eCommerce SEO is the process of getting your eCommerce website to appear higher in search results. Retailers use this technique to increase their online visibility and ultimately boost sales. The success of your eCommerce business depends on how well you optimise your website for search.
This article will help you understand eCommerce SEO, why it matters, and how to optimise your store for search engines.
Let’s get started!
What is eCommerce SEO?
eCommerce SEO is a particular type of search engine optimisation that focuses on helping eCommerce websites rank higher in organic search results. It’s different from regular SEO because it requires different strategies, techniques and tactics.
When you optimise your website for regular searches (like “how to bake a cake”), then your goal is to attract as many visitors as possible by creating content that will be useful and relevant to them. With eCommerce SEO, however, you’re trying to convert those visitors into customers. So instead of focusing on attracting them with great content (which could be helpful but not necessarily related directly to what they’re looking for), this type of optimisation focuses on getting people who are already interested in buying something from you onto the sales page where they can buy it.
Why is eCommerce SEO Important?
eCommerce SEO is important because it helps you rank higher in search engines. This means you’ll get more visitors to your website, leading to more sales and conversions.
In addition to this, eCommerce SEO can also help you stay ahead of the competition because if someone searches for something related to what you sell (for example, “buy shoes online”), then they will see your website as one of the top results on search engines like Google, which means that they might click through and buy from you instead of going somewhere else.
What Are The Benefits Of SEO For eCommerce Sites?
By displaying a robust lead generation, an online store’s brand name stands out in search results, increasing its credibility with the potential customer. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a terrific approach to drive visitors to a website, produce more leads, raise awareness, and boost revenue.
More people will have the opportunity to visit your website, learn more about what you have to offer, and get in touch with you to become customers if you rank higher in Google eventually.
You can increase your lead generation using SEO, ultimately increasing your sales. This is because the higher you rank in search results, the more people will view your site and, as a result, the more leads you’ll get.
Here are the top SEO benefits for your e-commerce website:
- More qualified traffic
- Higher keyword rankings
- More enquiries and leads for your business
- More direct bookings
- Greater chance of closing deals and winning business
How to Optimise Your eCommerce Store for SEO?
With millions of online retail sites already in operation, SEO for eCommerce is challenging, and it’s not always simple to make your site stand out.
Building your SEO rankings may seem like a tremendous challenge, but by following simple best practices, you can get off to a good start. This eventually improves your chances of being seen and attracting more organic leads and clients.
For those that are unfamiliar, how do you optimise your eCommerce site for SEO? Well, you may begin by discussing the following fundamentals:
- creating unique content
- internal links
- navigation
- including alt text for images
- avoiding clutter
There is, however, a lot more you can do. Check out the list of SEO for e-commerce best practices we’ve provided below and start doing them immediately.
Conducting Keyword Research
Keyword research is the first step in any SEO campaign, and it’s crucial to get it right. Keyword research aims to identify relevant keywords you can use on your site and rank for those terms.
Once you’ve identified the right keywords, it’s time to put them into action! The next step is creating content around these terms so that Google understands what your business does–and why people should buy from it instead of another eCommerce website.
Optimising Product Descriptions and Images
Optimising product descriptions and images are an important part of eCommerce SEO. The goal is to make sure that search engines easily find your products so that you can increase traffic and sales.
Here are some tips for optimising product descriptions:
- Include relevant keywords in the title and body of your product description. This will help Google understand what your page is about, which means it will rank higher in search results when someone searches for those keywords (or similar ones).
For example, if you sell shoes online, then a good title might be “Women’s Shoes – Black Ankle Boots”. You should also include these keywords in any alt tags on images on this page too.
- Write unique content for each product description – don’t just copy/paste old ones over again. Suppose someone visits two different pages with identical content. In that case, Google won’t know which one they want because there’s no way for them to tell which one has better quality information on it, so both pages could end up ranking poorly as a result.”
Creating Unique and Valuable Content
- Writing Unique Product Descriptions
- Creating Category Descriptions
- Writing Blog Posts
Improving Site Speed and Mobile Responsiveness
While improving your site’s SEO, ensuring your eCommerce website is optimised for speed and mobile responsiveness is also important. This will ensure that users have a positive experience when they visit your site, which in turn will help drive conversions and increase revenue.
Here are some ways you can optimise loading speed:
- Minimise page size by reducing the number of images or videos used on each page (don’t use more than one image per paragraph).
- Use CSS sprites instead of multiple images if possible; this reduces load time because only one file needs to be downloaded instead of several separate ones.
- Remove unnecessary plugins from WordPress sites (such as Jetpack) since these add bloat without providing much value in return.
Building High-Quality Backlinks
Building high-quality backlinks is one of the most important parts of SEO. Backlinks are links that point to your website from other sites and indicate how relevant it is to users. The more backlinks you have pointing at your site, the higher its search engine ranking will be–and vice versa.
Here are some ways you can build high-quality backlinks:
- Create content that’s worth linking to. If people like what they see on your site, they might want to share it with others by linking back to it from their own websites or social media accounts (which also counts as a “link”).
This isn’t just about writing good articles; it means making sure those articles contain valuable information for readers so they’ll want to share them with others.
Utilising Social Media and Email Marketing
Social media and email marketing are two of the most powerful tools you can use to promote your products. Social media is a great way to drive traffic, while email marketing helps you engage with customers and grow your list.
- Promote Products on Social Media – The first step in using social media as an eCommerce SEO strategy is promoting your products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. You should also consider utilising paid ads if you want to reach more people faster (which will cost money).
- Drive Traffic & Sales Through Email Marketing – Once someone signs up for one of your emails, they are added to an email list where they will receive updates about new products or sales happening at the store.
This allows store owners who have invested time into building up their lists before launch day won’t be left out when it comes time for them to start generating sales from their site because there are already thousands upon thousands waiting patiently in line, ready to purchase items once they go live.
Monitoring and Analysing Site Performance
You can monitor and analyse site performance by using a variety of different tools. The most common ones include the following:
- Google Analytics – This extremely powerful tool allows you to track everything from how many people visit your site, where they came from, what pages they viewed, what devices they were using, etc. Google Analytics also lets you set up goals and funnels so that you can see which ones are working best for your business.
- Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) – This free tool allows you to view your site’s SEO performance. You can see where your site ranks for specific keywords and get tips on how to make it better. Google Search Console also gives you access to data that helps you understand how users interact with your website (such as click-through rates).
Optimise Your eCommerce Website with TopRankings
The takeaway from this article is that eCommerce SEO is an important part of any eCommerce website. It can help you improve your rankings in search engines, leading to more traffic and sales.
If you need help optimising your eCommerce website, our team of experts at TopRankings can help you. With over two decades of proven industry expertise, we can help you thrive against your competitors. Get your obligation-free chemistry call – reach out today!
