How to improve eCommerce store SEO

Improving your eCommerce store's SEO is crucial for attracting more visitors without paying for ads. Here's a quick guide on essential steps to take:

• Conduct Keyword Research: Identify the right keywords your potential customers are using.
• Optimize Your Site Structure: Ensure your website is easy to navigate.
• Enhance Product Pages: Use effective titles, meta descriptions, and high-quality images.
• Improve Technical SEO: Focus on site speed and mobile optimization.
• Create Engaging Content: Develop content that attracts and retains customers.
• Build Quality Backlinks: Get reputable sites to link back to your store.
• Leverage Social Media & Reviews: Use these platforms to increase visibility and trust.
• Track & Improve Performance: Keep an eye on key metrics to continually refine your approach.

This straightforward approach focuses on the core areas of eCommerce SEO to help your store rank better, attract more traffic, and increase sales.

What is eCommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO is all about making your online store more visible in search engine results. This means when someone looks for products you sell, your website shows up higher in the list. To do this, you need to:

• Keyword research - Find out what words people use when they're looking for products like yours. Use these words in your product names, descriptions, and web addresses.
• On-page optimization - Make sure each product page has the right title, description, and images. Also, your website should load fast, links should work well together, and you should use special codes (schema markup) to make your products stand out.
• Off-page optimization - Get other websites to link back to your products. This shows search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant.
• Enhanced product data - Use special codes (schema markup) again to make your products look better in search results.
• Mobile optimization - Make sure your website works well on phones and tablets.

Ecommerce SEO is a bit different from regular SEO because it's more about promoting products than just web pages.

Challenges and Opportunities

Ecommerce SEO can be tricky because:

• You might have a lot of products, which makes it hard to focus on each one.
• Prices and availability can change often.
• The goal is to make sales, not just get people to visit your site.

But, it also has great benefits:

• It can really help increase your sales and profits.
• It's cheaper than paying for ads.
• You can catch people's interest earlier when they're still deciding what to buy.
• You can show off your products to people who are ready to buy.

With the right approach, focusing on making shopping easy and making your products easy to find, you can make a big difference in how well your online store does.

Conduct Keyword Research

Finding the right keywords is super important for making your online store easier to find. It's all about figuring out what words people type into search engines when they're looking for products like yours. This way, you can make sure your website shows up for the right searches.

Tools

Websites like Ubersuggest, Google Trends, and Soovle are great for finding specific keywords that match what you're selling. You can type in basic ideas and see a bunch of related keywords, how many people are searching for them, and how tough the competition is. This info helps you pick the best keywords to aim for.

Buyer Intent

Think about why someone is searching. Are they just looking for info, or are they planning to buy something? You want to focus on keywords that show someone is ready to buy, like "dog toys under $10" instead of just "types of dog toys." This way, you attract visitors who are more likely to make a purchase.

Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific, like "orthopedic dog bed large." They might not get tons of searches, but the people who do search for them are usually really interested in buying. So, even though you might get fewer visitors, they're more likely to buy something. It's a good idea to include these kinds of keywords in your strategy.

Make Your Site Easy to Get Around

Make Navigation Simple

Your website should be easy for both people and search engines to explore. Try to make it so visitors can get to important pages, like where you list products or categories, with just a few clicks. Using breadcrumbs can help by showing visitors where they are on your site.

Organize Your Site Well

Put your products and categories in a way that makes sense and is easy for people to find what they're looking for. This also helps search engines understand how your site is organized. Think about your site map - does it clearly show how your products are grouped?

Use Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are little trails that show where you are on a website. They're good for SEO when you use important keywords in them. Here's an example:

Home > Men's Shoes > Sneakers > Running > Lightweight Trainers

By using breadcrumbs, you make it easier for search engines to get what your site is about and help people find their way around. Think about adding breadcrumbs to make your site's structure clearer.

