Let's face it: Ecommerce SEO is not for the faint of heart. You're going to have to do a lot of work if you want your eCommerce site to rank well in the search engines. That being said, it can be done—and done successfully! Here's my ultimate guide on how to optimize your e-commerce website for SEO which will help you get started on this journey.
Getting Started
You want to get started with SEO for ecommerce? Well, that's great! You're about to embark on an exciting journey that will take your business to new heights and beyond.
But first things first: what is ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce search engine optimization (or eCommerce SEO) is the process of optimizing your website or online store through techniques like keyword research, content creation, and link building to rank higher in the search results pages (SERPs) for relevant terms related to your product or service offerings.
The goal of ecommerce SEO is to create a website that will rank high in the search results for relevant keywords, and thus drive more traffic to your site. This can help increase revenue and conversions for your business.
In this post, we'll cover the basics of ecommerce SEO and give you some ideas on how to get started.
A. Choose an ecommerce SEO strategy.
When choosing an ecommerce SEO strategy, it's important to remember that the best approach for your business is the one that works for you. In the first place, not all e-commerce SEO strategy is created equal.
- Choose an ecommerce SEO strategy that works for your business. There are many ways of doing SEO for ecommerce, and some might be better suited to certain types of businesses than others. For example, if you're selling a product or service with little competition (or none at all), then it may make sense to focus on building links manually. But if there are already dozens of similar sites out there competing with yours, then doing so would be extremely time-consuming and expensive without any guarantee of success.
- Choose an ecommerce SEO strategy that is easy to manage and scalable. When deciding whether or not something will work as part of your overall ecommerce SEO strategy, look at how much time it takes up in terms of both money spent upfront versus ongoing maintenance fees after implementation. This way, when considering different options later down the road (like switching platforms), all relevant factors have been taken into account when making decisions about plans instead of simply going off gut feeling alone!
Most of all, choose an SEO for ecommerce website strategy that makes sense for your business. If you're not sure what kind of SEO strategy would be best suited to your needs, then talk with an expert who can help guide you in the right direction.
B. Create a keyword list.
Keyword research is a critical step in the SEO strategies for ecommerce websites. If you don't have a clear idea of what people are searching for, how will you know what keywords to optimize for?
To start, choose keywords that are relevant to your business and industry. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush (or both!) to get some ideas about which words people are using when they search online.
Once you've got some keywords, it's time to put them all together into one big list!
For each keyword, write a brief description of what it means and how it relates to your business. This will help you keep track of all your keywords in one place.
C. Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
You need to set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console so that you can understand how people are finding your website. Both tools are free, and they're part of what's called "the Google Developers Console."
D. Optimize your site structure and URL structure.
Image taken from a Strikingly user’s website
Now that you have a good idea of how to optimize your product pages, it's time to look at your site structure and URL structure. This is one of the most important ecommerce SEO tips optimizing your ecommerce SEO.
- Keep things simple. Use a simple URL structure with keywords in the URL (if possible), page title, meta description, and H1 tags. It's also a good idea to include images with alt text that contains relevant keywords for each page on your site.
- Keep it short and sweet. It's also important to keep your URLs short and sweet. This will help Google index your site more easily and make it easier for users to share it with their friends via social media.
- Avoid numbers and special characters. You should also make sure you're following best practices with your URLs. You should not use hyphens, underscores, or other characters that are not letters or numbers in the URL of a page. This will make it much harder for Google (and users) to find your site.
Optimizing your site structure for ecommerce SEO is crucial for making sure your website is easily navigable for both search engines and users. For your site structure, it's easy to optimize it if you're using Strikingly. Here are a few tips to help you out:
- Make sure your website has a clear and logical hierarchy. This means organizing your pages into categories and subcategories that make sense for your business and products. If you have a blog or a simple store, you can easily categorize your blog posts and products into different categories. Of course, you can also add dropdown menus so your site is easily navigable.
- Include a sitemap on your website. A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your site and it helps search engines crawl and index your site. Sitemaps are automatically generated for your Strikingly website.
- Use alt tags for images. Alt tags provide a text description of an image and ecommerce site needs to help search engines understand what your images are about. When you add an image on your Strikingly website, you can add a text box where you can add your alt-tags.
Image taken from Strikingly
By following these tips, you'll be on your way to optimizing your site structure for ecommerce SEO and making sure your website is easily navigable for both search engines and users.
