But between search engine algorithm updates and excessive industry jargon, it can be pretty difficult to get the hang of this whole ecommerce SEO thing.
Getting more traffic to your ecommerce store is number one priority for the business owner, so having a proper SEO plan is something that needs to happen.
Consistent, high converting traffic that you don’t have to pay for? Dreams do come true.
First, what is SEO and why does it matter in ecommerce?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process or bringing in more organic traffic to your website from Search Engines, think Google, Bing etc.
When you search for something on Google, you are taken to what we call a SERP or Search Engine Results Page. Ecom SEO is all about making sure your product pages appear amongst the top ten organic search results. Anything not on the first page, you can forget about. Studies shoe only 3% of searchers end up on the 2nd page of their Google search. Obviously the higher up the first page, the better to. The top result grab around 33% of the traffic, the 2nd is around 18%, by the time you get half way down, around 5%. SEO company Melbourne
So how do we do this?
Step 1: Keyword Research
It shouldn’t be surprising that the first step is identifying those high-value search terms that your potential customers might be using. You can do that through keyword research, which can be conducted a number of different ways.
First, note that ecommerce keyword research is different than most of the keyword research you’ve read about online. Why? Most sites care about information keywords like “how to print on a t shirt” where as you are going to want be ranking for commercial keywords like “red t shirt”. So as you can imagine, the end goal for this search is quite different. One is to find out how to do something “information based” the other is a product with “buying intent”.
Step 2: Site Structure for Ecommerce
How the pages on your website are laid out and organised affect your search engine ranking. It also affects your user experience, which should really come above anything else. You want to make sure that its easy for actual visitors and search engines to find their way around your website.
This sometimes is easier said than done.
Adding and removing products and categories will cause your site structure to become quite complicated. If you can get it right from the beginning you will save your self a lot of time and headache down the track.
Keep things simple, you don’t want visitors getting confused when trying to navigate around your website when looking for something. Keep it logical and straightforward.
Remember, most of your link authority is on your homepage, so keep your product pages as few clicks away from your home page as you can!
Step 3: On-Page SEO for Ecommerce
Now that keyword research and site structure is out the way. Lets talk about optimising your two biggest value pages: Product category pages and Product pages.
The Basics
If you’re using a site builder like Shopify, you may know that they have a bunch of built in SEO features that make your job that little bit easier.
When optimizing your title tags and descriptions, note that these are Google-facing. So, step one is ranking on the first page. Step two is convincing searchers to actually click through to your site.
When you’re optimising your titles tags and descriptions remember that these are “Google Facing”. So the first step is ranking on page 1. The 2nd is convincing the searcher to click on the link to your site.
There are a few things you can do to help with this.
Modify your URLs
- Make your URL easy to read and interpret.
- Try to include your keywords.
- Keep the URLs short rather than long.
Go for a long, in depth product description
Content is king in Google’s eyes. For this reason you have to give as much information about the product as you can, it will give Google more keywords to rank you for, and will help your customer understand your product better. Try to go in depth about the product, add reviews and pinpoints etc. Local SEO Sydney
Conclusion
I could go on and on about what work goes into ecommerce SEO. But this short guide should keep you busy for now and gives you a good step in the right path.
Be sure to check out our other blogs for more info on SEO and digital marketing.
And of course, if you need help with ranking your website, we are here to do just that!