Enhance Product Pages

Titles and Meta Descriptions

Make sure your product titles and the short descriptions under them (meta descriptions) are clear and use the right words people might search for. Keep titles short and sweet, aiming for 50-60 characters, and put the most important keywords at the start.

For the short descriptions, write a quick, clear summary about the product in 150-160 characters. Include important keywords but keep it natural and inviting.

Product Images

Images are key, so:

• Name them clearly using words people might search for
• Add alt text with keywords for each image
• Make sure images are good quality but not too big so they load fast
• Show off your product with several pictures from different angles

Videos are great too. Just like with images, make sure they have clear titles and descriptions.

Unique Product Descriptions

Write your own detailed descriptions for each product. Don't just copy what's already out there. Make it interesting by:

• Using keywords naturally
• Highlighting what makes the product special
• Using lists or bold text to point out important features
• Adding unique pictures and remember the alt text
• Encouraging people to buy with a simple call to action

Good, unique descriptions help keep people on your page and tell Google what you're selling.

Reviews

Let customers leave reviews and make sure it's easy for them. Show off the best reviews where people can see them. Good reviews help others decide to buy and add more content to your page, which Google likes. If you can, get video reviews too.

Google shows some of this review info in search results, so make sure the most important bits are easy to see.

Technical SEO

Site Speed

Making your website load quickly is super important for keeping both Google and your visitors happy. Here's how to speed things up:

• Make your pictures smaller and use less fancy images when you can.
• Simplify the code on your site by getting rid of extra spaces and lines in your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to help your site load faster all over the world.
• Put off loading some stuff that isn't needed right away.
• Set up your site so it remembers some data, making return visits faster for users.
• Clean up your site by removing things you don't use, like old plugins or code.

Try to check your website's speed now and then, aiming for a score of 90 or more on tools like PageSpeed Insights.

Mobile Optimization

Since a lot of people use their phones to go online, your site needs to work well on mobile devices. Keep these tips in mind:

• Make sure your site adjusts to fit any screen, big or small.
• Buttons and links should be easy to tap with a finger.
• Stay away from pop-ups and other annoying things that get in the way on a small screen.
• Consider using AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to make pages load faster on phones.

Google likes websites that are easy to use on phones, so this is a must-do for SEO.

Duplicate Content

Having the same content in more than one place on your site can confuse Google and might hurt your site's visibility. Common issues include:

• The same product descriptions on different websites
• Pages that don't offer anything new or interesting
• Copying content from other places
• Automatically created site maps and feeds that aren't unique

To fix this, either get rid of extra pages or make them better with unique info and pictures. Use canonical tags to tell Google which version of a page is the main one.

Bringing together similar information onto one main page and linking related pages can also help clear things up for Google.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is about making and sharing useful stuff online to attract people who might buy from you. This stuff can be articles, videos, or social media posts that show you know what you're talking about.

Topic Ideas

Here are some simple ideas for what you can share:

• Product tutorials and demos - Show people how to use what you sell with easy guides or videos.

• Insider tips - Share expert advice on making the most of your products. Suggest other items that go well together.

• New product releases - Talk about your latest products, what's good about them, and why people might want them.

• Gift guides - Put together lists of ideas for gifts you sell, for times like birthdays or holidays. Include stuff for all budgets.

• Industry trends - Write about the latest news in your business area and share your thoughts on it.

• Behind-the-scenes content - Let people see what goes on inside your company with photos and stories from your team.

• Buyer advice - Help answer questions your customers might have. Give tips on choosing the right products, especially the pricier ones.

Tools

Here are some tools that can help you create and share your content:

• Hemingway Editor - Makes your writing clear and easy to read by pointing out complicated parts.

• Canva - Helps you make good-looking designs for your blog or social media.

• BuzzSumo - Shows you what kind of content gets the most attention for certain topics.

• Grammarly - Checks your writing for mistakes and helps keep your style consistent.

• Buffer - Lets you schedule your social media posts ahead of time and figures out when is the best time to post them.

