Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engines. The higher you rank, the more traffic leads, and sales you’ll get. More sales are ultimately what you want for your eCommerce store right?
But as a small business owner, with limited resources, time, and money, improving your eCommerce SEO may seem like a momentous task. But, if you focus on the right SEO strategies, it needn’t be difficult. Here are 10 top tips that will greatly improve your eCommerce SEO.
Our List of Top Tips That Will Improve Your eCommerce SEO for 2019:
#1 Diversify Your SEO Strategy
For many eCommerce sites owners, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns comprise a large part of their SEO strategy. Whilst effective in driving traffic to your site, the costs of these campaigns increase, daily. If you stop making payments your SEO rankings plummet.
The solution is to diversify. Make sure you are implementing several strategies to drive traffic to your site e.g. blogging.
#2 Start Blogging
According to the article, “24 Little-Known Blogging Statistics to Help Shape Your Strategy in 2017″ marketers who focus on blogging are 13x more likely to get a positive ROI, B2B marketers get 67% more leads, and websites have 434% more indexed pages
The power of blogging to increase search engine visibility is undeniable. It’s no surprise that an increasing amount of eCommerce sites are using it to provide valuable content to their readers.
Many eCommerce platforms like Shopify already include a built-in blogging platform so you don’t even have to spend time setting up your own blog. But, if you want to build your blog from scratch read Darren Rowse’s article on ProBlogger, “How to Start a Blog”.
#3 Review Duplicate Content
It’s no secret that Google penalizes duplicate content. E-Commerce sites are prime candidates for penalties because they have many similar product descriptions.
You should do a site audit to review duplicate content and use Canonical URLs to fix the problem.
#4 Optimize Your Product Listings
We wrote a comprehensive article on How to Optimize Your Shopify Product Listings for Improved Sales. The majority of the principles are applicable to any e-commerce site. Here’s a recap:
1. Make your titles and descriptions clear
- Use relevant long tail keywords e.g. “red Nike shoes” not just “shoes”. Exclude words a consumer is unlikely to search for e.g. beautiful.
- Follow this naming convention: Brand > Product Name > Color > Style > Material > Size > Important Features.
2. Optimize product categories with A/B Testing
- Because many comparison shopping engines (CSEs), don’t allow multiple product categories, you should test to see which one’s perform better.
3. Use high-quality product images.
4. Ensure your product listing URL is text only.
- Be wary of broken links.
5. Update your budget daily to prevent a drop in listings.
6. Update your data feed.
- You don’t want customers clicking on a product to buy it, only to find that it’s out-of-stock. This will only increase your bounce rate.
#5 Tweak Your Product Images
Aside from high-quality images, include relevant alt attributes with your keyword. This makes it easy for search engines to recognize content, and users to find content. But, avoid keyword stuffing.
#6 Have Distinctive Meta Descriptions for Every Web Page
Some eCommerce site owners make the mistake of having the same meta descriptions for each web page.
Ultimately, you need to write content for humans, and it’s important that your meta descriptions are different for each page.
#7 Make Site Navigation Easy
Product pages should be easily accessible, preferably one click away from the Home page or your blog. Failing to do this, makes it hard for users – and search engines – to find your products. Given the short attention spans that people have today, don’t bet on them digging deep into your website structure to find your products.
#8 Tweak The Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. Many websites owners (myself included) make – and have made – the mistake of using a ‘click here” link or “go here” to learn more.
By adding keywords to the links you enhance your eCommerce SEO. For example, don’t write “click here to learn more about Bablic,” write “visit Bablic to learn more about a unique solution that completely automates the website localization process, with a simple line of code.”
#9 Optimize Your Site For Mobile
Another common mistake eCommerce sites owners make, is not having mobile friendly sites. This is a big mistake if you consider the proliferation of mobile phones, a huge portion of browsing occurs via mobile phones, and that Google considers mobile-friendliness a ranking factor.
So, if you’re launching a site, optimize for mobile and if you already have a site, review it. Visit the site as if you were a consumer to assess your experience or use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool.
Simply input your URL and Google will give you a black or white answer: Is it or isn’t it mobile friendly? Installing a mobile plugin will fix the problem. You can also change themes. In more severe cases you will need to redesign your entire site.
#10 Improve Page Loading Time
A slow page-loading time leads to increased bounce rates and can negatively affect your eCommerce SEO.
To assess your eCommerce site speed use Google Page Insights. After entering your URL, Google will analyze the page and tell you what improvements to make. Simply make those improvements
Wrapping it Up
There isn’t a silver bullet to improve your eCommerce SEO, but there are several tips – that if implemented – will contribute to improved SEO, over time. Don’t expect results overnight. An investment in your SEO is a long game – and requires continuous attention and effort. But, take comfort that if you implement these tips, you will reap the benefits in the long-term.
Are there any other tips you use to improve your eCommerce SEO? Let us know in the comments below.