Top SEO Tips for eCommerce Websites

Running an e-commerce store in today’s highly competitive world requires tact. E-commerce store owners have to solve challenges such as decreasing traffic fast in the ever-growing e-commerce space. Online stores are highly dependent on SERPs. In fact, the first interaction for online purchase occurs through searches. Your e-commerce website needs a carefully thought out and solid SEO strategy to appear top on organic searches. Otherwise, you stand no chance against millions of search results. Is your e-commerce website not ranking the first page? Are you experiencing high bounce rates? With the SEO tips discussed below, you can beat your competitors and realize more sales.

Have an intuitive site structure

Site architecture is everything when it comes to e-commerce website SEO. Usually, one product may have hundreds of sub-categories due to differences in colour, size, or height. Sub-categories can easily disorganise your website; hence, you have to make sure that you organise it in such a way that search engines will make sense of it and the users will find it easy to see your products.

The rule of the thumb is to ensure that everything is near your homepage. No one wants to click sub-category after sub-category. It is tiring, and annoying. Organize related pages in categories and link them to your homepage. Also, ensure that every product is linked to its category and that everything is several clicks away from the homepage. 

Pay attention to content quality

In every SEO strategy, content quality is supreme. However, search engines do not index e-commerce content quality in the same way they index content on other websites. Search engines look for product descriptions, reviews, and images that are unique to each URL instead of site-wide elements. Therefore, you need to make sure that every URL has unique content and well-done descriptions. This method of ranking the main content on e-commerce stores presents an unfair advantage because long-standing websites with many reviews and more content rank higher.

Because products in some webshops are similar, search engines also look at supplementary content such as product options when ranking them. Web shops with many products options and layered navigation are ranked high by Google’s quality raters.

Show purchase intent

When indexing e-commerce stores, search engines look at the “content intent”. A regular website intends to provide valuable and unique information for readers. E-commerce stores, on the other hand, intend to make sales; thus their content must display “shopping intent”. Ensure that your products descriptions display a clear shopping intent. For instance, instead of writing “best diamond ring” in your description, write “best diamond ring on sale online” to display purchase intent. 

Optimize for mobile 

According to Google, mobile searches have taken over desktop searches. Mobile searches have been gaining website traffic since 2009, and most consumers prefer them due to their convenience and portability. As an e-commerce store owner, you need to make sure that your website is mobile friendly and easy to navigate on the phone. As Google focuses on improving user experience, it has a mobile-first indexing approach. Hence, all sites optimised for mobile rank higher. That said, a significant number of consumers still search for information using their desktops. Therefore, you should also optimise content for desktops.

Engage Your Customers

When you are creating an ecommerce website today, you have to do so with online visual merchandising at the forefront of your mind. Your website cannot be successful unless it holds the interest of those who are visiting it. To keep your customers engaged and making purchases, you have to use online merchandising visuals to your advantage. It is the practice of using pictures, videos and other visual elements in a way that encourages action from your website visitors. It is similar to when you walk into a store and see items arranged by color, style or type and positioned in ways that draw your eyes to them. You must do the same with your website by arranging product images and other elements in ways that help you control the flow and actions of your visitors.

Optimize category pages

Optimizing category pages can be a tad demanding. Often e-commerce store owners focus on showcasing the product in these pages, and they end up generating thin content for these pages. To stay ahead of your competition, make sure that the information on every category page is unique and that it describes every aspect of the product. Also, capitalise on top level keywords and use long-tail keywords.  

Optimize product pages

Like category pages, product pages are also demanding, and they require even more information. Since there are lots of sub-categories in these pages, it can be quite tempting to copy content for similar products or to write thin content. Duplicate and thin content kill your chances of ranking hence you should avoid them at all costs. Since product descriptions are aimed at selling a product, make them interesting by telling a story that shows your brand personality. To make it easier to generate unique content, plan out how you will write them. For example, you can have a short title, a description of the products, and a bullet point list of its unique features.

Make sure your site is on HTTPS

A while ago, Google announced that HTTPS is a ranking factor for all websites. That extra “S” stands for secure. With the exchange of personal information that goes on in e-commerce stores, your site needs to be protected.

Excellent SEO is the cornerstone of most e-commerce store sales. As you implement the tips discussed above, do not forget that keyword research and keyword usage is equally essential. Using tools like serpbook.com, you can analyse your SEO current strategy and make the necessary adjustments.