Taking your business online is a brilliant idea, and it's important if you want to reach more people and increase your revenue.
But it's not as easy as it seems. When you take your business online and get a web store, a few other things are needed to get you on the search engine.
eCommerce search engine optimization (SEO) is a way of driving traffic to websites. This strategy helps your web store gain traffic by making it visible on search engine result pages.
Why is eCommerce SEO Important?
eCommerce SEO is very important for every website. Here are 4 benefits you could derive from eCommerce SEO.
Build authority: As more and more people turn to Google when they're looking to buy a product, having an eCommerce site that ranks on top can make you stand out from your competitors.
Being at or near the top means extra visibility, traffic, and credibility. For example, if people see that you're one of Google's first results when searching for a product, they may be more likely to trust your brand, leading to more sales.
Increase revenue per visitor: Unlike traditional advertising, where companies pay upfront for their ads to appear in front of potential customers, eCommerce sites rely on search engines to bring visitors who will convert into paying customers.
That means eCommerce sites are always trying to increase their search engine rankings to get visitors that will become customers. When done right (and with hard work), search engine optimization strategies can help increase your number of website visitors, which often translates into increased sales.
Expand reach without spending money: As stated above, eCommerce SEO is all about ranking higher in search engines like Google. There are tons of shortcuts that websites use to rank better without putting much effort into it. Still, most of these techniques break Google's quality guidelines and result in penalties, low-quality content, or even getting kicked off entirely.
The key to really growing through high-quality content instead of tricks is targeting long-tail keywords. These searches typically have higher conversion rates than short ones because there is less competition for these phrases online; by targeting these searches specifically, you can capture an audience interested enough in your products to actually buy something from you.
Help build your reputation: Most shoppers research products before buying them, meaning those who come across your eCommerce store will check out what others have said about you too.
Many people find reviews helpful when deciding whether or not to buy something, so making sure yours are positive (or just okay) can show potential buyers that your company is legitimate and trustworthy - two things shoppers look for in an online store.
What are the eCommerce SEO Best Practices?
Every web store owner needs to understand eCommerce SEO as the correct practices can make or break a business online. Here are the top 7 eCommerce SEO best practices:
1. Make use of the right keywords
Putting in the right keyword for your web store content is crucial. To do this, however, you must fully understand what your readers want and the words they are likely to search in order to find the right content that meets their needs.
You can use platforms like Google Ads keyword planner to discover a wide range of keyword variations that meets your user's need. This keyword, when properly placed, helps the search engine rank your site. Each content page must have the appropriate number of keywords (keyword density).
2. Create unique and engaging content
To get more traffic, rank on the search engine, and make more sales, you will need to learn to write and construct unique content.
To create unique content for your site, you must see yourself as the customer first. What type of content would you be attracted to if you were the customer, especially when shopping for a specific product. This can help you in deciding the right content that suits your potential customer's needs.
3. Make use of short URLs
Many websites give their best in implementing SEO but miss it when it comes to URLs. A cluttered URL appears confusing and tricky sometimes. It makes it difficult for online shoppers to trust the credibility of your website.
Keep URLs short; make sure they carry simple words and the keyword for each content. Always remember that a meaningful URL is more useful than a long URL with few recognizable words.
4. Optimize your product pages
Another best practice for eCommerce SEO includes optimizing your product page. You need to start by optimizing each page one after the other.
Start by adding images and keywords that describe each photo; you can also name your images with the right keyword - don't forget to include keywords in your product title too. Then write quality content with long-tail keywords to get your product page ranked high on search engines.
5. Proper eCommerce website structure
To be able to attract more traffic, your website needs to be structured correctly. Below are a few steps on how to structure your websites into a simple hierarchy.
Homepage: Every homepage should be at the top of the hierarchy. Then the main categories should contain several subcategories that relate to each other and should include your website's top products on the homepage.
Menu: Next is to create a menu that will break down the site structure. This will make sure navigation is clear and easy to understand. Each page on the website should be easily accessible through the homepage.
Sidebar menus: Take people to a landing page with a detailed description of the product they saw on the main menu, and from the sidebar, you can also see other options to pick from.
Navigation: Please note that navigation of a website is also vital because it helps users find your content easily. Therefore, you must make it easy for your users to quickly find the content they want on your site.
6. Use eCommerce On-site SEO
On-page or on-site SEO allows website owners to optimize their page with specific keywords and align other page elements together. On-site SEO includes;
Keyword research and optimization.
Place the most relevant keywords in titles, subheadings, image alt, URL, meta descriptions.
Your content page should contain the prices of all items, the description, reviews, return policy, and shipping cost.
Create multilingual content pages if you want to sell globally.
Use specific colors for your product pages.
Make sure your category pages are available and optimized.
Ensure your web store has good engagement.
Internal linking: Add links to your website's other products to a new product page.
7. Add eCommerce Technical SEO
eCommerce practices, on-site SEO is all-important for your website, but you also need to add technical SEO to make it to the top of the search engine and become visible. These technical SEO includes;
Use structured data (refer back to eCommerce website structure).
Increase speed and loading time.
Make sure your site is secured.
Use XML sitemap.
Build a mobile-friendly site.
Avoid duplicate content.
Register your website with Google Search Console
Make use of website crawlers to find errors.
Finally, review the across-the-board and make sure you have it all ready.
Conclusions
eCommerce SEO is crucial if you want to rank on the search engine and take your business global. It's more than keyword stuffing and product images on your website.
Search engines are looking at giving users only the best information and value out there; to make it, you have to be unique and different from your competitors. When you take your time and energy to understand eCommerce SEO and how it works, you will get noticed by search engines and become visible to more people.
We, DG1, are helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and remain your all-in-one E-business platform to grow your business. If you need help creating your dream eCommerce site, contact us online to speak with our expert today.
