What does eCommerce SEO? (Search engine optimization) is a challenge for ecommerce businesses. Many ecommerce store owners face duplicate content issues, broken hyperlinks, poor user experience, and other challenges when trying to rank thousands to possibly thousands of product pages.
All of this being said, a ” how to do your SEO” guide is not going to cut it. E-commerce-specific SEO strategies must be tailored to your needs. Users search for products in a different way than they search for information elsewhere.
What’s ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce SEO is the process of optimizing online stores to rank high in search engines. This type of marketing uses a combination of off-site, on-page, and content optimization strategies to improve the store’s visibility in search engines.
Ecommerce SEO
SEO for ecommerce is different from SEO for other business types in that it requires additional complexities to rank a website selling products online.
Blogs and service websites often have unique content that is less likely to be cannibalized. Ecommerce stores must rank tons and pages of products, often with the same content, and optimize across many pages.
Although the ranking factors are almost identical, there are some important considerations when optimizing an eCommerce site.
Broken links are common in Ecommerce shops.
When products are out of stock or out of season for any reason, it is common to remove the page from the website. Broken links or “404” pages can occur. This can lead to poor user experience and misdirect Google bots toward broken links. It also makes managing your content difficult.
Low-quality content is common.
Many ecommerce website owners create product pages that include a photo, product description, price, and possibly purchase information. If you do this on dozens or more pages, you will likely run into poor-quality content issues. Google doesn’t have enough context to differentiate between product pages.
Google has become more concerned with content quality since the Panda algorithm update. Ecommerce businesses must pay attention to the uniqueness of their content in relation to other pages.
Many ecommerce platforms cause duplicate metadata.
Ecommerce websites often create duplicate metadata, such as page titles and descriptions. This is especially true if you use a template or automated system to create new pages. Ecommerce websites often duplicate product page titles and descriptions when a new page is created. This can be confusing for both users and search engines.
Every page must have a unique title, description, and URL for SEO. While some platforms let you create a formula (e.g., “Product Name – Type – Brand”), others require a manual override. Although it can be frustrating, it is worth the effort.
Ecommerce customers can be discouraged by confusing navigation.
Websites can be confusing, but ecommerce websites are more likely to have this problem due to a large number of URLs. You can see how confusing it could get if you have multiple product categories with multiple products in multiple languages.
Clear navigational structures (i.e., ecommerce site architecture). Search engines will find your content easier if you include internal linking to the relevant pages.
SEO is essential for organic ecommerce growth
SEO is one of many ways to increase organic traffic to your online store. Your website should rank high for your target customers, as many people use search engines like Google to find products. SEO for ecommerce is the key to success.
Studies show that search engines drive 10x the traffic to ecommerce websites than social media. SEO allows you to generate traffic almost on autopilot for months or even years.
SEO is Important for Ecommerce.
An SEO strategy is important for your online shop because of many reasons. When searching for a product or service, most people use Google. They are researching, looking for reviews, and comparing products. You’re missing pre-qualified buyers if your ecommerce store doesn’t appear on the first page of Google’s search results.
However, many online stores aren’t built with SEO in mind. Instead, they rely heavily upon paid ads to drive traffic. This is because optimizing an online store requires a lot of work at first, but once you have done the hard work and your ranking has improved, your online shop will start to see organic and free traffic.
Organic traffic will increase the higher your rank in SERPs. It’s as simple as that. According to a recent study, the top Google search result gets 28 % of traffic. The second result? Only 15%. You can make the difference between success and failure by doing everything you can (and within your budget).
Ecommerce SEO is more cost-effective and reliable than paid search ads and has a higher return on investment. Ads are expensive. With more people using adblockers and feeling ad fatigue, it’s safer to concentrate on SEO to generate consistent traffic.
SEO benefits for ecommerce websites
SEO marketing is a great option for ecommerce websites. SEO can be more than just organic traffic generation.
- Online visibility and brand awareness can be increased.
- Enhance the user experience on the site
- Attract traffic at all stages of the marketing funnel
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO), which can be used to drive conversions on-site, is a way to increase conversions.
- Attract audiences for remarketing (e.g., With Facebook Ads Pixel
- Data and research support paid search efforts.
- Traffic generation for the long-term
- Establish trust with customers.
- Attract authority-boosting backlinks
Keyword research in Ecommerce is extremely important.
Keyword research is the cornerstone of any SEO strategy. Keyword research is used to determine the search terms that your target audience uses to find businesses or products similar to yours.
You can search keywords that are relevant to your business using tools such as SEMrush.com or Surfer Keyword Extension. These are the three things you should consider when researching keywords relevant to your business.
- Search volume How many searches for this keyword are performed each month? This can change depending on where you live and what language you speak.
- Keyword difficulty How difficult it is for a keyword to rank in search based on how strong domains have already ranked for the keyword.
You can start by taking stock of all your pages (web pages and category pages, product pages, etc.). Consider which search term is most relevant to the page. Then, search the term in your keyword search tool to validate its search volume and difficulty and decide if it is relevant to your business.
Google Sheets makes it simple to pull all your URLs and map keywords to each page. It also allows you to organize your keyword research. You can also use analytics tools such as Google Search Console to track your ranking and inform your keyword strategy
