Increasing website traffic is a key goal for any ecommerce venture. However, attracting visitors to your online store without hefty ad spending is achievable through effective ecommerce SEO. Ecommerce SEO involves optimizing your website according to search engine best practices and aligning your content with customer search queries.
For store owners, the advantages of SEO encompass heightened visitor numbers, enhanced brand visibility, and increased sales. Yet, staying abreast of search engine algorithm changes adds complexity to mastering the art of search optimization.
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This comprehensive guide delves into fundamental aspects of ecommerce SEO, offering insights on keyword research, website structuring, and crafting compelling content for product pages. Equip yourself with this SEO checklist to establish a strong foundation for ranking and enjoying the benefits of effective search engine optimization.
What is ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce SEO constitutes the efforts undertaken to enhance the online visibility of a web store within search engine results pages (SERPs). The diverse tasks within ecommerce SEO marketing include crafting content that meets the criteria of keyword queries entered into search engines. For instance, a t-shirt-centric ecommerce store like True Classic can enhance its website SEO by developing content addressing topics such as “effective techniques for folding t-shirts without wrinkles.”
Additional activities in ecommerce SEO encompass optimizing page loading speeds, creating comprehensive product descriptions, and securing backlinks from reputable websites. Ecommerce platforms leverage SEO techniques to augment website traffic, attracting visitors who are actively searching for products and brands related to their offerings.
Ecommerce websites place importance on SEO
Upon entering a search query on Google, you are directed to a Search Engine Results Page (SERP), where you will encounter around 10 organic results.
These organic results appear below paid ads (orange) and Google Shopping ads (purple):
How to create an ecommerce SEO strategy
To develop an effective ecommerce SEO strategy and boost your store’s Google ranking, follow these six steps, especially if you’re new to search engine optimization. These steps offer practical insights for implementing fundamental ecommerce SEO practices on your website.
Navigate to a specific ecommerce SEO step:
- Conducting keyword research for ecommerce
- Structuring the site for ecommerce
- Implementing technical SEO
- Optimizing on-page content for ecommerce
- Incorporating blogging into your strategy
- Building quality backlinks
Step 1: Conducting Ecommerce Keyword Research
Initiating any ecommerce SEO strategy involves identifying high-value search terms used by potential customers. Ecommerce keyword research, which differs slightly from traditional keyword research, aims to target a mix of informational and commercial keywords, going beyond the usual focus on informational terms.
Keyword research tools
To conduct more sophisticated keyword research, utilizing a free SEO tool is essential, with Ahrefs being the most widely used.
These tools offer the capability to systematically research and analyze keywords in large quantities.
Suppose you compete with Amazon, an ecommerce store specializing in geeky t-shirts. Inputting its domain into a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs and selecting “Organic keywords” at the top provides valuable insights.
Choosing the right keywords for your store
Selecting the appropriate keywords for your ecommerce store involves strategic considerations. Given that it’s not feasible for an ecommerce website to target every keyword, it’s crucial to make informed choices based on your customer base and product offerings. Take into account the following factors:
- Volume:
- The higher the search volume for a keyword, the greater the potential traffic to your site. Utilize tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to determine keyword search volume.
- Competition:
- Lower competition increases the likelihood of ranking for a keyword. SEO tools can reveal keyword difficulty or competition levels (KD).
- Relevancy:
- The relevance of your product or category page to the search term significantly impacts ranking. Focus on keywords that genuinely align with your products to avoid misleading search engines.
- Intent:
- Prioritize keywords indicating an intent to purchase or learn about a product. Assessing intent can often be done simply by examining the keyword. For instance, for a bridal shop, determining which search reflects more relevant intent: ” wedding dresses” or “work dresses for the party”?
Step 2. Structuring the site for ecommerce
In the realm of ecommerce SEO, the arrangement and structure of your site’s pages wield a significant impact on your search engine rankings.
The architecture of your site also plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience (UX). Navigating through your store’s content should be seamless for both visitors and search engine bots.
The complexity of site structure can increase as you continuously add and remove products and categories. Before advancing too far in your website development, it is imperative to ensure that:
- Your site structure is straightforward and adaptable to the growth of your store.
- Every page on your site can be accessed within a few, instinctive clicks.
Simplicity holds great value. The aim is to prevent visitors from resorting to the back button or getting lost in a maze while searching for their desired content. The goal is to avoid the need for constant reorganization and restructuring of your site every time a new product category is introduced.
Considering that a significant portion of SEO link authority resides on your homepage—often the most linked-to page by other businesses—product pages positioned farther from the homepage inherently possess less authority.
Page Indexing
During the implementation of SEO on your website, strategic decisions about the indexing and ranking of webpages become paramount.
In this context, “index” serves as an alternative term for the database utilized by search engines. Indexing a page entails adding it to this database, signifying that Google has acknowledged and included the page in its search results.
