A new eCommerce website requires an effective SEO Strategy to be at the top of its game. Your eCommerce website is often competing with several others for the top spots on Google, and you don’t want to be left behind due to your competitors implementing a solid SEO plan for their website.
What does it take to create a good SEO plan? Start by hiring a reputable SEO Agency to kickstart things for you. SEO specialists have knowledge and expertise in assessing your eCommerce website by performing an SEO Audit from the outset.
Once the results of the audit return and is thoroughly analyzed, highlighting gaps and improvements that can be implemented by your SEO agency, a solid plan can be formulated and strategic recommendations discussed for your new eCommerce website. But there is an entire process that you should also know about, so you have a clear idea on what the SEO strategy, tailored to your online retail business, entails.
But first, a quick glance at the statistics relying the importance of incorporating an SEO plan for your existing site or newest online venture.
The Statistics
The following statistics will help you devise an SEO plan:
- Search tops the list as the number one driver of driving traffic to eCommerce website, surpassing social by over 300 percent.
- 21.8 percent of the World’s population makes online purchases and in 2021, the number is expected to increase to more than 2.14 billion.
- Men spend 68 percent more than women online.
- Generation X — people born between 1966 to 1981 — purchases more online than Baby Boomers and Millennials, making 19 online transactions on average each year.
- eCommerce sales made up for 11.9 percent of all retail sales around the world.
- By 2021, eCommerce sales will increase to 17.5 percent of retail sales around the world.
- There are over 254 million people with active PayPal account around the world with a 15 percent growth each year in comparison to the 220 million growth in 2017.
- 42 percent of online shoppers who make online purchases prefer to pay via a credit card or some other sort of online payment method.
- In 2018, 2.86 percent of visits to eCommerce websites results in purchases.
- In 2018, smartphones make up for 61 percent of all online purchases on eCommerce websites with desktops making up for 30 percent of all online purchases. Mobile phones make up for 45 percent of all online orders in comparison to desktop orders, which stand at 61 percent.
- 58 percent of people shop at an eCommerce store because it allows them to make purchases at any hour of the day.
An experienced SEO Agency will know the latest strategies needed to make your new eCommerce website successful online.
The SEO Agency you hire can provide you with detailed information on the importance of incorporating these tips into your SEO plan. Here is a basic understanding on the essential elements of an SEO plan:
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Write Unique Product Descriptions for Products
You need to write unique product descriptions for each product. If you sell another company’s products through your website, do not copy their descriptions, but create your own. If you and the company have the same product descriptions, it will create duplicate content, which is a big no-no for SEO.
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Persuade Customers to Leave Reviews
Request your customers to leave reviews on your website. For instance, you can give them a discount on their next purchase in return for a review. You can also prompt them to leave reviews through pop-ups after they purchase an item, asking them to leave feedback on any of your social media platforms.
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Easy to Navigate
When the SEO specialist performs an SEO Audit, they will determine if your new eCommerce website is easy to navigate or not. If not, they will work on improving the user experience. Improved user experience means higher search engine rankings. You will need to categorize your products and create an easy to follow sitemap that allows users to get to their desired page on your website.
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Reduce Image Sizing to Increase Loading Speed
You will need to reduce the image sizing sitewide to increase your websites loading speed. If you have several high quality images on a single page of your website, it will lower the loading speed. If your visitors have to wait for your site to load, they may abandon yours and visit a competitors website instead. Including a zoom feature for product images allowing customers to view a product in detail is a good work around.
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Link Between Pages
Whenever possible, you need to add a link between two pages. You do not want the visitors to click several times on the website to go on a certain page of your online store. You need to create a link to relevant pages of your website.
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Create a Mobile-friendly Website
You need to optimise your website for mobile phones and other digital devices by having a responsive website design. A responsive website design will ensure that your website shows up on several different digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.
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Add Social Share Buttons to Product Pages
It is highly advantageous to add social share buttons to product pages. When visitors visit a product on your website that they like and want to share it with their followers, they can do so with ease. From an SEO point of view, this is good practice, as Google uses social media as a ranking signal.
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Do Not Take Down Your Out of Stock and Discontinued Items
You should not remove out of stock and discontinued items from your website. The reason you need to keep the page up and visible is that it will provide you with several permanent pages and a bigger base of indexable pages. On those product pages, indicate items are no longer available or that they are out of stock.
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Create Seasonal Categories to Enhance Seasonal Attention
If you sell any items on a seasonal basis, you need to create seasonal categories because they have lower keyword competition. By creating a specific category, you also let your visitors know that this is a seasonal item.
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Have an Image or Video with Every Product
Where possible have an image or video accompany every product on your website. You also need to add relevant meta-data to each image and video.
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Add a Community Forum
A community forum allows users to exchange information with each other. They can recommend products sold on your website to other products. They can assist other users with their queries as well. This will help you make loyal customers. For your part, you can also engage in discussions on the website, answering their questions and replying to feedback.
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Secure Your Website
You will want to add an HTTPS encryption to your website to enhance user security. This ensures users feel safe when exchanging their personal details such as credit card information on your website when making purchases.
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Create Deep Inbound Links
Get involved in a link building campaign where you focus on getting links to the deepest pages of your eCommerce website. For instance, a niche product that you sell can become lost within other popular products you sell on your website. With link building, they can get the much-needed exposure.
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Check for Errors Regularly
This is where an SEO Agency comes in to play. On a routine basis, they will review your new eCommerce website for any errors. If there are any errors, such as 404 errors on a page, they will fix them.
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Optimise the Internal Search Functionality of Your Website
You need to optimise the internal search functionality of your website by creating an algorithm. Some functions of the algorithm include handling misspelling, offering predictive searchers, and sort out every page of the website. You also need to optimise your product categories and titles, so they are easily searchable.
If you’re looking to implement an SEO strategy for your new eCommerce website, you should consider consulting directly with an experienced SEO Agency as they will assist in implementing an effective SEO plan to incorporate into your website to help you achieve long term organic success with an ongoing SEO campaign.
