How to Jumpstart Your Ecommerce SEO Strategy
If you’re new to the world of ecommerce, you might be wondering about search engine optimization or SEO. Optimizing your ecommerce website for search engines ensures that your customers can find your website when searching for products online. Ecommerce SEO means using the right keywords to describe your products, using the right website architecture, and optimizing individual pages and product descriptions. Learn more about ecommerce SEO, so you can start attracting new customers to your website.
What Is Ecommerce SEO?
SEO means optimizing individual webpages and websites for search engines, so your website will pop up in the search results when a user enters the right keyword. To optimize a website for search engines, you need to use keywords throughout the body and meta data of your website, properly structure your website, make sure it is up to speed, and compatible with mobile devices. Google receives around 3.5 billion search queries per day, which means you can attract hundreds of new users to your website if you optimize your website properly.
Ecommerce SEO applies the same principles to the world of ecommerce. Using SEO to drive traffic to your ecommerce website will help you boost your sales. The overall goal is to attract web users that are looking to make a purchase. You’ll need to research relevant keywords, create SEO content for your website, and implement a coherent website structure.
4 Ways to Jumpstart your SEO
- Keyword Research
To get started, research trending keywords on Google’s Keyword Planner or a similar tool to get a sense of what terms you should be using. Choose keywords that relate to the products for sale on your website. Some of these terms can receive thousands of hits a day, which means competition can be fierce. If you’re new to the world of SEO, choose less competitive terms that can help you get your footing. Once you have your chosen keywords, you can start using them throughout your website.
- Site Structure
Before you optimize the individual pages of your website, you need to make sure your website has a coherent structure. Search engines like Google send out bots called “crawlers” that follow the pathways of your website. If these pathways don’t make sense to Google or users, your website may not appear at the top of the search results. Visit any ecommerce website and you’ll realize they all have a similar architecture. It usually begins with a homepage and then breaks down into a series of product categories. These categories may get broken down into subcategories and then eventually the products themselves. This ensures your customers and search engines alike can find their way around your website without getting frustrated or confused.
- On-page Optimization
Now it’s time to start optimizing the content on your website. Use your chosen keywords throughout your website, including the homepage, category pages, and individual product pages. Avoid overstuffing your pages with these keywords, but make sure you use them at least once or twice per page. You need to use these terms fluidly by making sure they fit into the content on the page, or Google may flag your website as spam. You also need to use these terms in the metadata on your web pages, which includes a meta description, title tag and alt text for images.
- Customer Reviews
Another easy way to get your ecommerce strategy off the ground is to include customer reviews on individual product pages. This gives your customers a chance to leave feedback on your products, but they’ll also help you create additional content for your website while building trust with potential buyers. Every time a customer leaves a review, there’s a chance they might use some relevant keywords to describe your products, boosting your SEO page rankings. Make sure your products satisfy your customers’ needs before opening yourself up to reviews. You should also name your products with these keywords in mind, so your customers will start using these terms as well.
Ecommerce SEO is one of the best ways to reach new customers on the web. If you’re new to the game of SEO, use these simple tips to get your strategy off the ground.