Another strategy is the use of canonicalization for pages. Canonicalizing a page involves informing Google that a specific URL serves as the primary or “master version” intended for display in search results. This proves beneficial in scenarios involving duplicate content. Without canonical tags, Google may:
1. Overlook unique content amidst duplicate material
2. Weaken your ranking potential
3. Select an incorrect master version on your behalf
Step 3. Implementing technical SEO
Technical SEO operates behind the scenes, focusing on optimizing your website for search engines without direct visibility to shoppers. It addresses factors like ideal site speed, mobile responsiveness, and efficient crawling. The benefits of technical SEO include:
- Enhanced website engagement due to fast and accessible site performance.
- Increased organic traffic is facilitated by improved crawlability.
Various methods to enhance technical SEO for ecommerce encompass:
- Establishing logical internal linking through your menus.
- Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console.
- Optimizing images for quick loading.
Step 4. Optimizing on-page content for e-commerce
After completing keyword research and finalizing your site structure, the focus shifts to optimizing content on your two most valuable page types:
- Product category pages
- Product pages
Foundational aspects of ecommerce content are covered by default in Shopify, which includes automatic features such as:
- Inclusion of canonical tags.
- Generation of your website’s sitemap.xml and robots.txt files.
- Theme-generated title tags incorporating your store name.
- Themes are equipped with social media linking and sharing options.
However, certain features necessitate manual optimization:
- Edit title tags, meta tags, and meta descriptions to incorporate relevant keywords.
- Ensure accurate and descriptive alt text for product images.
- Incorporate keywords into file names.
- Thoughtfully structure URLs for blog posts, webpages, products, and collections.
When optimizing title tags and descriptions, keep in mind that these elements are directed toward Google. The primary objective is securing a prominent ranking on the first page, with the secondary goal of compelling searchers to click through to your site.
Step 5. Incorporating blogging into your strategy
Blogging serves as a facet of content marketing, employing on-page and technical SEO strategies to enhance a website’s search visibility. Through blogging, a website establishes credibility with search engines, positioning itself for ranking on specific keywords relevant to the audience’s interests and needs. This approach utilizes SEO to fuel a continuous long-form content strategy.
Each published blog post holds the potential to:
- Enhance your reputation as a reliable information source.
- Boost your site’s authority.
- Increase visibility in organic search.
Consider a scenario where you’re launching a company specializing in running gear. Your objective is to aid potential customers in comprehending your products, optimizing their use, and addressing their running and fitness concerns. Blogging has become a vital tool in attaining visibility on search engines like Google.
A well-crafted blog ensures a consistent flow of original content for your store. The more individuals discover your content, the more your credibility grows as an information source, subsequently contributing to higher rankings. While blogging can pose challenges for ecommerce businesses due to the investment of time, effort, and resources required to do it effectively, a thoughtful and strategic approach is crucial. Merely publishing random blog posts each month is insufficient to drive traffic to your website.
When initiating a blog for ecommerce SEO, prioritize the following three components:
- Keyword Research:
- Investigate which keywords to target for ranking. Create content that addresses keywords people commonly search for when seeking solutions or making informed purchasing decisions.
- SEO Optimization of Blog Posts:
- Ensure each blog post is optimized for SEO by focusing on a specific keyword. Tailor the content to align with the targeted keyword for enhanced search engine visibility.
- Product Integration as a Solution:
- Position your products as solutions to the identified problems. While not every post needs to directly showcase your products, take opportunities to link to relevant product pages when appropriate. This approach strikes a balance between valuable content and promoting your offerings.
Step 6. Building quality backlinks
- Position your products as solutions to the identified problems. While not every post needs to directly showcase your products, take opportunities to link to relevant product pages when appropriate. This approach strikes a balance between valuable content and promoting your offerings.
An enduring element of the Google algorithm is PageRank, a system designed to evaluate webpage quality by assessing the quantity of links it receives from other sites.
Google gauges a page’s trustworthiness based on the number, quality, and relevance of its links. Consequently, newly established websites with minimal links have lower authority in the eyes of search engines. While time can gradually address this, expediting the recognition of authority is possible through the construction of high-quality backlinks.
Backlinks from reputable domains like.com, .gov, and .edu sites typically carry substantial authority. Especially influential are links from prominent websites with high rankings operating within your specific niche.
An effective approach to link-building involves cultivating partnerships. Identify opportunities to create content that offers value to other websites. Producing content that others find valuable often results in citations with backlinks.
Guest Posts: Engaging in guest posting can serve as a practical method for building backlinks, provided the content crafted for other websites aligns with the interests of their users. Conduct ecommerce keyword research and leverage tools like Ahrefs to analyze backlinks, identifying sites within your niche open to guest posts.
Conclusion For Ecommerce SEO
Embarking on ecommerce SEO is the initial step in the process. The following guide provides essential insights to kickstart your journey, ensuring a solid foundation for optimizing your online store.
Key aspects include consistently creating original and comprehensive content, conducting regular site audits to address technical issues, exploring potential backlinking opportunities, and staying attentive to emerging keywords that align with your brand and product offerings.