• Yoast SEO - Helps make sure your content is set up right for search engines. It also helps create sitemaps.

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Link Building

Link building is super important for helping people find your online store. It's all about getting other websites to link to your site, which tells search engines like Google that your store is worth checking out. Here are some ways to get those important links:

Guest Posts

A great way to get links is by writing articles for other websites in your field. When they publish your article, they'll include a link back to your store. Here's how to do it:

• Look for websites that let people write guest articles. Use tools like BuzzSumo and Ahrefs to find them.
• Send a message to the website asking if you can write something for them.
• Offer to write something really interesting that their readers will like.
• Try to get your articles on websites that are well-known and get a lot of visitors.

Influencer Marketing

Another way is to work with people who are well-known in your industry. You can ask them to talk about your products on their blogs or social media. They'll usually do this for free stuff and will link back to your store.

Interviews

You can also look for chances to be interviewed on blogs, podcasts, or in the media. When you're featured, they'll usually link back to your store as a way to say thanks.

Link Reclamation

If other websites have linked to your store or products before but those links are old or broken, you can ask them to update the links. This helps keep the links working and pointing to your site.

Link Insertion

Sometimes, you can add something useful to what someone else has written, like updating an old blog post or adding to a Wikipedia page. If you add helpful info from your site, you can include a link. If the people running the site like your update, they might keep your link there.

The best way to build links is to keep it real and mix up your strategies. Getting links from good, reliable sites helps more people find your store and can make your site more popular on search engines.

Leverage Social Media & Reviews

Social media and customer reviews are great ways to get more people to visit your online store and trust it more. Here's how to use them effectively:

Use Social Media to Attract Visitors

• Post products often - Show off what's new, on sale, or perfect for gifts. Use good photos, share prices, and tell people to check out your store.

• Share interesting content - Keep followers engaged with news, tips, or behind-the-scenes peeks related to your industry. Link to products when it makes sense.

• Run contests and giveaways - Get more shares and visits by offering prizes for actions like liking, commenting, or sharing your posts.

• Use hashtags smartly - A few relevant hashtags can make your posts visible to more people. Just don't go overboard.

• Advertise with a plan - Spend on social media ads to reach potential buyers with tempting deals.

More people coming from social media can show search engines your site is worth visiting.

Encourage Customer Reviews

Reviews help people trust your store:

• Make leaving reviews easy - Set up a straightforward way for customers to rate products and give feedback. Ask them to review after a purchase.
• Answer reviews nicely - Thank everyone for good reviews. For any criticism, reply politely and try to fix the issue.
• Show reviews where people can see them - Put the best reviews on your product pages. Use special website codes to show review highlights in search results.

Getting lots of good reviews can make more people want to buy from you, which tells Google your store is a good place to shop.

Using social media and reviews well can help bring in more people who are likely to buy something, and make your store more visible online over time.

Track & Improve Performance

Keeping an eye on how well your online store is doing with SEO is key. Here's how to know what's working and what might need a tweak:

Key Metrics

• Organic traffic - This is the number of people that find your site through search engines. Is this number growing? Check with Google Analytics.
• Bounce rate - This tells you the percentage of visitors who leave your site quickly after arriving. You want this number to be low. Google Analytics can help you track this.
• Rankings - Where do your pages show up in search results for important keywords? Are you climbing higher? Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz can show you this.
• Conversion rate - This is the percentage of visitors who end up buying something. Obviously, the higher, the better. Use Google Analytics for this too.
• ROI - Basically, are you making more money from your SEO efforts than you're spending? You'll need to crunch some numbers using your sales and cost data to figure this out.

