The Ultimate Guide to SEO for eCommerce Websites: Strategies and Best Practices

Do you sell products online? Then, a well-optimised website equipped with e-commerce SEO services is a must to reach the largest number of potential buyers. And, if you already have a website but need help attracting traffic, this blog is for you! For those businesses who dont have a website, here is a short section about Why you need a website:

Why Should Have an E-commerce Website?

Without question, the main reason to establish an online store is to not miss out on the global explosion of e-commerce. The total quantity of e-commerce sales grew from $1.3 trillion to 5.7 trillion between 2014 and 2022. According to Statista, by 2026, the total amount of sales will be $8 trillion. Having an internet business may greatly increase the number of people who buy from you since they can be anywhere in the world. In today’s era of increased online shopping, an e-commerce website can compensate for declining in-person foot traffic.

Additionally, an e-commerce platform offers you a chance to learn more about your customers. You may find out information about your consumers, such as their ages, locations, and the channels they used to find your business, by using analytics tools like GA4.
Now that we know you have an online store, let’s get started!

What is a Well-Optimised E-commerce Website?

A well-optimised e-commerce website may mean a lot of things, including but not limited to a website which is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, fast-loading, and incorporates e-commerce SEO services. The focus of this blog is mostly the e-commerce SEO services part. So let’s dive into this Ultimate Guide to SEO for E-commerce Websites.

What is SEO for E-commerce Website?

SEO, as you must know, is Search Engine Optimisation. But when you think SEO for e-commerce websites, it has a few nuances that you need to understand. The goal of SEO is to raise an online retailer’s search engine rating. When combined with excellent content, a well-structured and optimised website will definitely attract more traffic through a search engine.

In layman’s terms, e-commerce SEO focuses on making your store better from the point of view of lead generation and conversions. Unlike SEO for content-centric websites, it goes beyond incorporating keywords, creating blog posts, and acquiring links. Success involves grasping search engine mechanisms, adhering to Google’s guidelines, analysing buyer intent, and executing strategic implementation.

eCommerce SEO presents a challenge due to the vast number of online retail sites. Standing out among tens of millions is no small feat, but by implementing the following best practices, you can significantly improve your SEO rankings for your e-commerce site.

Let’s delve into the key steps for effective e-commerce SEO:

Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

Conducting comprehensive keyword research is paramount for every e-commerce business owner. The objective is twofold: identifying the most relevant and popular keywords in your niche and understanding the buyer intent associated with each keyword.

• Informational Keyword Intent:

This occurs when users seek answers or a deeper understanding of a topic. These searches are not directly related to purchasing or buying something from your online store. For instance, an outdoor clothing store might encounter an informational keyword like “best hikes near Pune.”

• Commercial Keyword Intent:

This type of intent is evident when users seek information to facilitate a purchase. Consumers may use commercial intent keywords when they know what they want but are unsure where to find it. Examples include “DSLR camera” or “new laptop deals.”

• Determining the Keyword Intent:

While determining consumer intent may seem daunting, you can simplify the process by:

• Analyzing SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages): Pay attention to paid ads, knowledge graph results, and organic listings.
• Evaluating Google ads for commercial intent: Bid prices for keywords offer insights into their competitiveness.
• Reviewing analytics: Identify content with high bounce rates, as it may indicate a mismatch with search intent.

Consider Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are more extended and specific search phrases, typically comprising at least three words, often more, and exhibiting lower search volume. Because of their higher conversion rates, they are still precious to e-commerce enterprises even though they dont contribute to much traffic. These highly specific phrases tend to result in an unusually high number of sales. While advantageous for any business, long-tail keywords prove particularly beneficial in highly competitive niches. To identify them, leverage Google’s “People Also Ask” feature or employ keyword tools like Ubersuggest.

Navigate to the Keyword Ideas section on Ubersuggest, and input your seed keyword—using “running shoes” as an example. The tool will then generate a plethora of related keywords.

TIPS: Refine your search by adjusting the SEO Difficulty filter to easy, given that long-tail keywords are less competitive.

Ensure the User-Friendliness of your Website

The term UX, or user experience, is crucial for the success of e-commerce platforms. Achieving a great user experience (UX) requires making sure the website works well in addition to improving its visual appeal through effective design and a better site structure. UX includes things like the site’s general atmosphere, navigability, and friendliness.

A good UX is more than just aesthetics; it includes facilitating easy access to desired information, keeping visitors engaged during their browsing experience, and delivering a nice experience.

It might not make common sense but, UX has a notable impact on SEO. The user experience you provide directly influences your ranking, including considerations like Core Web Vitals—criteria Google uses to assess a page’s user experience. Google evaluates user experience in three key dimensions:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures the perceived load time of a page’s most significant content, as deemed useful by Google.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This assesses the stability of buttons and interactive elements on the website after full page loading.
• First Input Delay (FID): This measures how quickly a page responds to a user’s input.