E. Optimize product and category pages.
These are the most important pages on your website because they are what people use to find products. The better optimized these pages are for keywords, the more likely it is that they will rank highly in search results and drive traffic back to your site.
To optimize a product page:
- Use appropriate keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, URLs, and content if possible. For example: "Barbie Dolls - Barbie Fashionista Dolls". This is important because Google reads each word separately when determining how relevant it is to users' searches. Having 'barbie' as part of two different words helps give them an idea about what kind of content they might find on your product page and whether or not it contains information about fashion or dolls specifically (or both!).
You can also use numbers/symbols within titles like "Barbie Fashionista Dolls 3 Pack" which tells Google something else about what kind of information might be contained within those three little dots before clicking through - namely that there may be more than one type available at different prices depending on which option(s) customers select during the checkout process!
Image taken from a Strikingly user’s website
- When it comes to meta descriptions, these are the short blurbs that appear beneath your page title in search results. They should be relevant and compelling enough so that users click through to your site rather than just reading the snippet and then moving on. This is because Google often uses them as snippets in their search results which means if you don't have something compelling there, then you're missing out on traffic!
- Use high-quality images. Who doesn't love images? They make your products more visually appealing. High-quality images can make your products look more attractive and help to increase engagement and interest from potential customers.
F. Add in-depth content to your website.
In-depth content is a cornerstone of ecommerce SEO. It's important to have unique, in-depth content on your site that's relevant to the products you're selling.
Yes, having product information is important--but if all you have is a list of product names and descriptions with no additional information or anecdotes about how they were made or why someone should buy them, then no one will click through or be interested in what you're offering.
For example, you can create an about us page that tells your readers about who works for your company and what makes them special (i.e., their knowledge or experience).
You can also include testimonials from customers who love the product(s) so much they would recommend it/them over any other brand available in stores nearby where they live! If you're using Strikingly, you can easily activate product reviews in your Store section. Strikingly will automatically email your customer seven days after the order is fulfilled and ask for a product review.
Image taken from Strikingly
You can also blog about topics related to the products you're selling using Strikingly's Simple Blog section. Keep in mind that these posts shouldn't be about how great you are, but instead should be informative and entertaining so readers will want more.
Finally, don't forget to keep your social media profiles up-to-date. Share posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that are relevant to your business and products, and use Strikingly's Social Feeds section to display your latest posts on your Strikingly website.
If you're just getting started with social media marketing, you don't need a huge following right away; focus on posting content that's relevant to your niche and engaging for readers who might want what you have to offer.
G. Link building strategies for ecommerce websites.
Link building is a long-term strategy, but it's one of the most effective ways to get your brand name out there and help you rank higher in search engines.
Here are some link-building strategies that can help:
- Create quality content on your website, YouTube channel, and other social media platforms. The more people share this content online, the more links will point back at your site naturally over time (this process is called "natural" or "organic" SEO).
- Write guest posts for relevant blogs/sites that have an audience similar to yours--but be sure not to spam them! You should also add social sharing buttons so readers can easily share what they've read with their friends on Facebook or Twitter.
- Try to get other influencers in your niche to link back to your website by asking them for advice or tips on a topic related to yours, and then send them an email thanking them—and asking if they'd be willing to share it with their audience. You can also try commenting on relevant posts with links back to your site (but don’t spam!).
A successful ecommerce SEO strategy takes time, but it's worth the investment!
As you can see, eCommerce SEO is a complex process that requires a lot of time and effort. It's not something you can do in one day, or even one month. If you're looking for short-term gains with your eCommerce site, then this isn't the right strategy for you.
But if you have the patience and dedication required to see your business through until it reaches its full potential--and beyond!--then always keep this in mind:
- Research keywords related to what people search for when they want products like yours (or similar ones).
- Choose relevant keywords based on how much competition there will be for those terms, as well as their commercial intent (how likely someone searching with those words will buy from us).
- Use those selected keywords throughout all aspects of our website--from titles/headers/hyperlinks on pages themselves all down through copywriting used throughout articles/blog posts written about different product lines within our store!
Ecommerce SEO is a long-term strategy that requires patience and consistency. But the payoff is worth it! You'll see more traffic coming in from search engines, which will help improve your conversion rate and ultimately boost your bottom line.
