a basic “Keyword | Ecommerce Business Name” may not be enough. You want to get those clicks because the more people that click, the more ecommerce sales you’ll get.
Use terms that are associated with retail or ecommerce transactions when upgrading your Meta title and description tags. Here’s an illustration:
Women’s Shoes for Sale at Low Prices – Free Shipping | Shoe Store
Description in the meta: Get the best deals on women’s shoes, athletic shoes, and more! All items come with free shipping! To see what’s available, go here.
Importent:
The content on the landing page should be reflected in your titles and descriptions. Otherwise, you’re leading customers to a broken promise, which will cause them to leave your site.
Within each page, create an inner link that connects the pages that are relevant to each other.
Inner linking isn’t something you should tick off your ecommerce SEO to-do list. It’s a never-ending process, especially if you’re constantly adding new pages to showcase new products.
Inner linking, like content optimization on an ecommerce site, should have a function. It’s impossible to link at random. If you do, you’re not just sending Google to the wrong pages, but you’re also sending your clients to the wrong pages.
Always refer to your keyword research while creating internal links for your ecommerce store’s website. Your ecommerce SEO expert should have a mapped list of keywords with their relevant target pages for internal linking by this point. Enhance the user experience on your website
What is the point of having an ecommerce website that makes it difficult for clients to buy if it is not created for user experience?
More clients will visit and spend time on your ecommerce website to make a purchase if it is user-friendly.
Consider your clients’ journey once they arrive at your online business. Take note of the following areas to increase the usability of your ecommerce website:
Product page navigation:
This relates to site architecture. How simple is it for customers to move from one product page to the next? Is it possible for them to find alternative products that are similar to what they were looking for? The more easily consumers can move between product pages, the better.
Integration with chat: Customers will spend more time on your website if you offer live chat help. This not only improves the user experience, but it also increases conversion rates.
Make it easy for customers to finalise their purchases during the checkout process. At least three phases should be included in the checkout process, but make sure the sites are safe.
Your website’s mobile version is as follows: Because the majority of today’s internet shoppers shop on their phones, having a mobile-friendly website is critical.
Your ecommerce website will thrive in the competitive market if you improve the user experience.
Use Social Proofing to Improve Your Website
What role does social proofing play in your ecommerce business? These figures can provide an answer:
Customers read reviews before visiting a website in 90% of cases.
After reading a positive review about a company, 72% of customers will take action.
Customers regard reviews as personal recommendations in 88 percent of cases.
Still not persuaded?
Consider the following: Review signals make up 9.8% of the ranking variables.
You’re not just losing clients to your competition if you don’t use social proofing on your ecommerce website; you’re also losing the possibility to rank.
When customers visit product pages with reviews, it conveys a message of trust to them. As a result, your ecommerce conversion rates will improve.
It’s not just about getting clients to trust your ecommerce business; it’s also about getting Google to trust your website. Optimize Using A Fail-Safe Method SEO Strategy for Ecommerce
If you want to boost your ecommerce sales, don’t forget to optimise your site. You can receive more focused visitors with an ecommerce SEO marketing approach. More conversions, money, and repeat customers can all result from this.
So, here’s a fast rundown of what you should do for ecommerce SEO:
Decide on the best ecommerce SEO keywords for your site.
- Take a look at what your competitors are doing.
- Improve the structure of your website.
- Conduct a content audit of your website’s pages.
- Implement the best on-page SEO strategies for ecommerce.
- Concentrate on enhancing the user experience.
- Make the most of positive customer feedback.
But keep in mind that ecommerce SEO is a long-term commitment. It’s all part of a cycle.
Because your competitors are most certainly doing the same, we strongly advise you to incorporate the ecommerce SEO techniques above into your digital marketing routine. It doesn’t hurt to be a step ahead of the game.