7 Best Ecommerce SEO Tips

Ecommerce is fast catching up on the business scene. More and more businesses are resorting to doing business online.  So, the competition has also increased online.  The focus now is on making the website easily found by prospective customers.   In other words, it means the website should be in the first position on Google’s SERP.

The higher the SERP, the more visible your website will be to the target customers.  In turn,  increased traffic means the chance of making conversions is higher.  In this situation, SEO is sure to help.

So, to get started on the road to success, here are the 7 best eCommerce SEO tips.

1- Pick Relevant Keywords

The success rate of specific and efficient keywords cannot be underestimated.   The right keywords can attract the specific traffic you are looking for and increase the conversion rate.  To accomplish this, take the time to find out the right keywords suitable for your eCommerce site.  Think in terms of the consumers and their search intentions. Long-tail keywords can help in getting a higher rank.  Long-tail keywords refer to four or more words that do not have a large search volume. For this, dynamic sitemaps are helpful. Dynamic sitemaps refer to auto-generated XML files that outline all URLs on the website.  This form, in turn, makes it easy for Google to crawl through the details.

Related: SEMrush Review- Best Keyword Research Tool

2- Use Natural Anchor Text

Since the eCommerce site is usually full of links, it is best to optimize Anchors. Use anchors to boost your SEO efforts.   However, a combination of keywords is required as using the same keywords for all anchor texts can attract a penalty from Google.  Hence, always add natural keywords for the anchors.

3- Avoid Duplicate Content

Avoiding duplicate content is an effective eCommerce SEO tip.  However, product descriptions given by the manufacturer to the different eCommerce sites are the same.  This can lead to duplicate content issues while using filter and category options. This issue should be fixed on priority by using compelling headlines, catchy product tags, and descriptions.  Please do not use the manufacturer’s product descriptions as it is. Instead, add your own relevant keywords and keep them unique, eye-catchy, and Google-friendly.  

There is also the danger of duplicating the entire website when a website has an active ‘www’ and a ‘non-www’ version and when robot.txt files do not block subdomains.  In such situations, the pages will compete for ranking.  Using tools such as SEMrush, DeepCrawl, and Google Analytics, check for unwanted subdomains and update your robot.txt regularly.

4- Optimize Images & Limit Architecture Depth 

The eCommerce sites’ images act as triggering factors for sales. So, the images should be attractive, compelling, and highly qualitative. These images should have the right ALT tags, which means their attached description in a few keywords.  This helps even bots to find the images.  Also, Google’s Image Search results will help streamline traffic to your website based on your images. The best tip in eCommerce SEO is to build a site with horizontal architecture that limits the page depth. This allows Google to absorb and isolate categories. A shallow site architecture with pages located in one or two subcategories of the primary domain is ideal. 

As per Google’s best practices, a site that loads in under 4 seconds is the best.   A ranking factor in Google’s mobile search results is Page load speed.  So as a tip, and a good feature of an eCommerce site, make it a practice to monitor bounce rate, load time, etc., regularly. Identify the speed bottlenecks by using any of the free tools available.

5- Optimize URL & Make It User Friendly  

This may sound strange to read, but an optimized URL is equally crucial since it can help search engine bots crawl through the website and find all its information. Additionally, a proper URL structure will help to have a good website indexation. Using a unique keyword in the URL will inform visitors what the page is all about.  So, a good URL will provide a smooth user experience. 

The site navigation should also be smooth as this will help convert the visitors into paid customers. A clear navigation path or link from your home page to the product page will help visitors and bots crawl through the website. This Google Analytics tool will help analyze the traffic on your website and point out the required improvements.  Details such as devices used, from where the traffic is generated, conversions generated through SEO, etc., will be given. Keep checking the website often to clear the site of any broken links. A ‘page 404 error’ is terrible for the eCommerce site.  Run regular crawls to detect such errors.

6- Use Schematic Markup

Schematic markup refers to snippets and is one of SEO’s excellent but underutilized tools.   The snippets improve the search results by directly placing star ratings and price tags in Google’s search results.  The snippets help provide context and are visually appealing. This, in turn, boosts the click-through rate. A recent report has estimated that 50% of searches in 2020 are done using voice search.  Personal assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Cortana are on the rise.  So, using Schema markup to list answers directly on the product page is very useful.  The eCommerce site can have an answer section featuring FAQs etc., to address some queries. Make sure that the question and answer are specific and to the point to appeal to crawlers and voice search users.

7- Improve Site Speed

According to stats, it is found that a 100-millisecond delay in the loading speed of your site can decrease the conversions by 7%. Also, 47% of users expect a website to load under 2 seconds or less. This stat tells us that having a good site speed is very essential for both users’ experience and conversions, especially when we talk about online ecommerce stores.

There are several practices to improve the site speed. For example, you can optimize your images, serve product images in next-gen formats like WebP, enable browser caching, compress JavaScript files, and remove unnecessary files. Hosting also plays a vital role in website loading speed. Every webmaster should have a good WordPress hosting provider that offers the best performance in terms of loading speed.

Conclusion

Organic traffic to an eCommerce site is unique. Many free visitors will visit the site. The important thing is to convert that free visitor into a potential customer.  In this situation, following the above-mentioned best eCommerce SEO tips will help your site’s growth and profitability.

In addition to the above, it is best to invest in a local SEO. With all the latest updated tools available, they can help your eCommerce site maximize the local SEO benefits and promote your content. Switching to HTTPS content also is a good tip as this reassures the customers that the website is safe and secure.