These days, it’s very easy to set up your own website with ecommerce options to sell your goods or services. With the price of social media and search engine ads rising, generating sales may require constant funding. The better option is to use SEO to help your website rank in searches. You can hire a company to improve your rankings or optimize your website yourself. Here are some ecommerce SEO tips for your optimization checklist to get you started in generating organic traffic to your website.
Website Structure
Having a clean, modern, and properly designed website is one of the most important ecommerce SEO tips for your checklist. You should consider a design that optimizes the users’ experience that is also structured correctly on the backend. A well-structured website can help you rank on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Breadcrumb Navigation
One tip that can help your ecommerce SEO right away is breadcrumb navigation. This form of navigation lets your customers know where they’re at on your website without having to check the URL or use the back button. You’ll typically see the breadcrumb navigation at the top left of the page, just under the main navigation buttons. It may appear something like “Home > Women’s Apparel > Tops” or something similar that tells you what category and subcategory you’re browsing. It’s just a simple line of type on the page to help keep things organized for the user.
Clean URLs
Clean URLs are a part of our ecommerce SEO tips that should definitely be on your checklist. They boost your website’s usability and searchability for both users and search engines. A clean URL sometimes mirrors breadcrumb navigation, so it may read like “https://gardentime.com/tools/rakes”, whereas a messy URL would read “https://gardentime.com/index.php?page=rakes”. When a user reads a clean URL they should get a sense of where they are on the website. On the other hand, a Googlebot or search engine crawler should be able to read your URL to access content for the search engine results.
Optimize Web Pages with Keywords
Keywords are what people use to search the web for products, services, and information. Words and short phrases that are typed into search engines will bring up web pages that mention them. Choosing the correct keywords is another one of the most important checklist tips of ecommerce SEO that can make you rank in searches or not. Selecting random words and stuffing them into your web pages often won’t get the job done.
First, you need to research your keywords. A common platform used for this is Google Keyword Planner. It will give you basic information about keywords such as their average monthly search volume, average CPC’s (cost per click), and the competition for that keyword amongst other websites. When looking for the best keywords for your website, look for ones with high monthly search averages and ones with specific intent from users. If your keywords come up with a lot of competition from big-name companies, try looking for slightly longer phrases that include the keyword you want. Remember to Google your keyword to see if you are ranking for it.
Make Every Page Unique
Yes, this ecommerce SEO tip is a tough one on your checklist, but it’s very important to your rankings. According to Andrey Lipattsev, the Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google Ireland, high-quality content is one of the most important ways Google ranks your website in searches. It is very tempting if you have hundreds of products to simply copy and paste descriptions from the manufacturer for your product listing. Doing this can kill your page rankings in search engines. Every page–including categories, subcategories, product listings, and informational pages on your website—should have unique content, even if you are listing 10 of the same shirts in different patterns separately. When writing your pages, ensure that H1 tags, meta descriptions, and title tags contain your page’s keyword(s) and that they are unique.
Optimize for Mobile Users
Sales made on mobile devices are quickly catching up to those made on computers. According to SEMRush, ecommerce spending in the US in 2020 reached $47.8 billion, with 31% of retail spending made on mobile devices. Your website needs to be easy to use and readable from any smartphone or tablet. You should also think about this ecommerce SEO tip when optimizing your website’s copy. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and easy to read for mobile users. You’ll also want to make sure your website is simple to navigate on a mobile device and your pages’ speeds and load times are fast. Your ecommerce platform should also make the checkout process easy for cell phones and tablets.
Fix Broken Links
So you’ve got your website to a point where you’re happy with it and it’s optimized with the above ecommerce SEO tips. That doesn’t mean you can sit back and let it go for the next year. You want to regularly maintain your website by checking for broken links and adding new content where needed. Nobody likes a 404 error page and it can prevent users from making purchases. In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to your ecommerce store if they have a bad experience. There are lots of online tools (e.g., Screaming Frog or Sitebulb) that can help comb through your site for these dreaded broken links.
Create New Content
If you don’t have a blog, now is the time to make one. You can increase traffic by 434% by adding a blog to your website. When making your blog articles, use the ecommerce SEO tips we’ve talked about such as optimizing for keywords, keeping articles short and punchy for mobile users, and making truly unique content. A blog will help drive traffic to your website, increase your chances of ranking for keywords, and offer backlinking opportunities. Be sure to post relevant content at least once or twice a month.
We hope you’ll find these ecommerce SEO tips useful for your checklist when optimizing your website. If you think you need help, use a trusted and reputable SEO company to help you make high-quality content and drive organic web traffic.