Helpful Tools

• Google Analytics - Great for tracking visitors, sales, how people behave on your site, and more.
• Google Search Console - Lets you see your site the way Google does and check for any issues.
• SEMrush - Helps you keep an eye on your keywords and what your competition is up to. Also good for finding new keywords.
• Ahrefs - Useful for checking who's linking to you and finding people to connect with.
• Screaming Frog - Scans your site to spot any technical SEO problems.
• Google Optimize - Lets you test different site changes to see if they help you sell more.
• Hotjar - Records what visitors do on your site. Also good for surveys and feedback.

Tips for Improvement

• Have clear goals - Know what success looks like for your store.
• Link your tracking to what matters - Focus on things that show you're making sales, not just getting clicks.
• Watch trends over time - This helps you see if your efforts are paying off.
• Check out the competition - Learn from what others in your space are doing right.
• Try new things and see what happens - Small tweaks can lead to big improvements.
• Set up automatic reports - Get updates on your key numbers without having to dig for them.

By keeping track of the right things, you can fine-tune your approach to SEO for your online store, using actual data to guide you towards better results.

Conclusion

SEO might seem like a lot at first, but sticking to the basics can really help your online store do better. Here's what you should remember:

Do your homework on keywords to find out what people are searching for when they're looking for products like yours. Tools like Google Trends and SEMrush are great for finding specific phrases that could lead customers to you.

Make your website easy to use and get around by having clear titles for pages, using pictures wisely, and adding breadcrumbs.

Make your product pages stand out by giving them unique titles and descriptions, adding good pictures and videos, and getting customers to leave reviews. Write descriptions that make people want to buy.

Speed up your website and make sure it works well on phones and tablets by making images smaller, cleaning up code, and making sure it looks good on all screens.

Create content that people want to link to, like guides or advice articles, and include links to your products. Ask other websites related to your industry for backlinks.

Keep an eye on how much traffic you're getting, where you rank in search results, how many visitors buy something, and other important numbers. Try out different things to see what works best. Look at what your competitors are doing and learn from them. Set up reports to automatically keep track of your numbers.

Being consistent with SEO is important. Check on your strategy every few months to keep improving your rankings, traffic, and sales. A little bit of regular work can lead to big improvements over time.

What's one thing you'll try to improve first? Including SEO in your ecommerce plan can really pay off.

Related Questions

How to increase ecommerce sales with SEO?

To boost your online store's sales with SEO, start by finding the right search terms that people use when they're looking for products like yours. Use these keywords, especially the more specific ones, all over your site, especially on product pages. Make your website easy to use, with clear links and a simple layout. Make sure each product page is well-optimized with good titles, descriptions, and pictures. Your website should work well on phones and use special web features to show off reviews and product details. Regularly check and update your SEO tactics.

How do I SEO for an e commerce website?

For an ecommerce website, make sure you:

• Use a secure connection to make visitors feel safe
• Write enticing meta descriptions to get more clicks
• Redirect old product pages to keep their value
• Make category pages engaging with good content and links
• Organize your site so it's easy to find things
• Keep your online store and places like Amazon consistent
• Use keywords in your page titles
• Have a helpful 404 page to keep visitors on your site

Keep improving your site's speed, how it looks on mobile, the quality of your content, and the overall user experience.

How do I optimize my ecommerce store?

To make your online store better, you should:

• Look for keywords to guide what you put on your site
• Make sure your pages have good titles, descriptions, and so on
• Design product pages to encourage buying
• Test different designs and features
• Use countdowns or limited stock to create urgency
• Show off customer reviews and trust badges
• Improve category pages to help people discover products
• Make sure your site is fast, looks good on mobile, and is easy to use

Always check your site's performance and keep tweaking.

How do I optimize SEO on Shopify?

For Shopify users, here are some tips:

• Organize your site well with a clear layout
• Make URLs simple and easy to follow
• Speed up your site by optimizing it
• Find and use keywords for your products and blogs
• Group related products together
• Write blogs using keywords
• Work on your product and category pages
• Keep URLs, titles, and meta data optimized

Stick to SEO basics while tailoring your approach to fit your products and customers. Look at your site's data and adjust as needed.