As a website owner, there are several actions you can take to enhance your Core Web Vitals:

• Improve the loading time for your website.
• Ensure that ads do not disrupt the user experience.
• Guarantee your site is interactive, featuring clear and effective calls-to-action (CTAs).

Read SEO For Fashion eCommerce: 8 Pro Tips To Drive More Traffic

Ensure Your Page Speed Doesn’t Impact Your Ranking

Page loading time measures the duration it takes for an internet user to access a web page.
Page speed is a crucial ranking factor, and numerous surveys emphasise that consumers are unwilling to wait for a slow-loading site. Web users express a preference for a site speed of just two seconds, and faster loading times are even more favorable. You can use tools such as Cloudflare or Google’s testing tool to test your current speeds.

If your site is experiencing sluggish speeds, the first step is identifying the cause, which could include:

• Your site has an excessive amount of content for your server capacity.
• Numerous scripts slowdown load times.
• Prolonged loading times for images.
• Issues with your web host.

While achieving a perfect 100% on Google’s PageSpeed Insights may not be feasible for all e-commerce site owners, there are measures to reduce load times:

• Reduce the number of images on pages.
• Compress files to optimise loading.
• Minimize the use of social media widgets.
• Optimize images for faster loading.
• Declutter pages and incorporate ample white space.
• Limit redirects and HTTP requests.
• Enhance server response time.

Consider changing web hosts or upgrading your hosting package for better accommodation of your site’s needs.

Enhance Product Pages for Improved Ranking

For any business aiming to boost search traffic and attract new customers, optimising on-page elements is essential. On-page SEO involves aspects like site structure, meta descriptions, and heading tags. In the world of e-commerce, not every on-page element requires optimisation. This section focuses on the vital aspects of online stores: product descriptions, images, and reviews.

Optimising Product Descriptions

Product page descriptions play a pivotal role for two main reasons. Firstly, they furnish essential, keyword-rich content that influences your site’s Google ranking. Secondly, they entice prospects/users into purchasing once they land on your product page.

To start optimising e-commerce product pages, consider three key aspects:

• Identify the crucial elements on the page.
• Maximise visibility and impact with these elements.
• Leverage this information to enhance the effectiveness of your product descriptions.

Take action to maximise the impact of your product descriptions, such as:

• Incorporating multiple, high-quality, unique images.
• Including relevant keywords.
• Providing detailed descriptions that are keyword-rich.
• Adding compelling calls to action (CTAs).
• Featuring testimonials.

Notably, user reviews and call-to-action buttons are as crucial as product-focused copy.

Optimising Images

Images, sometimes overlooked in on-page SEO for e-commerce, are powerful tools for conveying messages and engaging an audience. While quality images are essential to showcase products effectively, optimising them for SEO enhances search engine rankings and attracts more traffic, potentially from social media channels.

Consider the following tips for image optimisation:

• Attach captions with alt tags.
• Keep images as small as possible without compromising quality.
• Utilise keywords in file names.

Showcasing Customer Reviews

Reviews and Ratings provide consumers with insightful information about your product/service and influence their purchasing decisions. They also help increase conversion rates and foster trust with prospective clients.
After a purchase, send automated messages encouraging user reviews. It might also be beneficial to set up email campaigns to deliver offers or reminders when users submit reviews to your website.

Avoiding Duplicate Pages and Content

Ever encountered a website that gave you a sense of déjà vu? This often happens with product and category descriptions when online retailers resort to duplicating product catalogs and images.

The inclination to republish the same descriptions is understandable, often stemming from a lack of resources to create fresh content. Even if time constraints hinder a complete rewrite, there are effective ways to significantly minimise duplication across your site, especially in product descriptions and other areas. For instance:

• Utilise a CMS with site-wide 301 redirects or incorporate canonical tags on pages prone to duplication (e.g., pages with similar titles or identical URLs).
• Append a suffix to the URL.
• Employ different product images.
• Integrate unique keywords on various pages.

Conclusion

There are a lot of ways you can optimise, like using Schema Markups, simplifying url structure, adding a site map, and much more, but a blog can only be so long. All this can feel daunting, but you can always hire e-commerce SEO services from an agency. In conclusion, SEO for e-commerce websites has a lot of nuances and variables. As online retail continues to grow explosively, establishing and optimising an e-commerce website is essential to tap into this global e-commerce explosion. The journey to effective e-commerce SEO involves navigating through keyword research, user experience enhancements, load speed optimisations, and on-page element refinements. By implementing the strategies and best practices outlined in this ultimate guide, businesses can reach a wider audience of potential customers.

Remember, the SEO work doesn’t just end here.

FAQs: