You’ve set up your product pages, made sure the website looks beautiful, and even tested out some landing pages. But, for some reason, your eCommerce site still isn’t getting views. If that’s the case, this is where SEO for eCommerce comes in.
No matter how great your website is, you’ll have a hard time gaining traction if no one can find it. In this article, we’ll break down exactly what SEO is, as well as point you towards a failproof way of optimizing your pages.
By the end of this article, you’ll be an SEO for eCommerce whizz, allowing you to make sure your eCommerce store ranks well in Google and draws in valuable new customers.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, most frequently referred to as SEO, is the practice of making sure your website ranks highly on the Google search pages.
No matter your niche of eCommerce store, a good SEO foundation will ensure you’re easier to find.
Considering that in 2018, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were made a day, it’s always good to have a helping hand to stand out from the crowd.
Why is SEO for eCommerce important?
So what are SEO benefits for eCommerce anyway? Well, it turns out, quite a lot! SEO is a central factor that dictates where you rank in the Google Search pages. Without a robust website SEO, you’re going to be ranking low on the pages of Google. And really, whoever checks beyond page one?
In fact, under 1% of all clicks on Google come from the second page. You can imagine how small this percentage is when your drop down into the third and fourth pages. Securing that top page stop is vital for the success of your business.
With better SEO comes a higher ranking on the Google pages. Following this, you’ll be getting more exposure for your company and more traffic to your pages. With more eyes on your pages, the chance of making a sale will dramatically increase.
What’s more, even if you don’t make a sale, by using a data tool like Verfacto, you’ll be able to gain critical insight into user behavior. You’ll even be able to pinpoint how long users spend on each page, demonstrating where they clicked off your website.
If a large group of these new users is clicking off at the same place, it’s probably an indicator that you need to change that page.
Data-driven adaptation like this reveals the power that customer data can have. By utilizing data correctly, you can significantly boost your revenue, converting more new customers, and keeping your old ones happy!
To summarize, SEO is vital as it:
- Boosts position on Google Search pages
- Gives your company more exposure
- Increases traffic to your pages
- Boosts the amount of customer data you can collect
SEO for eCommerce is vital if you want to ensure your business lasts as long as possible.
How to optimize on-page SEO for eCommerce businesses
At this point, hundreds of guides to SEO have been written. That’s why we’ll keep this short. We’ll go through every fundamental aspect of SEO for eCommerce you need to know (but we’ve also talked about it more in depth on a specific article that gives you a SEO checklist for eCommerce). We’ll be covering:
- Keyword research
- Titles
- Article structures
- Images
- Slugs
- Internal Linking
- Meta descriptions
Let’s explore each of these aspects in more detail to improve your SEO for eCommerce business.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is without a doubt one of the most important parts of SEO for eCommerce. A ‘Keyword’ is a word or short phrase that summarizes what your page is about. For example, if you’re writing an article, your keyword might be your central theme or topic. If you’re writing a product description, this keyword may be the brand and name of the product.
By using free tools like Google Keyword Planner, you’ll be able to type in keywords (related to your eCommerce business) and get a list of similar keywords. These are ranked due to factors like
- Average Search Volume – A range to indicate how many people search for this term in a month.
- Competition – Ranked across high, medium, and low, this is an indication of how many websites are trying to rank for this keyword.
- Type Month Trend – An indicator if this keyword is gaining or losing traction over time.
By finding keywords that have a good search volume and low competition, you’ll have a much easier time ranking.
Everything starts with finding keywords you can utilize for your business!
Titles and Headings
The title of a post should always include the keyword you are trying to rank for. The same goes for some of the headings throughout your article. This is done so that when Google crawls (searches through) your page, it notices a high density of the keyword in vital locations.
From this, it deems that your article is responding to the keyword and is not spam. This is an indicator that makes Google more likely to recommend your article when that keyword is typed in.
Clear Structure
White space is your friend when it comes to article and product description writing. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with blocks of text.
Instead, keep paragraphs and sentences short. Try and be direct, getting to the point where you can.
Headings are a fantastic way of breaking up your text and directing users to the part of the article they’re interested in.
Slugs
A slug is the URL of a post. Most commonly, this will involve your website’s name, followed by a few words to describe the page.
Make sure your slug includes the keyword you want your page to rank for.
Linking
At a minimum, within your article, you should link to one external website and twice internally to your own website. Considering SEO for eCommerce, this could be a link to your brand story, or just to another product that pairs well.
Product-Pairing is a feature of Verfacto that dramatically boosts sales. This cross-pairing feature also provides an excellent opportunity to include an internal link on product pages.
Meta Description
Finally, meta descriptions are short descriptions of the page you’re making. This is the section shown under a link when you click it on Google. These should typically measure up to 155 characters, with the sweet spot being about 120-140.
Once again, make sure you include your keyword in this section. This will ensure another layer of recognition when Google comes to crawl your page.
Final Thoughts on SEO for Ecommerce
By focusing on these areas, you’ll be able to boost the SEO of your site and begin to gain more natural traffic. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of on-page SEO for eCommerce, it is a great place to get started.
If you’re looking for a tool to help manage your customer data once you’ve got them on your site, then give Verfacto a go. The one-month free trial is more than enough time to begin discovering all the actionable insights your data is producing.
With SEO for eCommerce, you’ll be boosting your exposure to a new audience. With Verfacto, you’ll be making sure they stay.
